Reaction to EPIC Suns win vs. Thunder, Jaylen Brown leading red hot Celtics + NEW NBA Power Rankings
January 5, 2026 • 36 mins
Jason reacts to the Devin Booker, Dillon Brooks, and the Phoenix Suns taking down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and the OKC Thunder in an epic game. Then he breaks down Jaylen Brown scoring 50 for the Boston Celtics in a win over the Los Angeles Clippers and gives his latest NBA power rankings.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, old good Hoops and I you're
at the volume heavy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you
guys had an incredible weekend to have a jam pack
(00:21):
Monday show for you guys. We had an epic showdown
between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Phoenix Suns as
Devin Booker wins the game with a step back three
from thirty feet over the top of Alex Cruse. So
a bunch of interesting stuff to get into from that game.
After that, I want to talk a little bit of
Boston Celtics, who on Saturday went in and blew out
(00:41):
a red hot Clippers team behind fifty points from Jalen Brown.
Have a bunch of interesting stuff to get into from
that game. And then as usual on Mondays, we have
our weekly power rankings. You guys know the joke before
we get started. Subscribe to Hoop to the Hoops and
Nott YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our
videos like this video that helps us in the last
but not least, If you want to get questions into
(01:02):
our Friday mail bag, dropped them in the YouTube comments
underneath this video and we'll get to them in our
weekly mail bags. On Fridays. All right, let's talk some basketball.
So the Suns win one eight to one oh five
on Devin Booker's game winning step back three over the
top of Alex Crew. So I thought, on the play itself,
Devin actually made a really smart, kind of impromptu in
(01:24):
the moment decision to go to his step back a
little bit earlier and to shoot a little bit deeper
of a shot, like when he had the ball in
his right hands. His right hand he went to a
scissor dribble back to his left against Alex and kind
of hit that aggressive move forward and Alex took a
pretty heavy recovery step considering where Devin made the move,
(01:47):
which was like thirty five forty feet from the basket,
Alex on his recovery step got all the way south
of the three point line, like he created a ton
of separation on the move. And so if Devin wanted to,
he could have continued to go forward another step and
then get into his step back and it could have
been somewhere in that like twenty five foot range. But
instead he stopped a step earlier and step back and
(02:10):
shot a thirty foot or off the bounce, And I
thought it was really smart for two reasons. One, if
you look on the video, lou Dort was really digging
down into that driving lane off of Dylan Brooks. So
like if Devin would have attacked more, he might have
attracted just a hard double team from lou Dort there,
and that could have made that a more complicated situation.
(02:31):
They were rotating up off of Colin Gillespie in the
corner up onto Dylan Brooks too, so it wouldn't have
been a They might have gone swing swing, and it
might have been too late to even get a shot
off if he would have gone too far. And then
the second piece of it is if you take that
extra step into the defender in this case Alex Caruso
and kind of get into his body a bit more,
that allows Alex an opportunity to get his hands on you,
(02:53):
to get physical with you and maybe disrupt your rhythm.
Maybe he swipes down on your arm a little bit
and you lose control of the basketball and it doesn't
get called, and now you're shooting a Janki jump shot
because you lose control of the ball. Like it's just
a little scoring nuance that I think matters. I think
it's better to get a little bit longer of a
shot with cleaner rhythm where you get great lift and
(03:15):
great separation than it is to get a shorter shot
that is more congested or that has disrupted rhythm if
a guy's being like super physical with you. It's just
like a little thing in that moment where I really
liked how Devin went to step back a little bit earlier,
and again it's a thirty footer, but he gets fantastic lift,
snaps the wrist, knocks it down. Thunder get a decent
(03:36):
look for aj Mitchell on in the left corner on
the other end, but he didn't really look ready for
it in that spot, so the Suns d up getting
out of there with a win. I want to talk
about some of the help and recover dynamics in this
game for both teams, because I thought it was the
story from a tactical standpoint. But before we go any further,
I have to bring up Dylan Brooks and his shot
making in that fourth quarter. He actually started the fourth
(03:56):
quarter with these cleared side ISOs against Jada on the
right side, and again, just think about that, like clearside
ISOs against one of the better defenders in the entire NBA,
and especially a defender in JDub who's very good at
dealing with some of these bigger bully ball forwards because
he's a big, trunky dude, right and he just got
a couple of buckets. He spun over his left shoulder
(04:18):
and hit a fade away right in Jdub's face. He
had one where he kind of drove into the middle
and hit like a nice little floater where he got
a friendly bounce. But then at the end of the
game he hit two outrageous pull up jumpers. The snatchback
dribble against Cason Wallace on the right side, kind of
towards the corner where he just drove hard and just
pulled the ball back, got just enough separation and rose
(04:39):
up and knocked it down. And then a step back
three over the top of Shay on the left wing,
just a massive shot that put the Suns up one
oh five to one oh one before a couple of
tough shots from Chett and JDub ended up tying it
before Devin Booker at the game winner. It's still just
a wild experience as a basketball fan to be watching
Dylan Brooks be this reliable as a shot maker, and
(05:02):
to be the I'm not trying to say that it's illegitimate,
like the sample size is too large. At this point,
it's completely legitimate. He's taken two hundred and four pull
up jump shots this season. He's getting a point per shot,
forty nine percent on pull up twos, thirty five percent
on pull up threes. He's eighteenth in the entire NBA
in total pull up jump shots made. He's made more
(05:24):
pull up jump shots this year than DeMar de Rozen
or Steph Curry, for example. So like, this is something
that we know that at this point, through just a
large sample, that Dylan has become good at this. But
still when you're watching it, it's just wild to see
all these shots go in. I actually really enjoyed watching
Dylan Brooks and his postgame presser. He was talking about
(05:45):
how he would watch these videos on YouTube of Kobe
shooting one drimble pull ups and then fadeaways out of
the post, and he's talked about how he's like emulating
him with some of the work that he's doing out
of those spots, and I just thought it was a
textbook example of manifesting your preferred reality, Like when you
want something to change for yourself, there's an order of
(06:06):
operations to make that happen, right, Like, you need to
see what it is that you're trying to become. In
this case, I actually think it really helps to have
a uh. I think it really helps to have like
a YouTube video, something that you can watch regularly that
kind of gives you a visual representation of the thing
that you're trying to become or the thing that you're
trying to get better at, and you watch that and
(06:26):
motivate yourself. Then there's the phase where you're putting in
the work behind the scenes, and then there's you know,
depending on what field you're in or what it is
you're trying to accomplish, there's an order of operations to
implement it. I've talked about it with basketball before. When
it comes to scoring, it's like, figure out how to
make these shots in the gym alone by yourself. Then
find someone to play king of the court against some
work on them. So if you want to work on
a little step back jump shot or a little turnaround
(06:48):
jump shot over both shoulders, find somebody to guard you.
Go play some king of the court. Go play some
one on one with a buddy, whatever it is, it's
work on it in the gym by yourself until you
can make it at a high clip. Work on it
one on one until you can make it at a
high clip. Start to break it out in games, right
in five on five in practice first, and then when
you have an opportunity, when you've demonstrated the ability in
(07:09):
your high school practice and your college practice and knock
that shot down a few times, that's when you can
unleash it in the game setting. There's an order of
operations or getting from a to za, so to speak.
And I just thought it was cool to watch Dylan
kind of break down, like what his motivation was, what
he was trying to become, what he does to motivate himself,
and then the work behind the scenes. It's just obvious
to see. We've seen clips of him. I am incredibly
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terms and conditions. Says Phoenix ended up generating nineteen unguarded
catch and shoot jump shots in this game, which is
a really good number for them. Their season average is
about sixteen. But again, this is a team in Oklahoma
City that again is going to close those gaps a
lot faster than most teams with the speed of their rotations,
and in general, is gonna just make life difficult. Ball
(09:45):
pressure and playing in passing lanes to try to force turnovers,
it is difficult. It's difficult to pass through. Okse's different.
Our defense. Now, we've talked a lot over the years
about how Oklahoma City defends. They get into gaps. They
do leave shooters open. They're brief openings because the team
is insanely fast, right like, they close those gaps quickly.
(10:07):
But those openings are there, and they're there because they're
opportunistic on defense, because they'll peel off of a guy
to help, or they'll dig down, or they'll throw a
late double as a guy's getting into the lane. They
do that because they want to force turnovers and get
out in transition. These teams, both of these teams actually
play a lot of similar do a lot of similar
(10:27):
things on defense in this regard. They're both high. I
think they're one and two and points off of turnovers
in the NBA this season. They are teams that have
a depth of perimeter defense talent. They get up into
the ball they do you know they will. They're not
going to just openly you know, double or or send
three on two in a ball screen for no reason.
But they're going to be opportunistic in those situations to
(10:49):
try to force turnovers. The key to scoring on the
thunder is to be super diligent with your spacings. Always
be in the right spots off the ball as a
guy's driving or relocating. You got to relocate with them
to make sure that you're in a good position to
score if you receive a kickout, and then you have
to make over and over again on time and on
(11:10):
target kickout passes. Then when those guys catch on the
perimeter against the closeout, lightning fast dribbleshoot pass decisions because okay,
so he's going to close those gaps so fast. And
I just thought the Suns did an incredible job all
night with that dynamic on offense. Just Devin Booker was
drawing to pretty consistently, especially in the second half, and
we just saw a bunch of these brilliant passing sequences
(11:32):
from Phoenix to capitalize on that advantage. Like Devin draws
two in the post on the right block, easy little
kickout to Ryan done at the top of the key,
knocks it down. Okay, well what if they rotate to
that secondary pass. Okay, Devin draws two on the right wing,
swing to the left wing to rotate over from the corner,
extras pass to Jordan Goodman in the left corner, wide
(11:53):
open three, he knocks it down or offensive rebounds that
the Suns did a lot of damage on the offensive
glass in this game. That's been kind of a recurring
theme with the thunder we'll talk about in a minute.
But they get an offensive rebound, is like Colin Gillespie
gets a close out in the left corner, rips the
close out, draws bodies, makes a beautiful kickout to Jordan
Goodwin in the right corner. A lot of their transition
passing sequences just moving the ball up to four click quickly,
(12:15):
guys running their lane, so you always have those outlets
in the corners as you're pushing the ball at the floor.
They just are so good at creating wide open shots
with the crisp passing out of their good spacing. You know,
Phoenix is actually shooting thirty eight percent on catch and
shoot threes this year, which ranks sixth in the entire NBA.
(12:35):
And like, you know, I would argue, like if we're
looking at the reasons why the Suns have been better
than we've expected, Like I thought the Suns would be competitive.
I just figured they'd hover right around five hundred or
a little below and have like a bunch of kind
of signature wins to kind of make the season fun.
They're twenty one and fourteen. They're I think they're two
games back from the fourth best record in the entire NBA.
(12:56):
Like they're in a fantastic position. And I'd argue the
two things that have kind of made that be, you know,
dramatically more than I thought, have been the shooting and
the Dylan Brooks piece. Because, like the defense, we expected
the team to be great defensively. I predicted they'd be
top ten in defense before the season. The reasoning was simple,
they have the pieces that you need for a top
ten defense. I did not expect Dylan Brooks to turn
(13:18):
into a reliable and efficient twenty one point per game score.
I didn't expect the team to shoot the ball down
the roster as well as they have this year. It's
allowing them to pay off. We talked about this sequence
a lot. I've talked about it a lot with the
Lakers in a negative sense. But when you play good basketball,
you generate these sequences that end in a certain type
of shot. You've got to be able to pay those
sequences off. And the Suns have been paying those sequences
(13:41):
off at a high clip this season. And then on
the other end of the floor, I just thought the
Suns did a great job doing the same thing that
the Thunder we're trying to do on the other end
of the floor, guarding the ball well, with quality defenders
getting into gaps to try to make openings disappear quickly
and get into their driving lane so that they can't
turn the corner all the way to the rim. You
have the rim protection element with Mark Williams. There was
(14:01):
actually a pull up three that Shay missed at the
top of the key late in the game that I
thought was a perfect example of the dynamic I'm talking
about with like making gaps feel like they're there but
then shrink quickly. So earlier in a possession in the
fourth quarter, Shay's dribbling on the left wing, they nail
help hard off of Jadub. On the right wing, Shaye
throws a swing pass he knocks down the three right,
(14:23):
So like that's an example of that opening existing and
staying open for too long and an easy pass burning
you right. But on this particular play that I'm talking about,
the one where Shaye misses the bad pull up three
on the left wing, Jordan Goodwin comes off of j
Dub and sends the double. But there's two things that
are different Jordan, instead of just like attacking the basketball
for no reason, he really walls up on that passing
(14:45):
lane side, so he just kind of gets active with
his hands instead of attacking. Shay stops about a foot
or two short, gets really active in the passing lane
so that Shay can't just throw an easy swing pass.
And then also Agadaro ends up kind of sliding up
just a touch to be ins position to where if
you did throw that pass to j Dub he can
quickly take a step up and rotate to the shot.
And so as a result, when Shae catches it and
(15:06):
he goes to make that pass, he goes like, ah,
that's not there, and then that's when he ends up
taking the bad pull up three and he misses it.
And that gap in catch and shoot three point attempts
for the most part, but it also was just in
the total three point attempts for the entire team. That
gap was one of the main stories of the game
for me. Both teams regarding each other in similar ways,
(15:28):
but the Suns, I thought, did a better job of
not settling for tough mid range pull ups and moving
the ball through Okac's defense for threes. Phoenix took eight
mid ranges in the game. Both teams shot well for
mid range. Phoenix was five for eight. I think okay
See was ten for nineteen if I remember correctly, But
the difference is is Okay So he took nineteen of
them and Phoenix took eight. So when they got the
(15:51):
ball to the middle four, it's like there are some
shots in there. Dylan Brooks took some mid rangers, Devin
Booker took some midrange. Mid range shots were attempted, but
it was, you know, kind of a counter what they
were trying to do, which is to get through that
defense and get to the quality kickout threes. Oklahoma City
nineteen mid range shots, a lot of tough stepbacks from
JDub and Shay Shaye in particular, I thought, especially in
(16:11):
the third quarter, really got keyed in on trying to
draw fouls in the mid range that wasn't working for him.
That was kind of the fundamental difference between the two
teams and the way they played on offense. Phoenix generated
more threes because they did a better job of diligently
moving the ball through Oklahoma City's defense. As we move
on to ok See, I don't want to get too
negative here, because I also thought they just played a
(16:32):
great game and you just lose to a very good
Suns team like that, Sun's team is twenty one and fourteen.
Now they're twelve and five at home. As I talked about,
they're two games back from having the fourth best record
in the entire NBA. The Sons are playing awesome basketball.
They're very high on my power rankings list this week
compared to where they've been, Like I'm super high on
Phoenix just overall as a team. That's a tough game
(16:53):
to win, and you were tied with eight seconds left,
So I don't want to be dooming gloom about the
thunder here. Lot of good like Chet was fantastic again,
amazing on defense, eight for eleven from the field, hit
a big three on the right wing in the second half.
Had a big, little fadeaway jump shot off of an
offensive rebound where he just slipped off of Dylan Brooks,
got the rebound, turned over his right shoulder knock down
(17:14):
a quick shot that was a big part of how
they tied the game late. Jadev was awesome, really comfortable
getting into his step back jump shot in the mid
range in this game. Hit a big one that tied
the game late. You know, there's a lot of talk
too about Jadab's first step quickness, and I think that's
been one of the things that stood out as he's
gotten older. Like he's a very good athlete, but he's
not a guy that's just going to toast people off
the dribble very often. But one of the things he
(17:35):
is very good at doing is putting a counter move
together on the contact that he generates on his drive.
So like he'll drive, you'll get into your body, and
once he gets into your body, he'll like go to
a behind the back dribble and kind of shed you off.
So if he's driving left, he'll bump you with that
right shoulder, shed you off, get to the behind the back.
Now he's got another opportunity to hit a driving lane,
same exact thing. If he's going right, bumps you with
(17:56):
that left shoulder, behind the back dribble, get back going
the other ways, allowing him to get dribble penetration and
to get quality pain attempts even when he's not necessarily
the quickest dude in the world off the dribble, off
that first attack right, Like a lot of good last
night for okay, see Shane J. Doub look great or
excuse me, chet and J double great. Shae had a
rough night, Like I thought, he was kind of the
(18:17):
primary culprit for a lot of the bad settling for
mid range shots. He just like, you know, I saw
a lot of thunder fans complaining about the whistle that
Shaye got in this game. And there were a handful
of calls that I thought were missed, Like there was
one where he kind of did like a step through
in the middle of the floor early in the game
and got bumped. I thought it probably should have been
a foul. There was one in the second half in
the third quarter run where he got a very similar
(18:38):
bump to what Devin Booker had gotten and Devin got
free throws and Shade didn't. Then there were others that weren't,
Like there was one where he clearly just pushed off
of Devin Booker and then tried to fade away and
get a fout that that's not going to get a call, right,
or one where he went straight up and down and
tried to like land on top of Devin and you know,
he wasn't able to land on his feet, so he
didn't get the call like there I thought it was.
(18:59):
There were a couple missed calls, But like, I don't
really understand the complaining because Shay's posting the second highest
free throw rate of his entire career. Chay'se free throw
rate this season is higher than it was last year
or the year before. That said, I don't want to
be too hard on Shay. I thought he missed a
lot of good looks too that he usually makes, and
he's been fantastic all season, so there's no point in
kind of overreacting to that. The only things with Oklahoma
(19:21):
City I think are worth mentioning are won the offensive glass.
We've talked about these former issues with the team that
have popped up in these losses. Defensive rebounding was a
huge part of that. They gave up a twelve to
two offensive rebounding advantage in that game, although it's worth
mentioning that Isaiah Hartenstein was out and to the shooting.
They're just thirty one percent from three in these losses
and the six losses thirty one percent. They're making the
(19:42):
open ones. I talked about this in that week that
they lost the two games to San Antonio like last night,
seven for eighteen on unguarded catch and shoot threes. That's
thirty nine percent. That's one point one to seven points
per shot. That's not bad. But everything that's contested off
the catch and everything that's off the dribble for Oklahoma
City has been bad from the three point line. And
I think it's interesting because coming into the season, we
(20:03):
all thought it would be like the big teams like
Denver or Houston that would present the biggest challenges for
Oka see, but at least in the regular season, because
we'll see in the long run if that ends up
being the case. We've seen Houston on Opening Night, but
Denver hasn't even played OKAC yet and Houston hasn't played
him since, so we'll see in the long run if
that's still the case. But what I'm really starting to
get keyed in on now is like San Antonio, Phoenix, Minnesota,
(20:24):
if you can protect the rim and you have bigger
athletes on the perimeter and you rush them at the
three point line, they'll miss. So I'm actually starting to
look at the tougher matchups as teams that are as
athletic as Oklahoma City but also a bit bigger but
that can also protect the rim. Those are the teams
that have been given Oklahoma City issues, at least in
the regular season. To be clear, I still view Oklahoma
(20:44):
City as the best team in the league. I'm just
looking at this through the lens of vulnerabilities. Today's show
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eight hundred gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee,
or Virginia. We have to talk some Boston Celtics. They've
won now seven of their last eight games. Just an
absolutely dominant performance in Los Angeles against a red hot
Clippers team. They jumped them early, held up under the
Clippers runs that they made throughout the game when they
(22:34):
tried to punch back again. The Clippers have been playing
super well. And then just an epic scoring run from
Jalen Brown in the third quarter with some ridiculous shot
making that blew that game open, and then the Celtics
ended up running away with it in the fourth quarter.
What a ridiculous performance from Jalen Brown. A remarkable shot
making display. Of his fifty points, twenty nine of them
(22:56):
came directly out of pick and roll. In ISO twenty
one of pick and roll, he was torching the Clippers
bigs in drop coverage just with his shot making over
and over again, especially in that third quarter. I thought
he was going at zoobots and doing a ton of damage.
Did a great job at taking advantage in that late
third quarter, especially of like some of the easy kick
and drop off reads. His cutters and shooters were getting open, like, oh,
(23:17):
Jordan Walsh slips spaceline because this man is doubling Jalen
as he's kind of snaking through the lane. Oh, easy
drop off, there's a little dunk like he's just doing
a really good job with that. I thought he guarded
Kawi really well all night. Jalen said after the game
that he thought he was the best two way player
in the game right now, and to be honest, it's
hard to argue with him with how well he's been playing,
at least within the last month or so. I got
(23:39):
to talk about this all the time. There's a big
difference between doing something for a month and doing it
for seasons and how that manifests an opinion, right, Like,
you want to know why Jokic is viewed pretty much
unanimously as the best player in the world right now,
it's because for year after year after year, month after
month after month, seventy plus games every single season until
this year, he's just been the same amazing dominant player,
(23:59):
right And so Jalen is flashing that and if he
wants to get that you know, kind of credibility in
the long run, it's going to be through sustaining this
over you know, a much larger sample. But in the
last sixteen games, thirty three points, seven rebounds, and six assists,
two stocks, per game fifty two percent from the field,
thirty nine percent from three, seventy eight percent from the line.
(24:21):
That's sixty one percent in true shooting. And again, he's
taking significant defensive responsibility every single night. So to put
it very simply, to be averaging a super efficient thirty
three points to go with seven rebounds and six assists
while guarding the one of the leading offensive threats every night,
there just isn't a player that's clearly playing better than
(24:41):
Jalen Brown right now. So again, he's not gonna get
that credit over one month of basketball, but he certainly
is showing that level right now. And this opportunity that
Jalen Brown has had to show the basketball world what
he looks like in a featured role has been a
resounding success. And again the celt and now one's seven
out of eight if a one to twenty six offensive
(25:04):
rating in that span, which is best in the league,
one thirteen defensive rating, which is seventh in the league.
In that span, the Celtics are twenty two to twelve.
They're now a half game back of the fourth best
record in the entire NBA. So what does it mean?
What does it mean that the Celtics have been this
good without Jason Tatum. I think it's pretty simple. I
(25:25):
think it means there's a level of mastery to Joe
Mizzula's offense that has been years in the making, coming
to fruition. I was thinking about this, especially when I
was watching the first quarter of this last game, as
I'm watching the Celtics starters just school the Clippers right
at the start. And again, this is red hot Clippers team,
and the Celtics just took it to them from the jump.
(25:45):
And it's this lineup. It's Nimi Keda, but it's Jalen Brown,
Derek White, Sam Houser and Peyton Pritchard. And I'm watching
them just get in and out of their sets quickly,
just always spacing for each other perfectly, always making the
right kickout pass, guys, trusting each other to knock down
shots against help, and just generating great look after great
look after great look. And I'm sitting there thinking, I'm like,
(26:06):
all these guys were on the twenty twenty two Celtics.
All of them played minutes for the Celtics in that
finals run. Every single one of them has been with
Joe Miszula since his start with the team. There's this
incredibly foolish idea, and it's bred by stan culture and
(26:26):
just the unbelievable individual support that stars get at the
expense of like any rational thought, that you win championships
on the greatness of individual superstar talent. And while you
certainly need one of those guys if you want to
have a good chance to win the title, the idea
that a superstar carries the team could not be further
from the truth. Every single champion in the history of
(26:48):
the NBA has been won because of a combination of
superstar talent with supporting star talent, with role player talent,
with a level of buy in to the system from
quality coaching that works. One of the many factors that
has driven the Celtics' success over the past few years
(27:10):
has ben Jo Missoula system, and it's interesting because it
wasn't always perfect. Especially in the twenty twenty four season,
I was heavily focused on the idea between the difference
between quality kickout threes in settling for mediocre threes. There'd
be this idea where they'd have these games where they'd
take early clock contested catch and shoot threes. A lot
(27:31):
of early tough transition threes, tough off the dribble threes,
a lot of that kind of stuff, and then they'd lose,
and then everyone would be like, Oh, it's Missoula system.
It's not Missoula's system. Missoula didn't want them to take
bad threes. He wanted them to drive and kick and
take quality threes. The team was just still learning the system.
(27:52):
They were still in the process of buying into it.
Fast forward. Now they've got hundreds of games of reps
in this system, and now I'm watching a Celtics team
that looks like they know exactly how they want to play,
how to do it effectively. Here's the stat that I
think demonstrates this perfectly. They're generating the same amount of
(28:13):
unguarded catch and shoot threes right now without Jason Tatum
in the picture as they did in that twenty twenty
four season when they were dominant from start to finish,
fifteen per game. I just think that's a remarkable set
that shows how this team is actually even though Tatum's out.
Even though technically an aggregate talent, this team is not
as talented as previous iterations of the team. They have
(28:37):
through continuity and consistency of system over years, They've gained
a level of comfort within that system that has allowed
them to actually play at a higher level relative to
their talent than they did in years past. So again,
like when people talk about like, oh, is the team
better without Jason Tatum, No, they've just gotten better. They've
(28:57):
gotten better through time and experience and consistency continuity within
their system. Right, and yes, some internal improvement from some
key players. Pritcher's gotten better as the years have gone by,
Howser's gotten better. Derek White, Derek White's been awesome over
the course of this recent stretch. Derek White in his
last sixteen games is averaging like twenty one points per
game very efficiently. So like Derek White's gotten better, all
(29:19):
these dudes have gotten a little bit better within the
system and it's causing them to maximize. And what happens
is is Jason Tatum comes back, if he does at
some point this year, which I believe you will, Jayson
Tatum comes back and he helps anchor your defensive rebounding
and he helps anchor some of the defensive schemes that
you weren't able to use against certain opponents like the
Portland game that you lost where you were getting abused
by some of the size Tatum helps alleviate that. Tatum
(29:40):
gives you another vehicle with which to enter the defense
and to create those quality catch and shoot threes. And
so ultimately, as I zoom out, all I can think
is continuity and consistency in a system over years will
pay dividends. And those dividends are being paid right now
for the Celtics. And Jayson Tatum's just going to come
back and add to this when he enters into the picture.
But shout out to Jalen brown Man literally playing better
(30:03):
or as well as anyone in the league at this point.
All right, let's get into our power rankings. I'm gonna
go a little quicker than usual today because I have
a bit of a time crunch. But we're starting with
number ten, the Denver Nuggets. They got a big win
over Toronto on the strength of their defense and clutch offense,
an idea that I talked about I talked about right
after the Yokich injury. I think that's their best formula
(30:23):
with jokicch out. But then they dropped a couple of
tough ones against the Cavs and the nets and teams
are really starting to throw the kitchen sink at Jamal
Murray to try to slow him down. I think they
need about five more wins before the All Star Break
to kind of successfully stay above that nine seed. You know,
if you're in that eight seed or higher, when Jokic
comes back, he's either gonna be able to crawl you
out of the play in or you have two opportunities
(30:45):
to win a play in game, which I trust the
Nuggets to do so. So I think they need about
five more wins. But it's gonna be tough. It's not
easy to do without Jokic, and the amount of injuries
that they've dealt with has been good. Seeing Christian Brown
and Aaron Gordon get back out there like they did
against Brooklyn. Number nine the Los Angeles Lakers. Somehow after
their epic blowout filled three week collapse, they sit today
(31:09):
in sole possession of the fourth best record in the NBA.
And the answer why to why is just because they
continue to take care of business against the middle tier
and the lower tier teams in the NBA. They're seven
and eight this season against teams that are five hundred
or better, five and five against teams that are in
the top ten and point differential, but they're fifteen and
three against teams that are below five hundred. After winning
(31:30):
a couple of consecutive games against Memphis, Luca in the
second half against Memphis last night seventeen points, three assists,
only five miss shots in zero turnovers. He always produces,
but when he produces while also limiting his mistakes, that's
when he looks like the Luca that can compete for
the best player in the world. I thought the second
(31:50):
half against Memphis was a good sign of progress in
that direction, and then Lebron James. I had been critical
of his defense and rebounding during the team slump. He's
been great in those areas since the Sacramento and in
Lebron's last eleven games, starting to gain some momentum in
his production twenty five points, six rebounds, and six assists
on sixty four percent true shooting in his last eleven games,
(32:11):
really starting to gain a progress towards becoming that all
NBA version of himself that is actually capable of changing
the Lakers' fortunes in the short term. That's the best
version of the Lakers will be all NBA Lebron, All
Star level, Austin, First Team All NBA level, Luca, you know,
MVP candidate Luca. Those three together, mixed in with improved
(32:31):
effort and intensity on defense, and maybe a move or
two at the deadline, that's where I could start taking
this team a little bit more seriously. But they won't
move higher on this list for me until they can
get a few signature wins against better teams. Number eight.
The Phoenix Suns just deep dived into them earlier in
the show, so we won't linger here long. But they've
won six out of seven. They just beat Oklahoma City.
Now they're just two games out from the three seed
(32:52):
in the Western Conference. Minnesota at number seven, suffered an
embarrassing loss to the Hawks where they really struggled against
Atlanta's physical d but a couple of nice bounce back
wins against the Heat and Wizards where their offense looked amazing.
Anthony Edwards sixty eight points in those two games on
twenty four from forty from the field. Number six the
New York Knicks a one to twenty one defensive rating
(33:12):
in their three game losing streak. I'm not going to
overreact to a little drop off in defensive intensity in
early January for a team that's been as successful as
the Knicks have been. The one thing that concerned me
was that play at the end of the Spurs game
when you were in position to win that game and
Harrison Barnes is isoing in the middle of the floor,
Karl Anthony Towns is guarding Luke Cornette who's in the
right corner, and Kat's just kind of standing there. He's
not double teaming, he's not really helping, he's not doing anything.
(33:33):
He's just standing standing upright. Harrison Barnes misses the shot
and Luke Cornett just runs right in behind. Kat gets
an offensive rebound, puts it back in and draws a
foul and it literally costs you the game. And that's
the kind of stuff that like concerns me with Kat
in particular. I keep coming back to him, is like
he's so mistake prone, especially in big spots, like you
lose a game as Celtics because he's chasing Jordan Walsh
(33:54):
off of the three point line when he's made like
three corner threes all season. Like those are the kinds
of like random late game execution errors that can cost
you a series, and that concerned me way more than
three losses in January, fueled by some you know, team
wide defensive malayise. Number five the Houston Rockets. Four game
streaks snapped on the road in Dallas. They're just four
(34:15):
for nineteen unguarded catch and shoot threes in that game.
That's miserable shooting. They've actually been surprisingly good on those
shots this season, about forty one percent, which is middle
of the pack, better than we would have thought. Kevin
Durant on a hot streak right now, twenty nine to
five and eight on fifty nine percent from the field
in his last three games, keeping his turnovers down, playing
some great basketball. Number four the Boston Celtics. We hit
them earlier in the show, so I'm not going to
(34:36):
linger here. Just a team that has mastered the system
that the coach implemented a few years ago, and they're
starting to see some dividends there. Number three the San
Antonio Spurs. They've lost three out of five a one
thirteen point five offensive rating in that span. We covered
the Spurs offense in a video last week where I
went over some of the details with the way they're
guarding some of their younger guards going under containing using
(34:56):
some bigger athletes, and how they need to address that
by playing more through Fox and Wemby and using those
guards as screeners when you're in a situation where they're
not being guarded the way they're guarded. Obviously, injuries have
started to factor in as well. As Victor Wemban Yam
has been out, a couple of their guards have had
a little bit of nagging injuries pop up, but the
offense has been something to keep an eye on over
(35:17):
the course of the next a few weeks. Number two,
the Detroit Pistons a couple of really impressive wins against
the Calves and Lakers, mixed in with three losses to
the Heat, Clippers and Jazz. Starting to get a little
banged up now. Jalen Duran has an ankle sprain, Tobias
Harris as a hip sprain. Here's a crazy stat for
you Pistons fans, though the Pistons have the best record
in the league against teams that are five hundred or
better this season nine and four, even better than Oklahoma
(35:40):
City at nine and five and the number one Oklahoma City.
We hit them earlier in the show. Again, some of
their issues popping up with allowing offensive rebounds and some
of their specific kind of situational shooting. But I still
view them, especially with San Antonio starting to lose some ground,
as the best team in the league, number one in
the power rankings again like they were for most of
this season. All right, guys, it's all I have for
(36:00):
today is always a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting
us and supporting the show. We had kind of funky
holiday schedules last couple of weeks, but we're back to
it every day now, back at it tomorrow morning with
some game reaction. I'll see you guys, man
The volume. All right, old good Hoops and I you're
at the volume heavy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you
guys had an incredible weekend to have a jam pack
(00:21):
Monday show for you guys. We had an epic showdown
between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Phoenix Suns as
Devin Booker wins the game with a step back three
from thirty feet over the top of Alex Cruse. So
a bunch of interesting stuff to get into from that game.
After that, I want to talk a little bit of
Boston Celtics, who on Saturday went in and blew out
(00:41):
a red hot Clippers team behind fifty points from Jalen Brown.
Have a bunch of interesting stuff to get into from
that game. And then as usual on Mondays, we have
our weekly power rankings. You guys know the joke before
we get started. Subscribe to Hoop to the Hoops and
Nott YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our
videos like this video that helps us in the last
but not least, If you want to get questions into
(01:02):
our Friday mail bag, dropped them in the YouTube comments
underneath this video and we'll get to them in our
weekly mail bags. On Fridays. All right, let's talk some basketball.
So the Suns win one eight to one oh five
on Devin Booker's game winning step back three over the
top of Alex Crew. So I thought, on the play itself,
Devin actually made a really smart, kind of impromptu in
(01:24):
the moment decision to go to his step back a
little bit earlier and to shoot a little bit deeper
of a shot, like when he had the ball in
his right hands. His right hand he went to a
scissor dribble back to his left against Alex and kind
of hit that aggressive move forward and Alex took a
pretty heavy recovery step considering where Devin made the move,
(01:47):
which was like thirty five forty feet from the basket,
Alex on his recovery step got all the way south
of the three point line, like he created a ton
of separation on the move. And so if Devin wanted to,
he could have continued to go forward another step and
then get into his step back and it could have
been somewhere in that like twenty five foot range. But
instead he stopped a step earlier and step back and
(02:10):
shot a thirty foot or off the bounce, And I
thought it was really smart for two reasons. One, if
you look on the video, lou Dort was really digging
down into that driving lane off of Dylan Brooks. So
like if Devin would have attacked more, he might have
attracted just a hard double team from lou Dort there,
and that could have made that a more complicated situation.
(02:31):
They were rotating up off of Colin Gillespie in the
corner up onto Dylan Brooks too, so it wouldn't have
been a They might have gone swing swing, and it
might have been too late to even get a shot
off if he would have gone too far. And then
the second piece of it is if you take that
extra step into the defender in this case Alex Caruso
and kind of get into his body a bit more,
that allows Alex an opportunity to get his hands on you,
(02:53):
to get physical with you and maybe disrupt your rhythm.
Maybe he swipes down on your arm a little bit
and you lose control of the basketball and it doesn't
get called, and now you're shooting a Janki jump shot
because you lose control of the ball. Like it's just
a little scoring nuance that I think matters. I think
it's better to get a little bit longer of a
shot with cleaner rhythm where you get great lift and
(03:15):
great separation than it is to get a shorter shot
that is more congested or that has disrupted rhythm if
a guy's being like super physical with you. It's just
like a little thing in that moment where I really
liked how Devin went to step back a little bit earlier,
and again it's a thirty footer, but he gets fantastic lift,
snaps the wrist, knocks it down. Thunder get a decent
(03:36):
look for aj Mitchell on in the left corner on
the other end, but he didn't really look ready for
it in that spot, so the Suns d up getting
out of there with a win. I want to talk
about some of the help and recover dynamics in this
game for both teams, because I thought it was the
story from a tactical standpoint. But before we go any further,
I have to bring up Dylan Brooks and his shot
making in that fourth quarter. He actually started the fourth
(03:56):
quarter with these cleared side ISOs against Jada on the
right side, and again, just think about that, like clearside
ISOs against one of the better defenders in the entire NBA,
and especially a defender in JDub who's very good at
dealing with some of these bigger bully ball forwards because
he's a big, trunky dude, right and he just got
a couple of buckets. He spun over his left shoulder
(04:18):
and hit a fade away right in Jdub's face. He
had one where he kind of drove into the middle
and hit like a nice little floater where he got
a friendly bounce. But then at the end of the
game he hit two outrageous pull up jumpers. The snatchback
dribble against Cason Wallace on the right side, kind of
towards the corner where he just drove hard and just
pulled the ball back, got just enough separation and rose
(04:39):
up and knocked it down. And then a step back
three over the top of Shay on the left wing,
just a massive shot that put the Suns up one
oh five to one oh one before a couple of
tough shots from Chett and JDub ended up tying it
before Devin Booker at the game winner. It's still just
a wild experience as a basketball fan to be watching
Dylan Brooks be this reliable as a shot maker, and
(05:02):
to be the I'm not trying to say that it's illegitimate,
like the sample size is too large. At this point,
it's completely legitimate. He's taken two hundred and four pull
up jump shots this season. He's getting a point per shot,
forty nine percent on pull up twos, thirty five percent
on pull up threes. He's eighteenth in the entire NBA
in total pull up jump shots made. He's made more
(05:24):
pull up jump shots this year than DeMar de Rozen
or Steph Curry, for example. So like, this is something
that we know that at this point, through just a
large sample, that Dylan has become good at this. But
still when you're watching it, it's just wild to see
all these shots go in. I actually really enjoyed watching
Dylan Brooks and his postgame presser. He was talking about
(05:45):
how he would watch these videos on YouTube of Kobe
shooting one drimble pull ups and then fadeaways out of
the post, and he's talked about how he's like emulating
him with some of the work that he's doing out
of those spots, and I just thought it was a
textbook example of manifesting your preferred reality, Like when you
want something to change for yourself, there's an order of
(06:06):
operations to make that happen, right, Like, you need to
see what it is that you're trying to become. In
this case, I actually think it really helps to have
a uh. I think it really helps to have like
a YouTube video, something that you can watch regularly that
kind of gives you a visual representation of the thing
that you're trying to become or the thing that you're
trying to get better at, and you watch that and
(06:26):
motivate yourself. Then there's the phase where you're putting in
the work behind the scenes, and then there's you know,
depending on what field you're in or what it is
you're trying to accomplish, there's an order of operations to
implement it. I've talked about it with basketball before. When
it comes to scoring, it's like, figure out how to
make these shots in the gym alone by yourself. Then
find someone to play king of the court against some
work on them. So if you want to work on
a little step back jump shot or a little turnaround
(06:48):
jump shot over both shoulders, find somebody to guard you.
Go play some king of the court. Go play some
one on one with a buddy, whatever it is, it's
work on it in the gym by yourself until you
can make it at a high clip. Work on it
one on one until you can make it at a
high clip. Start to break it out in games, right
in five on five in practice first, and then when
you have an opportunity, when you've demonstrated the ability in
(07:09):
your high school practice and your college practice and knock
that shot down a few times, that's when you can
unleash it in the game setting. There's an order of
operations or getting from a to za, so to speak.
And I just thought it was cool to watch Dylan
kind of break down, like what his motivation was, what
he was trying to become, what he does to motivate himself,
and then the work behind the scenes. It's just obvious
to see. We've seen clips of him. I am incredibly
(07:31):
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terms and conditions. Says Phoenix ended up generating nineteen unguarded
catch and shoot jump shots in this game, which is
a really good number for them. Their season average is
about sixteen. But again, this is a team in Oklahoma
City that again is going to close those gaps a
lot faster than most teams with the speed of their rotations,
and in general, is gonna just make life difficult. Ball
(09:45):
pressure and playing in passing lanes to try to force turnovers,
it is difficult. It's difficult to pass through. Okse's different.
Our defense. Now, we've talked a lot over the years
about how Oklahoma City defends. They get into gaps. They
do leave shooters open. They're brief openings because the team
is insanely fast, right like, they close those gaps quickly.
(10:07):
But those openings are there, and they're there because they're
opportunistic on defense, because they'll peel off of a guy
to help, or they'll dig down, or they'll throw a
late double as a guy's getting into the lane. They
do that because they want to force turnovers and get
out in transition. These teams, both of these teams actually
play a lot of similar do a lot of similar
(10:27):
things on defense in this regard. They're both high. I
think they're one and two and points off of turnovers
in the NBA this season. They are teams that have
a depth of perimeter defense talent. They get up into
the ball they do you know they will. They're not
going to just openly you know, double or or send
three on two in a ball screen for no reason.
But they're going to be opportunistic in those situations to
(10:49):
try to force turnovers. The key to scoring on the
thunder is to be super diligent with your spacings. Always
be in the right spots off the ball as a
guy's driving or relocating. You got to relocate with them
to make sure that you're in a good position to
score if you receive a kickout, and then you have
to make over and over again on time and on
(11:10):
target kickout passes. Then when those guys catch on the
perimeter against the closeout, lightning fast dribbleshoot pass decisions because okay,
so he's going to close those gaps so fast. And
I just thought the Suns did an incredible job all
night with that dynamic on offense. Just Devin Booker was
drawing to pretty consistently, especially in the second half, and
we just saw a bunch of these brilliant passing sequences
(11:32):
from Phoenix to capitalize on that advantage. Like Devin draws
two in the post on the right block, easy little
kickout to Ryan done at the top of the key,
knocks it down. Okay, well what if they rotate to
that secondary pass. Okay, Devin draws two on the right wing,
swing to the left wing to rotate over from the corner,
extras pass to Jordan Goodman in the left corner, wide
(11:53):
open three, he knocks it down or offensive rebounds that
the Suns did a lot of damage on the offensive
glass in this game. That's been kind of a recurring
theme with the thunder we'll talk about in a minute.
But they get an offensive rebound, is like Colin Gillespie
gets a close out in the left corner, rips the
close out, draws bodies, makes a beautiful kickout to Jordan
Goodwin in the right corner. A lot of their transition
passing sequences just moving the ball up to four click quickly,
(12:15):
guys running their lane, so you always have those outlets
in the corners as you're pushing the ball at the floor.
They just are so good at creating wide open shots
with the crisp passing out of their good spacing. You know,
Phoenix is actually shooting thirty eight percent on catch and
shoot threes this year, which ranks sixth in the entire NBA.
(12:35):
And like, you know, I would argue, like if we're
looking at the reasons why the Suns have been better
than we've expected, Like I thought the Suns would be competitive.
I just figured they'd hover right around five hundred or
a little below and have like a bunch of kind
of signature wins to kind of make the season fun.
They're twenty one and fourteen. They're I think they're two
games back from the fourth best record in the entire NBA.
(12:56):
Like they're in a fantastic position. And I'd argue the
two things that have kind of made that be, you know,
dramatically more than I thought, have been the shooting and
the Dylan Brooks piece. Because, like the defense, we expected
the team to be great defensively. I predicted they'd be
top ten in defense before the season. The reasoning was simple,
they have the pieces that you need for a top
ten defense. I did not expect Dylan Brooks to turn
(13:18):
into a reliable and efficient twenty one point per game score.
I didn't expect the team to shoot the ball down
the roster as well as they have this year. It's
allowing them to pay off. We talked about this sequence
a lot. I've talked about it a lot with the
Lakers in a negative sense. But when you play good basketball,
you generate these sequences that end in a certain type
of shot. You've got to be able to pay those
sequences off. And the Suns have been paying those sequences
(13:41):
off at a high clip this season. And then on
the other end of the floor, I just thought the
Suns did a great job doing the same thing that
the Thunder we're trying to do on the other end
of the floor, guarding the ball well, with quality defenders
getting into gaps to try to make openings disappear quickly
and get into their driving lane so that they can't
turn the corner all the way to the rim. You
have the rim protection element with Mark Williams. There was
(14:01):
actually a pull up three that Shay missed at the
top of the key late in the game that I
thought was a perfect example of the dynamic I'm talking
about with like making gaps feel like they're there but
then shrink quickly. So earlier in a possession in the
fourth quarter, Shay's dribbling on the left wing, they nail
help hard off of Jadub. On the right wing, Shaye
throws a swing pass he knocks down the three right,
(14:23):
So like that's an example of that opening existing and
staying open for too long and an easy pass burning
you right. But on this particular play that I'm talking about,
the one where Shaye misses the bad pull up three
on the left wing, Jordan Goodwin comes off of j
Dub and sends the double. But there's two things that
are different Jordan, instead of just like attacking the basketball
for no reason, he really walls up on that passing
(14:45):
lane side, so he just kind of gets active with
his hands instead of attacking. Shay stops about a foot
or two short, gets really active in the passing lane
so that Shay can't just throw an easy swing pass.
And then also Agadaro ends up kind of sliding up
just a touch to be ins position to where if
you did throw that pass to j Dub he can
quickly take a step up and rotate to the shot.
And so as a result, when Shae catches it and
(15:06):
he goes to make that pass, he goes like, ah,
that's not there, and then that's when he ends up
taking the bad pull up three and he misses it.
And that gap in catch and shoot three point attempts
for the most part, but it also was just in
the total three point attempts for the entire team. That
gap was one of the main stories of the game
for me. Both teams regarding each other in similar ways,
(15:28):
but the Suns, I thought, did a better job of
not settling for tough mid range pull ups and moving
the ball through Okac's defense for threes. Phoenix took eight
mid ranges in the game. Both teams shot well for
mid range. Phoenix was five for eight. I think okay
See was ten for nineteen if I remember correctly, But
the difference is is Okay So he took nineteen of
them and Phoenix took eight. So when they got the
(15:51):
ball to the middle four, it's like there are some
shots in there. Dylan Brooks took some mid rangers, Devin
Booker took some midrange. Mid range shots were attempted, but
it was, you know, kind of a counter what they
were trying to do, which is to get through that
defense and get to the quality kickout threes. Oklahoma City
nineteen mid range shots, a lot of tough stepbacks from
JDub and Shay Shaye in particular, I thought, especially in
(16:11):
the third quarter, really got keyed in on trying to
draw fouls in the mid range that wasn't working for him.
That was kind of the fundamental difference between the two
teams and the way they played on offense. Phoenix generated
more threes because they did a better job of diligently
moving the ball through Oklahoma City's defense. As we move
on to ok See, I don't want to get too
negative here, because I also thought they just played a
(16:32):
great game and you just lose to a very good
Suns team like that, Sun's team is twenty one and fourteen.
Now they're twelve and five at home. As I talked about,
they're two games back from having the fourth best record
in the entire NBA. The Sons are playing awesome basketball.
They're very high on my power rankings list this week
compared to where they've been, Like I'm super high on
Phoenix just overall as a team. That's a tough game
(16:53):
to win, and you were tied with eight seconds left,
So I don't want to be dooming gloom about the
thunder here. Lot of good like Chet was fantastic again,
amazing on defense, eight for eleven from the field, hit
a big three on the right wing in the second half.
Had a big, little fadeaway jump shot off of an
offensive rebound where he just slipped off of Dylan Brooks,
got the rebound, turned over his right shoulder knock down
(17:14):
a quick shot that was a big part of how
they tied the game late. Jadev was awesome, really comfortable
getting into his step back jump shot in the mid
range in this game. Hit a big one that tied
the game late. You know, there's a lot of talk
too about Jadab's first step quickness, and I think that's
been one of the things that stood out as he's
gotten older. Like he's a very good athlete, but he's
not a guy that's just going to toast people off
the dribble very often. But one of the things he
(17:35):
is very good at doing is putting a counter move
together on the contact that he generates on his drive.
So like he'll drive, you'll get into your body, and
once he gets into your body, he'll like go to
a behind the back dribble and kind of shed you off.
So if he's driving left, he'll bump you with that
right shoulder, shed you off, get to the behind the back.
Now he's got another opportunity to hit a driving lane,
same exact thing. If he's going right, bumps you with
(17:56):
that left shoulder, behind the back dribble, get back going
the other ways, allowing him to get dribble penetration and
to get quality pain attempts even when he's not necessarily
the quickest dude in the world off the dribble, off
that first attack right, Like a lot of good last
night for okay, see Shane J. Doub look great or
excuse me, chet and J double great. Shae had a
rough night, Like I thought, he was kind of the
(18:17):
primary culprit for a lot of the bad settling for
mid range shots. He just like, you know, I saw
a lot of thunder fans complaining about the whistle that
Shaye got in this game. And there were a handful
of calls that I thought were missed, Like there was
one where he kind of did like a step through
in the middle of the floor early in the game
and got bumped. I thought it probably should have been
a foul. There was one in the second half in
the third quarter run where he got a very similar
(18:38):
bump to what Devin Booker had gotten and Devin got
free throws and Shade didn't. Then there were others that weren't,
Like there was one where he clearly just pushed off
of Devin Booker and then tried to fade away and
get a fout that that's not going to get a call, right,
or one where he went straight up and down and
tried to like land on top of Devin and you know,
he wasn't able to land on his feet, so he
didn't get the call like there I thought it was.
(18:59):
There were a couple missed calls, But like, I don't
really understand the complaining because Shay's posting the second highest
free throw rate of his entire career. Chay'se free throw
rate this season is higher than it was last year
or the year before. That said, I don't want to
be too hard on Shay. I thought he missed a
lot of good looks too that he usually makes, and
he's been fantastic all season, so there's no point in
kind of overreacting to that. The only things with Oklahoma
(19:21):
City I think are worth mentioning are won the offensive glass.
We've talked about these former issues with the team that
have popped up in these losses. Defensive rebounding was a
huge part of that. They gave up a twelve to
two offensive rebounding advantage in that game, although it's worth
mentioning that Isaiah Hartenstein was out and to the shooting.
They're just thirty one percent from three in these losses
and the six losses thirty one percent. They're making the
(19:42):
open ones. I talked about this in that week that
they lost the two games to San Antonio like last night,
seven for eighteen on unguarded catch and shoot threes. That's
thirty nine percent. That's one point one to seven points
per shot. That's not bad. But everything that's contested off
the catch and everything that's off the dribble for Oklahoma
City has been bad from the three point line. And
I think it's interesting because coming into the season, we
(20:03):
all thought it would be like the big teams like
Denver or Houston that would present the biggest challenges for
Oka see, but at least in the regular season, because
we'll see in the long run if that ends up
being the case. We've seen Houston on Opening Night, but
Denver hasn't even played OKAC yet and Houston hasn't played
him since, so we'll see in the long run if
that's still the case. But what I'm really starting to
get keyed in on now is like San Antonio, Phoenix, Minnesota,
(20:24):
if you can protect the rim and you have bigger
athletes on the perimeter and you rush them at the
three point line, they'll miss. So I'm actually starting to
look at the tougher matchups as teams that are as
athletic as Oklahoma City but also a bit bigger but
that can also protect the rim. Those are the teams
that have been given Oklahoma City issues, at least in
the regular season. To be clear, I still view Oklahoma
(20:44):
City as the best team in the league. I'm just
looking at this through the lens of vulnerabilities. Today's show
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eight hundred gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee,
or Virginia. We have to talk some Boston Celtics. They've
won now seven of their last eight games. Just an
absolutely dominant performance in Los Angeles against a red hot
Clippers team. They jumped them early, held up under the
Clippers runs that they made throughout the game when they
(22:34):
tried to punch back again. The Clippers have been playing
super well. And then just an epic scoring run from
Jalen Brown in the third quarter with some ridiculous shot
making that blew that game open, and then the Celtics
ended up running away with it in the fourth quarter.
What a ridiculous performance from Jalen Brown. A remarkable shot
making display. Of his fifty points, twenty nine of them
(22:56):
came directly out of pick and roll. In ISO twenty
one of pick and roll, he was torching the Clippers
bigs in drop coverage just with his shot making over
and over again, especially in that third quarter. I thought
he was going at zoobots and doing a ton of damage.
Did a great job at taking advantage in that late
third quarter, especially of like some of the easy kick
and drop off reads. His cutters and shooters were getting open, like, oh,
(23:17):
Jordan Walsh slips spaceline because this man is doubling Jalen
as he's kind of snaking through the lane. Oh, easy
drop off, there's a little dunk like he's just doing
a really good job with that. I thought he guarded
Kawi really well all night. Jalen said after the game
that he thought he was the best two way player
in the game right now, and to be honest, it's
hard to argue with him with how well he's been playing,
at least within the last month or so. I got
(23:39):
to talk about this all the time. There's a big
difference between doing something for a month and doing it
for seasons and how that manifests an opinion, right, Like,
you want to know why Jokic is viewed pretty much
unanimously as the best player in the world right now,
it's because for year after year after year, month after
month after month, seventy plus games every single season until
this year, he's just been the same amazing dominant player,
(23:59):
right And so Jalen is flashing that and if he
wants to get that you know, kind of credibility in
the long run, it's going to be through sustaining this
over you know, a much larger sample. But in the
last sixteen games, thirty three points, seven rebounds, and six assists,
two stocks, per game fifty two percent from the field,
thirty nine percent from three, seventy eight percent from the line.
(24:21):
That's sixty one percent in true shooting. And again, he's
taking significant defensive responsibility every single night. So to put
it very simply, to be averaging a super efficient thirty
three points to go with seven rebounds and six assists
while guarding the one of the leading offensive threats every night,
there just isn't a player that's clearly playing better than
(24:41):
Jalen Brown right now. So again, he's not gonna get
that credit over one month of basketball, but he certainly
is showing that level right now. And this opportunity that
Jalen Brown has had to show the basketball world what
he looks like in a featured role has been a
resounding success. And again the celt and now one's seven
out of eight if a one to twenty six offensive
(25:04):
rating in that span, which is best in the league,
one thirteen defensive rating, which is seventh in the league.
In that span, the Celtics are twenty two to twelve.
They're now a half game back of the fourth best
record in the entire NBA. So what does it mean?
What does it mean that the Celtics have been this
good without Jason Tatum. I think it's pretty simple. I
(25:25):
think it means there's a level of mastery to Joe
Mizzula's offense that has been years in the making, coming
to fruition. I was thinking about this, especially when I
was watching the first quarter of this last game, as
I'm watching the Celtics starters just school the Clippers right
at the start. And again, this is red hot Clippers team,
and the Celtics just took it to them from the jump.
(25:45):
And it's this lineup. It's Nimi Keda, but it's Jalen Brown,
Derek White, Sam Houser and Peyton Pritchard. And I'm watching
them just get in and out of their sets quickly,
just always spacing for each other perfectly, always making the
right kickout pass, guys, trusting each other to knock down
shots against help, and just generating great look after great
look after great look. And I'm sitting there thinking, I'm like,
(26:06):
all these guys were on the twenty twenty two Celtics.
All of them played minutes for the Celtics in that
finals run. Every single one of them has been with
Joe Miszula since his start with the team. There's this
incredibly foolish idea, and it's bred by stan culture and
(26:26):
just the unbelievable individual support that stars get at the
expense of like any rational thought, that you win championships
on the greatness of individual superstar talent. And while you
certainly need one of those guys if you want to
have a good chance to win the title, the idea
that a superstar carries the team could not be further
from the truth. Every single champion in the history of
(26:48):
the NBA has been won because of a combination of
superstar talent with supporting star talent, with role player talent,
with a level of buy in to the system from
quality coaching that works. One of the many factors that
has driven the Celtics' success over the past few years
(27:10):
has ben Jo Missoula system, and it's interesting because it
wasn't always perfect. Especially in the twenty twenty four season,
I was heavily focused on the idea between the difference
between quality kickout threes in settling for mediocre threes. There'd
be this idea where they'd have these games where they'd
take early clock contested catch and shoot threes. A lot
(27:31):
of early tough transition threes, tough off the dribble threes,
a lot of that kind of stuff, and then they'd lose,
and then everyone would be like, Oh, it's Missoula system.
It's not Missoula's system. Missoula didn't want them to take
bad threes. He wanted them to drive and kick and
take quality threes. The team was just still learning the system.
(27:52):
They were still in the process of buying into it.
Fast forward. Now they've got hundreds of games of reps
in this system, and now I'm watching a Celtics team
that looks like they know exactly how they want to play,
how to do it effectively. Here's the stat that I
think demonstrates this perfectly. They're generating the same amount of
(28:13):
unguarded catch and shoot threes right now without Jason Tatum
in the picture as they did in that twenty twenty
four season when they were dominant from start to finish,
fifteen per game. I just think that's a remarkable set
that shows how this team is actually even though Tatum's out.
Even though technically an aggregate talent, this team is not
as talented as previous iterations of the team. They have
(28:37):
through continuity and consistency of system over years, They've gained
a level of comfort within that system that has allowed
them to actually play at a higher level relative to
their talent than they did in years past. So again,
like when people talk about like, oh, is the team
better without Jason Tatum, No, they've just gotten better. They've
(28:57):
gotten better through time and experience and consistency continuity within
their system. Right, and yes, some internal improvement from some
key players. Pritcher's gotten better as the years have gone by,
Howser's gotten better. Derek White, Derek White's been awesome over
the course of this recent stretch. Derek White in his
last sixteen games is averaging like twenty one points per
game very efficiently. So like Derek White's gotten better, all
(29:19):
these dudes have gotten a little bit better within the
system and it's causing them to maximize. And what happens
is is Jason Tatum comes back, if he does at
some point this year, which I believe you will, Jayson
Tatum comes back and he helps anchor your defensive rebounding
and he helps anchor some of the defensive schemes that
you weren't able to use against certain opponents like the
Portland game that you lost where you were getting abused
by some of the size Tatum helps alleviate that. Tatum
(29:40):
gives you another vehicle with which to enter the defense
and to create those quality catch and shoot threes. And
so ultimately, as I zoom out, all I can think
is continuity and consistency in a system over years will
pay dividends. And those dividends are being paid right now
for the Celtics. And Jayson Tatum's just going to come
back and add to this when he enters into the picture.
But shout out to Jalen brown Man literally playing better
(30:03):
or as well as anyone in the league at this point.
All right, let's get into our power rankings. I'm gonna
go a little quicker than usual today because I have
a bit of a time crunch. But we're starting with
number ten, the Denver Nuggets. They got a big win
over Toronto on the strength of their defense and clutch offense,
an idea that I talked about I talked about right
after the Yokich injury. I think that's their best formula
(30:23):
with jokicch out. But then they dropped a couple of
tough ones against the Cavs and the nets and teams
are really starting to throw the kitchen sink at Jamal
Murray to try to slow him down. I think they
need about five more wins before the All Star Break
to kind of successfully stay above that nine seed. You know,
if you're in that eight seed or higher, when Jokic
comes back, he's either gonna be able to crawl you
out of the play in or you have two opportunities
(30:45):
to win a play in game, which I trust the
Nuggets to do so. So I think they need about
five more wins. But it's gonna be tough. It's not
easy to do without Jokic, and the amount of injuries
that they've dealt with has been good. Seeing Christian Brown
and Aaron Gordon get back out there like they did
against Brooklyn. Number nine the Los Angeles Lakers. Somehow after
their epic blowout filled three week collapse, they sit today
(31:09):
in sole possession of the fourth best record in the NBA.
And the answer why to why is just because they
continue to take care of business against the middle tier
and the lower tier teams in the NBA. They're seven
and eight this season against teams that are five hundred
or better, five and five against teams that are in
the top ten and point differential, but they're fifteen and
three against teams that are below five hundred. After winning
(31:30):
a couple of consecutive games against Memphis, Luca in the
second half against Memphis last night seventeen points, three assists,
only five miss shots in zero turnovers. He always produces,
but when he produces while also limiting his mistakes, that's
when he looks like the Luca that can compete for
the best player in the world. I thought the second
(31:50):
half against Memphis was a good sign of progress in
that direction, and then Lebron James. I had been critical
of his defense and rebounding during the team slump. He's
been great in those areas since the Sacramento and in
Lebron's last eleven games, starting to gain some momentum in
his production twenty five points, six rebounds, and six assists
on sixty four percent true shooting in his last eleven games,
(32:11):
really starting to gain a progress towards becoming that all
NBA version of himself that is actually capable of changing
the Lakers' fortunes in the short term. That's the best
version of the Lakers will be all NBA Lebron, All
Star level, Austin, First Team All NBA level, Luca, you know,
MVP candidate Luca. Those three together, mixed in with improved
(32:31):
effort and intensity on defense, and maybe a move or
two at the deadline, that's where I could start taking
this team a little bit more seriously. But they won't
move higher on this list for me until they can
get a few signature wins against better teams. Number eight.
The Phoenix Suns just deep dived into them earlier in
the show, so we won't linger here long. But they've
won six out of seven. They just beat Oklahoma City.
Now they're just two games out from the three seed
(32:52):
in the Western Conference. Minnesota at number seven, suffered an
embarrassing loss to the Hawks where they really struggled against
Atlanta's physical d but a couple of nice bounce back
wins against the Heat and Wizards where their offense looked amazing.
Anthony Edwards sixty eight points in those two games on
twenty four from forty from the field. Number six the
New York Knicks a one to twenty one defensive rating
(33:12):
in their three game losing streak. I'm not going to
overreact to a little drop off in defensive intensity in
early January for a team that's been as successful as
the Knicks have been. The one thing that concerned me
was that play at the end of the Spurs game
when you were in position to win that game and
Harrison Barnes is isoing in the middle of the floor,
Karl Anthony Towns is guarding Luke Cornette who's in the
right corner, and Kat's just kind of standing there. He's
not double teaming, he's not really helping, he's not doing anything.
(33:33):
He's just standing standing upright. Harrison Barnes misses the shot
and Luke Cornett just runs right in behind. Kat gets
an offensive rebound, puts it back in and draws a
foul and it literally costs you the game. And that's
the kind of stuff that like concerns me with Kat
in particular. I keep coming back to him, is like
he's so mistake prone, especially in big spots, like you
lose a game as Celtics because he's chasing Jordan Walsh
(33:54):
off of the three point line when he's made like
three corner threes all season. Like those are the kinds
of like random late game execution errors that can cost
you a series, and that concerned me way more than
three losses in January, fueled by some you know, team
wide defensive malayise. Number five the Houston Rockets. Four game
streaks snapped on the road in Dallas. They're just four
(34:15):
for nineteen unguarded catch and shoot threes in that game.
That's miserable shooting. They've actually been surprisingly good on those
shots this season, about forty one percent, which is middle
of the pack, better than we would have thought. Kevin
Durant on a hot streak right now, twenty nine to
five and eight on fifty nine percent from the field
in his last three games, keeping his turnovers down, playing
some great basketball. Number four the Boston Celtics. We hit
them earlier in the show, so I'm not going to
(34:36):
linger here. Just a team that has mastered the system
that the coach implemented a few years ago, and they're
starting to see some dividends there. Number three the San
Antonio Spurs. They've lost three out of five a one
thirteen point five offensive rating in that span. We covered
the Spurs offense in a video last week where I
went over some of the details with the way they're
guarding some of their younger guards going under containing using
(34:56):
some bigger athletes, and how they need to address that
by playing more through Fox and Wemby and using those
guards as screeners when you're in a situation where they're
not being guarded the way they're guarded. Obviously, injuries have
started to factor in as well. As Victor Wemban Yam
has been out, a couple of their guards have had
a little bit of nagging injuries pop up, but the
offense has been something to keep an eye on over
(35:17):
the course of the next a few weeks. Number two,
the Detroit Pistons a couple of really impressive wins against
the Calves and Lakers, mixed in with three losses to
the Heat, Clippers and Jazz. Starting to get a little
banged up now. Jalen Duran has an ankle sprain, Tobias
Harris as a hip sprain. Here's a crazy stat for
you Pistons fans, though the Pistons have the best record
in the league against teams that are five hundred or
better this season nine and four, even better than Oklahoma
(35:40):
City at nine and five and the number one Oklahoma City.
We hit them earlier in the show. Again, some of
their issues popping up with allowing offensive rebounds and some
of their specific kind of situational shooting. But I still
view them, especially with San Antonio starting to lose some ground,
as the best team in the league, number one in
the power rankings again like they were for most of
this season. All right, guys, it's all I have for
(36:00):
today is always a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting
us and supporting the show. We had kind of funky
holiday schedules last couple of weeks, but we're back to
it every day now, back at it tomorrow morning with
some game reaction. I'll see you guys, man
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