December 26, 2025 • 45 mins
Jason gives 10 reactions to the 10 teams playing on NBA Christmas Day. He breaks down Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs being the NBA's best right now with another win over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder, Nikola Jokic leading an incredible Denver Nuggets win over Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves, Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors finding their footing with a win over Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks, Kevin Durant leading the Houston Rockets to a win over Luka Doncic, LeBron James and the pathetic Los Angeles Lakers, Jalen Brunson leading the New York Knicks to a win over Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Volume. All right, welcome to him tonight. You're at
the volume every Friday, everybody. Hope all of you guys
had an incredible holiday break. We had an incredible showcase
(00:23):
for the NBA yesterday. Christmas Day is kind of like
that first big day that the NBA takes the center stage.
The NFL was graced us with an awful slate thanks
to a bunch of teams kind of being out of
the playoff hunt, leading to some bad football games. But
the NBA stepped right into that gap and provided some
awesome basketball. I thought the best way for us to
(00:44):
hit on all the games would be to go with
one major takeaway from all ten teams from that slate yesterday.
Can't wait to dig it into it with you guys.
You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe
to the oop Snit YouTube channel so you don't miss
any more of our videos. Don't forget to like this video.
That helps us a lot. And then lastly, if you
want to get mail bag questions, drop them underneath this video.
Put mailbag with a colon and write your question. We'll
(01:05):
get to them on Fridays starting next Friday. Throughout the
remainder of the season. So, like I said Christmas Day,
first major showcase of the NBA season, it is revealing.
And it's funny because we've actually been going forever. We
were over two months into this thing. We've had a
whole in season tournament. Every team is played like more
(01:26):
than a third of their games already. But in this environment,
everyone's playing about as hard as you'll see them play
in an NBA regular season game, at least for most
of the teams. We'll get to the Lakers later on.
But it can be revealing in a lot of ways.
And so I thought this. I thought this would be
a good chance to bounce around. Let's start with their
first big takeaway. Number one, The San Antonio Spurs are
(01:47):
the best team in the NBA right now. You don't
have to take my word for it. Shae Gilsis Alexander
basically said as much after the game yesterday. He said, quote,
we have to get better as a group. You don't
lose to a team three times in a row in
a short space without them being better than you. Now
we'll get to some of the specifics that the thunder
have been struggling with in a minute, but I want
(02:08):
to focus on this particular matchup, why the Spurs thrive
in this matchup, and why the Spurs as a team
have been better than everyone else in the league to
this point. First of all, some stats. So on November sixteenth,
the Spurs started this run. It was right after those
consecutive games they lost to the Warriors at home. Those
were the two games where Steph was amazing. Deeron Fox
(02:29):
made his return. It got badly outplayed in the first
game before coming back and being awesome victor women Yama
ends up getting hurt. But in that stretch, the Spurs
really started to find a groove on offense, fueled by
Dearon Fox playing some of the best basketball of his career,
all of the young guards kind of being slotted appropriately
as a result of that, starting to get healthy, finding
their groove, and it led to this fast paced, devastating
(02:53):
driving kick attack where the Spurs were generating a ton
of high quality threes, getting to the rim a ton,
and shooting a high percentage on everything. They were eleventh
in restricted area makes since November sixteenth, eleventh and made
threes per game seventh and three point percentage. They've been
the fourth best offense in the entire NBA in that
span a one to twenty offensive rating, which, as you
(03:15):
guys know, that's kind of like the benchmark for elite
offense in the modern NBAS if you can get that
offensive rating up over one twenty, which they've been. They've
also really started to dominate on the margins. They're plus
three point four and points off of turnovers every game
since November sixteenth. They're plus two point one and second
chance points, and they're plus two point one in fast
(03:37):
break points. Those are the three main margins. They are
winning every single one of those margins by a decent
chunk every single game. Now, obviously there's a little bit
of overlap there between things like fast break points and
points off of turnovers, but if you're getting like a
half dozen points and positive margin every single night, that's
gonna help you win a lot of basketball games. Now,
the defense struggled a little bit while Wemby was out,
(03:59):
but I talked at the time, I was really excited
to see because even though the defense was struggling the guards,
they were so athletic and scrappy on the wing. I
wanted to see that get combined with what Victor wemb
Minyama brought to the table to see if it would
lead to anything, and oh my goodness, a one oh
two point six defensive rating since November sixteenth. That's the
(04:21):
second best defensive rating in the entire NBA. That's what
Victor wen Minyama does when he's been on the floor,
just Wmby on the floor. In this stretch, they have
an eighty nine point five defensive rating that is like
shockingly good and a pretty good sample size, what six
or seven games at this point, even though Luke Cornett
groups with Wenby off the floor are defending a lot
(04:42):
better than they did before Wemby came back. So you
got the fourth best offense in the league in this span,
the second best defense over the course of this previous
six games or does that amount to since November sixteenth?
And by the way, I want to add this in
there too, that defense has been so good statistically that
even if you add it to all of the bad
(05:04):
defensive data before Wemby came back in this stretch since
November sixteenth, they're now tenth in defensive rating. That's how
good they've been on defense in this last couple of weeks.
But since November sixteenth, the Spurs are fifteen and three.
That is the best record in the NBA. The Pistons
and Thunder are both behind them, tied at thirteen and four.
So strictly speaking by win percentage, they've been the best
(05:27):
team in the league for about six weeks, and even
if you want to zoom out to the entire season,
they're only two and a half games back of the
Thunder overall in the standings, the Pistons actually are only
one and a half games back of the Thunder. Starting
to get a little bunched up between those three young
and talented teams at the top, we're talking about a
top four offense, top two defense, an earth shattering defense
(05:48):
with Wemby on the floor, and an offense that's really
starting to bud. And again, like will the Thunder have
more to say over the course of the season, We're
gonna find out as time goes on. But very simply,
the Spurs have been the best team in basketball over
the course of the last six weeks. Now, let's talk
about this matchup for a minute, because this has been
not just three to oh, it's been dominance. There have
(06:10):
been wild runs in all three games in the NCASON
Tournament game, they had a fifteen to OH run to
end the first half. In the game on Tuesday down
in San Antonio, the Spurs hung forty three points on
them just in the fourth quarter to blow them out
by twenty and yesterday in Oklahoma City a thirteen to
(06:31):
OH run to end the first quarter that completely flipped
the game, and the Thunder couldn't even make a run
to threaten them down the stretch. They never got any
closer than nine points over the final twenty one minutes
of that game. So this is three straight games, one
on a neutral site, one in San Antonio, and one
in Oklahoma City where the Spurs didn't just beat the Thunder,
(06:54):
they had runs where the Thunder looked utterly helpless. So
why is that? What is the secret formula? Why are
they able to pull this off? And this is where
I actually want to dig into the offensive end a
little bit because the defense we covered at length after
the NCASON Tournament game, and that dynamic has not changed.
San Antonio can really protect the rim. Wemby obviously is
(07:15):
the game breaking defensive weapon that we've talked about, but
also Luke Cornett, who's been phenomenal defensively in this stretch,
you're getting forty eight minutes of excellent rim protection from
those two guys. When you combine that with them being
bigger and more athletic on the perimeter, and now those
guys have free reign to press up on Oklahoma City's
(07:36):
guards close that space, get great contests on their jumpers.
And we're gonna dig into this when we talk about
Oklahoma City, but they're in a jump shooting spiral now
in large part because of them getting those contests. There
has been a huge difference in Oklahoma City's efficiency this
year between when they are guarded on catch and shoots
versus when they are unguarded, and there just haven't been
(08:00):
teams that have been able to contain the ball well
enough to be able to offer the types of closeouts
and to disintegrate the quality of their catch and shoot
opportunities to actually make them misshots. As they've been one
of the best jump shooting teams in the league to
start this year, and so as a result, because they're
able to take away the spacing, because they're able to
(08:20):
press up on these guards even they're off the dribble,
shooters are starting to really struggle like that was Shay's
worst game of the season by far. Yesterday his lowest
scoring total. He was below forty percent from the field,
really started to jack up bad shots in that second
half and decompose a little bit in his game management.
Like this dynamic isn't changing. Oklahoma City is going to
(08:42):
have to figure out how they're going to score against
San Antonio if they're going to survive in a playoff series.
And again, we'll dig more into San Antonio, or excuse me,
we'll dig more to Oklahoma City in a minute. But
the Spurs have taken this all time great Oklahoma City
defense and they've cut it to pieces in these three games. Again,
(09:02):
this is the team with the highest relative defensive rating
in the history of the league. So if you take
their defensive rating and you compare it to the league average,
it's a substantially larger gap than any team in the
history of basketball. And yeah, they had played a light schedule,
but the metrics were so absurd that even if you
accounted for that, they were all time great and they
(09:23):
had broken every other great offense they had run into
before this point. And yet the Spurs in these three
games have logged a one twenty one offensive rating. We
talked about that one twenty number earlier as like the
benchmark for elite modern NBA offense. The Spurs have now
(09:44):
done that against the Thunder in one hundred and forty
four minutes of basketball, and the dynamic on the film
is actually pretty clear. And I want to take go
away from Wemby here and zoom in on the guards,
because Wemby obviously plays a role. He's an offensive ceiling
razor in his own way. His ability to kind of
catch at the high post and just dictate a bunch
(10:04):
of attention has inverted the spacing in a way that
has allowed their guards to get open on cuts along
the baseline. And these guards, they're all like sixty six
sixty seven and can jump vertically off of a jump stop,
so they can finish really well on these cuts. Wenby
has been a dynamic to this offense as well. But
I really want to zoom in on the guards in
the wings. San Antonio is legitimately bigger, faster, and stronger
(10:27):
than Oklahoma City on the perimeter, and all of those
dudes can really handle the basketball. That depth of ball handling,
that advantage has allowed them to consistently break down Oklahoma
City's defense at the point of attack. Dearon Fox is
too fast for Alex Crusoe er Loudor, and he's too
(10:50):
tall for Cason Wallace. Steph Castle like this is a
whole thing. Like Steph Castle is a combination of strength
and size and mobility and footwork that is so rare
in the NBA that I'm not sure when he gets
into his late twenties, like when he's in his prime,
I'm not sure that he'll ever run into a defender
that makes him uncomfortable. When he gets to that point,
he's hard enough to stop right now. Devin Vessel isn't
(11:11):
really like breaking down the defense off the dribble as much,
but he has the size to shoot over the top.
He gets great lyft on that jump shot. Keldon Johnson
is too big and fast and strong for Oklahoma City's
bench groups. Dylan Harper is able to get wherever he
wants on the floor against Oklahoma City's bench groups. And
then you add that Wemby dynamic. They all look super
(11:33):
comfortable getting to their spots against this Oklahoma City defense,
and once you get to their spots, the defense is
going to react Oklahoma City is going to send help,
They're going to pack the paint, They're going to send
that second defender over. At that point, it's about the
playmaking piece, and all of these guys are really good playmakers,
like Deared Fox, Steph Castle, and Dylan Harper. That trio,
(11:56):
all three of them are averaging over six and a
half a SIS for thirty six minutes this year. So
they not only have all these dudes that can get
to their spots, but they're all great passers. That's the
dynamic that breaks this defense. It's the ability to break
Oklahoma City at the point of attack and pass through
(12:17):
their defense. We've talked about this dynamic at a lot
over the last couple of years. We've just focused on
big ball handlers. We focused on Luca and Lebron and
Nikola Jokic, and like these big guys that can punish
their smaller guys. These are more like guards and wings,
but they're guards and wings that are all so huge.
They're also bigger than these Oklahoma City guards and wings,
(12:41):
and so as a result, they are able to generate
really high quality looks and that's where the shooting comes
in again. Their seventh and three point percentage since November sixteenth,
and it's because they're generating really high quality kickouts. They're
generating the sixth most spot up opera tunities in the
league this year. Spot ups are a great hallmark for
(13:03):
how you're breaking down the defense, because if you break
down the defense, are gonna draw extra defenders. If you're
gonna draw extra defenders, there's gonna be easy kickouts. There's
gonna be easy kickouts. That's going to be a close
out opportunity for a guy to be able to score.
That's a spot out, the spot up opportunity, right, And
all of these guys are shooting really well or driving
really well out of those situations. Victor we Minyama forty
(13:24):
seven percent from three in this run, Keldon Johnson forty
three percent from three in this run. He's been huge,
Devin Vessel forty two percent, Dearon Fox forty one percent,
arguably the best JOMP shooting season of his career so far.
Steph Castle is shooting thirty nine percent from three in
this span. Dylan Harper is the one guy who's struggling
a bit among the ball handlers at twenty four percent.
(13:44):
And you know there's gonna be people who say, oh,
this won't last. And I have two counters for that
that make me optimistic in the long run for the Spurs.
One as good as the guards are shooting their wings,
they're forwards like their Champagnee and Barns in particular, those
are two guys that are like reliable catch and shoot guys.
They're both shooting below their normal averages in this stretch.
(14:04):
I think those guys will shoot better as time goes on.
Harrison Barnes has missed a dozen really good looks over
the course of the last couple of weeks, and again,
these are the second piece of it, and the main
reason why I think this is going to sustain is
these are great looks. Again, they're generating the sixth most
spot up opportunities in the league. It's not like they're
(14:25):
just jacking up threes and they're going in. These are
good looks coming out of quality dribble penetration and paint touches.
The last thing I want to zoom in on here
in terms of the team dynamic is I really found
in this Oklahoma City game yesterday they did a great
job hunting mismatches. A lot of their attacks. They're not
(14:45):
just like going at Dort every time down the floor
for no reason. They're hunting Shay, They're hunting Isaiah Joe.
They went at Aaron Wiggins a lot yesterday. And again,
these guys aren't necessarily bad defenders, but on Oklahoma City,
they are the best vehicles with which to enter their defense,
and they are deliberate and procedural with the way they're
targeting those guys, and I think that that's helping them
(15:08):
maximize their attack. I really want to highlight dearon Fox
here for a minute. Him coming in and playing this
well has worked wonders for this offense because of how
its slotted everybody. He's just taken a little bit of
pressure off of everyone, including Wemby, but especially Steph Castle
and especially Dylan Harper, making their jobs that much easier.
(15:31):
I think he's playing the best basketball of his career,
and I think it's a testament to the type of
competitor that he is. He clearly had a very good summer,
and when you're playing with a guy like Wemby, that
comes with a lot of pressure. Like Wemby's potentially going
to be an all time great, you don't want to
be remembered as the guy who played with Wemby and
(15:53):
underachieved or held the team back from their goals. Darin
clearly wants to be remembered as the first great running
mate of Wenby's career. We all know how this story ends.
It's gonna end with Steph Castle and Dylan Harper being
the primary guys. Maybe they hang on to Dearan as
he goes into being a VET, but like Deeron, kind
(16:15):
of feels like a stopgap in a lot of ways,
and that could go poorly, and Dearen's like, screw that, man.
I want to be the first great teammate of Wenby's career,
and it has like him reaching this level, especially as
a jump shooter. It has pushed San Antonio over the
edge in terms of their aggregate ball handling and their
aggregate quickness on the perimeter and their aggregate playmaking ability.
(16:40):
That's given them the ability to break the greatest statistical
defense we've ever seen. Again, when you're hanging a one
to twenty offensive rating routinely against this defense, you are
breaking the Oklahoma City Thunders defense. So I just want
to give that extra shout out to Deeron Fox So yeah,
the Spurs. They're the best team in the league right now.
It's wild stuff. I mean, I know, I sure as
(17:01):
hell underrated the hell out of them before the season.
I thought they'd be like a seventh or eighth seed,
But I don't think anyone, even Spurs fans, had them
as the best team in the league at this point.
So congrats to you guys. Really excited for the Spurs
fan base. I think you guys are set up for
a fun decade of basketball and most importantly, you guys
are fun to watch. Every time I get the opportunity
(17:23):
to watch the Spurs play basketball, I feel lucky as
a basketball fan. It's going to be entertaining, and that
is the best thing for this league. The league needs
a highly entertaining There's a huge difference between a juggernaut
that's fun to watch and a juggernaut that's not. That's
why TV ratings were still good during the phase when
the Warriors were running the league. You gotta be fun
(17:45):
to watch while you're kicking everyone's ass, and the Spurs
definitely are. Want to know where I bet on basketball
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New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia number two. The demons
(19:12):
of Oklahoma City's passed are starting to rise to the
surface again as their schedule gets tougher. We talked about
this a bit on Monday in our power rankings, but
there are three significant areas of statistical slippage over this
two to four stretch. One their defensive rebounding. In these
four losses, they've given up fifty three offensive rebounds, allowing
the Spurs and timber Wolves to grab thirty two percent
(19:33):
of their own misses. That is a reflection of the
size disadvantage they have in these matchups, which is something
that has popped up over previous years. To the turnovers
not so much. In yesterday's game, they only had seven
of them, and that's less of a demon from the past,
because Oklahoma City has always been good at taking care
of the basketball, but it is an area of statistical slippage.
In their other two losses to San Antonio, they gave
(19:56):
up forty six points off of turnovers and lost that margin.
That is the margin they dominate, and the Spurs have
flipped that on their head and have won that in
this matchup over the three game set. But the biggest
demon from their past rising to the surface is their
three point shooting. And again a good amount of this
credit goes to San Antonio in Minnesota as well as
(20:18):
we talk about that game for their defense, they've done
a great job of chasing Oklahoma City's better shooters off
the line and tilting things towards Oklahoma City's shakiest contested
three point shooters. In these four losses, Oklahoma City has
shot twenty nine percent from three, and you can kind
of see it starting to creep back in for them Mentally,
(20:41):
guys are not looking confident on some of these catch
and shoot looks because they're being rushed. In yesterday's game,
you might think Oklahoma City missed all their open looks. Well,
they were six for fifteen on unguarded catch and shoot
threes yesterday. According to Synergy, that's forty percent. Ideally you'd
like to be a little bit higher than that, but
(21:02):
that's solid. On wide open shots, that's fine. You're not
gonna lose a game making forty percent of your wide
open shots. But they were just two for twenty unguarded
catch and shoot jump shots, same dynamic in Tuesday's game,
eight for sixteen unguarded, one for seven when guarded on
catch and shoots. That has been a season long trend
(21:25):
for the thunder Ogoma City is the second worst catch
and shoot team in the league, but they are the
fifth best unguarded catch and shoot team in the league.
Second worst guarded, fifth best unguarded. The problem is most
teams don't have the athleticism to contain the ball well
(21:46):
enough to actually force them into tougher catch and shoot
looks Minnesota and San Antonio do. That's the difference, and
I really thought it started to affect their decision making
in the second half yesterday as well. A guys including
Shy Shay had his worst game of the season by far,
and really fell apart as a decision maker in that
second half. Took some really tough off the dribble jump
shots early in the clock. Now, does this mean this
(22:09):
guy is falling? No, this is all really good in
terms of adversity for Oklahoma City. Now, you know, if
you kick everyone's ass, you're just sitting there looking at
maybe trying to get to seventy four wins. Right now,
they have some real clear stuff they have to focus
on for the rest of the season to prepare for
those potential matchups in the playoffs. As for their defense,
(22:30):
I want to look at the defense end for a minute.
There's another demon from their pass that has risen to
the surface. Their lack of perimeter size guarding the ball.
Their guards and their wings are small. They don't have
six seven in taller athletes running around. It's a lot
of like six three dudes and six four dudes. And
(22:51):
the six six dudes that they have are not the
quickest dudes in the world. This is not necessarily a
lanky and long and hall defense. This is a ground
based defense. So when you see teams that have that
combination that we talked about in Minnesota falls into this
group as well, that combination of aggregate ball handling in
(23:14):
size on the perimeter that appears to be the key
to beating Oklahoma City on offense, you have to be
on the defense event. You have to be able to
protect the rim, and you gotta have athletes to make
life hard for Oklahoma City's guards, like we talked about earlier, right,
But on offense, you need a depth of ball handling.
You need three or four guys who have a combination
of real athletic advantages and can handle the ball so
(23:37):
they can get to their spots against this defense. For instance,
I used to not like this matchup for Minnesota, and
I think they've closed the gap quite a bit, and
I think part of it is because of their internal improvement.
Anthony Edwards is considerably better as a dribble penetrator this
year than he was last year, finishing at the rim
at a higher level than ever. He's not rushing on
(23:57):
his drives as much. He's slowing down and playing with
more pace. Jaden McDaniels has taken a leap in almost
every phase of his game on offense. Look at how
successful Nasried and Julius Randall were in that fourth quarter.
Julius had a bad box score night, but those two
guys were huge in that fourth quarter, punishing Oklahoma City's
as Smalls, Julius Randall shooting over the top of Case
and Wallace at the top of the key, driving down
(24:18):
the right side and dumping it off to nas Reid
Nasried spinning out of the post on JDub and getting
a bucket, getting an and to one offensive rebound put back.
Those guys came alive in that fourth quarter and helped
them pull away in that game. When we're looking at
teams that can beat Oklahoma City, that appears to be
the formula. San Antonio and Minnesota look to be their
(24:40):
biggest threats right now. They can protect the rim while
being athletic on the perimeter to make life harder on
their guards, while also having the depth of big athletic
ball handlers that can penetrate their defense in the shooting
to pay those sequences off. Now, Houston and Denver are
threats as well, but kind of more in a funky way.
Right Denver has all the offensive stuff in spades. Jokich
(25:02):
is like indomitable right now. He literally had the first
fifty five to fifteen and fifteen ever in the history
of the NBA yesterday. Jamal Murray's playing the best basketball
of his career, but their defense obviously doesn't bring the
rim protection that they need. Houston has the size and
rim protection, but we saw that they don't have the
depth of ball handling. So I still consider both of
(25:23):
those teams threats, just in kind of like a non traditional,
more funky way because both teams are so strange compared
to the rest of the league. Number three, speaking of
a showcase for the NBA, yesterday was a dramatic showcase
of Nikola Jokich as the reigning best basketball player in
the world. I was exhausted last night, so I went
to bed in the mid third quarter when it looked
like the Nuggets were in control, and so I ended
(25:44):
up waking up to an instant classic. Anthony Edwards ends
up going nuclear down the stretch to send the game
to ot we you know, we saw that shot that
he hit over Cason Wallace on the left wing in
the Oklahoma City game. Similar kind of shot in the
left corner of is off to catch and turning over
his right shoulder that tied the game and sent it
to overtime. But Ant is reaching a level with his
shot making combined with the ability he has to just
(26:07):
lift over the top of the defense as an athlete,
where you basically now just cross your fingers and pray
that he misses. He's gonna get a shot that he
wants off, and with each passing year, it just seems
like he misses less and less. He continued that onslought
to start overtime and the Wolves actually built a nine
point lead before the Nuggets just walked them down. Yoki's
(26:29):
three point shooting was huge down the stretch. Jamal Murray
and Tim Hardaway both got in on the action in
ot hitting knocking down threes, and then Peyton Watson. He
was getting fried by Anthony Edwards in crunch time, but
he made a huge play late in the game when
the Nuggets blitzed Anthony Edwards and forced him to get
rid of the basketball. He came over and tagged the
roller and got a steal. It was a huge play
(26:50):
late that really sealed that game. What do I always
say when you're having a rough time on the court,
just find a way to make a play and no
one's gonna care. No one cares that Peyton got fried.
The Nuggets won, and a big part of how they
won is Peyton made a huge play tagging that roller
and getting that steal. That's a great lesson for young
basketball players there. Just keep your head on straight, try
(27:12):
to find a way to make a play to help
your team win the game. But Jokis was unbelievable man
fifty six, sixteen and fifteen did it on seventy one
percent from the field, four of six from three. It's
the first fifty five, fifteen and fifteen in the history
of the NBA. And again, this Nuggets team is ravaged
(27:33):
by injuries. You're down three starters. Although I'm glad to
hear that Cam Johnson's knee injury was not more serious,
he apparently is going to be out four to six weeks.
We got to see the bad Yokic off minutes come
back with a vengeance. As a result of that lack
of depth, the Wolves went on an eighteen to zero
run in this game. It's just an absolute carry job
by jokichen Murray in this game. I have to acknowledge
(27:55):
Murray had thirty five and ten last night. His last
ten games, Jamal Murray's averaging thirty four, four and seven
on fifty one percent from the field, fifty three percent
from three and eighty seven percent from the line looking
like an All NBA guy. And again, like you know,
we're gonna talk Lakers here in a minute, Like everyone's
talking about the Lakers roster, and I'm certainly going to today,
but like you know what happens when when stuff goes
(28:16):
on with the roster, because Denver has a much better
roster than the Lakers, but they're hurt right now. That
wasn't a great roster that went out there last night
and they found a way to get a win. Why
Because they're stars, played like stars. They can cover for
a lot when they reached that level. I want to
shout out Tim Hardaway Junior here too. I know he
was a bit off last night, but I think his
aggressive and accurate three point shooting has worked wonders for
(28:39):
helping them maintain their offensive ceiling from different lineup configurations,
especially now with Cam Johnson out. I thought he did
a huge one in overtime. It's that dynamic of having
two real knockdown guys on the floor at all times
that really brings that ceiling for the Denver offense. They're
in for some tough sledding next month with all these
guys out. But I think Yo Kitchen Murray are up
(29:00):
for the challenge. Number four. The Timberwolves continue to be
an infuriating regular season defense, super inconsistent in their effort
and execution. But I continue to view them to be
a better team than the last two years because of
that growth that they've shown down the line on offense,
ants shot profile has shifted slightly towards better distribution at
(29:22):
all three levels. A little bit more at the rim,
a little bit more paint non restricted, a little bit
more short mid range, a little bit more long mid range,
about two fewer threes per game. And as a result,
because he's become more balanced in his attack, he's become
less predictable, and because he's added some pace and some
patience on his drives, he's dramatically increased his efficiency at
(29:43):
the rim and from three, and that's made him a
more effective and efficient score His per minute scoring is
three points up from last year based on a per
thirty six rate, and his true shooting percentage is dramatically
up as well, up over sixty percent for the first
time in his career. He's gone up a level because
of that that variety and that increased efficiency at every level.
Jade McDaniels real leap on offense as a ball handler
(30:06):
and shooter. He was great again yesterday. Gobar has been
absolutely fantastic this year, and as a group, there's a
level of continuity and comfort to their offense that makes
them really difficult to handle on the offensive end of
the floor. Again, this regular season is going to be
filled with this type of uneven play that seems to
be their personality, especially on the defensive end. But I
still think this is the most dangerous Minnesota playoff team
(30:27):
from this era by far. Number five, Tarry Easton might
be the solution to Houston's fifth man problem. I thought
he did a phenomenal job right from the opening tip
guarding Luka Doncicic yesterday. He just brings that combination of
size and strength and speed that can cause real problems
(30:47):
for a big ball handler like Luca. I thought he
made Luca like flat out decomposed. At the start of
that game. He had five turnovers in his first shift.
I know it only showed up as four in the
box score, but there was a terrible lob pass to
eight and that got logged as a shot oft ten.
That was more of a turnover like he was just
bad to start that game, and Tar Easton deserves the credit.
He was right up in his jersey right from the
(31:08):
opening tip and he was only one for five from
three last night, but he shooting forty nine percent from
three this season. He's basically just a bigger, better version
of Joshua Kogi, which allows Houston to bring that best
combination of size, strength, speed and shooting to that fifth
man in those lineups. That has cost Houston so many
problems over the last couple of weeks as their record
has slipped quite a bit. Really nice win for Houston yesterday.
(31:31):
They absolutely demolished the Lakers on the offensive glass. They
grabbed over half of their own misses. Kevin duranam Men Thompson,
a red Shepherd in particular, I thought, did a great
job of breaking the defense down. Kad was consistently bringing
two to the ball and starting their four on threes.
He did a ton of mismatch hunting, especially hunting Luca
and drawing fouls and getting to the basket. And then
a Men Thompson, a read Shepherd, just using their speed.
(31:53):
That's the big advantage in this kind of matchup. The
Lakers are slow. Those two guys were getting dribble penetration
consistently every time down the floor, and then I know
you may Yudok has been frustrated with their defense. I
thought that was their best perimeter defense effort of the season.
I shouldn't say of the season, but up this recent
stretch as well. Really nice win for them to get
back on track. Number six, The Los Angeles Lakers are
(32:20):
at best the sixth best team in the Western Conference
right now. As is always the case when a team
goes into a funk like this where you go four
and six over ten games, there are plenty of issues,
not just one. Luca has just not been close to
as good as he was to start the season. Came
out just like he did in the Suns game, just
(32:41):
turning the ball over almost every time down the floor
and unable to make shots. Just brutal first shifts that
biggest team in a massive hole in both the Sun's
game and again in this Rockets game. His win loss
splits are wild. In their ten losses, he's averaged like
in their wins, he's averaging thirty seven points per game.
In their ten losses, he's averaging just twenty eight points
(33:03):
per game. Below thirty percent from three, averaging four point
nine turnovers in those ten losses. It's not all Luca's fault,
like he's been He's been good at various stretches this year,
and the issues go way deeper than Luca. But he
is playing far below the level of a top tier
superstar in these losses. And he's the guy at the top.
(33:27):
And I'm always gonna look at the guy at the
top first. Why Because he's the guy who has the
power to change the situation. When you look at Jake
Larevia and go save us Jake, that ain't gonna work.
Luca is the guy who can save you. Say what
you want about the Lakers roster. The Nuggets were down
three starters last night and almost all of their athletes
were out, and they beat a good team at home
(33:50):
because their top tier superstar just backpacked the team. Luca
isn't even remotely close to that level right now, and
it's hurting the Lakers. Austin got hurt again and the
injuries are really starting to pile up for us, and
he's missed six games already and it looks like he's
gonna miss a while now. If this calf injury is lingering.
I wouldn't be surprised if he's out a month, he's
gonna miss something like, you know, ten to fifteen games.
(34:10):
At this point, Lebron was like embarrassingly bad on defense
and on the glass. Last night he had just two rebounds.
There's this clip on Twitter. You can find it on
I quote tweeted it, so Dan Devine ended up tweeting
it out the video, but you can find it on
my twitter feed at underscore jsonlt. But it was a
kind of a highlight reel of all the Rockets offensive rebounds.
Lebron was just standing around and watching. For the most part.
(34:33):
He had a play where I shit you not, where
Shepherd was dribbling through the middle of the field of
floor and Lebron like while Reid was dribbling, just leaked
out to the other end, just started running down in
transition as crazy. And of course Albern Shang Gun's wide
open under the basket for an easy little offensive rebound
put back. It's unacceptable because this team actually needs him
(34:53):
to be a great defender and rebounder based on their
current construct. I think this is an area, especially injury,
where Austin Reeves's injury has been an issue because it's
slotted Lebron into this higher usage roll, like when he
needs to score twenty five and eight. He even gets
lazier in those details. But Austin was healthy for most
of the first half yesterday, and yet Lebron still looked
(35:16):
completely unwilling to get his hands dirty. And I get it,
you're old, You're about to turn forty one, and you'd
prefer if you can chill during the regular season. Too bad,
you literally can't on this team, especially not with Luca
when he's in a slump. He either needs to lock
in on defense and on the glass, or he needs
(35:37):
to be traded to a team that will let him chill.
He's hurting the team right now, and I hope JJ
Reddick calls him out for it in practice on Saturday
and then take the stars out when these stars can't
get to that level. It shines a dramatic light on
how flawed this roster is. What an incredibly embarrassing rob
(36:00):
Polinka has done building a modern basketball team. Talk about
a showcase of what succeeds in the modern NBA. Yesterday
all over the TV five games, athleticism and shooting two
teams you absolutely must have to compete, and this roster
is utterly devoid of both. Rob should be fired immediately
(36:22):
so that he doesn't botch this deadline and be replaced
with a general manager who's willing and able to rectify
this mess. He has, over and over and over again
demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of what works in
the modern NBA. They're nineteen and nine and still in
the four seed because Luca and Austin were so damn
(36:44):
good on offense to start the season that they were
routinely pulling out every single clutch game. They are ten
to zero in clutch games. Well, now Austin's hurt and
Luca's gone down to a level below that of a
top ten superstar, and Rob Polinka has been exposed once
again as incompetent, in a barrier between the Lakers and
(37:08):
where they want to get in terms of consistent success
in this league. Number seven, the schedule is lightened up
and the Golden State Warriors are finally starting to come
up for air and find their footing after an absolutely
brutal schedule to start the season. The Warriors ended are
at an end of a stretch where they played just
six games in twenty one days. They have two days
(37:29):
off now, Friday and Saturday. At the end of that
they will have played just six times in twenty one days,
and that has allowed them a chance to get healthy
and come up for air. They've won three games in
a row now. Some of their older players, particularly Jimmy
Butler and Al Horford yesterday, have started to look much better. Ironically,
the young guys that they went with at the end
of the season last year, Pods and Moody, those guys
(37:50):
have come back to the surface and started to play
much better basketball, and they've started to round out most
of their best lineups again. It's interesting because that was
the duo that was most successful yesterday. They just bring
that best comp nation of like consistent effort, execution of
the game plan, and a natural fit in the offense.
From a skill set standpoint, those guys seem to round
everything out. D Anthony Melton has been a stabilizer in
(38:11):
their bench rotation. He's been one of their best plus
minus guys ever since he returned. I think actually the
blow up between Draymond and Steve Kerr will be good
for Draymond because Draymond was playing some bad basketball, and
I think he needed a wake up call, and I
think everything surrounding that moment will help him get back
on track. And in this three game streak, Steph has
not shot the ball super well, which we know that
will shift back in the positive direction. So I think
(38:33):
there's an opportunity for this team to really start to
go on to run and gain some momentum and gain
some ground in the standings. Remember earlier in the year
when I said that the Lakers were at best the
sixth best team in the West. I said that because
I'm not entirely sure the Warriors aren't better than them too.
I was watching him yesterday and I'm like, they just
(38:54):
look like a better basketball team to me. They look faster,
they look better on defense, they look more athletic. In general.
There star is playing at a higher level than Luca
right now in terms of creating offense for the team
as a team unit. Their secondary stars are healthy and
are playing better than the secondary stars of the Lakers.
Like they just you know, they're They're starting to gain
some real momentum. I have a feeling they're going to
(39:16):
go on a run here and start gaining ground in
the standings over the course of the next couple of weeks.
Number eight Cooper flag is the real deal. Another twenty
seven points yesterday. In his last six games, Cooper's averaging
twenty eight, seven and six on fifty three percent from
the field and thirty five percent from three, showcasing a
(39:37):
lot of three level scoring. He started to kind of
find his rhythm a few weeks ago with an intentional
effort to drive the basketball, getting him off the ball
more off of those guards caused him to look more
to be aggressive off the catch instead of managing the
flow of games more. That got him going down hill more.
He was getting a ton of stuff close to the rim,
short jump shots, floaters, push shots, stuff at the rim.
(39:57):
And then in the last couple of games, he's really
started to add more dynamic shot making off the dribble,
mid range stuff, three point shooting. The Denver game in particular,
he was shooting the shit out of the ball from three.
There's this like big ball handler dynamic that can also
drive the basketball that I think is going to be
a big matchup problem for this league as he starts
to enter into his prime. And this is something we've
(40:17):
seen around the league Jalen Brown comes to mind as
an example, Denny Avdia. When you have like a big
athletic dude who's too big for guards but too fast
for bigs, and that also brings downhill pressure, like real
speed attacking the rim on drives, and then you can
counter it with something, whether it's like Jalen Brown's mid
range shooting or Cooper flag and all these little push
(40:39):
shots that he can make or Denny Avdya's ability to
get to the foul line. But then you can also
make the kickout reads. That combines into being a very
effective shot creator in this league because because of the
way the league is shifted towards, you know, you have
these slower rim protectors and then you have these smaller
guards all over the floor. These types of ball handlers
seem to have two or three mismatches at all times
(41:01):
on the floor that they can attack. As Luca has
trended downwards and Cooper's trended upwards, I know it doesn't
completely remove the pain from what happened last February, but
it has to at least cause a decent amount of
optimism for the future for Mavericks fans. Cooper has been
looking fantastic. Number nine, Jalen Brunson seems to have a
(41:22):
new backcourt running mate. Jalen had a rough shooting game
yesterday in Madison Square Garden. Credits to the Caves. I
thought Sam Maryland particular, and then all of the Cavs
five man units. I thought they did a good job
of crowding Brunson and making him work for everything. But
of course, Jalen's been playing at the level of a
top tier superstar for a month or so. He's ticked
up his true shooting percentage significantly, and he's dropped his
turnovers significantly, which has made him like in that Shay
(41:44):
Gildess Alexander territory of like low thirties in points per game,
high sixties and true shooting percentage, super low turnovers, super
rare stuff from guards. Jalen's been in that territory for
a few weeks now, so I was curious to see
as he was having a tough game, like, will Jalen
find a way to flip the script? Because that's the thing,
Like when you talk about the top tier superstars, they
(42:04):
usually just kind of like, even when they're not at
their best, they find a way to win the game.
How many times have you seen a Yokic game where
he doesn't put up massive numbers and maybe he misses
more of his layups and floaters than usual, but then
he'll go four to four down the stretch with two
assists and no turnovers, and he just finds a way
to steal the game because he's indomitable down crunch time.
That's what Jalen Brunson felt like last night or yesterday
in the morning. Just nails on his pull up jump
(42:27):
shot down the stretch, all off that right side, short
little jump around the lay line, a couple pull up
threes along the right wing, all heavily contestant, and it
just did not matter. And again, that's one of the
hallmarks of a top tier superstar. But how about Tyler
Kohleik Brunston spoke about him the other day and how
important he's been for the team in this recent stretch,
and he had some massive catch and shoot threes off
(42:49):
the left side of the floor to kind of steming
some late Cavs shot making, gave the Knicks a chance
to win this game. I've always liked Tyler as a
bench guard just because he's solid, he runs action and
he makes the right reads and he's just a steadying
force with the bench unit. But he's starting to score
the ball now. He had never scored in double figures
this season. Three times in the last couple of weeks,
(43:09):
he's averaging twelve points per game to go with five
rebounds and seven assists on fifty percent from the field,
forty two percent from three, and one hundred percent from
the line in his last five games. Big win for
the Knicks against the Cavs team that, frankly, they looked
like they were out for blood yesterday with the way
they started that game eighteen to three. Something just feels
different with the Knicks this year. They feel tougher, they
(43:30):
feel like they're on a mission. They are still my
pick to win the Eastern Conference. Lastly, number ten, the
Calves did flash their upside finally yesterday. Spend the season
from hell. They're seventeen from fifteen or seventeen and fifteen
now they're technically in the play in if the season
ended today. Their injuries have been a nightmare. There's kind
(43:52):
of like a lack of that spark that they had
last year, and the collapse was discouraging. I'm not going
to sit here and pretend like it wasn't. Their front
line got punked on the glass again down the stretch.
That's been a discouraging trend with this team for years now.
And also credit the Knicks though, like Tyler Colok and
Jaln Brunson just made a bunch of contested threes at
the end of the game. That's tough to handle in
a situation like that. Overall, I thought it was a
(44:14):
super encouraging performance from the Caps. They looked fast and
disruptive on defense for stretches. Their offense looked as lively
as it was last year for stretches. Darius Garland getting
those drives and breaking down the defense consistently, which is
a sign of his health. And again, you're not going
to turn this thing around in a day. I thought
yesterday was a good step in the right direction for them,
(44:35):
even in the loss. All Right, guys, that's all I
have for today. I had to kind of rush through
the end of that because we're getting ready to take
a flight back to Denver today. But I'm excited to
dive into all these teams with you guys over the
course of the rest of the season. Christmas Day is
more or less the start of the NBA season for most.
We have a very interesting situation at the top of
the league now thanks to san Antonio starting to demonstrate
(44:55):
some of the vulnerabilities for Oklahoma City. That makes things
way more exciting and like it leaves a lot of
unknown hanging over the season, which I think will give
us a really fun next six months. I can't wait
to break it all down with you guys. I hope
you all enjoyed your holiday and had an opportunity to
spend some time with friends and family again. I'll be
back in Denver starting next week and we'll get back
(45:15):
to our usual routine starting on Monday. We do have
a little bit of a funky schedule next year surrounding
New Year's but we're gonna do a contender's rankings videos
with Sam Vessini, so we'll dig into how I feel
about the contenders and like my brain is like broken
compared to where it was two weeks ago thanks to
san Antonio, so a lot to dig into. Their really
excited to kind of take a snapshot of the league again.
(45:38):
I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'll see you
guys on Monday.
The Volume. All right, welcome to him tonight. You're at
the volume every Friday, everybody. Hope all of you guys
had an incredible holiday break. We had an incredible showcase
(00:23):
for the NBA yesterday. Christmas Day is kind of like
that first big day that the NBA takes the center stage.
The NFL was graced us with an awful slate thanks
to a bunch of teams kind of being out of
the playoff hunt, leading to some bad football games. But
the NBA stepped right into that gap and provided some
awesome basketball. I thought the best way for us to
(00:44):
hit on all the games would be to go with
one major takeaway from all ten teams from that slate yesterday.
Can't wait to dig it into it with you guys.
You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe
to the oop Snit YouTube channel so you don't miss
any more of our videos. Don't forget to like this video.
That helps us a lot. And then lastly, if you
want to get mail bag questions, drop them underneath this video.
Put mailbag with a colon and write your question. We'll
(01:05):
get to them on Fridays starting next Friday. Throughout the
remainder of the season. So, like I said Christmas Day,
first major showcase of the NBA season, it is revealing.
And it's funny because we've actually been going forever. We
were over two months into this thing. We've had a
whole in season tournament. Every team is played like more
(01:26):
than a third of their games already. But in this environment,
everyone's playing about as hard as you'll see them play
in an NBA regular season game, at least for most
of the teams. We'll get to the Lakers later on.
But it can be revealing in a lot of ways.
And so I thought this. I thought this would be
a good chance to bounce around. Let's start with their
first big takeaway. Number one, The San Antonio Spurs are
(01:47):
the best team in the NBA right now. You don't
have to take my word for it. Shae Gilsis Alexander
basically said as much after the game yesterday. He said, quote,
we have to get better as a group. You don't
lose to a team three times in a row in
a short space without them being better than you. Now
we'll get to some of the specifics that the thunder
have been struggling with in a minute, but I want
(02:08):
to focus on this particular matchup, why the Spurs thrive
in this matchup, and why the Spurs as a team
have been better than everyone else in the league to
this point. First of all, some stats. So on November sixteenth,
the Spurs started this run. It was right after those
consecutive games they lost to the Warriors at home. Those
were the two games where Steph was amazing. Deeron Fox
(02:29):
made his return. It got badly outplayed in the first
game before coming back and being awesome victor women Yama
ends up getting hurt. But in that stretch, the Spurs
really started to find a groove on offense, fueled by
Dearon Fox playing some of the best basketball of his career,
all of the young guards kind of being slotted appropriately
as a result of that, starting to get healthy, finding
their groove, and it led to this fast paced, devastating
(02:53):
driving kick attack where the Spurs were generating a ton
of high quality threes, getting to the rim a ton,
and shooting a high percentage on everything. They were eleventh
in restricted area makes since November sixteenth, eleventh and made
threes per game seventh and three point percentage. They've been
the fourth best offense in the entire NBA in that
span a one to twenty offensive rating, which, as you
(03:15):
guys know, that's kind of like the benchmark for elite
offense in the modern NBAS if you can get that
offensive rating up over one twenty, which they've been. They've
also really started to dominate on the margins. They're plus
three point four and points off of turnovers every game
since November sixteenth. They're plus two point one and second
chance points, and they're plus two point one in fast
(03:37):
break points. Those are the three main margins. They are
winning every single one of those margins by a decent
chunk every single game. Now, obviously there's a little bit
of overlap there between things like fast break points and
points off of turnovers, but if you're getting like a
half dozen points and positive margin every single night, that's
gonna help you win a lot of basketball games. Now,
the defense struggled a little bit while Wemby was out,
(03:59):
but I talked at the time, I was really excited
to see because even though the defense was struggling the guards,
they were so athletic and scrappy on the wing. I
wanted to see that get combined with what Victor wemb
Minyama brought to the table to see if it would
lead to anything, and oh my goodness, a one oh
two point six defensive rating since November sixteenth. That's the
(04:21):
second best defensive rating in the entire NBA. That's what
Victor wen Minyama does when he's been on the floor,
just Wmby on the floor. In this stretch, they have
an eighty nine point five defensive rating that is like
shockingly good and a pretty good sample size, what six
or seven games at this point, even though Luke Cornett
groups with Wenby off the floor are defending a lot
(04:42):
better than they did before Wemby came back. So you
got the fourth best offense in the league in this span,
the second best defense over the course of this previous
six games or does that amount to since November sixteenth?
And by the way, I want to add this in
there too, that defense has been so good statistically that
even if you add it to all of the bad
(05:04):
defensive data before Wemby came back in this stretch since
November sixteenth, they're now tenth in defensive rating. That's how
good they've been on defense in this last couple of weeks.
But since November sixteenth, the Spurs are fifteen and three.
That is the best record in the NBA. The Pistons
and Thunder are both behind them, tied at thirteen and four.
So strictly speaking by win percentage, they've been the best
(05:27):
team in the league for about six weeks, and even
if you want to zoom out to the entire season,
they're only two and a half games back of the
Thunder overall in the standings, the Pistons actually are only
one and a half games back of the Thunder. Starting
to get a little bunched up between those three young
and talented teams at the top, we're talking about a
top four offense, top two defense, an earth shattering defense
(05:48):
with Wemby on the floor, and an offense that's really
starting to bud. And again, like will the Thunder have
more to say over the course of the season, We're
gonna find out as time goes on. But very simply,
the Spurs have been the best team in basketball over
the course of the last six weeks. Now, let's talk
about this matchup for a minute, because this has been
not just three to oh, it's been dominance. There have
(06:10):
been wild runs in all three games in the NCASON
Tournament game, they had a fifteen to OH run to
end the first half. In the game on Tuesday down
in San Antonio, the Spurs hung forty three points on
them just in the fourth quarter to blow them out
by twenty and yesterday in Oklahoma City a thirteen to
(06:31):
OH run to end the first quarter that completely flipped
the game, and the Thunder couldn't even make a run
to threaten them down the stretch. They never got any
closer than nine points over the final twenty one minutes
of that game. So this is three straight games, one
on a neutral site, one in San Antonio, and one
in Oklahoma City where the Spurs didn't just beat the Thunder,
(06:54):
they had runs where the Thunder looked utterly helpless. So
why is that? What is the secret formula? Why are
they able to pull this off? And this is where
I actually want to dig into the offensive end a
little bit because the defense we covered at length after
the NCASON Tournament game, and that dynamic has not changed.
San Antonio can really protect the rim. Wemby obviously is
(07:15):
the game breaking defensive weapon that we've talked about, but
also Luke Cornett, who's been phenomenal defensively in this stretch,
you're getting forty eight minutes of excellent rim protection from
those two guys. When you combine that with them being
bigger and more athletic on the perimeter, and now those
guys have free reign to press up on Oklahoma City's
(07:36):
guards close that space, get great contests on their jumpers.
And we're gonna dig into this when we talk about
Oklahoma City, but they're in a jump shooting spiral now
in large part because of them getting those contests. There
has been a huge difference in Oklahoma City's efficiency this
year between when they are guarded on catch and shoots
versus when they are unguarded, and there just haven't been
(08:00):
teams that have been able to contain the ball well
enough to be able to offer the types of closeouts
and to disintegrate the quality of their catch and shoot
opportunities to actually make them misshots. As they've been one
of the best jump shooting teams in the league to
start this year, and so as a result, because they're
able to take away the spacing, because they're able to
(08:20):
press up on these guards even they're off the dribble,
shooters are starting to really struggle like that was Shay's
worst game of the season by far. Yesterday his lowest
scoring total. He was below forty percent from the field,
really started to jack up bad shots in that second
half and decompose a little bit in his game management.
Like this dynamic isn't changing. Oklahoma City is going to
(08:42):
have to figure out how they're going to score against
San Antonio if they're going to survive in a playoff series.
And again, we'll dig more into San Antonio, or excuse me,
we'll dig more to Oklahoma City in a minute. But
the Spurs have taken this all time great Oklahoma City
defense and they've cut it to pieces in these three games. Again,
(09:02):
this is the team with the highest relative defensive rating
in the history of the league. So if you take
their defensive rating and you compare it to the league average,
it's a substantially larger gap than any team in the
history of basketball. And yeah, they had played a light schedule,
but the metrics were so absurd that even if you
accounted for that, they were all time great and they
(09:23):
had broken every other great offense they had run into
before this point. And yet the Spurs in these three
games have logged a one twenty one offensive rating. We
talked about that one twenty number earlier as like the
benchmark for elite modern NBA offense. The Spurs have now
(09:44):
done that against the Thunder in one hundred and forty
four minutes of basketball, and the dynamic on the film
is actually pretty clear. And I want to take go
away from Wemby here and zoom in on the guards,
because Wemby obviously plays a role. He's an offensive ceiling
razor in his own way. His ability to kind of
catch at the high post and just dictate a bunch
(10:04):
of attention has inverted the spacing in a way that
has allowed their guards to get open on cuts along
the baseline. And these guards, they're all like sixty six
sixty seven and can jump vertically off of a jump stop,
so they can finish really well on these cuts. Wenby
has been a dynamic to this offense as well. But
I really want to zoom in on the guards in
the wings. San Antonio is legitimately bigger, faster, and stronger
(10:27):
than Oklahoma City on the perimeter, and all of those
dudes can really handle the basketball. That depth of ball handling,
that advantage has allowed them to consistently break down Oklahoma
City's defense at the point of attack. Dearon Fox is
too fast for Alex Crusoe er Loudor, and he's too
(10:50):
tall for Cason Wallace. Steph Castle like this is a
whole thing. Like Steph Castle is a combination of strength
and size and mobility and footwork that is so rare
in the NBA that I'm not sure when he gets
into his late twenties, like when he's in his prime,
I'm not sure that he'll ever run into a defender
that makes him uncomfortable. When he gets to that point,
he's hard enough to stop right now. Devin Vessel isn't
(11:11):
really like breaking down the defense off the dribble as much,
but he has the size to shoot over the top.
He gets great lyft on that jump shot. Keldon Johnson
is too big and fast and strong for Oklahoma City's
bench groups. Dylan Harper is able to get wherever he
wants on the floor against Oklahoma City's bench groups. And
then you add that Wemby dynamic. They all look super
(11:33):
comfortable getting to their spots against this Oklahoma City defense,
and once you get to their spots, the defense is
going to react Oklahoma City is going to send help,
They're going to pack the paint, They're going to send
that second defender over. At that point, it's about the
playmaking piece, and all of these guys are really good playmakers,
like Deared Fox, Steph Castle, and Dylan Harper. That trio,
(11:56):
all three of them are averaging over six and a
half a SIS for thirty six minutes this year. So
they not only have all these dudes that can get
to their spots, but they're all great passers. That's the
dynamic that breaks this defense. It's the ability to break
Oklahoma City at the point of attack and pass through
(12:17):
their defense. We've talked about this dynamic at a lot
over the last couple of years. We've just focused on
big ball handlers. We focused on Luca and Lebron and
Nikola Jokic, and like these big guys that can punish
their smaller guys. These are more like guards and wings,
but they're guards and wings that are all so huge.
They're also bigger than these Oklahoma City guards and wings,
(12:41):
and so as a result, they are able to generate
really high quality looks and that's where the shooting comes
in again. Their seventh and three point percentage since November sixteenth,
and it's because they're generating really high quality kickouts. They're
generating the sixth most spot up opera tunities in the
league this year. Spot ups are a great hallmark for
(13:03):
how you're breaking down the defense, because if you break
down the defense, are gonna draw extra defenders. If you're
gonna draw extra defenders, there's gonna be easy kickouts. There's
gonna be easy kickouts. That's going to be a close
out opportunity for a guy to be able to score.
That's a spot out, the spot up opportunity, right, And
all of these guys are shooting really well or driving
really well out of those situations. Victor we Minyama forty
(13:24):
seven percent from three in this run, Keldon Johnson forty
three percent from three in this run. He's been huge,
Devin Vessel forty two percent, Dearon Fox forty one percent,
arguably the best JOMP shooting season of his career so far.
Steph Castle is shooting thirty nine percent from three in
this span. Dylan Harper is the one guy who's struggling
a bit among the ball handlers at twenty four percent.
(13:44):
And you know there's gonna be people who say, oh,
this won't last. And I have two counters for that
that make me optimistic in the long run for the Spurs.
One as good as the guards are shooting their wings,
they're forwards like their Champagnee and Barns in particular, those
are two guys that are like reliable catch and shoot guys.
They're both shooting below their normal averages in this stretch.
(14:04):
I think those guys will shoot better as time goes on.
Harrison Barnes has missed a dozen really good looks over
the course of the last couple of weeks, and again,
these are the second piece of it, and the main
reason why I think this is going to sustain is
these are great looks. Again, they're generating the sixth most
spot up opportunities in the league. It's not like they're
(14:25):
just jacking up threes and they're going in. These are
good looks coming out of quality dribble penetration and paint touches.
The last thing I want to zoom in on here
in terms of the team dynamic is I really found
in this Oklahoma City game yesterday they did a great
job hunting mismatches. A lot of their attacks. They're not
(14:45):
just like going at Dort every time down the floor
for no reason. They're hunting Shay, They're hunting Isaiah Joe.
They went at Aaron Wiggins a lot yesterday. And again,
these guys aren't necessarily bad defenders, but on Oklahoma City,
they are the best vehicles with which to enter their defense,
and they are deliberate and procedural with the way they're
targeting those guys, and I think that that's helping them
(15:08):
maximize their attack. I really want to highlight dearon Fox
here for a minute. Him coming in and playing this
well has worked wonders for this offense because of how
its slotted everybody. He's just taken a little bit of
pressure off of everyone, including Wemby, but especially Steph Castle
and especially Dylan Harper, making their jobs that much easier.
(15:31):
I think he's playing the best basketball of his career,
and I think it's a testament to the type of
competitor that he is. He clearly had a very good summer,
and when you're playing with a guy like Wemby, that
comes with a lot of pressure. Like Wemby's potentially going
to be an all time great, you don't want to
be remembered as the guy who played with Wemby and
(15:53):
underachieved or held the team back from their goals. Darin
clearly wants to be remembered as the first great running
mate of Wenby's career. We all know how this story ends.
It's gonna end with Steph Castle and Dylan Harper being
the primary guys. Maybe they hang on to Dearan as
he goes into being a VET, but like Deeron, kind
(16:15):
of feels like a stopgap in a lot of ways,
and that could go poorly, and Dearen's like, screw that, man.
I want to be the first great teammate of Wenby's career,
and it has like him reaching this level, especially as
a jump shooter. It has pushed San Antonio over the
edge in terms of their aggregate ball handling and their
aggregate quickness on the perimeter and their aggregate playmaking ability.
(16:40):
That's given them the ability to break the greatest statistical
defense we've ever seen. Again, when you're hanging a one
to twenty offensive rating routinely against this defense, you are
breaking the Oklahoma City Thunders defense. So I just want
to give that extra shout out to Deeron Fox So yeah,
the Spurs. They're the best team in the league right now.
It's wild stuff. I mean, I know, I sure as
(17:01):
hell underrated the hell out of them before the season.
I thought they'd be like a seventh or eighth seed,
But I don't think anyone, even Spurs fans, had them
as the best team in the league at this point.
So congrats to you guys. Really excited for the Spurs
fan base. I think you guys are set up for
a fun decade of basketball and most importantly, you guys
are fun to watch. Every time I get the opportunity
(17:23):
to watch the Spurs play basketball, I feel lucky as
a basketball fan. It's going to be entertaining, and that
is the best thing for this league. The league needs
a highly entertaining There's a huge difference between a juggernaut
that's fun to watch and a juggernaut that's not. That's
why TV ratings were still good during the phase when
the Warriors were running the league. You gotta be fun
(17:45):
to watch while you're kicking everyone's ass, and the Spurs
definitely are. Want to know where I bet on basketball
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New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia number two. The demons
(19:12):
of Oklahoma City's passed are starting to rise to the
surface again as their schedule gets tougher. We talked about
this a bit on Monday in our power rankings, but
there are three significant areas of statistical slippage over this
two to four stretch. One their defensive rebounding. In these
four losses, they've given up fifty three offensive rebounds, allowing
the Spurs and timber Wolves to grab thirty two percent
(19:33):
of their own misses. That is a reflection of the
size disadvantage they have in these matchups, which is something
that has popped up over previous years. To the turnovers
not so much. In yesterday's game, they only had seven
of them, and that's less of a demon from the past,
because Oklahoma City has always been good at taking care
of the basketball, but it is an area of statistical slippage.
In their other two losses to San Antonio, they gave
(19:56):
up forty six points off of turnovers and lost that margin.
That is the margin they dominate, and the Spurs have
flipped that on their head and have won that in
this matchup over the three game set. But the biggest
demon from their past rising to the surface is their
three point shooting. And again a good amount of this
credit goes to San Antonio in Minnesota as well as
(20:18):
we talk about that game for their defense, they've done
a great job of chasing Oklahoma City's better shooters off
the line and tilting things towards Oklahoma City's shakiest contested
three point shooters. In these four losses, Oklahoma City has
shot twenty nine percent from three, and you can kind
of see it starting to creep back in for them Mentally,
(20:41):
guys are not looking confident on some of these catch
and shoot looks because they're being rushed. In yesterday's game,
you might think Oklahoma City missed all their open looks. Well,
they were six for fifteen on unguarded catch and shoot
threes yesterday. According to Synergy, that's forty percent. Ideally you'd
like to be a little bit higher than that, but
(21:02):
that's solid. On wide open shots, that's fine. You're not
gonna lose a game making forty percent of your wide
open shots. But they were just two for twenty unguarded
catch and shoot jump shots, same dynamic in Tuesday's game,
eight for sixteen unguarded, one for seven when guarded on
catch and shoots. That has been a season long trend
(21:25):
for the thunder Ogoma City is the second worst catch
and shoot team in the league, but they are the
fifth best unguarded catch and shoot team in the league.
Second worst guarded, fifth best unguarded. The problem is most
teams don't have the athleticism to contain the ball well
(21:46):
enough to actually force them into tougher catch and shoot
looks Minnesota and San Antonio do. That's the difference, and
I really thought it started to affect their decision making
in the second half yesterday as well. A guys including
Shy Shay had his worst game of the season by far,
and really fell apart as a decision maker in that
second half. Took some really tough off the dribble jump
shots early in the clock. Now, does this mean this
(22:09):
guy is falling? No, this is all really good in
terms of adversity for Oklahoma City. Now, you know, if
you kick everyone's ass, you're just sitting there looking at
maybe trying to get to seventy four wins. Right now,
they have some real clear stuff they have to focus
on for the rest of the season to prepare for
those potential matchups in the playoffs. As for their defense,
(22:30):
I want to look at the defense end for a minute.
There's another demon from their pass that has risen to
the surface. Their lack of perimeter size guarding the ball.
Their guards and their wings are small. They don't have
six seven in taller athletes running around. It's a lot
of like six three dudes and six four dudes. And
(22:51):
the six six dudes that they have are not the
quickest dudes in the world. This is not necessarily a
lanky and long and hall defense. This is a ground
based defense. So when you see teams that have that
combination that we talked about in Minnesota falls into this
group as well, that combination of aggregate ball handling in
(23:14):
size on the perimeter that appears to be the key
to beating Oklahoma City on offense, you have to be
on the defense event. You have to be able to
protect the rim, and you gotta have athletes to make
life hard for Oklahoma City's guards, like we talked about earlier, right,
But on offense, you need a depth of ball handling.
You need three or four guys who have a combination
of real athletic advantages and can handle the ball so
(23:37):
they can get to their spots against this defense. For instance,
I used to not like this matchup for Minnesota, and
I think they've closed the gap quite a bit, and
I think part of it is because of their internal improvement.
Anthony Edwards is considerably better as a dribble penetrator this
year than he was last year, finishing at the rim
at a higher level than ever. He's not rushing on
(23:57):
his drives as much. He's slowing down and playing with
more pace. Jaden McDaniels has taken a leap in almost
every phase of his game on offense. Look at how
successful Nasried and Julius Randall were in that fourth quarter.
Julius had a bad box score night, but those two
guys were huge in that fourth quarter, punishing Oklahoma City's
as Smalls, Julius Randall shooting over the top of Case
and Wallace at the top of the key, driving down
(24:18):
the right side and dumping it off to nas Reid
Nasried spinning out of the post on JDub and getting
a bucket, getting an and to one offensive rebound put back.
Those guys came alive in that fourth quarter and helped
them pull away in that game. When we're looking at
teams that can beat Oklahoma City, that appears to be
the formula. San Antonio and Minnesota look to be their
(24:40):
biggest threats right now. They can protect the rim while
being athletic on the perimeter to make life harder on
their guards, while also having the depth of big athletic
ball handlers that can penetrate their defense in the shooting
to pay those sequences off. Now, Houston and Denver are
threats as well, but kind of more in a funky way.
Right Denver has all the offensive stuff in spades. Jokich
(25:02):
is like indomitable right now. He literally had the first
fifty five to fifteen and fifteen ever in the history
of the NBA yesterday. Jamal Murray's playing the best basketball
of his career, but their defense obviously doesn't bring the
rim protection that they need. Houston has the size and
rim protection, but we saw that they don't have the
depth of ball handling. So I still consider both of
(25:23):
those teams threats, just in kind of like a non traditional,
more funky way because both teams are so strange compared
to the rest of the league. Number three, speaking of
a showcase for the NBA, yesterday was a dramatic showcase
of Nikola Jokich as the reigning best basketball player in
the world. I was exhausted last night, so I went
to bed in the mid third quarter when it looked
like the Nuggets were in control, and so I ended
(25:44):
up waking up to an instant classic. Anthony Edwards ends
up going nuclear down the stretch to send the game
to ot we you know, we saw that shot that
he hit over Cason Wallace on the left wing in
the Oklahoma City game. Similar kind of shot in the
left corner of is off to catch and turning over
his right shoulder that tied the game and sent it
to overtime. But Ant is reaching a level with his
shot making combined with the ability he has to just
(26:07):
lift over the top of the defense as an athlete,
where you basically now just cross your fingers and pray
that he misses. He's gonna get a shot that he
wants off, and with each passing year, it just seems
like he misses less and less. He continued that onslought
to start overtime and the Wolves actually built a nine
point lead before the Nuggets just walked them down. Yoki's
(26:29):
three point shooting was huge down the stretch. Jamal Murray
and Tim Hardaway both got in on the action in
ot hitting knocking down threes, and then Peyton Watson. He
was getting fried by Anthony Edwards in crunch time, but
he made a huge play late in the game when
the Nuggets blitzed Anthony Edwards and forced him to get
rid of the basketball. He came over and tagged the
roller and got a steal. It was a huge play
(26:50):
late that really sealed that game. What do I always
say when you're having a rough time on the court,
just find a way to make a play and no
one's gonna care. No one cares that Peyton got fried.
The Nuggets won, and a big part of how they
won is Peyton made a huge play tagging that roller
and getting that steal. That's a great lesson for young
basketball players there. Just keep your head on straight, try
(27:12):
to find a way to make a play to help
your team win the game. But Jokis was unbelievable man
fifty six, sixteen and fifteen did it on seventy one
percent from the field, four of six from three. It's
the first fifty five, fifteen and fifteen in the history
of the NBA. And again, this Nuggets team is ravaged
(27:33):
by injuries. You're down three starters. Although I'm glad to
hear that Cam Johnson's knee injury was not more serious,
he apparently is going to be out four to six weeks.
We got to see the bad Yokic off minutes come
back with a vengeance. As a result of that lack
of depth, the Wolves went on an eighteen to zero
run in this game. It's just an absolute carry job
by jokichen Murray in this game. I have to acknowledge
(27:55):
Murray had thirty five and ten last night. His last
ten games, Jamal Murray's averaging thirty four, four and seven
on fifty one percent from the field, fifty three percent
from three and eighty seven percent from the line looking
like an All NBA guy. And again, like you know,
we're gonna talk Lakers here in a minute, Like everyone's
talking about the Lakers roster, and I'm certainly going to today,
but like you know what happens when when stuff goes
(28:16):
on with the roster, because Denver has a much better
roster than the Lakers, but they're hurt right now. That
wasn't a great roster that went out there last night
and they found a way to get a win. Why
Because they're stars, played like stars. They can cover for
a lot when they reached that level. I want to
shout out Tim Hardaway Junior here too. I know he
was a bit off last night, but I think his
aggressive and accurate three point shooting has worked wonders for
(28:39):
helping them maintain their offensive ceiling from different lineup configurations,
especially now with Cam Johnson out. I thought he did
a huge one in overtime. It's that dynamic of having
two real knockdown guys on the floor at all times
that really brings that ceiling for the Denver offense. They're
in for some tough sledding next month with all these
guys out. But I think Yo Kitchen Murray are up
(29:00):
for the challenge. Number four. The Timberwolves continue to be
an infuriating regular season defense, super inconsistent in their effort
and execution. But I continue to view them to be
a better team than the last two years because of
that growth that they've shown down the line on offense,
ants shot profile has shifted slightly towards better distribution at
(29:22):
all three levels. A little bit more at the rim,
a little bit more paint non restricted, a little bit
more short mid range, a little bit more long mid range,
about two fewer threes per game. And as a result,
because he's become more balanced in his attack, he's become
less predictable, and because he's added some pace and some
patience on his drives, he's dramatically increased his efficiency at
(29:43):
the rim and from three, and that's made him a
more effective and efficient score His per minute scoring is
three points up from last year based on a per
thirty six rate, and his true shooting percentage is dramatically
up as well, up over sixty percent for the first
time in his career. He's gone up a level because
of that that variety and that increased efficiency at every level.
Jade McDaniels real leap on offense as a ball handler
(30:06):
and shooter. He was great again yesterday. Gobar has been
absolutely fantastic this year, and as a group, there's a
level of continuity and comfort to their offense that makes
them really difficult to handle on the offensive end of
the floor. Again, this regular season is going to be
filled with this type of uneven play that seems to
be their personality, especially on the defensive end. But I
still think this is the most dangerous Minnesota playoff team
(30:27):
from this era by far. Number five, Tarry Easton might
be the solution to Houston's fifth man problem. I thought
he did a phenomenal job right from the opening tip
guarding Luka Doncicic yesterday. He just brings that combination of
size and strength and speed that can cause real problems
(30:47):
for a big ball handler like Luca. I thought he
made Luca like flat out decomposed. At the start of
that game. He had five turnovers in his first shift.
I know it only showed up as four in the
box score, but there was a terrible lob pass to
eight and that got logged as a shot oft ten.
That was more of a turnover like he was just
bad to start that game, and Tar Easton deserves the credit.
He was right up in his jersey right from the
(31:08):
opening tip and he was only one for five from
three last night, but he shooting forty nine percent from
three this season. He's basically just a bigger, better version
of Joshua Kogi, which allows Houston to bring that best
combination of size, strength, speed and shooting to that fifth
man in those lineups. That has cost Houston so many
problems over the last couple of weeks as their record
has slipped quite a bit. Really nice win for Houston yesterday.
(31:31):
They absolutely demolished the Lakers on the offensive glass. They
grabbed over half of their own misses. Kevin duranam Men Thompson,
a red Shepherd in particular, I thought, did a great
job of breaking the defense down. Kad was consistently bringing
two to the ball and starting their four on threes.
He did a ton of mismatch hunting, especially hunting Luca
and drawing fouls and getting to the basket. And then
a Men Thompson, a read Shepherd, just using their speed.
(31:53):
That's the big advantage in this kind of matchup. The
Lakers are slow. Those two guys were getting dribble penetration
consistently every time down the floor, and then I know
you may Yudok has been frustrated with their defense. I
thought that was their best perimeter defense effort of the season.
I shouldn't say of the season, but up this recent
stretch as well. Really nice win for them to get
back on track. Number six, The Los Angeles Lakers are
(32:20):
at best the sixth best team in the Western Conference
right now. As is always the case when a team
goes into a funk like this where you go four
and six over ten games, there are plenty of issues,
not just one. Luca has just not been close to
as good as he was to start the season. Came
out just like he did in the Suns game, just
(32:41):
turning the ball over almost every time down the floor
and unable to make shots. Just brutal first shifts that
biggest team in a massive hole in both the Sun's
game and again in this Rockets game. His win loss
splits are wild. In their ten losses, he's averaged like
in their wins, he's averaging thirty seven points per game.
In their ten losses, he's averaging just twenty eight points
(33:03):
per game. Below thirty percent from three, averaging four point
nine turnovers in those ten losses. It's not all Luca's fault,
like he's been He's been good at various stretches this year,
and the issues go way deeper than Luca. But he
is playing far below the level of a top tier
superstar in these losses. And he's the guy at the top.
(33:27):
And I'm always gonna look at the guy at the
top first. Why Because he's the guy who has the
power to change the situation. When you look at Jake
Larevia and go save us Jake, that ain't gonna work.
Luca is the guy who can save you. Say what
you want about the Lakers roster. The Nuggets were down
three starters last night and almost all of their athletes
were out, and they beat a good team at home
(33:50):
because their top tier superstar just backpacked the team. Luca
isn't even remotely close to that level right now, and
it's hurting the Lakers. Austin got hurt again and the
injuries are really starting to pile up for us, and
he's missed six games already and it looks like he's
gonna miss a while now. If this calf injury is lingering.
I wouldn't be surprised if he's out a month, he's
gonna miss something like, you know, ten to fifteen games.
(34:10):
At this point, Lebron was like embarrassingly bad on defense
and on the glass. Last night he had just two rebounds.
There's this clip on Twitter. You can find it on
I quote tweeted it, so Dan Devine ended up tweeting
it out the video, but you can find it on
my twitter feed at underscore jsonlt. But it was a
kind of a highlight reel of all the Rockets offensive rebounds.
Lebron was just standing around and watching. For the most part.
(34:33):
He had a play where I shit you not, where
Shepherd was dribbling through the middle of the field of
floor and Lebron like while Reid was dribbling, just leaked
out to the other end, just started running down in
transition as crazy. And of course Albern Shang Gun's wide
open under the basket for an easy little offensive rebound
put back. It's unacceptable because this team actually needs him
(34:53):
to be a great defender and rebounder based on their
current construct. I think this is an area, especially injury,
where Austin Reeves's injury has been an issue because it's
slotted Lebron into this higher usage roll, like when he
needs to score twenty five and eight. He even gets
lazier in those details. But Austin was healthy for most
of the first half yesterday, and yet Lebron still looked
(35:16):
completely unwilling to get his hands dirty. And I get it,
you're old, You're about to turn forty one, and you'd
prefer if you can chill during the regular season. Too bad,
you literally can't on this team, especially not with Luca
when he's in a slump. He either needs to lock
in on defense and on the glass, or he needs
(35:37):
to be traded to a team that will let him chill.
He's hurting the team right now, and I hope JJ
Reddick calls him out for it in practice on Saturday
and then take the stars out when these stars can't
get to that level. It shines a dramatic light on
how flawed this roster is. What an incredibly embarrassing rob
(36:00):
Polinka has done building a modern basketball team. Talk about
a showcase of what succeeds in the modern NBA. Yesterday
all over the TV five games, athleticism and shooting two
teams you absolutely must have to compete, and this roster
is utterly devoid of both. Rob should be fired immediately
(36:22):
so that he doesn't botch this deadline and be replaced
with a general manager who's willing and able to rectify
this mess. He has, over and over and over again
demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of what works in
the modern NBA. They're nineteen and nine and still in
the four seed because Luca and Austin were so damn
(36:44):
good on offense to start the season that they were
routinely pulling out every single clutch game. They are ten
to zero in clutch games. Well, now Austin's hurt and
Luca's gone down to a level below that of a
top ten superstar, and Rob Polinka has been exposed once
again as incompetent, in a barrier between the Lakers and
(37:08):
where they want to get in terms of consistent success
in this league. Number seven, the schedule is lightened up
and the Golden State Warriors are finally starting to come
up for air and find their footing after an absolutely
brutal schedule to start the season. The Warriors ended are
at an end of a stretch where they played just
six games in twenty one days. They have two days
(37:29):
off now, Friday and Saturday. At the end of that
they will have played just six times in twenty one days,
and that has allowed them a chance to get healthy
and come up for air. They've won three games in
a row now. Some of their older players, particularly Jimmy
Butler and Al Horford yesterday, have started to look much better. Ironically,
the young guys that they went with at the end
of the season last year, Pods and Moody, those guys
(37:50):
have come back to the surface and started to play
much better basketball, and they've started to round out most
of their best lineups again. It's interesting because that was
the duo that was most successful yesterday. They just bring
that best comp nation of like consistent effort, execution of
the game plan, and a natural fit in the offense.
From a skill set standpoint, those guys seem to round
everything out. D Anthony Melton has been a stabilizer in
(38:11):
their bench rotation. He's been one of their best plus
minus guys ever since he returned. I think actually the
blow up between Draymond and Steve Kerr will be good
for Draymond because Draymond was playing some bad basketball, and
I think he needed a wake up call, and I
think everything surrounding that moment will help him get back
on track. And in this three game streak, Steph has
not shot the ball super well, which we know that
will shift back in the positive direction. So I think
(38:33):
there's an opportunity for this team to really start to
go on to run and gain some momentum and gain
some ground in the standings. Remember earlier in the year
when I said that the Lakers were at best the
sixth best team in the West. I said that because
I'm not entirely sure the Warriors aren't better than them too.
I was watching him yesterday and I'm like, they just
(38:54):
look like a better basketball team to me. They look faster,
they look better on defense, they look more athletic. In general.
There star is playing at a higher level than Luca
right now in terms of creating offense for the team
as a team unit. Their secondary stars are healthy and
are playing better than the secondary stars of the Lakers.
Like they just you know, they're They're starting to gain
some real momentum. I have a feeling they're going to
(39:16):
go on a run here and start gaining ground in
the standings over the course of the next couple of weeks.
Number eight Cooper flag is the real deal. Another twenty
seven points yesterday. In his last six games, Cooper's averaging
twenty eight, seven and six on fifty three percent from
the field and thirty five percent from three, showcasing a
(39:37):
lot of three level scoring. He started to kind of
find his rhythm a few weeks ago with an intentional
effort to drive the basketball, getting him off the ball
more off of those guards caused him to look more
to be aggressive off the catch instead of managing the
flow of games more. That got him going down hill more.
He was getting a ton of stuff close to the rim,
short jump shots, floaters, push shots, stuff at the rim.
(39:57):
And then in the last couple of games, he's really
started to add more dynamic shot making off the dribble,
mid range stuff, three point shooting. The Denver game in particular,
he was shooting the shit out of the ball from three.
There's this like big ball handler dynamic that can also
drive the basketball that I think is going to be
a big matchup problem for this league as he starts
to enter into his prime. And this is something we've
(40:17):
seen around the league Jalen Brown comes to mind as
an example, Denny Avdia. When you have like a big
athletic dude who's too big for guards but too fast
for bigs, and that also brings downhill pressure, like real
speed attacking the rim on drives, and then you can
counter it with something, whether it's like Jalen Brown's mid
range shooting or Cooper flag and all these little push
(40:39):
shots that he can make or Denny Avdya's ability to
get to the foul line. But then you can also
make the kickout reads. That combines into being a very
effective shot creator in this league because because of the
way the league is shifted towards, you know, you have
these slower rim protectors and then you have these smaller
guards all over the floor. These types of ball handlers
seem to have two or three mismatches at all times
(41:01):
on the floor that they can attack. As Luca has
trended downwards and Cooper's trended upwards, I know it doesn't
completely remove the pain from what happened last February, but
it has to at least cause a decent amount of
optimism for the future for Mavericks fans. Cooper has been
looking fantastic. Number nine, Jalen Brunson seems to have a
(41:22):
new backcourt running mate. Jalen had a rough shooting game
yesterday in Madison Square Garden. Credits to the Caves. I
thought Sam Maryland particular, and then all of the Cavs
five man units. I thought they did a good job
of crowding Brunson and making him work for everything. But
of course, Jalen's been playing at the level of a
top tier superstar for a month or so. He's ticked
up his true shooting percentage significantly, and he's dropped his
turnovers significantly, which has made him like in that Shay
(41:44):
Gildess Alexander territory of like low thirties in points per game,
high sixties and true shooting percentage, super low turnovers, super
rare stuff from guards. Jalen's been in that territory for
a few weeks now, so I was curious to see
as he was having a tough game, like, will Jalen
find a way to flip the script? Because that's the thing,
Like when you talk about the top tier superstars, they
(42:04):
usually just kind of like, even when they're not at
their best, they find a way to win the game.
How many times have you seen a Yokic game where
he doesn't put up massive numbers and maybe he misses
more of his layups and floaters than usual, but then
he'll go four to four down the stretch with two
assists and no turnovers, and he just finds a way
to steal the game because he's indomitable down crunch time.
That's what Jalen Brunson felt like last night or yesterday
in the morning. Just nails on his pull up jump
(42:27):
shot down the stretch, all off that right side, short
little jump around the lay line, a couple pull up
threes along the right wing, all heavily contestant, and it
just did not matter. And again, that's one of the
hallmarks of a top tier superstar. But how about Tyler
Kohleik Brunston spoke about him the other day and how
important he's been for the team in this recent stretch,
and he had some massive catch and shoot threes off
(42:49):
the left side of the floor to kind of steming
some late Cavs shot making, gave the Knicks a chance
to win this game. I've always liked Tyler as a
bench guard just because he's solid, he runs action and
he makes the right reads and he's just a steadying
force with the bench unit. But he's starting to score
the ball now. He had never scored in double figures
this season. Three times in the last couple of weeks,
(43:09):
he's averaging twelve points per game to go with five
rebounds and seven assists on fifty percent from the field,
forty two percent from three, and one hundred percent from
the line in his last five games. Big win for
the Knicks against the Cavs team that, frankly, they looked
like they were out for blood yesterday with the way
they started that game eighteen to three. Something just feels
different with the Knicks this year. They feel tougher, they
(43:30):
feel like they're on a mission. They are still my
pick to win the Eastern Conference. Lastly, number ten, the
Calves did flash their upside finally yesterday. Spend the season
from hell. They're seventeen from fifteen or seventeen and fifteen
now they're technically in the play in if the season
ended today. Their injuries have been a nightmare. There's kind
(43:52):
of like a lack of that spark that they had
last year, and the collapse was discouraging. I'm not going
to sit here and pretend like it wasn't. Their front
line got punked on the glass again down the stretch.
That's been a discouraging trend with this team for years now.
And also credit the Knicks though, like Tyler Colok and
Jaln Brunson just made a bunch of contested threes at
the end of the game. That's tough to handle in
a situation like that. Overall, I thought it was a
(44:14):
super encouraging performance from the Caps. They looked fast and
disruptive on defense for stretches. Their offense looked as lively
as it was last year for stretches. Darius Garland getting
those drives and breaking down the defense consistently, which is
a sign of his health. And again, you're not going
to turn this thing around in a day. I thought
yesterday was a good step in the right direction for them,
(44:35):
even in the loss. All Right, guys, that's all I
have for today. I had to kind of rush through
the end of that because we're getting ready to take
a flight back to Denver today. But I'm excited to
dive into all these teams with you guys over the
course of the rest of the season. Christmas Day is
more or less the start of the NBA season for most.
We have a very interesting situation at the top of
the league now thanks to san Antonio starting to demonstrate
(44:55):
some of the vulnerabilities for Oklahoma City. That makes things
way more exciting and like it leaves a lot of
unknown hanging over the season, which I think will give
us a really fun next six months. I can't wait
to break it all down with you guys. I hope
you all enjoyed your holiday and had an opportunity to
spend some time with friends and family again. I'll be
back in Denver starting next week and we'll get back
(45:15):
to our usual routine starting on Monday. We do have
a little bit of a funky schedule next year surrounding
New Year's but we're gonna do a contender's rankings videos
with Sam Vessini, so we'll dig into how I feel
about the contenders and like my brain is like broken
compared to where it was two weeks ago thanks to
san Antonio, so a lot to dig into. Their really
excited to kind of take a snapshot of the league again.
(45:38):
I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'll see you
guys on Monday.
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