December 29, 2025 • 38 mins
Jason reacts to Kawhi Leonard getting his career high of 55 points for the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday and whether or not they can turn their season around. Then he continues to discuss the Los Angeles Lakers up and down stretch and how Luka Doncic and LeBron James are connected to that. Then he gives the latest NBA power rankings including a new spot at the top for the San Antonio Spurs and Victor Wembanyama.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, Well, good to him tonight. You're
at the volume heavy Monday, everybody, hope all if you
guys had an incredible weekend, have a jam pack show
(00:21):
for you guys today. We're gonna lead with some Los
Angeles Clippers talk, because they have won four games in
a row. I want to talk abou Kawhi Leonard, who
had a career high fifty five points last night's win.
I want to dive into some of the specific things
that is driving some of this success with him. Also,
what to make of this recent run with the Clippers?
Does it mean anything? Do they have much of an
(00:43):
opportunity to make something of this season? I actually think
they do. So we're going to dive into that concept
for a little bit after that, as we continue to
perform an autopsy on this rough four and six stretch
for the Los Angeles Lakers. I've seen a lot of
comments in our videos as well as mail bag questions
as well as stuff all over the media as people
have kind of jumped on Lebron in this instance, and
(01:05):
I want to talk about specifically what I think is
unfair criticism of Lebron in this situation versus what I
think is fair criticism of Lebron in this situation, and
I want to do some mythbusting regarding some of the
stuff going on with the Lakers offense. After that, as usual,
on Mondays, we're gonna dig into our power rankings. You
guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to
the YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of
our videos. Make sure you like this video. That helps
(01:28):
us a lot, and then if you want to get
a question into our mail bag, make sure you drop
them into our YouTube comments. We're gonna have kind of
a janky schedule again this week with the holiday, so
we're gonna have obviously today's episode centering around those two
topics in the Power rankings. Tomorrow is going to be
the mail bag because on Friday we have Sam Vessini
coming on the show to do our monthly contender rankings.
(01:50):
Really excited to dive into that with Sam. So we're
gonna have obviously this show mailbag Tuesday. Wednesday, we'll have
an instant reaction to the Tuesday night games. Going to
take Thursday off for New Year's Day, and then we'll
be back on Friday with contender rankings. All Right, let's
talk some basketball. So do these signs of life from
the Clippers mean anything? Clippers got another huge win last
(02:13):
night against the Detroit Pistons. Wasn't particularly close. It was
one of those games, and I think these are like
the most impressive types of wins you can get in
the regular season, where like the Clippers starters just kicked
the shit out of the Piston starters, and then the
Clippers really never let him get close again after that.
They cut it to nine a few times, but never
got it any closer, and the Clippers would just immediately
respond like they cut it to nine, and then like
(02:35):
Kawhi would hit an easy jump shot over Tobias Harris
and then jump a swing pass from Tobias Harris and
go dunk it on the other end. All of a sudden,
it's thirteen. That momentum's gone, the threat is a race,
They're back in control. It's kind of that kind of
game for the Clippers, And Kawhi went for a career
high fifty five points, the first fifty point game of
his career, if you can believe that, his previous career
(02:56):
high was forty five, something he had done twice in
the postseason. Once with the Clippers and once with the Raptors,
as well as a regular season forty five point game
back in January that season, in a regular season game,
but he had never gone over forty five, and he
had fifty five last night. And really it was the jumper.
The jumper, you could tell right away, and his first
(03:17):
shift was hot, especially the pull up three. Generally speaking,
this is kind of a rule of thumb for high
volume scoring. You got to be able to hit threes
if you're going to hit super high scoring totals, because
as you start to rack up points as a score,
the defense will inevitably react. And it's just so much
harder to react to a player twenty five feet from
the basket than it is on drives and on post
(03:37):
ups and anything else that's closer to the rim. When
you want to send extra attention right, it's just an
extremely difficult shot to take away unless you want to
give up either easy drives by pressing way up too
high or by doubling the ball, which is going to
then leave you in four on threes all night. So
it's just a difficult thing to take away. And so
if you can get to that pull up three, it's
going to be a huge scoring boost for you as
(03:59):
you're trying to hit those high totals, and Kawhi had
that going last night. He had three off the dribble threes.
Kai has been playing at an extremely high level all season,
believe it or not, considering you know, obviously the Clippers
record is absurd at this point. He's been great the
whole time. He's averaging a career high twenty eight points
per game on sixty two point four percent true shooting,
(04:20):
which is the second highest efficiency mark of his career.
And it's interesting because when I watch him on tape,
it's not like he looks exceptionally explosive. Over the course
of recent seasons, you would usually see Kawhi hit this
like kind of robotic level of like athleticism and strength
where nobody could keep him from his spots. And I
want to be clear, he does luke athletic. He had
(04:40):
a big dunk in the Blazers game, kind of driving
out of the left corner all over Donovan Klingen. He
is occasionally making these like burstful moves, jumping a passing lane,
getting out in transition. But it's not like the Kawhi
from five years ago. It's not like he's looking like
one of the apex athletes in the league right now, Like,
for example, he's averaging two point three Rick did Area
makes per game. For perspective, when he was in Toronto,
(05:04):
he averaged three point six for most of his Clippers
tenuere before this, he was right around three per game
last season, for example, two point seven. This series at
two point three. So it's not like he's beaten people
off the dribble constantly and just getting to the rim NonStop,
or that he's just super super explosive. He's just in
full command of his game from the perimeter, and he's
(05:25):
shooting the jump shot extremely well. He's thirty nine percent
on catch and shoot threes, thirty six percent on pull
up threes off the dribble, and fifty four percent on
pull up two point jump shots. That goes up to
fifty six percent when he's inside seventeen feet. Now, that's
not quite shake kills of Alexander Territory. Shay's around that
(05:45):
like fifty eight and a half percent on those inside
of seventeen foot twos. But Kwi is like right there,
So he's operating at a really special level. From the
mid range, and that sticks out on tape, Like when
you're watching those shots that he's sitting against the Pistons
last night. It's not like he's getting a ton of separation.
He's just so fluid off the dribble and he's so
in command of his release right now that he's just
(06:07):
getting to his spots and hitting contested pull up jump
shots because he's not even seeing that contest because he's
in such a groove with his off the dribble game.
And I think it's just all coming together for him
in terms of his perimeter skill set this season, and
it all fits extremely well into the Clippers offense. Everything
runs through Kawhi and Harden. It was funny watching that
(06:27):
game last night. It was kind of a matchup attacking contest.
You know. It's a lot of ball screen with Kawhi Leonard,
excuse me, ball screen with James Harden, and then picking
on switches with ISOs and a lot of one on
ones from Kawhi Leonard last night as well early in
the game going at Kay Cunningham hunting various different types
of matches, hunting the bigs like Isaiah Stewart and switches
a lot of that kind of stuff where he's just
(06:48):
looking for opportunities to work one on one. And you know,
it's interesting because we're going to dig into the team
y concept earlier or later on. I should say Harden
and Kawhi have both been great in their one on ones.
From most of the season, it's been paying off the shots.
It's been the kickouts and the overall team offense that
hasn't been flowing the way that it did in previous seasons, right,
(07:10):
but Kawhi and James Harden have both done a really
good job, at least on their end, trying to carry
the load as shot creators. This season. It depends heavily
on those two guys being able to score into playmake
and Kawi has been great this season, again, one of
the best scoring seasons of his career. Even the numbers
I quoted earlier for Kauhi are kind of underselling him
a bit because he's been especially hot as of late.
(07:33):
In this four game winning streak, Kawi's averaging thirty nine
points per game on fifty two percent from the field,
forty four percent from three to ninety eight percent from
the foul on just absolutely wild. Honestly, the only thing
I can really nitpick Kawhi about in this stretch is
he's still occasionally will get caught off guard by a
double team and throw the ball away or just manage
(07:54):
the double poorly and throw a kickout pass that doesn't
really beat the coverage, so to speak. But even with that,
I still think it's some of the best basketball Kawhi's
played in his career. So the question is what does
all of this mean for the Clippers as a team.
The Clippers are just starting to find their footing. The
Brook Lopez signing has been paying major dividends. As Zubats
(08:15):
went down with an ankle injury in the Lakers game,
he stepped in and looked like a perfectly capable and
competent starting center in this league, knocking down threes, running
a solid drop coverage. As a team, I think they're
starting to defend much better, And I do want to
highlight the stars here, Like you're watching James Harden as
he's getting picked on in post ups. He's competing Yesterday,
Kawhi Leonard wasn't very good on defense to start the season.
(08:36):
I think he's been much better in this run, pressuring
the ball for steels, jumping passing lanes has been a
past time a Kawhi Leonard in his career. He's been
doing a ton of that over the course of the last
couple of weeks. Derrek Jones Junior made his return yesterday,
so they're starting to get healthier on the perimeter, and
again a big boost to the offense in the form
of guys finally starting to pay off these sequences by
knocking down shots. We talked earlier in the year that
(08:59):
was not happening as they were generating these sequences but
not paying them off. That's turned around in a big way.
In this four game stretch, Brook Lopez, John Collins, Nick Patoom,
Chris Dunn, and Kobe Sanders have combined to go forty
for seventy two from three in this stretch. It's one
hundred and twenty points on seventy two shots right there.
It's pretty good. And again that's paying off those sequences
(09:23):
and it's helping them put up more team offense as
opposed to just James Harden and Kawhi Leonard putting up
individual numbers. Now, are the Clippers about to rip off
a twenty to two stretch or something like that? Over
the next few months. Probably not, But I do think
this team is way better than their record, and I
do think they're capable of sustaining winning right around that
(09:45):
like fifty to fifty five win pace if they stay
healthy and they stay focused. So they are very much
in the mix in the Western Conference. As a practical matter,
they are two point five games back of the ten seat.
That gets you in the play in that's easily gettable
if they want it, Like, if they stay healthy, they're
gonna get there. At least they're five and a half
(10:06):
games back at the eight seed. That's a good target
because it puts you in to a position where you
have two chances to win a play in game. Right,
it's tougher, but it's doable. There's a lot of season
left the team you got to outperform. There is probably
golden state. Right. They're teetering a bit after a devastating
loss last night. They're eleventh clutch loss of the season.
(10:27):
The Warriors just keep inventing new ways to lose. They
were up seven with less than two minutes left and
end up losing that game by fourteen. Kind of a
tough offensive foul call and Steph Curry on a rip
through move, but some bad turnovers, just really sloppy basketball
from the Warriors down the stretch, and then they completely
decomposed in overtime. Like the Warriors are teetering on a
knife s edge. They could easily go south here, and
that could open up a door for a team like
(10:49):
the Clippers to get up into the top half of
the play in or like Phoenix, if Devin Booker goes
down with a serious injury, that sort of thing could
become available. That is a little bit more of a
long shot, but it's certainly doable. Really, it's only the
top end of like the uh like out of the
play in area, like getting into that six or five
seed that's kind of off the table at this point.
They would have to outplay the Wolves, the Lakers, or
(11:12):
the Rockets by about ten games. The rest of the way.
That's not happening, not unless serious, serious injuries happen to
one of those teams. So like, to me, the bottom
half of the play in is very doable, and the
top half of the play in is at least within
striking distance. So yeah, I think they're looking at a
potential play a play in birth right that's not a
(11:33):
death sentence. When the Clippers are at their best, when
Kawhi is playing like this, I think they're a second
tier contender, so they're capable of competing with most teams
in the league. Their goals should be to try to
work up to that eight seed as best as possible.
The end up being the nine or ten seed, so
be it. But then upset one of those teams in
(11:55):
the top part of the play in, whether it's Phoenix
or Golden State. Maybe you get lucky and you get
a team like San Antonio in round one. If you
end up getting up to that seven seed, we would
all be fools to just pretend that san Antonio would
walk over them, like san Antonio might be favored. But
they got a rookie guard coming off the bench. They
have a second year guard as one of their primary
(12:16):
shot creators. Wenby's never played in the playoffs before. So like,
there is a lot of Clippers basketball left to be
played this season and still a lot of potential to reach.
And again, this team is a lot better than their record.
They dug a massive hole. It's going to be a
huge pain in the astick in their way out of this.
But I think the Clippers are a lot better than
they look when you peak at the standings. Right now,
(12:37):
people are losing their minds over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Pessimism surrounding the Lakers as the team is completely warranted.
I'm doing a contender rankings video with Sam Bessini coming
up this Friday, and I'm seriously considering just leaving them
off the second tier of contenders entirely. But the amount
of stupid stuff I've seen flying around the last couple
(12:58):
of days, both in comments and like mail bag questions
and like stuff I've seen online to like, even like
Sam Mitchell coming out and saying like, oh, like Lebron
wants to be the first option, He couldn't be a
first option even if he was on the Wizards. Like,
all of this energy is being directed at Lebron for
what's happening in this stretch, and I just think that's
(13:20):
completely ridiculous, even though he does certainly share blame. He's
been bad on the defensive end, and he's been bad
on the defensive glass, like we talked about on Friday,
which is part of a problem, a team wide problem
where the team has been bad on the defensive glass
and the team has been bad at making defensive rotations
and competing trying to keep the ball in front. It
(13:41):
has been a team wide issue that Lebron is also
culpable in, and I want to dig into that in
a little bit because Lebron is, in my opinion, one
of the guys that is most well suited to solve
that problem, and they do need him to be better.
But I have seen so many takes from that ridiculous
sam Mitchell take, which makes no sense because first of all,
(14:02):
he'd be the best player on the Wizards by a
mile if you went there today, So like that doesn't
make any sense. That's just flat out disrespectful. And secondly,
Lebron is no interest in being the first option. He's
forty one years old. He's never wants this season attempted
to wrestle control away from Luca or Austin. That is
like completely absurd. When all three guys have played, he's
(14:24):
been the distant third fiddle, just playing off of those guys,
and when one of them's out, yeah, he turns up
the aggression and slots into that secondary guy because they
need that. And yet in those situations he's still deferred
to Luca or Austin is the number one in those games.
So like the idea that the Lakers' issues are Lebron
wants to be the first option that's not based in reality.
(14:46):
And I'm seeing a lot of that stuff, a lot
of talk about, Oh, he knocked Austin out of rhythm.
Oh he's taken Luke at a rhythm, He's disrupted the
flow of this team. Like, none of that makes any
sense to me when I look at the film and
I look at the data. The defense stuff and the
rebounding stuff completely legitimate, and we'll get to that in
a minute, but none of this makes any sense. So
I want to dig into some mythbusting here around Lebron's
(15:08):
return to the Lakers. Did Lebron come back and derail
the Lakers? The Lakers won eight of their first ten
games when Lebron came back into the lineup. He didn't
come in and derail anything. Injuries derailed the team. A
combination of injuries and then team wide issues in apathy
with the dirty work. Did Lebron come back and disrupt
(15:30):
the rhythm of Luca and Austin. They've only played in
eight games together. The three of those guys Luca left
the team for a while to be with his family
for the birth of his child. Totally reasonable, totally understandable.
Sat out a game with the calf, Bruce sat out
half of another game with the calf. Bruce. Austin Reeves
keeps suffering calf strains of his own. There's been an
(15:52):
issue with teams with guys just being out of the lineup.
Like go back through their losses. The Rockets lost Austin
leaves the first half of the calf injury issues in
that game, and they're worth getting into. We did on Friday,
but like Austin mishafed that game. The Sun's loss on Tuesday,
no Austin, no Luca. The Clippers loss No Austin, and
Luca came out in the first half and played terrible
(16:14):
and then left that game with the calf contusion. Like
these losses, even though they also demonstrate roster issues, most
of the issue has come down to their best players
have been unavailable. The only two losses this group hass
where all three of the guys played were the first
Sons game and the loss of the Spurs in the
(16:36):
n season tournament, And if you zoom in on those games,
in the Spurs game, Austin clearly looked hampered. He went
six for sixteen, had a bunch of turnovers, and then
right after that game they decided to shut him down
because of the CAF's soreness. That's a whre and tear
got to Austin issue. Lebron took the fewest shots out
(16:57):
of any of the Big three that game, took like
thirteen or fourteen shots. Austin was hampered by an injury
and then went out after that game. That's not how
Lebron came and then disrupt his rhythm. It was just
wear and tear. The Suns game, Luca and Austin combined
for fourteen turnovers and they were completely in control of
(17:18):
the offense throughout the game. You're gonna blame Lebron for that.
I think he's done just fine on the offensive end.
If you want to nitpick him, it's his three point
shooting was rough to start, but even then, he's forty
seven percent from three in his last four games. There's
nothing that Lebron has done to disrupt or dislodge this
team from their success on the offensive end of the floor.
(17:40):
Now where it gets complicated is on that defensive end.
Lebron is one of the few players on the entire
roster who is actually capable of restoring order for the
Lakers on the defensive end and on the glass one.
He plays arguably the most important position in the league
other than center. You're dealing with this stuff, that power
(18:02):
forward spot. You're the main backline communicator and rotator. You're
the guy who's always gonna have to get to the
rim when Deandreten comes out to the level of the
screen or has to help on another drive. He's the
guy who's gonna see the plays develop and call out
coverages and help guys in their rotations when the shot
goes up. He's the Lakers' strongest player on the ground
and their best vertical athlete on the perimeter. He is
(18:25):
the guy who is most capable of anchoring them on
the defensive glass other than Deandreiden. He's the modern NBA
power forward. It is too important of a position for
him to not bring the appropriate effort and energy. And
this is not what it was when Anthony Davis was
on the team and Austin Reeves was too young, where
he was your number one option and it was too
(18:47):
much to ask from an energy standpoint, he's the number
two every night now while Austin's out, and when Austin's back,
he's the number three. He gets to seed control of
the offense to Luca, who's one of the best high
usage type of guys in the league in terms of
like eating innings as a ball handler. So there's no
excuse for Lebron to be mailing it in on that
(19:09):
end of the floor. And I've seen people. I've seen
people complain and they're like, oh, well, he's forty. It's
ridiculous that he's on a team where he has to
do this at age forty. And it's like, yeah, I
get that. But as a practical matter, this is the roster.
As a practical matter, you can talk about Rob Polinka
(19:30):
and whether or not he should be the Lakers GM
and what he needs to accomplish by early February. You
can talk about that all you want. As a practical matter,
For now, these are the guys, and he is their
best vertical athlete on the perimeter, and he is their
biggest and strongest forward on the ground. He is the
guy as the second option who can see control to Luca,
(19:51):
who's capable of taking control of the situation on that
end of the floor. In short, the Lakers need Lebron.
Now Austin's out until probably after the deadline. No one
else on the team other than Luca can break the
defense down and create a shot like they If Lebron
retired tomorrow, the Lakers would be screwed. I've seen a
(20:14):
lot of that, like, oh, I just can't wait for
the Lebron era to be over. Oh, look, it's come
from you know, some bad actors. There's factions within the
Lakers fan base. There's now these Lucas stands, which are crazy,
and you've got the Kobe stands which are crazy, and
that A lot of that comes with unreasonableness, right, But ultimately,
if Lebron left this team, the Lakers would completely decompose
(20:36):
over the next month. They desperately need him. The best
version of the Lakers includes Lebron James. They just need
him to make his defensive rotations in a rebound the basketball.
It's really that simple. It's not about anything he's doing
in terms of influencing the offensive end of the floor.
(20:57):
They just need him to not hemorrhage on the other end.
They need more out of it, and I think that's
reasonable to ask for. All right, let's get into our
power rankings. Today's show is brought to you by a
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(22:43):
Slipping all the way down the Los Angeles Lakers at
plus two thousand to win the title on hard Rock
Bet most embarrassing week of the season, so far blowout
losses to the Suns and Rockets. Injuries played a role right,
like Luca and Austin were both out for the Sun's game.
Austin leaves the Rockets game early, but it's more about
how they looked. They looked like they hated playing basketball,
stuck out like a sore thumb on Christmas Day as
the sloppiest and laziest team. That they were a bad
(23:04):
combination of unathletic, completely lacking intensity, and very sloppy in
their game plan execution. But again, all you can do
in these situations is just try to turn things around
one step at a time. The Kings aren't good, but
I did think it was the Lakers' best effort and
intensity game in a long time last night, as they
won by what twenty five against the Kings back in
Los Angeles. Luca and Lebron both set the tone early
(23:27):
with their energy. I talked about this in the Lakers
Collective Pod last week, but we can all agree that
the range of potential outcomes for the Lakers as a
defense and rebounding team is lower than it needs to be.
By bringing in more talent, you shift that up to
where they can reach a higher level, but even within
that spectrum, they were dramatically underachieving, and part of the
(23:51):
issue there is One of the issues they were having
was when Lebron comes out the gates and doesn't defend
and doesn't rebound, it sets a bad tone and it
trickles down and the other guys don't do it as well.
Similarly with Luca, like in the Clippers game when you
come out and you spot them a double digit lead
because you keep turning the ball over and missing shots,
or at the start of that Christmas Day game in
(24:13):
Houston or against Houston where what you had five turnovers
in the first quarter. When you do that and you
spot the other team a ten point lead, it's like
getting punched in the gut before you even have a
chance to fight, and the rest of the guys aren't
gonna play as inspired. If you come out the opening
tip and you play better on offense like Luca did
last night, and you do a better job on defense
(24:35):
like both Luca and Lebron did last night, it has
the potential to infuse your team with the energy and
belief to play better again. Like you can talk about
the scale and where it needs to shift, and the
Lakers need to make moves to be able to have
a higher ceiling on those athleticism parts of the game.
But as a practical matter, this is your roster. You
need to play more like the better version of yourself.
(24:56):
And the only way you're gonna do that is if
your stars come out and set the tone, and I
thought the Lakers did last night. Got a much much
better win against the Kings. Again, Kings aren't good. It's
a step forward, much tougher challenge coming tomorrow night against
the Detroit Pistons. By the way, last shout out Nick
Smith twenty one points off the bench. I thought he
did a great job aggressively shooting threes off of Luca
double teams and also got some pull up threes off
(25:18):
the dribble off of some action with Lebron. Really nice
effort for him off the bench filling in and that
Austin Reeves role as that third shot creator again. A
big showdown with the Pistons, smart night. I'm excited to
break that one down on Wednesday. Number nine. The Boston
Celtics currently plus three thousand to win the title. On
Hard Rock Bad. They had a two to one week.
They won a home and home against the Pacers before
(25:38):
dropping a game last night in Portland a couple of
critical light mistakes. Jalen Brown had a couple of turnovers
out at half court that ended up leading one to
a foul and another one to just a turnover, but
just kind of struggled with some ball pressure out at
half court. Jalen's just got to do a better job
in managing that. The bigger issue was just lineup construction.
They tried going big with Cada and Garza and was
(26:00):
just going right at them and drop coverage looks and
getting good looks there. Then they tried going small without
a center, and like Denny Avdia just goes right at
Peyton Pritchard for a layup, and then Donovan Klingen just
Barri's Hugo Gonzales underneath the basket for and one put
back underneath the rim. And that's where the personnel issues
really started to rise to the surface. I actually thought
their offense was fine. They missed some good looks, but
(26:22):
their offense was fine down the stretch. They just couldn't
get the stops that they needed, in large part because
of that issue with their lineup construction. Overall, I'm still
really bullish on the Celtics. These lineup issues will be
resolved when you add Jason Tatum to the equation and
bring some more front court depth. By February, at the
trade deadline, they had won four straight games before that,
(26:42):
one hundred and twenty four offensive raiding in those four games,
one of only four offenses in the entire NBA right
now that are getting over one hundred and twenty points
per one hundred possessions. Jalen Brown continues to play absurdly well,
nine straight thirty point games in his last thirteen games.
He's averaging thirty three points, seven rebounds, and six assists
on fifty one percent from the field in forty percent
(27:03):
from three. I'd be very optimistic if I was a
Celtics fan, Way better than you could have thought they
would be at this point in the season. Obviously, great
news coming out from Jason Tatum in his rehab. Feels
like they've got to run in them here in a
wide open Eastern Conference. Number eight. The Phoenix Suns currently
plus fifty thousand to win the title on hard Rock Bet.
(27:24):
After playing just an absolutely brutal stretch of schedule, things
are finally lightning up for them. They had a ten
game span. This is crazy. They went thunder Nuggets, Lakers, Rockets, Timberwolves,
thunder Lakers, Warriors, Warriors, Lakers. That's about as tough of
a ten game stretch as this league will give you.
And they ended up going four and six and had
a couple of close games that they lost in there.
Now they're in the middle of a five game stretch
where it eases up a little bit. They played the
(27:45):
Pelicans twice, got a couple of wins. They're about to
go Wizards, Cavs, Kings, so they could easily be twenty
and fourteen after the stretch. Twenty and fourteen, given what
we saw from the Sun's team last year, and even
what we all projected before the season. I was higher
than most on the Suns, but I didn't think they'd
be over five hundred. I thought they'd be, you know,
just below five hundred. This is a remarkable turnaround, fueled
(28:07):
by a couple of savvy trades and a culture shift
from Jordan not They're now the tenth best defense in
the NBA. Every time I watched them, even with how
good Dylan Brooks is, even with how great Devin Booker
has always been. Mark Williams is the guy that stands
out to me when I watched them on tape. He
just establishes such a high floor for them on defense
and on the glass. I cannot believe the turnaround we've
(28:28):
seen from him in his career as a defensive player.
Number seven Minnesota Timberwolves currently plus three thousand to win
the title on hard Rock back. Kind of a classic
Timberwolves week. They beat the Knicks without Brunson and Ogan
and Obi. Then they have like this kind of lifeless
Christmas Day performance where for three and a half quarters
they look terrible. It looked like they had no interest
(28:50):
in playing any defense. Then they just look frighteningly good
at the end of the fourth quarter, right they put
Jaden McDaniels on Nikola Jokic, they put Anthony Edwards on
Jamal Murray. The two of those guys are flying around.
They get a bunch of stops. They end up sending
the game to overtime off this crazy shooting performance from
Anthony Edwards. They jump up by nine points in ot
and then they just completely fall apart, end up losing
(29:11):
in overtime, and then they lose to the Brooklyn Nets
and give up a one to thirty offensive rating in
that game. Now here's the thing. Brooklyn's feisty right now.
They've won seven out of ten. They've been the best
defense in the NBA by a mile in December. Michael
Porter Junior continues to be incredible for them. But allowing
that group to put like thirty six points on you
in the third quarter the way that they did, that's
(29:32):
a targ That's a tough pill to swallow. But this
is kind of just who the Timberwolves are. Like. I
think they're the most switched flippy team in the league.
They're one of the most athletic and physically imposing teams,
but that's only when they lock in, and they're just
so inconsistent with their energy and effort. And it's been
just a really disappointing couple of seasons really on that
(29:53):
front from the Timberwolves. But no matter what, because of
that switch flippiness, you can't really write them off. I
still view them as one of the top five contenders
in the NBA at this point. Number six. Houston Rockets
currently plus fourteen hundred to win the title on hard
Rock Bet. They look back on track. They followed up
their dominant win in Los Angeles against Lakers with a
dominant win at home versus the Cavs. Katie came out
(30:16):
and just lit him on fire. In the first shift,
he had fourteen points to spot them a twelve point lead.
Then they kind of jumped them in the late second
quarter early third Reed Shepherd was a huge part of
that run with his working pick and roll, both as
a pull up shooter and as well as a passer
in those situations. Kat has been fantastic in these last
couple of games, fifty five points in fifteen assists. I
think he's been such a huge addition to the defense,
(30:37):
to just adding that length and activity around the basket,
just giving him another layer, another dimension to their defense
that they didn't have last year. No Shane Goun in
that Cavs game. I think tar Tari Easton has been
a perfect fit with the starting group. I just love
his combination of just a little bit more size, a
little bit more athleticism, a little bit more shooting than
what you get from Josha Kogi. But then you know,
(30:59):
just overall not giving up enough to justify the you know,
the defensive limitations that you get from a Reed Shepherd
guy when he comes into the lineup. I really like
Tari is that fifth guy for them. Good to see
Dorian Finney Smith back on the court. He was plus
twenty and sixteen minutes yesterday. He was one of the
best plus mine plus minus guys for the Lakers last year.
He just rounds out lineups because he's always playing hard.
He's always in the right spots. I think he's a
(31:20):
really nice fit as a rotation player. There light schedule
this week for the Rockets. They have Indiana, Brooklyn, and
Dallas number five. The Denver Nuggets currently plus six fifty
to win the title on hard Rock Bet. Looks like
they were gonna win again in Orlando on Sunday. They
went our Saturday excuse me. They went on a thirteen
to three run late in the fourth quarter. Kind of
classic Nuggets. Jokicic was just bulldozing everyone for offensive rebounds.
(31:43):
Big transition three from Tim Hardaway Junior in that stretch too.
But they ended up losing on a couple of Desmond
Bain foul calls that I did not like. He did
the same thing to Tim Hardaway Junior and Bruce Brown
off the top of the key where he just kind
of like drove really hard into their chest and like
initiated contact with that right arm. But then like right
when he got into their bodies, he just kind of
went up into a jump shot, and because his right
(32:04):
arm's right there, it's kind of impossible to not catch
it on the way up, and he just rose up
and shot and ended up getting foul shots. It just
kind of was like a shitty way to end a
really good basketball game. It's just like super exciting game,
like Anthony Black's having the night of his career. I
have always been a big Anthony Black fan, and he's
really starting to pop because now the shots are starting
to fall. He hit seven threes in that game, career
high for Anthony Black. He's having the night of his life,
(32:26):
the super entertaining basketball game, and then it turns into
a grift fest down the stretches. Desmond Bay just kind
of throws his body into into Tim Hardaway Junior and
into Bruce Brown to get a couple of fouls. Now,
I know, Magic fans aren't going to feel too bad
because Jokic himself got to the line a few times late.
But it was just kind of a frustrating end to
that game. Honestly, jokicch and Murray are on a special
(32:47):
run right now. I was thinking about this when I
was watching that game. I think this might be the
highest level reached offensively by a duo since Kde and
Steph in the late twenty tens. Every single night, these
two guys are coming out and just completely carrying this team.
This injury devastated roster again, Like they're getting rolled in
the non Jokic minutes because of the lack of depth
(33:10):
that they have available right now. They had a game
where Jokic was plus sixteen and they ended up losing
there against the Magic. Like, it's just really tough to
overcome the personnel limitations they've had with the injuries, and
these two dudes just keep putting them right in position
to win again. One point loss in that game, another
one point loss in that. They've lost three out of five.
(33:34):
Two of those have been one point losses in games
where they were positive when Nicole Yokic was on the floor.
So it just, you know, the depth, it is what
it is. The injuries are starting to take their toll
down three starters. But I've just been really impressed by
Jokic and Murray in the job they've done trying to
carry the team during this stretch. Number four. The Detroit
Pistons currently plus twenty two to fifty to win the
title on hard rock. Back back to back losses against
(33:55):
the Jazz and Clippers last week, defense has been the issue.
I know it doesn't look like it giving up one
hundred twelve points to the Clippers, but that was a
very slow paced game. They had a one twenty defensive
rating in that game, a one twenty three defensive rating
overall in these two games, just to drop off in
their overall intensity and defense on the perimeter, which is
the strength of this team when they're at their bestsar
Thompson and Ron Holland both did look a little too
(34:17):
small for Kawhi if you want to get nitpicky about
what specifically was happening with the personnel. But I think
they're capable of playing much better than they had on
the last couple of games. On the defensive end of
the floor, Tobias Harris continues to stick out like a
sore thumb to me in most of these sequences. He
had several ugly sequences last night if they could upgrade
that position. I continue to think it would work. Wonders
for them. Opportunity to get back on track Tuesday night
(34:40):
against the Lakers. The Lakers will wilt under physicality, so
look for the Pistons to try to bully them early
in that game, try to get them to fold. And
the Lakers again, if you get them to fold, they
they can just roll over and get blown out. Number three.
The New York Knicks currently plus twelve hundred to win
the title on hard Rock Bet. Dropped the game against
the Timberwolves without Brunson Oreanonobi, but they got right back
on track with some nice wins against the Calves and Hawks,
(35:02):
and Jalen Brunson once again, every single time at the
end of these games is just nails, with this pull
up jump shooting multiple huge pull up threes and a
pull up jumper on the right wing against the Cavs,
another huge pull up three at the top of the
key against Atlanta, had a really tough floater getting Dyson
Daniels at a position when he gambled out at the
top of the key like just unbelievable clutch shot making
(35:25):
from Jalen Brunson over and over again to win these games.
And oj Nnobi he was actually the hero in the
Atlanta game. He beat Jalen Johnson on the baseline on
an offensive rebound. Jalleen got kind of caught and went
on the top side of the Bigs who were hanging
out there on the right block, and oj just slipped
along the baseline high pointed it, beat him to the
ball and ended up drawing a foul. The Knicks are
four and two since the n Season tournament, bucking the
(35:47):
trend that the Lakers and the Bucks kind of established
as teams who fell apart right after winning that n
Season tournament. The Knicks are just as locked in as
they were before and during the tournament. I said this
on the show Friday, and I mean it. Something just
feels different to me about this NIXT team. They feel tougher,
they feel more confident, they feel like they're on a
mission to oiste the trophy, and they just continue to
play special basketball. Number two, the Oklahoma City Thunder currently
(36:09):
plus one fifteen to win the title on hard Rock
beat first time all season, dropping off the number one
spot just three and four in their last seven games.
Some of their old demons creeping back to the surface,
struggling to knock down wide open catch and shoot threes
or I should say mildly contested, rushed like kind of
playoff style catch and shoot threes. We saw that was
a major issue in the San Antonio game and in
(36:30):
the Minnesota game as well. Struggles on the defensive glass.
They gave up fifty three offensive rebounds over those four
losses to the Spurs and the Timberwolves. I'm not worried
about them at all. I just think that they're, you know,
the stuff with the Spurs, you have to really you
can't just gloss over those. Those are obvious issues that
they're gonna have to overcome. But overall, now they have
like these clear line items to focus on. In the
(36:52):
regular season, it looked like they were just going to
cruise to seventy five wins and face no adversity. This
is real adversity. I think it's good to have purpose
day today. I think the thunder got humbled a bit.
I think it will ultimately be good for them and
the number one San Antonio Spurs. A preposterous plus thirteen
hundred to win the title on hard rock bet. I
do not see how the odds are that long for
(37:14):
this team. I know that they have their issues. I
know that they're not, you know, matching up as well
against the rest of the league as they have against
Oklahoma City, But just the fact that they can beat
Oklahoma City feels like that should be a higher odds
So some value there at plus thirteen at plus thirteen hundred.
They did lay an egg at home against the Jazz
on Saturday. They just got torched in that second quarter
by Walter Clayton and Keyonte George. The bigger thing is
(37:36):
they went cold on offense in that stretch. Like if
there's something to nitpick in this recent stretch from the Spurs,
it's the ice cold stretches of offense like that second
quarter against Utah and then the fourth quarter against the
Knicks and the n season tournament game. But overall, this
is still the best team in the leagu's in November
fourteen or since November sixteenth, they're fifteen and four in
that stretch. It's a half game better than Oklahoma City
over the same span. And again the distinction of being
(37:58):
three and o versus Okase, which there's a real feather
in your cap as a potential playoff threat this year.
It is a great time to be a San Antonio
Spurs fan. All right, guys, It's all I have for
today is always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting
us and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with
a mailbag, then Wednesday for more instant reaction before we
take New Year's Day off, and then we'll have our
contender rankings on Friday. I will see you guys tomorrow
The volume. All right, Well, good to him tonight. You're
at the volume heavy Monday, everybody, hope all if you
guys had an incredible weekend, have a jam pack show
(00:21):
for you guys today. We're gonna lead with some Los
Angeles Clippers talk, because they have won four games in
a row. I want to talk abou Kawhi Leonard, who
had a career high fifty five points last night's win.
I want to dive into some of the specific things
that is driving some of this success with him. Also,
what to make of this recent run with the Clippers?
Does it mean anything? Do they have much of an
(00:43):
opportunity to make something of this season? I actually think
they do. So we're going to dive into that concept
for a little bit after that, as we continue to
perform an autopsy on this rough four and six stretch
for the Los Angeles Lakers. I've seen a lot of
comments in our videos as well as mail bag questions
as well as stuff all over the media as people
have kind of jumped on Lebron in this instance, and
(01:05):
I want to talk about specifically what I think is
unfair criticism of Lebron in this situation versus what I
think is fair criticism of Lebron in this situation, and
I want to do some mythbusting regarding some of the
stuff going on with the Lakers offense. After that, as usual,
on Mondays, we're gonna dig into our power rankings. You
guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to
the YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of
our videos. Make sure you like this video. That helps
(01:28):
us a lot, and then if you want to get
a question into our mail bag, make sure you drop
them into our YouTube comments. We're gonna have kind of
a janky schedule again this week with the holiday, so
we're gonna have obviously today's episode centering around those two
topics in the Power rankings. Tomorrow is going to be
the mail bag because on Friday we have Sam Vessini
coming on the show to do our monthly contender rankings.
(01:50):
Really excited to dive into that with Sam. So we're
gonna have obviously this show mailbag Tuesday. Wednesday, we'll have
an instant reaction to the Tuesday night games. Going to
take Thursday off for New Year's Day, and then we'll
be back on Friday with contender rankings. All Right, let's
talk some basketball. So do these signs of life from
the Clippers mean anything? Clippers got another huge win last
(02:13):
night against the Detroit Pistons. Wasn't particularly close. It was
one of those games, and I think these are like
the most impressive types of wins you can get in
the regular season, where like the Clippers starters just kicked
the shit out of the Piston starters, and then the
Clippers really never let him get close again after that.
They cut it to nine a few times, but never
got it any closer, and the Clippers would just immediately
respond like they cut it to nine, and then like
(02:35):
Kawhi would hit an easy jump shot over Tobias Harris
and then jump a swing pass from Tobias Harris and
go dunk it on the other end. All of a sudden,
it's thirteen. That momentum's gone, the threat is a race,
They're back in control. It's kind of that kind of
game for the Clippers, And Kawhi went for a career
high fifty five points, the first fifty point game of
his career, if you can believe that, his previous career
(02:56):
high was forty five, something he had done twice in
the postseason. Once with the Clippers and once with the Raptors,
as well as a regular season forty five point game
back in January that season, in a regular season game,
but he had never gone over forty five, and he
had fifty five last night. And really it was the jumper.
The jumper, you could tell right away, and his first
(03:17):
shift was hot, especially the pull up three. Generally speaking,
this is kind of a rule of thumb for high
volume scoring. You got to be able to hit threes
if you're going to hit super high scoring totals, because
as you start to rack up points as a score,
the defense will inevitably react. And it's just so much
harder to react to a player twenty five feet from
the basket than it is on drives and on post
(03:37):
ups and anything else that's closer to the rim. When
you want to send extra attention right, it's just an
extremely difficult shot to take away unless you want to
give up either easy drives by pressing way up too
high or by doubling the ball, which is going to
then leave you in four on threes all night. So
it's just a difficult thing to take away. And so
if you can get to that pull up three, it's
going to be a huge scoring boost for you as
(03:59):
you're trying to hit those high totals, and Kawhi had
that going last night. He had three off the dribble threes.
Kai has been playing at an extremely high level all season,
believe it or not, considering you know, obviously the Clippers
record is absurd at this point. He's been great the
whole time. He's averaging a career high twenty eight points
per game on sixty two point four percent true shooting,
(04:20):
which is the second highest efficiency mark of his career.
And it's interesting because when I watch him on tape,
it's not like he looks exceptionally explosive. Over the course
of recent seasons, you would usually see Kawhi hit this
like kind of robotic level of like athleticism and strength
where nobody could keep him from his spots. And I
want to be clear, he does luke athletic. He had
(04:40):
a big dunk in the Blazers game, kind of driving
out of the left corner all over Donovan Klingen. He
is occasionally making these like burstful moves, jumping a passing lane,
getting out in transition. But it's not like the Kawhi
from five years ago. It's not like he's looking like
one of the apex athletes in the league right now, Like,
for example, he's averaging two point three Rick did Area
makes per game. For perspective, when he was in Toronto,
(05:04):
he averaged three point six for most of his Clippers
tenuere before this, he was right around three per game
last season, for example, two point seven. This series at
two point three. So it's not like he's beaten people
off the dribble constantly and just getting to the rim NonStop,
or that he's just super super explosive. He's just in
full command of his game from the perimeter, and he's
(05:25):
shooting the jump shot extremely well. He's thirty nine percent
on catch and shoot threes, thirty six percent on pull
up threes off the dribble, and fifty four percent on
pull up two point jump shots. That goes up to
fifty six percent when he's inside seventeen feet. Now, that's
not quite shake kills of Alexander Territory. Shay's around that
(05:45):
like fifty eight and a half percent on those inside
of seventeen foot twos. But Kwi is like right there,
So he's operating at a really special level. From the
mid range, and that sticks out on tape, Like when
you're watching those shots that he's sitting against the Pistons
last night. It's not like he's getting a ton of separation.
He's just so fluid off the dribble and he's so
in command of his release right now that he's just
(06:07):
getting to his spots and hitting contested pull up jump
shots because he's not even seeing that contest because he's
in such a groove with his off the dribble game.
And I think it's just all coming together for him
in terms of his perimeter skill set this season, and
it all fits extremely well into the Clippers offense. Everything
runs through Kawhi and Harden. It was funny watching that
(06:27):
game last night. It was kind of a matchup attacking contest.
You know. It's a lot of ball screen with Kawhi Leonard,
excuse me, ball screen with James Harden, and then picking
on switches with ISOs and a lot of one on
ones from Kawhi Leonard last night as well early in
the game going at Kay Cunningham hunting various different types
of matches, hunting the bigs like Isaiah Stewart and switches
a lot of that kind of stuff where he's just
(06:48):
looking for opportunities to work one on one. And you know,
it's interesting because we're going to dig into the team
y concept earlier or later on. I should say Harden
and Kawhi have both been great in their one on ones.
From most of the season, it's been paying off the shots.
It's been the kickouts and the overall team offense that
hasn't been flowing the way that it did in previous seasons, right,
(07:10):
but Kawhi and James Harden have both done a really
good job, at least on their end, trying to carry
the load as shot creators. This season. It depends heavily
on those two guys being able to score into playmake
and Kawi has been great this season, again, one of
the best scoring seasons of his career. Even the numbers
I quoted earlier for Kauhi are kind of underselling him
a bit because he's been especially hot as of late.
(07:33):
In this four game winning streak, Kawi's averaging thirty nine
points per game on fifty two percent from the field,
forty four percent from three to ninety eight percent from
the foul on just absolutely wild. Honestly, the only thing
I can really nitpick Kawhi about in this stretch is
he's still occasionally will get caught off guard by a
double team and throw the ball away or just manage
(07:54):
the double poorly and throw a kickout pass that doesn't
really beat the coverage, so to speak. But even with that,
I still think it's some of the best basketball Kawhi's
played in his career. So the question is what does
all of this mean for the Clippers as a team.
The Clippers are just starting to find their footing. The
Brook Lopez signing has been paying major dividends. As Zubats
(08:15):
went down with an ankle injury in the Lakers game,
he stepped in and looked like a perfectly capable and
competent starting center in this league, knocking down threes, running
a solid drop coverage. As a team, I think they're
starting to defend much better, And I do want to
highlight the stars here, Like you're watching James Harden as
he's getting picked on in post ups. He's competing Yesterday,
Kawhi Leonard wasn't very good on defense to start the season.
(08:36):
I think he's been much better in this run, pressuring
the ball for steels, jumping passing lanes has been a
past time a Kawhi Leonard in his career. He's been
doing a ton of that over the course of the last
couple of weeks. Derrek Jones Junior made his return yesterday,
so they're starting to get healthier on the perimeter, and
again a big boost to the offense in the form
of guys finally starting to pay off these sequences by
knocking down shots. We talked earlier in the year that
(08:59):
was not happening as they were generating these sequences but
not paying them off. That's turned around in a big way.
In this four game stretch, Brook Lopez, John Collins, Nick Patoom,
Chris Dunn, and Kobe Sanders have combined to go forty
for seventy two from three in this stretch. It's one
hundred and twenty points on seventy two shots right there.
It's pretty good. And again that's paying off those sequences
(09:23):
and it's helping them put up more team offense as
opposed to just James Harden and Kawhi Leonard putting up
individual numbers. Now, are the Clippers about to rip off
a twenty to two stretch or something like that? Over
the next few months. Probably not, But I do think
this team is way better than their record, and I
do think they're capable of sustaining winning right around that
(09:45):
like fifty to fifty five win pace if they stay
healthy and they stay focused. So they are very much
in the mix in the Western Conference. As a practical matter,
they are two point five games back of the ten seat.
That gets you in the play in that's easily gettable
if they want it, Like, if they stay healthy, they're
gonna get there. At least they're five and a half
(10:06):
games back at the eight seed. That's a good target
because it puts you in to a position where you
have two chances to win a play in game. Right,
it's tougher, but it's doable. There's a lot of season
left the team you got to outperform. There is probably
golden state. Right. They're teetering a bit after a devastating
loss last night. They're eleventh clutch loss of the season.
(10:27):
The Warriors just keep inventing new ways to lose. They
were up seven with less than two minutes left and
end up losing that game by fourteen. Kind of a
tough offensive foul call and Steph Curry on a rip
through move, but some bad turnovers, just really sloppy basketball
from the Warriors down the stretch, and then they completely
decomposed in overtime. Like the Warriors are teetering on a
knife s edge. They could easily go south here, and
that could open up a door for a team like
(10:49):
the Clippers to get up into the top half of
the play in or like Phoenix, if Devin Booker goes
down with a serious injury, that sort of thing could
become available. That is a little bit more of a
long shot, but it's certainly doable. Really, it's only the
top end of like the uh like out of the
play in area, like getting into that six or five
seed that's kind of off the table at this point.
They would have to outplay the Wolves, the Lakers, or
(11:12):
the Rockets by about ten games. The rest of the way.
That's not happening, not unless serious, serious injuries happen to
one of those teams. So like, to me, the bottom
half of the play in is very doable, and the
top half of the play in is at least within
striking distance. So yeah, I think they're looking at a
potential play a play in birth right that's not a
(11:33):
death sentence. When the Clippers are at their best, when
Kawhi is playing like this, I think they're a second
tier contender, so they're capable of competing with most teams
in the league. Their goals should be to try to
work up to that eight seed as best as possible.
The end up being the nine or ten seed, so
be it. But then upset one of those teams in
(11:55):
the top part of the play in, whether it's Phoenix
or Golden State. Maybe you get lucky and you get
a team like San Antonio in round one. If you
end up getting up to that seven seed, we would
all be fools to just pretend that san Antonio would
walk over them, like san Antonio might be favored. But
they got a rookie guard coming off the bench. They
have a second year guard as one of their primary
(12:16):
shot creators. Wenby's never played in the playoffs before. So like,
there is a lot of Clippers basketball left to be
played this season and still a lot of potential to reach.
And again, this team is a lot better than their record.
They dug a massive hole. It's going to be a
huge pain in the astick in their way out of this.
But I think the Clippers are a lot better than
they look when you peak at the standings. Right now,
(12:37):
people are losing their minds over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Pessimism surrounding the Lakers as the team is completely warranted.
I'm doing a contender rankings video with Sam Bessini coming
up this Friday, and I'm seriously considering just leaving them
off the second tier of contenders entirely. But the amount
of stupid stuff I've seen flying around the last couple
(12:58):
of days, both in comments and like mail bag questions
and like stuff I've seen online to like, even like
Sam Mitchell coming out and saying like, oh, like Lebron
wants to be the first option, He couldn't be a
first option even if he was on the Wizards. Like,
all of this energy is being directed at Lebron for
what's happening in this stretch, and I just think that's
(13:20):
completely ridiculous, even though he does certainly share blame. He's
been bad on the defensive end, and he's been bad
on the defensive glass, like we talked about on Friday,
which is part of a problem, a team wide problem
where the team has been bad on the defensive glass
and the team has been bad at making defensive rotations
and competing trying to keep the ball in front. It
(13:41):
has been a team wide issue that Lebron is also
culpable in, and I want to dig into that in
a little bit because Lebron is, in my opinion, one
of the guys that is most well suited to solve
that problem, and they do need him to be better.
But I have seen so many takes from that ridiculous
sam Mitchell take, which makes no sense because first of all,
(14:02):
he'd be the best player on the Wizards by a
mile if you went there today, So like that doesn't
make any sense. That's just flat out disrespectful. And secondly,
Lebron is no interest in being the first option. He's
forty one years old. He's never wants this season attempted
to wrestle control away from Luca or Austin. That is
like completely absurd. When all three guys have played, he's
(14:24):
been the distant third fiddle, just playing off of those guys,
and when one of them's out, yeah, he turns up
the aggression and slots into that secondary guy because they
need that. And yet in those situations he's still deferred
to Luca or Austin is the number one in those games.
So like the idea that the Lakers' issues are Lebron
wants to be the first option that's not based in reality.
(14:46):
And I'm seeing a lot of that stuff, a lot
of talk about, Oh, he knocked Austin out of rhythm.
Oh he's taken Luke at a rhythm, He's disrupted the
flow of this team. Like, none of that makes any
sense to me when I look at the film and
I look at the data. The defense stuff and the
rebounding stuff completely legitimate, and we'll get to that in
a minute, but none of this makes any sense. So
I want to dig into some mythbusting here around Lebron's
(15:08):
return to the Lakers. Did Lebron come back and derail
the Lakers? The Lakers won eight of their first ten
games when Lebron came back into the lineup. He didn't
come in and derail anything. Injuries derailed the team. A
combination of injuries and then team wide issues in apathy
with the dirty work. Did Lebron come back and disrupt
(15:30):
the rhythm of Luca and Austin. They've only played in
eight games together. The three of those guys Luca left
the team for a while to be with his family
for the birth of his child. Totally reasonable, totally understandable.
Sat out a game with the calf, Bruce sat out
half of another game with the calf. Bruce. Austin Reeves
keeps suffering calf strains of his own. There's been an
(15:52):
issue with teams with guys just being out of the lineup.
Like go back through their losses. The Rockets lost Austin
leaves the first half of the calf injury issues in
that game, and they're worth getting into. We did on Friday,
but like Austin mishafed that game. The Sun's loss on Tuesday,
no Austin, no Luca. The Clippers loss No Austin, and
Luca came out in the first half and played terrible
(16:14):
and then left that game with the calf contusion. Like
these losses, even though they also demonstrate roster issues, most
of the issue has come down to their best players
have been unavailable. The only two losses this group hass
where all three of the guys played were the first
Sons game and the loss of the Spurs in the
(16:36):
n season tournament, And if you zoom in on those games,
in the Spurs game, Austin clearly looked hampered. He went
six for sixteen, had a bunch of turnovers, and then
right after that game they decided to shut him down
because of the CAF's soreness. That's a whre and tear
got to Austin issue. Lebron took the fewest shots out
(16:57):
of any of the Big three that game, took like
thirteen or fourteen shots. Austin was hampered by an injury
and then went out after that game. That's not how
Lebron came and then disrupt his rhythm. It was just
wear and tear. The Suns game, Luca and Austin combined
for fourteen turnovers and they were completely in control of
(17:18):
the offense throughout the game. You're gonna blame Lebron for that.
I think he's done just fine on the offensive end.
If you want to nitpick him, it's his three point
shooting was rough to start, but even then, he's forty
seven percent from three in his last four games. There's
nothing that Lebron has done to disrupt or dislodge this
team from their success on the offensive end of the floor.
(17:40):
Now where it gets complicated is on that defensive end.
Lebron is one of the few players on the entire
roster who is actually capable of restoring order for the
Lakers on the defensive end and on the glass one.
He plays arguably the most important position in the league
other than center. You're dealing with this stuff, that power
(18:02):
forward spot. You're the main backline communicator and rotator. You're
the guy who's always gonna have to get to the
rim when Deandreten comes out to the level of the
screen or has to help on another drive. He's the
guy who's gonna see the plays develop and call out
coverages and help guys in their rotations when the shot
goes up. He's the Lakers' strongest player on the ground
and their best vertical athlete on the perimeter. He is
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the guy who is most capable of anchoring them on
the defensive glass other than Deandreiden. He's the modern NBA
power forward. It is too important of a position for
him to not bring the appropriate effort and energy. And
this is not what it was when Anthony Davis was
on the team and Austin Reeves was too young, where
he was your number one option and it was too
(18:47):
much to ask from an energy standpoint, he's the number
two every night now while Austin's out, and when Austin's back,
he's the number three. He gets to seed control of
the offense to Luca, who's one of the best high
usage type of guys in the league in terms of
like eating innings as a ball handler. So there's no
excuse for Lebron to be mailing it in on that
(19:09):
end of the floor. And I've seen people. I've seen
people complain and they're like, oh, well, he's forty. It's
ridiculous that he's on a team where he has to
do this at age forty. And it's like, yeah, I
get that. But as a practical matter, this is the roster.
As a practical matter, you can talk about Rob Polinka
(19:30):
and whether or not he should be the Lakers GM
and what he needs to accomplish by early February. You
can talk about that all you want. As a practical matter,
For now, these are the guys, and he is their
best vertical athlete on the perimeter, and he is their
biggest and strongest forward on the ground. He is the
guy as the second option who can see control to Luca,
(19:51):
who's capable of taking control of the situation on that
end of the floor. In short, the Lakers need Lebron.
Now Austin's out until probably after the deadline. No one
else on the team other than Luca can break the
defense down and create a shot like they If Lebron
retired tomorrow, the Lakers would be screwed. I've seen a
(20:14):
lot of that, like, oh, I just can't wait for
the Lebron era to be over. Oh, look, it's come
from you know, some bad actors. There's factions within the
Lakers fan base. There's now these Lucas stands, which are crazy,
and you've got the Kobe stands which are crazy, and
that A lot of that comes with unreasonableness, right, But ultimately,
if Lebron left this team, the Lakers would completely decompose
(20:36):
over the next month. They desperately need him. The best
version of the Lakers includes Lebron James. They just need
him to make his defensive rotations in a rebound the basketball.
It's really that simple. It's not about anything he's doing
in terms of influencing the offensive end of the floor.
(20:57):
They just need him to not hemorrhage on the other end.
They need more out of it, and I think that's
reasonable to ask for. All right, let's get into our
power rankings. Today's show is brought to you by a
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(22:43):
Slipping all the way down the Los Angeles Lakers at
plus two thousand to win the title on hard Rock
Bet most embarrassing week of the season, so far blowout
losses to the Suns and Rockets. Injuries played a role right,
like Luca and Austin were both out for the Sun's game.
Austin leaves the Rockets game early, but it's more about
how they looked. They looked like they hated playing basketball,
stuck out like a sore thumb on Christmas Day as
the sloppiest and laziest team. That they were a bad
(23:04):
combination of unathletic, completely lacking intensity, and very sloppy in
their game plan execution. But again, all you can do
in these situations is just try to turn things around
one step at a time. The Kings aren't good, but
I did think it was the Lakers' best effort and
intensity game in a long time last night, as they
won by what twenty five against the Kings back in
Los Angeles. Luca and Lebron both set the tone early
(23:27):
with their energy. I talked about this in the Lakers
Collective Pod last week, but we can all agree that
the range of potential outcomes for the Lakers as a
defense and rebounding team is lower than it needs to be.
By bringing in more talent, you shift that up to
where they can reach a higher level, but even within
that spectrum, they were dramatically underachieving, and part of the
(23:51):
issue there is One of the issues they were having
was when Lebron comes out the gates and doesn't defend
and doesn't rebound, it sets a bad tone and it
trickles down and the other guys don't do it as well.
Similarly with Luca, like in the Clippers game when you
come out and you spot them a double digit lead
because you keep turning the ball over and missing shots,
or at the start of that Christmas Day game in
(24:13):
Houston or against Houston where what you had five turnovers
in the first quarter. When you do that and you
spot the other team a ten point lead, it's like
getting punched in the gut before you even have a
chance to fight, and the rest of the guys aren't
gonna play as inspired. If you come out the opening
tip and you play better on offense like Luca did
last night, and you do a better job on defense
(24:35):
like both Luca and Lebron did last night, it has
the potential to infuse your team with the energy and
belief to play better again. Like you can talk about
the scale and where it needs to shift, and the
Lakers need to make moves to be able to have
a higher ceiling on those athleticism parts of the game.
But as a practical matter, this is your roster. You
need to play more like the better version of yourself.
(24:56):
And the only way you're gonna do that is if
your stars come out and set the tone, and I
thought the Lakers did last night. Got a much much
better win against the Kings. Again, Kings aren't good. It's
a step forward, much tougher challenge coming tomorrow night against
the Detroit Pistons. By the way, last shout out Nick
Smith twenty one points off the bench. I thought he
did a great job aggressively shooting threes off of Luca
double teams and also got some pull up threes off
(25:18):
the dribble off of some action with Lebron. Really nice
effort for him off the bench filling in and that
Austin Reeves role as that third shot creator again. A
big showdown with the Pistons, smart night. I'm excited to
break that one down on Wednesday. Number nine. The Boston
Celtics currently plus three thousand to win the title. On
Hard Rock Bad. They had a two to one week.
They won a home and home against the Pacers before
(25:38):
dropping a game last night in Portland a couple of
critical light mistakes. Jalen Brown had a couple of turnovers
out at half court that ended up leading one to
a foul and another one to just a turnover, but
just kind of struggled with some ball pressure out at
half court. Jalen's just got to do a better job
in managing that. The bigger issue was just lineup construction.
They tried going big with Cada and Garza and was
(26:00):
just going right at them and drop coverage looks and
getting good looks there. Then they tried going small without
a center, and like Denny Avdia just goes right at
Peyton Pritchard for a layup, and then Donovan Klingen just
Barri's Hugo Gonzales underneath the basket for and one put
back underneath the rim. And that's where the personnel issues
really started to rise to the surface. I actually thought
their offense was fine. They missed some good looks, but
(26:22):
their offense was fine down the stretch. They just couldn't
get the stops that they needed, in large part because
of that issue with their lineup construction. Overall, I'm still
really bullish on the Celtics. These lineup issues will be
resolved when you add Jason Tatum to the equation and
bring some more front court depth. By February, at the
trade deadline, they had won four straight games before that,
(26:42):
one hundred and twenty four offensive raiding in those four games,
one of only four offenses in the entire NBA right
now that are getting over one hundred and twenty points
per one hundred possessions. Jalen Brown continues to play absurdly well,
nine straight thirty point games in his last thirteen games.
He's averaging thirty three points, seven rebounds, and six assists
on fifty one percent from the field in forty percent
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from three. I'd be very optimistic if I was a
Celtics fan, Way better than you could have thought they
would be at this point in the season. Obviously, great
news coming out from Jason Tatum in his rehab. Feels
like they've got to run in them here in a
wide open Eastern Conference. Number eight. The Phoenix Suns currently
plus fifty thousand to win the title on hard Rock Bet.
(27:24):
After playing just an absolutely brutal stretch of schedule, things
are finally lightning up for them. They had a ten
game span. This is crazy. They went thunder Nuggets, Lakers, Rockets, Timberwolves,
thunder Lakers, Warriors, Warriors, Lakers. That's about as tough of
a ten game stretch as this league will give you.
And they ended up going four and six and had
a couple of close games that they lost in there.
Now they're in the middle of a five game stretch
where it eases up a little bit. They played the
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Pelicans twice, got a couple of wins. They're about to
go Wizards, Cavs, Kings, so they could easily be twenty
and fourteen after the stretch. Twenty and fourteen, given what
we saw from the Sun's team last year, and even
what we all projected before the season. I was higher
than most on the Suns, but I didn't think they'd
be over five hundred. I thought they'd be, you know,
just below five hundred. This is a remarkable turnaround, fueled
(28:07):
by a couple of savvy trades and a culture shift
from Jordan not They're now the tenth best defense in
the NBA. Every time I watched them, even with how
good Dylan Brooks is, even with how great Devin Booker
has always been. Mark Williams is the guy that stands
out to me when I watched them on tape. He
just establishes such a high floor for them on defense
and on the glass. I cannot believe the turnaround we've
(28:28):
seen from him in his career as a defensive player.
Number seven Minnesota Timberwolves currently plus three thousand to win
the title on hard Rock back. Kind of a classic
Timberwolves week. They beat the Knicks without Brunson and Ogan
and Obi. Then they have like this kind of lifeless
Christmas Day performance where for three and a half quarters
they look terrible. It looked like they had no interest
(28:50):
in playing any defense. Then they just look frighteningly good
at the end of the fourth quarter, right they put
Jaden McDaniels on Nikola Jokic, they put Anthony Edwards on
Jamal Murray. The two of those guys are flying around.
They get a bunch of stops. They end up sending
the game to overtime off this crazy shooting performance from
Anthony Edwards. They jump up by nine points in ot
and then they just completely fall apart, end up losing
(29:11):
in overtime, and then they lose to the Brooklyn Nets
and give up a one to thirty offensive rating in
that game. Now here's the thing. Brooklyn's feisty right now.
They've won seven out of ten. They've been the best
defense in the NBA by a mile in December. Michael
Porter Junior continues to be incredible for them. But allowing
that group to put like thirty six points on you
in the third quarter the way that they did, that's
(29:32):
a targ That's a tough pill to swallow. But this
is kind of just who the Timberwolves are. Like. I
think they're the most switched flippy team in the league.
They're one of the most athletic and physically imposing teams,
but that's only when they lock in, and they're just
so inconsistent with their energy and effort. And it's been
just a really disappointing couple of seasons really on that
(29:53):
front from the Timberwolves. But no matter what, because of
that switch flippiness, you can't really write them off. I
still view them as one of the top five contenders
in the NBA at this point. Number six. Houston Rockets
currently plus fourteen hundred to win the title on hard
Rock Bet. They look back on track. They followed up
their dominant win in Los Angeles against Lakers with a
dominant win at home versus the Cavs. Katie came out
(30:16):
and just lit him on fire. In the first shift,
he had fourteen points to spot them a twelve point lead.
Then they kind of jumped them in the late second
quarter early third Reed Shepherd was a huge part of
that run with his working pick and roll, both as
a pull up shooter and as well as a passer
in those situations. Kat has been fantastic in these last
couple of games, fifty five points in fifteen assists. I
think he's been such a huge addition to the defense,
(30:37):
to just adding that length and activity around the basket,
just giving him another layer, another dimension to their defense
that they didn't have last year. No Shane Goun in
that Cavs game. I think tar Tari Easton has been
a perfect fit with the starting group. I just love
his combination of just a little bit more size, a
little bit more athleticism, a little bit more shooting than
what you get from Josha Kogi. But then you know,
(30:59):
just overall not giving up enough to justify the you know,
the defensive limitations that you get from a Reed Shepherd
guy when he comes into the lineup. I really like
Tari is that fifth guy for them. Good to see
Dorian Finney Smith back on the court. He was plus
twenty and sixteen minutes yesterday. He was one of the
best plus mine plus minus guys for the Lakers last year.
He just rounds out lineups because he's always playing hard.
He's always in the right spots. I think he's a
(31:20):
really nice fit as a rotation player. There light schedule
this week for the Rockets. They have Indiana, Brooklyn, and
Dallas number five. The Denver Nuggets currently plus six fifty
to win the title on hard Rock Bet. Looks like
they were gonna win again in Orlando on Sunday. They
went our Saturday excuse me. They went on a thirteen
to three run late in the fourth quarter. Kind of
classic Nuggets. Jokicic was just bulldozing everyone for offensive rebounds.
(31:43):
Big transition three from Tim Hardaway Junior in that stretch too.
But they ended up losing on a couple of Desmond
Bain foul calls that I did not like. He did
the same thing to Tim Hardaway Junior and Bruce Brown
off the top of the key where he just kind
of like drove really hard into their chest and like
initiated contact with that right arm. But then like right
when he got into their bodies, he just kind of
went up into a jump shot, and because his right
(32:04):
arm's right there, it's kind of impossible to not catch
it on the way up, and he just rose up
and shot and ended up getting foul shots. It just
kind of was like a shitty way to end a
really good basketball game. It's just like super exciting game,
like Anthony Black's having the night of his career. I
have always been a big Anthony Black fan, and he's
really starting to pop because now the shots are starting
to fall. He hit seven threes in that game, career
high for Anthony Black. He's having the night of his life,
(32:26):
the super entertaining basketball game, and then it turns into
a grift fest down the stretches. Desmond Bay just kind
of throws his body into into Tim Hardaway Junior and
into Bruce Brown to get a couple of fouls. Now,
I know, Magic fans aren't going to feel too bad
because Jokic himself got to the line a few times late.
But it was just kind of a frustrating end to
that game. Honestly, jokicch and Murray are on a special
(32:47):
run right now. I was thinking about this when I
was watching that game. I think this might be the
highest level reached offensively by a duo since Kde and
Steph in the late twenty tens. Every single night, these
two guys are coming out and just completely carrying this team.
This injury devastated roster again, Like they're getting rolled in
the non Jokic minutes because of the lack of depth
(33:10):
that they have available right now. They had a game
where Jokic was plus sixteen and they ended up losing
there against the Magic. Like, it's just really tough to
overcome the personnel limitations they've had with the injuries, and
these two dudes just keep putting them right in position
to win again. One point loss in that game, another
one point loss in that. They've lost three out of five.
(33:34):
Two of those have been one point losses in games
where they were positive when Nicole Yokic was on the floor.
So it just, you know, the depth, it is what
it is. The injuries are starting to take their toll
down three starters. But I've just been really impressed by
Jokic and Murray in the job they've done trying to
carry the team during this stretch. Number four. The Detroit
Pistons currently plus twenty two to fifty to win the
title on hard rock. Back back to back losses against
(33:55):
the Jazz and Clippers last week, defense has been the issue.
I know it doesn't look like it giving up one
hundred twelve points to the Clippers, but that was a
very slow paced game. They had a one twenty defensive
rating in that game, a one twenty three defensive rating
overall in these two games, just to drop off in
their overall intensity and defense on the perimeter, which is
the strength of this team when they're at their bestsar
Thompson and Ron Holland both did look a little too
(34:17):
small for Kawhi if you want to get nitpicky about
what specifically was happening with the personnel. But I think
they're capable of playing much better than they had on
the last couple of games. On the defensive end of
the floor, Tobias Harris continues to stick out like a
sore thumb to me in most of these sequences. He
had several ugly sequences last night if they could upgrade
that position. I continue to think it would work. Wonders
for them. Opportunity to get back on track Tuesday night
(34:40):
against the Lakers. The Lakers will wilt under physicality, so
look for the Pistons to try to bully them early
in that game, try to get them to fold. And
the Lakers again, if you get them to fold, they
they can just roll over and get blown out. Number three.
The New York Knicks currently plus twelve hundred to win
the title on hard Rock Bet. Dropped the game against
the Timberwolves without Brunson Oreanonobi, but they got right back
on track with some nice wins against the Calves and Hawks,
(35:02):
and Jalen Brunson once again, every single time at the
end of these games is just nails, with this pull
up jump shooting multiple huge pull up threes and a
pull up jumper on the right wing against the Cavs,
another huge pull up three at the top of the
key against Atlanta, had a really tough floater getting Dyson
Daniels at a position when he gambled out at the
top of the key like just unbelievable clutch shot making
(35:25):
from Jalen Brunson over and over again to win these games.
And oj Nnobi he was actually the hero in the
Atlanta game. He beat Jalen Johnson on the baseline on
an offensive rebound. Jalleen got kind of caught and went
on the top side of the Bigs who were hanging
out there on the right block, and oj just slipped
along the baseline high pointed it, beat him to the
ball and ended up drawing a foul. The Knicks are
four and two since the n Season tournament, bucking the
(35:47):
trend that the Lakers and the Bucks kind of established
as teams who fell apart right after winning that n
Season tournament. The Knicks are just as locked in as
they were before and during the tournament. I said this
on the show Friday, and I mean it. Something just
feels different to me about this NIXT team. They feel tougher,
they feel more confident, they feel like they're on a
mission to oiste the trophy, and they just continue to
play special basketball. Number two, the Oklahoma City Thunder currently
(36:09):
plus one fifteen to win the title on hard Rock
beat first time all season, dropping off the number one
spot just three and four in their last seven games.
Some of their old demons creeping back to the surface,
struggling to knock down wide open catch and shoot threes
or I should say mildly contested, rushed like kind of
playoff style catch and shoot threes. We saw that was
a major issue in the San Antonio game and in
(36:30):
the Minnesota game as well. Struggles on the defensive glass.
They gave up fifty three offensive rebounds over those four
losses to the Spurs and the Timberwolves. I'm not worried
about them at all. I just think that they're, you know,
the stuff with the Spurs, you have to really you
can't just gloss over those. Those are obvious issues that
they're gonna have to overcome. But overall, now they have
like these clear line items to focus on. In the
(36:52):
regular season, it looked like they were just going to
cruise to seventy five wins and face no adversity. This
is real adversity. I think it's good to have purpose
day today. I think the thunder got humbled a bit.
I think it will ultimately be good for them and
the number one San Antonio Spurs. A preposterous plus thirteen
hundred to win the title on hard rock bet. I
do not see how the odds are that long for
(37:14):
this team. I know that they have their issues. I
know that they're not, you know, matching up as well
against the rest of the league as they have against
Oklahoma City, But just the fact that they can beat
Oklahoma City feels like that should be a higher odds
So some value there at plus thirteen at plus thirteen hundred.
They did lay an egg at home against the Jazz
on Saturday. They just got torched in that second quarter
by Walter Clayton and Keyonte George. The bigger thing is
(37:36):
they went cold on offense in that stretch. Like if
there's something to nitpick in this recent stretch from the Spurs,
it's the ice cold stretches of offense like that second
quarter against Utah and then the fourth quarter against the
Knicks and the n season tournament game. But overall, this
is still the best team in the leagu's in November
fourteen or since November sixteenth, they're fifteen and four in
that stretch. It's a half game better than Oklahoma City
over the same span. And again the distinction of being
(37:58):
three and o versus Okase, which there's a real feather
in your cap as a potential playoff threat this year.
It is a great time to be a San Antonio
Spurs fan. All right, guys, It's all I have for
today is always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting
us and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with
a mailbag, then Wednesday for more instant reaction before we
take New Year's Day off, and then we'll have our
contender rankings on Friday. I will see you guys tomorrow
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The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.