The volume When it comes to college basketball in March Mania, one thing is for sure.

The volume When it comes to college basketball in March Mania, one thing is for sure.

Nothing's for sure.

Nothing's for sure.

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First time.

First time.

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The crown is yours.

The crown is yours.

Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler in New York call eight seven seven eight hope end why or text hope and why to four six seven three six nine and Connecticut help is available for problem gambling called eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. New customers only. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKG dot co slash audio. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume heavy Wednesday. Everybody, opeall, if you guys are having a great week, got a jam packed show for you today. We're gonna hit some NBA storylines off the top. We're going to talk a little bit about the Damian Lillard news and how it's got me thinking a little bit more about the what feels kind of like an inevitable blow up of the Bucks that's happening in a few years, and a team that I think would be really fascinating to go after Giannis. After that, I want to talk about some comments Lebron made about Giannis dropping two hundred and fifty points per game in the seventies. I want to talk about that and how I don't think it's necessarily good for the situation in the way we talked about the game. And then for our course correction segment, I'm gonna shout out Bronni, who had another big game last night, who's really been playing some good basketball over the course of the last week. After that, we're gonna hit two games from last night slate, as the two top seeds in the Western Conference got impressive wins where they basically blew out their opponents, then kind of sort of lost control and then pulled away at the end. As the Thunder got a big win in Sacramento against the Kings and the Houston Rockets got a big win against the Atlanta Hawks. We're gonna be breaking down both of those games from the perspective of both teams all right before we get started, You guys know the drill. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channel. So you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLTS. You guys, don't mis sho announcements. Don't forget about it. Podcast feed wherever you get your podcast, wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. We also bring new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the season. Make sure you guys keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments as well. We are recording a mail bag a little bit later today, so it's too late for that mail bag, but we're gonna be doing another one next week, so make sure you guys keep dropping questions in the YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. So our first NBA storyline, Damian Lillard is out indefinitely due to a blood clot in his calf muscle. First of all, this is just a huge bummer and let's all just hope that he can be back in time for the playoffs because, regardless of how we all feel about the Bucks, I would certainly like to see them get their chance to show what they can do in the postseason at full strength. But this situation has me thinking, because things look more than bleak for Milwaukee right now, even healthy, I have the Bucks firmly outside of my top tier of championship contenders. I don't think they're close to good enough on either end of the floor to actually win for playoff series. And now you add this wrinkle with Dame's condition, which is going to have, at the best case scenario, him just barely stepping on the floor before they start playing real playoff games. So to me, it's just becoming increasingly likely that the Bucks have a disappointing playoff performance, and that Giannis in the trade buzz surrounding him starts to get really loud this summer, because again, I don't think the Bucks are close. I like, there's to me if I look at the top tier of contenders, and it's going to be you know, five, six, seven teams when it's all said and done, we'll see. But you know, I look at Boston and Oka se as kind of like clearly above the rest of the teams in that tier, and the team's below there, the teams like Cleveland, Denver, the Lakers, whether it ends up being the Knicks, or the Warriors teams like that, I view those teams as substantially less likely than Boston and ok Se to win the title. And so when you get to the following tier after that, I mean we're talking it's pipe dream territory for most of these guys. And like that's with Gianni's playing as well as he've been he's been playing this year, it just doesn't feel like they're close. Jannis will have two guaranteed years left as well as a player option. Obviously I would view that player option as something that he would end up opting out of or extending out of. And so realistically, you've got these two guaranteed years left this summer, and so if you wait an additional summer, now you have the whole like, well, what if he doesn't resign problem that's affecting his trade value, And so I think it's possible that we end up seeing a Jannis and Tenetkumpo trade this summer. And so we've talked about a lot of different teams in a different places that he could potentially go. But I've talked a lot about the thunder going after a guy like a Kevin Durant or a Lori, Marknen or something. What if Yannis is the guy that the Thunder ended up going after, they obviously can afford him. He's thirty years old. He is a perfect compliment to Chet Holmern. As a matter of fact, you could argue that the Hartenstein salary is the best vehicle with which to facilitate that sort of trade. Hartenstein and then throwing in some of the younger talent, maybe someone like a case On Wallace and maybe one other player with a bunch of draft compensation. You can visualize the scenario where the team is built around a core of Shay and j Dubb and Chet with Giannis, and like Giannis would immediately make them a good rebounding team when they've been a terrible rebounding team in the shaegifs Alexander Era, I think he's just a shoe in basketball fit. In general, with all of those guys, he immediately changes the physical profiles of the team and makes them that much more bruising on the frontline, especially if the Thunder end up struggling this year in the postseason and they end up like losing in the second round despite someone like Shay having a great series. I think it could end up putting more pressure on OKC to make a more aggressive type of deal, and you could see a trade partnership kind of forming there. And like it's like the Wemby problem we talked about with San Antonio. If your star is ready to go and like ready to win the title, but your guys, like your young players around them that are progressing at the same time but maybe not at the same rate, and it looks like they're not ready, then you end up in a situation where it's like, we can't just wade around while you know, Victor wemin Yama becomes one of the best players in the league and we can't support him properly. And that's the thing, Like you don't want to run into a situation with Shay where he feels like the Thunder are just processing a bunch of young talent and they're not really going for it. And so if that ends up being the case, you could see that pressure start to build and you could see a trade partnership start to form, and if they end up making a deal for someone like Giannis, they would immediately solve all of their weaknesses and I think that would make them the most talented team since the twenty eighteen Warriors. So that's a dynamic that I see kind of sort of taking some shape, and man, that would be a crazy, league altering type of deal. Lebron goes on Pat McAfee show and he starts pontificating about out Giannis and what he would average in the seventies, and he says Yiannis would average two hundred and fifty points if he played back in that era. And like Frankly, I just don't see the point in this. For the same reason why it's lame when the older players start disrespecting this era, I think it's lame for today's players to do the same thing with the past. Now, for the record, there's a reason why they're doing this. There's a reason why JJ Reddick said those guys played against plumbers. There's a reason why Lebron James is talking this shit, and it's because they're sick and tired of the old guys talking shit. I just think it's pointless to stoop down to that level. If Frankly, it's just not productive. It doesn't actually solve anything. And here's the thing. Would Yannis score two hundred and fifty points a game? If he played in the seventies, No, but yeah, he kill those guys, he'd average forty probably maybe even closer to fifty. But who cares. Comparing eras is completely pointless. Jalen Green basically has the same career true shooting percentag justs Kobe Bryant. Does that mean Jalen Green was just as efficient putting the ball in the basket as Kobe Bryant.

Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler in New York call eight seven seven eight hope end why or text hope and why to four six seven three six nine and Connecticut help is available for problem gambling called eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. New customers only. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKG dot co slash audio. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume heavy Wednesday. Everybody, opeall, if you guys are having a great week, got a jam packed show for you today. We're gonna hit some NBA storylines off the top. We're going to talk a little bit about the Damian Lillard news and how it's got me thinking a little bit more about the what feels kind of like an inevitable blow up of the Bucks that's happening in a few years, and a team that I think would be really fascinating to go after Giannis. After that, I want to talk about some comments Lebron made about Giannis dropping two hundred and fifty points per game in the seventies. I want to talk about that and how I don't think it's necessarily good for the situation in the way we talked about the game. And then for our course correction segment, I'm gonna shout out Bronni, who had another big game last night, who's really been playing some good basketball over the course of the last week. After that, we're gonna hit two games from last night slate, as the two top seeds in the Western Conference got impressive wins where they basically blew out their opponents, then kind of sort of lost control and then pulled away at the end. As the Thunder got a big win in Sacramento against the Kings and the Houston Rockets got a big win against the Atlanta Hawks. We're gonna be breaking down both of those games from the perspective of both teams all right before we get started, You guys know the drill. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channel. So you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLTS. You guys, don't mis sho announcements. Don't forget about it. Podcast feed wherever you get your podcast, wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. We also bring new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the season. Make sure you guys keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments as well. We are recording a mail bag a little bit later today, so it's too late for that mail bag, but we're gonna be doing another one next week, so make sure you guys keep dropping questions in the YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. So our first NBA storyline, Damian Lillard is out indefinitely due to a blood clot in his calf muscle. First of all, this is just a huge bummer and let's all just hope that he can be back in time for the playoffs because, regardless of how we all feel about the Bucks, I would certainly like to see them get their chance to show what they can do in the postseason at full strength. But this situation has me thinking, because things look more than bleak for Milwaukee right now, even healthy, I have the Bucks firmly outside of my top tier of championship contenders. I don't think they're close to good enough on either end of the floor to actually win for playoff series. And now you add this wrinkle with Dame's condition, which is going to have, at the best case scenario, him just barely stepping on the floor before they start playing real playoff games. So to me, it's just becoming increasingly likely that the Bucks have a disappointing playoff performance, and that Giannis in the trade buzz surrounding him starts to get really loud this summer, because again, I don't think the Bucks are close. I like, there's to me if I look at the top tier of contenders, and it's going to be you know, five, six, seven teams when it's all said and done, we'll see. But you know, I look at Boston and Oka se as kind of like clearly above the rest of the teams in that tier, and the team's below there, the teams like Cleveland, Denver, the Lakers, whether it ends up being the Knicks, or the Warriors teams like that, I view those teams as substantially less likely than Boston and ok Se to win the title. And so when you get to the following tier after that, I mean we're talking it's pipe dream territory for most of these guys. And like that's with Gianni's playing as well as he've been he's been playing this year, it just doesn't feel like they're close. Jannis will have two guaranteed years left as well as a player option. Obviously I would view that player option as something that he would end up opting out of or extending out of. And so realistically, you've got these two guaranteed years left this summer, and so if you wait an additional summer, now you have the whole like, well, what if he doesn't resign problem that's affecting his trade value, And so I think it's possible that we end up seeing a Jannis and Tenetkumpo trade this summer. And so we've talked about a lot of different teams in a different places that he could potentially go. But I've talked a lot about the thunder going after a guy like a Kevin Durant or a Lori, Marknen or something. What if Yannis is the guy that the Thunder ended up going after, they obviously can afford him. He's thirty years old. He is a perfect compliment to Chet Holmern. As a matter of fact, you could argue that the Hartenstein salary is the best vehicle with which to facilitate that sort of trade. Hartenstein and then throwing in some of the younger talent, maybe someone like a case On Wallace and maybe one other player with a bunch of draft compensation. You can visualize the scenario where the team is built around a core of Shay and j Dubb and Chet with Giannis, and like Giannis would immediately make them a good rebounding team when they've been a terrible rebounding team in the shaegifs Alexander Era, I think he's just a shoe in basketball fit. In general, with all of those guys, he immediately changes the physical profiles of the team and makes them that much more bruising on the frontline, especially if the Thunder end up struggling this year in the postseason and they end up like losing in the second round despite someone like Shay having a great series. I think it could end up putting more pressure on OKC to make a more aggressive type of deal, and you could see a trade partnership kind of forming there. And like it's like the Wemby problem we talked about with San Antonio. If your star is ready to go and like ready to win the title, but your guys, like your young players around them that are progressing at the same time but maybe not at the same rate, and it looks like they're not ready, then you end up in a situation where it's like, we can't just wade around while you know, Victor wemin Yama becomes one of the best players in the league and we can't support him properly. And that's the thing, Like you don't want to run into a situation with Shay where he feels like the Thunder are just processing a bunch of young talent and they're not really going for it. And so if that ends up being the case, you could see that pressure start to build and you could see a trade partnership start to form, and if they end up making a deal for someone like Giannis, they would immediately solve all of their weaknesses and I think that would make them the most talented team since the twenty eighteen Warriors. So that's a dynamic that I see kind of sort of taking some shape, and man, that would be a crazy, league altering type of deal. Lebron goes on Pat McAfee show and he starts pontificating about out Giannis and what he would average in the seventies, and he says Yiannis would average two hundred and fifty points if he played back in that era. And like Frankly, I just don't see the point in this. For the same reason why it's lame when the older players start disrespecting this era, I think it's lame for today's players to do the same thing with the past. Now, for the record, there's a reason why they're doing this. There's a reason why JJ Reddick said those guys played against plumbers. There's a reason why Lebron James is talking this shit, and it's because they're sick and tired of the old guys talking shit. I just think it's pointless to stoop down to that level. If Frankly, it's just not productive. It doesn't actually solve anything. And here's the thing. Would Yannis score two hundred and fifty points a game? If he played in the seventies, No, but yeah, he kill those guys, he'd average forty probably maybe even closer to fifty. But who cares. Comparing eras is completely pointless. Jalen Green basically has the same career true shooting percentag justs Kobe Bryant. Does that mean Jalen Green was just as efficient putting the ball in the basket as Kobe Bryant.

Yeah, in a literal.

Yeah, in a literal.

Sense, but not in a realistic sense, because the game of basketball is very, very different now. Dudes in the seventies had bad shoes, they had shitty flights that they took to their road games, they played brutal schedules. They had nowhere near the knowledge and understanding we have today to make our professional athletes the best they can be. Schematics have involved over the years is just more smart minds have gotten involved in the game and made their imprint strategically. I think it makes absolutely no sense to compare basketball from fifty years ago to today, and again, even if you justify it with the way that those guys have been treated by the older generations, I just think stooping to that level, all it does is further detegrate the game, and now we're in this weird war where like the younger players are shit talking the old days, and the older dudes are shit talking the young guys, and everyone's just being disrespectful to the game of basketball. And so I hope that that stops you. And I disagreed with Lebron's approach there. But for our third top story, we're gonna do our Microsoft Course Correction segment. Welcome to Course Correction, brought to you by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under immense pressure to get things right. They must rise to the occasion, turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries with AI solutions, simplified cloud and data management and trustworthy responsible AI. And when you're in the NBA and you have your own hurdles to face, in this segment, we're exploring the challenges faced by teams or star players and how they can turn things around. Whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say bring it on. This week, we're discussing Bronni James in his recent surge as both an MBA and G League player. So last night, Broni hits five more threes, finished with seventeen points, nine rebounds, and six assists in a win.

Sense, but not in a realistic sense, because the game of basketball is very, very different now. Dudes in the seventies had bad shoes, they had shitty flights that they took to their road games, they played brutal schedules. They had nowhere near the knowledge and understanding we have today to make our professional athletes the best they can be. Schematics have involved over the years is just more smart minds have gotten involved in the game and made their imprint strategically. I think it makes absolutely no sense to compare basketball from fifty years ago to today, and again, even if you justify it with the way that those guys have been treated by the older generations, I just think stooping to that level, all it does is further detegrate the game, and now we're in this weird war where like the younger players are shit talking the old days, and the older dudes are shit talking the young guys, and everyone's just being disrespectful to the game of basketball. And so I hope that that stops you. And I disagreed with Lebron's approach there. But for our third top story, we're gonna do our Microsoft Course Correction segment. Welcome to Course Correction, brought to you by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under immense pressure to get things right. They must rise to the occasion, turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries with AI solutions, simplified cloud and data management and trustworthy responsible AI. And when you're in the NBA and you have your own hurdles to face, in this segment, we're exploring the challenges faced by teams or star players and how they can turn things around. Whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say bring it on. This week, we're discussing Bronni James in his recent surge as both an MBA and G League player. So last night, Broni hits five more threes, finished with seventeen points, nine rebounds, and six assists in a win.

This is on the heels of him.

This is on the heels of him.

Dropping a career high thirty nine points in a previous G League game a couple days prior, and that was on the heels of him dropping seventeen points in a real deal NBA game against the Bucks where he made a lot of moves that looked very much like a well rounded professional basketball player. I thought this was a great time for us to just remind everybody that Ronnie James was the twentieth ranked prospect in the nation in his high school class. He was a McDonald's All American. He was absolutely, unquestionably on an NBA trajectory before he experienced cardiac arrest at usc But then he got his NBA opportunity despite struggling for a while after the cardiac arrest incident, and as a result, he became one of the biggest stories in all of media, not just in sports media, but the whole thing got picked up by political media because lebron has ventured into that arena a few times and obviously made enemies in there. That is one hell of a cesspool in political media, and it is as contentious as it can be, and there's an entire side there that will jump on every little thing that Lebron does, and so it became absolutely nasty. Can you imagine being Bronny? And again I want you to disconnect from Lebron for a second. Bronni James is an entirely different human being than Lebron, an entirely different person. Anything that he gets as an association from Lebron imagine being in his shoes and dealing with that. Can you imagine getting on his phone and scrolling Instagram and seeing content creators making highlight reels of his mistakes in Summer League or in garbage time in an NBA game, or in the early G league days, And can you imagine the comments underneath those videos and the direct messages that he receives. Again, as we've talked about, like when you venture into this world, there are perks that greatly outweigh the negativity you face online. That doesn't make the negativity like just go away, or that it's just super easy to handle or anything like that. It sucks I on a much much smaller level, just as a content creator in the NBA media face a certain amount of negativity, Like you don't wake up one day and like read the comment that's talking shit about the way you look or the way you sound, and then suddenly just be like, oh that's fine.

Dropping a career high thirty nine points in a previous G League game a couple days prior, and that was on the heels of him dropping seventeen points in a real deal NBA game against the Bucks where he made a lot of moves that looked very much like a well rounded professional basketball player. I thought this was a great time for us to just remind everybody that Ronnie James was the twentieth ranked prospect in the nation in his high school class. He was a McDonald's All American. He was absolutely, unquestionably on an NBA trajectory before he experienced cardiac arrest at usc But then he got his NBA opportunity despite struggling for a while after the cardiac arrest incident, and as a result, he became one of the biggest stories in all of media, not just in sports media, but the whole thing got picked up by political media because lebron has ventured into that arena a few times and obviously made enemies in there. That is one hell of a cesspool in political media, and it is as contentious as it can be, and there's an entire side there that will jump on every little thing that Lebron does, and so it became absolutely nasty. Can you imagine being Bronny? And again I want you to disconnect from Lebron for a second. Bronni James is an entirely different human being than Lebron, an entirely different person. Anything that he gets as an association from Lebron imagine being in his shoes and dealing with that. Can you imagine getting on his phone and scrolling Instagram and seeing content creators making highlight reels of his mistakes in Summer League or in garbage time in an NBA game, or in the early G league days, And can you imagine the comments underneath those videos and the direct messages that he receives. Again, as we've talked about, like when you venture into this world, there are perks that greatly outweigh the negativity you face online. That doesn't make the negativity like just go away, or that it's just super easy to handle or anything like that. It sucks I on a much much smaller level, just as a content creator in the NBA media face a certain amount of negativity, Like you don't wake up one day and like read the comment that's talking shit about the way you look or the way you sound, and then suddenly just be like, oh that's fine.

No wheries will go about to day. It still sucks, and.

No wheries will go about to day. It still sucks, and.

This kid was getting it at a preposterous volume every single day because he suffered an injury and a condition that dramatically affected his basketball development. I was thinking about I was actually talking about this with my buddy Richmond Weaver on the radio a little bit earlier this morning. I remember when I broke my foot in between my first two seasons playing in college. I had a really rough first semester in non conference play because I was struggling with like confidence in my foot, like my ability to plant that foot, I you know, play at about back in college. I was playing at two hundred and twenty five pounds, Like it's just a lot of weight to be planting really heavy on a foot that I was nervous was gonna give way, and it affected my play for months. Can you imagine cardiac arrest? Can you imagine like playing hard after cardiac arrest? Can you imagine pushing yourself and like feeling your body like start to like really get into high heart rates, and how that could potentially scare you, how that could affect your willingness or ability to compete to a certain extent. Like, I just have so much sympathy for what Bronni has been through over the course of this last year, in the sense that he's been put through hell because of his dad and his persona. And look, has Lebron done something that has accentuated the amount of attention on his son. Yes, he's made some comments, He's done some things. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that that hasn't happened. But he's Lebron James, So we're not also going to pretend that if Lebron shut up that Bronni wouldn't.

This kid was getting it at a preposterous volume every single day because he suffered an injury and a condition that dramatically affected his basketball development. I was thinking about I was actually talking about this with my buddy Richmond Weaver on the radio a little bit earlier this morning. I remember when I broke my foot in between my first two seasons playing in college. I had a really rough first semester in non conference play because I was struggling with like confidence in my foot, like my ability to plant that foot, I you know, play at about back in college. I was playing at two hundred and twenty five pounds, Like it's just a lot of weight to be planting really heavy on a foot that I was nervous was gonna give way, and it affected my play for months. Can you imagine cardiac arrest? Can you imagine like playing hard after cardiac arrest? Can you imagine pushing yourself and like feeling your body like start to like really get into high heart rates, and how that could potentially scare you, how that could affect your willingness or ability to compete to a certain extent. Like, I just have so much sympathy for what Bronni has been through over the course of this last year, in the sense that he's been put through hell because of his dad and his persona. And look, has Lebron done something that has accentuated the amount of attention on his son. Yes, he's made some comments, He's done some things. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that that hasn't happened. But he's Lebron James, So we're not also going to pretend that if Lebron shut up that Bronni wouldn't.

Be a public figure. He still would.

Be a public figure. He still would.

Lebron could have said nothing, and Bronni would have faced ninety nine percent of the exact same circumstances that he's faced over the last year, and the fact that his entire basketball pedigree and everything he accomplished up until the cardiac arrest was just crumpled up and thrown in the trash. As part of the way that whole thing was discussed. It just was nasty, and I just feel really bad for him, and I'm just excited for him that he's starting to break through on the other side of this and show some of that pedigree that he demonstrated when he was in high school.

Lebron could have said nothing, and Bronni would have faced ninety nine percent of the exact same circumstances that he's faced over the last year, and the fact that his entire basketball pedigree and everything he accomplished up until the cardiac arrest was just crumpled up and thrown in the trash. As part of the way that whole thing was discussed. It just was nasty, and I just feel really bad for him, and I'm just excited for him that he's starting to break through on the other side of this and show some of that pedigree that he demonstrated when he was in high school.

Now, for the record, this won't be linear.

Now, for the record, this won't be linear.

The development of young players is not something that just goes up and up and up. He'll have stretches where he has bad games in the NBA, He'll have bad stretches of games in the G League. He'll make mistakes, there will be more content creators that have more opportunities to slander him for whatever reason. But what you're starting to see is the upside. You're starting to see that he can shoot. JJ Reddick talked the other day about how he expects Brownie in the big picture to be a great shooter. You've seen some of the upside with him as a defensive playmaker. You've seen some of the upside with him as a downhill threat towards the rim. As a playmaking talent. He's got ability in there now. I still maintain that I think it'll be at least a year or two before he can be a guy that plays real rotational minutes at the NBA level as a guard off the bench for somebody in the NBA. I still think he needs quite a bit of time to get there, but the potential has always been there. It was missing in terms of the production for a little while as a result of what happened to him at USC and I'm happy that we're all starting to see some of that potential start to come to fruition right now, because it's just a reminder and quite frankly, a resounding statement that most of the stuff that was set about Bronnie and set about lebron over the course of the year with Bronni in his journey to where he has in the NBA was just complete and utter bullshit. And Bronnie's just rubbing that in everybody's face right now, and I'm happy for him. That's it for this week's course correction. Remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to take bold steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to help drive your business forward. With Microsoft as your trusted partner, you can navigate your journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions and reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com Slash Challengers to learn more. All right, let's get into a couple games from last night. The Thunder just completely outclassed the King right out of the gate. They put Keegan Murray on chet Holmgrin to start in. The Thunder just immediately started running him through off ball screens. They ran a backscreen on the week side with shy backscreening for Chet. Kean Ellis did not want to switch off of Shey. Keegan got caught on the screen. Chet got a wide open layup that was on the first play of the game. Second play of the game, they run a Chicago action which is just the DHO guys up top and there's a screener in front. The screener will pin down, the DHO guy will follow, and Check comes off of both of those screens. I think it was Dorton Hartenstein if I remember correctly. So basically two screens, Chet comes flying off of him up to the right wing and knocks down with three off the catches. Keegan gets run through a bunch of screens again. It's Chet is kind of a cheat code in these off ball actions for a couple of reasons. One, he's a big so teams are most likely not going to switch guards on him. So if you run screening action for him with guards involved, he's probably gonna get some separation because you're probably going to guard him with a bigger player. Bigger players notoriously struggle with screens. Even a guy like Kei can murray as good as he is in ISO, he can struggle sometimes getting over the top of screens right. And when you have a situation where you're not switching because of a big and a small it just puts big guys in position where they have to navigate a bunch of screens, and that's difficult. That's why inverted ball screens work so well with the Jokic's and some of the other centers that run that sort of action throughout the league. Even Giannis runs that sort of thing.

The development of young players is not something that just goes up and up and up. He'll have stretches where he has bad games in the NBA, He'll have bad stretches of games in the G League. He'll make mistakes, there will be more content creators that have more opportunities to slander him for whatever reason. But what you're starting to see is the upside. You're starting to see that he can shoot. JJ Reddick talked the other day about how he expects Brownie in the big picture to be a great shooter. You've seen some of the upside with him as a defensive playmaker. You've seen some of the upside with him as a downhill threat towards the rim. As a playmaking talent. He's got ability in there now. I still maintain that I think it'll be at least a year or two before he can be a guy that plays real rotational minutes at the NBA level as a guard off the bench for somebody in the NBA. I still think he needs quite a bit of time to get there, but the potential has always been there. It was missing in terms of the production for a little while as a result of what happened to him at USC and I'm happy that we're all starting to see some of that potential start to come to fruition right now, because it's just a reminder and quite frankly, a resounding statement that most of the stuff that was set about Bronnie and set about lebron over the course of the year with Bronni in his journey to where he has in the NBA was just complete and utter bullshit. And Bronnie's just rubbing that in everybody's face right now, and I'm happy for him. That's it for this week's course correction. Remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to take bold steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to help drive your business forward. With Microsoft as your trusted partner, you can navigate your journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions and reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com Slash Challengers to learn more. All right, let's get into a couple games from last night. The Thunder just completely outclassed the King right out of the gate. They put Keegan Murray on chet Holmgrin to start in. The Thunder just immediately started running him through off ball screens. They ran a backscreen on the week side with shy backscreening for Chet. Kean Ellis did not want to switch off of Shey. Keegan got caught on the screen. Chet got a wide open layup that was on the first play of the game. Second play of the game, they run a Chicago action which is just the DHO guys up top and there's a screener in front. The screener will pin down, the DHO guy will follow, and Check comes off of both of those screens. I think it was Dorton Hartenstein if I remember correctly. So basically two screens, Chet comes flying off of him up to the right wing and knocks down with three off the catches. Keegan gets run through a bunch of screens again. It's Chet is kind of a cheat code in these off ball actions for a couple of reasons. One, he's a big so teams are most likely not going to switch guards on him. So if you run screening action for him with guards involved, he's probably gonna get some separation because you're probably going to guard him with a bigger player. Bigger players notoriously struggle with screens. Even a guy like Kei can murray as good as he is in ISO, he can struggle sometimes getting over the top of screens right. And when you have a situation where you're not switching because of a big and a small it just puts big guys in position where they have to navigate a bunch of screens, and that's difficult. That's why inverted ball screens work so well with the Jokic's and some of the other centers that run that sort of action throughout the league. Even Giannis runs that sort of thing.

Quite a bit.

Quite a bit.

The second piece of it, though, is he's a really big target. He had another bucket later in the first half against Jake Laavia where they ran a kind of like an off ball action that Check curled into the lane and Jake saw it, Jake evaded the screen. Jake ran into the lane to guard Chet, but Chet's seven feet tall and so Isa Hartenstein, who is the passer at the top of the key, just kind of rifled up a pass that was up high and to the right where Jake had no chance to get it, and Chet, in his you know, go go gadget arms, just went out and grabbed it and brought it in and by the time Jake Larravio was on the ground, Chet was dunking it. And that's the thing, Like he's just such a big target passing wise, and he's so tall that like if he catches anything around the rim, it's just an automatic dunk. And I just thought seeing Chet run all that off ball action was just casual reminder of some of the big picture potential this team has offensively. As Chet continues to develop on that end of the floor, their defense was immediately stifling against Sacramento's guards. Started with the bigs, like Hartenstein did a wonderful job against the bonus as he keeps racking up great defensive nights against some really tough defensive matchups. We've been talking about that a lot. They were roaming off of Keegan Murray with Chet Holmgren, and that burned them a little bit. Keegan got twenty eight points and most of them were on threes when chet was roaming or digging down into the lane. But the end result was a disaster for DeRozan and Levine and the Kings couldn't score. They combined for just twenty nine points on thirty one shots between those two guys. I thought Caruso in particular, did a great job of pressuring Levine, forced him to rush on his drives. Levine would be running right into heart and sign at the rim, and he just was hesitant to test heart and sign at the rim, so he'd like drop it off to Valenceiunis underneath the basket. But because Hartenstein didn't have to jump at the rim, he's just right there and then he would just tie up Valenceiunis on the catch. I've really been enjoying watching Alex Crusoe on defense lately. He just does all the little things that you see the great defenders in NBA history do. Starts with pressure off ball. When he's guarding a score, he's staying attached to the body on ball. He's applying pressure as they come up the floor. But when you start trying to attack him, he attacks you. As a defender in every phase of the shot you're trying to take. I was watching him guard DeMar Derozen on a post up and Damar really drops that left shoulder and bumps him and Crusoe absorbs the contact, so he kind of disrupts the base a little bit. Right Then as Derozen spun into the right shoulder fade, he swipes at the gather. So again, as the shooter's gathering the ball in the shooting pocket, there's a moment where the ball is exposed in front. That's a great opportunity for a defender to disrupt the gatherer by swiping at the basketball. Then after the gather, DeMar DeRozan rises up into the right shoulder fade and Cruzo gets a contest on the shot. And I was sitting there thinking, I was like, every time I watch one of the elite defenders in the league, this is the way they guard. They you think of a contest. And this, by the way, is why you know it's impossible to quantify all the little minute details in basketball, and why even something silly like like, oh, contested shot percentage versus regular shot percentage doesn't factor in what kind of contest was it. I'll give you an example I remember when KD hit the game winner against not the game winner, but the Yeah it was the game winner ended up being the game winner in game three. I think of the twenty seventeen Finals, the one where he hit the kind of transition hesitation pull up three on Lebron. Bron got his hand up. Lebron's there had his hand up. That'll go down in the books as a contested three. Do you think KD was uncomfortable at all on that shot. No, he just rose right up into it in rhythm and knocked it down because Lebron did not disrupt Katie's base and he did not disrupt Katie's gather. There's all of these different phases to a shot that you have to disrupt in order to make an offensive player uncomfortable. Bump them on the base so that when they get their lift it feels different than when they're shooting or alone in the gym. If you get any sort of contact on the shooting pocket, like if you hit the basketball a little bit there, you'll disrupt their energy transfer. That's the power that they drive from their feet up through their gather up to the top of the shot. Then getting a contest on the top of the shot is a great way to tie all of that together. Alex Cruso is amazing at this concept, this idea of disrupting all three phases of a shot, and it's a very important detail to what puts a defensive player into another stretch at his sphere, making stars and other shot creators uncomfortable. The Kings went on a little bit of a run in the late third quarter that cut the lead down to six, and then shake Gildess Alexander just decided that their fund was over. He just drove right past Jake Laabia for dunk, drove right by him again and drew a foul. They switched Keon Ellis onto him, and he shot a step back three on the left wing that he hit. The lead was right back to eleven. All of Sacramento's momentum was gone and they never got that close again. This, to me, is one of the defining characteristics of a superstar in the NBA, one of the biggest responsibilities on the shoulders of players who have that role. You are the guy with the superpower. You have the thing that you do that nobody can stop when things are getting messy and your teammates who don't have superpowers are struggling to find their footing. Sometimes you have to force the issue, find a way to make a few plays to regain control of the situation. Cha's team needed him in that spot to just get a few buckets to settle things down, his superpower being his downhill driving ability. And oh, you switched a smaller guard onto him to try to get away from the dribble penetration and he hits a jump shot over the top. He just straight up forced the issue, generated seven quick points, and any momentum that Sacramento had was gone. The Thunder have won seven in a row. Now they're the first team in the league this year to get to sixty wins if they go ten, and oh, they'll get to seventy over the course of the final couple weeks. They are now two games up on Cleveland for the best record in basketball, starting to really separate. And they're doing all of this without j Dubb. Just a remarkable season for the Thunder. All right, Hawks, Rockets. So the Rockets handled the Hawks at home to win their tenth game and eleven. Trucks a little bit of a light stretching the schedule, but there's a handful of impressive wins, and they're Jalen Green goes off for thirty two points in this one. He's getting to the rim at will. He found some matchups that he liked throughout the game. He attacked Trey a few times. He went at Vit Kretschie quite a bit, Garrison Matthews quite a bit. Gave some wild buckets to Terrence Man. He had a baseline spin on him that like literally left Terrence stuck in the mud.

The second piece of it, though, is he's a really big target. He had another bucket later in the first half against Jake Laavia where they ran a kind of like an off ball action that Check curled into the lane and Jake saw it, Jake evaded the screen. Jake ran into the lane to guard Chet, but Chet's seven feet tall and so Isa Hartenstein, who is the passer at the top of the key, just kind of rifled up a pass that was up high and to the right where Jake had no chance to get it, and Chet, in his you know, go go gadget arms, just went out and grabbed it and brought it in and by the time Jake Larravio was on the ground, Chet was dunking it. And that's the thing, Like he's just such a big target passing wise, and he's so tall that like if he catches anything around the rim, it's just an automatic dunk. And I just thought seeing Chet run all that off ball action was just casual reminder of some of the big picture potential this team has offensively. As Chet continues to develop on that end of the floor, their defense was immediately stifling against Sacramento's guards. Started with the bigs, like Hartenstein did a wonderful job against the bonus as he keeps racking up great defensive nights against some really tough defensive matchups. We've been talking about that a lot. They were roaming off of Keegan Murray with Chet Holmgren, and that burned them a little bit. Keegan got twenty eight points and most of them were on threes when chet was roaming or digging down into the lane. But the end result was a disaster for DeRozan and Levine and the Kings couldn't score. They combined for just twenty nine points on thirty one shots between those two guys. I thought Caruso in particular, did a great job of pressuring Levine, forced him to rush on his drives. Levine would be running right into heart and sign at the rim, and he just was hesitant to test heart and sign at the rim, so he'd like drop it off to Valenceiunis underneath the basket. But because Hartenstein didn't have to jump at the rim, he's just right there and then he would just tie up Valenceiunis on the catch. I've really been enjoying watching Alex Crusoe on defense lately. He just does all the little things that you see the great defenders in NBA history do. Starts with pressure off ball. When he's guarding a score, he's staying attached to the body on ball. He's applying pressure as they come up the floor. But when you start trying to attack him, he attacks you. As a defender in every phase of the shot you're trying to take. I was watching him guard DeMar Derozen on a post up and Damar really drops that left shoulder and bumps him and Crusoe absorbs the contact, so he kind of disrupts the base a little bit. Right Then as Derozen spun into the right shoulder fade, he swipes at the gather. So again, as the shooter's gathering the ball in the shooting pocket, there's a moment where the ball is exposed in front. That's a great opportunity for a defender to disrupt the gatherer by swiping at the basketball. Then after the gather, DeMar DeRozan rises up into the right shoulder fade and Cruzo gets a contest on the shot. And I was sitting there thinking, I was like, every time I watch one of the elite defenders in the league, this is the way they guard. They you think of a contest. And this, by the way, is why you know it's impossible to quantify all the little minute details in basketball, and why even something silly like like, oh, contested shot percentage versus regular shot percentage doesn't factor in what kind of contest was it. I'll give you an example I remember when KD hit the game winner against not the game winner, but the Yeah it was the game winner ended up being the game winner in game three. I think of the twenty seventeen Finals, the one where he hit the kind of transition hesitation pull up three on Lebron. Bron got his hand up. Lebron's there had his hand up. That'll go down in the books as a contested three. Do you think KD was uncomfortable at all on that shot. No, he just rose right up into it in rhythm and knocked it down because Lebron did not disrupt Katie's base and he did not disrupt Katie's gather. There's all of these different phases to a shot that you have to disrupt in order to make an offensive player uncomfortable. Bump them on the base so that when they get their lift it feels different than when they're shooting or alone in the gym. If you get any sort of contact on the shooting pocket, like if you hit the basketball a little bit there, you'll disrupt their energy transfer. That's the power that they drive from their feet up through their gather up to the top of the shot. Then getting a contest on the top of the shot is a great way to tie all of that together. Alex Cruso is amazing at this concept, this idea of disrupting all three phases of a shot, and it's a very important detail to what puts a defensive player into another stretch at his sphere, making stars and other shot creators uncomfortable. The Kings went on a little bit of a run in the late third quarter that cut the lead down to six, and then shake Gildess Alexander just decided that their fund was over. He just drove right past Jake Laabia for dunk, drove right by him again and drew a foul. They switched Keon Ellis onto him, and he shot a step back three on the left wing that he hit. The lead was right back to eleven. All of Sacramento's momentum was gone and they never got that close again. This, to me, is one of the defining characteristics of a superstar in the NBA, one of the biggest responsibilities on the shoulders of players who have that role. You are the guy with the superpower. You have the thing that you do that nobody can stop when things are getting messy and your teammates who don't have superpowers are struggling to find their footing. Sometimes you have to force the issue, find a way to make a few plays to regain control of the situation. Cha's team needed him in that spot to just get a few buckets to settle things down, his superpower being his downhill driving ability. And oh, you switched a smaller guard onto him to try to get away from the dribble penetration and he hits a jump shot over the top. He just straight up forced the issue, generated seven quick points, and any momentum that Sacramento had was gone. The Thunder have won seven in a row. Now they're the first team in the league this year to get to sixty wins if they go ten, and oh, they'll get to seventy over the course of the final couple weeks. They are now two games up on Cleveland for the best record in basketball, starting to really separate. And they're doing all of this without j Dubb. Just a remarkable season for the Thunder. All right, Hawks, Rockets. So the Rockets handled the Hawks at home to win their tenth game and eleven. Trucks a little bit of a light stretching the schedule, but there's a handful of impressive wins, and they're Jalen Green goes off for thirty two points in this one. He's getting to the rim at will. He found some matchups that he liked throughout the game. He attacked Trey a few times. He went at Vit Kretschie quite a bit, Garrison Matthews quite a bit. Gave some wild buckets to Terrence Man. He had a baseline spin on him that like literally left Terrence stuck in the mud.

Threw down a dunk. Had had two nasty dunks.

Threw down a dunk. Had had two nasty dunks.

In this game, because he had one where he split I think it was an an Yeka congu and a ball screen where Dyson Daniels was trailing him and ended up just going up the elevator at the semi circle and throwing down a jackhammer. He also hit one of the biggest shots of the game against Terrence Man, like a little fifteen foot fade away along the right baseline. He had two huge stabilizing buckets after Atlanta made their run. Similar to the Sacramento game with OKC, Houston controls the game right away from the start, build a big lead. They go on a late third quarter run gets the lead down. Atlanta actually cut this down to four at one point. Terrence Man had a nice little scoring run, hit a big three, hit a little mid range fade away in the lane. They cut it down to four and Jalen Green makes four plays down the stretch that kind of ice the game. He has a driving layup against Vit Kretschie that gets goaltended off the glass. He has another driving and one shot against Zachary Rosa Chet, a little like kind of fading jump shot after he gets some contact on a drive. He attacks Trey Young in action and draws him into a two on the ball situation where Trey hedges and then tries to recover, but they swing the ball out of it quickly. And against Jabari Smith Junior, a wide open three on the right wing that he knocks down that again was generated by Atlanta putting two on the ball because of the damage that Jalen Green was doing attacking matchups in those situations. And then he hit the dagger over Terrence Man. Really really impressive game from Jalen Green. He's had at least twenty eight points in five of his last eight games. I thought Shang gun was a big problem Frontlanta and this one. It's crazy how often I've watched the Rockets, and the biggest thing that stands out to me is that the other team just can't guard Shangun and it just changes the dynamic of the game. There is no Clint Capella for the Hawks in this game, so it's a combination of Nyika Congu, Georges Niang, and Dominic Barlow who are getting the Shang assignments, and Shangyun just killed those guys. Niang and Barlow especially. He had a couple of plays against Niang and Barlow where he scored on them like one on two, and it just didn't matter because he was just going through them. He also made a huge play in that late run that we talked about. He posted a congou in the middle of the floor, drew a double team swing swing got a wide open three for Jabari Smith. Shout out to Jabari Smith, by the way, just three for nine from three in the game, but hit some huge ones late in the game that were really important. I want to zoom in on the defensive end for a minute, though, because the Rockets ran a ton of zone in this game, and they've been running a ton of zone as of late. This is actually a crazy stat According to Synergy, the Houston Rockets ran zero possessions of zone defense in their first twenty nine or excuse me, in their first fifty nine games this season, zero possessions of zone in fifty nine games. They've run two hundred and forty two possessions of zone in the last fourteen games. That's over seventeen possessions of zone a game.

In this game, because he had one where he split I think it was an an Yeka congu and a ball screen where Dyson Daniels was trailing him and ended up just going up the elevator at the semi circle and throwing down a jackhammer. He also hit one of the biggest shots of the game against Terrence Man, like a little fifteen foot fade away along the right baseline. He had two huge stabilizing buckets after Atlanta made their run. Similar to the Sacramento game with OKC, Houston controls the game right away from the start, build a big lead. They go on a late third quarter run gets the lead down. Atlanta actually cut this down to four at one point. Terrence Man had a nice little scoring run, hit a big three, hit a little mid range fade away in the lane. They cut it down to four and Jalen Green makes four plays down the stretch that kind of ice the game. He has a driving layup against Vit Kretschie that gets goaltended off the glass. He has another driving and one shot against Zachary Rosa Chet, a little like kind of fading jump shot after he gets some contact on a drive. He attacks Trey Young in action and draws him into a two on the ball situation where Trey hedges and then tries to recover, but they swing the ball out of it quickly. And against Jabari Smith Junior, a wide open three on the right wing that he knocks down that again was generated by Atlanta putting two on the ball because of the damage that Jalen Green was doing attacking matchups in those situations. And then he hit the dagger over Terrence Man. Really really impressive game from Jalen Green. He's had at least twenty eight points in five of his last eight games. I thought Shang gun was a big problem Frontlanta and this one. It's crazy how often I've watched the Rockets, and the biggest thing that stands out to me is that the other team just can't guard Shangun and it just changes the dynamic of the game. There is no Clint Capella for the Hawks in this game, so it's a combination of Nyika Congu, Georges Niang, and Dominic Barlow who are getting the Shang assignments, and Shangyun just killed those guys. Niang and Barlow especially. He had a couple of plays against Niang and Barlow where he scored on them like one on two, and it just didn't matter because he was just going through them. He also made a huge play in that late run that we talked about. He posted a congou in the middle of the floor, drew a double team swing swing got a wide open three for Jabari Smith. Shout out to Jabari Smith, by the way, just three for nine from three in the game, but hit some huge ones late in the game that were really important. I want to zoom in on the defensive end for a minute, though, because the Rockets ran a ton of zone in this game, and they've been running a ton of zone as of late. This is actually a crazy stat According to Synergy, the Houston Rockets ran zero possessions of zone defense in their first twenty nine or excuse me, in their first fifty nine games this season, zero possessions of zone in fifty nine games. They've run two hundred and forty two possessions of zone in the last fourteen games. That's over seventeen possessions of zone a game.

Now.

Now.

It's been matchup specific like they've run it over forty times in three games specifically against Atlanta or and OKC. A lot of like speedy, kind of transition attack types of teams. Right, But they're running it at least a little bit every game and it's working. They're allowing just zero point eighty six points per possession with their zone defense. That's the third best in the entire NBA. They're running two different variations of it, and they're both built out of a two to three base. But they have a version with Steven Adams at center where he lags more back around the rim. It's more of a traditional two three zone. And then they have a version where they put Jabari Smith Junior at the center position. The de facto center position under the basket, and they'll have him be much more active coming up the floor, so like he'll, like when they're looking to drive on the top guy, he'll like be up around the elbow just waiting in help. Or if someone flashes to the middle of the floor to try to catch, Jabari will come up and the two guys on the wing will kind of shrink down around him. It's more of like a a Meeba matchup zone kind of thing with Jabari Smith out there at the at the center position. But like it works because the active in their zone. They pressure the ball, meaning like they don't just sit back, they get up and guard the ball. They move and shift as a unit. They ran forty eight possessions of a zone in this game against Atlanta, and Atlanta managed to zero point eight eight points per possession. As a comparison, Houston attacking Atlanta's man demand coverage got one point one to one points per possessions, or a dominating performance on the heels of their I should say on the strength of their zone defense. It's worth mentioning that the Rockets have played a relatively light schedule in this ten and one stretch, but It's also worth mentioning that they've really been scoring the ball. They have a one to nineteen offensive rating in this eleven game span that ranks eighth in the NBA. And remember, even at their best, they've struggled to score this year. Still number four in defense over the last eleven games, they've been the number one rebounding team in the league over that span. The offense is the interesting trend though, because if they can continue to maintain that level of offensive production against the league competition, they've become way more dangerous as a playoff threat. It's been kind of like a bi committee sort of thing. They have seven players averaging double figures. Fred van Vliet is back and he's shooting the three ball really well. Dylan Brooks in the seven game span, excuse me, in this eleven game span is taking over seven threes a game and he's hitting forty one percent of them. Shane Goon eighteen points per game, fifty four from the field, forty three percent from three in that span. Tarry Easen is pouring in fifteen points a game in the span. They're just getting a lot of contributions around the board, and they're really scoring the ball. Well, the Rockets are playing some very good basketball. All right, guys, it's all I have for today. As always, this sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show, the game plan as of right now. We're going live tonight on YouTube after the final buzzer of Celtic Suns to break that game down as well as the Lakers Pacers game. That's going to be a really fun one. I think that's a great test to the Lakers because they're a fast team that plays in transition a lot, and they've got a quick guard, and that's a couple of things that have caused the Lakers issues over the course of the season. So I'll be really interested to watch that one as well. I look forward to seeing you guys. Then I will see you guys on YouTube.

It's been matchup specific like they've run it over forty times in three games specifically against Atlanta or and OKC. A lot of like speedy, kind of transition attack types of teams. Right, But they're running it at least a little bit every game and it's working. They're allowing just zero point eighty six points per possession with their zone defense. That's the third best in the entire NBA. They're running two different variations of it, and they're both built out of a two to three base. But they have a version with Steven Adams at center where he lags more back around the rim. It's more of a traditional two three zone. And then they have a version where they put Jabari Smith Junior at the center position. The de facto center position under the basket, and they'll have him be much more active coming up the floor, so like he'll, like when they're looking to drive on the top guy, he'll like be up around the elbow just waiting in help. Or if someone flashes to the middle of the floor to try to catch, Jabari will come up and the two guys on the wing will kind of shrink down around him. It's more of like a a Meeba matchup zone kind of thing with Jabari Smith out there at the at the center position. But like it works because the active in their zone. They pressure the ball, meaning like they don't just sit back, they get up and guard the ball. They move and shift as a unit. They ran forty eight possessions of a zone in this game against Atlanta, and Atlanta managed to zero point eight eight points per possession. As a comparison, Houston attacking Atlanta's man demand coverage got one point one to one points per possessions, or a dominating performance on the heels of their I should say on the strength of their zone defense. It's worth mentioning that the Rockets have played a relatively light schedule in this ten and one stretch, but It's also worth mentioning that they've really been scoring the ball. They have a one to nineteen offensive rating in this eleven game span that ranks eighth in the NBA. And remember, even at their best, they've struggled to score this year. Still number four in defense over the last eleven games, they've been the number one rebounding team in the league over that span. The offense is the interesting trend though, because if they can continue to maintain that level of offensive production against the league competition, they've become way more dangerous as a playoff threat. It's been kind of like a bi committee sort of thing. They have seven players averaging double figures. Fred van Vliet is back and he's shooting the three ball really well. Dylan Brooks in the seven game span, excuse me, in this eleven game span is taking over seven threes a game and he's hitting forty one percent of them. Shane Goon eighteen points per game, fifty four from the field, forty three percent from three in that span. Tarry Easen is pouring in fifteen points a game in the span. They're just getting a lot of contributions around the board, and they're really scoring the ball. Well, the Rockets are playing some very good basketball. All right, guys, it's all I have for today. As always, this sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show, the game plan as of right now. We're going live tonight on YouTube after the final buzzer of Celtic Suns to break that game down as well as the Lakers Pacers game. That's going to be a really fun one. I think that's a great test to the Lakers because they're a fast team that plays in transition a lot, and they've got a quick guard, and that's a couple of things that have caused the Lakers issues over the course of the season. So I'll be really interested to watch that one as well. I look forward to seeing you guys. Then I will see you guys on YouTube.

Today the volume What's Up? Guys.

Today the volume What's Up? Guys.

As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.

As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.