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Slash b ball. All right, we'll coome to Hoop Tonight. You're at the ball.

Slash b ball. All right, we'll coome to Hoop Tonight. You're at the ball.

You'd have you Monday, everybody, I'll ball you guys. Had an incredible weekend. Got a jam pack Monday show for you guys. I've got four big takeaways from this weekend off the top, and then at the tail end of the show, like we always do on Monday, our power rankings as we go through the top ten teams in the league. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore js. You guys, don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed or if you get your pocast on or hoops tonight, don't forget. It's also helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We we're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure you guys follow us there. And last but not least, like we do every Friday, we're going to be doing a mail bag, So drop questions in the YouTube comments for the mail bag by the time we get there on Friday. All right, let's talk some basketball. So my number one big takeaway from the weekend, the Los Angeles Lakers have reinvented themselves as a staunch defensive team. This team has pretty much only had weird seasons ever since they made the decision to trade for Russell Westbrook, whether it's been like that first Russ here where it's a lot of injuries, or that second rush here where it's more injuries, but then you're kind of a completely different team in the post deadline phase of the season to the quitting on Darvin Ham in the middle of the season for a month to everything that went wrong in that late November early December stretch this year, But this might actually be the weirdest thing that I've seen the Lakers do post trading for Russell Westbrook. In the Lakers' first twenty three games before this four to one stretch, they were twenty sixth in defensive rating, meaning they allowed the fifth most points in the league per one hundred possessions, twenty fifth in defensive rebounding percentage, twenty seventh in fast break points allowed, meaning basically for the first twenty three games of the season, for more than a fourth of the season, they were getting absolutely crushed in every athleticism category. Defending, rebounding, and running the floor. Those are all things that come down to your willingness to compete athletically on the floor, bottom six in all three of those categories. In the lakers last five games, they are the number one defense in the league, allowing just ninety nine point two points per one hundred posessions, or the only team in the league allowing less than one hundred points per one hundred possessions. In that span, They are ninth in defensive rebounding percentage, and tenth in fast break points allowed. So from bottom six in all three categories to number one in defense and top ten in all three categories. Most impressively, they've done it against teams that specifically attack their weaknesses. In this stretch of games they've had to play their last three against Memphis and Sacramento, those are all top ten offenses predicated on speed, which is a weakness for the Lakers, right and especially in transition weaknesses for the Lakers, and they shut both offenses down and kept both teams out of transition. That's a Memphis Grizzlies team that's been kicking everybody's butt and the Lakers kind of led them wire to wire. And it mostly comes down to the team rediscovering its competitive nature. Like there are some schematic things that have changed, Max Christy is starting now right, the Lakers have been more picky with their switching essentially, just they're not just conceding guard guard switches unless it's necessary, meaning unless there's actually a good pick that is set. And then usually if there's an action between a guard an AD instead of switching that action, which they had done in the past, they're having that guard chase over the top in AD's meeting them at the level a more traditional pick and roll coverage. This has allowed Anthony Davis to be at the rim more frequently, which is important for protecting the rim and for defensive rebounding. One of the things with the Lakers, you know, I'm actually generally a believer in switching as a scheme. I think it stagnates teams and baits them into a lot of bad basketball. But in order for switching to function, you need five man units that are generally pretty athletic across the board. The reason why is teams are going to attack switching by picking on mismatches and by doing damage on the offensive glass. Right, So like you switch, you know, you get a bad guard like d Lo onto the ball and they're looking to attack, right, that's a mismatch. Or Okay, Anthony Davis switched the ball screen and now he's on their best guard. But now that guard is taking Anthony Davis away from the player, and now you don't have rim protection or anybody that can clean up the defensive glass.

You'd have you Monday, everybody, I'll ball you guys. Had an incredible weekend. Got a jam pack Monday show for you guys. I've got four big takeaways from this weekend off the top, and then at the tail end of the show, like we always do on Monday, our power rankings as we go through the top ten teams in the league. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore js. You guys, don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed or if you get your pocast on or hoops tonight, don't forget. It's also helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We we're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure you guys follow us there. And last but not least, like we do every Friday, we're going to be doing a mail bag, So drop questions in the YouTube comments for the mail bag by the time we get there on Friday. All right, let's talk some basketball. So my number one big takeaway from the weekend, the Los Angeles Lakers have reinvented themselves as a staunch defensive team. This team has pretty much only had weird seasons ever since they made the decision to trade for Russell Westbrook, whether it's been like that first Russ here where it's a lot of injuries, or that second rush here where it's more injuries, but then you're kind of a completely different team in the post deadline phase of the season to the quitting on Darvin Ham in the middle of the season for a month to everything that went wrong in that late November early December stretch this year, But this might actually be the weirdest thing that I've seen the Lakers do post trading for Russell Westbrook. In the Lakers' first twenty three games before this four to one stretch, they were twenty sixth in defensive rating, meaning they allowed the fifth most points in the league per one hundred possessions, twenty fifth in defensive rebounding percentage, twenty seventh in fast break points allowed, meaning basically for the first twenty three games of the season, for more than a fourth of the season, they were getting absolutely crushed in every athleticism category. Defending, rebounding, and running the floor. Those are all things that come down to your willingness to compete athletically on the floor, bottom six in all three of those categories. In the lakers last five games, they are the number one defense in the league, allowing just ninety nine point two points per one hundred posessions, or the only team in the league allowing less than one hundred points per one hundred possessions. In that span, They are ninth in defensive rebounding percentage, and tenth in fast break points allowed. So from bottom six in all three categories to number one in defense and top ten in all three categories. Most impressively, they've done it against teams that specifically attack their weaknesses. In this stretch of games they've had to play their last three against Memphis and Sacramento, those are all top ten offenses predicated on speed, which is a weakness for the Lakers, right and especially in transition weaknesses for the Lakers, and they shut both offenses down and kept both teams out of transition. That's a Memphis Grizzlies team that's been kicking everybody's butt and the Lakers kind of led them wire to wire. And it mostly comes down to the team rediscovering its competitive nature. Like there are some schematic things that have changed, Max Christy is starting now right, the Lakers have been more picky with their switching essentially, just they're not just conceding guard guard switches unless it's necessary, meaning unless there's actually a good pick that is set. And then usually if there's an action between a guard an AD instead of switching that action, which they had done in the past, they're having that guard chase over the top in AD's meeting them at the level a more traditional pick and roll coverage. This has allowed Anthony Davis to be at the rim more frequently, which is important for protecting the rim and for defensive rebounding. One of the things with the Lakers, you know, I'm actually generally a believer in switching as a scheme. I think it stagnates teams and baits them into a lot of bad basketball. But in order for switching to function, you need five man units that are generally pretty athletic across the board. The reason why is teams are going to attack switching by picking on mismatches and by doing damage on the offensive glass. Right, So like you switch, you know, you get a bad guard like d Lo onto the ball and they're looking to attack, right, that's a mismatch. Or Okay, Anthony Davis switched the ball screen and now he's on their best guard. But now that guard is taking Anthony Davis away from the player, and now you don't have rim protection or anybody that can clean up the defensive glass.

Right.

Right.

Like the Lakers, in terms of their personnel, should be more picky with their switching. They have been more picking picky with their switching, and that has helped. Those things have certainly played a role, but by far the biggest change has just been in their competitive nature, right, like a tweak Like that's not the difference between the Lakers being one of the very worst defensive teams in the league and being the best defensive team in the league. That's not the kind of difference that'll come from that kind of change that helps, But most of it comes down to their just fighting. The NBA is like a never ending onslaught of good basketball teams pitted against you. There's always just another one waiting, right, and you have to be ready to compete every night. The Lakers went through an extended stretch where they were literally not competing, and they got.

Like the Lakers, in terms of their personnel, should be more picky with their switching. They have been more picking picky with their switching, and that has helped. Those things have certainly played a role, but by far the biggest change has just been in their competitive nature, right, like a tweak Like that's not the difference between the Lakers being one of the very worst defensive teams in the league and being the best defensive team in the league. That's not the kind of difference that'll come from that kind of change that helps, But most of it comes down to their just fighting. The NBA is like a never ending onslaught of good basketball teams pitted against you. There's always just another one waiting, right, and you have to be ready to compete every night. The Lakers went through an extended stretch where they were literally not competing, and they got.

Rolled a bunch.

Rolled a bunch.

There are five factors that I think have led to this turnaround for the Lakers. Number one embarrassment. The loss in Miami in particular is one of the low points of the lebron ad era. I wasn't the one, I wasn't the only one being very critical of them. It was a pretty big story. Like you guys spent all training camp passive aggressively shitting on Darvin Ham for him not being competent, and now you're openly quitting in the first quarter of an important game against a mediocre team in the Miami Heat and getting smacked by forty for your sixth loss in eight tries. That was embarrassing. Embarrassment is a natural motivator. Number two. There is a trickle down effect that comes from minor schematic changes when they lead to success. It's like momentum. We talked about it earlier. The switching wasn't a good fit for this particular roster, at least to do it as much as they had been doing. You make a tweak in your approach. Suddenly you start getting more stops. You start getting more stops. Players start to believe in the scheme more, players start to believe in the scheme more, they start to buy in more. Suddenly you're getting even more effort, even more Stopsuddenly he start to win some games. Now it starts to believe, the roster starts to believe even more, and it can really turn into a momentous kind of thing. Right, So, there's no doubt that the schematic changes have led to some of the turnaround in the competitiveness of the Lakers three. Several Lakers are just playing better basketball than they did to start the season. I talk about this concept all the time on the show, but sometimes the best solution for a struggling basketball team is guys just have to play better, you know, Like it's crazy for the Milwaukee Bucks this year, what happened when Jannis and Brook were just like, Hey, what if you and I just go back to completely shutting teams down on defense? And what if that just snowballs into a bunch of good stuff for our team? And that's what happened, right, same things happening for the Lakers. Lebron James. A big part of the two and six stretch was Lebron was terrible. He wasn't scoring much, he wasn't scoring very efficiently, he was turning the ball over too much, and he wasn't engaged defensively or on the glass. I think he got embarrassed by that whole thing. He took ten days off, and when he came back, he just started playing super hard. This is something I talked about a lot during Lebron's slump. Those are you guys who followed the show during the time, We'll remember this, But I talked about one of the best ways to get out of a slump is to build momentum and confidence by making winning plays. Lebron is still huge, Lebron is still fast. He's still a excellent NBA athlete with a ton of skill in IQ. So if he just is focused and plays hard, it's kind of impossible for him to have a bad game because of all the little things he can do that don't really rely on variants, right, he just had to lock in and do his job, and so he starts playing hard. All of a sudden, he starts to feel better about himself. He's almost playing angry right now. And even though the box score production hasn't been that good, since he's come back, he's been awesome. His box score numbers in the last three games are more or less the same as they were in the stretch before, but he is so much more engaged on defense, so much more engaged on the glass, so much more focused and making better decisions on the offense. The flour Lebron has been really good again. With Lebron, it always goes beyond the box score. You could go back to when he was struggling and it's like, oh, he's still you know, twenty three, you know, eight and seven or whatever it was that he was averaging. It's all good numbers, right, but like when Lebron's not engaged, it can really be draining on a team. He's been so engaged since he's come back, and it's made a world of difference. One stat to demonstrate this difference. In Lebron's first twenty two games this year, he averaged just one point one stocks per game that.

There are five factors that I think have led to this turnaround for the Lakers. Number one embarrassment. The loss in Miami in particular is one of the low points of the lebron ad era. I wasn't the one, I wasn't the only one being very critical of them. It was a pretty big story. Like you guys spent all training camp passive aggressively shitting on Darvin Ham for him not being competent, and now you're openly quitting in the first quarter of an important game against a mediocre team in the Miami Heat and getting smacked by forty for your sixth loss in eight tries. That was embarrassing. Embarrassment is a natural motivator. Number two. There is a trickle down effect that comes from minor schematic changes when they lead to success. It's like momentum. We talked about it earlier. The switching wasn't a good fit for this particular roster, at least to do it as much as they had been doing. You make a tweak in your approach. Suddenly you start getting more stops. You start getting more stops. Players start to believe in the scheme more, players start to believe in the scheme more, they start to buy in more. Suddenly you're getting even more effort, even more Stopsuddenly he start to win some games. Now it starts to believe, the roster starts to believe even more, and it can really turn into a momentous kind of thing. Right, So, there's no doubt that the schematic changes have led to some of the turnaround in the competitiveness of the Lakers three. Several Lakers are just playing better basketball than they did to start the season. I talk about this concept all the time on the show, but sometimes the best solution for a struggling basketball team is guys just have to play better, you know, Like it's crazy for the Milwaukee Bucks this year, what happened when Jannis and Brook were just like, Hey, what if you and I just go back to completely shutting teams down on defense? And what if that just snowballs into a bunch of good stuff for our team? And that's what happened, right, same things happening for the Lakers. Lebron James. A big part of the two and six stretch was Lebron was terrible. He wasn't scoring much, he wasn't scoring very efficiently, he was turning the ball over too much, and he wasn't engaged defensively or on the glass. I think he got embarrassed by that whole thing. He took ten days off, and when he came back, he just started playing super hard. This is something I talked about a lot during Lebron's slump. Those are you guys who followed the show during the time, We'll remember this, But I talked about one of the best ways to get out of a slump is to build momentum and confidence by making winning plays. Lebron is still huge, Lebron is still fast. He's still a excellent NBA athlete with a ton of skill in IQ. So if he just is focused and plays hard, it's kind of impossible for him to have a bad game because of all the little things he can do that don't really rely on variants, right, he just had to lock in and do his job, and so he starts playing hard. All of a sudden, he starts to feel better about himself. He's almost playing angry right now. And even though the box score production hasn't been that good, since he's come back, he's been awesome. His box score numbers in the last three games are more or less the same as they were in the stretch before, but he is so much more engaged on defense, so much more engaged on the glass, so much more focused and making better decisions on the offense. The flour Lebron has been really good again. With Lebron, it always goes beyond the box score. You could go back to when he was struggling and it's like, oh, he's still you know, twenty three, you know, eight and seven or whatever it was that he was averaging. It's all good numbers, right, but like when Lebron's not engaged, it can really be draining on a team. He's been so engaged since he's come back, and it's made a world of difference. One stat to demonstrate this difference. In Lebron's first twenty two games this year, he averaged just one point one stocks per game that.

Steals plus blocks.

Steals plus blocks.

Right in his last four games, he's averaging three point three stocks per game, so he's tripled his output on steals and blocks. And again, it even goes well beyond the box score in terms of the efforts that he's making, communicating the rotations that he's making. I think it's the hardest I've seen Lebron play consistently three games in a row in like a mid season stretch like this in December since the twenty twenty one team. It's one thing to do it opening week, it's one thing to do it right before the playoffs. But Lebron for the most part in this time of year, is very select dive with his effort and he's playing really hard every night that has been working. Max Christy very uneven start to the season. He's been in the starting lineup for five games now. He's starting to find his footing on defense. He'd struggled on defense to start the year, and he's shooting forty three percent from three in this five game span. He's just being solid in his starting role. Gabe Vincent. Gabe Vincent has always been a rock solid role player who does his job on both ends of the floor. But he's kind of small, so when he's not hitting shots, he's not good enough on defense to overcome those that issue with him making shots. He's a guy that like when he's hitting, and in his last nine games, he's hitting. In his last nine games, gave his forty nine percent from three on four attempts. Suddenly he looks like a very useful role player because he does his job. He's a legitimate two way player. He just hadn't hit shots the entirety of his Lakers' tenure up until this recent stretch. Ruy Hachimura three blocks and twenty two rebounds in his last three games. He's been a huge part in their defensive uptick. He also had a huge tap out rebound to save Anthony Davis after he missed a couple free throws against Sacramento Austin Reeves. He was out of the lineup for the last three losses in that ugly stretch. Getting him back has been huge. In his four games since returning, he's averaging twenty points, five rebounds, and six assists. That's damn near all star level production. D'Angelo Russell Delo can be an infuriating player sometimes, especially when he's not hitting shots because of all of his shortcomings. In his first seventeen games this year, he had six to three point attempts per game and only made twenty eight percent of them. In his last ten games, on six attempts, he's hitting forty two percent of them. A lot more of d Lo's upside is on display, and then AD has massively improved on the defensive end in this stretch by virtue of that scheme change that we talked about and also him just kind of devoting some resources to that end of the floor. In this five game stretch, AD is averaging fourteen point four rebounds per game, with one point four steals and three point six blocks per game. So, again, a bunch of key Lakers are playing better and as a result of that, it amounts to an influx of talent and you're gonna make yourself look like a better team. For Lebron and Ad are now primarily directing their energy towards the defensive end. Scoring an efficiency has dipped for both of them, but both of them in a bit have been amazing on defense, and the roster is actually more capable of supporting Lebron and Ad on the offensive end, So it's actually the smartest way for them to use their resources. Austin and Di lo are stepping up on the offensive end. They're getting enough buckets to win. We're gonna talk about their offense in a minute. Their offense is actually dead last in this span as well. So it's been like a complete and total trade off, and that's gonna take some That's gonna be something that takes some time because again, like when you go from like not competing on defense to competing on defense, it's gonna drain your legs. They've got to condition themselves now to be in a position where they can do that while also having the legs they need to make shots. But that's the exciting part because this team does have the potential to be good on both ends if they get to that point where that's a habit for them. And then number five, and this is the probably the most concerning part for me in terms of how I look forward for the Lakers. The schedule has not been demanding on them in this stretch in terms of wear and tear. That's the big question mark. Like they've played these five games this four and one stretch over a sixteen day span. There's eleven rest days mixed in. As we mentioned earlier, the NBA is an onslaught of good basketball teams over and over and over again in the normal parts of the schedule that don't center around the Ncason Tournament. Right Like the schedule stays tough, the Lakers have Detroit tonight. They have the size to make things tough on Lebron and Ad. They beat the Lakers earlier this year. If you remember at Golden State on Christmas Day, that's a road game versus a team that has a lot more perimeter speed than the Lakers. That's a tough matchup for them. Sacramento on Saturday. It's really hard to beat a team four times in a row. And again this is the same team that was four and oh against the Lakers last year, the Calves. They beat the shit out of the Lakers earlier this year in Cleveland second week of January. They have road games at Houston and at Dallas. So like this is going to go back to playing every other night against good teams. And this is where it's going to come down to their willingness to hang on to the rope. Right Like I said when I had my Lakers melt down a few weeks ago, that they would have more good stretches this year.

Right in his last four games, he's averaging three point three stocks per game, so he's tripled his output on steals and blocks. And again, it even goes well beyond the box score in terms of the efforts that he's making, communicating the rotations that he's making. I think it's the hardest I've seen Lebron play consistently three games in a row in like a mid season stretch like this in December since the twenty twenty one team. It's one thing to do it opening week, it's one thing to do it right before the playoffs. But Lebron for the most part in this time of year, is very select dive with his effort and he's playing really hard every night that has been working. Max Christy very uneven start to the season. He's been in the starting lineup for five games now. He's starting to find his footing on defense. He'd struggled on defense to start the year, and he's shooting forty three percent from three in this five game span. He's just being solid in his starting role. Gabe Vincent. Gabe Vincent has always been a rock solid role player who does his job on both ends of the floor. But he's kind of small, so when he's not hitting shots, he's not good enough on defense to overcome those that issue with him making shots. He's a guy that like when he's hitting, and in his last nine games, he's hitting. In his last nine games, gave his forty nine percent from three on four attempts. Suddenly he looks like a very useful role player because he does his job. He's a legitimate two way player. He just hadn't hit shots the entirety of his Lakers' tenure up until this recent stretch. Ruy Hachimura three blocks and twenty two rebounds in his last three games. He's been a huge part in their defensive uptick. He also had a huge tap out rebound to save Anthony Davis after he missed a couple free throws against Sacramento Austin Reeves. He was out of the lineup for the last three losses in that ugly stretch. Getting him back has been huge. In his four games since returning, he's averaging twenty points, five rebounds, and six assists. That's damn near all star level production. D'Angelo Russell Delo can be an infuriating player sometimes, especially when he's not hitting shots because of all of his shortcomings. In his first seventeen games this year, he had six to three point attempts per game and only made twenty eight percent of them. In his last ten games, on six attempts, he's hitting forty two percent of them. A lot more of d Lo's upside is on display, and then AD has massively improved on the defensive end in this stretch by virtue of that scheme change that we talked about and also him just kind of devoting some resources to that end of the floor. In this five game stretch, AD is averaging fourteen point four rebounds per game, with one point four steals and three point six blocks per game. So, again, a bunch of key Lakers are playing better and as a result of that, it amounts to an influx of talent and you're gonna make yourself look like a better team. For Lebron and Ad are now primarily directing their energy towards the defensive end. Scoring an efficiency has dipped for both of them, but both of them in a bit have been amazing on defense, and the roster is actually more capable of supporting Lebron and Ad on the offensive end, So it's actually the smartest way for them to use their resources. Austin and Di lo are stepping up on the offensive end. They're getting enough buckets to win. We're gonna talk about their offense in a minute. Their offense is actually dead last in this span as well. So it's been like a complete and total trade off, and that's gonna take some That's gonna be something that takes some time because again, like when you go from like not competing on defense to competing on defense, it's gonna drain your legs. They've got to condition themselves now to be in a position where they can do that while also having the legs they need to make shots. But that's the exciting part because this team does have the potential to be good on both ends if they get to that point where that's a habit for them. And then number five, and this is the probably the most concerning part for me in terms of how I look forward for the Lakers. The schedule has not been demanding on them in this stretch in terms of wear and tear. That's the big question mark. Like they've played these five games this four and one stretch over a sixteen day span. There's eleven rest days mixed in. As we mentioned earlier, the NBA is an onslaught of good basketball teams over and over and over again in the normal parts of the schedule that don't center around the Ncason Tournament. Right Like the schedule stays tough, the Lakers have Detroit tonight. They have the size to make things tough on Lebron and Ad. They beat the Lakers earlier this year. If you remember at Golden State on Christmas Day, that's a road game versus a team that has a lot more perimeter speed than the Lakers. That's a tough matchup for them. Sacramento on Saturday. It's really hard to beat a team four times in a row. And again this is the same team that was four and oh against the Lakers last year, the Calves. They beat the shit out of the Lakers earlier this year in Cleveland second week of January. They have road games at Houston and at Dallas. So like this is going to go back to playing every other night against good teams. And this is where it's going to come down to their willingness to hang on to the rope. Right Like I said when I had my Lakers melt down a few weeks ago, that they would have more good stretches this year.

That's all this is.

That's all this is.

I knew this was gonna happen, even when I was bitching and moaning about that heat game. I said, they will have more good stretches this year. They will have stretches where they beat good teams. This is one of those stretches. But any sort of ambition this team has to make a deep playoff run is contingent on their commitment to the daily process, even when it's not easy, even when you're not playing five games in sixteen days. It will only get harder as the season progresses, and they need to hang on to the rope for a long time before I have any sort of real belief in this team. Again, so again, they're on a good stretch four and one, defending like crazy, lot of exciting stuff. But championship teams don't do it for a week and a half or for two weeks. They do it month after month after month until they get to April, and by virtue of that process, they are so buttoned up that they are so good with their execution for two straight months that they put themselves in a chance in a position to win the title. This is not a two week week journey. They are what four months I think roughly until the playoffs start. They've got to figure out how to get this into an extended part of their basketball identity. I am skeptical, but a good job over the last couple of weeks. Second big takeaway from the weekend there is no point in taking standings victory laps in the Western Conference unless you can separate from that group that's in the middle of the standings. I saw a lot of Laker fans after the Sacramento game the other night. They're like, we have the ninth best record in the league. We are the five seed in the West, and in the Western Conference. Only sustain success is gonna give you any sort of real breathing room. Even without playing, They've dropped to the tenth best record in the league and sixth in the West. Everyone in that five to eleven group in the West is separated by one point five games, so to be clear, Like, I think it's the Suns that are at eleven. The eleven seed. Suns feels like a catastrophe, right, They're one good week away from being the five seed. The Denver Nuggets, they're the five seed right now, looks great, They're one bad week away from being the eleven seed. So, like, no one needs to be taking victory laps over this crazy shuffling that's taking place week by week in that middle portion of the Western Conference. All of those teams have significant flaws. Like, yeah, some more than others. Sure, like Denver's got Nikola Jokic. That's gonna be a big advantage, right, But if any of those teams are actually going to win the title, they're going to need to find a way to build separation from that group. It's Denver, the Lakers, Golden State Warriors, the Clippers, the Spurs, the Timberwolves, and the Suns. That's that group and all of them are flawed. The Nuggets, they either need Jamal Murray to keep improving the way he has been, or they'll need to make a trade for a reliable perimeter score. They're also going to have to get more consistent with their defensive effort. A couple of pretty mediocre teams that they've played against recently that have scored on them relatively easily. The Lakers, they need a trade or an upgrade at the two or three in their starting lineup, and they need consistent commitment to the work throughout the regular season. The Warriors they need to trade for a secondary score behind Steph. The Clippers they need Kawhi Leonard to come back and play at an MVP level. The Spurs, they probably should start considering making a hyper aggressive trade, like if they made a deal for dearon Fox, they could enter into the contention. We're going to talk about the Spurs here in just a minute. The Timberwolves, they got to find a way to create space for their stars so they can attack the rim in this two and three stretch. In their last five games, Julius Randall and Anthony Edwards are combining to attempto point six shots per game in the restricted area. Jason Tatum, by himself in the same span is attempting eight shots per game in the restricted area. There's no space to operate within Minnesota. They've got to figure that out. That's going to probably be a more substantial shuffle at some point this season then the Suns. The Suns are allowing just one hundred The Suns are allowing over one hundred and twenty two points per one hundred possessions in the four games since Kde came back from injury. They just aren't defending. So all of those groups, they might, by virtue of the schedule, or by virtue of a couple role players getting hot, or by virtue of just brief moments where they're more locked in than usual, might rack together a three to oh four to ozer week and gain ground in the standings. But all of that is going to continue to get jumbled, And really for me is if any team is going to make a substantial playoff run this year, meaning like winning at least two rounds, they're gonna have to separate themselves from that pack in the regular season. That will be the way they demonstrate that they've improved in the necessary areas in order to make that kind of run. If none of them do, all of those teams are going to be eliminated in the first two rounds by better teams.

I knew this was gonna happen, even when I was bitching and moaning about that heat game. I said, they will have more good stretches this year. They will have stretches where they beat good teams. This is one of those stretches. But any sort of ambition this team has to make a deep playoff run is contingent on their commitment to the daily process, even when it's not easy, even when you're not playing five games in sixteen days. It will only get harder as the season progresses, and they need to hang on to the rope for a long time before I have any sort of real belief in this team. Again, so again, they're on a good stretch four and one, defending like crazy, lot of exciting stuff. But championship teams don't do it for a week and a half or for two weeks. They do it month after month after month until they get to April, and by virtue of that process, they are so buttoned up that they are so good with their execution for two straight months that they put themselves in a chance in a position to win the title. This is not a two week week journey. They are what four months I think roughly until the playoffs start. They've got to figure out how to get this into an extended part of their basketball identity. I am skeptical, but a good job over the last couple of weeks. Second big takeaway from the weekend there is no point in taking standings victory laps in the Western Conference unless you can separate from that group that's in the middle of the standings. I saw a lot of Laker fans after the Sacramento game the other night. They're like, we have the ninth best record in the league. We are the five seed in the West, and in the Western Conference. Only sustain success is gonna give you any sort of real breathing room. Even without playing, They've dropped to the tenth best record in the league and sixth in the West. Everyone in that five to eleven group in the West is separated by one point five games, so to be clear, Like, I think it's the Suns that are at eleven. The eleven seed. Suns feels like a catastrophe, right, They're one good week away from being the five seed. The Denver Nuggets, they're the five seed right now, looks great, They're one bad week away from being the eleven seed. So, like, no one needs to be taking victory laps over this crazy shuffling that's taking place week by week in that middle portion of the Western Conference. All of those teams have significant flaws. Like, yeah, some more than others. Sure, like Denver's got Nikola Jokic. That's gonna be a big advantage, right, But if any of those teams are actually going to win the title, they're going to need to find a way to build separation from that group. It's Denver, the Lakers, Golden State Warriors, the Clippers, the Spurs, the Timberwolves, and the Suns. That's that group and all of them are flawed. The Nuggets, they either need Jamal Murray to keep improving the way he has been, or they'll need to make a trade for a reliable perimeter score. They're also going to have to get more consistent with their defensive effort. A couple of pretty mediocre teams that they've played against recently that have scored on them relatively easily. The Lakers, they need a trade or an upgrade at the two or three in their starting lineup, and they need consistent commitment to the work throughout the regular season. The Warriors they need to trade for a secondary score behind Steph. The Clippers they need Kawhi Leonard to come back and play at an MVP level. The Spurs, they probably should start considering making a hyper aggressive trade, like if they made a deal for dearon Fox, they could enter into the contention. We're going to talk about the Spurs here in just a minute. The Timberwolves, they got to find a way to create space for their stars so they can attack the rim in this two and three stretch. In their last five games, Julius Randall and Anthony Edwards are combining to attempto point six shots per game in the restricted area. Jason Tatum, by himself in the same span is attempting eight shots per game in the restricted area. There's no space to operate within Minnesota. They've got to figure that out. That's going to probably be a more substantial shuffle at some point this season then the Suns. The Suns are allowing just one hundred The Suns are allowing over one hundred and twenty two points per one hundred possessions in the four games since Kde came back from injury. They just aren't defending. So all of those groups, they might, by virtue of the schedule, or by virtue of a couple role players getting hot, or by virtue of just brief moments where they're more locked in than usual, might rack together a three to oh four to ozer week and gain ground in the standings. But all of that is going to continue to get jumbled, And really for me is if any team is going to make a substantial playoff run this year, meaning like winning at least two rounds, they're gonna have to separate themselves from that pack in the regular season. That will be the way they demonstrate that they've improved in the necessary areas in order to make that kind of run. If none of them do, all of those teams are going to be eliminated in the first two rounds by better teams.

Again, could they beat a Houston or.

Again, could they beat a Houston or.

A Memphis, one of the flawed, younger teams at the top, Sure, But teams like Dallas and OKC they're beating all these teams in a playoff series with the type of basketball they're playing right now. If you want to get through one of those teams, and you might have to get through both of them, you're gonna have to play better basketball, and it's going to have to come through a combination of roster upgrades and improved attention to detail over the court and competitiveness over the course of the regular season. That to me is the dead giveaway. Who's going to be that five seed. Who's going to be the five seed that separates and builds margin between them and the rest of that pack? That to me is a team that is serious. If you're in that pack when we get to April, I'm going to have a hard time believing that you can win multiple playoff rounds. Number three, Victor Webinyama is already good enough to justify the Spurs getting aggressive and going for In Victor webin Yama's last thirteen games, he's averaging thirty points, ten rebounds in five assists with four point five stocks per game on fifty one percent from the field, thirty eight percent from three, and eighty five percent from the line. The Spurs are nine to four in those thirteen games. When Victor plays, he's shooting thirty eight percent from three on eleven attempts per game. Has this habit of just rising and firing over guys, even in clutch time, and all you can do is really just pray he misses. He's four for nine on clutch threes over this span too, doing a ton of damage in pick and pop. He's popping almost exclusively. This is a big thing that stood out to me over the course of the last couple of weeks. On his last twenty shot attempts that have come in out of pick and roll as the role man, teen of them have been threes. He's popping above the break almost exclusively in ball screens, and then from there he's looking to shoot or to drive closeouts. He's getting one point two to two points per roleman possession for the season. That ranks fifth among all NBA players to log at least seventy five roll man possessions. This season, He's up to thirty nine percent overall on unguarded catch and shoo jumpers, So like, if he's got his feet set, feels like it's going in. He's also in addition to the pick and pop stuff stuff, he's doing a ton of damage out of the triple threat around the elbows. So like, sometimes it'll be like a ball screen switch and he'll take the guard down to the elbow. But even if you like it, even in his like regular matchup, if he likes that matchup, he'll just catch around the elbow. What they'll usually do is they'll load up his left hand side so that he's got, you know, a bunch of bodies over there. But then they'll just put like one guy in the strong side corner, so like it creates a little bit more space for him. And he's basically ripping through to the right and then turning back over his right shoulder, and he's doing a lot of step through moves, a lot of like spinning into a pump fake and then stepping through because and all that is for step through if you imagine, like my right foot's my pivot right, and I bring my left foot around and plant it for a fade away, but I pump fake and then further bring that foot around, I can step all the way through towards the basket. He's got such a long stride there that he's like turning like he's gonna fade at like twelve feet, and then when he's doing a step through move, he's getting easy, easy layups because of how much ground he can cover towards the rim there, but doing a ton of damage around the elbows. He's ran one hundred and eighty nine post ups and ISOs this year, including passes, and it's generated one hundred and ninety one points, So that's over a point per possession as a static half court initiator, again, a major benchmark for young shot creators in this league. He's not even old enough to order a beer yet, guys, and he's playing at a surefire top ten level at this point and right now off of it, Wembe, it's a lot of like kind of random contributions. They have seven guys averaging double figures for the Spurs in this span, but nobody is averaging over seventeen points per game in these last thirteen games that Wemby's played. So like, if I was the Spurs, I'd be keeping an eye on the Deer and Fox situation. They have the assets to make a real push for him if he becomes available. The Kings had another disappointing blowout loss at home to the Indiana Pacers last night. I also think he's just the perfect guard to partner with Victor wemen Yama. Like, yes, Deer and Fox is twenty seven years old, but that's in the heart of his prime with a solid, you know, five to seven good years left, and Wemby is good enough to lead a championship team right now thirty ten and five. On his level of efficiency with what he does defensively, he's a bona fide top ten player in the league at this point. So the timeline is now. Forget about the age. Yeah, he's twenty Yeah, Fox is twenty seventy seven years older.

A Memphis, one of the flawed, younger teams at the top, Sure, But teams like Dallas and OKC they're beating all these teams in a playoff series with the type of basketball they're playing right now. If you want to get through one of those teams, and you might have to get through both of them, you're gonna have to play better basketball, and it's going to have to come through a combination of roster upgrades and improved attention to detail over the court and competitiveness over the course of the regular season. That to me is the dead giveaway. Who's going to be that five seed. Who's going to be the five seed that separates and builds margin between them and the rest of that pack? That to me is a team that is serious. If you're in that pack when we get to April, I'm going to have a hard time believing that you can win multiple playoff rounds. Number three, Victor Webinyama is already good enough to justify the Spurs getting aggressive and going for In Victor webin Yama's last thirteen games, he's averaging thirty points, ten rebounds in five assists with four point five stocks per game on fifty one percent from the field, thirty eight percent from three, and eighty five percent from the line. The Spurs are nine to four in those thirteen games. When Victor plays, he's shooting thirty eight percent from three on eleven attempts per game. Has this habit of just rising and firing over guys, even in clutch time, and all you can do is really just pray he misses. He's four for nine on clutch threes over this span too, doing a ton of damage in pick and pop. He's popping almost exclusively. This is a big thing that stood out to me over the course of the last couple of weeks. On his last twenty shot attempts that have come in out of pick and roll as the role man, teen of them have been threes. He's popping above the break almost exclusively in ball screens, and then from there he's looking to shoot or to drive closeouts. He's getting one point two to two points per roleman possession for the season. That ranks fifth among all NBA players to log at least seventy five roll man possessions. This season, He's up to thirty nine percent overall on unguarded catch and shoo jumpers, So like, if he's got his feet set, feels like it's going in. He's also in addition to the pick and pop stuff stuff, he's doing a ton of damage out of the triple threat around the elbows. So like, sometimes it'll be like a ball screen switch and he'll take the guard down to the elbow. But even if you like it, even in his like regular matchup, if he likes that matchup, he'll just catch around the elbow. What they'll usually do is they'll load up his left hand side so that he's got, you know, a bunch of bodies over there. But then they'll just put like one guy in the strong side corner, so like it creates a little bit more space for him. And he's basically ripping through to the right and then turning back over his right shoulder, and he's doing a lot of step through moves, a lot of like spinning into a pump fake and then stepping through because and all that is for step through if you imagine, like my right foot's my pivot right, and I bring my left foot around and plant it for a fade away, but I pump fake and then further bring that foot around, I can step all the way through towards the basket. He's got such a long stride there that he's like turning like he's gonna fade at like twelve feet, and then when he's doing a step through move, he's getting easy, easy layups because of how much ground he can cover towards the rim there, but doing a ton of damage around the elbows. He's ran one hundred and eighty nine post ups and ISOs this year, including passes, and it's generated one hundred and ninety one points, So that's over a point per possession as a static half court initiator, again, a major benchmark for young shot creators in this league. He's not even old enough to order a beer yet, guys, and he's playing at a surefire top ten level at this point and right now off of it, Wembe, it's a lot of like kind of random contributions. They have seven guys averaging double figures for the Spurs in this span, but nobody is averaging over seventeen points per game in these last thirteen games that Wemby's played. So like, if I was the Spurs, I'd be keeping an eye on the Deer and Fox situation. They have the assets to make a real push for him if he becomes available. The Kings had another disappointing blowout loss at home to the Indiana Pacers last night. I also think he's just the perfect guard to partner with Victor wemen Yama. Like, yes, Deer and Fox is twenty seven years old, but that's in the heart of his prime with a solid, you know, five to seven good years left, and Wemby is good enough to lead a championship team right now thirty ten and five. On his level of efficiency with what he does defensively, he's a bona fide top ten player in the league at this point. So the timeline is now. Forget about the age. Yeah, he's twenty Yeah, Fox is twenty seventy seven years older.

Who cares.

Who cares.

He's good enough to actually help Wenby win games right now. I also think Fox is the perfect pick and roll partner for him. It's difficult to switch right. Fox is too fast for bigs and Wemby can punish guards around those elbows with the face up game that we talked about earlier. He's got a lot of experience playing with a good pick and roll partner in Demanda Sabonis, and he's got a lot of experience feeding the pocket, which is something that's important in that matchup. Right, His ability to pop as a more deadly shooter will create more driving space for Darren Fox, which is something that has been an issue with Sabonis at times. His teams kind of ignore him, right, It's just it's just an easy, easy fit. Fox defensively is at his best when he's able to be aggressive with ball pressure rather than trying to contain. It's another thing that makes him a little funky fit with Sabonis, right, Like with Victor wem Minyama, you couldn't script a better type of fit defensively for him to be able to be aggressive on the ball to try to force deflections and turnovers, knowing that he's got the greatest mess cleaner up er behind him.

He's good enough to actually help Wenby win games right now. I also think Fox is the perfect pick and roll partner for him. It's difficult to switch right. Fox is too fast for bigs and Wemby can punish guards around those elbows with the face up game that we talked about earlier. He's got a lot of experience playing with a good pick and roll partner in Demanda Sabonis, and he's got a lot of experience feeding the pocket, which is something that's important in that matchup. Right, His ability to pop as a more deadly shooter will create more driving space for Darren Fox, which is something that has been an issue with Sabonis at times. His teams kind of ignore him, right, It's just it's just an easy, easy fit. Fox defensively is at his best when he's able to be aggressive with ball pressure rather than trying to contain. It's another thing that makes him a little funky fit with Sabonis, right, Like with Victor wem Minyama, you couldn't script a better type of fit defensively for him to be able to be aggressive on the ball to try to force deflections and turnovers, knowing that he's got the greatest mess cleaner up er behind him.

Right.

Right.

In addition to that, I just think Darren Fox is awesome. I had him in my top twenty five last summer. He's had a rough start to the season shooting the ball, but I think he's a good shooter. And again they mixed everything up again by bringing in de Rosen. It's kind of tweaked things. He's specifically good at hitting short to mid range jump shots and it's a major weapon to having your bag for clutch situations. As a matter of fact, Deeran Fox is leading the league in clutch field goals made with twenty five. Second place is twenty so he's got a pretty hefty lead there, shooting forty eight percent from the field in thirty nine percent from three in clutch situations. I think Deeron Fox and Victor wemen Yama could compete for a title right away. I think that's the move that they need to look to make if it becomes available this year. Number four, My last big takeaway from this weekend. The Indiana Pacers are starting to look like the Indiana Pacers. They've won five out of six. They're fourth in offense over that span. Defense was the big issue in the early part of the season. Andrew Nemhard was out of the lineup, but also their frontline guys weren't doing a very good job. They've been ninth in defense over this six game span, very equal opportunity on offense. Like no one's averaging twenty points a game over this span, but seven guys are averaging double figures. Tyres Aliburn's looking more like himself because his shot is following. He's shooting forty four percent from three on nine attempts over this span. He's also averaging nineteen points in ten assists. That's more in line. It's not like the whatever it was twenty four and fourteen he was averaging, or what he was at the beginning of last season. But he's getting a little closer to what we grow to expect from Tyree Saliburton. He also has six steals and six blocks in the span. He was one of the big culprits in their bad defense in the early part of the year. Is just competing a little bit better. That's really the thing. The whole team is competing on defense. Andrew Nemhart is back now. He has stabilized them at the point of attack defensively. I talked with the Nerd Sash guys about how I expected the Pacers to have some potential to turn their defensive round because they just have good defensive players like Pascalsi ho comes a good defensive player. He did an amazing job on De Marti Rosen last night, right, Like Miles Turner's capable of being a very good defensive player. He did a number on demonasabonus last night.

In addition to that, I just think Darren Fox is awesome. I had him in my top twenty five last summer. He's had a rough start to the season shooting the ball, but I think he's a good shooter. And again they mixed everything up again by bringing in de Rosen. It's kind of tweaked things. He's specifically good at hitting short to mid range jump shots and it's a major weapon to having your bag for clutch situations. As a matter of fact, Deeran Fox is leading the league in clutch field goals made with twenty five. Second place is twenty so he's got a pretty hefty lead there, shooting forty eight percent from the field in thirty nine percent from three in clutch situations. I think Deeron Fox and Victor wemen Yama could compete for a title right away. I think that's the move that they need to look to make if it becomes available this year. Number four, My last big takeaway from this weekend. The Indiana Pacers are starting to look like the Indiana Pacers. They've won five out of six. They're fourth in offense over that span. Defense was the big issue in the early part of the season. Andrew Nemhard was out of the lineup, but also their frontline guys weren't doing a very good job. They've been ninth in defense over this six game span, very equal opportunity on offense. Like no one's averaging twenty points a game over this span, but seven guys are averaging double figures. Tyres Aliburn's looking more like himself because his shot is following. He's shooting forty four percent from three on nine attempts over this span. He's also averaging nineteen points in ten assists. That's more in line. It's not like the whatever it was twenty four and fourteen he was averaging, or what he was at the beginning of last season. But he's getting a little closer to what we grow to expect from Tyree Saliburton. He also has six steals and six blocks in the span. He was one of the big culprits in their bad defense in the early part of the year. Is just competing a little bit better. That's really the thing. The whole team is competing on defense. Andrew Nemhart is back now. He has stabilized them at the point of attack defensively. I talked with the Nerd Sash guys about how I expected the Pacers to have some potential to turn their defensive round because they just have good defensive players like Pascalsi ho comes a good defensive player. He did an amazing job on De Marti Rosen last night, right, Like Miles Turner's capable of being a very good defensive player. He did a number on demonasabonus last night.

Right.

Right.

So, like you get a good point of attack defender with a good four to five defensively, you should be pretty good defensively as as long as you can get Ben Matherin and tires Aliburton to do their job, which they have. Thomas Bryant has come in and kind of provided some stability at the backup center spot. I covered him with the Lakers. He's a really fun offensive player. Like he plays super hard, He runs the floor super well. You guys have already seen that. He's legit good at like finishing in traffic for a guy who's mostly a below the rim player. He just has good at angles and he's got good touch, and he's a pretty solid jump shooter. He's got his defensive limitations, but he will bring some stability to that spot. The Pacers are playing some serious basketball, but their schedule is about to get really tough. They're just two games back in the five seed, but their next five games at Golden State, home for Oklahoma City, at Boston, at Boston, and then home for Milwaukee. So definitely a tough stretch for them coming up on the schedule. Getting into our power rankings, and again all odds are provided by our partner Draft Kings. Number ten the Los Angeles Lakers four and one in their last five games, the number one defense in the league over that span. We covered them in the opening segment, so we won't go any further here. Lakers fans who are looking for a deep dive on the Laker, you can find that just by clicking on our full episode for this Monday show and you'll it was the first segment that I went into and I did like a solid fifteen to twenty minutes on him, so you can see him there. The Lakers right now, if you want to make a bet, they're plus thirty five hundred to win the title, plus eighteen hundred to win the Western Conference. Number nine the Denver Nuggets, two in one week. The Nuggets have been playing some lower level competition on the road, and they've been playing down to that competition and it's led to a lot of close games. They beat the Kings in a classic Nuggets walk down, they score on seven possessions in a row down the stretch. The Yokich Murray two man game scores on four consecutive possessions down the stretch, and Jamal Murray hits the eventual game winner. They lose to the Blazers on a game winning layup by Infanty Simons.

So, like you get a good point of attack defender with a good four to five defensively, you should be pretty good defensively as as long as you can get Ben Matherin and tires Aliburton to do their job, which they have. Thomas Bryant has come in and kind of provided some stability at the backup center spot. I covered him with the Lakers. He's a really fun offensive player. Like he plays super hard, He runs the floor super well. You guys have already seen that. He's legit good at like finishing in traffic for a guy who's mostly a below the rim player. He just has good at angles and he's got good touch, and he's a pretty solid jump shooter. He's got his defensive limitations, but he will bring some stability to that spot. The Pacers are playing some serious basketball, but their schedule is about to get really tough. They're just two games back in the five seed, but their next five games at Golden State, home for Oklahoma City, at Boston, at Boston, and then home for Milwaukee. So definitely a tough stretch for them coming up on the schedule. Getting into our power rankings, and again all odds are provided by our partner Draft Kings. Number ten the Los Angeles Lakers four and one in their last five games, the number one defense in the league over that span. We covered them in the opening segment, so we won't go any further here. Lakers fans who are looking for a deep dive on the Laker, you can find that just by clicking on our full episode for this Monday show and you'll it was the first segment that I went into and I did like a solid fifteen to twenty minutes on him, so you can see him there. The Lakers right now, if you want to make a bet, they're plus thirty five hundred to win the title, plus eighteen hundred to win the Western Conference. Number nine the Denver Nuggets, two in one week. The Nuggets have been playing some lower level competition on the road, and they've been playing down to that competition and it's led to a lot of close games. They beat the Kings in a classic Nuggets walk down, they score on seven possessions in a row down the stretch. The Yokich Murray two man game scores on four consecutive possessions down the stretch, and Jamal Murray hits the eventual game winner. They lose to the Blazers on a game winning layup by Infanty Simons.

Really weird sequence.

Really weird sequence.

The Blazers were attacking with dribble penetration from Anferny Simons off of the right wing, and they went a bunch of times down the stretch. Earlier on in clutch time, they were going at Jamal Murray, but it was kind of like this weird sequence where like they were loading up on Anthony Simons's left hand, like Yo Kicch when he was offering his help, he was kind of coming higher up the lane line. They were doubling, so like they got Jamal Murray on Anthony Simons and for Simons loads up to drive and they sent the double from Russell Westbrook on Anthony Simons's left hand side and the and Anthony Simons is driving to the right, And it was kind of like a weird foreshadowing moment because Jamal Murray slides over and takes the contact and it gets a really good contain on Anthony Simons and they end up getting a stop. But on the game winner, they end up going back to On the game winner, they end up going back to that same action, but they go at Russ instead of Jamal, same sort of thing. Jamal Murray's coming to double from the left hand side. Yo Kich is kind of high up the lane line, Aaron Gordon is staying home in the strong side corner, and Russell Westbrook is opened up to the left, like straight up opened up with his body just giving a right handed drive. Well, guess what, Anthony Simons just hit a right handed drive and went right down the Yokic wasn't even close to being able to get over there in time and gets a layup. So like there's a lot of blaming going on there. There's a lot of like, oh, Yokic can't protect the rim, A lot of like, oh, uh, Russell Westbrook can't guard on the perimeter. I thought everyone had blood on their hands there. Like Russ, you can't just get like cleanly toasted. You got to do something to flatten out that drive. Nicole Yoki, your job is to protect the rim and help, So like you got to do better than you did there, And Mike Malone, why are you sending all the help from the left side while also funneling him to the right, Like that doesn't make any sense. Like your team defense isn't really set up there. So like that ended up being a really disappointing loss, and then they bounce back by beating the Pelicans in overtime another huge Jamal Murray shot to send the game to overtime there.

The Blazers were attacking with dribble penetration from Anferny Simons off of the right wing, and they went a bunch of times down the stretch. Earlier on in clutch time, they were going at Jamal Murray, but it was kind of like this weird sequence where like they were loading up on Anthony Simons's left hand, like Yo Kicch when he was offering his help, he was kind of coming higher up the lane line. They were doubling, so like they got Jamal Murray on Anthony Simons and for Simons loads up to drive and they sent the double from Russell Westbrook on Anthony Simons's left hand side and the and Anthony Simons is driving to the right, And it was kind of like a weird foreshadowing moment because Jamal Murray slides over and takes the contact and it gets a really good contain on Anthony Simons and they end up getting a stop. But on the game winner, they end up going back to On the game winner, they end up going back to that same action, but they go at Russ instead of Jamal, same sort of thing. Jamal Murray's coming to double from the left hand side. Yo Kich is kind of high up the lane line, Aaron Gordon is staying home in the strong side corner, and Russell Westbrook is opened up to the left, like straight up opened up with his body just giving a right handed drive. Well, guess what, Anthony Simons just hit a right handed drive and went right down the Yokic wasn't even close to being able to get over there in time and gets a layup. So like there's a lot of blaming going on there. There's a lot of like, oh, Yokic can't protect the rim, A lot of like, oh, uh, Russell Westbrook can't guard on the perimeter. I thought everyone had blood on their hands there. Like Russ, you can't just get like cleanly toasted. You got to do something to flatten out that drive. Nicole Yoki, your job is to protect the rim and help, So like you got to do better than you did there, And Mike Malone, why are you sending all the help from the left side while also funneling him to the right, Like that doesn't make any sense. Like your team defense isn't really set up there. So like that ended up being a really disappointing loss, and then they bounce back by beating the Pelicans in overtime another huge Jamal Murray shot to send the game to overtime there.

That's really the huge development with Denver.

That's really the huge development with Denver.

If you're looking for positivity, Jamal is starting to get his legs back underneath him. In his first seventeen games this hear he averaged eighteen points, four rebounds, and six assists on forty two percent from the field and thirty three percent from three. In his last four games twenty five five and six, forty six percent from the field thirty nine percent from three. This brings me to like the kind of trade topic with Denver. There's been a lot of talk about making a move with Michael Porter Junior going after someone like a zach Lavine. If Jamal continues this trajectory and gets to the point where he's basically averaging twenty three to twenty five points per game efficiently. From here to the trade deadline, I would not make an aggressive trade. There's just no point Jamal being Jamal is all they really need. Outside of that, I would bet on continuity in this weird Western Conference with all these flawed teams, For every team, you want to bet on continuity and just getting sharper or making some sort of trade for aggressive upside. And it depends on the team in that tier of teams. For me, for Denver, if Jamal Murray keeps this up to the deadline, I'd bet on continuity. We've just seen how devastating this team can be in the playoffs when Yokich and Murray are at that special level. Last year, neither of them were. If both of them are this year, you're right back in it. The Nuggets right now. Plus fifteen hundred to win the Western Conference, excuse me, Plus fifteen hundred to win the title. Plus seven hundred to win the Western Conference. Number eight the Memphis Grizzlies two to oh week.

If you're looking for positivity, Jamal is starting to get his legs back underneath him. In his first seventeen games this hear he averaged eighteen points, four rebounds, and six assists on forty two percent from the field and thirty three percent from three. In his last four games twenty five five and six, forty six percent from the field thirty nine percent from three. This brings me to like the kind of trade topic with Denver. There's been a lot of talk about making a move with Michael Porter Junior going after someone like a zach Lavine. If Jamal continues this trajectory and gets to the point where he's basically averaging twenty three to twenty five points per game efficiently. From here to the trade deadline, I would not make an aggressive trade. There's just no point Jamal being Jamal is all they really need. Outside of that, I would bet on continuity in this weird Western Conference with all these flawed teams, For every team, you want to bet on continuity and just getting sharper or making some sort of trade for aggressive upside. And it depends on the team in that tier of teams. For me, for Denver, if Jamal Murray keeps this up to the deadline, I'd bet on continuity. We've just seen how devastating this team can be in the playoffs when Yokich and Murray are at that special level. Last year, neither of them were. If both of them are this year, you're right back in it. The Nuggets right now. Plus fifteen hundred to win the Western Conference, excuse me, Plus fifteen hundred to win the title. Plus seven hundred to win the Western Conference. Number eight the Memphis Grizzlies two to oh week.

They beat the living shit out of the Warriors. On Thursday.

They beat the living shit out of the Warriors. On Thursday.

They hold Steph Curry and Raymond Green without a midfield goal in twenty four minutes. Got a nice win in Atlanta without John Morant. Seven guys in double figures in that game. Excellent defense last week. They had a ninety five point eight defensive rating in the two games. That was the best out of any NBA team last week. Starting to look like the regular season buzz saw that we talked about the Grizzlies being before the season. They are now plus twenty five hundred to win the title, plus eleven hundred to win the Western Conference. Number seven the Houston Rockets super light week the games against the Pelicans and the Raptors. Struggled a bit with the Raptors last night, but they pulled away with their bench group in the fourth quarter. A couple guys who haven't had much opportunity this year, and Jayshon Tate and Cam Whitmore ended up leading the charge for their bench unit in the early fourth quarter. A lot of downhill force. Jayshon Tate in the half court bringing downhill force in ball screens, and then Cam Whitmore in transition. He also had a little bully ball possession in the half court as well. Another light week this week for the Rockets. They're at Charlotte at New Orleans and then home for Minnesota, and in Miami they go three and one that week, they'll be in a good spot in the standings. The Rockets plus sixty five hundred to win the title, plus twenty two hundred to win the conference. That's actually the worst odds out of anybody in the Power Rankings. Are the longest odds, I should say it, of anybody in the Power Rankings this week. Number six the New York Knicks. The New York Knicks that are playing defense. The second quarter run that the Knicks went on against the Wolves in Minnesota on Thursday was one of their best stretches of basketball this season. It's a unit with Campaign Duce McBride, Michael Bridges, og And and Obi and Karl Anthony Towns, and they put a straight jacket on the Wolves defensively, perpetually got out in transition off of it. Great shot after great shot. Off of those pushes, they went from trailing to being up by twenty eight in the same quarter. A great example of what I've been talking about a lot over the course of this Knicks saga posts, the Karl Anthony Towns trade, which is all this obsession with rim protection. There's a great counter for rim protection, and it's perimeter defense. I would argue perimeter defense is more important than rim protection in the modern NBA and the Knicks, there was a lot of not weaponizing their defensive talent in the early part of the season the way they're capable of, and it's been their defense that has turned their season around. They also got wins against Orlando and New Orleans and the three and zero road trip. They've now won eight out of ten. They have a one oh four point four defensive rating in those ten games. That's good for third best in the league over that span. Mchael Bridges is back guarding at a high level and it's just trickled down from there. This is the path for the Knicks, like not just scoring a million points. Their offensive rating in the span is only one fifteen point five. That's down considerably from where they were before that span, right, but they're winning more games. You're not trying to outscore teams. You're trying to be a better version of last year's Nicks, the gritty, hard nosed, physical squad that defends and drags the game down in the mud and kicks your butt on the glass. That's how the Knicks win. But if you infuse that with additional offensive skill, that's where the real championship potential is. That team can win the title. Last year's Nicks with better offensive skill the team that started this year, they can't win the title. But it's been a nice little proof of concept there with what we've seen from the Knicks in the last ten games. They are plus nine to fifty to win the title, plus four to twenty five to win the Eastern Conference Number five. The Milwaukee Bucks took a loss without Dame to the Cavs after the Ncason Tournament, but I'm choosing to go positive with them. I thought the Ncason Tournament win was huge. It was also a proof of concept in the sense that they're capable of being a team that's a lead on both ends when they're committed to the task. Giannis's ability to pick defenses apart with his passing, was on full display in that thunder game Dame going toe to toe with some of the best shot makers in the league. Like I thought it was just a bit, I thought it was a huge positive sign of what this Bucks team is capable of with their ceiling They do have a relatively easy schedule in the next few weeks, though, which is huge because I watched with the Lakers last year, the n season tournament kind of drained them and they played really bad basketball for the next month. Obviously a disappointing performance against Cleveland, but this easier stretch of their schedule will give them some time to cool off from the Ncason Tournament, which probably wore them down a little bit. But I'm really high on the Bucks. Giannis is playing at a special level, as close to Jokic as anybody in the league is. Right now, They're bought in, they're defending. I think they have real championship potential if you agree with me. The Bucks right now are plus eighteen hundred to win the title, plus eight hundred to win the Eastern Conference. Number four the Dallas Mavericks one in one week. Both games were at home against the Clippers. Luca and Kyrie both sat out the first game and they lost, but then Kyrie comes back for the second game they win comfortably. Kyrie had an offshooting night, but the rest of the guard court was great. Clay Quinton Grimes and Naji Marshall went nine for thirteen from three. In that game, Spencer Dinwoody dished out six assists five offensive rebounds for Lively.