Eastern Conference contenders roundup

right into it. Anthony, drop that motherfucking beat that should be Rihanna Kiyanti Kiyanti. We covered the West yesterday, came to the conclusion that the Nuggets are gonna win the fucking whole thing. So why am I doing this? Well, we gotta figure out who's coming out of the East, right, Gotta ask the same question, and out west, we're swapping out the Denver Nuggets for the Boston Celtics. Can anyone

beat Boston? Boston is a wagon. That wagon is driven not by Drew Holliday, not by Christas porzingis not by Jalen. I only go right Brown. This is Jason Tatum's rig to drive and Jason Tatum has been incredible Jason regular season Tatum quietly amazingly and getting very little credit for it. Why because we don't trust that man. He's two pretty in his postseason runs, We're still holding stuff against him. How good though? Has he been? Twenty eight nine and

six with two point one stock stock stocks per game? Yes, he's playing defense on an astounding fifty thirty five and eighty six. Get your fucking three point percentage of Jason Tatum. Those, though, are superstar numbers, which you would expect from a guy who will very soon beginning the bag the highest paid player in the NBA is coming for Jason Tatum. The

Celtics have the best record in the NBA. They are eight full games ahead of the second place Cleveland Cavaliers out East, and they are doing this in very unsurprising ways. They average one hundred and twenty one points per game, that is fifth in the league. But did you know that they are second in the NBA in defensive rating behind the Timberwolves, who, by the way, are twentieth and points per game top five and offense top five and

defense that's that championship roh run type of statistic. Right, that's what you need. Top five D, top five. Oh pause, top five D gets you top five. Oh get it. You're gonna do some damage with that. Bamit. Closer look at the stats shows Boston as the number one net rating.

I'm proud of myself for that impromptu joke. Number six assists the turnover ratio number four, rebounding percentage number one in rebounds number five, internal percentage number four in effective field goal percentage number four in true shooting percentage number four, in three point percentage, number two in blocks. I'm exhausted by all the things that the Boston Celtics do well. They are the anti Denver Nuggets that we talked about

last episode. In not being the top eight and almost any major offensive or defensive category, you could hardly find any metrics that the Celtics are not among the league leaders, except for probably coaching. Boston is also facing a favorable schedule down the stretch, which should allow them to rest their stars and the lead up to the playoffs. They played Portland, Washington, Charlotte, and Detroit twice down the stretch. Four of the five worst teams in the NBA and

some historically bad teams in NBA history. Add in two games with Atlanta that's who just got waxed by the Brooklyn Nets. That's like having ten rest days. So yeah, they're the presumptive favorites out East, but they're not the only team with the chance. There have been teams. Two teams that have been struggling that I think have a chance, and another team who has been a goddamn bulldozer. I

am talking the bulldozer, the Cleveland Cavaliers. They're twenty and five in their last twenty five, although they have lost four of seven, they were nineteen to one point one point. They have been incredibly good as of late. We thought at one point, maybe they'll just ride this whole thing out, just win every other game. They just win until win until April. Mostly this is because of their defense, right they only trail the Celtics and the Timberwolves in defensive rating.

They hold opponents under one hundred points around a third of the time. Gross games fun for them over the last thirty games. That is the facts. A lot of this is because we're seeing the return of Evan Mobley, who came back a month ago. By the way, they were good without Evan Mobley. Let's be honest. He came back a month ago. He's averaging sixteen nine and three

with two stocks per game. The Calves are ten to one in their last eleven Jared Allen is averaging eighteen eleven and two with three stocks per game during the stretch. Max Streuce, who they got from Miami they plucked him and stole him, is healthy and he is playing very well. He scored fifteen in the last quarter, including a last second game winning half quarter against the MAVs. Jesus Christ a game winning half quarter fifty nine feet the most

meaningful half court shot we've ever seen. The team is so deep they'll put your ass to sleep. Sam Merrill getting DMPs, but when he's not, he's lighting things up from deep. Dean Wade, why isn't he getting more minutes? Isaaccorro emerging from nowhere. They've all played very well off the bench when they get playing time. JB. Bickerstaff how much playing time is he getting them? I don't know.

Does he know? That's the question, and that means the come playoff time, the rotation won't need to be quite so tight, meaning Donovan Jared Allen Mobley, they can wrest a little more than normal heading into the playoffs. Letting it. Looking at the stats, the Cavs are fourth and net rating top ten and assist ratio, assists and rebound percentage. That's obvious, the rebound percentage component because you have Jared

Allen and Evan Mobley and they're both beasts. With Donovan Mitchell run in the show when he's on, that's the key piece. When he's on, they have a legitimate bucker getter who can match up with anyone in the NBA. So yeah, this is a team that can play defense. They have the ability to put up points. They do get cold, but when they put up points, they make them very dangerous come April, and man, the other two teams I fancy in the East might shock people who

have heard me on the heat check. The first is the Philadelphia seventy six ers. What I know, I know what you're saying, MB. It's gone Trista. This team's fucking dead. They stink. They're seven and seventeen without him, four and twelve in their last sixteen Guess what, and guess what and guess what. I don't care. I do not care what I do care about. Is this from Tim Bontemps. Joel Embiid says he hopes to still come back this season, said he's feeling good. No timeline for his return, said

it doesn't matter where the team is at. If he can't play, he's going to play. Ooo baby, And now that we've got to beat himself, saying that he envisions himself coming back by the end of March. I tell you what, I'm betting him. Bid will be back by the end of the season. And what I'd like to see is how he plays with a guy like Buddy Healed, who opens up spacing in a way that he has not had before. Tobias Harris will emerge from the crypt because he has been got awful without Embiid. Tyrese Maxey

is a star, probably gonna win Most Improved Player. He's put up twenty five to five and six in his last ten games after he poured in fifty one points and that includes a few stinkers. Stinkers, Buddy, Buddy's been very good. Average seventeen three and six is a sixer forty two percent from three. That is a game changer for a team that was the worst in the NBA and three point percentage before the trade deadline. They needed that buddy healed. By the way, Indiana needs that buddy

hild We'll talk about that some other time. The big question, though, is how far the Sixers will fall in the East by the time Embad gets back. The worst case scenario for fans of the league, probably Adam Silver, is if they the Sixers are a playing team, Embiid is healthy, and then they either get the Celtics or the Bucks or the Cavs in the first round. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants Philly in the playoffs early, especially if Embiid has had a ton of time to rest almost an

entire offseason to get into form. Joel Embiid in October is one of the scariest mans in life. Joel Embiid October, Embiid in April, fuck you, fuck your life. Add that to the fact that Nick Nurse is coaching, and you can't count at least two losses directly attributed to Doc Rivers steering into the Abyss and making no defensive adjustments or offensive adjustments and then blaming everyone Danger Danger, Danger, Which is funny because the other team that I like

in the East, Danger Danger, Danger. Trista are the Bucks, which is kind of funny. I actually like think about this. I haven't thought about this at all until just now. Deer in headlights, fear the deer. Fear the deer in headlights. Doc rivers anyway, But trista human cooking dog rivers all month. Yes, and he's deserved it. He's been throwing people under the bus his entire life, and he's been doing it for

two straight weeks now. Even though Milwaukee was three and seven in their last ten games of Doc Rivers's Bucks tenure, he's now put them on their back five and two stretch. He's righted the ship, hopefully. The defensive rating under Doc is one twelve, which would be good for top five

in the NBA. This is a team that was awful defensively, and he's taken them from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the heap, flat out off all under ageran Griffin bottom third in the league after top five consecutive top five defenses Underbut I think I repeated something. Don't worry about it. How is the rest of the team adjusted to Doc. Let's just say it's a work in progress. Dame has been seventeen six and seven in his last seven games, not amazing. I think he averaged

thirty last year, maybe more, maybe thirty five. But he's averaged a plus sixteen point six plus minus in those games, which really is all that matters. Win games, beat the shit out of their teams, and get in and get out. Anytime they need forty from Dame, he can give them to them. Also, he's grabbing boards addition out of assists

like an absolute machine lately. So that's good. Yiannis twenty eight eleven and six in his last seven, which is kind of what you'd expect from Jannis plus seven plus minus average net rating per game in this last seven. I think I said last seven multiple times again. But it's Brook Lopez who has been flourishing in doc system ten to five and two with three blocks and a steel in his last seven games, which by the way, is lower than his series an average, but it does

not matter. His net rating during that stretch was plus nineteen and then the plus minus before that with Adrian Griffin. I mean, he was just tanking his value. So yeah, things are much better in Milwaukee if they figure the offense out with Dame and Giannis meshing like we all initially expected, which has been taking some time. Not he go, I go, he go, I go. And then a team like Philly or Miami knocks out Boston the first or

second round. Oh boy, the Bucks are dangerous, baby, and now that they share a handicap with the Boston Celtics coaching. To help makes sense of all of this malwarkey in the East, all of this ambiguity in the East, I talked to Dan Favale with a good Kiyanti, who covers the NBA for Bleacher Report on my other show at MGM The Night, which airs seven to eleven Eastern in most major markets and live on Twitch and YouTube and

on the Odyssey app. A lot of platforms you can find us on I think like eighty five different radio stations around the country too. I'm joined by my co host Nick Ashew. He gave us tons of info on what's happening out East. So let's get right into it, damn for all.

can you avoid the Boston matchup at least until later round. However, the second part of that, as you mentioned, with the injury, he's been banged up in every single postseason that he's been played in, and so to come back from this extensive absence with this injury where you might wonder if there's going to need to be any additional work done

over the offseason. That's going to be in the back of your mind, and it does make you wonder a little bit if it's worth it, just given how much he has struggled in postseasons pass they're clearly better off with whatever version they could get of him, as we've seen.

But if you're not even going to come back with enough time to get re acclimated to maybe learn how to play with Buddy Heald a little bit more, which is the type of floor space or he's really never had, I do wonder how much of an impact it ends up having. But if you're the six spot, or if you can avoid the Boston matchup in the first round, I think it's absolutely huge of course to have Joel Embiid out there in.

And given how much how dominant the Celtics have been this year, and the Bucks are starting to look a little bit better on the defensive end, and the Calves are healthier, and if the Knicks ever get healthier, it just feels like, even with the Sixers having this version of Joell and bid back, if you can tell me Joel and Bee's gonna come back and then just be the MVP favorite type of talent again, then yeah, this

is absolutely money or value to smash. But when you look at the rest of the East, I just like, unless that thing was gonna shift into like seventeen eighteen nineteen to one, I would probably steer.

Should there be any optimism still that this team gets healthy in time for the playoffs and can get back to you know where they were given how open, like you point out how open the East really can be.

doesn't need to dominate the ball on offense. If you can believe that Baion Vagda is going to play a little bit better and he will, you probably have enough to get by on offense. If you're just getting a healthy Og, maybe an eighty percent of Isaiah Hartenstein who's been banged up, that's a team that you know, I'm not going to pick them to beat Boston. I don't know if I picked them to beat Milwaukee, but they

could win any given seven game series. I think in the Eastern Conference right now, it's just a matter of getting enough bodies back, and specifically for me, it's Hartenstein and Og, and it does look like those are two guys that, barring catastrophe, should be available for them by the time the playoffs start.

play is? Defensively and offensive? When we start to see a setting like the playoffs where everything's a little bit more condensed.

they're dealing with. In that perspective, the offense is weird because we've seen, you know, flickers and glimpses into what they could be when Damian Lowd and Jannis Tantakoombo feel like they're playing together and cole lacing, but it too often feels like they're playing separately still to me at least, and we've seen Dame have these uncharacteristic peaks and valleys when it comes to his own shot making, and so you can just bet on him progressing to his norm.

But that's something at this point that concerns me a little bit more than ken the defense sustained, because the whole point of bringing in Dame was the playoff proof your offense, and just based off what I've seen with the Bucks even since the Doc Rivers higher, I don't know that you can say they've done that just.

been these weird behind the scenes locker room stuff. When you look at both iterations of the Clippers, both iterations of the of the Sixers most recently, it doesn't seem like, well the deal with that in Milwaukee, at least immediately, maybe if they flame out in the playoffs. I think when it comes to pulling some different levers on the defensive end, he is absolutely a coach that can do that for them. We've seen him do a little bit

of it where the Bucks have played more aggressively. Is he the coach that's going to be creative enough offensively to tap in to their full ceiling. I honestly don't know, And even that, to me, I don't view him as a huge factory. To me, it's more like, is Damian

Liller gonna be nuclears? He's gonna be able to hit those off the dribble jumpers because the driving game has been there, those off the dribble jumpers that have been all over the place, and that's arguably maybe the one the most important shot in basketball when it comes down to the playoffs, when you look at the level of defenses you'll be facing.

Sam Merrill's on the court over him? And it feels like JB. Bickerstaff is sometimes married to guys a little bit too long. But we've also seen him close some games without Evan Mobley and roll with Jared Allen, and so that front court awkwardness I think accounts for maybe why so many people are skeptical, and I honestly do think it's fair because we've seen them lose some winnable games down the stretch of late and even like that near miss against the Mavericks where they should have lost

lost if it wasn't for Max s Druce's heroics. That word I would use is just awkwardness where it feels like they're still figuring out some stuff about themselves and I don't know if they'll do it by the postseason, but sort of hammering out that frontline rotation, the three four five, and knowing what combinations you can turn to when it matters most. I think that's going to wind up being the sticking point for them.

are they the second best? And if not, what do you think holds them back?

they're gonna start. I think when they're at full strength, when the games really start to matter. Their offens just feels like it's one, not just a shot creator, but like, you know, a nine or ten on a scale of one to ten level shot creator, because even Jimmy Butler doesn't give you that perimeter level element of scoring on on most nights, He's going to be more from the outside in. And to miss that player, you're not gonna get that from Terry Year. You're not gonna get enough

of it from Tyler Hero. So I would still pick Milwaukee or Cleveland over them. But when you see how the Knicks have started to play with their injuries, the sixers injuries, the pacers of the Magic being what they are, and how Miami started to perk up, and given their track record in previous years, it's could they be like the third or fourth team and settle into that spot? Yes, But to go for number two right now, just I don't trust the offense nearly enough to slot them there.

the right size one and it's still unclear. And by the way, Tristan Crik has a podcast called The heat Check and it's lit. Listen to it. Oh yeah, do not forget to follow us on at this heat Check at Tristan Crik on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, and we'll see you next time.