Hoops Tonight - Anthony Davis & Joel Embiid dominate in Lakers & 76ers wins, Warriors concerns grow - podcast episode cover

Hoops Tonight - Anthony Davis & Joel Embiid dominate in Lakers & 76ers wins, Warriors concerns grow

Mar 09, 202334 min
--:--
--:--
Listen in podcast apps:
Metacast
Spotify
Youtube
RSS

Episode description

Jason Timpf reacts to Anthony Davis' monster night in the Los Angeles Lakers' 112-103 win over the Memphis Grizzlies as well as Joel Embiid's 39-point performance in the Philadelphia 76ers' 117-94 victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Later, Jason discusses the Boston Celtics' 114-118 overtime loss to Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers as well as the growing concerns he has for Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and the Golden State Warriors following their 137-128 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder #volume

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

The volume. It's Hoops to Night presented by FanDuel. The NBA season is kicking into gear, and there's no better place to get in on the action than with FanDuel. The app is safe and secure, getting your money out is super easy. You can jump into the action at any time during the game with live betting and I love building those same game parlays and FanDuel is now live in Ohio, So use promo code Jason T and download the FanDuel app today to start making every moment

more twenty one plus in select states. FanDuel is offering online sports way during in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem called one eight hundred Gambler or visit FanDuel dot com slash RG. In Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia call one eight hundred, next step or text next step to five three three four two. In Arizona dial one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven seven, or

visit CCPG dot org slash chat. In Connecticut dial one eight hundred nine with it. In Indiana, dial one eight hundred five two two forty seven hundred, or visit KS gamblinghelp dot com. In Kansas dial one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop. In La call one eight hundred three two seven five zero five zero, or visit www dot M A h E. LP l I NE dot org. Slash Problem Gambling visit www dot MD gambling help dot org.

In Maryland dial one eight seven seven eight Hope n Y. Or text Hope n Y to four six seven three six nine in New York. Dial one eight hundred five two two forty seven hundred in Wyoming, or visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by FanDuel here at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great week so far. We

are live on AMP. Don't forget if you're watching on YouTube or listening on the podcast feeds that AMP is the very first place that you guys can get these shows. We have a jam packed show today. We're gonna hitting on four games from the last two days. The Lakers got another huge win last night against the Memphis Grizzlies. The Philadelphia seventy six ers went on the road to a red hot Minnesota Timberwolves team and kick their ass,

which I thought was super interesting. We're gonna cover a game from Monday night when the Calves beat the Celtics, coming from behind late and winning in overtime. And then, last but not least, the Golden State Warriors and their road struggles continue, allowing just a shit ton of points in an ugly loss on the road in Oklahoma City. We're gonna touch on that game as well. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of

our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements. And then, last but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish. Don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under hoops tonight, All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Lakers win one twelve

to one oh three. Anthony freaking Davis thirty points and twenty two rebounds on just seventeen shots completely dominated the game on both ends of the floor, lockdown the paint defensively, scored what ten points in transition, he scored in isolation, he scored in pick and roll. As a role man, he had four points just working his ass off on the offensive glass. He scored seven points directly in the post. He completely dominated the game and was just a complete monster.

And this was just the latest reminder of why I've always been so high on the Lebron James and Anthony Davis pairing. There have been a lot of times over the last year and a half where I've gotten some crap, you know, for saying, like, hey, like through all of this, they're one trade away. If they can make it a solid rush trade, they'll be a real contender. And I've been saying that forever because I believe that Lebron James and Anthony Davis have the highest ceiling of any duo

in the league. We did our top five duos yesterday and I had them fifth, and I had them fifth because of their availability issues. I'm sorry, but that is you know, there's the old saying the best ability is availability, and essentially not being able to maintain your ceiling is absolutely something we should factor in when comparing you to the other duos around the league. So I don't think Lebron and A d have a case to be any

higher than fifth on that list. But when they are right, when they are healthy, there is no duo in the NBA that can match what Lebron James and Anthony Davis can do on both sides of the floor. When Anthony Davis is healthy, he is a top tier superstar. When Lebron James is healthy, he is a to your superstar.

How many players would you even consider taking over the two of them in a playoff series if they are healthy, I'd say Janis, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Luka don Chich, Nikola Yokich, and Joel embat Those are the only six that you can make a reasonable case that you take over both of them healthy in a playoff series. And I would argue they have cases over several of those players. So that means at worst, the Lakers have like the seventh and eighth best player that you would want on

your team in a key playoff series. And here's the thing. Johannis Katie, Steph Luca, Nikola Yoki, and Joel Embiid they're all on different teams. Lebron and Anthony Davis both play for the Lakers, and they've both demonstrated that top tier ceiling within this season. After the win last night, the Lakers are now thirty and twenty four since they're two in ten spart start. That's the tenth best record in

the league over that span. That includes Lebron, James, and Anthony Davis combining to miss forty one games during that stretch. That includes playing most of that stretch without any forwards. That includes playing crunch time with Russell Westbrook and a general lack of offensive skill in the backcourt. I pulled some numbers today. The Lakers were ten and fourteen when Russ played clutch minutes for them. They are nine and four this year when they played clutch minutes without Russ.

That includes bad luck with deficiating. There was that Tatum foul on Lebron at the buzzer in the Celtics game. There was that play against the Mavericks when Christian Would hacked Lebron on a buzzer layup. That's two plays where Lebron would have had two chances to make one free throw to win a game with no time on the clock. Despite all of that, they are thirty and twenty four

in their last fifty four games. Because to start that run, when Lebron was out, Anthony Davis played like the best player in the world to carry the team to wins. And then later on when Anthony Davis was out, Lebron James played like one of the best players in the world to float the team when Anthony Davis was out. Obviously, lots of other guys stepped up during that stretch, but those two guys led the way. You're not winning games

in the NBA without type of top end talent. And by the way, the Lakers are seven and three since the new trade pieces started playing. They have the number one defense in the league over that span by a large margin. They are two points per one hundred possessions better than the Bucks, who are second place in that span. And just within that ten game span, Anthony Davis, Lebron James, and D'Angel Russell have combined him his fifteen games, they are three and oh. When all three of those guys

play together. I say all that to say this, this is a legitimately very dangerous basketball team in the Western Conference. Again, Lebron and ad have both flashed that top five upside when they're healthy. Within this season. They now have an extremely skilled backcourt. D'Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley compliment Lebron and Anthony Davis really well. Austin Reeves has been excellent coming off the bench in a lead ball handling role

as of late. He's also like the fifth guy that you'd want to slide into closing lineups in for Malik Beasley. It's kind of a much better two way fit in that specific situation. We'll talk more about Austin Reeves here in a minute, because I want to do a deep dive into his recent improvements. Dennis Ruder is as good of a backup point guard as you'll find in the league. He provides like a defensive changeup to the offensive fastball of D'Angelo Russell, and he did a number on Desmond

bayin yesterday chasing him around an applying ball pressure. He's just an excellent option to throw about to throw out just about any guard in the league. Jared Vanderbilt has become an extremely versatile defensive weapon that can guard the other team's best player, regardless of archetype. He's basically handled every type of matchup they've thrown him at. The only guy that you probably not feel comfortable with is like

a yoga er and eimbid. But he can guard guards, he can guard two guards, he can guard wings, he can guard bigger forwards, big strong forwards. He'll get another challenge to guard a big, strong forward against the Nicks on Sunday. I'm interested to see how he fares there. Ruy hatch Mura has responded to him getting limited minutes and going to the bench for Jared Vanderbilt. He's responded to that by just diving in heart and soul into

the rebounding and defensive areas of the game. This has been one of the most impactful role player stretches I've seen from Ruy hatch Mura, just in all the dirty work that he's doing on the floor, motivated by what he needs to do to get minutes. He also provides an interesting offensive changeup to Jared Vanderbilt's Jared Vanderbilt's defensive

fastball inclosing groups. Ruey hatch Murra is shooting seventy five percent in clutch situations this year in the Leakers are four and one when they've gone to him in clutch games. Brown Junior has been outstanding taking on tough defensive assignments, and now he can't miss from three. Over the course of the last several games, he's up to thirty eight percent on the season. And they have some real matchup

flexibility off the bench. Defensively at the center position, they can go smaller and faster with more pace with when you in Gabriel, or they can play a more traditional drop coverage big against teams that don't have as much pull up shooting in mo Bamba. They check a lot of boxes now and they have better top end talent when healthy than anybody in the league. Yes, there are

guys that are better than Lebron. Yes there are guys that are better than a d but there's nobody in the league that can put the two of them together and who could do anything that resembles what the two of them do at the top end, even as unlikely as that is. Yes, health is a real risk for them. That's why I had them as fifth in my duos yesterday. It's still a big question mark. But if they are healthy in April, I'm extremely tempted to pick them as the team that could get out of the West, and

we'll make that call when we get there. But if Anthony Davis is going to be this good, and you're gonna get the Lebron who broke the scoring record earlier this season, with this group of role players in a Western conference full of teams that are flawed, I think you'd be foolish to act as though they do not have a serious chance to get out of the conference.

I wanted to talk about Austin Reeves for a minute because a couple games ago, the last time they lost Memphis, I talked a lot about Anthony Davis and how he needs competent ball handling. It's ironically the reason why Lebron and Anthony Davis are such a great pair. Anthony Davis's greatest weakness, which is perimeter initiation, is Lebron james greatest strength. And Lebron james greatest weakness at this point in his career, which is really engaging himself with his athleticism on the

defensive end of the floor and as a rebounder. That's Anthony Davis's greatest strength. They compliment each other incredibly well for that reason. But AD's lack of perimeter initiation. Has been flashing a lot lately. At three assists to seven turnovers last night, Anthony Davis has eleven assists to twenty turnovers in his last four games. He needs competent ball handling. We saw what happened against Memphis last time. They couldn't take care of the basketball, they had no chance of winning.

We saw what happened against against Golden State on Sunday. We talked about how Lonnie Walker and Malik Beasley and Austin Reeves and Dennis rod Are kind of cobbled together a really efficient backcourt night and they won the game. And then last night, Austin Reeves and Dennis Schroder combined for thirty four points and sixteen assists on just two turnovers.

So they are somehow without D'Angelo Russell, without Lebron James, cobbling together now competent ball handling, which is what is allowing Anthony Davis to carry his incredible two way impact as a play finisher offensively and as a defensive anchor

on the defensive end of the floor. I wanted to show some you know, because we talked a lot about Dennis shoulder earlier and what he does defensively, but one of the biggest developments of this season for the Lakers has been the improvements that Austin Reeves has made in terms of his offensive skill and it really is remarkable.

So I did some diving for those of you guys who want to see these numbers visually, I tweeted them out earlier today, but I wanted to go over just some numbers to demonstrate how much Austin Reeves has improved over the course of the last two seasons. So in twenty twenty two, Austin Reeves averaged zero point nine four points points per post up possession excuse me, points per spot up possession. That was one hundred and ninety second out of two hundred and fifty seven players to log

at least one hundred spot up possessions. This season, When spotting up one point two four points per possession, that's a thirty point increase in offensive writing in those situations. That's thirteenth out of one hundred and forty seven players to log at least one hundred and fifty spot up possessions.

So in one summer, he transformed himself from one of the worst spot up players in the league to one of the best spot up players in the league in shot creation situations on the ball, he has improved his efficiency despite massively improving his volume. He went from zero point nine six points per possession in pick and roll last year to zero point nine eight this year, despite going from eighty one reps to two hundred and three reps.

Isolation up from one point zero seven points per possession to one point one one, And most of it's coming down to the jump shots. So last year Austin Reeves effective field goal percentage on catching shoot jump shots fifty two percent, dribble jump shots thirty six percent. This year fifty nine percent, affective field goal percentage on catching shoe jumpers, fifty three percent, effective field goal percentage on dribble jump shots, and his rim finishing has improved from sixty eight percent

to sixty nine percent despite increased volume. It's extremely difficult to do that over a five season gap, let alone in one season. I tweeted this earlier today, but there's a couple of guys and somebody actually on my Twitter fe pointed out Javon Carter as well. But Javon Carter,

Austin Reeves, Josh Green. There are some recent examples of some of these spot up players around the league that in one summer must have just spent hours and hours every single day building out and refining their skill set in preparation for bigger roles this year, and Austin Reeves is just the latest example of that. Watch out for those Lakers, man. They have a couple days off before. If you look at their schedule down the stretch here like they've got a lot of winnable games on the horizon.

Next is Friday night at home against the Toronto Raptors. That's a winnable game, obviously Nicks on Sunday. The Knicks are playing really well, but they're a team that can struggle to score sometimes in a half court So the Lakers will have a chance to win, and at some point over the course of the next few weeks, I expect Lebron James to return, maybe not as soon as he needs to. If they keep winning at this rate, we'll see. Let's go out to the first National TV

game from yesterday, seventy six Ers timber Wolves. So Sixers beat the hell out of the Wolves. Outside of Anthony Edwards, nobody from Minnesota could make a shot. Embiad was masterful once again, thirty nine points on twenty two shots three blocks. Joel Embiad scored twenty points just on jump shots yesterday. He was four for four from three four for eight

on jump shots outside of the paint. He is now up to fifty six percent effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jumpers this year and forty four percent effective field goal percentage on dribble jump dribble jump shots this year. Those are decent numbers for a star guard, let alone for a center. So that perimeter jump shooting

thing for Joel Embiid continues to be a revelation. Tyrese Maxie was awesome with James Harden now he had twenty seven and five and it was good to see to buy his Harris back after that calf injury took him out in the middle of that Bucks game. He's really important for them on the wing defensively because they're a little fin there. And he grabbed fourteen rebounds, which is a big part of triggering that transition attack with guys

like Tyrese Maxie. But in his walk off interview on TNT, Joel Embiid had this quote that I thought was really interesting. He said, no disrespect to any of them, but no disrespect to any of them MVPs, but defense. Excuse me, I'm reading this quote and butchering it. No disrespect to any of them, but MVPs Defensive Player of the Year. That doesn't mean anything to me. I'm still going to

be the best player on the floor. So first of all, in the speech, you can kind of see just a little bit of contempt in his voice, and I get that. I understand, I understand, and beats frustration. I don't think embiad is the MVP. I'd have him third right now. But I do get very frustrated by the MVP voting process. It's one of the most annoying conversations every year. The voters predominantly seem to be like MBA hipsters that galaxy.

The galaxy brain themselves into overly complicated opinions. I don't think playoff success is valued nearly enough. Yes, I know it's a regular season award, but why do we play the regular season. It's all one giant journey towards the Larry O'Brien Trophy. So acting as though that your playoff translatability doesn't matter just because we're focusing on the regular

season is really silly to me, But I digress. I was impressed by the quote because to me, it is the latest example of Joel Embiad's demeanor throughout this season, which is just fighting like hell on the court to win games, regardless of what the prevailing opinion is about him, regardless of whatever narratives you can cling to. I look, I think he can be an infuriating foul grifter sometimes,

but you know, that is what it is. He's been relatively healthy this year, but he's had some health issues in the past, so people will cling to those sorts of things. But he's shutting out all of that and he's just focusing on dominating basketball games on the court. He's gone to war every single night. He's outplayed Giannis head to head. Recently, He's outplayed Nickel Yokich head to head. Recently, he outplayed Anthony Davis earlier this year. All he's doing

is winning where it matters on the court. The Sixers are nine points per one hundred possessions better with him than without him, and the Sixers are thirty one in ten since December eighth, which is still the second best record in the league over that span, just to Denver. That's a half season sample size with some signature wins.

They're owing three against Boston this year, but they're three and one against Denver and Milwaukee, which lends credence to my matchup take that I always have, like, especially in the Eastern Conference. This year, matchups are going to matter. Who plays who is going to matter, and it benefits Philadelphia if Boston ends up getting the one seed, so they can catch Milwaukee in that second round, because I

think that's a better matchup for them. Before we move on, I wanted to talk about Minnesota for a second because this is a tough loss. Obviously, you get your butt kicked when you're on a three game winning streak at home. But before last night, they ripped off three straight wins against three pretty good teams, all on the road. They beat the Clippers on the road, they beat the Lakers on the road, they beat the Kings on the road.

And so I want to go optimistic here with the Timberwolves because and kind of start to see just an identity starting to form, an identity that makes sense as a foundation for a really good basketball team. Starts with Anthony Davis as your two way superstar. Aunt's last twenty games twenty seven, six and five, fifty eight percent true shooting, thirty seven percent on pull up threes during that span, all pretty damn good numbers. Anthony Anthony Edwards and Jaden

McDaniels have made a frightening perimeter defensive duo. I've talked about that a lot on the show in recent weeks. They've given nightmares to many of the game's best offensive players this season. They have these stretches where they lock in and guys just can't even get shots off, and they have one of the best defensive anchors in the league behind them and Rudy Gobert. So you've got the future superstar, and you've got the potential to be a

truly great defense. And they've still been a good defense this year, their tenth in defensive rating. But you can see a version of this where they can in the future on the strength of those three guys Aunt at the point of attack, Jade McDaniels guys on the wing, and Rudy Gobert on the back line, that they can be a truly great defense. What they need is they need a good playmaking guard that can defend next to

Anthony Edwards. Some of that's a little more methodical, a little bit more of a guy looking to set guys up. And then Jade McDaniels represents that like thin, wiry, great athlete forward. But they need that bigger, stronger, lower center of gravity like kind of power, traditional power type of forwards. So basically think of it as like the better version of Mike Conley and the better version of Kyle Anderson. And for the record, I don't think it should be

Carl Towns. I just think your overall foot speed in the lineup gets too low there and he's not a good enough defensive player. So obviously, with all the assets they gave up in the Gobert trade, it's probably gonna have to be Carl Towns as used as the chip to make that happen. But I think they're gonna be

looking in that direction eventually anyway. But if they can upgrade those two positions, a good skilled forward that's big and strong at the four and a good skilled guard that can pass and playmake and defend a little bit at the two, that's that's a damn good five man group, especially if Anthony Edwards continues to progress at this rate, so I would be I would be very excited for the future if I was a Wolves fan. What's up, guys,

it's soups Tonight, presented by FanDuel. The sports calendar is packed and there's no better place to get in on the action than with FanDuel. There's so many sports to bet on, like the NBA College Basketball or the PGA Tour. The app is safe, secure, and super easy to use. They have exclusive offers, boosts, and more all month long. Plus when you win, you'll get paid fast. FanDuel has lots of ways to play, like the spread, money, line over unders, team totals, player props, and so much more.

And you can combine multiple bets from the same game into a same game parlay. So download the FanDuel app today to start making every moment more All right, let's move on to Monday night's game between the Caves and the Celtics. So the Calves one in OT one eighteen to one fourteen. It's a weird game. Boston set out three starters. Jason Tatum was out, Al Horford's out, Robert Williams is still out. He's gonna be out for their

week or so. Cleveland went small down the stretch. They bench Jared Allen and went with Lamar Stevens and Evan Mobile in the front court. Donovan Mitchell was awesome down the stretch, just attacking the rim, taking advantage of Boston being down their rim protection, not settling for stupid shots. Lamar Stevens was one of the biggest impact players down the stretch of this game. He had a bunch of offensive rebounds down the stretch and regulation and then an

Ot had back to back monster offensive plays. He hit a corner three on a kickout, and then he had a play where he drove and dropped his shoulder and went right through Mike Muscala to get a layup. That just goes to show you what competent forward play looks like next to that specific core of players, which is exactly why I've been saying that if they could upgrade that position or get more consistent production out of that position,

I'd be so much hard higher on them. But the Celtics blew an eleven point lead late in this game, and the Celtics have lost three of their last four games and are just twenty four and sixteen since that Golden State loss in early December. Now here's the thing, a lot of Celtics fans are freaking out, and I very much am not. Even that long extended slump, going twenty four and sixteen is still the sixth best record in the league over that span. That's how ridiculously even

the league is down the line. I think most of their issues as of late are related to some lineup inconsistency, as they've been cautious with injuries and general malaise, which can happen to really good teams in March, especially when they have a comfortable position in the standings. Obviously they're jocking for that one two seed, but like they're in pretty safe shape, so they don't have the same urgency that a lot of the other teams in the league

are playing with. So I have not seen anything in the last three months that would change my opinion of the Celtics. But I did have a Celtics fan ask me last night how Boston keeps blowing these games, and I wanted to hit on that for a minute. So, first of all, the Celtics are twenty one in ten

in games that involved clutch situations. This year that third best in the entire league, behind Milwaukee and Denver, and a hell of a lot better than they were last year, so this hasn't really been that big of a problem. But they've had some tough clutch games this season that resembled last year, and they've blown three of their last four close games, so it's worth touching on for a minute. I attribute these clutch Celtics issues to two things, stagnation

and decision making at the rim. So, first of all, stagnation, so when the game slows down in these clutch situations, the Celtics have way too many possessions where they just

walk the ball up the floor. And what ends up happening in those types of situations is they don't actually start trying to create an advantage until there's like ten eleven seconds left on the shot clock, and so if that first drive gets contained, they're making a swing pass to somebody who doesn't have much of an advantage with

like four seconds on the shot clock. And so a lot of those possessions end in these late clock contested pull up jumpers, which are going to be low percentage shots for everybody in the league, even the best players. So the way to fight that is to play with tempo. You want to bring the ball up the floor quickly. That doesn't mean you have to shoot right away. You don't have to. Like, playing with pace doesn't necessarily mean shooting in the first five seconds of every shot clock.

It just means moving the ball at the floor quickly and getting into that first action that might give you some time to run a set or maybe if you're playing driving kickball, that first guy, even if he kind of gets contained, he can throw that swing pass and that next guy has a chance to attack that close out and maybe he can make a kick, and then the next guy can attack, and you might be able to get four or five attacks in the same possession,

which is what allows you the better opportunity to get better dribble penetration, to get better shots. So that that to me is step one. Play with better tempo, bring the ball up quickly so you have multiple opportunities to attack the rim. The second thing is rim decision making. There were back to back possessions in this game when Austin was up one two ninety three where Jalen Brown made poor decisions at the rim and it turned the game like this. Once on a cut, once on a drive,

and both times he made poor decisions. First, he challenged Evan Mobley on a cut when Luke Cornette was cutting out of the week side corner wide open. Instead of challenging the rim protector and getting blocked, you read the floor and you make that hook pass to Cornette cutting on the baseline, it's a dunk. On the second one, he drove to the basket on Evan Mobley, Mobley's challenging him from behind. Lamar Stevens comes up and helps Derek White's wide open on the left wing, and Marcus Smart

is wide open in the corner. Because the entire Calves team collapses and Jaylen Brown challenges them and misses the layout. And here's the problem. Missed layups or blocked layoups trigger fast breaks. I learned this lesson a million times when I was covering the Lakers with Westbrook over the last couple of years. All of miss layups would inevitably lead to these runouts the other way. And it's it's pretty simple. Every team usually has one guy on the floor who's

pretty slow footed already probably a big right. So when one of your better athletes misses a layup and is now behind the rim, your floor balance is off, and you're playing three on five back the other way in transition. It just puts your transition defense in a really tough spot. This is where you know, getting dribble penetration is the first step, but making the right decision when you engage

help defenders is the important second step. I used to talk a lot about, you know, when we were talking about analytics two days ago. I think I told you guys about how you know we don't properly account for shot quality. Right, Like, Yes, threes and the rim are the two best shots in basketball in terms of value, right because you can finish at a high rate at the rim typically, and threes are worth one and a

half points compared to a shot inside. Right, when I have times as many points, I should say, here's the thing. A wide open, in rhythm fifteen footer is worth more points per possession than a contested three or a contested rim attempt. That's the important detail. Rim attempts are not good if they're in a ship ton of traffic and you can't make them. Threes are not good if they're

a heavily contested, difficult off the dribble three. By playing stagnant and not getting dribble penetration, you take a lot of contested dribble threes, which are low percentage shots if you make if you get drible penetration and you make poor rim decisions, you get a lot of contested, tough

layups at the rim. But if you play with tempo, you get the drible penetration and you make good rim decisions, now you're getting wide open catch and shoot threes on the back end, or if you work the advantage enough you might get a wide open, higher percentage rim attempt. So playing with tempo and making good rim decisions is the difference between getting contested threes and contested rim attempts and quality catch and shoot threes and quality rim attempts.

That little execution detail is the specific problem that has popped up with the Celtics time and time again over the years, challenging bam at a Bio at the rim, challenging Brook Lopez at the rim, challenging kevon Looney and Dramon Green at the rim. Rather than making the right decision, playing stagnant in not getting enough tribal penetration. Again, it hasn't been as bad this year as it was in the postseason last year, or the year or in the

regular season last year. But that specific issue has been what has caused their crunch time issues, and it's happened in three of the last four games. So it's just something to keep an eye on as we go down the stretch. But I remain unworried about the Celtics in general, and I do think they deserve their fair chance to prove us all wrong in the postseason, all right quickly before we get out of here. So Golden State loses. I I don't have too many thoughts on this game.

I just want to hit on a couple of quick points. Golden State loses an embarrassing game in Oklahoma City one thirty seven to one twenty eight. First of all, shakiel Just Alexander actually played in this game after missing a bunch, and he's the top fifteen player in the world, So that doesn't necessarily take away how embarrassing the losses, but

it does color it a little bit differently. Like going into Oklahoma City and beating Shakil Just Alexander and the Thunder is not exactly an easy task, but it is a game the Warriors should have won. Secondly, a lot of Warriors fans and some non Warriors fans were hyper focused on Golden State's size in this game. That specifically has been one of the larger talking points surrounding the Warriors in recent weeks, how big they are. Colin and I even talked about it a little bit in the

last time we did the show. And look, the Warriors are not a huge basketball team, obviously, but this is the same core that was big enough to win the title last year through Yoki running through Memphis and their gigantic front line of Jaron Jackson Junior and Brandon Clark and Stephen Adams, and the Celtics were much bigger than them, basically at every position, and they won the title. So, like, I'm not necessarily that worried about Golden State size. And

here's the reality. Two of last night's game, their two best athletes were unavailable. Andrew Wiggins and Gary Payton are two of the top tier athletes at their positions. When they don't play, the Warriors are not nearly as physical, physically imposing. That's just a fact. But here's why I'm concerned. Regardless of what personnel was available for the Warriors last night. They had more than enough to win that game, and

they just were not sharp defensively in this game. They were not sliding their feet on the perimeter to contain ball handlers. They were slow in their rotations, they were slow to the basketball and missus so they got destroyed on the glass and they turned the ball over twenty one time. That's just all sloppiness and laziness. I don't want to hear about size and athleticism when I've seen this same group of players do infinitely better in all of those same areas just in the last couple of weeks,

primarily when they're at home. So the concerning thing is is that in a situation where the team should be playing with high urgency, they are not playing with high urgency. They're establishing bad habits that can get them beat, especially on the road. And here's the thing, They're going to be playing on the road a lot in this postseason. Potentially, that's the concern. It's not over, but they had better

get their ship together quickly. They're running out of time to rectify this, and that was a discouraging loss, to say the least. If you're optimistic about the Warriors last night. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. I believe we're taking tomorrow. Oh wait, we are. Were covering

Grizzlies Warriors tomorrow night. So we're gonna be live on AMP right after the final buzzer of that game, and then we have a show on I'm recording Friday night that will air on Saturday morning, and then when I'm recording Saturday night that will air on Sunday morning. The volume

Transcript source: Provided by creator in RSS feed: download file
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android
Open in Metacast