The volume. The ever its NBA Cup is here and you can win big getting in on the action at DraftKings sports Book, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. All thirty teams split into six groups every Tuesday and Friday, playing for the right to advance in the single elimination in season tourney culminating in the NBA Cup Championship in Vegas.
We have a new favorite on DraftKings. The New York Knicks are actually favored to win the NBA Cup right now at plus five hundred, with the Cleveland Cavaliers with the second best odds at plus five fifty. First time, here's something special just for you new DraftKings customers. Bet five dollars to get one hundred and fifty in bonus bets if your bet wins. Score big with DraftKings Sportsbook,
every point counts. Download the Draft Kings Sportsbook app and use code hoops that's h oops, that's code hoops for new customers to get one fifty in bonus bets if your bet wins when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler in New York called eight seven to seven eight hope n why or text hope n Y
to four to six seven three six nine. In Connecticut, help was available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction, void and Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co. Slash b ball.
All right, welcome to hoop tonight here at the volume heavy Tuesday. Everybody off, All of you guys are having a great week. Well, we got what I think has been the biggest regular season game to this point in the NBA season. The only other game that I felt was this important, other than the opening night ones just because it's all exciting because NBA basketball is back, was that the uh the Warriors Celtics game a few weeks ago.
But this one, this one felt like an important test for the Cleveland Cavaliers got off to a fifteen and oh start. Obviously not the perfect rendition of what this matchup would look like. Christops Porzingis is a very important part of the Boston Celtics and their ability to attack
specific matchups. And obviously we had a bunch of guys out for Cleveland, specifically in their wing corps with Dean Wade out, Isaacacorro out, Max Strus out, and Carris la vertout, and those are guys that you need for this.
Type of matchup.
But still we got at least a vague look at what these two teams look like matching up against each other, and the Celtics kind of controlled it for the most part. Cavs got it close a few times, but the Celtics
got out of there with a win. We're going to break the game down from the perspective of both teams, and then at the tail end of the show, we are doing a mail bag, So drop mail bag questions in the chat and Paul's gonna send him over to me and we'll hit a bunch of mail bag questions at the tail end.
Of the show. You guys did the joke before we get started.
Subscribed to Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos follow me on Twitter at underscore jsonlt so you guysn't miss announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast hoops tonight, don't forget to tell ful v leve a rating and a review on that front. We also have new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook when we're releasing a lotch of like reels and other contents. To make
sure you follow there. In the last not out least, keepdropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. We are doing a mail bag on Friday that I am recording on Thursday, and I'm gonna be grabbing the comments from yesterday's video, today's videos, and from tomorrow's for that specific mailbag,
so make sure you drop. As a matter of fact, we don't have a new video coming out tomorrow, so tomorrow will be your last chance or excuse me, this video will be the last one this week where you can drop mailbag questions for Friday's mailbags to make sure you get that in there, but also drop mailbags in the chat so that we can hit some at the tail end of this show tonight, all right, let's talk
some basketball. So one of the most important functions that I was looking for in this particular matchup was Boston's ability to attack Cleveland's entry points. This is something I've talked a lot about with the decision for the Cavs to kind of go well in on the Garland Mitchell backcourt.
Right.
So, like an entry point is a method with which you get a defense into rotation. When you get a defense into rotation, then even the good defenders are sprinting at guys, and that's just easier to handle. Right, Like, if I put you on an island against lou Dort,
you're gonna have a real hard time scoring. But if I put him twenty feet away from you or fifteen feet away from you, and I make him sprint at you, You're probably going to be able to either get a three point shot off, or if he sells out at the three point shot, you might be able to drive
past him and make something happen. Right, Like, even the best defenders in the world, and when they're put into disadvantageous situations, can struggle to contain the basketball, right, And that's where you can expand your advantage and end up getting a wide open three or a layup or something along those lines, right, But against most of the teams
in the NBA, you can hide your entry points. So if you've got a really good on ball defender, multiple really good on ball defenders, and you've got big guys that can defend in ball screens and switch and do all that different stuff, then you can hopefully take your weakest defender and you can hide them on the most limited offensive player on the other team, and you can do a bunch of different things to cover for them.
Right.
So, like, if he's a guy that can't be a movement shooter, meaning like he can't set a screen and then slip out of it and quickly get his feet set and knock down a three, then you can ask your offense or defensive player to hedge and recover because he can throw a hedge to stop the ball handler from driving, but he can still recover to that limited offensive player that's going to struggle to shoot on the move, right, Or you can pre switch where it's like, oh, they're
going to try to attack this guy, why don't we just send a better defender up and just switch as the guy's running up to set the screen. Right, there's a bunch of different things you can do to hide a limited defensive player. But eventually you run into a team like the Boston Celtics, and they're not the only team like this. There are several teams like this around the league. I think Oklahoma City fits this mold as well, but there are teams that have lots of really high
level offensive players on the floor. You run out of places to hide guys, right, And in that sort of situation, all of a sudden you find out really quickly just how easy it is to break down a defense by attacking a specific weak point. And in this particular game, by virtue of the injuries, there were two entry points for the Cavs at the start of the game, with Darius Garland and Sam Merrill, and Boston was just relentlessly attacking those two.
That was a big part of.
Why we ended up getting to see a lot of Craig Porter Junior in this game, because they were trying to make sure that there were fewer weak points on the court that they could look to attack. Right when you have those weak points and you get the defense into rotation, it just doesn't matter anymore, and that's how you end up with a barrage from the three point line like what you saw from Boston tonight. I thought
it was really interesting. I asked Paul, our producer, to keep an eye out on the twitter feed if any news comes out. But like Jared Allen didn't play down the stretch, and so then it ended up being a lot of Georgei's kneeing and that's another entry point. And you guys saw how it was, Like Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum just felt like we can get whatever we want against George's kneeing. I thought Jason Tatum did a
really nice job attacking him. One of the things that Jason Tatum has been doing lately that he's always done this, but I feel like he's doing it a little bit more this year. Is one of his biggest athletic strengths is that he's big and strong, and so he's been doing this move where like he's getting dribble penetration without having to like make some sort of super aggressive, launching athletic move.
And what he'll do.
Is like he'll face up on the guy and he'll throw, you know, maybe throw a little jab step, but then he'll open up that right shoulder and he'll jab with that right foot out almost to the left where he's almost got his shoulder turned, and when he's there, he can get into a step back. But what he can also do is he can use that right leg to almost like slow motion start his drive, and then when he's ready to drive, he can put the ball on the floor with his left hand and clear out with
his right arm. That just creating space with his strength, which I think is really smart, and that's how he got his last couple drives to the rim. God, Tatum was so good in this game. But like, it just doesn't matter if george' niang wants to slide his feet, like Tatum just needs this tiny little bit of an angle so that he can use his upper body strength to get the leverage to get all the way to the rim, and then just playing off of two to draw fouls and to get quality looks around the rim.
He was torching them. That Tatum White two man game has been something that's been a staple for the Boston offense forever. But they were going to it a lot to attack guys like Sam Merrill and Darius Garland. And one of the things you saw is like that's the difference between attacking a team like Boston attacking a team
like Cleveland. Right, there were stretches in this game where you could see Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland and Evan Mobley be like, oh, like Peyton Pritchard's on the floor, let's run this screening action to get him switched on to Evan Mobley, and then let's just go to Evan Mobley on the block and he can score over Peyton Pritchard.
Or like Nimi Quita's on the floor, we can attack him in his drop coverage, or like they're different that they did a lot of attacking Sam Houser in this particular game, right, So, like there are guys that are on the bench that you can look to attack with Boston, but like with their starting lineup, there's just not a good entry point. Your best entry point was there was a stretch of this game where and Boston will do switching with Wharford two, and Horford's just really good at switching.
But like one of the things that that Boston was doing in this game is they were they were running a good amount of deep drop coverage with Horford. So like Donovan Mitchell was able to get into some of his pull up jump shot game against that deep drop coverage. But like when Boston wants to and they put that five out there and they start switching everything, it's like take your pick, like where do you want to attack? There's not really a great option for you there for
you to go at. And then in again, it's one of those things when there's when there's one entry point on the floor, it's a little easier to cover for than when there's two. And I thought that was the big thing that really stood out in this game. And it's kind of the reality of Cleveland's roster, which is like it won't always be Sam Merrill, right, Like that's probably gonna be Max Truce. Max Struce is a very good switching defender. He could switch onto different types of forwards.
He can do a lot of really impactful defending in a switching scheme. But Darius Garland always is going to be out there, and he's always going to be a guy that they can look to attack in space. And it's just it's just something to keep in mind in terms of that matchup in the big picture, right, because like there's a lot of different like variables in this game, Like Boston shot twenty two for forty one from three. When Boston shoots that, well, you just get to lose.
And like, Boston did a lot of like really tough shot making in this game, and in addition to their high level offense where they generated great catch and shoot looks right. So like there's a sequence in the end of the first half where it's like Jalen Brown comes buying off of like a off ball cut from the right wing to the top of the key and Evan Mobley there's like two screeners around the elbows and Evan Mobley decides to go underneath the picks as he should.
It's like you gotta meet Jalen Brown on the other side, and the screens we're being set damn near at the three point line. So Jalenn Brown capped the ball like twenty six feet from the rim, and if Jaylen Brown's gonna catch the ball twenty six feet from the rim on the move and shoot it, kind of would rather like concede that than give up a drive by chasing him over the top of that right. Well, Jaylen Brown
made it, because Jalen Brown can make it. There are plays where it's like we're offering a little bit of nail help and Peyton Pritchard is spotting up on the wing, but he's like twenty seven feet away and it's like that's a long above the break three, but like he can make that, right. The big one in this game is the Derek White has been so good at this.
There's an interchange in the switch, right, So like if Derek White's dribbling off the floor, is an on ball defender on him that's guarding him, and he gets a screening action, and there's a switch the two on ball defender, the two defenders in the action, the one will step off and the other one will step in right, and the one that's stepping off is trying to get inside the guy who's screening for him, because you don't want to give up that inside seal slip that Boston torches
people with, right, which is like, oh you're switching. Cool, Well, Tatum's just going to screen you from behind instead of on the side, and then he's just gonna slip and he's got inside position. Now he's wide open on a roll. Now it's four on three and you're defensive screwed, right, Like so like you're trying to back off on the ball to get inside position on the switch and then that second guy who's guarding the screener has to get
out there. But in that interchange there's a gap, and Derek White is like a master at like waiting for that gap and just rising and fire right and firing right over the top. And there were a lot of those where Cleveland was pretty quick on their switch and they're there on the catch or on that switch ready to contest, and Derek White just can make it because
Derek White's an elite shooter. And there there are stretches in fights against Boston where like you just kind of hang on for dear life because they're making tough shots and hope to God that you're still in the game by the time they cool off and start having to
execute on offense again. And like there's a certain amount of like Boston had a great shooting night tonight, you know, right, but like the flip and if you're a Cavs fan too, you're thinking, like, Okay, well, we're gonna have better perimeter defenders on the floor, We're gonna have better opportunity to contain in.
Our switch it.
But like as you watch that game, there was some difficulty that Darius Garland had creating shots at the rim. I thought he was challenging athletes at the rim and was struggling to make shots. And it's like at a certain point, Boston's players are just a little bit better, and that's something that I think is going to be difficult.
And I don't think you come out of that game discouraged if you're a Calves fan, because I think you hung tight, right, like Boston had a great shooting night, get a bunch of guys out, and you were in it. But at the same time, like every time Cleveland got close, Boston pulled away again, and then Cleveland would get close, and then Boston would pull away again because Boston had the ability to leverage their advantages when.
Things got tight.
And I it was weird because I thought it was like a sign of just how serious the Calves are. And I think at this point, if you're if you're not looking at the Calves as the obvious two seed at worst in the Eastern Conference, then I think you're
underestimating them. I think they're obviously better than teams like Milwaukee and Philly and New York at this point, Like the Calves are damn good, but like the Boston Celtics are the class of the NBA for good reason, and I thought they demonstrated it tonight just with the way they've maintained control of the game. I cannot say enough about how impressed I was with Jason Tatum, just in
his overall like calm demeanor throughout the game. Every time it felt like things got out of control, he was able to settle them down and generate great shots. The game is really slowing down for him this year in a big ways. His playmaking has been threw the roof over the course the last two or three weeks. I thought it was a really really impressive performance from Boston, even against a feisty Calves Calves performance as well. Again, I'm really curious to see why Jared Allen didn't play
because Ivy was hurt. Then, you know, maybe that was just a simple decision to take care of his body. I get it from the standpoint of spacing, like, Okay, well we want to have five shooters on the floor, so why don't we do it this way? And George's nang obviously gives you that extra bit of shooting in that situation. But like with Boston, they're just too good at picking apart your weak links on the defensive end of the four, and you gift wrapped a mismatch there,
like Tatum was going right at him. There's play late in the game where Jayalen Brown's like, I don't want a screen, stay away. I got him, Like I can score on this, dude, Like give me my space. I'm going to go to work here right. One other note that I thought was fascinating from this game, there were some stretches for the Calves where they got a little bit out of control with overhelping and ended up giving
up some really the good threes. The stretch right at the end of the first half, it was like a five point game with like four minutes left, and there were multiple overhelps for no damn reason. Craig Porter Junr had a big one off of off the left wing, and then they had a a on the right wing overhelp at the nail where they gave up Peyton Pritchard to wide open three. But like they gave up a couple of wide open threes. And then do you guys remember those two wide open Jason Tatum threes at the
end of the half. The two wide open Jason Tatum threes. He was imbounding on the sideline and nobody was guarding him, literally nobody, So he just threw the ball into the corner, took a step in, got the ball back, and knocked down the three. It's like, if you're trying to beat Boston, you can't have mistakes where you forget to guard their best player on the possession.
Right.
There was another one where Tatum had the ball, Mitchell was on him. They brought Garland's man up into a screen. This was like right after that shot and there was a screen and Darius Garland should have switched Donovan Mitchell certainly thought he was going to switch. Nobody guarded Tatum. Tatum just took two dribbles to his left and got into a wide open off the dribble three off the left wing, and it's like, you know, you're let's zoom in on this right. So, like we all agree, Boston's
best team in the league. That I think is pretty much consensus around the league at this point. Do I think Boston is unbeatable the way like the twenty seventeen Warriors are, No like that team at Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, all in their athletic primes with Andrea Guadala. That team was just completely stacked with like apex talent that that team is. That team I legitimately believed it was unbeatable. This Boston team, I think is
far and away the best team in the league. But I think that you can beat them in the series. I think it's possible, but they're going to go in every series as a heavy favorite. I will pick them in every series. We all should because they're the best team. But if you're going to beat them, there are several
things that you have to do. And the first line item is you can't make a bunch of mistakes because if you make a bunch of mistake, now you're trying to overcome a talent advantage and you're spotting them points. That's where you could end up in a lot of trouble. Two, you've got to play defensive lineups with switchability and with fewer options to attack off the dribble.
Right.
That means that guy at the three has to be a player that you trust to be able to guard multiple Boston shot creators. Having that extrus back will help. Having Dean Wade back will help. I having Isaacacora back will help. Having Karris Lavert will help, no doubt. But within that scheme, you have to switch and you cannot make mistakes on overhelp situations that put Boston in rotation or your defense in rotation against Boston. If you're in
rotation against Boston, you're dead on arrival. That's when they get their wide open catch and shoot threes. You have to try to force them into tough shot making, and the only way you can do that is switch contains, stay home off the ball. It's a very difficult job, but that is what you have to do now. Like Cleveland, it's just it's gotta be tricky with that dairy Garland piece because they are going to continue to look to attack him every single time they get a chance if
they meet each other in a series. But there's a bunch of different things you have to do. The third piece is you gotta make shots. There were a lot of good looks that Cleveland got tonight that they did
not hit. That's one of those things where like you can't be in a situation where you're just getting flat out out gunned either and so again, execution, avoiding errors, putting together switchable lineups, and not making mistakes where you put your defense in rotation and you gotta make shots, and like that's the pathway, right and you got to do that four times in two weeks. That's just what makes this team so difficult to imagine getting beat at
this point in the season. Very very interesting early regular season game. I thought it was a very impressive performance from the Boston Celtics. I thought they were a lot more in control than what the scoreboard would lead you
to believe it. Every time I see a game like that where like a team gets close but can ever get over the hump, that's always an indicator to me that like, oh, well, that team, the team that was in control, just felt like anytime they needed to get a couple of buckets and a couple of stops, they were able to.
That's kind of what it felt like.
Oh they got it to two, well it's back to seven because Darius Garland got his shit blocked off the glass and now Derek White's hitting at three and transition on the other end.
You know, like that that is the.
Kind of sequence that just kind of seemed to happen every single time Cleveland got back into that game.
But there's a pathway.
They just need to be sharper than they showed tonight. All right, if you guys have questions, make sure you drop him to Paul in the chat. Let's get started here. This is from Stevie Hey Jason, big fan of the show. At what point do you think the Celtics need porzingis playing and healthy to be able to advance? I believe they need him against Cleveland as well as the finals. Boston is good enough that if porzingis now suited up again this year, I'd still consider them to be the favorite.
That said, it's just so much more in the way of it's so much more in the way of margin for error. When you have him out there. It gives you margin too for Like what ab Al Horford goes down with an injury for a certain amount of time, right, Or like what if one of your primary shot creators goes down, like someone like it Derek White or Jalen Brown goes down for a certain amount of time, Like
having porzingis there helps. The difference is is like the Eastern Conference is so so, so so so weak that like Boston could literally like take the ultimate cautious approach this year and still get no worse than the two seeds. So the Western Conference is different. Right in the Western Conference, it's like such a blood bath where it's like you have a bad couple of weeks, you're in the plane, so like there's a there's a level of urgency that there's a lack of urgency I should say with Boston
within the regular season. That makes me feel like I want Porzingis to take as long as needed, and I don't want him to set foot on an NBA court until he is literally one hundred percent ready, not ninety
nine percent ready, one hundred percent ready. It's very different if you're running into a postseason series that starts in two weeks, you might be like, hey, if you're ninety five percent, we want you ready to go in two weeks, right, But I would I would take your sweet time with Porzingis as far as like the specific matchup stuff again, like we saw that in the playoff in the NBA Finals, in particular in Game one with Porzingis, where it's like
his ability to punish mismatches at the elbows with quick like face up post up stuff is just so valuable to beating switching schemes, which, as we talked about, like you need to switch against Boston. It's the only way to keep them out of rotation. So if you have to switch against Boston to keep them out of rotation, then you can't. You have to hold up on the other side of it.
Right.
So, like mistake making is botching switches, giving up slips, that's when you're gonna get in rotation.
Now you're just dead on arrival, right.
But if you do the right thing and you switch appropriately, you switch aggressively to take away the pull up shots from guys like Derek White in the switch interchange, and you get take away those inside seals, now it turns into a post up game or an ISO game, right, And like porzingis is just another way to attack in those one on one situations when they need to. This is from Lonzetta. Hey, Jason, what are your early thoughts
on the Rockets young core? They seem to be putting it together, especially Tari Easton and men Thompson defensively.
I did a little bit of.
A dive into the Rockets yesterday, and then I also broke down the Rockets Bucks game in a good amount of detail with some film in today's show. So if you haven't had a chance to check that out, I recommend that you do. I'm a huge fan of it, mainly from the standpoint of, like where I see the game going. The Rockets are building around athletes, and I think that's really smart. Jalen Green freaky athletic, Jabari Smith great athlete, Tarry Easton great athlete, and Men Thompson freaky athletic.
They have layers of athleticism. It's like Cam Witmore super athletic. It's like, oh, here's Aaron Holliday, He's like a really quick guard. Right Reed Shepherd even brings a great amount
of athleticism to the guard spot. They a They went into last night's game with the Bucks with the fifth best record in the league, And what I thought was fascinating about that is like if you look at the top of the league and it's like, Okay, we have Cleveland as a best record, Golden State's right there, There's Boston.
There's okay, see there's Houston. There was our top five records heading into last night's games, all five of them freaky athletic teams that thrive in transition, and so I've really really liked that build, and there have been extensive stretches of this season, and it goes beyond when I talk about speed, it goes beyond just transition too. It's
like it's the transition game on both ends. It's the pay and space game on both ends, meaning like your ability to drive and kick teams or to handle driving kick teams by containing the ball and rotating.
But a big part of it is ball pressure.
The ability to get up into ball handlers, be physical at the point of attack, make teams uncomfortable early in possession so that they're playing late in the clock and having to rush bad shots right or fighting guys off a spot so that they're out of rhythm. That's a huge part of success on the defensive end. In the modern NBA. There have been games at Houston's won with
ball pressure. Do you remember the game where I don't even remember who they were playing, well, when Tari Easton got the back to back steals and took it the other way for transition layups and then like literally laid on his back on the floor, like huffing and puffing because he was so exhausted. Like they bring layers of guys that can get into the ball and make you uncomfortable, and it's a big part of what it's a big
part of what makes them so successful defensively. I just think again there, they came into tonight with the twenty third ranked half court offense. It's a lot of like depending on Fred van Vliet to create shots and Jalen Green's decision making is still super sketchy, but so like, I don't think they're going to do much this year just because how limited they are offensively in the half court.
But the direction they're going.
Is one that I really like, which is like Jalen Green's starting to increase his three point volume. Tons of athletes were ball pressuring, We're defending on the perimeter, running in transition on both ends. I even like the Shannghu stuff where he's acting as a fulcrum at the top
of the key. There was a Fred van layup against the Bucks last night where Shangun had the ball at the top of the key and they ran one of those classic like kind of screen and slip situations and Fred van Vliet ended up getting an easy layup in the lane. They got a lot of good stuff that they're getting out of that. I'm a fan of Houston. I just think they're probably a year or two away
from some of their ultimate goals. From Billstone. When evaluating players, how much do you take turnovers or assist to turnover ratio into account, I think it's undervalued. It's actually what ironically, it's one of the first things I look at when I'm looking at role players because they tend to have
super low assist totals and super low turnover totals. But like when I see a role player that gets like two assists per game but like less than one turnover per game, that's a big part of the drive and kick system, right. So, like, there are a lot of situations where role players have to make reads right, and that's like the decision zone, right, So like you catch the ball in the perimeter, you pump fake, or you have a guy running at you, you beat him off
the dribble. Now you're standing at the elbow with a live dribble in basically what's a five on four situation. That's a difficult bit of processing. You only have a you know, twenty five percent advantage there. You have five players to four, right, So like you have your advantage and you have to quickly process where the next read is. And so with role players in particular, assist the turnover
ratio is one that I track a lot now. With primary ball handlers, I care more about overall assist volume early in their careers because young players are going to make mistakes when you ask them to create shots off the dribble. And so with that, like a young player, young guard, it's at you know, three and a half four turnovers a game. Some of that is just like the reality of him learning how to play at the
NBA level. But like if I see a guy who's routinely putting up six and a half seven assists to night, that's a strong indicator for me. Like there's all this concern about Anthony Edwards and his playmaking, and I'm less concerned about it because I'm like, I want Anthony Edwards to score the basketball.
That's what he is.
Anthony Verwards is a score right, But like when it comes to when it comes to like last year in the playoff run where he has an entire playoff run where he I can't remember exactly how many assists he averaged, but it was like seven or eight assists for the entire playoff run. When I see that, I go like, I'm like, like this, this is a guy that can draw multiple defenders and make simple kickout rads, and like that assist volume is super valuable to me in terms
of like his shot creation. So in short, primary ball handlers early in their career are more concerned about overall assist volume role players I really like to look at assist a turnover ratio as a indicator of of their ability to make reads off the path off of closeouts. Or let's see from Eric, what are things you look for during the season that change your opinions on teams? Man, this is a very loaded question. A couple things like
I do they have an elite unit? Like if I have a team that, in a large sample size is a top five offense or a top five defense, that's always something I take seriously. If a team has no elite unit, that's always something that I view as an issue. Like if you're a middle of the pack on both ends of the floor, that's something I'm going to look at. Body language, the bad parts are part of the season. The Boston Celtics lost at home to the Atlanta hawk
Sea other night. There's a certain amount of that that is just kind of like part of the eighty two game regular season. It's a very long season, right, but I want to see those be few and far between, and so I always look at like how team how quickly teams get out of the dregs of the season when they don't have their motivation. That that, to me is why it matters so much to be higher in
the standings. It's an indicator of just how seriously you're taking the night to night stuff over the course of the regular season. All right, let's see here from King T do you think in an OKC versus Boston matchup, okc's lack of physicality with most of their guards could be an issue. Actually, go the other way on that. They have a lot of strong guards, like Lou Doord is a strong guard, Jalen Williams is a strong guard, Alex Crusoe is a strong guard. Cason Wallace is a
strong guard. My main issue with OKC in a Boston match his experience. Okay, so he's got a lot of firepower. But their number two is some combination of Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren and those guys just don't have a lot of playoff experience Boston. When Jayson Tatum is getting spelled, it's gonna be Jalen Brown and Derek White, and those are just guys that have a ton ton more experience.
And so for me, like I like Okac's talent matchup with Boston, I don't like their experience matchup with Boston. But I don't view last year. I thought, okay, see, he was too young to have any shot. I view Oklahoma City as a legitimate threat this year. Alright, let's see last question, then we're done for the night. How much does Queta being the backup the backup big hurt the Celtics. Do they have any flexibility to acquire an upgrade?
This is something I've talked a lot about this year, like when it comes to Boston and some of the obsession about their defense, and like I think they were still top ten if I remember correctly coming into the night. I don't really care all that much about about Boston's like some of their metrics at this point in the season, because like they're when they're whole, they have Christops Porzingis and now Horford playing all their center minutes and like
they're keeping Al Horford's minutes down. They're playing a lot of Equeta and Cornett, and like those two guys are like they're perfectly fine rotation backup bigs, but at the championship level, they're guys that can be attacked, right, and so like there's a certain amount of like it's fun. They've turned a couple of guys into successful backup centers that I'm sure a couple teams around the league might
have more use for than even Boston does. But at this point in the season, I'm not as worried about it because, like, again, even if I had to, even if I was the Boston Celtics, and I'm like, oh, Porzingis isn't ready to go for the playoffs, We're gonna bring Horford up to thirty five minutes and we're gonna play Cornett for thirteen minutes a night. I still don't think that's enough of an issue to make Boston Celtics fans concerned about where they can.
Get from there.
All right, guys, that is all I have for today is always sincerely appreciate you for supporting the show. We have a couple of breakout clips coming out tomorrow. By the way, I had a couple of people ask and I'll mention this again off the top of one of our other shows, but like people asking about like the difference between the different types of clips we release.
If you look at the.
Thumbnails, the full episodes always have the same thumbnail type like layout. The breakout clips all have a different thumbnail, and then the TIMPs tape ones, I'll have a different thumbnail, so you can tell just by looking at the thumbnail whether or not it's actually a full episode. Also within the YouTube channel, there's a thread that's called full episodes, So anytime I actually am releasing something actually new, you can see that just by looking for the right thumbnail
or looking under that full episode's a piece. But we do have a couple of breakout clips coming out tomorrow, the film session from yesterday or from today's show, which was a breakdown of Rockets Bucks and the way I did a breakdown on like Norman Powell getting all those open shots at the tail end against Golden State and
how that all worked. We also have this mail bag coming out tomorrow, but we'll be back on Thursday with the breakdown of all the games from Wednesday night, and then I'm recording that mail bag on Thursday that's gonna
air on Friday. So that's the content schedule for the rest of this week, and then next week for Thanksgiving, we're going Monday Tuesday, and then I'm going again Tuesday night for the n season tournament slate that one might run the following morning, but then we're taking the entire team for Hoops Tonight. Is taking Thanksgiving off from Wednesday through Sunday, so that kind of gives you guys the schedule. But I'm always active, like watching film on Twitter, like
posting clips. Like tomorrow morning, I'm probably gonna wake up and watch some Cave Celtics and just kind of thread some clips on Twitter, So make sure you follow me at Underscore JCNLT to see that there. Again, As always, a sincerely appreciate you guys for rocking with me and rocking with the show. Fun game, gonna be a fun season. I'm looking forward to seeing you guys.
Next time the volume.
What's up guys, As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops Tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.