Hoops Tonight - Giannis Antetokounmpo explodes, Bucks dominate Stephen Curry & Warriors

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having a great week so far. Don't forget if you're checking this out on YouTube or on our podcast feed that AMP is the very first place you guys can get our postgame analysis. So today we're gonna be breaking down the Warriors getting their butt kicked in Milwaukee despite going twenty for fifty from three. That's gotta be really upsetting.

And then we're gonna touch on a couple of games from last night, the Brooklyn Nets winning eight out of nine by going on the road into Washington and controlling that game, and then the Los Angeles Clippers kind of sent a message to the Boston Celtics, Paul George and Kauai soundly out playing Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown. So those are the three games we're gonna get to tonight, uh Lakers Celtics which is later tonight, and Kings Sixers. Those are two games that I have I have my

eye on from tonight's s late. We're gonna touch those during tomorrow's show. So this was pretty damn dominant from Milwaukee, absolutely physically pulverized Golden State. They outrebounded them fifty five to thirty seven, They outscored him in the paint to thirty, and they outscored him on the fast break sixteen to seven. And again, if you would tell me going into this game that the Warriors are gonna make twenty three's and that they're gonna shoot from the three point line, you

like your chances in a game like that. But they got so soundly dominated in all of these other areas of the game that they didn't really even have a chance. I never really felt like Milwaukee was threatened, even when they went on that little run there late second quarter. You get back within six and you don't get back in transition three times in a row. Next thing, you know, it's twelve point lead going into halftime. But you know

my rule, we're gonna talk about the Bucks first. We will get to the Warriors in their second half as their excuse me, the road struggles here in just a few minutes. So y honest kind of had a tough shooting night, but I thought Joanna's completely dominated this game, all with rim pressure. In transition, he struggled in the half court because he was kind of trying stuff, taking a lot of jump shots in this game, but he was just missing them. Um. But in transition, Gold and

say you couldn't do anything with them. And it's funny because I always used to say that the two guys that I would construct in a lab to defend the Honest that are in this league are Draymond Green and Lebron James. That unique combination of quickness with other worldly strength and the instincts, the defensive instincts required to beat the Honest two spots and make those types of reads

and things along those lines. And so this particular matchup, because I actually really like Kevan Looney as a potential nice matchup in certain situations, but they just didn't bring the requisite effort tonight. When they walled him up in the half court, they did a pretty nice job, but when he got out in transition, they were they just didn't bring that same type of effort they did against Boston.

Like against Boston they had the like a a chaotic effort just just forcing their way back in transition defense to contain Boston, and then they just didn't bring that tonight, which has been an issue. And again that's kind of the Janice thing too, Like Joannice just keeps coming at you in waves. I noticed this um to a great extent in that Boston Celtics series last year. It's like, yeah, Grant Williams can stay in front of Jana's a couple of times, and so can Al Horford maybe for even

a couple of games. But eventually, the better athlete that is more well conditioned, that has that advantage is going to continue to break on that shore until he eventually overcomes them. And and that's kind of the way it was tonight. You could they they did a nice job in half court, but they couldn't get in front of him enough times in transition. And then when they did get in front of him in transition, he was beating

you with the pass. It was just an onslaught that that never stopped, and Golden State couldn't do anything with him. And it's funny because that's part of why I think

he's so clearly the best player in the league. That that type of physical onslaught is proven to succeed in the NBA playoffs because a lot of the shot making stuff, you know, it's it doesn't go away entirely, but the percentages dip way down, and the bigger physical teams tend to control that setting in the n b A and Janice is the guy that you can count on to thrive in those environments and ways that a lot of

teams can't. And I mean Golden State again, I thought a lot of effort related issues tonight, but they also got physically manhandled in this game. They're very, very physical ball. You know, we talked about drop coverage being a problem for for and State when we were talking in and Milwaukee was running in a just as much of a

drop coverage. Like we were joking about how Blake Griffin was too far back, and usually names and Al Horford are back, but they're not that far back, you know, like Brook Lobez and a lot of these drop coverages was sitting, you know, twenty feet behind the screen. Janice was doing a better job getting up, but Brooke was pretty far back. And they were just so physical on the ball, and then also on off ball with all of Golden States screening interchanges and they're cutting and stuff

like that, they really wore down Golden State. And and that's kind of the Janice effects to He's the personification of that effect within one basketball player, just wearing you down on both ends of the floor until eventually you break and then once again Jannice is passing continues to be really impressive. Um, you had a really nice no look fee to Wesley Matthews in one of his transition sequences when he passes out of the post or out

of isolation or out of pick and roll. This year, the Bucks have scored a hundred and twenty one point on a hundred and seventeen possessions, which is really really good. It's just a statement type of game from him. I still think Steph has had a little bit better regular season this year. And you guys know my rule. I'm not gonna switch any rankings when it comes to you know how I really perceived these players in the grand

scheme of things until we get to the offseason. But this kind of felt like a statement type of game from Janna. It's like, don't forget that he is best player in the world. And then Bobby Portis was also really good tonight. Did a great job abusing the smaller Warriors perimeter players, which is gonna be an issue when Andrew Wiggins is out of the lineup. Um. I talked to my guy who's pretty well connected with the Warriors, and he said that they expect Andrew Wiggins back within

the next week and that it's not anything serious. They're just kind of taking their time with him. But Bobby port Is, you know, yet, still isn't shooting great from the perimeter. That's the biggest thing, the big thing that they need to get going at the level he had in the previous seasons. But a really nice scoring job from him, and he's just in this last like half dozen games or so, is starting to look more like the Bobby port Is from last year. Um the Warriors.

Though the Warriors are twelve and two at home, and they are two and twelve on the road coming into tonight, because the data hasn't updated when the Warriors are on the road, Compared to all the other teams in the league on the road, they are twenty ninth and defense and twenty five and rebounding. So what happened to them tonight?

It's not necessarily a matchup thing. I mean, hell, we saw them hold up physically extremely well against Boston, and though they don't have the singular player that Janice is, but down the roster, they come at you physically in a similar manner. They're extremely physical on the defensive end of the floor, and they constantly relentlessly drive the basketball to the rim, just with a ton of players as opposed to just the honest type of impact. So what

has been happening to them tonight? What happened to them tonight is something that's been happening to them all season on the road. Why is that, Well, I think it's a couple of reasons. First, it's you have a younger roster. Young players typically don't have really good habits. So we we talk We I talked about this a lot. Like, you know, when you're a basketball player, every time you have success, you try to figure out what specifically caused

you to have that success you can replicate it. And then when you have a bad game, you try to pay attention to what specifically caused you to have a bad game so you can avoid doing that in the future. So by the time you become a veteran player, uh, you know, you're playing basketball in your thirties, like you just have a really good feel for how to have good games and how to avoid the bad games. But when you're a young player, those habits aren't really sharp yet.

And then also young players typically feed on emotion, you know, like it's not even just a crowd thing, it's just a basketball thing. For instance, you you got all you guys who played basketball a lot. You see the guy that goes in dunks on someone and then loses his damn mind, probably hasn't done that very many times in his life, and it's kind of a cool emotional moment for him, so he gets swept up in it. But like when you've dunked on a lot of people playing basketball.

It's kind of just another play and you run back

on defense. You expect that from yourself, right, And the same thing goes with feeding off of the crowd, you know, like you I've ventured to guess I I joke about this with my wife sometimes, Like, can you imagine what it must feel like for Lebron to run out into an arena of twenty people like he He probably doesn't feel much at all anymore, you know, compared to the way a young player would react when he hits a three out of the corner in front of twenty home fans.

And so what does that really translate to? That means young players are more willing to play hard and smart when they're at home than they are on the road. They're more likely to hang their head and kind of let go of the rope when things go poorly on the road. So I think that's part of it for Golden State. And then the second thing is the veterans, like gold Golden State starters got rolled again tonight. And look, they're the defending champs. They're not nearly as motivated as

they were last year. That's just a fact. That's same again, that same ferocious transition defense that they had against Boston on Saturday night. We saw the other end of that coin today. They were really slow getting back, which is something you just can't afford to do against the honest So what do we make of that as we kind of zoom out of from it. It's textbook championship malays. We've seen this before, but at the same time, we've

seen what the ceiling is still like Boston. Like that Boston team was killing everybody, including on the road going into that Golden State game, and then they just completely manhandled them. Golden State sent a clear message to Boston that they are still better than them, you know. And so when we look at that, we know the ceiling is still there, and for for whatever reason, they're just

not getting to their frequently enough. Usually championship teams are deep, and this is kind of the problem with what Bob Meyers did and with Joe Laco did this summer when they let go of Gary Payton a second outo Porter Jr. You know, you had death and you had young players, but you let your depth go for financial reasons and also the clear way in the rotation for your young

players to play. And so now that margin for error for what allows you to win in the NBA on a daily basis is smaller than what it was last year. And so as a result, when the Warrior starters are bringing a little bit of you know, inconsistent effort, particularly on the road, there it's not enough for them to

float during the regular season. So what does it really translate to is a balancing act as it pertains to the standings, because like when you're looking at it for playoff matchups, like I always think about, you know, the Lakers in one, they kept telling themselves, who cares, just get to the play in We've been hurt all year. When push comes to show, we've got Lebron James and Anthony Davis, we can beat anybody. And you know they weren't wrong. They were up two games to one on Phoenix,

but then what happened. Anthony Davis broke down and obviously he had been dealing with a bunch of issues. But it's just a lot to ask for that route, Like what does that route look like? Because if the Warriors continue to play like this, they will be around five hundred this year. And it's not it's not that they are five hundred basketball team in in in a vacuum. It's just the reality of how deep the Western conferences

this year. That like, if you play the level of basketball Golden States playing, you're gonna lose half your games, you know. And so if you end up around five hundred and this deep Western Conference, you're gonna be in the play in game. So what does that look like for you? Now, I've got to win a high stakes game, potentially on the road, potentially two games, depending on where I end up in the standings, just to get out

of the plan. My reward for getting out of the plan is I have to now beat the top seed without home court advantage of the second seed. Okay, let's say we get through that. So we've got through high stakes playing game and we just beat the top seed. Our reward for that is now we have to play a middle seed in the Western Conference, also on the road, and that's in the Western Conference this year. That could

be anybody. That could be the Clippers, that could be the Denver Nuggets, that could be the Phoenix Suns, that could be the New Orleans Pelicans, like who who the hell knows how this is all gonna shake up, But it's probably gonna be somebody tough again. And then if you happen to get through that, your reward is you get to play the other top seed also on the road. Oh and guess who's coming out of the Eastern Conference.

It's the Boston Celtics or the Milwaukee Bucks. It's just a lot to ask for a team that, as we've been saying, is not very deep and has some older veteran players, you know, so you know I I think it's very important for Golden State to recapture some of that urgency and go on a run. And we know

they're capable of it if they play good basketball. They're good enough with how good they're starting lineup is to rip off a dominant twenty game stretch where they got like fifteen and five, And if they do that, with how wide open the Western Conferences, that might be enough to get you into of one through four seed. Now you have home court, you know, for potentially two rounds. There's a lot, there's a lot of benefits that come

with that, right. The problem is is that they have to dramatically increase their effort to get to that point, which brings me back to the trade market. Like, the other thing you can do is you can trade a couple of these young players. Wouldn't touch Jonathan Cominga, but

I think Wiseman and Moody. I would flip those two guys for a quality veteran role player in this league that brings you some of that depth that increases your margin for error, so that you have a better chance of floating during a regular season where your starters are not really concerned with giving daily effort the way that they have been in the past, which is completely normal. They are defend defending champs and they're old. That's it's

just a part of the human experience. But yeah, this the dichotomy between um, the Warriors on the road and at home is pretty jarring at this point. All right, moving onto the nets in the Wizard. So the Wizards actually had a five point lead in the second quarter of this game, and we got kind of a vintage

Kyrie Irving run. He hit a really tough three off of a dribble handoff on the right wing, and then he hit like this ridiculous like five or six dribble combination pull up two at the left elbow, and then he had a driving layup. But the one you guys probably already saw all over social media where he went up with his right hand, switched to his left hand and scooped it in on his way down. Vintage Kyrie, the kind of thing that you grow to expect from him over the years. But he also made some nice

defensive place too. He had back to back steels. He had a an isolation against Cris Apps Porzingis at the top of the key um where he did what you're supposed to do there, which is like, hey, if you play positional defense against Porzingis, he's just gonna shoot over the top of you. And he attacked the basketball, just was really aggressive to try to attack his handle and

he forced to turn over. And then similar play on the next possession down where Kyle Kuzman came off of a dribble handoff, Kyrie switched on him and was just aggressive at his shooting pocket and knocked the ball free. Kyrie's got quick hands, and he's got quick feet, and he's got good instincts. So when he's actually engaged on the defensive end, which he has been a lot over the course of the last couple of weeks, he's capable of making some impact defensive play. So Kyrie went on

a run, got the Nets back in the lead. K D came back in and the end of the second quarter played well. Then he had like ten and two. In the third quarter they went up by seventeen, and then it was a classic, you know, stiff arm type of game where they kind of hovered around at ten point lead. They ended up winning by twelve. The Nets

are good. We did this with the Lakers last week, Like, yeah, the Lakers started to inten but their fourth and winning percentage since November thirte and they have some quality wins, including that big road win uh in Milwaukee. So we need to recalibrate how we look at the Lakers. And obviously they're even further away than the Nets were, but we have to acknowledge the difference in the way they played there versus at the beginning of the season, and

the Nets are in a similar spot. They started two and six, but since November four their fifteen and six. That's the third best winning percentage in the league during that span. In fact, for the whole season now, even counting their bad start, the Nets now have the eighth best record in the league, and they're up to eleventh

and offense and defense. So if you guys remember coming into the season, I had all these tears for our power rankings, and at the top I had the core four teams like Clippers, Celtics, Bucks, and Warriors right, and then we had our if things go right contenders. Then we had our puncher's chance contenders. And I had in that five and six spot, I had two teams that have had pretty uneven starts to the season, but we've

seen their ceiling, and that was the Sixers. I had at five, and I had the Brooklyn Nets at six. So even after everything that happened last summer, even after everything that's happened with Kyrie Irving, even after everything that happened with Ben Simmons, I thought the Nets had the sixth best chance to win the title. And the reason why is they are pretty damn good on paper. That why I didn't like what Katie said in those interviews.

I think it was about a month ago where he was talking about, you know, the guys on the roster, because, like I understand, he was frustrated with the guys that were available at that point, but help was on the way, and I didn't understand the hand grenade, the proverbial a grenade that he threw just kind of on the supporting cast, understanding that help was on the way. And the reality is that they do have a lot of talent when you really take a step back and you look at it,

like Kyrie is a pretty damn legit number two. He's won a championship as a number two in the past, albeit alongside the second greatest player of all time. But they have a ton of shooting, like with Joe Harris and Seth Curry You don't Want Nabbies turned into like a really interesting three and D player for them, and Markive Morris is shooting really well, even Royce O'Neil shooting

from three this year. Then they have like a bunch of long, athletic defensive players with Kevin Durant, Nick Claxston and Ben Simmons and even you you don want Navies showing a lot of flashes of defense. He had a really nice play in isolation against Will Barton in that game where Will Barton like really got down into his chest and he just held his ground, didn't foul, waited for Will Barton to go up, and then he extended with his left arm and blocked the shot. They're clearly

not as talented as Boston or Milwaukee. That goes without saying. I mean, they've won eight out of nine. Guess who their loss was. It was the loss against the Boston Celtics, where it looks pretty much just like it did in the first round last year. Katie couldn't like really struggle handling the basketball. You know, the guys hit a bunch of pull up jump shots, but they never really competitively in that game. So, yeah, they're not Milwaukee or Boston,

but they are very talented. And this is not a roster issue like it is for the Lakers where you're asking Lebron James and Anthony Davis to be superheroes every night for them to uh, for them to have a chance to win. But you know, in that tier that's right below those top four teams, the Nets are very much in that mix, and so like, yeah, they need a lot to break their way in order to win the title. But that's the same for a lot of teams around this league, and you can never completely write

them off. With Kevin Durant and like we've seen this too many times in NBA history where things do break right for teams, you know, kind of like Milwaukee in One Like. It might be a Phoenix Suns that gets out of the Western Conference, a flawed team because the injuries and matchups and a random upset here and next thing, you know, you have a chance to win the title with the relatively easy schedule, like the Milwaukee Bucks did

in one Like. That's kind of the way it can break, which is why you keep your foot on the gas and you stay in the race even when you're not necessarily as good as some of the best teams in the league. All right, let's move on to the Clippers in the Celtics. So Clippers completely dominated this game. They won one thirteen to ninety three. They led by double digits for more than half the game. Kawai and Paul

George soundly outplayed Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. They combined for fifty one points on eighteen for thirty four shooting, with nine assists and four turnovers. Tatum and Brown combined forty one on sixteen for thirty five with six assists and five turnovers. Jayson Tatum was below fifty in the paint again, he was five for eleven. Remember Rim finishing was one of his big weaknesses last year, and then

he had kind of seemed to remedy that. There was talk about this fancy rim contact drill that he was doing a lot over the summer, which I've been trying to track down because I want to hear about it, um, But like there was some drill that he's been doing. He's been working on it. He had been playing really well in the restricted area and in the paint coming into this season. Coming into that Golden State game, he was six in the paint in the restricted area in

the Golden State game. In the Clippers game, he's thirty nine in the in the paint in the restricted area. And you know, the big part that stands out to me on tape is shot selection. He just continually is forcing tough layups over rim congestion. There's a play where he challenged Zoo bok at the rim last night where it's like he was downhill, he had already beat multiple defenders, he was in a congested paint, and he tried like a damn near impossible left handed finished over Zoo Boch

instead of just driving and kicking the basketball. You know, it's so important for him to understand that they know what they want him to be, a play finisher, but it might be the play finisher after two or three actions and not necessarily in that first action. And this is that ugly side of Boston that we keep talking about. It's the you drive and get into zoo box and you kick to the corner, and then you relocate, and then that guy drives and kicks and kicks to you.

Now you attack that close out and Zoobach got out to the perimeter because he was containing, and now you've got to lay up. You know, there's there's always that opportunity to eventually be aggressive once the defense is in rotation and they make a mistake. But when Boston drives into the teeth of the defense and tries to shoot over the top of the rim protection, that's where they have problems. And I've been talking about that for years and Joe Missoul has been calling it rim reads, which

is another interesting way to refer to it. But that's the idea. When you get into the rim, do you have a chance for a high percentage shot in the restricted area? Cool? If not, keep it moving, you know, because at the end of the day, you're just gonna get better shots when you get the defense moving more frequently. Kawhile Leonard looked great in this game. He's slowly but surely starting to look like his legs are getting stronger,

and then he's getting his rhythm back. He got to the rim a bunch in this game, a bunch of driving layups um even against you know, there was a lot of him attacking Marcus Smart and uh In Malcolm Brogden in this game, which is what you expect, and that's what you gotta do. If you're the Celtics, if you're going against the Celtics, if you're going against the Celtics and you are a team that's got big scoring wings, you need to try your hardest to target Marcus smart

and and Malcolm Brogden. They're gonna be more difficult. They're gonna target your handle, they're gonna ball pressure you more. But you have a puncher's chance in the sense that you can you can get clean looks over the top

of them because of your size advantage. But there were even some places where he was just looking eye to eye with Jalen Brown and just dropping his shoulder, hitting the gap and getting all the way to the rim, and I wanted to take this as an opportunity to talk about the importance of strength when it comes to ball handling, because the dirty little secret is is that the NBA is super physical. Don't let the old guys fool you. Don't listen to the stuff about hand checking

the dirt. Like like, literally, in the nineteen eighties, teams were scoring a million points. Okay, like that, It's just it's it's co copletely factually inaccurate. They were scoring a million points despite never shooting threes. Okay, So the NBA is every bit as physical now as it ever has been, with exception of a little phase there in the late nineties where it became kind of ridiculous and then they had to loosen it up a little bit. But the

NBA is physical. It's not about your necessarily your ability to dribble the basketball. There are a lot of guys that can dribble through cones at an extremely high level. It's about dribbling when you're getting hit and guys are swiping at the ball and they're hitting your arm like you can practice that crossover dribble a hundred times, but that depends on the muscle memory of the ball ending

up in the same spot every single time. And if I'm getting into you and I'm I'm disrupting you with physicality, I don't care how hand how good your hand eye coordination is, or how sharp you are with your ball handling. You better be able to protect the ball with your body. And you know, like, say what you want about Kawhi Leonard. At his peak, he was a better athlete and hopefully he gets back there, but he's probably the strongest wing

in the league not named Lebron. When you hit him, it doesn't have the same effect that it does on other players, and he it's so funny because you see him. There was the drive against Jalen Brown, the one that I'm referring to. You know, he's on the right wing and he kind of just does like a crossover dribble and then hits the gap. There's not a gap there. There's not a lot of space, and Jalen Brown's kind

of riding with him. But like like I said, it's that you have a tiny opening and you force your way through it with physicality, and if you're the bigger, stronger player, you're gonna get all the way to the rim, and he on this particular play, just blew up Jalen's right shoulder, went right through him and went all the way to the rim and finished with his left hands

with his left hand. But that's how he gets to his spots, and that's what helps him get the lift that he needs to rise up and knock the shots shots down. That's what how helps him protect the basketball, and that's how he was killing Boston. Um. He also had a couple of tough threes. Remember I was a big thing I always look at with Kwai Leonard. When he's really in a rhythm, he can hit his pull up three point shot. And he had a transition three where he dribbled up the floor and just elevated and

rose up and knocked it down. And then there was a late one in the fourth quarter where Grant Williams closed out on him and he kind of just baited him into closing out and sitting down in his stance and then just elevated and rose up and knocked it down. Um still just thirteen for thirty six on pull up jumpers for this year, so he's got a ways to go to get to like his peak. But he is getting um, getting into a nice groove, and then he's passing the ball really, really well this year at six

assists last night, six assists in the previous game. That used to be his biggest weakness, and he's really improved. When when Kawhi Leonard has passed out of pick and rolls this year, the Clippers have scored one point four eight points per possession, which is in percentile. When he has passed at ISO this year, the Clippers have scored

one point three nine points possession, which is percentile. So quality as big as weakness floor vision, he's turned it into his strength at this phase in his career, which is very important as it pertains to his physical decline.

The same thing I've said about Lebron, Like one of the biggest reasons that Lebron has been able to stay relevant at this phase in his career is he's such a good passer and he's turned himself into a viable pull up jump shooter that you know, he's still had a lot a great deal of impact in the tail end of his career. Like, as you've phase out physically, you've got to replace that physical decline with skill, and

that's what Kauai has done with his passing ability. For the Clippers as we're looking at them, as you know, one of those top four teams, everything comes down to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George being great, not good, but great. Kind of similar to what we were talking about with Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Like the Clippers are even after last night offense this year, but if you look at it like they're they're scoring a hundred and nine

points per one hundred possessions. Boston is best in the league get a hundred and eighteen points per one possessions.

There's not huge chasms between these teams, but that the difference is shot making and what stars do to squeeze those little extra bits of offense out over the course of a game where you might have a hundred possessions, whether it's Paul George hitting a tough contest at three late clock, Kawhi Leonard hitting a post up fade away, or then warping the defense to create higher quality spot

up opportunities. That's the difference between a hundred and eight points per hundred nine points per one hundred possessions in eighteen. They need Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to be great. It's the exact same thing that was happening with the With the Lakers, they were the worst offense in the league to start the year, but Lebron and a D weren't playing well. Neither of them was hitting any shots

over the top of the defense. Lebron wasn't doing nearly good enough job getting downhill, and Anthony Davis wasn't dominating the paint that he has been the way that he has been. But since November, that's when a D started his run, the Lakers are fifth in offense and Lebron has also been much much better. So the worst offense in the league turned into the top five offense over the course of a month of basketball because their two stars finally started playing like the superstars that they are.

That there's not you know, when I'm looking at the difference between the bad offenses in the league and the good offense of the good offenses in the league, most of it comes down to superstar production. There is role players stuff, you know, Obviously, spot up shooting is important, but having superstars that are producing in a high level offensively, well, it just goes a long way again, it's it's it's the shot making, it's rescuing possessions, it's attacking mismatches, and

then most importantly, it's advantage creation. When we look at the Clippers roster, there's a lot of really intriguing players there. Mark Marcus Morris is a good basketball player. Luke Kennard good basketball players. Zoo Bach, really good player, Reggie Jackson, you know Nick Patum and his lightning quick release, like the They have a lot of really good offensive players

in the offense. And a big part of that is, like, when you ask that caliber of player to stare eye to eye with a defensive player in a set defense and a half court environment, they're gonna struggle because NBA

athletes are too good at defense. But if Kawhi Leonard is getting downhill and passing the way that he has been, if Paul George is getting downhill and passing the way that he has been, or hell, when Paul George is shooting the way he is coming off of screens and he's drawing multiple defenders on on wide pin downs and stuff like that, that creates all of a sudden, wide open opportunities for the likes of Luke Kennard and Nick Patumee and Marcus Morris, which they can convert at a

much higher level because they're more skilled than most of the role players in the league. So everything comes down to Klin Paul George and their ability to play like superstars. That's what gives them such a such an exciting ceiling, which is why I had them as one of the top four teams in the league. They can look Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown, the best duo in the league, in the face and they can out play them, and

and that that just changes the math of all of this. Obviously, they have a long way to go to prove that they can do it, but I thought that that was a really big step for them in a big statement game. Alright, guys, that is all I have for tonight. Like I said, we're gonna be covering Kings, Sixers and Lakers Celtics tomorrow. As always, I sincerely appreciate your sport. Now see you guys next time. The volume