Hoops Tonight - How LeBron & Lakers survive AD injury, Warriors blast Raptors, Durant & Kyrie go off

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Anthony Davis has hurt again, gonna be out a month. So we're gonna talk about all this stuff as it pertains to the Lakers and the grand scheme of things. The Golden State Warriors found a way to win on the road in Toronto without Steph and Curry. So we're gonna talk about the Warriors a little bit. The Rafters have lost eight out of ten. The bottom really fallen out from that team. We're talking a little bit about them in a big trade that I want them to consider.

The Brooklyn Nets came from behind to beat the Detroit Pistons on the road last night. Kevin Durant Kyrie Irving combined for one points and they are a half game back of the best record in the league over the course of the last month and a half or so. So we're gonna talk to Brooklyn Nets. And then, last, not least, the Boston Celtics lose two games in a row at home to the Orlando Magic. They've now lost four out of five in the Magic have won six games in a row. So we're gonna talk about both

of those teams in their recent successes and failures. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason Lts. You guys don't miss any show announcements as well as any footage breakdowns that we do. And then, last, but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube

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off your order. Minimum order may be required. All right, let's talk some basketball. So we don't have any real details about this Anthony Davis injury. Apparently something showed up in the m r I that they didn't like, because we've received reports that the Lakers are bracing for at least a month without a D and a D is currently trying to get a second opinion. So for starters, I feel really bad for him because it's got to be really discouraging to kind of feel like yourself again

and then to immediately suffer this type of setback. You know, the first couple of years, conditioning played a big role. His work ethic I thought played a big role, but he learned his lesson. He came into the season locked in, in shape, ready to go, and looked like maybe the best player in the world, at least the best two way player in the world to start this season. And then you get hurt and and that's really really unfortunate.

But it's kind of the reality of the Anthony Davis experience, like there's been some bad luck in there, you know, like there was a play last year. We're gonna in on someone's foot. There was a play last year where someone landed into his knee. Those are contact injuries. There's nothing you could do. Even the Yokis play, it's not like he did anything weird. He kicked Yokich's leg. So in reality, there's a lot of bad luck there, but there's also some clear signs of fragility that Achilles tend

to nosis that he suffered. That's a non contact injury that was associated with conditioning the groin strain in the playoffs, like that was just he came back, played a few playoff games and he broke down in a non contact situation. And even the Yoki kick play, the play that hurt his foot. For the vast majority of players in the NBA, that might be a small ankle tweak and for Anthony Davis it's a serious foot injury. So it's not an insult to a d because some of this is just

the reality of super tall basketball players. We've seen this time and time again in NBA history. They tend to have foot and knee issues. It's kind of part of the deal. But it's a huge bummer for the Lakers

because they were playing some really good basketball. They won again last night against the Washington Wizards without a d that's two straight wins based sickly without a D because in the Nuggets game, he was a non factor in the first half as we know now because of his foot injury, and they won that game against a good team without Anthony Davis and uh Lebron James was amazing again thirty three, seven and nine last night. Lebron is

playing like a two way superstar. Over the course of this last several weeks since returning from the groin injury, He's averaging twenty nine points, eight rebounds, and six assists on six true shooting. He The Lakers are plus seventy three and fourty foty one minutes with Lebron on the floor, minus thirty nine in a hundred and ninety three minutes

without him. So this is like m v P level production, both in statistical accumulation and in value that he brings to the basketball team on both ends of the floor. Now for a pretty significant span, like we're talking close to a month of basketball at this point, since November. So now five weeks, the Lakers are eleven and six, which is the fifth best record in the league. And that's despite choking away two massive leads to Indiana in

Boston that they had no business losing. They're up seventeen with nine minutes left against Indiana, up thirteen with four minutes left against Boston. The Lakers are now just two and a half games back of eight in the West, three and a half games back of fifth four and a half games back of Phoenix, in six games back of first place in the West. For how disastrous their start is, to only be six games back of first

place in the West is pretty remarkable. The Lakers are good, maybe even great, but they need Lebron or they need Anthony Davis to be great. Without Anthony Davis, even with as well as Lebron is playing, they are an average basketball team. So the the Anthony Davis injury puts them in a very precarious position for the next month. Their schedule, if you look at it, is very similar to Golden State. There's several winnable games and there's several really tough games,

you know, like they played tonight in Phoenix. That's gonna be a newly impossible game to win and win without Anthony Davis. After that, they play the Kings. That's gonna be a tough game to win without Anthony Davis. But over the course of this next month, they play the Charlotte Hornets, they play the Orlando Magic, they play the Charlotte Hornets again, and they play that Hawks team that

is absolutely reeling twice over that span. So this is a span that even though it's unfortunate will happened Anthony Davis. It is possible for the Lakers to float over this span. But the bottom line is the Lakers have to make a decision now because without Anthony Davis, that stretch of games is precarious no matter what. There's just not enough talent on the roster. But if you make a move that gives them a chance they have they could absolutely

float around five during that span. Anthony Davis could come back and then they could go on a run. So again, they have to make a decision. Robin Genie have been putting off this decision for a really long time, ever since last season's disaster, And that decision was do you invest in the labra on James and Anthony Davis core or do you move on from it? And they've put it off. They put it off. They put it off. They could have traded Russ, they did it. They could

have made an aggressive trade early in the season. They did it. They have the two draft picks, they have salaries that they can move. They have players, they have Kendrick Nunn and Patrick Beverley that are less important players on the roster that they can flip for a player that's around, you know, twenty million a year. They've got the pieces necessary to make a deal to invest in this group, and they have not done so they've been putting it off. And that decision has to be made now.

And the way I see it, you've got two choices. You can commit to Lebron and a D invest heavily into giving them the best possible chance to compete during the stretch Without Anthony Davis. You trade Russell Westbrook, Kendrick Nunn, Patrick Beverley and both picks, and you bring back as much as possible, and you give the keys to Lebron, and you say, carry us for a month Anthony Davis comes back, we go on and run. Or you can decide that fundamentally the Lebron James and Anthony Davis or

does not work. A D is too fragile, Lebron's too old, whatever your idea is there. If that's the case, now is the time to blow it up, because during this stretch, Anthony Davis's value is as high as it's ever going to beat. He yes, he's hurt, but he just played arguably the best stretch of basketball in his career. The injury like that, injury prone label that's permanently attached to him now, and and it's for the record, it's factually correct.

Anthony Davis, like it or not, cannot stay available. And regardless of how you may feel, if you, as a Laker fan, feel like that's an unfair label for Anthony Davis, fine, I promise you all thirty NBA g MS view Anthony Davis as a significant injury risk. That is a permanent label attached to him. But you've got him now in an injury phase, right after he played some really damn good basketball, like best player in the world type basketball. So now is the time when his value is as

high as it's ever going to be. So, if you're going to make a rebuild, if you're going to decide that this is no longer the core you're going to move forward with, now is the time that you have to make that type of move. You move Anthony Davis for as many future assets as you can, You let Lebron break the scoring record in a Laker jersey, and then you trade him away this summer, give him a chance to go play somewhere with a team that has

a legitimate chance to compete. Then you start looking towards the future with all of those recruit recouped assets. But no matter what, waiting is no longer an option the page the being patient and waiting for something better is an unacceptable approach at this point. If you believe in the core, you've got to give them a chance to fight. If you don't, now is the time when the trade values are as high as they're going to be. So here's what I would do if I was running the Lakers.

The reality is is that full rebuilds, like complete blow it up rebuilds, even when you get a bunch of high draft pick back, are not guaranteed to lead to contention. They're not guaranteed to lead to a very good roster. Look at the Warriors over the course of this last span, by virtue of trades and by virtue of a couple of seasons where injuries blew them up, they have three lottery picks James Wiseman, Jonathan Cominga, and Moses Moody. They even have a late first round pick in Jordan Pool

that that hit and is a fringe All Star. Now, so you have a fringe All Star from a late first round pick and three lottery picks and all of it amounts to a bunch of guys that aren't superstars. Jonathan Coming is the only guy in that group that I think has legit superstar upside, and that is a long shot because he's super young and he's super raw. Superstars win titles, not stars. Superstars win titles. We've been

over that time and time again. If you go back through NBA history, the team that gets the trophy has one of the top five guys in the league on his team sometimes too. So the reality is the rebuild approach, the let's go after draft picks approach, is not guaranteed to leap you back into contention. But you do have a superstar right now in Lebron James who's playing like

a superstar. And you do have Anthony Davis, another superstar who's even better than Lebron, who's currently out but will return to the lineup at some point before the end of the season. So if your ultimate goal as a franchise is to win an NBA championship, investing in now is still your best chance. So that's what I would do now. Originally I preferred wing centric deals because I wanted the Lakers to load up on wings, keep a d at the five. Thomas Bryant's playing really well off

the bench. That's all great, that would that would have been the direction I would have gone. But with Anthony Davis out, you really need another center. Thomas Bryant was awesome last night. He had sixteen and ten, hit two massive corner three's on kickouts from Dennis Shrewder, was battling on the glass for a bunch of contested rebounds. Thomas Bryant was great, but he can't be your only functional center when in Gabriel, I don't think can really play

center for for a long stretch. So you ideally want to keep Thomas Bryant slotted off the bench. So I would call up Indiana and I would offer two first round picks and Russell Westbrook for Miles Turner and Buddy Heal. With the influx of both of them as shooters, that's real spacing with the two of them, and with Miles

Turner as a defensive anchor. Moving Thomas Bryant back to the bench, you give yourself a significant chance to float in the schedule over the course of the next month, and then even then you can potentially buy Anthony Davis another week or two to make sure he's a hundred percent recovered from the injury not have to force things back. And then you make an ancillary trade with Kendrick Nunn and Patrick Beverley and a couple of second round picks

for a wing player. Maybe that's boy and Bogdanovitch, maybe that's Kyle Kuzma. You might not be able to get those two guys because of the draft pick situation. It's complicated because Indiana probably wants two first round picks. If you can get them one first round pick in two second round picks, maybe you can use that other first round pick to get a guy like boy On or

get a guy like Kyle Kuzma. But there's a chance that you have to pay both first round picks for that Indiana deal, in which case you need to probably go for some lower hanging fruit on the wing market. And if that's the case, maybe you call the Knicks and you try to Priory Camradish and Evan Fournier. I'm sure the Knicks would like to get off of Evan Fournier salary next season, um, so that gives you a better chance of getting that deal done without a first

round pick. But with that, with that type of structure bringing in you know, let's just say it's the Knicks deal and the Pacers deal. You get two legitimate wing shooters in Evan Fournier and and Buddy Healed, a young wing that who knows what's gonna happen. I don't think Cam Raddis is that good. I don't think he's uh. I don't think he has a high basketball like you, which I think with drive Lebron completely insane um. But

at least you have some raw potential there. And then you have Miles Turner as a legitimate center to fill in the Anthony Davis minutes. That gives you a legit chance to try to float the ship Anthony Davis comes back. And when he comes back, you have like a legit a d at the four. Look where Miles Turners at the five. You also have really strong bench units that

are led with Miles Turner at the center position. And you have a considerable a considerable amount of shooting that you didn't have earlier in the season with Miles Turner, with Buddy Yield, with Evan Fournier to give Lebron and um uh Anthony Davis more space to work with in that in that um a scenario where Anthony Davis comes back, but either way they have to decide between those two options give them a fighting chance punt the season. What you can't do is do nothing where you flounder in

the standings for the next month. Then Anthony Davis comes back and tanks his value because he's you know, rushing his way back from injury to try to save the Lakers, and you know who knows if he gets hurt again or he doesn't play as well as he did before the injury, all those things can only serve to lower his trade value. And in the idea of just like, oh, let's just wait till next season, well, Anthony Davis is still injury prone. Lebron will be in year twenty one

at that point, I just don't understand that approach. Now, before we move on, there is door number three, and I think this is for the record up front, this is a mega long shot, and I see door number one and two is far more likely. But the other thing you could do is you could make an aggressive win now type of trade with Anthony Davis to try to win with Lebron. Like we talked about earlier, Lebron's

playing like a top ten player in the league. What if you call up the Toronto Raptors, a team that has lost eight out of ten games and probably want has some desire to shake things up on their own side of things, and they clearly don't have enough high level offensive talent, which we'll get to later. But what do you offer them Anthony Davis for Gary Trent Jr. O g And and Nobi Precious Schua in two first

round picks. Then you make similar you know, Russell Westbrooke, Kendrick nun Patrick Beverley deals on the side to bring in the shooting, maybe even the same deals we just talked about. But even if that doesn't work out, you make it run with Lebron. With that group, Lebron James a legit wing and O g n and and Nobi. You have Miles turn Or at center. You have Precious Chew as a backup big. You've got shooting that you brought

in on the side. Gary Trent Jr. Is a real pull up shooting threat that gives you a lot of offensive skill in the back court that they haven't had this season. You make a run at things. Maybe it doesn't work. But then you still after that have o g And and and Nobi in precisus ache, a couple of kind of interesting young players and a couple of first round picks that you're coup. Then you can move Lebron

in the summertime if you need to. That would be another opportunity if you wanted to give Lebron a fighting chance. But I see that is extremely unlikely. I think door number one and door number two are there far more likely scenarios. And again, no matter what, a decision has to be made, and soon all right, moving on to the Warriors in the Raptors. So if you guys remember in our video last week I talked about how we haven't really seen much of the Warriors starters play without Steph.

I think we attract one possession where it was the existing starting lineup, but with Jordan Poole in for Um in for Stephen Curry if I remember correctly. But we had seen plenty of Jordan Pool and Draymond together because when the bench was struggling earlier, Stephen Steve Kerr started uh staggering the lineups a little bit better, and he started playing Draymond Green alongside Jordan Pool a lot, just to raise the defensive floor a bit and to rain

in some of Jordan Pool's decision making. Um. I think before last night's game, they were hovering right around plus six and a half net rating in their minutes together, Jordan Pool and Draymond So they've been playing some good basketball with those two guys together. And the reality is is the best chance that the Warriors have to compete over the course of the next month is for those two guys, Jordan Pool and Draymond Green to play like all Stars, which is not too much to ask because

they are all star level players. Um. You know, I thought there was a really interesting play at the beginning of this game. It's kind of like a shooting contest between Draymond Green and Pascal Siaka. Was like three three three three both ways. And Draymond Green makes three threes in a row to start the game. And then he gets hit at the top of the key with another wide open catch and shoot opportunity. But he spots Jordan Pool on his right, and you know, Draymond Green's is

super smart basketball player. He's in a rhythm, he's made three in a row. He's probably got a good chance of making that shot if he puts it up, but he knows that for forty eight minutes for them to win, he needs a lot out of Jordan's Pool. And so, you know, one of what I always talked about, one of the best ways to get a score in a

rhythm is to get him easy shots early. That's why you know, bad defensive teams usually give up great offensive nights two stars because they come out early, they hit a couple of easy shots, they get the rhythm. Now they have their confidence, and now even when you're throwing contests and doubles at them, they're still making shots over the top because they're confident in their in rhythm. Well, he dribbles over to Jordan Pool, does a little pitch

off to him. Jordan Pool gets a wide open three and knocks it down, and that was what triggered an incredible night for Jordan. Pool finished with forty three points and six assists. So I got kind of like, um, you know, understanding from Draymond to know that he needs Jordan Pool and to lean into that um specific responsibility has especially is one of the best playmakers on the team. I thought was really really impressive. So Jordan Pool has

forty three and six. Draymond has seventeen nine and five, and then they had a really smart defensive game plan. What do we know about Toronto? They're outstanding in the open court, but they struggle in the half court. I've been talking about this all season. Toronto is now twenty seven in half court offense. They scored just zero point nine zero four points per half court possession. Only the Charlotte Hornets, the San Antonio Spurs in the Houston Rockets

are worse. Now are they actually that bad? No? Injuries play significant role there. When Gary Trent Jr. And O g and Obi are out the way that they are right now, this team already does not have enough offensive skill level right like this, the Toronto Raptors are, uh, you know, a cautionary tale in roster building. You know, I always talk about how on both ends of the floor you need to fill the responsibilities with a five man unit. And yeah, there are things that are really important,

like six eight wings that can defend multiple positions. That's an incredibly valuable thing, but it's not the only thing. On a basketball court. You need a certain amount of ball handling and shooting and off the dribble shot footing to allow lineups to function unless you've just got world beating to the basket guys like Lebron James and Anthony Davis or a Zan Williamson or Jani s Antenna Coombo.

If you don't have one of those guys, and maybe Scotty Barnes will be one of those guys in the distant future, but he's not one of those guys yet. If you don't have one of those guys, you need a lot of ball handling and shooting to score in the half court, and the Raptors don't. And then when you take Gary Trent Jr. Out Of the game, you take o Gna Nobi out of the game, they just simply have very very little offensive skill on the court,

which makes it borderline untenable at that point. And you know, I was digging into some numbers on Synergy this morning. So according to Synergy, Toronto averages about twenty four points per game and what they count as transition possessions. So fast breakpoints just counts like runouts, but transition can include a lot of other things, like there's uh, basically anything

that's not a set half court set. So like you know, there could be three guys back, and there could be four guys back and four guys on offense running and three guys trailing to play, and it's a quick bang bang, you know, driving kick for an easy three. That it's technically a transition play. And the Raptors thrive in those settings. They average about twenty four points per game. There, Golden State held them to just twelve, just twelve transition points,

just five fast breakpoints. They forced the Raptors to play half court basketball. And here's the thing, even without Steph Curry, the Warriors are a better half court basketball team than the Raptors without O. G N and O B and Gary Trent Jr. So really smart game plan from Steve Kerr, commitment from the players to sprint back and talk and get matched up in transition, and then Jordan Pooling Draymond Green playing like all stars was enough to win the game.

And then they got some shot making contributions. You know, I always talk about how the difference between a good offense and a bad offense is often shot making, because you know, if a bad offense is a hundred and seven points per hunter possessions and a good offense is a hundred nineteen points per one hunter possessions. That's just twelve points. That could be a handful of late shot clock, tough shots that guys hit. That could be a handful of possessions where you get a good matchup and you

have a guy who can score against that Pacific specific matchup. So, for instance, there's a wild play in the in the first quarter of this game where you know, Jordan Pool is trying to get a shot off and I can't get a shot off that Daymond Green keeps hunting him with these dribble handoffs. Nothing's working. He ends up just pitching it over to Anthony Lamb on the left wing, who's not even open, and the shot clocks running out, and Anthony Lamb just rises up and knocks down an

incredibly difficult contested jan Kee spot up three. That's shot making. That turned a good defensive possession for Toronto into three points for the Golden State Warriors. Early first half, early second half, same type of deal. They run a couple

of Golden State interchanges. At the top of the key, Jamichael Green pops to the left wing and takes a movement contested three and knocks it down once again good defensive possession from the Raptors that Jamichael Green turned into three points with shot making Clay Thompson pitched in seventeen on some tougher shots as well. Like at the end of the day, if you lose that high end shot making from Steph, you're not gonna win games unless other

guys step up make shots. And that's what the Warriors did last night. If they do those things, they defend at a high level, have good game plans, get some offensive contributions. That's a good way for them to hang around five and not lose any ground in the standings before Steph returns. Like we talked about earlier, the Raptors have now lost eight out of ten. Yes, you're waiting on og And and Nobody to come back. You're waiting on Presses a TiO to come back. Your waiting and

get on Gary Trent Jr. To come back. But the reality of this roster is that it doesn't nearly have enough ball handling or shooting like we talked about earlier, So I would I think it's time for the Raptors now at thirteen and seventeen to start considering a little bit more roster balance. That means turning one of your wings that specializes in defense and rebounding and athleticism, physical confrontation things, and flip him for a highly skilled player.

You know, I've talked about this trade a bunch of times, but I really like the idea of something between the Calves and the Raptors that sends Darius Garlands to the Raptors and sends O g And and Noby to the Calves. I think it's mutually beneficial for both teams. I don't think the Calves can hope to succeed with two small guards,

especially when neither of them are good defensive players. I think the Raptors, you know, get Fred van Vleet is a very good defensive player, and they have enough lineup flexibility to go without him from time to time. Giving yourself a great pull up jump shooter and super skilled guard and Darius Garland could offset some of your offensive

skill problems that you've had. And again, what O g Na Nobi does is extremely valuable, but the Raptors have that in uh, they have a great amount of that already, So it's it's basically like sacrificing from your surplus to fortify a weakness basically for both teams. And you know that that small forward position for the Calves has been kind of up and down um all season anyway. You know, like Isaac accro is a freaky good defensive players, very athletic and makes a lot of place for them, but

he has all these offensive limitations, you know. And then Dean Wade is a great shooter and is much better offensive player, but struggles on the defensive end of the floor. You know, Uh, they just they just don't have a really like Chetty Osmond is kind of up and down and and has some athleticism limitations. So there's like there's

just that's a weak position for them there. But they're loaded up at skill at the guard position, and Carris Lavert's playing really well, So why not you why don't you go with Donovan Mitchell and Carris Lavert and give Darius, give that Darius Garland resource over to an O, G N and Noby. That really rounds out your lineups to give you a really solid player at small forward position. Not to mention the fact that you'd probably be the best defense of this decade with Jared Allen, Evan Mobley

and og And and Nobi in the front court. They would be terrifying for other teams to deal with, especially with the way that Carris Lavert is playing defense this year. So Raptor's calves we might need to get the two of you guys in touch, because I feel like there's some opportunity there all right, the nets and the pistons. So this was a fun game to watch. Ja Ja Nivy had three nasty dunks, including a poster dunk on

you to want nabby Um. I always talked about how he moves like young Dwayne Wade, and that dunk on you to want Nabby was the first play this season I've seen that really demonstrates to its full potential. He is my favorite rookie. I don't think he's the best rookie. I think Polo is, but I think he's the second best rookie. And I was super impressed with him in Summer League, and I've been super impressed with him throughout most of the season as a young guard kind of

finding his way throughout the league. But his athleticism and his ability to beat people off the dribbles one excites me so much. Killing killing and Hayes eight assists and no turnovers. He's playing good basketball after a pretty rough start to the season. But this game was about Katie and Kyrie. They combined for eighty one points on just forty five shots, which is of course completely ludicrous. Um. The Pistons led by as many as nineteen before another

methodical second half Nets come back. This is becoming a theme, the Nets coming out of the locker room in the third quarter and just strangling teams on the defensive end of the floor, which some of that is Jacque Vaughan, and that's a defensive game plan thing. You're going halftime, here's where we're getting beat. Okay, here are adjustments. Let's come out and let's execute. And then it's also on

the players for coming out with good energy. A lot of teams struggle with coming out with energy in the third quarter. Um, Katie, who's struggled a little bit shooting the three for the most part of the season, got his pull up three going late in the third quarter of this game. He had back to back to back threes that flipped the lead to end the third and

then Kyrie came in and took over the fourth quarter again. Um, we got a little sloppy late the boy um Boy Bgdonovitch made a transition three off of a Katie turnover to cut it down to one point, but then Katie went Kyrie went right back to that step back three that he beat Toronto with and got foul and ice

the game at the free throw line. Make that six wins in a row for the Brooklyn Nets and ten out of eleven And since November four they are seventeen and six, which is just a half game back of Boston for the best team in the league over that span. So Brooklyn is really really looking like an interesting basketball team right now. Still waiting on that signature win, UM, but they're gonna have their opportunities here in the coming month. UM. Alright,

moving on to Orlando Boston. So that's six wins in a row for Orlando. They sweep the Celtics on the road. Palo was awesome in this game. He was red hot from three to start. UM. It really carried them offensively in the first half. He's been lights out from three during this entire wind streak. He's shooting on five threes per game during the six gamer UM. The second half was a complete sloppy mess, but it was fun to watch. I was enjoying the game. I actually chose to watch

this game over football. UM. Boston was just missing all sorts of wide open threes on one end, and then on the other end of the floor. When Boston really locked in defensively and started switching everything, it kind of neutralized that Franz Wagner pick and roll that they ran a lot in the first game. UM and just in general stagnated Orlando and they made a lot of sloppy decisions.

There was a lot of sloppy basketball both ways. But then at the end of the game, a bunch of key players for the Magic stepped up and made hustle plays that ended up changing the outcome of the game. I thought Admiral Scofield came in and played really good defense. He also hit two huge threes in the fourth quarter

and a nice closeout attack for a layup. And then Marquelle Foltz Um five minutes five minutes left in the game in the fourth quarter had a really nice ice o drive and finish on Jalen Brown in two gigantic offensive rebounds in crunch time, including a key one grabbed and kicked it out. The Franz Wagner at the top of the queue hit the dagger for three to put the magic up four. You know, he's a freak athlete

at the guard position. I know he's had a really complicated and unfortunate start to his career for a bunch of different reasons. We don't have to get into that, but at the end of the day, from a talent perspective, he's still one of the most athletic guards in the

league who can dribble the basketball really, really well. And what I appreciated the most is you can tell he's playing with a chip on his shoulder, like competing on the glass and trying to win games that way that you don't see that overly often from young players who are high level draft picks, because they try to impact

the game with their supreme level of skill. And you know, I think in a lot of ways, the unfortunate start to Mark hell Foltz's career has forced him to play with a chip on his shoulder, and it's kind of cool to see him impacting winning in ways that go beyond what we saw from him in college. Um. You know, it's funny because the story of this Orlando streak is it really comes down to defense. Their fifth in defense

over the span. Their perimeter size is just a legitimate issue for teams when they get crowding you on the ball and in help side. There's just so many long arms everywhere that it makes it really difficult for you to score and feel comfortable as you're going into your shots, as you're going into your kickouts and things along those lines. Um. But what's most interesting to me is everybody on that magic roster is playing like a shockingly physical brand of basketball.

Like I really thought they bullied Boston in both of these games. And that's so unusual because usually young players struggle with physicality. It's usually the grown men in their thirties, you know, an old veteran basketball team that's comfortable and loves to play in the physicality because as you age, you have to make up for your lack of athleticism with more leverage, physical leverage situations just how you learned to you know, kind of make up for that decline.

But it's unusually a very physical team for Atlanto. Their fifth in defensive rating over their last six games, fifth and rebounding percentage, and then on the offensive end of the floor, it's just four big guards leading the way, Palo Fronts, Bow, Wagner and Bull Bull. Those four guys are combining for seventy one points per game, twenty five rebounds, and tennis sists over the course of the six game Street Stretch. All of them are hitting their three point shot. UM.

They continue to just be a really really interesting young team. Now, we'll see, as you saw against Boston there in that second half, their decision making still is a problem. You know, Uh, Cole Anthony is all over the place with his decision making. Markel Folts made some questionable decisions down the second half of that game. They compete, They have a lot of talent, but what they really desperately need is a smart guard that can come in and just kind of organize them,

especially when the game really slows down. UM. Looking at Boston, they've lost four out of five. Should be five in a row if it wasn't for the Lakers blowing that thirteen point leave befour minutes left. And to be honest, you know, I've I've I've watched every single one of these games, and I've I've looked closely at the numbers, and i know it sounds really simple but it just comes down to missing shots. They are fifty three for one on threes that were tracked as open or wide

open during this five game stretch. Um for the season, coming into this stretch, they were making sixteen shots a game in the restricted area and averaging seven assists after that stretch. So in this last five games they're only averaging eleven makes and the restricted area, leading to just twenty two assists. So, as you can tell, it's kind

of like a cascading effect. They're not hitting their open threes, which is leading teams to to pack the paint more, which is taking away their opportunities at the rim, and it's really stilting their driving kick game. Their defense has been okay, not great. They're allowing a hundred nine point five points per a hunter possession. But again, when you're missing a lot of threes, those are long rebounds, and long rebounds lead to fast break opportunities. And they're not

rebounding well either. They're only securing forty seven point six percent of available rebounds, which is twenty three in the league over that span. So when you're missing a lot of shots and you're not securing rebounds, you're gonna give up transition opportunities, and that's where problems are gonna arise. They're giving up fifteen fast break points per game um over this five game stretch, which is nineteen in the league.

So honestly, if they can beat a little bit harder on the glass and they start to hit some shots, things should turn around. And then, honestly, Jayson Tatum, uh uh, he's only shooting about over this span. He needs to get his act together as well. Al Right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support. Game plan for this week, We're gonna be doing night shows on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Then

we're taking Thursday, Friday, Saturday off for the holiday. We are doing three different instant reaction videos on Sunday for Christmas Day. I'm very very excited about that. I will see you guys tomorrow night. The volume