Hoops Tonight - NBA Christmas Day Reaction: Spurs-Knicks, 76ers-Celtics, Nuggets-Suns, Wolves-Mavs

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one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bet must win to receive award. Bonus Bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources to dkang dot co slash b ball. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the volume, Happy Thursday again, everybody. We're gonna be hitting the rest of the slate from the Christmas Day games. Two games I'm gonna do deep dives on Spurs Knicks as well

as Sixers Celtics. The other two games I'm just gonna give a couple of quick takeaways on before we get out of here today. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSONNLT. So you guys show announcements, don't forget about our podcast feed wheref get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also helpful if you leave a

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rest of the season. All right, let's get started. I want to get down to that McHale Bridges Victor Wempin Yama shootout that we had to start the day yesterday, A couple of really great games to start the day. I want to start with this concept of mid range rhythm, so Mickkeel Bridges, we had a couple examples of this last night. Michel Bridges got crazy hot from mid range. Bradley Beal got really hot from the mid range in

the Denver Nuggets game. There's this thing that happens when we talk about the shots in basketball, where we focus a lot on the large sample without acknowledging some of the realities of the way basketball games can go that are difficult to quantify, that are things that know sort

of mathematical concept would be able to account for. So, for example, if we're listed, if we're listing the types of shots that any player can get in a game, you're gonna put mid range jump shot off the dribble towards the very end, right, The only worst shot that a mid range jump shot off the dribble is like a smothered, like really heavily contested mid range jump shot

off the dribble. But if we're listing shots right, like, you want like an uncontested rim attempt, and then like an uncontested three point attempt, and then there's various shots that we could get to. But at the very end of that list is going to be that mid range jump shooting piece, right, And the main reason why is because it's a jump shot, so there's you know, a chance it's gonna miss, a pretty good chance it's gonna miss,

and two it's only worth two points. Right, So when it comes to jump shooting, you want to try to generate as many threes as possible because you make up for the volatility in the variants with that extra point, which is gonna manifest in more points than a larger sample. However, for a jump shooter, what's an easier shot a good like a jump shooter that's come trouble in the mid range. There are a lot of jump shooters that just don't practice the mid range at all. I would recommend against that.

I think it's important in skill development to be well rounded. But there is a for most shooters that are good shooters, that are balanced, versatile shooters. A little ten to fifteen footer is an easier shot than a twenty five footer, right. I mean, like, it's no different than the free throw line, right, Like,

it's just closer to the basket. The rim can fit two basketballs in there, right, So like there's quite a bit of margin for error, and the greatest shooters in the world can knock them down from twenty five feet. But when you get into a rhythm, that little ten to fifteen footer, it's not just a shot you can make. It's a shot you can make over and over and

over again. There's a rhythm in flow to basketball. When you generate an open shot, it is not like you pull the slot machine, lever and just pray it goes in right, Like the shot of your goes in or doesn't, based on a bunch of different factors that extend to the flow of the possession leading into the shot, but also the skill development of the player and whether or not that player is currently feeling very confident and currently trusting his form and in good rhythm with his jump shot,

or like you could run great offense, but the ball can end up in a player's hands who's been slumping pretty bad and is struggling with confidence and doesn't seem to be, you know, really comfortable with his form, and that shot might not go in right. There's all these different factors that go into it, but when it comes down, there's a reason why that mid range jump shot is still so valuable to the great scorers in this league.

It's because, in a late game situation, if you are in rhythm and and flow, that's a shot that you feel really good about knocking down. You can get into a rhythm where you knock it down again and again and again. When it comes to three point shooting, there's a lot more volatility, of a lot of more volatility

that can come with it. But three point shooting, ironically is its own great example, because we've seen three point shooters get hot and make three after three after three, right, So now you can imagine that same rhythm and flow that players can get into, but move it in ten feet and it just goes to an even greater level.

And I thought that was fascinating because again, like McHale bridges again and again down the stretch of that game, took shots that in a lot of cases are viewed as bad shots, but it won them a game because it was a shot that Mikail felt comfortable with and he entered into that zone and he just wasn't going to miss it. And I think again, like this is where that concept of basketball being more art than science comes into play. You want to try to target every

mathematical advantage that you can. You want to hire as many statistical analysts as you can, to be as plugged into the data as you possibly can, to gain every little advantage that you can. Right, But at the end of the day, basketball has so many factors, so many variables, it is impossible to actually solve. And at the end of the day, you want players playing in flow, and you want them playing in rhythm and that might dictate a different approach than what the numbers might tell you

to do. And that's why again, like when you come into these situations, it's about a balance. It's about a balance between taking as much information as you can, gaining every advantage as you can, but making sure that you have your best players feeling comfortable and in rhythm as possible by not micromanaging every damn shot they take. And

I think that's where that balance comes in. I thought that was just such an interesting example, Like, again, that's the difference between mid range shooting and longer range shooting. You can straight up enter a zone where you're just making it every damn time. And that's what Mikail Bridges did to steal that game from the San Antonio Spurs. I thought Josh Hart was incredible. Down the stretch of

this game. You get a huge above the breakthree the Spurs regarding a lot of the ball screen actions three on two, meaning like they're chasing over the top. They have the big up at the level, but they also have a third defender that's kind of coming over to guard the action. That's gonna cause a lot of off ball three on twos which are gonna leave open shooters, and Josh had a big one above the break that

he ended up hitting. He had a huge offensive rebound on a missed layup that are missed a little one of the few mid range jump I think it was the mid range jump shot that mckailbridge missed late where it kind of rattled in and out and he had Chris Paul on him. Josh Hart did and Chris Paul was kind of drifting and being a little lazy, and Josh Hart just shot down the lane and got a huge offensive rebound. And then he had a huge block on a lowman rotation on Jeremy Sohans. So it's a

little ballscreen lobb to the rim. Sohan's going up to dunk, he's behind the screen defender, meaning like if the lowman help isn't there, it's a dunk or it's a layup. Josh Hart comes flying out of the left corner, makes that huge block at the rim, and they need another transition push where he drew a foul. It's several huge plays to help them win that game. And then the Knicks got the stops that they needed down the stretch again.

Defense has been the main driving force but behind the Knicks success as of late a couple of interesting adjustments. They went away from Karl Anthony Towns late. You know, I get it because they were getting burned on some

pick and pop stuff, which is typical. That's a coverage that you're gonna have to run with Carl Anthony town there, and when you switch, you don't love that matchup, leaving Carl Anthony Towns on a guard on the perimeter right, So, like, I understand some of it, but also I kind of felt bad for Kat because like Victor was hitting some impossible shots, Like Victor hit multiple like thirty footers or like twenty six twenty seven footers, moving like running into

the shot to his right, planning that left foot and that right foot, squaring up in mid air and knocking like at seven foot four, whatever the hell he is knocking down a movement twenty seven foot or like at a certain point, I want to be like, this isn't really your fault. And I mean, you know, there was some good defense down the stretch on Victor, but I mean he missed a couple good looks too. You know,

that's part of the game. But anyway, they go away from Karl Anthony Towns, Tips puts Precious to chew on Jeremy Sohan so he can help in the paint. They basically ignore Jeremy so On. Jeremy s Soon burned them once with above the break three on the left wing down the stretch, but for the most part that was working. Then they put og In and Obi on Victor Wambin Yama so that they could get up underneath Wenby to kind of take away an he sort of dribble penetration.

And I also gives them the flexibility to switch any ball screens that involved Victor women Yama because again Victor had been beating them in picking pop. So they got all the stops that they needed to get and they get out of there with the win. Mcale Bridges finished with forty one points, zero turnovers. I thought he did an awesome job defensively on Devin vessel To. He's just playing so so much better than he did to start the year. And it's doing a lot to turn around

the Knicks. But again, like with the Knicks, it's coming down to their defense. Like that's how they regained control

of the situation yesterday. That's how they were winning games in that eight and two stretch before this game, Like it's all about them being a defense, like a gritty defense, physical team that has more offensive talent than last year's team did to give them that that boost, right, and like that's the difference, right, Like when they went on their run after the Spurs went up big in that middle of the fourth quarter, when they went on their run,

it's like defense running out in transition. Ognnobi hits a three, McHale Bridges hits a three, Josh Hart hits a three. Right, Like when it wasn't ojannob and McHale Bridges, it would have been harder. There wasn't as much talent on the floor to convert those situations. But they have the talent now and they're converting those situations. I thought. Duce McBride made it like a ridiculous important off the dribble three above the left break as well, big team win for

the Knicks to survive. The Victor Women Yama on slot for Victor Women. Yama just some truly absurd shot making. He had two thirty footers moving to his right, like we talked about earlier. Couldn't even get mad at Kat the main thing that stood out to me, And again, like I promise I'm not talking shit here, because like, Victor's amazing, he was plus seven yesterday. They've they've been

dominating in his minutes. He's averaging thirty points, ten rebounds in five assists on fifty one percent from the field, thirty nine percent from three, and eighty seven percent from the line, with four blocks per game in his last fifteen games, and the Spurs are nine and six in those games. And again, like the on off splits are crazy. But there's one thing that I want to kind of nitpick with him because I think it's something that will help him down the stretch. And this goes or down

the rest of his prime. And this goes back to what we were talking about earlier with the mc bridges on any jump shot for Victor Wemanyama that is not a three. He's seventeen for fifty three this season. That's thirty two percent, and again that's without getting that extra point two. So we're talking about zero point six to four points per tempt, which is really really bad. Again, like he can get hot from three, and he's won

games hitting threes this year. We talked about I think he's hit four clutch threes this year in the final five minutes of games, But it would be nice to have something that he could go to that is closer, like, for instance, when he had that face up against precious to chew and he ripped through to the right and he took that little elbow jumper that rattled in and out, Like I would love to see Victor get to the point where he has some of those types of over

the top shots that he can hit closer to fifty to fifty five percent or even forty five fifty percent, because they're less volatile than the shots that he takes from three in the small sample when he's in these clutch time situations. He's also still only made one hook shot all season, right, that's one two where he could just take a bump and over his left shoulder and just kind of shoot like a little five to ten foot push shot and that short range where he could

get a little bit more reliable scoring. But again, it was like he was super hot from three. They started taking away the easy ones and he took a couple of tougher ones and they didn't go in, and then he did it just there wasn't much for him to go to at that point, so like, I'd like to see him And this is not just on him, it's on the Spurs as well. They need to try to generate as many opportunities for him to catch with an advantage closer to the rim, to look to score instead

of always so far from the rim. On the Spurs front, a lot of really positive stuff, like Chris Paul is doing some really nice work keeping them organized on offense. They're seventeen points per one hundred possessions better with him on the floor versus off this year on both ends of the floor. Part of that is he's partnered with Victor wembin Yama a lot, but also it's that keeping

them organized on offense. Again, like a lot of freelance offense ends poorly in the NBA, having a point guard that gets you into your sets and gets everybody into their spots will go a long way towards increasing your offensive efficiency, you know, Jeremy Sohan, it's interesting. I don't love the idea of having him guard like Quicker permits players like McKayle Bridges. I didn't think he did a good job against Micail Bridges late, too much contact on

the screen and not staying attached enough from behind. But some of that is just part of the problem when you're playing the Knicks, because someone has to guard Jalen Brunson too right, and you're going to be put in situations where it's possible that Jeremy staw On could have to guard another quick perimeter player. But overall, I thought it did a ton of good. It hit a huge three when the Knicks were ignoring him late. He had twenty one points on ten shots sixty percent. You're shooting

on fifteen points per game over the season. He puts the ball in the basket more effectively than I think a lot of people realize they've been tinkering with that fifth guy in those lineups. Obviously you've got Devin Vessel was Chris Paul with Jeremy Sawhn and Victor wimen Yama kind of feels like that core four, and sometimes it's

Steph Castle is the fifth guy. Sometimes it's Keldon Johnson when they want to be more athletic, and then like yesterday, a lot of Julian Champagne because they're trying to get more shooting in there, and that's the kind of thing that will bear out in time as they as they kind of get some more clarity among their young talent, and whether or not they end up making some more a type of all in type of move at some

point in the future. But the two big things that stood out to me for the Spurs in this game is their defensive details, like a lot of overhelping, like a lot of times where they're defending ball screens three on two and leaving shooters open when they probably don't need to. And then missing box outs like they got beat on the glass a bunch late, and a lot of it was just not attentive and not competing for loose balls, so like little things they need to clear up.

And then again, like I mentioned earlier, trying to find more opportunities for Victor wamin yam gonna catch with an opportunity to score closer to the rim. And again that's a skill development piece for Victor two because he's got to be able to convert those opportunities. But try to keep him from floating around the three point line late

in games. That's not to say you shouldn't do it, and I think it's important, Like you know, like if you get a really good guard that you trust late, whether it's seven Vessel, Chris Paull Ord Steph Castle in a few years. You want to have a release valve for the guard to be able to work, but then also feel like Victor is a threat out of the

perimeter to maintain spacing. But you also want to, like in his ISO situations and his post up situations, try to run stuff, get him sort of the basket so that he's less tempted to settle for really tough contested like eighteen footers and maybe more like ten to twelve footers that have a little bit less variance involved with them moving on to six or Celtics game plan not a gameplan mistake, but a game plan backfires for Boston.

Game plans are designed to take away things that teams like to do and force teams to do things that make them feel uncomfortable. One of the things that the Celtics have done forever is put their Celtics on the

weakest above the break shooter on the opposing team. Why because Jason Tatum is big and strong enough to battle centers, and so is Jalen Brown, but both of them are also quick enough to guard on the perimeter, so you could put Jalen Brown on the best pick and roll ball handler for the other team, Jason Tatum on their center. All of a sudden, they're one five ball screen game or whatever their best perimeter player. Ball screen game is just shut down because it's just a switch and there's

not a great mismatch on either side of it. Right and then above, above, and beyond that, you've got your center, the rim protector, lingering around the basket while you're leaving this mediocre to bad jump shooter standing around on the perimeter. That guy yesterday was Caleb Martin. Caleb Martin is shooting before last night's game or yesterday's game, I should say, eighteen for fifty nine from three before that game, thirty point five percent. And again, this is a strategy that

works the majority of the time for the Celtics. Caleb Martin goes seven to nine from three yesterday, the Celtics had a lead, a small lead early in the fourth quarter. Caleb Martin hits four threes, all on the right wing, all during that massive run that Philly goes on where they take control of the game. Tyres Maxi was incredible in that game. As well. I thought he played the best out of anybody. Thought he was the best player on the four yesterday's game. Hit several big shots in

that run on defense. The Celtics were trying to go at him. He had a big stop against Derek White on a drive he had like a steal where he defended his slip where like a lot of times, when you're hedging and recovering, if you recover with high hands, you can get deflections as that pass is trying to get back to the guy you were originally guarding. He got a big steel doing it that way. He was awesome. The Sixers go up by fifteen, so the game plan

basically backfires. Your tire game plans built on we're gonna let Caleb Martin take these above the break threes because he's hitting them at less than thirty three percent, so they're worth less than one point per possession. We're gonna shut down this primary action and the Sixers will fall apart. He hits four threes in that stretch. Suddenly it's a very very different type of game, right. But then the

Celtics go on a huge run classic Celtics basketball. They turn up their ball pressure, they start forcing turnovers, they start getting stops. Playing simple offense on the other end with great spacing to generate wide open threes. They get a steal. Jalen Brown gets a steal with more ball pressure on Tyree s Masey that leads to a runout dunk for al Horford. Suddenly it's a three point game. But then Joel Embiid, who had been on the bench during this run, came in and made two huge to

kind of reassert control. Catches on the roll and makes a good, hard, strong move off of a power dribble into the lane and draws a foul, makes both free throws that puts the lead back up to five, and then in a late clock situation, he blocks Jason Tatum at the rim, which forces al Horford into kind of a late clock heave that doesn't go in so two way sequence from Embiid where it gets two points and

defends the rim on the other end. All of a sudden, the Sixers have the ball up by five and they're able to kind of reassert control the game big time playing and that's what you're supposed to do again, Like that's the thing with Embiid, The uh there's gonna be he was. I thought he was really good yesterday, but like there's going to be times where in this process where as he's trying to get his legs underneath him

and get back in rhythm. He's not the all world MVP type of Joel Embiid, right Like that, that's a player that I expect in a few weeks after he gets several games under his belt without having any issues, right. But a lot of times it's like you just got

to make some plays. And again, like your team puts you in position to win with a great run to start the fourth quarter, but they're starting to lose control because guess what, they're not as talented as the team they're playing, and they need you, your superstar, to come in and make a couple of plays to help them reassert control. And that's exactly what they did. It's been tough to get a read on the Sixers with all

the injuries they've dealt with this year. Like we have just two hundred and twenty five possessions of those three guys all on the floor together this season, Tyres Maxey, Paul George and Joel Embiid. They're plus one point three net, meaning plus one point three points per one hundred possessions so far in those two hundred and twenty five possessions, one hundred and one defensive rating, which is awesome, but a one oh two offensive rating, which is pretty bad.

That's to be expected, though, There's two reasons why. One like Paul George and Joel Embiid need to be on the floor so that they can get into a rhythm, so that they can get to the best versions of themselves. Like right now, the Big three is out there, but it's not the idealized version of the Big three. The idealized version of the Big three is the Big three that's played twenty games and all three guys are healthy,

in rhythm, in shape. That's the version of the Big three that could potentially be you know, plus twelve plus thirteen points net rating over a pretty large sample. That's what I want to see in the long run. But like, the second piece of it too, is like the actual learning how to play with each other, Like again, this is a new partnership, and again like how is Paul

George going to fit in alongside these guys? And so like again, he was off the ball for a lot of MB Tyree action late in the game, right, So like that's where you got to find ways to kind of keep him involved. Like all of that will grow in time as they get more repetitions. But again, they're in a good spot all things considered. You could not have scripted a more disastrous start to the season for the Philadelphia seventy six ers, and they're now three and

a half games back from being above the plan. So that's the sixth seed. With Miami, Atlanta, Indiana, Chicago and Detroit standing in their way, you feel good about your chance to outpace those teams in the big picture. They're capable of it. And now you're coming off of a huge win on the road in Boston. It's a good spot to be for the seventy six Ers. On the Boston front, they've lost four out of seven. Now, like I always say, everyone in this league, even the best teams,

will have ugly stretches in their season. It is the part of it is a part of the deal when you're playing eighty two games. The Celtics actually had a stretch right around the same time last year where they lost three out of six. It was in early January, so when they lost to Oklahoma City lost to Indiana and then they got blown out by the Bucks in a six game span. Then they went on to win the championship. Right, so this is this is part of

the deal when you're playing eighty two. What's happening this time? Though? One too many stretches of lazy defense. They had a one to sixteen defensive rating in these four losses, which isn't bad, but it's bad by Celtic standards. A lot of sequences like you saw in that fourth quarter, where like the team isn't really pressure in the ball and is it really competing defensively on the perimeter, and they get sliced and diced. Then they find themselves down big.

Then they like ratchet up the defense, like they ratchet up that physicality, that ball pressure, and they start really competing and they immediately start getting stops again and they go on their run and so again it's like that's where you just need to try to like make it so that the second part of that happens more than the first part of that, right, Like it's like kind of a tale of two different teams within the scope of even individual games. And so that's a big part

of it. Just competing on defense. Like last night, they they turned up the ball pressure after the Sixers went up fifteen and immediately regained control of the game. And in both both the Chicago game and this game. The Chicago game they lost and this game, they just didn't bring the necessary defensive pressure, especially in that early fourth quarter stretch where they lost control of the game. Two poor shooting and this four losses. They're shooting thirty percent

from three. That's obviously going to be something that lessens your chances. And then lastly, Jalen Brown is playing poorly by his standards at this point. He had five turnovers in the Memphis game that they lost, he was one for eight from three, and the Bowls game that they lost ten for twenty three with five more turnovers. In the Philly loss, and again in those defensive stretches where they lost control in the early fourth quarter against Chicago

and Philly. Kind of very similar types of games where they're in it and then suddenly they just quickly lose control over a bad stretch of defense. I thought Jalen Brown was part of the problem defensively in those roles. Specifically in the Chicago game, it was like one of the more embarrassing defensive efforts I've seen from Jalen Brown in his career. So, like Jalen Brown's not playing very well, the team's not shooting very well. They're kind of inconsistent defensively.

They drop four out of seven, So what does this mean? Nothing? The great teams have bad stretches too, they just usually wake up from them and get back on track much quicker than everyone else does. Go beat Indiana twice, got two home games against Indiana. They have a four game road trip in early January when they go two Minnesota to Houston, to Oklahoma City and to Denver. That's a great chance go three and one on that road trip. You've reasserted yourself as the best team in the league,

and you kind of regain your mojo. That's what I expect them to do over the course the next couple of weeks. Again on MAVs Wolves and on Nuggets Suns. I'm just gonna give two quick takeaways from each game for timesake. MAVs Wolves first takeaway, and had these two big buckets late like kind of like a driving, little contested bank shot around the right lane line and then

a hard driving left handed layup on PJ. Washington late, and all I could say is those were situations where Ant demonstrated his absurd physical gifts with his ability to get to his spots right. Like Ant just toasts PJ. Washington off the dribble for that left handed layup. And if you watch a replay that little bank shot that he hit, he's so under control it almost looks like

he's in slow motion. It looks so comfortable and it looks easy right, And all I could think is, God, I'd love to see this team play with some real spacing. I pulled this number yesterday the Wolves front court, so they're three four five is making two point nine threes per game combined on what's the percentage that I have here hang on one second, thirty three point nine percent. Thirty three point nine percent with less than three makes

per game for your entire three four five. So the three biggest players, the three guys that the other team has their biggest best athletes on, don't have to worry about him be on the three point line. There's all of this talk, and like, look, I'm not gonna sit here and pretend like Ant is the best playmaker in the world. He's not, or that he's the best game manager in the world. He's not or that Ant doesn't need to get better at reading defenses and making teams

pay with this passing. Of course he has to get better at that. He's twenty two years old. But the spacing is goddamn awful. It's awful. It's very hard to play basketball in that type of situation. He's having to slalom in many cases through three four five bodies just

to get to the rim. And this isn't like the old days with the legal defense, right, Like it's more congested in the lane when you beat that guy off the dribble, and so it's just it's one of those things where like what's gonna end up happening in my opinion, And by the way, I think I think people are too quick to write Ant off in general just because of this busted ass Timberwolves roster, and I think he's

gonna have great moments sooner than later. But there's a version of this for Ants twenty six, and he's playing on a team with that provides like legitimate spacing for him, and he's made the development steps that he needs to as a playmaker, where I think this dude's gonna be absolutely incredible. It just it blows my mind how easily he gets to his spots. And I thought that those two big buckets that he got late were great examples of that. On the MAVs front, They're gonna be fine. Luka,

Doncics leaves on crutches. He's got a significant CAF strain. Let's say he's gone for a month. One of the big things that I've learned in the early part of this season is that this MAVs roster is incredibly deep with just good basketball players, and they have so many.

This is where making that change this summer and bringing in all that additional ball handling will reap benefits because you've got great defensive personnel and you guys have seen so many examples of this like Lively Gafford Center partnership with PJ. Washington and how they can really defend. You saw stretches last night where you include Maxi Kliba and

that they defend even better. They've got all this defensive personnel to bring the defensive floor up, and then now you've got all these additional ball handler Spencer Dinwoodie, Naji Marshall, Klay Thompson, guys that can create offense. Quinn Grimes too, that can create offense with movement shooting and off the dribble shot creation, and so that is allowed the floor. The defensive floor for the MAVs was already sky high,

but now you've raised the offensive floor. Whereas in the old days when you get all this like one way personnel and Lucas out, it's a much bigger issue creating shots. It's a lot more pressure on Kyrie. Now it kind of feels like more of a natural, kind of like basketball team in the sense that you still are relying a lot on Kyrie, but you have other guys that can kind of create offense and so obviously discouraging loss.

You never want to lose on Christmas Day. You never want to see your star go down with an injury. But I remain confident that the MAVs are fine. I would have Luca take his sweet time to get one hundred percent healthy before he comes back. I think the MAVs are going to stay afloat in the standings on the strength of their talent, and they're really high floor on both ends of the floor. Nuggets suns again, two quick takeaways. First one, the Suns just need to compete physically.

They had lost six out of eight before last night's win against Denver. They had a defensive rating of one twenty two in those eight games, and they were bad on the glass and bad in transition in that stretch. Last night, they held the Nuggets to three straight twenty two point quarters. They held up tougher on the glass than they had been as of late, they didn't turn the ball over, and they kept Denver out of transition. That m that matters even more than getting the guys healthy.

Like you want to have Devin Booker back, you want to have everyone healthy. You want to have the big three work and doing their thing. But the more important thing is they just need to compete as a team. Again, when I see defensive ratings that high, when I see teams like when I see middle of the pack teams that have personnel weaknesses, it means to me they're competing. When I see personnel weaknesses, but they're at the bottom

of the pack, that tells me you're not competing. And like you see it last night, they do, and suddenly everything looks that much better. They have to compete. They are not bigot or athletic enough at any position group to let go of the rope competitively. This is a team that has to fight. Then their offensive talent can be enough to lift them over the top. But it's a non negotiable. A one to twenty two offense or defensive rating over eight games, that's not a team that's serious,

A serious like that. That doesn't mean they need to be an elite defense, but they have to be better than what they showed in that original stretch. And I thought last night was a great example of that. When the Suns compete physically, they give themselves a really good chance to win. Bradley Beal, by the way, another great example of what I was talking about earlier with Michael Bridges.

I thought he was great all night. Bradgate a great rim pressure, but like you, got a little rhythm with his mid range shot making, and that carried the Suns through various stretches of that game. It is an interesting example, like we talked about earlier at the when we were talking Nick Spurs on the Nuggets front. The Nuggets go as Jamal Murray goes, obviously goes for thirteen points yesterday against the Suns and they can't score. They are four

and oh this season. In the four games Jamal Murray scored at least twenty five points, they are seven and three. When he scores at least twenty. They are four and eight when he fails to score twenty. And that really is the thing. Jokich is the consistent force for this team. Jamal Murray is the volatile force. Jamal has to bring stability. When he does, that's when Denver will take off. And

until he does, they're going to struggle. Is a game they couldn't score and they didn't really have an option that they could go to outside of Nikola Jokich. So just something to keep in mind as we look forward to the season again. Seven and eight when he scores at least seven, and three, when he scores at least twenty four and eight when he fails to score twenty. That's the big, you know, kind of oscillating factor for this Denver Nuggets team. All right, guys, that's all I

have for today. As always, sincerely appreciate you guys for rocking with me and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with a mail bag. I'll see you guys. Then the volume