Hoops Tonight - NBA Reaction: Cavaliers AVENGE Celtics loss, Rockets stun Thunder, Warriors SLIDE

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We are going to hit the two big games from yesterday where the top two seeds in each conference faced off against each other. As the Cleveland Cavaliers got some revenge on the Boston Celtics, albeit short handed. We're gonna get into that game. It turned into a really interesting

chess match down the stretch. And then two of the best young athletic teams in the league, the two top seeds in the Western Conference, the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder faced off as the Houston Rockets got a big win, kind of a wild finish on that game. So we're going to hit both of those games from the perspective of both teams. Then we're going to do a new edition of power Rankings. We're going to go

over the top ten teams in the league. And then at the tail end of the show, I have thirty four clips of film that we are going to go through hitting from both of the games we talked about off the top of the show, but also some other stuff as well. Just a ton of basketball to get into. It's going to be a lot of fun. You guys are the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter and underscore JSNLTS.

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mail back questions in the YouTube comments. We will be doing a mail bag in the Friday Show later this week. All right, let's talk some basketball. So Celtics Calves turned into an interesting chess match. Both teams were attacking the weak spot in each other's defense. So obviously, for the Calves the weak spot is Darius Garland, and it was a steady dose of the Celtics looking to attack Darius

Garland every time down the floor. For the Calves, it was about attacking the Celtics bigs in pick and roll. Now we're gonna get into it. It's more complicated because when Derek White and Jalen Brown are out there, they're just more athletic and long and more better overall, like basketball defensive instincts to be able to cover for those guys.

But Al Horford at this phase of his career and Chrisops Porzingis with some of his mobility limitations, they can be attacked in ball screens, right, And so that was kind of the dynamic. It was Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell trying to attack Porzingis and Horford and Ball screens incessantly down the stretch of the game, and then the Celtics hunting Darius Garland. The Celtics were getting great looks

just about every time down the floor. I even thought they got some great looks at the end of this game that didn't go down. Al Horford got a wide open corner three off of a Darius Garland switch on to Jason Tatum where he kicked it out. He had another wide open corner three in the right corner that he missed late in the game. All that the pass was a little funky. Jason Tatum smoked a layup right at the rim with Darius Garland, but for the most

part it was the same sort of thing. They were attacking through a bunch of different functions, Like Christops Porzingis in a switch, ended up attacking Garland, drew a double team kickout pass, Howser made a really nice three on the left wing. Is actually kind of a crazy play because Donovan Mitchell closed out to the passing lane and Howser just like really really calm, just like sat there and let him fly by and knocked down the jump shot.

Peyton Pritchard even attacked Darius Garland late in the game, just buried him underneath the basket and kind of a really funky looking play where he just kind of just took a bunch of drop step dribbles or just power dribbles and then just kind of shoved off Darius with his left arm and then sunk a little bank shot. But for the most part, it was Jason Tatum and

same sort of thing every down. Every time down the floor, he'd kind of get him onto his switch and then he'd get either into that wing position or that top of the key position. They'd space the floor and the Calves were letting him go to work one on one. And one of the things that he was doing is, you know, the the Calves were occupying or the Celtics were occupying the dunker spot, and they usually would have

a defender getting ready to help at the rim. And so what Jason Tatum did that was really smart during the majority of the second half possessions is he didn't try to just go all the way through Garland to the rim, because in a lot of those cases that's where the help is. Right you beat Garland, you just run into another defender. And one of the things that Jason Tatum did is he just got surgical with that

little short jump shot. A couple of times he just dribbled into his space and then a shot just right over the top of him from ten feet. Sometimes it was a little left shoulder fade as he turned, you know, kind of into like a half spin into his little fade away jump shot. But he was killing Garland in

the short range right. The reason why that's so important is, like I want you to think about Nikolea Jokic for example, when you're playing with the size advantage in particular, and you're dealing with guys that are helping on the back line, then over penetrating can actually become an issue as you run into more help like I was talking about. And so one of the best ways to attack those sorts of mismatches, as long as you have the touch for it.

last night he really had it going. And as long as he continues to build out that shot over the course of his prime here in his late twenties, that's going to be a deadly thing for him against size mismatches, because it's a problem when you can attack a mismatch without having to engage in traffic around the basket, when there's tons of bodies in front of you. Sometimes fouls don't get called. Sometimes you just miss shots. Like if you can work in that short range, you can be

effective there. And so he was burning Garland in the short range. That turned into double teams. Out of the double teams, they started getting good looks out of it, offensive rebounds out of it. Remember, even when you're in scramble situations in rotation, even if you don't necessarily give up a great shot, you're still in position. You're not in rebounding position, right because guys aren't matched up, they're all running around. This is where you end up giving

up offensive rebounds. Remember in the thunder Lakers game, that was something that Lebron James was talking about after the game, it's like we're in rotation, we're shading towards Shay or not in rebound position.

those switch attacks with Jason Tatum on Darius Garland. Jayson Tatum was just absurdly good in that second half. There were a couple of ugly possessions, but overall, I thought he did an insanely good job of consistently generating great shots for his team against a very good defense.

he was bringing Poorzingis into the action. They were showing high with Porzingis up at the level, and so twice down the stretch of the game and crunch time, the Calves were able to get great looks out of the

Celtics putting two on the ball. So the first one they put two on the ball on the right wing on a Garland ball screen, Porzingis comes up high, Garland hits the roll man, swing to the corner, swing to the above, the above the brake on the left wing, Donovan Mitchell gets a wide open three because you put two on the ball against Darius Garland. And then the shot that ended up being the dagger. If you remember the one where Moblei got the dunk, same sort of thing.

Porzingis up at the level, a Coorro slips the screen, Garland hits him, and then a coro draws in the help drops it off to Moblei, and Mobley goes up and dunks it. So they were getting stuff out of those Garland ball screens by bringing Porzingis up to the level, and then Donovan Mitchell was just attacking the bigs and drop whatever he could. He was specifically going at Al Horford a lot late in the game, the lead changing floater, the floater that he hit after Tatum missed his first shot.

He got in the lane and snaked the pick and roll on the left side and Horford was just a bit too far back and he hit that little floater. And then one of the most common moves you'll see really good guards do is reject ball screens at the moment that the defensive guards starts to fight over the top of the screen, and that was how Donovan Mitchell got that other really good look pull up three from

the top of the key. By the way, a lot of these actions that I'm discussing are going to be in the film session later today, So if you happen to be watching this in a breakout clip, if you want to see video representation of this, it's just going to be at the tail end of the show. I always do film at the tail end of the show instead of in the middle because of our podcast audience and I want this to be something that functions for

them as well. So if you want to see visual representations, just hang out for the tail end of the show. But the second three that Donovan Mitchell hit late, he actually hit three late because he hit a huge one over a switch a same houser before all this, but he the one where he kind of put Drew Holliday in the blender. All he's doing there is he's dribbling at the ball screens. So there's a ball screen at the top of the key and he's dribbling like he's

going to go off the ball screen. What does Drew Holliday have to do there? He is one of the hard jobs in basketball, when we talk about all the

time on the show. Screen navigation at the point of attack is one of the most challenging things that NBA guards have to deal with defensively, Drew Halliday started to fight over the screen and like right when he started to commit to that process, Donovan snatched it back to the left hand and just had all the separation in the world and was able to rise up and knock down a shot. But again we had both offenses getting great stuff by virtue of the Calves attacking in ball

screens and the Celtics attacking Darius Garland and switches. But the Calves were able to get two big stops late. And this is where I want to give Darius Garland some credit, because it was a real problem. Tatum was scoring on him every time in single coverage. There were double teams that were giving up wide open threes in offensive rebounds. Sometimes you just have to do a better job.

Sometimes that's the adjustment from the coaching staff. It's not like, oh, we came up with this magical scheme to finally get a stop on Jason Tatum or whatever. It is a lot of times we want to try to look for something like that because it's tana right, Like it's easy for us to point to something like that and be like, oh, that's how they did it right. But a lot of times it's like the same guy that was the problem just does a better job and now all of a

sudden he's not a problem anymore. And Darius Garland, after getting fried a lot throughout this game, got two really big stops. The second one was kind of lucky, right Tatum beat him to the right, went all the way to the ram, and Garland did a good job trying to get in his way. But I felt like that was a layup Jason Tatum's going to make nine times out of ten. He just happened to smoke it right the first one, though he legitimately did a better job.

One of the things that Tatum was doing was kind of methodically getting into that short to mid range to shoot over the top of Garland. One of the things that Garland did in that first stop that he got was he got more aggressive at the point of attack out past the three point line early in Tatum's attack of the switch to disrupt rhythm, and you guys will see this in the video, but he immediately starts slip swiping at the ball, trying to poke at it, trying

to disrupt Tatum's flow. And then Tatum promptly gets sped up by that and over penetrates, goes past Garland into a bunch of help and missus a shot pretty badly in traffic. And again, like that's one of those things, like a lot of times, like, yeah, if you if you're giving up size and you just let a guy work down to whatever spot he wants and shoot over the top of you, then there's nothing you can do

that's going to make him feel uncomfortable. Right, But if you actually use your advantage, which is quickness and just being scrappy, maybe you can force a player to just make an uncharacteristic mistake, right, And that's the thing. Like, Jason Tatum is an excellent of one of the best half court shot creators we've seen in the league so far to start this year, and he did a lot of damage to you, But in a game this close, you made him make one mistake, and that one mistake

ended up being a big difference. Shout out to Darius Garland because, like again I'd like, it wasn't pretty all the time, but he did get a couple of big stops at the tail end and that ended up being enough for the Calves to get the win. Now, obviously it's a big win for the Calves, but I did think that they demonstrated a couple of their biggest advantages in this matchup, and the two biggest advantages that Cleveland has in this matchup are one, Boston's Biggs can struggle

to handle in pick and roll. To handle them in pick and roll, which is to be expected, right, especially when you're down bodies like that. It's just those are the easiest ways to attack. We saw a lot of two big looks in this game as well, and so Cleveland was able to generate great shots. The second piece of it is Donovan Mitchell is capable of out gunning a guy like Jason Tatum at the end of games.

But there are two big caveats right. Number One, Derek White and Jaylen Brown are both outstanding defensive players with a lot of length and quickness, specifically as athletes in rotation, and that's a big part of their ability to cover for Al Horford and chrisops porzingis it's just not going to be that easy when the Celtics are healthy. And two, it's one thing to outgun Jason Tatum one time, but it's different to do it four.

It's got like a dozen clutches cists as well, Like he's gonna win that matchup sometimes, so in addition to keeping games close enough for you to try to out execute them in those situations like yeah, like Tatum was a mislayup and like I said, maybe one of those corner threes going in away from that being a game that Boston won anyway despite being down Derek White and Drew Holliday or excuse me, Derek White and Jalen Brown because of the ability Jason Tatum has to play at

that level he's playing, I mean, and again that really, that really is why I still feel like Boston has a substantial advantage in this matchup. Like one, I don't think the Garland problem is going away, Like Boston just is going to be able to get them in rotation by attacking Garland. It's just gonna continue to be a problem. And I think it's a bigger problem for Cleveland than Cleveland. Attacking Boston centers and pick and roll is a problem

for the Celtics, if that makes sense. And then secondly, this is the best that Jason Tatum has ever been at basketball. He's up over a point per shot on pull up jump shots on a pretty large volume to start the season. It's the first time for a whole season he's been over one point per pull up jump shots since the twenty nineteen twenty twenty campaign. Like that, that's the type of shooting that we're getting out of him in a couple of like ridiculous off the dribble

jump shots. In that third quarter run, He's shooting a preposterous one point two to six points per shot in catch and shoot jumpers. That's just outrageous. Don't even know what to say about that. And his playmaking and overall feel for the game is the highest that I've seen

in his time in the NBA. You know, Like even when he was struggling last year during the playoffs, I kept saying that I just thought it was a slump, and most importantly, I said that this Boston team would likely be way better this year just on account of gaining a better version of Jason Tatum. And even what I anticipated from Tatum this year has not come close to the player that he has actually been. He's encroaching

on the top guys. For me, I don't think he's quite there yet, but he's close and on a roster this talented. It just doesn't matter with this version of Tatum, I'm having a really hard time even conceptualizing a team that has the juice to beat them. We're about to talk about Okay, see here in a minute, But to me, they just feel a lot like Boston a few years ago. There's a lot of bad process still taking place there

for them. On the offensive end of the floor, I don't think they're ready, And then the other teams in the league, I just don't think they have the talent necessary. So I've seen Celtics fans behaving very confidently, and they should. This is a team that looks to me like they're on a tier by themselves at the top of the league. Moving on to Thunder Rockets. Crazy late game sequences. Tied it one hundred and five late and the Thunder get it three out of case on Wallace on a tag

of Isaiah Hartenstein such just a basic ball screen. They tag Hartenstein cross court pass in the corner, knocks down the three right, but then the Rockets go to Shangoon in the post and case on Wallace right after making the big play to give him a lead, kind of over digs down. You gotta just kind of let Shangun go at hard and sign one on one when he's that far out, he was kind of like ten twelve

feet out. Overhelped kicks out to Fred van Vliet. He knocks down the three and now we're tied at one awight. Then both teams get offensive rebound put backs very different ways too, which was fascinating. Shay gets all the way to the rim and Dylan Brooks does a really nice job of pursuing over the top of the screen and gets a block on Shay, but it falls right back into his hands and he puts it back in.

against rim protectors. There's usually just like more athletes coming in behind them to finish up the play. Right, But as Hartenstein and and Shangun were both up at the level of the screen, Shane gun like ran right down the middle of the lane and got an offensive rebound put back, And I'm like, what the hell was Hartenstein doing? So I rewind and I watched the clip again. Hartenstein like veered way off to the right and like ran to the short corner for some reason, I couldn't really

figure it out. It it was like maybe he was trying to box out the guy crashing from the corner, but he wasn't in any real position to do that. So it was like a bad luck situation gives the Thunder an easy two, and then a really weird play by

Hartenstein ends up giving the Rockets an easy to. Now, all of a sudden, we're tied at one ten again, and then we got a really big play from Fred van Vliet Andrew Aaron Wiggins ends up iving a closeout off the left wing and he smokes the layup, but when he misses the leyup, Hartenstein comes flying in to

get the offensive rebound. He's trying to catch it and finish it in one fluid motion, but Fred van Vliet comes in out of that right corner and slaps down on the basketball and just forces Hartenstein to come down with it. So Hartenstein's thinking, I'm gonna get an easy offensive rebound put back, but Fred van Vliet just makes him come down with it first. And when he comes down, he's got so much momentum that he lands on the baseline.

So like just a little detail, just swiping out the basketball, making things a little difficult, a little bit more of an effort, right. A lot of players in the league just let Hartenstein finish that because they think the play's over. Little competitive burst there for fred van Vliet forces a turnover. Then on the next possession there's a jump ball late clock situation and Fred van Vliet literally hits like a forty foot prayer, kicking his legs as the shot clock expires.

Biggest shot of the night was really what kind of turned things around off the like literally off of a jump ball with like three seconds on the shot clock, just throws it up and it goes in. It's one thirteen to one ten. Then Dylan Brooks does a really nice job in ISO defending shake Yalders Alexander along the left wing and forces him into a tough step back three and he misses. But alprin Shang Gun is face guarding Hartenstein on the offensive glass, really trying to box

him out. Hartenstein just reaches over the top pitches it out to Kason Wallace on the right corner and he knocks it down case on Wallace a couple of massive threes that he hit. At the tail end of this game, we're back tied at one thirteen. As we go to the other end of the floor one thirteen, one to thirteen, Shang Gun slips on the ball like as he's trying to post up on a roll where he just kind of falls on the ground right and he's got the

ball in his hands. And another just like little detail, Dylan Brooks and shake Yalders Alexander are matched up in the left corner and as Shane Gun goes down, Dylan Brooks alertly just flashes to him to try to get the ball, and Shay is just a split second late react to Dylan Brooks's cut and so Dylan gets the ball from Shanguon and just turns immediately over his left shoulder, shoots a little ten foot fade away, and Shake gets back in the play and gets an okay contest on it.

But if he was sharper, if he was paying more attention, he would have taken that shot away.

They ended up playing the foul game, and the Thunder got like a prayer off that could have potentially tied it, but that essentially was the game and the Rockets ended up getting it. So again, a lot of times in a game like that, it's like a couple shots go here, a couple shots go there, and it's a different type of game, right, Like we're talking about a prayer from

forty feet from Fred van Vliet. We're talking about kind of a chaotic sequence where Upper and Shangun falls on the floor, right, So it's like it's kind of crazy. So I just kind of want to focus on the specific basketball that both of these teams are playing beyond the craziness of just that individual game.

level production, really greases the wheels for this team on offense. Now, they're fifteen points better per one hundred possessions overall according to Cleaning the last nine points better on defense, but they're also six points better on offense per one hundred possessions. Win Chenggoon's on the floor versus off and the main thing there is he's a perfect screening partner for Fred

van Vliet. He sets good hard screens. He has a good feel for when to rescreen or to slip out of his screen, so he's got good screening technique.

in the short range. And he's a three to one assist the turnover guy. So really really good ballscreen partner for Fred van Vliet. But he also can run offense out of the post and that was something that he struggled with to start the year, but he's really coming on strong as of late. The Rockets ran thirteen post ups through Shang Gun against the Thunder last night and

they generated seventeen points out of him. That's one point three to one points per possession, a lot of really good work, a key kickout pass to Fred van Vliet and crunch time out of the post that ended in a bucket. And again it's about distraction, like even on the play where he fell over kind of with his back turned to Hartenstein, just all eyes are on him and that's what opens up that cut for Dylan Brooks to come through the and get that bucket as well.

And then lastly, he's been one of the best offensive rebounders in the league this year. I'll brin Shangun has seventy four offensive rebounds. Only Musa Dibate, Ivi Kazubac and Yakapurtle have more in the entire NBA this year. He just snatched his fourth consecutive twenty point game. Now where it gets weird for the Rockets is outside of Shangun, nobody is consistent offensively like Jaleen M. Green has been

wildly and consistent. He has four This is crazy. I pulled the stat on Twitter earlier this morning, but look at the dispersion of the scoring for Jalen Green and for Fred van Vliet. Jalen Green has four games with at least ten points or excuse me, with less than

ten points. His four games with less than ten points, five games between ten and fifteen points, three games between sixteen and twenty points, five games between twenty and twenty five points, two games between twenty six and thirty five points, and two games with thirty six points or more. So it's like wild dispersion of production from him. Like he just had nine points against the Thunder, he had forty one the game before that, and then nine the game

before that. That's some of the wildest oscillation in production that I've seen. They got thirty eight points out of Fred van Vliet last night. He was amazing in that game, got timely dribble penetration, it's several huge jump shots late. But he also has crazy point distribution. He has four games with single digits, six games between ten and fifteen, five games between sixteen and twenty in five games with more than twenty. So your two best guards are like

feast or famine. On the offensive end of the four, Dylan Brooks is shooting the three better and he has some decent polish and he can make some plays off the bounds. A huge shot over his left shoulder in that game, but fifty three percent true shooting this season, and he can still make some really boneheaded decisions with the ball because he still kind of thinks he's better offensively than he actually is. Jabari Smith is starting to

shoot the ball better. He's fifty percent from three on five attempts per game over the last six games, but he's also had nine games with single digit scoring output this year, only six games with fifteen points or more. So he's inconsistent offensively. A Men Thompson and Tari Easan, they can provide some rim pressure, like there are moments where the Houston Rockets offense bogs down and someone like Tari or Men will just beat somebody off the dribble

and something good will happen. There's a lot of good that they bring there, but again they aren't high level shot creators. And then Raid Shepherd has been struggling. It seems to me in my time watching him on tape that he's struggling a little bit with the size and athleticism here in the NBA to get separation from people.

So like in the half court, they have no choice but to play through Shangun or through Jalen Green or Fred van Vliet and just Shangun is really really good, but he's not one of the you know, top level shot creators in the league. And then Jalen and Fred are just so inconsistent, Like it's that inconsistency from Fred and Jalen that gets them beat. Look at their losses this month, the Portland loss at home, Fred van Vliet and Jalen Green go for eighteen points on twenty seven shots.

When OKC blew them out earlier this month, Fred went four for nine. Jalen went five for fourteen. When Golden State beat them earlier this month, Fred and Jalen went four for twenty five from the field combined. So that's the main reason why I think the Houston Rockets are kind of like this season's surprise regular season wins juggernaut

that probably can't win their conference. We've seen this sort of thing a lot of times in recent NBA history, right, like young athletic plays extremely hard every single night and have good injury luck throughout the year, like that kind

of team. Right last year was Minnesota. They actually upset Denver in the playoffs, but then they ran into a team that could slow things down and protect the rim and then they fell apart, right Like, that's the thing, these young kind of inconsistent, limited shot creators that struggle with the surgical stuff you need to win three four playoff rounds.

good ball pressure, and physicality. Right and on the nights where Jalen and Fred can actually reach that star level offensively to compliment what Shane Gun does, they can even be at the elite teams at the top of the league. But I just don't think they have the consistent shot creation to even be a second tier contender for me. But I do think they'll hold their own near the top of the West standings throughout the year. And for

Rockets fans, this is not an insult. Yeah, I'm predicting you guys to win a lot of regular season games and then losing the first or second round, but this is part of the journey. To becoming a contender doesn't happen overnight for young teams, and it can happen overnight for teams that are built through things like you know, the Celtics make a trade for KG, they immediately go win the title. Lakers make a trade for Anthony Davis,

they immediately go win the title. The Bucks make a trade for Drew Holliday, they immediately go win the title. The Warriors make a trade for KD. They immediately go win the title. Like they're examples of teams that do that. But for the young teams that are in the development process, it's about steps, and the important thing to remember is

this is not the last step. There's a lot that happens from this phase where like look at Minnesota this year, they seem to kind of be struggling with the grind of the regular season. It's about like guys have to continue to develop in their skill development, right, they have to continue to get better year after year. You have to make the right tweaks to the roster. It's very possible that Minnesota made the wrong tweak to the roster

bringing in Julius Randam. We'll see in the long run, right, And so that's the thing, Like, what is this team's move eventually going to be? And like my guess is that they end up trading Jalen Green at some point. He just kind of strikes me as the guy that's kind of an awkward fit and most importantly, like he's the type of young talent that could actually help them bring in a super.

important thing. You know, Like you if you set a really good screen to free up your ball handler and he doesn't have to worry about the dude draped over his back, then he can comfortably operate in the mid range and he's going to be a lot better there shot making and playmaking out of it. But if the guys gets over the top of the screen and he's draped on his backside, he can funnel him into the help take away the shot making piece in the middle and make it easier for guys to stay home off

the ball. Setting really good screens at the point of attack for your ball handlers is a vital part of freeing things up for your offense. Something Isai Hartenstein is excellent at. He's an excellent defensive rebounder. The Thunder this season, when Isaiah Hartenstein is off the floor get just sixty seven percent of opponent's misses. When Isaiah Hartenstein's on the floor,

they get seventy three percent of their opponent's misses. Basically, the difference between being a batterybounding team and an OK rebounding team like a middle of the pack rebounding team is having Isaiah Hartenstein on the floor. He's also a good smart defender with good size and mobility to anchor their defense, but he does so much more on the

offensive end beyond the screening. In this Houston game, we saw him hit multiple back cuts where like he was at the top of the key and like Shay's driving. You know, Dylan Brooks has got his back turned to the ball and he's just holding on to Shae with two hands, and Shae could just throw a hard cut towards the basket and time can hit him on the bounce. Now it's like you just be It's the same effect as beating him off the driple because now you have

the ball and you're past Illan Brooks. That's an important part of attacking teams in space, right, having bigs that can make those backcut passes. Right, we saw him. We talked about, you know, those strong left handed drives. Like a lot of times, like Hardenstein's sitting there looking around and a team is just doing a really good job denying and everyone's glued up off the ball and there's

just a chasm of space around the rim. You had to play like that in the second half where he just hard drove left at shanegun and then spun into a right handed layup at the basket. That's how you capitalize on the space that's provided by everyone off ball being denied. That's an important part. And then he's a release valve when things stall out, he can flash to the top of the key, get the ball, and flow

into action on the other side of the floor. Oh like it's late shot clock, Well, he'll flash to the elbow. He had a play where he caught at the left elbow, so like sixteen sixteen and a half, seventeen feet away from the rim. Cott turned took one step in and shot a little like kind of thirteen foot floater that he made, by the way, thirteen for twenty two on floaters this year. That's fifty nine percent or one point

one to eight points per shot. As I mentioned, he's just a professional role player center and when you put him around elite perimeter talent like what Okayse has, he can push them to a special level. A couple other small bits on the thunder Kison Wallace I thought he lost contain on Fred van Vlid a few times in the clutch. Definitely not his best defensive game. I thought he overhelped on that Fred van Vliet three in the post as well, but he had a couple of gigantic

threes in this game to give Okasee a chance. And again, this has been an issue for OKAC this year, role players hitting shots, and Cassan has been off. A bunch of guys have been off. Those are some big ones and a good positive sign for the Thunder. Then Jalen Williams, He's been playing really well this season, but this was another game this year where I thought his decision making was a bit rough. He took some tough early clock jump shots, and then they had three or four plays

in the fourth quarter. The big one with Jaylen Williams that stood out to me in the Dallas series last year. He challenges rim protectors and a lot of times missus easy kickout raads, and he had three or four plays in the fourth quarter of that Houston game where he just drove into tons of bodies and tried to force stuff up. He got blocked twice at the rim in this one in the fourth quarter, missed a couple of layups too, and it's like, I think he could loosen

things up for himself. He's a good enough playmaker to see it. It's just a decision making thing, like he just has to be a little bit more willing to make those kickout passes. Everything about this Thunder team screams to me that they still lean another year to just kind of improve their experience and collective basketball IQ. But then I remember that they have Chet Holmer coming back, and that Alex Cruso will come back and he'll probably

play better than he did to start the year. They just have so much margin for error, and Shay is really that good, and so like, I'm not at the point where I as of right now, Boston to me feels like the clear number one, but I still have Oklahoma City kind of clinging to that tier just because of their sheer amount of talent, and I do think

they can play a lot better than they have. But like, again, every my basketball heart is screaming to me that Boston is just far and away the best team in the league this year, and that's kind of where I'm at right now.

on them. You can find that if you happen to have clicked on a breakout clip for the Power Rankings and you want to hear for the top four teams. Remember that's at the top of today's full episode. All lines and odds are provided by our partner DraftKings, just so you guys know. And then also, Lakers fans not gonna do any Lakers today because they play the Timberwolves tonight,

and we will talk a lot of Lakers tomorrow. So everything involving them in the crappy basketball they've been playing as of late, we will discuss in detail in tomorrow's show. But without any further ado, let's get going. The Golden State Warriors at number ten, an oh to three week for the Warriors losses to Brooklyn, OKC and Phoenix. They've lost four in a row. Overall, in their offense has just really fallen apart. They have one hundred and seven

offensive rating in the four game slide. Steph just hasn't been good. He's obviously a little banged up with the he's had some bilateral knee tendonitis. Twenty one points seven points per game on thirty nine percent from the field in this four game slide. Andrew Wiggins is scoring eighteen points a game, but he hasn't been very efficient. He's taken like seventeen shots to get those eighteen points. Kaminga's

been awful, but he's been fine. But he's just like the old buddy, who's a guy who can hit a couple of shots and make a couple of plays, but isn't good enough to really be an offensive hub. Brandon Pajemski is still cold, Lindy Waters has gone cold, Draymond Green hasn't been hitting the threes the way he did to start the year. Moses Moody is cold, and so obviously the Warriors have some offensive personnel limitations, but also, as I said a couple of times with other teams

in the last few weeks. Sometimes you just play bad basketball. Sometimes a team enters into a little bit of a funk and you just have to find a way to snap out of it. Part of the eighty two game journey is there will be three or four different times during the season where for about a week you play bad basketball and you just have to find a way to figure out what's causing it and snap out of it. And the thing is there's no relief on the schedule

right now. The next eleven games for Golden State at Denver, home for Houston, home for Minnesota, home for Minnesota, at Memphis at Minnesota, home for the Pacers and the Lakers, at the Clippers, and then home for Phoenix and Cleveland. Now, the thing there is a lot of home games, so specifically that three game stretch at home with Houston and two at Minnesota, two against Minnesota. That's a good spot

for them to ride their home crowd. You hopefully hit some shots and regain some confidence and play some better basketball. Gold State Warriors right now are plus seventeen hundred to win the title on draft Kings and plus nine hundred to win the Western Conference. Number nine. The Milwaukee Bucks

a light week for them. They went two to zero to extend their straight to six games that have won eight out of nine as well, huge road win in Miami where Dame just shot the ball so well that Miami had no choice but to double team him every time down the floor. And then AJ Green was the hero at the end of that one, made a couple of huge threes to beat double teams. They also defended extremely well as a team, and that's the really exciting

part if you're a Bucks fan. The Bucks are eighth in defense over the last nine games, up to fourteenth on the season, thanks to a renaissance from guys like Brook Lopez and Janis Antennacumbo in some really level of really high level perimeter defense from guys like AJ Green and Andre Jackson giannas Antena Kupo's averaging thirty five points per game over this nine game span. The Milwaukee Bucks right now are plus twenty two hundred to win the

title in plus one thousand to win the conference. Number eight the Los Angeles Clippers. Two and two week for them all over the place, Like they get annihilated by Boston where they give up fifty points in the second quarter, then they go blow out the Wizards in Washington. Then they lose an absolute heartbreaker to Minnesota in this rock fight of a game where they still had a chance to win late christn slips and loses.

But James Harden was a big part of that in his ability to raise the floor on the offensive end, and he was pretty inefficient to start the year, and they were just still winning anyway because he was doing enough and Norman Powell was so so so hot and they were defending so well. Now James Harden's breaking out. He had thirty nine to nine and eleven in the

win against Denver. In James Harden's last seven games, he's averaging twenty seven points, six rebounds, and nine assists on sixty two percent true shooting, and the Clippers are five

and two in that span. So, like, I know, this is a upfront I know this is a preposter is lee big if, But if Kawhi Leonard can rejoin this team and reach a superstar level, I do think they have the ability to contend for a championship because of their personnel strengths, because of the hard and fit as long as Kawhi Leonard can actually remain healthy through the end of the playoffs. At that level, this roster does have that type of talent, respectfully in the ways that

you need to get through this conference. A big body to match up with Jokich in the form of Zubas right perimeter talent, good secondary and tertiary shot creation with Harden and Powell. If Harden, if Kawhi Leonard gets healthy again, like that's the issue. Kawhi Leonard is the guy that gives this team a real upside, and it's just about whether or not even to get back. Now again, that's a preposterously big if. What do you think what do

I think is going to happen? I think Kawhi Leonard's not going to be able to get back to form, and the Clippers will have that ceiling that prevents them from getting there. But it's hard to not get a little bit of excited if you're a Clippers fan and if you believe in that, plus fifty five hundred to win the title, plus twenty five hundred to win the conference. So like again, if Kawhi gets back, they got a

chance to win the conference. So it's something to keep in mind in terms of the odds in the value there all right. Number seven, the Memphis Grizzlies four to oh this week, six straight wins overall, capitalizing on a stretch of week schedule. They beat Philly, Chicago, Portland, Detroit, New Orleans, and Indiana in the span. But starting to get some tougher games here in December. They've had the number one offense in the league over the six game span,

really balanced scoring. Seventy two percent of Memphis Grizzly baskets have been assisted over the course of the six game win streak. They're almost fully healthy now. Zaki's the main guy they're waiting on, and they're looking super deep with talent. But again, schedule's about to get tougher. They're at Dallas tomorrow night. They have Boston, Golden State, the Clippers, the Thunder, and the Suns all before the end of this month. So we'll get to learn a lot more about the

Grizzlies over that span. The Grizzlies are currently plus thirty five hundred to win the title and plus sixteen hundred to win the Western Conference Number six. The Dallas also a four to OH league. This team is one of the hottest teams in basketball right now. They've won eight out of nine and if not some really impressive wins one at Denver and at Oklahoma City in that span. Luca did not play in five of the eight wins,

including either of the Oklahoma City or Denver games. Over this nine game span, they are fourth and offense, seventh in defense, and second in net rating. They're playing with a lot of pace in transition in the half court, getting a lot of production down the roster. Kyrie obviously is awesome, but Naji Marshall has really taken off. Quinton Grimes is like shooting the seams off the basketball. Spencer Dinwoode has provided big shot making and he's one of, like,

kind of the underrated playmaking guards in the league. He's been doing some really high level playmaking in the stretch.

A lot of people were just like off of Dallas early in the year as they're trying to incorporate new pieces and Lucas clearly just banged up and not playing good basketball. I just thought it was way too early to jump off of them, like their team that we're going to see get stronger and stronger over the course of this season. The Dallas Mavericks right now are plus eleven hundred to win the title and plus five point fifty to win the conference. Some decent odds there to

get them to win the conference. Number five the Orlando Magic another four o week really light schedule, though they beat Charlotte, Chicago and Brooklyn twice last week. CACP, though, is back and starting to get it going for them. Seven three point attempts per game last week shot fifty four percent from three, and that's made a bunch of big plays at him. The Magic have won twelve out of thirteen without Palo. They have the number one defense

in the league over that span. In their twelfth in offense, some of the best offense we've seen out of the Magic in this era. And so I'll be really interested to see how they choose to reincorporate palavon Kara he comes back from his injury again, like he's too talented to just be like, oh, go stand in the corner and let Franz run the show. But got to find a way to make sure that you maintain this comfort, the level of comfort that you're seeing out of Fronds

over this span. And I think they'll figure it out. A lot of staggering, a lot of like finding ways to keep them both involved in the action. Jamal Moosey is gonna have his work cutout for him. But I think it'll be really cool to see. No way to look at that as other than optimistic that you lose your who I think is their best player in Palamoncaro and you go in a win twelve out of thirteen games.

the OKC Thunder. They are currently plus four to twenty five to win the title, plus two to ten to win the West. Number three the Houston Rockets plus five plus fifty five hundred to win the title, plus two

thousand to win the West. I actually like that number just because these West teams are so injury prone and really anything can happen, and also Houston could be potentially a team that makes an aggressive trade this year, So for them at plus fifty five hundred to win the title or plus two thousand to win the West, kind

of some interesting odds there. And then the Celtics number two plus two forty to win the title, plus one hundred to win the East, and the Cleveland Cavaliers plus fourteen hundred to win the title plus five point fifty to win the East. Again, all of those odds are provided by our partner Draft Kings. And then also really simply the reason why I put the Rockets over the Thunder. Obviously I think the Thunder are a better team, but

the Rockets won that individual game. For the purposes of our regular season power rankings, they get the edge for this week. Same thing goes for the Celtics. I'd pick the Celtics beat the Calves in five or six games that they played in the playoff series, but the Calves won last night, so we'll give them the nod for right now. All right, let's get into our film before

we get out of here for the day. If you're listening on the podcast fee and you're gonna want to head over to YouTube to see that part to actually get the visual representations of what we're talking about. We're going to head out to Phoenix to start and this first possession here is an ISO of Kevin Durant of Gary Payton. One of the things I wanted to talk about, do you guys, Remember how often I talk about attacking the base to disrupt rhythm rather than trying to contest shots.

I want to just play this in slow motion and then I'll play it in full. I'll play it in a fast motion first, and then we'll play it in slow motion. Watch the way Gary Payton is not so concerned about attacking up top to contest the shot, but rather to disrupt his base. See I was shoving on his body. All of that damage is being done down low, fighting down the leaning on him, shoving on him, and you can actually see KD get his power just disrupted in that lift, and that ends up causing the shot,

the shot to miss. I'm gonna play it in slow motion here. Watch again how aggressive he is attacking the base, leaning on him, pushing, leaning right there. That little shove there caused him to lose balance and then he ends up taking a really tough fallaway and missing. I've always believed small guys in mismatches don't try to contest, Especially professional shooters, find a way to disrupt their rhythm down low.

This next clip here very very impressive defensive possession for the Phoenix Suns Warriors post splits right so we're gonna go to the block. Watch the attachment off the ball. So we have Booker on Moody, we have Royce O'Neil and Buddy Healed. Watch the attachment here. Royce O'Neil stays through boom switch stay attached, Chase over the top, attached from Monty Morris. Take away that three in the corner.

Kaminga has a chance to attack, but Ran Dunn contains. Now, all of a sudden, there's two seconds on the shot clock and you have to throw up a heavily contested, really really high level defense there from the Phoenix Suns. Obviously, Ryan Dunn's been getting a lot of the hype, but also A Gadaro has been playing really really well as one of the backup centers for Phoenix. I thought this was a really smart step up screen right here. Watch how Kevon Looney is running really hard as his back turn.

Agdaro sees an opportunity to get Devin Booker a quick shot, but Kadawi just gives a little shove to Looney and to sprints into his screen.

have all the space in the world. It's a runway. Throw it up, boom dunk. Easy stuff there. One of the things I've been talking about, by the way that I put in my notes Obi Toppin in Indiana, Remember that was how Obi Toppin like kind of reinvigorated his career. Was like he just figured out how to time baseline cuts perfectly and made himself a real threat in the weakside corner as a vertical spacer out of those situations. That's that athletic spacing. It's a different type of spacing,

but it is a form of spacing. One of the things I've talked about a lot for the Suns this year is how good their closeouts have been. I want you guys to watch Grayson Allen on this one again. The closeouts are everything because they're the ability to get into the paint and help while also maintaining your contained on the perimeter.

good driving kick possession for the Suns. It's gonna start with Devin Booker on the strong side of the floor, but it's gonna work its way back to Devin Booker and the driving kick, so it just beats his man off. The dribble brings all these bodies into the paint right, So just dribble penetration our kick to the corner here. All we're gonna get is a quick dribble handoff. Agadaro gets a little bit of contact there that allows him

to slip the screen as Looney shows. Now we got our four on three right, here's our four on three kick out to Royce O'Neill. Swing over to Monti Morris. There's the rotation off of Booker's man. Now Booker gets a wide open three in the corner out of it. So again it's all about advantage creation and advantage extending. Devin Booker creates the initial advantage. Right, there's our initial advantage. Agadaro's job here is to extend the advantage. The way

he does that is through a quick dribble handoff. Hey, I can't actually do anything with this, but I can get you more open. Oh wait, now I've got two on the ball. So now we went from Devin Booker driving as the early advantage. This is a bigger advantage. Now this is a four on three. Now it's about decision making. Buddy Heald is playing this two on one, but he's closer to Grayson Allen than he is de Royce O'Neil. If he throws this ball to Grayson Allen

might not end in an open three. For your best shooter makes the kickout. Now we have the two on one working back over to Devin Booker. It's all about advantage creation, advantage extending, and making the right decision for the kill pass. Kevin Durant's been just having an unbelievable defensive season this year. I thought he was incredible in this possession, helps at the rim twice, beats Looney there on the slip. Another drive from Lindy Waters contains him

dribbles out. Now it's an ISO, so he's shut down two actions at the rim. Now we're in a late clock situation with four point six seconds left and just completely smothers Lindy Watt like actually literally smothers Lindy Waters and just takes the ball away from him, like child's play over there.

off of a ball screen with Isaiah Hartenstein. That's all the action is. The only difference is after kaseon Wallace sets the pin down, he runs through off of this exit screen from lou Dort. So again you can see Case on Wallace set's the pin down, Jalen Williams comes up, forces the switch. Here's our ball screen. The two things I want you to watch. Don't even worry about the ball screen for a second. Up top here, Dylan Brooks, because he's guarding Shake, kills Alexander's face, guarding him out

of the play. And now I want you guys to watch Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Junior. And what they do is Lou dor and case On Wallace run this action.

and it ends an easy dunk. Watch it again again as Jalen comes off, watch the two help defenders immediately get occupied. Now we have our simple drop coverage. Hartenstein gets behind. That's the value of offball action. It occupies help defenders. Here's an example of the waves of athleticism that Houston can bring. This is just a little semi transition drive from Dylan Brooks misses it, gets in the lane,

but then you got this Stephen Adams size advantage. He stabs at the ball that gets it to a Men Thompson who lays it up bucket. That's not any sort of surgical offensive process. It's just waves of athleticism. Watch it again. Dylan Brooks hard drive, misses the shot, Steven Adams stabs at it, a Men Thompson is the bigger, better athlete, grabs it and finishes a bunch of just

size and strength and athleticism advantage in that one. Here's the exact same action that they started the game with that I showed you guys pinned down, Jalen Williams comes up ball screen exit screen. This time Jabari Smith sees it coming, but by the time he sees it coming, Isaiah Hartenstein already has a head of steam and it's just too late boom, And once again you're kind of dead to rights because it's like lou dord is setting

this exit screen. So if Jabari Smith just overplays that, Jalen Williams has an easy kickout past to Aaron Wiggins here in the corner. Here's an example of Isaiah Hartenstein creating dribble penetration just through backcut. So again, look at this, Hartenstein catches Dylan Brooks is top blocking, so he's denying Shay Gilders Alexander the ability to go get this dribble handoff. So the way you counter that is back cutting, and the only way you can counter it with back cutting

is if your big man can make the pass. This time, Shay Gilviss Alexander makes the right read. My man is full deny, I'm just gonna cut. And by the way, if he's grabbing and holding, if you cut hard, you'll draw the foul as the ref season holding you. So it's like the right decision to just cut out of this. Hartenstein hits him, they get a layup out of it, easy basketball that Isaiah Hartenstein unlocks with his passing ability. Here's an example of Isaiah Hartenstein with all off ball denial.

So again Lou Dort again is running that action. Off of that, jenlel Williams has the early transition drive. It gets pitched to Lou Lou drives. Here's the release valve. Right, there's fifteen seconds on the shot clock. The play is contained, everyone is guarded, so we need to find a way to reinvigorate the offense. Well, Isaiah Hartenstein will do this all the time, where he'll just flash, He'll flash up high and he'll be like, all right, I've got the ball.

Now there's twelve seconds on the shot clock. Let's get back into our offense. And so usually what he'll do here is try to then get the offense flowing back this way. And so I think this is Jay Dub up here. Yeah, so j Dub is gonna come off of this dribble handoff right, But Jabari Smith does a good job chasing and it's not open. It's not open, but everyone's glued up. Jabari Smith is glued up, Fred Van Blid is glued up. Dylan Brooks is kind of in help, but he's not in a strong position. Jalen

Green's on the weak side. So Hartenstein just turns and goes spins. He's got Look at all the space. He's got all this space because they're not respecting him. They're worried about this whirling dervish of action that they have going around him. Right, this is where Isaiah can look to attack, gets an easy layup. Here's another release valve possession, this time that it happens later in the clock. So

again early clock. Okay, nothing's there, right, Jadub Drives gets contained all right, So we need a release valve just to keep the action running. Okay, Isaiah Hartenstein is gonna fly flash now once again.

it was super fascinating down the stretch. But this one is transition cross match, so Darius Garland ends up picking up Tatum just because it's in transition, so it's no real screening action to get there. But watch how Tatum just kind of easily methodically marches down and gets to that like little fifteen foot jump shot. Easy work there. That's where he felt most comfortable. You can also see too,

as he's attacking, notice where the help is. Like if he tries to really drive to the left, Donovan Mitchell will engage now and then he could make a kickout potentially, but then he could also lose the basketball. He's purposefully working in this range because this is where he can get away from the help. This is a big way that the Celtics were getting or that the Caves are attacking the Celtics on the offensive end in this game,

just attacking porzingis in a deep drop coverage. Good ball screen set on Drew forces him to go under a rescreen, gets into the lane, Porzingis is a bit too far back, works into the floater, so this time they run the double drag that ends up in a couple switches right. So Tatum switched on to Garland, but then he goes off the second screen. Now Garland's on Porzingis, so now we're gonna try to throw it to him at the elbow right, creates the angle, does a good job fighting

that front by creating a passing angle there. A coorro comes over to help. As that double team comes, Houser relocates up a little bit higher on the wing. This is where I was talking about Sam Houser just like staying super cool, calm and collected against a passing lane close out. So a lot of times in these two on ones on the weak side, this guy will just close out to the passing lane to try to bait on this guy's indecisiveness, because if he passes to Drew Holliday,

he's in the passing lane to intercept it. If he just pump fakes and does nothing, your team has a chance to rotate. Right if he shoots it, it's the same problem that you were giving up. If you give up a shot anyway, right, so this passing link closed out. Really smart play from Donovan Mitchell. But Watchhouser just completely ignore it. Watch how like calmly he just pass fakes out of it. So Porzingis creates the passing angle on Garland.

There's the pass double Watchhouser and watch how calm he is pass fake easy shot, just ice in his veins under pressure. There another transition cross match right, so misshot. Everyone just gets back and grabs a person that's relatively close. In this case, Coro ends up picking up back here or Lavert ends up picking up back here. So Garland's on Tatum straight up, same sort of thing, left shoulder fade again, that's a tough shot, but a couple of

big details here left shoulder face. But look he goes right up and down. Okay, so he barely fades because he doesn't need to because he's got size. And look at how close he is to the basket. This is a ten foot shot. Like, yeah, technically a left shoulder fade is a tough shot for a right handed player, but not when you have that size advantage, when you don't fade that much, and when you're that close to the rim. That was where He looked really comfortable in

this game. This is that switch interchange that I always talk about. So here comes the screen, and then right in the interchange, right before the switch actually takes place, he rises into the shot knocks it down. It's also like a twenty nine footer, so that's pretty tough to guard under any circumstances. Really nice skip pass and pick and roll here from Tatum basic. Here's our low man right as the ball handler. You're typically watching this guy the most come off of the screen. He helps easy

swing across the court. Peterson knocks it down. Drew Peterson, by the way, eight points and four rebounds, twenty five minutes. Not a bad night for him. Another little fadeaway jump shot, this time against Donovan Mitchell, who does a really good job fighting over the screen. The entire possession. Once again just kind of methodically works into that space. You could tell that was where he felt most comfortable, in that short fadeaway range. All right, here we are in crunch time.

Inside five minutes, we get a ball screen. Garland is on the switch. He's gonna beat him off the dribble. When he does, he draws Jared Allen in help. We have our week side two on one, Tatum's eyes are on Hawser, which forces Merrill to commit no look past, generates the opening for Horford. Again, look at Tatum's eyes. Tatum's eyes create that opening, doesn't actually look at Horford until the ball's out of his hands. That was one of the two wide open corner threes that Horford missed

down the stretch of this game. Really big play from Isaac Occory here. One of the things they were doing. Again, We've seen this with the Celtics a lot. Put Tatum on your center, put Al Horford on your weakest above the break shooter. In this case, he's guarding a coral. Tatum stays home on Allen, look at Al Horford, Al Horford, and so it's a kind of like a Spain pick and roll, right and roll. Merrill's relocating to the top.

Horford has contained which allowed Hawser to stay attached. But the prices you leave a coral wide open knocks down the three. Big time shot this time another switch attack of Garland in the short range. Get him on the switch.

Notice one of the big differences I want you to pay attention to here compared to the big stop he got late watch how Garland makes no attempt to disrupt Tatum's rhythm, so he's just letting him dribble comfortably, letting him dribble, work him down, work him down, easy shot. You'll notice on the stop that Darius Garland does a much better job attacking the pocket and disrupting Tatum's rhythm. Little transition cross match here Tatum ends up on Lavert.

This leaves all guards guarding the Spain pick and roll at the top of the key or the double drag in this case, no ut stack because he's trying to backscreen for Jared Allen. Either way, though, because Tatum's not on Jared Allen, they have a post mismatch, so they throw the ball to Jared Allen against Hawser. But now Horford just got burned by a coro on the previous a couple possessions earlier, so he doesn't feel comfortable committing.

Jared Allen gets the end one all those like little details. Cora doesn't hit that shot. Horford probably just hard doubles there, right alrighty, another switch onto Darius Garland. Garland gets a little more aggressive here, not at the start, but you watch him reach a little bit right here pokes at it a little bit, but at this point Tata just kind of methodically works him down and hits that little

right shoulder fade away again, right shoulder step back. I should say this was a tough shot, late clock situation they try to run with Allen. Ball gets swung back to Mitchell. We're down to seven seconds on the shot clock. A Korra runs in in screen, so it's like, all right, Donovan's gonna have to ISO. Let's at least have him ISO, a lesser defender than Drew Holliday gets Houser. This is honestly a really good defense, but like, look at this

shot boom, that's a really good defense. He just stuck it because he's a star and that's what he can do. Now, Jason Tatum has been torching the Garland double teams, right, So I skipped ahead in this possession because it's an offensive rebound. This is our double team, right, So two on the ball on Tatum, Prichard is the kickout gets a decent look from on like a little twenty seven footer, right.

But the key here is in rotation, right, because we put two on Tatum, which ended up in three players on two Celtics over here above the break on the right, Donovan Mitchell runs over to box out or to deal with Al Horford in the right corner, and Jared Allen is dropping to potentially deal with Drew Holiday right. See what does that leave Chris tops Porzingis on a wide open rim run, gets the rebound kick out. Prichard makes

the pass to Drew Holliday underneath the basket. So again, if you watch this in full speed, I'm not gonna stop it. This is a Tatum double team that ends in a layup, even though it won't show up as an assist for him because Porzingis got an offensive rebound out of the chaos from the Calves being in rotation. Two on the ball, kick two on Pritchard, easy offensive rebound, swing, swing layup. Here's the action that the Calves were getting good stuff off for Garland at the end of the game.

Just basically anything that had Porzingis involved. Porzingis at the level that means an easy slipice. Notice a Korro's not even trying to set a screen, He's just trying to slip. Look see pushes off Slipcord did this twice in the crunch Time did a really good job on both. Tatum has to step up, Horford has to sink right. That makes Mobley the kickout. Mobley catches Drew Holiday rotates that leaves Donovan Mitchell wide open.

But again watch watch right as Drew Holliday gets Drew Halliday's got his head and his body turned. He's prepping for this screen. It's trying to get that top foot over the top right. That's right when Donovan Mitchell crosses over. That's the beauty of it. First of all, this is why this job is so damn hard. Like I talked about earlier in the show, it's the hardest thing that any NBA guard has to do, and it's one of the hardest defensive jobs in the sport. You you have to stay in front.

comes Pritchard to get Garland. Now watch watch seven seconds on the shoclock. Garland immediately picks up Tatum. Reach, grab his arm. We're gonna reach again. Reach, swat, swat, reach, We're being aggressive and it forces him to speed up. Then he over penetrates into all of this help and forces up a bad shot. The only bad shot that Jason Tatum took in the fourth quarter of this game, because you sped him up, because you made things more difficult.

And in this case, Darius Garland, who had been getting cooked, finally decided to show some fight on a switch, fought really hard and aggressively sped Jason Tatum up and forced to miss Reach Reach again.

step up. Forford has to step up, Porzingis kind of commits to blocking a Korro that leaves Mobile in for the dunk. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with a breakdown of a couple of good Monday night games as well as some more film.