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restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. Terms at sportsbook dot DraftKings dot com slash Basketball terms. All right, welcome to Hoopsinaight here at the volume, Happy Monday, everybody hopeful. If you guys had an incredible weekend, we have like a ridiculously packed show today.
We're gonna be hitting on four games from last weekend, the Lakers getting a roadwin over the Caves, the Philadelphia seventy six Ers getting a roadwin over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Orlando Magic continuing their dominance with a win over the Boss Celtics, and the last but out least, the very interesting game between the Pelicans and the Clippers that
took place on Friday night. And then after that, we're gonna every Monday from this point forward in the season, we are going to do an edition of Power Rankings. So we're gonna have this week's edition of Power Rankings at the tail end of the show. You guys are the joke for you get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel would mean a lot to me if you guys took a second to scroll down and hit
that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever each your podcast under Hoops Tonight, follow me on Twitter Underscore Jason lt I'm doing film sessions there every morning, as well as posting show announcements. And then, last but not least, we will continue our mail bag later this week, not today, but we're gonna do plenty of mailbag questions throughout the week, so keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. So starting
with Lakers Calves on the road in Cleveland. The Lakers are going on a tough road trip here. They played in Cleveland on Saturday night. They have the Sixers tonight, a little bit of an easier game against the Pistons coming up, and then they have to go on the road to OKCE. So a big opportunity for us to learn more about the Lakers. In the first game went
extremely well considering a lot of specific factors. Lebron played one of his worst games of the season, particularly in the second half, made a lot of bad decisions on offense and missed a lot of shots, and yet they still were able to overcome that and win, thanks in large part to Anthony Davis got back on track in a big way offensively. You know, Anthony Davis specifically in the post this year is flashing a lot of stuff that is more similar to what he was in the
twenty twenty season when the Lakers won the championship. It's a shot creation piece that's so important with Anthony Davis for him to be as good as his peers at the top of the league, because we talk a lot about the offensive fluctuations, but they don't properly factor in
his defensive consistency. Because even a bad defensive game from Anthony Davis is still very good compared to the standard of a typical NBA drop coverage big right, and so he's kind of oscillating between good and great on that end. So even though we're talking about some inconsistencies on offensive end of the floor, he still has been consistently dominant
on the other end of the floor. However, there's a difference between what the guys at the very top of the league can do and what AD does, and that offensive consistency piece is the one thing that's really missing from him being with those guys. The AD that we knew in the bubble, the AD that led helped lead the Lakers to a championship. That guy is a bona fide top tier superstar. He has not been that consistently
since then. And one of the most important parts to that, in my opinion, is that half court shot creation piece. And specifically, if you guys remember in the Nuggets series last year, Jokic put A basically outclassed him as a shot maker in the sense that he could make all of his little floaters and push shots and hook shots and jump shots. Right now, Anthony Davis has more or less abandoned his jump shot, but there are a couple
of specific things that are coming around. He did hit a short pocket pass jump shot in the fourth quarter against the Cavs, the same shot that he missed a couple times against Dallas. That's a good sign. He had three hook shots that he made in the second half of this game, including a huge lefty hook drop stepping towards the baseline over the top of Jared Allen. He is now twenty for thirty on the season on hook shots. That's sixty seven percent. That's Jokic territory. That's a big
deal because he has such a high release point. And I clipped all three of his hooks and post him in the in the film thread this morning, and you could see the release point. It's super high. It is. It's different than Yoka. Jokic is more powerful, but with AD's release point, he's capable of getting to that shot all the time. And if he can hit it at that rate, that's a big deal. And Anthony Davis post up this year, including passes, has been worth one point
one seven points per possession. That is by far his best in a Lakers jersey. He's never crested one point one in his time wearing a Laker jersey. Now, again, we're still in this first fourth of the season, right, But so far in the early going in the season and him being able to knock down that hook shot, he's been really good at making skip passes over double teams. Did it multiple times against the Cavs on Saturday Night.
It's been something he's been good with all season that in particular, has allowed Anthony Davis to be a much more reliable post up weapon than he's been in years past. In a Lakers jersey. Nine players in the league this year have logged at least seventy five post ups. Anthony Davis is third on that list. Pascal Siakam is first. Obviously the Raptors have been so bad we haven't had too much time to talk about them. But he's having
a good season in the post. And then second is Jokich, and then it's a D and then from there's a massive dropoff in efficiency and beat his fourth in a post up from him, including passes, has been worth just one point zero three points per possession. So among the high volume guys, there's like three guys ahead of the rest of the league, and AD is in that group. Why is that important? Why am I harping on that
specific point? Because that half court shot creation piece. I took a look for you guys at three specific flaws with this Lakers team that were problematic. One, they did not have a backup center that they could play in the playoffs. It was a huge problem, especially in the lebron on Anthony Davis off minutes this year because of the emergence of Christian Wood and Jackson Hayes being a better backup center than anybody they had last year. Now, the ady off Lebron on lineups have been good and
they have guys that can play in that spot. That's a huge positive trend for the Lakers. Right. The second piece was backcourt athleticism in point of attack defense, right, which is all kind of part of the same thing. Right, Obviously still a problem this year, but you know the emergence of Max Christi, who was amazing in that Cavs game, the emergence of Cam Reddish this year as a perimeter defender. That's helped them within the concept of the regular season.
I still think they need to make a trade to address that specific weakness. But if you guys remember the third biggest weakness that I pointed to was there over the top shot making, which is late game situations. What happened to them every game against Denver, close game in the fourth quarter, Yokichen Murray outshot them most game in the fourth quarter, yo Kitchen Murray outshot Then it happened again and again and again in that series, literally all
four times. And so what they've needed is Lebron to be able to knock down jump shots and for Anthony Davis to be able to score in static half court situations in the post eighties hook shot being as dialed in as it is, and Lebron James jump shot being as dialed in as it is. Even after last night, he's still at right about one point one points per jump shot. Those two trends are very positive trends for
this Lakers team. That's what makes me believe they've If that trend continues through the season, that checks the over top shot making piece. That's the type of shot making they needed to win in twenty twenty, and that would work again. The backup center piece is solidified. It's really just that perimeter athleticism piece that they're going to have
to solidify now. Max Christy again is an example of a regular season you know, solution for that problem is individual defense, not just in this Donovan Mitchell game against Cleveland, but also in the gaming inst Stallus. He had several very good deal defensive possessions against Kyrie Irving, sliding his feet, contesting shots, you know, just doing his job at the point of attack to be disruptive. And I thought he did an amazing job against Donovan Mitchell, a much better
job even than he did against Kyrie. It's the unique combination of the lateral quickness to stay in front against good athletes, top tier athletes, the strength to be able to absorb contact in the chest when you do beat players to his spot, and then third the length to bother a pull up jump shot. There were two pull up jump shots from Donovan Mitchell in the crunch time portion of this game where he tried to drive by Max.
Max took contact in the chest, offered a late contest and forced him into misses, which is the best you can hope for against the best guards in the league. And when you can disrupt their rhythm and take away the easy stuff they get, you can get them to miss a few pull up jump shots in a row, and that can go a long way, right. I thought a shot selection was really good in this game. Again, offense is a huge part of that role as well.
He only took two of what I would consider to be tough shots, and it was that step jump shot over Donovan Mitchell, then the second step back jump shot that he took. I want to say, I want to say it was over Lavert. I can't remember exactly what was, but it was the mid range one, and both of
them were clock running down situations. That's the thing. Take your wide open catch and shoot threes, drive closeouts when you can, and then if the ball ends up in your hands with five seconds left on the shot clock and there isn't time to get the ball somewhere else, that's when you start practicing and demonstrating that you have the ability to do additional stuff off the bounce. Early in the season, I thought he was forcing things a little bit on the offensive end of the floor, trying
to demonstrate what his work was this summer. And I'm not debating whether or not that work was there, or whether or not he's capable of that kind of stuff, but it's better to ease into it through rescue possessions and then slowly earning cachet with the staff and with your teammates to be more aggressive from there, but really
encouraging game from Max Christy. And again, like it's one of those things where I would tell you, like Lakers fans, if Max Christi or Cam Reddish is starting for you in the playoffs, I think that's a huge problem, not because those guys aren't capable, but when you really put together what you expect from a veteran player in a big spot in a playoff series, and everything we know about young players in the playoffs, I'd rather have both of them coming off the bench in that type of role.
As someone who roots for the Lakers, That's just my kind of take on the whole situation. So I want to be careful about like promoting it as a postseason fix, because I don't feel that way. But within the context of the regular season, especially when Jared Vanderbilts out, especially when Gave Vincent's out, having guys like Max Christy and Camp Briddish being able to defend at the point point of attack the way they do really helps you in
the dregs of the regular season. Lakers seven to two in their last nine, fourth and defense over that span. Fourth and rebounding over that span. That's a big deal for how much they struggled on the glass early in the season. And more importantly, they're starting to beat some good teams. They've won three of their last five against
winning teams. Both of their losses were on the tail ends of back to backs, and one of them was the MAVs game where they had a two point lead in the final minute, so kind of pointing positively for the Lakers. Now, Jared Vanderbilt's coming back. Ry Hot Chimura should be back before too long, Gave Vincent should be back before too long. A lot of things pointing in the right direction for the Lakers. On the Calves, I wanted to hit two specific topics. One Mobiley in the
short role. He was awesome in the second half of this game operating out of the short role, making that lob pass to Jared Allen. The Lakers did to Mobili what every team has done to the Calves since the Knicks kind of demonstrated it as a strategy to beat them in the playoffs, which is put your best rim protector not on Mobiley guarding pick and roll, but put him on Allen and basically have him split the difference between the two and pray on Evan Mobley's inability to
make shots over the top. Evan Mobley's a good passer, but if you bait him into shots, he can struggle there, right. And one of the things he did really well in this series at this game, after struggling in the Knicks series, was getting the ad to kind of bite one way or another and then making reads. There were three buckets that he got that he directly generated on the short role in the third and fourth quarters of this game.
One of like one of them was eighty steps up lob pass to to Jared Allen for the dunk the very next time they ran that action. And again, what you're seeing is you're seeing like whoever the foreman is, if it's Lebron or if it's you know, Jackson Hayes or Jackson haz is functioning as the as the five next to Adbad's in that dunker spot role. Right on those possessions. What they're doing is they're sending the second defender up and just banking on Ad getting a stop
in a one on two situation. And on the next one, you know, because Evan Mobley had just thrown that lob up to Jared Allen, AD kind of takes a step back and that was what allowed Evan Mobley to attack his chest and get that and one at the end of the game that brought him back within one point.
I think that got it too, like one twelve, one eleven, right, and then again in the final minute after Evan Mobley had just scored on Ad By attacking his chest and pump faking and getting the and one Ady stepped up again and he was able to throw the lob pass for the easy dunk to Jared Allen. You guys get the drill. That's a specific dynamic that the Caves need as many reps for Evan Mobly as possible, because that specific dynamic, to me, matters just as much as the
spot up shooting from the three spot. Right. I mean, like, don't forget last year the Calves still had the ability to throw Carris Lavert at the three and run Garland Mitchell Lavert with Allen and Mobley, and it still wasn't enough to get them over the top against the Knicks. It's not just about those three guys. It's about the offensive dynamic between the two big guys. And then lastly,
Craig Porter Junior. I familiarized myself with this game for the first time while I was out of town for Thanksgiving on I think it was like Monday or two. I think it was Tuesday night. They played the Sixers, if I remember correctly, and beat them in Philly, and that was my first time kind of watching Craig Porter Junior. And then this was my second time in this Lakers game, and he's been really really good to this in this stretch here while they've been dealing with some injuries in
the backcourt. Sixty three pick and rolls so far that Craig Porter Junior has run for the calves, leading to eighty three points. That's one point three to two point possession, which is insane. He's fourteen for twenty six from the field when he personally shoots out of pick and roll. He's ten for twenty one on pull up jump shots so far this year, and he's shooting seventy percent at the rim. And you know, it's weird because, like, if I had to describe how he's having this kind of success,
it's difficult to do. So he's playing like a big guard in the sense that he's slow motion, great at leveraging his size when he gets angles, great at using bumps to generate contact, operating really close to the rim. But he's not a particularly big guard. He's like six one six y two. He's got like a six to four wingspan, and he's a good athlete, like he's a good leaper and a pretty quick and good start stop quickness, but not like any sort of top tier athlete or
anything like that. He's out there just methodically getting buckets. And if I had to kind of put a you know, cause if you if you go back and look at his numbers at which to state he was a seventy second percentile pick and roll guys, he's a good pick and roll player, but he's blow point for possession. But in the college game, it's just more crowded, it's harder
to score. So that's an important context there. You don't have guys just lighting it up and pick and roll in college there, but still at that level seventy second percent tile fifty percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots, at which Tah very good at the rim while he was there. So like he's basically just a better version of himself. It's so far in these small samples in the NBA. Why is that? I don't
you know. The best way that I could try to describe it is to say, I feel like the NBA game because of the increase in spacing as virtue of just more offensive skill on the court. Right, Like, I've been watching a little bit more college basketball this year just because the University of Arizona's team has been a
team that I'm particularly excited about. And every time I watch college shops, it's like an iore to deal with the just the sheer, Like there's just not anywhere near as much ball handling and shooting on the floor as you see in the pros, and so it can get really kind of like stagnant, and it's like watching a rock fight every single game, right, especially with how hard the teams are playing on the defensive end of the floor.
But like what I'll end up happening in a lot of these cases is like some guys get to the next level and that additional spacing and freedom to cook, so to speak, actually suits them really well. And I
think Craig Porter is one of those guys. I think he's one of those guys that's like, shit, I got all this room, and like I'm getting a good matchup, you know, because Donovan's getting getting a better matchup, you know, or Darius is getting a better matchup, and like, I have this space to work and they're guarding me with traditional drop coverages and he's just getting to his spots and knocking down shots. It's very old fashioned big guard stuff.
A lot of like short pull up jump shots, a lot of short you know, bankers and floaters and stuff along those lines. He's been really really impressive here again. Eighty six points on eighty three points on sixty three pick and roll so far this season. That's outstanding stuff. Calv's got a big bounce back win against Toronto after their loss of the Lakers. They're seven to four in their last eleven eleventh in defense and offense over that span. All right, moving on to our next game. The Celtics
and the Magic. Bunch of guys missing from this game. The Magic were missing Wendell Carter Junior and Marco Foltz. The Celtics were without Drew Holliday and the Chris Topsporzingis strained his calf muzzle and missed a good portion of this game. But the story of this game is that the Magic did to the Celtics what they've been doing to everyone all season, which is just physically bullying them
at every level of the game. During the third quarter, run a lot of Palo and Franz attacking the smaller Celtics guards in cross matches, in transition or just in guard guards screens or guard forwards. Screens to get switches, and that both of those guys are just so good at playing and leveraging their size. Palo's got a little bit of that Lebron like full court post up thing going on, where he'll just like rip through to one side and when he gets cut off, he'll just spin
back the other way. When he gets cut off, he'll just spin back the other way. And he's just so damn big and good at protecting the ball, and he's got all those little pop shots in the lane. And then he's also a pretty good passer for a young post player, which is rare to see. And then you know, obviously with Franz Vagner, it's a little bit more of a perimeter like shot creation type of piece, a little
bit more perimeter oriented. But both of them were killing the Celtics cards and switches and cross matches, and then in the fourth quarter that both of them were just attacking Luke Cornett. The Celtics were doing a ton of switching in this particular game, and they were switching Cornett onto Palo and Franz at the end of this game, thinking oh, size for size, right, But the thing is is like Palo's as big as a center and so, and Franz has like got a plays really big for
a perimeter player as well. Not as big as Palo, but pretty big as well. And you know, it's like Franz has got Cornett on the left side of the floor against a switch and he just gets a little bit of an angle on the left side, and then he just beats him all the way to the rim and makes that right handed layup on the left side of the rim pallow same kind of thing, just like a left or right crossover to get just a little
bit of separation. And then he's so much he's every bit as big as Cornett, so he just goes right through him all the way to the basket towards that right side. And like that's kind of the unique exciting piece of what makes this Magic team so good is it's like they are kind of set up to win rock fights with their ability to attack matchups, and then in the physical areas of the rock fight, they're gonna
kill you. They're the only team in the league right now that's top five in both defense and in rebounding, and when you combine that with high level point of attack defense and just kind of like a power, downhill offensive game. They're just a big pain in the ass to play against. That's the phrase I've been using a lot this season, and it's just that's what it's like watching watching teams deal with Orlando on a night in, night out. Basis Mo Wagner was a hero in this game.
I think he had like twenty seven points. He was killing them in the role. He's very good at protecting the basketball. When he's doing is like power moves towards the basket. So like he'll catch the pass in the pocket and you'll see like o shapers set recover back in front of him, and he'll just drop that shoulder and tuck it far back to protect it. And then after he's created that space, he's going right up to the rim to finish. He had several buckets in the
role in this particular game. He's been one of the ten best role men in the NBA so far this year, one point three to three points per possession, shooting sixty four percent out of thirty seven players the log at least twenty five rollman possessions. Wagner ranks ninth in efficiency right now. Hit a couple of huge threes in this game as well, a big one in the corner in
the fourth quarter. He just brings like another layer because he's another guy who just plays with a lot of straight line power and he's coming off the bench for this group right Cole Anthony and pick and Roll, I've been really impressed with him. The Magic are doing a lot of similar stuff that you're seeing around the league. One of those sets that everyone in the league is running right now that the Kings in particular are just
absolutely killing everybody with this set. But like teams are just coming up and setting like a bracket screen, they
starting like a horn set. They'll have shooters in the corners and they'll have you know, your primary ball handler up top, and they'll basically come up and screen both sides of the ball handler way far away from the basket, like thirty thirty five feet away, And what they'll do is they'll have one of the role men roll in the other guy pop and essentially it just generates confusion in the pick and roll coverage because it's three man actions.
Three men action in particular are just harder to defend because they're always coming from different angles. You don't know who's popping you don't know who's rolling all that kind of stuff, right, And Cole Anthony had a lot of success in Pick and Roll, not just that, but also Spain pick and Roll. There was a possession where I clipped this and put it in the film thread where Caleb Houston set a perfect backscreen on Al Horford, which put Jason Tatum in this awkward position where he's guarding
Caleb Houston. And so now Horford's out as the screen roll the roller defender. So now Tatum's back and he like is like a I don't know what I'm gonna do, And so he ends up recovering to the big man and leaves a wide open lane for Cole Anthony to go to the basket and get a bucket on Peyton Pritchard.
Just in general, Cole Anthony brings kind of like a out of all the backcourt guys, including Markel Foltz, he's their best like live dribble shot creator, and so in a lot of cases he ends up being the guy they lean on a lot to create offense and slow down half court environments. And he's done a really nice job there this year. Caleb Houston plus fifteen and nine minutes without taking a single shot. Excellent at the point of attack at a big steal that led to a
runout lay up. At the end of this game, attacking the glass, he had a big offensive rebound at the end of this game. I thought that was a good shift for him. Orlando has won seven games in a row now at twelve and five, they now have the third best record in basketball. They are twelfth in offense, fourth and defense, and seventh in rebounding. Over this seven game stretch, they are six and four against teams that
are five hundred are better. They are five and three on the road, and over the stretch they beat the They have beat just over the course of the season, They've beat the Celtics, the Nuggets, the Lakers, and the Bucks. So of the six teams that I started the year with as top tier contenders, they've played five games against them and they've beat They've gone four to one of those games, and the one they lost was to the Lakers, which they avenged when the Lakers went to Orlando and
beat them. And like I said, twelfth in offense, fourth and defense, seventh and rebounding over this seven game span. But they are the only team in the NBA for the whole season that has top five in both rebounding and defense. They are four real. They are not going anywhere. They've arguably been the most impressive team so far in this regular season in terms of winning relative to what their strength of schedules has put in front of them. The Celtics this game got away from them quickly. They
were up twelve early in the third quarter. Orlando really took advantage of their front line with Porzingis out, Like we talked about, really attacking Al Horford and and Luke Cornette in space. It's a bad matchup without Porzingis and Drew Holiday because it's such a physically imposing team. Shot selection did become an issue in that third quarter run. It's a lot of the same stuff I've been talking
about all season. Like Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum both took a couple of really tough pull up jump shots. Like Jaylen Brown like barely grazed the front of the
rim on one. Jayson Tatum took like a really tough right shoulder fade away Derek White and it's the whole team, but like a lot of these guys, they just get they're just too quick to take that type of three right, Like there was a play where, you know, Derek White comes flying off a screen along the right wing and rises up off the catch and knocks down the three,
and it's tough shot, like really a tough shot. And on the very next possession, he just jacks up a transition pull up three on the left wing because he's like, oh, I'm hot now, So it's like I'm just gonna take this. And it's like there should literally never be a possession where Derek White just runs up the floor and takes a transition three in the first five seconds when you've got Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown on the floor. It's
just you can get a better shot. It's one thing like if you've made several in a row, you made one really tough movement three. He kind of going to his right on the right wing, and then it's like showtime. I'm going for this. Al Horford has been you know, he's been better this year on his pull up jump shots, but or on his spot up jump shots, but he's
still zero point nine to six points per jumper. And that dude in that second half against Orlando, if he saw this much space, he was rising up and firing early in the shot clock. It's a lot of like taking good shots and not hunting great shots, and that specifically kind of calm pounds because then it gets like when you have turnovers and quick shots that just feeds
the offensive rhythm. For Orlando, the best way to disrupt rhythm in your opponent is to slowly execute on offense because if they have to, if they have to defend for twenty seconds, that will disrupt their offensive rhythm. If they defend for eight seconds and get a long rebound or a turnover off of a quick three or a bad pass, they're running down the other end with their athleticism and they're feeling themselves and they're playing on that energy.
And so again, like it's a nitpicky thing with the Celtics, but it is a reality. Despite all that, though, they've still won eight out of ten and they still have the best record in the league. And yeah, so if the Celtics are still amazing, and they're gonna be really high on my power rankings, as you guys will see very soon. All right, moving on to sixers Thunder, I thought the biggest thing that stood out to me on film in this game was just the impact of Phillies
perimeter size against Oklahoma City. Now again, you gotta think because shape lit them up in the first half, but they held Shade a three for eleven shooting in this second half of this game, And a big part of it was like a steady diet of big bodies. It's like Robert Covington's guarding him, Nick Batoom's guarding him. Both those guys are six eight, right, Like you've got Tobias Harris guarding him in a lot of possessions. He's six
to eight and strong. You've got like d Anthony Meltin is like the one smaller guy that he's going against, and d Anthony Melton is a good athlete with decent length for the backcourt position, right, And so one of the things you see, you'll see like Shae is a guy that loves to get to spots kind of in that short to mid range and take little shots over the top, which he can really kill undersized guards with. But against bigger wings, it's a little tougher for him
to get those shots off. And I thought they did a really nice job of defending Shay at the point of attack, forcing him into these tougher kind of contested step backs. He wasn't making the tough ones. And the dead giveaway that he was having an effect on him is he started pump faking a lot and started trying to foulgrift a lot, which is a dead giveaway that he's starting to get frustrated in terms of just trying
to generate his own shot. But it was a really good defensive effort from Philly forcing him to three for eleven shooting. Again, that's that's the way you have to beat Glahoma City because you got to keep them out of rotation. As soon as Shay starts drawing multiple defenders, you're screwed. Because every other guy on the floor is such a good ball handler, shooter and passer that like
they can drive and kick you to death. So like it is vitally important to contain the ball against Oklahoma City to keep them out of rotation, because a lot of these guys, you know, are not as good when they're facing a set defense, When everyone's looking at them and the help defense is loaded up, it gets harder. But those guys, when they have an advantage, can really
kill you. And so I thought that was the kind of the genesis of their third quarter defensive run that they went on Tyres max He poured in another twenty eight points. He's up to twenty six, five and seven on fifty nine percent true shooting this season. He's one of only eight players in the league averaging over six assists per game and fewer than two turnovers. Now a little trivia here for you guys. Eight players over six assists less than two turnovers. Take a guess. It's Daron Fox,
Malcolm Brogden, D'Angelo Russell, Dennis Schroeder, Fred van Vliet. Shout out Fred van Vliet. Nine assists and one point six turnovers per game this year, Spencer Dinwoodie, and Chris Paul. Those are the eight or the seven, with Tyrese Maxi making eight. The only two on that list that are averaging over twenty points per game are Dearn Fox and Tyrese Maxi. So Tyre's Maxie is one of only two players in the NBA averaging at least twenty points, at
least six assists, and fewer than two turnovers. Really high level half court basketball from him. He had this. I clipped this play and put it in my thread, But he hit this like really tough pull up jump shot going to his right against lou Dort, hesitation on the left side, that dribbled through the legs, hard explosive move to the right, left right takeoff against lou Dort, who's been one of the best perimeter defenders in the league this year, and just rose up over the top of
him and knocked it down. And so I wanted to pull up his ISO numbers one point one points per possession in ISO. That's up from zero point eight three last year. So in this big test of how Tyrese MAXI can handle being slotted as like your primary perimeter initiate, he's basically knocking it out of the park in another like wild finish and pick and roll where he got lou dorton trailing position and he had shake gild justs Alexander come help from the baseline side and chet from
the top side. He was completely sandwiched, took contact, flipped all the way over on the other side of the rim, and scooped it in with his left hand. I'm like, this is this is RIDICULOUSI there's like only a handful of players in the league that can do this right and That's what kind of gets me excited because we talked about the perimeter defense and Batoum and Covington have played a significant role in that so far, and they've
really beefed up some of their role player depth. And now what gets really exciting is, like you upgrade one starter position at the deadline. Now, Maxine Embiid is enough, you know what I mean? I'm not sure if it's going to be enough as currently constructed. And we've seen that they've struggled a little bit in a recent schedule. I think they've lost four out of six if I remember correctly, against some tougher teams, and a big part of that is they need just that little bit more firepower.
But it's not because Tyree's Maxie isn't capable of it. It's just going against the best team in the league, you just need to have another guy, right Like who's the Who's the Austin Reeves to the Lebron and ad in this situation? Right Like who's the KCP or the Michael Porter Junior to the Joki Cha Murray. Who's that third, you know, kind of firepower piece in this lineup? And Tobias Harris is having a really good season, but I'm
not sure he's necessarily that guy. I think I think they need just one additional really damn good player that can either slot between Tobias and Embiid or slot between Tyres and Tobias that like, and just kind of push them over the top in that sense, because right now, it's kind of similar to what i'd say with the Lakers, where it's like where it's like, Okay, if you're playing next Christy in the spot in the regular season, that's fine, but not sure if I love that for the postseason.
That's kind of how I feel about how they've been randomly trying, Like they'll try Covington in the starting lineup, they'll try Bomb in the starting lineup. It's like, which of these guys do you really feel comfortable about in a playoff series starting against a really really good team,
you know what I mean. And so, but the important part to get to that point is MAXI needed to demonstrate that he could be a perimeter initiator at the top level, and he's demonstrated that, and so now it actually looks worth it to kind of go all in with this roster. And I think it's something they're gonna have to do anyway, just based on the fact that Embiid's kind of getting a little restless in general with the UH, with some of the issues that they've had
over the last couple of years retaining talent. All right, onto the Thunder. So my theory so far this season about their struggles against big teams. I've talked to you guys about this, the few times they've talked Thunder. They're really really good in every single way except for their one of the very worst defensive rebounding teams in the league, and in general have struggled really bad against size. And so they were out rebounding in this game forty nine
to thirty eight. They gave up seventeen offensive rebounds, they gave up twenty one second chance points. They fouled the shit out of him Bead a million times, send him to the foul line twenty one times. And so I want to I want to take a look back at their schedule to see if my theory kind of bears fruit.
So these are the teams that I put on their schedule that I would list as either like normal sized or small, but certainly not like physically imposing huge and that's Chicago, Portland, Golden State, San Antonio, Phoenix, Sacramento, Atlanta, Cleveland, and Detroit. Cleveland's got two centers, but they're both kind of thin, so they're not super physically imposing, and they're
not very physically imposing in the back court. So like, there are a couple teams on there that have some big guys, like Golden State with Loony Andraymond can be physically imposing, but overall as a team, they're pretty small. I would still put those teams all as I just wouldn't classify any of those teams as like really big. Right.
And then the three really big teams they played are the Nuggets, the Pelicans, and the Sixers, right, Aaron Gordon and nicolea Jokic, Zion Williamson and Jonas Valentiunas and then Joel freaking Embiid, Right, and these this how those games went. They got in the Nuggets game, the Nuggets shot sixty percent, they scored seventy two points in the paint, and absolutely
demolished the thunder in Oklahoma City. Against the Pelicans, they gave up twenty two offensive rebounds and lost at home in Oklahoma City, Right, Sixers game, gave up six seventeen offensive rebounds. Since of this sent the Sixers to the line forty five times, gave twenty one second chance points, and lost at home. And so like it's not nothing,
it's something worth focusing on. I don't even really necessarily think it's a short term problem because I don't think this team has winner go home, you know, or winner winner fail type of expectations this year, but in the coming years. You know, that's kind of what I see is the major need of this team. Because Chet has been awesome. He was incredible again in this game, thirty three points on twenty one shots, second time in the last four games that he's had at least thirty points.
He had five threes. He was beaten help from the wing with above the break shots, He's beaten switches with you know, good strong moves to get closer to the basket. Chet's awesome, but like he's gonna get bigger, but no matter what, like you can't just march out a bunch
of a bunch of smaller players next to him. And again like Josh Giddy's six's eight, but he's not super physically imposing, right, like Jalen Williams is basically playing the four for you right now when he's healthy, and Jalen Williams is sixty six, right, So like at a certain point, you need to have like that Aaron Gordon archetype, that that big six nine six ' ten forward that slots next to Chet in a bunch of different ways, right, because that's what would allow you to potentially put him
on pick and roll ball screens so that you can keep Chet as the low man in a lot of situations or run him as the low man next to Chet. That's what allows you to have extra size and athleticism on the back line, cleaning up the glass and cleaning up and help situations when Chet gets pulled away from the rim. These are all important elements to defensive rebounding and protecting the rim. And they just don't really have
that archetype of player. And I don't think it's a coincidence that they've literally been eleven and two against the rest of their schedule, dominant against the rest of their schedule, and then the three times they played truly massive front lines, they've gotten handled and really struggled in kind of similar ways. In all three of those games, something to keep an eye on in the big picture. Again, I don't think it's necessarily a problem for this year. They are not desperate.
They don't need to move everything to try to make it happen, although you know, with how many assets they have, I would argue it's probably worth doing anyway. But it's just something to keep an eye on in the coming years. All Right, our last game before we get to our power rankings. Pelicans Clippers. Now, both of these teams have since played played an additional game. The Pelicans lost to the Jazz, and the Clippers had an impressive win against
the MAVs. But my wife was working on Saturday and I covered. I did a deep dive of this game, did a bunch of film, and I've learned a bunch of stuff about all teams. I want to talk about him a little bit. So Pelicans have won five out of seven, even including the Jazz loss. Their top ten in offense and defense and rebounding during that span. There are sixth in defense over that span. And this is
where I want to get into this because CJ. McCollum, as Sham's Shrania reported today, should be coming back soon and one of the big you know catalysts of this particular run that the Pelicans have been on is dice and Daniels has taken CJ. Mccollins' starting position and there's sixth then defense over the seven game span, in large part because of what he can do at the point
of attack. He's kind of similar to that Max Christy archetype is in that like six six sixty seven range, good strength, outstanding lateral quickness, really good motor, excellent navigating screens, all the stuff that you look for in a point of attack defender. And he just did an unbelievable job on James Harden in this game, just fighting over the top of screens to making things difficult for him and
pick and roll. The few times that he ended up having to io him at the end of a shot clock, he couldn't even get separation against him and was forcing pretty ugly misses from him. He was just amazing in this particular game at the point of attack. What's super interesting about that is because he's been so good, it's created an easy role on the back line for your help defenders and brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson. Because when there's good ball pressure, it's much harder for the ball
handler to pick you apart. It makes those skip passes tougher, it makes those pocket passes tougher, right, and you know, it's creating a job that two guys that have been pretty bad help defenders over the course of the last couple of seasons have been playing really good help defense as of late. I clipped a bunch of examples of
this in my Pelicans Clippers thread. Zion Williamson just in the second half of this game blew up three pick and rolls as the lowman just by reading plays well, kind of splitting the difference between the roller and the weakside corner and getting deflections with his athleticism. A couple
of them led to runouts the other way. It was one of the best help defense games I've ever watched Zion Williamson play, which is saying it's significant for a player who has been a pretty bad defensive player, brandon Ingram. It's a different kind of style because he's got more length lengthen you know, ability to kind of bother shooters, right. But he what he does is a really good job of is when the pass gets to the role man
and he's the low man. Again, when I'm describing these health defense possessions, we're talking about the guy who's not in the pick and roll, but on the backside. So the ball handler's coming off of a screen, the screen defenders up high, they're bringing valent Chuna is pretty up high to the level of the screen because of how good
they've been in their health defense as of late. And so what ends up happening is whether that's b I or Zion or both, on the backside, they're basically dropping down and having to kind of like quart or like play kind of strong safety, free safety, whatever you want to call it against multiple offensive threats, the roleman coming down the lane, the shooter in the corner, the shooter on the wing, and a lot of times you need
to kind of split the difference. B I does a really good job of this, or like the roleman will have the ball and he'll kind of like split the difference between both guys and kind of prey on their hesitancies, especially against the Clippers team that had some guys that you know, don't necessarily like to take catch and shoot jump shots, right, and if you can do that, that stops the chain reaction, right, Like if you if you can get a shooter to hesitate, that buys you time
to recover out of that kind of situation. And then he just has longer arms than Zion, so you can like bother that pocket pack. Like there's a play at the beginning of the game where the pocket pass came into Zubac and be I like come down and just swipes down to the basketball, which causes Zubac to like kind of fumble it a little bit. Then as soon as he swipes down, he recovers out to the corner. Zubac throws the pass to the shooter in the corner.
Bi's already there because he bought himself time to rotate by disrupting the pocket pass. And that's the key disruption at the point of attack. Disruption in the pocket make easier rotations. And that's where like Dyson, Daniels and just all three of these guys kind of working in concert.
Herb Jones obviously is the best perimeter defender on the team, but we already know that about him, so we're focusing on things that we're learning about the team, right, But like that kind of dynamic all those guys, if all three do their job. That goes a long way towards defending those actions without giving up wide open threes. But
it requires every single step of that chain working. I think that that specific combination of Dyson Daniels at the point of attack with Zion and Bi doing a really good job and help has been the catalyst behind their really strong defense over the seven game stretch. Zion was really good in this game offensively. PJ. Tucker got couple of stops on him and then he kind of figured
him out. The thing that Zion does that that's kind of underrated is he's really sharp with his offhand ball handling, and so when he gets in traffic, he can hit these hard in and out dribbles and hard spin move dribbles with his offhand, which frees up the ability for him to quick gather and shoot his little left handed floater in the lane when he gets cut off to his spot, and when he spit, he can spin really hard out of the right hand, which just sets up
that hard left handed move towards the basket right and he absolutely killed the Clippers down the stretch of this game. Herb Jones what made three massive offensive plays down the stretch of this Clipper game, hit a huge pull up three over PJ Tucker came off of a guard guard screen. There's a switch, PJ Tucker switches on to him, plays way too far back and he just like confidently steps into a pull up jump shot knocks it down second time that season this season that he's made a pull
up three. Then after that there was a play where he ends up running a ball screen with Jonas and he's on the left wing and he's got the ball and PJ is icing the ball screen right. So a lot of most teams will ice side pick and rolls, And what that means is essentially, if the ball handler's on the left wing and the screeners trying to get him towards the middle, the on ball defender role basically jump high side and force him to reject the screen.
And then you'll see the big man drop further back into the lane and they're basically conceding anything to the role man to contain the ball handler. Now, should you do that to Herb Jones? Probably not, but it's in the scheme right, and Herb make Herb. I should say I was corrected by Pelicans fans that I keep messing that up. Herb identifies that Pj's doing that, waits for PJ to jump to the high side, hits him with
like a hard fake towards the screen, gets downhill. Zubak is there, but he just goes a long step into his chest and then finishes outside with his left hand. It's like a really high level move in pick and roll to get a bucket in crunch time of a highly contested game. And then lastly, on that left wing, there was a play where PJ Tucker or excuse me, Paul George got kind of sucked in in nail help and he made him pay with that above the break three on the left wing. It was really impressive fourth
quarter offensively from Herb Jones. Jordan Hawkins over the weekend, including the Jazz game, scored eight more points flying off of off ball screens. He is now an off ball screen shot attempt for Jordan Howkins. So just imagine him flying off of some off you know the week side, you know, wide pin down or something, either taking a pull up three or curling around it. On those shot attempts, he's getting one point three to five points per possession,
shooting sixty six percent in effective field goal percentage. Twenty three players in the NBA this year have logged at least twenty possessions off of screens in his one point three to five points per possession ranks third Anthony Ewards' first, steph Curry's second, and it's Jordan Hawkins. So that movement shooter piece that they invested in in the draft is
really working out for them so far this season. On the Clippers front, a couple of specific things that stood out to me on film, catch and shoot guys just being a little hesitant in this with the stars. So like there's this concept of like advantage creation and play finishing, right.
I always talk about the list of responsibilities that a basketball team has to fulfill on a basketball court, and like, if you it doesn't do any good if one guy creates the advantage and then let's say Kawhi makes a move and draws multiple defenders and makes a kickout pass to James Harden who's standing wide open on the on
the left wing. If he doesn't shoot that shot and instead waits for the defender to close out and then he decides to initiate offense, that completely is a waste of everybody's time and effort, because what's the point of advantage creating an advantage if the next guy is just gonna wait for the defense to rotate so that he
can create an advantage. Everybody in this system is going to be in more play finishing possessions than they're used to because you've got all these shot creators, so everyone's gonna have to get better at operating more off the ball. And there were way too many possessions. And it's weird because I'd argue that Kawhi and h and James Harden are probably your two best, you know, catch and shoot guys, and they're they are the hesitant ones among the stars.
Paul George is a good shooter, but him and Russ are definitely the third and fourth best catch and shoot guys on the team. And literally they're like hunting shots and being super aggressive and that just doesn't make any sense. I mean, PG it does, but for us, it doesn't make any sense. You need James Harden and Kawhi Leonard to be aggressively hunting their catch and shoot opportunities because
they're great shooters. And if I can get a wide open catch and shoot three even a kind of open catch and shoot three for James Harden or Kawhi Leonard. That's about as good a shot as you can get on a point per possession basis, and they have to be more willing to take those shots. Clipped a bunch of examples in my thread of that game of plays where they generated an advantage and then it just James Harden was just pump fake at a ghost and then
the advantage is gone. And it's just like that to me, is because the Clippers are fifth in defense right now. They had another defensive masterpiece against Dallas the other day. All of their switchable defenders. It's making it a pain in the ass for other teams to score a lot of really positive things there. But the offensive end is not living up to what it should be for all the offensive talent that they have, and a big part of that right now is hesitancy from the stars and
catch and shoot situations. Paul George attacking the room. Well, his rim finishing and attempts are up, but and that's important for the record, and I like it when Paul George is driving, but he's making some poor rim decisions. There were two plays in the second half of this game where he tried to dunk on everybody, and like, don't get me wrong, those are cool highlight plays. And when you have an opportunity to dunk on someone in
a pickup game, go for it, man. And I'm not saying you don't ever do it in an NBA game, of course you do. It's an important part of that, you know, kind of like physical aggression that you want to play with as a basketball player. But on both of these plays, he miss wide open shooters, and they they were dunks that were extremely high degree of difficulty, Like it wasn't PG over Birdman, Like I am so far above the rim and he's completely hopeless and I'm
just punching it on his head. That's not what these were. These were like in traffic, multiple bodies, full ex extension, barely getting to the rim, trying for like the supreme highlight dunk while shooters are open. And that's the rim
decision thing, especially with this team. It's one of those things where you don't want to fall into the Celtics problem where poor three point shot selection and poor rim decisions can make a great offensive team into one that is capable of these long extended droughts, and a big part of that for the Clippers right now is like everyone just needs to make better rim decisions. Right everyone needs to be hunting those wide open catch and shoot
opportunities and taking them when they're there. Russ, you know, he had a really good bounce back game against Dallas the other night, and this Pelicans game, he's really bad. He's struggling with the minutes restriction. He's shooting just fifty five points six. I shouldn't say minutes restriction, with his minutes getting cut down as a result of him going to the bench, but a couple of specific things that
keeps shouting to me off of film. He's still missing so many layups fifty five point six percent in the restricted area out of seventy six players to attempt at least four per game. He's ranked sixty seventh inefficiency. A bunch of key layups that he missed in the second half of this game, and it always ends in floor balance issues. When a guard smokes a layup, it fucks up your transition defense, which can cause all sorts of problems with the team running the other way. That's why
these can be such damaging turnovers. And then there was a stretch of this game where the Pels were basically because the Clippers ran PJ. Tucker and Russell Westbrook at the same time, and that is a very interesting defensive lineup, especially when you're switching everything. But the Pells were basically just ignoring both of them and it was causing a lot of problems for them offensively. That's been kind of
one of the subplots of the season. It's like the spacing hasn't been as good as it could be because teams are willing to concede threes to Terrence Man, they're willing to concede threes to Russell Westbrook, They're willing to concede threes to PJ. Tucker. Obviously, you don't have to guard Zubaca on the perimeter, and if you close out short on Kwi or PG or excuse me, KOI or James Harden, they'll probably pump fake at you and look to try to generate some sort of pull up jump shots.
So like, there's a lot of ways that you can slow down the Clippers offense just by kind of gumming things up in the paint and ignoring hesitant shooters. Right, something to keep an eye on for them offensively moving forward. They did bounce back against Dallas, though again I watched this game. What was it on Saturday or Sunday night?
I think it was Saturday night. This is the perfect matchup for them, and by the way it's shown in the standings over the last few years when Kawhi is available to play for the Clippers against Luca and the MAVs, the Clippers are nine in two and obviously they've won both playoff series against them, So this is a matchup they've always dominated. And it's not hard to figure out. They can switch everything. They have switchable defenders. They actually
have with Russ and PJ. Tucker. They have like this and Terrence Man. They can be like super switchy. And there are versions of it where it's like it's Kawhi and it's Paul George, and it's PJ. Tucker, and it's James Harden and Terrence Man, and it's like James Harden is the one guy you want to attack there, but like the one thing he holds up pretty well against is a power player, right, And so it turns into one of these things where it kind of plays into
Dallas's weaknesses. Which you can see the shot attempts. Look at Dallas's shot attempts in that game. Luca twenty seven shot attempts, Kyrie twenty two, and Tim Hardaway fourteen. No other player on the MAVs attempted more than five shots. The ball's not popping around. It's not classic beautiful MAVs
offensive basketball. They just switch and force yout to iso and that's how you get forty nine shot attemps out of Luca and Kyrie, except for all of them are against good perimeter defenders, and so they're gonna make some shots. You know, Kyrie made half of shots, Luca not quite half, but like in terms of a points per possession basis, they're not very efficient. And that's how you end up pretty quickly being stuck in a bad offensive game like that.
And again, Clippers fifth in defense this year, and specifically, the reason why this matchup is good for the Clippers is Dallas doesn't have the physical size to make the Clippers pay for being as small as they are. As I've talked a lot about, the Clippers small lineup is
a little smaller than it used to be. By getting rid of all their six to eight guys, and so as a result, like you can actually beat them up on the glass and cause some problems for them with their lack of size, but Dallas is kind of incapable
of inflicting that. So if they can bait Dallas into their worst offensive tendencies and then on the other end of the floor be able to consistently matchhip attack against their weak perimeter defenders while not getting beat up in the physicality areas of the game, it's just really hard
for Dallas to win that specific matchup. And I mean, you know, we saw Russell Westbrook attacking Luka Doncic and making all those plays and talking all that shit, and obviously Russ is very performative with that kind of thing. And I mean it's classic Russ to play like really poorly for like two weeks and then have a good sequence and then talk a bunch of shit. That's just Russell Westbrook in a nutshell that said, like, He's right,
that's the way you beat them. You have to consistently attack Luca, try to fatigue him, attack the weak perimeter defenders wherever you can switch and stagnate, stay home off ball to stop them from getting the easy kickouts for threes and force them their primary shot creators into tough shots and you can beat them that way. And that was how the Clippers beat them the other night. All right,
let's move on to our power rankings. So this is gonna be a little different than what we did the first time because I want to do power rankings every single week and I'm just gonna rip through them. We're not gonna do long blurbs. We're just going to update the rankings with a quick readthrough of the ten teams at the beginning of every week on Monday. So and again, this is my power rankings are more regular season focused. The contender rankings, that's playoff focused. This is power rankings.
We're just looking at who's playing the best basketball right now. Number ten the Los Angeles Lakers, their first appearance in the Power rankings this season. They have the fifth best net rating in the league since our last addition of power rankings two weeks ago. Today. They are also up
to ninth in defensive rating. On the season. Since November tenth, which was about two and a half weeks ago, the Lakers have not lost a game unless it was on the tail end of a back to back, including quality wins over the Houston Rockets, and then two quality wins on the road versus the Phoenix Suns and the Cleveland Cavaliers. They are coming into a couple of tough games right now. They have Philly tonight on the road, Detroit on the road,
and then Oklahoma City on the road. If they can get back on that from that road trip at three to one, which means that they can get one of the Philly OKC games, I think that's a huge win for the Lakers. My guess is that they lose to Philly tonight and then they beat Oklahoma City, who struggles against really big teams, which I think the Lakers will be able to inflict on them. Number ten, excuse me,
Number nine the Dallas Mavericks. We wanted to see how they'd fare against a tougher stretch of their schedule, and it hasn't gone well. They did have a nice win against the Lakers in La on the butt. They were on the tail end of a back to back and it required a game winner from Kyrie late. And they've lost four out of six overall. They got destroyed by the Clippers, destroyed by the Kings. They lost at home to the Bucks, and they got destroyed by New Orleans.
But despite all that, they still have the ninth best record in basketball and they are the fourth best offense in the league right now. Number eight the Oklahoma City Thunder. They're a really good team with one fatal flaw. They're too small on the front line to contend with huge,
physical teams. That said, they are eleven and two against teams that I don't consider to be particularly big on the front line, They've been dominant and basically every facet of the game except for the defensive, rebounding piece, and on the scoreboard against those particularly big teams. They are one of only three teams in the NBA right now that are top ten in both offense and defense, though the other two teams are ahead of them on this list.
Number seven, the Philadelphia seventy six Ers a little bit of mixed results in this stretch of their schedule. All these teams that are in this section of the power rankings, it's been a mixed bag over the last couple of weeks, but all of them are playing tough stretches of their
schedule and playing good teams. That's to be expected in the league this deep but in this stretch for the field for the Sixers, they beat the Thunder in Oklahoma City, they beat the Hawks in Atlanta, and they beat the Pacers. Impressive wins, but they also lost to Minnesota, lost to Cleveland, lost to Boston, and lost to Indiana in the nd season tournament game on the second night of that the
two game and three nights set. They are the third best offense in the league right now, and the defense is starting to take some strides and I'm really enjoying what I'm seeing from their big perimeter defenders, and then Tyres Maxie obviously looks incredible. Number six. The Denver Nuggets, they're just floating the ship right now with Jamal Murray out with injury, and they've faced a particularly tough part
of their schedule. In this recent stretch. They've been on a five game road trip where they went one in four, again mostly against good teams. All all four of the losses against good teams, and again without Jamal Murray. It's just tough to win those games. But still eleven and six, still one of just three teams in the league that are top ten in both offense and defense. It is the Thunder and the Nuggets, and then the Boston Celtics,
who are further up on the list. They're still the defending champs and Jamal Murray is on track to return very soon. Number five the Milwaukee Bucks. They're seven to one since our last set of power rankings, but they're not playing great basketball right now. If you go through their last ten games, they barely beat Portland, came back from down twenty four in that game, barely beat Washington, then they got soundly beat by Boston. Then they beat Washington,
beat Dallas. That's a good win, Dallas good team. But then they beat Charlotte bad team, beat Toronto bad team, beat Chicago bad team. Then they lost to Orlando and lost to Indiana, both good teams. Over the last ten games. It's been a lot of bad teams and then basically three losses one in three against the good teams that they faced over the last ten over their last ten games.
That said, still seven to one since our last rankings, and I mean really just a fortunate team in the sense that they're not playing very good basketball right now in the defensive end, and they're still figuring some things
out from a chemistry standpoint. But because the league kind of front loaded their schedule with an easier stretch of games that gives them time to figure things out and then hopefully they'll have it together when they get to the tougher stretch of their schedule, and they have been one of the very best offenses in the league so far this season. Number four Sacramento Kings. They've won seven of their last nine games. They're ninth in offense, tenth
in defense. Over that span, they blew out the Wolves in Minnesota, they blew out the MAVs in Dallas, they blew out the Lakers in LA, and they beat the Calves in thunder at home. They have been probably the most impressive team other than Orlando over the course of the last two weeks if we look just strictly within that two week window. They did have two road losses against New Orleans. Just had a hell of a time stopping Zion Williams and they're just not really equipped on
the front line to deal with him. Number three the Orlando Magic. They've won seven in a rows and serve five and five start. They're six and four against winning teams, four and one against my top tier contenders. Again, like my top tier contenders were the Nuggets, the Celtics, the Bucks, the Lakers, the Suns, the Warriors, and now Minnesota have added to that list, and they've gone four and one
in those games. Their one loss was to the Lakers, and they turned around and beat them revenge style at home. So they've been really, really impressive to start the season. They are also the only team in the league in the top five in both defense and rebounding. They have been the most physically imposing team in the league so far in the regular season. Number two the Minnesota Timberwolves. They took a bad loss at home to Sacramento, but Sacramento has done that to a few teams this year.
Like I said, Sacramento's just been on this run where they're just kind of beating the shit out of good teams every once in a while. I think they they've been running that bracket pick and roll that I've been talking about, where they put Darren Fox like thirty feet from the backs. Two guys come up and set ball screens on either side, and like Harrison Barnes is usually in there as the guy who can pop and shoot, and it's just really freaking difficult to guard and teams
haven't really figured out how to stop it yet. But yeah, So the Timberwolves took a bad loss at home to Sacramento, but they've been the most impressive team in the West so far. They surrounded that Sacramento game by coming right back, and they won three games right before that against good teams. They beat Philly, they beat the Knicks, and they beat the Pelicans, and then after the loss of the Kings,
they got back on track against Memphis. Like I said, most impressive team in the Western Conference so far this season. And then to me, the easy number one at this point is the Boston Celtics. They have the best record in the league. They have a league leading nine wins against teams that are five hundred are better. They have the best net rating in basketball. They have despite playing the second toughest schedule. I think they're a clear cut
number one at this point in the season. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We have our check in with Yovann Bouha on the Lakers tomorrow, so we're gonna be doing that and then do a separate video that's covering the rest of the league. But we'll have two shows coming out for you guys tomorrow and back to our normal routine for the rest of the week. I'll see you guys. Then the volume