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In Maryland dial one eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope and why to four six seven three six nine in New York, called one five to two four seven zero zero in Wyoming, or visit www dot one hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoo Snipers by Vandel here at the Volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. We're just gonna be going rapid fire style through four games from last night's jam packed Wednesday
Night Slate. We're gonna be covering the Chicago Bulls snapping the Nets twelve game winning streak, the Minnesota Timberwolves notching their second consecutive win against the Western Conference playoff team, over the Minnesota excuse me over the Portland Trailblazers, the Detroit Pistons beating the Warriors in a super fun game
at the Buzzer on a three by Siddiq Bay. And then last but not least, the Los Angeles beat Los Angeles Lakers, beating a red hot Heat team without Lebron James and Anthony Davis, behind Dennis Schroder and Russell Westbrook playing a couple of great games. Um tonight, We're gonna be going live on AMP after the final buzzer of Celtics MAVs just to do a quick breakdown of that game as well, So keep an eye on the feeds later tonight. You guys know the joke before we get started.
Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason elt Yees, you guys don't miss any show announcements. And then, last but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish. Remember you can get them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight, All right, here we go rapid fire four games. So the Bulls
beat the Nets to one twelve. That snaps Brooklyn's twelve game winning streak. They led for almost the entire game by as much as eighteen. They tried to make a run the Nets did there in the fourth quarter. Um finally got their offense going a little bit, but a couple of pivotal um Uh turnovers pick six is that ended up in dunks running out the other way and honestly just got handed to Chicago. They made a bunch
of big plays down the stretch of the game. Zach Lavine and DeMar de Rosen in particular have been awesome over the course of the last three weeks or so. We're gonna talk about that here in just a second, but they kept him at arms length throughout despite Kadi going off for forty four points on twenty two shots. On December eighteen, the Chicago Bulls were eleven and eighteen
and everything looked lost. It even appeared that the Goals might even consider blowing things up in the season because there were enough desperate teams out there that might want the services of some of their star players. And I've talked about this concept a lot on the show over the course the last couple of weeks. But the idea of fighting for your season, um obviously for your top tier teams. There's a lot of you know, smooth silent over the course of the season, Like the Boston Celtics.
They got rolled in Oklahoma City two nights ago. Who cares sail just Alexander was out. They brought a crap effort. They've had, you know, pretty inconsistent effort for the last couple of weeks now, But it just doesn't matter. Because they're so damn talented that they're still the best team in the league and they can have bad nights and it's just not going to impact them in the standings
because of how much talent they have. But for the teams in the middle, the think of it, like when I was talking about that, if things go right, contenders, but it extends even deeper that than two teams that have playoff aspirations of any kind. There's up and down stretches during the season, and typically there's a stretch, especially when you have bad luck early on, where you have to kind of look in the mirror and decide whether
or not you want to fight for this. And we've seen a bunch of teams in particular dealing with that lately. The Los Angeles Lakers, the Atlanta Hawks, you know, the Miami Heat as of a couple of weeks ago when they started fighting and starting to to get it into a groove, and the Chicago Bulls were in a similar predicament. Eleven and eighteen just got your butt kicked by the
Milwaukee Bucks last year in the playoffs. There's a lot of reasons to pack it in at that point, but that's not what they did in the In the nine games since then, the Bulls are now six and three UM and I believe they lost one of those three games at the buzzer to uh. DeMar de Rosen and zach Lavine have been unreal. They're averaging fifty three points per game over that span on fifty percent shooting. Four of those six wins involved clutch situations, which has been
a huge part of their recent success. Both zach Lavine and de mar DeRozan are shooting fifty from the field when the game is within five points with less than five minutes to go UM in these games, so we'll see if it last. But the Bulls are showing some fight and that's super encouraging. They're trying to save this thing. UM on the that's not worried at all. They've been the best team in the league over the course the
last couple of months. I'm officially actually vaulting them up into my top tier of contenders with Boston and Milwaukee and Golden State, and I'm dropping down the Clippers off
of that list for the time being. I know everyone says, oh, Golden State, you know their their record doesn't dictate that, But with what we saw from them last year in the playoffs, with what we know about their starting lineup, with how well they're playing without Steph Curry last night, without Andrew Wiggins or Jonathan Cominga either with no wing size, they still almost beat the Piston. So I'm not worried
about Golden State. They're moving on. Okay, So the Minnesota timber Rolls beat the Portland Trailblazers one thirteen to one oh six. That's their second straight win over Western Conference playoff team to kind of as a palate cleanser from some rough basketball over the course of the previous couple of weeks. They played absolutely stifling defense in the fourth
quarter of this game. Um. I've talked a lot about what was what went wrong for Rudy Gobert in the Utah Jazz over the course of that era, and it wasn't Rudy's fault. Rudy got blamed for it a lot because he's running around like a chicken with his head cut off, trying to clean up messes. But more often than not, it was bad perimeter defense that led to those Utah Jazz problems. Someone gets beat off of the dribble,
Rudy steps up to help. No one rotates on the back end, it's a wide open shot or something along those lines. And um, what I was really curious about when he came over to Minnesota was just to get to see him play with some better perimeter defenders. And I was a little concerned that Minnesota might have shipped too much of that out. But they've what they've given up in backcourt ball pressure type of guards, guys like Patrick Beverley, they've actually gained back in a little bit
more wing depth. UM. And I also really like Kyle Anderson signing from that summer as well. So in this particular game, D'Angel Russell he had been out previously, and I don't know if he was on a minute's restriction or if they just decided not to play him in the fourth quarter, but D'Angelo Russell did not play down the stretch of this game, and so it ended up being Rudy Gobert with a steady mix of really good perimeter defenders in that fourth quarter run. You saw and
Edwards for the whole thing. You saw Jada McDaniels, you saw some Kyle Anderson, you saw some Jalen Noel, you saw some Austin rivers. You saw some Tari and Prince. Those are all good perimeter defensive players, and when you they were just kind of subbing a few of those guys in and out. But for the most part, it was four of those guys in Rudy Gobert, and all of that run in that fourth quarter was triggered by how good they were defensively on the ball and flying
around in rotations. There was an eight minute stretch in the fourth quarter of this game, spanning from the nine and a half minute mark of the fourth to the one and a half minute mark of the fourth, where the only two made field goals were for Portland were two extremely highly difficult uh shots from Damian Lillard and Anthony Simmons two and ones. Dame had like a banked in floater from the right, like kind of short elbow that was extremely high difficulty that he got an and one.
And then Anthony Simons literally at the end of a possession, just shot a drifting floater off one leg from behind the free throw line that somehow went in and he got fouled on that play as well. But those were their their only two made field goals over that eight
minute span. That's how difficult it was for Portland to get anything high quality in terms of a shot attempt over an eight minute span with them locked in and then on the other end of the floor, Anthony Anthony Everards just closed the game just with big time bucket. After big time bucket, he had hit a pull up three and pick and roll. He had a nice little bank shot on a post up where he bullied his way to the rim, and then he had another giant
driving layup. He finished with thirty two points. Anthony Everards last ten games, twenty nine points per game, eight rebounds, five assists on fifty true shooting. Again, only a two game sample, but after things got pretty a bleak there for a minute, these are two pretty impressive wins. And to be honest, if they keep defending like this, and if Anthony Edwards can keep the offensive onslaught going, they're gonna go on a run, because that's just a simple
fact of the way basketball works. If you're getting stops and you got a guy on the other end that can get to the basket and hit threes and things like that in great shots for his teammates, you're gonna start winning games. Um I did think that the no
D'Angel Russell thing was an interesting data point. I've been talking for a while about how the Gobert trade kind of puts the Timberwolves in a predicament where I think they need to actually build around Gobert and Aunt and kind of move on from Carl Town's in d'angela Russell. I doubt they will because I think the front office is kind of married to the Carl Town's Gobert thing, which I think is a mistake. But that's a whole
other conversation for another day. D'angela Russell, don no matter what, kind of feels like the odd man out, and he's had some good games this year, but just overall in terms of consistency and then what he brings on the defensive end of the floor, I don't think he's that great of a fit. And I wanted to show you guys some line up data without d'angela Russell to kind
of demonstrate this. So this season Anthony Edwards with Jalen Noel, Kyle Anderson, Jade McDaniel's ready Gobert plus eighteen net and sixty possessions. That means they're outscoring teams about eighteen points per one hundred possessions. Somewhat small sample, but that's an interesting point if you sub in Austin versus great perimeter defender and for Jalen Noel plus twenty six net in forty two possessions. So that's impressive regardless of who the
fifth guy is. With Kyle Anderson, Jade McDaniels, Rudy Gobert, and Anthony Edwards their plus seven net in three possessions, so a pretty significant sample size them. They're of them succeeding Kyle Anderson and Jade McDaniels, two very good wing defenders. Anthony Edwards is a great on ball defender, so anybody in there, and they're winning games. So some interesting stuff there. Portland's started ten and four and they are nine and fourteen since um eighth worst record in the league over
that spanned twenty five and defense. And they're also really struggling to score the basketball without Damian Lillard on the floor. For the season, when Dame is on the floor, the Blazers are plus seven net per one hundred possessions and minus six with him off the floor. That's a thirteen point swing, so significant issue there was shot creation, in particular with Dame off the floor. Um alright, moving on to Detroit Golden State, this is a really fun game.
The Warriors were locked in on both ends in the fourth quarter, but the Pistons just kept responding to every single Warriors run with big plays. So um uh. PPJ made a couple of free throws to get the game back to one. Uh and then Ja Nivey went to work got back to back buckets. This is in the fourth quarter when Golden State was trying to get control of this game. Um uh. He hit a pull up three and pick and rollers defender went underneath the screen,
rose up and knocked it down. Very next possession, he had PPJ on a switch on the right wing, and just I put this specific play on my Twitter feed so you guys can see because this is the kind of thing that excites me so much about Jade Nivvey. He just takes two really long steps to get right around PBJ, goes all the way to the rim and
dunks it and it almost looks like Dwyane Wade. And that was the thing that stood out the most to me when I started watching Jade and Ivy when he was in summer league and a lot for some of his college footage. He has this like long step athleticism that allows him to take um changes of direction while he's going full speed and things like that that make him extremely difficult to keep in front as a dribble drive guy. Now he's got a mile to go to
get anywhere close to what Dwyane Wade was. But when he's got that type of athleticism, the potential is through the roof. And he's had a rough season and there's a lot that he's got to get better at. But Jada and Ivy continues to be one of the um the rookies that excites me the most. Uh So the Warriors go on another run after that, uh to a little to play sequence from ja Nivy ending in at Clay Thompson dunk that gets it back to the Warriors in front by one, and then Isaiah Stewart responds to
that by winning back to back physical battles. There's a play where he buries Kevan Luney under the rim and makes a little right handed hook shot. Then on the very next possession, Jordan Pool Luney run a pick and roll. Luoney actually catches almost underneath the basket with Isaiah Stewart on him, and that same type of confrontation, Isaiah Stewart
wins it and blocks von Luni. At the rim, I talk a lot about the physical battle that takes place underneath the basket and how it's about knocking guys off of their base. And that was two battles that Isaiah Stewart one back to back, one on offense and one on defense that essentially amounted to a four point swing.
A couple of big plays to get the Pistons back up by three so UM and then two possessions after that they converted another PPG turnover into a transition three for killing and Hayes actually went up by seven at that point was one of six UM on the next possession UH the pp the killing Hayes three. Then there was an Alec Burk's and one that got them up to seven. But then Clay gets hot and hits three
straight jumpers for eight points in one minute. Clay was amazing this entire fourth quarter, really starting to hit his stride. We'll talk about that here in a few minutes, UM, but that gets it back to one oh eight, one oh seven, and then boya mcdonovich rescues the possession with two point two seconds left on the shock clock on a baseline out of bounds by taking like this wild leaning three off the dribble at the shock clock buzzer that he makes to put the pistons back up four.
I'll talk a lot about rescue possessions. When you got guys, typically they gotta be taller, but there are some exceptions to that role, namely Steph Curry. But when you have a guy with there, when there's a possession that's effectively lost, and on most possessions, when you've got less than a couple of seconds left in a baseline out of bounds or sideline out of bounds, like it's hard to get
a quality shot there. And when you've got a guy that can convert that like one out of every two or three time, one out of every three or four times into three points, that's a huge weapon to have, and that's a huge thing that bolsters offensive ratings. But that was a huge shot from McDon mcdonovitch to put him up by four. Then Jordan Pool gets going. He hits back to back, step back jumpers to step back
two and then a step back three. Now we're back to two, but Boya mcdonovitch on the other end of the floor is just executing and pick and roll. It gets Downhill makes a really nice kickout pass to the corner to Alec Burke's for three. Then he runs another one with Siddiq Bay where he throws a beautiful behind the back feed to Sadik Bay on the left wing, who hits the three. Now it's back up to one sevent Then Clay Thompson goes on another fury uh flurry
hits a couple of free throws. It's a really difficult driving scoop layup over Isaiah Stewart and then he hits the three to tie the game. Beautiful play designed by Steve Kerr. There in the final seconds, they run Jordan Pool along excuse me, Anthony Lamb along the baseline and Tides Room throws a beautiful skip pass that hits tides
Roome in uh stride. At the same time, Clay Thompson's at the top of the key and they set a quick uh screen with Kevon Looney who Clay Thompson comes over the top and ends up catching and knocking down the three. Yet another flurry from Clay Thompson, yet another run from the Warriors to tie this game, and then they go over to the other end of the floor. The Warriors defend the action really well, but Siddiq sidy Bay just pops out and literally just throws up a
prayer that ends up going in. So every single time down the stretch of that fourth quarter that the Warriors went on a run, the Pistons responded, young players in most cases taking and making big shots, making big plays. Obviously a tough loss for the Warriors, but you're super thin on the wing without Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Cominga that's gonna hurt you. There are a couple of key offensive rebounds and the at the end of this game that you probably get if you have your wings available.
But you gotta just tip the cap to the Pistons because they just made big plays all night long, especially down the stretch of that game. As for the Draymond ejection, there's actually a big sequence kind of involving the rebounding that I was talking about. Isaia Stewart saves it gets an offensive rebound that I think ends up leading to
a City Bay three on that offensive rebound. Uh, Draymond actually like battles with Isaiah Stewart underneath the basket, and he's battling for that box out position and they're both under the rim. The ball comes off and Isaiah Stewart is able to run back to get the basketball. The the the Warriors need to do better job of crashing from the perimeter to help when Draymond is in those box out situations. But that's a huge thing where having
some real athleticism on the wing helps you there. And to be honest, when when you have Andrew Wiggins out of the game, when you have Jonathan Comingea out of the game, the Warriors really aren't that athletic as a team. And so that was that's what what kind of made that specific matchup difficult there as far as the ejection goes, because then on the very next possession, Draymond got mad that Isaiah Stewart got away from him and then they got into that tussle. We can argue whether or not
that scuffle dictated a double technical. I kind of see you where Steve Kerr and where all the other guys are coming from, Like like that's part of the game of basketball. There's all these physical battles that are taking place under the rim. I'm actually surprised it doesn't happen more often the guys get engaged in a wrestling match essentially underneath the basket. But that's a conversation for another day, because the reality is is every single time that ever
happens to anybody, it's a double technical. It has been for as long as I've been watching basketball. Two guys get engaged in a battle underneath the basket rebounding. If it's a little grabbing here and there, it might be a double foul. But if they're like straight up, like about to square up the way those two guys were,
it's all always a double technical. So it's one of those things where I understand the frustration after the game, but you have to know going into that situation that if you get into a tussle and you already have a technical, that an injection is on the table at that point. Moving on to Heat Lakers. So this was an unbelievably massive win for the Lakers. Lebron missed the game with a non COVID illness, which I thought was surprising because it was a nationally televised game against a
team that they were capable of beating. It was a nationally televised game against a team that they were capable of beating. Um Lebron had been playing really well and the Lakers had won two games in a row, so he must have been pretty sick. I expected him to play. But Dennis Schroder and Russell Westbrook were incredible and that carried them enough offensively, and then they've actually been defending
pretty well. We'll talk about that in a second, but Schroeder and Westbrook combined for fifty three points and eleven assists. They both played made massive plays down the stretch of this game. Dennis kept getting downhill to his right hand that patented Dennis Schroder drive with that cooping lay up at the end, including the one that ended up sealing
the game late. And then Russ had a couple of key and ones, one that was on kind of like an ISO post up kind of thing where a pump faked and got an and one, and then on the back door cut on that last second play or Austin, Austin reeves through a beautiful bullet pass to us and he ended up getting an and one. Lots of big plays from both of those guys, But more importantly, both
of those two guys played incredible defensive games. When you're down Lebron James and Anthony Davis, they need guys to step up and you have to defend it an extremely high level because you're gonna have some offensive struggles, and those guys were great. And then Thomas Bryant pitched in again as well, twenty one and nine, one points and nine rebounds. The Lakers now on three straight four their
last five. They are a respectable eighth and defense over that span, which is incredibly impressive without Anthony Davis when you think about it. But it really comes down to credible perimeter defense. What do I always say is the best form of rim protection. I think the best form of m protection is perimeter defense or containing the basketball. And the main reason why is when you contain the basketball, you don't need rim protection because no one's getting a
straight line drive downhill. And obviously it's actually harder to build your defense around a scheme that requires you to keep a rim protector around the rim than it is to have more freelance where everybody's flying around and doing a lot more switching and things along those lines. So when you've got guys like Dennis Schroder competing on the basketball, Russell Westbrook competing, Patrick Beverley competing, Austin Reeves, Troy Brown,
the list goes on. But those guys are competing on the basketball and in rotation, and so they're not being punished as much as you would think for their lack of rim protection. Because as good as Thomas Bryant has been offensively, he's not a great rim protector. He's just not athletic enough or big enough to be a great rim protector. So it's good to see that them playing like legit coherent defense without Anthony Davis just goes to show you how how hard this team is competing without
Anthony Davis. They are now six and five since the a D jury, which is literally the best possible outcome for that situation. Similar to like we were talking about with the Bulls. They're fighting for their season and now they might have saved it. They're just three and a half games back of the sixth seed, five games back of the four seed. Adrian Wrzanowski reported yesterday that Anthony Davis is now running on the court and experiencing no pain. So the next step is him jumping to see how
that feels. But if a d comes back with how well Anthony Lebron James is playing with the trades that they have available to make at the deadline, you know it's it's still pretty bleak for the Lakers, but you can see a clear light at the end of the tunnel that was not there ten days ago, especially at Christmas Day when they got blown out by the MAVs. As for the Heat, that was kind of more of a letdown game than anything else. They've been playing really
good basketball before that. They were eaten three in their previous eleven games and had just come off of an impressive win over the Clippers. Clippers didn't have Kauai, but still they had everyone else. It was an impressive win in A big driving force behind that is Bam at a Bio seems to have finally taken that offensive leap that I have been talking about forever. That is so vitally important to the Miami Heat because of their ability to score in the half court. BAM's last eight teen
games twenty five points per game on shooting. That's really impressive. Um A lot of the old stuff, like he's still scoring as a rollman, offensive rebound put backs, you know, getting out in transition, doing some stuff as a cutter and in the dunker spot, things along those lines. But he's starting to consistently bolster his offense with isolation stuff
and post up stuff. UM. In the last ten games, Bam is averaging five points per game just out of ISOs and post ups, which doesn't seem like much, but that's the difference between averaging twenty a game and averaging game. That's the that's rescue possessions. That's bolstering your offense with offense that other otherwise wouldn't be there. That that's that's
saving possessions and capitalizing on matchups. UM, he's still a lot of it's just getting to the middle of the floor for that really high release short jump shot that he makes in that little hook shot as well. For the season, Bam is an out UH. The Heat are averaging one point zero eight points per possession on a Band post up including passes, which is tenth in the league among players who have run at least eighty post up. So Band has been a top ten post player this year.
That's really encouraging UM. And then he's also given you one point one point per possession in ISSO, which is among players who have run at least a hunter possessions. That's also really solid, albeit still in some relatively small volume. The Heat obviously still need to bolster that that forward
position and the at the trade deadline. But if Band's gonna give you twenty five points per game over the course of a playoff run and you get playoff Jimmy, and with how well Tyler Harrow has played offensively this season, and if they can bolster that forward position, I wouldn't pick them against the Celtics, Nets or Bucks, but I give them a fighting chance, like a real puncher's chance,
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under yards. My favorite bet this weekend is in the NBA the Miami Heat on Friday Night are going into Phoenix to play the Suns. They are favored by one and a half, but the Heat are coming off of a bad loss to the Lakers without Lebron James and Anthony Davis, and the Suns are really struggling to score without Devin Booker. I think the Heat get that game comfortably. Plus vanduel lets you combine your bets for a chance
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the Celtics thoroughly outclassing the Dallas Mavericks tonight. You know, um, that's a great punch from Boston, and when they throw their best punch, because of how much talent they have, they're gonna be really hard to beat, and Luca wasn't as sharp tonight. Obviously that trickled down the roster a little bit. We'll talk about that here in just a
few minutes. One quick note before we get started, for any of you guys that are listening on YouTube or on the podcast feeds, don't forget that the very first place you guys can get this analysis is on AMP. So the Celtics came in just five and seven in their last twelve games, and we've talked about it a
few times on this show. There's been some impressive wins during that stretch, but also some disappointing losses and a couple of benchmark tests against Golden State in Denver in particular that they failed miserably, a couple of embarrassing losses, a couple to the Orlando Magic in there, and then they got absolutely destroyed by the Oklahoma City Thunder without
shake guils just Alexander the other night. But if you zoom in on it, aside from the Okay See game, they actually have been defending really, really well over the course of that stretch because the what as I kept saying in those videos, it's their three point shooting primarily
that was leading to most of their problems. I actually think that the lack of three point shooting and the inability to point put points on the scoreboard was a big part of the thing that triggered urgency for them on the defensive end of the floor so they could get going there. During that twelve games stretch, they shot just thirty one from three. Now, shooting slumps, We've talked
about this a lot on the show. They happen, um, you know, as we always talk about a team, a basketball team, a good one might shoot from three for the season or around there, right, and that means you're gonna miss sixty percent of them. And so it's easy to see how you could as a team kind of go off the tracks a little bit, lose your confidence and start to miss shots. And then you can see the flip side of that from Boston tonight when they start to go in and then the confidence starts to
trickle down and then everyone's making shots again. But that that that that troubling mental aspect of shooting is what triggers these slumps. So as as young players that I coach, and just in general with my own experience in my time playing the game, you kind of come with a routine for how to get through a slump, And my personal philosophy for how to get through slumps is to improve your shot selection on an individual level, but on
a team level, it's about generating high quality shots. You know, when you're dealing with movement shooting like off the dribble or flying off the screens and stuff like that, there's so much more of like a touch factor that is built up through thousands or reps, But it's primarily a touch in a field because no two shots are alike. They're all very different depending on how far the how much separation you have to get, whether the defender closes
out on you as hard as he might. But in stand still situations, it's all about muscle memory, and so when you generate high quality shots, you can lean on that muscle memory and trust your form and the makes will follow. But when you don't generate high quality shots, maybe they're a little bit rushed. Maybe those standstill opportunities are few and far between, and as a result, it's hard to find your rhythm with your muscle memory. So
I want to shout out Jayson Tatum in particular. Tonight came out from the opening tips, setting the tone, trying to make the right pass to hit shooters in their shooting pockets. But on a team level, the way to generate high quality three point shots is a concept we talked about a ton on the show, which is engaging
help defenders. There's a huge difference between a defender that's guarding a shooter off the ball and that is in help side position and maybe lunging at the ball, maybe quickly stunting, but has an easy close out versus when you engage that help defender, meaning you totally get him
to commit to guarding you. Now all of a sudden, that's a much more difficult rotation because you're asking either a different defender from further away to leave his man to close out, or you're asking the guy that you engaged to disengage and close out to the shooters. So it's a it's a it's a trickle down effect from your ball handlers to get downhill, engage that help defender and then hit on time, on target to the shooter
in his pocket. From there you get lots and lots of time and then there these are professional shooters that are making hundreds and hundreds of shots every single day, specifically practicing their stands, still shooting in their muscle memory, and no matter how big of a slump you're in, if you get all these wide open looks, you're eventually going to find your rhythm. And they did because the
Celtics are a good shooting team. If you are a good shooting team, which the Celtics are, from a skill level, they're a good shooting team. It was uncharacteristic what happened to them over the last couple of weeks. And if you generate high quality shots, it is automatic that they will eventually go win. And they did tonight, and then all of a sudden, the Celtics looked like themselves again. You saw it kind of build confidence throughout the roster.
Then they were defending at it insanely high level. That's what I wanted to get to next. Boston's defensive rotations were insane tonight, hard disciplined close outs, not leaving your feet, chopping your feet and taking away that comfortable spot up
shot and forcing them to make a decision. It actually caused a lot of hesitation from Dallas Mavericks, particular guys like Tim Hardaway Jr. And Christian would pump faked at a lot of semi open shots because of hard clothes outs from you know, ferocious rotations from Boston Celtics defenders.
And the interesting thing there is we talked about this a lot when we get to the playoffs, but when you're playing really great defenses that are locked in, especially when we get to the postseason, there really aren't wide open shots. Most of them are semi open, and so you need guys to confidently rise into shots. And the Celtics preyed on that, specifically with the Mavericks tonight, with their hard clothes outs. None of the Mavericks were confident
and they really struggle. I think there were one for ten. Uh, their spot up guys were one for ten shooting threes in the first half. I think as a roster they were two for sixteen. I want to get a little bit more into the Mavericks in a little bit, but credits of the Celtics for a really dominant two way performance. Um. I think that Boston's best punch is better than anybody else's best punch. They, I have frequently said, are the
most talented team in the league. Their top eight is insane Jayson Tatum, Jalen Brown, Marcus Smart, Al Horford, Robert Williams, Malcolm Brogden, Derrek White, and Grant Williams, who, by the way, is a lot better than he was last year, clearly has put in a ton of work in the off season into his ball handling, into his shooting, into his footwork. He demonsiated a really nice footwork on that spin move
against Christian Wood when he got the and one. That's lots of reps to get coordinated to the point where you feel comfortable making that particular move. But Grant Williams has made a big improvement. And now all of those eight guys are not just starter level NBA players, they're above average starter level NBA players. They've got eight players that would happily fit into just about any rotation in the entire league. And I don't think anybody's top eight
stacks up with Boston's top eight. The problem is, is there a bit of an arrogant basketball team. They carry themselves like a team that's already won a championship as opposed to a team that is desperate to get there first.
Um they as a result, they go through these extended stretches where they're sloppy and they get kind of out of character, they take bad shots, they don't do that important thing in driving kicks systems that I talked about, which is engaging that help defender to make passes on time and on target. They start to turn the basketball over. That puts them in precarious situations in transition, and that's how Boston can experience those negative landslides that they experience.
I get it. I understand the arrogance. This group has been together a very long time. They've won a lot of basketball games. They've won a lot of playoffs series like that team has been to the finals uh and been to the Eastern Conference Finals three times. Like, They've just in around a long time and they've been winning for a long time. So I understand why they have that arrogance. But it's a little disappointing, and you've seen it specifically in some of these games. That Denver Nuggets game.
I thought they were really sloppy on the defensive end of the flour the Golden State game, it was like they completely lost character of who they were as a basketball team. So that's the one thing that concerns me with them because I think Boston's best punch if is better than everyone else's, so in theory, they should win
the title. But I have them third on my list of contenders, behind the Milwaukee and Golden State, simply because I trust those two teams to throw their best punch consistently in the playoffs in a way that I don't trust Boston, but make like I want. I want to cut them a little bit slack because it is very
possible that this is just regular season malaise. They were very dominant from January through the end of the season last year, and that resulted in in them eventually losing, so they know that the regular season doesn't carry as much importance. I think they trust their ability to beat any of these teams in a seven game series, even without home court advantage. So maybe it's an urgency thing. And maybe they get to April and they lock in and they try in all four rounds, and to be clear,
if they do, I think they'll get the trophy. If they consistently throw their best punch in the playoffs, I think they'll get the trophy. That's how much of a talent advantage I think they have. I just don't trust them at this point, and that's why I still have them at third, And to be honest Celtics fans, I will not pick them over Milwaukee or Golden State in any playoffs series, no matter what, simply because of that trust. That doesn't mean I don't think they can beat them.
There's no amount of regular season success that could prove it. The only thing that would prove that to me is if they demonstrated it to us in the playoffs. If they do, then this time next year you'll hear me marching to a different beat as it pertains to the Celtics. But they've got to show me they can do that. Golden State consistently throws their best punch in the playoffs. I've seen that for a half decade. Milwaukee can assistently throws their best punch in the playoffs. I've seen that
two playoff runs in a row. I trust them more. That's the only reason I have them above it. But you you know, you saw tonight a glimpse of what their top end looks like. And that is why I call them the most talented team in the league. And that's the potential that they have. Um Dallas just a couple of quick notes. They've been playing really good ball before this game. They had won seven straight games despite being without some key guys. MEXICALI has been out. I
didn't realize he had surgery on his hamstring. That's pretty crazy. So apparently he's gonna be out for a little while. Um. And then Josh Green is one of their best three and D wings right now because of the improvements he's made as a shooter. So him getting back, I think he is an elbow issue. He's expected to come back over the course of this next road trip. But they've been coming playing good, pretty good basketball. They just didn't
get a good Luca game tonight. I mean, you're not going to beat the Celtics at their best unless Luca don Chet's plays at his best. And I'm not being critical of him because to be clear, it looked like he was dealing with some ankle stuff. They were I couldn't tell if he was sick or that the broadcast said he wasn't sick. That he's clearly experienced some sort of like impact trauma to the chest that was causing
him to deal with some coughing stuff. Um, So Luca wasn't at his best, and to be clear, when you need to lead your team against the one of the best, most talented teams in the league, it's gonna be really difficult to do that when your body is not cooperating. So I want to cut Lucas some slack. But the only way you can win a game like that when you have a talent disadvantage but you might have the best player on the floor is your best player has to come out and be the best player on the floor.
If he does that early in the game, it establishes a confident tone around the team that causes them to defend better, That causes them to rise up more confidently into the spot up shots like I was talking about with Dallas earlier, which in turn leads the game to being closer. When the game is close, if you have the best player on the floor, you might have a chance to pull that game out. But in a game like this with Luca, to be honest, he's pretty terrible
on both ends of the floor. I thought offensively, his jump shot was way off, which was leading to some bad fast break opportunities. In general and defense, he was really slow with his rotations. You could see him laboring almost conceding with lazy close outs to some of these threes. It was a bad Luca game, so you gotta just kind of throw it out, um. But the realities is they're not gonna beat teams like Boston or really anybody in the playoffs for that matter, unless Lucas at his
very best. But the good news is is we have three years of evidence that show us that when Luca is in the postseason, he does bring his very best. So I'm not overly concerned about it. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. Don't forget to check out. We broke down a bunch of games from Wednesday night on the feed. You'll see it from earlier, and then tomorrow night we're gonna be breaking down the
Friday Night slate. I'm gonna be recording that Friday night, but it won't be uploaded until Saturday, So keep an eye on the feeds until on Saturday morning to see a breakdown of Friday night games. As always, I apprecate your support. Now see you guys next time. The volume