Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry explodes in Warriors win, Ja Morant's MVP case, LeBron James scores 48

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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 D five to two four seven zero zero in Wyoming, or visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to hoops tonight for sentif Danduel here at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had a great weekend. I just got back in last night from a weekend of skiing up in Flagstaff,

an old dormant volcano up there. We had a huge winter storm come through on Saturday, so it was like fifteen inches of fresh powder and blizzard conditions with no visibility. I've become a decent skier over the course of the last half decade or so, but man, did that kick my ass. It just was a completely different type of challenge. It was so different than like groomed skiing, and so it was a fun experience, but man, I got my butt kicked. I'm excited to be home though, and to

talk some basketball. We took a little break last week to zoom out and do some mid season, mid season review type of Stuff. We're gonna get back into our normal cadence this week with instant reactions and deep dives into specific teams and things along those lines. So today we're gonna be covering the Warriors, Wizards, UM and just the way they've been playing the Warriors in particular since Steff went out or since Stuff came back. The Boston Celtics on a seven game win streak and the Memphis

Grizzlies on a ten game win streaks. We're gonna tie in on those two teams, the best team in the East and the best team in the West right now. And then the Los Angeles Lakers. Even though they beat the Rockets last night, they did lose back to back games involving clutch situations to the Mavericks and the Sixers, and those clutch situations have been a problem for the Lakers all year, So I wanted to dive deep into

that specific topic. And then tomorrow we'll have three instant reaction videos to wraps, Bucks, Blazers, Nuggets, and seventies Sixers Clippers. We've got a good slate of games tonight. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribed to the volumes YouTube channels. So you don't miss any more of our videos, follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt s.

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let's talk some basketball. So the Warriors, they were trailing the Wizards mid fourth quarter, kind of a recurring theme this season. They were trailing them one oh six. Then Draymond got them back in the game of the couple of big plays. He hit a hockey assist out of a split cut that ended in a Dante DiVincenzo lay up, and then he ended up hitting a three on a pick and pop at the top of the key. Kind

of an encouraging trend for the Warriors with Draymond. Draymond is shooting thirty five percent from three in his last twenty seven games. If you really look back to what a Draymond and All NBA guy like when he was second team All NBA back in two thousand and sixteen,

it was all the playmaking. It was all of the defensive stuff that he can do, the defensive versatility in particular, but it was also this kind of semi reliable, totally respectable pick and pop shooting from three that really tied it together. It kind of was that was you know, that's become his one real weakness over the years, but it's starting to trend in the right direction. He's been shooting pretty damn well over his last twenties seven games.

That's super encouraging for the Warriors in the grand scheme of things. And then from there, when Draymond got it back to a close game, Steff just took over a huge step back three, just a ridiculous, high difficulty step back three that gave him the lead. G had a couple more threes or jumper into three that were daggers later on in the game. And he also there was kind of a fun sequence where, um, they were running a pick and roll at the on the right wing

and it was Porzingis. That was in an ice coverage on steph So whenever you run pick and rolls on the wing, usually teams are gonna try to force you

towards the baseline because the rotations are easier. So Draymond comes up and tries to set the screen towards the middle, but the on ball defender is forcing I think it was Monty Morris, but he was forcing Steph away from the screen, and Christaps Porzingis was way out on the left side waiting for steps so they're basically trying to funnel step towards that right side of the floor from

the right wing and Draymond. It was kind of a really smart play from Steff because Draymond's like trying to find an angle to set the screen so that Steph can get back towards the middle, and instead Steph just leads him with like a push pass that catches Draymond in a run towards the rim. And because Christaps Porzingis was way over on the left side to wait towards the right side of your face in the basket to try to contain in that ice coverage, Draymond got a

wide open uh lay up with his left hand. I think it ended up getting goaltended or actually this one I think ended in a foul, and then he had a separate layup and a Jordan Pool pick and roll. But it's kind of been cool over the years to see we've all we've seen with Draymond and Steph just all of the repetition that they've had over a decade of the high level basketball that has given them just a counter to use in every single one of these situations.

We've seen the way that Draymond can punish teams by going to quick dribble handoffs with Steph when they're not guarding Draymond appropriately, or in the traps with Steph, you see Draymond in the short role making play staff throwing that loop pass over the top. They're trying to sneak a bounce pass into the pocket so that Draymond can make a read, and then it's kind of cool to see them beat that ice coverage with basically just like a super unique little leading pass towards the rim, all

Draymond's unguarded. That's just the advantage that comes from continuity in years and years of practice. Step finished with forty one point shots. It felt good to see him get back to that level because it really wasn't that good the first three games back, which was to be expected. He's a skill oriented player and rhythm is a huge

part of the game of basketball. For skill oriented players, you need to kind of calibrate your lift and calibrate your touch to mb a speed which is impossible to replicate anywhere off of an NBA game, even in Actus, So it was it's good to see him kind of get back to that. That's his fourth forty point game

of the season. Andrew Wiggins also did excellent defensive work on Kyle Kuzma, forced him into a bunch of bad shots and two turnovers down the stretch, and then Anthony Lamb, I thought one of the biggest players of the game is one eighteen one fourteen, and Kuzma's isolating on Andrew Wiggins.

He's driving towards the right with Wiggins on his hip, and Anthony Lambs steps in and takes a charge, and Kuzma actually made a little floater and it was called an and one on the floor, but they challenged it and they ended up overturning it and calling it a charge. But because Steph went down and hit a jumper on the next possession, it was like a five point swing and a four point game. So just like the you know,

Austin Rivers. One of the things, there's three specific topics that I want to hit just kind of random today. It's something I all the time. I'm like scrolling through Twitter and I have like a quick take on something that I see, and uh, it's not enough of a take to squeeze into a segment on this show, but I don't really have a chance to talk about it, so I like to try squeez him in. Why I can.

I don't know if you guys saw that Austin Rivers video that was going viral from a podcast this week where he basically talked about how highlight culture is ruining basketball at the lower levels. Essentially, he was like, you know, I got a hoop mix tape, but it was because I was one of the top end guys. It was like an honor and it was based on you being like literally one of the best players in the in

the country for high school. Whereas now like everyone's getting filmed, they're actively hunting highlights and trying to make these like social media clips based on you know, dunking on someone

or crossing somewhere over whatever it might be. And Austin's point was like, actually, we should be celebrating winning basketball plays because those are the things that actually make a good basketball player, which is the kind of thing that actually makes it to the m b A. There are a lot of guys in the world that can dribble the hell out of the basketball, they can shoot the

hell out of the basketball. They can do a lot of things, but they're not in the NBA because they can't functionally do a play a role on an NBA court by providing a bunch of winning responsibilities. Anthony Lamb is not the prettiest looking basketball player in the world when it comes to his skills to but he has

found a role on this team doing dirty work. And that is just a small play sliding over and taking a charge in a pivotal moment in a four point game down the stretch that frequently gets overlooked and never gets enough attention. And that's what I liked about what Austin Rivers had said, and so I just wanted to kind of hammer that home, like that's a play that went under the radar in this game. But Anthony Lamb taking one charge was just a massive play to help

the Warriors win this game. Uh. The Warriors are two and two since Steph came back. If you look at it, it's that awful lost of Phoenix where they really didn't try. Uh. There was the blowout win in the Alamo Dome against the NBA's record largest crowd against the Spurs. Then they lost to Chicago, which we're gonna talk about here in a minute, and then they beat Washington, so kind of

an uneven start. I wanted to zoom in on that Chicago loss because it was kind of frustrating, uh tactically, you know, you guys know, I think like a coach. I coach high school kids, and then obviously just with my playing background, I always I always think that way. I think from the perspective of the coach, and I was really frustrated with their strategy on Nick Lusovich because

Vusovich just absolutely torched the Warriors in this game. He had forty three points, but it was all out of picking pop like just picking pop threes, picking pop pump, fake attacking the clothes out, making a little shot U scoring in the short role. Because you know, Nick Luseovich is a flawed player, but he is a good player, and there's specific things that he's very good at, and it's that shooting touch, it's that little bit of post work, and it's that little bit of short roll stuff that

he can do. Um, you have to switch against that type of big I always tell you, guys, v kryptonite for a drop coverage is either a guard that can regularly hit pull up jump shots or a big that can hit pick and pop jump shots. As soon as you run into that type of personnel, you have to switch. Switch up your coverage in some way, shape or form, because if you don't, you're going to give high quality shots.

Two players that are in the league specifically because they can hit that type of shot you you switch, you at least forced them to beat you with an isolation or a post stop. It gives you. It also gives you a much better chance to load up and help side and rotate out of it, and at least forced them to take a contested spot up three somewhere else on the floor rather than a wide open one. Only four of nick Vussovitch's points came out of post ups

against switches and pick and roll. There was one in the first quarter where Clay Thompson got switched on to him and he hit a little hook shot, and there was another one in the second half where Anthony Lamb got switched onto him and on the post entry pass he tried to like reach around in front and they ended up calling a pass on the entry path, foul on the entry pass, But twenty three a Vussovich's forty three points we're picking and popping or a pick and

pop that got worked around and he was wide open for three on the back end. That's more than half. So like schematically, that cost you a game. A flaw in the coverage that every single person in the world knows exists and personnel that can explicitly exploit that flaw. The Warriors didn't make the switch in their coverage, So there's kind of two ways to look at that. One.

In a playoff series, the Warriors would switch out of that in all likelihood if if Vusovitch is torching you and pick and pop, you're gonna end up switching or heading and recovering or anything else other than what they did. Um you know, in in a playoff series in general, teams are more inclined to switch when they need to. But in this game, failure to make that adjustment cost you a game and puts you at twenty two, which was below five hundreds. You had to go beat Washington

to get above five hundred. And if you just take care of business against Nick Luseovich with the simple adjustment. You win that game, and now you're two games over five hundred and so that that's where it's frustrating, is like, I get it. You know that's not gonna be an issue in the playoffs. I'm not worried about the Warriors somehow getting to the finals and losing to the Bulls because the Nick Lusivich. It's just a matter of of the reality of their predicament, which is there what the

seventh seed right now or and twenty two. They need to make up ground in the standings to make sure they stay out of the plan and hopefully give themselves a home court advantage series, which is so important to this team that struggles a little bit on the road. There is urgency for them to get going, and it kind of was frustrating to see them trick off a game against the Bulls because of a simple coverage that

should have been audibled out of tip off. The new year, with fan Duel, America's number one sports book, new customers get one hundred and fifty dollars in free bets guaranteed when you place your first five dollar bet. Just download the Fandal sports Book app. It's safe, secure, and super easy to use. Then you can bet on everything from the money line, to point scores to three's drained. My favorite bet this week is the Atlanta Hawks on the road in Dallas on Wednesday. You can get them plus

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action with great offers for you now throughout January. So don't miss your chance to get one and fifty dollars in free bets with promo code Jason t Make Every Moment More with Fan Duel, an official sports book partner of the NBA. Um You know, there's a lot of people pointing to the Warriors and they're two and twenty two record as if the sky is falling. I continue

to not be in that camp. I just think there are some specific realities about their situation because they don't have a ton of depth, which won't matter as much when they get to the playoffs, but now it does. You can't take nights off anymore. Like the Phoenix Suns game,

that just can't happen. If you're playing the Suns without all their guys, you have to win that game because of where where you're at in the standings, and you might have to be a little bit more aggressive in your in game adjustments instead of just trying to eat innings in the regular season because you don't have that margin for error anymore in the standings. It's just the

reality of their situation. Alright, So we're gonna talk about the Lakers, but really quickly, I want to hit my second random take that I was telling you guys about

that I'm trying to hit from Twitter. Uh So, one of the things that I've seen is Lebron after his interview or in his interview with Dave McManaman, he was asked about him being about like the the all time scoring record with Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Lebron, but up brought up the fact that he doesn't that he views himself as a pass first player, and then that turned into this whole thing where all the people don't like Lebron were like, that's b s. Look at how many

field goal attempts he takes, like this is ridiculous, and then all the Lebron fans coming in and being like, no, no, he really is passed first, and everyone just gets dumber as a result, because let's actually think about what that says. To say that you're a past first basketball player would imply that given the decision to take a high quality shot yourself or to get a high quality shot for your teammate, that you would pass the ball to your

teammate instead of looking for your own shot. And not only does that situation very rarely take play sent an NBA game because the defense is kind of designed to take away one of the two, but in general, the only pass first players that I can remember in NBA history where they're actively hunting passes are guys that can't score. I'm talking about like Jason Kidd or Region Rondo, you know, or a modern example that. And it's not that he

can't score. Tyris Alliburn is a much better score, but Tyris Halliburton is hunting his passes a lot because he's not a you know, thirty point per game type of guy. You know, and so like, who are the top tier playmakers in the league. I've always said four guys, right, and Chris Paul is kind of falling off this list. But it's Chris Paul, Nicola Yoga, Lebron James, and Luca Donche. Those are the four guys that I see incredibly high

level reads from consistently. But they're all high volume scores. All three of those guys have been thirty point per game guys over the last few months. So are they None of them are passed first? They're the best player on the floor and most of their games. Why would they give the ball to lesser basketball players if they didn't need to. So the semantics of that this goussion is stupid, and I say that to Lebron as well, like Lebron shouldn't be saying past first because that doesn't

make any damn sense. But it's not a criticism of him that he shoots a lot. He's Lebron James. He should shoot a lot. The dude's averaging like thirty seven since he turned thirty eight years old, which is completely ridiculous. But let's call it what it is. It's not that Lebron is a pass first player. It's that he's a great passer. And so what you're getting from Lebron is he is the all time leading score, going to be

the all time leading score. And what's cool about it is that's just one of his great skills, and he has all these other great skills. That's what's interesting about the Lebron thing, not some weird semantic angle about being passed first. All right, that's it for my little mini Lebron tic. Okay, So the Lakers have had a really interesting four game stretch since they're huge backed back wins against Atlanta and in Sacramento. They rested Lebron in Denver

and lost. Then they lost a double overtime heartbreaker to the Dallas Mavericks. Luca hit two separate step back three's uh I think one in regulation and one in ot that elongated the game um and then Lebron really had his first bad game in a month against Dallas, just

really struggled, particularly from the field in that game. And then they lost another heartbreaker to the seventy six or two Nights ago, Lebron goes for thirty five, eight and ten, their plus nineteen in Lebron's minutes, but go minus twenty when he's off the floor and lose by one. And obviously we had the ridiculous possession with russ on Joel Embiad at the end, which we'll talk about here in

a minute. And then last night they beat Houston, Lebron goes for forty eight, eight and nine and their plus nineteen again in his minutes, but they only lose the Lebron minutes by eleven this time, so they're able to win the game by eight points. So really, if you look at it's a punt against Denver, a quality win, and then too heartbreaking clutch losses. And that's what I want to zoom in on today is the Lakers in

clutch situations. So they are ten and eleven in games that involved clutch situations this year, so twenty one games, eleven losses, and they've been bad on both ends of the floor. One fourteen point five offensive rating which is only okay, kind of middle of the pack for that type situation, and one two point six defensive writing, which is the third worst defensive rating in the entire league

for teams that are in clutch situations. So there's a bunch of that I want to get into here, but I'm just gonna split it really simply into the Lakers on the defensive end of the floor and the Lakers on the offensive end of the floor. So you know, on the defensive end of the floor. What do I always say about clutch situations. Clutch situations in the regular season are the closest thing we get to playoff basketball,

and there's a couple of specific reasons why. One, both teams are more dialed in with their effort and execution. What that means is everyone's playing hard, no one's taking possessions off. And if they have details in their scheme, whether that's sprinting back in transition defense or that's you know, this pick and roll coverage or this way to handle off ball screens, those are the times of the game when they're going to be especially sharp, at least the

good teams that you're going to play. Also, both teams have their best players on the floor. It's your closing five, right, That's why I talked about the playoffs differently as well. There are a lot of guys that get NBA regular season rotation minutes that would never play in a playoff series unless injuries forced them to. You shrink down the rotations and you only play the guys that you trust

to have out there. All the superstars bump up to like forty minutes, most of the mid level starters bump up to like thirty six thirty seven minutes, and a lot of the guys that come off the bench might only play ten twelve minutes. They're like one shift players. You have your starters, you have a few guys that come in for one shift, and then you go back to your starters, and then you repeat in the second half.

That's the way the closing lineups are too. It's your five best guys, so there aren't as many weaknesses for you to exploit on any end of the floor. And when you couple that with the effort in the execution, the game is super slow. None of the sets work, and it just becomes about personnel and matchups and which guys you have in that setting that can beat coverage is in a tight half court environment. This is why I never get super critical of brute force offenses during

the regular season. A lot of you guys. Remember during my preseason previews I talked about specific teams like the Nets and the Clippers as teams that were brute force offenses. I don't know if you've noticed this, but every time I've been critical of the Clippers this year, I've never said, like, oh, I don't think they're gonna be able to score, even

though their offensive rating is trash. And it's because I actually think that when they get into the postseason, they will be able to score because if they have Kawhi Leonard and Paul George healthy, They're just gonna be able to create advantages better than most teams, and they just

have more aggregate offensive skill. Yeah. I can get ugly in the regular season when their offense is super rudimentary and it's just a lot of high pick and roll in ISO, but during the playoffs, like that's literally what you need to do to succeed in The Clippers just have a lot of really good players that can do that kind of stuff. I always just say I'm worried about the Clippers health. That's where I'm concerned. I don't really concern myself with brute force offenses in the regular season.

I'm concerned about that slow down environment and what your specific matchups are. Now. During the regular season, there is a lot of fast and loose basketball where you'll see random lineups, guys that don't usually play that much, guys you would never see in the playoffs, lots of transition possessions, very little half court defense, a lot of fast and

loose basketball. That's time when you can really succeed playing hard or just sprinting up and down the floor and transition, or having guys that have big weaknesses when you can focus them into their strengths in that fast and loose phase of the game. And the Lakers have been able to do a lot of good things in those environments because of how good Russell Westbrook is in transition, because how good Lebron James has been playing, how good Thomas

Bryant has been running up and down in transition. They've been able to manufacture a lot of wins and they've been hovering around well. I think they're nine and eight since Anthony Davis went out. That's awesome, but it should be better than it is. And it's because of those clutch situations when you get defensively down into the end of these games, you can't gimmick your way around anymore.

Suddenly it's like, a wait, we can't play Thomas Bryant against Philly, they went with when you and Gabriel against Houston, they went with no center, Lebron James at center because they can't actually play him, you'll get attacked too much

in those situations. Now the game is slowed down in the half court, and you've got Dennis Shrewder and Russell Westbrook with Troy Brown Jr. Who's more of a two guard playing a three, and Juants Oscano Anderson who's literally six six and like two d and fifteen pounds, so he's smaller than me playing power forward for the Lakers. And then Lebron James, who, yeah, he can play some small ball center, but it only like if he goes

up against a really big guy. There's some limitations there, right, So like defensively, they can gimmick their way to a solid defense, like the Lakers are twelfth in defense in January. That's solid. Guys have been fighting, guys have been competing, but in clutch situations they still can't get stops because in that setting, it's no more about it's no longer

about gimmicks. It's about your personnel, and the Lakers just don't have the type of personnel they need when they played when you and Gabriel against Philly at center, he's two hundred and five pounds. I literally weighed twenty five pounds more than when you and Gabriel and he was battling with olm beat Like, like, what exactly do you guys expect to happen in those situations. So at the end of the day, like um, when the game slows down for the Lakers, you can attack to instruder because

he's small. You're gonna attack Kuantas, Kana Anderson, Lebron James and Winning Gabriel on the interior because you're just bigger than those guys. And most importantly, there's absolutely no rim protection. So if you beat somebody off the dribble from the perimeter, there's nobody waiting for you that's gonna block your shop around the rim. And and that's just what makes the

Lakers so easy to score on in crunch time. They will not get stops in crunch time until Anthony Davis gets back, and then when they get to the highest levels in the playoffs, they're going to need that forward position to be bigger, to have a bigger perimeter player in order to alleviate some of those postgame defense concerns. And then on the offensive end of the floor, it's

really comes down to three things. There's their spot up shooting problem, which we've talked to death, there's a Russ problem, and there's a Lebron problem. So no one's really off the hook um as it comes to spot up shooting. Like I said, like game situations mimic playoffs situations, They're going to be trapping you in the half court and loading up in the paint, and none of your sets are gonna work. So no matter what your your best option, you really are only gonna have two options as a

primary ball handler. If I'm Lebron James and I'm in a late game situation for the Lakers are in a postseason environment, I'm gonna be dribbling. The paint is going to be completely packed with bodies, and I'm gonna have two options. Either I can take an off the dribble jump shot overall of that congestion, or and I can swing it to the wing to a spot up shooter that can make that make the other team pay for overloading in the paint. But the Lakers are on uncontested

threes this year. That's twenty seven in the NBA, so they're the fourth worst wide open three point shooting team in the league. They are also just seven percent on threes in clutch situations when the games within five with less than five minutes left, that's twenty four in the NBA. So when teams load up on the Lakers and Lebron and Russ are making kickout passes, they just can't make teams pay for that. There's no penalty for you going against the Lakers to load up the paint. So that

is problem number one. The lack of competent spot up shooting on the wing. That that gives them problems. And you know, and first of all, there's a huge difference between like I occasionally knocked down to three and what a real knockdown shooter is like. And I'll give you an example. So Boyan mcdonovitch plays for the Pistons. He's shooting just forty one point five percent from three this year, And if you're a Laker fan, you might be like, oh,

that's only three percent higher than Lonnie Walker. But there's a huge difference because of the way they are guarded, which is something I talked about all the time. It's not just about your three point percentage, it's like your ability to convert three point shots into point based points based on the quality of the three point shots. So, for instance, more than half of Lonnie Walker's three point attempts, about six are wide open, meaning the defender is at

least six ft away, and he's only shooting thirty on him. Right, that's an issue. Okay, Now we go to boyan Vigdanovitch. He takes six rea's a game. Most of them are heavily guarded, but when he's wide open, he shoots fift When the defenders at least six ft away from boy and Beganovitch, so he's completely unguarded. He knocks down half of them. So that's the difference when I'm looking at

boy and mcgdanovich and Lonnie Walker. Yeah, he's only three percent better from three, but he's deadly accurate when he's wide open, and he's still shooting a higher percentage even on the contested threes than than than Lonnie Walker can get.

So that's why I've been saying the Lakers need to target like a real shooting forward because in those crunch time situations, now boy On mcdonovitch's man cannot leave him because in two possessions he's gonna make one of them, which is three points in two possessions, which is a one fifty offensive rating, which is going to win you a lot of basketball games. That's why that position is so specifically important. So step one spot up shooting to

Russell Westbrook. Again. He thrives in that open floor nature of the middle portions of the game of basketball. That's why he's done so well coming off the bench for stretch is this year for the Lakers. He pushes the pace really well. That that that allows him to avoid those half court sets and he creates a boatload of

good shots with rim pressure. But when we get to clutch situations, he's twelve for thirty five from the field, and he's really inefficient when he has the ball in his hands, and he can't make you pay when he's

off the ball. He's also really poor decision makers. So for instance, that last play against Philly, I know Darvin Ham's like, oh, I'll take my chances with Russ on their center any day of the week, and it's like, Okay, that's cool that you think that, but the other team is freaking ecstatic that you're attacking him beat because the book is out on Russell Westbrook. His only real success

at this point is bullying smaller guards. When it comes to half court environments, most teams are willingly putting their center on Russ because he can help off when someone else has the ball and they don't have to worry about him beating beating you with spot up shooting. And then in isolation situations, Russ is such a bad pull up jump shooter that and Bead can just back off and protect Rim And like, yeah, I've seen a lot

of Lakers fans complaining about foul calls. Ruscott fouled on that play, Yes, Joel Embiad was grabbing his wrist, that's a foul. Lebron got fouled on a drive against the Mavericks. Christian would elbowed him down on his left arm when

he was trying to gather. But historically in NBA history, especially at the end of games and very much so in the playoffs, when you drive to the basket, there's a ship ton of contact and they're probably not gonna call it, so I mean we can say that, hey, it was a foul, but they didn't blow the whistle. They usually don't blow the whistle, which means you have

to be prepared for that. Russell Westbrook isolating a center and Joel Embiid but not just the center, one of the best defensive centers in the league was just a really obnoxiously poor decision, and it ending poorly was very predictable. Russ, if he's going to stay with the Lakers, has to play in just the middle portion of the games, which is exactly what almost every sixth man type of guy has done in NBA history. They play him in the fast and loose portions of the game, and then they

don't playin crunch time. Now, usually for six men it has to do with defensive limitations, but for Russ, it has to do with those offensive limitations in the half court. When you combine that with his volatility, which volatility will get you beat, it just makes him really tough to play in crunch time. There's some crazy stats with Russ and crunch time. The Lakers have played twenty one games this year that involved clutch situations. Now, again, that's less

than five minutes. Within five points. They are seven and eleven when Russ plays in those clutch games, and when Russ doesn't get any clutch minutes, they're three and uh. Overall this season in clutch minutes, their minus sixteen with Russ on the floor and plus four with him off. So if the Lakers are gonna keep Russ, they need to use him like every other sixth man in NBA history. Play him is twenty five minutes during the middle porsons of the game. Don't have him in there when we

get to crunch time. And then, lastly, is Lebron um so accepting the reality that the Lakers don't have good spot up shooting and they're going to pack the paint. What do I always say about beating teams that pack the paint? You have to be able to either kicked to put spot up shooters which aren't gonna make shots right now, or you can knock down pull up jump shots over the top of the defense. And this is where Lebron's shooting slump has been a big problem this year.

He's shooting just thirty three percent on pull up jump shots, and in particular, his three point shot has failed him, especially in crunch time. He's just three for eighteen and crunch time situations for the Lakers from three, that's a huge problem. And what's sad about it is he's actually been really damn good in every other way during clutch situations. He is twenty one for thirty six from two during crunch time situations this year. That's fifty percent. He has

eighteen assists to just three turnovers. But if your spot up shooters aren't gonna hit shots, you need to be able to knock down pull up jump shots to win games in crunch time, just like he did last night against the Rockets, two biggest players of the game. The last two possessions too high picking rolls with Lebron, James won a pull up jump shot going to his left and another a pull up jump shot going to his

right where he banked it in off the glass. He needs to knock that shot down in order to help the Lakers in crunch time situations. That's what the other top tier stars in the league. Do. It's bizarre Lebron is just having a bad jump shooting season, but it's something to keep an eye on. So like as we kind of zoom out really quick. For the Lakers, they have four issues and crunch time. They don't have Anthony Davis,

which makes it impossible for them to get stops. They have no spot up shooting, which makes it really difficult for them to uh to make teams pay for packing the paint. Russ's value significantly declines when he gets into the half court, so he shouldn't play any clutch minutes. And Lebron's pull up shooting slump has been an issue, although he shot really well last night, so really get a d healthy. The report is that he's gonna be back for several games before the All Star breaks, so

that's encouraging. Probably in the next two weeks or so, they need a trade for a competent forward like a boy and mcdonovitch or Kyle Kuzma to give Lebron and Anthony Davis real spot up threats to throw out too, and then don't play Russ and crunch time and have Lebron hit more pull up jump shots. That's really the recipe to cleaning up these crunch time situations. Dude. Look at the schedule, look at where they're at in the standings. You convert three or four of these crunch time losses

into wins. All of a sudden, they're up around there. They're like the fifth seed in the West right now. So that's a lot that can be cleaned up there, just by some some execution stuff and game plan stuff with the Lakers. Alright, moving on to the Memphis Grizzlies. So before we talk about the Grizzlies, I want to do my last little quick hitter. So um, I've seen a lot of people complaining about Janice and acting as though he's fallen off a cliff and he's not the

same player. Now. There are some statistics to watch out for. He's shooting like scent outside the restricted area this year. That's awful. But everything comes down to the fact that the team, because of injuries, is significantly less talented than Janice is usually playing with. Way too often when we're discussing individual player performance, especially with the box score, we

don't appropriately actor in the circumstances around you. This is why I've been so high on Lebron lately and why I keep telling you guys, he's still a top five player in the league. He's playing with one of the worst supporting casts in basketball and playing at an extremely high level and winning all of his shifts. That's why I've been pushing that so much. But what like what happens when you lose all of your spot up shooting

all of a sudden, teams can pack the paint. If I'm an on ball defender and I'm guarding Janice and they have lots of spot up shooting, I need to give ground and concede shots to Janice for the sake of me being able to protect the room at least as best as I can against that enormous human being. But if all the guys are behind me and they've got my back, I can now press up into Janice in a way that I can't usually do. Now all

of those perimeter jump shots are more contested. Now I can get into his handle a little bit more, which allows me to disrupt his rhythm. And so as a result, his perimeter shooting has gone down one. Lebron's having a really rough perimeter shooting season. You want to know why, because he's on his worst shooting team since he came into the league, which literally for a long time, which has put him in a situation where defenders are pressing up on him his shot quality is lower and the

jumpers are missing. When was the last time Lebron had a really poor jump shooting season? Two thousand fifteen, when half the year j R. Smith wasn't there before the trade deadline and we got to the playoffs and Kevin Love got hurt, and then Kyrie Irving was playing hurt the entire time, and then eventually did get hurt. The worst shooting team he was around a lot of Mozgov, a lot of Matthew Dellavedova, a lot of Sean Marion. Suddenly they're helping up, helping behind Lebron, pushing up onto

him on the ball. The shot quality goes down. So all I'm saying is like, look, is it true that Janice is not a very good perimeter shooter. Yeah, but you knew that in two thousand twenty one when he was holding up a trophy. Okay, so don't don't overthink this guy's The Bucks are down all their spot of shooting. That makes it a lot harder for team for Johannice to play the same way that he played before. That's why he's shooting poorly. He's still the best player in

the world in my opinion. I'm not going to change that unless he goes into the postseason with a healthy Bucks and doesn't play well, or unless I see somebody visibly play better in a postseason run. Let's not rehash the history of Janice over a little bit of bad basketball, all right, Let's get moving. So the Grizzlies. They beat up on the Suns yesterday for their tenth consecutive win. Some quality wins in there too. They beat the Kings, the Pelicans, and the Pacers. But they are in a

relatively easy stretch of their schedule. Since the start of December, the Memphis Grizzlies are eighteen and four, which is the best record in the NBA. They are ninth in offense, which is driven by the fact that they get twenty fast breakpoints per game over this stretch, which is second in the NBA. In that span, their first in defense and fourth and rebounding. So they're winning the way they

usually do. They're defending really well, they're forcing a lot of turnovers, they're running it down your throat in transition, and then when they get into that half court environment, it's a steady diet of John Morant, with everybody relentlessly attacking the offensive glass. A couple of specific things I wanted to hit on John Morant's m v P push and the Jaring's X and Brandon Clark grouping. So um, Memphis Grizzlies fans are gonna want jhn morn to get

a lot of MVP consideration. But I wanted to kind of go over his case a little bit with you guys, and I want to and I'm really curious to hear you guys opinion, So please drop your opinions in the comments. Jaws averaging and eight this year on fifty century shooting, which is fine. The Grizzlies are four points better provene Hunter possessions when he's on the floor versus when he's off, and they have the second best record in the league, two games back of Boston. So on the surface, looks

like a really damn good m v P case. But let's take a closer look. What is my m v P criteria? If you guys, remember best player in the league? Are you in that conversation? Are you the best player in the best team in the league, So basically individual success, team success, and then lastly, value like how desperately does the team needs you? In order to succeed. So let's

look at the best player in the league. Thing. First, I think Jaws having an unbelievable season, but there are probably eight players who are absolutely playing better all around basketball. And then John Moran, j Honese playing better ball than Job this year, Nicola Yokis play better ball than Job this year, Joel and Beat playing better ball than Job this year. Kevin Durant playing better bald than Jaw this year. Lebron James, Yeah he's playing. He's a better player than

Jah right now. Luca don Chi, Yeah, he's better than John. Steph Curry better than Job, Jason Tatum better than Job right now. Now. Five of those guys are also on great teams that will get m VP consideration. Janice Yokichen beat Katie and Tatum. All five of those guys are also right near the top of the standing, so you're not gonna get any sort of leg up there with the Grizzlies in their record. And all five of those guys are much much, much better defensive players than John Rand.

So if all of those other factors are relatively close, John is just gonna lose to those five guys. He probably won't even get a top he probably won't even finish top five and voted. Now we move on to the most valuable portion. So this Grizzlies roster is insanely talented. So they're pretty damn good without him, just like they

were last year. They've won four straight games when John Urant doesn't play, and there are only four points better proe hundred possessions when John Morant is on the floor, which you honese. There plus five on off with Yokich, their plus twenty four on off with Embiid, their plus twelve on off with Kevin Durant, their plus twelve on off with Jayson Tatum. There plus six on off. So you get the point once again. If the teams are all close and all five of those guys are gonna

get the nod over John Moran. So this is where his opportunity is. It's the best team in the league. Phase here. If the Grizzlies are this good and they stay healthy and they maintain that for the rest of the season, they might be able to separate themselves from the rest of the field in the standings. If the Grizzlies finish with the best record in the league with several games separating them and the next best team. Now you've got to start thinking about John Moran is a

dead serious m VP candidate. But right now, I'm sorry, Memphis fans, it's not a take about Jaw. He's young, he's incredible, he's exciting. That Dunkey had the other night was just completely absurd. I'm a huge Jaw fan, but he's not m v P this year, at least not yet, and he needs a lot more to go as a in order to really truly enter that conversation. Jared Jackson Jr. Seventeen five and seven UM leads the league in stocks that steals plus blocks. He is now the runaway favorite

for Defensive Player of the Year. FANDUL has him at minus one thirty five to win and Brook Lopez in second place at plus five fifty. He's also giving you one point one six points per possession in ISSO, which is eighteenth in the league among players who have run at least fifteen ISOs, and he's shooting thirty seven percent from three on four attempts, which gives you that pick and pop stuff that I was talking about. But he's also been getting a lot of threes trailing the play

in transition. It's a classic way to attack teams in their transition defense. The center loves to run back to the rim. It's where they train him ever since he was a kid. It's the first responsibility for the big and transition defense. And if the big trails the play on offense, he's probably gonna get some wide open threes from the top of the key and that's where John

Jaren Jackson Jr. Does a lot of damage. But what I wanted to but the reason why I brought up Jaren Jackson is the pairing with Brandon Clark is super interesting. If you guys, remember after the Grizzlies beat the Pelicans, which I believe is like a week or so ago, I talked about how I really liked the Jaren Jackson and uh Jaren Jackson and Brandon Clark pairing in that lineup, and it was a huge part of how the Grizzlies

won that game. But if you remember, I looked into their their numbers when the two of them played excuse me, when the two of them played together that year, and it really wasn't that great um and there was you know, the data didn't really match up with what I had seen with my eye test, But what I said was, I hope they go to that line up more frequently because I think it could work. And they've been writing that combination a ton during this wind streak and now

for the season. In five hundred and forty eight possessions with Brandon Clark and Jaren Jackson on the floor together, the Grizzlies are plus twelve per one possessions, which is fantastic, and they have a one hundred and two defensive rating, which is absolutely stifling. When you put two athletes of that caliber in your front cord and they're consistently flying

around trying to block shots, it's terrifying. It dissuades people from even trying to drive to the basket, and it's a huge part of what has made this Grizzlies defense good. And then lastly, Desmond Baine. He's the biggest swing factor for this team. I've been talking about that on stop because the one glaring weakness with the Grizzlies is their

half court offense. And it's been a little concerning because even though John is still playing really well, his jump shooting, particularly from three, has really really uh declined and so that's gonna be concerning in a half court environment. You need Desmond Bain to be a legitimate second side creator or a guy that can create when jaws on the bench in order to give you a chance to win

UH significant um to make a significant playoff run. UH. Desmond Baine's first nine games back from the injury UH seventeen points per game on thirty nine percent shooting, which is not very good. But he's a rhythm based player. Last two games twenty seven points per game on sixty five percent shooting, So he's starting to get his rhythm back.

The Grizzlies desperately need him to be great. And when they get into the postseason, they're going to attack John Moran defensively and try to get out in transition and avoid the Grizzlies half court environment, and then they're gonna try to stop the Grizzlies from their transition attack. So you need to have another guy who can create shots off the bounce, and Desmond Baine is going to be the guy to watch when they get to that point.

All right, quickly before we get out of here, the Boston Celtics, so they want again in Charlotte last night, Jason Tatum fifty one nine in five. It's his first fifty point game of the year, but that's Jayson tatum seventh forty point game of the year, which is insane. He's plus five hundred twin m v P right now,

which I think is the fourth best odds. I think that's a really good value play that people should look at, if for no reason other than the fact that the Celtics have the most talent and if they end up running away with the best record in the league. Similarly to what I said with John Morant, you know you're not gonna care about Yokich or you know, uh, you're not gonna care about Yoki or Kevin Durant or any of those guys if the Celtics just are five games

better than everybody in the standings. And so I'm not saying I Predictatum will win m VP. I still my gut, still says j Honice. I think he's gonna go on a run to end the season. But plus five hundred, it's pretty day him good odds. Considering, I think there's there's a better than one in five chance that Tatum ends up winning the award. Um that's seven straight wins for Boston, their third in offense and fifth and defense

during this win streak. The reason why that's encouraging is this is the first time this is this season they've been consistently good on both ends of the floor. To start the year, it was all offense and their defense wasn't very good. During the stretch where they were struggling, they were actually defending crazy well. It was their offense that fell apart on on account of just them missing a ton of threes um. But during this stretch they're killing it on both ends of the floor, So that's

super encouraging. Malcolm Brogden is playing ridiculously well during the win streak. I want to show you his per thirty six numbers because I think he's only averaging like nineteen points per game, But per thirty six, Malcolm Brogden during this win streak is averaging twenty six points, six rebounds, and five assists on from the field, fifty seven percent

from three and from the line. Just outrageous efficiency. Why am I bringing up per thirty six because when you get into the postseason rotations shrink, they will play him more minutes, and right now on a per minute basis, he's playing like a superstar. So do I expect him to play like a superstar for the entire postseason. No. But my point is is they have added a significant perimeter piece that makes them way better, and they're going to be able to play him thirty plus minutes in

the playoffs. They're keeping his minutes down now because he's got a little bit of an injury history, but I expect them to bump his minutes up in the playoffs, and so that's really encouraging. The last thing I want to say about the Celtics. I had a lot of Celtics fans complain at me last week and the on Twitter and on the YouTube comments about my criticisms of

them as it pertains to their postseason struggles. And I see a lot of things like, oh, Jason will just never be convinced that the Celtics are right no matter how many games they win, and and and what one person in particular was like, Oh, there, there, He's only gonna finally get on board when they get the trophy. That's not necessarily true. There's a reason why I feel the way I do about the Celtics, and it stems from the conversation we had at the beginning of the show.

What happens in the postseason versus the regular season. It's very different. Winning seven games in a row is impressive in the regular season, but it doesn't change the way that I feel about this team in the postseason. In last year's postseason, even when they were winning in the Bucks Series and in the Heat Series, they were demonstrating

significant um inconsistency in their decision making. So why did I pick the Warriors to win the Finals in seven games last year, even though the Celtics I said were more talented, Is because I saw in playoff basketball, really informative playoff basketball. I saw the Celtics struggle against good teams with their consistency and execution and decision making. So that was very informative to me about how the finals

would go, and that's literally what got them beat. So what I need to see for me to trust the Celtics is not necessarily for them to get the trophy. But hey, let's say they play the Bucks in the first round or second round, or let's say they play the Nets in the second round. Let's say they play the UM the Celtics or the U the sixers in

the second round. I want to see the Celtics put together a seven game series against the Kevin Durant Janice and beat somebody like that and consistently execute for seven games where if they lose, it's because the other team had played really damn well and not because Jayson Tatums stopped trying to drive and kick or Jalen Brown turned the ball over six times. That's what I want to see. I just want to see them show what they didn't show against the Bucks in Miami last year, which is

take care of business. When you have a significant talent advantage, execute on a on a game by game basis, to demonstrate that you're dead serious about what you need to do to get the final trophy. Against Miami and Milwaukee last year, they were so talented that it didn't matter. Then they got to Golden State, who is nearly as talented as them, and it did matter, and they lost

three games in a row. And when everybody knew they had to take care of the ball in the game six, they turned it over twenty times or whatever it was that they did. That's so I'm not over here like screw the Celtics. I'm not gonna cheer for them or or appreciate them until they get the trophy. No, no, no, we just gotta what is the best indicator of future

performance past performance. The last time we saw the Celtics play and that playoff environment, they put together three bad playoff series in a row, where they won two of them because they were way more talented. Show me some good playoffs series. That's when I'll get on board. Alright, guys, that is all I have for today. Like I said, we're gonna be back tomorrow. Um tomorrow, We're gonna be covering three games instant reaction Style Raptors, Bucks, Blazers, Nuggets

and seventy sixers Clippers. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support and I'll see you guys. Then the volume