Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry Game-Winner lifts Warriors past Thunder, Mavericks-Nuggets, Knicks-Bucks

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Hope all you guys are having a great night so far that you got some big plans for the weekend. I've taken the weekend off, but not before hitting this jam packed Friday night slate as we start the NBA midseason tournament, which I'm coming around on in a bunch of different ways. We'll talk about in this second, but

we're gonna talk about Golden State Warriors. Another game winner, this time from Steph Curry, a scoop shot over Chet Holmger in a nasty one, a very very entertaining game as the thunder without shake Gills of Alexander pushed the Warriors to the brink, but Steph puts them over the top. We had the Bucks improved a three and two with a much improved defensive effort against the New York Knicks. We're going to talk about that game from the perspective

of both teams. And the last, but not least, the Denver Nuggets man handle the Dallas Mavericks. And I say that because physically it was a complete mismatch on both ends of the floor, and there's a lot going on with the Denver Nuggets defense that I find to be very interesting. So we got three games that were hitting tonight from the perspective of all six teams. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel in case you haven't done so already.

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on there. So you're gonna want to pay attention to the Twitter feed and the last but not least, drop mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. We haven't had time today to hit them, but we will hit them starting again next week. So drop those in the YouTube comments and we'll get to them next week. All right, let's talk some basketball. So Draymond Green talks about after Klay Thompson's game winner that it's just a lot more fun to go to work for the Golden State Warriors this year.

It's interesting because, like, there are specific markers that I always look for for truly great teams, right, And like, you know, the ability to win on the road is a huge marker there, right, The ability to win in clutch situations is a huge marker there. Right. I agree with Draymond. The chemistry, the likability of a team is a big deal. Why because you will face adversity along the way, and if you don't know how to get along, that's gonna get in the way in a lot of

different ways. This Warriors team is not perfect. They are still really struggling to get stops and crunch time. We're going to talk about that here in a minute. But they are definitely in a much better place here through five or six games than they were last year, a lot closer to the vibe that you got in that

twenty twenty two season. It's just a couple of smart role player signings, right, Like, just look at how much Chris Paul and Dario Sariz just as the basic entry point of the bench defense has vastly improved this team.

Now that Jonathan Kaminga and Moses Moody are consistently attacking with advantages in those situations, how much more successful those two guys have been, and how much more consistent they've been offensively, right, And then just in general, that overall vibe and the way that's allowing the group to stay committed to the details when they go on the road. That group was not playing any defense or grabbing any

re when they went on the road. And like obviously in an eighty two game sample, you're gonna have games where you don't defend super well, and the Thunder sure as hell gave the Warriors some issues tonight, but for the most part, they're hitting a lot of those little checkboxes that I look at for teams that have a

legitimate chance to win a title. And like again, I think a lot of people were down on the Warriors coming into this season based on what happened last year, but I think people were overthinking it a little bit. They had the same top six guys that they won the title with two years ago. That's why, in spite of all that, I kept them in my list of top tier contenders, and I think it's even possible that they're better than I expected them to be going into

this season. But it's a fun game. So Thunder without Shake, Gildas Alexander they're leaning on again. This is a team that has a ton of shot creation down the board. Obviously, chet Holmgren is like we think of him as as someone that's helping them so much in rim protection and giving like a little higher level offensive weapon out of the five spot than what they were getting out of jay Lynn Williams last year, right, But also he can do a lot of stuff with the ball in his hands.

They were in a ghost screen with him in the fourth quarter with him and Isaiah Joe where he was the ball handler. Imagine that taking your center and setting a ball screen on him with your one and having him pop to the three point line. Again, that's not something that's completely uncommon in the NBA right now. We're seeing it from guys like Jokich and Simonis, and you know, a bam At a Bio does it from time to time. Anthony Davis does it as well. But for a rookie,

it's pretty high level stuff. Draymond Green waxed eloquent after the game about just how impressed he was by chet Holmgren's overall poise as a rookie, right, and like shake Yil just Alexander kind of takes over this offense in a lot of ways, almost like in a heliocentric manner, and so they kind of like went into a little bit more of an equal opportunity driving kick type of game, right, And it turned out that Jalen Williams in particular, could

just beat anybody off the dribble and get into the paint. Lou Dort was just constantly finding himself wide open as the Warriors would lose him on the perimeter, really good at using the pump fake to relocate and generate high quality shots from and then Josh Giitty is a really high level shot creator, did a nice job leveraging angles and ball screens to get downhill and hit those little short shots over the top of the shorter Warriors defenders.

Right and like again, like the Warriors, this is a classic trap game, right, you know, you just want a tough game off of a game winner. You're going on a road trip, gonna be on the road for a little while. You end up in Oklahoma City, a tough game, and the young kids are playing hard and shay Gil just Alexander's out right, so like, you're not taking the game as seriously as you might normally do, and they give you a bunch of trouble, but you just have

to execute down the stretch to win the game. And there were three possessions down the stretch that the Warriors executed perfectly on the offensive end to pull out the win. There's a stepf split in pick and roll and he went down the lane probably could have got a and one with this little up and under layup the classic Draymond fake handoff where he fakes the hand off to Steph, it goes Downhill, draws that rim protector, throws the lob pass to Gary Payton at the rim for the layup,

and then on the final possession, don't mess around. Don't bring a ball screen, because that allows the defense to double team you more easily. Even though loud Dort's an excellent perimeter defender, Steph has a better chance of beating lou Dort one on one than he does any other combination of two players because inevitably they're gonna end up

trapping or blitzing in that situation anyway. And so Steve Kerr leaves Steph on an island and just beats lou Dort with a basic isolation move to his right, gets downhill, sees Chet coming and there's I screened. I didn't screen somebody else screenshot. I retweeted it. But there's a picture on my Twitter feed of the ball at the top of its arc as Chet Holmgren is fully extended up to block the shot and it's literally just barely over

his fingertips. And I can't get over how insane it is to be able to have the touch while also making the adjustment to the arc to deal with the shot blocker like he's as he's going downhill in this hectic last possession situation. He's making a calculation about how high he needs to shoot this scoop shot while also making sure he has the touch on it to get

it into the basket. Just an unbelievable play from Steph Curry, who continues to just be playing at, in my opinion, the highest level I've ever seen Steph Curry play at, at least on the offensive end. Maybe he, you know, isn't as quick as he used to be or something like that, but I haven't seen any sort of tangible difference in his speed, and if anything, he's stronger, which has made him a more impactful defensive player, and the offensive command of the game is at a level that

I've never seen from Steph Curry. I think he's peaking right now, and that's good news for an exciting Warriors team that's suddenly getting really big production out of a bunch of places that you wouldn't expect it. Right, Like Jonathan Kaminga and Moses Moody are both playing really good basketball this year. Chris Paul can't make a three point shot to save his damn life and is still doing

a great job running that bench unit. Dario Sarz is going to struggle with rihim protection and that bench unit did not defend as well as they normally do in tonight's game. But again, the whole team didn't defend super well in tonight's game. But outside of like a couple of handful nitpicky things, a lot of things have gone really well in terms of the offseason tweaks that they've made. The golten call, I thought it was ridiculous that anybody

thought that the basket should have been overturned. To put it simply, like, it's just a matter of what you would do in any sort of normal basketball game. Right, did Steph make the layup? Yes, unquestionably. I saw a lot of people on Twitter saying like, oh, like, you never know what could have happened if the rim wasn't, you know, vibrating differently because Draymond hit it, and it's like, cut the shit man. Steph made the layup that was

going in. Like the Warriors had the ball and the thunder could not get a stop, and so the Warriors deserve to win if anything. Josh Gitty also pulled on the bottom of the net, which is the same type of offensive goaltending type of situation. I thought the refs did what the rest should do in that situation, which is like, hey, who deserves to win the basketball game

based on what happened on this basketball play? And it's like the Warriors, So don't get super nitpicky in the rule book to take away what was a made basket for the player on the floor, that is the best player on the Warriors, who picked on a match up he liked, got to his spot, took and made a shot. You know, if they deserve to win, that's simple. The one thing I will say with the Warriors right now

that's of significant concern is their clutch defense. We talked about this after the Klay Thompson game winner, but they're consistently giving up baskets when the game's within five with less than five minutes left. That's something that they're going to have to figure out. A lot of it's execution related, Like Steve Kerr went with an offense defense sub situation at the end of the game, bas could bring in Chris Paul, and I think it was it was either

Chris and Klay or Christ and Staff. I can't remember, but I think it was Chris and Clay, and then he would bring in Kamena and Wiggins for those two and just kind of sub him in and out for offense defense subs, right, And there was a play out of a time out where they bring Mark Dagenell sets up just a basic backscreen action for lou Dort and Wiggins, and Kaminga just botched the switch, and you're like, I mean, like, what's the point of doing offense defense subs if your

best perimeter defenders are gonna come in and just not do their jobs right, you know, Like I thought Draymond Green had a mistake that he made on the defensive possession against Chet, like the one at the top of the key where Check kind of sort of ran him over.

Like Chet catches the ball on the perimeter and Draymond's being super physical with him and they're not calling it because in general, Draymond gets away with a lot of physical contact and like in that situation, in a late game situation, they're probably not gonna call it, which is smart, right, Like be physical there. You want to play physical defense in crunch time because you're more likely to get away

with it there. And you know, in most cases, like I said, most cases, the refs are gonna be hesitant to blow their whistle. Right, Well, Check kind of makes a move downhill, and again Draymond just holds your ground, hold your ground, and keep playing that physical defense. As soon as you flop, you make the ref make a call, right, And like, so Draymond flops, which then forces the ref to blow the whistle. It's like a fifty to fifty call.

He decides to give the blocking foul, right, and then when you go to the monitor, there's definitely not enough to overturn it because like it's a fifty to fifty call, right, And so you put yourself in that predicament, and then Check gets two free throws. Like, just hold your ground, play solid defense, keep being physical. Check probably turns it over there or misses because you're playing physical defense on

a player who's really thin. Right. So, like again, the defensive execution down the stretch of these games for the Warriors is something they're gonna have to figure out because they've had to play damn near perfect basketball to get out of these last couple of games. And again, like there's a version of this where Clay misses that shot, where Steph misses that shot, and things look a little bit differently, and win is a win is a win. I'm not trying to undercut it. But there's always areas

for opportunity. And for the Warriors right now, their crunch time defense is a problem. It comes down for the most part to perimeter defense, and that kind of was an issue throughout the game. They're just really struggling right now to contain slashers, you know, and like Jaylen Williams is a big, strong athlete who can beat people off the dribble, right, and that that's the kind of matchup that will give the Warriors problems from time to time,

and they obviously struggle. They struggled at the end of the Kings game with that, right, Like Malik Monk just a hard rip through on Gary Payton to get all the way to the rim for a layup, and you know, again, like a lot of that's execution. That's scary. Payton, that's one of your best permitter defenders just has to do a better job, right. That's you know Kamina and Wiggins on that box switch, those are two of your better perimeter defenders. They just got to do a better job.

That's Draymond Green flopping on chet Holmger and that's the best defender on your team. He's got to do a better job. And so as a team, that's the exciting part. Is there in a really good spot and they still have a lot of things that they can get better

at at this point. I thought it was interesting too that Draymond talked about the two way guys, or the guys that went down to play with these Santa Clara Warriors, Trace Jackson Davis and Brandon Pizemski and not have and those guys in the locker room, he said, was kind of something that sapped the team of energy. And I thought that was really interesting because I would agree, you know, young guys, young athletes are a great way to counter when an older team is struggling to deal with a

younger team on the road on the thunderfront. I thought that was a great example of just how exciting this team can be. Draymond talked a lot about how impressed he was by chet Holmgren just not making rookie mistakes and specifically referred to him as a problem. Jalen Williams is kind of in the weirdest spot on this team from the standpoint of usage, because Chet's involved in most of the screening actions. Shake Gil just Alexander's getting all

the shots. Josh Gitty's basically your second side creator, right And so like a lot of times, Jalen Williams is kind of an ancillary piece, and you got to see tonight what he can do when he has the ball in his hands for a larger portion of the game, and that is he's a great athlete who can beat people off the dribble and create his own shot. And Jalen Williams is a very very good passer for a young wing. It's funny. I've always referred to him as like Jalen Brown with the ability to pass at a

higher level. That's kind of the ceiling that I see Jaylen Williams being able to reach. That was a fun game. Again, like a tough, tough matchup with the Warriors without Shake Gilders Alexander. The Warriors are a great schematic half court defense that are going to try to take away the things that make you comfortable. But you were able to

win with brute force advantages. You know, Josh Giddy is truly gifted at scoring over the top of shorter defenders, and that little pop shot and hook shot that he has in the lane is a real weapon for them right now, all right, moving on to Knicks Bucks. So it's funny because the Bucks have a much better defensive effort and they win, and all the talks surrounding after the game, it's like, oh, they sat Brook Lopez in

a deeper drop coverage. And for those of you guys who haven't seen it yet, I did a huge deep dive on the Bucks and their defensive struggles coming into tonight's game. You can find that on our YouTube feed just a little bit further back. Actually it should be

the video right before this one. But like, I kind of feel bad for Adrian Griffin in a lot of ways because he's the latest victim in a long line of people that I've seen fall into this trap where it's like, as soon as your team starts playing poorly, you blame the coach. It's like, it's the most you know, recurring theme from fans that I see covering the NBA. Like I saw it with Frank Vogel when he was with the Lakers. I saw it with I've seen Warriors

fans do it with Steve Kerr. I still, to this day see Warriors fans complain about Steve Kerr on Twitter NonStop, as if he's not one of the two or three best coaches in the NBA. Like Lakers fans are still doing it to Darvin Ham even though he's doing an amazing job with the Lakers. Like it's a consistent theme that I see. It's an easy target. It's easy to blame the coach when the players you see are not

playing as well as they could be. And too often we don't, you know, apply the requisite amount of blame to the players for not doing their jobs. And so Adrian Griffin has gotten a lot of criticism for running a too aggressive pick and roll scheme, basically keeping his rim protectors too far away from the basket, which is hurting their ability to protect on the back line. And so I was excited to kind of dive into the film today and really look into it and try to

see what specifically was happening on that front. And like, don't get me wrong, like there were some issues there. There were several possessions that I saw where Brooke Lopez or Bobby portis in particular, were too far away from the basket in pick and roll coverages and not in a position to protect the rim. Giannis as well, not often enough in his lowman position where he can be a really impactful help defender. But at the same time, that was like maybe a fourth of the issues that

I saw. The vast majority of the issues that I saw were guys were just doing a bad job. They were just playing bad basketball. And like there's video of this. I did a whole thread on my Twitter feed, So at Underscore Jason LT you're gonna find a full Twitter feed of all the clips that I put together of the Bucks defense. But like the point of attack, guys were dying on screens too often, competing on the glass. In particular, the the screen defenders Brook Lopez and Bobby

Ports were they positioned poorly. Yeah, but they also were doing a bad job. Like they also were just straight up not doing a very good job. The help and recover backside guys not doing a good job in terms of making the right decisions for when to commit to helping on a drive versus staying home with a shooter, either helping too far off of a good shooter or staying home off the ball when they should be helping. They were leaving their small guards on islands in post

up situations instead of helping. Like nobody was competing on the defensive glass, Like it was a travesty down the line in terms of execution, and like a lot of people don't realize, like scheme is only half the battle. The scheme can get you so far, but if the execution isn't there to match it, it doesn't matter. And a lot of times it's kind of unfair to properly evaluate a defensive scheme until you actually see it executed properly. Right. I talk about this all the time with drop coverage.

A lot of times people will say, like, oh, drop cut is flawed, and don't get me wrong, drop coverage has its flaws, but in theory, when it's executed properly, it works. If the guy navigates the screen and applies back pressure, the pull up jump shots not there, the pull up jump shots not there, not there, the guard has to work downhill. If the guard has to work downhill, the rim protector's waiting for him, and he can sit there and stay behind the roller and the ball handler. Again,

like execution is the majority of the battle. And like, did Adrian Griffin make some adjustments today? Yeah, he did. Lopez was sitting further back around the rim, and what do you have five blocks in this game? Like, definitely a smarter defensive strategy for this particular team, right, especially against a New York Knicks team that doesn't have a lot of pull up shooting outside of Jalen Brunson. Right, So, like I get it. But at the end of the day, also,

everyone just did a better job. Dame's been getting cooked all over the floor all season long, but he finally sat in a damn defensive stance at the end of the game and slid his feet and got a stop on Jalen Brunson. He got a huge steal on Jalen Brunson on a dribble handoff too, Like Dame is capable of being a much better defensive player than he's shown to this point in the season. Right, Just in general,

it was a much better effort from the Bucks. And so again, like the Adrian Griffin is just a coach trying to figure out what works for his team. Is there will there potentially be a time thirty forty games in or maybe you have to take a look at a coach and see if he is potentially a bad fit. Yeah, but we're certainly not there after five games. We're not there after five games, especially when it's clear on tape that the players just aren't doing their job. But they

did a much better job in this nixt game. There's still a lot of room for improvement, by the way, right like, you won by five and you had to make twenty out of thirty nine threes to win the game, Right Like, you still gave up a million offensive rebounds. This is a Bucks team that was second in defensive rebound percentage last year. Coming into the night they were fourteenth, and they gave up a million offensive rebounds. Again, right the crunch time offense. If it wasn't Dame getting to

the foul line, there wasn't a whole lot else there. Right, Dame got a bucket on a back cut, and he had a really nice three on a catch and shoot coming off of a screen. But for the most part they looked a little stuck in the mud. Offensively, There's still some issues with the Dame Giannis pick and roll, where like Giannis, for whatever reason, is like picking and popping to the top of the key. They're not running it enough. When they run it, they're not spacing it properly,

and Giannis isn't rolling hard. So like that, there's a lot of area for opportunity here. Dame is still, you know, not quite in full rhythm where it feels like his because Dame is like really in full rhythm when he's hitting. You know, when he's consistently getting seven to eight threes in a game, you know, two or three times a week, right,

like that that's the Dame. When you know Dame Lillard is really there's he kind of has been closing these games with savvy in a lot of ways, right, Like he identified that the Knicks were in the penalty early in the fourth quarter and just started putting a lot of downhill pressure to try to draw fouls and kept getting to the free throw line. Like he's a heady basketball player, really good half court basketball player, is gonna find ways to impact winning. But like he's actually capable

of going an entire level above that. This team can rebound better, this team can score in the half court a lot better. They still can defend better. I don't think they'll ever be an elite defensive team with this personnel, there's a debate to be had about whether or not they're gonna have to upgrade the two guard position. I don't think they're getting enough out of either of Conton

or Malik Beasley right now. So like there's a chance down the line that you have to do something at the deadline to try to shore up your perimeter defense next to Dame right But in the meantime, you're three and two, and there's a lot of things that you can get better with with just this particular group, and tonight I thought was a good step in that direction. Remember, nothing happens overnight with this stuff. You don't just go

from playing shitty basketball to playing good basketball. It's baby steps along the way, and I thought tonight was a good positive step for the Bucks in the right direction. And I think it's ridiculous that we are sitting at three and two in the story at the Bucks are sitting at three and two, and the story all day is whether or not the Bucks should fire Adrian Griffin, which is just completely ridiculous. On the nixt front, I have not watched this team particularly closely this year. I

have a plan too, in the next week. As you guys know, we're tweaking our format. We're doing less instant reactions and more deep dives. And obviously there are clear things popping off the screen right Like Jalen Brunson looks a lot better now than he did in preseason in the first couple games of the season, looks like he's finally in rhythm and starting to get the right amount of lift on his shot. Julius Randall is off to

just a horrid start to the season. And again, like everything with the Knicks is always about like Julius and Jalen and them playing like superstars. When they play like superstars, they're really hard to beat because they're so good defensively in rebounding, or I shouldn't say, they're capable of being really good defensively, and they're very physical defense and they rebound extremely well. Long as they can do that stuff, they're capable of being a really dangerous team. They overpack

the paint, give up too many wide open threes. That was a huge problem in this Bucks game tonight. And then Julius Randall is really really inconsistent. Obviously, not having RJ. Barrett hurt the offense in this game as well. I don't want to talk too much more about the Knicks because I'd rather do a deep dive on them, So

we'll probably end up hitting him next week. So Knicks fans keep an eye on the feed at some point next week, and we'll do a deep dive on everything that they are struggling with and succeeding with on both ends of the floor at this point. All right, Nuggets MAVs, you know, there's this. I was watching the game today and the MAVs definitely got a little a little bit more loose with their offense in the fourth quarter as they started to kind of sort of make it close.

Kind of one of those classic like fake comeback vibes, you know what I mean, where a team is clearly winning by twenty ish and then suddenly they let up defensively and the other team kind of makes a little bit of a run and then the starters come back

in and they kind of regain control of the game. Right. So, I like, I'm watching in the early third quarter as the Nuggets are pushing it to twenty, and I'm looking down and I'm like, I'm like, this Dallas team is having a hell of a time scoring, and we did

a lot of deep dives. So for those of guys who didn't see the deep dives last week or this week, we did Dallas, we did Memphis, we did Boston for deep dives, and then I think we might have done one or two more if I remember correctly, But we did a deep dive on Dallas in their offense, and at the time of the video, they were the very best offense in the league, and Luca was playing arguably

better than anybody in the league. And Kyrie Irving was out during that stretch and he's back now, right, And so like, you're bringing an incredibly high powered offense into Denver.

Not only that, a specifically high powered offense that should give Denver issues, right, because it's a pull up shooting team, pull up shooting guard in Kyrie Irving that will pull your pick and roll coverage as far out, and Luka Donci a matchup attacker who can pick on guys like Michael Porter Junior and Jamal Murray or Nicole Yokich if he chooses to right. So in theory, they should give

them a lot of problems. And I'm watching the game and I'm like, holy shit, Like Michael Porter juniors holding up on switches against Luca really well. They are causing major frustrations for this Mavericks team on the offensive end of the floor. Like then, I sat down and I looked at the numbers again, and I knew they were pretty good defensively in the first few games. I think I had him at like seventh after three or four games.

But go at the time, in the middle of the third quarter, I pull up the defensive ratings and Denver's popped up to fifth in defensive rating. They are they are playing some really high level defense right now, which is something that I don't think they ever did last year,

aside from a few stretches in the playoffs. So like again, like this is some really really exciting stuff for seeing out of Denver reminds me of like I saw this with the Warriors in that like twenty fifteen twenty sixteen stretch where it kind of seemed like they were almost addicted to winning, where like, even though they've already won a title, even though they're already in commanding position in the standings, even though there's no real importance to the

night to night games, they just kind of seemed like they were addicted to winning basketball games, and so they kept out playing teams that were more desperate than them, and it kind of became a cultural thing that is still stuck around in Golden State to this day. And like, I'm kind of starting to get that vibe from this Denver Nuggets team. Like every individual player, regardless of their role,

is like super bought in. Like Michael Porter Junior is a super skilled offensive player who is operating in a smaller role, right, but this is a dude that is sliding his feet and bothering Luka Doncic. He's kind of become a really good help and recover guy. There were several possessions today where he was able to get into the lane and dig down and bother a ball handler and then close out. And because he's got such great length, he can really bother a three point shooter on a closeout.

He had a couple on Grant Williams that he really bothered him. And so like, yeah, Aaron Gordon, who's like totally embraced this perimeter stopper role mixed with like post mismatch attacking, mixed with like running the floor in transition and operating on that back line. Jamal Murray has played like an All Star to start this season. Peyton Watson has been a revelation on both ends of the floor as a switch defender. He's knocking down his three point shot.

He's a devastating transition weapon. He's like like this, this team is clicking at a level that doesn't actually make sense given their level of urgency. And again, like, I know they had, you know, a random couple of weeks here or there last season where they defend well, but for the most part, it wasn't a cultural thing for that team. They came out the gates defending poorly, and they finished the season defending poorly. This year, from day one, they seem to be so much more locked in and

engaged in those specific details. And when you combine that with them being the most unguardable offense in the NBA, it makes them terrifying. And like they look clearly like the championship favorite at this point. I think they're gonna win this mid season tournament. You know, like Nikola Jokic can get twenty five to thirty points without ever really

having to take a shot that's difficult for him. The toughest shot he took tonight was a catch and shoot three at the end a halftime or right before the end of the first half where he had to like kind of pivot into a three on the move, and Jolkic was fired up. It was like one of the more you know, you don't see him be very demonstrative from time to time, but he was super demonstrative in this particular after this shot, you know, screaming to himself. It was like a moment for himself that he was

stoked that he made the shot. But it's like, aside from that, which was a bailout shot at the end of the clock, like it's all easy stuff that he's gonna make a lot of the time. You know that That's how we like the ability to get twenty five to thirty points without ever really having to go off script on offense and just basically be the folkrum. But all the shots you get in the offense or are shots he can make at a sixty five seventy percent clip.

So you keep looking up and it's like, oh, once again, Jokic, you know, twelve for fourteen from the field, and you're like, what the hell are we doing here? Man? You know, like it's this team is just clicking at a higher level than anybody else in the league right now. I know Boston's winning and winning by a lot, but I just can never trust that team until I see them execute in the half court in the late phases of the playoffs, and they just feel like the safest bet

right now. On the Dallas front, it really is this simple to me. Your transition defense was trash. That's ridiculous. You're too fast to get out run up and down the floor by that Nuggets team. That a lot of it was Luca. Luca kept making bad plays on offense and then bitch into the refs instead of running back. And you got to be great offensively to ever even have a chance against this Denver team, Like for two and a half quarters, they pretty much held you in check.

And you're not good enough defensively or on the glass to be able to hang with a team like Denver if you can't score at the rate you're capable of scoring. It was a problem that Luca was picking on Michael Porter Junior and couldn't get the defense into rotation. It was a significant problem throughout the game. Kyrie played pretty well, just couldn't hit a three point shot. Again, Like, the one of the consistent themes in this game is like

they have some dirty work guys that compete. They have guys that are trying their best to hold down the defense and rebounding areas of the game. Guys like Josh Green, guys like Grant Williams, guys like Derek Lively. But like still, it just felt like every time Denver missed a shot, there was Michael Porter Junior for an offensive rebound. There

was Aaron Gordon for an offensive rebound. When they were making their run there in the early fourth quarter, it was like back to back plays where like they just couldn't keep Aaron Gordon off the glass. And like that's the thing, is like that there's levels to this shit, right, And like Dallas looks pretty good. They look like a

great offense, they look like they've improved rebounding. They're better on defense than you would have expected them to be, and certainly a lot better than they were last year.

But like the problem is is like Denver also has an unguardable offense, except for they're also an outstanding rebounding team and this seas and have been an outstanding defensive team, and and that that that just goes to show you that, like as good of a job as they've done to try to kind of reconfigure this roster around Luca and Kyrie, like, there's still a whole other level they need to get to to be able to compete with the top teams

in the league. But again, they've been awesome through four games. I don't want to overreact to one game. Was a little disappointed in Luka Doncic tonight though, I thought that I thought that he would have done a better job picking apart that Denver Nuggets offense. All Right, guys, that is all I have for today. Is always I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We are going to take the weekend off and be back on Monday to break down several games from the weekend. The volume