Hoops Tonight - Suns are Nuggets TOP THREAT, Warriors SAVE season, Lakers-Bucks WILD similarities

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varies by jurisdiction, Voyden, Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See dkang dot com slash b ball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to tonight here at the Volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. If all of you guys are having an incredible week, it is good to be back at an awesome final ski trip of the year down in the South Lake Tahoe area. Skin Heavenly for

the first time ever. Unbelievable view going up that gondola out of that little strip by where the casinos are. You get to see the entirety of the lake and unbelievable conditions we had. They got a bunch of fresh powder before we showed up, and just got to have a good little kickback, one last little bit of fun before we get into the grind of the postseason. Bear

with me a little bit today. I was up at two am navigating a blizzard through the pass there as we headed back into Reno and connecting flights and Salt Lake and all that good stuff, and we're finally back home. A little bit brain fried, but I wanted to get some stuff out there from the incredible week of hoops we had while I was gone. So what we're gonna do the plan for right now. Obviously, as we go into the weekend, there's a kind of a funky NBA

schedule because of the NCAA tournament. So what we're gonna do today is, I'm gonna go over my four biggest takeaways from my time on vacation, X's and O's in the Phoenix Denver game from last night, a little bit more surface level stuff with some other stuff around the league is Obviously I wasn't watching as closely while I was out of town, So we're just gonna do a

quick touch on all those things around the league. Then we're gonna take the rest of the weekend off, and then starting Monday, Grind's Time Power Rankings, We're gonna start doing film sessions more regularly. We're gonna start building out our playoff previews from there too, should be a lot of fun. I'm really excited. You guys are the joefore we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. I mean a lot to me. If you guys take

a second scroll down hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating in a review on that front. Don't forget about my Twitter feed at underscore jsonlt, where I leave film threads from time to time, as well as show announcements In the last but not least, keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube comments so we can start hitting

them throughout the week. Next week, all right, let's talk some basketball. So my first big takeaway from my time out of town last week. I guess the last time we recorded a show was with the nerd SESSH guys last week on Friday, So it's been about a week. Number One, Phoenix is not better than Denver, but they are the biggest threat to knock off Denver in the Western Conference. I thought, even though, no, it's not just because the last night's game. I don't think last night's

game was some sort of big sweeping declaration. I saw the Sun's guy that I follow that tweeted something along the lines of like, oh man, we got to start rethinking the MVP race now by hold on, everyone, just chill out for just a second. Like it's a really weird game. Obviously, with Jamal Murray being out and with use of Nurkids being out, it just fundamentally alters the

entire dynamic of this particular matchup. But I do think that there are some things specifically in that matchup that pausedive for some issues which we're going to talk about, which is what I think does translate to that postseason

setting and what I think makes them the biggest threat. Obviously, Nurkic is just an important element of this matchup because he's one of the few guys in the league that can kinda sort of hang physically with Jokic, which gives Phoenix some more flexibility to defend actions two on two and one on one, especially with Jokics post ups, which can help them stay out of rotation. And then obviously when you take Murray out of the equation, it's just a huge drop off in terms of that second tier

shot creation. Oh Michael Porter Junior can scale up his offense, and honestly, he's been one of the stories in the last couple of the months for Denver just how good Michael Porter Junior has been offensively, even on nights when Jamal Murray's not available. But obviously he's more consistent as a third scoring option than he is as a second scoring option, and when you slot him up into that spot and there can be a little bit more inconsistency.

He had a little bit of an off night, right, Going from Jamal Murray as your main kind of two man game option with Jokic and Reggie Jackson being your backup guard to suddenly Reggie Jackson being your main two man game partner, and then having Colin Gillespie out there getting minutes as that backup point guard. That's just big drop off. And both of those guys, Reggie Jackson and Colin Gilespie both had really tough nights on the ball. And again, like that two man game, what does that

expression mean? Two man game? What that means is you're running these actions with these two players a bunch of different ways to do it right. You can invert it, you run on different spots of the four you can run out of the post, you can run out of pick ball screens, driple handoffs, whatever you call. It's any sort of like two man action. Right in that two

man game. What makes it a two man game is that both guys are a threat, and specifically the Murray Jokics two man game, the threat there is like you switch a slower footed guy onto Jamal Murray, he can beat him with tough io over the top shot making, same thing with Nicole Jokich. If you switch a smaller player on him, could take him down to the post, score in the post, or draw double teams in the post. If you run drop coverage, Jamal Murray as all the

drop beating shots in the book. Right, Like, there's a two pronged approach there, and on the right night, you know, you can run more dhos with Michael Porter Junior and he's got it going and it works on the right night, Reggie Jackson can be a reasonable fact simile of Jamal Murray.

But obviously there's a drop off there. And so honestly, between Nurkics being out and Jamal Murray being out, there's a lot of this game that doesn't look very similar to what an actual playoff series between these two teams

would look like. But what does translate The biggest one to me, that by far the biggest thing that stood out to me on tape watching this game, and obviously with something that we notice in there match up a month ago, but it was kind of glaring in this game as well as Phoenix can keep Denver in rotation on defense? Now, what does that mean to be in rotation?

What that means is like there is an open man and the other elements of your defense are operating in a man down situation and they're having to leave their man to go to the next guy in line and vice versa. So essentially, just to draw it out in a very simple, basic way, let's pretend Kevin Durantz posting up on the right block and he draws a double from the face side from the elbow right, and let's say that they rotate around in a Winchild wiper rotation.

They take away that first pass of the wing. They're matched up on the top, so the skip passes open once that skip pass is made. No one's actually matched up there, right, two guys on KD. There's a guy garden, the guy top of the key guy garden the guy in the opposite wing, and maybe in the opposite dunker spot or in the opposite kind of like between the wing and the corner, depending on how they have the

floor set up. Right, But that corner guy, the week guy, he doesn't have a matchup, so as soon as that pass is made, somebody else has to rotate there, which means the next guy has to rotate to his man, which means the next guy has to rotate to his man,

and so on and so forth. To put it in a very simple term, to be in rotation is to not be matched up defensively, which can cause all sorts of problems, not just with being constant closeout situations where you're inevitably just chasing the next guy off the three point line, but then he makes a nice driving kick. Read now you're chasing the next guy off the three point line. In addition to that, it also hurts you in rebounding situations. When you're in rotation, you are not

matched up. If you're not matched up, you don't know who to box out. If you don't know who to box out, there's probably gonna be one or two guys having a free run at the basket. For instance, Phoenix

has been a good offensive rebounding team all season. Why because they frequently draw second defenders and third defenders in ball screens and ISOs and post ups, and because of that, they have the defense in rotation consistently, and so there's usually a sun somewhere on the floor that is gonna get a free run to the offensive glass, and they can have a lot of success that way. But like, there was three ways in particular, I want to dive

into the specific kind of x's and O stuff. There are three ways that Phoenix was keeping Denver in rotation in this game. One was bringing Yokic up to the level of the screen. Phoenix has really high level pull up shooters, and when they pull again, it's a very simple push and pull.

keep Denver in rotation defensively. Now we're gonna talk about it in a minute, because there's a case to be made that Denver probably shouldn't bring Yolkic up to the level, but we'll get there. Right. Secondly, Nail help and Iso doubles I thot Reggie Jackson was the main culprit here a lot of like guarding a guy on the wing, and you know, one of the Phoenix ball handlers makes

a drive towards the middle. Imagine Phoenix pall handler in the right wing, Reggie Jackson guarding the guy on the left wing, okay, and Devin Booker, let's say, rips through to the left and kind of gets towards the middle. Reggie Jackson is sinking way down into the lane and leaving his guy open on the on that wing. And so from there it's just a simple swing pass. And

now it's in rotation. And this is not in rotation against a team that has lower level offensive talent that you can kind of offer a token contest at or a token close out out and kind of chase them off the line. Phoenix is just has lasers all over the floor, right, And so when you're in rotation against them, you can be in a big issue where whoever you leave open is a big time threat to knock that shot down. Right. But yeah, Reggie Jackson sinking too far

down into the nail. And then also like kind of randomly double teaming without much purpose. He was getting out of position a lot. They were getting into rotation off that. And then lastly, the offensive glass like I mentioned earlier. Phoenix is a good offensive rebounding team because they get you in a rotation a lot. But also Denver, do you guys remember the offensive glass was an issue the

last time Phoenix came to town. Matter of fact, if you've been watching the Nuggets closely, it's been an issue for a little while. Denver is twenty seven and defensive rebounding percentage since the All Star break. Now, the starters have been fine. They're about seventy five percent defensive rebounding percentage, which is good, not great, but it's good. Right, that's fine.

But basically every other configuration of every other type of lineup that Denver's putting out there right now, they're struggling to rebound. And that's been a consistent issue. Now, why do I Why am I harping so much on rotation? It is just really it's a lot easier to get quality shots playing driving kick basketball against a defense that is in rotation than it is to get quality shots in one on one, in two on two situations against

good individual defenders. Right, So for instance, what is the advantage? Why do we see like I still think Denver is the team that I would pick in a matchup between these two teams and a postseason series. Right, most people I think would agree with me. Why because we believe Denver gets better shots. Right, That's the whole thing with Denver. If I take Denver, I'm taking the team that most likely is going to get better shots throughout the course

of a seven game series. And if it's a lot of Kevin Rant Devin Booker pull up jump shots like it was last year, then yeah, Denver's gonna get much better shots. And on the games when Phoenix makes all their pull up jumpers, they're gonna win. But if Phoenix is existing in rotation, I should say keeping Denver in rotation and getting really good driving kick looks for really good offensive players, all of a sudden, Phoenix's shot quality goes like this. And this is not the same team

that Phoenix was last year. There's a lot more offensive firepower on this Phoenix Suns team. And so that's the thing is like, if they can keep Denver in rotation and their shot quality goes up to where the tough shots are more of like counters and coverage beaters, whereas the majority of their shots are coming like what you saw in that third quarter run where it's like, you know, get us out pushing transition, wide open three for somebody, get a you know, bring Yokich up to the ball,

get him in rotation. There's another wide open corner three for Aaron Gordon, another wide up in corner three for you know, Grayson Allen or whoever. It is like when they're getting those high quality shots, they can kind of mitigate that gap there, Right. And so that's what I noticed on tape that that really kind of that that I think bodes well for Phoenix in that matchup is they can get good shots against Denver, not super tough contested shots. They can get good shots against Denver, and

they've had extended stretches of that. But we've seen Denver also defend them better even in the context of this season, namely in the fourth quarter of their matchup, the last time Phoenix won in overtime. Right, And so this is where I look at Denver's adjustments running the deeper drop, meaning don't bring Yokic up to the level. Yeah, you're gonna have a sacrifice there. Kevin Durant's gonna be more comfortable,

Devin Booker is gonna be more comfortable. Those guys are gonna get some more of those easier pull up jump shots that they can get in those coverages. Right, But in that case, you're helping yourself on the defensive glass by staying not just keeping Yokic closer to the rim, but also just kind of having everybody more matched up. And two, you keep the ball from popping around and getting really easy catch and shoot looks right, which I think are gonna be more dangerous to Denver than tough

shot making from Phoenix. I think Phoenix can beat Denver a couple of times on tough shot making. I don't think they can beat him four times out of seven with tough shot making right less help like we talked about earlier with Reggie Jackson, and again staying out of rotation to keep clean rebounding matchups and making Phoenix speach you with tough shot making. So again, I think there

are adjustments that can be made there. But if Denver gets into rotation constantly against Phoenix, I think there's a chance that they could get out shot in a series. Secondly, this is another major takeaway that I had on the Phoenix side. Kevin Durant looks substantially more comfortable working against Aaron Gordon as a primary defender in this year than I noticed in the playoffs last year. Now there's reasons

for that. Like I said, Phoenix has substantially more offensive talent now, but a lot of it also has to do is just more variety offensively. There's a lot of pick and roll with Kevin Durant last year against Aaron Gordon, a lot of pick and roll, a lot of ISO. Kevin Durant's attacking so much more in closeout situations now, and like he can actually kind of do some damage to Aaron Gordon in space. He's a little quicker than it,

which I think is interesting. And so I just think I think you've seen probably Kevin Durant's two best games against Aaron Gordon in the last couple of years. In this season. I don't remember a specific he had a he had some big box score games he had to He had thirty nine in Game three or Game four of the of the Denver series last year, but he wasn't particularly efficient. This kind of like efficient shot making and scoring from Kevin Durant against Aaron Gordon is kind

of a different thing than we saw last year. And I think that that's super encouraging. And then lastly the third one, Dad east Young looks like a legitimate playoff weapon. It's six points and nine rebounds in eighteen minutes. These sons were plus fifteen in those minutes. So far that Young Kevin Durant front court with no center, which they went to for a little bit in that if I remember correctly, he was in the early fourth quarter stretch.

But with those two guys on the floor, no center, and just under fifty possessions plus sixteen net rating, so outscoring teams by sixteen points per one hundred possessions. Great on both ends of the floor. That group is grabbing thirty seven percent of available offensive rebounds. Bad Young himself had four offensive rebounds in that game against Denver. He brings an entirely different look than some of these other role players that Phoenix has rolled out there over the

course of the year. The big one to me is that contested rebounding. And so there's a specific play that I wanted to kind of talk to you guys about to kind of demonstrate the advantage of having a guy that can help in these particular situations. So it's a fourth quarter possession. It's early fourth. I want to say Denver's up or Phoenix is up either nine or eleven at this point. It's right around that double figures point.

Aaron Gordon gets Eric Gordon on a switch in the post posted up on the left block, and Aaron Gordon kind of meanders his way into the lane and he pulls bull bull on a baseline double team, so bab Bobo come it comes over on the baseline side. Aaron Gordon identifies Christian Brown as the cutter there, hits Christian Brown. Christian Brown ends up dribbling out to the three point line and taking a three, not obviously a great shot out of a double team, but a shot. However, they're

still an advantage there. Aaron Gordon still has Eric Gordon on him underneath the basket. How many times this season have we seen Eric Gordon do damage on the offensive glass with a smaller defender there because double teams or mismatches or whatever or switches, cross matches, whatever it is is pulled the bigger defenders away from the basket and left Aaron Gordon down there by himself. How many times have we seen that? That's a huge staple of Denver's offense.

But here's the thing that Young comes flying in and even though Aaron Gordon goes way over the top of Eric Gordon and he's there to grab the ball, that Young just comes in and snatches it out of his hand. That's a huge advantage. To put it simply, that Young raises the physical profile of those and gives them an option to go to that brings more physicality to the table.

So now kind of to put a bow on all that, again, weird game, too many important missing pieces to really view that as like an accurate description of what those matchups will look like. However, I do think Phoenix does present some legitimate issues for Denver. Their aggregate offensive talent around the board can really spread Denver out in a way that makes it tougher for them, and they have the star talent to get Denver into rotation consistently and again Denver,

I've seen Denver be really good in rotation. I've seen Denver run different coverages where they keep you Okie closer, more conservative coverages where they stay out of rotation. Again, I would pick Denver to win a seven game series against Phoenix, but I think Phoenix is demonstrating the little things that they can do that put Denver into some predicaments that give them some advantages, and I think it's worth keeping an eye on as we get into that postseason.

stretch in their schedule last week. They had three wins against the Spurs and the Jazz, But then they roll up into Sacramento for a super important game for seeding, and it's close for a little over two quarters, and then they just beat the living shit out of them. Now Dallas is in commanding position for the sixth seed and they're striking distance of the five seed. Biggest positive sign though, we remember they went on that East Coast road trip and just got sliced and diced by everybody

they defended before the trip. Then they went on the trip and they could not guard a soul. Right. Then they come home and they had a couple of other bad losses. Right. I think the Pacers ended up getting at home similar type of game. But then they go up, they snap back into against the Heat, have a good defensive night. In their ten games since the miamiing game,

one zero six point five defensive rating. That's the second best mark in the league over that span, in twelve in defensive rebounding, which is one of their better stretches of defensive rebounding that we've seen over the course of the season. We've talked about this with a bunch of different teams around the league this year, and there's a bunch of teams that kind of fit into this mold. Right, Sacramento fits into this mold, Dallas fits into this mold.

The Lakers kind of fit into this mold. Milwaukee kind of fits into this mold. These are teams that, like they're jeckaling hide on the on the details, right. If you catch the Mavericks on the right night, you're like, man, this guys have some real athletes on the perimeter. They got some athletes under the rim. Their stars are trying hard and doing their job, like they can defend. Same

thing goes for Milwaukee. Catch them on the right night when dam and Malik Beasley are really turning it up at the point of attack, and in general they're just engaged defensively. They look really good defensively. Lakers, same sort of thing, right, Kings. Gosh, the Kings have had some of the most impressive two way performances I've seen in

the league this year. But again, it's about consistency and habits, and I'm seeing now a ten game stretch, a significant chunk of the season where the MAVs are really defending and really rebounding. And this has been an extended stretch now, dating back to before the Eastern Conference road trip, this has been a thing We're more often than not, Dallas has been bringing those defensive details to the equation. And again, like everything about we know what Luca and Kyrie can

do as shot creators. We saw what they did to Sacramento in that third quarter run. But that's only one part of this. That physical imposition on the game is a massive element there. It is a prerequisite you have to do it. Denver was a mediocre defense a lot of the year last year. What were they when they got into the postseason, they were an elite defense. You don't win out executing teams on one end of the floor,

you win out executing teams on two ends of the floor. Right, So I think that this is just I always look habits is the big like the thing that you lean on when the shit hits the fan, right, And the best way to establish habits is over an extended span of regular season basketball, putting in that attention to detail. And Dallas is doing that. That's a major box for me to check on the path to championship contention. Really really impressive showing from Dallas as of late number three.

This is one that's going to really piss people off, but hey, we're just gonna have some fun with it. The Bucks and Lakers are two very similar teams playing in two very different conferences, so obviously the both teams are playing well right now. The Bucks went out West and got smashed by everybody, But they came home and they got a couple of impressive wins. They beat the Thunder and the Suns in blowout fashion at home. Lakers

currently on a five game winning streak. A huge win in Milwaukee without Lebron James, and then a big one without Anthony Davis in Memphis. Now they're making a real run at that eight seed. Now, before anybody says anything, I know what everyone's gonna say, Jason, that's insane. The Bucks are two seeds, the Lakers are fighting for the play and how could you possibly consider them to be similar? Well, I'm gonna go with the similarities first, then we'll go

into the differences. First of all, both teams have two superstars. Both teams kind of considered both of those stars considered, you know, comfortably top fifteen. Obviously, both Dame and Lebron are down a level from where their original reputation was, but they're both considered kind of top fifteen. And then obviously Giannis is better than all of those guys. But Anthony Davis and Giannis are both considered in like that

superstar tier. Right, So you both got two superstar led teams, right, You both have massive front lines Jiannis and Brook Lopez, Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Both teams are weak at the point of attack. Defensively, Now, the Lakers have a good option coming back in Jared Vanderbilt. But with Jared Vanderbilt out of the equation. They kind of look a lot like Milwaukee at the point of attack right and now Milwaukee is a similar issue with the Patrick Beverley injury.

The Bucks have twenty five wins against five hundred d better teams. The Lakers have twenty four wins against five hundred better teams. Both teams are elite against the great teams and mediocre against the mediocre teams. For example, both the Bucks and the Lakers are top five in net rating against teams in the top ten in point differential. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Lakers have seventeen such wins against teams in the top ten in point differential,

which is the most in the league. For comparison, the Celtics have only thirteen such wins. To give you an idea, the Lakers have played the toughest schedule in the NBA this year, almost fifty two percent opponent winning percentage. Both teams are bottom twelve in net rating against teams in the middle ten of point differential. So, Lakers fans, if it felt like to you that the Lakers show up for big games and then all the middle of the pack teams, they're kind of bad or mediocre, same exact

thing Bucks fans have been dealing with. They've been really good against the top of the league, pretty mediocre against the middle of the team middle of the league. Both teams are awesome in the clutch. Both the Lakers and Bucks are top five in clutch win percentage and total clutch wins. So a ton of similarities between the Bucks and the Lakers. So Jason, why are the Bucks the two seed in the Lakers the nine seed? Because the

Eastern Conference is absolutely horrifically bad at the bottom. The West has completely an utterly cleaned house against the East in cross conference matchups this year. The scheduling is just to give you an idea, because you play the bottom teams in your you you play fifty two what's it, fifty two of your eighty two games against your own conference.

So it makes this a substantial difference on the strength of schedule, right to give you an idea, Three of the four worst records in the league or in the Eastern Conference, and the Bucks are ten and zher in those games Charlotte Detroit Washington Bucks are ten and oh the Lakers don't get to play Charlotte Detroit and Washington that often they just don't I I'm not mistaken. I think the Bucks have two more matchups with Washington just

this year. If they're one of those teams, I can't remember who it is, but they have a couple more matchups just this year against those teams. The Lakers have played the office schedule in the league this year. The Bucks have played the eighteenth toughest schedule in the league this year. To put it more simply, the Bucks have forty six wins. The Lakers have forty one wins. But the Bucks have played an additional five games against below

five hundred opponents. That's the difference. That's the difference between these two teams. Think about that, Think about the way the Lakers are perceived. I still every single day get countless YouTube comments about how the Lakers are so bad and no team in NBA history would get talked about this much. As a nine seed. They literally have the most wins against top ten teams in the league. They have seventeen of them. They have one fewer win against

five hundred better teams than the Bucks. They have countless massive national TV wins against really high level teams. They've played the toughest league schedule in the league. They just have a really difficult conference, and they went three to ten for a brief stretch after the Ncason Tournament when Darvin ham literally benched three of their five highest paid players for no fucking reason. Okay, that's why the Lakers are perceived. They're perceived. Now. Do I think the Lakers

are a top tier championship contender. No, But I don't think the Bucks are either. I think they're more or less the same. They're in that tier below the teams at the top of the league. Both of them have real championship potential, but they've got to improve in certain areas.

Both need to get healthy too. That the Bucks in the Lakers, it's so funny to me because that is a textbook example of the weakness in the Eastern Conference at the bottom, and how that just completely turns everybody into standings watchers and they miss what's happening right in front of them. The Lakers are every bit as good

at basketball as the Milwaukee Bucks. The difference is one team ratcheted up a bunch of easy wins against bad teams at the bottom, and so they look substantially better in the standings on the Lakers front before we move on, I think like this this latest stretch had Honestly, it

was fun watching as a fan on vacation. Obviously, I was actually talking about with my wife about this, Like, I so much of what I do has, you know, the work element to it, right, even last year, just as a as someone rooting for the Lakers, it was kind of a pain in the ass having to like navigate that while also trying to cover them fairly in the show, right and uh, and obviously I've never tried to hide from my biases there. I'm just trying to

tell you guys, I'm a Lakers fan. Obviously I have a rooting interest there, but at the same time, I'm not like the kind of like blind follower in the sense that all you Lakers fans know. I've been talking endless shit about the Lakers this year because they're a

team that frustrates me on so many different levels. But one of the things that's really stood out to me, and just getting to watch as a fan was so fun because on this trip, like I literally was just kicking back, you know, having a couple of drinks with my wife watching the game. It just was more enjoyable. It was enjoyable in a different way to just do it as a fan, and that Bucks game was so

much fun, Like just impressive resilience. Some of the craziest plays I've ever seen, like Spencer Dinwoodie when he couldn't buy a bucket all game, just like fully up in transition from the three point line and sticking that above the break three. That was insane. Austin Reeves that might have been his very best game as a professional basketball player.

That was insane. The big one to me, though, that's really standing out to me about this Lakers team is they're like, legitimately just super hard to guard, which I never would have thought I would say this at the beginning of this season, because this has been a mediocre offensive team the entire time I've known them, and I mean the Lebron ad era. They were mediocre offensively in

twenty nineteen. They were okay to good in the twenty twenty season, but they weren't particularly good in the half court. They were pretty bad in twenty twenty one, They are pretty bad in twenty twenty two, they were pretty bad in twenty twenty three, and they've been pretty bad most of this year like that, like that, like to start this year right. That's what I've known watching the Lebron ad Lakers since basically January, the beginning of the year.

They've been an awesome offense. They're one of the best three point shooting teams in the league. They have tons of different kinds of shot creation. It's like Austin Reeves can get hot at any given night. Daniel Russell can get hot at any given night. Ruyacha Mura in the starting lineup has presented a bunch of issues for teams where it's like, Okay, I need a big guy to guard Anthony Davis. Okay, here he is. I need a big guy who was pretty fast to guard Lebron James, okay, cool.

I need point of attack defenders to deal with Austin Reeves and Danzel Russell and ball screens, okay, cool, who's guarding Ruie. Who's guarding Rueie. He's getting guarded by the weakest defender every single game, and he's cooking teams, and not only on the ball too, because he can beat guys in io and post up situations on the ball, but he also can do it just spotting up, like He's been a really good spot up player this year, not just shooting threes but attacking closeouts. He's been a

great transition athlete as well. Obviously it's not the ideal configuration, and when Jared Vanderbilt comes back, I think he should start, and then I would just play Ruey similar minutes coming off the bench. But like that presents a whole other set of issues for teams. Everyone's getting better. Daniel Russell is a substantially better player now than he was to start the season. Austin Reeves is substantially better player now

than he was to start the season. He's looking like even though he's not quite to the level of production he was at in the postseason last year, he is doing at a higher level this year in a more difficult role alongside a bunch of other pieces. This is not brute force spread the floor or Austin plays pick

and roll. He's doing this in the flow of the offense with everybody, Anthony Davis passing out of the post better than ever before, Lebron James having host a better offensive season by a mile than he did last year. This is a good offense. This is a really good offense, and again, I don't think they have any chance to win the title unless they can kind of round some

things out defensively. Austin Reeves has been really good at the point of attack, even though he's been given some really tough assignments that he really has no business taken care of. But he's done a good job. But that he did an awesome job on Dame the other night. But like when you slot Jared Vanderbilt in there and put everybody back down in the appropriate defensive roles, they can get their defense even in the same stratosphere as their offense. They can get up in that ten to

fifteen range as a defense when they get healthy. That's where their puncher's chances. Again, I know, I'm a fan. I know that it's foolishness to consider the Lakers on the same tier as the teams at the top of the league, and I don't. But I do think they're every bit as good as everybody that's below them, below that Boston Denver tier, and I think they've shown it in a lot of real ways that they're not getting

credit for this year. A really tough Western Conference, in a couple of weeks where they were dogshit has completely changed the perception around about the Lakers around the league, and I think that they're worth at least paying attention to here down the stretch. All right. Lastly, before we get out of here today, my fourth biggest takeaway, the Warriors looked completely dead to rights and then they saved

their season. You know, I kind of you know, pulled aside this part of their schedule as a vulnerability for the war is just simply because of the type of personnel they were going against. Teams that have really good, physical, strong perimeter defenders that can make Steph work hard, can expose the issues that the Warriors having down the roster shot creation, and I had a feeling that this stretch

would cause them some issues, and it did. But the last two games are not easy matchups on that front either. Miami has athletes on the perimeter that they can throw at Steph. The Orlando Magic have arguably the best young guard defender in the league in Jalen Sucks. And so these were games that I kind of had my eye on as where it could have gone really south. And then to make it matters worse, Houston can't lose, you know,

So like it was looking like a danger zone. And this is where you know, I have such an appreciation for guys like Steph Curry, and both Steph and Lebron have had stretches like this in the last couple of years, and it's helped, you know, kind of reinforce the way that I feel about them as players, because these are not These are not easy teams to believe in looking back to last year's Lakers when that team looked dead

to rights, and even this year and then this year's Warriors. Obviously, these are not teams where it's like you're not like like when Jokic is sitting at home right now, he knows, like, if I hit the jets and I play to my capability, we're gonna get the trophy. Like that's the confidence that Jokic has in his group, right. And I don't think

Lebron Or's stepf have any delusions of grandeur. I don't think they're sitting around in their houses going like, we got ourselves a real title, a real title threat here. I think they think, like we can win, but man, like, we got some strengths and we got some weaknesses, right, And what's cool about that is like both of them have responded to that by trying to win anyway. It would have been so easy after that last sequence to

just like go the rope, and no they didn't. Even just in that Orlando Magic game, Draymond Green gets four minutes into the game, completely absurd, completely unacceptable. At some point, Draymond Green has to understand that his team meets him on the floor and there is absolutely no excuse to continually be getting yourself kicked out of these games, and

I would imagine Draymond would agree, completely unacceptable. I totally understood why Steph was so upset, but like, even then, it would have been so easy to just be like, not our night, really good Orlando Magic team on the road, tough matchup for us, not our night. But no, that's not what happened. And like it was a classic kind of battle too, because Steph what he goes six for eighteen and the he was obviously made a three at the end of the game that kind of tied that together.

Was even worse before then, and they got some huge contributions out of Andrew Wiggins. I thought that was probably his best game since the twenty twenty two playoff run. Really got going in the with the ball in his hands there in that fourth quarter started with a kickout three, Steph got blitzed on the side of the floor and Andrew Wiggins stuck that above the break three on the

left side. But after that it was all Wiggins on the ball, like running those inverted ball screen actions where like again, the so Steph sets the ball screen, nobody who's guarding Steph wants to hedge or help or anything because his job is guards Steph at all costs, right, And so it essentially operates as a really, really a great screening action because as long as Steph sets a good screen on the on ball defender, there's nobody that's gonna be waiting on the other side of that screen.

As a matter of fact, Orlando tried switching it late and then Wiggins ended up just bowllying his way to the basket out of the post. It was a really, really impressive effort from Wiggins, And honestly, like that's gonna be the big kind of like swing factor for whether or not Golden State can make a real meaningful playoff run versus something that is less impressive. It's gonna be

that legitimate secondary offensive initiator. Maybe it's Wiggins, maybe it's Comingo, maybe it's Chris Paul, maybe it's Clay, But like, someone needs to become consistent on that front, because what ends up happening is you have a night like that and Kamina is a little iffy, and Wiggins as a little ify and Klays a little iffy, the Warriors just lose. They just lose because they don't have that consistency in that group. And so I thought that was a really encouraging sign.

But again, I thought, when you saw the emotion from Steph from when Draymond got suspended or ejected to when he hit the big shot at the end of the game, you can tell we might, as fans, analysts, whatever, be like, this Warriors team don't really have a great chance, and that for the record, that's the truth. But Steph isn't accepting that as an answer. And again, like a lot of times, we look at the mountaintop moments as the

defining characteristics of these guys. We look at Steph hoisting the trophy, Kde hoisting the trophy, Lebron hoisting the trophy, and we're like, these are the moments that define them as their best. And I tend to disagree. I think those are an important part of it. But all of these different moments demonstrative player's greatness throughout the entire process from start to finish, including like the years where your team doesn't really have it. What are you showing in

those situations? You know? This is actually the biggest reason why I've said Steph is the best leader of this particular era. I don't think Steph rides the highs and lows as much as other As much as other leaders do, he does a good job of keeping an even keel and helping trying to bring limited teams up and helping to make sure that really good teams don't get overconfident.

And again, like, I think that this has been one of my favorite seasons rooting for him because a lot of shit is hit the fan in so many different ways in the competition from Steph has just shined through as he's tried to make it work. I had a radio hit in San Francisco. I want to say it was last Wednesday, and there was a fan on the on the show that just simply asked, like, hey, Jason, give me some you know, kind of silver lining, some

sort of like positive thing to hang on to. Well, all of this is down, and I said kind of what I said at the top, which is this particular stretch of their schedule is really tough and they just need to survive it. And honestly, like getting those wins overheat, over the heat and magic, that's them surviving it. Now, five of their last ten games are against teams that are below five hundred. They've had to add matchups against the Lakers and Rockets to either secure position or to

fight for more position. And these guys believe. From the coaching staff to the stars down the roster, they believe. And so like again, it's not I'm not going to sit here and lie to you, guys. I don't think that the Warriors have legitimate championship potential, but I think that they're capable of having a fun playoff run. And I think we'd be foolish to count them out simply because of the fact that proven winners at the top

are not going to let go of the rope. And as long as they hang onto that rope and they get meaningful contributions from other players down the roster, they have the potential to make some noise, all right, guys, that is all I have for today. Like I said, we're gonna end up taking the rest of the weekend off to enjoy the up n CNAA tournament. We'll be back on Monday with some instant reaction content as well as a power rankings video. Again, we're also gonna stepping

up our film breakdowns at that point as well. I appreciate you, guys.