Hoops Tonight - Warriors stun Kings with Klay game-winner, Nuggets-Wolves + Celtics' dominant start

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License partner Golden Nugget, Lake Charles and Louisiana twenty one plus age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See Sportsbook dot DraftKings dot com, slash Basketball terms for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great day

so far. Got a jam pack show for you today. We're hitting two games from last night, the Kings and the Warriors, who can't seem to play anything other than a highly entertaining basketball game. We have another Warriors game

winner in that matchup, this time from Klay Thompson. The Minnesota Timberwolves finally snap out of whatever early season funk they were in and beat the living shit out of the Denver Nuggets that was a super interesting game that I want to dive into from the perspective of both teams. Then we're going to do a deep dive into the

Boston Celtics. They unleashed an absolutely epic beat down a fifty one point victory over the Indiana Pacers last night, and they are playing some of the highest level basketball that you will see. And I have a bunch of numbers I want to go over with you guys to demonstrate just how crazy good the Celtics have been to start this year. For those of you guys, I mentioned last night, I was going to do a deep dive

on the Bucks. Had a little bit of a time crunch today, didn't get around to that, but I'm going to do that one tomorrow. So if you're looking for a deep dive into the Bucks and their defensive and offense struggles and a lot of interesting stuff going on on that front, we're going to hit that in tomorrow's show, in addition to a couple breakdowns of games in the Thursday Night Slate. You guys are the joke for we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. We're

trying to get this thing launched off the ground. It would mean a lot to me if you guys would take a few seconds of scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about social media TikTok, Instagram, especially Twitter. That's where I post a lot of the video clips when I'm doing my film sessions in the mornings, and it's a great way to kind of get a visual representation of a lot of the concepts that I talk about. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your

podcast under Hoops tonight. And last, but not least, don't forget to keep dropping mail bag questions and the YouTube comments so we can hit them at the end of the show. I don't have time for mailbag questions today, but we will be hitting them three four times a week throughout the season. That's what I usually grab. And in the YouTube comments, add that mail bag question moniker at the front, so as I'm scrolling through, it's easier for me to find than when I'm looking for questions.

All right, let's talk some basketball. So no darreon Fox brain his ankle late in the game against the Layers, Right, he's gonna be out. I guess at least a couple of weeks they started Davion Mitchell in that spot, and you know, he's always been an outstanding perimeter defender, a guy who's made Steph Curry work, but he was, you know, too limited offensively to be enough of a weapon in

that playoff series against the Warriors last year. Right, Well, he's been shooting the ball really well this season, a trend that I'd noticed starting in preseason. So far through the regular season to this point, fifty six percent effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jump shots and fifty eight percent on pull ups. So he's added just enough of that shot making piece to make him a

viable piece. I thought he kind of set the tone on both ends of the floor for the Kings last night, and then the entire group just played extremely hard defensively.

Like again, it's funny with this Kings team. They're almost like a they're almost cursed by their own offensive skill, right with some bonus with three athletic wings that can all shoot and put the ball on the floor, a deer and fox at the helm, with Malik Mounk coming off the bench and some of the bench scoring options they have, they just are so gifted offensively that a lot of times they can win games without being a

team that's super dedicated on the details defensively. But they're actually a better defensive team in terms of personnel than you would think, especially if you look at the perimeter, guys like Kevin Herder flying around on the perimeter, especially on the glass. Keegan Murray I thought had a bunch of good quality perimeter defense possessions. They still fall asleep. Sometimes. There was a Keegan Murray badly died on a screen late that gave Steph Curry a wide open look on

the right wing. There was a Kevin Herder play where he was top locking Klay Thompson and wasn't paying attention to the to the ball and got bet on a back cut from a pass from Draymond Green. So like, they're not perfect, they have their limitations, but they've got the athleticism and when they actually try, they can be an impactful perimeter defenders right. And then when you couple that with like a game like this where without Darren Fox, they know they have to play like that to have

any chance. They actually did a pretty decent job of throwing the Warriors out of whack and turning the game into a rock fight. It was a physical game. There's a lot of uncalled fouls against both teams. They got big time games out of both Malik Monk and Demona Sabonis.

In terms of shot creation, Sabonis has really really struggled in this matchup, and I think for him personally, I think it's it's important for him him to have a few more games like this in the regular season where he plays well, so that if he does have another opportunity to go up against the Warriors in the playoffs, he just kind of has some of his confidence back, because I thought the Warriors kind of sapped him of

that throughout that series last year. So the Warriors were actually down by eleven in the second half and it looked like they were in good shape, but once again it was that bench line up there in that early

fourth quarter that kind of worked it down. Chris Paul had a couple of big plays early fourth quarter, a nasty left handed drive on Sashava Ankoff just kind of I remember watching that and thinking like, that's gonna be tough if if Sasha can't contain, like on a simple closeout someone like Chris Paul there, and then he had another one of those classic pick and pops with Dario

Sarich on the left wing. That got Dario Sarich a wide open three, and the Warriors kind of briefly took a lead and then it turned into a classic kind of back and forth type of game, right and from there, you know, it was funny because they couldn't get a stop. And this has been an issue for the Warriors throughout this particular season. Even though they're three to one in games involving crunch time, they've really struggled to guard down the stretch of these games. You saw that specifically in

the Suns game. They have a one hundred and twenty four defensive rating. When the game is within five with less than five minutes left. A couple of things are just breakdowns, right, Like last night, you let Kevin Herder get a driving layup and pick and roll. That's just a mistake from the back line. Right, there was a play where a Malik Monk just did a basic rip through to the right on Gary Payton and got all

the way to the rim for a layup. It was a tough finish, but it's like, got to probably make Malik Monk see a little bit more of a crowd there,

considering he's their best offensive player in that specific situation. Right, Well, they got a couple of buckets late, and next thing you know, they're up by down by one, and the Warriors actually, very smartly credit to Steve Kerr, did not call timeouts in this situation down the stretch, and Steph actually ended up scoring on Malik Monk and kind of a semi transition possession, hit him with the crossover right to left and made that scoop shot in the lane

to put him back up by one. But then Sabonis banks in a jump shot at the top of the key to put the King's back up by one. And then once again Steve Kerr smartly not calling a time out, letting them kind of figure it out. The Kings ended up throwing a double team with Sabonis on Steph Curry

up at the extended right wing right. Steph ends up cutting through Klay Thompson's being guarded by Davion Mitchell in the right corner, and you know, kudos to him to not just standing there and waiting for Steph to get involved. He noticed that things were breaking down and so he kind of cut up to the top of the key and Draymond hit him, and then from there is identifying

your advantage, know your advantage. He had Davion Mitchell, a small defender on him that was definitely going to be able to beat him to a spot, but that would not be able to bother him if he got to a enough space where he can rise up and take a jump shot over the top of him. And so Clay just hits that hard dribble to his left, bumps him off with that right shoulder step back, and then from there like that's just an easy shot for Clay. He knocks it down two tenths of a second left

and the game is over. So a couple things there, Like I really liked again, Mike Brown is a guy that's one of the best defensive coaches in the league. He's deeply familiar with everything that Golden State does. He's been there and a lot of those late game huddles. That's not to say that Kurt doesn't have new stuff, but like, at the end of the day, take Mike Brown out of the equation there by not calling the time out and force the Kings to kind of figure

it out on the fly. You had that sloppy semi transition possession where Steph got that easy layup, and then you get a sloppy double of stef Curry that basically just removes him from the play but leaves all of this open space for Klay Thompson to catch and go to work against Davion Mitchell. There was a If you haven't heard it yet, I encourage you guys to go

listen to Steph Curry's postgame comments. He talked a lot about the kind of how cool it was for him in that left corner to watch Klay Thompson make the shot and then to have him turn and Draymond Green's right there. Draymond hugs him and they're, you know, hyping each other up on the sideline, and you know, like Steph basically just says, like, it's really cool that after all these years, they're still the same guys and they're still doing it and it is cool and and I

agree with Steph. And he used the word poetry to break it down. And I talk about this all the time on so many different levels. Obviously, I have a certain romantic approach when it comes to the game of basketball, but I even feel that way when it comes to

this schematic approach. I always talk about how the game of basketball is more in art than a science, right, Like, that's why I think that, you know, an overly focus of proach on analytics can be a problem when you don't factor in the synergy between basketball players and how that's difficult to quantify, right. And you know, one thing I appreciated about that is like, and this is something I think both Steph and Lebron appreciate and why I think they've been such good faces of the league over

the last decade. They just have such an appreciation for the history, and they have such an appreciation for like how cool these moments are, and they take they take full advantage of appreciating them. This is Lebron used to do this back if you remember, when he'd win the Eastern Conference for the whatever many many a time in a row. You'd always just say, like, don't take this

moment for granted, enjoy this moment. And I felt like that was kind of like a that type of moment from Steph last night, just like not taking for granted again, it's a random October, well, I guess November first game

against a King's team without their best player. The Warriors didn't really play all that well, especially on the offensive end of the floor, but it was another Klay Thompson game winner, another really cool moment where the Warriors just felt like the Warriors in a lot of big ways. I mean, the down eleven in the second half. How many times have you seen the Warriors come back and win in a furious second half, comeback when they're down double digits. It's been one of the most you know,

kind of iconic elements of the Warriors dynasty. Right again, a couple of specific things that they need to work on. That defensive rating in the in clutch time is a little bit of a concern. A lot of three guard lineups in the clutch. I shouldn't even say three guard. Clay is kind of like a forward, but they've played a lot of Chris Paul with Stephan Clay in the

closing group. They actually played they played a three guard lineup last night with Gary Payton as a guard as well and for Andrew Wiggins, which was weird because Andrew Wiggins was actually playing a decent game and got kind of his slashing game going. So I was actually surprised that Wiggins didn't get the knot down the stretch, but I think they just wanted to have a better option

to contain Maleik Monk on the perimeter. Right, that's the idea, but I mean Gary Payton ended up getting beat anyway. But they have a thirty one percent defensive rebounding percentage in clutch situations so far this year. Think about that they are only grabbing thirty one percent of available defensive rebounds when the scores within five with less than five minutes left, and so that might be one of those things where hey, maybe you'll lean a little bit more

on Andrew Wiggins in that situation. You might want to consider going big. They've been scoring really well with the clutch group and it's hard to get two upset when you're three to one, but a one to twenty four defensive rating, I guarantee you that group isn't satisfied with that particular number. And who knows, maybe Draymond being back

in the big picture will help. But Draymond was on the flour last night when they gave up those three late buckets after STEP's driving floater in the lane, the one on Malik Monk, the one before Clay's game winner.

He's now shooting six for nine from the field in clutch situations, including five for eight from three, and he has twenty clutch points, which is the third most in the league behind Lebron James and Luka Doncic on the King's front, I thought that was, like, again, like I talked about earlier, I thought that was a really fun example of what this Kings team is capable of as a perimeter defense, and they can really be a pest. They have a lot of length and athleticism, and they

have depth on the perimeter as well. And like I mean, even Kolby Jones had a couple of really nice moves there in that first half and looked like he had enough athletic pop to hang in that environment. Dave's Mitchell, Davion Mitchell shooting is exciting again, Sabonis having a good game to kind of beef up his confidence there a

little bit. I thought that was, like, I guarantee you, Mike Brown went into the locker room after that game and said, like, Hey, I know that sucked, but if we play like that, we're gonna win a shit ton of basketball games. And I really think that that needs to be an important part of their identity moving forward this season. All Right, Nuggets, Wolves, this was a really interesting game. I was excited to watch this one. I wasn't planning on hitting any other games from Wednesday Night

Slate because I wanted to do more deep dives. But not often do you have a team like the Nuggets kind of kick everyone's ass to start the season and then run into a buzz saw. And again, like, you know, it's funny. There's been a lot of things that I've been right about so far the season, and then there's been a lot of things that I've been wrong about so far this season, and at least in the small sample size to be expected. I'm not some nostradamis, dude.

I'm you know, I think it'd be weird if anybody was capable of predicting something that's supposed to be as random as the NBA. But you know, I predicted that the Bucks would really struggle to start the season. They have struggled. I predicted that the Celtics would run away with the league, and it looks like they're well on

their way to doing that. But there were a couple of other teams, specifically the Lakers and the Timberwolves that I said would be very good regular season teams that both came out the gates playing pretty bad basketball, and both of them got on track last night with really good games. We talked about the Lakers last night, but the Timberwolves, they had lost a really ugly game. So they Atlanta Hawks where they blew us a late lea,

they lost to the Toronto Raptors. They haven't quite looked like the Timberwolves, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. So I've been looking for them to kind of snap out of it and kind of regain some of their identity that they had in the tail end of last season, right, And so this was a great chance for that at

home against an undefeated Nuggets team. And then again, like if I were to tell you guys, like those of you guys who have listened to the show, if I were to ask you guys, like how would the Timberwolves beat the Nuggets, It's a pretty straightforward process. Like you stick Jaden McDaniels on Jamal Murray and you erase him from the game, and then you make Jokic work hard and make things difficult with him, with kat on him, and with Rudy Gobert and help right, and then you

run it down their throat and transition. That's that's what it would look like. And that's exactly what it looked like. And it was funny because I remember thinking before I started watching the tape, I'm like, I wonder if this

is what it's gonna be like. And it was an absolute masterpiece from the opening tip of perimeter defense from Jaden McDaniels, just taking away all of the easy shots that Jamal Murray gets in the offense, just by navigating screens and staying attached with all the lengthd and athleticism that he has. I you know, I sometimes I feel like something screams at us in the face and we just need to accept it for what it is. I don't think there's anybody in the league who's playing better

defense on the perimeter right now than Jade McDaniels. I would say he's probably the very best perimeter defender in the league. And I thought him kind of like throwing Jamal Murray out of whack right from the start. Was it was a huge part of how they got off to an early lead in this game, and then it was like a steady diet of bodies coming in right, like Nikhil Alexander Walker came in and did a good

job on Jamal Murray. That they had switches where it would end up being Kyle Anderson on Jamal Murray would do a good job. They just constantly had length and athleticism up in Jamal Murray's face from the opening tip of the game. And then Carl Towns is funny. Carl Toowns is not a good defensive player, but the Jokic matchup is weird because he's so damn big and stromp.

You know, I talked about this about the embiid concept, right, Like Embiid's not in the same stratosphere as a defensive player as Anthony Davis, but he's kind of uniquely equipped to handle Yokis because he's just big, right. That's kind of the thing with Kat, Like, like Kat was big enough to absorb some of the Jokics blows and just kind of make it a little bit tougher on him.

As matter of fact, if you go watch this game, especially focus in on that first shift there in the first like six minutes, watch how often Jokicic tried to post Kat up and Kat was able to flatten him out a little bit, meaning make him go side to side versus actually downhill towards the rim. And when you couple that with Rudy Gobert and his unique ability as a backline defender to kind of like play that middle ground between Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic, they did a

really nice job. And even nas Reed, who's not, as you know, a big and strong I would say, as Kat I thought, he came in and did a decent job on Jokic. As a group, that front court held Jokics below fifty percent shooting and he had more turnovers than assists. You can't do a better job than that

on Jokic. Now, again, like what exactly is you would expect when when when it was clear to Jokic the other guys didn't have it, When Jamal didn't have it, Michael Porter Junior took some really tough shots early and was missing him, it kind of became clear that Jokic needed to be aggressive, and he did. He looked to be aggressive, and he made a bunch of shots to kind of keep them close in the game. That's what the best player in the world is going to do right.

But for the most part, you made Jokic work and you made him less efficient than he usually is, which is what you want to do. And then on those stops and turnovers they got out in transition. They had twenty seven points in transition in this game, on their way to a convincing blowout. They spent the majority of

the game up by twenty. They killed the Nuggets bench group by playing both nose Red and Carl Towns in that group together, and then they just posted up those two guys every single time, and Kat would like back his man down and get a bucket, and then nas Reed would back his man down and get a bucket. It was like they would they just in a weird way. They made the Nuggets look small, and the Nuggets aren't small.

But that's kind of the beauty of matchups in the NBA, right, Like I was talking about how matchups dictate things in the playoffs, and like, the Nuggets I think are the best team in the league, and we're gonna talk about that more in a minute, but like the truth of the matter is is like even if the Nuggets are the best, that's they're not an unbeatable basketball team. And there's gonna be one of the twenty nine teams that's

more equipped to beat them than the others. And if they catch them in the right matchup and enough guys

play well, they can beat them. Right And like we actually saw the Wolves last year give the Nuggets some trouble without Jaden McDaniels, who had broken his hand in that Lakers game, and without nasried As that backup center option to throw at Jokich, and so like this is as of right now, I would say that they're probably the most well equipped physically to handle the Nuggets offense because of Jaden McDaniels being the best perimeter defender in

the NBA, having two big bodied centers that they can put on Jokic to keep him from bullying his way to the rim, and having that legitimate backside defensive weapon in Ruby Gobert playing that back line causing problems in their ability to get down the floor in transition on

the Nuggets front, really poor offensive approach early on. I thought Jamal Murray in particular seemed intent on demonstrating that he could score on Jaden McDaniels, and so he took a lot of really tough jump shots over really good contests by Jada McDaniels, and almost all of them came up short on the rim. They turned the ball over way too much. They had eleven turnovers in the first half that led to twenty points for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

And then they just dug themselves into too big of a hole. And then from there, like not enough of their guys played well to try to dig it to dig out of it. Non Jokic starters were eleven for thirty four from the field and had six turnovers. So again, like, I think they're capable of playing a lot better than they did, But credit to the Timberwolves. Like, that's what the Timberwolves are supposed to look like. They're supposed to be just an unbelievably good defensive team. That's why I've

been so excited about them. That's why I believed they could be a great regular season team this year. They did not bring that regular season defensive intensity to start. Jada McDaniels missed the first couple games as well. Now that he's back, hopefully they can recapture that identity and maintain that throughout the season. The Nuggets ran into their first buzz saw. I think the Nuggets are the best team in the league. But what did I say at

the beginning of the year. I said, right now, they're way ahead of everybody because they know exactly who they are. Everyone else is kind of figuring things out, right. I still think when we get to the end of this road, the Nuggets are gonna be the best team in the league, but only by a small amount. And what that means is is that I don't think they're gonna run rip off sixty sixty five wins. I think they're gonna rip off fifty three to fifty five wins, right, and which

is in the Western Conference. That's amazing, right, And I think they're probably gonna get the one seed. But I mean, like, they're not gonna beat everybody. And this was a good example of the type of talent that you run into in a night in, night out basis in the NBA, and when they play like they're capable of playing, you can lose to anybody in the NBA. And I think that's gonna be a consistent theme throughout the season. All right, before we get out of here, we are going to

do a deep dive on the Boston Celtics. So they had a fifty one point win over the Indiana Pacers yesterday. As of now for the season, they are first in offensive ratings, scoring, and astonishing one hundred and twenty five

points per one hundred possesions. I'm gonna give you guys a shit ton of numbers here in the next ten minutes, and my goal here is just to help you guys understand and statistically how good the Celtics have been, not just within the concept of this particular season and their peers, but even in the all time sense. This is this

team is dominating at a crazy level right now. They are seventh in defensive rating, allowing just one hundred and five points per one hundred possessions, and they are first in net rating. They're outscoring teams by twenty points per one hundred possessions twenty point one points, to be exact. So let's talk about both ends of the four. We're gonna start on the offensive end, and for me, everything with the Celtics team starts with getting out in transition

off of stops and turnovers. This is why I've been such a big proponent of them getting back to their defensive identity. From the twenty twenty two season, like that's when they're at their best. This team, excuse me, well, they get to great late playoff scenarios. They're not gonna be as good of a half court offense as some of the other teams in the league. So they need to have part of their identity being the best defense in the league trying to get out and transition as

much as possible. They had thirty six and transition against the Pacers. For the season, they are averaging twenty eight points in transition per game, which is the third most in the league. The Hawks are at number one. That was the team that I begged to run more in transition over the summer and they have been doing so, and then the Thunder at number two. But the Celtics are scoring one point two to three points per transition play as well, so they're third in the league and

transition points per game and sixth in transition efficiency. It's a huge part of their offensive success right now. They're running the rim. They're run into the corners as shooters, and then they have trailing three point shooters, and so they just put their heads down and try to get to the rim if they can and then they make really good reads out of that for wide open threes.

And then they've been a devastating matchup attacking team. They're scoring twenty six points per game in ISOs and post ups including passes. Thirteen points per game in ISO, that's the fifth most in the league. One point one to three points per possession, sixth best in the league in terms of efficiency. Thirteen point per game out of the post, that's the second most in the league, only to the Nuggets. One point two to one points per possession, which is

the fourth most efficient. So they've been really good beating individual matchups in the posts and in ISO, and then they've been really really efficient in pick and roll thirty two points per game and pick and roll that's the fourteenth most, so not a heavy volume, but one point zero six points per posession. That's the fifth highest mark

for efficiency in pick and roll this season. Porzingis and Horford as ball screeners, that's adding this other pick and pop element to a higher level than they've had in the past. They're scoring nine points per game out of the role or pop that's the eighth most in the league. One point twenty six points per rollman possession which is the eighth most efficient. Credit to porzingis here, he's been one of the best role men in the league one

point one point five points per rollman possession. Think about how I'm saying that is it's good for a point and a half every time they pass him the ball in the roll, shooting seventy five percent in effective field goal percentage, thanks the large part to those picking pop threes. He has scored twenty one points out of the role so far of the season. That's fifth most in the league for a ball screener, behind Shangun Vucevich, Nikole jokicch and Joel Embiid. As a team, the Celtics are shooting

forty percent from three over forty percent. That's the fifth highest mark in the league. They're making seventeen to threes per one hundred possessions, that's the second most in the league. They are just good at absolutely everything. They're even eighth in the league in offensive rebounds per one hundred possessions. I can't find opportunity there. They're just good at everything.

They shoot the ball well, they attack the rim, well, they attack out of the post, well, they attack isolation matchups well, they score and pick and roll well, they run in transition really well. They kill you on the offensive glass. They are good at everything, and it all

starts with Jason Tatum at the forefront. If you guys, remember I said before the season, Tatum can win MVP, but he needs to have this crazy statistical season and the Celtics have to win just a shit ton of games because everything's going to be graded on a curve,

and Tatum's curves. He has the most talented supporting cast in the league right well, so far in the four to ZH start, he's averaging thirty points, nine rebounds, and four assists, sixty seven percent through shooting, and I want to credit three specific things here so far that are monumentally improved over last year. First of all, he's making his pull up jump shot. He's converting them at fifty

six percent in effective field goal percentage. He was at forty percent last year, very bad pull up shooting season last season. He's finishing at the rim better than ever. He's shooting seventy five percent at the rim this year compared to sixty five percent last year. And he's added a reliable post game. Last year, he generated just two points per game. Out of the post including passes two points per game. This year he's at five point three.

And on those possessions, he's got an efficiency of one point twenty four points per possession including passes. So more than twice as impactful as a post player this year than he was in last season. And he's been the eighth most efficient post up player in the league so far to run at least ten post ups. So Jason Tatum, for all intents and purposes, is playing like an MVP, and even within the context of this talented roster. And again like this, there's a very specific reason why that

efficiency matters. He averaged thirty points per game last year. This year he's averaging thirty points per game on significantly lower usage. This is his lowest usage rate in three years. It's at thirty point six. That's pretty standard for a star. Last year he's thirty two point seven. The year before that thirty two point one. Why does that matter? This is a large group of players that all need touches.

You're fitting in porzingis as a much more aggressive offensive option like you've already seen Jalen Brown, for instance, He's taken a little bit of a hit in terms of like his offensive aggression, He's down to twenty three points per game after averaging twenty seven last year. He's having to do a lot more work as a slasher and as a spot up player, which has helped, Like Jalen Brown's having one of his best spot up seasons ever one point one five points per pose, just because he's

driving closeouts a lot. He's you know, he's contributing with pull up three point shooting, particularly in transition. He's six for eleven un pull up three so far. But he's taking some sacrifice in terms of offensive touches. Well, so is Jason Tatum. He's just so damn efficient that he's still averaging thirty points per game, just like he did

last year, which was his career high. And so I think, I think, like it's hard to it's hard to overstate how good Jason Tatum's been and how easy it's made things for the Celtics offensively, especially with like again, Porzingis is averaging nineteen points per game. You got to fit

that into the whole mix of things at a certain point. Now, one thing offensively is the bench guys haven't been shooting super super well, right, Like Peyton Pritchard hasn't shot as well as he did in preseason Al Horford has struggled with his transition to the bench, but it hasn't mattered because the starters have been that good the holiday Derek White, Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, chrisops porzingis lineup so far seventy two minutes, one hundred and twenty six offensive rating, eighty

nine defensive rating. That's like unbelievably good, outscoring opponents by thirty seven points per one hundred possessions. That is the very best five man lineup in the NBA to play at least fifty five minutes so far this year. Just they're just kicking everyone's ass. And that's why I feel pretty strongly that at least within the regular season context, they're going to run away in the standings. And again, that defense element, that's the part that I want to emphasize.

Here's that eighty nine defensive rating. That's the type of number that has me feeling like this group is closer to that twenty twenty two group in terms of their defensive identity. You could see it on the screen. Tatum and Brown in particular, are playing a much better defense than they did last year as a team. Here's some

defensive stats for you guys. Seventh in defensive rating, third and a half court defense, according to Cleaning the Glass, allowing just eighty six point two points per one hundred possessions. They've been the very best rebounding team in the league, grabbing fifty five point four percent of available rebounds. They are the third best paint defense, allowing just forty three

point seven points per one hundred possessions. In the paint, they're allowing the ninth fewest fast break points per one hundred possessions. The two big areas of opportunity on their defense right now is the three point line. They're allowing twelve point three made threes per one hundred possessions. That's the seventeenth most in the league, or seventeenth least in the league, i should say. And they could also stand to force a lot more turnovers given the amount of

the athleticism they have. They're forcing just eleven point five turnovers per one hundred possessions, which is the third worst mark in the league. Again with the transition offense that they already have, supplementing that by forcing more turnovers that could go a long way as well. I think they're capable of being even more disruptive than they have been. But they're hitting several key markers that make me feel a lot better about this team than last year's team.

The defense, with at least with the starters, the defense looks more like it did two years ago. Jason Tatum looks like he's made strides as a half court shot creator, improved pull up jump shooting, and a much more dynamic post up attack. And then drewp Holiday and chrisops Sporzingis have been seamless fits on both ends of the floor. This team again, like the same question will be there in terms of their half court execution when we get down the line. The better their defense is, the more

margin for error they'll have in that area. But I feel pretty good about my preseason prediction that the Celtics are gonna run away with the regular season. I think they're gonna win the standings by at least five games. I think they're going to be able to comfortably get away with the number one overall seed, and I mean, I'm excited to see them play some tougher matchups down the line, but they've passed with flying colors so far here early in the season. All right, guys, that is

all I have for today. We're gonna be back tomorrow covering some Thursday night games as well as a deep dive on the Milwaukee Bucks, maybe another team as well. We'll see how things go with time, but as always, I appreciate you guys, and I will see that the volume