Hoops Tonight - Warriors waste Steph Curry’s 60, Clippers-Heat, NBA Power Rankings

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here's a crazy stat for you. They've lost eighteen games involving clutch situations, meaning the score was within five with less than five minutes left a big issue for them.

to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful for us if you guys take a couple of seconds to rate and review the podcast, that would mean a lot to me as well. Don't forget about our Twitter feed at underscore JSNLT. That's where I put film breakdowns in the morning as well as show announcements and not least keep dropping mail bag

questions in the YouTube comments. We're gonna hit a mail bag on Wednesday. It looks like this week and got a jam packed week. Tomorrow morning, I've got to show that we're gonna do going over the five biggest trades that I want to see this season. Then we will actually be going with Colin Cowhard Tuesday night for the first time this season. So obviously, as you guys remember last year after the Super Bowl we went pretty regularly with Colin. We're gonna be starting that back up again.

That's gonna be fun. And then we'll be live on YouTube right after the trade deadline on Thursday as well, reacting to what hopefully will be a more interesting trade deadline than what the last couple of weeks have looked like ever since the Pascal Siakam trade. So jam packed week, excited, But let's get into Clippers heat. So the biggest thing that stood out to me from this particular game, and it's been something that stood out all season, and this

is gonna be a theme that I talk about. The idea of like basketball characters is a concept that I talk about on the show, and to me, that is like the little intangible kind of like effort, energy, focused, discipline, competitiveness, things that I think bear out over the course of an eighty two game season and our typical hallmarks for a team that goes on to win an NBA championship. If you look back through NBA history. It's like last year the Denver Nuggets were the one seed in the

Western Conference. We talk about teams like the Lakers and the Warriors, teams that can have potential to go on a playoff run, but like the team that kind of wallows around in mediocrity during the regular season typically doesn't win. That's just what NBA history tells us. That doesn't mean it can't happen. Obviously, it's not impossible. It's just extremely unlikely and NBA history tells us typically not right. And

you can go further back the Warriors. They were right up there with the Phoenix Suns at the trade deadline, and then Steph Curry hurt his foot and that's why they ended up a little bit lower in the standings. But they were consistently one of the best teams in that regular season. They were forty f nineteen when Steph Curry played. The Bucks were a one seed, the Lakers were a one seed, the Raptors were two seeds. So this is why we look at these trends over the

course of the regular season. It's important to talk about what works in the regular season and what doesn't, what translates in those specific kind of like x'es and o's things, But in the bigger picture, if you're not actually trying to build championship character over eighty two, typically you'll run into some trouble. And we're on an extended stretch here from the Clippers or they've been the best team in the league since November seventeenth. They are thirty and eight.

That is the best record in the league over that span. That's basically ever since they started zero to six right after the hard and trade, they have been the best team in the league. They're just one game back of the number one seed in the Western Conference. They're trending heavily in that direction. So this is the Clippers are paying their dues, and you can see it like this is a random road game against the Miami Heat, a tough team to play, well coached, always does the right

thing right. They're gritty to get games down into the mud and try to expose your weaknesses, and it'd be so easy to just bring a lackadaisical effort and do the bare minimum to try to win that game, or maybe punt a game like that. But like, no, I'm watching this game and Paul George is like just contending on the perimeter against Terry Rogier getting up in his business and applying back pressure and disrupting the basketball. He was switching on to Bam at a bio and a

transition crossmatch and getting a stop in the post. I'm seeing James Harden wallop Jimmy Butler in a post up and stripping him clean underneath the basket. Like from the top down, from the Stars, all the way down the roster. These guys are so so so locked in on the details, and I think that kind of stuff matters when you look at it juxtapose with some of these other teams where it's like this consistent theme of like conserving energy and like managing your the regular season and just trying

to survive it versus attacking it. And NBA history tells us it's usually the talented veteran team that attacks the regular season that runs away with it at the end of the day. And the Clippers, again, they've got some question marks. They're not a good defensive, rebounding team. They

rely heavily on pull up jump shooting. They have some of those things that could concern you, but they're doing everything they can at least within what's in there under their control to maximize themselves within this season, they held Miami to just six points from about the ten minute mark of the fourth quarter to about the four minute mark of the fourth quarter. On the other end of the floor, James Harden got his step back three going.

He had three step back threes, including one going to his left, which is one you don't see too often from James Harden.

field goal percentage. That's where we saw Steph Curry and Kevin Durant last year. Both of those guys are down this year. James Harden, up at that fifty nine percent, is actually at the highest mark.

in the left corner. He had a pull up three or a catch and shoot three, i should say, and then a wonderable pull up kind of ripping through to his right, and next thing you know, they're up by thirteen. And just like James Harden has been the best pull up shooter in the league, Norman Powell has been the very best spot.

the rim. And so a lot of times that high level close out attacking is the ability to make a shot that's in between that catch and shoot, the drive and kick or the driving layup. And like Norman Powell has just been the very best player in the league this year at not just hitting those catch and shoot threes, but reading that closeout defender and slashing off of it and making plays in the middle like one point three to eight points per possession. Think about how insane that is.

That's another level of But like Michael Porter Junior, last year was one of the best in the league, and he was below one point three, So that goes to show you just how insanely good Norman Powell has been in those spot up situations this year. But like by the time Kawhi got back into the game in the middle of the fourth quarter, they were already up thirteen.

Game was basically over at that point. Miami made a little, little kind of fake late run, but they never truly threatened and then they get out of Miami with the win, and like again, it is a tough balance between conserving energy and building good habits, but in my opinion, it is better to aggressively attack the regular season. Obviously, I'm

not saying play hurt. I'm just saying bringing effort and energy rather than trying to conserve effort and energy is the way to prepare yourself for what is the impossible grind of the NBA playoffs to win four times out of seven, winning in these two week chunks, beating a team four times out of seven, and then turning around and doing it again, and then turning around and doing it again, and then turning around and doing it again

against increasingly more difficult opponents. It's a grind. You don't get to take your time and load managed during that stretch. And so again like actually preparing your body for that type of grind over the course of the regular season. But above and beyond that, even to just the habits and the continuity with your lineups, the discipline to actually make the right decision on both ends of the floor within your scheme. It is an important part of that.

And I've just been so impressed by the Clippers this year. They've just completely and utterly attacked this regular season since the James Harden trade. It especially unusual considering some of the older veteran players on that roster. Kuhi's MVP case is starting to gain steam again. Like we talked about, thirty and eight since November seventeenth, best record in the span. Over that span, Kawi's only missed four games all season, shooting fifty three percent from the field forty five percent

from three to eighty nine percent from the line. That's sixty four percent in true shooting percentage. That is the highest mark of his career. He's also having the best defensive season he's had in years. As a matter of fact, he's getting two point six stocks per game that steals plus blocks. That's the most he's had in a single season on average since he was with the San Antonio Spurs. So you're getting a more engaged defensive version of Kui.

Another big element of having James Harden to help with the ball handling load. And then it's showed up in the numbers. The Clippers are twelve points per one hundred possessions better when Kawhi is on the floor versus off the floor. Now will he win the MVP? It remains

to be seen. The biggest thing that works against him on that front is that the Clippers do have a lot of talent, and when you look around and you see, you know, James Harden and Paul George on the court, a lot of times that can kind of sway voters. But Kawhi is playing some of the best basketball of his career and very much belongs in that conversation. And if they keep winning at this rate, I think he

has a very good chance to win it. But Zubox coming back now, he played came back on a minute's restriction. It looked like last night's game. A mere coffee is another guy I wanted to shout out just another example of like kind of a useful two way wing that they have coming off the bench, can really shoot the basketball and is a good athlete. It has some good length and bring some speed to that perimeter defense core

that they're already so deep in. Again, their only red flag really is that they still struggle with defensive rebounding and they just rely really heavily on pull up jump shooting, and so that just adds some variance when they get to the postseason. On the Miami front, they've now lost eight out of ten games. They just cannot score the basketball right now. They have a one zero, seven point eight offensive rating over this ten game span. That's twenty

ninth in the NBA. Only the Grizzlies have been worse over the last ten games, and that's just bite Jimmy Butler being awesome. Jimmy Butler shoot fifty eight percent from the field in fifty eight percent from three over this span, but Jimei Hakkez has been slumping a little bit since he came back from his injury. Tyler Harrow has been

shooting below forty percent over this span. Terry Rose year since joining the Heat thirty three percent from the field, twenty two percent from three, So like they're just struggling outside of that Jimmy Butler position. Bam Adebayo is only giving you like sixteen points a game over this span. And you know, some of this is to be expected because when you add a new kind of ball handler into the group, it just disrupts the flow of everybody,

and so some of that just needs to be sorted out. Like, do I think Miami's going to be this bad on offense this long? Probably not right, But they're also not shooting particularly well, Like as a team, they're shooting just thirty four percent from three over this ten game span. That's bottom five in the league over that stretch. So like a lot of it will turn around. I think just as they get a little bit more used to

playing with each other. There's they've added legitimate offensive firepower here, and I do expect this team to be a better offer in the long run. That said, over the span, they're also twenty second in defense and twenty first in rebounding, So a little bit of a slip here, this kind of thing can happen, and we see this like like we were just talking about it with the Sacramento Kings, Like for most of January they were pretty mediocre, and then all of a sudden in the last couple of

weeks they're kind of snapping back into form. This time of year, you see lots of ebbs and flows in teams, especially teams that have made it to the playoffs before and can struggle a little bit with motivation over the course of the regular season. I can never be out on the Miami Heat, but they're definitely playing some bad basketball right now.

just go right him. He was scoring at the rim, he was scoring from three. Did the shot he had that should have been the go ahead shot in the final minute was like a floater after he split a ball screen with de Jon de Marty. He was unbelievable down the stretch of this game. And he's fully back and form now. His last five games, Steph thirty nine points per game, fifty three percent from the field and forty six percent from three, has not missed a free throw.

So Steph, whatever slumpy was in there in the middle of the season seems to be coming out the other side of that. But the Warrior still lost that game. Why is that for two reasons they couldn't get a stop. They had a one seventy one defensive rating in seven minutes of clutch basketball against Atlanta, they were really struggling with Trey Young in ball screens. They tried guarding him straight up, just with like a traditional coverage. Jonathan Camingo

was struggling with screen navigation. He lost Trey Young for three. Then they started blitzing the ball screen. Trey was like just dribbling around the blitzer and getting downhill into the lane and making floaters. Then they started trying doubling him at half court, and they just made quick reads out

of it on the back end to get baskets. In those four on threes, Raymond Green in particular was kind of struggling splitting the difference between Trey's floater and getting back to anyaka conglu at the basket, and he actually lost him on layups a couple of times and then also gave up a couple offensive rebounds. So like that to me is less on Draymond and more on the

perimeter defense. When your screen defender is constantly having to navigate two places at once, you're putting him in no man's land, and that's just a really difficult place to play defense. And one of the biggest issues the for the Warriors right now is they're really really struggling to

contain the ball. This is a big part of why, you know, Steve Kurrz talked about Gary Payton the second and how like he specifically is one of the most important elements coming back post trade deadline is because they just need a guard that can actually stay in front of some of these guys. It's like, you go with

Brandon Pazemski, he's just not quite athletic enough, right. You go with Andrew Wiggins, it comes with all these offensive limitations that he's been showing as of late, and so having Gary Payton back could go along to help them there. But they just really really struggled defensively against Atlanta. And that's a bigger picture issue that we'll get to in

a second. But the second reason that they fell apart against Atlanta, and this is something I've been talking about all season, nobody aside from Steph can contribute offensively for them inside of these moments. You probably thought watching that game that the Warrior offense was great down the stretch, right because Steph was hitting all those damn shots. Nope, they had a one hundred offensive rating in seven clutch minutes and a big part of that is they went

cold in overtime. But again, when you're relying on one guy to score and no one else can when that guy finally starts missing shots or the defense starts to get the ball out of his hands, if you can't capitalize on the back end, you're going to struggle. And like if you look at Jus like again, that game is a perfect juxtaposition with Trey and it's Trey's killing

you and pick and roll. But then boy and Bogdanovitch just like or Bogdan Bogdanovitch just like hits a really nice step back jump going to his right along the baseline, right in Draymond's face, perfectly defended, just knocks down the shot. De Jontay Murray got his revenge after Steph cooked him because tied the game in regulation with the pull up jump jumper. Hit a few more pull up jump shots in overtime. You're getting significant offensive contribution alongside Trey Young.

That just makes it that much easier. Basketball is all about versatility, not predictability. It's not about being amazing at one thing. You've got to be able to win in different ways. You have to be able to defend in different ways with different coverages, and you have to be

able to score in different ways. Because it doesn't matter if the Steph Draymond ballscreen is getting you a few step back threes with a few minutes left in the fourth quarter, if they make an adjustment and they start to chase him off of that shot, you got to have something else you can go to at that point. The Warriors have now lost eighteen games involving clutch situations.

That's the second most in the entire league, only the Pistons, Spurs, and Raptors are behind them all having lost nineteen games in clutch time. They have a one to six teen offensive rating that's very mediocre, and they have a one fifteen defensive rating that's very mediocre. And again, this is the concerning part. This is despite Steph Curry being amazing

in clutch situations, think about this. This is crazy. If you take Steph Curry's scoring in clutch situations and you extrapolated out to a per thirty six metric, meaning if you basically looked at the way he's playing in crunch time and turned it into a player who plays thirty six minutes a game, He's scoring at a rate of fifty points per thirty six. He's literally like Wilt Chamberlain in terms of box score production at the end of

these games. Think about how insane that is. He has forty seven made field goals in clutch time this year. Second place is Mikale Bridges at thirty five. Is twelve more made field goals in clutch time than anybody else

in the league. He's shooting fifty two percent from the field in those situations, forty nine percent from three, ninety seven percent from the line, and only one war year has given him double digit clutch made field goals and support this year Klay Thompson, He's made twelve out of forty one shots. That's twenty nine percent from the field. It's become their biggest issue this season. They constantly end up in close games and they can't guard and they

can't give Stephan any support. And like zoom out a little bit, Like think about how frustrating this season has been for Warriors fans. You have twenty five losses. Eighteen of those twenty five losses were in crunch time? Am I right about the twenty five? It might even be twenty six? I'm gonna double check real quick. Yeah, twenty

five losses, eighteen of them have been in crunch time. So, like, imagine just thinking in the perspective of the standings right now, you're six games back of the Suns to be out of the play in. Like if instead of losing eighteen of those games, you lost fifteen of those games, You're now three games closer to your three games out of being out of the playan, see how big of a difference that can make. It's a significant issue, And like

it's a defense and rebounding issue. Too, Like we've talked about they give up an offensive rebound on thirty nine percent of their opponent's missus in clutch situations, thirty nine percent. Like if that means if they get ten stops in a five minute stretch, they're giving up four offensive rebounds. And like Kurrs started to go small at the end of these games, like he's used to be that he kind of go with Wiggins, and now he's kind of

going Brandon Pazemski a lot in these situations. And I get it, like his Wiggins has been struggling so much offensively, although he started to get it going there for a while. I had a rough game against Atlanta, But like my thing is, like it's not like you're leaning on Pozemski offensively much anyway, So like, why not just give yourself a bigger physical profile, Why not put Wiggins out there just to give yourself a better chance to hold up physically.

I continue to say that I would lean into Steph Clay Wiggins and Kaminga and Draymond and one of the things too. Jonathan Kamena this year seven for thirteen in crunch time, so like he hasn't really had much opportunity, but he's scored when he has been given that opportunity. He drew a foul and a post up down the

stretch against Atlanta. I would be looking to try to get somebody else involved a little bit more frequently so that when Steph kind of cools off or when they take the ball out of his hands, someone else has an is an option available for them to go to. All right, moving on to our power rankings, So much more positive this week compared to last week, Like most of the top teams lost one game but then won the rest of their games. We did have two teams

dropping out. The Philadelphia seventy six ers, they've lost five out of six. Also big picture trends here. After their eight and one start, they're just twenty two and seventeen for the season. They're just ten and eleven against teams that are five hundred or better. So, like a lot of it has been easy schedule for them in terms of where they're at in the standing, they have a really tough schedule down the stretch this season. And now Joel Embiid is out for an undetermined amount of time

due to knee surgery. So obviously, like we were already starting to see some of these trends form, and now they're in a really tough spot with where they're at with the remaining schedule and with Joel Embiid missing at least but at least a month of that, if not longer. Now on the Joel Embiid injury front, sounds like it's going to depend entirely on how.

See what he's got there, see find out more about his development over the course of this stretch. When he doesn't have a pick and roll partner the likes of Joel Embiid, it's gonna be a hard challenge for him. But you're gonna find out a lot more about him and what he can mean for you as a foundational piece, whether or not he's good enough to be your second best player. If you're better served for him to be

your third best player, you can learn a lot. In hell, if you find a good deal around this deadline, you could jump on it, but you don't have to be the desperate team, and that could give them some flexibility. I personally hope Joel Embie can come back because I want to see him overcome this playoff challenge that he's

been dealing with. At this phase of his career, I think he has the potential to be the best player in the world, So I'm hoping that he gets a good outcome from his knee surgery and that he can come back and make a run before the end of the season. But this does simplify some of the urgency surrounding Philly because it's no longer just like a kind of like a clear runway into the playoffs like you would hope for in a season like this. And then the other team that's dropping out for me is the

Indiana Pacers. They've lost eight of their last thirteen games. They've lost three in a row against good teams this week. The offense has been mediocre, the defense has been bad, the rebounding has been worse. Will dive a little bit more into the Pacers here in the next couple of weeks,

but the upside there. They've had one hundred and eighty seven sessions with Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam on the floor together, and in those possessions they are outscoring teams by sixteen points for one hundred possessions of one to twenty eight offensive rating, which is like insane off the charge good in a one thirteen defensive rating, which is perfectly fine. It's not great, but it's better than what they've been most of this season. So, without any further ado,

let's get to our power rankings. Number ten the Sacramento Kings. They finally seem to have gotten over their January slump. They've won six out of seven games, mostly on the road. They're also ninth in defense over that span and tenth in defensive rebounding. There's been a pretty consistent theme this year that when the Sacramento Kings actually commit to the defensive end.

them throughout the season. Number nine the Milwaukee Bucks. So after losing to the Jazz last night, Bucks are now one in three since Stock Rivers became their head coach. But it's been the offense that's failed them. I actually think their defense statistically it's been right where it was before the coaching change, right around a one to sixteen defensive rating. But on tape I actually am seeing some strides,

especially from the guards and just overall commitment. I just think they ran into some bad matchups like Denver's the defending champion. Utah and Portland are super young and have super fast guards, which are like specific matchup issues. For Milwaukee, it's the offense that has failed them over this span. They have typically or they're around a one to twenty offensive rating there and a one fourteen since stock Rivers took over Dame was five for eighteen again last night.

He just continues to just put these really putrid shooting nights up, and so I'm not really worried about their offense in the long run. So I think this is more of just like a brief stretch of offensive slumping alongside with some bad matchups that have kind of paused that one in three start under Doc River. I tend to agree with Giannis. I know it's not pretty, but I do think better times are on the horizon for the Bucks. Number eight the Phoenix Suns rejoining our power rankings.

Bradley Beal had forty three last night in a win against the Washington Wizards. He's been in the lineup for twenty straight games now and the Suns are fourteen and six in those games, and they actually won a game against Houston right before that, So they're fifteen and six in their last twenty one games, fifth best record in the league over that span. That's a fourth of the season. That's a hefty chunk of games. They are also second in offensive rating over that span and fourteenth in defense,

pretty respectable. Their defensive rebounding is still a little bit of a struggle for them. I think they're twenty third over that span. Devin Booker also fully back to his superstar form last thirteen games, thirty two points, five rebounds, and six assists, fifty four percent from the field, forty percent from three, and eighty seven percent from the line.

in Toronto as well. The Toronto game in particular was encouraging because chet Holmgrin, Josh Giddy, and Lou dort all kind of got back on track after they'd been slumping for a little while. And chet in particular has been on track for about three games now. He sit ten threes in his last three games, savaging just under twenty points per game, nine blocks over that span, and double digit plus minus in all three of those games. In

terms of the positive. So Chet seems to be getting it back together, got over that little slump that he was dealing with there in January. Number six, the Cleveland Cavaliers undefeated week lighter stretch of their schedule, but they did on Monday notch a big win against the Clippers, really really good defensive effort, really contained Paul George Well,

really contained James Hardenwell got out in transition. We did a whole deep dive not just on that game, but on everything going on the Cavs with Carter Rodriguez from the Chase Down podcast last week on Wednesday, went for like forty five minutes.

habits and behaving like a five hundred team. And if you zoom out there, like it's actually kind of funny because actually look at this as like classic coaching, just like really good motivational coaching, trying to like just stay on his team, because you gotta think like Minnesota has been outstanding all season, and they have some specific things that bode really well for them for the postseason. They

have a huge frontline, they're an elite defensive team. They've got a Tier one superstar in or at least a guy who could be a Tier one superstar, and Anthony Edwards that can is pretty much unguardable in terms of getting to his spots, primarily decision making and settling. For him, he's got a little bit of the Jason Tatum itis where it's like he is the best athlete on the floor but just takes a million pull up jump shots

and he's not particularly efficient with them. But like, really it's been it's been mostly good, and I think what happens is you end up in a stretch like this where it's late January, early February. You drop a couple of games you shouldn't have lost, right, Like they lost to Charlotte that shouldn't happen, Losing to Orlando at home probably shouldn't happen, Losing to San Antonio probably shouldn't happen.

apart again late in the game against Orlando. Now like part of that's Orlando has this ridiculous defensive punch, and when they really lock in, they can be tough to score on, but zoom out. One of my biggest concerns for the Timberwolves all season has been their late execution. They are twenty seventh in fourth quarter offensive rating this season. It's been a major point of concern for me in

terms of their playoff potential. Number four the New York Knicks injuries ended their nine game winning streak against the Los Angeleslikers, who actually been playing some decent basketball as of late. Julius Randall heard his shoulder, then Oji had Anobi had some elbow inflammation. Actually have a funny story about this. When I was living in Charlotte, so this would have been like twenty seventeen. I'll never forget. We played in like a men's league game and the game

went fine, there was no issue. But I woke up the next morning and I went to the gym to go shooting, and I start my shooting workout, just going around the world, just like shooting from block to block to the foul line. It's just a way to kind of like warm up my elbow, and like I went to shoot from the elbow in my I just felt this like excruciating pain in my right elbow and it ended up turning into this huge deal. I had to wear like a brace for a while. It was like

really bad inflammation. I think it might have actually been tennis elbow, but like it was gnarly, and it like straight up made me stop playing basketball for like a.

Jalen Brunson last ten games, by the way, thirty three points per game, four rebounds, and seven assists on fifty two thirty seven eighty four splits. So Jalen Brunston playing at a superstar level right now. He's phenomenal. In that Lakers game, was drawing crazy double teams the only way the Lakers one was basically just a gimmick defense Chase

getting the ball out of his hands. As obviously New York was playing with lesser players, but he was incredible down the stretch of the Indiana Pacers game as well. Kind of insane how much of a hit Jalen Brunson was as a free agent signing and how it changed really the fortunes of that franchise. Number three, the Boston Celtics couple hard fought wins against the Pelicans and Pacers, and then they drop a game to the Lakers without Lebron James and Anthony Davis, and offense has been the

main issue in their losses. A one to oh five offensive rating against Milwaukee, a ninety nine offensive rating against the Clippers, a one to oh nine offensive rating against the Lakers. And the big thing here is they've just leaned into variants. They're attaching the fate of their season to variants. They attempt forty three threes for one hundred possessions,

that is by far the most in the league. And when they go in, they beat the hell out of you, and when they're not going in, they can be beat and it's a little I just would like to see them add a little bit more variety to the way that they attack instead of leaning so heavily on driving kick basketball and just hunting three point shots whenever they can, just because I think it would give them a little

bit more offensive resilience. And I would look at some of these down offensive games, especially against quality opponents, as part of the concern there, because it's very clear that shooting is contagious for Boston when they lose their confidence, when teams can kind of get them into one of those rough shooting nights, they kind of sulk and it almost gets worse for them from there, And like having another punch you can go to is actually a great

way to mitigate a rough shooting night if you can lean into a different offensive identity, whether it's heavy heavy Jason Tatum in the post, or whether it's a you know of going to Porzingis in the post, or leaning more to pick and pop basketball with Porzingis, to try to get more advantage situations like getting out of just leaning on just driving kick threes and tough transition threes. Making it so that you have less variance could go a long way towards helping them have a little bit

more resilience in those matchups. Number two, the Denver Nuggets dropped a game to Oklahoma City without Jokich, but they had an undefeated week outside of that. Another classic crunch time game against Milwaukee, they completely out executed them down the stretch, despite Doc Rivers throwing some pretty smart defensive coverages at them to try to mitigate their advantages. The Nuggets now have the best clutch net rating in the league.

They're outscoring opponents by twenty three points for one hundred possessions when the game is within five with less than five minutes left. Specifically on the defensive end, they have been the very best clutch defense in the league this year and then last but not least number one the Los Angeles Clippers. They dropped a tough game on the road to that red hot Cavs team like we talked about earlier, but they bounced back and one of the

rest of their games. The Clippers, in my opinion this season to this point here at February fifth, have showed the best combination of talent and basketball character that I've seen this year. What that means is actual firepower on the roster and commitment to the details from start to finish this season. And I'm not just talking about like playing hard. I'm even talking about playing smart, leaning into their strengths, practicing the things that will lead them home

at the end of the day. I've been I've been so incredibly impressed by the Clippers. It's it's it's starting to look like kind of a like it's starting to look like it's their year in a lot of ways, and At this point, I think they belong at number one in the power rankings. I'm like this close to moving them into that top tier of contenders with Boston and h and Denver. It's it's just been, it's just been a hell of a year for the Los Angeles Clippers. All Right, guys, that is all I have for today.

Like I said, we'll be back tomorrow with our five the five trades that I most want to see this year, and then we're also going to have a show with Colin Coward tomorrow evening, and then don't forget the trade deadline reaction on Thursday afternoon.