Welcome into NBA pulsive production of iHeartRadio in the NBA. I'm Sarah Coustack, NBA analyst for the Yes Network, and today is Monday, April eighth. From our extraordinary core group of NBA journalists, We're joined now by NBA dot Com Senior writer John Schuman, and Shee has got his twenty fifth week twenty five power ranking. Shoe, are we really already here? We are in the final seven days of
the regular season. You got the Boston Celtics up at that number one spot in Denver, Nuggets at Oklahoma City Thunder at three, and then it's the Timberwolves and the Dallas Mavericks rounding out the top five. But yeah, Sue, I don't know if you feel like the season has flown. I don't know if you're you seemingly never get never get tired at all as we wake you up these
early mornings on a new fresh week. But Shoe, when we are at this point of this season, obviously there's a lot of moving parts still in the playoff picture. It's made for a lot of excitement and intrigue for us of what the post it might look like. But as things set right now, what are you honing in on of what we know when what we can be somewhat certain of as we get ourselves set for the next step of the season.
Yeah, I think we know with one week to go, a little bit more than we usually know at this point in the season. First of all, we know the twenty teams that are going to be in the playoffs or the play in. The other ten have all been eliminated. The Rockets made their little run, winning eleven straight games, but then have since lost five straight, so they've been eliminated.
The Warriors are safely in the play in. The second thing we know is that the Celtics have secured the number one spot overall the number one overall seeds, so they'll have home court advantage through the finals if they reach it. If they reach the finals. Third thing is that the Bulls and the Hawks will definitely face each other in the nine to ten playing game in the
Eastern Conference. The Bulls are likely to be hosting, but if things go wrong, then the Hawks could could host that game, but we know it'll be Bulls and Hawks. And then the fourth thing is that the Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks are very likely to be meeting in the four or five series in the West. A tiny, tiny chance that that's not the four or five series, but it's very likely to be the four or five series, and the Clippers are almost certain to have home court
advantage in that series. So that's actually kind of a lot for you know, there being still fifty seven games left in the season, but everything after that is wide open, where you know, the two through eight seeds in the East are still wide open. The top seed in the West is still you know open, going to be probably maybe be determined by a Timberwolves Nuggets game on Wednesday. And then further down the West, you have teams that could go you know, could land in three or four different spots.
Which is interesting on a lot of levels. And before we get you mentioned that Clippers, the potential Clippers Dallas series. We're going to get to that in just a little bit. But the two through eight spots in the Eastern Conference, and let's focus in on that number two spot. It's been the Milwaukee Bucks. I think for a while, I will at least speak for myself, I assume they would be the ones that would be in that position, But all of a sudden They've lost four st rate games,
six to seven. They're just one game in front of both the Orlando Magic and the New York Knicks, a Magic team which they see two times this week, and they weren't easy losses. I think we've still been waiting to see how things look under Doc Rivers, making sure that Janstetakopo, Dame Lillard, those guys are healthy, what they look like when they all are healthy. Chris Middleton, the factor that he becomes. A Buck's gonna blow the two seeds and potentially not close things out in that position.
If they continue playing like they have been. I mean yeah, because the first three of those four straight losses were to the Wizards, the Grizzlies, and the Raptors. Now, the Bucks were without Damian Lillard in the first two of those games, and without Giannis Ancetecunpo against Toronto. But those teams that were playing were missing more starters than that. You know, the Wizards were without Tyas Jones and Kyle Kuzma. The Grizzlies were without like half their roster. The Raptors
have been pretty depleted as well. And those teams are all bad and they've all been playing even worse, you know, you know, over the last month and a half or so, So those are just inexcusable. Yeah, maybe you're missing one of your best players, but if you're a good team, you find a way to win those games. And then on Sunday they just their defense just basically got eviscerated
by the Knicks. So yeah, they it's you know, they've had some up and down, ups and downs, and but mostly I think they've just been a sort of a disappointing team. Given all the talent they have. They're generally really good when Damian Lillard and jannisn Sekunpo and their starters are on the floor together, but their bench hasn't been great, their defense hasn't been great. So yeah, it's it's crazy that they're six. They're you know, susceptible to
falling maybe to four, maybe even five. I think they could fall as low in the East. And what's just as crazy is that the Orlando Magic are the team that could could unseat them and become the two seed after missing the playoffs for the last couple of years. You know, that's just amazing. You know, the Magic, you know, still not a very good offensive team. They're about to finish in the bottom ten offensively for the twelfth straight season.
I believe it is, which is just, you know, a remarkable streak of offensive futility, but no, excuse me, the eleventh straight season. This will be the eleventh straight season that the Magic finished in the bottom ten offensively. But as we know, they've become a terrific, terrific defensive team and they could go in there. The Bucks are a good offensive team, and it'll be fun to see those two games this week with second place possibly on the line and sort of a strength versus strength matchup.
Yeah, I was gonna say the Magic are nasty defensively and the numbers offensively are not pretty though. I think they have their moments and they've got a lot of youth. But I think it kind of it ebbs and flows of how dominant they are in scoring in the paint and sometimes at three point shooting, with that waning and the lack of value of that in just watching them, I think when they hit some threes they look like and can get a rolling a little. I'm curious if
you think. And with that being said, how at times meet yocre to bad the Bucks defense has been in just taking a look at what they look like offensively against this Orlando Magic defense this week, But just in general, how do you think the Magic could and will fare in the postseason given their their style of play and given the fact that they are somewhat young and inexperienced in that postseason play.
I think their style of play fits. Okay, you know what they do, but it's funny. They're they're, you know, a top five defense. They don't, you know, the most important thing on both ends of the floor is shooting, and they actually don't rank all that high and in regard to opponent affective field goal percentage. But what they do is they limit shooting opportunities, so they force a lot of turnovers. And they're a great defensive rebounding team, so they don't you know, they don't give you as
many shots as they're going to get. On the other end of the floor because of the way they play, they actually foul a lot too, you know, because they're such an aggressive defensive team. The one thing is, I just don't know what are they doing offensively in a close playoff game down the stretch. You know, Paolo Bancaro is like a terrific talent and he's going to be maybe a top five player in this league at some point.
But you know, trying to count on him to create offense down the stretch of close games is not a great proposition.
Another team in the East that we are intrigued to continue watching Philadelphia seventy six Ers. Joel Embiid came back after missing the last two months, and not only have the Sixers been rolling since he's returned, but Tyres Maxi continues to show out. In the double overtime win that they just had against the San Antonio Spurs, he had fifty two points. They're currently sitting seventh in that playing game, they're a game back of Indiana. But how do you
view this seventy six Ers team? I think it always with Joel Embiid. It being out had been the question of if he comes back, what does that look like a dangerous team? With this seating they may have. Do you have confidence that they could come in and be a team that could play as well as we had seen them playing in the early part of the season.
I think we still have to see more from Joel Embiid. I mean, he's looked fine enough, you know, in these first three games that he's played, but I think you still want to see, you know, in this last week of the season, and you know, whenever they play after that, how well is he moving defensively if you look at like their numbers just in these three games, small sample size, but they haven't played good offensive teams, two bottom ten offensive teams and then the Thunder without Shay gildj Just
Alexander and Jalen Williams. And their defense has been much better when he's been when Embiid has been off the floor than it's been when he's been on the floor. But offensively he's looked good. He's shot well from mid range, he's been getting to the line a ton like he does. He hasn't quite scored at a point per minute pace like he was earlier in the season, but it's been
pretty close. And so now they are twenty eight and seven, when they've had both Tyrese Maxi and Joel Embiide available, that's an eight hundred winning past percentage, which is slightly better than the Celtics have been this season. That's kind of an unfair comparison because it's a small sample size when the two best players have been there, but that just tells you how good this team has been when
their two stars have been available. And I think when you put Nicholas Batum on the floor with those two guys, their numbers are terrific. By the way, Like going back to that San Antonio win, can I just point out the pass that Nicholas Batum made tree on the game tying bucket at the end or that my one of my I think my favorite word in the English language Sarah is deft, and that was that was a incredibly deft pass from Nicholas Batoom as he sort of just loft at it to Maxi who was on the run.
I think it was Malachi Branham that just barely jumped for the pass and just barely missed it. Maxi caught it and had an easy layup. But the pass was just immaculate. It was just a perfect, perfect pass from Batoom.
There's this basque's they're trying to catch it nextly again, you could just you could see that coming nine tenths of a second, no timeouts and we go over time.
And he is a he's a terrific passer. Like one of the reasons why they're so good when he's on the floor of em Beat is because he's a great entry passer, like he could he can get the ball to em Beat in the post better than anybody else. But yeah, I think they are just really good. If
those two guys are healthy, they're really good. And then obviously if they're in the seven or eight, or maybe even if they somehow climb up into the sixth, they're obviously a dangerous low seed that will be a scary sort of matchup for for whoever faces them.
Yeah, surprise, I didn't think we were going to get the surprise nugget That deft is your one of one.
I think it's my favorite favorite word. It's it's great. It's not because the way it sounds and and and and it's meaning, you know, just a great word.
Well, the death passing of Nicholas Batuba, I I'm I'm very interested to see to your point on all of that. I think just some semblance of you know, Kelly Ubray was another one who had a big game that night with Joe LMB not playing, but what he looks like Buddy Heal coming off the bench. There's a lot of aspects in terms of that reserve unit with how they
could play out. Nick Nurse of course now being the head coach, and some of the creativity he could bring to the table in the postseason, and just our conversation about the two three, four fives, it's not other than the Boston Celtics, and I feel like everything is wide open in the East in more more than it has been.
So I think that also lends itself to some semblance of I know Maxie is young, and I know this is somewhat of a new group together, but an opportunity for the seventy six ers team that I'm excited to see. But as you had brought up Joel Embiid at his size, with his track record, missing twenty nine games and being gone for that long, how quickly can he return back
into game shape and get moving and get playing. I mean, he was playing at an MVP level at the start of the year in such a special way, So how close can he get back to that? I think a lot of that is going to be the questions more questions as we head to the Western Conference. We're going to take a quick break and get into what looks to be another matchup in the postseason between the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Dallas mavericks S don't go anywhere.
Welcome back to the Pulse. Sarahkustak joined by the great John Schuman with another sets, the last set of power rankings. Shoe, I should know this. Do you do power rankings in the postseason?
I haven't in the past. Oh, guess what we're going to be doing power rankings left.
Give the people what they want. That's what you do. That is what you do. And what it seems like as of late what the Clippers and the MAVs do is meet up in the postseason. It very much looking like they may be the four to five seeds here in the Western Conference, and it's going to be interesting. Shue, I am curious your take about just how things are shaking out. Clippers currently sitting in the fourth spot in the West, the Dallas Mavericks two games behind them in
the fifth spot. But Dallas has been playing so well. They've won fourteen of their last sixteen games since the trade deadline. They have been excellent. I know you've got a lot of to back that up, and in what they've done on the defensive side of things, I think Kawhi Leonard incredible. But the Clippers. We've seen stretches and moments where they look like they can be a title contender and then others where it's kind of dropped off
a little bit. What is your perspective on what you think this matchup could look like if they do once again meet in the postseason.
Yeah, they're both kind of similar in a way, right because they both made in season trades that sparked a really strong run. You know, the Clippers run sort of came to an end at the All Star break and then they had a slubbish few weeks after the break, but they have won six of their last seven, even though Kawhi Leonard has missed the last four. And then the MAVs, they're the most improved team in the league since the trade deadline when they acquired PJ. Washington and
Daniel Gafford. They're starting lineup with Washington and Gafford in there has been terrific. They're actually thirteen and one when those five guys have started together. Lukadancis, Kyrie Irving, Derek Jones, Junior, Washington and Gafford, and that lineup has allowed just ninety seven point six points fo one hundred possessions. And it's one hundred and fifty one minutes. That's elite defense. And that's the thing, right, Like the MAVs have not been
a great defensive team the last few years. They're very good in Jason Kidd's first year in Dallas, but since then not so not so much. And so when you look at that, you know, post deadline improvement, it's mostly about the defensive end of the floor. You know, they rank seventh on that end of the floor since the deadline up from twenty something you know prior. So that's really good. But obviously, just when you think about the matchup between these two teams, you think Luka Doncic, Kyrie
Irving versus Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Paul George. That is star power, right, And that's the thing about the Western Conference playoffs. We're gonna have star power in every single series no matter what they are. But I think right now, like the main concern is, like, all right, what's going on with Kawhi Leonard? Why has he missed the last four games? He's got some sort of knee inflammation issue.
And that's story number one because I think in my mind, Kawhi Leonard's basically been the best playoff performer in the last several years. If you look at his sixty two playoff games that he's played since twenty and seventeen, he's averaged twenty nine point six points on a true shooting percentage of sixty three point five percent, which is elite. You know, we won a championship obviously in Toronto in that stretch, but even in his playoff runs with the Clippers,
he's been just incredibly good. He's getting a little older, but I feel like he still has the abilities to turn it on. I just hope that, you know, for for the Clipper's sake and for all our sake, just
so we can see this matchup at full strength. Is that you know, he's back on the floor at some point between now and when the series gets started, or maybe they just keep him off the floor this following week, knowing that he's gets an extra four or five days rest, you know, while the playing is going on.
Yeah, and I'm curious what that looks like when you look at the Clippers, you know, two games here before they close things out this week against a Phoenix Suns team that has been working to stay out of the playing game and then they they have Utah in Houston in their last two games. Meanwhile, Dallas will be at Charlotte, at Miami Detroit, and then at Oklahoma City on that final Sunday. So interesting to see kind of how they play that out. What what do you predict if these
two teams meet in the postseason? What would your what would your predictions be? Too too healthy? Too healthy teams here playing one another, assuming the Kawhi Leonard is there on the floor in back with them.
Geez, if they're healthy. I mean, I don't I would. It would be hard to pick against Luka Doncic, especially since you know this will be the first time he's had Kyrie irving alongside him in the playoffs. But I don't want to pick against it. Like a healthy Kawhi Leonard, Like I think that may be the best player when you take both sides of the floor into account in the series. And then he's also got Paul George and
James Harden and a terrific supporting cast beyond that. So yeah, I guess I would say like Clippers and seven in part because they have home court advantage, in part because I think Kawhi Leonard if he's healthy, is the best player.
I have to agree with you there. I think both me and you do not like to make predictions because there's a lot of variables that come into play. But you said, you said the thing to me that stands out most, which is is interesting because before I would always say, Kawhi healthy, Kawhi. We forget what a monster. Maybe we don't forget, but just what a absolute just BC is on both ends of the floor in the postseason.
But man, Luca, like how Luca has been playing, what Luca has been doing, the continuity and just like fluid nature that he's found with Kyrie irv Irving in this entire Dallas team, I do think there's something to be said for a team playing this well. Is they heading to the postseason.
It'll be amazing, Like, it's going to be amazing when the West Series are set and we're gonna look at like and we're gonna be like, four of these teams are not going to make it to the second round. That's crazy. It's crazy.
It's crazy to.
Think that, No, either the MAVs or the Clippers are not going to make it to the second round or either the you know, the Suns or the Wolves. If that were a matchup, we're not going to make it to the second round, you know, like that that's that'll be you know, the Thunder, the Laker or whatever the matchups are. We're going to look at it and be like, oh my gosh, I can't believe one of the four teams are going to come home, go home, really really disappointed.
Yeah, and even I mean, I know we've talked about it quite a bit, but even to see a Lakers Warriors nine to ten game and then just how that all looks. I think all of it is going to be fascinating and it's going to be fun for all of us who love this league and in love this time of year.
Shoo.
As always, we appreciate you your time and of course your power rankings. We're talking about a handful of these teams, but you got excellent, excellent deep dive stuff on how all thirty of the teams in the association are playing at this time of year. So until next time, we appreciate you and we'll talk with you soon.
All right, Sarah. Thanks.
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