Power Rankings, Mavs Struggles, MVP Showdowns, LeBron's Return

to really dig into. Do you ever sleep not on Sunday nights? No, Yo, I'm looking at this and it's good stuff. Obviously, given the background of some of this movement with these teams, especially as we head towards this final stretch of the season, have such a large, large sample size of what they've been doing, how they've been playing. Milwaukee in that number one spot moves up from number two, Boston is number Boston is at two, moving up from

number three. Philadelphia is at three, drop from the top spot, and then Denver remains at four, with Cleveland at five. But I want to talk about one of the teams that is not moving up towards the top of the Dallas Mavericks. They are struggling. They have lost four straight, seven of their last nine, not to mention that they just lost to the Charlotte Hornets one ten, one or four with both Luca Done and Kyrie Irving playing. Luca had forty twelve and eight, Kyrie with eighteen and four.

They've got two losses to the Hornets. They're sitting in the eleventh in the West. And I said it, both Luca and Kyrie are playing. So three and eight with both of those guys. What is going on with the Mavericks and what do they do at this point? I mean, I think what they do is they try to be better. But it's pretty amazing. So they're three and eight with both Done and Irving in the lineup. For the most part, defense has been the issue, although these two games against

the Hornets this weekend were more about ugly offense. But the amazing thing is they're three and eight with these guys in lines. All eight losses have been been within five points in the last five minutes, so they they've all been close. Now. The first loss to Charlotte was only within five in the last five because they were down seven or eight and got a bucket in the last minute and made it made it a quote unquote

clutch game. But the other thing is, so you say, oh, you know, all eight have been within five in the last five. You know, maybe they just need to clean a couple of things up, and they're right there. But the other thing is that only three of those eight losses came against teams that are currently over five hundred. There was one to Sacramento, one to Minnesota, and one to Phoenix, and then the other five losses were to the Lakers, to the Pacers, to the Pelicans, and then

two to the Hornets. So while you know a lot they've all been close, you could also say that they should not be going into clutch time or playing a close game against the Pacers and the Hornets and even the Pelicans who are who've been playing a little bit better of late, but still our team they need to beat if they want to even make the play in in the Western Conference at this point. What about a team on the other side of things that's been trending upwards,

the Memphis Grizzlies. They've won nine of ten, they are in that second place spot, two games ahead of the Sacramento Kings. It was not long ago that we had some question marks about how they would look, what the rest of the season would look like for them, and now they have been rolling nice when last night against the Atlanta Hawks, and good balance among their starters as

well with the type of production they were getting. What's been working so well for the Grizzlies lately it's been offense. You know, they've won nine out of ten and they've had the number one offense in the league over that stretch, and they're doing it without Steven Adams, who is the guy that's you know, they generates a lot of second chances for them. That's how they generate a lot of offenses.

Fast breaks, you know, drives to the paint, and then second chances where you know, John Morant attacks, draws help and Steven Adams is there behind the help to sort

of clean up and finish. And we don't know if if Adams is going to play again this season at this point, or at least in the regular season, but what they've been doing without all those second chances is they've been shooting more threes and they've got four guys that have shot really well from beyond the arc over this stretch, Desmond Bane, Dylan Brooks, Tias Jones, Luke Canard.

Canard at ten threes and when the Grizzlies hit a franchise record twenty five against the Rockets the other night, Canard had ten, which was three more than the Rockets had by total. And so basically, but prior to the stretch, they were twenty second in three point rate, meaning the percentage of their shots that have come from three point range. During the stretch there they's seventh U with forty two percent of their shots coming from beyond the arc. He

burries that, and that's a big thing. You know. Jaren Jackson still isn't shooting particularly well from three point range, but he's he's turned up his offense quite a bit, especially in the paint um. And then if they've got these other guys shooting shooting the ball well, but then they can have a little bit more balanced offense, they can be a little bit more potent on that end of the floor. And I think Dylan Brooks, uh maybe finding a rhythm could be huge just because of how

important he is to their defense um. And so if he can provide a little bit of shooting and not just shoot like thirty one thirty two percent from beyond the arc, then that can be a huge development for them. How do you view their chances in winning the West? I If I look at them in a vacuum, I'm I wouldn't be too excited. But when I look at them in the context of the Western Conference and how wide open it is, then I think they have basically

as good as shot as anybody really. Um you know, when you have Denver that you know feels a little bit flawed, Sacramento obviously flawed with the with the pretty bad defense. Golden State we know, just isn't as good as they were as they were last year. The Clippers now missing Paul George and just haven't been that great. Um. So I think it's wide open, and I wouldn't so if you're if you're one of the teams that's there, and especially if you're gonna have home court advantage through

the first two rounds, you're in decent shape. Yeah, it's gonna be fun to watch on the final stretch here what happens to the Western Conference. And also we are very interested in what's happening in the MVP race. A couple showdowns here coming up, including one tonight on a TV as Joel Embiid in the seventy six ers visit Nicola Yokich and the Denver Nuggets. We'll get to that right after the break. Welcome back to NBA Pulse, Sarah,

who stop joined by John Schumann and Schue. We got a good one tonight on NBA TV nine thirty Eastern. It tips off as Philadelphia is at Denver and two MVP showdowns for Joel Embiid, who currently sits a top of Michael c writes Kia MVP Ladder that number one spot with Yoki two and Jannis at three. So uh, Embiid. We'll see Yokis here tonight and then moving ahead this weekend he'll get a chance to see the Milwaukee Bucks and Yannis data Kumpo. But looking at tonight's matchup, what

do you look for? I know I'm talking here about the MVP brace, but what do you look for out of this matchup and just in the context of what it means at this point of the season. Well, I'm not going to try to make any conclusions. I think I've like taken a step back just because of the toxicity of the conversation. I've taken a whole like personally as a voter, I've taken a step backwards from the whole thing and just try not to think about the MVP too much until we get to the end of

next week. But I think it's it's a big game for both first for both teams Denver. Denver has a has a good, a decent lead at the top of the West, but still has some business to take care of. It's kind of like, it's kind of fun because it's kind of been like a round robin of MBP candidates because Denver beat Milwaukee the other night with Yokich having a really good game against brook Lope Defensive Player of the Year candidate brook Lopez. He shot really well against

Lopez in the paint. And so now we get Yoki versus MBID for the second time. We know that Embiad had a huge, huge game against Yoki in Philly earlier in the season. Forty seven points, eighteen rebounds, three steals, two blocks, five assists. There's embiid shot clock down to five, wants to take Yo catch step back three forty seven

poor Joel, and I think obviously he's gonna care. I think one thing we know Joe and b cares about the MVP award because one he's dealing with a calf issue, but he's still played in twenty seven or the Sixers last twenty eight games, including both ends of their last three back to backs. I think those were all opportunities for him to get arrest if he wanted one, or

if they felt like that he needed one. But the fact that he's playing through all of this tells us that he's a little bit motivated in regard to his individual play. And I think we'll see probably see that play out on Monday night, and then of course Buck Sixers. We're also gonna get Bucks Celtics. So like there's a little Eastern Conference round robin going on over the next few days too, where we get Buck Celtics sixers and then Sixer Celtics next week. Yeah, what is that? What

are you looking forward to with that? Just some clarity potentially at the top of the East especially you mentioned Bucks Celtics Thursday on TNT Calves could they move past the Philadelphia seventy six ers. What do you look for at the top of the Eastern Conference. Yeah, we've kind of assumed that those three teams are at the top, and these three games will obviously offer some more clarity. There's still you know, the Bucks are two games ahead of the Celtics, who are two games ahead in the

lost column ahead of the Sixers. But with all these head to head meetings, you know, anything could happen, really. But one thing, you know, if you take a look at the sixers remaining schedule, with these games against the Bucks and the Celtics, and also they have a game against Miami, they have a game against Brooklyn, they have Denver. Obviously, as we talked about on Monday, they've got a tough schedule.

And if you look at Cleveland's schedule, they have six games left and only one of them is against the team with the winning record, and that's a home game against the Knicks on Friday. So Cleveland could possibly win out and if they do that, then the Sixers have to beat one or two of these other good teams

in order to avoid falling into fourth. And then of course falling into fourth means you know, playing the one seed in the second round, it means having a tougher first round matchup, and then you know, things get a little tricky. We've we've sort of assumed that it's one, two, three, and you just want to be first and those that two and if you're third, you're probably in the worst shape because you're you know, playing a tough opponent on

the road in the second round. But there's still a chance for Cleveland to sneak up, especially after after having a pretty good week last week with those two wins over Brooklyn. Yeah, absolutely, over to the West with how things are shaken out in a couple on the end, Lebron James returned for the Lakers last night. They lost those to the Bulls. They're currently sitting in that ninth place spot. We'll soak it in right now because Lebron, it's common in the game. The Phoenix Suns expect DeAndre

Ayton and Kevin Durant back this week. They're currently sitting fourth in the West. Those stars, that star power for both those teams. I know they're in different positions, But what did you see in the return of Lebron James here for the Lakers and what that could mean for them? And additionally, those two guys coming back for the Suns at this point of the year. It's funny like, well,

you'll still still here. Lots of people say that, you know, nobody wants to face the Lakers, but we still just haven't seen them play well for any kind of extended period. You know, right now, they're one game under five hundred overall thirty seven and thirty eight, and they're also one game under five hundred fourteen and fifteen in games in which they've had both Lebron James and Anthony Davis. So

we still haven't seen them. Really they put it together, you know, Sunday was an opportunity, but they lost to Chicago, and let's just say Chicago's been really really good since the All Star Break. Going back to Denver for a second. One fun thing this week is that they'll play to a couple of potential second round previews this week because they play at Phoenix on Friday, when the Suns could have both Eton and Durant back, and then they'll host

the Warriors on Sunday. So those are two teams that could finish four or five perhaps in the West. That would be an incredible first round matchup first of all, but then that's also you know, a potential danger spot for Denver in the second round if they face one of those two teams. So it'll be fun to see them play both of those two teams later this week. Yeah, without a doubt, fun time a year in shoe as always fun to have you on. As I mentioned, power

rankings out again this week. But all the details and nuggets of notes, everything about these teams and what's been happening with them is the good stuff, the good good stuff. So thanks so much as always for being here with us. Oh, go go go Virginia Tech. The Hokies big game tonight against Ohio State. I'm nervous, are you? I'm excited? Yes? Final four would be pretty pretty pretty cool for a team for a school that's never been there, either on

either either men's or women's side. Channeling, channeling all the good juju your way, your way into the Hokies way. I have a good one. Show. We appreciate you. I Mean A Pulse with Sara Kustack is a production of the NBA and iHeart Radio. Please rate, review, and subscribe on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast.