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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily presented by Amazon prime for March 16, 2026. I'm Dave Dufour here with Esperaheni and Zena Keda. Coming up, we had a big weekend with playoff implications aplenty. We're going to check into that. The Lakers and Nuggets had like a movie ending and we're going to hit that one and then we're going to talk about the Raptors beating the Pistons. Good morning, everybody.
- [00:35]
B
Good morning.
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C
Right.
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A
That was a shocking win by the Raptors. A week after S says the Raptors just don't have it. They probably got their biggest win of the year. We were talking about have it, but yeah, we don't have it. But you know, it's okay. They had it for the day. We'll talk about that one after the break. But I. Guys, I want to start with this amazing game that we got Saturday night between the Lakers and the Nuggets. The Lakers pull it out in overtime, 127, 125. But how we got there was pretty incredible. Austin Reeves maybe had the greatest intentionally missed free throw I've ever seen. It was, I mean, exactly what you wanted to do. JJ Redick said that that was the call. He said, I need you to miss it here.
- [01:23]
B
Incredible. And then also shout out to Aiden, like sealed off the rebound so Austin could get it. It was done.
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A
Yeah, Aiden had himself a very nice game. But I, I want to talk about the Lakers because th.
- [01:35]
B
That.
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A
That big shot from Austin Reeves. You get a game winner from Luca down the stretch. Deandre Ayton played some of the best defense I've seen him play in his entire career. Individual defense on Nicola Jokic blocking his shot now. Yes, of course, I wish he would have gotten the Duncan rebound.
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B
It was hilarious when he blocked the shot and let it go out of bounds and everybody was like, why?
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C
What are you doing?
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A
Okay, just to defend him. He might have just had a moment of maybe like he was impressed by
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B
himself for a second. It was like he got.
- [02:09]
C
That's exactly what I was thinking. I was like, he forgot the moment, but he was proud of himself in that one. Yeah.
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A
So after this game, you know, you look at the standings in the west and. And we'll get to what happened on Sunday with the Thunder and the Wolves because that has an impact on. On the playoff race. But all of a sudden, after we've kind of been poking fun at the Lakers, hey, they're not. They're not really serious. Even though we give them credit Where I feel like you've got L, you've got Austin Reeves out there together, and LeBron, you could. You could be dangerous in a playoff series. But now all of a sudden, they are the three seed.
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B
I.
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A
They don't feel like a three seed, but here they are winning these games and I. It's hard. It's hard to wrap your head around sometimes.
- [02:50]
B
I'll. I'll give the Lakers a lot of credit here. So over the last 15 games, they have a top five offense and they have almost a top 10 defense. They're 12th in defense. That's the part that I think is the most intriguing. And we saw some of their defense against the Nuggets in that game. I also would say they run zone a lot. Like, they play a lot of zone defense and they're effective guarding in zone. You know, when you don't have the, like, primary perimeter defenders, you know, Austin Reeves and Luka. Luka Doncic, they're great offensive players. Can't do it defensively. I genuinely think that's been a solution for J.J. redick. And the coaching staff is like, hey, let's play. Have these guys focus on guarding an area of the floor versus guarding a specific man. And it's helped them a lot. It's helped deandre Ayton a lot, truthfully, to be like, I am positioned here as the backline help for everything that we want to do. And, yeah, maybe they found something here in the second half of the season. I will also say, like, it's great timing, you know. Yeah, if you're like, playing your best basketball at this point in the season is very important. So, yeah, credit to the LA Lakers. They're doing it well at the right time.
- [04:00]
C
The defensive rating was absolutely something I wanted to note. I think about that There was like a defining game, that February 22nd game against the Celtics. National television Lakers lose embarrassingly. Their net rating in that game was a negative 22. And since that game, they have not shown any. Not even close to a semblance of the level of apathy on the floor that they showed in that game. There has been this resurgence of we need to. Even if they're not playing great defense, we need to do more to win on the margins. And we know that that's who they've been since the top of the year. But now they've meshed in swarm defense, blitzing folks, playing incredibly active. And I think that that's really apparent. But the other thing that I really love is LeBron comes back and he's playing the right role. There was a lot of screen actions where LeBron was involved. For Luka, there was no confusion as to whose offensive team this was. And Luka and Austin were at the mantle and LeBron was just doing whatever he could in transition on defense and you know, finding his own shot, but he wasn't necessarily the focal point. And I think when you say they think, I think they found something. It's that I think that is aspect is a huge aspect for the Lakers is we know exactly who to turn to in those clutch moments, in the moments where we need to get ourselves back into the mix. We're not going to father time and looking for him to save us. It is Luka and Austin. It's on y'. All. And I really respect that for LeBron to do that, but also I respect for the team to step up to, to the plate for it.
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A
And if LeBron's three ball comes back around, which by the way, he's been a pretty good shooter here the last few years, I, I think that absolutely the way that he started the season unhealthy, I think that just contributed to this. If his jumper comes around from, from three all of a sudden they really have quite a bit of space. I mean he was one of their better three point shooters the last couple seasons. This year has just been really bad. But again, the health stuff with him I think has been part of the, the reason why he's had a hard time fitting in with these guys. Right. He can't do the things that he used to. And so as a slasher, maybe just not as effective as he would have been like 10 years ago. So it's hard, hard to hold it against him. Yeah, absolutely. Let's, let's talk Thunder Wolves and then we'll, we'll talk a little bit about the west playoffs because I this, I think that what we're seeing out of the Thunder right now shouldn't surprise us. But I am surprised by the way that the Wolves looked on Sunday against the Thunder. Their defense was excellent. They held Shea Gilchrist Alexander to one of the worst shooting nights I've seen him have. His 20 point streak was threatened almost big time. He hits a fade away a, a beautiful fade away baseline fade away over Anthony Edwards gets to and one. And that's how he got to 20 points with like a couple minutes left in the game. It was very close. But I want to start there with how the Wolves guarded, guarded Shea. Physical didn't put him on the line, forced him into just like Tough looks. Not necessarily bad ones, but tough ones. And then the real. The, the rear contests were just there all night. And Anthony Edwards, I mean, continues to be the guy that I think probably does the best job of anybody guarding Shea.
- [07:19]
C
I mean, that's the thing he went 5 for 18 for on the two pointer specifically. And we know that that is Shea's game is just being able to get into the lane and finish with textbook expertise in the lane. I mean, it's beautiful watching him, but it's even more beautiful when he's giving. He's being given physicality that makes him uncomfortable. He just was not finishing at his usual rate. And it's funny because, you know, in our chat we were talking about this game and Andrew Schlecht shout out, our producer was saying, shay's not himself. And I'm like, this is an interesting framing because I feel like this is because Minnesota was aggravating him, you know, agitating him in a way. The other thing that was really hard was because they were agitating and they were in front of him. His release valves weren't really great. We've been seeing Jalen Williams be so big to help space the floor, get some attention, but he was a non factor. I mean, he was 2 of 7 on shooting. He went 0 for 5 for 3.
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A
And so he honestly, the big release
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B
valves were the two shooters for OKC, right?
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A
That's right.
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B
Isaiah, Joe, Jared McCain. Those are the two guys that they combined for nine threes in this one. And Shea still ended up with 10 assist, which I think is the big indicator of, to your point, Xena, like they were doing such a good job on him one on one defensively that he had to kick it out to other guys. And he was forcing, you know, the, the supporting cast for OKC to end up knocking down shots.
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A
The, the Wolves, they, they only took 77 shots. The Thunder took 101. I mean, it's just this was the sort of game that and the Wolves had a lead at halftime. They had a lead in the third quarter and it just felt like they were going to lose it because they just were careless with the basketball. They, they turned the ball over. It felt, it felt like they had 30 turnovers. It winds up being 22, but you just can't.
- [09:10]
C
I thought it was 25, 22, 22, 22.
- [09:15]
A
Broadcast actually had it wrong at one point where they were, they were. It was like two ahead, so I was like 30. But it did feel like because they were, they were just. It felt like they were Turning the ball over in opportunities to score, not just out in the open court, which they did. A ton of backcourt turnovers, just inexcusable stuff that. I mean, part of this is that the Thunder just do this to you, but the Wolves are supposed to be better than this. And Rudy Gobert had an awful game. I mean, so the I'm not going
- [09:42]
C
to go bear Jada McDaniels like they they were. No, there's no signs of initiation from them.
- [09:48]
B
The turnovers are a bit of a characteristic for this Wolves team, especially come postseason time. Like, everybody always talks about the fact that Anthony Edwards has to take better care of the ball, Julius Randle has to take better care of the ball. And like ant had six turnovers tonight, Julius Randle ended up with only one. But like that aspect, the how do you deal with the attention that you're receiving offensively and make the right read consistently? That's something. That's the next step for this Timberwolves team. Like for them to beat OKC in a playoff series or for them to make it to the finals, it's these guys making the right reads consistently. And like tonight, you just didn't see it.
- [10:25]
C
Julius was excellent in this game. I do want to give him that.
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A
He was great.
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B
Yeah, the shot making was awesome.
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C
But when you have to depend on Julius Randle and Dante DiVincenzo to carry your team and you've got your big turning it over four times on careless
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A
turnovers like Rudiger getting blocked at the rim. Yeah, yeah, you know.
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C
Right.
- [10:43]
A
That's a problem. Look, I will also say I think it's hard to just play a noon game on a Sunday. You know, a lot of guys didn't look like themselves in that game. Anyway, let's. Let's check in on the standings because as we're sitting here right now, the Lakers are the three seed. They have a game and a half lead over the six seed Timberwolves. And you've got the Rockets that are half a game behind the Lakers and you got the Nuggets, essentially they're tied same record with the Timberwolves. So I believe if we would have made our list ranking these four teams from three to seven, that we probably would have had the Rockets and the Lakers in that bottom half. That bottom half. Right. Yeah, I agree.
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B
I mean, I think like if we were to all on the count of three say who we trust out of all these teams, I feel like all of us would say the Nuggets probably.
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A
Correct.
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C
Yeah.
- [11:38]
B
Right. And to. To that point, the Nuggets have been kind of slipping here recently, given the opportunity for the Lakers, given the opportunity for the Rockets, even the Timberwolves to make a run at things. And I, I'm not sure how much home court advantage and just general like seating is going to matter for the west playoffs as much as matchups. Like for example, I think the Lakers like the Nuggets matchup because they see the point of attack defense of the Nuggets. They see the transition defense of the Nuggets and say we can attack this pretty consistently. We saw it on Saturday. They've actually done, the Lakers have done a really good job against the Nuggets basically all season. If you think, let's say the Minnesota Timberwolves, they probably say we like our chances against the Nuggets. We have found, you know, a very, very good advantage to how we can attack that team consistently. It's going to be a matchups based thing. And to the whole point about seating, I'm not necessarily sure if seating is going to matter as much as it is liking your path to the Finals or the conference finals. We know San Antonio and OKC are 1, 2. How is the rest of the playoffs going to shake out for the, for the West?
- [12:49]
C
The middle of the burger for the west is so interesting because they're so all inconsistent.
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A
Absolutely.
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C
You just cannot count on them.
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A
I think that the Rockets are the ones that really need to be careful out of those four teams.
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B
I agree.
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A
The Lakers, I do just trust them in a playoff series like just with the guys that they have with the Rockets, they've got one guy, they got Kevin Durant. I mean he, he was talking about getting triple teamed by the Spurs. That's a real, that's a real problem for them. And they don't have that drink stirrer out there to, to set the table for them. So I think they've got to be very careful about why, where they wind up and who they play. And I'm not sure which one of these three teams they would want to be matched up against because that's kind of what we're looking at here is who, what is this jumble going to mean for the first round of the playoffs? I don't believe the Suns are getting out of the play end. I just don't.
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B
If I were the Suns, I would, I would be wary of a matchup against the Clippers in the plan, you know, and now you're, you're losing that playing game.
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C
Yeah, I would be scared of the Clippers, period. In the play in.
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A
Yeah, I think especially if Kawhi can come back from this little ankle tweak. Anyway, guys, stick around after the break. We're going to talk about the Raptors beating the Pistons and what it means in the East. Eastern Conference has a couple teams on some big winning streaks. The Atlanta Hawks, who we think we kind of just forgot about after the trade deadline. They won nine straight. The Orlando Magic have won seven straight. They're kind of getting on the right foot. I think that they've got a chance to catch the Cavs. They're only a couple games back. We saw the Cavs, you know, they drop a game Sunday afternoon, but we'll see. Cavs probably. I think they're gonna.
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B
They also have. Cavs have a very easy schedule moving forward.
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A
Right.
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B
That's gonna help.
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A
And Orlando has like Oklahoma City and they've got some rough ones coming up, but two different win streaks here. They're pretty close. I mean, you know, relatively close in the standings in that, you know, there's a chance that Atlanta could actually could theoretically catch Orlando. They're only three and a half games back. What do you guys make of these win streaks? Are they real?
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B
I'm yelling fugazi for the Atlanta Hawks. Win streak, man.
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C
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
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B
No, no, no, no.
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C
Let's talk about it.
- [15:21]
B
The magic of playing some good basketball. We can talk about the magic in a second. Okay, look, the Hawks on their nine game win streak. Let me tell you who they've beat, okay? They've beat the Brooklyn nets tanking team two times. The Washington Wizards who just got 83 points scored on them. The Portland Trailblazers, who are fledgling at this point. At the bottom of the plane in the Western Conference, the Milwaukee Bucks who are tripping over themselves. Shout out Kyle Kuzma. Philadelphia 76ers decimated injuries. Dallas Mavericks, they just beat the Cavs. Congratulations. And then the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks, not one good basketball.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And so all respect to the Hawks. I'm very excited to see what they do with this very, very hard schedule coming up. They play the Magic on Monday. We'll see how they do against the Magic. They also play the Rockets in a couple games. They play the Pistons and the Celtics. How does this new look Hawks team do against some good competition?
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A
We'll see.
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C
So what's important to note with everything that I love the way you lay that out. S. Basically all those teams that they've.
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B
I just don't believe, you know, I'm.
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C
No, it's real. But there's only one victory against an opponent with a winning record. Like that's insane and worth acknowledging. And you think about the games that they've had before that against playoff contenders that had every player that was supposed to be available against the Timberwolves against the Heat, like they didn't play well against those teams. They've hardly put up a fight against those teams. So I'm with you. I think that they've done what they're supposed to do, which is you feast when you have something soft in front of you and that's what they've done. But I think more than anything, this is a great, great prediction. Glass you're looking through what is next year going to be like. What is Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels and all. You know, I think this is great for them to be able to see who they are without Trae Young. At the very minimum, CJ McCollum has been really great addition for them. Like we, we love the fact that C.J. mcCollum did had the, he made seven three pointers. Let me look this up. I actually was made seven three pointers. Moved ahead of Paul Pierce into 16th place on NBA's All Time 3 Players.
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A
Feels weird, but isn't that strange?
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B
Feel weird.
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A
It's just, it's the difference in the, in the era and just the three point volume. Sure, sure. Anyway, when you think about those guys historically.
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C
Yeah, I digress, I digress. But the point is, yeah, if anything I'm just looking at the Hawks and being like this is great for you to understand who you can be one day. I don't think this is going to be the thing that's going to change.
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A
At least, at least they're not tanking with Orlando. Orlando has really tightened up. Still no Franz. There's a lot of ways in which they just. The fit looks cleaner out there with an extra shooter or, or an extra defender sometimes. And I, I think that when they get Franz back they're going to be a better team. But they've got a lot of things to figure out about their identity in a short amount of time depending on when he gets back. But they are now the, the fifth seed. They're a half game up on the Raptors, but we got to talk about the Raptors because the Raptors did get probably their biggest win of the season. They, they beat the Pistons 119, 108. And you know, they did it in a game where cade Cunningham has 33 points, nine assists, Jalen Duran has 20 and 11s. You know you were there.
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B
Yeah.
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A
What was the secret? Cause they don't normally beat good teams, man.
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B
No, man. They have struggled immensely to beat good teams and all of a sudden they now have two wins against teams above.500. In the Suns on Friday, which was a really fun game at home as well. Scotty Barnes with that clutch block. Brandon Ingram with a bunch of clutch shots. And then tonight against the Pistons, they pull out a as well. I think the big difference maker for them is Jakob Poeltl. His screening ability, especially in the half court, opens up so much for Emmanuel Quickley. It opens up so much for RJ Barrett. It opens up a lot for Brandon Ingram to get into that mid range bag as well. His presence, I mean he's near the top of the league in screen assist basically every year, but his presence for this team has I think provided a baseline for their half court that just wasn't there without them and that's, that's what's allowed them to do this. They also, they out rebounded.
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A
I was going to rebound by Jakob
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C
ending up with 18.
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A
Like.
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C
Yeah, incredibly impressive. I want to ask you, as it seemed like in this game and we're starting to see this across the board with a lot of teams. Like the playoff rotation seems pretty tight now with Jacopoto like being back. Like you're seeing. Mamu didn't play as many minutes as he typically does. Right. Like there was a little bit of a tightening of a leash there. And Emmanuel Kikkele being that, I don't know, spark plug, making that backcourt a little bit faster for them in general. Like is this something that you think Toronto is going to be able to keep going with and find more success with as they kind of shorten their rotation to that six. Really, really about six guys adding in Jamal Shed.
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B
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because Brandon Ingram tonight, 39 minutes, Scotty Barnes, 38 minutes, Yakov 37 minutes. Like those minutes are high. RJ Barrett played basically 40 minutes tonight. The reason they're doing that is because they have found a lot of success with their starters. Not as much success with their second units. And like those guys early on in the season. Jamal Shed, Mamu, cnb, who's been out recently for them, like they were very important to them to start the year, giving them a boost, but they've kind of cooled off, especially offensively. Your guy, Mamu, Dave, my guy, even Jacoby Walter.
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C
Yeah, Jacoby Walter was finding a lot of minutes and he's been, I mean it just Seems like even with.
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B
We know they've never really had more.
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C
Yeah, we know they've never really had depth, but it feels like they're like, all right, we can't be messing around anymore.
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B
I mean, especially with the standings and
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A
they were, they were. That's really what it is. The playoffs started for them already. Yeah. Because they don't want to be the sixth seed. I think that at worst they want to be the fifth seed. I think they're now in the race against the Orlando Magic to try to, to try to be the fifth seed.
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B
Yeah, it's going to be. They have a game against the Magic later this month that's going to be very important. I think it's between those two and the Miami Heat for who gets.
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A
Well, I was going to ask you guys, how do you feel about the Miami Heat? Look, they've been playing better basketball as late, like 7, 7 and 3 in their last 10. We, we know Bam, you know, had the 83 point game, which was ridiculous, but they have, they have actually been playing much better basketball I would say like the last month and a half. Yeah, that, that's a team that knows how to win. They got a good coaching staff. They've been winning games here and there. You know, no Tyler Hero, no Norm Powell. You, you often wonder like, who is. Who's going to score for them, period. And still they somehow, you know, been winning these games. I mean, you give them any shot at getting up to the five seed.
- [22:24]
B
Feels like the Miami Heat always play their best basketball at the second half of the year. I know Heat fans know this.
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A
Very well built for the play in, man.
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C
I was going to say, well, well, they're built for the play and it gets warmer at that time of year. You know, maybe they're like, yeah, the
- [22:38]
B
jumper starts to feel warm too.
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C
Looser. It's a little looser. But I'm looking at their wins over, over the last few weeks and I, I look at, I mean, Detroit pretty solid. I don't know if Cade was playing in that game now I think about it. Oh yeah, Cade did play in that game and. Oh, you know what?
- [22:55]
B
Yeah, no, it was a solid win. It was a solid one.
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C
That was a solid win. The other one that comes to mind as well is the Houston win that we remember watching as well. Like, I think they've gotten some pretty solid wins to just showcase that they can run with folks. And I say that on purpose because they still don't really run anything. And that's the only thing that makes Me think they're going to get exposed when the playoff comes like when people are starting to scout them and they do need to run plays and they, we know they have spoke, spoken, draw up a million things but you can't have your entire offense and your entire game just be based on ATOs and hoping you get, you know, out of bounds plays like throughout the course of running up and down the floor. Who could they match up with that you guys think that they might be able to beat and get higher?
- [23:43]
B
Great question. I think honestly if I were the Miami he, I would want to play the Cleveland Cavaliers for sure. Because the toughness, it's the, it's the physicality 100% it's running in transition. And I do think between Norm Powell and Tyler Tyler Hero, they have like the half court offensive punch that can try and match them. It just depends on what they get from their rotation players because I think the Cat Cavs by the way just got back Max Stru. That's a huge addition.
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C
Oh, that's massive.
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B
But overall I think they match up the best with the Cavs. I also, if I'm Orlando, I don't want to see Boston or New York.
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A
But I also, I don't know if they want to see the Cavs either. This is the thing that, that scares me with Orlando is their half court offense when we get to the playoffs. Like just like you said Zena, about the Heat.
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C
Right, The Heat, right.
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A
It's the same, it's similar.
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B
It's the same thing with the Raptors by the way. It is.
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A
Well, that's why they're in the bottom
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C
half of the East.
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B
It is kind of the easy differentiator,
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A
the big differentiator come playoff times. What, what is it going to look like when everything tightens up? And like you mentioned Xena, like that semi transition stuff that, that Miami likes to live in, just not going to be there. They're going to have to.
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C
Yeah, I think that they're going to
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A
have the game, they're going to have to add. It's going to be a lot of Tyler here.
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B
I think this, this comes down to like which one of these three teams do you trust most defensively? Because that's like can you get stops and then can you force turnovers and get out?
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A
And look, if Paolo keeps playing the way he has the all star break, I think I'd give the edge out of all of these teams. I think I'd say Orlando, right.
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C
They've got three defense since all star break.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And the way that he's been scoring and. And playmaking, I think, has been excellent, too. So they probably have the most talent. And, you know, talent usually wins. We even talk like, Desmond Bain is out there.
- [25:37]
B
And he's been great, too.
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C
He's been amazing and that. And this is the thing you talked. I just wanted to hit this. You mentioned identity, Dave. And this is the thing that while Atlanta is figuring out their identity for next year, Orlando is figuring out an identity with a one, two punch. That is Paolo and Desmond. When Franz comes back, that identity gets shuffled again. And we know Orlando looks suspect when all three of them are out there, they're trying to figure out. It is kind of weird, man. It's weird.
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B
I'm not gonna lie to you. It is weird, man. It's weird that that keeps happening again.
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A
I'll just ask this question as we, as we wrap up. What is their offensive philosophy? That's.
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C
That's a great question.
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A
Can't tell you what the bread and butter is. I. I hope they figure it out before the playoffs.
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C
Be big.
- [26:21]
A
That's going to do it. That's it. Yeah. Be big. It's great. That's going to do it for the show, folks. Thank you guys for hanging out. For Esperahenny and Zena Keda, I'm Dave Dufour and this is Ben the NBA Daily. Thanks for hanging out with us, Sam.