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A
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for Monday, February 23rd. I am Zena Kada, joined by Esperahini. And today we're going to be talking a little bit about what happened over the weekend with Cleveland and okc OKC showcasing their system and how it works. And we're also going to get into the Knicks fighting their way back against the Rockets. The warriors surprising the Nuggets at home. And there's a bit of the big injury down in Phoenix. Let's get into it. S what's up man?
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B
Hello.
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C
Hi Xena. How's it going? How was your weekend?
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It Was great. It feels a little empty out here without Dave starting our week right now. But you know, he is taking some much deserved time off.
- [02:50]
C
Yeah.
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A
And you know, I will say he
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is missing out because this is a good time to watch some NBA basketball, some good games.
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A
I was going to say it's right after the all star break. People are feeling like, all right, we're trying to make the play or the push for the playoffs. And we're going to talk to Andrew Schleicht about the big game that was on Sunday, Cleveland versus okc. But before we get into that, let's go ahead and talk about the big game that was at night. The Lakers and Celtics speaking of trying to make a push for the playoffs. We know the Celtics have been in great position in the east in terms of just the way they're playing their system. They're winning games, they're playing great offense, defense. Jaylen Brown is making that MVP case. The way this game was publicized s was like it's historic. It's going to be the big matchup. The Lakers, Celtics, it's massive. And Pat Riley was getting a statue like this was huge. And somehow the game ended with a score of 111 to 89. And no, no, no, no, I don't want to say that it was the Celtics amazing defense as it was more just a lackadaisical effort on the Lakers part.
- [03:52]
C
Yeah, it felt like they were all too focused on the Pat Riley induction, you know, statue situation going on at halftime. I don't know, maybe they had the TV on. JJ Redick wasn't doing the adjustments that he might usually do. I don't know what it was. You're right. It looked like the Lakers were sleepwalking. And truthfully, the Celtics took complete advantage. I thought the combination of Jalen Brown, Derrick White and Peyton Pritchard completely outplayed the Lakers trio like Molly whop them in terms of effectiveness, in terms of getting to their spots, getting to their shots and ultimately like you look at up and down this box score, Peyton Pritchard took 14 shots and he scored 30 points. Right. That is efficient offense. Jaylen Brown, he ended up, he didn't have that most that much of an efficient night. Right. 28 shots, but he ended up with 32 points. He found a way to get involved in this game. I think overall the Celtics, and it's funny because they played a team like the Lakers where the Lakers like to get up a lot of threes, the Lakers like to try and be this offensive oriented team that Wins on the margins. And oh, by the way, the Celtics do the exact same thing, but they just do it much, much better.
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A
I was going to say ten times better. The execution is just such so much sharper on the Celtic side. Peyton Pritchard, six of nine from the floor. And he was, he, he was cooking, okay? He was cooking, people. He was cooking, period. You don't typically see LA cheering for the opposite side, all right, the opposing, the opposing player. But the way that he was just crossing up Austin Reeves step backs. And he did have some push offs, don't get me wrong. But it was, it was a show. And I think Peyton Pritchard was doing it to get the respect that he deserves. Let's remember that when Jalen Brown wasn't in to start the season, Peyton Pritchard and Derek White were the ones carrying the load. And that's when we got to see not only the two of them, but also Nehemiah Kada step up, who also played incredibly well targeting deandre Ayton. Ayton looked like you could switch their careers in the moment against, like, who's the bet here? Who's been in the league who knows how to play in the gaps and play off the pick and roll? Cato was phenomenal at that.
- [06:09]
C
And they targeted Ayton a lot. Yeah, they targeted Luca a lot. And this is, this is the case with the Lakers, who are, you know, a bottom 10 defense this season against the best offenses. They just, one, don't know how to score as efficiently as they're used to and two, they can't defend. They. That's the big issue for this team heading into the postseason. If you're going up against a really, really good offense, how are you going to get stops? There's too much pressure on a Marcus Smart, on a Jake Laravia, even guys like Rui Hachimora and Jared Vanderbilt, who I think are like fine wing defenders to get stops. And LeBron looks human. You know, as much as I, I love, like seeing him do his thing at this age. Tonight he looked human there. There were moments when Keita blocked him on like transition layups. It seemed like he was just playing. It's fine to be human at 40 years old.
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A
That was to say he looked his age. He looked his age and it's all good. You're not going to be superhuman every night, but when you're not, you got to be able to have the supporting cast to step up. And unfortunately, that did not happen for the Lakers. They end up losing that game 111 89. But I'm going to tell you who did step up, okay? It was those warriors out in the Bay, because no Stefan, no Stephen Curry, no Kristaps Porzingis. Draymond was on the list to start the game and then sat with a back injury. Of course, they haven't had Jimmy Butler in a while. They haven't had Seth Curry to start or play just yet. They had nine available players, and they found a way to beat The Denver Nuggets. 128, 117. Yes, Jokic played. Yes, Jamal Murray played. Yic had a triple double. But it was a game of numbers. S. And biggest thing, 21 made threes is insane. And then two, when you've got seven players scoring in double digits, of course you're going to find a way to win the game.
- [08:06]
C
Yeah, absolutely. And by the way, that fourth quarter was absolutely incredible by Jimski. I thought that was what changed the game. You know, we were watching it back and forth and we were texting and saying, like, oh, if the. If the Nuggets take care of this, this is not that big of a story. But when the warriors and Pajimski, who ended up, by the way, scoring 15 points, didn't miss a single shot in that fourth quarter, he had his Steph Curry bag going, right? He thinks he's Steph and he acted like it in that fourth quarter. He was shooting the fade away. He had the floater going.
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A
Yeah, absolutely. It was clear. It was clear that Stefan is someone that he looks up to the. From a game perspective. And it was cool to see Steph beyond the sideline, like, cheering him on and be excited for them. But this is. This is a big deal. Of course the warriors are trying to tread water right now with Stephen out. Kristoff's kind of in and out, getting back into the rotation of things. This is a huge win for the warriors that are trying to position themselves securely into the play in. In the West.
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C
Yeah, I completely agree. And. And on top of that, like any sort of outlier development you're going to get from some of these younger guys as Steph misses time is going to help you in the long run. Right. Because this season, I think. I think everybody knows the warriors aren't going to be contending or anything like that, but if you can get more opportunities for Brandon Pajimski to figure things out on ball. I thought d' Anthony Melton had a really great game tonight, too. Overall, you just get these other guys to work. But Zena, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm worried about the Nuggets a little bit.
- [09:38]
A
I was going to ask you that.
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C
Okay, let's. Let's just break it down. Ok. This month, in the month of February, okay, the Nuggets have lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder. That was thanks to a special SGA game. Chalk it, chalk it up. Whatever. That's fine. They lost the Detroit Pistons. Very, very good team number team. Number one team in the Eastern Conference, Jamal Murray missed a bunch of clutch free throws at the end there. That'll be an issue moving forward as well. They lost to the Knicks in double overtime. Jalen Brunson scored 42 points on them. They lost to the Cavs. The new look Cavaliers with James Harden, Jared Allen, Donovan Mitchell. They dropped 76 points on the Nuggets. They lost to the Clippers recently. They blew a lead. Dave and I talked about it. Jamal Murray missed clutch free throws again. And then tonight, as you mentioned, they lost to the Warriors. Their only three wins in this month are to the sad Chicago Bulls, the sad Memphis Grizzlies, and to the Portland Trailblazers, who they beat by 50 points this week, by the way. So very, I think there is some concern and that concern from the Nuggets perspective comes on the defensive end. They are a bottom 10 defense this year. They haven't looked right at all on the defensive side of the ball this season. And since Jokic has come back, truthfully, he hasn't looked good defensively either. And you start to obviously see how important Aaron Gordon is to everything.
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Yes.
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C
But on top of it, just like how much do I trust this team to figure it out, figure it out over the next six or seven weeks before the playoffs because no NBA champion is going to be 24th on defense and try to win games. I don't care how good you are offensively, you have to be able to stop the ball. Nuggets have not been able to do that.
- [11:29]
A
It's so crazy that you're saying this because it's a perfect transition to the last game. I want to talk about very quickly, but before we get there, I do want to say the Nuggets are beating the teams that they're supposed to beat. And you know, we're not trying to give out participation trophies, but yes, it is important to be able to do that. Competing, taking the Knicks to double overtime. You might look at the Knicks and say, are, is this a contending team? Is this a team that you should be going into double overtime against? Like, yeah, I, I think they are. I think they're competitive, you know, on certain nights. So, I mean, I, I'll give, I'll give the Nuggets credit for that. I'll also give. Joe gets a lot of credit in the sense that he ain't never really been that good at defense anyways. It has been the Christian Browns of the world, the, you know, Aaron Gordon of the world that have kind of covered things up for him.
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C
So Sam Johnson too?
- [12:18]
A
Tam Johnson now. Yeah, exactly. So I just feel like he is a person similar to what you said about the Lakers. He wins on the margins because of what he provides offensively. The team's going to have to step up from a defensive perspective and another team that's going to have to step up from the defensive perspective, particularly in the fourth quarters, the Rockets. The Rockets, who were able to come back from a 13 point deficit against the Knicks to take the lead, feel comfortable putting up crazy shots, I mean, just playing incredibly great basketball and then somehow had a fourth quarter meltdown, had like eight. What, eight, nine turnovers in the fourth quarter after having been almost flawless through the first three quarters and were not able to find any offense, they fell and Jalen Brunson woke up as took over that game and Knicks got the win.
- [13:07]
C
Yeah, I love the seeing the like compilations of comebacks because you can hear MSG start to just bubble with anticipation. And so when Jose Alvarado is hitting the shots, when Jalen Brunson is getting to any spot he wants, any scoring, the energy is palpable. And by the way, the Knicks really needed that win after getting smoked the other day by the Pistons, it was like you have to answer in a way that is defiant and I really, really like that. From the Knicks perspective, it's like we needed a win. We figured it out. From the Rockets perspective though, my God, like, how can you be worse as a clutch offense than last season with Kevin Durant on your roster? They were 18th in clutch offense last year. They're 22nd this year. If you go up and down their fourth quarter box score. Amen. Thompson played nine minutes, took zero shots. Dorian Finney Smith played 10 minutes. He was a minus 16 in 10 minutes. He clearly has not worked out as a signing for the Rockets. And then obviously there's so much reliance on Kevin Durant and Alper and Shengun to create everything, but there's just not enough shot making around them to make any of it make sense. I just, I don't know what the answers are. I'm not necessarily sure the answers are on the roster. But if you get yourself into close games with the Rockets, the chances are you're going to beat them at this point.
- [14:36]
A
Yeah, especially if you get them to the fourth quarter after they think that they've cruised. Yeah, they've won the game. It is a great question to continually ask, is it the Rockets falling apart or is it opponents beating them? And this is chicken or the egg with these with this team. But in this case, the Knicks beat them. Jalen Brunson took over being able to will his team, and I'll give Carl Anthony Towns a lot of credit. He looked really good in that game, being able to shoot from outside but also utilizing his size inside. On the other side of this break, we got to talk about Cleveland okc. They had me up early on a Sunday morning, but it was worth the wait. We'll talk to Andrew right after this. Prime 1 day deliveries fast how fast we talking? We're talking tissues and hot tea fast. Feel better meds fast. Relieving Shador fast so you can so you can actually breathe out of both nostrils fast. Like I just ordered and it's achoo, already here. Fast fast. One day delivery to feel better sooner. It's on Prime.
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A
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A
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A
And joining us from Oklahoma City is Andrew Schlecht, our resident expert on everything Thunder. Andrew OKC gets the win at home, beats Cleveland, ending their win streak. Seven game win streak. And really showcasing this egalitarian approach to basketball that I think the rest of the league can take a lesson on. Just a plug and play system. Win for them. When you look across everyone that's been contributing in the absence of Shay, Gildas, Alexander, in the absence of Jalen Williams, what stands out to you in terms of what kind of impact these players want to make?
- [18:56]
B
Yeah, yeah. To me it's kind of the emergence of Case and Wallace and Isaiah Joe. Isaiah Joe had 22, two and three today. He had five steals, all in the first quarter, which is a career high five steals for Isaiah Joe. I feel like he's been getting his athleticism into the game a lot more. And I was talking to him post game and he was saying like he prepared in the off season a lot more just for specific parts of his body. He said like, he said like nagging stuff with his knee and nagging stuff with his shoulder and he felt like his like prep over the the summer just like keep all of that really strong has like helped him like carry his athleticism through the season. You can kind of see that, you know, he played 30 minutes tonight. He's not going to play 30 minutes a night when Shay and J Dub and AJ and Alex Crusoe are all in the game. But like he's been ready and he stayed prepared. He had some really big shots tonight. And then Kayson Wallace career high in assists. He had 10 assists. He had 20 points, four boards, 10 assists, only one turnover to 10 assists with three steals. And guarded James Harden the entire time. They matched him minute for minute. Was pretty impressive to see him do that. He's, he's not thought of as like one of the Thunder's like young developmental guys, but he's only 22. This is only year three for Cason and like he's continuing to show major progress. And I thought today he was the best player for the Thunder.
- [20:20]
C
So no sga, no Jalen Williams, no AJ Mitchell, no Alex Caruso in this game. Thunder, yeah, you can go down the list and I think, I mean, sometimes in the NBA injuries can be a blessing in disguise. But when you have so much depth on your roster like the Thunder do, do you feel as if it's sort of this found money concept halfway through the season where you can maybe get some opportunity to see, like you said, extended run of Case and Wallace and extended run of some of these other guys to prepare them for a long postseason run?
- [20:54]
B
I mean, I think so they really need to figure out the non shame minutes anyways. And so this gives them like a very extended look. Like there's always non shame minutes in every single game. That happens all the time, but you don't usually get 48 minutes of it in like consecutive weeks. And so I do think that this is them trying to figure this out. Like you're trying to get Jared McCain in the game and see what he can do. You're trying to stretch Isaiah Joe and see like what is he fully capable of. You use Isaiah Hartenstein, who's another guy who's been a good passer for them as this like screener passer, a guy that can initiate offense for you. So like they're, they're trying all sorts of things. Even Nikola Topic, he played eight minutes today. Yeah, they weren't particularly impactful minutes, but like you're just kind of seeing like what you have and when you have everybody healthy, I don't know that there's minutes to do that. You're probably using those eight minutes for Jared McCain, you know, to see what he's got there. So it does like allow for them to use everybody on their roster because you look up and down the roster, go look at basketball reference. 1 through 15 are all guys that can play. They would probably play on almost any team. And so it is good for them to figure it out. And especially like I said with, with Shea off the floor and you have the Two bigs. That's going to be a lineup that they'll use in the postseason. And if they can figure out what's efficient, what's not, it could really pay some dividends come, like round two and three if they get there.
- [22:13]
A
Well, one thing they definitely found was efficient is just keeping people off the O boards and making the likes of an Evan Mobley and Jared Allen look average with what they can do on the glass. But I'm happy you brought up Jared McCain, because once again, OKC, they've got this reputation of being, you know, a team that anyone can go there and fit into their system. They can immediately make an impact. And I think we all knew on this pod, and I think across the NBA, everyone was like, Jared McCain is a really solid player. Of course he's been plagued by injuries.
- [22:45]
C
How did they get away with getting.
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A
How did they get away with getting him? How did the reigning champs get Jerry McCain today? And. And I'm looking at his game today, and there's a particular shot that he makes on a drive kick out three in transition, and Jerry McCain switches the shot. Ryan Ruko yells at the classic, you bet. And you look and you see McCain do like the fingers, not finger guns, but like the one finger gun to his teammate. And you're seeing the chemistry already. Like, it's one thing to have a system on the floor, shout out Dagnal and his entire team, but also the chemistry. How does OKC build that so quickly for their players?
- [23:25]
B
Some of it is that they have a type and they have a personality type that fits in well. I mean, in. There was no question that Jared McCain was going to fit with the personality of the locker room. I mean, I talked to guys just a few days after the trade and they were like, oh, yeah, like he, he fits in here well. He's always smiling. He's kind of life of the party kind of guy. He's incredibly friendly, incredibly kind, and he just fits in really well here. You can tell that, like, he. He feels welcome by his teammates, and then basketball wise, he's somebody that doesn't have to have the ball in his hands. He likes to relocate, which is something that Thunder love to have and don't really have enough of. And so his unselfishness gets in here and then his competitiveness, too. He's not going to be some great defender. He doesn't really have the body, the wingspan, all of that, the quickness for, like to be an elite defender. But his competitiveness is the thing that's going to drive like good minutes for him. It's like he continues to be competitive defensively, offensively, they just need more guys that can just hit shots like this. I know that they had a crazy first quarter, but, like, they just need guys that can come in and make shots. You know, he was two of three from three point line tonight. Guys are going to cover him on the perimeter. He creates space. Like, they just need more guys like that. And to have one that's on a rookie scale deal in year two, he just had hit. He just had a birthday a couple days ago. He just turned 22. For the Thunder to have another guy like that that they can bring in is huge. And I don't know what the impact we'll see of him in the postseason. He'll. He'll be in and out of the rotation, I would guess, come playoff time. But going into next year, when he gets a summer and he gets a training camp with the Thunder, I think that, like, his ceiling is pretty high. And so there's some. There's some pretty, pretty wild possibilities for McCain here at OKC.
- [25:16]
C
He also feels like a guy that can steal you a playoff game, right? Like just go off at the start of a throw, third quarter or something like that, knock down a couple threes, and he flips the game and helps the Thunder win. It just feels like he has that energy to him.
- [25:30]
A
Like a Sam Arrow, maybe.
- [25:31]
C
Yes, sure. Yeah, like a Sam Arrow, who was incredible in this game, by the way.
- [25:36]
A
Yeah.
- [25:37]
C
Sam Merrill. 20 points and knock down six threes. I mean, the Cavs really fought their way back in this game. But before we get to the cab side of things, which I'm curious about your opinion, Andrew. Chad Holgren was great in this game. 17 points, he had 15 rebounds.
- [25:51]
B
He.
- [25:52]
C
I thought he did a great job of limiting the Jared Allen, Eva Mobley connection, if you will. The pick and roll stuff that they run with James Harden, which has looked excellent as of late, it wasn't there tonight. And like, this was the Chet Holmgren defensive player of the year case, in my opinion, because even despite some of the other parts, Chet was the guy who was able to kind of, kind of lead this team to this win on the defensive side of the floor.
- [26:18]
B
Yeah. He was telling me in the locker room after the game just how tricky it is to guard James Harden in the pick and roll, especially with these like, roll guys that are really good, specifically Jared Allen, and he said, like, you almost have to try to bait him into taking those floaters, which he's really good at. So he's like, you kind of have to pick your poison. He's like, but he's like my main goal within all of that was to kill any of the dump offs, kill any of the alley oops. Like he was like, I was not going to allow any of that to happen and any of the in between stuff, I was going to try to contest. And I thought that he did like he executed that so well today. Another thing is like the rebounding too. Mark Dugnall mentioned in post game that their minutes with Cheddar's the lone center have not been as bad with him, you know, on the boards with him as a lone center. So yeah, he told me, I asked him about that. I said, mark said this and he said, well, I feel like I left five out there today that I should have gotten. I was like, wow, you thought you were going to get 20 rebounds today. Okay, chat. But yeah, I think that he's certainly a deserving deploy candidate. I think that he does an incredible job for the Thunder. He's a guy that is, he's an all star. He's going to have a chance to be an all NBA type of guy. And he still just hangs his hat as a defender for the most part. Like that's where he feels most valuable and as his like offensive game continues to emerge and he like continues to develop that. But man, like he was, he was special today. This was a big test for Chad.
- [27:52]
A
This is a huge test for OKC overall. When you think of what the Cavs have on their end, they've been rolling since James Harden has come in, but you also see like their second unit was a challenge as well with Dennis Shooter in the mix and Keone Ellis as well. And so you, you see what OKC has in terms of challenges when they've got multiple ball handlers, multiple scores, multiple scoring options, both in the guard position and the big position, but they handled it incredibly well despite having so many absences. If there's any like lesson that OKC can take away from this game or something that could pat themselves on the back for other than being able to win without a lot of their stars, what was a, a, a part of the game that you were like, oh, this is particularly huge for them. When you're thinking about the playoffs.
- [28:39]
B
I really think it's all about case of Wallace emerging as like one of their, one of their top five guys. You know, I do think the Thunder have some interesting decisions to make this summer. There's going to be, they have to Create roster spots somehow. Casey Wallace is extension eligible this summer. I think that's somebody that you have to keep. I just think that he's. He was kind of like a nice luxury to have off the bench, where it's like, hey, we have another one of these defensive superstars off the bench. Where he was a luxury. Now I think he's going to be essential come playoff time just because he's shown to be a guy that can get into the paint and create open looks for guys on the perimeter, which is something that they just. They have to have. And I know that they'll with. With AJ Back and Jada Beck and Shea Beck, it's. They have those guys. But just think back to last season. Think back to the finals against the Pacers. The Thunder struggled in minutes without Shai. They struggled without Dub being one of their creators. And Kason Wallace is basically just kind of a catch and shoot guy who was a primary point of attack defender and was very valuable to them, but he wasn't this. And so to me, if you're giving him like the time and space to develop, to show what he's capable of, you know, he's. He took eight threes today. He hit four of them. He's got a lot more to give. And so if he can. If he can continue to provide that and provide it in smaller bursts whenever Shai and J Dub get back, I think it just makes the Thunder a lot stronger.
- [30:11]
C
You just mentioned that they have to make a decision on Case and Wallace this summer. They also have to make a decision on Lou Dort this summer. And Dort was awesome in this game guarding Donovan Mitchell. At the same time you were telling us pre recording a funny story about how the Thunder decided who was guarding Donovan Mitchell tonight.
- [30:32]
B
Yeah. Mark Degnalt was asked about this by my guy, Joe Masato. Just like, how did you decide who's going to guard who? And they voted in their coaching staff meeting who is going to guard Donovan Mitchell. And they voted 6 to 5 on that, that Dort was going to guard Donovan. And I thought it was very interesting. I even asked some of the players in the locker room, like, is that the way you would have voted?
- [30:59]
A
And.
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B
And they said, no, no, I would not have voted that way.
- [31:02]
C
Wow.
- [31:03]
B
They would have. They would have voted Dort on Harden, which makes more sense. We've seen a lot of that. That is how Dort got his career started, was playing for the Thunder, guarding James Harden in the. In the bubble against the Rockets. Yeah. And so, like, I. I probably Would have voted that way too.
- [31:21]
C
He.
- [31:22]
B
He mentioned, you know, a couple of their coaches like that were like the deciding votes in this one. It was, it was a really cool anecdote. Proves is absolutely true. And it's just funny that that's how they decided that. But I mean, the real kind of answer to that question is like, who should guard? Who is. There's not really a bad answer here, guys. Yeah, like, you have two of the best, you know, guard defenders in the league. I think it would have been just fine the other way around. But I think it is interesting that they had 11 of their coaches vote on who they thought should be the primary defender and they matched some minute for minute. Like I'm. I was sitting right here right by coach Degnalt the whole game and got to hear him. When you saw James Harden get up, it's queso, you know, get off the bench and run down.
- [32:08]
A
Yeah.
- [32:09]
B
When it's Donovan getting up, it's like Lou, whenever, whenever Donovan sits, Lou goes to sit. And so like they match the minute for minute in this one.
- [32:17]
A
No wasted energy.
- [32:19]
B
No wasted energy. Yeah. So especially without. Especially without Caruso, who's like another option for those guys. Like, you don't. Like, you really need to like, decide what you're going to do there. And it proved to be pretty effective.
- [32:32]
A
Kept them to 20 points across Donovan and James Harden and of course Sam Merrill as well. But it was really the story being able, as s you pointed out, to completely shut down that Evan Mobley, Jared Allen post connection that we know has been working. I mean, we saw Jared Allen the other night drop 40 points against Portland. We've seen him consistently in the last like seven games, 20 or more, plus double digit rebounds. He's been really excellent for them. But they are, they. They have something, Andrew, The Cavs have something. And I want to know, after seeing what you saw today, do you believe in them?
- [33:11]
B
Yeah, I believe in them as like an Eastern Conference contender for sure. I think like, they, they have the talent. They just have. They also have a lot of guys who have a lot of questions to answer come playoff time. And they almost maybe have too many of those guys. When you look at James Harden, Donovan, Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Jared Allen, I mean, their top four guys are all guys that have had like really severe criticism come playoff time. I think it's. I will say it's a lot.
- [33:43]
C
Some of the hardened criticism. You know what? I have a video coming out about James Harden on the athletic action. Some of it is a little overblown. I will say there are some bad moments. I don't dispute that, but some of it is overblown.
- [33:58]
B
I'm just.
- [33:58]
A
I'm looking forward to that.
- [34:00]
B
Wow.
- [34:00]
C
Just put it out there. Anyways, so. But, like, do you think that that is the be all and end all for this Cavs team? It's like how they put it all together in the final two, three weeks, two, three months, really, before the playoffs. Yeah.
- [34:14]
B
Some of it is, too, that. I really like the supporting cast they have. I think, like, adding Keon Ellis is a really big deal. Dennis Schroeder is always going to provide fire for you. I think Sam Merrill, Jaylon Tyson are, like, really solid guys off the bench. The saving grace for the Cavs is that they're in the Eastern Conference and there's not a. Outside of the Detroit Pistons, there's not a dominant team in the East. And so, like, we. We thought there would be more than one dominant team in the Eastern Conference this year. There's not. It's. It's Detroit, and then it's kind of everybody else. And so they could certainly get to the east finals. And then if they have made that much progress to get to the Eastern Conference finals. Is it crazy that they make the finals and beat a really young Detroit team who hasn't been there yet? It's not crazy. I would not bet on it. I just. I've seen a lot of these guys time and time again. Maybe they combine all of, like, the bad juju together and it just, like, explodes into greatness. I don't know. But listen, it's gonna be. It's gonna be an uphill battle for them. Like, it just. It just is.
- [35:18]
A
That just sounds like an anime episode come to life. So.
- [35:22]
B
Ooh, that's a good idea.
- [35:23]
A
You know what I mean?
- [35:24]
C
Anime reference.
- [35:25]
A
I love.
- [35:27]
B
Okay.
- [35:27]
A
And I visually saw it all come together.
- [35:29]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [35:29]
C
A little fusion dance of all their bad luck, you know?
- [35:34]
A
Well, we appreciate you, Andrew, as always, giving us the breakdown on okc. I would say go read him. No, go listen to him. He's on the pod. Obviously, the slam and jam on Saturdays. But we appreciate you as always. Esper, honey, thank you for joining me. I've seen A K. This has been the NBA Daily. Thanks for hanging out with us. If you're listening to this, you're ready. Ready to join the industrial intelligence generation, A generation defined not by age, but by a shared mindset to connect teams, accelerate efficiency, and drive innovation. Using the power of Aviva software to reshape industries turning real time insights into real world growth. Discover our stories@industrialintelligence.com join Generation I hey, it's Olivia from Ollie, I gotta tell you I saw when you asked AI about probiotics. No judgment, but I think Olli can help. Probiotics are the good bacteria that supports support your digestive and immune system.
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