Hoops Tonight - 5 NBA Reactions: Tatum makes Celtics CONTENDERS, Lakers need more Reaves less LeBron, Rockets ISSUES

Summary

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The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Hoops Tonight - 5 NBA Reactions: Tatum makes Celtics CONTENDERS, Lakers need more Reaves less LeBron, Rockets ISSUES

Date: March 9, 2026
Host: [Name not stated, Hoops Tonight Host, affiliated with The Volume]

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Overview

In this focused episode, the Hoops Tonight host breaks down his five biggest takeaways from a packed NBA weekend. Bringing his signature analytical style and candid tone, he tackles Jason Tatum’s return and its huge implications for the Celtics’ title hopes, why the Lakers need more of Austin Reaves as their secondary option over LeBron, continuing matchup issues for the Cavs versus Boston, the Rockets’ Achilles’ heel with Alperen Sengun, and why the Pistons’ postseason fate hinges on “dominating the margins.” Direct, nuanced, and packed with actionable insight, this episode offers a fast-paced but thorough look at key league trends.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Jason Tatum’s Return Makes the Celtics True Contenders

Timestamps: [02:24]–[13:23]

• Tatum’s Speedy Comeback: "Less than 10 months after a devastating injury like that...a testament to the type of guy that Jason Tatum is, that he wasn’t going to be derailed by something like this.” — Host ([03:00])
• Impact on Defense and Rebounding:
  • Tatum changes Boston’s physical profile, especially on the glass—"grabbing 81.2% of their opponent's misses when Jason Tatum's on the floor. That's an insane number." ([05:14])
  • Defensive versatility with Tatum isn’t fully unlocked yet; he’s being eased in physically, but future matchups will likely see him guarding bigs and switching more ([05:53]).
• Playmaking & Offensive Completeness:
  • "Tatum is a far more complete offensive player...playmaking sequences that come very naturally to Jason Tatum have been missing from this offense." ([07:41])
  • Notable example: “A simple little bounce pass that he threw to Derrick White...just these passing sequences, these playmaking sequences that seem to come very naturally to Jason Tatum.” ([08:23])
• Statistical Reality: Celtics were already elite statistically, so expect more subtle improvements and matchup-based value rather than a huge stat jump ([10:01]).
• Playoff Implication: For matchups (e.g., Cavs), Tatum adds "another guy who can attack your size mismatches and another guy who can maintain 48 minutes of pressure against a Cleveland defense that struggles against some of these bigger forwards." ([11:27])
• Physical Signs: Conditioning is a work in progress, but explosiveness is there—"He had a missed dunk against the Mavs, which I thought was a good sign of him just trusting his body to move explosively." ([12:15])
• Quote: "Boston Celtics right now on Hard Rock Bet are +550 to win the title—that is tied with Denver for the second best odds in the entire NBA. So a lot of people coming around on the Celtics." ([12:44])

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2. The Cavs’ Celtics Problem—And Why It Persists

Timestamps: [15:22]–[22:43]

• Shooting Variance Not the Whole Story:
  • Cavs shot poorly (0.94 pts per catch-and-shoot vs. Celtics’ 1.5, a 66-point gap per 100 shots), but the host insists the “Boston matchup problem” is more about player profiles and less about variance ([15:22]).
  • “Boston's ball handlers look way more comfortable versus Cleveland's perimeter defenders than Cleveland's ball handlers look versus Boston's.” ([16:14])
• Perimeter Defender Mismatch:
  • “Neither of [the Cavs’ new guards] are even remotely big and strong enough to be disruptive versus some of the bigger, stronger wing...offensive players in the league. That was the part that stuck out like a sore thumb yesterday.” — Host ([16:54])
• Example: Jalen Brown continually targeted Dean Wade; Celtics can always deploy a big forward, pick-and-roll guard, and shooters.
• Offensive System Edge:
  • “This is kind of the benefit of Boston and the way that their roster is put together...a big forward that can hunt matchups, a guard that can run pick and roll…and just a ton of shooting.” ([17:38])
  • Example: “How many times yesterday did we see the Cavs react…then there’s Sam Hauser again at the top of the key, wide open?” ([18:14])
• Playoff Implication: Series could turn if Cavs get healthy (Jared Allen, Max Strus), but fundamentally, “Boston’s perimeter defenders seem to do more to make Harden and Mitchell uncomfortable than the Cavs perimeter defenders can do against Boston’s big forwards—I don’t think that dynamic is going away.” ([20:52])
• Quote: “We gotta be honest about what our eyes were telling us...the Celtics look like they match up pretty well with the Cleveland Cavaliers.” ([21:48])

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3. Lakers Not Better Without LeBron, But: Austin Reaves Should be the No. 2 Option

Timestamps: [22:43]–[30:18]

• Recent Win Over Knicks:
  • Lakers “got their first big win against a legit title contending team in a very long time” ([22:58]).
  • “In the last 13 games…the Lakers had played against teams with a 60% win percentage or better, they had been 1 in 12. So they had been brutally bad against upper-level competition.” ([23:19])
• Three Keys to the Win:
  1. Stars Played Well: “Austin and Luca played well...Austin had his best game since he came back from his calf injury.” ([23:48])
  2. Role Players Hit Shots: “The Lakers have been very up and down with their role players’ shot making.” ([24:28])
  3. Defensive Ceiling: “If the Lakers just do little things like sit down in a stance and gap off the ball...they can at least be an okay defense.” ([25:24])
• “Better Without LeBron” Take is “Ridiculous”:
  • “The team sorely needs talent, so they obviously need LeBron...the idea you would take a player that’s capable of all the things LeBron’s capable of and just think that you’re better without him is foolishness to me.” ([30:18])
• Where the Lakers Need Change:
  • "At this point, very clearly, Austin is a better shot creator than LeBron. Not prime LeBron, but 41-year-old LeBron, yeah, I want Austin with the basketball in his hands.” ([31:46])
  • “LeBron should just be functioning as a screener and as a play finisher off the ball...cutting off of the weak side or screening and rolling...” ([33:10])
• Optimal Roles:
  • "Luca and Austin in full rhythm as pick and roll shot creators, LeBron as this Swiss army knife off-ball...Then, oh, we got this switch: let’s throw the ball into LeBron.” ([33:35])
  • “You need LeBron. I just think they should adjust the way that they use him.” ([34:23])
• Memorable Analysis:
  • “LeBron had to play more on-ball when Austin was out. That’s no longer the case. Austin is starting to build his rhythm.” ([34:48])

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4. Houston Rockets’ Ceiling Held Back by Alperen Sengun’s Defense

Timestamps: [35:00]–[38:55]

• Spurs Exploit Houston’s Weakness:
  • “The Spurs put up 145 points on the Rockets yesterday...one of the big things that stood out to me...was how successfully and relentlessly the Spurs were attacking Alperen Sengun.” ([35:00])
• Sengun’s Defensive Struggles:
  • “His defense in space just wasn't good...He was getting killed in drop coverage, got absolutely dunked on by Luke Kornet...really bad transition defense sequences.” ([35:33])
  • Two types of issues: “The difference between being an athletically limited defender and a mistake-prone defender... Sengun is so, so, so fundamentally weak as a defensive player and so prone to mistakes within the defensive scheme.” ([36:30])
• Not Just Athleticism:
  • “Compared to most slow-footed bigs, Sengun actually moves pretty well...The problem is fundamental.” ([36:59])
• Team Implication:
  • “The defense thing to me is like 90% an Alperen Sengun problem and until he figures out how to trim the mistakes and improve fundamentally as a defensive player, they’re always going to have a lower ceiling.” ([38:00])

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5. Pistons: No Margin for Error

Timestamps: [38:55]–[43:59]

• Recent Skid: “Pistons lost again yesterday to the Miami Heat...now 0 and 4 in their last four games.” ([39:00])
• Winning “on the Margins” is Critical:
  • “If you dig into their actual half court numbers...their half court offense is very weak. In that environment, they're not going to win in any sort of large sample.” ([39:30])
  • “If they don't dominate on the margins, they're screwed.” ([39:58])
• Current Margins:
  • Outscored in points off turnovers by 1.8 / game
  • Outscored in second chance points by 3.8 / game
  • Outscored in fast break points by 4.5 / game
  • “Instead of the Pistons winning on the margins, they're actually getting consistently beat on the margins...their half court offense is not anywhere near capable of flipping that dynamic back in their favor.” ([40:20])
• Playoffs Outlook:
  • “Whoever...can generally keep them off the offensive glass, keep them out of transition...is going to have a massive advantage in the half court and they're going to beat them.” ([41:11])
  • “As good as this Pistons team has been, that is why it's been really hard for me to jump on them as a top tier contender...If they don't dominate on the margins, they're screwed.” ([41:45])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Tatum:
  “You could tell his conditioning still has a long way to go, but he’s trying explosive moves…just trusting his body to move explosively.” ([12:15])
• On Boston-Cleveland matchup:
  “Boston’s perimeter defenders seem to do more to make Harden and Mitchell uncomfortable than the Cavs perimeter defenders can do against Boston’s big forwards—I don’t think that dynamic is going away.” ([20:52])
• On Lakers/LeBron:
  “You need LeBron. I just think they should adjust the way that they use him.” ([34:23])
• On Sengun:
  “Sengun is so, so, so fundamentally weak as a defensive player and so prone to mistakes within the defensive scheme that it’s causing way more problems than anything having to do with his athleticism.” ([36:30])
• On the Pistons:
  “If they don’t dominate on the margins, they’re screwed and I don’t think they’re going to dominate on the margins for four playoff rounds.” ([41:45])

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Episode Structure & Timestamps

1. [02:24] - [13:23]: Jason Tatum’s comeback makes Celtics more imposing and fills in critical gaps.
2. [15:22] - [22:43]: Celtics' matchup edge versus Cavs, why Cleveland’s ceiling is capped by wing limitations.
3. [22:43] - [30:18]: Lakers analysis—why the LeBron/Reaves usage debate matters and impacts their playoff hopes.
4. [35:00] - [38:55]: Rockets' defensive schematic limitations center on Sengun.
5. [38:55] - [43:59]: Pistons' inability to win “on the margins” makes them a weak postseason bet.

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Final Thoughts

The Hoops Tonight host delivers a concise, thoughtful, and stats-driven examination of the NBA’s top weekend stories. The episode is a valuable listen for anyone seeking advanced insight into how key players and matchups are likely to define the postseason landscape, with actionable breakdowns relevant to team executives, fans, and serious basketball observers alike.

Transcript

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All right, well good hoops tonight here at the volume. Happy Monday everybody. Hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. We have a quick show today. I'm just going to go over five big takeaways from a jam packed weekend of NBA basketball. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Make sure you like this video and sign up for post notifications. That helps us a lot. And last but not least, if you guys want to get mailbag questions into our mailbag for Friday, drop them in the comments underneath our full episodes on YouTube and we'll get to them in our weekly mailbags throughout the rest of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. First big takeaway from the weekend. Jason Tatum is going to make Boston so much better against the best teams in the league first of all, it was great just to see Jason Tatum back out on the court starting with Friday. I watched both of his games from this past weekend. It just a truly remarkable feat. I did read that there's been a lot of great advancements in Achilles surgery over the course of the last few years, and it's not terribly uncommon for guys to come back relatively quickly, but still less than 10 months after a devastating injury like that. For him to make it back the way that he did, I just thought was a testament to just the type of guy that Jason Tatum is, that he wasn't going to be derailed by something like this. But I was talking about this concept like Boston against the best teams with Colin Coward last week, Boston has had a remarkable season. They've had incredible metrics. They're the second best net rating team in the league behind Oklahoma City. They are the fourth best record in the league. But they've had some losses this year against the better teams in the league that haven't looked good. Just in the last month. They've been blown out at home by the Knicks, blown out at home by the Hornets. They are 1 and 3 versus the Pistons this year. They're 02 verse the Nuggets. They're 1 and 2 versus the Knicks. Overall, against teams in the top 10 in point differential, they've been okay but not great. They've been 9 and 10, so one game below.500 and a negative 1.4 point differential in those games. Again, not to take away anything from the season, but it's been clear that it's been a very strong culture with continuity and a group that's very bought into their coach. Some specific guys playing some really good basketball this year that has helped keep them where they've been statistically and in the standings. But there's been some more mixed results against the better teams in the league. Jason Tatum coming back into the fold isn't going to lead to some sort of massive improvement for the team statistically. I mean, that's basically impossible with where they've been to this point, right? They've been so good to this point, it'd be unrealistic to expect them to experience some sort of dramatic improvement. But you can already tell from his first two games worth of tape that he's going to help them in several key areas. First of all, defensive rebounding. The Celtics look fundamentally different when Jason Tatum is on the floor in terms of the physical profile of their lineups. One of the things with. Even with the rise of Jordan Walsh, even with the rise of Baylor Shireman, we have not seen a traditional, like, big power forward type of player in these lineups. For the most part. For the most part, it's been like your kind of stereotypical swing forwards, maybe some more athletic, wiry forwards, but you don't have this, like, big 610, very strong, switchable kind of power forward look. They haven't had that archetype. And putting Jason Tatum out there makes the Celtics look dramatically more physically imposing is especially on the glass. The Celtics, with Jason Tatum so far on the floor just through two games, but they're grabbing 81.2% of their opponent's misses when Jason Tatum's on the floor. That's an insane number. That's outstanding defensive rebounding. Now, as we talked about, there's a defensive versatility element to this. There's going to be times where we see Jason Tatum, you know, guarding opposing centers and we see Jayson Tatum deployed in more creative ways defensively to help the Celtics reach a higher level on that in the floor. We haven't really seen that part yet. For the most part at this point, Joe Missoula has been tucking Tatum away on, like, role player wings. That makes a lot of sense to me as he's working his way back into shape and kind of building more resilience with his body. You know, one of the big things when we talk about Tatum guarding centers is there's a lot of battles that are being fought there on the ground. There's a lot of, like, having someone lean on him in those sorts of situations. And I think they're just trying to avoid that dynamic at this early phase. But I do think in the long run, that will be a bigger part of it. But right away off the top, you can tell physically the lineups look different. There is an element of defensive rebounding with Jayson Tatum out there that is different than what it was before, and that's helped a lot. Secondly, the natural feel for Playmaking. I don't mean this in any way as a slight towards Jalen Brown because he's had an amazing season and the best version of the Celtics team obviously needs Jaylen Brown to be great. We're going to talk about it more here in a minute. But in that Cavs game in particular, Jalen Brown and his ability to continually attack the smaller guards like Keon Ellis and Dennis Schroeder, like, he had a lot of success at Dean Wade's expense yesterday. Jaylen Brown is so important to this team, so this is not meant to be a slight at him at all whatsoever. But I do think Tatum is a far more like, complete offensive player. What I mean by that is, like, there is a lot of these, like, reads or playmaking sequences that come very naturally to Jason Tatum that have been kind of missing from this offense this year. And you could see that immediately in the first couple of games. Just like, whether it's, you know, him like hitting the pocket pass three times in a row to Kata at the beginning of that Dallas Mavericks game, or like there was a very simple little bounce pass that he threw to Derrick White in yesterday's game as he was coming off of a flare screen from Kate on the left side of the floor. It hits Derek White on a bounce and Derek White kind of cuts into the lane and, and gets an easy little two handed dunk. And as I'm watching him, like, there are just these passing sequences, these playmaking sequences that seem to come very naturally to Jason Tatum. And like, you know, I would argue when it comes to the matchup hunting element, like, strictly the goal of, like, okay, I've got Dennis Schroeder on me and I'm gonna go get a bucket on him. Like, Jalen Brown brings a level of athleticism and he's become so surgically efficient on that little mid range pull up that like. Yeah, you could tell me that Jalen Brown's better at that and I wouldn't necessarily argue with you. But when there's. When everything is going for Jason Tatum, by the way, he's not shooting the ball super well right now. That's to be expected. He's getting his legs underneath him. He's adjusting to the speed of the NBA again. But like, when j. When Jason Tatum has all of the elements of his game put together, there's an element of like, he can do this for us on offense, he can do that for us on offense. He can run these inverted actions. With Derek White, he's very good at making the ensuing reads that come out of these situations. He's just a very complete offensive player. And what that means is he's going to be able to essentially cater the his game to fit into gaps where Boston needs him on that end of the floor. The offensive rating with Jason Tatum on the floor so far has been just below 1:15. We have discussed extensively like that was always going to happen. This was not going to be something where you just plug him in and it automatically looks amazing because you're adding a high usage player. You're adding a guy who's going to be working on his conditioning and his rhythm in the moment rather than behind the scenes. So like the. There's going to be some lumps along the way, but overall, Jason Tatum is going to bring a lot of elements to this offense, especially as a playmaker, that really haven't been there this season. And I think that that's going to make them better when they go up against the better teams. And so again, when I, when I look at the big picture, I look at a Celtics team that was really strong statistically, but that had some specific flaws. And Jason Tatum is going to step in and he's going to address some of these flaws. Addressing defensive rebounding, addressing defensive versatility, addressing offensive versatility, meaning just the different ways that you can look to attack and break down a defense. Again, like, you know, when we talk about a potential playoff series against a team like Cleveland, which we're going to dive into here in a minute, there's a certain amount of like having Jason Tatum as another guy who can attack your size mismatches and another guy who can maintain 48 minutes of pressure against a Cleveland defense that struggles against some of these bigger forwards. I think that there's real value add there for Boston. So I think he looks better than expected physically. You could tell his conditioning still has a long way to go, but he's trying explosive moves. He had a missed dunk against the Mavs, which I thought was a good sign of him just trusting his body to move explosively. By the way, the Boston Celtics right now on hard rock. Better plus 550. 50 to win the title that is tied with Denver for the second best odds in the entire NBA. So a lot of people coming around on the Celtics. I'm super excited to tell you guys about our new partnership with Vuori. Those of you guys who are familiar with Vuori have noticed I've been wearing it on the show a lot over the last few years. There's just a level of quality and comfort and versatility and durability that has made it a workhorse for me or over the last few years. I have items from Vuor that I bought years ago that I've watched dozens and dozens of times that look every bit as nice as the first day that I've bought them. 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[Host]

Second big takeaway from last weekend. The Cavs might have shot the ball uncharacteristically poor against the Celtics, and I definitely think it affected them. But that doesn't mean they don't still have a Celtics problem. The Celtics got 1.5 points per catch and shoot jump shot attempt last night and The Cavs got 0.94. That's a 66 point gap over 100 shot sample. So yeah, there was definitely a bit of shooting variance in this game in the second quarter in particular. You could tell the Cavs were getting super discouraged by the misses. Some really good looks for really good shooters that weren't going in. And there's a, like I, you know, there's a combination of like confidence and rhythm that I always think think gets under discussed in basketball where like you know, you, you run good offense and you miss a wide open shot and then somebody goes down to the other end and hits a more contested shot of some kind. It can kind of have this mental effect where you, you kind of start to feel, especially if that piles up like you miss three in a sequence where the other team goes on a run and they go up by 16, 17 points and in that sequence you miss like three wide open threes and then on the other end of the floor you make this mistake, make that mistake. Maybe there's a matchup where you're continuing to foul Jalen Brown or something like that. It can pile up on you and actually lead to a confidence issue. And like there were, there were times during last night's game or yesterday's game, I should say, where I thought the Cavs didn't look particularly confident. And I think that that is kind of more of a manifestation of that, that that shooting variance that happened. However, the bigger issue, which is that Boston's ball handlers look way more comfortable versus Cleveland's perimeter defenders than Cleveland's ball handlers look versus Boston's perimeter defenders, that dynamic is not going away. We talked a lot after Dennis Schroeder and Keon Ellis were signed that there's a lot of guys in the Eastern Conference that they're going to be very useful against, right? Like, whether It's Tyrese Maxine, VJ Edgecomb on the Philadelphia 76ers, whether it's Jalen Brunson and Jose Alvarado and Deuce McBride on the new York Knicks, we can go on and on. All of these quick guards on all of these teams out east, there's a lot of guys like that that Keon Ellis and Dennis Schroeder are going to be very useful against. But I said this right after the trade, if you guys remember, neither of those guys are even remotely big and strong enough to be disruptive versus some of the bigger, stronger wing, like, like wing slash forward offensive players in the league. And like, that was the part that kind of stuck out like a sore thumb yesterday. It just felt like Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum in particular, they could just pick on whoever they wanted. And then it extended to, like, different parts of the roster. Like Dean Wade, a guy that, you know, stands taller than both Tatum and Brown, you'd think he'd be more comfortable in those matchups. Nope. Jalen Brown was specifically going out of his way to hunt him over and over and over again in the second half yesterday. Like, there's just a level of comfort that those guys have in that matchup that makes it very complicated. This is kind of the benefit of Boston and the way that their roster is put together, right? Like, say what you want about their center rotation and obviously Vucevich has this finger injury that's going to keep him out a little bit. And each one of their centers has strengths and weaknesses, and none of those guys are going to be, you know, perfect basketball players by any means. But if you look at their one through four and the vast majority of their lineups, it's a very simple dynamic. There's always in every single Celtics lineup, a is now with the return of Jason Tatum, a big forward that can hunt matchups, a guard that can run pick and roll and or inverted action and or 1, 3 action with that forward and just a ton of shooting. That's a dynamic that every Celtics lineup has. How many times yesterday did we see the Cavs react to some sort of interior sequence where Jaylen Brown or Jason Tatum are getting into the basket, doing damage in the short range and maybe getting an offensive rebound or maybe drawing two or three defenders. And then there's Sam Houser again at the top of the key, wide open. Why is Sam Houser again wide open? Because there is the ability to consistently compromise the defense at the point of attack by having these big ball handlers that are comfortable against Cleveland's perimeter defenders. That's really a dynamic that's not going away. They're going to be able to hunt a matchup while also spacing the floor with quality shooting. And that's one of those things that I think, you know, when you're looking at matchups and we in general, when we start talking about the postseason, as you guys know, this is always one of the most important parts of whether or not a team advances or they don't. We tend to think about the big picture. Here's this team's strengths and their weaknesses. Here's the metrics they put up this season, here's where they landed in the standings and really it comes down to like, well, how do they match up against this team? It doesn't matter how good your defense is if they can't get stops against the team you're playing in the first round. It doesn't matter how good their offense is if they can't score against the team they're playing in the first round. Right? So matchups end up playing a bigger part than just about anything else in this regard. So what are some of the things like. So for instance, Jared Allen was out last night. Jared Allen, if he is in the lineup, maybe you can deploy Evan Mobley more on the wing. That can put you in a situation where you have fewer small defenders to attack. Right. Certain matchups like, you know, that might be a series where if you're healthy, you lean more on some of your stockier wings, guys like Max Drew, if he can get healthy, or Jalen Tyson. James Harden has to be much more attentive in his off ball defense. This is something we talked about after the Harden trade. Harden is a much better one on one defender than a guy like, than a guy like Darius Garland. But he's more prone to defensive mistakes. There was a play where Jalen Brown was attacking out of the post in the first half on the right block and Evan Mobley's right there in help like he's there ready to offer assistance and and handle the Jaylen Brown problem. But James Harden, who's guarding Sam Houser, sinks way in below the foul line kind of unnecessarily and it just gets swinged out and Sam Houser hits a three. Those are the kinds of mistakes that are every bit as damaging as you getting attacked one on one, right? So like there are certainly ways they can play better. As we talked about, like the jump shot result was not going Cleveland's way. Jared Allen out of the lineup. So I'm not going to sit here and pretend like the Cavs can't beat Boston. But the fundamental issue, which is that Boston's perimeter defenders seem to do more to make Harden and Mitchell uncomfortable than the Cavs perimeter defenders can do against Boston's big forwards, I don't think that dynamic is going away. And so with that being the case, you know, I'm very high on this Cavs team. I'm not going to bail on them because of one bad performance on national television. But we got to like be honest about what our eyes were telling us yesterday and it was that the Celtics look like they match up pretty well with the Cleveland Cavaliers number three. No, the Lakers are not better without LeBron. But I do think Austin needs to be the second option on this Lakers team. Lakers Knicks was somewhat similar to Cav Celtics in that I thought the Lakers clearly played a better game and they deserved to win. But the Knicks also had some really poor jump shooting that exacerbated the result. The Knicks were 2 for 12 on unguarded catch and shoot threes yesterday. Every time they had a chance to hit a big shot and make things more competitive, they just missed. Brunson is also in a little bit of a slump. He's shooting just 32% from the field and averaging just 16 points over his last three games. But the Lakers got their first big win against a legit title contending team in a very long time. They announced this in the broadcast. We had been talking about this stat on the Lakers collective pod last week. Yovon brought it up if you guys remember. But in the last 13 games of the Lakers had played against teams with a 60% win percentage or better, they had been 1 in 12. So they had been like brutally bad against the upper level competition in the league before that big win against the Knicks, it really came down to three things. One, they're both of their stars played well. Both Austin and Luca played well. I think they combined for about 60 points. They were relatively efficient. Luca didn't shoot the ball super well and he had some turnover issues. But overall I thought his shot making, especially in key parts of the game, was impactful and helped them continue to stiff arm the Knicks. I thought Luca played pretty well. Austin I thought had his best game since he came back from his calf injury. In terms of all around two way basketball, he obviously puts up 25, he has five assists with just one turnover. He has three steals. But I thought his pick and roll playmaking was huge as well. He did a brilliant job of of skipping the ball across the court as the Knicks would load up on his ball screens. Austin just played really well. So your stars play well. Role players hit shots. That's a big one. The Lakers have had been very up and down with their role players shot making. But like you get a made three from Jared Vanderbilt, Luke Canard. It's just bizarre having a guy in the Lakers where like oh, you leave him open, it's going in like that's a huge asset on a team like this, right? So role players hit shots. And then lastly the team played to their individual defensive ceiling. They mixed in some zone in the early part of the game. Overall I thought their man to man looks were really strong. Just little details, right? Like there's certain personnel things that just are what they are. But if the Lakers just do little things like sit down in a stance and gap off the ball so that their one on ones are a little bit tougher to score on. When teams are hunting specific matchups, the connectivity and rotation, the efforts on the defensive glass, those are things where it's like no one's expecting the Lakers to go be a top 10 defense. They quite literally do not have the personnel to do that. But they do have enough high IQ personnel that if they just do their jobs, execute their scheme, play hard, talk to each other, help the helper in rotation sequences, all those like little things, they can at least be an okay defense. Again, like no one's going to give them a ton of credit for holding the Knicks to what it was. They held the knicks to like 98 or something like, like that with how poorly they shot. Because obviously there's a version of that game where the Knicks make more threes and they score a lot more points. But ultimately that's what a mediocre defense can do. They can play towards certain types of shots that have more variance and on any given night they can have a strong defensive performance cause they take away the super easy stuff and maybe you get some lucky shooting variants, right? So like this Lakers team is capable of playing a good average defensive game and they're capable of their role players hitting shots and they're capable of their stars playing well. The biggest issue has been throughout the season against the best teams. They haven't been able to put all three of those things together. They'll have a game where their stars play well, but the role players can't hit shots and they don't play defense. They've had a lot of games against the big teams where their defense has actually looked pretty good. They've competed, they've played hard, they've defended well, they but Luka Austin and LeBron will all be mediocre and the role players won't hit shots right? Like they those three things, they've struggled to kind of put them all together in the same spot. I actually had a mailbag question in that Lakers collective pod last week where someone said like, hey, what would it take for the Lakers to actually start beating the good teams again? Today's show is brought to you by presenting sponsor Hard Rock bet. Florida's sportsbook March is here, and that means college basketball takes center stage. The stakes are rising, the shots are falling, and now's the time to hit the hardwood with Hard Rock Bet. Sign up today and double your winnings on your first 10 bets. Max $50. That's right, your winnings are doubled on your first 10 bets. So if you would have won a hundred bucks on your bet, make that 200. That's how you start March hot. 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And it really is just that. That was what I said on the show last week. Just they need to put it together to where they have games where their stars play well, role players hit shots and the team plays to their individual defensive ceiling. If they do that, they have a shot to at least be competitive. That's kind of the thing that I've really been keyed in on with The Lakers is. It's not so much about them winning the title this year. That's kind of out of reach with how flawed this team is. It's not just kind of out of reach, it's very out of reach. However, going into this off season, winning a first round series or looking very competitive in a first round series would go a long way towards establishing the culture that they're trying to build for the future. I'm interested in that. I'm interested in them being competitive. I'm interested in them having a shot to win a first round series. These are the steps they need to cross to get to that point. But one of the big subplots of the game was that Austin Reeves finally looked like Austin Reeves again. 25 points, very efficient. 4 stocks just played really well. The Lakers playing really well. Beating a good team and Austin looking good, of course started the Lakers are better without LeBron discourse again. Now I think that take is completely ridiculous for obvious reasons. The team sorely needs talent, so they very obviously need LeBron. They're not very, they're not very good. So like, like the idea that you would take a player that's capable of all the things that LeBron's capable of and just think that you're better without him is is foolishness to me. Also, there's some strong metrics in key areas like the Marcus Smart, LeBron, Austin, Luca for some, the starting lineup minus eight. And basically that group has been crushing teams as of late and is up to plus 13 per 100 possessions this season. So LeBron's part of their best lineups. He's been able to hold down these units without Luka and Austin, they're plus 7 per 100 possessions when LeBron's on the floor by himself. That allows JJ Redick to continue to lean into that Luka Austin pairing that works so well. But that doesn't mean I think the LeBron experience with this iteration of the Lakers has been perfect or that I don't think tweaks need to be made. I think Austin at this point very clearly is a better shot creator than LeBron. Not prime LeBron, but 41 year old LeBron. Yeah, I want Austin with the basketball in his hands. When Austin is in rhythm, he's become one of the very best pick and roll players in the league. He just was very out of rhythm since coming back from his calf injury. Now as I talked about last week, I think Austin would have found his footing naturally that like there's this idea that like, oh, like they're like he's not getting the touches that he would normally get. And like, that gets complicated because when you dig into the individual games, Austin wasn't playing well. Like I talked about this last week, it's like if Austin goes into the, the Nuggets game and hits those first two mid range jump shots that he takes instead of missing them both, he probably gets two or three more shot attempts in the first quarter because these things tend to work themselves out naturally. Oh, this guy's in rhythm. The ball kind of finds his way towards this guy and he has more opportunity to work right. Austin just wasn't playing well since he came back. Having LeBron out of the lineup for a game helped accelerate that process because now he has a lot more touches. In a situation where he has to have a lot more touches because you're down one of your primary shot creators, it accelerates that process a little bit. But even if LeBron had never gotten hurt, if LeBron had not had this, this foot arthritis that's caused him to miss the last couple of games, Austin would have eventually found his rhythm. It just might have taken longer because it would have taken longer to get the number of reps that he needed. But getting LeBron out of there for a couple of games had the added benefit of just forcing a bunch of usage onto Austin, which allowed him to work his way back into a rhythm quicker. Now, what should this look like when all three guys are healthy and in rhythm? This is where I think there is some valid criticism. Not criticism is the wrong word because I'm not sure it's anybody's particular fault. But I think there's some valid points being made about the direction this offense should go. LeBron had to absorb more usage when Austin had his calf injury. Why? Very simply, Austin, Austin was out. You had no ball handling on the team. You needed someone to function as Lucas secondary ball handler. LeBron slotted into that role. And especially during the first chunk of that time after Austin was out, he was actually pretty good. He cooled off a little bit later, but he had some stretches where he was pretty good. But now that Austin's back, I do think LeBron's role offensively should be paired back in a way that accentuates your best shot creators while also putting LeBron in a position that's going to most closely mimic what he's going to be doing in the postseason. So I think Lebron, unless he's out there by himself, if he's in there by himself, without Austin and Luka, you know he can continue to play the way that he wants to play on the ball. But in units that have Austin or units that have Austin and Luka, LeBron should just be functioning as a screener and as a play finisher off the ball. Whether that's shooting or attacking closeouts and or cutting off of the weak side or screening and rolling out of the horn sets at the top of the key or inverted action, any sort of action that he's running. With Austin two man game style, LeBron should be functioning as a screener unless he gets a favorable post matchup. If LeBron gets a small guy on him, give it to him in the post because that's going to give you a great shot. That is an, a legitimate vehicle with which for the Lakers to break down defenses. But I don't think LeBron needs to be running ball screens if Austin's on the floor. I don't think LeBron needs to be running ball screens if Luka's on the floor. If those guys are on the floor and LeBron does not get a favorable post mismatch, he should be screening for them or spotting up off the ball. I think that is the best version of this team. Luca and Austin in full rhythm as pick and roll shot creators. LeBron is like this Swiss army knife off ball that's making connective playmaking sequences and attacking off of the weak side. And then, oh, we got this switch. Let's throw the ball into LeBron because he's got a 6, 4 dude who's 195 pounds on him. Let's go down to the block. Those are the times when we should, the, we should be trying to get the ball to LeBron in a one on one situation. So again, as I mentioned earlier, the Lakers need talent, which means they need LeBron. The idea that you should just be like, like, like punting him off into the abyss is ridiculous. You need LeBron. I just think they should adjust the way that they use him. LeBron had to play more on ball when Austin was out. That's no longer the case. Austin is starting to build his rhythm. He's looked better in the last couple of games. I would lean more on Austin as an on ball player at this point essentially as the second option for this Lakers team. Number four, Houston Rockets have an Alperin Shangun problem. So the spurs put up 145 points on the Rockets yesterday. A lot of their players play really well. Victor Weminyama has had a couple of big offensive explosions as of late as his jump shot has started to fall at a higher clip. So Victor's playing really well. Steph Castle had a big night. Darren Fox had a big night. Keldon Johnson had a big night. He's continuing to show the ability to make teams pay for hanging off of him at the three point line. Very, very strong around the across the board performance from the San Antonio spurs offense in a big win versus the Rockets yesterday. But one of the big things that stood out to me on film was how successfully and relentlessly the spurs were attacking Alper and Shangoon in various different types of actions. He spent time guarding Steph Castle as well as ending up on the San Antonio guards in switches. Whether it was Dear and Fox in a switch or Steph Castle in a switch. And his defense in space just wasn't good. There were times where he was like getting out of position and opening up his stance and like lunging out towards the perimeter, which like, again, I understand the idea behind wanting to stunt towards jump shots, but he was doing it in a very technically unsound way which was getting himself out of position and giving up drives. He was getting killed in drop coverage. He got absolutely dunked on by Luke Cornett on this one rep. That was a pretty nasty drop coverage rep from him. Really bad transition defense sequences like, like there was a sequence where they gave up a wide open three to Julian Champeny in the left corner to start the second half where like Shangoon's running back to somebody that's already guarded and then suddenly realizes at the last second that Champagne's his matchup. And by the time he gets out there, it's too late. There was another one. I think it was Steph Castles dribbling up the middle of the floor and he runs back to like stop the ball. No other Rocket is stopping the ball. But he like runs back and gets behind the ball, but instead of actually trying to get in front of the ball, he just kind of like runs behind him and then no other Rockets player picked up the ball. So he just goes right downhill and ends up drawing a foul. And it kind of brought me back to that discussion that we've had so many times over the course of this season and last season. The difference between being a athletically limited defender and a mistake prone defender. And that's the thing that I'm noticing with Shangun. I've been disappointed him defensively because I actually think he has pretty decent athletic tools for a big. Now every BIG is going to have a certain amount of, okay, this guy's too fast for me kind of thing going on. But compared to most slow footed bigs, Shengun actually moves pretty well. He's got good vertical athleticism, good lateral athleticism. The guy can move. The problem is, is Sengun is so, so, so fundamentally weak as a defensive player and so prone to mistakes within the defensive scheme that it's causing way more problems than anything having to do with his athleticism specifically. And that's one of those things. Like there are certain things with the Rockets that are like team wide issues. Like you know, San Antonio did a lot of like random blitzing and double teaming of Kevin Durant last yesterday that so many of those sequences were continuing to lead to the kinds of, of botched four on threes that have been a problem for Houston all season. Although I thought Houston actually scored the ball okay yesterday. But they're going to have certain issues on offense that are team wide issues that come down to Ima Udoka and floor spacing and certain role players finding a way to be impactful offensively. But the defense thing to me is like 90% an Alper and Shangun problem and until he figures out how to trim the mistakes and improve fundamentally as a defensive player, they're always going to have a lower ceiling on that end of the floor than they're capable of having. All right, lastly, before we get out of here today, number five, if the Pistons don't dominate on the margins, they are screwed. Pistons lost again yesterday to the Miami Heat. They are now oh and four in their last four games. And one of the things that we talked about over the course of the season was that the Pistons were winning on the margins. If you dig into their actual half court numbers, while their half court defense is very strong, their half court offense is very weak. And so in that environment, they're not going to win in any sort of large sample. Now hard to figure out why Cade Cunningham is developing into one of the best shot creators in the league, but he still has some significant weaknesses, particularly with his perimeter scoring. And, and they do not have a secondary shot creator by any stretch. Not a legitimate secondary shot creator, just guys who can step in and do something. Danish Jenkins can do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Tobias Harris can do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But they don't have your stereotypical, okay, this is my number two, a guy who can absorb large usage and help me out in the half court, right? So the Pistons, if they, if they don't dominate on the margins, they're screwed over this four game span they are getting outscored in points off of turnovers by 1.8 per game, they're getting outscored in second chance points by 3.8 per game and they're getting outscored in overall fast break points by 4.5 per game. So we're seeing the literal example of this dynamic that I'm talking about over the course of the last four games. Instead of the Pistons winning on the margins, they're actually getting consistently beat on the margins and that is causing this dynamic that we're seeing where their half court offense is not anywhere near capable of flipping that dynamic back in their favor as they've lost four games in a row. What concerns me about that is when you get to the postseason, I don't know who it is going to be. It might be Boston, it might be Cleveland, it might be New York. Like who knows who it's going to be. But one of these teams that's in that top tier in the east is going to have the ability to stare eye to eye with the Pistons for two weeks and generally keep them off the offensive glass. Generally keep them out of transition. Whoever that is that does that to the Pistons is going to have a massive advantage in the half court and they're going to beat them. So again, as good as this Pistons team has been, that is why it's been really hard for me to jump on them as a top tier contender rather than just a second tier contender. If they don't dominate on the margins, they're screwed and I don't think they're going to dominate on the margins for four playoff rounds. All right guys, that's all I have for today. I've been feeling a little bit under the weather so I. I'm sorry that we didn't get to power rankings today, but we'll get back to them next Monday. Again, as always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We have jam packed slate again tonight, so we'll have some more games to react to in tomorrow morning's show. I will see you guys then.

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[Chelsea Handler]

This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea after the Big Game like most people, I kept thinking about the commercials, and there was one that stayed with me. It was from the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, and it wasn't loud or flashy. It showed a Jewish kid being targeted at school and another student who chose not to ignore it. As someone who is Jewish, that moment felt very real to me. Not dramatic, just familiar. And what struck me was how clearly it showed that hate doesn't always announce itself, but the impact is still huge. If you saw the Blue Square spot during the Big Game, it's worth thinking about. And if you want to show support, sharing the Blue Square is one small way to do that.

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