← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Hoops Tonight - HISTORY for SGA in Thunder-Celtics, Luka goes OFF for 51 for Lakers, Nuggets-Spurs | NBA Reaction
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- [00:00]
Zach Lowe
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
- [00:04]
Levar Arrington
Hey, this is Levar Arrington here from up on Game. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Apple Card members can earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases wherever they shop. This means you could be earning daily cash on just about anything, like a slice of pizza from your local pizza place or a latte from the corner coffee shop. Apply for Apple Card in the Wallet app to see your credit limit offer in minutes. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and more at applecard.com Are we exposed?
- [00:42]
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- [01:11]
Charlamagne Tha God
Piece of the planet Charlamagne Tha God here. And listen, we are back. The Black Effect Podcast Festival is back in Atlanta on April 25th at Pullman Yard. Yeah, and the full lineup is nuts. We got the Grits and Age Podcast, Deontay Kyle and Big Ice Cup Kat. We got Club 520 with Jeff Teague and the gang. Don't call Me White Girl. Mona will be there. Keep it positive sweetie. With Crystal Renee. We got Reality with the King with Carlos King and yes, Drink champs will be in the building. Ok. Plus you know we gonna have a lot of guests so you need to join us. And we got the Black Effect Marketplace, the picture podcast and everything you expect from the Black Effect Podcast Festival. Tickets are on sale right now. Go get yours@blackffect.com podcast festival.
- [01:54]
Zach Lowe
Don't play yourself.
- [01:55]
Charlamagne Tha God
Okay, pull up. Before we had AT&T business wireless coverage, our delivery GPS wasn't the most reliable. Once our driver had to do a 14 point turn to get back on route. A 14 point turn. An influencer even livestreamed the whole thing. Not good for business. Now with AT&T business wireless routes are updating on the fly and deliveries are on time. And the influencer did get us 53 new followers though.
- [02:25]
Zach Lowe
AT&T business Wireless connecting changes everything. The volume. All right, well good hoops tonight here at the Volume. Happy Friday. Friday everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great end to your week. Have a jam packed show for you guys today. We were originally going to do contender rankings but we looked at the Slate and the Slate was insane. We get a Celtics Thunder showdown. We have a Nugget spurs showdown. Luka Doncic goes for 51 points. I wanted to focus on some games this morning instead, so Jackson and I took a look at the calendar and next Tuesday night is the next time we have like a relatively weak slate. So next Wednesday we we'll have our contender rankings. I'm really kind of parsing out which teams in which tiers. I'm really going to start to refine it into some smaller tiers. We're going to talk a little bit about that in today's show. So contender rankings moving to next Wednesday. Today we're going to hit Celtics, Thunder, Nugget, spurs as well as Lakers, Bulls. And again, I'm sorry about my voice guys. Bear with me. I'm finally starting to feel better from this flu, but of course it's got the lingering effects that I'll be dealing with for a little while. You guys know the joke 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 do want to get in mailbag questions? No mailbag this week, obviously under the circumstances, but we'll have one next Friday, so drop them in the comments and we'll get to them on Fridays throughout the rest of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So Celtics Thunder showdown of two of the most impressive organizations in the N B A right now, front offices with an extended track record of not only having a basketball philosophy that they believe in that is consistent, but finding quality talent at every level of the draft and even in free agency around the league to find players that fit into that basketball philosophy. Elite head coaches I was texting with Jackson after the OR during the game yesterday. Joe Missoula in particular is entering into a discussion for me with like, I think you could absolutely make the case that he's the best coach in the league in terms of the the level of detail that he's built into their driving kick offense and the kinds of the kinds of buy in that he gets from his players and executing that offense as well as defending the way that they defend. I just think Missoula is amazing. Mark Degnalt is also an amazing coach in this league and then talented rosters that are bought in to the goal of what the team is trying to accomplish. It's a synergy throughout the organization that has manifested in Those crazy net ratings that we've talked about, you know that like when you list all the players in the league that have the top net ratings, it's a bunch of Celtics and Thunder players. And I think it has a lot to do with that culture from the top down in these organizations. The defensive intensity for both teams was immediately apparent in this one. At any given moment, there were like a half dozen awesome defensive players on the floor. The level of ball pressure, the speed on the perimeter and rotation, the way the teams were executing their schemes on both ends of the floors, really, really high level basketball. I really, really enjoyed it. Enjoyed watching this game. I think it's a finals preview potentially as well. Like if you were to ask a random group of 100 people what their five most likely potential finals matchups would be, I'm pretty sure this one would make the list for everyone. And I was trying to do a deep dive in it. With that as the focus, the Celtics put up a hell of a fight without Tatum and without Derek White, obviously the Thunder down a couple of key players as well. Isaiah Hartenstein and and Jalen Williams. Boston's wings did a fantastic job of keeping the game close with their corner crash crashes. They won a lot of 50, 50 balls getting to like long rebounds, things along those lines. The Celtics had a 23 to 13 second chance points advantage in this battle. And that's one thing that we have seen like especially when you have bigger athletes and you know, when we're talking about Baylor Shireman, when we're talking about Jordan Walsh or Hugo Gonzalez, like the, there's a lot of like taller, bigger types of perimeter players than what Oklahoma City has. And so when even when both teams are playing really hard, Boston's going to get to a lot of those 50, 50, 50 balls with the types of athletes that they have on the floor. That 23 to 13 second chance points advantage was a big thing that made up for the gap in the efficiency between like Jaylen Brown and Shake Eldris Alexander, for example. I didn't think Jalen had the most efficient game ever. That's obvious. But that's not really his game. Like he's never been a 60% true shooting player at in his NBA career. He's a volume scorer. He gets them up. And I thought he did a great job against Oklahoma City last night of attacking with physicality. Like OKC did a really nice job of avoiding precarious switches. They were fighting through screens. They did some pre switching too where like they'd be attacking a defender but then, like, a third defender would come in and switch on to Jalen instead. And so he ended up getting a lot of, like, Lou Dort and Alex Caruso on an island. And like, somehow Jaylen just kept plowing through those guys to get to his spots. It honestly was a super impressive and casual reminder that Jalen is an apex athlete amongst apex athletes. I said this on the show before. Jason Tatum is a more complete offensive player than Jalen, but Jalen is an absolute monster to handle, one on one on an island. And he might be, like, substantially better than Tatum in that regard, and one of the best players in the league, specifically at that skill. And again, like, you're talking about big, strong defenders in Lou Dort and Alex Crusoe in Jalen. I talk about this a lot on drives. You know, you're not going to cleanly beat great defenders typically anyway, but you get a defender very slightly out of position, it becomes like a shoulder leverage contest. I'm driving. If I'm driving left, I'm dropping that right shoulder. I'm trying to get lower than you, and I'm trying to blow through that gap. And if I'm the defender, as I'm sliding, same exact thing. I'm trying to hold this shoulder as best as I can to stop you from turning the corner. And Jalen was just blowing through that shoulder and, like, getting to where he needed. Again, it wasn't the most efficient thing in the world. And there were a lot of, like, plays where you thought Jalen was, like, hunting for contact in there and wasn't getting calls. But, like, I was just impressed generally by how physically aggressive Jalen was and how successful he was getting to his spots. Mark Dagno had a very impressive decision. So, like, so Jalen ends up hitting this tough little right shoulder fade. He's got a very similar sequence to what I was talking about where he's trying to get a switch, can't get the switch, has no choice but to attack. Lou Dort one on one, loses his balance, somehow regains his balance and then fades over his right shoulder, gets great lift, shoots a moon ball that goes into the basket and ties the game. Really, really impressive shot from Jalen Brown. And Mark Dagnall makes this very impressive, like, split second decision after Jalen's bucket to let Shay Gilders Alexander go to work without a timeout. So Shea brings about the floor. The Celtics had gone small for that offensive possession, so they had no center on the floor to match up with Chet. The Celtics finally send a hard double Team at Shea. I say finally because it felt like for the last two weeks, teams were just content to let Shay go one on one, even though he seems to never miss. Most teams were letting him go one on one, including the Celtics on several possessions leading into that possession. So Joe Missoula finally says, screw that. We're going to get the ball out of Shay's hands. They send a hard double team. They pre rotate over from the weak side corner. Shay makes a very nice read to skip past Alex Caruso in the left corner. Alex gets a good look, he puts it up and he misses. But the problem is no big on the floor. So Chet has a massive size advantage underneath the basket, skies for the rebound, draws a foul and ends that game. So very impressive win for the Thunder off of that snap decision for Mark Dagnall on that final possession. I want to come back to Shea for a minute here, though. I did not view this as an MVP showdown. Jaylen Brown could have gone for 50 and Shea could have been bad, and it wouldn't have changed anything for me. I think Jalen's had a very impressive season, but I don't view Jalen as a legitimate MVP candidate. I've been surprised at some of the discussion that I've seen in the national media surrounding that. There are some obvious things with the on off numbers that show he's not having as large of an impact on winning as the other candidates. But you know me, I. I don't like to lean solely on the numbers. I want to look at what I'm seeing with my eyes. And for me, it's even simpler than that. Like, he's a great scorer, but he's nowhere near the volume and efficiency score that the top scorers in the league are. He's shown growth as a playmaker, but he's still deeply flawed as a playmaker. And again, the rest of the stars at the top of the league are just way better at it. And he's probably the best perimeter defender of all of the, you know, top 10 players in the NBA. But with the increased usage, it hasn't been his best defensive season. I don't think that's been like a huge feather in his cap this year. So Jalen's great. Super impressed by him. I think he's proven a lot of things about himself this season, and I even really enjoyed watching him last night. I was very impressed by him last night, but I just don't think he's an MVP type of basketball player, at least not yet. I think there's another leap that he would have to take to get to that level. But Shea once again was absolutely unbelievable down the stretch. He was 7 for 8 from the field. 14 points with zero turnover. Excuse me, 14 points in just the fourth quarter with zero turnovers. He's now up to 46 made clutch field goals this season. That's one back of Anthony Edwards for the most in the league, if you know how. I always use per 36 as like a kind of like a way to scale up or down based on the amount of minutes a guy's playing. Shea is scoring at a rate of 49 points per 36 minutes in clutch situations. That is completely insane. Just in these last four clutch games against Golden State, New York, Denver and Boston. He's 8 for 13 on clutch shots, 4 for 7 on clutch threes in the Thunder are plus 16 in those clutch minutes when he's on the floor. You literally can't stop this guy from getting to his spot for a pull up jump shot and he's just not missing them right now. A close game against the Thunder is kind of a terrifying experience because as Shea has the ball, especially when he's working one on one, you're basically sitting there powerless and you feel like there's almost no chance you're going to be able to stop him from getting to a shot. He can hit a very high percentage of the time. Shay's on a special run again. I've been in the frame of mind thinking about contenders again and I'm trying to parse them into more refined tiers and again that'll be coming out next Wednesday. I'm very tempted right now to put Oklahoma City in a tier of their own specifically because of how good Shay has been looking as of late. I just think when you pair an unstoppable scorer like him with the best defense in the NBA and enough play finishing off of it like again like AJ Mitchell, huge corner, three out of the right corner chat the ability to, that's, that's a form of play finishing when you have a size finish size advantage underneath the basket and you get offensive rebounding like the combination of play finishing. Shea is an unstoppable scorer and that elite defense, I just think that's really, really difficult to beat four times in two weeks. And so we'll see how I end up landing mentally when I finally put the list together for Wednesday. But I'm strongly considering just putting them on a tier by themselves. That combination of how great Shay is right now and how good this defense is is really, really tough to imagine somebody beating. Lastly, before we move on, just big picture with the Celtics and the Thunder, I do. There was a time when I would have thought that Boston was kind of like out of their depth in this matchup for a playoff series, just because Oklahoma City, in many ways is just a better version of what Boston likes to do, a driving kick team, but with better ability to generate dribble penetration because AJ Mitchell and J Dub are better drivers than guys like Tatum and Derrick White, for example. And, you know, Shea is just a better basketball player than both Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum. And I actually feel differently about that now. I actually think Boston. I would pick Oklahoma City to beat Boston in a playoff series, to be clear, if they were to meet in the Finals. But I think Boston has a better chance to hang physically. They're just a little bit bigger on the perimeter. And I think that that is a consistent thing that I've seen that has given Oklahoma City some issues. That combination of being big and physical on the perimeter while also having the ability to protect the rim with that Nemi K look, for example. So, again, like, I would pick Oklahoma City in a series against Boston, but if I was a Celtics fan, I would feel good about having a puncher's chance in that type of matchup after what I saw last night because of how they were able to physically cause problems for Oklahoma City at. At various spots on the floor. And again, like Jaylen Brown, being able to stare down guys like Alex Caruso and Lou Dort and get two feet in the paint, I think is a real asset in a playoff series when you get into a static half court environment. So, impressive showing for Boston, even more impressive for Oklahoma City. I just can't get enough of this run from Shea. I've just been super, super impressed by him. I'm super excited to tell you guys about our partnership with Viori. Those of you guys who are familiar with Vuori have noticed I've been wearing it on the show a ton over the last few years. It's become a workhorse for me. Today I'm wearing the seaside pullover hoodie, one that I just got that I've really enjoyed. I wore it out on a cold, windy day the other day, and it was super warm and comfortable throughout. They make all sorts of stuff. I love their athleisure stuff. I wear that stuff on the show all the time. You see me wear the Ponto Performance T shirt, an excellent T shirt. I think it's the best T shirt in the game right now. I also wear some of their Ponto performance hoodies and sweatpants when I go to the gym. There's a lot of versatility with Viori clothing. It's super duper durable. You can wash it a million times and it maintains the same quality that you expect when you purchase a piece of Yori clothing. But it's versatile. I can wear it in casual settings like around my house. I can wear it here on the show. I can also wear it when I go out to lunch with my wife or when I go out shopping or go out and run errands with her. There's a ton of versatility and utility in your wardrobe when you go through Vuori. Vuori is an investment in your happiness for our listeners. They are offering 20% off your first purchase. Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet@vuori.comhoops that's V U O R I.comhoops exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. Not only will you receive 20% off your first purchase, but enjoy free shipping on any US orders over $75 in free returns. Go to vuori.comhoops and discover the versatility of Vuori clothing. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions.
- [16:54]
Levar Arrington
Hey, this is Levar Arrington here from up on Game. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Apple Card members can earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases wherever they shop. This means you could be earning daily cash on just about anything, like a slice of pizza from your local pizza place or a latte from the corner coffee shop. Apply for Apple Card in the Wallet app to see your credit limit offer in minutes subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch terms and more@applecard.com this episode is brought to you
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- [18:18]
Amanda Knox
it in 2023, a story gripped the UK evoking horror and disbelief.
- [18:24]
Zach Lowe
The nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history.
- [18:33]
Amanda Knox
Every everyone thought they knew how it ended. A verdict. A villain. A nurse named Lucy Letby.
- [18:40]
Zach Lowe
Lucy Letby has been found guilty.
- [18:42]
Amanda Knox
But what if we didn't get the whole story?
- [18:45]
Zach Lowe
The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses.
- [18:48]
Amanda Knox
I'm Amanda Knox and in the new podcast the Case of Lucy Letby, we follow the evidence and hear from the people that lived it to ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Letby was.
- [19:01]
Zach Lowe
No voicing of any skepticism or doubt. It'll cause so much harm at every single level of the British establishment of this is wrong.
- [19:10]
Amanda Knox
Listen to Doubt the Case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [19:20]
Zach Lowe
All right Nugget Spurs Another game where I left impressed by both teams. The spurs were without Victor Weminyama, so of course their guards went nuclear. The Nuggets couldn't guard Steph Castle all night long. He was getting into the paint seemingly at will and consistently had the Nuggets out of position. So he was getting to the line a ton. 30 point triple double for Steph as he continues to be one of the most impressive young players in the league. Dear and Fox was killing it with the Nugget or killing the Nuggets with his usual mix of like downhill speed and jump shooting over the top. Devin Vassell hit four threes. Dylan Harper had yet another impressive game attacking the rim. The spurs deployed a small ball look when Cornet was off the floor with Victor Romanyama out for the game and it was flat out terrifying. They went for it in the late first quarter and then they went for it again in the late third quarter and in the early fourth quarter and it just is an insane amount of speed and ball handling on the floor that Denver really struggled with. They were getting stops and getting out in transition and getting easy ones. There they were spacing the floor and just cutting the Nuggets to put pieces in the half court. The Nuggets did finally have some success against their small ball look in the mid fourth quarter. We'll get to that in a minute, but it was a really successful unit for San Antonio. They were plus six last night in their center list groups Carter Bryant had a really fun first half shift. He just looks like that proto prototypical Swiss army knife forward and I, I, I have a feeling he's going to be a super important player for the spurs in the long run. Dude, what a great pickup for them to find a guy like that in, in the draft last year. And it will be fun for me to root for a guy from the University of Arizona during this Wemby era. He had a sequence in the first half where he was kind of battling with Jokic on the right block and he was putting his elbow in his back and really shoving him off his spot. Rebound comes in long and he holds Jokic down and is able to actually extend and beat Jokic to the rebound outlets. It sprints up the floor and ends up hitting a three. It was a massive sequence during that first half run for them and I was like, first of all, that's an incredibly impressive physical play and beating Jokic to an offensive rebound. But also like when you want to run small ball looks, you gotta have big forwards that can guard even bigger players, hang on the glass, but that also have the ability to capitalize with the speed advantage. And I think Carter Bryant represents a guy that can help unlock that look for them. I think the spurs are going to use that as one of their primary looks here as they continue to build it out in the coming years. The spurs really had this under control for the most part until the start of the fourth quarter. The Nuggets starters made a nice run to start the second half. So early third quarter, the cornet groups right in the middle of the third quarter made a nice little push that pushed it just out to like nine or 11 points or so. Then the small ball group comes back in for the spurs and causes the same problems that caused the that they caused the Nuggets in the first half. They pushed the lead back out to 16. But then to start the fourth quarter, one coach didn't make an adjustment. One coach did. Mitch Johnson goes back to Mason Plumlee to start the fourth quarter. Mason Plumlee actually had a decent that unit had a decent first half shift. It was in the start of the second quarter, but it was against a Jonas Valentunas led group where they were positive. David Adelman makes the adjustment. He goes away from that Plumlee group or from that Valentunas group and he goes to a small ball group. So in the early fourth quarter we get that inverse of that effect that the spurs were using against Denver. We have a small ball unit for Denver up against this Mason Plumlee led group for San Antonio. Mason Plumlee, because of the small ball look, ends up having to guard a perimeter player. He ends up guarding Spencer Jones. Jamal Murray just immediately starts attacking Mason Plumlee and ball screens over and over and over again. And Spencer what does a brilliant job of just beating Plumlee with basic play, finishing against drop coverage. So a couple of pick and pops where he hits a couple threes. Has one where he rolls to the middle of the floor and hits a floater in the middle of the lane. Spencer was phenomenal. He had 19 points in this game. But him burning that Plumly drop coverage over and over again in that fourth quarter because again all it is is Jamal comes off the screen. Jamal's man is chasing. Plumley's engaged in the drop two on the ball. Very simple set of play. Finishing sequences like, like the one where Jamal came way off to the right. He ends up hitting Spencer right in the middle of the lane. That's when he hits the floater. But a couple easy pick and pops as well. The lead immediately evaporates. And as the lead evaporates, all of a sudden Mitch Johnson's in a tough position. He ends up pulling the plug pretty quickly on Plumley. It's about nine minutes left in the fourth quarter. So in a three minute span, Denver completely erases the lead. Mitch Johnson goes back to his small ball group and it kind of stabilizes for just a couple of minutes. They push the lead back up to like 4. San Antonio in that middle fourth quarter, it looks like they're in strong position. Then Jokic comes back and Denver finally plays a good stretch against that small ball group. Finally won a shift against them. I thought it was their team defense in the fourth quarter that was really impressive. Again, it's the speed that was really cutting them apart. And so there has to be a level of intensity. I'm going to talk about this when we talk Lakers, but you can't be big and also not playing as hard because then you're just going to get cut to pieces by speed. When you're big and playing against a small ball group, you got to run, you got to run and you got to be flying around, especially the faster players that you do have on the floor. And I, I thought Jokic had this like possessed stretch of defense in the second half when he was trying to reassert control. About as aggressive as I've ever seen him be going for blocks and deflections. He had five stocks last night, three steals and two blocks to go with a casual 30, 20 and 10 and insane to call. Yic game. Everyone else on the floor was flying around. I thought Cam Johnson and Spencer Jones in particular were great flying around like help and recover situations during that run. They were finally able to get the stops that they needed. And then Jamal Murray shot making carried them home late in the game. Jamal goes 5 for 7 in the fourth quarter. He has three assists. All dispenser Jones to start the quarter. Zero turnovers in the whole quarter. A wide array of difficult shots. A tough pull up three at the top of the key off of a step back, A crazy one handed like leaning fade away over Luke Cornett off of a spin move on the left block, this like drifting pull up two on the right baseline. Just unbelievable shot making over and over again. He had this shot that helped ice the game in the final minutes where he's going against a drop coverage look and he goes into a spin move into a right handed floater. And the spurs defended it extremely well. He was sandwiched on both sides and he barely had the tiniest window to sneak this little floater up that he made. And it was a classic example of this dynamic that I always talk about when I talk about like high level scoring. When I talk about high level scoring, I always say it's a combination of like there's the skill piece, like you got to have the touch and the ball handling and the jump shooting ability and all those different things. Then there's like an audacity element. There's got to be like this absurd confidence to be able to take difficult shots, you know, like the, the, the shot that Jamal Murray made on that spin move. It's not a good read. Technically he's not open right. But great scores have to be taking shots on occasion that are not necessarily the best reads because great defenses don't necessarily leave openings. Sometimes against great defense, a tough shot is the best thing you can hope for, but you got to have guys that can actually hit those shots. But the third piece of it, there's a skill piece and there's an audacity piece. There's always been like a creativity piece, like an improvisation piece. So much of that really high level scoring is in the moment purely on instinct against an elite defense. To be able to unleash something that's maybe a little unorthodox, a different release angle on a shot, maybe a little bit funky footwork on a shot, maybe a, a type of like, you know, in this particular case like a, this like spinning right handed floater going across your body. Like it's just a very unorthodox type of shot. But again it's like when you have that creativity so you're able because if you think of your skills, it's not as like there's like robotic skill which is like the stuff that you work on in drills, right? Like a wonderful pull up going left, a one dribble pull up going right. Like different little things like pump, fake, rip, a close out, like really fundamental robotic stuff. But generally speaking, when you're in those like really tight space environments, the robotic stuff doesn't work. Sometimes you have to pick and choose from your skills and piece together like three or four different things that you're good at in like some creative combination to make like a bizarre difficult shot. And it's just something that I think Jamal Murray is fantastic at. He's just having an unbelievable season. He's averaging 26, 4 and 7 on 62% true shooting. He's one of the most gifted tough shot makers I've ever seen, which is such a perfect skill to pair with Jokic and his overall offensive brilliance. I think he deserves all NBA conversation. And I would be remiss if I did not mention yet another great two way performance from Cam Johnson. I thought he was great on defense. In the fourth quarter. He puts up 15 points on just eight shots. Hit two massive jump shots late in the game. It's this left wing three I, if I remember correctly, I think it was Dylan Harper helps off of him. Brilliant pass from Jokic if you watch. Not really that open but Jokic throws the pass and it quite literally lands perfectly in Cam's shooting pocket. So immediately when the ball touches his hands, he's rising up into the shot. Knocks that one down. Hits like a tough little mid range pull up too. So like some, some nice release valve scoring down the stretch and then all game long. I thought he did a nice job of attacking with speed off of the dribble handoffs with Jokic. When you look at Cam Johnson's athleticism and this is actually one of the reasons why he slipped down in the draft, he was always a very good straight line athlete. So like when he's running fast or when he's jumping straight up and down, he actually is a pretty good leaper. And when he's running straight he, he can get a good amount of speed. He's just not necessarily the best first step athlete and he's not necessarily the best lateral athlete. Although I think he's actually better laterally than I think people thought which is why he's been a plus defender for the majority part of for the majority of his career. But when he can get a Runway like when he comes running from off the ball into an action with Jokic, gets it and then turns the corner, he's actually a pretty difficult athlete to deal with in those cases. And he had a couple of really nice driving finishes in this game curling off of those actions. I think that's a big one that they they need from Cam to more closely replicate the scoring pop that Michael Porter Jr. Brought to the table. Again, 15 and 4 this season, the Nuggets when Cam Johnson scores more than 10 points. I don't care that Wendy was out. I thought that was a really a really tough spurs team to beat in San Antonio even without him. An impressive road win for the Nuggets. And again they desperately need those because they're in danger of slipping behind Phoenix in the standings. Really everybody in the middle portion of the west is in danger of slipping into the play in with how well Phoenix is playing. And then lastly, I did leave that game feeling super impressed by San Antonio with and how good they looked without Wemby. And I think that that small ball look will continue to accentuate their overall speed and skill on the perimeter. I think it's something they should keep building out in the coming years. 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. 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Call 1-800- gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Tennessee or Virginia. All right, before we get out of here today, I want to talk briefly about Lakers, Bulls. Marcus Smart was out, so the Lakers ended up starting Rui Hachimura. That lineup was plus 17 last night in 14 minutes against a very fast Bulls team. That should theoretically cause them some problems. To be clear, everyone was right that that should not be their starting lineup when healthy. When it's healthy. When they're healthy, it should be Marcus Smart. And I agree with that. And I don't think anybody. There hasn't been too much debate there. I think most people just agree the Rui thing, it needed to change. But if you guys remember at the time I kept saying, like, yeah, this is probably not the right starting lineup, but they're also just kind of playing shitty. Like the net rating numbers that were thrown around, like, I think they, I think going into last night there was something crazy like -22 net or something like that to start the season. So, like, the numbers were terrifyingly bad. But like, I just kept saying, like, yeah, maybe not the best fit. I'd probably go with Marcus Smart instead. I would go with Marcus Smart instead. But they were obviously not playing very well and they were obviously capable of playing a lot better than they had. They just need to be active and connected on defense. Again, like I said with Denver, you can't be big and slow and also not playing hard. Teams will just run circles around you. The biggest difference is one, Luka has been playing great defense for a while. He's been a much better defender than he was when that lineup was running. And I thought LeBron was fantastic on defense last night. If two of your big, slow guys are being slow and lazy, that unit's going to get cut to pieces. Especially when Rui Hachimura is kind of known to take on the personality of the team around him and he is not a great defender. But when LeBron and Luca are playing defense, that lineup absolutely can be a problem to deal with because there's a ton of offensive skill. Ru's a knockdown three point shooter, right? So, like when it actually when that that unit played more to their capability, I don't think you should run that lineup against really good teams when you're healthy. That goes without saying for all the reasons why we've talked about. But I'm just saying we knew they were capable of playing better. Last night was an example of them playing better. LeBron came back and basically functioned entirely off the ball. I want to dig more into that in a minute. But Austin and Luca absorbed the majority of the usage. This is something I've been calling for. Like Luca and Austin should be the number one and number two options. The team should be leaning into those guys in ball screen action and in their. When they're running sets, running sets for those guys as much as humanly possible. It's exactly what they did. LeBron just let that happen willingly. Like, again, I mentioned this earlier, but like, Austin was scoring just fine with LeBron on the floor before his calf injury. So, like, I don't know why everyone was assuming that LeBron was just going to strangle the usage and take the ball away from those guys. He was just waiting for Austin to get it going. Now he has it going. Luka goes for 51, Austin goes for 30. I've said this at several points this season. When Luka has his step back three going, he's the best player in the world. And boy, did he have it going. Last night he had nine of them. And Luka's been on a tear lately after struggling for a few weeks around the All Star break. There's a 10 game span from February 3rd to March 5th where Luca played in 10 games in that span and he only scored 30 points twice in those 10 games. It's very unlike Luka, especially at the amount of usage that he has. Right in his last four games. 40 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists on 51% from the field, 45% from three on massive volume and 86% from the foul line to go with 3.5 stocks per game, two and a half steals per game. He's been a brilliant backline defender in this stretch, reading plays before they happen, jumping interior passes, getting deflections and hands on skips and getting steals off of those. This is the version of Luka that is every bit as good as Shay and Jokic and possibly even better than them. I can't say enough about how amazing Luka has been during this stretch. And most importantly, he's been very fun to watch in this stretch. There's a level of intensity and focus to him right now that's tangible. He was talking shit last night. Remember a few weeks back when I was lamenting that he used to talk more trash to the opponent than he would to the refs and that dynamic seemed to have like flipped. Well, him being one tech away from the suspension has caused him to chill a little bit with the refs. And last night he was jawing at modest Bozealis like crazy. I want to add the layer of Lucas personal situation to this discussion. I said Luke has been playing with crazy focus and intensity to do that with everything he's got going on with the separation from his fiance, being forced to be away from his daughters as much as he has been. I just think his leadership has been really impressive this season. And I want to add this season long point with this post game pressers. Even when Luka has had bad stretches this season and there's been two, and I say bad relative to his talent, a lot of the stuff with the, with Luca, Stan staying culture is staying culture, people get really upset. It's just how it goes. I'm pretty consistent with this stuff. You guys know like Jokic had a stretch where he played really poorly after his knee injury and we called it out on the show. We talked about the percentages, I talked about how he wasn't playing good on defense and he needed to do better. Like when it comes to the very best players in the league that, that tier, the Giannis, Luka, Jokic, Shay, I, I, I hold them to a different standard because we're talking about guys that are in that top tier of basketball players in the world that are in contention for best player in the world status. The reason why I haven't been super critical of Shay this year is he hasn't had a stretch where he's looked bad. Shay has just been amazing almost every single night that he's gone out and played. So he's been a little bit immune to criticism this year. Right. Jokic has had some up and downs, so he's been criticized some, he's been praised some. Lucas had some up and down, so he's been criticized some, he's been praised some. Right? But even when Luka was having one of those stretches where he struggled relative to his talent and there was like two distinct stretches like that surrounding his trip to Slovenia and then this stretch that I just talked about surrounding the all star break where he scored 30 points just twice in 10 games, he's always been a damn professional in front of the mic, accepting personal responsibility, keeping his and the team's focus on big picture goals. I've had my frustrations with Luca this year, but I've gained a lot of respect for him as a franchise leader along the way. This is the version of Luca that is capable of taking the Lakers to the promised land. And he is a welcome sight at this point in the season as the Lakers look pretty hell bent on ramping up for a postseason run. Austin's in full rhythm now. Last three games, 29 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 55% from the field, 48% from 3, 81% from the line. It's become abundantly clear that Austin has put in a ton of work on his three point shot. He started really cold this season, but he's 43% on six threes a game over his last 27 games. 27 games. That's a large sample that has given him this awesome counter to his downhill scoring. He's always been very gifted at shifting defender side to side and hitting gaps with downhill speed. Now that he could counter that with a deadly over the top three point shot, it's given him a level of reliability night tonight as an offensive player that's allowed him to pump his scoring average the way that he has this season. And again, he obviously can score. Next to LeBron, I thought that, like, I've. It's been hard because, like, there actually was like a nuanced discussion to have about LeBron and like some of his waxing and waning defensive effort and some of the stuff where like off the ball he like just has struggled to knock down, catch and shoot threes. Like there was a discussion to have about LeBron and instead all I heard was really stupid stuff like, oh, like this is like, like Chris Finch saying it's a usage puzzle. LeBron has had historically low usage and every single time Austin and Luka have been healthy, he's been playing primarily a tertiary role. The only time LeBron has absorbed usage really has been one. Austin has been out or when Luke has been out. And so like, so much of the discussion surrounding LeBron has been like straight up aimed in the wrong direction. Like there's actually an interesting discussion to have about how LeBron fits with the team. And instead all the LeBron haters are just saying stupid shit that makes no sense. Like, oh, he's hurting Austin and Luka. What? That doesn't even make sense. And that's not what's happening when you watch the games. And so predictably, like I said, I said that what's really happening is Austin is finally finding his rhythm. And I said, LeBron will come back and allow that to continue, just like he did when he started the season. When LeBron came back, Austin was averaging 30 points over the first like six or seven games after LeBron came back. So there was like, obviously an evidence that Austin can cook next to LeBron, that Luka can cook next to LeBron, and they cooked next to LeBron last night. Now, he was a little gun shy in the first half. I didn't think he was that great in the first half. He looked a little rusty, looked a little out of shape. He got back cut out of the left corner or out of the right corner by Leonard Miller on one play. Had a couple of ugly turnovers. Not a great first half. But I thought LeBron was insanely good in his second half. Shift. Like a monster of a role player. He started to act like, again, this is the thing where I think the valid conversation surrounding LeBron was, is like, okay, now that Austin and Luka are in rhythm, we need you to play defense, man. Like, now that we don't need you to do a ton with the basketball. You are one of the smartest and most physically equipped players on our team to be a great defender. You can't be mailing in that end of the floor, right? That was a valid discussion to have surrounding LeBron and his fit with the team in that second half. LeBron was a monster defensively. Literally looked like Draymond with the types of rotations he was making on the back line, the way he was snuffing out plays and getting deflections and steals. LeBron was awesome in that second half defensively. And then on offense, getting out in transition and playing with speed, that was the second thing. Another interesting, valid conversation to have with LeBron, which is like, hey, dude, we're slow. You're one of our best athletes. We need you to run up and down the floor. LeBron was running all night last night in transition on both ends and transition defense and transition offense. The offensive rebounds, like, him just being like, I'm bigger than all you guys. I'm just going to get these offensive rebounds. Guess what? LeBron is absolutely capable of being a monster on the offensive glass. Like, he is one of the most physically imposing players in the league still. He absolutely can do that. Had a bunch of success on the offensive glass in the second half. The bully ball stuff under, under the rim. Like, my whole thing is like the discussion should be now that this is the first time, guys, since literally early December that Luca and Austin have both been healthy and in rhythm. Everything between early December and now has been about piecing together with guys out of the lineup or with guys hurt. Now that Austin and Luke are in rhythm. Look, The Lakers need LeBron to be this kick ass role player. We know he's capable of doing it. He did it last night. I expect his focus to be headed in that direction and I expect him, he'll have. I do think it's a regular season, right? So I do think in the last 16 games there'll be four or five nights where LeBron's not great in effort. And I'm sure it'll be a huge talking point when it is. But like, as long as LeBron is engaged in those areas, he, he's not just helpful. He's a ceiling raiser for this team. A massive ceiling raiser for the team. He was a big part of that second half run last night. The only thing that I would get on him about, there were two plays in particular, one in the first half, one in the second half where he was situated on the wing and Rui Hachimura was situated in the corner and a kick out pass went to LeBron and he was open to shoot a three. And Rui's man kind of stayed home and instead of shooting the 3, he like rifled one time or quick swing passes to Rui in the corner and then the play died. And so the one thing, and I've been consistent with LeBron all season on this, he's got to take open catch and shoot threes. He just has to take them. If he, if he does that, he doesn't even have to shoot amazing on him. If he just does that and shoots like 35% on him, which we know he can. If he does that and then does all the little things that I just talked about defensively and offensive rebounding, connective playmaking, all those different things, that's going to be a devastating role player in this group. So that's just the play the way he's got to stay focused. Lastly, deandre Ayton. Deandre Ayton. I was texting with Pete about this during the game because I found it really fascinating. Aiden was playing angry last night and he's been playing kind of angry for the last several games. And at first I was like, it's this kind of weird attitude kind of thing. But he had a postgame comment that I want to highlight before we get back into the, to the, to actual basketball stuff. Dan Woicke asked deandre Ayton about the team's recent uptick in intensity and attention to detail, what he's in. Ayton responded, quote, it felt like I picked up my energy and my focus and, you know, I finally caught up with the team. That's about it. And I Thought that was a really impressive show of self awareness from DeAndre for him to look at the situation and be like, no, it's not their fault, it's not the coach's fault, it's not anybody's fault that I keep getting pulled out of these games, that they keep closing with different players, that my minutes have been plummeting. They apexed in that Denver game, right? He has a bad first shift. He's kind of asleep on a law pass from Luke. It wasn't really his fault but like he was kind of asleep on a lob from Luca. He had a bad defensive rep against Julian Strother in a dribble handoff. He wasn't engaged and focused to start the game. He gets the hook. He wasn't the only guy in that lineup that wasn't engaged. But guess what? Those guys are Luca and LeBron and Austin, they're going to get a longer leash. It was. He got pulled because he wasn't playing well ultimately. And at first he was angry. May or may not have quit on the team that night, who knows. But since he's come back he's been angry, physically aggressive, super high motor and he's been a fucking monster. And I appreciated him acknowledging that it wasn't a them problem, that it was a me problem, that he needed to look in the mirror and meet the moment, meet the intensity, meet the mission that the Lakers were trying to accomplish. Now does this mean that I'm buying a bunch of eight in stock and I think suddenly he's going to go on a run? I'm not going to jump on that bandwagon from just a small handful of games. But I will say at least in my time rooting for eight in this season, I haven't seen a three game stretch like this where he's been both dominant with his natural ability but also playing with a consistent level of physical aggression and anger around the basket and motor. And I do think if Ayton, this is what I'll say, because I'm not going to say I think it's going to keep happening. If Ayton can bottle that up and understand that that specifically is what will drive him to get a big contract in the future. And not anything else, just him playing physically aggressive and angry and doing his job, that if he does that it dramatically increases the ceiling of this team and it dramatically increases the possibility of him getting another long term deal in the NBA. I've talked about this, this recent run from the Lakers, really impressive, right? They've won I think seven out of eight. They've been very good on defense in that span, elite on offense. Up to the third seed in the west, the Lakers are the sixth best team in the entire league right now, which is unbelievable at a couple of signature wins last week against Minnesota and New York. There's a lot, or this week, I should say, there's a lot of, like, really impressive stuff building, but it really comes down to just a handful of things. Austin getting back into rhythm like the player he was to start the year. Luka Doncic upping his level of play to that true MVP level. Deandre Ayton. Deandre Ayton waking up makes this a different basketball team. And so that's an encouraging trend. Again, small sample, but if Ayton can just bottle that up, it means a lot for this particular team. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. Hopefully when I come back on Monday, I can talk again. That's been brutal. I appreciate you guys bearing with me. Got a fun slate of games over the weekend, too. We'll have plenty to cover when we get to Monday. I will see you guys then. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.