← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Hoops Tonight - New NBA Power Rankings + Rockets weird losses, Timberwolves beat Thunder, Jalen Brunson mini-leap
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Podcast Host
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Jason
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Jason
The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Monday everybody. Hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. Got a jam packed show for you guys today. The Houston Rockets, after getting a season defining win on Saturday in Denver against the Nuggets, have sandwiched that with two losses to two of the worst teams in the Western Conference involving crunch time issues which I want to dive into after that. The Minnesota Timberwolves got their season defining win on Friday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. I want to dive into that game. Jalen Brunson's leap into top tier superstardom I want to talk about. And then as always on Monday we have our weekly power rankings. Also, a little bit of a funky schedule this week because of Christmas. As you guys can tell. I am in Tucson. I am no longer up in Colorado visiting for Christmas. Kind of an unusual thing there. But I'm very excited to be here to see some family and see some friends. And our schedule's a little bit tricky this week because of the holidays. So because we have Friday being a day that we're going to be reacting to the Christmas Day games, we will not have a mailbag on Friday. So we're going to have a mailbag coming out tomorrow. So obviously today's episode, mailbag tomorrow, no show on Wednesday and Thursday for the holiday and then back on Friday to react to the Christmas Day games. 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. Don't forget to like this video. That helps us a lot. And then at the tail end there, drop your mailbag questions underneath this video in the comments and we'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So kind of a weird week of Houston Rockets hoops. They go on the road on Saturday. They get a huge win in Denver against the Nuggets. And it was a need they it was a win that they absolutely needed. This was a series that they had been down 2 oh so far this season. This is a major potential playoff matchup. Probably second round that you could see These two teams battling for a couple of weeks and you need to bank some sort of confidence in your team that you're capable of winning a series against this team after dropping 20 and they got that win much needed on Saturday. It wasn't like definitive. None of these three games have been definitive or anything like that. Both of these teams are going to look very different when they face each other. If they face each other in May, Denver will obviously have a couple of starters back in Christian Brown and Aaron Gordon. I also thought Denver generally didn't shoot very well in this particular game, especially in like the late second quarter. I thought they missed a lot of looks that they typically make during that stretch that Houston went on a run. Credit Houston, we're going to talk about it in a minute. Showed up in the numbers too. Houston was 7 for 12 on open, unguarded catch and shoot threes. Denver was 3 for 13. That's obviously going to color things a little bit. Reed shepherd, straight up outplay, Jamal Murray. Like if that kind of thing happens two or three times in a series, Houston's probably going to knock Denver out, right? And then on the other end of it, Houston will probably have a Tari Eason or a Dorian Finney Smith. Maybe they'll end up making some sort of trade. They'll have that go to fifth guy that they haven't really been able to find so far this season. And I think Houston has a ton of room to improve between now and early May when a series like this could take place. So none of these games are definitive to a potential playoff result between these two teams. But I did think that that win was at least proof of concept that Houston can win a series against a team like Denver. I thought their size was a real problem for Denver. You guys know me. I. I don't like focusing on shooting variants. When we talk about shots going in or not going in, it's a factor, but I think there are several elements that lead to it. What the defense is doing, how fatigued are you? What's the flow and rhythm of the game? Like anybody who's ever played basketball to any extent will know when you have an open shot and you've been comfortable all game and you've been playing really well, you stand there and you're like, oh, you messed up. You left me open. This thing's going in. But if a dude's been in your jersey all game and you haven't gotten any open looks and the flow and rhythm of the game is really janky and clunky and it's physical and you're not feeling confident. That open shot can feel different. Right. And I thought specifically in that late second quarter run, I thought Denver looked a little shell shocked by what Houston was doing to them, which can affect your shot result. And Houston was big and swarming and Denver looked uncomfortable and that sort of thing can lead to missed shots. And so I want to give Houston credit there. The second concept that I thought was interesting in this game was Reed Shepherd's shooting, especially against Jonas Valentunas in drop coverage in those bench looks. He did a ton of damage catching Jonas too far back on screens, just coming over the top and knocking down shots off the dribble. Reed is shooting 41% on pull up threes this year off the dribble. 21 for 51. That's the kind of thing that could be a semi reliable source of offense for Houston in a potential playoff series against Denver. I thought it was a really nice win for Houston and again, like I said, proof of concept that they can win a series like this. I hope we do get to see these two teams play in the playoff series. You could tell they don't like each other. I think it would be a ton of fun. We got a little trash talking match between Bruce Brown and Kevin Durant. I thought it was great. But surrounding that big win, there were two really embarrassing losses to the two very worst teams in the Western Conference. Both that started with blown leads. So they blew a 14 point fourth quarter lead against the Kings and then they blew a 25 point lead against the Pelicans. And each one of those games ended up kind of degrading down into a clutch battle that Houston ended up losing in overtime in both cases. And this is now officially becoming a real problem for the Rockets, a problem that we have to talk about. The Rockets are now 6 and 8 in clutch games this season. Now, when you see a crazy result like that, a team that has as much talent as Houston has and they drop eight games before Christmas in clutch situations, you can't just synthesize it down to one thing. It's not any one player's fault. It's not just who's the fifth guy in the lineup. It's not just, you know, can they handle four on threes? Or is this a problem? Or it's, it's a combination of all of those things that are leading to this kind of problem. Now let's start with the lineups. So IME Udoka has basically tried three different directions at the end of These games from a lineup perspective, obviously your core four are Kevin Durant, Albert and Shangun, Amen Thompson and Jabari Smith. But then he's tried Reed Shepherd, Stephen Adams and Josh Aogi as the main fifth guys in those groups. And then we saw a little bit of Tari Eason last night, although he ended up being the guy who made the critical mistake late in the game over helping on a Demar DeRozan drive and leaving Dennis Schroeder open on the left wing, which ended up being the game winner. Now, as we kind of look at all these options, the Stephen Adams attempts that we saw against New Orleans, that was a disaster. I doubt we see that again anytime soon. He was the guy that was catching the ball in the short roll on most of those KD traps and leading the 4 on 3. And the advantage kept dying because Adams was bringing a bad combination of unaggressiveness, like just catching and turning and looking immediately to pass. But then also in that situation, he's not a great passer or even if he looks to be aggressive, he's not a great scorer. And so the. Essentially he would just catch the ball around the top of the key and then New Orleans would just rotate right back out of it. The advantage would be gone. Then essentially that trap of KD is worth nothing, right? And then on the other end of the floor, he was getting cooked and dropped coverage, particularly by Trey Murphy. So I don't think we're going to see the Steven Adams fifth man look anytime soon with Reed shepherd and Joshua Kogi. It's your classic offense, defense, conundrum, right? Like when Joshua Kogi is on the floor, you're fine defensively and you're faster a foot. A theme that I think is particularly important to Houston this year. Cause they can be pretty slow in their front court when you've got KD Shangoon and Jabari Smith out there. But he's not a guy who's a, you know, knockdown, super confident. He's shooting decently on. He's shooting like just, just over 40% on threes this year. But he's not a guy that's being guarded like a 40% three point shooter. He's shooting that on absolute, completely cont. Like conceded wide open corner threes. And he's not a guy that's like super confident in that sort of situation. Right. So then you try Reed and Reed is. Has been legitimately awful on defense in some of these situations. In the Kings game in particular, I thought he was brutally bad. I trimmed A clip that you guys can see on my Twitter feed at underscore Jason Ltd. Where he was picking up DeMar DeRozan on a drive on the right wing and just like Matt adored him, just let him go right around and just kind of like haplessly swiped at the basketball as he was going by. That's not going to get the job done. He gave an easy angle to Dennis Schroeder on a drive. He fouled DeMar DeRozan on another pull up around the foul line. They were just relentlessly targeting him. And you know, here's the thing with Reed. I think he's proven that he's more than capable of being a legitimate rotation piece. Like a guy who could be your sixth, seventh, eighth man, first serious team because of how gifted he is as a shooter. Like you can really shoot the ball off the dribble and off the catch. But I don't think he's even close to ready to being like the fifth guy that's going to be alongside Kevin Durant, Alper and Shangoon in like the final five minutes of a pivotal playoff game. Like, I don't think that's the look. So obviously getting a better fifth guy will go a long way to helping them. Right? Maybe that ends up being Dorian Finney Smith. He's a solid defender, very good catch and shoot player. My issue with Dorian Finney Smith is he's not particularly fast and we saw some issues especially in the Pelicans game where speed was like a problem for them. So like when you already have Kevin Durant, Shangoon and Jabari Smith out there and they're pretty slow footed, you add an older Dorian Finney Smith out there, that's a pretty bad foot speed deficit that you're going to be operating at against most of these teams, especially against some teams that have faster guards. Tari Easton's an interesting option. He's been shooting the absolute seams off the basketball this year. He's over 40, over 50% from 3. Although I kind of argue that I'm not necessarily convinced that he's going to just be a knockdown guy in the playoffs. We'll see. But I have my, my skepticism surrounding that. But Tari is at least like a big fast athlete on the perimeter. That can add to the foot speed dynamic. But again, Tari makes a big mistake late in the game over helping on a Dennis Schroeder drive. Gives up the game winner. Maybe it ends up being a guy they trade for, I don't know. But regardless of who it ends up being as that fifth guy. There are at least some issues we have to dive into on both ends of the floor that will need to be dealt with regardless of whether or not they find the perfect fifth man or not. Now, the offensive end I'm less worried about than the defensive end, but they do need work there. The big thing that kept bothering me in the Kings game last night is they seemed to be surprised every time the doubles come to Shangun on a post up or on a KD ISO or a trap in a ball screen. There was one I in particular late in regulation. It was the one that led to the runout for Russell Westbrook's game tying three. Kevin Durant gets trapped right off the right wing. Westbrook ends up jumping that first pass to Alper and Shangun, who's wide open on the left wing. And I freeze frame this and pause it. You guys can see it on my Twitter feed in the same thread with that clip with Reed shepherd, but you can see a Kogi, Thompson and Smith all standing down on the baseline, either with their hands on their knees or their hands on their hips. Now, I get it, you're tired, whatever, but like, you know, the double team's coming and they just jumped the first pass. As a result, they're late to flash up, the possession, completely falls apart, and Shangoon ends up jacking up a like, kind of like a foul grifty type of three on the left wing that has no chance of going in, run out, Russell Westbrook ties the game, and it's like Kevin Durant's been getting trapped by everybody. The book is out. Now, these teams know that Houston struggles with doubles and traps, so that's what they're going to see in these situations almost every single time. Guys need to be on their toes and they need to be ready to attack that situation. If they don't jump the short roll pass, the guy who catches there needs to turn and immediately attack. They had bad reps in the Pels game where Adams would catch there and not look to attack right and the advantage would die. They had good reps in the Kings game last night where Shangun caught there, attacked, got into his little left shoulder hook, attacked, got a little lob to a man Thompson. When the guy catches there and looks to attack, good things happen. If you attack, the next read is easy. If you don't attack, then they prey on your indecisiveness by splitting the difference and that buys them a chance to rotate. Right. Now, if teams jump the short roll pass like what happened with Russell Westbrook on that play with Shangun at the top of the key. You need those other dudes to be on their toes, quickly reading where that jump is coming from. And then the next guy needs to flash. And that ignites the exact same sequence of events. You see where that second, that third defender is run into Shangoon. That guy needs to immediately flash up to the ball, be ready for it so that it's quick, and then immediately turn to attack and then wait for the defense to react to that attack. These are the kinds of things that, again, they've been seeing every single game in these situations. They've got to be more ready for it. Now, the reason that I'm less worried about this specific end of the floor, the floor is twofold. One, they're just gonna have so many reps. Everyone's doing it. No one's going to stop. It's the best way to guard this team at the end of a game. So they're just going to get between now and mid April a million opportunities to kind of straighten this out and figure out how to do it better. Also, I would argue four on three. Basketball is some of the easiest basketball you'll play. I've seen a lot of talk about the Rockets need a point guard. The Rockets need a point guard. And, like, there's some validity there in the sense that, like, sometimes I wish there was a steady ball handler who'd be like, hey, let's find a way to get this ball to kd, because there will be these possessions where KD doesn't get the basketball for, you know, three, two, three possessions in a row. And that can feel silly, but that, to me, is really the only advantage there because, you know, a point guard is going to be smaller, he's going to give things up defensively. He's not going to have as much of an athletic imposition on the game. And let's say he does get the ball to kd, what happens next? A trap. So it's like. So, like, I. To me, the point guard thing is overstated. The entire purpose of a point guard in the.
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Podcast Host
In.
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Jason
In the most valuable sense of the word, is if he can create advantage for you. And the Rockets don't need help with that. They've got lots of dudes who can create advantage, and they got two dudes who are consistently drawing two to the ball in crunch time. So, like, you've won the battle there. Once you've brought two to the ball, you've officially broken the defense. Your job There is to then capitalize on that. The Rockets, in my opinion, have a lot more to gain by figuring out how to to keep capitalizing on these four on threes than they do by having someone who's going to do a better job of getting the ball to Kevin Durant, where he's just going to immediately draw another double team anyway. So I'm not sitting there saying, like, if you can't get a big point guard who can also be good on defense and also help this team, and it makes sense in the trade market that you don't jump on something like that. And certainly Fred Van Vliet would help. He'd probably be the perfect fifth guy because he's a good defender, because he can hit a catch and shoot three, because he can run some action and he can actually make sure the ball gets to kd. And you know, that'd be great if you can find a Fred Van Vliet. But in terms of the asset that you'd have to send out to achieve that type of player, all you're really doing is getting a player that's going to get the ball to kd, where he's going to get doubled or trapped, and you're going to have the exact same 4 on 3 problem that you've been having all season. Again, I'm less worried about that because they're just going to have so many reps. This is the easiest basketball you can play. I think they're going to find a way to score over the course of the season. Now, on the defensive end, I think it's a little more tricky. One of the consistent issues they've been facing in all of these clutch losses is getting picked on in drop coverage. Alper and Shangoon has become an easy target for teams at the end of games in screening action, and we've seen it in all of them. In the Pelicans game, we saw it as more of a Steven Adams issue, but it was just because Steven was out there. If Stephen wasn't out there, they would have attacked Shangun in the exact same way. But it's more or less the same schematic problem. In the first Denver game, we saw it with Jokic popping out of ball screens. We saw it with Jokic on the roll. Hitting, hitting Spencer Jones in the right corner for threes. He, Shangun came up to the level and got toasted off the dribble by Jamal Murray for a layup in the Sacramento game. The reason why the Kings got back in that game is down the stretch of the fourth quarter, they kept spamming little screening actions for Keegan Murray to go downhill and he'd come over the top of the screen. And there's Shangun in this super deep drop and Keegan Murray's hitting jump shots and hitting floaters. And honestly, they got a little lucky because Keegan missed two very easy ones late in that fourth quarter, curling over those screens as Sengun was in drop. That issue is not going away, even if you do find the perfect fifth man. So you basically have two directions you can go there. You can try to switch more with Shangun. That shuts off the automatic advantage that comes from putting two on the ball or by giving that easy little gap between the bracket of the drop for the guy to look to score. But the downside there is Sengun's been pretty bad statistically against ISO this year. I would like to see that a little bit more though, because Shangun is a decent athlete. So maybe you can get him to like sag off a little bit, contest, pull up jump shots, contain the ball. It's worth at least experimenting with a little bit. But the other direction you can go is the Denver Nuggets route. Denver has been contending with this exact same issue for years with Jokic and drop coverage, and they've been okay. They have two main counters to this problem. One, they do a ton of pre switching. So you'll see Jokic and Houston saw this in the game, and that was when Shangoon was attacking Cam Johnson and Spencer Jones Jones in post ups. If you guys remember, those were screening actions where they were trying to target Jokic. But Yokich just stays in the weak side corner. He waves a different defender, in this case Cam or Spencer to go actually follow Shangoon up into the screen. And then they can switch the ball screen or force Shangun to try to post up right. So, like, that's one thing you can do to try to consistently protect Shangun is keep him tucked away off the ball in the corner. And if Shangun's man ever goes up to go set a screen, you just send one of your wings up with him so that you can switch that action. Keep your best primary defenders on the ball as much as possible, but inevitably teams are going to find a way to get your man into the screen. And one of the things the Nuggets have done over the years is when Jokic gets into the screen, they bring him aggressively up to the level to make the ball handler give it up. And then they've gotten very good at rotating out on the four on threes in the back end. But Houston is going to have to figure out some combination of counters there because again, the book is out. If Reed Shepherd's on the floor, they're attacking him with their guards and if he's off the floor, they're attacking Shangun in his drop coverage. Again, this one I'm a little less optimistic about than the offensive end because it's just really difficult to handle. Remember when I was Talking about how 4 on 3 offense is the easiest form of basketball to play? Well, three on four defense is some of the hardest basketball to play and one of the differences between Denver and Houston. Cause guess what? Denver did give up buckets on the four on threes. Jabari Smith got a wide open three in the left corner in the Again, there was two Denver games last week, so I'm talking about the first one there. Jabari got a big three in the in the corner off of one of those four on threes. But the difference is Denver knows that even though they have Jokic as an entry point into their clutch defense, they feel pretty good about their ability to outscore you because they have one of the best half court offenses in the history of the league. I'm not sure Houston's at that level right? So again, the good news is for Houston, they have a ton of time to figure things out between now and May, but I don't care what they get is that fifth guy. I don't care if it's the the dream point guard they've been looking for. I don't care if it's Dorian Finney Smith or it's Tari Eason or some other player that they trade for. They're going to have to be able to figure out how to like protect Shangun in drop coverage. And they're going to have to figure out how to quickly process those four on threes because I don't care who that fifth guy is. They're going to keep doubling Shangun and they're going to keep doubling Kevin Durant, especially in his ball screens Want to know where I bet on basketball during the holiday season? It's Hard Rock Bet. Not just because it's the presenting sponsor of our show, but because they make it easy to bet before tip off. And in the middle of the action with just a few simple taps, I open the app, I find a bet I like and then bam. My bed is placed just in time for me to get back to wrapping presents and enjoying my favorite Christmas movie. Sign up today and bet $5 on any game. And if it wins, you also score $150 in bonus bets, a dub, plus an extra 150 to bet with. 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Jason
This is where mindset comes in.
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Jason
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- [26:35]
Angel Diego
This is Angel Diego and Jason and we're at Guichto about Podcast Siemporciento Musica Regional Mexicana Perobes e no queo tro chisme.
- [26:43]
Jason (Spanish Segment)
You already know the holidays are here in the studio. Estan modo Fiestone. We're recording Cotorreando and keeping it fresh with Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry.
- [26:53]
Angel Diego
That refreshing cranberry flavor. Cold, crisp. Conunto que n avid.
- [26:57]
Jason (Spanish Segment)
It's the right move, a seasonal favorite, but only for a limited time, so don't sleep on it between tamales. Las posadas sosa esta tarde. Sprite is always part of the traditions.
- [27:08]
Angel Diego
We keep it regional, we keep it real, we keep it twisted.
- [27:11]
Jason (Spanish Segment)
Sprite Winter Spice Cranberry twisted. It's Christmas in a can Adarle Obey.
- [27:16]
Angel Diego
Your thirsty.
- [27:19]
Jason
All right, let's move on to Minnesota. I said early in the season as Minnesota was struggling, that I will never make the mistake of underestimating the Minnesota Timberwolves. And I think they demonstrated why in a big way on Friday night. Again, they've had a weird season. They're sitting at 19 and 10. They've won nine of their last 11 games, but they've been awful against teams that are.500 or better in that span and they've lacked like that signature win that demonstrates their upside. We finally got that on Friday, and it ended in a iconic moment from Anthony Edwards down the stretch. It was just a demonstration for about it happened fast too. It was like a minute of the absurd S tier athleticism that Anthony Edwards has on both ends of the floor. He hits this nasty step back three against Casen Wallace on the left wing where he gets amazing separation and lift against one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. Then on the other end of the floor, he late peels off his man and blocks Shea at the rim. Then he on the ensuing kind of chaos, he gets a huge defensive rebound, a contested rebound in the middle of the lane, just flies over everybody and gets it. Then after knocking down the free throws, he goes down to the other end of the floor, picks up Shay and ISO locks him up and strips him clean to seal the game. And again, it happened in like A minute it was just an avalanche of athletic superpower. And it was a reminder of just how special Anthony Edwards is in a league full of special players. And I think he's particularly important too because that was unbelievable to watch. He is must see television, and we're in a league right now that at the top. When you look at the stars, it lacks that must see TV superstar. And this league has always been about that kind of guy. Whether it was Michael Jordan or it was Kobe Bryant, or it was LeBron and Steph in the last era. Obviously with MJ, Kobe and LeBron, you have these apex athletes that do things we never had seen before above the rim and, you know, moving their bodies in ways you just don't see. And then Steph, I, I'd argue when he's on a heart, when, when Steph is on a hot streak, I'd argue he's the greatest show in the history of sports. It's unbelie when he's on a hot streak. But right now, your top four are Jokic, who plays a below the rim style. It's ruthlessly effective and you know, it can be fun to watch for us basketball nerds, but it's, it's not exactly must see television in terms of what he's doing aesthetically at his position. Shay and Luca are literally both below the rim shooting guards who rely heavily on foul grifting and contested jump shots. And Giannis, I think he's a remarkable athlete, but he does not bring that same aesthetic flair as his athletic predecessors. Now, before you all get pissed off at me, I'm not talking about us, I'm not talking about the hoop heads like me or you guys. Most of the people who listen to this show, we all love basketball so much that we find joy watching the beautiful brand of basketball that Nicole Jokic plays like. I think the Nuggets are one of my favorite watches in the league right now. They play a beautiful brand of basketball for basketball nerds like us. Or like when we watch Shay and Luca, we, we appreciate the insane, refined skill that leads to their massive scoring totals. Or we've watched Giannis develop into a more polished, dominant two way player in this league. But I'm not talking about us. I'm talking about the masses, the millions and millions of casual fans out there. They always seem to resonate with the must see TV stars of years past. Go look up the finals ratings. Go look up the Kobe finals in the late 2000s. Go look up the LeBron Finals with the Heat. Go look up the LeBron Steph battles in the mid 2010s. Hell, even of this recent run and in these recent finals. We've seen Shay in a finals, we've seen Luca in the finals, we've seen Jokic in the finals, we've seen Tatum in the finals, we've seen Giannis in the finals. None of them came close to the ratings that Steph put up in 2022. Like ultimately, this league at the top and the top tier superstars does not have a star that is resonating with the masses. And I think that's why the league needs Ant to pop him and Wemby. Those are the next two up and coming stars that actually bring real must see TV potential for the masses that can drive the next era of NBA popularity. Ant, because of what he did on Friday night, this minute long stretch where you're just like, just in awe watching the screen because of his apex, Apex athleticism or Wemby because he's this freaky alien that does things we've never seen before. I just, after that run from Ant against Shay, I just found myself thinking about this idea after the game. Like Ant standing there, he's yelling, he's just. Big old smile on his face. He's looking at the crowd like, I'm on his ass. I'm on his ass. After he just strips Shay in front of everybody to seal the game. And it's like you can't take your eyes off the screen. And I think it's just kind of like a. Again, a big. I think it's a very important future for this league for a guy like Ant to achieve his potential. And again, it's on Ant. Ant's going to have to do the work and he demonstrated it in a big way against Shay in that game. But that's just one regular season game. No one's giving you a title. No one's sending Oklahoma City home over one game on a Friday night in December. But achieving his potential, I think is very important for the future of this league. But let's dig into the basketball for just a little bit with that game because I thought it was fascinating. Minnesota won several physical battles in that game that I thought swung things in their favor. They had 18 offensive rebounds. Gobert kicked Chet's ass in that game on the glass, including a big offensive rebound tap out that led directly to the Anthony Edwards game winner. He was killing Chet just by burying him and then reaching over the top and tapping the ball out to the perimeter where the Minnesota athletes were able to Go get it. That's a real physical advantage for Minnesota. Rudy is bigger and stronger than Chad. I thought Minnesota did a great job of flattening out Oklahoma City's drives in that fourth quarter. We talk about this a lot. Like when you have a direct line drive to a layup, that thing's going in 100% of the time. But if you're hip to hip with the guy and he's now contending with you and kind of drifting sideways as he's going up for a layup, those percentages plummet. And there were misses for J.B. dub and A.J. mitchell in particular in that fourth quarter where guys were flattening the drives and staying attached and forcing those to be much tougher shots that ended up missing. This is an Oklahoma City offense that I rarely see get rushed on that end of the floor, and Oklahoma City was rushing in that game. That's the sort of thing that leads to the misses like you saw from Dort and Crusoe down the stretch of that game. Julius Randall had a rough box score game, but I thought both him and Nas Reed were huge in that fourth quarter because they have size advantages. Nas had a big post bucket against J Dub on the left block. He had another big offensive rebound put back and one in that stretch. Julius hits a three over the top of Case and Wallace, he can shoot over Case and he's small. He had a big drive off the right wing, a big play late in the game where Nas Reed ended up flashing middle because Julius drew a second defender because he's big and strong driving to the basket. Nas hit like a little floater in the lane there. They have size and physical advantages all over the floor in this matchup. Those physical advantages kept the game close enough that Ant had a chance to go toe to toe with Shay and win that matchup, which he was able to do on Friday night. There are things I don't love about this matchup for Minnesota in the playoffs. I think that combination of athleticism and rim protection is really tough for their offense at times. I do not like how they always pick up Shea 40ft from the basket with Jaden McDaniels. So they can just set ball screens out there and Shea's just constantly getting downhill into the lane. I think Shay obviously is a better player than Ant right now and is further along in his development. That's hard. I think you need Ant to be better than Shea in a playoff series and that's just a lot to ask with how much more experience Shay has. But what Minnesota does bring is the size and athleticism that can really cause Oklahoma City problems on the margins. They won the possession battle in that game, which is something you almost never see against okc. And if nothing else, it was just a great reminder of why I view Minnesota as such a dangerous playoff team despite the fact that they've had an uneven start to the season. They may not reach that level very often in a November, December, January, but they have the ability to really ratchet up the size and athleticism to a level that's capable of breaking any team in the NBA, including Denver, including Oklahoma City. Has Jalen Brunson taken a Leap? I was watching this morning film of Jalen lighting up the Miami Heat this morning from yesterday's game in Madison Square Garden, and he's just on an incredible run of scoring against some really high level defensive guards like we saw in the tournament. What he did to San Antonio's guards, what he did to Orlando's guards, what he did to Toronto's guards. Davion Mitchell looked completely overmatched against him yesterday. Jalen was first of all getting him off balance and not being bothered by his ball pressure at all. But he was also able to just easily shoot over the top of him because of his size advantage, 47 points and eight assists with zero turnovers in that command of the game. The lack of mistakes, the lack of missed shots and the lack of turnovers looks different than it did in the past. There's a level of comfort, a level of command with Jalen Brunson in his game that seems to be above what we've seen in recent years and it shows pretty clearly in the numbers. So obviously he's averaging a career high 29 points per game, 60% true shooting. But in this recent run in his last seven games, 33 points and seven assists, just 1.4 turnovers per game. That shake that, that's Shay Gilus Alexander level of hoops right there. The same kind of stuff we've been seeing from Shea and calling it one of the best two guard seasons ever. That's what Jalen Brunson's been doing the last few weeks. 51% from the field, 43% from the line, 64% true shooting with less than one and a half turnovers. Again, the level he's been at for three weeks now is that of a top tier superstar, not a second tier superstar. There's obviously a level of large sample consistency that, that he'll have to maintain if he wants to like really enter into that conversation. But this just looks different to me and it's one of the main reasons why I'm really starting to buy Nick Stock. Like, in addition to Brunson looking like a top tier superstar, the Knicks just continue to put together these defensive runs that shut down games. Like they had one in the second quarter against Miami yesterday, where they're flying around and they shut down that offense and turn the game around. They had one in the fourth quarter against the Spurs. They've been consistently way better at the end of games. Their defensive rating in clutch situations this year is almost 12 points per 100 possessions better than it was last year. That's it's really that simple. Like, you want to know why the Knicks, to me are right now my favorite to win the Eastern Conference? It's because they're a good bit better on both ends of the floor. Jalen Brunson's better. They're better in crunch time. And those top end opponents that they had to contend with last year just aren't there. And so they're poised for their best shot at the finals since 1999. All right, let's get into our power rankings before we call it a day.
- [38:56]
Trainer Games Promoter
10 athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT contract for $250,000.
- [39:14]
Jason
This is where mindset comes in.
- [39:16]
Trainer Games Promoter
Someone will be eliminated.
- [39:19]
Washington Post Advertiser
Pressure is coming down.
- [39:21]
Jason
Trainer Games on Prime Video January 8th. Watch the trailer on trainergames.com A new.
- [39:25]
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- [40:01]
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- [40:31]
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- [40:59]
Angel Diego
This is Angel Diego and Jason and we're at Gushta Baba podcast. Siemporciento Musica Regional Mexicana.
- [41:08]
Jason (Spanish Segment)
You already know the holidays are here in the studio. Estan Modo Fieston. We're recording Cotoriando and keeping it fresh with Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry.
- [41:17]
Angel Diego
That refreshing cranberry flavor. Cold crisp. Conunto que navideno. It's the right move.
- [41:22]
Jason (Spanish Segment)
A seasonal favorite, but only for a limited time, so don't sleep on it between tamales las posadas. So as tatarde Sprite is always part of the traditions.
- [41:32]
Angel Diego
We keep it regional, we keep it real, we keep it twisted.
- [41:35]
Jason (Spanish Segment)
Sprite Winter Spice Cranberry Twisted. It's Christmas in a can Adarle. Obey your thirst.
- [41:45]
Jason
Again, all of our lines are provided by our Partner Hard Rock Bet Number 10 the Philadelphia 76ers currently plus 6,000 to win the title on Hard Rock Bet. They're 6 and 2 in their last eight games, continuing to win with their defense, their fourth in defense rating in that span up to 11th on the season. Doing a really good job of using their speed to chase teams off the three point line and funnel them into their bigs. And they're also starting to turn their opponents over and get out and transition more as a result of that than they did to start the year. They have in their last 10 games they're averaging 19 points off of turnovers, which is the fifth most in the NBA. Before that, in their first 17 games they were getting just 16 and a half points off of turnovers per game, which was 23rd in the NBA. So generating more margin there, starting to get some real buildup from their older stars and Beat and Paul George are both moving better and shooting the ball better from three than they did to start the year. Tyrese Maxey still playing like an MVP candidate. VJ Edgecomb is like stroking it from three. He's been deadly in this six and two stretch. He's up to 38% on the season the Philadelphia 76ers playing some really good basketball. Number nine, the Boston Celtics currently plus 3,000 to win the title on Hard Rock. Bet took a couple of tough losses to Milwaukee without Giannis. And then the Pistons game, we covered that on Tuesday last week, a brilliant closing run from Cade Cunningham and they really struggled with some of those Pistons perimeter defenders as they couldn't generate a quality look there down the stretch. And especially in the Milwaukee game they showed some of their old demons where they can just go super cold from 3 and stop attacking the basket. But a couple of really nice bounce back wins, including a game in Toronto last night where their deep bench just completely flipped the game. Luca Garza was like protecting the rim super well, like you wouldn't expect from him. Hugo Gonzalez and Baylor Shireman were driving closeouts and getting layups. Anthony Simons and Peyton Pritchard were literally like just ripping the cord from mid range, like not even touching the rim. There's about a three minute stretch from the end of the third quarter, the early fourth quarter where the Celtics just completely flipped that game and then they were able to close things from there again. Like the NBA regular season is long and difficult and you're going to have adversity. You're going to have, I mean the Thunder are arguably the best team ever and they're one and two in their last three games. You're going to find adversity. It's about how you respond as much as anything else. I thought it was a really nice response from the Celtics last week and a big win on the road in Toronto. Number eight, the Houston Rockets currently plus a thousand to win the title on Hard Rock. Bet. We did a full segment on them earlier in the show, so I won't stay here long. They had their biggest win of the season on Sunday or Saturday, excuse me, against the Nuggets, but surrounded that with three losses and clutch situations, two of which were against two of the worst teams in the West. Shining a light on some flaws that they'll absolutely have to fix. They want to reach their goals. I still believe in the Rockets as a real contender, but they have a lot of work to do between now and April. Number seven, the Los Angeles Lakers, currently plus 1300 to win the title on Hard Rock. Bet they still haven't lost two games in a row this season, but they're 4 and 4 in their last eight games and now their depth is starting to get tested. They finished that Clippers game with LeBron James as their only healthy starter after Luca left in the first half, I kind of was weirdly happy with how they played in that game. Like the early deficit, it was primarily a product of Zubot's just destroying Jackson Hayes, which again, like that's going to be DeAndre. Typically it's a tough matchup for Jackson. He's just giving up so much weight there. His first shift, he just got destroyed before Zubots turned his ankle pretty bad. And then Luca I, I, he, that might literally be the worst stretch of basketball I've ever seen him play in that first, in that first quarter in particular, just jacking up bad shots and missing turning the ball over. Playing matador defense. From that point forward though, I was impressed by their fight, especially in that second half. Like I thought LeBron and the Lakers bench just put an admirable fight forward. Like they continue to get good defensive returns out of that LaRavia, Vanderbilt, Jackson Hayes trio. When you, when you have them alongside LeBron, they just compete really hard and they stay attached to their opponents. And I thought it was by far the most explosive LeBron's looked all season. Just getting dribble penetration whenever he wanted. He generated a ton of good looks. Like I actually thought the Lakers could have had a decent chance to win that game if they were to just shot the ball letter better. They generated 15 wide open catch and shoot threes in that game and made just two of them. Just a brutally bad shooting performance. But despite the encouraging fight I saw from the depleted Lakers in that second half, I actually find myself getting lower and lower on them as the weeks go by. Luca hasn't been playing at a top five level for like about a month now. He's putting up massive numbers because of his high usage rate. He's at 37% usage, which is the the highest usage rate in the entire NBA. But his efficiency has sorely lacked behind his peers at the top of the league. He simply misses more shots and turns the ball over far more than any of those dudes at the top of the league do, Shay, Giannis or Jokic. And he's the weakest defender in that group. So to put it very simply, the Lakers need Luka to be much, much better or they're not winning anything this year and the team is really starting to fall apart physically. Austin's hurt, Ruiz hurt, Luca left the last game hurt, Gabe is hurt. And they're about to head into a brutal stretch of their schedule as they have Phoenix and Houston this week. To me, they feel like the sixth best team in the west right now. Like, I think Minnesota looks better. San Antonio looks better. Houston looks better. Denver looks better. Oklahoma City looks better. Like I, I'm not saying that's the end of the story. Like the Lakers have a lot of potential to improve between now and then and they could certainly make a trade to kind of anchor things and be better. But like at a stacked top six in the Western Conference, they feel like the six best team to me right now. And a big part of that is, you know, Luca has not been able to reach the level of the top tier superstars in the league for a solid month now. They don't look very athletic. They look really bad on defense. They're. It just, it just isn't looking good for me in Laker land. I'm hoping cause I root for this team. I'm hoping that I'm just being overly pessimistic. But we'll see how things go over the course of the next few weeks. Number six, the Denver Nuggets. Currently plus 700 to win the title on Hard Rock bet the loss to Houston doesn't concern me much. It's really hard to beat a team three times in a row, let alone a legit championship contender. So it is what it is. They had a miserable shooting night too. They're down just so much of their athleticism that Peyton Watson ended up getting like a contusion. So him, Christian Brown and Aaron Gordon are all out. They had won six games in a row before that game, which is super impressive. And then another significant bright spot, once again going plus six in that Rockets game without Jokic. Despite a crazy hot shooting performance from Reed shepherd against Jonas Valanchunas and drop coverage, they are now up, continuing to tick up. They're up to negative 3 1/2 points, negative 3.5 per 100 possessions per. Cleaning the glass with Jokic off the floor. That's considerably better than it was to start the season and way, way, way better than it was in previous seasons. They're even having success with these groups that have Jokic and Murray off geared around defense. Most recently a Pickett, Brown, Tim Hardaway, Cam Johnson and Jonas Valentunas look just getting some really high level defense and shooting from Jalen Pickett and then all those guys competing defensively, Jonas giving them an offensive fulcrum to play around. Those groups are plus two and a half points per 100 possessions this season. All the groups that have Yona, that have Jokic and Jamal Murray off the court. Number five Minnesota Timberwolves plus 3,000 to win the title according to Hard Rock bet we hit them early in the show, so I'm not going to stay here long. They're 9 and 2 in their last 11 games. Got a signature win against the Thunder, a team that I'm seriously considering moving into my top tier contenders list next week. We have Sam Bassini coming on the show and we're going to dig into those contenders. We'll dive further into that concept when we get there. Number four, the San Antonio spurs, currently plus 2,500 to win the title on Hard Rock Bet. They had a relatively light schedule last week after a brutal stretch like they just ran a Nuggets, Wolves, Magic, Cavs, Lakers, Thunder, Knicks gauntlet. So like they were due a break. They got a couple of games against Washington last week. They won those games and then they had a dominant defensive performance on the road in Atlanta where they just completely shut them down in the first half to take a 24 point lead. They have a playoff style home and home with the Oklahoma City Thunder this week on Tuesday and Thursday though, a potential second round preview that I'm super excited for. Those are going to be really fun games. Looking forward to diving into those ones with you guys when we get to Friday. Number three, the New York Knicks, currently plus 1300 to win the title on Hard Rock Bet. We hit them early in the show so I'm not going to stay here long, but they're just better across the board. Josh Hart, OG Anobi and Mikhail Bridges are all better on both ends of the floor than they were last year. Brunson is taking an apparent leap into superstardom. This looks like a Knicks team on a mission to go to the finals. Number two, the Detroit Pistons, currently plus 2,000 to win the title on Hard to Rock BET. Lost a tough game in Dallas where Cooper flag just torched them with drives over and over again, either making shots at the rim or engaging Jalen Duran there, which opened up a lane for Anthony Davis to fill in behind for putbacks. We saw Cade get targeted a little bit in that game and guard, guard screens. The Pistons kind of struggled with their hedge and recovery. Look, they had a botched hedge that led to another drive. They tried switching and Cooper was just getting downhill on Cade. So like something to keep an eye on there. We saw Cade get targeted a little bit. Overall, a solid week though. Like they beat the Celtics behind a brilliant crutch time performance from Cade and some stifling perimeter defense. They just bring these waves of elite perimeter defenders that can really wear you down. They just beat the absolute crap out of the Hornets the other night. I'm just loving how physically imposing this team is at every level. And I think they're a trade away from being a substantial favorite in the Eastern Conference if they can pull off that that big upgrade at the power forward spot. Number one, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Currently even odds plus 100 to win the title on Hard Rock Bet. Finally, a little adversity for the Thunder. They lost two of their last three games. Three of their old demons popped up in these losses. Turnovers. They had 27 of them in the two losses. Shay's turnovers have ticked up considerably since he started playing. Tougher competition. Missing threes. They're just 26% from three in those two losses. And then offensive rebounds. They allowed the spurs and the timberwolves to grab 35% of their own misses in those two games. No, the sky isn't falling, but it's just a nice little wake up call for a Thunder team. And it's a reminder that winning a championship in the NBA is never easy, no matter how talented you are. It's going to take a lot of work. And they have another chance this week to send a message with a home and home against the San Antonio spurs again. We'll be covering those games on Friday. All right guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow morning with a mailbag and then on Friday for Christmas Day reaction. I will see you guys then. On Fox 1. Now you can stream your favorite live sports so you can be there live for the biggest moments. Touchdown and catch. History in the making. Fox 1 We live for live streaming.
- [52:26]
Trainer Games Promoter
Now 10 athletes will face the toughest job interview in fitness that will push past physical and mental breaking points. You are the fittest of the fit. Only one of you will leave here with an IFIT combination contract for $250,000.
- [52:46]
Jason
This is where mindset comes in.
- [52:48]
Trainer Games Promoter
Someone will be eliminated.
- [52:50]
Washington Post Advertiser
Pressure is coming down.
- [52:52]
Jason
Trainer Games on Prime Video January 8th watch the trailer on trainergames.com ever wish.
- [52:57]
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- [53:27]
Podcast Host
At CVS, it matters that we're not just in your community, but that we're part of it. It matters that we're here for you when you need us, day or night. And we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded. It matters that CVS is here to fill your prescriptions and here to fill your craving for a tasty and, yeah, healthy snack. At cvs, we're proud to serve your community because we believe where you get your medicine matters. So Visit us@cvs.com or just come by our store. We can't wait to meet you. Store hours vary by location.
- [54:02]
US Ski and Snowboard Announcer
The world's best ski and snowboard athletes are chasing medals. Now you can follow their every move. Join Insider, the official US Ski and Snowboard fan loyalty program, and get premium viewing at World cup ski events, exclusive athlete meetups, discounts from brands you love, and a custom welcome gift mailed direct to your doorstep. This winter, show your support as they race for the podium. Head to insider.usski and snowboard.org and join today.
- [54:31]
Podcast Host
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.