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The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Hoops Tonight - Nikola Jokic makes STATEMENT with big win over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | Nuggets-Thunder reaction
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Greg Rosenthal
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All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Tuesday everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great start to your week. Got a jam packed show for you today. The Nuggets got revenge on the Thunder at a very interesting rematch. Very interesting defensive adjustment from Michael Malone in the second half as the Nuggets get a big win there. After that, I want to talk a little bit about the Atlanta Hawks who have won four out of five and specifically a couple of things that are really exciting about the bright future that they have. Even if we all can agree that they have a certain ceiling this year, then at the tail end of the show, I just want to briefly talk about the Lakers just so I can tell everyone to take a deep breath and relax because I'm not too worried about their disaster in Brooklyn last night. 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. Follow me on Twitter @_jason LT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you at your podcast on our Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave us a rating and a review on that front. Don't forget about our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year. And then last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions into the YouTube comments. We are recording a mailbag tomorrow that is going to run on Thursday. So this is the last episode for you guys to get questions into the comments. All right, let's Talk some basketball. So again, I talked about how in the Sunday game it was obviously a very strong statement for Shay Gilders Alexander for MVP and in general a sign of some weaknesses that the Denver Nuggets had. But I listed at the end of the show a couple of things that the Nuggets could do better to try to flip the script in last night's game. And I talked a lot about on defense, the issues that they had containing the ball, and the solution that I presented. Not really a solution, but the strategy that I would recommend was just bring Jokic up to the level. I thought those were his best looks. Just make sure he gets there early enough that Shea can't like split him off the dribble or anything like that and prey on Shay's inability to like really, really pass well out of traps and double teams and things along those lines. I did talk about how they should unleash that zone look again in the second half, just as a rhythm disruptor. But Mike Malone ended up going with something way more aggressive. He started with the exact same strategy from the Sunday game in the first half, a mix of at the level coverages with Jokic and deeper coverages, deeper drop coverages with Jokic. I actually, my guess is that the actual game plan is for Jokic to go up to the level, but that there's like kind of an understanding between him and Mike Malone that when he needs a break, when he's tired, that he runs. A deeper drop is basically an opportunity for him to rest while he's on the court. I that's my guess as to how that keeps manifesting as a mix between the two coverages. The game had a very similar feel to the first game to start. Denver had a little lead early. Oklahoma City really controlled the middle portion of the game, but they weren't really able to pull away. And then in that third quarter, Mike Malone pulls the zone card except for one little wrinkle. He said. If we're going to be a team that has to exist in Rotation like we've talked. Like we've talked about a lot over the last couple of weeks, we might as well exist in rotation on our terms in a way that we can plan for. So what he did is he just had the top two guys in the zone just double team Shay as soon as he crossed half court. Then they basically set up their backline with Jokic just sitting right under the rim and the two bottom guys in the zone coming up and playing passing lanes. There's a lot that you can do playing passing lanes to prey on indecisiveness for the role player. So there's four on three, right? And when you make aggressive rotations. So like, let's say, for instance, you double team Shay and he floats the ball over the top to, you know, whoever it is that's on the right wing, let's call it Aaron Wiggins. If Jamal Murray, who is, let's say, on the bottom part of the zone where Alex Caruso is hiding in the corner, if he just sprints up and guards Aaron Wiggins on the wing, then Aaron Wiggins can make a simple and easy swing pass to the corner, and it's either a wide open three for Alex Crusoe or he can drive the. The closeout if he wants. But what the Nuggets were consistently doing in that zone is they were having those bottom guys, like, kind of half close out, but in the lane, in the passing lane, so that as Aaron Wiggins or whoever it was that would catch in that spot would look to read the floor, they'd have this kind of hesitancy because they're like, well, I'm kind of open, but I'm not really open. And I don't. I. I'm sure that coach doesn't want me just shooting on the first pass out of the trap, but, like, I'm also going to have to throw, like, a floating pass over the top to whoever it is that's in the corner because they're playing in the passing lane. And it just preyed on that indecisiveness and preyed on some of that lack of refined skill that you see from Oklahoma City's role players. And again, another important context here. Jalen Williams left the game with a hip strain, and so it ended up being the perfect strategy to really turn that game because they gave up 73 points in the first half. Like, the Thunder defense eviscerated Denver again in the first half. But under the circumstances, in that second half, with J Dub being out, it made a lot of sense to Basically force Shay to give up the basketball early in these possessions out by half court and then have a plan for how to rotate out of it. And by the way, the, the Thunder did get some buckets out of those sequences, but overall it worked really well. Oklahoma City got 1.09 points per possession versus Denver's man to man looks in 17 possessions in the second half. Against that double teaming zone look, they allowed just 0.88 points per possession as they worked all the way back into a two point lead heading into the fourth quarter. That set up perfectly cause in that middle portion of the game OKC OKC had led by as much as 12. That zone allowed them to kind of get back into a commanding position up by 2. And then what happens in the fourth quarter if Shay Gilgis Alexander leaves the game and J Dub's not in the game anymore? Well now you have to throw out a bench look that doesn't have Shay or J Dub all of a sudden it's going to be a lot of, a lot of these lesser role players. A lot of Kayson Wallace on the ball, a lot of Chet Holmgren taking tougher shots. It turned into a very limited offensive group for Oklahoma City and Denver just immediately blitzed them to start the fourth quarter. They were up by double figures before Shea Gilgis Alexander could get back into the game. Lots of really impressive shot making from Denver in that run to start the fourth quarter. MPJ hit a tough movement three running to his left at the top of the key. Jamal Murray hit a tough off the dribble three on the left wing. Jalen Pickett confidently posting up and a really nice step through move to get a bucket one on one. He had a step back three on the right wing in this stretch. Forget about just that run. The shot making for Denver all night long was amazing. They converted spot up possessions at 1.85 points per possession last night. It was 0.72 on Sunday. That's a, that's a giant chasm. More than twice as efficient on catch and shoot looks if you just refine it to catch and shoot jump shots. 0.91 points per shot on Sunday, 1.82 points per shot on Monday. That's double. Lots of key guys made shots. Westbrook, Peyton Watson and Jalen Pickett combined to go 9 for 12 from 3. Watson and Westbrook in particular both hit multiple threes in the fourth quarters where OKC was basically daring them to shoot. I call these coverage beaters right. Like if the coverage is we're going to concede this. If you don't show a willingness and an ability to make that shot, then they're going to stay in that coverage and they beat that coverage consistently. Just Westbrook one pass away. Double teams on yich skip passes in their ball screen action that ended up in Peyton Watson in the his hands in the left corner. Those threes are way more important than even just the point value of that shot because they defeat a specific coverage and Oklahoma City was never able to regain their footing in that fourth quarter and Denver went on to win comfortably by 13 points. And this is the main reason why I haven't been able to quit the Denver Nuggets. Jokic is so damn good and their ceiling on offense is outrageous. That's the best defense in the league and they hung 140 on him. Their defense is bad. Denver's defense is bad. They're down to 20th on the season. We talked earlier in a man to man half. They gave up 73 in the second in the second game against Oklahoma City before that double teaming zone. And again it's important context that J Dub was out of the game when they were able to shut them down in that second half. After last night, Denver is still just 5 and 13 this year. 5 wins and 13 losses against teams in the top 10 in point differential according to Cleaning the Glass. And I think that matters like who are the four other teams? Who are the who's? My inner circle of championship contenders is Denver, but it's the Lakers, it's the Thunder, it's the Cavs and it's the Celtics. The if you, if you were to go to Cleaning the Glass and look at the teams with the best records against the teams in the top 10 in point differential, who do you think the top four are? It's the Cavs, the Thunder, the Celtics and the Lakers. Like they have all year been consistently great against the top teams and Denver has been terrible also by the way. Side note for warriors fans, they ranked sixth on that list in win percentage against teams in the top 10 in point differential. That's a big part of why I have my eye on them as a team that could potentially join my inner circle of contenders before the end of the season. But these are major red flags. 20th in defense and can't beat good teams or not beating good teams often. There are not many teams in NBA history who have post season success when they suck on defense and they struggle to beat the good teams. But the Nuggets have three things going for them that keep them in the inner circle for me. 1. You don't have to go any further than Nicola Jokic. He's the best basketball player on planet earth. He had 35, 18 and eight last night. This is how insane this is. I was looking at his game log this morning just like a list of all the games he's played this season and I was like, I wonder where this game ranks among all of the games and all the individual performances he's had this year. I don't think it even registers in the top 10, probably not even in the top 15. He has four 35 point triple doubles this year, countless 40 point games, a 50 point game like he had a 35, 18 and 8. And it's kind of just like a whatever Yokich game this season. And that's just the insane talent level and consistency that Jokic brings to the table. The second piece of it is continuity. The Jamal Murray connection with YIC is at such a high level of comfortability at this point. He dropped a smooth 34 last night. Everyone off of those two knows where to be a threat. They know how to be a threat off of Jokic post ups, but they also know how to be a threat off of the Jokic Murray 2 manga as much as I've talked about Denver's defense this year, they're the second best offense in the NBA ahead of even the Boston Celtics. So like it's important context that we bring into the picture that they are one of the truly elite offenses in this league and the third piece of it and this is where the real optimism comes from. I don't think this Nuggets team can be good defensively. They don't have the personnel, but they can be better than they are. And there is a whole lot of like, like kind of realities at place here. They're an older veteran team that's been playing together forever and that doesn't really care about the regular season. Like think about how many times Michael Porter Jr. Jamal Murray and Nicole Jokic have gone through the 82 game regular season together just as a unit themselves and they know all their opponents really well. You know, they're not going to bring a level of night to night commitment that other teams around the league bring. So like there's a certain amount of scalability for them in the postseason. Especially when we've seen like we have seen Jokic, Gordon, Murray, Jamal, an athletic guard, play good defense and be able to get stops in the postseason. Now they're older and a little slower now, so I don't think they'll be able to get to the level they were in 2023, but they've been at times this year even better offensively than they were in 2023, Jokic said last night. I'm playing the best basketball of my career, right? So like, if they can scale up defensively and they're one of the top tier offenses in the NBA, there's absolutely a version of this where it can all come together. You can kind of imagine the scenario, right? They lock in in April, they defend at basically an average level. Jokic, Murray and Michael Porter Jr. Have like flamethrower postseason runs. And what if Gordon, Westbrook, Brown and Watson all just shoot super well from 3? And by the way, before you tell me they're going to miss 15 games now. Christian Brown 41% from 3 Aaron Gordon 51% from 3 Russell Westbrook 36% from 3. He's confidently stepping into catch and shoot threes last night off of Jokic double teams. Peyton Watson 64% from three hit some big ones last night. Like the idea is you help off those guys and they just keep hitting shots. Now they might not in the postseason and that'll be the big challenge. For the record, all those things will have to come together. Jokic and Murray are going to have to average damn near 30 on high efficiency if they're going to get where they want to go. Michael Porter Jr. Is going to have to have a great playoff run. All of those guys are going to have to shoot super well from three and they're going to have to get to an average level defensively at minimum. But I think all of those things are possible. And so, point being, I can't quit the Nuggets. They have some stuff they absolutely must get better at, but there are enough ingredients there to win the title. It's Julie Stewart Banks. I'm doing a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts and the National Hockey League and I'm paired up with one of my favorite players, the always quotable Nate Thompson. I wore nine NHL sweaters and I have story after story to share. And believe it or not, I have plenty to say. And not just about hockey. Believe me, he does Energy Line with Nate and JSB is the name of the podcast and it's going to be, well, it's going to be quite the ride. We're officially linemates, Nate. We're the Energy Line. We'll have plenty of folks join us, current players, some of my former teammates, hall of Famers, and wait to see some of the connections that Julie has. She has quite the Rolodex. Okay. We'll lean into Nate's playing experience and tap into our interests away from hockey and try to do what energy lines are supposed to do, provide an emotional boost. How do you feel about all that, Nate? I'm vibing. Julie. I'm ready to roll. Listen to Energy Line with Nate and jsb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Brendan Patrick Hughes, host of Divine Intervention. This is a story about radical nuns in combat boots and wild haired priests trading blows with J. Edgar Hoover in a hell bent effort to sabotage a world. J edga was furious. Somebody violated the FBI and he wanted to bring the Catholic left to its knees. The FBI went around to all their neighbors and said to them, do you think these people are good Americans? It's got heists, tragedy, a trial of the century, and the God damnedest love story you've ever heard. I picked up the phone and my thought was, this is the most important phone call I'll ever make in my life. I couldn't believe it. I mean, Brendan, it was divine intervention. Listen to Divine intervention on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia. I'm excited to share my podcast with you. Math and stories from the frontiers of Marketing. This week I'm talking to the CEO of Moderna, Stephane Bonsell, about how he led his team through unprecedented times to create, test and distribute a COVID vaccine all in less than a year. It becomes a human decision to decide to throw by the window your business strategy and to do what you think is the right thing for the world. Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math and the ever important creative spark, the magic. Listen to math and stories from the frontiers of Marketing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Ever wonder what it would be like to be mentored by today's top business leaders? My podcast this is Working can help with that. Here's advice from Google CMO Lorraine Twohill on how to treat AI like a partner. I see AI as incredible co pilot. You may use different tools or toys to get the work done, but ultimately, as editor, as creator, as maker, you own it and it needs to be good. AI is just the latest flavor of that. You're still the judge of what good looks like. I'm Dan Roth, LinkedIn's editor in chief on My podcast this is working Leaders like Indra Nooy, Ray Dalio and Rich Paul share strategies for success and the real lessons that have shaped them. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's move on to the Atlanta Hawks. They beat the Sixers last night without Trey Young or Caris LeVert. And I had watched both of their games against the Indiana Pacers. A couple wins that they got in the last week, they've won four out of five. They have a 123 offensive rating in that span. It really starts with Trey and Karis Lavert. The two of them have just been playing at a really high level during this stretch. I was watching Trey versus the Pacers in those two games and I was just amazed. Every time I watch Trey, I'm amazed by his ability to throw passes on time and on target with his left hand. I talked a lot about this concept when we were talking about Steph Curry yesterday. But the difficulties for right handed shooters going either direction as they have to square up in midair, right? So you're running to the left, it's easier because you can plant your right foot first and you're already kind of naturally squared up to the basket. But if you're running to your right hand, to your strong hand, you have to like kind of square up in midair by getting more lift and all of those things combine in ball handling situations to make things complicated, right? So like if you're a right handed player, where is it easiest to throw passes? It's easier easiest to throw passes by swinging that right hand around with like baseball passes, right? We've all, since we were little kids, thrown things with our right hand. If we're right handed, it's easy enough to make those passes. Similarly with ball handling, most right handed players are much stronger ball handling with their right hand. So when they go to the right they're better drivers and passers, but they can sometimes struggle to shoot when they're going left. They can be better shooters, but they can sometimes struggle to drive because they don't dribble as well with their left hand. And it's really hard to throw those passes with their left hand. Right? But ironically a lot of the passing reads are most available going to your left because you're a more deadly jump shooter. And so the coverages will be more aggressive to try to take away that jump shot. And so the ability to actually throw these cross court passes in these on time, on target bullet passes right into the shooting pocket with your left hand is such an incredibly valuable trait for a ball handler. And I was watching Trey just pick the Pacers apart with his left hand as a passer in those games. One of the other things that really stands out to me when I watch Trey is just his relentless screening attack. He never really lets you off the hook until the end of the shot clock. He'll run a ball screen and then he'll re screen. If he doesn't get the separation he wants, if he doesn't get the separation he wants on that one, he'll swing it to the wing and he'll like cut through the lane and he'll end up under the basket and he'll kind of slow down and then all of a sudden he'll come sprin off of another gerbil handoff. And it's like another kind of ball screen concept built out of that dho. And you might have to deal with Trey four or five times on a single possession in a ball screen action. And as all of that's happening, if you make a single mistake anywhere along the way, you give a shooter too much space, you let a guy cut behind you, you leave the roll man a Runway towards the front of the rim. He just makes you pay every single time with those passes. Trey's averaging 13 assists per game over this four and one stretch. He's really having a brilliant offensive season that I think has been underrated by a lot of folks as he's been setting up a lot of high quality shots for his young athlete core around him. LeVert's been very good in this stretch. He's averaging 17 points per game since joining the Hawks. 20 per game in this five game stretch for their four and one. But I want to focus on Dyson Daniels here for a minute. Dyson has a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in the league, which is well deserved. But he's also blossoming into a very good offensive player as of late. He scored double figures in 17 straight games. That's pretty wild consistency. He's averaging 16 points per game over that span. 54% from the field, 55% from three, six rebounds a game. And this crazy part, 5.4 assists per game with only two turnovers. Basically a two and a half over a two and a half assist to turnover ratio. He's got this lightning quick first step. He's really good at disguising it too. Like he'll move slowly with like change of pace where he'll kind of like lull the defender to sleep and then he'll just explode forward. He can get dribble penetration on just about anyone. He's got really good counter move footwork in the short range. These are like the. He gets downhill and then he can like Euro back to the opposite side with either foot. He's got a good spin move. He gets separation after he gets downhill in that short range. And then he ties it all together with a floater which is flat out deadly. He's made 96 of them this year. Here's a crazy stat for you guys. Dyson Daniels has made the fourth most floaters in the entire NBA this year. More than Darius Garland, more than Ty Jerome. This. He's deadly with it. He's at 46% on the season in efficiency, but that's been trending way up. I was digging back through all the floaters he's been taking as of late. I have him for 18 of his last 33 on floaters. That's 55%. He's becoming a really dynamic shot maker. Shot maker in that short range area in the middle of the floor. And he's still just barely scratching the surface of what he can do. The jump shots coming along like we talked about, he's over 50% from three in this, in this range. There's real playmaking potential. He can become one of the better two way guards in this league if he continues to develop his offensive game. They put the ball in his hands a ton last night with against the Sixers with Trey Young and Caris Levert out. He went for 25, 6 and 9 assists on 10 for 14 from the field. They gave him the ball and said, hey, can you be a star for us tonight? And he was a star. He's a special young player. He's not even 22 years old yet. What a huge swing in the franchise history of the Atlanta Hawks that they were able to turn Dejounte Murray into draft compensation and a player that has the potential to be better than Dejounte within a year or two. And then the last guy that I wanted to shout out was Zachary Risache. He's coming on super strong as of late. In his last 18 games, he's averaging 14 points per game on 52% from the field and 47% from three. I've been talking a lot about this particular archetype and this is the kind of guy that I think the Detroit Pistons should be hunting in the draft. I've been talking about this quite a bit, but there are different types of talents that you can go for to try to, to kind of influence your offense, right? There's ball handling. But one of the most common archetypes that I'm seeing kind of rise to the surface in the NBA is the idea of this like weak side scoring forward. This is the guy that's catching the ball on the skip pass because this guy's man is so frequently tagging rollers. So you situate this guy in the weak side corner. There's a bunch of the examples of this in the league. So for the Hawks it's Zachary Rich Sachet, right? For the, for the Nuggets forever it was like Michael Porter Jr. Right. For the Lakers it's Rui Hachimura. And now with Luca, it's LeBron James too. This, this idea of a DeAndre Hunter does a lot of this for the Cleveland Cavaliers. There's a bunch of these types of guys that are like three, four, like hybrid types of forwards who you're not going to run a ton of action for. But they get so many closeout opportunities. They are professional closeout attackers and all it requires is like a good catch and shoot jump shot and then a couple of basic scoring moves. The ability like a, like a rip through or a jab step and then a couple of basic counter moves, Euros spin moves, being able to finish with both hands. Zachary Ricard is like excellent with his left hand, like little lefty hooks and lefty floaters. That is the, the, the set of traits you need in order to put it all together. And it was a little rough to start the year. It was a little rough with the shooting, it was a little rough with some of the scoring touch. But in his last 18 games, he's really starting to put it together as a reliable weak side scorer. And here's the thing, the Hawks aren't going to make any noise this year, but the rise of Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson, who obviously is hurt right now, that gives the Hawks a super bright future. And where it looked like last summer, like, oh man, they might have to trade Trey Young. Just getting a couple of these guys to pan out as young prospects has gone a long way to changing the perspective on the Atlanta Hawks future. All right, before we get out of here tonight, today, I should say I wanted to just very briefly talk about the Lakers and their loss in Brooklyn last night. I'm not worried about it at all. There's not much margin for error with the injuries. Like you have no LeBron, no Rui Hachimura, no Jackson Hayes. And no Dorian, Finney, Smith, that's four of your core eight playoff rotation players. LeBron's your second best player. Rui's probably your fourth best player. So like, you don't have much margin for error when you're down that many guys. So if Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic are also going to shoot 11 for 40 from the field, you're going to have a hard time beating anyone. Right? It's just, it's, it's just there's too much going against you in that sort of situation. And so some of this, like, honestly it's just a really bad confluence of events. So LeBron happens to suffer his first injury of the year when you're already down two forwards and you're starting center right. Luca happens to be having one of the worst shot making stretches of his career, which we'll get to in a second. And Austin Reeves has always been a guy that takes a little bit of time to get his rhythm when he's been out of the lineup for a little bit. And so Austin's really struggling because he's been out of the lineup and he's been out of rhythm. Luke is having this like brutal shot making stretch where he can't make any of the jump shots that he typically makes in his throughout the rest of his career. And you're just absolutely brutalized by injuries in the front court. It's just a rough spot. Right. And I actually kind of view it as a blessing in disguise because the team had been winning a lot. Obviously they'd been the best team in the league for, for almost two months. So like, it's one of those things where you had a little bit of slippage in your execution against Boston. Right. And so use. JJ was able to use the Brooklyn loss last night to just basically rip his team a new one and essentially like use it as a motivator to refocus the team. Like, it's not a big deal that they lost to the Nets. It's not going to be some sort of dramatic issue with where they're at in the standings. Like, I don't necessarily think getting any specific. See, other than staying out of the play in matters. I think getting to there, getting the April healthy is really all that matters. And so it's more important for you to be sharp. And so if you drop a game against the Nets, that is just a confluence of events and you lose against the defending champions on their home floor in a game where a bunch of down two starters and a bunch of other things don't go your way. It's really nothing to overreact to, but JJ can package that as a message to put in front of the Lakers to be like, we have to be better at this stuff. Because guess what? If they want to win the trophy, they do kind of have to be better at that stuff. And it's just a perfect excuse to use as a motivator for this team. The part that I want to keep an eye on though is Lucas shot making. Because, like, this is the part that has me most excited about the ultimate potential of this team. Austin's been out, he'll eventually get it back. That will go a long way towards helping this team. But we haven't even begin begun to scratch the surface of how good the Lakers can be when Luca is Luca. Here's a crazy stat to demonstrate for you guys. The gap in shot making ability between this version of Luka Doncic. In the version of Luka Doncic that took the Dallas Mavericks to the finals last year, in 12 games with the Lakers, Luca has managed to make at least 10 field goals. Twice. In 12 games last year with the Dallas Mavericks, in 70 games, he made at least 10 shots 50 times. 50 of the 70 games. That's the level of shot making that Luka can still get to relative to where he's been with the Lakers. That's where the excitement comes. Do I think the Lakers are actually the best defense in the NBA? No. They've been defending like that, but I don't actually think they're the best defense in the NBA. My guess is they're somewhere in the 5 to 10 range given the type of personnel that they have. But they can be so, so, so much better on offense. That is the side of the floor that they can make dramatic improvements through simplifying some of their spacing principles. JJ's been talking a lot about this. I'm not going to get into it today, but one of our next few Laker videos I'll do a deeper dive into just like how spacing is supposed to work and why JJ's been harping on that so much. It mostly has to do with putting guys in the right spots so that you're tilting the offense to get the kinds of shots you want from the players that you want. That's basically the main purpose of spacing, right? There's a lot of improvement that they can still make on that end, but just Luka getting back to where he can be as a shot maker. While LeBron and Austin are both healthy and in Rhythm will go a long way towards lifting this team to a more elite level on the offensive end of the floor. And that's why I'm not really concerned. Like I saw enough in the Boston game to think that they can beat Boston. I'm going to pick Boston. I think everybody should pick Boston against everybody, everyone. They're just the safer bet. But I saw enough in that game From Luca and LeBron attacking the Boston Smalls to go like, oh, like I think they can win that series. When I was scouting the Dallas Boston series last year, I literally came on the show in my series preview and said, I think Boston's going to blow him out. I didn't see a pathway because of some specific issues with the matchups in the inability that Dallas had to create space because of their non shooters on the floor. They're poor above the break shooters in the way that they could sit rim protection under the basket. The difference with the Lakers is when they're healthy and they have Rui Hachimura in the lineup and Dorian Finney Smith. They don't have a single player in that five man grouping that you can help off of and so they should be able to create more space. LeBron and Luka should be able to punish the Smalls. Again, it was a loss. There was a lot of disappointment there. I didn't think they played well. Luka looked bad for most of that, most of that game. There's a lot of negatives but I saw enough out of that to be like, oh, I think they can beat Boston. That was an encouraging thing for me. The Nets game was literally a confluence of events. I'm not worried about it, but it's a nice opportunity for JJ to refocus the team and it's a reminder for you guys that Luka can still come so, so, so far as a shot maker that brutal from Austin and Luca last night, 11 for 40 from the field. They're not going to shoot like that very often. All right guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We will be back tomorrow in the evening. We're going live on YouTube at the end. I think it's Denver, Minnesota if I remember correctly. Then I think is it Celtics Thunder? I think it's Celtics Thunder in the first game. So jam packed ESPN slate tomorrow that we're covering on YouTube live. I'm recording a mailbag tomorrow that will air on Thursday as well. But again, as always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show and I will see you tomorrow night. The Volume what's up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting HOOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it. AI is redefining what's possible for your business. With more unique challenges to solve and higher stakes than ever, Microsoft helps you stay ahead. Our trustworthy AI tools and guidance can empower leaders like you to drive greater impact. And with Azure's simplified platform management, we're helping businesses go further, faster, unlocking up to 150% improved output. Whatever challenge comes next, let Microsoft help you keep pushing forward. For more details, visit Microsoft.com challengers this is Nikki Glaser from the Nikki Glaser Podcast. On a more serious note, I'm still thinking about that commercial with Tom Brady and Snoop Dogg hating on each other. Because when you listen to the reasons for hating someone or something, you realize just how stupid they really are. There is too much hate in this country and it's gotta stop. So join us at iheart and Standing up to It. If you see hate, speak up, call it out and you can learn more by following. Hat's upwithhate what's up everyone? It's Greg Rosenthal and I'm teaming up with the King of Spring, Daniel Jeremiah. He requires me to say that we're going to be bringing you 40s and free agents, the only podcast you'll know need this NFL draft season. From DJs mock drafts to my top 101, free agents will have it covered for you with all new episodes every Thursday keeping you up to date as we head to the NFL Draft. Listen to 40s and free agents starting on March 6th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up everyone? Julie Swearbinks here along with former NHL player Nate Thompson. We're doing a new podcast together. Here we go. The name Energy Line with Nate and jsb. Each week we'll get together and talk about hockey life. All topics are fair game, right? Exactly. And you'll never know who will drop by to join us. Julie is pretty well connected. She has text threads going that you wouldn't believe. Listen to Energy Line with Nate and jsb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.