New NBA Power Rankings: Knicks BALLING, Nuggets FALLING, Celtics, Thunder & Lakers bounce back

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All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume.

Heavy Monday, everybody.

Hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend.

As promised today, we're going to be doing a detailed power ranking.

So we're going to be doing our usual power rankings.

Power rankings like we do every Monday, but deeper dives into each of the 10 teams along the way.

You guys know the jump before we get started.

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The last but not least, if you want to get mailbag questions into our Friday mailbag,

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put mailbag, colon, write your question.

We'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season.

All right, let's talk some basketball starting with number 10,

the Los Angeles Lakers, currently plus 6,000 to win the title on hard rock bag.

Got back on track with a couple of wins this weekend and a back-to-back against a very

short-handed warriors team that had kind of been playing some feisty basketball.

They just proved to be way too undersized on the perimeter.

This Laker team this season has been so much more diligent about hunting smalls in the post

than they were in the previous year.

That last year, the first year with Luca, it was a lot of Luca and LeBron hunting bigs and switches.

Love how much the Lakers through their bigs have been hunting smaller defenders this season.

They just bullied Golden State's smalls over and over and over again,

really controlled the flow of the game as they continued to get fantastic shots

and the warriors just decomposed.

And then the Sacramento Kings are literally the worst team in the league.

So a couple of wins there stays in line with the Lakers season-long trend of handling the

lesser teams and struggling against the better teams.

The main bit of optimism, if you're a Lakers fan from these last three games,

centers from their big three, their Luca, the Luca LeBron Austin pairing,

which had struggled mightily really for the majority of the time that they've been together.

Although like one important piece of context there, it's been constantly derailed by injuries,

whether it was LeBron's growing injury last year in the spring or LeBron missing the start of

this season, Austin's cap injuries. They haven't really had any sort of extended stretch

together to kind of figure out how to play and it hasn't looked good. The numbers have not been good.

But the main bit of optimism from this recent stretch in these last three games,

if you look at Phoenix, Phoenix is a team that came into the game as a top 10 defense.

Golden State came into that Saturday game as a top 10 defense.

You have a couple of top 10 defenses that present certain types of issues, whether it's big physical

perimeter defenders like Ryan Dunn or good back on defenders like Mark Williams and drop coverage

looks. Things that the Lakers have struggled against at times this season, the Laker offense looked

really good. If flew under the radar because they were so bad in the Deandre to eight in minutes

in the Phoenix game, did not respond well to that whole story that came out from David Meneman

last week. If you remove those Deandre eight minutes, though, the big three scored remarkably well

in the Phoenix game did so again in the Golden State game and then did so again against a terrible

Sacramento Kings team. And so in those last three games, when Austin LeBron and Luca had been on

the floor together, a 128 offensive rating. So basically the best stretch of offense is a trio

this season. I think a big part of it is again, then the emphasis on posting smalls rather than

hunting bigs and switches. And then two, the three point shooting 27 made threes by the big three

in those three games on a combined 48%. One of the biggest things I've learned over the last

several years as it pertains to star partnerships, different stars coming together to play.

If you're going to get multiple stars to coexist on offense, it actually before multipliers

for each other rather than kind of redundancy, you know, where they kind of take away from each other's

effectiveness, the, you know, law of diminishing returns. So to speak, you need to have guys that

are aggressive and efficient from three. That is what allows them to play off of each other.

And so one of the biggest issues that they've had in the last, you know, year or so that this

partnership has been in existence is the inconsistent three point shooting, whether it was Austin in the

Minnesota Timberwolf series last year, or it was LeBron for the majority of the regular season.

This year, you need your stars to be able to knock down threes to coexist with each other.

They started to, they started to do so in this last three games. And then lastly,

starting to find some synergy with their horn sets and really any of their sets that involve

all three of them in some way, keeping the rhythm flowing between all of their players.

I've said this for the last couple of months, but I think there's a big drop off after the top

nine teams in the NBA, the other nine teams I'm hitting today. I think there's a big gap between

those guys and the Lakers and the rest of the league at number 10. The Lakers are probably the

best team in that group after the top nine, but I still think there's a big gap and they're not

on that level. They're most likely going to play Houston Denver or Minnesota in round one. And as

of right now, I think they get their ass beat, regardless of who they play out of those three,

but they have one path to at least be competitive, meaning one path to at least keep the series relatively

close, not embarrass themselves to give themselves a puncture's chance. And that's if their offense can

reach an elite level. I'm not sold on a three game stretch, especially against teams of that

caliber, even though their defenses are solid, but it is progress. I would personally be stunned

if the Lakers like won multiple playoff series and made it to the conference finals, but I think

avoiding that first round exit, at least competing, looking competitive in that first round series,

or if you were to steal a first round series before losing in round two, I think that'd be a lot

of momentum, a lot of positive momentum heading into what's the most important offseason they've

had in the long time coming up this summer. Number nine, the Denver Nuggets currently plus 550

to win the title, according to Hard Rock Bet. Denver's just been in an absolute free fall since

Yokech returned. They're just five and eight in their last 13 games. Lost a couple of measuring

stick games versus Oklahoma City and Minnesota over the weekend and a Friday Sunday set, although

it's worth mentioning that for extended stretches in that Oklahoma City game, they looked very good.

It always continued to see that dynamic of them, managing to contain OKC's offense a little bit

and scoring effectively in half court on the other end. We saw some extended stretches of success,

but ultimately they ended up losing both of those games. I think there's a couple of different ways

to look at those two losses to Minnesota and Oklahoma City. There is a lot of reality to the idea

that the Peyton Watson and Aaron Gordon injuries are particularly damaging in these matchups.

For starters, they're literally your two best athletes, especially when you consider size.

So like in matchups against teams like Oklahoma City and Minnesota that are especially

athletically imposing, those are the guys you really don't want to be without, right? You know,

and I've talked about it all year, but Aaron Gordon is really their only viable vertical spacer

at the four spot as in a guy that can like just, you know, remember in the NBA 2K games that like

standing dunk metric, that's like Aaron Gordon's best trade on this team is he can just post

up underneath the basket in the dunker spot and easily elevate and dunk anything off of Yokech passes.

That messes with their spacing quite a bit. Also Peyton Watson and Aaron Gordon are incredibly

important to their backline defense. So when they want to do things like they did in the second half

yesterday where they're like sending Yokech up to the level to try to get the ball out of

Ant's hands, they're going to be smaller and less athletic on that backline rotating in those

four on threes. Ant said after the game, life four is better than year three. That's true,

but it's especially true when that three doesn't include someone like Peyton Watson or Aaron

Gordon to help kind of clean those things mess, clean those things up or like, you know, look at the

Jayden McDaniel's possessions where he's just going right through guards chests and just getting

right to the front of the rim. Like those are matchups that would happen less frequently when you're

healthy. So I don't want to sit here and act like these two games are deeply revealing or anything

like that, but I think there are two issues in particular that are worth addressing and they involve

Yokech and Murray. One, the turnovers. The nuggets ended up giving up over 20 points off of turnovers

in both of those games. The Minnesota game in particular, Yokech and Murray were super sloppy.

This is something that we've seen at many times over the years in this Minnesota matchup.

Minnesota can appear to physically overwhelm those two at times. That leads to those turnovers. That

sparks the transition attack. You saw all those transition opportunities that took place in this

particular game. Minnesota torched Denver in the open floor. They had a 30 to six bass breakpoint

advantage. We've seen Denver multiple times over the years decompose offensively against Oklahoma

city in Minnesota, whether it's like that late first quarter stretch against Oklahoma city in game

seven or game two of that series or it's Minnesota in game the second half of game seven of the

second round series in 2024. Various points during the regular season over the last couple of

years. We've also seen stretches where Yokech and Murray have methodically broken down both of

those defenses, taking care of the basketball, gotten great shots for themselves or for their

teammates. So it's mostly an execution thing. I'm just saying that in order for Denver to reach

their goals, they're going to need to be more consistent with those two guys against the best

defenses in the NBA. The margin for error just isn't big enough if they're going to have those

kinds of decomposing moments. The second thing is Yokech's three point shooting. This was more prevalent

in the OKC game on Friday night, but we did see it pop up against Minnesota a little bit most

notably in game seven of the second round series back in 2024. What ends up happening is teams

that are very athletic, they get good at swarming Yokech on the roll while also rotating well out of it.

So a lot of times those two main games where both guys are going downhill, they can be a little

bit harder to handle as the better athletic, better defensive teams can can just kind of load up

and rotate. So Yokech makes an adjustment and his adjustment in those situations is to pop

in pick and rolls, right? We saw this a lot in that light game stretch against Oklahoma City,

right? You just, you know, Jalen Williams is on J Will is on the floor. He's running a deeper drop

coverage against Jamal Murray. Yokech is popping and it's like actually a smart adjustment in the

sense that as we've talked about that is literally the hardest action to guard in terms of

rotating as a pick and pop. If you're in a traditional drop coverage of any kind, even if it's

at the level, deeper drop, whatever it might be, if you pop out of it, it's a very difficult

rotation to make because usually the big is containing the ball handler down by like the foul line

area. And now he's got to close out usually 20, 30 feet across the court to a big who's popped

away from the play. It's just very, very difficult to guard. So it's an adjustment that makes sense for

Yokech, but it doesn't matter if he can't hit the shots. And as you remember in that game,

seven against Minnesota, just miss, miss, miss, miss, miss on pick and pop threes down the stretch

against Oklahoma City, miss, miss, miss, miss, miss on pick and pop threes. And so

he's shown a propensity to go into extended slumps on that front. If he goes into one like that in

the post season, it could be a death sentence for this team because there isn't enough margin

for error with how skilled the top of the league is. I've said this multiple times over the years.

45% from three Yokech, head and shoulders above the rest of the stars in this league, 30%

from three Yokech, just another top tier superstar on the same level as Shay, Luca, or Yanis.

They need him to find his rhythm there. He did shoot well from most of the season up to this point.

So there's no reason to think he can't figure it out. By the way, super excited. I'm going to see

Lakers nuggets on Thursday. My first time going to a nuggets game this season. Very, very excited

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Number eight Cleveland Cavaliers, currently plus 1100 on hard rock that they've dropped three out of

five, but Mitchell and Harden played in only one of those games. Harden's got a fracture and his

thumb that he's playing through kind of tricky struggle and to handle the ball a little bit.

And then Donna Mitchell has a little bit of a growing issue. But the Oklahoma City game we covered

last week. That was the one where both stars were healthy and they just ran into a defensive buzz

saw early in the game, although they reacted pretty well to that. They damn near one in Milwaukee and

in Detroit without their star guards. In Milwaukee, Kevin Porter Jr. ended up hitting a big

late jump shot that sealed the game in the Detroit game. They really should have won. There's just a

a lot of mistakes down the stretch. Jalen Tyson ends up fouling Dennis Jenkins on the three pointer,

a couple of possessions where they just succumbed to ball pressure and give up turnovers and runouts.

Just a couple just few too many mistakes are Dennis Schroeder had a couple of bad turnovers.

But for the most part, they competed really well in those two games. The Detroit game in particular,

one of the best teams in the league on the road. And it's because Dennis Schroeder absorbed usage

well. Jared Allen has been hooping his ass off, put up numbers in both games. Again, they really

should have won at least one of those, but it is what it is. They competed. They showed their death.

Hard and made his return in the win in Brooklyn. Jared Allen had another 20 point night. He's

averaging 22 points and 11 rebounds on 73% shooting in his last 12 games. He's been fantastic.

Fun little three game homestand coming up for the calves this week. Detroit, Boston and Philly.

Big key here. The health piece of it is James Hardin going to be able to replicate, you know, 95 to

98% of what he usually is with this broken thumb. How how serious is down in Mitchell's groin?

Is this just a soreness thing where it's more of a management thing or is he dealing with something

that could end up being lingering throughout the season? All eyes on the health of their two guards

at this point. Number seven, the Houston Rockets currently plus 2250 to win the title on hard rock bet.

Very up and down a couple of weeks for the Houston Rockets. You get a nice road win in Charlotte

against a Red Hot Hornets team. Then you have a devastating late game collapse against the NICS

in MSG. You have this massive second half come back down 19 in Orlando. Kevin Durant

read Shepherd going this crazy offensive run. You come back and you win and then you have a super

disappointing loss to the heat in Miami. I'm starting to get a little concerned about Alperin

he's been better on defense since the humiliation of being called out by his teammate in his coach

but he scored 20 points just twice in his last 11 games. His lack of short range touch has been a

problem. Just 29% on jump shots inside a 17 feet. Just 42% on floaters and hooks this season.

Just 64% at the rim, which again for a power player at his position should be substantially higher.

The shangoon only groups the ones that started the second and fourth quarters last night just got

absolutely or on Saturday. I should say got absolutely thrashed in Miami. Not all this fault.

Some weird lineup groupings like that second shift in the early fourth quarter. Jeff

Karin was in the lineup for that game. Other guys were making mistakes as well. The team shot

poorly in those stretches as well. So it's not all shangoon's fault. But if shangoon could just

find the way to put the ball in the basket more like this is he has literally scored 20 points

just twice in his last 11 games. If he can find a way to put the ball in the basket more,

which we know he's capable of, it could go a long way towards stabilizing things for Houston.

And again, the good news is if your rockets fan after all of that mediocre basketball over the

last few months, you're the three seed, which is a casual reminder that everyone in the west

outside of San Antonio and Oklahoma City has been struggling in various ways at various times

over the last few months. So again, you're everybody, whether it's the Lakers at the six seed or

the rockets at the three seed, you're two good weeks or two bad weeks away from flipping that

dynamic and you're on the opposite end of it. So all of it is about keeping your eye on the

prize one game at a time, one play at a time, keep your hands on the rope and hang on because

this could get bad for anybody or get good for anybody in a short period of time.

Number six, Minnesota Timberwolves currently plus 3,000 when the title and hard rock bet.

If one three in a row, six out of seven and 11 of their last 15. So it's definitely starting to ramp

up a little bit for the post season. Another weight in Denver yesterday was one of their more

impressive defensive performances of the season. Those are those games that I can't get out of my

head when it comes to the Timberwolves when they really turn up on defense because they're just so

difficult to deal with. Like I was thinking about this when I was watching the game yesterday,

like when you put two on the ball, whether it's a blitz of a ball screen or just up at the level

coverage or you're doubling a post up or even if you're digging down on a driver or any sort of

situation where the defense is loaded on the basketball in some way, shape, or form. The reads are

the same for everybody. The reads out of a post up double, the reads out of an at the level coverage,

the reads out of a dig down on a drive, all those reads are the same for the offense. But when you

get there faster, when you pressure the ball more, when you're bigger and more athletic within

that aggression, it's just really difficult to pass through it or to shoot over it. Like

Yokech has seen double teams that have come out of post ups a million times. But when Dante

deep in chenzo is a very good athlete, shoots that gap. It's just faster and more difficult to

deal with when it's a lesser defensive player, when it's a lesser defensive lineup. There are

some passing reads that Jamal Murray makes some drop off passes, some swing passes where it's like,

oh, I'm trying to make this entry pass, but that's Jade and McDaniel's as long as harm.

That's in the way, getting that deflection or oh, it's tagging the roller. I'm going to make

this skip pass to the weak side, but it is just super athletic and can stop on a dime,

cut back, elevate and intercept your skip pass. As I'm watching the game, I'm sitting there thinking

like it's not like Denver's necessarily making the wrong reads or that they're not compromising

the defense. Like Murray and Yokech were consistently compromising the defense and drawing the

defense like to collapse on them. They were seeing the right opening. Just Minnesota is so fast and

so physical that it can overwhelm them sometimes. And that honestly is what makes me so high on this

Minnesota team. There's just another level of physical imposition with them. The transition

attack has been super impressive. They had 34 transition points yesterday in Denver. They're bench

groups with Bones Highland and Iodasun moved in an amazing job running off of misses and turnovers

and getting layups in the open floor and brings a little bit of that element, especially as a

three point shooter. Nas Reed in that early fourth quarter stretch, those quick little moves that

that little hesitation drive to the right where he drew the foul on Cam Johnson for the end one.

Just a disgusting euro step into a lefty floater in the lane that put them up 12 in the early

fourth quarter. Amazing fourth quarter run there from Nas Reed hit a big pull up three in that stretch

as well. Big swing like I know we are to talk nuggets, but it's funny Cam Johnson has just been

an absolute nightmare. I'm not ready to give up on him because I do think he can shoot way

better than he has been shooting, but there's no way to look at that as as of right now than other

than a big disappointment. But there's a huge swing in that game where they get a transition

three for Cam Johnson off of the right wing. He misses it. Nas Reed goes down and hits a contested

pull up three in Cam Johnson's face. Turned what should have been a, I shouldn't say should have been,

but if you hit the open three and miss the contested three, it's a four point game.

You miss the open three. You hit the contested three. It's a ten point game. You'd swing in that

game from Nas Reed. Jade McDaniel is just repeatedly bullying his way to the rim over and over again.

Didn't even hit a three yesterday, but just was controlling the game as a driver and as a bully ball

player, I continue to think the wolves have a fastball when they're at their very best. That is

every bit as good as the top teams in the league. That's why I'm so high on them as a championship

contender. They are the fourth best record in the league against teams in the top ten and point

differential second best record or second best point differential in the league within those games

against teams under the top ten and point differential. Number five, the Boston Celtics currently

plus 1100 to win the title on Harder Rock Bet. They had a disappointing loss in Denver last week

where their offense fell victim to the same deep drop coverage that they had been using to great

effect against some of their recent opponents, but they bounce back with wins against the nets and

the sixers. One of Jalen Brown's best games of the season against Philly. You went for 27,

8, 8, but the start of the game was Neemius Kada. I went for 27, 17 in three blocks,

just feasting on rolls and cuts. Not the best Andre Drummond game that I've seen him play.

Neemius absolutely whooped his ass, but he showed some nimble footwork on rolls where he had to

like work around defenders and go up and under for some tougher layups to show some some impressive

hand eye coordination for his position. Made a couple of huge plays at the rim late in the game.

He kind of went to a post up and he tried to turn over his left shoulder and lost the ball,

but he scrapped it out in front of everybody and rose up and got an and one had a huge offensive

rebound put back dunk off of this kind of bizarre sequence where the ball went carrying off the

backboard right into his hands. And then one of his three blocks was a huge one late in the game,

six point games, two possession game, a couple minutes left where he gets Tyrese Maxi on a switch

in the left corner and ends up timing it perfectly rising up and blocking him on a pull up three.

Just a hell of a game for one of the great success stories of the Celtics organization over the

last few years. And then one last thing I wanted to talk about the Celtics, Baylor Shireman.

I was fascinated, you know, Reggie Miller can drive me crazy sometimes, but he kind of had an

interesting point when during the game when he was talking about how like Baylor's playing through

this this this finger fracture. And essentially his whole thing is like, I got my starting spot.

I am not an established NBA player. If I decide to sit out and rehab this thing, someone could take

my spot and he entirely could look me behind. You never know. You literally never know, but

Baylor's probably going to get another shot no matter what. But again, as a player,

when you've got something that you've fought your entire life for, I respect the hell out of a

player just deciding I'm going to find a way to keep this spot as long as I can. And one of the

things with Baylor Shireman is he brings a lot of aspects that the the Celtics have had kind of

like varying elements of from that swing forward spot where like they've had some bigger more

athletic players, but maybe they're more inconsistent on offense. Baylor Shireman brings like a more

refined offensive skill, but he's still a very good rebounder for his position. He's become a very

good anticipatory defender, meaning like he's very good at picking the angle to be a defender to

offensive player to a spot and absorb that contact. And as a result, because he brings that

combination of like shooting offensive skill, making reads in the drive and kick, but also good

size that can guard multiple positions. That's it learned how to be a better anticipatory defender

and a great rebounder for his position. He grabs seven rebounds per 36 minutes this year and he pops

out the screen as a relatively big player on the wing as well. And as a result, he's turned into

one of their better on off guys this year in plus Midas. Today's show is brought to you by

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Number four, the New York Knicks, currently plus 1,500 to win the title in hard rock bed.

What an incredible defensive performance by the Knicks in Madison Square Garden yesterday.

They completely boxed in San Antonio's guards.

Steph Castle was like legitimately struggling to get to his spots, which is something I haven't

seen very often from him this season. I give OG and Adobe and Josh Hart a lot of credit for that.

They did an amazing job. Victor Wim and Yama scored 25 points, but the Knicks turned him over seven

times by just being super physical on his base and swarming him on his drives. As a team,

the Knicks forced 22 turnovers and scored 24 points off of those turnovers was one of the biggest

differences in the game. Again, Steph Castle, Deer and Fox, Dylan Harper, none of their guards

could get anything going. Just a really impressive defensive night from the Knicks.

And Jalen Bronson was great all-game. McHill Bridges was killing the spurs with his

weak side three-point shooting. In general, all-game, I thought the Knicks did a great job of

skipping the ball across the court when the spurs loaded up. So really impressive early possession

passing game from the Knicks. This is something they've been way better at all season anyway,

compared to last year, but especially yesterday. They generated 23 unguarded catch and shoot

three. Yes, that's super impressive against one of the better defenses in the league.

Mohamed Diora did an amazing job staying aggressive, even though he missed some of his early looks.

He got 13 threes up yesterday. I saw a stat from Nate Duncan saying it was the most threes

per minute ever in history of the league. Minimum, I think it was like minimum 10 minutes played

or something like that. But he ended up hitting four of them, made a couple of huge defensive plays.

He blocked Steph Castle on an ISO drive. That was one thing that kind of stood out to me

in this game. Because Steph has had so much success getting to his spots,

he did struggle against some of the bigger, stronger forwards. And I thought that was such an

interesting thing to keep an eye on as we head into the postseason and teams try to figure out

how to game plan for Steph. But Diora was plus 18 and 15 minutes yesterday.

Carlynth and he towns didn't have a good statistical game. He had some turnovers against San Antonio

double teams. But I actually thought Kat was really good for the most part in this one. He's a bit

of a matchup problem for his first team that's light at the forward position. The first started

Steph Castle on him and they were switching pick and rolls. And the next ended up getting a lot of

good looks early in the game on the ensuing double teams because they'd screen. Kat would get Diora

and Fox on him and they'd either throw it to him in the post he'd draw a double or the double

would come before the pass and they'd skip it across the court. They tried all sorts of things.

They tried not switching it. They tried scram switching it to get Wembee to take Kat as he'd run

down to the post. And the spurs made a lot of mistakes in those interchanges that led to good

looks. We'll talk about that when we get to the spurs here in a few minutes. But again, I thought

overall Kat was a lot better than his box score looked yesterday, even at a nice little impressive

driving baseline dunk against Steph Castle in the early second half. Just a really impressive win

where the Knicks gave a lot of problems to a legit championship contender on both ends of the

floor. I like the Knicks basketball this year so much better than last year. And it shows in

the numbers. Last year the Knicks were so bad against teams in the top part of the league outside

of that Boston series. Obviously last year they were 17 in their record against teams in the top

10 and point differential 12 in their point differential in those games this year. They have the

second best record in the NBA right now behind the Detroit pistons at 10 and seven against teams

in the top 10 and point differential and they have the fourth best point differential in those

games. So much, much better resilience against the top teams. Why improvement defensively across the

board and a more equal opportunity offense that's built on driving kick early in possessions that's

generating a lot more spot up opportunities, which are some of the most efficient opportunities

you'll ever generate in the half court in the NBA. Just better on both ends of the four,

making them better against the best teams. And here's the thing. You match up really well with San Antonio

and you've consistently given them issues. Even the one you gave you lost was a game that was very

competitive and then you handled them in the in season tournament. You handled them yesterday. So

like, there's a real chance San Antonio makes it out of the West. That's a pathway that could

benefit New York. You can imagine if New York could somehow pull out of the east and San Antonio

makes it out of that bloodbath of the West. If you're a next fan, you got to feel really good

about your chances to win the title there. Number three, the San Antonio Spurs. Currently plus

800 to win the title on hard rock bet. The most disappointing thing about this particular game

was the offense. Like their defense got cut up, but it was a lot of mistakes that I think they

can clean up. A lot of transition defense mistakes. Like, guys not getting matched up and giving

up layups and dunks and transition were just like simple execution errors. We talked about all those

switches involving cat. There were a lot of like just basic execution errors like the scram switch

with when be trying to take cat, Julian Chimpenney's slow on his rotation to the rim. They end up

giving up a cut for an easy basket. A lot of like bot switches on interchanges with cat or cat would

get slips downhill into the basket or someone else would because they just would be hesitant to switch

or not knowing exactly what they want to do in those situations. I think they can execute a lot

better on defense. I'm less concerned about their defensive execution when they get to the post

season. So that I don't really think too much about what concerns me is that the offense did look

a lot like what I think the nicks will see at times in the post season. Teams will get physical

with when being force him into turnovers like I expect when these first playoff run to be a relatively

high turnover one as he adjusts to the physicality. It's kind of what I expect him to average more

points than you think just because of how many easy ones he can get around the rim and the flow

and then I expect him to be somewhat turnover prone like that that's more or less what I expect to

see in the post season. I do think the young guards will have playoff games where they struggle to

solve the puzzle of what the defense is trying to do. The trump card they have is the spurs have a

veteran all star guard who can run pick and roll and raise their floor in these situations.

And deer fox had seven points and that was really my fear with the spurs when I would talk about

them as a playoff team. Their most reliable half-court offense will be playing through a guard

who may or may not even be a top 30 player in the NBA right now.

Is that a descendant? No, of course not. I'm not about to jump off the spurs bandwagon because of

one loss. They have tons of opportunities over the next couple of weeks to prove that they still

have that top tier championship upside. They're at Philly tomorrow. Then they have this homestand or

they played Detroit, the clippers, Houston, Boston, Denver and Charlotte. So many opportunities to

make this loss a distant memory. But that's the kind of thing that I just see in my head like what

happened in that next game. That's the kind of thing that I see in my head where it's like a certain

type of matchup that can provide bigger physical defenders for their guards, rim protection. That

sort of thing like they really struggled in that Mitchell Robinson group in the late first quarter

for example that really shut down their offense as the next kind of overcame that initial run from

San Antonio. Like I'm just a little worried about it. Not a death sentence. Can't wait to see

these next couple of weeks and how they respond. But I was a little disappointed in their offense

yesterday. Number two, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Currently plus 140 to win the title on hard rock

bet. One clear and defining characteristic of the last week that Shagel's or Alexander is back

and that he looks amazing. The Thunder actually racked up several really impressive wins without

any of their top three guards. Their defense has been super impressive. We've had offensive

contributions from guys like case and Wallace and Jared McCain that have helped fill the void.

But who cares about all that? Shae is back and he looks fantastic physically and that's the key

getting wherever he wants to on the floor. He looked super explosive with his first step

and on his counters in that Denver game even at a poster dunk against the Mavs and Max Christie

yesterday in his first two games back 33 seven and seven with just two turnovers per game looks

absolutely locked in and ready for the stretch run. And then Alex Cruz. Oh man, like he straight

up stole that Denver game. They probably lose that game without Alex. His defense of playmaking

down the stretch. He stopped the key fast break late with a steal. His timely spot up shooting

hit a couple of massive catch and shoot threes. Arguably the best role player in the league.

One of the crazier stats I've seen this year is that the Thunder are only plus 8.5 per 100

possessions according to cleaning the last ring remove garbage time plus 8.5 net with Alex

Cruz. So off the floor this year, which is obviously very good, but it's not earth shattering.

When Alex Cruz goes on the floor this year, the Thunder are beating the living shit out of

everybody there plus 21 points per 100 possessions. Number one, the Detroit Pistons currently plus

1500 to win the title on hard rock bed. The Pistons are just a winning machine man. We talked about

their loss to San Antonio last week. They responded with three straight wins. A win over a

Thunder team that had been really feisty without their star guards as we mentioned. Cade had a really

nice bounce back game after the travesty against the spurs. They steal a game against the calves

thanks to debilitating ball pressure down the stretch that caused Sam Maryland, Dennis Schroeder to

decompose with some ugly turnovers that led to transition opportunities. And then Danish Jenkins

drawing a foul on a three point shot sent that game to overtime where they closed it out. And then

when Cade fouled out, they needed someone to give them some buckets late to bias Harris was able to

go to that little right shoulder fade along the left baseline. That shot that he loves so much.

It's a huge one that iced the game against the calves. And then Tobias carried that momentum over

in the magic game where he briefly took over the offense in the mid fourth quarter when Cade took

his rest had another right shoulder fade. He loves that shot off the same spot on the left block.

And a nice driving layup out of a ball screen that helped put things away about 23 points for

to bias Harris in the win on the road in Orlando. Jalen Dern was also a monster protecting the

rim down the stretch in this game caught a lot of like those in between sequences where people would

drive at him and someone would also be cutting. And his size would just be imposing enough to kind

of shut down both of those. A lot of those like two on one advantages for Orlando around the

rim that did not end in baskets rematches with the calves and the spurs on the road this week.

Couple more measuring stick games. The calves will almost certainly have at least James Hardett maybe

Donovan Mitchell as well. So different challenge there. And the San Antonio game in particular I

have my eye on because Cade was so so so bad in that first one. And as we talked about on the show,

it was really his first opportunity to even attempt to solve the Victor women Yama puzzle.

That's a really hard puzzle for anybody to solve. I'm just curious to see Cade's response after

a bunch of film after having a couple of really good games after that. I'm excited to see how he

responds on on the road in San Antonio against that same Victor women Yama problem.

Alright 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 with some game reaction. I'll see you guys then.

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