The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Are Warriors, Thunder & Cavaliers REAL or FAKE NBA playoff contenders?

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

Jason reacts to the Cleveland Cavaliers getting a big win over the Milwaukee Bucks over the weekend behind balanced performances from Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, and Evan Mobley, despite strong play from Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard. Then he discusses the Oklahoma City Thunder getting a win over the Denver Nuggets in a MVP showdown between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic. Finally he breaks down the Golden State Warriors getting two big wins over the weekend behind Steph Curry who is finding MVP-level form, Jimmy Butler's improved scoring, and huge plays from Draymond Green. Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/HOOPS10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount Timeline 4:15 - Start 5:45 - Cavs/Bucks reaction 29:30 - Thunder/Nuggets reaction 45:15 - Warriors earn two big wins (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) #Volume #Herd Follow Jason Timpf on social: https://twitter.com/_JasonLT https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.

you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on. A Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Volume. I am so excited. We are less than a month away from going to the sphere to see Deaden Company. I'm actually seeing three shows in a row. If you haven't seen them yet, even if it's not the Dead, the Spear is like an incredible concert venue experience. You guys got to get over there and check it out, which is why I want to give the sponsor of today's video, Seatgeek, a huge shout out with over 28 million downloads.

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Got a jam-pack show for you today. We had a bunch of great basketball games yesterday. We're going to be breaking down two of them off the top. The Cleveland Cavaliers getting a big win on the road against the Milwaukee Bucks, kind of controlling that one throughout. I want to talk about some of the differences between those two teams and how it's led to their success and failures this year. then we got an MVP showdown.

The first of two, we got another one tonight that we'll be breaking down in tomorrow's show, but the Denver Nuggets, one on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Thunder pretty much controlled that game throughout and ended up winning in dominant fashion late. We're going to break that game down. Then at the tail end of the show,

I want to hit on the last two Golden State Warriors games, talking about how good Steph has been of late as he puts on a show against the Brooklyn Nets, and then I want to talk about how Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler kind of stole the show down the stretch in a big win against the Detroit Pistons. 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 at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast fee wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Where we're releasing content throughout the year, Jackson's doing some amazing work on those channels. Make sure you guys follow us there. And last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions and the YouTube comments. All of the mailbags have been kind of out of whack because of all the trips that I've been going on this month.

that I still have two more at the tail end of this month. So it's going to get a little tricky. But we're going to be doing a mailbag that I believe is releasing on Thursday this week that I'm recording on Friday. So you still have a couple more days to get in mailbag questions for that. All right, let's talk some basketball. So once again, every time I watch these kind of like middle tier teams in the league, you know, I kind of, I've talked about this last night with Colin Coward, but like I kind of view the inner circle of the NBA as like five teams that I think have like a real chance.

to win the title. And in no particular order, because I'm going to end up doing some stuff involving ordering them over the course of the next month. Jackson and I were talking this morning about doing very, very in-depth breakdowns specifically on the inner circle contenders involving some film and stuff. So we're thinking about doing that over the course of the next month. But those five teams for me right now are in the Eastern Conference, Boston and Cleveland, and in the Western Conference, Oklahoma City, Denver, and the Los Angeles Lakers. If you look at those teams and you watch them play every single night. There's a level of seriousness on both ends of the floor and their execution and their attention to detail and just their overall pursuit of maximizing their talent and

being the best basketball team that they can be. And literally, as soon as you go below that, it's a drop off. Even with a team that has a pretty damn good record like the New York Knicks, they've been so inconsistent with their defensive execution this year. Teams like Milwaukee, teams like Minnesota. There's so many teams in that group that have been very, very, very inconsistent in their attention to detail. The one team that's kind of below there that I'm keeping my eye on because I don't really know where they're going to fit once we see a larger sample of them playing some tougher teams of the Golden State Warriors, I think they have a chance to enter into the inner circle. There are some teams in that group that I think I'm keeping my eye on over the

course of the final month to see. But those are the five teams that I see. And when you go beyond that, there's a pretty substantial drop off in terms of just the level of serious basketball that they play. I thought it was really interesting as I started to dig through the numbers. Like, if you look at the margins, these are the areas where all of the good teams are always good. The margins are the little details that suck. They're hard to do, but they're such an important part of winning basketball games. For instance, taking care of the basketball and making sure you don't give up points off of turnovers. The Thunder, the Cavs, and the Celtics are all top five in opponent points off of turnovers and the Lakers are top 10. Giving up points off of offensive rebounds.

The Cavs and Celtics are both in the top 10. The Thunder have always been a bad defensive rebounding team. That's their Achilles heel. So they're out of that group. But the Cavs and Celtics top 10 and the Lakers since January 15th, when they kind of became a serious team, they're seventh in that department. Giving up fast break points. The Cavs, the Celtics, and the Thunder are all in the top 11 in limiting opponents fast break points. This is the Lakers Achilles heel. That's where they always get beat. They're unathletic in transition at times. Cleaning the glasses overall transition defense stat.

The Cavs, the Celtics, and the Thunder are all top 10. The Lakers are top 10 since January 15th. Makes in the restricted area allowed. So giving up easy baskets right underneath the rim. The Cavs, Celtics, and Thunder are all top 10. The Lakers are 7th since January 15th. Total number of contested shots this year. This is a hustle stat on NBA.com.

The calves, the thunder, and the Celtics are all. all in the top four. These are non-negotiables if you want to be a serious basketball team. You have to be committed to running the floor in transition, making contact on boxouts, competing for contested rebounds, making rotations, putting your body on the line, making extra efforts, contesting shots. These are non-negotiables. And they're hard. I get it. There's a reason why there's such a huge swath of the league that's bad at this stuff on a nightly basis. Because it's 82 games. and you're all a bunch of millionaires,

and it's really, really hard to get yourself to compete at that level and a night in and a night out basis. That said, like I said, it's a non-negotiable if you want to get to the finish line, if you want to get the Larry O'Brien trophy. Every time I watch the bucks, they seem to be heavily lacking in these areas. They are mediocre to bad in every single one of those statistical categories

that I listed except for defensive rebounding. It was jarring again to watch as the cat. just dominated this game by outrunning the Bucks all over the floor. 24 easy points in transition, countless possessions where they would defend well and get a stop and rebound and run out the other way and get an easy one against a Bucks team that wasn't willing to run. Even in the half court, it's the same sort of concept. Whether it was Darius Garland or Donovan Mitchell or somebody else creating that initial advantage,

the Cavs just sliced and diced the Bucks defense with these beautiful drive-and-kick sequences that often ended in wide open looks for very good shooters. You could literally see them repeatedly knifing through the lane, not just on that initial drive, but on closeouts. And as a result, they're able to grow that advantage so that first close outs only a little bit of a closeout. That second close outs, more of a closeout. The third one, no chance.

The dude's wide open. The Cavs generated 22 unguarded catch-and-shoot jump shots in this game. the Milwaukee Bucks generated just nine. That's the difference. The calves have this beautiful ability to slice and dice defenses for these super high quality catch and shoot looks, and at the same time on the other end of the floor, keep their defense out of rotation against Milwaukee.

And it's not just the commitment to running. It's the commitment off the ball on defense to tracking shooters, being sharp with your closeouts. Cleveland was so attentive and sharp. Every catch-and-shoot look for Milwaukee felt like it was smothered with a quick and reactive close-out. How many times did you see Tori and Prince in the game kind of lingering around five, six feet away from Max Truce and just a quick swing pass and Max Truce knocks down a shot? How many times did you see Brooke Lopez and Yanosantan Tenacumpo just drifting off of Evan Mobley and not in position to offer a close-out as Evan Mowley made them pay knocking down that catch-and-shoot on the weak side? Prince in particular had a really rough night in this regard.

But as a team, the Bucks were not attentive in their offball defense. That's how you end up with such a huge chasm in the overall number of wide open catch and shoot shots that they generated. The Bucks have a lot of talent, but you can't even get to the point where you're able to weaponize that talent until you're willing to commit to the hard work that is consistent winning basketball that is required to get to that level. there are some realities with the bucks regarding their age in overall foot speed. This is a size team, not a speed team. We're going to talk about the difference between the two here in a minute. But at the same time, every time I watch them, there's just so much fat that can be trimmed. Simple transition defense principles like stopping the ball, stopping the basket,

and getting matched up. There's a big one late in the game where Tori and Prince left a wide open shooter right at the top of the key. the on defense in the half court, like simple ideas, like making sure that when you're in helpside defense, positioning yourself in a way where you can see man and ball and make sure that if that pass goes, you're already in the closeout while the ball's in the air and you're there on the catch.

These are details that don't necessarily depend on their overall team speed that can be cleaned up, that they just haven't made the requisite effort to do so. Now getting to the game itself, I want to talk about how the content. combination of speed and jump shooting is what actually allows the Cleveland Cavaliers to generate so many quality shots. This has been the best offense in the NBA this year. They're actually almost three points per 100 possessions ahead of the second place, Boston Celtics. They're the only team in the lead getting over a 120 offensive rating. The Cavs offense is unbelievable. Now, like we talked about earlier, there's a difference between size and speed. There are two easy ways to get the defense into rotation through overwhelming speed and overwhelming size.

For overwhelming size, think like Yokic or guys like LeBron James, Luca Donch, it's Jason Tatum, some of these bigger, stronger players. They find a defender that's too small to guard them. Then they pressure the rim until they get easy twos or they draw in that second defender. Speed works the exact same way. When you have guards that through transition or through ball screens against switches, whatever it is, when they can consistently get screaming downhill towards the rim, they either are going to get layups or they're going to draw in multiple defenders. This is the part of the Cavs roster construct that has really shown through this year.

And for the record, I was originally a couple years ago completely out on the Darius Garland-Donovan-Mitchell-Perry as like a foundation for the Cavs. Why? Because it's two small guards. And when you're building around two small guards, it just presents so many issues for you on the defensive glass and just on the defensive end in general. And by the way, they still occasionally have rebounding issues and they still occasionally have defense issues. But as Darius Garland has gotten healthy this year, and as he's blossomed into this super high-level guard, we've gotten to see the other side of that dynamic, which is that they do have overwhelming speed.

Garland, this year, healthy with his legs underneath them, has been one of my favorite players to watch in the league this year. Because of his combination of speed and handle and shot making and playmaking, which gives him the ability to get wherever he wants to get on the floor. his probing in transition off the dribble and in the half court is responsible for so much of Cleveland's offensive success. The Cav's offense all year has been about two points better per 100 possessions when Darius Garland is on the floor versus off.

Donovan Mitchell brings the same thing. He's not at the same level of quickness that Darius Garland is at, but he's close and he's bigger and he's more vertically athletic and he's a better shot maker and he's got like a bunch of these really fancy gather moves like he's been putting on a close. clinic of that windmill over the top gather that Dwayne Wade popularized. And then he's brought back to sham god with a vengeance this year. He had another nasty one the other night. There is, Donovan Mitchell's ball handling in the middle of the floor has been unbelievable this year. But he also has an amazing ability to get wherever he wants on the floor. That's the initial first

step for any drive-and-kick sequence. You've got to generate that initial advantage that compromises the defense and generates those kickout opportunities for your spot-up guys. From there, they just have a bunch of guys who are awesome at playing driving kick basketball. Max Trues, lightning quick release, can do it on the move and is a really good driving kick player. It can make basic driving kick reads. Dean Wade is good at it too. DeAndre Hunter has been brilliant so far as a Cav as a spot-up guy, as a guy who can do some advanced scoring in the mid-range attacking closeouts. Ty Jerome is good at it. Sam Merrill's good at it. Mitchell and Garland can both do it when they're off the ball.

Just to give you an idea. Here are some spot-up efficiency numbers for Cavs players, according to Synergy. DeAndre Hunter, 1.37 points per possession, that's outrageous. Tide Jerome, 1.36 points per possession, that's outrageous. Craig Porter, obviously, in a smaller role. 1.28 points per possession. Max Trues, 1.24. Donovan Mitchell, 1.18. Sam Merrill, 1.15.

They have six players logging over 1.2. 15 points per possession in spot-up situations. As a team, they get 1.11 points per any spot-up possession. Only the Celtics in the NBA are better at converting spot-up possessions than the Cleveland Cavaliers, and they generate so many of them on the strength of their speed. It's that combination. Speed, which is necessary to consistently get the defense and rotation, and then having players that can extend advantages and pay them on.

even their bigs. Evan Mowgli last night burned Janice and Brooke on skip passes by hitting weak side threes. He's shooting 37% on catch and shoot threes this year. That is helping. Jared Allen provides his own kind of spacing as a short-range shotmaker.

There's a play yesterday where Darius Garland was driving through the lane, and Jared ended up like kind of right outside the right block. And Darius ran into a bunch of help and just kind of dumped it off to Jared Allen and Jared Allen just stuck a little left-handed floater. like six feet from the basket

and all year long. He's been deadly on hooks and floaters. He provides his own kind of spacing in that way. It's a principle that works for them in both the half court and in transition. It makes them nearly impossible to guard and it's why they've been head and shoulders above the rest of the field on offense this year.

The Celtics are in second place, three points fewer per 100 possessions. That's how ahead of the field their offense has been. Now again, as we've talked about, margins shrink when you get to the postseason. I saw a crazy stat this morning when I was digging through some old NBA data. Five of the last seven NBA teams to win at least 60 games or to win at a 60 win pace in the two shortened seasons in 2020 and 2021, five of the last seven of the teams to accomplish those feats

failed to win their conference in the playoffs. Only one of those five losers made it out. out of the second round. The reason is simple. By the way, the two exceptions there are the 2020 Lakers and last year's Boston Celtics. The reason why this happens is you're almost exclusively in the playoffs facing elite locked in defenses that have done extensive game planning. And as the officiating loosens up and the game becomes very physical, all of that easy

dribble penetration becomes harder to come by. In the half court, it gets harder to get to your spots. and the catch and shoot threes get harder to knock down because everyone's more tired from being in that super physical environment. The game actually shifts in the playoffs heavily towards each individual matchup and how well each team can guard each other

in the half court. Again, five out of the last seven teams to do what Cleveland's doing, to do what Oklahoma City is doing, failed to make it out of their conference. Four out of those seven failed to make it out of the second round. that is a trend that Cleveland has to find a way to reverse. And it's going to come down to guys knocking down shots at the same rate they did in the regular season.

And Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell continually being able to generate those advantages. And once again, finding ways to make sure that you can prevent specific matchups from causing you problems when you get into the in a playoff series. For instance, we talked about the Celtics Cavs game the other night. the ability to attack Sam Houser in the half court in crunch time, that won't be there. So it'll be about can Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown do a better job of attacking Garland and Tatum is comfortable against both Allen and Mowgli as well? Are they going to be able to attack those guys better than Cleveland can attack Derek White, Al Horford, Chrisops Porzingis in his drop coverages, whatever it may be?

That is the battle. That's the chess match. that ultimately is going to determine who wins the title, not which team had the better offensive rating in the regular season, which team had the higher win percentage. That is what happens in NBA history, and that is why a lot of these teams that dominate the regular season end up losing in the postseason,

it doesn't matter what you accomplish in the 82. It comes down to the matchups. Now, to be clear, the team that wins the title is almost always in the upper echelon of teams, basically always. So there is a mandatory minimum of a, commitment to excellence that you have to have. And all of those teams had that. But what ends up happening are there are these teams, usually in that second tier,

usually that don't have quite the 60 win pace, but they're in the mid-50s or so, that were dead serious all year, but maybe they're a little older, maybe they're a little slower, and they get run off the floor a bunch of times in the regular season, but they get into the postseason, they get their shit together, the vets leverage their athleticism, and it gets tougher. And that's the challenge that Cleveland has to. overcome. When the margins shrink and it becomes about Garland and Mitchell matchup attacking versus a different team matchup attacking them, how can they hold up? I think they're going to hold up really well against everybody except for Boston out in the east. And ultimately,

that's the challenge. And nothing else really matters until we get to that point. A couple of other shoutouts from the Bucks game. Again, I thought Max Drews was just awesome and I thought he kicked Toreen Prince's ass. And that was a significant swing factor in this game. I also thought the Cavs defended Damian Lillard extremely well. Isaac Akoro in particular did a really nice job. His shifts were excellent in this game. I also thought it was just a great example of how devastating Cleveland's driving kick attack can be in the sense that no player on the team scored over 20 points.

Darius Carlin and Donovan Mitchell were both broke on their pull-up threes, and it just didn't matter because they just picked Milwaukee apart for wide open catch-and-shoot-3s for their role players. Who's scoring big in the NBA this season? You are with all the new ways to get in on the action. action at Draft King's Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. For Monster Slams to Dishing the Rock to cleaning the glass, get behind your favorite players and the prop bets you can make on Draft Kings, the home of NBA player props.

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Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how did we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it.

Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas,

and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends,

me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand, because I, competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jen, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lena Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right

now, and I actually can win on any surface, because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court-side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential.

Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's move on to Nuggets Thunder. This is a really fun MVP showdown. It started off super high energy and a lot of shot attempts because the Thunder were running a lot of single coverage against Yokic with Hartnstein. So both guys were getting a bunch of shout-ups. Shea and Yolkid's attempted 21 shots between the two of them in the first quarter. It was kind of crazy. And it was funny too because neither guy could make a three-point shot to save their life.

But they were getting them up. Like, Shea is so good at driving to the basket that when he turns that right shoulder and just does that hard little stepback move, he can get a good look from three literally whenever he wants. And Yokic can get one whenever he wants just by popping out of ball screens or spacing above the key because he's generally being guarded by really big players that are defending in some sort of drop coverage, and he's just going to be wide open every time he pops out. Those threes were there. They were just both missing him. There was a lot of talk about Yokic's elbow and his jump shot in the game. And I remember a similar conversation happening last year when Yokic's jump shot was struggling surrounding his wrist. And again, I'm not debating whether or not

Yokic is actually hurt. I'm sure he is. But here's the thing. Regardless of whether or not it's an injury, him making that shot is vitally important to the ceiling of this team. O KC was doing an awesome job against Yokic in this game of swarming him on rolls, going under on inverted ball screens, and basically daring Yokic to make above the break threes. You know, you've seen it before. Like, okay, C will come from the weak side

with guys like J. Dub or Shea just swiping over the top and they got these long arms and they'll just go at these bigs when they catch on the roll and just swarm them and make life really difficult for them there. Yokic had an uncharacteristic, uncharacteristic poor shooting game because he had to drop back in those ball screens and start popping above the break and he just could knock him down. That's his counter to that coverage. When they're swarming him on rolls, he'll pop. And here's the thing, when he's hitting 45% of his threes, that's 1.35 points per possession. That's untenable for the defense. Now you're chasing him

off the line. He's rumbling downhill and he's attacking closeouts and you're in trouble. But here's the problem. Over the last 16 games, Yokic is shooting just 32.9% from 3. And this is the thing with the elbow. I'm sure the elbow is not helping things at this point, but we are now on almost a fourth of the season where he's back to shooting the ball extremely poorly again. It's just something to keep an eye on. Again, that's what happened in the Minnesota series. Defending Yowicz by daring him to shoot and his inability to knock down those three-point shots. Again, it's just something to keep an eye on. hopefully it's just a small trend in the season that he can kick before we get to April. But this game was just a complete and total outclassing by the Oklahoma City Thunder.

They shot better from two. They shot better from three. They got to the line more. They shot better when they got to the line. They outrebounded Denver by eight. They had more assists. They had fewer turnovers. They had more points off of turnovers.

They had more points in the paint. It was like total domination. I thought Shay and J-dub just eviscerated Denver's man-to-man defense with their ability to get downhill. You know, we've talked a lot about Yokic in his defense at the level of ball screens, but they don't have much in the way of perimeter containment either, just in terms of their guard defenders. Shea right away from the start of this game made it perfectly clear that he can drive past Christian Brown whenever he wants.

Really, the only guy I thought that kind of made Shea uncomfortable was Russ, who did some really nice work with physicality and back pressure, and he actually forced him into some pretty bad misses. But like everyone else, he was just going by whenever he wanted. and in ball screens, Yokic had a couple of different coverages he was using in this game. He was either coming all the way up to the level or he's sitting in a deeper

drop and none of it worked. When he was in the deeper drop, She could just get whatever he wanted in the mid-range. And Shay didn't shoot well from three in this game, but he was six for 12 on mid-range pull-ups. And then when Yokic came up to the level, he just go around him, either by splitting the ball screen or hitting like an out-dribble and make that aggressive dribble past him. She was just picking him apart.

I thought J-dub was brilliant. in the second half. He did some great work against Yokicin ball screens in the early third quarter, but he was one of the guys who really helped the Thunder crack Denver's zone. The Thunder eviscerated Denver's man-to-man defense in the half-court in this game. They got 1.23 points per half-court possession. A 123 offensive rating in the half court is outrageous. Denver's man-to-man defense could not guard Oklahoma City. So Mike Malone in that second half goes zone. And it gets him back into the game. They run zone for seven possessions in the third quarter. In the thunderscore, zero points. They couldn't get dribble penetration. They were generating these kind of

mediocre catch and shoot looks on the perimeter off of swing passes. So Denver worked their way back into the game. I thought Tim Legler is just an absolute legend and I've really enjoyed him being on call on the call on these games lately. He was doing a great job of explaining how when the zone is there, it contains dribble penetration, which was the specific problem that Denver was having with Oklahoma City all game long. But in the fourth quarter, the Thunder found a way to penetrate the zone, screens at the top, and then just beating the man in front of you and getting into the middle of the zone where everybody reacted where they generated higher quality catch and shoot looks. J. Dub did this several times. Alex Crusoe had a nice driving kick to the left corner

as well. As a result of that, they were able to generate higher quality catch and shoot looks. Then they started popping the ball around the perimeter. They had a really nice dunk that they got for Isaiah Hartnstein by moving the ball around a bunch of times getting Denver's zone moving, and Yolkich had to rotate out, and Chet just threw a beautiful pass from the top of the key to Hartnstein. He got a dunk on eight possessions of zone to start the fourth quarter. The Thunder scored 14 points, and that caused Mike Malone to bail on that too. Then Shea comes back in and closes the deal with a bunch of buckets. He gets another mid-range jump shot and pick and roll. He had a nasty hesitation move on Jamal Murray, where he just kind of looked at the rim as he

went forward right-hand left-side lay-up for another bucket, and then he had a step-back three at the top of the key. He finally made one that ended up being the dagger in this game, and this ended up being an absolute blowout as the Thunder won 127 to 103. I want to talk a little bit about MVP and about how this game kind of fits into that in tonight's rematch as well. But before we do that, I want to talk a little bit about Jalen Williams, who's been on an absolute tear.

He had 26, 9, and 8 last night. In his last 19 games, he's getting 23 points. per game, five rebounds and five assists on 59% true shooting. Not bad for a 23-year-old, right? He's been one of the best defensive players in the league over that span as well. He's just kind of like the prototypical Swiss Army Knife Forward, which is one of my favorite archetypes in the league. He's big and strong. He's a great athlete. He's a legit shooter. He had a rough start to this season jump shooting, but he's been over 40% from three in this span, and he was fantastic last year. He's a legit on-ball creator. He can shoot off the dribble. He can score from all

three levels. He's way ahead of where most forwards are as playmakers at this phase of his career. So many of these forwards can't, they're like one-to-one assist the turnover guys. You can count on on J-dub to just be another level above as a playmaker at the forward position than most guys are. He's just kind of a natural at it. Honestly, I tend to think a lot of that playmaking talent is natural. And he's a very good defensive player. He can guard multiple positions. He can defend both on and off the ball. And he's a good defensive rebound. Now, the next step, for him is becoming a reliable secondary ball handling option in the postseason context. It can't turn into Shea's got to make all the shots. That's where they get into issues, right?

But he's well on his way to that point. So I'm going to say the same thing that I said when we were talking about Cleveland. Five of the last seven teams to win at least 60 games in a season or to win at a 60 game pace in the shortens seasons failed to win their conference in the playoffs. Four of those five teams lost in the second rounder earlier. And the reason why, like we talked about earlier, is margins become less of a separator. Everyone is really good. Defenses are really good.

The game planning is incredible. And now it becomes about how do you match up against this team? Nothing else matters. For two weeks, you're playing against each other. It's going to denigrate down into half-court basketball. It's going to get super physical and it's going to come down to matchups. Oklahoma City is going to run into the same problem they ran into last year. Roll players making catch-and- shoot shot.

and is Jalen Williams going to be able to be that legitimate secondary option to help carry weight for Shea Gilles Alexander? That is the trend they're going to have to overcome if they're going to beat that trend or five of the last seven teams to win at this pace. It failed to have success in the postseason. A couple of things, I want to get to the Denver front and talk a little bit about the MVP race. So we already talked about the MVP race in our last show, but yesterday was a strong statement from Shea drops 40 picks apart Denver's defense despite a poor three-point shooting game. I thought he had a good defensive game as well. He's up to minus 500 on draft Kings to win the award after last night's game. But these same two teams play again tonight in

Oklahoma City. If Yokic is going to get back into the race, he's going to have to win tonight and he's going to have to look clearly better than Shea in the process. So what can Denver do to flip the script tonight. A couple things. One, I thought Yokic's at the level coverages were effective when he contained the ball. There were a couple times where he was late up to the level and Shea was able to split him or making an out-dribble and go the other

way. He gave up a little too much dribble penetration on some of those looks, but if he gets up to the level quickly and forces Shea to not get downhill but to take a retreat dribble, Shea struggles compared to most of his peers at skipping the ball out of ball pressure. So they can

actually do a good job of putting two on the ball with Shea and keeping their defense out of rotation, as long as Yokic gets up there quickly and is active with his hands to prevent Shea from splitting him off the dribble. Two, as a team, they need to do a better job of containing dribble penetration at all positions. We talked about that earlier. Three, I would absolutely try the zone again. I'd wait. I'd wait until Oklahoma City makes a second half run and try to just use it as a rhythm

disruptor. I think Yokic is going to have to hit some of those pick and pop jumpers like we talked about. And like, again, when you look at the way Oklahoma City is guarding him on those roles, it's just the easy counter is for him to pop. It just has to knock the shot down. If Yokic and the Nuggets get a big win tonight, it will flip the script and get things back to where they were yesterday. And if you looked at the odds yesterday, Yokic was like plus 200. He was back within striking distance. The narrative was gaining strength. If he gets a win tonight and Yokic is amazing the rest of the season and he demonstrates a little. bit of a closing of that gap, maybe he can make up ground and get to his fourth MVP, but it's

going to start tonight by flipping the script against the thunder. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we, how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it.

Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey, Jonas,

and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast,

I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris, every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Jen Chinchin win. I mean, she went down in three to, two. Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lerna Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now.

And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

All right, let's talk a little bit about the Golden State Warriors before we get out of here for today. A couple of big wins over the weekend against the Brooklyn Nets and the Detroit Pistons. Steph put on an absolute show against Brooklyn. Drop 40 points. Hey, one of the craziest shots of his career, left shoulder fade from 40 feet to beat the halftime buzzer,

just a ridiculous shot. I want to talk a little bit about that specific footwork and how Steph's just been deadly on it here in a little bit. He had two threes in the final six minutes that iced that game. He continues to be absolutely brilliant. and he dropped 32 more against the Pistons yesterday. We're now at a 15-game span from Steph, where he's played every night, hasn't missed a game,

averaged 31 points, four rebounds, and six assists on 65% true shooting. Remember, Steph's unanimous MVP campaign. He averaged 30 points a game on 67% true shooting. He's basically at that level, and he looks like it, too. I talked about how the best example of it is his paint scoring in a video a while back. I shared some stats with you guys about how since Jimmy Butler came to the team, his rim attempts and his efficiency of skyrocketed since Jimmy came to town. But another example that has come to light to me is his movement shooting, particularly sprinting

to his right. I've talked about this concept on the show before, but it is the hardest shot for a right-handed shooter. Most right-handed shooters, when they're taking a jump shot, their shoulders are not square to the basket. They're tilted slightly to the left. Why? Because it's just kind of a natural spot for the shooting motion to exist. Most right-handed shooters are very comfortable moving to the left, shooting to the left. Because as they're running, it's an easy one-two with that right-foot, left foot, as they're planning their feet to get up straight up and down. And when they're off to dribble, they're already can'ted in that direction so they can

take step-backs and shoot. Shea's a great example. That step-back that Shay shoots all the time, he's using that right foot to jab because his right foot's going to be forward when he shoots anyway. And so, like, as you're moving as a shooter to your left, it's easier. Most ball handling shooters in the league, if you funnel them to the right, they're going to go to the rim. If you funnel them to the left, they're going to settle for a pull-up jump shot. That's like a basic defensive principle that works for the most part at all levels.

But the very best shooters in the world can also shoot really well moving to the right. It's just way more difficult, specifically on your legs. That same dynamic is reversed. I want to shoot with my right foot slightly canted forward and my left foot slightly back, but I'm running towards my right-hand side. So as I'm running, my left foot is closer to the basket, and my right foot is closer to half court. And so in order to rise up and knock down a shot sprinting to my right,

I have to plant that left foot, swing that right foot all the way around and plant it as close to forward as possible, usually not. And then as I'm jumping, I have to square up in mid-air in order to rise up and knock the shot down. it is a very difficult shot specifically on your legs. And that's the most exciting part that I've seen from Steph over the course the last couple of weeks other than the stuff in the paint. He's sprinting into that jump shot running to his right, and he's hitting that thing.

He hit a big one against the pistons late. He had a big one against the nets late. He had another one a couple games earlier. The fade away that he hit against the nets, that's also a same sort of concept. He's pivoting over his left shoulder and squaring up in, mid-air to knock down a shot. That to me is a great sign that Steph has a really strong base right now. And that, to me, is the most important part. You're seeing it too. He had a little

step-back jumper that he missed against a Sarr-Thompson in the, I think it was in the late third, it could have been in the fourth quarter. But he got tons of separation against a Sart-Thompson, and I'm like, oh, my goodness. Like, Sart-Thompson's one of the most athletic perimeter defenders we have in the league, and Steph just basically shucked him off and got an easy look. Steph is looking fantastic and that is exciting because there is no championship ceiling for this team even with trades, even with roster upside, even with Jimmy Butler,

there's no championship upside for this team unless Steph Curry gets back to top tier superstar level and we're at about a month now of him being at that level, which is super, super encouraging. But I want to shout out some of Steph's teammates from the Pistons game. The Pistons defended Steph pretty well. He grinded out his 32 points because he's a legend, but it wasn't easy. Assar Thompson did a good job on him in this game.

Jalen Duren logged some really good at the level reps in that fourth quarter, even got a strip on Steph trying to cross over in front of him in that stretch. But the Warriors were able to go somewhere else for offense down the stretch. Jimmy was fantastic all night. He had 26, 9 and 5, one of his better stat lines as a warrior, did a lot of work against Isaiah Stewart in switches in the bench groups. he's already showing some nice chemistry with Quentin Post as like a ball screen guy. He can get some favorable switches there because nobody wants to leave Quentin Post open on the pop if they can avoid it.

He's good at like kind of operating in the dunker spot off of Jimmy. And Jimmy's just doing a really nice job with those bench groups. But he also hit one of the biggest shots of the game late. Tie game, a little over a minute left, just cleared the left side of the floor, gave the ball to Jimmy against Tobias Harris. And he just sat in that hesitation dribble and rose up over the top and knocked down a big shot to put the Warriors up to. And then Draymond Green, two massive plays, a beautiful pass to Steph on a cut where he was cutting through the lane and Malik Beasley was like face guarding Steph.

And Draymond identified that he was face guarding him and that means he's open. If he's being face guarded, it means he's not watching man and ball. He's only watching man. So Dremon just through this easy, breezy little pass and Steph saw it, just sealed Malik a little bit, allowed the pass to come in right over the top and then flipped it in. for an and one. Beautiful read from Dremont Green. And then the game winner with about 30 seconds left just confidently stepped into a three on the right wing and switched it. There was a lot of time on the shot clock when that shot went up. So Dremont literally trusted himself down, what was it, down two or down one? I can't remember exactly down in the final minute to rise up and knock down a

shot with plenty of time left in the shot clock. Swished it. Just unbelievable plays. On one hand, and the luxury of having an apex star to give the ball too late to go get a bucket. But on the other hand, a confident veteran who can make simple reads and step up and make big shots and big moments. I thought it was awesome that those two stepped up and made the plays late to beat the Pistons. I want to shout out some of the other role players as well. Moses Moody, he had a rough shooting night overall. But he made two huge plays late. He had a big catch and shoot three out of the right corner.

And then after Draymond's three, applying some good ball pressure to Cade Cade, and strips Cade at half court, one of the biggest plays of the game. A big steal. He had three steals in this game. And then Guy Santos just active all over the floor. He had an incredible offensive rebound put back where he got knocked to the floor off of like a little shove. But he just kind of fed the ball into the basket and got an and one. He had this nice play too late in the game where he was operating with the ball at the right wing. And there was off ball action running. And the pistons were just completely geared towards the off ball action. and Guy just ripped through to the right, saw a driving lane,

and got all the way of the basket and made a layup. He looked awesome. He had 15 points and six rebounds and was a plus 12. The Warriors are 11 and 2 in their last 13 games. Now just five games back from the two seed as they continue to climb in the standings. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.

We'll be back tomorrow with a breakdown of that rematch between the Thunder and the Nuggets, as well as a couple other games from tonight's slate. I will see you guys then. 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. I appreciate you.

But if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas.

Nice. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it,

but you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends.

Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, reader Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all. embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardweight with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This speech is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having him with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor.

It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to, listen to learn the hard way on the IHard radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed human.