The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Jalen Brunson & Knicks ROLLING + Reacting to Kevin Durant’s NBA milestone w/ Suns

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Jason Timpf is back reacting to an exciting night of basketball led by Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and the New York Knicks defeating the Indiana Pacers 128-115. Jason tips his cap to KAT for dropping 40 points on Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers, and gives his flowers to Josh Hart for his tenacity on both ends of the floor, including pouring in 30 points and 10 rebounds. Jason gives us the keys to the Knicks’ success as New York City’s premier NBA franchise attempts to capture their first Larry O’Brien trophy in several decades. Next, Jason recaps Kevin Durant’s performance for the Phoenix Suns as he entered the 30,000 point club, joining rarefied air in NBA history. Timpf proceeds to explain why Durant’s scoring prowess is still so impressive after coming back from a devastating ACL injury, proving the sure-fire Hall of Famer to be one of the best offensive players in the Association’s history. Then, Jason spins negative and explains why the Phoenix Suns’ roster issues, exacerbated by ballooned player salaries, could hold them back as their short NBA title window appears to be closing. Timeline: 4:15 - Start 5:00 -  Knicks/Pacers 17:30 - Kevin Durant enters the 30k club 25:45 - Suns/Grizzlies #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.

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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 IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

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Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.c-o-slash-B ball. Welcome to Neeps tonight here at the Volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week. We got a jam-pack show for you today.

We're hitting both TNT games from last night as the Knicks get a big win on the road against the Pacers and then the Grizzlies do the same on the road against the suns. A lot of interesting stuff to get into. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.

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We're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure you guys follow us there. And last but last but at least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can hit them in our Friday mailbags. throughout the rest of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So we're going to start with Nick's Pacers, a very interesting example of the role that matchups play in the NBA. The Pacers

did about as good of a job on Jalen Brunson in this game that I've ever seen a team do. They started with Nemhard on him, but it was a steady diet of Nemhard, Knee Smith, T.J. McConnell, and they were just relentless with physical ball pressure all night long, staying attached, swiping at the ball, being physical with him, frustrating him. They stayed attached to him on screening actions. Even the tougher ones. You know, Jalen Brunson will sometimes like get into the middle of the floor. And if he doesn't like what he's got, he'll pitch the ball out to a big flashing up high.

And then he'll sprint off of that for a dribble handoff. But even on those, he was coming off the dribble handoff and just running right into another defender. They closed off passing angles on him with length. Made it really difficult for him to feed the roll man when he was getting trapped on some of those actions. They kept him off the foul line. It's the first time all season that a team held Jalen Brunson to zero free throw attempts. I thought that was interesting. And it got him into foul trouble.

And I thought most of that foul trouble actually came down to his own frustrations. Three of the fouls that he had in this game, he basically just either hacked a dude or shoved somebody over when he was clearly frustrated. But here's the thing. The Pacers match up well with the Knicks on the perimeter. They've got a lot of guys that they can throw at Jalen Brunson. Nemhard can do a good job. Smith is big and physical, can give him some issues.

T.J. McConnell, a fire hydrant that can beat him to spots. Those guys give him some issues. The flip side is, though, without Miles Turner, they match up terribly with Carl Anthony Towns. And he absolutely fried Thomas Bryant in every which way in this game. It's beating him with the classic pick and pop stuff that the Knicks do all the time. He beat him several times with drives. He beat him out of the post. Like, Bryant looked lost, chasing him around on the perimeter.

There's a big possession in the fourth quarter of this game. where they needed to stop late shot clock situation. There's like three, four seconds on the shot clock. And the ball's in the right corner, deep in the right corner. And Cat kind of flashes to the right wing to get the ball. And Thomas Bryant runs out there to try to like deny the pass. As soon as Cat catches it, he just rips back to the left and goes right by Thomas Bryant gets a wide open lay.

It's just bad defense. But that's the thing. Like a lot of times Carl Anthony Towns will put big guys into situations that they're not used to being in because he's such a different type of outside in center. The Pacers tried all sorts of things. They tried a centerless look where they went with Siakum and Obie Toppin at the 4-5, and Kat just promptly got too easy post-seal buckets, a transition one against Ben Mather and a little post move on the right block against Obie Toppin.

They tried putting a wing on him and refusing to switch so that he couldn't get open on the pop, but then they just used Kat as a screener and ended up getting Mikhail Bridges downhill for an easy drop-off pass to Josh Hart. They couldn't keep him off the offensive glass. They just didn't have the bodies to match him. up with Carl Anthony Towns. And he torched him for it. 40 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Such an interesting example of that dynamic though. Like the styles make fights. And if you, if you've got the guys to match up with a certain type of player, you can be in a good spot there. But if you don't have

a match up for a different type of player, you can be completely screwed. And it didn't matter how good of a job they did on Brunson again. The best job I've seen someone do on Brunson in a long time. And it just didn't matter because they didn't have the bodies for Carl Anthony Towns. It's an interesting example of that dynamic. Again, injuries play a role in this, but I just thought it was a really interesting storyline in that game. I thought Josh Hart had a fantastic game. A lot of the usual transition pushes where he just looks like a bowling ball to the rim. He had 12 points in transition in this game. To me, Josh Hart represents the consistent second wave of rim pressure when the Knicks are in offense on offense in the half court. Whether it's Jalen Brunson,

whether it's Carl Anthony Towns, whether it's O.G. in McHale, it doesn't matter who it is. That's initiating things. As soon as he sees his man turn his head, he is cutting to the front of the rim. And if he doesn't get the ball on the cut, he's there for the offensive glass. He had 10 points on cuts in this game. He had four points on offensive rebounds. Think about how crazy that is to have a 30 point game where you have 12 in transition, 10 on cuts, and four in offensive rebounds, basically putting up a 30 ball almost entirely on the margins just by running his lane and cutting every single time someone got to the basket in the Knicks offense. It's that second wave, right? First wave comes in, all attention gets directed towards that. Josh is always just sneaking in

right behind that and doing damage. Overall, I thought the Knicks' defense did a great job of containing the ball in this game too. Particularly on Pascal Seacum, Pascal had 24 points, but literally every single one of them were either in transition or as a play finisher. He didn't get a single bucket or a single point in the post or in an ISO or as the ball handler in a ball screen. When he got into those situations, guys were walling him up, keeping him in front and forcing him to shoot over the top and he was missing. And again, like, that's your job. Like every one of these star players, you're not going to stop them entirely. And again, Pascal got 24 because he's still a really good basketball player. But if you at least make them rely on the tougher

shots that are in their diet, you can limit their effectiveness game to game based on various. We all know Pascal can hit those shots, but he also can miss him. But the only way you can get him into that situation is if that's what he's relying on instead of getting easy stuff just beating people off the dribble. I thought they did a good job on Halliburton. They held him to 16 points and forced him into four turnovers. I've talked a lot of late when we talked Nix about how devastating they can be. When they play defense and they get stops and they force turnovers and they run out in transition.

When they focus in on getting stops, run out for quick shots, get back and defend again, that's when they're at their best. And really, I thought that was what triggered the run that ended the game. The Pacers actually cut this one down to four in the late third quarter. But like, McHale Bridges stays attached to Tyrese Halliburton on a ball screen, forces a missed mid-range shot. They run out and get a bucket. McHale walls up Siakum on an ISO and forces him into an overtop shot that he misses.

They run out the other way. Deuce McBride misses a shot. It gets blocked, but they get an offensive rebound and they get to the foul line. Landry Shamet defends Haliburton really, or defends Andrew Nemhard really well in a ball screen, forces him into a tough mid-range fadeaway that he leaves way short and then runs the floor to the left corner and Shamit hits a corner three in transition. Tyrese Halliburton coming off of a little ball screen action with Thomas Bryant, it's a little miscommunication.

He thinks Thomas Bryant's going to pop, but instead he rolls. Tyrese just throws it over the top. They're running out the other way and here's campaign with a reverse layup on the left side of the basket. That is when the Knicks are at their best. Stops, rebounds, pushes, quick shots, and transition. I think that's the important thing that they're going to have to rely on, because again, when they get into the half court, especially against some of the best teams in the league,

if you let this become a slowdown game, there are better slowdown teams than you. So that's got to be an important part of what they do. A couple other Knicks I wanted to shout out. I thought Deuce McBride was great. The Pacers jumped out to a seven-point lead early in this game. He hit three-threes in his first shift that really helped flip the tie to this game back towards the Knicks.

And then Precious to chew up. Like, Precious has been getting a lot of opportunities here with the starting group since O.G. Ninobe got hurt. And there's an obvious difference. Like, he doesn't shoot the ball very well. There are a lot of possessions where I'm watching the Knicks and someone gets in the lane and they fire a kickout pass and it's to Precious in the corner. And you're like, he clangs it off the side of the rim and you're like, that's a shot that O. And then and O.G. and Obie can make.

But you just have to find a way to make a positive impact anyway when you're a replacement player like that. First on the glass. Precise had five offensive rebounds last night. overall driving closeouts. When you catch in the corner instead of shooting, just rip and go to the basket. Try to make something good happen that way. He had a big rescue possession where he ended up with the ball in the late clock, like late in the shot clock, just went right at Pascal Seaccom's chest and bodied him and made a little left shoulder hook in the lane. That's a positive impact. He was active as an off ball screener. He got a, again, this is a great way to generate spacing when

you can't shoot. I think it was McHale Bridges driving from the top of the key and campaign was on the right wing and precious to chew it was in the right corner and instead of just standing there he just ran up and back screen campaign's man campaign relocated to the corner and it was just an easy kickout past a campaign for three that's creating spacing with your screening without needing to actually knock down spot up shots i just thought he played really well and tibs clearly trust him because he's been playing huge minutes as of late i thought that was a really nice road win for the nicks on the pacer's front again i want to kind of compliment them for the defense on Brunson. It's just one of the better performances that I've

seen a team do against him. I thought their off ball and transition defense did them in on this one. Specifically, Tyrus Halliburton and Ben Matherin, they had really rough nights in this department. Against the Knicks, again, you have to know that they're trying to run the floor. They are trying to do a lot of crashing, a lot of cutting, a lot of running. They are the most efficient transition offense in the NBA. They are a top 10 offensive rebound scoring team. And they are they're top 10 in scoring off of cuts. It's a huge part of their game plan. When you're playing the Knicks, you got to keep them off the glass,

you got to get back in transition, you've got to watch those second wave cuts like we were talking about with Josh Hart. And yet time and time again, the Pacers would have bad floor balance and just get beat down the floor in transition just because the Knicks were running harder. Or in the half court, a guy like Josh Hart or Precious Tcha, or Carl Anthony Towns or some Knicks player

would just slash to the basket behind the play and clean things up while there were Pacers who weren't paying attention. This is actually a big picture problem for the Pacers that extends beyond last night. The Pacers give up the fifth most points per game in the entire NBA off of cuts. And they give up the ninth most points directly off of putbacks, meaning quick offensive rebound putbacks in the NBA per synergy. It's just something they need to get way better at. Ben Mathuron in particular is really bad at it. He's always just kind of like standing upright and ball watching when he's in off ball situations. It's just something. It's a lot of,

just a recipe for getting beat there. The other thing I want to talk about is the Thomas Bryant issue. Again, it's hard to overcome a drop off from Miles Turner to Thomas Bryant. Brian is just really bad on defense, especially in space. But he also doesn't provide any rim protection, so it's tough. But he usually makes up for it on offense. And he just hasn't been good enough there. He had 18 last night. But I thought one of the big things that stood out to me in terms of like disrupting the rhythm of the Pacer's offense is that kickback on the pick and pot where it's usually Halliburton and Turner, where Halliburton will come off that screen,

Miles will pop, he'll pitch it back, and Miles will either pump fake or drive the clothes out or take that pick and pop three. And Thomas just wasn't taking it. He was just catching at the top of the key wide open, not taking it, but also not driving it. He would like catch there and then just turn and look the other way for someone else to run action.

It almost seemed like a break in the wheel of the way that the Pacers want to run offense. A couple of different ways you can do that. Shoot it. If you're not going to shoot it, just roll. There were a few times in the second half where he started rolling and he brought in low man help, which opened up the skip pass that they were able to get advantages out of. Another thing he was able to do, he had a shorter jumper around the top of the key. Okay, you don't want to take the 24 footer, go in there and take the 18, 19 footer, right? Like, do something to be a threat when you're popping out of those

ball screens, especially when they're playing you because you're specifically a good offensive player. But the Pacers are going to have to find a way to make better use of Thomas Bryant and these minutes when Miles Turner is out because it looked rough on both ends last night. All right, before we move on to the Sons and the Grizzlies, we want to do our segment that we have with our partner Microsoft. Welcome to course correction, brought to you by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under immense pressure to get things right. They must rise to the occasion, turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries with AI solutions, simplified

cloud and data management and trustworthy, responsible AI. And when you're in the NBA, you have your own hurdles to face. In this segment, we explore the challenges faced by teams or star players and how they can turn things around. Whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say, bring it on. This week, we're discussing the challenge faced by Kevin Durant after his Achilles' injury. I was amazed watching Kevin Durant last night.

The Suns were an absolute mess. They had several guys playing that probably shouldn't be in the rotation. for a serious NBA team. They looked incredibly sloppy and undisciplined. One of the worst transition defense performances I've seen. They gave up 20 offensive rebounds. We're going to talk all about that here in a few minutes when we get into that game breakdown.

But like a shining light in that darkness was Kevin Durant. 34 points on 18 shots, only one turnover, five blocks battling with Jared Jackson trying to box him out on the glass all night long. And to top it off in the process, he enters into rare territory. Kevin Durand is only the eighth player in NBA history to score 30,000 points in an NBA career. Rareified air there, a group of guys that it's an honor to be associated with. But to me, the most impressive part of all of this is the circumstances he overcame to get here. Kevin Durant suffered the most terrifying injury that a basketball player can suffer,

an Achilles rupture, right at the peak of his powers. He was playing so incredibly well when he took that little baseline. jumper that he knocked down where he originally suffered the calf injury, and then he played amazing in his first few minutes in the NBA finals before he went down. You can't imagine a more discouraging set of circumstances for a basketball player. And instead of letting that injury be a signal of the end, he came back every bit as good as ever on the other side of the injury. 7,068 of those 30,0008 points that he's scored so far came after the Achilles tear.

And he's done it on higher volume and efficiency than he was doing before the injury. In the five seasons before Kevin Durant's injury, he averaged 26 points per game on just under 64% true shooting. In the five seasons since, he's averaging 28 points per game on over 64% true shooting. any drop in his athleticism he's more than made up for with a mastery of the modern game as a playmaker and as a floor general.

I was really amazed by this in the Brooklyn Nets days. As the league kind of shifted to like really good spacing in the spread pick and roll attack, he was so incredibly good at picking teams apart as a pick and roll ball handler with the Nets. And we've seen that extend throughout this late phase of his career. Like he's just the product of a consistent pursuit of excellence. It's got a legendary work ethic. His shooting workouts are the example set for all pros around the world. Still, when I'm talking to the kids that I train in high school,

I talk about doing every single rep at game speed, something that Kevin Durant has been preaching. He's just, KD is one of the best ambassadors to the game of basketball that has ever come into this league. And I'm thankful for him. And I just wanted to take a second before we talked about that game last night to congratulate him on overcoming the adversity of his injury and to enter into

rarefied air and NBA history. That's it for this week's course correction. Remember, Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to take bold steps and make informed decisions sparking new ideas to help drive your business forward. Microsoft is your trusted partner. You can navigate your journey with confidence,

finding innovative solutions and reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft.com slash challengers to learn more. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name?

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... 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. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. 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, unhumored me, with Robert Smygel 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, 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. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite Therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field

and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch.

Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns. Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth, or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person.

Join me, Keir Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way. Open your free, our Heart Radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear.

The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial, calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

All right, let's talk Grizzlies sons. Now we can go negative. I thought last night was a classic example of the difference between a serious team in the NBA and an unsurious team. Both in like basketball character, like what the guys in the locker room are willing to do, but also in roster building. I thought the Sun's put forth one of the more embarrassing transition defense performances I've seen in the last season. Not getting matched up, not sprinting back. A lot of repeated confusion early on in the game between Bull Bull and Kevin Durant about who they were guarding. And most of that looked like Bull Bull, just not paying

attention. Katie's constantly pointing telling him where to go, but we'll get into that with Bobo in a minute. They gifted Memphis so many advantages without even needing to do anything other than just push the ball up the floor. Memphis logged 36 transition possessions last night. That's one of their highest totals of this entire season. All of their bigs were great running the floor, especially Jaron Jackson and Brandon Clark. Santi Aldama came right in and scored 11 points in like his first two minutes on the floor. A bunch of those were in transition. John Morant, one of the biggest plays of the game. Bow bowl hits a three on the left. and cuts the lead to three. Memphis just inbounds to Jha, and Jha races up the court for a layup while

every son is just glued up to their man instead of getting into normal helpside position, making things difficult. On the glass, Memphis had 20 offensive rebounds in this game. Their bigs were great again. All their bigs did great. E.D. Jackson and Clark each had at least three offensive rebounds. Brandon Clark just did a ton of damage to Bull Bull, who just looked like he was in La La Land literally all night. He had a couple of big ones in Crunch Time. Zach Edie was punishing every single time a Phoenix guard would get switched on to him. He'd just bury him and get an offensive rebound. Vince Williams Jr. Relentless corner crashing.

Jalen Wells, great crashing. Santiago had three offensive rebounds. They just smashed Phoenix on the glass. Meanwhile, on the other end, Memphis posted an 83% defensive rebound percentage, which is excellent. There are things that serious NBA teams do every single game. the majority of possessions, just because it's a non-negotiable to get to where you want to go

if you have goals of making a deep playoff run. You have to be willing to run the floor all game long, every night. You have to be willing to get in there and scrap for rebounds. If you don't, you will get utterly smashed on the margins and it will make it nearly impossible for you to overcome. These two teams were virtually dead even last night

in half-court efficiency. The margins were literally, literally what costs Phoenix the game. And this is where we have to look at roster building. When you build your roster around three max contract guys, mostly through trades instead of through naturally in the draft, you inevitably sign yourself up for a lot of discounted players surrounding them. And that especially is going to come to the surface,

and we've talked about this a lot on the show over the years, when one of those max contract stars is out of the lineup, then you end up having to lean on those guys even more. and it shows up even when Beal plays simply because Beal is not particularly good at dirty work, right? I thought it was very interesting just to see the difference in talent on the floor for either team last night. Like Bull Bull started for Phoenix.

And he put up a monster stat line for the record, which is a testament to his talent level. 18 points, 14 rebounds, two steals, and four blocks. And I thought he was mostly bad. And I thought he was mostly hurting his team. because his motor just kept shutting off in the middle of the gate. He was the primary cause of their transition defense issues, jogging back. I literally watched him running step for step with Jaron Jackson,

with Jaron Jackson about one step in front of him, and he's clearly running right to the front of the rim. And instead of Bullwold sprinting to get in front of Jaron Jackson and try to disrupt it, he just was content to jog right behind him until a swing pass went right to Jaron Jackson, he got a dunk. Multiple possessions where he's just floating around, guarding no one. You saw that Santi Aldama up and under, like double pump scoop

shot that he made, just not matched up in transition. Bull, bowl, just floating around guarding nobody. The, like, there was that the two buckets, I talked about the Jaron Jackson dunk. There was another transition dunk, or a floater that he gave up to Brandon Clark where he's just floating around, guarding

nobody. Next thing you know, Brandon Clark flashes to the front of the rim, and by the time Bo Bole realizes what's happening, Brandon Clark's already shooting a little floater right in front of the rim that he makes. He just wasn't paying attention for like when he was paying attention he was dominant blocking shots getting contested rebounds making plays on offense but it was literally like a it was like a 50-50 shot whether or not he'd be mentally or physically engaged in the possession like he had 14 rebounds several plays

where he got in the mix and beat everyone to the ball because he has ludicrous physical tools but he gave up so many of those offensive rebounds to memphis i lost count he'd just be floating around 10 15 feet from the rim while like six or seven dudes are under the basket fighting for a loose ball. He's just not in there. It's like you've got to get in there and go to war with your teammates, possession by possession. It's a crucial one late in the game. I tweeted the video out. You can go to my Twitter feed. I underscore Jason LT. You can see the example. He's just kind of standing around 15, 18 feet from the basket on the left side.

Brandon Clark sprints right by him. There's all these dudes in this scrum under the basket. him and Tyos Jones are both just bouncing around 18 feet from the basket, not guarding anybody, while Brandon Clark's getting an offensive rebound put back in crunch time. It was a six-point game in crunch time. But I want to be clear, it's not just bowl bowl. Tie Ty-Tie Washington. It's 0 for 6 from 3. Obviously heard.

He's a career 23.5% from 3, though. On 98 attempts as an NBA player, he can't shoot. Also the decision-making. He took a pull-up 3 in the first half when KD was asking for the ball. A guy who couldn't shoot took a pull-up three when KD was asking for the ball. He shot a floater in transition when it was a two-on-four when they had no numbers. He back-rimmed it and missed it. Mason Plumley out there who just fumbles away easy rebounds and has been a huge part of their rebounding problems this season.

Like there's just a lot of limited players that probably shouldn't be in the rotation for a serious team. There's a reason why Bull Bull Bull was available for the Suns. there's a reason why he hasn't been able to find a consistent home in the NBA because despite his talent, he's not a possession-to-possession guy that you can trust to do his job. So coaches don't trust him so they don't want to play it. But then you look on the other side and it's like for Memphis, they're built organically through the draft. So they can afford to have many more good basketball players on their team. They don't have an obvious weak link in their top five.

Phoenix has like five dudes on their entire roster that they can really trust when they're healthy. And most of them are redundant and do the same job. Memphis's bench is rock solid. Santiago Dama's awesome. Brandon Clark is better than any center on the Sun's roster. Vince Williams can play. G.J. Jackson can play.

Scotty Pippin Jr. can play. Luke Kinnar can shoot the basketball. It's just you got to look at the reality of the roster here. Phoenix has a lot of players who aren't very good NBA players. And that's why they're discounted. that's why they're available. You know, I've thought a lot about this concept from the standpoint of like,

of how to go about the process of getting to a championship. You can't skip steps. You can't just sign a few stars and go win a title. You have to have organizational excellence that is part of the process of you getting those stars. That is part of the process of you building out actually talented role players. to surround those guys with. That organizational excellence from the scouting department

to the general manager, to the coaching staff, to the types of stars you're built around, to the guys that end up coming up through the program as part of that basketball character you're trying to build, that's the kind of group that ends up playing basketball like the Memphis Grizzlies do. And when you throw together three max players and one of them's not good at dirty work and Bradley Beale,

and you're just looking for every single discount castaway in the NBA, you're going to end up having something that looks like this Phoenix Sun's roster. And like, here's the thing, as far as the margins go, one of the things that makes a good basketball player, a good basketball player, is their natural inclination to do the dirty work. I've noticed this with the Lakers this year. They had no interest in doing it. But then here's what happened.

They traded a bad defender and DeAngelo Russell for Dorian Finney Smith, a good defender. Jared Vanderbilt, who was hurt, got healthy. He's a fantastic defender. Those guys started guarding. Suddenly LeBron got swept into it. Now he's guarding. Now all of a sudden, there's just more players on the team in the rotation that are professionals at doing their jobs on the margin. And it's completely galvanized a roster that was unwilling to do that work early in the season. Again, you cannot skip steps. Organizational excellence is the only way from the top down to actually get to the finish line in this league. It's okay to have a weak point, but you can't have multiple week points along the line. You can't have a weak front office and have your

entire like basketball culture inside the locker room built around guys that aren't willing to do that work. A couple of the Memphis shoutouts before we're done. I thought Jaron Jackson and John Morant and Desmond Bain all made huge plays in the clutch. And this has been a consistent theme. Like when Memphis has struggled in the clutch this year, a lot of it does come down to that shot making. And when they do make shots, they win. Jah, huge plays in this one, that stepback midranger that he had kind of right around the right elbow,

that driving transition layup we talked about. Desmond Bain hit a huge pull-up three coming off a screen at the top of the key. Big shot in that game. Jaron Jackson, like a couple of big plays against KD, an easy duck in, where he just kind of bullied in, got to the spot, hit a little hook over his left shoulder, then a sweeping move across the middle of the lane where he drew a foul. Like those guys, again, they're going to go as far as those guys go in terms of making shots. Santay Aldammo is really impressive.

Big part of the early stretch that the Grizzlies went on to go on a run. He had 11 points in like the first two minutes he was on the floor. And then Vince Williams and Brandon Clark. They're just, in order to, punish the sons for playing bad basketball. You had to be playing really good high motor basketball on your end. And I thought Vince Williams and Brandon Clark were a huge part of that. Shout out to the Grizzlies.

That's a big win on the road there in Phoenix. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We've got two more nights of basketball before we get into the trade deadline. We're going to be covering those games here. And the next week we'll do some fun stuff to kill time before we get back into it. Again, I appreciate you guys for rocking with me and supporting the show. And I'll see you tomorrow.

The volume. What's up, guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys. I appreciate you. If you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.

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Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment,

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