The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Jason Timpf goes SCORCHED EARTH on Luka Doncic's EMBARRASSING play lately + 5 NBA Tuesday takeaways

Episode Date: February 26, 2026

For a limited time, our listeners get 50% off FOR LIFE, Free Shipping, AND 3 Free Gifts at Mars Men at https://Mengotomars.com Jason reacts to the Los Angeles Lakers’ ugly loss to the Orlando Magic including troubling plays from Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves. He also goes in depth discussing the point Zach Lowe made about Luka being "unwatchable" and what needs to change. Then he gives more NBA takeaways on James Harden and the streaking Cleveland Cavaliers, Paolo Banchero's Orlando Magic, Jonathan Kuminga's debut with the Atlanta Hawks, and Cason Wallace's performance with the OKC Thunder. All lines presented by Hard Rock Bet.  #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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All right, well, go to Hoops tonight here at The Volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all if you guys are having a great week. Got a jam-pack show for you guys today. We had a fun Tuesday night slate. And so I'm going to bounce around that slate of games with five. big takeaways. You guys know the drill before we started,

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Right, mailbag colon, write your question. We'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. Our first big takeaway from the Tuesday night slate, the Cleveland Cavaliers continue to look like the best team in the east, while still having so much that they can improve on. They dominated the Knicks from start to finish last night. A little bit of a sloppy game.

There were 19 turnovers between the two teams in the first half. I don't think I've ever seen a game with as many botched fast breaks as we saw last night, whether it was like kick ahead passes that went too long, throwing the ball right to the other team. There were 40 transition possessions between the Cavs and the Knicks last night for the game. and they totaled just 28 points on those 40 possessions, which is legitimately hard to do where you're typically expecting that number to be almost double that because that's how efficient transition offenses tend to be.

But anyway, it was sloppy game, but Josh Hart gets a little basket on a cut in the middle of the lane on one of the first possessions of the game. And the calves responded with an Evan, Mowbly catch and shoot three in the left corner. And the calves never trailed the rest of the way. They cruised. They took a double digit lead early where, Dean Wade got super hot and ended up hitting back to back to back threes.

They worked their way back into it. Cat has a little run in the second quarter. They end up cutting the lead to one. But the cat was basically cruised from there. They go by as much as 20 in the fourth quarter before finishing with a 15 point win. It was a defensive run in the third quarter. I thought Jared Allen and Evan Mobley in particular did a phenomenal job on the backline all game. Donovan Mitchell for having a rough shooting night. I thought he came out with a great deal of intensity defensively,

especially playing in passing lanes and making plays, you know, attacking the basketball. He had three steals. The Cavs held the Knicks to just 11 points in the third quarter as they pulled away. And again, a couple of just key scoring burst. We talked about the Dean Wade won early. I thought Jalen Tyson had a really nice burst in the middle third quarter. There's kind of this weird stretch where neither team could score for a little while and the lead was hanging right around, I think, like nine. And they ended up going on a run. James Hardy hits a catch and shoot three off of the right wing. And then Jayland Tyson makes a couple. really nice plays. He has a relocation off the right corner to the right wing, a skip pass from

Dennis Schroeder where he hits a three. And then a nice little two-man game with Sam Merrill, where he kind of sets the screen, slips out of it. Both guys linger with Merrill for a second. Merrill throws a really nice pass over the top, and Tyson hits just a sky high floater in the lane. Jalen Tyson's actually becoming one of my favorite young role players in the league. He got pulled from the starting lineup as the team has gotten healthier. He had a handful of not-so-great games and occasionally he was trying to do a little bit too much off the don't blame him. He's had some big offensive burst this year, you know. So like a lot of that is just confidence in him trying to dive into that part of his game. But again, this team is so talented and has such big goals this season. When he plays in the flow like he did yesterday, that's where he can be a profoundly useful player because he's a knockdown catch and shoot guy who also understands off ball movement on that third quarter kick out three, for example. Mohamed, Mohamed Diawar is the one is guarding him. He's kind of like sinking into the lane. in low man help. He relocates up to the right wing because the right wing was vacated off of the way that

that action had set up. And it just created a longer closeout. And that longer closeouts harder to make. He ends up getting a really good look from three and he knocks it down. As we know, Jalen Tyson has been absolutely deadly on a wide open catch and shoot threes this year. Dennis Schroeder, by the way, I want to shout him out here. His drives have been immensely valuable to the calves already in this segment of the season since he made the move over. He was the one who drew that low man help with his drive off of the left wing. He had a couple of really nice drop-off passes to both Donovan Mitchell and Jalen Tyson for dunks in this game, cutting along the baseline.

Once again, off the attention drawn from his drives. That cut is another great example of that offball movement from Jalen Tyson, just kind of slipping along the baseline when he sees that runway, slipping out of that screen with Merrill, like I talked about. That's a really nice little spacing read. He had a really nice roll to the basket on a Donovan Mitchell kind of guard-guard screen in the first half where he got down. down the lane slipped and ended up making a little right-handed layup. And then he just does so many

little things. He's an absolute scrapper who rebounds like a machine. He's a capable perimeter defender as long as he keeps that at the top of his mind. When he's in this role where he's just focusing on playing in the flow on both ends of the floor and just doing his job, he's becoming one of the most useful young role players in the league. I've really, really enjoyed rooting for him. And again, like, the Cavs are just one of the best cutting and spacing teams in the league. This is a big part of why James Hardin has been such an efficient ball handler for them, which we're going to talk about in a minute. This is a big part of why Dennis Schroeder's drives have brought a ton of value to this particular

team. Dennis Schroeder has 33 assists to just 11 turnovers so far in a Cavs jersey. And the Cavs are crushing teams. They're plus 16 points per 100 possessions when Dennis Schroeder is on the floor to this point in the season. Donovan Hitchell again had a rough night shooting the ball. I thought he had some pretty good looks that he missed. There's a run there in the middle of the game where you got a couple of really good looks at stepback jump shots

that he just happened to miss. He's been in a little bit of a three-point shooting slump lately. But again, I appreciated his defensive activity and then got to the foul line a lot because of just his physical aggression and getting defenders out of position. And then I thought James Hardy had a couple of sloppy turnovers early in the game.

He was part of that kind of sloppiness that I was talking about, but he was fantastic after that. Just create so many advantages for this offense. And his play type data with the calves so far is off the chart. He's run 157 pick and rolls, ISOs, and post-ups. He's generated 180 points, including passes on those possessions. That's 1.15 points per possession, which is about as good as you'll see in the league for high-volume shot creation.

Not the least bit surprising, considering how talented this team is. This is a team that is stacked with play finishing, and Kenny Atkinson has them as as attuned as you could possibly be in terms of understanding where to space and relocate, when to cut. This is a team that is consistently one of the best. cutting teams in the NBA, not the least bit surprised that they've had as much success with James Hardin and with Dennis Schroeder and with guys that can create advantage and pass the ball as well as those two guys can. And James has been shooting the lights out so far with the

Cavs. Yesterday was more catch-and-chute stuff and he's been great on catching-shoots all season. But he's also 13 for 27 so far on his off-the-dribble threes with the calves. That's obviously insanely good. I know it's the honeymoon phase right now, but the fit, I think, made sense. before the trade. And I'm not surprised that it's going well because it really is a picture perfect fit for a team that is built with a ton of play finishing and spacing concepts that will capitalize on advantage creators. And now this Cavs team has a bunch of them between the additions of healthy James Hardin

to a team that couldn't keep Darius Garland on the floor. And then obviously the addition of Dennis Schroeder, who's just been a much better backup guard than Lonzo Ball ended up being. I was high in the Lonsa ball move before the season. It just didn't pan out because he just couldn't shoot the basketball. that has been something that has been an issue for him as of late. Again, I also just want to shout out Jared Allen and Evan Mowley. Jared Allen's been absolutely killing it statistically since James Harding came over in his last,

in his last nine games, he's averaging over a 2010 double double. That's insane. Him and Evan Mowley did a great job defensively last night. The Cavs are 13 and 2 in their last 15 games. The offense with James Hardin on the floor, this is an insane stat. the calves are scoring 127 points per 100 possessions so far with James Hardin on the floor.

That's an off-the-charts offensive rating. That's a pretty large sample so far already, 456 possessions because James just plays in every single game. The defense has been great. They've been top 10. The really the only thing that I can nitpick is the defensive rebound. And they're giving up an offensive rebound

on about a third of their opponent's misses. And that's something that has been kind of a recurring issue over the Mobley Allen era. I'm curious as to whether or not that's why Atkinson's been leaning towards Dean Wade with the starters, just trying to give him a little bit more size, although Jaylen Tyson is such a good rebounder. I'm not necessarily sure that that's a huge upgrade there. But Dean Wade did have a great rebounding game last night. And the beautiful thing is, is one of the things that I've seen with all of the great, you know, modern coaches is they confront margins by attacking the other side of the margin.

So for instance, like Boston, bad defensive rebounding team, but they're so good on the offense. of glass, they actually have a positive margin there, right? Or like teams like Oklahoma City, they commit a lot of fouls and they give up a lot of catch and shoot threes. But the flip side of that is they attack the margin on the opposite side by getting a lot of turnovers and scoring and transition a ton, right? Like a lot of times, a lot of people will think about attacking a weakness by addressing the weakness when there's an alternative method, which is playing more into your strengths and trying to attack the opposite end of the margin to cancel out that issue. And so for example, despite the fact that the Cavs have been such a bad

defensive rebounding team in their last 15 games, they're actually getting outscored in second chance points by just 0.1 points per game because of how good they've been with their corner crashes with Mowbly and Allen under the basket. Again, a lot of that also is the advantage is created by their stars, which will keep defenses in rotation, which will keep them out of rebounding positioning, but they're actually doing pretty well in that particular margin because they're canceling it out on the offensive glass. But again, 13 and 2 in their last 15 games. That's the best record in the league in that span. Some big wins. Again, that was a red hot hornets team that they handled the other night. Again, a huge win over a Knicks team that had been playing some pretty good

basketball as of late. And there's just still so much they can improve on. Donovan Mitchell's in this like three-point shooting slump. That's eventually going to turn around. Keon Ellis has been making all sorts of hustle plays, but he hasn't really started hitting his catch and shoot three yet. That's something that I think will turn around over the course of the next couple of weeks. We mentioned the defensive rebounding. I think that'll get cleaned up at least a little bit. Max Drews, if he can return, will provide more movement shooting for a team

that really only gets that from Sam Merrill right now. Things are on the up and up in Cleveland. It's a team that I have currently, as my favorite to win the Eastern Conference. I think they're the most complete team in that Eastern Conference right now. I love the quote from James Hardin about what they're trying to build after the game last night.

Like they just seem like their heads are in the right place. They see the opportunity that's in front of them. They're playing some special bass. This kind of even started before the trades went down, and they're just kind of following that thought through to fruition, really playing some special basketball in Cleveland right now. As you guys know, I've been playing basketball my entire life, and it's safe to say my energy and recovery isn't the same as it was 10 years ago, 15 years ago when I was playing in college. And I've always wondered about what supplements could benefit me as I try to keep my basketball playing days going for as long as possible. That sounds familiar to you. check out Mars Men. It's a potent natural testosterone supplement that optimizes your body's

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It's a perfect way to kick off the new year strong. That's men go to mars.com for 50% off and three free gifts when you check out. After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them our show sent you. Hey, it's us to 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 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 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. 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 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 IHeart 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. 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 athletes 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.

SportsLice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife-Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Second big takeaway from last night. Zach Lowe is right. Luca has been a hard watch this year. and he absolutely needs to stop grifting and complaining as much as he has. So the Lakers end up losing a heartbreaker to the magic last night, a rare clutch loss

for them. Clutch basketball is all about execution. When you cut it down to a handful of possessions, it usually just comes down to limiting mistakes and then executing your offense in the half court to generate quality shots. All of the Lakers stars had huge fuckups down the stretch of that magic game last night. LeBron inexplicably leaves Desmond Bain off of the left wing to send unnecessary overhelp on a Palo Bancaro drive. That leads to Desmond Bain hitting a wide open catch and shoot three that puts the magic up to. The Lakers end up going up one after a sequence of plays. LeBron draws a foul on a little post up.

Then he ends up getting a back cut dunk on a baseline out of bounds play where really nice back screen gets him wide open and gets a dunk. That puts the Lakers back up by one. Palo goes down and forces a tough mid-range jump shot and he misses it. Austin Reeves, inexplicably, just stands there, not paying attention, and Anthony Black just cuts right past him, gets an offensive rebound. This ball gets stripped away from him, goes to Wendell Carter underneath the basket. Wendell Carter Jr. ends up hitting the game winner. And then on the final play, Luca, they run this kind of like weird football wide receiver, like route concept thing that ends up getting Luca the ball pretty much wide open 30 feet from the basket. And instead of taking the wide open 30 footer, he just throws a grenade.

to LeBron with two seconds left in the game. And LeBron has no choice but to just turn over his right shoulder and take an impossible three, which is like, okay, Lucas said after the game, like I thought it was a bit far away. Yeah, I get that. But like, what did LeBron have that was better than what you had right there? Especially since, like, Luca, when he's in his groove, seems to like those deeper off the dribble threes. And so just like, again, winning clutch games is all about not making mistakes and creating

good looks. And again, if LeBron stays home on Desmond Bain, does Palo have a shot attempt at the rim in traffic? Yeah, but it's a lower percentage shot. And then after the shot goes up, LeBron can crash and try to get the rebound, maybe at that point. But leaving Desmond Bain like that, that's a really poor defensive decision. That's a mistake that contributed to costing your team the game. Austin, put a body on Anthony Black. You get a defensive rebound. You're getting fouled. You're going down to the other end. Now you're making two free throws and you're probably going to win that game. That's a simple, basic thing that Austin didn't do that

cost his team the game. And then lastly, Luca, like the one thing that you do better than basically everybody in the league is create a shot for yourself in the half court. And that was what you were asked to do on that final possession. You didn't seem interested in doing it. So a lot of just mistakes down the stretch that ended up costing in the game. I have some other frustrations. Like, I don't understand why JJ Reddick closed with Rui Hachamura, who had zero rebounds in that game. despite it being a bloodbath, we need to get a rebound kind of game. When Marcus Smart was the obvious fifth man to go there, just more of a scrapper, not to mention that starting lineup that they've run with Rui, LeBron, Austin, Aiton,

and Luca has been one of their worst lineups all season, just consistently gets crushed. So that didn't make any sense. I don't understand why they didn't play more through Austin down the stretch. Austin had some good rhythm in the second half. Luca didn't really have it going. LeBron didn't really have it going. They kind of played too much through LeBron and Luca down the stretch. stretch. So I didn't understand that either, but all those are conversations for another day.

Zach Lowe, someone that I really look up to in this business and someone that I have a great amount of respect and admiration for. He created some waves yesterday with some criticism of Luca Donchich that I think is worth digging into a little bit. And he basically just went off about how Lucas complaining to the refs is at an all-time high and that it's been really hard to watch. And then he also said that his impact has not lined up with his statistical production. this year. And I completely agree with everything that he said. I want to dig into each of those ideas individually for a second. Number one, has Luca been less impactful than his individual statistical performance this year? Yes. And there are clear statistical markers for that.

Despite him putting up insane individual numbers in both the box score and also in his individual play types, there are two obvious indicators that show it hasn't been as productive as it should be. One is the turnovers. Luca leads the entire NBA in turnovers per game at 4.1. It's twice as much as Shea Gildas Alexander for comparison. And the Lakers are so unathletic that they allow

one of the worst transition offensive ratings off of turnovers in the league. They allow 139 offensive rating in transition off of turnovers, which ranks 20th in the NBA. So with how unathletic they are, taking care of the basketball is incredibly important to this Lakers team, and Luca just hasn't

done that compared to his peers around the league at the top of the league. And then two, team success. Believe it or not, the goal of an offensive engine isn't to average 35 points per game. It's not to average 10 assists per game. It's not to have a really efficient points per possession on pick and roll. It's to create quality offense for a five-man unit. And the Lakers with Luca on the floor this year score just 117.8 points per 100 possessions. This is a crazy stat. There are 13, players in the NBA of the season who have played in at least 30 games and who have usage rates over 30. So guys who've played for the majority of the season and have a

usage rate in our super high usage players. There's 13 of them. Lucas tied for last on that list in team offensive rating when he's on the floor. And before you just go, oh, this Lakers roster has issues. And by the way, those Laker roster issues are well documented. And by the way, I think it's complicated. The role players are limited. But Lucas is pretty regular. playing with a better co-star than just about anybody on that list. And before you just blame the offensive talent, Kate Cunningham has led a more efficient offense with really limited offensive talent in Detroit.

Shea Gildes with Alexander has probably a little bit more offensive talent than the Lakers, but not by much. And the Thunder have been way more efficient with Shea on the floor than the Lakers have been with Luca. Janus has posted over a 120 offensive rating this season. and he's playing with a bunch, like, arguably the worst roster in the league for a star. Victor Wemnon Yama is not exactly playing with a ton of offensive talents. A lot of young, still pretty flawed offensive players.

He's got a better offensive rating this year than Luca does. Steph Curry is literally in like basketball purgatory in Golden State. That offense has produced more than this Lakers Luca offense. The guy he's tied with at the bottom of the league is Kauai Leonard, playing with less offensive talent than Luca's been playing with. The bottom line is that in this season, the Lakers offense has been mediocre. I talked before the season about how I thought they'd be top five.

They haven't even been top 10. Even though Luca has put up big individual numbers. Part of it is he doesn't play in transition much at all, so he doesn't capitalize on that margin. Part of it is he just dribbles the air out of the basketball and that can kind of disrupt the rhythm of his teammates. Part of it is he's had a lot of bad games this year relative to his peers. After his baby was born, he had a couple weeks where he was really bad,

and he's in another really bad stretch right now. He's been awful in the last two games. But it is what it is. The bottom line is his individual performance has not led to team success. Zach Lowe was correct in pointing that out. Number two, has it been hard to watch? Yes. It just has.

I talk to a lot of Lakers fans and people who cover the team. Most of them haven't enjoyed the Luca Donchich's viewing experience. They all, including myself, have tremendous respect for his talent. We're all aware of his upside. I said on the Colin Coward podcast on Monday, and I've said on my show before, I think his ceiling is the highest in the league. When he has all the parts of his game going, when he's like taking care of the basketball and he's hitting his step back three and he's got his mid to short range game going and he's

talking shit and playing good team defense. He's legitimately the best player. Whenever he's in that type of game, no one can meet that level because he can create his own shot from three. So it's like this weird Steph Curry efficiency piece from three mixed with like the short range shot making that you get from Shay mixed with the playmaking you get from Yokic. You get it all with Luca when he's at his best. But he's not at his best. best enough, and the overall experience has not been fun. It's been dribbling the air out of the basketball. He's not a high motor player who's going to invigorate the crowd with effort

plays or hustle plays. In watching him work down the lane line and pick and roll and twerk for fouls and then bitch at the refs all damn game and not get back on defense, it's downright infuriating at times. I have not been having fun, rooting for Luca Donchich. which takes us to the third piece. Yeah, Luca has to stop worrying so much about grifting and bitching at the refs. It is horrible to watch. When I was younger, when I was in my early 20s, I also used to bitch at the refs a ton when I would play in like Men's League games and summer leagues and things like that, proams.

And my wife literally started having these like intense conversations with me where she was like, I'm not going to go watch you anymore if you're going to do this. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing to watch you do that. It's not phone to watch. I don't want to come to these games if you're doing that. Thankfully, I grew out of it. But that's what we're all thinking when we're watching Luca.

It's embarrassing. It's not fun to watch. And most importantly, what you're doing in the basketball side, remove all the fans from the equation. Look just at the basketball. When you index your approach towards something that is out of your control like the whistle, versus something that is in your control, like putting the damn ball in the basket,

you're going to be in a situation where you're going to be frustrated when the thing that is out of your control doesn't go your way. If you go down the lane line, like I'll just take a single example from the Celtics game two nights ago. Luca works down the lane line.

Jalen Brown is back pressuring. And he's kind of like hugging up on Luca and Luca just kind of jumps backwards into him and Jalen stopped right before he did it. And he might have been semi-moving, but I thought it was good no-call. Luca jumps back into him, kind of bumps Jalen in the shoulder,

shoots the shot, doesn't get the call. The Celtics are running out the other way. Have I seen that get called before? Yes. And by the way, you want to know why Luca and Shea and Jalen Brunson and all of these dudes twerk along the lane line for fouls because it has worked in the past.

I have personally noticed, especially post all-star break. There's been a little bit of an indexing in terms of the leagues officiating away from rewarding grifting. I think that's great. I think the league should just completely stop all that stuff. All these dudes would stop. But what ends up happening is every once in a while, like once or twice a week, Luca will have a game where he gets 12, 14 free throw attempts because of his ability to torque along the lane line for fouls and it keeps him in that frame of mind. But most often, when you get into a big game, and we see the, this all the time in the postseason, but we see it a lot in the regular season. When you end up

in these games where you're playing against one of the better teams in the league, and the ball gets thrown up at center court, and everybody starts kicking ass physically from the opening tip, it sets a tone. And when that tone gets set, the refs aren't going to slow the flow of the game down and blow the whistle on some grifty bullshit. And so what happens is in lower profile games with less physicality. Luca draws a lot of fouls. Clippers game classic example. Down the stretch,

Kauai's not even on the floor. You're playing against a team that's in the bottom of the play in. Yeah, you can get away with some stuff. And also the Clippers did some favors with Ben Mather and reaching in all the time. But like you, when you're in a situation like that, it works.

Then you run into a better team who brings the physicality from the opening tip and sets a different tone. Those calls aren't getting made. And now it's not going your way. and the Celtics are running it down your throat while you bitch and moan at the reps. It's out of your control.

If Luca jumps back into Jalen Brown in a pickup game and he wants to call a foul, yeah, they'll give you the ball after they all yell at you and call you all sorts of names for trying to ruin the game doing that. But that's because you're in control of the whistle when you're playing pickup. When you're playing in real organized basketball,

it's the dude with the whistle. He is not someone you have control over. If you approach the game more towards what you can control, which is Jalen Brown's on your backside, go make a damn shot. And if you make a regular basketball shot instead of twerking, it's going to be a higher percentage shot. Play towards what you can control. Luca needs to completely shift his approach offensively away from the foul gripping

and towards trying to get the ball in the basket. It will make him better in these higher profile matchups. It will make him a better playoff player. and he's already a damn good playoff player. So kind of tie this up. It's not over for Luca. I'm still a huge believer in his upside. But the version of Luca who can win MVP,

who can hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy, who can be a player that every casual basketball fan enjoys watching when they're on TV, that version of Luca is on the other side of some kind of wake-up call. And I don't know when or if that way. up call is coming. Getting traded less than a year after making the finals should have been that wake up call and it just hasn't been.

And again, like, Luca has been very good this year. There's been bad parts of his game. There's been things that, again, all that stuff I'm talking about, that's what puts him somewhere in the third to fourth best player in the league range instead of the first to second. Shea and Yokic have just been better. I'm not trying to sit here and pretend like he hasn't been a top tier superstar this year. But he hasn't been fun to watch.

He hasn't been as impactful as the statistics would lead you to believe. And this business with him dealing with the refs is becoming a problem. It's been a problem. And again, there is a version of Luca that we would all turn on the TV and watch and enjoy. There's a version of Luca that actually can win the MVP instead of just getting promoted before the season before he finishes way outside of the MVP picture. There's a version of Luca that can hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy. it's going to require him making these changes.

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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 podcast.

Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So 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. And 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. 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 Acapella 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 eye 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.

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. SportsClyce brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsClyce on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo SlicLife 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Number three, short range scoring is the way to success for Palo Moncaro. Palo was the best player on the floor last night versus the Lakers.

I want to shout out some other magic players. I thought Desmond Bain was phenomenal in the fourth quarter. Their center rotation kicked ass. I thought Wendell Carter Jr. was a beast under the rim all night early in the game as a driver and as a cutter. Some critical offensive rebounds, including the game winner last night. Mo Wagner had a great second half shift where he just kicked the Andre Aten's ass on the offensive glass. Anthony Black had a rough shooting night, but again, made the biggest

play of the game cutting pass Austin Reeves for that huge offensive rebound. I thought their defense was fantastic down the stretch as they basically prevented the Lakers from getting into anything they want. Some really smart switching, really good individual defense against switches. But again, Paolo was the best player on the floor. He's had a very up and down season, but there was a specific pattern to his success last night that I thought was revealing as to the path he needs to be on, both in his individual skill development and in his approach when he's attacking with the basketball. He did almost all of his damage in the short range last night. He did hit a couple of threes. He had a little ISO three against Luca Donchich on the left wing, hit a huge catch and shoot three out of the right corner in crunch time.

But everything else was within 14 feet of the rim. When you look at a breakdown of Palo's shot making last night, it's five for seven in the restricted area. five for six on twos that were outside of the restricted area, but inside of 14 feet, then he was two for nine outside of 14 feet. That close range shot making is an area where he can be downright impossible to deal with. When he was getting to those looks, those little short twos,

there's really nothing the Lakers could do with him. He's had a hard time with that this season. Synergy inside of 17 feet has Palo at just 36. on jump shots this year, on short range jump shots. So he hasn't been making them this season. He's been just 43% on floaters and hooks. But we have seen him be more efficient on those shots in the past. And again, that's the piece that I think is the ultimate counter to his power game.

Which like when he's healthy and he's attacking the basket, he's a lot to handle. I used to talk about this with Janus. There's this belief, especially with some of these really big driving forwards, that the counter to their driving power should be some sort of long-distance jump shot. And I'm not sitting here and pretending like, yeah, like if you can take and make threes, if you can add that to your game, you should.

It's such a huge value when you're getting an extra point per shot. It unlocks a lot of off-ball utility. Like, if you're not able to hit catch and shoot threes, it makes it really difficult to play you on the perimeter. All of a sudden you become like a small ball five or a guy that can cause some real spacing concerns when you're playing on the perimeter. So, like, yeah, if you can build out the three work on it.

And I don't, I want Palo to take wide open catch and shoot three is like that one he took in the corner in the fourth quarter last night. But when it comes to his on ball work, the counter to his power needs to be that short range scoring. Turning over each shoulder for little 10, 12 foot jump shots, that little hook in the lane or a little kind of like Euro step floater in the lane. He was five for six on those last night. Those are the kinds of shots that will carry you to a level of offensive volume and efficiency at his position as his archetype of player, not spamming threes, not spamming 17 footers, 18 footers, 19 footers. Those are just really tough shots. And they're the shot that the defense wants you to take. It's bailing you out at that point. Again, Palo was his best version of himself last night and outplayed Luke Adonchich in a game because he lived at the rim. He made some quality reads out of action, and because he scored effectively inside of the kind of like short range area when he did get cut off from the basket.

Number four, Jonathan Cominga is going to have some big nights in an Atlanta Hawks jersey. I still have my big picture concerns about the half-court fit with Jalen Johnson. Jalen Johnson did leave the game with a hip injury last night, which opened up some opportunity for Kaminga to play bigger minutes. obviously that was his first game with Atlanta. I do think there will be some games when Jalen Johnson's healthy where Kaminga doesn't play as much.

I don't see a universe where they play together super effectively. Kamega has some half court issues in terms of processing regardless. So I still don't love that fit. But one of the things that is fun about this particular dynamic is, especially when Jalen Johnson is out of the lineup and Kaminga can pump his minutes up, this is an Atlanta Hawks team that generates a lot of run- ways. What I mean by that is lanes or advantages where guys with athleticism can attack the basket. The Hawks generate the fourth most transition possessions in the NBA off of their speed

and just with their defense and how they can force turnovers and get out off of them. And then two, they generate the seventh most made baskets on cuts in the NBA. In that game, just three of Jonathan Camingas 27 points came as an initiator. A couple of post-ups. A little lefty hook and another play where he left shoulder hook and another play where he drew a foul. 24 of his 27 either came in transition or as a cutter or attacking a closeout. That is the kind of thing that Jonathan Kaminga has always been good at. We had a video last year. I don't know if you guys remember Jackson did a fun little animation where he actually put literal runways on the screen. When we talked about how when Jonathan Kaminga focuses primarily on attacking the basket when the

windows do show up and taking the occasional catch and shoot three, took a couple catch and shoot threes out of the right corner in the game last night. When he focuses primarily on quick decision making with the basketball, primarily attacking every time he sees a lane and taking a handful of catch and shoot threes when he sees those opportunities, he can be a very useful offensive player. There's a world where he can become a better on-ball player out of the post. We've seen that in the past where like he could, cause some problems one-on-one with his quickness and his ability to get to the foul line.

But the league is kind of game-planned how to attack the basketball, especially when it's in his left hand or when he turns his back. And he's really started to struggle in terms of his large sample efficiency in his one-on-ones. That's an area of development that he needs to build out over the next few years. Right now, he can be a useful player attacking in transition, attacking off of these types of advantages. What we saw last night with him in Atlanta was not some sort of like indicator of him finally being unleashed from the shackles of Golden State.

It was him doing the same things that he used to do when he would have success in Golden State. And an opportunity happened to open up because the player that he's competing with in this particular situation as a power forward left the game with a hip injury. That said, Jalen Johnson is a little injury prone. And the Hawks do play so much in transition and they generate so many cut opportunities that I do think Kaminga is going to have some big games like this, where he just gets like six or seven dunks off of cuts in in transition, and he's just playing with an advantage and he puts up some impressive statistical performances. Number five, last one for today. Kason Wallace's development

into an on-ball guard. It's going to pay dividends for the Thunder in the coming seasons. The Thunder get a big win on the road in Toronto last night, yet another big win against a good team without A.J. Mitchell, without Jalen Williams, without Shea Gildes of Alexander, which is just a testament to how strong the foundation is with this team. Now, as we've talked about so much over the course of the

last couple of years, the Oklahoma City offense is pretty much predicated on two things. Defense to transition, like just getting all those openings up the floor off of the strength of your defense, your ability to force turnovers and force bad

misses, and then triple penetration. The thunder are all a very smart spacing team who understands where to cut and relocate off the ball. They have multiple vertical spacing threats who can finish around the rim really well. All of their players are actually pretty solid on wide open, unguarded catch-and-shoot threes. And they're a pretty good read-and-react team in terms of driving closeouts and making decisions when they get into the middle of the floor,

that kind of like decision zone, right? All that sounds great. None of it matters if you can't break the defense down. again, the two ways they break the defense down are defense to transition in triple penetration. One of the reasons why their offense has struggled so much when those top three guys have been out is because when they get stuck in the half court, they haven't been able to generate as much dribble penetration. Their offense has been substantially better as of late, in large part because of what Kason Wallace has done on the ball.

I'd add some other guys in there, I think the movement shooting of guys like Isaiah Joe and Jared McCain. some credit for that as well. There's a handful of guys that have done some better work off the bounce in this stretch than they did earlier in the season. But Casey Wallace is the primary driver of it for me. In the last four games, this is the four game stretch recently since J. Dub left the lineup, all games without J. Dub, without A.J. Mitchell. Kason Wallace has 57 drives in those four games. That's insane. That's over 14 per game. That's like a really, really impressive amount of like breaking the defense down from Kays and Wallace. And then he's also

countered it with this three point shooting, which has been off the charts. He started really poorly on off the dribble threes this season, but he's made five of five over the course of the last two games on off the dribble threes. He hit a couple disgusting ones last night. In the second quarter, he had this like snatchback dribble off of like a full speed transition drive up the right wing, snatchback off the right wing, just got tons of separation. went straight up and down and knocked it down. There is a level of on ball creation that is driving this recent run of wins for the thunder.

That Kaysen deserves a lot of credit for. And again, like, as you look at the coming seasons, like having redundancies are good when Sam Presti is going to have to make some tough decisions about who to keep and who to let go. So, for instance, adding Jared McCain so that you have two movement shooters between him and Isaiah Joe, so you can make a decision if cost-cutting coming

into the equation on which one you want to move forward with. My guess is it'll be Jared McCain. If you have such a need for dribble penetration and you need to have, like, you know, on any given game, two to three guys on the floor that can consistently break the defense down off the dribble, adding Case and Wallace to that mix, adding A.J. Mitchell to that mix gives you some flexibility in which direction you want to go. Jason Wallace's improvement as a, or development into one of the better perimeter defenders in the league, gives you a redundancy with Lou Dort.

I'd add Jay Will and the success he's had this season as a backup center. He's been awesome this season. It's just so good at so many little things. That makes you more able to, let's say you go into this offseason and you're like, hey, Isaiah Hardenstein, we'd love to keep you at this

discounted deal. And then some stupid team like the Lakers comes in and offers him $30 million a year and you end up losing Isaiah Hartnstein. That's where having Jay Will gives you the redundancy you need to maintain talent as this moves forward. There have just been so many hits down the roster in specific position groups that the Thunder have a lot of redundancy, which not only is what allows them to win as guys have been in and out of the lineup this year, but it's also what's going to give them that roster

flexibility as Sam Presti has to make some really tough decisions in the coming seasons. All right, guys, it's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. Got a really fun slate again tonight. The Pistons have another big challenge. I think Oklahoma City is coming to town for them. And then we have, we've got Celtics Nuggets tonight too.

That's a really fun one. A Celtics team that's red hot and a Nuggets team that desperately needs a win. Really jam-packed slate tonight. So we're going to have some more game reaction tomorrow. And then we'll have a mailbag on Friday. I will see you guys tomorrow morning. 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. 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, 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. 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 SportsSlice 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, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlic on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless, and at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, for no-nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. She's an outsider to win the French name. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lerabachina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast on the Iheart Radio app. or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart women's sports.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.