The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Lakers beat Suns, Steph Curry & Warriors notch road win vs. Luka Doncic & Mavericks

Episode Date: March 23, 2023

Jason Timpf reacts to Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers' 122-111 win over Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns in a potential Western Conference Finals matchup. How do these two teams stack up against each other with a healthy LeBron James and Kevin Durant? Later, Jason breaks down Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors' 127-125 road win over Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks, Ja Morant's explosive return in the Memphis Grizzlies' 130-125 win over the Houston Rockets, and what Paul George's knee injury means for Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers. He also discusses Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics' 132-109 win over the Sacramento Kings as well as Jaylen Brown's comments regarding the trade rumors he dealt with earlier this season. #volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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over the Phoenix Suns. It's been mostly them playing really well ever since the trade deadline, with exception of some really bad one and three stretch over a four game stretch where they got some inconsistent play out of Anthony Davis and lost the game when Anthony Davis rested. And you know, it's funny because I have a lot of the Lakers fans get on me a lot about how critical I am of Anthony Davis. And that's not unique to the Lakers. That's kind of just the way it is with every fan base. A lot of fans want to hear very rose-colored glasses approaches to their team. And that's just not what this show is about. This show is I'm just going to give you guys my authentic and honest opinion about any team and any player.

And I'll admit that I'm biased about certain things. And I am biased about the Lakers. I root for them. They're the team in the league that I root for the most. I don't really have an NBA team that I'm directly associated with. But LeBron's always been my favorite player. So I root for the Lakers. And, you know, Anthony Davis has been one of the more frustrating players that I've rooted for in my time as a basketball fan,

in large part because the difference between. what he's capable of when he is locked in and physically aggressive versus when he's coasting through games or anything else below that is a massive chasm. And you know, you'll see dynamics like what you saw in this particular game. Anthony Davis you saw in the first half versus the Anthony Davis you saw in the second half, that oscillation between those two versions of AD has been a massive storyline in his time as a Laker, at least since the 2020 season, when I, I will admit that he was dominant throughout, you know. And I don't know what happened after that point.

I'm sure it's a combination of a bunch of different things. He put on a lot of weight, so he's not as fast as he used to be. He's had some bad luck with injuries. He definitely let his foot off the gas a little bit in terms of just his overall competitiveness and aggression after that title because he came in healthy into the following season and started the following season kind of passively working his way through the season. And so like it just hasn't been consistently that version. of Anthony Davis since he came to LA. And that's been frustrated because what happens when he

engages himself like that? Drop step, spin move dunks, you know, like barreling down to the rim and nobody can stop him without fouling him. He's so good when he's physically aggressive to the rim. He's not Janice, but he's close to that when he's engaging himself like that. And that's why it's frustrating when he floats through games. You know, there's been a lot of excuse making from Lakers fans on that front. Oh, they're not running enough plays for him. Oh, you know, like it's the guards are looking him off. I completely and vehemently disagree with that.

If you're a guard and you're operating through a game and you toss the ball to your big man, your star, and he just kind of stands there and casually waits for the double team and then makes a kickout pass to the wing, or if he catches and looks at his man and takes two crazy dribbles and takes a wild step-back jump shot from 20 feet and it's just not producing offense, then as a guard as you're programmed

to make the right play for your team, you will start to be like, hey, come set a ball screen, let's see if we can get you somewhere else on the floor. Right? They're reacting to AD's passivity. When he is physically aggressive, they do give him the basketball.

When he's engaging himself like that, like he touched the ball almost every time down in the third quarter. You know why? Because every time he touched it, it was a point in a half. He was either making a shot or going to the foul line and going one for two. And I mean, and what was interesting is he kind of started to build his rhythm there at the free throw line. And then what happened? He made two highly difficult pull-up jump shots because what do I always talk about?

if you build your rhythm by finding easy shots. And easy shots are not just layups. They're also the free throw line. The free throw line is an amazing opportunity to build the rhythm for your jump shot. We just talked about this in the Dallas game when Maxi Kleba had not made a three in the game, but he made three straight free throws on the previous possession, effectively practicing his release so that it felt great when he made the game winner on the following possession. there is an order of operations to being consistently great as an offensive player you build your rhythm through easier shots and then you start to test yourself to see what you're capable of devon booker did that tonight he was grifting his way to fouls and once he started to find his release there at the foul line that was when he started going aggressively to his pull-up jump shot you know i i hold a d to that standard not because i'm trying to be a jerk, not because I'm trying to be overly critical, it's because I think that when Anthony Davis

plays like that, he is one of the five best players in basketball. That's how highly I think of Anthony Davis when he is engaged. I think he's, I think his ceiling defensively is higher than any other players in the league. Higher than Draymonds, higher than Brooke Lopez, higher than Janus, higher than Rudy Gobert. But I've never considered him the best defender in the league because he just doesn't bring it enough often enough in games. And then on the offensive end of the floor, his combination as a play finisher, as a downhill force when he's being physically aggressive, and a pick and pop threat, and a guy who can make those 15 to 20 foot jump shots consistently when he's in rhythm, that guy combined with being the best defender in basketball, a guy that can dominate games

as a rebounder as well, that guy is a top-tier superstar. And like the same way, the same way, way you guys would criticize Janice if he was inconsistent, the same way you guys would criticize Embed if he was inconsistent, the same way you guys would criticize Yokic if he was inconsistent, that's just the standard I hold AD to. Is he one of those guys or is he something else? Because if he's something else, if he's not that guy, then I'd be happy to start to be a little bit more relaxed than the way that we cover it. The difference between the way he engaged himself and the second half of that game versus the first half of that game was jarring. The second half of that versus every one of his previous five games except for the Pelicans game is jarring.

And the disappointing thing in it all is it's simply a matter of physical aggression. And for the Lakers, they are desperate. There is no reason in the world why he shouldn't be at that level as much as he physically can manage. From a tactical perspective, one thing I really liked in that second half that I'd like to see a little bit more from Anthony Davis, is going quickly off the catch instead of waiting for a double team. You know, we talk about Janus a lot for being kind of a balloon of China shop. And I don't mean that critically with Janus, because you guys know I think Janus is the best basketball player in the world.

But, like, sometimes Janus, like one of the best ways that he counters double teams is he catches the ball and he sees like a little sliver of space, even if there's like defender right in front of him, a defender digging down from the left wing, a defender digging down from the right wing, He'll see one of those gaps and you'll find one that looks just a little better than the other, and he'll just go through it. And he'll get offensive fouls every single game. He'll get turnovers every single game.

But you know what else he gets? A million free throws and a million baskets. And he averages like 32 points per game. And so one of the ways that you can counter double teaming and crowding, specifically when you have a physical advantage. Obviously, if you're DeAngelo Russell and you try to do that, they're going to bounce you off instead of you bouncing them off, right? But you're Anthony Davis, one of the most physically gifted athletes in the league. And when you just throw your head down and go

to the rim, you're going to draw fouls, you're going to get baskets. And yeah, you'll have occasional charges and you'll turn the ball over occasionally. Sometimes I think AD plays too safe instead of just understanding that his job is to be a wrecking ball. And that's the way that the Lakers can win a championship. LeBron, the half-court surgeon with some of that perimeter shack, and then Anthony Davis, the wrecking ball with the skilled guards around them. Awesome Reeves, you know, following up his, what do you have, 35, 6, and 6 the other night, follows that up with 25 and 10 again tonight.

You know what's funny is like, last year I was, really coming into the beginning of this year, I was higher on Austin Reeves than the vast majority of even Laker fans. There were a couple specific things that I thought he was really good at. He's an excellent positional defender, meaning like he doesn't get aggressive at the basketball. He just understands if I slide my feet and I put my chest between my man in the basket, he'll have to shoot over the top of me. If he has to shoot over the top of me, he's either going to miss

or he's going to try to go through me and I'll draw a bunch of offensive fouls as I get elbow to the face. And then on the offensive end of the floor, I just viewed him as this awesome connective piece. a guy that can knock down spot of threes but was an excellent like second side creator like a guy that can attack with an advantage and then attacking closeouts so good at like getting into the middle of the lane and getting guys off balance to draw fouls and hit cutters and things along those lines even even as optimistic as i was i never in a million years thought he could be this guy somehow i underestimated him this i can't say credit for it because it's from one of my bosses. But one of my bosses says that he reminds me of, that he reminds him of Manu Genoblee. And I think it's a super interesting com because, you know, Manor Jnobie was not the most athletic player in his position, very similar to Austin Reeves.

Like Manu played the same position as Kobe Bryant, but without the, you know, the ridiculous set of physical tools that Kobe Bryant had, right? But one of the things that Manu Genoble did is it was a combination of understanding the angles and leverage you need to get defenders out of position and weaponizing defenders' physical gifts against them. So for instance, like, if you've got better physical tools than the guy you're guarding, a lot of times when you get beat off the dribble, you think to yourself, like, I can recover. I can get back into this play. All I got to do is sprint because I'm a better athlete and I'm going to get there. And Austin is so good at, again, you'll flip angles of the screen. We talk about this a lot.

getting the defender to pick a side that he thinks the screen's going to go and start preparing to go over the screen, but then suddenly reversing that angle so he's out of position. Austin gets you out of position. Once you're out of position, he's expecting you to come flying back into the play, and that's when he gets you with those foul calls. But the combination of legit high-end shot making, the dude's going to be a perennial 50, 40-90 guy. He's got all the important shots that pull up 15-footer, the catch-and-shoot three, the pull-up three when the guy goes underneath the screen, the floater, the hook shot, the scoop shot,

and then he combines that with the ability to make all the necessary reads. That's really all you need to be a primary ball handler. If you can make the right reads and you can make all the shots that present themselves at an efficient rate, you can be a primary ball handler in the NBA. You know, I thought it was super interesting that Darwin had moved him into the starting lineup, and I thought it was the right move. You know, I was on the fence about it. Like, obviously, Austin is, he's just better than Malik Beasley.

So he deserves to start. But one of the reasons why I wasn't, like, actively pushing for it was just, I understood the staggering elements of it, right? Like, Austin can run the bench unit. Right now you don't have LeBron, so you need that little bit of extra ball handling, right? LeBron will be running bench groups because of the way they use Anthony Davis. LeBron will be running bench groups. So it kind of made some sense to me.

But at the end of the day, there were a couple of specific advantages that immediately became apparent. And I always just knew who cares who starts. Like it just doesn't matter. Austin's going to be out there more minutes and he's going to be out there to close games, right? But moving him to the starting lineup, I thought was interesting on a couple of different levels. First of all, I actually liked Daniel Russell off ball more than on ball. He made several very important spot up threes. I made two of them, I think, in the fourth quarter of this game.

He's got a very quick release on the catch and he doesn't need to get his feet set or dip. He can like on the catch just kind of flow up into his shot. So there's no wasted time there. So he doesn't need a ton of space. And so you can't put Dilo off the ball if Malik Beasley is with him because Malik Beasley is an offball player. So bringing Austin Reeves onto the floor, open things up for D'Angelo Russell to get more off ball opportunity. So it made some sense there, right? But another big part of it is it helped, I think, specifically in the second half with getting Anthony Davis involved.

You know, one of the things that the Lakers have done a lot lately is run action for Malik Beasley, just having him fly off the screens off the weeks out of the floor and have him rise up and take shots. The problem with that is Malik's not that good at that particular type of shot, and he hasn't been a consistently elite shooter for the Lakers, and really anywhere in his career. He's just a high-volume 36% guy, right? But most importantly, running action from Malik Beasley means you're not running action with Anthony Davis. Because, again, Anthony Davis is involved in that action, but primarily as a screener, and they're prepared to handle Malik Beasley as a curling player. and so Anthony Davis could have openings there popping to the three-point line, but AD doesn't like to take three. So it doesn't really make a ton of sense to use Anthony Davis that way.

Having Malik Beasley run those off-screen actions with Wenian Gabriel makes a lot more sense. And so moving Austin Reeves to the starting line, it was I thought, an interesting little adjustment from Darbanham that I agreed with. The biggest thing that they're going to have to track here over the course of the rest of the season is the dynamic with LeBron out. Do you run the offense through Anthony Davis or do you run the offense through the guards? meaning high pick and roll or they kept running the same play every time down the floor tonight where they would get Anthony Davis on the left block and they'd have one of the Laker guards go set a pin down for Anthony Davis at the block having curl up to the free throw line just so Anthony Davis could have a tiny bit of separation so that he could quit catch and go to work, right?

And like that's the way you run it through Anthony Davis. But if you're running it through the guards, it's all high ball screens with AD setting the screen. that dynamic needs to be decided game to gain. If Anthony Davis was consistently this physically aggressive downhill, run the damn offense through AD every single game. But there's just, that's just not the case. AD is going to be inconsistent with his engagement level physically. So it's going to be one of those things where you're going to have to kind of tow that

line where if AD's not engaged mentally, you do need to run it through the guards. And between Austin Reeves, Dennis Schroeder and D'Angelo and Russell, the Lakers actually have a very good guard core. And so that's actually in many nights, the better way to run off. offense when Anthony Davis is not engaged. Before we move on, Devin Booker. I am terrified of the Phoenix Suns. I said this yesterday, I was Samisini when we were talking.

But, like, I've been high on Devin Booker pretty much for the last two years. You guys have noticed, those of you have been following the show, have noticed that I've been really impressed with this playmaking. And he's gone from, like, Bradley Beal type of inconsistent score to, like, deadly efficient score with the high-level playmaking, which is the difference between a volume scoring guard like Bradley Beale and a superstar like Devin Booker. That is the difference, the next level of efficiency and the high level playmaking. But like he completely controlled and dominated that game for the sons offensively. And I appreciate we talked about this earlier,

but I liked the way he built his rhythm by grifting his way to the line. And I hate foul grifting. I tweeted this during the game. I hated the way that game was officiated on both ends of the floor, but I've just kind of reserved myself to the fact that that's the way that basketball is going to be for a while until the NBA makes some significant changes. But he built his rhythm at the line. Then he got crazy with the pull-up shooting. Every single time he saw the Lakers not set in their defense, he just hit Jared Vanderbilt with a quick move and tried to go to the rim,

and he got a bunch of free throws that way. He just is, he's gone up a level this year to what I think is that legit, consistent superstar status. I think you saw that without Phoenix fell apart when he got hurt, and I'm terrified of the sons. that guy, which is a better version of Kyrie Irving, with Kevin Durant, with DeAndreighton, with Chris Paul, with what Josh Okie brings as a point of attack defender, and he's got a little bit of downhill athletic force himself, they're terrifying. And like, the deeper they get into the playoffs

and get that continuity, I'm going to be more and more scared of them. And I can tell you guys right now that I'm probably going to pick them to win the title at the start of next season if they can address the specific needs that they have on that roster. All right, let's move. move on to the Warriors Mab. So the Warriors finally get two consecutive road wins. I was talking about the schedule coming in after the last Warriors game. And I talked about how that Houston battle was going to be an interesting challenge. Like Houston's kind of big and strong on the perimeter, right? And Golden State struggles on the road. They battle through there. They get a win. The Dallas game, that's a tough place to play on the road. And what's interesting is it's an easier matchup for Golden

State because Dallas also is missing length and athleticism on the perimeter and in the front court, right? So that specific issue, like, that's been the problem that's plagued Golden State over the course of the last couple of months is Andrew Wiggins is gone. Gary Payton is hurt. They're trying to go out there and win NBA games as one of the least athletic and least tall perimeter teams in the league. And it's just really tough for them to compensate.

But fortunately, with Dallas in particular, they also suffer from that same problem. So they were able to flip that script. rebound in Dallas, 44 to 31, they had 11 offensive rebounds for 18 second chance points, which was literally the difference in the game. And what was funny is, I'm sure you guys who watched the game kind of felt this way, that whole fourth quarter is one of the most entertaining fourth quarters that I've seen this year. And it kind of is that little bit of a hint of what we're going to get for two months,

because what you saw was true, like complete and total desperation from two teams that are clawing to get out of the plan. And that's what the playoffs are for two months is just desperation from everybody. But like desperation just brings a level of effort and energy on both ends of the floor that makes for highly entertaining basketball. It's super chaotic. I think both teams actually scored pretty well, all things considered, which is to be expected with the lack of athleticism on the floor. But it came down to at the end of the game, Steph made two plays, and the Warriors got two stops. That was literally the difference in the game.

It was back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth, and then Steph made two plays, and the Warriors got two stops. The two plays, there was a really nice play where Steph stayed to pick and roll. And again, what that means is when you go over the top of the screen, the defender's chasing you over the top. But if you quick go over to the other side of the screen, the defender will be trapped behind you, and you can slow yourself down and kind of pin him. And then it's very interesting. This is the play where Draymond gets the end one. Steph just literally looks up at the rim like he's going to shoot his little floater.

and Christian Wood just takes one false step up towards Steph to contest the floater, and Steph throws a no-look bounce pass to Draymond Green. Draymond goes up through the contact. Christian Wood is not an exceptionally strong player. Draymond powers through him and gets the And one. And then the second one, he's got Maxi Kleb on him, and we just talked about this earlier with the Lakers, with Austin Reeves, flipping the angle of a screen or rejecting the screen,

which basically just means, we talked about this before, when the guard is preparing to go over a screen, he's going to take a big step high up over the top of the screen to try to sidle up over the top of that screen. That's a great time to flip angles or to reverse and go the other way because his steps are off and he's not in a position to stay in front. Steph hits him with a behind-the-back dribble, rejects the screen. Draymond Green has Reggie Bullock on him from the switch,

and he just boxes him out of the lane and leaves Steph with a wide-open driving right-handed layup. Two excellent examples of high-pick-and-roll. shot creation from Steph Curry. And then on the other end of the floor, the Warriors got the two stops they needed. The first one, Clay Thompson on Luca. Luca attacks Clay on a switch. Targets Clay.

They don't even need to double. Luca tries to hit him with his textbook hesitation to go to his right. Clay funnels him towards the sideline. Luca ends up throwing a pass to the middle of the floor and goes back to get a dribble handoff with Clay on him. And what I thought was so smart is Clay understood the amount of time that was on the shot clock. Luca is not an exceptionally fast player. There was only about three or four seconds on the shot clock. Clay knew he was not going to go past him to the rim. There wasn't enough time.

And what is Luca's go-to move in a late clock situation when he's got that type of matchup? The step-back three. And if you watch Clay, he sold out on the step back three. And Luca went for it, obviously, because it was his only option there. Luca had to step through and he misses that little floating jump shot at the top of the key. Excellent individual defense from Clay Thompson, which has been a hallmark of his career. And then on the final possession, that inbound's pass to Luca underneath the basket, Draymond just walls up and sends him under the room. That's a super common play you'll see in basketball is a player that catches the ball underneath the rim.

And it's a good place to draw a foul if the defender comes down with his arms. And so most defenders will just wall up. And as the offensive player, you have to jump into him and try to win that physical confrontation to dislodge him enough to go up and make that layup underneath the rim. But Jaramon is as stout a power forward that you'll find in the league, holds his ground, forces the miss on Luca Dantich, and the game is over. A couple of specific shoutouts, like classic warriors execution down the stretch. A couple of specific shoutouts.

Steph's on ball playmaking. He had 13 assists in this game. Had excellent chemistry hitting Draymond Green and Jonathan Kaminga in the role and pick and role. In ISO, he was hitting cutters when they would get too many eyes on the basketball. He was really good with transition kick-aheads today, like just spotting those little spots in transition where a guy wasn't getting matched up. He'd kick ahead to Kaminga for a dunker. He'd kick-ahead to Dremong Green for Alea. You know, what's interesting with Steph is he's never really thought of as a great passer because so many people just look at his assist numbers instead

of watching the games. But the truth of the matter is, is Steph's assist numbers are low because he operates off the ball all the time. His assists are the attention. that he'd get garners from defenses. But make no mistake, if he played Damien Lillard ball, and he just ran high pick and roll 50 times a game, I guarantee you he could average a double figure assist in this league. He's every bit as good a passer in high pick and roll as the best cards in the league. He just simply doesn't need to do that because of how well he weaponizes his off ball attention.

I thought Jordan Poole played a really nice game. Six assists with no turnover. His dribble penetration was a huge swing factor in the third quarter run from the Warriors. He was just consistently beating Jaden Hardy and Josh Green off the game. bounce. There's a play just one of the most ridiculous like like highlight plays in basketball that you'll see that kind of got glossed over in this game. Jordan Poole has Josh Green on him, calls for a ball screen, comes hard off it to his left when the big shows he whips into a spin to split the pick and roll. And I can't even begin to describe how complicated that is.

Splitting the pick and roll is already tough because that gap is super tight. Most players are split the pick and roll will push the ball. in between and try to sidle in between and catch up to the ball. Jordan's just so damn fast that he's covering so much ground that that gap is pretty big. He spun into split the pick and roll and dropped it off for Michael Green for a dunk and had that little flare with his hands out. You know, Jordan pulls ceiling. He's such a high level dribble creator in this league just because people can't keep him

in front. I thought he played good game tonight. And then lastly, Jonathan Kaminga, you know, it's funny. is I've talked a lot in this show about the intelligent switch that Golden State made to kind of turn Jonathan Kaminga into a big in the offensive sense, operating mostly as a cutter, operating most as a screen and roll guy. And he did a lot of that tonight, cut into the rim. He had a really nice left-handed finish and pick and roll with Steph Curry in a late fourth quarter play. His left hand is actually sneaky, super accurate off the glass. But what I want to talk about

with Kaminga tonight is he, a big part of why they physically dominated Dallas because, again, they didn't have the physical mismatches with Dallas, but they actually dominated Dallas physically in this game. And a big part of it was Jonathan Kaminga put forth a reasonable facsimile of what Andrew Wiggins was. Excellent point of attack defense on Luca Donchich. He was doing this thing where like Luca will give the ball up to the big and then do like a false cut and then try to cut off the top for like a dribble handoff to go downhill. And Jonathan Caminoa was shooting that gap and he actually forced a couple turnovers that way for just unbelievable ridiculous transition dunks too. But then he was also, I thought he did a pretty solid job all game in point of attack on Luca. His spot up shooting, he had two corner threes.

Like if he starts knocking down corner three is at a consistent rate, that's obviously a huge game changer. And then one of the big things I always talk about with Andrew Wiggins is matchup attacking. So, like, you get a smaller player on the perimeter. Andrew Wiggins in the playoffs last year would constantly just, like, ripped through the middle and, like, get to the basket or if you cut him off, just bump him off and, like, make a little floater, a little short pull-up jump shot. There's a play in the, I think it was in the fourth quarter of this game where he happened to have Jaden Hardy on him on a switch, late clock situation on the left wing, and he just ripped through to the right, bump Jaden Hardy, hard spin back towards his left hand, soft left-hand finish off the glass. that's all Andrew Wiggins stuff. And again, like when we're talking about the Warriors, like here's the thing, if Andrew Wiggins doesn't come back, it's going to be extremely difficult for them to win a championship. That's just the reality of NBA basketball.

I would imagine even most of you Warriors fans can acknowledge that. But if there was a puncher's chance, it's what if Jonathan Kaminga can give you 80% of what Andrew Wiggins gives you? And obviously, that would still maybe not be enough. because ideally you want all three. You want comming off the bench with Gary Payton off the bench with Wiggins in the starting lineup,

but that gives you at least a fighting chance. Before we move on with the Mavericks, so that weird play in the third quarter. Here's the thing. Did the refs screw up? Yeah, they did. What should the crew chief do when one team is way on one side of the court

and there's clearly confusion over who has possession? Maybe you're run out onto the floor and you blow the play dead. Like, of course, it was a mistake. But Mark Cuban making such a big deal out of it and protesting the game is such a loser mentality. Like, how many times in a basketball game does something that's out of your control not go your way? A bad call. A missed goal tent.

A guy steps out of bounds and the ref just doesn't see it. Lucky stuff. Like, dude throws up a half-court shot, Mick goes in. There are random occurrences. is a half dozen probably in every single basketball game that are completely out of your control. And sometimes all six of them go against you. And you have to try to find a way to win. You led late in the fourth quarter of this game and you couldn't close the deal because they got the clutch baskets and you could not. That's a loser mentality. It's like Luca Donchish.

It's like, look, everyone who has played basketball at any level gets frustrated with officiating. That is just normal part of being a competitor. But there's a way to handle it. There's a way not to. You know, I was talking, there's a friend of mine who plays NCAA basketball right now, and they just lost a heartbreaking game in the tournament and is one of the guys I work out with when he comes home in the summer. And on two awful calls, an awful call in regulation and an awful call at OT. And when I messaged him about it, the kid's attitude was like, yeah, it sucked, but you know what? Like, we got to be better so we can't find ourselves in that situation next year. Of course he's pissed off about the play. But it's just a little.

Loser mentality to go up to the refs and make the money sign. Like, no, Luca, you didn't lose that game because of officiating. Dremont didn't foul you on the final basket under the play. Were there some plays where you got fouled? Yeah. But the same could be set on the other end of the floor. Steph Curry doesn't get a great whistle. Hate to break it to you.

And so just that, again, maybe you did get screwed. That's a loser mentality. find a way to win the game despite the things that every single team deals with that are outside of your control. All right, really quickly, let's move on to John Moran's return. So the Gris get a big win at home versus the Rockets today, 130 to 125. Jared Jackson, Jr., 37 and 10. I was texting with some of the guys on our team before the show. If I were to ask you guys if Jared Jackson has any chance to be a better player than John Morant in a few years, would you guys?

think that is legitimate. And I don't know what I think yet. I'd really have to think about it. But like, here's the thing. I think Jared Jackson can be the best defensive player in the league. I think he has that potential. I also think he has real downhill force combined with a semi-reliable perimeter shot. And if he can improve his handle enough and if he can improve his court vision enough, if he's a reliable 25 point per game guy who's also the best player, a defense player in the league, like, that's a top tier. superstar. Like, that's Anthony Davis-ish, right? You know? So, like, if he can get to that level, that's, I don't know if John can be a top-tier superstar. He can't be a top-tier superstar until he can

figure out how to be at least a net neutral on the defensive end of the floor. My gut says I still think job will be better in the long run, but for Memphis fans, that's not a bad thing. Like, if Jared Jackson has the potential to be better than John in the future, that's fantastic for you. because that means you could have two superstars when it's all set and done. John Moran came off the bench for 17 and 5. He was plus 11. I'm not going to talk about the off-court stuff with Jha. I've said that a million times to you guys.

It's not what you come to me for. I'm not going to pontificate about all of the many factors at play in his situation. You guys come to me for the basketball. But here's the thing. John Morant is the only legitimate chance that the Grizzlies have to win a championship this year. That's just a fact. You know, it's funny. I talked a lot with San Vasini about this yesterday when we're talking Grizzlies,

but I look at that slow down half-court dynamic a lot with teams. And really, to me, I think the biggest swing factor for Memphis to win a championship potentially this year is John Moran needs to be very accurate with his pull-up three-point shot. Here's the reason why I feel that way. Teams are going to pack the pain. That's just the reality. Memphis loves to play. two bigs because they're a big physically imposing type of team, especially with Brandon Clark out, I think you're going to see a lot of Xavier Tillman. And if Stephen Adams can get back, I think you're

going to see a lot of Stephen Adams. They're going to play big. So there's going to be a lot of bodies in the pain. You are going to see exaggerated ignoring of Dylan Brooks. And Memphis needs Dylan Brooks because he's one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, and he's going to take a lot of those significant perimeter assignments. Desmond Bain, obviously, is a great shooting threat. But The reality of how that breaks down is John Moran is going to be playing pick and roll two on three, a lot. But that two on three is not going to be blitzing or double teaming. It's going to be digging down from the wings. And so in a lot of cases, the best shots he's going to be able to get is defenders sagging back or going under or going underneath screens with jaw with the ball in his hands.

He's going to have to be consistent knocking down that pull up three. This year, 3.3 pull-up threes per game, he's shooting just 30.6%. And that was with him coming out the gates red-hot. So I'm not super optimistic about it. As of right now, I do not have the Grizzlies on my list of teams that really can win a championship this year. I just don't think they have the level of half-court shot creation. But there's a lot to be excited about. Darren Jackson, that interior defense is for real.

Dylan Brooks, he's going to be a free agent this summer. God knows what he's going to make. but he's one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. They got a lot of foundational pieces. They've just got to tie off some of their half-court shot creation stuff. But it's good to see John Murray back playing basketball. The Clippers. So we're going to talk about the Paul Georgian injury in a minute.

It was a bizarre game. One of the most bizarre final possessions of a game I've ever seen. Kwai Leonard, who is renowned as one of the best clutch players in the league. And a guy who create his own shot literally doesn't get a shot off on Lou Dort. on the final possession. There's an interesting dynamic there with cutters that I want to talk about here in just a minute. But the real story,

Kauai didn't get a shot off, yeah, that's fine. On the other end of the floor, the Thunderbird just walking the clippers down to the basket every time down the floor. There were three straight buckets on Kauai Leonard, just driving past Kauai Leonard. Isaiah Joe, hard drive on Kauai Leonard, step back into a little short jump shot that he made.

Jalen Williams just attacked a closeout on Kauai, just dusted him by his right shoulder and got to the basket for a nasty dunk. Shea Gilchus Alexander, straight ISO, Quayal entered in position, left elbow, just beats him to the middle of the floor for the layup. And then on the final two possessions for the Thunder, Shay Gildesler's Alexander just walked Russell Westbrook down into a foul, then got Eric Gordon on a switch and walked him down to the basket for a little floater. So the real story was they just couldn't guard, which is a whole other issue. We'll talk about that in just a second. But I didn't want to say what I thought was interesting on the final possession with Kauai. You know, there were two cuts that took place on this play. And one of them was kind of a screen.

I think it was for Marcus Morris. He comes over, like does a quick pick and pop. And then there was another play where Russ cuts, right before the final seconds, Russ cuts through to the opposite corner, but it's just a touch too late. Here's the thing. Cutting is an excellent way to open up space for a guy to go to work because you're naturally going to drag defenders away with you. but you need to time it right to give the guy an opportunity to go to work.

What happened there was, like, Marcus Morris ran his cut right after Kauai was finishing a play. He wasn't ready to capitalize on it. And then on the final attempt that he made where he took the step back, but he didn't get off in time, Russ cut, but not until it was too late for Kauai to drive that way. If Russ cuts like two seconds earlier, then Kauai can take a hard couple of dribbles to that way, maybe pump-bake and try to get him out of position and get up into his shot. So just a couple awkward things there. But the reality is, is, you know, Paul George came down and took a nasty knee injury.

It wasn't quite as bad as it looked, but he's going to be out for two or three weeks. And here's the thing. I was already seriously considering removing the clippers from my list of real contenders based solely on the fact that they had no rim protection relative to the great rim protection you need to win a championship. But I didn't remove them yet because technically I consider Paul George. George and Kauai Leonard to be kind of front court type talent. And I thought, man, if they just are really locked in defensively, then that can kind of make up for that. But here's the thing.

They are not overcoming their lack of rim protection without otherworldly superstar play from Paul George and Kaui Leonard. And it's just too much to ask for Paul George, who is a rhythm based pull-up shooter, to walk into the middle of a first round series against what's probably going to be a very good team, a team probably like the Sacramento Kings, and to just suddenly walk into that series, it looked like prime Paul George. And so as of right now, I think their question marks are too much. So I'm removing the clippers from my list of real contenders, keeping it down to just seven now. And that's the Celtics, Bucks, Sixers, and the Nuggets, Sons, and the Lakers, and I'm missing, what am I missing? The Warriors. So that's my list of.

seven as of right now. All right, before we get out of here, it's got to the Eastern Conference. So speaking of the Kings, the Celtics just beat the shit out of them last night, 132 to 109 in Sacramento. I will say, like, the Celtics went on their run in the third quarter. The third quarter for Sacramento against Boston was one of the worst defensive performances I've ever seen from an NBA team that's not deliberately trying to lose basketball games. they were not getting matched up in transition.

There was a play where not even a transition play. Celtics come up the floor in a standard half-court set. There's just nobody guarding Jalen Brown on the left wing. Swing past, Jalen Brown knocks down the shot. Jalen Brown was relentlessly attacking Deere and Fox and Kegan Murray in isolation. There's no help. Then when they do help, it's reckless. There's no organization to it.

Sometimes they help out of the weak side corner. sometimes they help out of the strong side corner. You know, when they do help, they just kind of run into the play. They're not actively attacking the basketball. No one's trying to rotate around. It was honestly embarrassing, watching the Celtics just go for a lay-up line and easy kick-out threes for that entire quarter. They had a 174, a 174 offensive rating in the third quarter.

They're at home with a chance to be one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, and they had a 174 defensive rating in that third quarter, Sacramento did. For the game, they had a 141 defensive rate. And, you know, the perimeter size thing was really starting to show up because Jason Tatum was catching Kessler-Edwards a lot. They were beating him just with quick seals underneath the basket, just with how much size they have to give up at those spots. But you know what was interesting is, like, we can talk a lot about their defense, and I've talked a lot about Sacramento's defense all season. But the biggest thing that concerned me in that game for Sacramento is Boston kind of locked them down in the second quarter and fourth quarter of particular. particular. They held him to like 115 offensive rating in the game for what is the best

offense in the history of the league right now. They were switching almost every ball screen. Basically anything that didn't involve Robert Williams, they were switching, and DeR and Fox was not attacking when he saw those opportunities. When they would switch, they would just front DeMontos de Bonas as he was rolling to the basket with lots of help around him, finding guys that they could ignore. It was a really impressive defensive performance, and it kind of, it comes down to a couple of different things, because we're going to talk Celtics here in just a second, but the reality of playoff basketball is easy baskets are not there anymore when you're playing against good teams. They will be there against Sacramento because they don't play any

defense, but you don't have those easy baskets anymore. And it is going to come down to against switching, can Demona Sabonis and DeGaron Fox consistently create an advantage? And I think they'll be fine. They'll be fine, but they're not going to be the otherworldly offense that they were in the regular season. And that's when their defense will come up to be a problem. But I want to be. But I wanted to talk a little bit about Jayone Brown because so Jill and Brown had this really bizarre quote that came out I believe it was before the Kings game as a matter of fact I'm certain it was and he said quote he was asked about his future in Boston and he said quote I don't know as long as I'm needed it's not up to me we'll see how they feel about me over time and I feel about them over time

hopefully whatever it is it makes sense but I will say where I'm wanted I will stay where I'm needed and treated correct end quote now here's a thing. That is a weird quote. I won't lie. But I'm going to say the same thing I said about the Warriors last week. Nobody likes to lose. I hate to break it to you. I believe coming into the Kings game, the Celtics had lost six out of 11 games. Even playing some sloppy basketball. And we'll talk about them as a team here just a minute. But like that that sort of thing is just natural competitive reaction to no one enjoys losing basketball games. You know what?

The Warriors looked pretty dejected the other day, you know, when they were on that losing streak. But you know what? You're on the road. You beat a Houston team. You go into Dallas and Steph makes a nice little drop off past to Draymond Green, and Steph is flexing and screaming at the crowd, and Draymond Green's on the ground, flex in and everything's fine because winning cures everything so the reality is is i think the

celtics will go into the first round and beat the hell out of whoever they end up matched up with which apparently that's up in the air now because again if boston toasts away the two seed they deserve what's coming to them it's just you need to find a way to have home court for that particular matchup it's already brutal that they've toasted away the one seed because the one seed might only have to play one of those guys as opposed to two of them, right? But, like, I'm not worried about Jalen Brown's comments. The reality is, is the basketball fit is natural. He kind of compliments Jason Tatum in a lot of ways because Jason Tatum doesn't have that

creative shot-making piece. Jalen Brown does. So he's kind of the perfect compliment to him. They're an excellent defensive duo. They're going to win a lot of games. He's going to get a supermax contract. I think Jalen Brown is definitively a top 15 player in this league, so I don't see any reason why he would not get the paycheck that he wants.

So all of this is going to break out and be fine. I'm not going to suddenly care about Jalen Brown's comments when I didn't care about Golden State's bad body language. To me, it just doesn't really matter. As far as Boston goes, I could not be less worried about them. I know there's a lot of negativity because they haven't finished the season as strong as you would hope. But here's the thing. All of the players that made the finals run last year are better this year.

Tatum's better. Jalen Brown's better. Derek White has been unbelievable, although he's struggling to get into a Joe Mozilla's rotation a little bit. Malcolm Brogden has been a home run piece. You know, Grant Williams has been a little inconsistent as of late, but he's dealing with an elbow injury. Everyone's playing great. They're just, they got off to such a hot start.

They had such a big lead. They've lost a little bit of that urgency. It's going to click in. They're going to have a winnable first round series. Yeah, I know they might end up matched up with Miami. Miami, they just don't have the perimeter size to handle Boston compared even to what they had last year. So I'm just not particularly worried about that. So, yeah, I remain very, very bullish on the Celtics.

I still think they are a top, top tier contender with Milwaukee. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support. Not sure what the schedule is for the next few days. So keep tuned to my Twitter feed and I'll let you guys know. And I'll see you guys then. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite.

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