The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Lakers' big road win, 76ers championship ceiling, Westbrook shines for Clippers

Episode Date: April 1, 2023

Jason Timpf breaks down LeBron James and Anthony Davis leading the Lakers to a 123-111 win over Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Later, he discusses if James Harden & Joel Embiid ca...n lead the Philadelphia 76ers to an NBA Finals run & commends Russell Westbrook on his recent play for the Los Angeles Clippers. #volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:03:45 I hope all of you guys are having a great weekend so far. We're just going to briefly touch on four games from last night. The Lakers, notching a huge road win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, locking down the seven seed for the time being. The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Toronto Rafters, although the Rafters did make it close there at the end. They pulled away, but I really want to dive in on just all of the championship boxes, like those expectations that we have for champions, and whether or not Philly meets those
Starting point is 00:04:11 expectations. I want to dive into them a little bit. Then we got a preview of our 4-5 first-round matchup in the Eastern Conference between the Cavs and the Heat. Jalen Brunson notches a career high, 48 points, and a road win in Cleveland. And last but not least, I want to talk a little bit about Russell Westbrook and his time with the Clippers, especially after his 36-point night a couple games ago against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Starting point is 00:04:32 before we get started, subscribe to the volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT, so you guys don't miss any show announcements. And if for whatever reason you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget you can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. All right, let's talk some basketball. So this was a really interesting game between the Wolves and the Lakers.
Starting point is 00:04:52 I actually didn't watch the game live because I was at a rehearsal dinner for a wedding that I'm going to this weekend. But I kind of saw some of the people talking and, you know, Lakers fans were very optimistic about how things went, felt like they dominated the game. But Timberwolves fans were convinced that, like, there was this weird sequence that took place with Anthony Davis spraining his ankle and a small little run that the Lakers went on during that stretch and how it might have changed the game. And then Rudy Gobert effectively credited that for what turned the game around.
Starting point is 00:05:22 And so I was really curious to watch it because it was a classic case of like the two fan bases had very different impressions on what went down. And so I wanted to see the basketball because, you know, I do believe. that momentum swings can happen in games. We've talked a lot about this. I talk about how, you know, we talked about it during the Mark Cuban thing with that weird play in the Warriors Mavericks game where there was that inbound pass or a missed call here or a miscall there.
Starting point is 00:05:46 Players complaining about officiating. I talk about all the time. There's like five or six things that happen in every single basketball game that are entirely out of your control. And what do I always say? Sometimes they can all go against you. But you've got to find a way to win. Like that's just a reality.
Starting point is 00:06:01 And so you have to be prepared as a basketball team going into a game or going into a series. There's just going to be a bunch of shit that's completely out of your control that doesn't go your way. And you have to find a way to overcome that. That's just part of being a competitor that's part of being a winner. And so I hate that excuse process from the start. But I wanted to see what happened in the basketball. So I was watching the game and, you know, it's very back and forth for most of the first half. The Lakers take a little lead.
Starting point is 00:06:25 The wolves take a little lead, right? But just in the final few minutes of the first half, the wolves go on a, go on a big run going into the halftime period. Kyle Anderson hits a corner three. Rudy Gobert does this vicious spin move on Anthony Davis in isolation for a layup. Anthony Edwards finally gets going. A really smart play design from Chris Finch to get him a backdoor cut. They have Carl Towns in the left corner,
Starting point is 00:06:50 and they have Rudy Gobert go set a pin down for him, and it looks like Carl Towns is going to come off that screen. He didn't actually end up using it, but Rudy was setting the screen like he was going to go out. So Anthony Davis, because he has to be there to show out on that screen to stop Carl Towns from getting that easy catch and shoot, he steps out of the lane. Anthony Edwards just runs a back door cut and gets a dunk. That kind of broke the ice. And I believe that was his first basket of the game at that point.
Starting point is 00:07:16 Then he gets another driving reverse layup before the half. Bam, you go into halftime, you're up 10. Complexion of the game has completely changed. They kind of go back and forth to start the third quarter for a few minutes. but on film, and this is what's so funny about Rudy Gobert with that post-game comment, I was really interested to see if it was the Laker defense that turned the tie to the game or if it was just some random sequence that turned the tide of the game, and it was the Lakers defense.
Starting point is 00:07:42 They got stops on five of the previous six possessions before Anthony Davis tweaked his ankle. That ended up being the defensive wave that carried them through the rest of the game. The Lakers had a defensive rating in the second half of this game of 85. which is off the charge good. So the real story of the second half of this game is the Lakers just completely locked down Minnesota. And it came down to a couple of specific schematic things, but if I had to attribute it to one, I would say Rui Hachamura and his ability to guard Carl Anthony Towns.
Starting point is 00:08:15 Because one of the predicaments that the Lakers were put in is that when Carl Towns and Rudy Gobert were both on the court, they'd put Anthony Davis on Rudy Gobert so that he could linger around the paint, right? But that ended up putting Jared Vanderbilt on Carl Towns. And the problem there is Jared Vanderbilt is a very good perimeter defender, but Carl Towns is by far the biggest player they've given him as an assignment to guard at this point in the season. And he's just too big and too strong and shoots the ball too well, had 20, I think, in the first half. They were having all sorts of problems guarding Carl Towns. But as soon as they figured out that they could put Rui Hachamura on Carl Towns and hold their own defensively there, that allowed Anthony Davis to remain
Starting point is 00:08:58 around the basket for the rest of the game. Because early in that second half, they sub-Carl Towns out. They have Kyle Anderson in the game. That's when the run starts. The run begins with Anthony Davis protecting the rim, guarding on the perimeter really well with guys like Jared Vanderbilt and Dennis Schroeder and just getting into the basketball. Then when Carl Towns came back in the game and Rudy Gobert left the game, they were able to slide Anthony Davis over onto Kyle Anderson, a player they want to concede three-point shots to. That was only possible because Rui Hachamura was able to hold his own in that Carl Towns matchup. I talk a lot about the different types of forwards in the NBA. We have our wiry, lanky, athletic forwards, and then we
Starting point is 00:09:41 have our bigger, stronger, more power forwards. Jared Vanderbilt's more in the middle, to be honest, because he's taller, like a bigger forward, and he does have good muscle mass, but he does have a little bit of a higher center of gravity, and he's not going to hold up against really, really strong post players. We even saw him struggle a little bit with Julius Randall in a matchup a little while back, if you guys remember. The only real lanky athlete that the Lakers have is a guy like Troy Brown Jr., who's a bit undersized, right? So that's kind of like their one position that they don't have, you know, your stereotypical type of athlete there. But Rui Hachamura, he struggled a little bit with some
Starting point is 00:10:15 perimeter matchups this year, but he is big and strong, and he is a much lower center of gravity with much stronger legs than Jared Vanderbilt. That gives him the ability to hold up under more physical forwards in the NBA. So Rui Hachemura ends up actually being a really good matchup for a guy like Carl Towns in a way that you wouldn't expect, even though Jared Vanderbilt's a better defender overall, right? And then you saw the slotting start to take place from there. They actually went with Jared Vanderbilt and Rui Hachamur at the same time at one point. Now you've got Jared Vanderbilt being able to slot over onto Anthony Edwards. Why? Because Anthony Davis can stay on Kyle Anderson, Rui Hachamura's on Carl Towns, and then you've got Jared Vanderbilt freed up for a perimeter
Starting point is 00:10:55 assignment there. Then you're able to slide Dennis Schroeder over onto Mike Conley, who had been red-hot in the whole game. The two big matchup problems that caused the Lakers issues in this game were Carl Towns, particularly in the first half, and then Mike Connolly throughout the game with his shot making, just that ridiculous floater that he never misses, and his pull-up three that he's been hitting at a high clip since coming to the Minnesota Timberwolves. So you saw the matchups kind of start to slot into place, and then suddenly they couldn't score. And the other big thing with Rui Hachamura is when they were running Kyle Anderson ball screens with Carl Towns, they were able to just switch that.
Starting point is 00:11:28 And the switching ability, and there were a couple possessions where Rui actually switched on to Rudy Gaubert and confronted the post and pushed him out of the lane. Like it just, it was a stifling defensive effort triggered by outstanding. point of attack defense from guys like Jared Vanderbilt and Dennis Schroeder. And then on the backline, the switchability of guys like Rui Hachamur and Anthony Davis, you even got like even LeBron, LeBron had a nightmare offensive game in this game, but he was engaged defensively. I talked a lot about how as soon as LeBron came back, they don't need MVP LeBron.
Starting point is 00:12:03 They just don't. They have so much backcourt skill and Anthony Davis playing at such a high level, they don't need him to. They will need him to beat like a team like Boston or Milwaukee. There's no doubt they're going to need Superstar LeBron, but he's got plenty of time to get his rhythm back. Jaden McDaniels did a number on him yesterday. He still doesn't quite have the lift that he needs and doesn't quite have his rhythm and his shot in his handle dialed in right to be the dominant score against those really, really good defensive teams. But he's got time.
Starting point is 00:12:31 And we know he's capable of that. Just look at what he's done during other stretches of the season. But I thought, you know, again, don't get confused by the narrative. it was a weird sequence. Like, yeah, Anthony Davis fell down. Rudy Gobert said he could have dunked on him. Go watch the replay. That's absurd. First of all, Anthony Davis is laying on the ground in front of the basket. Technically, he's in his way. It's not like he can just step on him, right? So he doesn't have his steps right to be able to dunk. And Wenian Gabriel's literally sitting in help. Like if Anthony Davis wasn't standing there,
Starting point is 00:13:03 Wenin's going to run over and jump with verticality. And Rudy Gober is just not a very good finisher around the rim that probably turns into a hook shot that he probably missed. way, the ball got worked around, and Mike Conley shot a wide open three on that possession. One of their best shooters who shoot really well that game shot a wide open three. He just missed it. Then they didn't get matched up in transition and left Angela Russell open for a layup on a push-ahead pass from LeBron. And it wasn't just about the Anthony Davis injury.
Starting point is 00:13:29 They were killing him with those push-ahead passes the entire game. Rui Hachamura got a backdoor lob dunk, or I should say in the second half. Rui Hachamura got a backdoor lob dunk from Austin Reeves in transition because nobody picked him up. That was after the AD injury, after the game had already returned to its normal flow. There was a play where Anthony Davis got a deep seal in transition with nobody around him against a smaller defender. He just happened to smoke a layup. But the Lakers were beating them in transition consistently as an issue there in that second half. I just don't buy that. And then Jaden McDaniels comes down the floor after the DeAngela Russell layup and AD is still writhing
Starting point is 00:14:03 on the floor. And he's just dribbling like super careless with the basketball. And Wennon and Gabriel just comes up and picks him clean. Like yeah, was, there's no doubt it was a weird sequence. I also wouldn't be surprised if the weirdness of Anthony Davis writhing around in pain on the ground had some sort of brief mental disruption to the, to the Timberwolves. But like I said, that's going to happen in a basketball game. You've got to find a way to regain control. There were still 18 plus minutes left in the game, and the reality was, is you couldn't score. And the Lakers started to demonstrate that before the injury, and then they resoundingly demonstrated it down the stretch. And then Anthony
Starting point is 00:14:41 Disney Davis just took them home in the post, and it was crazy because just nonstop, like, first it was against Gobert earlier in the fourth quarter, and then Gobert comes off the floor, and it's against Carl Towns. And he's just surrounded by so much offensive skill with this new Laker lineup that they're leading him on an island. And he just took Carl Towns to school. And what was crazy is it wasn't even jumpers. Like he hit a little fadeaway on the baseline. But for the most part, he was in the damn lane, just hitting him with pivots and fakes, and and spins and hook shots and just making every single one of them. It was a clinic of postwork against Carl Towns
Starting point is 00:15:18 and a little bit against Gobert as well. He continues his tour of dominance with 38 points and 17 rebounds with two blocks and a steel. Lakers are 14 and 7 since the deadline, despite LeBron missing most of that stretch. They also lost that Houston game with Anthony Davis resting, giving up 70-something paint points. We'll get to see if I was right about AD changing that matchup here
Starting point is 00:15:39 on Sunday when the Lakers go to Houston. Then you had that heartbreak against Dallas. So they've had a little bit of bad luck, and they're still 14 and 7 since the deadline, which is the sixth best record in the league during that span. They also have the very best defense, and they're the fourth best rebounding team over that span. So best defense, fourth best rebounding team,
Starting point is 00:15:58 they're physically beating the hell out of teams. And that's mostly without LeBron. LeBron is just a force multiplier in that regard, with what he can do generating attention around the post like defensively at this phase of his career, still a pretty good help defender. Like, he's just going to exacerbate that problem for teams. And so that sort of physical dominance is something
Starting point is 00:16:19 that I always look at for teams in a potential playoff run. Now, they are 19th in offense over this span, but again, that's where LeBron getting back to his ceiling offensively at some point in the next couple of weeks will be the thing that can push them over the edge offensively as well. And here's the other thing too. One of the, I always talk about how in NBA history, You've got to be a top 10 defense in order to have a real chance to win a championship.
Starting point is 00:16:42 That's just unless you have an otherworldly talent advantage, you've got to be a top 10 defense. Here's what's crazy. The Lakers are now basically in a virtual tie for 10th place in defense for the entire season. So even that goal of getting into the top 10 is very much within reach if they put together even just one more good defensive night. They now have sole possession of the seven seed. Now Minnesota does have a tiebreaker over them, so they got to make sure that they stay. one game ahead of Minnesota in the lost column. They are one game back of both Golden State and the Clippers,
Starting point is 00:17:14 but they only have the tiebreaker against Golden State. They do not have the tiebreaker against the Clippers. Obviously three-way ties, the tiebreaker gets way more convoluted. So everything's still up in the air, but they do control their own destiny, and they're heading into an easier stretch of their schedule. They play the Rockets and the Jazz next. Three of their last five games are against the Rockets and the Jazz,
Starting point is 00:17:32 and then they've got a couple of tough matchups against the Clippers and the Suns. But the Lakers are in a good position to potentially end up getting either that home court for the first round of the play-in tournament or to miss the playing tournament entirely. They're in a good spot right now. Good time to be a Lakers fan. All right, I want to talk a little bit about the Raptors' Sixers game. Not so much about the game, but I want to focus on the Sixers. The Sixers really blew them out in this game. They had 77 in the first half. The Raptors kind of grinded back and got it close. They got back to to within two on a Fred Van Vleet, pull up three in the middle of the fourth quarter. But then
Starting point is 00:18:07 immediately the Sixers went on a run and B. got a bucket. P.J. Tucker hit a corner three. James Hardin had a driving layup. James Hardin was fantastic in this game and his second game returning from that Achilles soreness. We talked a lot about, you know, Hardin having like a revenge campaign this season. He's had some injuries that have banged him up. Obviously, the foot injury earlier on and then the Achilles injury more recently. But really for the most part this season, I think James Hardin has had an excellent season, both as a score and a playmaker, doing exactly as much as this team needs him to do to have a chance to win a championship. Most importantly, Hardin's legs looked explosive.
Starting point is 00:18:45 He talked about how at one point he was an excruciating pain in that Achilles and that was causing him problems, getting lift and pushing off. He looked spry in this game. And the big driving layup he had that basically was the dagger against the raptors at the end of this game, he was against Ogen and O.G. and O.B., and Yaka Pertil was guarding Joel Embed, and he kept calling for that Embededde ball screen. He's trying to get switched on to Pertil so he can get his switch. But O.G. Ananovi was just doing a really nice job of fighting through the screen.
Starting point is 00:19:14 And Nick Nurse, as he always does, was like ridiculously, overaggressively doubling Embed out of the high post. So Hardin just pulled it out. And he's like, oh, shit, I guess I got a score on OG and an Obe. And he hit him with a move and a counter move and got all the way to the rim and made a left-handed layup. And on that counter move, he was engaged physically with OG. And OG was playing very physical. And so for him to be able to shed OG like that and maintain his leg strength to get the necessary lift to get up to the rim, I think is a really good sign for him physically. But I wanted to talk about the Sixers in their championship boxes, because I always talk about these things that are like mandatory, right?
Starting point is 00:19:49 and the sixers, the more and more I look at them, above and beyond the things that we don't even really have a measurable way of accounting for, like, oh, James Hardin's playoff performance, or Joel and B's playoff performance, or Doc Rivers' playoff performance, which, again, I'm not saying they're not concerns, but it's just, it's really hard to quantify those things in the grand scheme of things. And, like, if they have figured it out, like, the only way we're going to find out is they're just going to go beat everybody in the playoffs, right? So it's hard to really plan for that, so to speak. It's just kind of a wild card that you have to account for.
Starting point is 00:20:23 But if we set those aside, they check everything else. I always talk, you need to have elite rim protection. They do. Joel Embed, especially in this last half of the season, his rim protection has been off the charts good. You need to have guys who can take high leverage perimeter assignments. DeAnthony Melton can take higher level ball handler, like perimeter ball handler like guard high pick and roll assignments.
Starting point is 00:20:45 P.J. Tucker can guard all of your big forwards that you're going to going to need to have guarded in the Eastern Conference. Even Tobias Harris, like having PJ Tucker and Tobias Harris as options to throw at, you know, Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum, for instance. That's a real weapon, that's a real weapon to have, especially with Joel and Bede on the backline. You can't just attack James Hardin on a switch because of his ability to guard in the post, right?
Starting point is 00:21:09 So they have a lot of matchup versatility defensively. I really like that. They are the very best spot-up team in the league. So if you do what Nick Nurse did and you just double-team the shit out of Joe L. Embed, yeah, he might have some turnovers and he had five turnovers in this game. But if he can make that first pass out and have James Harden make that second read, there's just so much skill on the backside of the floor. Like PJ Tucker was hitting his corner three in this game, De Anthony Melton, driving closeouts and cutting off of extra passes and stuff. They just have so much skill off the ball that they're going to be able to score. And then most importantly, they have two elite shot creators.
Starting point is 00:21:44 but it goes beyond what they do individually. Yes, James Hardin and Joel Embed, two superstars, that gives you the ability to create shots. But it's because they can create shots in both specific defensive environments that I'm so optimistic. If you're in a traditional drop coverage, they can pick you to parts, pick you to pieces with pick and roll.
Starting point is 00:22:05 Just straight up, James Hardin with the ball, Embed sets the screen, rolls down to the free throw line, pocket pass, go to work, help out of the weak side, you're kicking a shooters. They can play that way, but both of them can beat switches. So if it turns into a thing where all of a sudden, you can't run drop coverage anymore,
Starting point is 00:22:23 or you're going up against a team like the Rafters that has all these forwards, and they start switching, James Hardin is beating some of the best perimeter defenders in the league to the basket still to this day. And Joel Embed has been just an absolute monster in isolation all season long. And so they have a versatility of offensive approach, I think, that makes them extremely dangerous. So, I mean, again, I still have them comfortably third behind the Bucks and the Celtics in the conference, but I think as a group, they are right there with them, and I absolutely think they have a chance to come out of the conference. All right, so we got our preview of the four or five matchup between the Knicks and Cavs last night.
Starting point is 00:23:00 It was interesting because both teams were really red hot in this game. Donovan Mitchell came out red hot in the first quarter, but then the Cavs cooled off, and Jaylen Brunson just never cooled off. And it started in the first half with like this clinic of just short range, little pump fake pull-up twos and pump-fake floaters and pump-fake hook shots in the lane. Everything was defended extremely well. Like the Cavs defended, they lost him a couple times in the second half on peel-off switches where they were hedging onto Jalen Brunson and then the hedging defender would leave to go
Starting point is 00:23:30 back to his man, but the original on-ball defender wouldn't get back into the play and Jalen would end up wide open. There were a couple of defensive mistakes. But for the most part, the Cavs defended Jalen Brunson extremely well. And he just made everything. And that goes back to what I've been talking about forever with the Knicks, is if Jalen Brunson and Julius Randall do that, which is a superstar type of behavior,
Starting point is 00:23:50 the ability to knock down consistently tough shots against good defense, that raises their ceiling to a level that I don't think a lot of people expected from the Knicks. And by the way, this is not just a one-game sample size. Jalen Brunson is shooting 52% on floaters this year. There are six players that have taken 200 floaters. Trey Young, Josh Giddy, John Marant, Tias Jones, and Trey Jones, and Jalen Brunson. Jalen Brunson's 52% is best in the league. So he is the best volume floater shooter in the league by far right now.
Starting point is 00:24:21 He's also shooting 49% on short jumpers inside of 17 feet, which is obviously excellent. And then he's having a really good three-point shooting season 2, 42% from 3 this year, about 38.5% or so on pull-up 3. So it's not fluky that he's shooting as well as he has. and it was all the short stuff early, but then there in the second half, it was the pull-up threes. And it seemed like every single time the Cavs started to make a run, Jalen Brunson was there to knock down a huge three to stem the tide.
Starting point is 00:24:49 And again, it's going to look very different in a playoff series. I'll be really interested to see how the matchups work out because not only, I mean, the Cavs were missing Jared Allen and Isaac Cicorro, obviously. And Lamar Stevens ended up drawing that Jalen Brunson matchup to start. I like Lamar Stevens better on bigger forwards, and I like Isaac O'Coro more on the quicker guards. So obviously that's a slightly better matchup. But you're not going to get any sympathy from the Knicks.
Starting point is 00:25:14 They didn't have Julius Randall. And that changes matchups a lot. And like, I know the easy answer is like, oh, we're going to put Evan Mobley on Julius Randall, but in a physical playoff environment, I wonder if he might be a little too thin there. That's going to be an interesting matchup. I would love to see how Evan Mobley can hold up against Julius Randall
Starting point is 00:25:30 because if he doesn't hold up on Julius Randall, they're going to have to go with someone like Lamar Stevens, and Lamar Stevens will have to guard Julius Randall, which will end up putting, you know, Jalen Brunson in a position where you have to guard him with one of the guards. And that's just going to be barbecue chicken at that point. So it's going to be really interesting to see how the matchups shake out. And obviously it's going to look very different than it did in this particular game. But one thing was apparent from this game, even with Lamar Stevens on the ball,
Starting point is 00:25:58 Jalen Brunson looked very comfortable getting to his spots and getting to the shots that he likes to take. All right. Lastly, before we get out of here, Russ versus the Grizzlies. So I had a bunch of people in the comments asking, why didn't I talk about Russ in his 36-point game the other night? The short version is, is the Grizzly sat everybody. Like, yeah, John Morant played. Yeah, Xavier Tillman played.
Starting point is 00:26:22 John Moran's trying to get back in shape, right? Dylan Brooks played. But they sat Desmond Bain. And most importantly, they sat Jaron Jackson Jr., who's been arguably the best rim protector in the NBA this year. and the thing with Jaron Jackson, we've talked about this. I think John Moran's a better player overall,
Starting point is 00:26:39 and he represents the Grizzlies' ceiling. But I think Jaron Jackson's the most valuable player to the Grizzlies. He is the foundational piece to everything they do defensively. That's why the Grizzlies are better with him on the, like his on-off numbers are better than anybody else on the team. Jared Jackson's vitally important. And so honestly, like, it just wasn't a game to really learn anything because you were just basically watching a shell of the Memphis Grizzlies go against the Clippers, right?
Starting point is 00:27:08 That said, Russ did play really well, and we're going to talk about how well Russ has played with the Clippers. I just didn't think it was worth covering as a result of all those guys missing. And here's the thing. Jaron Jackson came back last night, and suddenly Russ went from going for 36 to scoring four points on two for eight shooting. You know, because now you had rim protection, real perimeter defense on the floor. It's just a whole other battle at that point. But let's be clear. Russ has been excellent with the clippers in the aggregate.
Starting point is 00:27:37 He's done everything that they've needed him to do. That 36 the other night, that was kind of more just a vintage throwback moment. It was a cool moment. There was that awesome photo coming from the rafters of him laying on the ground screaming. That was cool. He was red hot from three. It was getting to the rim. That was an awesome game just as a moment for a basketball fan
Starting point is 00:27:58 to remember what it was like when Russ was at his peak. but that's not what's going to happen with the clippers. That's not what they need from him, and it's just not reliable. I mean, as you saw in what happened in the next game. What really is impressive to me about Rust with his time with the Clippers is just doing everything he did for the Lakers in a system that makes more sense for him. Pushing the pace to generate easy shots before the team can set their half-court defense. Applying rim pressure.
Starting point is 00:28:24 We've talked about this a million times, but it generates so many positive residual effects for your team when you've got a guy that's consistently press. pressuring the rim. Point of attack defense, which is something that he's actually been better at this year than he's been in recent seasons. I was talking to some Clipper fans the other day who said, they actually think he's their best guard defender right now, which is a significant asset to have on the team. And his efficiency has ticked up in large part because he's actually surrounded by shooting. It actually makes sense for him to play in a team with this style as opposed to what he did with the Lakers. For example, Rush shot 41.7% with the Lakers this year. He's shooting 48.2% with the
Starting point is 00:29:01 clippers. Here's how crazy the fit is from the standpoint of efficiency with the spacing that the clippers provide. If he keeps this level of efficiency, where he's at right now, through the end of the season, which there's a decent chance, this will be the first time in Russell Westbrook's entire career that he has notched for a single team in one season, an effective field goal percentage above 50%. That's how much of a natural fit this has been with the clippers. He is more efficient now than he has ever been. That's significant. But, like, I mean, I'm not going to cover the clipper super closely simply because without
Starting point is 00:29:34 Paul George, they have no ceiling. Without Paul George, they're just like any of those other teams in the play in other than the Lakers who don't actually have the talent necessary to get the job done. Kauai is a player that I believe in, but the clippers, we've learned this season, their lack of rim protection and their lack of perimeter speed. They've got a lot of wings, but they don't have a lot of speed on the perimeter, has made them a little bit vulnerable to specific types of matchups, and they don't have the top end star power to compensate for that without Paul George.
Starting point is 00:30:03 Now, maybe Paul George comes back, and if he comes back in the first round of the playoffs and he looks like Paul George, we can reevaluate the clippers at that point. But that knee injury looked pretty gnarly, and him getting reevaluated in three weeks doesn't bode well for him getting back onto the floor anytime soon. So love Russ's fit with the clippers. I think he should stay there into the future as well.
Starting point is 00:30:22 I'm proud of us and happy for us that he's found this spot that's working out well for him, but it doesn't change the calculus for the clippers at all whatsoever. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. We will be back tomorrow night after the final buzzer of Warriors Nuggets. As always, I appreciate you guys, and I'll see you then. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite.
Starting point is 00:31:11 Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?
Starting point is 00:31:27 We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.
Starting point is 00:31:44 Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing huge. human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking talking Star Wars-related episodes.
Starting point is 00:32:19 Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the IHeart Radio app,
Starting point is 00:32:35 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.

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