The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Reaction to BIZARRE Clippers "part ways" w/ Chris Paul + Celtics smoke Knicks, Thunder beat Warriors

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

Jason reacts to the strange story of the Los Angeles Clippers parting ways with franchise icon Chris Paul, the confusing reporting of the story, how head coach Ty Lue is involved, and what to make of all this. Then he breaks down Jaylen Brown leading the Boston Celtics to a big win over Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks, plus Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's surgical clutch play to lead the OKC Thunder over the Golden State Warriors without Steph Curry. All lines presented by Hard Rock Bet.  #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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

you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis keep coming to. He's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that your dad has been living a double life? That is not the look of an innocent man. Is everyone lying to me about who they are? I felt such desperation. I felt it was what I had to do. Listen to Deep Cover the Family Man on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.

Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is, getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is, getting a new one put up in its place. I'm Akela Hughes, and Rebel Spirit Season 2 is about both of those things. As I was watching these statues come down, I was thinking about what it meant that I grew up in a majority black city in which there were more homages to enslavers than there were to enslave people.

Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever. you get your podcasts. Turn someday into right now with Buddy by Jake Radio. Nonstop workout music and expert tips 24-7. Hey, head over to iHeart.com. Search Body by Jake Radio and stream it for free right now. Awesome health and wellness tips 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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Welcome to Hips tonight here at the Volume Heavy Wednesday everybody Hope all of you guys are having an incredible week on a jam pack show for you guys today we got some wild news

this morning when we woke up very weird morning for me I woke up to my first like real snow day in Denver I woke up to over six inches of snow around my house my dogs were going crazy I don't know if I'm going to be able

to leave the house today we'll see how that goes but I've heard good things about the way that Denver cares for their roads but also woke up to the news that Chris Paul is going to be shipped away from the Los Angeles Clippers at some point in the next few weeks. We got an announcement saying that this is from Lawrence Frank. We are

parting ways with Chris and he will no longer be with the team. We will work with him on the next step of his career. And then he goes on into some more details that we'll get into in a minute of a Chris no longer with the Clippers. I want to talk about how weird this is, why cooler heads probably should have prevailed here, considering no one actually is having fun and having a good time when you're getting your butt kicked every night. Then I want to talk a little bit about some specific lineup numbers that point me more towards the stars when it comes to the struggles

that the clippers are having. And then after that, we're going to hit a couple of national TV games from last night. So the New York Knicks jumped the Boston Celtics early, but the Celtics pretty much dominate them throughout the remainder of that game. Some really fascinating shot. from Jalen Brown, some exciting trends for the Celtics in terms of the simple fact that, believe it or not, even though the Celtics are 30th in defensive rebounding percentage,

they are winning the rebound margin in a way that I want to dig into thanks to the effort of their athletic wings, guys like Jordan Walsh and Hugo Gonzalez and Josh Minot. So some Celtics talk. Also, if you're a Knicks, if you're a skeptic in the Knicks at any way, shape, or form, Last night was like just a giant advertisement for every single one of the Knicks issues. We'll dig a little bit into that. And at the tail end of the show, what was supposed to be just a blowout as Oklahoma City goes into Golden State with Steph Curry out of the lineup, turned into another intense clutch basketball game where the Thunder just played perfect basketball down the stretch. I want to dig into some of the specifics there. Just how good shakeout is Alexander has been in the clutch this season.

their role players, their ball movement, their willingness to make the right play and knock down shots and some exciting trends with the Oklahoma City Thunder. You guys know the drill before we can start it, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT

so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's doing incredible work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there for more content throughout the season.

And the last but not least, if you want to get mailbag questions into our mailbag, make sure you go into our full episodes on YouTube, scroll down, leave a comment and write mailbag with a colon, write your comment or your question, and we'll get to them in our Friday mailbags. Obviously, we'll have a mailbag coming this coming Friday. One last quick thing, two last quick things, actually.

Make sure you like this video. Helps us a lot. So if you just take a second to scroll down and hit that like button, we'd really appreciate it. And then lastly, we have our first playback stream of the week. We're hitting two Eastern Conference Laker games this week. Lakers Raptors tomorrow night and Lakers Celtics on Friday night. I've reached out to some people who cover the Raptors in Celtics.

I'm going to try to get some guests on so that we can get some more joint coverage of the two teams throughout the show from people that are intimately involved with covering the Rafters and the Celtics. But at the very least, we will be live on playback Thursday night for Lakers Raptors as well as Friday night for Lakers Celtics should be a couple of fun ones there. All right, let's talk some basketball. So this is the latest in a long line. of hilarious treatment of stars by the Clippers' front office.

We all remember the Blake Griffin fiasco and everything associated with that, the crazy meeting, the t-shirts that were printed, all of the hoopla and basically fake investment, fake emotional investment in Blake Griffin and his future with the Clippers before they promptly shipped him out of town. Juxtaposed with the bizarre Co-A-Lennard aspiration fiasco and the fact that he's been getting paid underneath the table, millions and millions and millions of dollars, allegedly,

as part of a cap circumvention scheme. That just continues to get more and more crazy, the more details that come out. And then four days ago, the Clippers team account tweets a press conference clip of Chris Paul, talking about how much he loves it in Los Angeles. And there's a quote of an actual statement in the tweet from the Clippers that says,

CP3 will end his Hall of Fame career at home. Well, not anymore. And, you know, we know there's going to be more to this story as Chris Paul has been shipped home. And like Lawrence Frank for the record has come out and said that he's not blaming Chris Paul. We read the beginning of this quote at the start of the show. But he says, we are parting ways with Chris and he will no longer be with the team. We will work with him on the next step of his career. So they're going to find a new home for him.

But he also said Chris is a legendary clipper who had a historic career. I want to make one thing very clear. No one is blaming Chris for our underperformance. I accept responsibility for the record. have right now. There are a lot of reasons why we've struggled. We're grateful for the impact Chris has made on this franchise. We ended up just before we started recording, getting some more details. Champ Sharania tweeted, Chris Paul in his leadership style clashed with the Clippers. Sources tell ESPN, Paula had been a vote, had been vocal in holding management coaches and

players accountable, which the team felt became disruptive. Specifically, Ty Lou was not on speaking terms with Paul for several weeks. Chris Haynes then ends up tweeting sources weeks ago, Chris Paul requested to have a meeting with Tyron Liu to discuss allegations of being a negative presence on the team. Lou refused to meet with him. Lawrence Frank traveled to Atlanta to deliver the news of parting ways. Paul desired a final season to be with the Clippers. Now, there's going to be a lot more that comes out about this. That tweet from Chris Haynes is very clearly Chris Paul's perspective on the situation. I'm sure there's more to it.

One of the biggest things that I think about there is like they're getting smashed every night. they've lost 14 of their last 16 games. Like, who's going to have a good attitude right now? Who's going to be all hunky, dory, smiley, and infusing positive energy into the situation. They're, they suck. They're playing trash basketball, right? It's going to be really hard to keep a good attitude in a situation like that. We've even seen James Hardin and Kauai Leonard themselves go into post-game pressers

and essentially be like the team's not good enough and start talking about the role players. It's just weird. And so like it's one of those things where I kind of just feel like cooler heads should have prevailed. And we don't know if what Chris Paul is essentially channeling through Chris Haynes is true that he requested to have a meeting with Tyron Lou. But ultimately like this should have been one of those situations where people get together and they go, look, I know you're pissed. I'm pissed too. He's pissed. We're all pissed. We were a legitimate championship contender last year. and now we're a bad basketball team. We're getting our butts kicked every single night.

Even with our stars healthy, like, this is just bad. Let's find a way to kind of work this out and try to move forward towards our goals, especially when you, you know, the last thing the clippers need right now

is fewer good basketball players. So like on a certain level, I just wish cooler heads would have prevailed. But it's just weird. And I'm sure we're going to get more details. I'm sure we're going to get some sort of detailed reporting that comes out from both sides of the story over the course of the next couple of days,

we'll obviously have more thoughts about that as that information comes out. But what has happened to the Clippers to me is pretty simple. It's an across-the-board decline from their stars in combination with a lack of some key pieces that contributed to the team last year. But I'm always going to point towards the stars

when the stars themselves aren't able to leverage their gifts the way that they typically do. So it's a very simple stat to demonstrate this. And I know Kauai and James Hardin are putting up counting stats, but the actual shot creation data, and especially their effort on the defensive end, has not been the same. And there has been a massive drop-off

in the defensive performance of this Clippers team, which is undercutting any sort of statistical success that James Hardin and Quy Leonard might be having. So in 2025, so last season, when Quy Leonard, James Hardin, and Avita Zubots were on the floor together, they outscored teams by 14 points per 100 possessions,

a plus 14 net rating, super impressive. They had a 108 defensive rating. That's elite. They were elite on the offensive end. They were over 120. It's like right around 121 in offensive rating. That same trio this year. That same group, Quyai Leonard, James Hardin, and Vita Zubots, all on the floor. Together are getting outscored by 10 points per 100 possessions.

they have a 127 defensive rating and their offenses average. So yeah, Jason, Kauai Leonard and James Hardin are putting up monster numbers. Their lineups are not scoring nearly as well as they did last season. And of course there's context here. The loss of Norman Powell obviously hurts. I don't even blame the Clippers for that. They were in a weird situation with their timeline

or it didn't really make sense to tie up a bunch of salary in Norman Powell. the move to kind of pivot to Bradley Peel as a stop, Bradley Peel as a stop gap solution. It was defensible in the moment. Obviously, having no Norman Powell and no Bradley Beal obviously hurts them. Norman was such an important offensive weapon for them. I think the loss of Derek Jones Jr. has been bad for their defense. Although here's the thing, even when Derek Jones was on the floor to start the year, it's not like they were guarding in those minutes. And that's why I keep coming back to the stars. Like Chris Dunn and John Collins and Nick Batum, is it the same high level role player core that they had last year? It's obviously not due to the injuries

and the loss of Norman Powell. But you should still be able to win your minutes with James Hardin, Kawhi Leonard, Chris Dunn, John Collins, and Evita Zubots on the floor. And that lineup is getting ran minus seven net this season, that five-man grouping. When you're getting shit-canned with your best three players on the floor, with league average role players around them, I'm not going to blame the role players. It starts with the stars. They're not playing any defense.

The team as a unit isn't scoring as well as they used to. And now they're pouting after games and blaming the role players. To me, it's been all of it. It's been the drop-off from the core foundational stars. It's been the injury to Bradley Beale in the context of losing Norman Powell. It's all of it combined. But in those situations, I always think it's pretty lame to go to the dudes who make very little money in the dudes that have small roles and be like, it's your fault we're bad.

When the dudes that are making all the money that are on the floor and they're not doing the same level of work that they did last year, I'm going to always look at the stars in a situation like that. I could not have been more wrong about the clippers this season. We're going to do a prediction check-in soon. This is something that I think is fun because there have been like several predictions this year that I've been like dead on about. And there's been several that I've been dead wrong about. And so I think it'd be fun to kind of go back and look at all of the different

predictions I made this off season and how things are going on those fronts. We're going to do that at some point down the line in the next week or two. But this one in particular, I said I thought that the Clippers, beyond the Houston, OKC, Denver tier, had the best chance to like, rack up regular season wins and get that fourth seat or be a team that has home court in the first round because I believed in their depth because I believed in like the the uh the compatibility excuse me of all the different types of players that they have on that roster literally one of my worst takes ever could not have been more wrong they're they're just bad man and again it wasn't a

Chris Paul issue. And like, I, I just feel like cooler heads should have prevailed here. Because now you're, you're adding insult to injury literally. The injury being, this basketball team being bad and the insult being, you taking arguably the best clipper ever and trashing him and kicking him off the team. And it's just, it's just really unfortunate. All right, let's get into a couple basketball games from last night. Today's show is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, hard rock bet. Big news. Hard Rock bet is now live in Michigan. Sign up today and place your first $5 sports bet. If it wins, you get $150 in bonus bets on top of your winnings. And if you're into more casino games, new customers can get up to $1,000 back in casino bonus. If you're

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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 it.

We're the first people to do podcasts. 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, 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, 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.

What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about Defying the Odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted. at this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid.

He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get to fly. He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the bar like, you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah.

You figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down. on the court and you're going to get the balls. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHeart Podcasts presents soccer moms. So I'm Leanne.

Yeah. This is my best friend Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school. Absolutely. Now a redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips. Wider. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey.

With all the snacks and drinks and ring. Sidebar. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? I would hit a bogo? Well, then you got it. Do you want a white color or something here? Just hit it.

What are y'all doing? Microphones? Are you making a rap album? Oh, I would. Come on. How did you believe? I would buy it. Cuts through the defense like a hot knife through sponge cake.

That sounds delicious. Oh, you're lucky. I'm not a drug addict. You're lucky I'm not an alcoholic. You are. You are. I'm not a killer. I love this team, and I'm really trying to be a figure in their lives.

that they can rely on. Oh. Listen to soccer moms on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, actress, mother, lover, and a Gen X woman walking through life, one hot flash and hormonal crying jag at a time. You ladies know what I mean. I'll bet you a paramedipausal chin here you do. So let's talk about it.

Join me on my new podcast. How Hard Can It Be with Deanna Maria Riva, where I call on my Gen X squads from Ohio to Hollywood. as we navigate midlife's most fantastic BS. All of a sudden, I'd had hanginess happening on my own. I was like, what the hell is that? I was married when I had her, so I didn't even consider how empty that nest was going to be.

Mood swings, night sweats, fupas, sex drive. Wait, what sex? Dating at 45. How can it be getting naked at 50 with the new guy? That one's kind of hard. Well, that's lighting. They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears or tears of laughter, and dive into it, unfiltered and unbothered and ask, how hard can it be?

I cannot believe I'm about to say this out loud in public. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva as part of my Cultura podcast network available on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Saigon, the story of my family and of the country that shaped us. The United States will not stand by and allow any power. However great, take over another country. From My Heart Podcast, Saigon. Please allow me to introduce Joseph Sherman. You don't think I'm serious about a free Vietnam?

I should stop talking so much. I like hearing you talk. One city, a divided country, and the war that tore America apart. This is for Vietnam. I've taken a hit from Japanese ground fire. Deuterate me. They're pouring patrol all over him. He's holding matches.

I'm on a landmine. Or freeze on. Let's get out. Freedom, Mommy, Nigh! Saigon, starring Kelly Marie Tran and Rob Benedict. Sting, here's madness. The world should hear about this.

There's a fire coming to this country, and it's going to burn out everything. Listen to Saigon on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll start with Nick Celtics. Really a dominant performance from the Celtics after a hot Nick start. If it wasn't for Mikhail Bridges just being like an absolute, laser off the catch, even over contests from three. Celtics probably win this game by 15, 20

points. And shout to Mikhail Bridges. He's shooting like 9% better from three this year than he did last year. Every time he rises up, I just feel like it's going in this season. And that has been a big boost to the Knicks offense. But the Celtics, after getting off to a rough start, really played some great basketball down the stretch of this game to get a big win versus the Knicks. I thought Joe Missoula showed good patience with his game plan. I get a couple of things early on. Like he had Nimi Keda guarding Josh Hart and just sagging off in the paint. And Hart was burning him in the first quarter, like hitting threes and quick little drives and little mid-range jump shots. And it was not working for Boston early in the game. They were sending aggressive help on

Carl Anthony Towns as drives and post up. Soon as he put the ball on the floor, there'd be swarming around him trying to turn him over and force him into bad misses. And that wasn't working for the first like quarter and a half. And the Knicks ended up leading by as much as 14 early in the game. Kat was scoring sometimes over double and triple teams. Josh Hart hitting shots. Jalen Brunson got off to a good start. Like a lot of things went the Knicks way early. And also Jalen Brown, who had a fantastic game, which we're going to get into, but he got off to a rough start. And so the Knicks ended up getting off to that 14 point lead. But the Celtics just kept playing hard and they kept to their game plan. Like cat the rest of the game, he had a nice box score game, because

he did a bunch of damage off the ball, like some offensive rebounds, a couple of like driving kick sequences where he just ended up wide open underneath the basket. And the Celtics ended up going centerless for the majority of this game, which I, which ended up also benefiting cat in some of those like dunker spot offensive rebound sequences. But as far as his one on ones, when, or I should say his individual attacks, those ISOs and his postups, over the course of the game, he just kept trying to shoot through double teams. And he was turning the ball over and having some bad misses. And overall, I thought that

their coverage in set half court situation started to work pretty well against Kat. And then Josh Hart missed his last three threes and over the final three quarters of the game was a minus 13. So the game plan there ended up working as time went on, albeit in some stretches without a center on the floor. But Jalen Brown eventually found his footing and he ended up having just a really, really nice shot creation game, just completely picked apart the Knicks defense, mostly with methodical matchup attacking, relentless attacking Jalen Brunce. in an action. Early in the game, the Knicks were willing to essentially concede that switch and let Jalen work against Jalen. And Jalen Brown just bullied him. And he's been so incredibly

comfortable in the mid range this year, just kind of making some sort of aggressive move to get down to that like 10 to 12 foot range and then just a little quick stepbacks or a little short right shoulder fades and little step through short jump shots and floaters and things like that. And he's torching teams on that. He's shooting 55% this season, 47 for 85 on jump shots inside of 17 feet. And Jalen Brown scored directly on Jalen Brunson one-on-one five times in this game, including a nasty blow-by dunk in transition where he got him with a little crossover and went up and dunked in traffic. He picked on Tyler Colick on a little transition drive, beat him to the basket, just bullied him with his left shoulder, got all the way to the basket.

He picked on Mitchell Robinson in the switch, mixed him up with a series of off the dribble moves, and hit a little mid-range pull-up. He was picking on Kat in ball screens, beating him in deep drop coverage. He had him in an ISO one-on-one off the right wing, and Kat was just sagging off, and he just did a little methodical, little slow jab step,

rose up and hit a three, just consistently beating the weaker Knicks defenders in space over and over again. He made it abundantly clear through those first three quarters that he was going to be deliberate about hunting New York's weakest defenders and scoring on them.

So as a result, down the stretch, when Jalen Brown started hunting Jalen Brunson and screens again in the fourth quarter, the Knicks just started blitzing and hard doubling. And so Jalen just kept hitting the short roller. And then we got some really fascinating four on three sequences led by a lot of good short roll passing from Jordan Walsh and from Josh Minot. And the Celtics ended up getting wide open threes every single time out of those Jalen Brown blitzes and doubles. They made several of them and they ended up winning the game. And that's, that's, that's, that's the impressive piece of this. It's, it's the game management from Jalen Brown. That's the growth that you're excited to see if you're a self-expans. Obviously,

an exciting game. Box score wise. The, I think he only had four assists. That doesn't tell the full story when you're getting trapped and they're playing four on three and the assist is going to the short role man. Some really high level playmaking. It was impressive game management because of that deliberate method with which he was attacking. We talk about this a lot, but like having intentionality on offense instead of just playing for the sake of playing where it would drive me crazy when I'd watch a team like Orlando and it's like, why is Palo isoing Bam out of bio on a switch? Like, that's just bad process. Like even if you want to get to your mid range game, like do something early in the possession so that you're not attacking the other team's best defender. Like it just doesn't make a lot of sense.

That's a lack of intentionality, right? And like, that is really the big difference. If Jalen Brown goes like, I'm just going to try to score on McHale Bridges over and over again, it ain't going to work out, right? there was a level of intentionality, the attacking of the weaker Knicks defenders in space, doing it in the middle of the floor where it's hard to double team, having the spacing set up, especially when the blitz has started coming so that you can quick capitalize on the four on three, just really deliberate high level offensive basketball from Jalen Brown. And again, this is a Celtics team that over, I think they're seven and two in their last nine games, and they have like a 126 offensive rating in those nine games.

and Jalen Brown deserves the lion's share of the credit for that for the damage that he's done matchup attacking and getting them into their driving kick sequences that can unlock their high level three point shooting. In Jalen's last 14 games, he's averaging 31 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. Just doing phenomenal work. He's, I was looking at some shot creation data. He's been the fourth best high volume ISO guy in the league this year. There are 12 players in the NBA that have run at least 100 ISOs, including passes already. He's fourth on that list, only Luca, Shea, and Julius Randall have been better. He's been getting just over 1.1 points per possession on ISOs, including passes, Jalen Brown, fueled again by that high level shooting there in the mid-range.

Derek White poured in another 22. You remember how, like, inefficient he was to start the season? He's 18 points per game in his last eight games on 58% true shooting. So way more efficient than he was last year in this stretch, I shouldn't say last year, to start the year. And that 18 points per game number is actually ahead of where he was last year in his scoring volume. So finally starting to kind of find his comfort in his more, you know, high usage offensive role in this particular team construct. But I want to zoom in on the Celtics role player wings for a minute. Specifically Jordan Walsh, Josh Minot, and Hugo Gonzalez. So obviously their size, athleticism, and activity are vital to the Celtics because of their lack of a center rotation, right? Like, Kada has been good

for the Celtics this year, but it's been rough. Once you get past. that. And so the Celtics have started to go a little bit more and more into centerless looks. They're actually, they've run lineups without a center for 312 possessions this season, according to cleaning the glass. And they have a plus nine net rating in, in those minutes without a center. All offense, by the way, they're scoring 135 points per 100 possessions in those centerless groups, just spacing the floor with tons of shooting and allowing Jalen Brown to hunt matchups as they get the defense into rotation. The Celtics ended up playing centerless for 27 of the 48 minutes last night. So definitely something to keep

an eye on with Boston is they're going to kind of lean into that more and more. When you're small, that's going to dictate swarming, right? Like if you're smaller, you have to be faster and you've got to cover a lot of ground in rotation to feel bigger than you actually are by being able to like double a guy like cat, sandwich rebound, do all these different kinds of things. And it just puts a lot of emphasis on covering ground, right? And like having athletes that play hard, that's the way that you get this done, right? And again, like the Celtics have not been necessarily winning games with defense, but you have to get a certain number of stops to win games. And those guys deserve a lot of credit for that. Like, they're getting major on ball assignments. Jordan Walsh saw a ton of

Brunson in this game and did phenomenal work, played him into an inefficient shooting night. The swarming of cat in like help and double team situations, rotating out to shooters off of it. that is a lot of those role player wings doing the work. And most importantly, I want to actually move to the other end of the floor here. Those guys are killing teams on the offensive glass. Just those three guys, Jordan Walsh and Hugo Gonzalez and Josh Minot had eight offensive rebounds last night just between the three of them. They had 12 points just on easy little putbacks. It was literally the difference in the game last night. Like shot goes up and Jordan Walsh just runs right by Jalen Brunson for a putback. Or Josh Minot just runs right by his man for a

putback. Or Hugo Gonzalez just runs right by his man for a putback. Like they're turning misses into layups because those guys keep beating everybody to the ball. And again, the Celtics shoot a lot of threes, which means a lot of long rebounds. They consistently corner crash. They beat teams to those long rebounds. And I've actually found this to be a really fascinating trend with the Celtics because the Celtics are the worst defensive rebounding team in the league. their 30th defensive rebound percentage, which is to be expected, right?

They don't have the front court talent for it. Like, Nimie K does, I guess you could call him a starting caliber center, but certainly in like the bottom third of the league in terms of starting caliber centers. And then you don't have another guy who's really a quality rotation level center. You don't really have a traditional power forward.

You have a bunch of bench level dudes that are playing that power forward role. You don't have the front court talent to be a good defensive rebounding team. Yet, they're still grabbing just under 50% of available rebounds because they do so much damage on the offensive glass. They're rebounding 33% of their own misses, which ranks 9th in the NBA.

And again, there's a different dynamic that's taking place here. So many of these Celtics offensive rebounds are dudes crashing out of the corner or off the wing in literally getting layups, like easy, grab it, put it right back in underneath the basket. Because they space you out so much, and then they crash. there's like runways, legit runways for these forwards to run in and grab an offensive rebound and put it back.

On the other end of the floor, the Celtics are certainly trying to get defensive rebounds. They're swarming. And so there's a lot of plays where like a big dude underneath the basket gets an offensive rebound on the Celtics, but he's immediately surrounded by three dudes and he either throws up a putback that he misses or has to kick the ball out. And if he kicks the ball out, the Celtics can reset their defense and they have a better chance to get a stop. compared to one of those putbacks. And so this is the most fascinating stat about the Celtics rebounding that demonstrates this concept of the Celtics getting a lot of offensive rebounds that are easy putbacks and then making sure the offensive rebounds

they concede are in swarms that are leading either misses or kickouts to where they can reset their defense. The Celtics are winning the second point, second chance points margin. The Celtics score 17.6 second chance. points every game. Their opponent's score 17.1 second chance points every game. They are winning the second chance points margin. It's unbelievable to me.

It's such a fascinating little bit of basketball, like, margin play. And I want to shout out Joe Mazula on this because, like, you're sitting there and you're trying to determine how you're going to win basketball games and how to construct lineups and, you know, obviously every team, It's, you know, in the same way that in the NFL, you're looking at, like, offense, defense, special teams and limiting turnovers. Similarly, in the NBA, you're looking at, like, your half court offense, your half court defense, your transition defense, and you're looking at margins. Are we going to do damage as a turnover, forced turnovers get out and transition kind of team? Are we going to do damage on the offensive class?

Are we going to do damage by, you know, winning the free throw margin, by not fouling and by getting to the foul line a lot? Like, there's all these, like, different little margins you're looking to hunt. And if you were the Celtics, you're going to, coming into the season, and I, and I, and I, if you were a Celtics fan, and I just went up to you and I was like, you guys are going to literally win the second chance points battle this year. You, none of you would have believed me because they don't have the front court talent to be a good defensive rebounding team.

And they're getting destroyed on the defensive class. Like, it's a problem. And yet they're turning that into something in their favor by having these high motor wings that are consistently crashing and capitalizing on the attention that their stars draw and they're getting these runways to just grab the ball, put it right. back up in the basket. It's a really fascinating trend. And again, like, just shout out to Joe Mazula for that. Again, the Celtics,

seven and two in their last nine games, number one offense in the NBA in that span of 126 offensive rating, just some really impressive work from them. On the Knicks front. Again, I don't want to overreact to a single regular season game, but that was quite literally the embodiment of every single negative Knicks talking point.

So, for instance, the easy entry points into their defense Boston was able to easily just attack Jalen Brunson, scoring him one-on-one a bunch, and then draw second defenders that unlocked open shots as the defense was in rotation. Not just that, but like targeting Carl Anthony Towns in action, beating him in a deep drop coverage,

beating him one-on-one the way that Jalen Brown did. We've talked about Katz mistake-making on defense. Like Jalen Brunson, Jalen Brunson ended up making a lot of mistakes last night himself. He ended up missing a lot of those boxouts that led to easy putbacks. But generally speaking in like a big playoff game, Jaylen Brunson is like pretty attentive. And it's more just like he has physical limitations.

But then you have this other type of bad defender, which is like the mistake making like pays no attention to the defensive game plan type of defender and Kat. And we saw a bunch of examples of that last night. Cat was hilarious to watch on defense in that game. He just feels like he's freelancing all the time. Like there was a sequence of ball screens. at the beginning of the game that I thought were a good example of this. So Derek White comes off of a ball screen off the top,

one of the first possessions of the game. And Kat's just like, go ahead, shoot it. He's sagging way back. He's like back almost at like the charge circle. And he's kind of just staying in there and he just lets Derek White take a pullup three off of a ball screen. Derek White misses the shot. And then the very next two ball screens,

Derek White and Mimi Kada ball screens that Boston runs, cat like on the first one comes up in like a catch hedge so he's like not quite up at the level but pretty close and easily easily let's Nimi get behind him. Derek White just pitches it over the top Nimi gets a dunk and then on the third one he like closes out at Derek White like like Derek White comes over the top of the screen and he like sprints out at Derek White who then just throws it right to Nimi Keda and gets a dunk. So we got three ball screens between Derek White and Nimi Keda and we got three completely. completely different coverages from Kat to start the game because there's no game plan discipline.

He's just doing his own thing. It's freelancing in crunch time, which again, because McHale Bridges made every damn shot he took, the Knicks were right there. They were within three late in the game. And like, there were just a couple of these hilarious mistakes from Kat. There was this play where Jalen Brown gets downhill on his screen off of a little spin off of a Jordan Clarkson. and he loses his balance on the move. And so he's like falling down and he's like drifting away all the way out kind of past the left block. And he's just kind of throwing up like a bullshit little right-handed floater that has

like no chance of going in because he's falling over. And Cat is not there. Kat's kind of back around the basket. He had stunted up at Jalen Brown, which made him make a counter move. And Jalen had kind of gotten away from him. But again, Jalen was falling over. And so Kat's there. And he has a decision to make.

He can either turn around and box out Jordan Walsh and get the, rebound after Jalen misses this crazy one-leg floater that he's taking, or he can do what he ended up doing, which was take a step towards Jalen where he's not even close to Jalen. He's not in position to contest the shot at all. Jumps over towards Jalen, it just kind of goes like this, and just like waves both of his arms up in the air, gets himself out of position, Jordan Walsh, boom, put back. And it's like, it's those kinds of little decisions hurt the team. Jordan Walsh has made three corner threes all season on nine attempts. There is a play where he catches it open in the left corner and cat chases him off the line like he's Steph Curry.

Goes flying out to the corner, jumps out of his shoes, Jordan Walsh just easily rips the clothes out and gets a lamp. You're like, what are you doing? And it's like when you combine that, the legit mismatches that you can hunt, which involves both cat and but also when you have a guy that's legitimately one of the most mistake prone defenders I've ever watched with absolutely no discipline within the defensive game plan. It's really difficult to overcome. And all of that was on display last night against the Celtics. On offense, we saw some of the other things too, like Jalen Brunson kind of struggling to score efficiently against more of like a swarming athletic perimeter look. Carl Anthony Town is struggling

with double teams. Teams putting their center on Josh Hart and daring them to shoot, which again, the Knicks ended up burning in the first quarter, but not for the rest of the game. Again, if it wasn't for Mikhail Bridges, that's probably a blowout last night, a 15 to 20 point win for Boston. Now, to be clear, none of this necessarily changes my opinion as it pertains to the Knicks. The decline, excuse me, of Cleveland has just kind of made it look like every team at the top of the east is flawed in one way or another. So, you know, I don't want to just sit here and pretend like the Knicks or the Licks or the Lowell. only team at the top of the east that has issues. They're not. All of these teams have issues.

And I would argue that they have as good a chance as anybody to win this conference. It's wide open. It's basically there for anybody to win. But like every year when I start to buy into the Knicks a little bit, the same three or four issues come up to the surface. And it just is one of those things that I think is like an insurmountable barrier between them being one of these like second tier teams and a legitimate team that you feel like has a shot to win the title. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news?

Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. 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, 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. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, actress, mother, lover, and a Gen X woman walking through life one hot flash and hormonal crying jag at a time. You ladies know what I mean. I'll bet you a perimenopausal chin here you do. So let's talk about it. Join me on my new podcast. How

How hard can it be with Deanna Maria Riva, where I call on my Gen X squads from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate midlife's most fantastic BS. All of a sudden I'd had hangingness happening on my own. I was like, what the hell is that? I was married when I had her, so I didn't even consider how empty that nest was going to be. Mood swings, night sweats, fupas, sex drive. Wait, what sex? Dating at 45. How high can it be getting naked at 50 with the new guy?

That one's kind of hard, you know? Well, that's lighting. They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears, or tears of laughter, and dive into it, unfiltered and unbothered and ask, how hard can it be? I cannot believe I'm a good. I'm going to say this out loud in public. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva as part of My Cultura Podcast Network

available on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what.

He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid.

He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get to fly. Man, he running up the court, licking his fingers,

why he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Oh, yeah. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHeart Podcast presents soccer moms. So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the Hipsons High School. Absolutely. Now a redacted amount of years later,

We're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips, wider. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drink. Sidebar. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? They had a bogo.

Well, then you got it. Do you want a white collar or something here? Just take it. What are y'all doing? Microphones? Are you making a rap album? I would. Come on.

I would buy it. Cut through the defense like a hot knife through sponge cake. That sounds delicious. Oh, you're lucky I'm not a drug addict. You're lucky I'm not an alcoholic. You're lucky I'm not a killer. I love this team and I'm really trying to be a figure in their lives that they can rely on. Oh.

Listen to soccer moms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Saigon, the story of my family and of the country that shaped us. The United States will not stand by and allow any power, however great, take over another country. From My Heart Podcasts, Saigon. Please allow me to introduce Joseph Sherman. You don't think I'm serious about a free Vietnam? I should stop talking so much. I like hearing you talk.

One city, a divided country, and the war that tore America apart. This is for Vietnam. I've taken a hit from Japanese ground fire. Do you rate me? They're pouring petrol all over him. He's holding matches. I'm on a landmine For free time

Let's get out Freedom, mommy Nah! Saigon Starring Kelly Marie Tran and Rob Benedict Sting here's madness The world should hear about this

There's a fire Coming to this country And it's going to burn out everything Listen to Saigon On the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts Or wherever you get your podcasts All right

Before we get out of here tonight I wanted to talk briefly about what the Thunder ended up doing to the Warriors and crunch time last night. So Thunder Warriors went about as you would have expected in the first half

with Steph Curry out. But then the Warriors ended up catching fire in that second half. The, you know, we got a Pat Spencer show. He was getting like one-on-one buckets, like hitting tough shots.

He had like a little right shoulder fade away over Chet Holmgren on the right block. That was an insane shot. Draymond Green's hitting threes. Gary Payton's hitting threes. Pods hits like a bomb to end the third quarter,

like a leaning, drifting bomb from like 30 feet. Jonathan Kamega's getting in on the action, hitting threes, running action with Seth Curry. Seth Curry ends up getting hot. All of a sudden, the Warriors had a four-point lead in the kind of like early-ish part of the, like middle part of the fourth quarter.

And then the Thunder just played perfect basketball from there and ended up winning by 12. The Warriors went zone during this stretch, and it briefly flustered the Thunder, but then they methodically broke him down in crunch time. They got a little pass to the middle to Casein Wallace and Chet just kind of relocates right to the top of the key, pitch it back to Chet, he knocks down to three.

A.J. Mitchell beats the zone just by driving off the wing and hitting like a little left, a left-handed scoop shot over Draymond Green. Then the Warriors bail on the zone and they go one-on-one. Or man-to-man, excuse me. And Shay just starts relentlessly hunting buddy heel. Walks him down for a couple little elbow jumpers there on the left side. It's like a nasty step-back three off of the right wing.

That step-back has become just such a reliable. shot for Shea at the end of game, something I want to talk about in a little bit. He had a really nice piece of advantage creation where he gets Buddy out on the right wing, snatched left, right, crossover, just toasts him off the dribble. The entire Warriors defense just kind of rotates, right? Lowman steps over. They rotate on the weak side. The left wing is open. J. Dub's there. Shea just whips a cross court pass that hits J. Dub right in the hands. Extra past I's Ajo in the corner. He knocks down a three. J. Dub himself got in on the action with like a really tough driving right-handed layup that he scooped high off of the glass. And then on the other

end of the floor, I mean, albeit against the limited warriors lineup, just stop after stop, after stop, after stop, and the Thunder end up winning like 12. Yet another game. Again, like, as the schedule has gotten tougher for OKC, they've ended up in a bunch of these clutch games and yet another time where they just look unbeatable in that setting. They've played in 10 clutch games so far this season. They're nine and one in those games, the one loss, of course, being the Portland game. They have a 137 offensive rating in the clutch, a 95 defensive rating in the clutch. Sheikilders-Alexander is 25 for 46 from the field in crunch time this season. That's 54%. He's hit six clutch threes. He's hit a bunch of them in every one of these games. He's hit a huge

one against Minnesota. Hit a huge one against Phoenix. Hit a huge one again last night over Buddy healed on the right wing. He's just getting into his bag and he can either go to that little pound dribble with his left hand step back or that like little side step with his going towards his right like the one he hit over body healed and he's just really confident he's trusting it right now it's made six of them so far this season in crunch time hitting 40% most of those misses were earlier in the season he's been in a great group as of late nine assists to just one turnover in crunch time and like you want to be like okay you got to send doubles and the warriors were pretty content to let shade just work one-on-one

against Buddy, but at the same time, like, guys are hitting shots. We talked about the clutch three that Chet Holmgren hit. Isaiah Joe hits a big clutch three last night. On the season, if you leave Kaysen Wallace open for three in crunch time, he's three for six. You leave Chet Holmgren open for three in crunch time. He's three for five. Like, they're just, they're burning you when you help. And like, and it's one of those things where we've seen teams manage to keep it somewhat close against Oklahoma City for one reason or another. And then down the stretch, it's just Sheigield, just Alexander looking like far and away the most comfortable player on the floor, but it's not just his one-on-one play. It's the awesome passing sequences, the methodical

ball movement through the zone. It's the role players knocking down, catch and shoot threes, having guys like AJ Mitchell and J. Dub who can hit a gap and create some dribble penetration and get something up off of the rim that they can score on in crunch time. And they just look unbeatable. And again, if this keeps up, like, we're going to do our contender rankings again in a month. And we did our first contender rankings update, like a week ago or so. And I think it was just last Friday. And in that contender rankings, for the first time I moved to OKC back up to the number one spot, but I still have them in the same tier with OKC or with Denver and Houston. If this keeps up, like if they're sitting in a similar spot a month from now, I, at least,

like it's starting to look to me like Oklahoma City's in their own tier. I see a separation building. Houston and Denver are really good. There are a couple teams too that are a tradeaway. Like if Detroit makes some sort of big splashy move for scoring forward or if the Lakers get someone like Herb Jones, there are teams that might be able to move up into that tier. But to me, that tier is beginning to look like a tier that is beneath Oklahoma City.

As yet again, they get a big win in crunch time last night. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. for today, I should say, as always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. Again, remember, we have playback streams coming the next two nights. Thursday at, I want to say, 4 p.m. Pacific Time against, or no, it's 4.30 p.m. Pacific time, Toronto, Lakers, Raptors. Again, I'm going to be trying to get a Raptors guy to come on and join us for that one. And then Friday night, 4 p.m. Pacific time, Lakers Celtics, also going to try to get a Celtics guy for that one. Come hang out.

Again, playback.tv slash hoops tonight. We'll have a live watchalong party for both of those games. We'll obviously have more content coming this week too. We'll have a show tomorrow as well as a mailbag on Friday. Again, as always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. Have a good rest of your day, and I will see you guys tomorrow morning. Hey, guys, it's us and 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 a... 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. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was funny.

You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Turn someday into right now with Buddy by Jake Radio, nonstop workout music and expert tips 24-7. Hey, head over to iHeart.com. Search Body by Jake Radio and stream it for free. right now. Awesome health and wellness tips, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Remember, stick to the fight. When your hardest hit, it's when things seem worst that you must not quit. Don't quit.

Body by Jake Radio, where hope meets momentum. Search Body by Jake Radio and stream it for free. Have a great day. I heart radio. Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that your dad has been living a double life? That is not the look of an innocent man. Is everyone lying to me about who they are?

I felt such desperation. I felt it was what I had to do. Listen to Deep Cover the Family Man. On the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is, getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is, getting a new one put up in its place. I'm Akela Hughes. and Rebel Spirit Season 2 is about both of those things.

As I was watching these statues come down, I was thinking about what it meant that I grew up in a majority black city in which there were more homages to enslavers than there were to enslave people. Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.