The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Reaction to Pistons-Hornets FIGHT + Cavs impressive win vs. Nuggets, Thunder beat LeBron's Lakers

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

Jason reacts to the game between the Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets where Cade Cunningham's team got the win but the biggest story of the night was the fight involving Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart, Moussa Diabate, and Miles Bridges. Then he breaks down how James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, and the Cleveland Cavaliers got an impressive win over Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, as well as the Oklahoma City Thunder beating the Los Angeles Lakers in a game without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic. All lines presented by Hard Rock Bet.  #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Volume. Welcome to Hips tonight here at The Volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week so far. Just a quick show for you guys today. We're going to do instant reactions to three games from last night as the Detroit Pistons get a huge win on the road against the Charlotte Hornets. We have a huge fight that I don't want to talk a little bit about that happened to the third quarter of that game that's likely going to lead to several lengthy suspensions.

The calves come back down again, double digits in the second half to win their second game with James Hardin on the road in Denver against the Nuggets. And then the tail end of the show, Lakers Thunder in the evening slate, a demonstration of the gap and talent down the roster between those two teams. So three game breakdowns. You guys know the joke before we can start. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.

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throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So Pistons Hornets turned on a huge Pistons run that spanned from the end of the second quarter to the start of the third quarter. So 38 to 14 run. Classic Pistons during that run. Their defense was incredible.

Charlotte is a very good offense, and they generated a lot of good. shots in this game for over various stretches of it. But during this stretch of the game, they were able to tighten the screws at the point of attack and in their rotations, especially around the rim. I thought they're kind of like gaping and help rotations at the rim, like shrinking the floor and making those kickout reads look a little tighter and a little more high risk than they actually were. I thought that did a good job of just kind of stifling, especially Lamello ball. Lamello really struggled during that run spanning the end of the second quarter into the

early third quarter. Again, they held the Hornets to just 14. points in that 11 and a half minute stretch. And on the other end of the floor, like Jalen Dern only had 15 points in this game, but he did most of his damage during the first chunk of that run, just with his inside positioning, did a little bit of ISO work on some drives as well, but just was bullying the Hornets underneath the basket until obviously he gets removed from the game for the fight. We'll talk about that in a little bit. And then Cade and that like kind of as we got into the third quarter portion of it, Cade was just, especially in that middle third quarter, just did a ton of damage going towards the rim. Just doing that thing that he always does, just relentlessly attacking

the rim, getting high percentage shots close to the basket that just created the distance that Detroit was able to ride to the finish line. I think they went up by as much as 16 during that stretch. And the Hornets battled back admirably. Their offense generated countless wide open threes in that fourth quarter. There were four wide open catch and shoot looks for Brandon Miller and Con Cinnipple just in the final minutes of that game that all clanked. So it could have been a very different result if those guys hit those shots. They generated 19 wide open catch and shoot threes in this game, which is an insane number, which is a credit to their offense and what they can generate. They hit over 40% of them. They just missed four in a row to end it. And that ended up

kind of being the difference in the game. Now, obviously, there's some context there. Detroit was down their whole center rotation. Obviously, Musa Diabate was out as well. So a little bit different in terms of the health of the help dynamic at the rim. But I still think that that concept for is something that is real to build around. I'm going to talk about this concept even more when we get to Cleveland, but just the idea of running action with a high-level shot creator,

a role man who can do whatever the role man needs to do in terms of being able to screen slip and then, you know, whether it's making floaters, making short roll reads, making dunks on vertical spacing situations, finishing in traffic, all that kind of stuff.

When you have that two-man game foundation, and you can truly space the floor. Like all those wide open looks that Brandy Miller and Conquiple got at the end of the game, they came out of the concept of them too being situated on the weak side while lamella ball is running action. It just makes it so that like if you want to tag rollers, they're going to have to give up an open shot, right? Like if you want to help on a lamello ball drive,

you're going to have to give up an open shot and not just to anybody, but to a really high level shooter. This is a team in the Hornets that's been. top three in three-pointers made and three-point percentage during the nine-game winning streak. So, like, you know, in a lot of ways, it was kind of what you would expect from this type of fun matchup between two up-and-coming young teams that are very different types of teams and that are at two very different stages of their development, right? Like the pistons are further along. They also have, you know, more veteran presences on board with guys like Tobias Harris and Duncan

Robinson. Duncan was also fantastic in this game. Tobias ended up hitting a huge shot that kind of helped ice the game late. Like you just have a further along more even more physically developed like all like Cades big and strong now. Jalen Duren's big and strong now. So they're just further along. They were able to play a longer stretch of dominant basketball there in that late second, early third quarter run. And they dominated using the identity they've built all season. A lot of defense to transition sequences. They had a lot of points off of Hornets turnovers in this game, mauling you in the paint. They had a 60 to 26 points in the paint advantage in this game. That's a margin they always win by like something like crazy, like 14, 15 points a game, but won it by

36 or 34 points in that game in Charlotte, 14 offensive rebounds. And then Kate Cunningham just being relentless on the attack on the dribble drive. So like, that's what you'd expect. They're further along, both physically and in roster development, more veterans on board. They have a stronger identity that they've built throughout the entire season. You expect them to be able to go and get a win like that on the road. And they did. The Hornets, they're early in their development, and they're a very different type of team, but they still have enormous upside. And we saw that upside get flashed through the game, stretches of good defense. They've been an excellent defense in this nine game winning streak. I think they were fifth, if I remember correctly,

in defensive rating over that nine game span. their offense can constantly generate good looks for a variety of shooters, and all of that dynamic in terms of the constant threat of, you know, having three, four shooters on the floor at all times, creates these help dynamics and screening actions that can open up lanes for their bigs to crash the offensive glass.

And they got 11 offensive rebounds last night. I can say very athletic Detroit Pistons team. So in that way, it was a game that lived up to the hype and was a really fun showcase for both teams. I recorded a mailbag episode yesterday that's airing later this week where someone asked me about this Hornet stretch and whether or not I believe in it. And I do. I was not super high on the Hornets coming into the season.

I looked at them as a team that was like a solid two, three years away from being kind of more serious in that Eastern Conference just because of how young they were and how flawed they were, at least in my impression of the team to start the year. I was wrong about that. They're way ahead of schedule. They might make the playoffs this year. I think they're almost certainly going to be like a legitimate playoff team in the mix next year.

I get into it in a lot more detail in that mailbag episode. But I thought that was a fun showcase for Charlotte last night. And then a demonstration from the Pistons of why they've been the most impressive team in the regular season this year. Something we talked about yesterday as they've been 10 and 4 this season against teams that are in the top 10 in point differential. And 28 of the 30 teams have lost at least eight games against teams. teams that are top 10 in point differential. There's one team that's lost seven. The Pistons have only lost four. They've consistently in these big high profile games. And Charlie doesn't necessarily fit that bill in terms of their big picture record, a big picture metrics, but a red

hot team, one of the best teams in a league that's been beating a lot of really good teams in the stretch. And Detroit went in there and kind of handled them, right? Now, as we talk about the fight, I have very complicated feelings about this sort of thing. And I'm sure some people are not going to like my answer here, but this is just my kind of perspective on this sort of thing. I generally think fighting is stupid, but I also think that it's more complicated. It's complicated because of the emotion of the situation. I do have a great deal of sympathy for the emotion of these types of moments. When your competitive motor is running really hot, it unlocks a part of every human being that is borderline primal, right? Like there's an energy that flows through you that is very

very, very different than when you're in a relaxed state. It's that fight or flight response, right? Like you're in a very keyed up fight type of response. I personally have a dark side that comes out of me sometimes on the basketball court. Not so much as I've gotten older. I've had better control over it as I get into my mid 30s now compared to when I was in like my mid 20s, but still to this day, every once in a while, like someone will challenge me on the court in a way that's either verbally or physically. And I just, I just see red. And I start being a complete asshole. And I have a lot of these moments where sometimes I'll be sitting at home later feeling really bad about the way I acted or the way I treated somebody. The only point I'm

trying to make here is that like I do believe it's a lot easier said than done than like when it comes to keeping your emotions in check in these highly competitive environments. One of my favorite random examples of this is the Richard Sherman interview. And I think it was the NFC championship game when he got that big deflection on the fade route to Michael Crabtree in the right corner of the end a lot of people who don't know any better were upset at him for the way he acted on national television in that interview anybody who's actually spent a lot of time in highly competitive environments knew exactly what was going on there you stuck a microphone in that dude's face mere seconds after one of the biggest competitive victories of his life when him and michael

had been jaun at each other so he was in a shit-talkie mood if you wait 10 minutes and interview him After he's cooled off, he's going to behave completely differently. The point being, there is this, when you're in that competitive, keyed up type of situation, it is a lot easier said than done to control your emotions. And there is a deep primal part of you that comes out, a fight or flight response that is very different than your relaxed state. And this Hornets Pistons game is an even more exaggerated version of that idea. Like Diabate's reaction, for example, when Musa flew off the handle like,

that. Jalen Dern was bullying the hell out of the Hornets front line for like 10 straight minutes leading into that. So there's already like a physical keyed up response where you're fighting back against that bully ball attack. Then when they face up and they go face to face with each other, Jalen Dern straight up grabs him by the face and shoves him. That's wildly disrespectful to do to somebody. So I'm not surprised at all that Musa saw red and wanted to fly off the handle like again like i said i very much sympathize with the emotion of the situation the main thing that i want to get to here is the idea of understanding what you have to lose there's this idea that great power comes with great responsibility right being an NBA player is the modern version of great

power right you're a multi-millionaire you're a celebrity you live a life that is a dream compared to the majority of the humans in the world but it comes with great responsibility you represent the NBA. And the NBA expects a lot from its players in terms of behavior. You're also a part of a team. And your team has goals, goals that are far greater than the goals of the individual. And so one of the things that comes with being an NBA player is you can't allow your emotions to just dictate your actions with impunity. In other words, you have a lot to lose. Even on the low end for a team like the Hornets that may or may not make the playoffs this year. just won nine games in a row, you're really building towards something special. As I mentioned,

we're going to go do a deep dive on the Hornets in the mailbag episode. I think it's coming out tomorrow. In that mailbag, I talked about how I do believe in these guys. I do think that the con canipal, Randy Miller, Musa Diabate core is an excellent foundation and that they're going to be an in-the-mix playoff team sooner than later. I'm not even really. there are times when I've watched the Hornets during this stretch where I'm like, man, Lamello Ball shot creation in conjunction with this shooting is what's making this work in a lot of ways. I'm not the biggest Lamello Ball fan, but I'm not ready to give up on him in this court either. I am buying Hornet stock in a way that I didn't think I would this year. What if Musa has to go miss

five, ten games right now? It's a smaller version of stakes. It's a smaller wrench. It's a smaller wrench but it's a wrench thrown into the development of this team nonetheless. And again, I know it's easier said than done. But what Musa needs to do there is when Jalen Duren does that, give him a shove in the chest, something that'll never end in the suspension, just give him a shove, tell him to fuck off, and then let the league handle the face shove.

Send a tape to the league, let the league handle it. I know it's an imperfect solution, but it's the one that keeps Musa on the court with his team. which is important when you have these team-wide goals and when you're building real momentum to what could be a special era of or it's basketball. And again, the stakes do get higher. Look at the Isaiah Stewart situation now.

Isaiah Stewart is a very important rotation player for the Pistons. And we will likely not see him again for a long time because he had a similar incident where he flew off the handle with the LeBron James inadvertent elbow thing. And here's the thing. Again, I sympathize with the emotion. I understand why Isaiah Stewart wanted to stick up for his teammates, as they've done for him in the past. But I would imagine, if you went up to Jalen Dirt and, you know,

you went up to him and you asked him, you're like, would you rather have Isaiah Stewart come flying in to settle the score and have your back, or would you rather have Stu hang back because of his history and avoid the suspension that would inevitably follow from something like that? Because the Pistons have bigger goals, because the Pistons are building towards something special that could immortalize these Pistons guys in basketball history, we all know what Jalen Duren would say.

He'd be like, Stu, I'm good, hang back. I fucked up. I pushed him in the face. I'm gone already. You hang back. We got bigger things that we're trying to accomplish. Though, in short, it's just not worth it. It's not worth it to give in to your emotions in those situations. And just like I said earlier, the stakes keep getting higher.

Draymond Green missed an NBA finals game. And possibly could have cost his team a championship because of his inability to control his emotions. I know it's easier said than done, as I've said several times, but every young basketball player has to find a way to control their emotions when they're running hot competitively. If you're playing in college, like let's say you have a college scholarship and you fly off the handle in a game and you punch somebody,

that could dramatically affect your future. You could lose your scholarship. It could change the trajectory of your entire life. In other words, like I said earlier, you have a lot to lose, and it's not worth it. And so that requires more self-control, even if it is easier said than done. Hopefully for all of these guys who got suspended from this fight, they'll learn a lesson and not make those mistakes in the future. Today's show is brought to you by a presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet, the official sportsbook partner of the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic. Thank you no ball. Put your hoops knowledge to the test on Hard Rock Bet.

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We have some big news. What's the news, huge news? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there.

But this one's extra special. So how did we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Hey, I'm Jared Adano. You might know me as that loud guy who yells out, help on the internet. Help! Somebody! Please! But there's so much more to me than that. I'm an actor. I'm a comedian, and recently I've become quite the helper myself. And on my new podcast, Hope from a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives,

helping people in need with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff rant and recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to man. If I'm calling you, even if you're on your phone, let it ring twice. One ring is too scary. Cream a chicken suit. Hey, cream a chicken suit. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know.

Listen to Help from a Hypocrite as part of the My Cultura Podcast Network available on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're watching the latest season of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, you already know there's a lot to break down. Orsha accusing Kelly of sleeping with a merry man. They hold and Kay Michelle back from fighting Drew. Pinky has financial issues. I like the bougie style of Housewives show. I think it looks like it's going to be interesting.

On the podcast, Reality with the King, I, Carlos King, recap the biggest moments from your favorite reality shows, including the Real Housewives franchise, the drama, the alliances, and the team everybody's talking about. As an executive producer in reality television, I'm not just watching it. I understand the game. As somebody who creates shows, I'll even say this. At the end of the day, when people are at home, they want entertainment.

To hear this and more, listen to Reality with the King on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. All right, moving on to Cavs Nuggets. Second game with James Hardin. Second game with a double-digit second half comeback win. The Cavs closed this game with a Donovan Mitchell, James Hardin, Jared Allen lineup that had Sam Merrill and Jalen Tyson off the ball. So essentially two excellent shot creators that can both play off the ball because they're both great catch and shoot players, an excellent screen and role partner

and Allen and two dudes who have literally made over 45% of their threes this year. There was a sequence where James Harding kind of drove through the middle of the lane and he throws like a no look where he's kind of like looking at Donovan Mitchell in the right corner, but he ends up throwing across his body to Jalen Tyson at the top of the key. And if you watch Donovan Mitchell in the right corner, he starts celebrating, like fist pumping, celebrating right when the pass was made because he knows damn well that Jalen Tyson is going to knock that shot down. Both of those guys on wide open catch and shoot threes are shooting obscene percentages this year. On paper, it sounds impossible to guard, right? Two deadly knockdown shooters,

to shot creators that are both excellent in pick and roll and excellent as catch and shoot three point shooters and the screen and roll partner and Allen. It sounds impossible to guard and it is in reality as well. In the last nine minutes of clutch basketball over these two games in Sacramento and Denver, the Cavs have logged a 140 offensive rating. It gets even tougher for a team like Denver, for example. We talked about this in the power rankings yesterday. You know, there's a lot of like hoopla like, oh, like you want you guys want to know why the nuggets were above 500 without Yokic and now they're suddenly two and four with Yokic. It's not because Yolkis. It's not because Yokich is bad for the team or anything like that.

It's because he fundamentally changes the way they have to play defense. The team got used to playing defense a certain style when Yonis and Yokic were both out. There was a lot more switching, a lot more athleticism on the floor. It was a very different defensive scheme. It was less reliant on help and recover, more reliant on individual defense in one-on-one because you were doing so much switching, right? In these particular looks with Yokic on the floor, they've had to run a lot of zone. they've had to run a lot of high drop, right?

And let's take high drop, for example. So if I am bringing Yokic up to the level in pick and roll, that requires a lot in the form of backside rotation. So that's been difficult for the nuggets to adjust to anyway. Irrespective of the situation that the calves present, the nuggets are really defending poorly since Yokch came back because they have to get back into a very different groove defensively that is very much more a help and rotation.

state style of defense rather than a switch and contain style of defense. And so the Nuggets has been struggling with that anyway. Now you add this problem that the Cavs present. Right. So like if Yoka Chester come up to the level, what is the next stage in that defensive sequence, right? It's a tag of the roller. And if you don't, like there was a play where Jared Allen caught a, you know, so James Hardin's coming right off top of the keys, getting to his right hand. Jared Allen does a good job. Not only laying the screen, but he lingers for just a second to kind of create a larger pocket pass window. He holds his screen for an extra like second and then he rolls.

James Harden hits him on the bounce. There's no tag, so he just goes right downhill. There was a tag. I think it was late and he ends up. I think he ended up drawing a foul on that play for him ever correct. But it gets two easy points out of it. You have to tag the roller. If you're late on the tag, Jared Allen's scoring.

Or if you don't tag, Jared Allen scoring. If you do tag, there's four dudes on the floor off of Jared Allen, including the ball handler who are all over 40% on catch and shoot three. So like it's one of these situations where they're difficult to guard under normal circumstances, but because of the way the Nuggets play defense with Nicole Yokic, it's borderline impossible. And so there was a tough shot and there, James Hardin hit a ridiculous stepback three on the left wing, one where he probably got fouled that ended up tying the game. But every other bucket was easy, easy finishes and fouls for Jared Allen on rolls,

a layup for Donovan Mitchell on this nasty spin move in semi-transition driving down the right side of the floor. The move was tough. But once he got past him, there's nobody helping because of all that shooting on the floor. Wide open layup. Wide open threes for Jalen Tyson. He had two wide open ones, one on the right wing or run right at the top of the key down the stretch. Those are all really easy shots that are built from that dynamic of having two really high-level shot creators, a pick and roll threat as a screener that's one of the best in the league.

and then literally two dudes who make damn near half of their catch and shoot threes. That's just extremely difficult to guard. And it's one of the big reasons why I'm so high on this Cavs team. And I want to credit the Cavs defense down the stretch in this game too. James Hardin made some key defensive rotations late in the game. He had one where he forced Tim Hardaway Jr. Tim Hardaway had one of those classic kind of like screen slip sequences with Yokic off the top with Jamal Murray coming off.

And so Yokich dumps it over the top. And Hardin made a really nice on-time rotation, got there, got a good contest. Tim Hardaway just hit a contested floater. Shout out to him. It's tough shot. And he had another one where he forced to turnover on Yokic, a Yokic post up. They were running that like classic kind of post-entry two-man game with Murray and Yokic off of the left wing and left block.

And Yokic goes to spin over his left shoulder. Hardin sees it coming. Rotates, gets there in time, feet set. And as Yokch tries to step through, it's no foul because Hardin is standing still. he throws his arms into Hardin and ends up turning the basketball over his huge pivotal stop late in the game. Like one of the things with James Hardin to keep an eye on is that specific kind of thing as it pertains to this team and their potential. Because James Hardin is a much better one-on-one player defensively than he gets credit for. He has been awesome guarding one-on-ones this year.

It was one of the big upside things that I talked about in the trade reaction pod compared to a guy like Darius Garland who was just getting brutalized in one-on-ones this year. James is a better one-on-one defender. but James can be an undisciplined, unfocused off ball defender. He can miss rotations. He can be laid on rotations. He can miss boxouts. He can lose shooters. He can get back cut.

All of that kind of stuff. And so James being attentive like that on defense and being on time with his rotations and just being in the right spot in the defensive scheme is the pathway to him becoming a functional quality defender in the best version of this team. I think they're going to need Evan Mobley. Like they have not defended well really in the big picture since, uh, since, uh, since James Harden joined the team in the two games. But I do think that Evan Mobley is going to help a lot with that when he gets back.

And to their credit, they have a 105 defensive rating in crunch time last night against that awesome Nuggets offense. I thought that was a good impressive stretch of defense. Some really impressive things. There was a, as a team, I thought they defended Jamal Murray really well. They forced him into some tough contested shots that he missed. There was this blitz from Keon Ellis and Jared Allen, where they forced to turn over on Jamal Murray, just with excellent ball pressure where he tried to get the pass off to Yonis

kind of slipping out of the screen, but they just got such great pressure. They got a deflection that led out to a runout the other way. I'm just, I'm buying all sorts of Cavs stock right now. You guys will see in my contender rankings with KOC that come out, I think, on Thursday this week. I have them as my favorite to win

in the Eastern Conference now after the trades. I looked at it as very jumbled up, but I looked at the Knicks as my slight favorite before the deadline. I think the addition of Keon Ellis, Dennis Schroeder, and James Harden vault the calves above every other team in that group. It's all very close. Like, you know, obviously we're looking at Detroit, New York, Boston and, and Cleveland is the main ones. Toronto's kind of like hanging on to the bottom end of that group there.

But like I, they're all still very bunched up. But to me, these moves and especially seeing it kind of like come to fruition and just the type of basketball seen from them in the last couple of days, I think I put the calves at the top of that group. And they're the team that I have. and in that group, the one team in that group that I have as a top tier contender in our contender rankings that come out later this week. It's really this simple. I think when you add Evan Mobley to the mix, there will be a combination of shot creation, high level role man play, off ball shooting, perimeter defense, and rim protection, a combination of those five things that is sort of unrivaled in the east. They're not a perfect team.

I'm still a little worried about their front line getting pushed around in certain types of series, you know, big physical front lines. But of all the top teams in the East and all of them are flawed to a certain extent, I think this is the most complete team. And I'm just really believing in and buying in on this Cavs group as we head down the stretch of this season. Last game for today, Lakers Thunder, not overly surprised by the result here. I think the Thunder without Shea are just a better basketball team than Lakers without Luca. that's not exactly a bold take.

When you factor in just overall offense and defensive talent, the Thunder are the most talented roster in the league when they're fully healthy. And if you take Shea off and you take Luca off, you find out pretty quickly that the Lakers have a flawed roster by comparison. And it's a little closer than it would look on paper for this type of game, just strictly looking at this matchup in the regular season, simply because the Thunder offense completely falls apart without Shea. Their offense straight up can't score without Shay relative to when he's on the floor.

The Lakers, as a counter example, have only been 2.6 points worse per 100 possessions when Luca's off the floor this year because they still have high-level shot creators and they get better defensively by about 2.4 points. And so even though the offense is a little better with Luca, it's just not as big of a gap because you have Austin and LeBron, these two super high-level shot creators. So in a game like this, the Lakers are still capable of replicating some of what they do on offense. And they're more or less the same, if not a slightly better defensive team. The Thunder without Shea, they usually have a hard time scoring. And so that's why even though these rosters after their stars tilt heavily towards the Thunder, it was a competitive game because the Lakers, you know, they have more resilience on offense without their superstar because of the way their roster is built.

but even when we apply that context, O'KC just has better basketball players. And I thought it was on display throughout the game. There's so many individual examples of that difference. So like, for instance, like, you look at the scrappiness of the bigs. DeAndre Aiton has the ball straight up taken away from him twice down the stretch

because he's just completely unprepared for the scrappiness of this environment. He has an offensive rebound, gets stripped, has a defensive rebound, gets stripped underneath the basket and it leads to a dunk. Chet as a counter example, the Lakers in a switching group end up leaving LeBron James on an island out on the perimeter

that puts Marcus Smart in a situation where he's got a scrap with Chet Holmgren. Same dynamic, right? Aiton got out scrapped by guards, right? Here you have Chet matched up with an even scrappier guard, right? And Marcus Smart, one of the scrappiest guards of all time. And Chet just beats him to the ball. and gets a dunk. So like in the scrap,

Chet's better at scrapping than D'Andre. In addition to being a better defensive player, got some huge stops down the stretch, including a big ISO stop on Marcus Smart, driving down the lane. But Chet's just a way better basketball player than Dianjad. That's not a surprise there, right? Guys like Alex Crusoe and Lou Dort and Jay Lynn Williams

hitting threes while Jake LaRavia and Jared Vanderbilt are clanking from the corners. Like, that's not a surprise. The Thunder have better shooting talent. The Thunder are 15, and catch and shoot three point percentage this year. The Lakers are 25th. The Thunder were 12 for 26 on catch and shoot threes last night. The Lakers were seven for 23.

That's in line with what you would expect from the talent available on these rosters. Even the perimeter physicality stuff like Kaysen Wallace, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams, all were able to go right at Austin Reeves late in the game for easy twos. Austin defended every single one of those plays pretty well, kept his body in front, was competing physically, but he's just giving up an athletic. advantage against all three of those guys. That's an advantage that Oklahoma City has that would not go away, even if the stars were available. Even just Oklahoma City forcing 15 turnovers and scoring 23 points on them. Kaysen Wallace, by the way, menace in this game, just hounding Austin Reeves up and down

the floor, getting those big late strips on DeAndre Aiton as well. LeBron talked about it after the game. There's just a simple difference between these two teams. One's a championship contender and one is not. He plainly stated that last night. There are levels to hoop in the NBA. The Lakers, every time they run into this level, seem to get exposed. So, for example, in this 8 and 4 stretch where they've been top 10 in offense and defense,

during the 8 and 3, they were top 10 in offense and defense. I'm not sure how last night's numbers affected that. But during this stretch where they've been playing their best basketball of the season, they're 8 and 4, they're 0 in 3 in that stretch against teams that are in the top 10 in point differential, according to cleaning the glass. just five and 11 this season

against teams that are in the top 10 in point differential. The following teams have all been better by win percentage against teams in the top 10 in point differential. The clippers, the Blazers, the Jazz, the Hawks, and the Hornets. All five of those teams are below 500 in the big picture, but they have performed better this season against the best teams in the league. So like, this is just kind of what it is. Now, the counter that you would hear from some people is like,

hey, well, what about if the Lakers get all their stars healthy? And again, what I would say in that specific context is, like, is there a chance that the Lakers will compete better against the teams that are in the top ten in point differential if they have all their stars healthy? Yeah, of course, there will. I don't think that that's too far of a bridge to cross, so to speak. But even in that context,

it's one thing to be better than the Clippers, Blazers, jazz hawks, and hornets. And it's another thing to actually be ready to compete nightly against the best teams in the NBA. and I just think this Lakers team is miles away from that. Several of the Thunder players I wanted to shout out. Alex Caruso, I thought his off-the-drivel shot creation in this game was huge. He's sneaky been really good at it all year when called upon. He's run 40 pick and rolls, which is super low volume,

but he's generated 45 points, including passes, so well over a point per possession. He just hit a variety of pull-up jumpers and driving layups and made some passing reads that just felt like found money in a game like this where you only have one of your primary dribble drive guys healthy. the Isaiah Joe first half hot streak. I thought that was a huge part of that first bit of separation that Oklahoma City built in the game.

Kason Wallace and those pick six is out at half court. Those are huge momentum plays. Jalen Williams. You know, Jalen Williams coming off the bench, it's always tough for me to differentiate between those two when I'm verbalizing their names. But he's been amazing all year in all sorts of ways for this team. Just kind of, you know, obviously he was big during the Hartnstein injury,

just being another big body for them off the bench. he's just a big smart defender who's always in the right place at the right time and he continues to just hit timely threes for this team. Hit some huge ones in the fourth quarter last night. I thought Jared McCain's first shift was awesome. Just came in aggressive looking for a shot, which is what the team needs from him right now with all of the injuries. And then Chet, just huge defensive stands down at the rim late in the game. In addition to that big offensive rebound put back late, you have to play really solid team basketball when you're down your superstar. and the Thunder did that and they got a big win.

And then lastly, just Jalen Williams. Jalen Williams, good to see him back last night. It held up physically, which is good news. I was a little worried that they were bringing him back too quick for a soft tissue injury when he's so important to the final version of this team. But he looked great last night, had some big, big buckets late in the game when this team needed him late. Just an awesome performance from a team that I believe is going to win the championship this year

in Oklahoma City Thunder. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us. and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with a mailbag. The schedule the rest of this week is a little funky because I have a, this is my last like a little break before the home stretch. And so I've got a buddy coming in town today. We're going to do some skiing over the next few days. So I've got a mailbag coming out tomorrow. Today I'm recording contender rankings with KOC that's going to air on Thursday. And then we'll be back on Monday with our normal power rankings. Again, as always, I appreciate you guys. And I'll see you tomorrow. Hey guys. It's us and the Jonas brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created a Our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown if you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole. This podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to Deeply Well with Debbie Brown

from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam, it's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ 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 hungry. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come into it. He's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love.

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