The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry Game-Winner lifts Warriors past Thunder, Mavericks-Nuggets, Knicks-Bucks

Episode Date: November 4, 2023

Jason Timpf reacts to Steph Curry's game-winner in the Golden State Warriors' 141-139 victory over Chet Holmgren and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA In-Season Tournament (3:45). Jason breaks down the biggest highlights from Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Golden State's big win as well as his takeaways from a young Thunder team. Later, Jason reacts to Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks' 110-105 win over Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks (19:35) as well as Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets' 125-114 win over Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks (28:30). #volume #herd (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show.

This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but the show. celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeard radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok's podcast network on TikTok. The volume. NBA fans, the weight is over. Basketball is back.

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but not before hitting this jam-packed Friday night slate as we start the NBA mid-season tournament, which I'm coming around on in a bunch of different ways we'll talk about in a second. But we're going to talk about Golden State Warriors, another game winner this time from Steph Curry, a scoop shot over Chet Holmgren, a nasty one. A very, very entertaining game

as the Thunder without Shade Gildes with Alexander pushed the Warriors to the brink. But Steph puts them over the top. We had the Bucks improved a three and two with a much improved defensive effort against the New York Knicks. We're going to talk about that game from the perspective of both teams. And then last but not least, the Denver Nuggets, manhandle, the Dallas Mavericks. And I say that because physically it was a complete mismatch on both ends of the floor. And there's a lot going on with the Denver Nuggets defense that I find to be very interesting.

So we got three games that we're hitting tonight from the perspective of all six teams. You guys know the joke before we get started. subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. In case you haven't done so already, it would mean a lot to me if you guys scroll down and just hit that subscribe button as we try to launch this YouTube channel. Don't forget about our podcast feed, wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. Hoops tonight. Don't forget about our social media feeds, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter.

I'm doing a lot of film breakdowns on Twitter almost every morning when I wake up and I watch film. It's just clip after clip after clip on there. So you're going to want to pay attention to the Twitter feed. And the last but not least, drop mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. We haven't had time today to hit them, but we will hit them starting again next week. So drop those in the YouTube comments, and we'll get to them next week. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, Draymond Green talks about after Clay Thompson's game winner,

that it's just a lot more fun to go to work for the Golden State Warriors this year. It's interesting because, like, there are specific markers that I always look for for truly great teams, right? And, like, you know, the ability to win on the road is a huge marker there, right? The ability to win in clutch situations is a huge mark. I agree with Draymond. The chemistry, the likeability of a team is a big deal. Why? Because you will face adversity along the way. And if you don't know how to, you know, get along, that's going to get in a way in a lot of different ways. This Warriors team is not perfect. They are still really struggling to get stops and crunch time. We're going to talk about that

here in a minute. But they are definitely in a much better place here through five or six games than they were last year, a lot closer to the vibe that you got in that 2020 to season. It's just a couple of smart role player signings, right? Like just, look at how much Chris Paul and Dario Sarich just as the basic entry point of the bench defense has vastly improved this team. Now that Jonathan Cominga and Moses Moody are consistently attacking with advantages in those situations, how much more successful those two guys have been and how much more consistent they've been offensively, right? And then just in general, that overall vibe in the way that's allowing the group to stay committed to the details when they go on the road. That group was not playing

any defense or grabbing any rebounds when they went on the road. And like obviously in an 82 game sample, you're going to have games where you don't defend super well. And the thunder sure is hell gave the Warriors some issues tonight. But for the most part, they're hitting a lot of those little checkboxes that I look at for teams that have a legitimate chance to win a title. And like, again, I think a lot of people were down on the Warriors coming into this season based on what happened last year, but I think people were overthinking it a little bit. They had the same top six guys that they won the title with two years ago. That's why, in spite of all that, I kept them in my list of top tier contenders.

And I think it's even possible that they're better than I expected them to be going into this season. But it's a fun game. So Thunder without Shaggildes to Alexander, they're leaning on. Again, this is a team that has a ton of shot creation down the board. Obviously, Chet Holmgren is like, we think of him as someone that's helping them so much in rim protection and giving like a, a little higher level offensive weapon out of the five spot than what they were getting out of

Jay Lynn Williams last year, right? But also he can do a lot of stuff with the ball in his hands. They were going to go screen with him in the fourth quarter with him and Isaiah Joe where he was the ball handler. Imagine that, taking your center and setting a ball screen on him with your one and having him pop to the three point line. Again, that's not something that's completely uncommon in the NBA right now. We're seeing it from guys like Yokic and Sabonis and, you know, Bama at a bio does it from

time to time. I mean, Anthony Davis does it as well. But for a rookie, it's pretty high-level stuff. Dremont Green waxed eloquent after the game about just how impressed he was by Chet Holmgren's overall poise as a rookie, right? And like, Shegelius Alexander kind of takes over this offense in a lot of ways almost like in a heliocentric manner. And so they kind of like went into a little bit more of an equal opportunity driving kick type of game, right? And it turned out that Jalen Williams in particular could just beat anybody off the dribble and get into the paint. Lou Dort was just constantly finding himself wide open as the Warriors would lose him on the perimeter.

Really good at using the pump fake to relocate and generate high-quality shots for himself. And then Josh Giddy is a really high-level shot creator. Did a nice job leveraging angles and ball screens to get downhill and hit those little short shots over the top of the shorter Warriors defenders, right? And, like, again, like the Warriors, this is a classic trap game, right? You just won a tough game off of a game winner. You're going on a road trip, going to be on the road for a little while. You end up in Oklahoma City a tough game, and the young kids are playing hard,

and Shay Gilger's Alexander's out, right? So you're not taking the game as seriously as you might normally do, and they give you a bunch of trouble, but you just have to execute down the stretch to win the game. There were three possessions down the stretch that the Warriors executed perfectly on the offensive end to pull out the win. There was a Steph split in pick and roll when he went down the lane. Probably could have got an and one with his little up and under layup.

The classic Draymond fake handoff where he fakes the handoff to Steph, it goes downhill, draws that rim protector, throws the lob pass to Gary Payton at the rim for the layup. And then on the final possession, don't mess around, don't bring a ball screen because that allows the defense to double team you more easily. Even though Lou Dort's an excellent perimeter defender, Steph has a better chance of beating Lou Dort one-on-one than he does any other combination of two players because inevitably they're going to end up trapping or blitzing in that situation anyway. And so Steve Kerr leaves Steph on an island and just beats Lou Dort with a basic isolation move to his right,

gets downhill, sees Chet coming. And there's, I screen, I didn't screen, somebody else screenshot, I retweeted it, but there's a picture on my Twitter feed of the ball at the top of its arc as Chet Holmgren is fully extended up to block the shot. And it's literally just barely over his fingertips. And I can't get over how insane it is to be able to have the touch while also making the adjustment to the arc to deal with the shot blocker. As he's going downhill in this hectic last possession situation, he's making a calculation about how high he needs to shoot this scoop shot

while also making sure he has the touch on it to get it into the basket. Just an unbelievable play from Steph Curry, who continues to just be playing at, in my opinion, the highest level I've ever seen Steph Curry play at, at least on the offensive end. Maybe he isn't as quick as it used to be or something like that, but I haven't seen any sort of tangible difference in his speed. And if anything, he's stronger, which has made him a more impactful defensive player. And the offensive command of the game is at a level that I've never seen from Steph Curry. I think he's peaking right now. And that's good news.

For an exciting Warriors team, that's suddenly getting really big production at of a bunch of places that you wouldn't expect it, right? Like Jonathan Caminga and Moses Moody are both playing really good basketball this year. Chris Paul can't make a three-point shot to save his damn life and is still doing a great job running that bench unit. Dario Sarge is going to struggle with rim protection and that bench unit did not defend as well as they normally do in tonight's game. But again, the whole team didn't defend super well in tonight's game.

But outside of like a couple of handful nitpicky things, a lot of things have gone really well in terms of the offseason tweaks that they've made. Tull. I thought it was ridiculous that anybody thought that the basket should have been overturned. To put it simply, like, it's just a matter of what you would do in any sort of normal basketball game, right? Did Steph make the layup? Yes, unquestionably.

I saw a lot of people on Twitter saying, like, oh, like, you never know what could have happened if the rim wasn't, you know, vibrating differently because Draymond hit it. And it's like, cut the shit, man. Steph made the layup that was going in. Like the warriors had the ball and the thunder could not get a stop. And so the warriors deserved to win. If anything, Josh Giddy also pulled on the bottom of the net, which is the same type of offensive goal-tending type of situation.

I thought the refs did what the refs should do in that situation, which is like, hey, who deserves to win the basketball game based on what happened on this basketball play? And it's like the warriors. So don't get super nitpicky in the rule book to take away what was a made basket. for the player on the floor that is the best player on the Warriors who picked on a matchup he liked, got to his spot, took and made a shot. You know, if they deserve to win, that's simple. The one thing I will say with the Warriors right now that's of significant concern is their clutch defense.

We talked about this after the Clay Thompson game winner, but they're consistently giving up baskets when the game's within five with less than five minutes left. That's something that they're going to have to figure out. A lot of it's execution related. like Steve Kerr went with an offense defense sub situation at the end of the game basically bring in Chris Paul and I think it was it was either Chris and Clay or Chris and staff I can't remember but I think it was Chris and Clay and then he would bring in Cominga and Wiggins and for those two and just kind of sub them in and out for offense defense subs right and there was a play out of a

time out where they bring Mark Dajunel sets up just a basic back screen action for Lou Dort and Wiggins and Cominga just botched the switch and you're like I mean like Like, what's the point of doing offense defense subs if your best perimeter defenders are going to come in and just not do their jobs, right? You know, like I thought Draymond Green had a mistake that he made on the defensive possession against Chet, like the one at the top of the key where Chet kind of sort of ran him over. Like, Chet catches the ball in the perimeter and Draymond's being super physical with him and they're not calling it because in general, Draymond gets away with a lot of physical contact. And like in that situation in a late game situation, they're probably not going to call it. which is smart, right? Like, be physical there.

You want to play physical defense in crunch time because you're more likely to get away with it there. And, you know, in most cases, like I said, most cases, the refs are going to be hesitant to blow their whistle, right? Well, Chet kind of makes a move downhill. And again, Draymond, just hold your ground. Hold your ground and keep playing that physical defense

you've been playing. As soon as you flop, you make the ref make a call, right? And, like, so Dramon flops, which then forces the refs to blow the whistle. It's like a 50-50 call. he decides to give the blocking foul, right? And then when you go to the monitor, there's definitely not enough to overturn it

because, like, it's a 50-50 call, right? And so you put yourself in that predicament and then Chet gets two free throws. Like, just hold your ground, play solid defense, keep being physical. Chet probably turns it over there or misses because you're playing physical defense on a player who's really thin, right?

So, like, again, the defensive execution down the stretch of these games for the Warriors is something they're going to have to figure out because they've had to play damn near perfect basketball. to get out of these last couple of games. And again, there's a version of this where Clay misses that shot or Steph misses that shot and things look a little bit differently. A win is a win is a win.

I'm not trying to undercut it, but there's always areas for opportunity. And for the Warriors right now, their crunch time defense is a problem. It comes down, for the most part, to perimeter defense. And that kind of was a issue throughout the game. They're just really struggling right now to contain slasters. You know, like Jalen Williams is a big, strong athlete who can beat people off the dribble, right? and that that's the kind of matchup that will give the warriors problems from time to time. And they obviously struggle at the end of the King's game with that, right?

Like Malik Monk, just a hard rip-through on Gary Payton to get all the way to the rim for a layup. And, you know, again, like a lot of that's execution. That's Gary Payton. That's one of your best perimeter defenders, just has to do a better job, right? That's, you know, Kameen & Wiggins on that bot switch. Those are two your better perimeter defenders. They just got to do a better job. That's Draymond Green flopping on Chet Holmgren.

That's the best defender on your team. team. He's got to do a better job. And so as a team, that's the exciting part. Is they're in a really good spot and they still have a lot of things that they can get better at at this point. I thought it was interesting, too, that Draymond talked about the two-way guys or the guys that went down to play with these Santa Clara Warriors, Trace Jackson Davis and Brandon Pizamski and not having those guys in the locker room, he said, was kind of something that sapped the team of energy. And I thought that was really interesting because I would agree. You know, young guys, young athletes are a great way to counter when an older team is struggling to deal with a younger team on the road.

On the thunder front, I thought that was a great example of just how exciting this team can be. Dremont talked a lot about how impressed he was by Chet Holmgren, just not making rookie mistakes and specifically referred to him as a problem. Jalen Williams is kind of in the weirdest spot on this team from the standpoint of usage because Chet's involved in most of the screening actions. Shea Gildas Alexander's getting all the shots. Josh Giddy's basically your second side creator, right? And so, like, a lot of times Jalen Williams is kind of an ancillary piece. And you have to see tonight what he can do when he has the ball in his hands for a larger portion of the game.

And that is he's a great athlete who can beat people off the dribble and create his own shot. And Jalen Williams is a very, very good passer for a young wing. It's funny. I've always referred to him as like Jalen Brown with the ability to pass at a higher level. That's kind of the ceiling that I see Jalen Williams being able to reach. that was a fun game. Again, a tough matchup with the Warriors without Chey Gildes Alexander.

The Warriors are a great schematic half-court defense that are going to try to take away the things that make you comfortable, but you were able to win with brute force advantages. Josh Giddy is truly gifted at scoring over the top of shorter defenders. And that little pop shot and hook shot that he has in the lane is a real weapon for them right now. Imagine an Olympics where you're not. doping is not only legal, but encouraged.

It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way,

this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes

of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me,

or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross

double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little Kim?

Well, you can find out on the Look Back at It podcast. I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it.

Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack.

So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, moving on to Nick's Bucks. So it's funny, because the Bucks have a much better defensive effort, and they win, and all the talks surrounding after the game, it's like, oh, they sat Brooke Lopez in a deeper drop coverage. And for those of you guys who haven't seen it yet, I did a huge deep dive on the Bucks and their defensive struggles

coming into tonight's game. You can find that on our YouTube feed just a little bit further back. actually it should be the video right before this one. But I kind of feel bad for Adrian Griffin in a lot of ways because he's the latest victim in a long line of people that I've seen fall into this trap where it's like, as soon as your team starts playing poorly, you blame the coach. It's like it's the most recurring theme from fans that I see covering the NBA.

Like I saw it with Frank Vogel when he was with the Lakers. I saw it with, I've seen Warriors fans do it with Steve Kerr. still to this day, see Warriors fans complain about Steve Kerr on Twitter nonstop as if he's not one of the two or three best coaches in the NBA. Like, Lakers fans are still doing it to Darvin Ham, even though he's doing an amazing job with the Lakers. It's a consistent theme that I see. It's an easy target. It's easy to blame the coach when the players you see are not playing as well as they could be. And too often we don't, you know, apply the requisite amount of blame to the players for not doing their jobs. And so Adrian Griffin has gotten a lot of criticism for running a too

aggressive pick and roll scheme, basically keeping his rim protectors too far away from the basket, which is hurting their ability to protect on the back line. And so I was excited to kind of dive into the film today and really look into it and try to see what specifically was happening on that front. And like, don't get me wrong. Like there were some issues there. There were several possessions that I saw where Brooke Lopez or Bobby Portis in particular were too far away from the basket in pick and roll coverages and not in a position to protect the rim. Janice as well, not often enough in his low man position where he can be a really impactful help defender. But at the same time, that was like maybe a fourth of the issues that I saw.

The vast majority of the issues that I saw were the guys were just doing a bad job. They were just playing bad basketball. And like, there's video of this. I did a whole thread on my Twitter feed. So at underscore Jason LT, you're going to find a full Twitter feed of all the clips that I put together of the Bucks defense. But like the point of attack guys were dying on screens too often and not competing on the glass in particular. The screen defenders, Brooke Lopez and Bobby Portis, were they positioned poorly? Yeah, but they also were doing a bad job. They also were just straight up not doing a very good job. The help and recover backside guys, not doing a good job in terms of making the right decisions for when to

commit to helping on a drive versus staying home with a shooter, either helping too far off of a good shooter or staying home off the ball when they should be helping. They were leaving there's small guards on islands in post-up situations instead of helping. Like, nobody was competing on the defensive glass. Like, it was a travesty down the line in terms of execution. And like, a lot of people don't realize, like, scheme is only half the battle. The scheme can get you so far. But if the execution isn't there to match it, it doesn't matter.

And a lot of times, it's kind of unfair to properly evaluate a defensive scheme until you actually see it executed properly, right? I talk about this all the time with drop coverage. A lot of times people will say like, oh, drop coverage is flawed. And don't get me wrong, drop coverage has its flaws. But in theory, when it's executed properly, it works. If the guy navigates the screen and applies back pressure, the pull-up jump-shots not there.

The pull-up jump shots not there. The guard has to work downhill. If the guard has to work downhill, the rim protector is waiting for him. And he can sit there and stay behind the roller and the ball handler. Again, like, execution is the majority of the battle. and like did Adrian Griffin make some adjustments today? Yeah, he did. Lopez was sitting further back around the rim and what do you have five blocks in this game?

Like definitely a smarter defensive strategy for this particular team, right? Especially against a New York Knicks team that doesn't have a lot of pull-up shooting outside of Jalen Brunson, right? So like I get it. But at the end of the day, also everyone just did a better job. Dame's been getting cooked all over the floor all season long. but he finally sat in a damn defensive stance at the end of the game and slid his feet and got to stop on Jalen Brunson. He got a huge steal on Jalen Brunson on a dribble handoff too. Like, Dame is capable of being a much better defensive player than he's shown to this point in the season, right?

Just in general, it was a much better effort from the Bucks. And so again, like, Adrian Griffin is just a coach trying to figure out what works for his team. Is there a – will there potentially be a time? 30, 40 games in, or maybe you have to take a look at a coach and see if he is potentially a bad fit. Yeah, but we're certainly not there after five games. We're not there after five games, especially when it's clear on tape that the players just aren't doing their job. But they did a much better job in this next game. There's still a lot of room for improvement, by the way, right?

Like you won by five and you had to make 20 out of 39 threes to win the game, right? You still gave up a million offensive rebounds. This is a Bucks team that was second in defensive rebound percentage last year. Coming into the night, they were 14th, and they gave up a million offensive rebounds again, right? The crunch time offense. If it wasn't Dame getting to the foul line, there wasn't a whole lot else there, right? Dame got a bucket on a back cut, and he had a really nice three on a catch-and-shoot coming off of his screen. But for the most part, they looked a little stuck in the mud offensively.

There's still some issues with the Dame Yannis pick and roll where, like, Janus, for whatever reason, is like, picking and popping to the top of the key. They're not running it enough. When they run it, they're not spacing it properly, and Janus isn't rolling hard. So, like, there's a lot of area for opportunity here. Dame is still, you know, not quite in full rhythm, where it feels like his, like,

because Dame is, like, really in full rhythm when he's hitting, you know, when he's consistently getting seven and eight threes in a game, you know, two or three times a week, right? Like, that's the, that's the Dame when you know Dame Lillard is really there. He's, he kind of, has been closing these games was savvy in a lot of ways, right?

Like, he identified that the Knicks were in the penalty early in the fourth quarter and just started putting a lot of downhill pressure to try to draw fouls and kept getting to the free throw line. Like, he's a heady basketball player, a really good half-court basketball player who's going to find ways to impact winning. But, like, he's actually capable of going an entire level above that. This team can rebound better. This team can score in the half-court a lot better.

They still can defend better. I don't think they'll ever be an elite defensive team with his personnel. there's a debate to be had about whether or not they're going to have to upgrade the two-guard position. I don't think they're getting enough out of either of Connettin or Malik Beasley right now. So there's a chance down the line that you have to do something at the deadline to try to shore up your perimeter defense next to Dame, right? But in the meantime, you're three and two, and there's a lot of things that you can get better with with just this particular group. And tonight I thought was a good step in that direction. Remember, nothing happens overnight with this stuff.

You don't just go from playing shitty basketball to playing good basketball. It's baby steps along the way. And I thought tonight was a good positive step for the Bucks in the right direction. And I think it's ridiculous that we are sitting at three and two. The Bucks are sitting at three and two. And the story all day was whether or not the Bucs should fire Adrian Griffin, which is just completely ridiculous. On the Nix front, I have not watched this team particularly closely this year.

I have a plan to in the next week. as you guys know, we're tweaking our format. We're doing less instant reactions and more deep dives. Obviously, there are clear things popping off the screen, right? Like Jalen Brunson looks a lot better now than he did in preseason in the first couple games of the season. It looks like he's finally in rhythm and starting to get the right amount of lift on his shot. Julius Randall is off to just a horrid start to the season.

And again, like everything with the Knicks is always about like Julius and Jalen and them playing like superstars. When they play like superstars, they're really hard to beat because they're so good defensively and rebounding, or I shouldn't say, they're capable of being really good defensively, and they're a very physical defense,

and they rebound extremely well. So as long as they can do that stuff, they're capable of being a really dangerous team. They overpack the paint, give up too many wide open threes. That was a huge problem in this Bucks game tonight. And then Julius Randall is really, really inconsistent. Obviously not having R.J. Barrett hurt

the offense in this game as well. I don't want to talk too much more about the Knicks because I'd rather do a deep dive on him. So we'll probably end up hitting them next week. So Knicks fans keep an eye on the feed at some point next week and we'll do a deep dive on everything that they are struggling with and succeeding with on both ends of the floor at this point. All right, Nuggets Mavs.

You know, there's this, I was watching the game today. And the Mavs definitely got a little bit more loose with their offense in the fourth quarter as they started to kind of sort of make it close. It's kind of one of those classic, like, fake comeback vibes. You know what I mean? Where a team is clearly winning by 20-ish, and then suddenly they let up defensively, and the other team kind of makes a little bit of a run,

and then the starters come back in, and they kind of regain control of the game, right? So I'm watching in the early third quarter as the Nuggets are pushing it to 20. And I'm looking down, and I'm like, I'm like, this Dallas team is having a hell of a time scoring. And we did a lot of deep dive. So for those of guys who didn't see the deep,

Dives last week, or this week, we did Dallas, we did Memphis, we did Boston for deep dives, and then I think we might have done one or two more, if I remember correctly, but we did a deep dive on Dallas in their offense. And at the time of the video, they were the very best offense in the league. And Luca was playing arguably better than anybody in the league. And Kyrie Irving was out during that stretch, and he's back now, right? And so, like, you're bringing an incredibly high-powered offense into Denver. Not only that, a specifically high-powered offense that should give Denver issues, right? Because it's a pull-up shooting team, pull-up shooting guard in Kyrie Irving that will pull

your pick and roll coverage as far out. And Luca Donchage is a matchup attacker who can pick on guys like Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray or Nicola Yoakch if he chooses to, right? So in theory, they should give them a lot of problems. And I'm watching the game, and I'm like, holy shit. Like Michael Porter Jr. is holding up on switches against Luca really well. they are causing major frustrations for this Mavericks team on the offensive end of the floor. Then I sat down and I looked at the numbers again and I knew they were pretty good defensively in the first few games.

I think I had them at like seventh after three or four games. But at the time, in the middle of the third quarter, I pulled up the defensive ratings and Denver's popped up to fifth in defensive rating. They are playing some really high level defense right now, which is something that I don't think they, ever did last year aside from a few stretches in the playoffs. So, like, again, like, this is some really, really exciting stuff for seeing out of Denver. It reminds me of, like, I saw this with the Warriors in that, like, 2015-2016 stretch where it kind of seemed like they were almost addicted to winning, where, like, even though they've already won a title, even though they're already in commanding position in the standings, even though there's no real importance to the night-to-night games,

they just kind of seemed like they were addicted to winning basketball games. And so they kept out playing teams that were more desperate than them. And it kind of became a cultural thing that is still stuck around in Golden State to this day. And like, I'm kind of starting to get that vibe from this Denver Nuggets team. Like every individual player, regardless of their role, is like super bought in. Like Michael Porter Jr. is a super skilled offensive player who is operating in a smaller role, right? but this is a dude that is sliding his feet and bothering Luca Donchich. He's kind of become a really good help and recover guy.

There were several possessions today where he was able to get into the lane and dig down and bother a ball handler and then close out. And because he's got such great length, he can really bother a three-point shooter on a close-out. He had a couple on Grant Williams that he really bothered him. And so, like, you got Aaron Gordon who's like totally embraced this perimeter stopper role mixed with like post-mish-attacking, mixed with like running the floor in transition and operating on that backline.

Jamal Murray has played like an all-star to start this season. Peyton Watson has been a revelation on both ends of the floor as a switch defender. He's knocking down his three-point shot. He's a devastating transition weapon. He's like this team is clicking at a level that doesn't actually make sense given their level of urgency. And again, like I know they had, you know, a random couple of weeks here or there last season where they defend well.

But for the most part, it wasn't a cultural thing for that team. They came out the gates defending poorly, and they finished the season defending poorly. This year, from day one, they seem to be so much more locked in and engaged in those specific details. And when you combine that with them being the most unguardable offense in the NBA, it makes them terrifying. And like, they look clearly like the championship favorite at this point. I think they're going to win this mid-season tournament.

You know, like, Nicole Yokic can get 25 to 30 points without ever really having to take a shot that's difficult for him. The toughest shot he took tonight was a catch-and-shoe three at the end of half time, or right before the first half, where he had to like kind of pivot into a three on the move. And Yokic was fired up. It was like one of the more, you know, you don't see him be very demonstrative from time to time, but he was super demonstrative in this particular after this shot, you know, a screen. to himself. It was like a moment for himself that he was stoked that he made the shot. But it's like aside from that, which was a bailout shot at the end of the clock,

like it's all easy stuff that he's going to make a lot of the time. You know, that's how we, like the ability to get 25 to 30 points without ever really having to go off script on offense and just basically be the fulcrum, but all the shots you get in the offense are shots he can make at a 65, 70% clip. So you keep looking up and it's like, oh, once again, Yokic, you know, 12 for 14 from the field, and you're like, what the hell are we doing here, man? You know, like, it's, this team is just clicking at a higher level than anybody else in the league right now. I know Boston's winning and winning by a lot, but I just can never trust that team until I see them execute in the half court in the late phases of the playoffs, and they just feel like the safest bet right now. On the Dallas front, it really is this simple to me.

Your transition defense was trash. That's ridiculous. you're too fast to get outrun up and down the floor by that Nuggets team. A lot of it was Luca. Luca kept making bad plays on offense and then bitch into the refs instead of running back. And you've got to be great offensively to ever even have a chance against this Denver team. Like for two and a half quarters, they pretty much held you in check. And you're not good enough defensively or on the glass to be able to hang with a team like Denver

if you can't score at the rate you're capable of scoring. It was a problem that Luca was picking up. of Michael Porter Jr. and couldn't get the defense into rotation. It was a significant problem throughout the game. Kyrie played pretty well, just couldn't hit his three-point shot. Again, one of the consistent themes in this game is like they have some dirty work guys that compete. They have guys that are trying their best to hold down the defense and rebounding areas of the game, guys like Josh Green, guys like Grant Williams, guys like Derek lively. But still, it just felt like every time Denver missed a shot, there was Michael Porter,

Jr. for an offensive rebound. there was Aaron Gordon for an offensive rebound. When they were making their run there in the early fourth quarter, it was like back-to-back plays where they just couldn't keep Aaron Gordon off the glass. And like that's the thing is like that there's levels to this shit, right? And like Dallas looks pretty good. They look like a great offense. They look like they've improved rebounding.

They're better on defense than you would have expected them to be and certainly a lot better than they were last year. But like the problem is, is like Denver also has an unguardable offense, except for they're also an outstanding rebounding team and this season have been an outstanding defensive team. And that just goes to show you that like as good of a job as they've done to try to kind of reconfigure this roster around Luca and Kyrie. Like there's still a whole other level they need to get to be able to compete

with the top teams in the league. But again, they've been awesome through four games, so I don't want to overreact to one game. I was a little disappointed in Luca Donchage tonight, though. I thought that he would have done a better job. picking apart that Denver Nuggets offense. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show.

We are going to take the weekend off and be back on Monday to break down several games from the weekend. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeterside. help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

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A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that experience. excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not

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