The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry & Jordan Poole dominate 76ers-Warriors, AD & Lakers take down Thunder

Episode Date: March 25, 2023

Jason Timpf breaks down Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green leading the Golden State Warriors to a 120-112 win over Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers. What is the one big question lingering for Golden State? Later, he discusses Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-111. Are the Lakers a legitimate NBA Finals threat once LeBron James returns? #volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Enter email and redeem code hoops for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, enter your email and code hoops. That's H-O-O-P-S for $20 off. Download game time today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, you know, it's funny, every once in a while in a basketball game, the entire outcome can shift based on one matchup going a certain way. And that's what I thought swung this Warriors game against the 76ers. They were down 90 to 79 and had literally absolutely no answer for Joe Olympi. And it wasn't, for lack of trying. Looney and Draymond did the best that they could,

but Joe Alambit is on a wrecking ball tour and has been on this tour for months now, trying to prove to everybody he's the best player in the world, and he's playing like it. Again, you know, I'm not personally going to recognize that until it takes place in the postseason, but if he plays anything like this in the postseason, season, it's going to be a problem, and pretty soon he might end up being recognized that way. But the warriors needed something to give them the push they needed to get to the end of the game to where Steph Curry can close the deal, which he has been doing very well as of late.

And in this particular case, it was a combination of Jordan Poole and his ridiculous ability to drive to the basket, his dribble penetration, in combination with having his three-point shot going. You know, this from 90 to 79 to when they took the lead in the late fourth quarter, Jordan Poole sprung most of that run. He had 19 points in the quarter. Nobody from Philadelphia could keep him in front. It started with a pull-up three. It's kind of in transition. Wasn't really a good shot.

It was early in the clock. Draymond comes up and sets a screen. He comes off. Paul Reed's there. He's up with his hand up. But Jordan Poole just rises up and knocks down the three. And one of the concepts I want to spend a good amount of time talking about today, is what it means to split a ball screen.

So I've talked a lot about in switching defenses, about how difficult it is when you switch on to a defender to be ready to an offensive player to be ready for what comes next. Because your mental focus is on the guy you were guarding. And now you're guarding someone else. And it's just a really quick transition, and it's tough to make those transitions smoothly. And so if you think about what it means to split a pick and roll,

so if the screen defender, the guy guarding the guy who's setting the ball, ball screen, wants to take away your pull-up three, and you're coming off that screen hard and your defender is trapped behind you, there's airspace there. The only way to close that airspace is to get out to above the level of the screen to contest that three. But what is that? That's effectively a close-out. What do I talk about all the time on the show? Advantage creation. If you can create that initial advantage, you give your lesser offensive players and a player closing out at them as opposed to a static defender, they've got a chance to beat them. In Jordan Poole, even in a static situation, is extremely difficult to keep in front.

And I think he had at least three pick and roll splits down the stretch of the fourth quarter, if not more. Right after that pull-up three, same type of ball screen. Paul Reed comes way out and Jordan Poole splits it. Just pushes the ball out in front. It's effectively like a crossover on the closeout and goes up and dunks it with two hands. then Joel Embed checks into the game. And Jordan Poole runs a ball screen with Jonathan Caminga,

variation of Spain pick and roll. Joel Embed is sitting in drop coverage. He comes up a little bit higher to get ready for that Jordan Poole pull up, but as Jordan Poole is coming downhill on the screen, Steph Curry comes up and sets a back screen on Joel and B. Again, we talk about the Spain Pick and Roll. The shooter doesn't necessarily just have to relocate to the top of the key. He can also screen the screen defender.

Again, Spain pick and roll is any pick and roll where you have a shooter underneath the basket that relocates to the top of the key. But he's not relocating just to shoot. If he has an opportunity to run into that screen defender, he can create an opening. He hits Embed, Poole comes off clean, and makes a nice easy floater off the glass. Then on the next bucket that Jordan Poole gets, he kind of comes flying off of a off ball action along the right side of the floor. And Tyreys Max, he comes up too close on a catch-and-shooting. fouls him on a three-shot foul. And he had made five-three so far in that game. Again, a lot of foul drawing is getting defenders out of position. A lot of getting defenders out of position is having

them panic chasing you because they're scared you're going to shoot. And the only way you're going to get that is if you demonstrate the ability to make that shot. I talked about this a lot with Austin Reeves over the last couple days. Everyone's like, oh, foul grifting, foul grifting. Yeah, there's a certain amount of that going on. But a lot of it is Austin Reeves is a 50, 40, 90 guy. the shots he takes go in. So defenders are panic chasing him when he finds those little openings. So when he pump fakes, people go for it every time. You're going to draw that foul as Jordan Poole when you've made five threes in a way that you won't be able to when you haven't.

You demonstrate the ability to knock the shot down. You generate the panic in the defensive player. Draws the foul. Gets to the foul line. Then he starts just relentlessly attacking George's knee. again, it's still a ball screen. It's a guard-guard screen. Most often going to end in the switch, but it is still a ball screen. George's knee-ing, same type of thing. He's got to be out there quickly on the screen to take away that pull-up three because Jordan Poole's got the three-point shot going.

He kept beating him with that quick left-to-right cross to split that ball screen to get downhill. On the first one, he splits and he drops it off to Kivan Looney because Joel and Bede steps up and contains Jordan Poole at the basket, drops it off to Kavana-Luni. Then, Jordan's Pool does what every warrior's card does that he learned from Steph Curry and Clay Thompson. He, after he makes the pass, he sprints to the right corner. And when he does, Tobias Harris, who's guarding Clay Thompson, has to abandon Clay Thompson to close out to Jordan Pool in the corner.

Kavan Looney catches and beat a kneeing come to him, and he spots Clay Thompson, wide open on the right wing, knocks down the first of the two huge threes that he hit in the late fourth quarter of this game. Then the next possession, Jordan Poole just beats Tyrese Maxi in semi-transition. Like, Philly's not really set. Just does a hard dribble move to the basket. Joel Embed comes flying over to try to block the shot. Again, what we talk about with rim pressure, one of the many benefits is occupying the rim protector.

When you occupy the rim protector, what's the fallout from that? The guy that the rim protector is guarding is available for an offensive rebound. Jordan Poole misses the layup, but Joel Embed sold out for this one. ran into Jordan. I think they both fell over, if I remember correctly. And there's Kavana Looney for the easy putback. And then he actually, what was crazy is on the following possession, he in pick and roll got downhill and Embed was there waiting for him, and he just challenged him right at the rim and made it. Every single thing was going for Jordan Poole in this game. The catch and shoot three, the pull-up three in pick and roll, the floater, his passing ability, he's

finishing at the rim, his straight isolation driving attack. He was unbelievable in the fourth quarter of this game. I will say that I did think, and I want to cut and beat some slack here, because it was just a reality of their predicament. James Hardin was out. So that inherently just puts an enormous workload on Joel Embed. As a result, he was being lazy in his drop, sitting too far back. And I thought that was a big part of why Philly lost down the stretch of this game.

There were two massive baskets that Clay Thompson and Steph Curry got just taking advantage of Joel and Bede sitting too far back. The first was that ball screen three that Clay Thompson took at the top of the key, Joel Embed too far back. And then I think it was when it was 108 108. Steph Curry just came over the top of the screen. Joel Embeded would way too far back. He made that little 15-foot floater in the lane.

But, you know, Jordan Poole played well enough to get it close to where Steph could close it. You know, I want to be clear, like, you know, we, this show naturally leads to criticism. It's just kind of the nature of what this show is. We talk about basketball. And basketball games are won and they are lost. So inherently there has to be good and bad. But one of the things that I always try to do is point out when a player plays well and point out when the player plays poorly.

And we've, just like most Warriors, fans, been very critical of Jordan Poole over the course the last month and he struggled a lot. And, you know, the thing is Jordan Poole has a lot of weaknesses. Like he struggles in the margins of basketball. Like he's going to miss a lot of boxouts. He's going to get lost and help. defense. He's not going to get matched up in transition. He's going to give up driving lanes at the point of attack.

But he also has a lot of strengths. And there's one particular strength, a great strength of his, his elite skill. The thing he does better than most other NBA players is he is just ridiculously fast, great at changing direction, and can handle the hell out of the basketball. And that dribble penetration piece is enough to put a defense in the blender. And again, matchups determine basketball. football games. Philly's not a good perimeter defense team. And so that dynamic, Jordan Poole and his ability to consistent get dribble penetration allowed Golden State to steal a game when they were getting

just completely run over by Joe Lombie, tossed around like ragdolls. But like again, when we're talking about Jordan Poole, I just want to make sure that we cover both sides there. Yes, he's had some weaknesses. Yes, they've come to the surface over the course of this season, especially with the personnel shortcomings that the Warriors have had, but he's also really good at a lot of stuff. Namely, he's one of the best dribble penetrators in the game of basketball. Once he got it close, though, Steph was able to close the deal. We just talked about that floater heat against Embed in Bede and drop. Very next possession when it was 110 110. Tobias Harris made a couple of massive shots,

a pull-up shot and pick and roll, and then a nice isolation shot over Draymond Green where he also got fouled, I thought. You know, Philly made place to keep this thing close late. but after Harris ties it at 110 110, one-10, Steph has this nifty Steve Nash play where he kind of takes this transition pick and roll from Draymond, gets downhill, kind of gets the left side of the basket, loops around along the baseline behind the backboard,

catches and beads slipping for just a second and slips in that little bank shot for 112-110. And then the final play, the dagger, the Jordan Pool 3 in the corner, was a very similar play to what happened on the dagger play against Dallas. I talk a lot about rejecting pick and roll. One of the ways that you can take advantage of guard defenders in pick and roll like we always talk about is get them engaged with the screen.

So many pick and roll coverages in the NBA depend on players chasing over the top and applying back pressure. Because if you apply back pressure, you will funnel the guard into your rim protector. the better the job that guard does, the more your rim protector can sag back into the paint. The lesser job your guard does, the higher your big has to come out to help as the ball handler is coming out over the top. So guards are constantly just preached at all the time,

especially in the NBA, just about pick and roll coverages and getting over the top of that ball screen. So what happens? You're in a screen and roll coverage. You've got him bead behind you. He's telling you, screen right.

screen right, screen right. Steph's got the ball in his left hand, and he's looking at the ball screen, like he's going to go to that screen off to the defender's right-hand side. And if you watch this play, you will see the Anthony Melton hop to the right above the screen because he's preparing to try to fight over the top to beat Steph to that spot so that Embed doesn't have to come out of his drop. And Steph, once again, just like he did to Maxi Klebe in the Dallas game, quickly rejects the screen.

That is when you push back. Right when you see that guard, start to engage with the screen, is the best time to reverse that screen. He reverses it, gets downhill, draws Draymond Green's man, kicks a Dram on Green. Dremont Green makes the extra pass to Jordan Pool bucket,

115, 110 Warriors win. It's that back-to-back games where he made all the right plays executing down the stretch for the Warriors in high pick and roll. Defensively, they had no answer for Embed, and Bede went on a run there in the fourth quarter right in the middle of the Jordan pool run

that just kept them kind of at arm's distance. But there was one brief stretch there where Doc Rivers went with PJ Tucker and Draymond Green checks in and just completely ignores PJ Tucker to double team Joe Alambit. And that allowed them to get enough stops

because PJ Tucker just could not make that left corner three, which has been an issue pretty much since he was in Houston. And they get enough stops. And then when Doc Rivers adjusted and went away from PJ Tucker, and Bid actually missed his last two pull-up jump shots. One of them was over a double team, but another one was a pretty decent look.

So you took him out of his rhythm by doubling the ball away from him, and then he finally missed a couple of shots. That's why I always get on this with like Steve Kerr and Eric Spolstra about mixing up coverages. Like everything with basketball players is about rhythm and flow, and anything you can do to disrupt that flow gives you a better chance to win. Throw in a zone defense look every once in a while. That'll throw off someone's rhythm.

Double team them, three, four possessions in a row, and then leave them in single coverage, they'll be, like, confused that the double's not there, and then they'll look to go to work, but then they haven't shot in a while, so their rhythm is a little bit off. You get a couple of misses. That was enough.

They were aggressively just completely ignoring PJ Tucker and hard doubling Joel and Bede, and then Joel and Bede couldn't make the shots down the stretch of the game. Really, just, all classic Golden State execution down the stretch of that game. The three Warriors guards combined for 80s, three points. One last warrior I wanted to shout out before we move on. Moses Moody, I thought he had

a really impressive fourth quarter shift. And it started like started with a really impressive corner three. Let's say really impressive. Just stepped up and knocked down an important corner three on that classic Warriors action, Steph Curry. Like the Sixers bench unit, the beginning of the fourth quarter was blitzing the Steph Curry pick and rolls. Classic Warriors response to that is have Draymond set the ball screen, blitz Steph. Steph throws that little loopy, little drop pass to the role man. Draymond Grim gets downhill and gauges the defender out of the weak side corner, kick pass to the corner.

Moses Moody made a shot off of that, but I was really impressed with him defensively. I thought he was making all the right rotations, getting to the right spots. He had a play where he stonewalled DeAnthony Melton at the rim with verticality, like made a rotation, got outside the charge circle, jumped as hard as high as he could with his arm straight up, got to stop. It was an impressive shift. I think he was plus six in that shift, if I remember, It spanned the end of the third and early fourth, if I remember correctly.

Really nice win for the Warriors. That's a third in a row. They are now one lost back of the four seed, thanks to Phoenix dropping some games. And they're heading into an easy stretch of their schedule. These are the three games that I talked about when we went over their schedule earlier this week. They are home for the Timberwolves, Pelicans, and Spurs. They will be favored in all three. They'll be tough. The Timberwolves are on a I believe a two-game winning streak, and the Pelicans are on a three-game winning so they're not going to be easy games, but those are games at home that the Warriors are capable of winning. If they bring the requisite urgency, even without Andrew Wiggins.

If they win all three of those games, I believe they will be the four-seat when this is all said and done. And Gary Payton is expected back in their next game. The biggest question looking forward for the Warriors is, can Jonathan Kaminga and Gary Payton bring you enough to replace what Andrew Wiggins brings to the table. And I mean, not to get all negative here, but like, it's going to be challenging to determine what Golden State's capable of in a playoff run without Andrew Wiggins. Because, simply put, I thought he was their second best player in last year's

playoff run. And a huge reason why they won the trophy was the individual defensive job he did on Luca Donchich and Jason Tatum. as well as him being good for 18 points a night or whatever it was he was in the playoffs. So, I mean, Kaminga's been pretty good. He had a rough shooting night tonight, but he's been pretty good as of late.

If he can slide into that and if that role and play well, they have a chance, but it is definitely going to be difficult without Andrew Wiggins. And hopefully this winning streak can provide them enough push to maybe convince him to come back. Last note on the Sixers before we move on,

it was no James Hardin, so you don't want to think too much about it. it and that obviously affected them offensively down the stretch of this game when they were doubling Joel and Bede. It just hurts them in their race against Boston. They're now one loss back of that second seed and Boston has the tiebreaker. So that puts them in a tough spot. And the problem is if you end up in three, there's a pretty decent chance that you end up playing Miami in the first round. And, you know, obviously looking at this season, it's really easy to be like, oh, well, Philly's better. They'll beat them, right? But Miami beat Philly pretty handily last year, mind you. And Bede was dealing

with that orbital bone fracture. But that's definitely not an easy matchup. And the one way that that loss particularly hurts is you avoid Miami entirely if you can get that two seed and end up in a better position from a playoff standpoint. But I continue to be completely blown away by how well Joel and Bede's been playing. All right, let's move on to Thunderlakers.

Lakers win 116 to 111. Another monster night from Anthony Davis. He had 37 and 14. Dennis Schroeder at 13 points in the 4. quarter. There was a really interesting game plan dynamic going on with both teams, and I thought it backfired for both teams, ironically. The Thunder were, when Anthony Davis was on the floor, they were running a drop coverage, and they were prioritizing the role man. So, you know, the defender that was chasing over the top of the screen would kind of like grab AD and

slow down his roll, and then the dude who's guarding and drop is kind of like handling AD as he's rolling to the basket. So the guards coming over the top were the ones that had the openings there. That was a big part of how Dennis Schroeder impacted the game in the fourth quarter, especially down the stretch. When AD was out there, he made a couple of massive pull-up jump shots in that, like, semi-circle area there, 10 to 15 feet away from the rim. But early in the fourth quarter, when Anthony Davis was off the floor, one of the things that the Thunder was doing when Wenya and Gabriel was out there, they were just switching everything. So the Lakers were running their interchanges and not gaining any advantage because, like, you know,

Dennis Schroeder's got a little bit of ISO ability. Austin's got a little bit of ISO ability but those guys are all typically pick and roll guys like they're at their best when they can get downhill and make reads and so switching kind of negates that to a certain extent and you know Dennis Schroeder made three plays there in the early third early fourth quarter

against Oklahoma City switching just willing the ball into the basket he had a driving lap there was one his third bucket that he had there to start the fourth quarter where he just like forced I think he was being guarded by Lou Dord if I remember correctly but I can't I'm not 100% certain. Beats him to the right. It's contained.

It's like sidling alongside of him and just throws up like a scoop shot with his right hand that he shot from like four feet off the ground that somehow went in, literally just wheeling the ball into the basket. It's about eight minutes and 45 seconds left. Darvinham calls a really smart timeout after the Lakers secure a loose ball. They're up five, I think, at that point. And I thought it was a really smart timeout in large part

because the Lakers were not getting good shots against Oklahoma City switching. it just so happened that Dennis Schroeder had wheeled the ball into the basket three times to start the quarter. They went back to that Anthony Davis line up there to close the game and ended up getting enough baskets to win. But, you know, Mark Dagenal did a good job just kind of mixing things up. Like I said, going from switching to drop based on who was on the floor. They randomly went to zone on some possessions after makes. And then on Anthony Davis post-ups, this was the one place where I thought Mark Dajunel messed up. Anthony Davis struggles with pressure in his face.

So, like, if you hard double him to his face side, he panics and struggles to handle that, usually just tries to get the ball out to the perimeter. But Oklahoma City was doubling from the baseline side. So, like, they would make the post entry to Anthony Davis on the left block, and, you know, Jalen Williams would be, like, kind of pressing up on him, and then they'd have, like, Shegilders or Alexander or Isaiah Joe or somebody kind of loop around the baseline and try to poke it out from behind. The problem there was is Anthony Davis was able to attack quickly towards the middle. And that attacking quickly piece is a huge part of Anthony Davis getting going in the last three halves.

I tweeted at halftime of the last game. I tweeted at halftime that Anthony Davis was really struggling with just going quickly to the basket. This was against Phoenix. And if you remember correctly, he had like a really bad first half against Phoenix. I think he had like seven points and seven rebounds or something. I can't remember exactly. but he dominated had 20-something in the first half or second half against Phoenix and then he ended up with, you know, 37 and 14th night. And one of the things he did, I tweeted this out at a half-time of that game is I want to see Anthony Davis go quickly.

And we kind of broke down the benefits of that in that show, basically just going quickly before the defense can really get set to double team you. You're going to go into traffic. You're going to have some turnovers. You're going to have some offensive foul. Some things are going to go poorly. but in the aggregate with all of the rim pressure and the shots you're going to get and the fouls are going to draw,

it's actually a huge benefit, and it neutralizes the double team, which is the most important part. Janus is one of the best players in the league at this particular thing. But ever since that first half against Phoenix, Anthony Davis has been amazing. He's averaging damn near 20 points a half

since that specific adjustment that he made. And if you watch, just go to NBA.com and click on the box scores and all the blue numbers where you can click and see the videos. Watch Anthony Davis's field goal. attempts from the second half of the Sun's game on versus the first half of the Sun's game, and you will see a massive difference in his touches with how quickly he goes to attack

versus standing and holding and surveying and waiting for that double team to come. But I did think it was a tactical mistake for Mark Dagenal to double along the baseline side, because I thought it allowed Anthony Davis to get comfortable in a way that he doesn't when teams are more aggressive double-teaming him in his face. Then on the other end of the floor, the Lakers had a similar game plan that that back fired. They were completely sagging off of J-Lyn Williams, not J-Lenn Williams, J-Lew-Dor. Just ignoring them and giving them wide-open catch-and-shoot-3s, in large part to keep Anthony Davis in the paint, right? Like, Anthony Davis is guarding Jalen Williams, keep him in the

paint. It allows you to contain one of the best basket attackers in the game in Shay Gildes Alexander, and that was a big part of why they succeeded in slowing down Shay Gildes-Alexander. The downside was, is the Thunder had an outstanding three-point shooting game, and those two guys, Lou Dorton, Jalen Williams, went six for 13 from three. And those same two guys went two for eight from three against the clippers the night before. So some of that is like bad luck, but it's the reality of professional basketball players. Like, if you leave professional basketball players wide open, even the ones that struggle, they're going to have nights where they go in because they're working on it too hard.

You know, like, you can bet your ass that Lou Dorton, Jalen Williams, at every Thunder practice are sticking around after and making 100 threes, you know? Those guys are putting in the work in preparation for those particular types of shots, and they have the ability to knock them down. But I thought Jared Vanderbilt did an outstanding job on Shade Gildes-Alexander. Once again, every defensive assignment, with exception to Julius Randall, which was, I thought, whistle-related, I thought Jared Vanderbilt's handled every defensive assignment extremely well.

Now, it was a team effort, yet Anthony Davis kind of basically zoning up underneath the basket, which allowed Jared Vanderbilt to apply more ball pressure. But I thought the big part of how Jared Vanderbilt succeeded, was contesting those long twos. One of Shea's favorite things to do is kind of hesitate, get the ball into his left hand, and take two hard dribbles down to like the semicircle and push you off and take that little short 10, 12-foot jump shot.

But Jared Vanderbilt actually does a really nice job contesting that shot. And, you know, the final two shots of Shee took in this game, one where he did a blatant push-off with his right hand. Jared was upset. He thought he should have got a push-off foul. But he perfectly contested it. She just made it. You live with the result.

Later on, in a key defensive possession later in the fourth quarter, Shea took a step back three, and Jared timed it even a little better, and was damn near high-fiving him on his release and got to stop. It's like Jared Vanderbilt has been so considered a big man on offense because of his inability to shoot that a lot of people don't really think of him as a traditional wing. But in terms of his actual mobility, like he's a 6-9 player with long arms, with very quick feet, who's strong but light on his feet that can move well.

That's your textbook wing defender, and he's been handling every single assignment thrown his way five stars. Held Sheda 9 for 22 from the field in this game. And I thought he got a rough whistle, although not as bad as the Julius Randall won from last week. Lonnie Walker, 20 points in 4-3s, outstanding rim pressure. He's one of the best.

things he's done all year is just, especially in pick and roll as he just gets downhill, which engages help defenders and good things happen there. You know, Darvinham commented after the game, I was finishing my notes and I had the league pass feed up and Darvinham's presser came on. And he talked about how it was just such a professional way to handle that situation for Lonnie Walker. And it's true because if you really look at it, if you look at the situation, the Laker Guard situation has been a crowded mess all year. And it's like, yeah, you sent out Russell Westbrook and you sent out Patrick Beverly, but you brought back Malik Beasley and DeAngelo Russell to guys that started

at one point together. And Austin Reeves just was playing really, really well and deserved more minutes. And Darwin said, like, you know, sometimes you do everything right and you lose your minutes even though it's not your fault. And that's what happened to Lonnie. But like, what is being a professional mean? Do you sulk or do you stay ready? And Lonnie clearly has been working his ass off, staying ready behind the scenes to be ready in case this happen.

And DeAngel Russell, for whatever reason, has been taking a lot of games off for the Lakers with minor injuries. And so opportunity has been there. And Lonnie stepped in and they don't win this game without Lonnie. Plain and simple, they do not beat the thunder unless Lonnie comes in and brings the effort that he brings. The Lakers are now 11 and 6 post-trade deadline. That is the sixth best record in the league over that span. LeBron is played in just three of those 17 games. And they toasted off the Mavs game with a four-point lead late

because of two defensive mistakes from Anthony Davis. I think it was actually a five-point lead late. And you took a DNP rest loss to Houston, giving up 70-something points in the paint because Anthony Davis didn't play. So they're 11 and 6, basically without LeBron, and they'd be 13 and 4, if not for a catastrophic couple of mistakes from AD in a game he probably could have played in if he had the permission of the medical staff. They're a good team.

They have the second best defense in the league over that span, just a tenth of a point per 100 possessions behind the Milwaukee Bucks. And they are now 500 and tied for the seventh seat in the Western Conference. And I think the seventh seed should be the absolute minimum goal for the Lakers. It's going to be hard for them to get above that. I know there are only one loss back from Golden State, but like Golden State's getting into an easier stretch of their schedule. The sons are getting Kevin to rant back.

I think the Thunders, if I'm not mistaken, are going into a little bit of an easier stretch of their schedule too. I'll have to look. But like, yeah, they've got a chance to get six and they should shoot for that, obviously. But, you know, getting that seven seed, I think, is the most important because then you're home for that playing game. And if you win, you'll get to play most likely Memphis in the first round of matchup that I really like for the Lakers because of their interior defense against John Morant. So that seven seed has got to be their target.

It's not going to be easy. They have the five of their final eight games are on the road. And the thing is, you look at the schedule and you go, oh, some of these games are easy. They're playing a home and home against Chicago starting Sunday and Tuesday, I believe. and here's the thing like Chicago's yeah they're below 500 they're not a bad team they've got really good players

Zach Levine de Marta Rosen Nikola Vucevic Patrick Beverly is going to be coming for revenge in those games again like the Lakers will be favored and they should be but those are not easy games so they've got to keep their foot on the pedal they've got to get a couple of these wins

after that Chicago home and home then you got Minnesota who's all reinvigorated because Carl Anthony Towns is back, it's not going to be easy. But if they can get that seven seat, I really like their chances as a team that's got a legit puncher's chance to come out of the Western Conference.

Lastly, Oklahoma City, every time I watch them, I'm just blown away just by the sheer amount of good basketball players they have. Just the, like, you know, Jeremiah Robinson Earl comes in in the early fourth quarter and is just big and athletic

and making plays and hitting corner threes. you know, like between Jalen Williams and Shea Gildes Alexander and Isaiah Joe is just another outstanding shooter that they have. Aaron Wiggins was making plays in that fourth quarter, but they're just, they just have a boatload of good basketball players and shed home grins on the way. Shea is rapidly ascending into a top 10 player in this league. They've got a million draft picks. They are just in outstanding.

position to take a leap next year. And they are every bit as scary in terms of a future ceiling as the thunder of a decade ago, in my opinion. And it's a good time to be a thunder fan. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. We will have another show this weekend being released on Sunday afternoon, covering the Saturday night games, and then we're going live late on Monday night before we take Tuesday off.

As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys to support, and I'll see you on Sunday afternoon. The volume. 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?

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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,

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