The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Thunder STATEMENT win vs. Celtics, Steph & Warriors big win vs. Magic + Mailbag

Episode Date: January 4, 2024

Jason Timpf reacts to the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Boston Celtics game where Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder beat Jayson Tatum and the Celtics despite 30-point performances by Tatum and Porzingis (4:00). Jason then breaks down Steph Curry’s 36 point night in the Golden State Warriors win over the Orlando Magic (33:30). Jason explains how Steph can still carry a team, and how the Warriors will always be dangerous as long as Steph is playing at an elite level. #volume #Herd (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Happy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great first week of the year. We have an awesome show today, that epic showdown between the Celtics and the Thunder. We're going to be breaking that game down from the perspective of both teams. The Golden State Warriors got a huge win against the Orlando Magic last night, one that they very badly needed as the magic continue their slide. And then we have three mailbag questions for the end of the show as well.

You guys are the drill for we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. It mean a lot to me. If you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button, don't forget about our podcast feeds wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. That's where I put film threads on most mornings as well as show announcements. I did a film thread on both of today's games,

including an extensive film thread on Celtics Thunder, so you guys can find that on my Twitter feed. And then last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the week. All right. Well, we had a showdown between the top two teams in my power rankings yesterday,

and it did not disappoint. And, you know, early on, there was a very specific matchup that was going horribly for the Celtics. We talk a lot about Boston's defense, personnel and there's a lot of focus on Jason Tatum, who I think is capable of being one of the best perimeter defenders in the league when he's locked in. You saw some of that against Shea Gildes Alexander down the stretch of this game. Jalen Brown is another wing athlete.

Christop's Porzingis has a rim protector. Al Horford is the excellent team defender, the guy that can cause Joel Embed problems. There's a lot of focus in those departments, but the Celtics actually have one of the best defensive guard course that you'll find in the league. Derek White and Drew Holliday are both excellent guard defenders. And Shea, was just cooking those dudes. Outside of a late possession where Derek White got a stop on on Shea Gildes with Alexander, it was a lot of him just going right around those guys and either finishing at the rim or wrecking havoc with the pass. And specifically Drew Holiday just looked like he was stuck in the mud in this game. He was bad on both ends, two for eight from the

field with three turnovers on the other end, but really, really struggled defensively, got benched for Peyton Pritchard late in the game. White did a better job on both ends of the floor, but he struggled to stay in front of Shea. That was the key matchup early on. And then the other thing that I thought the Thunder did really well is they attacked Porzingis when he was roaming off the ball. This is a thing that we see a lot around the league these days is taking your primary rim protector and just putting them on the worst offensive player from the other team, at least the worst off ball of their player, right, or offensive player. And then that puts you in a position where you know, you might concede some

catch-and-shoot-3s to that guy, but if he's roaming around, wrecking havoc on all of the other action elsewhere on the floor, it can be a beneficial trade-off for you, right? But what the Thunder did, which I thought was really smart, is, again, Porzingus in that case, his focus is on the other four guys. He's not hyper-concerned with what the bad offensive player is doing. He spent most of the game on Josh Giddy and a good amount of it on Aaron Wiggins as well. And one of the things I liked is they just looked to get Josh Giddy the ball one way or another. There was a play where they had Giddy with the ball at the right elbow, and it's all this

other action going on, and it looks like it's designed to get someone else the ball, but then Josh Giddy just rips to the left and gets by Porzingus and gets an and one off the glass. He hit another three in Porzengis's face in the right corner on a play where Porzingis was just being a little passive because he's not worried necessarily about Josh Giddy as a score. Josh Giddy hit a second half three off of a digdown, hit a couple of threes. There was a play where he was on Aaron Wiggins, and he's watching the rest of the floor, and they just backscreen for him, and Aaron Wiggins cuts along the baseline that hit him, and he gets a wide open layup. It's a very important, you know, counter when they have a guy that they're using

as a roamer to make sure that he also has to account for the guy that he's actually guarding. And, you know, one of the other things, too, and I've talked about this on the show before, this is another common theme around the league where it's like, we don't think this guy can shoot, so let's just give him wide open looks. And they did that with Josh Giddy again. and it's like, I understand that as an initial strategy, but I think you need to audible from it quickly because one, these guys are pros, and two, most bad shooters in the NBA

are actually streaky shooters, and if they start to feel good with their shot, they can really knock them down. And so it's one of those things where, like, it's one thing if you leave him wide open and he misses the first one, he might spiral mentally, and that might be a good strategy for you the rest of the game.

I'll give you an example, like when the Lakers decided to ignore Miles Turner and the in-season tournament championship game. He ended up going one for five. It worked out. The one he made was late in the game. He'd already missed a bunch of them, right? It's like that worked out in that case. But there have been plenty of examples this year where the Lakers ignored a guy. I think like Dante X some from the Mavericks, and he keeps making shots and they keep ignoring him.

And it's like, this is a professional basketball player. He's going to make shots, right? And so they conceded the open threes to Josh Giddy, and instead of adjusting when Josh Giddy started making them, he kept making them. He ended up hitting two massive ones late in the game. And then for Boston, their best success was coming from their two-man game with Jason Tatum and Derek White or Jason Tatum with Peyton Pritchard.

And the main reason why they were having success there is, again, you've got a bigger defender, Ludoort, on Jason Tatum, who they do not want to switch under any circumstances. And then you've got these smaller guards, your thinner guards, guarding Peyton Pritchard or Derek White. And so they don't want to switch and they don't want to hedge because those guys, you know, Derek White and Peyton Pritchard can both catch and shoot threes off the move relatively easy.

Derek White's been killing teams with that this year. And so they were able to get a lot of paint touches out of it. That was the primary driving force of Boston's offensive success. Although they did have a lot of the typical offensive issues you come to expect from Boston, like Tatum hunting pull-up threes. You took seven more pull-up jump shots in this game leading to only six points. That's been a consistent theme throughout this season. And then as a team, just taking a lot of, like, early clock, more difficult threes

rather than, you know, running some offense to try to get higher quality shots. And so OKC started to pull away in that third quarter. They started to get hot with their three-point shooting, right? Like, they hit two quick threes to start the third quarter, which quickly get them the lead, and then they just start to slowly pull away. And then the Thunder bench really grew the lead in the early fourth quarter. Jalen Williams, Jay Will, the backup center, ended up hitting a huge above the break three on the left wing, basically in a bailout situation at the end of the clock.

That felt like free money. That was an awesome shot. Vasilio Michich had a really nice pump fake drive-a-closed-out, kickout pass to Casson Wallace in the right corner, which he made. Jay Dove, J-Dubb, J-Ly Williams was starting forward. He ended up hitting a nasty little driving fadeaway over Luke Cornett. and then suddenly the Thunder were up 18, and it seemed like the game was over. But then the Celtics made a run, and they were awesome on offense in this run.

A lot of the same things I was just talking about. Derek White hit a couple of wing threes. They actually scored on 10 consecutive possessions up until Jalen Brown's garbage time three late in the game when it was already over, and they made it into a game. But when you're down 18, you have to play perfect defensively, and they just gave up too many baskets on the other end. against the Shea Gildesos-Alexander Chet Holmgren pick-and-roll action. And so what I want to do here, which is what I thought was the most interesting part of this game,

down the stretch, when Boston really locked in and tried to make it a game, they put Jason Tatum on Shea Gildes-Alexander. And then from there, Shea started spamming the Chet Pick-N-Role to try to get easy shots despite the fact that Jason Tatum was causing some disruptions on the ball. And from there, a really interesting chess match took place, one that kind of reminded me of the type of adjustments that you see in a playoff series, and I wanted to dive into that on a possession by possession basis. So first time they run the pick and pop.

Now again, just imagine, Shea Gildas Alexander on the ball. Chet comes to set the screen. Porzengis is basically showing to help Tatum as Shay's coming over the top of that screen, and Chet is popping to the three-point line. So the first time they run it, Peyton Pritchard rotates off of J-dub, and they actually end up forcing a turnover. So the second time they do it, for whatever reason, Pritchard just doesn't rotate. He's guarding Josh Giddy this time in the left corner.

Shea comes off the screen, Chet pops to the left wing extended, and Pritcher just doesn't rotate for whatever reason. Even though he just did on the previous possession, and Chet hits the wide open three. Important note, because Chet, on unguarded catch-and-shoot jump shots this year, is shooting 47%. That's 1.42 points per shot. So that's something that you can never afford to do.

And from there, we start to see the beginnings of a personnel shortcoming for Boston that's showing to the surface, which is basically that Porzingis is not fast enough to show on a ball screen while recovering to chat at the three-point line. No shame in that. There's like two centers in the league that can do that, maybe three, like Gobert, Anthony Davis and, you know, bam out of bio, maybe Dremont. Like there's only a small handful of guys that are that are fast enough to do that. So there's no shame in that. But that was the personnel shortcoming that they started to have, right? So third time down the floor.

They go to run that same pick and pop action, right? This time Jalen Brown is the weak side guy in position to rotate. He actually stunts into the passing lane and then recovers. It gets Shea to hesitate. Chet's not open anymore. Porzingis can recover. Now Shea's stuck on an island with Jason Tatum. That's what that little dig down rotation or fake little stunt into the passing lane that Jalen Brown accomplished.

It gave Jason Tatum the opportunity to guard Shea on an island and try to get a stop. Shea goes left, gets to a pump fake, and Tatum jumps out of his shoes and lands on top of Shea, sends him to the foul line, right? So we've run it three times now, and the Thunder have gotten a bucket on two of the possessions, five points and three possessions. So spamming that action, again, there's so much folks. on, you know, the individual defense. It's like, oh, Jason Tatum on Shea Gildes Alexander. And I understand people want basketball to be one-on-one so bad, but it's just not that. It's all about a five-man unit and what they can accomplish together. This is a great example of how, like, even if you have a great person to throw at an individual, if they have an

action they can run that brings multiple defenders into the action, they can have success. And again, like, even if Tatum does a better job and gets a stop on She there, because of the pick and pop where they gave up the basketball. that would still be three points and three possessions. So we get our first major adjustment on the fourth possession down the floor. The Thunder go back to that Shea, Chet, Pick, and Pop. This time, though, Boston switches Derek White onto Chet Holmgren. And the possession, the idea there is just you're putting an athlete.

You're putting a much faster player, bringing more foot speed into the action. And so Derek White can kind of soft hedge and be there to help as the screen is going, by, but then he has the speed to recover to Chet. So on this possession, Shea ends up throwing a kickback pass to Chet who tries to drive on Derek White. Derek White guesses the closeout angle, right, beats Chet to that right-hand drive and ends up taking the ball away. So they end up getting a stop. And one of the interesting things there, there's two little adjustments, I think that you'd see from the Thunder in a playoff series if they kept doing that. One, give the ball to Chet at the foul line and just let him go to work against Derek White.

I think he's demonstrated that he can have success there. And then two, you know, Chet was setting a lot of ghost screens down the stretch. And there's a very important distinction between when to ghost screen and when to actually screen. So to be clear, what is a ghost screen? A ghost screen is when I run up like I'm going to set a screen, but without actually setting one, I basically just get right to where I'm about to set a screen and then I shoot off to the three-point line. And basically the idea there is I'm trying to get my guy to hedge because if he hedges, and I slip out, I have an opportunity for a quick catch-and-shoot three.

A lot of times you'll see that in pick and roll from big guys slipping to the short roll, and they're looking for an opportunity to catch that over the top pass. But it only is open if the guy hedges, right? If the guy doesn't hedge and he's staying home, then it's actually more important for you to set a screen. Because if you set the screen and the guy's not actually hedging, your defender is not actually hedging, then I might be able to actually set a screen.

solid screen on Jason Tatum, which would get Shay downhill, right? And so that was one other adjustment. I think they would have picked up on film in a playoff series. It's like, hey, when they put Derek White on you, we need to read whether or not he's hedging. He's not hedging. We need to set solid screens and try to get Shay separation from Jason Tatum so he can get downhill. So fifth time down the floor.

This Derek White adjustment has caused some problems, so they go to a double drag action. They bring two screeners up into the action. I think it was Jalen Williams and Chet Homgren, if I remember correctly. And on that possession, it ends up leading to a switch from Boston. Shea gets Derek White on him. This is when Derek White gets that key stop that I was telling you guys about, although Jalen Brown ends up getting beat backdoor basically by Lou Dort for an offensive rebound putback. So the sixth time down the floor, they go back to Porzengis on Shet.

Still goes screening, not setting good screens. and what ends up happening is the pop's not open because Chet's not setting a good screen and Porzingis is in a really soft coverage. He's not back in a he's back instead of up in a hedge. So it ends up in a Shay Tatum ISO anyway. Shea's isolating Tatum on the left wing. Christop's Porzingis is guarding Chet Holmgren, but he's way down at the foul line. And again, this is an example of what I'm talking about.

Tatum, good one-on-one defender, hasn't the only score, She has on him at this point is a pump fake foul, which Tatum's probably not going to fall for the next time, right? So instead of letting Tatum guard Shea, Porzingis is way too far in help. She just throws an easy kickout pass to Chet above the break, and he knocks down yet another three. Like we mentioned earlier, that's an extremely high percentage shot.

You could argue Chet's one of the best staying still shooters in the league. So bad help. Another big defensive mistake from Boston as they get a, get another basket. So for those of you guys keeping track, we had five points through three possessions. They didn't score on the fourth, so five through four. They get an offensive rebound put back on the fifth. So we're up to seven on five.

And then on the sixth possession, they give up a three. Now we've given up ten points in six possessions. So again, Boston literally scored on ten consecutive possessions down the stretch of the game, but they gave up baskets. They gave up ten points on six possessions, which ends up being basically what prevents. Boston from ever getting the opportunity to gain the lead. Seventh time down the floor, they go back to Derek White on Chet Holmgren.

It's a really interesting possession where they just had a lot of struggle with this a couple possessions ago, so they don't bring Chet into the action. On the other side, you could see Josh Giddy and Jalen Williams kind of debating which one of them should go set the screen. They hesitate too long. She has no choice but to attack Jason Tatum and ISO. That's when he takes the really, really difficult fade away drifting into the baseline along the right block and he ends up missing.

there. So in total, 10 points over seven possessions, basically looking at Shea heliocentric ball screen game, right? So down the stretch, after, as we see there, because they started to figure it out with the Derek White on Christop's Porzingis thing, there were defensive mistakes in there that still led to 10 points for the Thunder on seven possessions. But from a schematic standpoint, they figured out now, if we have Derek White on Christop's Porzingis and we have Jason Tatum on Shea, they don't get the same high-quality these shots as long as we follow our defensive principles elsewhere on the floor. A good step for the Celtics, right? But I always talk about diversity of shot creation.

She is a shifty skill guard, right? Jalen Williams is a downhill athlete. This is why I always talk about like the spamming actions or heliocentric basketball should be used in short bursts. Identify your advantage. Get whatever you can out of it. when the adjustments are made and they've started to figure it out, audible quickly. One of the things that happens in basketball is you see the same thing over and over and over and over again,

the defense just kind of figures out how to guard it, just by virtue of they practiced guarding it over the course of the previous dozen possessions, right? So it's important to know when you've kind of squeezed the sponge for all it's worth make an adjustment. Down the stretch, all Jaylon Williams, the last couple of possessions. Jalen Williams has Peyton Pritchard on him. Key mistake here, I thought, from Boston as well. Drew Holiday didn't play particularly well.

I shouldn't even say didn't play. Drew Holiday was garbage in this game. It was not a good Drew Holiday game. He'd be the first person to tell you that. It happens. Sometimes guys play bad games, right? But Joe Missoula ends up going with Peyton Pritchard down the stretch of the game. This is where it's a personnel shortcoming.

Because Jalen Williams is like, who, I have Peyton Pritchard on me. I'm going right through this dude. And he just drives right into him, bullies him with his shoulder, behind the back, Drewbill, goes into the lane and draws a foul and gets to the foul line, right? So easy bucket. And again, do you remember how I said Derek White got a key stop on Shea late? Actually, if I remember correctly, you got a second one, too, on a step back three that that Shay took in between these two possessions.

But, like, again, it's because Derek White got lots of possessions. And at the end of the game, he was focused enough to play really good defense, right? I would have given Drew that same leeway. I'd have been like, you've played like shit tonight. No worries. Go get a stop for me now. Go get a stop for me. Go do what you've done your entire career. Go get a stop. And instead, like Drew Holiday, even on a bad night,

just has a much better chance of staying in front of Jalen Williams in that situation than Peyton Pritchard does. I thought that was a mistake. Next, two trips down the floor, the one after that Shay Gilles, Alexander, ended up, I think, taking a step back three over Shagelis Alexander, if I remember correctly. Or, excuse me, over Derek White, if I remember correctly. But then the last one.

Shay's got Jason Tatum on him, and Jalen Williams has Derek White on him, and they end up going with a kind of like a quick little dribble handoff to get a switch, and now Jalen Williams is coming down against Jason Tatum. Jason Tatum is in a trail position. He's in a passive switch. So, like, there's a difference between switching aggressively, meaning like I set the screen and my guy just shows hard and, like, applies ball pressure. versus a really passive switch where like when he's coming off the screen the guy's kind of waiting for him below the level of the screen.

And you might ask yourself, why in the world is Jalen Williams looking to attack Jason Tatum down the stretch instead of one of the smaller Boston guards? And the answer is simple. Jason Tatum was so far back on his heels, J-dub just hit the jets. And like Jason Tatum is a better athlete than J-Dub.

But not when he's got a running start like that. J-Dubb ends up getting down. Hill and taking that little short fade away over the top that ends up being the dagger. Really, really impressive move. A great example of diversity of shot creation, right? Like your skill guard spammed an action for 10 possessions or seven possessions and got you 10 points. That was great. But towards the end, it became clear that Boston was starting to figure out the action, right?

And they were weaponizing their two best defensive players on Shet and on SGA, right? So you had another matchup that you could go to with a different perimeter shot creator in Jalen Williams that provides a different style of shot creation, real downhill force. He ends up getting downhill twice at the end of the game and getting you four points out of it. That was a perfect example of that specific dynamic. You know, on the Boston front, their offense was fine. Again, there were some bad shots in that fourth quarter. Tatum took a couple of bad stepback threes that I really didn't like.

But before Jalen Brown's three at the end of the game, when the game was basically over, and scored on 10 straight possessions. So offense wasn't the story of this particular game. Now, it is worth mentioning. Part of the reason they went down 18 was bad offense. A lot of the things I talked about earlier, bad pull-up jump shots, bad early-clock threes when they could have gotten better shots. But that's where the game was lost.

And then you essentially find yourself in a position where you have to play perfect down the stretch. And it's like, you scored 10 straight times, great. But the thunder ended up getting something like, I want to say it was, I was four points in their final three possessions, so that'd be 14 points over their final 10 possessions, and that's a 140 offensive rating. That's not going to be enough to get it done when you're down 18 early in the fourth quarter. So the next question is, are the Thunder a legitimate championship contender? This is a team that I've waited up until this point to add to my championship contender list for a lot of different reasons that we don't have to get into,

but let's take a deeper look at it. So the key key, the key, factors that I look at with championship contenders, right? Half court offense, half court defense. They're top five in both categories. They're the number one half court offense in the league right now. They have diversity of shot creation, right? Like they've got a shifty guard. That's more of a skill guard. They have like an athletic guard in Jalen Williams. They've got a skill big to kind of tie it all together. They don't really have as much power in the lineup as I'd like. like Jalen Williams is really the only guy that brings power, and that's one concern to me because I think power offenses thrive in the playoffs

more than skill offenses do in a lot of cases. But to put it simply, I don't think this team is going to struggle to score in the playoffs. I think they have enough on that end of the floor. Now defensively, they have versatility in terms of their coverages, right? Like they're good in drop coverage. They have an excellent point of attack defender to throw out the best players in the league and Lou Dort. Lou Dort's become, in my opinion, one of the most valuable players.

in the league with his ability to guard the best perimeter weapons in the league while being difficult to screen while being a plus offensive player on the other end of the floor. They have a really good rim protector and Chet Holmgren, so that's kind of the two brackets of that kind of drop coverage concept, right? They also have switchability to, like they don't have a lot of easy targets and they're good in help side. I have two major concerns with the thunder. Their overall physicality, Boston made nine field goals in the paint in that fourth quarter. they had four offensive rebounds just in the fourth quarter. They scored on 10 consecutive possessions down the stretch, as I've said several times already.

Boston had a 137 offensive rating in that quarter. I think they showed a good example of how OKC's a little on the thin side. They're not, you know, they have some stout players, guys like Lou Dorton, Jalen Williams, but almost every other guy on the roster is thin and somebody that can be physically bullied in some cases. And I think that that just makes it a little bit. it tougher when games turn into rock fights, right? And then lastly, the inability to rebound. They give up an offensive rebound on 33% of their opponent's misses this year. That is the second worst mark in the league, which I think would be a problem in a seven gamer. That said, I do want to

add them to my contenders list. So the question is where? You can, and one last note on the contender piece, too, I think part of it is Shea. Like, Shea is just reaching that point now where he's a top-tier superstar, and we have to include him in the list of guys that can definitely be the best player on a championship team. Like, here's the thing. Is Tatum a better playoff player overall? Probably. Like, I sent out a poll earlier, like, who would you take in a playoff series with two even teams

on Twitter? And it's like 60-40 favoring SGA at this point. I actually side more with Tatum just because he's way more experienced, which I've always thought matters when you get to that level. And two, Tatum really can inflict the game physically. Like he can really put his physical imprint on a playoff series in a way that he didn't used to be able to. I think something silly, like him switching onto Shea and really doing a nice job down the stretch of this game is a great example of impact that extends beyond half-court shot creation. But Shea is clearly much better in the chess match.

Like he's one of the best chess match players in the league. There's only a small handful of guys that take over him. And I think it would translate well to the postseason. So I do think the Thunder are a contender. The question is where? So I wanted to update my contender tier. I still have Denver at one, Boston at two, then a drop-off. I have Milwaukee at three, the Lakers at four, I'm going to put the thunder in at five,

then I have the wolves at six, the sons at seven, the Warriors at eight. And all of these teams, I think, need a trade to take a step up. As I've talked about all season, to get into that Denver-Boston tier, I think Milwaukee needs an excellent point of attack defender, something they do not have on the roster. I think the Lakers need a point of attack defender that can also play off the ball. Their primary offensive players are not good enough offensively. The Bucks, I think, can get away with a more limited offensive point of attack defender by virtue of the fact that their half-court offense has been so good because of Damon Yannis.

That, to me, they have a little bit more margin for error there. The Lakers need like a legit two-way guy. They need a guy that can defend at the point of attack, slot Tori and Prince onto lesser defensive assignments, and that is a plus offensive player. The Thunder, I think, absolutely need a low man. Something I've been talking about all season. They need a big forward that can slot between Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren

that moves Josh Giddy to the bench, that can help them in help defense situations, that can help them in rock fights, that can help them on the defensive glass. That, to me, is the need that they need to fulfill to get back up into that top tier with Denver and Boston. They're way more talented than even the Lakers than even Milwaukee. The Thunder arguably have some of the most talent in the league.

They're a lot closer to Boston than anybody else's in terms of like total talent down the roster, but they're super young and they're super inexperienced. And everything about NBA history tells us those teams type to tend to underachieve. Super young, super inexperienced, super thin and small. That to me is what kind of keep. them down right now, a veteran forward that can help them with their size and physicality, that would go a long way to addressing a lot of those problems and getting them up into that list. The wolves, I don't really even know if there's a trade that would get them into that

top tier. I'm a little concerned just in general about their half court offense, and I don't think that there's necessarily a move they can make. It really just comes down to their six for me, but their pathway to winning is Ant just goes up a crazy level in the playoffs and out-executes all the best shot creators in the league, but I just find that to be somewhat unlikely. The Sons, they desperately need some sort of perimeter forward that can play on both ends of the ball, a type of player that we've been talking about for a while, but specifically a physical forward. Basically, think of like a bigger, stronger version of Eric Gordon.

That's what they need. It's like a big forward that can defend, that can also shoot. I just don't think that they have the resources to actually make that sort of move. so I kind of view them as a long-shot contender. And then the Warriors, to me, if they get a star, like if they're a secondary star, like if they flip comminga and Chris Paul for Pascal Seacom, or Camiga and Chris Paul for Jeremy Grant, or Caminga and Chris Paul and picks for Lori Markinen, like I just think they instantly become one of the best teams in the league because it's Steph Curry, it's Draymond

Green, it's Clay Thompson, it's Andrew Wiggins, and it's a really, really good secondary star forward. I think that team is in that top tier. So that's where they shake out as for now. As it pertains to the Thunder in the big picture, I would imagine get them a couple seasons, a playoff experience, and give them a little bit of years in the wait room and years of just experience and growth

and just growing into a grown man basketball team. And I think they're going to be a perennial top tier championship contender. Like every year, they're going to be in that Denver, Boston tier. It feels like almost a certainty for me at this point. The Boston Oklahoma City matchup. I thought Boston showed down the stretch that they can have some success slowing down the thunder offense.

And they show that they have lots of physical advantages all over the floor in terms of strength. I thought that was a pretty clear takeaway from that fourth quarter run that Boston had. If they started a seven-game series tomorrow, I think I'd pick Boston to win in six or seven, depending on who had home court. Again, I just think those physical advantages would wear them down over the course of the series. but a very, very, very entertaining example of that matchup that we got to see last night. All right, moving on to Magic Warriors. So I'm not going to go too long on this game,

but the Magic ended up going up 93, 92 on a Franz Wagner layup with eight minutes and 33 seconds left. Then they go on a defensive run. Now, if you really look at the Warriors post-Dremont Green suspension, they've not been a very good defensive team. If I remember correctly, I think they're 19th in defense since the Draymond Green suspension. But you can win games with defensive runs as long as you have the offense to actually turn that run into a lead, right? So it's 93 – excuse me. It's 93-92 with 833 left in the fourth quarter, and the Warriors give up just 10 points over the next 7.5 minutes as they take an 11-point lead.

And a lot of key contributions. I thought Clay Thompson did a really nice job on Palo Moncaro. He got him a few times with the bully ball, but down the stretch he got several stops in. in a row. Really nice job, absorbing contact and then attacking the shooting pocket. Again, when it comes to size mismatches in the post defensively, you do not want to try to challenge up top. You want to disrupt the base and disrupt the shooting pocket. So you want to absorb blows to where he's not getting easy, easy lift close to the basket. And then when he exposes the basketball low, you have to attack it there. If you attack it high, those dudes are trained to finish

over contests all day long, especially when they have size. But when you attack the shooting pocket, you can disrupt that motion. He had a key strip on Palo late in the game. I thought Clay was awesome. It's a great example of, I wrote in my notes, losing the battle, but winning the war. There were times where Palo scored on Clay in just bully ball possessions. But again, it's like if you can, you know, over a seven possession sample over the course of the game, hold him to two or three buckets, then you've done your job. And I thought Clay did his job. I thought Brandon Pizamski had a really nice help defense game, digging down into passing lanes and driving lanes and getting steals and deflections. He was also doing a really nice job peeling off and boxing out

the center. It's one of the most important jobs in defensive rebounding is like somebody shoots the ball and your rim protector has to leave his man to go contest a shot. Trace Jackson Davis leaves his man a lot to try to block shots, which a team like Orlando can have success on the offensive glass in that vacancy that opens up there. But I thought Pazamski was doing a really nice job, of boxing that man underneath the backboard whenever he had an opportunity when Trace Jackson Davis was going away, which helped them on the defensive glass. Trace in general, I thought, had a really good game.

Another example of that high motor athlete I've always been talking about, just active hands, smart help, had some key contests at the rim late in the game, a block on a lob pass on a Jalen Sugg's close-out attack, a block on a Mo Wagner post-up when Movonger was bullying his way to the rim a lot. Trace was awesome. Jonathan Cominga had a big block on a Jalen Suggs baseline drive,

late in the game, and he was in good position on his weak side rotations. Just a really, really good defensive effort from a lot of key guys as the Warriors went on a defensive run. As a matter of fact, they ended up scoring five points just off of turnovers in that fourth quarter. I thought Clay had a really good offensive quarter in the fourth. He hit the big three after the magic went up 93.92. He hit a classic Clay Thompson movement three coming off a screen towards his right to put them back up 95-93. very next possession he at Trace Jackson Davis slipping the same action. Again, makes the three, pulls the head, pulls the screen defender further out the second time,

able to hit the slip. He ended up getting free throws at it. He had a transition runout dunk. And then he had a big back cut for a layup late in the game when Steph was running the point. But most importantly, Steph got his groove back, something that we've been waiting on for a while. Steph's previous 10 games, 23 points, three rebounds, five assists per game, 41% from the field and 36% from 3. It's really hard to win when your superstars playing bad basketball,

and Steph was playing bad basketball by his standards. But last night, looked like the real Steph. Had a lot of success late in the game, attacking Goga Pathaze and pick and roll, particularly splitting that action. So when Goga hedges, he had an opportunity to kind of shoot that gap, beat him for a layup once. Then he snaked to the pick and roll

and dragged him out to the right wing and a switch and hit a three in his face. It had some success against Jalen Suggs, beating him off the dribble and got to a nice step back three in the fourth quarter as well. Just looked like the real step. 36 points and six assists on 20 shots. A couple of other shoutouts. I thought Andrew Wiggins had a couple of key scores in the second half on Gary Harris and post-ups. Big part of the Warriors' offense right now is attacking mismatches with their wings.

Jonathan Kaminga had four assists last night. That's only the second time this season. He's had four assists in a game. It tends to play on an island a lot, right? Like when he's running out in transition or when he's attacking out of the post, he can be really good. He scored in the post again on Anthony Black drawing a foul. He's up to 56 post-ups this year, including passes, leading to 1.1 points per possession, which is excellent. When he shoots out of the post, he draws a foul 22% of the time.

So, like, when he's on an island, he actually is a very useful player, but the Warriors are not on an island team very often, right? And so it's important to be able to play in their normal motion. And one of the things I thought Jonathan Kaminga did a really nice job of last night was doing the Dremont thing, which is when you catch the ball on the perimeter, your first thing is where's Steph, where is Clay? Are they open? If they are, I'm going to throw him the ball. And he was hovering around that top of the key area a lot in throwing those rifle swing passes to those guys and got assists out of it. He had four assists. And I thought it was a key little like moment of growth from Jonathan Kaminga in terms of his role on this team. 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 I-Hard Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. 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 celebrating.

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. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away,

such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith Rule of Two. Listen to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. All right, moving on to the mailbag. So I've got four questions for you guys today before we get out of here. I do have four.

I said three earlier, but it's four. It seems like there are a lot of teams in need of a starting caliber small forward this year. Who are some names that you think could be on the move and where they might be going? And on a larger scale, what does this need say about the state of the league in basketball? So it's not just small forwards.

I look at it more as like there, a lot of guys that need more of like a perimeter two-way guy, and there are a lot of teams in need for like a low-man two-way guy. So like the teams that need more of a perimeter two-way guy are like the Lakers and the Bucks. I think the Mavs are another team that could be looking to make a smaller version of that type of deal, just as a guy that they could throw out the best perimeter players in the league. It's been a lot of Derek Jones Jr. to start this year, and Derek Jones Jr. is fine, but I think they could use another option there.

The teams that are looking for more of a low man are like the Pacers or the Kings or the Thunder or the Warriors, right? These are teams that have good perimeter defenders, but they need help in interior physicality. Those are examples of those teams. The kind of perimeter guys that I look at this year that it could be available, anybody from Brooklyn is Brooklyn's falling apart. So look at Dorian Finney Smith. McHale Bridges is another guy. I think that could be had potentially if the slide for Brooklyn continues. Alex Caruso from the Chicago Bulls is another guy.

Javon Carter from the Chicago Bulls is another guy. He's another guy that could be more affordable. There are a lot of those types of guys out there that I think teams will be going after. Alex Caruso is up over 45% from three this year, by the way. Pretty crazy. The low man that I look at, there's three big ones, Lori Markinen, Jeremy Grant, Pascal Seacom, and they're all very different, right?

Like, Lori Markinen is this outstanding offensive play finisher, right? just a dead-eye shooter, a guy that can screen and roll the rim, a guy that can beat mismatches in the post. Like, he's just really like a, imagine like a big giant forward version of Clay Thompson. He's like a tip of the spear kind of guy. I think he's really valuable. Jeremy Grant is more of like a score. He's a guy that like attacks mismatches in the post at all. It takes a lot of like ISO, pull-up jump shots and stuff.

But he's shooting the ball really well off the catch this year and has been really good and effective scoring out of the post. So I think he's more of a lesser version of Lori Markinen, for lack of a better term. But Jeremy Grant has had some impressive moments of perimeter defense this year. I still think he's got that in him if he's willing to buy into a role. And he's a guy that I'd be open to looking at, especially if you're a team that can't get into the bidding war for Lori Markanin. And then Pascal Seacom. This is a guy that I think both the Warriors and Lakers should be calling on. Mainly just because I view him as a guy that I think is one of the best available players per value.

He's kind of gone under the radar in a lot of ways because he's not a very good shooter. But this is a guy who's a transcendent athlete. This is a guy that was so damn athletic that Draymond Green was struggling to handle him in the 2019 playoffs, right? This is a guy that like if you, like when he is asked to do a ton with the basketball,

like he has the last couple of years, he can be somewhat underwhelming as a postseason player, right? But when he's in a position where he's playing alongside guys who do a lot of that stuff for him, and he can really focus his effort and energy to just inflicting his physicality on the game. He can be a game-changing athlete. And so even though teams like the Warriors and Lakers

might not be interested in him from a shooting standpoint, I look at it as like just for the price, for the caliber of player that you're getting back, you put him like a Wigan-Chi-N-Dremon front line, a Seaccombe, LeBron, Anthony Davis front line. Those are front lines that could like absolutely mall some of the bigger front lines in the league, even teams like Denver. And so I think that that could be a real swing piece this year that teams should be looking

out for. All right, next mailback question. I actually missed a small part there. What does this need say about the state of the league in basketball? Pretty quickly, I just think it's a clear indicator of the obvious fact that weakside responsibilities matter a lot. I should say role player responsibilities matter a lot. There are a lot of teams this year that have stars that are playing well

that are not necessarily succeeding to the extent that they should, right? Like, we've seen this with Damon Yannis. I know they're doing good in the regular season in terms of standings, but they've lost a lot of big games and struggled specifically because of something silly. Like, who's guarding the other team's point guard? Like, who's picking up and applying ball pressure during this game? Like, they just, that singular role not being filled has, made it so that the bucks look bad in big games. That's a real problem to keep an eye on, right?

Like the Lakers, it's like LeBron James and Anthony Davis, both playing way better than last year, both like legitimately playing at a top 10 level this season and their 500 basketball team, in large part because they don't have a guy that can pick up at the point of attack and knock down a three at a high rate. Like it's a legitimate issue for them. I think it's these teams like Oklahoma City that have so much skill and they have a rim protector or the Pacers as well, so much skill, have a rim protector, but not having a low man. And you're seeing just how fundamentally important a low man is in big time matchups. And I just think it's a, as the game has become more spread out and there's more talent on the

floor, it's become more important than ever to have guys that are willing to do the dirty work on both ends of the floor. Next question. Do you honestly think the suns will be healthy around playoff time knowing the injury history of the three stars on their roster? So here's the thing. Let's just say for this, I would say there's a good chance that they're healthy and there's a good chance they're not, right? So let's just call it 50-50.

If it's 50-50, there's, we all know that if they get hurt, they're not a threat. But that can be said about every team in the league. I believe that if the Nuggets lost Aaron Gordon or KCP or Michael Porter Jr., they would go from being a top-tier championship contender to the lower tier. Like losing a player and kicking you down a tier is a reality for every single team, in my opinion. Except for maybe Boston, like maybe Boston could afford an injury to one of their guys, right? But outside of that, like, no team really has that type of flexibility. And so when it really comes down to it, it's like, do you want, should we just write off the suns all year and be like, screw it, they're going to be hurt? No, like, we have to prepare for the potential, you know, eventuality that they're healthy.

and what could happen if they are. And I think that's the purpose of the way that we should cover them, if that makes sense. A lot of Nuggets fans, upset that I had them lower in my power rankings. I'll just pull one comment here. Nuggets ranked too low, the 10 wins out of their last 12 games played. One loss they let slip away and should have won.

The most recent was definitely an embarrassing performance, but they're nowhere near as low as eight. So a couple things. My power rankings are designed to be a vehicle with which I can honor or pay respect to teams playing good regular season basketball. That was one of the decisions we made early in the year. Like, I don't want my power rankings to be the same as my contender rankings. The Nuggets are number one in my contender rankings.

There has not been a single moment this year, not even for a split second, not even during stretches when Jamal Murray was out and they looked bad. Like, I have not even for a second doubted or had any sort of change of heart as it pertains to Denver being number one of my contenders list. I trust them more than everyone else, and it's not particularly close, and I'm a big believer in Denver, right? But they're 9 and 11 against teams that are 500 or better this year, and in my power rankings list, the teams that are above just have more impressive wins. And I'm using that list, that specific list, for regular season kudos. And so that's the purpose of that list.

And so Denver fans, like, them being eight in the power rankings, more has to do with the fact that they've just been a really good standings team. They're 15 and 0 against below 500 teams, which is what's carried them in the standings. But in the bigger games, by the way, mostly because of things like Jamal Murbying out and Aaron Gordon missing a big game against the Thunder. Like, there's no question. That's why, which is why I'm not worried about them. for the postseason.

But for my power rankings list, there are teams out there that have been more impressive in terms of winning big regular season games and just the totality of regular season accomplishments. That's why I have Denver at 8 at this point. It has nothing to do with what I see as their championship potential.

Go look at the teams I have above them and look at them in big games. Look at their key signature wins this year. Most of the teams above them have a lot more in that specific department. Last question. I started tweaking my shooting form since I have bad habit of shooting with way too high of an arc. How should I go about fixing it?

How feasible is it to just lean into it? Love the show, keep it up. So I have a philosophy of a shooting form. And it's a philosophy I've gained from coaching kids. Because as you can imagine, when you coach kids, you coach a lot of kids that have bad shooting form. And it's really this simple to me. Like, there are a million different ways to shoot a basketball. And I think it's way less important to focus on the particulars of your,

release and more on little details. Like, how is your balance? Are you good at making sure you have a good wide base and going straight up and down all the time and getting good lift? Like, that's step one, particularly because most shots in basketball are on the move in some way, shape, or form. Even when you're spotting up, you might be relocating, you might have just played a lot of defense, and so you're tired, legs and lift are a huge part of it.

From there, the second bit of it is like any energy transfer is what I refer to it as. energy transfer is how do you get from your feet through to the top of the shot in a way that has no wasted energy that has no unnecessary movement which then creates a muscle memory that is simple that you can replicate if you can do that if you're balanced and you have good energy transfer meaning you have a good you know routine that doesn't have wasted energy that you can that you can reproduce every single time you You can be a good shooter, even if you shoot with a ton of arc, even if you shoot with very little arc, even if you shoot with opposite thumb, even if you shoot with one hand, even if you shoot without jumping super high, even if you jump while jumping super high, that to me is way less important than do you have good lift? Are you doing the exact same thing every time? It's got to be replicable. When I go, I shoot on the shooting machine at least twice a week, so I do a lot of different kinds of shooting drills. I do a lot of like one person, one ball, like movement shooting drills. That's where I do all my off the dribble and movement stuff.

And the primary goal there is like I'm trying to do game speed and like add a lot of complication to it. Right. When I'm on the shooting machine, I just do standstill shooting. And when I'm on the shooting machine, I have this constant mentality. There are two shooting machines here. The machine that's throwing me the ball and then me. I need to be a machine. How does the shooting machine get the ball to me in the same spot every single time?

Because it's literally like a little catapult that's going like this and with the same spring on the same hinge, throwing the ball to the same spot every single time, right? That's what I need to be as a shooter. I need to have a form that looks the exact same every single time with very little wasted movement and I need to look like a shooting machine. And if I do that, I'm going to be more consistent as a shooter. So again, I wouldn't focus so much on the particulars of your form. Just make sure that you have good fluidity and energy transfer and make sure you have good lift.

Make sure you're doing the same thing every single time. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. We'll be back tomorrow breaking down the packed Wednesday night slate. As always, I appreciate you guys, and we'll see you then. 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? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert

Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. 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. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the Fourth. 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 Clifford Show.

This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. 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. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human