The Ringer NBA Show - The Lakers Refuse to Let LeBron’s Injury Scare Spoil Their Christmas | The Mismatch (Ep. 359)

Episode Date: December 26, 2018

The Los Angeles Lakers handily defeat the Golden State Warriors despite LeBron James's groin injury (3:25), James Harden continues getting back to MVP form as his Houston Rockets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder (24:07), and more takeaways from the Christmas Day games (36:08). Hosts: Chris Vernon, Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of The Mismatch is brought to you by Yahoo Daily Fantasy. Yahoo! Fantasy had such a great year that they're giving you a taste of what 2019 looks like with hundreds of prizes in fantasy basketball daily competition. Not a bad way to end the year. Don't miss this contest. Go to Yahoo.com slash Daily Fantasy. Use promo code Yahoo 25 when you make your first deposit for $25 in free play. Welcome to the Ringer NBA show.

This is The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. Join me as it does every Tuesday. Today from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, aka Kevin O'Cliber, aka Kevin O'Crismith, Kevin O'Cris'clock. I was waiting for the Kevin O' Christmas one, Chris. How was yours? How are you doing?

Everything was great for Christmas, for sure. I've got two young ones, so it makes Christmas a much different experience than it was for many years. But Christmas's kids is the best, right? Because they wake up in the morning. And so, you know, Christmas for so many years is about you, but then it becomes about them once you have children, right? You know, you've got to go through a low. You're probably in a lull right now, right, in your mid-20s where it's like, eh, whatever. Like, you know, your parents

are going to get you some stuff, but it's usually stuff that you need. But other than that, I mean, I got underwear, undershirts, socks, got a couple shirts, but Christmas was great seeing family. I mean, I was happy to be home in Massachusetts for the holidays. It was really awesome talking with my cousins and everything over the holidays. It was great. I had a really nice day. Well, on a real quick aside note, for anybody that's older that has, my parents are old now, 71 and 70. And so what happened was, I went through the phase where you have to, like, clean out their house, right? They had a house, the house I grew up in, because they now live 100 yards from me. And so I had moved them near me after they had both retired.

And so anyways, when we were cleaning out their house, you basically, like, end up throwing away tons and tons of stuff. But I was able to find this box, and it said like home movies, but it was all these eight millimeter movies, right, like films that you would have to put in a projector. And so no one has ever watched these. No one has even had them for over 40 years. I mean, they started in like 1974. And my parents are in their young 20s. Anyway, long story short, I found that box. And I went and found a production company that was able to extract them and put them on a DVD.

And that made it maybe, it's certainly one of the top Christmases ever. Because like you were saying with family, I was able to get all of these things from my parents, like in their 20s, my sister, seven years older than me. So there was like this whole life that I never even knew they, you know, that I wasn't aware of that was on these films in an old box. And I would encourage anybody out there. If you do, like if your parents have those laying around somewhere and they're just dusty, it was so well worth it. It really was. And so that was cool. They were super surprised.

And that made for an amazing Christmas. I should at least mention that. I remember being a little kid. I used to hate looking at old videos or old photos, but nothing beats that now. Nothing beats it. So I would imagine that was an amazing day, Chris. Yeah. So it was awesome.

And in between family, there was always a television on everything going on in the NBA. And we had a boring game. We're going to go through them one by one. We had a boring game. And then we had two really. good ones. And then we had one that gave us the biggest news of the night and then there was the nightcap. But we'll start with the biggest news of the night, which was LeBron James getting hurt in that game against the Warriors. So the Lakers are playing against the Warriors last

night. There are so many things that happened in this. But the most important is that LeBron went out. This is a guy that has been insanely durable during his NBA career. And I Obviously, at the time of us recording this, it is still a question mark how long he might have to be out for the Lakers. It almost became a bigger story than their win because it's like this is an amazing win. They win by 20 plus points against the Warriors. But in the process, LeBron James went out of the game. He did not return. It is a groin issue of which I suppose we will find out soon how long he is going to be out.

I tell you this, when he went out, everybody started reporting, he said, I heard it pop. And I was like, oh, no. So the immediate react. Yeah, it was almost like they, it's one of those things where it's so big, it almost like, it dwarfs the game, right? Like the story becomes, oh my God, he's out. I was like Googling about groin pop, like looking on WebMD, which is the worst thing to ever do, by the way.

If you ever have a medical issue or if there's a family, remember with a medical issue, that's the worst possible thing you can ever do. And I was Googling groin pop and it's like, oh, geez, sounds like this could be really bad. But based off the reports last night into this morning, it sounds like as of now, as of recording, it's not a major injury. It's a short-term thing, thankfully. Well, we've seen guys miss extended amount of time with it. Sometimes you can ice and you can do all the rehab and everything, like, you know, when you can get it back to feeling good with something like that, when you're talking about muscles, you know, it's a wait and see.

So we'll just know. I mean, it just depends on the severity of what he did, right? The strain. For sure. And, you know, we're talking about the holidays. And I was thinking last night about my childhood. And Ken Griffey Jr. was my favorite professional athlete growing up. I thought Griffey was invincible.

It seemed inevitable that Griffey was going to break Hank Aaron's home run record and continue competing for MVP's into his 30s. But Griffey didn't. hamstring, knee, and hip injuries really just defined his 30s in his entire time with the Cincinnati Reds after leaving the Mariners. And as a kid, Griffey taught me that even the greatest seemingly invincible players aren't exempt from injury. And that's why I always tweet, including last night, don't take LeBron James for granted because all it takes is one bad fall, one misstep to change everything, the take away, everything that makes him such a great player today. and even if he were to never get hurt, time moves by so quickly,

he turns 34 this month that he's someday going to be gone transitioning into his post career. And it's so easy, just in general, in our daily lives, to fall into a state of complacency with what's good or what's normal,

never mind our athletes that we root for and we root against. So last night, LeBron's scare with that fall was just another reminder of his own mortality. And thankfully, thankfully, it seems like all's intact, as Chris Haynes reported.

It seems like he'll be okay. LeBron said he's not ruling out playing Thursday against the Kings. And so instead, we're going to remember Christmas night with the Lakers and the Warriors as the game that the Lakers won without LeBron James, thanks to Rondo, Zubats,

Lance Stevenson, and an overall stellar defensive effort. You know, I goof on you about the whole don't take LeBron James for granted because you love saying that and reminding everyone as if we don't enjoy him. There are people who do, man. You can see the tweets last night.

Some people celebrating the injury, and you could say that they're just haters, but there are people who take it for granted. It's so easy in life to take things for granted. Well, one of the things that's interesting about what you're saying is, we've never really had to consider it with him. We've lost guys for extended amounts of times, and it's one of those moments where you're on WebMD.

I was on basketball reference, and I was like, what's the most games he's ever missed? dude, it's insanity. It's year 16. He like never misses games. I think there were seven games in 0708. I had jotted that down as I was racing through and trying to jot down notes last night. But then I got caught back up in the game.

So I had that one written down for 0708. It looked like there were seven games. One of them I had to remember was a shortened season. So that one doesn't count. Yep, 1112, right? Yeah, so in terms of most games he has missed, I mean, games started even. You're down to, I guess, 76 in one year, 69 in 1415. Yeah, nice.

So 1415, it's at 69 games. That was the first year back in Cleveland. Is that where he went away for a while? Remember he, like, missed a, right? I believe so. That was that little mid-season vacation. Yeah, and it came back like the Incredible Hulk. That was crazy.

With the back injury, yeah. Yeah. Also, that's the only season. Well, it was the only season for the first time in like five or six years that he had shot under 50% from the field. I mean, the year before, his last year in Miami, he had gotten that up to 57% from the field. And obviously, he's been over 50% all the years of his career since. So that was his only year where he was under 50% from the field, that first. year back in Cleveland. That's 69. But other than that, yeah, he has just not missed game. So we've

never had to see him down on the ground and go, oh my God. He's one guy who doesn't take what he has for granted with the amount of money he invest in his body and the amount of time that he puts into improving and maintaining his his body. That's why with him, it's like, yeah, it's so easy to take it for granted because he seems invincible. He really does because he has. He has a has been for such a long period of time, which made last night so shocking for multiple reasons. Of course, the fact that the Lakers won that game and the fact that he actually went out of the game in the first place. But thankfully, it seems like he'll be okay, which makes it a lot easier to look at last night's game with the Lakers winning by 26 and just sheer amazement that they were able to withstand that run from Golden State in the third quarter. Okay, it was insane what happened in the actual game.

I think that we all thought LeBron goes down. Oh, geez. They're dead. And they might be dead for weeks. Who knows? Like, you just don't know the severity of the injury at the time. But certainly within the context of that game, the fact that that was cut to a one possession game. And at that moment where it's cut to one possession, if you polled 100 NBA fans and you tell them,

LeBron James is out, they were once a. huge. Now it's a one position game. Like, I can't tell you how much I would have bet that the Warriors win that game. And not only do they not win, they get run out of the building. Like the way that all took place, because it did play

to form, which was, oh God, here comes life without LeBron, and this might have been a win, but instead it's going to be a loss, but instead, they end up running the Warriors out of the gym. And I was just, I could not believe it. The odds of the

Warriors winning that game after they had cut it to a one possession game in the third, I would have thought were, I mean, a million percent. There's no way they're losing. Now, they're going to just run them out of the building. And instead, they got run out of the building. Crazy. Crazy. I mean, from the jump in that game, it was a really smart game plan by the Lakers.

On the offensive end of the floor, I thought they did a good job seeking out mismatches. Zubots had a tremendous game, 9 of 10 from the field for 18 points. They got Zubots on smaller guys. and he was able to score easily on those smaller guys, or if the Warriors doubled, it opened up, open spot-up opportunities and cutting opportunities. So their game plan on the offensive end overall was quite smart.

And then obviously on the defensive end, that's really where they built their lead. They had really strong individual efforts from Brennan Ingram and Lonzo Ball in a smart overall team effort overhelping on Curry and Durant. There were a couple instances in that game last night where I remember Curry.

running off a screen and you would see two Lakers sprinting towards Curry through that screen, leaving open Iguodala, leaving open McKinney or Draymond Green. Essentially, in that game last night, the Lakers were double dog daring anybody else on Golden State to beat them. And they didn't. The Warriors had a poor shooting performance, only 9 of 36 from the field. And I thought in last night's game, Chris, more than I can remember a lot of times, Golden State's lack of shooting aside from Curry, KD, and Clay,

even though Clay Thompson was struggling this year from the field, it was highlighted more than any other time that I can remember, because there's not a lot of people on this team, aside from those three that can be relied on to consistently hit shots. Okay, let me ask real quick, because I know that everybody's talking about this game today, and one of the shirt's standpoints is going to be what's wrong with the Warriors. I mean, in fairness,

they lost their fourth home game by 20 plus points. This is new territory under Steve Kerr. This just has not happened. So I get it. There's something wrong. In this particular game, do you think that we have discounted a little bit the whole guy going up against his mentor? Because we've seen it so many times, whether it's series or whether it's individual games, that when you started talking about this game, you started talking about loving the game plan of the lake.

right well surprise surprise who would you trust to be able to put together a game plan against the golden state warriors probably luke walton you know what i mean like who knows them better yeah who knows them better than luke walton now game in game out you don't get to have luke walton put together your game plan against the warriors and so is there at least a tinge of this that is hey you see this quite a bit where it's a guy that intimately knows his former team. And so he's able to construct a game plan that can really hurt them. Yeah, I think that's absolutely part of it.

Luke Walton obviously spent time with the Golden State Warriors. He coached the team for some time as well. That's definitely part of it. I think the other side of it, though, is that A, the Warriors are still coasting right now, right? I think they're coasting more than ever. And I think, yes, the gap has certainly close. I think they lost a little bit of their edge. But on paper, this team in the playoffs, when they're running an eight-man rotation, can still be devastating.

They still have the number one offense in basketball despite some of their struggles. But right now they're coasting. So that's part of it. Secondly, it's also the fact that, yeah, they do have a problem. They do have an issue that right now, despite having four superstars on paper, and Kevin Durant, Stefan Curry, Clay Thompson, and Draymond Green, only two of those guys are actually performing like superstars, K.D. and Steph Curry. Draymond Green right now is a, I don't want to say a zero on offense because he's not.

He's still a really good playmaker, but his declined shooting is an issue for them. He shot 39% from three in the 2015-16 season and only 31% from three, all other seasons, plus the playoffs. So that 15-16 season when the Warriors won 73 games and Dremon was awesome on offense was probably an outlier year for him. but the rest of his game has not gotten better since then, and his defense has declined. He's still a really good defender, but he's not an elite transcendence-level defender. And in that sense, it's partially coasting.

It's partially the fact that this is Draymond. The expectations for Draymond on offense need to be a little bit lower. And then with Clay, what has happened to his shot, Chris? What has happened to Clay Thompson's shot? This is the longest slump of his career, 33.7% of three, unreal. Yeah, the numbers continue to be down.

He's 44% from the field, which is super low for him. The massive difference, I actually jotted this down last night because I, too, was the same way as you, which is what is going on here. The massive difference is this year, he is shooting 39% on uncontested looks, okay? he shot 52% last year. So when he's getting the shots and he's open, I mean, the rate is just down precipitously. To go from 52 to 39 is just a monstrous. And you don't even want to say regression to the meme

because he has been more like the guy that if he's open, shoots 52%. So I don't know what this is. You know, and you listen to them, You listen to them and it's like, Clay's going to get it back. I ain't worried about that. That's what Steph says. One of the things that Draymond said was Clay will be better when I'm better.

You know what I mean? Like we've all got to be better. And the ball doesn't move the same way. And you saw last night when you're talking about Draymond and how it can really mess up their offense, obviously when they still get in transition, they're devastating. But when in the half court offense, how many times did you see Tyson Chandler? He's 15 feet away from Draymond. I mean, it's basically like you're playing four on five

because Tyson Chandler's just standing there down near the block and Draymond's at the top of the key with the ball. So if nobody has to guard him at all, all the way into six feet from the basket, this creates quite the problem. You know? Ultimately, that's what you have to do against Gold's say. You have to do that because, I mean, look,

forget about last night's game. This team's offense is still devastating. still the number one offensive rating in basketball, still elite in the half court, still elite in transition. They have an elite offense. However, that's what you have to do against this team. You have to sell out on Curry, on Thompson, and Kevin Durant, because the rest of this team right now just doesn't have the shooters. You need Jonas Jerebko to hit shots. He was 0 for 4 last night. Alan McKinney, 0 for 2 last night. Sean Lemmixing obviously doesn't shoot threes. And that was despite last night, Andre Godala scored 23 points on 9 of 12 from the field. three or five from three. You're not going to even going to get that from him every night. So against Golden State, this is the formula. It's a circle back to your point about Luke

Walton. It's overhelping on Steph and KD and Clay and daring everybody else to beat you on that team. That's what you have to do because if you don't do that, you're going to lose because Curry and Katie and Clay, eventually Clay, are still going to be able to beat you those guys. All right. Let's get to the flip side, which is the Lakers. And what we he saw when LeBron went out. I mean, he was the best player on the floor, Kav. And I don't think it was particularly close.

I mean, he was controlling that game down the stretch. And you saw that Lakerthian, and they really rallied. You know, it was like, I was impressed. It was like they had something to prove. You know, LeBron goes down. And, you know, as I said earlier, when that's a one-possession game and you're going through the warrior third-quarter tsunami, which we've seen 100 million times.

I'm just figuring they're dead in the water. But instead, Rondo and the rest really bucked up. And now you kind of saw that, I mean, I don't know, they got some talent, man. They do. They've got some talent. And that was their performance of the year, I think, needless to say, right? For the first time in maybe, I don't know, six years, five, six years, the supporting cast can't be an excuse for LeBron when it comes to.

how far they go in the playoffs. The reason they're not going to go far enough would be the strength of the Western Conference, but the supporting cast is good. They have a good supporting cast, Chris. They really do. Last night's game, obviously, Rondo, 15 points, 10 assists, no turnovers.

He was unbelievable last night. Orchestrated their offense. I thought Rondo was the primary reason why they were able to withstand that run from Golden State and turn that game around. And then obviously other guys on that team, Kuzma, we've talked about him before. He can pop. He can drop 30 points here and there.

He'll have his inconsistencies, but he can pop. Zubots has surprisingly, out of nowhere, this last week or so, turned into a contributing player for the Lakers, and that's important for them. I think in last night's game, we saw the value in having size. The way they utilize on-ball and off-ball screens to get Zubat's mismatches against smaller players, got him incredibly easy buckets there at the rim, got him offensive rebound opportunities for putbacks, got the Lakers second chances in general. Zubots was an important player for that team, and he won't be in every matchup.

He can still be exploited in certain matchups. However, there is value in having a guy like that. Brennan Ingram's one-on-one defense was outstanding last night as well, as was Lanzo balls. Those two guys didn't score a lot for the Lakers, but their defensive contributions were really important to that win. Yeah, and one of the things was dependent upon how long LeBron was going to be out, you know that everything in this Western conference is you go on a three-game losing streak, you're out to the playoff race right now.

That's just the way it is. And so any amount of time without your guys is going to hurt you greatly, especially without your best player, is going to hurt you greatly. But as you were mentioning with Chris Haynes report, it doesn't seem like this is going to keep LeBron out of the lineup for a very long time. They had lost before last night. they had lost three of their last four games. But then you see last night, and it's like,

geez, this is the best of. So I'll be interested to see, you know, I'm going to do a little wait and see and see what they look like against Sacramento tomorrow night. And even with Sacramento, Sacramento won't be an easy out either the way they're playing. Oh, no. I mean, Sacramento has been, I think, the surprise,

wouldn't you say, of any of the teams in the NBA? Oh, no doubt about it. No doubt. But before the Kings are playing against the Lakers tomorrow night, they are playing tonight against the Los Angeles Clippers. It is going to be our NBA watch of the night. You and I are going to be able to watch it on TV, Kev. Isaac Lee, you're going to be there in person, right? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, if you're watching on League Pass, maybe you can spot me in the crowd. I'll look for you. Hey, or you can flip over to the Grizzlies and the Cavs. I'll be there. Nobody. No, tonight we do have the Kings versus the Clippers. The Clippers are three and seven in their last 10 games. Are you feeling okay about it, Mike?

They looked rejuvenated since Lou Williams came back. So I think that's going to be one thing to watch is Lou Williams versus Deerrin Fox tonight. All right. Well, we got a Kings Clippers Blood War. The Clippers, if they lose tonight, they will have the exact same record as the Sacramento Kings. because the Kings are 18 and 15 going into the game tonight. The Clippers are 19 and 14, but the Clippers have been great at home. They are 11 and 4 at home so far this year.

And remember, if you want to watch every NBA game, subscribe to NBA League Pass on NBA.com, Amazon, or your local cable and satellite provider. All right, Kev, the second game that was on yesterday was your beloved Houston Rockets and James Hardin taking on the Oklahoma City Thunder. You know, what came out after yesterday's game, most people were on the same page that thought it was a bad loss for the thunder yesterday. Obviously, they're up at halftime by a decent margin.

They still had a lead, you know, midway through the fourth quarter, but they end up losing 113 to 109 to the Houston Rockets. It's your biggest takeaway from watching Rockets Thunder. And if you say James Hardin, go ahead. Yeah, I'm going to say James Hardin. James Hardin over his last seven games, Chris, averaging 39.9 points, 9.1 assists, 6.7 rebounds on 13 free throw attempts per game with a 63.1 shooting percentage. Hardin, regardless of our subjective feelings of him as a player, has been undefined.

indeniable incredible over the stretch for Houston. They've won seven of their last date. He's leading them back into the playoffs despite Chris Paul being out. He is making a case if Houston continues surging to win a back-to-back MVP. And there he was yesterday on Christmas Day being carried down the stretch by Austin Rivers. Good grief. Good grief. But you know what, though?

Austin Rivers was great. Austin Rivers was banging threes when it mattered most, and I was like, are you serious? This is crazy. He was banging threes, and he was also doing extremely well on the defensive end of the floor, grinding against Russell Westbrook, grinding on switches.

Austin Rivers had a great debut for the Houston Rockets, and I know, like with Hardin, I understand Austin Rivers is an easy guy to dislike, a very easy guy to dislike for a number of reasons with some of the complaining, the Doc Rivers stuff and everything else. And sometimes he's his annoying style player. However, he's a good role player.

He's a good two-way player. And I think for Houston, he's in a situation now that's perfect for him. Houston takes a lot of layups and a lot of threes. And that's what Austin Rivers has transformed his game into an analytically sound game. So it's kind of cool seeing him in this system. And not only that, but when he's trying on defense, he's a really good two-way player. And we saw that yesterday. I did see when he was a prospective free agent for everyone to sign, and then he signed with the Rockets,

I did see the stat come across Twitter.com at Cosmos posted. Good website or a very bad website, depending on your perspective. I'm not so sure. NBA players with 10,000 career minutes, a true shooting percentage of less than 525, and less than 10 total windchairs since 2000. This is the list. What kind of stat is this? Ron Mercer, Michael Oloa-Candy,

Maurice Taylor, Darius Miles, Flip Murray, Sebastian Telfare, Dion Waiters, Austin Rivers. Great company. Great company. Great company. Great role player, as you said, Kevin. Great role player.

I don't think I said great. I think I said, I need to roll the tape back. But I think I said good. Not great. Boy, and you have totally abandoned Marquis, Chris, and Michael Carter Williams. You told me they were going to matter. No, I didn't.

I've been an MCW hater since the draft, man. I had him ranked in the 30s, which was too low for what it's worth. But MCW has not been a good player since college, even as a rookie winning rookie of the year. Yeah, still so hard to believe. It's a very good win yesterday for the Houston Rockhead. And they've got to make it without Chris Paul for a while, you know? I mean, obviously you could say, well, it's to be expected that Chris Paul is not going to be playing 82 games for you, but they're going to have to get by without him. And it's interesting that if we would have projected at the beginning of the season, would you have ever in a million years suspected that we're watching a Christmas Day game where Austin Rivers and Daniel House are both playing over 25 minutes a game for the Rockets?

It's crazy. surprising with this team. Look, Clint Capella has turned into the guy that we imagine for years now. He was somebody who had to improve his conditioning and prove his body to withstand more minutes per game. And right now he's averaging a career high 33.6 minutes after never cracking over 28 over his first four seasons. He's become somebody that Mike Dan Tony can rely on as a two-way enforcer for over 30 minutes per game. That's been critical for Houston. He was elite rebounding last night. He, I thought, beat up Stephen Adams in that matchup man to man.

Clint Capella has had some issues defending in isolations on the perimeter this season, but that's to be expected for a big man. But overall, he's still maintained his efficiency on the offensive end of the floor. He's improved as a passer. He remains an elite rebounder and he remains an elite rim protector. Clint Capella, for them, has been vital, especially at this time with Chris Paul being out. No, he has for sure been immense. I mean, his, you know, he is averaging 17 points a game, almost 13 rebounds and two blocks,

and shooting 64% from the field. I mean, I know he just dunks in layups, but still, the shots are the shots. The guy has just, he's been out of this world. You know, and they obviously did the dance with him in the offseason to see what kind of contract he was going to get, and he has given them full reward for that because he's got a P.E.R. of 24 and a half, for God's sakes right now. I mean, that is immense. That's got to be towards the top of the leaders, right?

I'm trying to see if there's, he is, he's not as high as I thought it would be on that list, but you're talking about everybody ahead of him is pretty much a huge star, with the exceptions of Valenciunis and Montres Harrell. Those would be the other ones. And Bobon. No offense to Bobon, but he's always the P.E.R. monster. Well, with Capella, he was a guy where it was a projection before, whereas, oh, per 36 minutes, Capella averages this. Well, now he's actually playing 34 minutes per game, and he's sustaining the

same numbers that he did on a per minute basis before. He's been tremendous for them. It's a little interesting, too, because we're seeing a lot of big guys this year. Wouldn't you say, everything had become kind of perimeter-based? And there we are. We're talking about those big games that we watched yesterday. And in the first game, you're talking about the significance of Zubach and about the size that the Lakers bring to the table.

We're talking about Capella in these 23 rebounds and the game that he had when we're talking about some of the surprise teams this year, whether it's Willie Colley Stein at the Kings

or whether it's Montres-Harrell at the Clippers or whether it's this ridiculous season that Yokic is having so far or even Orlando. They've kind of been a surprise and Vucevic has been out of his mind. A lot of big guys this year.

It feels like there's a little bit of a renaissance. Sabonis, right? In Indiana's been great this year. A little bit of a renaissance of the big guys and not necessarily the ones we would have expected. It feels like a greater impact this year. Size matters, Chris. I mean, small ball is in vogue, and it matters a heck of a lot in the league. But size still matters quite a bit, especially if you're projecting moving forward.

forward in the league, a lot of the young big men that are going to be on contending teams for the foreseeable future, whether it's the Joelle Labids of the world or the Anthony Davises of the world, the Nicola Yokic types, those guys are going to be on those contending teams that you need to beat. And you're going to need size to beat those players. Never mind the fact that it's some of the role players, as you're mentioning, like a Sabonis, who is turning into more than a role player. Never mind if it's someone, even like Janice into de Kumpo, who is not a quote unquote big man, but he is a big man, right? Those types of players, you're still going to need size to effectively contain and

neutralize those players. All right. So do you think the Rockets have, we kept on saying they inevitably will go on some type of a run. They're not nearly as bad as how they have performed. And it seemed like they got a real wake-up call. They ratted off wins. They beat Portland.

They beat the Lakers. They beat Memphis. they beat Utah, they beat the Wizards. They took a two-point loss at Miami, and then they turned around and beat the Spurs, and they beat Oklahoma City, and they've got Boston coming up tomorrow night. But you're talking about six and one in their last seven games,

and those are all teams, for the most part, that you're jockeying for a playoff position against, and that one loss is the at Miami game, which a lot of weird stuff when you have to play at Miami, usually don't get a lot of sleep the night before. But yeah, you're talking about outside of that. I mean, it's a seven-game win streak. If they don't lose by two in Miami,

they've got a seven-game win-street going on right now. Or it's an eight-game win streak because they've won seven other last date, for that matter. Houston has been really, really good. How sustainable is it? Well, they've seemed to have figured some things out. Daniel House has been better than Gary Clark. He's taken his minutes. Austin Rivers, obviously, his addition has been vital.

Eric Gordon over his last three games has been shooting the ball better at 12 for 36. It's a slight uptick than his early season struggles when he was sub 30%. So that's encouraging for them. Look, this team should be better, but they still need Chris Paul to be back. James Hardin still needs his partner in crime. You can't rely on him to average 40 points over the rest of the season with how vital he's been to them on the offensive end of the floor. Are they back? They're moving towards that, I'd say Chris, but they still need.

Chris Paul. Yeah, we're going to find out because their schedule over the course of the day. By the time we speak again, they will have played Boston at New Orleans, Memphis, at Golden State, at Portland, Denver. Another opportunity for James Harden to continue bolstering his case for a back-to-back MVP award. I don't want to throw up on my microphone. But I might. All right. Kevin, we'll get right back to it. I want to remind everybody that today's episode of The

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Drive sober or get pulled over. Other games that took place yesterday. Speaking of teams that have gotten it right, the Boston Celtics led by none other than Kyrie Irving. Get a big overtime win on Christmas Day against the Philadelphia 76ers. You know, I think we'd bemoaned the Celtics. And most people did. At the beginning of the season, they were a team that we expected to be,

I mean, they're a team that was a tick away from making the NBA finals a year ago without Kyrie Irving and without Gordon Hayward. That proved to be a little more arduous to implement them back into the mix. But certainly over the course of the last couple of weeks, it looks like the Celtics have gotten it together. Kyrie with the, you know, big shots and big moments and big game, you know, he is, he's great on big stages. There's no way around that. And he talks about living for those moments. and there he was yesterday on Christmas Day, untucked Kyrie Irving, taking down the 76ers, the biggest takeaways from watching Boston, watching Philly.

Well, for Boston, there's still room to grow. They've won 10 of their last 13. Al Horford was there for only, I believe, four of those games, I think, four or five of those games. And he's still getting back. He's still not shooting the ball as well as he did last season, still not defending as well as he did last season. though last night he was terrific and pushing Joelle Bede off his spots. Gordon Hayward still looks more like he got called up from the JV team. He's had some moments, but Gordon Hayward still not all the way back,

either shooting the ball or there was one play last night where he drove and tacked the basket, a situation in the past where he would have yam that ball down. Instead he missed a layup. Situations like that, Gordon Hayward, not all the way back. Karee carried that team last. night as well with the efforts with Marcus Morris, Jason Tatum, but Kyrie was truly transcended last night. Do you see that shot he hit against Jimmy Butler? Butler could not have defended that any better, Chris. There's nothing you can do. And on the flip side, I don't know if you

noticed this, but this was very significant. And I read this this morning and I could not believe it. At the end of a shot clock, this is in the fourth quarter, when Ben Simmons got the ball and he put it up, and he nailed a jumper. That was the longest shot that Ben Simmons has made in his NBA career. Can you believe that? 22 feet. Yeah, I can believe it. I've been watching for a long time now.

I mean, come on. You were theoretically good. Yeah, but I know, but if you're the point guard, you're going to get the ball in your hands at the end of a shot clock from far away, aren't you? Like, I mean, I don't know how that is possible. But I read that this morning, and I've got to believe everything I read is true. He's never made a shot that.

I mean, it was a couple feet inside the three point line. And it was the longest shot he's made in his career. I was like, no way. This speaks to a greater issue in last night's game, though, Chris, right? To close that game with Ben Simmons, in last science game, you can't blame him for the loss. That's not what this is. But until he can become a guy who's at least a threat to shoot, you're going to see more of what happened last night's game against the Celtics

where defenses can double Joel and Bede post-ups because the team's lack of spacing, where Simmons is just standing in the dunker spot and Butler is not enough of a threat from three-point range for teams to not feel comfortable helping off of him. So with Ben Simmons, he can't shoot so he can't spot up from three. he can't run pick and roll to end games because teams are either just going to switch or go under screens because he's he's not enough of a threat to pull up with his shot so ben simmons is this great regular season player but in order to reach his full potential as a great playoff performer as a potential all-time level guy he needs to become a reliable shooter and like we're beating a dead

horse here talking about it but we just saw that again in last night's game to close that over the final two, three minutes of the game and into overtime, where it just restricts Philadelphia's half-core offense and makes life so hard for Joelle Embed, who over the course of the game was outstanding. Embedd was great last night, but life was made so hard on him to end that game because of the spacing issues in Philadelphia's offense, which is partially a result of Ben not having a shot. Well, the other interesting thing is that, you know, and I know Joel Embedithes complained about this because they put him out farther away from the basket more since they attained Jimmy Butler because Jimmy Butler's not a big floor spacer. He's a guy that wants to slash and wants to go to the basket and certainly play 18 feet in.

So it does make for quite the issues when it can get bogged down. I mean, that's why I think Brett Brown's got Embed, despite his pleadings, away from the basket more than he wants to, is because he's got two guys out. there who happen to be his two best guys that you got to be able to create some space for and they don't neither of them really create space yeah and the tough part is is the guys who do create spacing for you landry shamet furcan cork maz jj reddick they can't defend anybody uh there there was portions of this game in this entire season going back to last year for that matter when it was marco bellanelli in place of shamit and corkmaz where teams are just attacking those guys relentlessly For Boston, it's guys with Jason Tatum or Marcus Morris or Kyrie Irving,

where the Sixers just can't defend point guards. They don't have any elite perimeter defenders aside from Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons, but they don't have elite point guard defenders. So for this team, they have personnel issues. They need development from their younger guys with Ben Simmons. They have issues. I don't put them on the same level as Boston or Milwaukee or Toronto when it comes to contending for the finals in the East. All right, before we go on any further, Kev, this brings us to our pick of the day presented by our friends over at Yahoo!

Yahoo Daily Fantasy had such a great year that they are giving you a taste of what 2019 looks like with hundreds of prizes and fantasy basketball competitions. So you and I, we need to make our top picks for the night. These upcoming matchups that are going on tonight, you have surveyed them, I have surveyed them for the contest. Kevin, who is your pick of the day? This is a little bit of a sleeper for tonight's game, and I'm pulling from my bright future sons, Chris. Come with DeAndre Aiton. Over his last four games, averaging 24 points

and 16 and a half rebounds, I think he presents good value for tonight's game against Orlando Magic. I'm glad you said Aiton, because I'll go with Nicola Vucevich, who was going up against one of the worst defensive centers I've ever seen in my life. It happens to be DeAndre Aiton.

I think we could harken back to the days of Wilts Chamberlain and maybe get like a 50-20 night out of Vooge. All right, so you've got Aitin. I am taking Nicola Vuzovich. Don't miss this contest. Go to yahoo.com slash daily fantasy. Use promo code Yahoo 25 when you make your first deposit for $25 in free play. let's move on to the books and the Knicks.

That was the first game of the day. And, I mean, unless you really love watching Janice onto Tocompo. Who doesn't? I love them. No, I'm saying, but the competition in the game was not great. Oh, yeah. Oh, no. It was not.

You're watching for Janus, and that's about what you're watching for. Because in terms of competition level, there was never really a moment. Once the second half began and Milwaukee ends up winning that quarter by 14, it was all she wrote, right? You didn't even have to watch the rest of it if you wanted to know who the, I mean, you might not have had to watch it at all if you wanted to know who was going to win the game. But certainly that third quarter told the story. And despite the fact that you are trying to promote already a foul hunting MVP who is scratching and clawing for a playoff spot, Janice Antecumpo is right near the top of the Eastern Conference and is a real, has a real MVP Canada to see that is going on. And there he was, you know, he is one of those guys.

They're not on national TV all the time. So a lot of people did get to see him yesterday on this stage and he gives him 30 and 14 in a win in Madison Square Garden. You're funny, Chris. You like that? You are funny. Glad that James Hardin's on a team that's scratching and clawing. They've been literally the most disappointed team in the NBA, and they're trying to give the fucking MVP to the guy.

For what it's worth, Janus should be the MVP favorite right now. For what it's worth, just to make that clear. I'm going to say Hardin is making a push, and it's only December 26th right now. But Janus right now is the favorite. And again, I mean, what is there to say about Janus that we have? haven't said before. I mean, this guy is outstanding. He's unstoppable in the open floor. Noah

Vonley had a nice block on him that might have been actually a foul. But other than that, yesterday's game, Janus looked unstoppable against this paltry Knicks team. I mean, at least if you're a Knicks fan, Knox is starting and playing 37 minutes. That's good.

And Noah Vonle, he's interesting, Chris. I think yesterday we saw some of the defense. He's always, you know, going back to college, been a really good rebounder. He can space the floor out, the three. There are some moments over the course of this season, Chris,

where Von Lay would grab a defensive rebound and go coast to coast. I mean, he's not a sea acim. He's not a Horford, but I would like to see him at the five a little bit more and get a little bit more ball handling opportunities. I'm just curious to

see how that would work out with him. Yeah. God, be honest with you, Kev. Not very interesting to me. Noah, Von, like, I know you claimed he's interesting. Not very interesting. He's a guy that starts for a nine-win team that's putting up eight points and eight rebounds. Like, who gives a shit? Like, anybody can do that.

Literally, anybody in the NBA can do that. If I put you out there starting at Power Forward for almost 30 minutes, you should be able to get me eight and eight. I could not. Eight points. I could not. What? Maybe not you. Well, I'm sure that...

But you could, Chris. You could. I know you could. I'm just saying... 10 and 10, even better than 80. You can get a double, double. I'm going to say they are going to... The three franchises that have given up on him are going to rue the day.

I just know it. Charlotte, Portland, and Chicago are all going to really... And Portland again, for that matter. Portland's tried it twice. Bonle is an interesting, low-key... big man free agent option that could be a little bit more expensive than expected next summer. Yeah. An eight-nate contract year is,

it's obviously this is biggest year that he's had so far this year. Watch out for Noah Von Lee. Yeah, watch out. I will be. I will be on high. I'll be on high alert, Kev. I know you will. Night camp last night was Blazers jazz.

It does feel a little bit like the jazz. There have at least been more performances over the last couple of weeks where they have look like the team that we all thought was going to be really good. They certainly have not performed. They would certainly make the list of disappointment so far this year. They're one game under 500 through 35 games into the season, which we certainly would have not expected. But there have been flashes, at least over the course of the last couple of weeks, where I've watched them and thought, well, they clearly have it in them. You know, they got that win against Golden State, They turned around and they murdered Portland.

They've murdered Portland twice in the last week. And then that in between game, they played Oklahoma City and it's a, right, it's 107, 106. It's a one-point game. So at least in these last four games, they've put together four, I thought, really good performances in a row. For what it's worth, I did not see any of last night's game. I was in food coma. The lasagna, I ate yesterday that my honest. made was just outstanding. The desserts were so great. I was in food coma yesterday and I'm on

East Coast time and I went to bed. So I did not see Utah defeat the Blazers. It was a brave review for the lasagna. It really was. Dude, I'll tell you, man, it's the best lasagna. It is the best lasagna I've ever had in my life. My aunt makes this, it's just perfect. It's perfect, Chris. The best food you've had, it's that good. All right. Well, let me tell you real quick. because they started off the season very well, which is Portland. You didn't have to see this game to at least be able to comment on this. Portland is a very, very interesting team to me because they've got these two unbelievable guys in the back court, and they have not been able to, they still to this day don't really have a third wheel to go along with them,

that they can count on every single night, right? It is Nurkich. He's averaging 14 points a game, 14 and 10, and it's having a pretty good. season. But in terms of, you know, what befells them in the playoffs is teams being able to take away one of them, like those guys give them almost 50 points a night. And then when you're past them and it's Aminu and it's Turner and they're trying to, you know, speed up the progress on Collins, who I know everybody says they're big fans of. And then their bench, some nights it's good, some nights it's really bad. They're going to be interesting to me because I don't know.

know in terms of what they've got on their roster how they improve this greatly. No one seems to think that they're going to break up the Lillard McCollum tandem. But what is the path in order to improve within this season? Do you see one of guys that you think they could move that could help improve right now? No, that's why with Portland we're talking about them being an option for Carmelo Anthony. there's just not a lot of options for this team. Interesting. Do you think that that would be wise?

I'll tell you this. This would be one where I could at least, he has had a negative impact on virtually everyone, okay? And I have been hard on Carmelo Anthony. That being said, it's one of those where the risk, I think, would be worth it. The risk was not worth it when you brought him into an awesome team like the Rockets. Okay. I didn't think that he was going to improve that situation. But in Portland, and you desperately need at least another guy, and I look at their roster and I say, okay, what's the ceiling?

What's the ceiling for this team? And so if I know the ceiling's not high anyway, where you might get out of the first round at this point, I think if you're looking at them, if you might, then I don't know. I mean, I just think you're, whatever your risks are, you're much more likely to take them. Because what's the point? Yeah. Anyway. I mean, with Carmelo, we have different perspectives, but we're arriving at the same point that he is probably not going to help, but he's worth the risk for Portland.

I thought he was for Houston. Yeah, if I was really good, I wouldn't do. I would not bring him in if I was a Lakers. I wouldn't bring him in if I was Houston. I wouldn't bring him in. If I've got something really good going. Yeah, it's not like Portland's bad. no they're not bad but in terms of what is the reason to believe that it's they go farther this year than they have gone in the past

i think in regards to yesterday's game i mean just to tie this back to utah really quickly they have the number two defense since thanksgiving right behind the pacer's so their defense after their early season struggles they're still forcing teams in a mid-range jumpers they still have rudy go bear they still have a collection of stout perimeter defenders their defense has been performing in a in a in a little bit of a mid-range jumpers they're an elite level over the last month. So they've been better. The problem for Utah has been offense. Donovan Mitchell is not taking a leap this season.

They still need to be better on offense. With Portland, yeah, I think with them, their defense has regressed. Carmelo's not helping you there. They still have their set of issues even with Carmelo Anthony. I think this just ties back to your original point, Chris.

There's just not a lot of solutions for this team. So that's why with Carmelo, what's like, you know, let's screw it. Let's just add this guy. So we had another score or go more. all in on offense and maybe it works out with him.

It's only because I look at it and say, I think the ceiling's low and I don't have many ways. They might be able to move some of those guys. I don't know. I mean, we've argued about this for a long time. As long as we've known each other, we've argued about this. With Portland,

yeah, their ceiling isn't the NBA finals, but their ceiling still has really fun, competitive team that can make some noise in the playoffs. They still have that sailing. maybe make some noise. Maybe. Sure. Yeah.

Maybe go six games in the first round. Is that what you're saying? I just know, I mean, obviously, listen, and there's so many teams that have this from that offseason a couple of years ago. And you look up and down the roster and you're like, oh, damn. And there's the one mistake when everybody was flush with that money, and they gave $18 million for this year to Evan Turner. That's the killer.

That's the killer. I just think in this West Side, conference in the West, aside from Golden State, we're in the playoffs, that they have an eight-man rotation, nine-man rotation, and they have, you would think, four superstars at that point. Besides that team, it's still hard to say who's number two, unless you want to say it's LeBron with the Lakers, but even the Oklahoma City this season, they're seven and eight versus teams 500 or better. They're eight and ten versus the West besides the Phoenix Suns.

Even the OKC Thunder, despite their elite defense, there's still. questions about how they've performed against playoff caliber teams. There's questions about everybody up and down this conference where with Portland it's like if Dame and CJ get incredibly hot in the playoffs maybe they can make a run.

I also wonder though where that one extra move is though for them this season to help give them a greater edge in the playoffs. Kevin it is always a pleasure. I'm glad to get to talk to you after Christmas and glad to hear that you had a good Christmas. Safe travels back home and I'll talk

See you next week. You too, Chris. That was a good one. Have a nice one. Thanks, brother. Thanks, everybody, for listening to another episode of The Mismatch. If you dig what you're hearing, go give us a rating and review on iTunes, five stars, five stars.

And we will talk to you next week.