Warriors waste Steph Curry’s 60, Clippers-Heat, NBA Power Rankings | Hoops Tonight

Warriors waste Steph Curry’s 60, Clippers-Heat, NBA Power Rankings | Hoops Tonight

All right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Monday everybody hope all of you guys had a great weekend got a jam-pack show for you today we’re going to do an instant reaction to the Clippers going into Miami and beating the heat talking a little bit about the

Hot streak for the Clippers as well as a cold streak for the Miami he to have lost eight of their last 10 games after that the Golden State Warriors here’s a crazy stat for you they’ve lost 18 games involving clutch situations meaning the score was within five with less than

Five minutes left a big issue for them over the course of this year they have 25 losses and 18 of them have involved clutch situations so we’re going to do a deep dive into that after they wasted a 60-point effort from Steph Curry in Atlanta against the Hawks and then after

That as we always do on Monday we’re going to update our power rankings you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel 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 feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight it’s also super helpful for us if you guys take a couple of seconds to rate and review the podcast that would mean a lot to me as well don’t forget about our Twitter feed _ jlt that’s where I put

Film breakdowns in the morning as well as show announcements and then last but not least keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments we’re going to hit a mailbag on Wednesday it looks like this week and got a jam-packed week tomorrow morning I’ve got a show that we’re going to do going

Over the five biggest trades that I want to see this season then we will actually be going with Colin coward Tuesday night uh uh for the first time this season so obviously as you guys remember last year after the Super Bowl we went pretty regularly with Colin we’re going to be

Starting that back up again that’s going to be fun and then we’ll be live on YouTube right after the trade deadline on Thursday as well reacting to what hopefully will be a more interesting trade deadline than what the last couple of weeks have looked like ever since the

Pascal sakam trade so jam-packed week excited but let’s get into Clippers Heat so the biggest thing that stood out to me from this particular game and it’s been something that stood out all season and this is going to be a theme that I talk about the idea of like basketball

Character is a is a concept that I talk about on the show and to me that is like the the the little intangible kind of like effort energy Focus discipline competitiveness things that I think bear out over the course of an 82 Game season and our typical Hallmarks for a team

That goes on to win an NBA championship like if if you look back through NBA history it’s like last year the Denver Nuggets were the one seat in the Western Conference like we we talk about teams like the Lakers and the Warriors teams that can have potential to go on a

Playoff run but like the team that kind of wallows around in mediocrity during the regular season typically doesn’t win that’s just what NBA history tells us that doesn’t mean it can’t happen obviously there it’s not impossible it’s just ex extremely unlikely and NBA history tells us typically not right and

You can go further back the Warriors they were right up there with the Phoenix Suns at the trade deadline and then Steph Curry heard his foot and that’s why they ended up a little bit lower in the standings but they were consistently one of the best teams in

That regular season they were 45 and 19 when Steph Curry uh played the Bucks were a one seed the Lakers were a one seed the Raptors were a two seed so this is why we look at these uh these Trends over the course of the regular season

It’s important to talk about what works in the regular season and what doesn’t what translates those those specific kind of like X’s and O’s things but in the bigger picture if you’re not actually trying to build Championship character over 82 typically you’ll run into some trouble and we’re on an

Extended stretch here from the Clippers where they’ve been the best team in the league since November 17th they are 30 and8 that is the best record in the league over that span that’s basically ever since they started 0 and six right after the Harden trade they have been

The best team in the league they’re just one game back of the number one seed in the Western Conference they’re trending heavily in that direction so this is the Clippers are paying their dues and you can see it like this is a random road game against the Miami Heat a tough team

To play well coached always does the right thing right they’re gritty they get games down into the mud and try to expose your weaknesses and it’d be so easy to just bring a lack ofical effort and and do the bare minimum to try to win that game or maybe punt a game like

That but like no I’m watching this game and Paul George is like like just contending on the perimeter against Terry roier getting up in his business and applying back pressure and disrupting the basketball he was switching on to Bam at a bio in a transition Cross Match and getting a

Stop in the post I’m seeing James Harden wall up Jimmy Butler in a post up and stripping him clean underneath the basket like from the top down from the stars all the way down the roster these guys are so so so locked in on the details and I think that kind of stuff

Matters and and when you when you look at it juxtapose with some of these other teams where it’s like this consistent theme of like conserving energy and like managing your the regular season and just trying to survive it versus attacking it and NBA history tells us it’s usually The Talented veteran team

That attacks the regular season that runs away with it at the end of the day and the Clippers again they’ve got some question marks they’re not a defensive rebounding team they rely heavily on pullup jump shooting they have some of those things that that that could concern you but they’re doing everything

They can at least within what’s in their under their control to maximize themselves within this season they held Miami to just six points from about the 10-minute Mark of the fourth quarter to about the four-minute Mark of the fourth quarter on the other end of the floor

James Harden got his step back three going he h three step back threes including one going to his left which is one You Don’t See too often from James Harden two of them were and ones James Harden’s actually been the very best pull-up shooter in the League this year he’s getting

1.17 points per pull-up jump shot that’s a 59% effective field goal percentage there are 29 players in the NBA who have logged at least 250 pull-up jump shots this season James Harden is in first place in this group so remember that was where we saw that right around 60 61%

Effective field goal percentage that’s where we saw Steph Curry and Kevin Durant last year both of those guys are down this year James Harden up at that 59% is actually at the highest Mark in the league at volume another big guy who made a big a big offensive contribution

During that run there at the beginning of the fourth quarter was Norman Powell because the the heat actually took briefly a lead there hey Haywood heith had a layup that put him up by one in the early fourth quarter and then the Clippers went on this defensive run and

James Harden was hitting the step back three and then Norman Powell made a couple of plays out of closeouts in the left corner he had a pull up three or catch and shoot three I should say and then a one dribble pullup kind of ripping through to his right and next

Thing you know they’re up by 13 and just like James Harden has been the best pull-up shooter in the league Norman Powell has been the very best spot up player in the league this year he’s getting 1.38 points per possession there are 32 players in the NBA this year that have

Logged at least 200 spot up possessions and he’s first place on that list and like again there’s a big difference between looking at spot up possessions versus just catch and shoot shooting a catch and shoot jump shot is an important part of being able to attack a

Close out because that’s the only thing if you can demonstrate that you can knock that shot down consistently that’s what will get the defender closing out at you hard but I talk about high level closeout attacking all the time because against the very best defenses in the league they’re typically going to take

Away most of your open Catch and shoot opportunities especially for your best Shooters and then from there if you beat a close out so if a guy chases you off the line and you rip past him to the right or to the the left usually help

Defense is going to come over and take away anything for you at the rim and so a lot of times that highlevel close that attacking is the ability to make a shot that’s in between that catch and shoot and the drive and kick or the driving layup and like Norman Powell has just

Been the very best player in the league this year at not just hitting those catch and shoot threes but reading that closeout Defender and slashing off of it and making plays in the middle like 1.38 points per possession think about how insane that is that’s another level

Above like uh Michael Porter Jr last year was one of the best in the league and he was below 1.3 so that goes to show you just how insanely good Norman Powell has been in those spot-up situations this year but like by the time kawhai got back into

The game in the middle of the fourth quarter they were already up 13 game was basically over at that point Miami made a little little kind of fake late run but they never truly threatened and then they get out of Miami with the win and like again it is it tough balance

Between conserving energy and building good habits but in my opinion it is better to aggressively attack the regular season obviously I’m not saying play hurt I’m just saying bringing effort and energy rather than trying to conserve effort and energy is the way to prepare yourself for what is The

Impossible grind of the NBA Playoffs to win four times out of seven winning in these two- week chunks beating a team four times out of seven and then turning around and doing it again and then turning around and doing it again and then turning around and doing it again against increasingly more difficult

Opponents It’s a Grind you don’t get to take your time and load manage during that stretch and so again like actually preparing your body for that type of grind over the course of the regular season but above and beyond that even to just the habits and the the continuity

With your lineups the the discipline to actually make the right decision on both ends of the floor within your scheme it is an important part of that and I’ve just been so impressed by by the Clippers this year they they’ve they’ve just completely and utterly attacked this regular season since the James

Harden trade especially unusual considering some of the older veteran players on that roster kawai’s MVP case is starting to gain steam again like we talked about 30 and8 since November 17th best record in the span uh uh over that span kawai’s only missed four games all season shooting 53% from the field 45%

From three 89% from the line that’s 64% in true shooting percentage that is the highest Mark of his career he’s also having the best defensive season he’s had in years as a matter of fact he’s getting 2.6 stocks per game that steals plus blocks that’s the most he’s had in

A single season on average since he was uh with the San Antonio Spurs so you’re getting a more engaged defensive version of Qui another big element of having James Harden to help with the ball handling load and then it’s showed up in the numbers the Clippers are 12 points

Per 100 possessions better when kawhai is on the floor versus off the the floor now Will he win the MVP it’s remains to be seen the biggest thing that works against him on that front is that the Clippers do have a lot of talent and when you look around and you see you

Know James Harden and Paul George on the court a lot of times that can kind of sway voters but kawhai is playing some of the best basketball of his career and very much belongs in that conversation and if they keep winning at this rate I

Think he has a very good chance to win it but uh zubac’s coming back now uh he played uh came back on a minute’s restriction it looked like last night’s game Amir Coffey is another guy I wanted to shout out it’s just another example of like kind of a useful two-way Wing

That they have coming off the bench can really shoot the basketball and is a good athlete it has some good length and brings some speed to that perimeter um defense core that that that they’re already so deep in again their only red flag really is that they still struggle

With defensive rebounding and they just rely really heavily on pull-up jump shooting and so that just adds some variance when they get to the postseason on the Miami front they’ve now lost eight out of 10 games they just cannot score the basketball right now they have a 107.8 offensive rating over this 10

Game span that’s 29th in the NBA only the Grizzlies have been worse over the last 10 games and that’s despite Jimmy Butler being awesome Jimmy Butler shooting 58% from the field and 58% from three over this span but haime hwz has been slumping a little bit since he came

Back from his injury Tyler Harrow has been uh shooting below 40% over this span Terry roier since joining the heat 30 3% from the field 22% from three so like they’re just struggling outside of that Jimmy Butler position Bay metab bio is only giving you like 16 points a game

Over this span and you know some of this is to be expected because when you add a new kind of ball handler into the group it just disrupts the flow of everybody and so some of that just needs to be sorted out like do I think Miami is

Going to be this bad on offense this long probably not right but they’re also not shooting particularly well like as a team they’re shooting just 34% from three over this 10 game span that’s bottom five in the league over that stretch so like a lot of it will turn around I

Think just as they get a little bit more used to playing with each other there’s they’ve added legitimate offensive Firepower here and I do expect this team to be a better offense in the long run that said over the span they’re also 22nd in defense and 21st in rebounding

So a little bit of a slump here this this kind of thing can happen and we see this like like we were just talking about it with the Sacramento Kings like for most of January they were pretty mediocre and then all of a sudden in the last couple weeks they’re kind of

Snapping back into form this time of year you see lots of es and flows in teams especially teams that have made it to the playoffs before and can struggle a little bit with motivation over the course of the regular season I can never be out on the Miami Heat but they’re

Definitely playing some bad basketball right now looking for a super offer for Super Bowl 58 well DraftKings has you covered new customers can bet on the big game and turn five bucks into 200 instantly in bonus bets the line right now is that s San Francisco minus 1.5

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Code Hoops again that’s h o o PS the crown is yours all right let’s move on to the Golden State Warriors so they uh the Warriors Wast an absolute heater from Steph Curry losing in Atlanta in overtime Steph had 60 points he was just absolutely barbecuing Deonte Murray down

The stretch of this game was killing him in pick and roll was killing him in ISO there after he got going stopped calling for the ball screen and basically just dribbled up into like a high hesitation and would just if Deonte was giv him space he’d step back if he wasn’t he

Would just go right around him he was uh scoring at The Rim he was scoring from three the shot he had that should have been the go-ahead shot in the final minute was like a floater after he split a ball screen uh with dejonte Murray he was unbelievable down the stretch of

This game and he’s fully back in form now his last five games Steph 39 points per game 53% from the field and 46% from three has not missed a free throw so Steph whatever slump he was in there in the middle of the Season seems to be

Coming out the other side of that but the Warriors still lost that game why is that for two reasons they couldn’t get a stop they had a 171 defensive rating in seven minutes of clutch basketball against Atlanta they were really struggling with Trey young in ball screens they tried guarding him straight

Up just with like a traditional coverage and Jonathan kaminga was struggling with screen navigation he lost Trey young for a three then they started blitzing the ball screen Trey was like just dribbling around the Blitzer and getting downhill into the lane and making floaters then they started trying doubling him at half

Court and they just made quick reads out of it on the back end to get baskets in those fouron threes Draymond Green in particular was kind of struggling splitting the difference between Trey’s floater and getting back to Ina AO at the basket and he actually lost him on

Layups a couple times and then also gave up a couple offensive rebounds so like that that to me is is is less on Draymond and more on the perimeter defense when your screen Defender is constantly having to navigate two places at once you’re putting him in no man’s

Land and that’s just a really difficult place to play defense and one of the biggest issues for the for the Warriors right now is they’re really really struggling to contain the ball this is a big part of why you know uh Steve C talked about Gary pton I second and how

Like he specifically is one of the most important elements coming back post trade deadline is because they just need a guard that can actually stay in front of some of these guys it’s like you go with Brandon pmy he’s just not quite uh athletic enough right you go with Andrew

Wiggins that comes with all these offensive limitations that he’s been showing as of late and so having Gary pton back could go a long way to help him there but they just really really struggled defensively against Atlanta and that’s a bigger picture issue that we’ll get to in a second but the second

Reason that they fell apart against Atlanta and this is something I’ve been talking about all season nobody aside from Step can contribute offensively for them inside of these moments you probably thought watching that game that the warrior offense was great down the stretch right cuz Steph was hitting all

Those damn shots nope they had a 100 offensive rating in seven clutch minutes a big part of that is they went cold in overtime but again when you’re relying on one guy to score and no one else can when that guy finally starts missing shots or the defense starts to get the

Ball out of his hands if you can’t capitalize on the back end you’re going to struggle and like if you look at ju like again that game is a perfect jux position with Trey and it’s Trey’s killing you and pick and roll but then boan bonovich just like or bdon bonovich

Just like hits a really nice uh step back jumper going to his right along the Baseline right in draymond’s face perfectly defended just knocks down the shot Deonte Murray got his revenge after Steph cooked him because tied the game in regulation with the pull-up jumper jumper hit a few more pull-up jump shots

In overtime you’re getting significant offensive contribution alongside Trey young that just makes it that much easier basketball is all about versatility not predictability you need to it’s not about being a amazing at one thing you’ve got to be able to win in different ways you have to be able to

Defend in different ways with different coverages and you have to be able to score in different ways because it doesn’t matter if the Steph Draymond ball screen is getting you a few step back threes with a few minutes left in the fourth quarter if they make an

Adjustment they start to chase him off of that shot you got to have something else you can go to at that point the Warriors have now lost 18 games involving clutch situations that’s the second most in the entire league only the Pistons Spurs and Raptors are behind

Them all having lost 19 games in clutch time they have a 116 offensive rating that’s very mediocre and they have a 115 defensive rating that’s very mediocre and again this is the concerning part this is despite Steph Curry being amazing in clutch situations think about this this is crazy if you take Steph

Curry’s scoring in clutch situations and you extrapolate it out to a per 36 metric meaning if you basically looked at the way he’s playing in crunch time and turned it into a player who plays 36 minutes a game he’s scoring at a rate of 50 points per 36 he’s literally like

Wilt Chamberlain in terms of box score production at the end of these games think about how insane that is he has 47 made field goals in clutch time this year second place is male Bridges at 35 he has 12 more made field goals in clutch time than anybody else in the

League he’s shooting 52% uh from the field in those situations 49% from three 97 uh Point uh perc from the line and only one Warrior has given him double digit clutch made field goals in support this year Klay Thompson he’s made 12 out of 41 Shots

That’s 29% from the field it it’s been it’s become their biggest issue this season that they constantly end up in close games and they can’t guard and they can’t give Steph any support and like zoom out a little bit like think about how frustrating this season

Has been for warriors fans you have 25 losses 18 of those 25 losses were in uh uh in crunch time am I right about the 25 it might even be 26 I’m going to double check real quick um yeah 25 losses 18 of them have been

In crunch time so like imagine just just thinking in in in in the perspective of the standings right now you’re six games back of the Sumer Sons to be out of the playin like if if instead of losing 18 of those games you lost 15 of those

Games you’re now three games closer to you’re three games out of being out of the play see how big of a difference that can make it’s a significant issue and like it’s a defense and rebounding issue too like we’ve talked about they give up an offensive rebound on 39% of

Their opponent’s misses in clutch situations 39% like if that means if they get 10 stops in a five minute stretch they’re giving up four offensive rebounds and like Kerr has started to go small at the end of these games like he’s it used to be that he kind of go

With Wiggins now he’s kind of going with Brandon pmy a lot in these situations and I get it like because Wiggins has been struggling so much offensively although he started to get it going there for a while I had a rough game against Atlanta but like my thing is

Like it’s not like you’re leaning on pmy offensively much anyway so like why not just give yourself a bigger physical profile why not put Wiggins out there just to have give yourself a better chance to hold up physically I I continue to say that I would lean into

Steph clay Wiggins and kaminga and Draymond and one of the things too Jonathan kaminga this year is seven for 13 in crunch time so like he hasn’t really had much opportunity but he’s scored when he has been given that opportunity he drew a foul and a post up

Uh down the stretch against Atlanta I would I I would be looking to try to get somebody else involved a little bit more frequently so that when Steph kind of cools off or when they take the the ball out of his hands someone else has an is an available for them to go

To all right moving on to our power rankings so much more positive this week compared to last week like most of the top teams lost one game but then won the rest of their games we did have two teams dropping out the Philadelphia 76ers they’ve lost five out of six also

Big picture Trends here after their 8-1 start they’re just 22 and 17 for the season they’re just 10 and 11 against teams that are 500 or better so like a lot of it has been easy schedule for them in terms of where they’re at in the standings they have a really tough

Schedule down the stretch this season and now Joel and beid is out for an undetermined amount of time due to knee surgery so obviously like um we were already starting to see some of these Trends form and now they’re in a really tough spot with where they’re at with

The remaining schedule and with Joel embiid missing at least what at least a month of that if not longer now on the Joel embiid injury front sounds like it’s going to depend entirely on how the surgery goes like it looks like he could be back in time for the playoffs or he

Could be done for the season and in a lot of ways it kind of simplifies their deadline strategy because it looked for a while there like they might need to be a little bit more aggressive to try to bring in some Firepower but now there’s

No re uh no need to overpay or to like kind of Rush that process you can kind of take your time with it give the keys to Tyrese Maxi let him run the show here down the stretch of the Season see what he’s got there see what find out more

About his development over the course of the stretch when he doesn’t have a pick and roll partner the likes of Joel embiid it’s going to be hard challenge for him but you’re going to find out a lot more about him and what he can mean for you as a foundational piece whether

Or not he’s good enough to be your second best player if you’re better served for him to be your third best player you can learn a lot and hell if you find a good deal around this deadline you can jump on it but you don’t have to be the desperate team and

That could give them some flexibility I personally hope Jolan be can come back because I want to see him overcome this playoff challenge that he’s been dealing with at this phase of his career I think he has the potential to be the best player in the world so

I’m hoping that he gets a good outcome from his knee surgery and that he can come back and make a run before the end of the season but this does simplify some of the urgency surrounding Philly because it’s no longer just like a kind of like a clear Runway into the playoffs

Like you would hope for in a season like this and then the other team that’s dropping out for me is the Indiana Pacers they’ve lost eight of their last 13 games they’ve lost three in a row against good teams this week the offense has been mediocre the defense has been

Bad the rebounding has been worse we’ll dive a little bit more into the Pacers here in the next couple of weeks but the upside there they’ve had 187 possessions with Tyrese halberton and Pascal sakam on the floor together and in those possessions they are outscoring teams by

16 points per 100 possessions a 128 offensive rating which is like insane off the charts good and a 113 defensive rating which is perfectly fine it’s not great but it’s better than what they’ve been most of this season so without any further Ado let’s get to our power

Rankings number 10 the Sacramento Kings they finally seem to have gotten over their January slump they’ve won six out of seven games mostly on the road they’re also ninth in defense over that span and 10th in defensive rebounding there’s been a pretty consistent theme this year that when the Sacramento Kings

Actually commit to the defensive end they win it’s literally that simple as matter of fact here’s a stat for you when the Kings have held their opponents to 110 or fewer points this year they are 11 and three and then they are 18 and 16 in all of their other games so

That’s a trend to keep an eye on the rest of the way very very very much uh something that I’m sure Mike Brown has been preaching to them throughout the season number nine the Milwaukee Bucks so after losing to the Jazz last night bucks are now one and three since

Doc Rivers became their head coach but it’s been the offense that’s failed them I actually think their defense statistically it’s been right where it was before the coaching change right around a 116 defensive rating but on tape I actually am seeing some strides especially from the guards and just

Overall commitment I just think they ran into some bad matchups like Denver’s the defending Champion Utah and Portland are super young and have super fast guards which are like specific matchup issues for Milwaukee um it’s the offense that is failed them over this span they have typically they’re around a 120 offensive

Rating they’re at a 114 since Doc Rivers took over Dame was five for 18 again last night he just continues to just put these really putrid shooting nights up and so I’m not really worried about their offense in the long run so I think this is more of just like a a brief

Stretch of offensive slumping alongside with some bad matchups that have kind of caused that one and three start under Doc Rivers I tend to agree with Giannis I know it’s not pretty but I do think better times are on the horizon for the bucks number eight the Phoenix Suns

Rejoining our power rankings uh Bradley Beal had 43 last night in a win against the Washington Wizards he’s been in the lineup for 20 straight games now and the suns are 14- six in those games and they actually won a game against Houston right before that so they’re 15- six in

Their last 21 games fifth best record in the league over that span that’s a fourth of the season that’s a hefty chunk of games they are also second in offensive rating over that span and 14th in defense pretty respectable there uh defensive rebounding still a little bit

Of a struggle for them I think they’re 23rd over that span Devin Booker also fully back to his Superstar form last 13 games 32 points five rebounds and six assists 54% from the field 40% from three and 87% from the line number seven the Oklahoma City Thunder had a bad loss

Into Detroit and then they dropped a tough one to Minnesota where Anthony Edwards and Carl towns kind of just out executed them down the stretch and their their offense stalled against a very very good Minnesota defense but they did get back on track against the Nuggets without yic actually three and one

Against the Nuggets this year and then they beat Charlotte and Toronto as well the Toronto game in particular was encouraging because Chad homr Josh Giddy and Lou Dort all kind of got back on track after they had been slumping for a little while and Chad in particular has

Been on track for about three games now he’s hit 10 threes in his last three games he’s averaging just under 20 points per game nine blocks over that span and double digit plus minus in all three of those games uh in in terms of the positive so Chad seems to be getting

It back together got over that little slump that he was dealing with there in January number six the Cleveland Cavaliers undefeated week lighter stretch of their schedule but they did on Monday Notch a big win over uh against the Clippers really really good defensive effort really contained Paul George Well really contained James

Harden well got out in transition we did a whole deep dive not just on that game but on everything going on with the Cavs with Carter Rodriguez from the chase down podcast last week on Wednesday went for like 45 minutes it was a long pod we

Did a lot of uh of Deep dive analysis on the Cleveland Cavaliers make sure you check that out a little bit further back on our feed number five the Minnesota Timberwolves so Chris Finch got on them the other night after losing to Orlando uh talking about forming some bad habits

And and behaving like a 500 team and if you zoom out they’re like it’s it’s actually kind of funny cuz I actually look at this as like classic coaching just like really good motivational coaching trying to like just stay on his team because you got to think like Minnesota’s been outstanding all season

And they have some specific things that Bode really well for them for the postseason they have a huge front line they’re an elite defensive team they’ve got a tier one Superstar and in or at least a guy who could be a tier one Superstar and Anthony Edwards that can

Is pretty much on guardal in terms of getting to his spots it’s primarily decision-making and settling for him he’s got a little bit of the Jason Tatum itis where it’s like he is the best athlete on the floor but just takes a million pullup jump shots and he’s not

Particularly efficient with them but like really it’s been all it’s been mostly good and I think what happens is you end up in a stretch like this where it’s late January early February drop a couple games you shouldn’t have lost right like they lost to Charlotte that shouldn’t happen losing to Orlando at

Home probably shouldn’t happen losing to San Antonio probably shouldn’t happen but they’ve been really really good they were really good against a tough schedule for a month before that this is just classic coaching got to stay on top of your guys got to keep them motivated make them feel like they’re in danger

Even when they’re not and that’s the best way to get a group to kind of do what the Clippers are doing which is just attack every single regular season game to M uh to maintain their habits one concern their offense kind of fell apart again late in the game against

Orlando uh now like part of that’s Orlando has this ridiculous defensive punch and when they really lock in they can be tough to score on but zoom out so one of my biggest concerns for the Timberwolves all season has been their late game execution they are 27th in fourth quarter offensive rating this

Season it’s been a major point of concern for me in terms of their playoff potential number four the New York Knicks injuries ended their nine-game winning streak against the Los Angeles Lakers who actually been playing some decent basketball as of late Julius Randle her H his shoulder then OG an

Anobi had some elbow inflammation I actually have a funny story about this when I was living in Charlotte so this would have been like 2017 uh I I will never forget we we played in like a a men’s league game and the game went fine there was no issue

But I woke up the next morning and I went to the gym to go shooting and I I start my shooting workout just going around the world uh um just like shooting from block to block to the foul line it’s just a way to kind of like

Warm up my elbow and like I went to shoot from the elbow in my I just felt this like excruciating pain in my right elbow and it ended up turning into this huge deal I had to wear like a brace for a while it was like really bad

Inflammation I think it might have actually been tennis elbow but like it was gnarly and it like straight up made me stop playing basketball for like a couple of weeks so like when I saw that I was like oh I hope OG’s not dealing

With what I had uh back when I was in Charlotte cuz that like legit messed with my jump shot for like the better part of like six months to a year so I I’m hopeful that they just get in front of that and just let his elbow whatever that inflammation is subside because

It’s more important for him to be ready to go for the postseason I think we’ve already seen enough from this stretch since ogan anobi join the team to know that they’ve got a real physical imposition that they can bring to the table that they are a real playoff

Threat so there’s no reason to force it back take your time get healthy um Jaylen Brunson last 10 games by the way 33 points per game four rebounds and seven assists on 52 37 84 splits so Jaylen Brunson playing at a superstar level right now he’s phenomenal in that

Lakers game was drawing crazy double teams that was the only way the Lakers won was basically just a gimmick defense cha getting the ball out of his hands as obviously New York was playing with lesser players um but he was incredible down the stretch of the Indiana Pacers

Game as well kind of insane how much of a hit uh Jaylen Brunson was as a free agent signing and how it changed really The Fortunes of that franchise number three the Boston Celtics couple hardfought wins against the Pelicans and Pacers and then they drop a game to the

Lakers without LeBron James and Anthony Davis and offense has been the main issue in their losses a 105 offensive rating against Milwaukee a 999 offensive rating against the Clippers a 109 offensive rating against the Lakers and the big thing here is they’ve just leaned into uh into variance they’re

Attaching the fate of their season to variance they attempt 43 threes for 100 possessions that is by far the most in the league and when they go in they beat the hell out of you and when they’re not going in they can be beat and it’s a I I

Just would like to see them add a little bit more variety to the way that they attack instead of Leaning so heavily on driving kick basketball and just hunting three-point shots whenever they can just because I think it would give them a little bit more offensive resilience and

I would look at some of these down offensive games especially against quality opponents as part of the concern there because it’s very clear that shooting is contagious for Boston when they lose their confidence when teams can kind of get them into one of those rough shooting nights they kind of sulk

And it almost get worse for them from there and like having another punch you can go to is actually a great way to mitigate a rough shooting night if you can lean into a different offensive identity whether it’s heavy heavy Jason Tatum in the post or whether it’s a you

Know uh uh going to porzingis in the post or leaning more into pick and pop basketball with porzingis to try to get more Advantage situations like getting out of just leaning on just drive and kick threes and tough transition threes making it so that you have less Vari

Could go a long way towards helping them have a little bit more resilience in those matchups number two the Denver Nuggets dropped a game to Oklahoma City without joic but they had an undef undefeated week outside of that another classic crunch time game against Milwaukee they completely out executed

Them down the stretch despite Doc Rivers throwing some pretty smart defensive coverages at them to try to mitigate their advantages the Nuggets now have the best clutch net rating in the league they’re outscoring opponents by 23 points 100 possessions when the game is within five with less than 5 minutes

Left specifically on the defensive end they have been the very best clutch defense in the League this year and then last but not least number one the Los Angeles Clippers they dropped a tough game on the road to that red hot Cavs team like we talked about earlier but

They bounced back and won the rest of their games the Clippers in my opinion this season to this point here at February 5th have showed the best combination of talent and basketball character that I’ve seen this year what that means is actual Firepower on the roster and commitment to the details

From start to finish this season and I’m not just talking about like playing hard I’m even talking about playing smart leaning into their strengths practicing the things that will lead them home at the end of the day I’ve been I’ve been so incredibly impressed by the Clippers

It’s it’s it’s starting to look like kind of a like it’s starting to look like it’s their year in a lot of ways and at this point I think they belong at number one in the power rankings I’m like this close to moving them into that top tier of contenders with Boston and

Uh and Denver it’s it’s just been it’s just been a hell of a year for the Los Angeles Clippers all right guys that is all I have for today like I said we’ll be back tomorrow with our five uh the five trades that I most want to see this

Year and then we’re also going to have a show with Colin coward tomorrow evening and then don’t forget the trade deadline reaction on Thursday afternoon as always I appreciate you guys and we will see you then he

Jason Timpf reacts to Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers’ 103-95 win over Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat. Is anyone in the league better than LA right now? Later, Jason discusses the Golden State Warriors falling 141-134 to Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks despite a 60-point performance from Steph Curry. Is Steph getting enough help from Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and the rest of Golden State? Jason then drops his weekly NBA Power Rankings featuring the Celtics, Nuggets, Knicks, and more!

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
02:00 – Clippers stay hot vs. Heat
10:09 – Kawhi MVP?
11:55 – Miami struggling
14:33 – Warriors waste Steph’s 60 vs. Hawks
17:07 – Steph has no help
18:46 – Warriors clutch time struggles
22:30 – NBA Power Rankings

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