Clutch Steph Curry, Contender Cavs & Mavs Found Something?! | The Hoop Collective

Clutch Steph Curry, Contender Cavs & Mavs Found Something?! | The Hoop Collective

Hello and welcome to the hoop Collective podcast we talk about the NBA which we’re doing on Super Bowl Sunday afternoon before the big game joining me from Oakland California he was with me this week for the trade deadline in Los Angeles and he was at that amazing Warriors game on Saturday night which

We’ll be talking about in just a second is the Hall of Famer for manscape Mark J Spears what’s up Spears man what’s Happening TV star you got your own show own show I wouldn’t say it’s my own show I’d say it it airs that’s what I’m

Gonna call it it airs in the afternoon on ESPN 2 on Tuesdays for a few weeks but thank you for watching those of us who are watching and always our listeners joining us from Dallas Texas it’s the one the only band McMahon howdy Partners I tell you what it is

Nice to be on here with Spears with Bond temps no where in sight I am really looking forward yeah you know both these guys played in the post when they were uh growing up uh both tall gentlemen you know you know they call it the pivot

Right and they call it the pivot because when the ball gets dumped down into the pivot the big man can pivot on on those on those feet and to create a shot the pivot a pivot is something that happens close to the basket but Spears on Saturday night against the Suns I

Watched Steph Curry execute a pivot from 33 feet away okay now this guy has obviously got dozens of humongous shots and amazing shots in his career we remember that game earlier this season where he shot the ball like 19 feet in the air for that rainbow three that

Pretty much locked up that game I think it was against the Celtics um he had a big shot against the Lakers that people forget because they lost right so the lake so the the Warriors are down by two now by the time people listening and seeing this it’s old hat and the

Warriors are playing again on Monday night but I just gotta pause for a minute to talk about number one Steph Curry’s late game heroics this year and number two I mean Brandon psky with the pass it was like a it was like a pass that you would that you see in a soccer

Match or like a great like like a like a a guy leads out you know so the so the guy’s not off sides he leads out with the ball and or sort of like a quarterback throwing a guy open p jsky threw Steph Curry open Bradley Beal

Gambles over the top and the ball gets by Beal by like people were grilling Beal I go yeah I guess well I mean he was that wasn’t even his man though well I know I know uh so Beal anyway and but I will let me let me interject on Bill

Real quick um you know so he’s wearing that Batman mask right yeah he broke his nose or whatever yeah he calls himself be man right now I was asking him about that after the game and he said the mask actually affected his peripheral vision and he believes he didn’t have if he

Didn’t have the mask on he probably would have got that steel right there but um he also lamented on how beautiful that that pass was by Pinsky it was that’s one of the most incredible bounce passes I’ve ever seen like I don’t know how the hell he got it

There and Steph catches it pivots pivot I mean holy Moses all right let me tell you something McMahon I don’t know where you’re at on your tallies for coones Factor but let me tell you what Curry is doing this year okay that was the fourth game time or

Go-ahead field goal in the final 10 seconds of the fourth quarter in overtime this season fourth now we know that the Warriors at least going into Monday night have played played 35 clutch Time games less than five points in uh with less than five minutes either overtime or fourth quarter pretty

Much they’ve played 50 games at this point so pretty much you know what 65 68% of their games go clutch so he’s had unfortunately a lot of opportunities um so that’s number one he’s got four of them in the last 15 years I don’t know

If you saw this stats we could make this a mini trivia question I don’t know if either of you saw this in the last 15 years Curry has 12 of those types of shots so that’s the most over the 15 years there’s three other guys who have

10 you guys want to take a guess um two of them are active I’m gonna guess Le braon no no okay no so this again this is go ahead shots not to tie go ahead in the final five seconds fourth quarter in OT D Damon Lillard good guess but

No okay the the one who’s retired I’m going to guess is Dirk no wow we are whiffing away so and you know McMahon’s usually good at trivia I’m just gonna say so the guy who’s retired is Carmelo he had 10 W um one of the other guys I’m

Not surprised about because he’s known for these kind of shots um another one is I am pretty stunned about I’m actually stunned and I maybe I’m just derck from remembering it um what’s that de Demar de roosan Demar de rzan is the one that I would have I’m

Not surprised is on there the last one plays in the Western Conference and will be a Hall of Famer and is a former MVP even giving those stats I’m not Russell Westbrook I did not did you know Russell Westbrook done that 10 times so I didn’t

Know but one of the reasons people say he got MVP just because he averaged the triple double that year but if you go back and look at Russ’s clutch numbers and clutch moments in that season I mean he had so many incredible shots that year including the one uh the night he

Broke the triple double record in Denver when he eliminated the nuggets from the playoffs with a buzzer beater from just over half court to give him 50 in that game and complete a wild comeback I happen to be there so that one that that’s one of those there’s there are

Those games that you’ll never forget that you cover there’s a lot that you can’t remember two weeks later stuff like that you never forget all right and Spears one more trivia question before you talk talk about being in that in that game being at that game okay so I

Again I don’t know what he’s doing gonna do Monday night against the uh uh I can’t remember who they oh they’re playing the Jazz they’re playing the Jazz I think in Salt Lake okay he now has 43 career games with at least nine three-pointers I’m going to

Let you things think about that for a second because he had nine that that was his that was his ninth of the game 43 with nine three-pointers yeah of those 43 four have come in the last eight games okay uh and he had you know he had

46 in that game against the Lakers where they lost in double overtime he had 60 become the second player 35 or older with 60 the other one being um against uh the other one being Kobe and his uh last gamewell and that was the game that

They lost those were two losses that was the game they lost in Atlanta where he was like desponding after the game yeah they’re two and four in in games decided by a point this season right so it was have an impact in their final record right kone’s Factor

Uh MVP voting right okay so here’s the little trivia I’m not actually I’m not even gonna have you guess I’m just gonna tell you but so Curry has 43 games in his career of nine threes second place is Dame Lillard yeah I I guess how many Dame Lillard has in second place

20 13 wow 13 okay you know gotta be pretty high on that list yeah I don’t I don’t have the full list this is all from stat Williams by the way I don’t give research of course all right Spears yes what was it like in that and what’s

Going on with the Warriors right now because they are heating up um I never get tired of watching Stephen Curry play Man nope I mean I’m I’m blessed to live eight miles away used to be two but uh from where he he stars and it just never gets old you

Expect him to make the shot make it it could be a half court shot from the other end of the floor you expect him to make it and uh you you know Kevin Durant kind of said something interesting last night he called him a top five player of all time and uh I

Just the the this in a weird way and you mentioned the spin I feel like he’s getting better he’s like being more creative because he has to they’re putting all these longer Defenders on him and and it’s been an issue it’s it’s been a challenge for him because Steph

Isn’t the tallest guy in the league and he certainly isn’t the most athletic guy in the league so he’s had to be more creative like I think that spin is something new that he’s adding uh doing things where all right you’re taller than me but I’mma dance my way past you

To get an open shot and uh the one thing that’s been really odd to see is that draymond’s back but in clutch time Clay’s not there with them that’s correct and and I I want to say that like other than that last possession at the end where uh Steph made the

Shot and I think Klay was kind of a decoy and he didn’t have a good shooting night like klay’s sitting Man Play points in the game he had a bad shooting night and and you know you see Pinsky basically taking his minutes and uh the Warriors are now finding

Success with curry Wiggins kaminga green and Brandon pazinski on the four I’m G tell you how much success yeah um they’ve only played 90 minutes together as of this moment so that’s not a humongous amount but it’s not nothing their net efficiency is plus 38 yeah so per 100 possessions they’re outscoring the

Opposition by plus 38 which is why Steve Kerr is putting Clay on the bench regardless of what it is and the other thing is we paint like crazy now tooing has been amazing with that you are On and Here com stats Williams backing you up ready yeah 12 straight games with 50 plus

Paint points the longest the second longest streak in the NBA this season and the longest streak for the Warriors in 25 years wow so while Steph’s making all these threes McMahon the Warriors are on the interior well and and almost all of those minutes that you just mentioned with with pods

And that quartet are since Draymond came back like 99% of those literally are since Draymond came back from the suspension and look if you if you take P zimsky out and you put clay in there it’s not plus 38 but it’s plus 20 something in change point is that

Fourman group with Draymond playing the five Steph in the game and you know call him a point point guard draymond’s the point Center basically which you want to put a tall guy on Steph good luck he’s going to have to run around a whole lot

With a guy who knows how to get him the ball and then there was this big thing for most of the Season Wiggins was stinking it up and but it was hey Wiggins and kaminga can’t play together well they have been able to play together with Steph and with Draymond

And if you look at their minutes uh uh like almost all of the minutes with kaminga and Wiggins together since draymond’s come back from suspension are with both Draymond and Steph on the floor and it’s been a phenomenal quartet and hey kaminga is a 21y old Rising Star

The guy for a significant chunk of the season now a pretty significant span is averaging 20 something per game extremely efficiently you know shooting well into the 50s uh as a 6’7 ridiculous athlete who is an a phenomenal finisher and it’s working really well with the the two

Guys that are no-brainer Hall of Famers that are still playing at that level and look Draymond is back to playing at that level for some reason that game the the postgame conversation not for some reason because nurkic popped off and there was a bunch of antics nurk was

Like you know that that whole thing of like you know Draymond doesn’t deserve another chance that’s what I’m talking dude as long as he’s not smacking guys in the face or put him in choke holds or kick them in the old a I don’t want a Boy Scout Draymond well let let

Passion let me run through this real quick so that was the first time nurkic and Draymond had been on the same court since the The Swinging I don’t know I guess you call it a punch I don’t even know what that was got the big suspension um they started chirping uh

Draymond got his first tech since he came back um oh You Gotta Love Clay on that too uh the clay ball slap that was the biggest impact he had on the game probably yeah I uh I did talk to nerkish a few weeks ago and asked if Draymond had ever reached out

To him he said no I mean that’s now clear but um so nerkish basically said after the game that it’s only a matter of time before he hasn’t learned anything and it’s only a matter of time before something like this happens again well I do think that nkit kind of poked

A bear a little bit too with his uh oh he was trying to he twice doing the little the little small thing and I’m like bro you 612 the dude’s five inches shorter than you you’re bragging about him being small like a big isn’t supposed to call

Somebody small that was kind of weak on his part man like bro you 611 315 and you’re G to do the small movement on a guy five inches taller than you come on man so and then he slapped the ground so I’m not calling Draymond a saint but he certainly well

He he poked the bear too what happened was um but you brianm on a dude that’s shorter than you come on why I I do it to I do it to my fifth graders yes you can yeah well we all know McMahon is height exactly he’s he highest Spears I know you’re like

Six7 but McMahon is he highest and it’s tough for somebody like me because you know Jackson’s like 62 bontemp is 6’4 McMahon’s 65 or whatever you’re 67 it’s hard being out here okay it’s hard and you got this heest over here what happened in that game show though we

Ain’t got our well I guess I guess Tim got his howdy howdy do show right so yeah so anyway uh Draymond got the ball like 12 feet from the basket and nkic acted like he was Russell Westbrook taking a three and turned his back on

Him and like waited for him to shoot and then Draymond scored and that’s when he slapped the floor so they were both guilty but but Spears what I’m getting to is What dra Raymond said after the game when he was asked whether he had learned anything since his suspension

After nket said he hadn’t learned anything he was asked what he had learned and uh you can say what he said no I’ll let you say it all right he said yeah I learned we pretty bleeping good when I play and I I will just say that

Over the last 10 games again going into the game at Utah Monday night the Warriors have won seven of those 10 okay and the reason they’ve won more they’ve they’ve actually won six of eight but I’m reason I’m saying 10 is for a reason they’ve won seven of those 10 the three

Losses one by one point to the Kings one by one point to Lakers in double overtime one in overtime to the Hawks where they got boat raced in overtime still lost in overtime other than that three two overtime losses two onepoint losses other than that they’ve been

Winning the last 10 yeah so Spears be aware and they’ve got lineups that are working ging’s playing well Wiggins is playing better de is to give Draymond some some credit where hey he hadn’t had a tech till nurus showed up also nobody’s asking Draymond to win the sportsmanship award no be be

Yourself be passionate be available don’t do dumb things that get yourself suspended don’t lose control and for all the back doing he’s actually been doing a good job of that Tim I for all the back and forth with nurit when I thought nkuch was trying Draymond got a t I

Thought nurkic was trying to get Draymond tossed I thought he was trying to get a double te was for all that stuff all the little back and forth you know who was calm cool and execute executing the clutch Draymond Green he was awesome down the stretch of that they’ve been passing the

Ball like the Globe Trotters man and I think that’s one of the reasons why they’re getting great shots they’re they’re getting layups um they’re moving the ball very very well uh the unselfishness is is is amazing and also I think they’ve been better in pods too because I think

Sometimes he could get a little star eyed and try to do some things he probably shouldn’t do but in making sure I noticed of lake that look we’re going to get step the ball and live and die with him and that’s ain’t nobody better to live and die with in the league right

Now than Stephen Curry hey they’re in the 10 seed baby but two timelines is back on track kaminga 21 pods 20 baby those two guys are playing Awesome basketb by got GP is back yes gp2 is back yeah they’re getting healthy PA relatively soon yes he’s getting close he’s he’s

Working out um two things before we move on one psky in February going into Monday Night 40 assists four turnovers 20 years old that’s rookie that’s you don’t see that kind of stuff from Rookie that’s Chris Paul type numbers right there number one he got he

Got a little uh have you guys talked to him I’ve never talked to him no I’ve never met him oh he he’s got some some spunk to him some swag to him man he’s he’s an interesting cat with a great story like he didn’t even play at

Illinois and I and I asked him how’d you get to Santa CLA he said well I put my name in the portal and they called me 5 minutes later wow and then I I visited and decided to go but he’s like he’s his locker is right next to Steph and he’s

Like squeezing anything he could get from Steph man he’s like enjoying every part of it he’s he’s he’s appreciative but he’s not in awe right he’s respectful but he’s not in awe and if somebody jokes he jokes back he’s he’s a funny dude man and I think the people

Start getting know a lot more of them you know obviously with rising stars and but he’s he’s a great story so Steve Kerr was a first- round draft Pi out a s claira 96 no more first round picks not that they’re supposed to have Nash Steve Nash

Okay sorry let we set that over Steve Nash was a first round draft pick out of Santa Clara 96 no more first round draft picks till two years ago now I’m not they’re not supposed to get first round draft picks at Santa CL I’m just saying

They had Steve Nash 96 and then and then no first round draft picks then two years in a row two guys taken in the teens Jaylen Williams in Oklahoma City second I think uh uh Rookie of the Year Brandon psky yeah hello hello Santa Clara want to go back thatc man

Producing some um one one how many WCC players have been in the league the last couple years they’ve been they’ve been I mean obviously Gonzaga helping but they’re put putting some guys in who will Who forget the classic Championship level run that that Adam Morrison had coming out of the wccc all

Right I’m just having fun I’m just having fun just because he was people made fun of him because he was on hey he does you know he does a radio for him now and he should for gon because he’s he’s a classic one of the greatest

Scorers I’d ever seen in college by the way Jackson looked it up in our break uh 17 current WCC players in the NBA that’s a pretty good number wow that’s a pretty good number WCC for a for a mid- major that’s a I’m sure they’re beating some power fives

Right now well they always it’s always like a thing you know how many can they get in because you know Gonzaga always gets a bid you know can they get in two or three so M West we’re gonna have six teams this year won’t be my school but M

West is pretty good they could make a run Spears don’t don’t count them out no no um by the way be remiss Wednesday night on ESPN Clippers Warriors after we talk about the Warriors that whole time Clippers Warriors so check that out we’re definitely on that all right we’ll

Be looking we’ll be looking to hear from you uh all right so also over the weekend the hottest team in the NBA other than the Warriors the Cleveland the Cleveland Cavaliers le Lebron who who won their ninth straight game but more importantly now 17- one over the last 18

Games another way to put that they’ve lost once since New Year’s Day one loss since New Year’s Day could you imagine if this was the Lakers it’d be around the clock programming and that game by the way was at Milwaukee which they Avenged two days later exactly so they’ve beaten every

Team they’ve played in the new rubbed the Clippers in Cleveland and this was this was without two of their four foundational players for much of that stretch they have Darius Garland back now they have Evan Moy back now they’re fully healthy at this point but this a month and a half of dominance

Right so in this stretch of 18 games they are third in offensive efficiency which is amazing because when Garland and um Evan mby went down in early to mid December they ranked like 21st or 22nd so over the last 18 games number three in offense number one in defense

In that stretch we know the Clippers have been playing great we know the Celtics have played great defense all year we know that the Timberwolves have played great defense all year they are number one in that stretch defensively um and the the thing okay the thing about

Him is that I’m just going to go over the teams that they’ve played in this stretch I’m not going to read every one but here’s why it’s a little bit hard to quantify so out of this 17 and one they’ve played the Wizards three times they’ve played the Spurs twice they’ve

Played the Nets who are in a terrible freef fall twice including once in um in Paris uh they’ve played uh the Raptors twice they’ve played the Pistons they’ve played the Bulls um they played the Grizzlies uh the you know their sort of quality wins in there are uh the one

Game in Milwaukee which they split up there um they beat the bucks at home once but Giannis didn’t play they beat the Kings at home uh but it was on the second night of a back toback at the time the kings were 10 games over 500 but you know you

Know what I’m trying to I’m just trying to be fair um Clippers the Clippers win was was Bonafide with the capital B the Clippers won nine of 10 in that stretch they were six and one on that Eastern Road Trip including winning in Boston uh anyway

The Cavs also won in Orlando play this Strat I fact they won that game by uh by 26 points okay that’s the thing the other side of this streak guys is that in this 17 out of 18 games okay so they’ve had a soft portion of schedule they’ve outscored their

Opposition in this 18 games by three3 points so okay so you’re not playing the 97 Bulls every night but you’re slapping the teams that you are playing and forget about all the numbers when you actually watch them play the ball moves all of them can shoot threes they run

Around like crazy on defense they pass and relocate pass and relocate pass and relocate there have been times in the fourth quarter where they need Donovan Mitchell to bail them out but for the most part they move the ball and work together as a team in this in this uh uh

20 game stretch Donovan’s averaging 29 seven assists he’s basically played point guard for the large stretch of it and five rebounds Jered Allen 18 points 13 rebounds in these last 20 games MC four double doubles this season and like he’s had something like 17 out of out of the last 20 McMan

Um okay you can you can say that they haven’t played the hardest schedule but what do you say their their their style of play is amazing and they’re kicking people’s butt if you win 17 of 18 games in the NBA I don’t like at a certain

Point we we we’re not going to dismiss it with schedule because they’ve had some big time wins in there Donovan Mitchell has been playing like the bond him straw poll I put Donovan Mitchell on my ballot this time uh he little hint the straw poll is coming little little

Drop straw PO is coming yes stay tuned for that uh Jared Allen you’re a terrible campaign manager because you were lobing to get him into the All-Star game and then as an injury replacement he’s been playing at that level and then again Darius garin’s recently back Evan

Mo’s recently back Mo still on this minutes restriction he’s playing 24 to 26 a night um not closing a lot of games because of that the reason he’s not closing the games that’s my understanding that’s my understanding I me that’s what they’re saying okay that’s my now you so let’s

Get to that because the the question is hey are they better off playing with one big I mean you can point at some numbers that say that they are right Jared Allen run pick and roll with Donovan Mitchell with uh three Shooters around then woo they’ve been cooking doing that you know

Moy can Mo’s basically a center who plays a lot of power forward and then the the offens numbers with them together even during this stretch aren’t nearly as good now you can say Well they’re also playing against the starter so on and so forth the biggest question there is

Obviously the spacing and it’s not a huge number it’s still a small sample size but boys in the last five games Evan Mo six of 10 from three-point range now again you know what EV M’s defensive rating has been in those five games like probably not enough to to run

A fever what is it you’re right it’s 98 98 yeah that’s what I would guess so just to put it in perspective he’s played 28 games a season he has shot 10 threes over the last five he shot 11 in his first 23 games that’s right

And I’m not saying he’s going to shoot at a 60% clip obviously he’s not but if Mo is a willing and able three-point shooter a willing an even average three-point shooter that just bumps the potential up so much for the two big lineups and it affects the spacing so

Much because he does a lot of other things really well offensively he’s a great finisher he’s a really good passer he makes the right plays so his recent uptick in attempts as much as makes and attempts I think is something to to really keep an eye on because that’s

What I think can bump the ceiling of this team up to real Contender status you know you mentioned uh Spider for MVP we gotta start talking about JB bicker staff for Coach of the Year yes yes guy who was under exactly he’s doing incredible job guys he almost got fired say what you

Want I mean yeah you know they can debate about it and you can debate the word almost and they can deny it or whatever JB Bickerstaff was on a hot bleep seat and if he had had a bad few days at the wrong time he’d have probably gotten fired so and to to

Rebound from that situation to have this team playing brilliant basketball I mean you just watch him and I agree February ain’t May okay and and they got a blemish on that resume from the way they played and the playoffs last year and it was not a shining uh performance by JB

Bicker staff amongst the failures in that postseason but my God Spears you are so right in bringing that up yeah and he’s he’s done a lot opening up their offense and keeping an elite you know defensive approach and uh I’m just really you know now that Garland

Starting around back in the form let’s see how much better they could get and obviously there was some talk about you know and then it’s going to you about Allen and Moy and you know whether they’re good together whe they play together I don’t know man like the

Numbers are the numbers they can only play who’s in front of them and um obviously New York got better and we talk about the Bucks all the time we talk about Boston all the time Cleveland’s interesting and Cleveland has size that matters and and keep an eye on them Max stru George Nang

You know they made yeah they made a point to address the the size shooting uh issue that they had um I tell you another guy who has quietly been a a major factor in this and it’s a guy who’s been hammered on as a as a bust Isaac aoro former number five overall

Pick it it was pointed out to me hey there was a stretch where they played pretty close together James Harden’s clipp Damen Lillard’s bucks and Daron Fox’s Kings it was pointed out to me go go look at their numbers in that game and just know that Isaac ao’s Elite on ball

Defense was a major factor there teams are still going to sometimes put their Center on them they’re still going to sack off him he’s he has been shooting the three a lot better but when you talk about a team that has been outstanding defensively you you’ve got to mention

Him as well Isa think Coro is an all defensive team candidate he will probably not make the all defensive team because he hasn’t yet done it for long enough and he’s only been a part-time starter he is absolutely an all defensive team candidate secondly his rookie year this is his fourth season

His rookie year he shot 29% on threes he’s now up to 38% now he doesn’t get guarded out there that much but absolutely he’s any he averages eight points a game he’s not a guy who gets a lot of attention the other guy Dean Wade

Who last year had his the Cav signed an extension before last season they really believed in him had a shoulder injury and his shoulder was never right afterwards and he just couldn’t shoot well he’s a big who can stretch the floor and so this is what I always say

This is what I’ve been saying about the Cavs for a while one point guard one big man three Shooters that’s how they got to play okay and what that means is that the the floor is spread and the ball moves that doesn’t mean that you can’t play Allen and Mobi

Together and it doesn’t mean you can’t play Garland and um and Mitchell together but that means that those guys got to play those roles and if Evan Moy can prove that he can be declared a shooter and I don’t know if he can get there because you’re asking him to do

Something he’s never he has not proven to be able to do because before he got hurt he was having the worst shooting season of his career his shooting had gone the opposite direction he was shooting in the paint great but he was he wouldn’t even shoot outside 8 feet

Because he just wouldn’t make it but though but that that one3 formula is what JB bicker staff has gone to that’s worked and especially since just about everybody they put in the game can defend um and even the guys who on the perimeter like Moy and Garland who or um

Garland and Mitchell who maybe aren’t great when you have great basket Defenders it it covers up for them what’s what’s happened is basically JB is gone with the three the the 311 approach other than the start of the games and he’s paired Moy and Garland together and Mitchell and

Allen together and at the end of games it’s been Allen out there without Moy and they’ve been taking Moy out with about seven minutes to play now they’ve been doing that because he’s coming off mid-season knee surgery and they can say he hit his number and it’s a very it

Both things can be true they canot want to mess with their spacing down the stretch and they can also say he’s run out of minutes but you play him the minutes that you play him to to set it up that way so they’re kind of punting

The ball down the field but I have seen not one I of anything from Evan Mo except for determination uh to make this work and in this last five games and they are playing at um against the 76ers on Monday night so we’ll see um he’s averaging 181 and three and a half

Assists in the last five games he is playing great even under these circumstances with the minute restriction that’s with the minute restriction he’s averaging 18 and 11 he was not averaging 18 and 11 before without the minute restriction and something else I want to say Spears because the Nicks have had injuries you

Know the Knicks lost to the Pacers over the weekend and the Bucks are going through their their drama and the 76ers are are dealing with the injuries to embiid and other players the Cavs have opened up a nice little lead on the number two seed as we sit here today on

Super Bowl Sunday they got a three-game lead on the Bucks in the loss column and have a good chance of winning that tiebreaker okay they are four games ahead of the Knicks in the Lost column and they’re five games ahead of Philly in the colum and they play them twice in

The next 10 days they could blow that out the water um and to me the getting the number two seed is huge for the Cavs because if you’re the two seed not number one you get to play a playin team coming out of the gate the Cavs had

Struggles in the first round last year and you don’t wanna you want a low stress first round series if you can get it number two of the teams there and by the way they they could walk down Boston they’re five back I don’t think they’ll

Get there but I’m just I don’t want to rule you know people in Cleveland will get pissed off of me if I say they can’t get the number one seed but okay they’ll get at you regardless you’re right really be the first time Cleveland Milwaukee New York and Philly and this

Is with all due respect to Miami but those four are playing to to to get to Boston in the Conference Finals and if if you’re the Cavs and you can get that two seed you have home court against all of them in that situation so Spears this

Is what’s on the Cal’s plate right now yeah no I’m uh Now with uh Philly and New York editions and Indiana like the East is interesting man I like it but you’re right like Cleveland has to hold on to that number two spot it it’ll be really valuable for

Him and I I actually also really like what you said about that first round like get some confidence in the playoffs beat they’re still bruised from the way they got the Knicks stepped on them last year they’re still they’re still hurting from that but I mean I feel like

Milwaukee’s going to get better new the thing is can Cleveland keep this pace I don’t know yeah it’s hard to get excited January February you know yeah I I I kind of feel like milwauke is going to catch up to him they’re going to get better that I

Think the allstar break for Doc Rivers is going to be big you know having some practices to work with the guys and so Cleveland could be mad at me I I think Milwaukee’s going to end up leap frogging them but let’s see what JB and Company can do so Spears you mentioned

Milwaukee and the way that you think that they’re playing they made an interesting move on trade deadline days you know there was 39 players traded there were 16 trades a lot of stuff happened it was mostly backups but you know one of the small trades that sort

Of made a big impact and certainly put up a lot of eyebrows in the league was Milwaukee acquiring Patrick Beverly who uh joined the Bucks over the weekend uh this is remarkable for a number of things but specifically because of his long running Feud with and it’s hard to

Fill in the blank here because there’s so many of them like Dylan Brooks and Pat Bev like uh um but anyway with Dame Lillard um they’ve said some things about each other they’ve mocked each other they’ve gone head-to-head Beverly uh is just as much of an irritant

Frankly as Dylan Brooks is um and part of his game is to get under the skin and you know he’s gotten under dames skin occasionally uh and Dame has sent him home as he’s mid clear to point out but it’s kind of an act I mean you know the

Bucks might not frame it this way I’m not saying doc would say it this way or John horse or GM but it’s kind of an act of desperation they’re just they’re Free Falling defensively they have almost no assets to acquire anybody and basically they were like who and out of the 450

Players in this league are we can we get who can defend and there was like a real short list and Beverly was on it and if it pissed off Dame so be it so Spears what did you think when this happened and how do you think this is goingon to

Go first thing I thought about is Dane like what is he thinking um I still see Pat Beverly beating his wrist with the broken watch right and yeah Dame’s comments about him afterwards were which were certainly has some East Oakland cut to it man like cut him pretty bad

And so I’m G tell you guys this story man I I don’t think I’ve ever shared this uh and Brian you might be familiar with you know there was a player boycott with the Denver Nuggets I’m it’s going to make sense stay with me uh when I was

Covering the nuggets and James posy was on the team and make a long story short posy didn’t like a quote I had from him but posie was on the record and uh there was some things I probably could have done better as a younger journalist and there’s things he probably could have

Handled better but we really had a bad beef for a couple years and didn’t really speak I end up covering the Celtics beat Posey’s on the team I go to Italy for training camp with the Celtics and before we we went out there had dinner with Doc and you know kind of

Told him about how me and posie had been on odds and just just to be clear this is this is when the Celtics have just acquired Garnett and Ray Allen yeah this is the beginning of was new there too right so this is 2007 we’re in

Rome and so Doc’s like well I’m gon make sure you guys fix that and get past that like yeah okay whatever first day of practice doc Doo Spears come here James come here y’all go sit in the corner and talk this out figure this out like I don’t play for the Celtics

Like I call me out but he knew that I was going to be around the team the whole season and he so I I give doc credit and me and po been good ever since man I love po great dude and he’s he’s back in NBA coaching now my point

In telling this yeah my point in telling this story is I’m sure doc if there’s anything he’s gonna make these two dudes sit down and figure it out for the betterment of the team if if he hasn’t done it already and uh has practic in this you think his beef with Dame was

Bad yeah he literally sent Russell Westbrook to the operator room to start their long running beef they went back and forth more than they did with Dame it didn’t work out well from a uh you know success standpoint with a team with the Lakers but those two guys got to be

Tight you know they got to be buddies and I don’t not saying that I’m not saying that Dame I don’t know that Dame’s going to dinner with him today yes you know but I know that Dame wants to win and uh he’ll do what’s better

What’s best for the team to win and he said that pretty quickly after that he made a point like hey man I just want to win games so I don’t know that doc needs to do what he did for me and James posy maybe he did be interested to ask him but

He Doc Rivers always gets a lot of hate man I really think he’s a one of his strengths he’s a great people person and he’ll make sure that those two dudes are on the same page for trying to win and he knows Pat beev he coached him for a

While with the Clippers and look Dame is first of all he’s a grownup right like and he’s a smart guy professional yeah who can look at the Bucks and be honest about man if there’s any team in the league that needed a guy who can come in

And be a pest on the perimeter defensively it’s the Milwaukee Bucks and say what you want about Pat Bev and all his Antics this that and the other he’s still one of the best defensive perimeter pests in the league and the Lakers are an exception every other stop during this guy’s journeyman

Career the team that Pat Bev goes to tends to immediately get better I mean the Bulls even played well Pat B if you can make the bulls look good you’re really doing something right listen man it was like four teams ago he was on the Timberwolves the Timberwolves players

Still talk about what it was like to have Pat Pat Beverly there he he there are some there are some teams that kind of don’t want him like remember last year he got traded to the Grizzlies was it a couple years ago last year was the

Jazz it was a couple years before that was the Grizzlies he was like he was like Hey Memphis here I come 10 minutes later let me let me let me ask you guys this then I hope you didn’t ship anything here we’ll reroute it to Minnesota why do you think he keeps

Getting moved in because there’s a pain in the butt yeah so that’s like it’s a weird balance right but but small a small sample size of Pat Bev has proven to be very uh at least has more often than not been very effective now you don’t I think in Minnesota there were concerns

About Pat Bev as the voice in the locker room that everybody to listen to yeah well they didn’t they didn’t keep him you know they had him they loved him and they said goodbye like that but they benefited from his presence he instilled a a a toughness and a nastiness in that

Franchise you know he sell celebrated the the play uh Victory like they won a championship but look that wasn’t Monumental achievement for Minnesota franchise that had been in the Frozen tund and beat a team he was emotional about right so yeah was that part too well look doc knows him from the

Clippers he knows exactly what he’s getting and and he also knows what he’s in for as Jackson says he’s a hustle mercenary the one thing I’ll say um I do think that the the Bucks there are small little signs that they may be finding a little bit of their footing

Defensively the numbers don’t really back it up but I do think that there is belief there that the processes are getting better I I don’t know if it’ll work or if that’s just what they’re saying to get through this tough time but um like you said yeah I covered

Doc’s first win in Milwaukee the one that clenched him the honor of coaching the allstar uh game uh but in that game he they were so proud they threw this trap on like luga lit them up in the first half Mavs go up 25 they throw this trap on them in

The third quarter they felt like it really kind of got the Mavericks out of their Rhythm the players were CH I don’t know what the name is but doc related the players were chanting the name of the you know what they call the trap in the locker room because they had just

Installed it at the practice the day before you know it didn’t prevent the Jabs from scoring 40 points in the fourth quarter on the Bucks the very next night but uh you know it’s it’s a it’s a very strange unique situation of a proven Championship coach who’s trying

To install all his stuff Midway through the season on a team that’s basically Championship orust all right so you went to an interesting Mavericks game over the weekend McMahon uh they blasted the Oklahoma City Thunder a uh a great uh a really quality high quality win for the

MAV with their from their first game with their two new players PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford um before we talk about that over the last 12 games again going into Monday through the games of Sunday 12 games Luca is averaging 37 points 10 rebounds and 10 assists here’s a couple of stats here

Couple of History stats stats Williams again he’s the third player to average a 35 Point triple double over a 12 game Span in NBA history joining two guys Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook bingo bingo bang bang as uh as Mike Bing would say uh all right how about this

One he’s scored or assisted on 57.4 points per game this season the most entering the All-Star break in NBA history all right is about uh 8/10 of a point ahead of this Hall of fam he did it in the early 70s py archal you already saw

These stats I well I’ve seen some I didn’t see those in particular I’ve seen some pull he pulled tiny Arch bald out like he was his buddy in college no me all I would never be buddies with a guy nicknamed tiny yeah I know trust me nobody whose

Name is Tiny who’s not ironic wants anything to do with you the way you’re such a highst all right Harden has been close a couple of times um one of them was his MVP year the point is McMahon Luca’s been playing awesome and now Kyrie is back and the Mavericks have

Some reinforcements we talked at length the other day the cost of the reinforcements is a is a in-depth discussion and a little bit worri some let’s put that aside for right now we’ll worry about that in 2029 2027 you saw the first game with these two guys you saw Lucas playing where are

We at with the mths yeah and look like we don’t have a small sample size of Luca he’s basically 3599 for the season efficiently uh he’s playing the best basketball of his career he’s in the best shape he’s been in since probably his second season if not uh you know

During his career period um and then Kyrie being back doesn’t necessarily cut Luca’s minutes but it does make those minutes less taxing you know there are times when Luca can be off the ball when he doesn’t have to bring it up when he doesn’t have to just

Grind for every inch that he gets on the floor and look with Gafford and Derek Lively will be back soon if not already by the time this uh Arizona ESPN 2 then but with Gaff and Lively they can always have a really good Rim Runner and you

Know Lucas said it and he said it with a smile but he basically said hey we finally got the back rim protector yeah and rim protector but LCA said we finally got the backup center I’ve been asking for for three years and I’m like dude Dwight Dwight pow’s Locker stall is

Still like a couple feet away from you bro jeez but it’s true oh man what kind of shoes does white pow wear that’s the most important thing he wears K Euro JS right you know he’s a Kobe Grinch’s baby um but and look Lively’s for like the Thunder

Played like crap that’s a fact but Lively came in played 17 minutes off the bench I’m sorry Gafford came in played 17 minutes off the bench had 19 and 10 and it’s just wild energy literally the first offensive possession that Daniel Gafford played in a Mavericks uniform

What else would it be he caught a lob from Luca you know there will be more of those and PJ Washington uh came in he also came off the bench he will be in the starting lineup sooner than later he’s going to be their starting power

Forward or at least that’s the plan um you he hasn’t been a great three-point shooter over the course of his career he’s going to get a lot of really open looks playing with luuka and Kyrie uh what he can do which is something theyve really didn’t have before is he can

Attack a close out he can attack a scrambling defense off the dribble if you’re going to Blitz Luca and it’s an Advantage Basketball situation he he can put it on the floor get in the lane and finish and that’s something they just have not had uh at that position

So the Mavericks definitely got better with with those trades that doesn’t mean they didn’t take massive risks down the road but one way to look at it if you’re the Mavericks is dude massive risk down the road you have to take you have to take risks because if you don’t and

You’re basically telling Luka hey we’re not going to take risks try to give you as good a chance as possible to win you’re guaranteeing a bleak future of him saying this ain’t my place so the most important thing about the trades other than the fact those guys made an

Immediate impact is Luka is excited about them fully on board with those decisions yeah um they had 11 dunks in the first game and 66 paint points both most of the season so um and look I mean there have been times where their their rotation has not been filled

With plus NBA players is that a fair thing to say I would say there’s been times when they’ve had guys who shouldn’t be on the floor out there yes yeah and now they now they they’re legit 10 Deep you know I don’t know when Dante exam’s back but they have legit depth of

Like quality proven NBA players now look you excited about them Tim uh I still think I still think that it will be an upset for them to get out of the first round um certainly I think it is within the realm of possibility that they can

Climb out of the play in they’re an eighth now you know their goal for the rest of the regular season should be to climb out of the play but you know and I will say this if Luca is playing at his best then they’re always going to have a

Chance because he’s one of a handful of players in the league who can just absolutely dominate a playoff series well I will say this um you know you look at the teams in front of them the Clippers are playing great Denver is the Champs Oklahoma City of Minnesota

Have been at the top the entire year Phoenix’s ascendant and they look behind them and the Lakers and Warriors are taking flight so they got to go like they don’t have a choice uh they don’t go it’s not so much what they can achieve they’re

Going to get left in the dust so they’re entering a new era and um we’ll see how it plays out uh thank you for some great conversation really enjoyed with you guys to not just saying it really really liked it felt like um gotta get you and Spears together more often McMahon hey

Anytime a sub tweet I just did there I’m I’m just going to straight up ad him anytime mon him ain’t around I enjoy it as well all right let let Tim yeah come on man thank you to Spears thank you to McMahon thank you to Jackson our

Producer thank you for listening to and watching hoop Collective podcast we’ll talk to you soon adios amigos

Brian Windhorst is joined by Tim MacMahon and Marc J. Spears to react to Steph Curry’s latest clutch shot this season, talk why the Warriors may have found a new winning lineup, the Cavs’ incredible stretch of games, what the future holds for different Cleveland lineups, what the ceiling is for the Cavs, what Patrick Beverley brings to the Bucks and if Dallas has found something following the trades at the deadline.

0:00 Intro
1:33 Warriors Starting To Turn It Around?
22:04 Are The Cavs A Serious Threat In The East?
37:32 Can Pat Bev Improve The Bucks’ Defense?
46:14 Has Dallas Found Something After Deadline?

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