Clippers BEST team in NBA, Magic dominate Suns, Embiid no shows vs. Denver | Hoops Tonight

Clippers BEST team in NBA, Magic dominate Suns, Embiid no shows vs. Denver | Hoops Tonight

All right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Monday everybody hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend we just got a quick show for you today we’re going to hit Suns magic as the Orlando Magic had a defensive master class in the fourth quarter just

Completely strangling the Suns as they came back to win by double digits I thought that was super revealing about both teams so we’re going to talk about that game for a little while and then as we usually do on Mondays we’re going to do an addition of our power rankings my

Power rankings two weeks ago those 10 teams combined to lose 25 games over the last two weeks so it’s kind of going to be like a weirdly negative version of the power rankings cuz basically aside from the Clippers there were really ugly moments for every team in that list so

We’re going to update our power rankings and then we’ll get out of here for the day you guys know the joke 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 at Hoops tonight uh it’s also super helpful for us if you leave a rating in a review there that’s something I found out the other day so those of you guys who use the podcast feed I’d really appreciate it if you

Take a second to give it a rating as well as leave a review then don’t forget about my Twitter feed _ jlt that’s where I do the film threads in the morning as well as show announcements and then last but not least keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we

Can keep hitting them throughout the week all right let’s talk some basketball so as I said a complete in total defensive master class from the Orlando Magic and I just to give you guys just set the stage here a little bit the magic forced the Suns into seven

Turnovers just in the fourth quarter from the 10-minute Mark of the fourth quarter to about the two-minute Mark of the fourth quarter they allowed just two points to a team led by Devin Booker Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant right uh if you watch it on tape there were a

Couple of decent looks in there but man they could barely even break free for a half decent look at the basket over that stretch it was an amazing stretch of defensive basketball from the Orlando Magic in every phase of the game in ball pressure situation just getting up into

The ball handlers as they’re trying to bring the ball up the floor when they’re blitzing in ball screens off ball denial played a huge role in this game which forced them into a bunch of turnovers it you know and it’s funny because Orlando brings very like they bring wave after

Wave of physicality in like every phase of the game right you’ve got these point of attack guys that can be up in your business guys like Jaylen Suggs right guys like Marquel folz guys like Anthony black had an amazing stretch defensively in that fourth quarter then their ball

Handlers bring a certain level of that sort of kind of physicality right like it’s Palo Monero playing with a ton of physicality he was scoring in the post in the fourth quarter made a kick out on a double team to fron Vagner for three France in pick and roll brings a certain

Physical imposition to it right and then even they big guys like Mo Vagner dominated the fourth quarter of this game by killing Drew Eubanks in an individual matchup up just by Rolling hard to the rim and scoring through contact and crashing the offensive glass you got length on the perimeter with

Guys like Jonathan Isaac it’s just wave after wave that they bring at you in terms of their physicality and to Jamal Mosley’s credit like it’s part of the culture of this team it was kind of fun watching this game this morning because obviously you know I’m watching on um

I’m watching with the volume on and you know typically I’m listening to one of the uh the uh you know the commentator Crews for one of those Le pass uh for League Pass right but in this particular game what was dominating the audio kind of portion of the tape was the magic

Bench as they would force a turnover or play great individual defense and force a tough shot it almost sounded like a college game with the way that you’d see the entire bench and coaching staff like freaking out on the bench after every time they make a play getting excited

Everyone’s on their feet you can tell this team wants to be great at defense it is part of their culture it is everything about uh their basketball identity and the two guys that I wanted to like shine a particular light on in this video were Anthony black and

Jonathan Isaac I thought they kind of like like sprung the run so to speak in the middle of the fourth quarter Anthony black was on Bradley Beal at this phase in the middle of the fourth dein Booker was actually on the bench and Jonathan Isaac was on Kevin Durant now I want to

Talk about the com the the combination of ball pressure and off-ball denial and how that can cause issues right so when you apply ball pressure one of the most frequent things that you can do to a ball handler is cause them to speed up it’s actually very rare to find ball

Handlers that are good at handling ball pressure by slowing down and using it to their advantage right like uh that’s one of the reasons why not having a point guard on this particular team you know I I think it’s been overplayed a little bit from the standpoint of like offensive initiation is offensive

Initiation but if there is one way or one form of the game where missing a point guard has hurt this team it’s ball pressure and I think you particularly see that at the end of games when teams really pick up their defensive pressure like guys like Kevin Durant and Devin

Booker if it were up to them they’d rather get to their spots first they would rather start where the pick and roll starts they’d rather start where the iso starts or starts start where the post up starts right but like when when part of the game is like actually

Getting the ball up the floor and getting into one of those spots they can struggle a little bit there and you’ve seen that in the turnovers throughout the season which like literally has been a massive problem for the Suns all seon long but one of the things that the

Magic do really well is we see so many teams in the NBA load up right and when you load up it makes easy passes I mean they’re they’re difficult in the sense that you have to get them over the top of the defense and across the court but

They leave openings on the weak side right and so what’ll end up happening is you’ll see a guy dribble in the basketball and there’ll be a guy guarding him and they’ll be digging down into driving lanes and kind of packing the paint right and then the swing

Passes tend to be open and you know what those defenses are trying to do is try to get you to basically settle for jump shots right like they’re looking to get you to pass the ball around the perimeter because no one wants to drive into that Thicket of Defenders and take

Tough jump shots right one of the things the magic will do is they’ll get up in you with ball pressure and then they’ll deny off the ball and so what ends up happening there is there actually are some driving Lanes but when you have strong individual Defenders guys like

Anthony black guys like Jonathan Isaac guys like Jaylen Suggs right like when you have those guys out there the dude on the ball isn’t just slashing around them and getting wide openen layups right and so what ends up happening is when the on ball Defender does a good

Job of basically forcing the on ball offensive player to either rush or to pick up his dribble or to get into a tough spot then he starts looking for kickouts right but where are the kickouts the ball’s getting denied and so that’s what ended up leading Phoenix

Into so many of these turnovers you would see you know Devin Booker or Bradley Beal dribble into a tough spot pick up their dribble end up in trouble and there’s Jonathan Isaac just with the long arm of the LW so to speak denying Kevin Durant that post entry or high

Post entry and they can’t get that that that pass in there and so now they’re throwing the ball all over the court turning it over and like just just the singular you know kind of force on defense of Anthony black and Jonathan Isaac in that mid fourth quarter stretch

Just making Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant make a lot of mistakes went a long way to turning this game around because the thing with Orlando is they’re not a very good offensive team right in fact they’re a bad offensive team just to give you guys some stats

They’re they score 94.6 points per 100 halfcourt possessions that ranks 26th in the NBA according to cleaning the glass they are the third worst pick and roll attack in the NBA including passes they are the 10th worst ISO attack in the NBA including passes they are the third

Worst postup attack in the NBA including passes they’re not good in transition like that a lot of it is just it’s a young basketball team with young shot creators learning how to be more efficient in the NBA I’m not concerned about Al and fr in the long run in their

Ability to become much more efficient shot creators but they’re young they’re learning on the fly right and so they’re their biggest Advantage right now is they’re huge they’re athletic and they’re young and they play hard and so they find ways to get into basketball games on the strength of their defense

And that’s what they did like they they found a way to disrupt Phoenix’s offense more than Phoenix could disrupt their offense and that flipped the dynamic of the game again they forced Phoenix into more turnovers in that fourth quarter than they had made field goals had seven

Turnovers in just five made field goals and it’s because their defense is Flatout oppressive fifth in defensive rating seventh in defensive rebounding percentage sixth in halfcourt defense according to cleaning the glass fifth in transition defensive points added per 100 possessions that’s kind of a catch-all transition stat on cleaning

The glass they are the second best team in the league at forcing turnovers stick sticking to that idea that I talk about about uh ball pressure aggressive blitzing uh denying off the ball just making it extremely difficult rushing teams into making mistakes right they are the eighth best team in the league

At limiting opponent three-point makes they are 14th and protecting the paint but a big of that a big part of that is when you’re ball pressuring and you’re denying if someone does break through there are layups to be had also the center position’s been a little inconsistent for them all year in large

Part because of injuries right so again credit to Jamal Mosley he’s got these dudes locked in on that end of the floor credit to all the individual players for being uh um uh for taking that on as a basketball character again I I will say watching them this year has

Been fun because of the just the energy and The Verve that they bring to trying to win games in a way like again there’s an offensive limitation there that is that is roster based that’s not going to change you can’t they’re not going to just suddenly become a great offense

This season they need to slow slowly reach that point through Player Development right but like they can still win NBA games on their strengths and they’re so locked in and so disciplined and their and their their their habits are great their communication’s great all the details

Are there and it’s allowing them to be a respectable NBA team um in spite of their offensive limitations they’ve eat a lot of good teams this year they have 13 wins against teams that are 500 or better that’s the ninth most in the NBA and then on the Phoenix front so there

Are three major issues that come off the screen for me most of the times that I watch the Suns this season but especially in that game last night one Their Stars struggling to handle ball pressure they’ve had uh 43 turnovers in the last two games including the Pacers

Game they’re actually the fifth worst team in the league at taking care of the basketball I talked about this earlier but again like you know Phoenix I don’t think that their lack of a point guard so to speak affects their ability to score because when they do get into the

Halfcourt setting and they do get one of their stars to their spot whether it’s Devon Booker getting ready to run a ball screen or a kind of face up ISO at 18 feet or it’s Kevin Durant doing the same thing or it’s Bradley Beal you know uh

Getting his like kind of downhill isos that he goes to or he’s hitting a bunch of In-N-Out dribbles right like regardless of where those spots are when they get there they’re efficient you you don’t have to look for to to see the points per possession data and see that

Those guys can get quality shots when they get to those spots but teams what we’ve seen consistently throughout the year is aggressive defense towards those guys that’s the the book is out like that’s what the Scouting Report says The Scouting Report says ball pressure the hell out of

Phoenix just ball pressure them and over the course of the game you’ll kind of wear them down physically and and like one of the things that I’ve talked about is like I talk a lot about the value of strength in basketball and you know we look at it with rebounding and we look

At it with like defense and holding your position and stuff but strength is a big thing on the offense end of the floor too you want to know why Nicole yic like always seems to kind of like thrive in those Rock fight environments he’s so damn big and strong that you can’t

Really deny him the basketball like jool emb’s the only guy I’ve really ever seen do it he’s just so big and strong he’s going to be able to physically hold somebody off long enough to create a passing angle right like in general like we used to do this drill when I was uh

When I was in college my last year in college we called it the tight space passing drill and it was like basically from the lane line to the corner uh uh kind of like up to where like the block was and then back to the sideline

Like a square just kind of there in the short corner and You’ we’d put uh three defensive players or three offensive players in there and two defensive players and basically we would just apply great ball pressure on the ball with one guy and then that other guy’s kind of splitting the difference but

It’s in such a small space that it’s tough and so it really comes down to fighting for position like the on ball guy has a dude swiping at him and and and getting physical and and and being really aggressive and so he has to be strong with the basketball to like

Create space for him to see the floor and then one of those other two guys has to fight for position to create a passing angle for that second for that the guy with the ball to actually make that pass and we did it all the time

Because it was one of the drills that my coach uh uh shout out Coach Jeff Rudder at Arizona Christian University he uh kind of implemented that as a way to learn how to better take care of the basketball because one of the things that I consistently talk about is when

You run into really good teams they tend to be big and strong and athletic right and teams that are big and strong and athletic tend to be really good on defense and really good big strong athletic defensive teams tend to be very physically aggressive and they tend to

Try to to get up into the basketball and get up into passing Lan it’s no different than the Orlando Magic like we were talking about earlier right and so you know one of the things is like these are a lot of guys that are kind of used

To operating from their spots and these are a lot of guys that aren’t particularly strong for their position and so when teams bring really physical ball pressure really physical ball denial they can struggle to create openings and you saw that I I think that’s been a I think that’s one of the

Most clear uh weaknesses in this team that the league knows about and that the league is going into these games looking to exploit like finesse is cool and all like and it’s a huge part of Player Development and God knows that I I I teach that to the kids as well when I’m

Coaching my high school team right but like it’s all it all it all can go south when somebody pun P punches you in the mouth right when somebody brings real physicality to the situation finesse can’t be your only move you’ve got to be able to do both right um and then again

Like even extending onto the defensive end of the floor when you when you’ve got big strong guys like a Nicole yic or fron Vagner and Palo banero Mo Vagner bring in just this like real kind of like downhill Verve to the situation it’s that strength that allows you to

Hold up in those situations and so like Phoenix is going to eventually run into a team in the the playoffs that is big strong and can bring that certain like physical imposition to the game it’s going to happen they’re going to have to find a way to handle it now there are

Some solutions right like one of the things you can do to combat ball pressure is like don’t have the guy bring it up against the best defensive player right like like find Paulo’s man or Fran’s man and have them bring the ball up the floor right like have Eric

Gordon or or or uh um uh Grayson Allen bring the ball up the floor so that you’re not going against Anthony black so that you’re not going against Jonathan Isaac those are things that you can do right but the reality is is they just have to be better Kevin Durant Deon

Booker and Bradley Beal have to get better at handling those aggressive coverages handling that ball pressure handling that ball denial because to put it simply that’s going to be What teams do in the postseason if they get into a first round series with a team the other

Team is going to sit down and they’re going to start talking about their advantages and one of the first things they’re going to look at is like we got to get up into these guys 94 ft and and just try to wear them down at the point

Of attack and try to force them into their worst Tendencies uh number two the second biggest thing that stood off stood out for me on the screen Drew EU Banks probably can’t play for you in a playoff series now to be clear uh Yousef nerkish was out in this particular game but Drew

EU Banks has been kind of their backup center a lot of this a lot for a lot this season they’ve gone with a bunch of other guys as well uh but he got his un his lunch eaten by Mo Vagner last night uh was really struggling with him on

Hard rolls to the back basket was getting beat on on Baseline crashes on the offensive glass there was one where uh it was like a middle fourth quarter where Drew kind of like saw Mo Vagner coming from that uh left side corner turned and like went to box him out and

Mo just like literally just ran him over but like Drew just turns and starts complaining to the refs but like one of the things there is like fighting for your position actually goes a long way there like if you don’t really fight for your position there and mo comes in the

Ref’s not going to want to reward you for not holding your ground right unless you flop extravagantly right in which case you might get a call depending on what kind of ref you’re dealing with right but like he like he wouldn’t just if you actually like sit there and fight

And hold your ground if Mo pushes through you then you probably get an over the backat call but he just got manhandled by Mo all over the floor you know and again like this is going to be an issue with them over the course of

This playoff run as well is what do you do about the center position like Yousef nurkic is going to hold up really well in certain matchups but then there are going to be other match ups where it puts them in a predicament where they get attacked a lot and pick and roll

Right we’ve seen that throughout this season so that Center position is going to be something to keep an eye on and it may come down to them having to do a lot more of the KD at the five than maybe they wanted to when it comes time for

The postseason and then number three the defensive commitment has to be part of their identity it can’t just be a fad that they do for a week or two it’s got to be something that they stick to long term they had this seven game winning streak they defended the defense has

Completely Fallen apart since like they were really sloppy against Orlando they were bad in transition defense not getting matched up they were bad in their pick and roll coverages Drew Eubanks was like atrocious in pick and roll their on ball guys were bad in pick and roll they were hugged up on Shooters

Off the ball like Bradley Beal at one point was just watching them score and pick and roll while he’s standing guarding Anthony black in the corner who’s a 30% uh I think a 33% Corner three-point shooter so like their off ball stuff isn’t good they’re getting beat on back Cuts they’re getting beat

On offensive rebound crashes you know like and especially in a game like that last night defense could be what helps you regain control because Orlando’s offense isn’t good one of the ways that Phoenix could have fought through that mess was really lock in on Defense Force Orlando into their worse Tendencies and

Look for transition opportunities and try to kind of beat Orlando to uh uh to spots before they can really load up on their Stars right but like that just wasn’t the thing it was like as the offense was falling apart against Orlando their defense was also falling

Apart and that’s how I mean that’s how you end up with a 21-2 run as the game kind of flips on them like that the bottom line is the suns are topheavy they have three awesome players Kevin Durant Brad the beal and Deon Booker and they have two solid role

Player guards Eric Gordon and Grayson Allen right and then they have some flawed role players like Josh aoi and Yousef nurkic who are really good at some things and really bad at others right and then it’s like a big drop off like the rest of the roster are mostly

Guys that would not even be in rotations for really good playoff teams around the league and specifically none of their top five guys on that roster saying Kevin Durant Bradley Beal Deon Booker Eric Gordon Grayson Allen none of those top five guys other than KD can really inflict their physicality on the game

Right so what does that mean they can’t afford to not be sharp on the details right like they’re going to lose a lot of battles just because of their personnel especially defensively especially on the glass right like that some of that stuff is just kind of baked into the roster so

What you can afford to do is also give up the plays that are that that come from mistakes right this this team does not have the margin for error to not be disciplined to not be sharp to not have good habits and it’s not something that

They can do for two weeks and be fine they need months they need months of these habits built up to go into the playoffs and be to get uh to be ready to compete physically at that point right like one of the things we talked about with Denver last year after the

Postseason and where I had to admit I was wrong is like they were a mediocre defense through most of the season but they were huge there was a physical imposition on the game that they were able to bring and then they had good athlete Defenders and kcp and Aaron

Gordon that could take primary point of attack assignments and so they actually became a good defense when they got into that postseason environment Phoenix does not have that luxury they they have to be incredibly sharp every single guy on the roster including their skill guys

Has to be locked in on those details and it’s just something to keep an eye on over the course of the rest of the season they will Hemorrhage points in many phases of the game because of their physical limitations they can’t also be lazy that c that cannot be a

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And Resort in Kansas 21 plus age varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance see dk.com for eligibility in deposit restrictions terms and responsible gambling resources all right moving on to our power rankings so as I said we had uh uh 25

Losses out of our top 10 teams from two weeks ago specifically our top eight teams lost 18 games so this is going to be a weirdly negative power rankings in the sense that like I’m going to kind of complain about all the teams to some extent just because I thought like a lot

Of their downsides were on display this year it’s just going to be kind of the theme except for the Clippers the Clippers when five and ens are last ranking so they’re going to be fine we had two teams drop out the Pelicans they’ve gone two and four since our last

Rank and basically lost to every good team they played over that uh span and their defense has fallen apart then the Miami Heat they’ve lost six games in a row they’ve been the worst offense in the league over that span and the 29th ranked defense so the Bottom’s falling

Out for Miami they’re off the rankings for now as well so without any further Ado number 10 the Indiana Pacers Pascal sakam is already helping the Pacers hold up better in the physicality areas of the game he’s averaging eight rebounds per game before the trade the Pacers were the the fourth

Worst rebounding team in the league in the six games since the Pacers have been the eighth best rebounding team in the league so from fourth worst to eighth best just since the Pascal cakam treade that go that just goes to show you how much having a real high quality NBA

Forward as that low man in the four spot can help reinforce a team that was really struggling in the physicality areas of the game they’ve never been much of an offensive rebounding team but they’ve been the fourth best offense rebounding team since the trade so they’ve brought a new element to their

Offensive attack through attacking the offensive glass they actually beat Phoenix the other night just relentlessly attacking the offensive glass they’ve now won three games in a row all without Tyrese Alberton Pascal cakam in the six game span is averaging 21 points eight rebounds and six assists

On 59% from the field 39% from 32 it’s giving them legit shot creation so far in six games for the Pacers siakam’s ran 60 pick rolls isos and post-ups including passes leading to 80 points 80 1.33 points per possession I talked about this before the trade but uh uh

Pascal was having one of his best shot creation seasons of his career in Toronto before coming over especially out of the post and so he’s come over and brought that extra element immediately one other guy I wanted to shout out was Andrew nard he kind of stepped into that primary shot Creator

Role from the perimeter or from the guard position I should say since tyres halberton got hurt here’s the thing like like Andrew neart is good I I I broke down a game last year if you guys remember against the Warriors where he like I want to say he ran something like

30 pick and rolls in a game that led to like 50 point like he just utterly picked apart the Golden State Warriors in a game like he can he can play and and it’s just a team that’s loaded up with guards and so he’s been squeezed

From time to time but like I’ve seen a lot of talk about like whether or not Tyrese halberton is as valuable as people think because the Pacers have looked good without him for from time to time and it’s like how about we just credit the fact that they’re really deep

At guard and so when they suffer an injury at guard they have another really good guard waiting to step into that slot and also like they’re seven and six without tyres Alberton this year it’s not like they’re killing people also Pascal sakam is awesome and has gone a

Long way towards helping them on that front as they’ve gone three and0 in their last three games number nine the Philadelphia 76ers I was really high on the Sixers after their six game winning streak they beat Sacramento they beat Houston they beat Denver in that impressive game

Where Jo and kind of shut down the the Nuggets offense down the stretch and they beat Orlando but then they went into Indiana and laid an egg and then they late scratched everyone against Denver and look I understand that embiid’s embiid fans kind of feel like there’s a

Narrative here and that the narrative isn’t necessarily fair but like guys embiid’s not doing himself any favors on this front like last year Joel emid played in 13 straight games before sitting out in Denver and then immediately played in the next five games so he played in 18 out of 19 games

And the one he sat out was the game in Denver this year he plays in six straight games Go including hunting points in a 70-point night against the San Antonio Spurs and then goes oh well I’m resting my knee I’m going to sit out against Denver like he told joic he’d

See him there he said so in his postgame presser after they won in Philly he wasn’t on the injury report before the game sham Shani reported 15 minutes before the game he was not on the injury report the Sixers on social media were advertising the matchup as joic vers

Embiid and then he sat out they’re almost certainly going to get fined for it and again like when when you’re talking about the narrative if you’re going to gun for 70 points against the Spurs and then sit out against Denver saying we want to make sure his knee is

Ready for the playoffs you’re going to get the side eye from a lot of people you just are it’s completely Fair criticism and also I mean this team kind of needed a signature win win they’re 29 and 15 but they played a comically easy schedule just 10 of those 29 wins were

Against teams that are 500 or better as of right now they’ve played the third easiest schedule in the league uh per opponent win percentage those 10 wins against 500 or better teams ranks 16th in the NBA they are also just one in4 on the road against teams in my Contender

List with their one win being against the young and Tiny Oklahoma City Thunder so like they needed this kind of like big road win to kind of just almost as like a test like it would have been a great test for them and they punted it

And it just left a bad taste in my mouth so I have the Sixers down at number nine right now number eight the Cleveland Cavaliers they’ve won nine of their last 10 games including two wins over the Bucks and a couple of other dominant Road wins against the Atlanta Hawks and

The Orlando Magic they are number one in defense and number one in net rating by a mile over that 10 game stretch the defense has been super impressive Isaac aoro Max Ru are are competing at the point of attack Dean Wade has been excellent in off ball situations and

Especially in switches Donovan Mitchell has had some of the best Closeouts I’ve ever seen from him in his NBA career he looks locked in on the defensive end and then Jared Allen is this super versatile big honestly like they’re not the most talented team in the world with Evan Moy

And Darius Garland out of the lineup but the lineup is much more synergistic now like it actually falls in line with my kind of like belief system surrounding the whole like uh you know like normal basketball lineup type of construction because you have athleticism in the back

Court you have a perimeter Forge you have an interior for like it just it’s all lined up a lot better now because you have you just have guys kind of in all of the needed positions to construct a basketball team especially on the defensive end of the floor it just

Looked different when you were constantly running out there with two small guards right and I mean like the Bucks really wanted to win that last game in in Milwaukee they really wanted to win that one and and they just beat the Cavs just went in there and beat him

And shut him down on offense like four different guys got stops on an island against Damen Lillard they were constantly building a wall in front of Giannis and making him into a passer it was a really impressive win the Cavs are good um I have Carter Rodriguez from the

Chase down pod coming on the show on Wednesday for a deep dive on the Cleveland Cavaliers so Cavs fans make sure you’re around on Wednesday that should be fun all right number seven the Milwaukee Bucks they are 4-2 since our last rankings they beat the Cavs once

And had a dominant win over a reeling Pelicans team but I thought the Cavs losses shined a light on some of their issues we’ve talked a lot about their point of attack defense but I want to focus on two other issues that have been popping up one their transition defense

Cleveland exposed their lack of transition defense in their last two losses they scored 67 points in transition in those two games constantly bad floor balance constantly bad principles like not getting matched up not communicating not sprinting back most importantly they’ve looked slow in transition you can really see their lack

Of foot speed Beyond Giannis in the lineup it’s been a huge problem for them and then secondly another Dame stinker in the last loss in Cleveland he couldn’t beat anyone off the dribble unless it was Sam Merrill he kept having to settle for these tough contested jump

Shots I talk a lot about this like push and pull when it comes to on Ball scoring like if you’re the defender and I’m the offensive player and you’re terrified of my pull-up jump shot and you’re terrified of my ability to beat you off the dribble that’s the perfect

Situation because then you’re going to have to either play up and I’m going right by you or you’re playing off and I’m knocking down the jump shot right but like let’s say my jumper is not going in now all of a sudden even if I’m an outstanding driver to the basket

You’re going to start giving space and I’m going to be able I have a hard time like finding those angles and you’re seeing that kind of go both ways for Dame he’s not making these pullup jump shots so guys are giving him a little bit more space he’s not as quick

As he used to be so as he starting to make those down downhill moves guys are beating him to spots and you’re seeing it manifest in the numbers over the course of this 18 game stretch this uh over the course of Dame’s last 18 games excuse me 23.8 points per game on below

40% from the field in 30% from three an 18 game stretch and we’re we’re almost halfway through the we are over halfway through the season now and to put it simply the B the Bucks will not win the title unless they get the Dame from last

Year and and they need some other stuff to go right as well but they need Dame to be better than he has been he has not been very good this year number six the Minnesota timber wolves just two and three in their last five games just dropped games to

Charlotte and San Antonio now some of this I should say most of this is just the let down after getting through the tough part of their schedule right like they get through this insane stretch where they play like 20 like something crazy like 16 17 straight games against

Really good teams and they did really well in that stretch and then you kind of like you’re like okay we’re good we we feel accomplished and then you just exhale right like you exhale but the problem is is the NBA is so damn talented that they’ll make you pay for

That Charlotte has players Brandon Miller is cooking right now and he lit them up lamelo ball picked them apart he had like 13 assists in that game vikor wanyama and Devon vasel are hoopers like if you don’t bring it against the Spurs they can beat you and so like a lot of

This is like effort but the concerning part is their offense my main concern with the Wolves all season has been their ability to function offensively in a slow down environment especially in that like kind of playoff type of environment and the the two things that

We look at to kind of track that are like half court offense and clutch offense that’s the closest thing in the NBA regular season to the uh to the playoffs and they’ve been a mediocre halfcourt offense this year and they’ve been a mediocre uh clutch offense this

Year and especially as of late they’ve been really bad in clutch situations on offense they are one and three in clutch situations just in this five-game stretch just a 92.1 offensive rating in those clutch situations for the season just a 108.9 that’s not good that’s 75 minutes

Of slowdown end of game basketball where they have not been very good offensively like I said Mike Conley is an older skill guard and he was out for two of those games they depend on him a lot but at the same time he’s an older skill guard Anthony Edwards is a superstar in

The making but he’s very very young and young players struggle with decision- making and then Carl towns is a notorious poor decision maker in these types of situations so it really doesn’t matter how good their defense is or what the the uh other advantages they have if when they get into the Slowdown

Environment they can’t execute as well as the other great teams around the league it’s been a consistent issue it was been an issue in this stretch the defense is real and it’s always going to give them a chance to win games but they will fet they will face much better

Halfcourt execution teams than them and that could and that could end up being what gets them beat number five the New York Knicks six- one since our last rankings 12-2 in their last 14 games tied with the clippers for the best record in the league over that

Span seventh in offense first in defense and first in rebounding one ugly loss to the Orlando Magic in there where they kind of lost in a physical game and some ugly moments down the stretch of that game but back-to-back dominant wins over the eastern and western conference

Defending Champions uh in the Miami Heat in the um Denver Nuggets ogan anobi and Dante Dean chenzo are dominating at the point of attack defensively Jaylen Brunson and Julius Randall are bringing like a physical imposition on offense although Julius Randle dislocated his shoulder hopefully he’s okay but they’re

Wearing teams down they’re a really really good team I I think I think the Knicks are one of those teams where like I don’t I don’t think they can win the conference necessarily but the teams that are above them that have flaws to ex uh to exploit like I would not be

Surprised if New York knocked off a Milwaukee I would not be surprised if New York knocked off a Philly they have the talent to do so and those teams have flaws that’s really just when they get to the top top tier of the NBA where I

Think they would run into some issues uh just in terms of Firepower number four the Oklahoma City Thunder mixed results since our last rankings they had impressive Road winds at Minnesota and at New Orleans but they got beat by the veteran Laker and Clippers teams and then they got manhandled by Jaylen

Durran in the Pistons without Kade Cunningham last night what a weird game that was the offense is sputtering they’re 19th in offense over this eight game span basically everybody that’s not Shay gild Alexander or Jaylen Williams is struggling Chad is slumping uh Josh giddy is slumping Lou Dort is slumping

But in spite of all that they’re five- four versus my top five contenders and they’re the number one seed in the west so they’re holding down the five spot for me or excuse me the four spot for me for right now number three the Boston Celtics dropping down U from number one

Another disappointing loss in a major in a major game they got dominated by the Clippers on the tail the Clippers run to back toback and they get dominated they have three losses in their last 10 games here’s how they break down they are s-0 against teams that are outside of my top

Five contenders they are 0 and three against teams that are in my top five contenders including two of those losses at home and even worse what has been my main concern for the Celtics Team all year offensive process can they make can they consistently hunt and take and make the

Right shots against the best teams in the league they had 102 points against the Milwaukee Bucks they had 100 points against Denver they had 96 points against the Clippers so they have only three losses in their last 10 games all against my top contenders all of them the offense sputtered that’s concerning

It’s very concerning Jason Tatum last five games eight for 26 on pull-up threes that’s 31% so we had a brief stretch where they were going in and it looked great and everything was great and now we’re back where we’ve been the previous three years and again guys like

26 of them in five games this is a third of his shot diet a third of Jason Tatum’s shots are like pull up threes off the dribble that he makes about a third of the time if not less and so like it just was it was really discouraging and again like

That’s the thing with Celtics fans I have them all the time in my comments they’ll be like why didn’t you say anything after we beat the out of Miami or why blah blah blah blah and like again I tell you guys like I it’s in the schedule I schedule the games I’m

Going to cover and I primarily schedule Celtics games when they’re playing the best teams and they keep losing to the best teams and and when they do it’s the same stuff that gets them beat the other times they lose to the best teams and so like bizarrely enough seven and three in

Their last 10 games in a super super concerning stretch of Boston Celtic basketball they seem super super dependent on Chris chrisop porzingis as well there’s there’s just again still have him as number two in my contenders list because everyone else has a bunch of issues too and like I said at the

Start of this list today’s a very negative version of the power rankings but I thought it was a concerning couple of weeks for the Boston Celtics number two the Denver Nuggets three and2 on their five-game road trip big wins over Boston and Indie tough losses to New York and Philly

Teams with real size and physicality can give Denver some issues especially when Denver’s not locked in like embiid’s uh denial of joic really bothered their uh their offense when they were down in Philly New York’s athleticism in passing Lanes caused jic to turn the ball over uncharacteristically a lot like you

Could tell like the big physical teams can give them some issues but I still think this is the best team in basketball and I think in the mix of all these teams struggling I just trust them the most so I’m keeping them at number two number one the Los Angeles Clippers

They are undefeated since our last list 13 and two in their last 15 games number one offense in the league over that span number six defense doing a ton of damage on the offensive glass too their perimeter athleticism is is a factor here like uh they are really athletic on the perimeter between

Terence Mann and Norman Powell and Russell Westbrook and Ka Leonard and Paul George like it they just bring wave after wave of perimeter athleticism in a league that has so much more jump shooting there’s all these long rebounds and so they can really do a lot of

Damage on the offensive glass um uh just with their perimeter athleticism but and and again like they’re a bottom 10 defensive rebounding team even over this span so like it’s important for them to try to kind of like make up for some of that on the other end of the floor it’s been

Interesting an incredibly impressive ass kicking of the Celtics in Boston kawhai and Paul George just thoroughly outplay Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown they are looking Flatout scary and I’m ending the show like this today I am moving my contenders again I’m taking Milwaukee off of that three spot and I’m moving

The Clippers up to number three so I’m going Denver Boston Clippers then the Bucks they just have fewer question marks in my opinion and they went from going 0 and six in their first six games after the and trade to being number one in our power ranking shout out to the LA

Clippers all right guys that is all I have for today we’ll be back tomorrow with a breakdown of some games from tonight’s slate we got a bunch of really good games tonight I look forward to seeing you guys then I appreciate the support see you Tomorrow

Jason Timpf reacts to the Orlando Magic’s dominant 113-96 victory over the Phoenix Suns, and breaks down the issues with the Suns’ top-heavy roster relying too much on Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal. Later, he lists his top 10 teams in the NBA in a brand new edition of his NBA Power Rankings. Jason explains how Joel Embiid missed a golden opportunity vs. the Denver Nuggets, Anthony Edwards’ clutch struggles, and why the Los Angeles Clippers sit on top this week.

00:00 – Start
01:30 – Magic dominate Suns
10:30 – The 3 Big issues with the Phoenix Suns
22:53 – NBA Power Rankings
26:30 – Embiid punts facing Jokic

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