The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavs roll in spite of Jokić | Thinking Basketball with Ben Taylor
Fri, 06 Dec 2024
Nikola Jokić passed Magic Johnson on the NBA’s all time triple doubles list, but it wasn’t enough as the Nuggets were handily beaten by the league best Cleveland Cavaliers. Dave DuFour and Es Baraheni discuss Jokić night and season thus far, revisit the “Jamal Murray or Donovan Mitchell” debate, and Ja Morant’s ejection against the Kings. Then, Ben Taylor, from “Thinking Basketball”, joins the show to talk about the contenders that pass his sniff test. Finally, Es and Dave take a look at some eye opening numbers.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Es BaraheniExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodySubmit your questions to The Athletic NBA Daily mailbag: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5939460/2024/11/25/nba-podcast-mailbag-athletic-daily Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What happened in the Cavs vs. Nuggets game?
What's your list look like when you're thinking about the folks we're going to be looking at in June?
Wow. So I guess that's a good place to start, because one thing we do a lot on our show and whenever we have this conversation is we have what Cody likes to call my co-host. He likes to say the inner circle. Right. Right. Who is in the inner circle? And these are teams that we really think are strong title favorites.
that are going to emerge at the end of the year, high probability that if you took your inner circle and you ran the season 100 times, almost every time your inner circle is going to win a title. That's the idea. So for me right now, it's obviously Boston. You did not say Oklahoma City. I would put them... In the obvious category, I should have very, very deep in the circle. Yes, exactly.
And then I'm not even sure I'd put I don't know right now if I have a third team in there. I really don't.
Yeah, not as high on Cleveland as a lot of people.
Well, I think Cleveland's great. I think they're great. I think they're going to win a lot of games. I think they're going to be good in the playoffs. The question is, when we get down to the end of the year. You know, are they able to compete in a playoff series with a team like the Celtics in the Eastern Conference? I don't know if they're going to have another team.
We can talk about whether we think there's another team from the East and that like real inner circle spot. But I think Cleveland's very, very good. I'm just not quite sure yet. Mathematically, if they go in.
inner circle are they going whatever this next tier is of like very dangerous teams that could challenge the inner circle in the conversation like the bowl the you know the bowl of the arena whatever it is if the if the arena is the inner circle whatever i'm trying i'm lost they're not they're not courtside is what you're saying they're like lower bowl but not courtside respectable seats you can take a date they can take a date to the game but you know they're not sitting courtside so then what's the west look like for you
Well, let me just stay with Cleveland for a second. Are you guys comfortable with them on the same line as the Celtics and even a team like OKC?
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Chapter 2: How did Nikola Jokić perform against the Cavs?
Yeah. You talk to my girlfriend more than I do. No, it's another thing. So we were kind of coming up with ideas because this is supposed to be the fun time, right? The fun segment. And S was saying, oh, there's some crazy stats we could talk about. And then he told me one of them. And I hate to say it, but I kind of wish I would have heard it on air because my reaction was shocking.
And so, S, let's just jump right into this because this first stat.
It is absurd. It's absurd. OK, so the Oklahoma City Thunder destroyed the Toronto Raptors tonight. Wasn't even close. Just got molly whopped. That's right. In the first half, OKC had 18 steals and blocks combined. Toronto had 15 made shots. That's incredible. That's so incredible.
Like that's the level of ineptitude that usually you don't see out of the Raptors until the fourth quarter, right? Like they normally don't do that till it's six minutes ago and they got a 10 point lead and they stopped running off it. So, I mean, so Shout out to them for getting into their stuff early. It was tough. That's bad.
It was a very bad. I mean, OKC's defense was just unreal. Alex Caruso was at another level tonight.
Honestly, that first half with all those turnovers and, you know, that is sort of what their season has been. If you were to ask me to describe OKC's first 20 games, just watch the first half of them against the Raptors. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
All right. Well, there's no, there's like, they're the number one defensive league for a reason, you know? Okay. Another one. There's a player right now who has taken 71 threes over his last five games. Can you guess that? What player that is 71 threes over five games, which is absurd. He also is, I believe right now he's leading the league in three point attempts. Although. Yeah.
Oh, well, it's not lamello. Cause he, no, it's not too many games, man. That's a tough one. Oh, you know what you want me to tell you? I mean, off the top of my head, I would think like Anthony Edwards or someone like that.
But OK, it's actually Lamello's teammates. Brandon Miller. Wow. Seventy one threes over his last five games. And obviously, since Lamello has been out. Yeah, he's just letting it fly, man. They've given him the green light and he's taken like catch and shoot jump shots, pull up jump shots, all of the above.
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