The Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Houston Rockets on Saturday to drop their third game in a row. Dave DuFour, Zena Keita, and Es Baraheni react to Cleveland’s losing streak, the Sixers trying to compete, and Rivalry Week’s conclusion. Then, the gang talks about some things nobody is talking about like the Clippers since Kawhi returned, Jaren Jackson Jr. and the Grizzlies winning ways, and Kel’el Ware’s ascension up the rookie ladder.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Es Baraheni & Zena KeitaExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodyRead David Aldridge’s story on the Sixers: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6087167/2025/01/26/joel-embiid-76ers-committed-draft-josh-harris/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: Are the Cleveland Cavaliers in trouble?
I'm going to just throw the question out for you guys. Whoever wants to take it, go. Are they just coming back down to earth? Is that what's happening?
Well, I know Xena is the Cavs believer here. How do you feel?
I'm not concerned. Okay. I think that every team has to experience these types of losses, get some teach tape, get back on track. The number one thing that happened, particularly in these three losses, is that the Cavs put these teams at the free throw line. I mean, it was insane that the Houston Rockets were able to shoot 45 free throws in one game. Sixers got 27.
That is unnatural and also not normal for the Cleveland Cavaliers. It's not natural for any NBA game. 45 free throws is insane. But the Cavaliers are not typically that team. Something was going on with their defense in which they were just a step behind in all of these games. I imagine them to pick it up. I'm not even a Cavs fan, folks.
No, you're not. You're not a Cavs fan. And you know what? I called you a believer, but we're all believers. Yeah, we believe in the Cavs. We all believe in the Cavs. They're a good basketball team. Yeah, absolutely. They're a very good team.
And it's expected for them to kind of come down to earth a little bit, given the crazy shooting that started off this year, like they were the number one shooting team in the league. I also think a big part of this, quote unquote, losing streak is not having Evan Mobley for two of those three games. Right.
especially their first game against the Rockets, you could feel the physicality of the Rockets kind of battling with them. That probably leads into what you're talking about when it comes to the free throw disparity because they couldn't handle the physicality.
When Mobley came back on Saturday when they played, just didn't look like he was kind of getting back in rhythm, didn't have the most effective game. And I think, man, when teams can throw out size against Houston and their guards, It can be against Cleveland, excuse me, and their guards. It could be a really, really long night.
So maybe that's a matchup thing that they have to look forward to, which might poke. It's not a big issue right now because they're a really good team, but something to look forward to for the postseason if they're trying to make that deep run. Yeah. Well, the teams that have bothered them, if you look, it's Houston, Atlanta.
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Chapter 2: What is happening with the Sixers this season?
And if you look at Paul George's numbers over the course of this season, it's playing right into what he's saying, where his priorities are to win. He split up between November, December, and January, about the same amount of games, 9, 11, and 10.
And if you look at his numbers in November, when he was first coming off of injury, adapting to a new team, obviously getting back into the midst of playing basketball, his numbers were abysmal, right? They were not what he's capable of putting up. Okay. Let me just like read this off. 28.6% from the field in November. Yeah. This month in his 11 games, 44.7%. Huge jump. Much better.
Much better.
If you look at just January, he's had 525 plus point performances just in the month of January. This guy can put numbers up. He just hasn't been. And so you're seeing a continual growth, not only his field goal percentage, his three point percentage. He's right now fourth best three point per shooter in the month of January for anyone that's taken 75 more shots from beyond the arc.
Number one, that's a lot of shots coming from beyond the arc for a mid-range shooter like Paul George. Again, playing into my priorities are to win. He's going to find a way to score. He is a three-level scorer, and he's getting better at the way that he's scoring out there for the Sixers.
It doesn't hurt that Tyrese Maxey is also on a streak with the amount of games that he's putting up 20-plus points games. Kelly Oubre Jr. putting up some points as well. I like the way that the Sixers are fighting right now, and it absolutely confirms they're not trying to tank.
it's like it's this weird situation where they're not trying to tank but they might be thrown into a situation where they will be because the next 10 games look like yeah this next stretch of basketball they play the lakers they play the kings nuggets celtics mavericks heat pistons bucks again they play the celtics later that month they got a couple games against the nixon warriors so like that's rough their schedule
It's pretty tough.
They better hope the Bulls do trade away their good players because the Bulls have a three-game lead right now. The Sixers have a really hard schedule. That division is not really easy outside of Washington.
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Chapter 3: How is Kawhi Leonard impacting the Clippers?
And then they played each other and one person's streak was broken and the other person's streak was broken. And then we haven't talked about streaks in a very long time. The person or the team that has the longest active win streak right now. is Memphis. And tonight they're going into their next game with six games in a row. They are on a roll.
And if you ask them what is contributing to their success, they're talking about the fact that they're one of the healthiest teams out on the court right now. And who's been leading that effort? The person I really feel we're not talking nearly enough about. And that is Jaron Jackson Jr., Period. This man is 6'10", with a bag like a guard, guarding one through five.
Chapter 4: What does Paul George's return mean for the Clippers?
Chapter 5: What are the Sixers' chances for the playoffs?
Look, if the Clippers wind up getting a high quality backup big somehow, do they have a hole in their rotation? You know, I mean, you know, they have defenders. They have shooters. They have Kawhi and Harden. They've got Zubach. I mean, this is a team that I think come playoff time matches up really, really well at full health with just about anybody. Dave, it's just the one thing, man. I know.
It's the one thing we always have to remember.
That's all it has. They have the wall. S maybe. Hey, maybe the new home court advantage changes things, man. Maybe. I hope. I hope.
I'm happy you brought up health because that is actually going to be a nice segue into my thing that I don't think people aren't talking enough about or aren't talking at all about. Right. I don't know if you guys knew, but remember when there was like all of this hoopla around the fact that Cleveland went 15 and 0. There was a crazy streak that they had. And then OKC had a crazy streak.
And then they played each other and one person's streak was broken and the other person's streak was broken. And then we haven't talked about streaks in a very long time. The person or the team that has the longest active win streak right now. is Memphis. And tonight they're going into their next game with six games in a row. They are on a roll.
And if you ask them what is contributing to their success, they're talking about the fact that they're one of the healthiest teams out on the court right now. And who's been leading that effort? The person I really feel we're not talking nearly enough about. And that is Jaron Jackson Jr., Period. This man is 6'10", with a bag like a guard, guarding one through five.
Leading the Memphis Grizzlies in points, in blocks, in steals. He's actually one of only three people in the league doing that, leading their team in points, blocks, and steals. The only other two are Anthony Davis and someone we talk about all the time, Shea Gildress Alexander.
Shea Gildress Alexander. Okay.
This is where Jaron Jackson Jr. is there. And the reason why I feel like we're not talking enough about him, because the all-star voting was so disrespectful. This man came back 10th in all-star fan voting. Didn't cross 400,000.
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Chapter 6: How are teams adapting to the NBA's current landscape?
Got to get these guys on national TV more. What's great about Jaren, and you mentioned the injuries, like last year he was their most healthy core player. Correct. I think last year experimenting, trying to create and like be, you know, this offensive hub for them has really lent into what he's doing this year. I think it's like 55% of his buckets this year are assisted. which is a career low.
So most of his shots he's creating on his own now, which is a really, really cool wrinkle to this whole thing where it's like he is the offensive option for the Grizzlies. And they play really unique basketball, which is really cool. So I agree with that. Nobody is talking about the Grizz. It helps that he cleaned up the offensive fouls too.
Like he was just a walking charge, you know, offensively. He just kind of would trip over his feet sometimes trying to attack from the wing. So he's gotten a lot better at that. S, what is nobody talking to you about?
Yeah, I'm glad Zena brought up a versatile big, okay? Because I have someone who might be next up on the versatile big category, okay? He's a rookie, 15th overall pick for the Miami Heat, Kal-El Ware. And you know why it's Kal-El? He is Superman, okay? Kryptonian. Literally, his nickname is the Kryptonian. And it's so cool to watch him because he has that swag to him as well.
He can do it all on the floor. He can shoot the ball. He blocks shots. He's a great rim runner. Good screener. Great cutter. Works really well in Miami's offensive system. And he works really well next to Bam. Perfect for Bam. Perfect player for Bam out of bio. Actually, I saw this.
So it's a small sample size, but in the minutes where Bam and Ware are playing together, they're plus 12 on the floor in like a very, very small sample size, which is great. It'd be a very, very good combination. With Bam and no Kal-El, they're minus four. And with Ware and no Bam, they're actually plus four. They're winning their minutes. So there's something there.
Well, they're probably playing against worse players when Bam is off. But I will say, this is something that we have maybe talked about for years with Bam.
Yes.
You know, the Kevin Love edition was very much about Bam, right? This is a juiced up version because you have someone who's long, who plays defense. He's younger. Younger, of course.
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