The Cavs stop their slide with a win against Utah, but what does it really mean for the Cavs? Es Baraheni and Zena Keita play Something, Nothing or Everything with the Cavs slide, Suns winning 3 in a row, Lakers returning to full strength, the fun Bulls and the Clippers surging. Then, the Athletic’s Kelly Iko joins to discuss the Houston Rockets and the expectations for them in the Playoffs + what could happen in the offseason with the roster.Host: Es BaraheniWith: Zena Keita and Kelly IkoExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson Moodyhttps://www.nytimes.com/athletic/nba/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What does the Cavs' recent win against the Jazz mean?
Yeah, that's everything. That's huge for the franchise.
That's everything. Absolutely it is. I want to talk about the Clippers side, though, because before this loss, they had won five in a row. Kawhi in his last 11 games is averaging 24 points, six rebounds, six assists, doing so efficiently. And Xena, I kind of feel like the boy who cried wolf here, because every season I go in saying, am I going to believe in the L.A. Clippers?
But are they going to stay healthy? And I have thought, oh well, Kawhi is back, the Clippers are back every single year. And I'm at the point where I've just accepted the fact that I'm the boy who cried wolf. And I have to ask you this, because I think it's something. I think the fact that the Clippers are playing good basketball recently is something.
And the fact that it's leading to the playoffs and they're fighting for the sixth seed in the West and all that type of stuff, that is something to me. Their defense is something to me. Absolut. Ich will in diesem Team glauben, aber die Gesundheit und die Schmerzen halten mich zurück. Glaubst du, es ist etwas, nichts oder alles?
Nein, es ist etwas. Es ist absolut etwas. Und ich denke, du bist absolut richtig. Der Aspekt von Kawaii, insbesondere seine Gesundheit, ist groß. Ja. He spent a significant more time out this year being very cognizant about this particular portion of the season, being able to come back and making sure that he was ready. His team, the Clippers, did a phenomenal job.
of blocking out the noise of what's going to happen with Kawhi and not sending him out there too early. And so now you're seeing Kawhi that looks healthy, that's moving really well, that's fighting well against pressure, which you saw OKC was incredibly physical with them on Sunday night. And Kawhi in that high post area was really maneuvering pretty well around that.
And that's where I was a little shaky of what's those turnaround fader jumpers going to look like with two people trapping him or trying to swarm him. And he looked really good. I do agree with you in that this has been a factor. What I'll say is Kawhi looks really good, but there's also other elements to the Clippers that have elevated. Zubats, to me, is number one.
Zubats' game, particularly the connection he has with James Harden, but his game in general, has elevated to another level. You add in Bogdan Bogdanovic, who's been phenomenal for them since the trade from Atlanta. Great fill-in for Terrence Mann. And then you add in the defense of Chris Dunn.
And there's all of these factors and elements coming together to play that I don't know if the Clippers have had recently. I mean, yes, Amir Coffey was shooting before and Derek Jones Jr. has been a great high-flying alley-oop type of player and they also can hit the wing three, but
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Chapter 2: Are the Cavs struggling or just going through a phase?
And until they get to that point or until they either go trade for a guy that can be that alpha or just find someone to take that leap, you're going to have nights like this. And then, you know, come next month, whenever the playoffs roll around, Es könnte ein 1er Runde sein, aber selbst wenn es ein 6er oder 7er Runde ist, denke ich nicht, dass sie genug haben, um einen tiefen Runde zu machen.
Oh, du hast auf zwei Dinge zu sprechen, über die Playoffs, aber auch darüber, wer diese Off-Saison bekommen kann. S, ich lasse dich diese Frage stellen. Ich möchte dich über dieses Playoff-Monat fragen, und vor allem über die Teams, die die Hierarchien haben, weil wenn ich die sechs, sieben, sieben, acht sehe, ich meine, die Warriors haben ein System. Ich denke, die Clippers haben ein System.
Sie haben auch Veteranen, richtig? Richtig. Was ist ein Team, und wenn man sich die Standorte anschaut, welches ist ein Team, das die Houston Rockets absolut nicht gegen zu kämpfen wollen?
Golden State. Was auch immer du tun kannst, was auch immer du tun kannst, ich denke, das ist mein Dark Horse. Das ist mein Dark Horse. Da ist etwas über Steph. Something about Jimmy Butler in the playoffs, I don't think you want to get those guys in this building again because of the trauma he's given Rockets fans over the years.
And now you add in Jimmy Butler, who's from Tomball, by the way, who's down the road, a guy that can come in and who's tried and tested in those playoff games. I don't think you want to see them at all. If I'm using it, I don't think you want to see the Lakers at all either because that dual system of Luka and LeBron is just... It's just trying to construct a defense around it.
It can be a scary thing to approach. Even teams like Minnesota. We've seen Anthony Edwards and what he's done in the playoffs. You add a Randall, you add a Nas Reed, who the Rockets have historically struggled against. There are a lot of teams that... Wenn ich die Rockets bin, will ich die Spieler nicht treffen, weil es ein Nummern-Spiel ist. Es ist ein Match-Up-Spiel.
Und du hast es in den letzten Jahren gesehen, diese älteren, erfahrenen Teams, sie haben diese Spielmenschlichkeit, sie werden die Jungs retten, sie werden die Jungs auslösen, um zu finden, wo sie sein wollen, nachdem die Dunkelheit entspricht. Also, ich denke, für die Rockets jetzt...
Wenn ich ihnen sage, und ich werde ehrlich sein, ich weiß, dass es mindestens vier oder fünf Teams gibt, die ich in der ersten Runde nicht sehen möchte. Also wenn du versuchen willst, einen tiefen Rund zu machen, dann musst du vielleicht in die Games-Runde gehen.
Ja, ich wollte gerade sagen, vier oder fünf Teams ist viel. Du wirst versuchen, das zu beurteilen.
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