Dave DuFour, Zena Keita, and Es Baraheni run you through the games from the weekend including the Thunder vs Warriors, Chet Holmgren’s injury, the sputtering Bucks, and much more. After a break, they walk you through their favorite things from the weekend and give their Bet MGM picks of the week.Check us out on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_Ai7C2BRJd4Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita and Es BaraheniExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson Moody Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: Why are the Bucks struggling this season?
And unfortunately for the Bucs, a lot of stuff happening for them in a negative direction. They lose a couple of games over the weekend. They they got blown out by the Knicks Friday and then they blew a 43 point Giannis performance and 11 point lead at halftime to the Celtics. And guys, the Bucs are now two and eight. This is not good at all.
And Zena, look, the vibes when you lose, the vibes are never going to be good. Right. But the vibes for me just they feel really, really bad. There were a lot of stuff in the game. Like there's some weird stuff with Giannis. It's it's not the greatest.
It isn't. And I'm very curious as to how they feel in the locker room as a collective. I've been actually listening to a lot of Giannis postgame press conferences because I'm curious as a leader of this team, as a person that called for a lot of the changes or allegedly called for a lot of the changes you've seen with this team.
how does he feel about continuously losing games that feel like they're winnable so during the six game losing streak it seemed that yannis had a theme with everything he was saying and it was around are we moving in the right direction are we shooting enough threes are we being competitive enough and most recently after they broke that six game losing streak against the utah jazz he felt like they had competed against the calves and against the jazz then they went and got
blown out by New York. And if you heard he had an outburst after that, he didn't feel like his team competed. He didn't feel like he was, they were doing what they needed to be doing or quote moving in the right direction. Now I'm looking at this game tonight against or last night against Boston. And if you look at the statistical breakdown of this game,
it kind of looks like they were moving in the right direction. I mean, outside of three-pointers, right? They had a better field goal percentage. They rebounded well. They outscored the Celtics in points in the paint. So I'm wondering, like, if you lose this game against the Celtics who put up 53s, and ultimately that was the reason why the Bucs ended up losing this game, Are you that upset?
Are the vibes that bad? Or are you happy that you competed? I think now you have to look at the games ahead and see they're not the Celtics. These are winnable games. Are you going to move in the right direction and get wins?
You know, OK, so the 53s is certainly a part of it. And the Bucs definitely got to find a way to increase the three point volume like that.
They only had 32. It's not that's it.
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Chapter 2: What happened to Chet Holmgren's injury?
Chapter 3: How is Giannis handling the Bucks' losses?
it kind of looks like they were moving in the right direction. I mean, outside of three-pointers, right? They had a better field goal percentage. They rebounded well. They outscored the Celtics in points in the paint. So I'm wondering, like, if you lose this game against the Celtics who put up 53s, and ultimately that was the reason why the Bucs ended up losing this game, Are you that upset?
Are the vibes that bad? Or are you happy that you competed? I think now you have to look at the games ahead and see they're not the Celtics. These are winnable games. Are you going to move in the right direction and get wins?
You know, OK, so the 53s is certainly a part of it. And the Bucs definitely got to find a way to increase the three point volume like that.
They only had 32. It's not that's it.
That's not that's not going to work, especially against against the Celtics. But the truth is, and as I mean, we've kind of been on this since the preseason. Damian Lillard is a turnstile, the point of attack, and down the stretch in the game against the Celtics, he's just being hunted. And there's very little effort on the defensive end from Dame. So that, to me, is a huge problem.
Yeah, I mean, look, I know that they blew a lead, a good first half lead, but I think that was partially because of the Celtics shooting. Like they just struggled in that first half. They got hot and, you know, the Celtics have a have a way of figuring things out even when that jumper isn't going.
And so when you get into a fourth quarter, hey, we got to out execute this team type of basketball game. The Celtics know exactly what they want to do on every single possession, and they are going to hunt Damian Lillard. That's been the M.O. pretty much all season against the Bucs.
And especially if it's in a close game, if it's, you know, even if it was the Cavs game or the Knicks game, whatever. They've been hunting Dame at the pick and roll, getting him switched on to whoever they want. And it's just tough because he is objectively been really, really, really bad on that.
Worse than even normal.
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Chapter 4: What adjustments are the Warriors making this year?
Yeah.
Chapter 5: Who are the standout players for the Warriors?
And Darius Garland, he always reminded me of Steph Curry because, you know, he's so good off the ball, like defenses have to chase him and stuff. And I think that this version of the two headed snake with with him and Donovan Mitchell, it's really tough. And you think about how well that worked for the Mavs, having Kyrie and Luca in the playoffs.
Just you always have a guy who can get a shot just off the dribble. But then they both are really good off the ball, too.
And playmakers. They find their teammates. We have seen some remarkable passes from Darius Garland. No looks. Being able to find his bigs. It's also him cultivating the offense as well.
Did you guys catch Jokic? Of course you did. Of course, it's impossible to miss Jokic right now, who, you know, as you said the other day, KD would be your MVP. And unfortunately, you know, he's going to miss some time now with this true cast.
But OK, we can erase that.
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Chapter 6: What does the future hold for the Thunder without Chet?
The Nuggets are seven and three now after we were so worried about them. We're worried about their depth. And the reason is because of Nikola Jokic. He had another game against Dallas, again, another clutch performance where he hits the game winner. He's doing everything, 37 points, 18 rebounds, 15 assists. He's fourth in scoring right now. He's first in assists. He's first in rebounds.
He's first in offensive rebounds. He's shooting 56% from three. Which would be the best of his career. The thing is, he had this wrist injury that stuck with him last year. His shot, he just didn't feel comfortable. This year, he's actually seeking it out. That's been the biggest difference for the Nuggets is that Jokic has actually turned himself into a scorer on purpose now.
Chapter 7: Are the Cleveland Cavaliers the best team in basketball?
Sometimes he'd have games where he'd take five or six shots. That's not happening anymore.
Well, he has to.
He has to. But that's how they're winning. That's why they're winning. This guy, I mean, we're now 10 games through the season. This thing is flying. We're a month in. We're going to start seeing these MVP ladders, these MVP rankings. Any list that doesn't have Nikola Jokic at the top when we get this thing started...
is wrong it's funny because like we talked about voter fatigue so much with the mvp award especially when it comes to yokich right but now we're in a situation where i think this is the last way that he can win the mvp which is he has to do so much more for his team he has to carry this load that he probably has never yeah exactly exactly yeah he has to make it so it's almost ridiculous for you to consider another person
for this. Yeah.
And he's the best in the world though. And he still looks like it coming up after the break. We're going to preview the NBA cup with our bet. MGM picks of the week. All right. NBA Cup group play starts this week. We're all excited. We're actually going to be in Vegas for the semifinal and the final. So we're going to be locked in on this all year. Oh, yeah. It was fun last year. I will say this.
The courts look better this year.
The courts are back. They are. And they're beautiful. They're actually beautiful this year.
I will. And the Timberwolves green court that looks like a green screen is going to that's going to be Photoshopped. Magic. Jerome Chang is going to have a great time. But we wanted to focus in on the NBA Cup with our picks this week. Our BetMGM picks brought to you by BetMGM. And guys, I'm going to take the Charlotte Hornets over the Orlando Magic on the road.
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