Donovan Mitchell leads the Cavs past the Celtics and Fred VanVleet leads the Rockets past the Thunder in a wild Sunday night of NBA basketball. Dave DuFour, Zena Keita and Es Baraheni are your guides for all the NBA action from the weekend, including these 2 games. The breakfast club then discuss the best players from the weekend and form their All Weekend Teams. Finally the crew discuss their picks for the week and give an update on the NBA Cup.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita, 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 were the highlights of the Cavs vs. Celtics game?
and the number two team in both conferences facing off against each other. We had the Cavs and Celtics rematch, which, you know, the Cavs, they lose their first game last week to the Celtics. They knocked them off, ending that undefeated streak to start the season. Guys, this game was electric. No Jalen Brown, no Derek White. We thought we were going to get a dud.
Chapter 2: How did Donovan Mitchell perform in the game?
And S, thanks to Donovan Mitchell, we got one of the best fourth quarters that I think we've seen all year. 20 points from him in that comeback fourth quarter that they had. But this game, Again, Cavs Celtics is much CTV.
It's I I need it in the playoffs. I want it as a playoff series. It's definitely one of the ones where like I've already marked down on my little notebook. But yeah, this game was was great. And I think through three quarters, the conversation that I was having with myself was, wow, this is the Jason Tatum game. Right. It's coming together and he doesn't need Jalen Brown or Derek White.
He can do it all himself. And and for what it's worth, he had a really great game. I thought like the manipulation in the mid range area, the playmaking, it was it was looking good, especially in the fourth quarter. There was like a couple of fadeaway jump shots that he had hunting out Darius Garland. That was really good. But it was the Donovan Mitchell show in the fourth quarter. 20 points.
He had that crazy crossover against Drew Holiday, the little hee hee. You know, the snatch back. That was I think I got out my seat on that one. That was beautiful. But he just took over. And I think for what it's worth, the Cavs, the way that they kind of summoned up the energy to get that win in the fourth quarter, it was more important to them.
having lost to the Hawks on Friday than it was to the Celtics. And I think you noticed that in the fourth too, like they just wanted it more.
Yeah. And the Hawks are just world beaters. So, you know, just beating the Cavs twice, beat the Celtics before. That's your Hawks right there. That's right. Yeah. Zena, look, you know where we're at now. They're 18 and three Cavs. They just, this is a huge win over the Celtics in a marquee game. As we just, even despite NBA TV on Sunday, in spite of the injuries,
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Chapter 3: What makes the Cavaliers a contender this season?
at what point do we start believing in the Cleveland Cavaliers?
I'm not even sure why you're asking me this question because I have believed in them since the start of the season. I have told you that this team is set up to win championships. And I did not put too much credence into that loss earlier in the season when the Cavs broke their winning streak. There's been so many good things about the way the Cavs have bounced back.
Now,
Darius Garland did have a task in front of him, having to be smaller and trying to guard a Jason Tatum and also score. But who made up for that lack of ability on offense? Donovan Mitchell. And also, Isaac Okoro. Don't look at the stat sheet, folks. The way that he was able to influence the defensive game and get them in transition, get them going...
was huge and a lot of people like to sleep on donovan mitchell in this mvp conversation i will never forget guys i texted it in the group should donovan mitchell be a part of mvp dave defoe said the numbers don't add up i don't know about that folks i don't know about that she just directly quoted me from the group shots taking shots that's crazy
The way that the Cavs are built with Donovan Mitchell, he tried to dunk on Luke Cornett, seven-footer. Okay, he's got something in his chest, and I really like him.
I feel like Cornett's one of those guys, though, that if you see him in the paint, you're like, you know what, I bet I can get him. I bet I can get him. It's like Bill Lambert back in the day.
That's crazy. Can he jump over? Who's that guy on the Knicks?
Actually, Cornette can catch a lob, so maybe guys don't think it twice. But, hey, listen, I think right now, look, when you look at the East, the top two, they're just head and shoulders above everybody else. And if we swing it out to the West, it's much more – like the fray is much more competitive in the West.
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Chapter 4: What led to the Rockets' win over the Thunder?
If it's a dagger three, it's the slowest thrown dagger you could possibly ever imagine.
It's a trebuchet because of the arc.
Yes.
There you go.
You just get big play after big play, and that's why they brought these guys in. We always talk about the youth with the Rockets, but the two guys that were instrumental in this game for the win was Fred VanVleet, 38 points, that big three.
Dylan Brooks, down the stretch, he gets a big tie-up, wins the jump ball, so huge possession, hits the game-winning, I don't know what we call this little jumper in the lane. Yeah, push shot. Yeah. And he's just in these two guys. They just over and over again for this team as they're involved in winning plays. And it's almost like they're teaching these guys, the younger guys, how to win.
Well, man, I think initially last year they taught them how to defend like they went from one of the worst defenses last year to a top 10 defense last year. Now they're competing for one of the best defense in the league. I think a lot of that has to do with Fred and Dylan at the point of attack, just being dogs and it having a trickle down effect on the rest of the team.
We've talked about a man Thompson and Tari Eason and like the other guys who are competing. Jalen green is also competing in my opinion on the defensive end. But I more so it starts with those two guys and how they set the tone on defense, by the way,
The one five pick and roll between Fred and Shang-Goon is like the basis of everything they do offensively tonight, even despite like against OKC's really, really good defensive core. They found a way to make them work, man. And that that's intriguing to me to see that those two just like develop that chemistry more often.
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Chapter 5: How are Fred VanVleet and Dylan Brooks impacting the Rockets?
Yeah.
Guys, stick around after the break. We're going to talk about our all weekend team and hit some of our highlights from the weekend. All right. We thought it would be a fun little way to wrap up the weekend by making an all weekend team selection again. And honestly, it's just a good way to take a look at all the stuff that's happening around the league. You know, we mentioned Jason Tatum.
He had a great game on Sunday, but also put up 35 and 14 against the Bulls in the NBA Cup the other night. I mean, he's just this guy is an MVP candidate. regardless of the jokes that we make. He's up there. Shea Gildas Alexander, also on our all-weekend team, had 36 points and had another great game on Sunday. I mean, you know, again, this guy. Another MVP candidate.
Now, not an MVP candidate, but maybe like a most improved because that award is a little bit weird, but Franz Wagner. For the Orlando Magic, he made our all-weekend team. And Zena, he's on this list because it's a little bit of a surprise. We talked about him coming into the year. The jumper was broken. No Paolo. And the Magic just keep winning games. They're the three seed right now in the East.
I mean, if you had told me when Paolo got hurt that they would maintain this level of success, I would have thought, oh, Jalen sucks. Wow, Franz has been amazing.
Especially consistently, right? You would have imagined a dip, but they've now won six games in a row. And Franz Wagner has been the catalyst behind this. He's had such balanced performances. He's able to score and create consistently on the offensive end. He's had seven. This is the 17th outing with at least 20 points this season, which is unbelievable.
But on the defensive end, guess what his defensive rating is?
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
103. Yeah. Okay. 102.8 to be specific. So being able to defend well, keeping to under three fouls a game and also creating a godsend for a coach. You want to be able to have somebody that can consistently provide. And let's not forget. His brother has been showing up ever since his little brother has been playing well.
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Chapter 6: Who are the standout players from the weekend?
But if Middleton can come back and get healthy, I mean, this bucks team, I don't know, man, they, they might, they might not be as bad as we thought they were.
Yeah, so the 40-point triple-double is really interesting. Did you guys know that that is the first time he's had a 40-point triple-double in his career? That's bizarre to me. Yeah, that does feel low. That was surprising because Giannis, obviously, there are a million and one records that he's already broken. Not having a 40-point triple-double in his arsenal was just surprising.
Anyways, that just was a very surprising stat for me. Doc Rivers also mentioned, you know, as they are on this winning streak, he's like, we're learning how to win. We're figuring out what it takes for this specific group to pull out wins. And I think that's important for a team that got off to such a shaky start. I mean, we talked about it for like two weeks. What's wrong with the box.
They are figuring it out. And I think that's a part of an 82 game season, right? You have these ups and downs being able to control and set the tone and also like take care of business against bad teams, which they have done. It,
is a credit to yannis it's a credit to dame for kind of steering the ship even though things were getting a little rocky yeah can i add one thing about this absolutely triple double game yeah yannis talked about this in his post game after that game and said that before that game he was supposed to warm up and play in the miami game he warmed up didn't feel good fell out of rhythm so he sat the very next game is when he had that triple double okay right
This is a superstar. This is someone that on any given night, regardless of what happened the night before, what happened two games before, he is stepping in the kitchen. He is cooking you a full course meal like he is in his era. And this is huge for the Bucks to be able to capitalize on right now. Yeah. It's so crazy right now.
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Chapter 7: What is the significance of the NBA Cup this season?
If you look at the mid range numbers from him. Yeah, I believe him. He is locked in. His jumper looks like it did when he first came into the league, you know, before people started messing with a counter, right?
Like, hey, you're not letting me get to the rim. I'm going to settle into this mid range shot anytime I want to.
It's good to see a drop. Look, we got to talk about the Suns. Devin Booker had had twenty seven and nine. Over the weekend? The Suns, they did not look good without Durant and Beal. And then they dropped that game to the Nets last week, which is going to happen, right? But they did look good at full strength against the Lakers last week. I think the Suns, their biggest issue is health.
Can they make it to, you know, to April, May with these guys on the court? Because we see what it looks like. They hit shots. And if this is a shot making league and they've got three guys that can do it, I think that with Devin Booker, what he's bringing to the table from a two way perspective is
I just can't believe he was able to carry the load that he did because when they were out, everything was, was going through him.
It was, it was, it was, he can slot the, the greatest thing about Devin Booker, especially this season is how much he's able to slide up and down. It's kind of like a sliding scale of like the role that he can play for this team.
uh and now with kevin durant back and guys like well bradley beal is still kind of warming up to get back to where he needs to be but with kd back it just kind of completes this team uh and defensively you saw them really really lock up against the warriors right like they they made things really really tough also a gadaro ryan dunn their rookies are stepping in and playing really good defense kevin durant is like manning the middle for them sort of as this you know back line five with his seven feet for seven foot frame then you have booker who's
competing on the end too and really really locking down on the at the perimeter so just the team is completed now when you have a guy like kevin durant and booker is allowed to shine in his role a lot more yeah um and then uh last but not least because we really need to talk about the memphis grizzlies honestly jaron jackson jr uh has been pretty incredible i think this whole season but he had 23 eight rebounds to steal a couple blocks the other night in their nba cup win
The Grizzlies right now are third in the West. They are fifth in net rating. They have withstood numerous injuries throughout the season. I mean, their small forward rotation is a mass unit at this point. Jake Laravia, whose option for next year they basically turned down, has been playing huge minutes for them. I mean, this is like... It's kind of an incredible job.
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