With eight teams remaining, as the NBA Cup enters the knockout stages, Stephen Curry and the Warriors look to book their ticket to Las Vegas. Dave DuFour, Es Baraheni, and Anthony Slater take a look at the Western conference and discuss who guards Shai and Luka, whether the Warriors care, and why the Cup means more to the Rockets. Then, Es and Dave look at the Bucks chances of NBA Cup redemption and Trae Young’s heel work in Madison Square Garden. In the mailbag, the gang take a look at injuries, the Nets roster decisions, and which version of this year’s Warriors team is the real one.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Es Baraheni, Anthony SlaterExecutive 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 are the key matchups in the NBA Cup knockout round?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for December 10th, 2024. Coming up, we're going to preview the East and the West NBA Cup knockout round matchups with Anthony Slater and S and I are going to answer a few questions. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, S. Good morning, Anthony. We don't do this a lot, but you know, NBA Cup, it just means more, guys.
So we had to get Anthony in here to help us preview because Anthony, how many teams you cover for us now? I mean, the entire Western Conference.
That's right. I am primarily around the Warriors. I try to leak off and get to the Thunder as much as possible because they're increasingly relevant. And then the Sacramento Kings are actually the closest of proximity to my house. So those three primarily.
And, you know, the fact that the Warriors and Kings got eliminated so early last year, I was able to cover Thunder Mavericks series in the second round, which is relevant today. Yeah, that's right.
So Thunder and Mavs, that's the game that we've got tonight, Tuesday night. And then Wednesday, we're going to have Warriors and Rockets. So let's start with Thunder Mavs. Look, we've seen them already this season. Luka's just coming back from injury. He looks really, really good. Obviously, the Thunder have been the best team in the West all year.
What are you going to be looking for early on in this NBA Cup game, thinking about the single elimination aspect of it?
Yeah, I would say who guards Shea Gildress Alexander on the Dallas Mavericks? It's a simple question, but I think that's one question that I have for the Mavericks perspective. Because, yeah, you can say Najee Marshall or P.J. Washington are the first guys that at least pop to my mind of guys who can maybe guard SGA.
But I think there will be some trouble there compared to their series last year where, look, Derek Jones Jr. was the main assignment and he was sticking lateral with SGA. His length was really bothersome. And maybe you can consider Najee or PJ to be one of those guys. But I don't know, man. I think in single elimination, like you mentioned, that's going to be tough to do.
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Chapter 2: Who guards Shai and Luka in the upcoming games?
So who's going to guard SGA?
Derek Jones had a great series. against the Thunder last year. P.J. Washington did too, but that was more as kind of a supplementary score. Derek Jones got that primary Shea assignment. It's the length and just like that bouncy athleticism. This was the risk a little bit of the way that the Mavs decided to pivot this summer with
You know, I think what happened in the Celtics series informed them that, hey, maybe they need some more shooting, right? Obviously, that's why they went and chased down Klay Thompson. But to face the Celtics and have that to be a concern, you still have to get through the Thunder. And you could argue maybe that this version of the Mavericks is a little bit less equipped to guard the Thunder.
We'll see. This is obviously not a full throttle Thunder team. There's no Chet Holmgren, but we also haven't seen Hardenstein in this matchup. He's been playing so well lately. Yeah. Yeah.
So, well, then who is the target if you're OKC Slater? I mean, are they going after Luca? Is that the matchup they're going to try to get out on the perimeter?
It's always a target. You know, Clay Thompson wouldn't love to hear me say this, but he's increasingly as he's gotten older, become a target now. Clay, with the quicker guards particularly, because his lateral side-to-side has decreased. But what is Dallas' closing lineup going to be? I think this is going to be a season-long, certainly a playoff question with Clay would be the question mark.
Because if you have Clay, Luka, and Kyrie on the floor at the same time, there's targets to be had out there.
On the opposite side, people will talk about, okay, well, who guards Luka Doncic on the other end? Well, OKC has... Who doesn't? Who doesn't? Exactly. And by the way, one of the guys Luka constantly mentions as one of the best defenders for him, Lou Dort, on the other side. So I don't know. I guess...
When you look at what the Mavericks can do, and you think of Kyrie, you think of Klay, the offensive firepower, maybe the size advantage, right? I think that's a factor with Gafford and Lively and not having Chet Holmgren. What is the one advantage the Mavs can have?
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Chapter 3: Why is the NBA Cup more significant for the Rockets?
It matters more. The Cup matters more.
Also, this is the stuff that, this is how you can build a young team into learning how to win, how to care about every single game, especially getting a little bit of playoff experience. I know it sounds goofy to say, but this is an elimination tournament. As coming is in the starting lineup. How's that going to look against the Rockets? Who like is he going to garden?
I believe he played well in one of their games, right? It was a career.
And I think he drew both games. The first game No Steph in Houston. The Warriors go up 31. They kill Sangoon. Eme Udoka goes small with Tari Eason and Matt Thompson. They start switching everything against the non-Steph Warriors. And the Warriors' offense falls apart. They can't do anything. But down the stretch, Pajemski has three ISO buckets to help them kind of hold on and take it to overtime.
Pajemski fouls out in overtime. Draymond fouls out. There's nobody out there except Kaminga. Kaminga has three ISO buckets. They win the overtime 8-2. It was one of his big moments of like, see, I can be a star scorer when given the opportunity. And then the other night... No Steph, no Draymond. They beat the Rockets. He scores 33.
He isos down the stretch, kind of splits Dylan Brooks and Van Vliet, lay up Draymond and Steph, rush him. There's a huge postgame thing. And then they declare, hey, he's the new starter.
yeah i well that's actually part of this he's been playing the best basketball i think over the last week or so of his career yeah defense dominant right engaged on that and more selective with what shots and what he wants to take how does that look in a single elimination game when it's okay steph is is seeing tons of coverage from the rockets and amend thompson and tari eason they're going to need that release valve to get someone else going
Can Kaminga step up? How do you feel about Kaminga's play over the last week or so?
Yeah, I mean, he'd argue, hey, you just gave me the opportunity, finally. I mean, he's had, and he would also say, he's had large chunks, subsections of seasons prior where he was huge. Wiggins left the team for the entire post-All-Star break two seasons ago. He was great down the stretch, helped him get to the sixth seed. Wiggins comes back, he's minimized. Last year, Draymond gets suspended.
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Chapter 4: How has Kaminga's performance changed this season?
Yeah, Halliburton did the Dame time thing.
That's right.
So I just think these guys are going to be so locked in. You know, I don't see how the Bucs lose this, but if they did, what happens for the Magic to get them to win?
Their defense, which is resilient as hell, like one of the best defenses in the NBA, I believe top five probably in the last two weeks, one of the best, if not the best. And that is what carries them. They find a recipe against Giannis Antetokounmpo. They limit him. They build the wall, as Stan Van Gundy has mentioned before when it comes to Giannis Antetokounmpo.
So that is the recipe for the magic. How are they going to do that? How could they successfully do that without two of their main forwards, who, by the way, are also a big part to their defense? That's the question, man. I mean, you also need Jalen Suggs to go nuclear. And for what it's worth, maybe that happens. It seems like he's taking this opportunity. He's going to run with it.
But we broke it down last time. Schedule's tough for the Magic, and this is one of them.
My brother, Goga Batase, put up one of the best games of his career the other day at 21-16. And Jalen Suggs had 26 in that game. Let's say, best case scenario, they hit those same numbers.
Yeah.
I don't feel like there's any hope the rest of the team can contribute enough to score with the Bucs. And the Bucs have been so good. So, you know, it's a bummer than back to like it's.
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Chapter 5: What is Steph Curry's role in the Warriors' strategy?
Twice.
Yeah. Yeah. So maybe there is a world. Maybe there's more worlds where the Hawks win than any other underdog team in the NBA Cup quarterfinals. Maybe that's it. Right. Yeah. I don't know. It's going to be fun.
I'm looking forward to it. Guys, stick around after the break. SNR going to answer a few questions.
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All right, it's question time. We took to Blue Sky today to ask some questions. And well, all the NBA folks made the migration over, so I figured, hey, I'll check it out. It's supposed to be a more calm place. Yes. It certainly works better. It certainly works better right now. So we put out the call for some questions and got some good ones, so... Let's jump right in.
Matthew Kahn asks us, why are so many players injured? The laws of physics such that force equals mass times acceleration or too much weightlifting. Bring back the 1970s, quote, NBA training. He means a beer at halftime, which, listen, a beer is a recovery drink. Yes, I don't know about at halftime. I'd be worried about the bloat.
But the truth of the matter is these guys just they play a lot more and they're moving a lot more.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, they're playing more. They're moving more. I'd imagine if you were to calculate distance traveled across NBA history, we're probably near the top right now. Pace actually is interesting because pace in the 70s was way faster than it is now. But again, to your point, possessions, the amount of space that they have to occupy, all that is part of it.
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Chapter 6: How do injuries affect team dynamics in the NBA Cup?
Yeah, right. That's right.
He is available. I will say, you know, it's December 10th. Five days from now, a lot of guys become trade eligible. And then obviously, you know, in January, we've got even more guys. So keep an eye out on that. Also, friend of mine, friend of the program. I'll give him a shout out. Ben Alomar, one of the biggest names in sports analytics.
Asked a question that he probably knows the answer to, which I love. First 10 games, the Warriors' effective field goal percentage was 56.7%, and defensive effective field goal percentage was 50.7%, a difference of plus 6%. Last 13 games, they're 51.2% shooting, and defense is 52.5% for minus 1.3%. Which version is the real one?
Well, I would say that the last 10 games, they've had a few where they've missed Andrew Wiggins. They've missed Draymond Green. I will say the first 10 games, Buddy Heald was shooting the leather off the ball. He kind of went cold in those last 10 games. So contextually, like, I think that's why that happened. Yeah. Which one is closer? Yeah. Probably the first 10 games. That's right.
That's a great answer. I agree with you. I think it is. I think they are a better team than they have been. And you see it in spurts. I mean, you know, we saw it Sunday night in that game against the Wolves when they were able to lock in. And that's without Andrew Wiggins. I mean, this team is kind of it's funny to say it because it's early December, but they really are in this.
they're just trying to figure things out, right? Like they're just shortening the rotation. Who even knows? I mean, Kuminga is getting in the starting lineup now, right? Yeah.
Yeah. And we'll see how long that's last. I know they're trying to chase after like a secondary player to build with Steph, but like at what point do they go out and say, Hey, Brooklyn Nets, what's going on? Hey, you know what I mean? Like what kind of additions can we make to, to get Steph another championship? Yep.
Well, the easiest way to get these questions to us, either hit the post that's in the show notes or send us an email at NBA daily at the athletic dot com. That's going to do it for today. We got NBA Cup games tonight and I guess just Wednesday night, too. So excited for these games. Yeah, unreasonably so. For S. Barahany, I'm Dave DeFore and this has been the NBA Daily.
Thanks for waking up with us.
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