The Warriors bounce back against the Wolves and Dave DuFour, Zena Keita and Es Baraheni break it down and assign who else made the All Weekend Team. In part 2 Zena and Es are joined by Law Murray of the Athletic to discuss the shooting rankings, why it’s not just a "make or miss" league. Law also discusses the upcoming return of Kawhi Leonard and how it will affect the Clippers this season.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Es Baraheni, Zena Keita, and Law MurrayExecutive 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 standout performances from the weekend?
But... Guys, we also had some pretty amazing performances over the weekend, so I thought we could catch up on what we missed and kind of get our feet back into the regular season after our NBA Cup. I'm trying to avoid this NBA Cup hangover that the Bucs seem to have. Oh yeah. It's not been great. Yeah. So guys, I think we start with the best player ever.
Steph Curry had himself a game against the wolves, 31 points, 10 assists coming back off that embarrassment against Memphis Xena. Like, I mean, that was the worst game I've ever seen from Steph and Draymond combined.
Chapter 2: How did Steph Curry perform against the Wolves?
Zero field goals for either of them. First game in Steph Curry's career that he's played 15 minutes and not been able to score a basket.
Yeah, that's wild. Yeah, he answered back. Yeah, he answered back in a major way against Minnesota and he poured in 31 points, had 10 assists, had 13 points in that fourth quarter. I thought he just was the regular Steph Curry that we know and love. I mean, the three point shooting was a barrage. It's interesting, though.
Anthony Edwards after the game was like blaming the officials saying, yeah, we didn't get enough calls. We weren't me and Julius Randle are two of the most aggressive players in the league and we don't get enough calls. It's like, brother, you didn't play enough defense. That was the issue. That is the big issue. There were like four different situations where,
Where there were missed timed rotations or Anthony Edwards, you know, kind of jumped out of a different spot or Julius Randall was slow to recover out to Steph Curry and he'd stay home on the corner to Gary Payton. The second, which is like, well, at what point do you just throw away the game plan and say, Steph Curry, the greatest shooter on planet earth is going off right now.
How do we contain him?
It just, we've been saying this for over a decade S and nobody's figured that one out. That is true. That is true. Somehow Steph Curry, Curry still gets loose. I don't know. But you know what? Officials blame the officials. Well, that's the reason you lost. Yeah. If we had an all not weekend team, I think Julius Randall would maybe be on that one.
Absolutely.
Let's go down to San Antonio because Victor Wiminyama is the scariest guy on the planet. 42 points in an overtime win over the Atlanta Hawks. Accurate. I mean, 7 of 15 from three. Zeno, do you remember that night that I said he needs to stop shooting threes? Yeah, you know.
He's hit a million. He's hit a million. And he's also been so efficient. The fact that, you know, The whole conversation around too many shots being had. And I understand your seven footer taking shots on the outside is not ideal when he could be inside the paint. But when he's shooting 50 percent in a game, it's not so bad, folks.
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Chapter 3: What makes Victor Wembanyama a unique player?
I hope the NBA dunk meter respects that poster, you know, The dunk score has been all over the place. I know no dunks has been on it for a while and how inaccurate that's been.
But I need them to like give this a perfect score of 100, because when Jason Tatum, who, by the way, is like a really great athlete, you know, we talk about the three point shooting and the conversation and all that type of stuff. But like when he gets downhill like that open space, that was very nice.
Also, Donovan Mitchell, the Cavs guys, 25 and four. Donovan Mitchell had 27 the other night. We're getting to the point, Zena, where the Cavs have become so solid and so good. We're not even talking about him. Remember when they lost that first game? We were doing a segment every night and now they're still 25 and four. This is still a championship level start to the season for them.
And it's because they got Donovan Mitchell.
Yeah. And the thing about this game, particularly against the Milwaukee Bucks, I think there was a lot of hype, particularly out of the East, maybe not in the West, but there's a lot of hype in the East because this was supposed to be a measuring stick game for the Milwaukee Bucks. After just winning the cup, they would say, we're not going to celebrate.
We still got, you know, championship, a real NBA title on the line here. And the Cavs were like, uh-huh. We love that you hung your banner. That's real cute. But we're still the Cavs. And Donovan Mitchell, of course, deserves all the praise in his singularity, but also his surrounding cast, particularly Evan Mobley. Like, yes, they're just so balanced. We've been saying this all season.
They are so well constructed and they showcase exactly why the Cavs are sitting pretty at the top of, you know, in the East.
That's a team that should maybe get three and possibly four All-Stars. They've been that good to start the year. I think they're the story in the East, right? Yeah, they might. I mean, the fan vote, if it carries any sway, I don't know. That's tough because it's Cleveland. Guys, we have got to catch up. on Joel Embiid. Because I think, is he back? I mean, he had 34 points, nine assists.
Look, people are going to discount it and say it was against the Hornets. I don't care. He made our all-weekend team. He's got these bad knees. He's got a broken... He's got a face mask on. Right. The most unique sinus fracture you have ever seen in the NBA. And he puts up 34 and nine. So, S, all I'm thinking to myself is... he might be feeling a little better outside of his face.
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Chapter 4: How is Jason Tatum's performance impacting the Celtics?
Or maybe the face just hurts so bad that the knee doesn't pop.
Yeah, the pain is just not showing up in his knees. That's funny. Look, they're slowly climbing up the Eastern Conference standings too. Just very slowly.
Yeah.
creeping themselves up. And it's not that hard. It is the East admittedly, but like nine of set nine and 17 so far, there's six and four in their last 10. Paul George is playing a little bit better. Tyrese Maxey is back. So like health seems to be very important for the Philadelphia 76ers and no one more important than Joel Embiid when it comes to that conversation.
Oh, They're getting the guys that they expected to start the year with. And, you know, no Jared McCain, because obviously he's out with that knee injury. So they don't have the special surprise, but at least you have the team that you thought you were going to have to start the year. I'll be it. It's it's it's early in the gelling process. Guys, we added a new spot.
To the all-weekend team this week. Rightfully so. Scottie Pippen Jr. got the start the other day. John Morant missed a game against the Hawks. Scottie Pippen Jr. has been having himself a really nice season, and he was great in this game. Look, what Memphis is doing, Zena, you can say, okay, yeah, it's John Morant. He gets two feet in the paint all the time. Jaron Jackson, we know what he does.
But it's because they found guys like Scottie Pippen That can come in and play. I mean, it's kind of amazing. They're blowing teams out of the water. Java ran or not.
Correct. And the Memphis Grizzlies right now have a lot of supporting castments that are down to do whatever it takes to get a win. And I would say the leader of that group is Scottie Pippen Jr. Just thinking about his story coming from the G League into this position, there's been a lot of hype around. around a particular progeny out in LA.
But this progeny here in Memphis has really showcased exactly why he deserves a spot in the NBA, playing two-way defense and also being a floor setter. In his last five games, he's had a game where he had nine assists and a game where he had 12 assists. Score or not, that is producing something for the Memphis Grizzlies.
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Chapter 5: What is the significance of the shooting rankings?
Memphis has done such a good job over the years of finding the guy who can play when Ja is out because Ja misses time. That's true. And this is another guy in a long line of these guys that that they just managed to pull out of the woodwork. Although Scottie Pippen has been around for a minute and is really improved as a player. Guys, stick around after the break.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We missed someone here in this conversation. Did we?
kade cunningham he's not on my list s listen this is the late edition i know this is this is anti pistons propaganda here from dave but no look kade was awesome they beat the phoenix suns he's shooting a career high from three i just want to put it out there he's looking like an all-star this year just wanted to mention that just a reminder before we throw it out the phoenix suns had a
43-point game from Kevin Durant. Yeah. And Cade Cunningham put them, you know, with his guys.
Who else was out there with Cade?
That's all I'm saying.
Pistons beat a team that doesn't have an injury report like a CVS receipt. Please, guys, stick around after the break. Zena and S sat down with Law Murray to talk about his shooting rankings and Kawhi Leonard's imminent return.
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Chapter 6: How is Kawhi Leonard's return expected to affect the Clippers?
And I feel like that is something that needs to be considered. Now, what does Boston get credit for? They do make more threes than you. But the reason they do that is because they defend. So they take away the three at a level that, again, we don't talk about. Everyone's like, oh, you got to be in a three-point shooting contest.
Well, the part of the three-point shooting contest that Boston is good at is they take your threes away.
We don't talk about that.
We just want to focus on the offense. And then the other part is Boston makes sure that they don't beat themselves. They take care of basketball. That adds to your volume as well. So you're looking at Boston and it's like, oh, man, the Boston Celtics,
make there's a game where they'll make 10 more threes than you and we'll just talk about the offensive part of it and the shot making part of it we don't talk about the process of it so um that's why it's like hey like we can't just look at they make you know three-point attempts for instance are you making shots are you making them efficiently are you getting them from different areas of the floor and there's actually room to improve for even a team like boston
Now, you just mentioned the process. And I know that you spoke to a lot of coaches throughout this article. You kind of quote them throughout. And I wanted to ask about if your shooting rankings has impacted the process in which coaches are approaching their Diversity of their shot profile.
Like, are people looking at the fact that Houston missed 27 threes in a row back in 2018 and maybe that should change the way that things go about it? Or that the mid-range has disappeared from the shot chart in the NBA? Like, has any of this impacted the way that coaches, you think, are approaching how they're coaching their teams to shoot the ball?
Well, you brought up Mike Brown. You brought up the mid-rains. I think one thing that coaches have always kind of said, well, the coaches that actually want their teams to take mid-range shots, because there are those coaches. There are coaches in the league who, like, and off the top of my head, I think of Memphis. I think of Minnesota. I think of Utah. Those are your shot desert teams.
They want threes. They want the paint. They don't really like the mid-range as much because of how they want their ball handlers to approach things, their shooters to approach things. But there are a lot of coaches who, even if their teams aren't taking the mid-range as much, they value it.
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