Chapter 1: What were the highlights of the NBA this week?
welcome to the saturday slam and jam brought to you by amazon prime on today's show we are doing our good bad and what of the week we have christian clark joining us to discuss the dallas mavericks who are doing a good job tanking and we'll do some trivia but before we get to any of that alex what in the world happened in the nba this week
Andrew, the top story this week is the San Antonio Spurs, who are in the midst of their longest winning streak of the season, which currently stands at 11 games. This week, the Spurs went 3-0, which included another top-tier win, this one against the Pistons in Detroit. While it wasn't Wemby's greatest offensive performance, he grabbed 17 rebounds and had six blocks in the game.
And along with Steph Castle, made life miserable for Cade Cunningham, who shot five for 26 in the loss. The Spurs got a big offensive boost from Devin Vassell in the game, who scored 28, including seven of 11 from three. As of Friday morning, the Spurs are only a game and a half back of OKC for the number one seed in the West.
By the time you hear this, OKC will have wrapped up one of their toughest stretches of the season playing Cleveland, Detroit, and Denver this week. The good news for OKC is that SGA is back for the Denver game after missing the last nine with an abdominal strain. Now next up for the Spurs, a return to MSG on Sunday afternoon where last season...
Wemby had that memorable game dropping 42 and 18 with six three-pointers. If the Spurs can push their streak to at least 14 by winning their next three, it will be the fourth longest winning streak in franchise history. Franchise record was set in 2014 at 19 straight wins. Now, the Spurs have won 11 straight, but they aren't the only team playing well.
There are actually four teams in the East who have won eight of their last ten. A little quiz, Andrew.
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Chapter 2: Who are the best and worst shooters in the NBA right now?
The Pistons, the Celtics, the Cavs, and... Do you know the fourth team, Andrew? No. Who would you guess? Who would just be a team you guess has won eight of their last ten?
Eight of their last ten. That's a lot. That's a whole lot. I don't know, Al. I got no guesses in me.
Why, it's the Milwaukee Bucks, of course. Did you know that?
No.
That's so dumb.
That's so dumb.
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Chapter 3: How are the Dallas Mavericks performing this season?
It's like, hey, we finally picked a direction. Our hand is forced because of Giannis. And now, of course, we're going to win him. We're pushing ourselves to the middle as hard as possible.
No, they're going on a late-season streak, Andrew. They're going to make the playoffs. Listen, it hasn't been a murderous row of opponents, but the Bucs have done what they've needed to do, give themselves a shot at the play-in. They're now just a game and a half back from the 10 spot in the East. Giannis continues to make progress towards his return after missing the last month.
He's been playing 3-on-3 and 4-on-4 this week. Giannis' return will hopefully happen soon because the Bucs' schedule does pick up. They've got games against the Knicks, Boston, and the Atlanta Hawks this week, who are one of the teams they likely need to pass to make the play-in. Now, the Hawks had a very relaxing week, getting to play the Wizards twice and the Nets twice.
The Hawks won all three and have a little extra pep in their step after the debut of Jonathan Kaminga, who had 27-7-4 with two steals on 9-12 shooting in his first game for the Hawks. He scored 17 in his second game against the Wizards, but had to take a backseat to Corey Kispert, who was out for blood against his former team, dropping a career-high 33 points in the Hawks' win.
In other Hawks news, mark your calendar, folks, because it was announced this week that on March 16th, the Hawks will be paying tribute to Magic City, the legendary Atlanta strip club, and will be selling the famous Magic City Lemon Pepper Wings in Arena. You know, I can remember going to a Thunder game once and it was like Aerospace Engineering Night or something.
I think we were celebrating planes. My point is, special game nights have come a long way. This is shaping up to be a memorable night for all, especially for the fans who show up to this game without realizing it's Magic City Night. Imagine getting tickets for just a random Hawks game in March. And it's Magic City Night. What a treat that will be for everyone.
The other team the Bucs could pass to get into the play-in would be the Charlotte Hornets, who have won three in a row, back on track after losing three of their previous four. Similar to the Hawks, it was some dumb fun this week against a trio of tanking teams, with Charlotte winning the three games by a combined 73 points.
The highlight of the week came in their Thursday night game against the Pacers. Rookie Khan Kanipal hit eight threes in the game, which gave him 209 threes for the season, breaking the rookie record previously set by Keegan Murray just a few years ago.
The next big game for Khan and the Hornets will be next Wednesday when they travel to Boston, the first meeting between these two teams this season, and who knows, a potential preview of a first-round playoff matchup? Now moving over to the West... It was not a great week for the Lakers.
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Chapter 4: What insights does Christian Clark provide about the Mavs' strategy?
Rough week for the Lakers. They lost three in a row. First, they could only manage 89 points against the Celtics in L.A., lost that 111-89. They followed that up with another home loss, this one a one-point loss to the Magic after a late bucket from Wendell Carter Jr.
Then, to end the week, the Lakers went to Phoenix and lost to a Suns team who was missing Devin Booker and Dylan Brooks, their top two scorers. The Lakers were down by 12 with under six minutes left. They tie it up with 108 on an Austin Reeves three with just a minute left.
But in the end, it was Royce O'Neal who hit a go-ahead three-pointer with only 1.7 seconds left, giving the shorthanded Suns the much-needed win after losing seven of their previous 10. Now, to add insult to injury, Dave McMenamin of ESPN wrote a long-form article this week about DeAndre Ayton exploring the ups and downs of the Dominayton experience in L.A.,
The article featured several great anecdotes, including a story from this year about Aiton pulling off a Willy Wonka-style pratfall into a somersault before a game against the Hawks just to do it, just having some fun. We also found out about the Lakers' training staff wrapping Aiton's water bottle in tape on which they write, "'DA's Crunk Juice. Drink this to unleash the beast.'"
That's what they write on his water bottle before games. This is the most embarrassing feature written about a player ever. I felt embarrassed for him reading it. Just like, does he know all of this is happening? Does he know how this is coming across?
I mean, based on him pulling off that Willy Wonka move, my read on it is that he seems to be cool with it. This is kind of his thing.
Maybe.
Maybe. There was also an anecdote after the Magic game where Aiton was yelling in the locker room for all to hear, quote, they're trying to make me Clint Capella. I'm not no Clint Capella. Now, Clint Capella actually responded to this on Instagram. Yes, he did. Saying, quote, you got two of the best floor generals in the game, my dog. Lock in. Woo! Crying, laughing emoji. Crying, laughing emoji.
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Chapter 5: How is Cooper Flagg's rookie season shaping up?
In that loss to Phoenix, Aiton finished with two points and four rebounds in 23 minutes. Finally, a few quick pieces of news. James Harden suffered a non-displaced fracture in his right thumb, but he plans to play through the injury. Not expected to miss significant time. 40-year-old Taj Gibson is back! for his 17th NBA season after signing with the Memphis Grizzlies this week.
And Pat Riley was in L.A. to celebrate the unveiling of his statue outside the Lakers arena this week. And those are the top stories and gurus.
The NBA never stops producing content that's just unbelievable. Like, oh, this is kind of a down week. Let's drop an Aiton profile that makes everybody feel even weirder about his Lakers season. That was great. I loved it.
Okay, Andrew, it's time to talk about something we liked this week, something we didn't like, and something that left us confused in a segment we like to call Good, Bad, Bad. So what is your good this week, Andrew?
My good this week is I was just going to check in on who are our most efficient shooters from different areas on the court. And so I was going to give some guys a little shout out here. So in the restricted area, the guys who are taking the most shots in the restricted area this season, Zion Williamson has actually taken the most shots in the restricted area, which is interesting.
Carl Anthony Towns, number two, Tyrese Maxey, number three. The three most efficient players in the restricted area this season. Ryan Kalkbrenner, number one, 79% for the Charlotte Hornets. Pretty impressive. Giannis, 78%, which is still insane. That's an insane percentage for a guy who has the basketball as much as he does and is not Ryan Kalkbrenner.
I mean, shout out to Ryan Kalkbrenner, but he's getting a lot of assists. He's not creating a ton of these on his own. And then the final player. I need you to do a drum roll for me or something. It's DeAndre Ayton at 78%.
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Chapter 6: What are the upcoming challenges for the Mavs?
Wow. In our face. In my face. So maybe he, you know what? Maybe he is Clint Capella. Maybe someone should show him this and be like, you know what? Maybe you are because you've been extremely efficient in the restricted area this year.
I was reading all that stuff about Clint Capella, and I just popped over to Clint Capella's basketball reference. Like, DeAndre Ayton should go look at his basketball reference. He was really good.
He's a really good player. The irony of all of that is that Capella is so much better than Ayton has ever dreamed of being.
Yeah, I mean, Capella on those Rockets teams, which like similar position with Harden, you know, a great pick and roll ball handler. Aiton's got a great pick and roll ball. The way that Capella optimized himself with Harden. That's what Aiton should be doing right now. Which apparently, based on these rim stats, maybe it is happening, Andrew.
And the 2-4 line that he put up in Phoenix is just a mirage.
Yeah. If he were Clint Capella, he'd be about to get paid. Is what he doesn't realize. Those comments are just so tone deaf. It is... It's unbearably tone deaf. Okay. Paint. In the paint, non-restricted area. Okay. The guy's taking the most shots. Floater range.
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Chapter 7: What trivia questions are discussed in the Andrew vs. the Beat segment?
Jalen Brown. Alperin Shangoon. Jalen Brunson. No surprises there. But the most efficient players in that range, number one player, Peyton Pritchard, 59% in the floater range. Pretty impressive. Another guy, Najee Marshall. Who's having an awesome season. Probably one of the most under-the-radar great seasons for the Mavericks.
Played 42 minutes in his last game.
He did, and is putting up crazy stat lines. 58% in the paint. Non-restricted area, Florida range. And then Nikola Jokic, of course. 58% in that range, which makes total sense. Mid-range. The guy's taking the most shots, or... Very guessable, I would say. Any guesses you want to throw out there?
Kevin Durant, SGA.
Kevin Durant. Shea would have qualified had he played enough. Kevin Durant is there. DeMar DeRozan is still number one in attempts. And then Brandon Ingram is number two. The most efficient players in the mid-range, number one, SGA, 53%. TJ McConnell. 52% in the mid-range. And then Donovan Mitchell, who's also having a pretty incredible season. Shots from the corners.
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Chapter 8: What are the final thoughts on the episode's discussions?
We got a couple Knicks here taking the most. Mikel Bridges, OG Ananobi, and Harrison Barnes are the three players that have taken the most corner threes. But the most efficient corner three shooters this season, Bobby Portis, 52%. Another Buck. Maybe this is why they're winning so many games. AJ Green, 51%. And then Konka Nipple, 50% from the corners. Just crazy efficiency.
Pretty impressive for Portis and AJ Green to still shoot that well without any elite creator on their squad. And then finally, above the break, the guys taking the most above the break threes this season, Tyrese Maxey, Donovan Mitchell, Luka Doncic. The most efficient above the break three-point shooters. I kept it at 200 attempts. Cam Spencer is 43% from three this season. Con Canippo, 42%.
It's just been ridiculous. And then three guys are at 41%. Colin Gillespie, Ryan Rollins, another buck, and Jamal Murray, 41%. So shout out to those guys. The most efficient shooters in the league from all these different areas.
Yeah, I should start mentioning all those bucks because I'm going to be talking about half court offense later. And the bucks were like way higher than I was expecting. And that's probably why. Probably a big reason why. So many guys shooting the ball well right now. For my good, though, this week, I want to talk about the Pelicans and how high they might rise before the end of the season.
For all the talk about tanking over the last month, anti-tankers, they should be thanking their lucky stars that Joe Dumars made that trade. Because if he hadn't traded for Derek Queen, we'd have another tanker on our hands. Instead, we'd just have a bad team. But they're definitely trying to win. And they have some things working in their favor as of late. So currently, Pelicans 18-42.
They've won three in a row, five of their last seven. Okay, that's pretty good. Big news this week for the Pelicans was the return of DeJounte Murray. He started the last two games. In his most recent game, team high, plus 16, 17-9 with four steals. It was against the Jazz, but it's good to see him back, and he's already contributing.
Other good news includes the continued health of Zion, who has now played in 34 consecutive games, the longest streak in his career. During this recent seven-game stretch, where they've gone 5-2, Zion is averaging 24.4 points per game on 64% shooting. Another guy who's been giving them a ton lately is Sadiq Bey, averaging almost 23 per game while shooting 38% on almost eight threes per game.
And they've needed Bey's scoring because the one bad piece of news is the continued absence of Trey Murphy. He's dealing with a shoulder injury. Looking ahead, though, the Pelicans have a real shot in this final stretch to really help out Joe Dumars and do some damage control on that trade that everyone has been obsessing over since it happened.
It wasn't too long ago that the Pels had the third worst record, 15 wins, but they've since jumped Brooklyn and Washington, only a half game back of Utah, who they're definitely going to pass. And then you get this trio of Dallas, Memphis, and Chicago. Okay, so New Orleans is four games back of Dallas, four and a half from Memphis, and then six back of Chicago.
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