transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for April 24th, 2026. I'm Dave DuFour here with Espera Henney. Coming up, we had some surprises last night. We're gonna get into all the playoff games. Then Fred Katz joins to talk about the Knicks loss in game three to the Hawks. Good morning, everybody. Good playoffs, S.

Speaker 2:
[00:27] Man, this was an incredible night of postseason action. If you, we've been waiting, I mean, we've had a lot of good playoff games, but this night really solidified it. Between the Knicks, Hawks, the Craisins.

Speaker 1:
[00:40] You notice how happy, everyone notices how happy S is. The Raptors blow out the Cavs in the fourth quarter of that game, and S is just on top of the world right now. That's awesome.

Speaker 2:
[00:51] What can I say? Jameson Battle Basketball, it's Raptors not enough. Anyways, we can wait.

Speaker 1:
[00:56] You want to start? Let's start with the Raptors went over the Cavs. OK, you were in the building for that. You know, it was to say it was surprising, I think is kind of underselling it. The game was tied at half. It was a two point game going into the fourth quarter.

Speaker 2:
[01:12] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[01:13] And then we wind up with a massive blowout. What was the secret for the Raptors in the fourth quarter, man?

Speaker 2:
[01:23] Well, the secret in the fourth quarter was Jameson Battle. He went perfect from the field, knocked down a bunch of his shots. By the way, Jameson Battle has not missed a three against the Cleveland Cavaliers this season, which is just a wild stat that you might have.

Speaker 1:
[01:36] How many has he made?

Speaker 2:
[01:37] I mean, he's made, I think, 11 at this point.

Speaker 1:
[01:40] All right.

Speaker 2:
[01:41] He had a seven for seven game back in November. He continued it with a four for four game today in game three. So he's knocked down a few threes. He's been a little thorn in their side, if you will. He was massive in the fourth quarter knocking down threes. And I think that was the big part for the Raptors in this game. They shot 60 percent from three compared to the Cavaliers shooting 30 percent from three. So that was a big swing in this. But honestly, Dave, I do feel like the Raptors are finding something defensively against this Cavs team. They were a little bit better in game two. They were much better here in game three. And I think it's the combination of Scotty Barnes and Collin Murray Boyles. Yeah. Those two guys switching all of their actions. They're obviously very good at the back line kind of contesting shots at the rim, forcing turnovers. I mean, the way Scotty Barnes defended James Harden tonight was truly incredible stuff. It's why he's going to be an all defense level player. That's why the Raptors won this game. It was a combination of good shooting that they got from everybody. And Scotty and CMB and RJ Barrett having really, really good offensive nights.

Speaker 1:
[02:49] Yeah, they maybe win the game even without shooting like 57% from the field because the defense was so good. We talked about this in game two. The difference in that game was really that that Donovan Mitchell and James Harden were sticking some tough shots. Absolutely. But those are guys who that's what they do. You expect that's why they make so much money. And I think that the process, the defensive process that Toronto has has shown over the last two games. Absolutely agree with you there. I just don't know if they're going to be able to score like they did. Right. Cleveland, to me, they didn't have as much defensive juice slash great shooting luck for the Raptors. And I don't want to take anything away from what is a massive win. But I do. My concerns for the Raptors has never been about their defense. I figured they would find a way to defend at a decent level. It's how do they score? And then CMB, again, like playing, in my opinion, playing the more important minutes instead of Yaka Pertle. I think that makes a big difference. And maybe there's a way that you find, like, you know, when Jared Allen isn't on the court, maybe that's a time that Yaka Pertle can get out there and get you some positive minutes again. But they go into game four. Now, they're down two games to one, but have to feel pretty good about the defensive game plan.

Speaker 2:
[04:08] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[04:09] When you're thinking about the Cavaliers coming off a loss, like what sort of changes do you think the Cavaliers can make to maybe make things a little bit easier for them?

Speaker 2:
[04:17] Yeah. So I think it comes down to how they're going to score in the paint. Again, the Raptors did a really great job of limiting how many opportunities the Cavs got inside between Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. Ultimately, it's like how can they get easy opportunities? How can the Cavs get easy opportunities on the inside? They had found ways to do that in game one through their pick and roll. Game two, it was the defensive ball pressure of the Raptors blitzing and then creating opportunities for Mobley and Allen. Tonight, none of that happened. And so the counter there, I guess the question for Kenny Atkinson as we look forward to game four is how do you score consistently on the inside? And I think it's worth mentioning, Dave, I've covered every single game of Scotty Barnes' career. Yeah. This was undoubtedly the best game of his career, given the stakes, given the moment, given the situation Raptors potentially going down three nothing. For him to come in and score 33 points, knock down three of his five threes, had 11 assists, five rebounds, a couple of steals and a block. That is the type of Scotty Barnes that Raptors fans want. That's the guy you can build a new franchise around to see that version of it. Now that's the standard, like that's what you should be expecting from him on any given night. And so moments like these in the playoffs kind of reaffirm to a lot of people what the Raptors are trying to build around him.

Speaker 1:
[05:39] Yeah. They're going to have a very interesting summer.

Speaker 2:
[05:42] They do.

Speaker 1:
[05:43] One way or the other. Okay. Well, let's move on to the Wolves Nuggets. Look, this is, this is what we expect out of Wolves Nuggets. Again, they were 15 and 15 in their last 30 meetings. Now, Timberwolves 16 and 15 against the Nuggets in their last 31, 113-96. This game, look, I felt like it was over in the first quarter. The Nuggets scored 11 points in the first quarter. Rudy Gobert, once again, master class of a game.

Speaker 2:
[06:15] He's been the best player in the series.

Speaker 1:
[06:18] Hands down, he has been incredible. Jokic starts the game like one of eight, right? Following that fourth quarter that Rudy put him through the other night, where the only bucket he had actually in the entire game on Rudy was that one dunk.

Speaker 2:
[06:32] Yeah, right.

Speaker 1:
[06:33] He got, he did get a running layup. And I mean, he scored a little bit on Rudy in this game, but one of eight in the first quarter, the game was, in my opinion, pretty much over. The Wolves did that thing though where, you know, they let their foot off the gas a few times and had to had to pick it up. But Rudy Gobert's defense on Jokic clearly bothering him. But to the point where like Jokic looks seven of 26. Yeah, just atrocious shooting from him. And I'm starting to wonder, because I don't want to take away from Rudy. Rudy has been excellent. But is Jokic playing hurt? There's a thing happening at the end of these games where they have no life whatsoever. And David Adelman pulled the plug, in my opinion, pretty early. Four minutes left in the game. I mean, that was just, we're waving the white flag. Murray and Jokic both looked terrible in the game. Just couldn't find a rhythm offensively. And Jaden McDaniels had one of the biggest dunks of the playoffs as an exclamation point on the win. And I mean, he was talking immediately after that.

Speaker 2:
[07:36] He was talking very spicy before the game, after that dunk. I mean, like the fact that they backed it up. And maybe, Dave, I guess this is the question, like maybe Jaden McDaniels was right. Who is out there guarding for Denver?

Speaker 1:
[07:49] So Aaron, no Aaron Gordon last night, right?

Speaker 2:
[07:52] Which is big. It's a very important part of the Nuggets defense.

Speaker 1:
[07:55] Spencer Jones has been a decent replacement, but this team has not proven that they can guard without Aaron Gordon out there. And Jokic was, I mean, Jokic's defense is just non-existent, period, right now. Again, like, I don't know if there's an injury or if it's just fatigue or what, but he doesn't look like Jokic in these games. The Murray Jokic two-man game isn't working. Like, Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert have that snuffed out.

Speaker 2:
[08:23] Yeah, they have options against that.

Speaker 1:
[08:25] I'm not seeing the Nuggets go to anything else. You know, look, you spent all this energy getting Cam Johnson in there, right? Do something with him. Run an action for him. How about that? You know, get Tim Hardaway Jr. more in there. I think Christian Brown, I mean, listen, sadly enough, because he seemed like one of the guys you were going to be able to count on. He's just giving him nothing right now. Yeah. And so maybe you got to do more Hardaway. Maybe you got to do more Bruce Brown. Julian Strother did get off the bench finally. But I just don't I don't know if they're going to trust him. I mean, are you going to trust him enough to play him bigger minutes in game four after a blowout loss? I don't know. The Nuggets have some questions to answer. And this is we don't even know if Aaron Gordon is going to be ready for game four.

Speaker 2:
[09:12] That's true. And look, they're doing this also with like a decent ant series, like not a right Anthony Edwards is dominating his way to wins for Timberwolves type of series. This is Rudy Gobert. This is the Timberwolves defense. This is Jada McDaniels. And of course, they're getting offensive contribution like I would assume it was great in this game. But it just feels like what are the answers for the Nuggets? What is the counter here other than play better, shoot better, play harder defensively? I'm not necessarily sure what the counter is. Do you feel like there's an answer that the Nuggets can go to in game four?

Speaker 1:
[09:48] We just look, all we've seen is this essentially their fastball, which is Jokic Murray two man game. I just I think that they've got to break out the curve balls. You might have to maybe you got to find a knuckleball if you don't have Aaron Gordon. But the defense hasn't held up. So they got to figure out, they're going to have to outscore Minnesota. And I mean, look, the Nuggets were held in 96 points. This is the number one offense in basketball, 96 points. That's absurd.

Speaker 2:
[10:18] Yeah, that is absurd. I also will say not having Peyton Watson in the series so far has helped them. Because the defense again, right, another guy who can help on the weak side and clean up stuff for Jokic, like not having him and not having Gordon is just doubling all the issues for them defensively. Minnesota looks good. And you've been on this for basically all season saying, this is a contender when they look at like their best. Right now they look like they're at their best, which is a scary sign for the rest of the Western Conference.

Speaker 1:
[10:50] Yeah, they get up for big games and look, it's about health for them. If Ant gets healthier as we go through this, which again, we saw him in game one, where by the end of game one, he looked a little gimpy. He hasn't looked that way the last couple of games. Maybe he's playing his way back into shape. Jaden McDaniels looks fantastic. Rudy Gobert again has been to me the best player in the series, just the most impactful guy on the court.

Speaker 2:
[11:15] It's hard to say that about him.

Speaker 1:
[11:17] Rudy Gobert hit a skyhook over Jokic after a series of pivot moves. He didn't travel, it was beautiful. Rudy is just on another level right now.

Speaker 2:
[11:28] He absolutely has been the best player in the series. It's just like, you know, we have to reaffirm that to people because 10 points and 12 rebounds might not tell you.

Speaker 1:
[11:37] Hit two points in game two.

Speaker 2:
[11:38] Yeah, the box score is not going to tell you Rudy Gobert is the best player in the series.

Speaker 1:
[11:43] I don't want to start sounding like Utah Jazz PR.

Speaker 2:
[11:45] But he is the best player in the series right now.

Speaker 1:
[11:47] But listen, he had a massive screen assist for Bones Highland in this game.

Speaker 2:
[11:53] We can't do this.

Speaker 1:
[11:54] But I'm just going to I need to point it out because like part of it is because Jokic is having to hang so far back to have any impact whatsoever on defense because if he comes up it's a layup. And so he's in such a deep drop and Jamal Murray's on the ball in this scenario. And Rudy Gobert sits a screen that opens Bones Highland into a walk up four foot wide open three. And I mean, this is the stuff that Rudy does. And it doesn't show up in the box score and it's not going to be on the highlight.

Speaker 2:
[12:26] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[12:27] Yeah. Anyway, go there. Yeah. Utah Jazz PR hit me up.

Speaker 2:
[12:31] Should have been on the Defensive Player of the Year Ballot.

Speaker 1:
[12:33] I will swear by that vindication for S Farahedi. That's the most important thing. Guys, stick around after the break. I got Fred Katz to talk about the Knicks lost to the Hawks and where they go from here. All right, guys, the Knicks drop game three to the Hawks. The Hawks move up two games to one, thanks to CJ McCollum again, our man Fred Katz in Atlanta. Fred, first, how you doing?

Speaker 3:
[13:08] I'm doing wonderfully. It's late.

Speaker 1:
[13:11] Playoff, travel.

Speaker 3:
[13:12] Been watching some crazy basketball. Every game's decided by one point. I'm doing great.

Speaker 1:
[13:18] Yeah, it's awesome. And it was a roller coaster last night. I mean, look, the Hawks, I think they came out. It was pretty obvious. They looked comfortable at home. I thought they came out so great. The Knicks, they did the thing that we've seen them do time and time again. They scrapped back, getting the game. And they had me fooled. I thought, hey, this is Jalen Brunson time. We've seen it time and time again, even in the playoffs. And they just didn't have enough juice to pull it out. What is your biggest takeaway from this game? Because I know there are like 10 major storylines coming out of it. But let's start with the biggest one for you.

Speaker 3:
[13:56] My biggest takeaway is that in game two, when the Hawks won by one, it kind of felt like that was a fall from ahead loss by the Knicks, more than a come from behind win by the Hawks, if you know what I mean. There were so many ways the Knicks shot themselves in the foot during that game, from the lineups they played to the timeout usage, to certain plays guys made on the court. There were just so many ways that the Knicks said, you know what, let's make this more difficult on ourselves. And this was just the Hawks beating the Knicks. The Hawks outplayed the Knicks tonight. The Knicks played one really good quarter, one lineup played really well. They had a lot of flaws that they have to clean up. Carl Anthony Towns had a really good game, played 34 minutes and he took 12 shots. That is a thing they've got to figure out. I don't know if they will. It's been two years and it's a theme.

Speaker 1:
[14:56] I feel like we, I was going to say, we've been having this conversation for a while.

Speaker 3:
[14:59] Yeah, a hundred percent. They have to find a way to get Mitchell Robinson to impact games because Mike Brown doesn't want to play him and Carl Anthony Towns together against Atlanta because he feels like there are going to be massive defensive problems there because if you put one of those guys is going to have to guard one of Atlanta's wings or guards and that is a really difficult matchup for them because another one is going to have to guard Dyson Daniels. Like, I guess you put one on Dyson Daniels and one on the Kangu.

Speaker 1:
[15:29] But Dyson Daniels acts a lot like their center on offense. So if you're guarding Dyson Daniels, that means if it's Kat or Mitch Robinson, you're in every single action.

Speaker 3:
[15:40] And Mike Brown just doesn't want to do that. He didn't play them together at all the night. He said explicitly that he doesn't want to do that. There are just certain ways the Hawks are taking the Knicks out of their game. They're playing really well. The shot making from CJ McCollum has been fantastic. Jalen Johnson, I thought ratcheted up a little bit again tonight. Whoever Josh Hart has been guarding is essentially the one who's kind of taken out of the game. Hart has had a fantastic defensive series so far through three games. I know he only had two points, but I was talking with James Edwards, our Knicks B writer about this earlier. And it almost feels like he has to play 48 minutes because they don't have any other point of attack defense. Whereas the Hogs are the point of attack defense for Atlanta is just swarming and overwhelming. And nothing short of phenomenal between Dyson Daniels and Nikhil Alexander Walker, who have both just been unbelievable on the perimeter for that team. And that's where their defense starts. That's where it breathes. A Congo has been really good defensively. I think CJ McCollum, who's not known for his defense and is objectively the weakest defender in that starting lineup because of his size, his limitations, everything like that, has actually been very good for them defensively. He's been a fantastic team defender. He's rotated well and the Knicks haven't attacked him and put him in vulnerable positions so that he doesn't really stand out. He's been really good on both sides of the ball. Kuminga has had a good defensive series and that's some big moments. They just have a lot of guys playing really good basketball. The beautiful thing about this sport, Dave, is, and you know how much I love baseball, but in baseball, if you have nine guys in your lineup and they're average, I'm not saying the Hawks players are average. I'm just making an argument. If you have nine guys in your lineup and they're average and you have five guys and you're starting rotation and they're average and you have a bunch of guys in your bullpen and they're average, your team is going to be average and in basketball, you could be good, you could be bad, you could be anything. Because sometimes you just throw certain players together and there's this magic that happens, this chemistry that happens with the way they play.

Speaker 1:
[18:04] Well, a lot of teams are five fingers and Atlanta has turned themselves into a fist.

Speaker 3:
[18:10] Oh, yeah. Right. Love that.

Speaker 1:
[18:11] Like with the way that they're playing together. I think Quinn Snyder is coaching a heck of a series. And I think on the on the converse of that, like Mike Brown not having a great series right now. He did bench Mikhail Bridges for stretches of the game and didn't close the game with Mikhail. We've talked a lot in the lead up to the playoffs about potential lineup changes. Are we going to see a different look at any point? Are we going to see a different look in game four you think to start?

Speaker 3:
[18:43] So that question is honestly not a basketball question, right? That's a political question, right? Because if it were a basketball question, the answer would be yes. The Knicks starting lineup, I wrote this in my story that ran in the Athletic on Thursday morning. The Knicks starting lineup since coming into tonight, the Knicks starting lineup, Jalen Bronson, Mikael Bridges, Josh Hart, OGN Inobi, Carl Anthony Towns, since January 1st of 2025, that's last season, have played 1,301 minutes together. That is by far the most minutes of any lineup in the league. That is so many minutes. It is insane how many minutes that is. They've been outscored by 14 points during those 1,301 minutes. It's not like being a net zero is average in a scenario, by the way. These are starters and guys who are supposed to really enhance each other. This is the point that I was making earlier, but in the inverse. You can take these guys and it should make sense. It should make sense. I understand you've got two defensive weaknesses with Cat and Brunson, but it should make more sense than it does. And for whatever reason, it just doesn't. And we have the data to back it up. They were, Mikael was giving him nothing. Hadn't scored three or four turnovers. He was giving him nothing. Coming into this game, he had run first two games of the series. He had run four pick and rolls total. In the whole series, he'd set four ball screens total. The whole series, he's just been absent. And the reality is that Deuce comes in and Deuce has been a guy. Deuce McBride has been a guy for years. When you throw him in, he unlocks all of their best lineups. It's been the case forever. You take out Inonobi, you put him in, the net rating is great. You take out Judge Hart, you put him in, the net rating is great. You take out Bridges, you put him in, the net rating is great. You just do it for everybody. Net rating is great. It's been that way for years and years and years. And it happened again tonight. That lineup they closed in the fourth quarter with, where it was the starters but without Bridges and with McBride. They played 14 minutes together. You know what that lineup's plus minus was in 14 minutes tonight?

Speaker 1:
[21:03] Not off the top of my head.

Speaker 3:
[21:04] What do you think? Give me a guess.

Speaker 1:
[21:05] Plus six.

Speaker 3:
[21:06] Plus 24.

Speaker 1:
[21:08] Wow.

Speaker 3:
[21:09] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[21:10] That was when they went on a great, listen, they went on a great run. He unlocked so much for them because the thing that the starting lineup is missing is a decisive ball handler. Someone who will attack, who will shoot. And then he can guard. That's the other thing is that you're not really, you are giving up maybe a little bit defensively, but I actually think you're bolstering your point of attack defense because it gives you another guy like he and Hart now can be out there and maybe you can switch some stuff between them. It has felt obvious. Obviously his health this year kept them from really experimenting with it. But how much of an experiment do you really need when you've had a couple of years of proof?

Speaker 3:
[21:51] Yep. And the reason I say this is a political question, and it's not a basketball question, is because Deuce McBride makes $4.3 million this year. He actually makes a shade under $4 million next year. It's one of the best contracts in the league. And Mikael Bridges just extended with the Knicks after they traded five first-round picks and one first-round pick swap form. And is that going to happen? Is Mikael Bridges going to... Mikael Bridges has never come off the bench in his professional career. Would he... Am I even saying that he would, you know, pull some sort of fit in the locker room and all be breaking things and throwing water coolers and, you know, punching Jordan Clarkson? Like I'm not saying that he would be doing these things. I just mean like, you know, I'm talking about the... Because he's not that kind of guy. I'm talking about more like the subconscious ways people react to things, the just the natural responses that we have as human beings. He's never come off the bench. Would he turn off if you brought him off the bench? Now would have turned off Mikhail Bridges, look any different than the Mikhail Bridges we saw in game three?

Speaker 1:
[23:07] Have you really felt Mikhail Bridges in any positive way in three games of the series, right?

Speaker 3:
[23:13] Like, I think that for game one, he's been good guarding Nikhil Alexander Walker off the ball. That's the one thing. He's been good there. But otherwise, I agree with you.

Speaker 1:
[23:25] Yeah. All right, let's talk game four, OK? If there's no lineup adjustment, how do they keep CJ from catching Jalen Brunson in the switch? Or if they do, what do they do about Brunson just being food, essentially, for CJ McCollum? I mean, that was the story of the first quarter, was CJ just absolutely had an easy time. And then it changed, like you said, when they moved Josh Hart onto him, started the second half, things got a little tighter for CJ, but then Jalen Johnson picked it up. So I mean, at some point, like, doesn't Brunson have to have to just guard better?

Speaker 3:
[23:59] Yeah, but that may not happen. I think Josh Hart probably starts on McCollum because that look looked good. One of the things I noticed they did better tonight than they did in game one is, or game two, I should say, the end of game two, about a minute left, minute and a half left, CJ McCollum, they had switched Mikael Bridges onto McCollum. Bridges was his primary guy now, and Brunson was off. He was guarding Nikhil Alexander Walker. About a minute and a half left, Nicks were up one. Nikhil Alexander Walker comes over to set a screen, because he wants to bring Brunson into the action. He barely sets a screen. Like he doesn't even set a screen. He doesn't slip a screen, because slipping a screen is a decisive motion. Like he just like comes over, like he's going to set the screen, doesn't even set the screen. And Mikael Bridges and Jalen Brunson just switch, just because like they're there and they're supposed to switch. That's the coverage. They just switch. That's not really what switching should be.

Speaker 1:
[25:06] I mean, yeah, I agree with that.

Speaker 3:
[25:08] Switching, switching should be you switch when an action happens and it forces you to switch. However, you should fight to keep your match up. And then there should be some sort of concession about the switch. Now, your coverage can depend on your coverage can be, okay, when do we make the concession? But the concession should never be, now we just all shucks it and do it whenever that should never be the case. And they switched it and Brunson was on McCollum. There is a reason why you have primary assignments in this sport. There is a reason why you're guarding the person you're guarding. It's because that is the best match up to help the team win and help them succeed on that particular defensive possession. So you should try to keep that match up. The Knicks didn't. Brunson guarded McCollum, McCollum took him right. McCollum hit a floater. Atlanta took the lead and Atlanta eventually wins the game. I thought they did a better job tonight fighting to keep switches, which is good for them. I think they still can do a better job of that. They tried out some hard hedges with Brunson, which I think is interesting. That might be something you can go to. Like Golden State does that with Steph Curry a lot. What it's doing, maybe, maybe I want your take on this. Like Brunson is playing slowly late in games. Yeah, tonight they played a little faster. The pace was good in the fourth quarter. But like end of games, Brunson is playing slowly and he always plays slowly. So I can't tell if this is just a stylistic thing or what. But something I want to do is I want to check the second spectrum numbers and see the distance that Jalen Brunson is running on defense over these first three games.

Speaker 1:
[26:45] Like are they wearing him down?

Speaker 3:
[26:46] Yeah, like it's got to be exhausting.

Speaker 1:
[26:49] Yeah, the thing about the playoffs is look, your best player, we're going to go at him if he's a defensive weakness. And especially like a guy like Brunson, he's smaller, right? You can pound him. I mean, to be fair, though, he does pound back. I mean, he is like the most boxing like basketball player in the NBA right now. But it absolutely you're involved in every single action on when you're on the court on both ends. It has to be exhausting. I mean, this is why look Jalen Johnson's defense used to be okay. And it is atrocious now because he's on the ball so much, right? Like there is this sort of energy, I think, equilibrium that the guys have to figure out. And I might be with you a little bit. Again, I expected Brunson down the stretch of the game to just kind of take it over. And outside of that one and one, like it just didn't feel like he had quite the oomph to get him over the top. The way that it seems like he always is able to will them there. But the other thing is, man, I think by the end of this game, even though they got back into it, a couple of OG Ananobe grenade prayer threes go in, right? And they're back in this. It didn't really feel like they were in it. Like they had felt beaten in the game to me. And so, you know, again, I'm just not used to seeing that from the Knicks because normally the last three minutes of the game, that's where they are the team that has all the juice.

Speaker 3:
[28:13] Yeah, 100%. And that's a huge credit to this Atlanta team, where like, they play incredibly fast, they play incredibly hard, they play incredibly cohesive. The stuff they run, they run great. They run like great actions. They're always running an action. And they run like three or four actions on one possession, you know, and they'll just, they're so good at second side. I will never forget a coach making the point to me once, and you just don't unsee it. Like offensive efficiency goes through the roof. Once the ball crosses from one side to the other side, and then it goes into the sky when it goes back to the other side. Like the analytics back that up. If you can get the ball from one side to the other side, back to the other side, and that's the goal of your possession, your expected offensive efficiency is going to be ginormous.

Speaker 1:
[29:10] That's another thing that the old ball coaches knew long before we had any numbers to prove it. 100%. Just like rebounding is back. Anyway, Fred Katz, always around. Yeah, that's right. Everybody go and read Fred, because I'm sure that tomorrow's column is going to have quite a lot of juice to it. Thank you to Fred for hanging out. Thanks to S. Barahene. As always, I'm Dave DuFour. This has been the NBA Daily. Thanks for waking up with us. Thanks for listening. Make sure you hit the subscribe or follow button, so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed it, drop a like, leave a rating or let us know in the comments. Thank you guys for waking up with us.