Jason Timpf’s 10 NBA & CBB Takeaways from the Weekend

Alright, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at The Volume. Happy Monday, everybody.

We had an insane weekend of basketball, including a bunch of entertaining and interesting stuff going on in the NBA. And my Arizona Wildcats are going to the NCAA Tournament semifinals for the first time since I was 10 years old. I’m very, very excited. I am also very scared – or at least have the appropriate fear of Michigan.

Anyways, let’s get started.

 

1. SGA shakes off slump

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got out of his bizarre slump just in time to save the Thunder against the New York Knicks.

It was a bad stretch, and it was deeper than just the shooting. I thought it affected his all-around game. He was really trying to force his way out of the slump by taking a lot of bad shots over the two games. I didn’t think he was at his best defensively yesterday either.

But he did get out of it with a brilliant stretch to close out the Knicks yesterday. Found a way to get his rhythm at the foul line. Then he starts going at Karl-Anthony Towns with much more success in pick and roll. Then he finally gets a pull-up three to go.

Oklahoma City explodes in that fourth quarter thanks to Shai. Next thing you know, the Knicks are hard doubling Shai 30 feet from the rim to get the ball out of his hands and the game is over.

Also, J-Dub finally had his best game since coming back from his hamstring injury. Really nice win for the Thunder.

2. Celtics-Hornets reaction

We got another look at a potential 2-7 matchup between the Charlotte Hornets and the Boston Celtics. And this time, Boston got their revenge.

I think Charlotte’s biggest weakness right now is just big physical ball pressure. They really only have two guys that can handle the ball at a high level now. The rest of their guys, they kind of prefer to score in the flow of the offense or they’re play finishers. That’s why the on-off numbers are so crazy with LaMelo. They need LaMelo to break the defense down.

Boston showed that formula last night. Jordan Walsh got the start with the injuries and did an awesome job on LaMelo right away. He’s just bigger, faster, and stronger and plays so insanely hard that he’s so good at staying attached.

The Celtics held them under 100 points and controlled this game from start to finish.

Jayson Tatum had his first 30-point game of the season – a really encouraging performance from him. The Celtics are really rounding into form as a top-tier championship contender.

3. Sengun saves the Rockets

Sometimes you just need to play better. And that’s how Alperen Sengun is saving the Rockets.

The Rockets dominated the Pelicans in New Orleans yesterday. But the story of the game was Alperen Sengun, who had 36 points, 13 rebounds, and seven assists with zero turnovers, and six stocks.

When he’s engaged defensively, he has the physical tools to be very impactful. It’s all about engagement and anticipation for Sengun. And when he is locked in in those areas, he actually can be a very impactful defender, which I think is going to be a major factor for the Rockets in the postseason this year.

And he’s really starting to put it all together on offense right now. That was his third 30-point game and his third seven-assist game over his last four.

More often than not, the answer to your team’s problems is just play better. When Sengun is playing at the level of a superstar, the Rockets are simply a much better basketball team.

4. Paul George and Joel Embiid are back

Paul George and Joel Embiid are both back for Philly. They both look great. And suddenly the Eastern Conference looks like it has its deepest playoff field in years.

Here they all are. George, Embiid and Tyrese Maxey are all back. They all look great. Embiid is averaging 32 points per game in his first two games back. Paul George is averaging 27 points per game in his first two games back. Both guys are shooting the hell out of the ball from three.

That win in Charlotte was massive. Maxey came back from his long absence and looked like Tyrese Maxey, and all of a sudden the Sixers look like a legit threat in the Eastern Conference.

Now I look at the field and I think we’re going to have six or seven really good Eastern Conference playoff teams. We’re probably going to get three really good first-round series in the Eastern Conference and a great playoff from start to finish.

5. How to fix tanking

Friday night was an absolute travesty, but I do have an idea for how to fix tanking.

You have a really good team who plays a really bad team, playing really bad basketball just because they have no real interest in being there. And then the really bad team benches all their best players in the fourth quarter, and the really good team ends up getting the win.

It’s terrible for everyone involved. It’s bad for the good teams. It’s bad for the bad teams. And it’s bad for us because it’s objectively a terrible basketball product.

I would split the schedule into two portions. From the beginning of the season to the All-Star break, have everybody play everybody. But then when I get to the All-Star break, I would cut a new schedule. I’d have the top 10 teams in both conferences separate and continue to play each other as they jockey for position and tune up for the postseason. And then I would take the bottom 10 teams and just have them play each other.

I just think they need to try something because all these games at the tail end are trash.

6. The NBA MVP race

MVP discourse has gone completely off the rails, but I actually think the top five is pretty clear at this point.

We would be absolutely foolish to pretend as though Wemby doesn’t have an awesome MVP case this year. He does. No one has done more to impact winning on a per-minute basis this year than Wemby.

I personally have Shai as the MVP right now. Shai’s case is that he’s looked like the best player in the world this year and he’s on the best team.

And the Luka stuff is insane to me. Luka has zero shot to win the MVP this year. Luka has been great on defense post-All-Star break, but he was bad on defense before that. MVP is a season-long award. It’s not who played the best defense in March.

My top five? Shai’s probably going to win. I give Wemby a slight chance, but he’s second. Luka’s the clear number three. Jokic is fourth, and Jaylen Brown is the clear number five.

7. Injuries worth monitoring ahead of playoffs

Some injury weirdness is starting to pop up. Most of the time, it ends up playing a bigger role than any other thing when it comes to the NBA playoffs.

Jaylen Brown’s dealing with some Achilles tendonitis. Aaron Gordon missed last night’s game with some tightness in his calf.

More often than not, we talk about matchups, we talk about what teams are good at, what teams are bad at. We would do well if we remembered that a lot of this is just who wins the war of attrition – who actually has their best players available and at the top of their games when they get to the postseason.

8. The assist stat is broken

The assist stat is broken and should probably be replaced with something that actually captures playmaking talent.

There was a game last week where Jokic had 19 assists. If you dig into the actual assists, a lot of them were him throwing a dribble handoff to Jamal Murray and then Murray getting into his bag and hitting multiple dribble, multiple step-back combination, contested crazy shots.

This is silly. That shouldn’t be an assist.

I think Jokic is the best passer in the NBA. I also think Jokic is literally the best offensive player I have ever seen. He can be both.

But the assist stat should be reworked to specifically reflect a player hitting another player in finishing position.

9. Arizona vs. Michigan preview

Arizona and Michigan are essentially playing for the national championship on Saturday night.

As an Arizona fan, I was panicking a little bit during that Purdue game. They came out lacking that intensity. Purdue looked like they were in control of that game. And then Arizona just came out and made slight adjustments – like Jaden Bradley covering Braden Smith. All of their guys upped their defensive intensity and their rotations.

It was really fun watching Arizona in that comeback.

Now, Michigan scares me. I think Michigan has the size to match up with Arizona and they both neutralize each other in that way physically – but I think Michigan’s front line is just a little bit more experienced and a little more skilled. And so that scares me.

But we would all be foolish to count Arizona out. They’re just too resilient of a team. So that’s going to be a really fun one on Saturday night.

10. Dan Hurley’s coaching style… too much?

The tough coaching style still has its place in moderation.

My opinion lands firmly in the middle there. I think tough coaching has its place, but I think that when it’s the only thing you do, coaches that run at that crazy off-the-charts intensity all the time can be a little much. And I actually think it can have drawbacks.

To me, the best style of coaching is a coach that has control over his emotions but can bring the intensity when it’s needed.

There are certain players that handle tough coaching really well and there are certain players that don’t. There are certain situations that call for tough coaching and there are certain situations that don’t.

There is no right way to do it. My personal opinion on that profession is that if you have control over your emotions and you can pick and choose when to be intense, that’s for the best because you’re dealing with kids that don’t have control over their emotions. You have to be the adult in the room.

Also, how funny would it have been watching Dan Hurley try to coach the Los Angeles Lakers? It would either go amazing and the dudes would all go to war for him, or he’d get in a fistfight behind closed doors with one of his players within the first three weeks. There’s no middle ground there.

Alright, that’s all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We will be back tomorrow with more game reactions, and we’ll see you guys then.