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Speaker 1: tonight here at the volume, Happy Thursday, everybody. Hope all
Speaker 1: of you guys are having a great week. As promise
Speaker 1: for doing some game reactions today, We're going to do
Speaker 1: a deep dive into Cavs Rockets, which was a super
Speaker 1: entertaining game from last night, and then we're gonna do
Speaker 1: shorter dives into three other games, the Kings beating the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors, shake Gilgess, Alexander getting his career high
Speaker 1: fifty four points against the Utah Jazz, and then the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics winning an exciting overtime game over the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Clippers. You guys have the trip before we get started.
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Speaker 1: at least, keep dropping mailbag questions and the YouTube comments.
Speaker 1: We'll have another mail bag tomorrow. We have mail bags
Speaker 1: on Fridays throughout the season. You can drop those questions
Speaker 1: for those mail bags in the comments underneath these videos.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So super interesting back
Speaker 1: and forth game in Houston between the Cavs and the Rockets.
Speaker 1: Cleveland controlled things early until Houston's bench came into the
Speaker 1: game and they just completely changed things. Cam Whitmore was
Speaker 1: insanely good. Tarri Easton was good Jayshon Tate. They do
Speaker 1: a lot of damage with their rim pressure, and what
Speaker 1: that means is just like their aggressive athletic moves towards
Speaker 1: the rim. And this can come through a bunch of
Speaker 1: different ways. It can come through running your lane and transition.
Speaker 1: It could come through crashing the offensive glass. It can
Speaker 1: come through cutting with the basketball, or cutting to get
Speaker 1: the basketball, rolling out of ball screens. There's so many
Speaker 1: different ways to generate pressure. But the specific thing that
Speaker 1: Cleveland was struggling with when in this particular one was
Speaker 1: their athletes coming off of their action downhill. So like
Speaker 1: getting downhill against Jared Allen in a drop coverage, but
Speaker 1: you're going so damn fast that everybody reacts to it.
Speaker 1: And even if you miss the first layup, which they
Speaker 1: were making a lot of those first layups, even if
Speaker 1: you missed that first layup, there's just waves of athletes
Speaker 1: coming in behind, right. It's kind of what Houston does
Speaker 1: to you. They wear you down with just waves and
Speaker 1: waves of athleticism. And Houston was actually beating Cleveland pretty
Speaker 1: bad in the half court in the first half, which
Speaker 1: is an unusual occurrence for two teams that have these
Speaker 1: types of strengths and weakness. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: in the first half, Houston was getting one point zero
Speaker 1: three points per possession in the half half court, Cleveland
Speaker 1: was getting only zero point eight three, So a twenty
Speaker 1: point per one hundred possession advantage in the half court
Speaker 1: for Houston in the first half. Again a combination of
Speaker 1: their great defense, as Amen Thompson was giving Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: fits all night, which ended up being one of the
Speaker 1: defining factors in the late portion of the game, but
Speaker 1: just in general, them causing a lot of problems for
Speaker 1: Cleveland with their defense and then them getting out in
Speaker 1: transition and then pressuring the rim when they got stuck
Speaker 1: in the half court, and again with Houston, there's a
Speaker 1: certain amount of damage they're going to do to you
Speaker 1: in transition no matter what, just because they run and
Speaker 1: they run, and they run and they run. And they
Speaker 1: did have twelve transition points in the first half, and
Speaker 1: that probably could have been worse because Tarry Easton missed
Speaker 1: a couple of relatively makeable layups in transition. So Houston
Speaker 1: ends up going in the late second quarter stretch with
Speaker 1: their first double digit lead of the game. So again
Speaker 1: Cleveland controls early Houston bench comes in, the athletes kind
Speaker 1: of take control. Houston goes up ten in the late
Speaker 1: second quarter. At that point, the Cavs had only ran
Speaker 1: a handful of possessions of zone all game and nothing
Speaker 1: super substantial, and as soon the Rockets one up ten,
Speaker 1: Kenny Atkinson went pretty much all in on zone the
Speaker 1: rest of the game. There's still a good bit of
Speaker 1: man at different portions of the game, like middle of
Speaker 1: the third quarter, late third quarter, they've played some man,
Speaker 1: but a lot of zone from that point forward in
Speaker 1: the game. And the idea there is is you're trying
Speaker 1: to take away the easy opportunities for Houston's athletes to
Speaker 1: get downhill because no matter when you have the ball
Speaker 1: against the zone, the zone is always loaded up on you.
Speaker 1: There's always a rim protector waiting, there's always guys in
Speaker 1: the gaps. It's difficult to dribble drive against the zone
Speaker 1: compared to a man to man look. Right, So it
Speaker 1: basically puts more of the onus on Houston's weaknesses, right,
Speaker 1: Like Houston's weaknesses are they don't have a ton of
Speaker 1: guys that are super reliable knockdown, catch and shoot guys,
Speaker 1: and they're not the most offensively skilled and high offensive
Speaker 1: IQ type of team, and they're in those zones. You
Speaker 1: have to break them down with ball and player movement
Speaker 1: and the ability to knock down shots over the top
Speaker 1: of the defense. And so Kenny Atkins's Kenny Atkinson was
Speaker 1: banking on that being what would specifically slow this team down,
Speaker 1: and they did. It's Houston struggled with the zone all game. Overall,
Speaker 1: Houston faced forty two possessions of zone in the game
Speaker 1: and managed just thirty one points. They gave up zero
Speaker 1: point seven to four points per possession Cleveland did in
Speaker 1: those forty two possessions of zone. The worst stretch of
Speaker 1: it by far was in the fourth quarter, a stretch
Speaker 1: when Steven Adams was on the floor, which was a
Speaker 1: problem because shanegun Again, we talked about this a lot,
Speaker 1: but in the I think it was in the Lakers
Speaker 1: heat game from last week. But there's a certain amount
Speaker 1: of pressure in the zone that can be relieved if
Speaker 1: you have somebody who can get the ball into the
Speaker 1: middle of the zone, who's a capable playmaker. Because as
Speaker 1: soon as you get the ball in the middle of
Speaker 1: the zone, there's a tendency for all five guys to
Speaker 1: kind of turn towards you. The big man in the
Speaker 1: middle almost always steps up, and so there's ope opportunities
Speaker 1: for cuts along the baseline, kickouts to the corner, getting
Speaker 1: the ball to the middle of the flour to a
Speaker 1: guy who can actually make plays there is kind of
Speaker 1: a vital part of breaking down a zone, and so
Speaker 1: Steven Adams was out there in that fourth order stretch
Speaker 1: and at one point against Cleveland zone, Houston failed to
Speaker 1: score on sixteen consecutive possessions. Think about how crazy that is,
Speaker 1: a complete and total offensive breakdown against Cleveland zone. Houston
Speaker 1: still defended pretty well in the stretch, so they only
Speaker 1: allowed nineteen points in that time, but it was a
Speaker 1: nineteen to zero run. So all of a sudden, a
Speaker 1: thirteen point Houston Rockets lead turns into a six point
Speaker 1: Cleveland Cavaliers lead, and it looks like this whole thing
Speaker 1: is going down in flames. But then finally somebody for
Speaker 1: Houston breaks through against Cleveland zone, and that person was
Speaker 1: Fred Van Vliet. Again, the zone, like we talked about,
Speaker 1: requires you to break it down with good bomb player movement,
Speaker 1: and guys are gonna have to knock down threes. A
Speaker 1: lot of times, the shot you're conceding in a zone
Speaker 1: is like the skip or the swing from either the
Speaker 1: opposite wing or from the middle of the floor to
Speaker 1: the opposite wing, where that guy's gonna have to make
Speaker 1: like a twenty six footer, like a little bit outside
Speaker 1: the three point line, that's kind of contested, a little rush.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of shot that a zone is going
Speaker 1: to give up. And you can't give that up to
Speaker 1: teams that have super elite shooting because they're just going
Speaker 1: to hit that shot at a pretty high rate. But again,
Speaker 1: in this case, Fred van Vliet hits two massive threes,
Speaker 1: one off of a skip pass in the zone, the
Speaker 1: other one off of an offensive rebound in the zone.
Speaker 1: Knocks down both threes. Finally it's tied. Now we're locked
Speaker 1: in there. I think it was one oh four to
Speaker 1: one oh four if I remember at that point in time.
Speaker 1: So now we have ourselves a good old fashioned clutch
Speaker 1: basketball battle. And in the clutch, Houston's Wings just kept
Speaker 1: getting stop after stop after stop. First of men, Thompson
Speaker 1: gets a steal and a foul that puts Houston up
Speaker 1: by one. At the foul line he was given Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell fits all night long. He had nineteen points on
Speaker 1: twenty one shots. And really, and this will become a
Speaker 1: theme here down the stretch, the only thing that Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell could do against the men Thompson was take extremely
Speaker 1: difficult off the dribble jump shots and he just wasn't
Speaker 1: able to make him in this game. Darius Garland ends up,
Speaker 1: so Houston goes up one off of the foul shot
Speaker 1: from a men Thompson. But then Darius Garland puts the
Speaker 1: cab back up on the left wing with a three
Speaker 1: on a switch interchange that Houston botches. So like the
Speaker 1: couple guys linger with Garland and then one of them thinks, oh,
Speaker 1: I got to get back to my man, except for
Speaker 1: both of them thought that, so they ran away from Garland.
Speaker 1: Garland ends up wide open, he hits a three, makes
Speaker 1: it one oh seven to one O five. Shane Goon
Speaker 1: ties the game. He had won a bunch of big
Speaker 1: physical battles against Jared Allen down the stretch, and one
Speaker 1: of the big ones he got in this one he
Speaker 1: ducked in in the post. It was kind of like
Speaker 1: a drive from Fred van Vliet where he kind of
Speaker 1: posed the ball out and Shane Gun had been rolling,
Speaker 1: and when he rolled, he had some pretty decent position
Speaker 1: and so he just just threw his ass back into
Speaker 1: to Jared Allen knocked him off his off his base
Speaker 1: and created a nice big passing window for Fred van Vliet.
Speaker 1: Fred threw it to him and Jared was draped over
Speaker 1: the top, but Shane Gun just went up through him
Speaker 1: and he was so close to the basket that he
Speaker 1: really just had to get the ball up in the
Speaker 1: air and had a really good chance of going in.
Speaker 1: Makes that layup to make it one oh seven to
Speaker 1: one oh seven, and then from there that's when Houston
Speaker 1: just starts to getting stops again. Amen Thompson forces Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell into like this impossible left shoulder fate that has
Speaker 1: very little chance of going in. And again the theme
Speaker 1: here is Mitchell can only get these super difficult off
Speaker 1: the dribble jump shots. Jalen Green got a big stop
Speaker 1: against Darius Garland where Daris Garland tried to go for
Speaker 1: like a low gather to draw foul, and like this
Speaker 1: was a game where like no fouls were getting called
Speaker 1: until randomly Shangoon gets two free throws at the end
Speaker 1: of the game. We'll get to that in a minute,
Speaker 1: but like there was a lot of contact that was
Speaker 1: just getting allowed in this game, and so Garland made
Speaker 1: a mistake I thought, and trying to like draw foul
Speaker 1: with a low gather. Jalen Green ends up forcing the turnover.
Speaker 1: They go out the other way and then Amen Thompson
Speaker 1: forces Donovan Mitchell into another impossible step back three kind
Speaker 1: of in the left wing area. Misses again, but on
Speaker 1: the shot Alprin shang Gun Alprin Shangun buries Jared Allen
Speaker 1: to get the rebound and creates the angle and Jared
Speaker 1: Allen fousand. Now I didn't agree with this call it
Speaker 1: by the book technically, but like it was one of
Speaker 1: those things where this game was kind of a physical
Speaker 1: blood bath where everything was getting let go. It was
Speaker 1: kind of a theme early on in the game. The
Speaker 1: Rockets broadcast was talking about it quite a bit and
Speaker 1: how it actually favors Houston, which I agree because they
Speaker 1: are the bigger, more physical team, especially with Evan Mobley
Speaker 1: out of the lineup. But Shangun gets two foul shots
Speaker 1: right he makes both foul shots go out to the
Speaker 1: other end. Darius Garland gets to the foul line off
Speaker 1: of a reckless close out from Tarry East and he
Speaker 1: gets three free throws and the ball and makes only
Speaker 1: one of them. And that wasn't even the first time
Speaker 1: that game he went one for three on a three
Speaker 1: point shot fal he went three for eight in the
Speaker 1: foul line of this game really was the difference between
Speaker 1: a win and a loss for Cleveland in this one.
Speaker 1: So Cleveland gets the ball back one point, game down,
Speaker 1: one any bucket they win. But once again the best
Speaker 1: shot that Donovan Mitchell could get against Aman Thompson was
Speaker 1: a really really difficult right shoulder fade kind of along
Speaker 1: the baseline that barely grazed the rim, and so again
Speaker 1: Cleveland had the chance, couldn't get a bucket there. Houston
Speaker 1: ends up getting out of there the win. I don't
Speaker 1: see too much point in like focusing on the specific
Speaker 1: result of this game, just because there was so much weirdness,
Speaker 1: like Evan Mobley was out, Darius Garland missing all those
Speaker 1: free throws that he usually makes, Houston going as ice
Speaker 1: cold as they did against his own in a playoff series,
Speaker 1: you'd probably bail on Steven Adams a little bit earlier
Speaker 1: if that happens. All those weird foul calls at the
Speaker 1: end of the game. It was it was just a
Speaker 1: weird regular season game that Houston happened to come away with,
Speaker 1: so that I'm not overly concerned with. I did think
Speaker 1: the game was super revealing though, of both Cleveland and
Speaker 1: Houston's respective strengths and weaknesses. Starting with Houston, their athleticism
Speaker 1: is just a fucking problem on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: Garland and Mitchell were both really struggling to get separation
Speaker 1: and get to their spots. Role players were getting spooked.
Speaker 1: That was the big thing. It felt like Cleveland was
Speaker 1: getting rushed a lot. We'll talk about that here in
Speaker 1: a minute. But georgi' niang smoked two easy layups on
Speaker 1: cuts because he was like terrified of Cam Whitmore coming
Speaker 1: over the top. One he tried to pump, bake and travel.
Speaker 1: The other one he just smoked the layup. They Houston
Speaker 1: had twenty three fast break points, They had twenty offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: On offense, it was their downhill attack that actually forced
Speaker 1: Cleveland to kind of default his zone as much as
Speaker 1: they did. The athleticism for Houston just gives them such
Speaker 1: an incredibly high floor. And then Shaneguon is just really good,
Speaker 1: Like I've seen Jared Allen outplay many of the best
Speaker 1: centers in the league this year, again in a different
Speaker 1: type of role, but just produce in his role at
Speaker 1: a higher level than some of his peers at his
Speaker 1: position have done. I thought shaneg Gun out played him
Speaker 1: last night. The box score numbers were relatively similar. Jared
Speaker 1: Allen did win some battles. He had I think five
Speaker 1: or six offensive rebounds, was causing some problems with his
Speaker 1: tap out rebounds. He was a big part of Cleveland's
Speaker 1: third quarter surges that kept the game close with Jared
Speaker 1: Allen and the work he was doing on the glass.
Speaker 1: But Shane Gun was winning some specific battles. He won
Speaker 1: some big some big physical battles, namely that big duck
Speaker 1: in on Jared Allen late that tied the game, drawing
Speaker 1: the foul on the defensive rebound down the stretch. Like
Speaker 1: he just won some key physical battles, and then there
Speaker 1: was a difference there too, like Shanggun was errating offense
Speaker 1: first team, Jared Allen was finishing plays, and obviously Jared
Speaker 1: Allen was still very good, But I thought Shanguon won
Speaker 1: that battle. And he's just such a smart offensive player.
Speaker 1: The duck in is a great example like, oh I've
Speaker 1: got good position, We're not really getting anything good right now.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna bury him right here and see if
Speaker 1: I can't create an easy shot. There was a play
Speaker 1: I clipped this play and put it on my Twitter
Speaker 1: feed at underscore jsonlt. But a play where it was
Speaker 1: against a man and man look if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: but Shangoon caught it in the post on the left block.
Speaker 1: I think it was in like the like mid to
Speaker 1: late third quarter stretch, and the Calves zone up on him.
Speaker 1: So they zone up from the baseline, meaning like a
Speaker 1: defender guarding somebody elsewhere on the floor. I think it
Speaker 1: was Tyderme if I remember correctly, but comes all the
Speaker 1: way across to the outside the paint and basically zones
Speaker 1: up on Shanggun and then Fred van Vlietzman Darius Garland
Speaker 1: was digging down and so Shanegun was like posting, but
Speaker 1: he's looking at three bodies. He's looking at body right
Speaker 1: in front of him, body to the left, body to
Speaker 1: the right, at Jared Allen, I think was the guy
Speaker 1: guarding him, and so it looks like a well like
Speaker 1: you Lakers fans will listen to the show will recognize
Speaker 1: this as the way every team guards Anthony Davis in
Speaker 1: the post where it's just like complete load up. But
Speaker 1: Shanggun did something really really smart that got a great
Speaker 1: shot for his team on this possession. So instead of
Speaker 1: like trying to probe against three defenders right in his
Speaker 1: face or trying to force a looping skip pass that
Speaker 1: Cleveland could have easily rotated out of or potentially deflected
Speaker 1: with ball pressure, he just dribbles out at Fred van
Speaker 1: Vliet as if he's going to do a dribble handoff
Speaker 1: with him. As soon as he does this, it triggers
Speaker 1: a chain of events. Darius Garland, instead of digging down
Speaker 1: on Shangun, closes out to Fred van Vliet to get
Speaker 1: into chase position in case he has to chase him
Speaker 1: over a dribble handoff. Jared Allen just barely gets up
Speaker 1: out of his stance and slides off to his right
Speaker 1: to potentially contain a Fred van Vliet drive off of
Speaker 1: a ball screen. And then Shane Gun just keeps the
Speaker 1: ball and drives into the middle of the lane. So
Speaker 1: he was facing this super loaded up man demand look
Speaker 1: and just by taking a dribble at Fred van Vliet
Speaker 1: and then turning back into the lane. He completely shifted
Speaker 1: Cleveland's defense, forced Garland and Allen to shift into more
Speaker 1: of a ball screen coverage, which created an opening in
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor for Shangun to drive that
Speaker 1: he drove right at it. Everyone collapsed, easy kickout Passatari
Speaker 1: Easton on the right wing he knocks down at three.
Speaker 1: He's just such a smart offensive player and he has
Speaker 1: such a gift for like meandering and making stuff happen
Speaker 1: in tight space situations. I thought he was absolutely huge
Speaker 1: in this particular game. The one thing with the Rockets
Speaker 1: that was on display though, is just again they just
Speaker 1: lacked that like highly refined offensive skill that they had
Speaker 1: twenty two turnovers in this game. They had so many
Speaker 1: ugly possessions in the half court on offense. So like
Speaker 1: a pretty good indication, pretty good demonstration of Houston's strengths
Speaker 1: and weaknesses last night. And then with Cleveland, the big
Speaker 1: thing that stood out to me that they're definitely not
Speaker 1: as athletic as some of these teams at the top
Speaker 1: of the league, and it causes them when they run
Speaker 1: into that sort of team to rush things a little
Speaker 1: bit I've seen this in specifically the first game on
Speaker 1: the road in Boston, the one on the road in
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, and then this one where they have these
Speaker 1: stretches where they kind of lose composure and start taking
Speaker 1: bad shots, not trusting the things that caused them to
Speaker 1: succeed Earlier in the season. I talked about Mitchell forcing
Speaker 1: things against Oklahoma City. I thought he looked similar to
Speaker 1: that last night, just kind of taking extremely difficult shots
Speaker 1: against elite perimeter defenders. Darius Garland was missing some reads,
Speaker 1: Like there were about a half dozen possessions in this game.
Speaker 1: I clipped several of them and put them on my
Speaker 1: Twitter feed. But there were about a half dozen possessions
Speaker 1: in this game where he took like pretty tough, contested
Speaker 1: twos while there were easy kickout raads available for good shooters,
Speaker 1: the kind of reads he had been making all season.
Speaker 1: But he just looked rushed, you know. That was kind
Speaker 1: of the story of the game for me. He looked
Speaker 1: rushed like George's Niang looked rushed on those layups. In general,
Speaker 1: the team didn't shoot well from three nextrs, and Dean
Speaker 1: Wade went three for ten. Sam maryl was one for six,
Speaker 1: and had some really ugly misses, like some bricks that
Speaker 1: damn near put a hole on the backboard. Just something
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on. Like, I've seen them handle
Speaker 1: athletic pressure well and execute and make shots at stretches,
Speaker 1: but I've also seen them handle athletic pressure poorly and
Speaker 1: lose composure. And I think I think that'll be one
Speaker 1: of their like kind of oscillating back and forth team
Speaker 1: characteristics that we see in the postseason when they lose
Speaker 1: games versus when they win games, will probably center around
Speaker 1: whether or not they can remain composed against more athletic teams.
Speaker 1: But I really thought they won the chess match in
Speaker 1: this one. Shout out to Kenny Ankinson in terms of
Speaker 1: their on the fly adjustments. They executed really well and
Speaker 1: they had a great chance to win. And again, like overall,
Speaker 1: I thought it was a pretty impressive Cavs performance, Like
Speaker 1: you're that's a tough Houston team to be especially in Houston.
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley being out is a pretty substantial loss and
Speaker 1: you probably win that game if Darius Garland doesn't miss
Speaker 1: five free throws. So overall, pretty encouraging from the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Speaker 1: We're gonna hit three more games, but it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a rapid fire kind of stop. So,
Speaker 1: first of all, how can we be sure that Steph
Speaker 1: can't lead a championship team when this is what he's
Speaker 1: working with? The Kings last night followed a game plan
Speaker 1: that many teams in the NBA have employed over the
Speaker 1: last couple of years against Steph Curry. Let's just get
Speaker 1: the ball out of Steph hands. Let's pressure him, let's
Speaker 1: top lock him, let's deny him. Let's blitz him on
Speaker 1: every ball screen, Let's shade heavy towards him on every drive.
Speaker 1: Let's just overplay him and make all of these fringe
Speaker 1: NBA players beat us. And for most of the night
Speaker 1: it actually didn't work. Sacramento allowed on astonishing twenty unguarded
Speaker 1: catch and shoot jump shots, which is a lot to
Speaker 1: give up in any single game. Golden State made eleven
Speaker 1: of them and led by as much as eighteen in
Speaker 1: this game. That was a big part of the early
Speaker 1: story of this game. It was a long term investment.
Speaker 1: You gave up a bunch of open looks, you gave
Speaker 1: up an early lead to Golden State, but a very
Speaker 1: important thing happened Steph was out of rhythm on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor. It took just eleven shots,
Speaker 1: he had twelve assists, but he had just fourteen points,
Speaker 1: and so as the game progressed, Sacramento got a little
Speaker 1: sharper with their rotations. The open shots were fewer and
Speaker 1: further between. I think fourteen of the twenty open shots
Speaker 1: they conceded were in the first half, and nobody in
Speaker 1: a Golden State uniform felt comfortable. When we ended up
Speaker 1: in crunch time, all the role players were out of rhythm,
Speaker 1: and Sacramento's defensive intensity picked up again. This is a
Speaker 1: team that has been really really good on defense in
Speaker 1: this span, their sixth in defense in their last eleven games.
Speaker 1: They made all the Golden State role players feel uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: and now we're in crunch time and Steph doesn't have
Speaker 1: any sort of rhythm or anything in his game going
Speaker 1: at that point in time, and it just led to
Speaker 1: an absolutely brutal finish on offense for the Warriors. They
Speaker 1: were up by four on a Wiggans three with four
Speaker 1: minutes left. The Warriors did not score over the next
Speaker 1: three minutes, and change in the game slipped away from them.
Speaker 1: In that span to Marta Rozen got a bucket over
Speaker 1: Gie Santo's Malik Monk and Deren Fox kept getting to
Speaker 1: the foul line with their rim pressure and then they
Speaker 1: iced the game. In the final minute, Deeron Fox hit
Speaker 1: a little mid range jump shot and Malik Monk had
Speaker 1: a driving layup and that ended up putting the game away.
Speaker 1: So the Kings trusted their defensive game plan. They didn't
Speaker 1: overreact to guys making shots early in the game, and
Speaker 1: it ended up working out in their favor as they
Speaker 1: got a huge win. The Kings are now ten to
Speaker 1: one in their last eleven games, fifth in offense, sixth
Speaker 1: in defense, just absolutely killing teams in clutch situations like this.
Speaker 1: In that eleven game span, they've played six clutch games.
Speaker 1: In those six clutch games, they're six to zero. Malik
Speaker 1: Monk and deer and five or excuse me, Milike Monk
Speaker 1: and Demarta Rosen have made seventeen of their thirty two
Speaker 1: shot attempts in the clutch over that span. As a team,
Speaker 1: we talked about them being a lead on offense and
Speaker 1: defense in the large sample over that span. In clutch situations,
Speaker 1: they have a one to thirty five offensive rating and
Speaker 1: an eighty defensive rating in those six clutch wins the Kings.
Speaker 1: And this is such a great example of what I've
Speaker 1: been talking about all year with respect to the Western
Speaker 1: Conference and not getting too high and getting too low.
Speaker 1: I don't think you could have been much lower than
Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz looked at the end of that or
Speaker 1: exus me. Then the Sacramento Kings looked at the end
Speaker 1: of that ugly stretch that they had a little over
Speaker 1: about a month ago, right, it looked like things were
Speaker 1: legitimately like we were talking about Dearren Fox traits. That's
Speaker 1: how bad it got, right, And now the Kings are
Speaker 1: up to seventh in the Western Conference standings in just
Speaker 1: one game back of the five seat. Pretty wild turn
Speaker 1: around and clearly just taking to the new voice in
Speaker 1: the room, Doug Christy. This is something like I've talked
Speaker 1: about a lot, as it pertains to like even the
Speaker 1: move from Frank Vogel to Darvin Ham with the Lakers, Like,
Speaker 1: there are many different reasons to potentially change your coach,
Speaker 1: and one of them is like sometimes the same guy
Speaker 1: preaches at you for so many years, you just get
Speaker 1: sick of them and you just need to hear a
Speaker 1: different voice, and that appears to be something that has
Speaker 1: helped this Sacramento King, this Sacramento Kings team get back
Speaker 1: on track. But I wanted to briefly hit on that
Speaker 1: Warrior's closing group. The Warriors closed this game with Gie
Speaker 1: Santos and Quinton Post on the floor. I don't understand
Speaker 1: how we could possibly gauge what this team is or
Speaker 1: isn't capable of, or what Steph is or isn't capable
Speaker 1: of when he's playing with fringe NBA players due to injuries.
Speaker 1: When Jonathan Kaming is out, you know, when Gary Payton's out,
Speaker 1: when Draymond Green's out. Different guys have been in and
Speaker 1: out of the lineup all season long. When Brandon Pajemski's out.
Speaker 1: When these guys have been out with injuries, we're seeing
Speaker 1: a depleted team that already had a top end talent issue.
Speaker 1: So I'm hoping that they can get their main guys
Speaker 1: out there again before the deadline and get a big
Speaker 1: winn or two just to convince the front office to
Speaker 1: invest in this team. Here's one crazy stat for you guys.
Speaker 1: Golden State has seven wins this year against teams that
Speaker 1: are in the top ten in point differential that is
Speaker 1: the fifth most in the entire NBA. That is the
Speaker 1: same amount as Boston. That is more than teams like
Speaker 1: Denver or the Lakers or the Memphis Grizzlies. There is
Speaker 1: a top end here that we haven't seen in a
Speaker 1: while due to injuries and some funks, and even Steph's
Speaker 1: a little banged up. But I'm hoping that this team
Speaker 1: makes a resurgence at some point this year because I
Speaker 1: really want to see Steph play in some high leverage
Speaker 1: basketball games, and this team is going to need to
Speaker 1: make some sort of talent upgrade at the deadline for
Speaker 1: that to be the case. Shae Gosus Alexander put another
Speaker 1: feather in his MVP cap last night at home against
Speaker 1: a Utah Jazz team that, thanks to Will Hardy, was
Speaker 1: nice enough to kind of let Shaye work in traditional
Speaker 1: coverages in one on one all night long regardless of
Speaker 1: how hot he got, and Shaye delivered his career high
Speaker 1: as a result. He had fifty four points, just a
Speaker 1: ridiculous jump shooting display. Took twenty jump shots in this game,
Speaker 1: made ten of them, just kept getting to his spots
Speaker 1: with a variety of different moves and footwork and dribble
Speaker 1: combinations and just hitting a ton of them. He's now
Speaker 1: shooting forty five percent on all jump shots this season,
Speaker 1: fifty six percent inside his seventeen feet, fifty percent on
Speaker 1: jump shots between seventeen feet and the three point line,
Speaker 1: and then supplemented it with a bunch of easy stuff
Speaker 1: at the rim and at the foul line. He looks
Speaker 1: like a player that is in complete control of his
Speaker 1: game all the time. He never looks rushed or pressured.
Speaker 1: He's reaching a really special place as a guard in
Speaker 1: this league. And interestingly enough, according to DraftKings Shake Gildos,
Speaker 1: Alexander has now moved to minus five hundred to win MVP.
Speaker 1: That is a massive favorite. I think he deserves it
Speaker 1: and it will be a nice precursor to his first
Speaker 1: playoff run with some real championship pressure. All right, last
Speaker 1: game for today, the Celtics win a thriller in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles against the Clippers. The Clippers gave the Celtics a
Speaker 1: bunch of issues with kind of like these freaky modern
Speaker 1: lineups with a bunch of wings who can switch and
Speaker 1: pressure the ball, fire around and transition in rotation, and
Speaker 1: they caused some problems for the Celtics. They sent the
Speaker 1: game to ot with that pressure, they forced a couple
Speaker 1: of turnovers. They got a chicken wing offensive foul call.
Speaker 1: Then they trapped Jalen Brown, which forced him to just
Speaker 1: throw the ball directly to Derek Jones, who immediately pushed
Speaker 1: it down the floor in transition and got a layup
Speaker 1: to send it to overtime. But they settled down in overtime.
Speaker 1: It played some Celtics basketball. Got an easy three for
Speaker 1: Derek White on the left wing off of a slip switch.
Speaker 1: This is something that again Boston does a lot. Jylen
Speaker 1: Brown came off the screen with Cornette two guys stuck
Speaker 1: with the ball for a minute, floated over the top
Speaker 1: to Cornette. We got a week side two on one,
Speaker 1: skipped out to Derek White, hit in above the break three.
Speaker 1: I talked two days ago about Jason Tatum and how
Speaker 1: I really like his off the dribble threes when he
Speaker 1: gets separation versus when he doesn't, And like he hit
Speaker 1: Kobe Brown with a snatchback dribble and got lots of
Speaker 1: separation and didn't have to step too far back behind
Speaker 1: the line. It was like a classic little twenty four
Speaker 1: footer and knocked that one down. Jaylen Brown hit a
Speaker 1: huge three. Jaden Springer hit a huge three, had two
Speaker 1: big threes in this game. He was great, played great defense.
Speaker 1: I thought he had some really awesome defensive reps against
Speaker 1: Kevin Porter Junior in this game, and then icing the game.
Speaker 1: Nimi Queta at the layup right underneath the basket is
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum again. The Clippers finally got sick of it
Speaker 1: and just started doubling, and they double Tatum out at
Speaker 1: half court. A nice little passing sequence leads to a
Speaker 1: layup for Quada and he ends up or for keda
Speaker 1: and he ends up icing the game. The Celtics get
Speaker 1: consecutive wins for the first time since January third, and
Speaker 1: now they have an opportunity against the Lakers tonight. Will
Speaker 1: be covering that game either tonight or tomorrow morning, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure yet, but a nice little spurt for the
Speaker 1: Celtics as they try to get back on track. One thing,
Speaker 1: one little tiny negative note that I wanted to just
Speaker 1: call attention to. Late in the game, the Celtics centers
Speaker 1: ended up giving up some drives. Both Luke Cornette and
Speaker 1: Nimi Quota gave up driving layups. Kada gave up a
Speaker 1: driving dunk to a mere coffee right the one before
Speaker 1: Derek Jones junior bucket, And it's just a reminder that,
Speaker 1: like a big part of what makes this team work
Speaker 1: is that they have pretty good defensive personnel all over
Speaker 1: the floor at all times and a scheme that works
Speaker 1: for all their different lineups, and there is a little
Speaker 1: bit of a tendency for their backup centers guys like
Speaker 1: guys like Cornett to have some trouble in space guarding speed.
Speaker 1: And it's just something to keep in mind that if
Speaker 1: Boston were to end up against a great team in
Speaker 1: a playoff series and have some injury issues with Portlingis
Speaker 1: and Horford, that is a slight area of vulnerability on
Speaker 1: the roster to keep an eye on. All right, guys.
Speaker 1: So it's all I have for today is always sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow with a mailbag as well as
Speaker 1: some game reactions. I will see you guys then the
Speaker 1: volume what so, guys, As always, I appreciate you for
Speaker 1: listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be
Speaker 1: really helpful for us, if you guys would take a
Speaker 1: second and leave a rating and a review. As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could
Speaker 1: take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.