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Speaker 1: welcome to Hoo Snipers by Vandel here at the Volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Thursday, everybody. We're just gonna be going rapid fire
Speaker 1: style through four games from last night's jam packed Wednesday
Speaker 1: Night Slate. We're gonna be covering the Chicago Bulls snapping
Speaker 1: the Nets twelve game winning streak, the Minnesota Timberwolves notching
Speaker 1: their second consecutive win against the Western Conference playoff team,
Speaker 1: over the Minnesota excuse me over the Portland Trailblazers, the
Speaker 1: Detroit Pistons beating the Warriors in a super fun game
Speaker 1: at the Buzzer on a three by Siddiq Bay. And
Speaker 1: then last but not least, the Los Angeles beat Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Lakers, beating a red hot Heat team without Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis, behind Dennis Schroder and Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: playing a couple of great games. Um tonight, We're gonna
Speaker 1: be going live on AMP after the final buzzer of
Speaker 1: Celtics MAVs just to do a quick breakdown of that
Speaker 1: game as well, So keep an eye on the feeds
Speaker 1: later tonight. You guys know the joke before we get started.
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Speaker 1: them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight, All right,
Speaker 1: here we go rapid fire four games. So the Bulls
Speaker 1: beat the Nets to one twelve. That snaps Brooklyn's twelve
Speaker 1: game winning streak. They led for almost the entire game
Speaker 1: by as much as eighteen. They tried to make a
Speaker 1: run the Nets did there in the fourth quarter. Um
Speaker 1: finally got their offense going a little bit, but a
Speaker 1: couple of pivotal um Uh turnovers pick six is that
Speaker 1: ended up in dunks running out the other way and
Speaker 1: honestly just got handed to Chicago. They made a bunch
Speaker 1: of big plays down the stretch of the game. Zach
Speaker 1: Lavine and DeMar de Rosen in particular have been awesome
Speaker 1: over the course of the last three weeks or so.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about that here in just a second,
Speaker 1: but they kept him at arms length throughout despite Kadi
Speaker 1: going off for forty four points on twenty two shots.
Speaker 1: On December eighteen, the Chicago Bulls were eleven and eighteen
Speaker 1: and everything looked lost. It even appeared that the Goals
Speaker 1: might even consider blowing things up in the season because
Speaker 1: there were enough desperate teams out there that might want
Speaker 1: the services of some of their star players. And I've
Speaker 1: talked about this concept a lot on the show over
Speaker 1: the course the last couple of weeks. But the idea
Speaker 1: of fighting for your season, um obviously for your top
Speaker 1: tier teams. There's a lot of you know, smooth silent
Speaker 1: over the course of the season, Like the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 1: They got rolled in Oklahoma City two nights ago. Who
Speaker 1: cares sail just Alexander was out. They brought a crap effort.
Speaker 1: They've had, you know, pretty inconsistent effort for the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks now, But it just doesn't matter. Because
Speaker 1: they're so damn talented that they're still the best team
Speaker 1: in the league and they can have bad nights and
Speaker 1: it's just not going to impact them in the standings
Speaker 1: because of how much talent they have. But for the
Speaker 1: teams in the middle, the think of it, like when
Speaker 1: I was talking about that, if things go right, contenders,
Speaker 1: but it extends even deeper that than two teams that
Speaker 1: have playoff aspirations of any kind. There's up and down
Speaker 1: stretches during the season, and typically there's a stretch, especially
Speaker 1: when you have bad luck early on, where you have
Speaker 1: to kind of look in the mirror and decide whether
Speaker 1: or not you want to fight for this. And we've
Speaker 1: seen a bunch of teams in particular dealing with that lately.
Speaker 1: The Los Angeles Lakers, the Atlanta Hawks, you know, the
Speaker 1: Miami Heat as of a couple of weeks ago when
Speaker 1: they started fighting and starting to to get it into
Speaker 1: a groove, and the Chicago Bulls were in a similar predicament.
Speaker 1: Eleven and eighteen just got your butt kicked by the
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Bucks last year in the playoffs. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of reasons to pack it in at that point, but
Speaker 1: that's not what they did in the In the nine
Speaker 1: games since then, the Bulls are now six and three
Speaker 1: UM and I believe they lost one of those three
Speaker 1: games at the buzzer to uh. DeMar de Rosen and
Speaker 1: zach Lavine have been unreal. They're averaging fifty three points
Speaker 1: per game over that span on fifty percent shooting. Four
Speaker 1: of those six wins involved clutch situations, which has been
Speaker 1: a huge part of their recent success. Both zach Lavine
Speaker 1: and de mar DeRozan are shooting fifty from the field
Speaker 1: when the game is within five points with less than
Speaker 1: five minutes to go UM in these games, so we'll
Speaker 1: see if it last. But the Bulls are showing some
Speaker 1: fight and that's super encouraging. They're trying to save this thing.
Speaker 1: UM on the that's not worried at all. They've been
Speaker 1: the best team in the league over the course the
Speaker 1: last couple of months. I'm officially actually vaulting them up
Speaker 1: into my top tier of contenders with Boston and Milwaukee
Speaker 1: and Golden State, and I'm dropping down the Clippers off
Speaker 1: of that list for the time being. I know everyone says, oh,
Speaker 1: Golden State, you know their their record doesn't dictate that,
Speaker 1: But with what we saw from them last year in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, with what we know about their starting lineup,
Speaker 1: with how well they're playing without Steph Curry last night,
Speaker 1: without Andrew Wiggins or Jonathan Cominga either with no wing size,
Speaker 1: they still almost beat the Piston. So I'm not worried
Speaker 1: about Golden State. They're moving on. Okay, So the Minnesota
Speaker 1: timber Rolls beat the Portland Trailblazers one thirteen to one
Speaker 1: oh six. That's their second straight win over Western Conference
Speaker 1: playoff team to kind of as a palate cleanser from
Speaker 1: some rough basketball over the course of the previous couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. They played absolutely stifling defense in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter of this game. Um. I've talked a lot about
Speaker 1: what was what went wrong for Rudy Gobert in the
Speaker 1: Utah Jazz over the course of that era, and it
Speaker 1: wasn't Rudy's fault. Rudy got blamed for it a lot
Speaker 1: because he's running around like a chicken with his head
Speaker 1: cut off, trying to clean up messes. But more often
Speaker 1: than not, it was bad perimeter defense that led to
Speaker 1: those Utah Jazz problems. Someone gets beat off of the dribble,
Speaker 1: Rudy steps up to help. No one rotates on the
Speaker 1: back end, it's a wide open shot or something along
Speaker 1: those lines. And um, what I was really curious about
Speaker 1: when he came over to Minnesota was just to get
Speaker 1: to see him play with some better perimeter defenders. And
Speaker 1: I was a little concerned that Minnesota might have shipped
Speaker 1: too much of that out. But they've what they've given
Speaker 1: up in backcourt ball pressure type of guards, guys like
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverley, they've actually gained back in a little bit
Speaker 1: more wing depth. UM. And I also really like Kyle
Speaker 1: Anderson signing from that summer as well. So in this
Speaker 1: particular game, D'Angel Russell he had been out previously, and
Speaker 1: I don't know if he was on a minute's restriction
Speaker 1: or if they just decided not to play him in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, but D'Angelo Russell did not play down
Speaker 1: the stretch of this game, and so it ended up
Speaker 1: being Rudy Gobert with a steady mix of really good
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders in that fourth quarter run. You saw and
Speaker 1: Edwards for the whole thing. You saw Jada McDaniels, you
Speaker 1: saw some Kyle Anderson, you saw some Jalen Noel, you
Speaker 1: saw some Austin rivers. You saw some Tari and Prince.
Speaker 1: Those are all good perimeter defensive players, and when you
Speaker 1: they were just kind of subbing a few of those
Speaker 1: guys in and out. But for the most part, it
Speaker 1: was four of those guys in Rudy Gobert, and all
Speaker 1: of that run in that fourth quarter was triggered by
Speaker 1: how good they were defensively on the ball and flying
Speaker 1: around in rotations. There was an eight minute stretch in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter of this game, spanning from the nine
Speaker 1: and a half minute mark of the fourth to the
Speaker 1: one and a half minute mark of the fourth, where
Speaker 1: the only two made field goals were for Portland were
Speaker 1: two extremely highly difficult uh shots from Damian Lillard and
Speaker 1: Anthony Simmons two and ones. Dame had like a banked
Speaker 1: in floater from the right, like kind of short elbow
Speaker 1: that was extremely high difficulty that he got an and one.
Speaker 1: And then Anthony Simons literally at the end of a possession,
Speaker 1: just shot a drifting floater off one leg from behind
Speaker 1: the free throw line that somehow went in and he
Speaker 1: got fouled on that play as well. But those were
Speaker 1: their their only two made field goals over that eight
Speaker 1: minute span. That's how difficult it was for Portland to
Speaker 1: get anything high quality in terms of a shot attempt
Speaker 1: over an eight minute span with them locked in and
Speaker 1: then on the other end of the floor, Anthony Anthony
Speaker 1: Everards just closed the game just with big time bucket.
Speaker 1: After big time bucket, he had hit a pull up
Speaker 1: three and pick and roll. He had a nice little
Speaker 1: bank shot on a post up where he bullied his
Speaker 1: way to the rim, and then he had another giant
Speaker 1: driving layup. He finished with thirty two points. Anthony Everards
Speaker 1: last ten games, twenty nine points per game, eight rebounds,
Speaker 1: five assists on fifty true shooting. Again, only a two
Speaker 1: game sample, but after things got pretty a bleak there
Speaker 1: for a minute, these are two pretty impressive wins. And
Speaker 1: to be honest, if they keep defending like this, and
Speaker 1: if Anthony Edwards can keep the offensive onslaught going, they're
Speaker 1: gonna go on a run, because that's just a simple
Speaker 1: fact of the way basketball works. If you're getting stops
Speaker 1: and you got a guy on the other end that
Speaker 1: can get to the basket and hit threes and things
Speaker 1: like that in great shots for his teammates, you're gonna
Speaker 1: start winning games. Um I did think that the no
Speaker 1: D'Angel Russell thing was an interesting data point. I've been
Speaker 1: talking for a while about how the Gobert trade kind
Speaker 1: of puts the Timberwolves in a predicament where I think
Speaker 1: they need to actually build around Gobert and Aunt and
Speaker 1: kind of move on from Carl Town's in d'angela Russell.
Speaker 1: I doubt they will because I think the front office
Speaker 1: is kind of married to the Carl Town's Gobert thing,
Speaker 1: which I think is a mistake. But that's a whole
Speaker 1: other conversation for another day. D'angela Russell, don no matter what,
Speaker 1: kind of feels like the odd man out, and he's
Speaker 1: had some good games this year, but just overall in
Speaker 1: terms of consistency and then what he brings on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor, I don't think he's that
Speaker 1: great of a fit. And I wanted to show you
Speaker 1: guys some line up data without d'angela Russell to kind
Speaker 1: of demonstrate this. So this season Anthony Edwards with Jalen Noel,
Speaker 1: Kyle Anderson, Jade McDaniel's ready Gobert plus eighteen net and
Speaker 1: sixty possessions. That means they're outscoring teams about eighteen points
Speaker 1: per one hundred possessions. Somewhat small sample, but that's an
Speaker 1: interesting point if you sub in Austin versus great perimeter
Speaker 1: defender and for Jalen Noel plus twenty six net in
Speaker 1: forty two possessions. So that's impressive regardless of who the
Speaker 1: fifth guy is. With Kyle Anderson, Jade McDaniels, Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Edwards their plus seven net in three possessions,
Speaker 1: so a pretty significant sample size them. They're of them
Speaker 1: succeeding Kyle Anderson and Jade McDaniels, two very good wing defenders.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards is a great on ball defender, so anybody
Speaker 1: in there, and they're winning games. So some interesting stuff there.
Speaker 1: Portland's started ten and four and they are nine and
Speaker 1: fourteen since um eighth worst record in the league over
Speaker 1: that spanned twenty five and defense. And they're also really
Speaker 1: struggling to score the basketball without Damian Lillard on the floor.
Speaker 1: For the season, when Dame is on the floor, the
Speaker 1: Blazers are plus seven net per one hundred possessions and
Speaker 1: minus six with him off the floor. That's a thirteen
Speaker 1: point swing, so significant issue there was shot creation, in
Speaker 1: particular with Dame off the floor. Um alright, moving on
Speaker 1: to Detroit Golden State, this is a really fun game.
Speaker 1: The Warriors were locked in on both ends in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, but the Pistons just kept responding to every
Speaker 1: single Warriors run with big plays. So um uh. PPJ
Speaker 1: made a couple of free throws to get the game
Speaker 1: back to one. Uh and then Ja Nivey went to
Speaker 1: work got back to back buckets. This is in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter when Golden State was trying to get control
Speaker 1: of this game. Um uh. He hit a pull up
Speaker 1: three and pick and rollers defender went underneath the screen,
Speaker 1: rose up and knocked it down. Very next possession, he
Speaker 1: had PPJ on a switch on the right wing, and
Speaker 1: just I put this specific play on my Twitter feed
Speaker 1: so you guys can see because this is the kind
Speaker 1: of thing that excites me so much about Jade Nivvey.
Speaker 1: He just takes two really long steps to get right
Speaker 1: around PBJ, goes all the way to the rim and
Speaker 1: dunks it and it almost looks like Dwyane Wade. And
Speaker 1: that was the thing that stood out the most to
Speaker 1: me when I started watching Jade and Ivy when he
Speaker 1: was in summer league and a lot for some of
Speaker 1: his college footage. He has this like long step athleticism
Speaker 1: that allows him to take um changes of direction while
Speaker 1: he's going full speed and things like that that make
Speaker 1: him extremely difficult to keep in front as a dribble
Speaker 1: drive guy. Now he's got a mile to go to
Speaker 1: get anywhere close to what Dwyane Wade was. But when
Speaker 1: he's got that type of athleticism, the potential is through
Speaker 1: the roof. And he's had a rough season and there's
Speaker 1: a lot that he's got to get better at. But
Speaker 1: Jada and Ivy continues to be one of the um
Speaker 1: the rookies that excites me the most. Uh So the
Speaker 1: Warriors go on another run after that, uh to a
Speaker 1: little to play sequence from ja Nivy ending in at
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson dunk that gets it back to the Warriors
Speaker 1: in front by one, and then Isaiah Stewart responds to
Speaker 1: that by winning back to back physical battles. There's a
Speaker 1: play where he buries Kevan Luney under the rim and
Speaker 1: makes a little right handed hook shot. Then on the
Speaker 1: very next possession, Jordan Pool Luney run a pick and roll.
Speaker 1: Luoney actually catches almost underneath the basket with Isaiah Stewart
Speaker 1: on him, and that same type of confrontation, Isaiah Stewart
Speaker 1: wins it and blocks von Luni. At the rim, I
Speaker 1: talk a lot about the physical battle that takes place
Speaker 1: underneath the basket and how it's about knocking guys off
Speaker 1: of their base. And that was two battles that Isaiah
Speaker 1: Stewart one back to back, one on offense and one
Speaker 1: on defense that essentially amounted to a four point swing.
Speaker 1: A couple of big plays to get the Pistons back
Speaker 1: up by three so UM and then two possessions after
Speaker 1: that they converted another PPG turnover into a transition three
Speaker 1: for killing and Hayes actually went up by seven at
Speaker 1: that point was one of six UM on the next
Speaker 1: possession UH the pp the killing Hayes three. Then there
Speaker 1: was an Alec Burk's and one that got them up
Speaker 1: to seven. But then Clay gets hot and hits three
Speaker 1: straight jumpers for eight points in one minute. Clay was
Speaker 1: amazing this entire fourth quarter, really starting to hit his stride.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that here in a few minutes, UM,
Speaker 1: but that gets it back to one oh eight, one
Speaker 1: oh seven, and then boya mcdonovich rescues the possession with
Speaker 1: two point two seconds left on the shock clock on
Speaker 1: a baseline out of bounds by taking like this wild
Speaker 1: leaning three off the dribble at the shock clock buzzer
Speaker 1: that he makes to put the pistons back up four.
Speaker 1: I'll talk a lot about rescue possessions. When you got guys,
Speaker 1: typically they gotta be taller, but there are some exceptions
Speaker 1: to that role, namely Steph Curry. But when you have
Speaker 1: a guy with there, when there's a possession that's effectively lost,
Speaker 1: and on most possessions, when you've got less than a
Speaker 1: couple of seconds left in a baseline out of bounds
Speaker 1: or sideline out of bounds, like it's hard to get
Speaker 1: a quality shot there. And when you've got a guy
Speaker 1: that can convert that like one out of every two
Speaker 1: or three time, one out of every three or four
Speaker 1: times into three points, that's a huge weapon to have,
Speaker 1: and that's a huge thing that bolsters offensive ratings. But
Speaker 1: that was a huge shot from McDon mcdonovitch to put
Speaker 1: him up by four. Then Jordan Pool gets going. He
Speaker 1: hits back to back, step back jumpers to step back
Speaker 1: two and then a step back three. Now we're back
Speaker 1: to two, but Boya mcdonovitch on the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor is just executing and pick and roll. It
Speaker 1: gets Downhill makes a really nice kickout pass to the
Speaker 1: corner to Alec Burke's for three. Then he runs another
Speaker 1: one with Siddiq Bay where he throws a beautiful behind
Speaker 1: the back feed to Sadik Bay on the left wing,
Speaker 1: who hits the three. Now it's back up to one
Speaker 1: sevent Then Clay Thompson goes on another fury uh flurry
Speaker 1: hits a couple of free throws. It's a really difficult
Speaker 1: driving scoop layup over Isaiah Stewart and then he hits
Speaker 1: the three to tie the game. Beautiful play designed by
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr. There in the final seconds, they run Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool along excuse me, Anthony Lamb along the baseline and
Speaker 1: Tides Room throws a beautiful skip pass that hits tides
Speaker 1: Roome in uh stride. At the same time, Clay Thompson's
Speaker 1: at the top of the key and they set a
Speaker 1: quick uh screen with Kevon Looney who Clay Thompson comes
Speaker 1: over the top and ends up catching and knocking down
Speaker 1: the three. Yet another flurry from Clay Thompson, yet another
Speaker 1: run from the Warriors to tie this game, and then
Speaker 1: they go over to the other end of the floor.
Speaker 1: The Warriors defend the action really well, but Siddiq sidy
Speaker 1: Bay just pops out and literally just throws up a
Speaker 1: prayer that ends up going in. So every single time
Speaker 1: down the stretch of that fourth quarter that the Warriors
Speaker 1: went on a run, the Pistons responded, young players in
Speaker 1: most cases taking and making big shots, making big plays.
Speaker 1: Obviously a tough loss for the Warriors, but you're super
Speaker 1: thin on the wing without Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Cominga
Speaker 1: that's gonna hurt you. There are a couple of key
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds and the at the end of this game
Speaker 1: that you probably get if you have your wings available.
Speaker 1: But you gotta just tip the cap to the Pistons
Speaker 1: because they just made big plays all night long, especially
Speaker 1: down the stretch of that game. As for the Draymond ejection,
Speaker 1: there's actually a big sequence kind of involving the rebounding
Speaker 1: that I was talking about. Isaia Stewart saves it gets
Speaker 1: an offensive rebound that I think ends up leading to
Speaker 1: a City Bay three on that offensive rebound. Uh, Draymond
Speaker 1: actually like battles with Isaiah Stewart underneath the basket, and
Speaker 1: he's battling for that box out position and they're both
Speaker 1: under the rim. The ball comes off and Isaiah Stewart
Speaker 1: is able to run back to get the basketball. The
Speaker 1: the the Warriors need to do better job of crashing
Speaker 1: from the perimeter to help when Draymond is in those
Speaker 1: box out situations. But that's a huge thing where having
Speaker 1: some real athleticism on the wing helps you there. And
Speaker 1: to be honest, when when you have Andrew Wiggins out
Speaker 1: of the game, when you have Jonathan Comingea out of
Speaker 1: the game, the Warriors really aren't that athletic as a team.
Speaker 1: And so that was that's what what kind of made
Speaker 1: that specific matchup difficult there as far as the ejection goes,
Speaker 1: because then on the very next possession, Draymond got mad
Speaker 1: that Isaiah Stewart got away from him and then they
Speaker 1: got into that tussle. We can argue whether or not
Speaker 1: that scuffle dictated a double technical. I kind of see
Speaker 1: you where Steve Kerr and where all the other guys
Speaker 1: are coming from, Like like that's part of the game
Speaker 1: of basketball. There's all these physical battles that are taking
Speaker 1: place under the rim. I'm actually surprised it doesn't happen
Speaker 1: more often the guys get engaged in a wrestling match
Speaker 1: essentially underneath the basket. But that's a conversation for another day,
Speaker 1: because the reality is is every single time that ever
Speaker 1: happens to anybody, it's a double technical. It has been
Speaker 1: for as long as I've been watching basketball. Two guys
Speaker 1: get engaged in a battle underneath the basket rebounding. If
Speaker 1: it's a little grabbing here and there, it might be
Speaker 1: a double foul. But if they're like straight up, like
Speaker 1: about to square up the way those two guys were,
Speaker 1: it's all always a double technical. So it's one of
Speaker 1: those things where I understand the frustration after the game,
Speaker 1: but you have to know going into that situation that
Speaker 1: if you get into a tussle and you already have
Speaker 1: a technical, that an injection is on the table at
Speaker 1: that point. Moving on to Heat Lakers. So this was
Speaker 1: an unbelievably massive win for the Lakers. Lebron missed the
Speaker 1: game with a non COVID illness, which I thought was
Speaker 1: surprising because it was a nationally televised game against a
Speaker 1: team that they were capable of beating. It was a
Speaker 1: nationally televised game against a team that they were capable
Speaker 1: of beating. Um Lebron had been playing really well and
Speaker 1: the Lakers had won two games in a row, so
Speaker 1: he must have been pretty sick. I expected him to play.
Speaker 1: But Dennis Schroder and Russell Westbrook were incredible and that
Speaker 1: carried them enough offensively, and then they've actually been defending
Speaker 1: pretty well. We'll talk about that in a second, but
Speaker 1: Schroeder and Westbrook combined for fifty three points and eleven assists.
Speaker 1: They both played made massive plays down the stretch of
Speaker 1: this game. Dennis kept getting downhill to his right hand
Speaker 1: that patented Dennis Schroder drive with that cooping lay up
Speaker 1: at the end, including the one that ended up sealing
Speaker 1: the game late. And then Russ had a couple of
Speaker 1: key and ones, one that was on kind of like
Speaker 1: an ISO post up kind of thing where a pump
Speaker 1: faked and got an and one, and then on the
Speaker 1: back door cut on that last second play or Austin,
Speaker 1: Austin reeves through a beautiful bullet pass to us and
Speaker 1: he ended up getting an and one. Lots of big
Speaker 1: plays from both of those guys, But more importantly, both
Speaker 1: of those two guys played incredible defensive games. When you're
Speaker 1: down Lebron James and Anthony Davis, they need guys to
Speaker 1: step up and you have to defend it an extremely
Speaker 1: high level because you're gonna have some offensive struggles, and
Speaker 1: those guys were great. And then Thomas Bryant pitched in
Speaker 1: again as well, twenty one and nine, one points and
Speaker 1: nine rebounds. The Lakers now on three straight four their
Speaker 1: last five. They are a respectable eighth and defense over
Speaker 1: that span, which is incredibly impressive without Anthony Davis when
Speaker 1: you think about it. But it really comes down to
Speaker 1: credible perimeter defense. What do I always say is the
Speaker 1: best form of rim protection. I think the best form
Speaker 1: of m protection is perimeter defense or containing the basketball.
Speaker 1: And the main reason why is when you contain the basketball,
Speaker 1: you don't need rim protection because no one's getting a
Speaker 1: straight line drive downhill. And obviously it's actually harder to
Speaker 1: build your defense around a scheme that requires you to
Speaker 1: keep a rim protector around the rim than it is
Speaker 1: to have more freelance where everybody's flying around and doing
Speaker 1: a lot more switching and things along those lines. So
Speaker 1: when you've got guys like Dennis Schroder competing on the basketball,
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook competing, Patrick Beverley competing, Austin Reeves, Troy Brown,
Speaker 1: the list goes on. But those guys are competing on
Speaker 1: the basketball and in rotation, and so they're not being
Speaker 1: punished as much as you would think for their lack
Speaker 1: of rim protection. Because as good as Thomas Bryant has
Speaker 1: been offensively, he's not a great rim protector. He's just
Speaker 1: not athletic enough or big enough to be a great
Speaker 1: rim protector. So it's good to see that them playing
Speaker 1: like legit coherent defense without Anthony Davis just goes to
Speaker 1: show you how how hard this team is competing without
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. They are now six and five since the
Speaker 1: a D jury, which is literally the best possible outcome
Speaker 1: for that situation. Similar to like we were talking about
Speaker 1: with the Bulls. They're fighting for their season and now
Speaker 1: they might have saved it. They're just three and a
Speaker 1: half games back of the sixth seed, five games back
Speaker 1: of the four seed. Adrian Wrzanowski reported yesterday that Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is now running on the court and experiencing no pain.
Speaker 1: So the next step is him jumping to see how
Speaker 1: that feels. But if a d comes back with how
Speaker 1: well Anthony Lebron James is playing with the trades that
Speaker 1: they have available to make at the deadline, you know
Speaker 1: it's it's still pretty bleak for the Lakers, but you
Speaker 1: can see a clear light at the end of the
Speaker 1: tunnel that was not there ten days ago, especially at
Speaker 1: Christmas Day when they got blown out by the MAVs.
Speaker 1: As for the Heat, that was kind of more of
Speaker 1: a letdown game than anything else. They've been playing really
Speaker 1: good basketball before that. They were eaten three in their
Speaker 1: previous eleven games and had just come off of an
Speaker 1: impressive win over the Clippers. Clippers didn't have Kauai, but
Speaker 1: still they had everyone else. It was an impressive win
Speaker 1: in A big driving force behind that is Bam at
Speaker 1: a Bio seems to have finally taken that offensive leap
Speaker 1: that I have been talking about forever. That is so
Speaker 1: vitally important to the Miami Heat because of their ability
Speaker 1: to score in the half court. BAM's last eight teen
Speaker 1: games twenty five points per game on shooting. That's really impressive.
Speaker 1: Um A lot of the old stuff, like he's still
Speaker 1: scoring as a rollman, offensive rebound put backs, you know,
Speaker 1: getting out in transition, doing some stuff as a cutter
Speaker 1: and in the dunker spot, things along those lines. But
Speaker 1: he's starting to consistently bolster his offense with isolation stuff
Speaker 1: and post up stuff. UM. In the last ten games,
Speaker 1: Bam is averaging five points per game just out of
Speaker 1: ISOs and post ups, which doesn't seem like much, but
Speaker 1: that's the difference between averaging twenty a game and averaging game.
Speaker 1: That's the that's rescue possessions. That's bolstering your offense with
Speaker 1: offense that other otherwise wouldn't be there. That that's that's
Speaker 1: saving possessions and capitalizing on matchups. UM, he's still a
Speaker 1: lot of it's just getting to the middle of the
Speaker 1: floor for that really high release short jump shot that
Speaker 1: he makes in that little hook shot as well. For
Speaker 1: the season, Bam is an out UH. The Heat are
Speaker 1: averaging one point zero eight points per possession on a
Speaker 1: Band post up including passes, which is tenth in the
Speaker 1: league among players who have run at least eighty post up.
Speaker 1: So Band has been a top ten post player this year.
Speaker 1: That's really encouraging UM. And then he's also given you
Speaker 1: one point one point per possession in ISSO, which is
Speaker 1: among players who have run at least a hunter possessions.
Speaker 1: That's also really solid, albeit still in some relatively small volume.
Speaker 1: The Heat obviously still need to bolster that that forward
Speaker 1: position and the at the trade deadline. But if Band's
Speaker 1: gonna give you twenty five points per game over the
Speaker 1: course of a playoff run and you get playoff Jimmy,
Speaker 1: and with how well Tyler Harrow has played offensively this season,
Speaker 1: and if they can bolster that forward position, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: pick them against the Celtics, Nets or Bucks, but I
Speaker 1: give them a fighting chance, like a real puncher's chance,
Speaker 1: against any of them. Looking to get more out of
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Speaker 1: everything from the money line to touchdown scores two over
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Speaker 1: NBA the Miami Heat on Friday Night are going into
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Speaker 1: and a half, but the Heat are coming off of
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Speaker 1: the NBA, we are live on AMP to break down
Speaker 1: the Celtics thoroughly outclassing the Dallas Mavericks tonight. You know, um,
Speaker 1: that's a great punch from Boston, and when they throw
Speaker 1: their best punch, because of how much talent they have,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be really hard to beat, and Luca wasn't
Speaker 1: as sharp tonight. Obviously that trickled down the roster a
Speaker 1: little bit. We'll talk about that here in just a
Speaker 1: few minutes. One quick note before we get started, for
Speaker 1: any of you guys that are listening on YouTube or
Speaker 1: on the podcast feeds, don't forget that the very first
Speaker 1: place you guys can get this analysis is on AMP.
Speaker 1: So the Celtics came in just five and seven in
Speaker 1: their last twelve games, and we've talked about it a
Speaker 1: few times on this show. There's been some impressive wins
Speaker 1: during that stretch, but also some disappointing losses and a
Speaker 1: couple of benchmark tests against Golden State in Denver in
Speaker 1: particular that they failed miserably, a couple of embarrassing losses,
Speaker 1: a couple to the Orlando Magic in there, and then
Speaker 1: they got absolutely destroyed by the Oklahoma City Thunder without
Speaker 1: shake guils just Alexander the other night. But if you
Speaker 1: zoom in on it, aside from the Okay See game,
Speaker 1: they actually have been defending really, really well over the
Speaker 1: course of that stretch because the what as I kept
Speaker 1: saying in those videos, it's their three point shooting primarily
Speaker 1: that was leading to most of their problems. I actually
Speaker 1: think that the lack of three point shooting and the
Speaker 1: inability to point put points on the scoreboard was a
Speaker 1: big part of the thing that triggered urgency for them
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor so they could
Speaker 1: get going there. During that twelve games stretch, they shot
Speaker 1: just thirty one from three. Now, shooting slumps, We've talked
Speaker 1: about this a lot on the show. They happen, um,
Speaker 1: you know, as we always talk about a team, a
Speaker 1: basketball team, a good one might shoot from three for
Speaker 1: the season or around there, right, and that means you're
Speaker 1: gonna miss sixty percent of them. And so it's easy
Speaker 1: to see how you could as a team kind of
Speaker 1: go off the tracks a little bit, lose your confidence
Speaker 1: and start to miss shots. And then you can see
Speaker 1: the flip side of that from Boston tonight when they
Speaker 1: start to go in and then the confidence starts to
Speaker 1: trickle down and then everyone's making shots again. But that
Speaker 1: that that that troubling mental aspect of shooting is what
Speaker 1: triggers these slumps. So as as young players that I coach,
Speaker 1: and just in general with my own experience in my
Speaker 1: time playing the game, you kind of come with a
Speaker 1: routine for how to get through a slump, And my
Speaker 1: personal philosophy for how to get through slumps is to
Speaker 1: improve your shot selection on an individual level, but on
Speaker 1: a team level, it's about generating high quality shots. You know,
Speaker 1: when you're dealing with movement shooting like off the dribble
Speaker 1: or flying off the screens and stuff like that, there's
Speaker 1: so much more of like a touch factor that is
Speaker 1: built up through thousands or reps, But it's primarily a
Speaker 1: touch in a field because no two shots are alike.
Speaker 1: They're all very different depending on how far the how
Speaker 1: much separation you have to get, whether the defender closes
Speaker 1: out on you as hard as he might. But in
Speaker 1: stand still situations, it's all about muscle memory, and so
Speaker 1: when you generate high quality shots, you can lean on
Speaker 1: that muscle memory and trust your form and the makes
Speaker 1: will follow. But when you don't generate high quality shots,
Speaker 1: maybe they're a little bit rushed. Maybe those standstill opportunities
Speaker 1: are few and far between, and as a result, it's
Speaker 1: hard to find your rhythm with your muscle memory. So
Speaker 1: I want to shout out Jayson Tatum in particular. Tonight
Speaker 1: came out from the opening tips, setting the tone, trying
Speaker 1: to make the right pass to hit shooters in their
Speaker 1: shooting pockets. But on a team level, the way to
Speaker 1: generate high quality three point shots is a concept we
Speaker 1: talked about a ton on the show, which is engaging
Speaker 1: help defenders. There's a huge difference between a defender that's
Speaker 1: guarding a shooter off the ball and that is in
Speaker 1: help side position and maybe lunging at the ball, maybe
Speaker 1: quickly stunting, but has an easy close out versus when
Speaker 1: you engage that help defender, meaning you totally get him
Speaker 1: to commit to guarding you. Now all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: that's a much more difficult rotation because you're asking either
Speaker 1: a different defender from further away to leave his man
Speaker 1: to close out, or you're asking the guy that you
Speaker 1: engaged to disengage and close out to the shooters. So
Speaker 1: it's a it's a it's a trickle down effect from
Speaker 1: your ball handlers to get downhill, engage that help defender
Speaker 1: and then hit on time, on target to the shooter
Speaker 1: in his pocket. From there you get lots and lots
Speaker 1: of time and then there these are professional shooters that
Speaker 1: are making hundreds and hundreds of shots every single day,
Speaker 1: specifically practicing their stands, still shooting in their muscle memory,
Speaker 1: and no matter how big of a slump you're in,
Speaker 1: if you get all these wide open looks, you're eventually
Speaker 1: going to find your rhythm. And they did because the
Speaker 1: Celtics are a good shooting team. If you are a
Speaker 1: good shooting team, which the Celtics are, from a skill level,
Speaker 1: they're a good shooting team. It was uncharacteristic what happened
Speaker 1: to them over the last couple of weeks. And if
Speaker 1: you generate high quality shots, it is automatic that they
Speaker 1: will eventually go win. And they did tonight, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the Celtics looked like themselves again.
Speaker 1: You saw it kind of build confidence throughout the roster.
Speaker 1: Then they were defending at it insanely high level. That's
Speaker 1: what I wanted to get to next. Boston's defensive rotations
Speaker 1: were insane tonight, hard disciplined close outs, not leaving your feet,
Speaker 1: chopping your feet and taking away that comfortable spot up
Speaker 1: shot and forcing them to make a decision. It actually
Speaker 1: caused a lot of hesitation from Dallas Mavericks, particular guys
Speaker 1: like Tim Hardaway Jr. And Christian would pump faked at
Speaker 1: a lot of semi open shots because of hard clothes
Speaker 1: outs from you know, ferocious rotations from Boston Celtics defenders.
Speaker 1: And the interesting thing there is we talked about this
Speaker 1: a lot when we get to the playoffs, but when
Speaker 1: you're playing really great defenses that are locked in, especially
Speaker 1: when we get to the postseason, there really aren't wide
Speaker 1: open shots. Most of them are semi open, and so
Speaker 1: you need guys to confidently rise into shots. And the
Speaker 1: Celtics preyed on that, specifically with the Mavericks tonight, with
Speaker 1: their hard clothes outs. None of the Mavericks were confident
Speaker 1: and they really struggle. I think there were one for ten. Uh,
Speaker 1: their spot up guys were one for ten shooting threes
Speaker 1: in the first half. I think as a roster they
Speaker 1: were two for sixteen. I want to get a little
Speaker 1: bit more into the Mavericks in a little bit, but
Speaker 1: credits of the Celtics for a really dominant two way performance. Um.
Speaker 1: I think that Boston's best punch is better than anybody
Speaker 1: else's best punch. They, I have frequently said, are the
Speaker 1: most talented team in the league. Their top eight is
Speaker 1: insane Jayson Tatum, Jalen Brown, Marcus Smart, Al Horford, Robert Williams,
Speaker 1: Malcolm Brogden, Derrek White, and Grant Williams, who, by the way,
Speaker 1: is a lot better than he was last year, clearly
Speaker 1: has put in a ton of work in the off
Speaker 1: season into his ball handling, into his shooting, into his footwork.
Speaker 1: He demonsiated a really nice footwork on that spin move
Speaker 1: against Christian Wood when he got the and one. That's
Speaker 1: lots of reps to get coordinated to the point where
Speaker 1: you feel comfortable making that particular move. But Grant Williams
Speaker 1: has made a big improvement. And now all of those
Speaker 1: eight guys are not just starter level NBA players, they're
Speaker 1: above average starter level NBA players. They've got eight players
Speaker 1: that would happily fit into just about any rotation in
Speaker 1: the entire league. And I don't think anybody's top eight
Speaker 1: stacks up with Boston's top eight. The problem is, is
Speaker 1: there a bit of an arrogant basketball team. They carry
Speaker 1: themselves like a team that's already won a championship as
Speaker 1: opposed to a team that is desperate to get there first.
Speaker 1: Um they as a result, they go through these extended
Speaker 1: stretches where they're sloppy and they get kind of out
Speaker 1: of character, they take bad shots, they don't do that
Speaker 1: important thing in driving kicks systems that I talked about,
Speaker 1: which is engaging that help defender to make passes on
Speaker 1: time and on target. They start to turn the basketball over.
Speaker 1: That puts them in precarious situations in transition, and that's
Speaker 1: how Boston can experience those negative landslides that they experience.
Speaker 1: I get it. I understand the arrogance. This group has
Speaker 1: been together a very long time. They've won a lot
Speaker 1: of basketball games. They've won a lot of playoffs series
Speaker 1: like that team has been to the finals uh and
Speaker 1: been to the Eastern Conference Finals three times. Like, They've
Speaker 1: just in around a long time and they've been winning
Speaker 1: for a long time. So I understand why they have
Speaker 1: that arrogance. But it's a little disappointing, and you've seen
Speaker 1: it specifically in some of these games. That Denver Nuggets game.
Speaker 1: I thought they were really sloppy on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the flour the Golden State game, it was like
Speaker 1: they completely lost character of who they were as a
Speaker 1: basketball team. So that's the one thing that concerns me
Speaker 1: with them because I think Boston's best punch if is
Speaker 1: better than everyone else's, so in theory, they should win
Speaker 1: the title. But I have them third on my list
Speaker 1: of contenders, behind the Milwaukee and Golden State, simply because
Speaker 1: I trust those two teams to throw their best punch
Speaker 1: consistently in the playoffs in a way that I don't
Speaker 1: trust Boston, but make like I want. I want to
Speaker 1: cut them a little bit slack because it is very
Speaker 1: possible that this is just regular season malaise. They were
Speaker 1: very dominant from January through the end of the season
Speaker 1: last year, and that resulted in in them eventually losing,
Speaker 1: so they know that the regular season doesn't carry as
Speaker 1: much importance. I think they trust their ability to beat
Speaker 1: any of these teams in a seven game series, even
Speaker 1: without home court advantage. So maybe it's an urgency thing.
Speaker 1: And maybe they get to April and they lock in
Speaker 1: and they try in all four rounds, and to be clear,
Speaker 1: if they do, I think they'll get the trophy. If
Speaker 1: they consistently throw their best punch in the playoffs, I
Speaker 1: think they'll get the trophy. That's how much of a
Speaker 1: talent advantage I think they have. I just don't trust
Speaker 1: them at this point, and that's why I still have
Speaker 1: them at third, And to be honest Celtics fans, I
Speaker 1: will not pick them over Milwaukee or Golden State in
Speaker 1: any playoffs series, no matter what, simply because of that trust.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean I don't think they can beat them.
Speaker 1: There's no amount of regular season success that could prove it.
Speaker 1: The only thing that would prove that to me is
Speaker 1: if they demonstrated it to us in the playoffs. If
Speaker 1: they do, then this time next year you'll hear me
Speaker 1: marching to a different beat as it pertains to the Celtics.
Speaker 1: But they've got to show me they can do that.
Speaker 1: Golden State consistently throws their best punch in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I've seen that for a half decade. Milwaukee can assistently
Speaker 1: throws their best punch in the playoffs. I've seen that
Speaker 1: two playoff runs in a row. I trust them more.
Speaker 1: That's the only reason I have them above it. But
Speaker 1: you you know, you saw tonight a glimpse of what
Speaker 1: their top end looks like. And that is why I
Speaker 1: call them the most talented team in the league. And
Speaker 1: that's the potential that they have. Um Dallas just a
Speaker 1: couple of quick notes. They've been playing really good ball
Speaker 1: before this game. They had won seven straight games despite
Speaker 1: being without some key guys. MEXICALI has been out. I
Speaker 1: didn't realize he had surgery on his hamstring. That's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: So apparently he's gonna be out for a little while. Um.
Speaker 1: And then Josh Green is one of their best three
Speaker 1: and D wings right now because of the improvements he's
Speaker 1: made as a shooter. So him getting back, I think
Speaker 1: he is an elbow issue. He's expected to come back
Speaker 1: over the course of this next road trip. But they've
Speaker 1: been coming playing good, pretty good basketball. They just didn't
Speaker 1: get a good Luca game tonight. I mean, you're not
Speaker 1: going to beat the Celtics at their best unless Luca
Speaker 1: don Chet's plays at his best. And I'm not being
Speaker 1: critical of him because to be clear, it looked like
Speaker 1: he was dealing with some ankle stuff. They were I
Speaker 1: couldn't tell if he was sick or that the broadcast
Speaker 1: said he wasn't sick. That he's clearly experienced some sort
Speaker 1: of like impact trauma to the chest that was causing
Speaker 1: him to deal with some coughing stuff. Um, So Luca
Speaker 1: wasn't at his best, and to be clear, when you
Speaker 1: need to lead your team against the one of the best,
Speaker 1: most talented teams in the league, it's gonna be really
Speaker 1: difficult to do that when your body is not cooperating.
Speaker 1: So I want to cut Lucas some slack. But the
Speaker 1: only way you can win a game like that when
Speaker 1: you have a talent disadvantage but you might have the
Speaker 1: best player on the floor is your best player has
Speaker 1: to come out and be the best player on the floor.
Speaker 1: If he does that early in the game, it establishes
Speaker 1: a confident tone around the team that causes them to
Speaker 1: defend better, That causes them to rise up more confidently
Speaker 1: into the spot up shots like I was talking about
Speaker 1: with Dallas earlier, which in turn leads the game to
Speaker 1: being closer. When the game is close, if you have
Speaker 1: the best player on the floor, you might have a
Speaker 1: chance to pull that game out. But in a game
Speaker 1: like this with Luca, to be honest, he's pretty terrible
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor. I thought offensively, his
Speaker 1: jump shot was way off, which was leading to some
Speaker 1: bad fast break opportunities. In general and defense, he was
Speaker 1: really slow with his rotations. You could see him laboring
Speaker 1: almost conceding with lazy close outs to some of these threes.
Speaker 1: It was a bad Luca game, so you gotta just
Speaker 1: kind of throw it out, um. But the realities is
Speaker 1: they're not gonna beat teams like Boston or really anybody
Speaker 1: in the playoffs for that matter, unless Lucas at his
Speaker 1: very best. But the good news is is we have
Speaker 1: three years of evidence that show us that when Luca
Speaker 1: is in the postseason, he does bring his very best.
Speaker 1: So I'm not overly concerned about it. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. Don't forget to
Speaker 1: check out. We broke down a bunch of games from
Speaker 1: Wednesday night on the feed. You'll see it from earlier,
Speaker 1: and then tomorrow night we're gonna be breaking down the
Speaker 1: Friday Night slate. I'm gonna be recording that Friday night,
Speaker 1: but it won't be uploaded until Saturday, So keep an
Speaker 1: eye on the feeds until on Saturday morning to see
Speaker 1: a breakdown of Friday night games. As always, I apprecate
Speaker 1: your support. Now see you guys next time. The volume