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Speaker 1: doing two games, that ridiculous game between the Clippers and
Speaker 1: the Kings last night they went to doublet and the
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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So this game was
Speaker 1: unbelievably bizarre. I missed it last night. I had a
Speaker 1: date night with my wife, but we ended up I
Speaker 1: ended up watching it this morning, and I'd kind of
Speaker 1: seen what had happened. Like I looked and it was like, what,
Speaker 1: we're heading into DOUBLET and both teams are in the
Speaker 1: one sixties, Like that's super weird, And I'm like looking
Speaker 1: at the box score and like Kawai and Paula George,
Speaker 1: you're having these incredible games, and you know, Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: has fourteen assists and I'm like, man, is anybody playing
Speaker 1: any defense in this game? And so when I watched
Speaker 1: the footage, that's pretty much exactly what happened. Neither team
Speaker 1: had a real rim protector. Zoobach was out for this game,
Speaker 1: and so essentially you had Plumbly on one end and
Speaker 1: Sabonis on the other end. Sabonis is a great offensive player,
Speaker 1: but he's not exactly the best drop coverage big in
Speaker 1: the world. And so it's a steady diet of a
Speaker 1: lot of really good ball handlers running ball screen actions
Speaker 1: with nobody that can slow it down on the back end.
Speaker 1: And then from there everyone got comfortable and you know
Speaker 1: how that goes like I talked about this all the time,
Speaker 1: but when you have super talented offensive players, once they
Speaker 1: get into a groove, even when the defense picks up
Speaker 1: the intensity, it just doesn't really matter because once they're
Speaker 1: confident and their muscle memory is down and they've got
Speaker 1: their release dialed in, those shots are just going in,
Speaker 1: even if you can test them well and down the stretch,
Speaker 1: there were a lot of plays where Darren Fox and
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard and Paul George were taking these tough, contested
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots, but they were just going in
Speaker 1: because they had already found their rhythm. And the result
Speaker 1: after the dust settled, was a one seventy six to
Speaker 1: one seventy five Kings win. The Clippers blew three consecutive
Speaker 1: huge late leads. They blew a fourteen point lead more
Speaker 1: than halfway through the fourth quarter in regulation. They blew
Speaker 1: a six point lead in both overtimes and regulation. When
Speaker 1: the Clippers were up big late, Deer and Fox really
Speaker 1: turned up the ball pressure. He picked Russell Westbrook clean,
Speaker 1: then he picked Paul George clean for run out the
Speaker 1: other way. Then all the King's guards picked up their
Speaker 1: ball pressure and the Clippers got super passive and didn't
Speaker 1: get into their offense until way late in the shot
Speaker 1: clock and didn't get any good shots. And then on
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor, just guys make him plays,
Speaker 1: and on that final possession one fifty three, one fifty
Speaker 1: I've talked a lot about this, but Russell Westbrook has
Speaker 1: a tendency to freelance off the ball on defense, and
Speaker 1: he was guarding Malik Monk, and for no particular reason
Speaker 1: at all, he just stopped guarding him, and Malik Monk
Speaker 1: relocated to the opposite end of the floor and Deer
Speaker 1: and Fox hit him for the game tying three. And
Speaker 1: then fast forward to double ot Paul George or excuse me,
Speaker 1: they take Paul George out of the game because of
Speaker 1: a minute's restriction, which was super weird. Then Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: fouls out with the Clippers up six, and so they
Speaker 1: end up going to Mason Plumly down the stretch, and
Speaker 1: they run a lot of Kawhile Entard Mason Plumly pick
Speaker 1: and roll. So the King's smart just trap Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: on every one of those, and both times Kawhi hits
Speaker 1: Plumbly on the short roll, and both times plumbly turned
Speaker 1: it over because that's just a tough He's not exactly
Speaker 1: a playmaker in the short roll. So the weird circumstance
Speaker 1: surrounding Paul George and Russell Westbrook leaving the game kind
Speaker 1: of led to bizarre, weird lineup combinations and the Kings
Speaker 1: took advantage of that. And on the other end of
Speaker 1: the four Milik Monk had a huge movement three headed
Speaker 1: to his right, squared up in midair, knocked it down
Speaker 1: to get him within one and then Darren Fox hit
Speaker 1: the pull up two that ended up being essentially the
Speaker 1: game winner, and then the Clippers had a really disjointed
Speaker 1: final possession that ended in a Nicholas Patum heave on
Speaker 1: the left wing and the game was over. So, like
Speaker 1: I said, it was a really weird game of anticlimactic
Speaker 1: for as up and down and crazy and star powered
Speaker 1: as it was for it to end with you know,
Speaker 1: Mason Plumley turnovers, Paul George and Russell Westbrook on the bench,
Speaker 1: and you know, a couple of Kings plays to win
Speaker 1: the game. Deared Fox and Molik Monk just absolutely barbecue
Speaker 1: the Clippers defense. I think the Clippers really missed having
Speaker 1: zoo back out there just as a and he's got
Speaker 1: the best rim protector in the world, but he's much
Speaker 1: better than Plumley, and that they too often had to
Speaker 1: go to small lineups. Two and then Semezi met too
Speaker 1: was killing them on the offensive glass, but Deared Fox
Speaker 1: and Molik Monk took advantage of that. They combined for
Speaker 1: eighty seven points on fifty one shots. I would imagine
Speaker 1: if you could have gone to those two guys when
Speaker 1: they were in a Kentucky locker room back in the
Speaker 1: day and told them like, hey, you guys are gonna
Speaker 1: be teaming up and just lighting teams on fire in
Speaker 1: the future. I think that'd be a pretty cool moment
Speaker 1: for those guys. Molik Monk is such a pure score.
Speaker 1: I've always thought of scoring as a skill that goes
Speaker 1: beyond ball handling and shooting. Obviously, ball handling and shooting
Speaker 1: is the method with which you go about that scoring,
Speaker 1: but there's such an improvisation element that I think goes
Speaker 1: beyond what people think. It's so much more about you know,
Speaker 1: your instinct and your touch on weird shots as opposed
Speaker 1: to you know. I think guys that are very rigid
Speaker 1: and rely too much on their muscle memory. Really struggle
Speaker 1: was scoring the basketball because they don't have that little
Speaker 1: bit of wiggle in their game and that improvisational thing.
Speaker 1: And you know what's funny is I don't really think
Speaker 1: it's something that can be taught. I think you either
Speaker 1: have it or you don't. And Malik is one of
Speaker 1: those guys that very much has that natural scoring instinct
Speaker 1: and improvisational touch. And you know, I covered him when
Speaker 1: he was with the Lakers last year and he was
Speaker 1: a rare bright spot for the Lakers. Obviously, he had
Speaker 1: his limitations, particularly on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: Not even so much for a lack of trying, just
Speaker 1: he's very thin and can be pushed around. We've seen
Speaker 1: this a lot around the league. It's kind of a
Speaker 1: jam more problem too. If you're a guard and you're
Speaker 1: also easy to move around physically, it's just as tough
Speaker 1: to guard. But either way, his offensive skill and his
Speaker 1: synergy with guys like Austin Reeves and Lebron James last
Speaker 1: year led the Lakers to be pretty damn good for
Speaker 1: the most part. They're better stretches of the season or
Speaker 1: when it was you know, Anthony Davis Lebron, James Malik,
Speaker 1: Monk Austin reeves that kind of group. Malik was a
Speaker 1: rare bright spot and it was actually kind of depressing
Speaker 1: for Lakers fans because they knew they would never be
Speaker 1: able to afford to keep him after the season because
Speaker 1: of how well he played. And it was a great
Speaker 1: get for the Kings with their all in approach to offense.
Speaker 1: But that's what this is, and let's be clear, like
Speaker 1: this is an all in approach to offense. Like the Clippers,
Speaker 1: they're a solid defensive team that has a defensive ceiling
Speaker 1: and they just struggled in this game because they didn't
Speaker 1: have their rim protector. And I'm pretty sure they were
Speaker 1: a top ten defense before last night's game. So like,
Speaker 1: at least with them, you kind of look at it
Speaker 1: as an outlier and a matchup thing and Zoobach being
Speaker 1: out of the lineup. But with the Kings, this is
Speaker 1: what they do. They try to outscore you every single night.
Speaker 1: They're twenty fourth and defense on the season. But you
Speaker 1: know what's interesting is even when you look at their wins,
Speaker 1: they're winning by outscoring you. If you took every team
Speaker 1: in the NBA, his defensive rating just when they win games.
Speaker 1: The Kings are dead last in the NBA allowing one
Speaker 1: hundred and thirteen points per one hundred possessions. They're one
Speaker 1: of my favorite teams to watch. Their offensive skill and
Speaker 1: high scoring games lead to just a great television product,
Speaker 1: and I've enjoyed watching them this year, but they eventually
Speaker 1: need to get serious about defending to have any real
Speaker 1: chance of going on a long playoff run, which I've
Speaker 1: said a half dozen times this year for those of
Speaker 1: you guys who listen to the show. Kawhi Leonard looked
Speaker 1: fantastic through three quarters. Caught a heater there in that
Speaker 1: third quarter. No one can stop him. He was hitting
Speaker 1: post up fadeaways over his right shoulder, he was bullying
Speaker 1: his way to the basket for little hook shots, and
Speaker 1: he had like a disgusting step back three I think
Speaker 1: on Malik Monk, and he was just showing everything and
Speaker 1: really just looked by classic robot Kawhi. I think at
Speaker 1: one point he had like twenty nine points on eleven shots,
Speaker 1: and that was before he went crazy in that third quarter.
Speaker 1: So a lot of encouraging stuff there, but then he
Speaker 1: was pretty bad down the stretch and in both overtime periods,
Speaker 1: particularly leaving his jump shot short and didn't look like
Speaker 1: he was getting a lot of lift in separation the
Speaker 1: way he was in the previous three quarters. And obviously
Speaker 1: it's a weird game, a high pace game, a lot
Speaker 1: of shots going up, so some weird circumstances. But that's
Speaker 1: always going to be my concern specifically with Kauai, is
Speaker 1: in a really long playoff run where you've got to
Speaker 1: play twenty four games in two months or potentially more.
Speaker 1: Is his leg his quad issues that he's had, his
Speaker 1: knee issues that he's had, is his leg going to
Speaker 1: be able to hold up under a long postseason run
Speaker 1: Because those like I talk about this all the time
Speaker 1: with young players when it comes to step backs, fadeaways,
Speaker 1: real shot making, it's all your legs. It's all lift,
Speaker 1: getting separation and lift, because really, once you get to
Speaker 1: your spot and you elevate, there's a muscle memorything that
Speaker 1: kicks in there. Obviously with a little bit of that
Speaker 1: improvisational shot making that I talk about, that touch that
Speaker 1: I talk about, but the guys that have that touch
Speaker 1: and have that muscle memory down, it's really just can
Speaker 1: they get to their spot and get the requisite amount
Speaker 1: of lift. It all comes down two legs, and you
Speaker 1: saw Kawai's legs fail him down the stretch of that game,
Speaker 1: and that's obviously concerning for them. But if he's going
Speaker 1: to play the way he did through the first three
Speaker 1: quarters and hold up physically, then none of this matters
Speaker 1: and they're gonna be really damn good. I just am
Speaker 1: concerned about whether or not he's gonna be able to
Speaker 1: hold up. The Russell Westbrook debut with the Clippers went
Speaker 1: just about exactly as I expected, a total roller coaster
Speaker 1: of good and bad plays. The good plays were like
Speaker 1: a hefty level above what they were when he was
Speaker 1: with the Lakers, which I predicted. I said the Lakers
Speaker 1: were the worst shooting team in the league, and Russ
Speaker 1: is a three point shot creator, right, and so putting
Speaker 1: him with that Clippers team that just has a ton
Speaker 1: of professional jump shooters, he's going to generate them a
Speaker 1: ton of quality looks. And he did. He generated a
Speaker 1: bunch of wide open threes, including for Paul George and Kauai,
Speaker 1: which is so important to helping them build their rhythm,
Speaker 1: and I thought that was a really natural fit. He
Speaker 1: finished with fourteen assists. I'm always going to be a
Speaker 1: big believer in rim pressure alongside complimenting the perimeter skill
Speaker 1: that the Clippers have, and I think that's a big
Speaker 1: part of why you saw so many positives from Russ
Speaker 1: last night. He also pushed the pace really well. There
Speaker 1: was a play in the first half where like, the
Speaker 1: King's got a layup and they inbound the ball to
Speaker 1: Russ and Russ just sprints up the floor, throws a
Speaker 1: quick shovel past to Marcus Morris which forces the rotation,
Speaker 1: gets swung to Kawhi Leonard in the corner, and he
Speaker 1: makes the three. And I'm sitting there thinking like, that's easy.
Speaker 1: That's easy basketball that the Clippers really were never getting
Speaker 1: before this move, and Russell Westbrook is adding that element
Speaker 1: to their offense. But it did come with a bunch
Speaker 1: of bad plays, Like he missed three point blank layups,
Speaker 1: two of which led to quick transition baskets for the Kings.
Speaker 1: Russ's miss layups are almost like turnovers, and then he
Speaker 1: had seven turnovers, a couple of which were pick sixes
Speaker 1: that led to quick baskets the other way. But overall,
Speaker 1: I thought the good plays out way the bad plays significantly,
Speaker 1: and I thought that was reflected in him winning his
Speaker 1: shifts and the Clippers were up six when he fouled
Speaker 1: out of the game and double overtime. My one complaint
Speaker 1: with the Russell Westbrook thing last night, and this is
Speaker 1: something I've talked about a lot, as they did close
Speaker 1: with him, So they rowed that up and down roller
Speaker 1: coaster in the home stretch of the game. And you know,
Speaker 1: there's a couple of specific side effects of that one.
Speaker 1: The Kings ignored him a lot and double teamed him
Speaker 1: off the ball. There was a specific play at the
Speaker 1: end of the first overtime KAI where Paul George was
Speaker 1: trying to go to work off the dribble when the
Speaker 1: game was tied in the final possession to win the game,
Speaker 1: and Russell Westbrook was there on the left wing, and
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook's man completely ignored Russ just hard doubled Paul George,
Speaker 1: and Paul George ended up like taking some jankie like
Speaker 1: forward leaning jump shot in the lane that he missed.
Speaker 1: And then obviously they're that last player regulation. I said
Speaker 1: to you guys in my breakdown of the Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: fit with the Clippers, I said, when he's on ball,
Speaker 1: he's been very good defensively this year, actually kind of
Speaker 1: a weapon for the Lakers. But in off ball situations
Speaker 1: he's a freelancer, which is good and bad. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: there was a game against the Pacers a few weeks
Speaker 1: ago where on the final possession, Buddy Healed turned his
Speaker 1: back and drove towards the baseline and Russell Westbrook impromptu
Speaker 1: double teamed Buddy Healed and on that play and ended
Speaker 1: up being something that worked out because Buddy Heald picked
Speaker 1: up his dribble, he looked around, he didn't see a
Speaker 1: good passing angle, and he threw up a very difficult
Speaker 1: shot along the baseline and he missed it. It was
Speaker 1: a random freelancing play that worked. But last night you
Speaker 1: saw the flip side of that coin. He freelanced off
Speaker 1: of Malik Monk on the final possession in a three
Speaker 1: point game, and Malik Monk got free and knocked down
Speaker 1: to three. And that's the thing that gets tough with freelancing.
Speaker 1: At the end of games, execution becomes the most important.
Speaker 1: So it's actually better to have somebody that does their
Speaker 1: job on every single possession. And my question for you
Speaker 1: guys is and I'll leave this open. Do you think,
Speaker 1: in a pivotal Game five of a second round series
Speaker 1: for the Clippers in Denver, on the final possession, their
Speaker 1: final few possessions, can you trust Russell Westbrook to do
Speaker 1: his job on the defensive possession? Can you? Or do
Speaker 1: you think he would freelance and go off script and
Speaker 1: potentially make a mistake or make a good play And
Speaker 1: think about that dynamic and whether or not that is
Speaker 1: going to get the Clippers beat And I don't know,
Speaker 1: And like I said, I'm gonna leave that open ended.
Speaker 1: I think that's where you start to look at it,
Speaker 1: is like, would you be better off going with someone
Speaker 1: like Terrence Man in that situation? Understanding You're not going
Speaker 1: to get the rim pressure in the high level shot
Speaker 1: creating from Russ, but you have that baseline, that higher
Speaker 1: floor that comes from Terrence Man's ability to just do
Speaker 1: his job on any given defensive possession. But overall, I
Speaker 1: thought it was a good debut for Russell Westbrook and
Speaker 1: I do think he's a good fit for the Clippers
Speaker 1: who can help them. I just personally would not play
Speaker 1: him at the end of games. And I'm really curious
Speaker 1: to see if Tyron Lou's going to do that over
Speaker 1: the course of the season. All right, before we get
Speaker 1: out here, let's move on to Warriors Rocket. So there's
Speaker 1: a good tune up game for the Warriors. This was
Speaker 1: the one they had to win. I didn't think they
Speaker 1: could win that Lakers game. The Warriors won one sixteen
Speaker 1: to one. On one, Clay Thompson hit twelve threes on
Speaker 1: his way to forty two points. That's the tenth time
Speaker 1: and Clay Thompson's career that he's hit at least ten threes.
Speaker 1: He's the second best shooter of all time. I've always
Speaker 1: said that his height, combined with the quickness of his
Speaker 1: release and his ridiculous muscle memory, and just when he
Speaker 1: gets that release dialed in, how every shot seems to
Speaker 1: go in. You know he actually, when he gets hot,
Speaker 1: his hot streaks are every bit as effective as Steph
Speaker 1: Curry's hot streaks. Now, obviously his floor is nowhere near
Speaker 1: as high as Steph steps a million times the player,
Speaker 1: But when it comes to shooting and getting hot, there's
Speaker 1: not many guys in NBA history that do it the
Speaker 1: way that Clay does it. Portari Eason caught the matchup
Speaker 1: for most of this game, and Clay just put him
Speaker 1: in a blender, running off as and moving without the ball.
Speaker 1: Clay got switched on to senders a couple of time
Speaker 1: and scored out of ISO. He got Frank Kaminski with
Speaker 1: a step back three in the first half, and then
Speaker 1: a really nice hesitation pull up three against Usman Garuban
Speaker 1: a switch in the second half. Clay's last twenty two
Speaker 1: games twenty six points per game on forty four percent
Speaker 1: from three on twelve three point attempts per game. And
Speaker 1: so you know, I've seen I've seen a lot of
Speaker 1: people overthinking the warriors struggles this season, when, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: so much of it just comes down to Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: and Steph Curry have missed too many games. Like I
Speaker 1: pulled up, I was pulled up some numbers today. The
Speaker 1: Warriors have had to play two thousand, four hundred and
Speaker 1: twelve possessions this year with both of Steph and Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins off the floor. That's their two best players, and
Speaker 1: they're not doing well in those possessions. One hundred and
Speaker 1: twelve offensive rating, which is not good, in one hundred
Speaker 1: and seventeen defensive rating which is not good, and they're
Speaker 1: getting outscored by five points per one hundred possessions. It's
Speaker 1: it's really this simple, Like without Steph, Jordan Pool is
Speaker 1: their only on ball creator. So when teams pack the
Speaker 1: paint and overplay their shooters and force them to backcut
Speaker 1: in their offball actions, they just don't have the audible
Speaker 1: of going to onball actions enough because it's just a
Speaker 1: lot to ask for Jordan Poole to do that as
Speaker 1: the only on ball creator on the team really that
Speaker 1: can that can really do it at a high level.
Speaker 1: And so it just puts them in a tough position.
Speaker 1: And then it really it really just compounds because they
Speaker 1: can't set their defense. And so yeah, you think, okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna lean on Draymond Green, Kevon Looney and our
Speaker 1: defensive identity to carry us through games. But if you
Speaker 1: can't score the basketball, you can't get your defense set.
Speaker 1: You're constantly dealing with transition cross matches and fast breakpoints
Speaker 1: and things like that in your defense falls apart. And
Speaker 1: it's just been really hard for them to float that.
Speaker 1: And I don't want it. I just don't want I
Speaker 1: don't want people to lose sight of the plot here.
Speaker 1: Really is that simple. It's not. Sometimes it's not. It's
Speaker 1: not more complicated than our best players are missing too
Speaker 1: many games. I mean, even Andrew Wiggins is a guy
Speaker 1: who can like apply real rim pressure just by dropping
Speaker 1: his shoulder and ripping through and going to the rim,
Speaker 1: and that that element to their game is just missing
Speaker 1: right now. Everything will be slotted properly when they get
Speaker 1: back and when Gary Peyton is second joins the freight.
Speaker 1: Like I've seen, I saw a lot of debates on
Speaker 1: I follow a lot of Warriors fans on Twitter, and
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of debates lately. It's like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: like we should play Patrick Baldwin Junior over Anthony Lamb
Speaker 1: and and you know, yeah, I agree. Like Patrick Baldwin
Speaker 1: Junior brings like a really interesting size element, although he
Speaker 1: doesn't rebound super well, which is kind of an issue.
Speaker 1: Anthony Lamb's actually a better rebound or even though he's shorter.
Speaker 1: But like Patrick Baldwin Junior is one of those guys
Speaker 1: where it's like he has the size, he's got the
Speaker 1: perimeter shot confidently rises up into these shots like yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm for it. Give it a try, you know, try
Speaker 1: something to try to get something going. When Stephan Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins are out of the line it but like, what's
Speaker 1: the point, Like the reality is is that when everyone
Speaker 1: gets healthy, your nine man rotation is Steph Clay, Andrew Wiggins,
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, Kavan Looney, Jordan Pool, Dante DiVincenzo, Jamichael Green,
Speaker 1: and probably a little bit of Jonathan Cominga. I don't
Speaker 1: think you're gonna be worried about whether or not Anthony
Speaker 1: Lamb or Patrick Baldwin Junior are gonna be playing those minutes.
Speaker 1: And like, I saw this a lot with Lakers fans
Speaker 1: where they would complain about rotation details, and like I
Speaker 1: had specific things where I'd be like I'd be annoyed
Speaker 1: about a specific guy in the starting lineup or specific
Speaker 1: combination of players, but more often than not, it was like, okay,
Speaker 1: but Anthony Davis is hurt and they don't have any forwards.
Speaker 1: And so really you're asking a bunch of veteran minimum
Speaker 1: contract guys to fill roles that are typically filled for
Speaker 1: good teams by guys who make twenty million a year.
Speaker 1: It's just a lot to ask, and so slotting becomes
Speaker 1: a problem. You take a max player like Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: and you remove him, and now you're putting a guy
Speaker 1: into that spot that's nowhere near as talented, and he
Speaker 1: probably is better off the bench, but now he's starting,
Speaker 1: and then the guy coming off the bench for him
Speaker 1: as a guy who's a fringe NBA player, Like, it's
Speaker 1: just you're asking too much. There's very few teams in
Speaker 1: the league to have that kind of real depth to
Speaker 1: be able to survive in those situations. And even when
Speaker 1: they do go to their depth, there's gonna be some limitations.
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins and Steph Curry are the best players on
Speaker 1: the team, and without them, they're going to struggle to win.
Speaker 1: That's just a fact. But you've got to get the
Speaker 1: ones you can get, the ones like that Houston Rockets game,
Speaker 1: you've got to get and just floated as best as
Speaker 1: you can, and then when everyone comes back, you've really
Speaker 1: got to hit the jets and just cross your fingers
Speaker 1: and hope everyone stays healthy. All right, guys, that's all
Speaker 1: I have for today. We have six or Celtics tonight.
Speaker 1: We're not covering that tonight, but we are covering it
Speaker 1: tomorrow after the final buzzer of Mavericks Lakers, So we'll
Speaker 1: be hitting Mavericks, Lakers six, or Celtics, and I'll look
Speaker 1: around at the schedule and see if there's one or
Speaker 1: two other games that are worth covering. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate your guys support and I'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: The volume