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Speaker 1: to tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody, Oh Bob,
Speaker 1: you guys are having a great week. Just a quick
Speaker 1: show today. We're gonna be hitting two East versus West
Speaker 1: showdowns from last night as the Houston Rockets going to
Speaker 1: Boston and get a big win against the Celtics and
Speaker 1: the Red Hot Grizzly Is go on the road into
Speaker 1: New York against the Knicks and get absolutely smashed. We're
Speaker 1: going to be breaking down both of those games from
Speaker 1: the perspective of both teams. You guys have the drip
Speaker 1: before we get started. Subscribed to Oops Tonight YouTube channels.
Speaker 1: You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
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Speaker 1: Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful for we
Speaker 1: leave a rating and a review on that front. We
Speaker 1: also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
Speaker 1: and Facebook where we're releasing content throughout the year. Make
Speaker 1: sure you guys follow us there, and then, last but
Speaker 1: not least, keep dropping mailbag questions and the YouTube comments.
Speaker 1: We can get to them in our Friday mail bags
Speaker 1: throughout the remainder of the season. We are going to
Speaker 1: do some more trade deadline stuff tomorrow. I was looking
Speaker 1: at the slate and I just thought last night's slate
Speaker 1: was more interesting. Tonight's slate's a little weaker, so we'll
Speaker 1: shift gears tomorrow into more trade deadline centered content. But
Speaker 1: let's move on to Rockets Celtics. So, as I mentioned yesterday,
Speaker 1: the Rockets are the best team in the league against
Speaker 1: the best teams in the league. Going into last night's slate,
Speaker 1: they had fourteen wins against teams that are in the
Speaker 1: top ten in point differential according to Cleaning, the last
Speaker 1: which was sole possession of most in the league. Now,
Speaker 1: after last night, it's weird the top ten point differential
Speaker 1: teams have jumbled a little bit. But after last night,
Speaker 1: the Rockets now have twelve wins against teams that are
Speaker 1: in the top ten at point differential. But that's two
Speaker 1: more than any other team in the league has. They've
Speaker 1: been very good in these types of matchups. They get
Speaker 1: up for them, they have the athletes to hang, and
Speaker 1: they can cause a lot of problems for teams. This
Speaker 1: was the Amen Thompson and Dylan Brooks game. How about
Speaker 1: sixty nine points on forty two shots, and they needed
Speaker 1: every single one of those points because Boston put the
Speaker 1: clamps on Fred van Vliet and Jalen Green in this game.
Speaker 1: And as I've mentioned a lot in the past, like
Speaker 1: this team, when Fred and Jalen struggle on offense in
Speaker 1: a game, it's usually a death sentence because they already
Speaker 1: struggle enough to score in the half court, and those
Speaker 1: are their two best perimeter initiators. Those guys went five
Speaker 1: for twenty two from the field. In this game. Fred
Speaker 1: was really struggling to get separation really from anyone, and
Speaker 1: then Jalen Green was getting separation and he was getting downhill,
Speaker 1: but his jump shot was off, so whenever he got
Speaker 1: free from the perimeter, he wasn't knocking shots down. And
Speaker 1: then whenever he drove to the basket, he kind of
Speaker 1: was just barreling like a bowl in a china shop
Speaker 1: into like six bodies and missing kickout reads and trying
Speaker 1: to force stuff in traffic, which was leading to turnovers
Speaker 1: and misshots. So they get almost nothing from Fred van
Speaker 1: Vliet and Jalen Green, and it doesn't matter because you
Speaker 1: get sixty nine points from Amn Thompson and Dylan Brooks.
Speaker 1: They more than made up for it. But Dylan Brooks,
Speaker 1: it was mostly about hitting spot up threes. There was
Speaker 1: some shot making in there, and his shot making has
Speaker 1: been kind of an interesting trend in the last couple
Speaker 1: of games. He had some big shots in the game
Speaker 1: in Cleveland two first half, but it was all that
Speaker 1: spot up shooting in this one. A lot of nail
Speaker 1: help from Boston, a lot of like trying to pack
Speaker 1: the paint, test their playmaking ability, and when those kickout
Speaker 1: passes came to Dylan Brooks, he just kept knocking him down.
Speaker 1: He had a big one that started the thirteen zero run.
Speaker 1: Boston goes up twelve in the early fourth quarter, he
Speaker 1: had a big one that cut that lead down to
Speaker 1: nine and nine and kind of started that run. He
Speaker 1: also had another one in crunch time that put them
Speaker 1: up by two. His shot making was just gigantic in
Speaker 1: this game. And then Aman Thompson, he did a million
Speaker 1: things to help the Rockets win this game, as he's
Speaker 1: known to do. That's kind of his thing. He's like
Speaker 1: the Swiss army knife of the young star prospect right.
Speaker 1: And I want to focus in on the offense though,
Speaker 1: because he did have thirty three points in this game.
Speaker 1: He had an unbelievable defensive game. It just the one
Speaker 1: of the crazier defensive plays I've seen. There was a
Speaker 1: double team of Jason Tatum where the ball got worked
Speaker 1: around and he was guarding Peyton Pritchard way out above
Speaker 1: the kind of like the top of the key area,
Speaker 1: and Drew Holliday was wide open on the left wing
Speaker 1: and he peeled off of Peyton Pritchard somehow blocked Drew
Speaker 1: Holliday's three point attempt and saved it in bounds, Like
Speaker 1: it was just an unbelievable defensive play. But I want
Speaker 1: to zoom in on the offensive end of the floor
Speaker 1: because he has a remarkable ability to be a threat
Speaker 1: considering he can't shoot the basketball from the perimeter. We
Speaker 1: talked to a little bit about this in yesterday's show,
Speaker 1: but you know, he did hit a corner three in
Speaker 1: this game. That's not his game. He's not a perimeter
Speaker 1: shot maker, but he maintains an incredibly high level of
Speaker 1: offensive impact because he's basically great at everything else on offense. Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a bad perimeter shooter, but he's an excellent close
Speaker 1: range shooter. I talked a lot yesterday about his ability
Speaker 1: to get to spots in the short range, kind of
Speaker 1: in the middle of the floor, usually in the paint,
Speaker 1: just outside that restricted area, and when he gets in there,
Speaker 1: he just has like a bunch of spins and euros
Speaker 1: and hop steps and different things where he can just
Speaker 1: kind of get to a spot and pop up off
Speaker 1: the ground and elevate over somebody and shoot a little floater,
Speaker 1: a little hook shot or a very short jump shot,
Speaker 1: and he's got excellent touch on those shots. After last
Speaker 1: night's game, he's up to forty seven percent on shots
Speaker 1: that are in the paint but outside of the restricted area.
Speaker 1: In his last ten games, he's shooting fifty three percent
Speaker 1: on those shots during your period of time where a
Speaker 1: men's averaging nineteen points per game. That's where he can
Speaker 1: be a shot maker within this offense, and it's extremely
Speaker 1: difficult to guard, specifically because of his athleticism. His athleticism
Speaker 1: and his ability to pop off the ground. I talked
Speaker 1: about the play against Evan Mobley where he in the
Speaker 1: Cavs game where he drives baseline and then just pulls
Speaker 1: into a hard spin move and sinks a floater in
Speaker 1: the lane, or the shot that he hit against Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown to win the game, which was very similar to
Speaker 1: a eurostep shot he hit during the thirteen to oho
Speaker 1: run against Cornette and a drop coverage. It's very Jah
Speaker 1: Morant esque the way he can just pop off the
Speaker 1: ground in that little you know, kind of eight to
Speaker 1: twelve feet from the rim, in the front of the
Speaker 1: rim area, and then he just has such great touch
Speaker 1: in that area and that short range shot making came
Speaker 1: up time and time again in the fourth quarter of
Speaker 1: this one. Like I talked about during the thirteen oh run,
Speaker 1: catches a pocket pass and a ball screen with Jalen
Speaker 1: Green euros into a floater right in front of Luke Cornett.
Speaker 1: He hit a short fadeaway jump shot off of a
Speaker 1: shngoon post up where he kind of fed it to
Speaker 1: him right up the right block and he had to
Speaker 1: turn over his right shoulder and shoot a fade away
Speaker 1: over Porzingis. But once again it was in that like
Speaker 1: eight nine feet from the basket range where he can
Speaker 1: be deadly. He knocked down the shot and then of
Speaker 1: course the game winner drawn up for him to attack
Speaker 1: against Jalen Brown just hits a hard jab step to
Speaker 1: the left, gets downhill euro steps and gets to that floater.
Speaker 1: It just makes him a again, like when you really
Speaker 1: get down to it, it's not all self creation. And
Speaker 1: this is where his versatility comes into the equation again.
Speaker 1: He's not a good perimeter jump shooter, but he is
Speaker 1: great at everything else on offense, great short range shot maker,
Speaker 1: a legit screen and roll threat. He has an excellent
Speaker 1: feel for cutting. His vertical spacing is as good as
Speaker 1: any center that's in this leagu We're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: these individuals in a second. He's the best non center
Speaker 1: offensive rebounder in the entire NBA. And then, as we
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, he's got legit on ball pop, which we
Speaker 1: are just barely starting to scratch the surface up. So
Speaker 1: if you have like a list of like a list
Speaker 1: of different things you need to have to be good
Speaker 1: on offense, yeah, there's a big X next to three
Speaker 1: point shot making, but there's a bunch of green check
Speaker 1: marks next to every single other trait that a player
Speaker 1: needs to be good on the offensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: And so that is what allows him to be a
Speaker 1: deeply impactful offensive player, despite the fact that he has
Speaker 1: what many people consider to be a crippling weakness when
Speaker 1: they're evaluating talent, and maybe something that we need to reevaluate,
Speaker 1: especially when we're talking about some of the best athletes
Speaker 1: that come up through the draft. But I want to
Speaker 1: kind of go through some of these individuals. So as
Speaker 1: a screen and roll threat, we talked about that eurostep
Speaker 1: floater he hit against Luke Cornette, but it's also as
Speaker 1: a processor, He's a lightning fast processor. He makes great
Speaker 1: reads in that short roll area in four on threes.
Speaker 1: He also makes great reads out of the middle of
Speaker 1: his own defense. We talked about that in the Cavs game.
Speaker 1: He also makes great reads when he catches as a
Speaker 1: cutter along the baseline and the defense turns and accounts
Speaker 1: for him. He just a lightning fast processor that makes
Speaker 1: him a very good screen and roll threat. He has
Speaker 1: an excellent feel for cutting. He capped off that thirteen
Speaker 1: to zero run with a great cut off of Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown is like one oh one to one hundred, and
Speaker 1: he makes a post entry pass to Shanggoon around the
Speaker 1: right block, and Jalen Brown just bails off of a
Speaker 1: Men Thompson to double Shanggoon to try to go get
Speaker 1: a steal. A kind of a reckless defensive play, but
Speaker 1: a Men Thompson it just immediately triggers the response from him.
Speaker 1: He cuts right down through the middle of the lane,
Speaker 1: gets it back from Shangoon, makes a layup on the
Speaker 1: left side of the basket. He has excellent feel for
Speaker 1: cutting to the basket, and then, like I talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: his vertical spacing is every bit as good as any
Speaker 1: of the vertical spacing centers that we have in this league.
Speaker 1: There are twenty seven NBA players who have logged at
Speaker 1: least seventy five shot attempts on cuts to the basket
Speaker 1: this year, and it's twenty five bigs Amn Thompson and
Speaker 1: Mikhale Bridges. That's how rare it is to see a
Speaker 1: non center be that effective as a cutter, and he's
Speaker 1: seventeenth on that list inefficiency, so he's middle of the
Speaker 1: pack among a bunch of seven footers. He's ahead of
Speaker 1: guys like Anthony Davis, Yakapertal, Miles Turner. He is a
Speaker 1: bona fide legit dunker spot threat, which is insane for
Speaker 1: a perimeter player. And then, as I mentioned earlier, is
Speaker 1: the best non center offensive rebounder in the league. He
Speaker 1: averages two point eight offensive rebounds per game that ranks
Speaker 1: twenty third in the league. But everybody above him is
Speaker 1: a center, except for Zion Williamson, who's only played in
Speaker 1: twelve games this year. There is a play that he
Speaker 1: had in the first half where the ball once goes
Speaker 1: off the top of the top of the backboard, there's
Speaker 1: like three Celtics in front of him, and he just
Speaker 1: goes ripping and swimming through him and just elevates over everybody,
Speaker 1: grabs it and then dunks it in Jaln Brown's face.
Speaker 1: It's like he is an absolute wrecking ball as an
Speaker 1: athlete in this league. And then lastly, as we talked about,
Speaker 1: he has a ton of on ball potential in the
Speaker 1: big picture. He can relatively easily get downhill because he's
Speaker 1: got a good handle and top tier like a plus
Speaker 1: plus plus athletic traits, and then he's got the short
Speaker 1: range shot making and the playmaking to be great there,
Speaker 1: just like John Morantis. I almost like John Morant to me,
Speaker 1: even though John Rant plays a very different position. Is
Speaker 1: kind of a comp for what a men Thompson could
Speaker 1: be as a ceiling on the offensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: a guy that you give to the give the ball
Speaker 1: to top of the key, and he can attack and
Speaker 1: straight io or ball screens, get downhill, play make and
Speaker 1: make shots for his teammates, Like he had this ball
Speaker 1: screen attack in the first half where he came off
Speaker 1: of a screen, drew help and shoveled it to Steven Adams,
Speaker 1: and Steven Adams dunked it and it happened so fast
Speaker 1: that it was one of the easiest shot attempts in
Speaker 1: a game where two elite defenses were not giving up
Speaker 1: many easy shot attempts. And it's just because he comes
Speaker 1: screaming downhill so fast that everyone reacts to it so
Speaker 1: aggressively that the passing rate is easy. Just completely otherworldly
Speaker 1: potential for this kid, and it was on display in
Speaker 1: a big way in the win in Boston. Big win
Speaker 1: for Houston. We barely talked about their defense, which I
Speaker 1: thought was excellent. They had some issues with Tatum attacking
Speaker 1: their centers, but they did a really nice job of
Speaker 1: doubling and rotating out of it down the stretch, which
Speaker 1: allowed them to get enough stops. Started just kind of
Speaker 1: blitzing Tatum and pressuring him really far out to half court,
Speaker 1: and they were able to rotate out of it pretty good.
Speaker 1: What talked about the mn Thompson block where he saved
Speaker 1: it in bounds. They forced fifteen turnovers and scored twenty
Speaker 1: one points off of them. Their transition attacks were sharp.
Speaker 1: They had another transition attack in the first half, one
Speaker 1: where they got Amn Thompson a lob literally looked like
Speaker 1: a drill. The coaches were probably incredibly thrilled, Like just
Speaker 1: defensive rebound kick ahead passed one dribable lob from almost
Speaker 1: half court. It was like a lightning fast three man
Speaker 1: weave that led to a dunk. They had one point
Speaker 1: six to four points per transition possession in this game.
Speaker 1: That's an amazing efficiency stat there. Their late game execution
Speaker 1: was really good. It was just another really impressive win
Speaker 1: for a Rockets team that's kicking everybody's ass right now.
Speaker 1: Really really impressive stuff. On the Celtics front, I was
Speaker 1: particularly interested in this game as an evaluation of their
Speaker 1: ability to attack a physical defense. I can do a
Speaker 1: lot of switching and test their biggest weakness as of late,
Speaker 1: which has been settling right. The Celtics have had a
Speaker 1: ton of issues with Tatum and Brown settling for tough
Speaker 1: shots instead of attacking to get the defense in rotation,
Speaker 1: and I thought this game would be a good challenge
Speaker 1: for them, even though they had guys out of the lineup. Like,
Speaker 1: I'm not so concerned win loss here because obviously it's
Speaker 1: a different game. Val Horford and Derek White play right,
Speaker 1: and I think Sam Houser was out for this one too,
Speaker 1: I can't remember, But when you got guys out of
Speaker 1: the lineup, it's not so much about the win and
Speaker 1: the loss. You had enough talent to win that game, though.
Speaker 1: To me, it's about process. I'm looking at a specific
Speaker 1: weakness that the Celtics have been having and whether or
Speaker 1: not they're trending in the right direction. Specifically with Houston,
Speaker 1: there is a way to attack their defense. They have
Speaker 1: these centers and Steven Adams in alprin Shangun that they
Speaker 1: try really hard not to switch with, and what that
Speaker 1: means is when you run ball screens, they're gonna run
Speaker 1: some sort of like traditional type of coverage, probably a
Speaker 1: high drop, low drop, or they'll blitz or come up
Speaker 1: to the level right. They're gonna try to not switch
Speaker 1: as much as possible, so you can get the ball
Speaker 1: into the pocket against them, meaning the big can show
Speaker 1: and you can hit the role man rolling to the
Speaker 1: bass right. You can get the defense in rotation attacking
Speaker 1: Shangun and Adams in ball screens. Now, Houston is a
Speaker 1: very good team in rotation and they're going to clean
Speaker 1: up a lot of that, and they did clean up
Speaker 1: a lot of that in this game. But no defense
Speaker 1: is nearly as good in rotation as they are when
Speaker 1: they're loaded up that's the way to attack. So what
Speaker 1: I wanted to see in this game right off the
Speaker 1: bat was a steady diet of Jason Tatum running action
Speaker 1: at the top of the key that involves Houston's bigs,
Speaker 1: and instead, Jason Tatum was almost completely uninvolved. Early they
Speaker 1: were playing almost exclusively through Jalen Brown, which has been
Speaker 1: a really weird trend of late. There's been way less
Speaker 1: Tatum and way more Brown. In the last six games.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown is taking almost two more shots per game
Speaker 1: than Jason Tatum is. They opened up this game trying
Speaker 1: to attack Jalen Green in the post with Jalen Brown,
Speaker 1: and again there was some success there. Jalen's too small
Speaker 1: for Jalen Brown and he was able to work against him.
Speaker 1: The problem is that Jalen Brown has been doing a
Speaker 1: mostly awful job of spraying the ball out on his
Speaker 1: post ups. He's mostly playing on an island within himself,
Speaker 1: and I believe personally that playing this much through Jylen
Speaker 1: Brown disrupts the team's rhythm because they don't get into
Speaker 1: their driving kick sequences as often. Now, Tatum got more
Speaker 1: and more involved as the game progressed, but interestingly enough
Speaker 1: Things really took off for the Celtics in that late
Speaker 1: third quarter when Jason Tatum started spamming high ball screens
Speaker 1: that involved Houston centers. He started to get downhill so
Speaker 1: that Houston had to collapse on him. Then they were
Speaker 1: in rotation and they were playing advantage basketball. They started
Speaker 1: getting better shots and more offensive rebounds because Houston wasn't
Speaker 1: matched up for defensive rebounds because they're in rotation, and
Speaker 1: they get their biggest lead to the game to Tatum
Speaker 1: really started that in the late third quarter, and that
Speaker 1: was when the game really turned around. The only thing
Speaker 1: that really caused problems for Boston's offense in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter was when Houston would double team Jason Tatum because
Speaker 1: they were pressuring him pretty well out to half court,
Speaker 1: and Boston just wasn't really sharp with their decision making. Example,
Speaker 1: like Porzingis caught on a blitz once and there was
Speaker 1: a wide open shooter in the corner. I think it
Speaker 1: was Drew Holliday, but like he just missed the read
Speaker 1: and so when Fred van Vliet came up and pressured him,
Speaker 1: by the time he got it to Drew, it just
Speaker 1: was too late. Like just a couple things that you
Speaker 1: got to flash harder out to the ball and make
Speaker 1: yourself available, and then you got to be quick with
Speaker 1: your decision making out of it to beat those double teams.
Speaker 1: But they just that was the one thing that gave
Speaker 1: them some issues in the in the fourth quarter. But
Speaker 1: again Tatum was bringing two to the ball. That's the job.
Speaker 1: You got to figure out a way to score off
Speaker 1: of that. Again, Houston is a really good team and
Speaker 1: Boston is banged up and tired, So it's not even
Speaker 1: about the winner of the loss. I just think the
Speaker 1: largest barrier right now between where Boston is and where
Speaker 1: they need to be to repeat his champions is the
Speaker 1: same barrier that stood in their way before they were champions.
Speaker 1: Offensive process, everything they do needs to be viewed through
Speaker 1: the lens of how can we get the defense in rotation,
Speaker 1: not necessarily finding a matchup for Tatum or Brown to
Speaker 1: shoot directly over, because those guys have a habit of
Speaker 1: trying to shoot over the top of people. If you
Speaker 1: look at the offensive process more through the lens of
Speaker 1: where can we attack that will inevitably lead to two
Speaker 1: on the ball or those inside seals that we can
Speaker 1: get those four on threes out of then they will
Speaker 1: be able to get the defense in rotation more and
Speaker 1: play Celtics basketball if they play more through the lens
Speaker 1: of let's get the ball somewhere where Jason Tatum or
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown can attack a mismatch one on one. I
Speaker 1: think that's where it ends up into more of those
Speaker 1: problematic settling situations. Now here's the thing. It's not all
Speaker 1: going to be about just like finding the team, finding
Speaker 1: the guy on the floor that's not gonna switch, you
Speaker 1: will inevitably run into a team at some point in
Speaker 1: this process that does a ton of switching. We talked
Speaker 1: about this in the Laker game the other night. Then
Speaker 1: it really will come down to Jaylen Brown and Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum not settling, getting downhill and again, guys like this
Speaker 1: is we've seen this work. When did they blow out
Speaker 1: down When did they gain control of games against Dallas?
Speaker 1: When Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum started getting Luca and
Speaker 1: switches and driving past him rather than trying to shoot
Speaker 1: over the top of him. That's gonna be the main
Speaker 1: thing to keep track on. Joe Mizzoula was talking a
Speaker 1: lot after the game about how it was his fault
Speaker 1: on those final two possessions. The men Thompson shot, I
Speaker 1: don't know what you do. That's probably the best athlete
Speaker 1: you've gotten, Jaylen Brown. You've got to put him on
Speaker 1: a men Thompson, and I mean Dylan Brooks was hitting.
Speaker 1: If you leave a Fred van Vliet open, He's hit
Speaker 1: a bunch of big catch and shoot shots as of late.
Speaker 1: Like if you abandon Shangun, he could score on the
Speaker 1: offensive rebound put back. Like I that one just a
Speaker 1: men Thompson made a freaky athletic play and hit a shot.
Speaker 1: There was not really a ton you can do about that. Now,
Speaker 1: the one before that, the one where Shanguon beat Cornette
Speaker 1: on the slip, that was just bad positioning from Cornette.
Speaker 1: He was so far up he was like literally attached
Speaker 1: to Shangun's body. So he's just able to kind of
Speaker 1: swim around him and get downhill. Cornett's just got to
Speaker 1: give him a little bit more space and realize that
Speaker 1: Shangun catching out at you know, twenty five feet from
Speaker 1: the basket is not going to hurt you immediately. It's
Speaker 1: something that you can react to. So I didn't think
Speaker 1: necessarily Missoula did anything too. Now Missoula did go with
Speaker 1: a lot of Drew Holiday on Shangun down the stretch.
Speaker 1: But even if he says that, I don't necessarily think
Speaker 1: that was the answer either. Like Shanggun was doing some
Speaker 1: damage to Drew Holiday, spun off of him and dropped
Speaker 1: it off to a men Thompson for another layup along
Speaker 1: the baseline, drew a foul against him for two free throws,
Speaker 1: came across the lane and dropped it off to a
Speaker 1: men Thompson for that little short fadeaway jump shot that
Speaker 1: was when Drew Holiday. Drew Holliday did get one steal
Speaker 1: on a post up of Shangun, But to my knowledge,
Speaker 1: I think of the four times they posted Shanggoon on
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday down the stretch, he scored three of them.
Speaker 1: So I don't think necessarily switching Drew Holliday onto Shangun
Speaker 1: now Drew Holiday probably doesn't get the easy slip dunk. Maybe,
Speaker 1: but like again, Cornett just has to know better in
Speaker 1: that case. But like I think I agree that you
Speaker 1: know that Joe Mizzoula could have just put Drew Holliday
Speaker 1: on Shannghu and all of a sudden all your problems
Speaker 1: go away. Like the rockets made some plays. You gotta
Speaker 1: give him some credit, particularly that a Men Thompson won
Speaker 1: moving out to Grizzlies Nicks. This was all about the
Speaker 1: Knicks holding up well at the point of attack. As
Speaker 1: we know, Memphis loves to attack with guard dribble penetration.
Speaker 1: A lot of times they won't even call for a
Speaker 1: ball screen. We'll just have Jahn Morant bring the ball
Speaker 1: to the floor, try to drive, Desmond Bain bring the
Speaker 1: ball at the floor, try to drive John Moran or
Speaker 1: excuse me to give the ball to Jaron Jackson in
Speaker 1: a matchup, try to post, and then they just play
Speaker 1: kind of driving kick basketball off of that with some
Speaker 1: good off ball rotation and good spacing. Right McHale Bridges
Speaker 1: was doing a great job on Jahn Morant one of
Speaker 1: his first drive. Stonewall then forced him to throw the
Speaker 1: ball away and when they were containing the ball, they
Speaker 1: were able to stay home off ball. When they're able
Speaker 1: to stay home off ball, it forces turnovers as guys
Speaker 1: try to throw it away from defenders and the ball
Speaker 1: goes out of bounds or right at the defender. Right,
Speaker 1: John Morant drives mikel Ridges Stone Walls in forces a kickout.
Speaker 1: It goes right to a member of the Knicks. They're running
Speaker 1: out the other way. Josh Hart swipes the ball, swipes
Speaker 1: at the ball when Desmond Bain is driving at him,
Speaker 1: causes a turnover. They get out in transition. Og Ananobi
Speaker 1: was the one guy that they were offering help with
Speaker 1: with Jared Jackson. They kind of did some zoning up
Speaker 1: with Carl Towns off of Zach Edy. But even when
Speaker 1: Zach Edy tried to go to post up Karl Anthony
Speaker 1: Towns cat just pokes the ball away from him and
Speaker 1: they get out and transition. And that was really how
Speaker 1: the Knicks game control early in the game. It was
Speaker 1: just holding up on the ball, forcing turnovers, getting out
Speaker 1: in transition, and then hitting shots. Remember I talked yesterday
Speaker 1: about how there's been pretty bad shooting variants for the
Speaker 1: Knicks and wins versus losses, Like they just shoot really
Speaker 1: poorly in their losses and they shoot really well and
Speaker 1: they wins shot well yesterday even when Memphis audibled and
Speaker 1: started shifting to more of a ball screen attack because
Speaker 1: they weren't getting successful penetration in their ISOs. But Keil
Speaker 1: Bridges was doing a really nice job with his back
Speaker 1: pressure on John Morant, had John Morant like looking behind him.
Speaker 1: He had a play early where he forced another bad
Speaker 1: miss in a ball screen. He had to play in
Speaker 1: the second half where he was trailing John Morant and
Speaker 1: blocked him off the glass like his back pressure because
Speaker 1: of his length was causing problems for John Morant. And
Speaker 1: then Quentin Grimes came in and did an awesome job
Speaker 1: on Desmond Bang two quick stops chased over the top
Speaker 1: of a screen and kind of kept him chested up,
Speaker 1: kept the ball in front, and then another one where
Speaker 1: he held him up on a drive, just a straight drive,
Speaker 1: not a ball screen, but just held him in front
Speaker 1: on a drive and forced another one of those turnovers
Speaker 1: where he threw the ball out of bounce the guard.
Speaker 1: All the Knicks players, but the guards especially were guarding
Speaker 1: really well and it put the Knicks in control of
Speaker 1: the game early. Now the Knicks, excuse me. The Grizzlies
Speaker 1: did end up making a run, mostly through attacking transition
Speaker 1: cross matches like Brandon Clark got an and one just
Speaker 1: because he got a cross match against Jalen Brunson, drove
Speaker 1: right at him, ran him over and got an and one.
Speaker 1: Layup Jared Jackson got an easy bucket early on a
Speaker 1: cross match against Landry Shape, which, by the way, this
Speaker 1: is kind of an interesting example of the flaw in Memphis.
Speaker 1: Just bringing the ball to the floor and looking to
Speaker 1: attack the primary defender. Some simple work early in the
Speaker 1: possession to get a favorable matchup can go a long
Speaker 1: way from that drive being stonewalled versus that being a
Speaker 1: straight line drive that the defense has to react to.
Speaker 1: It's also a simple example of the value in pushing
Speaker 1: the ball in transition, because when you push the ball
Speaker 1: in transition, you can get cross matches as teams are
Speaker 1: struggling to get matched up right. Jared Jackson was the
Speaker 1: main guy keeping Memphis attached in the early you know,
Speaker 1: kind of two two and a half quarters of this game.
Speaker 1: His just ridiculous physical tools give him the ability to
Speaker 1: fight for position closer to the basket, and he just
Speaker 1: has such good touch on that short range shot making.
Speaker 1: It kind of gives him a level of resilience in
Speaker 1: these types of games, like road games against defenses that
Speaker 1: are really playing hard and the Knick Star team that
Speaker 1: have been you know, Jekyll and Hyde on defense, which
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about later, but like that comes
Speaker 1: from like when they're competing, they do have the personnel
Speaker 1: to be really problematic and and Jaren Jackson just holds
Speaker 1: up really well in that setting because of his size
Speaker 1: and his short ring shot making. But the Knicks pulled
Speaker 1: away for good in the third quarter, and once again
Speaker 1: it was defense to transition. Mckail Bridges blocks John Morant
Speaker 1: at the rim, they attack in semi transition the other way,
Speaker 1: and Karl Anthony Towns gets an and one. By the way,
Speaker 1: semi transition is like when you attack up the floor
Speaker 1: and it's not really like a straight up fast break,
Speaker 1: but there's you know, kind of like a scrambled unset
Speaker 1: defense and you get a close out opportunity out of it.
Speaker 1: And Kat got a close out opportunity where Jaron Jackson
Speaker 1: had to sprint at him at the top of the
Speaker 1: key and he was able to beat him to the
Speaker 1: basket for and and one. On that play, Mikhail Bridges
Speaker 1: hits a three off of a Josh Hart offensive rebound
Speaker 1: that puts him up thirteen, and the New York's defense
Speaker 1: was really flummixing Memphis. There's a possession shortly after that.
Speaker 1: It was very next possession, John Murray has the ball
Speaker 1: on the left wing and iso against Josh Hart, again
Speaker 1: not his primary defender, but a good defender, but not
Speaker 1: his primary defender. And then in the left corners Brandon
Speaker 1: Clark being guarded by Karl Anthony Towns. There's fourteen on
Speaker 1: the shot, and instead of trying to attack Josh Hart,
Speaker 1: John Morant just throws the ball to Brandon Clark in
Speaker 1: the left corner, and Brandon Clark's like okay, and he
Speaker 1: drives baseline and Kat like walls him up. Everyone stays
Speaker 1: home off the ball, and Brandon Clark has no choice
Speaker 1: but throw a kickout pass and he throws it right
Speaker 1: to o Jannoby and again it's like that's John Murrant
Speaker 1: being flummixed by the defense to the point where he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna try to attack Josh Hart here,
Speaker 1: Brandon Clark, you do it. And it just was a
Speaker 1: testament to the way that the Knicks were competing on
Speaker 1: defense and causing the Grizzlies to implode. They ran out
Speaker 1: and transition and got a lay up for Josh Hart
Speaker 1: on that play. They were up fifteen. Two possessions later,
Speaker 1: a really nice defensive sequence where Jaren Jackson drives on
Speaker 1: oj Nobi Ojannoby walls him up. It gets kicked out
Speaker 1: to the It gets kicked out to the left corner
Speaker 1: to Santi al Doma. Mickael Bridges is on him right
Speaker 1: mckayl Bridges closes out Santi Aldama beats him by ripping
Speaker 1: to the right towards the middle and the middle and
Speaker 1: instead of giving up on the play, mckail bridges sprints
Speaker 1: back in along the baseline and so when Santi goes
Speaker 1: to drop it off to the dunker spot, mckal bridges
Speaker 1: knocks it away, gets a steal, another runout, another Brunson bucket,
Speaker 1: and transition a little floater in the lane. Now they're
Speaker 1: up by seventeen. Very next possession, Desmond Bayne gets Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson on a switch, tries to attack him in iso,
Speaker 1: he holds up, walls up, forces a miss by Desmond
Speaker 1: bay They run it out the other way and transition
Speaker 1: miss a shot, but Karl Anthony Towns gets a put back.
Speaker 1: Now they're up by nineteen. You guys get the point.
Speaker 1: The Knicks competed on defense. They contained the ball, They
Speaker 1: forced a bunch of misshots and turnovers, and then they
Speaker 1: sprinted their asses up the floor as fast as possible
Speaker 1: to try to score in transition. And this team has
Speaker 1: a lot of guys who are really good at attacking
Speaker 1: with an advantage, like Jalen Brunson is a guy that
Speaker 1: is like a surgical half court shot creator. But Mikail
Speaker 1: Bridges at his best attacking his with an advantage. You
Speaker 1: can take that all the way back to his Phoenix days.
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Town's always at his best attacking with an advantage.
Speaker 1: Oji at his best attacking with an advantage, Josh Hart
Speaker 1: with an advantage. And one of the easiest ways to
Speaker 1: get advantages to attack with is by pushing the ball
Speaker 1: in transition, and the easiest way to get out in
Speaker 1: transition is to get stops into forced turnovers. The Knicks
Speaker 1: scored a completely absurd forty nine points in transition in
Speaker 1: this game. The k next to me are like a
Speaker 1: better version of the Los Angeles Lakers. They have more
Speaker 1: talent and they've looked a lot better this year against
Speaker 1: the good teams. They have more signature wins. But the
Speaker 1: reason why they remind me of the Lakers is that
Speaker 1: they're a serious team with like real pressure and stakes.
Speaker 1: This year but that have kind of this jeckle and
Speaker 1: hide personality on defense. The Lakers are a bottom ten
Speaker 1: defense this year, but I've seen on so many different
Speaker 1: occasions them sit down in a stance and guard against
Speaker 1: OKC and Boston are my two favorite examples, two teams
Speaker 1: that have a lot of guys that can get dribble penetration.
Speaker 1: And Austin Reeves and Lebron and all these players that
Speaker 1: have been kind of inconsistent with their defensive effort throughout
Speaker 1: the season are sitting down in a stance and containing
Speaker 1: the damn basketball, fighting for rebounds, doing all of this stuff.
Speaker 1: I talked a lot yesterday about the difference between the
Speaker 1: Knights when Karl Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson compete on
Speaker 1: defense versus when they just concede advantages. Again, there's a
Speaker 1: combination that did different things. You have to do as
Speaker 1: a week link defensively. Sometimes it's hedging, meaning like stopping
Speaker 1: a guy from coming off of a screen with downhill
Speaker 1: speed and then sprinting back to recover to your man.
Speaker 1: Carl Towns and Jalen Brunson both have to do that
Speaker 1: often as teams are attacking them in mismatches. Also, sometimes
Speaker 1: you're gonna end up in a switch and you just
Speaker 1: got to slide your damn feet and just do a
Speaker 1: better job than you've been doing this season again, and
Speaker 1: it extends up the roster too, Like it's not just
Speaker 1: on Brunson and Cat even their top defenders. There's a
Speaker 1: difference between when they're kind of going through the motions
Speaker 1: and when they're really putting the clamps down on teams.
Speaker 1: Some of the most impressive defensive performances I've seen this
Speaker 1: year have come from mcale Bridges, and some of the
Speaker 1: least impressive defensive performances from a good defender I've seen
Speaker 1: this year have come from mcale Bridges. And so I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say the same thing that I always say about
Speaker 1: the Lakers. The Knicks are more talented than the Lakers,
Speaker 1: but they are not more talented than the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 1: They are not more talented than the Cleveland Cavaliers. They're
Speaker 1: not more talented than the Oklahoma City Thunder. They're going
Speaker 1: to have to beat those teams by being sharper, by
Speaker 1: being the better execution team, by being closer to their
Speaker 1: own defensive ceiling, like reaching more of their potential on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. And again that starts
Speaker 1: with a daily commitment to the process. You have to
Speaker 1: build out these habits now so that you can rely
Speaker 1: on them in May and June. And what that means is,
Speaker 1: if the Knicks are serious about winning the title over
Speaker 1: the second half of the season, they need a notch
Speaker 1: at least a top fifteen defensive rating, if not a
Speaker 1: top ten defensive rating, and they have the personnel to
Speaker 1: do so. I think this is where their talent advantage
Speaker 1: that they have over a lot of teams in this
Speaker 1: league becomes an issue. I think they know they can score,
Speaker 1: and because they know they can score, they think they
Speaker 1: can just rely on that on a night to night basis,
Speaker 1: and they can't. By the way, they have a great record.
Speaker 1: Don't let the great record fool you. Though the Knicks
Speaker 1: have played the easiest schedule in the NBA this year,
Speaker 1: opponent winning percentage are like forty seven percent. That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean they're bad, It just means it's Getting a good
Speaker 1: record in the Eastern Conference is not much of an accomplishment.
Speaker 1: You need to win playoff rounds in May and June,
Speaker 1: and the only way you're gonna do that is by
Speaker 1: building out your own individual defensive ceiling as a team,
Speaker 1: and it starts with the commitment. What happened last night
Speaker 1: needs to be a step in the direction of you
Speaker 1: continuing to build that out, not not just a blip
Speaker 1: in the big picture. All right, guys, It's all I
Speaker 1: have for today is always a sincerely shit you guys
Speaker 1: for supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be back
Speaker 1: tomorrow with some trade deadline content. I'll see you guys
Speaker 1: then the volume. What's up guys. As always, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would
Speaker 1: actually be really helpful for us if you guys would
Speaker 1: take a second and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
Speaker 1: you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
Speaker 1: appreciate it.