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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the ball.
Speaker 1: You might be Thursday, everybody, If all of you guys
Speaker 1: are having a great week, got a jampackshow for you
Speaker 1: guys tonight. We're hitting that really bizarre game between the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Brandon
Speaker 1: Pajemski badly outplays Luka Doncic game. We're gonna be talking
Speaker 1: about that game from the perspective of both teams. One
Speaker 1: of the things I want to get into there is that, yes,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of weird stuff tonight that you
Speaker 1: can sort of compartmentalize a little bit, but there are
Speaker 1: also some realities there that are scary if you're a
Speaker 1: Lakers fan. So we're going to be getting into that
Speaker 1: as well as the Warriors get finally get a signature
Speaker 1: win in the Jimmy Butler era going on the road
Speaker 1: and kind of I thought, dominating the Lakers. We're going
Speaker 1: to get into that game for quite a bit. After that,
Speaker 1: we got our weekly Course Correction segment, a segment with Microsoft.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Giannis and the unbelievable night
Speaker 1: he just had tonight on the road in Philly, and
Speaker 1: then at the tail end of the show, I want
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about the Grizzlies heat game
Speaker 1: and the first game of the TNT Slate, specifically about
Speaker 1: jam Morant and his superpower and why that kind of
Speaker 1: keeps things somewhat open minded for me as it pertains
Speaker 1: to the Grizzlies future. And then at the tail of
Speaker 1: the show, just like we do on every one of
Speaker 1: these nighttime live shows, we're going to do like ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen minutes of questions from the chat. You just
Speaker 1: have to be subscribed. Drop your questions and there Jackson's
Speaker 1: going to come on the show. We'll talk a little
Speaker 1: bit of hoops. You guys have the jow before we
Speaker 1: get started. Subscribe to Hoops and Oight YouTube channels. You
Speaker 1: don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at underscore JCNLTS. You guys don't miss announcement. Don't
Speaker 1: forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast
Speaker 1: under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave
Speaker 1: a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's doing
Speaker 1: some great work on social media. Make sure you follow
Speaker 1: us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where we're getting more
Speaker 1: content out throughout the course of the year. And the
Speaker 1: last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in
Speaker 1: the YouTube comments that we can get it into our
Speaker 1: mail bag next week. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So one of the things I talked about in this
Speaker 1: morning show, if you guys remember correctly, if it's not
Speaker 1: the first time I've talked about it, but it's a
Speaker 1: concept of styles making fights, and we did a whole
Speaker 1: bit at the tail end of the show. If you
Speaker 1: guys remember where I talked a little bit about this
Speaker 1: game specifically and how it was going to be about
Speaker 1: the Lakers perimeter size versus the Warriors perimeter, and I
Speaker 1: was curious to see which party in this instance would
Speaker 1: be able to leverage their advantage more. A lot of
Speaker 1: times we think of a certain type of player of
Speaker 1: being unable to play, Oh, he could play this guy
Speaker 1: off the floor. He can't handle this, or he can't
Speaker 1: handle that. Most of the time it comes down to, like,
Speaker 1: are your fast guys doing a better job of leveraging
Speaker 1: their speed, then your big guys are doing leveraging their
Speaker 1: size right, And interestingly enough, in the early portion of
Speaker 1: the game, the first handful of possessions, the Lakers were
Speaker 1: getting fantastic shots every single down as time down the floor,
Speaker 1: posting Smalls with Ruby Hatch murl Lebron James, and Lukadancic,
Speaker 1: and if it wasn't for Brandon Pajemski's early shooting stretch
Speaker 1: that he went on, the Lakers would have built themselves
Speaker 1: a sizable lead. In the early portion of the game,
Speaker 1: the Lakers were getting a lot of offensive rebounds, beating
Speaker 1: the Warriors to the ball. That brief little stretch of time,
Speaker 1: that first shift, that first whatever it was, five or
Speaker 1: six minutes, everything was going the Lakers' way as it
Speaker 1: pertains to those styles making those fights right from that
Speaker 1: point on, literally for the rest of the game, I
Speaker 1: thought the Warriors just kicked their ass. I thought they
Speaker 1: beat them to every single loose ball. They dramatically compromised
Speaker 1: the Lakers just about every time down the floor, just
Speaker 1: by running and getting into their pace in the half court,
Speaker 1: getting in and out of actions quickly. I thought one
Speaker 1: of the perfect examples of that was right when the
Speaker 1: Lakers cut it to five, and then Steph came in
Speaker 1: right after the timeout, just zoomed up to the top
Speaker 1: of the key and curled right around the screen and
Speaker 1: just had an easy lamp and it literally looked like
Speaker 1: he just cut through them like a knife through butter,
Speaker 1: as every Laker was kind of stuck in the mud.
Speaker 1: And we're going to get into a bunch of different
Speaker 1: elements of how this fight manifested between the two styles,
Speaker 1: but the bottom line is is the Lakers were able
Speaker 1: to leverage their size for about one shift, and then
Speaker 1: for the rest of the game, it didn't matter the Warriors,
Speaker 1: just I thought they completely controlled the game. Every time
Speaker 1: I looked at the scoreboard, I really couldn't believe that
Speaker 1: the game was as close as it was the late stretch.
Speaker 1: After the Warriors went up, it was just basically Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves shooting, and the only thing keeping them close there
Speaker 1: in that middle portion of the game was Ruy Hachimura
Speaker 1: and Lebron James. I thought just about every Laker outside
Speaker 1: of Austin in that fourth quarter, and then Lebron and
Speaker 1: Rue I thought every one of those guys got outplayed
Speaker 1: by their Warriors counterparts, and I thought it was just
Speaker 1: a clean, dominant, kind of wired to wire type of victory.
Speaker 1: You know, I talk a lot about this concept, I
Speaker 1: don't really there's a feeling you can get watching a game.
Speaker 1: It's hard to explain, but like a lot of times,
Speaker 1: it's separate from the scoreboard because there's so much weirdness,
Speaker 1: right There's all these like different random things that can
Speaker 1: happen in a game that swing the result one way
Speaker 1: or another. But there's a feel that you can feel
Speaker 1: in a basketball game when one team is just getting
Speaker 1: things easier than the other thing the other team is
Speaker 1: getting them. I'll give you an example, Like I thought
Speaker 1: the Lakers game when they beat the Pacers, the one
Speaker 1: where Lebron got the tap in, I thought the Lakers
Speaker 1: controlled that game. They tricked it off at the end,
Speaker 1: but throughout the entirety of the game, things just felt
Speaker 1: easier for the Lakers on offense than it was for
Speaker 1: the Pacers. Similarly, the Lakers were close in this game
Speaker 1: for the most part. They kind of hovered within that
Speaker 1: you know, you know, seven to fifteen point range for
Speaker 1: the most part. But as I was watching the game,
Speaker 1: everything felt like a chore for the Lakers, and everything
Speaker 1: looked more fluid and easy for the Warriors. And that's
Speaker 1: concerning for me in the big picture as it pertains
Speaker 1: to the Lakers. But I want to wait until we
Speaker 1: get into some Lakers stuff later on the show. So
Speaker 1: early in the game, Lakers are starting to punish the
Speaker 1: Warriors with their size. Brandon Pajemski just goes on that
Speaker 1: little hot streak right at the start of the game,
Speaker 1: hitting what three or four threes in the first few minutes,
Speaker 1: And this is an important part of game plan for
Speaker 1: opponents for the Warriors, and beating the game plan for
Speaker 1: the Warriors themselves. Like I've talked a ton this year
Speaker 1: about how teams are going to concede three point shots
Speaker 1: to Draymond Green, They're going to concede three point shots
Speaker 1: to Brandon Pajemski, They're going to concede three point shots
Speaker 1: to Jonathan Kaminga. Those guys won eleven for seventeen from
Speaker 1: three tonight. If that is going to be a sweet
Speaker 1: forget about the Lakers for a minute. Regardless of who
Speaker 1: they play, first round, second round, third round, the Warriors
Speaker 1: are going to get to where they want to go.
Speaker 1: Those guys are gonna have to hit shots. It actually
Speaker 1: kind of reminds me of the dynamic with the Nuggets,
Speaker 1: because with the Nuggets, it's similar with like Christian Brown
Speaker 1: and Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson and Russell Westbrook. Like
Speaker 1: there's these guys that teams, as far as the game
Speaker 1: plan goes, will concede shots too, and they're going to
Speaker 1: have to knock them down. I thought those threes from
Speaker 1: Brandon early in the game were huge because they covered
Speaker 1: for that brief stretch of the game when the Lakers
Speaker 1: were kind of beating them to the ball and just
Speaker 1: leveraging their size. One of the big game plan things
Speaker 1: in this game that I thought was fascinating. The Lakers,
Speaker 1: for the most part when I've watched him, have run
Speaker 1: a lot of deep drop with Quinton Post. They like
Speaker 1: him better under the basket that they do on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: He can have some issues in space. And this is
Speaker 1: where like not being married to your basketball philosophy but
Speaker 1: rather catering your basketball philosophy to the surrounding circumstances is
Speaker 1: so important because if you do that against the Lakers,
Speaker 1: they're gonna kill you. Consistently, since Luca went to the Lakers,
Speaker 1: they have struggled against switching, and they've eviscerated teams that
Speaker 1: have run traditional coverages chasing over the top of screens
Speaker 1: and things along those lines. And again we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about the Lakers struggles there here in a minute, But
Speaker 1: from a game plan standpoint, the smart thing to do
Speaker 1: with Quentin Post or with anybody is to switch, because
Speaker 1: even if you give up dribble penetration or you know,
Speaker 1: first of all, you can force Luca into step back threes,
Speaker 1: and Luca just his shot making is right back in
Speaker 1: the gutter like it was when he first came to
Speaker 1: the Lakers, or you can have a plan for dribble
Speaker 1: penetration that is a little easier to manage than blitzing
Speaker 1: a ball screen or ending up in a really compromise
Speaker 1: situation on a skip pass because you had to load
Speaker 1: up the strong side so much and pick and roll
Speaker 1: because you're sitting in a drop coverage. And so I
Speaker 1: thought that was really smart just in general, all game long,
Speaker 1: the Warriors were able to stagnate the Lakers and make
Speaker 1: them attack post mismatches or general mismatches everywhere on the floor. Right,
Speaker 1: here's the problem. The only guys in the game that
Speaker 1: we're having any sort of success punishing smalls Ruija Chamura
Speaker 1: and Lebron James. And you're not gonna play through Ruie
Speaker 1: that much because he's ruy Ha Chamura. You're gonna play
Speaker 1: through Luca a lot. And like, in order for the
Speaker 1: Lakers to be able to score against the switching scheme
Speaker 1: like that, Luca's got to be able to score the basketball.
Speaker 1: He's got to be able to compromise the defense against
Speaker 1: these switches. It was a really smart game plan from
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr. Everybody did an amazing job in their individual
Speaker 1: defense possessions. Draymond I thought him specifically in his possessions
Speaker 1: off of Lebron and Rui. He You know, one of
Speaker 1: the things that the that I've talked about consistently this year,
Speaker 1: specifically with Draymond and Gary Payton, is their ability to
Speaker 1: like make it look like there's an opening because they've
Speaker 1: got a foot in the paint, but they are so
Speaker 1: anticipatory with the way they read the pass before it
Speaker 1: happens and where the pass is going that they can
Speaker 1: throw these clothes out that he raced those openings. There's
Speaker 1: two early in the game skips to ruy Ha Chamura
Speaker 1: in the right corner where Draymond Green closed out on
Speaker 1: him and Luca was dribbling live dribble off the left
Speaker 1: wing and the Warriors are completely loaded up on the
Speaker 1: strong side and the skip passes the reef that's the
Speaker 1: reader's supposed to make in that situation. But Draymond's superpower
Speaker 1: is his ability to be able to cover ground the
Speaker 1: way that he did, and he just did a great
Speaker 1: job shutting down those windows every single time they appeared.
Speaker 1: I thought their rebounding was excellent. Again there was you know,
Speaker 1: it's so funny watching the difference between Steve Kerr and
Speaker 1: JJ Reddick, and JJ's new and obviously he's kind of
Speaker 1: like getting his bearing still in the profession, but you
Speaker 1: can tell he's like this, like this competitor that runs
Speaker 1: super hot. Because I thought, if you watched like the two,
Speaker 1: if you watch the two press conference, the two like
Speaker 1: coach interviews after the first quarter and after the third quarter,
Speaker 1: seeing the two of them juxtaposed with each other was
Speaker 1: actually really funny because JJ's like clearly really terse and
Speaker 1: pissed off because his team's playing like shit and all
Speaker 1: of his guys are struggling. He's just all upset. Like
Speaker 1: twenty six twenty two first quarter, I mean, like the
Speaker 1: Warriors were in control and they had dominated the second
Speaker 1: half of the first quarter, but Steve Kurt was just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like early in the game, I thought we were crashing
Speaker 1: too hard and the long rebounds were coming out towards
Speaker 1: the elbows, and we just need to, you know, crash
Speaker 1: more towards the elbow so we can be more prepared
Speaker 1: for some of these long rebounds. But we'll be fine.
Speaker 1: Like I thought, we controlled things defensively. It's just like
Speaker 1: so like calm and like measured in his approach. But
Speaker 1: I thought The bit that he talked about with the
Speaker 1: rebounding was really fascinating because that's literally what was happening
Speaker 1: in that first quarter when the Lakers were missing those threes.
Speaker 1: The corner crashers for the Lakers were crashing up to
Speaker 1: the elbows and the Warriors were crashing into the paint.
Speaker 1: And it's just a simple concept. If you miss a
Speaker 1: corner three off of the heel of the rim or
Speaker 1: off of the left side of the rim, like it's
Speaker 1: just going to go carroning off towards the top of
Speaker 1: the key. And you got to have guys there to
Speaker 1: win those battles. And, like I said, just absolute dominance
Speaker 1: on the glass by the Warriors. After that first quarter,
Speaker 1: there was a stretch when the Lakers were making their
Speaker 1: push periodically in the fourth quarter and it out I
Speaker 1: was like, this is just a fake, comeback to me
Speaker 1: until they show that they can get a defensive rebound,
Speaker 1: because it was like they get it to five, but
Speaker 1: then they get a stop and then Jimmy Butler would
Speaker 1: get another offensive rebound, and they just kept getting beat
Speaker 1: to the ball, even those late game possessions where it's
Speaker 1: like somehow Jimmy Butler's just coming away with the ball
Speaker 1: in these situations when there's all these bodies around, when
Speaker 1: there's all this congestion around, and like, make no mistake,
Speaker 1: I talk about it all the time. Basketball's contact sport.
Speaker 1: These are fistfights. This is not you know, everyone wants
Speaker 1: to talk about scheme. Everyone wants to talk about some
Speaker 1: magic solution for why the game went the way it went.
Speaker 1: For the most part, it's in the trenches and it's
Speaker 1: about fighting for position, for loose balls, winning different leverage battles,
Speaker 1: like little things like big late game possession. Lebron's driving
Speaker 1: I think it was on Jonathan Kaminga out of the
Speaker 1: right corner, and like Lebron's trying so hard to turn
Speaker 1: the corner, and he had turned the corner so many
Speaker 1: times that game, And like Kaminga won a battle, he
Speaker 1: won one battle against Lebron sliding his feet across the lane.
Speaker 1: That was the one where Lebron through the pass the
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith cutting along the baseline and it went
Speaker 1: out of bounds. That's not a scheme thing. It's a
Speaker 1: physical battle. It was Jonathan Kamina and Lebron James fighting
Speaker 1: to see Lebron's trying to turn the corner. He's trying
Speaker 1: to blow through that right shoulder and get that leverage
Speaker 1: so that he can turn and finish with his left
Speaker 1: hand at the rim, and Kaminga's fighting like hell to
Speaker 1: hold his shoulder there and to slide his feet and
Speaker 1: to win that leverage battle. This is where these things
Speaker 1: are won. And I just thought the Warriors kicked their
Speaker 1: ass tonight and all of those physical parts of the game,
Speaker 1: and that ultimately, like we talked about off the top,
Speaker 1: when you're talking about the two styles, their speed, they
Speaker 1: won the ground battle all game long, and I thought
Speaker 1: they deserved to win as a result. A couple of
Speaker 1: other kind of interesting things. Jonathan Kamena showed a little
Speaker 1: stretch of some matchup hunting in this game that I
Speaker 1: thought was fascinating. In that fourth quarter stretch, they capitalized
Speaker 1: on a couple of switches with Austin Reeves on Kaminga
Speaker 1: and he got a couple of buckets in a row.
Speaker 1: I thought that was kind of an interesting example of
Speaker 1: how now Jonathan Kaminga is going to be an up
Speaker 1: and down player, and there are gonna be certain games
Speaker 1: where you're scratching your eyes out and you wish he
Speaker 1: wasn't on the floor, but there's gonna be other games
Speaker 1: where he could be instrumental to what you're trying to do.
Speaker 1: I mean, he hit seven shots tonight, he was plus
Speaker 1: nine in his minutes. Like, yeah, that was a big time,
Speaker 1: big time performance in a big time game. He made
Speaker 1: more field goals today than Luka Doncic did and that's
Speaker 1: a huge kind of like swing factor in a game
Speaker 1: like this. A really really impressive performance from the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors. Again, one of the exciting things too, is
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna be talking a little bit about with
Speaker 1: the Lakers, the potential for guys to play better. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: there's a version of this game where Luca plays better. Right,
Speaker 1: there's a version of this game where Dorian Finney Smith
Speaker 1: plays better. You know those sorts of things. Right, there's
Speaker 1: also a version of this game where Jimmy Butler plays
Speaker 1: a lot better. And if you're looking for something in
Speaker 1: terms of like a potential upside outside of what we
Speaker 1: saw tonight, Jimmy I thought early in the game was
Speaker 1: just kind of going through the motions. In general, this
Speaker 1: game kind of had a really strange feel. You could
Speaker 1: really tell in the early part of the game that
Speaker 1: neither team knew how they wanted to attack each other,
Speaker 1: and so there's a lot of standing around, a lot
Speaker 1: passing the ball around the perimeter, a lot of really
Speaker 1: ugly offensive possessions from both teams, and some of those
Speaker 1: possessions for Jimmy Butler manifested. I thought Lebron was doing
Speaker 1: this too early in the game where where he had
Speaker 1: those two back to back turnovers where he's driving into
Speaker 1: the lane and no one's helping, so he's in a
Speaker 1: one on one, but he's like trying to force some
Speaker 1: pass to a guy that's guarded. It's like, no, you
Speaker 1: need to be looking to score. You're leading a unit
Speaker 1: without your star on the floor. Same thing goes for
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler in those situations, like they need him to
Speaker 1: look to be aggressive if you're not gonna get you know,
Speaker 1: eight made threes out of Brandon Pejemski every single night.
Speaker 1: They're gonna need more production out of Jimmy in that spot.
Speaker 1: But overall, I thought he made a bunch of big
Speaker 1: plays late. I thought the corner three he made late
Speaker 1: was big. At three steals in the game. Was beating
Speaker 1: the Lakers to a bunch of loose balls some key situations,
Speaker 1: really really impressive performance from the Warriors top to bottom.
Speaker 1: I thought Steph to last piece, I'll say, in the
Speaker 1: Warriors before we get to the Lakers. You know, Steph
Speaker 1: has been fantastic since the Jimmy Butler trade. He's at
Speaker 1: coming into tonight. He was at like twenty eight points
Speaker 1: per game on sixty six percent tru shooting over his
Speaker 1: last twenty three games. On a court that had Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 1: that had Lebron James, to have Luka Doncic, that had
Speaker 1: all this star talent on the floor, I thought Steph
Speaker 1: was the best player on the floor. And I even
Speaker 1: though Lebron statistically performed really well, I thought Steph was
Speaker 1: able to consistently break down the defense. I talked earlier
Speaker 1: about how both teams didn't really seem to know how
Speaker 1: they wanted to attack each other in the early portions
Speaker 1: of the game. It crystallized for Golden State they found out,
Speaker 1: you know, they're about halfway through that second quarter. In
Speaker 1: that second quarter, they found out it's like, actually, let's
Speaker 1: just get Steph out into space against Luca and we'll
Speaker 1: have him drive by Lucas. Sometimes we'll have him look
Speaker 1: to attack immediately off the catch off of some off
Speaker 1: ball screening action. Will There was one late the Big
Speaker 1: Three he hit late where Draymon fell down like he
Speaker 1: had Luca on a switch. But then Draymond just sprinted
Speaker 1: into a ball screen. I talked earlier today when we
Speaker 1: were talking about Jared Allen and the Caves. When you
Speaker 1: sprint into actions, it makes you that much harder to guard.
Speaker 1: Draymon sprinted into that ball screen and Lebron was too
Speaker 1: far back and Lebron was late. It was bad defensive
Speaker 1: possession from Lebron and a big part of that was
Speaker 1: Draymond sprinted into the ball screen. Got Steph another clean
Speaker 1: look at it, basically a drop coverage possession off the
Speaker 1: left wing. But this is Steph is heating up right
Speaker 1: in time for what they're going to need him to
Speaker 1: be in this postseason run. And I thought he just
Speaker 1: came in here tonight and kicked the shit out of
Speaker 1: the Lakers and badly outplayed Luca and set his team
Speaker 1: up to be in a really good position in the
Speaker 1: standings as we come down the stretch here on the
Speaker 1: Lakers front. As I always say, I don't really look
Speaker 1: at the scoreboard when I'm thinking about the postseason, and
Speaker 1: one of the main reasons why is because there's just
Speaker 1: so much noise in the regular season, whether it's from
Speaker 1: the schedule or it's a random role player doing this
Speaker 1: or a random guy being out of the lineup for
Speaker 1: whatever reason. There's also a lot of noise relative to
Speaker 1: the postseason where you'll see, oh, you know, the Phoenix
Speaker 1: Suns beat the Timberwolves every single game last year, and
Speaker 1: they had this awesome game plan for like how to
Speaker 1: beat the Timberwolves. But then they get into a playoff
Speaker 1: series and it's like, oh, actually none of these guys
Speaker 1: can guard aunt and they're being super physical on defense
Speaker 1: and we can't even like dribble the ball of the
Speaker 1: floor without losing it. So like everything shifted and changed, right.
Speaker 1: So what I'm looking at is are there any things
Speaker 1: from tonight that translate to a potential postseason series between
Speaker 1: these two teams? And the first one that screams off
Speaker 1: the screen to me is their struggles with switching ever
Speaker 1: since Luca came over to the Lakers. And again, I've
Speaker 1: broken this down, but I'll do a very short version
Speaker 1: of it here. But the short version of it is
Speaker 1: against drop coverage, against traditional coverages, Luca is so good
Speaker 1: at making all the natural reads he can. If you
Speaker 1: don't pick him up going downhill, he's just gonna get
Speaker 1: into that like right around the block where he can
Speaker 1: shoot that little seven foot bank shot that he's gonna
Speaker 1: make like sixty percent of the time. If you do
Speaker 1: step up with your big man, he's throwing a lob
Speaker 1: to the center for a dunk, and if you tag
Speaker 1: the roller, he's skipping it to the weak side for
Speaker 1: a wide open three. And it's just he's so surgical
Speaker 1: with it that it's just it's a death sentence. There's
Speaker 1: literally nothing you can do. And every team, for the
Speaker 1: most part that has run that coverage against the Lakers
Speaker 1: this year with Luka Doncic has gotten torch and for
Speaker 1: the most part, they've had a couple of good games.
Speaker 1: But for the most part against these teams that just
Speaker 1: switch with their fives or switched generally everywhere on the floor,
Speaker 1: they've really struggled to score. And one of the big
Speaker 1: reasons why is when Lebron was healthy earlier on Luca
Speaker 1: was bad, and then Lebron goes out. And during the
Speaker 1: phase that Lebron was out, Luca was very good. His
Speaker 1: shot making bounced back in a major way, but they
Speaker 1: just didn't have that additional defensive rebounding presence in the
Speaker 1: front court over that span because Ruiy, Lebron, and Jackson
Speaker 1: were all out. Now everybody's back, but Lebron is still
Speaker 1: kind of getting back into form, and here goes Luca
Speaker 1: again into another kind of like spiraling type of sequence.
Speaker 1: Luca has shot below fifty percent from the field in
Speaker 1: five of his last six games. He has absolutely no
Speaker 1: touch on his short range shot making. Before tonight he
Speaker 1: was just twenty eight for eighty eight on floaters and
Speaker 1: or excuse me, on jump shots inside his seventeen feet.
Speaker 1: So all those like jump shots that he was hitting
Speaker 1: NonStop in the playoffs last year, he made three of
Speaker 1: them per game last year in the postseason at forty
Speaker 1: six percent. He's shooting just thirty two percent on him
Speaker 1: this year and he's barely making one a game with
Speaker 1: the Lakers. He has like no touch on his short
Speaker 1: range shot, making zero for six from three tonight. Bizarrely
Speaker 1: ineffective Luka Doncic, And like the thing is is, there's
Speaker 1: a version of this where the Lakers can theoretically be
Speaker 1: very good against switching, but it's gonna require the Lebron
Speaker 1: James that was there before he heard his groin and
Speaker 1: the Luka Doncic that was there last year in the
Speaker 1: NBA playoffs. And so it's one of those things where,
Speaker 1: like I've talked a lot about this, the Lakers have
Speaker 1: arguably the largest amount to potentially improve between now and
Speaker 1: May first. The Lakers could be dramatically better by May first,
Speaker 1: just simply from Lebron and Luca getting back to form
Speaker 1: and some team chemistry stuff and regaining their defensive identity,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about in a little bit. But the
Speaker 1: reality is is it's it's also possible that they just don't.
Speaker 1: And I'm just gonna be perfectly frank with you, guys.
Speaker 1: If Luca plays like this in the postseason, they're they're
Speaker 1: they're gonna get beat. They're gonna get beat in the
Speaker 1: first or second round. Like it, They're just there's no
Speaker 1: going the distance. If you make a trade with Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis for Luka Doncic and you get this type of
Speaker 1: performance out of Luca in a big game, and I mean,
Speaker 1: strangely enough, the Lakers have dominated the middle tier of
Speaker 1: the NBA since Luca came that every Houston, Minnesota, you know, Phoenix,
Speaker 1: every team that's in that you know, kind of like
Speaker 1: just outside the top tier of contenders. The Lakers are
Speaker 1: kicking the shit out of those guys. They've faced two
Speaker 1: of the teams that I said that I would consider
Speaker 1: as the top tier contenders, Boston, who's been there all year,
Speaker 1: in Golden State, who I said I would add when
Speaker 1: we do our contenders list with sa Vassini right before
Speaker 1: the start of the postseason. And in those two games,
Speaker 1: the Lakers pretty much got out played wire to wire
Speaker 1: and Luka Doncic looked really, really bad in both games,
Speaker 1: and I am I am. Here's the thing. Early on
Speaker 1: after the trade, I wasn't worried about it. I was
Speaker 1: just kind of like, give Luca some time. He'll be fine.
Speaker 1: He's one of the greatest players that we've ever seen
Speaker 1: at his age in this league. But here we are, Guys,
Speaker 1: it's it's been months now, spend two months, and he's
Speaker 1: going in the wrong direction. So I don't know what's
Speaker 1: going on with him. Part of the thing that I'm
Speaker 1: seeing too, is like he's he's not even trusting himself
Speaker 1: in the short range, like he's pump faking pn Like
Speaker 1: he's pump faking NonStop in that ten to fifteen foot
Speaker 1: range and just looking to grift for fouls instead of
Speaker 1: looking to take and make the shots that he was
Speaker 1: hitting half of at decent volume when he was in
Speaker 1: the postseason last year. So I'm again, I'm hopeful that
Speaker 1: Luca will figure it out. I'm hopeful that this will
Speaker 1: all come together. But guys, like we've already the hoops
Speaker 1: tonight's staff, we've already gone over our schedule for the
Speaker 1: week of the playing tournament, Like this shit is right
Speaker 1: around the corner. It's here, It's like here, now, there's
Speaker 1: no like, let's give Luca a runway and see what
Speaker 1: he can do. Like there's a chance you're facing the Clippers,
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves, how the Warriors in two in three weeks
Speaker 1: like that. This needs to be this, These problems need
Speaker 1: to be resolved yesterday. And so I'm starting to get
Speaker 1: a little bit concerned about whether or not the Lakers
Speaker 1: are hitting at the right type of level they need
Speaker 1: to be hitting at to go on the run that
Speaker 1: they need to go on the defensive struggle with speed,
Speaker 1: A lot of miss rotations tonight, a lot of missed
Speaker 1: defensive rebounds where they're slower to the ball. In this
Speaker 1: sort of situation, I want to at least account for
Speaker 1: some of the fact that the Lakers are kind of
Speaker 1: not in the same defensive rhythm that they were in
Speaker 1: in the past. But the reality is there was only
Speaker 1: a very brief stretch there where they were good defensively
Speaker 1: with Luca right after the trade. There's been a pretty
Speaker 1: large sample now after that where they've been pretty bad
Speaker 1: defensively with Luca and teams are looking to attack him
Speaker 1: out front over over and over again. We did see
Speaker 1: an example in the second half tonight of a pre switch,
Speaker 1: meaning where they brought Luca's man up into his screen
Speaker 1: and then Lebron went instead of Luca, but that was
Speaker 1: the only time I saw it, and for the most part,
Speaker 1: they were just conceding that switch. And if they're going
Speaker 1: to concede that switch, then they're just gonna have to
Speaker 1: be better in their rotations than they've been being. If
Speaker 1: they defend like this behind Luca, who's been giving updriple
Speaker 1: penetration the way that he has, I think they could
Speaker 1: get pieces by a good offensive team when they get
Speaker 1: into postseason. I talked a lot in other games about
Speaker 1: the idea of leveraging your strengths to hide your weaknesses.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt that all this stuff is connected. I'll
Speaker 1: give you guys some examples. Luca plays better from the
Speaker 1: start of this game. Immediately starts kicking ass, punishing mismatches,
Speaker 1: drawing double teams, spraying out beautiful kickout passes to shooters. Now,
Speaker 1: the threes that Dorian gets, the threes that Gabe gets,
Speaker 1: they're cleaner, they're more in rhythm now instead of those
Speaker 1: guys going one for ten from three, they have much
Speaker 1: better shooting nights now. As a result, the team is
Speaker 1: able to set their defense more. Now that they're setting
Speaker 1: their defense more and they're in control of the game
Speaker 1: and they're not trailing by ten, they're more invigorated. They're
Speaker 1: more motivated, they're flying around, they're making plays. See how
Speaker 1: like you can imagine a scenario where these things are connected.
Speaker 1: You can leverage your strengths to hide your weaknesses. The
Speaker 1: part that gets scary for me there is, as I said,
Speaker 1: like we're on almost a two week stretch there where
Speaker 1: Lucas just hasn't been as good and so it's just
Speaker 1: a little concerning from the standpoint of right now, I
Speaker 1: haven't seen the Lakers put together a consistent stretch of
Speaker 1: like great basketball since Lebron came back from his injury,
Speaker 1: and so I'm definitely a little bit I'm a little
Speaker 1: bit concerned there. That said, there is time, and you know,
Speaker 1: if they do get a favorable first round matchup and
Speaker 1: they end up getting a win, they could have until
Speaker 1: May to get some of this together before they face
Speaker 1: a more serious team. Similar to what I talked about
Speaker 1: with Jonathan Kaminga, I did think we saw one clear
Speaker 1: advantage for the Lakers tonight, and that's that the Warriors
Speaker 1: can't guard Lebron. Lebron did exactly what I was just
Speaker 1: talking about Luca needing to do. He consistently methodically found
Speaker 1: mismatches against guards where he liked his size and he
Speaker 1: liked the spacing of the floor, and he was able
Speaker 1: to get downhill, and he was able to consistently compromise
Speaker 1: the defense for kickout passes and for layups right at
Speaker 1: the front of the rim. That is, to me a
Speaker 1: translatable thing to a series between the Lakers and Warriors.
Speaker 1: And so in an event where the Lakers beat the
Speaker 1: Warriors in a playoff series, it will require Lebron to
Speaker 1: continue to leverage that and for Luca to meet him
Speaker 1: at that level. And that really is the advantage there.
Speaker 1: If the Lakers are going to leverage their size, it's
Speaker 1: got to be Lebron and Luca together. They're punishing them
Speaker 1: all over the floor. All right, that's enough for that
Speaker 1: one random regular season game. Let's get into our other
Speaker 1: segments for the night. Welcome to Course Correction, brought to
Speaker 1: you by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams navigating
Speaker 1: performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under immense pressure
Speaker 1: to get things right. They must rise to the occasion,
Speaker 1: turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries with AI solutions,
Speaker 1: simplified cloud and data management and trustworthy responsible AI. And
Speaker 1: when you're in the NBA, you have your own hurdles
Speaker 1: to face. In this segment, we explore the challenges faced
Speaker 1: by the teams or star players and how they can
Speaker 1: turn things around. Whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers you
Speaker 1: with the expertise to say bring it on. This week,
Speaker 1: we're discussing Jannis and Tennankumpo's big night in Philly. Aside
Speaker 1: from the victory in the N Season Tournament, this year
Speaker 1: has been a complete disaster for the Milwaukee Bucks. Year
Speaker 1: two of the dam Janis experiment, Dame has a full
Speaker 1: summer to work out, less drama going going on in
Speaker 1: his life. They have a full training camp, lots of expectations.
Speaker 1: They start two to eight, then you go fourteen and
Speaker 1: four over your next eighteen games. That's when they won
Speaker 1: the N Season Tournament. Now you're sixteen and twelve, you've recovered.
Speaker 1: But in the forty eight games since they're twenty six
Speaker 1: and twenty two, they're thirteenth in offense, fifteenth in defense,
Speaker 1: twenty fourth and rebounding just incredibly mediocre, thirteenth best team
Speaker 1: in the league over that span forty two and thirty four,
Speaker 1: thirteenth best record in the league for the entire season.
Speaker 1: Now they're staring down the barrel of having to face
Speaker 1: either Indy or New York in the first round without
Speaker 1: home court, then having to go through Boston and Cleveland
Speaker 1: successively consecutively without home court, and Dame is down in
Speaker 1: the deep vane thrombosis in his CAF with no timeline
Speaker 1: to return, and Bobby Portis got himself suspended. There is
Speaker 1: every reason in the world for Jannis to field defeated
Speaker 1: right now and to feel like he has no chance
Speaker 1: to get this done and to pack it in. But
Speaker 1: instead he's just continuing to play the best basketball of
Speaker 1: his career. He was insanely good today on the road
Speaker 1: in Philly. He relied mostly on high ball screens with
Speaker 1: either Brooker with guards or wing ISOs. He caught a
Speaker 1: couple of favorable matchups that he liked against Squashanyamuseli and
Speaker 1: Colin Castleton, and in space along the wing there and
Speaker 1: in the screening actions and in the wing ISOs. He
Speaker 1: was just punishing them so relentlessly that he was able
Speaker 1: to generate a lot of clean playmaking opportunities from the
Speaker 1: defense reacting to him. And he had the best playmaking
Speaker 1: game of his entire career, making every single type of
Speaker 1: Reid hitting guards slipping out of his inverted ball screens
Speaker 1: to the three point line. There were a couple plays
Speaker 1: where brook Lopez had inside position as guys tried to
Speaker 1: front him in the post, and he threw a beautiful
Speaker 1: over the top feeds that just led brook Lopez right
Speaker 1: into the basket for layups. He was skipping the ball.
Speaker 1: They were plays where lowman's in position. He's just rifling
Speaker 1: a pass to the corner to get another open three,
Speaker 1: throwing the ball over the top out post ups, driving
Speaker 1: and dumping the ball off to a guard underneath the basket,
Speaker 1: slipping along the baseline. He looked like Magic Johnson. In transition.
Speaker 1: He had a behind the back pass and transition for
Speaker 1: a layup. He had another like beautiful lefty scoop pass
Speaker 1: around a guy's but like a wrap around pass around
Speaker 1: a defender to Torian Prince cutting along the wing. He
Speaker 1: was just brilliant tonight in every single facet of the game.
Speaker 1: Looked like a floor general out there just pointing at
Speaker 1: guys and telling them where to go, looking methodical and
Speaker 1: surgical on every single possession. He finished with thirty five points,
Speaker 1: seventeen rebounds, and twenty assists. The team was minus ten
Speaker 1: with him off the floor in just nine minutes. He
Speaker 1: played thirty nine minutes, and he still managed to lead
Speaker 1: his team to a thirteen point win, just clearly sending
Speaker 1: the message that he's not going down without a fight.
Speaker 1: That's it for this week's course correction. Remember Microsoft's AI
Speaker 1: solutions empower you to take bold steps and make informed decisions,
Speaker 1: sparking new ideas to help drive your business forward. With
Speaker 1: Microsoft as your trusted partner, you can navigate your journey
Speaker 1: with confidence, finding innovative solutions, and reaching new possibilities. Visit
Speaker 1: Microsoft dot com slash Challengers who learn more. We have
Speaker 1: one last short segment tonight on John Morant and the
Speaker 1: game winner he hit against the Heat. Then we're going
Speaker 1: to do our mail bag from the chat, So make
Speaker 1: sure you guys drop your questions in the chat. Remember
Speaker 1: you got to subscribe to the channel first drop those questions.
Speaker 1: Jackson's going to hop on and we'll talk some hoops
Speaker 1: for about ten fifteen minutes at the tail end of
Speaker 1: the show. So the Grizzlies beat the Heat one ten
Speaker 1: to one to eight tonight in a really fun game.
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow and John Morant had an awesome duel in
Speaker 1: the second half, going off every time down the floor.
Speaker 1: Bam kind of kicked Jaron Jackson's ass, which was an
Speaker 1: interesting subplot and a feather in the cap of BAM's
Speaker 1: just the reputation he has as one of excuse me,
Speaker 1: as one of the best defenders in the league, kalel
Speaker 1: Ware had a really fascinating game, one of those classic
Speaker 1: like young talented player type of games where he just
Speaker 1: flashes tons of potential, showed some of his rim protection
Speaker 1: in this game, some of histential as a vertical spacer,
Speaker 1: as a three point spacer, as a fun game from him.
Speaker 1: But John Morant completely takes over down the stretch, generating
Speaker 1: three straight buckets to win the game. He attacks Tyler
Speaker 1: Harrow in a screen right around the top of the key,
Speaker 1: goes right around Tyler Harrow dunks it with two hands.
Speaker 1: Then there's this random Jaron Jackson possession where he tries
Speaker 1: to post up bam Adebayo again and it just looks
Speaker 1: really ugly and he has a bad miss. That possession
Speaker 1: made no sense to me because they should have been
Speaker 1: going through jaw every time. But then you go back
Speaker 1: to John in the next possession, he goes to attack
Speaker 1: Harrow again, this time they double team him. Swing swing
Speaker 1: wide open three for Jaron Jackson in the right corner.
Speaker 1: He knocks it down and then after Tyler Harrow ties
Speaker 1: the game with a beautiful floater. By the way, Tyler Harrow,
Speaker 1: I want to compliment him, I think the very end
Speaker 1: of his release, just the flip of the wrist might
Speaker 1: be the prettiest in the NBA. He literally looks like
Speaker 1: the coaches when they're trying to teach you to reach
Speaker 1: into the cookie jar, who says, like that perfect follow
Speaker 1: through on that little floater to tie the game. But
Speaker 1: then John Morant very interestingly calls for a ball screen
Speaker 1: to get kellel Where switched on to him instead of
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow. I thought, my guess is that the Grizzlies
Speaker 1: were banking on the game plan being to double team
Speaker 1: specifically off of Harrow, but just to switch anything else,
Speaker 1: And so I think Jock called for that specific screen
Speaker 1: with the intent of getting a one on one and
Speaker 1: not facing a double team. And he did. He got
Speaker 1: a one on one with kellow Ware, and he just
Speaker 1: went right downhill into his chest and took this comically
Speaker 1: large step back and took one of those patented little
Speaker 1: short range jump shots that he takes, and he got
Speaker 1: the bounce and he wins the game at the buzzer.
Speaker 1: And it's things like that that make Joss such a
Speaker 1: difficult player for me to like give up on, even
Speaker 1: with his health issues, even with the off court issues
Speaker 1: he had earlier in his career. He just has a
Speaker 1: bonafide superpower. No one can keep him from scoring one
Speaker 1: on one. There are ways to deal with him in
Speaker 1: a team context, forcing lesser players to score. Memphis has
Speaker 1: a flawed team construct in general. We're going to talk
Speaker 1: about it here in a minute. But there's not a
Speaker 1: defender in the league that can stop him from getting
Speaker 1: to a spot in the short range and just popping
Speaker 1: up off the ground and shooting one of his patented
Speaker 1: little floaters or a little short range jump shots. You
Speaker 1: can't stop him from getting to that shot, not without
Speaker 1: sending multiple bodies and just somehow tilting the offense in
Speaker 1: a different direction. He's fifty percent on floaters this year.
Speaker 1: He's forty five percent on jumpers inside of seventeen feet.
Speaker 1: Those are really good looks for him. It's like it's
Speaker 1: a coin flip if you get John on one on
Speaker 1: one at the end of the game, even if you
Speaker 1: put a rimp protector on him, even if you pack
Speaker 1: the paint, he can get to the middle of the
Speaker 1: floor and get just pop off the ground. I've talked
Speaker 1: about this a lot. The short range shot making, to me,
Speaker 1: is far more valuable in the postseason context than mid
Speaker 1: range shot making. If you can get into that inside
Speaker 1: of seventeen feet, like inside the paint, paint, non restricted
Speaker 1: area type of stuff, that's where I feel like there's
Speaker 1: real dependable shot making in the postseason. That's what Jokic
Speaker 1: has done for years. Back when Luca used to be
Speaker 1: able to make those shots, That's what he did for years.
Speaker 1: Like that is such a valuable part of surgical scoring
Speaker 1: in the half court. Now the Grizzlies are a mess.
Speaker 1: I think they have to find a way to be
Speaker 1: better defensively around John Moran and Desmond Bay and Jared Jackson,
Speaker 1: while also making sure you create space so you can't
Speaker 1: tilt shots away from Jaw. But this is still jaws superpower,
Speaker 1: the foundational ceiling raising talent that keeps this team interesting
Speaker 1: and why I think there's always a case to just
Speaker 1: pivot and try to make it work before just bailing him,
Speaker 1: bailing on him as a talent overall. All, Right, Jackson,
Speaker 1: let's talk some hoops, man, What do you got for
Speaker 1: us from the chat?
Speaker 2: Yes, let's do it. Let's start with there were a
Speaker 2: handful of Luca Dontrich questions. Let's start with why does
Speaker 2: luca struggle versus big athletic wings JB JT, Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 2: Draymond Andrew Wiggins come to mind. How can Luca overcome
Speaker 2: this to win a championship.
Speaker 1: So I've actually seen him have a lot of success
Speaker 1: against certain types of wings. I'm more worried about him
Speaker 1: against the shorter, more fire hydrant types of wings. I
Speaker 1: think Luca just had a bad game tonight. I think
Speaker 1: I think we can. I think we can acknowledge that
Speaker 1: the Warriors played really good defense while also acknowledging that
Speaker 1: lucas capable of playing much better than he did tonight.
Speaker 1: I think both things are true. Jalen Brown did a
Speaker 1: number on him in the Celtics game, that is worth staying.
Speaker 1: I thought that was different than what happened tonight. I
Speaker 1: thought tonight Luca was just bizarrely passive, a lot of
Speaker 1: pump faking, a lot of grifting, and I just didn't
Speaker 1: think he inflicted himself on the game as well. I
Speaker 1: thought the Celtics game was much more of like a
Speaker 1: Jalen you know, stole his lunch money kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, And I think that there's also sort
Speaker 2: of a specific challenge to for someone as smart as
Speaker 2: Luca to play against the Warriors where you have Draymond
Speaker 2: on the back line, right when you have a guy
Speaker 2: like Wiggins or or Jimmy or whoever most moody in
Speaker 2: the first half being playing good, solid events in the
Speaker 2: back line, but someone like Draymond who knows exactly they
Speaker 2: read that Luca wants to make and as as one
Speaker 2: of the few players who can recover and some of
Speaker 2: those faces, makes it specifically challenging.
Speaker 1: I think I thought that was a huge part of
Speaker 1: tonight's game, was Draymond praying on Luca's indecisiveness.
Speaker 2: All right, next one, This one has been asked in
Speaker 2: the chat like every single time we do one of these,
Speaker 2: so I'm finally going to get to it. Shout out
Speaker 2: the shout out to you guys for being consistent with
Speaker 2: the questions. Is it possible that Jimmy's impact will be
Speaker 2: bigger than Luca's this season? Yeah, that's sort of why
Speaker 2: I've held off on the question because it seems a
Speaker 2: little Warriors fanny, But I mean, I can understand the
Speaker 2: spirit of the question because I think Jimmy does so
Speaker 2: many different things while Luca is just super super elite
Speaker 2: at the one thing quote unquote, but come on, guys,
Speaker 2: we can we can be honest.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean Jimmy wasn't exactly a world beater tonight either.
Speaker 1: He made some plays, yeah he was.
Speaker 2: He was pretty passive as well. All right, Hey, Jason,
Speaker 2: how would you describe the difference between between role players
Speaker 2: and if there are levels to them being elite? Example,
Speaker 2: Derek White is a role player technically, but so is
Speaker 2: Jackson Hayes.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is actually a really interesting question, and I
Speaker 1: think there's a bunch of different elements to get into.
Speaker 1: So I think consistency is a big one for me
Speaker 1: in terms of like role player talent, and that stems
Speaker 1: from like a versatility of talent. So if you are
Speaker 1: a specialist let's say Buddy Yield for instance, and you're
Speaker 1: not making your threes, your impact craters. But for guys
Speaker 1: like Brandon Pajemski or I even think Austin Reeves falls
Speaker 1: into this category. These guys that kind of are like
Speaker 1: do all like they do all these like little things.
Speaker 1: They can impact the game in ways that go beyond
Speaker 1: their shot making. And so I think that one of
Speaker 1: the underrated parts about it, like a Drew Holliday or
Speaker 1: Derek white Is there are such great connective skill players
Speaker 1: because they can dribble, shoot, and pass really well that
Speaker 1: even if Drew Hollidy goes oh for three from three
Speaker 1: or oh for five from three, he can have a
Speaker 1: couple buckets slipping along the baseline in the dunker spot
Speaker 1: as a guard. He can slip out of screens with
Speaker 1: Tatum and make plays in four on threes. He can
Speaker 1: be the best defensive player on the floor in any
Speaker 1: given game. He can do all these like different kinds
Speaker 1: of things. So I think, I think ultimately that's it,
Speaker 1: like can you be a like a versatile enough player
Speaker 1: to be immune to like the differences in in in
Speaker 1: shot result. And then I think, I think the second
Speaker 1: piece of it is like legitimate upside, Like there there's
Speaker 1: a difference between a Jackson Hayes, for example, and let's
Speaker 1: say a Bobby Portis. Like Bobby Portis can go for
Speaker 1: thirty in any given game, right, You're not expecting that
Speaker 1: type of upside from a Jackson Hayes. Similarly, like DeAndre
Speaker 1: Hunter with the Calves, he's playing a smaller role with
Speaker 1: the Calves, but he also has scoring talent that can
Speaker 1: manifest in oh he has twenty points in game four
Speaker 1: of a huge playoff game. Like, those are the kinds
Speaker 1: of things that I think are a little bit different.
Speaker 1: Is like, sometimes there are role players that can masquerade
Speaker 1: as stars for brief stretches as well, But ultimately, I
Speaker 1: think the night to night versatility, the night to night
Speaker 1: reliability is the main separator between good and bad role players.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, I was gonna say, I think the
Speaker 2: upside is a big one. And then also just diversity
Speaker 2: of skill set, Like even you can see it on
Speaker 2: the Lakers, like Ruy Hachimura is able to do a
Speaker 2: lot more things even when he's not necessarily lights out
Speaker 2: from three than Jackson hayes is able to do. And
Speaker 2: I also think just being being super super super elite
Speaker 2: at something, Like if you're just insanely elite at something,
Speaker 2: you can Jackson Hayzesen is very as good at some things,
Speaker 2: but he's not really elite at anything. Davion Mitchell is
Speaker 2: insanely elite at defense. Aj Green on the Bucks just
Speaker 2: insanely good at shooting. Right, if you are like levels
Speaker 2: above your other role players of your similar type, then
Speaker 2: that can also sort of be a separator.
Speaker 1: I think, well, that's like the buddy heel thing. It's
Speaker 1: like like I was watching Duncan Robinson today and like
Speaker 1: there's a level of like consistent shot making with him
Speaker 1: that is different that literally brings two to the ball
Speaker 1: every time, and the heat can like build an offense
Speaker 1: out of it, you know what I mean? Like there
Speaker 1: to your point, Like, yeah, like there's there's specialists and
Speaker 1: then there's specialists. There's another there's another level.
Speaker 2: Right, exactly? All right, what team other than the Calves
Speaker 2: and the Celtics has the best chance to win the East?
Speaker 2: And Slash? Do you think any team other than the
Speaker 2: Caves the Celtics has a chimp to win the Dude?
Speaker 1: I think there is such a massive chasm between those two.
Speaker 1: I mean, if I had to pick one, I would
Speaker 1: take the Knicks, I suppose. But like at this point,
Speaker 1: I is there any more sure thing in this playoff
Speaker 1: picture than a conference finals? Yeah? Like it?
Speaker 2: Hey, Jason love the show. What are your ideal quote
Speaker 2: unquote basketball fantasy first round matchups for the East and
Speaker 2: the West? Just best possible basketball?
Speaker 1: Okay, let's pull up the standings here, best possible basketball.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I don't want the Lakers and Warriors to
Speaker 1: face each other in the first round for two reasons. One,
Speaker 1: I'm terrified of them, which I said before tonight. I
Speaker 1: want the record to show I said I was terrified
Speaker 1: of the Warriors before tonight, but I don't want But
Speaker 1: I also just think it'd be a waste to have
Speaker 1: one of them get eliminated in the first round because
Speaker 1: I think they're two of the top six teams in
Speaker 1: the NBA. So I'm gonna think I'm gonna go with this.
Speaker 1: I think I think Las Lakers Clippers would be a
Speaker 1: really fun first round series.
Speaker 2: I love the Lakers Clippers series.
Speaker 1: Nuggets, timber Wolves, Warriors, Rockets, thunder Grizzlies the case there,
Speaker 1: Warriors Rockets, you have the Dylan Brooks rivalry with Draymond,
Speaker 1: the thunder Grizzlies thing. There's the Ja Morant's not gonna
Speaker 1: let everybody sit there and talk about how amazing Shay
Speaker 1: is for two weeks with Lakers wol With Lakers Clippers,
Speaker 1: we get the playoff series we've been begging for ever
Speaker 1: since Kawhi signed with the Clippers, and it was Timberwolves Nuggets.
Speaker 1: We get to solve and we get to round two
Speaker 1: of that incredible seven game series we got last year.
Speaker 1: In the East, I'm gonna go with Indie Milwaukee because
Speaker 1: they hate each other. I'm gonna go with the Nicks
Speaker 1: and the Pistons because they will hate each other by
Speaker 1: the end of that series. Oh yeah, and then Celtic's
Speaker 1: Heat just because that's fun, and then Cav's Magic because
Speaker 1: they hate each other. So I think, I think I
Speaker 1: think that would be the the perfect series. What do
Speaker 1: you think?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with questions that I said this on
Speaker 2: another mail bag we did. I think that I really
Speaker 2: want Pacers Pistons. It just feels it just feels very
Speaker 2: old school. I don't know, There's just something fun about it.
Speaker 2: And I also feel like it's a series that Cad
Speaker 2: will win. And I am just more and more a
Speaker 2: fan of kid every time I watch him. So that's
Speaker 2: definitely one of the East for me. That's definitely one
Speaker 2: of the East for me. All right, let's do a
Speaker 2: couple more. This one is why we You sort of
Speaker 2: touched on this a little bit in the Lakers segment
Speaker 2: of the show, But why does Luca foulbait unseemingly every shot?
Speaker 2: Is it a mental thing right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I literally think he doesn't trust his short range
Speaker 1: shot making. Like there is he's shooting fourteen percent less
Speaker 1: than he did in the postseason last year, and his
Speaker 1: volume is about a third what it was in the
Speaker 1: in the playoffs last year in terms of like short
Speaker 1: range shot making, which is such an important part of
Speaker 1: his game. And I think that in general, players tend
Speaker 1: to get more grifty the more they're struggling, because you're
Speaker 1: literally just trying to manufacture offense out of nothing, and
Speaker 1: like and it's just one Like that was kind of
Speaker 1: the bizarre, Like that was the griftiest I've ever seen
Speaker 1: Steph play tonight. Did you see that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: He was like, dude, he was flailing on every single
Speaker 1: shot attempt, which, by the way, like my thing is
Speaker 1: like if every other guard in the league is doing it,
Speaker 1: do it. This is not. I don't blame the players
Speaker 1: for this. I blame the Like you're gonna stop doing
Speaker 1: it if it stops working, if you stop getting rewarded
Speaker 1: with free throws for it. But but yeah, I think
Speaker 1: he just I think Luca it's been such a bizarre
Speaker 1: experience rooting for him because he's had some nights where
Speaker 1: I'm like, this guy's fucking incredible. But then he's had
Speaker 1: other nights where I'm like, this is so bizarre, Like
Speaker 1: why are you Why are you watching your teammate like
Speaker 1: give everything he's got and to try to keep his
Speaker 1: team in this game in Lebron and you're just kind
Speaker 1: of like jogging and going through the motions like where's
Speaker 1: a lot of where's where's the verve? Man? Like it
Speaker 1: just wasn't there. It was bizarre, weird Luca game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it wasn't very strange of the game. All right,
Speaker 2: let's close with this one. Hi. Jason, a huge fan
Speaker 2: of the show, was wondering which three players you think
Speaker 2: deserve to be dpo Y candidates and why. I mean,
Speaker 2: the odds are certainly un draftings are certainly heavily favored
Speaker 2: towards Draymond and Evan Mobley, with Dyson Daniels being sort
Speaker 2: of a distant third. I've heard some some Ludork conversations
Speaker 2: because of how good their defense has been. But what
Speaker 2: do you what's your take there?
Speaker 1: I was listening to Bill Simmons and Zach low Uh
Speaker 1: this morning actually, and by the way, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if he had a chance to check that out yet.
Speaker 1: But dude, Zach is so fucking amazing. He's so good
Speaker 1: at his job. It's as I was listening to that,
Speaker 1: I was like, Dude, this guy is just the best
Speaker 1: at what he does. But he Uh. But Bill actually
Speaker 1: had a really interesting point about lou dort and and
Speaker 1: his ability to basically just cut the head off the
Speaker 1: snake every single night, and that sort of player like
Speaker 1: never wins DPO. I uh, because like even when Marcus
Speaker 1: Smart won it, like I didn't think he was like
Speaker 1: cut the head off the snake guy. He was more
Speaker 1: of like defensive playmaker type of guy, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: and yeah exactly, And so I I kind of find
Speaker 1: that to be an interesting case. And I thought Bill's
Speaker 1: whole point about like his ability to cut the head
Speaker 1: off the snake as a type of value I thought
Speaker 1: was really fascinating. I just think when I watched Raymond Green,
Speaker 1: I just think he's better at defense than Evan Mobley.
Speaker 1: And like, look, I've watched a lot of Calves lately.
Speaker 1: I just watched him the other day in the in
Speaker 1: the next this morning, in the next game, and like,
Speaker 1: I just think Draymond is a more disruptive defender I
Speaker 1: don't think Evan Mobley could do to the Lakers defensively
Speaker 1: what Draymond Green did to the Lakers. Like Dyson Daniels,
Speaker 1: really good, really good player. I think he's got a
Speaker 1: ton of offensive potential. I've been talking about that on
Speaker 1: the show a little bit. His shiftiness and his kind
Speaker 1: of like short range He's got a little bit of
Speaker 1: that John Morant pop off the ground in the short
Speaker 1: range and make a little floater kind of thing. It
Speaker 1: obviously is a wrecking ball on defense, but I think
Speaker 1: Draymond does more to damage a team's offense than any
Speaker 1: defender that I watch in the league.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. It's like if you were just saying
Speaker 2: Evan Mobley guard one single possession, I might be like, yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: maybe take that guy. But just in the whole construct
Speaker 2: of the game and the ability to understand on a
Speaker 2: mental level what the other team is trying to do
Speaker 2: and wanted to take those things away. It's been cool
Speaker 2: to see him get the credit again because you know,
Speaker 2: he's had They had a couple of weird seasons and
Speaker 2: he was hurt a couple of a couple of in
Speaker 2: a row, so he wasn't getting the games threshold. And
Speaker 2: you know, also he was doing a lot of stuff,
Speaker 2: silly stuff on the court that was sort of taking
Speaker 2: away from his sort of perception around the league. But
Speaker 2: it's great to see him sort of get the credit
Speaker 2: again because he they talked that, they kept talking about
Speaker 2: it in the broadcast night, how he's trying to get
Speaker 2: ten All Defense selections and become one of the few
Speaker 2: players to have that honor. And I hope he gets
Speaker 2: there because he has been I think pretty unquestionably the
Speaker 2: best defender in the NBA over the last ten years,
Speaker 2: fifteen years.
Speaker 1: I totally agree, And like the point you made last
Speaker 1: about last year and the behavior is so fascinating because
Speaker 1: like I just kind of got a little bit of PTSD.
Speaker 1: Do you remember all the little shit he did last year?
Speaker 1: I still I still remember him getting himself ejected in
Speaker 1: like the first quarter of a super important game down
Speaker 1: the stretch, and like Steph just like looking down at
Speaker 1: the gradgity game, so dejected from everything, and like he's
Speaker 1: just had his act together this year and he's just
Speaker 1: been awesome. And and a bunch of credits to those
Speaker 1: guys too, for battling through a pretty limited roster in
Speaker 1: the first part of the year as well. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that's all we have for tonight. As always, we sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.
Speaker 1: We're taking the weekend off for you guys to enjoy
Speaker 1: the tournament. There's no nationally televised games other than NBA
Speaker 1: TV until Monday, if I'm not mistaken, and so I'm
Speaker 1: actually going Monday Night with Kevin O'Connor, So if you
Speaker 1: want to hear me talk some college hoops, that's the
Speaker 1: place to be on Monday night. But OOPS Tonight will
Speaker 1: be back on Monday morning. Jackson and I will be back,
Speaker 1: and then next week we got a bunch of huge
Speaker 1: games to cover as we get into the final stretch
Speaker 1: of seeding, and then in the week after that we
Speaker 1: got our series previews and playing tournament that will be covering,
Speaker 1: so lots of interesting stuff on the rise. And again,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys for rocking with us, and we
Speaker 1: will see you on Monday. What's so, guys, As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight.
Speaker 1: They would actually be really helpful for us if you
Speaker 1: guys would take a second and leave a rating and
Speaker 1: a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us,
Speaker 1: but if you could take a minute to do that,
Speaker 1: I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: The volume