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Speaker 1: All right, well, good hoops, and I here at the
Speaker 1: vall you haavy Monday, everybody hopeful. If you guys had
Speaker 1: a great weekend, got a jam pack show for you today,
Speaker 1: We're hitting three games from the Sunday slate as the
Speaker 1: Lakers get off of their four game losing streak by
Speaker 1: beating the reeling Phoenix Suns. After that, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about the Olkahoma City Thunder getting revenge on their
Speaker 1: n season tournament performance by going into Milwaukee and really
Speaker 1: handling the Bucks. I want to focus in on the
Speaker 1: some elements of the OKC defense that I think are
Speaker 1: separators for them from their peers around the league. And
Speaker 1: then after that, the Orlando Magic gets some revenge after
Speaker 1: they took a beatdown from Cleveland at home a little
Speaker 1: while back. They went into Cleveland and stole a game,
Speaker 1: a really interesting game on a bunch of fronts, showed
Speaker 1: some of the big picture upside for the Magic, also
Speaker 1: revealed some of the weaknesses in that Cleveland roster. We're
Speaker 1: going to talk about that game from the perspective of
Speaker 1: both teams as well. You guys are the joke before
Speaker 1: we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops to Night YouTube
Speaker 1: channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
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Speaker 1: miss announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feet wherever you
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Speaker 1: helpful if we leave a rating and a review on
Speaker 1: that front. We also have brand new social media feeds
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, where Jackson's been doing some
Speaker 1: incredible work putting together some film breakdowns and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Make sure you guys follow us there, and the last
Speaker 1: but not least, keep dropping mail back questions in the
Speaker 1: YouTube comments so we can keep hitting those mail bags
Speaker 1: throughout the remainder of the year. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So the Suns are not a good matchup
Speaker 1: for the Lakers in a bunch of different ways. The
Speaker 1: big fundamental thing that makes it really difficult for the
Speaker 1: Suns to guard this version of this Lakers team is
Speaker 1: they don't feel comfortable switching with their fives with their centers.
Speaker 1: That puts you in a really tough spot dealing with
Speaker 1: Luka Doncic in pick and roll. We've talked about this
Speaker 1: a while. JJ Reddick has mentioned it in the postgame
Speaker 1: presser like running drop coverage against Luka Doncic is death,
Speaker 1: And I look at that as, like, you know, drop
Speaker 1: coverage can mean a lot of different things, but basically
Speaker 1: all that means is anytime you're chasing Luca over the
Speaker 1: top of the screen and the big man is waiting
Speaker 1: on the other side, either up at the level and
Speaker 1: what they call a high drop or further back and
Speaker 1: what they call a deep drop. That sort of coverage
Speaker 1: makes for these really easy reads for Luca that he's
Speaker 1: been immediately great at in a Lakers jersey. What's been
Speaker 1: interesting is like they've struggled a little bit against switching
Speaker 1: for a lot of different reasons. Luca wasn't in shape
Speaker 1: for a lot of those tough switching teams that they
Speaker 1: faced earlier in that stretch, and as a team, they
Speaker 1: haven't shot the three ball well in large part because
Speaker 1: they're playing super super hard on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor and adjusting to the new types of three
Speaker 1: point looks that they're getting as part of the Luka
Speaker 1: Doncic offense, and so their offense, even in the wins,
Speaker 1: has sputtered at times against teams that can switch with
Speaker 1: their five man. But again with this Phoenix Suns team
Speaker 1: with Nick Richards, with Mason Plumley, they're just not doing
Speaker 1: a lot of switching with their five men, and so
Speaker 1: that just allows Luca to play read and react basketball
Speaker 1: with baked ribble penetration. And we've got over this a
Speaker 1: million times, but it's a simple set of reeds. If
Speaker 1: the lowman and the screen defender stay back, Luca gets
Speaker 1: to just work his way into the lane until he
Speaker 1: can take a little floater off the glass. If the
Speaker 1: big steps up, it creates a simple read behind it
Speaker 1: with the lowman. If the lowman steps over and tags
Speaker 1: the roller, he's skipping it to the weak side. If
Speaker 1: he doesn't tag the roller that he can hit the
Speaker 1: hit Jackson Hayes runnerneath the basket. That was the big
Speaker 1: thing that Phoenix kept messing up in this game. They
Speaker 1: were running a good mix of high and low drop
Speaker 1: and a lot of high drop early in the game,
Speaker 1: and they weren't tagging Jackson Hayes. And part of this is,
Speaker 1: like I've been talking a lot about how the Suns
Speaker 1: lately look to me like a team that is basically
Speaker 1: quit trying to be the best basketball team they can be,
Speaker 1: in large part because they know that their best isn't
Speaker 1: good enough to beat the best teams in the league.
Speaker 1: And so there were a lot of weak side possessions
Speaker 1: with Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, and KD all three of
Speaker 1: them where they just didn't bother to tag Jackson Hayes
Speaker 1: or some really sloppy tags. I saw both Devin Booker
Speaker 1: and Bradley Beal have tags where they just kind of
Speaker 1: like ran up to Jackson. So what you're supposed to
Speaker 1: do on a tag if they come up to the
Speaker 1: level of the screen and Jackson Hayes is rolling hard
Speaker 1: to the rim, your jobs, the lowman is to literally
Speaker 1: get between the rollman and the rim and hit him
Speaker 1: so that he can't throw the lob up to the
Speaker 1: basket he has to, and usually some teams will counter
Speaker 1: that by posting there or by skipping the ball to
Speaker 1: the weak side. Right, You've got to literally put your
Speaker 1: body on the line as a small against a rolling big.
Speaker 1: It's a hard job, and the Sons just weren't really
Speaker 1: interested in doing it last night, and so you'd see
Speaker 1: them kind of like run over to Jackson and like
Speaker 1: put their hands on him, but they're not really doing
Speaker 1: anything to make him feel uncomfortable, and he's just catching
Speaker 1: and finishing. Here's an easy little stat to demonstrate that
Speaker 1: for you. He had nineteen points. Jackson Ay's nineteen points
Speaker 1: in this game, seventeen of which were on cuts and rolls.
Speaker 1: He has had nineteen points twice so far with Luca.
Speaker 1: He had nineteen points one time total in the entirety
Speaker 1: of the rest of his Lakers ten years, and that
Speaker 1: goes to show you the benefit of Jackson Hayes in
Speaker 1: this system. I have been talking a lot about this
Speaker 1: concept lately, but the idea of like, your value as
Speaker 1: a basketball player is kind of unique to the system
Speaker 1: that you're in, Right Like, there are guys that are
Speaker 1: deeply valuable in a certain system that would be less
Speaker 1: valuable in another system. Whether it's like Aaron Gordon in
Speaker 1: Orlando as like a swing forward star type of player,
Speaker 1: looks really underqualified for that job, but you put him
Speaker 1: in Denver where he can operate on the back line
Speaker 1: because their center kind of inverts their spacing, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, he becomes immensely valuable in that type of role.
Speaker 1: Right Like, everybody's value is unique to their individual system,
Speaker 1: and Jackson Hayes, specifically, when Luka Doncic is on the Lakers,
Speaker 1: is immensely valuable because Luca is one of the best
Speaker 1: passers in the league at making teams pay by hitting
Speaker 1: a vertical spacer. And I mean, there were a lot
Speaker 1: of issues that have gone wrong for the Lakers in
Speaker 1: the four game losing streak, most of which have come
Speaker 1: down to injuries. I mean, you're down, You're you're starting
Speaker 1: front court. Literally, if you're down Lebron, Ruy and Jackson,
Speaker 1: it's such a difficult thing to overcome. But it's funny
Speaker 1: to say Jackson Hayes is so valuable because it felt
Speaker 1: so different in previous iterations of the Lakers, But on
Speaker 1: this version of the Lakers, Jackson Hayes is incredibly valuable
Speaker 1: to this offense because he is the guy that allows
Speaker 1: them to function in four out one in spacing. I've
Speaker 1: talked a lot about this concept. When you're running a
Speaker 1: lot of motion, ball flowing side to side, everyone's involved
Speaker 1: in the action. It's like a five out spacing concept, right.
Speaker 1: You got ball handlers on the wings, guys in the corner,
Speaker 1: and then a big man at the top of the keys.
Speaker 1: Functioning is like this passing folkrum, screening folkrum out at
Speaker 1: the top of the key. This Lakers team is very
Speaker 1: much going back to the old version of their offense,
Speaker 1: way back when they were the Western Conference Finals team
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three, where it's like we're spreading the floor,
Speaker 1: running pick and roll like it's a lot of that
Speaker 1: sort of thing, and in those situations you don't want
Speaker 1: five out spacing because in five out spacing, when the
Speaker 1: gaps on the perimeter shrink to get pretty small and
Speaker 1: it gets harder to drive as defenders are able to
Speaker 1: gap into driving lanes and stuff like that. And so
Speaker 1: the way you prefer to set up your spacing when
Speaker 1: you're more of a matchup attacking, spread pig roll type
Speaker 1: of team is four out one in spacing, and once
Speaker 1: your shooters in the corner, you got a shooter on
Speaker 1: the wing, and you're basically occupying either the dunker spot
Speaker 1: with a dunker or a screen and roll threat where
Speaker 1: the roller is occupying that spot when he rolls to
Speaker 1: the basket. And so guys like Jemison, guys like Jared
Speaker 1: vander Built, even Christian Kaloko he botched two lobs last
Speaker 1: night in the first half, where it's just the easy
Speaker 1: dunks that he's struggling to make because he's got a
Speaker 1: little bit of an issue catching and finishing. Sometimes you
Speaker 1: can see just how incredibly valuable Jackson Hayes is to
Speaker 1: the Lakers as a vertical spacer. In this version of
Speaker 1: the team. They did a lot of damage on that
Speaker 1: Sun's back line in this game, and after in the
Speaker 1: early third quarter they generated yet another easy lob dunk
Speaker 1: for Jackson Hayes kind of like a behind the back
Speaker 1: lob a ridiculous pass from Luca, and from that point forward,
Speaker 1: the Sun's basically just decided to blitz him and double
Speaker 1: team him all over the floor, and so the Lakers
Speaker 1: were able to play with an advantage and they were
Speaker 1: able to stiff arm the Suns. The rest of the way,
Speaker 1: the Suns fought back. They've they've been resilient. This has
Speaker 1: been a consistent theme for the Suns in the last month,
Speaker 1: is like they'll get off to an ugly start and
Speaker 1: then rather than get humiliated, they'll like suddenly start competing
Speaker 1: really hard towards the end of the game. And it's
Speaker 1: the U. Lakers fans are familiar with this concept from
Speaker 1: last year. It's the fake comeback concept, right because that
Speaker 1: Laker team used to have a very similar personality last year.
Speaker 1: But KD had seventeen points in the second half and
Speaker 1: they kind of battled a little bit, but they never
Speaker 1: got any closer than eight the rest of the way.
Speaker 1: A couple of Laker concepts and I want to hit
Speaker 1: before we move on. Luca's rapidly improving as a shot maker.
Speaker 1: This is a concept that talked a lot about after
Speaker 1: his first few weeks with the Lakers, he just wasn't
Speaker 1: shooting as well as he typically is capable of. And
Speaker 1: you know, he obviously had that really bad night in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: but even including that game, in his last eight games,
Speaker 1: he's averaging thirty two points per game on just twenty
Speaker 1: two shot attempts, shooting forty one percent from three on
Speaker 1: eleven attempts per game, and he's getting to the foul
Speaker 1: line ten times, where he's shooting eighty percent from at
Speaker 1: the free throw line. So he's really starting to come
Speaker 1: around as an offensive player, which is helping this team
Speaker 1: start to have a little bit more resilience on that
Speaker 1: end of the floor. He's also averaging over two steals
Speaker 1: per game in that span. He's sliding his feet, really
Speaker 1: active on the perimeter, active in help side, functioning as
Speaker 1: a cog in that defensive system. Austin Reeves is starting
Speaker 1: to look like himself again. He commented after the Nets
Speaker 1: game that he needed to be better with Lebron out
Speaker 1: in order to help his team. He's averaging thirty one,
Speaker 1: seven and seven on fifty two percent from the field,
Speaker 1: forty four from three to ninety four percent from the
Speaker 1: line in his last three games, which is just outrageous.
Speaker 1: JJ Reddick talked after the game about Jordan Goodwin and
Speaker 1: the tone that he set early. He was spot on
Speaker 1: about that. One of the very first I think it
Speaker 1: was literally the first possession of the game. KD was
Speaker 1: guarding him, he was ball watching, and I think Luca
Speaker 1: ended up missing a jump shot short and he just
Speaker 1: shot like a cannon into the lane, got the offensive
Speaker 1: rebound and put it back in. He was excellent with
Speaker 1: his ball pressure and with his back pressure. He had
Speaker 1: a couple offensive rebounds. He had a couple of block shit.
Speaker 1: Really really impressive game from Jordan go and ended up
Speaker 1: getting a start in this game. Nice win for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: They got some help over the weekend too. In the standings.
Speaker 1: Memphis got crushed at home by the Calves. Denver toasted
Speaker 1: off a game to the Wizards on a crazy game
Speaker 1: winner from Jordan Poole. He shot like a forty footer
Speaker 1: in Russell Westbrook's face that ends up leaving the Lakers
Speaker 1: tied in the loss column for the two seed, despite
Speaker 1: dropping four consecutive games earlier with an injury ravaged roster.
Speaker 1: I think that's a win no matter how you look
Speaker 1: at it, to drop four in a row like that
Speaker 1: and to still really be in position to potentially get
Speaker 1: that two seed, and the Lakers, the Nuggets, the Grizzlies,
Speaker 1: and the Rockets, it's a four way tie, are all
Speaker 1: tied with twenty five losses in that spot, and I
Speaker 1: think the Lakers have a good chance to win that
Speaker 1: race and just get the two seed, as long as
Speaker 1: they can get healthy soon enough. Allegedly Lebron's about a
Speaker 1: week out. Ruly, I would imagine we'll come back not tonight,
Speaker 1: but probably in the game on Wednesday night. It shouldn't
Speaker 1: be too long before they get healthy. And like, I mean,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about this a little bit, especially when
Speaker 1: we get into our mail Bag, which is releasing on
Speaker 1: Wednesday this week. But like, the Lakers might just be
Speaker 1: better than all those teams, and so they might end
Speaker 1: up coming away with the two seed just because they're better.
Speaker 1: And so they're in a good spot now. They made
Speaker 1: a good call, a smart call to rest Ruie rest Jackson,
Speaker 1: rest Lebron. Make sure those guys get the rest that
Speaker 1: they need, and we'll see. I think they have a
Speaker 1: chance to end up coming out with the two seed. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we'll see how they can close the season. The big thing,
Speaker 1: the big swing factor there for me is Denver, and
Speaker 1: I just can't get a read on the Nuggets. They
Speaker 1: look so bad sometimes they're so so so bad on defense,
Speaker 1: but there's this big part of me that just can't
Speaker 1: believe that they're actually that bad and that they're just
Speaker 1: kind of going through the motions a lot. Now. NBA
Speaker 1: history tells us those teams always lose, but it's hard
Speaker 1: to say at this point they're They're the team that
Speaker 1: that's in that group of four with the Lakers that
Speaker 1: I can't really get a read on where they kind
Speaker 1: of land among the top teams in the league. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some thunder Bucks. We've talked a lot this
Speaker 1: year about the strength of Oklahoma City being their defense,
Speaker 1: and we've got all, like, over all the reasons why.
Speaker 1: They have a ton of good perimeter defenders that they
Speaker 1: can keep cycling into the game to wear out ball handlers.
Speaker 1: They can apply excellent ball pressure for forty eight minutes.
Speaker 1: They have these aggressive game plans that suit their team
Speaker 1: speed really really well. It's the right type of game
Speaker 1: plan to go with with the type of roster that
Speaker 1: they have. They're super sharp in rotation on the back
Speaker 1: end to make these like perceived openings disappear in a flash.
Speaker 1: Their rim protection is legit with chet homeground on the floor.
Speaker 1: But I want to zero in specifically on the concept
Speaker 1: of defending superstars for a minute, because like superstars are
Speaker 1: scheme breakers, they're personnel breakers. Like oh you Anthony Davis. He's,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, the best defensive player in the league
Speaker 1: when he's healthy and in shape. Well it turns out
Speaker 1: he can't guard Nikola Jokic. So the Lakers' greatest defensive
Speaker 1: weapon was basically neutralized, and it led to a few
Speaker 1: years of dominance. In that matchup. If you guys, remember,
Speaker 1: oh you have Jaden McDaniels, he's one of the best
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders in the league. Well, it turns out he
Speaker 1: can't guard Luka Doncic. So in that matchup in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference finals last year, the strength of Minnesota's perimeter
Speaker 1: defense was neutralized and the MAVs ended up thrashing the Wolves.
Speaker 1: This is a thing that can happen that a superstar
Speaker 1: can break a scheme. A superstar can break even personnel strings.
Speaker 1: One of the non negotiable barriers that stands between any
Speaker 1: great team and a championship is the ability to go
Speaker 1: head to head with the best players in the world
Speaker 1: and come out on top. For the thunder in the West,
Speaker 1: you've got Nikola Jokic, You've got Luka Doncic, Lebron James
Speaker 1: before his injury was playing at near that level, not
Speaker 1: quite that level, but near that level. Steph Curry is
Speaker 1: coming on strong. Anthony Edwards is a type of threat
Speaker 1: that you have to face in the Western Conference. In
Speaker 1: One of the traits of this OKC defense. Something that
Speaker 1: makes them so dangerous is their ability to match up
Speaker 1: with the top players in the league. They've had their
Speaker 1: issues with Jokic over the years because it seems like
Speaker 1: nobody can guard that guy, but he's literally the best
Speaker 1: player in the world and Okay, so he can have
Speaker 1: success against him on the other end of the floor.
Speaker 1: Even the game they dropped to Denver the other day
Speaker 1: a week ago or so, it was a weird game.
Speaker 1: They played really well in the first half, had a lead,
Speaker 1: drop seventy three points. J Dubb gets hurt. They double
Speaker 1: team Shay every time he crosses half court. It allows
Speaker 1: them to gimmick their way into a win. But like
Speaker 1: that's a matchup that they've done pretty well against. They
Speaker 1: have one of the best players in the league to
Speaker 1: match up against Luca Lebron Kawhi, Jason Tatum, those big,
Speaker 1: strong matchup attacking forwards. Lou Dort is literally one of
Speaker 1: the very best options in the NBA for that type
Speaker 1: of matchup. He's uniquely strong enough to keep his base.
Speaker 1: Most of the success that those players have comes down
Speaker 1: to bullying and dislodging defenders from their base so they
Speaker 1: can get separation and get great shots. Lou Dort in
Speaker 1: many cases the guy dislodging them from their base and
Speaker 1: forcing them to play off balance and causing them to
Speaker 1: miss a lot of shots that they normally make. It's
Speaker 1: a huge asset to have, specifically in the Western Conference
Speaker 1: with the types of teams that you have to face
Speaker 1: coming out of there, and for a potential Boston matchup
Speaker 1: with Jason Tatum, and then in this game against Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: they demonstrated that they have athletes for two of the
Speaker 1: other types of world beating stars. They held Dame and
Speaker 1: Yannis to just forty points and held both of them
Speaker 1: to below fifty percent from the field. They held Yanis
Speaker 1: to his lowest field goal percentage game of this entire season.
Speaker 1: Excellent guards to match up with all the different types
Speaker 1: of starguards in the league that you can run into
Speaker 1: in any playoff matchup or any regular season game. I
Speaker 1: thought Cason Wallace and Alex Crusoe were both fantastic in
Speaker 1: their reps against Damian Lillard last night, applying ball pressure
Speaker 1: up and down the court, staying attached in screening actions
Speaker 1: and pressuring the ball from behind, swat and getting hands
Speaker 1: on the basketball. Great contests on everything. Dame, of his
Speaker 1: nineteen points, managed just seven points on the ball. Twelve
Speaker 1: of his nineteen points came off of spot ups, meaning
Speaker 1: one of his other teammates made a play that got
Speaker 1: oksee in rotation, forced caseon or Alex to help which
Speaker 1: allowed Dame to get an open catch and shoot look
Speaker 1: or on a random, weird play like there was a
Speaker 1: random play where Caruso stripped Damian Lillard clean underneath the
Speaker 1: basket and the ball just happened to pop right back
Speaker 1: into Dame's hands and he drew a foul, And then
Speaker 1: Dame got fouled on a jump ball, and just like
Speaker 1: him and Alex wrestling for position off the ball, but
Speaker 1: like they had him strapped up in the on ball situations.
Speaker 1: If you hold Dame to seven points on the ball,
Speaker 1: you're gonna give yourself a really good chance to stop
Speaker 1: at Milwaukee offense. And like, that's not just a Dame thing.
Speaker 1: Whether it's Steph, it could be any of the great
Speaker 1: guards in this league. They are built to handle those
Speaker 1: guards really well. And then I thought Isaiah Hartenstein did
Speaker 1: about as good a job playing positional defenses against Giannest
Speaker 1: as you can. Again, when I say positional defense, to me,
Speaker 1: that's positioning yourself between a player in the rim and
Speaker 1: at least forcing them to make over the top shots.
Speaker 1: Defense against these types of players is very different than
Speaker 1: I could think like Palo Boncaro for example, or a
Speaker 1: Lebron James for example. These like big bullyball forwards that
Speaker 1: aren't super comfortable shooting jump shots. Now Lebron has become
Speaker 1: much better at that over the years, so maybe he's
Speaker 1: a bad example, but you get the point. Like these
Speaker 1: big bullyball players that you kind of want to take
Speaker 1: jump shot and floaters and hooks and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: just position yourself between that player and the rim, and
Speaker 1: you're doing your job. Anytime he got anybody else on him.
Speaker 1: In this game, it was a double team easy to
Speaker 1: get past in rotation getting great looks. Jannis was able
Speaker 1: to consistently generate great stuff against anybody that wasn't Isaiah Hartenstein.
Speaker 1: But Hartenstein has that combination of a little bit of
Speaker 1: mobility and he's big and strong as a center to
Speaker 1: where Yannis isn't looking at him, like I can go
Speaker 1: right through him. With Yannis, like he doesn't even really
Speaker 1: have to make a move to get by most people
Speaker 1: because he's so big and strong. If he just rips through,
Speaker 1: even if the defender slides his feet, there's usually just
Speaker 1: a tiny bit of an opening, and Giannis is gonna
Speaker 1: hit that with physicality and get his shoulder in there.
Speaker 1: He has that move too, where he'll gather and like
Speaker 1: chicken wing with his arm as he goes to the rim.
Speaker 1: Like he's impossible to guard when you're giving up that
Speaker 1: much size and weight, because even if you get in
Speaker 1: front of him, he's just gonna get his way around
Speaker 1: you by using his physicality. Right. But Isaiah Hartenstein, because
Speaker 1: he has that mobility and size and strength, Jannis actually
Speaker 1: has to make a good enough move to force Isaiah
Speaker 1: Hartenstein to lunge out of position in order for him
Speaker 1: to get all the way to the basket. And so
Speaker 1: that allowed Hartenstein to do a really nice job on
Speaker 1: yon Is forcing him into those over the top shots. Again.
Speaker 1: In last night's game, Hartenstein and the Thunder as a
Speaker 1: team held Giannis to below forty seven percent from the field.
Speaker 1: It was literally his least efficient field goal percentage game
Speaker 1: of the entire season. And like, and I haven't even
Speaker 1: mentioned the fact that Hartenstein had twenty four points last night.
Speaker 1: He had twenty two on cuts, he made five of
Speaker 1: his patented floaters. He had a great game. Like I've
Speaker 1: been consistent on the record that I have concerns about
Speaker 1: okc's offense in a playoff context. I do think they
Speaker 1: have a tendency to get into these extended stretches of
Speaker 1: ugly bass could ball on that into the floor. That
Speaker 1: makes them more vulnerable than their record would lead you
Speaker 1: to believe. But make no mistake, this defense is legit
Speaker 1: and not like cute twenty twenty one Utah Jazz regular
Speaker 1: season legit. They are versatile playoff Freddy able to handle
Speaker 1: the types of challenges that await them in the Western
Speaker 1: Conference playoffs type of legit on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. It's gonna keep them in every series. Like
Speaker 1: I don't think even if OKC loses, this isn't gonna
Speaker 1: be a sweep or a five game series. Their defense
Speaker 1: is so good it's gonna keep them in any series.
Speaker 1: They're gonna be very, very difficult to beat four times
Speaker 1: in a two week span. A couple other shoutouts from
Speaker 1: this game. I thought Kenrich Williams was amazing, kind of
Speaker 1: similar to what we talked about with Jordan Goodwin earlier.
Speaker 1: I thought he just helped set the defensive tone right
Speaker 1: away early, flying around in rotation, making extra efforts. He
Speaker 1: was a guy in many cases that was rotating to
Speaker 1: Brook Lopez and picking pops, which is a foundational release
Speaker 1: valve for the Bucks offense. In one of the hardest
Speaker 1: action to guard, but it just requires a good amount
Speaker 1: of speed on the weak side. He locked zero points
Speaker 1: in this game and only one steal, and I thought
Speaker 1: Kenrich was awesome in his minutes. Chet was really great
Speaker 1: on offense in this game. He continues to hit threes.
Speaker 1: He had two last night. He's made five of his
Speaker 1: last ten, and it caused some overreaction from Milwaukee's defense.
Speaker 1: Both Torrian Prince and Giannis bit on pump fakes on
Speaker 1: kickouts to Chet that led to points. He drove on
Speaker 1: Torrian and got a floater on the honest one, he
Speaker 1: ended up drawing a foul. He gave up the Thunder
Speaker 1: ended up getting an easy dunk on a play where
Speaker 1: Chet kind of relocated up to the right wing and
Speaker 1: Torrian Prince, who should have been the low man instead
Speaker 1: of protecting the rim, overplayed Chet at the three point
Speaker 1: line and gave up a dunk. That's all a product
Speaker 1: of the fear of Chet's shooting because of how well
Speaker 1: he's been shooting the ball over the last couple of games.
Speaker 1: He also did some nice work in action too. The
Speaker 1: two most common actions they'll run with him is like
Speaker 1: a two man game right around the foul line the
Speaker 1: middle of the floor with him and Hartenstein trying to
Speaker 1: bait trying to force big bodies to guard in screening actions.
Speaker 1: And then they'll run a lot of wide pin down
Speaker 1: stuff where they'll like set him in the corner and
Speaker 1: have a guard screen down for him so that the
Speaker 1: team doesn't want to switch and try to see if
Speaker 1: they can get him coming downhill with the ball catching
Speaker 1: on the move going downhill. He's really starting to blossom
Speaker 1: into an incredible player. I thought he was fantastic and
Speaker 1: last shout out, SGA is becoming one of the greatest
Speaker 1: shows in the league. I've seen a lot of people
Speaker 1: complaining about his foul grifting or like shoving people off
Speaker 1: with his off arm, and like, the grifting is a
Speaker 1: league wide problem, and yeah, Shay is better at it
Speaker 1: than most, but like, I'm never gonna judge the players
Speaker 1: for that because to me, it's a competitive advantage and
Speaker 1: Shaye's just like, imagine being Shay. You're on a team
Speaker 1: with a bunch of super young players and so much
Speaker 1: of the offensive workload falls on your plate. You got
Speaker 1: to find a way to get some easy points in there,
Speaker 1: and foul grifting is the way he's doing it. And again,
Speaker 1: everyone has access to those moves. He's just better at
Speaker 1: it than most. And eventually the league, I hope will
Speaker 1: get will legislate it out, but it is part of
Speaker 1: the game at this point, the off arm stuff, this
Speaker 1: is where I think the complaints from people are ridiculous.
Speaker 1: All throughout NBA history, we've had players that use their
Speaker 1: physical advantages to dominate, like Shack bullyballs everybody, Lebron bullyballs everybody,
Speaker 1: Yannis bullyballs everybody, Luca bullyballs every there's so jokicch is
Speaker 1: just rumbling, stumbling to the rim NonStop, like we have
Speaker 1: to be okay with it from guards too. And the
Speaker 1: thing with Shay is he's really good at getting a
Speaker 1: defender out of position to where they're leaning back, and
Speaker 1: you see it. He did it against Kuzma a couple
Speaker 1: times last night, where it's like he sees Kuzma in
Speaker 1: a retreat positional defense stance, and so he just drives
Speaker 1: really hard and gets that shoulder into him and bumps
Speaker 1: him off a little bit. And by the way, he
Speaker 1: does get called for offensive fouls occasionally when he really
Speaker 1: extends that arm, but a lot of times he doesn't
Speaker 1: extend the arm. A lot of times he just kind
Speaker 1: of gets you with his shoulder and he's so strong
Speaker 1: on his base that he'll bump you with his shoulder
Speaker 1: and get plenty of separation. And I have no problem
Speaker 1: with that at all, because that, to me is what
Speaker 1: the game of basketball is. It's physical it's a contact sport.
Speaker 1: It gets even more physical when you get into the postseason.
Speaker 1: And all throughout NBA history, we've allowed these big, strong
Speaker 1: dudes to throw people around. I have no problem with
Speaker 1: Shaye doing it too. But even if you set that
Speaker 1: stuff aside and you just watch him play, he's starting
Speaker 1: to break people off with these dribble combinations that are
Speaker 1: sending defenders into a different area code. And it's because
Speaker 1: he can chain together multiple dribble combinations, multiple pieces of footwork.
Speaker 1: I've talked about this concept before. He doesn't go into
Speaker 1: a sequence like telegraphing what he's gonna do. He starts
Speaker 1: with just a hard drive in one of the directions,
Speaker 1: whether it's that hesitation between the legs dribble going left
Speaker 1: or the hesitation between the legs drible going right. You
Speaker 1: kind of slowly do the between the legs dribble, and
Speaker 1: as soon as it hits his driving hand, the hand
Speaker 1: that's on the strong side that he's driving to, he'll
Speaker 1: just explode forward. He has a lot of that hesitation quickness.
Speaker 1: It's like a first step combined with a change of
Speaker 1: pace kind of thing. But he's just gonna go. And
Speaker 1: then if you cut off that side, he's pulling it
Speaker 1: back through the legs and he's going the other way.
Speaker 1: And if you cut him off that side, he's pulling
Speaker 1: it back through the legs and he's going the other way.
Speaker 1: It's all just like a relentless change of direction. But
Speaker 1: he's just so good at using that pullback dribble between
Speaker 1: his legs and in those situations he's generating contact a
Speaker 1: lot of times in bumping guys off that it's kind
Speaker 1: of just like, do I need to do it once twice,
Speaker 1: three or three times to get to my spot? Well,
Speaker 1: regardless of how many times you defend it right, I'm
Speaker 1: eventually going to get to my spot. And like, again,
Speaker 1: there are some of these guys that he's going up
Speaker 1: against and they're biting so hard on one of the
Speaker 1: moves that he's getting like ten, twelve, fifteen feet of
Speaker 1: separation on that pullback dribble. It's wild to me. And again,
Speaker 1: like it's not just fun to watch. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of good stuff in there for young basketball players to
Speaker 1: emulate that will help you get to the next level.
Speaker 1: That getting that shoulder contact and then quick scissor dribble
Speaker 1: between your legs is an excellent way to deal with
Speaker 1: ball pressure or to get separation when a defender is
Speaker 1: pressuring you. It just takes a lot of that contact,
Speaker 1: ball handling ability, the ability to dribble while you're dealing
Speaker 1: with contact, and again, like it's just all of it
Speaker 1: is just super tight handle, super tight footwork, and the
Speaker 1: ability to chain every single move together with hesitation dribbles
Speaker 1: just ties together. This player that is like entirely unpredictable
Speaker 1: and extremely difficult to keep in front. And I've really
Speaker 1: really enjoyed watching him over the course of this season.
Speaker 1: All right, magic has before we get out of here
Speaker 1: for the death, it's bit of a weird game. Both
Speaker 1: teams shot catastrophically different than their typical efficiency. Orlando is
Speaker 1: by far the worst jump shooting team in the league.
Speaker 1: They get seven fewer points per one hundred jump shots
Speaker 1: then the twenty ninth ranked Wizards. That gap is the
Speaker 1: same as the gap between the twenty ninth ranked Wizards
Speaker 1: and the thirteenth ranked Bulls. They are a god awful
Speaker 1: jump shooting team and last night they got one point
Speaker 1: twenty four points per jump shot. Cleveland is the number
Speaker 1: one jump shooting team in the NBA, and they got
Speaker 1: zero point seventy five points per jump shot, so it
Speaker 1: was kind of just like a weird jump shooting game.
Speaker 1: It played a roll down the stretch of the game too,
Speaker 1: like it was a shot making game down the stretch,
Speaker 1: and a couple of thirty two percent three point shooters
Speaker 1: and Anthony Black and Pala Boncaro hit three clutch threes,
Speaker 1: and Donovan Mitchell, a player who's hitting forty nine percent
Speaker 1: of unguarded catch and shoes a catch and shoots, missed
Speaker 1: back to back wide open threes above the break in
Speaker 1: the clutch Max Strus hits forty eight percent of unguarded
Speaker 1: catch and shoots. He missed an open corner three in
Speaker 1: the right corner light. So like obviously it was kind
Speaker 1: of a shot variance game. It turned into a fun
Speaker 1: little chest match down the stretch two for Palo. The
Speaker 1: last two buckets that were like and got or just
Speaker 1: inverted ball screen action with Palo and KCP on the
Speaker 1: left wing, and it's the exact same sequence of events
Speaker 1: that most teams have to deal with in inverted ball screens.
Speaker 1: They don't want to switch because they don't want to
Speaker 1: leave a smaller player defending a big bullyball player, So
Speaker 1: they opt for a hedge and recover to try to
Speaker 1: prevent the switch and prevent the drive, but it concedes
Speaker 1: a slipping three. So KCP comes up, slips out of
Speaker 1: the screen to the left corner. Palo briefly gets two
Speaker 1: on the ball, he whips it over the top. KCP
Speaker 1: hits the corner three very next possession. They're like, well,
Speaker 1: we don't want to give up that open corner three
Speaker 1: to KCP, so we might as well switch the action. Now.
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hunter is on KCP, but Donovan Mitchell's guarding Paalo,
Speaker 1: and Paalo just hard dribbles into the middle of the floor,
Speaker 1: just bumps Donovan Mitchell off with that shoulder and then
Speaker 1: rises up right there in the middle and knocks down
Speaker 1: the huge shot at the elbow that ended up giving
Speaker 1: them the lead. And so like a shot making type
Speaker 1: of game from the three point line that swung Orlando's favor,
Speaker 1: and then a nice little chess match sequence from Orlando
Speaker 1: with kcpm palow down the stretch to get the win.
Speaker 1: Now here's the thing. I'm never gonna get too worked
Speaker 1: up about a regular season result. You guys know that
Speaker 1: about me. Weird stuff can happen in basketball games, but
Speaker 1: I did think this game was revealing of some of
Speaker 1: Orlando's big picture playoff upside and some of the weaknesses
Speaker 1: in Cleveland's roster. Orlando's size was a consistent problem for
Speaker 1: Cleveland in this game. And I know people are gonna
Speaker 1: say Evan Mobley didn't play, but neither did Jalen Suggs,
Speaker 1: and I actually thought it manifested mostly with Cleveland's perimeter players.
Speaker 1: Mitchell and Garland combined for twenty seven missed shots and
Speaker 1: eight turnovers in this game, and a big part of
Speaker 1: that was them struggling to shoot over good contests or
Speaker 1: trying to pass in traffic. The two main ways this
Speaker 1: manifested from Orlando's defense was that bracket that I always
Speaker 1: talk about in pick and roll, and then some of
Speaker 1: the deal the problems they had was switching focusing on
Speaker 1: the bracket. I've talked about this concept a lot. In
Speaker 1: a drop coverage, when you've got a guard chasing over
Speaker 1: the top and a big up at the level when
Speaker 1: you are staying close to the ball handler, you bracket
Speaker 1: them appropriately when there's distance. If the guard gets caught
Speaker 1: on the screen and the biggest too far back, there's
Speaker 1: an open bracket, there's space in there to operate. That's
Speaker 1: where guys like Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland can barbecue
Speaker 1: you with just comfortable shot making in the mid range. Right,
Speaker 1: Orlando had a very tight bracket in this game, but
Speaker 1: they had a very tight bracket with size, and that's
Speaker 1: where it can become really problematic. And this is one
Speaker 1: of the strengths of Orlando's roster. Whether it's Jonathan Isaac,
Speaker 1: or it's Anthony Black, or it's Contavious Callwell. Pope is
Speaker 1: one of the smaller guys you're dealing with there, but
Speaker 1: Palo and Franz front spend some time with the ball.
Speaker 1: Wendell Carter Junior and Goga Patadz they are big dudes.
Speaker 1: They are huge on the ball, and it made those
Speaker 1: guys consistently shoot some tough, contested shots that were over
Speaker 1: tight contesting. You could tell they're putting extra arc on
Speaker 1: the turnovers we talked about earlier. It caused problems for Cleveland.
Speaker 1: This is why it's always way too simplistic to just
Speaker 1: attribute a game to shooting. Luck Again, it plays a role.
Speaker 1: There is shooting variants in a game, but usually it
Speaker 1: is connected in more than one way to the way
Speaker 1: the game is being played. For instance, Cleveland only generated
Speaker 1: nine unguarded catch shoot jump shots in this game. It's
Speaker 1: one of their lowest totals of the season, and it's
Speaker 1: not the first time Orlando has done this to them.
Speaker 1: Orlando in the blowout game where Cleveland shots super well,
Speaker 1: only three of those catch and shoot threes were unguarded
Speaker 1: in that game. They typically generate Cleveland fourteen unguarded catch
Speaker 1: and shoots per game. This is an issue they've had
Speaker 1: in the Orlando matchup. Now again, they missed some looks,
Speaker 1: some wide open looks that they normally make at a
Speaker 1: high rate. We talked about Mitchell and Struce. Sam Merrill
Speaker 1: missed a bunch of great looks in the third corner.
Speaker 1: Was kind of bizarre. They were all like wide open
Speaker 1: and he was just missing, and they were like not
Speaker 1: necessarily close either. But Orlando did help play them into
Speaker 1: that kind of night by wearing them down with their size,
Speaker 1: making them play in a crowd, and by getting great
Speaker 1: contests in rotation. It's also worth mentioning Orlando allows fewer
Speaker 1: made threes than any team in the entire NBA. That
Speaker 1: is a strength of their defense. A big part of
Speaker 1: that is their length on the perimeter in the physicality
Speaker 1: they play with all game long. They held Cleveland to
Speaker 1: zero point eight five points per half court possession. That
Speaker 1: was their third lowest mark of the entire season. So
Speaker 1: again shout out to the Orlando defense and focusing on
Speaker 1: Orlando for a second. This is their big picture upside.
Speaker 1: If their young players ever learn to shoot more consistently,
Speaker 1: and if they can continue to improve over the years,
Speaker 1: if they can get Jalen Suggs back and get healthy,
Speaker 1: they can be a very dangerous playoff team because of
Speaker 1: their size and strength and their ability to wear on you.
Speaker 1: I notice it with Palo, Like Palo has that really
Speaker 1: ugly jump shot that he misses so frequently in the
Speaker 1: mid range, and like that part drives me crazy, but
Speaker 1: he gets a ton of separation in there. Like if
Speaker 1: he ever does put that together to where he becomes
Speaker 1: a fifty two to fifty five percent mid range jump shooter,
Speaker 1: Like he's gonna feast on teams in that part of
Speaker 1: the floor because he's just so big and strong that
Speaker 1: he can get to his spots there so easily. There
Speaker 1: is a lot of big picture upside with the Orlando
Speaker 1: that I thought was on display. There were a couple
Speaker 1: of things that stood out to me on the Cleveland
Speaker 1: front in this game. Though again I talked about this
Speaker 1: a lot with the Lakers during this phase when they
Speaker 1: were struggling, even in their wins. No matter how good
Speaker 1: you are, even if you happen to win, I always
Speaker 1: think there's value in taking a closer look at why
Speaker 1: you struggled during games or stretches of games where you struggled.
Speaker 1: And again, the two things that I noticed from Cleveland
Speaker 1: in this game won the size. Cleveland, even with Mobley,
Speaker 1: isn't exceptionally exceptionally big and strong. They can wear down
Speaker 1: against size. It happened against New York two years ago,
Speaker 1: it happened in the Orlando series last years. They were
Speaker 1: trailing big in Game seven. It is something to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on. And then switching. There was a switch
Speaker 1: look from Orlando in the second quarter where they had
Speaker 1: Goga off and Wendell Carter Junior off and that led
Speaker 1: to the first big magic run of this game. They
Speaker 1: shut off the baked in dribble penetration they got from
Speaker 1: ball screens. They forced Cleveland to play a lot of
Speaker 1: one on one, and we have seen Cleveland struggled at
Speaker 1: times against these kinds of looks in the regular season,
Speaker 1: especially against Boston and Oklahoma City. This is why it's
Speaker 1: so important to keep an eye on the Boston matchup. Specifically,
Speaker 1: Cleveland has a couple of wins this year against a
Speaker 1: shorthanded Boston Celtics team. But when they're healthy and they
Speaker 1: go Drew Holiday, Derek White, Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, and
Speaker 1: Al Horford, they're bigger and stronger than Cleveland and they
Speaker 1: can switch one through five and again. This is an
Speaker 1: incredible Cavs team that's winning at a historic pace, but
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics are like the final boss for them
Speaker 1: in a video game. It's gonna attack their biggest weaknesses
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be a hell of a show. I
Speaker 1: can't wait to see what happens. All right, guys, This
Speaker 1: all I have for today, as always is I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 1: We are going live tonight on YouTube after the final
Speaker 1: buzzer of Nuggets Warriors. I'll see you guys then, and
Speaker 1: then our next daytime episode will be coming out on
Speaker 1: Wednesday in the form of a mailbag the volume What's
Speaker 1: Up Guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to
Speaker 1: and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful
Speaker 1: for us if you guys would take a second and
Speaker 1: leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys supporting us, but if you could take a
Speaker 1: minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.