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Speaker 1: b ball. All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at
Speaker 1: the volume heavy Saturday. Everybody, Oh balve. You guys are
Speaker 1: having a great weekend. I'm actually staying up to record
Speaker 1: this on Friday night. We've got a jam Pack show
Speaker 1: for you guys. Today. I'm gonna be breaking down the
Speaker 1: Clippers Lakers showdown from last night. As the Lakers, after
Speaker 1: getting dominated by the Clippers for a long time, they've
Speaker 1: actually won five out of seven in that matchup another
Speaker 1: super interesting example of the Lakers dealing with the switching defense.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about that. After that, we're going
Speaker 1: to get into a showdown between the two teams that
Speaker 1: I believe will eventually face off in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Speaker 1: The Cleveland Cavaliers survive two massive runs from the Boston
Speaker 1: Celtics to tie the season series at two, getting a
Speaker 1: big win on the road in Boston. Then at the
Speaker 1: tail end of the show, I want to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit of Denver Nuggets. They've had a uneven stretch
Speaker 1: of games here recently. They're two and one, I believe
Speaker 1: on the road trip so far. I want to talk
Speaker 1: about two concepts with them. One, the concept of inverted
Speaker 1: spacing as I watched Jokic pick apart the Pistons off
Speaker 1: ball defenders through just acting as a passing folkrim at
Speaker 1: the top of the key. And then I want to
Speaker 1: talk about the stuff that Denver has to get better
Speaker 1: at on defense if they want to make a legitimate
Speaker 1: run to get back into championship contention. You guys know
Speaker 1: the drip before we get started. To subscribe to the
Speaker 1: Hoops and I YouTube channels. You don't miss any more
Speaker 1: of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLT.
Speaker 1: You guys, don't mis sh announcements. Don't forget about our
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Speaker 1: It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and
Speaker 1: a review on that front. The last, but not least,
Speaker 1: keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. We'll get
Speaker 1: to him on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So when I looked
Speaker 1: at the initial matchups to start this Clippers Lakers game,
Speaker 1: I saw the Tylu put Zubach on Dorian Phinney Smith,
Speaker 1: and so my first impression there was, oh, we might
Speaker 1: have a repeat of the Knicks game when they put
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns on Dorian Phinney Smith, and the Lakers
Speaker 1: just spammed a bunch of pick and pop action to
Speaker 1: get Dorian Phinney Smith in space. But there was a
Speaker 1: very smart defensive strategy that Tylu implemented in this game.
Speaker 1: After watching a bunch of film of the Lakers struggling
Speaker 1: against switching, he just decided to have Zubach switch all
Speaker 1: those screens. That's why you saw so many of those
Speaker 1: ISOs out around the top of the key with either
Speaker 1: Lebron or Luca attacking Zubach in space, and I thought
Speaker 1: generally did a good job. He pretty much contains rebel
Speaker 1: penetration for the most part and force those guys into
Speaker 1: a lot of jump shots over the top. Lebron was
Speaker 1: really carrying the load in the early part of the
Speaker 1: game by just settling into that mid range jump shot
Speaker 1: right around like seventeen eighteen feet out kind of by
Speaker 1: the top of the key area. But again, like the
Speaker 1: Lakers did struggle again for the most part, and you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think they're going to really generate a ton
Speaker 1: of offense against switching defenses until Luca gets back to
Speaker 1: the Luka Dancic that we know he's capable of being
Speaker 1: an MVP level shot maker. Right. We saw even just
Speaker 1: a tiny little touch of it at the end of
Speaker 1: the game when Luca made a couple of big step
Speaker 1: back threes that led to an adjustment from Tye. We'll
Speaker 1: get to that in a second. But until Luca really
Speaker 1: gets back to his MVP level form on the offensive end,
Speaker 1: and until the Lakers start knocking down their catching shoot attempts,
Speaker 1: this is their third straight game where they got less
Speaker 1: than one point per catch and shoot attempt. They've been
Speaker 1: struggling to shoot the basketball a lot. I do think
Speaker 1: they'll shoot better in the long run. But until those
Speaker 1: two things turn around, until Luca gets going, and until
Speaker 1: they start knocking down the catch and shoot shots, they're
Speaker 1: going to struggle against defenses that switch. And they struggled
Speaker 1: for long stretches in this game. But we did see
Speaker 1: a little Luca run in that fourth quarter. That was
Speaker 1: a taste of what things should look like in the
Speaker 1: long run when Luca gets going. So it's a couple
Speaker 1: of step back threes over zubach In switches one on
Speaker 1: the left wing, one kind of out on the right
Speaker 1: side of the floor. Now at that point, Tyleru had
Speaker 1: to make an adjustment. He started putting two on the ball.
Speaker 1: Once Luka put two on the ball, then they were
Speaker 1: able to get the defense into rotation and generate quality
Speaker 1: looks out of that and open look for Dorian Finney
Speaker 1: Smith in the right corner that he knocked down a
Speaker 1: dunk for Jackson Hayes on a slip to the rim.
Speaker 1: They started to get good looks because they got two
Speaker 1: to the ball again, like We're gonna talk about this
Speaker 1: a lot when we get into the Celtics game as well.
Speaker 1: But there's like an order of operations. In order to
Speaker 1: break down a switching defense. You have to start getting
Speaker 1: a matchup you like and attacking it well enough that
Speaker 1: you score at any rate that is untenable for the defense.
Speaker 1: Once you start scoring at a rate that's untenable for
Speaker 1: the defense, then you can start bringing two to the ball.
Speaker 1: Once you can start bringing two to the ball, then
Speaker 1: you can start to generate the same type of opportunities
Speaker 1: that they got in the Denver game, where it's like,
Speaker 1: now we're getting a lot of these four on threes
Speaker 1: in the ball's popping around, We're getting wide open shots
Speaker 1: for people. They actually handled the double teams better in
Speaker 1: this game than they did it was the I believe
Speaker 1: it was the Dallas game if I remember correctly, that
Speaker 1: they kind of struggled against double teams. But again, like
Speaker 1: that's a little tiny taste for Lakers fans and what
Speaker 1: that could look like in the big picture. Luca going
Speaker 1: on these scoring runs against switches leading to him getting blitzed,
Speaker 1: then you have all this opportunity on the backside of that.
Speaker 1: Now again, like it got a little tricky in this
Speaker 1: game because it's not Austin Reeves. Austin Reeves leaves the
Speaker 1: game with the calf injury. He's gonna be getting an
Speaker 1: MRI on that. Hopefully Austin's okay, we'll find out soon.
Speaker 1: Ruyacha Mura Jj Redick talked after the game, is dealing
Speaker 1: with Peteller tendonitis or tendon tompathy, if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: like something's going on with the front of his knee.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be out for about a week. So take
Speaker 1: those two guys out of the rotation. You're bringing guys
Speaker 1: into the rotation that are lesser offensive players. You know,
Speaker 1: Trey Jemison basically operating as the backup center when that's
Speaker 1: been a lot of small ball looks anchored by Ruey
Speaker 1: and then you're getting a lot more Jordan Goodwin because
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves is out of the lineup. Right, those guys
Speaker 1: are not as good in terms of offensive threats. Although
Speaker 1: they scraped tonight. We're gonna talk about it in a
Speaker 1: little bit. So they're gonna be a little tricky in
Speaker 1: these four on threes in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: As Lebron and Luca have to kind of shoulder more
Speaker 1: of that offensive load, and there's just not as much
Speaker 1: offensive talent off the ball. But in general, I thought
Speaker 1: you got to see a little taste of what it
Speaker 1: could look like in the big picture as Lucas starts
Speaker 1: to get going. That's a beautiful thing about all of this.
Speaker 1: They've been winning with defense. This is the sixth consecutive
Speaker 1: game where the Lakers held their opponents to one hundred
Speaker 1: and two points or fewer. This is now a twenty
Speaker 1: one game span of the Lakers being the best defense
Speaker 1: in the NBA. That's over a fourth of the season.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful thing for the Lakers fans because the
Speaker 1: thing that I've been most excited about with this team
Speaker 1: in the big picture is what they're capable of on
Speaker 1: the offense. Event I imagine a five man grouping with Lebron,
Speaker 1: Luca and Austin, Dorian Finney Smith and Ruey Hatchamura that
Speaker 1: could achieve a level of unguardability in a playoff context
Speaker 1: when Luca gets back to the level that we all
Speaker 1: know that Lucas capable of reaching. Right, Lebron was fantastic
Speaker 1: again in this game. By the way, He's been doing
Speaker 1: a great job of just kind of like pulling the
Speaker 1: weight as Luca's been working his way back into rhythm.
Speaker 1: It's just wild to me how he's consistently night tonight
Speaker 1: playing at an MVP level. I was in awe of
Speaker 1: him again tonight. He soundly outplayed Kawhi Leonard, soundly outplayed
Speaker 1: James Harden, a couple of stars that are a half
Speaker 1: decade younger than him. Just Lebron continues to just be amazing.
Speaker 1: I wanted to shout out the Lakers bench in this game, though,
Speaker 1: because obviously Ruey hat Chamura is out, then we find
Speaker 1: out Austin's out, the Lakers are down two starters, so
Speaker 1: I ended up being just Lebron and Luca and a
Speaker 1: bunch of discounted role players. But one of the things
Speaker 1: that I've been preaching about for a while is the
Speaker 1: value of high motor athletes on an NBA roster, especially
Speaker 1: on your deep bench. The reason why I'm into this
Speaker 1: concept is when your main guys are out of the lineup,
Speaker 1: just playing super fucking hard will go a long way
Speaker 1: towards keeping your floor up high and giving you a
Speaker 1: chance to win games. Jordan Goodwin was insane again in
Speaker 1: this game. One of the best scrappers that I've rooted
Speaker 1: for in my time as an NBA fan, Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: was great. Tray Jemison came in and just played his
Speaker 1: ass off Dorrian Phinney Smith always plays hard game, Vincent
Speaker 1: always plays hard. I just think that's how you should
Speaker 1: build a team when you have championship aspirations and you're
Speaker 1: trying to survive the regular season, make sure the guys
Speaker 1: that are outside of your normal rotation are guys who
Speaker 1: play hard, because that is something you can count on
Speaker 1: every single night. When you have offensive players that are
Speaker 1: not very good and that's why they're end of the
Speaker 1: bench guys, they could be terrible on a night when
Speaker 1: they don't have their jump shot going, or when they
Speaker 1: don't have, you know, a matchup where they're facing switching
Speaker 1: and they have to create more shots for themselves. Like,
Speaker 1: you're gonna run into a lot more weaknesses in that regard.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. Jordan Goodwin struggled to knock down
Speaker 1: spot up threes today. Tree Jemison had a couple of
Speaker 1: plays where he you know, fumbled the ball away in traffic.
Speaker 1: There are going you know, a lot of Jared Vanderbilt, right,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be moments where you're dealing with those guys
Speaker 1: in their offensive limitations come to the surface. Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: still struggles to catch anything in traffic, right, but like
Speaker 1: just by competing and playing their ass off, like I thought,
Speaker 1: one of the biggest plays of the game is when
Speaker 1: the Clippers took that lead off of I believe it
Speaker 1: was off of a Kwi Hindard three at the top
Speaker 1: of the key on the left side where I believe
Speaker 1: Luca goes down and scores, and on the inbound Jordan
Speaker 1: Goodwin gets a steal in another layup and it reversed
Speaker 1: it back to the Lakers being in the lead. It
Speaker 1: like completely flipped the momentum and Luca ended up taking
Speaker 1: that group into having a small lead going into the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. That's a scrappy play that made a huge difference.
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt scrapping, getting on the floor, taking the ball
Speaker 1: away from James Harden and drawing foul gave Vincent he
Speaker 1: committed a kicking violation on this play, but applying ball
Speaker 1: pressure and kicking the ball away from James Harden and again,
Speaker 1: if you don't hear the whistle, you just keep playing,
Speaker 1: and he just ran beat everybody to the basketball, got
Speaker 1: that ball, ran it out and transitioned and got a
Speaker 1: lay up. Those dudes scrapped all game long, and it
Speaker 1: gave the Lakers a chance to win, even down two
Speaker 1: of their most important offensive players, and Lebron and Luca
Speaker 1: just grinded out enough buckets against switches out above the
Speaker 1: break in order to get enough to win that particular game.
Speaker 1: I thought the Zubox matchup was interesting. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: the same type of player as Jokic in terms of
Speaker 1: like a guy that's just way too big for any
Speaker 1: Laker to guard, but it's a very different type of
Speaker 1: matchup because Jokic was the center of the game plan
Speaker 1: and everything they did was built around like helping off
Speaker 1: of these non shoes and containing Jokics, right, and like
Speaker 1: even with Jamal Murray, they were willing to concede these
Speaker 1: like mildly contested pull up jump shots out above the break.
Speaker 1: Right with Zubos though, like he's not the focus of
Speaker 1: the game plan. The game plan was focused around Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard and James Harden. A lot of similar stuff to
Speaker 1: what we've seen in other matchups where they were sending
Speaker 1: all sorts of help at Kawhi Leonard, particularly when he
Speaker 1: would turn his back, so that when he would go
Speaker 1: to spin off of a guy, he would just run
Speaker 1: into bodies. They just did a great job of making
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard feel like he was playing in a crowd.
Speaker 1: They pressed up on James Harden's right shoulder so that
Speaker 1: they could contest without getting up underneath his landing zone,
Speaker 1: so he wouldn't get to the foul line. Although Jackson
Speaker 1: Hayes did have a really really bad foul in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter where he reached in on James Harden just
Speaker 1: stuck his hand right on James Harden's left arm, and
Speaker 1: that's just James has been just had an automatic trigger
Speaker 1: to just rise and fire when he sees that for
Speaker 1: the last half, you know, you know, five seven years
Speaker 1: of his career to draw additional foul shots right. So like,
Speaker 1: But for the most part, they played Harden's right shoulder.
Speaker 1: They tried to funnel him into help where Jackson Hayes
Speaker 1: was always waiting and he was trying to take that floater.
Speaker 1: I think he ended up going one for ten from three.
Speaker 1: They did a good job of closing that gap and
Speaker 1: keeping things difficult for him, and it worked. They held
Speaker 1: Kawhi and James Harden to thirty nine points on thirty
Speaker 1: nine shots. They forced him into eight turnovers. I thought
Speaker 1: it was another impressive defensive game plan from JJ Reddick,
Speaker 1: but again you end up giving things to take things away, right,
Speaker 1: just like in the Denver series or Denver game, the
Speaker 1: Lakers were conceding wide open looks to Aaron Gordon, Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: Christian Brown. Right in this matchup, it was like Zubach
Speaker 1: was getting some catches, He was getting some catches on
Speaker 1: the roll, and like the Lakers were constantly reacting to
Speaker 1: Zubach when he'd already have deep post position as opposed
Speaker 1: to denying Jokics fronting the posts, forcing him to catch
Speaker 1: the ball further out so that they could mitigate some
Speaker 1: of his size. Was Zubach by the time he caught
Speaker 1: it underneath the basket most of the time they were
Speaker 1: just dead to rights already, and Zubach was just able
Speaker 1: to shoot a little bok shot over the top where
Speaker 1: he's so dead lean. Zubatch is just an awesome player.
Speaker 1: I think, what do you have like twenty seven and
Speaker 1: sixteen something like that in that game. The thing that
Speaker 1: has been really impressive to me was Zubach in particular,
Speaker 1: is like his floater touch, Like when he would catch
Speaker 1: and there wouldn't be somebody on him, he'd be seven
Speaker 1: eight feet from the basket, he just turn and shoot
Speaker 1: like a little floater that would just softly go in
Speaker 1: the basket every single time. He's just a really good player.
Speaker 1: And that was where the Lakers decided to have their
Speaker 1: defense bend without breaking, and they gave up a ton
Speaker 1: to Zoobach, they held everyone else in check and again
Speaker 1: held another opponent to one hundred and two points or less.
Speaker 1: The Lakers are now seventeen and four in their last
Speaker 1: twenty one games. That's the best record in the NBA,
Speaker 1: their tenth in offense, first in defense, eighth in defensive rebounding.
Speaker 1: On the Clippers front, the only thing I wanted to
Speaker 1: get into there, The biggest concern for me that stood
Speaker 1: out was just the amount of lift that Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: was getting on his jump shot. Kawhi was shooting a
Speaker 1: really flatball tonight, and it was barely getting over the
Speaker 1: front of the rim unless he was wide open, like
Speaker 1: if he was wide open. That thing was going in
Speaker 1: and Kawhi just has a very robotic jump shot form
Speaker 1: to where like if he kind of gets into his
Speaker 1: energy transfer from the ground up and no one disrupts that,
Speaker 1: he's gonna knock it down, right. But like just about
Speaker 1: everything that was contested and everything that involved him trying
Speaker 1: to shoot through you know, congested defense around him, he
Speaker 1: struggled to get lyft. And again, like when Kawhi's at
Speaker 1: his best, he's always powering through guys, bumping them off
Speaker 1: with his shoulder, getting to his spot, rising cleanly, and
Speaker 1: just it just pops in off the back of the
Speaker 1: rim over and over and over again when he's at
Speaker 1: his best. And like he's up to seventeen games this
Speaker 1: year and he's just not getting lyft. I think he's
Speaker 1: actually up to eighteen games this year. He's just not
Speaker 1: getting lyft. And that's the part that concerns me as
Speaker 1: part of as as far as like his base goes
Speaker 1: and just like whether or not his knee is capable
Speaker 1: of getting to where to be for the Clippers to
Speaker 1: make a real run. But big win for the Lakers again,
Speaker 1: five out of seven against the Clippers, they've flipped that script.
Speaker 1: The one thing I'll the last thing I'll say in
Speaker 1: the Laker front, Guys, like, like I talked about after
Speaker 1: the Minnesota game, my biggest concern with this team is injuries.
Speaker 1: They've been playing their asses off, they've been competing, but
Speaker 1: guys are starting to drop. Bruy goes down, Austin goes down.
Speaker 1: We haven't even gotten to the forty year old or
Speaker 1: the dude who's you know, was significantly overweighted a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago and has already dealt with calf issues
Speaker 1: throughout the season. So, like, I'm a little worried about
Speaker 1: the Lakers on the injury front. It's basically the main
Speaker 1: piece of pessimism that I'm contending with right now as
Speaker 1: a fan of the team. But they are playing some
Speaker 1: really good basketball, and I do think they have a
Speaker 1: formula to where they can keep things afloat until they
Speaker 1: get guys back into the lineup. All right, Moving on
Speaker 1: to Calves Celtics. So the Celtics just jump them right away.
Speaker 1: Calves missed a couple of decent looks from three. The
Speaker 1: Celtics are just immediately on fire. I thought Tatum came
Speaker 1: out looking fantastic, hitting jump shots, spraying the ball out
Speaker 1: to shooters, they jump up twenty five to three. Doris
Speaker 1: Burke had an interesting comment on the broadcast talking about
Speaker 1: how like the Calves just didn't look like the like
Speaker 1: they believed they belonged on the same floor with the Celtics,
Speaker 1: Like they just had this energy in that first stretch
Speaker 1: of the game where they just didn't look like they
Speaker 1: believed they could win. And there was a really cool
Speaker 1: quote that the broadcast showed from Kenny Atkinson in the
Speaker 1: huddle saying, like, come on, guys, like this is not us, Like,
Speaker 1: just believe in what you're doing. Step in and knock
Speaker 1: some shots down, right, And that's what I thought turned
Speaker 1: it around. There were two things that I thought like
Speaker 1: kind of just changed the tone and tender of the
Speaker 1: game after that twenty five to three start, first drible
Speaker 1: penetration from Darius Garland. He started getting buy people off
Speaker 1: the dribble and getting the defense into rotation to generate
Speaker 1: some quality shots. That just kind of started to pick
Speaker 1: up the pace for Cleveland in this game. And then
Speaker 1: a couple of shooters entered the game, a couple of
Speaker 1: guys that came in with confidence and knocked down some shots.
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hunter and Ti Jerome both stepped in and each
Speaker 1: knockdown two threes. Ti Jerome, who can be really aggressive
Speaker 1: as a pull up shooter, hit two kind of contested
Speaker 1: threes and like had a little bit of attitude about it,
Speaker 1: and it just loosened up the team, and you could
Speaker 1: tell that helped them believe that they could get back
Speaker 1: into the game and they started to settle down and
Speaker 1: play Cavs basketball. They started to get stops run out
Speaker 1: in transition, attacking the Celtics defense before it got set.
Speaker 1: I thought Darius Garland did a really nice job of
Speaker 1: like getting up the ball, the ball at the floor
Speaker 1: quickly and quickly getting into a screening action to immediately
Speaker 1: draw two to the ball, and then he would drive
Speaker 1: off of it, drawn nail heelpi to the wing and
Speaker 1: someone was wide open. Like consistently, they started to get
Speaker 1: like some really great looks and it got them go
Speaker 1: on the offensive end of the floor and then on defense,
Speaker 1: sticking to the game plan, not overreacting to Tatum and
Speaker 1: Brown when they were beating switches. This was, you know,
Speaker 1: this is what I've always talked about in terms of
Speaker 1: like what I believe is the best strategy to defend
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics, and that's switch contain. Try to bait
Speaker 1: Jalen and Jason into pull up jump shots and hope
Speaker 1: that they settle a bunch and that you can keep
Speaker 1: them out of rotation, keep them from getting the wide
Speaker 1: open catch and shoot threes and the easy stuff at
Speaker 1: the rim that makes them unbeatable. And by the way,
Speaker 1: like it was, their defense was breaking early on, they
Speaker 1: were conceding the switches. Tatum was picking on everybody, a
Speaker 1: lot of Garland, but a ton against the Bigs, a
Speaker 1: lot of Evan Mobley and Jared Allen in space where
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum was just going to work and like Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown did most of his work against Darius Garland, did
Speaker 1: a ton of damage there, did some damage there in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. But like I was really impressed by
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum in his ISO possessions against Evan Mobley and
Speaker 1: Jared Alla. He was just driving hard at Evan Mobley
Speaker 1: and just like shucking him off with that right shoulder
Speaker 1: and getting easy looks to doing the same thing to
Speaker 1: Jared Allen, although he can't dislodge him as well. But
Speaker 1: he was showing a lot of impressive over the top
Speaker 1: short and mid range shot making against Jared Allen, he
Speaker 1: who's beating him off the dribble. There was a lot
Speaker 1: of good for the Celtics attacking Cleveland's game plan in
Speaker 1: the first half. But again, the goal there for Kenny
Speaker 1: Atkinson is to stay out of rotation as much as
Speaker 1: possible and limit Boston's catch and shoot looks. In order
Speaker 1: to do that, you have to not send too much
Speaker 1: help and count on those guys to just do the
Speaker 1: best they can and hope that they eventually wear down
Speaker 1: over the course of the game and that you start
Speaker 1: to get stops when you need him late. By the way,
Speaker 1: Boston averages thirty two catch and shoot jump shot attempts
Speaker 1: per game, which is the second most in the entire NBA.
Speaker 1: The only generated twenty catch and shoot catch and shoot
Speaker 1: shot attempts in this particular game because they stayed out
Speaker 1: of rotation, because they allowed Jon Tatum and Jaylen Brown
Speaker 1: to play one on one And by the way, in
Speaker 1: the first half, Boston got one point five to four
Speaker 1: points per ISO and they were getting cooked. But in
Speaker 1: the second half just one point per ISO flat. That's
Speaker 1: much more tenable. And then down the stretch. Cleveland took
Speaker 1: a page right out of Boston's book and started doing
Speaker 1: hunting of their own, as Donovan Mitchell just started relentlessly
Speaker 1: picking on Sam Hauser and was just consistently generating great
Speaker 1: stuff against him. He had twelve points and two assists
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. I thought he was incredible all night,
Speaker 1: Like as great as Jason Tatum was. Donovan Mitchell was
Speaker 1: basically going step first step with him, and there just
Speaker 1: aren't that many players in the league who can do
Speaker 1: that super impressive off the dribbles shot making the step
Speaker 1: back three, was going really deadly floater tonight. He was
Speaker 1: getting into the lane and just like shooting that a
Speaker 1: little easy five to seven foot shot over the top.
Speaker 1: He was killing the Celtics with that and then Evan Mobley.
Speaker 1: One of the concepts that I talk a lot about
Speaker 1: in this show is the idea of, like, you know
Speaker 1: what it's like as a basketball player when you're playing poorly,
Speaker 1: and how you react to that, and how you stay
Speaker 1: engaged and understand that like nothing really matters. No one's
Speaker 1: going to remember any of it as long as you
Speaker 1: make a play that helps your team win and you
Speaker 1: get out of there with the win. Evan Mobley had
Speaker 1: a rough game through three quarters. He was picking up
Speaker 1: some fouls, he was badly missing some jump shots. He
Speaker 1: wasn't really accomplishing much as a scorer, but he was
Speaker 1: amazing in that fourth quarter. He hit two massive threes,
Speaker 1: He had four offensive rebounds, a couple of putbacks. He
Speaker 1: finished the fourth quarter with eleven points and eight rebounds,
Speaker 1: had two of the biggest like had several of the
Speaker 1: biggest shots of the night, and I thought he was amazing.
Speaker 1: And now no one's going to look back at that
Speaker 1: game and think Evan Mobley played poorly because he found
Speaker 1: a way to make plays when his team needed to
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter and they got got out of
Speaker 1: there with the win. Really impressive Resilien. It's not the
Speaker 1: whole team, but especially from Evan Mobley. Big picture with
Speaker 1: the Cavs, I thought this was an incredibly impressive win,
Speaker 1: regardless of the surrounding context. To survive a twenty five
Speaker 1: to three start and another big Celtics run in the
Speaker 1: third quarter where they go up by seventeen to win
Speaker 1: on the road in that building against that team, I
Speaker 1: thought it was just remarkable mental toughness in belief that
Speaker 1: they were unwavering and they're just like attack and just
Speaker 1: like eventually Boston will show some cracks and we're gonna
Speaker 1: work our way back into this game. And they did.
Speaker 1: They completely turned around the vibes from the beginning of
Speaker 1: the game. And that's twice this year that they beat
Speaker 1: the Celtics in games that they looked like they lost
Speaker 1: control of. Again, if you remember the game in Cleveland
Speaker 1: that Boston or that Cleveland won, Tatum was picking on Garland,
Speaker 1: doing a bunch of damage short range shot making, looked
Speaker 1: like the Celtics were gonna get out of there with
Speaker 1: the win. Donovan Mitchell again just a bunch of crazy
Speaker 1: shot making down the stretch as he helped pull that
Speaker 1: game out. But at the same time, I do think
Speaker 1: it's important to acknowledge that there was a dynamic gap
Speaker 1: play in that fourth quarter that won't be in play
Speaker 1: if these two teams meet in the playoffs. The Calves
Speaker 1: had an easy target to attack in crunch time in
Speaker 1: Sam Hauser. In a playoff series, that won't be Sam Hauser,
Speaker 1: that'll be Drew Holliday. That's the thing that's scary about
Speaker 1: this matchup in the big picture, and what makes the
Speaker 1: Celtics such a dangerous team to deal with in a
Speaker 1: two week context. The Celtics will always have ways to
Speaker 1: attack you, especially if you're Cleveland. Right Like Darius Garland,
Speaker 1: Tatum and Brown both feel very comfortable in that matchup.
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum, as he demonstrated tonight, looks very comfortable attacking
Speaker 1: Cleveland's bigs in switches. But the Calves will not have
Speaker 1: those same high quality options unless the Celtics enter that
Speaker 1: series with a bunch of injuries. That's more or less
Speaker 1: where I'm at with this matchup at this point. If
Speaker 1: the Celtics are fully healthy, the Calves can win. But
Speaker 1: I'm definitely going to pick the Celtics. But if the
Speaker 1: Seas go into that series with a couple of injuries,
Speaker 1: say it like two of their core six guys, to
Speaker 1: where someone like a Howser has to play, or someone
Speaker 1: like a Pritchard has to play, then this series looks
Speaker 1: a lot more like a coin flip to me, and
Speaker 1: we'd be foolish should not consider that as a potential outcome.
Speaker 1: When chrisops Porzingis missed a bunch of time in the
Speaker 1: playoffs last year, so yeah, I think health is very
Speaker 1: important for the Celtics, and I think it's important that
Speaker 1: they continue to manage the injuries the way they have
Speaker 1: been with all their guys throughout the season because it's
Speaker 1: so important that they get there with everyone available. On
Speaker 1: the Celtics front, I didn't love the idea of Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown taking nine shots in the fourth quarter with how
Speaker 1: well Jason Tatum was playing. There were some good possessions
Speaker 1: there against Aarius Garland, but there are some really tough
Speaker 1: shots mixed in there too. And again, like as a team,
Speaker 1: you only managed eighteen points in the fourth quarter. Very
Speaker 1: few of those catch and shoot type of attempts generated
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. That's where it becomes an issue.
Speaker 1: There was a brief stretch there in the middle of
Speaker 1: the fourth where Kenny Atkinson went small to mobile and
Speaker 1: Allen out out of the game, and the Celtics immediately
Speaker 1: played some really good driving kick basketball. And that's the thing.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough against a
Speaker 1: team like Cleveland that can really load up on the
Speaker 1: ball with their size, right, But like you can't just
Speaker 1: settle for jump shots. There has to be an attempt
Speaker 1: to get as much of that. There has to be
Speaker 1: an attempt to get as much of that rim pressure
Speaker 1: as possible. It looks kind of kobesque at times with
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown constantly taking really, really difficult
Speaker 1: off the dribble jump shots. The Celtics took forty off
Speaker 1: the dribble jump shots in this game and only got
Speaker 1: thirty six points out of them, zero point nine points
Speaker 1: per attenp. That's where the Jays have to be more
Speaker 1: deliberate about that same dynamic we talked about in the
Speaker 1: Lakers segment earlier in the show. Pressure the rim force
Speaker 1: help make it untenable. Gotta generate those driving kick attempts,
Speaker 1: catch and shoot threes, easy stuff at the rim. That's
Speaker 1: the championship Celtics off the dribble jump shot is a
Speaker 1: ceiling raizer. It's a rescue possessions at the end of
Speaker 1: the shot clock type of thing. But you can't live
Speaker 1: and die on that. Forty off the dribble jump shots
Speaker 1: is too many in one game. I'm not gonna be
Speaker 1: too concerned about them. On the defensive end in this game,
Speaker 1: it's just tough to contain the ball without Drew Holliday,
Speaker 1: but they certainly can do better. The Calves did cut
Speaker 1: them to pieces after that first quarter. But again, that's
Speaker 1: gonna be the one thing that is going to look
Speaker 1: like a potential vulnerability for the Celtics this year in
Speaker 1: the postseason is if Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown don't
Speaker 1: bring the requisite a level of downhill aggression against switches.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk a few minutes of Nuggets before
Speaker 1: we get out of here tonight. So I want to
Speaker 1: talk about two concepts, the idea of inverted spacing, and
Speaker 1: then I want to talk a little bit about the
Speaker 1: Nuggets on the defensive end of the floor. So I
Speaker 1: was amazed at how easily the Nuggets were picking apart
Speaker 1: the Pistons in this game by just having Yokics bring
Speaker 1: the ball off the floor and you know, dribble up
Speaker 1: to the elbow or the top of the key kind
Speaker 1: of extended out above the break, and then they would
Speaker 1: just have some of their guys run off ball action,
Speaker 1: and Yokic was just making a read as those guys
Speaker 1: were either slipping out of a screen or the Pistons
Speaker 1: would botch a screen and put two on the ball
Speaker 1: on accident. Whatever it was that they would do, Yokic
Speaker 1: would make an easy, little over the top pass. And
Speaker 1: there's a reason why that's so open for Denver. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of teams that run off ball action,
Speaker 1: but most of the teams that run off ball action
Speaker 1: are not using their center as that type of high
Speaker 1: level passing folkrum to where one he can make all
Speaker 1: the reads, but two he also is capable of being
Speaker 1: a scoring threat to where you have to press up
Speaker 1: on him right when you have to press up on Jokic.
Speaker 1: Where's the big he's on Jokic. So there's a lot
Speaker 1: of space underneath the basket for guys to get openings
Speaker 1: slipping out of those actions. And the other part of
Speaker 1: it is this is where continuity comes to the surface
Speaker 1: for Denver. MPJ has been playing in this system forever.
Speaker 1: Al Murray's been playing in this system forever. Aaron Gordon's
Speaker 1: been playing in the system forever. Christian Brown's been playing
Speaker 1: in the system for a few years now. These guys
Speaker 1: have a lot of reps in this system, so they
Speaker 1: just know what to do this. Okay. If I set
Speaker 1: a backscreen and Jamal Murray cuts through off of my
Speaker 1: back screen but his defenders pinned on my top side,
Speaker 1: I just wait for Jamal to cut through and then
Speaker 1: I kind of push off that guy and I know
Speaker 1: that passing angles right there. Because he's on my top side,
Speaker 1: I've got an easy opportunity behind me to get to
Speaker 1: the rid right like, Oh, it's a they're not switching
Speaker 1: and he's kind of staying glued up. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: curl around it. I have an opportunity to attack that way,
Speaker 1: or I can come off of yokicch and look to score.
Speaker 1: They scored a ton on cuts in this game, nineteen
Speaker 1: points off cuts. It was very similar to the Pacers
Speaker 1: game or the Portland game a few weeks back, where
Speaker 1: they just picked him apart with off ball action, with
Speaker 1: Jokic operating as that passing fulcrum. It actually reminds me
Speaker 1: a little bit of the Golden State Warriors when they
Speaker 1: were in their peak there in the you know, mid
Speaker 1: twenty tens, because they played such a unique style that
Speaker 1: in the regular season context especially, but even in playoffs
Speaker 1: in the beginning of series, as teams had to adjust,
Speaker 1: they would do a lot of damage to teams just
Speaker 1: because it'd be like, Oh, I'm used to playing all
Speaker 1: these normal NBA teams, Now I'm playing Golden State, and
Speaker 1: I'm being run through this blender of all of this
Speaker 1: action as I'm chasing Steph and Clay around and Draymond's
Speaker 1: strowing fake dribble handoffs, and if we blitz, they're just
Speaker 1: so good at executing these four on threes they would
Speaker 1: just pick teams apart like that, Right, that's a similar
Speaker 1: effect that Denver can have on teams to where they
Speaker 1: just have such a unique play style. Actually, I think
Speaker 1: Tyre's Albert, if I remember correctly, I saw a social
Speaker 1: media clip of Tyre's Albert making a mention of this himself,
Speaker 1: talking about his experience and defending some of the stuff
Speaker 1: that he's seen online about people saying all the teams
Speaker 1: in the NBA play the same. No, they don't, and
Speaker 1: I agree, But like that's part of the disadvantage that
Speaker 1: Denver presents the teams is they just play such a
Speaker 1: unique style that it can kind of catch teams off
Speaker 1: guard if they're not used to it. Right. I just
Speaker 1: thought it was really interesting watching the Pistons games. They
Speaker 1: got again a very convincing win against a Pistons team
Speaker 1: that had been kicking everybody's butt for a while. By
Speaker 1: the way, Javal Murray was amazing in that game. I
Speaker 1: want to shout out Zeke Nausey too. Zike Nagy had
Speaker 1: like a ridiculous defensive set of plays in the first half.
Speaker 1: Like he like had a dig down play where he
Speaker 1: dug down on a drive and like close out to
Speaker 1: Tim Hardaway Junior and blocked him at the three point line.
Speaker 1: He like met Asar Thompson at the rim and transition
Speaker 1: and blocked him. He had another block on a rear
Speaker 1: view contest of Tim Hardaway Junior where he chased him
Speaker 1: over the top of the screen. He defended Tobias Harris
Speaker 1: well on a post up. He did a lot of
Speaker 1: good work on Kate Cunningham in the second half where
Speaker 1: he's just absorbing contact and just making him feel like
Speaker 1: he was playing in a crowd. I thought Zeke was fantastic,
Speaker 1: big win for the Nuggets to bounce back from that
Speaker 1: Bucks game. But I do want to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about the defense because they got picked a part
Speaker 1: at stretches in the Bucks game, and they really got
Speaker 1: picked apart in the Lakers game. And there's this consistent
Speaker 1: issue that's risen to the surface that I've seen, which
Speaker 1: is the Nuggets are getting picked part in rotation. Now,
Speaker 1: as we talked about after the Nuggets game, there's a
Speaker 1: certain amount of existing in rotation for Denver that they
Speaker 1: can't avoid, basically because how in the world are you
Speaker 1: going to be able to defend with Luca or with
Speaker 1: excuse me, NICOLEA Jokic in space? You can't If you
Speaker 1: have him switched ball screens, You're asking him to guard
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. That's not going to work. He's not
Speaker 1: a good enough rim protector to run deep drop. So
Speaker 1: you're kind of limited in terms of defensive scheme for
Speaker 1: Denver with Jokic at the level in ball screens. But
Speaker 1: they've been getting killed there. So how do the Nuggets
Speaker 1: get to the point where they can defend at a
Speaker 1: level that is high enough to win the championship within
Speaker 1: the concept of that defensive scheme? And there are two
Speaker 1: elements that I want to do a little bit of
Speaker 1: a deeper dive in today. First, this is on Jokis.
Speaker 1: When he is at the level, he has to be
Speaker 1: much much, much more active with his hands. For the
Speaker 1: record against the Detroit I thought he had a lot
Speaker 1: more quality possessions like that early in the game. Met
Speaker 1: Kate up at the level got a deflection as he
Speaker 1: was trying to gather his dribble. There was another one
Speaker 1: where he got up on the level against Kate and
Speaker 1: apply good ball pressure and Kate kind of panicked and
Speaker 1: rifle to pass out of bounds through the baseline. The
Speaker 1: reason why being active at the level is so important
Speaker 1: with Jokic's hands is because being in rotation is hard.
Speaker 1: One of the things you can do to make existing
Speaker 1: in rotation easier is to disrupt the first pass. If
Speaker 1: you get up to the level and the first pass
Speaker 1: is just easily rifled across the court or easily dropped
Speaker 1: off to the role man, now you're existing in rotation
Speaker 1: and you're dead to rights because every close out is
Speaker 1: like a fifteen twenty foot close out and you're just
Speaker 1: behind the eight ball, so to speak. But if you
Speaker 1: apply a little pressure and you either get a little
Speaker 1: bit of a deflection, or you forced that pass to
Speaker 1: be off target a little bit, or you force that
Speaker 1: pass to go up in the air for a while
Speaker 1: before it gets to where it needs to go, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, the first rotation has a head start
Speaker 1: because the ball getting from point A to point B,
Speaker 1: whether that's the role man or the weak side. The
Speaker 1: ball getting to that point is now delayed, and if
Speaker 1: it's delayed by a split second, that split second can
Speaker 1: be what it takes for you to make that first rotation,
Speaker 1: and then from there you have to be as sharp
Speaker 1: as possible with your rotations on the backside. Denver's not
Speaker 1: been good with their rotations for the most part this season.
Speaker 1: If you can, you can do a lot to make
Speaker 1: shooters shoot poorly by making them feel rushed, and you
Speaker 1: can make them feel rushed by being sharper with your closeouts. Again,
Speaker 1: the openings are going to be there, they're baked into
Speaker 1: the coverage. You're bringing Yokich up to the level that's unavoidable,
Speaker 1: but you can be more prepared for it on the
Speaker 1: back end, and I think that that's going to be
Speaker 1: a non negotiable for the Nuggets. For them to get
Speaker 1: to where they need to go, they need Yokic to
Speaker 1: be more active with his hands at the level, and
Speaker 1: they need their weekside rotations to be substantially sharper as
Speaker 1: they try to contain these teams. All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have is always as sincerely appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We will
Speaker 1: be back. I'm recording another episode on Sunday night before
Speaker 1: I go out of town next week that'll be released
Speaker 1: on Monday morning. That'll break down a bunch of games
Speaker 1: from Sunday. I'm also pre recording a mail bag that
Speaker 1: will most likely be airing on Tuesday, so that's why
Speaker 1: we're doing the mail Bag on Tuesday instead of Friday
Speaker 1: this week. But again, as always, as sincerely appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys for supporting me and supporting the show, and I'll
Speaker 1: see you guys next time the volume. As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It
Speaker 1: would actually be really helpful for us if you guys
Speaker 1: would take a second and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
Speaker 1: you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
Speaker 1: appreciate it.