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Speaker 1: welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume heavy Wednesday, everybody.
Speaker 1: If all of you guys are having a great week,
Speaker 1: it is good to be back. Felt could to get
Speaker 1: some skiing in the northern Arizona. Here's the plan for
Speaker 1: the rest of this week. Obviously I missed a bunch
Speaker 1: of basketball over the course of the weekend. It's going
Speaker 1: to take me about a day to get caught up.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to get something out quickly, so this
Speaker 1: morning I'm just gonna do a short show. We're going
Speaker 1: to talk Celtics Thunder off the top of big deep
Speaker 1: dive into Celtics Thunder, and then I'm gonna talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about Mavericks Lakers from last night and this
Speaker 1: oh and to Lakers road trip. That's all we're doing
Speaker 1: in this morning's episode. As soon as I'm done, though,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start diving back into film. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff coming out throughout the rest of
Speaker 1: the week, including tomorrow. We got just a ridiculous game
Speaker 1: between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder to
Speaker 1: get into that one's gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: We also have a mail bag leader this week. Lots
Speaker 1: of content we're gonna get into, but just in this
Speaker 1: show today Celtics Thunder and Lakers maps. You guys know
Speaker 1: the joke before we get started. Subscribe to Oops to
Speaker 1: Night YouTube channel so we don't miss any more of
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Speaker 1: guys don't ma show announcement. Still, forget about a podcast
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Speaker 1: also helpful if you leave a rating and a review
Speaker 1: on that front. We also have new social media feeds
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where we're releasing content throughout
Speaker 1: the year. Make sure you guys follow us there and
Speaker 1: the last night at least keep dropping mail bag questions.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have a mail bag that's gonna come out
Speaker 1: on either Friday or Saturday this week, so make sure
Speaker 1: you drop those questions in the comments. All right, let's
Speaker 1: talk some basketball. So it's always fun watching two really
Speaker 1: damn good basketball teams because it's fun to watch teams
Speaker 1: that consistently do all the things that good basketball teams do,
Speaker 1: meaning they don't just real on their talent. You know,
Speaker 1: I think it's important for us to differentiate between super
Speaker 1: talented and super talented and plays good basketball. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of really talented teams in the league. I
Speaker 1: do think Boston is the most talented roster in the league,
Speaker 1: but I also thought they were the most talented roster
Speaker 1: in the league in twenty twenty two. They just weren't
Speaker 1: playing as good a brand of basketball. There was growth
Speaker 1: that occurred between then and now. It's too simple to
Speaker 1: just say, oh, they're that talented. It's an important thing
Speaker 1: to bring up. They are the most talented team in
Speaker 1: the league, but they also play one of the best
Speaker 1: brands of basketball that we see around the league. And
Speaker 1: same goes for Okay. See, they don't just rely on
Speaker 1: their talent. They hunt every single possible advantage, every single
Speaker 1: possible margin that will help them win basketball games. Just
Speaker 1: a couple examples to list, like pushing in transition off
Speaker 1: of makes That's an important thing that all good teams do,
Speaker 1: and it works, especially when they're cross matches, which is
Speaker 1: something that's happening in this game, right Like if Hartenstein's
Speaker 1: guarding Porzingis on offense, but Porzingis is guarding case on
Speaker 1: Wallace on defense, there's a cross match there, right, Like
Speaker 1: if guys are guarding different guys the opposite ends of
Speaker 1: the floor when the ball transitions, meaning like when there's
Speaker 1: a miss or when there's a steal, there is a
Speaker 1: moment where the guy that you're supposed to be guarding
Speaker 1: is far away, and so pushing in transition you can
Speaker 1: get a lot of cross matches. You can get initial
Speaker 1: advantages when a team just isn't back and you can
Speaker 1: maybe get them in rotation. Sometimes you'll get a complete
Speaker 1: breakdown and get a layup or dunk. There were several
Speaker 1: at the beginning of this game where both the Celtics
Speaker 1: and the Thunder were getting like dunks and easy shots
Speaker 1: in transition just by pushing off of makes. That's something
Speaker 1: that good teams do. You should you should push on
Speaker 1: a make because the entire purpose of why we run
Speaker 1: offense is to get an advantage. And if you can
Speaker 1: get an advantage without having to run offense, then by
Speaker 1: all means you should look to do that right. Generating
Speaker 1: advantages with basic fundamentals in the half court, So like
Speaker 1: quick moves off the catch, Derek White catching in the
Speaker 1: corner even though he's guarded, but just quickly ripping baseline
Speaker 1: and beating his man off the dribble suddenly Drew Holliday's
Speaker 1: going to wide open three at the top of the
Speaker 1: key right, or case On Wallace did something similar to
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum caught in the wing, just quickly racked to
Speaker 1: the right, I got in the lane and made like
Speaker 1: that lefty scoop shot that he made in the lane.
Speaker 1: Those are things that good basketball teams do, Like, Okay,
Speaker 1: nothing's open right now, somebody's got to create an advantage.
Speaker 1: When I catch, I'm ripping and I'm going to see
Speaker 1: if I can beat this dude off the dribble and
Speaker 1: maybe make something good happen off ball player movement Again,
Speaker 1: for both teams, guys are constantly cutting and relocating around
Speaker 1: the three point line, crashing the offensive glass out of
Speaker 1: the corner to get additional possessions ball pressure, Like, how
Speaker 1: often in that second half, in particular, do you see
Speaker 1: the Celtics end up in like a late clock situation
Speaker 1: where they haven't run anything just because okay See's pressuring
Speaker 1: the ball and not letting them get the ball up
Speaker 1: the floor quickly. It's always fun watching two great basketball
Speaker 1: teams go at it, and I really enjoyed watching the
Speaker 1: film and this one. I thought the story of the game, though,
Speaker 1: was okay C's ability to contain the basketball in the
Speaker 1: second half compared to the first half. I'll talk about
Speaker 1: containing the basketball a lot in the NBA because it's
Speaker 1: a concept that reminds me of lying play in the NFL.
Speaker 1: It's the push and pull that determines most possessions. Whether
Speaker 1: you can run the ball has everything to do with
Speaker 1: whether or not your line can get a push. Whether
Speaker 1: or not you can throw the ball has a lot
Speaker 1: to do with your ability to protect the quarterback long
Speaker 1: enough for receivers to get open so that you can
Speaker 1: make a throw down the field, right, Like I just
Speaker 1: the reason why I always fall back on this example
Speaker 1: is like I was a Dallas Cowboys fan growing up.
Speaker 1: All my families from the Dallas Fort Worth area, and
Speaker 1: like I rooted for that team in the mid twenty
Speaker 1: tens where it was like we were just running all
Speaker 1: over everybody and the game was just easy. We could
Speaker 1: go on the road to Green Bay, on the road
Speaker 1: to Pittsburgh and we could just run the ball down
Speaker 1: everyone's throat and it didn't matter, you know what advantages
Speaker 1: the other team had because we just could control the
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage. And then recent years it's the exact opposite, right,
Speaker 1: Like guys get hurt, guys retire all of a sudden.
Speaker 1: Tyron Smith, who was like the foundation of that line,
Speaker 1: is like just getting beat by quicker players, you know,
Speaker 1: and it just all of a sudden things start to
Speaker 1: break down. They don't look as good's. It is the
Speaker 1: push and pull that determines most possessions in football, and
Speaker 1: the same thing goes for basketball. Like if you are
Speaker 1: giving up straight line drives and guys are hard helping,
Speaker 1: and you're existing in rotation, and every player is playing
Speaker 1: with an advantage, the game looks really easy. But if
Speaker 1: you're containing the ball and you're not allowing dribble penetration,
Speaker 1: and you're not allowing and you're not getting into situations
Speaker 1: where you have to hard help, and you're not existing
Speaker 1: in rotation, and guys are constantly playing with a guy
Speaker 1: in front of them instead of a guy closing out
Speaker 1: at them, the entire situation can tilt in favor of
Speaker 1: the defense, and most of it comes down to can
Speaker 1: you contain the ball. In the first half of this game,
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and chrisops porzingis in particular through drives,
Speaker 1: power drives, trying to go through people and post ups.
Speaker 1: Just kept getting the ball into the paint, going through guys,
Speaker 1: attacking switches with seals, winning that physicality battle at the
Speaker 1: point of attack. Boston had forty points in the paint
Speaker 1: in this game. Thirty four of them came in the
Speaker 1: first half, and then in the second half started to
Speaker 1: win that same battle. It shifted towards ok see. Mark
Speaker 1: Dagenal attributed it to lou Dort moving over to Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown happened in like the late first half, Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: hit like another like little right shoulder fade away in
Speaker 1: the lane. I think over Shae if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: and next thing you know, it's Lou Dort that's guarding
Speaker 1: Jalen instead of Jason Tatum. I didn't. I think that
Speaker 1: certainly played a role, but I thought it was everybody,
Speaker 1: because there's just so much switching in this game. Like
Speaker 1: it wasn't just Lou Dort on an Island, it was
Speaker 1: really everyone in Oklahoma City, Jersey just competing and winning
Speaker 1: that battle. Kenridge Williams standing Jalen Brown up and getting
Speaker 1: the steal, Aaron Wiggins standing guys up, shake Gildas, Alexander
Speaker 1: winning some of those post up battles that he had
Speaker 1: been losing in the first half of the game. Case
Speaker 1: on Wallace holding his ground better than he had been then.
Speaker 1: Everyone pressuring the ball. Tatum and Brown were fumbling the
Speaker 1: basketball everywhere, so even when they did draw and help,
Speaker 1: they couldn't get the ball out quickly enough to the
Speaker 1: guys that could make them pay for it. They okay,
Speaker 1: So he started to dominate at the point of a
Speaker 1: the paint touches fell off a cliff, the quality shots
Speaker 1: fell off of a cliff, and Okac completely took control
Speaker 1: of the game. The stats that came out of that
Speaker 1: Okac defensive effort and in the second half were crazy.
Speaker 1: They allowed just twenty seven points, just six points allowed
Speaker 1: in the paint after allowing thirty four in the first half.
Speaker 1: Of the seventeen catch and shoot jump shots they allowed,
Speaker 1: fourteen of them were classified by guarded percentergy. Again, this
Speaker 1: is a team in Boston that generates sixteen unguarded catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shots a game which ranked second in
Speaker 1: the entire NBA. Believe it or not, the Chicago Bulls
Speaker 1: get over twenty. That's actually number one in the league.
Speaker 1: But a big part of that is like guys that
Speaker 1: you concede shots too. But Boston again consistently generates open
Speaker 1: shots against everybody. They only generated three unguarded catch and
Speaker 1: shoot jump shots against the Thunder in the second half.
Speaker 1: Boston could not generate good looks. And there's gonna be
Speaker 1: talk about shooting. And for the record, there is definitely
Speaker 1: a gap in shooting in this game. Like both teams
Speaker 1: attempted thirty on one catch and shoot jump shots total,
Speaker 1: but Boston made five in Oklahoma City made thirteen. Like
Speaker 1: they definitely shot better. I'm not gonna sit here and
Speaker 1: pretend that's not the case. But nineteen of Oklahoma City's
Speaker 1: thirty one catch and shoot jump shots were unguarded. Only
Speaker 1: eight of the thirty one catch and shoe jump shots
Speaker 1: for Boston in the entire game were unguarded, including only
Speaker 1: three in the second half when Oklahoma City took control. So, like,
Speaker 1: if you leave that game as a Celtics fan or
Speaker 1: as a Celtics player, as a Celtics coach thinking they
Speaker 1: just outshot you, that would be a mistake. They outplayed you,
Speaker 1: got better shots, and then they outshot you on those
Speaker 1: better shots. And remember these things are all connected. You
Speaker 1: build rhythm, you start to make the contested ones. When
Speaker 1: you're getting open ones that you're also making, you build
Speaker 1: rhythm and confidence you start to knock down shots. The
Speaker 1: thunder were able to get out in transition off of
Speaker 1: their defense in the second half. They had just five
Speaker 1: transition points in the first half. They had twenty transition
Speaker 1: points in the second half. They forced Boston into ten
Speaker 1: turnovers in the second half, scored seventeen points off of
Speaker 1: them getting just five points in transition or off of
Speaker 1: turnovers in that first half. Again, twenty of your fifty
Speaker 1: points that you score in the second half, we're in transition.
Speaker 1: That's forty percent of their offense. Oklahoma City at twenty
Speaker 1: transition points, Boston at twenty seven points total in the
Speaker 1: second half, and then when they were in the half court.
Speaker 1: Shay was able all game to get consistent dribble penetration.
Speaker 1: Early in the game, he just made it clear, Like
Speaker 1: first couple possessions, he beat Jalen Brown cleanly off the
Speaker 1: dribble with the straight line drive twice in the first
Speaker 1: two minutes, did it to Jason Tatum a few times
Speaker 1: in the game. He just was able to beat everybody
Speaker 1: off the dribble. He's got this move. Shae has this move.
Speaker 1: It's like a between the legs dribble that flows into
Speaker 1: a dribble drive. But there's like a change of pace
Speaker 1: element to it, so like he'll be operating slowly off
Speaker 1: that dribble and he'll slowly dribble through the legs. But
Speaker 1: then as soon as he's ready to go, like he'll
Speaker 1: be slowly dribbling through his legs and as soon as
Speaker 1: that ball touches the right hand, he'll just explode forward
Speaker 1: and it's almost like a It almost like lulls you
Speaker 1: to sleep. But in addition to his elite first step,
Speaker 1: it just makes them really really difficult to keep in front.
Speaker 1: I thought his shot making was huge, especially at the
Speaker 1: start of the second half when he kind of like
Speaker 1: began things as Oklahoma City started to take control. And
Speaker 1: then I thought he made to play the game in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter blocking Jason Tatum at the rim and
Speaker 1: transition and then down on the other end feeding Isah
Speaker 1: Hartenstein on the lob for that poster, Donk, what the hell?
Speaker 1: What a hell of an exclamation point for Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: to end that game. I thought he pretty clearly looked
Speaker 1: like the best player on the floor in this one. Again,
Speaker 1: Tatum will have another shot. These two teams play in
Speaker 1: mid March in Boston, and they might play again in
Speaker 1: the finals. That's certainly a possibility of maybe even one
Speaker 1: of the most likely possibilities. But round one for this
Speaker 1: matchup in the regular season went pretty resoundingly to Shay
Speaker 1: in my opinion. A couple other thunder guys I wanted
Speaker 1: to shout out. Lou Dort was just a physical, wrecking
Speaker 1: ball all game. He's fighting dudes off of spots, pressuring
Speaker 1: the ball, forcing turnovers, winning contested rebound battles. He's super
Speaker 1: valuable in this matchup because he's quick enough to beat
Speaker 1: Tatum in Brown to spots, but he's also strong enough
Speaker 1: that they can't go through him, which makes him unique
Speaker 1: in that, like those guys almost have to get off
Speaker 1: of dort in order to really create an advantage against
Speaker 1: this team. Kase On Wallace, the Sea started porzingis on
Speaker 1: him in this game. And again, the idea there is
Speaker 1: you're trying to make Kayson Wallace make above the break threes. Theoretically,
Speaker 1: that's like the idea behind it, right, and you know,
Speaker 1: first possession it worked like kase On Wallace like caught
Speaker 1: with you know, nine or eight seconds on the shot
Speaker 1: clock and just dribbled into a contested mid range pull up,
Speaker 1: you know, like a bad shot. But for the rest
Speaker 1: of the game he settled down and you know he
Speaker 1: knocked down to catch and shoot three. He was driving
Speaker 1: hard into openings like coming off of action, which is
Speaker 1: something I talked about with the Mavericks series last year,
Speaker 1: Like when you have a guy like Derek Jones, it's
Speaker 1: being guarded by Porzingis. Get him the ball so that
Speaker 1: he can go downhill and like in his screening action
Speaker 1: because Porzingis is going to struggle to navigate screens. Never
Speaker 1: did that. Kason Wallace consistently involved attacking in transition. That
Speaker 1: was a big thing in the second half. But also
Speaker 1: just like coming off of dhos and getting into the lane,
Speaker 1: making floaters, making scoop shots, attacking be a threat. When
Speaker 1: they put Porzingis on you like that, they're saying, we
Speaker 1: don't think you're a threat to score. That's literally the
Speaker 1: idea there. That's why they put Jason Tatum on centers
Speaker 1: typically so that they can switch that actual they actually
Speaker 1: started with Drew Holliday on Hartenstein in this one so
Speaker 1: they can switch, but they do it with both heart
Speaker 1: Holiday and Tatum. But like the idea is, they want
Speaker 1: the Seas want to switch ball screens with your normal
Speaker 1: ballscreen partners, and they want to take your weakest defensive
Speaker 1: offensive player and put Porzingis on him. Case on Wallace
Speaker 1: had to make him pay, and he did. Made six
Speaker 1: shots in this game. Aaron Wiggins, this dude is such
Speaker 1: a pro. He's sneaky. One of the older and more
Speaker 1: experienced guys on this Thunder roster. But he just plays
Speaker 1: in his role. He defends, he rebounds, he makes quick
Speaker 1: decisions off the catch. He's been one of the more
Speaker 1: reliable catch and shoot guys for the Thunder this year.
Speaker 1: The Thunder just really resounding statement in that second half
Speaker 1: against the Celtics. On the Celtics front, I didn't think
Speaker 1: Tatum was bad, but I didn't think he was very
Speaker 1: good either. His biggest job on this team is to
Speaker 1: get the defense in rotation, and he just wasn't a
Speaker 1: to do so. He had just one assists, which was
Speaker 1: his lowest total of the season. And again, the Seas
Speaker 1: just didn't generate open looks in this game, and that
Speaker 1: was the main reason why shots didn't go in. Right.
Speaker 1: If you're not gonna get open looks, they're probably not
Speaker 1: going to go in. This particular matchup will test Tatum's ceiling.
Speaker 1: Should these teams meet in the finals, Tatum is going
Speaker 1: to have to in this matchup consistently get to matchups.
Speaker 1: He likes beat that matchup and generate easy shots. If
Speaker 1: he doesn't, the Thunder will beat them, and he's capable.
Speaker 1: Here's a lot of size advantages on the floor. But
Speaker 1: he's got to do a better job than he did
Speaker 1: in that second half of getting compromising Oklahoma City's defense
Speaker 1: to generate quality shots. Jalen Brown is just the tail
Speaker 1: of two halves. Like first half he's going through guys
Speaker 1: and causing problems for the Thunder and the Paint. But
Speaker 1: then in the second half it's a lot of the
Speaker 1: old Jalen, a lot of like losing his handle against pressure,
Speaker 1: tough shots, election, a couple of really bad turnovers in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter where he's just driving into the teeth
Speaker 1: of the defense and getting swiped, just like kind of
Speaker 1: old school stuff that we used to deal with with
Speaker 1: Jalen in the past. Right. Porzingis, on the one hand,
Speaker 1: his post up mismatching looked good. They went to him
Speaker 1: three times against Thunder. Smaller players in the post scored
Speaker 1: every single time. But the Celtics defense could not get
Speaker 1: stops against Oklahoma City with Porzingis on the floor. They
Speaker 1: had a one twenty two defensive rating with Porzingis on
Speaker 1: the floor in this game. So in the big picture,
Speaker 1: this is good for the league, you know, especially with
Speaker 1: where I was at a few a few months ago,
Speaker 1: Like not even like one month ago, I thought Boston
Speaker 1: was on a tier by themselves at the top of
Speaker 1: the league. Now it feels like we have three completely
Speaker 1: legit teams in our contender tier, in our top tier
Speaker 1: contender tier, and they're all good in different ways. Like
Speaker 1: Boston is the hyper versatile, older, more experienced team, right
Speaker 1: they've won a championship. Cleveland is the insanely good offense,
Speaker 1: and Oklahoma City is the insanely good defense. Right. Those
Speaker 1: are like the three calling cards, but all three of
Speaker 1: those teams have different approaches to win it. Each team
Speaker 1: has a weakness, like Boston doesn't look as sharper as
Speaker 1: focused as they were last year. But I think this
Speaker 1: okaysee in Cleveland run is gonna be a wake up
Speaker 1: call for them, and I think Boston's gonna play much
Speaker 1: better in this next portion of the season. Oklahoma City's
Speaker 1: shooting is still super unreliable. Even after shooting the lights
Speaker 1: out last night, they're still just twentieth and three point
Speaker 1: percentage on the season. Cleveland has some entry points into
Speaker 1: their defense with a couple of small guards, and they're
Speaker 1: not a good defensive rebounding team. I think they're twentieth
Speaker 1: or twenty seconds. I think they're bottom ten in defensive rebounding, so,
Speaker 1: like all teams have their weaknesses as well. This is
Speaker 1: why I would say, like, there's no point in taking
Speaker 1: regular season victory laps Oklahoma City. You're about to go
Speaker 1: on the road to Cleveland. You can absolutely lose that game,
Speaker 1: right Like Boston again is gonna play you again at home.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a different type of game. This is
Speaker 1: This is a battle that's gonna be determined in the postseason.
Speaker 1: This is not a battle that's gonna be determined in
Speaker 1: the regular season. All three of these teams can beat
Speaker 1: each other again. Cleveland absolutely could beat Oklahoma City tonight.
Speaker 1: Like this can go a bunch of different ways. I
Speaker 1: will say though, again I used to view Boston in
Speaker 1: a tier by themselves on top of the league. I
Speaker 1: no longer feel that way. I feel like Cleveland and
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City absolutely deserve to be on the same tier
Speaker 1: with them. Moving on to Lakers. Maps interesting game in
Speaker 1: the first half, the Lakers weren't really all that locked in,
Speaker 1: but this is a MAVs offense that has struggled to
Speaker 1: score when Luca and Kyrie have been out, and so
Speaker 1: the Lakers still kind of had a lead there in
Speaker 1: that late first half, but I thought the Lakers lost
Speaker 1: this game in two particular stretches. First was the Clay
Speaker 1: rundown in the first half, and the first three that
Speaker 1: he hit wasn't bad defense, but it was conservative defense.
Speaker 1: He's running off of a screening action towards the left wing.
Speaker 1: Max Christy's trailing him, sprinting as hard as he can.
Speaker 1: He's a little detached, but he's trying, and Ad like
Speaker 1: he could show up at the level. Probably should because
Speaker 1: it's Klay Thompson, but like I think at that point
Speaker 1: he hadn't hit a three yet and he would have
Speaker 1: given up an easy pocket pass if he had stepped up,
Speaker 1: So Ad just kind of token half shows basically, like,
Speaker 1: let's see Clay can make the shot, and he makes
Speaker 1: a shot, so whatever he makes the first one, it's
Speaker 1: a relatively tough shot. He gets a conservative defensive look.
Speaker 1: But the next two threes he hit were just total
Speaker 1: defensive breakdowns, like Ruey guarding I think Spencer Dinwoodie on
Speaker 1: the play and Austin Reeves is being guarded by Clay
Speaker 1: and there's a two man game. It's obviously a switch
Speaker 1: It's just that should be a switch. Every single time
Speaker 1: Austin thinks it's a switch. Ruey just stands still and
Speaker 1: Clay slips out of it and knocks down to three.
Speaker 1: Just a complete defensive breakdown from Ruey. Ha Chamura gives
Speaker 1: up a wide open three to Klay Thompson. He hits it,
Speaker 1: and then the one that he hit in the left
Speaker 1: corner in transition was Lebron's fault. He just the rim
Speaker 1: was already accounted for. His job was to spray out
Speaker 1: to shooters. He should have been on Clay in the
Speaker 1: left corner. He wasn't there, and he knocked it down.
Speaker 1: So gives up a shooting run to Klay Thompson. They
Speaker 1: immediately go on this run. It's in twenty one to
Speaker 1: three run spanning halftime. Now, all of a sudden, the
Speaker 1: Lakers go from up by six to down by twelve.
Speaker 1: But then the Lakers play a nice stretch of basketball
Speaker 1: and they cut the lead down to five, and they
Speaker 1: promptly give up another shooting run to Jaden Hardy once
Speaker 1: again started in something that was a conservative look. It
Speaker 1: was his own look. Ball gets swung to the left wing.
Speaker 1: Jaden Hardy is the right read to try to beat
Speaker 1: the zone, and again the zone is designed to concede
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. He knocks down the shot whatever,
Speaker 1: But on the very next possession, Max Christy just loses
Speaker 1: him in the same spot. I think he's trying to
Speaker 1: check a cutter's like Max to Klebo was like cutting
Speaker 1: down the lane, and Max was like trying to hit him,
Speaker 1: but he like went way underneath him, like like way
Speaker 1: in the paint. And as a result, Jayden Hardy's just
Speaker 1: wide open for three on the left wing knocks it
Speaker 1: down again again. He had just hit one from the
Speaker 1: same spot. It's a defensive breakdown. You can't be like,
Speaker 1: you can't be detached from the guy who just made
Speaker 1: a shot in that spot. And then on the next possession,
Speaker 1: Gabe and Max switch, presumably so that that mistake doesn't
Speaker 1: happen again, and then Gabe makes the exact same mistake.
Speaker 1: Kleba cuts into the lane, Gabe tries to get up
Speaker 1: underneath him to check him, and they just swing the
Speaker 1: ball up to Jaden Hardy and he knocks down to
Speaker 1: three again. I literally couldn't believe it when I was
Speaker 1: watching the tape, Like you just switched presumably to patch
Speaker 1: up this defensive bright down, and then you made the
Speaker 1: exact same defensive breakdown right after that. On the next possession,
Speaker 1: Ad smokes a little floater in the lane. Quentin Grimes
Speaker 1: dribbles into a transition three where Ad does not pick
Speaker 1: him up, knocks down to three. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the leads back up to fifteen. Two stretches, two brief
Speaker 1: stretches with a bunch of defensive breakdowns where you completely
Speaker 1: lose control of the game. This MAV's offense has definitely
Speaker 1: struggled with the injuries. That's to be expected, but they're
Speaker 1: still a tough team. I've said this before, but I
Speaker 1: think the Mavericks have the second best roster in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference in terms of total talent on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor. They still have a ton of defensive
Speaker 1: personnel and they have plenty of ball handling to run
Speaker 1: a coherent offense without their stars. If you don't bring
Speaker 1: your a game against Dallas, you absolutely can lose. And
Speaker 1: the Lakers made several runs in this game. They played
Speaker 1: beautiful basketball for stretches. I think Lebron's playing really well
Speaker 1: right now. It's kind of crazy the level that Lebron's
Speaker 1: playing at right now, I feel like he's getting wherever
Speaker 1: he wants and generating quality shots whenever he wants. He's
Speaker 1: getting a lot of rim pressure. He looks better athletically
Speaker 1: than he did at any point in the season. But
Speaker 1: as a team, they just have way too many defensive breakdowns. Again,
Speaker 1: there's a difference between breakdowns and weaknesses. A defensive weaknesses
Speaker 1: is like you do your job, but the guy scores
Speaker 1: anyway because they haven't advantage. So like PJ. Washington and
Speaker 1: Spencer Dinwoody driving through Austin reeves or Dalton connect and
Speaker 1: getting buckets. Those are weaknesses Austin, usually on the road,
Speaker 1: usually when he's been playing every night for a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, we'll have a night like that where he
Speaker 1: just doesn't hold up very well and teams attack him. Generally,
Speaker 1: in the big picture, Austin holds up pretty well, but
Speaker 1: he has nights like that sometimes where teams can go
Speaker 1: through him. Dalton obviously not a very good defensive player.
Speaker 1: Those are just weaknesses. That kind of thing I think
Speaker 1: you can account for and plan for in a defense.
Speaker 1: The best defenses in the league still give up about
Speaker 1: one hundred points per one hundred possessions. So it's not
Speaker 1: like you can just stop teams and strangle him. You're
Speaker 1: gonna give up points with your disadvantages and your mistakes,
Speaker 1: but you have to limit them as much as possible.
Speaker 1: Breakdowns are fundamentally different. That's like I didn't do my
Speaker 1: job and now this guy's wide open. That is unacceptable.
Speaker 1: Those are the kinds of things that you have to
Speaker 1: fight against. Those are the things that will cost you games.
Speaker 1: You lost this game with two shooting runs from Klay
Speaker 1: Thompson and Jaden Hardy that centered around defensive breakdowns, guys
Speaker 1: just not doing their jobs. And so as I look
Speaker 1: in the big picture, like in the three losses since
Speaker 1: the Dori and Finney Smith trade, the Lakers have a
Speaker 1: one to twenty six defensive rating that's abysmal. But then
Speaker 1: you watch them and it's like the third quarter run
Speaker 1: against Houston, there's quarters stretches for five to six minutes
Speaker 1: where they look awesome on defense. The same team that's
Speaker 1: giving up a one to twenty six defensive rating in
Speaker 1: these three losses in those same games has looked very
Speaker 1: good defensively for stretches. That is a clear sign that
Speaker 1: this is an execution issue. And there are many reasons
Speaker 1: why Anthony Davis still doesn't look quite like the same
Speaker 1: defender he was even a year ago. He's getting lost
Speaker 1: around the rim a lot. That was weird at the
Speaker 1: end of the Houston game, how everyone's just going right.
Speaker 1: Adam shang Gun's is going right at him, Jalen Green's
Speaker 1: going right at him, Fred Van vliet'z going right at him,
Speaker 1: and they're just shooting over the top of him and scoring.
Speaker 1: Like hey, dude, like I say, you're the best defensive
Speaker 1: player in the world. That's a standard, that's a standard
Speaker 1: that we hold you too, and you're not living up
Speaker 1: to that standard right now. Right the Lebron still has
Speaker 1: his lackadaisical moments, but it mostly comes down to the
Speaker 1: breakdowns for me, guys like Ruey who are just not
Speaker 1: good at tracking, guys on the perimeter who just are
Speaker 1: lost within this scheme at times. And then Max like again,
Speaker 1: like Max has all this talent and he's always playing hard,
Speaker 1: but he's prone to a lot of breakdowns on defense,
Speaker 1: in large part because he's a young player. Young players
Speaker 1: make mistakes and so like interestingly enough, I think the
Speaker 1: Lakers are trying to be good when I was frustrated
Speaker 1: with them in the early part of the season after
Speaker 1: that Miami Heat game. What specifically bothered me was the
Speaker 1: letting go of the rope for weeks on end, bad
Speaker 1: games happen. Even last night, I was not all that
Speaker 1: worked up about that game. As a Lakers fan, I
Speaker 1: do think Dallas is dangerous. I know they haven't won
Speaker 1: a ton since the guys have been hurt. I think
Speaker 1: that's a good roster. I think that's a team that'll
Speaker 1: beat you on a bad night. And the Lakers had
Speaker 1: a bad night and they lost. But in the early
Speaker 1: part of the season, it was like, you're two and
Speaker 1: five and you're on the road in a very winnable
Speaker 1: game against the Heat team that had just lost to
Speaker 1: in a row, that's spiraling in their own way, and
Speaker 1: you quit in your first shift, Like that tells me
Speaker 1: you don't even want to be good. Ironically enough, and
Speaker 1: this is where it's been weird, because I've never seen
Speaker 1: this from this group in the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: Over the last month or two, three weeks, however long
Speaker 1: it's been since Lebron came back, they actually look like
Speaker 1: they want to be good. They've it looks like they've
Speaker 1: been humiliated or they've felt their purpose. Finally, I don't
Speaker 1: know what it is, but mentally, it looks like a
Speaker 1: very different team than they did in the first fifteen
Speaker 1: games or so. They look like they want to be good.
Speaker 1: It's not about the one, it's about stringing this together.
Speaker 1: JJ Redick is preaching constantly about attention to detail and
Speaker 1: trying to work these things out. Lebron after the Houston game,
Speaker 1: said I want to be a great team. When I
Speaker 1: heard that, I'm like, Okay, he's parenting the same thing.
Speaker 1: JJ Reddick just said, clearly, these guys want it and
Speaker 1: they're trying, but they're not there yet. They got a
Speaker 1: long way to go. There's still way too many breakdowns.
Speaker 1: And then, lastly, when you're relying on guys like Ruy,
Speaker 1: like Max, young players that can struggle with attention to detail,
Speaker 1: mistakes happen with those guys, which is why I've been
Speaker 1: advocating for bringing in more veteran options, preferably at the two,
Speaker 1: so that on nights when those guys are making mistakes,
Speaker 1: you have an option you can go to that has
Speaker 1: a higher floor, that can avoid those sorts of mistakes.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be talking to some Lakers today with Yovann.
Speaker 1: I'm actually about to hop off of this and go
Speaker 1: to see him right now. But when I'm done with Yovann,
Speaker 1: make sure you guys head over to his channel to
Speaker 1: check out that episode, and then we're gonna have yovonn
Speaker 1: On next week to talk more Lakers. Lots of content
Speaker 1: coming out the rest of this week. I may even
Speaker 1: have something else coming out later today, depending on how
Speaker 1: my film sessions go. As always, sincerely appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: for supporting me. Plenty of content. I'll see you guys
Speaker 1: tomorrow the volume What's Up guys? As always, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would
Speaker 1: actually be really helpful for us if you guys would
Speaker 1: take a second and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
Speaker 1: you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
Speaker 1: appreciate it.