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Speaker 1: lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny. Every once in a while in
Speaker 1: a basketball game, the entire outcome can shift based on
Speaker 1: one matchup going a certain way. And that's what I
Speaker 1: thought swung this Warriors game against the seventy six ers.
Speaker 1: They were down ninety to seventy nine and had literally
Speaker 1: absolutely no answer for Joel Embid And it wasn't for
Speaker 1: lack of trying. Loony and Draymond did the best that
Speaker 1: they could. But Joel Embid is on a wrecking ball
Speaker 1: tour and has been on this tour for months now
Speaker 1: trying to prove to everybody he's the best player in
Speaker 1: the world. And he's playing like it again. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not personally going to recognize that until it takes
Speaker 1: place in the postseason, But if he plays anything like
Speaker 1: this in the postseason, it's gonna be a problem, and
Speaker 1: it pretty soon he might end up being recognized that way.
Speaker 1: But they needed The Warriors needed something to give them
Speaker 1: the push they needed to get to the end of
Speaker 1: the game to where Steph Curry can close the deal,
Speaker 1: which he has been doing very well as of late.
Speaker 1: And in this particular case, it was a combination of
Speaker 1: Jordan pool his ridiculous ability to drive to the basket,
Speaker 1: his dribble penetration, in combination with having his three point
Speaker 1: shot going. You know this from ninety to seventy nine too.
Speaker 1: When they took the lead in the late fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole sprung most of that run. He had nineteen
Speaker 1: points in the quarter. Nobody from Philadelphia can keep him
Speaker 1: in front. It started with a pull up three. It's
Speaker 1: kind of in transition. Wasn't really a good shot. It
Speaker 1: was early in the clock. Draymond comes up and sets
Speaker 1: a screen, he comes off, Paul Reid's there, he's up
Speaker 1: with his hand up, but Jordan Poole just rises up
Speaker 1: and knocks down the three. And one of the concepts
Speaker 1: I want to spend a good amount of time talking
Speaker 1: about today is what it means to split a ball screen.
Speaker 1: So I've talked a lot about in switching defenses about
Speaker 1: how difficult it is when you switch on to a
Speaker 1: defender to be or to an offensive player to be
Speaker 1: ready for what comes next, because your mental focus is
Speaker 1: on the guy you were guarding and now you're guarding
Speaker 1: someone else, and it's just a really quick transition, and
Speaker 1: it's tough to make those transitions smooth. And so if
Speaker 1: you think about what it means to split a pick
Speaker 1: and roll, So if the screen defender, the guy guarding
Speaker 1: the guy who's setting the ball screen, wants to take
Speaker 1: away your pull up three, and you're coming off that
Speaker 1: screen hard and your defender is trapped behind you, there's
Speaker 1: airspace there. The only way to close that airspace is
Speaker 1: to get out to above the level of the screen
Speaker 1: to contest that three. But what is that that's effectively
Speaker 1: a close out. What do I talk about all the
Speaker 1: time on the show, advantage creation. If you can create
Speaker 1: that initial advantage, you give your lesser offensive players and
Speaker 1: a player closing out at them as opposed to a
Speaker 1: static defender, they've got a chance to beat them. And
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool, even in a static situation, is extremely difficult
Speaker 1: to keep in front, and he I think he had
Speaker 1: at least three pick and roll splits down the stretch
Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter, if not more. Right after that
Speaker 1: pull up three same type of ball screen, Paul Read
Speaker 1: comes way out and Jordan Pool splits it, just pushes
Speaker 1: the ball out in front. It's effectively like a crossover
Speaker 1: on the close out and goes up and dunks it
Speaker 1: with two hands. Then Joel Embiad checks into the game
Speaker 1: and Jordan Pool runs a ball screen with Jonathan cominga
Speaker 1: variation of Spain pick and roll. Joel Embiad is sitting
Speaker 1: in drop coverage. He comes up a little bit higher
Speaker 1: to get ready for that Jordan Pool pull up. But
Speaker 1: as Jordan Pool's coming downhill on the screen, Steph Curry
Speaker 1: comes up and sets a backscreen on Joel embat Again.
Speaker 1: We talked about the Spain pick and roll, the shooter
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily just have to relocate to the top of
Speaker 1: the key. He can also screen the screen defender. Again,
Speaker 1: Spain pick and roll is any pick and roll where
Speaker 1: you have a shooter underneath the basket that relocates to
Speaker 1: the top of the key, but he's not relocating just
Speaker 1: to shoot. If he has an opportunity to run into
Speaker 1: that screen defender, he can create an opening. He hits him.
Speaker 1: Bead Pool comes off clean and makes a nice easy
Speaker 1: floater off the glass. Then on the next the next
Speaker 1: bucket that Jordan Pool gets, he kind of comes flying
Speaker 1: off of offball action along the right side of the
Speaker 1: floor and Tyres Maxie comes up too close on a
Speaker 1: catch and shooting fouls him on a three shot foul
Speaker 1: and he had made five three so far in that game. Again,
Speaker 1: a lot of foul drawing is getting defenders out of position.
Speaker 1: A lot of getting defenders out of position is having
Speaker 1: them panic chasing you because they're scared you're going to shoot.
Speaker 1: And the only way you're gonna get that is if
Speaker 1: you demonstrate the ability to make that shot. I talked
Speaker 1: about this a lot with Austin Reeves over the last
Speaker 1: couple days, everyone's like, oh, foul grifting, foul drifting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a certain amount of that going on, but a
Speaker 1: lot of it is Austin Reeves is a fifty forty
Speaker 1: ninety guy. The shots he takes go in, so defenders
Speaker 1: are panic chasing him when he finds those little openings.
Speaker 1: So when he pump fakes, people go forward. Every time,
Speaker 1: you're gonna draw that foul, as Jordan Poole, when you've
Speaker 1: made five threes in a way that you won't be
Speaker 1: able to when you haven't, you demonstrate the ability to
Speaker 1: knock the shot down. You generate the panic in the
Speaker 1: defensive player, draws the foul, gets to the guests of
Speaker 1: the foul line. Then he starts just relentlessly attacking. George's
Speaker 1: kneeing Again, It's still a ball screen. It's a guard
Speaker 1: guard screen most often gonna end in the switch, but
Speaker 1: it is still a ball screen. George's kneeing, same type
Speaker 1: of thing. He's got to be out there quickly on
Speaker 1: the screen to take away that pull up three because
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool's got the three point shot going. He kept
Speaker 1: beating him with that quick left to right cross to
Speaker 1: split that ball screen to get downhill. On the first one,
Speaker 1: he splits and he drops it off to Kevon Looney
Speaker 1: because Joel em beat steps up and contains Jordan Pool
Speaker 1: at the basket, drops it off to Kevon Looney. Then
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole does what every Warrior's card does that he
Speaker 1: learned from Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. He after he
Speaker 1: makes the past, he splits to the right corner and
Speaker 1: when he does, to Bias Harris, who's guarding Klay Thompson,
Speaker 1: has to abandon Klay Thompson to close out to Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool in the corner. Cavan Luoney catches and beat a
Speaker 1: knee and come to him, and he spots Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: wide open on the right wing, knocks down the first
Speaker 1: of the two huge threes that he hit in the
Speaker 1: late fourth quarter of this game. Then the next possession,
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole just beats Tyres Maxie in semi transition like
Speaker 1: Philly's not really set, just does a hard dribble move
Speaker 1: to the basket. Joel Embiid comes flying over to try
Speaker 1: to block the shot. Again, what we talk about with
Speaker 1: rim pressure, one of the many benefits is occupying the
Speaker 1: rim protector when you occupy the rim protector. What's the
Speaker 1: fallout from that? The guy that the rim protector's guarding
Speaker 1: is available for an offensive rebound. Jordan Poole misses the layup,
Speaker 1: but Joel Embiads sold out for this one, actually ran
Speaker 1: into Jordan. I think they both fell over if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly. And there's Kevon Looney for the easy put
Speaker 1: back and then he actually what was crazy? He is
Speaker 1: on the following possession. He in pick and roll, got
Speaker 1: downhill and Embiid was there waiting for him, and he
Speaker 1: just challenged him right at the rim and made it.
Speaker 1: Every single thing was going for Jordan Poole in this game,
Speaker 1: the catch and shoot three, the pull up three, in
Speaker 1: pick and roll, the floater, that his passing ability, his
Speaker 1: finishing at the rim, his straight isolation driving attack. He
Speaker 1: was unbelievable in the fourth quarter of this game. I
Speaker 1: will say that I did think and I want to
Speaker 1: cut and beat some slack here because it was just
Speaker 1: a reality of their predicament. James Harden was out, so
Speaker 1: that inherently just puts an enormous workload on Joel Embiid.
Speaker 1: As a result, he was being lazy in his drops,
Speaker 1: sitting too far back, and I thought that was a
Speaker 1: big part of why Philly lost. Down the stretch of
Speaker 1: this game, there were two massive baskets that Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: and Steph Curry got just taking advantage of Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: sitting too far back. The first was that ball screen
Speaker 1: three that Clay Thompson took at the top of the
Speaker 1: key Joel embiad too far back. And then I think
Speaker 1: it was when it was one O one, Oh wait,
Speaker 1: Steph Curry just came over the top of the screen.
Speaker 1: Joel Embid way too far back. He made that little
Speaker 1: fifteen foot floater in the lane. But you know, Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool played well enough to get it close to where
Speaker 1: Steph could close it, you know. And it's I want
Speaker 1: to be clear, like you know, we this show naturally
Speaker 1: leads to criticism. You know, it's just kind of the
Speaker 1: nature of what this show is. We talked about basketball
Speaker 1: and basketball games are one and they are lost, so
Speaker 1: inherently there has to be good and bad. But one
Speaker 1: of the things that I always try to do is
Speaker 1: point out when a player plays well and point out
Speaker 1: when the player plays poorly. And we've just like most
Speaker 1: Warriors fans been very critical of Jordan Poole over the
Speaker 1: course of the last month, and he struggled a lot.
Speaker 1: And you know, the thing is, Jordan Pool has a
Speaker 1: lot of weaknesses, Like he's struggles in the margins of basketball,
Speaker 1: Like he's gonna miss a lot of box outs. He's
Speaker 1: gonna get lost and help defense. He's not gonna get
Speaker 1: matched up in transition, he's gonna give up driving lanes
Speaker 1: at the point of attack. But he also has a
Speaker 1: lot of strengths. And there's one particular strength, a great
Speaker 1: strength of his his elite skill. The thing he does
Speaker 1: better than most other NBA players is he is just
Speaker 1: ridiculously fast, great at changing direction, and can handle the
Speaker 1: hell out of the basketball. And that drill penetration piece
Speaker 1: is enough to put a defense in the blender. And again,
Speaker 1: matchups determined basketball games. Philly's not a good perimeter defense team.
Speaker 1: And so that dynamic Jordan Pool and his ability to
Speaker 1: consisting at dribble penetration allowed Golden State to steal a
Speaker 1: game when they were getting just completely run over by
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid tossed around like rag dolls. But like again,
Speaker 1: when we're talking about Jordan Poole, I just want to
Speaker 1: make sure that we cover both sides there. Yes he
Speaker 1: has some weaknesses, Yes they've come to the surface over
Speaker 1: the course of this season, especially with the personnel shortcomings
Speaker 1: that the Warriors have had. But he's also really good
Speaker 1: at a lot of stuff. Namely, he's one of the
Speaker 1: best dribble penetrators in the game of basketball. Once he
Speaker 1: got it close, those staff was able to close the deal.
Speaker 1: We just talked about that floater heat against embiad and drop.
Speaker 1: Very next possession when it was one t Tobias Harris
Speaker 1: made a couple of massive shots, a pull up shot
Speaker 1: and pick and roll, and then a nice isolation shot
Speaker 1: over Draymond Green where he also got foul. I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, he made plays to keep this thing close late.
Speaker 1: But after Harris ties it at one ten, one ten,
Speaker 1: Steph has this nifty Steve Nash play where he kind
Speaker 1: of takes this transition pick and roll from Draymond, gets downhill,
Speaker 1: kind of gets to the left side of the basket,
Speaker 1: loops around along the baseline behind the backboard, catches him,
Speaker 1: beats slipping for just a second and slips in that
Speaker 1: little bank shot from one twelve, one ten, and then
Speaker 1: the final play the dagger. The Jordan Pool three in
Speaker 1: the corner was a very similar play to what happened
Speaker 1: on the dagger play against Dallas. I talked, I talk
Speaker 1: a lot about rejecting pick and roll. One of the ways,
Speaker 1: like one of the ways that you can take advantage
Speaker 1: of guard defenders and pick and roll, like we always
Speaker 1: talk about, is get them engaged with the screen. So
Speaker 1: many pick and roll coverages in the NBA depend on
Speaker 1: players chasing over the top and applying back pressure, because
Speaker 1: if you apply back pressure, you will funnel the guard
Speaker 1: into your rim protector. The better the job that guard does,
Speaker 1: the more your rim protector can sag back into the paint.
Speaker 1: The lesser job your guard does, the higher your big
Speaker 1: has to come out to help as the ball handlers
Speaker 1: coming out over the top. So guards are constantly just
Speaker 1: preached at all the time, especially in the NBA, just
Speaker 1: about pick and roll coverages and getting over the top
Speaker 1: of that ball screen. So what happens You're in his
Speaker 1: screen and roll coverage. You've got him beat behind you.
Speaker 1: He's telling you screen right screen, right screen, right. Steph's
Speaker 1: got the ball in his left hand and he's looking
Speaker 1: at the ball screen the like he's gonna go to
Speaker 1: that screen off to the defender's right hand side, And
Speaker 1: if you watch this play, you will see the Anthony
Speaker 1: Melton hop to the right above the screen because he's
Speaker 1: preparing to try to fight over the top to beat
Speaker 1: Steph to that spot so that him bad doesn't have
Speaker 1: to come out of his drop and Steph once again,
Speaker 1: just like he did to Maxie cleeband the Dallas game
Speaker 1: quickly rejects the screen. That is when you push back
Speaker 1: right when you see that guard start to engage with
Speaker 1: the screen, is the best time to reverse that screen.
Speaker 1: He reverses it, gets downhill draws Draymond Green's Man Kicks,
Speaker 1: a Draymond Green drama. Green makes the extra pass to
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool bucket one fifteen one ten Warriors. Wine step
Speaker 1: back to back games where he made all the right
Speaker 1: plays executing down the stretch for the Warriors in high
Speaker 1: pick and roll. Defensively, they had no answer for Embead
Speaker 1: and beat one on a run there in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: right in the middle of the Jordan Pool run that
Speaker 1: just kept them kind of at arms distance. But there
Speaker 1: was one brief stretch there where Doc Rivers went with PJ.
Speaker 1: Tucker and Draymond Green checks in and just completely ignores PJ.
Speaker 1: Tucker to double team Joel Embeat, and that allowed them
Speaker 1: to get enough stops because PJ. Tucker just could not
Speaker 1: make that left corner three, which has been an issue
Speaker 1: pretty much since he was in Houston. And they get
Speaker 1: enough stops. And then when Doc Rivers adjusted and went
Speaker 1: away from PJ Tucker and Beat actually missed his last
Speaker 1: two pull up jump shots. One of them was over
Speaker 1: a double team, but another one was a pretty decent look.
Speaker 1: So you took him out of his rhythm by doubling
Speaker 1: the ball away from him, and then he finally missed
Speaker 1: a couple of shots. That's why I always get on
Speaker 1: this with like Steve Kerr and Rik Spoelster about mixing
Speaker 1: up coverages, Like everything with basketball players is about rhythm
Speaker 1: and flow, and anything you can do to disrupt that
Speaker 1: flow gives you a better chance to win. Throwing his
Speaker 1: own defense. Look, every once in a while that'll throw
Speaker 1: off someone's rhythm. Double team them three four possessions in
Speaker 1: a row and then leave them in single coverage. They'll
Speaker 1: be like confused that the double's not there, and then
Speaker 1: they'll look to go to work. But then they haven't
Speaker 1: shot in a while, so their rhythm is a little
Speaker 1: bit off. You get a couple of misses. That was enough.
Speaker 1: They were aggressively just completely ignoring PJ. Tucker and hard
Speaker 1: doubling Joel Embiid and then Joel Embid couldn't make the
Speaker 1: shots down the stretch of the game. Really just all
Speaker 1: classic Golden State execution. Down the stretch of that game,
Speaker 1: the three Warriors guards combined for eighty three points. One
Speaker 1: last Warrior, I wanted to shout out before we move on,
Speaker 1: Moses Moody. I thought he had a really impressive fourth
Speaker 1: quarter shift and it started like started with a really
Speaker 1: impressive corner three. Let's stay really impressive. Just stepped up
Speaker 1: and knocked down an important corner three on that classic
Speaker 1: Warrior's action. Steph Curry, like the Sixers bench unit the
Speaker 1: beginning of the fourth quarter, was blitzing the Steph Curry
Speaker 1: picking rolls. Classic Warriors response to that is have Draymond's
Speaker 1: at the ball screen, blitz Steph. Steph throws that little
Speaker 1: loopy little drop past to the to the role man.
Speaker 1: Draymond Green gets downhill, engages the defender out of the
Speaker 1: weekside corner, kick pass to the corner that Moses Moody
Speaker 1: made a shot off of that. But I was really
Speaker 1: impressed with him defensively. I thought he was making all
Speaker 1: the right rotations, getting to the nice getting to the
Speaker 1: right spots. Um. Yeah, it hit a play where he's
Speaker 1: stone walled Anthony Melton at the rim with verticality, like
Speaker 1: made a rotation, got outside the charge circle, jumped as
Speaker 1: hard as high as he could with his arms straight up,
Speaker 1: got to stop. It was an impressive shift. I think
Speaker 1: he was plus six in that shift if I remember correctly.
Speaker 1: That spanned the end of the third in early fourth,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly. Really nice win for the Warriors.
Speaker 1: That's a third third in a row. They are now
Speaker 1: one loss back of the four seed thanks to Phoenix
Speaker 1: dropping some games, and they're heading into an easy stretch
Speaker 1: of their schedule. These are the three games that I
Speaker 1: talked about when we went over their schedule earlier this week.
Speaker 1: They are home for the Timberwolves, Pelicans, and Spurs. They
Speaker 1: will be favored in all three. They'll be tough. The
Speaker 1: Timberwolves are on a I believe a two game winning
Speaker 1: streak and the Pelicans are on a three game winning streaks,
Speaker 1: So they're not going to be easy games, but those
Speaker 1: are games at home that the Warriors are capable of
Speaker 1: winning if they bring the requisite urgency even without Andrew Wiggins.
Speaker 1: If they win all three of those games, I believe
Speaker 1: they will be the four seed when this is all
Speaker 1: said and done, and Gary Payton is expected back in
Speaker 1: their next game. The biggest question looking forward for the
Speaker 1: Warriors is can Jonathan Cominga and Gary Payton bring you
Speaker 1: enough to replace what Andrew Wiggins brings to the table.
Speaker 1: And I mean not to get all negative here, but
Speaker 1: like it's gonna be challenging to determine what Golden State's
Speaker 1: capable of any playoff run without Andrew Wiggins, because, simply put,
Speaker 1: I thought he was their second best player in last
Speaker 1: year's playoff run and a huge reason why they won
Speaker 1: the trophy was the individual defensive job he did on
Speaker 1: Luca don Chichen, Jason Tatum, as well as him being
Speaker 1: good for eighteen points a night or whatever it was
Speaker 1: he was in the playoffs. So, I mean, Comine has
Speaker 1: been pretty good. He had a rough shooting night tonight,
Speaker 1: but he's been pretty good as of late. If he
Speaker 1: can slide into that and if that role and play well.
Speaker 1: They have a chance, but it is definitely going to
Speaker 1: be difficult without Andrew Wiggins, and hopefully this winning streak
Speaker 1: can provide them enough push to maybe convince him to
Speaker 1: come back. Last note on the Sixers before we move on,
Speaker 1: It was no James Hardens, so you don't want to
Speaker 1: think too much about it, and that obviously affected them
Speaker 1: offensively down the stretch of this game when they were
Speaker 1: doubling Joel Embiid. It just them in their race against
Speaker 1: Boston that they're now one loss back of that second
Speaker 1: seed and Boston has the tiebreaker, so that puts them
Speaker 1: in a tough spot. And the problem is is if
Speaker 1: you end up in three, there's a pretty decent chance
Speaker 1: that you end up playing Miami in the first round.
Speaker 1: And you know, obviously, looking at this season, it's really
Speaker 1: easy to be like, oh, well, Philly's better, they'll beat him, right,
Speaker 1: But Miami beat Philly pretty handily last year. Mind you,
Speaker 1: Embiid was dealing with that orbital bone fracture. But that's
Speaker 1: definitely not an easy matchup. And the one way that
Speaker 1: that loss particularly hurts is you avoid Miami entirely. If
Speaker 1: you can get that two seed, and end up in
Speaker 1: a better position and from a playoff standpoint, But I
Speaker 1: continue to be completely blown away by how well Joel
Speaker 1: Embiad's been playing. All right, let's move on to thunder Lakers.
Speaker 1: Lakers win one, sixteen to one to eleven. Another monster
Speaker 1: knight from Anthony Davis. He had thirty seven and fourteen
Speaker 1: Dennis Schroeder at thirteen points in the fourth quarter. There
Speaker 1: was a really interesting game plan dynamic going on with
Speaker 1: both teams, and I thought backfired for both teams. Ironically
Speaker 1: the Thunder where when Anthony Davis was on the floor,
Speaker 1: they were running a drop coverage and they were prioritizing
Speaker 1: the role man, so you know, the defender that was
Speaker 1: chasing over the top of the screen would kind of
Speaker 1: like grab ad and slow down his role. And then
Speaker 1: the dude who's guarding and drop is kind of like
Speaker 1: handling a d as he's rolling into the basket. So
Speaker 1: the guards coming over the top were the ones that
Speaker 1: had the openings there, and that was a big part
Speaker 1: of how Dennis Shrewder impacted the game in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: especially down the stretch when a d was out there.
Speaker 1: He made a couple of massive pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: in that like semicircle area, they're ten to fifteen feet
Speaker 1: away from the rim. But early in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: when Anthony Davis was off the floor, one of the
Speaker 1: things that the Thunder was doing when Winn and Gabriel
Speaker 1: was out there, they were just switching everything. So the
Speaker 1: Lakers were running their interchanges and not gaining any advantage
Speaker 1: because that, like you know, Dennis Shruders got a little
Speaker 1: bit of ISO ability, Austin's got a little bit of
Speaker 1: ISO ability. But those guys are all typically pick and
Speaker 1: roll guys, like they're at their best and when they
Speaker 1: can get downhill and make reads and so switching kind
Speaker 1: of negates that to a certain extent. And you know,
Speaker 1: Dennis Schroder made three plays there in the early early
Speaker 1: fourth quarter against Oklahoma City switching, just whilling the ball
Speaker 1: into the basket. He hit a three, he had a
Speaker 1: driving layup. There was one his third bucket that he
Speaker 1: had there to start the fourth quarter where he just
Speaker 1: like forced I think he was being guarded by lu
Speaker 1: Door if I remember correctly, but I can't. I'm not
Speaker 1: one hundred percent certain beats him to the right is
Speaker 1: contained is like sidling alongside of him and just throws
Speaker 1: up like a scoop shot with his right hand that
Speaker 1: he shot from like four feet off the ground that
Speaker 1: somehow went it literally just wheeling the ball into the basket.
Speaker 1: It's about eight minutes and forty five seconds left. Darvin
Speaker 1: him calls a really smart time out after the Lakers
Speaker 1: secure a loose ball. They're up five, I think at
Speaker 1: that point, and I thought it was a really smart
Speaker 1: time out in large part because the Lakers were not
Speaker 1: getting good shots against Oklahoma City switching. It just so
Speaker 1: happened that Dennis Schroeder had wheeled the ball into the
Speaker 1: basket three times to start the quarter. They went back
Speaker 1: to that Anthony Davis lying up there to close the
Speaker 1: game and ended up getting enough baskets to win. But
Speaker 1: you know, Mark Deginald did a good job just kind
Speaker 1: of mixing things up, like I said, going from switching
Speaker 1: to drop based on who was on the floor. They
Speaker 1: randomly went to zone on some possessions after makes and
Speaker 1: then on Anthony Davis post ups. This was the one
Speaker 1: place where I thought Mark Deginald messed up. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: struggles with pressure in his face, so like if you
Speaker 1: hard double him to his face side, he panics and
Speaker 1: struggles to handle that. Usually just tries to get the
Speaker 1: ball out to the perimeter, but Oklahoma City was doubling
Speaker 1: from the base line side, so like they would make
Speaker 1: the post entry to Anthony Davis on the left block,
Speaker 1: and you know, Jaylen Williams would be like kind of
Speaker 1: pressing up on him, and then they'd have like Shay
Speaker 1: Gil just Alexander or Isaiah Joe or somebody kind of
Speaker 1: loop around the baseline and try to poke it out
Speaker 1: from behind. The problem there was is Anthony Davis was
Speaker 1: able to attack quickly towards the middle and then attacking
Speaker 1: quickly pieces a huge part of Anthony Davis getting in
Speaker 1: the last three halves. I tweeted at halftime of the
Speaker 1: last game. I tweeted at halftime that Anthony Davis was
Speaker 1: really struggling with just going quickly to the basket. This
Speaker 1: was against Phoenix, and if you remember correctly, he had
Speaker 1: like a like a really bad first half against Phoenix,
Speaker 1: and I think he had like seven points and seven
Speaker 1: rebounds or something. I can't remember exactly, but he dominated
Speaker 1: had twenty something in the first half or second half
Speaker 1: against Phoenix, and then he ended up with you know,
Speaker 1: thirty seven and fourteen tonight, and one of the things
Speaker 1: he did, I tweeted this out at halftime of that game,
Speaker 1: is I want to see Anthony Davis go quickly. And
Speaker 1: we talked, we kind of broke down the benefits of
Speaker 1: that in that show. Basically, just going quickly before the
Speaker 1: defense can really get set to double team you. You're
Speaker 1: gonna go into traffic, You're gonna have some turnovers, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have some offensive foul some things are gonna go poorly.
Speaker 1: But in the aggregate, with all of the rim pressure
Speaker 1: and the shots you're gonna get and the fouls are
Speaker 1: gonna draw, it's actually a huge benefit and it neutralizes
Speaker 1: the double team, which is the most important part. Jannis
Speaker 1: is one of the best players in the league at
Speaker 1: this particular thing. But ever since that first half against Phoenix,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis has been amazing. He's averaging damn near twenty
Speaker 1: points a half since that specific adjustment that he made.
Speaker 1: And if you watch, just go to NBA dot com
Speaker 1: and click on the box scores and all the blue
Speaker 1: numbers where you can click and see the videos. Watch
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis's field goal attempts from the second half of
Speaker 1: the Sun's game on versus the first half of the
Speaker 1: Sun's game, and you will see a massive difference in
Speaker 1: his touches with how quickly he goes to attack versus
Speaker 1: standing and holding and surveying and waiting for that double
Speaker 1: team to come. But I did think it was a
Speaker 1: tactical mistake for Mark Dagenald to double along the baseline
Speaker 1: side because I thought it allowed Anthony Davis to get
Speaker 1: comfortable in a way that he doesn't when teams are
Speaker 1: more aggressive double teaming him in his face. Then on
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor, the Lakers had a
Speaker 1: similar game plan that backfired. They were completely sagging off
Speaker 1: of jay Lynn Williams, not jay Len Williams, jay Lenn
Speaker 1: Williams and Lou Dord, just ignoring them and giving them
Speaker 1: wide open catching shoot threes in large part to keep
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis in the paint. Right, Like Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: garding Jaylen Williams, keep him in the paint. It allows
Speaker 1: you to contain one of the best basket attackers in
Speaker 1: the game and Shake Gildas Alexander, And that was a
Speaker 1: big part of why they succeeded in slowing down Shake
Speaker 1: Gildas Alexander. The downside was is the thunder Head an
Speaker 1: outstanding three point shooting game, and those two guys Lou
Speaker 1: Dorton Jaylen Williams went six for thirteen from three, and
Speaker 1: those same two guys went two for eight from three
Speaker 1: against the Clippers the night before. So some of that
Speaker 1: is like bad luck, but it's the reality of professional
Speaker 1: basketball players. Like if you leave professional basketball players wide open,
Speaker 1: even the ones that struggle, they're gonna have nights where
Speaker 1: they go in they because they're working on it too hard.
Speaker 1: You know, Like you can bet your ass that Lou
Speaker 1: Dorton Jaylen Williams at every thunder practice or sticking around
Speaker 1: after and making one hundred threes. You know, like those
Speaker 1: guys are putting in the work in preparation for those
Speaker 1: particular types of shots and they have the ability to
Speaker 1: knock them down. But I thought Jared Vanderbilt did an
Speaker 1: outstanding job on shake Gilja Alexander once again, every defensive assignment,
Speaker 1: with exception to Julius Randall, which was I thought whistle related.
Speaker 1: I thought Jared Vanderbilts handled every defensive assignment extremely well.
Speaker 1: Now he did. It was a team effort. He had
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis kind of basically just zoning up underneath the basket,
Speaker 1: which allowed Jared Vanderbilt to apply more ball pressure. But
Speaker 1: I thought the big part of how Jared Vanderbilt succeeded
Speaker 1: was contesting those long twos. One of Shay's favorite things
Speaker 1: to do is kind of hesitate, get the ball into
Speaker 1: his left hand and take two hard dribbles down to
Speaker 1: like the semicircle and push you off and take that
Speaker 1: little short ten twelve foot jump shot. But Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: actually does a really nice job contesting that shot. And
Speaker 1: you know, the final two shots of Shay took in
Speaker 1: this game, one where he did a blatant push off
Speaker 1: with his right hand. Jared was upset, he thought he
Speaker 1: should have got a push off foul, but he perfectly
Speaker 1: contested it. Shay just made it. You live with the result.
Speaker 1: Later on, in a key defensive possession later in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, Shay took a step back three and Jared
Speaker 1: timed it a little even a little better and was
Speaker 1: damire high fiving him on his release and gotta stop.
Speaker 1: It's like an It's like Jared Vanderbilt has been so
Speaker 1: considered a big man on offense because of his inability
Speaker 1: to shoot that a lot of people don't really think
Speaker 1: of him as a traditional wing, but in terms of
Speaker 1: his actual mobility, like he's a six nine player with
Speaker 1: long arms, with very quick feet, who's strong but light
Speaker 1: on his feet, that can move well, that's your textbook
Speaker 1: wing defender. And he's he's been handling every single assignment
Speaker 1: thrown his way. Five stars. He shada nine for twenty
Speaker 1: two from the field in this game, and I thought
Speaker 1: he got a rough whistle, although not as bad as
Speaker 1: the Julius Randall one from last week. Lonnie Walker twenty
Speaker 1: points in four three's outstanding rim pressure. He's one of
Speaker 1: the best things he's done all year. Is just especially
Speaker 1: in pick and roll, as he just gets downhill, which
Speaker 1: engages help defenders and good things happen there, you know.
Speaker 1: Darvin ham commented after the game, I was finishing my
Speaker 1: notes and I had the league pass feet up and
Speaker 1: Darvin Hams presser came on and he talked about how
Speaker 1: it was just such a profess way to handle that
Speaker 1: situation for Lonnie Walker. And it's true because if you
Speaker 1: really look at it, if you look at the situation,
Speaker 1: the Laker guard situation has been a crowded mess all year,
Speaker 1: and it's like, yeah, you sent out Russell Westbrook and
Speaker 1: you send out Patrick Beverley, but you have brought back
Speaker 1: Malik Beasley in D'Angelo Russell, two guys that started at
Speaker 1: one point together, and Austin Reeves just was playing really,
Speaker 1: really well and deserved more minutes. And Darvin said, like,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes you do everything right and you lose
Speaker 1: your minutes even though it's not your fault. And that's
Speaker 1: what happened to Lonnie. But like, what is being a
Speaker 1: professional mean? Do you sulk or do you stay ready?
Speaker 1: And Lonnie clearly has been working his ass off staying
Speaker 1: ready behind the scenes to be ready in case this
Speaker 1: happened in D'Angelo Russell, for whatever reason, has been taking
Speaker 1: a lot of games off for the Lakers with minor injuries,
Speaker 1: and so opportunity has been there and Lonnie stepped in.
Speaker 1: And they don't win this game without Lonnie playing, and simple,
Speaker 1: they do not beat the Thunder unless Lonnie comes in
Speaker 1: and brings the effort that he brings. The Lakers are
Speaker 1: now eleven and six post trade deadline. That is the
Speaker 1: sixth best record in the league. Over that span. Lebron
Speaker 1: has played in just three of those seventeen games, and
Speaker 1: they toasted off the MAVs game with a four point
Speaker 1: lead late because the two defensive mistakes from Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: I think it was actually a five point lead late,
Speaker 1: and you took a dnp rest loss to Houston, giving
Speaker 1: up seventy something points in the paint because Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: didn't play. So they're eleven and six basically without Lebron,
Speaker 1: and they'd be thirteen and four if not for a
Speaker 1: catastrophic couple of mistakes from ad in a game he
Speaker 1: probably could have played in if he had the permission
Speaker 1: of the medical staff. They're a good team. They have
Speaker 1: the second best defense in the league over that span,
Speaker 1: just a tenth of a point per one hundred possessions
Speaker 1: behind the Milwaukee Bucks. And they are now five hundred
Speaker 1: and tied for the seventh seed in the Western Conference.
Speaker 1: And I think the seventh seed should be the absolute
Speaker 1: minimum goal for the Lakers. It's gonna be hard for
Speaker 1: them to get up above that. I know they're only
Speaker 1: one loss back from Golden State, but like Golden State's
Speaker 1: getting into an easier stretch of their schedule, the Suns
Speaker 1: are getting Kevin Durant back. I think the Thunder. I
Speaker 1: think the Clippers, if I'm not mistaken, are going into
Speaker 1: a little bit of an easier stretch of their schedule too.
Speaker 1: I'll have to look, but like, yeah, they've got a
Speaker 1: chance to get six, and they should shoot for that obviously,
Speaker 1: But you know, getting that seventh seed I think is
Speaker 1: the most important because then your home for that play
Speaker 1: in game, and if you win, you'll get to play
Speaker 1: most likely Memphis in the first round of matchup that
Speaker 1: I really like for the Lakers because of their interior
Speaker 1: defense against John Morant. So that seventh seed has got
Speaker 1: to be their target. It's not gonna be easy. They
Speaker 1: have the five of their final eight games are on
Speaker 1: the road. And the thing is, it's like you look
Speaker 1: at the schedule and you go, oh, some of these
Speaker 1: games are easy, Like they're they're playing a home at
Speaker 1: home against Chicago starting Sunday and Tuesday, I believe. And
Speaker 1: here's the thing, Like Chicago's yeah, they're below five hundred,
Speaker 1: They're not a bad team. They got really good players.
Speaker 1: Zach Levine, Demarda, Rosen Glavusovitch, Patrick Beverley is going to
Speaker 1: be coming for revenge in those games again, like the
Speaker 1: Lakers will be favored, and they should be, but those
Speaker 1: are not easy games. So they've got to keep their
Speaker 1: foot on the pedal. They've got to get a couple
Speaker 1: of these wins after that Chicago home and home. Then
Speaker 1: you got Minnesota, who's all reinvigorated because Karl Anthony Towns
Speaker 1: is back. It's not going to be easy, but if
Speaker 1: they can get that seven seed, I really like their
Speaker 1: chances as a team that's got a legit puncher's chance
Speaker 1: to come out of the Western Conference. Lastly, Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: every time I watched them, I'm just blown away just
Speaker 1: by the sheer amount of good basketball players they have,
Speaker 1: just the like you know, Jeremiah Robinson Earl comes in
Speaker 1: in the early fourth quarter and is just big and
Speaker 1: athletic and make plays in hitting corner threes. You know,
Speaker 1: like between Jalen Williams and Shay Gildas, Alexander and Isaiah
Speaker 1: Joe is just another outstanding shooter that they have. Aaron
Speaker 1: Wiggins was making plays in that fourth quarter that they
Speaker 1: they just have a boatload of good basketball players and
Speaker 1: shed home grins on the way. Shay is rapidly ascending
Speaker 1: into a top ten player in this league. They've got
Speaker 1: a million draft picks that they are just an outstanding
Speaker 1: position to take a leap next year. And they are
Speaker 1: every bit as scary in terms of a future ceiling
Speaker 1: as the Thunder of a decade ago, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: and it's a good time to be a Thunder fan.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight.
Speaker 1: We will have another show this weekend, being released on
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon covering the Saturday night games, and then we're
Speaker 1: going live late on Monday night before we take Tuesday off.
Speaker 1: As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys to sport and
Speaker 1: I'll see you on Sunday afternoon. The volume