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Speaker 1: dot net in West Virginia. All right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by Vanduel here at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend.
Speaker 1: Got a lot of basketball to get into because we
Speaker 1: haven't talked since Friday. During the day, we're gonna break
Speaker 1: down six different games from the weekend today. The Warriors
Speaker 1: getting back on track with a couple of wins, including
Speaker 1: a road win for the first time this season in Houston.
Speaker 1: Denver won a big game on the road in Dallas
Speaker 1: without Nickel Yoki or Jamal Murray's We're gonna get into
Speaker 1: that one. Uh. Kyrie Irving came back for the Brooklyn
Speaker 1: Nets yesterday who gotta win against the Memphis Grizzlies. Toronto
Speaker 1: and Atlanta had a wild overtime game that have one
Speaker 1: of the craziest final sequences that I've seen in a
Speaker 1: long time. So we're gonna talk about that one. Uh
Speaker 1: Joel em beat in Jana Santenna, Cumpo had a hell
Speaker 1: of a battle that Joel em beat ended up way ing.
Speaker 1: And the last, but not least, the Los Angeles Lakers
Speaker 1: on a three game winning streak. Yes, I cannot believe it,
Speaker 1: but that is the case. They beat the San Antonio
Speaker 1: s first, beat the crap out of the San Antonio
Speaker 1: Spurs last night, and I can't remember the last time
Speaker 1: they had to blowout victory like that. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: get into some Lakers as well. You guys know the
Speaker 1: drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube
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Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight and lastly two thousand two, two thousand twenty two.
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Speaker 1: just so you guys know the schedule this week because
Speaker 1: of the holiday, it's gonna be a little funky um
Speaker 1: today obviously recovering the games from Friday through Sunday. Tomorrow
Speaker 1: morning early League in the day, I'm gonna hit on
Speaker 1: a couple of games from tonight because tonight's slate is
Speaker 1: very interesting, and then we have one last show this
Speaker 1: week Tuesday night. We're still deciding whether or not we're
Speaker 1: gonna go after the Sixers NETS game with Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: returning to Philly or the Lakers um playing in Phoenix,
Speaker 1: I believe against the Suns with hopefully Lebron James returning.
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure which of those two games will
Speaker 1: go after. But we'll do a YouTube live tomorrow night
Speaker 1: as well. So two additional shows this week, and then
Speaker 1: we're taking the rest of the holiday off, so no
Speaker 1: show Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday before we get
Speaker 1: into next week. Alright, on that note, let's talk some
Speaker 1: basketball So Clay finally got going against the Rockets last
Speaker 1: night forty one points and coincidental, not a coincidence, because
Speaker 1: he got some good looks to start the game. He
Speaker 1: got a wide open layup in transition for his first
Speaker 1: shot attempt, and then his second shot attempt, he was
Speaker 1: on the right wing and Kevin Porter Jr. Gambled into
Speaker 1: a passing lane and missed the ball, so he had
Speaker 1: a wide open three, which he ended up making. Then
Speaker 1: on the left side of the floor, he curled over
Speaker 1: the top of the screen and cut back door and
Speaker 1: got a left handed layup, and then he got another
Speaker 1: wide open corner three and transition because he was running
Speaker 1: the floor and there was some attention thrown towards Steph
Speaker 1: Once he saw those go through the basket, everything was
Speaker 1: going for him and he had a really like vintage
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson type of game, finishing at the rim and
Speaker 1: then aggressively making the tougher shots as the game went along.
Speaker 1: Because what was you know, what should be especially encouraging
Speaker 1: to Warriors fans in this game is even though Clay
Speaker 1: came out made a bunch of shots at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the game, he also went cold for a little while,
Speaker 1: missed a couple of layups around the rim, got blocked once,
Speaker 1: missed one of those like patented wonder well pull ups
Speaker 1: early second half, or he got right to that you know,
Speaker 1: right elbow and was wide open and left it long.
Speaker 1: But when that little cold spell came, he kept shooting.
Speaker 1: He was still confident, and he ended up making a
Speaker 1: bunch of big shots at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: including two huge threes that I thought ice the game.
Speaker 1: His lift has been good all year, and we talked
Speaker 1: about how his shot quality was pretty good in terms
Speaker 1: of the types of looks that he was getting over
Speaker 1: the course of the game that he was just missing. Yes,
Speaker 1: he had some stretches of bad shots selection, but he's
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson and he's accustomed to playing a certain way,
Speaker 1: and the good version of Clay Thompson, the one all
Speaker 1: you Warriors fans are accustomed to, also has bad shot selection.
Speaker 1: They just go in because he's Clay Thompson. It's the
Speaker 1: audacity and the confidence that he has in his shots.
Speaker 1: So it was always a delicate balance. You wanted him
Speaker 1: to get on track with some easier shots, but you
Speaker 1: also have to understand that that's his shot Diet just
Speaker 1: inherently has a lot of difficult shots kind of mixed
Speaker 1: in there. So I have I have a feeling this
Speaker 1: will be the kind of game that kind of gets
Speaker 1: him going from a confident standpoint and we should be
Speaker 1: seeing some more consistent clay production moving forward. Steph current
Speaker 1: career high is sixteen and assists, and he had fifteen
Speaker 1: last night. The last time he had sixteen assists in
Speaker 1: a game was back in two thousand and fourteen when
Speaker 1: Mark Jackson had him basically running everything with the ball
Speaker 1: in his hands. And you can kind of tell last
Speaker 1: night he had the ball in his hands a lot,
Speaker 1: a lot of ball screens, a lot of being aggressive
Speaker 1: in semi transition. Those are the situations where Steph ends
Speaker 1: up having the ball in his hands. That's why, like
Speaker 1: remember when I would talk about, you know, the top
Speaker 1: tier playmakers, and I'd say, like, it's Luca, it's Lebron,
Speaker 1: it's Yokich, and it's Chris Paul. Those are like your
Speaker 1: top tier on ball playmakers. But I always put Steph
Speaker 1: up in that group, not because of what he does
Speaker 1: on the ball in but in and of itself, but
Speaker 1: the combination of the two. He is a very good
Speaker 1: on ball playmaker, but he also is a off ball
Speaker 1: playmaker who cares if it's me driving into three bodies
Speaker 1: and kicking out to an open shooter, versus if I'm
Speaker 1: running off of a couple of screens and dragging multiple
Speaker 1: defenders while somebody else makes a pass to somebody else
Speaker 1: for a layup. It's the same type of playmaker, or
Speaker 1: it's a different type, but it's the same effect of playmaking.
Speaker 1: And we we kind of get distracted from what Steph
Speaker 1: can do with the ball sometimes because we get so
Speaker 1: hyper focused on what he does without the ball. But
Speaker 1: he's also very good passing the basketball when he has
Speaker 1: it in his hands, and in this particular game is
Speaker 1: a lot of hunting clay, which is part of being
Speaker 1: a great playmaker, knowing what guys in a rhythm, what
Speaker 1: guys not feeding guys to help them get into rhythm,
Speaker 1: and then continuing to feed them when they're in a
Speaker 1: rhythm because they have the hot hand and they can
Speaker 1: carry you through stretches of the game. The Warriors are
Speaker 1: quietly getting back on track. So since that winless road trip,
Speaker 1: which was a complete disaster, they go own five. Since
Speaker 1: that trip, there five and two in their next seven games.
Speaker 1: Seventh in offense, seventh in defense, third and net rating.
Speaker 1: That's really good. Clay Thompson is twenty points per game
Speaker 1: on from three in this seven game stretch. That's really good.
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins twenty points per game on from three, Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool fourteen points per game on from three, and then
Speaker 1: obviously Steph Curry playing some of the best basketball of
Speaker 1: his career this seven game span, thirty four points per
Speaker 1: game on from the field, from three and from the
Speaker 1: free throw line. Quick shout out for the Rockets. Jabari
Speaker 1: Smith Jr. I watched him play in Summer League, and
Speaker 1: it was kind of a struggle for him there because
Speaker 1: he can't dribble, and that inevitably when you get to
Speaker 1: the NBA level, when when you're playing against athletes that
Speaker 1: can get up into your airspace and that are gonna
Speaker 1: be able to bother your jump shot a little bit more,
Speaker 1: you need to create more separation than you did at
Speaker 1: the college level. And he doesn't dribble very well, so
Speaker 1: I anticipated kind of a slower initial phase of his career.
Speaker 1: But he's got so much good that he can lean
Speaker 1: on right now that already makes him a productive NBA
Speaker 1: player that it's not gonna be as much of a
Speaker 1: growing pain as you might anticipate, and it's helping Houston
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. I love his quick high release,
Speaker 1: shoots it above his head confidently, elevates quickly, doesn't need
Speaker 1: a ton of space when he's spotting up to get
Speaker 1: a good look. He also had a couple of mid
Speaker 1: range pull ups in this game. One against a zone defense.
Speaker 1: He caught the ball in the middle floor, kind of
Speaker 1: fumbled it, but then he caught it and just rose
Speaker 1: up over his left shoulder knocked a shot down. It's
Speaker 1: so important against the zone to have a guy that's
Speaker 1: in the middle of the floor that can knock down
Speaker 1: a jump shot. And then he had another one coming
Speaker 1: off the right wing where Steph was on him and
Speaker 1: he attacked the clothes out towards the middle and hit
Speaker 1: a too dribble pull up, which is a nice little
Speaker 1: bit of growth in his game. Inside his seventeen feet
Speaker 1: is where his jumper has been most accurate this year.
Speaker 1: He's shooting fift on those short range jump shots out
Speaker 1: to seventeen feet. He's struggling when he gets out of there,
Speaker 1: but he's already a great defensive player. He kind of
Speaker 1: his ultimate ceiling reminds me a lot of Richard Lewis.
Speaker 1: Just a huge wing with a high release that can
Speaker 1: aggressively shoot, shoot over the top of smaller defenders. And
Speaker 1: he's a much better defender than Richard Lewis. Will be
Speaker 1: a much better defender than Richard Lewis ever was. So
Speaker 1: that's kind of the ceiling that we're looking at there.
Speaker 1: He just needs to keep working on that handle and
Speaker 1: that jumper. So Denver beats Dallas last night. Really bad
Speaker 1: loss for Dallas. They have a bunch of bad losses
Speaker 1: this year, but that was the thing for them last
Speaker 1: year too. They have a tendency to play down into
Speaker 1: the competition. I think it stems from Luca and just
Speaker 1: his overall personality. Um, there was no Jamal Murray or
Speaker 1: Nicola Yo Kitchen this game for Denver, which is what
Speaker 1: makes it such a bad loss. Bones Highland absolutely torch them.
Speaker 1: I I love that in this particular game he made
Speaker 1: an attempt to get to the basket first to find
Speaker 1: his rhythm before started going to his pull up jump shot,
Speaker 1: because like so many guys that have a great pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot, it's it's it's kind of like a
Speaker 1: it's a blessing and a curse because when you're tall
Speaker 1: and you can shoot a pull up jump shot, either
Speaker 1: off of the step back or off of rhythm dribbles
Speaker 1: and things like that, you have a tendency to feel
Speaker 1: like in any situation that you can get to it.
Speaker 1: So you're dribbling the ball, you're looking at a defensive
Speaker 1: player and you're thinking, I can hit this dribble combo
Speaker 1: and go to a step back and I can make
Speaker 1: it thirty of the time, right, And so you end
Speaker 1: up settling for it because it's the easy way out
Speaker 1: when the reality is that you need to show some
Speaker 1: willingness to beat people to the basket to buy that defender,
Speaker 1: you know, to lead that defender into being a little
Speaker 1: bit more on their heels, which gives you a little
Speaker 1: bit more space so that when you go to those
Speaker 1: step back moves you have more separation. They're higher quality shots,
Speaker 1: and then all your percentages skyrocket. And there were a
Speaker 1: couple of light clock possessions where the ball ended up
Speaker 1: in bones Highland's hands in the first quarter of this game,
Speaker 1: where you know you're waiting for him just to go
Speaker 1: to his patented step back, and instead he just made
Speaker 1: a hard dribble move and went to the rim and
Speaker 1: got it, got himself going there. Then he got to
Speaker 1: his pull up jumper later in the game. He's sneaky
Speaker 1: having a very good pick and roll season after a
Speaker 1: rough start. Bones Island has run a hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: one pick and rolls this year that have led to
Speaker 1: a hundred and eighty one points including passes, which is
Speaker 1: in the seventy four percentile. I think bones Highlands pick
Speaker 1: and roll success is built on three factors. Everything's built
Speaker 1: out of that high hesitation dribble where he's kind of
Speaker 1: like sitting up high, and then he can always go
Speaker 1: into his next dribble or he can rise up into
Speaker 1: the shot. It's like a daisy chains all the moves together,
Speaker 1: which makes him unpredictable. He's also very good at using
Speaker 1: retreat dribbles right after coming over the screen, so a
Speaker 1: lot of guys will just go downhill every single time.
Speaker 1: Bones usually will use the screen, make a little bit
Speaker 1: of a downhill move, but then retreat dribble like a
Speaker 1: step back dribble, and then he sits in that high
Speaker 1: hesitation and he waits for the defender to make a move.
Speaker 1: If the defender keeps going over the screen and he
Speaker 1: gets tons of separation, he'll go up into the shot.
Speaker 1: If the defender lunges out at him, he'll come back
Speaker 1: further to the basket, or he'll uh, you know, he'll
Speaker 1: come out of the high hesitation, push ahead and go
Speaker 1: towards the basket. If the screen defender is too high,
Speaker 1: he'll come out of the high hesitation and throw the
Speaker 1: pocket pass. Everything is built out of coming off that screen,
Speaker 1: quick retreat, dribble, wait to see what the defense does,
Speaker 1: and then make a play. And then he can shoot
Speaker 1: the ball extremely well off the dribble, which is the
Speaker 1: foundational skill that forces that defender to lunge out at him,
Speaker 1: opening everything else up, or to bring the screen defender
Speaker 1: up higher. He's shooting forty six on pull up threes
Speaker 1: this year. Obviously it sounds great on the surface, but
Speaker 1: it's even better than that because he's shooting on many
Speaker 1: of those way behind the line. And what's nice about
Speaker 1: bones Island's ability to shoot way behind the line is
Speaker 1: it just spaces the floor in those actions way further out,
Speaker 1: buying you more room to make decisions and to get
Speaker 1: ahead of steam going towards the basket. I'll give an example.
Speaker 1: There's a game against the Spurs a few games ago
Speaker 1: where Bones Highland is working on the left wing and
Speaker 1: I can't remember who it was. He was guarding the
Speaker 1: action for the Spurs, but their screen defender came all
Speaker 1: the way up. So Bones has got a guy on
Speaker 1: his right hand who's trying to funnel him to the left,
Speaker 1: and the Spurs screen defenders already out towards almost the
Speaker 1: three point line. And what he did is he just
Speaker 1: backed up further away from the basket's almost like thirty
Speaker 1: five ft, which suddenly, at that point the Spurs screen
Speaker 1: descent defenders stayed back towards the three point line. That
Speaker 1: way Bones could get ahead of steam coming off of
Speaker 1: the ball screen. He turned the corner around the screen
Speaker 1: defender and he end up working around the base line
Speaker 1: through a lefty hook pass, got the Spurs into rotation
Speaker 1: and they ended up getting a basket out of it.
Speaker 1: But I was sitting there thinking like for most guys,
Speaker 1: if they dribbled it further away from the basket, that
Speaker 1: the defenders would just sit back. The actual on ball
Speaker 1: defender would just sit back and he wouldn't be able
Speaker 1: to get an advantage. But Bones Island is so damn
Speaker 1: good at making like seven thirty ft thirty like even
Speaker 1: sometimes thirty two three ft pull up jump shots that
Speaker 1: the guys always just coming out on him, which is
Speaker 1: giving him that ability to get downhill again picking rolls
Speaker 1: really impressive for a young guard in this league. Um
Speaker 1: on the other end of the floor, in this particular
Speaker 1: game with Denver winning on the road against Dallas, it
Speaker 1: was a clinic in how to blitz ball screens and recover.
Speaker 1: So if you look at the but if you look
Speaker 1: at the box score, Luca only took only took sixteen shots,
Speaker 1: only scored twenty two points. But if you watch the game,
Speaker 1: he got blitzed on almost every single ball screen. And
Speaker 1: then Denver was doing a really nice job of taking
Speaker 1: away the easy passes. So they'd come up to guard
Speaker 1: the role man, the guy in the roll out of
Speaker 1: the corner, and then they take away that first pass.
Speaker 1: And so basically there were only two options that were open.
Speaker 1: He could make the skip pass if he could get
Speaker 1: if you can actually get the ball there, but most
Speaker 1: cases they actually apply ball pressure. And when they'd apply
Speaker 1: ball pressure, Luca would not be able to make the
Speaker 1: skip pass, and the guy at the top of the
Speaker 1: key would have to like retreat out like v cut
Speaker 1: out to forty ft from the rim for Luca just
Speaker 1: to get an escape pass away. Now your advantage is
Speaker 1: gone and it's a successful double team. All game long,
Speaker 1: Dallas was struggling. There were plays in there. Or Luca
Speaker 1: would like use a nice escape dribble to you know,
Speaker 1: as he's coming off the screen cover like ten ft aground,
Speaker 1: So even though the screen defenders on him, he's got
Speaker 1: a couple of seconds before the on ball defender recovers
Speaker 1: to his backside and he could actually elevate and throw
Speaker 1: that skip pass across the court or in that process
Speaker 1: forced another defender to find another opening. He did hit
Speaker 1: the role man a few times. He did make some
Speaker 1: plays out of that, but for the most part, Denver
Speaker 1: rendered that Luca high pick and roll useless because of
Speaker 1: them just being able to trap apply enough ball pressure
Speaker 1: to take away the skip pass. In all the passes
Speaker 1: that Luca was making were more just getting rid of
Speaker 1: the basketball rather than making the defense pay. And you know, honestly,
Speaker 1: like to lucas credit, I thought he played it pretty
Speaker 1: well in this game. The role players just missed a
Speaker 1: lot of shots and a lot of reads in there
Speaker 1: four on three actions. It's tough to handle the scheme
Speaker 1: like that in general in the regular season because you
Speaker 1: have to be so sharp on the back side. But
Speaker 1: they have personnel to be better than they have been
Speaker 1: as of late, and Dallas is having a lot of
Speaker 1: offensive issues right now. They're twenty one in offensive rating
Speaker 1: in their last ten games Memphis Brooklyn, So Brooklyn wins
Speaker 1: one fifteen. Jared Jackson, Junior John Moran, and Desmond Bain
Speaker 1: were all out. But I still thought this was a
Speaker 1: pretty significant challenge for Brooklyn because Memphis is so physically
Speaker 1: strong down the roster, and for all the length and
Speaker 1: athleticism Brooklyn has, they're very thin and they can be
Speaker 1: pushed around. So I thought this would be a tough
Speaker 1: game and it wasn't a lot of ways. They gave
Speaker 1: up thirteen offensive rebounds, they got bullied in the paint,
Speaker 1: but they still want and just like with the Warriors, sneaky,
Speaker 1: you know, we look at the schedule, you can think
Speaker 1: you can become become pessimistic pretty quickly, but if you
Speaker 1: look at their recent schedule, they're six and nine in
Speaker 1: their last nine games, or excuse me, six and three
Speaker 1: in their last nine games. They have the fourth best
Speaker 1: defense in the league during that span. Remember how bad
Speaker 1: they were to start the year. They were the worst
Speaker 1: defense in the league for the first half of this
Speaker 1: chunk of games, and then all of a sudden, they're
Speaker 1: the fourth best defense in the league. That's not on
Speaker 1: Steve Nash. I I just I never bought that as
Speaker 1: an excuse. Those dudes just weren't playing hard to start
Speaker 1: the season. Now they are now Again, Like I said,
Speaker 1: not Steve Nash's fault, but players tune coaches out. You
Speaker 1: get a different voice in there. Suddenly they're listening, Suddenly
Speaker 1: they're bought in. It works. That's why, even though sometimes
Speaker 1: the coaches can be a scapegoat, firing, sometimes it's just
Speaker 1: the best way to shuffle things up and get a
Speaker 1: new voice in there, get guys to play hard. Like
Speaker 1: like it or not. Even though it was not Steve
Speaker 1: Nash's fault, the firing triggered the team playing hard. As
Speaker 1: messed up as that is, it's just the reality of
Speaker 1: the situation. They're also twelfth in offense in their last
Speaker 1: nine games, which is pretty solid, especially since Kyrie has
Speaker 1: been out for most of that. UM third and net
Speaker 1: rating overall twenty three and rebounding, which is not good,
Speaker 1: but it's a hell of a lot better than it
Speaker 1: was to start the season. If you remember, I think
Speaker 1: they were second to last in the league in the
Speaker 1: first couple of weeks. Kyrie looked out of shape, but
Speaker 1: he made a lot of good moves that like that.
Speaker 1: That's the dead giveaway for guys out of shape. When
Speaker 1: you're making the nice moves, you're seeing the floor and
Speaker 1: you're hitting the gaps and you're getting to your spots,
Speaker 1: but you're just not getting the lift to knock down shots.
Speaker 1: There are several plays where he made the right reads,
Speaker 1: made the right dribble combination to get through the traffic,
Speaker 1: and then just like left a layup short on the
Speaker 1: rim or missed a pull up jump shot. Things along
Speaker 1: those lines. That's to be expected. Overall, I thought he
Speaker 1: looked fine though physically. Um Kadi another quiet great night,
Speaker 1: seven and seven on six teen shots. He's having a
Speaker 1: quiet great season. Check out some of these numbers. Um
Speaker 1: A hundred forty eight points on a hundred five pick
Speaker 1: and rolls, which is in the ninety one percentile, a
Speaker 1: hundred forty one points one ISOs which is in the
Speaker 1: eighty five percentile, and eight eight points on seventy seven
Speaker 1: post ups which is in percentI all that includes passing
Speaker 1: with with the access, with the data that I have
Speaker 1: access to him. Always gonna be looking at with passing
Speaker 1: because that's just the way the game actually works, U
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons. He makes his return to Philly tomorrow, we
Speaker 1: will be covering that game either after the Lakers game
Speaker 1: or immediately after that game. Another big game twenty two
Speaker 1: points last night. He's averaging sixteen points, nine rebounds, and
Speaker 1: five assists on eighty five percent shooting in his last
Speaker 1: three games. So a little bit of a sign of
Speaker 1: life on the Ben Simmons front. Good variety to some
Speaker 1: self created stuff. In this game. He had two straight
Speaker 1: up post ups in the first half where he went
Speaker 1: to right handed hook shots that he made. He had
Speaker 1: a fake dribble handoff where he went to the basket
Speaker 1: and finished with his left hand um attacking the Raymond transition.
Speaker 1: That the that self created stuff as like gold for
Speaker 1: the nets, you know, especially with what they're what they
Speaker 1: were hoping for from Ben Simmons when they first made
Speaker 1: the trade, and then he was really effective again in
Speaker 1: the short role and in the dunker spot, just quick
Speaker 1: finishing around the rim off of the attention that Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving and Kevin Durant dictate. Interestingly enough, again in this game,
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons finished just about every shot with his right hand.
Speaker 1: Uh koc Kevin. Kevin O'Connor works for the Ringer has
Speaker 1: this theory that he's been going with for a couple
Speaker 1: of years now that Ben Simmons is actually right handed
Speaker 1: and that he just shoots left handed for some stupid
Speaker 1: reason and that he has no business doing that. And
Speaker 1: I'll admit at first I was super skeptical, and I've
Speaker 1: been super skeptical of that just because, like it just
Speaker 1: defies you know, it just defies logic that he wouldn't
Speaker 1: have made that switch if he actually was right hand dominant.
Speaker 1: But I'm starting to drink the kool aid a little bit.
Speaker 1: Chaos might be onto something. This dude shoots everything with
Speaker 1: his right hand, and his form is so much more
Speaker 1: natural with his right hand. His left handed crossfires across
Speaker 1: his face, but with his right hand he's in line
Speaker 1: the way that you're supposed to be um. So yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe that is what it is. But Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: a little sign of life, some good basketball from him
Speaker 1: and the Nets overall it playing some good basketball. We'll
Speaker 1: see if it lasts. I'm skeptical about this team once
Speaker 1: some you know, controversy or some adversity hits them. But
Speaker 1: we will see what happens. Toronto Atlanta. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: talk about this total game because I just turned it
Speaker 1: on at the very end when it was live. Uh
Speaker 1: tough loss for Toronto. Scotti barn smoked an easy lay
Speaker 1: up out of the dunker spot right before the end
Speaker 1: of regulation. Should have dunked it, instead went to the
Speaker 1: backboard and slapped the backboard and tried to make a
Speaker 1: lay up and shot it over the rim and then
Speaker 1: they ended up losing in ot. The reason why I
Speaker 1: added this game to the list because it's it's hard
Speaker 1: to evaluate Toronto Toronto right now. They're super banged up
Speaker 1: there that they've had guys in and out of the
Speaker 1: lineup and uh um, and it's just hard to learn
Speaker 1: about teams when they're playing like that. But like, this
Speaker 1: was a classic Nick Nurse game because it's twenty o
Speaker 1: Ganna Nobi gets valid, he goes to the line, he
Speaker 1: makes both free throws. After he makes the free throw,
Speaker 1: there's just under four seconds left. This is a set
Speaker 1: play type of situation. So in this situation at two,
Speaker 1: coming off of a made free throw, you can bet
Speaker 1: that Atlanta has called a set that they have prepped for.
Speaker 1: All these coaches have end of game scenarios. This is
Speaker 1: a play we run with you know, less than twenty
Speaker 1: four seconds left, you know, in a full court situation.
Speaker 1: This is a play we run with less than ten
Speaker 1: seconds left in the full court situation. This is a
Speaker 1: play that we run with less than five seconds left
Speaker 1: in a full court situation. This is a play we
Speaker 1: run when there's one second left and we have to
Speaker 1: heave it up the court and quit, catch and shoot
Speaker 1: like they have like time in time and situation uh
Speaker 1: time and score, like situational plays. For all these situations,
Speaker 1: Atlanta has a call in same thing goes for the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. Nick Nurse has a call in, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is the way we'regarding. Typically in a situation like that,
Speaker 1: you're staying back past half court. No one fouls, and
Speaker 1: your job is to contain the basketball and just force
Speaker 1: them to take a shot over the top, and you
Speaker 1: live with the results because you don't want to give
Speaker 1: up something easy. If they're gonna beat you, you want
Speaker 1: them to beat you with them making a tough shot
Speaker 1: over a contest. Instead, what happens, Nick Nurse has four
Speaker 1: Raptors in the back court pressing the basketball and Lanta
Speaker 1: gets the ball in past pass. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Trey Young is breaking along the right side of the
Speaker 1: floor in a two on one situation. The one raptor
Speaker 1: in the back court has to step up easy love
Speaker 1: and A J. Griffin catches and lays the ball in
Speaker 1: the basket to win the game. I was I was
Speaker 1: completely stunned watching the players showed my wife. My wife
Speaker 1: actually has a basketball background as well as she played
Speaker 1: in college and and her and I were just dying
Speaker 1: that this that was what the head coach of the
Speaker 1: Toronto Raptors asked them to do in a situation tie
Speaker 1: game with less than four seconds left. Any other coach
Speaker 1: in the NBA, and you might you might apply a
Speaker 1: little bit of ball pressure, but it's usually not gonna
Speaker 1: be until after they crossed half court. Everything you're supposed
Speaker 1: to contain in front. The one thing you can't do
Speaker 1: is give up a wide open layup at the basket.
Speaker 1: It was truly baffling, And this is kind of a
Speaker 1: Nick Nurse thing. He over coaches. He always wants to
Speaker 1: over help, he always wants to overdig, he always wants
Speaker 1: to over gamble. And I get it to a certain
Speaker 1: extent because Toronto can't score in the half court according
Speaker 1: to Cleaning the Glass, their twenty ninth and half court offense,
Speaker 1: so he wants to get out and transition as much
Speaker 1: as possible. But the reality is is it's hurting their
Speaker 1: half court defense too because of that aggression. They're giving
Speaker 1: up a lot of open shots. Like they have the
Speaker 1: longest and most athletic roster in the NBA, they should
Speaker 1: be able to leave guys in an island and one
Speaker 1: on one and do well with teams trying to shoot
Speaker 1: over the top of them. But what will happen is
Speaker 1: some guy will drive to the basket. Scotty Barnes will
Speaker 1: be with him, sliding along, and he might have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to go to the rim. But Scott He's gonna
Speaker 1: challenge him. It's gonna be something incredibly diff cold, finish
Speaker 1: and instead, like another Raptor will help out of the
Speaker 1: strong side. It's an easy kickout to wide open three.
Speaker 1: That's why they're twenty six. And half court defense despite
Speaker 1: being the longest and most excuse me, and half court
Speaker 1: defense despite being the longest and most athletic roster in
Speaker 1: the NBA. I get it, Like, you should try to
Speaker 1: manufacture as much transition basketball as you can because you
Speaker 1: struggle is going to half court. So push the ball
Speaker 1: with pace, makes or misses, push the ball up the wings,
Speaker 1: try to attack the rim with your size and athleticism,
Speaker 1: even if there is some congestion in transition. I support
Speaker 1: all of that. In hell, like dig into the passing
Speaker 1: lanes and trust your trust, your athleticism to be able
Speaker 1: to close out. But the overhelping and the over digging
Speaker 1: has to stop because it's hurting this team in a
Speaker 1: lot of different ways. And there again, like that's just
Speaker 1: in the flow of the game Situationally, I literally cannot
Speaker 1: fathom why Nick Nurse had four Raptors in the back
Speaker 1: court with less than four seconds left of a tie game.
Speaker 1: You know, it was one of the more puzzling things
Speaker 1: that I've seen in a long time. Nick Nurse is
Speaker 1: an amazing basketball coach. He just has his quirks and
Speaker 1: his cork right now is he's an overhelped guy. He's
Speaker 1: overly aggressive, all right, Milwaukee Philly, this was a fun game,
Speaker 1: I believe, on Friday night, and beating Janice from the start.
Speaker 1: We're just trying to send messages to each other, just
Speaker 1: you know. Janice has been kind of floating through the
Speaker 1: early parts of games a lot this year, just doing
Speaker 1: dribble handoffs and trying to get his teammates open looks.
Speaker 1: He was putting his head down and trying to score
Speaker 1: every damn time to start the game. So was Joe
Speaker 1: l Embiid. You know. Joel Embiad ended up having this
Speaker 1: like crazy block on Janice where he like threw the
Speaker 1: ball into the ground. Had this like really intense vive
Speaker 1: but the game was very back and forth. Tyres Maxie
Speaker 1: ended up hurting his foot and going down, and it
Speaker 1: was a really impressive win for Philly without James Harden
Speaker 1: with Tyres Maxie going down to close this game out,
Speaker 1: and it was a lot of just amazing Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: and some puzzling decision making from Drew Holiday in Jhannae.
Speaker 1: So it was tied at and from there it was
Speaker 1: all decision making and shot making that to term in
Speaker 1: the outcome. So at Um and Bead catches on the
Speaker 1: short roll and Drew Holiday's guarding Shake Milton. Shake Milton's
Speaker 1: on the left wing, and Drew Holiday just leaves Shake
Speaker 1: Milton and just lunges kind of halfheartedly to try to
Speaker 1: take the ball away from mb doesn't even come close.
Speaker 1: Now he's way out of the play. Drew Holidays like
Speaker 1: at the right wing. Now Shake Milton relocates to the
Speaker 1: left corner. This is how wide open he was, and
Speaker 1: Bead had time multiple seconds to identify that Shake Milton
Speaker 1: was open, then throw him a pass that was a
Speaker 1: terrible pass way too high. Shake Milton had to jump
Speaker 1: up and high point it, and Shake had so much
Speaker 1: time that he was able to high point it, come down,
Speaker 1: get his feet set, and then patiently rise up and
Speaker 1: knocked down the shot. So a really bad gamble from
Speaker 1: from Drew Holiday ended up getting a wide open shot
Speaker 1: for Shake Milton that he made very next possession, Janice
Speaker 1: goes down and post up. P J. Tucker knocks him over.
Speaker 1: Joel Embiad has to come down. As a result, the
Speaker 1: ball gets worked around in rotation and like three or
Speaker 1: four closeouts later, Drew Holiday gets a wide open shot
Speaker 1: on the left wing. He misses it. Okay, Maker miss league.
Speaker 1: It's a one possession game. Still. They go down the
Speaker 1: other end. They get a stop on Shake Milton and
Speaker 1: pick and roll and then Janice comes down and just
Speaker 1: Jack's up at three. He was sixteen seconds left and
Speaker 1: he had just checked into the game like two possessions prior,
Speaker 1: and he left it way short, which is a typical
Speaker 1: thing that happens when you come in and shoot cold
Speaker 1: and the Sixers uh can't secure the rebound. They go uh,
Speaker 1: they get an offensive rebound, they get it back and
Speaker 1: Grayson Allen has to take There's only like seven seconds
Speaker 1: on the shot. Like Grayson Allen takes like a tough
Speaker 1: pull back three and misses it. And then from there
Speaker 1: and Be just took the game over the shot making.
Speaker 1: So it's still one tw one on nine, excuse me one.
Speaker 1: And it was on the short roll and Be catching
Speaker 1: Brook Lopez is back pedaling and he does that patented
Speaker 1: hesitation pull up jump shot right before the right below
Speaker 1: the free throw line knocks it down. They go down,
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday gets called for an illegal screen, and then
Speaker 1: uh and be just a ridiculous step back jumps over
Speaker 1: Brook Lopez at the left elbow in the game's over.
Speaker 1: So basically, yeah, there's a little bit of shot making
Speaker 1: in there. Shake Milton makes the open three, Drew Holiday
Speaker 1: misses the open three. But then from there it was
Speaker 1: a combination of Joel embiad playing like an m VP,
Speaker 1: making too tough off the dribble jump shots, and Janis
Speaker 1: and Drew Holiday making three mistakes. Drew Holiday bad gamble
Speaker 1: to try to take away that Joe or to try
Speaker 1: to double team Joel Embiat leads to a wide open three.
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday sets an illegal screen and on the play
Speaker 1: he wasn't really even helping you, Honese. He was like
Speaker 1: kind of moving in like trying to uh to just
Speaker 1: uh to mess up p J Tucker at the foul
Speaker 1: and get called for an illegal screen and then uh
Speaker 1: and then Johanna Santana Coopo taking the three was sixteen
Speaker 1: seconds on the shot clock. It's just bad decision making,
Speaker 1: So kudos them. Beat. That's how you win a game
Speaker 1: against a really damn good Bucks team. Down your two
Speaker 1: best guards just execution at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: not doing stupid stuff, and your best player doing what
Speaker 1: best players have to do, which is knocked down big
Speaker 1: shots at the end of the game. Joel Embiat his
Speaker 1: perimeter shooting continues to be really impressive inside of seventeen
Speaker 1: feet on jump shots. This year, he's thirty two for sixty,
Speaker 1: which is great in between seventeen feet in the three
Speaker 1: point line, so long twos, he's nine for fourteen. Can't
Speaker 1: make anything outside the three point line really, but he's
Speaker 1: making everything inside of the three point line, which is
Speaker 1: making up for some of his passing limitations and where
Speaker 1: he's getting a lot of his scoring right now. And
Speaker 1: again the ability to go to that at the end
Speaker 1: of games, to shoot over the top of the defense
Speaker 1: the way he did over Brook Lopez is a big weapon.
Speaker 1: He's got a midfoot sprain right now though, that's gonna
Speaker 1: keep him out for the next two games, so hopefully
Speaker 1: he gets well soon. Alright, last, but not least before
Speaker 1: we get out of here today, Spurs Lakers eighties wrecking
Speaker 1: ball tour continues. His last three games yeah thirty again
Speaker 1: last night. His last three games thirty five, seventeen and
Speaker 1: two sixty two field goals on the foul line at
Speaker 1: eleven attempts. That's a big indicator for a D when
Speaker 1: he's starting to get his shooting touchback, because he shoots
Speaker 1: well from the foul line, and he made a couple
Speaker 1: of pull up jump shots in this game as well,
Speaker 1: three stocks per game. Remember that's blocks and steals come mind.
Speaker 1: And he's twenty three for twenty nine in the restricted area,
Speaker 1: which is to be expected, but similar to Joel Embid
Speaker 1: with a D, it's so important for him to be
Speaker 1: able to make that perimeter jump shot because if you
Speaker 1: can't pass over a congested defense, you need to be
Speaker 1: able to shoot over a congested defense. And in this
Speaker 1: three game stretch, he's fourteen for between the restricted area
Speaker 1: and the three point line. So in all that short
Speaker 1: the midrange stuff, he's making about half of his shots
Speaker 1: right now, which is really solid. And then obviously he's
Speaker 1: been Defensive Player of the Year type of impact on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. Lebron I think, is
Speaker 1: going to come back on Tuesday against the Suns, and
Speaker 1: you know, I I've been I've been hard on those
Speaker 1: two all season. I used to say about Lebron and
Speaker 1: a d before this year, before the rust here, I
Speaker 1: used to say, like, if you get a good game
Speaker 1: out of your role players, you're beating the crap out
Speaker 1: of the other team. If you get an okay game
Speaker 1: out of your role players, you're winning by ten fifteen points.
Speaker 1: If you get a bad game out of your role players,
Speaker 1: the Lakers might still barely win. That's how good the
Speaker 1: Lebron James Anthony Davis pairing used to be. But it
Speaker 1: was because Anthony Davison Lebron were two of the top
Speaker 1: five players in the world, and they played like it
Speaker 1: almost every night, and as a result, regardless of what
Speaker 1: they got from the role players, they were able to
Speaker 1: win a lot of games. Anthony Davis playing well, playing
Speaker 1: up to his potential, fixes a whole lot of problems
Speaker 1: for the Lakers. Like guess what, this is his first
Speaker 1: time getting three thirty point games in a row since
Speaker 1: guests when since the season when he won the title
Speaker 1: and was a top five player in the world. They
Speaker 1: went three and oh against bad teams. Yes, but they
Speaker 1: were losing to bad teams last year with Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: and Russell Westbrook. Now they've beat three of them in
Speaker 1: a row because Anthony Davis is playing like a top five,
Speaker 1: top ten player. They like. We can talk about the
Speaker 1: proofery all we want, and we will, and they're legit problems.
Speaker 1: The Lakers still need to make a trade and we'll
Speaker 1: get into that, I'm sure plenty over the course of
Speaker 1: the rest of the season if they continue to play well.
Speaker 1: But so many of their problems we would be fixed
Speaker 1: by Anthony Davis playing like top ten, top five player
Speaker 1: in Lebron James playing like the top five player. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis has played like a top five player three nights
Speaker 1: in a row and the Lakers are three and oh,
Speaker 1: now that works against the bad teams. You're gonna play
Speaker 1: Phoenix on Tuesday. In order to beat the great teams,
Speaker 1: you will need Anthony Davis and Lebron at that level.
Speaker 1: So a d is holding up his end of the bargain,
Speaker 1: and it's time for Lebron to do the same on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor. And he needs to do
Speaker 1: it by continuing to feed Anthony Davis, keeping him featured
Speaker 1: in the offense. Now, some of that is a little
Speaker 1: like like a lot of I've seen, of course, the
Speaker 1: usual you know, kind of nefarious characters on Twitter, saying
Speaker 1: things like, oh, they're three notes since you know, if
Speaker 1: they've won three games in a row without Lebron, it's
Speaker 1: because Anthony Davis is getting the basketball. That's just um.
Speaker 1: Lebron is not to blame for the Lakers struggles in
Speaker 1: the sense that you know, a a D finally is
Speaker 1: getting a going now when he's out, a D is
Speaker 1: just playing better. It's really that simple. Lebron James consistently
Speaker 1: looks for a D. He has gone away from him
Speaker 1: when a D has not had his head in the game,
Speaker 1: and when a D has struggled. Now, does Lebron need
Speaker 1: to feed him more to continue this going? Absolutely, But
Speaker 1: I don't see those two I don't see those two
Speaker 1: priorities cross wise with each other. I don't think Lebron
Speaker 1: coming back affects Anthony Davis's ability to get thirty five
Speaker 1: and seventeen. He's absolutely capable of doing that. We saw
Speaker 1: him do it in We know he can. What happened
Speaker 1: is is Anthony Davis massively regressed for two damn seasons,
Speaker 1: and Lebron James lost some of his confidence in him
Speaker 1: and went away from him a little bit. If a
Speaker 1: D is playing like this, Lebron is going to continue
Speaker 1: to feed him. Now what do I expect. The reality
Speaker 1: is a Lebron's a rhythm player, and he's old, and
Speaker 1: he's out of shape, and he hasn't been able to
Speaker 1: stay on the court consistently this season. So as a result,
Speaker 1: I expect him to go into Phoenix and struggle. Michail
Speaker 1: Bridges is one of the best perimeter defenders in the
Speaker 1: entire league, and Lebron is going to be out of
Speaker 1: rhythm and out of shape. So I wouldn't expect much
Speaker 1: from Lebron for about a week. But if Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: can continue to play this way, and Lebron can stay
Speaker 1: on the floor and get in shape and he can
Speaker 1: meet Anthony Davis on that level, you'll see the Lakers
Speaker 1: start to cook a little bit. Austin Reeves season high
Speaker 1: twenty one points. He's getting a lot of pick and
Speaker 1: roll touches now that Lebron's out, and he's been great,
Speaker 1: and it's a couple of different things. He's one of
Speaker 1: the best pastors on the team, and then he's improved
Speaker 1: mightily as a shooter. He's having a season right now.
Speaker 1: He's running fifty pick and rolls this year that have
Speaker 1: led to forty five points, which is in the sixty percentile,
Speaker 1: so a little bit above average, which is not bad
Speaker 1: for his first real volume with that type of action
Speaker 1: at the NBA level. And then last laker I wanted
Speaker 1: to shout out was Lonnie Walker at fourteen points again
Speaker 1: again last night. He's averaging sixteen and a half points
Speaker 1: on fifty eight percent TRU shooting, which is re league good.
Speaker 1: He's running forty four pick and rolls this year for
Speaker 1: forty eight points, which is in the which is in
Speaker 1: the eight second percentile. I did a whole video on
Speaker 1: this on Twitter, a breakdown with annotations and voiceovers you
Speaker 1: can find on my Twitter feed Underscore Jason lt. Yeah.
Speaker 1: In it, I went over all the different ways that
Speaker 1: he's succeeding in pick and roll. He's willing to get
Speaker 1: downhill and he's got the athleticism to succeed when he
Speaker 1: does that. Because he does that, he engages the screen defender,
Speaker 1: actually gets him involved in the play, which is what
Speaker 1: opens up the playmaking. And then from there he makes
Speaker 1: the right reads and he has a good amount of
Speaker 1: shot making. He's making enough little pull up fifteen footers
Speaker 1: and pull up threes like that to generate some points
Speaker 1: eighty second percentile again on not terrible volume for a
Speaker 1: pick and roll player. Good. You know, I was critical
Speaker 1: of the Lonnie Walker signing. Now I this disaster has
Speaker 1: been a complete This summer has been a complete disaster
Speaker 1: for Rob Polinka. But there have been a couple of
Speaker 1: small wins in there. Lonnie Walker on the mid level exception,
Speaker 1: that was a solid signing. I think Troy Brown Jr.
Speaker 1: Has been pretty good out overall. The vision of the
Speaker 1: Roster family to make a rush trade that all I
Speaker 1: think undercuts a great deal of that success. But the
Speaker 1: Lonnie Walker signing I was wrong about, and I have
Speaker 1: to I have to eat some crow. I thought that
Speaker 1: he was a little too undersized to use the mid
Speaker 1: level exception on. But he's been better defensively than he
Speaker 1: was in San Antonio and better offensively than he was
Speaker 1: in San Antonio. So Rob Blincoln made a bet on
Speaker 1: a young former lottery player too to exceed expectations when
Speaker 1: he came in the door, and he did, and we
Speaker 1: have to give him credit for that. All Right, That's
Speaker 1: all I have for today. You guys know the drill.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow morning we'll have a quick short breakdown on tonight's games,
Speaker 1: and then tomorrow night we'll have one last live show,
Speaker 1: and then we're off through the holiday. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate your support and I will see you next time.
Speaker 1: The volume