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Speaker 2: to tonight. You're at the volume heavy Tuesday, everybody of Bath.
Speaker 2: You guys are having a great start to your week.
Speaker 2: Got a jam packshow for you tonight as we get
Speaker 2: through one of the final few nights of the in
Speaker 2: season tournament woll Play games, We're gonna be covering three
Speaker 2: games from tonight. The Suns get a dominant win against
Speaker 2: the Lakers in the return of Kevin Durant and Bradley
Speaker 2: Beal to the lineup. There now nine to one with
Speaker 2: KD in the lineup this year. We're gonna do a
Speaker 2: deep dive into that game on the perspective of both
Speaker 2: teams of Lakers. Back to Mack games where they looked
Speaker 2: pretty sharp in the first half and then just completely
Speaker 2: decomposed in the second half. I want to get into
Speaker 2: that concept a little bit. After that, without Giannis, the
Speaker 2: Bucks go into Miami and beat the Heat. I want
Speaker 2: to talk about some of the chess match that was
Speaker 2: taking place down the stretch of that game, and talk
Speaker 2: a little bit about the struggles that the Miami Heat
Speaker 2: have been having to this point in the season. And then,
Speaker 2: by far what I thought that was the most entertaining
Speaker 2: game of the night, the Houston Rockets in the Minnesota
Speaker 2: Timberwolves had a knockdown, drag out fistfight of a game
Speaker 2: that ended up going to overtime off of a huge
Speaker 2: steal from a men Thompson that extended the game. We're
Speaker 2: gonna be breaking that game down from the perspective of
Speaker 2: both teams. So lots of basketball to get into tonight.
Speaker 2: You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribed
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Speaker 2: Tonight channel where we're going to be releasing additional content,
Speaker 2: so make sure you guys follow us there, and last,
Speaker 2: but not at least, keep dropping mail bag questions and
Speaker 2: the YouTube comments. Every Friday throughout the regular season, we
Speaker 2: record a mailbag episode and I take the questions from
Speaker 2: the YouTube comments. All right, guys, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 2: So a huge win for the Suns, dominant left no
Speaker 2: doubt to improve to nine to one with Kevin Durant
Speaker 2: in the lineup. We're going to talk a little bit
Speaker 2: about the formula for this Sun's team, and it obviously
Speaker 2: relies a lot on their total amount of aggregate offensive skill,
Speaker 2: right Like, if you take Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant
Speaker 2: out of the equation and you take some defensive specialists
Speaker 2: and start asking them to do more with the basketball,
Speaker 2: you're going to have some struggles. And the Suns obviously
Speaker 2: struggled quite a bit with KD out, But there's a
Speaker 2: formula that works when they have all of their guys,
Speaker 2: and you saw an excellent example of it there in
Speaker 2: that third quarter run. I really want to shine a
Speaker 2: light on Devin Booker and use of Nurkic here, because
Speaker 2: I thought they were the two primary driving forces behind
Speaker 2: that run. Nurkic was incredible the entire run. He's had
Speaker 2: a rough season, that's been a lot of like pretty
Speaker 2: bad basketball from Musif durkicch for the most part this year,
Speaker 2: but I thought he dominated in his role tonight. He
Speaker 2: was setting massive screens to help free up Devin Booker.
Speaker 2: The Lakers do a lot of switching on defense as
Speaker 2: one of the big differences between them this year and
Speaker 2: then last year under JJ Reddick, and he was repeatedly
Speaker 2: just going right through Ruyachimura's chest to finish easy shots
Speaker 2: one on one in the post, or catching deep position
Speaker 2: against Cam Reddish and finishing with and one's just really
Speaker 2: simple effective post moves and making layups, which has always
Speaker 2: been a little bit of an adventure for Useuf Nurkics.
Speaker 2: But he finished with a double double. He was plus
Speaker 2: twenty and twenty seven minutes. We're getting I thought he
Speaker 2: kind of outplayed Anthony Davis in the second half of
Speaker 2: this game, it was a big time night for Musif Durkic.
Speaker 1: And then Devin Booker.
Speaker 2: Like in the first half, he wasn't quite getting as
Speaker 2: much separation as he needed from Austin Reeves, but he
Speaker 2: started to get much better separation from Austin in that
Speaker 2: third core, not just from the monster screens. The use
Speaker 2: of Nurkic absolutely leveled Austin on one of them there
Speaker 2: along the left wing, but it also was with his
Speaker 2: dribble combinations just a little bit more oomph into every move.
Speaker 2: He had a little step back against Austin along the
Speaker 2: baseline on the left side where you can tell Devin
Speaker 2: was like, this is a scrappy dude.
Speaker 1: I need to get a little bit more.
Speaker 2: Space and a little bit more lift, And even though
Speaker 2: Austin got a decent contest on it, Devin was able
Speaker 2: to get enough separation to knock a big shot down,
Speaker 2: hit a bunch of big jump shots in this game.
Speaker 2: Didn't have a massive scoring night or anything like that,
Speaker 2: but he was the driving force behind the key run
Speaker 2: of the game there in the third quarter. And again,
Speaker 2: like we talked about earlier, we'll talk about that later
Speaker 2: with the Lakers, but they kind of like go to
Speaker 2: the rope. And this is a Laker team that's a
Speaker 2: little just in the last week, has been a little
Speaker 2: fragile when things don't go their way, and so you
Speaker 2: put together a good stretch of basketball against them, they
Speaker 2: have a tendency to fall apart, and that's what they did,
Speaker 2: and the Suns ended up getting out of there with
Speaker 2: a blowout win. The Suns were pretty much dominating their
Speaker 2: matchups down the roster in the second half. I thought
Speaker 2: Nurkic outplayed Anthony Davis in that third quarter. Like I
Speaker 2: mentioned earlier, Bradley Beal was cooking Dalton connect all night
Speaker 2: the uh. One of the things too, that both Bradley
Speaker 2: Beal and Devin Booker were able to do against Max
Speaker 2: Christi too, is like Max Christy just has this tendency
Speaker 2: to give ground on any sort of like bump move,
Speaker 2: and then when they go into their pull ups, Max
Speaker 2: always tries to meet them up high, like at the
Speaker 2: top of the shot. And like I've talked about this
Speaker 2: a lot on the show. When you're dealing with the
Speaker 2: best pull up jump shooters in the league, the professional scores,
Speaker 2: they have been shooting shots with hands in their face
Speaker 2: their entire life. That's not what bothers them. You have
Speaker 2: to find a way to disrupt their rhythm before the shot,
Speaker 2: and the Lakers just don't have a Like Like, Max
Speaker 2: is one of the better perimeter athletes on the team,
Speaker 2: and he's just pretty light, pretty top heavy, doesn't hold
Speaker 2: his ground well, doesn't do a good job of disrupting rhythm,
Speaker 2: and so he can struggle against guys that aren't, you know,
Speaker 2: dealing with some sort of significant size disadvantage. Max pretty
Speaker 2: good job against smaller guards, but he can really struggle
Speaker 2: against those bigger shot creators. Right, And like it was
Speaker 2: just a down the roster out classing, Right, Like Austin
Speaker 2: got the better of Devin Booker in the first half,
Speaker 2: but then Booker ended up getting much better of Austin
Speaker 2: in the second half. Right, Like Katie and Lebron weren't
Speaker 2: matched up with each other as much, but I thought
Speaker 2: Katie was much much better than Lebron tonight. Like Lebron's
Speaker 2: been pretty bad by his standards for a while now,
Speaker 2: but we'll talk about that here in a little bit.
Speaker 2: But again, like a lot of times, when it comes
Speaker 2: down to these games, it's about like everybody's going into
Speaker 2: the event with a job. Like the shot creators have
Speaker 2: a job, the defensive specialists have a job, the connective
Speaker 2: pieces on offense have a job.
Speaker 1: Everybody's got a job.
Speaker 2: I talk about the list of responsibilities on a basketball
Speaker 2: court that it has to be attained by or taking
Speaker 2: care of by the five players that are on the floor,
Speaker 2: and like, the Suns just did a better job down
Speaker 2: the roster of doing their jobs than the Lakers players did.
Speaker 2: They dominated in the half court sharper action and better
Speaker 2: quicker decisions. They won the fast break points battle seventeen
Speaker 2: to five, one of the big differences in this game.
Speaker 2: He scored nineteen points off of Lakers turnovers, which continues
Speaker 2: to be an issue for them. Again with the Lakers
Speaker 2: physical ball pressure, run in transition, You're gonna generate a
Speaker 2: lot of margin there because this is a team that
Speaker 2: is really, really sloppy in those two specific areas just
Speaker 2: handling ball pressure, handling physical perimeter defense, and running back
Speaker 2: in transition.
Speaker 1: They just don't run.
Speaker 2: This is a team that has is limited in athleticism
Speaker 2: as is, and their second best star is a guy
Speaker 2: that likes to chill for the most part. Over the
Speaker 2: course of the regular season, at least at this part
Speaker 2: this portion of the regular season. And so there's a
Speaker 2: game plan advantage with the Lakers if you take advantage
Speaker 2: of it, play physical defense, you leverage your athletic gifts
Speaker 2: on the perimeter to force turnovers and then run the
Speaker 2: damn ball down the floor. I just in general, I
Speaker 2: thought the Suns just showed better fight and competitiveness throughout
Speaker 2: the game. And then we get beyond that to the formula,
Speaker 2: the formula that has worked really well for them this year,
Speaker 2: going nine to one in games that Kevin Durant has
Speaker 2: played in. And it's a simple concept, and I think
Speaker 2: Mike Budenholzer has done a good job of streamlining it.
Speaker 2: But it's essentially the concept of advantage creation combined with
Speaker 2: smart spacing and then making the correct reads when you
Speaker 2: have those advantage situations. Right, So like when you've got
Speaker 2: a guy like Nurkisch who sets really good screens, and
Speaker 2: you've got a trio of ball handlers, and I mean,
Speaker 2: Bradley Beal is not going to bring two to the
Speaker 2: ball as often, but at least Devin Booker and Kevin
Speaker 2: Durant are going to pretty consistently at least bring the
Speaker 2: screen defender up pretty high in the action, and like
Speaker 2: one of the flip sides is like this is Nurkic
Speaker 2: helps a lot in this regard. The Suns have personnel
Speaker 2: to beat switches on both sides of the switch, right,
Speaker 2: So like if you end up running action and you
Speaker 2: get Ruey Hachimura switched on the use of Nurkic, you
Speaker 2: can throw the ball down to the block to him
Speaker 2: when he's sharper and when he's making his lips right.
Speaker 2: And then but on the flip side of that, like
Speaker 2: kd and Devin Booker can take their pick of Dalton
Speaker 2: connector D'Angelo Russell and take those guys to their sweet
Speaker 2: spots and go to work on them, right. So, like
Speaker 2: you try not to switch, and if you're gonna try
Speaker 2: to keep Cam b Reddish or one of your better
Speaker 2: perimeter defenders on a Kevin Durant or on a Devin
Speaker 2: Booker in those moments, you're gonna have to show on
Speaker 2: the screens because you know Nurkic is setting really good
Speaker 2: screens to get separation from those guys, and they're just
Speaker 2: gonna walk into pull up jump shots and beat you.
Speaker 2: So you end up showing up at the level right,
Speaker 2: and so by virtue of bringing two to the ball
Speaker 2: in actions where guys are chasing over screens or eventually
Speaker 2: bringing two to the ball again, the Lakers were content
Speaker 2: to just die on an island tonight. But like, if
Speaker 2: you have a guy that consistently can beat one on
Speaker 2: one matchups, you can bring two to the ball even
Speaker 2: without having to have a screen. And then from there
Speaker 2: it's about having your guys in spaces where they can
Speaker 2: be immediate threats. So you want to have the guy
Speaker 2: that's catching that first pass to be a guy that
Speaker 2: makes the quick decision to see where the defense is
Speaker 2: overcompensating in their rotation, and generally speaking, it's gonna get
Speaker 2: worked around to the weak side corner. The vast majority
Speaker 2: of teams the weekside corner or the weak side wing right.
Speaker 2: Good defenses will make you take a week side wing.
Speaker 2: Bad defenses will give up a weak side corner three right,
Speaker 2: Because just imagine this scenario where Kevin Durantz dribbling up
Speaker 2: the right side of the floor and he gets ball
Speaker 2: screen from use of Nurkic. It's being iced, but Katie's
Speaker 2: bringing the defender up to the level, and so Nurkic
Speaker 2: kind of short rolls. Right, Nurki short rolls and Katie
Speaker 2: hits him. You have a three on two on the
Speaker 2: weak side. Right, you have the two defenders that were
Speaker 2: guarding the guy on the weak side wing and the
Speaker 2: guy in the weak side corner, and then you have
Speaker 2: Nurkic rolling to the basket. Really bad teams they'll just
Speaker 2: show with the low man the guy who's guarding the
Speaker 2: guy in the weak side corner, and then it's just
Speaker 2: an easy skip pass to the corner three. They're really
Speaker 2: good teams will have another rotation coming down from the
Speaker 2: wing to take away that corner three and force you
Speaker 2: to make that pass up to the wing. But it's
Speaker 2: just a bunch of really smart offensive players that can
Speaker 2: quickly process the advantage that's in front of them, and
Speaker 2: a bunch of guys who can pay it off by
Speaker 2: either knocking down catch and shoot threes, driving closeouts, or
Speaker 2: as we talked about earlier, being able to beat switches
Speaker 2: that occur in those situations, also attacking the offensive glass
Speaker 2: as a way to take advantage of it. Tea that
Speaker 2: is in rotation, But the formula is there. They just
Speaker 2: have all of the talent they need to consistently to
Speaker 2: consistently generate great shots. And then on defense, like you know,
Speaker 2: they obviously have some personnel limitations there, but it's and
Speaker 2: this is something I'm gonna talk about a little bit
Speaker 2: with JJ Redick in a little bit, But like, find
Speaker 2: something you can be good at, right, Like the Suns
Speaker 2: are never going to be a dominant paint defense, right
Speaker 2: they just don't have the personnel for that, or at
Speaker 2: least like they could be abdominant paint defense, but it
Speaker 2: would be at the expense of giving up the three
Speaker 2: point line. But the way that the Sons have approached
Speaker 2: it this year, I've been, in general really impressed by
Speaker 2: Phoenix's closeouts, just how quickly they get out to the
Speaker 2: perimeter and chase guys off the three point line. It
Speaker 2: disrupts rhythm. Like the Lakers got some good looks from
Speaker 2: three in the late third quarter early fourth quarter that
Speaker 2: didn't go down, but it was after the game was
Speaker 2: already out of reach, and the Suns kind of relaxed
Speaker 2: a little bit, and none of their shooters were confident
Speaker 2: or in rhythm at that point because they weren't getting
Speaker 2: good looks in the early part of the game. Again, like,
Speaker 2: if you think about it from an analytics standpoint, if
Speaker 2: you're bad defensively in terms of your personnel, and these
Speaker 2: are two teams that if you're ranking teams in their
Speaker 2: overall defensive personnel, the Suns and the Lakers are gonna
Speaker 2: be pretty far down in the list compared to the
Speaker 2: other you know, ambitious teams in the league this year
Speaker 2: that are trying to win the title. Right, And so
Speaker 2: if you have limited personnel, then analytically there are shots
Speaker 2: that are more valuable.
Speaker 1: Than others on the court.
Speaker 2: You know, Like I would argue that you should get
Speaker 2: back in transition no matter what, because that's when teams
Speaker 2: are most efficient. So like, if you're bad transition defense,
Speaker 2: I feel like that's just something that you have to
Speaker 2: find a way to rectify, regardless of your personnel.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: But like beyond transition, when you get into the half court,
Speaker 2: it's like the two most efficient shots in the game
Speaker 2: are shots at the rim and wide open catch and
Speaker 2: shoot threes, right, So like those are the two shots
Speaker 2: that if like you're gonna be bad at everything, you
Speaker 2: might as well take one of those away. You know,
Speaker 2: find a way to take one of those types of
Speaker 2: shots and remove them from the equation, you might get
Speaker 2: shredded in the other area by virtue of just taking
Speaker 2: away one of the two most efficient shots that exists
Speaker 2: on the basketball court. You can raise your floor on
Speaker 2: the defensive end of the floor, and the Suns at
Speaker 2: the very least do a decent job of chasing teams
Speaker 2: off the three point line. And so there you go.
Speaker 2: You got a good formula on both ends. And then,
Speaker 2: as we've seen before the injuries that hit them earlier
Speaker 2: this year, at the end of games, KD is just
Speaker 2: walking teams down in clutch situations, just getting great shots consistently.
Speaker 2: He's been one of the big guys that kind of
Speaker 2: like leverages his defensive talents at the end of games
Speaker 2: two to get key stops. But like, the formula is there,
Speaker 2: and I'm really really excited to watch this team now
Speaker 2: that they're healthy again. A great win for the Suns
Speaker 2: to get back on track on the Lakers' front. This
Speaker 2: is the second strike game where they look like they
Speaker 2: kind of lost their will to fight in the second half,
Speaker 2: which is super weird.
Speaker 1: I did a little video after the.
Speaker 2: After the Nuggets game where I talked about how, like, hey,
Speaker 2: this kind of stuff can happen. Like, the reality is
Speaker 2: in an eighty two game regular season, everybody has stretches
Speaker 2: where they play poorly.
Speaker 1: It's just a fact of life.
Speaker 2: Even the Boston Celtics last year, who have been probably
Speaker 2: the most dominant regular season team in the last it's
Speaker 2: like since the Golden State Warriors, you know, with KD
Speaker 2: and Steph Right. So, like you have this really damn
Speaker 2: good regular season team with Boston, and they dropped a
Speaker 2: couple of big games in a row at the tail
Speaker 2: end of the year where they like got outscored. They
Speaker 2: blew a twenty point lead in the fourth quarter against
Speaker 2: the Cavs. That was the Max Strews game winner game,
Speaker 2: and I think that was the one where Jason Tatum
Speaker 2: missed a little fadeaway jump shot over Darius Garland at
Speaker 2: the elbow. And then a couple of nights later they
Speaker 2: ended up losing to Denver, Right, and that was obviously
Speaker 2: a concern because Boston had struggled against the top of
Speaker 2: the West throughout the regular season. So like if you
Speaker 2: zoom in on any stretch of games, you can find
Speaker 2: even the best teams in the league will play some
Speaker 2: bad basketball for a certain amount of time, and so,
Speaker 2: like you know, in the big picture, that's why I'm
Speaker 2: I'm a believer in like not panicking, not overreacting to
Speaker 2: any singular stretch of games, because the eighty two game
Speaker 2: grind as long, and it takes a lot of mental
Speaker 2: toughness and a lot of resilience to fight through those stretches, right,
Speaker 2: and the Lakers are clearly in one of those stretches
Speaker 2: right now. The difference is that it ended up being
Speaker 2: a a little bit tougher of a stretch than I thought,
Speaker 2: in the sense that the Denver game to me looked
Speaker 2: like an outlier. The Orlando Magic game was a game
Speaker 2: I thought the Lakers played great against a team that
Speaker 2: athletically is kind of a mismatch for them. Lebron and
Speaker 2: ad were awesome, and they battled and they got a
Speaker 2: win until Anthony Davis missed three free throws in the
Speaker 2: final minute, right, So, like they didn't get a win.
Speaker 2: That's heartbreaking, But there's a lot of good basketball there, right,
Speaker 2: not anything to get too worked up about. And then
Speaker 2: you completely shit the bed in the third quarter against Denver.
Speaker 2: So it's like one of those things where you don't
Speaker 2: want to overreact to it. But then I talked about
Speaker 2: in that second half against Denver how it was their
Speaker 2: offense that seemingly completely lost any sense of rhythm and flow,
Speaker 2: and every single player on the floor looked like they
Speaker 2: lost their confidence, like they'd lost their mojo. There was
Speaker 2: no like passion even behind the way they were playing.
Speaker 2: What scares the hell out of me is that's exactly
Speaker 2: what happens tonight with the Suns. Like you're right there
Speaker 2: in the first half, Austin goes on a crazy run
Speaker 2: at the end of the second quarter that gets you
Speaker 2: back within two points, and then you come out in
Speaker 2: the third quarter and you're just lifeless. And again it's
Speaker 2: like they get hit in the mouth by a couple
Speaker 2: of shots, right, so you end up falling down by seven,
Speaker 2: nine points.
Speaker 1: Whatever, like get it together.
Speaker 2: But then they were coming out of those timeouts just
Speaker 2: the same lifeless team that we saw in that second
Speaker 2: half against Denver. And so like, again, you're ten and seven.
Speaker 2: I still don't think you should panic. We'll get a
Speaker 2: little bit further into that in a minute. What is
Speaker 2: going wrong with the Lakers right now? Why do they
Speaker 2: look like a team that is not just bad in
Speaker 2: these second halves, but is lifeless, like utterly lifeless, looking
Speaker 2: like they have lost the will to fight. My working
Speaker 2: theory right now is that it has a lot to
Speaker 2: do with the fact that Lebron James, their second best player,
Speaker 2: is just playing really poorly by his standards right now.
Speaker 2: Yet eighteen points, eight rebounds in tennisiss fine stat line.
Speaker 2: He was seven for sixteen with five turnovers, and again,
Speaker 2: it's about the standard. The Lebron James that we saw
Speaker 2: from you know, roughly mid January through the end of
Speaker 2: that first round series against Denver last year was one
Speaker 2: of the five best players in the world. He was like,
Speaker 2: I can't remember the numbers off the top of my head,
Speaker 2: but it was something crazy like twenty eight eight and
Speaker 2: ten on like sixty seven percent true shooting over a
Speaker 2: massive span. Lebron was was playing at an insanely high level.
Speaker 2: It wasn't like we always kind of think about Lebron
Speaker 2: as a player that so much little little basketball things
Speaker 2: that win games, but like Lebron was also bringing top tier,
Speaker 2: superstar level production at the tail end of last season,
Speaker 2: right that formula works with this team for a pretty
Speaker 2: high floor. When Ad is the guy that he's been
Speaker 2: all year and By the way, a lot of people
Speaker 2: are like, oh, AD's having this big, crazy bounce back season.
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis was kicking ass the entire second half of
Speaker 2: last season. I've been saying that all year, like pretty
Speaker 2: much from mid January through the first round series against Jokich,
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis was playing at that insanely high level. And
Speaker 2: to start this year, Ad has for the most part
Speaker 2: been there. He was really bad in the Denver game.
Speaker 2: He's had his bad nights, but he's for the most part,
Speaker 2: has been there. Lebron is in an extended stretch where
Speaker 2: he hasn't been And there have been like three or
Speaker 2: four games where he's been at that level, but the
Speaker 2: rest of them he just hasn't been. In the five
Speaker 2: games coming into tonight, he was at twenty two eight
Speaker 2: and nine. Here were shooting splits. We're at twenty two
Speaker 2: eight to nine, five point four turnovers per game, forty
Speaker 2: eight percent from the field, thirty five percent from three
Speaker 2: to sixty three percent of the line. That's that's not
Speaker 2: even that's not a top twenty player in the league
Speaker 2: right now. Again, just forget about the idea of what
Speaker 2: Lebron's gonna be. I think Lebron is gonna be fine.
Speaker 2: I'm not worried about Lebron in the big picture, Like
Speaker 2: he kind of has a stretch like this every year
Speaker 2: at this phase of his career, and in the I
Speaker 2: am of the opinion that as long as he doesn't
Speaker 2: suffer an injury, when we get into March or April,
Speaker 2: he's gonna look like Lebron James. It's not a big
Speaker 2: picture problem in my opinion. It is a short term problem.
Speaker 2: Though You're in a really tough stretch to your schedule.
Speaker 2: You got some of the easy stretch out of the
Speaker 2: way early. Now it's like, guess what's waiting for you
Speaker 2: right around the corner. A Spurs team in San Antonio
Speaker 2: that's been pretty damn tough to beat at home. An
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City team coming into Los Angeles on Friday, and
Speaker 2: it doesn't get any easier from there. And like the
Speaker 2: reality is is this roster does have limitations, especially when
Speaker 2: Jared Vanderbilt is out. Those limitations are they are very
Speaker 2: unathletic on the perimeter. And like one of the things
Speaker 2: with Lebron is like Lebron has a tendency to chill
Speaker 2: in some ways. He'll chill on the defensive end in
Speaker 2: his rotations, he'll be sloppy with his mental focus. That's
Speaker 2: the turnover thing. Like Lebron is too good of a
Speaker 2: basketball player to be this sloppy with the basketball. It
Speaker 2: is a mental focus thing. He is not locked in
Speaker 2: the way that he needs to be. But like the
Speaker 2: big issue is Lebron at this phase of his career
Speaker 2: doesn't engage himself athletically as much in regular season games.
Speaker 2: But that's okay because he did the same thing last
Speaker 2: year for big stretches as well. The difference was as
Speaker 2: he was pouring in twenty eight points a game hyper
Speaker 2: efficiently and was dishing out tennis sis snite and wasn't
Speaker 2: turning the ball over this much. So Lebron was bringing
Speaker 2: so much good with his making and his skill overall
Speaker 2: and his ability to surgically pick apart teams in the
Speaker 2: half court that even though that if he skipped a
Speaker 2: low man rotation or didn't fight for a defensive rebound,
Speaker 2: it wasn't.
Speaker 1: The end of the world.
Speaker 2: But when you combine him being a really limited offensive
Speaker 2: player right now compared to his standard, while also being
Speaker 2: really unfocused in terms of his decision making, while also
Speaker 2: not engaging himself athletically on a team that is starving
Speaker 2: for athleticism, you're going to continue to have issues. And
Speaker 2: so like, in the big picture, I'm not worried about Lebron,
Speaker 2: but in the short term, this is a tough stretch
Speaker 2: of schedule and I don't know that they can win
Speaker 2: many times without Lebron meeting Anthony Davis at least near
Speaker 2: the level that he's at. Even just as like decision makers,
Speaker 2: the Lakers perimeter players are all pretty inconsistent to varying degrees.
Speaker 2: Lebron needs to be the guy that brings consistency to
Speaker 2: their perimeter decision making and their pre or firepower, and
Speaker 2: he just hasn't been.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny.
Speaker 2: We talk a lot about like teams records, and we
Speaker 2: hyper focus on role players, and we hyper focus on scheme,
Speaker 2: and we hyper focus on you know, strength of schedule
Speaker 2: and all these like different issues. But nine times out
Speaker 2: of ten, it comes down to, like, are your stars
Speaker 2: playing really really well or are they struggling. We're gonna
Speaker 2: talk about the minding heat here in a few minutes.
Speaker 2: Most of their issues come down to the fact that
Speaker 2: Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo are combining to average just
Speaker 2: a few more points than Anthony Davis is averaging by himself.
Speaker 2: They're not getting production star production from their stars. So
Speaker 2: you can talk about Terry Rogier and you can talk
Speaker 2: about like, oh man, these these you know, kilolware minutes
Speaker 2: are rough or whatever it is that your issue is,
Speaker 2: but like, it doesn't really matter if your stars aren't
Speaker 2: playing at a superstar level. One of the things I
Speaker 2: talk about all the time is like, when superstars play
Speaker 2: at a superstar level, they eat up so much responsibility
Speaker 2: on both ends that it actually rafts these really small
Speaker 2: and achievable roles for the role players. Like if you've
Speaker 2: got an offensive star who is consistently bringing two to
Speaker 2: the ball because he's a devastating offensive weapon, all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, you can see some pretty mediocre role players
Speaker 2: around the league look good because they're consistently getting great advantages. Right,
Speaker 2: But if those stars aren't playing super well and they
Speaker 2: aren't lighting the world on fire in single coverage situations
Speaker 2: or against traditional coverages, then you aren't gonna load up
Speaker 2: on them the way you need to, and those guys
Speaker 2: aren't gonna get great advantages off the ball and then
Speaker 2: guess what they're gonna start looking like pretty limited role players.
Speaker 2: Same thing goes on the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna talk about this again with the Bucks here
Speaker 2: in a minute. Jannison Brook Lopez have leveraged themselves defensively
Speaker 2: at a much higher level over the course of the
Speaker 2: last couple of weeks some real throwback games between those
Speaker 2: two guys. Brooke had another ridiculous block on a Tyler
Speaker 2: Harrow step back three along the right wing tonight. Because
Speaker 2: of that, the Bucks have looked sharper defensively. But it's
Speaker 2: not just because those two. When the Bucks back line
Speaker 2: is flying around and making all these plays, it crafts
Speaker 2: small achievable roles for your defensive players, and then suddenly
Speaker 2: guys like Andre Jackson and aj Green and everyone else
Speaker 2: playing defensive roles for Milwaukee looks like they're a little
Speaker 2: bit more, you know, in their wheelhouse, something they can manage, right.
Speaker 2: It's the same thing on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 2: And when you look at the Lakers, it's like when
Speaker 2: Lebron James and Anthony Davis are not bringing truly elite
Speaker 2: play on both.
Speaker 1: Ends of the floor.
Speaker 2: Between the two of them, you're gonna start to say,
Speaker 2: see some limitations within the Lakers role players. I'm always
Speaker 2: more willing to point the finger at the Stars because
Speaker 2: they are the guys that make tons and tons of money,
Speaker 2: and they are the guys that have the reputation and
Speaker 2: are held to a different standard. I don't think it
Speaker 2: makes a ton of sense to look at an eight
Speaker 2: million dollar player and be like, man, he's so inconsistent. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's why he makes eight million dollars. Like, that's the point.
Speaker 2: You have two guys that make fifty, they got to
Speaker 2: do a lot so that the guys that don't make
Speaker 2: fifty can can have manageable roles. And again I'm referring
Speaker 2: to Lebron and Ad as a duo. Lebron is the
Speaker 2: main guy that's struggling. AD has been pulling his weight
Speaker 2: for the most part this year, but he's been really
Speaker 2: AD's two back to back really bad second alps, and
Speaker 2: those are when things fell apart. In fact, Ad has
Speaker 2: been so good this year that he's been able to
Speaker 2: overcome most of Lebron's issues, But in the stretches where
Speaker 2: Ad has been bad, Like think about the stretches when
Speaker 2: Ad has been really bad second half again against Denver,
Speaker 2: they get blown out. Second half against the Suns, they
Speaker 2: get blown out. First half against Cleveland when Jared Allen
Speaker 2: ate his lunch, they get blown out. So like again,
Speaker 2: it's mostly the start the superstar play that I believe
Speaker 2: is the issue behind this team that's leading to their funk.
Speaker 2: A couple other small things. The starting lineup piece. I
Speaker 2: understood the reasoning behind going to Cam Reddish mostly had
Speaker 2: to do with the fact that Delo wasn't playing well.
Speaker 2: Like the Austin Delo Ruey Lebron a D lineup works.
Speaker 2: Just Delo was playing bad basketball, and I understood the
Speaker 2: reason why you went to look at the Cam Reddish piece.
Speaker 2: But Ruey's not playing good basketball right now, in large
Speaker 2: part because he just came back from an injury and
Speaker 2: he's working his way back into rhythm. And so because
Speaker 2: Rui's not playing good basketball, and Cam is not playing
Speaker 2: good basketball, or Cam has his offensive limitations and Lebron's
Speaker 2: having a slump, now, all of a sudden, a starting
Speaker 2: lineup for the Lakers that's been really good offensively for
Speaker 2: a long time has not looked very good.
Speaker 1: And so I don't know how you can pull it off.
Speaker 2: I would even consider just putting in Dalton straight up
Speaker 2: for Cam and just going back to the way things were,
Speaker 2: or even even going with d Lo or going with
Speaker 2: de Lo and Dalton. But at this point, the offense
Speaker 2: has to get going. Offense is what gives this team life.
Speaker 2: Offense is what gets this team to play hard. Offense
Speaker 2: is what gets this team to run the floor. They
Speaker 2: get energized when they're scoring. And so with that being
Speaker 2: the case, I think you've got to inject some more
Speaker 2: offensive firepower into the starting lineup with either d Lo
Speaker 2: or Dalton or both. They just got to find a
Speaker 2: way to do that. And then lastly, JJ in his scheme,
Speaker 2: JJ's been doing a lot of switching, and in the switching,
Speaker 2: they've been giving up a lot of different issues, a
Speaker 2: lot of offensive glass stuff. This is a This is
Speaker 2: a defensive rebounding lineup. That a lineup that struggled the
Speaker 2: defensive rebound which, by the way, the Austin Delo Lebron
Speaker 2: ad Ruey lineup last year defensive rebounded really well. So
Speaker 2: like they're capable of rebounding better. A big part of
Speaker 2: it is switching. When Anthony Davis gets switched out onto
Speaker 2: the perimeter, who's on the back line lazy Lebron and
Speaker 2: Ruey who doesn't rebound. You see how that can be
Speaker 2: an issue. So like, I think at a certain point,
Speaker 2: JJ's got to look at the data here and be like,
Speaker 2: we are a bottom three defense that can't rebound, So
Speaker 2: maybe the switching needs to be something that we take
Speaker 2: a different look at. It's a delicate balance. It's the
Speaker 2: same thing with the starting lineup, because like, you never
Speaker 2: want to bail on things just because they're not going
Speaker 2: your way in a small sample, because sometimes basketball concepts
Speaker 2: take time to flush out, takes time for teams to
Speaker 2: pick up the habits and to get better, right uht.
Speaker 2: The Lakers offense last year is a great example of that.
Speaker 2: The five out stuff looked terrible at the start of
Speaker 2: the year. It was unguardable in the second half of
Speaker 2: the year. So like, at a certain point, like there's
Speaker 2: a delicate balance between bailing on something, but like I
Speaker 2: wonder when JJ is going to look at this data
Speaker 2: and go like, all right, this isn't working. We need
Speaker 2: to try something. And the lastly on the Lakers, there
Speaker 2: was a comment that I received on Twitter from someone
Speaker 2: who listened to the video that I did referencing me saying,
Speaker 2: don't panic. Here's the thing that's still what you do.
Speaker 2: You don't panic because you're ten and seven. Yeah, you're
Speaker 2: playing shit basketball and there's a bunch of good teams
Speaker 2: coming to town or vice versa. So yeah, you're in
Speaker 2: some trouble, but thankfully you bank some wins, so the
Speaker 2: world's not crumbling around you. Here's the reality. You're playing
Speaker 2: shit basketball. Helps not coming. Yeah, the Lakers will hopefully
Speaker 2: make a trade this year, but it's probably not gonna
Speaker 2: happen until closer to February, which means you've got twenty
Speaker 2: thirty games here where you got to figure your shit out.
Speaker 2: This be an active participant in your own survival. No
Speaker 2: one is coming to help you. So you don't panic.
Speaker 2: You identify what you're doing poorly, and you find a
Speaker 2: way to try to fight it, and you fight like
Speaker 2: hell until you find some relief, whether that's Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 2: coming back, Lebron James getting his legs back underneath him,
Speaker 2: or a trade, whatever it ends up being, you've got
Speaker 2: to fight until then. I've seen that Lakers teams do
Speaker 2: it before. The Russell Westbrook Lakers fought like hell until
Speaker 2: they traded Russ and then they ended up making a
Speaker 2: run to the Western Conference finals. That's the type of
Speaker 2: spirit that they need to see, that I need to see.
Speaker 1: And if there's.
Speaker 2: Anything that I'm really disappointed about, it's just the overall
Speaker 2: fight that they showed in the second half over the
Speaker 2: last two games. All Right, Bucks heat Dame got super
Speaker 2: hot from three. Early in this game, they were spamming
Speaker 2: double dragged with Brook Lopez in a guard and you know,
Speaker 2: three man action is kind of like the foundational concept
Speaker 2: between most of what NBA teams do right now. Right, So,
Speaker 2: like you can imagine a horn set where you have
Speaker 2: two guys at the elbows and a guy at the
Speaker 2: top of the key. It's like pass the ball to
Speaker 2: one guy at the elbow, and then there's some sort
Speaker 2: of screening action between the other two guys. There's like
Speaker 2: some sort of interchange between those three guys. Stack, pick
Speaker 2: and roll just a ball screen, but we're bringing a
Speaker 2: shooter into the action and we're backscreening for the role
Speaker 2: man as he's going, so he's interchanging to the top
Speaker 2: of the key. Once again, three players all the threat. Right,
Speaker 2: you have a lot of like the all of the
Speaker 2: stuff that like Dallas has been doing, the Lakers been
Speaker 2: doing this too. A lot of teams are doing this
Speaker 2: stuff where they use their center as the passing folkrum
Speaker 2: at the top of the key, where they just enter
Speaker 2: the ball to the top of the key, and then
Speaker 2: you have your two guards like screen for each other,
Speaker 2: and then cut off and try to make something happen there.
Speaker 2: Once again, three players all in some sort of like interchange.
Speaker 2: Double drag is nothing but a couple of screens where
Speaker 2: one guy rolls to the basket, so it's two staggered
Speaker 2: ball screens. The better athlete typically rolls, the better shooter
Speaker 2: typically pops. But the whole point of running a three
Speaker 2: man action is to take what is a simple decision
Speaker 2: and turn it into a complicated decision. So if like
Speaker 2: two guys interchange, it's just you get him, I get him.
Speaker 2: We're good, right a ball screen, Well I'm in a drop.
Speaker 2: Oh we're switching. Oh I'm blitzing. Oh I'm hedging whatever
Speaker 2: it is. Oh I'm going under. There's just pretty simple
Speaker 2: decision making process. As soon as you bring that third
Speaker 2: guy into the equation, you can start to force teams
Speaker 2: to make some mistakes and Dame was just constantly finding
Speaker 2: the mistake in Miami's approach to that double drag at
Speaker 2: the top of the key. So it was usually somebody
Speaker 2: like aj Greener, Andre Jackson and Brook Lopez setting the
Speaker 2: two picks, and then essentially as Dame is coming off
Speaker 2: to his left hand side, there's usually a guard guard
Speaker 2: switch in there somewhere. Usually the guy who's guarding Dame
Speaker 2: is going to pass him off to the guy who's
Speaker 2: guarding the other guard.
Speaker 1: But then there's also like.
Speaker 2: A drop coverage element sometimes because even that second guard
Speaker 2: can get screened, and then the guy who's guarding the
Speaker 2: big man who's rolling might sit there in a drop
Speaker 2: and Dame beat every variation of it. There was a
Speaker 2: time where he came off of the double drag and
Speaker 2: Bam was too far back in a drop because the
Speaker 2: second guy got screened, and he just walked into a three.
Speaker 2: There was a time that Bam said, Ah, screw it,
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna switch, and he switched, and he was
Speaker 2: sitting too far back on his heels, and Dame just
Speaker 2: went to a little step back to his right and
Speaker 2: knocked it down. There was another play in the second
Speaker 2: half where it was just a straight up one on
Speaker 2: one situation with Bam and Dame, and Bam was just
Speaker 2: just overplaying the drive and Dame, who'd had hit like
Speaker 2: six or seven threes at that point, was just able
Speaker 2: to easy step back going to his left and knock
Speaker 2: down a three point shot. But like Bam was sitting
Speaker 2: too far back on his switches. There was a play
Speaker 2: where Kevin Love was in the game where like the
Speaker 2: other guard who was switching was waiting on the other
Speaker 2: side of the second screen. So what did Dame do.
Speaker 2: He just came off the first screen, and when he
Speaker 2: came off the first screen, he just kind of settled
Speaker 2: into that soft spot right there in the middle of
Speaker 2: the action and rose up and knocked it down. But
Speaker 2: Dame just got blazing hot from three just by spamming
Speaker 2: the same action that double drag at the top of
Speaker 2: the key, and then from there Miami basically had no
Speaker 2: choice but to start double teaming him because at that
Speaker 2: point he was in rhythm. He hit the shot over
Speaker 2: Jimmy where like step back on the left wing of
Speaker 2: pump fake, Jimmy did everything right, broke his rhythm and
Speaker 2: he just kind of leaned back and reloaded and just
Speaker 2: kind of knocked it down off of the pump fake
Speaker 2: like he just had it going too much. So they
Speaker 2: had to start double teaming, and it worked and it
Speaker 2: got them back in the game. I thought the Bucks
Speaker 2: were a little slow with their processing. And then one
Speaker 2: of the big things that you have to do when
Speaker 2: you're beating a blitz or a double team is you
Speaker 2: got to get the ball on time and on target.
Speaker 2: Like to put it simply, if I ask you to
Speaker 2: guard me and you're fifteen feet away and before you
Speaker 2: run at me, you have to throw me a chest
Speaker 2: pass right into my shooting pocket, You're not gonna be
Speaker 2: able to guard me, like I'm either gonna shoot it,
Speaker 2: or if you sprint, like hell, I'm just gonna go
Speaker 2: right around you, right. But if you throw me a
Speaker 2: bad pass, like if you throw me a bounce pass,
Speaker 2: you know, three feet off to my left, or if
Speaker 2: I have to like go way down to grab it,
Speaker 2: or it's just it's difficult for me to catch all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, that fifteen foot close out for you
Speaker 2: become something that's more achievable. And like the Bucks were
Speaker 2: just throwing some sloppy passes, and like those four on
Speaker 2: threes were quickly turning into situations where there was no advantage,
Speaker 2: and so Miami started to get now transition. They had
Speaker 2: fifteen transition points in the second half. They had a
Speaker 2: really rough jump shooting first half, and they finally started
Speaker 2: to make some jump shots in the second half. Terry
Speaker 2: Rogier in particular, hit three threes and a long two
Speaker 2: in that half, and so they were able to just
Speaker 2: kind of slowly but methodically work their way into game
Speaker 2: by doubling Dame getting out in transition. Jimmy was able
Speaker 2: to drop his shoulder on that left lane line drive
Speaker 2: and get to the basket a couple of times. In
Speaker 2: the third quarter. They get themselves back into a game,
Speaker 2: and now it's a crunch Time game. But in the
Speaker 2: Crunch Time game, it was fascinating because Dame is again
Speaker 2: the superstar for the Bucks. Like we talked about in
Speaker 2: that segment earlier about your superstar doing his job, we
Speaker 2: saw a massive mismatch in the quality of superstar playing
Speaker 2: Crunch Time. Dame, because of everything he did in the
Speaker 2: earlier phase of the game, was consistently bringing two to
Speaker 2: the ball, so they were able to pass out of it.
Speaker 2: And guess who ended up getting hot in crunch time.
Speaker 2: AJ Green hit three threes in the second half, had
Speaker 2: a big one off of a double team, and then
Speaker 2: a ridiculously tough one, a tough one on the left
Speaker 2: wing where one of those sloppy passing sequences from the
Speaker 2: Bucks had AJ Green with Terry Rozier in like a
Speaker 2: straight up loaded situation late clock and aj did like
Speaker 2: a hard rip to the like kind of like a
Speaker 2: pullover to his right and then a rip, a hard
Speaker 2: rip to the left and was able to get enough
Speaker 2: separation from separation from from Tyler Harrow to just rise
Speaker 2: up and knock down a huge just a huge bucket
Speaker 2: from AJ Green. He's been awesome. We'll talk about him
Speaker 2: here in a minute. But like Dame, was able to
Speaker 2: generate quality shots by virtue of his threat by bringing
Speaker 2: two guys to the ball, and on the other end
Speaker 2: of the floor, they just the heat. Can't get anything
Speaker 2: out of Jimmy and Bam. Jimmy and Bam combined for
Speaker 2: five points in the fourth quarter. The two of them
Speaker 2: on the season are combining to average thirty six points
Speaker 2: per game. It's just not gonna get it done, like
Speaker 2: I talked about it earlier, and I'm not gonna get
Speaker 2: too much deeper in it now, but like, don't look
Speaker 2: any further off your Miami Heat fan. Then the fact
Speaker 2: that your stars are not providing superstar level production and
Speaker 2: when they're not, like and again, BAM's not a superstar
Speaker 2: level player, but he's close, and like, if he's not
Speaker 2: going to play up to that level, if Jimmy and
Speaker 2: Bam are, if neither of them are going to play
Speaker 2: at a top twenty five level, then you're you're not
Speaker 2: gonna win many games in the NBA with how much
Speaker 2: talent there is right now. And that ended up being
Speaker 2: the difference in the game is there was a little
Speaker 2: bit of a faux pause. Andre Jackson like panicked and
Speaker 2: turned it over, and they ended up giving up a
Speaker 2: three to Terry Rozier in transition, and so Miami did
Speaker 2: end up getting a better chance to try to steal
Speaker 2: that game. But like the Bucks were up four l A,
Speaker 2: they should have put it away easier than they did,
Speaker 2: because once again, Dame was able to provide the superstar
Speaker 2: impact of bringing two to the ball and Jimmy and
Speaker 2: Bam couldn't do anything on the offensive end down the
Speaker 2: stretch of that game. The Bucks have now won five
Speaker 2: in a row seven out of eight, and again that
Speaker 2: one loss in there was that Giannis foul of LaMelo ball.
Speaker 2: They've had over a twenty before tonight's game because Giannis
Speaker 2: didn't play tonight, they had over one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: points in three consecutive games. In the previous three games,
Speaker 2: and again, like early in the season, it wasn't just
Speaker 2: the defense. The offense where it wasn't where it needed
Speaker 2: to be, but like getting you're getting the offensive burst.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: We talked about Brooke and Giannis earlier and how they're
Speaker 2: establishing kind of like a really high floor for this defense,
Speaker 2: and then AJ Green and Andre Jackson there. I'm of
Speaker 2: the opinion AJ Green should start. I think the reason
Speaker 2: Docks leaning and Andre Jackson is he's bringing a little
Speaker 2: bit more like full court pressure to just kind of
Speaker 2: like disrupt rhythm. But Aj, I think is a pretty
Speaker 2: damn good point of attack defender. Sides his feet well,
Speaker 2: gets over screens well, He's got a really strong like
Speaker 2: build in low center of gravity, so he absorbs contact
Speaker 2: well like and he's just a better offensive player. But like,
Speaker 2: those two guys are are providing forty eight minutes of
Speaker 2: pretty decent quality perimeter defense. I mean they played they
Speaker 2: close both of them together tonight, obviously with Giannis out
Speaker 2: of the lineup. So like starting to look like a
Speaker 2: serious basketball team in Milwaukee after not looking like a
Speaker 2: serious basketball team in the in the early stretch of
Speaker 2: the year. Not gonna spend too much time on Rockets bowlves,
Speaker 2: but it was a really really fun game. The the
Speaker 2: Rockets were really bogging down Minnesota's offense in the first
Speaker 2: three quarters. In Minnesota's offense has a boatload of issues.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get into that here in just a minute,
Speaker 2: but it turned into this really interesting, like crunch time
Speaker 2: battle because the Wolves just kind of methodically took control
Speaker 2: of the game, just slowly chopped away and ended up
Speaker 2: taking control of the game. And they really should have
Speaker 2: won this one. Rob Dillingham had a really bad turnover
Speaker 2: against the men Thompson that ended up leading to a
Speaker 2: layup that tied the game. And then Anthony Edwards missed
Speaker 2: two wide open threes and he had like a little
Speaker 2: bank shot that he shot at the buzzer that hit
Speaker 2: every part of the rim and didn't go down. So
Speaker 2: like it it got to be a discouraging one for
Speaker 2: Wolves fans. Because it felt like a game that they
Speaker 2: should should have won. But what was really fascinating down
Speaker 2: the stretch in the fourth quarter when the Wolves were
Speaker 2: taking control up until the final minute, it was kind
Speaker 2: of a formula that I liked in the sense that, like,
Speaker 2: it's kind of ugly and clunky, but Ant and Julius
Speaker 2: are guys that have a lot of physical advantages against
Speaker 2: the guys that are guarding them, and they can get
Speaker 2: to their spots. And so as long as the Wolves
Speaker 2: can tighten the screws on the defensive end of the
Speaker 2: floor and get stops and Julius can generate some pretty
Speaker 2: solid looks down the stretch of a game. And it
Speaker 2: was kind of impressive as they kind of worked their
Speaker 2: way back into it. It has like three or four
Speaker 2: plays a game now where he just snakes through like
Speaker 2: four bodies and gets to the basket for.
Speaker 1: An and one.
Speaker 2: Now he shouldn't have to stake through four bodies, which
Speaker 2: we'll get to in a minute. But anyway, Rob Dillingham
Speaker 2: has the turnover on the right wing, a men Thompson
Speaker 2: ends up getting the transition layup, Anthony Everards misses the
Speaker 2: little banking floater and we end up going to overtime,
Speaker 2: and in overtime a really good defensive stretch where Dylan
Speaker 2: Brooks got a bunch of key stops and the Rockets
Speaker 2: started to get out in transition, they had eight points
Speaker 2: in fast break situations just in the ot period. A
Speaker 2: Men Thompson, who got the huge deal against Rob Dillingham,
Speaker 2: hit a massive three on the right wing, and then
Speaker 2: Alpert and Saning Goudo several occasions in the game was
Speaker 2: just going right at Rudy Gobert, which I thought was
Speaker 2: really fascinating. Was able to get to a nice little
Speaker 2: left shoulder hook that iced things and the Rockets ended
Speaker 2: up stealing that game from the Wolves. I've talked quite
Speaker 2: a bit about the Rockets in the last week, so
Speaker 2: you guys can go to my channel to find some
Speaker 2: of that content in the Power Inkings video, and then
Speaker 2: we did a deep dive on the Rockets. I think
Speaker 2: it was after the Bucks game if I remember correctly.
Speaker 2: Last week. I want to talk a little bit about
Speaker 2: the Wolves though specifically and their issues was shooting. So
Speaker 2: one of the things that happened at the tail end
Speaker 2: of this game was mostly Jabari Smith Junior, but as a
Speaker 2: couple other guys, they would put a defender on Jada
Speaker 2: McDaniels and just ignore him and just offer help everywhere.
Speaker 2: And Jaden, i think, went four for sixteen from the field,
Speaker 2: couldn't make a three point shot to save his life.
Speaker 2: Multiple beautiful, completely uncontested three point looks in crunch time,
Speaker 2: and none of them were close. There was a play
Speaker 2: where had this like crazy slithering drive and like whipped
Speaker 2: a beautiful left handed cross court passed to hit Jaden
Speaker 2: right in the shooting pocket in the right corner, and
Speaker 2: it was a brick. And like I've been saying a
Speaker 2: lot on my show that I love Anthony Edwards. He's
Speaker 2: probably my favorite young prospect in the league, and I'm
Speaker 2: rooting for him in a big way. But like, I
Speaker 2: believe in the Wolves less this year than I ever have,
Speaker 2: and I hate this roster construct. And one of the
Speaker 2: big reasons why is, like, again, play into your stars strengths.
Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards is over two hundred jump shots this year,
Speaker 2: damn near one point two points per attempt. He is
Speaker 2: a really good jump shooter. That is something that I've
Speaker 2: emphasized as a piece of his growth that I believe
Speaker 2: is real. And I think He's demonstrated that over a
Speaker 2: pretty massive sample size between last year's playoffs, the stuff
Speaker 2: with Team USA this summer, and the stuff with the
Speaker 2: Wolves this year. But his absolute superstar superpower is nobody
Speaker 2: can guard this dude. No one can keep him in front,
Speaker 2: and yet every time he beats his man off the dribble,
Speaker 2: he's got to slither through three or four help defenders
Speaker 2: to get anything off at the rim. And it's because
Speaker 2: you're closing out short, if not outright ignoring Jaden McDaniels,
Speaker 2: you're closing out short on Julius Randall and Rudy Gobert
Speaker 2: can hardly catch the damn ball, let alone put it
Speaker 2: in the basket. It is such a flawed construct and
Speaker 2: like every game with the Wolves is so ugly. And
Speaker 2: for the record, I understand there's another side to this,
Speaker 2: which is they have the defensive personnel to cause some
Speaker 2: real problems for teams, But like, ultimately, ultimately, I think
Speaker 2: if you're going to get the best out of Anthony
Speaker 2: Edwards and what this offense can be, and even taking
Speaker 2: it a step further with Julius Randall is a guy
Speaker 2: who can really beat matchups and use his athletic tools
Speaker 2: to pressure the rim. You gotta get some guys who
Speaker 2: can hit some shots in this lineup. And like, I
Speaker 2: don't know what's going on with Jade McDaniels because the
Speaker 2: development is just stalled out. Like in this league, if
Speaker 2: you're just a non threat, it becomes pretty difficult to
Speaker 2: consider you to be a reliable rotation piece. He's looking
Speaker 2: a lot closer to Jared Vanderbilt than he is prime
Speaker 2: McHale Bridges, and that concerns me because I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know that there's a good solid for that
Speaker 2: other than ant takes eleven three is a game and
Speaker 2: hopefully makes five of them. But that was a really
Speaker 2: entertaining game. That was probably the game that I enjoyed
Speaker 2: most watching tonight. That's all I have for tonight is
Speaker 2: always sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting
Speaker 2: the show. I recorded over an hour with Sam Vessini
Speaker 2: earlier this afternoon, talking a bunch of stuff about the
Speaker 2: contenders at the top of the league.
Speaker 1: I think we're running that on Wednesday. I feel bad
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 2: Guys because I did a I did a for your
Speaker 2: regular guys who listened to all of our episodes. I
Speaker 2: did a I worked four hours this morning on a
Speaker 2: video with the film breakdown of Nicks of Nick Nuggets
Speaker 2: and recorded the whole damn thing, and then my computer
Speaker 2: had some sort of glitch where my camera wasn't or
Speaker 2: where my camera was glitching, and the mic was glitching,
Speaker 2: and we had to scrap the whole damn thing. So
Speaker 2: that's why we didn't have a new episode this morning.
Speaker 2: I apologize, trust me, no one's more irritated than I
Speaker 2: am about that. But we do have more content coming
Speaker 2: out with Sam Vassini. Every year for Thanksgiving, we take Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Speaker 2: Saturday Sunday off me and our whole team so that
Speaker 2: we could take a little break before we get into
Speaker 2: the n season tournament. So no new content after the
Speaker 2: Sam Vasini video until our Power Rankings video on Monday.
Speaker 2: But once we get to the Power Rankings video on Monday,
Speaker 2: it's grind time and you guys can count on that
Speaker 2: same Monday through Friday schedule basically through to the All
Speaker 2: Star break again. I sincerely appreciate you guys for rocking
Speaker 2: with me and rocking with the show. If you have
Speaker 2: an opportunity to spend some time with family and food
Speaker 2: this holiday. I hope you guys enjoy it and I'll
Speaker 2: see you guys with Sam and then on Monday.
Speaker 1: For some power rankings the volume. What's up guys?
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 2: OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 2: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 2: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 2: supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 2: do that, I'd really appreciate it.