Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Sunday, everybody. I hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys had a great weekend. Round one coverage of the
Speaker 1: NBA Playoffs on Hoops Tonight is brought to you by
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Speaker 1: a jam packed show for you today. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: hitting the first three games from today's slate, the Lakers, Grizzlies,
Speaker 1: Heat Bucks and Clippers Sons. For those of you guys
Speaker 1: looking for Wolves Nuggets, we're gonna be hitting that tomorrow morning,
Speaker 1: as well as a little film session going over some
Speaker 1: of the things I learned from rewatching this weekend's games.
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Speaker 1: Under Hoops Tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna start with Lakers Grizzlies. There is a formula
Speaker 1: that we are seeing kind of take shape with this
Speaker 1: Lakers team that really works, and this Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis surrounded by a ton of offensive skill. This
Speaker 1: is where the value of rim pressure comes in. When
Speaker 1: you have guys that just relentlessly, through size and strength
Speaker 1: and athleticism and skill, push the ball closer and closer
Speaker 1: to the rim, it collapses things around them, requires multiple
Speaker 1: bodies to take care of them, which leads all sorts,
Speaker 1: leads to all sorts of advantage opportunities off the ball.
Speaker 1: And you saw that tonight specifically with a core of
Speaker 1: three players around Lebron and ad Austin Reeves, D'Angelo Russell,
Speaker 1: and Ruey Hotchimura, and they all kind of did it
Speaker 1: in their own way. I thought D'Angelo Russell had a
Speaker 1: nice bounce back game from his rough play in performance.
Speaker 1: It was a little rough early on in that game,
Speaker 1: kind of forcing things a little bit, but he did
Speaker 1: eventually find his rhythm and he had a bunch of
Speaker 1: monumentally important spot up jump shot. Austin Reeves again, like,
Speaker 1: how much of a luxury is it that you can
Speaker 1: with Lebron James and Anthony Davis on your team, run
Speaker 1: your late game offense through Austin Reeves, and this is
Speaker 1: where having multiple offensive threats can gift you with better
Speaker 1: matchup opportunities. Right, Because Dylan Brooks, as he was expected
Speaker 1: to do, especially in a game one of a series
Speaker 1: when Lebron's a little out of shape, still kind of
Speaker 1: feeling things out, he had some success guarding Lebron, giving
Speaker 1: him some trouble getting to his spots and feeling comfortable. Right,
Speaker 1: Jared Jackson Junior, He's gonna have success guarding Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: at least compared to some of the other players around
Speaker 1: the league. That doesn't mean if you have to go
Speaker 1: to Lebron and Idi it's a bad option. It just
Speaker 1: means that you might have better options elsewhere. And down
Speaker 1: the stretch of that game, Austin Reeves got a steady
Speaker 1: diet of Tias Jones. They tried Desmond Baine, but then
Speaker 1: they would just run some off ball guard guard screen
Speaker 1: to try to get Tias back onto him, and Austin
Speaker 1: was able to get Tias Jones trapped behind him on
Speaker 1: those screens, which gave him the opportunity to get downhill
Speaker 1: and make plays with the basketball. Austin is a real
Speaker 1: basketball player, a very very good player. Is going to
Speaker 1: make a lot of money this summer. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of talk about him being kind of dependent on his
Speaker 1: ability to get to the foul line. That's simply not
Speaker 1: the case. All you got to do is look at
Speaker 1: the numbers and look at how good he's been at
Speaker 1: every spot on the floor converting actual basketball shots into
Speaker 1: points beyond the free throw line to know that he
Speaker 1: is capable of being a primary ball handler on a
Speaker 1: good team. And then Ruey hot Schimura. This is where
Speaker 1: the advantage of position battles come in again. Like when
Speaker 1: Rui was originally traded for, it was kind of expected
Speaker 1: that he'd be that starting small forward, right, But then
Speaker 1: you trade for Jared Vanderbilt, and Darvin Ham makes a
Speaker 1: tough call. He ends up moving Ruey to the bench,
Speaker 1: specifically because he thinks that that bench lineup needs more
Speaker 1: offensive skill, and Jared Vanderbilt alongside all of that offensive skill,
Speaker 1: it's more important to have somebody who's a better defensive player, right,
Speaker 1: So you slide Jared Vanderbilt into that position, and ever
Speaker 1: since then, it's been a battle based on who's playing
Speaker 1: better on any given night to see who's going to
Speaker 1: be the guy that ends up getting the minutes when
Speaker 1: it matters, right, and that actually that position battle actually
Speaker 1: drives success on both fronts. If Rui's the only forward
Speaker 1: and he knows that if he misses that box out,
Speaker 1: or if he doesn't sprint back in transition that one time,
Speaker 1: or if he's not you know, making the right reads offensively,
Speaker 1: that he just gets to stay in the game because
Speaker 1: there's no better option that doesn't serve as nearly as
Speaker 1: good of a purpose. Right, when you have real competition,
Speaker 1: real threat to your own playing time, it actually incentivizes
Speaker 1: you to to do the little things really really well
Speaker 1: on every single possession. And Rui is playing some of
Speaker 1: the best basketball. I'll just go out and say he's
Speaker 1: playing by far, the best basketball of his career over
Speaker 1: the course the last couple of weeks, in large part
Speaker 1: because he's not just embracing the offensive skill stuff that
Speaker 1: made him tantalizing coming out of college. He's also embracing
Speaker 1: all of the little things, grabbing contested rebounds, defending at
Speaker 1: a high level, sprinting up and down the floor in transition,
Speaker 1: making the right reads offensively being part of a team
Speaker 1: unit on both ends of the floor instead of just
Speaker 1: focusing on the offensive end of the floor. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: was unbelievable in this game. Obviously notwithstating a scare we
Speaker 1: had in the first half of a little stinger that
Speaker 1: he had with his right shoulder. Obviously a freaky moment
Speaker 1: when AD's saying he can't move his arm. I wasn't
Speaker 1: too worried about it right away, just because on replay
Speaker 1: it didn't look like too much contact, didn't look like
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that would cause a dislocated shoulder,
Speaker 1: So I'm glad it ended up being something that he
Speaker 1: was able to play through. He was a monster in
Speaker 1: this game. Seven blocks. That's outrageous what he was playing
Speaker 1: doing in the passing lanes, bothering shots around the rim,
Speaker 1: scoring in the short role, scoring in isolation. He knocked
Speaker 1: down a couple of important jump shots. When Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is playing at this level, this is damn near best
Speaker 1: player in the world type of basketball. That guy can
Speaker 1: carry this Lakers team to the championship. They don't even
Speaker 1: need Lebron to be that good. If Ad is going
Speaker 1: to be that good, Obviously you'd prefer to have Lebron
Speaker 1: play up to that level, but Anthony Davis is buying
Speaker 1: the Lakers margin for error, and it's making it so
Speaker 1: that a lot of guys have less pressure on them
Speaker 1: to and which allows them to kind of play loose
Speaker 1: and free. Lebron's a great example of this, all of
Speaker 1: the talent on this roster, with how well Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: played tonight, with how well Ruy Hotchenmura played tonight, with
Speaker 1: how well Anthony Davis played tonight, he didn't have to
Speaker 1: have a great game, and Lebron had a pretty good game.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at the shooting numbers and
Speaker 1: you look at the timely shots he hit hit a
Speaker 1: massive three on the right wing in transition down the
Speaker 1: stretch of this game. I thought Lebron had a much
Speaker 1: much better defensive game in this game. I was very
Speaker 1: critical of him in the playing game for him losing
Speaker 1: track of shooters and not making extra efforts. All of
Speaker 1: that stuff was there tonight. And even though he didn't
Speaker 1: have the best offensive game in the world, he had
Speaker 1: five turnovers, was a little sloppy from time to time,
Speaker 1: he had a big winning impact because he didn't need
Speaker 1: to be the offensive engine throughout the game thanks to
Speaker 1: the additional margin for error purchased bought for the Lakers
Speaker 1: by all of that extra talent on the floor. I
Speaker 1: thought the Lakers defended John Morant very well. He got
Speaker 1: out in transition a few times early in the game,
Speaker 1: hit a couple of three's there in that third quarter
Speaker 1: when the Griz were playing well. But other than that,
Speaker 1: the Lakers defended him really well. They held him to
Speaker 1: zero point sixty seven points per pick and roll. That's
Speaker 1: the most important metric for projecting forward in the series.
Speaker 1: You know, for three point shooting, you kind of take
Speaker 1: it or leave it. He's gonna make him or he's
Speaker 1: going to miss him. Those transition opportunities. You can deal
Speaker 1: with that just by focusing on sprinting back and communicating.
Speaker 1: But in the half court, that's where it becomes about personnel.
Speaker 1: How can your personnel make things difficult on John Rant?
Speaker 1: And I thought they did a really nice job. I
Speaker 1: thought Jared Vanderbilt, whenever he was in the game, did
Speaker 1: a really nice job. Dennis Schroeder did a really nice job.
Speaker 1: They battled, and they made John Morant play in a
Speaker 1: crowd in the half court. They forced him into a
Speaker 1: bunch of turnovers, he missed some shots. It was a
Speaker 1: great defensive effort. I thought that guarded has been baying
Speaker 1: really well. He was six for eighteen from the field.
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves applying back pressure all night long, just fighting
Speaker 1: over those screens and contesting and making those shots more difficult.
Speaker 1: And then at the end of the game he just
Speaker 1: actually on the left wing. I think it was like
Speaker 1: middle fourth quarter he actually Chase Desn't being over the
Speaker 1: top of the screen and got a block day rearview contest,
Speaker 1: which is extremely impressive. All around, the matchups favored the Lakers,
Speaker 1: And that's concerning Game one. That again, you want to
Speaker 1: look at separating process from results, right, you know, if
Speaker 1: you're a if you're a Suns fan, for instance, after tonight,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about this in a little bit, you're thinking, hey, like,
Speaker 1: we miss a lot of shots that we normally make.
Speaker 1: Kd's normally a lot more efficient. You could separate some
Speaker 1: process from results there and feel a little bit better
Speaker 1: about the way things went. But when the process also
Speaker 1: kind of mirrors the result, that's when it gets concerned.
Speaker 1: The Lakers got better shots in this game, they generated
Speaker 1: more rim pressure and generated higher quality opportunities for more
Speaker 1: skilled offensive players. It's going to be really hard to
Speaker 1: flip that script. Lebron didn't play very well offensively over
Speaker 1: the course of the series. He's the chess master kind
Speaker 1: of guy. He's going to figure out things and solve
Speaker 1: things over the course of the series and get better
Speaker 1: and better and better. And then here's the thing as
Speaker 1: far as dealing with Austin Reeves and D'Angelo Russell. If
Speaker 1: you throw more attention to those guys, if you bring
Speaker 1: the screen defender up higher to deal with an Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves pull up, that opens up Anthony Davis rolling to
Speaker 1: the basket. If you stay close to your spot up
Speaker 1: shooters off the ball, If you're close to D'Angelo Russell
Speaker 1: and close to Austin Reeves off the ball, that leaves
Speaker 1: more room for Lebron, James and Anthony Davis to get
Speaker 1: going in the paint. So there's a lot of trade
Speaker 1: offs there that don't bode well for Memphis. And then
Speaker 1: playing and simple this John Moran injury, it's so important
Speaker 1: for him, especially with how much he struggled to score
Speaker 1: and pick and roll. It's gonna be very important for
Speaker 1: him to have his touch, and if his right hand
Speaker 1: is bothering him that much, that could be an issue.
Speaker 1: The one big silver lining I should say for the
Speaker 1: Grizzly is something that should make them feel optimistic about
Speaker 1: their chances to make a run here towards the end
Speaker 1: of the series. It's the simple fact that nobody on
Speaker 1: the Lakers could guard Jaron Jackson not named Lebron James.
Speaker 1: That's a very very encouraging trend in the series, Like
Speaker 1: like he was just going right at Lebron and getting
Speaker 1: high quality shots, like he's really good at going to
Speaker 1: turn like he's going to go to his left handed
Speaker 1: hook and waiting for the defender to get out of
Speaker 1: position to try to contest, and then continue to pivot
Speaker 1: in through the basket to get higher quality attempts at
Speaker 1: the basket as opposed to just going to his hook shot.
Speaker 1: But then he can still make the hook shot when
Speaker 1: he needs it. So great start for the Lakers. The
Speaker 1: John Moran injury is very concerning. Again, I do expect
Speaker 1: this to be a longer series. The Lakers are famous
Speaker 1: for letting the foot off their foot off the gas
Speaker 1: when they tend to feel comfortable in any sort of situation.
Speaker 1: They played with a desperation today that got them to win.
Speaker 1: I would not be the least bit surprised if we
Speaker 1: got a lack of daisical defensive effort from the Lakers
Speaker 1: in Game two and the Grizzlies tie the series. But
Speaker 1: very very good start for the Lakers. All right, let's
Speaker 1: move on to Clippers Suns. So you know, specifically with
Speaker 1: the Suns, there's a lot to like when you're looking
Speaker 1: at their roster, right, tons of offensive skill, three dudes
Speaker 1: who can run, pick and roll at an extremely high level,
Speaker 1: all of which can succeed off the ball, and excellent
Speaker 1: screen and roll big and DeAndre Ayton a lots to like.
Speaker 1: But one of the things that concerns me is none
Speaker 1: of those core four players actually likes to or is
Speaker 1: good at doing the dirty work. There are all guys
Speaker 1: that kind of primarily focus on what they do on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor. They'll make defensive plays, right.
Speaker 1: You'll see Kevin Durant, excuse me, you get a big
Speaker 1: block around the rim, or a big block contesting a
Speaker 1: three point shot. You'll see Devin Booker slide his feet
Speaker 1: and take a charge You'll see Chris Paul do something
Speaker 1: grifty to save a possession here or there. They all
Speaker 1: do little things here or there, but it's not a
Speaker 1: part of their basketball identity. It's kind of supplemental stuff
Speaker 1: to them as opposed to a core part of their identity.
Speaker 1: And say what you want about Kawhi Leonard and Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: Like Kawhi Leonard, a core part of his identity is
Speaker 1: the way he competes on the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: and he did a masterful job on Kevin Durant in
Speaker 1: this game, particularly down the stretch. Say what you want
Speaker 1: about Russell Westbrook, and he's got a lot of limitations,
Speaker 1: but he played his ass off tonight and devoted all
Speaker 1: of his energy to the little things, and despite a
Speaker 1: nightmare offensive game, I think he was three for nineteen
Speaker 1: or three for eighteen from the field. Despite that, he
Speaker 1: was able to have a massive winning impact simply because
Speaker 1: he devoted his effort and energy towards something he knew
Speaker 1: he could accomplish, which is what he did on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. If he did that for
Speaker 1: his entire career, he might even be another echelon above
Speaker 1: the way we regard him right now. It's an interesting
Speaker 1: decision from ty lu to closed with him because the
Speaker 1: Clippers actually went on a big run late third quarter,
Speaker 1: and this is something that I think they might have
Speaker 1: to go to in the long run, especially if for
Speaker 1: us as impact kind of tails off. But they had
Speaker 1: a lot of success with that lineup with Bones Highland,
Speaker 1: Terrence Mayn, with Norman Powell, Kawhi Leonard and Mason Plumley.
Speaker 1: Right with that group, they just had a ton of
Speaker 1: offensive skill around Kawhi, and Kawhi was able to play
Speaker 1: a little bit more off ball. You guys might remember
Speaker 1: a Kawhi Leonard three in the left corner is one
Speaker 1: that got it back to one I think towards the
Speaker 1: end of the third where Norman Powell is creating that
Speaker 1: dribble penetration, drawing the help and then kicking to Kawhi.
Speaker 1: That's another look that they can go to. But then
Speaker 1: they can also go with team that group they went
Speaker 1: at with at the end, where it's like Eric Gore
Speaker 1: in Kawhi Russell Westbrook, They're switching a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: and just locking in defensively. Bald Denial was a huge
Speaker 1: roll down the stretch of this game, just Russ and
Speaker 1: Kawhi just playing really physical denial defense on Devin Booker
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant, which really got them out of their sets,
Speaker 1: and if they struggled to even get clean looks down
Speaker 1: the end of the game. And then there at the end,
Speaker 1: Russ one on one with Devin Booker. Devin Booker tries
Speaker 1: to take him to the basket, and Russ played a
Speaker 1: good physical brand of defense, something you can get away
Speaker 1: with in the playoffs, and he got a key bluck
Speaker 1: at the end of the game. Most importantly for the Suns,
Speaker 1: they're going to have to compete more physically in this game.
Speaker 1: I know it's in this series. I know it's not
Speaker 1: a core tenant kind of their basketball identity, in their
Speaker 1: basketball character, but in order to win, they're going to
Speaker 1: have to They've got advantages everywhere else, they're gonna have
Speaker 1: to compete with the Clippers physically. They got out rebounded
Speaker 1: on the offensive class fifteen to six in this game,
Speaker 1: including that stretch at the end where the Suns got
Speaker 1: like three stops in a row but just could not
Speaker 1: sure a defensive rebound. That Again, this was my first
Speaker 1: major thing that I've been wrong about in this postseason.
Speaker 1: It won't be the last. I'm sure there will be
Speaker 1: people in the comments having their fun, and look, I
Speaker 1: can live with it. I'm gonna make predictions. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be right. Sometimes I'm gonna be wrong. Sometimes I thought
Speaker 1: the Suns would sweep the series. It's certainly not over
Speaker 1: one thing I'll say kind of in the Suns defense
Speaker 1: is they played a really rough, easy schedule to end
Speaker 1: the season, and so kind of like the Lakers heading
Speaker 1: into the playing game, They're just not accustomed to this
Speaker 1: intense level of basketball. So I wouldn't write the Suns off.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't take a victory lap or anything like that.
Speaker 1: But this is gonna be a little bit more of
Speaker 1: a battle than they were expecting, particularly because the Clippers
Speaker 1: have some matchups to make Devin Booker and KD work,
Speaker 1: and the Clippers seem very very focused on embracing the
Speaker 1: dirty work, which means the Suns are gonna have to
Speaker 1: match them at some point. All Right, before we get
Speaker 1: out here is talk a little bit about heat Bucks
Speaker 1: not gonna spend a ton of time on it, simply
Speaker 1: because the injuries kind of changed the learning. The lessons
Speaker 1: we can learn from the game right, like Giannis doesn't play.
Speaker 1: I mean, what are we even gonna get into here.
Speaker 1: I picked the Bucks to win the title. They're not
Speaker 1: winning the title without Giannis. Like Tyler Harrow, big win
Speaker 1: for the Heat, But if Tyler Harrow broke his hand
Speaker 1: and he can't play again, like, that's a huge problem
Speaker 1: for a team that already kind of lacks offensive initiation,
Speaker 1: which can be a problem. But there were a couple
Speaker 1: of specific things that the Heat did really well that
Speaker 1: I think are indicators of why the Heat have given
Speaker 1: Bucks the Bucks issues over the years. First of all,
Speaker 1: they do a lot of switching, so that stagnates their
Speaker 1: high pick and roll attack and forces them to create
Speaker 1: in isolation to create advantages in isolation, and with bam
Speaker 1: Adebayo being a pretty solid defender to throw at Giannis
Speaker 1: and Spolster being really good at digging down into driving
Speaker 1: lanes to capitalize on some hesitant shooting on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: they can get stagnant offensively, and then from there the Heat, no,
Speaker 1: they're going to struggle to score in the half court
Speaker 1: against the Bucks defense, So they were just pushing out
Speaker 1: in transition and getting all sorts of good looks there
Speaker 1: getting the ball to the right shooters and their drive
Speaker 1: kick attack. Max Strus is locked in right now, Gabe
Speaker 1: Vincent is locked in. Kevin Love hit a big three.
Speaker 1: They ended up shooting sixty percent from three as a team.
Speaker 1: So that's why the Heat give the Bucks issues. They
Speaker 1: know how to stagnate them. They know how to get
Speaker 1: out and transition to avoid their half court sets. It
Speaker 1: won't be enough without Tyler Harrow. But you know that's
Speaker 1: why I rooted for I told you guys in the
Speaker 1: playing game, I was rooting for Miami to win because
Speaker 1: I knew they'd give the Bucks a little bit better
Speaker 1: of a battle on the Bucks front if they should
Speaker 1: have to play a little bit of time without Giannis.
Speaker 1: The most encouraging thing is their advantage in perimeter size.
Speaker 1: Like the Heat just have a lot of smaller like
Speaker 1: like undrafted type guys that are playing on the wing right,
Speaker 1: and when you have big guys that can play perimeter
Speaker 1: style basketball, guys like Bobby Portis and Chris Middleton, you
Speaker 1: don't even have to run any sort of sophisticated offense.
Speaker 1: Just dump the ball down to one of your big
Speaker 1: forwards that's gonna bully his way into the lane against
Speaker 1: a smaller Heat player, either get a great shot or
Speaker 1: start things into rotation where they can get open shots
Speaker 1: on the back end. Chris Middleton and Bobby poor Is
Speaker 1: combined for fifty four points in this game, so good
Speaker 1: start for the Heat, But I don't know how they're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to sustain this without Tyler Harrow, especially
Speaker 1: with their lack of offensive creation. It's easy to see
Speaker 1: how they give the Bucks some issues, but I think
Speaker 1: they've got some advantages they can ride out, and quite frankly,
Speaker 1: if Giannis comes back, that changes the fundamentally what we
Speaker 1: watched and just their approach in the second half of
Speaker 1: that game. All right, guys, that's all I have for tonight.
Speaker 1: Like I said, we're gonna be hitting Nuggets, Wolves, as
Speaker 1: well as our kind of film rewatch stuff in tomorrow
Speaker 1: morning's show. As always, I appreciate you, guys, and I'll
Speaker 1: see you tomorrow morning. The volume