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Speaker 1: to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody, hope,
Speaker 1: All you guys are having a great week for to
Speaker 1: be in. Two games from tonight's slate as the Lakers
Speaker 1: survive a physical, athletic onslaught from the Minnesota Timberwolves and
Speaker 1: then the Golden State Warriors after getting shot out of
Speaker 1: the gym in the first half against Orlando Magic. Get
Speaker 1: some a return back to normal from Orlando or Orlando's
Speaker 1: jump shooting in the first explosive scoring game of Steph
Speaker 1: Curry's season.
Speaker 2: A lot of really.
Speaker 1: Encouraging stuff on the Warriors front, and then at the
Speaker 1: tail end of the show, a brief shout out that
Speaker 1: I have for Russell Westbrook. You guys have the drill
Speaker 1: before we get started. To subscribe to the Hoops Tonight
Speaker 1: YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at Underscore JCNLT so you guys
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Speaker 1: also super helpful if he leave a rating and a
Speaker 1: review on that front. We also have brand new social
Speaker 1: media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content
Speaker 1: throughout the year. We're doing some more film stuff on
Speaker 1: those platforms as well, so make sure you guys follow
Speaker 1: us there. In the last but not least, keep dropping
Speaker 1: mailback questions and the YouTube comments. We can get to
Speaker 1: them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So I talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about e after the game right for the All Star
Speaker 1: break with the Timberwolves about how they're one of those teams.
Speaker 1: I'm always looking at teams in the regular season and
Speaker 1: trying to find out what I think translates to the postseason,
Speaker 1: and there's always like a certain amount of like sometimes
Speaker 1: the young athletic teams, there's a little bit of a
Speaker 1: ceiling that they run into when they get into the
Speaker 1: postseason when all the vets kind of up their level
Speaker 1: of intensity and the game planning gets a little bit
Speaker 1: more intense. Young players tend to have more weaknesses and
Speaker 1: they can run into some issues. Right, There are some
Speaker 1: young teams near the top of the stay in his
Speaker 1: classic example as years, teams like the Houston Rockets, right that, like,
Speaker 1: I don't think they're as good as their record is
Speaker 1: in terms of the type of threat that they represent
Speaker 1: in the postseason. But then there is a layer to that,
Speaker 1: especially on teams that do have more talent, more actual
Speaker 1: veteran experienced talent, teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves, where their
Speaker 1: size in physicality can manifest in the postseason in a
Speaker 1: way that it doesn't manifest in the regular season because
Speaker 1: they're allowed to get away with more because of their
Speaker 1: size and physicality. Wearing on a team over the course
Speaker 1: of a seven game series. The Timberwolves last year, what
Speaker 1: they did to the Phoenix Suns, what they did to
Speaker 1: the Nuggets was a perfect example of that. And if
Speaker 1: you guys remember I talked about it in that stretch
Speaker 1: right during the All Star break. Like with Minnesota, I
Speaker 1: take them more seriously than their record because they just
Speaker 1: have a bunch of big, strong athletes with veteran president presences,
Speaker 1: with enough shot creation talent to where they can just
Speaker 1: drag you down into the mud. And when you're down
Speaker 1: in the mud with them, they can make a lot
Speaker 1: of your players play beneath their capability. You can start
Speaker 1: to experience some injuries as you get banged up in
Speaker 1: that environment and it can go south for you pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: And even without Anthony Edwards in that second half, I
Speaker 1: thought the Wolves presented an excellent challenge for the Lakers
Speaker 1: in terms of that physical imposition that they presented. Terrence
Speaker 1: Shannon in particular, was just ripping through the Lakers transition defense.
Speaker 1: Lakers have been really good on defense, including in transition
Speaker 1: for a while. That was not their best transition defense effort.
Speaker 1: Terrence Shannon made them pay consistently by just ripping through them.
Speaker 1: One of the things things that I want to talk
Speaker 1: about is like the Lakers have a flaw that's been
Speaker 1: consistent throughout this season, which is that teams are going
Speaker 1: to ball pressure the hell out of Lebron and ball
Speaker 1: pressure the hell out of Austin, and they ball pressured
Speaker 1: the hell out of d Lo when he was there,
Speaker 1: and as games progressed, those guys would wear down and
Speaker 1: get fatigued, and they'd start to get sloppy with their passes.
Speaker 1: They'd start to miss a lot of jump shots. Look
Speaker 1: at how many badly missed jump shots you saw from
Speaker 1: the Lakers in that second half. And one of the
Speaker 1: big things that I was really excited about in the
Speaker 1: Luka Doncics trade is he's like literally the antidote to
Speaker 1: that problem. He is a guy that can eat up
Speaker 1: an enormous amount of that usage in terms of bringing
Speaker 1: the ball up the floor with standing ball pressure, making
Speaker 1: that easier. The difference is is that Luca, when he's
Speaker 1: at his best, brings a level of shot making that
Speaker 1: he can use to defeat that type of pressure. He
Speaker 1: can get guys on his side and work his way downhill,
Speaker 1: get into that ten to fifteen foot zone and make
Speaker 1: a bunch of shots. He actually saw a taste of
Speaker 1: that in that first quarter stretch, which was the stretch
Speaker 1: where Luca looked his best offensively, and so on the
Speaker 1: one hand, I thought the Wolves exposed the reality of
Speaker 1: the Lakers' weaknesses in terms of wearing down under ball pressure.
Speaker 1: But the reality is that when Luca gets into form,
Speaker 1: he should be able to handle that better. Luca is
Speaker 1: still having a hell of a time making jump shots
Speaker 1: at this point. He came into tonight eleven for fifty
Speaker 1: one on jump shots in a Lakers jersey. He ended
Speaker 1: up making the most ridiculous shot he took tonight, the
Speaker 1: interesting kind of a late clock sequence where Lebron was
Speaker 1: kind of caught the ball in the post against Nazriid,
Speaker 1: and then he was like, you know what, Like I
Speaker 1: don't see the point me posting up Nasriid, so he
Speaker 1: pulled him out to the perimeter, but his jumper was
Speaker 1: kind of out of rhythm. He had missed a few
Speaker 1: early in the fourth, so he tries to drive on
Speaker 1: him and nas does a really nice job shutting off
Speaker 1: the driving lane kind of traps him along the baseline
Speaker 1: and Lebron throws basically just an escape pass to Luca
Speaker 1: on the left wing. Nikhil Alexander Walker is smothering it
Speaker 1: the whole way, and Luca just bumps him a little
Speaker 1: bit with that shoulder and leans back and shoots a
Speaker 1: one leg fade away from like twenty seven feet nothing
Speaker 1: but the bottom of the net.
Speaker 2: It's funny.
Speaker 1: I had a MAVs fan tweet at me after that
Speaker 1: that basically said, all MAVs fans knew that shot was
Speaker 1: going in, And it's just an example of the Luca
Speaker 1: magic that MAVs fans grew accustoms to during the beginning
Speaker 1: stretch of his career that Laker fans are going.
Speaker 2: To see a lot of.
Speaker 1: But like to me, lucas not close to where he
Speaker 1: needs to be as a shot maker. To me, it's
Speaker 1: obvious because so many of his misses are outside the rim.
Speaker 1: An easy way to think of it is the basketball
Speaker 1: rim can actually fit two basketballs on the inside, right,
Speaker 1: So like there's kind of like a dialing in process.
Speaker 1: When you're out of rhythm, You're you're getting a little
Speaker 1: bit closer on your missus, you're making more shots, right,
Speaker 1: And like right now, I don't think Luca, Like, I
Speaker 1: don't think Luca's Luca might have a good game here
Speaker 1: or there as jump shooter, but I think he's a
Speaker 1: ways away from actually, like regularly just notching really good
Speaker 1: shot making games because his jumper's way off right now.
Speaker 1: He's missing most of them well outside the rim. He's
Speaker 1: missing a lot of his short range shot making, like
Speaker 1: short in front of the rim, Like he's not even
Speaker 1: like getting it over the front of the rim. So
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a while. I think. I think we're
Speaker 1: probably still at least a few weeks out from Luca
Speaker 1: really looking like Luca as a shot maker. But he
Speaker 1: should help solve that problem for the Lakers in terms
Speaker 1: of wearing down under that type of ball pressure, because
Speaker 1: even with Luca as he can wear down as we
Speaker 1: saw like in the Celtics series for instance, Lebron James
Speaker 1: should be able to help anchor him on that end
Speaker 1: by giving him a release foul Austin Reeves as well.
Speaker 1: I think Luca is gonna be an antidote for that
Speaker 1: problem in the big picture, But you did see that
Speaker 1: get exposed quite a bit in this game as a
Speaker 1: weakness for the Lakers on the defensive end. Dealing with
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards, there's another completely different type of offensive matchup
Speaker 1: that the Lakers personnel had to deal with that JJ
Speaker 1: and his coaching staff had to come up with a
Speaker 1: game plan for The game plan that they had for
Speaker 1: Aunt was pretty simple.
Speaker 2: They just had.
Speaker 1: Whoever was guarding him on the ball basically force him
Speaker 1: towards the sideline, So play entirely on his inside shoulder
Speaker 1: and force him to drive towards the sideline, and then
Speaker 1: they use what's called a strong side zone, basically taking
Speaker 1: a think of it like this. Normally, if a defender
Speaker 1: were to sit in the paint and he's not guarding anybody,
Speaker 1: he would get a defensive three second violation, right. We
Speaker 1: saw a couple of those tonight.
Speaker 2: One on each team.
Speaker 1: But in that event, one of the counters for that
Speaker 1: is like guys will sometimes be all the way on
Speaker 1: the opposite side of the paint and they'll step in
Speaker 1: and they'll step out, and they'll step in and they'll
Speaker 1: step out. But a way to avoid that entirely is
Speaker 1: what if you just have that guy go all the
Speaker 1: way to the opposite side of the paint and literally
Speaker 1: just that's what they called a strong side zone. Because
Speaker 1: that defender is not actually guarding a man anymore. He's
Speaker 1: actually effectively a one man's zone who's in help right
Speaker 1: outside the block on the strong side of the floor
Speaker 1: where the ball handler is right. So essentially it's like
Speaker 1: a soft double team of Ant. You're playing his strong
Speaker 1: side shoulder or his middle side shoulder so that he
Speaker 1: can't just like easily take pull up threes, and you're
Speaker 1: trying to force him to drive right into the teeth
Speaker 1: of the defense. I actually thought At handled it really well.
Speaker 1: I mean, the game plan more or less worked the
Speaker 1: way it was supposed to. The Lakers did get a
Speaker 1: lot of stops in this game, but I thought At
Speaker 1: handled it pretty well. He got it to paint quite
Speaker 1: a bit. He was using his slow down step to
Speaker 1: deal with help defenders. He was using screening actions to
Speaker 1: try to get his defender caught on the screen by
Speaker 1: like like screening and then rescreening to get the dude
Speaker 1: caught on the underside so he could get a decent
Speaker 1: look at a pull up three. He got guys off
Speaker 1: of him with pump fakes. You know, Ant's just freakishly talented.
Speaker 1: That's what he's gonna do. He made some really nice
Speaker 1: skip passes to beat the strong side zone. But then
Speaker 1: it got worked up and there was a sequence that
Speaker 1: was kind of like a bang bang play where he
Speaker 1: drove at Gabe Vincent and like clearly shoved him off
Speaker 1: with his right arm, and like, yeah, when Gabe was falling,
Speaker 1: his left foot came up a little bit and kicked
Speaker 1: Ant in the back of the leg. But like the
Speaker 1: ref didn't call it. You want to know why the
Speaker 1: ref didn't call it because he saw Aunt push him
Speaker 1: off and and it was just kind of like a
Speaker 1: bang bang play where he didn't think it was worthy
Speaker 1: of a whistle. Ant fell down and loses his mind,
Speaker 1: gets into it with the ref, gets himself ejected. Now
Speaker 1: he's suspended for tomorrow as well, So like that's really unfortunate,
Speaker 1: and like one of those things where like I get
Speaker 1: I could see watching that game how you could be
Speaker 1: frustrated as a Wolves fan or as a Wolve's player.
Speaker 1: The Lakers were getting some tiki tac calls in that game.
Speaker 1: Is one of those ones where like like Austin was
Speaker 1: getting hit on the forearm. It's like really light, but
Speaker 1: at the same time, like you guys know, if you've
Speaker 1: ever played basketball. If you shoot a jump shot and
Speaker 1: a guy taps you on the forearm when you're shooting,
Speaker 1: it can cause the shot to go off by feet
Speaker 1: because it just affects your follow through. That's all the
Speaker 1: power that you're transferring into the basketball, right. But like
Speaker 1: I can understand that it's a frustrating officiating game for
Speaker 1: the Wolves. My thing is like you're on the road
Speaker 1: in the arena with a group of players, specifically Austin
Speaker 1: and Luca, who are like famous spougrifters. You know you're
Speaker 1: gonna be on the wrong end to some calls. You
Speaker 1: got to show some mental toughness to get through that
Speaker 1: so that you can stay available for your team, and
Speaker 1: got himself ejected from there. The Wolves were just like, hey,
Speaker 1: we got one chance here, Let's muck this up. Let's
Speaker 1: get super physical, let's make a mess of this game,
Speaker 1: let's get out in transition.
Speaker 2: And they did. They made it a game.
Speaker 1: But the Lakers, just like they did in the Dallas game,
Speaker 1: they were lock in down the stretch, get enough stops,
Speaker 1: get enough good looks, and ended up pulling away and
Speaker 1: winning relatively comfortably. I thought Lebron was absolutely magnificent all
Speaker 1: around in this game, but especially on defense as ironic
Speaker 1: after JJ Reddick touted his all defense level of play
Speaker 1: over the course of the last six weeks after the
Speaker 1: Dallas game, I thought this was his best defensive game
Speaker 1: of this entire stretch. His rotations all over the floor
Speaker 1: were amazing, his close outs to the three point line
Speaker 1: going flying into a row of chairs, his back line
Speaker 1: wrote around the rim. There were like a half dozen
Speaker 1: deep catches for the Wolves in the paint in this
Speaker 1: game where Lebron just like appeared out of nowhere to
Speaker 1: disrupt the player on the catch and force some miss.
Speaker 1: Clean up the defensive glass after that miss. He was
Speaker 1: incredible on the defensive glass all night and again went
Speaker 1: like sixteen to seventeen rebounds, so many contested rebounds that
Speaker 1: he came away with. There was even that one I
Speaker 1: think it was with Terrence Shannon where both guys had
Speaker 1: a grip on the ball and they ended up in
Speaker 1: a wrestling match over it, and Lebron somehow got away
Speaker 1: with that one as well. He was in groups of
Speaker 1: three bodies and tapping it out to other Lakers for rebounds.
Speaker 2: He was just.
Speaker 1: Amazing all over the floor on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: of the ball, getting stops and finishing possessions with the
Speaker 1: defensive rebound. And then again on a night where Luca
Speaker 1: couldn't buy a shot, Lebron brought the scoring all night long.
Speaker 1: He was downhill to the rim all night long, he
Speaker 1: was dominating in the paint. It was just another game
Speaker 1: where Lebron was playing at an MVP level in nearly
Speaker 1: two month stretch where he's consistently.
Speaker 2: Been playing at that level. Uh.
Speaker 1: The one last note I have on the Lakers front here,
Speaker 1: there are some realities to this team with their depth.
Speaker 1: This is something I talked about in the if you
Speaker 1: guys remember in the in the after, in the immediate
Speaker 1: aftermath of the trade, there are some realities just in
Speaker 1: the number of like reliable rotation players they have. There's
Speaker 1: like eight if you include Jackson Hayes. Right, it's Lebron, Austin, Luca,
Speaker 1: It's Ruey and Jackson, and then it's Dorian Finney Smith,
Speaker 1: it's Jared Vanderbilt, it's Gabe Vincent. After that, it gets shaky, right,
Speaker 1: like you get into that Dalton connect phase. Like I've
Speaker 1: been kind of lower on Dalton Connect than most Laker
Speaker 1: fans all year. He just I think he's gonna be
Speaker 1: a good player in the big picture, but right now,
Speaker 1: he's a shooter that can't make shots and is a
Speaker 1: really bad defensive player. Like I don't think he's even
Speaker 1: really capable of being a consistent rotation player for a
Speaker 1: good NBA team right now. Right like Jordan Goodwin, absolute scrapper.
Speaker 1: He's such a good piece to have for a regular season,
Speaker 1: but he's not a guy that you're gonna be able
Speaker 1: to like rely on for significant minutes in a postseason setting.
Speaker 1: So you got eight guys, and here's the thing, Like
Speaker 1: eight guys is enough. That's what you wanted a playoff rotation.
Speaker 1: You want seven and a half, eight guys that you
Speaker 1: trust to do their job on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: But there's no margin for error there. As soon as
Speaker 1: like just tomorrow night, for example, you take Ruey out
Speaker 1: of the picture. Ruey went down with a knees brain
Speaker 1: in this game, Dorrian Finney Smith slots into the starting
Speaker 1: lineup in all likelihood if everyone else plays, But it's
Speaker 1: very possible that the Lakers hit a bunch of guys
Speaker 1: tomorrow will see. But like let's just say Ruey's out
Speaker 1: long term, Like let's say, Ruey's out three four weeks,
Speaker 1: Dorrian Phinney Smith is starting. You got one forward coming
Speaker 1: off the bench, Jared Vanderbilt. Like, now it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a are we going big? Is it gonna? Is it
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of Alex lenn You know that's
Speaker 1: a huge dropoff from a player of Ruey Hatchi Mura's caliber.
Speaker 1: And so again, like I want to be clear about
Speaker 1: this Laker team. I think they absolutely have a championship ceiling.
Speaker 1: They are proving once again another night where they held
Speaker 1: a team that that Wolves offense was top ten in
Speaker 1: offense in offensive rating over the previous fifteen games. The
Speaker 1: Lakers held him down, just like the held Dallas down,
Speaker 1: just like the held Denver down, just like they've been
Speaker 1: holding everybody down since the middle of January. The defense
Speaker 1: is real. Luca getting back to being Luca will anchor
Speaker 1: this offense at a higher floor. I still think they're
Speaker 1: shooting well below their shot quality right now. A big
Speaker 1: part of that is just every game has been super physical,
Speaker 1: and I think also Luca getting back to form will
Speaker 1: start to generate better shot quality. But like, I think
Speaker 1: they're gonna be fine on the offensive end, They have
Speaker 1: absolutely a championship level unit on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: They're rebounding really well with this group. Everything's great there. However,
Speaker 1: the margin for air as it pertains to their injury
Speaker 1: luck is extremely luck. It's extremely small. Ruey sprains his
Speaker 1: knee in this game. Jackson Hayes hurt his hip in
Speaker 1: this game. Luca grabbed at his knee after going knee
Speaker 1: to knee with somebody. Lebron looked like he was a
Speaker 1: little banged up at the end of the game. There's
Speaker 1: definitely a very small window here in terms of they
Speaker 1: need to get through a really brutal stretch of basketball
Speaker 1: here with their roster intact. And so again, like I
Speaker 1: think it's important every time you see a team struggle,
Speaker 1: I got talked about it's always important to at least
Speaker 1: acknowledge what's making them a struggle.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh, ball pressure and physicality.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, Lucas should help with that, but like, oh,
Speaker 1: also down the stretch he ended up having to play.
Speaker 1: You couldn't go to your closing group with Ruey because
Speaker 1: Ruey's hurt. Okay, So the reality is this team has
Speaker 1: eight men can that they can trust. But after that,
Speaker 1: it gets a little sketchy, and it's just something that's
Speaker 1: a reality of something that they're gonna have to deal
Speaker 1: with as the season progresses.
Speaker 2: All right, Moving onto Warriors Magic.
Speaker 1: This was an interesting matchup that I had my eye
Speaker 1: on for the New York Warriors because the Magic are
Speaker 1: just a much bigger team. It was going to test
Speaker 1: the Warriors in the paint and on the glass, and
Speaker 1: I actually thought they held up pretty well on that front.
Speaker 1: They only gave up eleven second chance points while getting
Speaker 1: eight of their own. It was actually the Magic down
Speaker 1: the stretch who weren't able to secure a defensive rebound
Speaker 1: that Jimmy Butler beat everyone to the ball once. Draymond
Speaker 1: Green beat every one of the ball once. So I
Speaker 1: actually thought it was a relatively successful night on that front.
Speaker 1: And again, when you have a disadvantage like that, like oh,
Speaker 1: they're bigger than us, it's not like you're gonna go
Speaker 1: and just play bigger than them. It's about just minimizing
Speaker 1: that advantage. You can minimize their size advantage and maximize
Speaker 1: your speed advantage, you can win that fight.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: It's like there's that expression styles make fights, But the
Speaker 1: way I look at it is like which style wins
Speaker 1: the fight. A really fast guy and a really big
Speaker 1: guy get into a fistfight, like it really just depends
Speaker 1: on who weaponizes their advantage better, right, And like it
Speaker 1: just felt like in this game, the Warriors held up
Speaker 1: pretty well onto Orlando's size. The flip side of the
Speaker 1: Magic being this massive team is that they can't shoot.
Speaker 1: And I mean they really can't shoot. They are far
Speaker 1: and away the worst jump shooting team in the NBA.
Speaker 1: They're so bad that the gap between them and the
Speaker 1: twenty ninth ranked jump shooting team, the Washington Wizards, is
Speaker 1: seven points over seven points per one hundred jump shots.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, the gap between the Magic
Speaker 1: and the twenty ninth ranked jump shooting team Washington Wizards
Speaker 1: is the same as the gap between the twenty ninth
Speaker 1: ranked team in the fourteenth ranked jump shooting team in
Speaker 1: the NBA. That's how bad the Orlando Magic art making
Speaker 1: jump shots. But now, in that first half, Orlando shot
Speaker 1: the seams off the ball to start this game. They
Speaker 1: got one point five to three points per jump shot
Speaker 1: in the first half. That's close to double their season average.
Speaker 1: But the Warriors didn't over react. They stuck to their
Speaker 1: game plan and Orlando cooled off in the second half.
Speaker 1: They got just zero point eight to two points per
Speaker 1: jump shot in the second half. Now, again, like I
Speaker 1: always talked about with shot results, there's two different ways
Speaker 1: to look at it. Yeah, there's absolutely some variance in
Speaker 1: jump shooting, but there are also a lot of controllables.
Speaker 1: If a team is shooting well, if you start sharpening
Speaker 1: up your closeouts, making them a little bit more uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: it's more likely that they'll get out of rhythm and
Speaker 1: that they'll start missing they like did you guys notice
Speaker 1: a dynamic where the Warriors were, like in the second half,
Speaker 1: blocking shots in the right court like threes, or forcing
Speaker 1: really bad misses.
Speaker 2: Out of the right corner on threes.
Speaker 1: They kept putting two on the ball as the Magic
Speaker 1: kept attacking out of that left wing, and a simple
Speaker 1: dynamic was being generated where because they were occupying the
Speaker 1: dunker spot, there was usually nobody on the right wing.
Speaker 1: There's someone in the right corner and there was a defender,
Speaker 1: sometimes there's Moses Moody, sometimes as Jimmy Butler, sometimes Draymond Green.
Speaker 1: That defender would have to tag the roller as they're
Speaker 1: putting two on the ball, But then also be accountable
Speaker 1: for that shooter in the corner. Their rotations in the
Speaker 1: second half were fantastic. Sprinting out there, Draymond and Jimmy
Speaker 1: had several great closeouts forcing bad misses. Moses Moody had
Speaker 1: to play where he tagged a roller at the foul
Speaker 1: line and somehow got all the way back that his
Speaker 1: man made the pass and he got all the way
Speaker 1: back to the right corner and blocked a three point
Speaker 1: shot over there. He's just been fantastic on defense consistently
Speaker 1: since his role has become more were clarified for him.
Speaker 1: The Warriors defense was great all around in the second half.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a great matchup for Quinton Posts
Speaker 1: because he was able to kind of hang back by
Speaker 1: the rim and he had several great contests blocks there.
Speaker 1: Like he was just really impactful as a rim protector
Speaker 1: in this game. We talked about the defensive rotations from
Speaker 1: guys like Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Moses Moody. I think
Speaker 1: Brandon Pajemski was awesome on defense in that second half
Speaker 1: with his ball pressure just delaying Orlando getting into their offense.
Speaker 1: He also had some great rear view contests again, that's
Speaker 1: when you're in ball screens and the screener screens. You
Speaker 1: you have to chase over the top, but you have
Speaker 1: a drop coverage defender or somebody that's helping on the
Speaker 1: other side of the screen. Your job is to bother
Speaker 1: from behind swipe at the basketball. He had some great
Speaker 1: rearview contest. He had a block in a situation like that.
Speaker 1: He's been fantastic on defense all around since the Jimmy Trade.
Speaker 1: Like him and Moody, they've had their roles crystallized and
Speaker 1: they're just hooping on both ends of the floor with
Speaker 1: what the team is asking to do. Gary Payton, the
Speaker 1: second had one of the biggest plays in the game.
Speaker 1: The magic cut it into a close game late. He
Speaker 1: off of an offensive rebound Cole Anthony drove the baseline
Speaker 1: out of the right corner and it looked like he
Speaker 1: was going to have a chance there to cut the
Speaker 1: lead to a one possession game there, Gary just stayed
Speaker 1: attached from behind, just swatted it out of there, and
Speaker 1: it actually led to a fast break going the other way.
Speaker 1: It was a huge defensive play from Gary Payton. They've
Speaker 1: been second in defensive rating in the entire NBA in
Speaker 1: this eight game stretch since Jimmy Butler did join the team.
Speaker 1: They're fast. Everyone is doing their job. I was talking
Speaker 1: our new producer, Jackson, He's a really smart basketball mind.
Speaker 1: We were talking before the show about how, like how
Speaker 1: the game has changed so much over the course of
Speaker 1: the last few years in terms of teams are existing
Speaker 1: in rotation a lot. All these great pull up shooters,
Speaker 1: you got to put two on the ball. All these
Speaker 1: great superstars that are great at attacking mismatches, you got
Speaker 1: to put two on the ball. You're in rotation a lot.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that Jackson was talking about
Speaker 1: before we started recording, and I think he spot on
Speaker 1: with this, is like having intelligent defenders that make the
Speaker 1: right types of decisions in these situations really matters. You're
Speaker 1: in rotation and there's two shooters on the opposite end
Speaker 1: of the floor, a guy on the wing and a
Speaker 1: guy in the corner.
Speaker 2: And one of.
Speaker 1: The guys is a guy that like, if you close
Speaker 1: out at him short, he won't shoot it. But the
Speaker 1: other guy's just a burner. Then you need to close
Speaker 1: out to the better shooter passing lane close out. So
Speaker 1: that's another thing that really advanced defenses will do where
Speaker 1: like the pass goes to the wing or the pass
Speaker 1: goes to the corner, instead of closing out to the shooter,
Speaker 1: you close out in between them because it makes the
Speaker 1: shooter think that you're closing out at him, so will
Speaker 1: hesitate for a second. But then when he looks to
Speaker 1: make the extra pass, guess who's in his way? You
Speaker 1: because you're in the passing lane. Different like bait and
Speaker 1: switch type of things where you might stunt at a
Speaker 1: guy to make him hesitate and then get back. The
Speaker 1: Moses Moody block a great example. He's stunted, I believe
Speaker 1: I think it was Goga Buttadze who caught on the
Speaker 1: roll on that play. He like stunted at Gogut and
Speaker 1: it made him hesitate, which bought him a second for
Speaker 1: him to make that extra rotation to the corner. And
Speaker 1: like Andrew Wiggins, as we've talked about, he is obviously
Speaker 1: a better just like pick up the ball, full court
Speaker 1: type of defender right, and that was a huge part
Speaker 1: how they won the title. But Jimmy Butler has a
Speaker 1: level of defensive playmaking to him that is a ceiling
Speaker 1: razer that Andrew Wiggins is incapable of we talked about
Speaker 1: earlier that intelligence piece. A lot of that is reading plays.
Speaker 1: There's a play the other day, I can't even remember
Speaker 1: which game it was, where he's like tracking a different
Speaker 1: player on a baseline cut. Jimmy Butler is coming through
Speaker 1: to the right side of the floor, but a different
Speaker 1: player got back cut on the Warriors, and Jimmy identified
Speaker 1: it and peeled off, jumped the passing lane, got it
Speaker 1: and went the other way. Steph Curry, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: has always been a very smart defender. Game plan discipline
Speaker 1: is a huge part of success in the modern NBA.
Speaker 1: Your coaches will spend hours pouring over film. Usually there's
Speaker 1: someone on the staff who's scouting a game three four
Speaker 1: games down the line. Hey, you're in charge for scouting
Speaker 1: this game. This guy's in charge of scouting that game.
Speaker 1: They're pouring over film. This is a guy we calls
Speaker 1: out short on. This is a guy that doesn't ever
Speaker 1: shoot a jump shot when he drives to the right,
Speaker 1: but he always will shoot a jump shot when he
Speaker 1: drives to the left. This is a guy that we
Speaker 1: do this for. This is a guy that we're doing
Speaker 1: that for. There's so much information there in the scouting report,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times we see defensive breakdowns, and
Speaker 1: we blame the coaching staff. A lot of times it's
Speaker 1: a player who's just not obeying the game plan or
Speaker 1: not sticking or being disciplined to the game plan. The
Speaker 1: Warriors have a lot of really really smart defensive players
Speaker 1: out there, and it's a big part of how they've
Speaker 1: put together can consistently a top ten defense this season.
Speaker 1: But now they're showing an elite defense over the course
Speaker 1: of this recent stretch of games. But there was another
Speaker 1: end of the floor in that second half, at the
Speaker 1: end of the floor where Steph Curry went for thirty
Speaker 1: five points just in the second half, started with a
Speaker 1: half court heave right before the buzzer at halftime they
Speaker 1: cut the lead to fourteen. He cut some favorable coverages
Speaker 1: to start the third quarter. They were bringing Paolo and
Speaker 1: Wendell Carter Junior into the screening action, and those guys
Speaker 1: were just sitting back and letting Contavious Cobwo Pope just
Speaker 1: chase Steph over screens. And so he got a couple
Speaker 1: of really easy looks to start the third quarter, one
Speaker 1: that he made and one that he missed. But it
Speaker 1: actually got step into a groove, and so then when
Speaker 1: Orlando started to up the pressure, he was already on
Speaker 1: one of those classic Steph hot streaks because he's hit
Speaker 1: a three, he just hit a bomb, and the first
Speaker 1: half he's already in a groove there. I think he
Speaker 1: had what twenty one in the first half. There was
Speaker 1: nothing they can do at that point. He's already in
Speaker 1: the groove. But these things are usually connected. Like a
Speaker 1: lot of times, if you play sloppy defense in an
Speaker 1: early portion of a game, a guy will get confident
Speaker 1: in a rhythm. It doesn't matter how tight you get
Speaker 1: on him in the second half or the rest of
Speaker 1: the game. These are some of the best shot makers
Speaker 1: in the history of the sport. Right, Steph is the
Speaker 1: best shooter in the history of the sport. He was
Speaker 1: getting downhill and he was stepping back in the mid range.
Speaker 1: He was getting guys with pump fakes to get separation.
Speaker 1: He had guys running out his base, drawing fouls. He
Speaker 1: drew five thousand this game. He full Palow several times
Speaker 1: in the second half, got him on a pump fake
Speaker 1: and got him on a foul where he ran out
Speaker 1: his base. KCP was just getting fried all night. As
Speaker 1: Steph's primary defensive assignment, I got KCP looked a little
Speaker 1: slow in this game, and that's another story. This is
Speaker 1: all super encouraging for the Warriors because Steph had looked
Speaker 1: pretty rough before the Jimmy trade. Before Jimmy suited up,
Speaker 1: he was averaging twenty three points per game on forty
Speaker 1: three percent from the field in thirty nine percent from three.
Speaker 1: In the last eight games with Jimmy Butler, he's averaging
Speaker 1: thirty one points per game, fifty one percent from the
Speaker 1: field and forty three percent from three. In other words,
Speaker 1: the Steph Curry that we've grown accustomed to for well
Speaker 1: over a decade now. But the one thing that was missing,
Speaker 1: even with everything having to do with the averages, was
Speaker 1: the explosive scoring nights, the crazy steps on another heater, guys,
Speaker 1: everyone get to your TV type of moments. Steph didn't
Speaker 1: have a single forty point game yet this season. Last
Speaker 1: year he had six. Last time he had a similar
Speaker 1: roster before the Jimmy trade, and twenty twenty one he
Speaker 1: had ten forty point games. Obviously a younger player, this
Speaker 1: is this explosive scoring night, getting fifty six, getting like
Speaker 1: an otherworldly type of performance out of Steph against a
Speaker 1: good defense is a really, really strong indicator of what
Speaker 1: this team is capable of moving forward. It's a big
Speaker 1: part of why I believe in this team. Like the
Speaker 1: defense was there all year, Jimmy just brings it up
Speaker 1: a level. Then you get it's Steph, a legitimate offensive
Speaker 1: co star in Jimmy. Then you get Knight tonight greatness
Speaker 1: from Steph back. Now you're getting a real Steph explosion.
Speaker 1: There's an awesome quote from Jamal Moseley in the postgame presser.
Speaker 1: He was asked, coach aside from Steph, because he's capable
Speaker 1: of doing this from time to time. What was the difference?
Speaker 1: He said, the man had fifty six points. There is
Speaker 1: no aside from Steph, and like that that's the exciting part. Like,
Speaker 1: if you're looking at this team as a playoff threat,
Speaker 1: it really is simple. They're an elite defense with a
Speaker 1: bunch of really smart players and a great head coach.
Speaker 1: And on the other end the floor, it's Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: Except for now you can't throw the entire kitchen sink
Speaker 1: at him because Jimmy Butler's out there too. And oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, Jonathan Minga is not too far behind,
Speaker 1: and would be. We can't write this team off when
Speaker 1: they're this good on defense and they're led by one
Speaker 1: of the greatest offensive players in the history of the
Speaker 1: sport and he finally has someone that he can share
Speaker 1: that load with. Last note on the war, I would
Speaker 1: be remiss if I did not mention Quinton Posts scoring
Speaker 1: in this game. I mentioned his or improtection earlier, but
Speaker 1: he poured in eighteen points to a couple of threes.
Speaker 1: By the way, Quinn Post is hitting fifty one percent
Speaker 1: of his unguarded catch and shoot attempts so far this year,
Speaker 1: one point five to three points per attempt. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: Like they're One of the big things that happens with
Speaker 1: shooting bigs is there's like the shooting big, the guy
Speaker 1: that's gonna hit thirty five thirty six percent of like
Speaker 1: to quote Dorian Finney Smith, but naked wide open threes
Speaker 1: that teams are just conceding to them. And then there's
Speaker 1: this guy's got a burner. We have to account for him.
Speaker 1: I was watching a little bit of Nuggets Bucks tonight
Speaker 1: and like Jokich is so good on the pick and pop,
Speaker 1: teams are rotating from the weak side. They're guarding the
Speaker 1: pick and pop with three players because they can't afford
Speaker 1: to leave him open. There are a lot of bigs,
Speaker 1: guys like Miles Turner, guys like Nikola Vucevic. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of guys that are like, yeah, we'll live
Speaker 1: with him shooting out there. Quinn Post seems to have
Speaker 1: a burner. He looks like the kind of guy you
Speaker 1: can't leave out there. But I also thought he showed
Speaker 1: some impressive footwork in this game. He had a couple
Speaker 1: of buckets in the paint. He had a pick and
Speaker 1: roll switch where he buried a small under the basket,
Speaker 1: created a passing angle quick finish over his left shoulder.
Speaker 1: He had another playoff of a cut I think it
Speaker 1: was from Draymond, he might have been from Jimmy actually,
Speaker 1: where he just really patiently handled a kind of a
Speaker 1: swarm of players around him and showed some good footwork
Speaker 1: with a pump bake, stepped through a little layup on
Speaker 1: the right side of the rim. He's just a really
Speaker 1: solid player. There's a lot to be excited about in
Speaker 1: the bay right now, all right, quickly, before we get
Speaker 1: out of here tonight, welcome to course correction to you
Speaker 1: by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams navigating performance hurdles,
Speaker 1: business decision makers today are under immense pressure to get
Speaker 1: things done right. They must rise to the occasion, turning
Speaker 1: challenges into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries with AI solutions,
Speaker 1: simplified cloud and data management and trustworthy responsible AI. And
Speaker 1: when you're in the NBA, you have your own hurdles
Speaker 1: to face. In this segment, we explore the challenges faced
Speaker 1: by teams or star players and how they can turn
Speaker 1: things around. Whatever you challenge is facing, whatever challenge you're facing,
Speaker 1: Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say bring it on.
Speaker 1: This week, we're discussing Russell Westbrook and his resurgence with
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets. I thought Russ was great in the
Speaker 1: Bucks game today. He was doing a lot of damage,
Speaker 1: just getting steals and starting transition sequences for the Nuggets.
Speaker 1: He was attacking off of those. His man was the
Speaker 1: guy that was rotating to Yocic on a lot of
Speaker 1: those pop situations. The transition for Russ from MVP of
Speaker 1: the league to role play has been far from smooth.
Speaker 1: He was traded to the Lakers in a deal that
Speaker 1: sent out so much role player talent that there wasn't
Speaker 1: much roleplayer talent left on the roster when Ruscott there.
Speaker 1: I've often said after that deal and after that whole
Speaker 1: era that it's not Westbrook's fault that that era went poorly,
Speaker 1: but it is the Westbrook trades fault because it gutted
Speaker 1: the roster. It put Russ in a position where the
Speaker 1: Lakers like desperately needed him to be a Swiss Army knife. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they needed him to be a shot creator and lead
Speaker 1: units when Lebron was off the floor, but they also
Speaker 1: needed him to play off the ball with Lebron and Ad.
Speaker 1: They needed him to be active as a cutter and
Speaker 1: a screener. They needed him to work on his catch
Speaker 1: and shoot game so that he could be more impactful
Speaker 1: and spot up situations on defense. They needed him to
Speaker 1: be like an APEX perimeter defender. They needed him to
Speaker 1: box out, to track shooters, to be consistently attentive to
Speaker 1: the game plan. And he really struggled with those things.
Speaker 1: Somewhat to be expected when you're an alpha dog MVP
Speaker 1: level shot creator like he was for most of his career,
Speaker 1: It's unreasonable to expect him to just be great at
Speaker 1: those things that role players get paychecks for. That's why
Speaker 1: they're in the league. I think we're seeing a similar
Speaker 1: struggle from Bradley beal right now with the Suns. He's
Speaker 1: transitioned from being one of those guys with Washington to
Speaker 1: now in Phoenix. Like they need him to be a
Speaker 1: really good rebounder, and they need him to be a
Speaker 1: really good point of attack defender, and it's just not
Speaker 1: something he spent most of his career doing. It didn't
Speaker 1: go well in LA for US. It even led to
Speaker 1: a lot of animosity with fans. And I'm not trying
Speaker 1: like I'm not alleviating myself of guilt here. I was
Speaker 1: super critical of Russ during that phase as well. The
Speaker 1: point is it got pretty dark. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: adversity for Russ there. But Russ has completely reinvented himself
Speaker 1: with the Denver Nuggets as an extremely useful role player.
Speaker 1: He's already had an excellent demonstration of two man game
Speaker 1: with Jokich. One of the things that makes it work
Speaker 1: with Russ is he brings real downhill force. One of
Speaker 1: the most valuable things that Jokic brings as a score
Speaker 1: is it's not just post up stuff in ball screens.
Speaker 1: When he rolls into the middle of the floor, he's
Speaker 1: got one of the deadliest little floaters that you'll see
Speaker 1: in the league, makes over sixty percent of them. But
Speaker 1: in order for Yokic to get that catch in the pocket,
Speaker 1: the ball handler has to engage the screen defender, the
Speaker 1: guy who's guarding Jokic, And the only way that's gonna
Speaker 1: happen is if that player is a threat. And the
Speaker 1: Nuggets haven't had anybody other than Jamal Murray over the
Speaker 1: years who can be a consistent enough threat and a
Speaker 1: good enough passer to generate those opportunities for Yokic on
Speaker 1: the role.
Speaker 2: Now, Jamal did it more with like shot making, a.
Speaker 1: Little bit of floater stuff, a lot of like mid
Speaker 1: range pull up jump shot making, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Russ is doing it with downhill force. He's bringing that force,
Speaker 1: engaging Yokic's defender, setting him up with those pocket passes.
Speaker 1: But by far the biggest change that I've noticed is
Speaker 1: how much more willing he is to cut to the
Speaker 1: basket off the ball. He already has more buckets on
Speaker 1: cuts this year than he did his entire full season
Speaker 1: with the Lakers in twenty twenty two. As you saw
Speaker 1: in the first bucket against Milwaukee, his first bucket, the
Speaker 1: cut that he had Jokic popped, Russ's man had to rotate.
Speaker 1: What did Russ do instead of just standing there at
Speaker 1: the three point line. He immediately saw his man leave
Speaker 1: him and he cut down the lane in that gap,
Speaker 1: got to catch there, got an easy layer.
Speaker 2: Like that.
Speaker 1: That is a huge element of just being a threat
Speaker 1: off the ball that he wasn't really utilizing.
Speaker 2: Before this air.
Speaker 1: He's put in way more work behind the scenes to
Speaker 1: improve as a jump shooter. He's shooting the third highest
Speaker 1: percentage on threes for a season in his career. A
Speaker 1: Russ catch and shoot jump shot has been worth one
Speaker 1: point zero four points this year. That's perfectly fine for
Speaker 1: a half court possession. He was at thirty one percent
Speaker 1: his last year with the Lakers, or just zero point
Speaker 1: ninety three points per shot. It was kind of untenable.
Speaker 1: He's put in the work. He's devoting way more energy
Speaker 1: to the defensive end, where he's been a big defensive
Speaker 1: playmaker for the Nuggets, getting them going in transition, forcing turnovers.
Speaker 1: He's averaging the most steals per minute that he has
Speaker 1: in his career since twenty nineteen, six years ago. Guys,
Speaker 1: he's become a very nice, complimentary piece for a dead
Speaker 1: serious championship contender, which seemed impossible a few years ago.
Speaker 1: And it's just a testament to his competitiveness and to
Speaker 1: his resolve. I've genuinely enjoyed watching him the season as
Speaker 1: a basketball fan. That's it for this week's course correction.
Speaker 1: And remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to make bold
Speaker 1: steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to help
Speaker 1: drive your business forward. With Microsoft as your trusted partner,
Speaker 1: you can navigate your journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions
Speaker 1: and reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com slash challengers
Speaker 1: to learn more. All right, guys, it's all I have
Speaker 1: for tonight. As always, sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting
Speaker 1: me and supporting the show. We will have another episode
Speaker 1: out on Saturday morning, covering a slate of games from
Speaker 1: Friday night.
Speaker 2: I'll see you guys then the volume. What's up guys?
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 1: OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 1: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 1: do that, I'd really appreciate it.