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Speaker 1: The volume. All right, Well, good to hoops tonight. You're

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Speaker 1: at the volume heavy Thursday, everybody. Hope all you guys

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Speaker 1: are having a great end of your week. Got a

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Speaker 1: Jampack show for you guys today, we're doing three game reactions.

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers win their fifth consecutive game as Luka

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Speaker 1: Doncic has kind of an ugly inefficient scoring night, but

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Speaker 1: he carries the offensive load with Austin Reeves and and

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Speaker 1: Lebron James out of the lineup as the Lakers beat

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Speaker 1: the San Antonio Spurs. After that, the New York Knicks

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Speaker 1: ride a transition wave in the second half to beat

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Speaker 1: the Minnesota Timberwolves as Anthony Edwards makes his return. And

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Speaker 1: then the last segment of tonight's show, the Denver Nuggets

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Speaker 1: get a big win at home over a feisty Miami

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Speaker 1: Heat team riding Nicole Jokic as a passer versus post

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Speaker 1: fronts and cuts. Lots of interesting stuff to get into

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Speaker 1: in all three games. You guys know the joke before

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Speaker 1: we get started. Subscribe to Hoops to Night YouTube channels

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Speaker 1: you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me

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Speaker 1: on Twitter and underscore jclts. You guys, don't miss show announcements.

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Speaker 1: Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your

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Speaker 1: podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you

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Speaker 1: leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's

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Speaker 1: doing amazing work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there for

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Speaker 1: content throughout the rest of the season and the last

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Speaker 1: but not least, if you want to get mail bag

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Speaker 1: questions into our Friday mail bags, we're going to be

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Speaker 1: recording another one tomorrow. Drop your questions in the comments

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Speaker 1: on these full episodes on YouTube. Put mail bag with

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Speaker 1: a colon and write your question. We'll get to them

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Speaker 1: on Fridays throughout the rest of the season. Today is

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Speaker 1: your last day to get a question in for tomorrow's

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Speaker 1: mail bag. All right, let's talk some basketball. So kind

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Speaker 1: of a weird, ugly game in Los Angeles between the

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Speaker 1: Spurs and the Lakers. I was actually just Jackson and

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Speaker 1: I were just venting about it before we started recording today.

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Speaker 1: It was kind of like way too many stoppages, way

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Speaker 1: too many whistles. Both teams attempted over forty free throws,

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Speaker 1: and two of my least favorite officiating dynamics on the

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Speaker 1: Lakers side, the grifting mainly from Marcus Smart and Luka

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Speaker 1: Doncic and just them constantly flopping and doing Janki stuff

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Speaker 1: to try to get foul shots. And then on the

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Speaker 1: Spurs front, another dynamic that drives me crazy the unwillingness

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Speaker 1: of the league to allow any contact on drives. Like

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Speaker 1: driving the basketball is a very physical play. There's going

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Speaker 1: to be bumps, It's a leverage battle. I talked about

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Speaker 1: it all the time. Usually when the guy makes a drive,

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Speaker 1: the shoulder's gonna hit. And who's going to win that

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Speaker 1: shoulder battle? Is the defender going to flatten out the driver?

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Speaker 1: Is the offensive player going to blow through that shoulder

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Speaker 1: and get all the way to the basket. And it

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Speaker 1: felt like the Lakers weren't allowed to touch the Spurs

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Speaker 1: on any of their drives, and so it just was

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Speaker 1: like this super stilted and stop and go and stop

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Speaker 1: and go game. Took damn near three hours to watch

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Speaker 1: this game. It was just an example of where I

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Speaker 1: think officiating has got a little off the rails in

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Speaker 1: the NBA. But that's a story for another day. Everyone

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Speaker 1: was in foul trouble. It just was kind of clunky, right,

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Speaker 1: but nevertheless, it was an interesting game and yet another

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Speaker 1: Lakers win. They have now won five in a row.

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Speaker 1: Is that takes sole possession of the two seed in

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Speaker 1: the Western Conference. JJ Reddick cad when I thought was

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Speaker 1: a really smart game plan for this particular Spurs matchup.

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Speaker 1: He mimicked a lot of the stuff we saw from

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Speaker 1: Phoenix when they got the first win against San Antonio

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Speaker 1: in this particular season. Guarding him with smaller forwards and wings,

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Speaker 1: getting up underneath him, physicality before the catch, bumping him

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Speaker 1: on every possession early as he's trying to fight for position,

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Speaker 1: and then throwing a lot of doubles at him, sometimes

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Speaker 1: before the dribble, sometimes after he put on the put

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Speaker 1: the ball on the floor, sometimes more of like a

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Speaker 1: gapping driving lanes kind of thing, essentially just putting smaller

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Speaker 1: players on him that forced him to put the ball

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Speaker 1: on the floor into traffic where you're bringing the help

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Speaker 1: in the doubles and forcing him to beat you as

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Speaker 1: a passer or beating you with physicality in traffic, and

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Speaker 1: that has caused went some problems over the last couple

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Speaker 1: of games as he's had his two worst games of

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Speaker 1: the season here in the last two and then this

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Speaker 1: was a team wide thing, not just for Wenby, but

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Speaker 1: also with San Antonio's guards. It was one of the Lakers'

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Speaker 1: most exaggerated gapping games. What I mean by that is

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Speaker 1: just by sitting in driving gaps. A lot of times

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Speaker 1: we see that in at the top of the key

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Speaker 1: with guys just sagging down in both lanes, but the

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Speaker 1: Lakers were exaggerating it even out of the corners. They

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Speaker 1: were sagging off of the corner, even the strongside corner sometimes,

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Speaker 1: which is usually a no no in basketball, But this

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Speaker 1: is one of the things you're gonna see. The Spurs

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Speaker 1: face a lot because they're a team, at least by reputation,

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Speaker 1: that is not considered to be a good catch and

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Speaker 1: shoot team. And to the Spurs credit, they beat it

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Speaker 1: a lot last night. They ended up generating eleven corner

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Speaker 1: threes and hit five of them. They generated twenty eight

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Speaker 1: catch and shoot threes in total and hit twelve of them,

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Speaker 1: which is over forty percent. So here in the early

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Speaker 1: part of the season, for the most part, obviously the

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Speaker 1: Phoenix game notwithstanding, for the most part, the Spurs actually

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Speaker 1: shot the ball pretty well on catch and shoot jump shots,

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Speaker 1: and like, this is one of those things where again

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Speaker 1: throughout the year, that's going to be the give and take.

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Speaker 1: The Spurs are going to have to beat it over

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Speaker 1: and over and over again with those catch and shoot

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Speaker 1: jump shots off of swing passes and kickouts in order

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Speaker 1: to get these opponents to treat them with the respect

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Speaker 1: in their shooting, with the necessary respect so that Victor

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Speaker 1: Wenbinyama can get more one on one opportunity, so that

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Speaker 1: Steph Cassel can get more driving lanes, so that Dylan

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Speaker 1: Harper when he's healthy, can get more driving lanes. And

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Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of an interesting concept, right because

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Speaker 1: Wemby struggled mightily all game, but san Antonio actually ended

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Speaker 1: up finding a configuration that worked pretty well for them

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Speaker 1: down the stretch. This is something to keep an eye

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Speaker 1: on them as we see teams deploy this coverage, these

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Speaker 1: types of aggressive coverages more often down the stretch. Three

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Speaker 1: straight consecutive possessions in crunch time, the Spurs basically spammed

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Speaker 1: the exact same configuration a Horns configuration where they had

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Speaker 1: Wemby on the right elbow and Devin Vassel on the

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Speaker 1: left elbow and then Steph Castle at the top with

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Speaker 1: their shooters in the other corners, so Julian Champagnee and

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Speaker 1: Harrison Barnes. And basically what they do is they just

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Speaker 1: have Steph Castle enter the ball to Victor Wembin Yama

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Speaker 1: on the right elbow, and then Steph would cut through

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Speaker 1: to the opposite dunker spot. And what this does is

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Speaker 1: it sets everybody up in a position where they can

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Speaker 1: be a threat. Right, So like Wemby obviously the on

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Speaker 1: ball threat, Devin Vassell out of the horn set will

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Speaker 1: then pop just right to the above the brake spot

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Speaker 1: on the left wing, and then they have either Harrison

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Speaker 1: Barnes or Julian Champagnee in that strong side corner, with

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Speaker 1: the opposite in the opposite corner, and so everyone's in

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Speaker 1: a position where they can be successful. Right. Devin Vassell

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Speaker 1: is a good above the break three point shooter. Harrison

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Speaker 1: Barnes and Julian Champagnee money corner three point shooters. Both

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Speaker 1: of them had hit a bunch of corner threes already

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Speaker 1: in that game. And then Steph Castle, your weakest shooter,

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Speaker 1: but your best vertical athlete on the perimeter is sitting

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Speaker 1: right under the basket where he can either get a

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Speaker 1: pass on a cut or an offensive rebound, and that

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Speaker 1: actually worked for the Spurs as they generated a couple

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Speaker 1: of buckets right Victor Wemenyama. There's a hesitancy to gap

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Speaker 1: off of those two shooters Devin Vessel on the left,

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Speaker 1: Harrison Barnes on the right. Victor Wemenyama is able to

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Speaker 1: get to a one on one look a nice little

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Speaker 1: wonderbble pull up around the around the foul line that

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Speaker 1: he knocks down right very next possession, he rips through

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Speaker 1: to the right on Rui and draws a foul. No

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Speaker 1: double team in each case, more driving lane in each case.

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Speaker 1: He's able to actually get a couple of scores out

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Speaker 1: of that set in a game where he wasn't able

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Speaker 1: to do anything. And then on the third possession, this

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Speaker 1: was really what determined the game. So Luca ends up

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Speaker 1: hitting that step back three on the right wing right,

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Speaker 1: he hits going to his right, big shot. Obviously the

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Speaker 1: type of like to the right step back kind of

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Speaker 1: jumper that Luca was hitting in that twenty twenty four

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Speaker 1: playoff run that made him so hard to guard because

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Speaker 1: he's always been so good stepping back to his left too,

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Speaker 1: hits that shot, puts him up what was it one

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Speaker 1: thirteen to one twelve? I believe, So it's a one

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Speaker 1: point game still and they go back to that set

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Speaker 1: the Spurs do. They just scored on it two times

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Speaker 1: in a row. And what happens. Jake la Ravia, who's

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Speaker 1: guarding Dylan Harper on the left wing in that configuration,

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Speaker 1: digs way down into nail help almost like a double

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Speaker 1: team on Victor. Very easy kickout pass for Victor to

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Speaker 1: that left wing to Dylan to Devin Vessel gets a

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Speaker 1: wide open look above the break and he misses it right.

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Speaker 1: He misses it. The coverage works for La. The very

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Speaker 1: next possession is the play where Victor wemen Yama ends

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Speaker 1: up committing the offensive foul and fouling out of the game.

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Speaker 1: We go to the other end of the floor. JJ

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Speaker 1: Reddick very smartly starts running sets to get Luca coming

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Speaker 1: off of short curls right off of the right lane

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Speaker 1: line where he gets a double team that leads to

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Speaker 1: a DeAndre eight and foul, and immediately the Lakers end

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Speaker 1: up pulling away and closing the deal with Victor wemen

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Speaker 1: Yama off the floor. So like is something again like

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Speaker 1: Wemby struggled mightily all game, but we found some stuff

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Speaker 1: that worked there at the tail end of the game

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Speaker 1: that I think is interesting. Just something to file away

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Speaker 1: for the Spurs. Victor hasn't handled double teams well in

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Speaker 1: the last two games, but one of the things you

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Speaker 1: can make life easier for him is that elbow set

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Speaker 1: up out of horns, or you put their two best

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Speaker 1: shooters one pass away that clears the gaps, or at

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Speaker 1: the very least, if teams fill the gaps, Victor has

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Speaker 1: very easy kickout reads for him to try to make

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Speaker 1: teams pay. You use Steph Castle as more as a

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Speaker 1: dunker spot threat when he's working off the ball. We'll

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Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about that later in the show.

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Speaker 1: I want to get back to the Lakers, though I

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Speaker 1: thought Luca was fantastic down the stretch. He obviously had

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Speaker 1: a brutal shooting night with Austin and Lebron out and

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Speaker 1: with Wemby doing such an amazing job shutting off the

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Speaker 1: rim while Luca was or while Wemby was on the floor.

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Speaker 1: Luca had to absorb a lot of usage in the

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Speaker 1: form of difficult jump shots like really difficult jump shots.

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Speaker 1: I think in general, all of sant anto Ono's wings

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Speaker 1: did a good job closing the gaps on Luca and

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Speaker 1: making life difficult on him, and Luca didn't make many

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Speaker 1: of them in this game, but I thought he made

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Speaker 1: a bunch of huge plays late in the game on offense. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: he hits that step back going to his right that

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Speaker 1: puts him up one thirteen, one twelve. Again, I think

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Speaker 1: that's a really strong indicator of where his base is.

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Speaker 1: For a right handed shooter, stepping back to your right

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Speaker 1: is the toughest off the dribble jump shot you can make,

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Speaker 1: because again you're kicking your body weight backwards. But on

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Speaker 1: that play you need to plant with your right foot

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Speaker 1: back and square up in mid air. It requires a

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Speaker 1: lot more to lift than when you're stepping back to

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Speaker 1: your left and your body is already kind of naturally

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Speaker 1: oriented in the way a right handed shooter likes to shoot.

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Speaker 1: So thought that was a good sign. And then he

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Speaker 1: burned the Spurs twice on double teams late in the

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Speaker 1: game with Ruey, where he would come off of a

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Speaker 1: ball screen to the left, double team would come swing

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Speaker 1: the ball to Rui one pass away. He's wide open

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Speaker 1: where he hit a three r we also off of

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Speaker 1: a huge play at Jake Lorava offensive rebound. This is

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Speaker 1: late in the game after Wemby fouled out. Jake Larravia

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Speaker 1: gets a huge offensive rebound off the right side swing,

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Speaker 1: Swing goes back to Luca. Luca attacks, draws the exact

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Speaker 1: same double team, pitches to Ruey in the left corner.

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Speaker 1: He racks the closeout, goes up for a dunk and

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Speaker 1: just gets grabbed and basically thrown down by Julian Champagne.

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Speaker 1: That was when he went to the foul line and

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Speaker 1: made it a two possession game. So a couple of

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Speaker 1: big plays from Luca drawing doubles and a couple of

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Speaker 1: big plays from Ruey cleaning up those doubles. Also on

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Speaker 1: that first play when Wemby went out again, jj throw

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Speaker 1: draws up that really smart set he comes off of.

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Speaker 1: Luca comes off the right lane line, curling into the middle.

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Speaker 1: Obviously Steph Castle's chasing him, but Devin Vessel shows on

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Speaker 1: the other side of the screen, and when he shows

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Speaker 1: on the other side of the screen, that puts two

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Speaker 1: on Luca and it created a little two on one

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Speaker 1: on the weak side with Jake Laavia and DeAndre Ayton

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Speaker 1: with Harrison Barnes, I believe was the one defender back there.

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Speaker 1: Harrison Barnes kind of tried to split the difference eight

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Speaker 1: and cut on the baseline. Luca hit him with a

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Speaker 1: perfect bounce pass. He gets wrapped up on the foul

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Speaker 1: goes to the foul line and makes both free throws.

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Speaker 1: And I want to credit JJ Reddick again here because

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Speaker 1: I continue to be very impressed by how organized this

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Speaker 1: team has looked over the last couple of weeks. After

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Speaker 1: that disaster opening night game against Golden State, I just

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Speaker 1: thought he was really smart with how he had Luca

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Speaker 1: attack throughout the game. He kept him off ball a lot,

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Speaker 1: which saved him from a lot of the ball pressure

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Speaker 1: he would otherwise need to face. We talked about that

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Speaker 1: little curl action. There were a lot of plays throughout

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Speaker 1: this game where Steph Castle was locking and trailing Luca

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Speaker 1: in off ball situations. And so if there's a lock

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Speaker 1: and trail, there's an automatic baked in. He's in trail position, right,

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Speaker 1: So if Luca's stronger, all he has to do is

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Speaker 1: go shoulder to shoulder with that screen. Steph's going to

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Speaker 1: be trailing, you hit him in the chest as he's

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Speaker 1: curling around the screen now instead of having to deal

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Speaker 1: with ball pressure and set Steph Castle up for the

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Speaker 1: screen and make contact now because of the lock and

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Speaker 1: trail in the off ball situation, Luca just has to

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Speaker 1: catch and he's already downhill with the defender already behind him,

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Speaker 1: which gives a a bunch of easier opportunities to attack

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Speaker 1: without having to face as much pressure. The post ups

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Speaker 1: he posted up five times in this game, which was

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Speaker 1: a season high by far, as previous season high was three.

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Speaker 1: We saw this a lot, especially in the first half,

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Speaker 1: which I liked because again he's got size on Stephan Castle,

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Speaker 1: so it gets him with his back to the basket

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Speaker 1: where he doesn't have to deal with as much of

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Speaker 1: the pressure and he can back down and get to

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Speaker 1: his spots. He split a double team there, he had

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Speaker 1: a kick out for a three, and then again as

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Speaker 1: soon as Wemby fouls out those low curls that got

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Speaker 1: Luca right into the lane. I just thought it was

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Speaker 1: really smart offensive approach from the Lakers throughout the game,

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Speaker 1: and there's like a level of organization that extends far

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Speaker 1: beyond like let's just play Luca ball high, pick and roll,

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Speaker 1: everyone stand around. There's a level of organization that I

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Speaker 1: think JJ Reddick deserves a lot of credit for. And

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Speaker 1: again on the other side of the floor too, like

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Speaker 1: the Lakers have looked really connected on defense and they've

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Speaker 1: been executing their defensive game plans night tonight, which I

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Speaker 1: think is a testament to the coaching staff. Again, this

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Speaker 1: is a team that is eighteenth and defense in the

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Speaker 1: early phase of the season without Lebron James and really

290
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Speaker 1: a pretty severe lack of defensive talent that's available to them.

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Speaker 1: I just want to give JJ credit. I think he's

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Speaker 1: doing a really nice job to start the season. Some

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Speaker 1: other Lakers shoutouts Luca's defense. He keeps getting deflections and

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Speaker 1: steals by just being in the right place off the ball.

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Speaker 1: He's just a really high off ball defender. He obviously

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Speaker 1: has his issues containing the ball on ball, and those

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00:14:26,720 --> 00:14:28,480
Speaker 1: are things that the Lakers have to game plan for.

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Speaker 1: I think it's a big deal that Boston's not in

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Speaker 1: the equation anymore because I think that Luca's defensive weakness

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Speaker 1: on the ball could be exploited by those particular Boston

301
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Speaker 1: Celtics teams. But when he's off the ball. He's just

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00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:44,360
Speaker 1: so high IQ and good at reading plays and sitting

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00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:46,200
Speaker 1: in passing lanes, and he can get a lot of

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Speaker 1: defensive playmaking opportunities. He had seven stocks last night. He

305
00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:53,080
Speaker 1: had five steals and two blocks. He's averaging two point

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00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:56,640
Speaker 1: six stocks per game to start the season. His two

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00:14:56,720 --> 00:14:59,400
Speaker 1: steals per game right now would be a career high. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: here in the early going in the season, I thought

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Speaker 1: Rui was great in this game. He battled Wemby as

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Speaker 1: the primary matchup most of the night. He hit some

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Speaker 1: tough self created mid range jumpers in the first half,

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00:15:09,880 --> 00:15:11,520
Speaker 1: one off of an ISO and another off of a

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Speaker 1: little ball screen action against a drop coverage. He made

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Speaker 1: some huge plays in spot up situations late in the game.

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Speaker 1: We talked about those, the racking of the close out

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Speaker 1: for the dunk where he got fouled, and then the

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00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:23,520
Speaker 1: three that he hit on the left wing. Now again,

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Speaker 1: when Lebron comes back, this dynamic looks different because right

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Speaker 1: now Rui's very much playing power forward, and it's very

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00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:31,720
Speaker 1: much Rui's natural position, and he's thriving in it. And

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Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of like takes about Ruey in

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Speaker 1: the big picture, and like how he fits into whatever

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Speaker 1: the team's ultimate goals are in terms of the trade deadline,

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Speaker 1: and like, look, I'm not sitting here saying go trade Ruie.

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Speaker 1: I think he's made himself look pretty indispensable here to

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Speaker 1: start the season. But I am curious to see because

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Speaker 1: when Lebron comes back, that's going to slot Rui's minutes

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Speaker 1: more towards like a lot at small forward as well

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Speaker 1: as some at the power forward, and that's gonna put

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Speaker 1: more emphasis on him as a perimeter defender. And so

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Speaker 1: it's it's too early in the season to just be like,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, Ruy's a home run, we got to

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Speaker 1: keep him. But at the same time, in this particular

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Speaker 1: role without Lebron, he's just been amazing to start the

335
00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:17,800
Speaker 1: year and he's made himself look pretty indispensable. Marcus mart

336
00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:19,760
Speaker 1: continues to be a godsend for this team. I was

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00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:21,480
Speaker 1: talking about this with Jackson before the show. It's just

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00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:24,760
Speaker 1: like playmaking. There's no like specific thing that he's like

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00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:27,480
Speaker 1: spamming to kill teams, Like he's not hitting a bunch

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00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:30,400
Speaker 1: of pull up threes, or picking teams apart and pick

341
00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:33,240
Speaker 1: and roll, or like guarding the other team's best player

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00:16:33,280 --> 00:16:36,120
Speaker 1: and just locking him up for thirty six minutes a night.

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Speaker 1: It's just all of these little plays. It's a big

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Speaker 1: connective pass here, a random ball screen where he hits

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Speaker 1: a shot there, a jumping a passing lane here, taking

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Speaker 1: a charge there. It's just these all these like little

347
00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:54,080
Speaker 1: plays on both ends of the forewhere he's just like

348
00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:58,240
Speaker 1: winning a possession in like a half dozen different ways

349
00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:01,960
Speaker 1: every single night. That level of just high IQ playmaking

350
00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:04,960
Speaker 1: has just been huge for this Lakers team to push

351
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Speaker 1: them over the top in a lot of these games.

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Speaker 1: And then lastly, DeAndre Ayton. I heard a lot of

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Speaker 1: people saying he outplayed Wemby last night. I don't necessarily

354
00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:14,920
Speaker 1: agree with that, just because of the possession to possession

355
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Speaker 1: impact that Wemby has with his rim protection. And I

356
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Speaker 1: mean you saw, especially in the early part of the

357
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Speaker 1: game when Wemby was on the floor, the Lakers looked

358
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Speaker 1: flummixed on how to even try to attack their defense.

359
00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:28,320
Speaker 1: And so I think that part is a little bit

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Speaker 1: exaggerated in terms of eight and in the one on

361
00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:33,320
Speaker 1: one matchup. But Ayton did go toe to toe with

362
00:17:33,359 --> 00:17:35,600
Speaker 1: Wenby last night, and he won a lot of battles.

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00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:37,680
Speaker 1: He did a lot of damage to the Spurs on

364
00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:40,480
Speaker 1: the offensive glass in this game, some on guards where

365
00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:42,680
Speaker 1: there were switches and someone would just get a shot

366
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Speaker 1: up and then Ayton would just be, you know, five

367
00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:47,000
Speaker 1: six inches taller than everyone standing around him. He'd get

368
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:50,080
Speaker 1: a big offensive rebound. But he also did some damage

369
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Speaker 1: to Wemby on the offensive glass where he'd get inside

370
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Speaker 1: position in boxing mount. He's just too big for Wemby

371
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Speaker 1: in terms of his strength. Jackson Hayes actually drew a

372
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Speaker 1: foul on Wemby on the offense of Glass two in

373
00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:03,639
Speaker 1: this game, just by getting inside position and when became

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Speaker 1: hacking over the top and committed a foul. Like definitely

375
00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:10,280
Speaker 1: wasn't Wenby's best rebounding game, and he's still young and

376
00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:12,240
Speaker 1: thin and can get pushed around a little bit. But

377
00:18:12,359 --> 00:18:15,680
Speaker 1: like eighton, won a lot of battles against Wemby last night,

378
00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:17,520
Speaker 1: even had a little bit of short range shot making

379
00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:19,800
Speaker 1: over the top of Wenby that I thought was important.

380
00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:22,600
Speaker 1: And he just continues to be a great finisher as

381
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Speaker 1: a cutter and roller, which has been such an important

382
00:18:24,760 --> 00:18:28,040
Speaker 1: release valve to this offense. The Lakers have had the

383
00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:30,200
Speaker 1: fifth best offense in the NBA to start the season,

384
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Speaker 1: despite all of the injuries, and they just keep doing

385
00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:35,920
Speaker 1: it to elite defense after elite defense. This is a

386
00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:39,199
Speaker 1: very good defense. The Miami Heat very good defense, the

387
00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:42,280
Speaker 1: Portland Trailblazers very good defense. These are really good defenses

388
00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:45,600
Speaker 1: that the Lakers, missing a bunch of their key offensive talent,

389
00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:48,399
Speaker 1: have been scoring the ball against. And then on the

390
00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:50,520
Speaker 1: other end of the floor, they've looked a lot more

391
00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:53,280
Speaker 1: like we talked about the two different kind of paths

392
00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:55,400
Speaker 1: that this Laker team could take on defense. They could

393
00:18:55,440 --> 00:18:58,960
Speaker 1: either be bad on defense and just try to outscore everybody,

394
00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:01,680
Speaker 1: or they could come pete and try to be average.

395
00:19:01,920 --> 00:19:04,560
Speaker 1: And if they're average on defense with a truly elite offense,

396
00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:06,800
Speaker 1: that's when you have a chance to compete for a championship.

397
00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:09,639
Speaker 1: And they've looked a lot more like the team that's

398
00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:12,920
Speaker 1: trying to be an average defense than the team that's

399
00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:15,000
Speaker 1: mailing in that end of the floor. And I think

400
00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:17,960
Speaker 1: there's a legit possibility for them when Lebron gets back,

401
00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:22,160
Speaker 1: that they could hit a good enough level on defense

402
00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:25,400
Speaker 1: to be a serious threat this season. And who knows

403
00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:27,199
Speaker 1: what they could accomplish at the trade deadline if they

404
00:19:27,200 --> 00:19:30,440
Speaker 1: make a move with someone like a Gabe vincenter of

405
00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:33,520
Speaker 1: Maxic Kliba's salary to bring in another athlete that could

406
00:19:33,520 --> 00:19:34,960
Speaker 1: help them on that end of the floor. I've just

407
00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:39,200
Speaker 1: been really impressed by them to start. I was nowhere

408
00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:41,159
Speaker 1: near as low as some of the people were on

409
00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:42,960
Speaker 1: the Lakers to start the season, Like I had them

410
00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:46,400
Speaker 1: fifth in my contender rankings, But then Opening Night happened

411
00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:48,640
Speaker 1: and I was wondering if all those people were right.

412
00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:52,240
Speaker 1: I ended up dropping them to seventh after seeing training

413
00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:56,160
Speaker 1: camp and Opening Night. But I certainly never at any

414
00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:58,040
Speaker 1: point even when I was higher on the Lakers on

415
00:19:58,119 --> 00:20:00,280
Speaker 1: paper coming into the season, Like one of theason why

416
00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:02,000
Speaker 1: I was higher on them coming into the season on

417
00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:06,040
Speaker 1: paper was they were a fifty win team last year

418
00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:08,360
Speaker 1: who was the three seed, and they had a bad

419
00:20:08,359 --> 00:20:10,720
Speaker 1: playoff series, And like a lot of times when a

420
00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:13,359
Speaker 1: team has a bad playoff series, people like all of

421
00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:15,480
Speaker 1: a sudden poo poo the entire season and it's like, no,

422
00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:16,840
Speaker 1: this is one of the best teams in the league

423
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:21,200
Speaker 1: all season. Luca's fat Lebron was hurt, like you're building

424
00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:23,600
Speaker 1: this new team, there's no center that you could trust

425
00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:26,200
Speaker 1: in the rotation they added a center, they added guys

426
00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:29,679
Speaker 1: like Smart and La Ravia at discounted deals over the summer.

427
00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:33,600
Speaker 1: Luca comes back in great shape. I just I just

428
00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:35,840
Speaker 1: thought people were overthinking it a little bit coming into

429
00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:38,560
Speaker 1: the season. But even with how high I was on

430
00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:43,320
Speaker 1: them starting the season, meaning like before training camp, I

431
00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:46,520
Speaker 1: never at any point thought they'd be as good as

432
00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:50,640
Speaker 1: they have been to start the season. They're hitting real checkpoints,

433
00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:54,320
Speaker 1: like championship checkpoints. Like what did we talk about when

434
00:20:54,359 --> 00:20:57,560
Speaker 1: we were talking about top tier contenders? I listed five things.

435
00:20:57,600 --> 00:21:01,760
Speaker 1: I listed having a true Apex superstar, having a truly

436
00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:05,840
Speaker 1: elite unit, having the ability to at least be average

437
00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:08,720
Speaker 1: with your other unit, having a depth of talent to

438
00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:11,280
Speaker 1: be able to survive the regular season, and then do

439
00:21:11,359 --> 00:21:14,080
Speaker 1: you have a crippling weakness? Those were the five things

440
00:21:14,119 --> 00:21:17,720
Speaker 1: that I listed as like championship checkpoints for a team

441
00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:20,200
Speaker 1: that really wants to contend, and it's like, do they

442
00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:22,640
Speaker 1: have a true Apex superstar? You bet your ass. Luka

443
00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:24,560
Speaker 1: Doncic looks like one of the very best players, if

444
00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:26,359
Speaker 1: not the best player in the league to start the season.

445
00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:28,960
Speaker 1: Do they have an elite unit? Yeah, they're top five

446
00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:31,400
Speaker 1: in offense with everyone being in and out of the lineup,

447
00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:34,160
Speaker 1: and Lebron James is coming he got cleared for basketball

448
00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:36,720
Speaker 1: activities today. Do they have a depth of talent and

449
00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:39,639
Speaker 1: versatility that's been on display as guys have been in

450
00:21:39,640 --> 00:21:41,800
Speaker 1: and out of the lineup and dudes are stepping into

451
00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:44,760
Speaker 1: roles and they just keep churning out wins. Are they

452
00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:47,000
Speaker 1: working hard to be average on the other end of

453
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:49,480
Speaker 1: the floor. Yes, they've got a little ways to go there,

454
00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:52,840
Speaker 1: but they are competing on the defensive end and trying

455
00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:55,200
Speaker 1: to be average there. They're using lots of different looks.

456
00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:57,400
Speaker 1: We've seen quite a bit of zone from them this year.

457
00:21:57,440 --> 00:22:00,360
Speaker 1: They've won, They've run forty one possessions of it. They

458
00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:03,840
Speaker 1: ran five possessions of zone versus the Spurs last night

459
00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:08,280
Speaker 1: and gave up zero points on those five possessions. So, really,

460
00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:10,840
Speaker 1: the last checkpoint I would need to see from the

461
00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:13,960
Speaker 1: Lakers in order to truly consider them as a contender

462
00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:17,480
Speaker 1: is that fifth piece. Right? Do you have a crippling weakness?

463
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:20,520
Speaker 1: And for me, that would be the lack of athleticism right,

464
00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:23,760
Speaker 1: And so it's way too early in the season to

465
00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:26,280
Speaker 1: just pretend that's not an issue. So for me, I

466
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,359
Speaker 1: want to see them a few more times against some

467
00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:30,399
Speaker 1: of the better teams in the league, especially some of

468
00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:33,000
Speaker 1: the more athletic teams in the league, just to see

469
00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:37,520
Speaker 1: how crippling that particular weakness is, especially when Lebron comes back.

470
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,520
Speaker 1: But in general, I'm finding myself recalibrating on what this

471
00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:44,000
Speaker 1: Lakers team is capable of. I think there's a chance

472
00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:47,439
Speaker 1: that all of us were just way too low on

473
00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:50,439
Speaker 1: a team that won fifty games last year, added a

474
00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:53,480
Speaker 1: bunch of talent a key positions of need, and got

475
00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:55,439
Speaker 1: a much better version of their best player. I think

476
00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:58,120
Speaker 1: we might have all overthought it a little bit coming

477
00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:00,399
Speaker 1: into the season. Coming back to this spurs for a

478
00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:03,600
Speaker 1: minute before we move on. This is the reality of

479
00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:06,520
Speaker 1: the way teams are going to guard Wemby, So I

480
00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:09,760
Speaker 1: think configuring the floor in a way that makes life

481
00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:12,520
Speaker 1: easier for Wemby is going to be key, especially considering

482
00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:15,119
Speaker 1: this is not a veteran team with a bunch of

483
00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:18,639
Speaker 1: really high level ball movers and like refined offensive skill

484
00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:21,200
Speaker 1: guys that are going to be able to help Wemby

485
00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:23,639
Speaker 1: naturally on the floor. I think Mitch Johnson's going to

486
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:27,520
Speaker 1: have a job on his hands to configure the floor

487
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:31,520
Speaker 1: in a way that makes life easier for Wemby, and

488
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:34,000
Speaker 1: a big part of it is just getting those guys

489
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:36,600
Speaker 1: out of the gaps and taking away the easy doubles

490
00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:39,480
Speaker 1: and so having the guys that are one pass away.

491
00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:43,560
Speaker 1: Always like put every off ball player in a position

492
00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:47,480
Speaker 1: where they can be a threat. If you're the cutting

493
00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:50,360
Speaker 1: athlete type that's not a great shooter, So a Jeremy

494
00:23:50,359 --> 00:23:53,400
Speaker 1: Sohin or a Keldon Johnson or a Steph Castle, work

495
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:56,240
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor, work the dunker spots. If

496
00:23:56,280 --> 00:23:59,920
Speaker 1: you're a knockdown corner three point shooter, Julian Champagnee Harrison Barnes,

497
00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:03,199
Speaker 1: be in the corner. If you're a knockdown above the

498
00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:07,560
Speaker 1: break shooter, Devin Vessel, be in that position above the break.

499
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:11,000
Speaker 1: Floor configuration is going to be key because everybody in

500
00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:14,440
Speaker 1: the league watches the film, they see what you struggle

501
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:16,720
Speaker 1: against and they try to copy it. And teams are

502
00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:19,840
Speaker 1: going to copy the coverage that we've seen from Phoenix

503
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:22,000
Speaker 1: and from the Lakers. To start the year against the Spurs,

504
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:25,600
Speaker 1: Steph Castle, I'm still super high on him as a

505
00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:28,639
Speaker 1: player in the big picture, but it's becoming clear that

506
00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:32,119
Speaker 1: turnovers are a key area of opportunity for him right now.

507
00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:34,399
Speaker 1: He had six more last night, and someone like really

508
00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:38,239
Speaker 1: basic sequences like just swing passes against ball pressure or

509
00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:41,679
Speaker 1: like rifling a kickout pass right into the defender's hands.

510
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:43,720
Speaker 1: He's just kind of sloppy with the ball right now.

511
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:45,240
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, he's had five or more

512
00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:48,760
Speaker 1: turnovers in five of his seven games. That clearly is

513
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:52,000
Speaker 1: one of the big areas of improvement for Steph as

514
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:54,119
Speaker 1: we talk about how exciting he is as a player,

515
00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:56,640
Speaker 1: That's one of the key areas of improvement for him

516
00:24:56,840 --> 00:24:58,840
Speaker 1: as he heads into this next phase of his career.

517
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:02,199
Speaker 1: Like kind of to put a bow on the Spurs

518
00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:04,240
Speaker 1: thing what happened at the beginning of the season against

519
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:07,240
Speaker 1: the light schedule. That was fun in all, but they

520
00:25:07,359 --> 00:25:10,600
Speaker 1: really need that talent level that Darren Fox brings to

521
00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:14,440
Speaker 1: the table as a veteran ball handler, and like you're

522
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:18,959
Speaker 1: seeing as they've gone up against tougher competition, that processing,

523
00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 1: that ability to make life easier for Wemby, the ability

524
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:26,000
Speaker 1: to set Wemby up with advantages instead of constantly having

525
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:29,040
Speaker 1: him work against double teams. That's where Deren Fox is

526
00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:31,520
Speaker 1: going to be a big help. And then lastly, they

527
00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:33,439
Speaker 1: need to get Cornett back. This has been this has

528
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:35,280
Speaker 1: stood out to me throughout the early part of the

529
00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 1: season here since he's gone down, whether they've gone slow

530
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:42,760
Speaker 1: or big with Bismacknambo, or they've gone slow with no

531
00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:46,200
Speaker 1: or small with no centers in one hundred and twenty

532
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:50,680
Speaker 1: one possessions. With both we min Yama and Luke Cornett

533
00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:54,400
Speaker 1: off the floor, the Spurs are losing those possessions at

534
00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:58,200
Speaker 1: thirty five points per one hundred possessions, a negative thirty

535
00:25:58,359 --> 00:26:01,600
Speaker 1: five net one hundred and twenty one possessions. Just getting

536
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:05,800
Speaker 1: absolutely bludgeoned in these bench units since Cornet's gone down

537
00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:08,160
Speaker 1: with injury. Just something to keep an eye on over

538
00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:11,040
Speaker 1: the course of the rest of the season. Today's show

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00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:12,840
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568
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572
00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to the other ESPN game

573
00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,440
Speaker 1: from last night, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the New York

574
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:01,640
Speaker 1: Nick so back and forth game. In the first half,

575
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:03,880
Speaker 1: Minnesota had some success against the Knicks with their ball

576
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:06,400
Speaker 1: pressure kind of kept them out of their transition game.

577
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:09,080
Speaker 1: Josh Hart talked a lot about this in his third

578
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:11,840
Speaker 1: quarter end of the third quarter interview on the broadcast,

579
00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:15,520
Speaker 1: and he was right. After having just eight transition points

580
00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:18,320
Speaker 1: in the first half, they played much faster in the

581
00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:21,439
Speaker 1: second half. They got ten transition points just in the

582
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:26,200
Speaker 1: third quarter alone and seventeen total in the second half.

583
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:30,400
Speaker 1: And again, like sometimes transition can be a rhythm thing,

584
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,600
Speaker 1: just like half court offense can be a rhythm thing.

585
00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: It's like starting an engine. Any basketball player who's played

586
00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:39,560
Speaker 1: at a serious level will be able to tell you like,

587
00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 1: there's like a there's like an internal motor, right and

588
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:45,360
Speaker 1: you get into a game and you're kind of feeling

589
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:47,239
Speaker 1: it out, but you get to a point where the

590
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:50,000
Speaker 1: engine's revving and all the sprinting and the running and

591
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:52,920
Speaker 1: playing hard becomes almost natural and almost second nature. It's

592
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:56,600
Speaker 1: like starting an engine. And the same thing happens in transition,

593
00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 1: like once you get in a groove where all the

594
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:03,560
Speaker 1: guys are running every possession and it can get momentum

595
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:07,600
Speaker 1: to it's like an engine that's operating like hot, and

596
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:10,240
Speaker 1: you can start cutting teams to pieces run in the floor.

597
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:12,600
Speaker 1: And we're seeing a lot more of these, like Indiana

598
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:15,840
Speaker 1: Pacer style speed attacks from the Knicks. There was a

599
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:17,440
Speaker 1: play in the early fourth quarter that I thought was

600
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:21,120
Speaker 1: a perfect example of this. Minnesota's at the foul line

601
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,120
Speaker 1: off of a make deuce. McBride gets the ball in

602
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:25,720
Speaker 1: the inbounds like kind of a swoop through, So he

603
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:27,720
Speaker 1: starts on the right side and he kind of swoops

604
00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:30,240
Speaker 1: by the foul line and grabs the ball on the

605
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 1: run and essentially just attacks at full speed off of

606
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:38,280
Speaker 1: the made free throw. Jalen Clark was there guarding Deuce,

607
00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:41,480
Speaker 1: like he was there in the back court ready to

608
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,040
Speaker 1: guard Deuce, but Duce had such a head of steam

609
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:47,080
Speaker 1: that Jalen Clark had to backpedal right away. And like

610
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:49,720
Speaker 1: Jalen Clark's a good athlete, a really good perimeter defender,

611
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:53,160
Speaker 1: and Deuce attacked with so much force and speed off

612
00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:56,360
Speaker 1: of a made basket that by the time Clark finally

613
00:29:56,400 --> 00:29:58,920
Speaker 1: cut him off cut off the drive, he was all

614
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:01,800
Speaker 1: the way at the left block on the other end

615
00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:05,040
Speaker 1: of the floor. And that drive was so significant that

616
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:09,560
Speaker 1: Nasried and Julius Randall reacted so aggressively that they were

617
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:12,640
Speaker 1: both by the charge circle by the time Jalen Clark

618
00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 1: cut him off. So then Deuce just pitches it back

619
00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 1: to the top of the key to a wide open

620
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:20,680
Speaker 1: Og and and Obi Nasried throws like a crazy close

621
00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:23,960
Speaker 1: out with no chance. Og just rips through, gets grabbed,

622
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 1: which just powers through the grab and gets a wide

623
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:29,040
Speaker 1: open layup for an and one, like the easiest and

624
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 1: one OG's ever had in his career. And it's like,

625
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:35,440
Speaker 1: there's no reason to run half court offense or to

626
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 1: get into all these sophisticated actions if you don't need to.

627
00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:40,240
Speaker 1: And this is what we saw from Indiana last year,

628
00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:43,880
Speaker 1: this is what we've seen copycat teams like Miami, like

629
00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 1: Portland to start this season, like Chicago to start the season.

630
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:50,520
Speaker 1: You just push the ball at the floor and you

631
00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 1: hit a gap, and when you hit a gap, someone's

632
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:55,800
Speaker 1: gonna react and then you can just play basketball off

633
00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:58,120
Speaker 1: of that. And it's like, you would be lucky if

634
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 1: you ran a horn set with Michale Bridges and Jalen

635
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:05,320
Speaker 1: Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns to get ogn and Opie

636
00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 1: a wide open cut catch on the perimeter, and it's

637
00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:12,040
Speaker 1: like just having deuce attack with speed off of a

638
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 1: make ends up generating that type of advantage. And it's

639
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:19,200
Speaker 1: just to me, that's the story of the potential for

640
00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:22,680
Speaker 1: the Knicks offense. Right. We all know what Jalen Brunson

641
00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:24,600
Speaker 1: can do when things get slow in the half court.

642
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:27,200
Speaker 1: And Jalen was brilliant in the second half, scoring on

643
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:30,240
Speaker 1: Jalen Clark one on one, beating Gobert and switches with jumpers.

644
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:32,000
Speaker 1: I thought he passed the ball super well in the

645
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:35,320
Speaker 1: second half, But how can you generate as many easy

646
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:40,360
Speaker 1: opportunities as possible around those sequences to keep Jalen's usage

647
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:43,160
Speaker 1: lower so that his efficiency is higher. During the three

648
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:46,520
Speaker 1: game losing streak, they weren't as successful in transition. We're

649
00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:48,560
Speaker 1: gonna talk about it in a minute. A lot more

650
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:52,800
Speaker 1: Jalen pick and roll, a lot less efficient in these

651
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:56,200
Speaker 1: three games that they won, a lot more success in transition,

652
00:31:56,720 --> 00:31:59,520
Speaker 1: Fewer possessions of Jalen Brunson in pick and roll, but

653
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 1: more efficient in those possessions because he's getting to pick

654
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:05,960
Speaker 1: his spots and he doesn't have to do it as often.

655
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:09,040
Speaker 1: And like you just saw a ton of those easy

656
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:12,560
Speaker 1: opportunities that lighten the load on Jalen in that second

657
00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:16,560
Speaker 1: half in transition, like og Nanobi quick transition post up,

658
00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:20,000
Speaker 1: Jalen feeds him gets an easy layup like a rim

659
00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:23,480
Speaker 1: pressure off of a drive that leads to Karl Anthony

660
00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:26,480
Speaker 1: Towns for a trailing three at the top of the key.

661
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:30,440
Speaker 1: Og Nanobi in transition trailing the middle smokes a layup,

662
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:33,200
Speaker 1: but he occupies the rim protector. Mitchell Robinson gets an

663
00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:36,520
Speaker 1: easy put back dunk. Mikhale Bridges started the second half

664
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:38,680
Speaker 1: run with a big, easy, wide open three on the

665
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 1: right wing on a transition kick ahead. Josh Hart driving

666
00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:45,120
Speaker 1: the left wing in transition, gets into Julius Randall's body

667
00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:48,080
Speaker 1: and gets a layup. These are all easy baskets that

668
00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:52,080
Speaker 1: supplement the tougher offense that we know that Jalen Brunson

669
00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:53,600
Speaker 1: can bring to the table. And here's the thing. Like

670
00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:56,400
Speaker 1: for all the talk about transition play and speed from

671
00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:59,640
Speaker 1: the Nixon training camp, they weren't playing very fast to

672
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:01,640
Speaker 1: start regular season. As a matter of fact, in their

673
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:05,680
Speaker 1: three game losing streak, they averaged just sixteen points in

674
00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:11,800
Speaker 1: transition per game. That's not emphasizing transition, But outside of

675
00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:15,800
Speaker 1: the first half against Minnesota, in this three game winning streak,

676
00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:17,720
Speaker 1: they've been playing in transition a ton. As a matter

677
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:19,760
Speaker 1: of fact, in this three game winning streak, they are

678
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:24,560
Speaker 1: averaging thirty two points per game in transition. That's double

679
00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:27,719
Speaker 1: what it was in the losing streak. And again, it's

680
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:31,280
Speaker 1: a rhythm thing. And I'd extend this beyond the context

681
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:33,280
Speaker 1: even of the single game, because they get their transition

682
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:36,080
Speaker 1: rhythm in the second half. I would extend this out

683
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:39,760
Speaker 1: to a season long thing. As a team, the Knicks

684
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:43,520
Speaker 1: need to turn these things into a habit. The running

685
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:48,240
Speaker 1: the kick aheads, the attacking gaps early in semi transition,

686
00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 1: all of that needs to become habit like. It needs

687
00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:54,360
Speaker 1: to become part of their natural way that they play basketball.

688
00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:57,160
Speaker 1: That is what will lead to them having sustained success

689
00:33:57,200 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 1: in that department. Lots of other knicks contributed in this

690
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:01,440
Speaker 1: second and a half run. Josh Hart was a wrecking

691
00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: ball with his dribble penetration. Minnesota tried putting go Bear

692
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:07,520
Speaker 1: on him during that run, and he burned that pretty bad.

693
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:08,800
Speaker 1: He had a pull up three at the top of

694
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:10,600
Speaker 1: the key, he burned him on a closeout off the

695
00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:15,080
Speaker 1: left wing. His drives were just breaking Minnesota's defense, and

696
00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:18,520
Speaker 1: he was again like a part of Minnesota was doing

697
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:20,360
Speaker 1: some chasing him off the three point line, which they

698
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:23,600
Speaker 1: probably shouldn't do, but again like Josh Hart, just slashing

699
00:34:23,640 --> 00:34:26,440
Speaker 1: into the paint doing a lot of damage. Duce McBride

700
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:28,560
Speaker 1: was excellent in the fourth quarter run with his dribble

701
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:31,000
Speaker 1: penetration like we talked about earlier in transition, but also

702
00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:36,800
Speaker 1: knocking down threes. Oji Hananobi twenty five points, eight rebounds,

703
00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:39,319
Speaker 1: and three stocks. I thought he was great in the

704
00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:42,000
Speaker 1: third quarter run, especially with his defense. He had a

705
00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:44,880
Speaker 1: direct hand in three of their transition buckets, including a

706
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:47,839
Speaker 1: pick six steal out at half court during that run.

707
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:50,319
Speaker 1: And OJ's just off to a great start this year.

708
00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:53,160
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, he's averaging basically career highs across

709
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:55,680
Speaker 1: the board in a Nix jersey, career high in points,

710
00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:59,759
Speaker 1: career high, sixty one percent true shooting, career high in rebounds,

711
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:03,200
Speaker 1: nicks high, and assists the highest total he's had in

712
00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:05,960
Speaker 1: the Knick Jersey, a career high two point four steals

713
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:08,439
Speaker 1: per game, just hooping his ass off as he's getting

714
00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:11,320
Speaker 1: empowered a little bit more in this offense. Jordan Clarkson

715
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:13,560
Speaker 1: sparked that fourth quarter run right when he came in

716
00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:15,239
Speaker 1: by hitting the three out of the corner and hitting

717
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:18,120
Speaker 1: a little bank shot, and then Mitchell Robinson just just

718
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:21,600
Speaker 1: downright destructive with his effort. Just in the second half,

719
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:25,480
Speaker 1: Mitchell Robinson had three blocks and five offensive rebounds. It

720
00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:27,760
Speaker 1: was just everywhere. He had a block on an Anthony

721
00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:30,880
Speaker 1: Edwards pull up three as a help defender, and you

722
00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:32,600
Speaker 1: could tell Aunt was shocked, like he just kind of

723
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:35,200
Speaker 1: steps back and rises up and Mitch comes flying and

724
00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:37,239
Speaker 1: it blocks his pull of three, and it's just like

725
00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:40,719
Speaker 1: kind of a bizarre play. You don't see help defenders

726
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:45,640
Speaker 1: that are off ball block a pull up off the dribble.

727
00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:50,080
Speaker 1: Three very often, very unusual type of range that Mitch

728
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:51,840
Speaker 1: has on the defensive end of the floor. Mitch has

729
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:54,600
Speaker 1: always been sneaky good at blocking three point shooters, but

730
00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:56,480
Speaker 1: it's usually in like a pick and roll. It's usually

731
00:35:56,520 --> 00:35:59,080
Speaker 1: like a guy comes off into a drop look and

732
00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:00,840
Speaker 1: he thinks he's got a look. But Mitch is just

733
00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:03,239
Speaker 1: closer to the level than he makes you think with

734
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:07,160
Speaker 1: how far that he can sit back. Sometimes. Really strong

735
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:09,440
Speaker 1: metrics from the Knicks in their three game winning streak

736
00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:12,040
Speaker 1: one twenty eight offensive rating as they start to gain

737
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:14,080
Speaker 1: some momentum on that end of the four one to

738
00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:17,719
Speaker 1: eleven defensive rating, which is solid. They're grabbing seventy seven

739
00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:21,440
Speaker 1: percent of opponents misses that's excellent, and thirty six percent

740
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:24,360
Speaker 1: of their own misses, which is really really really good.

741
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:28,439
Speaker 1: Fifty five point three overall rebound percentage in the three

742
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:31,399
Speaker 1: game streak. They're barely turning the ball over it all

743
00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:34,600
Speaker 1: in this stretch, just playing really good basketball and starting

744
00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:38,640
Speaker 1: to build some momentum the Knicks. On the Wolves front,

745
00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:42,359
Speaker 1: I'm not too worried about the offense. You're bringing it back.

746
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:44,719
Speaker 1: He looked pretty out rhythm from being away from the

747
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:46,279
Speaker 1: game a little bit. That's going to change the way

748
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:48,040
Speaker 1: you play to which will disrupt the rhythm of the

749
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:49,880
Speaker 1: way you guys have been playing. I'm actually a bit

750
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:51,520
Speaker 1: higher on the Wolves than I was to start the

751
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:54,160
Speaker 1: season on offense, just because of how good Jada McDaniels

752
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:56,959
Speaker 1: has looked. He's averaging eighteen points per game to start

753
00:36:56,960 --> 00:36:58,719
Speaker 1: the season. He's shooting the shit out of the ball

754
00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:01,759
Speaker 1: from three, continuing a trend from last year down the

755
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:05,399
Speaker 1: stretch sixty three percent true shooting, which is excellent. He's

756
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:09,160
Speaker 1: had three explosive scoring games already. He's hitting multiple threes

757
00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:12,920
Speaker 1: almost every night. It seems that to me, like I

758
00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:15,200
Speaker 1: have my big picture concerns about the Wolves as like

759
00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:18,040
Speaker 1: a processing team against the best defenses in the league,

760
00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:21,279
Speaker 1: you know, fast teams that have high IQ back line

761
00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:23,320
Speaker 1: guys or rim protection like those are the things that

762
00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:26,240
Speaker 1: worry me a bit. But that's always been the case

763
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:28,840
Speaker 1: to me. They just look like they're going to be

764
00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:31,799
Speaker 1: more explosive when they're healthy and in rhythm because Aunt

765
00:37:31,840 --> 00:37:35,000
Speaker 1: and Julius and Jayden. It's just a really dynamic set

766
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:38,160
Speaker 1: of scoring talent. The defense doesn't look good at all,

767
00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:41,160
Speaker 1: though twenty seventh in defensive rating. Rudy Gobert has looked

768
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:43,400
Speaker 1: bad to start the year. Jada McDaniels has him been

769
00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:45,440
Speaker 1: very good on the ball, and I think when your

770
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:48,360
Speaker 1: two foundational defenders get off to rough starts, it's just

771
00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:52,920
Speaker 1: really hard to overcome. But I'm never falling forward again.

772
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:56,640
Speaker 1: Last year the Wolves had several stretches where they looked

773
00:37:56,680 --> 00:38:00,120
Speaker 1: pretty bad on defense, especially to start the year, and

774
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:02,480
Speaker 1: then last year in the postseason, they just tightened the

775
00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:04,759
Speaker 1: screws on the Lakers and Warriors and looked physical and

776
00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:07,680
Speaker 1: athletic and just great on defense, and they were in

777
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:09,960
Speaker 1: the Western Conference finals again. So like to me, they

778
00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:12,320
Speaker 1: kind of feel like a switch flipping kind of defense

779
00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:14,719
Speaker 1: that kind of coasts in the regular season. So I'm

780
00:38:14,719 --> 00:38:16,839
Speaker 1: not gonna allow myself to think that they're bad on

781
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:18,359
Speaker 1: that end. And look, here's the thing. Maybe we get

782
00:38:18,360 --> 00:38:21,600
Speaker 1: to April and it turns out Rudy's washed and the

783
00:38:21,640 --> 00:38:24,680
Speaker 1: Wolves have a problem. I'm just not falling for it

784
00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:32,279
Speaker 1: in the regular season. All right, Before we get out

785
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:34,560
Speaker 1: of here today, let's talk a little bit about Heat Nuggets,

786
00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:36,479
Speaker 1: and by the way, for you Nuggets fans out there,

787
00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:40,040
Speaker 1: we did end up working out a deal with playbacks. So,

788
00:38:40,280 --> 00:38:42,279
Speaker 1: and as I talked about last year in the postseason,

789
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:45,239
Speaker 1: this year, we're gonna be focusing on watch parties like

790
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:48,040
Speaker 1: game watch alongs and so twice a week we're gonna

791
00:38:48,080 --> 00:38:52,400
Speaker 1: be doing watch alongs of NBA games, and we're gonna

792
00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:54,760
Speaker 1: do a lot of Laker games, a lot of major

793
00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:59,640
Speaker 1: nationally televised games. And we're starting tomorrow night with Warriors

794
00:38:59,719 --> 00:39:03,480
Speaker 1: nugg So that's going to be on playback. It's also

795
00:39:03,600 --> 00:39:06,000
Speaker 1: going to be on YouTube. It's going to be simulcasted

796
00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:08,400
Speaker 1: on the two platforms. If you want to watch it

797
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:11,760
Speaker 1: with the game video, it'll be on playback. If you

798
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:15,200
Speaker 1: just want to hear the commentary, that'll be on YouTube.

799
00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:17,879
Speaker 1: I'll be taking callers throughout the broadcast. You guys can

800
00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:20,680
Speaker 1: come up and give your two cents as well. We're

801
00:39:20,680 --> 00:39:23,760
Speaker 1: gonna be doing that twice a week throughout the entirety

802
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:28,040
Speaker 1: of the season this year, starting Tomorrow night with Warrior's Nuggets.

803
00:39:28,080 --> 00:39:29,600
Speaker 1: To make sure you guys come hang out with us

804
00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:32,560
Speaker 1: on playback Tomorrow night in the win against the Heat,

805
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:35,480
Speaker 1: Jokic had his best game of the season in my opinion,

806
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:37,279
Speaker 1: right on the heels of him having what was his

807
00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:40,560
Speaker 1: previous best game of the season against Sacramento, as Yokic

808
00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:44,000
Speaker 1: starts to build some real momentum here after a not

809
00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:47,120
Speaker 1: a shaky start, but a shaky by Jokich's standard kind

810
00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:50,960
Speaker 1: of start. Thirty three and sixteen on just eighteen shots

811
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:54,040
Speaker 1: against the Heat. The season high sixteen assists was a

812
00:39:54,040 --> 00:39:57,239
Speaker 1: big part of his ability to beat Miami's off ball aggression.

813
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:01,440
Speaker 1: Miami will deploy a lot of really ressive off ball coverages,

814
00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:05,200
Speaker 1: like they'll deny in passing lanes. They'll front the post

815
00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:09,799
Speaker 1: that opens up cuts, that opens up seals, and over

816
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:13,320
Speaker 1: the top passes if you can make that pass. For instance,

817
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:16,440
Speaker 1: the Nuggets got two easy layups for Aaron Gordon on

818
00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:18,799
Speaker 1: the first possession of each half on a set that

819
00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:21,239
Speaker 1: they like to run where they'll basically give the ball

820
00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:23,600
Speaker 1: to Yokic on the left wing and all four guys.

821
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:26,239
Speaker 1: The other four guys, the other three guys I should

822
00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 1: say other than Gordon, will sit high above the foul

823
00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:32,720
Speaker 1: line and they basically clear the entire baseline and Aaron

824
00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:35,680
Speaker 1: Gordon will then just post his man and they'll just

825
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:37,680
Speaker 1: enter it to him and he'll go to work. Well

826
00:40:37,920 --> 00:40:41,360
Speaker 1: Aaron Wiggins or not Aaron Wiggins. Andrew Wiggins was fronting

827
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:43,760
Speaker 1: that post up and they got two layups for Gordon

828
00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:45,360
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the first half, in the beginning

829
00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:47,480
Speaker 1: of the second half, because Jokic is the kind of

830
00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:50,960
Speaker 1: player that can make that very difficult pass over the

831
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:54,000
Speaker 1: top against the front and especially on those ones at

832
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:56,279
Speaker 1: the start of each half, Like Jokic is making that

833
00:40:56,400 --> 00:40:59,040
Speaker 1: over the top post entry from like twenty six feet

834
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:02,919
Speaker 1: away from the basket, just ridiculous touch on a ridiculously

835
00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:06,880
Speaker 1: difficult pass. But again, like that over the top pass

836
00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:09,560
Speaker 1: is a tough pass to make. And for instance, the

837
00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:13,719
Speaker 1: Denver bench groups without Jokics really struggled last night. And

838
00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:16,719
Speaker 1: this is hasn't been a problem all season, but it's

839
00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:19,080
Speaker 1: been a problem in a couple of games. Last night.

840
00:41:19,360 --> 00:41:22,160
Speaker 1: They were minus eight with Yokic off the floor, and

841
00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:25,360
Speaker 1: a big part of that was their inability to process

842
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,200
Speaker 1: and pass when Yokic was off the floor. In the

843
00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:30,120
Speaker 1: first half, it was more because of a zone look.

844
00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:32,719
Speaker 1: He threw out his own look and Jamal Murray kind

845
00:41:32,719 --> 00:41:34,239
Speaker 1: of had a brief stretch where he just kind of

846
00:41:34,239 --> 00:41:37,200
Speaker 1: decomposed against against it, took a couple of bad shots

847
00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:39,560
Speaker 1: and had a bad turnover live ball turnover that led

848
00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:41,840
Speaker 1: to a runout. But in the second half it was

849
00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:44,120
Speaker 1: because the Heat were fronting Yonas found Chunis in the

850
00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:46,560
Speaker 1: post and the Nuggets were just having a hard time

851
00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:49,200
Speaker 1: getting the ball into him. And that's the thing that

852
00:41:49,320 --> 00:41:52,800
Speaker 1: Jokic is like the skeleton key for so to speak,

853
00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:56,040
Speaker 1: Like he can beat those coverages, whether it be zone

854
00:41:56,120 --> 00:41:59,320
Speaker 1: or it be post fronts or whatever, over playing on

855
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:01,920
Speaker 1: the premier, whatever it is, because of his passing ability,

856
00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:06,359
Speaker 1: and he beat the Heat on cuts and posts a

857
00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:08,360
Speaker 1: ton in this game. As a matter of fact, the

858
00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:13,439
Speaker 1: Nuggets scored ten made baskets on cuts in this game,

859
00:42:13,480 --> 00:42:18,480
Speaker 1: which matched a season high, and Jokic personally assisted eight

860
00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:22,040
Speaker 1: of those ten cuts. Also just as a score, he

861
00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:24,440
Speaker 1: took full advantage of Bam exiting the game early with

862
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 1: a foot injury. Hopefully we get some good news on

863
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:28,239
Speaker 1: that front. But he was just bludgeting the Heat on

864
00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:31,040
Speaker 1: the inside with quick post up attacks, quick ISO attacks,

865
00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:34,120
Speaker 1: and offensive rebounds. He had five offensive rebounds last night,

866
00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:37,840
Speaker 1: which was his second five offensive rebound game of the season.

867
00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:40,960
Speaker 1: One other random little call out here before we move on.

868
00:42:42,239 --> 00:42:45,040
Speaker 1: It's been really fun to watch Jamal Murray and NIKOLEA.

869
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:48,040
Speaker 1: Jokicch built chemistry as two man game partners over the years.

870
00:42:48,600 --> 00:42:50,400
Speaker 1: It's a big part of why I talked about Jamal's

871
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:55,319
Speaker 1: value with Denver specifically versus Jamal's value in a vacuum.

872
00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:57,640
Speaker 1: But one of the things that Jamal does really well

873
00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:00,960
Speaker 1: as a passer in two man games with Jokic as

874
00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:03,279
Speaker 1: he leads him towards the basket. And there were two

875
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:06,520
Speaker 1: examples of this last night. An early possession of ball

876
00:43:06,560 --> 00:43:09,160
Speaker 1: screen a drop coverage rep where I thought Bam was

877
00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:11,799
Speaker 1: actually in good drop position. He had Man and he

878
00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:17,120
Speaker 1: had Jamal Murray and the roller Jokic in front. Jokic

879
00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:18,959
Speaker 1: was kind of just like a little bit in front

880
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:22,239
Speaker 1: of Bam on his right side, and what Jamal did

881
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:26,759
Speaker 1: is he threw like a higher, further lob pass that

882
00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:29,560
Speaker 1: was almost all the way towards the basket, and he

883
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:32,440
Speaker 1: basically passed Jokic open because then Jokic just took a

884
00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:35,919
Speaker 1: really hard step towards that pass, and that allowed him

885
00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:38,920
Speaker 1: to get behind Bam who was trying to keep the

886
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:41,399
Speaker 1: roller in front of him, and then Yokic was able

887
00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:43,200
Speaker 1: to get an easy layup, and I was like, oh, man, Like,

888
00:43:43,239 --> 00:43:45,439
Speaker 1: that's a play that, like many guards will just throw

889
00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:47,879
Speaker 1: the ball to Jokic and that probably ends up being

890
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:50,560
Speaker 1: a floater over the top of Bam or having to

891
00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:53,320
Speaker 1: turn into a post up. But because Jamal Murray led

892
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:56,440
Speaker 1: him towards the basket, he actually passed Jokic open. And

893
00:43:56,480 --> 00:43:58,600
Speaker 1: then another one in the second half is kind of

894
00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:01,680
Speaker 1: like a deep seal post up. Norman Powell was on

895
00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:04,839
Speaker 1: Jokic and he's fronting the post, and it didn't take long.

896
00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:07,960
Speaker 1: Yokic just kind of bumped Norman, and Jamal saw the

897
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:10,880
Speaker 1: whole thing coming and he threw the pass high into

898
00:44:10,920 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 1: the right, which basically allowed Yokic, who was ceiling with

899
00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:17,560
Speaker 1: his left arm, to hold his right hand up, catch

900
00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:20,760
Speaker 1: the ball with his right arm extended with one hand,

901
00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:23,680
Speaker 1: and then just softly feeded into the basket. Another example

902
00:44:23,719 --> 00:44:27,239
Speaker 1: of a play that like, that's a difficult pass that

903
00:44:27,719 --> 00:44:31,360
Speaker 1: Jokic and Jamal have just kind of like mastered over time.

904
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:34,600
Speaker 1: They have the ability to pass each other open, and

905
00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:38,120
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff only comes from thousands and thousands

906
00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:41,759
Speaker 1: of reps with the Jokic off stuff again. And this

907
00:44:41,800 --> 00:44:45,160
Speaker 1: has mostly been good this year outside of a few games,

908
00:44:45,239 --> 00:44:48,239
Speaker 1: and not everyone's the mid heat, right, Like, they do

909
00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:50,560
Speaker 1: a great job of mixing up coverages. They throw some

910
00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:52,880
Speaker 1: weird things at you that make you think and make

911
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:55,239
Speaker 1: you execute. But to me, what kind of stood out

912
00:44:55,280 --> 00:44:57,080
Speaker 1: last night is in each of the bench shifts with

913
00:44:57,160 --> 00:45:00,960
Speaker 1: Yokic off the floor, they started fine. Bruce Brown had

914
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:03,839
Speaker 1: a little run in the early fourth quarter, that got

915
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:06,560
Speaker 1: off to a good start in the early second quarter,

916
00:45:06,640 --> 00:45:09,799
Speaker 1: But in each of those instances, right before Jokic came back,

917
00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:12,560
Speaker 1: they would have like these little short stretches. And this

918
00:45:12,600 --> 00:45:14,320
Speaker 1: has been a problem throughout the season where it's like

919
00:45:14,760 --> 00:45:17,000
Speaker 1: you have like a three or four possession stretch where

920
00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:19,120
Speaker 1: you play bad basketball, you take a couple bad shots,

921
00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:21,160
Speaker 1: or you have a couple bad turnovers, and you give

922
00:45:21,239 --> 00:45:22,600
Speaker 1: up like a seven to zero run or an eight

923
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:25,239
Speaker 1: to zero run, and it just like undoes all of

924
00:45:25,239 --> 00:45:27,720
Speaker 1: the success of the unit. And that ended up happening

925
00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:30,719
Speaker 1: twice in this particular game. And like again, they had

926
00:45:30,719 --> 00:45:32,960
Speaker 1: stretches last night with Jokich off the floor, they looked fine,

927
00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:35,480
Speaker 1: but then they blew it with just short stretches of

928
00:45:35,520 --> 00:45:38,279
Speaker 1: bad execution, and this has been an interesting trend with

929
00:45:38,320 --> 00:45:41,560
Speaker 1: their transition defense. It's like awful when Jokich is off

930
00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:44,000
Speaker 1: the floor versus when he's on, And this to me

931
00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:48,560
Speaker 1: is connected to offensive organization and shot selection. A lot

932
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:51,680
Speaker 1: of times your transition defense can be compromised by you

933
00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:54,600
Speaker 1: playing bad offense. As a matter of fact, when Yokich

934
00:45:54,719 --> 00:45:57,080
Speaker 1: is off the floor, this year, Denver is giving up

935
00:45:57,320 --> 00:46:00,760
Speaker 1: one point three points per transition defense possession, which is awful,

936
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:03,400
Speaker 1: and that drops all the way down to zero point

937
00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:06,960
Speaker 1: eight two points per transition defense possession when Yokich is

938
00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:09,520
Speaker 1: on the floor. And the difference there is just the

939
00:46:09,600 --> 00:46:11,759
Speaker 1: quality of offense that they run when Yokic is off

940
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:14,439
Speaker 1: the floor or on the floor that prevents them from

941
00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:18,560
Speaker 1: getting into those heavily compromised situations. And I'm pointing this

942
00:46:18,640 --> 00:46:22,359
Speaker 1: out because I think it's a fixable problem. Like as

943
00:46:22,360 --> 00:46:23,839
Speaker 1: I was watching that game Lesson, I'm like, these are

944
00:46:23,840 --> 00:46:25,719
Speaker 1: things that Denver can clean up and they can be

945
00:46:25,719 --> 00:46:29,719
Speaker 1: better on offense and on defense when Yokic is off

946
00:46:29,760 --> 00:46:33,200
Speaker 1: the floor. On the Cam Johnson front, I know it's

947
00:46:33,200 --> 00:46:35,279
Speaker 1: been an ugly start to the year, but I can

948
00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:38,440
Speaker 1: feel him starting to gain momentum and game gain confidence.

949
00:46:38,440 --> 00:46:40,360
Speaker 1: He get a couple of big threes that helped spark

950
00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:43,240
Speaker 1: runs last night, and he had a couple of plays

951
00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:45,120
Speaker 1: where his ability to put the ball on the floor

952
00:46:45,120 --> 00:46:47,520
Speaker 1: and like a late clock situation led to buckets. He

953
00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:49,960
Speaker 1: had a big one where two where he got handed grenades,

954
00:46:49,960 --> 00:46:52,279
Speaker 1: one where he came all the way out of the

955
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:55,239
Speaker 1: left corner and dribbled like all the way out on

956
00:46:55,280 --> 00:46:58,960
Speaker 1: the perimeter aggressively and got Aaron Gordon a decent look

957
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:01,759
Speaker 1: from three at theright wing that he knocked down. And

958
00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:03,840
Speaker 1: then another one where is the late clock situation, he

959
00:47:03,840 --> 00:47:06,600
Speaker 1: gets handed to grenade and he gets all the way

960
00:47:06,640 --> 00:47:10,000
Speaker 1: to like kind of the right block area and right

961
00:47:10,080 --> 00:47:12,400
Speaker 1: right elbow block kind of along the lane line on

962
00:47:12,400 --> 00:47:15,040
Speaker 1: the right side, and he gets a decent shot up

963
00:47:15,080 --> 00:47:17,959
Speaker 1: on the rim while the clock is running out, which

964
00:47:18,120 --> 00:47:21,399
Speaker 1: bought nikolea jokicch an opportunity to clean up the mess

965
00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:23,640
Speaker 1: right underneath the basket. And there's just a little bit

966
00:47:23,680 --> 00:47:26,080
Speaker 1: of that on ball aggression that I like to see

967
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:28,920
Speaker 1: from him. I know it hasn't been pretty. I remain

968
00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:32,800
Speaker 1: fully convinced though, that he's going to be an excellent

969
00:47:32,840 --> 00:47:35,040
Speaker 1: fit as he continues to gain rhythm, and I think

970
00:47:35,040 --> 00:47:36,400
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that shoot out to me in the

971
00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:38,120
Speaker 1: early part of the season that I think is affecting

972
00:47:38,200 --> 00:47:41,200
Speaker 1: him is his aggression. And I think one of the

973
00:47:41,239 --> 00:47:45,560
Speaker 1: interesting kind of like juxtapositions to explain this is Tim

974
00:47:45,600 --> 00:47:49,200
Speaker 1: Hardaway Junior, who's been awesome to start the year, shooting

975
00:47:49,200 --> 00:47:51,400
Speaker 1: the shit out of the basketball. But part of the

976
00:47:51,400 --> 00:47:55,520
Speaker 1: reason why is like Tim Hardaway Junior's coming out guns blazing.

977
00:47:56,400 --> 00:48:00,799
Speaker 1: He's taking even some questionable shots, but that's fine. Like

978
00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:04,200
Speaker 1: that's Tim Hardaway Junior's game. He is a hyper aggressive

979
00:48:04,640 --> 00:48:08,440
Speaker 1: score off the ball, especially as a shooter. Right. I

980
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:11,400
Speaker 1: think Cam needs to tweak the spectrum of what he

981
00:48:11,520 --> 00:48:13,960
Speaker 1: considers to be a good shot just a little bit.

982
00:48:14,560 --> 00:48:16,200
Speaker 1: I think he needs to be a little bit more

983
00:48:16,239 --> 00:48:19,160
Speaker 1: on the shoot side of the shoot pass decision making

984
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:22,600
Speaker 1: spectrum because in that sort of situation, that will allow

985
00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:24,960
Speaker 1: him to gain his confidence back. And I think he's

986
00:48:25,080 --> 00:48:28,160
Speaker 1: way too talented to be as marginalized as he's been

987
00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:30,080
Speaker 1: in the offense to start the season. And part of

988
00:48:30,080 --> 00:48:32,480
Speaker 1: that is his fault by being a little too much

989
00:48:32,480 --> 00:48:34,799
Speaker 1: of a ball mover, by not being as aggressive as

990
00:48:34,840 --> 00:48:37,480
Speaker 1: he's capable of being and this team is good enough

991
00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:40,040
Speaker 1: that they can weather some bad shooting games from him

992
00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:42,800
Speaker 1: if that ends up happening along the way. And here's

993
00:48:42,800 --> 00:48:46,040
Speaker 1: the thing, in spite of his uneven play, they've been

994
00:48:46,120 --> 00:48:48,799
Speaker 1: dominating his shifts over the last four games. There plus

995
00:48:48,880 --> 00:48:51,600
Speaker 1: fifty five total while he's on the floor over the

996
00:48:51,680 --> 00:48:53,759
Speaker 1: last four games. But I remain optimistic about Cam. I

997
00:48:53,800 --> 00:48:55,760
Speaker 1: just want to see him be more aggressive. A couple

998
00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:59,520
Speaker 1: other quick shoutouts. Aaron Gordon was just an absolute monster

999
00:48:59,600 --> 00:49:01,719
Speaker 1: on the in in this game. We talked about the

1000
00:49:01,760 --> 00:49:04,120
Speaker 1: post ups, but he did great work off of Jokic

1001
00:49:04,200 --> 00:49:06,440
Speaker 1: as a cutter all game. He only got credit for

1002
00:49:06,480 --> 00:49:08,560
Speaker 1: one offensive rebound, but he had several plays where he

1003
00:49:08,600 --> 00:49:10,400
Speaker 1: got up in the scrum and like tapped at the

1004
00:49:10,440 --> 00:49:12,960
Speaker 1: basketball and then like Jokic cleaned it up. Those two

1005
00:49:13,120 --> 00:49:16,239
Speaker 1: just make such a devastating offensive rebounding duo. I thought

1006
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:18,520
Speaker 1: he was a problem for Miami on the glass in

1007
00:49:18,520 --> 00:49:20,960
Speaker 1: this game. And then Peyton Watson. His athletic activity was

1008
00:49:21,080 --> 00:49:23,320
Speaker 1: huge in this game. He had three or two blocks,

1009
00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:25,360
Speaker 1: a couple of big blocks in the second half. He

1010
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:28,520
Speaker 1: had ten rebounds in this game. A very nice win

1011
00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:32,239
Speaker 1: for the Nuggets versus a feisty Miami Heat team. One

1012
00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:34,960
Speaker 1: quick note on the Heat. I've watched each of their

1013
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:37,360
Speaker 1: last three games against the Lakers, against the Clippers, and

1014
00:49:37,400 --> 00:49:39,560
Speaker 1: against the Nuggets, and we've seen different variations of them,

1015
00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:41,880
Speaker 1: right like we see without Norman pal against the Lakers,

1016
00:49:42,120 --> 00:49:44,480
Speaker 1: with Norman Palell, and with Bam against the Clippers, and

1017
00:49:44,480 --> 00:49:47,480
Speaker 1: then obviously with Bam going out with the injury early

1018
00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:50,160
Speaker 1: in the Nuggets game. And I keep coming back to

1019
00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:53,720
Speaker 1: like one consistent thing that I'm seeing they are going

1020
00:49:53,760 --> 00:49:57,000
Speaker 1: to play better than their talent on paper would lead

1021
00:49:57,040 --> 00:49:59,440
Speaker 1: you to believe through that attacking style, and it's like

1022
00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:02,080
Speaker 1: legitimate lead crazy to watch. Like you'll see on made

1023
00:50:02,120 --> 00:50:05,520
Speaker 1: baskets them hand the ball to Taimehawkez coming out out

1024
00:50:05,560 --> 00:50:08,720
Speaker 1: of the baseline and he just immediately starts to drive

1025
00:50:09,040 --> 00:50:11,839
Speaker 1: ninety feet from the basket and just doesn't stop until

1026
00:50:11,880 --> 00:50:13,279
Speaker 1: he gets fouled or gets all the way to the

1027
00:50:13,360 --> 00:50:15,759
Speaker 1: rim or draws four defenders in so that he can

1028
00:50:15,760 --> 00:50:18,520
Speaker 1: make a kickout pass. And they do that just possession

1029
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:21,200
Speaker 1: after possession after possession, they attack, they attack, they attack

1030
00:50:21,239 --> 00:50:24,400
Speaker 1: again them. We're seeing this with Chicago, We're seeing this

1031
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:26,840
Speaker 1: with Portland. It's a big part of what's driving this

1032
00:50:26,960 --> 00:50:29,840
Speaker 1: like kind of new age of transition basketball in the NBA.

1033
00:50:29,880 --> 00:50:31,400
Speaker 1: But one of the things I've noticed with the heat

1034
00:50:31,480 --> 00:50:35,080
Speaker 1: is like if you cannot turn the ball over and

1035
00:50:35,160 --> 00:50:38,800
Speaker 1: if you can stop the ball, they actually will settle

1036
00:50:38,840 --> 00:50:41,680
Speaker 1: for some questionable shots, they'll take some tougher off the

1037
00:50:41,719 --> 00:50:45,680
Speaker 1: dribble jump shots, and they're not skilled enough to really

1038
00:50:45,719 --> 00:50:48,239
Speaker 1: beat you over the top that often we'll see if

1039
00:50:48,719 --> 00:50:51,279
Speaker 1: if Tyler Harrow and bam Adebayo and Norman Powell end

1040
00:50:51,360 --> 00:50:53,880
Speaker 1: up being enough when they're all healthy to kind of

1041
00:50:53,920 --> 00:50:56,879
Speaker 1: beat those coverages. When that happens, I shouldn't say coverage,

1042
00:50:56,920 --> 00:51:00,000
Speaker 1: but beat that execution, like what happens when the team

1043
00:51:00,840 --> 00:51:04,920
Speaker 1: game plans for you and starts cutting off those early drives,

1044
00:51:05,480 --> 00:51:08,440
Speaker 1: and we're seeing that lack of refined offensive skill in

1045
00:51:08,480 --> 00:51:11,319
Speaker 1: those situations. And that's something that's consistently stood out to

1046
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:13,439
Speaker 1: me over the course of the last three games. Again,

1047
00:51:13,560 --> 00:51:16,360
Speaker 1: like shout out Derek Spolsure, they're playing really good basketball,

1048
00:51:16,360 --> 00:51:18,160
Speaker 1: they're playing better than their talent level would lead you

1049
00:51:18,239 --> 00:51:20,640
Speaker 1: to believe, But there is that certain over the top

1050
00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:23,879
Speaker 1: limitation that keeps coming to the surface when defenses really

1051
00:51:23,960 --> 00:51:25,759
Speaker 1: lock in. All right, guys. That's all I have for

1052
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:28,040
Speaker 1: today is always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting

1053
00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:30,240
Speaker 1: us and supporting the show. We will be back tomorrow

1054
00:51:30,280 --> 00:51:33,239
Speaker 1: morning with some game reaction and a mail bag. I

1055
00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:34,160
Speaker 1: will see you guys then