Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: The NBA season is in full swing, and when I
Speaker 2: can't get enough of the action on the court, I
Speaker 2: spice things up by betting on DraftKings Sportsbook, an official
Speaker 2: partner of the NBA. Right now, new customers can bet
Speaker 2: five bucks and get two hundred instantly in bonus bets.
Speaker 2: I was looking at the lines for making the playoffs today,
Speaker 2: and you can get the Lakers at plus one point
Speaker 2: fifteen to make the playoffs, and the Warriors check this
Speaker 2: out at plus two oh five to make the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app with code hoops that's hoops.
Speaker 2: New customers can bet five bucks on the NBA and
Speaker 2: get two hundred instantly in bonus bets only on Draftking
Speaker 2: Sportsbook with code hoops that's hops. The Crown is yours.
Speaker 2: Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler or visit www
Speaker 2: dot one eight hundred gambler dot net. In New York
Speaker 2: called eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text
Speaker 2: hope and Why to four six seven three six nine.
Speaker 2: In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling called eight
Speaker 2: eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or
Speaker 2: visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of
Speaker 2: Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas. Twenty one plus age
Speaker 2: varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See dkg dot
Speaker 2: com slash Basketball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and
Speaker 2: responsible gambling resources. All right, welcome to hoops tonight here
Speaker 2: at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody helpe. All of you
Speaker 2: guys had an incredible weekend. We got a jam pack
Speaker 2: show for you today. Normally we do power Rankings on Monday,
Speaker 2: but tomorrow evening I am flying to Salt Lake City
Speaker 2: to do some skiing in Park City, first key trip
Speaker 2: of the year. Very very excited, But because I want
Speaker 2: to have some content coming out during the week, at
Speaker 2: the end of tomorrow's show, I'm gonna do power Rankings
Speaker 2: in a mail bag so that we can kind of
Speaker 2: have some stuff while I'm out of town. So tonight
Speaker 2: we're just gonna do today. We're just going to do
Speaker 2: four instant reactions to games from over the weekend. We're
Speaker 2: gonna start with Clippers Lakers from last night. After that
Speaker 2: we're gonna go into the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Dallas
Speaker 2: Mavericks is the Mavericks have a great game on a
Speaker 2: great performance from Kyrie Irving to come back and win
Speaker 2: that game late. The Celtics and the Pacers. The Pacers
Speaker 2: have been red hot. The Celtics cooled them off in
Speaker 2: a big way last night. Gonna talk about Jason Tatum
Speaker 2: in his red hot pull up shooting in what that means.
Speaker 2: And then at the end we're gonna talk Bucks Rockets,
Speaker 2: some early encouraging defensive stuff from Houston, and then what's
Speaker 2: wrong with the Bucks who have lost four out of seven?
Speaker 2: So we're gonna do four instant reactions. Then tomorrow will
Speaker 2: get to our power rankings. You guys are the Joe
Speaker 2: four We get started to subscribe to our brand new
Speaker 2: YouTube channel mean a lot to me if you guys
Speaker 2: wild take a second to scroll down and hit that
Speaker 2: subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feeds wherever you
Speaker 2: get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. Follow me on Twitter
Speaker 2: at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss the
Speaker 2: film threads that I do from time to time or
Speaker 2: show announcements. And then, last but not least, keep dropping
Speaker 2: mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so that we
Speaker 2: can hit a good mail bag at the end of
Speaker 2: tomorrow's show. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the
Speaker 2: Lakers have been stuck in the mud ever since the
Speaker 2: n season tournament, but they brought it in a big
Speaker 2: way last night against the Clippers.
Speaker 1: It was interesting.
Speaker 2: It was kind of one of those games where like
Speaker 2: one of two things was going to happen. The Lakers
Speaker 2: were either going to let go of the rope in
Speaker 2: this pursuit they seem to be in to get their
Speaker 2: coach fired and just get obliterated by a red hot
Speaker 2: Clippers team and that would be all there is. Or
Speaker 2: they were gonna show up and play. And like, I know,
Speaker 2: the vast majority, I shouldn't say the fast majority, a
Speaker 2: good chunk of the people who listen to this show
Speaker 2: don't think the Lakers are good and think that I'm,
Speaker 2: you know, allowing my bias to seep in and in
Speaker 2: my positive, you know, interpretation of that team in terms
Speaker 2: of their big picture potential. And I'm not here to
Speaker 2: tell you guys, you guys are wrong. I think it's
Speaker 2: a debatable thing. It's been such a weird Lakers season
Speaker 2: that if you want to call them great. There's things
Speaker 2: you can point to, right like won the nd season tournament,
Speaker 2: beat the shit out of the Thunder in Oklahoma City,
Speaker 2: you know, beat the Clippers twice.
Speaker 1: You could point to.
Speaker 2: Key wins and and kind of identify them as to
Speaker 2: build your case for the Lakers are good. And then
Speaker 2: God knows, there's a ton of evidence that the Lakers
Speaker 2: are bad. That said, I'm a big believer that when
Speaker 2: this team gives a shit, they're at the very least
Speaker 2: in that second tier of contenders. They're not as good
Speaker 2: as Boston or Denver. But when they try hard and
Speaker 2: they're locked in into the details on both ends of
Speaker 2: the floor, I think they're every bit as good as
Speaker 2: any other team in the league. And I think you
Speaker 2: saw it in big way against the Clippers last night.
Speaker 2: The Clippers are red hot right now.
Speaker 1: On offense.
Speaker 2: They have been the second best offense in the league
Speaker 2: over the course their last fifteen games, and the Lakers
Speaker 2: shut them down, held them to a one to oh
Speaker 2: three offensive rating last night. You get another example of
Speaker 2: what the Lakers defensive ceiling is capable of. I wanted
Speaker 2: to talk about some specific performances on the Laker defense.
Speaker 2: You know, one of the things that I talk about
Speaker 2: a lot on this show is the difference between like
Speaker 2: I shouldn't say the difference, but I hate it. It's
Speaker 2: pet peeve of mine when people constantly say shot variance,
Speaker 2: shot variants, like oh, these guys just missed or oh,
Speaker 2: these guys just made shots. To me, is like a
Speaker 2: kind of a loser mentality from the same point of
Speaker 2: like controlling your own destiny. I do think that shot
Speaker 2: variance is a thing in basketball. I just think it's
Speaker 2: too commonly used as a crutch and more often than not.
Speaker 2: I think I think in a small sample like if
Speaker 2: your offense generates three good looks at the end of
Speaker 2: a game and they just happen to miss, that's one thing,
Speaker 2: But any sort of large sample size, like if you're
Speaker 2: the Lakers, the Lakers, Lakers fans keep going, man, I
Speaker 2: can't believe this guy keeps hitting making shots. I can't
Speaker 2: believe these guys keep coming into our building and shooting well.
Speaker 2: And it's like, Okay, either you're just really unlucky or you're.
Speaker 1: Playing that defense.
Speaker 2: Guys are making shots, And to me, it's better to like,
Speaker 2: even just even if we just look at it, what's
Speaker 2: better mentally as an approach, I would argue focusing on
Speaker 2: process is the only way you're actually gonna turn your
Speaker 2: outcome around anyway. But I actually, even above and beyond that,
Speaker 2: believe process is what determines those sorts of things. I
Speaker 2: think that the defensive process of a team is what
Speaker 2: leads to shot result. And I wanted to give an
Speaker 2: example because last night Lebron James was on Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 2: Kwhi Leonard finished six for seventeen with more turnovers than assists.
Speaker 2: This is a Kawhi Leonard who shot sixty percent from
Speaker 2: the field over his previous fourteen games. Only once in
Speaker 2: that span was he held under fifty percent, and he
Speaker 2: was like forty seven percent from the field. This is
Speaker 2: Kawhi who has been laser efficient all season long. One
Speaker 2: of the things that Kawhi did last night. The Clippers
Speaker 2: run a lot of sets where they'll have like James
Speaker 2: Harden operating with the ball on like the right wing,
Speaker 2: and he's kind of orchestrating things, and they'll have Zubac
Speaker 2: Zubat's set like a wide pin down for Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 2: so that he's coming around with the curl to get
Speaker 2: to basically give him an opportunity to attack with an advantage,
Speaker 2: just smart offensive process. Right from the jump, Lebron is
Speaker 2: top blocking that. So Anthony Davis is sitting back in
Speaker 2: the paint so that if Kawhi cuts back door, he's
Speaker 2: not cutting into a place where he can easily finish.
Speaker 2: And Lebron was literally what is top blocking mean. It
Speaker 2: means he's literally positioning himself between the offensive player and
Speaker 2: the screen. So if you're the offensive player and I'm
Speaker 2: looking to set a screen for you, you're looking to
Speaker 2: brush off on my left shoulder. Here, Lebron was sitting
Speaker 2: right in between and facing Kawhi and forcing him to
Speaker 2: take weird routes to try to get the basketball. So
Speaker 2: as a result, now instead of catching the ball in
Speaker 2: his usual spots, he's catching it in different spots. Instead
Speaker 2: of catching the ball with the defender and trail position,
Speaker 2: he's often catching it in a different position on the floor.
Speaker 2: Lebron in general was applying a lot of physical ball pressure,
Speaker 2: and then in addition to that, Lebron's one of the
Speaker 2: few guys in the league like there are certain types
Speaker 2: of matchups that, like even in Lebron's old age, He's
Speaker 2: a perfect matchup for So, it's like Zion Williamson. Zion
Speaker 2: Williamson is a bullyball player that can be a little
Speaker 2: predictable with his driving angles, and so Lebron, a really
Speaker 2: smart player who happens to be big and strong enough
Speaker 2: to hold up under Zion's bullyball, can beat him to spots,
Speaker 2: force him to misshots, cause problems. Right, Kawhi Leonard is
Speaker 2: a guy that uses his strength to get to spots,
Speaker 2: and Lebron's just every bit is strong, if not stronger
Speaker 2: than it, and so it's harder for him to get
Speaker 2: to those spots. And that's just one example, but I've
Speaker 2: pointed out these types of examples all over the place.
Speaker 2: And we have another one later in the show. We're
Speaker 2: gonna talk about Damian Lillard h his struggles with the
Speaker 2: Bucks and the job that Houston did, like from the
Speaker 2: jump with ball pressure, switching with physicality, stunting at the basketball,
Speaker 2: finding ways to make Damian Lillard uncomfortable. And this Lebron
Speaker 2: just top blocking and applying physical ball pressure went a
Speaker 2: long way. And you know what, Like Kawi missed a
Speaker 2: corner three late in the game against the Lakers, and
Speaker 2: I saw a lot of Clippers fans like, oh, I
Speaker 2: can't believe you missed that shot, and you're right, like,
Speaker 2: this is our Like, if Kawhi gets a wide up
Speaker 2: in corner three, it's got a good percentage chance of
Speaker 2: going in. But again, if you ask yourself, what is
Speaker 2: the difference between a six for seventeen shooting night and
Speaker 2: a thirteen for seventeen shooting night. If you think it's
Speaker 2: just luck, I'm gonna disagree with you. I think that
Speaker 2: process is what leads to it, so that when Kawhi
Speaker 2: catches that ball in the corner, he's having a tough night,
Speaker 2: and so he's not feeling as confident and comfortable as
Speaker 2: he's going up into that shot. I think those things
Speaker 2: are connected and related. That's a consistent theme that you
Speaker 2: hear from me on this show. And I feel the
Speaker 2: same way with the Lakers when it pertains to defense. Oh,
Speaker 2: I can't believe Dante Exam keeps making shots. Oh, how
Speaker 2: is it that Marcus Smart? I saw Lakers fans like, oh,
Speaker 2: Marcus Smart is shooting twenty six percent from three and
Speaker 2: then he makes eight threes. You were giving him wide
Speaker 2: open shots, and this is the same Marcus Smart that's
Speaker 2: made two threes a game for the majority of his
Speaker 2: career and loves to take them. So what that usually
Speaker 2: means for a guy that like takes five six threes
Speaker 2: a game and shoots like in the you know, thirty
Speaker 2: three thirty four range for his career, what that means
Speaker 2: is like, he takes a ton of them, and sometimes
Speaker 2: he goes one for six and sometimes he goes four
Speaker 2: for six, And generally speaking, the four for six nights
Speaker 2: are gonna be on the nights when he has all
Speaker 2: damn day and he feels great about his shot. And
Speaker 2: so it goes both ways as it pertains to the Lakers,
Speaker 2: But it's a consistent theme you'll see for me on
Speaker 2: this show. I'm a big believer in process when it
Speaker 2: comes to shot results, and I think the Lakers defended
Speaker 2: the Clippers into having a rough shooting night, not vice versa.
Speaker 2: That's a consistent theme you'll see for me on the show.
Speaker 2: A couple other things I thought Cam Reddish, Toryan Prince,
Speaker 2: and Jared Vanderbilt all did a great job on the
Speaker 2: Clipper wings. The Lakers did a lot of switching to
Speaker 2: where like if there was some sort of situation where
Speaker 2: a guy got caught out of position, or if Lebron
Speaker 2: is top locking and then Kawhi cut back door, he
Speaker 2: might signal for a switch and then go and grab
Speaker 2: Paul George.
Speaker 1: They're switching all over the floor.
Speaker 2: One of the things that kind of makes the Clippers
Speaker 2: a good matchup for the Lakers is the Clippers are
Speaker 2: not a heavy slashing team. They're a pull up jump
Speaker 2: shooting team. And the Lakers are not an over fast team,
Speaker 2: but they are a long team and so they can
Speaker 2: contest pull up jumper as well, and I think that's
Speaker 2: a big part of why they can cause like a big,
Speaker 2: pull up jump shooting team like the Clippers to have
Speaker 2: some offensive problems. I thought Anthony Davis was awesome in
Speaker 2: this game. Too active with his hands. He had three steals.
Speaker 2: They got some key contributions on offense from Christian Wood
Speaker 2: and D'Angelo Russell. Christian Wood was just just a monster
Speaker 2: at this at the end of this game, both on
Speaker 2: the glass, knocked down some big threes. That Tip Donkey
Speaker 2: had at the beginning of the fourth quarter was nasty. D'
Speaker 2: Angela Russell huge spot up shooting. It took one of
Speaker 2: those textbook pull up transition threes that he likes to take.
Speaker 2: It was just a great all around performance from the
Speaker 2: Lakers that they came around and then crunch time just
Speaker 2: a steady diet of Anthony Davis in the post and
Speaker 2: Lebron James and pick and roll. This is a continuing
Speaker 2: theme we've seen from the Lakers this year whenever they're
Speaker 2: playing against a team that has to run drop coverage
Speaker 2: at the end of games because they don't have a
Speaker 2: big that they feel comfortable switching with. Saw this with
Speaker 2: the Suns, saw it again with the Clippers last night.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be Lebron ad pick and roll, Lebron James.
Speaker 2: Ice is the game. In the final minute, three point game,
Speaker 2: has Zubac in drop coverage, snakes the pick and roll,
Speaker 2: gets back to the left and takes his little patented
Speaker 2: little right shoulder fade as he's kind of drifting towards
Speaker 2: the baseline. He took a similar shot earlier in the
Speaker 2: game and made it so it's one that he was
Speaker 2: comfortable with and that basically ice to the game. But
Speaker 2: I thought Ad hit a couple of big hook shots
Speaker 2: light and that's a huge piece too, and it's a
Speaker 2: big part of why I've maintained confidence with the Lakers
Speaker 2: despite some of their struggles this year. Like Anthony Davis,
Speaker 2: ten of his twenty points last night were on over
Speaker 2: the top shots, hook shots and jump shots. He was
Speaker 2: hitting that pick and pop jumper at the elbow confidently,
Speaker 2: like eighty looks great, Lebron looks great. They both look
Speaker 2: better than they did last year. Yeah, there's shit on
Speaker 2: the margins that they have to work out, and yeah
Speaker 2: they have effort and focus and consistency issues, but Lebron
Speaker 2: and Ady being this good is super encouraging. And once again,
Speaker 2: down the stretch, which has been another consistent theme for
Speaker 2: the Lakers, five minutes of clutch time meaning within five
Speaker 2: points with less than five minutes left, five minutes of
Speaker 2: clutch time against the the Clippers last night, Lakers had
Speaker 2: a one to twenty offensive rating and a one hundred
Speaker 2: defensive rating. That's excellent on both ends of the floor,
Speaker 2: and they got a win. So once again, because of
Speaker 2: how well Lebron James and Anthony Davis are playing in
Speaker 2: that slow down half court environment at the end of
Speaker 2: the game, they can thrive when they need to, and
Speaker 2: that is encouraging. Now big picture with the Lakers because
Speaker 2: they've been sucking horribly since the n season tournament, and
Speaker 2: I don't want to gloss over that. As we talked
Speaker 2: about last night's win, I tweeted after the loss to
Speaker 2: the Grizzlies. Those of you guys who follow me on
Speaker 2: Twitter will remember this. I said, I thought it was
Speaker 2: the funniest Laker game of the season because it was
Speaker 2: an unseious effort. There was game plan stuff like we
Speaker 2: talked about with Marcus Smart. They were ducking under picks
Speaker 2: and giving him catch and pull up threes. They were
Speaker 2: helping way off of him off the ball and giving
Speaker 2: him wide open catch and shoot threes. In general, they
Speaker 2: were doing the same thing with Jaron Jackson as well,
Speaker 2: like they just the game plan was bad, but there
Speaker 2: was also execution stuff like Lebron and Austin in particular,
Speaker 2: We're getting lost off the ball a lot in the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter on guys they shouldn't have lost, and just
Speaker 2: in general it looked like an unseious game. He had
Speaker 2: like Cam red Is dribbling into traffic, trying to do stuff.
Speaker 2: Lebron hitting the corner of the backboard and then throwing
Speaker 2: the getting rebound and throwing the pass out of bounds,
Speaker 2: like they just looked unserious, and like I kind of
Speaker 2: saw this coming. Those of you guys who remember the
Speaker 2: MAVs game after the N Season Tournament when they lost
Speaker 2: that game, I said to Lakers fans, I said, prepare
Speaker 2: yourself for a really frustrating season, because they already were
Speaker 2: one of the worst effort and focused teams before the
Speaker 2: N Season Tournament, and then winning the N Season Tournament
Speaker 2: gave that team like a sense of positive reinforcement that
Speaker 2: almost made that whole effort and energy thing even worse.
Speaker 2: And since the Ncason Tournament, they've been one of the
Speaker 2: worst teams in the league. And here's the thing. Say
Speaker 2: what you want about the Lakers, and if you don't
Speaker 2: believe they're a contender, I'm not gonna say you're wrong.
Speaker 2: But they're not the worst team in the league either, Okay, So, like,
Speaker 2: clearly they were playing some trash basketball or trash ketball
Speaker 2: or whatever you want to talk to call it. They
Speaker 2: playing bad basketball, and like I expect that to continue
Speaker 2: for the record, because I thought last week was the
Speaker 2: pinnacle between the Grizzlies game and the loss to the Heat,
Speaker 2: which was one of the ugliest games of the season.
Speaker 2: To me, they look like a team that wants to
Speaker 2: get their coach fired. I've been hearing all kinds of
Speaker 2: stuff behind the scenes about just how bad the rift
Speaker 2: is in the locker room between the players and the coach.
Speaker 2: I saw a report two days ago that multiple player
Speaker 2: agents have been contacting Rob Polinka with frustration with their
Speaker 2: players minutes.
Speaker 1: I've heard that.
Speaker 2: You know, we talked with Jovann Buja about some of
Speaker 2: the internal frustrations with Darvin Hand that came out in
Speaker 2: the athletics report. Seam Sharania has addressed that as well. So, like,
Speaker 2: I think that team's trying to get their coach fired.
Speaker 2: But like every once in a while, kind of like
Speaker 2: the OKC game a couple of weeks ago and then
Speaker 2: that Clippers game last night, Every once in a while,
Speaker 2: the guys are.
Speaker 1: Like, let's let's go out.
Speaker 2: Let's let's let's see what we can do in this
Speaker 2: game against a real opponent. I think specifically they're struggling
Speaker 2: with opponents that they don't particularly respect in terms of
Speaker 2: a postseason threat, right, And because that's the case, Like,
Speaker 2: I don't think this Clippers game is any sort of
Speaker 2: like sign that they're about to come out the other side.
Speaker 2: I think the Lakers are gonna continue down this path
Speaker 2: of really frustrating, ugly, embarrassing losses and occasional super impressive
Speaker 2: wins for the rest of the month. That's what I
Speaker 2: expect in January, like when we get past February.
Speaker 1: One of two.
Speaker 2: Like when we get past February, if they do fire
Speaker 2: Darvin Ham, they'll have a new coach and the players
Speaker 2: in the locker room or the players in the locker room,
Speaker 2: and I expect the Lakers to lock in and play
Speaker 2: a more serious brand of basketball the rest of the year.
Speaker 2: If they get through the deadline and they don't fire
Speaker 2: Darvin Ham, I expect Lebron and ad to sit down
Speaker 2: and be like, hey man, Darvin's our coach this year.
Speaker 2: We can deal with this in the summer. We got
Speaker 2: to just lock in and get this done. And I
Speaker 2: expect the Lakers to lock in and look more serious
Speaker 2: after the deadline.
Speaker 1: But I thoroughly.
Speaker 2: Expect a roller coaster of inconsistent effort and focus and
Speaker 2: success for the Lakers for the next four weeks. That's
Speaker 2: what I expect. I don't think we'll see anything different
Speaker 2: than that. I mean, this is just I've seen this
Speaker 2: with Lebron teams a lot. Lebron gets kind of poudy
Speaker 2: and passive, aggressive and doesn't play well. I've said this
Speaker 2: before on the show. I kind of look at him
Speaker 2: as a little bit of a fair weather leader. He's
Speaker 2: not a guy that handles bad basketball well. And we've
Speaker 2: seen stretches like this before last night. In Lebron's previous
Speaker 2: six games, twenty three points per game, forty five percent
Speaker 2: from the field. Last night, he was by far the
Speaker 2: best player on the floor with Kawhi Leonard who's been
Speaker 2: playing like an MVP, and Anthony Davis who's been playing
Speaker 2: incredible lately, like Lebron's best player on the floor. What
Speaker 2: was before those six games? Forty points for Lebron? And oksee,
Speaker 2: like that's what we're getting from Lebron, Like he's he's
Speaker 2: just getting through the season at this point. I've seen
Speaker 2: this a bunch of times. I remember in twenty eighteen
Speaker 2: before the deadline, there was a long, extent ended stretch
Speaker 2: before the Minnesota game. It was like, I want to say,
Speaker 2: it was like fifteen games, seventeen games, I think, where
Speaker 2: he's at twenty two points per game on forty seven
Speaker 2: percent shooting that sounded like the same Lebron that murdered
Speaker 2: everybody in that playoff run. Was twenty two points on
Speaker 2: forty seven points percent from the field before the deadline.
Speaker 2: And then if you remember that Minnesota game, the Minnesota
Speaker 2: game where he hit the game winner over Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 2: the one leg fadeaway. Rest of the season, Lebron thirty points,
Speaker 2: ten rebounds, ten assists on fifty four percent from the
Speaker 2: field and thirty nine percent from three. Now, Lebron's not
Speaker 2: as good now as he was then, to be clear,
Speaker 2: but this idea of like a Lebron team that definitely
Speaker 2: has championship aspirations but clearly needs some change before the deadline,
Speaker 2: and like them just floundering in January super like super
Speaker 2: common Ever since Lebron left Miami. It's happened like on
Speaker 2: like four different seasons, right Like it's it's not exactly
Speaker 2: unheard of.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I've seen better leadership from Lebron in these moments in
Speaker 2: the past. I thought last year preadline, Lebron was a
Speaker 2: lot more locked in. I think he was more invested
Speaker 2: in trying to carry them there, but they were in
Speaker 2: a much more precarious position in the standings, if you
Speaker 2: remember correctly, that might have been the primary driving force there.
Speaker 2: But I do think it's getting kind of serious. And
Speaker 2: that's the one thing that's gonna be tricky for the
Speaker 2: Lakers is we are four weeks from the deadline, and
Speaker 2: if they're gonna play unserious basketball until then, they could
Speaker 2: drop three four games below five hundred and then be
Speaker 2: in a situation where they're struggling post deadline. So I'm
Speaker 2: not sure it's the best strategy. And it's kind of
Speaker 2: a catch twenty two for the Lakers because if Lebron
Speaker 2: and ad want to pout their way to Darvin Ham
Speaker 2: getting fired, I don't think that that necessarily is a.
Speaker 1: Smart move for the standings.
Speaker 2: So but if they lock in and play really well,
Speaker 2: like Darvin's not gonna get fired. So it gets really
Speaker 2: really tricky in terms of the kind of catch twenty
Speaker 2: two they have there. But yeah, like I'll be clear,
Speaker 2: like I don't think we're gonna learn much about the
Speaker 2: Lakers and what they really can do in terms of
Speaker 2: competition against the best teams in the league until we
Speaker 2: get past the deadlin and we know for sure if
Speaker 2: Darvin Ham's the coach and Once that's solidified, then everybody
Speaker 2: in the locker room has no real choice but to
Speaker 2: focus on the ultimate goal. And I think they'll get
Speaker 2: more serious there. But there is no team that has
Speaker 2: a larger gap between their day to day effort and
Speaker 2: like floor versus their ceiling than the Lakers. And that's
Speaker 2: why you can make the case that they're championship contender,
Speaker 2: and you can make the case that they suck and
Speaker 2: they're gonna miss the playoffs, and neither side's really wrong
Speaker 2: at this point. It's more about you know whether or
Speaker 2: not you believe in what they can do in the postseason.
Speaker 2: Moving on to the Clippers, I said the other day
Speaker 2: I wanted to wait until I saw a few more
Speaker 2: high leverage games before I put them into my contenders list.
Speaker 1: They had a lot of quality.
Speaker 2: Wins in their right, like they just recently went down
Speaker 2: to New Orleans and beat the shit out of the Pelicans,
Speaker 2: who have been red hot. They did have this one
Speaker 2: signature win back on December sixth, a little over a
Speaker 2: month ago, they beat the Denver Nuggets in Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: But then Kawhi was out for the OKC loss, and
Speaker 2: then he was out for the Boston loss. And last
Speaker 2: night felt like a good opportunity for them to crush
Speaker 2: the Lakers and send a message. And for the record,
Speaker 2: like I mentioned earlier, I think the Lakers are a
Speaker 2: little bit of a bad matchup for the Clippers because
Speaker 2: they're a pull up jump shooting team and the Lakers
Speaker 2: have length to contest. And then also when they close
Speaker 2: with Zubots, they just can run their pick and roll
Speaker 2: the lebron ad pick and roll and they can get
Speaker 2: great shots out of it, which is a consistent theme
Speaker 2: we've seen over the course of the season. Right but
Speaker 2: since November seventeenth, make no mistake, Clippers are nineteen and six,
Speaker 2: second best record in basketball over that span, second to Boston,
Speaker 2: sixth in offense, eleventh in defense, ninth and rebounding.
Speaker 1: Kawhi has been.
Speaker 2: Playing like an MVP. Like I said, sixty percent from
Speaker 2: the field in his previous fourteen games. All three of Harden, Kawhi,
Speaker 2: and Paul George are shooting well over forty percent from three.
Speaker 2: James Harden has been super efficient. Norman Powell has been
Speaker 2: giving them really consistent production off the bench. He got
Speaker 2: a decent look at the end of the game to
Speaker 2: potentially tie it Zubots has been really good. He gave
Speaker 2: Ad a bunch of issues again last night with his physicality.
Speaker 2: That's assistant problem that AD's had is like, this is
Speaker 2: why he struggles with Jokic too, is like those big
Speaker 2: body centers that are really like like push and pull
Speaker 2: on you and try to knock you off your center
Speaker 2: of gravity. Like he had a big offensive rebound over
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis late in this game. He had a big
Speaker 2: hook shot late that that cut it to one point
Speaker 2: where eighty tried to block him and he just leaned
Speaker 2: into him and reached out and around and and and
Speaker 2: put it up in And they they're the thing with
Speaker 2: the the thing with this Clippers team, and they kind
Speaker 2: of remind me of Minnesota in this sense. They're not
Speaker 2: as imposing physically, but they do have the ability to
Speaker 2: really contain on the perimeter at the end of games.
Speaker 2: And again that that's where the Zubac lebron dropped coverage
Speaker 2: late game pick and roll thing was something that they
Speaker 2: could go to. And then obviously the Lakers have the
Speaker 2: ability just to throw the ball to Anthony Davis in
Speaker 2: the post too late in the game. But like other
Speaker 2: teams that like to run a lot of like like
Speaker 2: perimeter initiator ball handler types, the Clippers just match up
Speaker 2: really well with them. And then similar to Minnesota, and
Speaker 2: we saw this in the Dallas Mavericks game, which we're
Speaker 2: going to talk about. When they stick their perimeter defenders
Speaker 2: on you and they really lock in, you can go
Speaker 2: really stagnant and have a lot of issues. Except for
Speaker 2: differently from Minnesota on the other end of the floor,
Speaker 2: the Clippers, after really struggling on offense to start this
Speaker 2: after the trade, they even cook it on offense and
Speaker 2: they've been second best offense in the league over the
Speaker 2: last month. So like when you combine, when you combine
Speaker 2: that elite half court two way potential, the biggest concern
Speaker 2: for me still remains just overall size on the interior.
Speaker 2: Can you play zubots in particular matchups when you go small,
Speaker 2: do you have enough aggregate size to hang physically. We've
Speaker 2: seen them struggle in that instance in some moments this season.
Speaker 2: They do have a couple more chances on the horizon
Speaker 2: for signature wins. The fourteenth they play the Timberwolves down
Speaker 2: in Minnesota, and then on the sixteenth they play the
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City Thunder in Los Angeles and then they have
Speaker 2: the Lakers again on the twenty third. So here in
Speaker 2: the next couple of weeks, I think we're gonna learn
Speaker 2: a lot about the Clippers in some more high leverage matchups.
Speaker 2: I've decided, because I feel like I'm holding them to
Speaker 2: an unfair standard, I am going to add them to
Speaker 2: my list of contenders. I have too much confidence in
Speaker 2: Kawhi as a playoff player. Obviously health is a concern,
Speaker 2: but they're playing at too high of a level to
Speaker 2: ignore anymore. It's just a matter of where I'm gonna
Speaker 2: put them on that list, and I want to wait
Speaker 2: until after those two games on the fourteenth and the sixteenth,
Speaker 2: when they play Minnesota, and Okay, see, I want to
Speaker 2: see those two games and kind of see how they
Speaker 2: shake out, and then we'll pick where we're gonna put
Speaker 2: them on that contender tier. We'll do some sort of
Speaker 2: like contender update list when I get back from Park City. Alright,
Speaker 2: moving onto Wolves MAVs. The Wolves end up making a
Speaker 2: late run in a similar way to what I was
Speaker 2: talking about with the Clippers earlier. They had Jade McDaniels
Speaker 2: on Luka Doncic and they had Anthony Edwards on Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 2: They actually both spend some time on each guy down
Speaker 2: the stretch of the game, but they were really locking
Speaker 2: in defensively and stagnating Dallas. And then on the other
Speaker 2: end of the floor is the steady diet of jump
Speaker 2: shots from Anthony Edwards and from Carl Towns. Carl Towns
Speaker 2: hid a couple of pick and pop threes off of
Speaker 2: Mike Conley, picking pot to the top of the key.
Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards was just hitting these tough pull up jump shots.
Speaker 2: He had a one leg pull up on the left side,
Speaker 2: I think that was in Luca's face. And then he
Speaker 2: hit like a against Tim Hardaway Junior, like a body bump,
Speaker 2: little bank shot on the right side that he hit,
Speaker 2: and they take this six point lead. It's one oh
Speaker 2: six to one hundred, and then late in the game
Speaker 2: the MAVs get it back. There was one tough shot
Speaker 2: from one O six to one o three. Kyrie hit
Speaker 2: like a jab step jumper in Jaden McDaniel's face from
Speaker 2: the top of the key that tied it.
Speaker 1: But every other bucket.
Speaker 2: The MAVs got down the stretch was from Luka Doncic
Speaker 2: pick and roll drawing the second defender up because for
Speaker 2: whatever reason, the Wolves we were trapping Uh Luca in
Speaker 2: these pick ball screens, even sometimes like forty feet away
Speaker 2: from the basket, which was a strategy I disagreed with,
Speaker 2: which we'll get to in a minute.
Speaker 1: But they were scoring out of the slip.
Speaker 2: So the first one they blitz Luca hits Norman Powell
Speaker 2: or not Norman pal excuse me, Dwight Powell on the
Speaker 2: roll to the rim and he gets an and one
Speaker 2: at the basket. Then Kyrie hits the jab step three
Speaker 2: to tie it at one o six. The following possession,
Speaker 2: once again I think it was Derek Jones Junior slips,
Speaker 2: as Carl Towns shows, they hit Derek Jones Jr. He
Speaker 2: rolls down the lane and makes a kickout pass to
Speaker 2: Kyrie irving in the corner for a relatively open three.
Speaker 2: He knocks that one down and then they ice the
Speaker 2: game from one o nine one oh six with Derek
Speaker 2: Jones slipping. Another trap bounce pass from Luca hits Derek
Speaker 2: Jones Jr. And he just goes up and dunks it
Speaker 2: with two hands, and that effectively ice is the game.
Speaker 2: But I want to I want to get back to
Speaker 2: that in a minute when we talk about the Wolves,
Speaker 2: because defensively, I don't agree.
Speaker 1: With that strategy.
Speaker 2: But I want to talk about Dallas' defense for a second,
Speaker 2: because they were awesome down the stretch of this game.
Speaker 2: After Ant and and Kat got them back into the
Speaker 2: lead with jump shots, they fell apart with jump shots.
Speaker 2: Ant took a bunch of pull up jump shots late.
Speaker 2: He missed them all, missed them all. Carl Towns had
Speaker 2: back to back picking pops where Luca made really nice
Speaker 2: rotations the top of the key to get contests fort
Speaker 2: to rush the shot, and he missed them both. They
Speaker 2: forced a team with a lot of size and power
Speaker 2: and one of the best downhill athletes in the league
Speaker 2: and Ant to take a bunch of jump shots down
Speaker 2: the end of the game. And then this is a
Speaker 2: Mavericks team that struggled with rebounding and Derek Jones Junior
Speaker 2: came flying in for a bunch of big defensive rebounds
Speaker 2: to finish the game with ten rebounds the Mavericks. This
Speaker 2: is a crazy stat for you guys. Over the last
Speaker 2: ten games, the Mavericks have the third best defense in
Speaker 2: the league. They have guys competing at the point of attack.
Speaker 2: Guys are rotating, they've got their stars locked in on defense,
Speaker 2: and they're grabbing important defensive rebounds at the end of games.
Speaker 2: That's a curious trend to see if it continues, because
Speaker 2: if the MAVs end up getting into that like twelve
Speaker 2: eleven to ten range defensively for an extended stretch, where
Speaker 2: like they're an above average defense going into the postseason
Speaker 2: and you have Kyrie and Luca as like outstanding perimeter initiators,
Speaker 2: That's where we get to what could be a better
Speaker 2: version of the MAVs that made the conference finals a
Speaker 2: couple of years ago. It's not the same team. They're
Speaker 2: not as fast in terms of like their wing defense, right,
Speaker 2: Like I like Derek Jones junior and he's doing a
Speaker 2: good job. Tim Hardaway Junior, Derek Jones Junior, and Kyrie
Speaker 2: Irving all had key possessions late where they forced Ant
Speaker 2: into jump shots. So I want to credit those guys.
Speaker 2: But like obviously Dorian Finney Smith was a little bit
Speaker 2: more of a versatile defensive player. They don't have that
Speaker 2: type of thing, but I think they have a little
Speaker 2: bit more offensive.
Speaker 1: Firepower off the ball.
Speaker 2: Like Grant Williams had a couple of big plays late
Speaker 2: in the game offensively, where like he just has that
Speaker 2: savvy ability to finish at the ram he had to
Speaker 2: play where he got into Go Bear's body and kind
Speaker 2: of leaned out with his left hand to finish with
Speaker 2: his left that I think this team is just a
Speaker 2: little bit more dynamic offensively than that particular MAVs team was.
Speaker 2: And if this defensive trend continues, it could be it
Speaker 2: could be a sign of them entering into the contender
Speaker 2: tier themselves. If they can just give me another month
Speaker 2: or two of legitimate defense to demonstrate that it's real
Speaker 2: and now we're talking about a serious team down Kyrie
Speaker 2: Irving was incredible down the stretch. We talked about him
Speaker 2: hitting the game tying three in ice so and then
Speaker 2: the eventual what basically amounted to the game winner in
Speaker 2: the right corner. But in the last three games, twenty
Speaker 2: nine points, nine rebounds, and five assists, fifty three percent
Speaker 2: from the field, fifty seven percent from three to eighty
Speaker 2: eight percent from the line. So after being a little
Speaker 2: iffy in that first game, as he's getting his rhythm back,
Speaker 2: Kyrie is cooking with gas now on the Wolves front. Again,
Speaker 2: My main concern with them all year has been half
Speaker 2: court offense. I'm a little worried about the types of
Speaker 2: shots they can generate. It's pretty much Ant pick and
Speaker 2: roll with Go Bear and then Conley pick and pop
Speaker 2: with Towns. It's pretty much like the two pet actions
Speaker 2: that you'll see them run a lot. But like when
Speaker 2: they throw bodies at Ant. You saw that play, Like
Speaker 2: Ant feeds Go Bear on the roll and he gets
Speaker 2: kind of caught no man's land and he doesn't know
Speaker 2: how to read the floor, so he just makes a
Speaker 2: weird one hand a one foot jumping pass where he
Speaker 2: just turns the basketball over.
Speaker 1: They're allowed.
Speaker 2: They're able to basically force Ant into pull up jump
Speaker 2: shots in those situations by offering help and ducking underneath
Speaker 2: picks right, and then the Conley Carl Towns one. It's
Speaker 2: one of those things where like Kat can make that
Speaker 2: shot and he, like I said, they got back into
Speaker 2: the lead with him making that shot, but Dallas was
Speaker 2: able to rotate out of it and turn him into
Speaker 2: contested threes late. This is not a team that generates
Speaker 2: super super high quality shots in the half court. They're
Speaker 2: still at eighteenth in half court offense for the season.
Speaker 2: In their last seven games. They're now three and four,
Speaker 2: so starting to show some cracks in the armor after
Speaker 2: heading into a tougher stretch of their schedule. They're nineteenth
Speaker 2: in offense over that span and twelfth in defense. Their
Speaker 2: defense is slipping as well. Everything just comes down to
Speaker 2: their shot making. And this is a team that is
Speaker 2: now twentieth in spot up efficiency. Like they convert spot
Speaker 2: up possessions the eleventh worst mark in the league. The
Speaker 2: mass in particular, were completely ignoring Gobert. They were conceding
Speaker 2: shots to Jaden McDaniels two, actually is a capable shooter,
Speaker 2: but they're not guarding him like he is right Anthony
Speaker 2: Edwards are forcing him in to pull up jump shots.
Speaker 2: On the season, he's thirty seven percent. That's zero point
Speaker 2: nine to two points per pull up jump shot for
Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards. And so that's a big part of what's
Speaker 2: holding them back in the half court and that's only
Speaker 2: going to become a bigger problem when they get into
Speaker 2: the postseason. And then lastly, I really did not like
Speaker 2: the defensive scheme against Dallas. So like one of the
Speaker 2: things that I loved about Minnesota last year is like
Speaker 2: at the end of these games, it's Jaden on an
Speaker 2: island and on an island, and like we got this,
Speaker 2: Like you see Kyrie Irving trying to iso Anthony Edwards
Speaker 2: and he goes to a right shoulder fade and Anthony
Speaker 2: as Edwards just blocks it into oblivion. Or Kyrie tried
Speaker 2: to iso Jada McDaniel's late in the game and ended
Speaker 2: up turning it over. Like Luca made a tough step
Speaker 2: back jump shot over Jayden about like halfway through the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter, but like make it make more shots. What
Speaker 2: I don't understand is like your defense's strength is on
Speaker 2: the perimeter in those individual matchups overall, foot speed is
Speaker 2: not a strength of that lineup because you have two
Speaker 2: bigs on the floor. So when you get into rotation
Speaker 2: and they're running these four on threes, suddenly that defensive
Speaker 2: personnel you on the perimeters not as valuable. And so
Speaker 2: why concede four on threes to Dallas when you can
Speaker 2: force Luca into tough, difficult, contested pull up jump shots
Speaker 2: over In my opinion, Jaden McDaniels the best perimeter defender
Speaker 2: in the league, are one of the very best perimeter
Speaker 2: defenders in the league, and so they allowed the MAVs
Speaker 2: to play four on three basketball late in the game,
Speaker 2: and they got open catch and shoot shot for Kyrie,
Speaker 2: easy roll to the basket for Dwight Powell, easy roll
Speaker 2: to the basket for Derek Jones Junior, and that's how
Speaker 2: they ended up losing the game late. And so I
Speaker 2: didn't really agree with that strategy. I think they're capable
Speaker 2: of being a better defense than they've shown in this
Speaker 2: recent stretch. But they got a couple of tough games
Speaker 2: coming up, and then they're out of this tough part
Speaker 2: of their schedule. Their next two games at Orlando and
Speaker 2: at Boston, they can get through that. Things lighting up
Speaker 2: a little bit more with their schedule, all right, Celtics Pacers.
Speaker 2: So one of the themes that I talked about a
Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago is this idea of Jason Tatum
Speaker 2: and hunting pull up threes and whether or not it's
Speaker 2: a smart shot for him. Well, the last four games,
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum is twelve for twenty one on pull up threes,
Speaker 2: which is awesome. Think about that. That's thirty six points
Speaker 2: on twenty one shots. That's what right around one and
Speaker 2: a half points per shot, So super efficient play for him.
Speaker 2: In the last week and a half or so, he
Speaker 2: was hunting Obi Toppin and Jalen Switch, Jalen switch Jalen
Speaker 2: Smith in mismatches at the end of that Pacers game
Speaker 2: or in the fourth quarter of that Pacers game. And
Speaker 2: then literally once he get him on the switch, gave
Speaker 2: him space and he was hunting that pull up three.
Speaker 2: And then after that, Indiana started throwing multiple defenders at
Speaker 2: Tatum when he would get those guys in his switch
Speaker 2: and he was making the pass out of it. Oshae
Speaker 2: Brissette ended up getting making a couple of plays on
Speaker 2: offense out of that. He smoked a layup that led
Speaker 2: to a Luke Cornett tip in, and then he had
Speaker 2: another driving layup driving out of the left corner where
Speaker 2: he got all the way to the rim. But like
Speaker 2: that is where I like the Tatum pull up three.
Speaker 2: It's not about the pull up three in a vacuum
Speaker 2: Steph Curry. His go to move is a pull up three, right.
Speaker 2: The difference is he's so damn good at it that
Speaker 2: it's consistently so efficient that he's always drawing multiple defenders
Speaker 2: into the situation, which is allowing him to make it
Speaker 2: a consistently high value shot for his team, either him
Speaker 2: taking it or him drawing the multiple defenders and starting
Speaker 2: those four on threes.
Speaker 1: Right with Tatum, it's three years.
Speaker 2: Of recent evidence of him not being able to make
Speaker 2: that shot more than about one out of every three times,
Speaker 2: more than actually like more like three out of ten times,
Speaker 2: and so as a result of that, it's become a
Speaker 2: thing that hasn't been super efficient. But if he can
Speaker 2: get to the point where, now here's the thing, he's
Speaker 2: six 's nine and completely ripped, I'd rather have him
Speaker 2: look for a go to move closer to the rim
Speaker 2: and have him use the pull up three as more
Speaker 2: of a counter. But that doesn't mean it's the only
Speaker 2: way to do it. That can be a bread and
Speaker 2: butter for him. It just has to be like this,
Speaker 2: not necessarily twelve for twenty one, but he's got to
Speaker 2: be in the forties on it. If he can get
Speaker 2: to the point where he's shooting forty percent on pull
Speaker 2: up threes and it's worth one point two points per shot,
Speaker 2: that's where it starts to become something that can be
Speaker 2: his bread and butter. It's just a matter of efficiency,
Speaker 2: because that three point shot is a high value shot.
Speaker 2: The only thing I'd say though, is again one of
Speaker 2: the reasons why Steph has to do that is he
Speaker 2: does not have the physical tools to play bullyball and
Speaker 2: get closer to the rim. Jason Tatum does, and so
Speaker 2: I'd like to see him balance that out a little
Speaker 2: bit better. But I do think these last four games
Speaker 2: are a great indicator of just how dynamic Tatum is.
Speaker 2: When he's making that pull up jump shot. The Boston
Speaker 2: offense has been like scorching hot since then. The Pacers
Speaker 2: are completely helpless guarding him. At the end of the game,
Speaker 2: he had another drive on a close out for a layup.
Speaker 2: He had another play where he got Ben Mathurin and
Speaker 2: an Iso and INDIANAFL sleeper and they were glued up
Speaker 2: off the ball and Tatum just took him right to
Speaker 2: the basket bullyball style and got an and one. So
Speaker 2: he's cooking now. It's just a question of whether or
Speaker 2: not he can maintain this trend in the long run,
Speaker 2: but it does look good when the shots are falling.
Speaker 2: Boston can completely dominated the fourth quarter on Jason Tatum's
Speaker 2: shot making. He finished with thirty eight points, but it
Speaker 2: was their defense that impressed me the most. Tyree's Halliburton
Speaker 2: has been busting everyone's ass for a month, and Boston
Speaker 2: straight up locked him up. He was taking bad shots,
Speaker 2: he was turning the ball over. The dead giveaway to
Speaker 2: me was he was kind of like forcing things, which
Speaker 2: is not something you see Tyree Sliburton too. When he
Speaker 2: checked back in in the fourth quarter, the very first
Speaker 2: shot he took was an early clock step back three
Speaker 2: over Jason Tatum, and it's like, whoa, that's like just
Speaker 2: not a good decision, which is so unlike Tyres Halliburton. Right,
Speaker 2: And then like two possessions later, he tried to work
Speaker 2: and pick and roll and was kind of smothered by
Speaker 2: Derek White and tried to force a floater and ended
Speaker 2: up getting blocked. When you see a really smart offensive
Speaker 2: player start to get a little discombobulated taking bad shots.
Speaker 2: He had four turnovers in this game too. That's very
Speaker 2: unlike Tyres Alliburton. That's a testament to the quality perimeter
Speaker 2: defense of Boston and what they're capable of when they're
Speaker 2: really locked in. The Celtics have won thirteen of their
Speaker 2: last fifteen. That is the best record in the league
Speaker 2: over that span. A one twenty six offensive rating in
Speaker 2: that span, best in the league. That's outrageous. One twelve
Speaker 2: defensive rating. I think that'll be better to when Porzingis
Speaker 2: actually can get on the floor and stay healthy for
Speaker 2: an extended stretch. But like, here's the thing, man, Like,
Speaker 2: if Tatum can get that pull up jump shot going
Speaker 2: the way he had it going this last week, now
Speaker 2: we got to reevaluate Boston because a lot of our
Speaker 2: kind of approach with Boston has been geared around him
Speaker 2: being a guy who deliberately takes and hunts inefficient shots.
Speaker 2: So that's the question, was this small sample size of
Speaker 2: Tatum being hot or a sign of his hard work
Speaker 2: paying off? Because we had a mailbag question last week.
Speaker 2: People were like, hey, why why isn't Tatum, you know,
Speaker 2: adjusting from these pull up threes? And one of the
Speaker 2: things I said was, I think he's trusting his work.
Speaker 2: I think he believes that he's worked hard enough on
Speaker 2: that shot for it to be his bread and butter,
Speaker 2: and that's why he hunts it. If that's the case,
Speaker 2: then this twelve of twenty one could potentially be the
Speaker 2: first step in a new era of Tatum being a
Speaker 2: more efficient pull up jump shooter. All right, buck rockets,
Speaker 2: and then we're out of here for the day. So
Speaker 2: the big thing that stood out to me early on
Speaker 2: in this game was the difference in ball pressure between
Speaker 2: the two teams. So I'm not going to talk about
Speaker 2: Milwaukee's perimeter defense defense in this particular video, just because
Speaker 2: we've done that like three times in the last two weeks,
Speaker 2: and I don't want to beat a dead horse. But
Speaker 2: I wanted to show you guys the juxtaposition of this,
Speaker 2: and I clipped a bunch of clips that demonstrate this.
Speaker 2: You can find him in my Twitter feed out Underscore
Speaker 2: Jason lt I did it, I think on Saturday or
Speaker 2: Sunday morning. I think I did on Sunday morning. But
Speaker 2: early on in the game, Houston was applying aggressive and
Speaker 2: physical ball pressure.
Speaker 1: On Damian Lillard. A lot of Jayshon Tate.
Speaker 2: And Fred van Vliet being like physical with him, physical
Speaker 2: switches to or like when he's going into his screen,
Speaker 2: like Jashon Tate's like grabbing Dame and almost like physically
Speaker 2: like throwing him. To Fred Van vlieta like grabs and
Speaker 2: catches him. They're just being handsy with him. There's a
Speaker 2: play where Jabari Smith got switched on to him, and
Speaker 2: he's swiping at the basketball and like pushing out at
Speaker 2: him on thirty five and like thirty feet from the basket.
Speaker 1: And again, I.
Speaker 2: Want to continue to draw a line between shot result
Speaker 2: and process rather than shot result and luck. And this
Speaker 2: is a consistent theme that you'll we've talked about on
Speaker 2: this show. And I don't want to harp on it
Speaker 2: for too long because we did it earlier today in
Speaker 2: the Lakers video. But I'm a big believer that that's
Speaker 2: a big part of what leads a guy like dam
Speaker 2: into having a bad shooting night. I wanted to shout
Speaker 2: out Albert and Shangun. He didn't have a great shooting
Speaker 2: night against the Bucks. He was seven for twenty one
Speaker 2: from the field, but he still had twenty one points
Speaker 2: and eleven rebounds. He had just super aggressive and confident
Speaker 2: in the post. Like Brook, Lopez has given him issues
Speaker 2: finishing around the rim, which is why shooting percentage was down,
Speaker 2: but he was going right at him. He's going right
Speaker 2: at Giannis in the post and giving him buckets. I
Speaker 2: want to shout out Shangun in the big picture because
Speaker 2: in his last eight games, twenty seven points, eight rebounds
Speaker 2: and five assists on fifty five percent from the field.
Speaker 2: He's the best player on that team, one of the
Speaker 2: better offensive engine bigs that we have in the league
Speaker 2: right now, which is becoming a very valuable thing with
Speaker 2: the way that NBA defenses are run, like so many
Speaker 2: NBA defenses geared around the ball handler and chasing in
Speaker 2: the screen defender being in a position to deal with
Speaker 2: the ball handler. That having that guy be an offensive
Speaker 2: thread is just such a huge value. And you're seeing
Speaker 2: Shane gun Be in the next in a long line
Speaker 2: of guys who have thrived in that way. Jabari Smith
Speaker 2: Junior I thought he was incredible on defense in this game.
Speaker 2: He had a bunch of good possessions on Dame. He
Speaker 2: was doubling Giannis and rotating out of it. He was
Speaker 2: cleaning up the defensive glass. There's this possession where he's
Speaker 2: guarding Bobby Portis at the top of the key and
Speaker 2: he digs down and hard doubles Giannis. Giannis makes the
Speaker 2: kickout pass. Jabari is such a great athlete. He actually
Speaker 2: gets back out from a hard double Giannis and chases
Speaker 2: Bobby Portis off the line, forces him into a pull
Speaker 2: up fifteen footer at the foul line misses. Jabari Smith
Speaker 2: comes flying back in from out by the three point line,
Speaker 2: grabs the defensive rebound, dribbles down the floor, and hits
Speaker 2: a pull up three in Yannis's face. This was a
Speaker 2: guy who couldn't dribble when he came out of the draft,
Speaker 2: and he's just continually massively improving on a month by
Speaker 2: month basis. I'm super super excited about how good Jabari
Speaker 2: Smith Junior can be and what a good partner too
Speaker 2: to have alongside Alpera and Shangun in that in that
Speaker 2: front court. The Rockets, by the way, are now eighth
Speaker 2: in the standings, and they're fifth in defensive rating for
Speaker 2: the entire season. The Bucks we've lost four out of seven,
Speaker 2: twenty fifth in defense over that span, giving up one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty points per one hundred possessions, a couple
Speaker 2: of major issues. We've talked about the point of attack defense,
Speaker 2: so I don't want to do it again here, but
Speaker 2: that defense is being causing problems. I want to turn
Speaker 2: the attention to the offense today with Milwaukee, just because
Speaker 2: we've talked so much about Milwaukee's defense already. This Dame
Speaker 2: thing is starting to get weird. We had this three
Speaker 2: game stretch in mid December where he was hot, right
Speaker 2: because we had the first twenty two games of the
Speaker 2: season he was pretty mediocre. Twenty two games, twenty five
Speaker 2: points per game, forty two percent from the field, thirty
Speaker 2: five percent from three.
Speaker 1: Not bad.
Speaker 2: Dan gets to the foul line a lot too, which
Speaker 2: bumps up his true shooting percentage. In efficiency, which I
Speaker 2: mean is which I mean is a compliment, like get it.
Speaker 2: I may hate the way the game is officiated, but
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean it's not good for a basketball team.
Speaker 2: Like a guy that can get to the foul line
Speaker 2: a lot. Dame gets to the foul line a lot,
Speaker 2: so it actually increases his impact there in a lot
Speaker 2: of ways. But after that twenty two games, I remember
Speaker 2: I was telling you guys like, eventually Dame's gonna get
Speaker 2: his rhythm and this is gonna look better. Well, he
Speaker 2: went three games in a row where he averaged thirty
Speaker 2: seven points per game, fifty seven percent from the field
Speaker 2: and fifty three percent from three, ninety six percent from
Speaker 2: the line, and it's.
Speaker 1: Like, okay, Dame is back right.
Speaker 2: Well, nine games since then, twenty two points per game,
Speaker 2: thirty nine percent from the field in twenty eight percent
Speaker 2: from three So outside of that three game stright, he
Speaker 2: just hasn't been very good by his standards. And that's
Speaker 2: We're now thirty four games of Dame into the season,
Speaker 2: and the weird thing is, I don't think it's his legs.
Speaker 2: I think it's rhythm. Yeah, the other day had a
Speaker 2: nasty left handed dunk driving down the lane. Like day
Speaker 2: looks like his legs are there. I think he just
Speaker 2: looks a little hesitant to be aggressive with the way
Speaker 2: that that lineup is put together. Like the Bucks are
Speaker 2: weird in the sense that, like I think specifically Brook
Speaker 2: Lopez and Chris Middleton have a little bit of an
Speaker 2: outsized opinion of how big their role should be. Like
Speaker 2: Giannis is playing at an MVP level, you need him
Speaker 2: doing all his wrecking ball Yannis stuff, but like Dame
Speaker 2: is the guy you gotta get going, And like I'd
Speaker 2: like to see Chris and Brooke play more like in
Speaker 2: the flow of the offense and less initiating possessions, Like
Speaker 2: there was a possession there in the Rockets game where
Speaker 2: it was like middle of the shot clock and Brook
Speaker 2: is like taking a spinning one leg fade away like
Speaker 2: fifteen feet from the basket. I'm like, what are we
Speaker 2: even doing here? And like Brook's a great basketball player
Speaker 2: and I'm not trying to undercut him, but like it
Speaker 2: made more sense for Brooke and Chris and Drew to
Speaker 2: be aggressive when you.
Speaker 1: Didn't have a Dame. You have a Dame.
Speaker 2: Now you traded for Dame. Don't trade for Dame, and
Speaker 2: then don't let Dame do what Dame does. To give
Speaker 2: you an idea he hasn't taken. Dame has not taken
Speaker 2: twenty shots in a game since Christmas. He's done it
Speaker 2: only eight times in thirty four games this year. He
Speaker 2: did it thirty five times in fifty eight games last year.
Speaker 2: So just in general, how often the ball is in
Speaker 2: his hands as an opportunity to initiate possessions is that
Speaker 2: it is at a much lower level this year, and
Speaker 2: I do think that he's struggling to adjust to that.
Speaker 2: And one of those things too, like if we can
Speaker 2: get to the point where where Dame is basically running
Speaker 2: like a heliocentric your turn, my turn thing with Giannis,
Speaker 2: I think it's gonna end up leading to more opportunities
Speaker 2: for Brook and for Chris Middleton anyway, and that we
Speaker 2: have data with Brooke in particular that shows that he's
Speaker 2: just better when he takes shots in the flow. Brook
Speaker 2: Lopez unguarded catch and shoot jump shots thirty eight percent
Speaker 2: one point one points per possession. That's great. Any other
Speaker 2: type of off the dribble or guarded jumps shot thirty
Speaker 2: five for one hundred and eighteen that's below thirty percent.
Speaker 2: He's also taking almost three and a half contested or
Speaker 2: pull up jump shots per game. So like, what if
Speaker 2: instead of that, Brooke never took a contested shot except
Speaker 2: for at the end of a shot clock situation, and
Speaker 2: you just gave Dame the opportunity to take two more
Speaker 2: pull up threes in pick and roll like that could
Speaker 2: be the thing that helps get him into rhythm, especially
Speaker 2: early in games. And because the gist of the problem
Speaker 2: is this, you made a trade that sapped you of
Speaker 2: your best and most versatile perimeter defender and brought back
Speaker 2: a superstar offensive player. But that offensive player hasn't played
Speaker 2: nearly as well as he's capable of. So now you're
Speaker 2: bad at defense and you're good at offense, but not
Speaker 2: good enough to make up for it. Right, Like over
Speaker 2: this last seven game stretch where they're three and four,
Speaker 2: they're seventh in offense and scoring one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: points per one hundred possessions. Really good, but not good
Speaker 2: enough if you're gonna be that bad on defense. And
Speaker 2: that's the thing is, like, I don't think the Bucks
Speaker 2: are gonna be able to make a significant upgrade in
Speaker 2: their point of attack defense. I think they'll be able
Speaker 2: to make a minor upgrade. I think they'll be able
Speaker 2: to make some sort of minor upgrade that sends Malik
Speaker 2: Beasley to the bench and puts a better perimeter defender
Speaker 2: at the two, but it's only going to be a
Speaker 2: mediocre upgrade. So I think it's vitally important that this
Speaker 2: team reaches their offensive ceiling. And the only way they're
Speaker 2: gonna do that is if they get Dame back to
Speaker 2: where he closer to where he was last year. With
Speaker 2: the level Giannis is playing at this year, if you
Speaker 2: can combine that with Dame from last year, you could
Speaker 2: do some really special things in this playoff run. But
Speaker 2: they've got to figure out that balance. All right, guys,
Speaker 2: That is all I have for today. We'll be back
Speaker 2: tomorrow with an instant reaction to one or two games
Speaker 2: from last night, as well as power rankings and a
Speaker 2: mail bag. And then, like I said, I'm gonna be
Speaker 2: in Park City. I'll bring my gear with me just
Speaker 2: in case like Darwin Am gets fired or if Pascal
Speaker 2: Siakam gets traded because he almost got traded last week.
Speaker 2: But other than that, we'll plan on taking the rest
Speaker 2: of the week off and then we have one more
Speaker 2: I have one more ski trip at the end of
Speaker 2: the following week when I which is mostly over the weekend,
Speaker 2: and then when I get back it's grind time until playoffs.
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you guys, and I'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 2: The volume