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Speaker 1: in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented
Speaker 1: by Fandel here at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. I
Speaker 1: hope all of you guys are having an incredible week.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be breaking down three games from last night.
Speaker 1: The Boston Celtics continue their absolute wrecking ball tour around
Speaker 1: the NBA by destroying the Phoenix Suns in Phoenix. Then
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about the Warriors and the Jazz and
Speaker 1: kind of a wild ending where the Warriors basically punted
Speaker 1: the game, resting all their stars and then they damn
Speaker 1: near one and then the Jazz told it again with
Speaker 1: a couple of scrappy plays on the defensive end. And then,
Speaker 1: last but not least, the Brooklyn Nets. They beat the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Hornets last night, but we're also gonna just
Speaker 1: talk about how good the Brooklyn Nets have been playing
Speaker 1: in general, taking advantage of some soft spots in their schedule.
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Speaker 1: them wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops tonight. So
Speaker 1: Phoenix kept this game close for all of about nine
Speaker 1: minutes before Boston just completely and utterly embarrassed them. There's
Speaker 1: a little bit of a thing going on with Phoenix
Speaker 1: where when the going gets tough, they have a tendency
Speaker 1: to let go of the rope. You saw that obviously
Speaker 1: famously in game seven last year against Luca don Chets,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of a recurring theme and it's happened
Speaker 1: a few times this year. You know. It was back
Speaker 1: and forth, and uh, Malcolm Brogden checked in about halfway
Speaker 1: through the first quarter and immediately scored eight quick points,
Speaker 1: a couple of pull up threes, like a jab step
Speaker 1: pull up three in the left corner, and then a
Speaker 1: dribble pull up three on the right wing, and then
Speaker 1: a really nice left hand did reverse layup and that
Speaker 1: was kind of the difference maker early on, and then
Speaker 1: from there it was just a complete avalanche. You know.
Speaker 1: We talked about this a little bit two days ago
Speaker 1: when we were talking about the Lakers, uh and them
Speaker 1: playing without Anthony Davis against the Calves, and we were
Speaker 1: just joke talking about their starting lineup and how there's
Speaker 1: kind of like a stagnation that plagues that group. And
Speaker 1: one of the nice things that you see around the
Speaker 1: league in that sixth man role is stagnation in a
Speaker 1: lot of cases is a product of sometimes just overpassing
Speaker 1: and waiting for something easy to pop up instead of
Speaker 1: somebody being aggressive and trying to get downhill and make
Speaker 1: something happen. And you see that a lot with starting
Speaker 1: lineups because they're stacked with talent. You usually have most
Speaker 1: of your best players in those groupings, right, So like
Speaker 1: even with the Celtics group, it's like, it's Jayson Tatum,
Speaker 1: it's Jalen Brown, it's Marcus Smart. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: talent there, right, And so sometimes those guys will look
Speaker 1: at each other and be like, do you want to
Speaker 1: be aggressive? Or should I be aggressive? Like which one
Speaker 1: of us is supposed to hit the jets here? No,
Speaker 1: the sixth man. It's like, your role is very clear.
Speaker 1: You come into the game and you are aggressive, and
Speaker 1: there are guys that embrace that role and they thrive
Speaker 1: in it, and you can pretty quickly see the tone
Speaker 1: of games shift when they get into the game. Just
Speaker 1: like Malcolm Brogden has been so damn good for the
Speaker 1: Celtics this year, kind of kickstarting their offense with that
Speaker 1: second unit. It's kind of similar to what Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: has been doing with the Lakers, Right, Lebron and a
Speaker 1: d kind of float through that first shift and you
Speaker 1: end up with random guys like Dennis Shrewder being aggressive
Speaker 1: or Patrick Beverley being aggressive. In this game, it was
Speaker 1: Grant Williams, Like all the Celtics were kind of standing
Speaker 1: around looking at each other, and Grant Williams was the
Speaker 1: guy who was like, okay, fine, I'll shoot and like
Speaker 1: took a really nice jab step three on the left wing,
Speaker 1: or bullied his way to the basket one time, like
Speaker 1: cave DeAndre Ayton's chest in with a power dribble. It
Speaker 1: made like a little hook in the lane. Like a
Speaker 1: lot of times, those starting lineups are a little indecisive
Speaker 1: and you need someone that can be decisive and that
Speaker 1: sixth man come in and changes that. And that's exactly
Speaker 1: what Malcolm Brock didn't in yesterday. And then you saw
Speaker 1: what happened. Jayson Tatum came back in towards the end
Speaker 1: of the first quarter. Then he starts being super aggressive,
Speaker 1: and you see that a lot on the Lakers team
Speaker 1: as well, with their six man. Russ comes in changes
Speaker 1: the dynamic of the game. Then Lebron will come back
Speaker 1: in for that second shift and he's much more aggressive,
Speaker 1: looking to get downhill, looking to get his shot. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like a natural staggering from there. And you know, um,
Speaker 1: that's what makes a sixth man so valuable, Like a
Speaker 1: Malcolm Brogden. He can come in and change the tone
Speaker 1: of your offense and get you playing more aggressive. Um.
Speaker 1: Grant Williams was awesome last night. He went six for
Speaker 1: six and he's starting to demonstrate more of that high
Speaker 1: level shot making. Like I said, that jab step that's
Speaker 1: an is so move him scoring and basically a late
Speaker 1: clock rescue possession situation against DeAndre Aten by powering him
Speaker 1: into the rim. Like that's really impressive stuff. Again, he
Speaker 1: took a bet on himself by turned down that extension
Speaker 1: this last summer, and it's got to pay off because
Speaker 1: he's been one of the best two way wings in
Speaker 1: the league this year. Um. On the defensive end, you know,
Speaker 1: the Celtics have been really uneven up and down for
Speaker 1: the first chunk of the season, and I kept talking
Speaker 1: about how they kept showing that switch flipping. Well, even
Speaker 1: that's gone out the window now because they're really defending
Speaker 1: at a high level for entire games now, and they
Speaker 1: were This was an A plus defensive effort from Boston.
Speaker 1: You know, they have a really seamless transition from coverage
Speaker 1: to coverage, so they've got all these different groups and
Speaker 1: these different defensive identities, like they go. They've been positive
Speaker 1: without any centers on the floor this year. So when
Speaker 1: they go real five out with like Grant Williams at
Speaker 1: the five, they've been a positive this year. And a
Speaker 1: big part of that is that when they switch everything
Speaker 1: with those groups, they can really stagnate teams. And then
Speaker 1: when they go with Al Horford this year, they've been
Speaker 1: doing a lot more switching than they did last year,
Speaker 1: but then they can seamlessly go to like, Okay Horford's
Speaker 1: out tonight, here comes Blake Griffin and Luke Cornet, you know,
Speaker 1: running the the big for most of the night, and
Speaker 1: we're just gonna run drop coverage and they'll switch one
Speaker 1: through four and there's so seamless in that coverage, like
Speaker 1: you'll see uh the Sun's with their classic transitions into
Speaker 1: their pick and roll where it's like a dribble handoff
Speaker 1: that flows into the pick and roll, and it'll be
Speaker 1: like Tatum and Brown will switch it. But then Brown
Speaker 1: when he switches out, well then immediately fight over the
Speaker 1: top of the screen because he knows it's a pick
Speaker 1: and roll and Blake Griffin's hanging back. That takes a
Speaker 1: lot of focus and a lot of sharpness in your
Speaker 1: communication and on the details, and then they're so sharp
Speaker 1: on their uh defensive rotations on the back end too.
Speaker 1: One of the things I did really well against Phoenix
Speaker 1: and this game was digging down from that strong side wing.
Speaker 1: You know, like the guy comes over the top of
Speaker 1: the screen, maybe it's Devin Booker comes over the top
Speaker 1: of the screen from the left wing, and whoever it
Speaker 1: is that's guarding the shooter on the right wing will
Speaker 1: just dig down to the elbow and make them get
Speaker 1: rid of the basketball. That only works if you're low
Speaker 1: man is capable of making a rotation out to stop
Speaker 1: a shooter. And what the Celtics do a really good
Speaker 1: job of actually at a clip of this from Derek White,
Speaker 1: but they close out to passing lanes, which is a
Speaker 1: really smart way to deal with a two shooter situation.
Speaker 1: So if a guy comes over the top of a
Speaker 1: ball screen and you dig out of the strong side wing,
Speaker 1: I've got a shooter in the corner and a shooter
Speaker 1: on the wing, and I've got one defender who has
Speaker 1: sunk down to the block and he's got to close
Speaker 1: out to one of those two guys. And what Derek
Speaker 1: White did on this specific play that you can find
Speaker 1: on my Twitter feed. Is he closes out between the
Speaker 1: two shooters. I think it was Tory Craig on the
Speaker 1: right wing, and might have been Campaign in the corner
Speaker 1: I can't remember, might have been Langer sham it with
Speaker 1: somebody like that, and he closes out to the passing lane,
Speaker 1: and Tory Craig thinks that Derek White is closing out
Speaker 1: at him, so instead of looking to catch and shoot,
Speaker 1: he's looking to catch and swing, and he ends up
Speaker 1: catching and throwing the swing pass directly into Derek White
Speaker 1: because he closes out into the passing lane. I thought
Speaker 1: that was really cool because that's a specific coverage that
Speaker 1: the high school team that I coach you uses when
Speaker 1: we're closing out on the backside, we always close out
Speaker 1: to the passing lane. Boston is a really nice job
Speaker 1: of that, and that allows them to over help because
Speaker 1: they're doing a nice job of closing out and rotating
Speaker 1: on the back end. And then once you shut down
Speaker 1: Phoenix's actions and they did a lot of it with
Speaker 1: no center last night where they were just switching everything,
Speaker 1: but also just by fighting over the top of the
Speaker 1: screens and digging down, it kind of stagnates Phoenix and
Speaker 1: turns them into an isolation team. And then all night long,
Speaker 1: Boston did a really good job of contesting Devin Booker
Speaker 1: without fouling and then staying home off ball. On ISOs.
Speaker 1: It's one thing on a pick and roll to dig
Speaker 1: down from the wing to contain the ball, but it's
Speaker 1: another thing when it's an ISO and he's not really
Speaker 1: going downhill and instead he's going against a set defender
Speaker 1: that's sliding his feet and maybe chest the shoulder with
Speaker 1: him and riding him into the basket. You don't need
Speaker 1: to overhelp there. So they're staying home. And now Devin
Speaker 1: Booker is struggling to knockdown shots over the top of
Speaker 1: the defense or he's trying to make kickout passes two
Speaker 1: guys that are open because the help defenders are staying home.
Speaker 1: Then Phoenix started turning the basketball over. They forced Phoenix
Speaker 1: into twenty twenty turnovers, which led to twenty points for
Speaker 1: Boston on the other end of the floor by just
Speaker 1: because they were able to get out in transition. It
Speaker 1: was a really impressive defensive performance. And to be clear,
Speaker 1: this is no longer a switch flipping thing. They've kind
Speaker 1: of figured things out that Boston Celtics are fifth in
Speaker 1: the entire league in defense since November. That's a solid
Speaker 1: three week sample size of them being damn good defensively.
Speaker 1: I'm actually kind of worried about the Robert Williams thing.
Speaker 1: I've been kind of lower on Robert Williams than most
Speaker 1: Celtics people for this entire kind of era here. Um,
Speaker 1: I've talked about this before. I think he's a little
Speaker 1: bit too much of a gambler on defense. I think
Speaker 1: there's some mixed results there. And I really think he
Speaker 1: janks up there spacing because I mean, obviously he's a
Speaker 1: good vertical spacer, but vertical spacing is just not the
Speaker 1: same type of spacing as five out spacing. And the
Speaker 1: Boston offense is just operating at such a high level.
Speaker 1: When Horford is at the center and he can space
Speaker 1: to the corner, or when they just go pure five
Speaker 1: out and it's Grant will Hims at the five, they're
Speaker 1: getting just better stuff there. So, like with how well
Speaker 1: they're defending now without Rob Williams, obviously you want Rob Williams.
Speaker 1: You want to have that look. It helps to have
Speaker 1: a legit, big look with Horford and Williams on the
Speaker 1: floor together. But I hope they keep his minutes down
Speaker 1: because this particular version of Boston is so much better offensively,
Speaker 1: and now they're defending at an extremely high level UM
Speaker 1: plus when they're doing more switching, especially with Horford, I
Speaker 1: think that gives you a better chance to succeed in
Speaker 1: a playoff environment. And I thought their stubborn nous as
Speaker 1: it pertained to Golden State and that drop coverage is
Speaker 1: one of the things that beat them. We started the
Speaker 1: year with three contenders. If you guys remember, I had
Speaker 1: the Bucks, the Warriors in the Celtics, and I ranked
Speaker 1: them in order. I had Golden State number one, I
Speaker 1: had Milwaukee number two, and Boston number three. I thought
Speaker 1: Boston was the most talented team of those three, but
Speaker 1: I was worried about their ability to execute, particularly in
Speaker 1: late game situations and things along those lines. In Golden
Speaker 1: States just a super experienced team that's been there and
Speaker 1: done that, and you can count on that. But ever,
Speaker 1: like all all all season long, from the from the
Speaker 1: first jump ball back in October eight, Boston has clearly
Speaker 1: been on a tier by themselves on top of the league.
Speaker 1: Milwaukee's only two games back, but Boston has been way
Speaker 1: more dominant. Their net rating is about twice as much.
Speaker 1: Boston's outscoring teams by about nine points per hunter possessions
Speaker 1: and Milwaukee's outscoring teams by less than five points per
Speaker 1: one hunter possessions, so they've been more dominant. And Milwaukee
Speaker 1: has also had a really, really easy schedule. They've had
Speaker 1: the third easiest schedule in the league, So their win
Speaker 1: loss record it's not fake, but it's not as dominant
Speaker 1: as Boston's played tougher teams and has been more dominant
Speaker 1: on the scoreboard. I'm not changing my playoff picks by
Speaker 1: any stretch of the imagination. It's too early. But if
Speaker 1: this holds, Boston will eventually become my favorite to win
Speaker 1: the Titler. You gotta pay attention to what's happening here,
Speaker 1: Like let's let's zoom out here to this entire calendar year.
Speaker 1: So we're on December eight, and this really started for Boston.
Speaker 1: I want to say it was the January three or
Speaker 1: January eight, but it was that first ten days of January.
Speaker 1: So we're gone eleven months here now, and what actually
Speaker 1: happened in this eleven months from the beginning of January
Speaker 1: to the start of the playoffs, Boston was the best
Speaker 1: offense and the best defense in the entire league, and
Speaker 1: they kicked everyone's ass, and then they took that into
Speaker 1: the playoffs and they won their conference. It's a little
Speaker 1: sloppy because of their issues with execution. They damn near
Speaker 1: blued against Milwaukee. They damn near blued against Miami, but
Speaker 1: damn near doesn't mean anything. They won the Eastern Conference, okay.
Speaker 1: Then they dominated Golden State through three games. They were
Speaker 1: up two games to one. Then Golden State on the
Speaker 1: strength of an absolutely heroic performance by by Steph Curry
Speaker 1: and a really solid defensive effort from Golden State's wings,
Speaker 1: namely Andrew Wiggins, Clay Thompson and Draymond Green, they were
Speaker 1: able to pull out three straight wins against that Boston
Speaker 1: Celtics team. Then ever since then, Boston has whooped everybody's
Speaker 1: ass again, and they've been the best offense in the
Speaker 1: league and now in the last three weeks their top
Speaker 1: five defense again. So as we zoom out, it's a
Speaker 1: whole lot of Boston's whooping everybody's ass. It's a whole
Speaker 1: lot of Boston being the best offense in basketball and
Speaker 1: one of the best defenses in basketball. I still think
Speaker 1: they're the best half court defense that I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: That's all there. There's just that three game stretch against
Speaker 1: Golden State. Now that's an important stretch. That's execution. I
Speaker 1: still don't trust Boston in big playoffs situations to execute
Speaker 1: at an extremely high level. They will have to prove
Speaker 1: that to me. But they look better than last year.
Speaker 1: Maybe Malcolm Brogden can help them with on ball situations
Speaker 1: and crunch time, and maybe it won't even matter. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna change my pick yet, but at a certain point,
Speaker 1: we've got to acknowledge that Boston is playing better basketball
Speaker 1: than everyone else in the league by a pretty significant margin.
Speaker 1: Quick notes on Phoenix. This is Chris Paul's first game back,
Speaker 1: so I don't want to overreact, but he looked completely
Speaker 1: out of place. Um looked like he was really struggling
Speaker 1: to get to his spots in a way that he
Speaker 1: didn't use to. Devin Booker had forty plus three nights
Speaker 1: in a row last week, but in the last three
Speaker 1: games he's averaging sixteen points per game on thirty seven
Speaker 1: percent shooting. I was very complimentary of Devin Booker. I
Speaker 1: obviously view him Um. I always obviously have a ton
Speaker 1: of respect for him and where he is in the
Speaker 1: league right now. But consistency is a big part of
Speaker 1: being a superstar. You gotta keep your foot on the
Speaker 1: pedal alright. Moving on to the Warriors in the Jazz,
Speaker 1: This was kind of a fun game for how many
Speaker 1: players were missing on both teams, like Lori markin and
Speaker 1: was out, Mike Connolly's out, so they're down a bunch
Speaker 1: of guys. Um. The Warriors sat Steph Draymond and Andrew Wiggins,
Speaker 1: so the Warriors were basically punting this game. Um. But
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool and Johnathan cominga to the Warriors young players
Speaker 1: combined for sixty points and really kept this thing close.
Speaker 1: And then at the end of the game it kind
Speaker 1: of turned into a Jordan Pool versus Jordan Clarkson shot
Speaker 1: creation contest, and both of them made some nice passing reads,
Speaker 1: but neither of them can really make a shot. Jordan
Speaker 1: Clarkson made a nice little floater, but there in the
Speaker 1: final minutes they both kind of went cold and the
Speaker 1: Warriors were scrappy as hell on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: They grabbed a bunch of offensive rebounds, they had some
Speaker 1: critical defensive stopped some blocked shots. There's a Jonathan cominga
Speaker 1: is So possession on Jordan Clarkson where he blocked him
Speaker 1: kind of at the elbow, and then Uh Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: had a really nice block that actually saved the Warriors
Speaker 1: on a potentially game tying three. They played well enough
Speaker 1: to grind out an ugly win, but Clay Thompson and
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool were sloppy with the basketball and a couple
Speaker 1: of late inbounds possessions and it costs them the gate.
Speaker 1: Shout out, you know to Nikil Alexander Walker from the
Speaker 1: Jazz two massive plays at the end of that get
Speaker 1: that game. There was an extra past the Malik Beasley
Speaker 1: where Warriors up four. I think it was like one thirteen,
Speaker 1: one on nine and Nikil gets it down the hill. Downhill,
Speaker 1: he has an opportunity to take a left handed lay
Speaker 1: up and I want it looked nice on the box
Speaker 1: score for him, but it's game probably over there. You
Speaker 1: know you're you're still down too. He makes a left
Speaker 1: handed hook pass that hits uh Molik Beasley on the
Speaker 1: right wing and he nails at the three. Is a
Speaker 1: good pass to a wide open shooter that puts you
Speaker 1: back within one. Then on the inbounds pass to Jordan Pool,
Speaker 1: he kind of comes over Jordan Pool's left shoulder, and
Speaker 1: I think he was actually trying to foul, but hey,
Speaker 1: when you're trying to foul, go for the basketball because
Speaker 1: you might be able to make a play. And he
Speaker 1: came hacking down with his left arm and just happened
Speaker 1: to get all ball on Jordan Pool and knocked the
Speaker 1: ball loose, which led to the run out and uh
Speaker 1: Fontacio ends up getting a dunk and the game was over.
Speaker 1: So a couple of massive plays Benekiel Alexander Walker to
Speaker 1: steal that game. I get it as a Warriors fan,
Speaker 1: that's a heartbreaking loss, but you gotta remember you were
Speaker 1: playing with house money. You were expecting to lose that
Speaker 1: game when you sat all those guys, And even though
Speaker 1: it still sucks to take that loss in the stay innings,
Speaker 1: especially when it was an execution couple of execution errors
Speaker 1: at the end, there was a lot of really exciting
Speaker 1: stuff from the Warriors young players in that game. First
Speaker 1: of all, James Wiseman came in and played a really
Speaker 1: interesting five minute shift. There was a bit of a
Speaker 1: mixed bag. He really struggled and dropped coverage. He he
Speaker 1: was trying to get up to the level of the
Speaker 1: screen on Jordan Clarkson for pull up jump shots, but
Speaker 1: he guessed wrong because Jordan was able to reject the
Speaker 1: screen and get away from him. Then he wasn't back
Speaker 1: in drops. He needs to be a little bit more
Speaker 1: kind of like in a middle area where he can
Speaker 1: wait for Jordan to come over and then come up
Speaker 1: and contest. He gave up a layup to Jordan Clarkson
Speaker 1: and a foul to Jordan Clarkson. There. He also had
Speaker 1: to play with Rudy Gobert or excuse me, Ruddy Gay
Speaker 1: drove to the basket and went up with a left
Speaker 1: handed lay up and he got his hand like cought
Speaker 1: in the net which stopped him from being able to
Speaker 1: get a block a block. He also had a missed
Speaker 1: box out on Walker Kessler, who, by the way, Walker
Speaker 1: Kessler is a really tough big for James Wiseman to
Speaker 1: deal with at this phase of his career because he's
Speaker 1: just he struggles with physicality and Walker is just a
Speaker 1: big physical center that works really, really har hard. But
Speaker 1: other than those things, it honestly was a lot of
Speaker 1: good from Wiseman. I thought he did a much better
Speaker 1: job screening. Get a nice uh pick and roll with
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson up on the right wing where he got
Speaker 1: a good contact on his screen that freed Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: up for a wide open three that he made. And
Speaker 1: then look and this is a big part of it.
Speaker 1: Why do you guys, You guys who have listened to
Speaker 1: the show for a while, you know that I'm not
Speaker 1: a big fan of traditional centers. And one of the
Speaker 1: big reasons why is they don't run, or when they
Speaker 1: do try to run, they're not fast enough to really
Speaker 1: hang in an up and down game and they struggle
Speaker 1: to cover ground. This I thought was James Wiseman's best
Speaker 1: game as a pro in terms of just running the
Speaker 1: floor up and down. And when you have a big
Speaker 1: man who legit runs the floor, sprints the floor up
Speaker 1: and down, so much good comes from that. There was
Speaker 1: a play where you got a quick seal on Fontechio
Speaker 1: because he ran out Ryan Walker Kesler down the floor
Speaker 1: which led to a transition mismatch, dumped it into him
Speaker 1: and he got a dunk. There was a play where
Speaker 1: he beat Walker Kesler down the floor, got underneath a basket.
Speaker 1: I can't remember who was I think it was Anthony Lamb.
Speaker 1: Someoneho misses the three walker. Kesler tries to box him out,
Speaker 1: but he's out of position because Wise been beat him
Speaker 1: down the floor. He got an offensive rebound on that play,
Speaker 1: kicked it out. He actually kicked it out to Anthony
Speaker 1: Lamb after that, and he missed the three um. And
Speaker 1: then there was another play where he sprinted back on
Speaker 1: defense and got back in time to dissuade Kelly Olynnik
Speaker 1: at the rim and forced to stop. But like, if
Speaker 1: he can do those kinds of things, those are because
Speaker 1: those are under his control. He can sprint up and
Speaker 1: down the floor, and if he can set good screens
Speaker 1: and if he can make some improvements and drop coverage,
Speaker 1: that's functional stuff, especially with the way Golden State has
Speaker 1: been staggering their starters where he might be useful. But again,
Speaker 1: I know it's a tough night, tough loss, but a
Speaker 1: nice little five minute shift from Wiseman. You can tell
Speaker 1: the G League reps are starting to work for him
Speaker 1: a little bit. But I still needs so those are
Speaker 1: ways to go, but it's a positive step for sure.
Speaker 1: Moses Moody hit two big threes in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: Um one of them was a really nice movement three
Speaker 1: where he came off of like a double screen, caught
Speaker 1: the top of the key and had planted his left
Speaker 1: foot and had to square up in mid air, get
Speaker 1: that right foot around, rise up and knock it down.
Speaker 1: I had talked to somebody who is connected with the
Speaker 1: Warriors and and he told me that Moses Moody all
Speaker 1: summer long, the primary areas of work where movement threes
Speaker 1: and dribble three's, and you can see that we're kind
Speaker 1: of paying off. Both of those shots were massively important.
Speaker 1: And then Jonathan Cominga just an absolute monster on both
Speaker 1: ends last night. Continues to be the most impressive of
Speaker 1: the Warriors young players. You know, I said before the season,
Speaker 1: earlier in the season that they might not have a
Speaker 1: real superstar talent in any of these young players. Jonathan
Speaker 1: Cominga is flashing legit to a superstar upside. He's so
Speaker 1: good defensively on ball, and he showed some flashes off ball,
Speaker 1: but he's so good defensively on ball that like that
Speaker 1: that he kind of could enter. You could see him
Speaker 1: in a few years entering into that conversation among the
Speaker 1: best perimeter defenders in the league. If he can get
Speaker 1: to the point where he can be a little bit
Speaker 1: smarter offensively, especially in the Warrior system, you could see
Speaker 1: a legit two way superstar upside there with Jonathan comingo.
Speaker 1: But again, depressing, frustrating loss for the Warriors, but a
Speaker 1: lot of optimism um in a game that you didn't
Speaker 1: intend to win. Really when you intended, but you didn't
Speaker 1: expect to win, but you had a chance because you're young.
Speaker 1: Players are starting to show some development um. The Brooklyn
Speaker 1: Nets was the last team that I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: about today. They beat the Hornets sixteen last night. They
Speaker 1: really dominated on both ends. They get it, let it
Speaker 1: get close at the end, just with slopping this, but
Speaker 1: they were never truly threatened. Kyrie Irving thirty three and nine,
Speaker 1: did a lot of work at the rim in this
Speaker 1: game and in mid range, out of is and out
Speaker 1: of post ups. For the season, Kyrie is eighty second
Speaker 1: percentile and picking rolls in seventy six percentile and ISOs
Speaker 1: including passes. He's having a really good creation season and
Speaker 1: he's starting to find his groove as of late. In
Speaker 1: his last eight games, Kyrie Irving's averaging twenty five points
Speaker 1: per game. In the last eight teen games, the Brooklyn
Speaker 1: Nets are twelve and six. That's the second most wins
Speaker 1: in the entire league during that span. Their ninth in offense,
Speaker 1: fifth and defense, sixth and net rating, and they've gone
Speaker 1: three and one since Ben Simmons went down. There's some
Speaker 1: quality wins in there, like they beat Toronto twice and
Speaker 1: they beat the Clippers with Paul George. But mostly it's
Speaker 1: been a soft schedule. Memphis was playing without their three
Speaker 1: top guys, um Portland was playing without Dame, and then
Speaker 1: they lost to the better teams on their schedule. They
Speaker 1: lost to Philly, they lost to Boston, they lost the Dallas.
Speaker 1: They they got killed by Sacramento. They lost to Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis in that first game of the Lakers kind of
Speaker 1: rejuvenation when A d started his wrecking ball tour. The
Speaker 1: Nets lost that game. Overall, on the season, the Nets
Speaker 1: are eight and ten against five and above teams and
Speaker 1: six and two against losing teams. But that's part of
Speaker 1: the pathway of the NBA regular season. You're gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: struggle a little bit against the better teams when you're
Speaker 1: a mediocre team and then you're gonna you have to
Speaker 1: rack up the wins against the bad teams to to
Speaker 1: gain ground in the standings. And as a result of
Speaker 1: this reason stretch, the Nets are up to fourth in
Speaker 1: the East. So after every that happened, after a Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving suspension, Ben Simmons kind of being in and out
Speaker 1: of the lineup and and not being what you expected,
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff has gone wrong. T J. Warren
Speaker 1: just came back, you know, Seth Curry missed time at
Speaker 1: the start of the year. A lot of stuff went
Speaker 1: wrong for the Nets, and they're sitting at fourth in
Speaker 1: the East, so it could be a lot worse. Um,
Speaker 1: the schedule stays easy for the next week or so,
Speaker 1: but then they play the Warriors, Bucks and Calves back
Speaker 1: to back to back. So that's that's like kind of
Speaker 1: like we were talking about earlier with the Kings or
Speaker 1: with the Lakers. This is their chance to prove and
Speaker 1: add some legitimacy to their success. They need to get
Speaker 1: a couple of signature wins to give the team confidence
Speaker 1: to know that they can hang with the better teams
Speaker 1: in the league. And the last but at least I
Speaker 1: wanted to throw a shout out to k d Um.
Speaker 1: You know, as I was talking about with the Lakers
Speaker 1: to start the year, as I was talking about the
Speaker 1: Warriors for most of the year, when you have roster
Speaker 1: limitations for the Warriors, it's the bench for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: it's the entire damn roster. For the Nets, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit of the entire it's a little bit of
Speaker 1: both of um. But the when you have those kinds
Speaker 1: of problems, so many things can be cured by a
Speaker 1: superstar playing like a superstar. The reason why is, like
Speaker 1: I always say, there's a list of responsibilities on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor, shot creation, shot finishing, screening, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever it might be. On the defensive end, on like
Speaker 1: perimeter defense, back line defense, communication, all those different things.
Speaker 1: You know, guys who can guard wings and and and
Speaker 1: when they try to pressure their way to the rim
Speaker 1: and things along those lines. There's all these responsibilities. And
Speaker 1: when you have a player that fills a ton of responsibilities, like,
Speaker 1: for instance, look at Anthony Davis, what he's doing anchoring
Speaker 1: the back line of the Lakers defense. What he's doing
Speaker 1: as an isolation score, cleaning up things in garbage, garbage
Speaker 1: baskets around the rim with offensive rebounds. What he's doing
Speaker 1: screening and rolling to the basket, He's checking so many
Speaker 1: of those boxes that suddenly these other lake Kers are
Speaker 1: able to easily achieve these smaller responsibilities around them. And
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant is doing the same thing for the Brooklyn Nets.
Speaker 1: By being the all world is so guy that he is,
Speaker 1: By being as good as he has been in pick
Speaker 1: and roll, by being as good as a passer as
Speaker 1: he's been, He's generating a ton of high quality spot
Speaker 1: up opportunities and role opportunities. And those opportunities are so
Speaker 1: high quality and so frequent that the team, even though
Speaker 1: they have some inferior role players, are succeeding in those roles.
Speaker 1: This is Kevin Durant's best defensive season since two thousand seventeen.
Speaker 1: So now when you've got enough length in athleticism with
Speaker 1: him and Nick Claxton and all these guys competing on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor, Kevin Durant's taking so
Speaker 1: many of those defensive responsibilities that suddenly gets a lot
Speaker 1: easier for your lesser guards. When you can ask Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving and and and Patty Mills and Seth Curry to
Speaker 1: pressure the ball more because they have enough length on
Speaker 1: the back end to kind of clean some of those
Speaker 1: men his up. That simplifies their responsibilities. That's why a
Speaker 1: superstar playing like a superstar can clean up so many messes.
Speaker 1: And that's why more often than not, we do too
Speaker 1: much deflecting two role players when superstars aren't holding up
Speaker 1: their end of the bargain. But shout out to Katie
Speaker 1: because this year he's doing that, and he's patching a
Speaker 1: lot of holes on a flawed roster. Now they're starting
Speaker 1: to get their guys back. T J. Warrens back in
Speaker 1: the lineup. That dude, when he gets into groove, he's
Speaker 1: a bucket. You know, Ben Simmons is not healthy right now,
Speaker 1: but if he gets healthy over the course of the season,
Speaker 1: you bank on by the time April comes around everything
Speaker 1: clicking into place. But you need to be successful enough
Speaker 1: in the standings until then to give yourself a real
Speaker 1: chance with a legitimate playoff path. And Katie's doing his
Speaker 1: job there right now. It's just like with Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: and the Lakers. He's floating them in the standings long
Speaker 1: enough for Rob blinkin Genie Bus to pull their heads
Speaker 1: out of their butt. Go make a trade so that
Speaker 1: they have the pieces. I kept telling you guys, Lebron
Speaker 1: needs to get it together. Anthony Davis held the ship
Speaker 1: together long enough for Lebron to get it together. And
Speaker 1: now Lebron looks good. So you can kind of see
Speaker 1: how that pathway goes along. So shout outs k D.
Speaker 1: If the nets continue to move up the standings and
Speaker 1: he keeps playing like this, he's gonna end up being
Speaker 1: an MVP candidate before too long. Looking to get more
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Speaker 1: of the NBA is the Dallas Mavericks going on the
Speaker 1: road and beating Denver on a huge shot by Dorian
Speaker 1: Finney Smith. Late, the Los Angeles Lakers lose to the Calves.
Speaker 1: Kind of a disappointing game because Anthony Davis goes out
Speaker 1: with flu like symptoms early on, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you're trying to beat a really good team
Speaker 1: on the road without your best player. And then the
Speaker 1: Miami Heat without Jimmy Butler got their butt kicked by
Speaker 1: a terrible Detroit Pistons game will touch on that as well.
Speaker 1: You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Volumes YouTube channel so we don't miss any
Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore
Speaker 1: j sent Lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements.
Speaker 1: That's also where I live. Tweet through some games and
Speaker 1: put some video footage breakdowns as well. And then, last
Speaker 1: but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one
Speaker 1: of these videos and you can't get back over to
Speaker 1: YouTube to finish. Remember you can find them wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight. Well, so back and
Speaker 1: forth shot making at the end of this game came
Speaker 1: down to a couple of double teams. Luca uh Nickel
Speaker 1: yokits posting up on the left block. Dallas sends a double,
Speaker 1: generates a wide open three for Bruce Brown. He knocks
Speaker 1: it down. They go the other way. Luca don Chech
Speaker 1: runs a pick and pop with Dorian Finney Smith. Nice
Speaker 1: little behind the back feed. Uh an interesting decision that
Speaker 1: Denver decided instead of running to Dorian Phinney Smith, they
Speaker 1: ran to Spencer Dinwoodie on the right wing. I think
Speaker 1: I would have rather had Spencer take that shot, especially
Speaker 1: with how well Dorian Finney Smith was shooting. He knocks
Speaker 1: it down, Yoki goes down, draws a foult, he misses
Speaker 1: a free throw. Then pretty much the game is over.
Speaker 1: This game was really came down at three point shot result.
Speaker 1: Denver was better in a bunch of different phases of
Speaker 1: the game. They were better on the glass, they were
Speaker 1: better in the paint, they shot better from the field,
Speaker 1: they had more assists. But the Mavericks were seventeen for
Speaker 1: twenty excuse me, seventeen for thirty six from three, and
Speaker 1: that was enough to get the job done. Uh. The
Speaker 1: big guy that got going, you know here in this
Speaker 1: last week and a half for Dallas, which has really
Speaker 1: changed out look at their entire season. As Tim Hardaway Jr.
Speaker 1: If you remember we talked about this, uh the night
Speaker 1: they beat the Warriors. Uh. Tim got off to a
Speaker 1: horrific shooting start this season, not entirely uncommon. He was
Speaker 1: dealing with foot issues last year. I actually broke my
Speaker 1: foot myself between two seasons when I was playing in
Speaker 1: college and had a nightmare shooting. Uh, first half of
Speaker 1: the season before I really got my confidence back. It's
Speaker 1: just your base is so important as a shooter. That's
Speaker 1: where you get your lift. That's how you convert different
Speaker 1: footwork into high quality shots, whether that's you know, movement
Speaker 1: shooting or off the dribble, shoe eating or anything along
Speaker 1: those lines. And you just everything is just a little
Speaker 1: bit funky when you're coming back from foot injuries. And
Speaker 1: then also when you get away from NBA basketball for
Speaker 1: a while, there's a rhythm and a speed um that
Speaker 1: you're you have to grow accustomed to to get back
Speaker 1: to where you feel comfortable on the basketball court as
Speaker 1: a shooter. And you got going early in that Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors game. And in the five games since then,
Speaker 1: Tim Hardaway Jr. Is averaging twenty four points per game,
Speaker 1: shooting fifty five percent from three on eleven attempts. He's
Speaker 1: been a net positive in every single game in plus minus,
Speaker 1: and the MAVs are four and one in those games.
Speaker 1: And if you remember, I think one of the big
Speaker 1: reasons why Dallas let Jalen Brunson go is they were
Speaker 1: under the opinion that Tim Hardaway Jr. Could kind of
Speaker 1: slot into that third creator role because he does have
Speaker 1: a little bit of that higher level off the dribble
Speaker 1: creation and he's starting to flash that a lot. In
Speaker 1: this last five games, he's shooting fift on four pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots per game, including eight for eleven on
Speaker 1: pull up threes overall in the season. Although it's in
Speaker 1: really low volume, he's averaging one point one four points
Speaker 1: per isolation possession, which is in the eight percentile. So
Speaker 1: they might need to get a little bit more on
Speaker 1: ball reps for for Tim Hardaway Jr. Now that he's
Speaker 1: got his rhythm and see if maybe that helps them.
Speaker 1: But him getting going offensively completely changes this basketball team.
Speaker 1: Remember the Mavericks were really struggling mainly on the offensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor. Their defense has been pretty good
Speaker 1: even through their struggles when they went below five hundred briefly.
Speaker 1: There another huge driving force behind Luca's recent success. Although
Speaker 1: he had a nightmare shooting night last night against Denver,
Speaker 1: but lucas starting to shoot the ball better off the dribble.
Speaker 1: You know, he started the year like he does most seasons,
Speaker 1: really poorly with this step back jump shot. That step
Speaker 1: back three is such an athletic move. It doesn't seem
Speaker 1: like it because it seems like settling, but kind of
Speaker 1: like we were talking about earlier with Tim Hardaway Jr.
Speaker 1: You need to get a ton of lift on a
Speaker 1: shot like that, especially when you're stepping back, and so
Speaker 1: it can be a thing that requires can isstioning and
Speaker 1: rhythm to really get going. He's taken seven pull up
Speaker 1: threes during this five game stretch and he's made twenty
Speaker 1: three of them, which is so him getting going there
Speaker 1: is obviously helping them a lot as well on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the four that's bumped up his ISO numbers,
Speaker 1: So he's up to two four points on two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty six ISOs this year, which is in the
Speaker 1: seventy nine percentile. And he's doing a really nice job
Speaker 1: and pick and roll and pick and pop. So many
Speaker 1: teams are starting to double or hard hedge on all
Speaker 1: these Luca picking rolls. Um, it's just their teams are
Speaker 1: coming to terms with the fact that Dallas doesn't have
Speaker 1: a ton of dribble creation outside of Luca and that
Speaker 1: their best bet to chance, the best bet to win,
Speaker 1: is to double him. That really wasn't the case last year,
Speaker 1: you know, last year with how much dribble creation they
Speaker 1: were getting from Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwoodie. A lot
Speaker 1: of times it made sense to stay home and turn
Speaker 1: Luca into a score, but teams are more willing to
Speaker 1: send extra attention to Luca and force him to be
Speaker 1: a passer, and he's been doing a really nice job there.
Speaker 1: Um he's up to five d ex three points on
Speaker 1: five pick and rolls this year. That's one point one
Speaker 1: two points per possession, which is the percentile, which is
Speaker 1: not only amazing from efficiency, but that's just absurd volume.
Speaker 1: That's basically where they're getting the vast majority of their offense.
Speaker 1: Denver tried to really interesting coverage last night that actually
Speaker 1: worked pretty well on Luca that I'd like to see
Speaker 1: some other teams try. It's kind of like a bracket
Speaker 1: ISO coverage. So most teams don't want you to get
Speaker 1: middle penetration because of the fact that when you get
Speaker 1: middle penetration it's a lot harder for the defense to
Speaker 1: rotate out of it and uh the corner that you know,
Speaker 1: you you try to funnel team towards the corner. But
Speaker 1: one of the bad things there is those corner jump
Speaker 1: shots are a little bit easier because they're shorter distance right,
Speaker 1: and most NBA role players just rep out and rep
Speaker 1: out tons and tons of corner threes because that's the
Speaker 1: easiest shot that you can get from three point uh
Speaker 1: from three point range in the game. So what I
Speaker 1: thought was really interesting was denver when when Luca would
Speaker 1: get these ISOs on the wing, whether it was light
Speaker 1: right wing or left wing, they were actually shading him
Speaker 1: heavily towards the middle. And then whoever it was that
Speaker 1: was at the top of the key if they were
Speaker 1: in a five out or on the opposite wing, if
Speaker 1: they were in a four out, that defender would dig
Speaker 1: down almost like like one dribble away from where Luca
Speaker 1: would get downhill. And the problem is is all a
Speaker 1: lot of these Naverick shooters have a little bit of
Speaker 1: a slow release and they need to be comfortable and
Speaker 1: have lots of time to gather. And so they were
Speaker 1: having some success like forcing Luca to drive right into
Speaker 1: that extra defender kick out and then he could easily
Speaker 1: close out and dissuade the three. It was kind of
Speaker 1: like a you could see them hard bracketing because that
Speaker 1: on ball defenders hard on his uh, you know, sideline
Speaker 1: shoulder and then that help defenders just sitting right there
Speaker 1: in that driving lane. I'd like to see some more
Speaker 1: teams try that specifically to try to slow them down.
Speaker 1: Denver's defense continues to be a huge problem. They are
Speaker 1: twenty six in the league now after last night, that's
Speaker 1: bottom five defense in the league. As a result, they're
Speaker 1: really struggling with the good teams in the league. They're
Speaker 1: five and seven against teams that are five in better.
Speaker 1: Um kind of reminds me of Sacramento. We were talking
Speaker 1: about this earlier. They score ship ton of points, they
Speaker 1: beat up on the bad teams in the league, but
Speaker 1: Sacramento is six and eight versus teams that are five
Speaker 1: are better. You know that defensive pieces so vital to
Speaker 1: any good team being able to beat other good teams.
Speaker 1: This is why there's that stat that goes around every
Speaker 1: year where if you're not a top ten defense, you
Speaker 1: really don't have a chance to win a title. Historically
Speaker 1: in the NBA, why defense travels. You know, role players
Speaker 1: feel comfortable at home, so it's hard to win on
Speaker 1: the road, But the one thing that certainly travels on
Speaker 1: the road is your defense. Because it's just about athleticism
Speaker 1: and playing hard and much less about you know, things
Speaker 1: going your way, so to speak. Defense keeps games close
Speaker 1: so as you struggle, like look at you know, the
Speaker 1: Lakers countless time this season have been close in games
Speaker 1: just because they defend well for certain stretches, especially when
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is available. So it travels, it keeps games close,
Speaker 1: and it closes games. When you get into crunch time situations,
Speaker 1: you need to be able to get stops, and once
Speaker 1: again over last night could not get stopped. So what's
Speaker 1: confusing about it is they added Contavious called Hope and
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown specifically to help with that, and it just
Speaker 1: hasn't been enough. Alright, moving on to the Lakers and
Speaker 1: the Calves. So Adie leaves like what a few minutes
Speaker 1: into his first shift with flu like symptoms. It's really
Speaker 1: unfortunate because like in a normal season, guy goes out
Speaker 1: with the flu, you don't think twice about it. But
Speaker 1: this is a Laker team that that dug themselves in
Speaker 1: a two and ten hole. You know, when you dig
Speaker 1: yourself in that big of a hole, these losses are
Speaker 1: that much more painful, you know. If it's it's like
Speaker 1: we were talking about with the Clippers, yesterday. They've had
Speaker 1: all this bad health luck, but they're sitting there at
Speaker 1: fourteen and eleven or whatever it is that they are.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like you can weather that storm when
Speaker 1: you've won enough games to remain, you know, in a
Speaker 1: in a decent position within the standings. The Lakers dug
Speaker 1: themselves in a hole. And so now when Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: leaves a winnable game on the road against Cleveland with
Speaker 1: Lebron and Russ playing as well as they are and
Speaker 1: with you know, um getting enough defensively to win these
Speaker 1: types of games, that's the law us that hurts you
Speaker 1: more because of where you're at in the standings. You know,
Speaker 1: you could be eleven and twelve today or you could
Speaker 1: be ten and thirteen and you lost a player to
Speaker 1: flew like symptoms. Hurts you in the standings. Jared Allen
Speaker 1: was an absolute monster in this game. He towards the
Speaker 1: Lakers in uh in the short role. You know, there
Speaker 1: was this dynamic that was taking place. And we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about the Lakers starters here in a minute, but
Speaker 1: when they start Dennis and Pat, you expect them to
Speaker 1: be excellent defensively, and you specifically expect them to be
Speaker 1: great chasing guards over the top of screens in pick
Speaker 1: and roll. But what was happening in this game was
Speaker 1: they were getting caught on those screens. And because Cleveland
Speaker 1: was running two bigs, whichever big Lebron ended up on,
Speaker 1: whether it was mostly Jared Allen but sometimes it was
Speaker 1: Evan Mobile, whichever big Lebron ended up on, they would
Speaker 1: just call him up into the screen. Because obviously Lebron
Speaker 1: is a good defensive player, but he's not in the
Speaker 1: same stratosphere as Anthony Davis as a drop coverage big.
Speaker 1: So what would happen is those guards Pat Pat Beverley
Speaker 1: and Dennis Shoulder would get caught on those screen. Means
Speaker 1: the guard would get downhill, Lebron would have to step
Speaker 1: up to contain the basketball. Then it's a drop off
Speaker 1: pass to Jared Allen for a dunk or a floater
Speaker 1: or short jump shot every single time down the floor.
Speaker 1: And that's the advantage of having Anthony Davis. And this
Speaker 1: is why, like after last night, you've got a you know,
Speaker 1: at least see a little bit more my case for
Speaker 1: why Anthony Davis has been the defensive player of the
Speaker 1: year to this point. But Anthony Davis has such freak
Speaker 1: physical tools he can kind of even both places at once,
Speaker 1: which solves a lot of those problems. Lebron is not
Speaker 1: that guy. He's a little bit, you know, he's a
Speaker 1: little bit more of a one place type of defender.
Speaker 1: Right he steps over to help Jared Allen's getting all
Speaker 1: these layups. If you're gonna start Dennis Schroeder and Patrick Beverley,
Speaker 1: especially with their offensive limitations as shooters, you need them
Speaker 1: to be excellent defensively, and they just weren't last night.
Speaker 1: But Jared Allen, you know, I have these moments, and
Speaker 1: I've talked about this before on the show, because of
Speaker 1: what he does offensively, I have these moments where I
Speaker 1: think he's a better player than Rudy Gobert. And then
Speaker 1: I sent out a tweet. I was like, hey, who
Speaker 1: would you guys rather have on your basketball team? Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert and Jared Allen, And last I checked, it was
Speaker 1: like ninety to ten in favor of Jared Allen, which
Speaker 1: might be a little too ridiculous. And I know there's
Speaker 1: a lot of anti Gobert sentiment out there, but there's
Speaker 1: some real legitimacy to that case because of how much
Speaker 1: better he is than Rudy Offensively, He's super crafty around
Speaker 1: the rim. He's got great touch with his floater, but
Speaker 1: also with that little short jump shot you saw him
Speaker 1: breaking out yesterday. Um, he can score against switches in
Speaker 1: post ups. And he's actually he's he's got a really
Speaker 1: good instinct for relocation in the dunker spot. We went
Speaker 1: over this. I can't remember which day it was, but
Speaker 1: it was in the last couple of weeks. We went
Speaker 1: over the different like dunker spot responsibilities. So like, if
Speaker 1: you're in the dunker spot opposite of the basketball, in
Speaker 1: the ball crosses the midline, you have to relocate towards
Speaker 1: the other block, right, because you always want to make
Speaker 1: that big man step up and leave you. Whereas if
Speaker 1: you're on the same side as the ball, he can
Speaker 1: be in two places at once. Right. But what Jared
Speaker 1: Allen was doing really nice last night too, is that
Speaker 1: other piece of dunker spot relocation that I talked about
Speaker 1: that day, which is when you drop i've baseline, you
Speaker 1: need to relocate up to the top, almost like at
Speaker 1: the charge circle, where you can um give yourself a
Speaker 1: release valve like a bounce pass in the lane for
Speaker 1: a short, little floater, and he just has he always
Speaker 1: knows where to position himself to get those easy opportunities.
Speaker 1: Jared Allen has scored seventy two points on fifty five
Speaker 1: roll man possessions this season, which is in the SIXTI
Speaker 1: I thought he dominated this basketball game every bit as
Speaker 1: much as Donovan Mitchell did. Grabbed a bunch of offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: The Laker guards were spooked every time they got into
Speaker 1: the lane, and then, like I said, he scored almost
Speaker 1: every time he caught it in the role um. Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves got the Donovan Mitchell assignment last night, and Mitchell
Speaker 1: just completely had his way with him. You know, Austin
Speaker 1: is a positional defender. He's not aggressive on the ball.
Speaker 1: He gives ground and forces you to shoot over the
Speaker 1: top of him. That's what makes him a generally a
Speaker 1: positive defender depending on the matchup. But Donovan Mitchell is
Speaker 1: so damn quick that that positional defense doesn't work because
Speaker 1: he can just get around his shoulder and then he
Speaker 1: can't um give too much ground because Donovan is such
Speaker 1: a good pull up jump shooter. But you know that
Speaker 1: that dynamic just becomes really difficult without Anthony Davis. You
Speaker 1: know that responsibility changes if Anthony Davis is out there.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is out there, you don't even have to
Speaker 1: worry about the rim necessarily. You just have to take
Speaker 1: away those pull up jump shots and the pull up
Speaker 1: mid range shots. Right That simplifies Austin's role. It may
Speaker 1: be an achievable task for him at that point, but
Speaker 1: you take Anthony Davis out of the equation, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, it's not an achievable task. That's not something
Speaker 1: Austin's physically capable of doing. No disrespect to Austin, that's
Speaker 1: something the vast majority of defensive players in the NBA
Speaker 1: would be incapable of doing. And Donovan Mitchell's just playing
Speaker 1: at a ridiculous level right now. I've had a lot
Speaker 1: of people compare Austin Reeves to to Alex Caruso over
Speaker 1: the years, and I think they're pretty equal overall his players.
Speaker 1: I think Austin's is significantly better offensive player, but Alex
Speaker 1: Cruzo is a significantly better defensive player, and he might
Speaker 1: have had a better chance in a matchup like that.
Speaker 1: But overall, um, you know, I thought that the Lakers
Speaker 1: hung pretty tough. I thought it was an impressive effort,
Speaker 1: you know, if you really factor in a d being
Speaker 1: out and then they shot like absolute shit. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get to that shooting thing here in
Speaker 1: a little bit. One last guy on the calves I
Speaker 1: wanted to shout out was Carris Laverte. He only had
Speaker 1: seven points, but he generated a ton of quality shots. Um.
Speaker 1: Looking at the Lakers, poor shooting has been a story
Speaker 1: all year this year, but it's it's starting to become
Speaker 1: a problem, specifically with the starters. So the Lakers starting
Speaker 1: lineup what you saw last night, Patrick Beverley, Dennis Shruder
Speaker 1: with Lonnie Walker, Lebron James, and Anthony Davis. They have
Speaker 1: a minus ten net rating, albeit in a somewhat small
Speaker 1: sample size this year because Dennis Shrewder only recently came back.
Speaker 1: But a big part of it is just stagnation and
Speaker 1: a lack of shooting. You know, starting Patrick Beverley and
Speaker 1: Dennis Shrewder makes some sense in theory. I talked about
Speaker 1: it a lot this summer as a lineup that I
Speaker 1: actually thought made some sense. But at the time I
Speaker 1: thought Patrick Beverley would be able to knock down some
Speaker 1: threes and he's Patrick Beverley is having such a horrific
Speaker 1: shooting season that that whole lineup is just falling apart.
Speaker 1: From a functionality standpoint, Lebron and a d Are trying
Speaker 1: to make things happen, but the teams are packing the
Speaker 1: paint and the best shot they can get is these
Speaker 1: kickouts to Dennis Shrewder and uh and Patrick Beverley, and
Speaker 1: they're just not making them. I think that starting lineup
Speaker 1: with like one for five on threes with those two
Speaker 1: in that opening shift last night, and next thing you know,
Speaker 1: you've spotted the other team another big lead. And one
Speaker 1: of the things that's nice is when they go to
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, they take you know, some of the non
Speaker 1: shooting out and Russ kind of gets that pace going
Speaker 1: and starts getting downhill. I'd I'd rather have them go
Speaker 1: with guys like Austin Reeves and Troy Brown Jr. In
Speaker 1: the starting lineup at this point with the way they're playing,
Speaker 1: or maybe just Dennis Schroeder. That way, it's a little
Speaker 1: bit more of a functional group. And then you just
Speaker 1: basically put the onus on Lebron, James and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: to be aggressive. The way that Russ is being with
Speaker 1: that second unit. Um, you know, Patrick Beverley has been
Speaker 1: so incredibly bad this year and and Darvin Ham is
Speaker 1: clearly very loyal to him that a trade may be
Speaker 1: the only way to save Darvin Ham from himself a
Speaker 1: little bit there, because we've seen such a large sample
Speaker 1: size over a quarter of the season now that he's
Speaker 1: just not helping the team really, at least with Dennis Schroder,
Speaker 1: he's given you some scoring pop and he's got some
Speaker 1: good chemistry with Anthony Davison pick and roll. I think
Speaker 1: you can get away with starting Schroeder. I just don't
Speaker 1: think you can get away with starting both of those guys. Um.
Speaker 1: But like, let's pay attention really quickly too, Like, because
Speaker 1: this game two in the fourth quarter, how is it
Speaker 1: that the Lakers stay close in this game? They stay
Speaker 1: close because Lebron James and Russ Russell Westbrook are both
Speaker 1: playing damn good basketball right now. Like Anthony Davis has
Speaker 1: been the best player on the team, maybe even the
Speaker 1: best player in the world over these last three weeks.
Speaker 1: But it goes deeper than that. Lebron and Russ are
Speaker 1: also playing great basketball right now as shot creators. But
Speaker 1: despite them generating a ton of high quality shots. The Lakers,
Speaker 1: especially last night, have just been unable to finish off
Speaker 1: those plays. Last night on spot up possessions. If you
Speaker 1: thought it looked like the Lakers were missing a ton
Speaker 1: of shots, the Lakers scored zero point four or four
Speaker 1: points per spot up possession last night. It's just gonna
Speaker 1: be hard to win on nights like that. Um looking
Speaker 1: at Russ, you know, specifically because of how good he's
Speaker 1: been lately, I just wanted to kind of zoom out
Speaker 1: and and and talk about where I'm at with Russ
Speaker 1: right now. I think he's been more than good enough
Speaker 1: to justify keeping him unless the perfect deal arises. I
Speaker 1: thought it was a ridiculous gamble from Rob Polinka to
Speaker 1: do so to keep him. But credit to Russ, he's
Speaker 1: just been a much better player this year, you know.
Speaker 1: I I it sounds weird because I was so critical
Speaker 1: of Russ last year, but again, it was never personal
Speaker 1: with me and Russ. I don't dislike the guy. It's
Speaker 1: a simple question of analyzing basketball games. Last year, Russ
Speaker 1: played horrifically bad on most nights. This year, Russ has
Speaker 1: been pretty good on most nights and great on others.
Speaker 1: In that case, it changes the the entire dynamic. Again,
Speaker 1: I thought it was a reckless gamble, but that gabble
Speaker 1: appears to have worked out for Rob Polinka. He's just
Speaker 1: been an outstanding shock creator this year. So in pick
Speaker 1: and roll he scored two and sixty three points on
Speaker 1: two and sixty four possessions, which is in the fifty
Speaker 1: nine percentile, so just slightly above average. In is a
Speaker 1: hundred nine points on a hundred four possessions, which is
Speaker 1: in the sixty seven percentile, so top third right. And
Speaker 1: then in post ups, and this is where he's been amazing.
Speaker 1: Sixty one points on forty one possessions, which is in
Speaker 1: percentile for thirty six from the field is what he's shooting.
Speaker 1: In post ups he scored on two post ups again
Speaker 1: last night. He's scoring on bigger defenders down there too,
Speaker 1: which is just a testament to how much strength he has.
Speaker 1: So you actually now have to seriously weigh what it
Speaker 1: looks like to lose um Russ and what specifically you'd
Speaker 1: be getting back. What he's doing generating quality spot up
Speaker 1: opportunities for the role players is super valuable, So now
Speaker 1: you have to weigh that against what you're bringing back,
Speaker 1: So I keep it on the table because there are
Speaker 1: still a lot of re ndon seas, especially with Lebron.
Speaker 1: When Lebron and Russ are on the floor together this year,
Speaker 1: it's been pretty bad. And five possessions, which is a
Speaker 1: huge sample size, they are minus six points per one possessions,
Speaker 1: so there are some issues there. But he's been really
Speaker 1: good off the bench, so you can still have that
Speaker 1: option on the table trading Russ, but it needs to
Speaker 1: be a great deal. You can be more picky about that.
Speaker 1: So what I would do is I would kind of
Speaker 1: treat this as a two phase trade season. I think
Speaker 1: right now the Lakers need to move Patrick Beverley, Kendrick
Speaker 1: Nunn in another minimum contract, someone like Damien Jones with
Speaker 1: one of the picks for somebody that can help you
Speaker 1: right away. Then you hang onto that other option, which
Speaker 1: is Russ and another one of the picks around the
Speaker 1: trade deadline. Should something pop up or should things go
Speaker 1: south with Russ, that's when you look at that potentially
Speaker 1: as an option. The question becomes who do you target?
Speaker 1: Do you target someone like Miles Turner, oh I think
Speaker 1: is actually the best player available overall this season? That
Speaker 1: I've seen engined in trades, or do you target someone
Speaker 1: that's a wing, And really, to me, it just comes
Speaker 1: down to who that wing is because in theory, good center,
Speaker 1: good wing presents you with the issue of do you
Speaker 1: want to raise your ceiling or do you want to
Speaker 1: have a better chance of competing on nights without Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: because if you go big, if you go with someone
Speaker 1: like Miles Turner, you have a much better chance of
Speaker 1: winning that game against the calves um. You give yourself
Speaker 1: a legit, a D at the four look, which the
Speaker 1: Lakers don't really have this year, that would be more
Speaker 1: similar to what they had in right, But then you
Speaker 1: have the crunch time issues. Do you want to close
Speaker 1: with Miles Turner. I think Miles Turner's ability to shoot
Speaker 1: from the perimeter makes him a player that can close,
Speaker 1: but it's at least a debate there. With a legit wing,
Speaker 1: you still struggle on nights where Anthony Davis goes out.
Speaker 1: You have some issues with depth, but that ultimate ceiling
Speaker 1: gets bigger because then you have some of those lineups
Speaker 1: that resemble the Lakers when they put a D at
Speaker 1: the five, when they have Lebron at the four, and
Speaker 1: another big wing. But it really just depends on how
Speaker 1: good that wing is, because a ridge wing or a
Speaker 1: below average wing, even if that functionally makes more sense.
Speaker 1: If he's not nearly as good at basketball as Miles
Speaker 1: Turner overall, then the center becomes a better option. That's
Speaker 1: why I keep an eye out if things go really
Speaker 1: south for Washington on Kyle Kuzma. Again, it's a long shot.
Speaker 1: You might even have to throw in two pics for
Speaker 1: something like that. But if you could somehow get Kyle Kuzma,
Speaker 1: now you suddenly become such a big line up with
Speaker 1: a D at the five that allows you to potentially
Speaker 1: capture some of that to a ceiling that you had
Speaker 1: in So again that's a super long shot and and
Speaker 1: a lot of things would have to break right. Um,
Speaker 1: But those are the two different directions that the Lakers
Speaker 1: are gonna have to look at. Looking at Miles Turner
Speaker 1: as a clear you know, floor raising move that helps
Speaker 1: you like in the standings during the regular season, or
Speaker 1: targeting a wing which is more of like a ceiling
Speaker 1: a ceiling raising deal. So um, the Detroit Pistons were
Speaker 1: two and eleven before they went to Miami last night,
Speaker 1: and if you guys, remember I talk a lot about
Speaker 1: how Um specifically when they lost p J. Tucker, that
Speaker 1: the Miami Heat, we're gonna really struggle any night that
Speaker 1: either Jimmy Butler or Bamata Bio misses, because when one
Speaker 1: of those guys are out, they just become a comically
Speaker 1: small basketball team. And Jimmy Butler was out last night,
Speaker 1: bama A Bio had to play the five, especially in
Speaker 1: crunch time, with like four guards, and and even some
Speaker 1: of your taller players like Tyler Harrow or Duncan Robinson
Speaker 1: that get out there are not good defensive players that
Speaker 1: aren't really physically imposing on the basketball game, They're gonna
Speaker 1: really struggle. And what do you know, the Detroit Pistons
Speaker 1: lit them on fire. Uh, blew them out in that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. Lots of shot making over the top, like
Speaker 1: Sediq Bay posting up Victor Oladipo and just getting an
Speaker 1: easy basket, or Alec Burke's hitting a pull up jump shot.
Speaker 1: You know, Corey Joseph attacking Tyler Harrow in ISO. And
Speaker 1: you know, this whole situation is starting to remind me
Speaker 1: of the Lakers a little bit, where there's a clear
Speaker 1: need and they have the means with which to make
Speaker 1: an upgrade, but they're being really picked about trying to
Speaker 1: find the right guy. But in the process you're sacrificing
Speaker 1: ground in the standings, and that's that delicate balance. Like
Speaker 1: the Lakers might be able to be like, hey, look,
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook looks better, or hey, look at this guy
Speaker 1: we got in this trade. That's a better thing than
Speaker 1: what was being thrown out this summer. Okay, cool, but
Speaker 1: where are you in the standings? Because how much does
Speaker 1: that matter if you end up in a seven game
Speaker 1: like slug fest with the with the Golden State Warriors
Speaker 1: or the Phoenix Suns in the first round and you're
Speaker 1: banged up and you end up losing to somebody else
Speaker 1: in the second round. Like at a certain point, you've
Speaker 1: got a factor in like ground in the standings when
Speaker 1: you're talking about these kinds of things and the mind,
Speaker 1: he just simply need front court depth, and they're gonna
Speaker 1: and Jimmy Butler, for as long as he's been in
Speaker 1: the league, has been in and out of the lineup,
Speaker 1: and so he's probably gonna continue to be in and
Speaker 1: out of the lineup. And if you don't fix that problem,
Speaker 1: you know it's gonna be an issue throughout the season
Speaker 1: and you might find yourself in the playing tournament at
Speaker 1: that point. Alright, guys, that is all I have for today.
Speaker 1: Here's the plan for the rest of the week. We're
Speaker 1: gonna actually take tomorrow off because we have a stacked
Speaker 1: slate on Friday and Saturday. So on Saturday morning, we're
Speaker 1: gonna break down the Friday night games. There's a bunch
Speaker 1: of big ones there, and then Saturday night is Celtics
Speaker 1: Worriers rematch the NBA Finals. So Sunday morning, we're just
Speaker 1: gonna do a short instant reaction video to that game
Speaker 1: as well. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys support
Speaker 1: and I will see you on Saturday morning. The volume