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Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having a great
Speaker 1: weekend so far. Steph and Curry snatched victory from the
Speaker 1: jaws of defeat against the Milwaukee Bucks. Tonight, we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about that game and three games from last night,
Speaker 1: including Joel Embiid and his nasty game winner against the
Speaker 1: Portland Trailblazers. The Lakers notching yet another impressive win without
Speaker 1: Lebron James and then I have a couple of thoughts,
Speaker 1: a couple of basketball concepts I want to get into
Speaker 1: that I thought were interesting at the end of the
Speaker 1: NETS win on the road in Minnesota against the Timberwolves
Speaker 1: last night. You guys know the drill. Before we get started,
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Speaker 1: Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed again. Steph Curry, that
Speaker 1: game was all but over down eight with less than
Speaker 1: two minutes left. You're being guarded by the best guard
Speaker 1: defender in the league who did a really nice job
Speaker 1: on Steff throughout the game, who also drew holiday in
Speaker 1: the final minute. Hit a tough contest at three on
Speaker 1: the right wing, so you're basically dugg in an eleven
Speaker 1: point hole effectively there and Steph goes four for four
Speaker 1: on ridiculous shot difficulty to send the game to ot
Speaker 1: Clay gets gets going, and ot hits two shots to
Speaker 1: build a little bit of a margin, and then Steph
Speaker 1: closes the deal with a ridiculous three on the left
Speaker 1: wing and a driving layup. And Draymond also was magnificent
Speaker 1: defensively down the stretch, got a kist stop on brook
Speaker 1: Lopez in the post, had a really nice close out
Speaker 1: on a brook Lopez three in the right corner. Hit
Speaker 1: a pretty nasty ankle injury earlier in the game and
Speaker 1: battled through it. He was a plus twenty two in
Speaker 1: this game. It was a vintage Warriors win, and that's
Speaker 1: why they've won some n games. They just understand all
Speaker 1: those little things that you gotta do at the end
Speaker 1: of the games. This was a you know, it's been
Speaker 1: a tough execution year for the Warriors on a bunch
Speaker 1: of different levels, a lot of different factors at play,
Speaker 1: and you know, there was some bad intel that came
Speaker 1: out from the Andrew Wiggins thing. I think it was
Speaker 1: Anthony Slayter, if I remember correctly. I hope I'm right
Speaker 1: about that, but he had mentioned that there's a suspicion
Speaker 1: that Andrew hasn't even touched a basketball court in several weeks.
Speaker 1: Jonathan Cominga. He's day to day with the ankle injury,
Speaker 1: but he's missing multiple games here. Gary Payton still hasn't
Speaker 1: played so like especially going into a matchup like this
Speaker 1: against a Bucks team that is pretty damn good without Yannis.
Speaker 1: They were nine and five coming into the night when
Speaker 1: Jannis sits out. Even without Jannis, there's still an unbelievable
Speaker 1: defensive team. They've got still Brook Lopez, who's you know,
Speaker 1: every bit of the defensive Player of the Year candidate
Speaker 1: that he's always been. Drew Holliday, one of the best
Speaker 1: guard defenders in the league. Like we mentioned earlier, this
Speaker 1: was a tough game to win, even for the Warriors
Speaker 1: at home. And you know what was interesting is Golden
Speaker 1: State came in with a really good game plan. I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the interesting things about the Bucks
Speaker 1: is with Yannis, they run the floor in transition like
Speaker 1: crazy on almost twenty percent of their possessions, and they're
Speaker 1: really effective there because of what Jannis can do in
Speaker 1: the open floor. But without Yannis, they are much more
Speaker 1: of a half court team. They're not a very athletic
Speaker 1: team once you get Yannis off the floor, and they're
Speaker 1: not a team that looks to run very often. And
Speaker 1: you know, one of the kind of balances that takes
Speaker 1: place in a basketball game is how much are you
Speaker 1: willing to crash the offensive glass versus getting back in
Speaker 1: transition to contain a team that likes to get back.
Speaker 1: For instance, if you're playing against the Bucks with Yannis,
Speaker 1: like you need to get back and you need to
Speaker 1: build a wall, so you might not be able to
Speaker 1: be as aggressive to the offensive glass. I thought it
Speaker 1: was intentional. I would imagine it was part of the
Speaker 1: game plan, but Golden State was recklessly attacking the offensive glass.
Speaker 1: And I thought it was smart because when Yannis is
Speaker 1: off the floor, the percentage of possessions that Milwaukee looks
Speaker 1: to run in transition plummets down to like thirteen percent
Speaker 1: according to Cleaning the Glass, and they're way less effective
Speaker 1: on a points per possession basis when they run. They're
Speaker 1: just not a very good transition team without Giannis, And
Speaker 1: so I thought it was a really smart game plan
Speaker 1: they had. I think they had like eighteen or nineteen
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds on this game, which is absolutely insane. It
Speaker 1: was the way they wanted ot with all the extra
Speaker 1: chances that they got it. They had a good game plan,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, they were still
Speaker 1: down one o eight to one hundred with less than
Speaker 1: two minutes left because once again against that Bucks team,
Speaker 1: which is so big and so good defensively. I've talked
Speaker 1: about this a lot about you know, because you guys
Speaker 1: know how much I believe in Steph Curry and Draymond Green.
Speaker 1: It's kind of similar to the way I've talked about
Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis over the years. I have a
Speaker 1: huge believer in those two. I'm a huge believer in
Speaker 1: Stephan Draymond. But the reality is is one of the
Speaker 1: things that we all can learn about the game of
Speaker 1: basketball is it is a team sport no matter what,
Speaker 1: and there are certain responsibilities that have to be checked
Speaker 1: on the floor. Stephan Draymond are both below average athletes
Speaker 1: for their position, and so you need to surround them
Speaker 1: with a certain level of athleticism. Like even when we
Speaker 1: go back to the Warriors in their absolute prime, whether
Speaker 1: it was Kevin Durant or in his prime Andrea Guadala,
Speaker 1: Harrison Barnes, or playing with Andrew Bogae at center, there
Speaker 1: was a size and athleticism that went beyond their core
Speaker 1: that could help cover those bases, and it's just really hard,
Speaker 1: especially in the modern NBA with how deep these teams
Speaker 1: are with talent, to win when you're as unathletic as
Speaker 1: the Warriors are without Andrew Wiggins, without Gary Payton, without
Speaker 1: Jonathan Cominga. So they were still in a hole there,
Speaker 1: and that's why I said this was snatching the victory
Speaker 1: from the jaws of defeat by Steph Curry. They were
Speaker 1: supposed to lose that game, and Steph simply would not
Speaker 1: let them. The types of shots he was hitting there
Speaker 1: down the stretch, it was putting the ball in the
Speaker 1: basket through sheer force of will. That last three he
Speaker 1: hit to match the one that Drew Holliday hit open
Speaker 1: or no ball screen, no nothing, just took Drew Holiday
Speaker 1: and hit him with the step back. Didn't get that
Speaker 1: much separation, but he got enough and that's enough for
Speaker 1: him to get his shot off and he willed the
Speaker 1: ball into the rim again. Four for four down the
Speaker 1: stretch of that game, with ridiculous shot quality. It was
Speaker 1: almost like Steph Curry just kind of felt the situation
Speaker 1: and went, We're not winning this game unless I just
Speaker 1: catch a heater right here and he tried like hell
Speaker 1: to do so, and he did again. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: really tough. It's gonna get harder for the Warriors here.
Speaker 1: They have a tough matchup with the Suns coming up
Speaker 1: at home, who are playing really good basketball right now,
Speaker 1: even without Kevin Durant, Devin Bookers on a tear, and
Speaker 1: then they go back on the road, I think for
Speaker 1: five games, and you know how the Warriors have struggled
Speaker 1: on the road. Now this is gonna be the thing.
Speaker 1: Is this gonna be the moment that galvanizes this group.
Speaker 1: Are they gonna be able to pull together and get
Speaker 1: some wins on the road? I'd like to think from
Speaker 1: a motivational standpoint, that'll help, But the reality of the
Speaker 1: situation is without the athleticism of Andrew Wiggins, without the
Speaker 1: athleticism of Gary Payton, it's just gonna be really hard
Speaker 1: for them too. I do think Andrew, excuse me, Jonathan
Speaker 1: Comingo will come back sooner than later, and that will
Speaker 1: certainly help things. But this group is going to have
Speaker 1: to be incredibly locked in down the stretch of this
Speaker 1: season to get out of the play in because they
Speaker 1: are at a personnel disadvantage, a athleticism and height disadvantage
Speaker 1: almost every single night, and you know what it might
Speaker 1: require Steph being all world good the way that he
Speaker 1: is in order to float them during the stretch, which
Speaker 1: you know, that's what superstars do, and he's done it
Speaker 1: in the past, and I think he can do it again.
Speaker 1: I will say though, as a basketball fan, that was fun.
Speaker 1: That was a fun end of that game to watch.
Speaker 1: And you know, I will never stop believing in this
Speaker 1: group and what they're capable of when they're fully healthy,
Speaker 1: Because when it comes down to it in a key
Speaker 1: moment and a key playoff series, if I've got Steph
Speaker 1: Curry and Clay Thompson and Draymond Green and Kevon Looney
Speaker 1: and hopefully Andrew Wiggins, you know that it's just gonna
Speaker 1: be really hard to bet again that group. You know,
Speaker 1: as I've kind of settled in, I've had the Bucks
Speaker 1: as my championship favorite for about a month or two now,
Speaker 1: pretty much since the last Steph Curry injury. Not because
Speaker 1: I don't believe in the Warriors when they're healthy, but
Speaker 1: just the reality of their predicament, which we just went
Speaker 1: over and everyone else in the league has massive question marks,
Speaker 1: like you know Denver can't defend nearly as well as Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: and they're kind of on a slide defensively right now.
Speaker 1: Phoenix is missing their best player. The Lakers are missing
Speaker 1: their best player. Philly has no bench, and I have
Speaker 1: some question marks about him Beat and James Harden. When
Speaker 1: we get to the postseason, I think Boston has the
Speaker 1: best chance, but Milwaukee I think is just slightly better
Speaker 1: than them, and I trust them a little bit more.
Speaker 1: And not only that, be honest, is just by far
Speaker 1: the best player in that particular series should they ever
Speaker 1: get to that point. Now, we'll reapproach this when we
Speaker 1: get to April. Like I expect to be able to
Speaker 1: see Kevin Rant the Sons a little bit more. I
Speaker 1: expect the Warriors to hopefully get whole and put together
Speaker 1: some games in April where they look more or less
Speaker 1: like the version of themselves that we're going to see
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. I'm really interested to see what the
Speaker 1: Lakers look like if they can get four or five
Speaker 1: games in a row with Lebron James on the court
Speaker 1: with them. There's a lot of stuff that I want
Speaker 1: to see. I want to see how good, how well
Speaker 1: Denver's defending over the course of the last month of
Speaker 1: the season. Their personnel limitations are real on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor, Like in most of their late
Speaker 1: round playoff series, They're not going to have nearly the
Speaker 1: same defensive personnel as their opponent. That doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: they can't win, but that means they have to be
Speaker 1: incredibly sharp in their details like that go beyond athleticism
Speaker 1: in size. They're gonna need to be super sharp in
Speaker 1: their execution defensively. I need to see that from them
Speaker 1: in the time leading up to the postseason. So we'll
Speaker 1: reapproach this when we get to mid April. But as
Speaker 1: of right now, the Bucks are the safest bet. And
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, aside from some nightmarish late game
Speaker 1: execution tonight, Drew Holiday inexplicably dribbling into a turnover after
Speaker 1: that Brook Lopez block and then looking off Joe Ingles
Speaker 1: in the corner on that final possession, and Steph Curry
Speaker 1: making a really nice defensive play on him at the rim,
Speaker 1: but in the process Drew leaving time on the clock. Like,
Speaker 1: they made a lot of mistakes down the stretch of
Speaker 1: this game, but they have been a really impressive basketball
Speaker 1: team throughout this season. They seem locked in and ready
Speaker 1: and unless I see some of those other teams get
Speaker 1: it together in a bunch of different ways. As of
Speaker 1: right now, the Bucks are still my favorite. But like
Speaker 1: I said, we'll reapproach that when we get to April.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to Blazer sixers. So this
Speaker 1: was an interesting game in the early slate last night.
Speaker 1: The Blazers came out red hot. From three Anphony Simons
Speaker 1: made eight threes. Here's some trivia for you, guys. How
Speaker 1: many players in NBA history have made at least nine
Speaker 1: threes in a game at least five times? Take a
Speaker 1: guess I wish we had. We could insert some trivia
Speaker 1: sound the answers six. Now try to guess who those
Speaker 1: players are. Now, there's gonna be the regular ones you
Speaker 1: would expect, right, Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Damian Lillard, James Harden,
Speaker 1: the volume guy. But there's two additional guys, j R.
Speaker 1: Smith and an Fonny Simons. Literally, he's made nine threes
Speaker 1: in a game five times. He's actually one of the
Speaker 1: best heat check guys in the league. Although he was
Speaker 1: stuck on eight in that game, and they could have
Speaker 1: used one more out of him under the circumstances. Last
Speaker 1: little bit of trivia, how many times do you think
Speaker 1: Steph has hit at least nine threes in a game?
Speaker 1: Thirty nine times. Thirty nine times. That's as much as
Speaker 1: all of the active guys on that list combined that
Speaker 1: have made at least five. So it's just just another
Speaker 1: stratosphere for the greatest shooter of all time. But down
Speaker 1: the stretch, the Sixers locked in on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. They held the Blazers to just five points
Speaker 1: in the final five minutes of the game, and Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid hits the game winner. There was an interesting kind
Speaker 1: of sequence there where he was isolating Nurkics, but the
Speaker 1: spacing wasn't quite right, and Doc Rivers called a time out,
Speaker 1: and I was confused by it in the moment because
Speaker 1: I was like, Oh, this is just gonna give Chauncey
Speaker 1: Billups the opportunity to double team Joel, and he didn't
Speaker 1: double team Joel left him on an island again, which
Speaker 1: gave Doc Rivers the opportunity to set up better spacing
Speaker 1: on Joel's first attempt, like they were a little bit
Speaker 1: crowded on him on the wings, and on the play
Speaker 1: out of the time out, they cleared the top of
Speaker 1: the floor and gave Joel the entire middle of the
Speaker 1: floor so that when he did that spin back towards
Speaker 1: the middle, he had more space to go. Again, if
Speaker 1: you do that same move and there's a shooter on
Speaker 1: the left wing, that guy can dig down and disrupt
Speaker 1: Joel in a way that he can't if it's vacated.
Speaker 1: So I thought it was a gamble from Doc because
Speaker 1: I thought he might have set Joel up for a
Speaker 1: double team. But it ended up paying off and Joel
Speaker 1: embiid just a ridiculous high level of skill in that
Speaker 1: spin move. I went on with Mark Ryan with CBS
Speaker 1: Sports Radio this earlier this evening, and we were talking
Speaker 1: a little bit about the Kendrick Perkins thing, and you
Speaker 1: know what was funny is like I think that there
Speaker 1: is actually a little bit of like a European type
Speaker 1: of bias that takes place where basketball fans just assumed
Speaker 1: that European players are more skilled than American players, and
Speaker 1: American players are all players are often characterized by their
Speaker 1: you know, kind of tunnel vision in terms of isolation,
Speaker 1: scoring and a lot of focus on their athleticism, and
Speaker 1: then the European players it's all the passing and the
Speaker 1: skill and the flare, And like, I think that that
Speaker 1: gets a little ridiculous because there's no doubt that in
Speaker 1: Europe there's a lot of players that play really well
Speaker 1: in terms of playmaking and things along those lines. But
Speaker 1: it's a very physical game over there, so isolation scoring
Speaker 1: is a little bit less impactful. The spacing is different,
Speaker 1: and you actually need to move the ball a lot
Speaker 1: a lot more over there. So a lot of it's
Speaker 1: just the way they're play the way that they play
Speaker 1: growing up over there. But I would push back on
Speaker 1: that concept a lot. I think that American players are
Speaker 1: extremely underrated in terms of their skill level, and Joel
Speaker 1: Embiads a great example of that. Like, yes, Joel Embiad's
Speaker 1: level of skill is very different than Nikola yokis because
Speaker 1: it manifests more in scoring skill set, but his scoring
Speaker 1: skill set his miles and miles and miles ahead of
Speaker 1: what Nicola Yokis is is. Nicol Yokich is a very
Speaker 1: efficient score but he does it a lot within the
Speaker 1: flow of the offense, and he's very good at creating
Speaker 1: advantages for himself. But he's not in the same stratosphere
Speaker 1: as a player as Embiid when it comes to that
Speaker 1: staring your man in the face and just getting a
Speaker 1: bucket over the top of him. And so I want
Speaker 1: to do a better job, and I'm gonna try to
Speaker 1: work on it on this show and kind of point
Speaker 1: it out when I see it elsewhere. But the skill
Speaker 1: level of American players is insane too. Now. Joel Embid
Speaker 1: obviously has came from overseas originally, but in terms of
Speaker 1: his basketball development, for the most part, it's taken place
Speaker 1: in the United States, and he's thought of in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways as an American player, even though he's not.
Speaker 1: So I want to be clear about that. I just
Speaker 1: think that Joel gets kind of lumped in with that group,
Speaker 1: and Yokis kind of with the other groups. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of differentiate that a little bit, but
Speaker 1: to be clear, like and beads on a damn tear man,
Speaker 1: And about two months ago, I was one of those
Speaker 1: people that thought Yokis was better. And I always have
Speaker 1: been gravitating towards playmakers. You guys know that about me.
Speaker 1: I gravitate towards perimeter players, and I gravitate towards playmakers,
Speaker 1: and so even amongst the centers, I gravitated towards Yokich.
Speaker 1: And then there were some specific things that thought mb
Speaker 1: relied really heavily on foal bating, which is not a
Speaker 1: thing that I like a lot. And then obviously he
Speaker 1: hasn't played as well in the postseason as he does
Speaker 1: in the regular season. Those are two things that are
Speaker 1: going to kind of point me in opposite directions. But
Speaker 1: a couple of things. His perimeter jump shot is real.
Speaker 1: This is a huge sample size that's gone extremely well
Speaker 1: for him. He's not relying on the foul bating nearly
Speaker 1: as often lately. He's drawing a lot of free throws
Speaker 1: just by dropping his head and going into the lane
Speaker 1: with a ton of physicality, and it just in generally,
Speaker 1: there's like a demeanor with him that I've been on
Speaker 1: for months now, and James harted a fight, a competitiveness
Speaker 1: that is another level above what I've seen from him
Speaker 1: early in his career. Every single big game of late,
Speaker 1: he has shown up in in a big way, especially
Speaker 1: down the stretch of games. These are a couple of
Speaker 1: crazy numbers for you in clutch situations. So when the
Speaker 1: game is within five points with less than five minutes left.
Speaker 1: He is scoring at a rate of thirty seven points
Speaker 1: per thirty six minutes, So if you extrapolated his scoring
Speaker 1: out to a normal thirty six minute game, it's like
Speaker 1: he's averaging thirty seven points per game focused within that
Speaker 1: clutch time situation, shooting fifty percent from the field, thirty
Speaker 1: six percent from three, and eighty six percent from the line.
Speaker 1: The Sixers have a defensive rating of eighty four point
Speaker 1: six in clutch situations. With Joe Ellen beat on the floor.
Speaker 1: He made every big play down the stretch as they
Speaker 1: beat the Denver Nuggets in a head to head matchup
Speaker 1: with Yokich on both ends of the four. He made
Speaker 1: every single big play down the stretch in a big
Speaker 1: game against the Milwaukee Bucks, including the eventual game winner
Speaker 1: in that three point shot from the top the key
Speaker 1: and a bunch of monster defensive players in pick and
Speaker 1: roll as a switcher and in drop coverage. Even in
Speaker 1: the Boston game that they lost at the buzzer to Tatum,
Speaker 1: he was magnificent on both ends down the stretch of
Speaker 1: that game, and then once again last night against Portland,
Speaker 1: just incredible on both ends of the floor against a
Speaker 1: red hot shooting Portland team to get the win. I
Speaker 1: am switching my stance. Two months ago, I would have
Speaker 1: told you I thought Yokich is better than Embiid. I
Speaker 1: think Mbiad has proven over the course of the last
Speaker 1: two months that he is a better player. I think
Speaker 1: his ceiling as an impactful shot maker, you know, downhill fource,
Speaker 1: drawing fouls at the rim, a defensive on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of for just another stratosphere ahead. If where Yokich is,
Speaker 1: I think he's the better player right now, So I'm
Speaker 1: flipping that now again. I gravitate towards perimeter players, so
Speaker 1: I'd still take guys like Steph and Kde and Janis
Speaker 1: over Yokichen Embiid. But I think Embead is nipping on
Speaker 1: those guys hills, and I do think he's better than
Speaker 1: Yokis right now. I think he's proved that. All right,
Speaker 1: Let's move on to the Raptors and the Lakers. This
Speaker 1: was yet another really impressive win for the Lakers. Toronto
Speaker 1: threw a great punch too. They'd come into the game
Speaker 1: six and five since they traded for Yaka Pearl, their
Speaker 1: first real center that they've had in a long time.
Speaker 1: Nick Nurse played his starters together as much as humanly possible.
Speaker 1: I think they combined to play twenty seven minutes together,
Speaker 1: and that group was excellent, and they performed really well
Speaker 1: against the Lakers. Oge and Obi and Scotty Barnes both
Speaker 1: had amazing nights to combine for sixty three points on
Speaker 1: thirty three shots. Og and and Obe knocking down every
Speaker 1: single spot up three he took, had some really nice
Speaker 1: isolation plays in the second half. Scotty Barnes was just
Speaker 1: backing down the Laker guards into the lane for easy
Speaker 1: little hook shots and jumpers in the lane. He was awesome.
Speaker 1: It was just a really really good punch from Toronto.
Speaker 1: They were frightening defensively. They locked in there at the
Speaker 1: start of the second half and held the Lakers to
Speaker 1: just five points in the first seven minutes of the
Speaker 1: second half, and then three adjustments from Darvin Ham I
Speaker 1: thought got the Lakers the win. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: kind of dive into the strategy of that for a minute.
Speaker 1: First of all, he went to his zone. This was
Speaker 1: very important because og and Obi, in particular Scotty Barnes
Speaker 1: in particular little Pascal Siakom too. All of the big
Speaker 1: Toronto forwards we're bullying the Laker guards inside to take
Speaker 1: little pushhots over the top. Now, Toronto's a weird team
Speaker 1: because the Lakers are big two. Like when the Lakers
Speaker 1: are healthy, when they have Lebron and you go ad
Speaker 1: Lebron Jared Vanderbilt, they're a huge team. But even in
Speaker 1: that case, because of the way Toronto plays eighties on
Speaker 1: Yaka Purdle, Lebron can guard a big forward. Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: can guard a big forward. But that's there's three other
Speaker 1: big forwards out there between Og and Scottie and Pascal,
Speaker 1: like one of them is going to end up being
Speaker 1: guarded by Malik Beasley or D'Angelo Russell. So from a
Speaker 1: match up perspective, some of it is just how weird
Speaker 1: Toronto is. They are an uncharacteristically massive team that is
Speaker 1: playing like a three four type of forward at the
Speaker 1: two guard position just because that's the way they want
Speaker 1: to play. So some of it's a little unusual. But
Speaker 1: when Darvenham went zone, it helped in a couple of
Speaker 1: different ways. First of all, it allowed Anthony Davis to
Speaker 1: stay around the rim, so that now when you're taking
Speaker 1: those short range little push shots and hook shots and
Speaker 1: turnaround jumpers and stuff, now you're shooting them maybe over
Speaker 1: a smaller guard, but most likely over Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: a smaller guard or just Anthony Davis. So Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: lingering around the rim was able to help. Also, zone
Speaker 1: defenses require teams to execute at a higher level. There's
Speaker 1: a level of positioning on the floor, moving the ball
Speaker 1: around to get the zone to reverse sides a bunch
Speaker 1: of times, getting that guy to the high post that
Speaker 1: can try to pull Anthony Davis away from the rim
Speaker 1: to open up stuff on the back line. There's a
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff within the zone that requires execution. And
Speaker 1: what's the biggest weakness for that Toronto Raptors lineup, Like
Speaker 1: when you've got Fred van vleet, O Gannaobi, Pascal Siakam
Speaker 1: and Scottie Barnes and Yaka Purdle, there's just not a
Speaker 1: whole lot of ball hand and shooting in basketball IQ.
Speaker 1: That's not a strength of that group. That is a
Speaker 1: sheer force of size and athleticism type of lineup, and
Speaker 1: so challenging their ability to execute was I thought a
Speaker 1: really smart strategy. It really stagnated that Raptors offense and
Speaker 1: allowed the Lakers to linger around long enough for them
Speaker 1: to break through offensively. So adjustment number one, going to
Speaker 1: his own adjustment number two, Darvin ham went with three guards.
Speaker 1: And again this is something that Hamm has been criticized
Speaker 1: for a lot, so it was frank last year, but
Speaker 1: I thought it was an interesting adjustment. And what would
Speaker 1: Dlo Austin and Dennis Schroder down the stretch of this game?
Speaker 1: And I thought the main reason why is Toronto's rotations,
Speaker 1: their defensive rotations, flying around the perimeter, especially out of
Speaker 1: their double teams of Anthony Davis, and they just doubled
Speaker 1: the hell out of Anthony Davis every single time he
Speaker 1: even tried to get into a position where he could
Speaker 1: catch the basketball, which is a big part of why
Speaker 1: I think he only had eight points. But because of
Speaker 1: how good Toronto was in their defensive rotations, you weren't
Speaker 1: breaking down Toronto on the first action. They needed multiple
Speaker 1: act as to get that opening to score, extending the advantage,
Speaker 1: that extra little pass here, that extra drop off there,
Speaker 1: that extra cut here, And the only way they were
Speaker 1: going to do that was by increasing the aggregate ball
Speaker 1: handling shooting in basketball IQ of that group. And so
Speaker 1: going with a group that had Anthony Davis and Dennis
Speaker 1: Roeder and Austin Reeves and D'angela Russell gave them the
Speaker 1: necessary amount of ball handling for them to be able
Speaker 1: to score. And then lastly, the last adjustment, Darvin Hamm
Speaker 1: started running interchanges into every single pick and roll, like
Speaker 1: a screening action before the pick and roll. So one
Speaker 1: of the defensive adjustments from Nick Nurse in this game
Speaker 1: was he put Yaka Peurdle on Jared Vanderbilt. Jared Vanderbilt,
Speaker 1: he made two corner threes in the first half, but
Speaker 1: like I think he was, he's gonna knock down under
Speaker 1: forty percent of him typically even though he's standing by
Speaker 1: himself out there completely unguarded. So that allowed Yaka Peurdle
Speaker 1: to linger around the basket. Then what he did is
Speaker 1: he put og and and Obi on Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: basically had him hug up onto him. Right, So, because
Speaker 1: he was hugged up onto Anthony Davis, ad was not
Speaker 1: an option and the rim was not an option, and
Speaker 1: so really the Lakers' best opportunity to score was to
Speaker 1: try to get separation for their guards coming over the
Speaker 1: top of the screen to hopefully get some opportunities for
Speaker 1: some pull up jump shots. I thought that was their
Speaker 1: best opportunity to score, and so Darvinham started running some
Speaker 1: interchanges flowing into the pick and roll to help those
Speaker 1: guards get separation. They were back to back possessions where
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell hit pull up jumpers, a pull up two
Speaker 1: and then a pull up three where what they did
Speaker 1: is a quick dribble handoff before D'Angelo Russell came over
Speaker 1: the Anthony Davis screen. Here's why that matters because with
Speaker 1: Peartle on Vanderbilt essentially zoning up under the rim, and
Speaker 1: with og and Anobi hugged up on Anthony Davis, they
Speaker 1: were switching all of the screens between the three guards. Now,
Speaker 1: right after you switch, there's like a little bit of
Speaker 1: a delay before you're ready for whatever comes next. Right,
Speaker 1: if i'm guard, you're about to go over a ball screen,
Speaker 1: I'm prepped for the ball screen. I see it coming.
Speaker 1: You start heading that way. I can position myself to
Speaker 1: kind of sidle up on top of the screen, or
Speaker 1: to try to fight over the top right, or even
Speaker 1: just lock and trail to apply back pressure. But what
Speaker 1: if I'm guarding the ball handler and they set a
Speaker 1: quick screen. Now I'm not guarding the ball handler, okay,
Speaker 1: because we switched under Toronto scheme. What if I'm guarding
Speaker 1: the guy setting the screen? Well, they like I think
Speaker 1: the two plays that I'm referencing, and I posted these
Speaker 1: clips on my Twitter feed. You guys can find them
Speaker 1: there at underscore Jason LT. But Dennis Shorter comes down
Speaker 1: the floor, sets a dribble handoff. Now, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Dennis's man is actually guarding D'Angelo Russell. In both cases,
Speaker 1: I think it was Fred van Vleet or it might
Speaker 1: have been Fred van Vleet the first one, then Scotty
Speaker 1: Barnes on the second one. But what ends up happening
Speaker 1: there is in that brief second after the switch, if
Speaker 1: I'm guarding Dennis and I'm switching on to Dilo, Now
Speaker 1: I'm not ready for that ball screen because I was
Speaker 1: attention going this way as Dennis was dribbling that way.
Speaker 1: Suddenly I'm guarding Dilo going back this way to a
Speaker 1: ball screen. That little interchange in that brief delay, and you, guys,
Speaker 1: again I encourage you to go to my Twitter feed
Speaker 1: and watch the video because you can see it pretty
Speaker 1: clear that little delay bought D'Angelo Russell a ton of
Speaker 1: separation coming over that Anthony Davis screen, and again Oganna
Speaker 1: Noby is hugged up on Anthony Davis so he's not helping.
Speaker 1: So if you could get over that screen and get
Speaker 1: separation from the on ball guy, there's a wide open
Speaker 1: pull up shot there. Dilo got two wide up and
Speaker 1: pull up shots knocked it down. There was another one
Speaker 1: later in the corner where they ran a similar thing
Speaker 1: involving ad. They had D'Angelo Russell on the inbounds play
Speaker 1: run over and set a hard pick on og Na
Speaker 1: Noby and og didn't want to switch, but he had
Speaker 1: to because of a good pick. Anthony Davis set him
Speaker 1: up well, gave him a little bit of a shove,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis came right off the pick into a
Speaker 1: ball screen with I believe Austin Reeves okay, that all
Speaker 1: of a sudden confused Toronto because it was a three
Speaker 1: man switch, right. I talked about this all the time,
Speaker 1: beating switching schemes with three man actions because now no
Speaker 1: one knows who to guard, right, It's it's way less
Speaker 1: straightforward than I'll guard your man, you guard by man.
Speaker 1: Right in the process, after Delo sets that pick, he
Speaker 1: quick pops out to the left wing. Og Ana Nobe
Speaker 1: hesitates for just a second because Austin Reeves is coming
Speaker 1: off that ad screen and he's open, and so og
Speaker 1: lingers in at the top of the at the top
Speaker 1: of the key to contain Austin easy swing pass, a
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell knocks down to three again. Toronto was frightening
Speaker 1: defensively at the end of this game. They were playing
Speaker 1: with a really smart scheme, sagging yakapurtle off, ignoring Jared Vanderbilt,
Speaker 1: hugging up on Anthony Davis, doubling him every time on
Speaker 1: the catch, rotating out of it frighteningly well. Their only
Speaker 1: chance was backcourt skill, which they didn't have nearly as
Speaker 1: much of before the trade deadline, and smart actions to
Speaker 1: buy those guards the separation they needed to make shots.
Speaker 1: I thought Darvin hand did a really nice job down
Speaker 1: the stretch of this game. I thought he's down a
Speaker 1: really nice job since the trade deadline, so I want
Speaker 1: to shout out him. Austin Reeves also had his very
Speaker 1: best game as a pro was magnificent in the second
Speaker 1: half of this game. In particular, Man, when he had
Speaker 1: that dunk in that half court set, when he cocked
Speaker 1: it back with two hands and threw it down, you
Speaker 1: could tell he was really feeling himself. It was really
Speaker 1: cool to see. You know, I've always been high on
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves as a role player. He has flashed high
Speaker 1: level ball handling this season that I didn't even remotely
Speaker 1: expect watching him last season. I always do he had
Speaker 1: a little bit of that, like second side action ability
Speaker 1: to make plays off the dribble, but like, this is
Speaker 1: high level stuff against high level defenders that he's doing.
Speaker 1: This is real. I think Austin Reeves is a very,
Speaker 1: very good basketball player. That was his best game as
Speaker 1: a pro. I've said it all before. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to get into it again, but the Lakers are really good,
Speaker 1: and all I'm gonna say is, if Lebron can come
Speaker 1: back and look like seventy percent of himself for a
Speaker 1: few games before the playoffs, I'm going to take a
Speaker 1: really hard look at them as a team that can
Speaker 1: come out of the West. They just check a whole
Speaker 1: lot of boxes. Like I broke down the other day,
Speaker 1: I really quickly before we get out of here tonight.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to spend more than just a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes on this. But one of the two games,
Speaker 1: one of the three games I watched last night was
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets getting a win on the road in
Speaker 1: Minnesota against the Wolves. I've been watching a lot of
Speaker 1: Wolves lately because I'm fascinated by their young core. I
Speaker 1: really liked Anthony Davis, Jade McDaniels, Rudy Gobert pairing as
Speaker 1: long as they can surround them with the right types
Speaker 1: of players. But these were, you know, two mediocre teams
Speaker 1: and Brooklyn gotta win. But I thought it was a
Speaker 1: great example of a small detail in basketball that I
Speaker 1: wanted to touch on. And you know, we talked about
Speaker 1: this in the in the Lakers game, og and Obi
Speaker 1: when he when he overhelped on that Austin Reeves drive
Speaker 1: and left Angela Russell open. Austin had a little bit
Speaker 1: of an advantage coming over the screen, but it probably
Speaker 1: would have been a tough shot for him. And I
Speaker 1: think sometimes we obsessed with shot quality and we ignore
Speaker 1: the reality of the Excuse me, we folks focused so
Speaker 1: much on shot value we ignore the quality of shot,
Speaker 1: the realities of shot quality. So, for instance, like a
Speaker 1: lot of teams will be like, oh, like a layup
Speaker 1: is a high percentage shot, high value shot, so we
Speaker 1: should take that away and concede a three, which is
Speaker 1: a lower value shot. Even if it's a higher value
Speaker 1: than a contested to like mid range jump shot, it's
Speaker 1: still a higher value than a rim attempt. Right, But
Speaker 1: even then I think that a contested rim attempt is
Speaker 1: a much lower value shot than a wide open three.
Speaker 1: And so a lot of times when these teams overhelp.
Speaker 1: In Toronto is a classic case of a team that overhelps.
Speaker 1: But when you overhelp, you open up wide open shots
Speaker 1: on the weak side, and those I actually think are
Speaker 1: the kinds of shot that gets a team in, the
Speaker 1: kinds of shots that gets a team into rhythm. And
Speaker 1: so this happened on two key possessions at the end
Speaker 1: of the Minnesota game against the Nets, and this is
Speaker 1: what costs them. They lost by one in OT and
Speaker 1: there were two plays, one at the end of regulation,
Speaker 1: one at the end of OT where we saw this happen.
Speaker 1: The first one at the end of regulation, Rudy Gobert
Speaker 1: is guarding Spencer Dinwoody and kinda has him contained. He
Speaker 1: had got he had went up and under and went
Speaker 1: through with a step through, but Rudy Gobert was right
Speaker 1: on his backside. It was going to be an extremely
Speaker 1: difficult scooping layup with Rudy Gobert there potentially blocking the shot.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards is guarding Royce O'Neil on the left wing,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Edwards, for no reason at all whatsoever, overhelps
Speaker 1: and runs in and stops Spencer Dinwoody from attempting his
Speaker 1: crazy wild scoop shot, but in the process concedes a
Speaker 1: wide open three to spend to Royce O'Neil on the
Speaker 1: left on the right wing, and he knocks it down.
Speaker 1: And it was funny because right after the shot, by
Speaker 1: the way, I tweeted out both of these videos as well,
Speaker 1: so you can find those on my Twitter feed. Right
Speaker 1: after the shot, Rudy Gobert and Kyle Anderson both throw
Speaker 1: their hands up like dude, what are you doing? And
Speaker 1: the funny thing is has happened to Rudy Gobert. In overtime,
Speaker 1: Spencer Dinwoodie is driving on Kyle Anderson. Kyle Anderson has
Speaker 1: him contained Anderson has body position in front of him
Speaker 1: at the rim and has the length and size advantage.
Speaker 1: It was going to be a super difficult contested floater
Speaker 1: and Rudy Gobert abandons I think it was dor and
Speaker 1: Finney Smith out of the left corner to corral Spencer
Speaker 1: Dinwiddie and concedes a wide open three that ends up
Speaker 1: being the shot that beats them. And Kyle Anderson, you've
Speaker 1: I felt bad for him after the game. He just
Speaker 1: throws his hands up and it's like, what are you doing? Man?
Speaker 1: And like, you know, so many times we get we
Speaker 1: get caught up on personnel, and we get caught up
Speaker 1: on you know, scheme, and we get caught up on
Speaker 1: a bunch of different things when we're talking about basketball games.
Speaker 1: But so much of it is just execution, not making
Speaker 1: the key mistakes it is. I would imagine that it's
Speaker 1: not in Minnesota's scheme to overhelp uncontained ball handlers driving
Speaker 1: to the rim, But in that moment, if you make
Speaker 1: a poor decision as a help defender, it can literally
Speaker 1: cost you a game. Minnesota has been playing good basketball.
Speaker 1: They played well enough to beat Brooklyn, and two execution
Speaker 1: mistakes at the end of the game cost them, and
Speaker 1: I think that's just such an important thing that gets
Speaker 1: lost when we're talking about teams. It's one of the
Speaker 1: big reasons why I've always been such a big believer
Speaker 1: in Golden State. They're one of the best execution teams
Speaker 1: in the league, even though they haven't shown it all
Speaker 1: the time this year. Why do you think the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat or one shot away from the NBA Finals last
Speaker 1: year despite having significantly less talent than many of the
Speaker 1: teams in that conference. It's execution, it's coaching, and it's
Speaker 1: always doing the right thing on the pivotal possessions at
Speaker 1: the end of games. That kind of thing is how
Speaker 1: you win, and way too often we do not factors
Speaker 1: that in enough when we're evaluating teams. All Right, I
Speaker 1: guess that's all I have for tonight. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate your support and I will see you guys
Speaker 1: next week.