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Speaker 1: look and Hoops to Night, presented by Fantel here at
Speaker 1: the volume. Happy Monday, everybody, in Happy New Year. This
Speaker 1: will be the first full calendar year with Hoops Tonight
Speaker 1: being in existence. February one will actually be one year
Speaker 1: since we started doing this. Today we're gonna be covering
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets and the Memphis Grizzlies. The Nuggets beat
Speaker 1: the Celtics last night and show down to the m
Speaker 1: v ps um. The Celtics had come in winning four
Speaker 1: games in a row, so it's a really good challenge
Speaker 1: for Denver, and boy did day raise rise to the occasion.
Speaker 1: And then the Memphis Grizzlies. For all the trash that
Speaker 1: we talked about them losing four games to Western Conference
Speaker 1: teams in ten days, they did win back to back
Speaker 1: this weekend against two Western Conference playoff teams that have
Speaker 1: been playing very good basketball lately. So a lot of
Speaker 1: Nuggets and Grizzlies today. Um, just to give you guys
Speaker 1: an idea of the schedule for the rest of the week.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow we're gonna be doing a video that's gonna break
Speaker 1: down tonight's game. So the Monday nights late you'll see
Speaker 1: on the feeds Tomorrow Thursday night after Celtics MAVs will
Speaker 1: be going live on AMP doing a show there and
Speaker 1: also breaking down some of the Wednesday nights late, and
Speaker 1: then Friday night I'll be staying up late to record it.
Speaker 1: Probably won't go on the feeds until Saturday morning, but
Speaker 1: keep an eye on the feed Saturday morning for a
Speaker 1: breakdown of Friday nights games as well. You guys know
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Speaker 1: Hoops tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So the
Speaker 1: Celtics had come in winning five or four games in
Speaker 1: a row. That kind of erased all the memory from
Speaker 1: that ugly stretch where I think they lost five out
Speaker 1: of six games, and there were some impressive wins in there.
Speaker 1: They beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, they beat the Bucks on
Speaker 1: Christmas Day, and they beat the Clippers. That was a
Speaker 1: super interesting game that I watched, UM that I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about. Kawhi Leonard and Paul
Speaker 1: George were both awesome, and Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: just outplayed them, and the Clippers actually led early in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter in Jalen Brown just completely took the
Speaker 1: game over. Started with a little fade away, but then
Speaker 1: he just started getting downhill to the rim and built
Speaker 1: double built a double digit lead. They never looked back. UM.
Speaker 1: Little side note on the Clippers. They went two and
Speaker 1: three on their East Coast road trip despite Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: and Paul George playing some really good basketball. Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: is back to that absurd level of efficiency that we've
Speaker 1: grown accustomed to seeing from him when he's healthy, but
Speaker 1: the Clippers defense has fallen off. And it's kind of
Speaker 1: an interesting conundrum because if you remember the beginning of
Speaker 1: the year, their defense. Their offense was horrific, but man,
Speaker 1: they were locking in and and they were getting stops.
Speaker 1: On the five game road trip, the Clippers gave up
Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty points per one hundred possessions, which
Speaker 1: was in the league over that span. So the Clippers
Speaker 1: are kind of in this weird spot where they got
Speaker 1: guys playing well, they're starting to get healthy, but the
Speaker 1: defense has fallen off, and so they're not kind of
Speaker 1: notching the winds that you want there. But the Celtics
Speaker 1: came in riding hot, feeling good about themselves, and a
Speaker 1: really good challenge for Nuggets team that needed a signature win.
Speaker 1: And not only that, it's kind of a bad matchup.
Speaker 1: You know, when you think about the the types of
Speaker 1: teams that typically give the Nuggets trouble, it's teams with
Speaker 1: stretch bigs and lots of quickness that can dribble like
Speaker 1: driving kicked teams. Teams are gonna force Yokich to guard
Speaker 1: in space, which can really expose their defense, which has
Speaker 1: consistently had problems with that over the year. In fact,
Speaker 1: the Celtics have won six had one six consecutive games
Speaker 1: against the Denver Nuggets and uh spanning the last three years,
Speaker 1: so this particular matchup has been problematic for the Nuggets
Speaker 1: on a bunch of different levels. Ajamal Murray was out,
Speaker 1: but despite all of that, Denver just completely handled them.
Speaker 1: They led by double digits for about half the game.
Speaker 1: They led by as much as eighteen. They responded to
Speaker 1: every major Boston run. Nicola Yokich finished which with thirty
Speaker 1: twelve and twelve on thirteen shots with zero turnovers. Al
Speaker 1: Horford and Grant Williams were completely helpless in isolation. Every
Speaker 1: time they doubled him, he made them pay, still got
Speaker 1: his thirty. It just just a ridiculous game. He was
Speaker 1: plus fourteen. This is a wild stat for your Nuggets fans.
Speaker 1: Nicola yoki has logged a positive excuse me, a negative
Speaker 1: plus minus, meaning he his minutes in just eight of
Speaker 1: the games he's played this year. He's played in thirty
Speaker 1: three games, so the Nuggets are either winning or tying
Speaker 1: Yokis minutes in what's at twenty five of their thirty
Speaker 1: three games this year. That's insane. For the season, the
Speaker 1: Nuggets are plus two seventy eight with yok on the floor,
Speaker 1: which is the best mark for any individual player in
Speaker 1: the league. The second best is Jayson Tatum at plus
Speaker 1: two forty one. So that's why it's a nice little
Speaker 1: m VP showdown for you. You You know, we've talked a
Speaker 1: lot about Yoki's lately, and I focused a lot um
Speaker 1: in our last Nuggets video on his base and how
Speaker 1: that affects him as an isolation player, uh in him
Speaker 1: winning physical confrontations in the post by knocking players off
Speaker 1: balance before they can knock him off balance. I don't
Speaker 1: want to talk about that today. When I was watching
Speaker 1: the film this morning, there was one particular concept that
Speaker 1: was really standing out to me, and it's the concept
Speaker 1: of advantages in basketball. Yokich has a very firm grasp
Speaker 1: of advantage basketball. Um. In a game of basketball, you
Speaker 1: might have a hundred something possessions, right, call it a
Speaker 1: hundred possessions for the sake of it being easy math.
Speaker 1: During those hundred possessions, they're gonna be really easy plays,
Speaker 1: maybe a run out dunk, you know, or an easy
Speaker 1: backdoor cut for a layup. And then they're gonna be
Speaker 1: really hard plays, you know, late clock situation, fantastic defense,
Speaker 1: and you need someone to make a play to rise
Speaker 1: up and knock down a tough shot and then everything
Speaker 1: in between, and all of those one D possessions are
Speaker 1: gonna fall somewhere on that spectrum. But as a team,
Speaker 1: the more you can avoid the hard plays and target
Speaker 1: and capitalize on the easy plays, the better chance you
Speaker 1: have of being successful offensively on a night in a
Speaker 1: nice out, a night out basis, So you have to
Speaker 1: hunt those easy opportunities when they're there, and then that
Speaker 1: same idea works in reverse on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor. If you can take away as many of
Speaker 1: the easy opportunities as possible, you can force teams to
Speaker 1: beat you the hard way, which, over a large sample
Speaker 1: size like a hundred possessions, you give yourself a really
Speaker 1: good chance to win. So I wanted to give a
Speaker 1: couple of specific examples from this game to break that down.
Speaker 1: So a third quarter, about eight and a half minutes left,
Speaker 1: Nicolayoka just rumbling up the floor and transition and uh
Speaker 1: KCP is on the left wing and Jason Tatum is
Speaker 1: guarding KCP and Jayson Tatum is sitting in the gap.
Speaker 1: So Tatum is basically not paying super close attention to KCP,
Speaker 1: but he's not doubling either he's just kind of being lazy.
Speaker 1: He's taking a possession, not taking a possession off, so
Speaker 1: to speak. But he's relaxing, so to speak, until he
Speaker 1: has an opportunity to be more impactful, like if KCP
Speaker 1: got the ball, if he actually needed too hard double
Speaker 1: or to rotate or anything like that. Yo, Kids just
Speaker 1: throws the ball to KCP, just throws it to him
Speaker 1: on the wing. Tatum is out of position, so KCP
Speaker 1: just rips through to the left and blows by Tatum.
Speaker 1: Because tatums in no man's land in the gap, and
Speaker 1: KCP draws help, there's a skip past to Bruce Brown
Speaker 1: in the corner, who knocks down with three. By the way,
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown just continues to shoot the laces off the basketball.
Speaker 1: He made four threes against Boston last night. He's on
Speaker 1: three point three three three three point attempts per game
Speaker 1: this year. He did shoot over forty percent last year
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn too, but it is much lower volume. But again,
Speaker 1: like on that possession, there's no reason to run a set.
Speaker 1: There's no reason to run an action like an inverted
Speaker 1: pick and roller, a grible handoff or anything like that.
Speaker 1: You run actions to get an advantage, and if KCP
Speaker 1: has an advantage already because Tatum is sleeping, then just
Speaker 1: throw the pass. That's an easy opportunity that's there. If
Speaker 1: you look off that opportunity, now you have to run
Speaker 1: an action. Now you have to run a set against
Speaker 1: Boston set half court defense, and it might be tougher.
Speaker 1: That's targeting a hard opportunity over targeting the easy opportunity.
Speaker 1: Fast forward a couple of minutes, six and a half
Speaker 1: minutes left in the third it's a regular possession. Boston
Speaker 1: has the ball. Jayson Tatum misses a tough, little pull
Speaker 1: up two point shot, but it's a it's not a
Speaker 1: transition opportunity. They missed the shot, Denver secures the rebound.
Speaker 1: Everybody moves down to the other end of the floor
Speaker 1: in transition. Boston, just because they're being sloppy forgets to
Speaker 1: go art KCP in the left corner. Yoki's just dribbles
Speaker 1: the ball up the floor, swing pass up to KCP,
Speaker 1: knocks down at three. Three minutes later, three and a
Speaker 1: half minutes left in the third quarter, Yokis flashes to
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor and catches kind of at
Speaker 1: the top of the key. Robert Williams is with him,
Speaker 1: but he's kind of trailing behind, So Yoki's just takes
Speaker 1: like one dribble closer. Now he's past the free throw line.
Speaker 1: But all he's doing is just kind of examining what's
Speaker 1: going on around him on the floor. And Derek White
Speaker 1: is guarding Michael Porter Jr. And he falls asleep and
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Jr. Just back cuts him. Wasn't a set,
Speaker 1: wasn't a play, wasn't anything. Michael Porter Jr. Derek Why
Speaker 1: just forgot to guard him, and Yoki's just hits him
Speaker 1: and he makes a layup. Every single time you aren't
Speaker 1: doing the exact right thing on defense with where you're
Speaker 1: supposed to be on the floor, Yokich will burn you
Speaker 1: for that advantage situation. Again, when we're talking about lower
Speaker 1: level players, role players in the NBA, k CP, all
Speaker 1: the guys we just mentioned k CP, Michael Porter Jr.
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown. In a half court set, when defenses are
Speaker 1: locked in and the easy stuff isn't there, those guys
Speaker 1: are gonna struggle to create against a set defense because
Speaker 1: that's not what they're best at. But when you give
Speaker 1: them an advantage, they can make plays. I talked about
Speaker 1: this when I covered KCP for the Lakers. He's one
Speaker 1: of the best closeout attackers in the league. He's got
Speaker 1: a great one drop a pull up. Obviously he's the
Speaker 1: lights out three point shooter, but he's got a great
Speaker 1: one drop a pull up. He's an outstanding athlete to
Speaker 1: extend all the way to the rim because he's such
Speaker 1: a good one like leaper, and he can make kickout passes.
Speaker 1: So if if Tatum is not gonna if Tatum's gonna
Speaker 1: play off the off of him into the gap, a
Speaker 1: swing pass to KCP is a really high percentage possession.
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown obviously set defense, you need him to create shots.
Speaker 1: He's not going to be an All Star, but the
Speaker 1: dudes turn himself into a damn good spot up shooters,
Speaker 1: short role player, dunker, spot guy. If you give him advantages,
Speaker 1: he's gonna score. And then the same goes for Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Jr. The dude can't dribble the basketball, but if
Speaker 1: you leave him open in that he's probably the best
Speaker 1: up and down, catch and shoot shooter that we have
Speaker 1: in the league right now, or at least he's in
Speaker 1: that conversation. So that if when you give flawed players
Speaker 1: advantages they can beat you, and what makes Yoki so
Speaker 1: dominant is his ability to target and spot those advantages
Speaker 1: and make teams pay. A huge part of this is
Speaker 1: his transition attack. This is why you know, you guys,
Speaker 1: you guys know. Coming into the season, I had Yo
Speaker 1: Kitchen and be down and I think seven and eight
Speaker 1: in my player rankings, and a big part of that
Speaker 1: was I talked about the fundamental reasons why I dislike
Speaker 1: slow footed biggs. One, they struggle to guard in space.
Speaker 1: So when you put them in driving kicks situations or
Speaker 1: when they have to guard out on the perimeter, they
Speaker 1: can struggle. But too biggs don't like to run in transition.
Speaker 1: They jog up and down the floor, which causes a
Speaker 1: boatload of problems when the game takes on an open
Speaker 1: floor field when it's transition back and forth and the
Speaker 1: pace goes up. The stuff in with guarding in space
Speaker 1: is still true with Yokich, Like he's gonna struggle to
Speaker 1: guard ball handlers that pull him out to the three
Speaker 1: point line. That goes without saying, and we'll see if
Speaker 1: he can overcome that in this playoff run. But he
Speaker 1: has turned himself into an excellent transition big. I'm not
Speaker 1: even talking about the live ball stuff. We've talked about
Speaker 1: that to death. Yo, kids gets the rebound, he's bringing
Speaker 1: the ball off the floor. He's so good at those
Speaker 1: kick ahead passes and finding those open opportunities up the floor.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about when he doesn't have the ball watch
Speaker 1: the film, when a shot goes up and he misses,
Speaker 1: or when they when the other team shoots and one
Speaker 1: of his teammates gets a rebound, he drops his head
Speaker 1: and he sprints like hell up the floor. He sprints
Speaker 1: better up and down the floor in terms of commitment
Speaker 1: then most of the stars in the league, counting guards
Speaker 1: and wings. You can tell he understands and has identified
Speaker 1: that one of the ways you can beat him, like
Speaker 1: many big, bigger players in the league, is by beating
Speaker 1: him up and down the floor and transition, and he
Speaker 1: has no interest in giving those opportunities to you. So
Speaker 1: on the defensive end, him sprinting back takes away those
Speaker 1: transition opportunities. But on the other end of the floor,
Speaker 1: when he capitalizes on a possession where maybe Al Horford
Speaker 1: doesn't run, or Robert Williams doesn't run, or Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: doesn't run, or any of the other bigs around the league.
Speaker 1: What happens he gets a cross match because in transition defense,
Speaker 1: you guard the closest guy, not your guy, because usually
Speaker 1: it's another it's a question of numbers and how many
Speaker 1: players you have back. How many times in that game
Speaker 1: last night did you see Yoki's just sprint up the floor,
Speaker 1: grabbed Derek White in a in a transition transition cross
Speaker 1: match and just quickly seal in demand the basketball. And
Speaker 1: there's a huge difference between the way you have to
Speaker 1: double team that in the way you double team in
Speaker 1: a half court set. If Horford is on your kitch,
Speaker 1: it's a planned double team where you're expecting you're basically
Speaker 1: simplifying the defender's job. You're telling Al Horford, hey, you
Speaker 1: can sit on that left shoulder because we're gonna help
Speaker 1: right when he puts the ball on the ground or
Speaker 1: when he gathers the ball from the right side. It's
Speaker 1: it's very planned, and you've got a big guy guarding Yokich,
Speaker 1: and there's usually another bigger player that's coming over to double.
Speaker 1: When it's Derek White on Yokich, it's a panic double.
Speaker 1: Derrick White's not holding him in any spot, like Al Horford,
Speaker 1: if you simplify his job, it's like, Okay, I don't
Speaker 1: have to guard Yokich, I just have to force him middle.
Speaker 1: That's something, is that that's achievable. Derrick White's not gonna
Speaker 1: do anything with Yoki in any capacity. Like even if
Speaker 1: you attack the basketball so damn strong with the basketball,
Speaker 1: He's just gonna rip it up over his head and
Speaker 1: go up and finish. So when you when just by
Speaker 1: sprinting the floor and drawing those cross matches, he forces
Speaker 1: these panic double teams that lead to wide open shots.
Speaker 1: All of this is why Denver's offense. Offense looks so
Speaker 1: easy all the time. They hunt easy opportunities when they're available.
Speaker 1: Lots of NBA teams play tough basketball. They walk the
Speaker 1: ball at the floor, watch the Watch the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: once and I have to every every time. I was joking.
Speaker 1: I went on with a buddy of my combo, Andrew Slallap,
Speaker 1: who covers the league as well, the earlier this morning,
Speaker 1: and we were talking about how, you know, as much
Speaker 1: as I have to watch the Mavericks as part of
Speaker 1: my job, and I love Luca as an individual player,
Speaker 1: but that team is my least favorite watching the league
Speaker 1: because every single one of their games looks exactly the same,
Speaker 1: and they walk the ball up the floor and they
Speaker 1: play hard basketball. They don't hunt easy opportunities when they're available.
Speaker 1: It's hard half court basketball. They're good at it, but
Speaker 1: they don't hunt those easy opportunities, and that's kind of
Speaker 1: a fundamental difference between the team, Like Denver and Dallas.
Speaker 1: I wanted to shout out Aaron Gordon for a second
Speaker 1: because it's funny. When he came into the league, he
Speaker 1: was kind of like a tweener, and then after a
Speaker 1: couple of years there towards the end in Orlando, he's
Speaker 1: really trying to become more of like a wing and
Speaker 1: he's doing a lot of stuff off the dribble. But
Speaker 1: here in Denver he's found his role as a big man.
Speaker 1: And it's not just in the screen and roll obviously,
Speaker 1: Like he had a screen and roll inverted pick and
Speaker 1: roll with Yokis yesterday where Yokis threw it up and
Speaker 1: he had a reverse dunk. And we've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about the stuff that he does in the dunker spot, right,
Speaker 1: like finding little soft spots in the defense and elevating
Speaker 1: and dunking with his behind his head or things along
Speaker 1: those lines. Was a play in this game. This is
Speaker 1: legit big man, higher level big man stuff. It was
Speaker 1: a regular half court possession where Yokers brought the ball
Speaker 1: up the floor and Aaron Gordon has Jalen Brown on him,
Speaker 1: who is one of the better wing defenders in the league,
Speaker 1: and he just did that lebron seal. If you guys
Speaker 1: ever seen this, that that lebron seal where it's like
Speaker 1: he likes his size advantage, so he just buries him
Speaker 1: under the basket and then he'll just get an easy
Speaker 1: Lebrono at two or three easy layups. A game like that,
Speaker 1: Eric Gordon just buried Jalen Brown under the basket. Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown with the last second tried to front him. Yoki's
Speaker 1: just perfectly led him over the top to the basket.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny with with yokis more of an
Speaker 1: offensive initiator operating a lot out of the top of
Speaker 1: the key. Aaron Gordon's game kind of fits that mold
Speaker 1: of more of a rim running center type of player
Speaker 1: with his Denver team, and he has the athletic tools
Speaker 1: is you know, I think he's like six ten, super
Speaker 1: long arms, great dunker from underneath the basket. But he
Speaker 1: also has the higher level skill that gives him the
Speaker 1: versatility to do more than most big do, Like he's
Speaker 1: having a great season shooting the three. He can on
Speaker 1: occasion bailout of possession with shot making at the end
Speaker 1: because he did have a lot of time practicing being
Speaker 1: a traditional wing initiator when he was in Orlando. But
Speaker 1: it's kind of funny because he's basically like a hybrid
Speaker 1: between a big man and a wing, and that ironically
Speaker 1: is like the perfect fit alongside your kitchen. Denver, letting
Speaker 1: Jeremy Grant go was a big, big risk, and Jeremy
Speaker 1: Grant has been great, So you could talk yourself into
Speaker 1: that being a mistake, but it hasn't been. It's paid
Speaker 1: off because Aaron Gordon's bigger physical profile has made him
Speaker 1: actually a better fit with his Denver team. UM quick
Speaker 1: notes on Boston. They're still playing good ball. I don't
Speaker 1: want to go to negative here. They did have an
Speaker 1: impressive four game streak right before this. They still have
Speaker 1: the best record in basketball, although they're only one and
Speaker 1: a half games up now on Denver. Um but they
Speaker 1: play an arrogant brand of basketball. I was really annoyed
Speaker 1: watching them on film this morning. Not to rain on
Speaker 1: Denver's parade here, but Boston's defense was atrocious in this game.
Speaker 1: Countless mistakes and Transition talked about the the them failing
Speaker 1: to get mass Uh matched up on KCP, giving up
Speaker 1: cross matches because guys aren't running up and down the floor.
Speaker 1: They bought, They botched a bunch of basic screening actions.
Speaker 1: Like there was a play in the early third quarter.
Speaker 1: Yoki has the ball at the top of the key.
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum is guarding Michael Porter Jr. In the right corner.
Speaker 1: Marcus Smart is guarding Bruce Brown on the right wing.
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown just runs down and sets a pin down
Speaker 1: for Michael Porter Jr. Michael Porter Jr. Comes up, Smart
Speaker 1: stays home because he thinks that Tatum is supposed to
Speaker 1: fight through. Tatum stays because he thinks it's a switch,
Speaker 1: wide open three for Michael Porter Jr. That's just sloppy,
Speaker 1: That's just that's just that, that's just not coming into
Speaker 1: a big game against a the best team in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference playing really good basketball and not bringing the
Speaker 1: appropriate focus. Boston's defense has been really good lately for
Speaker 1: the record. They were set and defensive rating in December.
Speaker 1: But this is another big game, a monumentally important game
Speaker 1: against the best team in the West on the road,
Speaker 1: a chance to send a clear message, and they came
Speaker 1: in unfocused, with a less than great effort. And that's
Speaker 1: what irritates me the most about the Celtics. They behave
Speaker 1: like a team that is a multi time champion when
Speaker 1: they've never won a championship. You guys know how much
Speaker 1: I liked the Celtics roster. I actually think top to bottom,
Speaker 1: they're the most talented roster in the league. I think
Speaker 1: Tatum and Brown are the best duo in the league.
Speaker 1: There's a whole lot of to get excited about as
Speaker 1: a Celtics fan as you're looking at that roster. But
Speaker 1: I I came into the season with them third in
Speaker 1: my list of championship contenders, behind Golden State in Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: and I still have them third, and it's because I
Speaker 1: do not trust them to put four focused rounds of
Speaker 1: basketball together. And I hate to break it to you,
Speaker 1: but the competition is better this year then it was
Speaker 1: last year. The level of play they brought last year
Speaker 1: was good enough to get to the finals and lose
Speaker 1: to the Warriors. It will not be good enough to
Speaker 1: get to the final this year, not with Chris Middleton
Speaker 1: coming back, not with some of the other better teams
Speaker 1: in the Eastern Conference. That Cleveland's better, Philly's better. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like the top three opponents they will have to face
Speaker 1: out of the Eastern Conference this year are better than
Speaker 1: the top three they had to face last year. That's
Speaker 1: just a fact. So they better get it together, you know.
Speaker 1: And that's why I kept saying even after the Golden
Speaker 1: State game, like I the only thing that can change
Speaker 1: my mind about Boston and their approach is to watch
Speaker 1: them play in high stakes environments with the appropriate focus,
Speaker 1: which I just not have that seen them do. And
Speaker 1: then this is the second time this season in a
Speaker 1: huge game against the Western Conference opponent of where they
Speaker 1: just where they just came in sloppy alright, moving on
Speaker 1: to Memphis, so they were too and oh on a
Speaker 1: nice little weekend back to back against the Pelicans, and
Speaker 1: the Kings are actually on a three game winning streak
Speaker 1: because they beat Toronto on the road last Thursday. But
Speaker 1: I didn't watch that particular game, but I did watch
Speaker 1: both of the weekend games. They did a number on
Speaker 1: the Pelicans just at complete physical domination. We can talk
Speaker 1: about the physical play of the front line, and we
Speaker 1: did a lot of that last week or two weeks
Speaker 1: ago with Jaren Jackson Jr. And Steven Adams in terms
Speaker 1: of their defensive presence on both an offensive presence on
Speaker 1: the glass, protecting the paint, things along those lines. But
Speaker 1: I want to talk about their wings for a second,
Speaker 1: because their wings are super physical as well, like Desmond
Speaker 1: Baine and Dylan Brooks and even a little bit of
Speaker 1: David Roddy. These are big, strong, trunky, low center of
Speaker 1: gravity wings, and if you look at the Pelicans, they're
Speaker 1: very thin on the perimeter. C J. McCollum, Trey Murphy, IRB. Jones.
Speaker 1: These are extremely talented players with a lot of length
Speaker 1: in athleticism, but they are thin. And the Grizzlies bullied
Speaker 1: them in this game with ball pressure and with physicality
Speaker 1: off the ball, stopping them from getting to their spots. Again,
Speaker 1: I always talk about this basketball as a contact sport
Speaker 1: in the weight room is one of the most overlooked
Speaker 1: things for young players in this uh in the basketball world.
Speaker 1: They forced nineteen turnovers. The Pelicans shot just thirty five
Speaker 1: from the field and from three. The front court also
Speaker 1: did a number on Zion, held him to six for
Speaker 1: sixteen with one assist in nine turnovers. All those Zion
Speaker 1: did have some super impressive drives to the basket in
Speaker 1: this game, like when he did go through that physical
Speaker 1: Grizzlies line to get to the basket. It was really
Speaker 1: impressive to behold um. The game was actually relatively close
Speaker 1: through three quarters on the strength of New Orleans getting
Speaker 1: to the foul line a million times. But Jaren Jackson
Speaker 1: completely took over the fourth quarter that he rescued a
Speaker 1: possession on a baseline out of bounds with like two
Speaker 1: and a half seconds left on the shot clock by
Speaker 1: banking in a three, and then from there he just
Speaker 1: lit up with confidence and just started bullying his way
Speaker 1: to the rim. He bullied Jackson Hayes all the way
Speaker 1: to the basket for a lefty layup. He had another
Speaker 1: lefty driving layup on Zion. He beat Zion on a
Speaker 1: deep seal for a dunk, and then he beat her
Speaker 1: name Gomez with the spin moved back to his right
Speaker 1: hand on the right side of the room. All of
Speaker 1: those baskets were in the first five minutes of the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. Then the Grizzes were up seventeen. The game
Speaker 1: was basically over at that point. Interesting that lineup that
Speaker 1: they killed the Pelicans with to start the third head
Speaker 1: Brandon Clark and Jaren Jackson on the floor at the
Speaker 1: same time, which was a really interesting combination of rim
Speaker 1: protection with the two of them just flying around. It's
Speaker 1: kind of terrifying to watch. I started digging into the
Speaker 1: line up data because I was curious. Ironically, that pairing
Speaker 1: hasn't been that great this season. I mean, they've been
Speaker 1: good there plus four net so out scoring teams by
Speaker 1: four points per one hundre possessions over about a five
Speaker 1: possession sample size, but only a one oh seven defensive rating,
Speaker 1: which surprised me. I thought it would be a little
Speaker 1: bit better. But that lineup was great against New Orleans.
Speaker 1: Then they turned around and bullied Sacramento to forty four
Speaker 1: in the paint in that game, fifty seven to forty
Speaker 1: seven on the glass, twenty one offensive rebounds on their
Speaker 1: way to a one eight teen to one oh eight
Speaker 1: win over Sacramento. John Morand was fantastic eight and five,
Speaker 1: really was playing his ass off in the third quarter
Speaker 1: as Memphis was starting to pull away. I you know,
Speaker 1: I I've mentioned with John morand we talked about his
Speaker 1: trash talk a little bit last week. I want to
Speaker 1: be clear, like, I love the mental makeup of that kid. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I'm not a huge fan of trash talk, and we
Speaker 1: talked about that. That's a whole other separate conversation. But
Speaker 1: in terms of his competitive nature and what he's willing
Speaker 1: to do, in terms of just relentless effort to try
Speaker 1: to win basketball games, I find him to be one
Speaker 1: of the most likable players in the league. You know,
Speaker 1: we had a lot of fun at the expense of
Speaker 1: Memphis for losing four out of five against Western Conference
Speaker 1: teams after Jah said that he's not scared of anybody
Speaker 1: in the West. But quietly, they've now won two straight
Speaker 1: against Western Conference playoff teams and Sacramento in New Orleans
Speaker 1: were both playing really good basketball in those games. I
Speaker 1: mean they were close for three quarters, but they really
Speaker 1: pulled away in the fourth quarter of those games. Um.
Speaker 1: I want to zoom in on Jaren Jackson Jr. For
Speaker 1: a second though, because we've talked a lot about other
Speaker 1: Grizzlies over the course of the last couple of weeks. Uh,
Speaker 1: Jaren Jackson had nine blocks over the weekend. Obviously at
Speaker 1: the monster fourth quarter against Zion, the Grizzlies were plus
Speaker 1: twenty nine in his shifts over the weekend. We talked
Speaker 1: about close those two games were. Really on the surface,
Speaker 1: his little fourth quarter bursts of two way basketball been
Speaker 1: a huge part of why they've been been able to
Speaker 1: pull away in these games. We talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about his amberdextrous rim protection in our last Grizzlies video,
Speaker 1: his willingness to block with both hands, which just gives
Speaker 1: him more range around the rim. But what I want
Speaker 1: to zoom in today is on Jaren Jackson's offense because
Speaker 1: that was how he stole that Pelicans game. So, first
Speaker 1: of all, he's made a three and all but two
Speaker 1: games this season, he's shooting a respectable on four point
Speaker 1: three three point attempts per game this year. That's all
Speaker 1: about that spacing stuff and those five out concepts that
Speaker 1: we talked about. It also credibly allows them to play
Speaker 1: a lot of two big lineups, whether that's Jaren Jackson
Speaker 1: alongside Brandon Clark or Jaren Jackson alongside Steven Adams. That's
Speaker 1: a huge part of how they dominate teams on the
Speaker 1: offensive glass and on the defensive glass and just in
Speaker 1: general physicality and protecting the rim. The only way that
Speaker 1: works is if Jaren Jackson offensively confunctionally act as a wing,
Speaker 1: which he can do. And then the other big part
Speaker 1: of that is what he can do in isolation, and
Speaker 1: this is bullyball is so. I remember he talked a
Speaker 1: lot about this last year, how Jared was kind of
Speaker 1: out of control a little bit, just trying to trying
Speaker 1: to run people over on his way to the rim,
Speaker 1: and I was worried about whether or not it would
Speaker 1: translate to the playoffs, but it did, and I was
Speaker 1: worried more from the standpoint of court vision. You know,
Speaker 1: he attends to drop his head, not really see what's
Speaker 1: happening around him, and just plow through people. Like I
Speaker 1: think he's only passed out of isso once this entire season,
Speaker 1: um when I was looking at the data earlier today,
Speaker 1: but in the playoffs, for whatever reason, it just didn't
Speaker 1: come back to bite him and he actually had a
Speaker 1: really productive offensive playoff run. But this year he's doing
Speaker 1: it again again. That's what won the game against the
Speaker 1: Pelicans on Saturday night, It really comes down to He's
Speaker 1: a supreme athlete with a lot of strength, but he
Speaker 1: also can incredibly dribble the basketball, which allows him to
Speaker 1: actually functionally get to his spots in ISO, like him
Speaker 1: in that game against Pelicans after he makes the three,
Speaker 1: just staring at Jaren Jackson or excuse me, Saren at
Speaker 1: Jackson Hayes and hitting him with the dribble move to
Speaker 1: get that little lefty driving lane and then just plowing
Speaker 1: through the driving lane to get all the way to
Speaker 1: the basket. There's gotta be some credible ball handling there.
Speaker 1: Jaren's averaging one point three nine points per possession in
Speaker 1: ISO this year. Check this. That is sixth in the league.
Speaker 1: I'm a players who have attempted at least ten ISOs
Speaker 1: this year. The Grizzlies are young, and they're immature, and
Speaker 1: they have a lot to learn in order to be
Speaker 1: more consistent, which is typical for young basketball team. So
Speaker 1: I'm not talking trash, it's just the reality, um. And
Speaker 1: they're specifically having some struggles traveling with that physicality when
Speaker 1: they go on the road, But they are ridiculously talented
Speaker 1: and and winning games in Memphis, especially when we get
Speaker 1: into the playoffs like there, the physicality that they play
Speaker 1: with at home, the way they feed off that home crowd.
Speaker 1: That's gonna give them a chance in any playoff series
Speaker 1: because it's just gonna be really hard to beat them
Speaker 1: at their place. All right, guys, that is all I
Speaker 1: have for today. You guys know the drill. Remember tomorrow
Speaker 1: we're gonna be breaking down Monday night's games live on
Speaker 1: Thursday after I think it's Celtics MAVs, and then Friday
Speaker 1: night I'll upload of recording. They'll probably get uploaded on
Speaker 1: Saturday morning breaking down the Friday night games. There's always
Speaker 1: a sincerely for Taker Sport and I'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: The volume