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Speaker 1: welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Saturday,
Speaker 1: everybody a little hoops tonight after dark. We haven't had
Speaker 1: one of these in a long time. We know better
Speaker 1: than to go headed head to head with the NFL
Speaker 1: and the college football Playoff, but there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot more of these nighttime instant reaction games that we
Speaker 1: had towards the end of the season. And then you
Speaker 1: guys know the drill. We go live every single night
Speaker 1: during the postseason. We're gonna be breaking down a jam
Speaker 1: pack slate of Rivals week games as the Los Angeles
Speaker 1: Vikers continued their excellent play beating the Golden State Warriors
Speaker 1: in Oracle. After that, we're going to be talking about
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics putting together their most impressive performance in
Speaker 1: a while, a blowout win on the road in Dallas.
Speaker 1: After that, the Denver Nuggets might have a little bit
Speaker 1: of a Minnesota Timberwolves problem as Minnesota wins their fourth
Speaker 1: consecutive time against Denver dating back to the Western Conference
Speaker 1: semi finals. And then at the very end, just very briefly,
Speaker 1: all touched on Pacers Spurs as well as the Calves,
Speaker 1: who have dropped five out of eight. So a bunch
Speaker 1: of games are going to be getting into today. You
Speaker 1: guys are the drip before we get started. Subscribe to
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Speaker 1: to be releasing content throughout the season. And then, last
Speaker 1: but not least, keep dropping mail bag question in our
Speaker 1: YouTube comments. Every Friday throughout the year, we record a mailbag.
Speaker 1: That's where you guys can drop questions there in the
Speaker 1: YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis matchup for Golden State is just a huge problem.
Speaker 1: When Draymond Green is out of the lineup. Draymon is
Speaker 1: the only player on the Warriors who can actually make
Speaker 1: AD feel uncomfortable. AD will still win some of those battles,
Speaker 1: but Draymond has a combination of the ability to really
Speaker 1: bother AD's base with his strength and the length to
Speaker 1: get good contests up top that he's gonna at least
Speaker 1: make Anthony Davis really work for it, right, And so
Speaker 1: in iso situations, AD can't just like bully Draymond and
Speaker 1: get wherever he wants. And then Draymond is the only
Speaker 1: player on the Warriors who's fast enough, with long enough
Speaker 1: arms and good enough defensive instincts to in ball screens
Speaker 1: show on the ball handler or help as his responsibility is,
Speaker 1: but to also recover back to Anthony David on the
Speaker 1: roll when he ends up in that foul line area
Speaker 1: to either bother him, make him get rid of the ball,
Speaker 1: or get a good contest on some of the shots
Speaker 1: that he takes there in the pocket. So with Draymond out,
Speaker 1: it was always going to be a really tough night
Speaker 1: for the Warriors dealing with Anthony Davis, and that's exactly
Speaker 1: what it ended up being. The guys battled. Quinton Post
Speaker 1: in particular, probably logged the best looking defensive possessions against
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, but Ady got him with some overaggression, got
Speaker 1: to the foul line against him and got enough. And
Speaker 1: all night long he just beat every Golden State big
Speaker 1: every which way. He posted guys up and scored with
Speaker 1: hook shots. He beat guys with face up ISO moves
Speaker 1: like using his speed to get to the basket or
Speaker 1: hitting those little step back jump shots. His jump shot
Speaker 1: was just incredibly important to the Lakers in this one.
Speaker 1: And then in ball screens he kept hitting floaters if
Speaker 1: he got close enough to the basket. When he would
Speaker 1: catch in the pocket, he hit picking like kind of
Speaker 1: those picking half pop jumpers where he kind of ends
Speaker 1: up around the top of the key. I'd prefer him
Speaker 1: to just pop to the three point line and get
Speaker 1: a bit little better at that shot, just for the
Speaker 1: math of it, because you know, even if you hit
Speaker 1: that shot of forty five percent, it's just only worth,
Speaker 1: you know, zero point nine points per attempt. I think
Speaker 1: eighties got the capability to knock down pick and pop threes.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see him do that a little bit more.
Speaker 1: But he was hitting jumpers at the top of the
Speaker 1: key when he was catching in the pocket. And then
Speaker 1: there was a time where the Warriors tried to put
Speaker 1: two on the ball in a ball screen and ad
Speaker 1: Cot on a short roll and made a beautiful corner
Speaker 1: kick to Max Christy in the left corner and he
Speaker 1: knocked it down. They tried switching at one point in
Speaker 1: the first half and Lebron just threw an easy over
Speaker 1: the top pass to Anthony Davis and he dunked it
Speaker 1: with two hands. Like there was just nothing that Golden
Speaker 1: State could do with him all night, and so he
Speaker 1: just looked like an absolute superhero out there. He finished
Speaker 1: with thirty six points and thirteen rebounds, three steals in
Speaker 1: a block, just an incredibly impressive performance from Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: He got off to such an incredible start this year,
Speaker 1: and in the stretch since that time, it's been kind
Speaker 1: of uneven. There's been some injuries that he's been dealing with.
Speaker 1: But I was a little concerned and just that there
Speaker 1: wasn't that much top end with Anthony Davis in that
Speaker 1: stretch after the start of the season. But these last
Speaker 1: two games, that game against Boston, in the game against
Speaker 1: Golden State, he's looked absolutely fantastic. So I hope that
Speaker 1: that means that he's turning a corner in terms of
Speaker 1: his health and starting to feel a little bit better,
Speaker 1: have some healthy wheels, actually be able to move around,
Speaker 1: get the lift that he needs on his jump shot.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis looked absolutely great tonight. But interestingly enough, the Lakers,
Speaker 1: who have struggled NonStop with Anthony Davis off the floor
Speaker 1: this year, they were plus one tonight with Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: off the floor. A big part of that was the
Speaker 1: return of Jared Vanderbilt. It was good to see him
Speaker 1: back out there. The mythological basketball player that was Jared Vanderbilt,
Speaker 1: who was playing so well there in January when you
Speaker 1: guys saw that the one corner three that Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: ended up with, he didn't take more than one of them,
Speaker 1: and he didn't end up in that spot often because
Speaker 1: throughout those possessions, for the most part that he was
Speaker 1: on the floor, he was operating more as a screen
Speaker 1: or a roller, a cutter, working in the middle of
Speaker 1: the floor, which is exactly where he succeeded back in
Speaker 1: January of twenty twenty four. And like when he was
Speaker 1: in that group, that bench group, it was kind of
Speaker 1: like Lebron Jared Vanderbilt, Dorian Phinney Smith and two guards.
Speaker 1: That group, they were able to just kind of use
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt as the ball screen guy and just have
Speaker 1: him screen and roll into open space. And he had
Speaker 1: one where he screened and rolled and made a really
Speaker 1: nice kickout pass for a corner three as well. And
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt, like every time I watch him, his combination
Speaker 1: of like size and strength with like crazy motor in
Speaker 1: terms of just how hard he plays, Like little things
Speaker 1: like there'll be a transition push and like you'll see
Speaker 1: a position where like Andrew Wiggins will be running the
Speaker 1: left side of the floor and he's got the ball.
Speaker 1: He catches the ball and the kick head pass and
Speaker 1: he kind of has an angle on Vanderbilt, and so
Speaker 1: many players in the NBA will just like let it
Speaker 1: go because it's just a transition possession in a random
Speaker 1: regular season game in January, Jared Vanderbilt like sprints back
Speaker 1: and takes an angle and cuts Andrew Wiggins off and
Speaker 1: at least forces him to pass the ball and make
Speaker 1: Golden State make a couple of nice passing reads in
Speaker 1: a transition situation, or you'll see him go for the
Speaker 1: offensive glass. Like literally every single possession that he's on
Speaker 1: the floor, his effort in rotation, his effort in every
Speaker 1: spot of the floor just pops because of his combination
Speaker 1: of size, strength and just long arms and just all
Speaker 1: this stuff that makes him such an impact athlete on
Speaker 1: the floor. And that group was able to guard really well.
Speaker 1: And like, this is the this is the main thing
Speaker 1: that I've found to be fascinating in the time since
Speaker 1: Dorian Finney Smith came to this team. And you know,
Speaker 1: in exchange for D'Angelo Russell and getting Jared Vanderbilt back,
Speaker 1: there's just a lot more defensive talent on this Lakers
Speaker 1: roster now than there was a month ago. Like it's
Speaker 1: just it's kind of a fundamentally different build in that sense.
Speaker 1: And like when you have more good defensive players, you
Speaker 1: have more lineups that have more good defensive players. When
Speaker 1: you have more lineups full of good defensive players, you've
Speaker 1: got more guys on the floor that are good at
Speaker 1: all of the things you need to be good at
Speaker 1: to be a good defense, like getting back in transition,
Speaker 1: communicating with each other, containing the basketball in isolation situations
Speaker 1: and in ball screens, rotating around when you get in
Speaker 1: scramble situations, boxing out, rebounding, like all of those things
Speaker 1: are things that those, you know, role player athletes have
Speaker 1: always been good at because that's what they've done since
Speaker 1: they were kids. And if you get a bunch of
Speaker 1: offensive players on the floor that haven't had to do
Speaker 1: that stuff often in their careers, like there just aren't
Speaker 1: that many players on the floor that are that good
Speaker 1: at those things, and you start to see things slip
Speaker 1: through the cracks. Bad transition possessions, too many straight line drives,
Speaker 1: bad rotations, wide open threes, too many offensive rebounds, like
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, Like that's all part of like
Speaker 1: this like scale's like there's like a mandatory minimum of
Speaker 1: defensive talent you have to have on the floor in
Speaker 1: order to be a competent defensive team. And then there's
Speaker 1: like another level you can get to where it's like
Speaker 1: what everyone Like what if everyone's good at defense? And
Speaker 1: there were a lot of lineups out there tonight where
Speaker 1: it's like, oh wow, like that's Austin and Max with
Speaker 1: Dorian vandoh and Lebron, Like Austin's the worst defender in
Speaker 1: that group, you know, or like you'll be like Dalton
Speaker 1: is the one week defender in that group, but like
Speaker 1: Dalton and Jackson Hayes are the only two guys that
Speaker 1: were in their rotation tonight that are not good defensive
Speaker 1: players when they're locked in. You know, Lebron obviously can
Speaker 1: ebb and flow with his effort, but like, there's just
Speaker 1: a lot more defensive talent on this roster now than
Speaker 1: there was because of a trade and because of the
Speaker 1: return of Jared Vanderbilt that means more defensive runs. I
Speaker 1: thought it was fascinating Dorsburg who dors Burke every time
Speaker 1: I listened to her, she I think she's one of
Speaker 1: the best in the business at that color commentary piece
Speaker 1: because she just quickly identifies what's happening in the game
Speaker 1: and expresses it in a very concise and easy way
Speaker 1: for people to digest. Shout out to Dorsburke, She's just awesome.
Speaker 1: But she made a comment at the beginning of that
Speaker 1: game about the difference in styles between Boston and Golden State,
Speaker 1: and it's a really interesting point because Boston, you know,
Speaker 1: Boston is going to match up hunt and they're gonna
Speaker 1: do They're gonna attack a lot of like switches, right,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers are gonna compete against that team with
Speaker 1: a switching defensive scheme, right, Like they put Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: on Jaylen Brown because Jaylen Brown has a slower type
Speaker 1: of catch and shoot release, so they felt like ad
Speaker 1: could like dig down and recover to the perimeter better
Speaker 1: than everyone else and help against mismatch hunting. And they
Speaker 1: it's all about like communicating switches, you know, switching aggressively
Speaker 1: to stop the shooting in that switch gap that I
Speaker 1: talk about all the time that Derek White's really good at,
Speaker 1: where like when you're in the middle of a switch,
Speaker 1: there's like a transition when the one player's disengaging and
Speaker 1: the next players engaging, and if you're slow in that interchange,
Speaker 1: Derek White will torch you, right, Like the MAVs got
Speaker 1: torched by that all night tonight, specifically guys like Gafford
Speaker 1: and Maxi Kleiba, right, And like, so you go from
Speaker 1: this challenge where it's like we're switching, We've got to
Speaker 1: be attentive and close out on our switches, and then
Speaker 1: when we end up in our precarious mismatches, we have
Speaker 1: to help recover, rebound, compete on the ball. Very different
Speaker 1: type of challenge to Golden State, where it's just a
Speaker 1: blender of people running through all these screens all over
Speaker 1: the floor and they're not really looking to attack matchups.
Speaker 1: It's much more like advantage creation and trying to play
Speaker 1: driving kick basketball, and so they get wide open threes
Speaker 1: and layups and it taxes your defense in a fundamentally
Speaker 1: different way. And you know, they had a lot of
Speaker 1: breakdowns as a result of that. Guys get losing shooters,
Speaker 1: guys losing guys crashing the offensive glass, like a lot
Speaker 1: of Lakers got caught in that blender. But they had
Speaker 1: defensive runs and that's really the key. They got stops
Speaker 1: in stretches that allowed them to build leads and to
Speaker 1: maintain leads, and again, like, those are the defensive runs
Speaker 1: that are going to come more frequently the more defensive
Speaker 1: talent you have on the floor. You Lakers fans will
Speaker 1: remember if you think back to the twenty twenty team,
Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty one team the year after, that
Speaker 1: team had a tendency to go on to literally win
Speaker 1: games with defensive runs. It wonn't all the time, and
Speaker 1: you know, it kind of felt like a special like
Speaker 1: kind of flashing a pan type of thing when it
Speaker 1: would happen, similar to like when you see a shooter
Speaker 1: get super high, like Tyros Haliburton who got insanely hot
Speaker 1: had sixteen points in three minutes at the end of
Speaker 1: the third quarter in that game against the Spurs. Like
Speaker 1: it was like the defensive version of that. You'd see
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty Lakers and they just have these like
Speaker 1: three four five minute stretches where they would lock in
Speaker 1: and the other team would just not score, like they
Speaker 1: would literally just not be able to score. And that
Speaker 1: was an even better team with a younger, more athletic Lebron,
Speaker 1: a younger, more athletic Anthony Davis, even better defensive talent,
Speaker 1: but like defensive runs have been the way that the
Speaker 1: Lebron and Ad Lakers have won at the highest level,
Speaker 1: even dating back to the year they made it to
Speaker 1: the Western Conference finals. That was not a great offensive team,
Speaker 1: that was a great defensive team, and so like, it's
Speaker 1: kind of an interesting it's kind of an interesting identity
Speaker 1: that's starting to form around the Lakers as like this
Speaker 1: really good defensive team that or at least a team
Speaker 1: that's capable of being really good on defense. I'm not
Speaker 1: about to start taking victory laps about the Lakers defense
Speaker 1: after two games, but this team that's capable of being
Speaker 1: really good defensively and then kind of like Who's got
Speaker 1: it tonight type of offensive thing, like Austin's got it tonight,
Speaker 1: AD's got it tonight, Lebron's got it tonight. They're not
Speaker 1: gonna have some helio centric guy that's going to average
Speaker 1: thirty points a game, but a lot of really well
Speaker 1: rounded scoring and then guys making shots off of that
Speaker 1: I'd like tonight. I thought the corner kicks were fantastic,
Speaker 1: both in ball screens from the pick and roll ball
Speaker 1: handlers skipping the ball to the corner and in short
Speaker 1: roll opportunities where guys just would cut a catch on
Speaker 1: the short roll in a four on three and make
Speaker 1: that kickout pass to the corner, and it was like
Speaker 1: Max Christy and Dalton connect just again and again and again,
Speaker 1: just making the Warriors pay for helping off the corner.
Speaker 1: And you can just kind of see the identity starting
Speaker 1: to take shape. But the key is they're going to
Speaker 1: have to be really really shit. This is not going
Speaker 1: to be a team that's going to win by having
Speaker 1: an overwhelming talent advantage. There's gonna be help on the way.
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers will make another trade and there
Speaker 1: will be more talent on this team, but not any
Speaker 1: sort of like meaningful talent increase that's gonna have you
Speaker 1: looking at the roster next to Oklahoma City and going, man,
Speaker 1: the Lakers have more talent than Oklahoma City or Boston
Speaker 1: or something like that. You're not gonna win with talent.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to be an incredibly good execution team.
Speaker 1: And so that's the opportunity that the Lakers have here.
Speaker 1: They're very healthy, they're in a groove, they're about to
Speaker 1: get reinforcements. They've got to commit to this thing in
Speaker 1: terms of the day to day process to get really
Speaker 1: really sharp on the details. They're going to have to
Speaker 1: be the team that makes fewer mistakes on both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor than their opponent if they're gonna have
Speaker 1: any real chance to win. And then from there, if
Speaker 1: you got the defense and you support them with enough
Speaker 1: talent and you execute the way you're supposed to, all
Speaker 1: you need is Lebron James to have one last throwback
Speaker 1: playoff run and for an Anthony Davis to be Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: and for Austin Reeves to be the reliable big game
Speaker 1: player that he's been in his entire career, and you've
Speaker 1: got a puncher's chance to do some damage. And so
Speaker 1: again it starts. Now it's it can't be. Okay, we
Speaker 1: did it against Boston and Golden State on national television,
Speaker 1: but we're about to go on this chill road trip
Speaker 1: where we play some bad teams and now we just
Speaker 1: lose all of our good habits and fall apart. It's
Speaker 1: got to be a commitment that starts from today on
Speaker 1: the Golden Safron. I'm not going to get too far
Speaker 1: into it that they're just so devoid of talent with
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga and Draymond Green out of the lineup. I mean,
Speaker 1: we talked about Draymond specifically for the Anthony Davis matchup,
Speaker 1: but like you know, Jonathan Kminga is the closest thing
Speaker 1: to like that secondary scoring option that this team has,
Speaker 1: and when he's out, it's got Dennis Schroeder slotted up
Speaker 1: into that role. And I've talked a lot about in
Speaker 1: the last couple of days on the show about how
Speaker 1: Dennis Schroder is a good player, but he's completely miscast
Speaker 1: on this Warriors team as like a secondary star. It's
Speaker 1: not what he needs to be. He needs to be
Speaker 1: a guy who's like consistently your fifth best place player,
Speaker 1: maybe your fourth best player on the floor. And that's
Speaker 1: only gonna happen when you get healthy and if you
Speaker 1: make the type of deal that we've talked about in
Speaker 1: terms of bringing in a legitimate secondary creator. And like,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not gonna get any easier. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're seeing, like Steph Curry, this is yet another game
Speaker 1: tonight where he kind of really struggled to get free.
Speaker 1: Like it's not like Steph's getting good looks and missing,
Speaker 1: Like he's actually struggling to get shots off. And that's
Speaker 1: not a Lakers problem. That's been a problem that's been
Speaker 1: periodically there throughout the year. And so like it's like
Speaker 1: the more you ride this out to where Steph has
Speaker 1: to do more while you're anchoring him with inferior talent,
Speaker 1: the more it's gonna wear his body down, and the
Speaker 1: less likely it is that he ends up actually returning
Speaker 1: to any sort of form that you need him to
Speaker 1: be out in order to be good in the playoffs anyway.
Speaker 1: And so that's why I keep talking about, like the
Speaker 1: slotting with this team. You've got to bring in the
Speaker 1: talent that puts all these guys in the right role.
Speaker 1: The only way you're gonna do that, like we talked
Speaker 1: about it, you make a camp, Say you make a
Speaker 1: Cam Johnson deal without including Jonathan Kaminga. That's where you
Speaker 1: could end up in a situation where Steph is your
Speaker 1: best offensive player. You know, Cam Johnson is your second
Speaker 1: best offensive player, Jonathan Kaminga is your third best offensive player,
Speaker 1: Dennis Shrewder is your fourth best offensive player. That starts
Speaker 1: to slot pretty well. Now, you can actually take advantage
Speaker 1: of the strength of your roster, which is your depth
Speaker 1: of role player talent. GUIs Santos and Quintin Post are
Speaker 1: the latest two guys in a long line of dudes
Speaker 1: on this roster that have shown the ability to play
Speaker 1: winning basketball in a role player context. You've got a
Speaker 1: plethora of those guys and you've got one good offensive player.
Speaker 1: You've got to find a way to balance that out
Speaker 1: a little bit, all right, Moving on to Boston Dallas,
Speaker 1: No rest for the weird for the Boston Celtics. The
Speaker 1: loss in Los Angeles was their fifth game in seven nights,
Speaker 1: but they were right back to playing tonight in Dallas
Speaker 1: against the Mavericks. They do get to go home now,
Speaker 1: but they actually play every other night up until the
Speaker 1: All Star breaks, so they're gonna probably benefit from that
Speaker 1: break a lot compared to some other teams in the league.
Speaker 1: Because they definitely looked tired against the Lakers, and they
Speaker 1: even looked tired to start this game against the MAVs
Speaker 1: as they fell down nineteen to ten. But this is
Speaker 1: the NBA regular season. You just have to find a
Speaker 1: way to survive from game to game through the grind,
Speaker 1: and the Celtics responded with an extremely impressive two way
Speaker 1: performance against the Maps. They got blitzed a little bit early,
Speaker 1: like we talked about. Dallas came out with a ton
Speaker 1: of energy, specifically in transition and semi transition. They were
Speaker 1: just applying a lot of pressure on the rim PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington was just like a bowl in a China shop
Speaker 1: going downhill in the early part of the game. But
Speaker 1: Boston weathered the storm and slowly took control. I thought
Speaker 1: it was their best defensive performance in a while. They
Speaker 1: had two really big defensive runs in the late first quarter.
Speaker 1: Dallas had nineteen points with six forty one left in
Speaker 1: the first quarter. They had thirty five points with three
Speaker 1: forty eight left in the second quarter, So a fifteen
Speaker 1: minute stretch where Boston allowed just sixteen points as they
Speaker 1: turned a nine point deficit into a fourteen point lead.
Speaker 1: A huge turnaround there. And then in the mid third quarter,
Speaker 1: same sort of thing they had. The MAVs had fifty
Speaker 1: nine points with nine minutes left. They had sixty eight
Speaker 1: points with two minutes left in the third quarter. So
Speaker 1: in a seven minute span, Boston allows just nine points
Speaker 1: and turns a six point lead into a twenty five
Speaker 1: point lead. So two defensive runs completely put this game away.
Speaker 1: I thought they did an excellent job with their physicality
Speaker 1: on both ends, on both ends of actions, like on
Speaker 1: the ball and in off ball situations, like they were
Speaker 1: pressuring the ball, they were switching with pressure like closing out,
Speaker 1: but they were also digging down really well and swiping
Speaker 1: at the ball. Drew Holliday has always been really good
Speaker 1: at this, Like there's always like a time in terms
Speaker 1: of dig and recover. So like if you're if you're
Speaker 1: helping off the ball and there's a ball hand ball
Speaker 1: handler looking to attack and he's looking right at you
Speaker 1: and stunt down at the ball, he's just gonna throw
Speaker 1: the pass and you're gonna get burned, and that guy's
Speaker 1: gonna make the shot. But there are times when he
Speaker 1: gets distracted as he's looking at the rest of the
Speaker 1: floor where you can find an opportunity to lunge in
Speaker 1: there and swipe out the basketball but not get burned
Speaker 1: on that kickout pass. And that's kind of the delicate
Speaker 1: balance of helping recover defense all over the floor. That's
Speaker 1: what makes a good off ball defender is those instincts
Speaker 1: in those situations. And Boston just made Dallas play in
Speaker 1: a crowd all night long, and it just caused them
Speaker 1: to rush and to make mistakes. I thought Luke Cornett
Speaker 1: in particular, had several really good like help defense possessions
Speaker 1: around the rim that forced misses, and like Dallas missed
Speaker 1: a ton of layups. I think they had thirty seven
Speaker 1: layup attempts and made twenty seventeen missed layups in this game. PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington missed a bunch of them. That's all a pressure,
Speaker 1: a product of that pressure that you're applying on them
Speaker 1: around the rim. And then the Celtics had a really
Speaker 1: good job of running out on Dallas's turnovers. They had
Speaker 1: twenty one points off of turnovers in this game. Their
Speaker 1: closeouts were really sharp. Dallas generated just four unguarded catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shots in this game, by far, the
Speaker 1: least that Dallas has had in a game this season.
Speaker 1: They've had their previous low with seven, So just an
Speaker 1: excellent defensive performance from the Boston Celtics. They actually looked
Speaker 1: like the more physically fresh team as the game progressed,
Speaker 1: which is a remarkable testament to their competitive spirit. They
Speaker 1: just dug deep and they found the energy to go
Speaker 1: out there and outwork Dallas. They even grabbed seventeen offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: They just looked quicker to the ball all night and
Speaker 1: then on offense some good physical aggression towards the rim.
Speaker 1: There was still a good amount of settling, which is
Speaker 1: something I've been complaining about with Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Speaker 1: Thirty of Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown's forty three shot
Speaker 1: attempts in this game were jump shots. I would like
Speaker 1: to see some better balance there. One thing I'll say
Speaker 1: is it was more settling in terms of Tatum because
Speaker 1: he was taking a lot of threes. And again, Tatum
Speaker 1: is the guy that I think looks the most gassed
Speaker 1: right now. I think he's the guy that could really
Speaker 1: use a night off, and hopefully Boston can find an
Speaker 1: opportunity for him to take a night off here in
Speaker 1: one of the next game, in one of these games
Speaker 1: before the All Star break. But Jalen Brown, most of
Speaker 1: his jump shots that he was taking were much closer
Speaker 1: to the rim. As a matter of fact, Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: made four jump shots that were actually in the paint.
Speaker 1: Those are like actually easier jump shots that are very
Speaker 1: makeable in that ere three of them were like right
Speaker 1: around the semi circle, Like that's a ten footer that
Speaker 1: might as well be like a jump shot that has
Speaker 1: the same sort of touch that you have on a
Speaker 1: hook shot, right, So like those are less settling, But again,
Speaker 1: in general, that's kind of the thing I have my
Speaker 1: eye on with Boston. And even though Jason Tatum was settling,
Speaker 1: I thought for the most part, the team was aggressive enough.
Speaker 1: Like Jalen Brown was operating in the paint all game long,
Speaker 1: even when he was taking jump shots. But outside of that,
Speaker 1: he had a couple of really nice kickout passes to
Speaker 1: Chris hops Porzingis, he had some nice physically aggressive moves
Speaker 1: towards the rim. They even posted Horford a few times
Speaker 1: and he just got to that little left shoulder hook
Speaker 1: in the lane where he scored. It was just a
Speaker 1: much better a pro to the offensive end of the
Speaker 1: floor in terms of getting great shots instead of settling
Speaker 1: for the first ok shot that they get their eyes on.
Speaker 1: An easy way to describe this is the assists. They
Speaker 1: had thirty three assists on forty four makes. That's a
Speaker 1: seventy five percent assist percentage. In January, before that game tonight,
Speaker 1: the Celtics had been getting assists on just sixty two
Speaker 1: percent of their mix. That's a substantial increase that by
Speaker 1: the way, that ranked nineteenth in the league so far
Speaker 1: in January, So they were a team that was not
Speaker 1: popping the ball around. They were moving the ball much
Speaker 1: much better today. They generated thirty six catch and shoot
Speaker 1: jump shots, which is tied for the most that they've
Speaker 1: generated in a single game in January. Even the pull
Speaker 1: up jumpers that they took I thought were smart in
Speaker 1: this game, Like Dallas was doing a lot of switching
Speaker 1: with their five men, which is something you kind of
Speaker 1: have to do against Boston because of their pick and
Speaker 1: pop attack that they can unleash on you. But it's
Speaker 1: difficult because it puts you in a predicament of asking
Speaker 1: your bigs who are accustomed to sagging back or maybe
Speaker 1: just lightly showing at the level in these ball screens,
Speaker 1: and now you're asking them to close out to the
Speaker 1: perimeter and like legitimately guard a guy out there, and
Speaker 1: like specifically Derek White, but Jaylen Brown did a couple
Speaker 1: times to like punish them for switching passively. I talked
Speaker 1: about this in the in the Lakers segment. But like
Speaker 1: when there's a switch, there's a moment when the on
Speaker 1: ball guy disengages and the new defender engages, and it's
Speaker 1: kind of like a gap, and Derek White torches people
Speaker 1: all the time by shooting threes right in that shooting gap,
Speaker 1: and he was killing both Gafford and Klee, but even
Speaker 1: got PJ. Washington with it once, like you and we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about it when we get into Dallas, Like
Speaker 1: there's a certain like attention to detail you need to
Speaker 1: beat the Boston Celtics, and it just was not there
Speaker 1: for Dallas in this game. But like, uh, it was
Speaker 1: just a really nice, well rounded win for the Celtics.
Speaker 1: All five of their starters had at least seventeen points. Again,
Speaker 1: thirty three as system forty four makes dominant stretches of defense.
Speaker 1: Just a reminder that this is a really damn good
Speaker 1: basketball team. They just have to get through two more
Speaker 1: weeks and they'll get a nice little break before they
Speaker 1: head into the home stretch. And then on the Dallas front,
Speaker 1: they just weren't nearly sharp enough in order to win
Speaker 1: a game like this. A lot of botch switches, way
Speaker 1: too stop switches, like I talked about it really got
Speaker 1: burned in transition. In the first half. They were not
Speaker 1: matched up several times and gave up corner threes. That
Speaker 1: was a big part of Boston's early run in the game.
Speaker 1: And then on offense, two things really played the Mavericks.
Speaker 1: Too many mislayups around the rim. They had seventeen miss
Speaker 1: layups in this game, and then too many bad mid
Speaker 1: range attempts from mediocre shooters. They had eight mid range
Speaker 1: attempts from players that were not named Kyrie Irving. And
Speaker 1: especially in the middle fourth quarter stretch they go in
Speaker 1: this run, they get it down to like twelve or
Speaker 1: eleven or something, and there were like three possessions in
Speaker 1: a row where they took mid range jump shots, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, the contested mid range jump shots are not
Speaker 1: going to be how you get back in this game.
Speaker 1: It's going to be playing defense, sprinting out in transition
Speaker 1: getting easy ones, and then really sharp execution in the
Speaker 1: half court to get great shots. And so it just
Speaker 1: they just didn't play well enough to beat a team
Speaker 1: like Boston. Often there were kickout rereads in those situations too. Again,
Speaker 1: the mass only generate four unguarded catch and shoot jump
Speaker 1: shot attempts in that game, by far their worst mark
Speaker 1: of the season. So just Dallas didn't play a really
Speaker 1: good game, and that obviously is going to keep them
Speaker 1: out of competing in a matchup like this against Boston.
Speaker 1: I can move a little quicker now through the rest
Speaker 1: of the show Denver, Minnesota. Minnesota blows out the Nuggets
Speaker 1: to win their fourth consecutive time this matchup, dating back
Speaker 1: to the Western Conference semi finals last year. The Nuggets
Speaker 1: have a specific weakness on each end of the floor
Speaker 1: that causes them to have issues in this matchup. On offense,
Speaker 1: they have several guys who struggle against the physicality of
Speaker 1: Minnesota's bigger, stronger defensive players. They just cause the Nuggets
Speaker 1: to rush things, which in turn causes them to get sloppy.
Speaker 1: A similar concept to what we talked about earlier with
Speaker 1: Dallas right that leads to turnovers, that leads to miss layups,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. Right, Jokich had seven turnovers. Who's
Speaker 1: fumbling the ball away in contact situations. He forced some
Speaker 1: bad passes. Not the first time that Jokich has kind
Speaker 1: of struggled to take care of the basketball against Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior was like smoking wide open layups and
Speaker 1: just looked uncomfortable everywhere. He's a guy that seems to
Speaker 1: struggle with that physicality, which by the way, Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior really really struggled in the Minnesota series last year
Speaker 1: in the second round, Julian Strather really struggled. And so
Speaker 1: when you got these guys again, that's the first weakness
Speaker 1: in this matchup is that there are several players, key
Speaker 1: players for Denver that struggle under Minnesota's big, physical perimeter defenders.
Speaker 1: And they're big physical frontline defenders, right, And as a result,
Speaker 1: they can just go through some really bad offensive lolls
Speaker 1: against Minnesota's defense. And then on defense, teams usually load
Speaker 1: up on Anthony Edwards and then they try to get
Speaker 1: the ball out of his hands before he can get downhill. Right.
Speaker 1: But Ant is so damn fast, and Denver always has
Speaker 1: like two or three guys on the floor that aren't
Speaker 1: great athletes, guys like Nikola Jokich, guys like Michael Porter Junior,
Speaker 1: guys like Jamal Murray. Right, So, as a result, Ant
Speaker 1: was able to relatively easily get downhill and laps the
Speaker 1: defense kind of just by going through and around guys
Speaker 1: like he just kind of slalloms through Denver's defense even
Speaker 1: when they're loaded up on him. He's just almost it
Speaker 1: almost looks like all of the Nuggets defenders are stuck
Speaker 1: in mud or running on beach sand, and he's running
Speaker 1: around with basketball shooes like he just looks like he's
Speaker 1: moving a step slower and as a result, he can
Speaker 1: get downhill, really claps the defense and creates some pretty
Speaker 1: simple kickout reads for him. And so I mean, both
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall were for fantastic in this one.
Speaker 1: I don't want to overplay or overlook Julius Randall, like
Speaker 1: he was bullying Denver smaller perimeter players all game long
Speaker 1: for buckets for kickouts. Julius was great, but Ant's downhill
Speaker 1: scoring and his playmaking in this game were fantastic. It'ds
Speaker 1: several beautiful feeds to go Bear, including one like a
Speaker 1: tight window rifle pass that he caught and finished. The
Speaker 1: Ant was like having a little celebration. I think it
Speaker 1: was late first quarter if I remember correctly, but he
Speaker 1: had a couple of nice pisses passes to go Bear,
Speaker 1: some really nice skip passes, which, by the way, like
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert and Jada McDaniels were both great on offense
Speaker 1: in this one. Like Gobert was like actually catching and
Speaker 1: finishing things around the rim and making nice reads out
Speaker 1: of his short role situations. When he had to face
Speaker 1: a four on three, Jada McDaniels hit the one three
Speaker 1: he took. It was on one of those kickouts from
Speaker 1: Julius Randall on a post up. He was driving closeouts
Speaker 1: and getting to the rim. Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert
Speaker 1: had twenty seven points in this game, nine assists, zero
Speaker 1: turnovers in only four missed shots. Like I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: a little bit of a detour here, do you guys
Speaker 1: remember when I talked about the concept of belief with
Speaker 1: the Lakers, as it pertains to like them being willing
Speaker 1: to do the work. The job is hard. If you
Speaker 1: want them to do it, they need to think it's
Speaker 1: gonna lead to a reward, specifically a trophy. As soon
Speaker 1: as that belief is there, then they're gonna be willing
Speaker 1: to do the work. When they're willing to do the work,
Speaker 1: they give themselves the best chance to get the reward, right.
Speaker 1: I almost think of that as like a similar type
Speaker 1: of concept in terms of Anthony Dards as a playmaker.
Speaker 1: You guys all want Anthony Edwards to trust the passport.
Speaker 1: Y'all want him to be willing to feed it to
Speaker 1: go bear. You all want him to be willing to
Speaker 1: break the defense down when they load up on him.
Speaker 1: But guess what's gonna make him believe that that's gonna work.
Speaker 1: Guys scoring, Guys catching the ball and finishing in traffic,
Speaker 1: Guys knocking down the threes on those skip passes. Like,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a huge coincidence that like it
Speaker 1: has this one of his better playmaking games of the
Speaker 1: season on a night when Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert
Speaker 1: were actually catching and finishing the basketball when they had advantages. Again,
Speaker 1: AT's got to believe that the playmaking is actually gonna
Speaker 1: lead to him winning. And one of the things that
Speaker 1: I keep talking about with this Timberwolves team big problem
Speaker 1: throughout the season is that, like when they have Jaden,
Speaker 1: Julius and Rudy out there, you have a guy that
Speaker 1: literally can't effectively consistently score anywhere on the floor, and
Speaker 1: Rudy Jayden who is a bad spot up shooter, and
Speaker 1: Julius Randall is a bad spot up shooter, and so
Speaker 1: as a result, it puts him in a situation where,
Speaker 1: like teams can load up and Ant's gonna make these
Speaker 1: kickout passes, but a lot of times they're not bearing fruit.
Speaker 1: And so that's why you see these clutch time situations
Speaker 1: where Ant's taking really difficult step back jump shots over
Speaker 1: the top of the defense because he didn't believe in
Speaker 1: those guys. He didn't think they can finish, He didn't
Speaker 1: think they can make shots, right, And so, like I
Speaker 1: do think it's fascinating because, like I think that over time,
Speaker 1: as the Timberwolves continue to surround Anthony Edwards with better
Speaker 1: offensive talent, that he'll be more willing to lean into
Speaker 1: that part of his game and develop that part of
Speaker 1: his game. But I thought he was really really good
Speaker 1: as a playmaker in this one. Nice win for the
Speaker 1: Wolves as they get their second in a row. And
Speaker 1: again we're gonna go really quick on these last two.
Speaker 1: Pacer Spurs's close game until Tyrey Saliburton caught that insane
Speaker 1: heater or he had sixteen points in three minutes. He
Speaker 1: was just had that like you know, a little step
Speaker 1: back three going. He caught the Spurs in some bad switches.
Speaker 1: He caught like while he was red hot. Keldon Johnson
Speaker 1: did one of those softs switches as we talk about
Speaker 1: where he didn't actually close out, they lost him in
Speaker 1: transition once and then once he got hot, he was
Speaker 1: just starting to it just started to make every shot
Speaker 1: he took and hit a couple of really tough ones,
Speaker 1: like kind of a forward leaning one and then a
Speaker 1: little step back in transition that he made, and it
Speaker 1: just completely discombobulated the Spurs, like they lost all their composure.
Speaker 1: They started to just force everything at the rim through
Speaker 1: help and started missing a lot of layups and getting
Speaker 1: blocked at the rim, which just led to bad floor
Speaker 1: balance situations, meaning like not guys ready to get back
Speaker 1: in transition defense, which is something that Indiana is just
Speaker 1: always going to turn around and kill you with in transition.
Speaker 1: And it went from a close game in the late
Speaker 1: third quarter to Indiana winning by thirty eight. So that's
Speaker 1: all you need to know about how Tyree Saliberton shooting
Speaker 1: like legitimately just like murdered the psyche of the San
Speaker 1: Antonio Spurs. And then lastly, before we get out of here, tonight,
Speaker 1: the Cleveland Cavaliers drop a game to the Houston Rockets
Speaker 1: at home. They've now lost five out of eight. A
Speaker 1: couple things in there, Houston's a really bad matchup for
Speaker 1: Cleveland because they're just so much more athletic on the perimeter. Now,
Speaker 1: for the record, like I don't I was thinking about
Speaker 1: this earlier in that AKVS fan actually messaged me today
Speaker 1: and I was talking about it with him, But like,
Speaker 1: I don't think Cleveland's going to face a team athletic
Speaker 1: enough in the Eastern Conference to cause that type of
Speaker 1: problem for them. And I don't think they're going to
Speaker 1: run into a team like Houston. If it got to
Speaker 1: the finals and they ran into a team like Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: I do think that that it could be a problem,
Speaker 1: but they're I think Houston uniquely brings the waves of
Speaker 1: these big, freaky athletic perimeter defenders that could have perimeter
Speaker 1: athletes that can cause them problems. So again, some of
Speaker 1: its matchups and some of it's a lull. Like there's
Speaker 1: a bunch of specific things. We talked about how the
Speaker 1: Calves have been shooting the absolute shit out of the
Speaker 1: basketball all year long. Well, they're just thirty seven percent
Speaker 1: from three in this three and five stretch. Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: has been slumping and the five losses he's shooting below
Speaker 1: forty percent from the field with only four assists per
Speaker 1: game has really been forcing the issue has looked like
Speaker 1: out of rhythm. And then their defense has been really
Speaker 1: bad and the five loss they have a one to
Speaker 1: twenty four defensive rating, which I think has a lot
Speaker 1: to do with just kind of a little mid season
Speaker 1: low here, so little drop down here for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Speaker 1: We'll see how they respond to it. Adversity is part
Speaker 1: of the process. You don't see teams too often just
Speaker 1: cruise through regular season, dominate everybody and win. Like what
Speaker 1: happened last year with Boston is pretty rare, and so
Speaker 1: you know, this is a little bit of adversity for
Speaker 1: the Cavs, and I'm interested to see how they respond
Speaker 1: to it. All right, guys, that's all half for tonight.
Speaker 1: As always, sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and
Speaker 1: for supporting the show. We're going to take the rest
Speaker 1: of the weekend off and we will be back on
Speaker 1: Monday with our typical power rankings and weekend reaction. I
Speaker 1: will see you guys then the volume. What's up guys.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 1: OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 1: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 1: do that, I'd really appreciate it.