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Speaker 1: All right, wellcot to tonight here at the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody,
Speaker 1: Oh bove you guys are having a great week. Just
Speaker 1: a really quick show here this morning. We're gonna two games.
Speaker 1: Instant reaction style from last night. The Los Angeles Lakers
Speaker 1: getting a win against the Miami Heat to snap a
Speaker 1: three game losing streak. Impressive second half Lebron James doing
Speaker 1: a nice job picking apart that Miami heat zone. We're
Speaker 1: gonna break that game down. Then in the second half
Speaker 1: of the show, the Golden State Warriors get a huge,
Speaker 1: important win for them on the road in Minnesota. Steph
Speaker 1: Curry's fantastic, interesting couple of sequences at the tail end
Speaker 1: of the game that we're gonna get into. We'll break
Speaker 1: that game down from the perspective of both teams. You
Speaker 1: guys are the drill before we get started. Subscribed to
Speaker 1: Hoops to Night YouTube channel so you don't miss any
Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore
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Speaker 1: sure you guys follow us there, and then, last but
Speaker 1: not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments.
Speaker 1: We're having another mail bag just like we do every week,
Speaker 1: coming out tomorrow on Friday. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So this Lakers Heat game was an interesting game. The
Speaker 1: Heat really controlled the first half. The Heat guards Terry
Speaker 1: Rozier and Terry and Tyler Harrow were really picking apart
Speaker 1: Max Christy. Like the early in Max. I've been talking
Speaker 1: about this with the Lakers, like, I'm a huge believer
Speaker 1: in him being like kind of a rock solid NBA
Speaker 1: role player for a long time. I think he's got
Speaker 1: enough off the dribble and shooting polish that he's going
Speaker 1: to be a pretty decent offensive player in a few
Speaker 1: years too. And he's just got good physical tools, good quickness,
Speaker 1: commitment to the defensive end. So I'm a believer in Max.
Speaker 1: But as I keep saying, he's just a young player,
Speaker 1: makes a lot of mistakes and there's an inconsistency with him,
Speaker 1: which is super normal for young basketball players. And he
Speaker 1: was kind of the culprit of a lot of the
Speaker 1: Laker defensive breakdowns in the first quarter, like bam Adebayo's
Speaker 1: posting up ad you like that matchup. He doesn't need
Speaker 1: help down there, He's just fine. You're guarding Tyler Harrow,
Speaker 1: the guy who's been one of the most lights out
Speaker 1: shooters in the league this year, instead of just kind
Speaker 1: of staying home. He ends up kind of lingering down
Speaker 1: in the paint, leaves Tyler Harrow wide open. Bam just
Speaker 1: throws a simple kickout pass. Tyler Harrow knocks down the three.
Speaker 1: A couple possessions later, him and Austin. Remember Austin's guarding Terry,
Speaker 1: He's guarding Tyler. There's a simple interchange between the two
Speaker 1: that just needs to be a switched easy basketball right.
Speaker 1: Austin thinks it's a switch, so he stops chasing Terry Rozier.
Speaker 1: Max is not paying attention, and Terry Rozier just drives
Speaker 1: right by. Max gets into the basket and makes a layup,
Speaker 1: goes you get switched on, Terry Rozier. A couple possessions later,
Speaker 1: they run a ball screen on the left side of
Speaker 1: the floor. He goes under the ball screen. And when
Speaker 1: you go under the ball screen, the whole point of
Speaker 1: going under is to contain the ball. If you go over,
Speaker 1: you're taking away the pull up jump shot. If you
Speaker 1: go under, you're containing the drive. Right, That's what drop
Speaker 1: coverage is. If you go over the top, you have
Speaker 1: your big there to help you on the drive. If
Speaker 1: you go under, you can actually cut off the drive
Speaker 1: yourself and you don't require any help. But he goes
Speaker 1: under and he takes a really bad angle, doesn't actually
Speaker 1: cut Terry Rozier off. He just goes right around him,
Speaker 1: drives right in. Lebron has to hard help easy kick
Speaker 1: out to he would Highsmith in the right corner. He
Speaker 1: knocks it out. He had a bad knocks it down.
Speaker 1: He had a bad close out against Tyler Harrow right
Speaker 1: on the right wing where Tyler just went right around him.
Speaker 1: He got a driving layup. He just wasn't It was
Speaker 1: a lot of like hectic movement without a lot of
Speaker 1: like really baseline understanding of fundamental defense, and it caused
Speaker 1: some issues for the Laker defense in the first half.
Speaker 1: Miami also shot the ball extremely well. They took twenty
Speaker 1: two jump shots in the first half and got one
Speaker 1: point six to eight points per attempt. That's like crazy.
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow just continues all year to hit shots. And
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna say the same thing about Tyler Harrow
Speaker 1: that I've said about the Cleveland Cavaliers and a lot
Speaker 1: of these other teams around the league, Like when you
Speaker 1: see a guy who's shooting really, really well, when historically
Speaker 1: he shoots at a lesser level. If you see a
Speaker 1: team that's sho shooting really well when some of their
Speaker 1: guys historically don't shoot as well, yeah we can sit
Speaker 1: here and talk about like, oh, well they won't make
Speaker 1: shots when it matters, but yeah they also might. So
Speaker 1: like my thing with that, when it comes to like
Speaker 1: if a guy is shooting super well or not, it's
Speaker 1: not really worth getting into. We just will find out.
Speaker 1: We'll find out if this is the new Tyler Harrow,
Speaker 1: and if this is the new Tyler Harrow, then he's
Speaker 1: a star in this league. And if it's just a
Speaker 1: one year hot shooting street a streak, then obviously it's
Speaker 1: a different conversation that Miami needs to have. But whatever
Speaker 1: it is, this year, Tyler Harrow is just shooting the
Speaker 1: damn laces off the basketball, to his credit. But the
Speaker 1: game was actually pretty close in the first quarter. But
Speaker 1: in the second quarter, Spolster just went all in on
Speaker 1: zone defense and the Heat built their first margin of
Speaker 1: the game during netspan. Remember, Miami's the zone defense so
Speaker 1: much better than everyone else in the league's. They invest
Speaker 1: so much more time in practicing it. It's a very
Speaker 1: different type of zone than other zones around the league
Speaker 1: because it's very active. It's very like guys are pressuring
Speaker 1: the ball, jumping, passing lanes. A lot of times, zone
Speaker 1: defenses breed passivity in people because you're only responsible for
Speaker 1: this area, so you think about, like, oh, this guy
Speaker 1: cut out of my area, or the ball's over there,
Speaker 1: there's nothing I need to be doing. Eric Spolstra has
Speaker 1: built a very active zone with the Miami Heat, and
Speaker 1: that causes a lot more disruption and issue for opposing offenses.
Speaker 1: And the Lakers weren't getting terrible looks in the first half,
Speaker 1: but they weren't getting great looks either. It was a
Speaker 1: lot of they were basically just screening the top man
Speaker 1: every single time. So like if you imagine the two
Speaker 1: three zone, there's two guys at the top, there's three
Speaker 1: guys on the baseline. You have your two ball handlers
Speaker 1: up top. But if you bring a Jackson Hayes up
Speaker 1: to screen the top man, and let's say it's Lebron
Speaker 1: on the left side and Austin's on the right side,
Speaker 1: if you screened the top man, Lebron can get into
Speaker 1: the lane and now it's say, basically a two on
Speaker 1: one with him in Austin, and if that guy steps
Speaker 1: over to stop the drive, he can pitch it out
Speaker 1: to Austin. And if he doesn't stop step over to
Speaker 1: stop the drive, Lebron can just keep going into the
Speaker 1: lane and either make a kickout or make something at
Speaker 1: the ram. And it wasn't like that. Again, they weren't
Speaker 1: getting terrible looks, but they weren't getting great looks either.
Speaker 1: Some contested stuff in the paint, and they were missing
Speaker 1: some of their kickout threes in that situation. But the
Speaker 1: main thing that stood out to me is not much
Speaker 1: in the way of variety. They were basically just spamming
Speaker 1: that high screen the top man instead of using more
Speaker 1: ball in player movement to beat the zone. They ran
Speaker 1: twenty possessions of zone in the first half Miami did
Speaker 1: and the Lakers only got zero point eighty five points
Speaker 1: per possession, and so he ended up going into the
Speaker 1: locker room up by twelve. They were the better shot
Speaker 1: makers in the first half, they played better defense than
Speaker 1: the first half. They get a margin as a result.
Speaker 1: But in the second half Lebron just completely dominated that
Speaker 1: game and just eviscerated Miami's zone. There's several things you
Speaker 1: have to do to beat his own right. And we
Speaker 1: talked about it earlier, like you can do things like
Speaker 1: screen the top man, and I'm not saying that you
Speaker 1: shouldn't do that, but there's got to be variety. There's
Speaker 1: gotta be ball in player movement. There's several different things
Speaker 1: you got to get into. One, you need to get
Speaker 1: the ball into the middle of the floor, like around
Speaker 1: the foul line. Why it draws the attention of all
Speaker 1: five guys and that's what opens up the opportunities for
Speaker 1: guys to get open around that. Cutting along the baseline,
Speaker 1: relocating around the above the brake line. You gotta get
Speaker 1: the ball into the middle of the floor. The next
Speaker 1: thing is off ball movement. You have to have guys
Speaker 1: that capitalize on the attention that is drawn. When the
Speaker 1: ball gets to the middle of the floor, everyone turns
Speaker 1: their eyes towards the middle. You've got to be relocating
Speaker 1: to find openings. You got to be cutting along the baseline.
Speaker 1: Rui was great at this all night, just cutting out
Speaker 1: of the slot like on the wing, towards that just
Speaker 1: towards the rim. When the ball would get into the
Speaker 1: middle of the floor. Gotta get the ball in the
Speaker 1: middle floor gotta have guys moving around. You gotta hit
Speaker 1: some catch and shoot threes like you got. You have
Speaker 1: to knock down the threes over the top of the
Speaker 1: defense that that zone is designed to give up right.
Speaker 1: And then lastly, you need to be able to score
Speaker 1: in the middle of the floor, meaning if you do
Speaker 1: get the ball to the middle of the floor, and
Speaker 1: the other five members of the zone kind of stay home,
Speaker 1: meaning the center just says I'm going to take away
Speaker 1: the rim and force you to make some sort of
Speaker 1: shot in the middle of the floor. The two wings
Speaker 1: in the corner kind of stay home, and the two
Speaker 1: guys on the top are just tracking shooters. There's space
Speaker 1: there in the middle of the floor, And basically what
Speaker 1: miamis saying in that situation is score, go score there,
Speaker 1: and you need to have guys who are willing to
Speaker 1: score there. Every single player on the Lakers, in different ways,
Speaker 1: stepped into those four roles, like the getting the ball
Speaker 1: into the middle of the middle of the floor, Lebron
Speaker 1: and Austin just making sure that the feeds were there,
Speaker 1: whether it was to Anthony Davis or it was too
Speaker 1: gay Vincent, or it was too Austin and Lebron from
Speaker 1: each other. They got the ball into the middle of
Speaker 1: the floor. The off ball movement, it was really everybody.
Speaker 1: Everybody was doing a good job. The off ball movement
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier. Rui's cutting, guys are cutting along
Speaker 1: the baseline, Shooters are relocating, Gabe and Austin. Everyone's doing
Speaker 1: their job in that regard. Hitting the catch and shoot threes.
Speaker 1: Lebron hits a couple big ones right on the left
Speaker 1: wing or on the left corner, and then in the
Speaker 1: right corner. Those are the first two shots that kind
Speaker 1: of shrunk the deficit down. I think it was like
Speaker 1: seventy three to seventy at that point. Miami ended up
Speaker 1: building it back up when Lebron was on the bench
Speaker 1: in the middle of the third quarter. But Lebron hit
Speaker 1: a couple of big catch and shoot threes, gave Vincent
Speaker 1: hit some threes, like Max Christy started hitting threes, Ruts
Speaker 1: Mercer like, everyone just starts hitting shots, which ended up
Speaker 1: loosening up the zone a little bit that way, and
Speaker 1: then the scoring in the middle of the floor is
Speaker 1: mostly Anthony Davis and Gabe Vincent like Ady just hitting
Speaker 1: quick post moves against Bam, like a little left shoulder
Speaker 1: hook or against kelll Ware and then and then Gabe
Speaker 1: Vincent again like he was doing it with those little
Speaker 1: short range fadeaways. Again, like the zone is kind of
Speaker 1: designed to concede a kind of tough contested shot there
Speaker 1: in the middle of the floor, and Gabe was just
Speaker 1: hitting them. Gabe was turning over his right shoulder and
Speaker 1: saw its just shooting a nice soft shot that would
Speaker 1: all in on the rim or swish through. And those
Speaker 1: were just again, in all of those specific areas, guys
Speaker 1: were making plays. But the one guy that I wanted
Speaker 1: to really emphasize here was Lebron in his passing. Like again,
Speaker 1: these openings that are in the zone, they're brief, right,
Speaker 1: like one of the things that happens in his zone.
Speaker 1: Like we talked about earlier, you're only responsible for your area,
Speaker 1: and so as the guy cuts away from you, you
Speaker 1: kind of are passing them off. And so there are
Speaker 1: these like little transitions where you know you're a guy
Speaker 1: is out of the zone of the area of one
Speaker 1: man in the zone, but he's entering into the area
Speaker 1: of another man in the zone, but he might be
Speaker 1: tracking a different player at that point in time, And
Speaker 1: so there are these like little temporary openings where a
Speaker 1: guy can kind of like slip into a gap between
Speaker 1: two zone defenders while one of them is distracted or
Speaker 1: something along those lines. And they're usually tight windows, and
Speaker 1: they're usually tough passes. Like the skip passes, you have
Speaker 1: to hit, like you got to put a certain amount
Speaker 1: of touch on them to get it over the top
Speaker 1: of all the arms, but you also have to get
Speaker 1: it to get there quick enough to where the defense
Speaker 1: can't rotate or the ball that can land into the
Speaker 1: shooting pockets so the guy can make a quick decision.
Speaker 1: These tight space Like there was a pass that Lebron
Speaker 1: hit to Ruy cutting out of the right wing towards
Speaker 1: the basket, and it was like a bounce pass that
Speaker 1: was literally just threaded into that tiny gap between the
Speaker 1: center and the guy that was guarding Ruey up at
Speaker 1: the top of the key. It there's a lot of
Speaker 1: like tight space passing Lebron especially, but Austin as well.
Speaker 1: Austin had a great passing game. He had fourteen assists
Speaker 1: in this game. But those two guys just did a
Speaker 1: great job making the connective passes to put together the
Speaker 1: player movement that was generating openings. Against the zone. In
Speaker 1: the second half, Miami ran twenty nine possessions of zone
Speaker 1: and the Lakers got one point two to one points
Speaker 1: per possession. Lots of Again, everyone contributed, Austin with this passing,
Speaker 1: Lebron with his passing and his shooting, Gabe with his
Speaker 1: mid range shot making, Ruey with his cutting. Rue had
Speaker 1: twenty three points in this game. Anthony Davis hit a
Speaker 1: couple of big shots over the top. Just everybody made
Speaker 1: big plays, and at the tail end of the game,
Speaker 1: Lebron's shot making really broad at home that three that
Speaker 1: he hit at the top of the key. Lit'll pull up,
Speaker 1: jump shot and pick and roll with Anthony Davis around
Speaker 1: the left elbow, turn around, right shoulder, fade away. Like
Speaker 1: Lebron's shot making is gonna be key to this team
Speaker 1: accomplishing anything this year. Because again, they're gonna probably make
Speaker 1: a trade here in the next month that is centered
Speaker 1: around more of like a defensive two way guard to
Speaker 1: anchor this team, or a backup center or something like that.
Speaker 1: I don't think the Lakers are gonna make an ultra
Speaker 1: aggressive move for a star. We'll see, We'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: But the I'm gonna talk about that with Yovan when
Speaker 1: we finish up here today. But like there's no doubt
Speaker 1: that there's no doubt that like that that they're not
Speaker 1: gonna get there. It's more likely than not that they're
Speaker 1: not gonna get more offensive firepower at the deadline, which
Speaker 1: is gonna put a certain amount of responsibility on Lebron
Speaker 1: for that to make to make those types of shots, right,
Speaker 1: and for Austin to make those types of shots, and
Speaker 1: for Anthony Davis to make those types of shots. The
Speaker 1: last thing I want to hit on the Lakers front
Speaker 1: was the defensive improvement. So I talked a lot about
Speaker 1: the one switching in the last video, right, and again,
Speaker 1: the Lakers switched one through five a lot to start
Speaker 1: the year, and then it looked like in the run
Speaker 1: where they kind of turned things around, that they stopped
Speaker 1: and they did more selective switching and keeping Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: towards the ring more in drop coverage possessions. JJ Redick
Speaker 1: said in the pregame presser that they were going to
Speaker 1: go back to what they were using before and that
Speaker 1: the one to five switching one through five switching was
Speaker 1: match up specific for the Spurs game. Now, what was
Speaker 1: interesting to me about that is they were doing it
Speaker 1: against Dallas as well, and I'm not really sure what
Speaker 1: the case would be for doing it against the Spurs
Speaker 1: with Victor Wembyama versus doing it against the Mavericks with
Speaker 1: Derek Lively and Daniel Gafford, guys that Anthony Davis could
Speaker 1: easily just sag off of and help in the paint.
Speaker 1: So like, again I'm I'm a little confused on that front.
Speaker 1: But like JJ got away from it and went back
Speaker 1: towards that more picky, more selective switching type of scheme
Speaker 1: with more high drop coverage with Anthony Davis in this
Speaker 1: particular game. But what ends up happening, and this is
Speaker 1: one of the important details that I talk about a
Speaker 1: lot on the show. Like a lot of times I'll
Speaker 1: see people talk about like, oh, like there's this huge
Speaker 1: adjustment this guy's guarding this guy. Oh there's this huge
Speaker 1: adjustment they did this coverage instead, And like, what's so
Speaker 1: funny to me about that is like I don't want
Speaker 1: to pretend like that stuff doesn't matter. It does. But
Speaker 1: I feel like there's this desire to come up with
Speaker 1: a real, tangible, like like obvious solution that I can
Speaker 1: write down on paper, and it's like, this is why
Speaker 1: everything got better. But the truth of the matter is
Speaker 1: basketball games are a shit show. There's so many different
Speaker 1: things that go wrong in various situations. Like who you're
Speaker 1: guarding doesn't matter when twenty percent ish of the possessions
Speaker 1: are transition, and in transition there's cross matches. You're just
Speaker 1: guarding the nearest guy because in transition it's instead of
Speaker 1: guard your man, which is the half court principle, in transition,
Speaker 1: it's stop the ball, protect the basket, spray out to shooters.
Speaker 1: So like everyone ends up in these cross matches and
Speaker 1: now all of a sudden, whatever matchup you're in doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: The scheme shift and that sort of situation too, Like
Speaker 1: you're gonna do more switching in situations like that where
Speaker 1: it's scattered, or sometimes the big just sets a really
Speaker 1: good screen. There's a play like this in the first half.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the big just sets a really good screen, and
Speaker 1: when he does, the guard has to switch. They call
Speaker 1: it a peel off switch. You have no choice, Like
Speaker 1: you're originally in your drop, you're chasing over the top,
Speaker 1: but you see that the ball handler is strung The
Speaker 1: big out too, far. You need to now peel off,
Speaker 1: get back to the big and box him out, or
Speaker 1: if they pitch it back, they're gonna post up. Right,
Speaker 1: there was a play like that Max ended up getting
Speaker 1: switched on to BAM and again like this is what
Speaker 1: it's technically a switch, right, the five is switching a
Speaker 1: ball screen, which is technically not the scheme, but it's
Speaker 1: an audible within the scheme, like, oh, it's too good
Speaker 1: of a screen, I have to switch now. They immediately
Speaker 1: went to post BAM on Max. Now we're back in
Speaker 1: the same problem that we always talk about with one
Speaker 1: through five switching, which is mismatch attacking in the post. Right,
Speaker 1: But what did I talk about in that video about
Speaker 1: the Lakers earlier this earlier this week? I can't even
Speaker 1: remember when we did it in that video. If you
Speaker 1: guys remember, one of the things I talked about is like,
Speaker 1: you can't just leave guys on an island, Like if
Speaker 1: you don't have to in switches, just leave yourself compromised
Speaker 1: in one on one situations, it's a five man attack
Speaker 1: on defense. And like there was an early BAM post
Speaker 1: up of Austin Lebron double teams and forces him to
Speaker 1: give up the basketball. Max lost another play where Max
Speaker 1: lost Tyler Harrow on the first half, just let one
Speaker 1: pass away. Max is not paying attention to Tyler Harrow
Speaker 1: and he knocks down at three. But if you do
Speaker 1: it right off the ball, you now have supported Austin.
Speaker 1: In the mismatch the play that I was just talking about,
Speaker 1: Max and ad switch, BAM's going to post Max. Ruey
Speaker 1: stunts in from the elbow. You can actually see Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis stunting in two, but it's stunting. What I mean
Speaker 1: by that is like you run in and kind of
Speaker 1: swipe at the ball and then get back. You're not
Speaker 1: actually double teaming. You're just trying to force the offensive
Speaker 1: player to overthink or to rush, or to make a mistake.
Speaker 1: Baman's a pump face on the hook shot when Ruy
Speaker 1: comes in and swipes. Then he has a break rhythm
Speaker 1: hook shot off of the pump fake that he misses
Speaker 1: over the top of Max. You supported Max. You didn't
Speaker 1: leave him on an island. You supported him. And this
Speaker 1: is why I keep talking about the difference between like
Speaker 1: what a scheme can do versus how well they're executed.
Speaker 1: JJ wants to switch because he has a certain view
Speaker 1: of this personnel. This group is capable of it. They're
Speaker 1: capable of switching. The problem is is they just don't.
Speaker 1: They have not been committed to the work necessary for
Speaker 1: it to work. Whether they run this kind of like
Speaker 1: more selective switching scheme, which I think is better. I
Speaker 1: think you want to keep Anthony Davis at the rim
Speaker 1: as much as possible, or if you end up full
Speaker 1: on switching, or in the situations where switches occur out
Speaker 1: of necessity, it's just about doing all the right things.
Speaker 1: It's just about like if you swarm with stunting and helping,
Speaker 1: that allows the on ball guy to be more aggressive.
Speaker 1: But if everyone stays home, the on ball guy has
Speaker 1: to play a very positional style of defense where you're
Speaker 1: just forcing him to make a shot over the top,
Speaker 1: and he's probably just going to go right through you
Speaker 1: because he's bigger and stronger, or shoot right over the
Speaker 1: top because he's bigger, So again it's a nice step
Speaker 1: in the right direction. That's an excellent example in that
Speaker 1: second half, ear in that entire game, really of how
Speaker 1: execution matters more than the actual scheme does, because every
Speaker 1: scheme in principle works. Certain schemes fit different personnel groups better,
Speaker 1: but every scream scheme in principle works. It's a nice
Speaker 1: step in the right direction. But again with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: it's all about their day to day commitment, doing it
Speaker 1: night in and night out to get to where they
Speaker 1: want to go. All right on the Warriors' front, So
Speaker 1: the Warriors just completely jump the Minnesota Timberwolves out the gates.
Speaker 1: They go up by twenty four points in the first quarter.
Speaker 1: The Warriors defense was excellent in that stretch, and you
Speaker 1: know when the Warriors defense is at their best, it's
Speaker 1: a very swarming type of attack. Everybody almost looks like
Speaker 1: they're in two places at once. The ball handler always
Speaker 1: feels crowded, like he's like he doesn't have any space
Speaker 1: to operate. But it also feels like no one catches
Speaker 1: on the perimeter clean because their closeouts are so sharp
Speaker 1: and their rotations are so sharp, so it just feels
Speaker 1: crowded with nobody open. That's when the Warriors defense is
Speaker 1: at their best. It's very swarming. One of the things
Speaker 1: they did really well in the first quarter of that
Speaker 1: game too, is defending at the rim without found jumping
Speaker 1: arm straight up, absorbing contact, forcing guys to make tough
Speaker 1: over the top playups. They forced a bunch of misses.
Speaker 1: Julius Randall was missing shots, Anthony Edwards was missing shots.
Speaker 1: Tray Jackson Davis did a bunch of damage on the
Speaker 1: offensive glass in the first half two, just beating Rudy
Speaker 1: Golbaar to loose balls, beating Julius Randall to loose balls,
Speaker 1: and then Steph Curry hitting tough shots against the Wolves
Speaker 1: drop coverage, mainly by just doing a good job of
Speaker 1: setting up guys for screens. He saw a steady diet
Speaker 1: of Anthony Edwards and Jada McDaniels. This one with Jaden,
Speaker 1: it's more about setting him up with aunt just as
Speaker 1: struggles tracking shooters and off ball screens or really in
Speaker 1: any sort of screening action. It's something that I've been
Speaker 1: pointing out here for a while. He had some really
Speaker 1: bad reps against Steph Curry in this game, but Steph
Speaker 1: is just really good at setting up his defender for screens. Again,
Speaker 1: like a screen, there's two There's two elements to getting
Speaker 1: good contact on the screen. The screener has to get
Speaker 1: into the right position, hold his ground, be physical, set
Speaker 1: a good screen, but you also need your guard to
Speaker 1: set up the defender to run into the screen. If
Speaker 1: he doesn't do the right work before, the defender is
Speaker 1: just gonna be able to run around the screen too easily.
Speaker 1: And like there's a three he hitd against drop coverage
Speaker 1: on the right block is the deep one he hit
Speaker 1: over go bear. He got Jaden pinned on his left side, stopped,
Speaker 1: waited for the screen, and then exploded forward to get
Speaker 1: the separation to knock down the shot. He had Ant
Speaker 1: on the left wing, same sort of thing, like a
Speaker 1: swim move where he almost like threw Ant into the
Speaker 1: screen and then ran out over the top knocked down.
Speaker 1: The three hit a few threes in that first quarter
Speaker 1: when they jumped out to that early lead. They end
Speaker 1: up going up by twenty four points. Dennis Schroeder hits
Speaker 1: a couple of threes, but heal came in was like
Speaker 1: picking up Nikkeil. Alexander Walker full court, swiped the ball
Speaker 1: away from him, hits a corner three on the other end.
Speaker 1: Gis atos I thought was good again. He's just big
Speaker 1: plays hard, can knock down an open shot, make basic
Speaker 1: driving kick reads, which is like just useful in the
Speaker 1: modern NBA when things are organized around him and he's
Speaker 1: been playing really well as of late. The Warriors build
Speaker 1: a massive lead and then the Wolves just kind of
Speaker 1: slowly battled back the rest of the game, And that's
Speaker 1: what you expect against a good team at home, right
Speaker 1: They get it back to two in the mid fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: but then the Warriors made just enough plays to pull
Speaker 1: it out. Trace Jackson Davis when they got it down
Speaker 1: to two, gets a tap out rebound that leads to
Speaker 1: Moses Moody three that bumps it back up to five.
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins hit a big transition three that bumped the
Speaker 1: lead up to six, and then Steph Curry hits two
Speaker 1: incredible shots to ice the game. A week side flair
Speaker 1: off of like a dribble handoff with Kevon Looney where
Speaker 1: Ant just wasn't paying a ten t Ant relaxed and
Speaker 1: Steph just cut off of a dribble handoff from Looney
Speaker 1: on the weak side. Wiggins was driving on the right
Speaker 1: side of the floor, and that's where Ant got distracted.
Speaker 1: But it's like, dude, you're guarding Steph Curry, You're guarding
Speaker 1: the only guy that you cannot lose track of, and
Speaker 1: Aunt just for a split second stop paying attention Steph
Speaker 1: broke free with the Looney dribble handoff in the left corner.
Speaker 1: He knocks down the three and then the biggest shout
Speaker 1: of the game, nas Reed like like jumps out on
Speaker 1: Steph on the left wing and Steph rifles a bounce pass.
Speaker 1: I think it was Gary Payton in the dunker spot
Speaker 1: on the left side of the floor. Anthony Edwards is
Speaker 1: there on the left corner area. Nas is on Steph.
Speaker 1: They both just turned their backs and stop paying attention
Speaker 1: to Steph. Steph just relocates to the left corner easy
Speaker 1: kickout pass. Nasri panic closes out when he realizes what's happening,
Speaker 1: but it's too late. Steph knocks down the three that
Speaker 1: should have ice to the game, but we ended up
Speaker 1: needing one more big play from the Warriors for them
Speaker 1: to close this one out. In the free throw game,
Speaker 1: Gary Payton ends up missing a free throw that makes
Speaker 1: at a two point game with ten seconds left, and
Speaker 1: it's a loose ball and Kevon Looney just bullies his
Speaker 1: way through. Rudy Gobert taps the rebound out kind of
Speaker 1: towards the corner, and then Andrew Wiggins, who is out
Speaker 1: above the break, crashed in and kind of crashed in
Speaker 1: running left, and Wiggins crashed in running right, and it
Speaker 1: was just a lucky bounce and Wiggins ran in there
Speaker 1: and got that loose ball and that ended up saving
Speaker 1: the game. One of the last thing I want to
Speaker 1: say about the Warriors before we get out of here.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons why I'm a believer in this
Speaker 1: team investing at the deadline is their defense. Even without Draymond,
Speaker 1: this is an incredibly organized team with a good amount
Speaker 1: of foot speed that swarms and is committed. They're well
Speaker 1: coached and committed to the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: I've never felt at any point this year that they
Speaker 1: like let go of the rope in a real way.
Speaker 1: There's just a very specific weakness in shot creation on
Speaker 1: this team that manifests in a way that can kind
Speaker 1: of trickle down. Right. When you have poor shot creation,
Speaker 1: you can have more turnovers and missshots. More turnovers and
Speaker 1: misshots lead to more transition offense opportunities for the opponent.
Speaker 1: More transition offensive opportunities for the opponent means higher offensive
Speaker 1: efficiency because, as we know, every single transition possession is
Speaker 1: worth roughly twenty percent more than a half court possession, right,
Speaker 1: So like they're getting extra efficiency there that forces you
Speaker 1: to continue to attack their set defense, which is going
Speaker 1: to continue to accentuate your lack of shot creation, which
Speaker 1: is going to continue to put you in compromise positions
Speaker 1: on defense. As things get ugly, your team starts to
Speaker 1: lose belief than just that little extra bit of just
Speaker 1: athletically can go away, and you can end up in
Speaker 1: a situation where things spiral. All of these things are
Speaker 1: intricately connected. You have a better shot creator out there
Speaker 1: on the floor with Steph, you score more frequently, You
Speaker 1: stay out of transition defense more frequently. Your team believes
Speaker 1: in what you're doing more, which brings that extra layer
Speaker 1: of intensity and verve, and it can be a snowball
Speaker 1: effect in the pose direction. This is a good defense.
Speaker 1: That's a good defense without Draymon. Draymond makes it an
Speaker 1: elite defense, right. That's a good defense that is capable
Speaker 1: of guarding that has struggled so much with offense at
Speaker 1: times this year that things have unraveled a little bit.
Speaker 1: But bringing in a specific player into an area of
Speaker 1: need as desperate as what they have there on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor can make a huge difference
Speaker 1: in uh in kind of turning this season around for
Speaker 1: this Warrior's team again, like this team has real strengths.
Speaker 1: I think there's a I understand with the recent struggle
Speaker 1: that there's this emphasis on this team almost like being
Speaker 1: dead in the water. And I think this is a
Speaker 1: team with a crippling weakness, and if you address the
Speaker 1: crippling weakness, it will accentuate the strengths of the roster,
Speaker 1: which is the coaching staff, the depth of perimeter speed,
Speaker 1: the talent of Steph Curry. Those things are being ground
Speaker 1: down by this gaping hole in that secondary shot creator
Speaker 1: position that they need to address. Last thing I wanted
Speaker 1: to say, Rudy made some interesting comments after the game
Speaker 1: about rebounding and talking about like the difference between boxing
Speaker 1: out and going to get the basketball. And it's kind
Speaker 1: of an interesting concept because, like in any sort of
Speaker 1: live ball rebound situation at the big guy spot, it
Speaker 1: almost always turns into the defensive big is going to
Speaker 1: turn and box out. The offensive big is gonna try
Speaker 1: like hell to get the offensive rebound, right Like, he's
Speaker 1: not boxing out's unless he has interior position, But for
Speaker 1: the most part, he's just crash it. And then there's
Speaker 1: corner crashes. Right, you have the offensive players crashing out
Speaker 1: of the corners and defensive players crashing out of the corners.
Speaker 1: More often than not, it's the pursuit of the basketball
Speaker 1: that leads to rebounds. Box outs are box outs, but
Speaker 1: so many of these jumpers are coming high off of
Speaker 1: the rim towards the middle of the floor, and it
Speaker 1: actually becomes more about ball pursuit than it becomes about
Speaker 1: boxing out. When I talk about corner crashes, I actually
Speaker 1: don't think it's a great idea for the guy in
Speaker 1: the corner to turn and try to box out the
Speaker 1: guy crashing out of the corner. He's at a huge advantage.
Speaker 1: It's like open field tackling. It's an open space. He's
Speaker 1: going to hit a move and try to get around
Speaker 1: you and go get the basketball. You just need to
Speaker 1: turn and get the fucking back Like that's how you rebound.
Speaker 1: You read from the perimeter, it's about crashing, Like, it's
Speaker 1: not as much about boxing out as it is about crashing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you happen to go crash and the ball's high
Speaker 1: in the air and you happen to see the guy
Speaker 1: behind you, by all means box out. But like Rudy's
Speaker 1: job is to box out, the other guy's job is
Speaker 1: to go get the basketball. Now to one of the
Speaker 1: things that Rudy talked about was like, oh, I just
Speaker 1: need to disengage and go get the basketball. I don't
Speaker 1: disagree from time to time, but when I was watching that,
Speaker 1: I thought Rudy was missing some box out. So like
Speaker 1: that's where it can get a little tricky. But again,
Speaker 1: it's a team effort of rebounding, crashing from the perimeter.
Speaker 1: It's literally like it's like that game we used to
Speaker 1: play when we were kids in elementary school where you
Speaker 1: just throw the ball at the air and everyone tries
Speaker 1: to go catch it. It's just a sheer force of
Speaker 1: will combined with athleticism. Who's going to go get the basketball?
Speaker 1: All right, guys, It's all I have for today. Is
Speaker 1: always as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and
Speaker 1: supporting the show. I will see you guys tomorrow for
Speaker 1: our mailbag episode the volume What so guys, As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight.
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