Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great week so far. We are live on AMP.
Speaker 1: Don't forget if you're watching on YouTube or listening on
Speaker 1: our podcast feeds that AMP is the very first place
Speaker 1: that you guys can get these shows. So the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Lakers decided shockingly to play Lebron James and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis on the tail end of a back to back,
Speaker 1: But they showed up to the arena and didn't bring
Speaker 1: their games with them until the second half, and unfortunately,
Speaker 1: they dug themselves in way too big of a hole.
Speaker 1: The Clippers notch a very important win for seeding in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference, putting them in the poll position to
Speaker 1: get that five seed and end up in a matchup
Speaker 1: with the Phoenix Suns in the first round, and suddenly
Speaker 1: the Lakers are looking at potentially a trip through the
Speaker 1: play in tournament, which always carries a certain amount of risk.
Speaker 1: And then we're also going to touch on the Dallas
Speaker 1: Mavericks down thirteen in the second half against the Sacramento
Speaker 1: Kings team that also kind of surprisingly played all their
Speaker 1: guys and they ended up notching a huge win on
Speaker 1: the strength of an improved defensive effort in the third
Speaker 1: quarter and Kyrie irving in some shot making heroics in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. So we're going to dive into both
Speaker 1: those games and all the ramifications. You guys know the
Speaker 1: drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels.
Speaker 1: You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
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Speaker 1: them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So there was a very specific
Speaker 1: reason why I thought Lebron James and Anthony Davis should
Speaker 1: play in this particular game. I don't believe in playing
Speaker 1: with fate. I mean, the Warriors were playing damn good
Speaker 1: basketball in twenty one going into the play in tournament,
Speaker 1: very similar to this Lakers team. They finally ditched playing
Speaker 1: specific lineups that were giving them problems. They went back
Speaker 1: to their core Draymond at the five, and had a
Speaker 1: ton of success and won fifteen of their last twenty games,
Speaker 1: getting healthy going into that playoff run after kind of
Speaker 1: a bizarre steph Curry tailbone injury put them into a
Speaker 1: predicament in the standings, and you know, everyone would have
Speaker 1: thought the Warriors were the most dangerous team going into
Speaker 1: that tournament. The Lakers kind of limped into that tournament.
Speaker 1: Lebron had just barely got returned to the court, Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: that just barely returned to the court. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: It was a wild, crazy game and Lebron ended up
Speaker 1: hitting a three to win it, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, they're in this do or die game against Memphis,
Speaker 1: who's just a big, physically imposing team, and next thing
Speaker 1: you know, the Warriors are home on their couch. That's
Speaker 1: the risk of the play in tournament, even though the
Speaker 1: Warriors were arguably the best team in that play in tournament.
Speaker 1: But that's just you know, single game sample sizes, crazy
Speaker 1: things can happen. You just saw that in the NC
Speaker 1: Double A tournaments. Too much shooting variants, especially in the
Speaker 1: modern NBAS with the way that teams rely on ball
Speaker 1: handling and shooting, there's just a lot of risk, and
Speaker 1: I thought Lebron and Anthony David were uniquely equipped to
Speaker 1: win this game against the Clippers. I do not think
Speaker 1: the Clippers are very good. I took them off of
Speaker 1: my top tier of contenders. I took them off of
Speaker 1: my teams that I believed could win a championship. I
Speaker 1: had eight teams, I shrunk at to seven and took
Speaker 1: the Clippers off of their A couple of reasons. They
Speaker 1: have no real rim protection. That was a problem, Paul
Speaker 1: George being out obviously a significant issue for them in
Speaker 1: shot creation. And they just especially with the aging of
Speaker 1: that roster and a lot of their perimeter players not
Speaker 1: being overly quick. They've got a lot of wings, but
Speaker 1: guys that can't really move their feet very well. Their
Speaker 1: wings more in name only rather than in actual performance.
Speaker 1: And you know, I just don't really think the Clippers
Speaker 1: are that good, even with as well as Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: has been playing, and even with the natural basketball fit
Speaker 1: of Russell Westbrook. And I just thought the Lakers could
Speaker 1: win this game. I thought if Lebron James and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis played even with fatigue, that if they brought the
Speaker 1: necessary effort, they could win. And they just completely and
Speaker 1: utterly totally mailed. In the first half of this game,
Speaker 1: Lebron James played literally what I believe to be the
Speaker 1: worst half of basketball he's ever played. He had three points,
Speaker 1: four turnovers. All four of his turnovers were pick sixes
Speaker 1: that immediately led to buckets on the other end for
Speaker 1: the Clippers. From a schematic standpoint, there was a very
Speaker 1: specific thing that happened to the Lakers that happens to
Speaker 1: the Lakers every once in a while. The Lakers are
Speaker 1: one of the best equipped teams to beat switching defenses.
Speaker 1: Why because when you can beat switching defenses at the
Speaker 1: rim versus through pull up shooting, you're gonna win those
Speaker 1: battles more times than not because it's just higher percentage
Speaker 1: shots around the rim. And when you can get switched
Speaker 1: on too smaller defenders and back them down into the basket,
Speaker 1: and now you're either finishing at the rim over smaller
Speaker 1: defenders or kicking to wide open shooters as they're having
Speaker 1: to double and swarm you around the rim. You can
Speaker 1: have a lot of success against switching defenses as the Lakers,
Speaker 1: but it requires Lebron James and Anthony Davis attacking those
Speaker 1: switches with physicality and trying to get to the rim,
Speaker 1: which requires effort. Those of you guys who remember the
Speaker 1: game that Lebron hurt his foot in the game where
Speaker 1: he kind of popped his foot, finished the game, dominated
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks in the post, and then ended up
Speaker 1: taking a month off. If you guys remember, in that game,
Speaker 1: it was a very similar dynamic. Dallas came out switching
Speaker 1: a ton of screens and Lebron James and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: refused to actively attack those switches at the rim. Instead,
Speaker 1: they passed out of those switches and lesser players tried
Speaker 1: to take shots. Very similar dynamic in this game. The
Speaker 1: Clippers were constantly putting smaller defenders onto Lebron James and
Speaker 1: he would not back them down to the post. He
Speaker 1: was just trying to float through the game, hoping that
Speaker 1: the strength of the roster, and that's just never going
Speaker 1: to be the case. And so that's why it was
Speaker 1: super disappointed, because again, like, look, the Clippers won this game,
Speaker 1: and I want to give them a ton of credit.
Speaker 1: They attacked the Lakers from the opening tip, immediately came
Speaker 1: out to a big lead. Russell Westbrook was playing with
Speaker 1: a ton of energy, as you would have expected in
Speaker 1: this situation, and Norman Powell was fantastic. He was arguably
Speaker 1: the best player on the floor in this game, and
Speaker 1: they had a lot of good But the reality is,
Speaker 1: it's like I said earlier, I don't really view the
Speaker 1: Clippers as much of a threat, and I think this
Speaker 1: is a team that, without Paul George and with some
Speaker 1: of the other weaknesses on the roster, that the Lakers
Speaker 1: can beat when they play. And that was what was frustrating.
Speaker 1: You saw that in the second half. Suddenly Lebron's like, okay,
Speaker 1: now I'll start trying, and the Lakers locked in defensively.
Speaker 1: They were ignoring Russell Westbrook and he started to miss
Speaker 1: those same shots that he made in the first half.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis lingering around the rim on Zoobach. They were
Speaker 1: able to press up with Jared Vanderbilt onto Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: and kind of get the ball out of his hands.
Speaker 1: There was a late run in the third quarter where
Speaker 1: Lebron switched on to Kawai and had some success defending
Speaker 1: him in individual defense, and they went on a massive
Speaker 1: run and turned a twenty four point lead into a
Speaker 1: seven point lead in a matter of minutes, and it
Speaker 1: just didn't matter because they had dug themselves in too
Speaker 1: big of a hole. And that's what was so frustrating.
Speaker 1: I really genuinely felt like the Lakers were in a
Speaker 1: good position to win this game and they mailed it in.
Speaker 1: And what's annoying about that is the only purpose to
Speaker 1: playing Lebron James and Anthony Davis because there was risk.
Speaker 1: There was enormous risk. They're older, Lebron's older, They're both
Speaker 1: dealing with injuries. By playing them, you actively risk their bodies.
Speaker 1: But it was a risk reward factor. You're better than
Speaker 1: the Clippers, go beat the Clippers, then you get a
Speaker 1: week off because then you probably get to rest against
Speaker 1: the Jazz, and you could take Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Speaker 1: and maybe even Saturday off. That was the trade off.
Speaker 1: But if you were going to mail it in, now
Speaker 1: you're taking all the risk on the body without any
Speaker 1: of the advantage down the line. And now they might
Speaker 1: have taken that risk in this Clippers game only to
Speaker 1: have to play in the play in tournament anyway, if
Speaker 1: they can't go beat Phoenix on Friday and beat the Jazz,
Speaker 1: on Sunday Lebron James after he checked out of the
Speaker 1: game there in the late fourth quarter, he went down
Speaker 1: and he sat down next to Anthony Davis and you
Speaker 1: can visibly see him multiple times say that's my fault,
Speaker 1: and he's right again, he's the leader of the team
Speaker 1: and it's I don't just blame Lebron. I thought Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis also wasn't overly physically engaged in that first half.
Speaker 1: The Clippers double teamed him on hilmost every catch. Tylu
Speaker 1: I thought had a really good game plan in this
Speaker 1: particular game, the way he doubled Anthony Davis on his
Speaker 1: face side. We talked about this a lot. Double Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis in the face. He won't beat your defense by
Speaker 1: making the kill pass. He'll just make that quick pass
Speaker 1: right back out to the wing. And he did that
Speaker 1: a lot. D'angela Russell would like make the post entry,
Speaker 1: they'd trap him in, double him on his face. He'd
Speaker 1: just kick it back out Tod Low and there's no advantage.
Speaker 1: Right Meanwhile, Austin Reeves is standing completely unguarded in the
Speaker 1: week side corner. And if Anthony Davis handles the double
Speaker 1: with strength and makes that pass. He can beat the
Speaker 1: double team. We talked about that, like the difference between
Speaker 1: kind of sneaking and doubling Anthony Davis from behind and
Speaker 1: the way he can kill that versus doubling Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: from the front and the way that he can really
Speaker 1: struggle with that. Also, Tylo made a really smart adjustment
Speaker 1: going completely away from Russell Westbrook in the second half.
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook came out guns blazing in that first quarter,
Speaker 1: started four for seven, had some assists, but then he
Speaker 1: started turning the basketball over. Then he started missing all
Speaker 1: those same shots because he's not a very good jump shooter.
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook was actually a minus one in this game.
Speaker 1: It was a big part of the run that the
Speaker 1: Lakers went on in the third quarter. Tylo went away
Speaker 1: from him, went to Norm Powell, didn't go back to
Speaker 1: Russ the rest of the game. It's a very well
Speaker 1: coached game, solid win for Tylu. But again, if the
Speaker 1: Lakers approached that with the requisite effort, energy and focus
Speaker 1: to start the game, they are a better basketball team
Speaker 1: than the Clippers. I feel very strongly about that. I
Speaker 1: know some of y'all might not might not agree, but
Speaker 1: I feel very strongly about that, and they mailed this
Speaker 1: one in and it's really unfortunate. I do want to
Speaker 1: talk about one bass keball thing that I thought was
Speaker 1: glaring from this particular game, and that was the Lakers
Speaker 1: point of attack defense, because they go on this massive
Speaker 1: run right in the third quarter, they cut it down
Speaker 1: to seven or eight points or whatever it was, and
Speaker 1: then Norman Powell comes into the game and just starts
Speaker 1: obliterating the Lakers defense at the point of attack. Now,
Speaker 1: when we talk about point of attack defense, that has
Speaker 1: to do with stopping dribble penetration, and there's two different
Speaker 1: ways to do that, because it's in pick and roll
Speaker 1: or an ISO and ISO more frequently you'll see it
Speaker 1: in semi transition. A lot of Laker missed shots would
Speaker 1: lead to Norman Powell dribbling the ball up the floor
Speaker 1: and then just hitting the jets and beating someone off
Speaker 1: the dribble. Right, But it's in individual defense. Point of
Speaker 1: attack defense is sliding your feet and flattening out drives. Right,
Speaker 1: You're not going to completely contain the ball, but if
Speaker 1: you can force it to be a diagonal route that
Speaker 1: kind of cuts through the paint but kind of goes
Speaker 1: back out to the perimeter. That's great defense. But if
Speaker 1: it's a straight line drive and they get a head
Speaker 1: of steam going downhill, you're gonna engage Anthony Davis at
Speaker 1: the rim, which is going to cause all sorts of
Speaker 1: havoc on the backside, whether that's kicking the shooters. Zoobak
Speaker 1: killed them on the offensive glass in this game, and
Speaker 1: usually he kills Anthony Davis by burying him in position battles.
Speaker 1: That wasn't the case in this game. He killed the
Speaker 1: Lakers on the glass in large part because of Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis getting pulled away from the rim in rim protection
Speaker 1: situations because of dribble drives. And then the second part
Speaker 1: of it is in pick and roll, and it's about
Speaker 1: fighting over the top of screens with physicality once again,
Speaker 1: so guys can't get completely downhill. The Lakers had a
Speaker 1: horrible point of attack defense in this game, and the
Speaker 1: reality is, as we look closer at it, that's their
Speaker 1: one big weakness. I talked a lot about how after
Speaker 1: the deadline we have to learn about the Lakers from scratch.
Speaker 1: They're effectively a brand new team. Still to this day,
Speaker 1: I see people on Twitter complaining, Oh, why are the
Speaker 1: Lakers getting so much attention. Why are the Lakers getting
Speaker 1: so much attention? They're different team now, So whatever you
Speaker 1: thought over the previous year and a half about what
Speaker 1: they could and could not do, is it completely irrelevant anymore?
Speaker 1: They have coming into night tonight. They have the second
Speaker 1: best record in the league post deadline. They were seven
Speaker 1: and one when Lebron James played seven and one in
Speaker 1: their last eight games, best defense in the league, and
Speaker 1: a top five rebounding team, and they had two guys
Speaker 1: like coming in this back to back Lebron James played
Speaker 1: at a top ten level and then Anthony Davis has
Speaker 1: been playing at a top ten level for over a
Speaker 1: month now. They are a legitimate, bona fide championship contender.
Speaker 1: That's why they're getting talked about. And yes, also they're
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and they get a lot of attention obviously,
Speaker 1: but they're playing at an extremely high level. But in
Speaker 1: this stretch I've been trying to learn about them, and
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of good Jared Vanderbilt and what
Speaker 1: he can do defensively, Ruby Hotchemer as kind of a
Speaker 1: mix up that can guard some of the bigger forwards,
Speaker 1: and a better offensive option. The offensive skill in the
Speaker 1: backcourt and the different punches that Austin Reeves and D'angela
Speaker 1: Russell and Dennis Schroeder can throw. The dynamic of Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis that we've been seeing for years,
Speaker 1: and what they can do when they're both engaged on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor. Tons of good. But there's
Speaker 1: one thing that has stood out bad to me from
Speaker 1: the beginning. They have one guy on the roster at
Speaker 1: the guard position that can consistently stay in front of
Speaker 1: the basketball, and that's Dennis Schroeder, and he had a
Speaker 1: pretty rough night tonight. But Deangela Russell not a good
Speaker 1: point of attack defender, Austin Reeves average at best point
Speaker 1: of attack defender, Maliked Beasley not a good point of
Speaker 1: attack defender. Troy Brown Junior not a good point of
Speaker 1: attack defender. And so they're constantly giving up these driving
Speaker 1: lanes and it's blowing up their defense and causing them
Speaker 1: all sorts of problems. Now, to be clear, every team
Speaker 1: has weaknesses. The Milwaukee Bucks they really struggle with half
Speaker 1: court shop making, so they're not a very good half
Speaker 1: court offense. That issue gets exacerbated for them in the
Speaker 1: playoffs when teams are allowed to be more physical with Jannis.
Speaker 1: We've seen that time and time again. We saw that
Speaker 1: big time hurt them in the Boston Celtics series whenever
Speaker 1: they couldn't get out in transition. The Boston Celtics still
Speaker 1: to this day struggle with decision making and execution decision making.
Speaker 1: In the flow of the game, they're making good rim decisions.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of guys that are capable of
Speaker 1: making good decisions, but too frequently the entire team loses
Speaker 1: sight of the right way to play and they can
Speaker 1: spiral into a really negative direction, and then they can
Speaker 1: really struggle with execution at the end of games from
Speaker 1: time to time. Although they've had a better season than
Speaker 1: they did last year. The Sixers, just like the Lakers,
Speaker 1: really bad at the point of attack and bad in
Speaker 1: transition defense. The Nuggets bad defensive personnel at every single level.
Speaker 1: The Sun's extremely thin on the wing, and they're bad
Speaker 1: at the point of attack. Joshua cogis really their only there.
Speaker 1: They're only good point of attack defender. The Warriors, they
Speaker 1: are an incredibly small and unathletic team compared to the
Speaker 1: rest of the league. And then the Lakers, like we've
Speaker 1: been talking about bad point of attack defense, and they
Speaker 1: also can struggle in transition. So it's not a death sentence.
Speaker 1: It's not a death sentence because all of these teams
Speaker 1: have weaknesses. We haven't had a perfect team in the
Speaker 1: NBA really since since the Warriors in twenty seventeen, in
Speaker 1: two and eighteen, right, all these teams have weaknesses. You
Speaker 1: go down the line, you know, the twenty nineteen Raptors
Speaker 1: not a great playmaking team. The twenty twenty Lakers had
Speaker 1: were really poor three point shooting and half court offense team.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty one Bucks poor three point shooting and half
Speaker 1: court offense team. You get the drill. Win a title
Speaker 1: with a weakness, but you have to have your strengths
Speaker 1: overcome that weakness. And when you mail it in and
Speaker 1: dig yourself in that big of a hole, you're gonna
Speaker 1: run into that problem. It's hard to overstate how much
Speaker 1: the simple dynamic of the Lakers being incapable of containing
Speaker 1: Norman Powell on the drive and that third quarter ruined
Speaker 1: their comeback because they had they had complete control of
Speaker 1: that game, They had solved Kawai, they had pressured the
Speaker 1: shooters enough to get them to start missing shots. They
Speaker 1: had a lot of stuff figured out except for the
Speaker 1: simple fact that they couldn't guard Norman Powell. And then
Speaker 1: guess what incomes Bones Highland and he starts causing them
Speaker 1: the same exact problems in pick and roll, getting downhill
Speaker 1: too easily and knocking down shots and layups as he
Speaker 1: gets downhill towards the wren. So again, they can overcome it.
Speaker 1: It's not a death sentence, but that's their weakness. If
Speaker 1: the Lakers end up losing a playoff series, I believe
Speaker 1: it will in large part come down to their guards
Speaker 1: and their inability to contain the basketball. And that's matchups
Speaker 1: become an issue right as they're starting to look at
Speaker 1: specific teams that they might have to play. You know,
Speaker 1: if they end up in that sixth seed, that's a
Speaker 1: big point of attack team. That's a lot of deer,
Speaker 1: in fact, deer and fox attacking you downhill. That's a
Speaker 1: lot of Molique monk attacking you downhill. That's something that
Speaker 1: they're going to have to deal with, right So it's
Speaker 1: something to keep an eye on with them. As is
Speaker 1: always the case with basketball, matchups end up determining everything
Speaker 1: and if you end up catching a matchup where your
Speaker 1: strengths aren't as strong as they usually are, and your
Speaker 1: weaknesses are on display and can get attacked. You can
Speaker 1: end up in a lot of trouble in a seven
Speaker 1: game series. Last note on the Lakers before we move on,
Speaker 1: if I wanted to go glass half full, their defense
Speaker 1: was frightening in that third quarter with Anthony Davis on
Speaker 1: the floor again, they bought a lot of leeway in
Speaker 1: the point of attack when they're with their starting groups
Speaker 1: right because with Lebron, Anthony Davis and Jared Vanderbuilt on
Speaker 1: the floor, they're so long and athletic, and they have
Speaker 1: such a high basketball like you on that back line
Speaker 1: that even if the guards are having problems, they can
Speaker 1: contain that. All that is why the Lakers have the
Speaker 1: number one defense post deadline despite having a bad point
Speaker 1: of attack defense. They're excellent everywhere else defensively, they're excellent
Speaker 1: on the wing defensively, and they're an excellent rim protection
Speaker 1: team with good health defenders. So they're gonna they're gonna
Speaker 1: still be an effective defense, but that point of attack
Speaker 1: thing is going to become an issue. The other big
Speaker 1: positive once again, Lebron James in that second half, I
Speaker 1: thought looked fantastic after what was the worst half that
Speaker 1: I've seen him play in ages. In the first half,
Speaker 1: he was knocking down jump shots all over the floor.
Speaker 1: He was bullying all of the Clippers players to the rim.
Speaker 1: You saw that dynamic like again against switching defense is
Speaker 1: just attack the rim. That's literally all you have to do.
Speaker 1: You're bigger, you're stronger, you're more athletic. You're gonna cause
Speaker 1: them a boatload of problems there. It was just too little,
Speaker 1: too late. They didn't get into that until late in
Speaker 1: the game. But Lebron does look good. I'm still optimistic
Speaker 1: about the Lakers. I'm just genuinely disappointed at having made
Speaker 1: the decision to put their bodies on the line tonight.
Speaker 1: They didn't actually bring the effort to make that worthwhile.
Speaker 1: But show out to the Clippers. They wanted their revenge game.
Speaker 1: You know that they've dominated this matchup for a long time.
Speaker 1: There's no rivalry between the Lakers and the Clippers because
Speaker 1: the Clippers just whooped the Lakers ass every single time.
Speaker 1: I genuinely believe the Lakers are a better team now
Speaker 1: post deadline, but they need to demonstrate that on the court,
Speaker 1: you want to flip the script with your rivalry with
Speaker 1: the Clippers, Go beat them. You're better than them, Go
Speaker 1: beat them. So maybe maybe don't just float through a
Speaker 1: basketball game and put yourself in a position where you're
Speaker 1: gonna lose. But I mean, the Clippers are destined for
Speaker 1: a first round exit against Phoenix. They just they just
Speaker 1: don't have enough advantages in that series. Good on them
Speaker 1: for winning this battle for the five seed. I'm impressed
Speaker 1: with their competitiveness and their want and fire to get
Speaker 1: this done. But they're they're headed for a quick loss
Speaker 1: in that first round series in my opinion. Also, I mean,
Speaker 1: I talked a lot about bad Lakers in this one.
Speaker 1: I want to cut them slack. Kawhi Leonard played twenty
Speaker 1: four minutes in that second half. He did so because
Speaker 1: he hasn't played since Saturday. Okay, the Lakers have played
Speaker 1: what that was, I believe, their fifth game in seven
Speaker 1: nights or fifth game and eight nights, I believe. So
Speaker 1: it's been a different level of physical exertion for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: That certainly played a role. But that's how much better
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers are than the Clippers. I think
Speaker 1: there's so much better than the Clippers that if they
Speaker 1: actually brought even just a portion of effort with all
Speaker 1: that fatigue, they should have been able to beat them.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to Kings MAVs. So this
Speaker 1: was looking like trouble for the Mavericks in that early
Speaker 1: second half. Once again, the Kings in a game you
Speaker 1: wouldn't have thought so on the tail end of a
Speaker 1: back to back this late in the season. The Kings
Speaker 1: beat the crap out of the Pelicans last night, you
Speaker 1: would have expected them to rest their guys tonight. Nope,
Speaker 1: played everybody and tried to beat the MAVs, and they
Speaker 1: were up thirteen in the second half, and it was
Speaker 1: this close to look him like they were gonna let
Speaker 1: go of the rope. But honestly, I was really impressed,
Speaker 1: especially like the story of this game is Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, his shot making, bombing threes, that
Speaker 1: super crazy hierarching three in the left corner right in
Speaker 1: front of the King's bench. Obviously, Kyrie's fantastic, We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about him here in just a minute. But I
Speaker 1: thought the game turned in that third quarter on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. If they just swarmed on
Speaker 1: the basketball. They every time Demonus Sabonis caught the ball
Speaker 1: in the post, they just swarmed him and did a
Speaker 1: good job of flipping the angles that they were double
Speaker 1: teaming from. Because Sabonis is such a smart player, he
Speaker 1: always has a feel for where the doubles are coming from,
Speaker 1: Sabonis was confused. He was constantly looking around trying to
Speaker 1: identify where the ball, where the doubles were coming from.
Speaker 1: He was getting the ball knocked loose, so he wasn't
Speaker 1: putting the passes on time, on target. And then you know,
Speaker 1: you saw some of that back to back affecting their
Speaker 1: legs as well when they just couldn't knock down the
Speaker 1: open threes that they were generating. Dead giveaway for fatigue
Speaker 1: on wide open threes is hitting the front rim, and
Speaker 1: you'd see Kevin Herder hit the front rim on a shot.
Speaker 1: You'd see Davion Mitchell hit the front rim on a shot.
Speaker 1: You'd see Keegan Murray hit the front rim. Right, That's
Speaker 1: that's always the dead giveaway. They ended up shooting just
Speaker 1: thirty two percent from three in the game, and then
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving just an absolute masterclass in that fourth quarter
Speaker 1: nineteen points you know, I saw once again people talking
Speaker 1: about the Kyrie Irving trade, and again there's always a
Speaker 1: difference between the trade and the player. I came into
Speaker 1: the same issue with the Russell Westbrook thing like, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, Russell Westbrook and his struggles certainly exacerbated
Speaker 1: some problems for the Lakers because you couldn't bring a
Speaker 1: certain level of talent to overcome the talent that went out.
Speaker 1: But it was the outgoing talent that damaged the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Just It's plain and simple. It was the loss of Kuzma,
Speaker 1: the loss of KCP, the loss of Alex Carusoe that
Speaker 1: undercut the Lakers to the point where they couldn't even
Speaker 1: hover around five hundred with Lebron James and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: on the floor. That was the biggest problem. Similar thing
Speaker 1: with the MAVs has nothing to do with Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 1: Just like how the you take Andrew Wiggins off the Warriors,
Speaker 1: suddenly they become an untenable, small and unathletic team. Right
Speaker 1: you take Doria Finney Smith off of the Mavericks, they
Speaker 1: overnight become an untenable, unathletic and undersized team. It's just
Speaker 1: a fact and you know, I get the one thing
Speaker 1: I want to point out here. Kyrie Irving has been
Speaker 1: fantastic since coming to the MAVs. He's been undeniably their
Speaker 1: best player. He has resoundingly outplayed Luca since coming to
Speaker 1: the MAVs. He has played like a bonafide superstar, and
Speaker 1: I'd argue he's been their best defender on the perimeter
Speaker 1: since coming to the MAVs. In the games that I've watched,
Speaker 1: and you see it in the numbers, they have been
Speaker 1: outscoring teams resoundingly with Kyrie Irving on the floor since
Speaker 1: the trade and just getting bludgeoned every time he's off
Speaker 1: the floor. He's won three games for the MAVs without
Speaker 1: Luca Entirely. Kyrie has played like a bonafide superstar and
Speaker 1: has done everything that he's been asked to do since
Speaker 1: coming to the Mavericks. So if you're telling their story,
Speaker 1: you talk about ownership, you talk about the front office.
Speaker 1: Mark Cuban had this lame ass quote that he put
Speaker 1: out today basically saying that he blamed Jalen Brunson's parents
Speaker 1: for the fact that he didn't sign with them. No,
Speaker 1: you tried to pay him like twenty million a year
Speaker 1: when he is a bona fide all star guard that
Speaker 1: even the Nicks goot for a discount at the whatever
Speaker 1: it was twenty five million a year average. Like in
Speaker 1: the NBA, if you do what Jalen Brunson can do,
Speaker 1: you're worth thirty million. End of story. Ask you know,
Speaker 1: ask Jamal Murray. Jalen Brunson is every bit as good
Speaker 1: as Jamal Murray, if not better. And Jamal Murray's making
Speaker 1: thirty plus million a year no matter what you make,
Speaker 1: you sign him because you can trade him. Losing the
Speaker 1: asset for nothing was completely inexcusable. That was step one
Speaker 1: in their demise. And then obviously they gave up a
Speaker 1: ton of assets for christeps person because there's been other
Speaker 1: mistakes along the way, but that Jalen Brunson one was
Speaker 1: a gigantic mistake. And then as a result, you had
Speaker 1: to go get a replacement for Brunson. In the process
Speaker 1: give out, give up your best athlete and your best
Speaker 1: perimeter defender who also can knock down a three point
Speaker 1: shot when he's wide open. That's what did them in.
Speaker 1: But I mean, like the Kyrie fit is perfect. Luca
Speaker 1: obviously has a lot to kind of look back at
Speaker 1: after this season in terms of his attitude, in terms
Speaker 1: of his defensive approach, in terms of the way he
Speaker 1: cares for his body. There's a bunch of stuff that
Speaker 1: Luca's got to evaluate after the season because he's plateauing.
Speaker 1: Luca is plateauing for sure as a player. There's stuff
Speaker 1: that he's got to figure out. But the Luca Kyrie
Speaker 1: partnership is perfect basketball fit. And you've seen that offensively
Speaker 1: with how well this team can score the basketball with
Speaker 1: the two of them on the floor. They all they
Speaker 1: have to do is supply them with the requisite sizing
Speaker 1: athleticism in the front court. This year's pointless. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're not completely out of it. They've got a tough
Speaker 1: game against the Bulls coming up, I think on Friday,
Speaker 1: and then they play the Spurs, So you've got to
Speaker 1: find a way to beat the Bulls. And then Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City has Utah and Memphis, so you've got to beat
Speaker 1: the Bulls and then beat the Spurs, and then you
Speaker 1: need okayc to lose to at least one of Utah
Speaker 1: and Memphis for them to get in. But even if
Speaker 1: they do get in, they get in as the ten seed.
Speaker 1: Then you run into the issue where you've got to
Speaker 1: go on the road in the playoffs against either Minnesota
Speaker 1: or New Orleans, which is going to be two teams
Speaker 1: that are gonna have massive physical advantages over Dallas. So
Speaker 1: it doesn't really bode well for them there either. But
Speaker 1: I am not down on the Mavericks long term because
Speaker 1: they have two of the best offensive players in the
Speaker 1: league in a straightforward path to fix this roster. But
Speaker 1: make no mistake, they are in this predicament because of
Speaker 1: Mark Cuban, and they are in this predicament because of
Speaker 1: the front office. It is not because of Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 1: And if you're blaming Kyrie, it's because of some other
Speaker 1: narrative goal that you have. He has been so freaking
Speaker 1: good since coming to the MAVs. Ask any MAVs fan,
Speaker 1: anybody who's actually watching that team do you blame Kyrie?
Speaker 1: You won't find a single one because because he's held
Speaker 1: up his end of the bargain. All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for tonight. The game plan is
Speaker 1: of right now, we're taking tomorrow off. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: back with Friday. On Friday with Carson to kind of
Speaker 1: break down a bunch of scenarios going into the weekend,
Speaker 1: and then if I'm not mistaken, we're going Saturday morning
Speaker 1: covering the Friday night slate, and then on Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 1: We're not one hundred percent sure exactly what we're doing,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna do some kind of live show after
Speaker 1: the end of the slate on Sunday. I believe all
Speaker 1: the games end at about three pm Pacific times. To
Speaker 1: keep an eye on that, don't don't forget to follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter to get show announcements. Just you guys
Speaker 1: know when it's coming. But yes, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: so much, and I will see you guys on Friday morning.
Speaker 1: The volume