Speaker 1: The volume NBA fans. The weight is over. Basketball is back.
Speaker 1: In DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA,
Speaker 1: is celebrating with an unbeatable offer. New customers can score
Speaker 1: two hundred dollars instantly in bonus bets for throwing down
Speaker 1: five dollars on the NBA. Win or lose, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: You'll start the season with an instant dub. And with
Speaker 1: DraftKings parlays, everyone's got a shot at an even bigger
Speaker 1: basketball win. Strain together multiple bets from the same game,
Speaker 1: or build your parlay across multiple games for a shot
Speaker 1: at making your payday even sweeter. Basketball is more fun
Speaker 1: when you're in on the action. Download the Draftking Sportsbook
Speaker 1: AP now and use code hoops. That's hops. New customers
Speaker 1: can get two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly for
Speaker 1: betting just five dollars only on Draftking Sportsbook with code hoops.
Speaker 1: The crown is yours gambling problem called one eight hundred
Speaker 1: gambler or visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot
Speaker 1: net in New York call eight seven seven eight hope
Speaker 1: and why or text hope and Why to four six
Speaker 1: seven three six ' nine. In Connecticut. Help is available
Speaker 1: for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine
Speaker 1: seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please
Speaker 1: play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas.
Speaker 1: License partner Golden Nugget, Lake Charles and Louisiana twenty one plus.
Speaker 1: Age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See Sportsbook
Speaker 1: dot DraftKings dot com, slash Basketball terms for eligibility and
Speaker 1: deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome
Speaker 1: to Hoo's tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody.
Speaker 1: Hope all of you guys are having a great week
Speaker 1: so far. Well it's November first to the year twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, and we all just watched a basketball game
Speaker 1: where Lebron James was the best player on the floor
Speaker 1: and Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: were all on the same floor. It was. It was
Speaker 1: weird a few years ago. Now it's borderline absurd. As
Speaker 1: Lebron's late career, you know, Star level play just continues
Speaker 1: to not make any sense at all whatsoever compared to
Speaker 1: anything in NBA history. The Lakers played their first extended
Speaker 1: stretch of good basketball in this young season and notch
Speaker 1: their most impressive win, beating the Clippers to get to
Speaker 1: three and two. We're gonna be breaking that game down
Speaker 1: from the perspective of both teams. We are changing our
Speaker 1: kind of layout for coverage this season. I want to
Speaker 1: try to hit fewer individual games and more deep dives
Speaker 1: on individual teams, and so in this particular show tonight,
Speaker 1: we're just breaking down Lakers Clippers for those of you
Speaker 1: guys who missed it earlier today we broke down sun
Speaker 1: Spurs from last night. We also did deep dives on
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks and the Memphis Grizzlies on multiple games,
Speaker 1: multiple trends, lineup data, big picture stuff going on with
Speaker 1: both particular teams. That's gonna be kind of more like
Speaker 1: what the structure looks like from now On Tomorrow morning,
Speaker 1: we're gonna cover Warriors Kings, and then we're gonna do
Speaker 1: deep dives on the Boston Celtics and on the Milwaukee Bucks,
Speaker 1: another two teams that are having very interesting starts to
Speaker 1: their season, so that's going to be kind of like
Speaker 1: the structure of the show, at least in the immediate future.
Speaker 1: So in this episode, just covering Lakers, Clippers. Check out
Speaker 1: our feed for Mavericks, for Grizzlies, don't forget about the
Speaker 1: Sun's Spurs breakdown, and then tomorrow we're gonna hit a
Speaker 1: bunch of other stuff from the Wednesday Night Slate. You
Speaker 1: guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to
Speaker 1: our YouTube channel. This is our brand new YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: We're trying to get it off the ground. It would
Speaker 1: mean a lot to me if you guys would take
Speaker 1: a couple seconds just scroll down and hit that subscribe button.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about our social media feeds TikTok, Instagram, Twitter,
Speaker 1: so I'm doing video breakdowns and show announcements. I do
Speaker 1: extensive video breakdowns every morning on my Twitter feed, so
Speaker 1: that's a good spot to be if you want to
Speaker 1: see more visual representations. Don't forget about a podcast feed
Speaker 1: wherever it's your podcast under Hoops tonight. And then, last
Speaker 1: but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube
Speaker 1: comments so we can hit them throughout the season. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So, like I said it'd be
Speaker 1: at the intro of the show, this was the first
Speaker 1: extended stretch of good Laker basketball this season. Even if
Speaker 1: you look at their couple of wins, like, let's look
Speaker 1: at the individual games, they got pretty much their ass
Speaker 1: handed to them from start to finish against the Denver Nuggets, right.
Speaker 1: You look at the Sacramento Kings lost, they were kind
Speaker 1: of in trouble throughout that game, then they kind of
Speaker 1: sort of got some control in the fourth quarter that
Speaker 1: immediately blew that and then lost in ot Right. Then
Speaker 1: you look at the win against the Suns, and they
Speaker 1: were down big a lot of the second half and
Speaker 1: just had this hilatious effort in the fourth quarter to
Speaker 1: get back and win the game. Right. And then after
Speaker 1: that we had the Orlando Magic game, where once again
Speaker 1: they trailed big in the second half and they had
Speaker 1: this hillacious effort to kind of get back into it
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. And even in those games, there
Speaker 1: wasn't a lot of encouraging stuff to look at that
Speaker 1: was like translatable moving forward. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I said for those of you guys who listened to
Speaker 1: this afternoon show that I was severely worried about the
Speaker 1: Lakers in tonight's game because they just weren't playing very
Speaker 1: good basketball, and the Clippers are playing very well at
Speaker 1: the start of the season. Well, you saw at the
Speaker 1: beginning of that game. It was kind of a continuation
Speaker 1: of that trend, Clippers playing great basketball. A lot of
Speaker 1: the same issues that were plaguing the Lakers early on
Speaker 1: were plaguing them right, like really struggling to score in
Speaker 1: the half court, Austin Reeves still very much in a funk.
Speaker 1: The defense just nowhere near where it was last year,
Speaker 1: which was like a significant chunk of their winning identity,
Speaker 1: was like playing defense right, like not just go to
Speaker 1: guys that you depend on, but down the roster, just
Speaker 1: commitment to those details. And a lot of those things
Speaker 1: were going the wrong way for the Lakers to start
Speaker 1: the season. And the only way you don't just like
Speaker 1: randomly start making shots and then you start winning games,
Speaker 1: you have to reverse those trends. On an individual base,
Speaker 1: they really struggled with defensive rebounding down the stretch, especially
Speaker 1: in a bunch of their early games this season. Much
Speaker 1: better defensive rebounding effort down the stretch of this game
Speaker 1: just everybody just flying to the basketball to secure contested
Speaker 1: defensive rebounds, even just look at like little things like Russell.
Speaker 1: Westbrook bullied Austin Reeves a few times early on in
Speaker 1: the game, at least once in the first half and
Speaker 1: then again in the early second half. Right Dangelo Russell
Speaker 1: has been bullied at the point of attack a bunch
Speaker 1: of times this season. Gave Vincent's done better than those
Speaker 1: two guys, but has still struggled a little bit well
Speaker 1: critical possession. Late in overtime, Russ tries to bully Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves and he just does a better job, Like just
Speaker 1: does a better job and holds his ground and forces
Speaker 1: Russ into a much tougher shot that he misses. And
Speaker 1: then again on the on the backside, the gang defensive
Speaker 1: rebounding the extra efforts defensively. Christian Wood had a massive
Speaker 1: block on Ivi ka Zubak down the stretch when Ad
Speaker 1: went for his pump fake. And then Christian Wood talked
Speaker 1: about in his postgame presser after the Magic game about
Speaker 1: him being essentially a second line of defense behind Ad
Speaker 1: and he's watching Ad. You can literally see on the
Speaker 1: play christian Wood sees the pump fake looks at Ad,
Speaker 1: sees Ad jump, stays down, waits for the second one,
Speaker 1: then goes up and gets it. We talked a lot
Speaker 1: in this offseason about over the top shot making. You
Speaker 1: need guys to make shots at the end of basketball games,
Speaker 1: and you got none of that out of Lebron and
Speaker 1: Ad last year. What did you get out of Lebron tonight?
Speaker 1: Reliable over the top shot making in the half court
Speaker 1: over contests, beating PJ Tucker for a pull up jump shot,
Speaker 1: beating a Vika Zubac on a switch with a pull
Speaker 1: up three. He hit two other tough kind of like
Speaker 1: semi transition pull up jump shots around the foul line.
Speaker 1: You can tell Lebron James feels more comfortable with his
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot at this exact point in time
Speaker 1: than he had probably all of last season, which is
Speaker 1: crazy to say. There was no extent did stretch of
Speaker 1: Lebron reliably knocking down jump shots last season, And again
Speaker 1: it's one game, but in terms of the body language
Speaker 1: and the timing and the level of defense for him
Speaker 1: to be making those shots, that's super encouraging. That specifically
Speaker 1: is a ceiling razer for this team. That was one
Speaker 1: of the huge things that held them back last year.
Speaker 1: Early in the season, Austin Reeves was giving you absolutely nothing.
Speaker 1: A lot of different things going south for him. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's clearly just in a slump, right, but one of
Speaker 1: the worst slumps I've seen from a player like he was.
Speaker 1: He was struggling to impact winning in any of the
Speaker 1: ways that he usually does. Right, what happens in that
Speaker 1: second half, starting in that third quarter, gets a little
Speaker 1: bit of a heater, right, hits two or three shots
Speaker 1: in a row, makes a couple of plays. Suddenly when
Speaker 1: they need him in overtime to take over the offense,
Speaker 1: He's confident and ready to go in that situation. Again,
Speaker 1: like Austin Reeves is the third best player on this
Speaker 1: Lakers team, He's arguably their best pick and roll shot creator.
Speaker 1: This is not the first time they've relied on him
Speaker 1: down the stretch to close out a big game. They
Speaker 1: did that against the Grizzlies in the first round of
Speaker 1: the playoffs last year. He just is one of He's
Speaker 1: the best player on the Lakers at working downhill in
Speaker 1: pick and roll, in finding those little spots in the
Speaker 1: mid range to generate his own shot. He can knock
Speaker 1: down those shots, he can get to the foul line,
Speaker 1: he can make the reads from there. He made a
Speaker 1: huge read in pick and roll to Cam Reddish in
Speaker 1: the right corner for a wide open three down the stretch. So,
Speaker 1: like again, all of these trends turning is what made
Speaker 1: the team play better. Lebron James late game shot making
Speaker 1: was an issue in the entire last season, a little
Speaker 1: bit of an issue to start this season. Right then,
Speaker 1: outside of a few clutch jump shots in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: he struggle to knock down jump shots. Right then we
Speaker 1: get into this game, the pull up jump shots going
Speaker 1: in right, Austin Reeves struggling to start the season, Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves gets his mojo back. Suddenly the Lakers look like
Speaker 1: a more dynamic offense. Right, and then the defense. This
Speaker 1: is the hugest part of it. Like when it comes
Speaker 1: to the Lakers, their identity is defense. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of talk about the offense coming into the season, and
Speaker 1: I certainly expected it to be better than it was.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt this is a team that should at
Speaker 1: the very least be a good offense, right, But this
Speaker 1: is a team whose best trait is what they can
Speaker 1: do on the defensive end of the floor, when Lebron
Speaker 1: James is engaged, when Anthony Davis is engaged. This is
Speaker 1: the third time in a row where when they've closed
Speaker 1: with Christian Wood, they've looked excellent defensively down the stretch
Speaker 1: and been able to pull out a win. And then
Speaker 1: guys just competing on the point of attack at a
Speaker 1: higher level than they had in the past. I thought,
Speaker 1: I want to credit a couple of specific guys. I
Speaker 1: thought both Cam Reddish and Max Christi in that third
Speaker 1: quarter finally started to disrupt Paul George and Kawhi Leonard's
Speaker 1: rhythm a little bit with good point of attack defense,
Speaker 1: just physical ball pressure making them feel uncomfortable. Cam b
Speaker 1: Reddish had a huge steal that led to a runout
Speaker 1: for the Lakers on Paul Georgie in that third quarter.
Speaker 1: And then Anthony Davis and Christian Wood just this devastating
Speaker 1: back line of two seven foot tall dudes that can
Speaker 1: block shot, that can grab contested rebounds. They were the
Speaker 1: ones who turned the game around. Obviously, Lebron James carries
Speaker 1: you home in the fourth quarter, then they blow the
Speaker 1: lead late, right, but then Austin Reeves carries you in ot,
Speaker 1: but it was the defense that got you back into
Speaker 1: the game. They allowed twenty four points in that third quarter.
Speaker 1: A bunch of key possessions were even Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: Christian Wood switched on to Kawhi Leonard and got stops.
Speaker 1: They were able to push out in transition off of
Speaker 1: those stops. That's their formula, committed defense at all three levels.
Speaker 1: Point of attack, help, backside, rebounding, right, pushing in transition
Speaker 1: off of stops and turnovers. Lebron, Anthony Davis, rim pressure
Speaker 1: in the half court, Austin Reeves spread pick and roll.
Speaker 1: I would we're up to me, especially in those lineups
Speaker 1: sod and Adar and d Lo are on the floor together.
Speaker 1: Let Austin run the show. Get d Lo off the ball.
Speaker 1: He's just a little bit more steady of a playmaker
Speaker 1: in that specific position. It slots everybody properly. The Lakers
Speaker 1: are just better when they run through Lebron, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: and Austin Reeves. But make no mistake, it's got to
Speaker 1: start on the defensive end of the floor. A lot
Speaker 1: of encouraging stuff there. I was literally thinking during the game,
Speaker 1: you know, going into the game in the first quarter,
Speaker 1: I felt like the Lakers didn't have much chance at
Speaker 1: all to win that game. I didn't think they were
Speaker 1: playing well enough. But what was funny was is I
Speaker 1: felt the exact opposite going into overtime. Right, So, Paul,
Speaker 1: Paul George is incredible. He had four impossible pull up
Speaker 1: threes that he made in the fourth quarter. Every single
Speaker 1: one of them was well defended by the Lakers. All
Speaker 1: of them go in huge part of why they had
Speaker 1: a chance to win that game. They had a driving
Speaker 1: and one on Anthony Davis as well. Paul George was
Speaker 1: just absolutely incredible. But I remember thinking going into the overtime,
Speaker 1: Lakers got a good chance to win this game. Why
Speaker 1: because what is replicable about a slow down half court
Speaker 1: environment for both teams. The Lakers were getting great shots
Speaker 1: every time down the floor out of creation by Lebron
Speaker 1: James and Anthony Davis or excuse me, Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves, and then Anthony Davis's ability to get a switch,
Speaker 1: run down to the block, call for the basketball and
Speaker 1: either get a bucket or draw fout right, So like
Speaker 1: they were just getting better shots down on the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor, the Clippers were getting nothing aside
Speaker 1: from Paul George making impossible pull up threes. And so
Speaker 1: if I get five minutes of slow down half court possessions,
Speaker 1: I feel better about the team that's getting the better
Speaker 1: shots in that particular situation. Now, they still had themselves
Speaker 1: a chance thanks to a step back three from Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard and and one in the lane where he got
Speaker 1: fouled by Anthony Davis. But he's Kawhi Leonard. He's gonna
Speaker 1: do that sometimes, right, But I thought the Lakers kind
Speaker 1: of recaptured a bunch of their specific identity win or
Speaker 1: lose in this game. Even if let's say Paul George
Speaker 1: makes all three free throws that go to OT and
Speaker 1: the Clippers win, I would still feel a lot better
Speaker 1: about what this Lakers team is doing right now after
Speaker 1: that than I would in that first half. A bunch
Speaker 1: of key trends reversed that looked a lot more like
Speaker 1: the Lakers that we saw for the entire tail end
Speaker 1: of the regular season last year and the playoffs. Like
Speaker 1: I said at the beginning of the season, sometimes basketball
Speaker 1: teams just play bad basketball, and the Lakers were playing
Speaker 1: bad basketball to start the season. They played good basketball
Speaker 1: in the second half and in overtime against the Clippers.
Speaker 1: If they continue to play like that, they're going to
Speaker 1: win a lot of games in this regular season for
Speaker 1: the Clippers. Paul George is putting his money where his
Speaker 1: mouth is. He said before the season that he was
Speaker 1: going to be back on his bully shit, and I
Speaker 1: thought he played extremely well in this game. The pull
Speaker 1: up shooting with Paul George, it's always like a give
Speaker 1: and a take, because what drives me crazy with this
Speaker 1: particular Clippers team watching them is they almost entirely rely
Speaker 1: on tough pull up jump shooting. And again, what do
Speaker 1: I always say about this kind of stuff? I said
Speaker 1: the same thing about the Suns. I like tough pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooting because it's such a great ceiling razor.
Speaker 1: But if it is your bread and butter, you are
Speaker 1: susceptible to cold stretches, right, like Kawhi Leonard Gott couple
Speaker 1: of pull up threes in ot as well, right, and
Speaker 1: then a wide open catch and shoot three in the
Speaker 1: left corner, and it's like, maybe they go in, maybe
Speaker 1: they don't if they go in different game, right, But
Speaker 1: juxtapose that with the type of shots the Lakers were
Speaker 1: getting closer to the rim in ot, pushing down their
Speaker 1: throats and transition in ot. Like the Lakers look at
Speaker 1: Lebron James shot making as a supplementary thing to their
Speaker 1: rim pressure offense. Right, they look at Austin Reeves hitting
Speaker 1: the occasional tough jump shot and pick and roll as
Speaker 1: a supplementary thing to their rim pressure offense. Right. If
Speaker 1: you rely entirely on pull up jump shooting, there's just
Speaker 1: too much variance there. This is where I like the
Speaker 1: James Harden fit because if you take what Paul George
Speaker 1: did tonight and you couple that with quality half court offense, Say,
Speaker 1: for instance, James Harden does exactly what he did with
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid, but with Kawhi Leonard. Okay, set him up
Speaker 1: on the left wing, have Kawhi Leonard set a hard
Speaker 1: ball screen, have James Harden work downhill towards the right,
Speaker 1: and set Kawhi Leonard up with like catch ISOs at
Speaker 1: the elbow or at the top of the key in
Speaker 1: pick and pop situations, have a defender closing out on him,
Speaker 1: and just have Kawhi Leonard work with an advantage all
Speaker 1: game long. Like or if you have to put some big,
Speaker 1: strong defender on Kawhi and he switches on to James Harden,
Speaker 1: he can hit him with the dribble move get the
Speaker 1: defense into rotation that way. James Harden specializes at getting
Speaker 1: the defense in rotation. Paul George and Kawhi Leonard specialized
Speaker 1: on hitting over the top jump shots. Russell Westbrook also
Speaker 1: specializes at getting the defense in rotation. But there comes
Speaker 1: a lot of baggage with that, right You're two bizarre
Speaker 1: a fourth quarter driving transition attempts where he turned the
Speaker 1: ball over. The Lakers were ignoring him off the ball
Speaker 1: all throughout the fourth quarter, which continue to kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, mess things up for them offensively. I'm sure
Speaker 1: Lakers fans it felt probably pretty cathartic to be on
Speaker 1: the other side of those Russell Westbrook late game you
Speaker 1: know snafoos. But again, like that's kind of the thing here.
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook gets you into rotation, but comes with all
Speaker 1: of this downside, Right, James Harden, at least within the
Speaker 1: context of the regular season, is a much more steady
Speaker 1: version of what Russell Westbrook brings in the half court
Speaker 1: in terms of getting the ball, getting the ball moving
Speaker 1: in the defense in rotation. It looks different with Russe
Speaker 1: it's more just brute force downhill. Right with James Harden,
Speaker 1: it's methodical. It's about body position. It's leveraging the defender
Speaker 1: to lean the wrong way in a ball screen so
Speaker 1: that he can get downhill. James is excellent. It's setting
Speaker 1: up his man for ballscreen. James is a great pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooter in the regular season, consistently right around
Speaker 1: fifty five percent in effective field goal percentage. Like he's
Speaker 1: just a better version of that, you know. And that's
Speaker 1: kind of the way I see the formula in the
Speaker 1: big picture. Like when James Harden was to be able
Speaker 1: to play, Terrence Man was out, they had to lean
Speaker 1: a lot on Norman Palell and Russell Westbrook down the
Speaker 1: stretch of this game. There's a different version of this
Speaker 1: where it's gonna be James Harden and Terrence Man with
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard Paul George And if you get Zubac right,
Speaker 1: that's that's gonna be a more functional two way lineup
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor with their ability to
Speaker 1: set Kawhi Leonard and Paul George up with better offensive opportunities.
Speaker 1: And then on the just a more steady overall approach
Speaker 1: from the standpoint of decision making, right, Russ is gonna
Speaker 1: have his opportunities in the loose portions of the game.
Speaker 1: Now again, it's gonna be a similar type of challenge
Speaker 1: to what he had with the Lakers. James Harden is
Speaker 1: a little bit redundant with him, He's gonna have to
Speaker 1: work off the ball more. He's gonna have fewer touches,
Speaker 1: fewer minutes, So it's gonna be a challenge for us.
Speaker 1: But he does seem happier and he does seem to
Speaker 1: be a better fit with the Clippers locker room. I've
Speaker 1: talked to some people who have told me that, like
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook just in general jives better with the Clippers
Speaker 1: in terms of his overall vibe and the vibe of
Speaker 1: that locker room. So like he's it's gonna be fine,
Speaker 1: but he's gonna have to make an adjustment when James
Speaker 1: Harden comes into the picture. That it was one of
Speaker 1: those games where, like, I feel better about both teams
Speaker 1: after watching because Paul George looks better than he has
Speaker 1: in a couple of years. Kawhi Leonard looks fantastic. He
Speaker 1: definitely lost his legs a little bit in the second half.
Speaker 1: That's typical tail end of a back to back right
Speaker 1: and to pull up jump shot coming up short. In
Speaker 1: a lot of cases, that's to be expected. But I
Speaker 1: felt better about the Clippers because Paul George is incredible.
Speaker 1: James Harden's gonna organize them on offense at a higher level.
Speaker 1: You know, Terrence Man is gonna be able to bring
Speaker 1: some of that like physical force that Russell Westbrook does
Speaker 1: in that lineup, in that off ball roll. They've got options,
Speaker 1: They've got depth. I maybe not as much depth as
Speaker 1: they did before the trade, but I like the position
Speaker 1: that the Clippers are in right now. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow with a breakdown of the Kings and the
Speaker 1: Warriors and Klay Thompson's game winner, and then we're gonna
Speaker 1: do deep dives on the Celtics and the Bucks. As always.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys for supporting the show, and I'll
Speaker 1: see you tomorrow. The volume