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Speaker 1: The volume. All right, all good to Hoops tonight here

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Speaker 1: at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you

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Speaker 1: guys are having an incredible week so far. Just gonna

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Speaker 1: be hitting the two national TV games from last night.

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Speaker 1: It's the Lakers ride a sixteen to zero run in

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Speaker 1: the fourth quarter to beat a kind of feisty jokch

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Speaker 1: list Denver Nuggets team in Denver, and then after that

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Speaker 1: a similar comeback. Both of these games fueled by second

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Speaker 1: half comebacks on the defensive end of the floor. Houston

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Speaker 1: comes from behind to beat sanan Antonio last night. We'll

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Speaker 1: be hitting on both of those games and then we'll

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Speaker 1: get out of here. You guys know the joke before

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Speaker 1: we get started. Subscribe to Hoops and O YouTube channel

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Speaker 1: so you don't miss any more of our videos. Don't

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Speaker 1: forget to like this video that helps us a lot,

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Speaker 1: and the last, but not at least. If you want to

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Speaker 1: get questions into our Friday mail Bag, make sure you

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Speaker 1: drop them underneath this video and our other full episodes

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Speaker 1: on YouTube. Just put mailbag colon, write your question and

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Speaker 1: we'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of

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Speaker 1: the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the

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Speaker 1: Lakers win this one one fifteen to one oh seven.

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Speaker 1: An insane shot making first half from Luca and Jamal Murray.

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Speaker 1: The two of those guys combined for forty nine points

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Speaker 1: in the first half, just hitting every conceivable type of

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Speaker 1: pull up jump shot from everywhere on the floor, including

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Speaker 1: a half court heave from Jamal Murray to end the

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Speaker 1: first half to put the Nuggets up by fourteen. And

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Speaker 1: Jamal is just having one of the most ridiculous pull

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Speaker 1: up jump shooting seasons from a non Steph Curry player

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Speaker 1: that I can remember in a long time. A Jamal

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Speaker 1: Murray pull up jumper this season has been worth one

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Speaker 1: point one seven points per attempt. Only Steph Curry has

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Speaker 1: been better this season out of the twenty six players

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Speaker 1: with at least two hundred attempts. And to give you

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Speaker 1: some perspective, again, one point one seven points per attempt

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Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, Steph, which is like the greatest pull up

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Speaker 1: jump shooting season ever, was one point two to two

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Speaker 1: points per attempts. Only five percent down from that level.

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Speaker 1: Jamal's hitting forty four percent of his pull up threes

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Speaker 1: this year, fifty percent on twos inside of seventeen feet

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Speaker 1: forty eight percent on long twos. Just a ridiculous heater

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Speaker 1: that Jamal's been on this year, as I think he's

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Speaker 1: been an All NBA player this season, and he was

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Speaker 1: just frying the Lakers in every which way in that

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Speaker 1: first half. The Nuggets has a team shot super well

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Speaker 1: as well. They were sixteen for twenty eight on jump

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Speaker 1: shots as a team in the first half, one point

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Speaker 1: five to seven points per attempt, insanely hot, and Lakers

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Speaker 1: defense played a role. I thought just generally, Denver looked

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Speaker 1: comfortable and confident and kind of got wherever they wanted.

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Speaker 1: I didn't think they did a terrible job on Jamal,

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Speaker 1: like he got some easy ones, but he also just

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Speaker 1: hit every tough, contested jumper that he took. But I

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Speaker 1: also didn't think they did a great job on Jamal.

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Speaker 1: The Lakers in their base schemes are not very good

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Speaker 1: at making stars uncomfortable. They're not like a good ball

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Speaker 1: pressure like get up in at guy's jersey. It just

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Speaker 1: can struggle to get where he wants to go type

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Speaker 1: of team. Although I will say in the second half,

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Speaker 1: I thought Marcus Smart did better job. It's ball pressure.

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Speaker 1: We'll talk about that here in a little bit, but

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Speaker 1: most of the rest of the looks that the team

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Speaker 1: got were good looks, like the Spencer Jones threes. For example,

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Speaker 1: Spencer goes four for four from three in the first half.

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Speaker 1: The first one that he hit over Lebron in the

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Speaker 1: left corner was kind of like a zone look where

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Speaker 1: they overloaded the side. That three was a little bit

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Speaker 1: more contested, but the second one was pretty open, and

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Speaker 1: the last two that Spencer made were wide open shots.

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Speaker 1: And so like, if you have a good shooter who's

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Speaker 1: in a good rhythm, who's also wide open, they're going

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Speaker 1: to go in, you know. And I've been talking about

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Speaker 1: this for a while when it comes to the Lakers

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Speaker 1: and opponent shooting, like I think it's lame to just

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Speaker 1: sit there and go every night like, oh, they just

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Speaker 1: shot better than their expected quality. They shot better than

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Speaker 1: their expected quality. Well, if everyone's shooting better than their

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Speaker 1: expected quality against you, it's a you problem. It's a

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Speaker 1: defense problem. As we've talked about variance as part of shooting,

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Speaker 1: but it's pretty far down the list for me below

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Speaker 1: other factors that can influence whether or not shots go

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Speaker 1: in or don't. The Lakers tried their two three zone

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Speaker 1: in that first half for ten possessions and worked really

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Speaker 1: well against the Raftors on Sunday night, they ran like

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Speaker 1: forty plus possessions of it and just really controlled the

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Speaker 1: game with that facet of their defense. They tried ten

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Speaker 1: possessions of the zone against Denver, and Denver immediately shot

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Speaker 1: him out of it, gave they scored nineteen points on

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Speaker 1: those ten possessions. We didn't see any zone the rest

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Speaker 1: of the game from there. Denver just shoots the ball

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Speaker 1: too well, and they had a couple of guys who

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Speaker 1: could kind of score in the middle of the zone,

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Speaker 1: like Tim Hardaway hit a foul line jumper there. We

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Speaker 1: talked about how they attacked the zone by overloading the side.

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Speaker 1: That's another way that you can kind of force guys

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Speaker 1: to make super long rotations that they typically wouldn't make

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Speaker 1: in his zone. Getting the ball to the middle, that's

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Speaker 1: always a key part of beating the zone. Denver just

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Speaker 1: did a great job and just fried him out of

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Speaker 1: the zone, and it wasn't an option for the Lakers

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Speaker 1: in this one. The zone's not going to work on everyone, certainly,

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Speaker 1: not just a two three zone either. But it's a

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Speaker 1: pitch you want to have in your bag. And the

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Speaker 1: main thing is the Lakers have shown that they can

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Speaker 1: go to that look against certain types of teams, like

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Speaker 1: maybe it's a rhythm disruptor, or maybe you have a

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Speaker 1: team like the Raptors who just can't handle it for

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Speaker 1: whatever reason, the combination of poor shooting and just poor execution.

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Speaker 1: And then it's a punch you can go to and

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Speaker 1: you lean on at forty possessions, or you try it

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Speaker 1: ten possessions against Denver, it doesn't work, you move on, right,

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Speaker 1: So the Lakers end up going into the second half

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Speaker 1: down fourteen. They come out in the start of the

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Speaker 1: second half and just make a simple adjustment with Jamal Murray,

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Speaker 1: We're gonna double the hell out of him, and it

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Speaker 1: worked wonderfully, I thought. Just in general, Marcus Smart did

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Speaker 1: a much better job and his ball pressure on Jamal

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Speaker 1: just kind of making him fight to get the ball

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Speaker 1: up the court and then when he would kind of

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Speaker 1: wheel up towards the top and an off ball sequence,

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Speaker 1: like there were some successful denials there where Marcus just

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Speaker 1: stopped Jamal from even getting the basketball. And then when

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Speaker 1: he did get the basketball, you know, if he started

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Speaker 1: to look to Iso they'd send the double or if

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Speaker 1: there's any ball screen, they basically just double teamed him

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Speaker 1: off of that ball screen and it literally worked wonderfully.

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Speaker 1: Jamal hit just one shot in the entire second half.

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Speaker 1: It was like a little fade away kind of jumper

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Speaker 1: over Jackson Hayes in the middle of the floor that

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Speaker 1: was way down and essentially garbage time is and it

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Speaker 1: wasn't the game wasn't completely over, but it was basically

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Speaker 1: over at that point in the final minutes. And so

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Speaker 1: I mean, Jamal did his job. He took the second defender,

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Speaker 1: and he made a lot of really good first reads

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Speaker 1: like usually the guy like Jalen Pickett, like slipping out

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Speaker 1: of the screen or flashing to the ball. But it

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Speaker 1: took Jamal out of rhythm. He still took six shots

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Speaker 1: in the second half, and he missed his first five

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Speaker 1: because like every once in a while, he'd find himself

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Speaker 1: in single coverage and he'd be like, oh shit, like

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Speaker 1: there's no double, and then he'd just quit get into

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Speaker 1: his bag and try to go to a kind of

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Speaker 1: a mediocre pull up jump shot because he wanted to

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Speaker 1: get something up before the doubles came, or he would

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Speaker 1: just shoot over the double team. He did that a

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Speaker 1: couple times in the second half as well, and those

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Speaker 1: are just really really tough shots. And then the most

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Speaker 1: important part of it again, when you start to double team,

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Speaker 1: you start to create these four on threes. I thought

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Speaker 1: the Lakers just did a great job rotating. And again,

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Speaker 1: when you get to those four on threes, you got

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Speaker 1: to at least try to force them to get the

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Speaker 1: ball all the way across the floor to a three

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Speaker 1: point shot rather than the first guy scoring or something

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Speaker 1: easy at the rim. And so the first thing you

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Speaker 1: got to do is rotate to the short roller and

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Speaker 1: then rotate to the rim. And the Lakers were just

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Speaker 1: on time, on target with their shifts and rotations off

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Speaker 1: of those doubles constantly in that second half, rotating to

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Speaker 1: the guy rolling out of the action, shutting off of

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Speaker 1: the rim, and so they were able to essentially give

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Speaker 1: the time to rotate. The reason why it's so important

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Speaker 1: if the open jump shot is on the opposite side

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Speaker 1: of the floor rather than on the same side of

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Speaker 1: the floor, there's a lot more time to rotate out

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Speaker 1: of it. So if there's two guys on Jamal and

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Speaker 1: you pass to the short roller and then he makes

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Speaker 1: a move into the middle of the floor and then

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Speaker 1: he makes a kick out to the corner. That's a

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Speaker 1: sequence of events that buys time for that second defender

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Speaker 1: that's on Jamal to rotate back to the weak side.

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Speaker 1: When you start giving up cuts on the baseline for

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Speaker 1: easy dunks or you know, strong side double teams or

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Speaker 1: the strong side open threes where it's just a simple

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Speaker 1: passing sequence to get the ball there, you know, easy swing.

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Speaker 1: That's where it can be a problem. But I thought

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Speaker 1: the Lakers just did a great job rotating out of

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Speaker 1: their doubles. According to Synergy, they allowed just three unguarded

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Speaker 1: catch and shoot shots in that second half. I went

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Speaker 1: back and looked at the ones that Synergy logged there,

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Speaker 1: and one of those was the one that Lebron clearly

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Speaker 1: contested against Tim Hardaway on the right wing kind of

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Speaker 1: underneath that screen. So I don't think that really counts.

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Speaker 1: The two that were like wide open catch and shoots

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Speaker 1: that Denver generated out of the double teams, or that

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Speaker 1: play where Jamal split the double and he ended up

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Speaker 1: hitting Tim Hardaway Junior in the right corner and he

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Speaker 1: missed that one, and then there was kind of a

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Speaker 1: poorly executed double team where they were able to easily

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Speaker 1: swing it along the top, and that was when Peyton

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Speaker 1: Watson got his wide open catch and shoot three in

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Speaker 1: the left corner that he did make, so they got

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Speaker 1: two of them. They made one of them, but they

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Speaker 1: were for the most part able to prevent wide open

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Speaker 1: catch and shoot threes. It was a lot of contested

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Speaker 1: catch and shoot threes and contested shots at the rim,

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Speaker 1: and that was the other part of the part of

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Speaker 1: this two. The Lakers just did a great job of

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Speaker 1: just kind of certainly being big at the rim without fouling,

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Speaker 1: and that forced Denver into taking a lot of contested layups,

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Speaker 1: many of which they missed. As a matter of fact,

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Speaker 1: Denver missed ten shots in the paint in the second

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Speaker 1: half of this game, and so the game plan worked.

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Speaker 1: The Lakers held the Nuggets to just thirty six points

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Speaker 1: in the second half, and that's a good offense even

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Speaker 1: without Jokic. Like the the the jokicless Nuggets have been

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Speaker 1: a different team obviously, right like they're nowhere near as

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Speaker 1: good at rebounding. That was a big part of the

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Speaker 1: game last night. The Lakers badly out rebounded them and

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Speaker 1: for the most part. Since Jokic has been out and

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Speaker 1: Yonas Valenciunas has been out, the Nuggets have struggled to rebound.

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Speaker 1: Not a big shot, although I think it's worth mentioning

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Speaker 1: that when we discuss things like about the value of

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Speaker 1: defensive rebounding and how it's important to close out possessions,

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Speaker 1: that's something that we need to give more credit to

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Speaker 1: the guys like Jokic. I'd even throw Luca into this conversation, Like,

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Speaker 1: guys who are really good at defensive rebounding that's at

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Speaker 1: least part of defense, and guys who can do that,

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Speaker 1: that's a significant, you know, bit of value added there, right,

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Speaker 1: But like, yeah, they've struggled to rebound. You know, They're

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Speaker 1: defense has been hot and cold, just like it was

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Speaker 1: before Jokic went out. But they've actually been eleventh of

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Speaker 1: you know, before last night, eleventh in offensive rating in

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Speaker 1: this non Jokic stretch. And the reason why is because

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Speaker 1: Jamal Murray's playing like an All NBA player. Peyton Watson

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Speaker 1: has exploded into a legitimate offensive option. You know, we

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Speaker 1: all know what Aaron Gordon can do with the basketball.

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Speaker 1: Jalen Pickett can do some stuff off the bounce, like

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Speaker 1: they just have a lot more offensive skill than you think.

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Speaker 1: Tim Hardway Junior has been shooting the shit out of

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Speaker 1: the basketball. Obviously he missed a lot of them last night,

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Speaker 1: but Tim Hardaway's been shooting them all really well. And

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Speaker 1: so again, they're not the Jokic s Nuggets. Like, no

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Speaker 1: one's gonna look at that win last night like a

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Speaker 1: signature win for the Lakers or anything. But I thought

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Speaker 1: it was an impressive half of Lakers defense, allowing just

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Speaker 1: thirty six points in that second half. And then I

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Speaker 1: thought Luca was just absolutely amazing last night, had some

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Speaker 1: huge offensive runs to finish some of those defensive sequences

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Speaker 1: on the other end of the floor in the second half.

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Speaker 1: He had a stretch in the mid third quarter where

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Speaker 1: they cut that sixteen point lead down to a three

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Speaker 1: point lead, where Lucas scored or assisted on six consectative

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Speaker 1: possessions for the Lakers. And again, like we're gonna get

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Speaker 1: into this concept a little bit more in a minute,

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Speaker 1: but that's the thing that you know, when you have

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Speaker 1: a top tier superstar who's playing at the peak of

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Speaker 1: his powers, like at that best player in the world level,

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Speaker 1: it's just whatever you want to call that level of basketball.

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Speaker 1: When you have a player that's achieving that, it is

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Speaker 1: just the ultimate equalizer in sports. It's the ultimate like

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Speaker 1: it can overcome anything. It's that there's nothing like the

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Speaker 1: way that a top tier superstar playing at that level

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Speaker 1: can impact winning in basketball. It's a very unique kind

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Speaker 1: of thing, and it's part of what makes the NBA

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Speaker 1: such a storybook sport when it comes to the stars

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Speaker 1: and the way they can lift their team to victory.

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Speaker 1: And I thought Luca just kind of you know, Luca

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Speaker 1: was facing a lot of double teams too. It wasn't

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Speaker 1: as it wasn't like Jamal was facing a lot of

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Speaker 1: his double teams. You know, twenty five thirty feet from

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Speaker 1: the basket, lucasaw a couple of those, right like the

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Speaker 1: Lebron dunk down the stretch, that was the double team

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Speaker 1: lucasaw on the right wing way away from the basket.

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Speaker 1: Ruy Short rolled out of it. The Denver defense shifted,

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Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon got caught kind of ball watching, and Lebron

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Speaker 1: just cut down the lane. He got that big dunk.

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Speaker 1: But there there was a lot of aggressive coverage. They

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Speaker 1: were just different, right, Like a lot of help after

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Speaker 1: Luca would start to drive, or you know, a lot

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Speaker 1: of those like aggressive, aggressive nail help situations, like Marcus

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Speaker 1: Smart got a three in the left corner because Bruce

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Speaker 1: Brown was like way up, like twenty feet high above

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Speaker 1: where Marcus was more towards the elbow in like a

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Speaker 1: soft double team on Luka Dancic, and Luca just threw

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Speaker 1: it over the top and Marcus Smart hit a three.

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Speaker 1: But like the point is is like both teams came

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Speaker 1: out in the second half and said, we're gonna try

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Speaker 1: to take the ball out of these dudes hands, and

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Speaker 1: you know, Luca just still found a way to score

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Speaker 1: and did a better job of breaking down the defense.

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Speaker 1: Because as good as Jamal Murray's been this year, he's

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Speaker 1: not like the top tier superstar in the league type

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Speaker 1: of level player that Luca can get to. And Luca

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Speaker 1: demonstrated that in that second half. Luca was just absolutely

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Speaker 1: amazing in that third quarter run. In the fourth quarter

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Speaker 1: run more of like a in the fourth quarter run,

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Speaker 1: more of his passing right like he hits Ruy on

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Speaker 1: that short roll that's the the Lebron dunk, or he

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Speaker 1: set up Marcus Smart for a different corner three where

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Speaker 1: he just beat his man off the dribble, Drew help

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Speaker 1: kicked it to him in the right corner, hit Jackson

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Speaker 1: Hayes for a lob. Another play where he set Marcus

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Speaker 1: up with a close out where he drew a foul.

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Speaker 1: Kind of Peyton Watson, I don't blame him for fouling here,

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Speaker 1: Like Marcus smart pump faked and I thought he was

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Speaker 1: gonna drive and then he'd like stepped back into a three.

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Speaker 1: It was kind of a bizarre shot, and I think

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Speaker 1: it just kind of caught Peyton Watson off guard. But

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Speaker 1: Luca just did some brilliant offensive creation in this game.

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Speaker 1: And again, like Lucas had a rough season by the

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Speaker 1: top tier superstar standard. You know, we've talked about it

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Speaker 1: this year, a lot of step back threes that weren't

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Speaker 1: going in that were effectively leading to these fast breaks

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Speaker 1: that were hurting the team. Like there were just so

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Speaker 1: many sequences where Luca would miss a step back three

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Speaker 1: and then they give up a dunker or a layup or

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Speaker 1: a foul on the other end, and it's like every

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Speaker 1: one of those felt like a big three four point swing,

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Speaker 1: depending on what the Lakers could have got on offense

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Speaker 1: if they got something closer to the rim, then there

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Speaker 1: were like turnover issues. You know, Luca was part of

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Speaker 1: the problem on defense. He obviously wasn't the only problem,

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Speaker 1: but you wouldn't haveing a very good season. It just

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Speaker 1: was the reality as we kind of came into this

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Speaker 1: recent stretch. But I think that he's been playing some

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Speaker 1: really good basketball ever since the second half of that

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Speaker 1: second Memphis game on January fourth. It really feels like

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Speaker 1: he's starting to turn the corner into that best version

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Speaker 1: of himself, and it's all of those things turning in

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Speaker 1: the opposite direction. In those nine games, forty percent from

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Speaker 1: three to nine point four attempts per game, So like

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Speaker 1: him actually being a guy who like there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of guys who take a lot of step back threes

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Speaker 1: in the NBA, but Luca was the only guy that

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Speaker 1: was taking a bunch of them and making less than

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Speaker 1: thirty percent of them earlier this season. He's been making

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Speaker 1: them as of late, so like, if it's going to

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Speaker 1: be a large part of his offense, it needed to

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Speaker 1: be efficient. He's been making them forty percent from three

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Speaker 1: on nine point four attempts per game over the last

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Speaker 1: nine just four point one turnovers per game that was

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Speaker 1: closer to five in the previous month. He basically had

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Speaker 1: two seven turnover games in that nine game span, and

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Speaker 1: in all of the other seven games out of that nine,

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Speaker 1: he's taken really good care of the basketball. And then

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Speaker 1: I think the whole team has actually been more engaged

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Speaker 1: on defense. Like that previous month, they were literally like

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Speaker 1: a bottom three defense in the league. They've been closer

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Speaker 1: to the middle of the pack as of late, which

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Speaker 1: is what their potential is. They're not a great defense

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Speaker 1: under any circumstances, but just I don't care how bad

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Speaker 1: your defensive personnel is. If you compete and you have

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Speaker 1: good game plans and you pay attention to detail within

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Speaker 1: that game plan every night, you're gonna be a mediocre defense.

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Speaker 1: And Luca and the rest of the team have been

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Speaker 1: more engaged in those ways as of late. And so

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Speaker 1: Luca's cleaned that stuff up and now he's playing like

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Speaker 1: he's in the conversation for best player in the world.

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Speaker 1: Like I was literally thinking about that last night. Like

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Speaker 1: Luca's always been legitimately capable of being the best basketball

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Speaker 1: player in the world. There are times where I watch

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Speaker 1: him and I'm like, man, like that guy it's Jokichesk.

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Speaker 1: He can dribble from the perimeter, but he's so big

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Speaker 1: and strong he can get to these super close twos.

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Speaker 1: He has really good touch on these close twos. But

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Speaker 1: then he compliments it with this unbelievable playmaking on defense.

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Speaker 1: It's like he's obviously not a stopper or anything, but

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Speaker 1: he can like make plays like when he jumped that

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Speaker 1: high post entry that forced the turnover that went out

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Speaker 1: to the other end in the third quarter, or you know,

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Speaker 1: as a low man defensive rebounder, just making rotations, like

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Speaker 1: Luca's capable of doing all of this stuff, like when

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Speaker 1: he's tying all of that together and he's hitting the

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Speaker 1: step back three and he's taking care of the basketball.

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Speaker 1: Like you watch him and you're like, is that the

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Speaker 1: best player in the world? You know, And there just

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Speaker 1: have been a lot of nights this year where he

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Speaker 1: hasn't been at that level, But as of late, more

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Speaker 1: and more is starting to look like that kind of guy,

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Speaker 1: the guy that has the ability to become the best

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Speaker 1: player in the world one day. And you know, when

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Speaker 1: I talk about Luca, I discuss his game through that

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Speaker 1: lens for a reason, and I criticize him through that

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Speaker 1: lens for a reason. It's because I want to see

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Speaker 1: him fulfill his maximum potential, which is he literally has

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Speaker 1: the ability to be one of the very best basketball

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Speaker 1: players to ever play the game. It just, you know,

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Speaker 1: there's been it's just been a little topsy turvy over

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Speaker 1: the last few years in terms of him actually achieving

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Speaker 1: that potential. And again, when we're talking about I'm not

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Speaker 1: talking about is he better than Devin Booker. That that's

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Speaker 1: not the conversation that we're having. If you want to

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Speaker 1: have that conversation, Yeah, Luca's a hell of a lot

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Speaker 1: better than Devin Booker. We're talking about Shay and Jokic.

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Speaker 1: These are two guys that, like, if they play four

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Speaker 1: games in a week, they're going to be transcendently great

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Speaker 1: in one of them, kind of like Luca was last night.

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Speaker 1: Then they'll be dominant in two of them and still

391
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Speaker 1: pretty damn good in the fourth game in a week.

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Speaker 1: Like that, that's the standard. Like when when those guys

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00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:42,960
Speaker 1: have a bad game, it's weird. You're like that was weird,

394
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Speaker 1: Like Shay was bad tonight, or wow, Luca was or

395
00:17:46,240 --> 00:17:49,199
Speaker 1: Jokic was bad tonight. That was bizarre. And so it

396
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Speaker 1: just kind of felt like it was tilting more in

397
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Speaker 1: that direction for Luca the season, but over the course

398
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Speaker 1: of the last nine games, really starting to turn a

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Speaker 1: corner and play like the guy that this team needs

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Speaker 1: him to be like again, like whatever version of the

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00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:04,080
Speaker 1: Lakers has a chance to compete for a championship, whatever

402
00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:05,600
Speaker 1: version that is, and I don't know if it exists

403
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Speaker 1: this season, and it may not exist next season. It

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00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:09,320
Speaker 1: may take two or three years for them to put

405
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Speaker 1: a roster together that really has that chance. But whatever

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Speaker 1: version of the Lakers can accomplish that, it's a version

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Speaker 1: that has Luka Doncicz playing at this level. It's just

408
00:18:18,119 --> 00:18:21,480
Speaker 1: a non negotiable. There's no way you're winning a championship

409
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Speaker 1: without Luca reaching this level unless you just have the

410
00:18:25,080 --> 00:18:28,960
Speaker 1: perfect roster, and that's probably not gonna happen under Rob Polinka.

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Speaker 1: A couple other Lakers shout outs Marcus Smart again, the

412
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Speaker 1: ball pressure and denials on Jamal to start the second half,

413
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Speaker 1: and then all those threes that he hit just absolutely massive,

414
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Speaker 1: drew Timmy plus five and eleven minutes again last night.

415
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Speaker 1: You know, I talked about this a little bit yesterday,

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00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:45,360
Speaker 1: but the again he's big. I think that's a big

417
00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:48,920
Speaker 1: part of it, is like this team struggles with speed,

418
00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:52,320
Speaker 1: and obviously Drew's not going to help in that respect,

419
00:18:52,359 --> 00:18:55,120
Speaker 1: but this team is big. It's an already very big

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Speaker 1: Lakers team, and so he kind of acts as a

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00:18:56,800 --> 00:18:59,320
Speaker 1: force multiplier in that sense where when he's around other

422
00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:02,520
Speaker 1: big players and he just he does play very hard

423
00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:04,919
Speaker 1: and he's good at like general positioning, so like it

424
00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:08,199
Speaker 1: kind of just adds to the layers of size that

425
00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:10,080
Speaker 1: this team has. And then the second piece of it

426
00:19:10,119 --> 00:19:13,360
Speaker 1: is he's just very skilled on offense. And like, this

427
00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:15,600
Speaker 1: is a team where when you get past their stars,

428
00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:20,680
Speaker 1: when you get past Lebron, Austin and Luca, it's there

429
00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:25,600
Speaker 1: is a complete lack of polished offensive skill like Jackson

430
00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:30,040
Speaker 1: not a polished offensive player, Vando not a polished offensive player,

431
00:19:30,119 --> 00:19:33,119
Speaker 1: Gabe not a polished offensive player, Jake Laaravia not a

432
00:19:33,119 --> 00:19:37,320
Speaker 1: polished offensive player, like Rui's probably the most polished offensive

433
00:19:37,840 --> 00:19:40,800
Speaker 1: player past the Stars. And then it kind of falls

434
00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:42,280
Speaker 1: off a cliff from there, and it's a lot of

435
00:19:42,280 --> 00:19:46,080
Speaker 1: guys that like kind of can dribble and can make

436
00:19:46,119 --> 00:19:48,400
Speaker 1: a shot, but like a lot of guys that more

437
00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:50,280
Speaker 1: often than not are gonna go, you know, one for

438
00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:53,240
Speaker 1: five from three on any given night, and so having

439
00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:57,200
Speaker 1: a dude who's like can actually dribble, shooting pass really

440
00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,480
Speaker 1: well for his position brings a ton of value to

441
00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:03,320
Speaker 1: this team. It sticks out again like everything when it

442
00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:06,160
Speaker 1: comes to value for basketball is relative to the team

443
00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:07,760
Speaker 1: that you're on, and like there are gonna be teams

444
00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:10,680
Speaker 1: out there that don't need Drew's offense as much, where

445
00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:13,280
Speaker 1: his defense is a much bigger problem. The second piece

446
00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:14,760
Speaker 1: of it was is like he did get cooked a

447
00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:17,040
Speaker 1: little bit in the second half, getting attacked in ISO's

448
00:20:17,080 --> 00:20:19,280
Speaker 1: and a big part of that was the Lakers weren't

449
00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:22,040
Speaker 1: running zone. They were allowing him to switch and guard

450
00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:24,879
Speaker 1: on an island, and he wasn't playing next to DeAndre

451
00:20:24,920 --> 00:20:26,440
Speaker 1: and Ayton got poked in the eye and he sat

452
00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:29,320
Speaker 1: out the second half, and so the Lakers weren't able

453
00:20:29,359 --> 00:20:31,680
Speaker 1: to go to their like two big two three zone

454
00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:33,360
Speaker 1: look in the second half. Like I think they would

455
00:20:33,359 --> 00:20:36,840
Speaker 1: have tried that again, even though they got scored on

456
00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:38,160
Speaker 1: in the first half. I think they would have tried

457
00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:40,680
Speaker 1: that again if Ayton was available, But Ayton wasn't available,

458
00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:42,600
Speaker 1: so they didn't go to that. I think there's some

459
00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:45,159
Speaker 1: of that where Timmy's so skilled that I think he

460
00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:47,960
Speaker 1: can play alongside another big which gives a lot of

461
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:51,680
Speaker 1: optionality for JJ with lineup structure with Timmy. But he's

462
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:53,920
Speaker 1: been very valuable to this team in the last week,

463
00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:57,119
Speaker 1: just simply because he's big and he's skilled, and this

464
00:20:57,280 --> 00:20:59,520
Speaker 1: Lakers team is big and they don't have a lot

465
00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:02,320
Speaker 1: of skill, and so Drew's been a force multiplier in

466
00:21:02,359 --> 00:21:03,960
Speaker 1: that sense. A couple of big wins in a row

467
00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:06,200
Speaker 1: for the Lakers against some higher level playoff teams. Again,

468
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:08,359
Speaker 1: I wouldn't call either of those signature wins, obviously, with

469
00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:10,520
Speaker 1: Jokic being out, and no one thinks the Raptors are

470
00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:13,640
Speaker 1: a you know, first or second tier contender or anything

471
00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:16,240
Speaker 1: like that. But I do think these games represent good

472
00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:18,480
Speaker 1: progress for a Lakers team. And here's the thing. This

473
00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:22,240
Speaker 1: is a Lakers team that's been very mediocre for like

474
00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:25,159
Speaker 1: almost two months now, and there are only two games

475
00:21:25,160 --> 00:21:27,199
Speaker 1: back in the lost column for San Antonio, for the

476
00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:29,480
Speaker 1: two seed and for the third best record in the NBA,

477
00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:32,439
Speaker 1: So all things considered, could be a hell of a

478
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:37,280
Speaker 1: lot worse than it's been to this point. Today's show

479
00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:39,560
Speaker 1: is brought to you by a presenting sponsor, hard Rock Bet,

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503
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504
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506
00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:52,040
Speaker 1: gambling in Florida, call one eight three to three play wise.

507
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509
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510
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Speaker 1: and a Zona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee,

511
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:10,040
Speaker 1: or Virginia, San Antonio, Houston. Kind of a similar example

512
00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:12,200
Speaker 1: of a team that lost control of an offense in

513
00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:14,240
Speaker 1: the first half, but then kind of got things under

514
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,600
Speaker 1: control in the second half. Julian Champagnee hit six threes

515
00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:19,280
Speaker 1: in the first half, and I thought the main issue

516
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:22,320
Speaker 1: was cross matches. So the way that the Rockets were

517
00:23:22,359 --> 00:23:24,840
Speaker 1: setting up their matchups. To start the game, KD was

518
00:23:24,880 --> 00:23:29,240
Speaker 1: on Julian Champagnee and Shangun was on Harrison Barnes. But

519
00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:31,479
Speaker 1: one of the things, you know, Champagnie and Barnes kind

520
00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:33,880
Speaker 1: of play similar styles in the sense that they're aggressive

521
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:35,480
Speaker 1: catch and shoot guys. Harrison will put the ball on

522
00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:37,480
Speaker 1: the floor a little bit more, Julian's a little bit

523
00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:39,320
Speaker 1: more aggressive from the three point line, but they both

524
00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:43,000
Speaker 1: like only operate off ball for the most part within

525
00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:46,840
Speaker 1: the offense, and then when they catch with an advantage,

526
00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:49,000
Speaker 1: they'll look to be aggressive to score. But like they're

527
00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:51,719
Speaker 1: not going to run a lot of like organized offense

528
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:53,439
Speaker 1: with those guys at the tip of the spear, so

529
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:55,840
Speaker 1: to speak, right, And so you put Kadi and Shangun

530
00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:58,760
Speaker 1: there because they're mostly your help and recover guys. But

531
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:03,320
Speaker 1: what was happening is in transition pushes, Whenever you know,

532
00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:06,480
Speaker 1: Harrison Barnes would be closer to KD, he just grab him,

533
00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:09,439
Speaker 1: and Shangun would grab Champenny, and so Shangun ended up

534
00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:13,720
Speaker 1: on Chimpenne a lot in like cross matches, and the

535
00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:16,840
Speaker 1: Spurs were able to get a bunch of easy, wide

536
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:20,280
Speaker 1: open threes for Himpenny because Shannggun would like help on

537
00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:22,480
Speaker 1: a drive because he's a big and that's just the

538
00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:24,360
Speaker 1: way his brain works. He wants to help on a drive.

539
00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:27,280
Speaker 1: And it's like, oh, well, there's Champenni standing wide open

540
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:28,960
Speaker 1: at the top of the key easy catch and shoot

541
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:31,800
Speaker 1: three or picking pops for another one like you dribble

542
00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:35,080
Speaker 1: off of the screen from Shangun's man. Shangun's sitting there

543
00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:38,200
Speaker 1: in some variation of a drop coverage or an ice coverage,

544
00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:41,320
Speaker 1: and Champenni pops you know, to the above the brake line,

545
00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:42,840
Speaker 1: and they just pitch it back to Hi another wide

546
00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:44,720
Speaker 1: open three and it goes in. And so they just

547
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:48,960
Speaker 1: really lost control of sang of Champenni just with the

548
00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:51,480
Speaker 1: cross matches and him ending up on Shangun a lot.

549
00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:53,640
Speaker 1: And what ended up happening is in the second half,

550
00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:55,679
Speaker 1: the rockets just clean that up like you can't like.

551
00:24:56,640 --> 00:25:00,200
Speaker 1: When it comes to the shooters, Harrison Barnes is actually

552
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:02,680
Speaker 1: been a far less reliable catch and shoot guy this

553
00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:06,400
Speaker 1: year than Julian champannee Schampenny's forty six percent this year

554
00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:09,800
Speaker 1: on unguarded catch and shoot threes, Barnes is below forty percent.

555
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,480
Speaker 1: So again that was the game plan. Changun was supposed

556
00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:14,520
Speaker 1: to guard Barnes, but they just needed to be careful

557
00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:16,399
Speaker 1: with the cross matches, and so in the second half

558
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:18,760
Speaker 1: they cleaned that up. KD did a much better job

559
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:21,439
Speaker 1: of tracking Julian Champenny and then whenever there was a

560
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:24,520
Speaker 1: cross match in transition, a wing would pick up Champenni

561
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:27,440
Speaker 1: rather than Shangun, and so Shangoon for the most part,

562
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:32,200
Speaker 1: stayed out of that matchup. Synergy logged him. Champennie at

563
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:35,359
Speaker 1: six unguarded catch and shoot threes in the first half,

564
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:37,919
Speaker 1: just one in the second half, and it was like

565
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:40,119
Speaker 1: a movement three towards the top because it was it

566
00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:42,040
Speaker 1: was off the catch and it was unguarded, but he

567
00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:44,800
Speaker 1: had to run like sprint off of two screens and

568
00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:47,480
Speaker 1: catch the defenders on screens in order to get that look.

569
00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:50,960
Speaker 1: It's a really tough movement three going to the top

570
00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:53,160
Speaker 1: of the key. So they got control of the shot

571
00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:56,399
Speaker 1: quality with Champagnie in the second half and actually played

572
00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:59,840
Speaker 1: him into some misses and in the second half just

573
00:25:59,880 --> 00:26:01,760
Speaker 1: in in general, I thought the Rockets were much better

574
00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:05,000
Speaker 1: on defense. They one of the things that the Rockets

575
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:07,439
Speaker 1: also struggled with in the first half was with Dearon Fox,

576
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:10,359
Speaker 1: especially in the bench group. When Reed Shepherd came in,

577
00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:12,680
Speaker 1: just Darren Fox's eyes just lit up when he saw

578
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:15,639
Speaker 1: Reed Shepherd on him and just found a rhythm. But

579
00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:18,360
Speaker 1: for the most part, Fox's primary matchup in the game

580
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:19,800
Speaker 1: was a men Thompson, and one of the things that

581
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:22,480
Speaker 1: happened early in the game in the first shift, a

582
00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:25,520
Speaker 1: men swatted the shit out of Dearon Fox on a

583
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:27,879
Speaker 1: drive along the left lane line, just swatted him off

584
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:30,679
Speaker 1: the glass. And one of the things that happened is

585
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:33,080
Speaker 1: after that Fox kind of took a back seat in

586
00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:36,080
Speaker 1: the offense. And we've heard Dearon Fox talk about this before,

587
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:37,960
Speaker 1: he said, and it makes sense on the surface. He

588
00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:39,920
Speaker 1: was like, you know, on any given night, one of

589
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:41,800
Speaker 1: the other guards might have a better matchup or I'm

590
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:44,080
Speaker 1: being guarded by a better defender, and so in those

591
00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:47,119
Speaker 1: situations he has said he's happy to function as a

592
00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:50,119
Speaker 1: spot up shooter. And I thought in this particular game

593
00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:52,760
Speaker 1: that was a mistake as we got into the second half,

594
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:57,240
Speaker 1: because in the second half Fox was basically entirely uninvolved

595
00:26:57,600 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 1: until the fourth quarter. He did start getting into his

596
00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:01,960
Speaker 1: ball screen game late and by the way that was

597
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 1: when things kind of st stabilized for San Antonio offensively.

598
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:07,960
Speaker 1: That has been their late game offense for the most part,

599
00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:10,280
Speaker 1: but for most of the second half there he kind

600
00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:12,399
Speaker 1: of was just spotting up and it was a lot

601
00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:15,600
Speaker 1: of Steph Castle and a lot of Dylan Harper trying

602
00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:17,400
Speaker 1: to lead the attack in that second half, and both

603
00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:20,480
Speaker 1: of those guys struggled. Those two guys combined to go

604
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:23,560
Speaker 1: just five for sixteen in the second half, with a

605
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 1: couple of turnovers and a lot of like mediocre quick shots,

606
00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:29,639
Speaker 1: a lot of forces around the rim and traffic. That

607
00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:31,880
Speaker 1: was Steph Castle's big issue, just kind of forcing things

608
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 1: in traffic, and they were just making a lot of

609
00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:36,600
Speaker 1: young guy mistakes and it actually played the whole offense

610
00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:39,200
Speaker 1: out of rhythm, and then everybody started kind of shooting

611
00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:41,680
Speaker 1: the ball poorly just because things were clunky on offense,

612
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:45,000
Speaker 1: and Fox didn't really try to reassert control of the

613
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:47,679
Speaker 1: situation until late in the game, like we talked about,

614
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:52,240
Speaker 1: and so like some of that is deer and Fox

615
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:54,760
Speaker 1: in bad process, which again I just think he needs

616
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:56,159
Speaker 1: to read the room a little bit and be like,

617
00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:57,920
Speaker 1: all right, the young guys are struggling a little bit.

618
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:00,399
Speaker 1: I need to look to be aggressive here. But some

619
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 1: of that is also the power of having a Men

620
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:04,560
Speaker 1: Thompson on your team and the way that can affect

621
00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:07,520
Speaker 1: away an opponent likes to play like they went away

622
00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:09,840
Speaker 1: from one of their primary ball handlers for large chunks

623
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:11,800
Speaker 1: of the game just because they didn't like the matchup,

624
00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:14,520
Speaker 1: you know. And so that's just the asset that a

625
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 1: Men Thompson is to a defense. But after allowing thirty

626
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:20,639
Speaker 1: one points to Deer and Fox and Julian Champenne in

627
00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:23,440
Speaker 1: the first half, they allowed just ten points to those

628
00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:26,840
Speaker 1: guys in the second half. As a team, they allowed

629
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:31,040
Speaker 1: seventy first half points, they allowed just thirty eight in

630
00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:33,080
Speaker 1: the second half. I thought Reed Shepard played some better

631
00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:34,640
Speaker 1: defense in the second half too, which we'll talk about

632
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:36,199
Speaker 1: in a minute. We're about to talk about Reid, But

633
00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:39,400
Speaker 1: that get playing defense, getting control of the defensive end

634
00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:41,200
Speaker 1: of the four allowed their offense to carry them over

635
00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:43,719
Speaker 1: the top. And Reed Shepherd just had an amazing second

636
00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 1: half offensively. Fourteen of his twenty one points came in

637
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:49,720
Speaker 1: the second half. It's some big spot up threes, got

638
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:51,440
Speaker 1: a little rhythm and pick and roll down the stretch.

639
00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:53,080
Speaker 1: Had to pull up three off the dribble at this

640
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:56,920
Speaker 1: nasty driving reverse layup pass Luke Cornett. And then he

641
00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:58,960
Speaker 1: also forced a couple of turnovers on the ball, and

642
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:00,960
Speaker 1: this is where I want to talk about Shepherds defense

643
00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:03,240
Speaker 1: for a minute. Also had a blocked corner three on

644
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 1: Julian Champennie in the left corner. And so one of

645
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,640
Speaker 1: the things that I had a problem with with uh

646
00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: with Reid in his defensive struggles earlier in the season

647
00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:15,840
Speaker 1: was he was this bad combination of small and like

648
00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:19,320
Speaker 1: sort of out of position on his heels, and so

649
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:21,560
Speaker 1: guys would just go right at him and write through him.

650
00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:24,760
Speaker 1: And you know, like if you even just in that

651
00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:27,720
Speaker 1: first half, just him just giving Fox too much space.

652
00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:30,840
Speaker 1: And when you're giving him space and you're small, Fox

653
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:32,640
Speaker 1: is just going to shoot right over the top of you.

654
00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:35,120
Speaker 1: And that's what he did. One of the things that

655
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:37,200
Speaker 1: he did in the second half that actually caused him

656
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:39,640
Speaker 1: to win some of those battles. And again, like when

657
00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:42,560
Speaker 1: you look at the like the defensive end of the floor,

658
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 1: it's kind of like you know, Drew Timmy getting isoed.

659
00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:46,960
Speaker 1: In the second half, he also had a play where

660
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:48,880
Speaker 1: he got to stop but like you get picked on

661
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:51,920
Speaker 1: an ISO four times and you give up three buckets

662
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:54,040
Speaker 1: and you get one stop. You know, you gave up

663
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:57,400
Speaker 1: six points and four possessions. That's a battle that you're losing,

664
00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:00,440
Speaker 1: right But like if you get attacked four times and

665
00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:03,960
Speaker 1: you hold up two of the times, all of a sudden,

666
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:07,280
Speaker 1: it's like they didn't really puniss you that much, right,

667
00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 1: Like that's the thing. It's like, you're you want to

668
00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:13,080
Speaker 1: win as many battles as you lose when you're getting

669
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:15,440
Speaker 1: targeted on defense, and if you can win more battles

670
00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:17,640
Speaker 1: than you lose, then you're in great shape. And that's

671
00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:21,880
Speaker 1: the thing. Like if if reed Shepherd, you know, gives

672
00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 1: up you know, six seven points on various drives and

673
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:29,560
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots, but then he also forces some

674
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:33,400
Speaker 1: turnovers and you know has a block corner three, like

675
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:36,800
Speaker 1: like it all evens out to him actually having a

676
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:40,040
Speaker 1: positive defensive impact. Like a lot of times we highlight

677
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:44,200
Speaker 1: hunt when it comes to a defender getting attacked. We'll

678
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:45,840
Speaker 1: be like, oh, man, look at him, he's getting scored

679
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:48,160
Speaker 1: on an ISO. He got scored on an io four times.

680
00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:49,960
Speaker 1: But it's like if you gets scored on an ISO

681
00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:52,480
Speaker 1: four times, but they attacked him ten times, or they

682
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 1: attacked him seven times, but he also made these other

683
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:57,720
Speaker 1: defensive plays. He's being a net positive on the defensive

684
00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:00,800
Speaker 1: end of the floor. Teams are always going to attack somebody.

685
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:04,040
Speaker 1: That's just basketball. Basketball is find the weakest defender and

686
00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 1: put him in action. That's just how it goes. And

687
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,120
Speaker 1: so you're always gonna have somebody on the floor that

688
00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:11,720
Speaker 1: gets attacked. Shangun is getting attacked in ball screens literally

689
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:13,640
Speaker 1: all the time. It's just you got to try to

690
00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:16,800
Speaker 1: win more battles than you lose, or try to win

691
00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:19,440
Speaker 1: more battles than you've been winning as of late, and

692
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:21,920
Speaker 1: that will help you hold up better on the defensive end.

693
00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:25,320
Speaker 1: And Reid won some battles in the second half by

694
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:29,400
Speaker 1: getting up into the basketball and forcing turnovers off of

695
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:31,960
Speaker 1: the dribble. And again like this is where I think

696
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:35,680
Speaker 1: Reid's got to find a lane on defense. You know,

697
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:37,440
Speaker 1: one of the things we talk about a lot on

698
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 1: this show is like, if you're big, it's actually better

699
00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:44,080
Speaker 1: to play positional defense. If you're big and you're slow,

700
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:49,719
Speaker 1: meaning give space, use your length to contest. Understand you're

701
00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:51,840
Speaker 1: gonna have to concede a certain amount of pull up

702
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:53,880
Speaker 1: jump shots to keep the ball in front, and then

703
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:57,480
Speaker 1: it's all about angles, right, Like I'm four or five

704
00:31:57,520 --> 00:32:00,720
Speaker 1: feet off the guy he drives to the right, you know,

705
00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:03,040
Speaker 1: if I'm right next to him, i have no chance

706
00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:05,680
Speaker 1: to beat him to the spot. But it's just simple angles.

707
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:07,800
Speaker 1: If he's here and I'm here and we're both fighting

708
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:11,000
Speaker 1: for here, I have a shorter distance to cover than

709
00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:12,960
Speaker 1: he has to cover. And so as long as I

710
00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:16,720
Speaker 1: take the right angle and i'm you know, and I

711
00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:18,800
Speaker 1: beat him to that spot just simply because it's a

712
00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 1: shorter distance that I have to cover, then when he

713
00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:23,080
Speaker 1: meets me at that spot, I'm big and I'm in

714
00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:26,760
Speaker 1: his way. And that that's what good positional defenders look

715
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:29,160
Speaker 1: to do. So for instance, take a Luka Doncicz for example,

716
00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:31,560
Speaker 1: that's the way he's got to play defense. He's got

717
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:34,120
Speaker 1: to be big. He's got to take good angles and

718
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 1: keep the ball in front, take that contact in the chest,

719
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:40,040
Speaker 1: force them to make something over the top. For a

720
00:32:40,080 --> 00:32:44,360
Speaker 1: smaller player, it's the opposite if you play positional retreating

721
00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:47,760
Speaker 1: defense as a smaller player, when they get to that spot,

722
00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:52,320
Speaker 1: they're gonna go right through your chest. Right, And that

723
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:53,880
Speaker 1: that we've talked about that a lot when there's any

724
00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:55,960
Speaker 1: contact on drives. There's a lot of contact on drives,

725
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:58,440
Speaker 1: and it becomes a leverage battle. Can you turn the corner?

726
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:01,440
Speaker 1: And Reid's just gonna lose that battle a lot, right,

727
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:05,040
Speaker 1: But where Reid can win battles is with his speed

728
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:10,160
Speaker 1: and quickness up ford and aggressive into the basketball like that.

729
00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:13,000
Speaker 1: A lot of the best small guard defenders in the

730
00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:17,840
Speaker 1: league are in your shorts, like ball pressure, dudes. They're

731
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 1: they're getting up into the basketball, They're reaching in constantly

732
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:24,200
Speaker 1: trying to make you uncomfortable. That is the kind of

733
00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:26,480
Speaker 1: thing that Reid's got to do. And in that second

734
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:30,760
Speaker 1: half he forced multiple turnovers just by attacking the basketball

735
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:33,520
Speaker 1: with ball pressure, right, and you know speed on a

736
00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:36,920
Speaker 1: closeout like that Julian Champini closed out. Weaponizing his speed

737
00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:40,560
Speaker 1: in a ford aggressive playmaking way can make it so

738
00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:43,800
Speaker 1: that Reid has a game where he gets attacked a

739
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:46,600
Speaker 1: half dozen times and maybe gives up four buckets, but

740
00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:49,000
Speaker 1: he makes three or four other big defensive plays and

741
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:50,880
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you look at the larger sample

742
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:54,320
Speaker 1: and it's like we're getting positive contribution out of Reid

743
00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:57,080
Speaker 1: on defense. Defense. I'm talking about this mainly as a

744
00:33:57,080 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 1: big picture goal like Reid's probably not going to become

745
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:02,840
Speaker 1: guy this season, but if you look at him as

746
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:05,080
Speaker 1: a key rotation player or as a guy that can

747
00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:08,439
Speaker 1: close games or start games in the future, it's gonna

748
00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:10,600
Speaker 1: be because he becomes a better defensive player and that

749
00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:13,600
Speaker 1: is the pathway for him. The Rockets also get a

750
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:16,319
Speaker 1: bunch of big shots down the stretch. Kevin Durant had

751
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:18,520
Speaker 1: a really nice driving kick to Jabari in the corner.

752
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:20,920
Speaker 1: I thought, Kevin Durant, you know, he was This was

753
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:23,120
Speaker 1: not the kind of game for him to be super

754
00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 1: aggressive as a scorer. The Spurs have some good perimeter defenders.

755
00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:28,719
Speaker 1: They were up underneath him and his mid ranger. He

756
00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:31,080
Speaker 1: was just a little off last night, but I thought

757
00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:33,160
Speaker 1: he did a good job with advantage creation, especially down

758
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:35,400
Speaker 1: the stretch. Big driving kick to Jabari Smith in the

759
00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:37,919
Speaker 1: right corner, he hit a shot. Jabari hit another tough

760
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:40,160
Speaker 1: little mid range jumper around the top of the key

761
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:42,799
Speaker 1: where he came off of action with Shane Goon there

762
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:44,719
Speaker 1: and forced to switch, and Cornett was just kind of

763
00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:46,160
Speaker 1: too soft and he just kind of rose up in

764
00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:47,799
Speaker 1: the middle of the four. A couple of really big

765
00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:51,040
Speaker 1: shots for Jabari there he like, again, that's one of

766
00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:53,239
Speaker 1: the big things for this Rockets team. Some of their

767
00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 1: guys are starting to get their confidence back, starting to

768
00:34:55,200 --> 00:34:57,240
Speaker 1: play like the players they were early in the season.

769
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:02,560
Speaker 1: And then is there anybody else that needed shot out?

770
00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 1: Let me see. Oh and then the last drive that

771
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:10,320
Speaker 1: Shanggoun had against against Cornett, that was a big bucket

772
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:12,120
Speaker 1: late in the game where it looked like they were

773
00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:14,080
Speaker 1: getting setting up to run two man game him and

774
00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 1: KD on the right wing, and instead he was just

775
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:18,239
Speaker 1: like he had missed a couple really easy ones over

776
00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:20,040
Speaker 1: Cornett earlier in the game, right at the rim in

777
00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:21,920
Speaker 1: the first half, and he was like, I'm not missing

778
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:24,520
Speaker 1: this one, and he just plowed right through Cornette's chest,

779
00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:26,680
Speaker 1: spun over his left shoulder, got to that little right

780
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:30,480
Speaker 1: handed hook shot and knocked it down. Really, really a

781
00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:32,600
Speaker 1: big bucket from Shangun to help ice the game. Three

782
00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:35,840
Speaker 1: straight wins for the Rockets. They were great on defense

783
00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:38,959
Speaker 1: in all three games. Some of their key role players

784
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:40,759
Speaker 1: starting to get their confidence back. Like we talked about

785
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:43,759
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith starting to look like himself against Shanguon was

786
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,160
Speaker 1: getting a little better each game. Three straight twenty point

787
00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:49,360
Speaker 1: games for him. After taking that little bit of time off,

788
00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:52,280
Speaker 1: Tarry Easton made his return last night and he played well.

789
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:55,120
Speaker 1: Things are on the up and up for Houston, starting

790
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:56,959
Speaker 1: to look more like the team from earlier in the season.

791
00:35:56,960 --> 00:35:58,480
Speaker 1: I talked about this earlier. One of the big reasons

792
00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:01,160
Speaker 1: why I wasn't as concerned with Hugh is like, this

793
00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:04,160
Speaker 1: wasn't like the Lakers, where you know, they were kind

794
00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:07,759
Speaker 1: of grifting on late game success and they had these

795
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:11,000
Speaker 1: really problematic looking metrics in several phases of the game.

796
00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:14,640
Speaker 1: Like the Rockets are an elite team that have extremely

797
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:17,480
Speaker 1: strong metric performance in like every key area. They've been

798
00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:20,200
Speaker 1: good against the good teams in the league. They've been

799
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:22,600
Speaker 1: great on defense all season, great on offense all season,

800
00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:24,520
Speaker 1: great on the glass all season. Like they just have

801
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:29,239
Speaker 1: these clear positive metrics, the Katie Shanguna, Men Thompson trio,

802
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:31,719
Speaker 1: great net rating throughout the whole season, Like all of

803
00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:33,880
Speaker 1: these big picture metrics were strong for them. I just

804
00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:35,799
Speaker 1: thought they were playing some bad basketball for a couple

805
00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:37,279
Speaker 1: of weeks, and I'm not surprised at all that they're

806
00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:40,719
Speaker 1: starting to turn it around. On the Spurs front, kind

807
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:42,719
Speaker 1: of a bad jump shooting game from Wemby thirteen of

808
00:36:42,719 --> 00:36:44,640
Speaker 1: his twenty one shots were jumpers. He was just three

809
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:47,800
Speaker 1: for thirteen on those jump shots. That's gonna happen sometimes.

810
00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:49,279
Speaker 1: I actually thought he got some good looks in this

811
00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:51,279
Speaker 1: game that didn't go down. Again, the main thing that

812
00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:53,040
Speaker 1: stood out to me was just the way their whole

813
00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:55,840
Speaker 1: offense stalled out in the hands of the young guards.

814
00:36:55,960 --> 00:36:59,759
Speaker 1: And again, young players, especially guards, they're gonna have bad

815
00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:01,719
Speaker 1: games sometimes where they don't read the floor as well,

816
00:37:01,719 --> 00:37:03,600
Speaker 1: where they miss some of the jump shots they normally make.

817
00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:07,279
Speaker 1: You've got to have a more of a willingness if

818
00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:09,080
Speaker 1: you're dear in Fox, to kind of take control of

819
00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:11,719
Speaker 1: the situation a little bit sooner when you can tell

820
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:14,480
Speaker 1: something like that's about to happen. All right, guys, That's

821
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:16,400
Speaker 1: all I have for today is always to sincerely appreciate

822
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:18,200
Speaker 1: you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. I

823
00:37:18,200 --> 00:37:19,400
Speaker 1: hope all of you guys have a great rest of

824
00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:21,720
Speaker 1: your night. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more game reaction.

825
00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:23,239
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys then,