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Speaker 1: welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I'll ball if you guys are having a great start
Speaker 1: to your week. Gonna do a film session on game
Speaker 1: two between the minutes on the Timberwolves and the Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 1: Fair warning off the top. We did this for Game one,
Speaker 1: and then YouTube wouldn't let us post the film, So
Speaker 1: if you're just getting the kind of like monologue portion
Speaker 1: of this and not the film, that's what happened. But
Speaker 1: I promise we're still working on it. I have twelve
Speaker 1: clips that we're gonna go over. There are eleven clips,
Speaker 1: I should say at the end of the show. Again,
Speaker 1: that's the way this is being produced. But if something
Speaker 1: goes wrong, at least you guys will know what happened. Again,
Speaker 1: just breaking down, gonna give my thoughts on kind of
Speaker 1: the press conference from last night. We're gonna go over
Speaker 1: some numbers, just some of my overarching takeaways from game two,
Speaker 1: and then we'll get to eleven clips and then we'll
Speaker 1: get out of here until tonight's games. You guys know
Speaker 1: the joke before we get started. Subscribe to our Brandon
Speaker 1: YouTube channel so you don't miss any more videos. Follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, underscore Jason lt so you guys don't
Speaker 1: miss show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcast under Hoops tonight, and then keep
Speaker 1: dropping me ail back questions in the YouTube comments. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So I went back and listened
Speaker 1: to the press conferences from last night, and there's some
Speaker 1: good and there were some bad. Right like Reggie Jackson
Speaker 1: and Justin Holliday. I thought they handled it like vets
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. Reggie Jackson was using a
Speaker 1: lot of the same terminology that I was using in
Speaker 1: the show last night. I said, they got punked. He
Speaker 1: specifically used the word they got punked. I talked about
Speaker 1: how this isn't about basketball yet, it's about their force
Speaker 1: of will, and he specifically said the phrase this is
Speaker 1: a test of our will and our manhood, which I
Speaker 1: thought was really fascinating in the sense that Reggie's kind
Speaker 1: of seeing things the same way that I am, which
Speaker 1: is like, you can't even get to basketball and adjustments
Speaker 1: and all of these different things until you actually show
Speaker 1: up to the fight. You got punched in the mouth,
Speaker 1: and you've staggered, and you've reacted emotionally to a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff, but you haven't reacted in a basketball sense
Speaker 1: really at all yet in this series. And so Reggie's right,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, I think that we can't even really
Speaker 1: get into some of the basketball elements until they show
Speaker 1: up to the fight. One of the other things that
Speaker 1: we heard from a bunch of different guys, Reggie Jackson
Speaker 1: said this, Michael Malone said this the idea of owning
Speaker 1: your space, which is gonna be a big concept that
Speaker 1: we talk about when we get to the film, and
Speaker 1: basically to me, owning your space is like there are
Speaker 1: spots on the floor that you're supposed to be offensively so,
Speaker 1: and those spots actually really matter. So just imagine like
Speaker 1: a horn set. Okay, and let's say you run a
Speaker 1: Chicago action off of a horn set. What that means is,
Speaker 1: let's say you remember the horns. The two You usually
Speaker 1: have your at least one of your post players, if
Speaker 1: not both, at the two elbows. Two guys in the corner,
Speaker 1: guy at the top of the key. You'll make a
Speaker 1: post entry, a high post entry to like the guy
Speaker 1: on the right elbow, and then you'll run down and
Speaker 1: you'll set a wide pin down like a downscreen for
Speaker 1: the guy in the corner, and he's going to come
Speaker 1: off of that downscreen into the dribble handoff from the
Speaker 1: guy at the elbow. It's very important that the guy
Speaker 1: catches the ball at the elbow, not just so that
Speaker 1: you can run the play there, but that spot is
Speaker 1: also important because there's a lot of the spacing con
Speaker 1: that the rest of the floor is designed around requires
Speaker 1: the action to be run in that specific spot. That's
Speaker 1: a big way that defenses can disrupt an offense is
Speaker 1: by fighting guys off of their spots. Oh this guy
Speaker 1: wants to post up, well, I'm going to make him
Speaker 1: catch at seventeen feet instead of thirteen feet. Right, Okay,
Speaker 1: this shooter wants to come off of these two screens
Speaker 1: while I'm going to top block him and move him
Speaker 1: around and make him take a weird angle so the
Speaker 1: entire geometry of the play gets messed up. That's a
Speaker 1: big way that defenses tried to confront that, right, And
Speaker 1: like it's to Reggie Jackson's point, that is one of
Speaker 1: the areas of basketball that is more about a force
Speaker 1: of will. It is more about just competing physically. I
Speaker 1: was working through a three on three drill yesterday with
Speaker 1: my high school team that I work on at work with,
Speaker 1: and there was one of the seniors was kicking the
Speaker 1: shit out of one of the younger players fighting for
Speaker 1: position at the high post for a set that we
Speaker 1: were trying to run, and he was kind of getting
Speaker 1: worked up and getting a little upset about it, and
Speaker 1: I had to tell him, like, no, no, no, no, no, Like
Speaker 1: you have to fight him. He is bullying you off
Speaker 1: of your spot. You have to fight for that catch
Speaker 1: in that spot. And like he would get catches ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen feet away from where he was supposed to catch,
Speaker 1: and then the action just falls apart. Right, It's not
Speaker 1: about basketball at that point. It's not about anything other
Speaker 1: than are you willing to get dirty? Are you willing
Speaker 1: to squat down hit somebody? Are you willing to get
Speaker 1: in the weight room to put in the work behind
Speaker 1: the scenes so that you can have a better chance
Speaker 1: to fight for a position. It is not about basketball
Speaker 1: anymore at that point. It is strictly about fighting and
Speaker 1: a lot I thought it was interesting that a lot
Speaker 1: of Denver players in the coaches were talking about that
Speaker 1: owning your space concept last night, because that is step
Speaker 1: one to fixing this problem. In order for Denver's offense
Speaker 1: to function, you need to get the ball into the
Speaker 1: right spots, and you need to get there early in
Speaker 1: the clock so that you can run action to generate
Speaker 1: an advantage, or maybe get a ball reversal to run
Speaker 1: another action so that you can get higher quality close
Speaker 1: out opportunities for your high level offensive players. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna get that if you're fighting ball pressure and you
Speaker 1: can't even make the high post entry until thirteen seconds
Speaker 1: are on the shot clock, and by the time you
Speaker 1: make the high post entry. He's catching it four feet
Speaker 1: off of his spot. Now there's nine on the shot
Speaker 1: clock and the entire play is dead. And now it's
Speaker 1: like I've got a bunch of guys. I've got Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray who's in jail, Nikole Jokic who's getting double teamed,
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon taking a bunch of jump shots, and Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior is struggling to break free in game two. Right,
Speaker 1: So like again, it's all that owning of the space
Speaker 1: thing is a basic basketball concept from early phases that
Speaker 1: is all about just fight. It's physical, it's fighting. It
Speaker 1: is a wrestling match. You're wrestling for position on the floor.
Speaker 1: Same thing goes for ball pressure, like when a guy
Speaker 1: is getting up into your grill and getting physical with you.
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about the double team stuff because
Speaker 1: we're gonna go over some examples where guys were like
Speaker 1: trying to attack ball pressure for no particular reason. But
Speaker 1: even with ball pressure, it's like, you got to make
Speaker 1: good strong moves. You gotta you gotta fight that. When
Speaker 1: the dude's reaching and claw at you, you got to
Speaker 1: use that off farm and bump him off. And then
Speaker 1: you've got to hit quick retreat dribbles, and be really
Speaker 1: efficient with your movements. It's all about meeting force with force.
Speaker 1: If you kind of wilt underneath that physical ball pressure,
Speaker 1: that's when they've won that battle. And so I thought
Speaker 1: that was a really interesting kind of takeaway from the
Speaker 1: from the pressers last night. At least Denver knows that
Speaker 1: they're getting bullied out of their specific spots on the floor,
Speaker 1: and if they approach game three that main attitude like
Speaker 1: own your space, that'll go a long way towards, uh,
Speaker 1: towards towards helping them. Again, it's very simple, own that
Speaker 1: space on the floor. If you're supposed to catch at
Speaker 1: the elbow, do not let him take you off the elbow.
Speaker 1: If he tries to, you fight him right back off
Speaker 1: of that spot. Right That's that's gonna be the big
Speaker 1: battle moving forward. Justin Holliday, similar type of uh, you know,
Speaker 1: similar type of sentiment in the sense that he was like,
Speaker 1: this is what the playoffs are supposed to be, Like,
Speaker 1: we got to meet that playoff level. Michael Malone. It
Speaker 1: was kind of there were some things that I liked
Speaker 1: and things that I didn't like about what he said.
Speaker 1: He was very straightforward, we got bullied, we got embarrassed,
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. The two things that concerned
Speaker 1: me is one he said he didn't like the body
Speaker 1: language in the locker room, which like I get in
Speaker 1: the sense that it's not you don't go into your
Speaker 1: locker room when you're getting embarrassed and just act all
Speaker 1: like jovial and happy. But there was some of that
Speaker 1: weird stuff where like no one really seems to be
Speaker 1: angry about what's happening, you know, Reggie Jackson was the
Speaker 1: one guy who seemed kind of like pissed off, right,
Speaker 1: and so like there needs to be I want to
Speaker 1: see some fight from them moving forward. And then secondly,
Speaker 1: he defended himself for yelling at the ref. Now he
Speaker 1: explained himself, and after he explained himself, what he said
Speaker 1: actually made a lot of sense in the sense that like,
Speaker 1: he was pissed off about a Carl Town's post up
Speaker 1: on the left block on the previous possession where kat
Speaker 1: ripped through and he did he ran him all over
Speaker 1: and it should have been an offensive foul. He was
Speaker 1: right about that, But again, bad calls happened in basketball games,
Speaker 1: and he bum rushed thereat and like He's right, like
Speaker 1: the coaches do have a certain responsibility to advocate for
Speaker 1: the players, but he went too far. And the part
Speaker 1: that bothered me is he defended himself and acted like
Speaker 1: he was just being a good coach. I thought that
Speaker 1: was a really good opportunity for him to kind of
Speaker 1: like set an example for Jamal Murray and be like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I lost my cool. I was pissed
Speaker 1: off about a bad charge call. I know I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to be advocating for my players, but I lost my
Speaker 1: cool and I behaved in a way that didn't actually
Speaker 1: help the situation. If he says something like that, that
Speaker 1: gives you the ability to go to Jamal Murray and
Speaker 1: be like, hey, dude, like you got your ass kicked,
Speaker 1: own it, and let's move forward and let's find a
Speaker 1: way to address this problem. So kind of up and
Speaker 1: down with Michael. Malone really didn't like what Jokic said
Speaker 1: after the game. There's this kind of like indifference from him.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna talk about Yokic in a bigger picture
Speaker 1: here in a minute, but like there was like a
Speaker 1: kind of an indifference. He was specifically asked about the
Speaker 1: team losing control of their emotions in Jamal Murray in particular,
Speaker 1: and his response was basically, I didn't lose control of
Speaker 1: my emotions, So go ask Jamal. And it's like like
Speaker 1: that's one of those ones where you're the leader of
Speaker 1: the team, like they're expecting you to kind of speak
Speaker 1: on Jamal's behalf and be like that's where you say, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what, Jamal loss is cool today, but he knows,
Speaker 1: he knows, and he's gonna be better in game three.
Speaker 1: You know, like there's it was just kind of like
Speaker 1: a weird vibe coming from that locker room and then
Speaker 1: Jamal no showing the presser. Look, it's easy to talk
Speaker 1: to the press when you're winning, like like, it'd be
Speaker 1: great if you just took the only the good parts
Speaker 1: of anything you have to do in your life. No, Like,
Speaker 1: sometimes you have to do things when the circumstances are
Speaker 1: not great. Right, It's easy to come home and be
Speaker 1: a good husband or go to a social event and
Speaker 1: be a good friend or family member when things are
Speaker 1: going well in your life. It's more challenging when you
Speaker 1: have a lot of stresses behind the scenes. So you
Speaker 1: had a really rough day and then you have to
Speaker 1: go into that situation and be the best version of yourself.
Speaker 1: There's a responsibility that comes from being one of the
Speaker 1: best players on your team and being a leader and
Speaker 1: talking to the press. And when you go to talk
Speaker 1: to the press every single time you hit a game winner,
Speaker 1: and then you bail on the press when you play
Speaker 1: like shit, that's that's not handling your responsibilities as a leader.
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray is going to be a guy that has
Speaker 1: to play better for the Nuggets to get back in
Speaker 1: the series. And I don't even think his head's in
Speaker 1: the right place yet. I don't think he really has
Speaker 1: embraced the reality of what's going on. And again, as
Speaker 1: far as the calf muscle goes, there's no doubt that
Speaker 1: he's not moving as well as he could if his
Speaker 1: calf muscle was going was healthy. That said, if you
Speaker 1: didn't know Jamal Murray was injured, you wouldn't know that
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray's injured because he's moving well enough. The reason
Speaker 1: why he's struggling with Minnesota is because Minnesota is kicking
Speaker 1: his ass. That's why. So if he thinks that like
Speaker 1: the only reason this is happening is the calf muscle,
Speaker 1: then he might end up in a series with Minnesota
Speaker 1: next year and have the exact same problem. Right, The
Speaker 1: real problem is he needs to meet their force with force,
Speaker 1: be more decisive against their ball pressure. And one of
Speaker 1: the things I liked from Nicole jokicch in his press conference,
Speaker 1: Jokic talked about trusting the pass. And I'll show you
Speaker 1: guys an example here when we get to film. But
Speaker 1: there are a lot of times where Jamal is trying
Speaker 1: to beat the pressure or over penetrate with the dribble
Speaker 1: and he needs to be more willing to trust the pass.
Speaker 1: So like, there's a lot that Jamal can get better
Speaker 1: at even if he is moving at you know, ninety
Speaker 1: two percent of his normal mobility or whatever the hell
Speaker 1: it is. Which, by the way, everyone in the playoffs
Speaker 1: is banged up, so you're not gonna get sympathy points
Speaker 1: there when like Donovan Mitchell's playing on a bad knee.
Speaker 1: Like a bunch of guys are playing banged up right now.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of just like part of what it's
Speaker 1: like playing in the NBA playoffs. I talked about this
Speaker 1: in a bigger picture sense after Game one, But there
Speaker 1: are different types of playoff runs. Sometimes you're really healthy,
Speaker 1: and everyone shoots really well. You get favorable matchups and
Speaker 1: you just kick everyone's ass. And that's what happened last year,
Speaker 1: and they beat some really good teams along the way.
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of people going revisionist history on
Speaker 1: the Nuggets after last night. I think that's stupid. They
Speaker 1: they beat less a lesser version of this Timberwolves team
Speaker 1: last year handily. They beat Katie and Devin Booker handily.
Speaker 1: They beat Lebron James and Anthony Davis handily, They beat
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler and Bamane Bio handily. So like, I'm not
Speaker 1: about to like go back and rewrite history on Denver.
Speaker 1: They're awesome. They just got punched in the mouth. This
Speaker 1: is their first bit of like real adversity and they're
Speaker 1: not handling it well. And so again like there's not
Speaker 1: there's it's not gonna be smooth. It was never gonna
Speaker 1: be smooth. I talked about this before the playoff run.
Speaker 1: You're you're facing better teams this year. Not to mention
Speaker 1: the motivational shift, like all of these teams are pissed off,
Speaker 1: have a chip on their shoulder, really want to get
Speaker 1: to the mountaintop. You're on the mountaintop and they're coming
Speaker 1: for your spot, So of course they're gonna be playing harder.
Speaker 1: They're gonna be bringing another level of physicality to the equation.
Speaker 1: Of course, they're like, there's obviously going to be a
Speaker 1: shift when you're the defending champion. I saw Adam Autas
Speaker 1: from DNVR tweeted this out last last night. I thought
Speaker 1: it was really fascinating. He was like Michael Malone at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the season talked about how winning the
Speaker 1: first time takes talent, repeating takes character, and he's right,
Speaker 1: because it's always harder the second time around. And now
Speaker 1: it's going to be more about a different side of
Speaker 1: Denver's personality. We knew that they had all the talent
Speaker 1: in the world. We knew that they had the best
Speaker 1: player in the world. But what are they gonna do
Speaker 1: when shit's not going right? What are they gonna do
Speaker 1: when they're a little banged up. What are they gonna
Speaker 1: do when Jokic's jumper isn't as sharp as it was
Speaker 1: last year? What are they gonna do when they face Minnesota, who,
Speaker 1: by the way, is probably a better team than any
Speaker 1: of the teams they faced last year, Right, what are
Speaker 1: they gonna do when the stakes are raised, when the
Speaker 1: difficulty goes up a level, how are they going to respond?
Speaker 1: This is where I want to get to Nicole Jokic.
Speaker 1: I said this to you guys after Jokic won the
Speaker 1: title last year. I'm a big believer in the trophy.
Speaker 1: The trophy is the only reason we do this, right.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, with great power comes great responsibility.
Speaker 1: Lebron fans, A lot of Lebron fans don't like me,
Speaker 1: you know why, because like when you say things like
Speaker 1: you're the greatest basketball player of all time, which On
Speaker 1: himself has said, and so many of these so many
Speaker 1: of his fans strongly believe, and like, I held him
Speaker 1: to a different standard this year too, because I thought
Speaker 1: he was playing at a top five level going into
Speaker 1: the postseason. And so with that comes me covering him
Speaker 1: and talking about him and analyzing his game from the
Speaker 1: perspective of being a guy in the running for best
Speaker 1: player of all time. Now I think he's second, but
Speaker 1: still same same standard, right Like when you're in that conversation,
Speaker 1: when you're one of those bona fide Mount Rushmore guys
Speaker 1: in NBA history, there is an expectation that comes from that.
Speaker 1: And last night, in a must win game, when Jokic
Speaker 1: had the best matchups and when his when his team
Speaker 1: was falling apart at the seams, Jokic wasn't able to
Speaker 1: regain control of the situation. Now, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: basketball left. And here's the other thing too. Maybe Jokic
Speaker 1: doesn't care. There's been a level of indifference from him
Speaker 1: in general over the last year, even with his dominance,
Speaker 1: and maybe he doesn't care. And maybe if Aunt just
Speaker 1: kicks him off of his spot and pisses all over
Speaker 1: his territory, he won't care. Maybe he'll just go back
Speaker 1: to Serbia and be happy and come back next season
Speaker 1: and try it again. But if he wants to be
Speaker 1: recognized as the perennial best player in the world, there
Speaker 1: is a standard and expectation that comes from that. And
Speaker 1: what that is is, you can't get your ass kicked
Speaker 1: to this extent. You have to show more fight. I've
Speaker 1: said consistently through the series. He has to look to
Speaker 1: score more. Yes, there have been double teams, but there
Speaker 1: still are plenty of times where he's not being aggressive enough.
Speaker 1: There's a clip early in this game where he had
Speaker 1: Carl Towns in single coverage in the post, no double team,
Speaker 1: and he passed out of it for no reason. You
Speaker 1: are the guy that can save them. You're the one
Speaker 1: guy I said after Game one. If you're expecting Jamal Murray,
Speaker 1: with the best permmeter defender in the world, to flip
Speaker 1: this script, that's not going to happen. You have to
Speaker 1: do it. You have to be the one that saves them.
Speaker 1: And you're the best player in the world. And I've
Speaker 1: come up here and said that you have your you
Speaker 1: have a sizeable gap between you and the second best player, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, I believe his climb in that. And
Speaker 1: if Ant beats this Denver team and he runs through
Speaker 1: and he wins the championship, like then he's got a
Speaker 1: really damn good claimt. But like he's got like there
Speaker 1: is pressure and expectation that comes from that. And again,
Speaker 1: maybe Jokic doesn't care. Maybe he just doesn't care. But
Speaker 1: if he doesn't care and he gets his ass kicked
Speaker 1: in the series, then he's not the best basketball player
Speaker 1: in the world. Because the best basketball player in the
Speaker 1: world wouldn't let this happen to this extent. He would
Speaker 1: do more Jokic can do more. That's the bottom line.
Speaker 1: Of Course, this is hard. Of course he's he's getting
Speaker 1: double teamed and there's big dudes all around him. He
Speaker 1: can do better. Like, here's the thing. When I was
Speaker 1: hesitant to refer to Jokic as the best player in
Speaker 1: the world, there was a very specific reason. Why do
Speaker 1: you guys, Remember I say, big, slow footed guys struggle
Speaker 1: to hang in transition and in defensive coverage situations, particularly
Speaker 1: dropped coverage. I was making videos last year of Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum cooking him in drop coverage and all these different things,
Speaker 1: and talking about how this is a little bit of
Speaker 1: an issue. This is what he has to fix if
Speaker 1: he's going to be the best player in the world.
Speaker 1: Last year, in the postseason, he was very good defensively.
Speaker 1: This year he has been bad. Not just okay, not
Speaker 1: just down a level from last year. He's been bad.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davison. Anthony Davison and Lebron James barbecued him. They
Speaker 1: absolutely barbecued him. And now Minnesota and Anthony Edwards are
Speaker 1: doing the same thing. He is a traffic cone in
Speaker 1: these drop coverages. They're going right around him. So like,
Speaker 1: even if we acknowledge the fact that your double teams
Speaker 1: are taking you out of your offense, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: there's some of that, but there's plenty of opportunities that
Speaker 1: Jokic is being too passive. Game one, in particular, way
Speaker 1: too pass came into this game four more turnovers in
Speaker 1: the first half. He literally has had a He had
Speaker 1: eleven turnovers in the first six quarters of this series.
Speaker 1: So I I do think he can do much better
Speaker 1: on offense. But even if we write that off, you're
Speaker 1: getting barbecued on the other end of the floor. You
Speaker 1: are getting absolutely fried. So do something about it. Defend
Speaker 1: your defend your ground. You're the best player in the world.
Speaker 1: Own that. Defend it, show some fight like there's there's
Speaker 1: pressure and responsibility and expectation that comes with holding that title.
Speaker 1: It's a title like there are very There are a
Speaker 1: lot of things in the NBA big picture, things that
Speaker 1: I don't care much about. An MVP whatever awards doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter all that much to me. All Star selections,
Speaker 1: all that, all Star MVPs, that kind of thing. There
Speaker 1: are things that really matter to me, and one of
Speaker 1: them is who's the best player in the world. Who
Speaker 1: having the title of the best basketball player in the
Speaker 1: world is an unbelievable honor. Look at the guys who
Speaker 1: came before you. The guy who had that spot for
Speaker 1: for nine seasons from twenty twelve to twenty twenty, Lebron James,
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant in the late two thousands and early twenty tens, Uh,
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal, Michael Jordan. Like you are in
Speaker 1: a rare company of players in NBA history, and you
Speaker 1: got the spot for one year, and now someone's trying
Speaker 1: to kick you off of it, and you're like, talk
Speaker 1: to Jamal, I guess we'll see what happens in game three,
Speaker 1: Like there's there show some damn fight. I have big
Speaker 1: expectations for Nicola jokicch in Game three. I want to
Speaker 1: see him go. I want to see him go, not
Speaker 1: like this. I want to see him go. I'm if
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go down, I'm going down swinging. I'm going
Speaker 1: down with you know, forty points on thirty two shots
Speaker 1: if I have to, and twenty three rebounds because I
Speaker 1: just started throwing cat around the gym. That's what I
Speaker 1: want to see from Nicola jokicch And by the way,
Speaker 1: that is a prerequisite of being an all time great.
Speaker 1: The bit Lebron James Game six, down three to two
Speaker 1: going into Boston and dropping forty five. Steph Curry twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, down two to one going into Boston. What
Speaker 1: he dropped forty three? Like, when your back is against
Speaker 1: the wall and shit is not in your favor, that
Speaker 1: is when you show who the best player in the
Speaker 1: world is. When it's easy is only part of it.
Speaker 1: Dominance is only part of it. I talked about this
Speaker 1: earlier in this series. Those late Chicago Bulls teams in
Speaker 1: the late nineties, they were falling apart at the seams
Speaker 1: health wise, got Pippins, got a bad back, Dennis Rodmans
Speaker 1: leaving the team, and Michael Jordan's just like, I gotta
Speaker 1: figure out a way to get this done. That is
Speaker 1: part of the journey, is what do you do when
Speaker 1: it looks ugly? And Game two. Game two was the
Speaker 1: first time where it was like, must win. You're the
Speaker 1: guy with the advantages. You got to find a way
Speaker 1: to make this happen. And what did you have? Sixteen points?
Speaker 1: That's just not gonna cut it. It's just not gonna
Speaker 1: cut it. And again like that, but before before yokch
Speaker 1: fans get mad at me. This is what this If
Speaker 1: whoever it is that has the best player in the
Speaker 1: world title on this show, that's the standard that I
Speaker 1: look at them through. If you're the best player in
Speaker 1: the world, there is a standard down expectation that comes
Speaker 1: with that. A couple of metrics before we move on.
Speaker 1: Minnesota won the half court battle again, ninety two point
Speaker 1: one points per one hundred half court plays to seventy
Speaker 1: six point nine for Denver. They're now up one hundred
Speaker 1: to eighty nine for the series, so Minnesota's outclassing them
Speaker 1: in the half court again. Like I mentioned, one of
Speaker 1: the big things that's being overlooked for Minnesota is their
Speaker 1: offense has been awesome in transition. Minnesota twenty one points
Speaker 1: on nineteen possessions, Denver fifteen points on twenty one possessions.
Speaker 1: I thought a big thing that I noticed there on
Speaker 1: film is them just getting sped up by ball pressure
Speaker 1: and over penetrating too much, especially early in the sessions.
Speaker 1: Jump shooting. Minnesota shot just like they did in Game one,
Speaker 1: one point one to two points per jump shot, Denver
Speaker 1: zero point eighty three points per jump shots. A rough
Speaker 1: shooting night as well, but again I believe those things
Speaker 1: are related. All right, guys, That is all I have
Speaker 1: for today. Is always as sincerely appreciate you guys for
Speaker 1: supporting the show. We're gonna be back tonight live after
Speaker 1: the final buzzer of MAVs Thunder, I will see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume