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Speaker 1: You're at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody hopeful, if you
Speaker 1: guys are having an incredible weekend. Well, it turns out
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers are in fact capable of occasionally,
Speaker 1: if rarely, beating the Denver Nuggets. They extend the series
Speaker 1: to five, which Game five will be on Monday night.
Speaker 1: We'll be going live on YouTube after the final buzzer
Speaker 1: of that one. I had a thing last night that
Speaker 1: kind of got in the way of my routine typically
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, So I had to cover those three
Speaker 1: games today, which got in the way of my ability
Speaker 1: of covering the other games. So we're just gonna hit Nuggets,
Speaker 1: Lakers and then Helicans Thunder today, so we're gonna have
Speaker 1: to get to those other two series at a later date. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we've got a jam pack schedule tomorrow as well, so Nuggets, Lakers, Pelicans,
Speaker 1: Thunder for tonight's show. You guys are the joke before
Speaker 1: we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channels.
Speaker 1: You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
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Speaker 1: you get your podcast under Hoops tonight, and then keep
Speaker 1: leaving mailback questions in the YouTube comments so we can
Speaker 1: keep hitting a couple of mail bags a week over
Speaker 1: the course of the rest of the playoffs. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So I'm gonna kind of mix
Speaker 1: things up a little bit in this episode. Instead of
Speaker 1: going kind of into the weeds, I'm gonna start kind
Speaker 1: of big picture for I as a fan, as someone
Speaker 1: who obviously is rooting for the Los Angeles Lakers, I
Speaker 1: was proud of their effort tonight. These game fours, when
Speaker 1: you're down three to oho, they typically go the route
Speaker 1: of the suite. It did some digging It's hard to
Speaker 1: find some exact data, but it looks like in NBA history,
Speaker 1: a team down three to OHO loses that game about
Speaker 1: sixty nine percent of the time. They went about thirty
Speaker 1: thirty one percent of the time. So typically what ends
Speaker 1: up happening is the better team, who demonstrated they were
Speaker 1: better by going up three to OHO is able to
Speaker 1: close the deal, right, So, and part of that is
Speaker 1: not just the talent differential, it's a lack of belief. Right. So,
Speaker 1: like you when you lose two games on the road,
Speaker 1: especially as the underdog, when you come home for game three,
Speaker 1: you have this thought in the back of your mind,
Speaker 1: and it's it's they held serve right, It's like they
Speaker 1: did what they were supposed to do. There's all these
Speaker 1: cliches that's surrounded You may have heard the series doesn't
Speaker 1: start until someone wins on the road, right, Like, there's
Speaker 1: all these cliches. So you go into game three with
Speaker 1: a certain amount of belief, like we still can do this, right.
Speaker 1: It's not until you drop that third game that it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: actually we can't, you know. And then typically that leads
Speaker 1: to kind of a cascading effect because if the team's
Speaker 1: better than you. You have to be perfect to beat them,
Speaker 1: right in your game plan execution. You need role players
Speaker 1: to hit shots, You need a bunch of different variables
Speaker 1: to go your way in order to beat a team
Speaker 1: that's better than you, right, and so like there's a
Speaker 1: certain level of focus in belief you need to do
Speaker 1: that typically, and so that's why in game four it
Speaker 1: typically goes the other direction. And so I just want
Speaker 1: to shout out the Los Angeles Lakers for showing some pride,
Speaker 1: showing some fight, and extending this series. I now to
Speaker 1: kind of tilt that back towards Denver. I Denver is
Speaker 1: going to approach Game five on Monday like a must win.
Speaker 1: They do not want to come back to the Crypto
Speaker 1: dot Com Arena for a game six right now. If
Speaker 1: they did have to do that, they would still rightfully
Speaker 1: be favored to win that game six, right, But they're
Speaker 1: gonna try to close this thing out in five. It's
Speaker 1: not just about avoiding a road game six that if
Speaker 1: the Lakers win, can force a game seven. It's also
Speaker 1: about Minnesota. Minnesota is probably gonna close Phoenix out tomorrow
Speaker 1: if not in game five, right, So Minnesota is gonna
Speaker 1: be ready and waiting for you in round two. So
Speaker 1: Denver's gonna want to get this thing over with quickly.
Speaker 1: And so here's the thing, Like, I'm not gonna sit
Speaker 1: here and act like Denver hasn't been trying in this series.
Speaker 1: I do think that they gave up a relatively poor
Speaker 1: effort in the first half tonight, which is like to
Speaker 1: be expected. But for the most part in this series,
Speaker 1: they've been kind of humming it around. You know, they're
Speaker 1: eighty five ninety percent like that typical like engaged but
Speaker 1: not desperate type of effort from Denver. I think we're
Speaker 1: going to get like a a just a freight train
Speaker 1: Denver performance on Monday. It's gonna be a really difficult
Speaker 1: game for the Lakers to stay competitive in, let alone
Speaker 1: to win. So I'll be picking Denver to win on Monday.
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna win convincingly. I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 1: if they won by double figures. That's just how much
Speaker 1: I believe in this Nuggets team, especially with urgency behind
Speaker 1: them in Game five. That said, I just wanted to
Speaker 1: compliment the Los Angeleskers again, like just most teams let
Speaker 1: go of the rope entirely in game four that that
Speaker 1: was not the case tonight. They showed a wire to wire,
Speaker 1: really really impressive performance they The big one is when
Speaker 1: Denver came with their inevitable second half run that they
Speaker 1: always come with. Right when that run happened, the Lakers responded.
Speaker 1: They were able to hold up underneath that onslaught in
Speaker 1: a way they were not able to in the first
Speaker 1: three games. So from there, now let's get into the basketball.
Speaker 1: So how did the Lakers get it done? Which I
Speaker 1: thought was interesting. In the first quarter, they ran a
Speaker 1: lot of their early offense through Austin Reeves and this
Speaker 1: is something that I actually called for a lot at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the series, and they didn't do very much,
Speaker 1: and it's something I'd like to see them do more.
Speaker 1: In Game five, they didn't even really do it that
Speaker 1: much after after the first quarter. They went to him
Speaker 1: a couple times at the end of the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: and he came through. But in that first quarter in particular,
Speaker 1: they were heavy attacking with Austin Reeves. Why does that
Speaker 1: matter because with the way that Denver has their defensive
Speaker 1: matchups configured right for the most part in this series,
Speaker 1: with exception of that run, the in Game two and
Speaker 1: a handful of other possessions here and there. They've had
Speaker 1: yokihn ad Gordon on Lebron, Right, those are your physical
Speaker 1: matchups that make sense in the front court. Then they're
Speaker 1: putting KCP on D'Angelo Russell because they know, even though
Speaker 1: we've discussed this on the show before, Austin because his
Speaker 1: floor is higher than d Lo's and because he's more versatile,
Speaker 1: probably a better basketball player than dl. Right, But Delo
Speaker 1: has this really high ceiling, like, let Dlo get going,
Speaker 1: he can really get going, which, by the way, to
Speaker 1: his credit, big bounce back game tonight, hit four threes,
Speaker 1: twenty one points, really nice game from D'Angelo Russell. That
Speaker 1: ceiling that Delo has. Denver wants to avoid that as
Speaker 1: much as possible, and so they're going to go with
Speaker 1: KCP on him as much as possible to try to
Speaker 1: mitigate his particular advantage that slots Jamal Murray onto Austin Reeves.
Speaker 1: And they just think in general, like Austin's the guy
Speaker 1: that's gonna run some action, he's gonna have some success,
Speaker 1: but he's not gonna torch us for thirty thirty five points.
Speaker 1: That's the way that Denver's looking at it right. Well, again,
Speaker 1: that's a way for you to go at a specific
Speaker 1: advantage in the matchups by keeping Jamal in the action. Again,
Speaker 1: one of the most important parts of getting a defense
Speaker 1: in rotation and pick and roll is getting the guarden
Speaker 1: trail position, and it's a difficult thing to do against
Speaker 1: really good screen defenders. That was a big thing at
Speaker 1: the end of Game two. If you guys remember Contavious callwell,
Speaker 1: Pope was navigating screens really well with Lebron and stopping
Speaker 1: him from turning the corner as cleanly as he was,
Speaker 1: and Aaron Gordon was on the ball right and they
Speaker 1: were bringing Jokic up to the screen with the Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis right and so going from KCP this like awesome
Speaker 1: screen navigator is one of the best perimeter defenders in
Speaker 1: the league. But by the way, he's gonna have a
Speaker 1: hell of a challenge on his hands after if they
Speaker 1: win Game five, or if they get out of the
Speaker 1: series and they face Minnesota in the next round, He's
Speaker 1: gonna have a hell of a challenge on his hands
Speaker 1: with Anthony Edwards as we all know. But like going
Speaker 1: from him to Jamal Murray, even though Jamal Murray has
Speaker 1: done a good job as a team defender. He's kind
Speaker 1: of like a defensive playmaker, is what I look at
Speaker 1: him as. Like. He's not necessarily great at any specific thing,
Speaker 1: but he's got good instincts and he can jump passing
Speaker 1: lanes smart help. He does things like that to like
Speaker 1: make plays on defense. Famously, if you guys remember, he
Speaker 1: had a big play like that at the end of
Speaker 1: Game four last year that actually led to the sweep
Speaker 1: when he tied up Lebron James on that drive, if
Speaker 1: you guys remember. But in general, Jamal Murray's not a
Speaker 1: fantastic screen navigator. He's not a guy that's going to
Speaker 1: lock up a perimeter player, right. So getting Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: into those ball screens, he's able to get Jamal into
Speaker 1: trail position, which gets him going downhill, which actually collapses
Speaker 1: the defense, which creates all the openings that can get
Speaker 1: the defense in rotation. I thought that was a big
Speaker 1: part of the early offensive success that the Lakers had,
Speaker 1: and like I said, I'd like to see them do
Speaker 1: more of that in Game five. Lebron James full desperation mode.
Speaker 1: We all know that Lebron, We've seen this time and
Speaker 1: time again. He did this in a big way in
Speaker 1: Game six against the against the Warriors last year, it's
Speaker 1: like back against the wall. I know I can't do
Speaker 1: this all the time because I'm too old, but I
Speaker 1: can just bully people. And he was constantly attacking mismatches
Speaker 1: against the smaller Denver players and taking them down into
Speaker 1: the post. And again it was all right at the
Speaker 1: rim or short turnaround jumpers, short those mid range jumpers. Again,
Speaker 1: we talked about this a lot, but like mid range
Speaker 1: jumpers inside of twelve thirteen feet tend to be a
Speaker 1: much higher percentage than in that fifteen to eighteen feet area, right,
Speaker 1: Lebron did a lot of work in there. He was awesome.
Speaker 1: He ended up with thirty points in this game. He's
Speaker 1: really been with exception of the defensive end in Game
Speaker 1: two and he didn't had a kind of uneven offensive
Speaker 1: game or excuse me, game three, I should say Game
Speaker 1: three was a rough one for Lebron, But for the
Speaker 1: most part through four games, he's been really, really good,
Speaker 1: in the hell of a lot better than he was
Speaker 1: last year. So shout out to Lebron delo big bounce
Speaker 1: back game. Again, it's not about his ceiling. We know
Speaker 1: what dlo ceiling is. It's his floor that has made
Speaker 1: him such a frustrating player. To his credit, this is
Speaker 1: the eighth big game in a row for the Lakers, right,
Speaker 1: the Warriors game, the Timberwolves game, the Pelicans game, the
Speaker 1: Pelicans game again, and then four Nuggets games. And he
Speaker 1: was really bad against Golden State, really bad against Minnesota,
Speaker 1: really good against the Pelicans, good against the Pelicans again,
Speaker 1: and then he's been good in two of the four
Speaker 1: Denver games. Right the rub on de lo Is. It's
Speaker 1: a back and forth thing. It's like you're getting feast
Speaker 1: or famine with him, and when he's not hitting shots,
Speaker 1: he doesn't do enough else to impact the game. But
Speaker 1: there's no doubt his ceiling is very important, especially to
Speaker 1: this particular Lakers team. It's been a big part of
Speaker 1: their offensive surge that they've had over the last forty
Speaker 1: six games or so of the season since the beginning
Speaker 1: of January, and so shout out to Delo for the
Speaker 1: bounce back Again. It's been a frustrating experience rooting for
Speaker 1: him over the course of the last couple of playoff runs.
Speaker 1: But there's no doubt that the highs are really really
Speaker 1: high with Delo, but we got to make our way
Speaker 1: to Anthony Davis. I talked before the series. If you
Speaker 1: guys remember that I was really disappointed with Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: in the playoff series last year against Jokic. I actually
Speaker 1: specifically said in the series preview that I have high
Speaker 1: expectations for Anthony Davis in this series. Why because Jokic's
Speaker 1: is peer Right, Like, when you're lumping in all these players,
Speaker 1: you look at Lebron, it's like you're ranking him against
Speaker 1: like Kevin Durant, Giannison, Tenna Kumpo, Jason Tatum, Kawhi Leonard, right,
Speaker 1: Like you're looking at him with that group of guys.
Speaker 1: When you're looking Anthony Davis, you're looking at him with
Speaker 1: Nikole Jokicic, joe El Embiid, Right, maybe you Blumpiannis in there,
Speaker 1: depending on who you ask, right, But like over the
Speaker 1: course of the last few years, Jokichen and Embiid have
Speaker 1: kind of won that battle over the course of the
Speaker 1: regular seasons, and a lot of that had to do
Speaker 1: with health. But then over the tail end of last year,
Speaker 1: Ad won on this crazy defensive run, and I was
Speaker 1: really advocating for him going into that series last year
Speaker 1: as an opportunity for him to kind of put his
Speaker 1: stamp on everything, and he was pretty good in Game one,
Speaker 1: struggled to start the game but scored a bunch of
Speaker 1: points in ball screens, and then he was just not
Speaker 1: very good in the last three games of the series
Speaker 1: and got his butt kicked by Nikole Jokic. And specifically
Speaker 1: in Game four last year, I thought he let go
Speaker 1: of the rope and quits a hard word to use,
Speaker 1: but I thought he stopped really truly giving the urgent
Speaker 1: and desperate effort. And so I was disappointed because like
Speaker 1: rom was on a bad foot and he was getting
Speaker 1: outplayed by Jamal Murray and AD was the guy who
Speaker 1: kind of like needed to carry the weight, and he struggled.
Speaker 1: And so that's why I kind of said coming into
Speaker 1: this series that I was really hoping for a dominant
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis performance, and he has been incredible. Specifically in
Speaker 1: the series preview, I said he needed to close the gap.
Speaker 1: Eighty is not better than Nikola Jokic. Nikola Jokic is.
Speaker 1: Nikol Jokic is playing at a level that is dominant
Speaker 1: compared to other all time greats. Let alone the rest
Speaker 1: of the league right now. I think there's like a
Speaker 1: significant distance between him and the second best player in
Speaker 1: the league. So like you're not asking Ad to be
Speaker 1: better than Jokic, but he needed to close the gap
Speaker 1: and he has done that in a really, really significant
Speaker 1: way in this series. Really controlled the glass tonight. That
Speaker 1: was the story of the game. The Lakers actually won
Speaker 1: the battle, the rebounding battle. I think it was forty
Speaker 1: six to forty, yeah, forty six to forty and rebounds,
Speaker 1: and they held up on the offensive glass better. They
Speaker 1: they had eight offensive rebounds they allowed nine to Denver eighty.
Speaker 1: Actually finished the game with twenty three rebounds, twenty five points,
Speaker 1: twenty three rebounds, and six assists with one turnover. He
Speaker 1: has been the steady force for the Lakers in this series.
Speaker 1: He's done a lot of damage in one on one
Speaker 1: to Nikole Jokich. If you remember last year, the eighty
Speaker 1: ISOs and post ups against Jokich were so bad that
Speaker 1: the Lakers had to bail on him. I want to say,
Speaker 1: I can't remember the exact numbers, but he missed on
Speaker 1: his first like six tries or something like that, and
Speaker 1: then the Lakers just bailed on it. They were like,
Speaker 1: you can't score on Jokic one on one. We can't
Speaker 1: go to that anymore. It's actually been one of the
Speaker 1: most effective plays for the Lakers in this series is
Speaker 1: going to Anthony Davis against Jokic on the low block.
Speaker 1: And so I just like, who knows where the Lakers
Speaker 1: will go from here after the season. Again, I still
Speaker 1: think it's an incredibly small chance that the Lakers somehow
Speaker 1: come back and win the series. Hell, it never has
Speaker 1: happened before an NBA history, right, But like, moving forward
Speaker 1: from this series, like Anthony Davis has answered the call.
Speaker 1: He's been unbelievable. You know, I said coming into this
Speaker 1: series that Lebron James was playing at the third best
Speaker 1: level in the league behind Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic.
Speaker 1: Lebron hasn't quite lived up to that in this postseason series.
Speaker 1: Although I think Lebron's been very good, but Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: has outplayed him in this series. Anthony Davis has been
Speaker 1: one of the five best playoff players to start this
Speaker 1: playoff run around the NBA, and I just can't I
Speaker 1: just can't say enough about how incredible he's been in
Speaker 1: this series. He has answered the call. It is not
Speaker 1: his fault that the Lakers are in the position that
Speaker 1: they're in. I want to shout out the Lakers for
Speaker 1: weathering that Denver run. Again, that was just inevitably going
Speaker 1: to come in the third quarter, and they did. I
Speaker 1: think they got it down to seven at one point,
Speaker 1: but they never let it get any closer than that.
Speaker 1: On the defensive end, just more doubling of Jokic. That
Speaker 1: was a big one in this game. A lot of doubling,
Speaker 1: really sharp rotations, and Denver's role guys weren't as good. Right.
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray had another poor shooting night. The Lakers have
Speaker 1: done a really good job on Jamal Murray in this series,
Speaker 1: but they just in general did a better job defensively
Speaker 1: all over the floor. And and again you can that's
Speaker 1: something you can kind of count on, like on the
Speaker 1: road role players that that is an advantage that typically
Speaker 1: tilts towards the home. Uh the home, the role players
Speaker 1: will typically play better when they're at home. And so
Speaker 1: that didn't quite happen in Game three, happened in a
Speaker 1: big way in Game four, and then again controlling the glass.
Speaker 1: Before we move on from this game, I did want
Speaker 1: to just showed out. Shout out Nicole Jokic because you know,
Speaker 1: he has this thing. It kind of reminds me of
Speaker 1: Lebron when he was in his prime, where like he's
Speaker 1: basically incapable of playing a bad game. Like I can't
Speaker 1: even remember which game it was, but Jokic had a
Speaker 1: bad game. Was it the Sun's game? I can't remember
Speaker 1: where it was, but it's in the last third of
Speaker 1: the regular season where he had a bad game. And
Speaker 1: I remember coming on the show and being like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is weird, you know, like Jokic had a bad game,
Speaker 1: you know, and I remember that was what it was
Speaker 1: like with Lebron, where like I remember it was in
Speaker 1: the twenty seventeen playoffs in the Eastern Conference Finals. Lebron
Speaker 1: had like literally hen consecutive dominant games and then he
Speaker 1: had a really bad game at home against the Celtics.
Speaker 1: It was the one where Avery Bradley hit the game
Speaker 1: winner coming around that curl and like shot that shot
Speaker 1: off the front of the rim that went in, and
Speaker 1: then he and Lebron was bad and it was just
Speaker 1: so bizarre that Lebron was bad. And then he came
Speaker 1: back in game five and like utterly dominated the Celtics
Speaker 1: as they as they moved on in went to the
Speaker 1: NBA Finals, right, And like that's what it kind of
Speaker 1: reminds me of with Jokic, but even within like the
Speaker 1: normal scale, right, Like, Jokics didn't dominate the game this
Speaker 1: game the way that he is capable of, right, And
Speaker 1: he had thirty three points, fourteen rebounds in fourteen assists.
Speaker 1: That's preposterous, man, that that's insane. Thirty three, fourteen and fourteen.
Speaker 1: And it was like an ify game for him compared
Speaker 1: to where his ceiling is typically at. And again, I
Speaker 1: just can't say enough about Like again, we are we
Speaker 1: are witnessing an all time I'm great in his upward trajectory,
Speaker 1: and I just I hope you don't take it for granted,
Speaker 1: because like, again, these things end quicker than you think.
Speaker 1: Not everybody stays in the league as long as Lebron, did,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And like we're in the
Speaker 1: middle of something really special here from Nicole jokicch And
Speaker 1: I'm enjoying every minute of it as a basketball fan. Again,
Speaker 1: I expect Denver to go home and win convincingly in
Speaker 1: Game five. I believe they'll win by double figures. But again,
Speaker 1: if you're if you're the Lakers, this is what you're
Speaker 1: telling yourself in the locker room. Hey, guys, we have
Speaker 1: been in the lead for the vast majority of this series.
Speaker 1: They were shown the stat on the score on the
Speaker 1: broadcast tonight, But I think the Lakers have led the
Speaker 1: Nuggets twice as often in the series as the Nuggets
Speaker 1: have led the Lakers. Doesn't mean the Nuggets are or
Speaker 1: the Lakers are better than the Nuggets. The Nuggets have
Speaker 1: clearly demonstrated that, But the Lakers have played a lot
Speaker 1: of good basketball in this series. Right, So, if you're
Speaker 1: a Lakers fan, if you're in that Lakers locker room,
Speaker 1: what you're telling yourself is we have demonstrated that we
Speaker 1: can beat these guys. We feel like we should have
Speaker 1: one game too. Denver just got crazy hot at the
Speaker 1: and beat us, right, and like you know, maybe Darvin
Speaker 1: Ham makes us a smart challenge call on the Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray bump, and maybe we get out of there with
Speaker 1: the win. We've played well enough to beat them twice
Speaker 1: in the four times we've played. All we gotta do
Speaker 1: is go into Denver and beat them once. It is
Speaker 1: a just think of it one game at a time.
Speaker 1: You beat Denver in game five, then you come home,
Speaker 1: and that's the buzzsaw game, right that's the game where
Speaker 1: it's like, now it's three to two, we have all
Speaker 1: the momentum, we're at home, let's run these dudes out
Speaker 1: of the gym. Then game seven, anything can happen. If
Speaker 1: you win, you move on, and you don't have to
Speaker 1: look any further than Lebron James. He's literally done that
Speaker 1: before right now. Obviously he was a much better. That
Speaker 1: was the best three game stretch he's ever played in
Speaker 1: his career, obviously, So like it's a lot to ask
Speaker 1: for an age thirty nine Lebron, But like, again, there
Speaker 1: are things to target for optimism if you're a Lakers fan.
Speaker 1: I just personally think that that Denver is not quite
Speaker 1: pushed the pedal to the metal all the way yet
Speaker 1: in this series. I think they will on Monday, and
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be jarring. I have a feeling
Speaker 1: we're gonna be coming on this broadcast after that game
Speaker 1: going like, holy shit, the Nuggets went to their ceiling.
Speaker 1: That was scary. These dudes are gonna repeat like that.
Speaker 1: That's kind of the way I feel like Monday Night's
Speaker 1: gonna go all right. Moving on, I wanted to hit
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, New or New Orleans again. I didn't have
Speaker 1: time today just because of what happened last night. I
Speaker 1: just I had to hit the other three games this
Speaker 1: morning and it just kind of got away from me
Speaker 1: in terms of time. So I wanted to hit Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: New Orleans because we did hit game two of Miami Boston,
Speaker 1: and we did hit Game three of Orlando of Orlando Cleveland,
Speaker 1: but we had not yet hit Oklahoma City New Orleans
Speaker 1: since Game one. We only hit Game Onen. We didn't
Speaker 1: hit Game two, so I wanted to get back to them.
Speaker 1: And they go three. Oh, they blow out the Pelicans
Speaker 1: in New Orleans today. This was a big test. I
Speaker 1: thought the Pels were gonna give them some issues. If
Speaker 1: you guys remember in the series preview, I thought they
Speaker 1: had some matchup advantages that kind of played into their strengths.
Speaker 1: And like they did in game one, Game one, they
Speaker 1: hung around, gave a good fight. But like the thunder
Speaker 1: have dominated this series since then, and they have passed
Speaker 1: that test with flying colors. And Algoma City's defense has
Speaker 1: been the story of that first round matchup. They have
Speaker 1: a ninety four point seven defensive rating, which is the
Speaker 1: best among playoff teams so far in the first round. Again,
Speaker 1: that means they allow ninety four point seven points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions. They're defending the three point line really well.
Speaker 1: They're allowing just nine point four to three pointers made
Speaker 1: per game from New Orleans. Although New Orleans takes a
Speaker 1: lot of mid range jump shots, so that's part of
Speaker 1: it from process standpoint. But they're doing a good job
Speaker 1: getting physical up on the ball and taking away easy threes.
Speaker 1: They're allowing just twenty eight percent from three from New Orleans.
Speaker 1: Big one on the perimeter here is just like, and
Speaker 1: this is what's so exciting about the future of the
Speaker 1: of the Thunder. You know, we talk about Minnesota a lot.
Speaker 1: Minnesota one of the big reasons why I like their
Speaker 1: their roster construct. And I've been talking about this for
Speaker 1: years with Minnesota, but it's like, it's it's Jaden, it's Rudy,
Speaker 1: and it's what I call a bracket. The reason why
Speaker 1: I refer to it as a bracket is like, in
Speaker 1: individual defense situations, you got a guy that's pressuring the
Speaker 1: ball and then you have this guy that's waiting on
Speaker 1: the back line, right, So if he gets over a
Speaker 1: ball screen and my my on ball defender is in
Speaker 1: pursuit from behind, he's back pressuring while chet's waiting on
Speaker 1: the other end. And there is a certain that bracket
Speaker 1: gets spread out when it's a lesser perimeter defender and
Speaker 1: a lesser rim protector, right, And there's just so much
Speaker 1: more that can be done in that space in between.
Speaker 1: Not to mention, the lack of rim protection entirely can
Speaker 1: allow a guy to get to the rim consistently. But
Speaker 1: when you have a legitimate rim protector with length that
Speaker 1: not only can protect the rim but can also bother
Speaker 1: shots and floater in mid range, and you've got a
Speaker 1: real long defender that can pressure from behind and disrupt
Speaker 1: the base, that's that where that bracket can get terrifying defensively,
Speaker 1: and that's what makes you know the Jade McDaniel's Anthony
Speaker 1: Everage Rudy Go Bear trio so devastating right Well, Cloma
Speaker 1: City kind of has their own version of that. Now
Speaker 1: it's a little different. It's less based on length because
Speaker 1: Jade McDaniels is more of a length based defender. Lou
Speaker 1: Dort is more of like a fire hydrant, low center
Speaker 1: of gravity, beats you to spots, disrupt your base, make
Speaker 1: you shoot over the top kind of guy. Right, and
Speaker 1: he's done just an unbelievable job on brandon Ingram, physical
Speaker 1: ball pressure, chasing him over the top of screens, beating
Speaker 1: him literally beating him over the top of screens and
Speaker 1: cutting him off, disrupting that base again. When you're going
Speaker 1: up against a pull up shooter, think of it like this.
Speaker 1: If I'm CJ mccollin around brandon Ingram and I'm in
Speaker 1: the summertime, right, You're going through dribble combinations and footwork,
Speaker 1: and you're use you're kind of building a muscle memory
Speaker 1: based on a certain level of freedom of movement, right,
Speaker 1: and then you get when you get a really good
Speaker 1: on ball defender who stays physically attached and messes with
Speaker 1: all of the movement while you're getting to your spot
Speaker 1: and disrupts the base. Suddenly the muscle memory at the
Speaker 1: end of that shot doesn't look the saint as it
Speaker 1: does when you're in your shooting drills, right, And like
Speaker 1: with dort On brandon Ingram and Jalen Williams on CJ. McCollum,
Speaker 1: and then the guy guy's coming off the bench too,
Speaker 1: like Hassan Wallace and and UH and Aaron Wiggins have
Speaker 1: both done a really good job. They just have disrupted
Speaker 1: the perimeter players that initiate everything for New Orleans and
Speaker 1: now the one thing for New Orleans obviously without Zion
Speaker 1: being in the game, it just changes everything, right, Like
Speaker 1: if Zion's in, Dort's probably guarding him, that moves Jalen
Speaker 1: Williams over to UH to that moves Jalen Williams over
Speaker 1: to brandon Ingram, which is probably gonna put Shay on CJ,
Speaker 1: which is like a better matchup, right, And so like
Speaker 1: obviously Pelicans fans, I'm aware Zion being out is a
Speaker 1: is a significant you know factor here. But within the
Speaker 1: context of this perimeter battle that we're seeing in this series,
Speaker 1: the Pelicans, the Pelicans are just getting their askied and
Speaker 1: and that that's a credit to those thunder perimeter defenders.
Speaker 1: But again, the other side of that bracket is chat.
Speaker 1: He had four blocks today. He got Trey Murphy driving
Speaker 1: closeouts twice when he tried to dunk on and like
Speaker 1: cleanly blocked him on dunks twice. The first one like
Speaker 1: Tray brought it back like this while he was flying
Speaker 1: down the lane. I honestly, God don't know how Check
Speaker 1: got to it without fouling him. It was an incredible
Speaker 1: defensive play. He got both CJ Andbi in ball screens.
Speaker 1: And again that's that bracket on the CJ one. It's
Speaker 1: like he finally he snakes the ball screen. It kind
Speaker 1: of gets over and gets over to his left hand
Speaker 1: side and he just doesn't even see Check coming and
Speaker 1: Chat just spikes it into the ground like a volleyball player,
Speaker 1: right Like It's just it's another it's another layer of
Speaker 1: that defense that makes it difficult. They are forcing nineteen
Speaker 1: turnovers per game in this series. That's the most among
Speaker 1: playoff teams. Remember they led that category in the regular
Speaker 1: season as well. They're going twenty one points per game
Speaker 1: off of turnovers as well. And then on the offensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor, like Shay, again, this is a
Speaker 1: lesser opponent, and we're gonna get into that minute, but
Speaker 1: Shay has had no slowdown from the regular season twenty
Speaker 1: eight points, five rebounds, and six assists per game on
Speaker 1: fifty nine percent true shooting. So just a tiny dip
Speaker 1: in volume inefficiency which again the Pelicans have really good
Speaker 1: piminter defenders. Give some credit to Herb Jones, right, and
Speaker 1: then Jaln Williams. His playoff debut has been awesome. Twenty
Speaker 1: point seven rebounds and five assists per game, fifty three
Speaker 1: percent from the field and forty two percent from three.
Speaker 1: I am full. I'm I've said this before, like, I
Speaker 1: think Jalen's so damn good. I think he could be
Speaker 1: better than SGA one day. I've said this on the
Speaker 1: show before, but I look at him as like the
Speaker 1: best combination of playmaking, downhill force and pull up shooting
Speaker 1: that I've seen from a wing player in a very
Speaker 1: very long time. And I am not the least bit
Speaker 1: surprised that he is just completely kicking ass in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: There was a stretch in the second quarter today where
Speaker 1: the Pelicans put Jose Alvarado on him and he just
Speaker 1: immediately bullied him twice, once on the post and once
Speaker 1: on the low post, once on the high post, and
Speaker 1: they just immediately had to pull him off and put
Speaker 1: Naji Marshall on him. He hit a couple of these
Speaker 1: like crazy, like hanging double pump shots in the second quarter,
Speaker 1: which just are indicator of just how insane of an
Speaker 1: athlete he is. And then Josh Gitty, Like Josh Kitty
Speaker 1: had a really rough Game one, and obviously all these
Speaker 1: teams around the league are gonna be leaving him open
Speaker 1: just to give him a better chance of containing elsewhere.
Speaker 1: And he's been great since struggling in Game one. He's
Speaker 1: been hitting his spot up threes more frequently, had a
Speaker 1: couple of nice transition pushes today. He had this one
Speaker 1: against CJ McCollum in the first half where he did
Speaker 1: this like nice behind the back dribble into a eurostep floater.
Speaker 1: Hit twenty one points today. I actually we do a
Speaker 1: here at the volume. We do like a little playoff
Speaker 1: points league, and Josh Gitty was one of the players.
Speaker 1: I picked one because I thought the Thunder would win
Speaker 1: at least the first round. And then also, like Josh
Speaker 1: Gitty is just a guy that's gonna get opportunities, and
Speaker 1: he capitalized on those in a big way today. So
Speaker 1: I was a little concerned about that pick in Game one.
Speaker 1: But Josh has been making me look good over the
Speaker 1: last couple of games, but now kind of zooming out
Speaker 1: a little bit. This is by far the easiest matchup
Speaker 1: in the West that goes without saying, right like, they're
Speaker 1: playing the eight seed without their best player. I was
Speaker 1: thinking about this earlier too. They're the only team in
Speaker 1: the West playoffs without a top ten player. Like Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City as Shay clearly a top ten player, Denver Jokic
Speaker 1: clearly a top ten player. Minnesota Anthony Edwards, I think
Speaker 1: he might be a top ten player. Now we might
Speaker 1: just have like I's certainly playing at that level. I mean,
Speaker 1: whether he can sustain, we'll see, but he's playing at
Speaker 1: that level. The Clippers Kawhi Leonard when he's healthy, obviously
Speaker 1: top ten player. He's out, so I guess, or he's
Speaker 1: obviously unhealthy, so I guess you can kind of factor
Speaker 1: that in. But the Mavericks have Luca that's a top
Speaker 1: ten player, the sons of Kevin Durant that's a top
Speaker 1: ten player. The Lakers of Lebron and Anthony Davis. I
Speaker 1: think both of them are top ten players. So like, no,
Speaker 1: there's just so much talent in the league. We might
Speaker 1: have to zoom out and actually make a list and
Speaker 1: see who might get cut from that list. But the
Speaker 1: point is is, like when you're talking about stars like
Speaker 1: the Pelicans are the one team that just doesn't have
Speaker 1: that level of firepower, right, so obviously you have to
Speaker 1: beat who's in front of you. You earned this matchup
Speaker 1: by getting the number one overall, the number one seed
Speaker 1: in the Western Conference, So credit the Thunder for getting
Speaker 1: that done right. But I am excited to see round two,
Speaker 1: and I think they've passed the first round test with
Speaker 1: flying colors. Round two, whether it's Clippers or MAVs, that's
Speaker 1: going to be a really really interesting and exciting series
Speaker 1: running into some real firepower, running into some real like
Speaker 1: multiple high level shot creators that are every shot creator
Speaker 1: on both of those teams better than CJ and Brandon.
Speaker 1: So it's just gonna be an entirely different level that
Speaker 1: they're gonna be going up against, and then much better
Speaker 1: frontlines that they're gonna have to deal with. Zubach is
Speaker 1: just a really, really a much higher level center than
Speaker 1: a Jonas Valanciunas, even just even if you look at
Speaker 1: some of these small ball front lines that Dallas can
Speaker 1: throw out there, Daniel Gafford even bring some size to
Speaker 1: the table. So it's gonna be a big challenge for
Speaker 1: them in round two. But they've played really well in
Speaker 1: the first round and again at the Defense event is
Speaker 1: where I've been most impressed by them. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. As always, as
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. A quick
Speaker 1: breakdown for tomorrow. The plan as of right now is
Speaker 1: we're going after Clippers MAVs and that's just gonna be
Speaker 1: uploaded to YouTube that won't be live. And then Monday
Speaker 1: morning we have the nerd SESSH guys coming on the
Speaker 1: show and we're gonna bounce around the entire first round
Speaker 1: and go through and hear what Carson and Logan have
Speaker 1: to say about everything. Again, I appreciate you guys for
Speaker 1: rocking with me. I will see you tomorrow. The volume