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Speaker 1: presented by Fandel here at the volume. I'm Jason Tip.
Speaker 1: Happy Sunday, everybody. I hope you all had a great weekend.
Speaker 1: I thought this game was the home run bet of
Speaker 1: the century. The Sun's very much enjoy beating the living
Speaker 1: shit out of the Los Angeles Lakers, and for good reason.
Speaker 1: There's an interesting backstory there. As all of you guys know,
Speaker 1: they had a strange playoff series last year. Started late
Speaker 1: regular season when Lebron was still nursing that ankle injury.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis went into Phoenix and demolished their entire front
Speaker 1: line by himself, which kind of set a weird tone
Speaker 1: for that series as they've played in the first round.
Speaker 1: Then we have Game one where DeAndre Ayton kind of
Speaker 1: man handles and out plays Anthony Davis a little bit,
Speaker 1: but then orders restored over the course of the next
Speaker 1: two games, when Lebron and Anthony Davis physically man hand
Speaker 1: the Sons again on their home floor and then back
Speaker 1: in Staples to take a two one series lead. And
Speaker 1: then in Game four, Anthony Davis poles Is Groin and
Speaker 1: the talent and physical dynamics of the series utterly shift
Speaker 1: in the other direction and suddenly the Lakers can't handle
Speaker 1: anything that Phoenix was doing. There was an underlying current
Speaker 1: in that series to the Lakers were not shooting particularly well,
Speaker 1: so obviously when Anthony Davis was out of the picture,
Speaker 1: that became an even bigger problem. But if you guys
Speaker 1: remember in Game three, at the end of that game
Speaker 1: when Lebron was kind of toying with Jay Crowder a
Speaker 1: little bit, a lot of the bench was into it.
Speaker 1: There was obviously a little bit of like a big
Speaker 1: brother little brother thing there that was happening between those
Speaker 1: two teams. The Lakers were the defending champs, they had
Speaker 1: all the momentum, they were in control of the series.
Speaker 1: I personally think that if Anthony Davis stayed healthy, the
Speaker 1: Lakers would have won that series. I know some people disagree.
Speaker 1: I know some people want to point out the Chris
Speaker 1: Paul thing, but to me, it's apples in orange is
Speaker 1: comparing the Chris Paul need for the Sons to what
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis brought to the Lakers, especially with what the
Speaker 1: Sons were getting out of Campaign at the time. Campaign
Speaker 1: arguably was every bit as good as Chris Paul in
Speaker 1: that playoff run. He before the ankle injury was a
Speaker 1: devastating matchup problem because he was just getting into the
Speaker 1: paint at will, which was causing massive problems for for
Speaker 1: everybody that they faced. But that Chris Paul injury was
Speaker 1: kind of taken away from the fact that the Lakers
Speaker 1: were physically dominating that series. And one of the big
Speaker 1: reasons why I think the Lakers would have won that
Speaker 1: series is just like what happened with Milwaukee in the finals.
Speaker 1: Even though the Sons did have a depth advantage, even
Speaker 1: though the Sons did have a skill advantage, the Milwaukee
Speaker 1: Bucks just pulverized them physically, and over the course of
Speaker 1: that series it wore on them. Not just be honest,
Speaker 1: not just what Janice was doing to the back lad
Speaker 1: I should say, the backup front court guys like Frank
Speaker 1: Kaminski for the Sons, but also what he was doing
Speaker 1: DeAndre and putting him in foul trouble, but also elsewhere
Speaker 1: in the floor, Drew Holiday was giving Chris Paul really
Speaker 1: big problems with his physicality and his size on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. Honestly, the bright spot of
Speaker 1: that series was Devin Booker and what he was able
Speaker 1: to do to create shots. But I believe that that
Speaker 1: physical dominance that the Bucks inflicted on the Suns would
Speaker 1: have happened similarly in that first round series with the
Speaker 1: Lakers as things progressed, but it didn't. It won a
Speaker 1: different way. And ever since that moment, ever since that
Speaker 1: Game three moment when the Lakers were showboating a little bit,
Speaker 1: the Sons have had a personal vendetta against the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Every time they've played. They've played, they've thrown their best
Speaker 1: punch and it's been too much for the Lakers to handle.
Speaker 1: It's a kind of a thing that happens occasionally in
Speaker 1: NBA history. It's just usually when it when it happens
Speaker 1: like this, when there's a talent gap, it can be
Speaker 1: a problem. Like, for instance, after the Mavericks beat Lebron
Speaker 1: in two thousand eleven. Even though the MAVs kind of
Speaker 1: descended into irrelevance after that, every time Lebron played Dirk
Speaker 1: from that point forward it was personal, and he stomped
Speaker 1: him into the ground just about every time they played
Speaker 1: after that finals. It was personal for them. That's the
Speaker 1: way it is for the Suns. So when you get
Speaker 1: a bad Lakers team that has severe matchup issues with
Speaker 1: any NBA team, not just a team as talented as
Speaker 1: the Sons, and a team like the Sons that are
Speaker 1: so motivated to kick their ass, you're gonna get that.
Speaker 1: And I'm not surprised that this was the outcome at all.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I thought it was the home run
Speaker 1: bet of the century. You know, it's funny because over
Speaker 1: the course of the last couple of weeks, one of
Speaker 1: the silver linings for me personally, with the Lakers struggling
Speaker 1: so much is it's given me a bigger excuse to
Speaker 1: dive into the rest of the league, and I've spent
Speaker 1: a great deal of time trying to familiarize myself with
Speaker 1: the same level of intimacy that I do with these Lakers,
Speaker 1: try try to really learn what makes these teams tick.
Speaker 1: And it is flooring how big of a gap there
Speaker 1: is but wing the Lakers and their basic basketball fundamentals
Speaker 1: and the rest of the league. I'm watching Mavericks Celtics today,
Speaker 1: and they're two really different teams because the Celtics are
Speaker 1: switching everything, but they're kind of staying and letting guys
Speaker 1: guard one on one. The MAVs switch everything to but
Speaker 1: they do a lot of double teaming and a lot
Speaker 1: of rotating on the back end. But those two teams
Speaker 1: have their defensive schemes down to a science. Every single
Speaker 1: player on the team knows exactly where they're supposed to be,
Speaker 1: they know exactly what's expected of them, and they do
Speaker 1: their jobs. And as a result, both of those teams
Speaker 1: are trending in the right direction, looking more and more
Speaker 1: like a team look looking more and more like teams
Speaker 1: that could win the title. And it's so interesting to
Speaker 1: me because if you look back to the beginning of
Speaker 1: this Lakers season, before the injuries, before anything went south
Speaker 1: for them from day one of preseason. You guys remember
Speaker 1: this too. They were un serious from day one of preseason.
Speaker 1: They looked like they were coast thing. From day one
Speaker 1: of preseason, they looked like they were taking the easy
Speaker 1: way out of NBA basketball, doing the bare minimum of
Speaker 1: what was expected of them, and it manifested right away
Speaker 1: with the Lakers losing every single game in the preseason.
Speaker 1: Go back two years to the Lakers. They smacked the
Speaker 1: Warriors in that first game. There's this weird intensity that
Speaker 1: was palpable with that Lakers team. They crushed the Warriors.
Speaker 1: And then remember the Lakers social media team tweeted out,
Speaker 1: consider this awarning NBA and everybody slandered that all season
Speaker 1: long until the Lakers had the trophy at the end.
Speaker 1: But the trophy had everything to do with the tone
Speaker 1: that they set at the beginning of the season. From
Speaker 1: day one of training camp. There was an intensity and
Speaker 1: a professionalism in a in a championship character that was
Speaker 1: baked into what that team was building. That very same
Speaker 1: thing was missing this year. And it's funny because there
Speaker 1: are some parallels. You go back and look at the Kers.
Speaker 1: That's with Kobe and Dwight Howard and Steve Nash and
Speaker 1: Palkasol and those guys. If you look at that team,
Speaker 1: same thing from the opening days of training camp, something
Speaker 1: was missing. And what's so important about that is from
Speaker 1: day one of training camp, that's when you established those habits.
Speaker 1: That's when you established a work ethic. That's when you
Speaker 1: established discipline, That's when you established expectations. You know, when
Speaker 1: there is a list of responsibilities attached to a defensive scheme,
Speaker 1: you don't in day one of training camp. You have
Speaker 1: to make it established that the players on the team
Speaker 1: are expected to check every one of those boxes. It
Speaker 1: becomes a habit. It's just like anything else for us
Speaker 1: in our lives as we try to form habits. They
Speaker 1: don't happen overnight. They have to be established. And so
Speaker 1: one of the hardest parts about this situation for the
Speaker 1: Lakers is, like, hey, Anthony Davis is probably coming back
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks. Lebron is trending in the
Speaker 1: right direction. The biggest silver lining from tonight is, like
Speaker 1: I said, I was worried the last time Lebron had
Speaker 1: a big scoring performance like he did against the Warriors.
Speaker 1: His knee blew up on it. But he had another big,
Speaker 1: dominant scoring performance the other night, and he was fine
Speaker 1: to play tonight. I thought he looked pretty explosive tonight.
Speaker 1: So you've got Lebron trending in the right direction, You've
Speaker 1: got Anthony Davis maybe coming back, but it probably doesn't
Speaker 1: matter because from day one, the work wasn't done, the
Speaker 1: habits were not established. The basketball character of a champion
Speaker 1: was not built with this roster. So it's fundamentally impossible
Speaker 1: for them to go into a playoff series against the
Speaker 1: team like the Phoenix Suns, even with Lebron and Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: and do the job well enough to win that series.
Speaker 1: In fact, this is why I thought it was so
Speaker 1: important for them to fight for that eight seed, which
Speaker 1: they just punt it on and let the Clippers have.
Speaker 1: The reason why I thought it was so important for
Speaker 1: them to fight for that is I thought that if
Speaker 1: they got any other team, Golden State, Denver, any of
Speaker 1: these guys, Dallas, any of these teams, I thought, if
Speaker 1: they got them in the first round, Lebron and a
Speaker 1: d would be enough. Phoenix is too much for them.
Speaker 1: This version of Phoenix is too much for this Lakers team.
Speaker 1: At full strength. And it's unfortunate because had they got
Speaker 1: to that eight seed and they won that first playing game,
Speaker 1: they could have got Golden State or Memphis and more
Speaker 1: time to try to establish those championship habits that I'm
Speaker 1: talking about that are so vitally important to a team
Speaker 1: getting to the final destination of holding the trophy up.
Speaker 1: And it's a damn shame because it's a waste. But
Speaker 1: this is something to keep in mind for every team
Speaker 1: that we watch moving forward. Watch the way they approached
Speaker 1: the preseason. Watch the way that they establish habits early
Speaker 1: in the season. The NBA regular season is long, it
Speaker 1: could be frustrating, it could be boring at times, there
Speaker 1: can be a lack of urgency. But the teams that
Speaker 1: take it seriously from day one and through the entire process,
Speaker 1: those are the teams have the habits necessary to get
Speaker 1: to the final destination. Before we move on from the Lakers,
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about Russ for a second because
Speaker 1: I thought I was thinking about this yesterday talking with
Speaker 1: some Laker fans on Twitter, just about where does Russ
Speaker 1: go from here? Because every everything we've heard through the
Speaker 1: grapevine tells us that Russ has gone under no circumstances
Speaker 1: will he be a Los Angeles Laker next year. That
Speaker 1: feels like like a near zero percent chance. So where
Speaker 1: does Russ's career go from here? And you know, I
Speaker 1: tend to be more optimistic than most. A lot of
Speaker 1: people have said, this guy's done, he's declining too fast physically,
Speaker 1: he's too stubborn, so on and so forth. But this
Speaker 1: is where I think the really really ugly nature of
Speaker 1: this season can be a positive in a weird way.
Speaker 1: A silver lining is probably the better expression to use,
Speaker 1: but I think in a weird way, this season could
Speaker 1: be the season that wakes Russ's, wakes Russ up, that
Speaker 1: humbles him. You know, it's funny. I was when I
Speaker 1: was after I finished playing basketball college, I signed a
Speaker 1: professional contract with the league in India, and it was
Speaker 1: good money. They were gonna pay me a thousand bucks
Speaker 1: a week. But they were like, Hey, before we go over,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do this camp up in Phoenix. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have you scrimmage with some of the players from India,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get the television partners out there so
Speaker 1: that they can do like a promo video for the season.
Speaker 1: All this stuff so they fly us up to Phoenix
Speaker 1: and they put us up in hotels and we play
Speaker 1: basketball for like two weeks. I up until that point
Speaker 1: was accustomed to a certain level of work ethic, and
Speaker 1: it worked for me. Six six put my head around
Speaker 1: the rim my work ethic was enough for me to
Speaker 1: be successful in college. I was an all conference player.
Speaker 1: When I was playing in college, I had big scoring nights.
Speaker 1: I I had success at that level. But this was
Speaker 1: a different level. This was another level of talent and professionalism.
Speaker 1: And I remember I ran into this guy. He was
Speaker 1: an Indian American who was living in Toronto at the time,
Speaker 1: and he utterly embarrassed me in this camp, like he
Speaker 1: was better than me at every single area of the game.
Speaker 1: And he was too, is just taller and more muscular.
Speaker 1: And I remember leaving that camp when I was done. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the league in India ended up folding, so I never
Speaker 1: actually made it over there, which happens all the time
Speaker 1: with overseas hoops, that's just the nature of the business.
Speaker 1: But I remember taking that so I could. I couldn't
Speaker 1: stop thinking about it for weeks. I was It was
Speaker 1: a wake up call for me to realize that what
Speaker 1: I was doing was not enough. What I anticipated would
Speaker 1: be enough of a work ethic to succeed at that
Speaker 1: level was wrong. And in the years since then, I
Speaker 1: have adapted adopted a professional level work ethic. I had
Speaker 1: to be utterly humiliated for me to learn what was
Speaker 1: needed for me to succeed at that level. And it's
Speaker 1: so interesting because that's the way I look at this
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook situation. This has been ugly, like talked about
Speaker 1: for There's been death threats, there's been name calling, which
Speaker 1: is deeply personal to the Westbrook family. There's been booing,
Speaker 1: there's been altercations with teammates and coaches, coaches according to
Speaker 1: reports that we've heard. Whether or not that's legitimate, we
Speaker 1: will see. But it's been a very ugly season for us.
Speaker 1: But this is what it takes for a prideful person
Speaker 1: to understand that what they're doing is not enough. Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook is no longer close to skilled enough to be
Speaker 1: a good NBA guard. Look at just a random, like
Speaker 1: replacement level NBA guard, a guy like Monte Morris, the
Speaker 1: level of skill that he has at the point guard
Speaker 1: position is leaps and bounds ahead of where Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: is what Russell Westbrook has done to this point in
Speaker 1: his career in skill development was enough because of his
Speaker 1: athletic tools, but as he has faded on that front,
Speaker 1: his lack of skill has become a problem. He is
Speaker 1: the worst jump shooter in the league at volume. That's
Speaker 1: a problem. He is absolutely no finishing moves other than
Speaker 1: his extended right handed lay up going to the rim.
Speaker 1: In that one dimensional finishing approach, combined with his lack
Speaker 1: of athleticism has directly led to his rim numbers going
Speaker 1: down the toilet. All of that is related Brussel Westbrook,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, he's only thirty three. He's going to
Speaker 1: have another phase of his career in my opinion, where
Speaker 1: he is a productive starting point guard for a team
Speaker 1: with real title aspirations. I believe that because I believe
Speaker 1: this season was humbling enough for him to realize, Hey,
Speaker 1: you have to adopt a level of skill development you
Speaker 1: have never developed before. You can't finish in traffic anymore.
Speaker 1: So you have to have a floater package, or you
Speaker 1: have to learn to attack pay con rolls and attack
Speaker 1: the basket more like a Chris Paul. Use your size
Speaker 1: to your advantage, get by your first vendor and then
Speaker 1: put him in jail and try to operate with slow
Speaker 1: pace in the mid range. These are the kinds of
Speaker 1: things that Russ has to do to adapt. He has
Speaker 1: to understand that what he's been giving defensively was not enough.
Speaker 1: He has to understand that in order for him to
Speaker 1: maintain a spot of legitimates in this league, he has
Speaker 1: to he has to embrace all these things. So as
Speaker 1: ugly as this has been, I am I am optimistic
Speaker 1: that this will be a turning point for us. This
Speaker 1: is how ugly it has to get sometimes for people
Speaker 1: to wake up. It's just the natural order of life
Speaker 1: and in the cycle of of agent, that's just how
Speaker 1: it works. And so I'm I am optimistic that Russ
Speaker 1: has another day to fight in the future, and that
Speaker 1: it won't be too far down the way. Start your
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Speaker 1: issued as non with rollable site credit that expires in
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Speaker 1: of you are just joining us, this is Lakers Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by Fandel here at the volume. I wanted to
Speaker 1: move on to the Brooklyn Nets so they win against
Speaker 1: the next today. Katie scores fifty three hits what basically
Speaker 1: is the game winner. It was just under a minute left.
Speaker 1: Katie looks amazing. I said on the show the other day,
Speaker 1: I think he's the best player in the world. We
Speaker 1: don't need to get into that the most. There are
Speaker 1: two interesting things about this game that I wanted to
Speaker 1: hit on. First of all, I I don't think the
Speaker 1: Nets can win the type with Kyrie playing part time,
Speaker 1: And it really comes down to me about the margin
Speaker 1: for error. I talked about this a lot with the
Speaker 1: Lakers early in the season with Russ. You know, I'd say, like,
Speaker 1: what worries me about Russ in late game situations is
Speaker 1: playoff series is at the highest level. Like conference finals
Speaker 1: and finals, they are determined by the slightest of margins.
Speaker 1: Think back to how things can go differently. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: doesn't make a game winner over Nicola Yokich in the
Speaker 1: second round of the Bubble. The Nuggets are up two
Speaker 1: games to one. How does that change the series? You
Speaker 1: know they could lose. That's how thin these margins can be. Sometimes.
Speaker 1: I don't have to lay out the half dozen times
Speaker 1: over the course of NBA history that a team won
Speaker 1: a title by a tiny margin. Lebron blocking, Andre Guadalar,
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving hitting a step back jump shot over steps.
Speaker 1: These titles are determined by the slightest of margins, and
Speaker 1: the slightest advantage can make the difference. I think the
Speaker 1: Nets as currently constructed are the best team in the East.
Speaker 1: If they have all their guys. I I learned a
Speaker 1: lot about them in the last week, with the way
Speaker 1: that they play, how good Kadi looks, the way their
Speaker 1: defense is modernized, and the way it can effectively stagnate people.
Speaker 1: Kyrie is still showing defensive flashes. I love the idea
Speaker 1: of the Ben Simmons fit. That's all great, But the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Nets might just be just slightly better then the
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Bucks. They might be just slightly better than the
Speaker 1: Miami Heat or the Philadelphia seventy sixers. And if you
Speaker 1: toss them three games or four games with Kyrie not playing,
Speaker 1: that could be a difference maker in a vacuum. Yes,
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets are the best team, but when you're
Speaker 1: punting three games of your second best player, you are
Speaker 1: giving away an advantage that will not be a big deal.
Speaker 1: Maybe in an early round series, maybe not in a
Speaker 1: playing game, but when you get to the highest levels
Speaker 1: of NBA basketball, the teams are too close. There is
Speaker 1: no runaway favorite this year, and you can't weather that
Speaker 1: type of loss. And so, and what's nerve racking about
Speaker 1: it is we just saw the clip getting shared around
Speaker 1: on Twitter yesterday of the New York City mayor basically
Speaker 1: saying like, hey, if Katie Kyrie wants to play, you
Speaker 1: can play tomorrow. You just gotta go get vaccinated. Now,
Speaker 1: it remains to be seene. This might not be an
Speaker 1: issue if they do clear that up, but the mayor
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to be the mayor doesn't want to do
Speaker 1: it for Kyrie. He wants to do it if he
Speaker 1: wants to do it, And so there is a chance
Speaker 1: that this still ends up happening, and if it does,
Speaker 1: the Nets are in trouble because I don't think you
Speaker 1: can punt three games or your second best player against
Speaker 1: the top tier teams in the East. Really quickly. I
Speaker 1: wanted to to talk about the Knicks. There are six
Speaker 1: and nineteen in the last games, their fifteenth and defense
Speaker 1: on the season after being fourth last year. I thought
Speaker 1: it was really interesting how their team has pulled away
Speaker 1: from TIBs in a similar way to the way the
Speaker 1: Lakers did with Frank Vogel. And it's kind of one
Speaker 1: of my long standing theories. When you have demanding coaches,
Speaker 1: coaches that ask a lot of their players, particularly on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor, particularly physically with wear
Speaker 1: and tear, eventually it's a burnout effect. Like, look at
Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis. Those two guys were playing nearly
Speaker 1: the same level of defense they did just two years ago.
Speaker 1: Because that's what happens. You get burnt out on a
Speaker 1: coach that is very demanding it. Some of this is personnel.
Speaker 1: The Knicks have taken on some offensive minded personnel. That's
Speaker 1: been part of the issue. But this was the fourth
Speaker 1: best events in the league last year and they've fallen
Speaker 1: off a cliff in that department and it's been the
Speaker 1: nail and the coffin for them, And I think it
Speaker 1: comes down to coach TIBs being very demanding. I think
Speaker 1: with guys like that, you have to have more personnel
Speaker 1: turnover each year to keep things fresh because it can
Speaker 1: be difficult. Really quickly, moving on to MAVs and Celtics,
Speaker 1: this was a really interesting game. You know, I think
Speaker 1: the Celtics are a better team overall, but the MAVs
Speaker 1: have a puncher's chance to be everybody because of the
Speaker 1: way that Luca has the ability to to dictate outcomes
Speaker 1: at the end of the game. This game was very
Speaker 1: make or miss. If you watched it got really slogged
Speaker 1: and slowed down at the end. It basically came down
Speaker 1: to making and missing shots. Luca don Chech had a
Speaker 1: step back over Robert Williams, he made it. On the
Speaker 1: next possession, Jayson Tatum shot a fade away at the
Speaker 1: free throw line, one that he's been making all season long,
Speaker 1: one that I've seen him make a ton recently in
Speaker 1: his recent run, and he missed it. Then on the
Speaker 1: other end off of a Luca double, the ball ended
Speaker 1: up back in Spencer din what his hands, Spencer din
Speaker 1: What he made the three. The Dallas Mavericks sent a
Speaker 1: bunch of double teams that Tatum late in the game.
Speaker 1: The ball ended up in Marcus smarts hands a lot,
Speaker 1: and Marcus Smart was missing. The basketball is a maker
Speaker 1: miss sport that can go either way. But it was
Speaker 1: a very interesting matchup. I think if the I think
Speaker 1: if those two teams played again tomorrow, the Celtics would
Speaker 1: absolutely have a chance to win. It's not the Dallas
Speaker 1: is not necessarily a better team. It was a maker
Speaker 1: miss type of outcome. This one went to Dallas. What
Speaker 1: I thought was really interesting was the different styles Because Boston,
Speaker 1: as we've talked about a lot, they have so many
Speaker 1: athletes on the floor. They are so defensively versatile that
Speaker 1: they can double less than any team in the league.
Speaker 1: Any switch that they give up is a good matchup
Speaker 1: for them. If you want to attack Robert Williams, they
Speaker 1: like their chances there. If you want to attack rob
Speaker 1: Al Horford, they like their chances there. If you're a
Speaker 1: big defender trying to post up Marcus Smart, they like
Speaker 1: their chances there. And god knows, you don't want to
Speaker 1: attack Jayson Tatum Jalen Brown. So they are comfortable operating
Speaker 1: in isolation defense. But Dallas doesn't have that type of personnel.
Speaker 1: Spencer Dinwittie and Jalen Brunson and Luca Dontage, they're all targets.
Speaker 1: Maxine Kleiba is even a target. But what's so interesting
Speaker 1: about it, though, is their defense is still dominant because
Speaker 1: you can make up for individual matchup issues as long
Speaker 1: as you rotate on the back end. Dallas is constantly
Speaker 1: doubling and rotating, which is very consuming of energy. It's
Speaker 1: very tiring. You have to cover a ton of ground.
Speaker 1: The communication has to be ridiculous. There's like an instinct
Speaker 1: level to it too, that is built up over the
Speaker 1: course of the season. It's very difficult to do, but
Speaker 1: if you do it right, it works, and especially in
Speaker 1: a situation like with Dallas h Boston tonight, they have
Speaker 1: an issue with spacing. Robert Williams can't shoot. He's a
Speaker 1: vertical spacer, so he's not a complete useless threat under
Speaker 1: the basket. But there were several possessions in today's game
Speaker 1: where half of Tatum double teams. They were swinging the
Speaker 1: ball around, but it ended up being jump shots because
Speaker 1: Robert Williams and his man are sitting right under the basket.
Speaker 1: There was a play at the end where Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: literally got blocked by Maxine Kleeba right under the basket
Speaker 1: because he's driving into another defender just waiting under the
Speaker 1: basket because of Robert Williams is facing. So it's interesting
Speaker 1: to see these teams. There is no perfect team this year.
Speaker 1: There is no runaway title favorite. Every team has flaws.
Speaker 1: Boston has an issue with shooting at the center position
Speaker 1: and they're not a great playmaking team. Dallas is a
Speaker 1: great playmaking team and a great isolation team, but they
Speaker 1: don't have the same defensive personnel there. Every team has
Speaker 1: holes and it's gonna be a matter of styles making
Speaker 1: fights in matchups, dictating who wins. All Right, before we
Speaker 1: get out of here tonight, I wanted to really quickly
Speaker 1: talk about the Warriors. They're coming off of back to
Speaker 1: back huge winds on the road in Denver and then
Speaker 1: at home against the Milwaukee Bucks. The big indicator to
Speaker 1: me of this recent success is Jordan Poole. In his
Speaker 1: last six games, he's averaging twenty five points on sixty
Speaker 1: from the yield, fifty seven percent from three and from
Speaker 1: the free throw line. An all time efficient scoring run
Speaker 1: from Jordan pool And one of the things that's really
Speaker 1: interesting about that is he is starting to dictate attention defensively.
Speaker 1: That is similar to what's happening with Steph. They're running
Speaker 1: a ton of dribble handoffs and pick and rolls with
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole, and he's dragging multiple defenders with it. What
Speaker 1: makes that so important is this Warrior's offense has consistently
Speaker 1: struggled when Steph is off the floor. It's been an
Speaker 1: issue since the beginning of this era, even when Katie
Speaker 1: was there. They were always better with step on the floor.
Speaker 1: But a big part of that is their role players
Speaker 1: that Clay Thompson's, you know, the Jonathan Cominge is the
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins. All of the guys who operate off the ball,
Speaker 1: they're used to getting a certain type of offensive opportunity
Speaker 1: playing with Steph, and guys like Clay Thompson and guys
Speaker 1: like Kevin Durant just dictate a different type of defensive attention.
Speaker 1: That's why that was always a strange kind of transition.
Speaker 1: They would play a style with step on the floor
Speaker 1: and then they play an entirely different style without step
Speaker 1: and it would be part of the reason why they
Speaker 1: had issues. Well, Jordan Pool dictates defensive attention similar to Steph,
Speaker 1: not to the same level Steph. Obviously it's like panic
Speaker 1: chasing everywhere. But when you've got a guy who's drawing
Speaker 1: doubles off a dribble, handoffs and picking rolls, he's getting
Speaker 1: similar looks for his teammates that they're getting with step
Speaker 1: on the floor, and so as a result, it's more
Speaker 1: of that same flow that they're getting with Steph without Steph,
Speaker 1: which is a huge part of that. And then their
Speaker 1: defense has finally woken up. They had a big defensive
Speaker 1: lapse there for a while without Draymond. Draymond actually rejoined
Speaker 1: the team. I think that helped to just having that
Speaker 1: intensity and that that leadership on the sideline has kind
Speaker 1: of woken them back up again. And then honestly, Steph
Speaker 1: is starting to play better that he hasn't shot the
Speaker 1: ball as well as he did early in the season.
Speaker 1: I still don't think he looks the same as the
Speaker 1: guy that was very clearly one of the top two
Speaker 1: or three players in the league last season, but he's
Speaker 1: not as bad as he was in January. That's a
Speaker 1: big part of why they're starting to play better as well.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna dig more into their film. I want to
Speaker 1: look at their their game against Milwaukee because that was
Speaker 1: an incredibly dominant performance. I'll get a video out about
Speaker 1: that tomorrow for you guys. But I'm really really excited.
Speaker 1: I don't think I still don't think the Warriors are
Speaker 1: in that top tier of contender because I still think
Speaker 1: they're gonna struggle creating shots against the best defenses to
Speaker 1: the same extent that some of these top tier contenders can.
Speaker 1: So I'm not I'm still not as high on the
Speaker 1: Warriors as Warrior fans are. But they're trending in the
Speaker 1: right direction, all right, guys. That is all I have
Speaker 1: for tonight. I appreciate your support. As always, Lakers are
Speaker 1: playing back to back, so they're playing again tomorrow. We
Speaker 1: will be here right after the final buzzer. I appreciate
Speaker 1: your support and we'll see you tomorrow. The volume