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Speaker 1: Slash audio. All right, welcome to Hoops to Night. You're
Speaker 1: at the volume heavy.
Speaker 2: Weds there everybody, hope all you guys are having a
Speaker 2: great week. As promised, we're hitting film from the Lakers
Speaker 2: Timberwolves series as well as the Bucks Pacers series. Today,
Speaker 2: I as as I figured I would after Game two,
Speaker 2: Especially after the rewatch of Game two, I feel like
Speaker 2: I have a much better feel for this Lakers Wolves
Speaker 2: series after what was really complicated in after game one,
Speaker 2: and I feel the same way about that Bucks Pacer
Speaker 2: series after they upped their intensity. It's just easier to
Speaker 2: tell when the team kind of meets the moment a
Speaker 2: little bit and you can start to see the real
Speaker 2: problems that both teams have on both sides of the floor.
Speaker 2: Lots of interesting stuff to get into, and Lakers Wolves
Speaker 2: will lead off there. You guys know the joll before
Speaker 2: we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops and Not YouTube
Speaker 2: channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 2: Follow me on Twitter at Underscore JCNLT so you guys
Speaker 2: dont miss you announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed
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Speaker 2: also super helpful if you leave a rating and a
Speaker 2: review on that front. We also have social media feeds
Speaker 2: on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where Jackson's doing incredible work.
Speaker 2: Make sure you guys follow us there and then, last
Speaker 2: but not least, keep dropping mail back questions in the
Speaker 2: YouTube comments and keep getting to them throughout the remainder
Speaker 2: of the playoffs. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 2: let's get I was trying to decide whether or not
Speaker 2: I wanted to work through just Minnesota's offense or work
Speaker 2: through the game, and I decided to work through the game.
Speaker 2: But I did have a specific focus on Minnesota on offense,
Speaker 2: and I have a bunch of specific examples. I'll show
Speaker 2: you guys on stuff that I think works well, and
Speaker 2: then different problems that they'll be contending with, and then
Speaker 2: I'll kind of like summarize my thoughts when we get
Speaker 2: towards the end.
Speaker 1: But this first clip here a lot of.
Speaker 2: Ruby Hachimura defending in ISO, and I actually thought he
Speaker 2: held up pretty well throughout the game. But he did
Speaker 2: lose a few battles to Julius Randall, but he won
Speaker 2: more battles against Julius Randall than he did in the past.
Speaker 2: And here's an example of him holding up well, sliding
Speaker 2: his feet, absorbing contact, forcing him into a tough jump shot.
Speaker 2: And then on this next clip, we're going to see
Speaker 2: an example of where it worked for Julius. So the
Speaker 2: big thing that I noticed with Julius Randall on his
Speaker 2: drives is they tended to work best when he was
Speaker 2: in specific spacing situations where he was driving into shooting.
Speaker 2: So for example, in this specific clip, we're going to
Speaker 2: set up with Randall against Ruey. But notice we have
Speaker 2: a very good shooter in the strong side corner in
Speaker 2: Mike Conley. There was an early screen in the possession.
Speaker 2: If you guys look back here, believe a Lebron screen
Speaker 2: right here boom with Ruey with Rudy that ended up
Speaker 2: getting Jackson Hayes onto Mike Conley. So that pulls Jackson
Speaker 2: Hayes away from the Rudy Gobert assignment so that he's
Speaker 2: not parked right underneath the rim. And so now if
Speaker 2: you look at the setup, have they run this little
Speaker 2: interchange here a couple times? But if you look at
Speaker 2: the setup, we have Ruy guarding Julius, but we have
Speaker 2: Jackson removed from the paint, contending with the shooter in
Speaker 2: the strong side corner, and Lebron's worried about Rudy on
Speaker 2: a box out and so that actually gives Julius the
Speaker 2: space to not have to worry about this guy digging
Speaker 2: down from the corner and a shorter player at the
Speaker 2: rim in Lebron, plenty of room for Rudy to get
Speaker 2: it Ruy for Julius to get in there and get
Speaker 2: a bucket. I thought the Lakers brought a much much
Speaker 2: better level of intensity right out the gates in this game.
Speaker 2: Look at the difference in defensive competitiveness from Austin here.
Speaker 1: I thought.
Speaker 2: One of the things I noticed too, the possessions where
Speaker 2: the Lakers let Julius get comfortable with his rhythm, like
Speaker 2: backing off instead of pressuring him. He looked more comfortable.
Speaker 2: Notice how Austin just attacking the basketball and disrupting Julius's
Speaker 2: rhythm caused him to give up the ball, So then
Speaker 2: Julius bails on it. Then it turns into an iso
Speaker 2: with Jaden and Austin, and look at the physicality from
Speaker 2: Austin bumping getting up underneath him. That's great defense from
Speaker 2: Austin Reeves. Now look at the difference in the spacing here.
Speaker 2: As you can see, this is Jaden McDaniels in the
Speaker 2: corner as opposed to a more knockdown shooter. And so
Speaker 2: look at who's more willing to help Luca Lucas in
Speaker 2: the paint. This is a shot that they're more willing
Speaker 2: to give up, but very nice kickout pass from aunt
Speaker 2: Jaden just missed the shot. And again is a guy
Speaker 2: that can knock down shots, as we know, but he's
Speaker 2: not the guy that's gonna go three for three every
Speaker 2: single night. He went three for three in Game one
Speaker 2: struggle to knock down the threes. In Game two, I
Speaker 2: liked this attack from Luca against Jadan McDaniels off of
Speaker 2: the right wing, and this is an example of the
Speaker 2: spacing concept that I talked about before the series. The
Speaker 2: Lakers are in their five out group right, so Jackson
Speaker 2: Hayes is off the floor, Dorian Finney Smith is in
Speaker 2: the game. When I talked earlier in the series about
Speaker 2: Rudy having to make decisions, I should say before the series,
Speaker 2: I talked about Rudy having to make decisions about whether
Speaker 2: or not to help at the rim or to stay.
Speaker 1: With a shooter.
Speaker 2: And as you could see, Luca gets into the basket
Speaker 2: here and Ruy, Rudy is actually sliding back out towards
Speaker 2: Ruey in the left corner.
Speaker 1: If you look.
Speaker 2: He's hesitant to really commit to the help because he
Speaker 2: knows that Ruey is a legitimate spacing threat there and
Speaker 2: that gives Luca the space to work one on one
Speaker 2: against McDaniels and get to a short range shot making.
Speaker 2: That was the concept that I was talking about before
Speaker 2: the series, that the Lakers need to bear out to
Speaker 2: neutralize Rudy. One of the things I notice about We're
Speaker 2: gonna be talking a lot about ISOs against Rudy Gobert today.
Speaker 2: So there was a stat flying around last night that
Speaker 2: the Lakers were five for twelve against Rudy in ISO
Speaker 2: so far through the first two games, which paints it
Speaker 2: in the light that it's like, Okay, that's below forty
Speaker 2: two percent.
Speaker 1: That's not good.
Speaker 2: But Luca was actually successfully able to draw several fouls
Speaker 2: on Rudy, like this one right here, And if you
Speaker 2: factor in fouls, the Lakers actually got one point zero
Speaker 2: seven points per possession when shooting against Rudy in ISOs,
Speaker 2: which doesn't seem like an insanely high number, but if
Speaker 2: you factor in the way this series is gonna look
Speaker 2: with all the games most likely being relatively low scoring,
Speaker 2: a one oh seven offensive rating on a possession is
Speaker 2: actually really good in a series like this. Now, in
Speaker 2: a regular season, not necessarily, but then when you start
Speaker 2: factoring in passes. I'll show you guys examples when we
Speaker 2: get to the tail end of the film session. But
Speaker 2: Luca also in the second half started drawing additional help
Speaker 2: on his ISOs against Rudy. Any Gen rated a couple
Speaker 2: of wide open threes on kickouts from those Rudy ISOs.
Speaker 2: So like specifically Luca attacking Rudy and ISO, that one
Speaker 2: point zero seven points per possession number I quoted. That
Speaker 2: also includes Austin and Lebron's ISOs against Rudy. Now, Austin
Speaker 2: did get two buckets against Rudy and ISO last night,
Speaker 2: so that influences those numbers a little bit. But if
Speaker 2: you take all of the Lebron and Austin ISOs out
Speaker 2: against Rudy, the efficient efficiency goes up even higher. So
Speaker 2: I actually I did not feel this way before the series.
Speaker 2: I've been impressed by Luca. Luca's work against Rudy, specifically
Speaker 2: in ISO, is actually a very worthwhile play type for
Speaker 2: the Lakers to keep her scoring, keep attacking throughout the series.
Speaker 2: It's just the Lebron and Austin ISOs that I think
Speaker 2: are really difficult, and even Austin's bucket against Rudy that
Speaker 2: he had in the second half. He had like it
Speaker 2: was like an insane step through a move that like
Speaker 2: he just flipped up this crazy spinning finish off the glass.
Speaker 2: Like it was extremely highly difficult shot. So like I
Speaker 2: like specifically Luca attacking Rudy and ISOs just about anybody else,
Speaker 2: it gets really tricky. We did get to see Luca
Speaker 2: attacking Jaden McDaniels in the post a couple times in
Speaker 2: this game, and this is a time where it worked
Speaker 2: out really well for them getting a quality shot. There
Speaker 2: was one in the second half Whereluca's spacing was poor,
Speaker 2: but as you can see, he draws multiple defenders, drops
Speaker 2: it off to Dorian swing swing. We get a good
Speaker 2: look for Austin out of that post up for Luca.
Speaker 2: One of the things that I talked about a little
Speaker 2: bit last night was that it was less about any
Speaker 2: sort of schematic adjustment for the Lakers, although they were
Speaker 2: more attentive to Minnesota's better shooters over the course of
Speaker 2: the game, which was definitely a little bit of a
Speaker 2: game plan adjustment, but most of it was just like
Speaker 2: what JJ said in the third end of the third
Speaker 2: quarter interview in game one, which is not about schematics,
Speaker 2: it's about intensity. The Lakers were more or less running
Speaker 2: the exact same scheme on most of these Anthony Edwards possessions.
Speaker 2: As you can see, they're funneling him towards the sideline.
Speaker 2: They have this guy effectively in a strong side zone,
Speaker 2: ignoring and sliding over in help, and they're pinching off
Speaker 2: the corner, and so Ant is actually contending with three
Speaker 2: defenders on basically every single one of these drives, the
Speaker 2: guy at the point of the attack, the guy pinching down,
Speaker 2: and the guy in help. And as you can see,
Speaker 2: Aunt actually makes the right read here trying to kick
Speaker 2: to McDaniels. The pass just gets deflected. But look at
Speaker 2: the difference in intensity. Look at how much more aggressive
Speaker 2: they are on the ball with those hands to get
Speaker 2: those deflections. It was the same exact scheme. It just
Speaker 2: worked more effectively because the Lakers played with the appropriate
Speaker 2: force and intensity and discipline. I've really liked the work
Speaker 2: that Ant's done off the catch in this series, and
Speaker 2: this is one of the main things that I'm looking
Speaker 2: at as an opportunity for the Wolves to improve on offense,
Speaker 2: especially off of Julius post ups. So like when they
Speaker 2: give the ball to Julius, they start pinching down. As
Speaker 2: you can see like Dorian finney Smith here. This creates
Speaker 2: easy kind of like King of the Court style, quick
Speaker 2: catching ISO opportunities, quick catch and attack off the dribble
Speaker 2: opportunities for Aunt. Here's an example off the catch, he's
Speaker 2: able to with the close out, get Dorian Phinneysmith out
Speaker 2: of position with a pump fake and get himself a
Speaker 2: really clean look from three. That's something I would explore
Speaker 2: more is just on those Julius post ups, set up
Speaker 2: ant one pass away and just get him some easy
Speaker 2: opportunities to attack closeouts. There were about three, two from
Speaker 2: Julius Randall one from nasried early shot clock pull up
Speaker 2: threes against the Lakers. This is just a bad shot.
Speaker 2: There's sixteen on the shot clock when he takes that.
Speaker 2: There's nobody in to get on the offensive glass. And
Speaker 2: the biggest thing here is if you take that shot,
Speaker 2: you're making it so that the Lakers don't have to
Speaker 2: contend with your physicality at all. On drives, you are
Speaker 2: literally bailing the Lakers out. I'm not saying you don't
Speaker 2: take that shot. I'm just saying take that shot. Later
Speaker 2: in the clock after you've made some sort of attempt
Speaker 2: to get into the paint.
Speaker 1: This is the war of attrition.
Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about it when we get it
Speaker 2: later in the show. But like, there are these obvious
Speaker 2: things that the Wolves can do that have had some
Speaker 2: success in the series offensively, But you know they're not
Speaker 2: gonna log a you know, a one to twenty five
Speaker 2: offensive rating the rest of the series. I'd be shocked
Speaker 2: if they did. It's going to be a low scoring,
Speaker 2: difficult series. Your pathway to victory if your Minnesota is
Speaker 2: the war of attrition, it's you got a forty year old,
Speaker 2: you're smaller. We're gonna wear you down, and by game
Speaker 2: six and game seven you won't be able to hang
Speaker 2: with us anymore. And the only way you're gonna do
Speaker 2: that is by continually inflicting yourself physically on them every
Speaker 2: single possession.
Speaker 1: You're trying to win the war of attrition.
Speaker 2: Here's another example of the standard game plan that the
Speaker 2: Lakers really using against Ant.
Speaker 1: So let's take a look at the setup.
Speaker 2: So we have Ant, we have Luca funneling him towards
Speaker 2: the sideline, we have Jordan Goodwin pinching down, and we
Speaker 2: have Dorian Finney Smith ready now once again actually scores
Speaker 2: here on this nice little left handed finish. But look
Speaker 2: at how many people he's contending with On every single
Speaker 2: one of his drives. He's contending with the guy the
Speaker 2: point of attack, he's having to gather over the pinch,
Speaker 2: and he's having to finish over someone at the rim.
Speaker 2: And well, I'll actually skip ahead so I can show
Speaker 2: you guys the numbers I pulled earlier. Let's see here
Speaker 2: we are Ant is actually shooting just six for fifteen
Speaker 2: on layups. So far in the series, Ant's drives have
Speaker 2: only been worth zero point eighty four points. So like
Speaker 2: him trying to finish through three people every single time
Speaker 2: actually is working to the benefit of the Lakers in
Speaker 2: their defensive scheme. He's getting some makes mixed in there,
Speaker 2: but for the most part, and again, if you actually
Speaker 2: look here, there's an open kickout read to Dante DiVincenzo
Speaker 2: in the left corner that he's missing to try to
Speaker 2: force the action through all these people. And so I'll
Speaker 2: go over. I'll show you guys examples throughout the film session.
Speaker 2: But him taking some of these strong side corner reads
Speaker 2: that are available to keep the defense honest, being willing
Speaker 2: to throw that pass to Nakil Alexander Walker a few
Speaker 2: times per game, him being willing to make this kick
Speaker 2: out past the Dante DiVincenzo to keep the defense honest.
Speaker 2: And then I'll show you some examples later. But when
Speaker 2: they do something to occupy one of these two defenders
Speaker 2: in some way, shape or form, like a post up
Speaker 2: while he's driving, or a box out sort of thing
Speaker 2: with Rudy Gobert, it neutralizes one of these guys and
Speaker 2: it makes it so Aunt only has to go through
Speaker 2: two defenders instead of three, and he has some more
Speaker 2: expense success there. You guys will see some examples of
Speaker 2: that here coming up. This was an example of a
Speaker 2: double team of Luca that I thought actually worked pretty well,
Speaker 2: gave Vincent scores. Here he hits like a pretty deep
Speaker 2: three off of the left break. But this is a
Speaker 2: double team. Here he gets Aunt watched the double come
Speaker 2: from Nikhil Alexander Walker, just a random double that they
Speaker 2: decided to throw. This is a this is like a
Speaker 2: mix up the coverage kind of thing. Let's see if
Speaker 2: Chris Finch is actually calling it. Yep, there it is.
Speaker 2: He watched. You can actually see Chris Finch put his
Speaker 2: hands up to his face and yell double double, double, double,
Speaker 2: double double. There comes the double. That's just mixing up
Speaker 2: the coverage. They weren't doing this at any point in
Speaker 2: the game. They're just trying to keep Luca off balance.
Speaker 2: But this actually works. If you see, Luca makes a
Speaker 2: great read. Naz Reid rotates up to the gay part
Speaker 2: of this. Jaden McDaniels is kind of splitting the differences
Speaker 2: in center field here between Vando and Dorian Finney Smith
Speaker 2: really nice close out or really nice close out to
Speaker 2: chase Dorian off the line. Dorian drives baseline. Vando's making
Speaker 2: himself completely useless underneath the basket. I just don't Vando's
Speaker 2: got to understand. This is spacing one on one when
Speaker 2: you're a big man. As soon as the side of
Speaker 2: the floor's flips. So as soon as this ball gets
Speaker 2: across the midline, Vandos got to relocate over here. He's
Speaker 2: got to get to the opposite dunker spot. That's just
Speaker 2: bad space. Like Vando's just playing bad offensive basketball there.
Speaker 2: But as you can see as he drives in the process,
Speaker 2: they get a force of contested three and so I
Speaker 2: do think if the wolves ended up in a position
Speaker 2: where they were unwilling to accept Rudy Gobert, Rudy Gobert
Speaker 2: ISOs or something along those lines. I do think mixing
Speaker 2: in doubles is a good option to try to keep
Speaker 2: him off balance. This is another driving basket from Julius Randall.
Speaker 2: I want you guys to look at the spacing. Okay,
Speaker 2: so let's watch the layup first and then we'll dig
Speaker 2: in on the spacing. There's Julius left hand. Finish. Look
Speaker 2: at who is on the left side of the floor.
Speaker 2: These are the little details that matter when you're setting
Speaker 2: up the floor. It's Mike Conley, who Vanderbilt doesn't want
Speaker 2: to help off of, and it's Gabe Vincent guarding nas Reed,
Speaker 2: who he doesn't want to help off of. Watches Nos
Speaker 2: relocates out to this corner. How Gabe follows him. He
Speaker 2: sees the drive coming and he follows nos Reid. So again,
Speaker 2: you're getting an easy layup for Julius Randall. Just by
Speaker 2: setting up the spacing, you put your weakest shooter, Jad
Speaker 2: McDaniels on his weak hand where he's not driving. So
Speaker 2: it's very difficult for Dorian Phinney Smith to help here anyway. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's a difficult pass for Julius to make, but it's
Speaker 2: very difficult for Dorrian Finney Smith to actually get over
Speaker 2: there in time. You set it up properly so that
Speaker 2: Julius is driving into your bed shooters.
Speaker 1: You can create more space for him that way.
Speaker 2: I thought this was an interesting example of just the
Speaker 2: insane physicality that Jada McDaniels brings. Let's slow it down
Speaker 2: a little bit so you guys can see. Watches Jaden
Speaker 2: McDaniels sets up his back cut by just hitting Gabe
Speaker 2: Vincent hard.
Speaker 1: He's fast forward a little bit here.
Speaker 2: Watch how hard Jada McDaniels hits Gabe just bam throws
Speaker 2: him off, then cuts back door. That basically creates that
Speaker 2: inside seal angle. Austin Reeves is waiting at the rim.
Speaker 2: There's nothing he's gonna do with Jaden, even on the
Speaker 2: miss he gets the rebound. Vandals got to get in
Speaker 2: there and contend for that, especially with the offensive spacing
Speaker 2: issues that he presents.
Speaker 1: All Right, Austin.
Speaker 2: Reeves still can't make a three. Him and Lebron were
Speaker 2: one for eleven. But I did think Austin started to
Speaker 2: show him picking up some of his short range mid
Speaker 2: range rhythm in this game. And here's an example of
Speaker 2: a shot that Austin was missing in game one that
Speaker 2: he made in game two. That's little behind the back
Speaker 2: move on Connelly. That short to mid range game. That's
Speaker 2: an area where Austin can be really dead when he's
Speaker 2: in rhythm. Here's another example of Julius driving towards shooting.
Speaker 2: Look at how the floor is set up week at
Speaker 2: shooter is on Julius Randall's we cand that he's never
Speaker 2: going to drive to and you have Mike Conley in
Speaker 2: the corner, and so as Julius is driving, they relocate
Speaker 2: up Nikhil. Alexander Walker is another one of Minnesota's more
Speaker 2: deadly catch and shoot shooters. So notice how Gabe and
Speaker 2: Dorian Finney Smith are completely uninterested in helping on this possession,
Speaker 2: which allows Julius to really get downhill. And if you
Speaker 2: look at Julius getting downhill, he spins here and Lebron's
Speaker 2: basically dead to rights and he's got to hack him.
Speaker 1: But I like that idea as a spacing concept.
Speaker 2: For the Wolves. Just make sure that Julius is driving
Speaker 2: towards Conley, Nikhil, Alexander Walker, Nasri, Dante DiVincenzo. Don't have
Speaker 2: him driving towards Jaden McDaniels when he's on the floor.
Speaker 2: Here's another like kind of post up that Julius Randall has.
Speaker 2: But I want you to look at who is in
Speaker 2: the normal pinch spot. So on as Julius starts going,
Speaker 2: look at how Dorian Finney Smith and Lebron are uncommitted
Speaker 2: to helping. Because it's Mike Conley there and it's Anthony
Speaker 2: Edwards there. This gives Julius plenty of space here to
Speaker 2: work in the middle of the floor. Good defense from
Speaker 2: Jordan Goodwin to force him into a tough one there.
Speaker 2: So this is why, Like this is another example of
Speaker 2: why in the Lakers base scheme it's important for Ant
Speaker 2: to function more as a passer. So we have the
Speaker 2: exact same sequence, right, we have Rudy funneling towards the sideline.
Speaker 2: We have Dorian Finney Smith pinching down off the strong
Speaker 2: side corner. We have Austin in the strong side zone.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Once again, this is his pass to Conley that Aunt
Speaker 2: has to be willing to take at least a couple
Speaker 2: times per game. He was basically completely unwilling to make
Speaker 2: this pass last night. Just to keep the team honest,
Speaker 2: that's a pass he needs to make. But even with
Speaker 2: that being the case, he does make the skip here.
Speaker 2: Watch what happens. The skip is open because Austin is
Speaker 2: strong side zoning. Luca has to come off of Jaden
Speaker 2: McDaniels and inside seal to keep Julius Randall off the
Speaker 2: glass and to take away the lob right. So Ant
Speaker 2: makes the skip here that forces this rotation from Goodwin,
Speaker 2: which hits Terrence Shannon up here on the wing. He
Speaker 2: has a huge runway he gets going downhill and gets
Speaker 2: a layup. But again, this is the pass. These two
Speaker 2: passes are passes that Ant's going to have to make
Speaker 2: to keep the defense honest.
Speaker 1: In the scheme.
Speaker 2: When he tries to drive through all these guys and
Speaker 2: try to take a layup, he's not even getting nine
Speaker 2: tenths of a point per possession. That's not a smart play.
Speaker 2: But if he just drives and makes these kickout reads,
Speaker 2: there's actually some really high quality opportunities for Minnesota. Just
Speaker 2: need to see him add that strong side corner in
Speaker 2: more and it's just guaranteed rotation basketball like, you can
Speaker 2: guarantee an advantage that leads to your guys playing drive
Speaker 2: in kick just by Ant making that read. This is
Speaker 2: what it looks like when Julius tries to ISO when
Speaker 2: there's not the shooting, the appropriate shooting to space the floor.
Speaker 2: So now look look at the setup here. Terrence Shannon
Speaker 2: is in the stronghand position for Julius Randalls. So this
Speaker 2: is an example of bad spacing that is easy. You
Speaker 2: can easily mitigate this. All you need to do is
Speaker 2: have Julius hold the ball for an extra three seconds,
Speaker 2: have Terrence Shannon sprint through to where Mike Conley is,
Speaker 2: have Mike Conley come through the baseline, have Ant slide
Speaker 2: up so that he's on the wing. All of a sudden,
Speaker 2: you have Aunt and Mike Conley in these two spots.
Speaker 2: Now Julius can get to his strong hand. But because
Speaker 2: they have it set up with Terrence Shannon and Julius
Speaker 2: Randall's strong hand, Jordan Goodwin can really sit down in
Speaker 2: that lane. See he's just ignoring it. That's in Conley's
Speaker 2: pushing him through to go to this corner. That would
Speaker 2: have been another perfect example of an opportunity for Tarance
Speaker 2: Shannon just to locate through here and for Mike Conley
Speaker 2: to cut through. As a result, Julius just drives Harden
Speaker 2: too help Ruey's able to rotate the Ant. They're not
Speaker 2: worried about Terrence. Shannon nice clothes out from Rudy from Ruey,
Speaker 2: and they end up forcing a miss. Having a Ruey
Speaker 2: and a Rudy in this series is a huge pain
Speaker 2: in the ass for content creation. By the way, all right,
Speaker 2: let's look at this next one. This is another example
Speaker 2: of Ant just trying to force his way through three
Speaker 2: defenders on every single drive. Once again, it's a little
Speaker 2: bit different geometry because he's going to his right hand,
Speaker 2: but look on the ball pinch at the rim with
Speaker 2: Ruey like he makes that one. But this has been
Speaker 2: a low percentage play for him in this series, him
Speaker 2: trying to drive through three bodies every time to make
Speaker 2: a layup. That one goes in. But once again, he's
Speaker 2: six for fifteen in the series, just zero point eight
Speaker 2: four points per drive. That's including fouls. By the way,
Speaker 2: I didn't include the pump fakes in this film session
Speaker 2: for timesake, but this is an example of a shot
Speaker 2: that Ruey can get.
Speaker 1: This is a shot.
Speaker 2: Look, Rudy is closing out and he's gonna jump high.
Speaker 2: But Ruey does get the shot off. He can take
Speaker 2: that shot. He needs to take that shot. He needs
Speaker 2: to make that shot. He cannot just pump fake it
Speaker 2: every single time and drive into the teeth of the
Speaker 2: defense where the advantage then disappears late in the game.
Speaker 2: He pump faked that shot a few times. That's something
Speaker 2: he needs to take. And like I said, I would
Speaker 2: just have Ruy to spend the next two days shooting
Speaker 2: over tall closeouts. Here's an example of what happens when
Speaker 2: you take away one of the helpers on an ant drive.
Speaker 2: So watch the way that Rudy on this drive engages
Speaker 2: Luca's body. Boom with the seal because he engages Luca's body.
Speaker 2: Now as Ruy is playing that stronghand side, we have
Speaker 2: the same setup, right, we have Dorian Finney Smith pinching,
Speaker 2: but Luca is now contending with Rudy under the basket physically.
Speaker 2: Because he's contending with Rudy physically, he can't elevate. Because
Speaker 2: he can't elevate, Ant's not even having to worry about
Speaker 2: that third defender. So that's an example of a way
Speaker 2: to get Aunt a really easy one. Have somebody. There's
Speaker 2: another later example. I'll show you where Julius Ryandall's like
Speaker 2: posting up. Do something with those guys that are in
Speaker 2: this space physically to at least hold that Laker defender
Speaker 2: on the ground so that Ant doesn't have to contend
Speaker 2: with another defender in the air when he gets to
Speaker 2: the rim. Here's another example of Ant attacking off the
Speaker 2: catch from a Julius post up. I think Aunt misses
Speaker 2: this one if I remember correctly. So we have Julius
Speaker 2: post up look r Luca is Luca doubles, Ant gets
Speaker 2: a clean look, drives the close out and dunks Oliver
Speaker 2: Jackson a So this was not a miss. But look
Speaker 2: at what it comes out of. You got Aunt a
Speaker 2: runway to dunk all over Jackson Hayes's face out of
Speaker 2: a catch off of a Julius post up. Something to
Speaker 2: explore a little bit more over the course of the series.
Speaker 2: This is just an annoying Laker fan moment for me.
Speaker 2: I just don't understand why Jackson Hayes is incapable of
Speaker 2: contesting with verticality at the rim. He can't help himself.
Speaker 2: He just hacks every damn time off of Julius's drive.
Speaker 2: Look at the hack, like, just keep your hands down, Jackson,
Speaker 2: keep your hands down, jump with verticality and make him
Speaker 2: make a damn tough shot over your contest. It's like
Speaker 2: such a basic concept that Jackson struggles with. This was
Speaker 2: an example of what I talked about in last night's
Speaker 2: show with the random late switches on Rudy Gobert's ISOs. So,
Speaker 2: once Luca gets down into this range, they're bringing this
Speaker 2: second defender up, and then Rudy will peel off and
Speaker 2: go to the guy that Jaden was guarding. See that's
Speaker 2: that random late switch that takes away that disadvantage that
Speaker 2: Rudy was dealing with there on the floor. Luke ends
Speaker 2: up missing the shot. Here's another example from earlier in
Speaker 2: the game, but it ended in a foul. Same sort
Speaker 2: of thing though. If you watch what right, when Luca
Speaker 2: gets into the paint, they just basically peel off switch,
Speaker 2: Rudy goes to Jackson, Dante comes up. Dante just ends
Speaker 2: up committing a foul. But that was a wrinkle that
Speaker 2: we saw from That was a wrinkle that we saw
Speaker 2: from Minnesota in this game. Here's a clear tide post
Speaker 2: up for Luca where I thought his spacing was poor.
Speaker 2: Notice how he was originally way down here, but he
Speaker 2: works his way up closer to the elbow. And now
Speaker 2: the reason why he wants to do that technically is
Speaker 2: to pivot towards the baseline. And I get that, But
Speaker 2: what you're doing is you're allowing Rudy Gobaert to pressure
Speaker 2: you relatively easily. If he's down here instead, it's a
Speaker 2: lot easier for this to turn into a kickout three.
Speaker 2: But because he's in this spot on the floor, Rudy's
Speaker 2: able to get in there and deflect the pass. Austin
Speaker 2: actually got Rudy and switches twice late in the game,
Speaker 2: like I talked about, like a quick layup off the glass.
Speaker 2: This was the crazy finish that he had though, so
Speaker 2: like with like with these, with these ISOs, if it's
Speaker 2: not Luca, I think these are beneficial from Minnesota overall.
Speaker 2: Like this is an incredibly tough shot from Austin. Ant's
Speaker 2: attacking off the catch again, just a basic catch and
Speaker 2: shoot three, like I want him like this is a
Speaker 2: great This is a great way to get him going
Speaker 2: as a score when he's in his on ball reps
Speaker 2: along the slot with them loading up, he needs to
Speaker 2: function more as a passer, but off the catch, this
Speaker 2: is where he can look to be super aggressive. Here's
Speaker 2: that example I talked about earlier about a post up
Speaker 2: while Ant's driving. So because Julius is battling Lebron for
Speaker 2: post position, it removes Lebron as a rim protector. And
Speaker 2: they actually did this instead of occupying the corner. And
Speaker 2: so as a result, when Ant drives, there's no pinch
Speaker 2: from the corner and he only has to contend with
Speaker 2: one defender at the rim and Rui, and he easily
Speaker 2: dances around him. And it's because once again one of
Speaker 2: the help defenders is physically engaged while this is all
Speaker 2: going down.
Speaker 1: Just something to explore.
Speaker 2: This is another reason why I was talking about how
Speaker 2: even that one point zero seven number with attacking Rudy
Speaker 2: and ISOs is kind of misleading, because this is this
Speaker 2: is a Luca ISO attack that doesn't log as an ISO.
Speaker 2: It logs as a spot up, but it does log
Speaker 2: as an ISO including passes. And so if you look
Speaker 2: at this, he gets past Rudy, draws Julius Randall into help,
Speaker 2: generates this clean catch and shoot. Look for Dorian Finney
Speaker 2: Smith that he knocks down once again. Shout out to
Speaker 2: Dorian Finny Smith. This is playoff basketball. You're gonna have
Speaker 2: to hit shots with guys running out at you, and
Speaker 2: that's what we need from Ruey the rest of this series.
Speaker 2: There's another Luca Iso Gobert that ends in a wide
Speaker 2: open three, this time from Dorian Finney Smith out of
Speaker 2: the left corner ISO double team kick, extra pass Dorian
Speaker 2: Finney Smith. So like I think the Luca ISOs against
Speaker 2: Gobert have worked really well through two games. Here's another
Speaker 2: big time defensive possession from Ruy. Both both Ruey and
Speaker 2: Lebron I thought were fantastic defensively last night against Randall. Physicality.
Speaker 2: Look at I was holding his shoulder. This is what
Speaker 2: was missing from Ruey with his matchups with Julius Randall
Speaker 2: in the past, and this was why Julius used to
Speaker 2: kill him. Look At I was holding his ground, being physical,
Speaker 2: actually fighting for position back understanding that you can get
Speaker 2: away with a lot of contact if they're trying to
Speaker 2: play bullyball.
Speaker 1: Julius does get Ruey.
Speaker 2: This time, but I want to highlight this spacing a
Speaker 2: little bit in the strong side corner your aunt and
Speaker 2: Duran Finney Smith is glued up, so that makes it
Speaker 2: so that he has plenty of space to get down here.
Speaker 2: And then this is Ruy does defend this well, this
Speaker 2: is just a vicious chicken wing from Julius Randa.
Speaker 1: To watch this boom.
Speaker 2: That's playoff basketball too, And that was an impressive bit
Speaker 2: of physicality from Julius Randall. Here's an example of what
Speaker 2: I talked about about trying to play people into missus.
Speaker 2: This was a shot that was just uncontested for Naserid
Speaker 2: in Game one. Watch the close out from Austin. Bring
Speaker 2: me any forces in air like take shot result into
Speaker 2: your own hands. Don't leave it to chance. If you
Speaker 2: leave it to chance, these pros are gonna knock down shots.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's all I have from that particular game.
Speaker 2: My main notes again, Luca Rudy ISOs are good, but
Speaker 2: every other Rudy Iso not so much. Ruby and Lebron
Speaker 2: on defense were just unbelievable. There was another couple plays
Speaker 2: from the film session that I didn't include today, a
Speaker 2: huge Ruie rotation at the rim where he went with
Speaker 2: the verticality contest and forced to stop, ran out and
Speaker 2: got a big layup in transition, that steal that Lebron
Speaker 2: had late when the Wolves were driving in transition, where
Speaker 2: Lebron just swooped in underneath. Ant got the steal and
Speaker 2: drove out the other way for a layup. The two
Speaker 2: of them both on the defensive glass, especially Lebron on
Speaker 2: the defensive glass. Those guys were incredible, as promised my
Speaker 2: notes on Minnesota's offense, those Ant slot drives. He needs
Speaker 2: to function more as a passer, but if you're gonna
Speaker 2: try to get him opportunities to drive, shedding help defenders
Speaker 2: by either stealing the low man or posting up literally
Speaker 2: on that strong side of the floor out of the
Speaker 2: strong side corner while Ant's looking to drive, so that
Speaker 2: he's going one on two instead of one on three,
Speaker 2: and then being more willing to take the easy reads
Speaker 2: that are there, specifically out of the strong side corner
Speaker 2: in that skip pass with Julius, Slot drives into shooting,
Speaker 2: making sure that he has strong like on the strong
Speaker 2: side of the floor where he's driving, that he's going
Speaker 2: into shooters so guys aren't pinching down, and then looking
Speaker 2: for opportunities while he's posting to make kickout passes to
Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards to attack closeouts. But here's the thing, like
Speaker 2: my my feel on that is like you can you
Speaker 2: can really tell through two games that the pet actions
Speaker 2: that Minnesota wants to run is ant driving into those
Speaker 2: triple teams right either as a passer as a score
Speaker 2: or attacking off the catch Julius attacking slot drives and
Speaker 2: post ups like that's gonna be Minnesota's offense for the
Speaker 2: majority of this series. They're little spacing details and little
Speaker 2: intricacies they can use. But that's the series for Minnesota.
Speaker 2: For Minnesota, it's and and Julia's shot creation, and for
Speaker 2: the Lakers on the other end of the floor, it's Lebron,
Speaker 2: Luca Austin shot creation. I believe Lebron, Luca and Austin,
Speaker 2: as long as they can trap the game in the
Speaker 2: half court, the Lakers are going to win that matchup.
Speaker 2: I feel strongly that the Lakers are a smarter, more
Speaker 2: surgical half court team, but the physicality element is Minnesota's advantage.
Speaker 2: It will not stop throughout this whole series. Anytime the
Speaker 2: Lakers lose focus or intensity, Minnesota is going to run
Speaker 2: the score up on them. And there's a major wear
Speaker 2: and tear factor in this series that I think heavily
Speaker 2: favors Minnesota, and so I steel like I'm leaning very
Speaker 2: much towards coin flip with this series right now. I'm
Speaker 2: not going to change my pick yet with me picking
Speaker 2: the Lakers to win, I wouldn't do that unless Minnesota
Speaker 2: took a more substantial advantage. But it feels very coin
Speaker 2: flippy to me right now, which is, if the Lakers
Speaker 2: can stay healthy and hang onto the rope, they are
Speaker 2: the better half court team.
Speaker 1: They should win.
Speaker 2: If Minnesota can wear them down successfully into either execution
Speaker 2: lapses or wear and tear, then they can control things
Speaker 2: as the series progresses and get out of here with
Speaker 2: the win. And again, for Lakers fans, if you can
Speaker 2: somehow survive this series Golden State Oklahoma City, they are
Speaker 2: also truly elite defenses, but they do not bring the
Speaker 2: physicality element that Minnesota brings. If you can somehow survive
Speaker 2: this series, you'll feel like a breath of fresh air
Speaker 2: as you extend into the future series, at least relative
Speaker 2: to this specific matchup. And so it's all about survival
Speaker 2: at this point for the Lakers. Hang onto the rope,
Speaker 2: stay disciplined, find ways to survive this series so that
Speaker 2: you can find a better matchup down the line. All right,
Speaker 2: let's talk a little Bucks Pacers before we get out
Speaker 2: of here today. So the main piece that we were
Speaker 2: looking at was the switching with the five, specifically with
Speaker 2: brook Lopez, and I want to just show specific how
Speaker 2: untenable this is and why Doc Rivers basically just needs
Speaker 2: to bail on brook Lopez and either keep his minutes
Speaker 2: extremely low or bail on him entirely. I would just
Speaker 2: keep his minutes low, but he's just too slow footed
Speaker 2: to be able to handle these matchups. As you can
Speaker 2: see switch the ball screen. Look at how easily Tyree's
Speaker 2: can get around him. All he has to do really
Speaker 2: is this right here. If you look, you can kind
Speaker 2: of see him. Look up, look at his head right
Speaker 2: as he sits in that high hesitation right here right there,
Speaker 2: he's threatening the shot. And when he does you can
Speaker 2: actually see Brooks weight shift forward. Watch Brooks weight shift
Speaker 2: forward just barely ready boom waight forward? Right is his
Speaker 2: weight is forward, Tyrees goes right around him, and you're
Speaker 2: going to see that over and over again. Giannis helps
Speaker 2: easy kick out to Miles Turner Corner three knock down.
Speaker 2: This one was the fancy scoop shot. This was just
Speaker 2: really impressive footwork gets Brooke on the switch. Brook does
Speaker 2: a nice job staying disciplined and not leaning forward on
Speaker 2: that one, so he ends up actually beating Tyree to
Speaker 2: the spot. But on this pivot through, look at once
Speaker 2: again Brooks weight shift forward right here. You can see
Speaker 2: his way as he's going backwards, waight forward right as
Speaker 2: Tyrese is going past him for the layoup.
Speaker 1: Here's the dunk. Watch the waight forward we get the
Speaker 1: switch right there is the headfake. See it.
Speaker 2: He's looking at the rim ball in his strong hand.
Speaker 2: That's him selling the shot. Watch what Brook does. Brook
Speaker 2: immediately responds by coming forward. That's when Tyree's goes past him.
Speaker 2: You can see that dynamic. It's just the head fake.
Speaker 2: Just that little bit of a look at the rim
Speaker 2: bites Brook forward and gets in that driving lane. This time,
Speaker 2: Damian Lillar doesn't want to help. Tyree'se gets dunk. Here's
Speaker 2: the drop off to Siakam in the second half, same thing.
Speaker 2: Watch right on the catch, look at him. Just look
Speaker 2: at the rim on the catch, Look at the rim
Speaker 2: in a shot position. Brook immediately starts leaning forward. As
Speaker 2: soon as he leans forward, Tyre's goes right around him,
Speaker 2: drop off to Siaka easy bucket, and then inevitably there's
Speaker 2: going to be something that Brooke does to adjust. This time,
Speaker 2: he just decides not to come up, so he sits
Speaker 2: way back and basically just concedes the three. Tyreek knocks
Speaker 2: it down. These are those scramswitches I was talking about
Speaker 2: last night. I thought these were really impressive examples of
Speaker 2: scouting and game plan discipline from from Indie. So, as
Speaker 2: you can see, Dame is on nemhard and he's going
Speaker 2: to get screened by Topping. As he gets screened by Topping,
Speaker 2: Topping runs down to the block and this is where
Speaker 2: the scram switches. Torian Prince is going to come over
Speaker 2: and guard toppin so that Dame can get out and
Speaker 2: get Nie Smith. Watch how quickly they identify it. Swing
Speaker 2: back to Turner. Turner's immediately reading the play, sees Torrian
Speaker 2: prints coming over, sees Dame sprinting through, rifles a pass
Speaker 2: to Nie Smith who knocks down the three. Also, this
Speaker 2: is an example of how important it is for passes
Speaker 2: to be on time, on target. Dame is running over
Speaker 2: there that pass hits him right in the shooting pocket though,
Speaker 2: so he can go up immediately. That's a little detail
Speaker 2: about passing that makes a huge difference as to whether
Speaker 2: or not you can get a clean look. And then
Speaker 2: this was the Obie top and dunk, same sort of thing.
Speaker 2: He gets Miles Turner on a switch and a ball screen.
Speaker 2: They scram him out with Portis. He sprints, Dame Is sprinting,
Speaker 2: but right as he sprints, look it out quickly they
Speaker 2: identified Nemhart sees the whole thing happening, the whole time,
Speaker 2: Top and sees the whole thing happening, immediately cuts baseline,
Speaker 2: easy dunk. They were just prepared for everything that Milwaukee
Speaker 2: tried to do defensively. And then this was that terrible
Speaker 2: defensive possession late in the game where I just didn't
Speaker 2: understand how aggressive Portis and Kuzmo were in their help.
Speaker 2: So again one fifteen, one thirteen, this is the game
Speaker 2: right here. You get a stop, you got all the momentum,
Speaker 2: you go down the other end, score, you put all
Speaker 2: the pressure on Indiana. Look at this defense, like Kuzma
Speaker 2: right now is matched up with Nie Smith. We're gonna
Speaker 2: get a switch out right, So Dame's gonna go to Turner.
Speaker 2: Siakam's gonna set up here on the wing. They scram
Speaker 2: Dame out of the mismatch, Dame switches back to Nie Smith.
Speaker 2: Watch the way the floor is set up, though Siakim
Speaker 2: is standing right here. Kuzma is allowing himself to get
Speaker 2: beat by what's called a pinin flair screen here from
Speaker 2: Miles Turner. He's screening Kuzmas so he can't close out.
Speaker 2: But that's bad defense. Kuzman and Porters are straight up
Speaker 2: not paying attention to a guy in Siakam who's shooting
Speaker 2: forty four percent on unguarded catch and shoot threes this year.
Speaker 2: Easy kickout like this is just bad defense. And that
Speaker 2: doesn't even account for the fact that Indiana missed several
Speaker 2: clean looks during the run. Anyway, and so again, until
Speaker 2: Milwaukee finds a way to get stops, and again it's
Speaker 2: it's getting Lopez off the floor. He's too slow footed
Speaker 2: to be able to handle this matchup. Switching containing the
Speaker 2: basketball being inappropriate help defense situations, so you can throw
Speaker 2: a close out at least make Indiana beat you by
Speaker 2: making contested threes. These wide open threes are not going
Speaker 2: to get you back into this series. All right, guys,
Speaker 2: it's all I have for today. As always, a sincerely
Speaker 2: appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 2: Tonight we are live on YouTube after the final buzzer
Speaker 2: of the Rockets Warriors game. I'm also this afternoon recording
Speaker 2: a pod that we're getting back with Two Sons podcast
Speaker 2: with the Star Wars and Or series starting up. I
Speaker 2: hear in a couple of hours I'm going to be
Speaker 2: recording a reaction to that, So you head over to
Speaker 2: Two Sons Podcasts on YouTube. We'll have a reaction if
Speaker 2: you're a Star Wars fan, if you're in the and
Speaker 2: Or but then otherwise. I will see you guys on
Speaker 2: YouTube tonight after the final buzzer of the Rockets Warriors game.
Speaker 1: What's so guys?
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
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Speaker 1: And leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
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