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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to Hoo tonight. You're at the Valume.
Speaker 1: Happy Thursday, everybody, ow Ball. The guys are having a
Speaker 1: great week. We have a jam packed show for you today,
Speaker 1: a really fun Wednesday Night slate in the NBA. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about Denver getting revenge for their night beat
Speaker 1: down at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder last
Speaker 1: night in a super entertaining game with an awesome defensive
Speaker 1: run late a couple of the big plays being made
Speaker 1: by the young players that Denver fans have been so
Speaker 1: desperate to get contributions from. And then Russell Westbrook had
Speaker 1: one of his best games of the season, and that
Speaker 1: one as well. After that, the Phoenix Suns continue their
Speaker 1: dominant start to the season with yet another come from
Speaker 1: behind victory against the Miami Heat, where once again Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant was incredible on both ends of the floor. I
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about Kevin Durant, I
Speaker 1: want to talk about the late game offense that Phoenix
Speaker 1: was running, and then we're going to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about the Miami Heat and some of their early
Speaker 1: season struggles. And then at the tail end of the
Speaker 1: show to I rewatched the Celtics Warriors game this morning.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to go through some specific notes on
Speaker 1: some of the ways that they had success trapping now
Speaker 1: that I've had a better chance to look things back
Speaker 1: over on film. And then at the very end, we
Speaker 1: have another version of Timp's tape where I have I
Speaker 1: think twenty four clips that we're going to go through
Speaker 1: from all those games to just get a little bit
Speaker 1: of a visual representation for the things that I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: You guys, are the job Before we get started. Subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss
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Speaker 1: about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under
Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight. We also have brand new social media feeds
Speaker 1: on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter under the Hoops Tonight handle,
Speaker 1: so make sure you guys go find them. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be releasing some more content like reels and shorts and
Speaker 1: stuff like that on those accounts, and then last min
Speaker 1: at least, keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube
Speaker 1: comments so we can keep hitting them in our Friday
Speaker 1: mail bags. My staff is out of town, so we
Speaker 1: already recorded the Friday mail bag for tomorrow. That's why
Speaker 1: I recorded it yesterday. That's why the week is a
Speaker 1: little bit funky this week, but usually I'll be recording
Speaker 1: it on Friday. So keep dropping those mail back questions
Speaker 1: in the YouTube comments and we'll get to him throughout
Speaker 1: the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So Denver be Oklahoma City with a ridiculous defensive run
Speaker 1: in the second half. So the way they kind of
Speaker 1: configured things. They had Peyton Watson on chet Holmgrin right.
Speaker 1: This is a I talk a lot about how the
Speaker 1: game is a copycat league, right, And we saw Boston
Speaker 1: just regularly throughout the season last year just put Tatum
Speaker 1: on centers and put their center on the weakest above
Speaker 1: the break shooter. For the other team in here, Rio Denver,
Speaker 1: as with many other teams that we've seen around the
Speaker 1: league this year, are copying that strategy. They would put
Speaker 1: Jokic on the weakest above the break shooter in this case,
Speaker 1: either Lou Dort or Alex Caruso, and then you put
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson on chet Holmgren. Then they put their best
Speaker 1: on ball defender on Shay. In this case it was
Speaker 1: either Christian Brown or Peyton Watson. So then they're pressuring
Speaker 1: the ball. You have Jokic kind of consistently hanging around
Speaker 1: the basket and help and in defensive rebounding situations, Peyton
Speaker 1: Watson's ability to switch ball screens should they need to it,
Speaker 1: especially since Christian Brown is big and strong enough and
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook are big and strong enough to switch onto
Speaker 1: onto a forward or center like chet Holmgren. Right, And
Speaker 1: it just gave them like a good defensive foundation to
Speaker 1: work on, and they were incredible defensively in the second
Speaker 1: half of this game against Oklahoma City. I wanted to
Speaker 1: spend some time talking about Peyton Watson in helpside because
Speaker 1: you know, I talk about do you remember when Sam
Speaker 1: Massini came on the show right after the NBA Finals
Speaker 1: last year and we talked about the most important thing
Speaker 1: that we learned about the NBA last season, And one
Speaker 1: of the things that Sam Massini talked about was the
Speaker 1: idea of ground coverage. And essentially, if you think of it,
Speaker 1: like NBA offenses are so damn good that and they're
Speaker 1: the star players are so damn good that you're constantly
Speaker 1: having to be aggressive in your defensive coverages. Right, Like
Speaker 1: you're pressuring the ball, chasing over the top and ball screens,
Speaker 1: you're bringing the guy up, your screen defender up to
Speaker 1: the level of the screen, you're digging down off the ball.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of like shrinking the floor on the star,
Speaker 1: which creates opportunities for you know, skip passes, swing passes,
Speaker 1: drop off passes to cutters, things along those lines, right,
Speaker 1: And so your help side defense, the ability to have
Speaker 1: a player in this case, a guy like Peyton Watson
Speaker 1: who can feasibly cover so much ground that even when
Speaker 1: it looks like there are openings, there aren't actually openings.
Speaker 1: That is the hallmark of a truly great defense. There
Speaker 1: were multiple situations in this game where Peyton Watson was
Speaker 1: like playing the middle ground between a guy rolling to
Speaker 1: the basket and a skip pass for three, and they
Speaker 1: both look kind of open, right, and it's like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna hit the cutter here and it's you know, Alex
Speaker 1: Kruser right under the basket, and Peyton Watson just shoots
Speaker 1: over and swallows the shot up right. Or it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I make you know, I'm gonna make this swing pass.
Speaker 1: Peyton's digging pretty far down into the elbow. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make this swing pass to the shooter above the break. Nope,
Speaker 1: Peyton's shooting out there on a closeout and it's just
Speaker 1: completely gone right Like that is what makes the truly
Speaker 1: elite defenses so great is even when they appear to
Speaker 1: give openings, they aren't really openings, and that comes down
Speaker 1: to athleticism and helpside in the ability to cover ground.
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson was unbelievable in help in this game. And
Speaker 1: then once again down the stretch, biggest play of the game. Okay,
Speaker 1: see cuts it to two, right, Russell Westbrook picks up
Speaker 1: Shake Gilders Alexander all the way out, like way out
Speaker 1: past the three point line, and again.
Speaker 2: Like he got beat off the dribble.
Speaker 1: But it's one of those things where like when you're
Speaker 1: going against the best of the best, like this isn't RJ. Barrett, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is one of the top five players.
Speaker 2: In the NBA.
Speaker 1: You're going to get beat one way or another. You're
Speaker 1: either gonna get beat with a pull up jump shot
Speaker 1: or you're gonna get beat off the dribble. Right, But
Speaker 1: if it's a pull up jump shot, you give Shay
Speaker 1: an opportunity to get comfortable, right, you're playing off of him.
Speaker 1: Maybe he can get comfortable and he can get to
Speaker 1: a look right. But if you press him and you
Speaker 1: make him drive, you can plan for that in help
Speaker 1: side defense. And I thought that was really interesting. Again,
Speaker 1: a guy like RJ. Barrett, you can trust Russ to
Speaker 1: kind of cover both bases by himself, but with the
Speaker 1: matchup against a guy like Shae Gilders Alexander, I thought
Speaker 1: it was smart picked him up far out like he
Speaker 1: was well outside the three point line, forced to shade
Speaker 1: to drive, and he drove right into the teeth of
Speaker 1: the defense where Peyton Watson was able to meet him
Speaker 1: with verticality and get a big time block. Unbelievable defensive
Speaker 1: possession at the end of that game. Unbelievable defense throughout
Speaker 1: the entire second and half. Forty Denver Nuggets Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: twenty nine points, six rebound, six assists, tons of rim
Speaker 1: pressure and playmaking, and one of those games where everything
Speaker 1: was really clicking for him. He had three threes as well,
Speaker 1: made several huge defensive plays. We talked about the play
Speaker 1: on Shae. He also stripped Shay in the second half
Speaker 1: on a drive along the right side close to the baseline.
Speaker 1: As I talked about before the season, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of Russell Westbrook's floor at the start of the
Speaker 1: season right like really really ugly games and even throughout that,
Speaker 1: what did I consistently tell you guys, like this is
Speaker 1: the Russell Westbrook experience. His floor is substantially lower than
Speaker 1: Reggie Jackson's, but his ceiling is substantially higher than Reggie Jackson's.
Speaker 1: And there have been a few games this year where
Speaker 1: he's put it all together and it's like, holy shit,
Speaker 1: you got another star last night. How many players in
Speaker 1: the NBA can realistically put up twenty nine, six and
Speaker 1: six even once, right, Like, there's maybe thirty, forty, maybe
Speaker 1: fifty guys in the entire NBA who are capable of
Speaker 1: putting together that stat line. And you got that last
Speaker 1: night from a really discounted contract off of your bench.
Speaker 1: And so again, that's the Russell Westbrook experience. There's going
Speaker 1: to be games where it's really ugly, but there's also
Speaker 1: going to be games where he's able to do things
Speaker 1: that very few players in the league can do. And
Speaker 1: on a game like last night with Jamal Murray out,
Speaker 1: you win that game because of Russell Westbrook, and you
Speaker 1: don't if he's not there, right, you lose that game
Speaker 1: with Reggie Jackson. And so that's part of the upside
Speaker 1: of the Russell Westbrook experience. Christian Brown, this is something
Speaker 1: that you know, again, part of the deal with this
Speaker 1: show is I'm right about a lot of stuff some
Speaker 1: of the time, and then I'm wrong about a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff some of the time.
Speaker 2: Right, So it's like it's part of.
Speaker 1: The deal and one of the things that I've been
Speaker 1: really keyed in on since the start of this since
Speaker 1: this offseason, is like, I think Christian Brown is a
Speaker 1: great fit with the starters. He's very different from kcp's
Speaker 1: fundamentally different archetype of play. Right on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: Christian Brown is a bigger, stronger athlete who's a little
Speaker 1: more versatile, but maybe not quite as quick at the
Speaker 1: point of attack. Right then, but I think he's more
Speaker 1: versatile because he can switch and can guard bigger athletes, like,
Speaker 1: for instance, he can match up with Anthony Edwards in
Speaker 1: a way kN tavi's coubble Pope never can.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But they're different types of players, Right, you go to
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor on offense and it's like, no,
Speaker 1: he's not the shooter that CACP is. No, he's not
Speaker 1: the guy that can come off of a dribble handoff
Speaker 1: and rise up from fifteen feet and knock down the
Speaker 1: jumper the way that KCP can.
Speaker 2: No, he can't run in.
Speaker 1: Transition to the corner and knock down a corner three
Speaker 1: off the move as well as KCP can. But what
Speaker 1: he can do is he can screen, and he can cut,
Speaker 1: and he can just bring waves of athleticism to the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor, and he has consistently been
Speaker 1: a plus offensive player in this lineup just with his
Speaker 1: athletic activity, not just taking catch and shoot threes, but
Speaker 1: driving closeouts and getting all the way to the rim.
Speaker 1: One of the things that they spammed at the end
Speaker 1: of this game, the Nuggets basically closed this game by
Speaker 1: just spamming Yokic's post ups against Chet, getting the double
Speaker 1: team and playing out of it. And one of the
Speaker 1: things Christian Brown did consistently is when they would rotate
Speaker 1: so like basically it'd be post entry to yokicch and
Speaker 1: sometimes okay as he would botch it where they would
Speaker 1: just help one pass away like they did that once
Speaker 1: late with Michael Porter Junior and Michael Porter Junior hit
Speaker 1: a three. But when they had their windshield wiper rotations down,
Speaker 1: meaning like what they would do is it would be
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior throws the post entry, there's a double team,
Speaker 1: the next guy slides over, the next guy slides over.
Speaker 1: As soon as Christian Brown's man would would slide over,
Speaker 1: Christian Brown would slash to the front of the rim,
Speaker 1: and then after it was usually like it was usually
Speaker 1: like Strawther, who was like cutting through. As Strather would
Speaker 1: cut through, he would replace up to the wing where
Speaker 1: Christian Brown just was. And like as Christian Brown cut,
Speaker 1: he'd either get open and finish, which he did, or
Speaker 1: he would drag multiple defenders on his cut because cutting
Speaker 1: is a form of rim pressure. If you're a good
Speaker 1: cutter who can finish and you just run hard to
Speaker 1: the front of the rim, help defenders will come with
Speaker 1: you and then they would have openings in the skip
Speaker 1: pass situations. Right But like they it was just like
Speaker 1: Christian Brown throughout this entire season has demonstrated among again,
Speaker 1: it's not been a perfect stretch for the Nuggets front office,
Speaker 1: right Like they've lost some depth on their bench, It's
Speaker 1: been a lot of trust in young players. There's been
Speaker 1: a disconnect with the coaching staff about how to use
Speaker 1: those young players. It has not been perfect. But I
Speaker 1: do think letting Kntavius Colwell Pope go and Christian Brown
Speaker 1: kind of sliding into that starting spot and being a
Speaker 1: feasible starter, that was a gamble for a front office
Speaker 1: on a financial level that I thought made some sense
Speaker 1: and it worked, and Christian Brown is playing really really
Speaker 1: good basketball right now. But again everyone hit big shots
Speaker 1: off of those jokic shubble teams. Like I talked about,
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior hit a big three one pass away,
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson hit a big three. Julian Strather has been
Speaker 1: actually hitting some big shots for this team. He had
Speaker 1: like a massive lead changing layup against the Toronto Raptors
Speaker 1: in like a tough defense situation late game that was
Speaker 1: a big shot. Hit a big three in the late
Speaker 1: third quarter of this game to cut the lead down
Speaker 1: to three, and then just he brings another wave of
Speaker 1: athleticism too. He had a tip slam in transition where
Speaker 1: he was just trailing a play. Really really impressive win
Speaker 1: for the Denver Nuggets to get one back from that
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City team that dominated them on opening night on
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma City front. I thought they settled for a
Speaker 1: lot of tough pullup jumpers in the second half. They
Speaker 1: were actually twelve for thirty three from two in the
Speaker 1: second half of this game, so a lot of like tough,
Speaker 1: difficult shots in the short to mid range, took a
Speaker 1: lot of step back jump shots with a lot of
Speaker 1: time on the shot clock. That had seven turnovers. They
Speaker 1: gave up nine offensive rebounds but it's their first lot
Speaker 1: of loss of the season, so I don't think it's
Speaker 1: worth really overreacting to. And again they you know, Shakos
Speaker 1: as Alexander has a shot to tie the game late, right,
Speaker 1: So no reason for panic in Oklahoma City town. But
Speaker 1: one of the things I wanted to talk about that
Speaker 1: I thought was interesting in this game, and this is
Speaker 1: something I've seen kind of periodically throughout the season, but
Speaker 1: the Thunder are doing something really interesting on offense that
Speaker 1: I don't that I haven't seen around the league actually yet.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of like, so we talk about like
Speaker 1: Spain or stack pick and roll. Spain or stack pick
Speaker 1: and roll is where you have you know, Shay running
Speaker 1: a ball screen. Let's call it with Chet or really
Speaker 1: let's just say any team.
Speaker 2: So let's say it's.
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray with Chet or Jamal Murray with Jokic, and
Speaker 1: there's the ball screen and as Jokic is rolling or
Speaker 1: they usually all do it with like a more athletic
Speaker 1: a type of rim runner. But as the screen the
Speaker 1: screener is rolling to the basket, you have a shooter
Speaker 1: underneath the rim who's either just replacing to the top
Speaker 1: of the key, meaning he's just running to the top
Speaker 1: of the key, or is backscreening for Jokic as he's
Speaker 1: going to the top of the key. You'll also see
Speaker 1: variations of it where the rollman actually screens for the
Speaker 1: shooter coming up. But it's basically a three man interchange, right,
Speaker 1: that's all Stack or Spain is, right, It's just ball handler,
Speaker 1: ball screen, shooter, and then the screener and the shooter
Speaker 1: replace as the ball handler is working downhill.
Speaker 2: Well, one of the.
Speaker 1: Things that The Thunder we're doing a lot last night,
Speaker 1: and something they've been doing a lot this season that
Speaker 1: I think is super fascinating is they're running Spain or
Speaker 1: Stack or like kind of that three man interchange where
Speaker 1: there's a ball screen and a shooter and they're just
Speaker 1: replacing as they're rolling. They're running that with all three
Speaker 1: guards while they're forwards are in the corners. What I
Speaker 1: think is really fascinating about this is most teams run
Speaker 1: out of guard defenders, right, So most teams don't have
Speaker 1: three really good guys to guard guards, and so what
Speaker 1: they're doing is they're putting you. They're putting you in
Speaker 1: a predicament where you have to navigate a bunch of switches,
Speaker 1: and one you might just make a mistake where somebody
Speaker 1: botches the switch and someone gets wide open.
Speaker 2: Or two, somewhere in.
Speaker 1: That scrum, that weakest defender is going to be slightly
Speaker 1: out of position. You can swing to whatever he's on
Speaker 1: and that guy can quickly look to attack. But it's
Speaker 1: kind of a really fascinating approach to modern basketball. One
Speaker 1: of the things I talk about with running action, running
Speaker 1: action is just about just is just as much about
Speaker 1: trying to get a defense to make a mistake as
Speaker 1: it is to kind of like get into the flow
Speaker 1: of your offense. Like a lot of times you just
Speaker 1: run the three man interchange just to see if they
Speaker 1: fuck up, and if they fuck up, then you get
Speaker 1: that really big initial advantager, maybe a great look early
Speaker 1: in the possession. But like I thought, it was kind
Speaker 1: of an interesting offensive approach from Oklahoma City and something
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be keeping an eye on, not just for them,
Speaker 1: but around the rest of the league. Here in the
Speaker 1: early part of the season, Miami Phoenix Kevin Durantz playing
Speaker 1: like an MVP. He's averaging twenty eight point seven rebounds
Speaker 1: and three assists on sixty six percent true shooting. He's
Speaker 1: hit ten clutch shots. That's when the game is within
Speaker 1: five with less than five minutes left. That is the
Speaker 1: most in the entire NBA on only fifteen attempts. So
Speaker 1: he's ten for fifteen from the field in the clutch,
Speaker 1: he's got three clutch blocks. He's straight up stolen games.
Speaker 1: Dominated another game down the stretch last night, the Suns
Speaker 1: were spamming ball screens with Tyas Jones Kevin Durant to
Speaker 1: try to get Tyler Harrow switched on to KD and
Speaker 1: he was just hitting shots over the top. And then
Speaker 1: one of the things too, is like Miami's a really
Speaker 1: well coached team and they had two possessions late in
Speaker 1: this game where they perfectly executed their defensive strategy and
Speaker 1: KD still burned them. There was one where Kade got
Speaker 1: hair on the switch and right as they were dumping
Speaker 1: it to KD, Harrow runs out and high.
Speaker 2: Smith sprints in.
Speaker 1: So they call that a scram switch, meaning like you
Speaker 1: get a post mismatch, you're going to throw the post entry,
Speaker 1: and basically while the balls in the air while they're
Speaker 1: trying to get the post entry, you just quick execute
Speaker 1: a switch back and basically capitalize while the ball's in
Speaker 1: the air as an opportunity to get your defenders reconfigured, and.
Speaker 2: Hei Smith sprints there.
Speaker 1: He's right there on the catch when KDE catches, but
Speaker 1: he just turns over his right shoulder and he's seven
Speaker 1: feet tall and he knocks the jump shot him. And
Speaker 1: then the next time both of these possessions, by the way,
Speaker 1: we're in a two point game. Late next time down
Speaker 1: the floor they run it again the ghosts or the
Speaker 1: ball screen with Tys Jones and Kevin Durant and they
Speaker 1: just defend it really well. Tyler Harrow gets through the screen,
Speaker 1: Hayward high Smith kind of stays attached to KD, forces
Speaker 1: KD to catch a triple threat twenty two feet away
Speaker 1: from the rim above the top of the key, Like
Speaker 1: that's as good as you can do in that action.
Speaker 1: Not give up the switch and force KD to catch
Speaker 1: in long two territory and KD just turns faces, rises
Speaker 1: up and knocks down the twenty two foot or off
Speaker 1: the jab step like like what do you do?
Speaker 2: What do you do?
Speaker 1: There's nothing you can do. And that's really been the
Speaker 1: story of the Suns this season is they get into
Speaker 1: these close games, they're in close games almost every time
Speaker 1: down the floor. They've been in six of them already.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say every time down the floor, every time
Speaker 1: on their schedule, they've been in six of them already.
Speaker 1: In those six games, they have a one thirty two
Speaker 1: offensive rating an eighty one defensive rating, which means they're
Speaker 1: plus fifty one per one hundred possessions. They're grabbing fifty
Speaker 1: nine percent of available rebounds, and they're six to zero.
Speaker 1: So it's the same thing, damn thing every time they
Speaker 1: end up in a close game late, usually trailing, but
Speaker 1: like once they get into these fourth quarters, which is
Speaker 1: like shockingly different than what it was like last year
Speaker 1: under Frank Vogel, they just really lock in on defense
Speaker 1: and start getting stops. And then on the other end
Speaker 1: of the floor, Kevin Durant has been the most comfortable
Speaker 1: superstar in the league in the half court, executing late,
Speaker 1: and he's just picking these teams apart. And again, I'm
Speaker 1: not even doing justice because Kevin Durant is being just
Speaker 1: as impactful on the defensive end to this point in
Speaker 1: the season as he's been on the offensive end. You know,
Speaker 1: he's kind of like, you know how like in baseball,
Speaker 1: they talk about like a five tool player, which I
Speaker 1: think is like the ability to it's the ability to
Speaker 1: hit for contact, hit for power, to like speed on
Speaker 1: the base paths, and then it's like the ability to
Speaker 1: field well and the ability to throw from the field well. Right,
Speaker 1: Like that's what makes a five tool player, right, if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, I've been kind of disconnected from the
Speaker 1: baseball world. They played a lot when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: but it's been a while. In my Arizona Diamondbacks are
Speaker 1: not as consistently good as they used to be. But
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant to me, is like the five tool player
Speaker 1: on the defensive end in the basketball world. Like he
Speaker 1: can real realistically guard the ball well. He can play
Speaker 1: off ball defense well, he can protect the rim, he
Speaker 1: can defensive rebound, and he can't what was the fifth
Speaker 1: one that I put down. He can guard the ball,
Speaker 1: he can guard and help. He can cover ground in rotation,
Speaker 1: so like when they're in driving kick situations, he can
Speaker 1: cover ground. Like there's a play where he straight up
Speaker 1: chased Duncan Robinson off the three point line then recovered
Speaker 1: back on the drive to block Duncan Robinson at the rim.
Speaker 1: He was helping on a different player in the lane
Speaker 1: when the kickout passed that Duncan Robinson happened Like that
Speaker 1: is unbelievable to be able to like, Oh, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: put you on Tyler Harrow, and Tyler Harrow wants nothing
Speaker 1: to do with you. He's going to get rid of
Speaker 1: the basketball to be able to in help contain guys
Speaker 1: that are driving into him, but also be able to
Speaker 1: cover ground in rotation back to the perimeter while also
Speaker 1: being able to protect the rim with real vertical length,
Speaker 1: while also being a dominant defensive freebounder. He's the base.
Speaker 1: He's the basketball version of a five too player on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. I'm gonna show you
Speaker 1: guys some clips when we get in there. But he
Speaker 1: just he's just dominating these games in crunch time. He's
Speaker 1: anchoring it all on both ends of the floor. I
Speaker 1: can't say enough about how good Kevin Duran has been
Speaker 1: to start this year. Usuf Nurkic, here's the thing. Usuf
Speaker 1: Durkich is a lower tier starting center in this league. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: he's definitely one of the lesser guys that's in that
Speaker 1: specific type of role, but he's not as bad as
Speaker 1: he showed in the early part of the season, and
Speaker 1: he finally had his breakout game last night. Twenty points,
Speaker 1: eighteen rebounds, hit a huge bomb three in the second
Speaker 1: half from like thirty feet away. He was diving on
Speaker 1: loose balls. He had two blocks in his steel. Remember,
Speaker 1: like Nurkich when he's at his best, is actually a
Speaker 1: pretty decent active hands kind of like drop coverage big.
Speaker 1: He just hasn't been so to start this season. But
Speaker 1: he's got good instincts, he's got long arms, he's got
Speaker 1: good size, he can do some damage down there, and
Speaker 1: he's one of the best rebounders in the league when
Speaker 1: he's really engaged. He was due for a breakout game.
Speaker 1: He finally had one. Phoenix Sun's playing some really damn
Speaker 1: good basketball on the Miami Front, just not enough offensive
Speaker 1: firepower coming from bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler. They had
Speaker 1: twenty seven points on thirty four shots last night. For
Speaker 1: the season, Jimmy Butler is at his lowest points per
Speaker 1: game total since twenty fourteen, over ten years ago, and
Speaker 1: bam Adebayo is on his lowest points per game total.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, j Bride the struggle bus today It's been
Speaker 1: a long week. It's the sixth show of the week.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler is at his lowest points per game total
Speaker 1: since twenty fourteen and his lowest efficiency and true shooting
Speaker 1: percentage since twenty sixteen. Bamitebayo is averaging his lowest points
Speaker 1: per game total since twenty nineteen and on the lowest
Speaker 1: efficiency of his career. And again, Tyler Harrow was great
Speaker 1: last night, but both him and Terry Rogier are really
Speaker 1: inconsistent offensive players. It's just going to be really hard
Speaker 1: for Miami to contend in this league with the lack
Speaker 1: of offensive firepower that they've had to start this year.
Speaker 1: Not sure what to make of this Heat team through
Speaker 1: the early stretch of the season. Really quickly on Golden
Speaker 1: State in Boston. Again, we did a breakdown on it
Speaker 1: last night, just kind of like an instant reaction. But
Speaker 1: we're going to talk some more in film. But there
Speaker 1: were two main concepts that I wanted to kind of
Speaker 1: dive a little bit firm they're into now that I've
Speaker 1: had a chance to rewatch the game. So first of all,
Speaker 1: the concept in Golden State's traps. So one of the
Speaker 1: things that I talk about a lot on this show,
Speaker 1: is like, in order for a trap to be functional,
Speaker 1: you have to have active hands on the ball, right,
Speaker 1: because as soon as you put two on the ball,
Speaker 1: you're compromised. Behind that there's a full on three guys
Speaker 1: are open, right, That's part of the price you pay
Speaker 1: when you put two on the ball. But if you
Speaker 1: pressure the ball with long arms and active hands, you
Speaker 1: can force either one like if my arm is like
Speaker 1: this and you have to throw over it, you're either
Speaker 1: going to get a deflection or you're going to force
Speaker 1: a looping kind of like lobbing pass.
Speaker 2: Over the top.
Speaker 1: Either way, it's not getting there on a line, which
Speaker 1: is allowing you the time to rotate. If you don't
Speaker 1: have active hands and you put two on the ball
Speaker 1: and you give up an easy pocket pass or an
Speaker 1: easy swing pass, you're screwed because now it's the four
Speaker 1: on three. You have two on the ball, and you
Speaker 1: still have two on the ball while the next player
Speaker 1: already has the basketball ready to attack it. Whereas if
Speaker 1: you get that deflection, if you force that being passed,
Speaker 1: you can rotate out of it with your speed and
Speaker 1: you can shut down the advantage. On the back side
Speaker 1: of that. You'll see some examples, but they were getting
Speaker 1: lots of deflections enforcing lots of off target, off time
Speaker 1: passes from Boston, which was allowing them to get away
Speaker 1: with their traps without having to worry about giving up
Speaker 1: easy opportunities on the backside. The second part of it
Speaker 1: was breeding in decisiveness with off ball positioning. There was
Speaker 1: a steal that they had in the first half where
Speaker 1: like they trapped the ball. Draymond is active hands, Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins is active hands, and Buddy Healed. He gets inside
Speaker 1: position on Cornett. Luke Cornett's at the top of the key,
Speaker 1: and then there's another Celtic that's across the wing right.
Speaker 1: So the read there for Tatum out of the trap
Speaker 1: is to make the swing pass not to Cornette but
Speaker 1: to the next guy. But Buddy Heal takes inside position
Speaker 1: on Cornette and just sits there waiting for the swing
Speaker 1: pass so he can jump in. So then when the
Speaker 1: pass gets made, there's a little bit of a deflection,
Speaker 1: and so now it turns into a foot between Buddy
Speaker 1: Held and Luke Cornett to get to this loose ball
Speaker 1: that was intended on the swing pass for the next
Speaker 1: guy down the line. But Buddy Heild's faster and he
Speaker 1: had inside position, so he's able to leverage that, get
Speaker 1: out to it and tap out. The basketball forces a turnover.
Speaker 1: They go out the other way. Right, there was another
Speaker 1: one on the weak side. There was a two on one.
Speaker 1: There's I want to say it was Pritchard in the
Speaker 1: right corner and it was Horford on the right wing. Right,
Speaker 1: there's your two on one. Buddy Heeld is there on
Speaker 1: the swing. Pass out of the trap. Buddy Heald does
Speaker 1: a textbook passing lane close out, really smart. The pass
Speaker 1: is on target to Al Horford, but Buddy Heeld closes out,
Speaker 1: not to Al Horford, but in between the two of them.
Speaker 1: So Horford catches thinking Buddy Held is closing out at him.
Speaker 1: So his first read is to turn and look to
Speaker 1: the corner. But when he turns and looks to the corner,
Speaker 1: he sees Buddy Held just standing in the passing lane,
Speaker 1: so he can't actually make that pass. Then he turns
Speaker 1: and he looks at the basket again and Buddy kind
Speaker 1: of stunts at him. So then Horford looks again to
Speaker 1: the corner. It's not open again, and then he has
Speaker 1: no choice but to throw it up. And now it's
Speaker 1: a break rhythm situation. Even though it's a good look,
Speaker 1: he's been second guessing himself for a few seconds before
Speaker 1: that shot. That is the type of defensive positioning that
Speaker 1: forces indecisiveness. Everything about what made that defense work for
Speaker 1: Golden State last night was about pressuring the ball with
Speaker 1: active hands, forcing rushed decisions. And then when there were openings,
Speaker 1: they were splitting the difference with their athleticism and forcing
Speaker 1: indecisiveness from Boston, which allowed them to shrink those openings quickly.
Speaker 1: And then the third part of it is just ridiculously
Speaker 1: ridiculous athleticism. Gary Payton, the second is the guy that
Speaker 1: really stood out to me on film last night, where
Speaker 1: it's like there's a loose ball, he's diving on the
Speaker 1: ground and getting it.
Speaker 2: Had a huge loose ball that he dove on in
Speaker 2: the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: Then the unique ability he has and we've been talking
Speaker 1: about this all season, but to dig down into the
Speaker 1: lane but also recover out to a three point shooter.
Speaker 1: There was a play where he hard helped in the lane,
Speaker 1: left Peyton Pritchard wide open on the wing. The swing
Speaker 1: pass was made right to Peyton Pritchard and Gary Payton
Speaker 1: closed out and blocked the damn shot. That goes back
Speaker 1: to what we were talking about with Peyton Watson, where
Speaker 1: it's like when you have defensive players in help that
Speaker 1: can legitimately be in two places at once and cover
Speaker 1: all of that ground, that is what unlocks a level
Speaker 1: of defense that becomes really difficult to overcome, even for
Speaker 1: the best offenses in the league. It was a really,
Speaker 1: really impressive job defensively from Golden State. You're gonna see
Speaker 1: a bunch of examples of that in film. And then Boston.
Speaker 1: The last thing I wanted to talk about before we
Speaker 1: get to the film, Boston's late game execution on defense.
Speaker 1: A lot of mistakes down the stretch. Drew Holliday in particular,
Speaker 1: batched two switches. There was one between him and Tatum
Speaker 1: where there was a miscommunication and Steph got wide open
Speaker 1: for three. That was the one that cut the lead
Speaker 1: down to I think he had the three free throws
Speaker 1: first and then that to cut it to one. So
Speaker 1: like that was the shot that cut it to one,
Speaker 1: and then there was another one. Do you guys remember
Speaker 1: when Steph had that wide open back cut for the layup.
Speaker 1: All Steph did was run up like he was going
Speaker 1: to come off the wing and then backcut, and Drew
Speaker 1: Holliday just assumed there was going to be a switch
Speaker 1: and so he got backcut, easy layup for Steph And
Speaker 1: then the first offensive rebound that Al Horford had, Drew
Speaker 1: Holliday had inside position to box him out or not
Speaker 1: al Horford, excuse me. The first offensive rebound that Kevon
Speaker 1: Looney got, Drew Holliday had inside position on Cavan and
Speaker 1: just gave up on the play and Looney went right
Speaker 1: around him. He got an offensive rebound. So like three
Speaker 1: pretty significant execution mistakes from Drew Holliday. Late Derek White
Speaker 1: lost Buddy Healed on a corner crash where he just
Speaker 1: kind of drifted into the lane looking for the ball
Speaker 1: while Buddy was sprinting for it, beat him to the ball,
Speaker 1: got an offensive rebound. And then Tatum in addition to
Speaker 1: that kind of like grifty, he'd like tried to take
Speaker 1: a met range jump shot against Looney or Looney did
Speaker 1: not foul him, and he just missed the shot, and
Speaker 1: he like turned and bitched at the refs, jogged back
Speaker 1: on defense and then lost Buddy Healed off the ball
Speaker 1: in a relocation and gave up a three, So like
Speaker 1: a lot of just like sloppy execution mistakes from Boston. Now,
Speaker 1: to be clear, I'm not worried about Boston at all
Speaker 1: in the big picture. I'm just saying last night will
Speaker 1: be a good game for Joe Mizzoula to kind of
Speaker 1: kick them in the ass a little bit and try
Speaker 1: to kind of help use that as an opportunity to
Speaker 1: drive home some of the attention to detail that has
Speaker 1: made this team so good over the course of the
Speaker 1: last year. All right, let's get into some film. First clip.
Speaker 1: This is a really nice defensive possession from Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: So's on. Jimmy Butler gets kind of beat towards the baseline,
Speaker 1: but recovers there's your help side right again. It's okay
Speaker 1: to get beat if you get beat within the scheme.
Speaker 1: In this case, you don't want to give up middle penetration.
Speaker 1: You want to get beat towards the baseline because Plumbley's
Speaker 1: in position to help. Jimmy Butler gets a little drill penetration.
Speaker 1: Watch Kevin Durant's recovery here on the kickout he switches
Speaker 1: down to kill o where underneath the basket we have
Speaker 1: another drive helps shuts it off, forces the skip pass,
Speaker 1: closes out on Duncan, Robinson chases him off the line
Speaker 1: again looks as he shuts down that help shuts down
Speaker 1: the Duncan Robinson play. There's the kickout Duncan Robinson quickly relocates.
Speaker 1: KD gets a little bit lost, but look at his
Speaker 1: ability to cover ground. He gets out to one of
Speaker 1: the best shooters in the league on a close out,
Speaker 1: chases him off the line, then recovers and blocks him
Speaker 1: at the basket. That's just an unbelievable defensive play from
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant. Another really good one here on Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 1: just using his length to disrupt the pull up a
Speaker 1: pull up three gets a great contest offensive rebound gets
Speaker 1: picked kicked back out to Jimmy. Watch the individual defense
Speaker 1: from KD on Jimmy Butler. So again, already in this sequence,
Speaker 1: you've seen in the last two clips, you've seen him
Speaker 1: guard on the ball. You've seen him guard in help,
Speaker 1: and you've seen him guard in rotation like that. That's
Speaker 1: and you've also seen him protect the rim and like
Speaker 1: the I don't think I have a clip of him
Speaker 1: getting any specific defensive rebounds, but he was really good
Speaker 1: defensive rebound. He's just getting to fifty fifty balls late
Speaker 1: in this game. So this has been Phoenix's go to
Speaker 1: late game action, right. So you're they're trying to get
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow on to Ties Jones. So you set this
Speaker 1: screen with Beale to get the switch with Harrow, and
Speaker 1: then they would bring Kevin duran up to set the
Speaker 1: screen to try to get Harro on the switch. Then
Speaker 1: he gets his matchup that he likes. He's got Harrow,
Speaker 1: he's gonna turn over that right shoulder, and Katie's been
Speaker 1: getting doubled on his backside this whole season and it
Speaker 1: just hasn't mattered because he's just shooting right over the top.
Speaker 1: So here's Miami again doing a really nice job do
Speaker 1: scram switching out of it, right, So we get the
Speaker 1: first switch with Harrow onto Ties Jones, come to set
Speaker 1: the second ball screen forces the switch. But so here
Speaker 1: comes the scram right, So high Smith is getting ready,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant's getting to his spot where he wants it.
Speaker 1: Watch right as the pass goes up, there's the pass.
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow is now sprinting out of it. Heywood, high
Speaker 1: Smith is switching back, So see how they like basically
Speaker 1: scram Tyler Harrow out of that mismatch. Hey, high Smith
Speaker 1: is there, he gets a contest, but it's Kevin freakin
Speaker 1: Durant and he just turns right over his right shoulder
Speaker 1: and knocks it down. And then this one, this one
Speaker 1: is literally perfect defense. Two point game, thirty three seconds left.
Speaker 1: You get a stop, you get a chance to win
Speaker 1: this game. Bill comes sets the first screen, gets Harrow
Speaker 1: in the switch. Here comes KD. This is really well defended.
Speaker 1: Look so Hi Smith shoves shoves KD a little bit
Speaker 1: to create a gap. That creates a gap. Harro is
Speaker 1: able to recover. He lingers just for a second. Harrow
Speaker 1: gets there, kick back to KD. Thinking there's an opportunity
Speaker 1: for an advantage. High Smith is boom there, that is
Speaker 1: as good as you can defend that action. And now
Speaker 1: KD is in an iso twenty two feet from the
Speaker 1: basket and he just turns faces and knocks the shot down.
Speaker 1: Like what the hell do you do with that? There's
Speaker 1: just nothing you can do, like you're just sometimes you
Speaker 1: just get to lose to Kevin Durant. And that's what
Speaker 1: happened to the miam Me heat last night. This is
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook at his best from the thunder Oklahoma City.
Speaker 1: The Thunder Nuggets game gets Downhill drives all the help
Speaker 1: in the paint, makes a nice little corner kicked. Christian
Speaker 1: Brown has all day to knock down the three. This
Speaker 1: is a really nice slot cut from Russ. Again, a
Speaker 1: lot of uh spamming the Yokic post up stuff late
Speaker 1: in this game. Watch as the double team goes. This
Speaker 1: is a I was talking about this earlier with Christian Brown,
Speaker 1: but watch as the double team goes. You're gonna see
Speaker 1: Shay go Jalen slide over. As soon as Jalen slides over.
Speaker 1: Instead of just standing here and making this in above
Speaker 1: the break three, Russ just cuts to the rim. Watch
Speaker 1: cut catch. Now he's got a head of steam. He
Speaker 1: draws Chet in help so he can drop it off
Speaker 1: to Yokic, who then just gets like a little easy
Speaker 1: bank shot. See that's how you can create spacing without
Speaker 1: knocking down threes. This is what everyone's been begging Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook to do since the beginning of time. Another big
Speaker 1: time play from Russ. Chet spins on Peyton Watson. Russ
Speaker 1: comes digging in, swipes the ball away from Chet and
Speaker 1: then look at him on the runout trailing. The play
Speaker 1: had a steam nice little scoop shot. This is talk
Speaker 1: a lot about how the Yokic hitting threes is less
Speaker 1: about him like actually like getting a bunch of points
Speaker 1: every game from threes, but more adding the close out
Speaker 1: attacking part of his game, which is where he's so deadly.
Speaker 1: The reason why he's so deadly in these situations is
Speaker 1: because he's so damn strong that as soon as he
Speaker 1: gets a slight angle on you, he can use his
Speaker 1: elbows and shoulders to kind of maintain that angle as
Speaker 1: he lumbers down the lane. Right, But all that stems
Speaker 1: off of he's got to be able to knock this
Speaker 1: shot down because Chet's not lunging out like this unless
Speaker 1: he can knock the shot down. Chet lunges out, Jokic
Speaker 1: gets an angle, then he can rumble down the lane
Speaker 1: and once again, look, once he has that angle, watch
Speaker 1: how he uses that right elbow right here on the gather.
Speaker 1: Watch how he uses his elbow clears that space, slows
Speaker 1: himself down for Chet to run by, and the knock
Speaker 1: knocks down the layup. That's such a huge part of
Speaker 1: Yokic's game when he's at his best, and it is
Speaker 1: entirely predicated on his ability to knock down those three
Speaker 1: point shots when they're available. Here's one of those two
Speaker 1: places that once plays from Peyton Watson, right. So I'm
Speaker 1: Jaylen Williams. I'm looking sorry, guys, I'm Jayalen Williams. I'm
Speaker 1: looking for an opening here on the roll right once
Speaker 1: again noticing uh, they're running the action with all their guards,
Speaker 1: which I think is fascinating. Crusoe rolls. Here's our opening.
Speaker 1: So if you're Jalen Williams, this is the right read, right,
Speaker 1: like Peyton Watson is. If you can't throw this skip pass,
Speaker 1: if you throw that skip pass, Peyton's getting that right.
Speaker 1: So like, this is the right read. There's a two
Speaker 1: on one here and Peyton is kind of sort of
Speaker 1: overplaying the corner, but like, look at how quickly he
Speaker 1: just teleports over there and swipes this shot away. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna put it in full speed because this
Speaker 1: really is a crazy play. Watch how quickly Peyton Watson recovers. Like,
Speaker 1: what do you do about that?
Speaker 2: That?
Speaker 1: That is that is the layering of an elite defense.
Speaker 1: When you have a guy on the backside that can
Speaker 1: be two places at once. Here's some really nice week
Speaker 1: side rotations from Denver. After the Yoks miss three, watch
Speaker 1: these rotations. Ball screen switch, swing.
Speaker 2: Two on the ball. Right.
Speaker 1: So now we have all of this action over here Peyton,
Speaker 1: Watson and Yokic have to deal with.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So the way that Olkaoma City looks to attack it,
Speaker 1: lou Dort sets what's called a pin in flair. He
Speaker 1: screens the backside of Watson so that Chet can close
Speaker 1: out to the check can go out to the corner
Speaker 1: here right. So that makes it so that in this case,
Speaker 1: Peyton's being kind of occupied by this, which is leaving
Speaker 1: Jalen Williams wide open.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Once again, just like we talked about on that last
Speaker 1: lowman possession, there is a clear and obvious read here
Speaker 1: that looks open. I'm gonna move this to full speed.
Speaker 1: Watch how fast Peyton Watson closes out. Boom gone Right,
Speaker 1: there's your extra pass to Chat in the corner. But
Speaker 1: look at the rotation from Yokic. Is him off the line.
Speaker 1: That is excellent basketball. That is when you can put
Speaker 1: two onto Shay but still recover on the backside without
Speaker 1: leaving anybody open, and especially with the guy like Jokic
Speaker 1: moving his feet like that, that is once again the
Speaker 1: level of detail you need on defense to be able
Speaker 1: to guard the best players in the league. Force his
Speaker 1: chat to step out of bounds on the baseline. Really
Speaker 1: nice cut here from Christian Brown off of another Yokic
Speaker 1: post up double. Same sort of concept we were talking
Speaker 1: about earlier with Rus right. So we're gonna throw it in, okay, Now,
Speaker 1: straw The is kind of cutting through right. The double
Speaker 1: team comes from Dort. As Dort goes, Strawther relocates, Caruso
Speaker 1: takes mpj in Brown. Look at Brown, Brown hard slot
Speaker 1: cut because he cuts. That brings everybody in here and
Speaker 1: leave Strawther wide open. Strawther's wide open. That forces the
Speaker 1: close out from Shae. In that process, Christian Brown finds
Speaker 1: himself wide open under the basket. So watch it one
Speaker 1: more time. Brown cuts, brings Isaiah Joe with him, kick
Speaker 1: out to Strawther. Both Joe and Shay show out on Strawther.
Speaker 1: That leaves Christian Brown wide open. Pass fake to Peyton,
Speaker 1: Watson occupies Joe for a second, and Christian Brown gets
Speaker 1: a lay up once again, like you can create spacing
Speaker 1: without shooting threes. You just have to be a smart
Speaker 1: cutter and you have to bring that real rim pressure
Speaker 1: with the athleticism of your cuts. Another one here, same
Speaker 1: sort of deal, crosscreen, post entry, Strather cuts through again.
Speaker 1: This is the same kind of sequence that you keep seeing. Right,
Speaker 1: Strather cuts through. Here comes the double team winshield wipeer rotation.
Speaker 1: As soon as Shay goes, watch Christian Brown down cut
Speaker 1: Shay go's Christian Brown cuts. Jalen Williams tries to meet
Speaker 1: him there, but Brown beats him. Now he's got a
Speaker 1: head of steam against a smaller, less athletic player at
Speaker 1: the rim. Christian Brown's able to get a bucket doing
Speaker 1: a really nice job of manufacturing spacing without having to
Speaker 1: shoot the basketball. Here's another great health defense possession from
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson. Well you don't see that shot miss from
Speaker 1: Yokaus very often, do you. Really nice athletic play from
Speaker 1: Shay to beat Christian Brown off the dribble. Peyton's kind
Speaker 1: of at a position. Watch him wall him up, walls
Speaker 1: him up and forces the miss. Really good health defense
Speaker 1: from Peyton Watson. Transition defense here from Julian Straw There
Speaker 1: It'd be really easy to let Lou Dort go here,
Speaker 1: but instead he just sprints back and jumps up vertically
Speaker 1: and Lou blows a lay up. Lou is foolishly going
Speaker 1: for a foul. He should have just stayed on that
Speaker 1: left side of the basket laid it up. Instead, he
Speaker 1: tries to go for the foul and doesn't get it.
Speaker 1: But that's the thing did his job. Sprinted back straight verticality,
Speaker 1: forced a miss, got a huge stop late in this game.
Speaker 1: And then here's the biggest play of the game. Peyton
Speaker 1: Watson in help once again. So watch Russ. Russ picks
Speaker 1: up Shae like twenty five feet out. This removes the
Speaker 1: pull up jumper from the equation, enforces Shay to drive.
Speaker 1: He's not going to methodically work into a pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot from this faraway from the basket. Now you
Speaker 1: can plan. You can plan for the drive by helping.
Speaker 1: And in this case, yokicch and Peyton Watson are going
Speaker 1: to say, the only thing you're taking here is an
Speaker 1: Alex Cruso three, and he had just bricked long an
Speaker 1: open three from the right wing earlier in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: He's the one you want shooting it. Right, So again,
Speaker 1: watch what happens here. Russ gives up the drive, but
Speaker 1: it's a drive they can plan for lefty drive. Peyton
Speaker 1: Watson leaves Chet to step up, and you're gonna see
Speaker 1: Yokic drop to box out Chet, so that the only
Speaker 1: opening is this corner kicked Ruso. Peyton Watson gets there.
Speaker 1: Look at the verticality blocks the shot game over all. Right,
Speaker 1: let's move over to that Warrior Celtics game. So again,
Speaker 1: look at the indecisiveness here. So I, uh, this play
Speaker 1: had a transition element, so that's why I clipped it
Speaker 1: at this point, but I think there might have been
Speaker 1: an offensive rebound.
Speaker 2: Actually, but here's your blitz of Tatum. Right.
Speaker 1: So now we're trying to breed indecisiveness. So we have
Speaker 1: our week side two on one, which is Horford and Prichard.
Speaker 1: Watch where Buddy Heel closes out. Yeah here it is okay,
Speaker 1: so he actually makes the pass to nimus Quita. But
Speaker 1: watch how quickly, Watch how quickly Gary Payton gets in
Speaker 1: there and strips the ball, but the ball get stays
Speaker 1: live and here's your corner kick. Okay, So here's our
Speaker 1: two on one. This is what I was actually trying
Speaker 1: to get to So here's our two on one on
Speaker 1: the weekside. Right, Pritchard and Horford watch where Buddy Heel
Speaker 1: closes out to the passing lane. He's in the passing lane,
Speaker 1: so watch Horrerford on the catch look to make the
Speaker 1: extra pass, but it's not there because Buddy Heel's playing
Speaker 1: the passing lane. Then he looks, hesitates, hesitates, and basically
Speaker 1: has to jack up a break rhythm three, which forces
Speaker 1: a bad miss. Here's a classic Steph gravity play. Just
Speaker 1: the textbook forced the big to show and then slip
Speaker 1: out of the screening action.
Speaker 2: This time Gary Payton.
Speaker 1: Just pitt down two on the ball, easy pass over
Speaker 1: the top dunk. I don't know what Jason Tatum was
Speaker 1: doing here either. There's glued up to Andrew Wiggins.
Speaker 2: On the weak side.
Speaker 1: Not really important in that situation. So here's the importance
Speaker 1: of active hands on the blitz. And this is that
Speaker 1: play that I was talking about with Buddy Heeld, kind
Speaker 1: of getting the inside seal on Cornett. So Tatum on Wiggins,
Speaker 1: here comes the blitz. Okay, so we have active hands
Speaker 1: right on the blitz. Look at how active they are
Speaker 1: with their hands to try to get a deflection. Watch
Speaker 1: Buddy healed. Buddy Heel gets inside position on Luke Cornette
Speaker 1: so that even though this swing passes open, he wants
Speaker 1: to try to play that passing lane. Pritchard makes the pass,
Speaker 1: Wiggins gets a hand on it. That's everything. If he
Speaker 1: doesn't get a hand on it, it's on a rope
Speaker 1: to Horford. Now it's gonna be a rotation from Gary
Speaker 1: Payton in a wide open three for Tatum in the corner.
Speaker 1: But instead he gets a hand on it. Now it's
Speaker 1: a loose ball and Buddy held as inside position and
Speaker 1: he's able to beat Cornette to it with a deflection.
Speaker 1: And then once again, look at the closing speed from
Speaker 1: Gary Payton on this deflection. Right here, Horford's closer to
Speaker 1: the ball than Gary Payton, but Gary Payton's faster. Gary
Speaker 1: Payton gets on it quicker, forces the deflection. Now we're
Speaker 1: running out the other way for the Andrew Wiggins dunk. Actually,
Speaker 1: I think I think I think that might have been
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins missing the layup, which was maybe the worst
Speaker 1: blown layup I've ever seen in my time watching the NBA.
Speaker 1: Look at the Look at how fast Gary Payton is
Speaker 1: on this roll to the rim. He's gonna play this
Speaker 1: one at full speed. Watch how fast he gets past
Speaker 1: Cornett speed speed everywhere on the floor for the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors. Here's Gary Payton being two places at once.
Speaker 1: It's guarding Pritchard digs down right here, watch.
Speaker 2: Dig down.
Speaker 1: He's out of position. He's dead to rights right, knockdown
Speaker 1: shooter pass in the shooting pocket. Look at that closing speed.
Speaker 1: That is the layering of an elite defense when you
Speaker 1: can leave an opening but it's not actually an opening.
Speaker 1: I thought this was kind of an underrated to play
Speaker 1: from this game. So that they're down seven, but watch
Speaker 1: this play from Steph Curry pokes the ball away from
Speaker 1: behind on Derek White, forces the turnover leak out Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins layout basically a P six initiated by Steph Curry
Speaker 1: that cut from seven to five like that. Here's an
Speaker 1: example of how the Warriors just constant motion causes you
Speaker 1: to make mistakes. This was one of the mistakes that
Speaker 1: I talked about Drew Holiday making.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: All he's gonna do, Steph is he's going to jog
Speaker 1: up like he's going to interchange with Wiggins and then
Speaker 1: backcut boom, backcut. Drew Holliday's probably thinking switch here because
Speaker 1: Tatum is gonna go out with Steph and he's gonna
Speaker 1: take Wiggans, So he's keening on Wiggins and Steph just
Speaker 1: back cuts him and gets an easy layup. Big time
Speaker 1: mistake from Drew Holliday in a big moment, though, this
Speaker 1: I thought was just an unbelievable athletic play from Buddy
Speaker 1: Held who just Buddy Heeld just continues to look amazing.
Speaker 1: Look at this lefty finish on the rip over the
Speaker 1: top rip move. Really nice finish from Buddy Heeld. Nice
Speaker 1: play from Steph here, Probably not this is a dynamic
Speaker 1: you're not gonna see when you play Boston for real
Speaker 1: in a real series. But gets nimus Quai on a
Speaker 1: switch and just goes right around him, and Boston planned
Speaker 1: for it. I mean you can literally see Horford and
Speaker 1: Derek White, Derek White zoning up on the strong side
Speaker 1: de Horford's basically telling meet him at the rim, and
Speaker 1: he does a great job jumps up with verticality, but
Speaker 1: Steph just scoops it in over the top and then
Speaker 1: this These are the two big mistakes from Tatum. Late
Speaker 1: didn't like this shot against loony, just worried about the refs.
Speaker 1: Didn't even get fouled, turning complaining to the refs. Kind
Speaker 1: of a little bit unfocused. Watch this next possession, but
Speaker 1: I miss it. I thought I added that clip that
Speaker 1: I didn't. But on the very next possession, basically Buddy
Speaker 1: Healed just relocates on Jason Tatum off of the right
Speaker 1: wing and Jason Tatum is not paying attention and gives
Speaker 1: up the wide open three in the right corner. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is always always all I have for today. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm having the hardest time talking today. It's all I
Speaker 1: have for today is always that. Sincerely appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: I've got a mail back coming up tomorrow that I
Speaker 1: already recorded. On Wednesday, we will be back with our
Speaker 1: usual Monday routine, so maybe a game reaction or two
Speaker 1: and then power rankings.
Speaker 2: I will see you guys then the volume. What's up guys.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 1: Hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 1: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 1: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 1: do that, I'd really appreciate it.