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Speaker 1: slash Basketball terms. All right, okun hoops tonight here at
Speaker 1: the volume, Happy Friday, everybody. Hope all of you guys
Speaker 1: had an incredible week. We're gonna be breaking down three
Speaker 1: games in today's show. The Golden State Warriors got back
Speaker 1: on track against the LA Clippers last night. The Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City Thunder, who have really struggled against big frontlines all year,
Speaker 1: finally got a win against one in the Los Angeles
Speaker 1: Lakers last night. And then lastly, the Miami Heat fourth
Speaker 1: quarter comeback beat the Indiana Pacers, who had controlled that
Speaker 1: entire game for the most part. We're gonna be breaking
Speaker 1: down the Heat, who are eleven and eight at this
Speaker 1: point playing some good basketball. And then the Pacers are
Speaker 1: twenty ninth in defense, and I want to dive into
Speaker 1: some of the reasons behind that as well. You guys
Speaker 1: are the job for we get started. Subscribe to our
Speaker 1: brand new YouTube channel. I mean a lot to me
Speaker 1: if you scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't
Speaker 1: forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast
Speaker 1: under Hoops Tonight. Follow me on Twitter at underscore json
Speaker 1: lt for the film threads that I do every morning,
Speaker 1: as well as show announcements, and the last but not least,
Speaker 1: keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. Not doing
Speaker 1: any mail bag today, but we're gonna be doing a
Speaker 1: few of them next week, so keep dropping them in
Speaker 1: the YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: Warriors really controlled the entire game against the Clippers. It's
Speaker 1: you know, this is kind of some of the stuff
Speaker 1: with the NBA regular season, right, Like the Kings win
Speaker 1: this crazy wild game on a game winner, on a
Speaker 1: wild comeback against the Warriors. Then they have to turn
Speaker 1: around and play the Clippers the next night. They get
Speaker 1: their butts kicked by the Clippers. You then have to
Speaker 1: turn around to play the Warriors the next night, and
Speaker 1: they obviously end up looking come out kind of flat
Speaker 1: and get controlled throughout the game. A lot of this
Speaker 1: stuff is just kind of natural stuff that you see
Speaker 1: throughout the regular season, but you're not gonna hear any
Speaker 1: complaining about that from Warriors fans, who have played the
Speaker 1: toughest schedule in the league to this point could use
Speaker 1: a couple of schedule wins in the over the course
Speaker 1: of the next couple of weeks. Right, The Clippers did
Speaker 1: briefly get it back to five with about four and
Speaker 1: a half minutes left, but then the Warriors immediately executed
Speaker 1: to perfection to put it away. It was one hundred
Speaker 1: and one oh five with about four and a half
Speaker 1: minutes left. Steph starts picking on James Harden and on
Speaker 1: the first one the Clippers end up doubling and Moses
Speaker 1: Moody slips to the basket. Really nice feed from Steph,
Speaker 1: and then Moody through a fake lob pass to to
Speaker 1: Draymond Green that just got Zubac to hesitate, which allowed
Speaker 1: him to shoot that little floater over the top. On
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor, James Harden tries to
Speaker 1: pick on Steph, and Steph just like straight up locks
Speaker 1: him up, and Pozemski ended up coming kind of offering
Speaker 1: a token double team at the end of the possession,
Speaker 1: even though Steph didn't need it and they could get
Speaker 1: away with that because it was Russ on the floor.
Speaker 1: The ball just kind of got swung around to Russ
Speaker 1: in the corner, who missed the three. He's been missing
Speaker 1: his jump shot for a while after getting off to
Speaker 1: a hot start this season. And then the next possession,
Speaker 1: Paul George does not want to concede that situation with
Speaker 1: James Harden where there's a double team. They don't want
Speaker 1: to give away that pocket pass anymore. So Harden's going
Speaker 1: to hedge and recover, which is what most teams do
Speaker 1: and guard to guard screens when they're trying to protect
Speaker 1: a weak defender, and so right as Paul George is
Speaker 1: starting to try to get over the top of that screen,
Speaker 1: steph just whips it back between the legs to the
Speaker 1: left and goes over it, gets downhill just right down
Speaker 1: to the rim, gets into Zubox chest and takes this
Speaker 1: like crazy bump and then scoops it off the glass
Speaker 1: with his right hand. They go down to the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor and Moses Moody gets a nice
Speaker 1: defensive sequence on James Harden, and then Stephan Moody kind
Speaker 1: of double team Paul George to contain him, and again
Speaker 1: you're able to kind of offer a lot more help
Speaker 1: with Russell Westbrook on the floor, and then it ends
Speaker 1: up in James Harden's hands on the right wing, but
Speaker 1: Zam scans up almost swiping the ball away. It's kind
Speaker 1: of a break rhythm situation and James Harden this is
Speaker 1: the three. Then they go back down to the other
Speaker 1: end and Steph just dances on Paul Georgian and Iso
Speaker 1: right as he's hopping to the right, and again like
Speaker 1: that's a big no no with defense. You want to
Speaker 1: chop your feet, not hop, because if you hop, you
Speaker 1: don't have any ability to quickly plant. Steph hit him
Speaker 1: with the left or right crossover right as he hopped,
Speaker 1: and he was just downhill and then he just took
Speaker 1: a little pull up fifteen foot jump shot. PG was
Speaker 1: pursuing from the left and he ended up picking up
Speaker 1: a foul, went to the foul line. Next thing you know,
Speaker 1: the Warriors are up ten and the games over right.
Speaker 1: But again a little bit of a schedule loss there
Speaker 1: for the Clippers coming off of a back to back.
Speaker 1: This is kind of stuff that happens over the course
Speaker 1: of the regular season. That said, like people have asked
Speaker 1: me not just about the Warriors, but about the Lakers
Speaker 1: as well. Why I haven't reacted much to their regular
Speaker 1: season struggles, and to be honest, it's because both teams
Speaker 1: have dealt with unfortunate circumstances, and in spite of that,
Speaker 1: they've had key, you know, trends that I view as
Speaker 1: not just positive, but more important in the bigger picture
Speaker 1: than whatever's happening in this handful of regular season games.
Speaker 1: For instance, at the lay ones later when we talk Lakers,
Speaker 1: but for the Warriors, Draymond Green is shooting lights out.
Speaker 1: He wants to shoot first possession of the game. He's
Speaker 1: kind of hanging out around the top of the key
Speaker 1: and you could see him. He's like clapping and asking
Speaker 1: for the ball. He wants to shoot the ball right now.
Speaker 1: Knocks down his first three at the top of the key.
Speaker 1: There's another one he took in the corner against Kawhi Leonard,
Speaker 1: like two possessions later. Kawi closes out hard at him
Speaker 1: and he just rises up and knocks down the shot.
Speaker 1: He's shooting seventy percent in effective field goal percentage on
Speaker 1: catch and shoot jumpers this year, and he's the most
Speaker 1: confident I've seen him with that shot since the twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen season. I think that's a that is the type
Speaker 1: of trend that could be a real ceiling razer when
Speaker 1: they get to the later rounds of the postseason. Don't
Speaker 1: forget what the Lakers did to the Warriors last year,
Speaker 1: just ignoring Kevon Looney and Draymond Green anytime they were
Speaker 1: at the three point line, right Like we remember in
Speaker 1: the twenty sixteen season in that playoff run, how important
Speaker 1: Draymond Green's three point shooting was, right Like, It's just
Speaker 1: it's just one of those things that's an important ceiling
Speaker 1: razer for this team, and that, to me is a
Speaker 1: more encouraging trend than some of the other negative stuff
Speaker 1: that we've seen here in the early stretch of the season.
Speaker 1: And specifically taking contested shots like I talked about the
Speaker 1: one in the corner with Kwi or Kwi's closing out
Speaker 1: at him. He's seven for fourteen on contested catch and
Speaker 1: shoot jump shots this year. So really really encouraging trend
Speaker 1: from Draymond Green. Klay Thompson, after not scoring twenty points
Speaker 1: at all in the verse fourteen games of the season,
Speaker 1: he's done it four times in the last five games.
Speaker 1: That's a really encouraging trend. Brandon Paziemski like straight up
Speaker 1: looks like a bona fide rotation piece that can hold
Speaker 1: up on both ends of the floor. I thought he
Speaker 1: played a great game against the Clippers last night. He
Speaker 1: guarded Kwi a bunch and switches. Pazemski's like kind of
Speaker 1: bigger than you would think, especially for a rookie guard.
Speaker 1: He's pretty well built. He's got He's tall enough to
Speaker 1: hold his own and switches against some of the bigger,
Speaker 1: stronger perimeter players that you see in the league. He's
Speaker 1: a good rebounder. He fits perfectly in the offense. He's
Speaker 1: a smart cutter. There was a play where he was
Speaker 1: kind of running along the left wing and he identified
Speaker 1: that PG was kind of trailing him in transition, and
Speaker 1: I can't remember who it was, but another Warrior kind
Speaker 1: of cut through along the baseline, and so there was
Speaker 1: an opening there and obviously Steph had the ball. Staff's
Speaker 1: a good passer. B Pod just immediately recognized it cut
Speaker 1: to the basket along the backside there on the left.
Speaker 1: Steph hit him in stride for a bucket. He's knocking
Speaker 1: down his three point shot. He can pass the ball well,
Speaker 1: like the Pozemski thing is really exciting, not just in
Speaker 1: the short term with Gary Payton Junior being out, Gary
Speaker 1: Payton the second being out, but also just in the
Speaker 1: sense that he kind of, to me represents like a
Speaker 1: version of what of what Dante DiVincenzo was for this team,
Speaker 1: but like a little bit more stout in his ability
Speaker 1: to defend bigger wings, and I think that could be
Speaker 1: a real asset to this team. I also think he's
Speaker 1: a better passer and a little bit better fit overall
Speaker 1: offensively within the Warriors. It's been a you know, little
Speaker 1: things like that can go a long way to making
Speaker 1: up for big mistakes like the James Wiseman pick, right,
Speaker 1: And obviously it's early. Obviously you hope for more even
Speaker 1: than Podzemski from a number two overall pick. But all
Speaker 1: you can do after you make a mistake is try
Speaker 1: to make up for it with wins after the fact.
Speaker 1: And I look at the Jemsky pick and his early
Speaker 1: kind of popping with this Warriors team as a win
Speaker 1: in that regard. Moses Moody is playing well. Did you
Speaker 1: know Moses Moody is thirteen for seventeen on pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots this year, He's been a smart offensive player
Speaker 1: off the ball in the terms that he kind of
Speaker 1: just fits more in the flow of the offense than
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga does. His jump shot is what He's well
Speaker 1: over one point one points per jump shot this year.
Speaker 1: That's a really encouraging thing. Held up good on an island. Defensively,
Speaker 1: had a good defensive possession against James Harden late in
Speaker 1: the game, had a good defensive possession on Paul George
Speaker 1: late in the game. Moses Moody's playing well, and then
Speaker 1: like Steph is still out his ceiling. I had a
Speaker 1: guy in the comments two or three days ago that
Speaker 1: was like, Steph isn't as good as he was at
Speaker 1: his peak, and like, I mean, I suppose it, like
Speaker 1: you might be able to convince me that he's a
Speaker 1: tiny percentage down from where he was in the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two season, but I don't really see that. Like
Speaker 1: he's still just toasting everybody off the dribble, like Paul
Speaker 1: George could not keep him in front last night. Had
Speaker 1: he finished the game off with an eye so of
Speaker 1: James Harden after they kind of briefly got it back
Speaker 1: to seven, where he just dribbled right around him to
Speaker 1: the right to his scoop shot. I would say that,
Speaker 1: like Steph is actually better at weaponizing his handle and
Speaker 1: jump shot to beat people off the dribble now than
Speaker 1: he ever has been. And like when you factor that
Speaker 1: into like he's getting the defense and rotation in two ways,
Speaker 1: not just pulling two defenders out in terms of blitzes
Speaker 1: like that slip from Moses Moody, but also just getting
Speaker 1: downhill and drawing multiple defenders in rim pressure. Like I
Speaker 1: think Steph is every bit as good as he's ever been.
Speaker 1: And then Andrew Wiggins, like, I know he missed this
Speaker 1: game with his sore finger, and that's kind of weird.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on there, but two of
Speaker 1: his last four games were like really great games, as
Speaker 1: best games of the season, and he just I thought
Speaker 1: he played extremely well in that Kings game. And we
Speaker 1: even got good news about Gary Payton's calf muscle, Like
Speaker 1: there was that weird report that he tore it, and
Speaker 1: then we heard that it was a strain and that
Speaker 1: he's probably gonna be reevaluated in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: So that's great news as well. That kind of makes
Speaker 1: it so that you don't have to be as worried
Speaker 1: about the type of player you're attracting you're trying to
Speaker 1: go after in the draft, Like you don't necessarily have
Speaker 1: to get like this insane perimeter defender. You can look
Speaker 1: for more of a scoring forward there. That's why I
Speaker 1: still like the Lori marketing idea, the the Jeremy Grant idea.
Speaker 1: For that specific slot, you can be more patient towards
Speaker 1: the deadline. They have the sixth easiest remaining schedule in
Speaker 1: the league. Good times are ahead for the Warriors, and
Speaker 1: this is why we don't overreact to regular season trends.
Speaker 1: Like I guarantee you there's gonna be a bunch of
Speaker 1: people listening to this video expecting me to talk about
Speaker 1: how the Lakers suck. And it's like, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: talk about how the Lakers suck. When they played their
Speaker 1: fourth game on the road, the fourth game, their last
Speaker 1: game of a long road trip, tail end of a
Speaker 1: back to back, five key rotation players out, they had
Speaker 1: seven rotation players in uniform. If you want to pretend
Speaker 1: like that's some sweeping representation of what the Lakers are,
Speaker 1: go ahead, I'm not gonna stop you but like you're
Speaker 1: not gonna get me on the show, you know, acting
Speaker 1: like the sky is falling over weird stuff that happens
Speaker 1: in the regular season. The Warriors had a really unfortunate
Speaker 1: start to the year. Still really good. They're not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: Do they need to make a trade to like truly
Speaker 1: contend at the highest highest levels against people like Denver
Speaker 1: and Boston. Yeah, But I could say the same thing
Speaker 1: about the Milwaukee Bucks. I could say the same thing
Speaker 1: about the Lakers, like that. That's the pretty That's a
Speaker 1: pretty typical problem in the NBA. Only one team gets
Speaker 1: to hoist the trophy. There's usually a group of teams
Speaker 1: that are ahead of everybody else, right, And I just
Speaker 1: I just think that, I just think that the Warriors
Speaker 1: are more or less in a typical stretch of what
Speaker 1: happens during the regular season. There's just happened at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the year, and it could just be so
Speaker 1: much worse. And so I never really understood the negativity
Speaker 1: that I was seeing on the Clippers front. Still a
Speaker 1: ton of issues. They're defending pretty well since the hard
Speaker 1: and trade one twelve point four defensive rating that ranks
Speaker 1: ninth in the NBA. But it completely falls apart in
Speaker 1: crunch time and steph attacking James Harden here, This isn't
Speaker 1: the first team to do that. He's been getting attacked
Speaker 1: in crunch time consistently here as of late, their defensive
Speaker 1: rating falls to one to nineteen point one when the
Speaker 1: in clutch situa, which remembers when the game's within five
Speaker 1: with less than five minutes left. They're also not rebounding well.
Speaker 1: Since the hard And trade, which we talked about, they
Speaker 1: lost a lot of their four depth and so they
Speaker 1: suddenly have become a pretty damn small team. They are
Speaker 1: twenty first in defensive rebounding percentage since the Harden trade,
Speaker 1: and even though they've gone small a ton over the years,
Speaker 1: pre hard And trade, they were a great rebounding team.
Speaker 1: So I think that's pretty concerning. In clutch situations, in particular,
Speaker 1: they're getting murdered on the glass. This is an insane stat.
Speaker 1: Forty five point eight percent of opponents misses in crunch
Speaker 1: time against the Clippers are getting offensive rebounded. That's almost half.
Speaker 1: So they have to get like one point five stops
Speaker 1: per stop. It's completely insane, Like it's that's a huge problem.
Speaker 1: And then the weird. One of the weirder trends too,
Speaker 1: is their clutch offense has been horrific, which is like
Speaker 1: the reason why you made this trend to give you
Speaker 1: guys some perspective. Last year they were the fourth best
Speaker 1: clutch offense in the league, up over one sixteen offensive
Speaker 1: rating in two games before the hard and trade. They
Speaker 1: had a one to twenty two offensive rating in crunch
Speaker 1: time the two crunch time games that they played, and
Speaker 1: then so far through eight clutch games a ninety one
Speaker 1: offensive rating. And the main thing that's standing out to
Speaker 1: me is like it's a lot of just standing and watching,
Speaker 1: like they'll have hardened run a ball screen with you know,
Speaker 1: with anybody but Kawhi for whatever stupid reason, and then
Speaker 1: they'll like, you know, James Harden will make a kickout
Speaker 1: pass to Terrence Man or to Russell Westbrook being unguarded
Speaker 1: in the corner, and the play will die. Because that's
Speaker 1: the thing, is like Terrence Man's getting treated a lot
Speaker 1: like Russell Westbrook in these situations. And then occasionally they'll
Speaker 1: be like, okay, fine, let's throw it to Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: for a possession and he'll take some post up jump
Speaker 1: shot but like there's no flow, they can't decide who
Speaker 1: they want to go through at the end of these games.
Speaker 1: One of the things that was nice about Crunch Time
Speaker 1: pre hard in trade is is pretty simple as a
Speaker 1: classic your turn my turned basketball with Paul Georgia Kauai
Speaker 1: with a with a heavier usage for the guy that's
Speaker 1: having a better night, and it's just become a more
Speaker 1: complicated process after that. They are five and eight since
Speaker 1: the trade. I know Clipper fans are going to be saying, hey,
Speaker 1: they just beat up the Kings last night or two
Speaker 1: nights ago. I'm not trying to undercut that by any
Speaker 1: stretch of the imagination, but the Kings were just coming
Speaker 1: off of this crazy emotional comeback win with a game
Speaker 1: winner from leak month to night before against the Warriors
Speaker 1: in an n season tournament game. Now, that doesn't delegitimize
Speaker 1: the win. My point is is like you're five and
Speaker 1: eight and that one win against the Kings was followed
Speaker 1: up by you guys losing on your version of a
Speaker 1: back to back to the Warriors. So if you want
Speaker 1: that same leniency that you gotta give it to the
Speaker 1: same thing to the Kings, which is why we don't
Speaker 1: look at any one game, single sample sized result, as
Speaker 1: any sort of sweeping declaration of any sort of team.
Speaker 1: We're looking at trends, and the trends are you're five
Speaker 1: and eight since the hard and trade. You can't rebound,
Speaker 1: You really can't rebound in the clunch, in the clutch,
Speaker 1: your defense has taken a step back, and it's really
Speaker 1: really bad in the clutch. And it's just a bootload
Speaker 1: of issues. And I don't really necessarily see I think
Speaker 1: that the offense has to come around. It's just a
Speaker 1: simple I just refuse to believe that Harden, PG and
Speaker 1: Kwi and Norman Powell can struggle to score like this.
Speaker 1: I just refuse to believe it like that. They're gonna
Speaker 1: find ways to score. But the rebounding and defense stuff
Speaker 1: that you're seeing with those particular lineups, I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: see the personnel to turn that around. They're gonna keep
Speaker 1: attacking Harden at the end of games, you're gonna continue
Speaker 1: to struggle because you don't have the size to rebound.
Speaker 1: So those are things that I find legitimately concerning. All right,
Speaker 1: moving on a Lakers thunder. So Lakers jumped the thunder
Speaker 1: early in this game. We're gonna talk about it in
Speaker 1: a little bit because I'm gonna wait on the Lakers,
Speaker 1: But a couple two things in particular, I thought turned
Speaker 1: the game around for the Thunder after they fell down fourteen.
Speaker 1: It was like thirty five to twenty one at one
Speaker 1: point in the two thirds of the way through the
Speaker 1: first quarter. First of all, when Max Christi left the game,
Speaker 1: and Max Christy did a really nice job on shake
Speaker 1: Gil as Alexander and his first shift. And We've talked
Speaker 1: about this a lot with the Lakers about the slotting
Speaker 1: of their perimeter defenders, because Torre and Prince started the
Speaker 1: game on Jalen Williams and actually did a decent job.
Speaker 1: And Jalen Wims is a good player, but Chay's better, right,
Speaker 1: excuse me? And Shay's obviously much harder to guard. Late
Speaker 1: first quarter, Shay just started taking torim prints the task,
Speaker 1: scoring on him easily get into the foul line. That
Speaker 1: was a big kind of like you know, Steimy, It
Speaker 1: just it slowed down the momentum that the Lakers had.
Speaker 1: Right then we start the second quarter, Shay's not even
Speaker 1: out there. It's that Lebron led group for the for
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and Mark Dagenel goes with this three to
Speaker 1: two zone, which I thought was a really smart move.
Speaker 1: I've talked about this a lot on the show, but like,
Speaker 1: the Lakers were in a really good offensive rhythm in
Speaker 1: that first half, and there are a lot of different
Speaker 1: things you can do to try to disrupt rhythm, Like
Speaker 1: you can call timeouts. You know Mark Daganel, it's a
Speaker 1: coach that's really good at calling timeouts to stemy runs right,
Speaker 1: And there's different approaches to that. There are certain coaches
Speaker 1: that believe you're actually better off letting your players kind
Speaker 1: of figure it out on the fly. I tend to disagree,
Speaker 1: but there are really smart coaches that are not in
Speaker 1: the NBA that I trust, that that do that and
Speaker 1: that I respect, and so I don't necessarily think there's
Speaker 1: a right or wrong answer there. But one of the
Speaker 1: other ways you can disrupt rhythm is to throw a
Speaker 1: schematic change into the equation. And they went out with
Speaker 1: this three two zone. And what I specifically like about
Speaker 1: the three two zone is it's very different to attack
Speaker 1: a three two zone than a two three zone. So
Speaker 1: a two three zone, you got a guy standing underneath
Speaker 1: the basket, he's got to kind of like step in
Speaker 1: and out of the paint. Obviously in the NBA because
Speaker 1: of the defensive three second rule, but you got guys
Speaker 1: in the corners, and you have two guys at the
Speaker 1: top right, and so the easy way to attack a
Speaker 1: two three zone is to set up an odd front
Speaker 1: and try to get the ball to the high post,
Speaker 1: which is gonna make one of those guys have to
Speaker 1: make a decision, and then ye's where you get your
Speaker 1: easy kickout passes and cutters along the baseline right. But
Speaker 1: in a three two zone, it's entirely different. You have
Speaker 1: to set up in four corners with a player in
Speaker 1: the middle of the floor. And the Lakers were literally
Speaker 1: running an odd front against their odd front zone, and
Speaker 1: so they ended up just kind of passing the ball
Speaker 1: around the perimeter and then somebody would jack up a
Speaker 1: contested three. And that's the thing is like, could you
Speaker 1: run a three two zone against the Lakers in a
Speaker 1: playoff series? You know, for in large doses, no, they're
Speaker 1: too smart. And Anthony Davis in particular as his zone
Speaker 1: buster in a lot of different ways, but in a
Speaker 1: regular season sample size, if you can just throw a
Speaker 1: wrench into the situation you might be able to throw
Speaker 1: them off. And they ran that zone for six possessions
Speaker 1: in the early second quarter and it completely turned the
Speaker 1: game around and completely disrupted the offensive rhythm of the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Then when Anthony Davis checked back in the game, they
Speaker 1: went back into man right and from there they started
Speaker 1: aggressively doubling Ad, which we'll talk about, but again, like
Speaker 1: the Lakers. Overall, they ran eleven possessions of their three
Speaker 1: to two zone against the Lakers, and they held them
Speaker 1: to zero point five to five points per possession. What's
Speaker 1: that six points and eleven possessions, So like, that's a
Speaker 1: not only was it effective on a per possession basis,
Speaker 1: but it also threw off the rhythm of the game.
Speaker 1: Then the other the two guys that I want to
Speaker 1: shout out on the OKC front during that run on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the four are Aaron Wiggins and
Speaker 1: Jalen Williams. Aaron Wiggins made three plays that I thought
Speaker 1: were really important during that run. Austin Reeves had just
Speaker 1: hit this crazy bailout shot on the right wing, and
Speaker 1: then the very next possession, the thunderfind themselves in a
Speaker 1: late clock situation and Aaron Wiggins hits a right shoulder fade,
Speaker 1: a tough shot at the buzzer, and you could tell
Speaker 1: that gave him confidence because a couple possessions later, he's
Speaker 1: got Lebron James in the corner and Lebron's doing one
Speaker 1: of these, you know, one of these like where you're
Speaker 1: the camera is the offensive player, where he's kind of
Speaker 1: like daring him to shoot, and so he just kind
Speaker 1: of like hits a little jab and rises up and
Speaker 1: knocks down a three point shot in Lebron's face. Then
Speaker 1: he's got his confidence going, you know, a full tilt,
Speaker 1: and he gets downhill and draws a foul. I thought
Speaker 1: it was a really good shift from Aaron Wigs. Didn't
Speaker 1: didn't play to a ton last night, but it was
Speaker 1: a short shift that I thought was really impactful in
Speaker 1: the game. And then Jalen Williams was just cooking everybody
Speaker 1: on the Lakers, specifically Austin Reeves, who, as Austin has
Speaker 1: been pretty good defensively over the last like two three weeks,
Speaker 1: but I didn't think he had a very good defensive
Speaker 1: game against the Thunder and Jalen's just got like this,
Speaker 1: first of all, he's making his jump shot at a
Speaker 1: high rate, which is super important. But he's just got
Speaker 1: the strength element, like he can really get to his
Speaker 1: spots and deal with contact really well. And then from there,
Speaker 1: like the Lakers kind of let go of the rope
Speaker 1: there in that late second quarter stretch, they were swarming
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis and forcing turnovers and rotating out of those
Speaker 1: double teams really well, and they were running down the
Speaker 1: floor the other way. They're such a good transition game.
Speaker 1: They scored thirty three points in transition team I should
Speaker 1: say they scored thirty three points in transition in this game.
Speaker 1: And then it basically the wheels came off and it
Speaker 1: turned into a blowout. The other guy I wanted to
Speaker 1: quickly shut out before we talk some big picture of
Speaker 1: stuff with the thunder was Chet. I thought that he
Speaker 1: did a really nice shot running the floor in this game,
Speaker 1: which is so important against the Lakers. And then the
Speaker 1: shot making, like Anthony Davis is seeing that juxtaposition of
Speaker 1: like Chet ready and willing to take threes, and he
Speaker 1: missed a couple great looks, but he ended up making
Speaker 1: one I think in the second half if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: and then he hit that crazy left shoulder fade over
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis like he's a ready and willing perimeter shooter,
Speaker 1: and like Anthony Davis just has no interest in taking
Speaker 1: that shot, which is, like I thought, there was an
Speaker 1: interesting juxtaposition last night and a good indicator of like, hey, like,
Speaker 1: watch out for this young generation of basketball players. Man, Like,
Speaker 1: they're all so damn good, and there a lot of
Speaker 1: them are good at some of the things that these
Speaker 1: veteran guys are not good at, And I think it's
Speaker 1: a good indicator of just how fun this next era
Speaker 1: of basketball is gonna be. So as we've talked about
Speaker 1: the every time we've talked to Thunder on the show,
Speaker 1: they struggle with big teams, and I mean just recently,
Speaker 1: they had another game against the Timberwolves, who obviously have
Speaker 1: a big front line. They gave them all sorts of issues.
Speaker 1: Go Baar gave Chet all sorts of issues, right, And
Speaker 1: so I was interested in this particular team. Now, I
Speaker 1: didn't have high hopes for the Lakers in this game
Speaker 1: because they're severely undermanned and they were at the tail
Speaker 1: end of a long road trip. We'll talk about that
Speaker 1: in a minute. But I still was like, hey, like
Speaker 1: there're one chance here is that this is the kind
Speaker 1: of matchup that the Thunder struggle with. And they gave
Speaker 1: them some issues early, right, Anthony Davis got chet into
Speaker 1: big in early foul trouble that Anthony Davis post ups
Speaker 1: were working early and often as they kind of blew
Speaker 1: the game open in that first quarter. But a couple
Speaker 1: of things they use your speed, Like a huge part
Speaker 1: of basketball is understand what your advantages. Like what is
Speaker 1: I was literally working on we were doing with my kids,
Speaker 1: the kids that I coached in high school here in town.
Speaker 1: We were working on this this morning. Like we were
Speaker 1: doing some of the court stuff at the end after
Speaker 1: we did our skill work, and I was working with
Speaker 1: the post players, and like there were two kids in
Speaker 1: that group that are like smaller and more athletic, and
Speaker 1: then there were two kids kids in that group that
Speaker 1: were like bigger and stronger, right, And I was trying
Speaker 1: to tell them like, hey, like if you're trying to
Speaker 1: turn your back to the basket as a small player
Speaker 1: and trying to like like play back down basketball against
Speaker 1: a bigger player, it's just not gonna work for you, right,
Speaker 1: Like you need to catch a little further away and
Speaker 1: you need to turn and face and you need to
Speaker 1: use your speed. That's your advantage in this situation. Identify
Speaker 1: he's big and slow, you're athletic and fast. Take him
Speaker 1: to where you have an opportunity to use your advantage. Right,
Speaker 1: Whereas if you're the big player, then you've got the
Speaker 1: smaller player buried on you. The last thing you want
Speaker 1: to do is take anything far away from the basket.
Speaker 1: You're doing him a favor. You want to back him down,
Speaker 1: bury him deep post position, and catch and quick finish
Speaker 1: around the basket. Right, Like, the same thing goes in
Speaker 1: the big picture of a basketball team. You can't play
Speaker 1: slow down, methodical half court basketball with the Lakers. They're
Speaker 1: too big. They're gonna bully you in a lot of
Speaker 1: those situations. Right, But you had a not only did
Speaker 1: you have a and rest advantage, but just in general,
Speaker 1: you're a super young, fast team. They average twenty six
Speaker 1: transition points per game, that's second in the entire NBA,
Speaker 1: and they push that to an even higher level in
Speaker 1: this game, getting it up to thirty three points. And
Speaker 1: that's kind of my point is like, identify, here's our advantage.
Speaker 1: These dudes don't want to run if we keep running,
Speaker 1: We're going to succeed. And like it was kind of
Speaker 1: like it was like they kept kind of beating up
Speaker 1: against that barrier, and then eventually the barrier fell over
Speaker 1: there in that late second quarter, and then it was
Speaker 1: just run out after run out after runout, and the
Speaker 1: game was over. And so I think that might be
Speaker 1: kind of the the the method of method for Oka
Speaker 1: see to try to attack these big front lines like
Speaker 1: double and rotate. That is a way to weaponize your
Speaker 1: speed and then get out and transition as much as
Speaker 1: possible against those teams, hunt those possessions. Even if you
Speaker 1: lose in the short term, like that game, you fell
Speaker 1: down fourteen points, but you just keep pushing, You keep pushing,
Speaker 1: you keep pushing. Eventually the dam will break on the
Speaker 1: Lakers front. I don't want to be overly critical, like
Speaker 1: I said, because it's it's a confluence of a ton
Speaker 1: of negative factors. Last game of a four game road trip,
Speaker 1: tail end of a back to back, Lakers only had
Speaker 1: seven available rotation players. No Ruya Chimura, No Jared Vanderbilt.
Speaker 1: That's two of your top five or six players. No
Speaker 1: Gay Vincent, that's three your top seven players, right, No
Speaker 1: Cam Reddish no Jackson Hayes, like literally they like they
Speaker 1: had to play Jalen ud Chaffino in that second quarter
Speaker 1: shift and he can't make a jump shot right now,
Speaker 1: which gave Okac all sort of leniency to help off
Speaker 1: of him, right and you're playing a super young team
Speaker 1: that runs for forty eight minutes, right, So, like, I
Speaker 1: didn't really have high hopes for them in this game. Again,
Speaker 1: I thought they had a chance with the with the
Speaker 1: Okase struggling with the front lines, and you saw that
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the game, right, like Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: torching chet the Lakers went up by fourteen, that the
Speaker 1: zone adjustment was what kind of turned the game around.
Speaker 1: But you know, it was just what ended up happening
Speaker 1: after that point, to me, was kind of what you
Speaker 1: would expect in that specific situation. But I do want
Speaker 1: to talk about the post up offense for a little
Speaker 1: bit because in the second quarter, when Anthony Davis came back,
Speaker 1: the Lakers, I had to go back to what they
Speaker 1: did in the first quarter, which was forced feed Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis in the post or at least some of the
Speaker 1: possessions they did. I wish they would have done it
Speaker 1: more but it is what it is. And there was
Speaker 1: all this debate among Laker fans last night about whose
Speaker 1: fault is it that the Lakers can't keep punishing the
Speaker 1: Thunder inside in the post. And I remember sitting there
Speaker 1: thinking my in the live watch and like every time
Speaker 1: I watch a game live, like, I can pick up
Speaker 1: on some things, but it's a lot easier for me
Speaker 1: to pick up on real details in a film session
Speaker 1: because I can watch one possession at a time. I
Speaker 1: can watch each individual player on a possession, rewatch the
Speaker 1: play three four times, like Synergy has like these these
Speaker 1: keys that I can press to like go back two
Speaker 1: seconds or five seconds, or four two seconds or five seconds,
Speaker 1: so I can like really quickly like cycle through a
Speaker 1: play and watch it a bunch of different ways and
Speaker 1: pick up all the pieces of information. Right And so
Speaker 1: what I wanted to do for Lakers fans right now
Speaker 1: is just kind of do a breakdown of what I
Speaker 1: think went wrong for the Lakers in their post attack
Speaker 1: offense against the Thunder in that second quarter stretch where
Speaker 1: they lost control of the game. So, first of all,
Speaker 1: what they did at the beginning of the game was
Speaker 1: spam cleared side post ups for Anthony Davis on the
Speaker 1: left side of the floor where he was able to
Speaker 1: just work downhill to his strong hand. That's how he
Speaker 1: got Chet into foul trouble. That's where the Lakers got
Speaker 1: control of the game early. And I've been begging a
Speaker 1: lot for this all season, right, Like, I think the
Speaker 1: Lakers are a brute force team. I've called them that
Speaker 1: for years. I think that means they need to run
Speaker 1: a lot of spread pick and roll, which means pick
Speaker 1: and roll out high where you're setting the screen like
Speaker 1: twenty five thirty feet away from the basket and trying
Speaker 1: to buy room for guys to get downhill. A lot
Speaker 1: of cleared side pick and roll. That's where you put
Speaker 1: all the shooters on the weak side and you might
Speaker 1: interchange with them or something, or have them flash if
Speaker 1: they see an opening, but they're pretty much out of
Speaker 1: the play and you're running two man game on the
Speaker 1: cleared side of the floor, and it's less far from
Speaker 1: the basket, but there's more space to operate east, west, right,
Speaker 1: and then lastly more cleared side post ups right. And
Speaker 1: that's same exact concept. But I like Lebron on the
Speaker 1: right side of the floor where he can dribble with
Speaker 1: his left hand and play make and get to that
Speaker 1: right shoulder fade. And I like Anthony Davis on the
Speaker 1: left side of the floor where he can get to
Speaker 1: his right handed hooks shot and he can simplify his
Speaker 1: reads because he needs a little bit more help with
Speaker 1: the pass. That's kind of the way I think they
Speaker 1: should run their offense transition and then clear side post ups,
Speaker 1: spread pick and roll, and cleared side pick and roll.
Speaker 1: That's kind of to me in terms of the brute
Speaker 1: force approach. That doesn't mean they shouldn't run action. That
Speaker 1: doesn't mean they shouldn't run five out occasionally. I just
Speaker 1: think they should lean more on that stuff. The five
Speaker 1: out thing hasn't really worked all that well, and for
Speaker 1: it's just not a good personnelfit for that group. They
Speaker 1: don't have enough downhill athleticism and they don't have enough
Speaker 1: shooting to run a five out offense. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: in the first quarter of that game, they were spamming
Speaker 1: cleared side post ups and it was working. When Ad
Speaker 1: came back in the second that was where it fell apart.
Speaker 1: So let's dive into that specifically, Why do I want
Speaker 1: them to run Anthony Davis on a cleared side, it's
Speaker 1: an easier post entry right. Ad can straight up give
Speaker 1: a good wide target. You can even throw the pass
Speaker 1: like two three feet away from his hand where he
Speaker 1: can like and then go get the basketball and then
Speaker 1: turn and face sort of back down from there right,
Speaker 1: and then it's easier reads. Ad can see the floor
Speaker 1: like this, He's got the ball in his right hand,
Speaker 1: which is dominant hand, and he can see every player
Speaker 1: on the floor, even the guy kind of sneaking along
Speaker 1: the baseline he can see, and then he can make
Speaker 1: easy reads from there. And you saw that in that
Speaker 1: second quarter shift when the Thunder were doubling. There was
Speaker 1: a play where they hard doubled Anthony Davis on a
Speaker 1: left block, cleared side, post up rifle, right hand passed
Speaker 1: to a wide open Austin Reeves on the right wing.
Speaker 1: A wide open three for a guy who was one
Speaker 1: of your best shooters last year and he's just been
Speaker 1: broke this year. He misses it right. There was another
Speaker 1: one where Austin Reeves cuts down the middle, clear side,
Speaker 1: post up, left block, methodically working. Here comes the double
Speaker 1: dumps it off to Austin down the lane. Austin smokes
Speaker 1: a wide open floater in the lane, easy floater in
Speaker 1: the lane that was like six or seven feet uncondested.
Speaker 1: He just missed it. And there was another one cleared
Speaker 1: side posts up left block, hard double. D'Angelo Russell flashes
Speaker 1: to the high post. Anthony Davis makes the right pass
Speaker 1: on on time, on target to de Lo Delo, throws
Speaker 1: a one timer to Max Christie, but throws a terrible pass,
Speaker 1: just throws like a like there was no speed on it.
Speaker 1: It was almost like it slipped out of his hands
Speaker 1: and as a result, the thunder were able to rotate
Speaker 1: out of it. Had he just made the pass on
Speaker 1: target to Max Christie, it's a wide open catch and
Speaker 1: shoot three. So here's the thing. Clear side post ops.
Speaker 1: I thought Anthony Davis was fantastic, and for the record,
Speaker 1: he's been fantastic all season. It really came down to
Speaker 1: the guys off the ball, skilled offensive players not doing
Speaker 1: their job. Like we talk about this a lot in
Speaker 1: UH in the NBA, but like getting two to the
Speaker 1: ball is like half the battle. Once you can do that,
Speaker 1: if you can make simple reads out of it, there
Speaker 1: it's just you play basketball, and if you have offensive
Speaker 1: skill on the floor, you should be able to capitalize
Speaker 1: on it. But as has been a consistent theme throughout
Speaker 1: this season, inconsistent play from D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: has hampered this offense in a lot of different ways.
Speaker 1: And you know, we'll talk about more about it in
Speaker 1: a minute, but like I thought that was a significant
Speaker 1: factor in that in that specific sequence, about half the
Speaker 1: time during that second quarter run, they tried to feed
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis in the middle of the floor, and I
Speaker 1: really disagreed with this strategy. It's a much harder post
Speaker 1: entry because now you've got a tighter window as guys
Speaker 1: are digging down from both sides. It's much harder for
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis to see all of the floor as he's
Speaker 1: having to kind of navigate everything working around him. And
Speaker 1: then it was easier for Oklahoma City to force him
Speaker 1: to his left hand. And like there was a there
Speaker 1: was a play where he where Lebron made a post
Speaker 1: entry to him in the middle of the floor and
Speaker 1: he looked and he saw a defender on that strong
Speaker 1: hand side, and he wanted to go to that strong
Speaker 1: hand and he ended up having to go to a
Speaker 1: left handed hook. That ad can make a left handed
Speaker 1: hook made a huge one against Jared Allen in the
Speaker 1: Cavs game, but it's not as high percentage a shot
Speaker 1: for him or as comfortable a shot for him as
Speaker 1: that right handed hook which he's been killing everybody with
Speaker 1: this season. It's to like a near Yokic esque extent
Speaker 1: right And like there was another play where they tried
Speaker 1: to force that post entry in the middle of the
Speaker 1: floor and like all three bodies came in. It turned
Speaker 1: into a turnover and they ran the other way for
Speaker 1: a bucket, and it's like, why are you doing that? Like,
Speaker 1: do what's working for you? You're getting like you gotta
Speaker 1: separate process from results. Those clear side post ups, you're
Speaker 1: getting great stuff out of them. They went zero for
Speaker 1: three in the second quarter, but you were getting great
Speaker 1: stuff out of him, So you need to keep spamming
Speaker 1: that right Whereas like Ad did manage to make one
Speaker 1: righty hook on a center post up, but the other
Speaker 1: two didn't go so well and they were bad process, right,
Speaker 1: And so like a lot of times, you have to
Speaker 1: separate process from results. There there was a play where
Speaker 1: Ad caught and scored in the post, and then the
Speaker 1: very next possession, Max Christy decided he wanted to take
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shot and pick and roll, and
Speaker 1: it's like, why are you going away from what's working?
Speaker 1: Like like Max, his best offensive game of the season
Speaker 1: in my opinion, was the Cleveland game, and it was
Speaker 1: because he only ever really tried to do something with
Speaker 1: the basketball when it was a late clock situation and
Speaker 1: he had to rescue possession. Everything else was in the
Speaker 1: flow of the offense. There was another transition possession in
Speaker 1: the second quarter where he overpenetrated and turned the ball
Speaker 1: over underneath the basket. So like just a lot of
Speaker 1: bad offense process. In my opinion, the clear side post
Speaker 1: ups are working. You almost need to keep running that
Speaker 1: stuff so that your guys can get reps. It's a
Speaker 1: nice methodical way to slow down the pace of the game.
Speaker 1: As you get better shot attempts and you have better
Speaker 1: floor balance, you have a better chance of defending in transition.
Speaker 1: I just thought they were doing a lot of self
Speaker 1: inflicted damage, and so keys to keep an eye on
Speaker 1: moving forward, keep the side cleared, put him on the
Speaker 1: left block rate, and go to his right hand, and
Speaker 1: guys have to do their part off the ball. It
Speaker 1: really is that simple to me and Ad has been
Speaker 1: so dominant there that he's consistently drawing multiple defenders, and
Speaker 1: so I think that to me is half the battle,
Speaker 1: and that's a great foundation, but you have to be
Speaker 1: able to build on that. A couple of specific quick
Speaker 1: hitters on the Lakers before we move on Austin Reeves struggles.
Speaker 1: Basketball players struggle. Sometimes it's really that simple. Stars struggle. Sometimes.
Speaker 1: There was like a seven or eight game stretch after
Speaker 1: the hard and trade where Kawhi and Paul George were
Speaker 1: playing like crap, like like that's just part of basketball.
Speaker 1: I still think at this point it's way too early
Speaker 1: to act like people have solved Austin Reeves or that
Speaker 1: he that he's nowhere near as good as his contract
Speaker 1: would would lead you to believe, or or or as
Speaker 1: good as he was at Foeba, or as good as
Speaker 1: he was in the playoffs. Like at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, guys, especially with how good he's been in
Speaker 1: crunch time, because he's been so good in clutch situations,
Speaker 1: like I'm just not worried about it. Like he's been
Speaker 1: defending a lot better lately up until last night, which again,
Speaker 1: like the entire team sucked on defense last night because
Speaker 1: it was the tail end of a long road trip
Speaker 1: and the tail end of a back to back, So like,
Speaker 1: I just think I've seen a lot of Lakers fans
Speaker 1: starting to turn on Austin and like, I think that's crazy.
Speaker 1: Like eight twenty point playoff games and was excellent at
Speaker 1: FOEBA and was great after the deadline, like literally over
Speaker 1: seventy percent true shooting after the Russell Westbrook trade, and
Speaker 1: people are ready if people are ready to sell the
Speaker 1: dude down the river over a over a like a
Speaker 1: month and a half of mediocre regular season basketball where
Speaker 1: he really hasn't even been that bad. He's just been
Speaker 1: bad compared to what he was last year. Like, I
Speaker 1: just think that's ridiculous. The slotting of perimeter defenders. I
Speaker 1: thought it was really interesting how Max Christy did a
Speaker 1: good job on Shae Kills with Alexander, but then when
Speaker 1: Torrian Prince got on him, things fell apart. I think
Speaker 1: that's it. I think that's an indicator of that slotting
Speaker 1: concept that I was talking about and why it's so
Speaker 1: important to have Cam Reddish and Jared Vanderbilt and Gabe
Speaker 1: Vincent on the roster so that you can keep Torrian
Speaker 1: Prince in defensive assignments that he can handle. Whenever he's
Speaker 1: the best perimeter defender on the floor, the Lakers offense
Speaker 1: or defense tanks. When he's the second best perimeter to
Speaker 1: flayer player on the on the floor, things actually look
Speaker 1: pretty good for them defensively. So that's the thing to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on offensive struggles leading to bad everything else.
Speaker 1: When when the Lakers are missing shots and not and
Speaker 1: not you know, scoring easily on offense, you can see
Speaker 1: the demeanor and like the overall just motivation level of
Speaker 1: the team tank and then it hurts them everywhere else.
Speaker 1: And so I think them solving some of these offensive
Speaker 1: problems could go a long way to helping them in
Speaker 1: the other areas of the game as well. And then
Speaker 1: here are a couple of reasons why I'm still super
Speaker 1: optimistic about this Lakers team. Lebron is shooting sixty five
Speaker 1: percent in effective field goal percentage on jumpers and he's
Speaker 1: like confidently hunting them. He's shooting forty percent from three
Speaker 1: on the season. It's been like a real encouraging trend
Speaker 1: that bodes well for them down the line. And we've
Speaker 1: we've already talked about it on the show before but
Speaker 1: he's been really good in clutch situations as well. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis has been so good in the post. I have
Speaker 1: other concerns about Anthony Davis, like him abandoning his jump
Speaker 1: shot after all that narrative in the early part of
Speaker 1: the of training camp. I just simply don't understand, Like,
Speaker 1: why is it that like Max Christy, who probably is
Speaker 1: in your rotation but like a bench dude, when your
Speaker 1: whole rosters put together, why is it that Max Christie
Speaker 1: is allowed to take pull up jump shots and pick
Speaker 1: and roll or floaters in ISO? And by the way,
Speaker 1: don't have any problem with those shots like in the
Speaker 1: grand scheme of things, like they're not that big a deal,
Speaker 1: Like obviously I'd prefer better offensive process. But I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to pick on Max Chrissy. He's been so good
Speaker 1: defensively over the course of the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: But my point is, why is it that you can
Speaker 1: bake into your offense random bullshit like that, but Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis can't take a pick and pop three every once
Speaker 1: in a while, Like what are we doing? Like, honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't understand. I simply do not get it. That said,
Speaker 1: he's been so damn good in the post, and like
Speaker 1: I said, all those post up issues that took place
Speaker 1: in that second quarter run were not Anthony Davis's fault.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, He's been so good in the post
Speaker 1: that to me alleviates like a lot of my concerns
Speaker 1: in the big picture, just because like that was a
Speaker 1: weapon they didn't have last year in the postseason, like
Speaker 1: the on ball Anthony Davis stuff was useless in the
Speaker 1: Denver Nuggets series, and I think that that's something they
Speaker 1: might be able to go to more frequently this year.
Speaker 1: I do believe Austin Reeves will play better, and then
Speaker 1: when all those other guys get healthy, it's just a
Speaker 1: simple matter of talent. Hotchimr is a really good basketball player.
Speaker 1: Gabe Vincent is two. Is he a starter? Is he not?
Speaker 1: I don't know, but he's a good NBA player. And
Speaker 1: then Jared Vanderbilt is one of the second or first
Speaker 1: tier perimeter defenders in the league and an excellent rebounder.
Speaker 1: Averaged seven rebounds a game last year in not all
Speaker 1: that massive a minute allotment. So like I just I
Speaker 1: look again, I'll say it again. If you want to
Speaker 1: act like this guy is falling with the Lakers after
Speaker 1: they lose to the Thunder and all of the shit
Speaker 1: that's been going wrong with them in terms of injuries
Speaker 1: in their schedule. Be my guests, but like it's gonna
Speaker 1: take a lot more bad basketball for me to feel
Speaker 1: that way as well. Pacers Heat, so Bam leaves the
Speaker 1: game early with a hip issue and apparently that's been
Speaker 1: something that's kind of lingering. So hopefully Bam can get
Speaker 1: healthy because that obviously is a massively important piece for
Speaker 1: this Miami Heat team. Indiana controlled most of this game.
Speaker 1: Tyrey's Haliburton is outrageously good forty four points in tennis
Speaker 1: sists with just two turnovers. Jimmy Butler had some success
Speaker 1: guarding him at the end of the game, but he
Speaker 1: torched everyone else but Jimi Hawkez takes over in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. Basically, the Pacers ran a ghost screen with
Speaker 1: Buddy held that where he hit a three that made
Speaker 1: it one h three ninety seven if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: in the early fourth quarter, and then the Heat just
Speaker 1: basically took over the game from them, and Hawkez did
Speaker 1: it with primary shock creation. There was a play with
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown where he's on the right wing and he
Speaker 1: runs a pick and roll and he kind of gets
Speaker 1: the ball into his left hand and right as Bruce
Speaker 1: Brown tries to jump the screen, he just whips into
Speaker 1: his spin move off of it toast. Bruce Brown gets downhill,
Speaker 1: gets his body into Miles Turner and finishes with his
Speaker 1: right hand at the basket. I'm like, WHOA, that's really
Speaker 1: high level. By the way, He's at one point zero
Speaker 1: eight points per possession and pick and roll this year,
Speaker 1: which is in the seventy fourth percentile for his volume.
Speaker 1: Then there was a play where he bullies androwm Nmpard
Speaker 1: in the post and takes like a little right shoulder
Speaker 1: fade in the lane, which is like my favorite big
Speaker 1: guard move when you have an advantage against small guards.
Speaker 1: I use that move like almost I use it move
Speaker 1: religiously when I have a smaller defender on me. He's
Speaker 1: one point three to six points per possession and post
Speaker 1: ups this year. That's in the ninety second percentile. He's
Speaker 1: a really smart cutter. There were two critical possessions in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. One where he's in the right slot
Speaker 1: and Bruce Brown's ball watching and he cuts behind and
Speaker 1: makes the left handed layup on the left side of
Speaker 1: the rim. Another play where a Benedict Mathern He's in
Speaker 1: the right corner and Ben Mathurin's not keeping an eye
Speaker 1: on him. He cuts along the baseline makes a little
Speaker 1: right handed shot on the other side of the rim.
Speaker 1: He was awesome in that fourth quarter stretch, and like,
Speaker 1: he's just a really good basketball player. Like I don't
Speaker 1: think he's particularly great at anything, but he's just good
Speaker 1: at everything. And that's a really useful player, especially in
Speaker 1: really well coached situations like the like the Heat, like
Speaker 1: the Warriors. It's like why Brandon Paziemski's succeeding with the Warriors.
Speaker 1: When you're like a really well rounded basketball player and
Speaker 1: you're playing around other smart basketball players and you have
Speaker 1: a smart coach that empowers you and puts you in
Speaker 1: a position to succeed, You're gonna see guys like this succeed.
Speaker 1: And I think it's why Francis, like a franchises like
Speaker 1: that keep hunting players like that. And then he wasn't
Speaker 1: making his jumper early in the season, and now he is.
Speaker 1: He's had fifty seven percent in effective field goal percentage
Speaker 1: on catch and shoot jumpers this year, so far a
Speaker 1: couple other guys I want to shout out. Duncan Robinson
Speaker 1: is like just really good now he can He's a
Speaker 1: gifted passer. He's having his best assist and assistant turnover
Speaker 1: season of his career. He's putting the ball on the
Speaker 1: floor better than he ever has before. He had a
Speaker 1: huge close out attack down the stretch where he pumped,
Speaker 1: baked and ripped to the left and got all the
Speaker 1: way to the basket. He's converting spot of possessions at
Speaker 1: one point twenty seven points per possession, which is like
Speaker 1: top tier in the league. That's like Michael Porter junior territory.
Speaker 1: And then he's become a really smart help defender. There
Speaker 1: was a critical play like he just he's got all
Speaker 1: the little fundamental things down in terms of help side defense,
Speaker 1: Like he's got good length in height, which allows him
Speaker 1: to work as a low man in help side situations
Speaker 1: when he's rotating to the weak side. He's always like
Speaker 1: when one of the things you'll learn one of the
Speaker 1: things you talk about with young like school players in particular,
Speaker 1: because the's you know, when it comes to the younger teams,
Speaker 1: everything you focus on is fundamentals because that's literally what
Speaker 1: wins at that level, right, And like one of the
Speaker 1: things you teach is like when there's when you have
Speaker 1: to bring a third defender over and pick and roll,
Speaker 1: you leave two shooters open on the weak side for
Speaker 1: one defender right, and so you always are trying to
Speaker 1: like split that difference. And one of the smart things
Speaker 1: to do is like close out into a passing lane.
Speaker 1: And so essentially, if the ball gets kicked out to
Speaker 1: one of those two guys on the wing, you don't
Speaker 1: close out at that guy. You close out to the
Speaker 1: passing lane because what it does is it tricks the
Speaker 1: guy with the ball into thinking or closing out at
Speaker 1: him and causes him to hesitate, and then it also
Speaker 1: takes away that swing pass. There's a play that he
Speaker 1: took away in the late fourth quarter, big play during
Speaker 1: their run where Buddy Heald caught the pass on a
Speaker 1: kickout from Tyres Halliburton if I remember correctly, and he
Speaker 1: closed out to the passing lane and he, like Buddy,
Speaker 1: He'll pump faked into Duncan Robinson and he ended up
Speaker 1: getting like a kind of a side view contest on
Speaker 1: on Healed who missed the shot. And it was funny
Speaker 1: because Andrew Nempard was all pissed off after the player
Speaker 1: or not Andrew mpard excuse me. And aaron Ne Smith
Speaker 1: was all pissed off after the plan And I'm like,
Speaker 1: that was I don't know what you wanted him to do.
Speaker 1: If he would throw the pass to you, he would
Speaker 1: because he was the shooter in the corner. I was like,
Speaker 1: it would have just been a turnover. But I Duncan Robinson.
Speaker 1: It's been really fun just as a basketball fan watching
Speaker 1: him go from like a limited shooter who seemed overpaid
Speaker 1: and had to be taking off the floor in any
Speaker 1: sort of serious situation to like now just like a
Speaker 1: really good player. He's Michael Porter junior for this team.
Speaker 1: And I think he's even a better playmaker than Michael
Speaker 1: Porter junior. And I think that that just kind of
Speaker 1: and he's not as good as Michael Porter junior because
Speaker 1: he's not as tall, he's not as athletic, he's not
Speaker 1: as good as a help defender, but like he's providing
Speaker 1: that type of value for this particular team in my opinion.
Speaker 1: And then down the stretch, like you know, because India
Speaker 1: has all sorts of small guards on the floor, I
Speaker 1: thought Josh Richardson and Jimmy Butler did a really nice
Speaker 1: job bullying the smaller Pacers guards to get them into
Speaker 1: rotation to get easy shots around the rim. Jimmy had
Speaker 1: a big back cut late in the game where he
Speaker 1: got a bucket out of it. It was a really
Speaker 1: impressive win from Miami against a good Indiana Pacers team.
Speaker 1: I think they play him again tomorrow if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1: But Miami's up to eleven and eight. They're thirteenth in offense,
Speaker 1: ninth and defense. This is their fifth win against the
Speaker 1: five hundred better team this year. I think there's just
Speaker 1: one trade away. They're like the Lakers. They have the
Speaker 1: same kind of splits in their standings, Like they're six
Speaker 1: and one against losing teams and five and seven against
Speaker 1: teams that are five hundred are better. The Lakers are
Speaker 1: exactly that except for their if I'm not mistaken, there
Speaker 1: seven and zero against losing or six and oh against
Speaker 1: losing teams. But they're five and eight if I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 1: against winning teams. But like that's the type of deal there.
Speaker 1: It's like they need more firepower, or the heat need
Speaker 1: more like offensive firepower. The Lakers need more athleticism and shooting.
Speaker 1: But like my point is is like they're in that
Speaker 1: tier there. That's like they're just one smart move away
Speaker 1: from being in that conversation and you struggling against good teams.
Speaker 1: They're at five and seven to me as an indicator
Speaker 1: of you needing that high end firepower. Indiana, it's easy
Speaker 1: to see why they're twenty ninth in defense. All of
Speaker 1: their guards are defending poorly. Even Bruce Brown, who was
Speaker 1: a great defensive player for the Nugge last year, made
Speaker 1: several key mistakes late in this game guarding Himyakz Tyre's
Speaker 1: Halliburton's amazing. He's a joy to watch. I've talked a
Speaker 1: lot about how great he is, Like I mean, he's
Speaker 1: entered into conversations with the best shooters in the league.
Speaker 1: He's he's made half of his catch and shoot jump
Speaker 1: shots this year half and he's shooting forty six percent
Speaker 1: on pull up jump shots waited for threes at Tyre's
Speaker 1: Haliburton jump shot is worth one point three points this year.
Speaker 1: That's outrageous. He's one of the best shooters in the league,
Speaker 1: and he's like so good at beating switches and he's
Speaker 1: got this thing where like there's this there's this like
Speaker 1: like progression that you see with Tyres Haliburton techs. It's like,
Speaker 1: beat the first dude off the dribble, high gather over
Speaker 1: the uh over the digging defender. That's where you do
Speaker 1: that high dribble to kind of like avoid that dude
Speaker 1: is swinging down at the basketball, and then on the
Speaker 1: gather he takes that little floater in the lane, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, he's making fifty seven percent of the
Speaker 1: time this year, and he's making every read every single time.
Speaker 1: Alburn's amazing. We've talked about him in the past, but
Speaker 1: he's got so far to go on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor, and he's a big part of what's
Speaker 1: going wrong for them defensively right now. And like, like
Speaker 1: I clipped several possessions in h in my film thread
Speaker 1: this morning that kind of demonstrates specific things he's in guard.
Speaker 1: Guard screens are trying to get him to hedge and recover,
Speaker 1: which is what you do, which is what you do
Speaker 1: with every single guard that struggles to defend. The Warriors
Speaker 1: do with Steph Curry the war the Nuggets will do
Speaker 1: it with Jamal Murray. It's it's a it's a very
Speaker 1: typical defensive strategy. But like he'll just like run out
Speaker 1: there like he's gonna hedge and then not do anything,
Speaker 1: and then guys will like split him or like uh
Speaker 1: or or just go right around him, or he'll foul.
Speaker 1: Like it just it's really sloppy on that front. He's
Speaker 1: not when he's getting peeled off on ball screens. He's
Speaker 1: not boxing out the big man when he's rolling down
Speaker 1: to the basket. He's sloppy in rotation and everybody, like
Speaker 1: Buddy Healed is awful in all those details. Ben Matherin
Speaker 1: had a possession, the one where Hima Heck has back
Speaker 1: cut out of the corner in the fourth quarter where
Speaker 1: like there was nobody on the left wing. The left
Speaker 1: wing was vacated, Okay, Hakeuz is in the left corner,
Speaker 1: Ben Matherin was playing. The ball was on the right block,
Speaker 1: opposite end of the floor, low down by the baseline,
Speaker 1: and Ben Mathern was playing like like if if I'm
Speaker 1: if I'm Ben Matherin. The uh Literally, Hawkeuz was behind
Speaker 1: me into my right so he's up here like this
Speaker 1: where he can't see how may or the ball and
Speaker 1: he just gets cut right behind, Whereas where you're supposed
Speaker 1: to be is like his butt should be on the
Speaker 1: baseline where he can see how may and he can
Speaker 1: be in position to help at the rim if he
Speaker 1: needs to. And like, literally, I'm just looking at the
Speaker 1: defensive positioning, I'm like, what is he doing? I simply
Speaker 1: don't understand it, Like as I'm watching the game, like
Speaker 1: the Indiana Guards are basically freelancing on defense every single possession,
Speaker 1: and so it's it's not hard to see why they're
Speaker 1: twenty ninth in defense. And then the rebounding is a
Speaker 1: huge problem too. They're twenty seventh and rebounding, And the
Speaker 1: problem I have with it is like they're so damn fast,
Speaker 1: Like bad defensive teams are usually small and slow, Like
Speaker 1: the Pacers have a legitimate rim protector and Miles Turner
Speaker 1: one of the better ones in the league, and they
Speaker 1: have amazing perimeter speed. They should be better than what
Speaker 1: they are defensively, and it's just gonna be. It comes
Speaker 1: down to two things, caring enough to do it, building
Speaker 1: good habits, And until they do, then the defense is
Speaker 1: gonna suck as bad as it has and it's gonna
Speaker 1: keep them from reaching their potential in terms of like
Speaker 1: you've got one of the best offensive players in the
Speaker 1: league on your team in Tyres Aliburton, like that, that
Speaker 1: is a real asset. If you can figure out how
Speaker 1: to guard, that'll go a long way to you allow
Speaker 1: allowing your team to make some noise in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, it's all I have for today and
Speaker 1: for the week. Good. Uh there's a really good game
Speaker 1: on tonight's six or Celtics, but it looks like potentially
Speaker 1: both uh Tyree Smacks and Joel and Pied are gonna
Speaker 1: miss it, so if they both end up playing, will
Speaker 1: end up covering it on Monday. But there'll be some
Speaker 1: good basketball weekend. We're gonna be back next week. In
Speaker 1: Season tournament is next week too, so it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a weird week in the sense that we'll be working.
Speaker 1: I will take probably one of the random days during
Speaker 1: the week off and then we'll end up working Saturday
Speaker 1: for the n Season Tournament championship. But it should be
Speaker 1: a fun week of basketball next week. I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to it. I'll see you guys. Then. The volume