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Speaker 1: to hoops tonight here at the volume heavy Winesday. Everybody.
Speaker 1: If you guys are having a great week, we are
Speaker 1: going to be reacting to the Las Vegas aces, going
Speaker 1: on the road and getting a huge win in Indiana
Speaker 1: against a red hot Fever team that had won ten
Speaker 1: of their previous thirteen games, pretty much shutting down their offense,
Speaker 1: the same offense that had been the number one offense
Speaker 1: in the league over that thirteen game span. We're gonna
Speaker 1: break down that game from the perspective of both teams,
Speaker 1: and then we'll get out of here for the night.
Speaker 1: You guys have the job before we get started. Subscribed
Speaker 1: to Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any
Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
Speaker 1: JSNLT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget
Speaker 1: about our podcast feed wherever you't your podcast under Hoops Tonight.
Speaker 1: We also it's really helpful if you live your rating
Speaker 1: in a review on the podcast feed. And last not
Speaker 1: at least keep ropping mail back questions in those YouTube
Speaker 1: comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest
Speaker 1: of the fall. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: a little bit of an unstoppable force versus an immovable object. Today, right,
Speaker 1: thirteen previous games the Indiana Fever, we're ten and three,
Speaker 1: number one offense in the WNBA, versus Las Vegas Aces
Speaker 1: team that is the two time defending champ, has been
Speaker 1: the fifth best defense in the league on the season,
Speaker 1: but also has been ramping it up as of late
Speaker 1: as they've been trying to get ready to defend and
Speaker 1: finish off a three peat, and they've been the number
Speaker 1: two defense in the WNBA in the previous five games
Speaker 1: and so difficult challenge. Right this Fever offense has been
Speaker 1: really really good. They've been scoring in transition a lot.
Speaker 1: They've been the only the Las Vegas Aces are actually
Speaker 1: the best transition scoring team in the WNBA, but the
Speaker 1: end of Indiana Fever actually second on that list, and
Speaker 1: especially as of late in the last couple of months,
Speaker 1: they've been really really active in transition. They're constantly looking
Speaker 1: to push Kelsey Mitchell is second in the WNBA in
Speaker 1: transition points scored according to Synergy. Melissa Smith has done
Speaker 1: a lot of great work in transition. Kaitln Clark just
Speaker 1: constantly throwing kick ahead passes for the modern NBA fan
Speaker 1: think like Tyrese Haliburton with those kickhead passes, with the
Speaker 1: old school NBA fan thing like Steve Nash, the idea
Speaker 1: of constantly looking for someone running their lane with the
Speaker 1: opportunity to avoid facing the set defense. Indiana has also
Speaker 1: struggled a little bit with ball pressure at times this season,
Speaker 1: and that's just another way that they can try to
Speaker 1: avoid that right and then when they get in the
Speaker 1: half court, they just have this beautiful five out motion
Speaker 1: that they've been running. They've been just the quintessential example
Speaker 1: of modern five out offense. With Kelsey Mitchell on one
Speaker 1: side of the floor and Caitlin Clark on the other
Speaker 1: side of the floor, two really good screeners and rollers
Speaker 1: that can also punish post mismatches in Aliah Boston and
Speaker 1: Alissa Smith with Lexi. With Lexi hold as being one
Speaker 1: of the most deadly catch and shoot shooters in the
Speaker 1: entire WNBA this season, just spacing the floor over on
Speaker 1: the weak side, they've just been really really hard to guard.
Speaker 1: They get the ball from side to side and run
Speaker 1: multiple actions on the same possession. They're excellent at running
Speaker 1: decoy actions. They'll have like Aliah Boston go set a
Speaker 1: ball screen and then as she's rolling, they'll have Kelsey
Speaker 1: Mitchell come out of the opposite corner and like set
Speaker 1: a cross screen force she'll get a quick post catch
Speaker 1: on the other side, so it's like a fake ball
Speaker 1: screen that's designed to set up a post up. Or
Speaker 1: they'll have Kaitlyn Clark run on one side and reverse
Speaker 1: the ball, and then they'll have a Leah Boston dribble
Speaker 1: at Kelsey Mitchell and then she'll come up like she's
Speaker 1: gonna catch it, and then she'll just quickly cut back
Speaker 1: door and get a wide open layup along the baseline.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful offense to watch, but it depends on
Speaker 1: two things in order for it to function. It depends
Speaker 1: on Caitlin and Kelsey getting separation on screens, and it
Speaker 1: depends on Aliah Boston and Melissa Smith scoring in the
Speaker 1: role and beating mismatches in the post. Right. Those are
Speaker 1: the two things that unlock that offense. Why because if
Speaker 1: you can't get separation on the screen, if you're Caitlin Clark,
Speaker 1: you can't bring up the screen defender. You have to
Speaker 1: bring up the screen defender to open up those pocket
Speaker 1: pass feeds to Aliah Boston as she's rolling to the rim.
Speaker 1: If the on ball defender is staying attached to Caitlin,
Speaker 1: then the person guard Aliah Boston doesn't have to come
Speaker 1: out as often or as aggressively, which prevents those easy
Speaker 1: catches on the role, right, and then when you're getting
Speaker 1: the ball into the role and when you're getting the
Speaker 1: ball into the paint for those deep post catches. It's
Speaker 1: a huge part of Indiana's offense that Aliah Boston's just
Speaker 1: been a monster as of late, just torching people, just
Speaker 1: straight post up action. That was how she closed out
Speaker 1: the game against Atlanta the other night, if you guys remember, right,
Speaker 1: and so like, those are the two most important parts
Speaker 1: of what makes the Indiana offense work. Caitlyn's got to
Speaker 1: get separation on screens and Aliah Boston's got to score
Speaker 1: on the role and score in the paint. Then, obviously
Speaker 1: to lesser extent, the same goes for Kelsey Mitchell as
Speaker 1: well as Melissa Smith. And I just got to hand
Speaker 1: it to the Aces. They did an amazing job in
Speaker 1: this game. Physical ball pressure on Caitlin all over the floor.
Speaker 1: Did a good job too of kind of game, the
Speaker 1: gamesmanship of working the refs like constantly being super physical
Speaker 1: with Caitlin. But then anytime Caitlyn was physical back, they'd
Speaker 1: flop and throw their heads back and got a couple
Speaker 1: of offensive foul calls in her that way. That's just
Speaker 1: smart gamesmanship. If you're watching on your couch and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's a bad call. Bad calls are part of the game.
Speaker 1: You want to try to manipulate as many bad calls
Speaker 1: in your favor as you can and avoid as many
Speaker 1: of them as you can, right, That's part of basketball.
Speaker 1: And Jackie Young in particular, as well as Tiffany Hayes,
Speaker 1: I thought, just did a really good job just getting
Speaker 1: up in Caitlin's jersey and just making it so that
Speaker 1: the screen defender for the Aces just didn't have to
Speaker 1: as consistently or as aggressively come out to the level
Speaker 1: of the screen. And then the entire ACES frontline is
Speaker 1: massive and athletic, and they just played really good physical
Speaker 1: defense on Aliah Boston as well as Melissa Smith, and
Speaker 1: the Aces held Caitlyn Clark and Aliah Boston to nine
Speaker 1: for thirty two from the field, as well as just
Speaker 1: twenty two points. I want to qualified a little bit
Speaker 1: like there's a certain amount of like bad night going
Speaker 1: on there. Leah Boston missed some of her like little
Speaker 1: hook shots and pushots around the basket that she normally makes,
Speaker 1: especially at the tail end of the game. In the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, I thought Caitlin got I thought in the
Speaker 1: early part of the game, kateln and was forcing the
Speaker 1: issue a little bit. She took a couple of bad shots,
Speaker 1: a little bit worked up by just the emotion of
Speaker 1: the matchup. But down in the second half of the game,
Speaker 1: I thought she was playing some pretty good basketball and
Speaker 1: she was just missing. She couldn't hit the like She's
Speaker 1: been one of the very best catch and shoot players
Speaker 1: in the league this year. She's been particularly deadly flying
Speaker 1: off of off ball action to hit threes and got
Speaker 1: a couple looks like that couldn't make them. She had
Speaker 1: a couple of really clean looks off the dribble in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter that were off. She had that completely
Speaker 1: unguarded catch and shoot three on the right wing that
Speaker 1: was in the final like two three minutes or so
Speaker 1: that she left way short. Like some of it was
Speaker 1: just Caitlin's first bad game in a very long time,
Speaker 1: and bad games happened in basketball. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: like I want to credit the Las Vegas Aces defense
Speaker 1: as well. They just did a really, really nice job.
Speaker 1: And then on the other end of the floor, you
Speaker 1: know what makes the Aces so hard to guard is
Speaker 1: they just have really good guard play alongside one of
Speaker 1: the best and most dynamic scores in terms of screening
Speaker 1: and short rolling to the elbow that you'll find in
Speaker 1: the kind of similar it's a little bit more of
Speaker 1: an athletic and quick decision making type of vibe, but
Speaker 1: kind of reminds me of some of the stuff we
Speaker 1: see with Joel Embiid and Philly right, like constantly screening
Speaker 1: and rolling to the elbows where he can look for
Speaker 1: quick ISOs in like kind of advantage situations there. But
Speaker 1: it starts with a bunch of really good guards for
Speaker 1: the Aces that are good at turning the corner and
Speaker 1: getting downhill. Again, similarly to the Caitlin Clark factor. With
Speaker 1: Kaitlyn Clark, she does get a lot of dribble penetration
Speaker 1: as well, but a lot of the times the way
Speaker 1: she'll open up things on the pocket is just by
Speaker 1: bringing the defender up to the level of the screen
Speaker 1: right as we talked about earlier. She gets a little
Speaker 1: separation from her defender just by setting them up for
Speaker 1: the screen. Then she'll come off of that action and
Speaker 1: bring the screen defender up, at which point she can
Speaker 1: throw that pocket pass right, but with the aces guards,
Speaker 1: it's more about getting downhill, and when they get downhill,
Speaker 1: they engage that screen defender. And at that point, as
Speaker 1: the guard is chasing over the top and the screen
Speaker 1: defender is meeting the driving guard, Asia just kind of
Speaker 1: hangs out around the elbow where those pocket passes can
Speaker 1: come back to her. And then she's just been deadly
Speaker 1: as a scorer at the elbows all season. Obviously, as
Speaker 1: you guys saw, she just had tonight set the record
Speaker 1: the single season scoring record in WNBA history, But a
Speaker 1: big part of it is her scoring there at the elbow.
Speaker 1: She's just absolutely deadly as a mid range jump shooter,
Speaker 1: shooting about forty six percent on high volume on long
Speaker 1: twos in that area. Doesn't really matter if it's you know,
Speaker 1: along to out, you know, seventeen eighteen feet or if
Speaker 1: it's a little closer twelve thirteen feet, she's just like clockwork,
Speaker 1: like forty five forty six percent, like she's just gonna
Speaker 1: knock down those shots. And then she can drive closeouts
Speaker 1: from that position about as well as anybody in the league.
Speaker 1: As you saw the play that ice the game, just
Speaker 1: a simple rip through to the left, extend out, draw
Speaker 1: the contact, and finish off the glass. She's one of
Speaker 1: the best athletes in the league, one of the best
Speaker 1: mid range shooters in the league. Let's just let's cut
Speaker 1: the shit for a second. Agia Wilson is definitively the
Speaker 1: best player in the WNBA. This Caitlin Clark story is
Speaker 1: really cool and for a rookie, she's completely unbelievable. She's
Speaker 1: arguably been the second best player in the WNBA over
Speaker 1: the last two months or so, and she has a
Speaker 1: really good chance to finish second in MVP voting. We
Speaker 1: have a whole video that I worked on today. I
Speaker 1: did about thirty five minutes on Caitlin Clark and everything
Speaker 1: she does to unlock the Indiana fever offense, as well
Speaker 1: as what Kelsey Mitchell does as well as with Aliah
Speaker 1: Boston and Alissa Smith, do an extensive film dive into
Speaker 1: what makes the fever so devastating on offense. And I
Speaker 1: want you guys to check that video out when we
Speaker 1: get to the end of this week. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: I think it's coming out on Friday, if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: possibly Tomorrow's keep an eye on the feeds. I'll tweet
Speaker 1: it out when it comes out. But all that's really cool.
Speaker 1: But make no mistake, Asia Wilson is the best and
Speaker 1: it's not particularly close. In addition to being a deadly
Speaker 1: high volume score, she's also one of the very best
Speaker 1: defensive players in the league. And it was kind of
Speaker 1: interesting to see the dynamic of this game as it shifted.
Speaker 1: So like the Aces bench really started to grow the
Speaker 1: lead in that second quarter run. And we go into
Speaker 1: the third quarter and the Aces are up by nine,
Speaker 1: and predictably, Indiana comes out. They play some really good
Speaker 1: basketball in the early third quarter. They end up cutting
Speaker 1: the lead way down. It gets close, It gets a
Speaker 1: little bit hairy there for a second, but then from there.
Speaker 1: One of the issues that Indiana was having was clean
Speaker 1: catches for Ajia Wilson around the elbow, and so one
Speaker 1: of the problems they were having is they had to
Speaker 1: give up those clean catches because they weren't doing a
Speaker 1: good job on the ball the way they were with
Speaker 1: Caitlin Clark on the other end of the floor. So
Speaker 1: the Aces guards were getting deep dribble penetration, which forced
Speaker 1: the Indiana forwards to catch to catch the ball handler
Speaker 1: on the drive. Right that is going to leave Ajia
Speaker 1: Wilson wide open. So the way Indiana reacted to that
Speaker 1: is they started to rotate from the weak side. Usually
Speaker 1: Melyssa Smith, but whoever it was that was nearby, would
Speaker 1: rotate from the weak side and throw the contest at
Speaker 1: Ajia Wilson. From there, Ajia Wilson started to pick them
Speaker 1: apart with the pass. You guys, remember Kelsey Plum gets
Speaker 1: wide open right corner, three sheets, another one, a couple
Speaker 1: possessions later, and then Alicia Clark that fourth quarter hit
Speaker 1: a couple huge ones as well, And so it's that
Speaker 1: classic push and pull right. You try to defend the
Speaker 1: action two on two. You defend the action two on two,
Speaker 1: but you're getting too deep with your dribble penetration. That's
Speaker 1: causing problems. So now Asia Wilson's catching clean around the elbow. Okay,
Speaker 1: So we want to take away the catching clean around
Speaker 1: the elbow. So we start to rotate from the weak side.
Speaker 1: As soon as we start to rotate from the weak side.
Speaker 1: Now we're in rotation, and the Aces just have a
Speaker 1: lot of really good players and they're gonna beat you
Speaker 1: just by moving the ball around and getting to the
Speaker 1: open to the open shooter right and so from there
Speaker 1: the Aces quickly pulled back away as we talked about
Speaker 1: a couple of good looks for Caitlin Clark that she
Speaker 1: missed a couple of tough miss free throws from Melissa
Speaker 1: Smith as well as Fake Bentley, and it was just
Speaker 1: an impressive effort on both ends of the floor from
Speaker 1: the Aces to get their fifth win in their last
Speaker 1: six games. Looking championship ready, and we will see what happens.
Speaker 1: We plan on doing some coverage around the WNBA in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, so make sure you subscribe to the hoops
Speaker 1: and at YouTube channel, call me on Twitter at Underscore jsonlt.
Speaker 1: I'll be sending out show announcements as well as when
Speaker 1: I post that Indiana fever clip. You guys can find
Speaker 1: that on my Twitter feed, but I'll tweet it out,
Speaker 1: but you can also find it on our YouTube channel
Speaker 1: as well as wherever you get your podcasts. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. As always, as
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. For all
Speaker 1: of you who are new, don't forget to subscribe and
Speaker 1: circle back over the next month as we cover the
Speaker 1: WNBA playoffs. I appreciate you, guys, and I'll see you
Speaker 1: next time the volume. What's up guys? As always, I
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