Speaker 1: The volume. Who's scoring big in the NBA this season?
Speaker 1: You are with all the new ways to get in
Speaker 1: on the action at Draft Kings sports Book, an official
Speaker 1: sports betting partner of the NBA. From Monster Slams to
Speaker 1: dishing the rock to cleaning the glass, get behind your
Speaker 1: favorite players and the prop bets you can make on DraftKings,
Speaker 1: the home of NBA player props. Ready to place your
Speaker 1: first bet? Try betting on something simple like picking how
Speaker 1: many points your favorite player will have. Go to the
Speaker 1: Draft Kings Sportsbook app and make your pick right now.
Speaker 1: The Oklahoma City Thunder have supplanted the Boston Celtics as
Speaker 1: the favorites to win the title on DraftKings at plus
Speaker 1: two to twenty five, with the Celtics right behind them
Speaker 1: at plus two thirty five. First time, here's something special
Speaker 1: just for you new DraftKings customers. Bet five dollars to
Speaker 1: get one hundred and fifteen bonus bets instantly take it
Speaker 1: to the rack with DraftKings sports Book, Every point counts.
Speaker 1: Download the Draft Kings sports Book app and use code
Speaker 1: hoops that's h oops, that's code hoops for new customers
Speaker 1: to get one to fifteen bonus bets when you bet
Speaker 1: just five bucks only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours.
Speaker 1: Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler and New York
Speaker 1: call eight seven seven eight hope and why our text
Speaker 1: hope and why to four six seven three six nine.
Speaker 1: Connecticut help Us available for problem gambling called eight eight
Speaker 1: eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit
Speaker 1: CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill
Speaker 1: Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age in
Speaker 1: eligibility varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional
Speaker 1: terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co. Slash
Speaker 1: b ball. All right, well twin to hoops tonight you're
Speaker 1: at the ball. Youme happy Wednesday? Everybody, Oh ball. If
Speaker 1: you guys are having a great week. I'm coming to
Speaker 1: you from breck and Ridge for doing some ski in here.
Speaker 1: One last little getaway before we get ready for the
Speaker 1: playoff grind. You got a jam pack show for you
Speaker 1: today as the Golden State Warriors get a signature win
Speaker 1: and the Jimmy Butler era going on the road to
Speaker 1: beat the New York Knicks. After that, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about the Phoenix Suns and their epic comeback against
Speaker 1: the Clippers. And then we're gonna talk a little Indiana
Speaker 1: Pacers after they get a big win over the Houston
Speaker 1: Rockets last night. And then finally, just some brief thoughts
Speaker 1: on the Lakers getting another big win against the Pelicans
Speaker 1: last night. You guys know the joke before you started.
Speaker 1: Subscribed to the Hoops to Night YouTube channel so you
Speaker 1: don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at underscore JCNLT so you guys don't miss show announcements.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you gets your
Speaker 1: podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if he
Speaker 1: leave a rating in a review on that front, and
Speaker 1: the last not at least keep dropping mail bag questions
Speaker 1: and those YouTube comments have been get to them throughout
Speaker 1: the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So Warriors Nicks. The Warrior struggled a little early in
Speaker 1: this one. They defended well, but they couldn't score. They
Speaker 1: were generating quality looks, but they were missing. Per Synergy,
Speaker 1: they missed eight of their last nine unguarded catch and
Speaker 1: shoot jump shots heading into halftime, which is on one
Speaker 1: note good because they generated eleven unguarded jump shots. It's
Speaker 1: a sign of quality offense. But they were just not
Speaker 1: knocking them down. And I've generally been of the belief
Speaker 1: that variance does play a role in basketball games. But
Speaker 1: if you generate better shot quality, generally speaking, over the
Speaker 1: course of a game, over the course of getting additional reps,
Speaker 1: that will even out, and it did in the second half.
Speaker 1: They generated six unguarded catch and shoot jump shots in
Speaker 1: the second half and made all six of them as
Speaker 1: they exploded for sixty seven points. I thought Steve Kerr
Speaker 1: had a very good defensive game plan. Without Karl Anthony
Speaker 1: Towns in the lineup, they didn't have to worry about
Speaker 1: the pick and pop, so they were able to keep
Speaker 1: their bigs around the basket, pack the paint. I thought
Speaker 1: they just did a really good job on Brunson two
Speaker 1: all night of playing him into tougher shots, particularly on
Speaker 1: his threes. You could tell that he was rushing and
Speaker 1: he's really having to like get into those shots off
Speaker 1: the move and kick his legs and square up in
Speaker 1: mid air and all the things that just add to
Speaker 1: the level of difficulty that make it more likely that
Speaker 1: he might have a poor shooting night, and he did.
Speaker 1: And the one thing in the offense they were kind
Speaker 1: of allowing was that skip pass to og Ananobi, and
Speaker 1: he did some damage. Attacking with an advantage throughout the game.
Speaker 1: You know how it goes with defensive game planning. He
Speaker 1: got a take some things away, and if you're taking
Speaker 1: some things away, you're going to allow some things. And
Speaker 1: og did some damage. But for the most part, the
Speaker 1: Warriors defense, which has been incredibly good all season long
Speaker 1: but has been especially good as of late, held them
Speaker 1: in check and ended up getting out of there with
Speaker 1: the win. They have had the number two defense in
Speaker 1: the NBA since the Jimmy Butler trade. Brandon Pajemski and
Speaker 1: Moses Moody have seamlessly slided into their primary perimeter defense roles.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green's defensive playmaking off the ball.
Speaker 1: I thought Steph was great on defense again last night.
Speaker 1: He's been really good on defense during this stretch. They
Speaker 1: continue to blow me away as one of the best
Speaker 1: rotation teams in the NBA. Their ability to make teams
Speaker 1: rush at the three point line, it's so easy after
Speaker 1: a game like that to be like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: the Knicks, we shot twenty five percent from three or
Speaker 1: whatever it is they ended up shooting in that game.
Speaker 1: But more often than not, that's a product of the
Speaker 1: feeling of being rushed on those catch and shoot attempts,
Speaker 1: which comes from the types of closeouts which have been
Speaker 1: a hallmark of the Warriors defense the entire season. But
Speaker 1: I thought this was one of Jimmy but There's best
Speaker 1: offensive games since coming to the Warriors. He makes everything
Speaker 1: look so easy, and it's interesting because it's not like
Speaker 1: he's out there doing a bunch of superstar shit. Like
Speaker 1: it's not like he's knocking down crazy contested jump shots
Speaker 1: or throwing these mind blowing passes, the kind of stuff
Speaker 1: you see from like Luka Doncic or Nikola Jokicz. Right,
Speaker 1: he's operating almost exclusively in the margins. But he's just
Speaker 1: so damn good at all of those things. Generated nine
Speaker 1: more free throw attempts in this game. He just has
Speaker 1: this natural ability to get defenders out of position and
Speaker 1: draw fouls. He does it through pump fakes. He's really
Speaker 1: good at changing the angle of his drives to force
Speaker 1: defenders to foul. He had a big one late in
Speaker 1: the game. I think it was on Mitchell Robinson if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, where he just kind of tweaked the
Speaker 1: angle of his drive into Mitchell's body so that when
Speaker 1: Mitch went to go block him at the rim, he
Speaker 1: ended up kind of getting too heavy onto his left
Speaker 1: shoulder and drawing a foul. It just slows the game down.
Speaker 1: It allows the Warriors to set their defense. It's just
Speaker 1: a big floor raiser for that team when things are
Speaker 1: getting tough. And then he's just really good at making
Speaker 1: simple reads. There were two threes that Buddy Healed hit
Speaker 1: in the second half that were both off of passes
Speaker 1: from Jimmy Butler that didn't even require the Warriors to
Speaker 1: run any offense. All that happened was is Jimmy brought
Speaker 1: the ball up the floor in the middle of the
Speaker 1: floor and Buddy Heeld was on the wing, once on
Speaker 1: the left wing, once on the right wing. Both times
Speaker 1: og and Oby's guarding him, and both times Ojan and
Speaker 1: Obi is sinking in in what we call nail help. Right.
Speaker 1: This is gapping or the type of defense that you'll
Speaker 1: see from most of the good defenses in the league. Essentially,
Speaker 1: whoever has the ball, he'll have his on ball defender
Speaker 1: in front of him, shading him whichever direction the game
Speaker 1: plan wants, but usually on both sides. In the driving lanes,
Speaker 1: you'll have guys basically splitting the difference, playing about halfway
Speaker 1: between the ball and the spot up shooter because they
Speaker 1: feel like they can offer help, but they can also
Speaker 1: get out and contest. Now, one of the ways you
Speaker 1: can beat nail help is just by making a swing pass.
Speaker 1: But you have to throw it quickly and you have
Speaker 1: to hit the guy right in the shooting pocket. Because again,
Speaker 1: why that guy is in that nail help position is
Speaker 1: because he feels like he can close out. He feels
Speaker 1: like he can get there and get rid of that
Speaker 1: advantage quick enough to where the guy might pump ake
Speaker 1: or the guy might not feel comfortable taking that shot.
Speaker 1: You have to rifle the pass, it has to be
Speaker 1: right in the shooting pocket, and that shooter has to
Speaker 1: knock it down. That is the only way to really
Speaker 1: beat nail help is you got to show a willingness
Speaker 1: to beat it with swing passes and shooting and jimmy
Speaker 1: just both of them. The one on the left wing.
Speaker 1: The one on the right wing just rifle passes right
Speaker 1: into the shooting pocket and Buddy heel knocked him down.
Speaker 1: That's just found money. You didn't even have to run offense.
Speaker 1: You didn't have to run pick and roll. You didn't
Speaker 1: have to get a switch that you like to generate
Speaker 1: an additional defender or an advantage. You just brought the
Speaker 1: ball to the floor and threw a swing pass. But
Speaker 1: because you rifled it hit him in the shooting pocket
Speaker 1: and the guy knocked it down, you're able to beat
Speaker 1: some nail help. He generated a wide open catch and
Speaker 1: shoot three for Steph on the right wing off of
Speaker 1: a baseline drive caught it on the left wing. I
Speaker 1: think he was going against Brunson, if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: like a transition cross match, and he just hard ripped
Speaker 1: through to the baseline drew. I think it was Moses
Speaker 1: Moody in the right corner. I can't remember exactly who
Speaker 1: was in the right corner, but Steph was on the
Speaker 1: right wing and he drove the baseline through the swing
Speaker 1: pass to the right corner. Mikale Bridges, who was guarding Steph,
Speaker 1: had no choice but to drop in rotation. I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure it was Moody to drop in rotation to Moody
Speaker 1: in the corner and then Steph gets a wide open
Speaker 1: catch and shoot three. In a half court set. You'll
Speaker 1: see Steph get wide open catch and shoot threes in chaos,
Speaker 1: like in transition or on an offensive rebound, or if
Speaker 1: he draws multiple defenders and the ball gets worked back
Speaker 1: around to him while the defenses in rotation. It's so
Speaker 1: rare to see Steph get wide open catch and shoot
Speaker 1: looks in the flow of half court offense because of
Speaker 1: the simple fact that McHale Bridges is not going to
Speaker 1: help if he's already on Steph in a half court setting.
Speaker 1: But Jimmy generated that with just a simple baseline drive
Speaker 1: against the miss. He's such a natural fit in their
Speaker 1: read and react offense on ball with inverted screens with Steph.
Speaker 1: He got to the foul line on a big one
Speaker 1: of those late in the game where just they didn't
Speaker 1: want to switch, so there was a little bit of
Speaker 1: a gap. The defender didn't pick him up until he's
Speaker 1: ten feet from the basket. He was already out of position.
Speaker 1: All of the off ball stuff, the slipping out of screens,
Speaker 1: the ceiling, he had a big one with Draymond in
Speaker 1: the second half where he spun out of a screen
Speaker 1: and Draymond just threw a perfect pass that hit him
Speaker 1: in stride for a layup. He's just a beautiful fit
Speaker 1: on this team. I had like I was looking at
Speaker 1: the box score. It goes for nineteen points. It's fine, right,
Speaker 1: four rebounds, four assists, nothing special there, no steals, no blocks.
Speaker 1: It was a pedestrian stat line. And like for the
Speaker 1: most part, if you pull up Jimmy's numbers as a Warrior,
Speaker 1: there's nothing exceptional happening there statistically. Yet I thought he
Speaker 1: dominated the second half of that game just using his brain.
Speaker 1: He's such a beautiful fit on that basketball team. Steph
Speaker 1: looked fantastic again. Twenty eight points to twenty one shots,
Speaker 1: seven rebounds, ninety sists. The degree of difficulty on the
Speaker 1: shots he's been hitting his outrageous. He's been good at
Speaker 1: getting separation in the mid range as of late, hit
Speaker 1: a couple more of those last night. He had the shot,
Speaker 1: the big one late that put him up was one
Speaker 1: of his ninety seven to ninety three and a big
Speaker 1: three along the right wing, sprinting off of a screening action.
Speaker 1: Catches on the move, plants his feet, squares up in
Speaker 1: mid air, doesn't even touch the rim. Just an absurd
Speaker 1: degree of difficulty on that shot. In Steph's last thirteen games,
Speaker 1: he's averaging thirty points, four rebounds and five excuse me,
Speaker 1: four rebounds and seven assists on sixty four percent true shooting.
Speaker 1: Thirty points on sixty four percent true shooting. That's MVP
Speaker 1: steph numbers. That's the numbers he was putting up when
Speaker 1: he won the unanimous MVP. Those are the tip that's
Speaker 1: the type of production that Steph's been putting up in
Speaker 1: his last thirteen games. I talked in the early part
Speaker 1: of the season about how I thought STEP's perceived decline
Speaker 1: with some combination of like age and frustrations or lack
Speaker 1: of belief in what the roster was capable of. And
Speaker 1: it's beginning to look a lot like it's more of
Speaker 1: the latter than the former, because ever since Intel has
Speaker 1: been coming down that the Warriors were going to make
Speaker 1: a deal, Steph's been hooping his ass off. Steve Kerr
Speaker 1: talked about how his body's in a great place, remember
Speaker 1: how his body was in a tough place early. He
Speaker 1: just is rejuvenated by the belief in his opportunity to
Speaker 1: try to win a championship this year. This year, the
Speaker 1: Warriors are nine to two in their last eleven games.
Speaker 1: Fifth in offense, second in defense, third and net rating
Speaker 1: tenth in rebounding. They just look much more like a
Speaker 1: well rounded, dead serious basketball team that has a real
Speaker 1: chance to make noise in the postseason. Just a couple
Speaker 1: other shoutouts for the Warriors. Pajemski nineteen points, hit a
Speaker 1: big three on the right wing and transition during the
Speaker 1: second half. Run a lot of important scoring in the
Speaker 1: first half when the Warriors offense was kind of bogging down,
Speaker 1: and then lots of good ball pressure again on Brunson,
Speaker 1: just slowing down the Knicks getting into their offense. I
Speaker 1: thought he was great. Moses Moody continuing to do a
Speaker 1: phenomenal job in that primary wing defensive role. Gist Santos
Speaker 1: plus fourteen and fifteen minutes. I thought he hit one
Speaker 1: of the biggest shots in this game. It was ninety
Speaker 1: four to ninety three in the fourth quarter, and the
Speaker 1: Knicks just didn't pick him up in transition on the
Speaker 1: right wing, and Draymond trusted him. Draymond threw the pass,
Speaker 1: trusted him to knock it down, and he knocked down
Speaker 1: that three. I thought that was big. Warriors are playing
Speaker 1: some great basketball on the Knicks front. It was just
Speaker 1: jarring to see the difference in their offensive geometry without
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns. It made Brunson and Bridges in particular
Speaker 1: play in so much more of a crowd and the
Speaker 1: paint than they're accustomed to. There was really difficult shots
Speaker 1: like Mikhale Bridges having to rely on one leg fadeaways
Speaker 1: in traffic, and Brunson just facing two to three defenders
Speaker 1: at any given point. Obviously, Karl Anthony Towns when he's
Speaker 1: out there, brings a different dynamic. But I just thought
Speaker 1: it was interesting in an example of just how important
Speaker 1: a spacing five can be for an offense. Apparently Cat
Speaker 1: missed last night's game for personal reasons. There are some
Speaker 1: rumors flying around about what that might be. We're obviously
Speaker 1: not going to get into that on the show, but
Speaker 1: let's just wish Kat the best and hope that he
Speaker 1: can rejoin the team as soon as possible. All right,
Speaker 1: let's move on. Welcome to course correction brought to you
Speaker 1: by Microsoft. Just like Star Players, and teams navigating performance hurdles.
Speaker 1: Business decision makers today are under immense pressure to get
Speaker 1: things right. They must rise to the occasion, turning challenges
Speaker 1: into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries with AI solutions, simplified
Speaker 1: cloud and data management and trustworthy responsible AI. When you're
Speaker 1: in the NBA, you have your own hurdles to face.
Speaker 1: This segment, we're gonna explore the challenges faced by teams
Speaker 1: or star players and how they can turn things around.
Speaker 1: Whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers you with the expertise
Speaker 1: to say bring it on. This week, we're discussing Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant and the epic comeback he led the Suns on
Speaker 1: against the Clippers last night. It was looking bleak again
Speaker 1: for the Suns last night. The Clippers just methodically were
Speaker 1: kicking their ass for the first two and a half quarters.
Speaker 1: They built a twenty three point lead in the late third,
Speaker 1: the body language was bad. Bradley Beal went out of
Speaker 1: the lineup again. Kevin Durant Mike Budenholzer get into it
Speaker 1: on camera, kind of a little bit of a physical
Speaker 1: altercation that got a little heated, and by the way,
Speaker 1: before we go any further, This is one of my
Speaker 1: biggest pet peeves is the way this kind of thing
Speaker 1: is covered. Losing sucks. Nobody looks like they're having fun
Speaker 1: when they're losing, and it's so annoying because if they
Speaker 1: looked like they were having fun when they were losing,
Speaker 1: we call them a bunch of losers. Anyway, It's like,
Speaker 1: there's nothing you're actually allowed to do when you're losing
Speaker 1: that's not going to get you in trouble, and that's
Speaker 1: so stupid. And you can literally see KD after the
Speaker 1: initial confrontation, like seconds later, you can see it like
Speaker 1: dawned on him that like obviously that wasn't a good look,
Speaker 1: and he turned and like reapproached Bud and they had
Speaker 1: like a different conversation. And like, these are some of
Speaker 1: the most competitive people in the world. Every single person
Speaker 1: in that jersey or on that coaching staff got there
Speaker 1: by being a savage competitor relative to their peers. You
Speaker 1: don't think they're going to be kicking and screaming a
Speaker 1: little bit when the shit hits the fan. That's normal, Okay,
Speaker 1: So like I feel like that gets a little bit overplayed.
Speaker 1: That said, things are looking bleak for the Suns not
Speaker 1: about their body language, was just strictly in the basketball
Speaker 1: that they were playing. But Kevin Durant in the late
Speaker 1: third quarter started hitting shots and the Sun started to
Speaker 1: gain some life. Biggest thing that screamed off the screen
Speaker 1: was their overall commitment to the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: just them flying around in their rotations. Buddenholzer seemed to
Speaker 1: find seven guys that he trusted down the stretch, obviously
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, Devin Booker for the centers, Mason Plumley and
Speaker 1: Nick richards On, the Wayne Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neil,
Speaker 1: and then Colin Gillespie, who was the role player hero
Speaker 1: of this game, basically providing what they hoped to receive
Speaker 1: from Tias Jones this season, which is like a little
Speaker 1: bit of ball handling, a little bit of spot up
Speaker 1: shooting and scoring, and then attention to detail on defense,
Speaker 1: which has been an area that Tias has struggled in
Speaker 1: all year. Not singling out Tias, like just about every
Speaker 1: Sun has struggled in that department. But Colin was just
Speaker 1: doing his job and that group was guarding. They had
Speaker 1: some limitations, like Gillespie had to guard Harden and pick
Speaker 1: and roll a bunch, and Carl Harden got free and
Speaker 1: got some good looks because he's much bigger and stronger
Speaker 1: and there's obviously some advantages there. Zubach did some damage
Speaker 1: because of his massive size advantage on the front line.
Speaker 1: They gave up some offensive boards because they're a bad
Speaker 1: rebounding team. They had some limitations that were still on display.
Speaker 1: But Kevin Durant did an incredible job on Kawhi Leonard,
Speaker 1: basically erased him from the game down the stretch like
Speaker 1: he's always been one of the better Kawhi Leonard defenders
Speaker 1: because of his length. But he put together some incredible
Speaker 1: reps on Kawhi last night. And then the whole group
Speaker 1: was just committed to the job of rotating contesting shots,
Speaker 1: fighting for every loose ball, and that allowed them to
Speaker 1: compete at least well enough on that end for their
Speaker 1: offensive gifts to carry them over the top. We talked
Speaker 1: about Kd's unbelievable shot making, and then Gillespie had a
Speaker 1: bunch of big shots. He had a beautiful scoop shot
Speaker 1: driving a close out off the left wing over rim protection,
Speaker 1: just put it high and soft off the glass. He
Speaker 1: had a trailing three in transition off of pass from
Speaker 1: Devin Booker, and then the shot of the game, Katie
Speaker 1: runs a little ball screen off of the right wing
Speaker 1: and in the process, Gillespie's man had to tag the
Speaker 1: roller and Katie just threw a beautiful pass across his
Speaker 1: body to Gillespie who kind of relocated up to the
Speaker 1: right wing and he knocked it down. It's a huge
Speaker 1: shot that ended up being the dagger in that one.
Speaker 1: A nice palate cleansing win for the Suns. Stan Van
Speaker 1: Gundy was harping throughout the entire broadcast about the Sun's
Speaker 1: effort and just their overall willingness to compete. This is
Speaker 1: something I've been hitting on the show NonStop. Like playing
Speaker 1: winning basketball is actually a giant pain in the ass.
Speaker 1: It requires so much running, so much physicality. You have
Speaker 1: to be so locked in mentally all the time on
Speaker 1: what you're supposed to do. There just has to be
Speaker 1: this top down commitment to the details to be a
Speaker 1: good defensive team, to be a good rebounding team, to
Speaker 1: be a team that can win on the margins, Like
Speaker 1: in transition, It's difficult, and it's a job that they
Speaker 1: haven't been committed to doing and stanmn Gandhi's right when
Speaker 1: they do it all of a sudden, Kevin Durant, Devin
Speaker 1: Booker feels like enough now, I'm pessimistic about the Suns
Speaker 1: actually generating real momentum in that area because it's not
Speaker 1: a natural part of their basketball personality. And this is
Speaker 1: why I've been advocating for a change in approach this
Speaker 1: summer in terms of the roster build. They need to
Speaker 1: bring in certain types of players that kind of have
Speaker 1: that as a natural baseline. The Lakers have been such
Speaker 1: a perfect example of this to me this year, with
Speaker 1: them being such a bad defense to start the year
Speaker 1: in such a good defense as of late, all you
Speaker 1: did is flip the character of the team by changing
Speaker 1: a few personalities. Oh, we're gonna bring in Dorian Finney
Speaker 1: Smith instead of Delo. Delo is a very good player,
Speaker 1: but Delo has always left a lot to be desired
Speaker 1: in terms of his attention to detail. DFAs is in
Speaker 1: the league because of his attention to detail. Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: when he's healthy, he's one of the best defensive players
Speaker 1: in the league. It brought a level of engagement out
Speaker 1: of Lebron, even little stuff like instead of playing you
Speaker 1: know two way guys that are or like and like
Speaker 1: guys like Jalen Hoochafino or something like that. It's here's
Speaker 1: we're gonna play Jordan Goodwin just an ass kicking guard
Speaker 1: who competes and plays hard. And so as a result,
Speaker 1: you flip some of these personalities and suddenly the Laker
Speaker 1: roster has like a lot more natural motor. And when
Speaker 1: you surround offensive superstars with natural motor, it allows the
Speaker 1: offensive superstars to overcome a makeup like a gap that
Speaker 1: is achievable to do because they're getting so much contribution
Speaker 1: in the details down the line. Again, like, I think
Speaker 1: that's the move here, It's not gonna happen. I think
Speaker 1: they're gonna trade KD. There was another report yesterday that
Speaker 1: they viewed Devin Booker as a foundational piece. I genuinely
Speaker 1: believe that another off season of some worthwhile switches in
Speaker 1: terms of the types of role players down the roster
Speaker 1: and just their character, their basketball character, will go a
Speaker 1: long way towards making Kevin Durant and Devin Booker a
Speaker 1: viable foundation. It just has to be something that is
Speaker 1: an organizational goal to bring in ass kickers that do
Speaker 1: their job everywhere on the floor. It was an impressive
Speaker 1: demonstration of resilience by the Suns last night. You can
Speaker 1: either lay down and get your butt kicked, or you
Speaker 1: can choose to fight, and the Suns chose to fight
Speaker 1: last night. That's it for this week's course correction. Remember
Speaker 1: Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to take bold steps and
Speaker 1: make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to help drive your
Speaker 1: business forward. With Microsoft has your trusted partner, you can
Speaker 1: navigate your journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions and reaching
Speaker 1: new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com Slash Challengers to learn more.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to Rockets Pacers. This was
Speaker 1: a game that the Pacers controlled for the most part.
Speaker 1: They struggled with Shangoon early. This is a consistent theme
Speaker 1: I've seen with a lot of teams when they run
Speaker 1: into the Rockets and they haven't played them before, they
Speaker 1: haven't played them in a long time. Shaneguon is just
Speaker 1: a huge pain in the ass and he literally will
Speaker 1: just back dudes down and use a bunch of shoulder
Speaker 1: fakes to get shots close to the rim where he
Speaker 1: can do some damage. And he just ripped through Miles
Speaker 1: Turner and Thomas Bryant early in this game, but the
Speaker 1: pacer settled in nicely. Houston runs a lot of drop
Speaker 1: coverage with Alprin Shang Nun, And one of the things
Speaker 1: I talked about with drop coverage is it's really an
Speaker 1: advance advantageous coverage for non athletic perimeter like skill oriented
Speaker 1: shot creators. Right, these guys that are like, not the
Speaker 1: dudes that are just gonna straight up beat you off
Speaker 1: the dribble with supreme athleticism, but rather they use their
Speaker 1: brains and their their skill set to get their game off.
Speaker 1: Because against drop coverage, there's baked in dribble penetration. When
Speaker 1: you're going against switches, you gotta beat the band in
Speaker 1: front of you, and it's just a much tougher job.
Speaker 1: Whereas against drop coverage, as long as you do a
Speaker 1: decent man a job setting your man up for the screen,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get him trailing you. And once he's trailing you,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get downhill. Once you get downhill, there's an
Speaker 1: opening in front of you, which is your advantage in
Speaker 1: that situation. Right, But in order to beat that coverage,
Speaker 1: you have to hit drop coverage shots, so you have
Speaker 1: to make the mid rangers, you have to drive and
Speaker 1: hit a scoop shot. When the big stays too far back,
Speaker 1: you might have to hit a pull up three when
Speaker 1: the guard dies on the screen. There's a level of
Speaker 1: shot making you have to show against drop coverage in
Speaker 1: order to engage the screen defender to open up other
Speaker 1: opportunities to make it. To put it simply, if you
Speaker 1: allow the other team to defend the drop coverage with
Speaker 1: drop coverage two on two, meaning the screen defender can
Speaker 1: keep the ball handler and the roller in front, then
Speaker 1: they're gonna feel comfortable there and you're never gonna get
Speaker 1: the defense in rotation, and you're gonna have to take
Speaker 1: a bunch of bad shots. But if you can make
Speaker 1: enough of them, then you can start to force a
Speaker 1: team to react. And this was super fascinating in this
Speaker 1: game because Halliburton was fantastic in the first half beating
Speaker 1: their drop coverage. You hit a bunch of threes in
Speaker 1: the first hit a couple mid range shots of driving
Speaker 1: scoop shot over Thomas Bryant at their rim like he
Speaker 1: got a bunch of buckets in that drop coverage. That
Speaker 1: ended up being a big part of their second half run,
Speaker 1: which we'll get to in just a second. They were
Speaker 1: also beating some sloppy switches. Houston will switch just about
Speaker 1: anything that doesn't involve their centers, but Indy just kept
Speaker 1: finding openings in botch switches or in lazy switches. Jalen
Speaker 1: Green in particular, was brutal on that end for Houston,
Speaker 1: just leaving guys open by either not communicating or not
Speaker 1: staying attached, not doing his job. Indy was involving him
Speaker 1: in the action as much as possible, and he's also
Speaker 1: very good at beating ball watching with cuts. They did
Speaker 1: a lot of damage to Jalen Green Anti Jabari Smith
Speaker 1: Junior with just batcuts in the second quarter, in particular,
Speaker 1: they logged five of them. And Halliburton has always just
Speaker 1: been so good at making teams pay for that sort
Speaker 1: of thing. And then undefense, Miles Turner rebounded after his
Speaker 1: tough first shift and just did a much better job
Speaker 1: on Shanegun. I thought Miles Turner completely dominated the game
Speaker 1: in the second half with his rim protection. He had
Speaker 1: a few blocks on Shangoon and Iso. He had a
Speaker 1: huge one late where he blocked Shangun on a hook
Speaker 1: shot that led to a runout to the other end.
Speaker 1: He had a play where he helped Amen Thompson or
Speaker 1: helped on a men Thompson at the rim forced him
Speaker 1: to drop it off to Steven Adams, and he recovered
Speaker 1: in time to get a piece of a Steven Adams
Speaker 1: dunk and force a stop. Like he was just unreal
Speaker 1: on defense at the end of that game. But perhaps
Speaker 1: the most important thing that happened in that game was
Speaker 1: Tyrese hit a couple of threes. He had like, I
Speaker 1: think three or four threes in the first half, and
Speaker 1: that forced emy Udoka because again because he was scoring
Speaker 1: against the drop coverage, it forced emy Udoka to make
Speaker 1: an adjustment at halftime. Instead of sitting Shangun back into
Speaker 1: drop coverage, he started blitzing with Shangoon. Haliburton is so
Speaker 1: good at getting the ball out against blitzes because he's
Speaker 1: very good with his passing. And the Pacers just operated
Speaker 1: in four on three for most of the third quarter
Speaker 1: and got great looks and they ended up pulling away
Speaker 1: and they ended up going up by seventeen. Now Eton
Speaker 1: made the game weird and ended up going on a run.
Speaker 1: They brought out a too big look with both Steven
Speaker 1: Adams and Shane Goun on the floor and they started
Speaker 1: running his zone and it like completely flummised to play
Speaker 1: the Pacers for a long time. Houston started getting out
Speaker 1: in transition. They actually briefly took the lead in the
Speaker 1: early fourth quarter, but the Pacers did eventually recover. They
Speaker 1: hit a few shots to break the zone, like you
Speaker 1: gotta break the zone shooting, and Ben Sheppard hit one
Speaker 1: at the top of the key. Miles Turner hit one
Speaker 1: on the right wing. Then the Rockets ended up going
Speaker 1: back to their man demand and so they went drop
Speaker 1: coverage with Steven Adams and Tyris Haliburton promptly beat the
Speaker 1: drop coverage with a little bank shot off the glass,
Speaker 1: and then he ended up hitting his fifth three of
Speaker 1: the night, a nice step back along the left wing.
Speaker 1: I think it was against Pascal Siakam if I remember,
Speaker 1: might have been Obi Toppin, but hit a shot against
Speaker 1: a switch against the right wing that ended up icing
Speaker 1: the game. I think it was a thirteen to ozero
Speaker 1: run at that point that ended up putting it away.
Speaker 1: Nice win for the Pacers. We talked about them on
Speaker 1: defense to earlier. As part of that run, just Miles
Speaker 1: Turner just really controlling the game with this rim protection.
Speaker 1: They've won six out of eight some impressive wins in
Speaker 1: there against Houston, Memphis, and the Clippers. They're fourth in
Speaker 1: offense in that span and tenth in defense. The only
Speaker 1: real area of concern has been the offensive glass. They're
Speaker 1: twenty eighth in defensive rebounding percentage in that eight game span.
Speaker 1: They gave up eighteen additional second chance points to Houston yesterday.
Speaker 1: They've been twentieth on the season in defensive rebound percentage,
Speaker 1: so that's definitely been a little bit of an issue.
Speaker 1: So much for this team, though, hinges on Halliburton's shot creation.
Speaker 1: They have an elite transition attack. They've been one of
Speaker 1: the best transition offenses in the league again this year.
Speaker 1: They have enough perimeter defense talent with guys of games
Speaker 1: and m hard, with guys like TJ. McConnell aaron Nie Smith.
Speaker 1: They've got guys that can guard on the perimeter, and
Speaker 1: they've got enough athletes underneath the basket that they can
Speaker 1: actually string together stops from time to time when they
Speaker 1: need to. They're not an elite defense, but they can
Speaker 1: string together some stops. But they need Tyre's Halliburton to
Speaker 1: be like in order for them to score enough in
Speaker 1: the half court for them to get the job done.
Speaker 1: And a lot of that comes down to his ability
Speaker 1: to get the defense in rotation. And again, if, like,
Speaker 1: if you allow Haliburton to be guarded two on two
Speaker 1: because he's not making the defense pay in those ball screens,
Speaker 1: then they don't get the defense in rotation. Then some
Speaker 1: of their more limited offensive players start to show their
Speaker 1: limitations as they can't generate shots. I thought it was
Speaker 1: really fascinating last night that when Halliburton shot email Udoka
Speaker 1: into blitzing him, that Indiana's offense promptly exploded and they
Speaker 1: blew the game open. So I dug into the numbers
Speaker 1: because I was curious. This year, when Tyre's Halliburton makes
Speaker 1: at least four to threes in a game, he have five.
Speaker 1: Last night, When Tyre's hits at least four to threes
Speaker 1: in a game, the Pacers are nineteen and seven or
Speaker 1: a sixty win pace. When he fails to hit four threes,
Speaker 1: they're below five hundred. They're sixteen and eighteen. His aggression,
Speaker 1: specifically shooting, is so vitally important to this team and
Speaker 1: this has been an issue I've seen a lot over
Speaker 1: the years with different types of players, Right, Like, you
Speaker 1: always find stars that are either excellent scorers, but they
Speaker 1: struggle to read the defense, trust their teammates, and make
Speaker 1: teams pay for loading up on them. And then you
Speaker 1: have this other kind of star and this is like
Speaker 1: Tyrese Haliburton has fallen into this mold. Better players than Tyreese,
Speaker 1: Guys like Jokic, guys like Lebron over the years have
Speaker 1: fallen into this mold where it's like they're these incredible
Speaker 1: playmakers and they always make the right play, but they
Speaker 1: can sometimes be a little too unselfish and fail to
Speaker 1: make the defense pay for leaving them in some pretty
Speaker 1: passive coverages. And like that's the thing. We've seen Tyres
Speaker 1: go entire games, playoff games where he doesn't seem much
Speaker 1: interested in shooting, and like time and time again, the
Speaker 1: evidence has shown that Tyres, when he's scored the basketball
Speaker 1: is what actually unlocks his top tier playmaking, which is
Speaker 1: his greatest trait and the thing that he rode to,
Speaker 1: like that wild run to start the season last year
Speaker 1: where we all thought he might be the next great superstar,
Speaker 1: and like here's the thing, his hamstring. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if you'll ever get back to the first step start
Speaker 1: stop quickness that he had back then, but the shooting
Speaker 1: can go a long way to make up for that.
Speaker 1: And I just think it's an interesting trend over the
Speaker 1: course of the season to see how much better they
Speaker 1: are when Tyresee is aggressive. All Right, before we get
Speaker 1: out of here, Tonash, let's talk some Pelicans Lakers briefly
Speaker 1: on this one. It was an interesting game. The Pels
Speaker 1: have one of the worst records in the league, but
Speaker 1: they're playing some good basketball. They've actually won four out
Speaker 1: of five coming in, and they've been really good on
Speaker 1: both ends of the flour. They've shown some really good
Speaker 1: ball pressure and some good rotations on defense, and then
Speaker 1: Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy and CJ. McCollum are just hooping
Speaker 1: on offense. They even great on both ends of the
Speaker 1: floor during that five five game span, and Zion Williamson
Speaker 1: was the first Star player to like truly rip the
Speaker 1: Laker defense to shreds. The Lakers could not guard him.
Speaker 1: He just ripped through them over and over again, even
Speaker 1: against some pretty excessive coverages like the Lakers were zoning
Speaker 1: up the strong sides, so like straight up double teaming him,
Speaker 1: like soft double teaming him when he would drive. Some
Speaker 1: of those times he was scoring on triple teams where
Speaker 1: he would just like hop step through a crowd and
Speaker 1: just rip up through everybody with his strong arms and
Speaker 1: just finish over the top, like he just demolished them.
Speaker 1: He had thirty seven points on only six missed shots.
Speaker 1: The Pelicans were actually plus thirteen when he was on
Speaker 1: the floor last night. Now, there are some bigger picture
Speaker 1: concerns for the Lakers on this front, with certain types
Speaker 1: of athletes that can kind of just rip through their
Speaker 1: defense with downhill athleticism. Milwaukee, for instance, would be a
Speaker 1: team as a finals opponent that would present a threat
Speaker 1: with Giannis. I thought Anthony Edwards showed some of that
Speaker 1: in his matchup, where like they were doing a lot
Speaker 1: of strong side zone and loading up and he was
Speaker 1: like still finding a way to get into the paint
Speaker 1: and cut their defense up a little bit. Just something
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on. Again, this is when you're
Speaker 1: number one defense for this long. It's not like, oh,
Speaker 1: their defense is secretly bad, but there are gonna be
Speaker 1: times that teams find a way to score on the Lakers,
Speaker 1: and it appears these bigger, stronger athletes are the ones
Speaker 1: that are giving them some problems here in the early returns.
Speaker 1: That said, I wasn't actually particularly worried about this game
Speaker 1: for the Lakers because the Pels just don't have the
Speaker 1: personnel to make the Lakers offense even remotely uncomfortable. Basically
Speaker 1: everyone on that roster is a target. And aside from
Speaker 1: a few good possessions of ball pressure and they had
Speaker 1: a few good blitzes where they forced turnovers that led
Speaker 1: you sloppy pocket passes or just Lebron and Luca just
Speaker 1: being lazy leading to pick six is going the other way.
Speaker 1: But other than that, the Lakers basically picked them the shreds.
Speaker 1: They almost put up a one forty offensive rating in
Speaker 1: this game. Luca was absolutely unbelievable for the second game
Speaker 1: in a row. He's clearly starting to get in a
Speaker 1: good rhythm. We talked about his poor jump shooting earlier.
Speaker 1: He's taken twenty nine jump shots in the last two
Speaker 1: games and it has made fourteen of them, like many
Speaker 1: of which were threes. He's got the three point shot going,
Speaker 1: he's got the mid range going. He's demonstrating like these
Speaker 1: crazy scoring runs where he'll hit a bunch of jumpers
Speaker 1: in a row and then the opponent will just recklessly
Speaker 1: blitz him, and then the Lakers will get dunks or
Speaker 1: open threes off of it. He had another stretch like
Speaker 1: that in the first half yesterday where he hit three
Speaker 1: threes in a row, some bombs, some really tough ones,
Speaker 1: and then they blitzed him and he just threw a
Speaker 1: behind the head pass to the role man that ended up.
Speaker 1: I think that was a shake Milton open three in
Speaker 1: the left corner if I remember correctly. He just makes
Speaker 1: everything so easy for the Lakers. You can generate a
Speaker 1: quality shot whenever he wants. He takes flawed players and
Speaker 1: turns them into very useful players. So, for instance, like
Speaker 1: Jared Vainderbilt is really experience and seeing some offensive success
Speaker 1: next to Luca. He's twenty points in the last two games.
Speaker 1: An update on the on the the third update on
Speaker 1: our debate between whether or not Jared Vanderbilt is better
Speaker 1: off spotting up in the corner hanging out in the
Speaker 1: dunker spot. He had two more threes last night, so
Speaker 1: like he's actually it's not even really a question of
Speaker 1: which he should be doing. He's just playing really good
Speaker 1: basketball right now. But it's because he's getting these like
Speaker 1: open dunks now too, Like he's not going up in
Speaker 1: traffic around the basket. That's Vanderbilt's weakness catching and finishing
Speaker 1: in traffic. But Luca's compromising the defense so extensively that
Speaker 1: he's getting like easy runways to get his one two
Speaker 1: down and to jump up and get a lob dunk.
Speaker 1: He's turning him into a really useful two way player,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, never something that you would consider
Speaker 1: when you're talking about Jared Vanderbilt. Now, again, some of
Speaker 1: that's matchup dependent, I do I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: coincidence that, you know, you go up against these rim
Speaker 1: protection teams, that teams that have guys that can park
Speaker 1: under the basket and like Utah for instance, and you
Speaker 1: see some issues with Vanderbilt, whereas you put him against
Speaker 1: some inferior rim protection teams led by Kelly Olnik and
Speaker 1: Zubachhu's actually an underrated rim protector, but he's not like
Speaker 1: an incredibly vertical athlete obviously. Like I'm curious to see
Speaker 1: how much of that Jared Vanderbilt success is attached to
Speaker 1: the rim protection piece for the defense for the defense.
Speaker 1: For a good example, that would be like on Saturday
Speaker 1: when they play, actually Thursday to play Nicks Mitchell Robinson,
Speaker 1: if he plays, that's a legitimate rim protector. Saturday, if
Speaker 1: Porzingis plays. I'm not sure if Porzingis is playing, but
Speaker 1: I would be shocked if they didn't put Porzingis on
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt and just let him sit underneath the basket.
Speaker 1: So we'll get some other examples of that over the
Speaker 1: course of the rest of this week. Similar sort of
Speaker 1: thing with Jackson Hayes, Like I've been talking about this,
Speaker 1: like he's just such an obvious vertical spacing release valve
Speaker 1: for Lebron and Luca. He was eight for eight for
Speaker 1: nineteen points last night. That's a player who has a
Speaker 1: lot more offensive utility in this construct than he would
Speaker 1: even in just previous constructs of this team. And then
Speaker 1: even Lebron, Like I thought, Lebron's first shift without Luca
Speaker 1: yesterday was rough. He was kind of struggling to find
Speaker 1: a rhythm, struggling to get some advantages. But when Luca
Speaker 1: checked in for his second shift, it kind of overlapped
Speaker 1: with the tail end of Lebron's second shift, Lebron got
Speaker 1: a bunch of easy ones in a row, like a
Speaker 1: good off ball three. You're starting to get the second
Speaker 1: best defender now because the best defenders on Luca, and
Speaker 1: Lebron got his rhythm, and then Lebron was much sharper
Speaker 1: the rest of the way, including his second shift when
Speaker 1: Luca was off the floor. And so like, Lebron just
Speaker 1: had a great game last night, thirty four points, and
Speaker 1: it got off to a rough start. He got in
Speaker 1: rhythm in large part because of the advantages that Luca
Speaker 1: created for him. He's just insanely good and I still
Speaker 1: cannot believe he's a Laker. A couple other quick notes.
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about Luca in the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. I've seen a lot of Laker fans
Speaker 1: talking about, oh, Luca's finally playing defense with the Lakers.
Speaker 1: He wasn't doing that in Dallas, and like, this is
Speaker 1: just completely false. Luca was mostly good on defense last
Speaker 1: year and had many big defensive moments, including in that
Speaker 1: Minnesota Timberwolf series. Had a lot of really good moments
Speaker 1: off the ball on defense in that series. What happened
Speaker 1: to him against Boston is still my major concern for
Speaker 1: what this Laker team can eventually accomplish. One of the
Speaker 1: things they're doing with Luca is with all these teams,
Speaker 1: whether it's Chris Dunn that they're helping off of, or
Speaker 1: it's you know, Zion Williamson when he's off the ball,
Speaker 1: or Eve's Missy or some of these other guys that
Speaker 1: they don't feel threatened by as jump shooters, they're able
Speaker 1: to offer a lot of help behind Luca, which makes
Speaker 1: his on ball responsibilities easier. And Luca's always been a
Speaker 1: good off ball defensive playmaker, like That's not something I'm
Speaker 1: worried about with him at all. I'm specifically, big picture
Speaker 1: concerned about Luca on defense against teams that can truly
Speaker 1: space the Lakers out. And I'm not even necessarily concerned
Speaker 1: about Okay See in this regard because they don't space
Speaker 1: the floor as well, but specifically Boston. If they put
Speaker 1: Luca in a position where he had to guard Tatum
Speaker 1: or Brown with not as much nail help on either
Speaker 1: side of him, with not as much help in the
Speaker 1: paint behind him, that's where what you saw last year
Speaker 1: came to fruition. Luca was pretty good on defense for
Speaker 1: most of that playoff run. He had a couple bad
Speaker 1: games against the Clippers, but he had a couple of
Speaker 1: good games against the Clippers. Defensively, he ran into Boston
Speaker 1: and they exposed his specific weakness of containing the ball
Speaker 1: in space. And so again, guys like Luca is an
Speaker 1: underrated defensive player for the eighty two game and for
Speaker 1: most matchups in the playoffs, but that was the case
Speaker 1: even before he went to LA. I still have concerns
Speaker 1: about him against specific matchups. The one thing I'll say
Speaker 1: is the big difference between a Boston matchup now versus
Speaker 1: a Boston matchup this year versus the Boston matchup last
Speaker 1: year when he was with Dallas, is the real problem
Speaker 1: that Boston caused for Dallas. Is it shut down Dallas's offense.
Speaker 1: They played Kyrie into a really bad series, and they
Speaker 1: were able to use a game plan that forced a
Speaker 1: bunch of above the break threes for PJ. Washington and
Speaker 1: for Derek Jones Junior that they were missing. And so
Speaker 1: even though there were these defensive runs where the Dallas
Speaker 1: defense would fall apart because of Luca, they would have
Speaker 1: been much more competitive in that series if they could
Speaker 1: score the basketball, and this Laker team is just gonna
Speaker 1: have a much better chance to score the basketball in
Speaker 1: that matchup. That said, I do think it's worth bringing
Speaker 1: up that I still have some concerns about Luca in
Speaker 1: that particular matchup. A couple of quick things before we
Speaker 1: get out, finding offense. When you're missing players, like with
Speaker 1: Ruy and Austin out, you need guys to step up
Speaker 1: and make shots. Dalton connect and Shake Milton poured in
Speaker 1: twenty five points off the bench. I thought that was
Speaker 1: a big Shake's threes in particular, I thought were so
Speaker 1: valuable because they came off of blitzes. I call these
Speaker 1: coverage beaters. A shot that is a defense is basically
Speaker 1: conceding as part of a coverage. You have to make
Speaker 1: that in order for the coverage to be untenable. And
Speaker 1: Shake it two threes in the corner out of Luca blitzes,
Speaker 1: which basically punished the Pelicans for their game plan. I'm
Speaker 1: just really impressed by this Lakers team. They continue to
Speaker 1: beat up on everyone even without Austin and RUI that's
Speaker 1: not anything to take lightly there. This is basically it
Speaker 1: is Lebron and Luca, but it's Lebron and Lucas surrounded
Speaker 1: by a bunch of discounted role players. And this way,
Speaker 1: I want to give Rob Plink some credit. I think
Speaker 1: what happened at the deadline with him is more than
Speaker 1: a little bit overrated because that deal fell into his
Speaker 1: lap and then he failed to bring in center depth.
Speaker 1: So I think his job at the deadline's a bit overrated.
Speaker 1: But I've been begging him for years to surround Lebron
Speaker 1: with high motor athletes to make his life easier during
Speaker 1: the regular season, and he's done that and it's paying dividends.
Speaker 1: And I also think it's a credit to JJ Reddick.
Speaker 1: To me, when you see a team succeed with lineup turmoil,
Speaker 1: with guys in and out of the lineup. And by
Speaker 1: the way, it's not just Austin and RUI. When Lebron
Speaker 1: and Luca both missed a game, Austin got to win.
Speaker 1: Every time Lucas missed game, Lebron and Austin have been
Speaker 1: able to pull it out. So when you have that
Speaker 1: kind of lineup turmoil, in order to succeed, you got
Speaker 1: to have consistency in your effort in education, execution. It's
Speaker 1: got to be like a basketball culture thing. I think
Speaker 1: that's a credit to JJ Reddick, and I also think
Speaker 1: a defensive game planning night tonight continues to be excellent.
Speaker 1: This is a special team that has a real opportunity
Speaker 1: to do something great. We're going to be breaking down
Speaker 1: another Laker game tomorrow night. After the final buzzer of
Speaker 1: their game against the Knicks, were breaking that game down.
Speaker 1: I hope to see you guys there. That's all we
Speaker 1: have for tonight is always. Sincerely appreciate you guys for
Speaker 1: supporting me and supporting the show, and I'll see you
Speaker 1: tomorrow night. The volume What's Up guys? As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They
Speaker 1: would actually be really helpful for us if you guys
Speaker 1: would take a second and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
Speaker 1: you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
Speaker 1: appreciate it.