Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Round three coverage of the
Speaker 1: NBA Playoffs. Here at Hoops Tonight is brought to you
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Speaker 1: get these shows. Well, the Western Conference Finals lived up
Speaker 1: to the billing. We had a hell of a battle
Speaker 1: between Anthony Davis and Nikola Jokic, although I did think
Speaker 1: that it was a little bit closer, excuse me, a
Speaker 1: little bit more, a little bit more of a disparity
Speaker 1: between those two guys in the box score would lead
Speaker 1: you to believe lots of interesting dynamics and matchups that
Speaker 1: we're going to dive into. A early series adjustment from
Speaker 1: Darvin Ham and the way they guarded Nikola Jokic, and
Speaker 1: even though the nugget up one zero, they've got a lot.
Speaker 1: I think both of these teams really got to go
Speaker 1: back to the drawing board with their defensive approach. Albeit
Speaker 1: the Lakers had some positives there at the end of
Speaker 1: the game. You guys know the joke before we get started.
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Speaker 1: So I have a bunch of things I want to
Speaker 1: get into, but just quickly on the end of the game.
Speaker 1: There Typically when you get down twenty plus points in
Speaker 1: the second half, you can win, but you have to
Speaker 1: be perfect. And so I saw a lot of Laker
Speaker 1: fans focusing in on that Lebron James shot. Do I
Speaker 1: love it? No, But a couple things like, clearly he
Speaker 1: could have gotten met Clearly he could have gotten a
Speaker 1: better look, but he had, you know, several inches on
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray to shoot over the top of him. Also
Speaker 1: was giving him a good amount of space, and despite
Speaker 1: his shooting struggles to start this postseason, he shot thirty
Speaker 1: nine percent from three on six attempts per game over
Speaker 1: his previous five playoff games, so games two through six
Speaker 1: of the Warrior series, so he's in a better groove
Speaker 1: from three. And in his previous five playoff runs before
Speaker 1: this one, he was six attempts per game at thirty
Speaker 1: seven percent. So Labron's a better shooter than you would
Speaker 1: think given some of the narratives surrounding him in this
Speaker 1: postseason run. That said could have gotten a better shot.
Speaker 1: But to me, if you focus on just that shot
Speaker 1: from this game, if you're a Laker fan, I think
Speaker 1: you're missing a whole lot of other issues. That game
Speaker 1: was lost in the first half. You spotted them an
Speaker 1: eighteen point lead with an atrocious defensive effort, especially in transition.
Speaker 1: I thought it was their worst defensive effort of the
Speaker 1: entire postseason to start. But you want to give the
Speaker 1: Nuggets a ton of credit. Obviously, they have the best
Speaker 1: home court advantage in basketball. There's no doubt that elevation
Speaker 1: played a role. The Lakers brought significantly better energy in
Speaker 1: Game one of both of the Memphis Grizzlies and the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warrior series, and honestly, like that's how the
Speaker 1: Nuggets can win this series. So that's why I want
Speaker 1: to start with Jokis. I said going into the series
Speaker 1: in my series preview that down the roster, I believe
Speaker 1: the Lakers are better if you look at Lebron, James
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves, Rueyatcha Muraw, those guys, if you go down
Speaker 1: the roster, they're better. Like that's gonna be the very
Speaker 1: best you're gonna see if Jamal Murray as a shot
Speaker 1: making performance, You're gonna see Lebron do a lot of
Speaker 1: what he did tonight throughout the entire series, because he's
Speaker 1: the second best player of all time, and he's in
Speaker 1: a really good groove right now, right But the jok
Speaker 1: Ad matchup is where this entire series swinks. Now, if
Speaker 1: you look at the Anthony Davis box score, you're gonna
Speaker 1: think it was pretty close. But aside from Ad scoring
Speaker 1: well mostly in the short role, I didn't think he
Speaker 1: played a particularly great game. I didn't think he defended
Speaker 1: as well as he was capable of. I didn't think
Speaker 1: he controlled the glass as well as he was capable of.
Speaker 1: Gave him by a critical offensive rebound late in the
Speaker 1: game to Aaron Gordon on a play that ruy Hatcha
Speaker 1: Murrow was contesting Jokic, and he didn't need Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: Like if you're if you're on Aaron Gordon under the
Speaker 1: basket three point game late, like that's gotta be your rebound.
Speaker 1: That's Aaron Gordon. You're Anthony Davis, right. I didn't think
Speaker 1: he made particularly great decisions in his post ups and
Speaker 1: in his ISOs, like just driving into traffic and fumbling
Speaker 1: the basketball, thrown up some shots that were extremely high difficulty.
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was Anthony Davis's best game. That's why,
Speaker 1: you know, and this is something we talk about a
Speaker 1: ton on this show. Box scores don't really mean a
Speaker 1: ton to me. I thought Nikola Jokic was the best
Speaker 1: player on the floor by a mile. I thought he
Speaker 1: dominated the game and basically every single facet except for
Speaker 1: his rim protection and on the defensive end to the floor. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the Lakers picked the Nuggets apart in this game on
Speaker 1: the offensive end. That's their big silver lining and we'll
Speaker 1: get to that later. But aside from Jokic defensively, I
Speaker 1: thought he dominated every other phase of the game. He
Speaker 1: dominated the glass on both ends, killed him on the
Speaker 1: offensive glass, was doing a great job finishing defensive possessions
Speaker 1: by securing the defensive rebound, bringing the ball up the floor,
Speaker 1: making those kick ahead passes to the Nuggets wings that
Speaker 1: were sprinting the floor. It's a huge part of the
Speaker 1: Nuggets offense. I've been on this for years now. Ever
Speaker 1: since we started first started having the embiid Yokic debate,
Speaker 1: I talk a lot about how Jokic can beat teams
Speaker 1: in transition. That was a huge part of the series preview.
Speaker 1: That's a big way that Jokic, I think knows he
Speaker 1: can beat this Laker team, secure defensive rebounds and kick
Speaker 1: it to a wing and sprint up the floor while
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is yelling at the refs or falling on
Speaker 1: the ground or jogging like he tends to do a
Speaker 1: lot of the time. Jokic killed ad in the post
Speaker 1: in single coverage when they doubled him. He made the
Speaker 1: right reads and guys made shots cutting and at the
Speaker 1: three point line. He did really nice to out of
Speaker 1: pulling Anthony Davis above the foul line, which opened up
Speaker 1: a lot of slashing opportunities and cutting opportunities for the
Speaker 1: Nuggets on the back line. I thought he screened extremely
Speaker 1: well for his guards and allowed them to get a
Speaker 1: good amount of separation. I thought he just played a
Speaker 1: much better game than Anthony Davis, and that is going
Speaker 1: to be the trickle down effect for the rest of
Speaker 1: these the dynamics that take place in this series. And again,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to some of the stuff that went
Speaker 1: down in that fourth quarter as the Lakers made their run.
Speaker 1: But as far as I'm concerned, in the total picture
Speaker 1: of Game one, Jokic looked like the best player in
Speaker 1: the series, and so round one goes to Jokic in
Speaker 1: that matchup, and I don't think it's a coincidence that
Speaker 1: the Nuggets went up one zero as a result. I
Speaker 1: thought Jamal Murray was fantastic. I thought that's the peak
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray game. I posted a picture of his shot chart.
Speaker 1: You can find it on my Twitter feed, and you'll
Speaker 1: see a ton of variety. You're gonna see above the
Speaker 1: break threes from different spots, some of them off of movement,
Speaker 1: some off of a catch off the dribble and pick
Speaker 1: and roll. He had shots in the mid range off
Speaker 1: the dribble, handoffs and out of pick and roll. He
Speaker 1: had to play at the end late third quarter. I
Speaker 1: think where he started attacking Lonnie Walker in the post.
Speaker 1: Like I told you guys, he's going to start attacking
Speaker 1: those smaller Laker guards in the posts and wherever he
Speaker 1: season opportunity. I thought he had some really good physical
Speaker 1: takes to the basket. He missed a few, but he
Speaker 1: puts real rim pressure and missed layup. Often when they
Speaker 1: occupy the rim protect or open up opportunities for offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: I thought. I thought Jamal Murray was fantastic. You saw
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior cause a lot of problems for the
Speaker 1: smaller Laker guards, and this is gonna be a big thing.
Speaker 1: I think we'll be I think we will almost certainly
Speaker 1: see Ruey Hotcha Mura start in game two, and that
Speaker 1: just kind of makes a lot of the matchups make
Speaker 1: more sense now you're putting Lebron James on Michael Porter Junior.
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves there there was a play in the corner.
Speaker 1: He had a couple of plays early in the game
Speaker 1: where I just didn't think he was doing a very
Speaker 1: good job. And we'll talk about that when we get
Speaker 1: a little bit further down with the Laker defense. But
Speaker 1: there was a play in the left corner first half
Speaker 1: might have been second half, but Austin saw the pivot
Speaker 1: coming got into the shooting pocket. Michael Porter Junior actually hesitated,
Speaker 1: like legit hesitated because he thought Austin was there. But
Speaker 1: Austin pulled his hands back because he didn't want to
Speaker 1: commit a foul and Michael Porter so he's there, He's
Speaker 1: literally there, and Michael Porter Junior just goes, dude, I'm
Speaker 1: bigger than you and you can't bother me when I
Speaker 1: take the shot. Just rose up over the top. Austin
Speaker 1: did a really nice job of getting a face contest
Speaker 1: with his left hand and went into the bottom of
Speaker 1: the basket. Like that's a matchup problem for the Lakers
Speaker 1: in this series. They cannot play the three guard lineup
Speaker 1: when the Nuggets have their starters on the floor, They're
Speaker 1: just too big at the three four five, and they
Speaker 1: can shoot over the top. With Lebron James there, you
Speaker 1: actually have a much better chance of getting some stops
Speaker 1: in that situation. So again, like I thought, Contavio's called
Speaker 1: Pope played a fantastic game. Jeff Green hit a monster
Speaker 1: three in the in the corner as the Lakers were
Speaker 1: making their run. Bruce Brown did a really nice job
Speaker 1: with his transition push pushes. Did a nice job of
Speaker 1: attacking the point of attack when the Lakers were not
Speaker 1: getting matched up in transition. There was a play where
Speaker 1: no one guarded him. He just barreled down the lane
Speaker 1: and made a layup. There's a play where Jared Vanderbilt's
Speaker 1: picking him up full court for whatever reason. Even though
Speaker 1: Bruce is probably one of the worst shooters on the Nugget,
Speaker 1: I think he's shooting in the twenty percent from three
Speaker 1: in this postseason run beats Jaredvan built off the dribble
Speaker 1: and just rose down a one handed dunk. It was
Speaker 1: a extremely impressive performance from the Nuggets down the roster.
Speaker 1: I thought it was kind of an outclassing in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways there I did. Obviously, they had a
Speaker 1: lot of issues on the defensive end. We'll get to
Speaker 1: that here in just a minute. I want to talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about the Lakers defensive scheme and some
Speaker 1: stuff that they did tweak in the game. But I
Speaker 1: thought it was a bad game plan that spotted Denver
Speaker 1: a lot of advantages early in the game. So I
Speaker 1: tweeted this out during the early second quarter, if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, but one of the big, big things that
Speaker 1: I thought was killing the Laker defense in the half court.
Speaker 1: Like again, as we look at transition, that's just effort.
Speaker 1: You know, it's really hard to judge scheme when guys
Speaker 1: just aren't playing hard. I posted a video of the
Speaker 1: Lakers jogging back in transition as Aaron Gordon just drove
Speaker 1: down the middle of the lane and drew a foul
Speaker 1: because Anthony Davis was jogging and no one was set.
Speaker 1: And now, the Lakers have been a bad transition defense
Speaker 1: all season, but they are capable of much better transition
Speaker 1: defense efforts. You saw that a lot in Game six
Speaker 1: against the Warriors. It is an effort and focus thing
Speaker 1: for them, and they just didn't bring a very good effort.
Speaker 1: I thought in this particular game, first time in a
Speaker 1: game one, that they didn't bring a good effort in
Speaker 1: this postseason. So I wouldn't be surprised if the Denver
Speaker 1: elevation had a little bit of an effect on them,
Speaker 1: But that definitely was a part of the problem. But
Speaker 1: as I zoom in on the half court stuff, which
Speaker 1: is where you're actually gonna learn things, because there's no
Speaker 1: adjustment to transition defense other than run back, get matched
Speaker 1: up communicate to each other, have good floor balance, all
Speaker 1: the stuff that they teach you from the lowest levels
Speaker 1: of basketball. There's no real adjustment there. It's just better execution.
Speaker 1: This was not just a gameplay and issue for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: This was a game plan and execution issue for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: But the guard I thought, as I looked at the
Speaker 1: half court possessions, the number one thing that I thought
Speaker 1: was causing the Lakers problems defensively was their screen navigation
Speaker 1: from the guards. Now, this can be a strength of
Speaker 1: the Lakers at times. They tend to struggle with dribble
Speaker 1: penetration from really quick guards, but they tend to have
Speaker 1: success in Darvin Ham's scheme, fighting over the top, applying
Speaker 1: back pressure. Denis Schruder had a fantastic series last series
Speaker 1: doing that. Austin Reeves did some pretty good work on
Speaker 1: Steph Curry, Daniel Russell actually did a decent job on
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson. They're actually capable of a lot better than
Speaker 1: they did. But some of it was game plan as well.
Speaker 1: I thought that it was readily apparent that Darvin Ham
Speaker 1: was asking the Laker guards to duck underpicks. Now again,
Speaker 1: what that means think of it like this. So do
Speaker 1: you remember in the Warriors series when I talked about
Speaker 1: shooting the gap. So when a shooter is breaking open,
Speaker 1: a shooter has a form that he goes to, a
Speaker 1: tried and true muscle memory. And when he gets into
Speaker 1: those situations, once he starts his muscle memory, it's over.
Speaker 1: There's nothing you can do to really bother them. From there.
Speaker 1: It's make or miss. Yeah, you can contest the shot,
Speaker 1: but these dudes have been shooting contested jumpers their entire life.
Speaker 1: They're not bothered by a hand in the face. They're
Speaker 1: bothered by disruption down low. They're bothered by messing with
Speaker 1: their footwork, disrupting something in the early phase of their
Speaker 1: energy transfer before they get to the top of the shot.
Speaker 1: So an off ball situation is when you shoot gaps.
Speaker 1: So if you try to go underneath a pick and
Speaker 1: beat a shooter to a spot, it doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: you get there in time to contest, because they are
Speaker 1: now running footwork, running over the top of the screen
Speaker 1: and rising up. They're running footwork that they've been practicing
Speaker 1: every day since they were little kids, and so they're
Speaker 1: gonna knock that shot down. Whereas if you chase over
Speaker 1: the top of the screen, you have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: disrupt their base. I thought that was a really poor strategies,
Speaker 1: more in a dribble handoff situation in this matchup with Denver.
Speaker 1: With Golden State, it was more off ball screens, but
Speaker 1: in this particular matchup, it was very much about off
Speaker 1: the dribble, like dribble handoffs from Nikola Jokic, where you're
Speaker 1: ducking under Nikola Jokic and you're allowing Jamal Murray to
Speaker 1: get into pretty comfortable shots. You're allowing Katav's Callbo Pope
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Jr. To get into pretty comfortable shots. Now,
Speaker 1: in the early phase of the third quarter, if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, Dennis Schroeder got started getting cooked by Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray in a bunch of those situations. He seemed to
Speaker 1: communicate something to Darvin Ham about it, and by the
Speaker 1: end of the game they were chasing over the top
Speaker 1: of the pick again. They made the adjustment, and that's great,
Speaker 1: but I thought there was a really poor game plan
Speaker 1: from the start of this game that spotted the Nuggets
Speaker 1: an eighteen point lead in the first half. Now, it
Speaker 1: wasn't all that I thought most of that gap was transition.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I think the I believe
Speaker 1: the Nuggets had a seventeen to six fast break point
Speaker 1: advantage in the first half, so an eleven point advantage there.
Speaker 1: That's obviously where you're getting the larger margin. But the
Speaker 1: rest of that margin I thought was some defensive game
Speaker 1: plan stuff. I also thought they did way too much
Speaker 1: double teaming of Jokis. And this is where, like, again,
Speaker 1: I understand the concept of like, hey, Anthony Davis, as
Speaker 1: good as he is, is not gonna be able to
Speaker 1: just stonewall stop Nikol Jokic every single time. I get that,
Speaker 1: But if your game plan is to double team, then
Speaker 1: why waste Anthony Davis on the ball. That's where it
Speaker 1: makes sense to do it the way they did it
Speaker 1: down the stretch, where it's like have Ruy Haschimura battling
Speaker 1: his ass off on the guy because you're gonna be
Speaker 1: sending all this help from Anthony Davis on the back liner,
Speaker 1: from guards digging down from the perimeter. That's where you
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to use Anthony Davis appropriately, but to
Speaker 1: have him stonewalling Nikola Jokic and double teaming so Jokic
Speaker 1: can just throw easy kickout passes to KCP on the
Speaker 1: wing for three or to somebody else cutting to the basket.
Speaker 1: I didn't necessarily agree with that strategy. If Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is gonna guard Nikola Jokic, I think you have to
Speaker 1: stick with him on an island with just a little
Speaker 1: bit of like shell drill stuff, Like guys just kind
Speaker 1: of stunting, but in a position where they feel comfortable
Speaker 1: and confident closing out to the shooters. Now, late game adjustment,
Speaker 1: Darvin Ham puts Ruey Hotchi Mura on Nikola Jokic, puts
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis on Jeff Green and Aaron Gordon at the
Speaker 1: end of the game, and they do have some success. Now,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I thought was really helping
Speaker 1: the Lakers in that situation is Jokic was trying to
Speaker 1: beat Ruy Hatchra Mura by getting past him instead of
Speaker 1: trying to shoot over the top. I think as we
Speaker 1: look forward in this series, you're gonna see Darvin Ham
Speaker 1: start with that. I think Ruy's gonna start on Nikola Jokic,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis on Aaron Gordon to begin game too. But
Speaker 1: Jokic is too smart of a player, and he's so
Speaker 1: damn efficient with those little short push shots and runners
Speaker 1: in the lane. I think his adjustment to that in
Speaker 1: that coverage is he's going to start not trying to
Speaker 1: go through Ruey hatcha Mura, but just get to comfortable
Speaker 1: spots that he likes around the semi circle for those short,
Speaker 1: little push shots and turn around jumpers in the lane
Speaker 1: that Ruy's not going to be able to come close
Speaker 1: to bothering the way that Anthony Davis does. Now what
Speaker 1: I would do if I was guarding Nikola Jokic, I
Speaker 1: would mix coverages frequently. I would keep Anthony Davis on
Speaker 1: him a good amount of the time in single coverage,
Speaker 1: and I would try Ruey with Anthony Davis on the
Speaker 1: back line, especially if Anthony Davis is ever in any
Speaker 1: sort of foul trouble. But also don't just try Ruey.
Speaker 1: That needs to be a little bit of Lebron James too.
Speaker 1: I'd love to see Lebron James switching on to Nikola
Speaker 1: Jokic and applying some similar pressure to try to bait
Speaker 1: him into tougher shots that he doesn't normally get right. So, again,
Speaker 1: I think that it was a good adjustment from Darvin,
Speaker 1: But it's not the it's not the last thing they're
Speaker 1: gonna need to do, and they're gonna need to do
Speaker 1: more to mix things up to make nikola Jokic uncomfortable
Speaker 1: over the course of this series. And again, Nikoliokich is
Speaker 1: too smart. He's gonna find a way to solve that
Speaker 1: specific coverage at some point. Now, let's look over the
Speaker 1: other side of the ball, because the Denver Nuggets have
Speaker 1: a lot of adjustments that they need to make as well.
Speaker 1: Silver Lining for the Lakers if you're looking at looking
Speaker 1: back from this game is you really really didn't even
Speaker 1: come remotely close to matching Denver's effort and intensity, especially
Speaker 1: in the first three quarters, but you consistently looked comfortable
Speaker 1: on offense in spite of that. Anthony Davis, despite struggling
Speaker 1: a little bit in his post up in ISO's I
Speaker 1: thought he looked really comfortable in the short role. Hit
Speaker 1: a couple of jump shots, a lot of comfortable stuff there.
Speaker 1: Ruey Hatcha Mura had a lot of success attacking some
Speaker 1: of the smaller Denver Nuggets guards and post ups. And
Speaker 1: Lebron James just continuing from Game six at the top
Speaker 1: of the key picking on defenders that he believes he
Speaker 1: has an advantage against. Now, what did I tell you
Speaker 1: guys in the series preview? I told you that they're
Speaker 1: gonna do similar to what they did with Lonnie Walker
Speaker 1: on Steph Curry in game four of the last round.
Speaker 1: They're gonna run quick ghost screens, and Flair had that
Speaker 1: shooter quick set his feet on the left wing, and
Speaker 1: as Jamal Murray is lingering on Lebron waiting for Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon to recover, that's when he can throw those behind
Speaker 1: the back passes are over the top feeds to a
Speaker 1: wide open shooter. And Austin Reeves really made the Nuggets
Speaker 1: pay in the second half of this game with those
Speaker 1: week side threes. So the adjustment there for the Nuggets
Speaker 1: is to put Jamal Murray the defender Lebron feels most
Speaker 1: comfortable attacking, like he had some success against Gordon, he
Speaker 1: had some success against KCP, had some success against Michael Porter,
Speaker 1: but he had the most success against Jamal Murray. So
Speaker 1: what you need to do is tuck Jamal Murray on
Speaker 1: a shooter that is not a good movement shooter because
Speaker 1: that specific jumper that Austin Reeves is hitting is a
Speaker 1: very difficult jump shot. You're running to your side and
Speaker 1: having to set your feet on the move to get
Speaker 1: that shot off before the contest can come from the sides. Right,
Speaker 1: the guy the obvious decision there is Dennis Schroeder. Dennis
Speaker 1: Schroeder has a very slow release, and he can knock
Speaker 1: down threes when he's given a lot of time, but
Speaker 1: he is very much not a movement shooter. He is
Speaker 1: not a guy who's going to consistently knock down jumpers
Speaker 1: sliding to his left. He is a standstill shooter. But
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell and Austin Grieves I believe could have some
Speaker 1: success in pick and pop shooting. So again, one of
Speaker 1: the adjustments I expect from Denver going into Game two
Speaker 1: is to see more of that hedging and recovering, but
Speaker 1: trying to tuck Jamal Murray away onto Dennis Schroder instead.
Speaker 1: That forces Lebron to call up Contavious Callwell Pope instead,
Speaker 1: which is still a matchup that he's gonna have some
Speaker 1: success attacking, but probably not as much as he does
Speaker 1: against Jamal Murray. But I thought overall, the Laker offense
Speaker 1: was fantastic, even in that first half, there was some
Speaker 1: turnovers and effort things. They were definitely shell shocked under
Speaker 1: that Denver effort. But even in that first half, I
Speaker 1: thought the Lakers got great looks and I feel good
Speaker 1: about them being able to score over the course of
Speaker 1: this series. As a matter of fact, as we kind
Speaker 1: of zoom out from this, it's really the really is
Speaker 1: like the Nuggets win, and a win is a win, right,
Speaker 1: Like I said this a lot over the course of
Speaker 1: the last series, Like, it doesn't matter if the Suns
Speaker 1: were within three points in Game two late. A win
Speaker 1: is a win is a win. It doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: the Warriors eraced a fourteen point deficit in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter of Game one, D'Angel Russell scored and then they
Speaker 1: didn't score the rest of the game. The Lakers won.
Speaker 1: A win is a win is a win. So the
Speaker 1: Nuggets are up one h But as we go to
Speaker 1: Game two, both teams are gonna have to go to
Speaker 1: the drawing board a lot with their defensive scheme, especially Denver,
Speaker 1: because I think the Lakers found a few things that
Speaker 1: work well in this game defensively, the Nuggets are gonna
Speaker 1: have their hands full. But again, to me, again, I
Speaker 1: you're gonna talk a lot about scheme, and you guys know,
Speaker 1: I love to talk about those things. And we'll talk
Speaker 1: about pick and roll coverages, and we'll talk about how
Speaker 1: to post up double teams, and we'll talk about ghost
Speaker 1: screens on Lebron mismatch hunting. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, like what matters most in these environments is
Speaker 1: how well do your damn stars play? And in game one,
Speaker 1: if you're ranking the players in this game, you're probably
Speaker 1: going Nikola jokicch one, and you're probably going maybe Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis too, but maybe Jamal Murray and then Lebron, And
Speaker 1: I would argue it's kind of Jokic on a level
Speaker 1: by himself and then Murray, Lebron ad all on that
Speaker 1: second tier. Simply put, the Nuggets dominated the superstar matchup
Speaker 1: in this game, and then down the roster the role
Speaker 1: players played better. So that's what it comes down to
Speaker 1: in my opinion, Like, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: no matter what happens schematically, Lebron, James and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: have to find a way to flip the dynamic of
Speaker 1: who the best player in the series is. Round one
Speaker 1: goes to Jokic, a lot of basketball left. One last
Speaker 1: thing I was gonna say had a lot of Nuggets
Speaker 1: fans and I mentioned today being like, is it time
Speaker 1: to call Nikola Jokich the best player in the world.
Speaker 1: Two things. First of all, this is just my opinion
Speaker 1: on stuff. You're welcome to say Nikola Joakis is the
Speaker 1: best player in the world, and if you do so,
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna say you're wrong. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: say that I don't think of it that way. For me,
Speaker 1: I have rules. For me, You're not called the best
Speaker 1: player in the world unless you have a Larry O'Brien
Speaker 1: trophy at home, and you were one of the and
Speaker 1: you played at a superstar level in pursuit of that
Speaker 1: Larry O'Brian trophy. So for me, I'm not gonna give
Speaker 1: Nikola Jokic that credit until he wins the title. Now
Speaker 1: there's a flip side to that. Once Nikola Jokic wins
Speaker 1: the title, he has a stranglehold on that and I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna bump him off for some random guy who's
Speaker 1: playing well in the regular season three four years in
Speaker 1: a row. Right, So if we find ourselves in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference finals next year and it's you know, Dallas
Speaker 1: advances and Luka Doncic looks incredible, and everyone's on Twitter
Speaker 1: saying Luca the best player in the world, But Yokic
Speaker 1: is the defending Finals MVP. I'm gonna be the same
Speaker 1: guy sitting in this chair saying, Nope, Jokic has the trophy,
Speaker 1: Luca does not. I'm not interested in considering him at
Speaker 1: that level until he gets the trophy. But again, that's
Speaker 1: just the way that I look at it. So I
Speaker 1: love Yokic's game. I'm a huge believer in what he does.
Speaker 1: Let's let him do it first and once he once
Speaker 1: he does it, I'm gonna advocate for him. But I
Speaker 1: have my own little process, so do all of you
Speaker 1: guys and my show. I'm just gonna talk about the
Speaker 1: way I think about these kinds of things, all right.
Speaker 1: So a couple game plan things. I am going to
Speaker 1: be going again tomorrow night after Game one of the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference Finals. I also will be doing, probably for
Speaker 1: just the Western Conference Finals, doing some daily film sessions.
Speaker 1: So keep an eye probably on the morning of each game,
Speaker 1: similar to what we did in the Lakers Warrior series.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get another fifteen minutes or so of just
Speaker 1: what I learned watching the film. So tomorrow night game
Speaker 1: one of the Eastern Conference Finals, and then the following
Speaker 1: morning little film session from game one, and then again
Speaker 1: after game two on Thursday night. As always, I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys. Now I'll see you tomorrow. The volume