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Speaker 1: slash Basketball terms. All right, welcome to hoops Tonight here
Speaker 1: at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope all of
Speaker 1: you guys had a great night. In case you missed
Speaker 1: it earlier, don't forget that we did a breakdown of
Speaker 1: last night's in season tournament games as well as nix Bucks.
Speaker 1: Those are two separate videos earlier on the feed tonight.
Speaker 1: We're just hitting Suns Lakers. You guys know the joke
Speaker 1: before we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel.
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Speaker 1: but not least, keep dropping YouTube comments mail bag questions
Speaker 1: in the YouTube comments so we can hit them later
Speaker 1: on throughout the week. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So highly entertaining game, Lakers beat the Suns one of
Speaker 1: six to one o three. They are going to Vegas
Speaker 1: to play the Pelicans on Thursday. Now Tons of interesting
Speaker 1: basketball to get into from this game, but unfortunately we
Speaker 1: have to start with officiating, because there was an atrocious
Speaker 1: call at the end of this game that robbed the
Speaker 1: Sons of an opportunity to potentially send the game to overtime.
Speaker 1: It was one o five one oh three off of
Speaker 1: I believe a Devin Booker left handed layup on the
Speaker 1: left side of the rim. Lebron inbounds to Austin Reeves.
Speaker 1: Austin flops to try to draw a fout, doesn't get
Speaker 1: the foul call, loses control of the basketball. In the process,
Speaker 1: Lebron calls a timeout and it gets granted. It absolutely
Speaker 1: should not have. It was a terrible call. It stole,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, an opportunity for the Suns to potentially
Speaker 1: send the game to overtime. That said, judging by the
Speaker 1: half court dynamic, in the simple fact that even if
Speaker 1: they had scored a layup in that chaos and the
Speaker 1: Lakers had not been granted a timeout, they still would
Speaker 1: have had to get a stop on the other end,
Speaker 1: and then they would have had to beat the Lakers
Speaker 1: in overtime. Now, the half court dynamic we saw down
Speaker 1: the stretch of that game was the Lakers blitzing Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant and Devin Booker and rotating out of it, and
Speaker 1: they were having a hell of a time getting any
Speaker 1: good shots, which has been a consistent problem for them
Speaker 1: throughout the season, which we're going to talk about. On
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor, just like in the
Speaker 1: first two games, Lebron James was relentlessly attacking, use of
Speaker 1: Nurkic in pick and roll and getting great shots. In
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter alone, Anthony Davis missed five layups at
Speaker 1: the basket. So, like I tend to believe, you play
Speaker 1: that game from that point with the correct call ten times,
Speaker 1: Lakers are probably winning it seven or eight times. That said,
Speaker 1: there's no question that the officials made a huge mistake.
Speaker 1: It was a It ruined what was a great basketball game.
Speaker 1: And I understand why Sons fans are upset because you
Speaker 1: should have had your shot. You should have had your
Speaker 1: chance to potentially reverse the fortunes of what was taking
Speaker 1: place on the court down the stretch and to get
Speaker 1: that win. It was super unfortunate. Don't know what else
Speaker 1: to say. That said, this is a thing that happens
Speaker 1: in basketball games, and you know the Lakers were on
Speaker 1: the other side of this. Once a year ago, you
Speaker 1: guys might remember, there's a big game Lakers in Boston
Speaker 1: against the Celtics, tie game, final possession. Lebron gets downhill.
Speaker 1: He is at the rim with his left hand at
Speaker 1: the rim like a one shot, and Tatum hacks him
Speaker 1: on the left arm right in front of the official.
Speaker 1: No call, game goes over time, the Lakers lose. Pat
Speaker 1: Beverley literally grabbed the camera and held it in front
Speaker 1: of the official, held in front of the official and
Speaker 1: is like, what's the deal, dude, Like it was that
Speaker 1: that clear but here, But here's the thing. Did the
Speaker 1: Lakers go to win out of it? No? Did they
Speaker 1: get anything out of it? No, Because at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, as a basketball team, I can only
Speaker 1: think of this from my perspective. I coach high school
Speaker 1: basketball right now. I played back when I was younger,
Speaker 1: inside the locker room. The attitude is pretty simple. You
Speaker 1: got to focus on what you can control. I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer that focusing on officiating is a loser mentality.
Speaker 1: You guys, all of you guys who listen to the show,
Speaker 1: know that I never ever complain about officiating for any
Speaker 1: team in a big picture, conspiracy sense. The only time
Speaker 1: I ever talk about officiating is when it pertains to
Speaker 1: league wide trends and specific types of fouls that I'd
Speaker 1: like to see removed from the league. And the main
Speaker 1: reason why I feel that way is simply because as
Speaker 1: a basketball team, you if you focus on the officials,
Speaker 1: it's just a fruitless endeavor. You have to focus on
Speaker 1: what you can control. You have to try to over
Speaker 1: forty eight minutes, build in enough margin for air that
Speaker 1: you can put up with a bad call. For instance,
Speaker 1: from the Lakers perspective, I think a lot of Lakers
Speaker 1: fans feel that Anthony Davis was getting fouled on some
Speaker 1: of those layups. Now I didn't feel that way. I
Speaker 1: thought it was kind of playoff style officiating where you
Speaker 1: just kind of let everything go. And I prefer the
Speaker 1: game of basketball like that. But that's how who a
Speaker 1: lot of Laker fans felt right. And again, the Lakers
Speaker 1: played well enough that they were able to weather a
Speaker 1: bunch of Anthony Davis missed layups that may or may
Speaker 1: not have been fouls because they were the better half
Speaker 1: court team down the stretch of that game, and they
Speaker 1: By the way, this is not a trend that this
Speaker 1: is not any sort of depart like a It's not
Speaker 1: anything different than the trends we've seen from both teams
Speaker 1: this season. The Lakers have been an excellent clutch time team.
Speaker 1: The Suns have been a horrific fourth quarter team. It's
Speaker 1: been a consistent issue all year long. So again, it's
Speaker 1: really unfortunate because that call is going to dominate the
Speaker 1: TV shows and it's going to dominate a lot of
Speaker 1: the analysis, and that's unfortunate because there was a lot
Speaker 1: of really interesting basketball that took place in this game.
Speaker 1: But that's all I'm gonna say about it. Soun's got
Speaker 1: They should have had a chance to potentially send that
Speaker 1: game to overtime where they could have won. That said,
Speaker 1: I believe the Lakers would have won regardless of what happened.
Speaker 1: I thought they outplayed the Suns for the most part.
Speaker 1: I thought they deserved to win the game. All right,
Speaker 1: let's get into some of the basketball stuff. So I
Speaker 1: want to hit on Lebron James again because this is
Speaker 1: ridiculous because once again, huge game, single elimination, big time
Speaker 1: playoff vibes, three other legit superstars in their prime on
Speaker 1: the floor, and I thought Lebron was the best player.
Speaker 1: And once again it came down to that chess match
Speaker 1: in the half court, and Lebron just started attacking use
Speaker 1: of Nurkicchen pick and roll, getting downhill and finishing at
Speaker 1: the rim. Once again, he's just trusting his pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot in these big moments. He took a big
Speaker 1: transition three there in the middle of the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: He took a mid range pull up jump shot and
Speaker 1: pick and roll down the stretch and crunch time, And
Speaker 1: that to me is just such a huge indicator of
Speaker 1: a trend that was not the case last year, which
Speaker 1: is crunch time offense for the Lakers. When Lebron can
Speaker 1: actually trust his jump shot and just in general is
Speaker 1: more confident and incapable creating shots, it just makes the
Speaker 1: Lakers a more dynamic team. That was a specific thing
Speaker 1: they struggled with a lot last year. I think that's encouraging.
Speaker 1: But the big thing that stood out to me from
Speaker 1: Lebron in this game was the job he did defensively
Speaker 1: at five steals, which is blowing plays up as a lowman.
Speaker 1: And again, like we talked about this position archetype all
Speaker 1: the time, right, that Aaron Gordon archetype with like guys
Speaker 1: like DeAndre Hunter and ruy Hot Tamura and like and
Speaker 1: Lori Markenens and a big version of that. Right, there's
Speaker 1: a bunch of these guys around the league, these big forwards,
Speaker 1: and we kind of don't remember the stars when we
Speaker 1: talk about that, and like, like Lebron's the star version
Speaker 1: of that. And so as a role player and meaning
Speaker 1: like within his role of the defense as the low man,
Speaker 1: he can be really impactful there, and he was excellent
Speaker 1: on the defensive end in this game. I think in general,
Speaker 1: he really wants to win this tournament. I think he'd
Speaker 1: like to be the guy who wins the first NBA Cup.
Speaker 1: I think it's good for the NBA Cup because if
Speaker 1: this NBA Cup is ever going to become what the
Speaker 1: league wants it to be, what Adam Silver wants it
Speaker 1: to be, it needs to be something the players really
Speaker 1: want to win, and Lebron is one of the best
Speaker 1: competitors of this era. And I think it's great to
Speaker 1: see guys like him, guys like Giannis who brought it today,
Speaker 1: guys like Dame who brought it Tyres Halliburton. You want
Speaker 1: the establishment superstars of the league to want to win
Speaker 1: this award, and I think that was a really strong indicator.
Speaker 1: But just again, I've said to everybody on this show
Speaker 1: so many times this year that I was not really
Speaker 1: overly concerned about the Lakers regular season issues because they
Speaker 1: were down most of their forwards. Hey, look at how
Speaker 1: much more athletic they look today with all their forwards.
Speaker 1: They had twenty something offensive rebounds, right, and they were
Speaker 1: significantly better defensively. And what did I say? I said.
Speaker 1: The encouraging thing to me is despite all of that,
Speaker 1: Lebron looks better than he did at any point last season.
Speaker 1: I genuinely believe that, And to me, that's a huge
Speaker 1: indicator of a potential upside for this team in the
Speaker 1: big picture. Shout out to Lebron. It's just it's ridiculous
Speaker 1: now that in December of twenty twenty three, we are
Speaker 1: still watching him put forward these types of performances with
Speaker 1: these kinds of stakes Austin Reeves. So I did a
Speaker 1: male bad question about this the other day and a
Speaker 1: lot of you know, Austin had some struggles this year,
Speaker 1: and but by the way he's had some struggles this year,
Speaker 1: it's really it's really that simple. He's earned some of
Speaker 1: the criticism that's been directed to him this year. My
Speaker 1: stance the entire time has been, for fifty plus games
Speaker 1: in all high leverage situations, he was awesome. So let's
Speaker 1: not overreact to his small sample size of pointless regular
Speaker 1: season games where he plays poorly at least relative, because
Speaker 1: the reality is he hasn't been that bad, but poorly
Speaker 1: relative to what he used to be, And in a
Speaker 1: situation where the Lakers were down most of their wing athleticism,
Speaker 1: which made everybody's job a lot harder, and so all
Speaker 1: I kept saying was just stick with them. And here
Speaker 1: we are, once again, big game playoff vibes. Another twenty
Speaker 1: point game from Austin Reeves hits the dagger pull up
Speaker 1: three on the right wing. His offensive burst in the
Speaker 1: third quarter flat out saved them from that Sun's run
Speaker 1: that damn near took the game over there to start
Speaker 1: the third quarter. Austin's incredible and like and I just
Speaker 1: it bums me out, honestly that fans have such a
Speaker 1: short memory of all the things he's done to contribute
Speaker 1: to winning to this team in big game situations, and
Speaker 1: how that just gets glossed over. It's just we get
Speaker 1: a little too much on the what have you done
Speaker 1: for me lately side of things. One last note on
Speaker 1: the Austin Reeves things thing before we moved on. I've
Speaker 1: had a lot of people ask Jason, why don't you
Speaker 1: like D'Angelo Russell? Why are you so insistent on the
Speaker 1: Lakers trading D'Angelo Russell. It has nothing to do with
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell as a person. I don't dislike him. Even
Speaker 1: as a player, I don't dislike him. I would even
Speaker 1: argue if you had to give the keys to the
Speaker 1: offense to one player to kind of run the show.
Speaker 1: In that specific job, Dlo's better than Austin, But in
Speaker 1: so many other areas of the game, Austin is better.
Speaker 1: In Austin can do a lot of what DLO does,
Speaker 1: and so because of that and the long term roster
Speaker 1: control under the new deal, that he's on, it just
Speaker 1: makes more sense. And then this is the big problem.
Speaker 1: Every Lakers fan was frustrated with Darvinham going back to
Speaker 1: Torrian Prince down the stretch of this game. And I
Speaker 1: would tell you, if Austin's your one and Lebron's your
Speaker 1: four and you're five, there aren't really good answers for
Speaker 1: that two and three. Like if I had to choose
Speaker 1: right now, I'd probably go Max Christi and Ruy Hachimura.
Speaker 1: But like, Ruy's not a great screen navigator, Kd's probably
Speaker 1: gonna run him off screens, and you're gonna end up
Speaker 1: in some situations where you're gonna have to switch, which
Speaker 1: could cause cross matches on the other side that could
Speaker 1: cause problems. Not sure that's a great fit. Max is
Speaker 1: super young, Cam Reddish and Jared Vanderbilt have offensive limitations.
Speaker 1: Torrian Prince is not a great athlete. All the answers
Speaker 1: there are limited. And so when you have a situation
Speaker 1: where Austin, Lebron, and Ad make perfect sense, but the
Speaker 1: two in the three, it's like, I don't know who
Speaker 1: do you play? And then we have to leave d
Speaker 1: Lo on the bench because we can't play him alongside
Speaker 1: Austin we Crater defensively and on the glass. Then of
Speaker 1: Ruy Hatchamura as just another big forward that's kind of
Speaker 1: more or less the same position as Lebron. He's on
Speaker 1: the bench. That's the problem. Your five best players are Austin, Dilo, Ruy,
Speaker 1: Lebron ad to start games and to close games. You
Speaker 1: can only play three of them. So it has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with me disliking D'Angelo Russell. It has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with any sort of like narrative based attack
Speaker 1: of D'Angelo Russell. It is a simple matter of roster balance.
Speaker 1: I believe Austin's better. I know some of you guys disagree.
Speaker 1: I feel very strongly that Austin's a better player, and
Speaker 1: I think the playoffs last year clearly demonstrated that, as
Speaker 1: he was reliably in the rotation. In D'Angelo Russell was
Speaker 1: very matchup dependent and got played off the floor against Denver. Right,
Speaker 1: But I believe Austin's better. So you kind of have
Speaker 1: to pick one of them, and then you've got non
Speaker 1: perfect answers for the two and the three, and so
Speaker 1: in my opinion, it's imperative for the Lakers to convert
Speaker 1: those two contracts. Ruey and Di Lo. If the right
Speaker 1: trade materializes for a starter caliber two or three that
Speaker 1: answers the questions that Max Christi, Cam Reddish, Jared Vanderbilt,
Speaker 1: Torrian Prince and Ruy Hachamura can't perfectly answer. It's really
Speaker 1: that simple to me if you could just even if
Speaker 1: you could keep Ruey and just turn D'Angelo Russell into
Speaker 1: a higher level three and d wing, even if you
Speaker 1: have to attach a pick to him. Now it makes
Speaker 1: more sense because that person becomes one of your top
Speaker 1: five players. Right you're trading Dangel Russell one of your
Speaker 1: top five players for a different top five player. But
Speaker 1: now of those top five players, at least four of
Speaker 1: them are obvious answers to your starting and closing lineups,
Speaker 1: and it just answers those questions for you. Then the
Speaker 1: question becomes do you go after something like is Torrium
Speaker 1: Prince better at the two? Is it Max Christy at
Speaker 1: the two? Well? What about cam Reddish? You could figure
Speaker 1: that part out. One question mark is a little easier
Speaker 1: to deal with than two gaping question marks that you
Speaker 1: just don't know what to do with those positions. And like,
Speaker 1: this game was very revealing to me about the Lakers
Speaker 1: on two levels. One, within the context of the regular season,
Speaker 1: it is so important for them to have their high
Speaker 1: motor athletes. They look so much better with Cam Reddish,
Speaker 1: with Jared Vanderbilt, with ruy Hotchramura available. Those guys were
Speaker 1: not available on that last road trip when they got
Speaker 1: ran off the floor by the Thunder and they got
Speaker 1: ran off the floor by the Sixers, those dudes weren't playing.
Speaker 1: It was a less athletic version of this team. So
Speaker 1: within the context of the regular season, those guys are
Speaker 1: super important. But the second piece that became very clear
Speaker 1: to me tonight is that the Lakers need clear answers
Speaker 1: to the two and the three, and they don't have that.
Speaker 1: There is a roster in here. D'Angelo Russell and Ruyacha
Speaker 1: Mura cannot play at the end of games, and you're
Speaker 1: catering to D'Angelo Russell right now by allowing him to
Speaker 1: start in bringing Austin off the bench. But in the
Speaker 1: big picture, it doesn't make sense to have that much
Speaker 1: of your salary cap resources delegated to two players that
Speaker 1: can't share the floor together. And so that I want
Speaker 1: to be clear because a lot of people I understand,
Speaker 1: and this is my fault. I have not done a
Speaker 1: good enough job of making this point clear. I do
Speaker 1: not dislike D'Angelo Russell. I just simply think Austin's better,
Speaker 1: and that for the sake of this team, if you
Speaker 1: want this team to reach their ceiling, you need to
Speaker 1: make sure that as many as much of your top
Speaker 1: end talent as possible is playable together. And you hamper
Speaker 1: yourself when you maintain a roster and balance like this,
Speaker 1: where now it's like, man, D'Angelo Russell are a damn
Speaker 1: near twenty million dollar player is sitting on the bench
Speaker 1: and we're looking for a guy to play the two
Speaker 1: or the three, and Delo's just not even being considered.
Speaker 1: Like it's like, no, he's just no, It's just not
Speaker 1: gonna be de Lo because you need athleticism and defense
Speaker 1: from those positions because those are the two guys guarding
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, see what I mean. It's
Speaker 1: again like it's unfortunate with the way competitive sports work
Speaker 1: in the sense that like Delo does sort of become
Speaker 1: a target and it's not fair because Delo's having a
Speaker 1: great season. I looked it up this morning. Delo has
Speaker 1: been the second best pick and roll ball handler in
Speaker 1: the league this year minimum three hundred possessions. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I genuinely believe like if you had to hand the
Speaker 1: keys of an offense to some to somebody, Delo is
Speaker 1: a better player there for that specific job. But down
Speaker 1: the stretch of games, it becomes Lebron's team and it's
Speaker 1: more important to have a great second side creator, who's
Speaker 1: great off the ball, who's better defensive player. You go
Speaker 1: with Austin like that. That's that's why Darvinham keeps closing
Speaker 1: with Austin in those situations. Hopefully that clarifies that a
Speaker 1: little bit. Last note on the Lakers. Anthony Davis absolutely
Speaker 1: magnificent in this game defensively and on the glass. He
Speaker 1: was murdering the suns on the offensive glass in particular,
Speaker 1: but another completely inft second half. Offensively, he talked about
Speaker 1: the missed five layups in the fourth quarter. He was
Speaker 1: ten for twenty six from the field. I have to
Speaker 1: look up the numbers when they update, but I bet
Speaker 1: you he missed ten shots in the restricted area in
Speaker 1: this game. And like that to me is the concern is,
Speaker 1: like ADS, defensive consistency doesn't get nearly enough attention, but
Speaker 1: his offensive inconsistency, while it gets too much attention, is
Speaker 1: a real issue in the sense that, like, this game's
Speaker 1: not even close. The Lakers win by ten to fifteen points,
Speaker 1: if Anthony Davis can just maintain his baseline level of
Speaker 1: offensive impactfulness, right, and it's just concerning. That said, I
Speaker 1: want to do shout out Anthony Davis for the two
Speaker 1: clutch free throws at the end of the game. I
Speaker 1: thought that was huge, especially since he struggled with clutch
Speaker 1: free throws over the last couple of years as well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like encouraging game, really encouraging game for the
Speaker 1: Lakers on a bunch of levels, outside of that second
Speaker 1: half run from the Suns and then that weird thing
Speaker 1: where darvinham took Lebron and Ad out when Kevin Duran
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker were both on the floor and they
Speaker 1: promptly went on a five to zero run. Other than that,
Speaker 1: I thought they played a consistently pretty great game. That
Speaker 1: defense is a real problem for a lot of teams,
Speaker 1: but I think this game once again shined the light
Speaker 1: on some of the roster and balances this team has
Speaker 1: to address before the deadline. On the Suns I'm not
Speaker 1: going to spend too much time on the Suns because
Speaker 1: on Thursday, Brendan Klean, who is a friend of mine
Speaker 1: that I met at the Grateful Dead concert in Phoenix
Speaker 1: last year. He is he is a member of the
Speaker 1: Lockdown Suns podcast. He is going to come on the
Speaker 1: show on Thursday. We are going to do like a
Speaker 1: forty five minute deep dive on all things Suns. But
Speaker 1: I do want to hit a couple of specific things.
Speaker 1: So when Kevin Durant hit that three with five to
Speaker 1: forty five left, they scored just four points over the
Speaker 1: final five minutes leading into that final thirty second where
Speaker 1: Kadie and Devin Booker, you got a couple buckets. The
Speaker 1: Suns have been by far the worst fourth quarter t
Speaker 1: in the league this season, and specifically they've been twenty
Speaker 1: ninth in offense, and one of the consistent themes we've
Speaker 1: seen is they are able to get the ball out
Speaker 1: of Devin Booker and Kevin Durant's hands and rotate out
Speaker 1: of it without giving up anything too complicated, and in general,
Speaker 1: I think both Kevin Durant Devin Booker have shown some
Speaker 1: signs of fatigue at the end of games. Just with
Speaker 1: the offensive load they've had to carry. Now the question becomes,
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal when he comes back into the situation, does
Speaker 1: that improve your aggregate ball handling and shooting enough for
Speaker 1: you guys to kind of make up for that issue?
Speaker 1: And the answer is probably it's gonna help quite a bit.
Speaker 1: But here's the issue. Once again, you give up twenty
Speaker 1: one offensive rebounds. And my major concern is not whether
Speaker 1: or not Phoenix can score the basketball, because I think
Speaker 1: they're gonna figure some of this stuff out. It's this
Speaker 1: when you play a great team that has quality point
Speaker 1: of attack defenders to make your guys work. So let
Speaker 1: me just paint a picture for you. Let's pretend that
Speaker 1: the Lakers don't make a trade just for the sake
Speaker 1: of argument, and you have to face them in a
Speaker 1: playoff series. You're gonna get a steady diet of Jared Vanderbilt,
Speaker 1: Cam Reddish, Max Christy Torrean Prince All on the ball.
Speaker 1: At any given moment, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant are
Speaker 1: going to be facing a big athlete on the ball.
Speaker 1: Let's say you faced Denver, Aaron Gordon's gonna be on KD.
Speaker 1: Probably Peyton Watson off the bench, and then it's gonna
Speaker 1: be contagious call of Pope Pope on Devin Booker with
Speaker 1: Christian Brown off the bench. So consistent, excellent perimeter defenders
Speaker 1: on those two guys all game long. We've seen in
Speaker 1: a playoff series, specifically in that series, but also we
Speaker 1: saw a little bit in the Clipper series Devin Booker
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant their efficiency can go down a little bit.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker was red hot for stretches, but he cooled
Speaker 1: off in a big way in Game five, in Game
Speaker 1: six of the Denver series. Right, So, in the event
Speaker 1: that they encounter a great team and in the West,
Speaker 1: I'm really only looking for as far as threats to
Speaker 1: the Suns, I'm really only looking at the Lakers and Nuggets.
Speaker 1: And when you face those teams and they can consistently
Speaker 1: make Devin Booker and Kevin Rant work and lessen their impactfulness,
Speaker 1: can Phoenix then also compete in the physicality areas of
Speaker 1: the game. That's the question. Can they keep the Lakers
Speaker 1: off the glass? Can they keep Denver off the glass?
Speaker 1: Can they match the defensive intensity of a Lakers team?
Speaker 1: Can they match the post up efficiency of a Denver
Speaker 1: team when they're not as impactful offensively as they're capable
Speaker 1: of against a top tier set of perimeter defenders. That's
Speaker 1: my major concern because that's the thing is like right now,
Speaker 1: it's like, if you can get the Suns offense out
Speaker 1: of whack, they're gonna lose, which has been an issue
Speaker 1: consistently for them in the fourth quarters throughout the season.
Speaker 1: Right Whereas you know with the Lakers, it's like they're
Speaker 1: smoking every layup and any Davis is no show in
Speaker 1: the second half. They're having rotation issues in terms of
Speaker 1: who's gonna play at the two. But they just locked
Speaker 1: in like crazy and grabbed all the offensive rebounds and
Speaker 1: dominated the game defensively, and they were able to win
Speaker 1: in a rock fight, right, And that's the thing with Denver.
Speaker 1: You can lessen their efficiency, you can do whatever you want,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, it's like Aaron Gordon,
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior, and Nicole Jokich are just gonna grab
Speaker 1: a bunch offensive rebounds and finish everything at the rim.
Speaker 1: When things degrade to rock fights, can the Suns win?
Speaker 1: That's the question, And I'm really I'm really curious to
Speaker 1: see if we can see that at some point in
Speaker 1: the future. I thought this was yet another incredible nd
Speaker 1: season tournament game. Obviously the least competitive of the three
Speaker 1: that we've watched, but it's been everything we could hope
Speaker 1: for from the same point of like the combination of
Speaker 1: some playoff level intensity as well as the single elimination format,
Speaker 1: which is really exciting. That was what was kind of
Speaker 1: hanging over this game. I didn't realize it until today,
Speaker 1: but I guess the teams that lose in these elimination rounds,
Speaker 1: particularly the quarterfinal rounds, have to play the other loser,
Speaker 1: if from their conference, in a regular season game essentially, right,
Speaker 1: And so like the loser of this game had to
Speaker 1: travel to Boston to play the Celtics, So is it's
Speaker 1: like a significant penalty, right, Like a Boston's a really
Speaker 1: tough road game to win, right and so like in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways, it's kind of like a double loss,
Speaker 1: at least from the standpoint of your probability of going
Speaker 1: into Boston and winning against one of the best teams
Speaker 1: in the league. Right. And so it carried that intensity
Speaker 1: from the beginning. I thought Giannis in particular set the
Speaker 1: tone early with his level of effort, got a couple
Speaker 1: of early offensive rebounds. He was just cooking in transition.
Speaker 1: Julius Randall, I thought did a decent job on him
Speaker 1: in the half court. The Knicks in general did a
Speaker 1: good job walling up in the half court, but in
Speaker 1: those transition sets, and especially off of the defense, which
Speaker 1: we're going to talk a lot about here in a minute,
Speaker 1: because I thought Brook Lopez in particular was the kind
Speaker 1: of key factor in some of the defensive the offensive
Speaker 1: struggles that the Knicks were having. But Giannis was just
Speaker 1: applying that incessant pressure getting downhill in transition. And the
Speaker 1: Dame had this amazing stretch at the end of the
Speaker 1: second quarter, literally with two and a half minutes lif
Speaker 1: left before halftime, he scored thirteen points. He started picking
Speaker 1: on Julius Randall and pick and roll bring him up
Speaker 1: into ball screens. First one, Bobby Port has said it.
Speaker 1: Randall was sitting too far back. Hits a pull up
Speaker 1: three while Quinton Grimes is kind of like caught on
Speaker 1: his left side trying not to foul. Right very next possession,
Speaker 1: Julius Randall shows hi. Dame splits it, he gets tripped,
Speaker 1: gets the foul line, makes two free throws. Then he
Speaker 1: hits a step back three on Jylen Brunston, just that
Speaker 1: classic Dame left hand kind of in and out dribble
Speaker 1: step back. That was point number eight. Then he gets
Speaker 1: downhill on Julius Randall and pick and roll again and
Speaker 1: gets all the way to the rim and draws a foul.
Speaker 1: That's ten. And then he hits another step back three
Speaker 1: on Julius Randall in pick and roll once again coming
Speaker 1: off that ball screening, drawing Julius out to the three
Speaker 1: point line, and this time he hit him with the
Speaker 1: right handed in and out dribble step back. Those, to
Speaker 1: me are like the everybody's got, like their kind of
Speaker 1: thing that they've added to the game of basketball. Obviously,
Speaker 1: James Harden as a specific step back footwork, but Dame,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, has the best quick in and out
Speaker 1: step back jump shot in the game. He had one
Speaker 1: of each of them going both ways to get to
Speaker 1: thirteen points in less than three minutes, sending the Bucks
Speaker 1: into halftime up by three, and they took over pretty
Speaker 1: quickly there. In the early third quarter, there was a
Speaker 1: like kind of a fake dho where Giannis had Dame
Speaker 1: running off of him and Dame was red hot out
Speaker 1: of halftime, and so the Gianics just quick turned and
Speaker 1: faked the dho got all the way to the rim
Speaker 1: for a layup. Chris Middleton got going in that stretch.
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton like, again, we're not seeing the real top
Speaker 1: bend scoring pop, but he does look more athletic then
Speaker 1: I saw him look earlier in the season, and I
Speaker 1: think that's encouraging and I think we'll see some of
Speaker 1: the scoring pop come in the long run. But I
Speaker 1: thought like the story of the game because it kind
Speaker 1: of had a shootout vibe, right, like Julius Randall play
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about him in a minute, but played
Speaker 1: one of the best games I've ever seen him play,
Speaker 1: especially in terms of his offensive execution. Obviously, he still
Speaker 1: has some limitations and Dame was picking on him a lot,
Speaker 1: as I just mentioned, but it had a shootout vibe,
Speaker 1: and you know, the announcers on T and T were saying, like,
Speaker 1: someone's got to take control of this game defensively, and
Speaker 1: and it ended up being namely Brook Lopez in the
Speaker 1: second half, particularly in drop coverage at the rim, shutting
Speaker 1: off the hard driving lanes for Jalen Brunson and Emmanuel
Speaker 1: quickly and forcing them into a lot of tough mid
Speaker 1: range pull up jump shots for Jalen Brunson and those
Speaker 1: little floaters for Emmanuel quickly, and he was missing and
Speaker 1: both of them ended up having nightmare games. I thought
Speaker 1: that was kind of like the swing matchups of the
Speaker 1: game if I looked at it and that like it's
Speaker 1: just from the knicks perspective, like you're thinking, how do
Speaker 1: we get our butts kicked? With how well Randall played,
Speaker 1: and it was three key matchups. I thought Dame outplayed
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson was just significantly more efficient and impactful. I
Speaker 1: thought Campaign in those bench lineups, he came right in
Speaker 1: in that second quarter sort of applying downhill rim pressure
Speaker 1: and he was hitting floaters, he was driving and kicking
Speaker 1: the shooters. I thought Campaign just outplayed Emmanual Quickly, you
Speaker 1: really struggled. And then lastly Brook Lopez in his overall impact,
Speaker 1: you know, making threes, driving closeouts, defending in drop cover,
Speaker 1: I just thought he was much better than Mitchell Robinson.
Speaker 1: And those three massive swings ended up basically being the
Speaker 1: difference in this game from an offensive perspective, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to shout out Brook Lopez because I thought specifically
Speaker 1: his like because he kind of has this unique ability
Speaker 1: to shut the rim off. But all he has to
Speaker 1: do is kind of take one step forward and go
Speaker 1: like this, and he can do a lot to bother
Speaker 1: those mid range shots, which I think is what makes
Speaker 1: him such a uniquely gifted drop coverage big in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Super super impressive win from the Milwaukee Bucks. One last
Speaker 1: note on the Bucks that I wanted to hit. Malik
Speaker 1: Beasley's having an incredible season, not counting tonight. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to give you guys some perspective as someone covered
Speaker 1: him closely with the Lakers last year. He shot twenty
Speaker 1: eight percent in spot up situations last year. So one
Speaker 1: of the things the Lakers did which I disagreed with,
Speaker 1: is they ran him off a ton of off ball
Speaker 1: action and specifically was like hunting shots for him off
Speaker 1: the move, and he didn't shoot particularly well on those shots,
Speaker 1: and I thought it disrupted his rhythm in his spot
Speaker 1: up situations and he was nightmarishly bad situations. Well, the
Speaker 1: Bucks are running him for off screen shots about one
Speaker 1: third as frequent as the Lakers are. The vast majority
Speaker 1: of Malik Beasley's shots are in closeout situations, and so
Speaker 1: it's allowing him to kind of really settle into rhythm
Speaker 1: in those situations, and he's knocking him down at a
Speaker 1: significantly higher rate. Just to give you an idea, again,
Speaker 1: twenty eight percent for the Lakers last year. Malik Beasley
Speaker 1: in spot up situation so far for the Bucks this
Speaker 1: year forty seven percent. And I think it's invigorated him.
Speaker 1: You see him, he's doing this like shimmy thing every
Speaker 1: time as you make it, every time he makes a three.
Speaker 1: He's a bad defensive player in my opinion, but he's
Speaker 1: competing on the defensive end, which goes a long way.
Speaker 1: Your Buck fans know that I am a big believer
Speaker 1: that that spot in particular is one that the Bucks
Speaker 1: are gonna have to upgrade at some point before the season.
Speaker 1: That said, with as well Beasley has been shooting during
Speaker 1: the regular season, it's been more than adequate for them
Speaker 1: to be as dominant as they have been. On the
Speaker 1: next front, again, don't want to overthink it. I stopped
Speaker 1: watching this game with about three minutes left to get
Speaker 1: in here because obviously I'm getting back out there for Lakers' suns.
Speaker 1: But when I stopped watching and the Bucks were up
Speaker 1: twenty something. With three minutes left, the Bucks were over
Speaker 1: sixty percent from the field and over sixty percent from three.
Speaker 1: They were like twenty two for thirty six from three
Speaker 1: or something like that. Now, obviously, you guys know, I
Speaker 1: believe process leads into results. In general, I thought at
Speaker 1: the point of attack they really struggled. There was really
Speaker 1: no stretch of the game where they contained the ball
Speaker 1: well except for the brief stretches there in the first
Speaker 1: half where I thought Julius Randall did a decent job
Speaker 1: on Giannis, but just in general, like sometimes you got
Speaker 1: to tip the cat, like Damian Lillar got going with
Speaker 1: his pull up jump shots. Really tough to beat him
Speaker 1: when he's doing that. Yannis hit a three at one
Speaker 1: point in the second half. They just shot really, really well.
Speaker 1: And sometimes you're gonna go into an environment like that
Speaker 1: and it's just gonna be like a buzz saw. And
Speaker 1: if there was a point of encouragement there, it's how
Speaker 1: good Julius Randall looked. He's a guy that rushes things
Speaker 1: a lot, doesn't see the floor well, usually tends to overpenetrate,
Speaker 1: and this was as under control and methodical as I've
Speaker 1: seen him look offensively at any point in the NBA.
Speaker 1: I thought that was encouraging. You know, Jalen Brunson's like
Speaker 1: the one guy I don't worry about on this team.
Speaker 1: So like it's one of those things. You get a
Speaker 1: bad Julian Jalen bruntonnight, you get a bad Emanual Quickly night,
Speaker 1: and that ends up swinging things offensively. It turns into
Speaker 1: this like cascading effect where now the Bucks are getting
Speaker 1: out in transition and you can't set your defense and
Speaker 1: you know now there now they're just playing more energetically,
Speaker 1: so they're getting to the offensive glass and it just
Speaker 1: it just kind of cascades from there. And so I think,
Speaker 1: what me watching this game, this was more good Bucks
Speaker 1: than bad Nicks in my opinion. So sometimes you just
Speaker 1: got to tip the cap. But highly entertaining. First game
Speaker 1: of the n Season tournament tonight. Remaining schedule for this week. Tomorrow,
Speaker 1: we're off completely. I'm gonna be going on a Buddies
Speaker 1: podcast who covers the Thunder. So I'm doing a Thunder
Speaker 1: podcast tomorrow, but it's not with the volume. Thursday Sunsday,
Speaker 1: gonna just be working with Brennan from Lockdown Suns all
Speaker 1: sun stuff. Then on Friday, we're bringing the Nerds guys.
Speaker 1: On a Thursday night, we're covering the semi finals, so
Speaker 1: that's what Pacers, Bucks and Lakers Pelicans covering those games
Speaker 1: on Thursday night. Then on Friday we have the Nerd
Speaker 1: Sash guys coming out. We're gonna bunce around the league.
Speaker 1: That's the schedule for the rest of this week. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: and then Saturday night for the championship. So that's all
Speaker 1: I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1: I will see you on Thursday. For a lot of
Speaker 1: Sun stocks. The volume