Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. I hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys are having a great week so far. Coverage of
Speaker 1: the Conference finals here. Hoops Tonight is brought to you
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Speaker 1: get these shows. Well to Denver. Nuggets have gone up
Speaker 1: two zero on the Los Angeles Lakers, putting them in
Speaker 1: a very precarious position. It's going to be very difficult
Speaker 1: for the Lakers to win four out of the next
Speaker 1: five games. So the Nuggets are any commanding positions or
Speaker 1: congratulations to Nuggets fans. You're in good shape potentially for
Speaker 1: a run to the NBA Finals. The series is not over.
Speaker 1: Gonna get into a lot of stuff, but man, you
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Speaker 1: I'd like to do as we kind of work through this,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go too heavy into the x's and
Speaker 1: o's tonight. We're going to talk a couple of things,
Speaker 1: specifically with the success that Jamal Murray was having at
Speaker 1: the end of the game. But obviously, like any other fan,
Speaker 1: as you guys know, I'm rooting for the Lakers in
Speaker 1: this series. They're my one rooting interest. I was very
Speaker 1: invested in what was a highly entertaining basketball game. So
Speaker 1: tomorrow morning, I'm gonna wake up and I'm going to
Speaker 1: rewatch the game in its entirety and do a more
Speaker 1: detailed x's and and o's breakdown in the morning. Also,
Speaker 1: for you Eastern Conference Finals people interested in that series,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do a little film breakdown on that as well.
Speaker 1: But let's start with the Battle of the Big So.
Speaker 1: I thought this was a great example of the difference
Speaker 1: between Nikola Yokitch and Anthony Davis. Now, remember with the
Speaker 1: way that I view best Player in the world conversations.
Speaker 1: It's very different than the way a lot of other
Speaker 1: people view them. Like for me, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: a status symbol that you earn as a sign of respect, right,
Speaker 1: And so I kind of was leaning towards Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: after the Golden State Warriors series because one, he had
Speaker 1: just outplayed Steph Curry, who I thought was the second
Speaker 1: best player in the world, and Jannisontana Kumpo had kind
Speaker 1: of removed himself from the discussion, and I thought he
Speaker 1: outplayed Hi mainly on the defensive end of four and
Speaker 1: he's a champion. I thought he played a superstar level
Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty Playoffs, including out playing Nikola Jokic
Speaker 1: had head albeit three years ago, and I thought he
Speaker 1: kind of deserved that title for now. Nikol Jokic can
Speaker 1: absolutely grab it, but for me, you got to have
Speaker 1: the trophy. And so that's just kind of like my
Speaker 1: recognition of the way that I refer to the best
Speaker 1: player in the world. Right, But in terms of like
Speaker 1: who's a better basketball player in this series, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's screaming off the screen through two games, and I
Speaker 1: thought it was evident in them both having kind of
Speaker 1: down games, you know, And this is a great example
Speaker 1: of why I hate looking at box scores, because if
Speaker 1: you look at Anthony Davis's box score from Game one,
Speaker 1: he had forty points and ten rebounds, and I thought
Speaker 1: he was so disengaged on the defensive end compared to
Speaker 1: what he's capable of and on the glass and especially
Speaker 1: in transition defense, that I didn't think it was one
Speaker 1: of his best games. And this one kind of followed
Speaker 1: more what you would expect from the box score. This
Speaker 1: was a bad Anthony Davis game. He competed defensively at
Speaker 1: a higher level than he did in the first game.
Speaker 1: He competed on the glass at a higher level than
Speaker 1: he did in the first game, but not to any
Speaker 1: sort of amazing extent. You don't leave this game thinking
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is the overwhelming defensive force that you felt
Speaker 1: many times during the Golden State series and during the
Speaker 1: Memphis Grizzly series. And he goes four to fifteen from
Speaker 1: the field, he has fourteen rebounds, that's where the rebounding
Speaker 1: effort showed up. But he had four turnovers, including two
Speaker 1: pivotal turnovers in the fourth quarter that both led to
Speaker 1: Nuggets runouts, and he just gave you absolutely nothing on
Speaker 1: the offensive end. And you know, again, like there's it's
Speaker 1: been overstated the Anthony Davis up and down thing, because
Speaker 1: he tends to be pretty damn good defensively, night in
Speaker 1: and night out for the most part, and so it's
Speaker 1: unfair to be like, oh, Anthony Davis had sixteen he
Speaker 1: was garbage tonight. It's like, well, did he anchor your
Speaker 1: defense as you gotta win like Game six against Memphis,
Speaker 1: then yeah, that's actually a pretty damn good game. But
Speaker 1: they're all of the coverage of Anthony Davis and his
Speaker 1: offensive struggles going up and down are legitimate. Like the
Speaker 1: dude just for whatever reason, one game he's super polished
Speaker 1: with those little push shots and hook shots in the lane,
Speaker 1: and then the next game he just can't make them.
Speaker 1: And he got great looks in the paint in this
Speaker 1: game and he just couldn't make them. And it becomes
Speaker 1: a problem because with the way that Denver runs their
Speaker 1: pick and roll coverage, and they kind of tweaked it
Speaker 1: at various points in this game, like they've been coming
Speaker 1: with the high drop for the most part through three
Speaker 1: halves of the series, and then they sat him way
Speaker 1: back to start the a little bit in game two,
Speaker 1: but then they started bringing him way back up to
Speaker 1: the level. This screen again a little bit there in
Speaker 1: that fourth quarter, but either way, the pocket passes what's
Speaker 1: open there. So it's like absolutely vitally important to the
Speaker 1: Laker offense for Anthony Davis to be making those little
Speaker 1: floaters and pop shots in the lane. It's it's just
Speaker 1: it's an important part of the chain of the Laker
Speaker 1: offense as a virtue of the coverage. Remember, the coverage
Speaker 1: dictates the way you have to attack. When teams run drop.
Speaker 1: You need to have guys that can either hit pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots or apply pressure on the rim, or
Speaker 1: make shots in the pocket, or hit the shots on
Speaker 1: the kickout when they tag the roller right when they're switching.
Speaker 1: It's much more about mismatch hunting, and you've got to
Speaker 1: be able to back a guy down closer to the rim,
Speaker 1: or beat him off the dribble, or consistently shoot over
Speaker 1: the top like that. In this particular coverage that Denver
Speaker 1: is running bad, Anthony Davis games are going to be
Speaker 1: absolutely devastating to the Laker offense. And now we look
Speaker 1: at the Jokic game, which I also thought was, by
Speaker 1: Jokic's standards, not his best. He's been pretty bad defensively
Speaker 1: in the entire series. The Lakers have mostly had their
Speaker 1: way with him in his pick and roll coverage. But
Speaker 1: he was otherworldly great in the in Game one. And
Speaker 1: also I want to give him a little bit more
Speaker 1: credit defensively. A huge part of closing out defensive possessions
Speaker 1: is grabbing defensive rebounds. And obviously he's done a great
Speaker 1: job controlling the defensive glass throughout this series. But with
Speaker 1: Nikol Jokic, like his bad game is nine for twenty
Speaker 1: one from the field. Still made a bunch of shots
Speaker 1: when his team needed him to, Still made a bunch
Speaker 1: of those little hook shots and pushots and floaters and ones.
Speaker 1: Still got to the foul line, still crashed the offensive glass,
Speaker 1: still controlled the defensive glass, and had twelve assists. And
Speaker 1: that's the difference is with Nikola jokicch he's a little
Speaker 1: bit more resilient when it comes to the ups and
Speaker 1: downs that take place over the course of an NBA
Speaker 1: playoff series. And that's the thing, Like, what did I
Speaker 1: say coming out of Game two or coming out of
Speaker 1: Game one? In my film session, I said I actually
Speaker 1: thought effort played a role for both teams. I thought
Speaker 1: the Lakers really mailed in the first half and never
Speaker 1: truly gained control the game defensively until the last six minutes.
Speaker 1: And then when I went back and rewatched the game,
Speaker 1: I thought Denver was really really sloppy defensively in the
Speaker 1: second half of that game, where I thought they let
Speaker 1: go of the rope, so to speak. So effort was
Speaker 1: such a huge role in that first game, in the
Speaker 1: Lakers struggling so much early and the Nuggets struggling so
Speaker 1: much late, and so I said, I expected this to
Speaker 1: be much more low scoring, and I expected both teams
Speaker 1: to shoot in the mid forties. Well, like LA shot
Speaker 1: forty four percent from the field and the Nuggets shot
Speaker 1: forty four percent from the field. Honestly, the difference in
Speaker 1: the game. I said, both teams were shooting the mid
Speaker 1: thirties from three, and the Lakers would win close. Well,
Speaker 1: the Nuggets shot in the mid thirties from three and
Speaker 1: the Lakers shot in the mid twenties from three, and
Speaker 1: that really is the difference in the game. If the
Speaker 1: Lakers were going to win this game, they needed to
Speaker 1: knock down a couple more of those threes. They needed
Speaker 1: Lebron to go two for six instead of zero for six.
Speaker 1: The needed D'Angelo Russell to go two for five instead
Speaker 1: of one for five. And so that's kind of the
Speaker 1: difference in the game. And you know, uh, we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about the Laker effort stuff later,
Speaker 1: but that's just the reality of their predicament in the series.
Speaker 1: Denver is better than Golden State and is better than
Speaker 1: Memphis specifically when it comes to offensive firepower. And so
Speaker 1: you really held them under your thumb for three quarters
Speaker 1: for the most part, I'll say two and two thirds
Speaker 1: of quarter because that late quarter run for the Nuggets.
Speaker 1: But they have so much firepower that they are capable
Speaker 1: of beating you even when you throw your best punch.
Speaker 1: That's the difference. This is not a series where the
Speaker 1: Lakers can go up and down with their effort level
Speaker 1: in that same cadence that they did in the first
Speaker 1: two rounds. You know, in Game one, I thought the
Speaker 1: Lakers kind of punted it. Game two, the Lakers gave
Speaker 1: you everything they got and it still wasn't enough because
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray caught fire at the end of the game.
Speaker 1: And that's absolutely a risk. So there are what five
Speaker 1: games left in the series, and even if the Lakers
Speaker 1: do throw five great punches, they might only win. They
Speaker 1: need to win four of those, but they have a
Speaker 1: chance to lose those games anyway because of the sheer
Speaker 1: amount of fire your power that Denver has. That's the difference.
Speaker 1: As Lebron said, at every round, each test gets a
Speaker 1: little bit harder. Right like after Memphis, he goes, this,
Speaker 1: next one's going to be harder. Well, they said, he
Speaker 1: said that right after the Warrior series, like this one's
Speaker 1: going to be harder. Well, you're learning that in real
Speaker 1: time with how good this Denver Nuggets team is. So
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Jamal Murray, so I talked
Speaker 1: a lot about in the series preview. I believe about
Speaker 1: his the way he's a complimentary star to Nikol Jokic,
Speaker 1: and actually I think it was after Game six against Phoenix.
Speaker 1: But that's the reality of the way that this partnership works.
Speaker 1: It's very similar to the Lebron James and Anthony Davis partnership,
Speaker 1: where what makes it work offensively is they kind of
Speaker 1: play complimentary parts. You need two pieces to a strong
Speaker 1: pick and roll attack, and both of them can fulfill
Speaker 1: really both ends of that role. They can even run
Speaker 1: inverted stuff. And the same goes for Murray and Jokic.
Speaker 1: Is you know there, they did it. The Lakers just
Speaker 1: did a much better job of, you know, on the
Speaker 1: on the the the pocket pass to Nikol Jokic, of
Speaker 1: having Lebron come off of Aaron Gordon and Tag Yokitch
Speaker 1: quickly and Anthony Davis running back to Aaron Gordon. The
Speaker 1: Lakers were so sharp on the backside of their defense.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, and this is another part of
Speaker 1: what makes Nikola Jokic so damn good. He's an incredible screener.
Speaker 1: He's one of the best screeners in the game. And
Speaker 1: so how did the Nuggets get off at the end
Speaker 1: of the game. They stopped going to the damn pocket
Speaker 1: pass and Jamal Murray started coming off of those dribble
Speaker 1: handoffs looking to shoot, and again you held him down.
Speaker 1: I think it was he five to seventeen through through
Speaker 1: three quarters, I believe it or something. I can't remember
Speaker 1: the exact number, but he didn't shoot well for three quarters,
Speaker 1: but he broke away in that fourth quarter. And that's
Speaker 1: the beauty of complimentary stars. So the Lakers are throwing
Speaker 1: the kitchen sink at the Jokic part of that dribble
Speaker 1: handoff and off of that pick and roll right like
Speaker 1: they're tagging him on the roll. They're helping off the
Speaker 1: weak side and rotating their Lebron I thought did an
Speaker 1: amazing job defending Jokic for portions of this game, and
Speaker 1: that's something the Lakers are gonna have to explore more
Speaker 1: over the course of the series. But against the truly
Speaker 1: elite guys, you have to seed something. And if Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis is gonna sag back on the roll, or if
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Rueyatcha Murray are gonna stay glued to
Speaker 1: Nikola Jokic, then you need the guard to chase over
Speaker 1: the top of those actions and apply pressure to Jamal Murray.
Speaker 1: And they just did it, and they tried a bunch
Speaker 1: of different things too. Eventually they tried an Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: switch on Jamal Murray. And I called this out in
Speaker 1: the moment, but there were three seconds left on the
Speaker 1: shot clock and Anthony Davis is playing back, conceding a
Speaker 1: jump shot to Jamal Murray, and kudos to Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: hit him with a hard step back and knocked it down.
Speaker 1: And on the ad front, like, that's the thing, dude,
Speaker 1: you're not bringing anything to the table offensively. You have
Speaker 1: to be perfect defensively to help your team. That needs
Speaker 1: to be your competitive response to the fact that your
Speaker 1: SHOT's not falling. And in a pivotal possession of the game,
Speaker 1: you conceded a step back jump shot to a hot
Speaker 1: shooter and from there it just didn't matter. And I mean,
Speaker 1: I've talked about this a lot with skill development when
Speaker 1: we talk about it on the show, but with pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooting in particular, when you get to your
Speaker 1: muscle memory, it's over really once you're in rhythm, and
Speaker 1: you can get disrupted from your rhythm in a bunch
Speaker 1: of different ways. But a lot of all these guys,
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray's just one guy in a long line of
Speaker 1: guards in this league where when they really got it going,
Speaker 1: it just doesn't matter what you do as long as
Speaker 1: they get just a fraction of separation. They've just worked
Speaker 1: so hard over the years on these complicated off the
Speaker 1: dribble jump shots that they just you're helpless. And so
Speaker 1: that's the thing, and that's the beauty of both of
Speaker 1: these teams in a lot of ways. Is they just
Speaker 1: have so many different ways they can beat you, right,
Speaker 1: Like any given game, Austin Reeves can go for twenty five,
Speaker 1: He's gone for twenty plus five times in this playoff run.
Speaker 1: You know, Danzel Russell's given the Lakers over thirty in
Speaker 1: a game. But the Nuggets can do the same thing.
Speaker 1: You know, Jokic can kill you one game. Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: can kill you one game. You have the Michael Porter
Speaker 1: junior factor at any given moment. Contavious cabble Pope had
Speaker 1: his season high and field goals made if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: in Game one. So like, both of these teams have
Speaker 1: way too much firepower for any team to get away
Speaker 1: with laziness. And so I thought Game one was a
Speaker 1: lazy game for both teams that the Nuggets ended up winning.
Speaker 1: And I thought Game two was both teams threw their
Speaker 1: best punch and the Nuggets were just better, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and again like like we'll talk about it
Speaker 1: when we get to the Lakers, but they just Lebron
Speaker 1: James in particular, I thought really got fatigued down to
Speaker 1: the stretch of that game. But shout out to Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray man. Like, that's we always talked about the two
Speaker 1: to one one theory, right, you need two games from
Speaker 1: your best player, you need one game from your second
Speaker 1: best player, and you need one game from your role
Speaker 1: players to win the series. Well, you got a Jokic game.
Speaker 1: He was best player on the four by mile in
Speaker 1: game one dominates. Well, you just got your Jamal Murray game.
Speaker 1: If Jokic gets you won more and you have another
Speaker 1: game where all your role players get hot, that's the
Speaker 1: series right there. So Jamal Murray, Game two of the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three Western Conference Finals will be referred to
Speaker 1: as the Jamal Murray Game. Looking forward, Uh, let's talk
Speaker 1: about a couple of the guys on the Nuggets. I
Speaker 1: wanted to shout. I thought Bruce Brown was awesome throughout
Speaker 1: this game, particularly on the defensive end. He was applying
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure to Lebron James over the course
Speaker 1: of the game. I thought that was a big part
Speaker 1: of the fatigue element that led to Lebron missing some
Speaker 1: of those threes in the fourth quarter. He also hit
Speaker 1: two massive threes in the third quarter in transition. You know,
Speaker 1: you could tell what I really appreciate about Bruce Brown's
Speaker 1: game is he's got kind of a slow release and
Speaker 1: it's definitely not exactly a fluid shot. It's very rigid
Speaker 1: and has a little bit of a hitch in it.
Speaker 1: But to his credit, he's got great muscle memory. Every
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown three looks exactly the same, and you could
Speaker 1: see when he really has the space and can load
Speaker 1: up into his form and trust his muscle memory, that
Speaker 1: thing's going in and he made two massive ones. Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior made a huge three during that run in transition.
Speaker 1: It was it was I'm I'm really impressed by the Nuggets.
Speaker 1: Like I said, if you're a Nuggets fan, I congrats
Speaker 1: to you guys. You've got a great team and you're
Speaker 1: in great shape. And uh man, I'm blown away by
Speaker 1: the offensive firepower because, like again, the Laker defense is real.
Speaker 1: You saw that in that first half, held them down
Speaker 1: to forty eight. But the sign of a truly great
Speaker 1: offense is that they can always push through even against
Speaker 1: the truly great defenses. And there you go. They go
Speaker 1: for what's that fifty to sixty sixty points in the
Speaker 1: second half, So there you go. Difference in the game.
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about Laker efforts. So again,
Speaker 1: the Lakers followed a very similar cadence over the first
Speaker 1: two series. They threw the kitchen sinking game one, won
Speaker 1: the game, punted game two, through the kitchen sink in
Speaker 1: game three, blew them out both series, kind of tried
Speaker 1: to do the bare bare minimum to win game four
Speaker 1: in both series, barely won both games. Then they punted
Speaker 1: game five, and then they threw the kitchen sinking game
Speaker 1: six and one. And again those are teams that again,
Speaker 1: and I actually think the Warriors in particular are very good,
Speaker 1: but I think this Nuggets team is probably better than
Speaker 1: any team that was in the Western Conference in last
Speaker 1: year's playoff run. And so again this is the way
Speaker 1: that competition steps up as things progress. And in this
Speaker 1: particular series, even when the Lakers throw their best punch,
Speaker 1: as you saw tonight, they're not going to be able
Speaker 1: to overcome every single time. And so what that tells
Speaker 1: me is that strategy of mailing it in is gonna
Speaker 1: end this series quickly. If they mail in one of
Speaker 1: those two games in LA, this series can be over
Speaker 1: in five. And again, they have to win four of
Speaker 1: the next five games. And the only chance that they
Speaker 1: do that is if they bring hallacious effort in all
Speaker 1: five games, simply because they're probably gonna lose one of
Speaker 1: those anyway, and again, the series is not over. I'm
Speaker 1: never going to count out Lebron James and Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: Lebron James multiple times in his career has come back
Speaker 1: from down two to oh to win a playoff series.
Speaker 1: He did it against the Warriors in twenty sixteen, he
Speaker 1: did it against the Pistons in two thousand and seven.
Speaker 1: He's done it before. But this is a different phase
Speaker 1: in his career and him and Anthony Davis just haven't
Speaker 1: quite been good enough. And that's a big part of
Speaker 1: why they're down too oh. But in order for them
Speaker 1: to win this series, the two of those guys are
Speaker 1: gonna have to be a lot better now. Lebron James
Speaker 1: in particular, I actually thought this was one of his
Speaker 1: better two way playoff games. He was pretty rough defensively.
Speaker 1: In his first shift, he got beat on a back
Speaker 1: cup by Aaron Gordon. There was a switch with Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis where he's supposed to run down to the rim
Speaker 1: with Nikola Jokic, and he didn't. He just conceded the
Speaker 1: shot to Nikola Jokic. But when he came back in
Speaker 1: in the second or end of the first quarter for
Speaker 1: his second shift, he was incredible defended Nikola. Jokic was
Speaker 1: cooking in high pick and roll, controlled everything for them
Speaker 1: offensively while they were getting absolutely nothing anywhere else on
Speaker 1: the roster. I thought it was one of Lebron's best
Speaker 1: two way playoff games. But here's the problem. At this
Speaker 1: phase in his career, just doesn't have the gas tank
Speaker 1: that he used to have, and he didn't get anything
Speaker 1: from anybody else, and so when he got to the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, the legs weren't there, start settling for threes,
Speaker 1: and Lebron's having one of those postseasons like twenty fifteen
Speaker 1: where he's just, for whatever reason, just can't get it
Speaker 1: going with the jump shot. And it reminds me so
Speaker 1: much of twenty fifteen because there are these for a
Speaker 1: game or two where you see it come through, but
Speaker 1: it just this slump just never ends for him. And
Speaker 1: those were pretty damn good looks there in that fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: but they're concession shots because he's tired, like he's just
Speaker 1: like I need to just throw this up essentially as
Speaker 1: a punt and hopefully I make one or two of them,
Speaker 1: and he made zero of them. But I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: get too down on Lebron because I thought he was
Speaker 1: the best player on the floor for the Lakers tonight,
Speaker 1: and actually was the best player on the floor in
Speaker 1: the game through three quarters. He just just didn't bring
Speaker 1: up in that fourth quarter. Anthony Davis. Again, like we
Speaker 1: talked about earlier, when he has these bad offensive games,
Speaker 1: specifically against the Nuggets, it's just gonna be super detrimental
Speaker 1: to their offense. But again, when that's happening, he needs
Speaker 1: to dominate the game defensively, and I didn't think he
Speaker 1: brought enough defensively in this game to make up for
Speaker 1: what he did offensively. Couple three adjustments that I wrote
Speaker 1: down for the Lakers, and again I'm going to do
Speaker 1: a film session tomorrow morning for both teams for both
Speaker 1: series of four teams and kind of go over adjustments
Speaker 1: for everybody. But things that stood out for me in
Speaker 1: the live watching with that Murray dribble handoff, it's time
Speaker 1: for them to go to what they did in the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty bubble, which is put Lebron James on Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray and put Anthony Davis on Nikola Jokic and switch
Speaker 1: the handoff, or if you're gonna put Ruby Hatcher Murra
Speaker 1: on Nikola Jokic, still put Lebron James on Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: and switch the dribble handoff. That's basically what they did
Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty playoffs, which led to Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: going for ISOs or at least at the at least
Speaker 1: in ISO's he's got to generate separation rather than getting
Speaker 1: separation naturally as part of the coverage because of how
Speaker 1: good of a screener Nikola Jokic is. So that's an
Speaker 1: adjustment I expect the Lakers to make. Got to stop
Speaker 1: sending Anthony Davis to the offensive glass. No, if you
Speaker 1: want to see an example of what I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: you'll see it in the You'll see it on my
Speaker 1: twitter feed. I actually tweeted out a video that kind
Speaker 1: of demonstrated an example of what I'm talking about. Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis crashed the offensive glass all night and had one
Speaker 1: offensive rebound. Why Because Nikola Jokic, for as bad as
Speaker 1: he is defensively, is a fantastic defensive rebounder, and so
Speaker 1: he's not getting any advantage there and what's happening is
Speaker 1: the Lakers are sending two forwards every single possession to
Speaker 1: the offensive glass, and the Nuggets are running on them.
Speaker 1: And so the play that you'll see, there's a Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves pick and roll, if I remember correctly, and Austin
Speaker 1: throws a great cross court pass to DiAngelo Russell. He
Speaker 1: takes a three, he misses it, but both Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis crashed the offensive glass and miss if
Speaker 1: you freeze frame it. When Jokic gets the rebound, both
Speaker 1: of those two guys are the furthest back and there's
Speaker 1: five on three going the other way, and to Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: and AD's credit, they sprinted back, but it just they
Speaker 1: weren't back in time, and Michael Porter Junior ends up
Speaker 1: getting a corner three. So at a certain point, when
Speaker 1: you acknowledge the fact that the Lakers are actually getting
Speaker 1: a ton of stops in the half court against the
Speaker 1: Nuggets and Jamal Murray just got hot with a bunch
Speaker 1: of difficult shot making in that fourth quarter, you're gonna
Speaker 1: win the series if you can keep them in the
Speaker 1: half court. And I trust the shot result with Jamal Murray,
Speaker 1: right as long as they bring the right amount of effort,
Speaker 1: but the Nuggets are thrashing them in transition. At a
Speaker 1: certain point you have to make an adjustment and stop
Speaker 1: sending guys to the offensive glass. That's an adjustment I expect.
Speaker 1: And the D'Angelo Russell, this is two games now where
Speaker 1: he's looked pretty much unplayable. He's getting into it with
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown and clearly letting it affect him. He's dying
Speaker 1: on screens. He's not competing on the glass. He's not
Speaker 1: hitting shots. Like again with D'Angelo Russell. If he's not
Speaker 1: hitting shots, he doesn't bring enough to the table to
Speaker 1: justify having him out there. That's where you're almost better
Speaker 1: off going with the Troy Brown Jr. Even though he
Speaker 1: has his own limitations. At least he's gonna compete defensively
Speaker 1: and on the glass, and so it might be time
Speaker 1: to go away from D'Angelo Russell. I would try him
Speaker 1: in Game three just and hope that the home court
Speaker 1: energy kind of brings a certain level to d LO
Speaker 1: that he can be impactful. But you need to have
Speaker 1: a quick leash with D'angela Russell and take him out
Speaker 1: of the game if it's not working. Well forward. I
Speaker 1: do believe the Lakers will win Game three, but obviously
Speaker 1: this Nuggets team is so good, but that they have
Speaker 1: a very good chance of stealing one of the two
Speaker 1: games in LA. And no matter what, it's extremely difficult
Speaker 1: to beat a team three times in a row. So
Speaker 1: if the Lakers win both home games, it's just so
Speaker 1: difficult to then go on the road and beat the Nuggets.
Speaker 1: Just ask the Phoenix Suns. That's why when you go
Speaker 1: down to zero in a series, you lose almost every time.
Speaker 1: It's not over. They have a chance, but they've dug
Speaker 1: themselves in a significant hole. The Nuggets should feel like
Speaker 1: significant favorites. They have a fantastic chance to win the series.
Speaker 1: Like I said the nugget, if you're a Nuggets fan,
Speaker 1: you should feel like you're in great shape. Don't forget
Speaker 1: tomorrow morning. I keep an eye on the feed. It
Speaker 1: should be up around like you know, eleven noon or
Speaker 1: so Pacific Standard time. But I'll have a film breakdown
Speaker 1: from this game. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys,
Speaker 1: and I'll see you next time. The volume