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Speaker 1: in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented
Speaker 1: by FanDuel here at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody, congrats
Speaker 1: on making it to the weekend. I'm gonna keep it
Speaker 1: nice and simple. Today we're covering the two nationally televised
Speaker 1: games from last night, so Lakers sixers and then Bucks Mavericks.
Speaker 1: And then we're also going to talk about the New
Speaker 1: Orleans Pelicans, who beat the Phoenix Suns last night underhanded
Speaker 1: without brandon ingram or IRV Jones. An impressive win for
Speaker 1: the Pelicans, who continue to look like potentially the best
Speaker 1: team in the West, and then tomorrow we're gonna be
Speaker 1: breaking down the NBA Finals rematch from tonight between the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors. Then we're taking
Speaker 1: Monday off before we come back on Tuesday. You guys
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Speaker 1: your podcasts. Under Hoops Tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So that Lakers Sixers game had probably, at least at
Speaker 1: the top of my head, the strangest ending I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: We've all seen wild comebacks, whether that's a team coming
Speaker 1: down from you know, points in a fourth quarter, or
Speaker 1: even some late comebacks where you're up five six points
Speaker 1: with like a minute left and you blow it something
Speaker 1: along those lines. I can't ever remember seeing a team
Speaker 1: have a nine point lead with less than thirty seconds left,
Speaker 1: and then you blink and the other team's got an
Speaker 1: opportunity to win the game at the free throw line.
Speaker 1: It was one of the strangest things I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: Slipper the the Sixers got really sloppy with the basketball,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers kept turning those turnovers into baskets. And
Speaker 1: then there at that last sequence the foul aust and
Speaker 1: Reeves makes the first two misses, the third Sixers turn
Speaker 1: it over again Anthony Anthony Davis gets hacked underneath the rim,
Speaker 1: makes the first free throw, misses the second free throw.
Speaker 1: We're going to ot. And how did the Lakers, who
Speaker 1: scored ten points in that thirty second stretch responding ot?
Speaker 1: They would scoreless for the first four minutes of overtime
Speaker 1: and the Sixers win comfortable. It's just a truly bizarre
Speaker 1: basketball game. I thought the story of this game was
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis's foul trouble. Lakers fans were complaining about the
Speaker 1: officiating all night. Um Lakers fans in general have done
Speaker 1: a lot of complaining about officiating. I generally am frustrated
Speaker 1: with officiating around the league, just you know, the points
Speaker 1: of emphasis, stuff like this carrying and traveling thing. I
Speaker 1: think that if you really look close on any NBA possession,
Speaker 1: you could call a carry, a travel and a foul
Speaker 1: on just about every single NBA possession. That it's just
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff is happening way more frequently than
Speaker 1: people are willing to admit, and we've kind of just
Speaker 1: come to uh an acceptance as the NBA fan base
Speaker 1: that we're okay with that because we want a little
Speaker 1: bit of flow in the game. So I have been
Speaker 1: critical of officiating on that front. However, questionable foul calls,
Speaker 1: especially on you know, like the traditional foul calls, they're
Speaker 1: kind of part of the game, you know. Like A
Speaker 1: D did have some questionable fouls called him on him
Speaker 1: last night. I thought the first one when Joel and
Speaker 1: Be got the offensive rebound and went up, I thought
Speaker 1: that was minimal contact. Should not have been a foul
Speaker 1: in an NBA game. I thought an A D s
Speaker 1: third foul when p J. Tucker was cutting along the
Speaker 1: base on and A D kind of checked him a
Speaker 1: little bit. Checking cutters is part of NBA defense. It's
Speaker 1: what you're coached to do from the youngest levels. If
Speaker 1: you're in help side and an offensive player cuts in
Speaker 1: front of you or behind you, you're supposed to hit
Speaker 1: it just to slow him down, so whoever's guarding him
Speaker 1: has a little bit better chance to recover. It's part
Speaker 1: of NBA basketball that should not be a foul call,
Speaker 1: and that kind of contact happens on once again, just
Speaker 1: about every NBA possession. So yeah, those are two really
Speaker 1: questionable calls. The thing is is that's part of the game,
Speaker 1: and that's why you get six fouls, because you're not
Speaker 1: gonna get removed from the game over two questionable foul calls.
Speaker 1: But that's precisely why you have to avoid the sloppy
Speaker 1: foul calls or this silly lazy fouls because those incombina,
Speaker 1: in combination with a couple of you know, questionable calls,
Speaker 1: will put you in foul trouble. So for instance, you know,
Speaker 1: early in the first quarter, Anthony Davis already has a
Speaker 1: foul questionable call on that and beat offensive rebound and
Speaker 1: beats posting him up on the left block right in
Speaker 1: front of the ref. A d hacks at the basketball
Speaker 1: from behind with his left hand, that's gonna get called
Speaker 1: the time. Even if you hit the ball. Sometimes the
Speaker 1: refs just equate that to lazy hacking defense, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna call it. And what's the risk reward there? Like,
Speaker 1: you poke it away, you get a turnover, Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: Maybe you get a bucket on the other end. If
Speaker 1: you foul him, that's your second foul. And now you've
Speaker 1: changed the entire dynamic of the basketball game. The risk
Speaker 1: reward factor there was way too low to do that.
Speaker 1: Then he got himself removed from the game. Now we
Speaker 1: go forward to the third quarter. So you know we
Speaker 1: saw in the second half um Darvin Ham went zone.
Speaker 1: In the second quarter, the Lakers had to I think
Speaker 1: they outscored the six or thirty nine to thirty in
Speaker 1: that quarter. You get it back within two. You come
Speaker 1: out of the locker room at a halftime, it's a
Speaker 1: D has three fouls clean slate. Basically, if you play
Speaker 1: normal basketball from there, you should be okay. Joel and
Speaker 1: beat gets Lebron on a post up on the left block,
Speaker 1: rips through towards the middle and beats him off the dribble,
Speaker 1: and a D just steps up and hacks the hell
Speaker 1: out of him. And again I don't understand the risk
Speaker 1: reward there, Like if you let him go, he gets
Speaker 1: a dunk. If you foul him, he goes to the
Speaker 1: free throw line where he's a good free throw shooter,
Speaker 1: and guess what he made both. But what you did
Speaker 1: is you got yourself your fourth foul and you checked
Speaker 1: out of the game again. So basically, for the first
Speaker 1: three quarters of this game, it wasn't the Los Angeles
Speaker 1: Lakers versus the Philadelphia seventy Sixers. It was the Philadelphia
Speaker 1: seventy Sixers versus Lebron James at center with a bunch
Speaker 1: of small guards, which turned into exactly what you could
Speaker 1: have expected, a really jan Kee zone that the Lakers
Speaker 1: had to stay in and the Sixers getting hot from
Speaker 1: three point line. The Anthony Melton went eight for twelve
Speaker 1: from three. He finished with thirty three points, and he'd
Speaker 1: had a bunch of key offensive rebounds. Like it just
Speaker 1: it wasn't exactly how you'd expect when the best player
Speaker 1: on the Lakers took himself out of the game with
Speaker 1: silly fouls. You know. The thing with the zone, I'm
Speaker 1: glad that the Lakers have a zone. Look, they didn't
Speaker 1: use it at all really in the first you know,
Speaker 1: month of the season or so, And I really like
Speaker 1: zone as a rhythm disruptor. Like I like it when
Speaker 1: you randomly do go to his own like two three
Speaker 1: possessions in a row, just because it's like a changeup.
Speaker 1: It changes the flow of the game. If there's a
Speaker 1: score that's in a rhythm, you kind of like em
Speaker 1: beat like and beat lit the world on fire in
Speaker 1: that first quarter. I think you had twenty points in
Speaker 1: that first quarter. You go zone a little bit in
Speaker 1: the second quarter, it kind of throws him out of
Speaker 1: rhythm a little bit, gives you a chance to kind
Speaker 1: of regain control of the game. But when you stay
Speaker 1: in his zone for a really long time. These are
Speaker 1: NBA players, and zone defenses are designed to capitalize on
Speaker 1: teams that are one not smart or two can't shoot,
Speaker 1: So it works a lot at lower levels. You can
Speaker 1: see zone defenses be really successful in high school and
Speaker 1: in the call at the college level. Why because perimeter
Speaker 1: shooting is you know, when it comes to actually knockdown
Speaker 1: perimeter shooting, there's just not a lot of it at
Speaker 1: those levels, and the overall basketball queue is much lower,
Speaker 1: so you're not going to get the high level execution
Speaker 1: to pick zones apart for layups very often. But in
Speaker 1: the n b A. It's like, like d Anthony Melton
Speaker 1: is shooting, I'll catching shoot threes this year. Like if
Speaker 1: you leave him open in his own the dude's going
Speaker 1: to get hot. And he did. You know, Joel Embiat
Speaker 1: is a smart basketball player who understands, oh wait, none
Speaker 1: of these guys on this team are over six nine.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna battle for offensive rebounds, you know, and
Speaker 1: that that's just kind of the inevitable pathway with that
Speaker 1: sort of thing when you stay with the zone for
Speaker 1: too long. So credit to the to the Sixers for
Speaker 1: taking advantage of it. But Anthony Davis by getting himself
Speaker 1: in foul trouble, Yes, some questionable calls, but by picking
Speaker 1: up the two silly fouls, he removed himself from the game.
Speaker 1: The Lakers had to play a Jankee style, and the
Speaker 1: better team, especially with Anthony Davis out, was able to
Speaker 1: take advantage of it. And look a d came out
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter and played extremely well. I finished
Speaker 1: with thirty one points or whatever it was, but it
Speaker 1: was just too late to really at her, I mean
Speaker 1: at least until they were down nine with thirty seconds left,
Speaker 1: and then all hell broke loose. What a game from
Speaker 1: Joel Embid thirty eight points and nineteen shots. Took full
Speaker 1: advantage of eighties absence, obliterating the undersized Lakers lineups. Showed
Speaker 1: really impressive perimeter shot making again in this game. He
Speaker 1: had a big shot in overtime right after Lebron missed
Speaker 1: a layup heading nice like little pull up jump shot
Speaker 1: um over a double team out of a jab step
Speaker 1: at the free throw line. Made a bunch of perimeter
Speaker 1: shots early in the game. Overall in the game, I
Speaker 1: counted eight for thirteen outside of the restricted area. On
Speaker 1: the season, Joel Embiad is a hundred and six out
Speaker 1: of two hundred and thirty six outside of the restricted area.
Speaker 1: That means he's making more than six shots per game
Speaker 1: over the top of the defense at a forty clip.
Speaker 1: If you guys, remember when I talked about this offseason
Speaker 1: with Joel Embid's limitations as a passer, he has to
Speaker 1: be able to hit shots over the top of the defense.
Speaker 1: Same goes for Anthony Davis. Like when you are a
Speaker 1: dominant individual score, defenses are going to collapse the paint,
Speaker 1: especially if you're rim pressuring type of player like most
Speaker 1: of the big, strong athletes in the league like Janice,
Speaker 1: Joel and beating Anthony Davis, so on and so forth,
Speaker 1: Lebron James. When that's the case, you have one of
Speaker 1: two options. You either need to be able to pass
Speaker 1: to beat the defense to make them pay for helping,
Speaker 1: or you need to be able to consistently hit shots
Speaker 1: over the top of the defense when they're packing the pain. Now,
Speaker 1: for a guy like Lebron, he's doing it with passing.
Speaker 1: For a guy like Nicola Yokich, he's doing it with passing.
Speaker 1: For a guy like Janice, he's doing it with passing.
Speaker 1: But for guys like him beating Anthony Davis that's struggled
Speaker 1: to pass at a high level, although both of them
Speaker 1: have shown a little bit of an improvement there this year.
Speaker 1: You have to be able to hit shots over the
Speaker 1: top of the defense. And Joel embat is having his
Speaker 1: best perimeter shooting season of his career, and I'm really
Speaker 1: interested to see if it translates to the playoffs this
Speaker 1: year because that's been something that has failed him in
Speaker 1: the past. James Harden contributed with twenty eight points and
Speaker 1: twelve assists, a couple of huge plays in ot a
Speaker 1: driving and one on Austin Reeves got into his chest,
Speaker 1: and then he hit another pull up mid range jumper
Speaker 1: over Awestin Reaves later in the overtime period. That's such
Speaker 1: an important tool to have, especially when you're going up
Speaker 1: against undersized defensive players like the uh. You know, long
Speaker 1: distance jump shots require a great deal of lift, and
Speaker 1: so as games get going and you fatigue, it's hard
Speaker 1: to get the necessary lift on those shots to knock
Speaker 1: them down. But if you're working closer ten to fifteen
Speaker 1: feet and you're taller than your defender, you don't need
Speaker 1: to get as much lift. It's a much higher percentage shot.
Speaker 1: It's such an important shot to have in your bag,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't in James Harden's bag for basically this
Speaker 1: last massive chunk of his career. He hit four pull
Speaker 1: up mid range jump shots yesterday. This season, he's made seventeen.
Speaker 1: Last year he combined in all of the games to
Speaker 1: make four for the Philadelphia seventy six. So he made
Speaker 1: just as many pull up mid range jump shots last
Speaker 1: night as he did the entire regular season in his
Speaker 1: sixers uniform last year. So that's the difference that we're
Speaker 1: seeing from James Harden there, and I think that's a
Speaker 1: big part of him coming back. I I predicted a
Speaker 1: revenge season from him this year. I thought he played
Speaker 1: pretty damn well until his injury. Then it's been a
Speaker 1: mixed bag since he's come back from his injury. I'd
Speaker 1: like to see him stay on the court for a
Speaker 1: little while to see if he can prove me right.
Speaker 1: We'll see what happens. Nice win though for the Sixers
Speaker 1: to stop the three game, said skin and get back
Speaker 1: about I want to talk about Darvin Ham for a
Speaker 1: minute because there's been a lot of criticism throwing his
Speaker 1: way by Lakers fans for his lineup decisions, and a
Speaker 1: lot of it I don't think is fair. Like, for instance,
Speaker 1: with the starters, a lot of people are complaining, why
Speaker 1: are they starting Patrick Beverley and Dennis schroder Um. Let's
Speaker 1: look at Patrick Beverley really quick. It's I don't like
Speaker 1: Monday morning quarterbacking. Like I've seen some Russ fans be like,
Speaker 1: a ha ha, look at this. You know the Lakers
Speaker 1: were smart to keep Russ. It's like or you're playing
Speaker 1: the result because everything we saw from a massive sample
Speaker 1: size last year was that Russ was bad and he
Speaker 1: is playing better this year, and that's great, but it
Speaker 1: was a risk that Rob Polinka took by not trading
Speaker 1: Russ by keeping him on the roster. If you play
Speaker 1: that scenario out a bunch of different times, the vast
Speaker 1: majority of the times it goes poorly. Just because it
Speaker 1: went well doesn't mean it was the right decision. But
Speaker 1: that goes both ways. So, for instance, it's not fair
Speaker 1: to be like man that Patrick Beverley trade. That was stupid.
Speaker 1: I'd rather have Taylor Horton Tucker and Stanley Johnson. I
Speaker 1: don't agree with that because in the moment, Patrick Beverley
Speaker 1: was coming off of a great season with Minnesota coming
Speaker 1: into last night. Patrick Beverley was shooting on catching shoot threes.
Speaker 1: You know what he shot last year thirty eight percent
Speaker 1: on catching shoot threes. He's been around fort on catching
Speaker 1: catching shoot threes for a half a decade. So Patrick
Speaker 1: really was player A. That was the information that was
Speaker 1: available during the time of the trade. Then the trade
Speaker 1: was made. This year he's been worse. That's playing the results.
Speaker 1: That's not fair, it's not that's not a realistic way to, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, to critique decision making, because it's not Rob
Speaker 1: Polinka's fault that Patrick Beverley came to Los Angeles and
Speaker 1: has been a much lesser basketball player, and and and
Speaker 1: that's the thing. So it's easier to Monday morning quarterback
Speaker 1: than it is to take advantage of the city. The
Speaker 1: information that you have actually is available at the time
Speaker 1: that you're making the decision. I liked the Patrick Beverley
Speaker 1: trade because you turned what was a pretty much useless
Speaker 1: player in Taylor Norton Tucker and a wing, but a
Speaker 1: wing that you would have struggled to find the rotation
Speaker 1: this year because of how well Lonnie Walker and Troy
Speaker 1: Brown Jr. Are playing. You turned those two guys into
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverley, who fit a specific need at the point
Speaker 1: guard position of on BALLD defense, and that was a
Speaker 1: good spot up shooter. I liked the trade. It just
Speaker 1: so happens that through this early fourth of the season
Speaker 1: hasn't worked out, you know. And I think when we
Speaker 1: look at the starting lineup, that's what Darvin Hamm is
Speaker 1: counting on there. He's counting on Dennis Shooter and Patrick
Speaker 1: Beverley pressuring ball handlers and making people feel uncomfortable to
Speaker 1: start games. And eventually Pat's gonna get it together. That's
Speaker 1: what they're banking on. They're thinking this is clearly an anomaly.
Speaker 1: He's making half as many catch and shoot threes as
Speaker 1: he did last year. That should turn around. I respect that.
Speaker 1: And then in general, like when you're talking about the
Speaker 1: lineup functionality of the entire rotation for the game, this
Speaker 1: is a really limited roster, so there's gonna be jankie
Speaker 1: lineups like I see you know, Lakers fans being like,
Speaker 1: you gotta start Austin Reeves. Yeah, that's great, But Ostres
Speaker 1: is a really important ball handler with the bench group.
Speaker 1: So if you put Patrick Beverley, the guy you're begging
Speaker 1: to take out of the starting lineup, in with the
Speaker 1: bench group, maybe the starters get a little bit better.
Speaker 1: But now Patrick Beverley is not getting the same level
Speaker 1: of shots because there's less ball handling in that group
Speaker 1: and he's not getting the wide open looks he's getting
Speaker 1: with Lebron and Anthony Davis, and maybe he does struggle
Speaker 1: to get going that way. At the point there is
Speaker 1: there's just not a lot of good decisions. The rosters limited,
Speaker 1: and there's bound to be jankie lineups with like Russ
Speaker 1: and when you in Gabriel, you know, or Thomas Bryant
Speaker 1: and three other small guards like that kind of thing
Speaker 1: is just gonna happen until they make a trade that
Speaker 1: brings in some more functional wings, because functional wings are
Speaker 1: what make NBA lineups work. So I want to defend
Speaker 1: him in the in the grand scheme with the lineups,
Speaker 1: but if we zoom in on crunch time, I've been
Speaker 1: really confused by his decision making because as much as
Speaker 1: the roster itself doesn't make a ton of sense for
Speaker 1: forty eight minutes, they do have enough good players to
Speaker 1: run a really solid crunch time lineup. Lebron and a
Speaker 1: D gotta be out there for size, you know, Like
Speaker 1: Lebron's your only real wing, so you gotta play him
Speaker 1: alongside Anthony Davis to make a D at the five
Speaker 1: functional Lonnie walker As aid well enough to close every
Speaker 1: game he's been their third best player, Oscar Reeves Asser
Speaker 1: issue close every game he's been the fourth best player.
Speaker 1: Those two are completely unassailable. And then right now, Patrick Beverley,
Speaker 1: for all of the things you guys want to criticize
Speaker 1: him for, he is a good defensive player that grabs
Speaker 1: makes winning plays, that grabs key defensive rebounds, key offensive rebounds,
Speaker 1: and they can just count on him to not do
Speaker 1: anything stupid, typically in late game situations. So I like
Speaker 1: that Lebrono, Anthony Davis, Ossi Reaves, and uh Lonnie Walker
Speaker 1: and Patrick Beverley. Maybe Troy Brown Jr. For Patrick Beverley
Speaker 1: if he's having a bad night. But way too often
Speaker 1: this year, Ham has gone with Dennis Schroeder or Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook in closing groups and that's handicapped the team. Russ
Speaker 1: is having a good year, but that's because of his role.
Speaker 1: What he's doing attacking bench groups, going against bench guards
Speaker 1: during the phases of the game when it's more up
Speaker 1: and down and free flowing and there's less defense being played.
Speaker 1: He's doing a really nice job generating high all these
Speaker 1: shots first teammates in those stretches. However, as we've always known,
Speaker 1: in clutch situations, the game slows down, it turns into
Speaker 1: a half court chess match, and schematically, teams will try
Speaker 1: to make you do what you don't want to do.
Speaker 1: So what happened last night we got into overtime, Russa
Speaker 1: ran two pick and rolls, one with Anthony Davis on
Speaker 1: the left wing, one with Lebron James on the right wing.
Speaker 1: What did the Sixers do? Both defenders went with the
Speaker 1: role man. Literally, Russ's man ran into the screen and
Speaker 1: rolled with a d to the basket. He ran into
Speaker 1: Lebron James and rolled with Lebron to the basket. And
Speaker 1: so Russ had two wide open pull up jump shots.
Speaker 1: That is by design. They're making the Lakers turn Russ
Speaker 1: into a jump shooter. And guess what. Russ is shooting
Speaker 1: twenty eight point six percent on pull up jumpers this year.
Speaker 1: So he missed the two pull up jumpers. He took
Speaker 1: an ot Okay, So you can't put Russ on ball
Speaker 1: in clutch situations because they're gonna do stuff like that
Speaker 1: or what they did earlier this season where they just
Speaker 1: put the center on Russ and have him sit back
Speaker 1: into the paint. So let's put him off ball. Well,
Speaker 1: Russ is shooting on catching shoot jumpers this year and
Speaker 1: he's registered just fourteen cut possessions, meaning that of NBA
Speaker 1: players have cut to the basket more frequently than Russ
Speaker 1: during his minutes. So if he's not going to cut
Speaker 1: to the basket and he can't make a catch and
Speaker 1: shoot jumper, you can't have him off ball. If he's
Speaker 1: if the defensive coverages are just gonna dare him to
Speaker 1: take pull up jump shots. If he's on ball, that
Speaker 1: makes him impossible to play in crunch time. But guess
Speaker 1: who has played in more crunch time games this year
Speaker 1: than any other Laker. Russell Westbrook at ten. I think
Speaker 1: Austin Reaves has played in ten as well, but the
Speaker 1: no Laker has played in more crunch time games. So
Speaker 1: any sort of conversation that's been out there about benching Russ,
Speaker 1: it hasn't happened. They're not benching Russ. They're playing him
Speaker 1: every time the game is close and it's going poorly
Speaker 1: at a certain point, Darvin Ann has to make that
Speaker 1: adjustment really quick. Before we move on, I want to
Speaker 1: talk about Lebron Anthony Davis. Lebron had some bright spots
Speaker 1: in the first half. He battled and beat in the
Speaker 1: post after a d got in foul trouble. He did
Speaker 1: a night shop fronting him and got hot offensively in
Speaker 1: the second quarter for a little bit, but once again
Speaker 1: at the end of the game, settling for jumpers on
Speaker 1: a night when his jumpers not going in, and then
Speaker 1: sloppy turnovers, Like I see a lot of people complaining like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's because of the spacing. It's become of the spacing.
Speaker 1: Is the spacing the reason why Lebron keeps throwing swing
Speaker 1: passes directly into defender's arms or just pointlessly throwing skip
Speaker 1: passes two guys that aren't open. Like his decision making
Speaker 1: hasn't been good. It wasn't good last night. At least,
Speaker 1: that's just slopping us again, Like, I don't care about
Speaker 1: the missed shots when it like that's bound to happen.
Speaker 1: It's part of the night and night out process of
Speaker 1: the n B A. I don't think it's fair to
Speaker 1: be like on a five for twenty night to be like, oh,
Speaker 1: that guy sucks, and then on the night be like,
Speaker 1: oh that guy's great. That's the natural flow of an
Speaker 1: NBA season. What I look at is are you committed
Speaker 1: on the defensive end? How is your decision making? Ben?
Speaker 1: How is your shot selection? Bet? Those are things that
Speaker 1: are under your control. And it was a really sloppy
Speaker 1: game from Lebron. And then looking at Anthony Davis like yeah, look,
Speaker 1: E d has been way better than Lebron this year.
Speaker 1: Lebron's been pretty bad, and like six or seven of
Speaker 1: the Lakers losses, I'd probably have Anthony Davis first team
Speaker 1: All NBA this year. I have him as my Defensive
Speaker 1: Player of the Year. You know. A D has been great,
Speaker 1: But this was the third game that I can think
Speaker 1: of that the Lakers probably win if Anthony Davis brings
Speaker 1: the requisite effort and play smart basketball. They lost the
Speaker 1: game in Denver because Anthony Davis just refused to run
Speaker 1: back in transition defense. That did a whole video about it.
Speaker 1: They lost to the Clippers earlier this year because he
Speaker 1: just wouldn't battle with Zubot physically and got bullied underneath
Speaker 1: the basket on a bunch of post ups and offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: And then last night he removed himself from the Philly
Speaker 1: game with bad decision making in two stupid fouls, you know.
Speaker 1: And so I tweeted this last night, and I mean it.
Speaker 1: The Lakers are ten in fifteen, but they'd be fifteen
Speaker 1: and ten if Lebron and a D actually were more
Speaker 1: consistent with their impact. How many times this year of
Speaker 1: Lebron and Nadi both played great in the same game
Speaker 1: two times, maybe three times in the season. That was
Speaker 1: two thirds and nights. The two of them were great.
Speaker 1: You know, even if they were fifteen in ten right
Speaker 1: now instead of ten and fifteen, would still be talking
Speaker 1: about the roster, would still be talking about how they
Speaker 1: make it, need to make a trade to get to
Speaker 1: the ultimate championship ceiling. But at least they'd be a
Speaker 1: flow in the standings. So like, there's two problems for
Speaker 1: the Lakers this year. Roster related problems in Lebron and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis are two inconsistent. When Lebron and Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: were playing well, they want eight out of ten. They
Speaker 1: beat the Bucks, they beat the Wizards, they beat the Pacers,
Speaker 1: they beat the Or, they beat the Blazers. They've had
Speaker 1: some quality wins in there. Then Anthony Davis missed two
Speaker 1: games and they lost. And then Lebron and A d
Speaker 1: played poorly in Philly and they lost. Like, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, those two guys cannot afford to
Speaker 1: have bad games, especially against good teams. Maybe that maybe
Speaker 1: you get a little bit more margin for air if
Speaker 1: they make a good trade, but that's gonna be an
Speaker 1: issue all season no matter what. Looking to get more
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Speaker 1: that second nationally televised game, the Bucks winning in Dallas
Speaker 1: against the Mavericks. This was a completely wild fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: The Masks were up double digits at one point. Early
Speaker 1: in the fourth. Christian Wood was scoring in the post,
Speaker 1: doing a nice job attacking George Hill, but he was
Speaker 1: getting absolutely obliterated by Janice on the other end. Jannie
Speaker 1: had fifteen in the quarter to get the Bucks back
Speaker 1: into it. George Hill also hit two massive corner threes
Speaker 1: on just like basic possessions for Drew Holiday, dribbled the
Speaker 1: ball at the floor, just passed the ball into the
Speaker 1: corner and uh, the Dallas was sucked in too far
Speaker 1: into help Spencer Dinwood. He dunked all over Janice and
Speaker 1: dunked all over Brook Lopez on two separate plays like
Speaker 1: to really really nasty dunks. Dwight Powell was grabbing a
Speaker 1: million offensive rebounds. The MAVs missed at least a half
Speaker 1: dozen wide open threes. They went over eight overall in
Speaker 1: the quarter. The man has also missed eight free throws
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, including Tim Hardaway Jr. Missing all
Speaker 1: three free throws when he was fouled on a three
Speaker 1: point shot by Jannis, and then Dorian Finney Smith, with
Speaker 1: a chance to put the MAVs up three, missed both
Speaker 1: free throws on a late take foul. Um. By the way,
Speaker 1: Dallas is Uh was ten for twenty four from the
Speaker 1: free throw line last night. They are now down to
Speaker 1: twenty nine in the league in three point in the
Speaker 1: free throw percentage. But after all that we got after
Speaker 1: basically came down to a sequence where the Um the
Speaker 1: Bucks were up one O four, one O three after
Speaker 1: Uh Spencer Dinwood he dunked all over brook Lopez and
Speaker 1: the Man's go down. They get a stop and they
Speaker 1: come down and um Luca does a really nice job
Speaker 1: navigating a couple of different screening actions to get brook
Speaker 1: Lopez on a switch and then from a skill development standpoint,
Speaker 1: did a really nice job turning his entire body to
Speaker 1: the left and tipping Lopez to think he was going
Speaker 1: to go to his step back and then crossing back
Speaker 1: over to get Lopez out of position up on his
Speaker 1: left side, beats Lopez to the basket for a layup.
Speaker 1: Mavericks are up by one. From there, we had two
Speaker 1: out of time out plays, and both plays were drawn
Speaker 1: up by the head coach. One team executed, the other
Speaker 1: team did it defensively, I should say so the Bucks
Speaker 1: they just run a simple backscreen action. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, it was such a simple backscreen action that
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that wasn't even the target of the
Speaker 1: play Originally. Maxi Cleber's guarding Brook Lopez and he's there
Speaker 1: in kind of like a box set out up high
Speaker 1: um and Chris Middleton is being guarded by Dorian Phinney Smith.
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton just walks up and sets a backscreen on
Speaker 1: Maxi Cleber. Maxi Cleber gets caught on the screen. Brooke
Speaker 1: Lopez goes to the basket, nobody's there, Lob goes up.
Speaker 1: They laid up Bucks by one. Now what you're supposed
Speaker 1: to do on that play, because guys are gonna get
Speaker 1: caught on screens often, especially when you don't know what
Speaker 1: play is coming. There's it's just a classic concept of
Speaker 1: checking a cutter, like we were talking about earlier with
Speaker 1: p J. Tucker. So If I'm Dorrian Phinney Smith and
Speaker 1: I see Chris Middleton back screen Maxicleba, and I see
Speaker 1: that he's caught, and I see Lopez barreling down towards
Speaker 1: the rim, it is my job to run up and
Speaker 1: Chuck brook Lopez hit him. Literally stop the cut. When
Speaker 1: you do that, that buys Cleiba enough time to get
Speaker 1: out from the screen and to recover back to brook Lopez. Now,
Speaker 1: typically what happens there is Middleton will have an opportunity
Speaker 1: to break free because you're offering help on the brook
Speaker 1: Lopez back cut. But you continue that process down the
Speaker 1: line and you can recover right If Middleton runs out,
Speaker 1: he's probably running off of another screen at that point
Speaker 1: to go out get a catch and shoe jumper, or
Speaker 1: to initiate an action. Your teammate will run out to
Speaker 1: grab Chris Middleton. You now recover to your teammates man.
Speaker 1: That is a classic help the helper type of situation.
Speaker 1: When you see a man get caught on a screen,
Speaker 1: the first thing you do is you help him. Then
Speaker 1: once you've done your job, you look to see who
Speaker 1: needs help, because one of your teammates probably had to
Speaker 1: help you there. It's like a chain that that that
Speaker 1: goes down the line in defensive rotation, but there was
Speaker 1: one week link in that chain. Dorian Phinney Smith did
Speaker 1: not check brook Lopez, so Cleveland got caught on the screen.
Speaker 1: Brook Lopez got a wide up and lay up. Now
Speaker 1: we go to the other end. The Bucks run in
Speaker 1: action where they have a screener at the top of
Speaker 1: the key Lucas underneath the basket. They run a guy
Speaker 1: off the wing and kind of towards the basket, and
Speaker 1: then that guy screens down for for Luca. It's play
Speaker 1: that the MAVs have run a lot and crunch time
Speaker 1: this year, and uh, the Bucks get do a really
Speaker 1: nice job of of hedging out on Luca to give
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday a chance to recover. Luca ends up catching
Speaker 1: it out at like thirty ft with two seconds left,
Speaker 1: and he takes a garbage step back three that has
Speaker 1: almost no chance of going in and the game is over.
Speaker 1: So as you can see, like the difference there is
Speaker 1: from a scouting perspective that the Mavericks clearly did not
Speaker 1: know what was coming, got caught off guard, botched a
Speaker 1: defensive rotation, gave up a basket. On the other end,
Speaker 1: Dallas the Gibson Pipers who coaches UM college basketball somewhere
Speaker 1: here in the US. I'm not actually sure, but he
Speaker 1: did a really nice video breakdown last night. I think
Speaker 1: his Twitter handles at half court hoops if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: he did a really nice Twitter breakdown video breakdown on
Speaker 1: Twitter last night that just kind of explained how the
Speaker 1: Bucks got ahead of that coverage or that play because
Speaker 1: they knew it was coming. And then Luca was having
Speaker 1: like a conniption fit on the court before and after
Speaker 1: the play because he knew the Bucks knew the play.
Speaker 1: But again, that's scouting. In execution, determining a game at
Speaker 1: the end, late game situations almost always come down to
Speaker 1: execution shop making part of it. Like it's a maker misleague.
Speaker 1: We always hear that, right, and I do believe that
Speaker 1: making and missing is a big part of the game
Speaker 1: of basketball. Never try to to to minimize that. However,
Speaker 1: shot making has a big defensive element. The best way
Speaker 1: to influence shot making in your for your team is
Speaker 1: too on the offensive end. Run smart offense, set good screens,
Speaker 1: be sharp with the basketball to generate quality looks. Typically
Speaker 1: that involves either screening actions that are executed well to
Speaker 1: get an opening or dribble penetration, whether that's off the
Speaker 1: dribble or curling over the top of the screens, someone's
Speaker 1: got to get downhill to draw help. And if you
Speaker 1: do that and you're smart with your passing on the
Speaker 1: back end, you will get open shots. On defense. If
Speaker 1: you execute your defensive coverage is well enough to force
Speaker 1: the opponent to take difficult shots over the top of
Speaker 1: the defense, they are less likely to make their shots.
Speaker 1: So yes, it's a maker miss league, but execution is
Speaker 1: a big part of it. The Bucks executed and forced
Speaker 1: Luca into a tough at back three. The Mavericks did
Speaker 1: not execute defensively, while the Bucks executed their play properly.
Speaker 1: A good screen from Chris Middleton and they got a
Speaker 1: wide open layup out of it. The Bucks are a
Speaker 1: better execution team, which is why they're eight and three
Speaker 1: in games that involved clutch situations this year, and the
Speaker 1: Mavericks are nine and nine in games that involved clutch
Speaker 1: situations this year, so they've lost three times as many
Speaker 1: games that were close as Milwaukee has um Chris Middleton.
Speaker 1: This was his fourth game back. He's averaging just fourteen
Speaker 1: points per game on thirty six percent shooting in his
Speaker 1: first four games, which seems bad, but I've always thought
Speaker 1: that it looked good on tape, and the shot creation
Speaker 1: metrics have been excellent overall. He's got twenty three assists
Speaker 1: to four turnovers. I said the other day and if
Speaker 1: this may or may not be the case, but he
Speaker 1: might be the best playmaker on the team. He's either
Speaker 1: him or Yannice, but getting a legit off ball or
Speaker 1: non Janice playmaker has been a big time for them.
Speaker 1: He had a in the fourth quarter. He had a
Speaker 1: really nice, like left handed feed to Pat Connaughton who
Speaker 1: was sneaking along the baseline as a cutter in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. Um he's run twenty seven pick and roll
Speaker 1: so far since he came back for thirty one points.
Speaker 1: That's one point one five points per possession, which is incentile.
Speaker 1: And then he's scored nine points on eight post ups,
Speaker 1: which is one point one three points per possession. And
Speaker 1: he had a really nice little baseline hook shot off
Speaker 1: the off the glass over Dorian Finnie Smith late in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. Really impressive game from Jannice. I you know,
Speaker 1: one of my favorite things about Janice is dependable fight
Speaker 1: and energy. You never have to worry about Janice caring
Speaker 1: enough to try to impact the game and downtown in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. I can't tell you how many times
Speaker 1: I've seen Stars go out there and maybe jack a
Speaker 1: few shots up and if they miss, they just kind
Speaker 1: of mail things in. Janice always has that like big
Speaker 1: run and and it's typically third or fourth quarter of
Speaker 1: a game that's close or where their team is losing,
Speaker 1: where it's like Janice is basically saying, I'm gonna put
Speaker 1: my head down and go to the rim every single time,
Speaker 1: and if it works great, If not, hey, I went
Speaker 1: down fighting. And he did that in that third, in
Speaker 1: that early early fourth quarter through three quarters, he was
Speaker 1: five or fourteen from the field. Dallas was swarming him
Speaker 1: in the paint. But there was that weird MAV's lineup
Speaker 1: that they went to a couple of times last night
Speaker 1: where they have Kleiba and Christian wood out there together
Speaker 1: and um, just by pushing the ball in transition, Janice
Speaker 1: kept catching Christian wooden cross matches and he just boldozed
Speaker 1: him to the basket for layups time and time again.
Speaker 1: Got it really was responsible for getting the Bucks back
Speaker 1: into that game. Alright. Moving on to that Son's Pelicans game,
Speaker 1: so the Suns. This was another back and fourth game.
Speaker 1: The Suns kept it close in the first half, the
Speaker 1: Pelicans completely dominated the third quarter. Then the Suns went
Speaker 1: on a run and took a brief lead in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, and then Zion Williamson just closed the game
Speaker 1: with three gigantic plays, one of which was a steel
Speaker 1: on a post entry where he ran out and got
Speaker 1: a dunk with his left hand. Um Then there was
Speaker 1: a play where late in the game, because he was
Speaker 1: just torching Tory Craig and mcaial Bridges all game long,
Speaker 1: which we'll get to in a minute. But late in
Speaker 1: the game he got DeAndre Aton on a switch because
Speaker 1: they wanted to try to put some bigger on him
Speaker 1: so that he couldn't bully them. But one of the
Speaker 1: problems with Zion is he's too fast for guys like that,
Speaker 1: and they ran like kind of like an inverted screen
Speaker 1: roll over. Jose Alvarado set a screen and and and
Speaker 1: reversed it so like he was on one side and
Speaker 1: then switched and set the screen on the other side,
Speaker 1: and a Zion got to the baseline and just threw
Speaker 1: down a nasty left handed dunk and then we all
Speaker 1: saw the the cherry on top, which was the leak
Speaker 1: out dunk in the final seconds where he did the
Speaker 1: three sixty wind mill. By the way, all years, Zone
Speaker 1: has been good, um, but he's always looked a little
Speaker 1: less athletic than we remember him, you know, from when
Speaker 1: he was younger. Last night was like the most springy
Speaker 1: I've seen Zi, and I wonder if he's starting to
Speaker 1: really catch his conditioning and and really get his body
Speaker 1: into a good groove because that that three sixty wind
Speaker 1: mill was. It was very hoop mixtape esque from his
Speaker 1: time when he was in in uh In high school. Overall,
Speaker 1: I thought that was one of the best two way
Speaker 1: games I've seen Zion play. He was he was being
Speaker 1: guarded by Tory Craig for the most part, but he
Speaker 1: also got a bunch of Michale bridges and he just
Speaker 1: ripped right through those guys like tissue paper, time and
Speaker 1: time again, finished with thirty five on seventeen shots. You know,
Speaker 1: the dynamic that Zion presents reminds me of the dynamic
Speaker 1: that Janice presents, which is that mismatch problem specifically targeting
Speaker 1: NBA defenses modern NBA defenses, So back in the day,
Speaker 1: you'd have a center that was typically slow and plotting
Speaker 1: because the pace of the game was slow. But you'd
Speaker 1: also have like a legit power forward, like a big,
Speaker 1: strong guy I Drew good In, a you know, Kenyan Martin,
Speaker 1: a dude who's you know, between six nine and six ten,
Speaker 1: who's like a solid two and fifty pounds a muscle
Speaker 1: that just was like a bulldozer of a player. That
Speaker 1: guy is out of the league now, and now that
Speaker 1: bulldozer power forward is just another wing, you know, like
Speaker 1: a guy like Tory Craig who had literally no chance
Speaker 1: carding Zion yesterday. Michael Bridges one of the best defensive
Speaker 1: wings in the NBA, and he was tissue paper against
Speaker 1: science that that that's the predicament that Zion and Janice
Speaker 1: puts you in. The most valuable defensive piece in the
Speaker 1: league right now is a player between six eight or
Speaker 1: six six and six nine, you know, who's got long
Speaker 1: arms and is super fast and can guard multiple positions.
Speaker 1: That's like the bread and butter of NBA defense these days,
Speaker 1: and a lot of lineups have two or three of
Speaker 1: those guys on the floor at any given moment, and
Speaker 1: that works really well. Against just about every type of
Speaker 1: player in the NBA. But these honest, these Jannat Zion
Speaker 1: possessions that these wings just have no chance. He's just
Speaker 1: going right through him. And so then you switch a
Speaker 1: bigger guy onto him and they're just too fast for him,
Speaker 1: like what they did with DeAndre and there on that
Speaker 1: last possession. Zion's ISOs are up to a hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty nine points on a hundred five possessions, which is
Speaker 1: in the percentile that's insane for a young player. Josie
Speaker 1: Alvarado continued his great season. He pitched in twenty points,
Speaker 1: not Marshall at fourteen. But you know, a bunch of
Speaker 1: sneaky good like there's always like these, uh these role
Speaker 1: players that you see Austin Red just kind of like
Speaker 1: this for the Lakers, where they don't really get a
Speaker 1: ton of on ball reps, but you can tell they
Speaker 1: have really natural passing feel. Nagy Marshall is one of
Speaker 1: those guys where he's one of the sneaky good passers
Speaker 1: in the league right now. He had fifty assists to
Speaker 1: just twenty one turnovers to this point in the season
Speaker 1: at fourteen points. Again last night, um Devin Booker finished
Speaker 1: with fourteen points and seventeen shots. He's now averaging fifteen
Speaker 1: and a half on thirty five percent shooting in his
Speaker 1: last four games. So I cursed him apparently when I
Speaker 1: did that whole video about how I thought he was
Speaker 1: a superstar, because he has not played well since then.
Speaker 1: Chris Paul had twenty four. Looks like he's still still
Speaker 1: has New Orleans number a little bit. Sons have lost
Speaker 1: four out of five. Lots of bad body language, not
Speaker 1: looking good. Um right now, alright, guess that is all
Speaker 1: I have for today. So here's the plan. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be going live, are not live. We're gonna have a
Speaker 1: video tomorrow morning breaking down like breaking down Celtics Warriors,
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna take Monday off and then we
Speaker 1: will be back Tuesday night with game breakdowns as always.
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate your guys support and I will see
Speaker 1: you next time. The volume