Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: It's the most wonderful time of the year for getting
Speaker 2: in on all of the hoops, football, and hockey action
Speaker 2: at Draft Kings Sportsbook. In the season of giving, We're
Speaker 2: being gifted college football and basketball, Pro football and basketball
Speaker 2: and pro hockey too. Almost twenty four to seven. So
Speaker 2: many games every day, so many opportunities to place your
Speaker 2: first bet. Try betting on something simple like picking a
Speaker 2: team to win. Go to the Draft Kings sportsbook Gap
Speaker 2: and place your bet. Current Super Bowl winners on DraftKings
Speaker 2: right now the Detroit Lions at plus two sixty and
Speaker 2: the Kansas City Chiefs at plus four to twenty five.
Speaker 2: And here's a gift for all new customers. Bet five
Speaker 2: dollars to get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus
Speaker 2: bets if your bet wins. Download the Draft King Sportsbook
Speaker 2: Gap and use code hoops that's h oops. That's code
Speaker 2: hoops for new customers to get one hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: dollars in bonus bets if your bet wins. When you
Speaker 2: bet just five bucks, Happy Holidays from DraftKings. The Crown
Speaker 2: is yours gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler in
Speaker 2: New York call eight seven seven eight hope and why,
Speaker 2: or text hope and why to four six seven, three
Speaker 2: six nine. In Connecticut, help us available for problem gambling
Speaker 2: called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven
Speaker 2: seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on
Speaker 2: behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus.
Speaker 2: Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bet
Speaker 2: must win to receive award. Bonus Bets expire one hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and
Speaker 2: responsible gaming resources to dkang dot co.
Speaker 1: Slash b ball.
Speaker 2: All right, well, coon hoops tonight you're at the volume
Speaker 2: heavy Wednesday, everybody. If all of you guys are having
Speaker 2: a great week so far, well, the NBA Cup Elimination
Speaker 2: Round got off to a hot start last night. Is
Speaker 2: the Orlando Magic scared the Milwaukee Bucks, but Dame hit
Speaker 2: a couple of big shots late. They get out of
Speaker 2: there with the win. In advance to the semifinals and
Speaker 2: then a preview of what I think are the two
Speaker 2: best teams in the Western Conference. We call it a
Speaker 2: Western Conference Finals preview, which I mean the Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 2: and the Oklahoma City Thunder was really revealing and hinged
Speaker 2: on a couple of specific battles within the game. We're
Speaker 2: going to do a lot of talk on that specific
Speaker 2: game because of the fact that I view that as
Speaker 2: one with a lot of big picture implications in the NBA.
Speaker 2: As a result of that, we also have a film
Speaker 2: session at the tail end of the show. It's thirty
Speaker 2: eight clips long. There's one clip I want to hit
Speaker 2: from the Magic Bucks game that kind of shows an
Speaker 2: interesting basketball concept that came through big in clutch time
Speaker 2: for the Bucks, and then thirty seven clips on the
Speaker 2: chess match between the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder. Again,
Speaker 2: I view that as a Western Conference Finals preview type
Speaker 2: of matchup, so I want to really dive into the
Speaker 2: x's and o's and some of the trends that I
Speaker 2: see between those two teams and just what it might
Speaker 2: look like down the line. So we're going to do
Speaker 2: a deep dive in film at the tail end of
Speaker 2: the show. You guys had the joke before we get started.
Speaker 2: Subscribed to the Hoops and Night YouTube channel so you
Speaker 2: don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter,
Speaker 2: at underscore JSNLTS. You guys, don't mis show announcements. Don't
Speaker 2: forget about a podcast fet where you get your podcast
Speaker 2: under hoops and I don't forget it's helpful you leave
Speaker 2: it rating and a review. On that front, we also
Speaker 2: have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and
Speaker 2: Facebook where you guys can get additional content from the channel.
Speaker 2: Make sure you guys follow us there, and last not
Speaker 2: at least keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments.
Speaker 2: We're going to be recording the mail bag on Thursday afternoon,
Speaker 2: so this video is your last chance to submit questions
Speaker 2: for that mail bag that's going to air on Friday.
Speaker 2: Make sure you guys put those questions in the comments.
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk some basketball. So, as I mentioned
Speaker 2: off the top, I think these are the two best
Speaker 2: teams in the Western Conference, which is why we're going
Speaker 2: to be doing such an extensive film session on them
Speaker 2: in the second half of the show, kind of like
Speaker 2: we did with Cavs Celtics last week. If you remember,
Speaker 2: these are the teams that I kind of you as
Speaker 2: the teams most likely to meet in a late playoff
Speaker 2: round with major implications for the NBA Finals. We have
Speaker 2: very interesting defensive game plans from both of these teams,
Speaker 2: and they were each uniquely designed to accentuate their strengths.
Speaker 2: For instance, the Thunder are one of the fastest teams
Speaker 2: in the league, so they tried to leverage their speed
Speaker 2: as much as possible in this game by blitzing ball screens,
Speaker 2: doubling post ups and ISOs when they didn't like their matchups,
Speaker 2: and then using their speed to rotate out of it. It
Speaker 2: was one of the more impressive defensive rotation games I've
Speaker 2: seen in a long time. We're gonna spend a good
Speaker 2: amount of time talking about that. A ton of aggression
Speaker 2: to try to force turnovers, like attacking MAVs players right
Speaker 2: when they come down with defensive rebounds. They'd be just
Speaker 2: a dude swiping at the basketball or like jumping out
Speaker 2: let passes to guards. So like if like someone like
Speaker 2: Gaffer came down with a defensive rebound and they saw
Speaker 2: Luca getting ready to come back and get the ball,
Speaker 2: someone would shoot that gap and try to get a
Speaker 2: steel there, or in transition kick ahead situations, playing those
Speaker 2: passing lanes in the half court, digging down and swiping
Speaker 2: at the basketball. Just a ton of aggression to try
Speaker 2: to force rote, to try to force turnovers so they
Speaker 2: can get out in transition. And then what's the downside
Speaker 2: of aggression. The downside of aggression is you're often in
Speaker 2: defensive rotation, meaning like you're in man down situations where
Speaker 2: it's like a four on three or a three on
Speaker 2: two or a two on one, And in those situations
Speaker 2: it requires in connectivity and communication within your unit to
Speaker 2: be able to cover ground and rotate out of it.
Speaker 2: And that's a situation where Oklahoma City is very comfortable.
Speaker 2: So like unbelievable rotations where they're like blitzing Luca above
Speaker 2: the break on the right wing and a beautiful skip
Speaker 2: pass and lou Dort just covers like thirty feet of
Speaker 2: ground in a split second to force Klay Thompson to
Speaker 2: pump Bake, or a skip pass where lou Dort rotates
Speaker 2: to the corner but Kasan Wallace who's right under the
Speaker 2: basket just flies back out to the wing to take
Speaker 2: away the next pass. Just making sure those openings are
Speaker 2: very brief, they close up quickly. And then it also
Speaker 2: breeds hesitancy when guys are flying around even when you
Speaker 2: even when it looks like you're going to be open.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you're thinking you're not going to be open. It
Speaker 2: can breed some of that hesitancy in those situations. The
Speaker 2: play I talked about where loud Dort threw that thirty
Speaker 2: foot close out, Klay Thompson pump faked and if you
Speaker 2: would have just gone up with it, he probably would
Speaker 2: have got a decent look. But he pump faked because
Speaker 2: of the fear that Okasee can instill with their like
Speaker 2: really really intense closeouts on the prim That was the
Speaker 2: game plan for Oklahoma City. It accentuates their individual strengths
Speaker 2: as a team, and that was what they tried to
Speaker 2: weaponize in this matchup the MAVs. The strength of their
Speaker 2: roster is they have a lot of interior size and
Speaker 2: rim protection. They have one of the best role player
Speaker 2: center rotations that you find in the league. Right, so
Speaker 2: they were running deeper drop coverages, loading up in the paint,
Speaker 2: conceding jump shots to mediocre jump shooters off the ball,
Speaker 2: and really trying to avoid being in rotation as much
Speaker 2: as possible. Why Because they are playing typically two bigger,
Speaker 2: slower players Luca and one of the centers, and their
Speaker 2: guards are not as fast as Oklahoma City's guards. So
Speaker 2: if they get in rotation and they have to fly around,
Speaker 2: they can be in some tough spots, right, And so
Speaker 2: what was really interesting is these two very different game
Speaker 2: plans led to two very different results.
Speaker 1: In the box score.
Speaker 2: There's gonna be a lot of talk today about like, oh,
Speaker 2: shake Hilles, Alexander by himself outscored Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving,
Speaker 2: and it's like, yeah, but Luca and Kyrie were getting
Speaker 2: blitzed and doubled all over the floor, and the MAVs
Speaker 2: were allowing Shay to operate in traditional pick and roll
Speaker 2: coverages where he was getting a lot of baskets. So like,
Speaker 2: the game plans dictated that the stat lines would look
Speaker 2: roughly the way that they looked. So I'm not more
Speaker 2: I'm not really all that invested in the box score
Speaker 2: reading coming out of this game. So let's dive a
Speaker 2: little bit deeper into the details. Dallas actually won the
Speaker 2: half court battle in the first half. In the first half,
Speaker 2: Dallas posted a ninety six offensive rating in the half
Speaker 2: court and Oklahoma City posted an eighty eight offensive rating
Speaker 2: in the half court. Pretty substantial advantage for Dallas there.
Speaker 2: In the first half. We'll dive deeper into the half
Speaker 2: court battle here in a minute as we kind of
Speaker 2: go through the two teams. But Oklahoma City still led
Speaker 2: at the half by three because they were dominating in
Speaker 2: two particular margins. One, they were forcing a ton of
Speaker 2: turnovers and scoring off of them. And interestingly enough, like
Speaker 2: I mentioned earlier, a lot of turnovers in the back court,
Speaker 2: like a lot of like guys diving at the ball
Speaker 2: right after dude gets an offensive rebound, jumping that outlet pass,
Speaker 2: jumping those kick ad passes, like I talked about earlier.
Speaker 2: And what's really interesting about that is it manifested. In
Speaker 2: another really bizarre stat, the Thunder had thirty six points
Speaker 2: off of turnovers in this game. That's an astronomical number,
Speaker 2: basically the difference in the game, but they only had
Speaker 2: eight fast break points in percentergy only fourteen total transition
Speaker 2: points in the entire game. Thirty six points off of
Speaker 2: turnovers despite only fourteen transition points, it's because so many
Speaker 2: of them were basically functioning as just additional possessions in
Speaker 2: the half court. They dominated the offensive glass, right. Big
Speaker 2: part of that was the MAVs were conceding a lot
Speaker 2: of threes. They the Thunder attempted fifty threes, Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: missed thirty of them. A lot of long rebounds. Long
Speaker 2: rebounds turned into foot races. Oklahoma City's gonna win a
Speaker 2: lot of those foot races, right, So misses that turned
Speaker 2: into offensive rebounds and then miss that turned into defensive
Speaker 2: rebounds for the MAVs that were quickly turned over in
Speaker 2: the back court, which turned into additional possessions for the Thunder.
Speaker 2: I can't remember the exact sat off the top of
Speaker 2: my head, but I think the Thunder attempted ten additional
Speaker 2: shots than Dallas overall in the first half. That's those
Speaker 2: two margins backcourt turnovers that Oklahoma City was forcing in
Speaker 2: offensive rebounds that Oklahoma City was beating Dallas to the ball.
Speaker 2: That is how Oklahoma City went into the half with
Speaker 2: a lead, despite the fact that Dallas was winning the
Speaker 2: half court battle. But again, Dallas was playing so well
Speaker 2: in the half court that it kept things close until
Speaker 2: that third quarter. And in that third quarter, shake Yilds
Speaker 2: Alexander just completely took over the game to start the
Speaker 2: second half. Again, we talked about the deep drop coverages,
Speaker 2: but it's kind of interesting the game started with Lively
Speaker 2: at center, a lot of deep drop. When Gafford came
Speaker 2: in in the first half shift, it was a lot
Speaker 2: more at the level. He was coming up high, making
Speaker 2: it so that when Shay was coming off those screens
Speaker 2: he was seeing a body pretty much right in his face.
Speaker 2: Jason Kidd decides to start Daniel Gafford in the second
Speaker 2: half instead of Derek Lively and immediately audibles to a
Speaker 2: deep drop with Gafford, which that was really different, really interesting.
Speaker 2: And again for those of you guys who haven't seen
Speaker 2: some of our breakdowns in the past, all I mean
Speaker 2: there is in the ball screen coverage the guy who's
Speaker 2: guarding Shay is chasing over the top, right, a lot
Speaker 2: of Quinton Grimes tonight, guy guarding Shay is chasing over
Speaker 2: the top. As he's chasing over the top, the big
Speaker 2: man has one of two different types of responsibilities. In
Speaker 2: a deep drop, they call it no roller behind coverage.
Speaker 2: His job is to in that as he's kind of backpedaling,
Speaker 2: He's got to keep Shae in front of him, but
Speaker 2: he also has to keep the roleman Isaiah Hartenstein in
Speaker 2: front of him, right, Whereas in a high drop, you're
Speaker 2: not concerned about the roleman. You're only concerned about the
Speaker 2: ball handler. So you're still waiting on the other side
Speaker 2: of the screen, but you're waiting up higher and you're
Speaker 2: not concerned about heart and Stein getting behind you because
Speaker 2: there's a backside to the defense that is designed to
Speaker 2: handle that in the form of the low man coming
Speaker 2: over to tag the roller.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So those are the two differences in those coverages. So again, second,
Speaker 2: in that first half, when Gafford was playing, he was
Speaker 2: up at the level Shae was attacking it with pocket passes,
Speaker 2: trying to get into those four on threes on the
Speaker 2: weak side. Gafferd starts the second half in a deep
Speaker 2: drop and Shae immediately just comes right downhill into his
Speaker 2: mid range area and knocks down a couple of jumpers.
Speaker 2: This is where isaih Hartenstein was setting monster screens on
Speaker 2: Quinton Grimes. That's a gift of Isai Hartenstein's. He's just
Speaker 2: very good at setting screens. And again, if you lay
Speaker 2: a good screen on the primary defender and the.
Speaker 1: Big is in a deep drop, what do you get.
Speaker 2: You get a chasm right there in the mid range
Speaker 2: where a guy can get comfortable and rise into shots
Speaker 2: and Shaye was just getting right into that zone. He
Speaker 2: has two quick ones. He had two easy buckets that
Speaker 2: he generated in ISO against Klay Thompson and switches. He
Speaker 2: beat him off the dribble for a layup that ended
Speaker 2: up getting goaltended. And then there was a play where
Speaker 2: he spun over his left shoulder against Clay right around
Speaker 2: the elbow. Three MAVs kind of coalesced around him. There
Speaker 2: was a kickout pass to lou Dort in the right corner.
Speaker 2: Lou Dort drove the close out and got another bucket.
Speaker 2: Then Shay hits a three off of an offensive rebound
Speaker 2: from Kason Wallace where he Kaseon just beats lucas being
Speaker 2: a little lazy in that box out in the corner.
Speaker 2: Kason gets the ball, kicks it over to Shay in
Speaker 2: the corner. He knocks down to three, and then they
Speaker 2: capitalize on Luca's laziness again in a two man game
Speaker 2: at the top of the key where Kaseon Wallace comes
Speaker 2: up and sets a screen, slips out of it just
Speaker 2: a textabook ghost screen right but on the ghost screen,
Speaker 2: Luca just kind of walks up to Shay and then
Speaker 2: just points over at kase on Wallas. Derek Lively doesn't
Speaker 2: seem to know what's going on until it's too late.
Speaker 2: Swing pass to kayse on Wallace, he knocks down the
Speaker 2: three that put the Thunder up by fifteen, and Dallas
Speaker 2: never got it back within ten points from there, and
Speaker 2: never got it back within single digits from that point
Speaker 2: in the game. So like that was what was interesting
Speaker 2: about this game. Dallas dominates the half court battle in
Speaker 2: the first half, but Oklahoma City dominates the margins. Then
Speaker 2: we go into that third quarter, Shay gets going against
Speaker 2: some passive coverages from Dallas. All of a sudden, it's
Speaker 2: a massive half court win for Oklahoma City in the
Speaker 2: third quarter, they run away with the game. As a
Speaker 2: matter of fact, Oklahoma City posted a one forty four
Speaker 2: offensive rating in the third quarter in the in the
Speaker 2: half court and Dallas posted a seventy five offensive rating
Speaker 2: in the half court in the third quarter, and it
Speaker 2: was all Shay. He took over in that stretch and
Speaker 2: then it was over. So kind of that was more
Speaker 2: about the flow of the game. I want to dive
Speaker 2: a little bit deeper into the half court battle as
Speaker 2: it pertains to big picture what this matchup could look like.
Speaker 2: If these two teams faced a in a playoff series, right,
Speaker 2: let's finish up with Oklahoma City on offense. So a
Speaker 2: lot of teams have gone with a similar strategy against
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City with leaving their mediocre shooters open. Right, they
Speaker 2: average attempting Oklahoma City does averages attempting sixteen unguarded catch
Speaker 2: and shoot jump shots per game. That ranks sixth in
Speaker 2: the entire NBA. Because a lot of teams are they're
Speaker 2: gonna let guys like Lou Dort shoot. They're gonna let
Speaker 2: guys like Aaron Wiggins shoot. They let guys like kease
Speaker 2: On Wallace, even Chad Holmgren when he was available. Right,
Speaker 2: guys like Kenrich Williams. These are guys that teams are
Speaker 2: going to help off of and throw a token close
Speaker 2: out to at the at the end of the possession
Speaker 2: if they need to. Right h So they get the
Speaker 2: sixth most unguarded catch and shoot attempts per game, but
Speaker 2: they're kind of middle of the pack in converting them.
Speaker 2: They get typically about one point two to three points
Speaker 2: per shot in those unguarded situations. They got one point
Speaker 2: three to five points per unguarded ketch and shoot jump
Speaker 2: shot last night. That was the difference in the game.
Speaker 2: Alex Crusoe hit multiple threes in the same game for
Speaker 2: the third consecutive game. He had just two games all
Speaker 2: season prior where he hit multiple threes. He's done it
Speaker 2: three games in a row. That's a big deal. Ken
Speaker 2: Rich Williams, Lou Dort, and kese On Wallace each hit
Speaker 2: three threes. This is such a huge part of this
Speaker 2: team's success. They need these role players to hit shots.
Speaker 2: If you guys remember the Dallas series last year, they
Speaker 2: weren't hitting those shots. Lou Dort was thirty two percent
Speaker 2: in the MAVs series last year. Aaron Wiggins was twenty
Speaker 2: nine percent in the MAVs series last year. Kasey Wallace
Speaker 2: was thirty three percent in the mav series last year.
Speaker 2: Chet Holmgren was twenty two percent in the mav series
Speaker 2: last year. So again, like that's going to be the
Speaker 2: important piece. Dallas is going to play a lot of
Speaker 2: drop coverage. They might come up a little bit higher
Speaker 2: if Shay gets hot, but they're going to play a
Speaker 2: lot of traditional coverages. They're going to pack the paint
Speaker 2: and they're going to force Oklahoma City's mediocre shooters to
Speaker 2: make shots. That is going to be one of the
Speaker 2: biggest swing factors in that series. Moving over to Dallas
Speaker 2: on offense, I actually thought they did a wonderful job
Speaker 2: for the most part of navigating the doubles and blitzes
Speaker 2: in this In this game in the half court. This
Speaker 2: is why box score watching is so stupid. Again, Luca
Speaker 2: and Kyrie did not put up point totals in this
Speaker 2: game because constantly getting the ball out of their hands
Speaker 2: and then even when Kyrie and Luca did get looks,
Speaker 2: those looks are now coming when they're at out of
Speaker 2: rhythm because they're not getting in a lot of opportunity
Speaker 2: to work in one on one situations. Right, So I
Speaker 2: actually thought Luca and Kyrie did a pretty good job
Speaker 2: as a team.
Speaker 1: They missed a.
Speaker 2: Couple of the payoff shots right, a couple open threes
Speaker 2: didn't go in, a couple of cuts around the rim
Speaker 2: didn't go in. But like at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: I actually thought that they did pretty well. They converted
Speaker 2: spot up possessions at one point four to seven points
Speaker 2: per possession in the first half. They had four shot
Speaker 2: attempts on cuts, they made three of them. A Dallas
Speaker 2: pick and roll was worth one point four to one
Speaker 2: points per possession in the first half.
Speaker 1: That's super impressive. So, like, stop looking at the box score.
Speaker 2: Who cares that Dallas and Kyrie and Luca didn't put
Speaker 2: up a bunch of points. They beat Okac's defense in
Speaker 2: the half court at a high enough level to beat
Speaker 2: them in that first half stretch, right, It's super impressive
Speaker 2: because Oklahoma City was very, very good defensively in this game.
Speaker 2: As I talked about earlier, their rotations were incredible. Their
Speaker 2: competitiveness in ball pressure, in gambling and trying to make
Speaker 2: plays on defense with deflections and steals, all of that
Speaker 2: was so locked in and so sharp, and Dallas was
Speaker 2: still handling it really well. The big one there is
Speaker 2: like the main thing that Luca can do that's just
Speaker 2: different than most players. He's big enough, and he's such
Speaker 2: a gifted passer that he can kind of lean back
Speaker 2: or jump a little bit, and he can rifle these
Speaker 2: cross court skit passes that hit dudes right in the
Speaker 2: shooting pocket. And that's the thing that he kept doing
Speaker 2: that kept things moving for Dallas in the half court.
Speaker 1: So like, here's the thing.
Speaker 2: In a weird way, I actually came out of this
Speaker 2: game pretty encouraged about the Mets. You lost this game
Speaker 2: on the margins and in a way that can be
Speaker 2: cleaned up. When you play against Oklahoma City, you need
Speaker 2: to defensive rebound and then immediately chin the ball, and
Speaker 2: you can't bring it down to where guys are swiping
Speaker 2: at it when you look.
Speaker 1: Up the floor. You can't look up the floor and
Speaker 1: just throw the ball right away. You need to look
Speaker 1: up the floor.
Speaker 2: And watch out for those thunder players that are gambling
Speaker 2: in the passing lanes right to beat Oklahoma City's aggression
Speaker 2: with execution, That means on corner crashes, you got to
Speaker 2: box out and beat guys to the ball right. Once
Speaker 2: you get the defensive rebound, chin it, hold it high.
Speaker 2: Once you look to make those outlet passes, take the
Speaker 2: time to read the floor first. You do that, you
Speaker 2: limit the offensive glass and you limit their points off
Speaker 2: of turnovers. All of a sudden, it turns into a
Speaker 2: half court battle. You won the half court battle in
Speaker 2: the first half. Maybe you go into up ten. Then
Speaker 2: you're a little bit more situated to handle a barrage
Speaker 2: like what Shae Gills Alexander puts you through in that
Speaker 2: third quarter, right so like, obviously it's more complicated than that.
Speaker 2: The Thunder half Chettholmgren coming back. PJ Washington didn't play
Speaker 2: in this game. I think Chet's a better player than PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington. But overall, it's gonna change the dynamic a little bit.
Speaker 2: But I was talking with Kevin O'Connor the other day
Speaker 2: and he asked me if I thought that the Thunder
Speaker 2: would be the favorites to win the West without Chet hoolmgrin.
Speaker 1: And I ended up landing on this.
Speaker 2: I was like, without Chet, I gave a slight edge
Speaker 2: to Dallas, but with Chet, I think Oklahoma City is
Speaker 2: a better team. And that's more or less where I
Speaker 2: landed after watching last night. That said, I think it's
Speaker 2: going to be a really interesting Western Conference Finals matchup
Speaker 2: if they meet each other, If they meet each other
Speaker 2: in the second round, or if they don't, maybe we'll
Speaker 2: just be unlucky in that sense. But if they end
Speaker 2: up meeting each other in a series, I think it's
Speaker 2: going to be really interesting, and I think it's going
Speaker 2: to be really close, and it's gonna hinge back and
Speaker 2: forth based on a couple of concepts. One shooting for
Speaker 2: both teams, Oklahoma City's limited role players hitting conceded threes
Speaker 2: and Dallas hitting threes out of four on threes with
Speaker 2: guys sprinting at them and close out situations, and then
Speaker 2: the turnover and offensive rebound battle, right, so like Dallas
Speaker 2: being smart with the ball and competing on the glass,
Speaker 2: and then the star battle, which is going to come
Speaker 2: down to Shay hitting pull up jump shots. And then
Speaker 2: the other big thing in this game is basically Luca
Speaker 2: and Kyrie are going to have to do some work
Speaker 2: in ISO against their primary matchup. What that means is,
Speaker 2: let's talk primary matchup. So let's say, case Wallace is
Speaker 2: on Kyrie Irving and lou Dort is on uh Luka
Speaker 2: Doncic or in the case that chats back, it's probably
Speaker 2: gonna look more like, well, it depends on whether or
Speaker 2: not they go big, but let's just call it. Let's
Speaker 2: just call it Kase on Wallace and loud Dort lud
Speaker 2: Dohort's on Luca, Kese on Wallace is on Kyrie. If
Speaker 2: you bring a screen to try to get a more
Speaker 2: favorable matchup, they're just gonna blitz. And now you're right
Speaker 2: back in that same situation. So they're gonna have to
Speaker 2: be times when Dallas's role players are missing shots where
Speaker 2: Kyrie is gonna have to look down case On Wallace
Speaker 2: and attack him one on one, and Luka Donc is
Speaker 2: just gonna look down lou Dort and take him one
Speaker 2: on one. Those are really good defenders that match up
Speaker 2: specifically well with those guys. Lou Dort, uniquely with Luca
Speaker 2: has the size and strength and low center of gravity
Speaker 2: to not get dislodged when Luca tries to bump him off.
Speaker 2: That's that's the thing that makes life tougher on Luca.
Speaker 2: Lou Dort is like the quintessential type of defender you
Speaker 2: need to defend Luca because so much of Luca's game
Speaker 2: depends on dislodging you from your with his size and strength.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So that's the challenge in this matchup. If Dallas wants
Speaker 2: to win. When Chet is back in Oklahoma, City's talent
Speaker 2: advantage becomes bigger, it's going to require Luca and Kyrie
Speaker 2: to do a lot of really tough work against elite
Speaker 2: isolation defenders, and it's going to require quick decision making
Speaker 2: and play finishing from guys capitalizing on those four on
Speaker 2: threes It's going to be a really really interesting battle.
Speaker 1: Again.
Speaker 2: Okaoma City is like Ogoma City is the most connected
Speaker 2: defensive unit in the league right now, and that obviously
Speaker 2: they have the highest, the best defensive rating, but it
Speaker 2: goes so much deeper into like beyond talent, it goes
Speaker 2: so much deeper into execution and just how committed these
Speaker 2: guys are to doing the work off the ball. I
Speaker 2: had a question in the mail bag yesterday where someone said, like,
Speaker 2: what do you think is the league's evolution to the
Speaker 2: three point shooting barrage that we're seeing, And what I
Speaker 2: talked about was I think the league defensively, we'll just
Speaker 2: get really really good at putting two on the ball
Speaker 2: and rotating out of it. The reason why is we
Speaker 2: have two major problems for NBA defenses right now. Problem
Speaker 2: number one, all of these ball handlers can come off
Speaker 2: of screens and if they get separation, they can hit
Speaker 2: pull up jump shots. That's a problem. Problem number two
Speaker 2: is these off ball guys, you give them any space,
Speaker 2: they're knocking them down. Shooting around. The league just continues
Speaker 2: to get better and better and better. Right So with
Speaker 2: that being the case, you have to run aggressive pick
Speaker 2: and roll coverages to make these star players not as
Speaker 2: comfortable coming off of screens, but you also have to
Speaker 2: have the speed to rotate out of it. And what
Speaker 2: inevitably ends up happening is in the league, when there's
Speaker 2: an evolution, there's usually one or two or three teams
Speaker 2: that kind of leads the way and then everyone else copies.
Speaker 2: Right Oklahoma City is one of those teams that's leading
Speaker 2: the way right now.
Speaker 1: They're leading the way with.
Speaker 2: Their aggressive on ball defense combine with excellent backside rotations
Speaker 2: to take away the easy three point shots that you
Speaker 2: can concede in those situations. I was really really impressed
Speaker 2: by Oklahoma City last night. Again, these are the best
Speaker 2: two teams in the West. I get a slight edged
Speaker 2: to Oklahoma City if they're completely healthy, but I do
Speaker 2: think Dallas is capable of beating them really really exciting game.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get a lot further into that matchup here
Speaker 2: in the film session later on in the show.
Speaker 1: Orlando Milwaukee.
Speaker 2: Again, I'm not gonna spend as much time on this
Speaker 2: game because it doesn't have the same big picture implications
Speaker 2: as the MAVs as the Maps Thunder game, and it
Speaker 2: didn't quite have that same level of playoff intensity. Orlando
Speaker 2: is down their two best players. It kind of put
Speaker 2: a little bit of a funk on the early part
Speaker 2: of the game.
Speaker 1: I think. I think Milwaukee and Orlando are probably the fourth.
Speaker 2: And fifth best teams in the Eastern Conference, behind Cleveland,
Speaker 2: New York, and Boston. But there's still five takeaways that
Speaker 2: I want to get into. Number one, another monster Yiannis game.
Speaker 2: He had thirty seven points with six stocks. Did a
Speaker 2: ton of damage as a rollman in this game. This
Speaker 2: is where the advantage of Chris Middleton returning is starting
Speaker 2: to bear fruit. With Chris Middleton back, you have another
Speaker 2: high level ball handler. Now that you have these two
Speaker 2: high level ball handlers, it allows Giannis to operate as
Speaker 2: a screener more and as a result, Giannis logged twelve
Speaker 2: points on rollman possessions last night. That was his first
Speaker 2: time all season having double digits justin rollman possessions. Twenty
Speaker 2: of his thirty seven points last night came on cuts
Speaker 2: in rolls. His previous high this season was thirteen, and
Speaker 2: that was his only game over ten earlier this season.
Speaker 2: So a much more supported game for Giannis in terms
Speaker 2: of easy opportunities that he's getting on the rolling off
Speaker 2: of cuts. On cuts, it's like Dame and Chris prodding
Speaker 2: and ISOs and then Giannis's man stepping over. There was
Speaker 2: a dunk that for instance that Janniscott where Chris was
Speaker 2: kind of like methodically working down the left lane line
Speaker 2: and just scooped it Tiannis under the basket for a dunk.
Speaker 2: But like, those are the types of easy opportunities you
Speaker 2: get when you have additional ball handling on the floor.
Speaker 2: Dame saved them late in the game. That's my second
Speaker 2: big takeaway beat Wendo Carter Wendow Carter Junior on a
Speaker 2: switch along the left wing where he hit like a
Speaker 2: tough step back three. Orlando had hit a couple of
Speaker 2: shots and they were up by three in the final minute.
Speaker 1: That was a huge shot to tie the game.
Speaker 2: And then the dunk that he had or like the
Speaker 2: kind of drop in above the rim that he had
Speaker 2: that ended up being the eventual game winner. A really
Speaker 2: interesting example of off ball action. So Dame is working
Speaker 2: against Anthony Black way out by the logo, and Anthony
Speaker 2: Black is pressuring the ball. One of the downsides of
Speaker 2: pressuring the ball is it makes it easier to give
Speaker 2: up dribble penetration. But that's okay if you have your
Speaker 2: help setup. Dame beats Anthony Black off the dribble to
Speaker 2: the left, but Chris Middleton and Giannis are running a
Speaker 2: little off ball action right around the right elbow, and
Speaker 2: as a result, Kntavius Callwoo Pope and Wendell Carter Jr.
Speaker 2: Are distracted and they have their backs turned to the play,
Speaker 2: and so as a result, those two guys just aren't
Speaker 2: paying attention. Dame has toasted them both off the dribble.
Speaker 2: At the same time, Goga Patadse is guarding Bobby Portis,
Speaker 2: who's cutting through along the baseline to the left corner,
Speaker 2: and Goga makes a mistake. He makes a mistake by
Speaker 2: instead of helping Dame and at least forcing Bobby to
Speaker 2: make a jump shot, he sprints out to Bobby Portas
Speaker 2: out in the corner, and he ends up giving a
Speaker 2: wide open layup for Dame. That's the advantage of off
Speaker 2: ball off ball action. When you run off ball action,
Speaker 2: just something simple like a little interchange around the right elbow,
Speaker 2: or for the case of Bobby, just staying moving. When
Speaker 2: you do that, you open up opportunities for guys to
Speaker 2: make mistakes, and in this case, three dudes make mistakes
Speaker 2: KCP and Wendell Carter Junior both not paying attention to
Speaker 2: man in ball, and then Goga Toadze making a bad
Speaker 2: decision off of a cut through from Bobby Portis. As
Speaker 2: a result, you get a wide open layup that's a
Speaker 2: product of off ball movement and action. My third big takeaway,
Speaker 2: Chris Middleton is just so important to this team. He
Speaker 2: didn't score a point last night, but he had eight assists,
Speaker 2: and his ability to kind of probe off the dribble
Speaker 2: and create opportunities for others is a huge ceiling raizer
Speaker 2: for this Bucks offense.
Speaker 1: He was awesome in the Nets game two.
Speaker 2: If you guys remember, and this is a guy that
Speaker 2: when he gets his legs back underneath him and he
Speaker 2: finds his rhythm, he's going to average somewhere between fifteen
Speaker 2: and twenty points per game. It's just a massive talent
Speaker 2: upgrade over Torreon Prince. Not to mention the fact that
Speaker 2: when Chris returns to the starting lineup, it will more
Speaker 2: properly slot Torreum Prince as a bench wing, which is
Speaker 2: where he can thrive the most in this league.
Speaker 1: Fourth.
Speaker 2: The path for the Orlando Magic to survive without Palo
Speaker 2: and Franz Wagner is very clear. Drag games down into
Speaker 2: the mud with their defense, dominate the glass, force turnovers,
Speaker 2: and score in transition as much as possible. That's the strength.
Speaker 2: And again, now that you're done with the Ncason Tournament,
Speaker 2: you're gonna end up with a home stretch here with
Speaker 2: a bunch of home games. Those home games are opportunities
Speaker 2: for you to lean on your crowd to drive energy
Speaker 2: and to drag these games down into the mud. And
Speaker 2: then from there, my fifth takeaway, we're seeing Jalen Suggs
Speaker 2: blossom into one of the best two way players in
Speaker 2: the league. You had a monster second half against Phoenix
Speaker 2: the other night where he turned a loss into a
Speaker 2: win when Phoenix had a big second half lead that
Speaker 2: he had thirty two points in this game, hit a
Speaker 2: massive pull up three and a pull up two off
Speaker 2: of like a ridiculous left to right crossover move that
Speaker 2: put Orlando in a good position to win this game.
Speaker 2: If Dame doesn't hit that step back three over Wendell
Speaker 2: Carter Junior, which rattled in. You're advancing to the semi
Speaker 2: finals because of your defense, and because Jalen Suggs, once
Speaker 2: again down the stretch, just like he did in the
Speaker 2: Suns game, was able to continually generate shots. Jalen Suggs
Speaker 2: is averaging twenty seven points per game in his last
Speaker 2: three games. This is in addition to him being the
Speaker 2: best and most versatile defensive guard in the NBA. This
Speaker 2: magic team has an incredibly bright future with a legit
Speaker 2: Big three, but the challenge will be for Jamal Moseley
Speaker 2: to try to figure out how to get these guys
Speaker 2: to play for each other.
Speaker 1: This is a magic team that does not move the
Speaker 1: ball around.
Speaker 2: They are twenty fifth in the league and passes made
Speaker 2: per game this year, they're eighteenth and assists percentage and
Speaker 2: twenty third overall in offense. And they very clearly have
Speaker 2: three guys in Palo Franz and Jalen who when they
Speaker 2: are featured, can really do some stuff. But they have
Speaker 2: to be prominently featured when this team gets healthy. They
Speaker 2: have to figure out a way to play for each other,
Speaker 2: keep the ball moving from side to side, and have
Speaker 2: them all capitalize on advantages that they make for each other.
Speaker 2: If they can do that, then they can contend for
Speaker 2: a championship, but I think this will be a multi
Speaker 2: year journey to get there, because I don't think they're
Speaker 2: close right now. But the exciting part is the potential's there.
Speaker 2: What we saw from Franz, what we're seeing from Jalen Suggs,
Speaker 2: what we saw from Palo to start the year. This
Speaker 2: is a team that the sky is the limit for.
Speaker 2: But they've got to find a way to play for
Speaker 2: each other. All right, guys, let's get into our film session.
Speaker 2: So we're starting up with what I thought was an
Speaker 2: interesting kind of example of Isaiah Hartenstein's basketball IQ reflecting
Speaker 2: on the defensive end of the floor. So, as we know,
Speaker 2: Isaiah Hartenstein likes to do a lot of five out,
Speaker 2: big man connective stuff like in like screening, hitting guys,
Speaker 2: back cutting, just like acting as an offensive folkrium above
Speaker 2: the break. This is what Derek Lively's doing here, right,
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna play this clip through. Derek Lively's got
Speaker 2: this little spurs cut that he's running here with Klay
Speaker 2: Thompson and he's gonna hit Shay Gilds. I called his
Speaker 2: spurs cut because Tim Duncan used to do this all
Speaker 2: the time with Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli where he
Speaker 2: would just kind of catch at the high post and
Speaker 2: they'd cut off of him and he just kind of
Speaker 2: pivot into their space and hit him. So he kind
Speaker 2: of pivots into Shay and he hits them right. Good job,
Speaker 2: Clay's gonna be open. But Isaiah Hartenstein does this too.
Speaker 2: He does this exact same thing on the offensive end
Speaker 2: all the time, so he knows that it's coming and
Speaker 2: he's able to drop back into that lane and get
Speaker 2: the deflection. An example of how offensive basketball like Q
Speaker 2: can connect to defensive impact. So Oklahoma City comes out
Speaker 2: with blitzing and tagging right, So we get this ball
Speaker 2: screen with Lively blitz of Luca. Right as the blitz
Speaker 2: of Luca happens. How does this all come together. Jalen
Speaker 2: Williams is going to come in here and tag on
Speaker 2: Derek Lively, which is gonna leave Clay Thompson open. Luca
Speaker 2: makes the beautiful rifle pass right into the pocket, gets
Speaker 2: wide open. Look for Clay just misses it. For the
Speaker 2: most part, they paid off those shots throughout the game.
Speaker 2: Worth mentioning too.
Speaker 1: Kyrie.
Speaker 2: This clip gets cut off, but Kyrie hits this three
Speaker 2: on the offensive rebound put back. What's the other downside
Speaker 2: of blitzing. Watch I'm gonna rewind a little bit, So
Speaker 2: on this blitz, where's Lively. He's outside of Hartenstein, but
Speaker 2: as soon as the blitz happens, he's inside of Hartenstein.
Speaker 2: So now he has the offensive rebounding advantage. So even
Speaker 2: when Clay misses the shot, look at Hartenstein. He sprints down,
Speaker 2: but Lively as inside position and he's able to tap
Speaker 2: it out. It's another part of the issues with offensive
Speaker 2: rebounding that Oklahoma City can deal with from time to time,
Speaker 2: even though they want that battle in this game is
Speaker 2: when you're aggressive, you're in rotation. When you're in rotation,
Speaker 2: it's harder to get matched up on the glass. Another
Speaker 2: blitz of Luca here, same ball screen blitz. The tag
Speaker 2: comes from kese On. Wallace swing out to Kyrie, great reed,
Speaker 2: Kaseon rotates again, Klay Thompson gets the same exact shot.
Speaker 2: This time he pays it off. As I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 2: deep drop coverage that the MAVs came out with against
Speaker 2: Shay and Jalen, So this one's going to be with
Speaker 2: Jalen Hartenstein's screen. Look at how far back Lively is
Speaker 2: Lively is pretty far back. He's kind of sitting one
Speaker 2: of the things I like though. Instead of Isaiah Hartenstein
Speaker 2: rolling hard into the lane and putting himself in a
Speaker 2: position where he's just in more traffic and his vertical
Speaker 2: spacing is invaluable, he stops around the elbow because he
Speaker 2: knows he can be a threat there and he makes
Speaker 2: one of his little patented floaters. Another deep drop coverage
Speaker 2: with Lively. Clay chases over the top Jalen's far Derek
Speaker 2: lives really far back, comfortable shot. Jalen misses this one,
Speaker 2: but that's a really comfortable shot for him in that
Speaker 2: mid range. Really really good individual defense by Keason Wallace
Speaker 2: on Luka Doncic. Here, watch as Luca goes for the
Speaker 2: step back, Keiseon closes the ground and blocks the shot.
Speaker 2: Then as Luca drives goes into that spinning move and
Speaker 2: misses it. One of the big details there I want
Speaker 2: you to pay attention to because I'm gonna show you
Speaker 2: guys a clip here in a minute where Luca hits
Speaker 2: a bucket over case on Wallace. One of the most
Speaker 2: important parts of Luca's offensive game is dislodging the defender
Speaker 2: from his base with a good hard bump. Notice on
Speaker 2: this play, I'm gonna play it again full speed. Notice
Speaker 2: Luca never really initiates contact enough to bump Kase on
Speaker 2: Wallace off. You're gonna see a better example of Luca
Speaker 2: doing a better job later on here.
Speaker 1: This was interesting.
Speaker 2: I thought the MAVs in the deep drop were conceding
Speaker 2: these pull up jump shots, and Shay early in the
Speaker 2: game didn't want to take them. This is important because
Speaker 2: in the third quarter he did want to take him
Speaker 2: the watch Harden seins that's a good pick, really gets
Speaker 2: into Quentin Grimes. Shae's just wide open, like this is
Speaker 2: a wide open pull up three. Doesn't feel like taking
Speaker 2: it yet, right, Look at how far back Derek Lively
Speaker 2: is so he gives the bald Hartenstein. But watch how
Speaker 2: this turns into offense anyway, Hartenstein catches Quentin Grimes is there.
Speaker 2: Watch Shaye just backcut him boop backcut, gets a nice
Speaker 2: little look at the mid range, knocks it down. Big
Speaker 2: part of the offense for Oklahoma City that just hasn't
Speaker 2: really been there before Hartenstein came around. Luca had been
Speaker 2: really that was another great kickout from Luke on a
Speaker 2: post up double team that Kyrie missed. Again, for the
Speaker 2: most part, the MAVs paid those shots off in the
Speaker 2: first half. This I thought was an issue that was
Speaker 2: taking place a lot in the early part of the
Speaker 2: game where Luca was just kind of ignoring Lou Dort.
Speaker 2: So Luca's on Loudort, but he's just conceding the shot.
Speaker 2: Look sitting in the paint, just not worried about it.
Speaker 2: Little token contest at the end. But again, like I said,
Speaker 2: that that's the key in They did that to Oklahoma
Speaker 2: City in the playoffs last year and those guys were missing.
Speaker 2: They're gonna have to hit shots in order to win
Speaker 2: this matchup when they get to April May, same exact thing.
Speaker 2: Look at Luca conceding the three to Dort on a
Speaker 2: help and he hits it. Those are going to be
Speaker 2: very very important shots for the Thunder.
Speaker 1: That his game plan.
Speaker 2: That's not on Luca, that's on the game plan. That
Speaker 2: was a to cap off at thirteen to oh run
Speaker 2: for Oklahoma City at that point in the game. Another
Speaker 2: really good read for Luca on the blitz. Here, Luca
Speaker 2: catches Gafford Kyrie double drag, so we have two on
Speaker 2: the ball right, Gafford rolls. Lou Dort wants to stay
Speaker 2: home for Kyrie, so Shay's gonna end up tagging the roller.
Speaker 2: Notice Gafford too, he kind of sees Shay there, so
Speaker 2: instead of like keeping his body running like he's going
Speaker 2: to shoot a layup, he turns his back so that
Speaker 2: he can handle the low man as a post player catches,
Speaker 2: and then turns over his left shoulder for the finish.
Speaker 2: Nice fine from Luca. This is that possession where Luca
Speaker 2: did a much better job dislodging case On Wallace. So
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna let this one play. Watch Luca bump
Speaker 2: case On with the spin right there to see that.
Speaker 2: You see how watchcase On like bump off of him
Speaker 2: right there. See, that's how he gets the clean separation.
Speaker 2: Look at out like straight up and down. He is
Speaker 2: on the fade away because he bumps case On Wallace
Speaker 2: off of his base. This is what bad transition floor
Speaker 2: balance looks like. I've talked about this concept quite a bit.
Speaker 2: We have a ball screen at the top of the key,
Speaker 2: the ball handlers trying to get downhill. The role man
Speaker 2: is rolling downhill. We've got corner occupied, corner occupied dunker
Speaker 2: spot occupied, so when the shot goes up, there's only
Speaker 2: one man back because there's four guys.
Speaker 1: Below the below the free throw line.
Speaker 2: So this allows Dallas to get out in transition and
Speaker 2: basically craft a quick one on one and Nagee Marshall
Speaker 2: gets into jaaln Williams's body and finishes. This is that
Speaker 2: incredible ludor close out on the blitz, So double drag
Speaker 2: blitz two on the ball. Shay's tagging Gafford. He's there
Speaker 2: earlier now because Gafford just got a deeper seal. Right,
Speaker 2: So now Uca makes this unbelievable cross court pass. Look
Speaker 2: at lou Dort and again Clay could have shot this
Speaker 2: on the catch.
Speaker 1: Watch that's going up. That should go up.
Speaker 2: But the point is lou Dort is sprinting so fast
Speaker 2: that it forced Clay to second guess himself, breaks his rhythm,
Speaker 2: and he misses the shot. That's elite modern NBA defense,
Speaker 2: though the ability to put two on the ball be
Speaker 2: completely compromised. All five Oklahoma City defenders are on the
Speaker 2: midline or to the right side. Clay Thompson, the second
Speaker 2: best shooter of all time, is wide open in the
Speaker 2: left corner. We have a skip pass that's being thrown
Speaker 2: forty feet from the rim on the right sideline that
Speaker 2: is dropped on a dime to Clay and a closeout
Speaker 2: still gets there. That is what makes the Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: Thunder such pain in the ass to deal with. As
Speaker 2: I mentioned earlier in the first half shift, Gafford was
Speaker 2: in much more of a high drop coverage against Shay.
Speaker 2: You guys are going to see an example of that. Now,
Speaker 2: look at how high Gafford is. Gafferd's up at the level,
Speaker 2: then he's pulling back. That allows the role man to
Speaker 2: be opened for this week side three on two which
Speaker 2: Shay converts to Cruso for three just misses the shot.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna show you guys a couple examples of this
Speaker 2: because this is part of how Dallas sets up their spacing,
Speaker 2: which I think is really smart. One of the things
Speaker 2: we're going to see is when Luca ISOs and teams
Speaker 2: want to help from the center spot. In this case,
Speaker 2: in the switch, Isaiah Joe is technically Derek Lively's man, right.
Speaker 2: You can see him kind of guarding each other there.
Speaker 2: So one of the things that Lively is going to
Speaker 2: do is he is going to seal case on Wallace
Speaker 2: on his outside, so that as soon as Isaiah Joe
Speaker 2: steps up, he creates a vertical pat I'm gonna play
Speaker 2: in full motion, in full speed first, and then we'll
Speaker 2: slow it down. Okay, look at how this develops. Watch
Speaker 2: Derek seal on the inside of Kassan wall See that.
Speaker 2: See how he seals He's got that left foot over
Speaker 2: Kasan Wallace's foot. All all that does is create a
Speaker 2: super easy read. Now Luka Doncic knows as soon as
Speaker 2: this guy steps up, Isaiah Joe, all he has to
Speaker 2: do is just throw the ball somewhere up here, anywhere
Speaker 2: up here. Derek Lively is inside positions, so he can
Speaker 2: just jump up and feed it in. You guys will
Speaker 2: see another example of that with Kyrie Irving and Daniel
Speaker 2: Gafford here in a little bit, another really good example
Speaker 2: of Dallas attacking the double team as well. So Lucas
Speaker 2: setting an off ball screen gets the ball, gets a
Speaker 2: better matchup with Isaiah Joe. Here comes a double double team.
Speaker 1: Boom.
Speaker 2: Okay, right, Reid Spencer, Dinwoodie extra pass. Klay Thompson once again,
Speaker 2: second best shooter all time. Good look, he just missed it.
Speaker 2: But Dallas did a pretty good job of navigating the
Speaker 2: blitzer and doubles in the first half. This time Spencer,
Speaker 2: same sort of thing, ball screen blitz we have they
Speaker 2: step over to tag the roller. Now we have this
Speaker 2: week side two on one with Klay Thompson and Spencer
Speaker 2: Dinwoody extra pass. Spencer gets a look, miss that one again.
Speaker 2: For the most part, I want to say they were
Speaker 2: at like one point five points per unguarded jump shot
Speaker 2: in the first half. They did a good job and
Speaker 2: overall on jump shots in the first half they shot
Speaker 2: really well. Another blitz, another really good rotation blitz slip
Speaker 2: Spencer really sharp rotations. So now there's no open corner three,
Speaker 2: but it's a closeout. This is where having a guy
Speaker 2: like Naji Marshall who has reel off the dribble pop
Speaker 2: is an advantage. Watch him jabs gets middle hooks, Izaho
Speaker 2: a little bit, hits.
Speaker 1: A floater in the lane. That's playoff basketball.
Speaker 2: Playoff basketball is you need guys that can take small
Speaker 2: advantages and turn them into baskets because elite defenses aren't
Speaker 2: going to give major advantages. They're going to give small
Speaker 2: advantages most of the time. Big bucket for Spencer Dinwoody
Speaker 2: here leading the second un He's been doing a really
Speaker 2: good job leading the second You notice Oklahoma City goes
Speaker 2: to a deep drop against the backup guard. Here, Fencer
Speaker 2: gets in the lang, gets a lot and one floater.
Speaker 2: It's done a really nice job with him. He hit
Speaker 2: a big three on the left wing out of a
Speaker 2: double team earlier too. Oklahoma City ran this play twice
Speaker 2: in the second quarter. Just a little wide, pinned down
Speaker 2: action for Jalen. He hit a little elbow jumper the
Speaker 2: first time. Second time he draws a foul. Just nothing
Speaker 2: but a wide excuse me, nothing but a wide pin
Speaker 2: down Like I talked about yesterday, It's still fundamentally ends
Speaker 2: up in the same action Like this is just like
Speaker 2: a ball screen. Right If Jalen Williams was coming off
Speaker 2: a ball screen, Maxim's prosper would be chasing him over
Speaker 2: the top, Gafford would be in a high drop, and
Speaker 2: Hartenstein would be rolling. It looks like that's how off
Speaker 2: ball action or motion offense like I was talking about
Speaker 2: Golden State yesterday, more or less manifests with the same
Speaker 2: concepts as spread, pick and roll. They just happened in
Speaker 2: the flow of the game. What I like about this
Speaker 2: is look where Jalen Williams catches the ball. When he
Speaker 2: catches the ball, he already has his advantage prosperous trailing
Speaker 2: the play. So running action like this allows your stars
Speaker 2: more opportunity to attack with an advantage Earlier in Possessions
Speaker 2: draws a foul. Here, same exac read I talked about
Speaker 2: earlier with Lively. This is Dallas Maverick's offense. Notice when
Speaker 2: Kyrie starts to ISO, gets a switch. He's got Kenrich Williams.
Speaker 2: As he's going downhill, it pulls out. Okay, here we
Speaker 2: have our ISO. So now Kyrie's got a match up
Speaker 2: he likes. Watch how the play develops. I'm gonna play
Speaker 2: him full speed first, and then we'll slow it down.
Speaker 2: ISO iso ISO dunk. Okay, let's watch how it develops.
Speaker 2: Kyrie's isoing. Gafford is already using a swim move on
Speaker 2: case on Wallas to get inside position. See inside position.
Speaker 2: Now the read is very simple. Kyrie knows I think
Speaker 2: this is Aaron Wiggins. As soon as Aaron Wiggins steps up,
Speaker 2: all he has to do is throw the ball somewhere
Speaker 2: up here, and Gafford's gonna dunk it watch. That's Dallas
Speaker 2: Mavericks basketball. That's Dallas Mavericks spacing. They can occupy the
Speaker 2: dunker spot because their bigs are so good at those
Speaker 2: little details like inside on the lowman to be able
Speaker 2: to create an easy vertical spacing window right there above right,
Speaker 2: kind of above the square, just off to the right side.
Speaker 2: This was just an example of strong side corner help
Speaker 2: from Spencer Dinwoode, which is big no no Jyl Williams
Speaker 2: ISOs goes to the basket, Spencer gets sucked in and
Speaker 2: he gets a shot. Although one of the things you'll
Speaker 2: notice on this play if you look, Gafford's not really
Speaker 2: in position to help, and there's an inside seal on Grime,
Speaker 2: so he might have had no choice. But the other
Speaker 2: part of it too is Prosper's kind of on him.
Speaker 2: Prosper's in position. So that's just kind of a play
Speaker 2: where stick to the game plan, don't help out of
Speaker 2: the strong side corner. There's another one of those high
Speaker 2: level close out attacks that I talked about, which is
Speaker 2: part of the advantage of the off ball talent that
Speaker 2: Dallas has added this year. So ball screen blitz. Okay,
Speaker 2: on the blitz, we tag right, we're tagging with shay
Speaker 2: On Gafford. There's our close out, right, not a three,
Speaker 2: but a close out against elite playoff defense. Is you
Speaker 2: got to find a way to convert this into points.
Speaker 2: Little step back move, Quentin Grimes. If Quentin Grimes were
Speaker 2: to iso shake Gildes Alexander and like a king of
Speaker 2: the court situation or in just a set defense situation,
Speaker 2: not gonna get that kind of separation in all likelihood
Speaker 2: chase a good defender, but in a closeout situation off
Speaker 2: the ball, he might be able to get more separation.
Speaker 2: That's where his skill could Again, the job of your
Speaker 2: superstars is to generate easier opportunities for your role players.
Speaker 2: If you've got some offensive skill in the role player core,
Speaker 2: you can convert those into points. Gafford started conceding threes
Speaker 2: to Kenrich Williams at this point in the game, and
Speaker 2: he hit two of them. No need to get any
Speaker 2: further into that. Just again, that's just what I was
Speaker 2: talking about earlier with the Thunder. Teams are going to
Speaker 2: concede shots to their mediocre shooters, and they got to
Speaker 2: hit shots, and they were hitting them in this game.
Speaker 2: This was a really smart play from Naji Marshall. So
Speaker 2: transition cross match, right, Kyrie Irving ends up with Isaiah
Speaker 2: Joe on him, so he starts going to work. So
Speaker 2: lou Dort doubles lou Dord. If you watch in the
Speaker 2: transition cross matches matched up with Naji Marshall, right, Clayton
Speaker 2: or Kyrie Irving with Isaiah Joe, Naji Marshall with lou Dort,
Speaker 2: lou Doort goes to double watch Naji Marshall notice it
Speaker 2: and go, oh shit, my man's doubling. I'm going to
Speaker 2: make myself available, makes himself available right here in the
Speaker 2: short range, catches the ball and scores. That's high level
Speaker 2: offense from a role player. That is the type of
Speaker 2: play that a skilled offensive player can make, that it
Speaker 2: can make more often than say like a Derek Jones
Speaker 2: junior or a Josh Green for instance. An example of
Speaker 2: why high hands are so important in a double team.
Speaker 2: Watching this double team, how lou Dort gets up with
Speaker 2: his hands that forces Kyrie to throw a higher pass
Speaker 2: and it forces a turnover that's generated off of high hands.
Speaker 2: Then we're going to get into transition and Isaiah Joe
Speaker 2: is going to hit a three that's the kind of
Speaker 2: stuff that Oklahoma City is so good at. As I
Speaker 2: talked about in the monologue portion, one of the most
Speaker 2: important things for Oklahoma City. Look at how lou Dort
Speaker 2: sprints back, and look at this effort. Lou Dort should
Speaker 2: theoretically be transition cross matched elsewhere with Isaiah Joe. He
Speaker 2: just sprints Isaiah Joe out of it, and Isaiah Joe
Speaker 2: sprints out of it, and you're out now. But as
Speaker 2: I talked about earlier, these are the kinds of matchups
Speaker 2: Dallas is gonna have to win if they're gonna beat
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City in a playoff series. Luca is gonna have
Speaker 2: to be able to beat lou Dort at as his
Speaker 2: primary defender, and the main issue here is against a
Speaker 2: smaller guy or a guy that doesn't have the same
Speaker 2: sort of low center of gravity and strong base, Luca
Speaker 2: is gonna dislodge him. Watch how he can't dislodge lou Dort,
Speaker 2: and so lud Dort's able to close the gap and
Speaker 2: force a miss. That's what makes lou Dort such a
Speaker 2: gifted defender in this matchup. Another really nice play from
Speaker 2: Luca against a double team blitz skip on a dime,
Speaker 2: unbelievable passes from Luca all night long. This was an
Speaker 2: interesting action I talked to. Do you guys remember the
Speaker 2: Rudy the Rudy Gobert with Raymond play where Raymond got
Speaker 2: to dunk on the inverted ball screen with Steph. One
Speaker 2: of the things that happens a lot is like when
Speaker 2: a guy is guarding a superstar guard and wants to
Speaker 2: deny him the catch. He's not gonna help on any
Speaker 2: screening action. So watch as they swing the ball over here.
Speaker 2: They're trying to make a post entry to Kyrie Irving,
Speaker 2: but Alex Cruso's denying. See how Alex Cruso is top
Speaker 2: locking and denying Kyrie Irving. So what Kyrie Irving does here,
Speaker 2: which is really smart, as he just goes like, hey, man,
Speaker 2: drive off of me. If you drive off of me
Speaker 2: and you can turn the corner here, you're gonna get
Speaker 2: downhill because Alex Cruso is not going to help, and
Speaker 2: that's exactly what he does. Watch smart basketball from Kyrie
Speaker 2: all right into the third quarter. Notice Gafford's in the game,
Speaker 2: and like we talked about with the high drop early,
Speaker 2: we're going into a deep drop here. Look at how
Speaker 2: far back Gafford is. Look at Quinn Grimes kind of
Speaker 2: die on the screen, shake out of Alexander just settles
Speaker 2: into an easy, breezy midrange pull up. Same exact thing
Speaker 2: on the next possession. Klay Thompson on the ball. Lively's
Speaker 2: in the game now, so they went early back to Lively,
Speaker 2: but same thing. Quinn Grimes is on the ball. Hardenstein screens.
Speaker 2: Look at how far back Lively is. Lively's in the paint.
Speaker 2: Shay settles into an easy midrange pull up, knocks it
Speaker 2: down here. He attacks Klay Thompson in a transition cross match,
Speaker 2: so he's got Clay Thompson transition cross match, hits him
Speaker 2: with a little hesitation, dribbled to the right, gets the goaltend.
Speaker 2: Another nice play out of the double for Dallas. They
Speaker 2: just missed this shot. Little wide double screen action for
Speaker 2: Luca as he comes off blitz Lively on the roll.
Speaker 2: Lively makes the right kickouts to Quentin Grimes wide open three.
Speaker 2: Just happens to miss that one. I thought Dallas managed
Speaker 2: the doubles really well all night, and again that's an
Speaker 2: encouraging part if you're a Dallas man. Most of their
Speaker 2: turnover issues were in the backcourt after defensive rebounds. Are
Speaker 2: before the defensive rebound. Another Shay Iso of Klay Thompson
Speaker 2: in a transition cross match spins over his left shoulder.
Speaker 2: Watch how many MAVs coels around him.
Speaker 1: Boom.
Speaker 2: Lively's two feet in the paint. Quentin Grimes double team.
Speaker 2: So lou Dort catches and he beats Lively on a
Speaker 2: close that may or may not have traveled there, but
Speaker 2: he ends up hitting a little fade away in the lane.
Speaker 1: Watch the weak side.
Speaker 2: Rotations from lou dorton Case on Wallace. Here Luca off,
Speaker 2: here's our blitz. Okay on the blitz, Luca's gonna throw
Speaker 2: the skip. Watch Dort first and then so Dort's playing
Speaker 2: the two on one. Right, kase On Wallas is playing
Speaker 2: Lively on the skip.
Speaker 1: Live again.
Speaker 2: Notice Case on Wallace inside position Unlively so that if
Speaker 2: Luca tries to throw the lob, he can at least
Speaker 2: force him to make a hook shot or something over
Speaker 2: the top. Dort's playing our two on one. Luca throws
Speaker 2: a beautiful skip pass into the pocket. Look at the
Speaker 2: close out from Dort and look at kese I Wallace. Boom,
Speaker 2: now the advantage is gone. Just like that, the advantage
Speaker 2: is gone. Isaiah Hartenstein drops into help. Another great close
Speaker 2: out from Shay, gets a great contest on the Clay
Speaker 2: Thompson shot and forces a bad miss. Dallas ends up
Speaker 2: getting an offensive rebound in that possession. Butich just really
Speaker 2: really nice defensive rotations from the Thunder. And then these
Speaker 2: are the two threes that put the game basically out
Speaker 2: of reach. Shaye misses, but watch on the weak side,
Speaker 2: watch case On Wallace and uh watch kase on Wallace,
Speaker 2: and Luca case On just goes right behind him and
Speaker 2: get the offensive rebound because Luca's not paying attention Shae.
Speaker 2: It's the corner three on the Chaos. And then this
Speaker 2: is that impromptu switch on the ghost screen. So again
Speaker 2: attacking Luca dribbles out. Lively's on the ball, so we're
Speaker 2: gonna swing it over. Here comes Keason Walls to get
Speaker 2: Luca into the action, and again Keason just slips out
Speaker 2: of it. There's no screen. He didn't actually set a screen,
Speaker 2: he just slipped out of it. Luca ran up on Shay.
Speaker 2: Lively didn't feel a screen, so Lively's not thinking I
Speaker 2: have to switch. So there's some poor communication there, he's
Speaker 2: laid on the rotation knocks down to three. That pretty
Speaker 2: much did it. So yeah, really interesting, really quickly before
Speaker 2: I show this last play again, Like you guys can
Speaker 2: see the dynamic there. Dallas managed the double teams really
Speaker 2: well all night. And you can see how Dallas is
Speaker 2: running those like deep drop coverages and conceding those catch
Speaker 2: and shoot threes to mediocre shooters. And so it's all
Speaker 2: going to come down to like capitalizing on those game
Speaker 2: plan issues. And then again for Dallas, got to avoid
Speaker 2: those mistakes they were making in the backcourt by giving
Speaker 2: up offensive rebounds and turning the ball over right after
Speaker 2: defensive rebounds. Here's that off ball action that I wanted
Speaker 2: to show you guys real quick at the end of
Speaker 2: the Bucks game. So again we have ball pressure on
Speaker 2: Dame out forty five feet fifty fifty feet from the basket.
Speaker 2: Dame beats him off the dribble. Here's the off ball action.
Speaker 2: Giannis is running a pin down for Chris Middleton at
Speaker 2: the elbow. CACP is completely keyed in on Middleton. Wendell
Speaker 2: Carter Junior is completely keyed in on Giannis, so the
Speaker 2: two of them are now completely removed from the play,
Speaker 2: Portois is relocating out to the corner. Goga should take
Speaker 2: this help, but instead he runs through with Bobby Portis
Speaker 2: and Dame gets a dunk. So again, three players make
Speaker 2: mistakes because of offball action and off ball player movement.
Speaker 2: Pretty simple stuff, all right, guys, that is all I
Speaker 2: have for today. As always, as sincerely appreciate you for
Speaker 2: supporting me and rocking with the show. Really really fun
Speaker 2: stuff from the n season tournament last night, and we
Speaker 2: got two more great games tonight. I look forward and
Speaker 2: breaking it all down for you guys tomorrow. I'll see
Speaker 2: you guys then the volume. So guys, as always, I
Speaker 2: appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It
Speaker 2: would actually be really helpful for us if you guys
Speaker 2: take a second and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
Speaker 2: you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
Speaker 2: appreciate it.