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Speaker 1: at the vall you have you Monday, everybody. Hope all
Speaker 1: of you guys had an incredible weekend. We're moving on
Speaker 1: to Day three of the NBA Playoffs. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the night yesterday we were supposed to cover
Speaker 1: Pacers Bucks with Colin Cowherd, but we didn't really hit
Speaker 1: it that much. So I want to spend some time
Speaker 1: on Pacers Bucks, and then after that we're going to
Speaker 1: go into that super exciting game one between the Thunder
Speaker 1: and the Pelicans. I'm going to have film for both
Speaker 1: of those games in this episode, and then at the
Speaker 1: tail end of the show, I wanted to show some
Speaker 1: video examples of the individual defense that Mitchell Robinson played
Speaker 1: on Joe El Embiid and how it could change the
Speaker 1: dynamic of that particular series. You guys know the joke
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Speaker 1: to do a mail bag later on this week. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So Pacers Bucks was a bizarre
Speaker 1: game because I thought the Pacers really got great shots
Speaker 1: all game long. Now, there's some specific process stuff that
Speaker 1: we're going to get to that I would like to
Speaker 1: see the Pacers do differently, namely just tyrase Halliburton's raw
Speaker 1: level of aggression and how much they looked to target Dame,
Speaker 1: which we'll get to in a minute. But even in
Speaker 1: spite of all of that, I thought the Pacers got
Speaker 1: good looks. This is a you know, kind of a
Speaker 1: bad One of the many reasons this is a bad
Speaker 1: matchup for Milwaukee and why they struggle with the Pacers
Speaker 1: in the regular season is their defense is kind of
Speaker 1: constructed to give up jump shots, right They packed the
Speaker 1: paint dare you to shoot, and the Bucks actually allow
Speaker 1: the fifth most jump shot attempts in the NBA. According
Speaker 1: to Synergy, the Pacers are the fourth most efficient jump
Speaker 1: shooting team in the NBA, so that's part of the issues.
Speaker 1: The Bucks defense is designed to give up jump shots.
Speaker 1: The Pacers are a really good jump shooting team, and
Speaker 1: my goodness, could they not hit a shot to save
Speaker 1: their lives to start this particular game. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, they got just zero point seven to seven
Speaker 1: points per jump shot in this game. In the regular season,
Speaker 1: they got one point zero nine points per jump shot, which,
Speaker 1: like I said, was the fourth best mark in the
Speaker 1: entire league. As a matter of fact, in this game,
Speaker 1: the Pacers generated thirty one wide open threes, meaning the
Speaker 1: defender was at least six feet away. They generated thirty
Speaker 1: one of them, and they only made six, which is
Speaker 1: just nineteen percent. So, by the way, they shot forty
Speaker 1: percent on those wide open threes. During the regular season,
Speaker 1: there was top ten in the NBA. Now, there were
Speaker 1: some specific things that we're going to talk about. I
Speaker 1: didn't love all of their process, and again, shooting luck
Speaker 1: is only part of the equation in that regard. But
Speaker 1: there's no doubt that I'm sure the main topic in
Speaker 1: the Pacers locker room after the game was centered around
Speaker 1: the idea of like, hey, we got good looks, we
Speaker 1: just got to knock them down. But I want to
Speaker 1: move to the defensive end of the floor before we
Speaker 1: go any further into the Pacers on offense, because they
Speaker 1: had a major Damian Lillard problem in this game. And
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about the tough jump shots. He had
Speaker 1: some really tough jump shots, some deep catch and shoot threes,
Speaker 1: some tough step backs, and contested jumpers in pick and roll.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, he made seven jumpers in
Speaker 1: this game. Caught an app solute heater in that first
Speaker 1: half run right. But for the most part, Dame over
Speaker 1: the course of the season has been a somewhat inefficient
Speaker 1: by his standards pull up jump shooter, right, And I
Speaker 1: think over the course of the series, if you're the Pacers,
Speaker 1: those shots aren't the ones you're worried about. You want
Speaker 1: to do a little better, You want to avoid some
Speaker 1: of the stuff when he's on a heat check, Like
Speaker 1: there was like a thirty footer he made on the
Speaker 1: left wing, where like, yeah, it's one of those shots
Speaker 1: that's a tough shot, but he was in such a
Speaker 1: good rhythm at that point. You need to find a
Speaker 1: way to close that gap, right. So, like, there's definitely
Speaker 1: some stuff that they should be looking at. But I
Speaker 1: didn't think the jump shot was the main concern with
Speaker 1: them defensively. I thought it was their dribble penetration that
Speaker 1: they were allowing to dam So. One of the things
Speaker 1: that happens in against most pull up jump shooters is
Speaker 1: they'll run a high drop coverage, meaning the screen defender
Speaker 1: is going to come up to the level of the
Speaker 1: screen to try to kind of contain right. But there's
Speaker 1: two responsibilities there. It's not just to contest the pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot. It's also to contain the drive. It's
Speaker 1: like a catch. You're driving up and you're catching the
Speaker 1: ball handler and containing him there. That's why you'll actually
Speaker 1: see that coverage used often on none pull up jump
Speaker 1: shooters to try to contain dribble penetration. Teams will do
Speaker 1: it to Lebron not to stop the pull up three,
Speaker 1: but to literally stop him from turning the corner as
Speaker 1: he comes over the top of the screen. Teams will
Speaker 1: do it to Ant, not just to take away the
Speaker 1: pulp jumper, but to stop him from getting downhill over
Speaker 1: the top of the screen. Right, And so there's two
Speaker 1: responsibilities to that Big, and they were just giving straight
Speaker 1: line drive after straight line drive after straight line drive
Speaker 1: to Dame, just getting past that drop coverage Big, and
Speaker 1: then there's nobody on the back line, and Dame was
Speaker 1: getting layups. He had four layups in this game, another
Speaker 1: one that barely got blocked at the rim by Pascal Siakam.
Speaker 1: That's the major thing schematically on defense that Indiana has
Speaker 1: to figure out. They've got to figure out a better
Speaker 1: job of at least making Dame make tough contested pull
Speaker 1: up jumpers throughout the series instead of giving up those layups. Now,
Speaker 1: I want to shout out, Dame, this is why you
Speaker 1: make this sort of trade. The honest injury would have
Speaker 1: been a death sentence for older iterations of the Bucks
Speaker 1: before the Damian Lillard trade. It's one had the amount
Speaker 1: of offensive firepower that they need. It's you know, it's
Speaker 1: one of those things where it's one thing to win
Speaker 1: a couple of games at the end of an Atlanta
Speaker 1: Hawk series when Trey Young is hurt, but it's different
Speaker 1: when it's like a full seven game series with adjustments
Speaker 1: and all those different things. When you lose that star talent,
Speaker 1: that superstar talent, there's just so much room for the
Speaker 1: defense to scheme the other guys out of the offense
Speaker 1: and slow down everything that you're trying to do. Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard in his superpower is what gives them a chance
Speaker 1: in this series because they have to survive until Jannis
Speaker 1: comes back. And you went out and you kick the
Speaker 1: shit out of the Pacers on the heels of an
Speaker 1: outrageously good superstar performance from Damian Lillard. That's why you
Speaker 1: make that trade. And I thought he was just magnificent,
Speaker 1: not just the jumpers. Like I said, his speed was
Speaker 1: on display. And I mean again, when it comes to
Speaker 1: the jumpers, there's really nothing you can do about it schematically,
Speaker 1: you just kind of have to live with the results.
Speaker 1: He's you could tip the cap to him, but he's
Speaker 1: just that type of high level player that can make
Speaker 1: those plays. Now, let's move back to the Pacers on offense,
Speaker 1: because I did not think the Pacers did nearly enough
Speaker 1: to actually make Damian Lillard work hard while he was
Speaker 1: on the floor. As a matter of fact, Pascals Yakament
Speaker 1: Tyres Aliburton ran twenty nine pick and rolls combined between
Speaker 1: the two of them, and in those twenty nine pick
Speaker 1: and rolls, they only brought Damian Lillard's man up to
Speaker 1: set the screen once in twenty nine possessions. Now the
Speaker 1: counterpoint would be, and this is what I'm sure, like
Speaker 1: I said, the Pacers were thinking after the game, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure is what a lot of Pacers fans are thinking, is, Hey,
Speaker 1: we got great looks, though, like what's wrong with our
Speaker 1: offensive process? We have that exact same shock quality game.
Speaker 1: We probably shoot a lot better and have a good
Speaker 1: chance to win. Right, Yeah, you're right, but there's two
Speaker 1: sides to the floor, and you might actually give yourself
Speaker 1: a better chance to slow Damian Lillard down if he's
Speaker 1: worn out by being involved in more on the offensive
Speaker 1: end of the four big part of how I think
Speaker 1: a guy like Luka Doncics has a rough shooting night
Speaker 1: against the Clippers last night. He's being forced to work
Speaker 1: every single trip down the floor defensively. This series, in
Speaker 1: many ways, is going to come down to Damian Lillard
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooting. Right. As I've said so many
Speaker 1: times on the show, pull up jump shooting is not
Speaker 1: as not nearly as much a touch thing as it
Speaker 1: is a lift thing. You're these guys are such elite
Speaker 1: shooters that once they actually get to their spot and
Speaker 1: get their lift, the end of it's just a jumper.
Speaker 1: The end of it is the same shot they shoot
Speaker 1: thousands of times when they're in the gym by themselves right.
Speaker 1: But getting to that spot and getting the appropriate lift
Speaker 1: is generally speaking, what makes the difference between a miss
Speaker 1: and a make right. And so by wearing him out,
Speaker 1: wearing his legs out, you can do a better job
Speaker 1: of helpfully hopefully tilting the series towards bad dame shooting performances.
Speaker 1: It's something I'd like to see them do in Game two.
Speaker 1: Before we get to the film, I wanted to shout
Speaker 1: out Chris Milton to super efficient twenty three points on
Speaker 1: fourteen shots. We talked about him needing to do some
Speaker 1: work on Nie Smith in the post he scored on
Speaker 1: him twice in the post in the first half, and
Speaker 1: I thought he hit one of the biggest shots of
Speaker 1: the game there in that fourth quarter at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter. So the Pacers kind of settle
Speaker 1: down in that third quarter, they start to get the
Speaker 1: same high quality shots and start to hit them, and
Speaker 1: they get it back to twelve going into the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: and Chris Middleton hits a contested pull up three at
Speaker 1: the start of the fourth quarter that just immediately pushed
Speaker 1: it back to fifteen and kind of changed the feel
Speaker 1: of the game. I thought he was great, Just a
Speaker 1: big time win for the Bucks. Again, like I like
Speaker 1: I said, I think the key to this series is
Speaker 1: getting the game four with the Bucks up to to
Speaker 1: one rather than down two one. I think if they're
Speaker 1: down to one, even if Joannis does come back, it's
Speaker 1: just a lot to ask to try to beat a
Speaker 1: good Pacers team that's that kind of is a tough
Speaker 1: matchup for you that you know three out of four times.
Speaker 1: So I think it's going to be critical that the
Speaker 1: the Bucks get one of these next two games. And
Speaker 1: you just made your life a hell of a lot
Speaker 1: easier by winning Game one. Again, big adjustments for Indiana
Speaker 1: bringing Dame into screen actions more. Their bigs have to
Speaker 1: do a better job of containing Dame when he's coming
Speaker 1: off those screens, and then also better backside help rotations.
Speaker 1: You guys will see some examples in the film here
Speaker 1: in a second. And then again gotta hit those open
Speaker 1: jump shots that you generate. All right, let's take a
Speaker 1: look at some film real quick before we move to
Speaker 1: the next series. So I'm want to show you guys
Speaker 1: some examples of the pacer struggling to handle Dame getting
Speaker 1: downhill in the ball screens. Right, So here's our configuration
Speaker 1: here as Dames getting ready to come down. So as
Speaker 1: soon as this three man action happens, even though Turner
Speaker 1: is originally on Lopez, Siakam and Turner switch right, so
Speaker 1: Turner's now on Portism is on Lopez again, as we
Speaker 1: talked about before the series, you kind of have to
Speaker 1: concede picking pop threes to Lopez. So at this point,
Speaker 1: because Nemhart is attached and Siakam is up here, he
Speaker 1: has one job and that is to contain Damian Lillard,
Speaker 1: and he's got to allow him just to go right
Speaker 1: around him to the basket and get a left handed layup.
Speaker 1: I understand the desire to take away the pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot. But even if he elevates here, Andrew Nemhart's
Speaker 1: in position to offer a rear view contest. Pascal just
Speaker 1: has to do a better job containing this driving angle.
Speaker 1: And again you're gonna see it's just like Possession after Possession,
Speaker 1: that this was an issue in the first half. This
Speaker 1: time he doesn't even get to the screen. So he
Speaker 1: comes down and we're gonna get a Lopez screen, and literally,
Speaker 1: Turner is not gonna be far back enough. And when
Speaker 1: Dame kind of makes this dribble move to the right,
Speaker 1: he's gonna actually go right around Nemhart and not even
Speaker 1: use the screen. But look at where Turner is, He's
Speaker 1: not in position to contain, gives up the angle. Dame
Speaker 1: gets right around him, gets that left handed layup off
Speaker 1: the glass. Again, the pull up jump shots. There's only
Speaker 1: so much you can do anyway, and over the course
Speaker 1: of the series, you like that if that's the best
Speaker 1: that Milwaukee can do, it is tough contested. Dame pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots. This is the kind of shit that's
Speaker 1: gonna get you beat if you let him have four
Speaker 1: or five of these a game. That's where you're going
Speaker 1: to have your your bigger picture issues. Same kind of
Speaker 1: thing here. Siakam actually blocks this one, but gives up
Speaker 1: too much of a driving angle. Okay, so one of
Speaker 1: the things that the Bucks were doing too, and I
Speaker 1: thought this was really smart, is this like kind of
Speaker 1: two man staggered screen. Right, So, because Chris is going
Speaker 1: to set the second screen in this action a Turner
Speaker 1: and Halliburton, or excuse me, Turner and Sianka. There's a
Speaker 1: very easy fix here. You literally just have Turner drop
Speaker 1: back and Turner take the drop coverage responsibilities and you
Speaker 1: basically have Siakam stay glued up to Middleton. Instead they
Speaker 1: have Siakam manage this angle and Turner stays glued up
Speaker 1: to Lopez way up here at the top of the key. Again,
Speaker 1: that's a waste of what Turner does best. He's a
Speaker 1: rim protector. You're taking away a three point shot from
Speaker 1: a high volume, relatively low percentage three point shooter in
Speaker 1: Brook Lopez at the expense of this driving angle. Once again,
Speaker 1: Dame's able to turn. The corner just happens to get
Speaker 1: him this time on the glass. But yeah, so I
Speaker 1: think the easy solution there is you just have Turner
Speaker 1: drop and you have Siaka manage anything up at the
Speaker 1: three point line. Jalen Smith, it was, it was definitely rough.
Speaker 1: Here's an example of Jalen just taking a really bad
Speaker 1: angle in his drop coverage. So here we go simple
Speaker 1: ball screen action. Right, Jalen again is look at how
Speaker 1: open he is. Look at his feet. So as as
Speaker 1: Dame's coming off the screen, look at his feet. There
Speaker 1: he is not in any position to cut off a
Speaker 1: drive to this left hand side. So again that's there's
Speaker 1: two responsibilities here. You're here to offer some sort of
Speaker 1: contest on the pull up three if TJ McConnell gets caught,
Speaker 1: but your primary responsibility is to catch the ball handler
Speaker 1: and prevent him from getting downhill because of that angle.
Speaker 1: And again, if you would have shot a pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot here, TJ's there for back pressure. TJ's there
Speaker 1: for a rearview contest. But instead Jalen Smith has this
Speaker 1: open angle and Dame just goes right around him and
Speaker 1: gets an easy layup. That's the kind of stuff once
Speaker 1: again that they have to figure out that's not allowable.
Speaker 1: The pull up jump shooting. Some of that's out of
Speaker 1: your control. This has to be taken care of. Though
Speaker 1: this is a kind of a different configuration because it's
Speaker 1: a five shooter lineup from Milwaukee. So again, Bobby Portis
Speaker 1: is playing center here. Malik Beasley, great shooter, Green great shooter,
Speaker 1: Pat Conaton decent shooter, right, Dame, great shooter, Bobby port
Speaker 1: It's been red hot tail end of the regular season, right,
Speaker 1: So this is a difficult action to guard in general.
Speaker 1: But once again, even though all of these jump shooters
Speaker 1: are a threat here, your primary responsibility is to take
Speaker 1: away the rim because again, let's say all these guys
Speaker 1: shoot forty percent. Guess what forty percent is. That's one
Speaker 1: point two points per shot. Okay, guess what this layup
Speaker 1: is that's going to be And Dave actually get draws
Speaker 1: a foul on that one, but that's going to be
Speaker 1: a play that's gonna result in closer to one point
Speaker 1: seven to one point eight points per shot. So again,
Speaker 1: what I would like to see here on this dribble handoff,
Speaker 1: especially with Connton in the position where he's not able
Speaker 1: to shoot immediately, he's got to get his feed set
Speaker 1: topin has to catch this drive and they have to rotate.
Speaker 1: If anything, this should just be a switch. But the
Speaker 1: one thing you can allow is just to allow him.
Speaker 1: Top In is glued up on Pat Conntton literally twenty
Speaker 1: seven feet from the basket, and there's nobody on the bed.
Speaker 1: These guys, these guys, I understand more. It's like, holy shit,
Speaker 1: great shooter, holy shit, greade shooter in position to make
Speaker 1: shots that I understand. Toppin is the guy that's in
Speaker 1: best position to handle this, or even Jalen Smith can
Speaker 1: drop back a little bit further and maybe Toppin could
Speaker 1: rotate to Bobby Portis. But again, anything other than just
Speaker 1: allowing these straight line drives. Ben Shephard actually did come
Speaker 1: over and offer contest on that one, all right. Last
Speaker 1: one on this configuration that I wanted to get into.
Speaker 1: This is another one where Miles Turner was just way
Speaker 1: too glued up on Brook Lopez on the weak side.
Speaker 1: So again we got Nemhart on Dame. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: a just a spin move here. There's not even screening action.
Speaker 1: So as as Dame beats Nemhart off the dribble, watch
Speaker 1: this nemhard. Excuse me, Dame beats Nemhart off the dribble.
Speaker 1: Look at Turner. Though Turner once again is glued up
Speaker 1: on Lopez on the weak side, and so as a result,
Speaker 1: he's not in position to help and as Dames making
Speaker 1: that drive, he's just floating further and further out like that.
Speaker 1: That's one of those things where like even if Brooke
Speaker 1: is hitting, you have to concede that to take away
Speaker 1: these driving lanes again, you got to play the percentages
Speaker 1: a little bit. When it comes to the stars, you
Speaker 1: want to play them into their lowest percentage shots. This
Speaker 1: I thought was a defensive execution problem for Indiana that
Speaker 1: they have to clean up, all right, last one here
Speaker 1: that I wanted to show you guys again, that's actually
Speaker 1: a better example. Look at Jalen Smith dropping back. He's
Speaker 1: much further back, trusting to get a rear view contest,
Speaker 1: and TJ actually falls down on the screen, so Dame
Speaker 1: gets a decent look. But that's where you have to
Speaker 1: trust your backside contest and do a better job of
Speaker 1: containing the drive, which they do. We're gonna head out
Speaker 1: the other end, and this is just one example I
Speaker 1: wanted to show you guys of the lack of intentionality
Speaker 1: with Indiana trying to attack Dame. So as we dribble
Speaker 1: over here, I want to freeze right here for a second. Okay,
Speaker 1: So Tyers Halliburn is going to call a guard guard screen.
Speaker 1: He's got Malik easily on him, and he wants to
Speaker 1: target Green in this case. So he's going to call
Speaker 1: TJ McConnell into the screening action and Ben Shepherd is
Speaker 1: going to go through. Right. I would just have Ben
Speaker 1: Shepherds at the screen. I would bring Dame into every
Speaker 1: single screening action that I could because in addition to
Speaker 1: generating quality shots, which you probably will the same kind
Speaker 1: of quality shots that you'll generate if you attack anybody
Speaker 1: else with the bucks because of your speed advantage. Right,
Speaker 1: But in that case, I have a better chance of
Speaker 1: wearing Dame out and a better chance of forcing him
Speaker 1: into tough missus later on in the series. So again
Speaker 1: I think that that's just an area of opportunity for Indiana.
Speaker 1: But the main defensive piece there is you got to
Speaker 1: find a way to contain the UH, to contain the
Speaker 1: dribble drive of Damian Lillard. All right, let us move
Speaker 1: on to Pelicans Thunder. So you guys can see, based
Speaker 1: on the kind of stuff that I was talking about
Speaker 1: in our series preview, why I viewed this as a
Speaker 1: competitive series. The Thunder are a more talented team than
Speaker 1: the New Orleans Pelicans. You just have to kind of
Speaker 1: start stacking up the players, right, Like Shay is better
Speaker 1: than everybody on the New Orleans on the New Orleans Pelicans, right,
Speaker 1: Like Jalen Williams a really good secondary shot creator, probably
Speaker 1: a better player overall two way than a guy like c. J. McCollum, right,
Speaker 1: who was the second best player in this configuration of
Speaker 1: the Pelicans with Brandon ingram right. And then just in general,
Speaker 1: like you're not gonna do like Laron Ants' is a
Speaker 1: good player, He's not chet Holmgrin, right, you know, like
Speaker 1: you're gonna you're gonna Elud dort is a is a
Speaker 1: in my opinion, like a more physically imposing type of
Speaker 1: perimeter defense threat, although or Herb Jones is very close.
Speaker 1: They're very different, different archetypes of players. But I think
Speaker 1: we can all agree that the Thunder had more talent
Speaker 1: and that was clearly displayed by them getting the one
Speaker 1: seed this year. That's it. The Pelicans defense is built
Speaker 1: to slow down this type of offense because they just
Speaker 1: have a steady diet of high quality perimeter defenders that
Speaker 1: can switch, and so they can shut down screening actions
Speaker 1: and they can force your perimeter based initiation to operate
Speaker 1: against unfavorable matchups. And so we saw a steady diet
Speaker 1: of Herb Jones and Naji Marshall on SGA. The other
Speaker 1: guys can all do a decent job. Trey Murphy had
Speaker 1: a bunch of really solid possessions against Shae. Larry Nantz
Speaker 1: did a solid job. I thought CJ McCollum was clearly
Speaker 1: their best option to hunt, and they went to that
Speaker 1: a lot down the stretch in the fourth quarter. That's
Speaker 1: actually how Shae hit his game winner, little guard guard
Speaker 1: screening action to get CJ switched on to Shae, Shay
Speaker 1: attacked him. Didn't like the and one call thought it
Speaker 1: was a bad call, but it was a nice shot.
Speaker 1: Got a quality look there and Shae knocked it down.
Speaker 1: But in that configuration that they went with late, when
Speaker 1: you have Trey Murphy, Larry and c J McCollum, Herb
Speaker 1: Jones and Brandon Ingram all out there together, there's just
Speaker 1: not a great option for them to attack, even with CJ,
Speaker 1: who was the best option. I thought CJ did a
Speaker 1: pretty solid job on the majority of his defensive possessions, right.
Speaker 1: So what's nice about that is, like, the Thunder obviously
Speaker 1: have the same advantages. Right, They can keep Lou Dort
Speaker 1: on brandon Ingram right, like they can keep Jalen Williams
Speaker 1: on CJ McCollum. They can run higher quality perimeter defenders
Speaker 1: against the Pelicans initiators too. It's a problem that goes
Speaker 1: both ways. One of the biggest possessions of the game
Speaker 1: late Keason Wallace came in and did a really nice
Speaker 1: job on CJ McCollum and forced him into a tough
Speaker 1: step through three point shot, right, the lowest quality shot
Speaker 1: that the Pelicans could have hoped for in that sequence.
Speaker 1: So like they present the same problem. So what does
Speaker 1: that mean? This whole series is going to be about
Speaker 1: perimeter shot creation against high level perimeter defenders. It's going
Speaker 1: to come down to high level shot making, meaning like
Speaker 1: one on one type of plays like the big shot
Speaker 1: that Shay hit to tie the game over Herb Jones late,
Speaker 1: which we'll see in the film here in a minute,
Speaker 1: or the shot he hit against CJ. High level close
Speaker 1: out attacking, taking advantage of close out opportunities and being
Speaker 1: able to convert those to points. When a guy, a
Speaker 1: really fast defender is able to chase you off the line,
Speaker 1: and there's rim protection waiting at the rim, there's room
Speaker 1: in the middle of the floor for guys to make
Speaker 1: plays off the bounce. That's going to be a huge
Speaker 1: area of this series. Close out attacking, It's going to
Speaker 1: be a showcase of modern basketball. These are not you know,
Speaker 1: throwback brute force teams like the Lakers or the Minnesota
Speaker 1: Timberwolves or the Denver Nuggets, right, these are or the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia seventy six ers, the Milwaukee Bucks. These are These
Speaker 1: are new school, perimeter oriented, relatively thin, you know, highly
Speaker 1: skilled lineups, right, and the the advantages physically have to
Speaker 1: do with quickness and length rather than size and strength. Right.
Speaker 1: So that's that's kind of the the idea, kind of
Speaker 1: like foundation of this series, which I really really appreciate.
Speaker 1: It's cool because the two best advantages for both teams.
Speaker 1: For the Pelicans, I really really liked brands in Ingram
Speaker 1: and pick and roll. I thought that was where they
Speaker 1: got their best opportunities. I talked before the series about
Speaker 1: brandon Ingram's pick and roll passing. I'm gonna show you
Speaker 1: guys some clips to kind of demonstrate I thought the
Speaker 1: Pels got their best quality looks out of those types
Speaker 1: of configurations. And then for the Thunder, there's about hunting
Speaker 1: transition opportunities as much as possible. They had an eighty
Speaker 1: five offensive raiding in the half court and a one
Speaker 1: p fifty six offensive rating in transition, so they're literally
Speaker 1: twice as effective when they can get out in transition
Speaker 1: in this matchup. Because of the quality perimeter defenders that
Speaker 1: New Orleans has when they're loaded up, when they do
Speaker 1: get into the half court, I think their best bet
Speaker 1: is to just keep hunting. CJ McCollum, again, not just
Speaker 1: for the shot quality, kind of like what we were
Speaker 1: talking about with Dame earlier. CJ is going to be
Speaker 1: a very important shot maker for the Pelicans in this series,
Speaker 1: and he was literally the guy they went to at
Speaker 1: the end of the game to try to get a three. Right.
Speaker 1: So with that being the case, play into the fatigue element,
Speaker 1: wear them out, bring him into actions, see if you
Speaker 1: can't force him into some misses. All right, let's go
Speaker 1: take a look at some film, all right, So this
Speaker 1: first one is an example of brandon Ingram's pick and
Speaker 1: roll passing. One of the things I talked about in
Speaker 1: the series preview is he is one of the best
Speaker 1: forwards in the league because of his height and length,
Speaker 1: and he just has a good feel for a floor vision.
Speaker 1: He's really good at making the skip pass, which is
Speaker 1: the best way to beat modern NBA defenses who are
Speaker 1: constantly tagging the roller from the weak side. Right, So
Speaker 1: we got jadab on Ingram right, and we're going to
Speaker 1: get a staggered pick and roll with Trey Murphy and
Speaker 1: yonas valanciinas right and as Yonah slips, Chet's in a
Speaker 1: high drop right. So Check came up to the level
Speaker 1: and Yonis got behind. Because Yonis got behind, Shay is
Speaker 1: the guy that's got to kind of slide over to
Speaker 1: yonas brandon Ingram immediately makes the skip pass and generates
Speaker 1: a high quality quarter three point shot for Herb Jones.
Speaker 1: That's a really easy way to and you can actually
Speaker 1: run that same configuration with Herb Jones in the action
Speaker 1: and to make sure it's Trey Murphy on the weak side.
Speaker 1: But I love the idea of running stuff like this
Speaker 1: to prevent Brandon Ingram and c J McCall from constantly
Speaker 1: having to attack high level isolation defenders one on one,
Speaker 1: get the defense, get the defense in rotation, play advantage basketball.
Speaker 1: This next clip is an example of the Thunder hunting
Speaker 1: CJ McCollum and switches. So you're gonna see here loud
Speaker 1: Dort's got CJ on him, brandon Ingram's guarding Jadubb here
Speaker 1: comes the screen, can see the switch. Now Jadub's gonna
Speaker 1: start working in CJ McCom And again there's a counter
Speaker 1: for this. We've talked about this with all these teams
Speaker 1: in the league. Where teams are attacking matchups. There's no
Speaker 1: real threat there, and loud Dort's not a great movement shooter,
Speaker 1: so just head you and recover. There's no reason to
Speaker 1: give the switch. Just for the sake of giving the switch.
Speaker 1: Jadub's able to easily get downhill and create enough separation.
Speaker 1: That's solid defense. By the way, Like I said, I
Speaker 1: want to give c J mccoms some credit. All these
Speaker 1: buckets and you're gonna see him down the stretch. This
Speaker 1: is a good contest. Like I mean, basically, high five
Speaker 1: to him on the shot. The point is that probably
Speaker 1: gets blocked by Herb Jones. It probably gets blocked by
Speaker 1: Trey Murphy. Okay, so like and you'll see both Trey
Speaker 1: Murphy and Herb Jones forced some bad misses down the
Speaker 1: stretch from j dub and s GA, but they were
Speaker 1: able to find a more favorable matchup. And again in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. It's not about finding great shots, because because
Speaker 1: it's hard to find great shots, it's about finding the
Speaker 1: highest quality shots that the defense will allow. Here's an
Speaker 1: example of Herb Jones's individual defense on SGA. So ball's
Speaker 1: gonna end up in Chase hands here on the kickout
Speaker 1: from Chet and he's going to go to work. Herb
Speaker 1: Jones just has the ability to absorb contact and bother
Speaker 1: shots with his length. He's going to force s Shee
Speaker 1: into a bad miss. Here again cuts off the drive,
Speaker 1: forces him literally into an airball. That's literally He's Shaye's
Speaker 1: been one of the most deadly mid range pull up
Speaker 1: shooters in the league this year, and he just got
Speaker 1: forced into an air ball by Herb Jones. Here's another
Speaker 1: example of Brandon Ingram's passing in pick and roll. It's
Speaker 1: gonna come off of a backscreen for Herb Jones to
Speaker 1: get a matchup. So he did that to get Shase
Speaker 1: switched on to him, comes off the screen again, chet
Speaker 1: in a high drop, Jonis rolling, Giddy tagging swing pass
Speaker 1: to Trey Murphy. Okay, now Trey Murphy's atagging and closes out.
Speaker 1: I don't like this read. I thought he should have
Speaker 1: ripped more towards the right to kind of a bad angle.
Speaker 1: But playing advantage basketball is gonna be there the Pelicans'
Speaker 1: best opportunity to stay competitive in this series. So I
Speaker 1: like the setup, even though I don't like the finish
Speaker 1: of that play. Here's another example of brandon Ingram's pick
Speaker 1: and roll passing, just simple dig down from get Josh Gitty.
Speaker 1: So here comes the ball screen again. Giddy is just
Speaker 1: kind of sitting a little too far back. Trey Murphy's
Speaker 1: deadly from this twenty six foot mark. Easy easy basketball again,
Speaker 1: When you can take advantage of the easy opportunities that
Speaker 1: are there and avoid playing on an island as much
Speaker 1: as possible, that's your best bet. And then this is
Speaker 1: just a good a good example of the total defensive
Speaker 1: personnel that the Pelicans bring to the table. Okay, so
Speaker 1: we got Dyson Daniels really really good perimeter defender. Na
Speaker 1: Gi Marshall, good perimeter DEFENDERO good perimeter defender. Larry Nance
Speaker 1: among the guys who play minutes at center in the league,
Speaker 1: A good perimeter defender ce J McCollum. Like we talked
Speaker 1: about the one kind of weak link, but he's done
Speaker 1: a really good job when he's been asked to in
Speaker 1: this series. Right, So first of all, it's the switch
Speaker 1: ability that shuts down the screening action. So Kenridge Williams
Speaker 1: comes up and sets the screen Larry Nance switch right.
Speaker 1: So no advantage gained dig down in driving lanes right
Speaker 1: because of the speed to be able to rotate. That
Speaker 1: makes things difficult. That's why Shay doesn't look to attack.
Speaker 1: Why isn't she attacking there? He's not attacking there because
Speaker 1: there's no because there's no advantage. There's nothing. There's nothing
Speaker 1: that looks easy about this. Nance is ready. Guys are
Speaker 1: in driving lanes. If he throws these swing passes, there's
Speaker 1: not gonna be some sort of open shot that's generated.
Speaker 1: We even get some ball pressure here from Larry Nance's
Speaker 1: It gets swung about once again. We get a little
Speaker 1: screening action here. Kenridge Williams runs down, throws a dribble
Speaker 1: pitch to Hayward and he goes down and screens Najie Marshall. Cool,
Speaker 1: we got switched. Now Gordon Hayward has another elite perimeter
Speaker 1: defender on him. We throw out to Shay. Larry nants
Speaker 1: is ball denying forces the catch way back out at
Speaker 1: half court. Now Shay goes. He manages to kind of
Speaker 1: shake off Nance, but once again Daniels and CJ. McCollum
Speaker 1: are right there. Daniels is gonna come with a late
Speaker 1: double team here because there's only four point seven seconds
Speaker 1: left on the shot clock. So even after at the
Speaker 1: point that Shaye makes this pass, there's not enough time
Speaker 1: for a ton of action there. But we have a
Speaker 1: three on two. Right. We have Isaiah Joe here, with
Speaker 1: Gordon Hayward here, ken Rich Williams here, and the two
Speaker 1: guys that we have in rotation or Naji Marshall. You
Speaker 1: can't see him because he's behind here in Jose Alvarado,
Speaker 1: But look at these Look at the speed in rotation
Speaker 1: on the backside. Naji Marshall's there on the catch. No
Speaker 1: advantage swing past Isaiah Joe. Great shooter. Here's the problem.
Speaker 1: Jose Alvarado is super fast. Jose Alvarado, Bam, He's there.
Speaker 1: He chases him off the line. Now they're forcing him
Speaker 1: into a mid range jump shot up against the clock. Right.
Speaker 1: That's just really really good defense, an example of why
Speaker 1: this is a tough matchup for the Thunder and why
Speaker 1: even though it's a one to eight, even though the
Speaker 1: Pelicans are the Pelicans are the one team in the
Speaker 1: top eight in the Western Conference that I think is
Speaker 1: beneath all of the rest. I think the top seven
Speaker 1: are all a considerable level above the Pelicans, But the
Speaker 1: Pelicans are a good matchup for the Thunder, and so
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna be able to keep the series
Speaker 1: more competitive. These next two clips are going to be
Speaker 1: just some examples of the problem with playing with Yonas.
Speaker 1: Valenciunas on the four killed him on the glass, did
Speaker 1: some damage underneath the rim, but on the defensive end
Speaker 1: is where he becomes completely unplayable. As you can see here.
Speaker 1: It just they can't switch. So they're going to run
Speaker 1: a drop coverage which is going to allow downhill rim pressure.
Speaker 1: So you'll see on this ball screen from I think
Speaker 1: it's Jay Dub if I'm ever correctly so J Dub
Speaker 1: ballscreen with Trey Murphy because Jonas is in a drop.
Speaker 1: Jayalai Williams is able to get downhill and he draws
Speaker 1: Najie Marshall to help. That generates a close out opportunity.
Speaker 1: Aaron Wiggins beats the closeout literally. Jonas Valencuna is just
Speaker 1: too late in his rotation and just commits a silly foul,
Speaker 1: gives up an end one. That's just bad defense and
Speaker 1: you're gonna be super vulnerable to any sort of chet
Speaker 1: pick and pop because of Jonas's lack of speed. So
Speaker 1: again here comes that high drop coverage. Chet sets the screen.
Speaker 1: He's gonna slip out. Now Yonas has to close out
Speaker 1: from this far. Look at how slow this closeout is,
Speaker 1: so it's an open three for Chat. So again, I
Speaker 1: just think I think their best bet is to lean
Speaker 1: into lean into Nance in that switchability in perimeter defense
Speaker 1: dynamic as much as possible. Here's another example of brandon
Speaker 1: Ingram making a play and pick and roll. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna get a They try to do a guard guard
Speaker 1: screen to get a favorable matchup of lou Dort stays attached.
Speaker 1: Now he layer in Nant's ball screen. The cleared corner
Speaker 1: is going to create an opening for Nance to roll into.
Speaker 1: So as Ingram comes down Dorts chasing Chet in a
Speaker 1: hyghdro that opens up the pocket pass for Nance. Shay
Speaker 1: can come over and tag here, but because it's on
Speaker 1: this far side of the floor and there's an unoccupied corner,
Speaker 1: he can't sit in the lane without getting a defensive
Speaker 1: three seconds. So he's situated out here outside the block
Speaker 1: and his rotation is just slow. And now, even though
Speaker 1: Shay is there as the lowman, Larry Nance is just
Speaker 1: in takeoff position here to just rise up and throw
Speaker 1: down the dunk right. This, by the way, is a
Speaker 1: big part of why I've been talking about how the
Speaker 1: Thunder need a power forward, eventually a real power forward
Speaker 1: next to Chet, because you need a lowman. This is
Speaker 1: lowman defense. The problem for the Thunder is when Sheet
Speaker 1: gets pulled out in ball screens. Their lowman are all
Speaker 1: small like Shaye's what six ' five, Jane Williams sixty six,
Speaker 1: Aaron Wiggins sixty six, Lou Dort sixty to four whatever,
Speaker 1: give or take an inch, They're all giving up a
Speaker 1: ton of height on these hard rolls to the rim,
Speaker 1: and Shay's just not going to be able to really
Speaker 1: bother Larry Nance in that situation, But nice little piece
Speaker 1: of playmaking from Brandon Ingram. Again, I think that's their
Speaker 1: best offen when the game slows down. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get into some clutch time stuff. This I thought was
Speaker 1: a gigantic play in this game. The Pelicans were in
Speaker 1: a really good position to win this one, and honestly,
Speaker 1: like if I'm the Pels, I feel really really good
Speaker 1: about my chances after game one because they had had
Speaker 1: their opportunities to win this one. So we're gonna get
Speaker 1: another ball screen chats in this Chets in this high
Speaker 1: drop right, we get the role opportunity here for Larry
Speaker 1: and Ants coming downhill. Boom. Okay, So here's the situation
Speaker 1: once again. Shay is the low man right, and he's
Speaker 1: giving up. This is not a big six ' ten
Speaker 1: power forward like Aaron Gordon. This is a six to
Speaker 1: five wing. But both both Chet and Shaye make an
Speaker 1: insane effort to get back and bother this one. Both
Speaker 1: of them get a hand on the basketball somehow against
Speaker 1: a freak athlete in Larry Nants, and they forced a
Speaker 1: miss again. One of many pretty solid looks for the
Speaker 1: Pelicans down the stretch, like Larry Nts dunks that you
Speaker 1: have a really good chance to win that game. There's
Speaker 1: a couple open threes they miss later, you make one
Speaker 1: of those, you have a really good chance to win
Speaker 1: the game. So obviously some very stuff there, but really
Speaker 1: really good defensive play there from Chet and Shae. You
Speaker 1: only have about a twenty percent chance of forcing a
Speaker 1: miss when you're that compromised, and they hit that twenty
Speaker 1: percent with an insane defensive effort there on the back
Speaker 1: line from Chet and Shae. By the way, not Chet's
Speaker 1: last big time defensive player on the back line. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get to another one here in a minute, all right,
Speaker 1: This was the play that tied the game. Tough bucket
Speaker 1: for Shae over Herb Jones. They're gonna run some action
Speaker 1: to try to get him switched off, but they're gonna fail.
Speaker 1: So here come the screening actions, right, Herb stays attached,
Speaker 1: doesn't fall, Ford, stays on ball, and then this is
Speaker 1: just a really nice piece of shot making. Like I
Speaker 1: talked about, what are the keys of the series gonna be.
Speaker 1: In addition to high level clothes out attacking, one of
Speaker 1: the biggest pieces of the series is CJ and Brandon
Speaker 1: and Jalen and Shae are gonna have to hit tough,
Speaker 1: contested pull up jumpers over elite perimeter defenders. This is
Speaker 1: really good defense, a great contest, and Shaye just sinks
Speaker 1: it to tie the game with a minute through, thirty
Speaker 1: six seconds left. Huge shot for Shay. All right, So
Speaker 1: this was the play that I'm sure that's gonna haunt
Speaker 1: Pelicans fans for a while. So you run the same
Speaker 1: kind of ball screen action, you get the same tag, right,
Speaker 1: So this was the same play that they just ran
Speaker 1: that Shay and Chet blocked. Right this time, Larry Nance
Speaker 1: makes the read to Herb Jones, who's been shooting the
Speaker 1: shit out of the basketball as of Lake. It's a
Speaker 1: great wide open look in and out that sucks offensive
Speaker 1: rebound from Larry Nant's kickout. CJ McCollum, wide open catch
Speaker 1: and shoot three clangs it. So like again, if you're
Speaker 1: the Pelicans, you were this close. You were this close
Speaker 1: to getting out of there with the win, so you
Speaker 1: gotta feel good about your chances. Again, I'm still picking
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City to win this series, but these are all
Speaker 1: examples of why I do think this is going to
Speaker 1: be a longer and more competitive series than people think.
Speaker 1: Who knows maybe I'll just be wrong, but that's my
Speaker 1: theory at this point. This last shot from Brandon Ingram
Speaker 1: didn't love, but he ends up missing that one. All right,
Speaker 1: here's the biggest defensive play of the game. So same
Speaker 1: kind of configuration, right, We're getting the exact same coverage,
Speaker 1: exact same situation. As you can see, this is what
Speaker 1: the Pelicans were spamming late in the game to get
Speaker 1: these role opportunities for Larry Nance. By the way, I
Speaker 1: didn't dislike this action. I thought it was a good action.
Speaker 1: They got some really good looks at it. So again,
Speaker 1: the idea here is pick and roll. Anything that involves
Speaker 1: Chet and pick and roll is getting Oklahoma City and rotation.
Speaker 1: Whether it's Brandon Ingham or c J McCollum, I just
Speaker 1: think CJ is only hitting the role man. Brandon Ingram
Speaker 1: is capable of skipping this process entirely. So again, like
Speaker 1: Brandon will be able to kind of get down into
Speaker 1: this range and bring Shaye over and make the pass directly.
Speaker 1: That's just one of the advantages of going through him instead.
Speaker 1: But there these are all quality looks that that CJ's generating.
Speaker 1: So on this play, Chet's in the high drop Shay's tagging.
Speaker 1: Those are two on one, right, two on one with Nance,
Speaker 1: Herb and Shay. Now as he catches there, there's your read.
Speaker 1: The read's easy if he gets a bounce pass there,
Speaker 1: doesn't even need to throw a bounce pass. Just throw
Speaker 1: a soft little lob pass that hits Herb in stride
Speaker 1: as he's running, and you got yourself a dunk. Right.
Speaker 1: Chet's panicking to try to get back into the play,
Speaker 1: and he might have got back there in time, right,
Speaker 1: but Larry Nance, this is look at Chet. Chet recovers
Speaker 1: in time to offer. Like It's hard to say whether
Speaker 1: or not if Larry Nance had made that pass it
Speaker 1: would have worked out, who knows, but either way, really
Speaker 1: good defensive rotation from Chet. Once Chet gets there, he's
Speaker 1: shut off this cut out of the corner. Now Larry
Speaker 1: Nance is going to default to shooting a little shot
Speaker 1: in the lane and he goes right up and Chet
Speaker 1: goes straight vert and blocks it. So I'm gonna show
Speaker 1: this again in slow motion. I just want you guys
Speaker 1: to watch Chet's recovery speed. Here again ball screen. We're
Speaker 1: in high drop pocket pass. Chet sprints back to get
Speaker 1: to Herb Jones at the basket and then goes straight
Speaker 1: vert to block Larry Nance Junior. Just an insane defensive
Speaker 1: play from chet Holmgrin. Then we go to the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor for the game winner, very very
Speaker 1: simple action. We got Jadubb being guarded by CJ. McCollum
Speaker 1: and we have herb Jones being guarded by Shay. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get a basic guard guard screen to get the switch.
Speaker 1: We're waiting for the clock. Here goes up and sets
Speaker 1: a screen, gives a switch once again. I just wouldn't
Speaker 1: concede this switch that easily. I just don't understand that part.
Speaker 1: But they concede the switch, go back down to Shae.
Speaker 1: I didn't think this was a foul. I thought this
Speaker 1: was good physical defense in the playoffs. But still just
Speaker 1: a really really nice piece of shot making from Shae
Speaker 1: to get his leg strength off of one leg up
Speaker 1: and to knock down that shot. Big, big, big time
Speaker 1: finished that game from Shae. Struggled a little bit with
Speaker 1: the Pelicans defense throughout, but made a bunch of big
Speaker 1: plays down the stretch to get the win, which is
Speaker 1: all you can ask for. Game one goes to the Thunder.
Speaker 1: We'll see I think the Pelicans have a decent chance
Speaker 1: to get Game two, but we'll see what happens. All right,
Speaker 1: let's move on to our final topic of the day.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking about Joel Embiid and the Mitchell
Speaker 1: Robinson matchup. So if you guys remember I talked a
Speaker 1: lot after the Sixers Knicks game that one of the
Speaker 1: most encouraging pieces of information that came out of that
Speaker 1: game was, holy shit, Mitchell Robinson might be able to
Speaker 1: guard Joel Embiid pretty well because again, the half court
Speaker 1: shot making dynamic skewed heavily in philadel Adelphia's favor. They
Speaker 1: outscored the Knicks by twenty two points per one hundred
Speaker 1: possessions in the half court. They just got absolutely dominated
Speaker 1: on the offensive glass and in transition. So for Philly,
Speaker 1: your whole angle coming into game two is we just
Speaker 1: have to find a way to hold up better physically.
Speaker 1: If we hold up better physically and transition in on
Speaker 1: the glass, we should dominate them in the half court.
Speaker 1: We have more offensive skill. But the one thing for
Speaker 1: the Knicks that can kind of swing that back towards
Speaker 1: their favor is what if this guy, mister one of
Speaker 1: this guy, mister Mitchell Robinson can physically match up with
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid and make his life more difficult. So I
Speaker 1: pulled five clips to kind of demonstrate the job that
Speaker 1: Mitchell did on Joe Well Embiid. This is going to
Speaker 1: start with a transition. Pull up three watch Mitchell. So
Speaker 1: Mitchell's kind of on his heels, Joelle's coming down at him,
Speaker 1: and Embiid gets into his high hesitation and Mitchell literally
Speaker 1: blocks him on the three point shots. So that's gonna
Speaker 1: be the key here. The whole thing that I'm talking
Speaker 1: about here is Mitchell's ability to give space while also
Speaker 1: having the length to rise up and contest shots to
Speaker 1: make it simply, To put it simply, I talked about
Speaker 1: this on the show after the Knick Sixers game after
Speaker 1: Game one on Saturday. But most defenders who guard Embiid
Speaker 1: either have to play off of him and Embiid can
Speaker 1: just comfortably get into that jab step jumper, which he's
Speaker 1: hitting well over fifty percent this year, or they can
Speaker 1: get close to him impress him, but then they start
Speaker 1: committing fouls because Embid's so good at manipulating that shooting
Speaker 1: pocket to catch people's arms in the cookie jar. Right,
Speaker 1: Mitchell is uniquely a capable of closing that gap without
Speaker 1: having to physically be in his airspace. So he can
Speaker 1: play back and bait Embiid into those pull up jumpers
Speaker 1: and then take one step forward and reach his arm
Speaker 1: up and get a really, really good contest. And you're
Speaker 1: gonna see some more examples of that here on tape.
Speaker 1: Here's the same sort of thing out of a jab
Speaker 1: step situation. I'll show you guys the example when he catches.
Speaker 1: So this is icing the screen right. So the reason
Speaker 1: why Embid's not actually setting it is because Brunson's sitting
Speaker 1: way on the high side to try to funnel Maxi
Speaker 1: into the sideline area. But Joel Embiid is the easy
Speaker 1: read to deal with an ice just by throwing that
Speaker 1: little pocket pass. He's gonna throw the ball to Embiid
Speaker 1: again right here. Look, he's his stands is open. He
Speaker 1: looks like he's gonna be kind of favoring the drive. Right,
Speaker 1: he's giving space. He's not having to press way up
Speaker 1: into Embiid to take away the jumper. But then when
Speaker 1: Embiid goes to that step back, he could take one
Speaker 1: step forward, get a really good contest and force a
Speaker 1: bad miss. Off the front of the rim. Now we're
Speaker 1: going to see a couple examples out of the post.
Speaker 1: So this one's on the right block. He's gonna try
Speaker 1: to back him down, not gonna get great separation. He's
Speaker 1: not easily dislodging him, so he's gonna go to a
Speaker 1: left shoulder fade. As he goes to his left shoulder fade,
Speaker 1: look at the contest for Mitchell Robinson. Great contest forces
Speaker 1: literally an airball, same sort of thing here on the
Speaker 1: left block. Obviously there's help defense involved. No defender can
Speaker 1: guard a guy one on one. There's obviously help defense involved,
Speaker 1: but this is really really good physical defense. He's jocking
Speaker 1: for position. Look at where he forces the catch, and
Speaker 1: Bead's right foot is literally about eighteen inches from the
Speaker 1: three point line. He's forcing a deep catch, so he's
Speaker 1: doing his work early and bad tries to bully him
Speaker 1: as he gets into the lane. He's got him kind
Speaker 1: of swallowed up now and Bead's throwing a hell of
Speaker 1: a chain can wing at him there to try to
Speaker 1: get into the lane. And look at that closing the
Speaker 1: gap forcing a bad miss out of the post. Like
Speaker 1: you don't see too many six foot left shoulder hooks.
Speaker 1: That miss that bad. Now, So if we've just went
Speaker 1: over all the examples of Mitchell Robinson being able to
Speaker 1: close the gap, especially as a jump shooter, what's a
Speaker 1: counter for Embiid to attack as we look into Game two.
Speaker 1: I would look to do aggressive rip throughs off of
Speaker 1: the catch in these triple threat situations. So one of
Speaker 1: the things I really like as Embid pops here, Max,
Speaker 1: he throws the past time at the three point line,
Speaker 1: but Embiid uses a little footwork trick to get better position.
Speaker 1: Watch where Embiid actually establishes his triple threat on the catch.
Speaker 1: So he brought the triple threat in a good solid
Speaker 1: four feet right. The other thing, too, is as he
Speaker 1: does that forward move, it gets Mitchell on his heels.
Speaker 1: Watch Mitchell sliding back on the catch. Right, so he
Speaker 1: catches here. But watched Mitchell's first few steps. They're backwards.
Speaker 1: Bang bang bang, He's taken four steps back. He's on
Speaker 1: his heels. What I like about this is instead of
Speaker 1: trying to go to some sort of jump shot move
Speaker 1: and be just gonna make a physically aggressive move on
Speaker 1: the catch on a rip Thurcy rip get that now,
Speaker 1: Mitchell absorbs the contact. But then and Bid goes to
Speaker 1: that eurostep inside and is able to draw foul. And
Speaker 1: I think that's honestly gonna be Embiid's best route to
Speaker 1: attack Mitchell under these circumstances. Physical aggression, quick decisive rip
Speaker 1: through moves. You might even be able to get him
Speaker 1: into foul trouble there. And then in that case, if
Speaker 1: Isaiah Hartenstein gets back onto the floor, you like that
Speaker 1: matchup better anyway. All Right, guys, that is all I
Speaker 1: have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: for supporting the show. We will be back tonight live
Speaker 1: on YouTube. After the final buzzer of Nuggets Lakers Game two,
Speaker 1: I will see you guys. Then the volume