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Speaker 1: You're at the volume heavy Wednesday. Everybody hop BAF. You
Speaker 1: guys are having a great week on a jam pack
Speaker 1: show for you. Today, We're I'm hitting two games from
Speaker 1: last night as the Dallas Mavericks continue their dominance over
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Timberwolves. We're gonna be breaking that game down
Speaker 1: from the perspective of both teams. And then the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors without Steph Curry, without Andrew Wiggins, without the
Speaker 1: Anthony Melton get a big dominant win over the New
Speaker 1: Orleans Pelicans despite brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson going off.
Speaker 1: We're going to break that game down from the perspective
Speaker 1: of both teams, and then I have twenty three clips
Speaker 1: for an episode of Timp's tape at the tail end
Speaker 1: of the show. It's actually a couple of days worth
Speaker 1: because we didn't do one yesterday, So I've got some
Speaker 1: clips from the Celtics and some other games that we
Speaker 1: talked about earlier this week in there, as well a
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff to get into in the film session.
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Speaker 1: What time is it? Game time? All right, guys, let's
Speaker 1: talk some basketball. So Mavswell was really interesting flow in
Speaker 1: this game and comes out He's just shooting the shit
Speaker 1: out of the basketball to start this year. Comes out
Speaker 1: hotter than blazes to start the game. He's hitting all
Speaker 1: sorts of threes off the catching, off the dribble, a
Speaker 1: couple of ridiculous drives to the rim. He has this
Speaker 1: like dribble combination on Klay Thompson on the first possession
Speaker 1: of the game where he tows him off the dribble
Speaker 1: and then Euro steps around Gafford and reverses it in
Speaker 1: on the opposite side of the basket.
Speaker 2: Just completely ridiculous.
Speaker 1: He has twenty four points in the first quarter in
Speaker 1: the Wolves ride that to an early ten point lead.
Speaker 1: Then in the mid second quarter, Luca has his best
Speaker 1: stretch of the game. He had a rough game from
Speaker 1: the box score standpoint, but he had a couple of separate,
Speaker 1: really dominant stretches that controlled the game. I still thought
Speaker 1: he played really well. Classic example of how reading the
Speaker 1: box score is just not a way too abou you
Speaker 1: eight basketball players. But in the mid second quarter, Luca
Speaker 1: has his best stretch of the game. You know, it's
Speaker 1: kind of interesting. The MAVs has been running a lot
Speaker 1: of different, more advanced offensive stuff this season than they
Speaker 1: did in years past, for good reason, because they have
Speaker 1: so much more offensive skill on this particular roster. But
Speaker 1: in this particular game, they kind of leaned back on
Speaker 1: a lot of the same stuff that they did in
Speaker 1: the playoffs last year, which for the record, made sense
Speaker 1: for this particular matchup, Like their brute force high ball
Speaker 1: screen attack. The Wolves had almost no answers for in
Speaker 1: that in that Western Conference Final series, and in that
Speaker 1: second quarter they just kind of started spamming that. And
Speaker 1: like every time he got downhill, he'd kind of get
Speaker 1: into that mid range to make shots off the dribble.
Speaker 1: If he forced a switch that he'd like he'd just
Speaker 1: try to beat that guy off the dribble and then
Speaker 1: throw a lob If the big man stepped up, he
Speaker 1: was just absolutely cooking him. The MAVs kind of chip
Speaker 1: away at the lead and they end up actually going
Speaker 1: into halftime with a two point lead. Then in the
Speaker 1: third quarter, Kyrie Irving gets insanely hottie it's four threes.
Speaker 1: Quinn Grimes added a couple three of his own. The
Speaker 1: MAVs did a lot of damage in transition in this
Speaker 1: run as well. Throughout the whole game, Dallas kept beating
Speaker 1: Minnesota up the floor on leakouts, sometimes on made baskets
Speaker 1: too really bad transition defense. One of the consistent themes
Speaker 1: of this game was both Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively
Speaker 1: just kicking go Beart's ass in every single phase of
Speaker 1: the game. A couple of guys who combined to make
Speaker 1: about half what Rudy Gobert makes, and he was just
Speaker 1: they were just kicking his ass and specifically just out
Speaker 1: running him down the floor.
Speaker 2: There were plays.
Speaker 1: I trimmed one and put it on my Twitter feed
Speaker 1: for you guys to see, and I've got a bunch
Speaker 1: of clips from this game in the film session at
Speaker 1: the tail end of the game. If you're looking for
Speaker 1: visual representations of the things I'm talking about today. Make
Speaker 1: sure you stick around for the TIMPs tape segment at
Speaker 1: the tail end. But there were just plays where like
Speaker 1: Gaffer just shot, will go up and as soon as
Speaker 1: the defensive rebound was secured, he just literally would just
Speaker 1: sprint up the floor, just beat go Bear up the floor,
Speaker 1: and the forwards and guards for Minnesota were not helping
Speaker 1: to track on that back line when go Beart would
Speaker 1: get beat and they were just getting easy ones. In transition,
Speaker 1: the MAVs really take over the game in the stretch
Speaker 1: and they end up going up by as much as thirteen.
Speaker 1: Then the Wolves actually go to more spacing looks in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. They try a Ant Nikhil, Alexander Walker,
Speaker 1: Jada McDaniels, Julius Randall nos Reed look, and then they
Speaker 1: try a centerless look with no go Beart or nos
Speaker 1: Reed with Dante DiVincenzo in for nas Reid, So essentially Dante, Nikhil,
Speaker 1: Alexander Walker, two three and d guards and Nikil's been
Speaker 1: shooting the ball really really well to start the year
Speaker 1: and as another guard, and then Jada McDaniels and Julius
Speaker 1: Randalls so much better spacing. They start getting lots of
Speaker 1: dribble penetration, They're faster in rotation, and in transition they
Speaker 1: kind of get themselves back into the game, and they
Speaker 1: actually cut it back to two with a couple of
Speaker 1: minutes left.
Speaker 2: And then in crunch time when the.
Speaker 1: Wolves got it back to two, we get a really
Speaker 1: interesting sequence where the MAVs start just outworking the Wolves.
Speaker 1: So first the MAVs get an offensive rebound on a
Speaker 1: long rebound that comes off right around the foul line
Speaker 1: area where peach Day Washington just out hustles Jaden McDaniels again,
Speaker 1: like big possession down to Jaden's good athlete. Jayden has
Speaker 1: every ability to get that rebound, PJ just beats him
Speaker 1: to it, ends up tapping at it. Then there's another
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty ball with both Gobert and Lively kind
Speaker 1: of staring at it, and Lively beats Gobert to it,
Speaker 1: and so a couple of extra efforts for MAVs outworking Wolves,
Speaker 1: extra possession ball ends up in Kyrie Irving's hands at
Speaker 1: the top of the key. He mixes up Julius Randall
Speaker 1: hits a pull up three. All of a sudden, it's
Speaker 1: a five point game. Secure a defensive rebound there and
Speaker 1: you have a chance to hire take the lead. Now
Speaker 1: you're down two possessions, so big sequence there for the MAVs.
Speaker 1: Then the Wolves go down and score. They cut it
Speaker 1: to three. Then Kyrie gets Julius Randall on a switch again,
Speaker 1: and the Wolves don't want to allow that to happen,
Speaker 1: so they double team. Kyrie gets swung swung over to
Speaker 1: the left corner and Luka Doncic gets Gobert closing out
Speaker 1: at him. Luca beats him off the dribble. Kind of
Speaker 1: an interesting theme at the end of this game. Like
Speaker 1: the go Beart, the lineups without Gobert early in the
Speaker 1: quarter will perform really well, right, But Chris Finch makes
Speaker 1: an interesting decision to go back to Gobart and crunch time,
Speaker 1: even though the small ball lineups were what was working,
Speaker 1: And then Gobaar ended up making a bunch of mistakes
Speaker 1: down the tail end of this game. But Golbert throws
Speaker 1: a bad close out at Luca, Luca easily tows him
Speaker 1: off the dribble and scoops in a little layup that
Speaker 1: puts him back up five. Then the MAVs go down
Speaker 1: and get a stop. They got an opportunity to end
Speaker 1: the game, they get the MAVs or the Wolves get
Speaker 1: another stop, another chance to secure a defensive rebound, and
Speaker 1: once again both PJ. Washington and Derek Lively in reverse order.
Speaker 1: This time, this time Derek Lively beats Gobert to it
Speaker 1: and taps at it, and then PJ. Washington comes flying
Speaker 1: in and gets the rebound, another extra possession for Dallas.
Speaker 1: Luca burns them by hitting just this ridiculous thirty five
Speaker 1: footer that ices the game and puts the MAVs up
Speaker 1: by eight. So once again that second run from Luca,
Speaker 1: the driving close out on Gobart, and then the dagger
Speaker 1: three at the top of the key that kind of
Speaker 1: ice the game. But what I thought was really fascinating
Speaker 1: there is Lively and PJ. Washington and particular really giving
Speaker 1: the MAVs extra possessions and extra chances to go for
Speaker 1: that knockout blow just by outworking guys like Jaden McDaniels
Speaker 1: and Rudy Gobert. Again, that's part of the basketball character
Speaker 1: of this team and a big part of why they win.
Speaker 1: It's not just Kyrie and Luca, it's athletes that do
Speaker 1: the dirty work and do it well. And consistently kick
Speaker 1: ass against the other dirty work players on the other teams.
Speaker 1: They're going to talk about Lively a little bit later,
Speaker 1: but Lively was just an absolute monster in every phase
Speaker 1: of the game in this particular one. But good win
Speaker 1: for the MAVs. They clearly have the Wolves number, like
Speaker 1: they held Luca down in the box score, but Luca
Speaker 1: still thought got whatever he wanted really and really picked
Speaker 1: him apart in the half court for extended stretches and
Speaker 1: then killed them in crunch time. He's just too big
Speaker 1: for all their perimeter guys, like they had some deflections
Speaker 1: and forced him into some misses. It also looked like
Speaker 1: he kind of hurt his knee again at one point
Speaker 1: in this game. Kyrie eviscerates them every single time they play,
Speaker 1: and on defense they just load up on Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: because they aren't worried about Rudy gober Like, yeah, he
Speaker 1: got into the paint a little bit with those small
Speaker 1: ball looks, but every time Gobert is on the floor
Speaker 1: against Dallas, they're able to basically turn Ant into a
Speaker 1: jump shooter. And when Ant's hitting his jump shots, obviously,
Speaker 1: like in the first half, it looks good, but like
Speaker 1: when Ant starts missing or when they start to pressure
Speaker 1: him a little bit more, there's just so much traffic
Speaker 1: in the paint that they can't really get quality looks.
Speaker 1: Go Beart was just so bad in this game. Lively
Speaker 1: and Gafford always kick his ass. He missed a bunch
Speaker 1: of shots on cuts and rolls around the rim, just
Speaker 1: was getting it, just getting beat on the glass, getting
Speaker 1: beaten transition. It just it just wasn't pretty for Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert in this game. And then to top it all off,
Speaker 1: they're just playing harder. Like so when your stars have
Speaker 1: significant advantages, when you have a defensive game plan that
Speaker 1: works against the opposing star and you're just out working them,
Speaker 1: that's gonna lead to a lot of losses in an
Speaker 1: individual matchup. For a team like Minnesota and this type
Speaker 1: of dynamic, there's also like a clear psychological element you
Speaker 1: could just tell, like it doesn't even look like Minnesota
Speaker 1: really believes they can be Dallas right now. Kind of
Speaker 1: reminds me of like the last few years with the
Speaker 1: Lakers and the Nuggets, where it just kind of felt
Speaker 1: like even when the Lakers were in games and had chances,
Speaker 1: it just always felt like Denver was going to come
Speaker 1: back and beat him because of that psychological advantage, right,
Speaker 1: So it.
Speaker 2: Is what it is.
Speaker 1: Minnesota is gonna have to figure that out at some
Speaker 1: point if they want to get out of this conference.
Speaker 1: But the Dallas Mavericks are up to three and one.
Speaker 1: They are thirteenth in offense, tenth in defense. The offense
Speaker 1: will continue to get better in time.
Speaker 2: Luca is still.
Speaker 1: Getting into shape after that injury to start camp, like
Speaker 1: he's below fifty percent true shooting right now and is
Speaker 1: scoring his way down from last year. That's obviously going
Speaker 1: to get way better as he gets his legs underneath him.
Speaker 1: They're also running several new concepts that will take time,
Speaker 1: and I'm personally loving it. Like again in this game,
Speaker 1: even though they ran a lot more of their offense
Speaker 1: from last year for this particular matchup, they still had
Speaker 1: some sequences where they went to Derek Lively at the
Speaker 1: top of the key holding the basketball for off ball action.
Speaker 1: He got another wide open layup for Kyrie on one
Speaker 1: of those like spurs cuts where he kind of cuts
Speaker 1: off lively shoulder and Lively pivots into the defender as
Speaker 1: he throws the lob to the little over the top
Speaker 1: pass to Kyrie for the layup.
Speaker 2: There was another really cool one.
Speaker 1: We had to wait another crazy Luka Doncic behind the
Speaker 1: back pass to a three point shooter, and there was
Speaker 1: a very specific action they ran to get to that.
Speaker 1: Once again, Lively top of the key passing fulcrum, Luca
Speaker 1: fighting for position at the elbow, gets the defender caught
Speaker 1: on his high side. Derek Lively throws a beautiful over
Speaker 1: the top pass that leads Luca towards the basket, which
Speaker 1: engaged the defender out of that corner, which is how
Speaker 1: Luca threw that behind the head pass. It ended up
Speaker 1: hitting the shooter wide open in the corner. Once again,
Speaker 1: Luca generating a wide open three without even having to
Speaker 1: dribble the basketball. That's the type of advantage that that
Speaker 1: you have. That's the type of ceiling raising that operating
Speaker 1: with more offensive variety can do for you. I talk
Speaker 1: about it all the time, but ball pressure can really
Speaker 1: wear players down. When you have the ability to score
Speaker 1: off the ball or to run action off the ball,
Speaker 1: it avoid any ball pressure. There's no ball pressure when
Speaker 1: you don't have to dribble, and that is one of
Speaker 1: the ways that Dallas is adding variety to their offense.
Speaker 1: And I, by the way, I put both of those
Speaker 1: plays in the TIMPs tape segments so you guys will
Speaker 1: see visual representations of it. But again, they went to
Speaker 1: a lot of their four out stuff, a lot of
Speaker 1: their brute force, high pick and roll stuff in this
Speaker 1: game just because it works so well against Minnesota, and
Speaker 1: that makes sense to me. But I love like this
Speaker 1: is the thing I said this in the season preview.
Speaker 1: I don't want Dallas to ditch that stuff entirely. They
Speaker 1: got to the finals doing that stuff. That's an important
Speaker 1: punch for them to have. I just want them to
Speaker 1: have more punches, more variety, so that when they run
Speaker 1: into something that doesn't work, they can audible and have
Speaker 1: another way to attack offensively. And I really really like
Speaker 1: how they're starting to build all of this out over
Speaker 1: the course of the season. There's a really high offensive
Speaker 1: ceiling for this group that is available there in the
Speaker 1: long run.
Speaker 2: By the way, another.
Speaker 1: Example of why Klay Thompson didn't get as many opportunities
Speaker 1: on offense in this game is because they went back
Speaker 1: to that kind of four out style, and as I
Speaker 1: talked about, he's not going to get been very often
Speaker 1: when he's just standing, he's gonna get open often in chaos,
Speaker 1: whether that's transition or with lots of ball and player
Speaker 1: movement in the half court. And so again, they're gonna
Speaker 1: do plenty of that over the course of the season.
Speaker 1: I've seen tons of it already this year. There's going
Speaker 1: to be opportunities where it makes sense for them to
Speaker 1: kind of go play more brute force and have Clay
Speaker 1: just spot up. And then there's gonna be times where
Speaker 1: it makes more sense for them to do more ball
Speaker 1: in player movement to try to keep everybody involved, and
Speaker 1: that to me is the variety that they that they need.
Speaker 1: Last two shoutouts Derek Lively and PJ Washington. PJ Washington
Speaker 1: was a monster on the glass in this game. He
Speaker 1: had four offensive rebounds, all of them were huge. He
Speaker 1: also poured in seventeen points. It was a season high
Speaker 1: for him. Looks really confident shooting the ball from three.
Speaker 1: Lively was just an absolute monster on defense in this game,
Speaker 1: just shutting everything down at the rim, forcing Gobert into
Speaker 1: a lot of like fumbles and misses at the rim.
Speaker 1: He defended really well on switches. He locked up both
Speaker 1: ant and Julius Randall at different points in the game
Speaker 1: and just straight switches and isolation situations generating offense as
Speaker 1: a passer like we broke down earlier. He's just gonna
Speaker 1: be so fucking good in the long run. I'm super
Speaker 1: super excited for MAVs fans. Derek Lively is a franchise
Speaker 1: changing talent that they have in there with Luca. On
Speaker 1: the Wolves front, there are issues with Dallas, like Gobart
Speaker 1: just has to be better. Got his ass kicked by
Speaker 1: a couple of guys who combined to make half of
Speaker 1: what he does.
Speaker 2: That can't happen.
Speaker 1: He can't be getting out run up the floor. It
Speaker 1: can't be getting beat to offensive rebounds like that was ugly.
Speaker 1: He can't get outworked. That's something that can't happen, especially
Speaker 1: for a player whose entire income is based on dirty
Speaker 1: work and the ability to compete in those environment. Go
Speaker 1: Bear lineups in general have been really bad this year.
Speaker 1: We'll get more into detail on that in a little bit,
Speaker 1: but that's been part of the problem. And then with
Speaker 1: Dallas too. When they have bad offensive possessions, Dallas consistently
Speaker 1: burns them in transition. It's kind of like it's kind
Speaker 1: of like an interesting dynamic because when the Wolves play
Speaker 1: better offensively, that's when they have good stretches against Dallas.
Speaker 1: But it's always when their offense falls apart that Dallas
Speaker 1: starts getting going in transition, start getting easy stuff. Lucas
Speaker 1: starts to kind of psychologically take over the game at
Speaker 1: that point. Definitely an execution issue in this particular matchup
Speaker 1: as well. Lots of stuff though to get into that's
Speaker 1: kind of exciting. Ants shooting or sixty five jump shots
Speaker 1: into the season, he's at one point one to seven
Speaker 1: points per jump shot. Again I I one of my
Speaker 1: big beliefs is that this shooting stretch from Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: is real and this is super exciting.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: There's a little bit of a debate to have, right
Speaker 1: so he's taking thirteen to three point attempts per game,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of people talking about like, do
Speaker 1: we want ant taking this many threes? Is this him
Speaker 1: settling too much? And here's the thing to me, it
Speaker 1: all comes down to whether or not he can make
Speaker 1: him At this clip right now, he's making forty two
Speaker 1: percent of them. That's one point two five points per attempt.
Speaker 1: That's a one hundred and twenty five offensive rating. That
Speaker 1: is an excellent shot for this team right now. One
Speaker 1: of the best shots that Minnesota can get right now
Speaker 1: is anything that Anthony Edwards takes at the three point line.
Speaker 1: So like, here's the deal. In an ideal universe, do
Speaker 1: you want a little bit more balance? But my thing too,
Speaker 1: is like, that's easier on his legs, it's easier on
Speaker 1: wear and tear. And also, this is a team that
Speaker 1: really struggles with a packed paint. There's not really many
Speaker 1: opportunities to drive when things spread out. When they went
Speaker 1: to those small ball looks, which we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about in a minute, all of a sudden, Ans started
Speaker 1: getting downhill again. And so my thing is like, it's
Speaker 1: almost like a variety. Like we talked about, it would
Speaker 1: be nice if on the go bear groups and could
Speaker 1: rely on his jump shot more because of the issues
Speaker 1: that he has in the paint with that lineup. And
Speaker 1: then when they go to their small ball groups and
Speaker 1: he's on the floor with more spacing, that's when he
Speaker 1: can look to drive and be more aggressive. But I like,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Anson is a scoring guard. He's not
Speaker 1: a guy that's going to have twelve assists per game
Speaker 1: or pick you apart with surgical passing, that's not his game.
Speaker 1: He is a scoring guard, and so this is a
Speaker 1: guy that you need averaging thirty thirty two points a
Speaker 1: game in order to reach his individual ceiling kind of
Speaker 1: like Michael Jordan did, kind of like Kobe Bryant did, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's his archetype. And so in order for him to
Speaker 1: get to that type scoring volume, it can't all just
Speaker 1: be driving to the basket all damn day long, like
Speaker 1: he's like he's Dwayne Wade. There's got to be a
Speaker 1: balance to it. And so a dominant, aggressive jump shot
Speaker 1: combined with that downhill ability is what will allow him
Speaker 1: to be that consistent, high volume score that Minnesota needs
Speaker 1: him to be in the long run. So, to make
Speaker 1: a long story short, like, as long as he's making
Speaker 1: forty percent of them or more, I'm cool with Aunt
Speaker 1: taking thirteen threes a game. But yeah, if we get
Speaker 1: two months into this thing and he's still taking thirteen
Speaker 1: threes a game and he's only shooting thirty six and
Speaker 1: a half percent, then there's a different conversation to have
Speaker 1: about maybe wanting to tick that down from thirteen attempts
Speaker 1: to something lower so that he can get some more
Speaker 1: efficient looks. But as long as he's hitting him like this,
Speaker 1: it's a very efficient shot that's easy on his legs
Speaker 1: and gives him a way to attack when the paint
Speaker 1: is really really packed. So like it all just depends
Speaker 1: on how real of a jump shooter Anthony Edwards is,
Speaker 1: and we're going to find out as we get further
Speaker 1: in small ball looks. This season, with Rudy Gobert on
Speaker 1: the floor, the Wolves are getting outscored by three points
Speaker 1: per one hundred possessions.
Speaker 2: They are negative.
Speaker 1: With Rudy Gobert off the floor, they are outscoring teams
Speaker 1: by eight points per one hundred possessions, so they are
Speaker 1: eight points positive, so an eleven point swing to the
Speaker 1: positive when they go to groups without Rudy Gobert.
Speaker 2: On the floor.
Speaker 1: These reason why it's very simple. You've got two guys
Speaker 1: and Julius Randall and Anthony Edwards that have huge physical
Speaker 1: advantages going downhill towards the rim. There's much more space.
Speaker 1: The offense in particular is so much better. They're twenty
Speaker 1: six points better per one hundred possessions on offense with
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert off the floor. Versus on the floor. This
Speaker 1: is where I'd like to just see them cut his
Speaker 1: minutes a little bit. Go Bear's playing in thirty five
Speaker 1: minutes a game right now, I'd cut that down a
Speaker 1: bit into that like twenty eight to thirty minute range.
Speaker 1: Last night, for instance, the small ball groups got them
Speaker 1: back in the game. Then Rudy Gobert checks back in,
Speaker 1: and they can't go bucket for bucket with Dallas late.
Speaker 1: And you check Rudy in to help you with the
Speaker 1: already work, and he promptly gives up two offensive rebounds
Speaker 1: and throws a bad close out at Luka Doncic that
Speaker 1: gives up a bucket. So you put him out there
Speaker 1: to get the benefit of Gobert, and you did not
Speaker 1: get the benefit of Gobert while also getting the downsides
Speaker 1: that come with him on the offensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: I think cutting him down to twenty eight thirty minutes
Speaker 1: a game, leaning more on your small ball looks like
Speaker 1: we talked about this a lot, but like at end
Speaker 1: of game situations, the ability to contain the ball and
Speaker 1: the perimeter is something that is super valuable that Nikhil,
Speaker 1: Alexander Walker, Dante DiVincenzo Jada McDaniel's aunt and Julius Randall
Speaker 1: look could be a really interesting switching look. Or they
Speaker 1: contain the ball and just rely on their perimeter defense
Speaker 1: at the end of these games and try to outscore
Speaker 1: teams in the half court with better spacing. So again,
Speaker 1: we'll see how it looks in the long run. But
Speaker 1: it's just a lot of Rudy Gobert right now and
Speaker 1: he's just not playing particularly well. I just want to
Speaker 1: I just want to see a little bit more exploration
Speaker 1: of those small ball looks. All right, let's move on
Speaker 1: to Pelicans Warriors, another game that had a really interesting
Speaker 1: back and forth flow. The Pelicans take a twenty point
Speaker 1: lead early in this game, just an obvious gap in
Speaker 1: firepower to start the game. The Warriors guards that were
Speaker 1: being aggressive early. So like Buddy Heialed in the early
Speaker 1: part of the game, he is just with missing shots.
Speaker 1: But then really Brandon Pazemski and Jonathan Kaminga and the
Speaker 1: tail end of the first quarter were really playing a
Speaker 1: lot of one on one And if you're going to
Speaker 1: get into like a singular firepower contest with the Pelicans
Speaker 1: when you have Andrew Wiggins and Steph Curry and Street clothes,
Speaker 1: you're gonna lose that battle, and they did early Like
Speaker 1: Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson and CJ.
Speaker 2: McCollum had twenty four points in.
Speaker 1: The first quarter as a team, the Warriors only had fourteen.
Speaker 2: They were just really.
Speaker 1: Getting cooked on one on the floor and just not
Speaker 1: generating quality shots the other end. They were down by
Speaker 1: twenty in the early part of the second quarter. Now,
Speaker 1: then the Warriors started to play Warriors basketball and they
Speaker 1: kind of chewed down that lead in that second quarter
Speaker 1: with much better defensive activity and much better ball movement. Again,
Speaker 1: what is the Warrior's identity beyond Steph Curry? Right, Like,
Speaker 1: the identity of the Warriors is Steph Draymond and Steve
Speaker 1: Kurr and everything that they've established over the course of
Speaker 1: the last ten years. But beyond Steph Curry, they have
Speaker 1: a strong identity, which is speed. They are fast as
Speaker 1: hell on offense and on defense. On offense through player
Speaker 1: movement and quick decision making, and on defense with ball
Speaker 1: pressure and covering ground really really fast in rotation. They
Speaker 1: fly around and they have a depth of guys that
Speaker 1: can do it. So that even with Andrew Wiggins, who
Speaker 1: when he's healthy and in when his mind is right
Speaker 1: is one of the very best Perimmeter defenders in the game.
Speaker 1: And the Anthony Meltain, who's a very good starting caliber
Speaker 1: defensive guard. When those guys are out of the lineup,
Speaker 1: they still have waves of guys come in. Lindy Waters.
Speaker 1: Guess what he's really good? Here comes a bigger Moses Moody,
Speaker 1: Like Moses Moody starts the game. Well, guess what he's
Speaker 1: really good too. There's all these different guys that can
Speaker 1: do this job on this roster. In that second quarter,
Speaker 1: they started flying around on both ends and got back
Speaker 1: into the game. The Warriors forced nine turnovers in that quarter.
Speaker 1: They scored twenty four points just in transition, just in
Speaker 1: the second quarter, Like it was a crazy run that
Speaker 1: they went on to get back in the game. Then
Speaker 1: going into the second half, Steve kerrmakes a really interesting call, So,
Speaker 1: like one of the things that happened in the first
Speaker 1: quarter is Buddy Heel was missing and Lindy Waters comes
Speaker 1: in and kind of has a really good shift, Like
Speaker 1: he's aggressive shooting the ball. His first bucket like just
Speaker 1: cutting moving without the basketball, cuts out of a split
Speaker 1: cut on a post up and gets a wide open layup.
Speaker 1: He just looked like more aggressive and he looks comfortable.
Speaker 1: So Steve Kerr makes this decision. He benches Buddy Heel
Speaker 1: to start the second half and starts Lindy Waters and
Speaker 1: it worked out literally perfectly. Lindy goes on another scoring
Speaker 1: run to start the third quarter. Brandon Pitzemski, by the way,
Speaker 1: finally had a breakout offensive stretch there in that early
Speaker 1: third quarter. He scores ten quick points. Jonathan Kaminga comes
Speaker 1: in the third late third, has a really nice run.
Speaker 1: He had a driving left handed layup by Herb Jones.
Speaker 1: He had a pull up three in a ball screen
Speaker 1: I think with Kavon Looney if I remember correctly. And
Speaker 1: then he has this crazy sequence where he gets a
Speaker 1: block at the rim, secures the rebound, runs the length
Speaker 1: of the floor and throws a beautiful love to trace
Speaker 1: Jackson Davis at the rims. So he goes on this
Speaker 1: individual run and then Buddy Healed, the guy that Steve
Speaker 1: Kerr bench to start the second half, he comes in
Speaker 1: and finally starts just hitting shots and he gets crazy hot, and.
Speaker 2: Then they put the game away.
Speaker 1: And then on the defensive end of the floor, It
Speaker 1: was kind of like an interesting bend but don't break
Speaker 1: approach from Steve Kerr, and.
Speaker 2: It worked really well.
Speaker 1: Like they let Brandon Ingram and z Williamson just cook
Speaker 1: one on one most of the game, and they cooked.
Speaker 1: At sixty one points. Zion Williamson just absolutely torched both
Speaker 1: Draymond Green and Kevon Looney. Brandon Ingram was just shooting
Speaker 1: over the top of every single Warriors guard, Like those
Speaker 1: guys got their buckets, but it didn't matter because almost
Speaker 1: half of the Pel's buckets were unassisted, so there was
Speaker 1: very little ball movement. They had just seventy five points
Speaker 1: total after the first quarter. They forced them into twenty
Speaker 1: five turnovers that led to thirty four points in the game.
Speaker 1: Really really good two way performance from the Warriors as
Speaker 1: they get a dominant, impressive win over a playoff team
Speaker 1: without their best player and without two of their very
Speaker 1: of their most important role players that they have on
Speaker 1: this roster. Just a resounding statement of the depth that
Speaker 1: this team has, and that really has been the story
Speaker 1: of this Warrior season in the early going in my opinion,
Speaker 1: Like they just want a game without Steph Curry, Anthony Mountain,
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins because They're so damn deep with fast guys
Speaker 1: that can both defend and run action properly in the
Speaker 1: Warrior system. That is what has their floor so high.
Speaker 1: They have a strong identity that is separate from Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: They're an elite defense that forces a lot of turnovers,
Speaker 1: scores a lot in transition off of those misses in
Speaker 1: those turnovers. Just a couple of stats to demonstrate how
Speaker 1: good the Warriors have been with their speed to start
Speaker 1: this season, second in defensive rating, sixth in pace. They
Speaker 1: have forced twenty one turnovers per game, that's second only
Speaker 1: to the Oklahoma City Thunder. They're scoring twenty six points
Speaker 1: per game off of turnovers, that's the most in the
Speaker 1: entire NBA. They're scoring twenty two fast break points per game,
Speaker 1: that's first in the entire NBA. They're getting out in
Speaker 1: transition on twenty two percent of their overall possessions. That's
Speaker 1: number one in the NBA. So speed is the identity
Speaker 1: of this team. That is where they are driving success.
Speaker 1: That is separate from Steph Curry. And again, like Steph,
Speaker 1: even when he was in the lineup to start the year,
Speaker 1: he hadn't even had a game where he scores more
Speaker 1: than twenty points. Yet if Steph actually manages to rejoin
Speaker 1: this system and to reach a level closer to what
Speaker 1: he was at two years ago and they hit on
Speaker 1: a trade, you bet your ass this is a team
Speaker 1: that can make some noise that they are much better
Speaker 1: than I expected them to be this season, and they're
Speaker 1: showing it here in the first few And again, the
Speaker 1: depth is the important piece.
Speaker 2: You just saw.
Speaker 1: If you have the ability to drop two role players
Speaker 1: in a trade, or maybe even three role players in
Speaker 1: a trade, but you bring in a high level firepower piece,
Speaker 1: they have the depth to still have quality role players
Speaker 1: around them, which is such a luxury on the Pelicans front.
Speaker 1: Turnovers really killed them in this one. When they were patient,
Speaker 1: they got they consistently got great stuff from Zion and
Speaker 1: bib I. Just you know, b Ice had a couple
Speaker 1: of rough games, but he's also had a couple of
Speaker 1: really really good games, and one of the rough games
Speaker 1: he ended up hitting a game winner in any way,
Speaker 1: just really really comfortable getting into that mid range. Also
Speaker 1: without Dejhonte Murray getting a lot more high ball screen touches,
Speaker 1: and he's just one of the more gifted forwards at
Speaker 1: passing out of high ball screens that we have in
Speaker 1: the league, but turnovers killed them in this one. They
Speaker 1: gave up thirty four points off of turnovers. In this game,
Speaker 1: Zion finally had his big breakout game on offense. He
Speaker 1: was really rough in his first two games. Both Draymond
Speaker 1: Green and Von Luney were hopeless against him. It was
Speaker 1: interesting how he attacked both guys too. Like with Looney,
Speaker 1: it was aggression in his straight line, just go to
Speaker 1: the rim and get a bucket, and he was getting
Speaker 1: a bunch of buckets like that. Draymond, obviously a much
Speaker 1: more gifted defender, was doing a good job of beating
Speaker 1: Zion to the first spot. And so this is something
Speaker 1: we talked about in preseason. But Zion has worked on
Speaker 1: this like little like hard drive to the right for
Speaker 1: a left handed player so that he could pound into
Speaker 1: a spin over his right shoulder for a left handed
Speaker 1: hook shot. And he got Draymond with that a bunch
Speaker 1: of times in this game where he make an aggressive move.
Speaker 1: Draymond good defense, slide his feet, take the contact, but
Speaker 1: Zion's just so quick with that spin over his right shoulder.
Speaker 1: He also has done it a few times where he
Speaker 1: gets caught dead to rights, where like he gets caught
Speaker 1: dead to rights and all he'll do is just quick
Speaker 1: pivot towards the baseline to fake like he's gonna go reverse,
Speaker 1: and then he'll just turn right back over his right
Speaker 1: shoulder and go to that hook. That left handed hook
Speaker 1: is going to be such an important go to move
Speaker 1: for him in the long run. But like again, he
Speaker 1: had such a dominant performance against the Lakers in the
Speaker 1: playing game, and we were wondering if he was going
Speaker 1: to be able to continue some momentum off of that
Speaker 1: comes into to the season. Get sick, miss is the
Speaker 1: first game doesn't look good in the first two games
Speaker 1: that what we saw last night was closer to the
Speaker 1: Zion that we expect now. Really rough on defense in
Speaker 1: this one, especially in the second half, But the Warriors defense,
Speaker 1: the Warriors offense is a blender. They really test your
Speaker 1: attentiveness and your ability to navigate screens and to defend
Speaker 1: multiple actions, to make multiple efforts on the same possession,
Speaker 1: and to cover ground. And again that attentiveness is everything
Speaker 1: that they're testing. And so that's just a weakness of
Speaker 1: Zion that he's gonna have to work on. But I
Speaker 1: did think it was an encouraging I didn't think it
Speaker 1: was an encouraging offensive performance for Zion. They're two and
Speaker 1: two right now. They beat Chicago on Opening Night, they
Speaker 1: beat the Blazers on that crazy game in Portland where
Speaker 1: Brandan Ingram hits the game winner over Anthony Simons, and
Speaker 1: then Zion has that crazy help side defense block. But
Speaker 1: then they got blown out by the Blazers, and then
Speaker 1: they got blown out by the Warriors without Wigans and
Speaker 1: Steph their twenty second in offense through four games, eighteenth
Speaker 1: in defense. Hard to read too much into these results, though,
Speaker 1: because like the Dejontae Murray trade, I really like Dejontay Murray.
Speaker 1: When he's healthy, he's gonna help this team. But with
Speaker 1: him being out with the injury, I think he's gonna
Speaker 1: be out for the better part of six weeks. That
Speaker 1: really sapped them of depth, right Like Dyson Daniels is
Speaker 1: a really good player, specifically of a very valuable archetype,
Speaker 1: which is that defensive guard that can pressure the ball,
Speaker 1: fly around in rotation. He's off to a good start
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. Larry Nance is better than any center you
Speaker 1: have on the roster right now. Like Ive Smithy had
Speaker 1: a couple nice plays today. He met Jonathan Kminge at
Speaker 1: the rim at a really nice block, had a good
Speaker 1: offensive rebound put back, Like he's got some potential, but
Speaker 1: he's got a long way to go. And Daniel Tye
Speaker 1: is a stretch five that doesn't really hit threes the
Speaker 1: way that stretch fives usually do. So like, I think
Speaker 1: they're gonna hover around five hundred or maybe even a
Speaker 1: little below five hundred until de Jontay Murray gets back
Speaker 1: because they're just not as deep, not very good defensively
Speaker 1: on that front line, and they need to be so
Speaker 1: good on the perimeter to make up for that, and
Speaker 1: they're not going to be until they get de jhon
Speaker 1: Tay Murray. I think it's Jordan Hawkins was the last
Speaker 1: guy I wanted to talk about. He's shooting the ball
Speaker 1: really really well this year, but obviously Golden State really
Speaker 1: pressures the ball and contests really well. He had trouble
Speaker 1: breaking open against Golden State. That's a good example, Like
Speaker 1: Jordan Hawkins, good player, brings some of that movement shooting
Speaker 1: has been helping with the Trey Murphy absence. But the
Speaker 1: reality is is like he's got a certain athletic limitation
Speaker 1: that he's going to run into when he runs into
Speaker 1: teams like this. That's where it's like, man, if de
Speaker 1: Jontay Murray's in this lineup, he can kind of help
Speaker 1: hang in these super athletic environments slots.
Speaker 2: Everybody better.
Speaker 1: Now your best guard is guarding de Jontay Murray instead
Speaker 1: of c J mcollum. Now maybe c J McCollum has
Speaker 1: a better night. You know, Like, there's just a lot
Speaker 1: that can go wrong when you make a depth trade,
Speaker 1: Like you trade depth for a star and then that
Speaker 1: star gets hurt, it just is going to cause a
Speaker 1: lot of problems for you. All Right, let's get into
Speaker 1: our film session for today. You're listening on the podcast
Speaker 1: feed and you're gonna want to head over to YouTube
Speaker 1: to see that part to actually get the visual representations
Speaker 1: of what we're talking about. We're actually starting in Boston
Speaker 1: from the Bucks game. This was stuff that I covered
Speaker 1: in yesterday show, but I wanted to I just like
Speaker 1: basically drop all these clips in a folder, and I
Speaker 1: just didn't have a chance to do Tim's tape yesterday,
Speaker 1: so I just bumped it into today. So, first of all,
Speaker 1: this is an example of These are examples of all
Speaker 1: of the mistakes that Milwaukee made when they lost control
Speaker 1: of the game against Boston. So, as you can see
Speaker 1: eighty two to eighty minute thirty nine left, this is
Speaker 1: a game that is there for the taking. Bobby Portis
Speaker 1: misses a little right shoulder fade. We go to the
Speaker 1: other end, and I talked yesterday about the interchange that
Speaker 1: takes place on a switch. So here's Derek White. We
Speaker 1: have Xavier Tillman going to set the screen. Giannis is
Speaker 1: on Derek White, Bobby Portis is in the switch. I
Speaker 1: talk all the time about the difference between an aggressive
Speaker 1: switch and a switch. On an aggressive switch screen comes
Speaker 1: Portis would run out and meet Derek White out here,
Speaker 1: specifically so that Derek White doesn't have that interchange to
Speaker 1: take advantage of where he can take a look at
Speaker 1: a three point shot. Instead, Bobby Portis sits back on
Speaker 1: his heels. So when the switch happens again, Tillman's rolling
Speaker 1: Yiannis is gonna go with it. Bobby's sitting back on
Speaker 1: his heels behind the three point line. Derek White's like,
Speaker 1: please and thank you. I'll just go ahead and rise
Speaker 1: up into this three over the top he had just
Speaker 1: hit one over here too on an offensive rebound. The
Speaker 1: Bucks were actually up eighty to seventy nine. So like,
Speaker 1: Derek White's just hit a three, you can't that can't
Speaker 1: be the possession where you're lazy on a switch and
Speaker 1: you can see it an easy pull up jump shot
Speaker 1: off the dribble. This was one of the wildest defensive
Speaker 1: plays I've ever seen from a guard. How about Derek
Speaker 1: White single handedly stopping a Damianis ball screen. So here
Speaker 1: comes there, Dami ball screen, Dame gets downhill, Derek White
Speaker 1: Stonewall's the drive. We have a pitch back to Giannis.
Speaker 1: Look at Derek White meets Giannis up top and blocks him.
Speaker 1: That was an unbelievable defensive play from Derek White. Here's
Speaker 1: that corner crash that I talked about yesterday. So Jordan
Speaker 1: Walsh again, So we're loading up on the strong side
Speaker 1: for a Tatum post up. Watch Giannis and Bobby Portis.
Speaker 1: They are completely keyed in and help, and no one's
Speaker 1: paying attention to Jordan Walsh. Tatum draws that double team.
Speaker 1: Derek White ends up taking his third three. Watch Jordan Walsh,
Speaker 1: though Bobby Portis and Giannis both key on on Xavier Tillman,
Speaker 1: Jordan Walsh game playing discipline again, corner crashing is a
Speaker 1: huge part in the modern NBA of winning on the margins.
Speaker 1: Jordan Walsh just comes flying in, gets the offensive rebound
Speaker 1: put back, big time play, a lot of hustle plays
Speaker 1: going Boston's direction. At the tail end of this one,
Speaker 1: here's another loose ball, So Derek kick out to Jordan Walsh,
Speaker 1: Derek White.
Speaker 2: Loose ball.
Speaker 1: Okay, So here you go on the loose ball. Who's
Speaker 1: got the position? Gary traj Junior is closer to the ball,
Speaker 1: and he's a better athlete, who's bigger than Peyton Pritchard,
Speaker 1: but he's flat footed and Peyton's being active. Peyton beats
Speaker 1: all of them to the basketball. Look at that once again,
Speaker 1: just getting out worked, and you're the team that is
Speaker 1: at the talent disadvantage that needs to play harder. This
Speaker 1: was that crazy Peyton Prichard prayer to third quarter that
Speaker 1: went in. Just that It really has developed a reputation
Speaker 1: as being one of the best end of quarter players
Speaker 1: in the league. This is where it all went south.
Speaker 1: This was basically the dagger, so a blitz of Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum or if Jalen Brown, excuse me, up on the
Speaker 1: right wing. So Portis is on Cornette. We're getting at
Speaker 1: Finland action, right, So Jaylen Brown's gonna backscreen for Prichard
Speaker 1: before he comes off the DHO. But as actually it
Speaker 1: was just more of a ball screen than a dh O.
Speaker 1: But essentially, as this ball screen happens, Portis is going
Speaker 1: to trap. But once you trap here, the most important
Speaker 1: thing for you to do is to contain the ball
Speaker 1: and then to pressure the ball so that the pass
Speaker 1: that comes out of this, whether it's a skip pass
Speaker 1: or it's something to Cornett, is deflected or lobbed so
Speaker 1: that you can rotate out of it. The worst thing
Speaker 1: you can do is not even contain the ball. And
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown just splits Bobby Porta. It's just a really
Speaker 1: bad blitz. Now you're just completely fucked. It's a five
Speaker 1: on three. Pritchard ends up wide open in the right
Speaker 1: corner and that ends up being the So again you're
Speaker 1: up by one with roughly two minutes left in the
Speaker 1: third quarter, and you get out hustled and out executed
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor and you end up
Speaker 1: all of a sudden down thirteen in a matter of
Speaker 1: like three minutes. And that really is the thing is
Speaker 1: like Giannis and the Bucks, they're hanging on for dear life.
Speaker 1: We're hanging with the Boston Celtics. We can do this, guys,
Speaker 1: and then it's like they let go. And it's because
Speaker 1: unless you make a habit, I mean habit is the keyword,
Speaker 1: meaning like it is almost instinctual. Through just relentless work
Speaker 1: and attention to detail over a large sample size, it
Speaker 1: becomes a habit for you to do the right thing
Speaker 1: versus when you play lazy and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden in a big game, you have to be sharp.
Speaker 1: You can be sharp for a spurt, you sharp for
Speaker 1: a quarter, sharp for two quarters, maybe even three quarters,
Speaker 1: but eventually you're going to like kind of just go
Speaker 1: back to what you are at your core of your being,
Speaker 1: which is an unseerious basketball team like the Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 1: And they end up dropping this game all right into Orlando.
Speaker 1: This was the ghost screen action that we all knew
Speaker 1: was gonna happen a lot this year for Pallow and
Speaker 1: Kentavious Callbo Pope, So KCP is gonna run through He's
Speaker 1: going to set the ghost screen for Pallow draw two
Speaker 1: to the ball see and again what causes the ghost
Speaker 1: screen to function is we're taking advantage of the hedge.
Speaker 1: So Tyreese Halliburton is in this case going to hedge.
Speaker 1: Why because KCP is going to set a screen. So
Speaker 1: if Halliburton doesn't hedge and Nie Smith gets screened. If
Speaker 1: Halliburton stays glued to the bottom side of KCP, Palo
Speaker 1: Bonkaro is going to get If that screen gets set
Speaker 1: and Halliburton does not hedge, Polo is gonna get downhill
Speaker 1: this way, and now you're in real trouble. So Halliburton
Speaker 1: has to hedge out. Here's our hedge. So Halliburton runs
Speaker 1: out there for the specific purpose of stopping Polo from
Speaker 1: turning the corner. But then he's got to recover to KCP.
Speaker 1: He's slow. KCP is a good movement shooter who can
Speaker 1: knock the shot down, so they have to rotate from
Speaker 1: the weak side. Andrewn Nemhard rotates over Albi Toppin's going
Speaker 1: to rotate over up, generating a wide open three for
Speaker 1: Anthony Black in the right corner and shout out to
Speaker 1: Anthony Black. He misses this one, but keeps his confidence
Speaker 1: because he oh he actually does make that one. I apologize,
Speaker 1: but he ends up hitting another huge three in the
Speaker 1: He misses another corner three later on in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: but then he ends up hitting the game winner in
Speaker 1: the left corner. So corner three point shooting for Anthony
Speaker 1: Black was a big one in this particular game. Another
Speaker 1: KCP goes screen, same kind of concept. Oh wait, nope,
Speaker 1: we got the KCP gohos screen is on the next possession.
Speaker 1: So this was that play that I talked about in
Speaker 1: the game breakdown yesterday where randomly fourth quarter magic down
Speaker 1: five five minutes left. This is basically a crunch time possession,
Speaker 1: even though it won't log is a crunch time possession
Speaker 1: for another five seconds. But Wendell Carter Junior Anthony Black
Speaker 1: cleared side ball screen. How about the second your player
Speaker 1: getting an opportunity to run some action engages the screen
Speaker 1: defender makes the pocket pass, gets Wendell Carter a good role,
Speaker 1: and Wendell Carter draws a foul. Really nice play from
Speaker 1: Anthony Black. Here's the KCP gohoes screen. I apologize for
Speaker 1: the earlier all right, so we have Pallo Casey p
Speaker 1: cuts through go screen hedge slip right that draws the
Speaker 1: wide open three for Jalen Suggs. Now, as you can see,
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam is actually keyed in on Suggs. But this
Speaker 1: is a bad hedge from Haliburton because he doesn't actually
Speaker 1: cut him off. The entire purpose of the hedge for
Speaker 1: Haliburton is to stop the drive. Now you've done the
Speaker 1: worst of both worlds. You've left your defender wide open
Speaker 1: and you haven't contained the ball. Pallow easily gets downhill.
Speaker 1: That forces Pascal to step over and help. Palo has
Speaker 1: got two options here. You can go to Anthony Black
Speaker 1: Black in the right corner or Jalen Sugs in the
Speaker 1: left corner. Ends up going to Suggs. He knocks down
Speaker 1: the shot.
Speaker 2: All right, that's the one he misses.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is the problem with me clipping a bunch
Speaker 1: of clips yesterday then to hit on today's show.
Speaker 2: There's gonna be a little bit of a mental gap there.
Speaker 2: I apologize, guys. All right.
Speaker 1: Now we're moving on to Dallas. Inside of these are
Speaker 1: plays from today. This was a cool little Chicago action
Speaker 1: that the Timberwolves ran that got Julius Randall White up
Speaker 1: in three. I love when teams run three man action
Speaker 1: that keep both of their stars involved. It just makes
Speaker 1: them so much harder to guard. As you can see,
Speaker 1: it kind of gets downhill and draws PJ Washington in help.
Speaker 1: That's Julius his defender. The kickback gets to Julius Randall
Speaker 1: wide open three. Love how much more often the Mavericks
Speaker 1: have been running Luca off of off ball action instead
Speaker 1: of just having him bring the ball up the four
Speaker 1: and deal with ball pressure again. Jada McDaniels when he
Speaker 1: gets down here has no chance against Luca, but in
Speaker 1: the open court he can wear him down with speed
Speaker 1: and just poking at the basketball. So just ease that
Speaker 1: up on him, run him off. This off ball action
Speaker 1: functions just like a ball screen. Right now, Jaden is
Speaker 1: in trail position. Gafford can roll. It's the same function
Speaker 1: as a ball screen. Obviously, Mike Conley's not going to
Speaker 1: stay away from Klay Thompson, so he's only stunting. He
Speaker 1: stays home, catches Jada and mc daniels crawling up his
Speaker 1: back gets a little floater in the end. One I
Speaker 1: talk to you guys about how I thought Spencer Dinwoodie
Speaker 1: with the Lakers was actually a really, really good defender
Speaker 1: of guards. I thought this was a good lock and
Speaker 1: trail possession again gets a little bit of distance, but
Speaker 1: look at the closing speed and the length to bother
Speaker 1: the shot. Watch the length he's got super long arms.
Speaker 1: Great contest, and look at the drift. Look at the
Speaker 1: drift from Dante. He forces him to change his shot
Speaker 1: and drift and lean to his left with a really
Speaker 1: good pursuit from behind, forces a miss back to the
Speaker 1: left in a missed shortened left. Probably not a coincidence.
Speaker 1: Julius Randall drawing help from the post. Really nice shot
Speaker 1: creation example, or in a spaced outlook. This is another
Speaker 1: one of those small ball looks where there's no non
Speaker 1: shooter on the floor. Julius goes to work against Derek,
Speaker 1: picks up his dribble, but catches Klay Thompson. This is
Speaker 1: 'rim pressure right like, even though they're not double teaming,
Speaker 1: it's instinctual for when they see a guy get into
Speaker 1: the paint to kind of suck into the paint. Julius
Speaker 1: those a really nice kickout pass to Dante. DiVincenzo knocks
Speaker 1: down to three. Here's those two plays that I talked
Speaker 1: about where Lively is operating. Is the passing fulcrum at
Speaker 1: the top of the key for offball action. They've been
Speaker 1: doing a lot of this with bench groups with Luca
Speaker 1: off the floor. So again fake dribble handoff to Hardy
Speaker 1: that flows into the wide screen for Kyrie, who then
Speaker 1: cuts off Lively. But this allows Lively to basically set
Speaker 1: another screen for Kyrie and just pivot into him, and
Speaker 1: he gets another wide open layup, again generating easy baskets
Speaker 1: without having to rely on your superpowers as often as
Speaker 1: you would otherwise. And then here's the one in the
Speaker 1: second half that I thought was really cool. So once
Speaker 1: again Lively at the top off ball action, we have
Speaker 1: Naji Marshall screening for Kyrie. Then what He's just staying
Speaker 1: in the left corner. But watch Luca, He's got a
Speaker 1: top block here. So again we talk about this a lot.
Speaker 1: Jada McDaniels is trying to stop Luca from coming off
Speaker 1: of this top side from Lively, so he's ceiling the
Speaker 1: top side. So Luca is now pushing Jadeen as high
Speaker 1: as he can to try to create a passing angle
Speaker 1: for Lively to throw the ball in. Here he does,
Speaker 1: Lively throws a perfect pass that forces Anthony Edwards to help.
Speaker 1: Now we get our beautiful behind the back pass from
Speaker 1: Luca to Spencer.
Speaker 2: Dinwoodie in the corner.
Speaker 1: Beautiful, beautiful work once again, Luka Dunch's getting to generate
Speaker 1: a shot without having to put the ball in the
Speaker 1: full time. Here's Derek Lively doing a really nice job
Speaker 1: on Anthony Edwards on a switch. The beautiful thing with
Speaker 1: Derek Glively is his length to contest pull up jumpers
Speaker 1: to make Aunt skeptical about his ability to get the
Speaker 1: shot off while also being able to play back far
Speaker 1: enough to contain the drive. Now he's like kind of
Speaker 1: indecisive about what he wants to do, and like even here,
Speaker 1: like he gets a little separation and he might take
Speaker 1: this shot, but Derek Lively's got enough length that he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I got enough separation, So he ends
Speaker 1: up having to give it up, ends up being a
Speaker 1: heave from Jade McDaniel's really nice defense from Derek Glively.
Speaker 1: Here's an example of off ball relocation being valuable. So
Speaker 1: offensive rebound. Get another Derek Lively offensive rebound. He's such
Speaker 1: a monster in this game, all right. So Dante de
Speaker 1: Vincenzo's guarding Queen Grimes. He's keyed in on the ball.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: The hardest part about off ball defense is being able
Speaker 1: to track man and ball. He thinks Quin Grimes is
Speaker 1: at the top of the key. Still thinks, Still thinks
Speaker 1: Quentin Grimes at the top of the key, which you
Speaker 1: can't see off camera, is Quin Grimes is relocating.
Speaker 2: There he goes.
Speaker 1: He's relocating taking advantage of Dante turning his head, catches
Speaker 1: him slipping, gets a wide open look. That is why
Speaker 1: off ball player movement is so valuable. All right, moving
Speaker 1: on to the Warriors. This was just a ridiculous example
Speaker 1: of Gary Payton's ability to dig down on ball handlers.
Speaker 1: Watch Gary Payton digging down as Brandon ingram and I
Speaker 1: want to say, Jordan Hawkins make drives to the rim,
Speaker 1: so dig boom. See how he gets down on CJ recovers.
Speaker 1: Now Jordan Hawkins is going to drive. Watch how fast
Speaker 1: Gary Payton shoots down and gets the jump ball boom.
Speaker 1: It's so much speed to cover ground. I thought this
Speaker 1: was just a beautiful example of split cut action that
Speaker 1: the Warriors ran. So we're gonna go to Draymond in
Speaker 1: the post. Okay, watch this play develop. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: go to Draymon in the post. Then the classic Warriors
Speaker 1: split cut is the guy who makes the post entry
Speaker 1: just screens away for the guys top of the key
Speaker 1: right goes a screen. This time Kminga actually screens Buddy
Speaker 1: Healed gets a little bit of an angle on this
Speaker 1: slip that draws Zion Williamson and help extra pass to
Speaker 1: Kyle Anderson forces Jordan Hawkins to rotate. Probably a bad
Speaker 1: close out from Jordan Hawkins. You just make Kyle Anderson
Speaker 1: take that three, but Lindy Waters ends up getting a
Speaker 1: wide up and three out of it.
Speaker 2: Beautiful, beautiful split cut basketball.
Speaker 1: I thought this was a really, really pretty set that
Speaker 1: they ran to get Brandon Pazemski a wide open layup.
Speaker 1: So Draymond sets a wide screen to get Lindy Waters
Speaker 1: the catch. We're going on another split cut right, so
Speaker 1: we're but this is a variation of split cut right.
Speaker 1: So we're making the post entry to Draymond, but on
Speaker 1: the post entry trace Jackson Davis back screens for Brandon
Speaker 1: Pazemski gets a wide up in layoup.
Speaker 2: Really pretty stuff.
Speaker 1: This is the concept of turning a good look into
Speaker 1: a great look. So we're playing basketball here. Going back
Speaker 1: to the post, same split cut action, right this time CJ.
Speaker 1: McCollum does a better job in navigating the screen, so
Speaker 1: it's not open. It flows into the next phase of
Speaker 1: the split, the split action, which is trace screening for Lindy.
Speaker 1: Lindy's got a decent look here, but Zion throws a
Speaker 1: close out. Zion's a freaky athlete. So Lindy's like, don't
Speaker 1: really like the look, So let's see if we can
Speaker 1: get a better one. There's thirteen seconds on the shot clock.
Speaker 1: Swing the moody. Moody's got a look. Uh, don't really
Speaker 1: like the look. If I throw it to POD's there,
Speaker 1: he's going up against the center underneath the basket. I
Speaker 1: don't think this is the best option. Let's see if
Speaker 1: we can't drive this close out. He drives right, Pods relocates.
Speaker 1: Now you get a wide open three. So again, the
Speaker 1: diligence to turn down a couple of okay shots ends
Speaker 1: up getting you a great shot that goes in. I've
Speaker 1: talked a lot about beating ball pressure with a swing pass,
Speaker 1: then making the swing pass guy hit the roll man. This,
Speaker 1: so I thought, was a great example of that. So
Speaker 1: like you can see that dynamic taking place. Lindy Waters
Speaker 1: are our ball handler. Tray Jackson Davis is going to
Speaker 1: go set a ball screen. The Pells are gonna put
Speaker 1: two on the ball. Okay, when the Pells put two
Speaker 1: on the ball, the roleman gets open. But the problem
Speaker 1: is when the roleman's open, there's ball pressure here, so
Speaker 1: that becomes a different a difficult pass to make. Padziemski,
Speaker 1: as a swing pass man, is not being ball pressured.
Speaker 1: He can make the pass. He hits trace. Now we
Speaker 1: have our week side two on one. Moody cuts get
Speaker 1: an easy lay, a beautiful basketball from the Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1: And then this was that crazy Jonathan comming a block
Speaker 1: to lob sequence blocks CJ. McComb at the rim, gets
Speaker 1: a rebound, runs it down patiently pass fake boom dunk.
Speaker 1: I know your Warriors fans really enjoyed that one last night.
Speaker 1: That was a really really fun game to watch. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today is always I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate the show. Cleveland Cavaliers fans. I was gonna
Speaker 1: do Calves today, but then the Calves play the Lakers tonight,
Speaker 1: and I'm obviously gonna watch that, so figured might as
Speaker 1: well move it tomorrow, So we're gonna do a deep
Speaker 1: dive on the Cavs game. We'll be hitting Nick's calves
Speaker 1: as well as, just like the season at large, in
Speaker 1: a lot of detail in tomorrow's show. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. I'll see
Speaker 1: you guys, guys tomorrow the volume What's Up guys? As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight.
Speaker 1: It would actually be really helpful for us if you
Speaker 1: guys would take a second and leave a rating and
Speaker 1: a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us,
Speaker 1: but if you could take a minute to do that,
Speaker 1: I'd really appreciate it.