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Speaker 1: slash Basketball terms. All right, wellcun hoops and I hear
Speaker 1: at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody for the last time.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys have had a great day.
Speaker 1: We've done two additional videos today. Earlier today we did
Speaker 1: add Brendan Klean from Lockdown Suns on the show, and
Speaker 1: we did a deep dive on the Phoenix Suns. You
Speaker 1: can find that video back there. We also did a
Speaker 1: breakdown of Pacers bucks that you guys can find on
Speaker 1: the feed. In this video, we're just gonna talking about
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers behind just a phenomenal performance from
Speaker 1: Lebron James thirty points on twelve shots, four to four
Speaker 1: from three, eight assists, zero turnovers as the Lakers go
Speaker 1: up by forty plus. He sits the entire fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: dominant performance for the Lakers, who are heading to meet
Speaker 1: the Pacers on Saturday in the NBA Cup Championship Game.
Speaker 1: We're gonna break it down. You guys are the joke
Speaker 1: before we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube
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Speaker 1: hitting them throughout the season. And the last, but not least,
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Speaker 1: lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes there's this thing that can happen in
Speaker 1: a basketball game where one player reaches such an insanely
Speaker 1: high level that it actually SAPs the other team of confidence,
Speaker 1: and it actually trickles down the roster and then everybody
Speaker 1: just starts playing poorly. It's not to say that there
Speaker 1: isn't a team effort, but sometimes there's just a way
Speaker 1: of a player can carry himself to where it seems
Speaker 1: to sap the other team of belief. It's like snatching
Speaker 1: their hearts, so to speak. Tonight, Lebron James snatched the
Speaker 1: heart of the New Orleans Pelicans early and often from
Speaker 1: that slip that he had down to Herb Jones, that
Speaker 1: post up where he drew the fall, just proving like, hey,
Speaker 1: your main guy, Yeah, he's too small, he can't guard
Speaker 1: me right, And then to oh, you're gonna drop back
Speaker 1: and give me this shot, Well, I've been working on
Speaker 1: and I'm shooting over forty percent on it this year.
Speaker 1: I'm knocking it down. Oh your best player, Zion Williamson. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know how to read his game and I don't
Speaker 1: trust his ability to knock down an outside shot. So
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna beat him to spots right outside the
Speaker 1: restricted area and take charges and sap him of his
Speaker 1: confidence and completely remove him from the game. He dominated
Speaker 1: every single facet of this game, honestly, like nine for
Speaker 1: twelve from the field, four for four from three, zero turnovers,
Speaker 1: eight assists, thirty points, didn't even play the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: It was I'm completely at a loss for words. I've
Speaker 1: been saying this all season long, but you know what
Speaker 1: have I said? The Lakers got hit by a really
Speaker 1: unfortunate string of injuries, right. They lost all their high
Speaker 1: motor athletes. Cam Reddish got hurt, Rueya Tchamura got hurt,
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt didn't start playing until a couple of games ago.
Speaker 1: The bottom fell out in all of their athleticism, and
Speaker 1: suddenly it's like Austin and Dilo look on athletic right,
Speaker 1: you know, because they're not playing alongside other high motor
Speaker 1: athletes Lebron James and Anthony Davis, they can ebb and
Speaker 1: flow in their effort during the regular season. So when
Speaker 1: they wouldn't bring effort, they would look really really bad.
Speaker 1: And I kept saying, like, these are really important archetypes
Speaker 1: that they need give them time, Like Lebron looks great,
Speaker 1: And what did I always say? Like Lebron looking great
Speaker 1: is actually more of a positive trend and is more
Speaker 1: meaningful than anything having to do with some of this
Speaker 1: O the other stuff that we've seen right now, Do
Speaker 1: the Lakers have some stuff to work out before the
Speaker 1: postseason in terms of that two and three spot, Yeah,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about in a little bit. But within
Speaker 1: the regular season, I just concerned with the stuff that
Speaker 1: I was seeing earlier. This is just natural ebbs and
Speaker 1: flows that you see during an NBA regular season that
Speaker 1: kind of tends to go around with your strength of
Speaker 1: schedule and with your injuries. The Lakers have played one
Speaker 1: of the toughest schedules in the league this year. They've
Speaker 1: played like twenty three games, and eighteen of them have
Speaker 1: been against teams that are five hundred or better. And
Speaker 1: so when you look at the kind of ball that
Speaker 1: they were playing, some of the injuries that they had,
Speaker 1: they looked a little less capable than what they really
Speaker 1: are capable of doing. Right, But the big silver lining
Speaker 1: under all of that was Lebron was playing some of
Speaker 1: the best basketball of this late phase of his career,
Speaker 1: and that matters more to this team's ultimate ceiling than
Speaker 1: anything else. I think he's playing at the highest level
Speaker 1: that he's played since the twenty twenty season when they
Speaker 1: won the title in that season. Now, again, the scoring
Speaker 1: is down a little bit, right, He's at twenty five
Speaker 1: points per game, but that has way more to do
Speaker 1: with just the way the team is organized from the
Speaker 1: stand point of having two skill guards that are taking
Speaker 1: a lot of shots. Right. They're also in a five
Speaker 1: out system this year for the majority of their offensive possessions,
Speaker 1: which is more read and react and more shares the
Speaker 1: load among the rest of the players in the team.
Speaker 1: But he's actually shooting his highest true shooting percentage since
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, when he was with the Miami Heat. He's
Speaker 1: shooting over forty percent from three. His jump shots worth
Speaker 1: like like like a point of one point one points
Speaker 1: per shot, which is like over twenty percent higher than
Speaker 1: it was last year. He's just playing at a much
Speaker 1: much higher level than he has in the last couple
Speaker 1: of seasons, which is a very very encouraging note for
Speaker 1: what this Laker team can eventually achieve. Like, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: If they keep racking up wins, which again they're going
Speaker 1: to have to maintain this level of play. They do
Speaker 1: have an easier schedule down the stretch of the season
Speaker 1: that will help. But if they can maintain this level
Speaker 1: of play, he has a chance to enter into the
Speaker 1: MVP conversation with the job that he's doing on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor. I wanted to hit a couple
Speaker 1: of specific things that he did in this game. I
Speaker 1: thought the job he did on Zion Williamson removing him
Speaker 1: from the game changed the dynamic early. Zion Williamson's dribble
Speaker 1: penetration and his ability to pass the basketball is one
Speaker 1: of them the most important elements of that Pelicans offense
Speaker 1: and Zion is such a weird player type that there's
Speaker 1: only a handful of guys that really can defend him well.
Speaker 1: But Lebron's one of them. Because he's not bigger and
Speaker 1: stronger than Lebron, hed Lebron has the ability to anticipate
Speaker 1: his movements and to beat him to spots, and that
Speaker 1: has gone a long way in this particular matchup, and
Speaker 1: he's consistently looked pretty good guarding Zion on the ball
Speaker 1: the over the top shooting. One of the things I've
Speaker 1: talked about with the Pelicans is they're an aggressive ballscreen defense.
Speaker 1: They bring Jonas Valenciunas up to the level in a
Speaker 1: lot of cases, and they're really aggressive in help with
Speaker 1: Zion and Brandon Ingram on the backside. And the Lakers
Speaker 1: have some issues with weak side shooting, which we'll talk
Speaker 1: about because the shooting actually turned around for the Lakers
Speaker 1: in a big way in this game. But one of
Speaker 1: the most important elements to this Laker offense succeeding against
Speaker 1: elite defenses is over the top shot making. Why does
Speaker 1: that matter because we talk about spacing all the time,
Speaker 1: right and one of the best ways to beat spacing
Speaker 1: issues is to shoot over the top spacing primarily has
Speaker 1: to do with your ability to find driving lanes and
Speaker 1: to get into the rim. And so when teams pack
Speaker 1: the paint, you have to beat them with the jump shot,
Speaker 1: either at the ball or on the weak side with kickouts.
Speaker 1: And I thought his over the top shooting went a
Speaker 1: long way right. Like, the game kind of got off
Speaker 1: to a weird start, Lakers defense dominated early, Pelicans came
Speaker 1: back on some turnovers, and the Lakers were doing a
Speaker 1: bad job of boxing out. The Pelicans were crashing a
Speaker 1: lot out of the corners and getting offensive rebound put backs. Right,
Speaker 1: Lebron hits a freaking heater in that second quarter and
Speaker 1: just builds that double digit deficit back up and as
Speaker 1: soon as it got there again, that was where the
Speaker 1: Lakers kind of regained their confidence and just ran away
Speaker 1: with the game from there. And then in that third quarter,
Speaker 1: I thought he did a really nice job. You know,
Speaker 1: we talk a lot about Tyrese Haliburton and playing with
Speaker 1: pace and playmaking. That's a lot of what Lebron was
Speaker 1: doing in that third quarter, bringing the ball up with
Speaker 1: like real verve, like getting downhill, causing all the Pelicans
Speaker 1: to kind of coalesce around him, and he's dumping it
Speaker 1: off to D'Angelo Russell for three. He's throwing kickout Passesorian
Speaker 1: Prince in the corner every single time Anthony Davis breaks
Speaker 1: open at the rim. Here's another lob oh d Lo
Speaker 1: makes a back cut off of a backscreen. Lebron hits
Speaker 1: him off with the bounce pass like he just was
Speaker 1: torching them by making plays, but he was. Those passes
Speaker 1: become available as a product of his rim pressure in
Speaker 1: the amount of pace that he was playing with. Took
Speaker 1: care of the basketball too. Obviously, the zero turnoversus is
Speaker 1: important with that Laker defense. I can struggle sometimes when
Speaker 1: they're defense. They've actually been better in transition this year
Speaker 1: than they were last year, which is going to be
Speaker 1: vitally important for the Tyrese Haliburton matchup, obviously. But I mean,
Speaker 1: here's the thing, guys. The Lakers are on the rise,
Speaker 1: eighth best record in the league now, despite their injuries,
Speaker 1: despite the schedule, They've won three straight games against five
Speaker 1: hundred or better teams. They have nine wins against five
Speaker 1: hundred better teams, which is now tied for the most
Speaker 1: in the NBA with the Boston Celtics. They have the
Speaker 1: third best defense in the league over the last ten games.
Speaker 1: And this shooting progression thing is a real deal, because
Speaker 1: do I think the Lakers are a good shooting team.
Speaker 1: Probably not, but I think they're an average shooting team.
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves is a good shooter. Daniel Russell is a
Speaker 1: good shooter. Torrian Prince is a good shooter. Lebron James
Speaker 1: for the majority of his career outside of last season
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen, good shooter. Right, Like, They've got guys
Speaker 1: off the bench bench that can knock down shots. Gabe
Speaker 1: Vincent is a good shooter. Ruey hot Chimura is a
Speaker 1: good shooter. They have shot atrociously bad this season, and
Speaker 1: that's the thing. Like, I don't expect them to be
Speaker 1: one of the top ten three point shooting teams in
Speaker 1: the league, but they should be in the middle, right,
Speaker 1: And so what led the lot in this to this
Speaker 1: positive regression, in my opinion, is gaining confidence from their
Speaker 1: leader and then driving energy and confidence from their defense,
Speaker 1: and that flowing into better shot quality and just overall,
Speaker 1: you know, like just the attitude and energy that they
Speaker 1: play with. And I think that's gonna be important because
Speaker 1: You're gonna see more and more teams do what the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns did in that second half, do what the
Speaker 1: Pelicans did tonight, which is packed the paint and forced
Speaker 1: guys to knock down shots, which they did. Now, again,
Speaker 1: don't overreact to regular season trends in either direction. Am
Speaker 1: I here? What did I say before the season? I
Speaker 1: said I saw the Lakers as the fourth best championship contender,
Speaker 1: behind the Nuggets, the Bucks, and the Celtics. Right, I've
Speaker 1: swapped the Celtics and the Bucks because they think the
Speaker 1: Celtics are playing some better basketball. But I had the
Speaker 1: Lakers at number four. Okay, I'm not like after their
Speaker 1: bad start, where what were they five and seven at
Speaker 1: one point? If I remember correctly, three and five? There
Speaker 1: were somewhere below five hundred there after, like eight to
Speaker 1: ten games or something like that. I said, I don't
Speaker 1: change my opinion about the Lakers at all. Still in
Speaker 1: the same spot, I don't think this team can win
Speaker 1: a title unless one of two things happens. Either Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis takes an offensive leap back to where he was
Speaker 1: in the bubble, which he's capable of doing, or they
Speaker 1: make a trade at the deadline. I believe they will
Speaker 1: make a trade, and I believe that trade will push
Speaker 1: them over the top into that conversation with the Nuggets
Speaker 1: and Celtics. But again, you don't overreact to regular season trends.
Speaker 1: There will be a stretch again soon where the Lakers
Speaker 1: have some guys banged up and they play some tough
Speaker 1: games on their schedule, and their effort goes down a
Speaker 1: little bit and they'll drop three out of five games,
Speaker 1: because that's just what happens in the NBA regular season.
Speaker 1: But this team was awesome after the deadline last year,
Speaker 1: was awesome in the postseason, and I do believe that
Speaker 1: they're capable of being awesome again this season. It just
Speaker 1: if they're going to reach the Nuggets level, if they're
Speaker 1: going to reach the Celtics level, in my opinion, they're
Speaker 1: going to have to push their chips in and upgrade
Speaker 1: that D'Angelo Russell position into a really good two way player.
Speaker 1: But that's again a problem for the deadline. If they
Speaker 1: have their health, especially with those athletes, if they have
Speaker 1: Ruyatcha Murray and Cambrettis and Jared Vanderbilt available and healthy,
Speaker 1: they're gonna win a lot of regular season games, and
Speaker 1: a lot of the issues they had early was a
Speaker 1: lack of athleticism which stemmed from injuries to a core
Speaker 1: position group, which was under discussed in my opinion, in
Speaker 1: a lot of platforms. I wanted to do one last
Speaker 1: shout out for Anthony Davis because he gets a lot
Speaker 1: of criticism for his offensive inconsistency, which I think is legitimate. However,
Speaker 1: that was just a ridiculous defensive performance. I swaar just
Speaker 1: in the third quarter. He blew up like six plays
Speaker 1: at the rim what looked like easy layups that he
Speaker 1: turned into misses. And like, again, his defensive consistency has
Speaker 1: to be factored in here, Like a night like what
Speaker 1: ad just had defensively is worth a twenty five thirty
Speaker 1: point scoring night, you know, Like if you get twenty
Speaker 1: seven out of CJ. McCollum, is that more impactful than
Speaker 1: what Anthony Davis did defensively tonight, Like that's up for debate.
Speaker 1: And again, those are just the kinds of things that
Speaker 1: we have to factor in when we're having these conversations
Speaker 1: like Anthony Davis, like heller h Hell or high water,
Speaker 1: He's going to be impactful. There's a scale there, some
Speaker 1: nights he's less so than others, but like when he's
Speaker 1: locked in defensively, it's one of the most impactful things
Speaker 1: that you'll see from a player in this league, and
Speaker 1: his ability to anchor that Laker defense and on the glass.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna talk about the Pelicans tonight because it's
Speaker 1: just not the right night to talk about him. They like,
Speaker 1: there's not really anything you can take away from that.
Speaker 1: They're six and four in their last ten games, but
Speaker 1: they're three and four in their last ten games against
Speaker 1: anybody that's not the Kings. They've had their number, but
Speaker 1: they've had some bad losses too, like the lost of
Speaker 1: the Bulls. They're like, I want to do a deep
Speaker 1: dive on the Pelicans. I just want to wait a
Speaker 1: little bit until a different night. Tonight's not the night.
Speaker 1: The simplest way to break down this particular game was
Speaker 1: that the Bucks just could not guard Tyrese Haliburt no
Speaker 1: matter what they tried. Every time they tried low drop,
Speaker 1: he rose up into a pull up three and he
Speaker 1: beat them with that. Every time they tried high drop,
Speaker 1: he consistently made that pocket pass to Miles Turner, who
Speaker 1: was amazing in this game, catching and finishing at the
Speaker 1: rim also was amazing on the defensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: protecting the rim. He hit some shots in picking pop
Speaker 1: situations as well. Miles Turner was fantastic, and that to
Speaker 1: me is like the one of the most fundamental pieces
Speaker 1: of beating that specific coverage. In the high drop. It's
Speaker 1: like a softer version of putting two on the ball,
Speaker 1: and so as that pocket pass is opened, that player
Speaker 1: has to be able to score and make reads out
Speaker 1: of it. Miles Turner was fantastic, but low drop he
Speaker 1: beat him with the pull up three, high dropp he
Speaker 1: beat him with the pocket pass. When they switched, he
Speaker 1: was able to score on Brook Lopez. And then when
Speaker 1: they went to the zone, the Pacers did a good
Speaker 1: job of getting the ball to the middle of the floor.
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown did a really nice job making those little
Speaker 1: pop shots in there. He's been good at that shot
Speaker 1: since he was with the nets and that middle of
Speaker 1: the floor, not just the mid range shot making, but
Speaker 1: having a player there that can make quick decisions is
Speaker 1: a fundamental part of scoring against a two three zone.
Speaker 1: And the Pacers just executed extremely well against every single
Speaker 1: coverage the Bucks used, and it just came down to
Speaker 1: Tyrese Halliburton and the fact that the Bucks couldn't do
Speaker 1: anything with him. It was interesting too, like down the stretch,
Speaker 1: they go to the zone to just try to make
Speaker 1: somebody else beat them, right, but again, against a team
Speaker 1: with that much offensive skill, it's not easy to get
Speaker 1: stops of the zone defense. And that's when we saw
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown get off. Literally there were two random possessions
Speaker 1: in that zone stretch where they went to man, and
Speaker 1: on both of those possessions, Tyree's just beat him in
Speaker 1: they came of the high drop coverage with brook Lopez,
Speaker 1: he just beat them with that pocket pass to Miles Turner.
Speaker 1: And then it's like then down the stretch, brook Lopez
Speaker 1: just switches right and Tyree's just quickly just tells everybody
Speaker 1: go to their spot. They run two guys at the corner,
Speaker 1: two guys of the wing. Tyree's goes to the top
Speaker 1: of the key Boom boom hits him with a move
Speaker 1: to the right, gets all the way to the rim,
Speaker 1: get into Brooks body to protect the basketball, and finishes
Speaker 1: on the right end of the rim. You guys might
Speaker 1: remember to play at the very beginning of the game
Speaker 1: where Brook Lopez switched, he went to the left side.
Speaker 1: They cleared the side this time that everyone went away
Speaker 1: to give him the entire side of the floor. Hit
Speaker 1: him with the same kind of dribble combination, got all
Speaker 1: the way around him and finished on the right side
Speaker 1: of the rim, and then late he'd the final play
Speaker 1: the dagger on that left wing. It was a high
Speaker 1: drop coverage possession and he kind of pulled the ball
Speaker 1: out to the further to the left, which caused Brook
Speaker 1: to go with him. His on the ball defender basically
Speaker 1: peeled off, and that's when he hit that step back,
Speaker 1: which he's been doing a lot against Biggs when they
Speaker 1: come out in that coverage, especially going to his left,
Speaker 1: especially on the left wing. He can get a lot
Speaker 1: of separation with that, and he handles the ball really
Speaker 1: well with his left hand, hits the step back three
Speaker 1: and that really fundamentally is the problem. You can't run
Speaker 1: any coverage against him because he is a counter for
Speaker 1: all of it. Right if you run any sort of
Speaker 1: aggressive coverage, so like a blitz or a high drop
Speaker 1: or a show or a double team, in any sort
Speaker 1: of switch situation, he's going to be each with the pass.
Speaker 1: If you run a low drop. He's going to beat
Speaker 1: you with pull up a three point shooting may two
Speaker 1: of them. You guys might remember the play. Or he
Speaker 1: was talking to Dame saying like I can do that too, right,
Speaker 1: Like that's what he did on those possessions, basic lower
Speaker 1: drop coverage, coming over the top of the screen, knocking
Speaker 1: down a pull up three when they switch. He can
Speaker 1: beat bigs on switches. He's been beating bigs on switches
Speaker 1: like damn near a point and a half per possession
Speaker 1: all season. He's just outrageously good at organized modern NBA
Speaker 1: offense and like still hasn't turned the ball over this week.
Speaker 1: He's confident and cocky and talking shit and like, guys,
Speaker 1: this is the this is you know, sometimes in the
Speaker 1: NBA we see guys take a leap, right, You're like, oh,
Speaker 1: look at Austin Reeves, Like this was a guy who
Speaker 1: was undrafted, probably should have been in a early second
Speaker 1: round pick, but certainly not any sort of lottery guy.
Speaker 1: Holy shit, he's like a really good NBA player, right,
Speaker 1: Or you're like, it's like Daron Fox, he's taking a
Speaker 1: leap this year, Like he's gone from like, you know,
Speaker 1: a lower level star to like one of those guys
Speaker 1: that's kind of like just below the superstar level, right,
Speaker 1: you know, like we see these rises that take place
Speaker 1: in the NBA, but every once in a while we
Speaker 1: see an all time great rising from the pack. Right.
Speaker 1: We just recently saw this with Nikola Jokicch and it's like,
Speaker 1: holy shit, nobody can guard this guy. And we are
Speaker 1: literally watching that with Tyres Haliburton. This is the guard
Speaker 1: version of Nikola Jokicch. Nobody can guard the guy. He
Speaker 1: is every single play type. When you make him a score,
Speaker 1: he's scoring well over a point per possession, every single
Speaker 1: play type. When you make him a passer, he's passing
Speaker 1: to guys in good position and they're like little things
Speaker 1: like Obi toppin Limited player with the Knicks. But he's
Speaker 1: found a role on this team just by running his
Speaker 1: damn lane and transition that ridiculous reverse lob that he
Speaker 1: caught from Tyres Alliburton. If you watch Isaiah Jackson has
Speaker 1: a nice contest of Dame at the rim and you
Speaker 1: see Obi top and just starts sprinting off the left
Speaker 1: side of the floor, just running as fast as he can,
Speaker 1: and Tyree's gets the ball every single time. Someone is
Speaker 1: open up the floor, he makes the kick ahead pass
Speaker 1: leads him perfectly towards the rim for the reverse dunk.
Speaker 1: This is the rise of an all time great. That
Speaker 1: is what we are watching. It's like everyone's talking about
Speaker 1: the Steve Nash comparisons. It's like Steve Nash plus like
Speaker 1: real scoring, aggression, more, you know, athleticism in terms of
Speaker 1: lateral quickness. He's got. The jump shooting is insane. Obviously
Speaker 1: Steve Nash was a great jump shooter as well, but
Speaker 1: it's like that, but just stretched out into like more
Speaker 1: of a dynamic athletic player. Right, It's like, get on board, guys.
Speaker 1: This is this is not just another hot streak. This
Speaker 1: is a guy that all of the best players in
Speaker 1: the NBA are struggling to guard right now. Is he
Speaker 1: gonna light everybody on fire to the extent he did
Speaker 1: the Bucks? Probably not, because the Bucks have some issues
Speaker 1: at the point of attack, which we'll talk But the
Speaker 1: meat and potatoes of what he's doing is replicable at
Speaker 1: all levels of the NBA. Even made some defensive plays
Speaker 1: in this game, which he's been a bad defensive player
Speaker 1: this season. But as a team, the Pacers are kind
Speaker 1: of rounding into form, and that, to me is the
Speaker 1: key because outside to that third quarter run, if you
Speaker 1: go back to the first half of this game and
Speaker 1: both halves of the Boston Celtics game, they're playing good defense.
Speaker 1: They're playing good defense. And I talked about in our
Speaker 1: Pacers deep dive last week. I think it was after
Speaker 1: the Heat game, if I remember correctly, I talked about
Speaker 1: how like they have the personnel to at least be
Speaker 1: okay because of all their speed, and like they do
Speaker 1: have guys who can defend at the point of attack,
Speaker 1: like Bruce Brown and Aaron Nesmith who's been amazing in
Speaker 1: these last two games. And so like they've got guys
Speaker 1: who can take the top, top end personnel. They have
Speaker 1: speed off the ball, Miles Turner can protect the rim.
Speaker 1: They are capable of being a better defensive team than
Speaker 1: they've shown to this point in the season. They've shown
Speaker 1: it this week and it's led to wins and now
Speaker 1: they have an opportunity to play for the NBA Cup
Speaker 1: on Saturday. Now, the offensive glass is still an issue.
Speaker 1: That was something that was an issue all game, and
Speaker 1: obviously in the long run, that's gonna be something they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to address by just more wing basically upgraded
Speaker 1: versions of Obi top and Aaron Niesmith. Right, but those
Speaker 1: are big picture conversation about the Indiana Pacers right within
Speaker 1: the scope of this season. They can defend better than
Speaker 1: they have and the offense is completely and utterly unguardable.
Speaker 1: And Tyrey Saliburton is playing like a superstar and he's
Speaker 1: here to stay. Guys, this is not a short term thing.
Speaker 1: Jump on the bandwagon this dude. He's on the Steph track.
Speaker 1: He's on the Jokis track. He is headed towards top
Speaker 1: tier superstardom. That is what we are seeing. Just outplayed
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum, Jannisintennan, Kuombo, Dame Lillard all in this week
Speaker 1: in high stakes games. And not to mention he's got
Speaker 1: some of that Steph thing going on, where like he's
Speaker 1: just incredibly fun to watch. Like I said, a shout
Speaker 1: out a couple of other quick pacers, Miles Turner, like
Speaker 1: I said, amazing in this game, protecting the rim and
Speaker 1: working out of the role. Aaron Nesmith, his possessions on
Speaker 1: Chris Middletony just flat out he raised him from the game.
Speaker 1: On Giannis, I thought he did a pretty good job.
Speaker 1: He's giving up a ton of physical advantage there, and
Speaker 1: Giannis got him a few times, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: he picked him up full court, applied ball pressure, disrupted
Speaker 1: his rhythm, got some stops. I thought he was really good.
Speaker 1: And then that bench group that Isaiah Jackson with TJ
Speaker 1: McConnell and Ben matherin, like that group is defending really well,
Speaker 1: and the TJ McConnell's just organizing them and making good plays.
Speaker 1: And TJ McConnell is deceptively like like he's a guy that,
Speaker 1: like a lot of people don't think of as a
Speaker 1: great athlete, but he's super fast and like he can
Speaker 1: beat people off the dribble, and that to me is
Speaker 1: like the start of it. Right, it's beating people off
Speaker 1: the dribble. He's got a good little ten foot drifting
Speaker 1: fade away, and then he's a great passer and that
Speaker 1: just gives him the ability to organize that unit. And
Speaker 1: then all of those guys are flying around on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. This again, I said after
Speaker 1: our last Pacers deep dive that right now they're just
Speaker 1: an exciting team, but if they want to make some
Speaker 1: real noise, they have to defend better than they have
Speaker 1: they have this week, and suddenly they just beat the
Speaker 1: two best teams in the Eastern Conference and they're gonna
Speaker 1: have a chance to play for the NBA Cup on Saturday.
Speaker 1: On the Bucks front, if it looked to you like
Speaker 1: the Bucks couldn't guard in transition, that's not just a
Speaker 1: Pacers issue. Like we saw this all this game, not
Speaker 1: just on missus and steels, but made baskets. The Pacers
Speaker 1: are just running down the floor and getting wide up
Speaker 1: in shots. They're not getting matched up. They're not sprinting back.
Speaker 1: Bad transition defense principles right, Like transition defense is simple.
Speaker 1: You sprint back basket first, then you fan out. You
Speaker 1: match up with anybody in a transition play. You don't
Speaker 1: look for your man, you look for any man when
Speaker 1: you settle. If you can get back in time and
Speaker 1: you have opportunities to switch back to your matchup, great,
Speaker 1: But in transition pushes you have to just get matched up.
Speaker 1: You have to communicate. They're not very good at it.
Speaker 1: And by the way, Milwaukee allows opponents to play in
Speaker 1: transition on eighteen percent of their possessions, which ranks dead
Speaker 1: last in the NBA. Significant issue in this game. And
Speaker 1: then the point of attack defense is something I've been
Speaker 1: I'm not the only guy, but everyone's been preaching about
Speaker 1: all season, which is like, can dam and Malik Beasley
Speaker 1: defend well enough at the point of attack to give
Speaker 1: your defense a chance to be good enough to compete
Speaker 1: for a title? And the answer is no. To put
Speaker 1: it simply, I've said this about the Bucks and the
Speaker 1: Lakers all season, like upgrades at that point of attack
Speaker 1: position is what their season basically hinges on. And if
Speaker 1: you think about it, like against over the the dregs
Speaker 1: of the regular season, you can be a good defense
Speaker 1: if you're good on two of the three levels. Now,
Speaker 1: what are the three levels of defense? Point of attack,
Speaker 1: ball screen defender, weak side defense like rotations and help side, right,
Speaker 1: those are the three layers. The Bucks are excellent at
Speaker 1: the rim in their pick and roll defense, and they're
Speaker 1: excellent in rotation and in help right, so, and then
Speaker 1: the fourth level would be defensive rebounding, right, But I'm
Speaker 1: just talking about actually guarding the plays themselves, But defensive
Speaker 1: rebounding is an important element of that, right. But the
Speaker 1: Bucks are great on those two levels, but they're really
Speaker 1: weak at the point of attack. And that can give
Speaker 1: you a good defense, or at least a passable defense
Speaker 1: over the course of the regular season. But against these
Speaker 1: types of teams, you have to be great at all
Speaker 1: three levels. And that's why, like, like, it'll be really
Speaker 1: interesting to see who wins this Lakers Pelicans game, because
Speaker 1: the Pelicans are excellent at the point of attack, excellent
Speaker 1: in help, but bad in terms of their rim protection
Speaker 1: in ball screen defense. Because of Jonas Vallecunis right, the
Speaker 1: Lakers have players for all three levels. Now that Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt is healthy, like you're gonna see Jared Vanderbilt on
Speaker 1: Tyres Alliburn. They're good in health, They're good at the ram.
Speaker 1: They've been one of the best defenses over the last
Speaker 1: month in the league. I have to look, but last
Speaker 1: time I checked, they were like third in the league
Speaker 1: over the last ten to fifteen games. So the Lakers
Speaker 1: are going to be interesting a challenge for Tyres, but
Speaker 1: we'll see when we get there. But you to have
Speaker 1: any hope of guarding Tyres Haliburton, you have to be
Speaker 1: good at the point of attack. You have to be
Speaker 1: good in your ball screen defense, and you have to
Speaker 1: be good in help. And I thought that you just
Speaker 1: saw a pretty clear example of the fact that the
Speaker 1: Bucks could not defend at the point of attack. Tyres
Speaker 1: Alliburton was getting wherever he wanted and that was where
Speaker 1: everything broke down for this team. And then lastly, on
Speaker 1: the Bucks front, like Dame talked about this, he was like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're fifteen and six, but like, I haven't even really
Speaker 1: got going yet. I don't even have my three points
Speaker 1: shot yet. Like I like, this is gonna get crazy,
Speaker 1: And like I tend to agree in the sense that,
Speaker 1: like Dame has started to shoot a little better as
Speaker 1: of late, we're starting to see more flurries like that
Speaker 1: flurry he had to start the second half. But in
Speaker 1: the big picture, he just hasn't been good enough, and
Speaker 1: this team will not be a championship contender unless Dame
Speaker 1: can get back to where he was last season. That
Speaker 1: is an app a loop prerequisite. Now I still believe
Speaker 1: he will do so, but we're now over a fourth
Speaker 1: of the way through the season and he's still not
Speaker 1: to that level. And so the onus is on Dame
Speaker 1: to figure his stuff out there. Because Giannis is having
Speaker 1: the best season he's had since his title year. Giannis
Speaker 1: is incredible so Dame's got to meet him at least
Speaker 1: near that level for this team to get where they
Speaker 1: want to go. All right, guys, that is all I
Speaker 1: have for this video. I will be back tomorrow with
Speaker 1: the Nerd sessh. Guys. We're gonna bounce around the league
Speaker 1: and hit a bunch of topics. I will see you
Speaker 1: guys then. As always, I appreciate your support. See you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: The Volume