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Speaker 1: presented by Ban Duel here at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having a great
Speaker 1: week so far. Gonna keep it nice and simple tonight.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about that incredible basketball game between
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks and the Golden State Borders and then
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers, that another wild collapse last night.
Speaker 1: I have a lot to talk about there, particularly as
Speaker 1: it pertains to Lebron James, who had a pretty a
Speaker 1: pretty embarrassingly bad fourth orders in that game. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk a little Indiana Pacers after that too, and then
Speaker 1: the last chunk of the show, Carl Anthony town took
Speaker 1: for a caf injury that's gonna keep him out for
Speaker 1: at least a month, probably closer to two. Um, So
Speaker 1: we're gonna do a little bit of a deep dive
Speaker 1: into some of Minnesota's struggles and what they've looked like
Speaker 1: without Carl Towns on the floor this year, and just
Speaker 1: kind of talk about how they can best float over
Speaker 1: the course of the next couple of months without one
Speaker 1: of their starts. You guys know the drill before we
Speaker 1: get started. Subscribed to the Volumes YouTube channels, you don't
Speaker 1: miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any
Speaker 1: show announcements. I'm also gonna be referencing, particularly on the
Speaker 1: Lebron front A demonstrates some of the the issues that
Speaker 1: I had with his play last night, So you're gonna
Speaker 1: want to follow me there. And then last but not least,
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos
Speaker 1: and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish,
Speaker 1: you can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under
Speaker 1: hoops tonight. All right, let's talk some basketball, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna break. I shouldn't say break, but I'm going. I
Speaker 1: usually have a rule that we don't talk about refs,
Speaker 1: and um, I'm not breaking the rules, so to speak,
Speaker 1: because I'm not gonna talk about it as it pertains
Speaker 1: to any team or or outcome. Tonight, However, it really
Speaker 1: annoyed me the incessant need for the rest tonight to
Speaker 1: step in and stop the flow of this game with
Speaker 1: really nitpicky calls. Now, I understand that generally speaking, uh,
Speaker 1: the refs have a process. Early in the season, they
Speaker 1: have what's called points of emphasis. Every year it's something different,
Speaker 1: and usually during the early chunks of the season they
Speaker 1: are really on top of those specific calls, and then
Speaker 1: always over the course of every year, they fade away
Speaker 1: back into the background and things kind of fall back
Speaker 1: to normal NBA officiating, peaking with the postseason, where for
Speaker 1: the most part they swallow their whistles and let both
Speaker 1: teams pay a play, which, for the record, I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure is the way all of us want the game
Speaker 1: to be. We want the basketball to be decided by
Speaker 1: the players and not by the officials, and this stuff
Speaker 1: with the traveling, Like you know, here, here's the thing
Speaker 1: with traveling. There is a travel or a carry on
Speaker 1: just about every single possession of NBA basketball. That's the
Speaker 1: same for the college level, it's a same for the
Speaker 1: high school level. It's the same when you guys go
Speaker 1: up and you play pickup games. Right, But what's the
Speaker 1: general rule that you guys play by when you're playing
Speaker 1: pickup games, Like, if it's not egregious, you're not calling it.
Speaker 1: If it's not a blatant attention advantage by cheating, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna call it. Right because you went up to
Speaker 1: the gym to play basketball and you're trying to work
Speaker 1: on your game, and it was so annoying tonight to see,
Speaker 1: like Luca don chit's doing a normal driving gather dribble
Speaker 1: kick out to the corner, and you're calling a travel.
Speaker 1: That was if he at best and even when you
Speaker 1: slow it down at you know, at at you know,
Speaker 1: at an extremely slow speed, you don't see anything definitive
Speaker 1: and the ref blows the whistle. Or on that last
Speaker 1: play with Steph when it's one, he does a step back,
Speaker 1: he does a jump stop where he lands both beat
Speaker 1: at the same time, which technically means you can establish
Speaker 1: either foot as your pivot foot. He picks up his
Speaker 1: left foot twice. I get it looks a little awkward,
Speaker 1: but it certainly was im blatant. And what it did
Speaker 1: was it ruined a cool possession at the end of
Speaker 1: a very entertaining basketball game, and it robbed Steph of
Speaker 1: this chance to take a shot that could have given
Speaker 1: the Warriors the lead, and just in general throughout this
Speaker 1: entire game, to the the the the carries, the travels,
Speaker 1: the the nitpicky officiating kind of ruined the flow. And
Speaker 1: I'm glad the uh the the crew for T n
Speaker 1: T was calling it out because it was really taking
Speaker 1: away from what was a really entertaining basketball game. The
Speaker 1: shot making from both teams was insane. That was one
Speaker 1: of Luca's best games of the season. Steph continues to
Speaker 1: play like he might be the best player in the world.
Speaker 1: You had big, big player, big big games from bench
Speaker 1: players for the Warriors, big games for specific players on
Speaker 1: the Mavericks. It was a highly entertaining basketball game that
Speaker 1: kind of had a little bit of a funky feel
Speaker 1: thanks to the officiating. So obviously we probably don't have
Speaker 1: many refs that listened to the show, we're to the wise,
Speaker 1: we're there to play basketball. We're there to watch basketball.
Speaker 1: We're there to enjoy the basketball. We're not there to
Speaker 1: you and to enjoy you. So maybe step back a
Speaker 1: little bit and if it's not egregious, maybe hang onto
Speaker 1: that whistle. Um So, Dallas, you know, it's funny because
Speaker 1: the there this season has been disappointing for them. Obviously,
Speaker 1: they're below five hundred and after making it within three winnals,
Speaker 1: you're hoping for, you know, better than what they've done
Speaker 1: so far this year. But as is kind of a
Speaker 1: common theme from NBA Twitter and and NBA circles, NBA
Speaker 1: fan bases, NBA talk in the media as well, every
Speaker 1: time there's a player that we don't like for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: we kind of hone in on on team issues and
Speaker 1: target the player as the object of our criticism. Right,
Speaker 1: And it's happened to Luca this year, something that I
Speaker 1: kind of saw coming. But this is a team that
Speaker 1: was constructed in a way that required three primary shot
Speaker 1: creators and a bunch of three in D role players.
Speaker 1: They lost one of their primary shot creators and they
Speaker 1: didn't replace him, and so one of the things that's
Speaker 1: happened to this season is they've been really good with
Speaker 1: Luca don on the floor. They were amazing again tonight.
Speaker 1: Last night, or coming into tonight, they were about plus
Speaker 1: four points per one possessions with Luca on the floor,
Speaker 1: which is very good, and they were minus three per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions with Luca off the floor, which is
Speaker 1: pretty bad and enough to cause you some problems, especially
Speaker 1: in a completely jam packed league where every night you're
Speaker 1: facing a pretty damn good opponent. And and it's funny
Speaker 1: because everybody's jumped on Luca, comparing him to James Harden
Speaker 1: and doing all of these things to try to detigrate him,
Speaker 1: when the reality is is that the Luca lineups are
Speaker 1: playing and that are causing problems, and it's a shortcoming
Speaker 1: of the roster Construction Warrior starting lineup. We talked about
Speaker 1: this yesterday. That's the best line up in the league
Speaker 1: by a mile. They're significantly better than the Bucks starting lineup,
Speaker 1: and the Buck starting lineup is significantly better than everyone else.
Speaker 1: They are damn good. I think coming into tonight they
Speaker 1: were plus twenty eight points per one possessions when they
Speaker 1: have Steph Draymond, Clay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and kevn Looney
Speaker 1: on the floor at the same time. That's how good
Speaker 1: that unit is into the starting line which, by the way,
Speaker 1: is really good if you're ranking the best lineups in
Speaker 1: the league that have played at least a hundred minutes.
Speaker 1: Golden States in first place, Milwaukee's in second place. Washington Wizards,
Speaker 1: believe it or not, when they're actually healthy and have
Speaker 1: all their guys, They're starting lineup is the third best
Speaker 1: lineup in the league to play at least a hundred minutes.
Speaker 1: Denver's fourth, Boston's fifth, the Dallas Mavericks are six. So
Speaker 1: even though the team in general has struggled, their lineup
Speaker 1: is the sixth best lineup in basketball right now. And
Speaker 1: so I hope, you know, I hope people stopped with
Speaker 1: the heart. In comparisons, there's some similarities in the way
Speaker 1: they control possessions, but James Harden historically has flamed out
Speaker 1: every single postseason that he's been in. Okay, Luca don
Speaker 1: Chech is progressing at an outrageous get in the postseason.
Speaker 1: The big difference between him and James Harden is shot variety.
Speaker 1: Luca done is scoring in so many different ways that
Speaker 1: you can't sit on moves and if you do, he'll
Speaker 1: beat you with a counter. And he's got so many
Speaker 1: different moves and counter moves that so many different spots
Speaker 1: on the floor that you don't progress in turn him
Speaker 1: the way that you do with James Hartett. Now he's
Speaker 1: a young kid. He's relief into a a veteran experienced
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors team with the guy that I think
Speaker 1: might be the best perimeter defender in basketball, and Andrew Wiggins.
Speaker 1: And he had a rough series in the conference finals,
Speaker 1: and and and then he lost his second best player,
Speaker 1: and now they're strug going, and a lot of people
Speaker 1: have jumped on it. I just don't think that's fair.
Speaker 1: The reality is, you know, with Jalen Brunson, Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: is a good player. He's having a good season in
Speaker 1: in New York. He's not the kind of guy you
Speaker 1: usually see as Seclayer on a championship team. He's not
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving on the two thousand sixteen Calves. He's not
Speaker 1: Kevin Durander Steph Curry on the Warriors, or or even
Speaker 1: a Draymond Green or at Clay Thompson, He's not that
Speaker 1: level of player, and so so I think the expectations
Speaker 1: a little bit and I hope in general would think
Speaker 1: a little bit fair when we're evaluating these stars, especially
Speaker 1: when they are as young as they are, and hopefully,
Speaker 1: for Dallas's sake, hopefully Kemba Walker ends up becoming that guy.
Speaker 1: I thought it was an interesting gamble. It's a non
Speaker 1: guaranteed contract. When he was at his peak, he was
Speaker 1: one of the best dribble penetrators and pull up jump
Speaker 1: shooters in the league. So he did that in a
Speaker 1: primary role when he was the focus of the scouting
Speaker 1: report and the focus of all the defensive attention. Now
Speaker 1: he's going to be doing it in what Spencer didn't
Speaker 1: what his role was last year, which is primarily with
Speaker 1: bench units, primarily is the second creator on the floor.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be facing better defensive matchups and less defensive attention.
Speaker 1: He has, you know, is if there's anything left in
Speaker 1: Kemba Walker's gas tank, We're going to find out in
Speaker 1: this Dallas situation. Ironically, you know, tonight it was the
Speaker 1: Warriors bench groups that really handled Dallas, and that that
Speaker 1: kind of highlights that specific problem that I was talking
Speaker 1: about some of that is is was Golden States staggering
Speaker 1: their starters, which we're gonna talk about here in a minute.
Speaker 1: But and just I hope in general, instead of focusing
Speaker 1: on Luca in this era of Mavericks basketball, we focus
Speaker 1: on the obvious roster limitations. Is he perfect? No, he
Speaker 1: had a really bad defensive start to the season, although
Speaker 1: he's been playing much better defense as of late. Does
Speaker 1: he take some bad shots at the end of games. Yes.
Speaker 1: Does his strangle the pay style sometimes lead to runs
Speaker 1: for the other team when when things get too stagnant. Yes,
Speaker 1: He's not a perfect player. I had him fourth fest
Speaker 1: in the league. I think of Atfest in the league
Speaker 1: coming into this season, like, I don't think he's the
Speaker 1: same guy as Steph Curry or Janice or any of
Speaker 1: those guys. But he's a damn good player, and he's
Speaker 1: certainly well ahead a schedule for his age. And I
Speaker 1: think that a lot of the criticism directed his way
Speaker 1: this year has been unfair. I wanted to shout out
Speaker 1: the defensive effort for Dallas because I was really impressed
Speaker 1: with them early in this game. Uh and early in
Speaker 1: the game it was closeouts the um the ferocity in
Speaker 1: which they would sprint and contest Warriors threes were causing
Speaker 1: them to rush shots and to feel uncomfortable on those shots,
Speaker 1: which was causing them to miss. And then in the
Speaker 1: late part of the game is a lot of deflections
Speaker 1: kind of like getting good anticipation to get ahead of
Speaker 1: where those classic Warriors reads are. Right, Like the classic
Speaker 1: Warriors reids you're always seeing is like the guy does
Speaker 1: a good job chasing over the top of the screen.
Speaker 1: So Clay Thompson or Steph or Jordan Pool will curl around.
Speaker 1: And as you're curling around the screen defenders there and
Speaker 1: the defenders acting behind, so there's two of you, and
Speaker 1: now you're passing it back to the screener and now
Speaker 1: the screeners going into a dribble handoff and then the
Speaker 1: next guy, and like you can kind of see the
Speaker 1: Warriors basketball progressing. And Dallas did a nice job, especially
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter, of getting ahead of those raids
Speaker 1: and getting deflections. And there were several sequences we were like,
Speaker 1: oh man, the balls popping around Golden States and got
Speaker 1: them in the blender and then nothing would come of it.
Speaker 1: And so ironically, as as Dallas's offense has really struggled
Speaker 1: here over the course of the last month. Their defense
Speaker 1: has carried them throughout this stretch and allowed them to
Speaker 1: stay competitive in these games. And I wanted to shout
Speaker 1: out two guys in particular. First, Dwight Powell, who, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Mavericks fans will tell you was one of
Speaker 1: their worst defending bigs in the past, but I actually
Speaker 1: think he's become a really solid back line defender for them,
Speaker 1: and he did a really nice job defending around the
Speaker 1: room tonight. And the other guy wanted shout out was
Speaker 1: Josh Green. And if you guys remember, Josh Green came
Speaker 1: through the University of Arizona, so he came through tucsons.
Speaker 1: I had a little bit of experience watching him and
Speaker 1: college and and uh, he was really it was missing
Speaker 1: a lot of polish at that specific phase in his career,
Speaker 1: but you knew he was a great athlete. And he's
Speaker 1: the type of wing that's not the tallest wing in
Speaker 1: the world, but he's very strong and he's outstanding with
Speaker 1: his quickness and his athleticism. Um, but if you guys
Speaker 1: remember last year in the playoffs, there was kind of like,
Speaker 1: you know that they were expecting this particular role to
Speaker 1: be filled by Tim Hardaway Junior last year, but he
Speaker 1: ended up having foot issues, and so there was this
Speaker 1: one rotation spot which was like bench three and D
Speaker 1: wing where they didn't know which direction to go, and
Speaker 1: they tried some Frank niel Keena and they tried some
Speaker 1: Josh Green and it didn't really work either way because
Speaker 1: Josh wasn't shooting well, Frank wasn't shooting well. Both of
Speaker 1: them were defending fine, but they weren't doing enough on
Speaker 1: the offensive end for those minutes to be really impactful.
Speaker 1: And so it's kind of really impressive over one off
Speaker 1: season for Josh Green to have made the improvements that
Speaker 1: he's made as a shooter. And I thought he made
Speaker 1: the biggest three of this game, which was on a
Speaker 1: ridiculous side arm hook pass from Luca don Ships to
Speaker 1: him in the left corner. He made a very slight
Speaker 1: relocation just slightly up from the corner. I think it
Speaker 1: was Clay Thompson that was closing out, and Clay closed
Speaker 1: as if he was going to be in the deep corner,
Speaker 1: and Josh made a slight relocation up the floor a
Speaker 1: little bit and he had a little window where he
Speaker 1: was open and knocked down a shot. It's just a
Speaker 1: testament to his work ethic, you know, jump shooting and handling.
Speaker 1: The improvements are so little by a little, like you've
Speaker 1: got to do you have to It's thousands and thousands
Speaker 1: of reps to go from being a thirty seven percent
Speaker 1: shooter to a thirty eight percent shooter, and then another
Speaker 1: thousand thousands of reps to get to a thirty nine
Speaker 1: percent shooter. And so you just can tell that he
Speaker 1: put in a ton of work this offseason. So a
Speaker 1: lot of credit to him. Uh, moving on to the Warriors,
Speaker 1: the starters again. You know, it's funny this has been
Speaker 1: I don't want to I don't want to go to
Speaker 1: negative on the Warriors tonight, because the truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is they've been one of the best teams in
Speaker 1: basketball over the course the last you know, three weeks
Speaker 1: or so, um and the specific part of the game
Speaker 1: where they failed tonight is a part of the game
Speaker 1: that they've succeeded all season, which is their starting lineup
Speaker 1: and also was a line up that gave the Mavericks
Speaker 1: a ton of problems last year in the postseason. So
Speaker 1: I think when push comes to shove. You kind of
Speaker 1: throw that out as an anomaly. So there's a lot
Speaker 1: more encouraging stuff when you get deeper into the rotation.
Speaker 1: But on the with the starters, the guy that seemed
Speaker 1: to be out of it for me on both ends
Speaker 1: was Clay Thompson. He had some good on ball defensive possessions,
Speaker 1: particularly on Luca, but he's getting lost in rotation a lot,
Speaker 1: and and just and just generally looked like the guy
Speaker 1: that was kind of floating through the game versus being
Speaker 1: really engaged. But you know, early in the season, uh,
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr was going with these like line shifts, so
Speaker 1: he would have the starters in and then it'd be
Speaker 1: like all five would come out, and in would come
Speaker 1: you know, Jordan Pool, Jonathan Comia, most with me, whoever
Speaker 1: it was, And those bench lineups are getting destroyed. And
Speaker 1: if you were remember one of the things that I
Speaker 1: kept advocating for was just staggering the lineups a little
Speaker 1: bit better. And they actually did that starting you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, and it was part of
Speaker 1: part of the line of thinking that turned this season around,
Speaker 1: and particularly you know, there was a nice stretch there
Speaker 1: to end the first quarter f and Dante DiVincenzo and
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins where they made some plays to keep the
Speaker 1: game regularly. Uh was in the second quarter. UM, I
Speaker 1: was really impressed with Draymond Green and Jonathan Cominga. Draymond
Speaker 1: Green obviously is having an all NBA level season, although
Speaker 1: he had a pretty rough offensive fourth quarter a couple
Speaker 1: of plays where there was one where he had a
Speaker 1: three in the right corner where I thought he should
Speaker 1: have taken it and Insteady tried to drive and kick
Speaker 1: the steff and ended up turning it over which led
Speaker 1: to Luca I think shooting that pull up three in transition. UM.
Speaker 1: But so, he had a little bit of a rough
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, but for the most most part of the season,
Speaker 1: he's been excellent, and putting him with that second unit
Speaker 1: that's starting the second quarters is leading to a lot
Speaker 1: of success. But shout out to Jonathan Cominga because is
Speaker 1: Moses Movie for the most part has fallen out of
Speaker 1: the rotation and James Wiseman is literally in the G
Speaker 1: League and coming into this season. Jonathan Comingo is the
Speaker 1: player that I was actually least high on, not in
Speaker 1: terms of long term potential, but in terms of ability
Speaker 1: to impact this particular season, and the main reason why
Speaker 1: I thought that um was his offensive decision making was
Speaker 1: so erratic that I didn't think you could trust him
Speaker 1: in the Warriors system to make the right decisions. But
Speaker 1: I always said he was the best defensive wing that
Speaker 1: they had. And you know what's funny is he still
Speaker 1: had some sloppy possessions tonight when he tried to do
Speaker 1: something with the basketball, like in terms of isolation, post
Speaker 1: ups are over dribbling and things along those lines. But
Speaker 1: when he was in the dunker spot and when he
Speaker 1: was just trying to make plays crashing the offensive glass,
Speaker 1: he was fine on the offensive end, and it was
Speaker 1: enough to be functional in that role. And there's a
Speaker 1: way that they can do it to run their sets
Speaker 1: on the opposite side of the floor, which naturally slots
Speaker 1: Jonathan Comingo in a week side corner, so that he
Speaker 1: can be the guy that kind of cuts to the
Speaker 1: rim as they're running that action. I thought that was smart.
Speaker 1: And then he was excellent defensively tonight, both grabbing contested
Speaker 1: defensive rebounds, on ball defense on Luca. He did a
Speaker 1: really nice job. And so that's gotta be encouraging to see,
Speaker 1: and that Draymond coming to line up had a lot
Speaker 1: of success tonight. That's got to be encouraging for Warriors
Speaker 1: fans because you were begging for somebody to kind of
Speaker 1: rise from that pack, and Jonathan Coming is playing some
Speaker 1: pretty solid basketball right now. About Dante DiVincenzo had some
Speaker 1: stretches of really good ball pressure that that threw Dallas
Speaker 1: out of whack, and then Anthony Lamb not knocked down
Speaker 1: some big shots. He's starting to look like one of
Speaker 1: the more like like higher floor, low ceiling players that
Speaker 1: they can go to off the bench. And then Steph
Speaker 1: you know, he had a roughst already miss some open looks.
Speaker 1: He had a sloppy turnover on like a swing pass,
Speaker 1: but then he settled down and played like an m
Speaker 1: v P again. He's playing a level of basketball that
Speaker 1: very few players that I've ever seen have ever reached.
Speaker 1: And uh, when we do our player rankings on Thursday,
Speaker 1: I haven't decided yet, and obviously there's still some basketball left,
Speaker 1: but I'm strongly considering and putting him at the top
Speaker 1: of that list because Janice has had a couple of
Speaker 1: bad games recently and Steff is just playing some of
Speaker 1: the best basketball that I've ever seen, And you know,
Speaker 1: it's the combination now of the strength and rim finishing
Speaker 1: that has added an element to his game that in
Speaker 1: combination with just his overall like command of the game
Speaker 1: as he's grown older and more experienced and confident, that
Speaker 1: that has turned him into UH, I think, a much
Speaker 1: better player than even he was in two thousand sixteen. UM.
Speaker 1: But it really bothered me because, like I thought, in
Speaker 1: a in a back and forth, highly entertaining shot making contest,
Speaker 1: it really bothered me that the ref stepped in and
Speaker 1: took away his opportunity to make a play to take
Speaker 1: that game away. And what I thought was a questionable
Speaker 1: call at best on that on that travel call. Alright,
Speaker 1: let's move on to the Lakers in Lebron. So they
Speaker 1: were up seventeen last night with nine minutes left in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter and UH ended up blowing it on
Speaker 1: a wild sequence where UH the Pacers were down by
Speaker 1: two with one possession left and Dennis Shooter committed a
Speaker 1: a pointless foul along the right wing that led to
Speaker 1: a sideline at a balance that allowed Rick Carlisle to
Speaker 1: drop a play, and when he drew up the play,
Speaker 1: Miles Turner got a wide open three at the top
Speaker 1: of the key that he missed because the Lakers missed
Speaker 1: a bunch of defensive rebounds in that fourth quarter, and
Speaker 1: next to you know, Tyrrias Albert starts kind of dribbling
Speaker 1: along the right wing, and you can literally hear on
Speaker 1: the Pacers broadcast the Pacers announcers like going, oh, no,
Speaker 1: he took too long, and you're thinking that too. You're like,
Speaker 1: there's like a second, you know, one and a half
Speaker 1: seconds on the shot clock. Lebron abandons, I'm forgetting. Of course,
Speaker 1: I'm blanking on the young player's name for the Pacers.
Speaker 1: But Lebron abandon his his matchup to kind of help
Speaker 1: in the paint because he didn't think Tyrese Aliberton had
Speaker 1: enough time to make the pass. And Tyres got the
Speaker 1: ball back into his left hand he's a right handed player,
Speaker 1: and just rifle the left handed passed the shooter on
Speaker 1: the left wing and knocked it down at the buzzer.
Speaker 1: But it was a classic, like uh like basketball gods
Speaker 1: type of moment, because I'm a big believer that those
Speaker 1: kinds of things tend to go the way of the
Speaker 1: team that's playing more respectable basketball. Now, there's absolutely no
Speaker 1: proof to that. As a matter of fact. As the
Speaker 1: usually I'm a skeptic and I would think that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: But hey, for the sake of my love of the
Speaker 1: game of basketball, I'm gonna pretend like that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff matters. But when they were up seventeen, the Lakers
Speaker 1: played really good basketball last night all the way up
Speaker 1: through that nine minute mark of the fourth quarter, like
Speaker 1: damn good basketball. They had won five out of six games.
Speaker 1: They're coming up on um a really tough December, They've
Speaker 1: got some real momentum, and they just quit. They quit
Speaker 1: playing on both ends of the floor, specifically on on
Speaker 1: the boards, defensive boards, grabbing contested defensive rebounds, and then
Speaker 1: also in transition defense, which are two things that Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis came out and was pretty um passion it about
Speaker 1: in his postgame pressure. And then on the offensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor is about pace. You know, this Lakers
Speaker 1: team is at their best offensively when they bring the
Speaker 1: ball up quickly and try to get quick rim pressure
Speaker 1: that gets the defense into rotation so they can play
Speaker 1: off of that advantage. They're just so bad shooting the
Speaker 1: basketball that if they play a half court game when
Speaker 1: they get stuck in those half court environments, everyone sagging
Speaker 1: into the paint, and you've got guys like Russ and Lebron,
Speaker 1: a Dennis Short or Anthony Davis who rely on rim
Speaker 1: pressure and in set half court set environments, it's just
Speaker 1: really tough for them to get that dribble penetration that
Speaker 1: they need. And you know, I thought it really started
Speaker 1: with Lebron and uh I I you know, I did
Speaker 1: a video on this and you can find out my
Speaker 1: Twitter feed at underscore json LT where I broke down
Speaker 1: specifically what I was talking about, but basically, from the
Speaker 1: moment that the Lakers were up seven team and nine
Speaker 1: minutes left over the next two minutes, the Lakers gave
Speaker 1: up a ten oh run that turned it from a
Speaker 1: seventeen point game to a seven point game. But not
Speaker 1: only that, at that point, the Pacers had all the momentum.
Speaker 1: We're playing with ridiculous energy, and the Lakers engine was
Speaker 1: off and it's really hard to restart that engine after
Speaker 1: you've shut it off the way that you did. And
Speaker 1: the guy who was almost singlehandedly responsible for that ten
Speaker 1: oh run for the Pacers was Lebron James. So on
Speaker 1: the first possession, he's guarding aaron Nie Smith on the
Speaker 1: left wing, and um the uh. The Pacers run like
Speaker 1: a double screen with a dribble handoff at the end,
Speaker 1: and Lebron just literally concedes the three to aaron Nie Smith.
Speaker 1: Not only dies on the screen, makes absolutely no attempt
Speaker 1: to fight over it, doesn't signal or talk to any
Speaker 1: Laker to switch. He just walks into the screen and
Speaker 1: concedes the three to Aaronnie Smith. Aaronnie Smith is a
Speaker 1: professional basketball player. If you give him a wide open shot,
Speaker 1: he's probably gonna make it. And he did. And then
Speaker 1: next possession, Lebron's got the ball. On offense, he's posting
Speaker 1: up against t J McConnell on the on the right block. Okay,
Speaker 1: there's sixteen seconds on the shot clock. Now Pacers are
Speaker 1: packing the ain't but Lebron could have gotten to one
Speaker 1: of his more traditional two foot fade aways, or maybe
Speaker 1: tried to back him down towards the baseline where there
Speaker 1: was left help to try to take a hook shot. Instead,
Speaker 1: he takes a ridiculous So he's posting up on t
Speaker 1: J McConnell on the right block and their sixteen seconds
Speaker 1: on the shot clock, and instead of trying to work
Speaker 1: for something a little bit better. Lebron just kind of
Speaker 1: throws up a throwaway shot, like a one leg fade away,
Speaker 1: which the one like fade away is probably the toughest
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot that any player can take, mainly
Speaker 1: because you know, for the guys who made it really successful,
Speaker 1: guys like Uh, Dirk Novitski and Kevin Durant, they're so
Speaker 1: damn tall that they don't really need to fade all
Speaker 1: that much, so they're one leg. It fade away is
Speaker 1: more of a footwork thing that gets them a little
Speaker 1: tiny bit of separation, but they're mostly going straight up
Speaker 1: and down. But for almost every other player, especially guys
Speaker 1: like Russ and Lebron, who both took one like fade
Speaker 1: aways at the end of that game. For those for
Speaker 1: those guys, those one like fade aways are you have
Speaker 1: to really fall backwards and you're giving up your entire
Speaker 1: base and you're losing all of that momentum and uh
Speaker 1: and he ended up missing that shot, but so so
Speaker 1: he misses the one leg fade away against t J
Speaker 1: McConnell and then I I shoot you not the entire
Speaker 1: play is progressing down the other way. There's a little
Speaker 1: bit of a scrum, but the Pacers have control over
Speaker 1: the basketball in Lebron and doesn't just not run back
Speaker 1: on defense, he runs the other way. He was literally
Speaker 1: backing away towards the right corner on the opposite end
Speaker 1: of the floor, and uh, Bennedict mather ended up getting
Speaker 1: a layup. I'm literally watching. I couldn't believe what I
Speaker 1: was seen. And then two possessions later, he's doing a
Speaker 1: similar thing. He's posting up Aaronnie Smith on the left block.
Speaker 1: Bennedict mather In comes over and double teams him, and
Speaker 1: instead of making the kickout past to Troy Brown Jr.
Speaker 1: Who was wide open on the left wing, he takes
Speaker 1: a one leg fade away misses it. Aaron Knie Smith
Speaker 1: is right next to him. Aaronnie Smith was guarding him.
Speaker 1: Everyone goes down in transition, Everyone's matched up. Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: is guarding Tyler Tyrese Haliburton on the ball, Dennis shooters
Speaker 1: matched up on one wing, Troy Brown Jr. Is matched
Speaker 1: up on the other wing. When you Gabriel's matched up
Speaker 1: on on the center. I think it was Jalen Smith
Speaker 1: at that point, and Lebron's matched up on Aaronnie Smith
Speaker 1: and he's just aimlessly jogging back. Aaronnie Smith is relocating
Speaker 1: over to the left side of the floor. Lebron is
Speaker 1: on the right side of the loor, just not even
Speaker 1: paying attention. Next thing you know, there's a quick screen.
Speaker 1: Lebron doesn't see it. Nearly in time, Aaronnie Smith gets
Speaker 1: another wide open three, and guess what happens. It goes
Speaker 1: in partially because he got his rhythm on a wide
Speaker 1: open three that Lebron conceded to him a couple of
Speaker 1: possessions prior. Now, all of a sudden, that seventeen point
Speaker 1: lead is a seven point lead. Not only that, Indiana
Speaker 1: has all the momentum, everything's going their way, and now
Speaker 1: you're trying to regain momentum in a game where the
Speaker 1: Pacers are playing with a lot of fire, and then
Speaker 1: down the stretch, you could have gone either way. Like
Speaker 1: the Pacers came out with this like kind of half
Speaker 1: court pressure that forced a couple of turnovers and rushed
Speaker 1: the Lakers out of their offense and you know, some
Speaker 1: of its shot making. Lebron had a wide open catching
Speaker 1: shoot three at one point that he missed. He had
Speaker 1: a wide open pull up jumper along the right baseline
Speaker 1: at one point that he missed. There was a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff that just didn't go the Lakers way. But again,
Speaker 1: it's it called basketball, God's called karma college, just you know, momentum,
Speaker 1: call it whatever you want to call it. At that point,
Speaker 1: the Pacers were going to get those breaks, and they did,
Speaker 1: and they made the key plays to win that game. Now,
Speaker 1: as we're talking about Lebron, his struggles are expected. You know,
Speaker 1: I said this when he when he came back against
Speaker 1: the Spurs. I thought that he would. I thought he would, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, knock down some three point shots because he
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to work on his three point shot
Speaker 1: during the injury. Um. But I knew, I knew his
Speaker 1: legs weren't underneath them. His handle isn't as sharp as
Speaker 1: it could be. His pull up jumpers not as sharp
Speaker 1: as it could be. Because he's played three basketball games
Speaker 1: in the last twenty days. He's played three NBA basketball
Speaker 1: games in twenty days. So at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like like, you're not expecting him to come out and
Speaker 1: play great right away. But he needs to identify that
Speaker 1: and understand that at this particular point in time, he
Speaker 1: doesn't have it, and he might need to lean on
Speaker 1: his other skills that are not dependent on his rhythm,
Speaker 1: in his conditioning and his life strength. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: Lebron is one of the best decision makers in the
Speaker 1: history of basketball that doesn't depend on his rhythm or
Speaker 1: his conditioning or anything like that. That's just paying attention
Speaker 1: to what's happening. And then little things like not jogging
Speaker 1: back in transition defense or not even making an attempt
Speaker 1: to chase a shooter over the top of his screen.
Speaker 1: That stuff that's completely under your control. Not only that
Speaker 1: you are the leader, the best player in the leader
Speaker 1: on a team that is seven and eleven, has a
Speaker 1: ravenous fan base and title expectations. You're supposed to be
Speaker 1: the one guy they can count on, and you let
Speaker 1: go of the rope in some of the details of
Speaker 1: the game in a pivotal game of winnable game against
Speaker 1: the Pacers, and you blew a seventeen point lead down
Speaker 1: to seven, and you ended up ended up caution you
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, and so and it's
Speaker 1: one of those things where you know, you know, when
Speaker 1: I talked a lot about this with Russ undercutting your
Speaker 1: success with sloppy mistakes or laziness. The thing is is
Speaker 1: Russ has always done that stuff, and in the past
Speaker 1: he was so damn good as a nuclear athlete that
Speaker 1: the scale was so heavily in his favor. And it's
Speaker 1: the same kind of thing with Lebron. Lebron's had bad
Speaker 1: stretches of transition defense ever since he went to Cleveland.
Speaker 1: Lebron said, stretches of poor decision making as he takes
Speaker 1: bad shots and plays with poor pace ever since he
Speaker 1: went to Cleveland. The differences is from two thousand fifteen
Speaker 1: to two thousand twenty one and even a little bit.
Speaker 1: Last year he was one of the five best players
Speaker 1: in the world, and so he did so much good
Speaker 1: that you didn't hyper focus on that stuff. This season,
Speaker 1: Lebron has not played like a top ten player, and
Speaker 1: so all of a sudden, those mistakes they're not undercutting
Speaker 1: dominant nights, they're undercutting only okay nights. And now all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, that scale starting to tip into the
Speaker 1: negative for him. You know, you know, it's just in
Speaker 1: this I think that as he gets more games under
Speaker 1: his belt, he will play better. My big thing is
Speaker 1: I don't think Lebron has declined. I think he's been
Speaker 1: injured so much that he can't find his rhythm. I
Speaker 1: think if he can stay on the court for a month,
Speaker 1: he'll get it back. I was I was talking um
Speaker 1: just some Laker fans this morning about this specifically, and
Speaker 1: my target numbers fifteen games. I want to see Lebron
Speaker 1: get fifteen games in a row. Last time he played
Speaker 1: fifteen games in a row is last year. He played
Speaker 1: twenty five in a row. Over the last seventeen games.
Speaker 1: In that stretch, he averaged thirty three points, nine rebounds,
Speaker 1: and six assists on fifty pcent shooting. I think it's
Speaker 1: still in there, But the question is can he stay
Speaker 1: healthy long enough for him to get to that point?
Speaker 1: And I don't know, we're gonna find out. But in
Speaker 1: the meantime, if he if he knows deep down that
Speaker 1: he doesn't have that top tier shot making, that he
Speaker 1: doesn't have his pull up jump shot where it needs
Speaker 1: to be, he needs to lean on his decision making
Speaker 1: and his basketball i Q and his ability to make
Speaker 1: plays as an athlete on the defensive end and on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor. Maybe work a little
Speaker 1: bit more out of face up, Maybe work a little
Speaker 1: bit more out of the post and force feed Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis as much as possible and lean on him to
Speaker 1: carry you during those stretches of the game. Um, everything
Speaker 1: depends on him being great. He needs time to get there,
Speaker 1: so in the meantime he just needs to play smarter
Speaker 1: and more discipline basketball. Alright, guys, I I really appreciate
Speaker 1: all of you for sticking around. I apologize for the
Speaker 1: technical difficulties. I'm not sure what's going on. We will
Speaker 1: try to figure that out. We were going to get
Speaker 1: to the Pacers, and we were gonna get to the Timberwolves,
Speaker 1: but we'll figure out a different way to get that
Speaker 1: to you. Guys. We're gonna wrap it right now. As always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate your support and I'll see you guys
Speaker 1: next time. The volume