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Speaker 1: at the volume. Have you Wednesday? Everybody? Hope all of
Speaker 1: you guys are having an incredible week on a fun
Speaker 1: show for you guys. This morning, we're going to number
Speaker 1: five and number four of our contender rankings. Happens to
Speaker 1: be two teams that had a showdown last night, an
Speaker 1: absolute and complete ass kicking by the Los Angeles Clippers
Speaker 1: of the Phoenix Suns. For those of you guys interested
Speaker 1: in that specific game, we are going to be doing
Speaker 1: a full film breakdown. I have seventeen clips from the
Speaker 1: thirty five to four run from the Clippers to start
Speaker 1: that game. We're gonna break it all down. But because
Speaker 1: of the podcast audience We're trying to order this in
Speaker 1: a way to where audio stuff is at the front,
Speaker 1: and don't worry, we'll end up running it as a
Speaker 1: breakout clip anyway. But we're gonna lead with our contender
Speaker 1: rankings five and then four, and then the tail end
Speaker 1: of the show, we're going to be doing a deep
Speaker 1: dive in the film of the Clippers ass kicking of
Speaker 1: the Suns from last night. You guys are the joke
Speaker 1: before we get started. Subscribe to our brand of YouTube
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Speaker 1: miss any show announcements or film threads that I do
Speaker 1: from time to time. Last but not out leaves, keep
Speaker 1: dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. We are
Speaker 1: going to be doing a mail bag during tomorrow's show.
Speaker 1: And on that note, let's talk some basketball. So number five,
Speaker 1: I have the Phoenix Suns. I have the Clippers, the MAVs,
Speaker 1: and the Suns kind of all in the same kind
Speaker 1: of grouping, and it's funky because I think the Suns
Speaker 1: are the worst team of that group, but I also
Speaker 1: think they have the best matchup advantages to potentially beat Denver.
Speaker 1: So once again, like I said at the beginning of
Speaker 1: this contender list, I kind of view three through nine
Speaker 1: as all kind of bunched up to begin with, and
Speaker 1: most of it's gonna come down to who plays who.
Speaker 1: For instance, I think the Clippers are a better basketball
Speaker 1: team than the Suns, but they have the most likely
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks in the first round, and then if
Speaker 1: Denver beats Minnesota tonight, they're gonna have to turn around
Speaker 1: and play Denver right after that. So it might be
Speaker 1: one of those things where the Suns just get better
Speaker 1: matchups if they get out of this mess, and maybe
Speaker 1: they end up making it farther anyway, So when it
Speaker 1: comes to this group of teams, this three through nine
Speaker 1: on my list, it really just has to do with
Speaker 1: who they end up playing to begin with, So keep
Speaker 1: that in mind. But obviously got the Suns at number five.
Speaker 1: They're forty six thirty three right now, currently the seventh
Speaker 1: seed in the Western Conference. They are tenth in offensive
Speaker 1: rating for the season, thirteenth in defensive rating for the season,
Speaker 1: twentieth in defensive rebounding. Although they are a good offensive
Speaker 1: rebounding team, they're tenth in offensive rebounding. A big part
Speaker 1: of that is they're just so good at getting defenses
Speaker 1: into rotation, and like I talk about a lot on
Speaker 1: the show, get the defense into rotation, your rebounding matchups
Speaker 1: aren't as solid. You're kind of chasing people around, you
Speaker 1: have a clear box out in front of you, and
Speaker 1: so you can give up a lot offensive rebounds in
Speaker 1: those situations. They're strengths again, like we are gonna do
Speaker 1: with this team exactly what we do with the other
Speaker 1: teams in this list, strengths, weaknesses, and then what their
Speaker 1: playoff path looks like. So they have the best drive
Speaker 1: and kick game in the league in my opinion, when
Speaker 1: they play advantage basketball, which is not every night, they're
Speaker 1: a little bit We're gonna talk about this in a
Speaker 1: little bit. The Suns are, in my opinion, like the
Speaker 1: most inconsistent team of all these good teams on this list.
Speaker 1: They're ceiling in floora pretty far apart. It's a big
Speaker 1: part of why they've been had so many questionable losses.
Speaker 1: This year. For example, they have ten losses this year
Speaker 1: against teams that are below five hundred. That's more than
Speaker 1: anybody in the top ten in the Western Conference. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, it's to give you some perspective.
Speaker 1: Utah Jazz have eleven losses to teams that are below
Speaker 1: five hundred. So we've seen a lot of good and
Speaker 1: bad basketball from the Suns, which kind of poisons the data.
Speaker 1: And what makes it complicated because we're thinking about them
Speaker 1: in terms of their ceiling, but we know that they're
Speaker 1: capable of nights like last night as well. But when
Speaker 1: they play advantage basketball, and what I mean by that
Speaker 1: is the Stars actually taking it seriously just to get
Speaker 1: the defense in rotation rather than tough shot making and
Speaker 1: play advantage basketball off of that, they can be very good.
Speaker 1: I look at offense as a three step process. One
Speaker 1: advantage creation that means drawing multiple defenders to the ball
Speaker 1: and creating a closeout opportunity somewhere on the floor. Step
Speaker 1: two advantage extending. That's taking that close out opportunity and
Speaker 1: driving it to generate an even better close out opportunity
Speaker 1: or an opportunity to finish the play. That third step
Speaker 1: play finishing. That's your vertical spacer under the rim, who's
Speaker 1: either dunking a lob or dunking out of the dunker spot.
Speaker 1: That's your guy catching and knocking down a three point
Speaker 1: shot on the weak side. That's your guy, you know,
Speaker 1: against an elite defense that's doing a good job of
Speaker 1: chasing you off the line and defending the rim. That's
Speaker 1: the guy that can you know, pump, fake and rip
Speaker 1: through and hit a wonderable pull up in a soft
Speaker 1: spot in the middle of the defense. Those are the
Speaker 1: three steps, and the Suns have really good players in
Speaker 1: all three groups. They have three guys that can consistently
Speaker 1: get the defense in rotation in Bradley Beal, Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant. A fourth and use of Nurkics, which
Speaker 1: we've talked about in our video film sessions. Again, we
Speaker 1: did a whole film session on the Sun's advantage creation
Speaker 1: basketball in last week's episodes to make sure you go
Speaker 1: back in the feed and look for that if you're
Speaker 1: looking for more visible examples. But they have a lot
Speaker 1: of guys that can get the defense in rotation, and
Speaker 1: Nurkic is one of them. Switch a pick and roll
Speaker 1: toss it down to the post against a guard, he's
Speaker 1: gonna draw that second defender and they can play off
Speaker 1: of that advantage. Extending to me, they've got a lot
Speaker 1: of guys that can take a close out opportunity and
Speaker 1: turn it into something better. All of the stars who
Speaker 1: get tons of opportunities off the ball, Grayson Allen's great
Speaker 1: at it as well, and then play finishing. There's literally
Speaker 1: a ton of that all over the four. All their
Speaker 1: role players that are in the rotation when they're healthy
Speaker 1: can shoot. They can really spread you out and pick
Speaker 1: you to pieces like that. Again, it's just about whether
Speaker 1: or not they're diligent enough to do it with consistency.
Speaker 1: Another strength they have a lot of foot speed on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. That's the strength of this group from an
Speaker 1: athletic standpoint. They've got length and speed. They're not an
Speaker 1: overly strong group. They're not an overly tall group, but
Speaker 1: they have strength and speed, and so when they're engaged
Speaker 1: defensively they can be very good, which we'll talk about
Speaker 1: in a little bit. They also have a plethora of
Speaker 1: star talent to squeeze something out of nothing. They've been
Speaker 1: the most efficient pull up shooting team in the league.
Speaker 1: This year, they get one point zero five points per
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot. That is number one in the NBA.
Speaker 1: That's a great ceiling razor rescue possessions. That means, you know,
Speaker 1: six seconds on the shot clock, your primary actions got
Speaker 1: shut down. There's not enough time to run something else.
Speaker 1: Somebody's just got to go create a bucket off the bounce.
Speaker 1: The Suns are great at that coverage beaters. That means
Speaker 1: like if they are defending a pick and roll two
Speaker 1: on two and they are running a deep drop coverage
Speaker 1: and staying glued off the ball to stay out of rotation,
Speaker 1: they have guys that can set their man up on
Speaker 1: the ball screen, get them trapped on the other side,
Speaker 1: get down to a spot, you know, whether it's at
Speaker 1: the three point line or just inside the three point line,
Speaker 1: and they can get a quality jump shot. There will
Speaker 1: be It's very possible, at least for stretches. Denver, for instance,
Speaker 1: is a team that could potentially do this to them
Speaker 1: if they run into if they happen to get the
Speaker 1: seven seed out of the play in tournament, and let's
Speaker 1: say Denver loses to Minnesota tonight and it ends up
Speaker 1: being Denver Phoenix We've seen Denver show for stretches that
Speaker 1: they're willing to kind of concede those types of those
Speaker 1: types of mid rangs, pull up jump shots for KD
Speaker 1: and Devin Booker, those are coverage beaters, and we know
Speaker 1: the Suns are capable of hitting those. We literally saw
Speaker 1: them do it against Denver at points in the past.
Speaker 1: And then lastly, late game shot making again another great
Speaker 1: example from the Nuggets game. Just you do everything right
Speaker 1: all game long, but you know Katie hits a big
Speaker 1: pull up three over the top of Aaron Gordon, makes
Speaker 1: a couple more in ot and you end up losing. Right.
Speaker 1: So that's a strength of this rosters. They've got a
Speaker 1: lot of top end talent that can convert those. Again,
Speaker 1: the rescue possessions, coverage beaters, and late game shot making. Also,
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel is a very good defensive coach who excels
Speaker 1: at scouting and adjusting to opposing offense. This is something
Speaker 1: I noticed firsthand rooting for him when he was the
Speaker 1: coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. The fallout with Frank
Speaker 1: Vogel and the Lakers pretty much stemmed around by in
Speaker 1: and just like them hearing the same voice for too
Speaker 1: long and the Lakers Stars particularly just tuning Frank Vogel out.
Speaker 1: That was why he had to go. I always thought
Speaker 1: that Frank Vogel was a good coach, even if he
Speaker 1: could be stubborn with some of his personnel decisions from
Speaker 1: time to time. And then lastly, use of Nurkics. I
Speaker 1: know it doesn't seem like much, and honestly, before the season,
Speaker 1: I'll freely admit I was one of the guy that
Speaker 1: was wrong about this deal just because I thought Deandratan
Speaker 1: was a more talented basketball player, and there's a case
Speaker 1: to be made that Deandraytan would be a better option.
Speaker 1: And just about every situation except for this particular Denver matchup,
Speaker 1: use of Nurkic just does a really nice job with
Speaker 1: his size battling Jokic off of positions and making things
Speaker 1: more difficult for them. There's also been a you know,
Speaker 1: even beyond the Jokic matchup, he's been really good just
Speaker 1: as a connective piece for them offensively. But in this
Speaker 1: particular case, I'm leaving him in as a strength for
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets matchup. I think his size is a
Speaker 1: legit asset that a lot of teams in the Western
Speaker 1: Conference do not have for that specific matchup. Now, they're weaknesses,
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about some specifics, but the major weakness
Speaker 1: this team has is exactly what you saw last night.
Speaker 1: They are not a very physically imposing roster, like we
Speaker 1: talked about. They have some speed, they have some length,
Speaker 1: but they are not a strong team, especially without use
Speaker 1: of Nurkic like the last night. Obviously Nurkic did not play,
Speaker 1: but even with Nurkice, they're not a physically strong team.
Speaker 1: And when you punch them in the mouth with physicality,
Speaker 1: they can stagger a bit and they can lose their mojo.
Speaker 1: We saw something very similar from the same kind of
Speaker 1: Clippers set up last year in the first round before
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard got hurt. They went into that playoff series
Speaker 1: as the more talented team. The Clippers just mucked it
Speaker 1: up right away when they got into that first round
Speaker 1: series and stole a game off of them, and then
Speaker 1: obviously Kawhi gets hurt in Game two. But like to
Speaker 1: put it simply, basketball is pretty. It's a pretty game,
Speaker 1: especially with the Sun, especially with all their offensive skill
Speaker 1: that they have. But it's pretty until it's not and
Speaker 1: then it evolves into something else. It becomes about toughness
Speaker 1: and fight and motor and execution. It gets ugly, it
Speaker 1: becomes a rock fight. And the Sons are capable of
Speaker 1: playing in that type of style, but it doesn't come
Speaker 1: naturally to them, and so they can be very inconsistent
Speaker 1: in those types of games. Like I talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: one of the largest gaps in the league between their
Speaker 1: floor and their ceiling, and that concerns me if they
Speaker 1: run into a tough, physical type of matchup, for instance,
Speaker 1: of a we talked about the Denver matchup. They have
Speaker 1: succeeded in that group when they can spread them out
Speaker 1: and obviously with the matchup of nurkichon Jokich, but they've
Speaker 1: also struggled when Denver's been able to strangle the game,
Speaker 1: tie things down into the half court, and out execute them,
Speaker 1: leading into that Kevin Durant pull up jump shot. I
Speaker 1: think it was a twelve ozho run from the Nuggets
Speaker 1: in that first matchup where the Suns won in overtime
Speaker 1: is a twelve oh run where Denver kind of played
Speaker 1: bullyball on them, and that can be a weakness for them.
Speaker 1: A couple of specifics when it comes down to their
Speaker 1: struggles in physicality. They don't defensive rebound well. They're twentieth
Speaker 1: in defensive rebound percentage. They are twenty seventh in points
Speaker 1: in the paint scored per one hundred possessions. They do
Speaker 1: not score baskets easily inside the painted area. They take
Speaker 1: the third most jump shots per possession in the league,
Speaker 1: so they are a jump shot variance type of team.
Speaker 1: They do not have a defensive strong point. This is
Speaker 1: something I was looking at today, which is concerning twentieth
Speaker 1: and three pointers made allowed per one hundred possessions, fifteenth
Speaker 1: in points in the paint allowed per one hundred possessions,
Speaker 1: So they don't guard the three or the paint particularly well.
Speaker 1: They are not good at defensive rebounding like you mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: and they are not good in transition defense. So those
Speaker 1: are their weaknesses. Their pathway got to be able to
Speaker 1: hold up in rock fight basketball and match physicality, so
Speaker 1: they do. Their talent can shine through, but that's definitely
Speaker 1: like we talked about earlier, weakness got to play advantage basketball.
Speaker 1: I want to see their assist percentage in the postseason
Speaker 1: in the mid sixties instead of in the high fifties.
Speaker 1: That to me is a strong indicator of the style
Speaker 1: of basketball that they're playing. If they lean on just
Speaker 1: top tough shot making, they're gonna go cold and they're
Speaker 1: gonna lose. But if they play advantage basketball and they
Speaker 1: spread teams out and get great shots, they have a
Speaker 1: really good chance to go on a run. And then lastly,
Speaker 1: they need an all time defensive run from Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1: He is the one guy on this team that has
Speaker 1: the supreme athletic gifts to really impact the game defensively
Speaker 1: regardless of matchup. It's a lot of pressure on him,
Speaker 1: but it's what they need him to do. Number four
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Clippers the fifty one and twenty eight
Speaker 1: fourth in the Western Conference and a third in offense,
Speaker 1: fifteenth in defense, twenty third in defensive rebounding. Their strengths
Speaker 1: positional strength, and by strength I mean literally physical strength.
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard, big strong forward who can really be handsy
Speaker 1: and physical and cause problems for players if he can.
Speaker 1: Zubach at the center position is very much that Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: Once again, you saw last night the type of wrecking
Speaker 1: ball he can be physically because of his size and
Speaker 1: strength at the guard position. And then Terrence Man started
Speaker 1: the game on Devin Booker last night and did an
Speaker 1: incredible job with his physicality. Again, we're gonna dig into
Speaker 1: the film here. I've got a film session on the
Speaker 1: Clipper Sons game that we're gonna go over right after
Speaker 1: this particular segment. And so if you haven't seen that yet,
Speaker 1: you can either check out the breakout Clipper, you can
Speaker 1: hang around. It'll be up here in a minute. They
Speaker 1: put their hands on you and they make everything in
Speaker 1: pain in the ass, and when they're locked in as
Speaker 1: a switching defense, they can really stagnate you and bully
Speaker 1: you like you get stuck on an island with the Kawhi,
Speaker 1: with the Zubas, with the Russ with the Terrence Man.
Speaker 1: And they're just physical. They're handsy, they keep you in
Speaker 1: front and they make you uncomfortable, and they can be
Speaker 1: really good defensively when that shines through. They're a very
Speaker 1: good three point shooting team. They don't take a ton
Speaker 1: of them because they take so many mid range jump shots,
Speaker 1: but they're very accurate when they do. They're the fourth
Speaker 1: highest three point percentage in the league. They're good at
Speaker 1: forcing turnovers and running. This is like they're not a transition,
Speaker 1: push paced team. They do when Russ plays and use
Speaker 1: not a lot of that last night, where like Russ,
Speaker 1: we'll just get a defensive rebound and just really bring
Speaker 1: the ball up the floor with verve and kind of
Speaker 1: get them set into the half court quickly. But they
Speaker 1: don't really do that for the most part over the
Speaker 1: course of the large sample, especially when James Harden is
Speaker 1: on the floor. But they do get a lot of steals,
Speaker 1: and they do get a lot of transition opportunities off
Speaker 1: of those steals. So they are seventh in steals per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions and seventh in transition frequency per cleaning
Speaker 1: the glass, and they're also eight in transition efficiency. So
Speaker 1: they get steals, they run, they get baskets out of
Speaker 1: that couple of examples from the Sun's game last night
Speaker 1: that you guys will see here in just a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes. Paul George is getting hot at the right time.
Speaker 1: Twenty five points, five rebounds, and four assists per game
Speaker 1: in his last fifteen games. Check this out. Fifty two
Speaker 1: percent from the field, forty eight percent from three to
Speaker 1: ninety seven percent from the line, that's about as preposterous
Speaker 1: efficiency as you could hope to see from a volume
Speaker 1: score like that. And then Kawhi Leonard if he's healthy.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, he's one of the top five playoff
Speaker 1: players in the league. I think you're taking Jokic one,
Speaker 1: and then it's probably Luca two, Luka Jyannis in that mix,
Speaker 1: and then it's Kawhi and like you know, like you
Speaker 1: can make a case Kawai's ahead of Luca and Janis
Speaker 1: if you want to, but he's certainly in the top
Speaker 1: four there of playoff players when you get into this
Speaker 1: kind of physical environment. The reality is his combination of
Speaker 1: size and strength and footwork. Like I talked about, footwork
Speaker 1: is the skill element of getting to spots. It makes
Speaker 1: it impossible to stop him from getting to his spots,
Speaker 1: and that translates even as the physicality increases in these
Speaker 1: playoff environments. It's a big part of what makes him
Speaker 1: one of the best playoff players in the league. He
Speaker 1: can just get to spots ten to fifteen feet away
Speaker 1: from the basket and get really easy shots pretty consistently.
Speaker 1: Clipper's weaknesses not a very fast team. They do have
Speaker 1: fast players, right like Terrence Man super fast, Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: super fast, but their advantage is more from a personnel
Speaker 1: standpoint in strength and length. They are not a great
Speaker 1: straight line speed type of team. If you look at
Speaker 1: their starters, four of their starters are not overly fast.
Speaker 1: James Harden pretty slow. If you get Zubats pretty slow,
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard, he's a power player, he's not a straight
Speaker 1: line speed player. And then Paul George at thirty four
Speaker 1: years old, is not the fastest guy in the world either,
Speaker 1: and he's more of a finesse, over the top type
Speaker 1: of shot maker. Right. He's not a guy that's just
Speaker 1: bringing overwhelming straight line speed to the table. And so
Speaker 1: we see that weakness manifest in a bunch of specific areas.
Speaker 1: First of all, they're a terrible transition defense. They have
Speaker 1: the eighth worst transition frequency allowed per cleaning the glass
Speaker 1: and the fifth worst transition efficiency allowed. They also don't
Speaker 1: put a lot of pressure on the rim in the
Speaker 1: half court. Most of their points in the paint come
Speaker 1: in runouts in transition. This is not a team that
Speaker 1: is just slashing to the basket and getting easy layups
Speaker 1: like that. It'll be interesting to see how much Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook plays when they get in the postseason. That's something
Speaker 1: I have in my path segment is like if James Harden,
Speaker 1: who by the way, is not playing well as of late,
Speaker 1: if he falls apart in the postseason and they lean
Speaker 1: into Russ, Russ could be a guy who brings some
Speaker 1: of that rim pressure to address that specific issue. But
Speaker 1: with their starting group, they don't put a lot of
Speaker 1: pressure on the rim in the half court. They also
Speaker 1: can get beat to loose balls and long rebounds as
Speaker 1: a result of their lack of foot speed. So that's
Speaker 1: why they're a bad defensive rebounding team. That's why they
Speaker 1: don't force to turn the turnovers their twentieth and turnovers
Speaker 1: forced per one hundred possessions. Again, they get steals on
Speaker 1: the ball with their physicality, but they're not a passing
Speaker 1: lane type of team. They're not like the Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: Thunder jumping passing lanes and getting out. It's mostly just
Speaker 1: physical on the ball. Russ and Kwhi snatching the ball
Speaker 1: away from you, Terrence Man snatching the ball away from
Speaker 1: you and running out the other way. They're high steels team,
Speaker 1: but not a high turnover team like that. Teams that
Speaker 1: are typically really good at forcing turnovers, are super fast,
Speaker 1: right like Oklahoma City is number one and turnovers force
Speaker 1: per one hundre possessions. Blazing fast team. The Orlando Magic
Speaker 1: are second in forcing turnovers. They have really fast and
Speaker 1: physical on the ball defenders, and then Memphis is third.
Speaker 1: So young and fast is typically what forces a turn
Speaker 1: of turnovers. The Clippers are not that type of team.
Speaker 1: They're also a little bit jump shot reliant. They're eighth
Speaker 1: in jump shot frequency, first in pull up jump shot frequency.
Speaker 1: We've seen them go cold, namely in the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: season as pull up jump shooters. But they are a
Speaker 1: little bit susceptible to variants when it comes to that
Speaker 1: jump shooting, especially against teams that have real length that
Speaker 1: can offer contests without fouling. And then lastly, is Kawhi
Speaker 1: going to be healthy and ready to go? Like obviously
Speaker 1: he's sitting out right now. We don't have any word,
Speaker 1: you know, how it is with Kawhi's camp. Whenever he
Speaker 1: gets hurt, it's just it's just like batting up the
Speaker 1: hatches and no one tells anybody anything. And so we'll
Speaker 1: see what ends up happening. But obviously Kawhi is a
Speaker 1: history of falling apart physically when he gets into the postseason.
Speaker 1: His last two playoff runs that he played, he broke
Speaker 1: down before he could get to the finish line. Now
Speaker 1: he's breaking down. He's not even there yet, So that
Speaker 1: obviously is a potential weakness. To keep in mind. Their
Speaker 1: path very simple. Kawhi has to be healthy and play
Speaker 1: like Kawhi. Tylu has to really manage that James Harden
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook dynamic. It's interesting because, like guys, you guys know,
Speaker 1: I'm not a huge Russell Westbrook fan, but like, weirdly enough,
Speaker 1: in the postseason, his effectiveness goes up a level just
Speaker 1: because he's such a freak athlete and in that physical
Speaker 1: environment he can really be impactful, especially if he's on
Speaker 1: the ball, because it's gonna be a little bit tricky
Speaker 1: and uh, we're gonna show some examples, but he can
Speaker 1: be a little bit of an aggressive off ball defender
Speaker 1: that can make some mistakes off the ball. But James
Speaker 1: Harden can fall apart in in my opinion, worst ways
Speaker 1: than what Russell Westbrook can fall apart doing. And so
Speaker 1: even though there will be some spacing concerns, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be an interesting dynamic for Tylou to kind of measure
Speaker 1: where it's like, oh, this is a Russ series, or
Speaker 1: this is a Ross game versus oh, this is a
Speaker 1: James Harden series, or this is a James Harden game.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be the type of balance he's gonna have
Speaker 1: to strike. The need to shoot the ball well obviously,
Speaker 1: and then the big thing is gonna be matchups for them.
Speaker 1: They got to find a way to get through Luca
Speaker 1: and nikolea Jokic. Tonight, the Timberwolves go to Denver. If
Speaker 1: Denver wins that game, which they'll be favored, and obviously
Speaker 1: depends on if all the stars play. But let's say
Speaker 1: Denver plays their guys and they win, then it's probably
Speaker 1: going to be Clippers MAVs in the first round. And
Speaker 1: Luca has consistently given the Clippers issues in the postseason,
Speaker 1: even though the Clippers have escaped those series, those were
Speaker 1: limited in terms of talent. Clippers teams that push them
Speaker 1: to the brink consistently, and then if they happen to
Speaker 1: beat Dallas, waiting for them on the other side will
Speaker 1: be the Denver Nuggets, And so matchups are going to
Speaker 1: be tough. For them. It's kind of a pain in
Speaker 1: the butt for the Clippers. It's like, you have this
Speaker 1: great regular season, you finish fourth in the Western Conference,
Speaker 1: and your reward is just a preposterously difficult playoff path.
Speaker 1: But hey, that's what the Western Conference is at this point.
Speaker 1: So I have the Clippers at number four. We have
Speaker 1: three more that we're gonna be hitting, probably gonna hit
Speaker 1: all of them tomorrow in all likelihood. You guys can
Speaker 1: probably guess what the order is going to be if
Speaker 1: you've listened to me this season. But that's where we're
Speaker 1: at at this point. All right, let's head over to
Speaker 1: the film. I've titled this segment the Anatomy of an
Speaker 1: ass Kicking. So the Clippers got off to a thirty
Speaker 1: five to four start against the Suns. We're gonna look
Speaker 1: at these specifics here on some film, all right. So
Speaker 1: first we're gonna go over the main coverage issue that
Speaker 1: Phoenix was having with the Clippers, And the main coverage
Speaker 1: issue was they were, on account of Paul George being
Speaker 1: such a good pull up jump shooter, they were hedging
Speaker 1: and recovering on ball screens. So here we have Grayson
Speaker 1: Allen guarding Paul George. We have Zubach getting ready to
Speaker 1: set the screen use of nurkic or excuse me, Drew
Speaker 1: you banks again. What his job here is with the
Speaker 1: hedge and recover is to stop Paul George from making
Speaker 1: a drive to his left hand side and then recover inside.
Speaker 1: But Paul George is beating it and Zubach is beating
Speaker 1: it just with the basic slip. So what we're gonna
Speaker 1: see here, We're gonna see. We're gonna see Zuboch step
Speaker 1: out and as he steps out the lunch step, Paul
Speaker 1: George picks up his dribble immediately. There's not a lot
Speaker 1: of length on the ball to disrupt this pass, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: so it's a really easy over the top pass to
Speaker 1: Zubach slipping down the lane. He's gonna slip and that's
Speaker 1: Bradley Beale waiting for him at the rim. It's just
Speaker 1: not enough size in that case. He misses this layup,
Speaker 1: but again he's just too big for all these guys
Speaker 1: down low, and he's able to clean it up and
Speaker 1: get another offensive rebound. Same exact sort of thing here
Speaker 1: off of the KD miss free throw is doomed from
Speaker 1: the start and miss first two free throws. Just a
Speaker 1: weird game for the Suns. But here we go, same
Speaker 1: exact sort of thing. We got KD on the ball
Speaker 1: this time, so more length on the ball. You Banks
Speaker 1: is guarding Zubach, We're gonna get another slip, and again
Speaker 1: Kd's got to do a better job with active hands
Speaker 1: here Again when we talk about the defense getting into rotation,
Speaker 1: if you make this pass difficult, this pass to the slipper,
Speaker 1: if you make it difficult, he might fumble it. It
Speaker 1: might be harder for him to make a playout of it.
Speaker 1: But if you just let him easily get a catch
Speaker 1: on the slip, same sort of hedge from U Banks.
Speaker 1: If you let him easily get a catch, then your compromise.
Speaker 1: He comes downhill. Grayson Allen is tagging off of Norman
Speaker 1: Powell here in the left corner, and Norman Powell just
Speaker 1: cuts along the baseline and gets an easy dunk. So
Speaker 1: as you can see, the main coverage issue that the
Speaker 1: Sons were dealing with at the beginning of the game
Speaker 1: was they were hedging and getting giving up easy slips
Speaker 1: on the back end. This is a great example of
Speaker 1: individual defense from Terrence Mann leading to defensive playmaking from Russ,
Speaker 1: So I cut this play with the transition sequence so
Speaker 1: that we can see Russ's dunk. But on this play,
Speaker 1: Terrence Man is doing what's called top locking. So u
Speaker 1: Banks has the ball. Then Grayson Allen is setting a
Speaker 1: pin down on Devin book on Terrence Man to get
Speaker 1: help Devin Booker get open, and then Devin Booker is
Speaker 1: gonna come all the way around this dribble handoff from
Speaker 1: you Banks. See how Terrence Man has positioned himself between
Speaker 1: Booker and the screen. It's called top locking. He's refusing
Speaker 1: the use of the screen, and Zubach is there to
Speaker 1: help on a back door cut because Drew you Banks
Speaker 1: is a non shooter. Now, Devin Booker does eventually get
Speaker 1: around him, but it's more difficult, right, He's been dealing
Speaker 1: with a physical aggressive play from Terrence Man that is
Speaker 1: now going to cause Devin Booker to rush the sequence.
Speaker 1: Terrence Man recovers and now he's locking and trailing. He's
Speaker 1: right behind him, right, So this is a pretty easy
Speaker 1: read for Devin Booker as he comes down here. Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook is digging down with what's called nail help because
Speaker 1: he's coming down off the wing to the nail to
Speaker 1: help if he just takes his time and makes this
Speaker 1: over the top kick to Bradley Beal. Now we're in rotation.
Speaker 1: We have a baked in driving lane ripped through to
Speaker 1: the right that is almost certainly going to draw Paul
Speaker 1: George in help, which is going to generate a wide
Speaker 1: open three for Kevin Durant. But instead, and I attribute
Speaker 1: this to Terrence Man, Devin Booker's rushing and he just
Speaker 1: throws a lazy swing pass that gets easily stolen and
Speaker 1: taken the other way for a dunk. That's an example
Speaker 1: of making an offensive player uncomfortable with physical ball pressure.
Speaker 1: So moving onto our next clip, we're gonna get another
Speaker 1: example of extra efforts from the Clippers. First, as Grayson
Speaker 1: Allen is running out on this transition possession, Norman Palell
Speaker 1: is gonna make an effort to make Grayson Allen change
Speaker 1: his shot. That effort forces him to shoot a tougher
Speaker 1: up and under layup. But watch Terrence Man bringing the
Speaker 1: physicality to the situation. Kevin Durant has inside position. All
Speaker 1: he has to do is squat down loan in a
Speaker 1: box out and hold his ground. But he's too passive
Speaker 1: Terrence Man just goes right through room, shoves him, taps
Speaker 1: out the rebound, and again you're gonna be like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's an over the back foul. Not the postseason. It's
Speaker 1: not that shit's allowed all the time. Like I was
Speaker 1: talking about in our power ranking segment, these games they
Speaker 1: get physical, they turn into rock fights. The Clippers are punching.
Speaker 1: What you're seeing right now is you were watching the
Speaker 1: Clippers punch the Suns in the mouth and them just
Speaker 1: sit there and take it. And that's the reality of
Speaker 1: this type of physical type of game. The tap out
Speaker 1: goes to Paul George. Paul George just confidently walks into
Speaker 1: a pull up three point shot. Another hedge in recover sequence,
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook on the ball, Bradley Beal defending him. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get our ball screen. Excuse me, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: Paul George with Kevin Durant on him. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: the ball screen with U Banks. Another hedge. On the hedge,
Speaker 1: Zuboch is slipping, but he's a little bit late to
Speaker 1: get back, which brings Devin Booker into the lane here.
Speaker 1: So we get another one. Another hedge, this time U
Speaker 1: Banks is a little further out, Zuboch is gonna slip
Speaker 1: into the middle of the lane because of this slip.
Speaker 1: So remember when we typically are in a drop coverage're
Speaker 1: running what's called no roller behind, which means his job
Speaker 1: is to stay further back and keep Zubach in front
Speaker 1: so that Devin Booker can stay in a position to
Speaker 1: close out. But because he's hedging, the roller is getting behind.
Speaker 1: When the roller does get behind, you have to tag.
Speaker 1: When there's a tag that's gonna leave an open shooter
Speaker 1: on the weak side. Paul George makes a really nice
Speaker 1: read here because Bradley Beal is helping down off the
Speaker 1: nail and leaving Russell Westbrook open. Russell makes the extra
Speaker 1: pass to Terrence Man in the corner and he knocks
Speaker 1: down the three. So once again, that's our third example
Speaker 1: here in the opening sequence in just two and a
Speaker 1: half minutes of basketball of that hedge and recover scheme,
Speaker 1: Burning Phoenix, here's a great example of incredible individual defense
Speaker 1: by Terrence Man on Devin Booker once again physical from
Speaker 1: the start. Watch, Okay, Terrence Man identifies this action is
Speaker 1: for him. We're gonna get the exact same sequence we
Speaker 1: saw earlier. A pinned down from Grayson Allen on to
Speaker 1: Terrence Man in a dribble handoff from you Banks kind
Speaker 1: of coming over to this side this time though, We're
Speaker 1: not gonna get nail help from Paul George. He's gonna
Speaker 1: stay home on Bradley Beal. So as Bradley Beal comes through,
Speaker 1: or as Devin Booker fights over the top, look at
Speaker 1: Terrence Man stay attached over the top of the screen.
Speaker 1: Look at this individual defense here, Chase Chase, Chase, slide
Speaker 1: back in front. He gets back in front and gets
Speaker 1: a great contest on Devin Booker. That's outstanding individual defense.
Speaker 1: It's by Terrence Mann. And again to be clear, we
Speaker 1: know Devin Booker can handle that type of defense. We
Speaker 1: know Devin Booker can make that shot. But this is
Speaker 1: how you help lead a player into the lesser efficient outcomes.
Speaker 1: This is how you control your destiny and make it
Speaker 1: more likely that he's having an off night. Here's a
Speaker 1: possession from earlier in the game with a similar back
Speaker 1: pressure applied by Russell Westbrook ball screen. Bradley Beal is
Speaker 1: going downhill, He's got a head of steam. Russ just
Speaker 1: gets over the top. He has one job make Bradley Beal.
Speaker 1: Think about him coming there over the top gets a
Speaker 1: good final contest. That's how you prevent an offensive player
Speaker 1: from getting comfortable. Here's an example of how switching can
Speaker 1: stagnate a defense or stagnated offense. So again, we have
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook on Kevin Durant, we have Norman Powell on
Speaker 1: Great Allen. Now it's a switch. Now Norman Powell is
Speaker 1: on KD and Russell Westbrook is on Grayson Allen. So
Speaker 1: whatever little action they were running, that action is now over.
Speaker 1: Now U Banks is going to set a pin down
Speaker 1: on Norman Powell. Problem is they don't want Zubotch to
Speaker 1: switch onto KD. So this is kind of like just
Speaker 1: an example of a smart pre switch. Instead, they just
Speaker 1: have Russell Westbrook switch back out onto KD so that
Speaker 1: Norman Powell can switch back out onto Grayson Allen and
Speaker 1: Zuboch can say stay on you Banks. So smart little
Speaker 1: switching scheme to shut down that action. Now KD comes
Speaker 1: up to set the ball screen. Russ and Paul George
Speaker 1: just switch and so all of that action that they
Speaker 1: just ran accomplished absolutely nothing. Now Russell Westbrook a very
Speaker 1: good perimeter defender. Is on Bradley Beal. Bradley Beal doesn't
Speaker 1: really know what to do. There's only ten seconds on
Speaker 1: the shot clock. He just throws this super lazy swing
Speaker 1: pass to Grayson Allen that gets a turnover. That's a
Speaker 1: turnover caused by stagnation. Stagnation caused by switching. Just a
Speaker 1: ridiculous piece of shot making by Paul George over Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant in the corner, a little step back. Unbelievable piece
Speaker 1: of shot making. This is a really high IQ example
Speaker 1: of defensive playmaking by Russell Westbrook. The Sons are going
Speaker 1: to set up for what's called stack pick and roll.
Speaker 1: So Kevin, excuse me, Bradley Beal has the ball drew
Speaker 1: You Banks is going to set the ball screen on
Speaker 1: Terrence Man. Zubach is in a drop coverage. Now we
Speaker 1: know we've covered stack pick and roll on the show before.
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal has one job here. He needs to set
Speaker 1: a backscreen on Ivach a Zubach. Okay, And the reason
Speaker 1: why he's setting that backscreen on of each a Zooboch
Speaker 1: is to basically open up this role for you Banks
Speaker 1: coming over the top, because if Zubach gets backscreened, and
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook follows Bradley Beal. U Banks is gonna slip
Speaker 1: wide open on that backside. Russell Westbrook, he knows it's coming.
Speaker 1: You can't hear it because I have the sound turned off,
Speaker 1: but you actually hear of Russell Westbrook screaming out the
Speaker 1: coverage as this happening, and you can actually see his
Speaker 1: mouth open as he's yelling. But as he's yelling, Bradley
Speaker 1: Beal comes to set the backscreen on Zoobach. Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: knows the play. He knows this is the read. This
Speaker 1: is a backscreen. This guy's the read. Russell Westbrook is
Speaker 1: going to peel off of Bradley Beal and jump into
Speaker 1: that passing lane and get a steal. So again, that's
Speaker 1: one hundred percent scouting and understanding the set that the
Speaker 1: offense is running. That is a high IQ defensive play
Speaker 1: made by Russell Westbrook to get a dunk out the
Speaker 1: other way. Alrighty, this is just a bad possession of
Speaker 1: off ball defense from Devin Booker. We're gonna get a
Speaker 1: run through from Paul George Here. Kevin Durant appears to
Speaker 1: be trailing Devin Booker takes a step up like he's
Speaker 1: gonna switch, but I don't know why, like because Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant's going through. So this is poor communication here and again,
Speaker 1: like the suns, I've shown examples. We went over it
Speaker 1: on film last week. They can communicate. I've seen Devin
Speaker 1: Booker be the leader of that communication. This is just
Speaker 1: poor effort. They're not talking as a result. Terrence Fan
Speaker 1: slips back door and Russell Westbrook hits him with the dunk.
Speaker 1: Here's an example of that physical punching in the mouth
Speaker 1: that I was talking about. How about just a transition
Speaker 1: kick ahead to Terrence Man. Watch Terrence Man just bully
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant into his chest and get all the way
Speaker 1: to the rim. That's bring in the fight. Here's an
Speaker 1: example of the difference in physical advantages. Kevin Durant huge
Speaker 1: heid advantage over Terrence Man. He's gonna get a tough
Speaker 1: turnaround jump shot that was well contested. That turns into
Speaker 1: a miss. Now we're gonna look at another matchup this
Speaker 1: guy right here. If each Zubach way bigger than this
Speaker 1: guy right here? Bull bull? Why make the game more
Speaker 1: difficult than it needs to be. Ball gets thrown to us.
Speaker 1: Watch Russ immediately identify it. Russ catches, he looks, he
Speaker 1: sees Zubach has a deep seal on Bull. Bull. He's
Speaker 1: just gonna back him down further into the lane and
Speaker 1: we're gonna get a really nice post entry feed from
Speaker 1: us for one dunk. So again, physical advantage on one end,
Speaker 1: tough pull up jump shot, physical advantage on the other end,
Speaker 1: bury him under the rim and dunk in his face.
Speaker 1: That's a huge difference in the physical imposition of the game.
Speaker 1: Like I talked about in our in our Contender ranking segment,
Speaker 1: basketball is beautiful until it's not. And that turnaround jumper
Speaker 1: looks real damn pretty when it goes in. But you
Speaker 1: know what goes in every single time, the bigger dude
Speaker 1: just dunking on the smaller dude. There's no it's not
Speaker 1: as pretty in terms of shot making, but it's way
Speaker 1: more effective. Alrighty, This this next one is a defensive
Speaker 1: play by a Terrence Man that's gonna lead to another
Speaker 1: transition runout. So first of all, right, here a mere
Speaker 1: coffee's chasing Devin Booker, and because he's chasing him with
Speaker 1: real length and athleticism, Devin Booker is going to be
Speaker 1: like I need to go to the opposite side of
Speaker 1: the rim. This is a textbook example of an offensive
Speaker 1: player using the rim as an extra piece of almost
Speaker 1: like a screen. So he doesn't he knows that a
Speaker 1: Mere Coffee's best chance to block him is on this
Speaker 1: left side of the basket, So he's gonna come around
Speaker 1: to the right side of the basket, and Terrence Man
Speaker 1: is gonna meet him there and force him to kind
Speaker 1: of go up and under, and he's gonna smoke the
Speaker 1: layup then running out the other end. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: the exact same kind of sequence. This time Zoobach is
Speaker 1: ahead of bull Bull, so in the transition defense, someone
Speaker 1: else is gonna pick him up. This time it's Grayson Allen,
Speaker 1: hands up already, Paul George identifies it, throws it to Zoobatch,
Speaker 1: buries him, and dunks it. Here we're gonna get another
Speaker 1: really nice piece of shot making from Paul George hitting
Speaker 1: a nice little dribble pull up over Bradley Beal on
Speaker 1: the right elbow area. See, they can do the pretty
Speaker 1: shit too, but they can do the pretty shit, but
Speaker 1: they can also kick your ass. This is something outstanding
Speaker 1: individual defense by a Mere Coffee on Kevin Durant, So look,
Speaker 1: he's getting set up for this screening action. He knows
Speaker 1: Zubach is not switching, so he's got to stay attached.
Speaker 1: He does. The action gets him a little bit of
Speaker 1: an advantage here. Nice little tag from Paul George, by
Speaker 1: the way, to stop Kevin Durant from just immediately turning
Speaker 1: the corner turns into an iso. Look at this physical
Speaker 1: in his face, both hands on his body, gets a
Speaker 1: hands off so he doesn't get the call. He knows
Speaker 1: the rip through is coming, so he's got to take
Speaker 1: his hands off. Hands off. Look at that. That's such
Speaker 1: a smart defense there. Physical. But as soon as he
Speaker 1: sees the rip through coming, hands off to prevent the foul.
Speaker 1: Look at that, gets his hands away just in time,
Speaker 1: slides his feet to the right. Gets an outstanding contest
Speaker 1: on the on Literally the guy at the highest release
Speaker 1: point in the league forces an airball. Think about how
Speaker 1: often Kevin Rant works on that shot and how difficult
Speaker 1: it is to force him into an airball. Excellent individual
Speaker 1: defense by a mere coffee. And then here we go,
Speaker 1: last possession of this sequence. We're thirty two to four
Speaker 1: at this point, we're gonna get what's called a soft switch.
Speaker 1: So Paul George again outstanding pull up shooter. The Suns
Speaker 1: want to switch this action because bad Young as a
Speaker 1: forward is capable of switching. Roy O'Neil is going to
Speaker 1: call for the switch on the screen, but this is
Speaker 1: a passive switch because he's back. An aggressive switch, that
Speaker 1: Young would have met him right here, but he's in
Speaker 1: a passive switch. You can literally see his weight on
Speaker 1: his heels and Paul George's rises right over the top
Speaker 1: of him and knocks it down. So that's a great example,
Speaker 1: a little example from film of how the Clippers are
Speaker 1: capable of playing a very physically imposing brand of basketball
Speaker 1: and how Phoenix if you punch him in the mouth,
Speaker 1: they have a tendency to kind of stagger and lose
Speaker 1: their confidence and fall apart in that sort of setting.
Speaker 1: We also know they can thrive in that setting, but
Speaker 1: they're very inconsistent in that type of setting. Like I
Speaker 1: talked about earlier, it doesn't come naturally to them the
Speaker 1: way it does for the Clippers, And to me, it
Speaker 1: gives the Clippers a little bit more resiliency in the
Speaker 1: way that their game translates to the postseason, and that is,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, a good breakdown or a good example
Speaker 1: of why I have the Clippers one step ahead of
Speaker 1: the Suns in my contender rankings. All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We'll be back
Speaker 1: tomorrow with UH game breakdown of Denver Minnesota as well
Speaker 1: as the three two one in our contender rankings and
Speaker 1: a mail bag. And then we have the Nerd Sash
Speaker 1: guys coming on on Friday, which should be fun. I
Speaker 1: will see you guys, come up the volume