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Speaker 1: see dkang dot co slash audio. All right, welcome to
Speaker 1: Hoos tonight here at the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody, hope
Speaker 1: all the guys are having a great We got a
Speaker 1: jam packed show for you today. We had a showdown
Speaker 1: that has never happened before an NBA history. A team
Speaker 1: on a ten game winning streak and a team on
Speaker 1: a fifteen game winning streak facing off in Cleveland, as
Speaker 1: the Cavs get a very impressive win, hanging one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty nine points on an Oklahoma City defense that
Speaker 1: has never allowed that many points this season. I watched
Speaker 1: the game live last night and I rewatched it this morning.
Speaker 1: We're going to do a mega deep dive on that game.
Speaker 1: Then on the tail end of the show. Yesterday in
Speaker 1: the afternoon, I took some time to get caught up
Speaker 1: on a bunch of stuff that happened while I was
Speaker 1: on vacation and watched a bunch of crunch time sequences
Speaker 1: from a bunch of specific games. And so I have
Speaker 1: four big takeaways that I want to get into from that,
Speaker 1: you know, Sunday through Tuesday stretch while I was out
Speaker 1: of town. Then we'll be done for the day. You
Speaker 1: guys did the joke before we get started. Subscribe to
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Speaker 1: content throughout the season for the Hoops Tonight channel. So
Speaker 1: make sure you guys follow us there and then last
Speaker 1: but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions into our YouTube
Speaker 1: comments so that we can get to them on Fridays
Speaker 1: throughout the rest of the season. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So once again, just like I talked about
Speaker 1: in the Celtics under the Celtics Thunder game from a
Speaker 1: few days ago, the competence of these two teams really
Speaker 1: stood out, specifically on the offensive end. How many times
Speaker 1: did you see a guy cutting along the baseline and
Speaker 1: finding a gap between the off ball defenders and finding
Speaker 1: that little sweet spot and someone drop it off to
Speaker 1: them and they get an easy layup, sometimes big, sometimes
Speaker 1: guards right. How many times did you see Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: drive and then run into help but then have like
Speaker 1: an obvious easy drop off past to Hartenstein for that
Speaker 1: little lefty floater that he always makes. How many times
Speaker 1: did you see Evan Mobley seemingly like nowhere guys are
Speaker 1: gonna be before it happens and catch on the short
Speaker 1: roll and turn and just throw a love to Jared
Speaker 1: Allen seemingly without even looking or turn and throw the
Speaker 1: ball to the weak side corner just like rapid reads. Right.
Speaker 1: How many times did you see especially for the Calves
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland driving into the lane and
Speaker 1: making that skip pass out to the weak side corner.
Speaker 1: This is all by design. These are concepts that have
Speaker 1: been practiced rel lentlessly and have now become habits for
Speaker 1: these teams. That's the difference between the talented teams that
Speaker 1: succeed and the talented teams that fail in this league.
Speaker 1: It's that type of attention to detail. On both ends
Speaker 1: of the floor. They have a plan. Both teams have
Speaker 1: a plan. Okay, we got downhill in pick and roll,
Speaker 1: where's everybody supposed to be? What are the reds? Like?
Speaker 1: Okay they if there's low man help, here's what I do.
Speaker 1: If there's no low man help, here's what I do.
Speaker 1: Like you're reading these guys and making these basic decisions,
Speaker 1: because there is a plan that is in place for everything.
Speaker 1: You can run into when you're driving to the basket,
Speaker 1: when you're posting up, and you could just see that
Speaker 1: organization leading to offensive efficiency for two teams that are
Speaker 1: very good defenses. The Cleveland Cavaliers scored one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty nine points on that Oklahoma City defense last night.
Speaker 1: That's the most they've allowed all season. It's the first
Speaker 1: time okac's allowed over one hundred and ten points in
Speaker 1: seven games. It's the first time they've allowed over one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty points since November seventeenth, over a month
Speaker 1: and a half half ago. Every CAV contributed at various
Speaker 1: points in the game. I want to start with Darius Garland.
Speaker 1: He continues to just blow me away with his ability
Speaker 1: to dribble past basically every defender in the league. Ice
Speaker 1: the game last night with just a straight up dribble
Speaker 1: drive against Keason Wallace, a quick right to left crossover
Speaker 1: to an immediate attack, dribble, gets past Kaseon Wallace, gets
Speaker 1: in the lane, gets a layup. All night long, through
Speaker 1: ball screens and ISOs, he was getting the ball into
Speaker 1: the paint and spraying it out to shooters or dropping
Speaker 1: it off to finishers. That was the big thing that
Speaker 1: led to the late game adjustment that got Cleveland's so
Speaker 1: much success in the half court. Because Darius Garland was
Speaker 1: getting downhill, they started the Thunder started hedging pretty hard
Speaker 1: with Isaiah Hartenstein like, kept bringing him way out to
Speaker 1: the screen so that Darius couldn't turn the corner. And
Speaker 1: again the idea there is one, you're trying to stop
Speaker 1: Darius from turning the corner. But two. Oklahoma City's done
Speaker 1: that a lot this year, like blitzing hedging, bringing the
Speaker 1: big man up high in ball screens. Why because they
Speaker 1: really trust their ability to rotate. This is something I've
Speaker 1: been talking about all year. Oklahoma City's rotations out of
Speaker 1: blitzes and hedges have been fantastic all year. In order
Speaker 1: to beat that coverage, you have to be so crisp
Speaker 1: with your passing. Darius Garland brought that coverage with his
Speaker 1: ability to get downhill, and then they started to beat
Speaker 1: the thunder on the short roll toss over the top
Speaker 1: to Jared Allen slipping out of the Hartenstein screen or
Speaker 1: the Hartenstein hedge. Jared Allen drops it off to Mobli
Speaker 1: big dunk in crunch time. A couple possessions later, Mobley's
Speaker 1: Heartenstein's on Mobley this time, same exact thing. Hartenstein goes
Speaker 1: out the hedge, Mobley slips, Garland throws it over the top.
Speaker 1: Mobley goes into the lane that was the one where
Speaker 1: lou Dort tried to swipe over the top of his
Speaker 1: head and picked up the foul drew another bucket on
Speaker 1: that right or another scoring opportunity out of that then
Speaker 1: because that hedge was killing him, the Thunder had to switch.
Speaker 1: When they switched, Darius Garland shoots that three over Isaiah
Speaker 1: Hartenstein at the top of the key, but now Jared
Speaker 1: Allen's being boxed out by Keason Wallace. Now, for the record,
Speaker 1: didn't really matter who was boxing out is Jared Allen.
Speaker 1: He was getting everything anyway, But on that possession, it
Speaker 1: was like the easiest offensive rebound he had all game
Speaker 1: because of the fact that he's got Kayson Wallace on it.
Speaker 1: So Darius Garland's dribble penetration forced a coverage from the
Speaker 1: Thunder in crunch time that he was beating with the
Speaker 1: over the top pass to the short roller, and then
Speaker 1: consistently Alan and Mobley, who were both amazing in this game,
Speaker 1: were making the Thunder pay in those four on threes
Speaker 1: out of that action, which again is something that Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City has done a great job covering for all season long. Right,
Speaker 1: But I thought it was a super encouraging Darius Garland game.
Speaker 1: Again because it's a huge national TV game. His co
Speaker 1: star Donovan Mitchell has a rough night. The team desperately
Speaker 1: needed him to carry the offense for stretches and he
Speaker 1: had to close the game and crunch time, and he
Speaker 1: just continues to get wherever he wants on the floor
Speaker 1: and make really good decisions when he gets there. Even
Speaker 1: the shots that he misses, it feels like he's getting
Speaker 1: good separation, or he's just screaming downhill into the lane
Speaker 1: and he happens to miss layup in traffic or have
Speaker 1: it turnover, but he's getting dribble penetration, he's getting separation.
Speaker 1: His ability to move around on the floor while controlling
Speaker 1: the basketball is really breaking defenses right now. He's already
Speaker 1: having a breakout season, but I think he's poised to
Speaker 1: have a breakout postseason as well. And then Jared Allen,
Speaker 1: He's probably the MVP of this game for the Cavs,
Speaker 1: did absolutely everything on offense, just catching and finishing everything
Speaker 1: around the rim. He shouldn't seventy percent from the field
Speaker 1: this season. He just has such good hands, even in traffic.
Speaker 1: It's like the opposite of the Rudy Gobert thing where
Speaker 1: it's like it damages Minnesota spacing because he can't catch
Speaker 1: and finish anything in traffic. Jared Allen catches and finishes everything,
Speaker 1: even if it's a few feet away from the rim
Speaker 1: and he's got to take a little hook or a floater.
Speaker 1: His ability to catch and finish unlocks so much for
Speaker 1: this offense, and then good decisions on his rolls to
Speaker 1: the rim. Six assists and zero turnovers. This goes with
Speaker 1: Mobli too, They had thirteen assists between the two of them.
Speaker 1: But he was just doing so much damage as a finisher.
Speaker 1: As a roller, he was demolishing everyone on the offensive glass.
Speaker 1: Late in the game, in particular, he was just crushing
Speaker 1: Isaiah Hartenstein with rebounding position. Just an absolutely monster game.
Speaker 1: His defensive versatility is big in this one, the ability
Speaker 1: to protect the rim but also to credibly switch out
Speaker 1: onto the perimeter. The Cavs did a lot of switch
Speaker 1: They've been doing a lot of switching all season. I
Speaker 1: think we need to have a discussion about where Jared
Speaker 1: Allen ranks among centers. In the summertime, I used to
Speaker 1: think Jarrett was kind of in that like eight to
Speaker 1: twelve range among starting centers in this league, behind guys
Speaker 1: like Sibonis, behind guys like bam At a Bio, behind
Speaker 1: guys like Rudy Gobert. But we need to be realistic
Speaker 1: about Jarrett's value to this team. I talk a lot
Speaker 1: about the difference between the value in a vacuum that
Speaker 1: a basketball player has versus the value on a specific team.
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray is the example I always use, right, Like,
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray's not a good defensive player, and when he
Speaker 1: has to lead units by himself, he can struggle as
Speaker 1: a shot creator. But like alongside Jokic, his ability to
Speaker 1: play in that two man game as a shot maker
Speaker 1: legit helped the Nuggets win a championship. And it's in
Speaker 1: that specific role his value is immense, even relative to
Speaker 1: what he would be outside of this situation. And that's
Speaker 1: how I feel about Jared Allen. Like, does Jared Allen
Speaker 1: have the ability to create shots for his teammates the
Speaker 1: way that bam Adebio does or Demonis Sabonis does or
Speaker 1: Alprin Shane Goon does. No, that's not his game. But
Speaker 1: he's so great at the specific things that Cleveland needs
Speaker 1: him to do, like the screening, the short role, decision
Speaker 1: making and scoring, the finishing everything that he catches around
Speaker 1: the basket, the offensive rebounding, the defending at the rim,
Speaker 1: and the switching is in this scheme, he actually impacts
Speaker 1: winning at a higher level than a lot of those guys.
Speaker 1: I've seen him legit outplay some of the top centers
Speaker 1: in the league this year. I think you could make
Speaker 1: a case that Jared Allen's better than a lot of
Speaker 1: these centers that are in that tier below Nikole Jokics,
Speaker 1: Joel and beat An Anthony Davis. And again, I've seen
Speaker 1: him out play a few of those guys. I think
Speaker 1: he's probably closer to that group than he is to
Speaker 1: the rest of the group in terms of his specific
Speaker 1: impact on this specific team. He's like the ultimate, like
Speaker 1: tip of the spear, finishing everything on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor on the Evan Mobley front. Obviously, he did
Speaker 1: so many good things throughout this game, defending, rebounding, running action.
Speaker 1: I was impressed by how confident and comfortable he looked.
Speaker 1: One of the big things that stood out to me
Speaker 1: is they ran that little off ball action for him
Speaker 1: when Jalen Williams was on him, and he like kind
Speaker 1: of curled up to the elbow right around the foul
Speaker 1: line and like just rose up off the move and
Speaker 1: knocked down that jumper. That's a movement jump shot from
Speaker 1: the mid range. For a big guy, that's a tough shot.
Speaker 1: It's a tough shot to have touch on. And he
Speaker 1: just looked so comfortable as he like rose up into
Speaker 1: that shot and knocked it down. He was trying to
Speaker 1: dunk in traffic a lot too, like it like, which
Speaker 1: is a big confidence thing, like none of these guys
Speaker 1: can stop me. I'm just gonna go up and dunk this.
Speaker 1: But I thought the big thing that stood out to
Speaker 1: me for Evan Mobley, I thought that was one of
Speaker 1: the best games I've seen him play as a roller.
Speaker 1: Remember that used to be his Achilles hill. That that's
Speaker 1: what got him beat in the Knicks series two years ago.
Speaker 1: If you remember, is Mitchell Robinson was able to credibly
Speaker 1: defend Jared Allen in the dunker spot and Evan Mobley
Speaker 1: on the short role because Evan Mobley wasn't scoring or
Speaker 1: playmaking efficiently enough out of that spot. So much better
Speaker 1: this year in general, but specifically in this game, one
Speaker 1: of the best games I've ever seen him play as
Speaker 1: a role man. He has all the reads now, this
Speaker 1: thing where like he knows when he catches on the
Speaker 1: short role and he turns and he sees a defender
Speaker 1: and Jared Allen's there. He doesn't even have to like
Speaker 1: really think about it. He just knows. I know I'm slipping,
Speaker 1: which means when I'm slipping, my defender is back at
Speaker 1: the ball handler. So I'm no longer worried about my defender.
Speaker 1: The only defender I'm worried about is Jared Allen's defender.
Speaker 1: So as soon as I catch I'm turning and looking
Speaker 1: at Jared Allen's defender. If he's not there, I'm looking
Speaker 1: to quickly score. If he's there, all I'm doing is
Speaker 1: throwing the ball up into that big open area anywhere
Speaker 1: to the left side of the rim, and he's just
Speaker 1: gonna go up and donkey. Even with the there were
Speaker 1: several sequences when Jared Allen was off the floor of
Speaker 1: what was guards right, and it was the same sort
Speaker 1: of thing, like if the guard met him far out,
Speaker 1: he would just immediately turn and rifle the pass to
Speaker 1: the corner. If the guard was meeting him under the rim,
Speaker 1: he was power dribbling and making a quick, efficient post
Speaker 1: move to get an easy finish, a strong finish around
Speaker 1: the basket. If some of the best role man work
Speaker 1: I've seen Evan Mobley do in his career again a
Speaker 1: huge game. Twenty one points, ten rebounds, and seven assists
Speaker 1: from Evan Mobley and then Donovan Mitchell like it's it's
Speaker 1: funny because obviously it was a nightmare shooting game for him.
Speaker 1: Wasn't getting great looks. Lou Dort started on him, and
Speaker 1: lou Dort did a really nice job, but he was
Speaker 1: even missing some of the better looks that he gets.
Speaker 1: He also channeled some of his old Donovan Mitchell where
Speaker 1: he was kind of forcing things that time throughout the game.
Speaker 1: But to his credit, I want to give Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: some credit for this. I thought his work in the
Speaker 1: Garland off unit in the late third quarter was excellent.
Speaker 1: He started to take what the defense was giving him.
Speaker 1: Ok See all night on. Both teams really were doing
Speaker 1: this all night long, but Okaysee in particular was super
Speaker 1: aggressive with their low man help all game long, meaning
Speaker 1: like playing up in ball screens, bringing Hartenstein up and
Speaker 1: then bringing the guy off of the weak side corner
Speaker 1: to tag rollers. They were doing that all game long,
Speaker 1: and it's just the way Oklahoma City plays defense. They
Speaker 1: trust their ability to close out, so they're going to
Speaker 1: be aggressive on the ball and trust their ability to
Speaker 1: rotate on the weak side. But in those situations, the
Speaker 1: red is the corner skip. In three consecutive times in
Speaker 1: the late third quarter, Donovan Mitchell made that exact same read,
Speaker 1: once to Georgia Niang in the right corner, twice to
Speaker 1: Karis Lavert in the left corner. Niang missed his, but
Speaker 1: it was wide open. It just happened to not go in.
Speaker 1: And then Karris Lavert made both of his. They were
Speaker 1: huge shots in that late third quarter run. And then
Speaker 1: he hit a couple of big threes of his own
Speaker 1: in this game. He hit that pull up three on
Speaker 1: the right wing on the play where Lou Dort flopped,
Speaker 1: and then one of the biggest shots in the game,
Speaker 1: that transition three he hit in the right corner off
Speaker 1: of the kickout pass from Darius Garland. Again, you know,
Speaker 1: I talk about this all the time, but like when
Speaker 1: I'm having a bad game, I always just think, like,
Speaker 1: find a way to make a play. You know, Like
Speaker 1: if I'm having a bad game but my team's in
Speaker 1: the game, I'm always just thinking, like, just find a
Speaker 1: way to make a play, Like, dude, do something. It
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter how much he fucked up early, as
Speaker 1: long as you make a play that helps my team
Speaker 1: win this game, because then I can live with it.
Speaker 1: I can live with whatever. I can address whatever I'm
Speaker 1: doing that's causing me to play poorly. I can address
Speaker 1: that after the game. In this game, though, I just
Speaker 1: need to find a way to make a play. And
Speaker 1: on a night where Donovan Mitchell couldn't make a shot,
Speaker 1: he made several huge plays just using his downhill athleticism
Speaker 1: to create corner threes for good shooters that helped turn
Speaker 1: the game around for him at least. And then on
Speaker 1: the role player front, I mean the big thing that
Speaker 1: I would say with these Cavs role players, everyone talks
Speaker 1: about their shooting once again, big game against an elite defense.
Speaker 1: These guys were stepping into kind of contested a little
Speaker 1: bit rushed catch and shoot shots and kocking them down again.
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City's amazing with their closeouts. I've been talking about
Speaker 1: this a lot this year and a lot in this show,
Speaker 1: like that's why they hedge and blitz a lot in
Speaker 1: ball screens. Of the twenty seven catch and shoot jump
Speaker 1: shots that Cleveland generated, only seven of them were unguarded.
Speaker 1: That's what playoff shooting looks like you're playing against better
Speaker 1: defenses who are playing more desperately, and that makes it
Speaker 1: so that those unguarded catch and shoot jump shots are
Speaker 1: pretty few and far between. You need to shoot quickly
Speaker 1: and confidently against a good close out, and all night long,
Speaker 1: Cleveland's role guys were shooting in those situations confidently and
Speaker 1: knocking down shots. Dan Wade three for four from three,
Speaker 1: Max Strews five for six from three. Max hits some
Speaker 1: really tight window shots. He's really worked on quickening his
Speaker 1: release and shooting while he's contested. Why because that's what
Speaker 1: you need to do when you're in the postseason. Lavert
Speaker 1: hit those two big corner threes I talked about, Niang
Speaker 1: even hit one. Cleveland just continues to hit shots as
Speaker 1: the circumstances get tougher around them. That's really the crux
Speaker 1: of what makes Cleveland's offense so great. It's the combination
Speaker 1: of shot creation talent with a ton of playmaking and
Speaker 1: shooting among the role players. The shot creation talent like
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Evan Mobley, they all do
Speaker 1: a good job getting the defense in rotation. Even Max
Speaker 1: Struce ran in some good action in this game, but
Speaker 1: off of them, everybody can pass. They had five players
Speaker 1: with at least four assists, Evan Mobley and Jared Allen.
Speaker 1: You're big guys, the big guys that botch most of
Speaker 1: these situations for other teams. Thirteen assists. This is connective passing.
Speaker 1: This is what turns a small advantage into a bigger advantage,
Speaker 1: into an opportunity to finish the play against a great defense.
Speaker 1: Those are the hedges and the hedges and blitzes that
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City has done against other teams that have flummixed
Speaker 1: to them. The reason why Cleveland beat them so easily
Speaker 1: last night is it's like it's just the balls popping.
Speaker 1: It's like to the role man, easy quick read. Everyone's
Speaker 1: quickly making the read and quickly getting the ball out
Speaker 1: on time, on target. And then when they're in a
Speaker 1: tight space situation at the end of a play, they
Speaker 1: don't piss down their leg. They confidently rise up into
Speaker 1: a confident shot, into a contested shot, and knock it down.
Speaker 1: Thirty six assists on forty seven made baskets just a
Speaker 1: beautiful offensive game from the Cavs against a truly elite
Speaker 1: defensive team. And then Kenny Atkinson. I thought he was
Speaker 1: the MVP of the night. Defensively, he was really coaching
Speaker 1: this game possession by possession. He helped fuel that late
Speaker 1: second quarter run with some curve balls that he threw
Speaker 1: at Oklahoma City. He threw a random blitz at Shay
Speaker 1: that forced him to just throw the ball out of
Speaker 1: bounds on the left sideline, and then he randomly went
Speaker 1: zone a couple possessions in a row at the end
Speaker 1: of the first half and got two stops out of it.
Speaker 1: Big part of how Cleveland took the lead before the half.
Speaker 1: And then he went to a ton of zone in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter and it completely flum mixed Oklahoma City.
Speaker 1: They ran twelve possessions of zone in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: they allowed just eight points and forced three turnovers. The
Speaker 1: big thing that's different, the reason why their zone was
Speaker 1: working too. They were playing an aggressive zone versus a
Speaker 1: passive zone. There's a lot of teams that will sit
Speaker 1: in a zone and they'll just kind of slide back
Speaker 1: and forth to different parts of the zone as the
Speaker 1: ball gets swung around, but they're not really pressuring. They're
Speaker 1: not really like being aggressive at all in the zone,
Speaker 1: and so the good teams will just pass it around
Speaker 1: until they get a decent shot and they knock it
Speaker 1: down right. Cleveland was being aggressive in their zone. Ti
Speaker 1: Jerome Oh Isaiah Hartenstein caught at the elbow and he's
Speaker 1: turning and looking to go. Ty Jerome's ignoring the top
Speaker 1: because Isaiah Hartenstein doesn't even have his head a turn
Speaker 1: to the top and he just swipes at the ball,
Speaker 1: knocks it away. Oh Hartenstein flashed to the top of
Speaker 1: the key. Jdub's gonna throw a little entry pass, but
Speaker 1: Jared Allen is just going to shoot that passing lane
Speaker 1: because he's not playing passively. A lot of teams will
Speaker 1: concede that catch. Not Cleveland, They're trying to be aggressive
Speaker 1: into that passing lane. Again, three turnovers against the zone.
Speaker 1: With the zone in that fourth quarter, it successfully disrupted
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City's rhythm at key points in the game, which
Speaker 1: fueled runs for the Caps. Again. I thought Kenny Atkinson
Speaker 1: was the defensive MVP of that game, and then all
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma City front a lot of good in this game.
Speaker 1: Like Shay, I thought early in the game, he was
Speaker 1: forcing things a bit. It reminded me a bit of
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee game where he just was missing some shots,
Speaker 1: so he just kept shooting tough shots just about every
Speaker 1: time down the floor. But I thought he eventually caught
Speaker 1: his rhythm, and I thought he played a pretty solid
Speaker 1: floor game the rest of the way. His shot mark
Speaker 1: shot making is just remarkable. It actually reminds me, I
Speaker 1: was thinking about this last night. It reminds me a
Speaker 1: bit of Kobe in the sense that, like the team
Speaker 1: kind of depends on him to take, you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: like twenty five to thirty shots in a game, and
Speaker 1: they may not be the most efficient shots, but they're
Speaker 1: just him grinding out offense when things kind of bogged down.
Speaker 1: And again, a lot of really tough shot making in
Speaker 1: those sequences. So in that respect, it reminds me a
Speaker 1: bit of Kobe. He did get caught off guard a
Speaker 1: little bit by some of the coverages he saw tonight,
Speaker 1: turned the ball over a bit too much, But I thought, overall,
Speaker 1: I thought Shape played a pretty good game. And then
Speaker 1: I thought Jayalen Williams was awesome. He had twenty five,
Speaker 1: five and nine, kept getting the ball into the pot
Speaker 1: paint and making good reads some really impressive footwork hit
Speaker 1: like step through move off of the right shoulder pivot
Speaker 1: where he just kind of kept going towards the rim.
Speaker 1: That was a ridiculous move. A lot of really really
Speaker 1: big plays from Jalen Williams in this game. I thought
Speaker 1: kese On Wallace was brilliant. He was the beneficiary of
Speaker 1: a lot of those corner skips in Okc's offense, because
Speaker 1: again Cleveland was bringing a lot of low man help too,
Speaker 1: and kase On Wallace was the guy that was catching
Speaker 1: a lot of those. He went three for three from three.
Speaker 1: He's six for eleven from three in his last four games.
Speaker 1: Starting to shoot the ball well, some of his transition
Speaker 1: pushes to just like he did in the Celtics game.
Speaker 1: Hartenstein's game was interesting to me. He had a monster
Speaker 1: box score game eighteen points, eleven rebounds, and eight assists,
Speaker 1: kind of like a Demonisa Bonus type of stat line, right,
Speaker 1: and he did a lot of good His lefty floater, obviously,
Speaker 1: is such an important foundation to Oklahoma City spacing to
Speaker 1: release valve when those guards get on their drives to
Speaker 1: the basket, hitting backdoor cutters, setting good screens. He did
Speaker 1: damage on the offensive glass as well as much damage
Speaker 1: as Jared Allen did. He had seven offensive rebounds Hardenstein
Speaker 1: had five, so he got some of it back on
Speaker 1: the other end. But I thought he looked pretty cool,
Speaker 1: clearly exhausted down the stretch. I thought he was getting
Speaker 1: tossed around like a rag doll by Jared Allen. I
Speaker 1: thought he looked a step slow. And one thing I'll
Speaker 1: say about that as a as like kind of a
Speaker 1: positive for Oklahoma City. This is where Chet is very important,
Speaker 1: not only because he's so damn good, but because he
Speaker 1: will help keep Hartenstein's minutes down. If you can keep
Speaker 1: him instead of in the low thirties, somewhere in the
Speaker 1: mid twenties, like twenty five minutes a game, it'll make
Speaker 1: it so that he can maintain the high motor that
Speaker 1: makes him so good. Again, especially in the early Knicks
Speaker 1: days before Mitchell Robinson got hurt, it was the fact
Speaker 1: that Hartenstein could come in and play half the game
Speaker 1: and play super hard. It's like the Gafford Lively concept,
Speaker 1: like when you've got a really good center, but he
Speaker 1: also doesn't have to worry about doing a ton of
Speaker 1: work for thirty something minutes a game. It allows him
Speaker 1: to just play his ass off every second that he's
Speaker 1: on the floor, which leads to an increased productivity, and
Speaker 1: that's something that I think CHET will help with overall
Speaker 1: coming out of this game. Just like I said after
Speaker 1: the Celtics Thunder game, I don't see the point and
Speaker 1: making sweeping declarations after one regular season game. These two
Speaker 1: teams play again in a week in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City will be favored in that game and they probably
Speaker 1: will win it. I still see all three of these
Speaker 1: teams more or less in the same tier. I think
Speaker 1: I still lean in terms of ranking them right the second. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we'll get more serious about it when we get closer
Speaker 1: to the postseason, but right now I lean slightly to Boston,
Speaker 1: then slightly to Cleveland, then slightly to Oklahoma City. But
Speaker 1: the separation is negligible for me. This will be determined
Speaker 1: in the playoffs in a seven game series, almost certainly
Speaker 1: between Boston and Cleveland, and likely potentially with Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: as well. And honestly, just I'm thankful because things got
Speaker 1: a little slow there in December, and we've had some
Speaker 1: really good games to cover over the course of the
Speaker 1: last few weeks, which has been really nice. All right,
Speaker 1: So I have four takeaways for you guys. Yesterday in
Speaker 1: the afternoon. As I told you, every time I go
Speaker 1: out of town, I try very much to disconnect from work.
Speaker 1: I actually have a male bad question about that we're
Speaker 1: going to get into that you guys will hear tomorrow.
Speaker 1: But I came back into town and I needed to
Speaker 1: work yesterday. But like, I didn't want to be watching
Speaker 1: a film all day and not have an episode come
Speaker 1: out until it's super late at night. So I put
Speaker 1: out something quickly, and I finally took some time yesterday
Speaker 1: in the afternoon to just sit back and watch a
Speaker 1: bunch of film, and I checked out a bunch of
Speaker 1: crunch time sequences from a bunch of different games, and
Speaker 1: I have some takeaways. So four takeaways from the few
Speaker 1: days that I was out of town. Number one, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's way too early to try to bury Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: right after everyone tried to bury him last week. And
Speaker 1: Ant's last three games, he's averaging forty one points per game,
Speaker 1: shooting fifty nine percent from three on thirteen attempts per game.
Speaker 1: He saved that Clippers game with two. Norm Powell gets
Speaker 1: an and one on a drive to the basket and
Speaker 1: he hits two. Just completely ridiculous step back threes. He
Speaker 1: also had this like crazy contested and one finish with
Speaker 1: his right hand against Vikazubats. But like if you watch
Speaker 1: those possessions, particularly the two step back threes, there's no
Speaker 1: space to operate. The guards that are on him are
Speaker 1: pressing up on him because they know that they have
Speaker 1: help behind. It is a shit show of spacing. But
Speaker 1: Ant just has such an incredible ability to get separation
Speaker 1: in the lift. That's the key separation is step one.
Speaker 1: The ability to even just throw that in and out
Speaker 1: dribble with the with your right foot kind of extending
Speaker 1: out to get that a little bit of separation from
Speaker 1: the defender. But to be able to do that against
Speaker 1: an elite NBA athlete and legit get separation. And he tells,
Speaker 1: sometimes you'll take that extra side step two, but get
Speaker 1: that separation. But then also after making that ridiculous separation move,
Speaker 1: the ability to also get enough lift out of your
Speaker 1: legs to knock that shot down. Both of those were
Speaker 1: tough contest. The second one was like twenty seven feet
Speaker 1: and he just nails it because again he can get
Speaker 1: so much lyft with his athleticism in those situations. That's
Speaker 1: what's always been so intriguing to me about the idea
Speaker 1: of a true apex athlete also becoming an excellent shooter.
Speaker 1: This is like the concept of like, can you imagine
Speaker 1: if Michael Jordan played in the modern NBA. And I'm
Speaker 1: not comparing Aunt to Michael. I'm just saying if you
Speaker 1: took an apex athlete like Michael Jordan, who was as
Speaker 1: obsessively competitive as he was, who was as good of
Speaker 1: a shooter from mid range as he was, and you
Speaker 1: put him in the modern NBA, he's the guy. He
Speaker 1: would be doing a lot of this type of intense
Speaker 1: three point shot making. This is what it looks like
Speaker 1: to see an apex athlete that also is one of
Speaker 1: the best shooters in the world. And I just again,
Speaker 1: do not give up on this kid just because the
Speaker 1: Timberwolves are super weird, just because the Timberwolves did weird
Speaker 1: stuff to their roster, and while every team in the league,
Speaker 1: Like you want to know the difference, just go watch
Speaker 1: the calves. All those drop offs to Jared Allen and
Speaker 1: he makes he shoots seventy percent this season, all those
Speaker 1: kickout passes to Max Strus, They have a tendency to
Speaker 1: go in the ones to Jada McDaniels and the ones
Speaker 1: to go bear don't, and so the defense ignores them
Speaker 1: and sits in the paint. I wouldn't give up on
Speaker 1: this kid. I understand there's some weaknesses. I understand he's
Speaker 1: got to grow up a little bit in some ways.
Speaker 1: I understand that there's some shots selection stuff, some playmaking stuff.
Speaker 1: There's stuff that he's got to get better at, no doubt.
Speaker 1: But I would bet on the apex athlete that's one
Speaker 1: of the best shooters in the league but is also
Speaker 1: obsessively competitive and has that alpha dog mentality and trust
Speaker 1: himself at the end of games, been one of the
Speaker 1: best clutch players in the league this year. The Timberwolves
Speaker 1: are still weird. Two three game losing streaks in this
Speaker 1: last you know, eighteen game span. It's funny because everyone
Speaker 1: pantings around them around that stretch of like everyone that
Speaker 1: I saw was panicking about Wolves around the stretches, and
Speaker 1: I get it, and I don't think there's some sort
Speaker 1: of dead serious team at this point. But it's been
Speaker 1: kind of a weird sequence because in their last eighteen games,
Speaker 1: if you take those two three game losing streaks out,
Speaker 1: they're eleven to one. They've been winning, and they just
Speaker 1: had these brief week stretches where they just let go
Speaker 1: their open They look really bad. It's been kind of
Speaker 1: a shit show of good and bad. They're second in
Speaker 1: defense in this eighteen game span, but they're twenty fourth
Speaker 1: in offense one oh nine offensive rating, mostly because of
Speaker 1: the spacing issues we talked about earlier. The good teams,
Speaker 1: just like we talked about with Oklahoma City and Cleveland,
Speaker 1: they're going to load up and trust their ability to
Speaker 1: close out on the week side. You have to have
Speaker 1: sound spacing principles and guys who can consistently finish plays
Speaker 1: in those principles and go Barren McDaniels to struggle with that.
Speaker 1: Although Jaden made an insane three in the corner at
Speaker 1: the end of that one at that Clippers game. Second
Speaker 1: big takeaway Victor wemin Yama needs to find a way
Speaker 1: to stop settling for jump shots all the time at
Speaker 1: the end of games. Disclaimer here, Wemby for me, is
Speaker 1: entering into rare territory in terms of the way I'm
Speaker 1: talking about him. Wemby's been kicking ass this year and
Speaker 1: is way ahead of Skale, so I'm not just trying
Speaker 1: to be nitpicky, just to be a dick. I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: as I'm starting to change the standard that I'm evaluating
Speaker 1: Victor women Yam at now I'm looking at how does
Speaker 1: he get from where he's at to being the best
Speaker 1: player in the world. A big one for me in
Speaker 1: that in Wemby's development will be finding something that is
Speaker 1: closer to the rim for him as a late game
Speaker 1: go to sequence, so that he doesn't rely so much
Speaker 1: on perimeter jump shooting at the end of these games
Speaker 1: there are guards who have to because they don't have
Speaker 1: the ability to get wherever they want close to the basket.
Speaker 1: Wemby does. The Spurs just blew a game on Monday
Speaker 1: in Chicago where they led by seven with three minutes left,
Speaker 1: and the Bulls are feisty for the record, like zach
Speaker 1: Lavin is hooping, nikol Vusovich is shooting the hell out
Speaker 1: of the ball from three. Kobe White made two absurd
Speaker 1: plays at the end. Everyone saw the dunk when he
Speaker 1: drove that close out off the left wing, but he
Speaker 1: had to play right before that where he went iso
Speaker 1: on Victor women Yama and like ducked underneath him with
Speaker 1: a little scoop shot. It was a ridiculous finish. The
Speaker 1: Bulls are playing some fun basketball, but down the stretch
Speaker 1: it looked a lot like some of these other Spurs
Speaker 1: games this year where they start settling for pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots. Teams are ignoring Jeremy Sohan and forcing him
Speaker 1: to make catch and shoot jump shots. Wemby missed another
Speaker 1: kind of like jab step. It was a decent look.
Speaker 1: It was a little pull up mid range shot around
Speaker 1: the right elbow, but it was a long two. It's
Speaker 1: like probably a nineteen footer, twenty footer, and it's and
Speaker 1: he got separation. Like it's not a bad look. I
Speaker 1: want to be clear, these are not terrible shots, but
Speaker 1: it's a jump shot. It's a long jump shot. Long
Speaker 1: jump shots might just not go in. In fact, it
Speaker 1: probably won't because the majority of jump shots don't go in.
Speaker 1: Victor wimin Yama shooting fifteen for thirty seven in the
Speaker 1: clutch this year, and the Spurs as a team are
Speaker 1: eight or eight and eight in those situations. Twenty of
Speaker 1: the thirty seven shot attempts that Victor's taken in crunch
Speaker 1: time have been threes, and he's made a lot of
Speaker 1: really big threes. He's made some really big shots this year,
Speaker 1: but again, a lot of threes, a lot of long
Speaker 1: contested twos. I think it would be beneficial to him
Speaker 1: to try to come up with a late game go
Speaker 1: to process that gets him closer to the rim for
Speaker 1: a shot that he can hit over fifty percent of
Speaker 1: the time. For instance, just action to get his post
Speaker 1: catch around fifteen feet instead of around twenty feet, so
Speaker 1: that step back long two goes from being like a
Speaker 1: thirty five percent shot to being a forty five percent shot,
Speaker 1: or an opportunity for him to work in the post
Speaker 1: and try to get him to learn a little bit
Speaker 1: more of like a hook where he can use his
Speaker 1: length and size to get something that maybe goes in
Speaker 1: fifty five to sixty percent of the time. Again, what
Speaker 1: has made Nikole Jokic the best player in the world
Speaker 1: his ability to consistently get to shots that are high percentage.
Speaker 1: There is no variance with Nikola Jokic. That is the
Speaker 1: pathway for Victor Wimen and Yama to become more reliable
Speaker 1: in these late game situations. Number three, I know I'm
Speaker 1: guilty of it too for the record, but let's stop
Speaker 1: as a group. Let's collectively. Stop trying to bury Western
Speaker 1: Conference teams when they have a bad stretch. I did
Speaker 1: it with the Lakers earlier this year. People have done
Speaker 1: it with Denver. People have done it with Golden State.
Speaker 1: Remember when everyone thought it was over for the Kings
Speaker 1: they had that terrible loss, that the crunch time loss.
Speaker 1: It was. I think they lost on a foul if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly. They've now won five games in a row.
Speaker 1: The Kings are now just three games back of the
Speaker 1: five seed. Malik Monk is hooping his ass off there,
Speaker 1: Derozens starting to hit big shots. They're playing good basketball. Now.
Speaker 1: Everybody's trying to bury the Phoenix Suns, and for some
Speaker 1: good reasons, they look like they've let go of the rope.
Speaker 1: At this point, bad losses are piling up. They aren't defending.
Speaker 1: They've tried benching Bradley Beal in use of Nurkics and
Speaker 1: they got a big win the first game where Beal
Speaker 1: came off the bench, played great, but then they just
Speaker 1: lost to Charlotte right after that. I get it. It
Speaker 1: looks bad, but take a deep breath. Their upcoming schedule,
Speaker 1: they're home for Atlanta, Utah and Charlotte. They could easily
Speaker 1: go three to zero in that span, be right back
Speaker 1: to five hundred. Then they have a five game road
Speaker 1: trip with some winnable games, some losible games too, but
Speaker 1: some winnable games at Atlanta, at Washington, at Detroit, at Cleveland,
Speaker 1: at Brooklyn. I think they probably will go three and
Speaker 1: two on that trip. Could potentially go four and one
Speaker 1: if you take care of business against Detroit and Atlanta.
Speaker 1: But like, let's say three and two, and then they
Speaker 1: come home to play the Wizards. So the Suns could
Speaker 1: very easily go seven to two in their next nine
Speaker 1: games and be right back in that seven or eight seed.
Speaker 1: Does that mean the Suns don't have problems. Of course
Speaker 1: they have problems. Of course they should be scouring the
Speaker 1: trade market looking for ways to improve their roster. But collectively,
Speaker 1: I think we need to stop overreacting week to week.
Speaker 1: In the Western Conference, I don't think there's a giant
Speaker 1: gap between the teams and the six to twelve range.
Speaker 1: I think Denver in Dallas. Dallas obviously is injured, but
Speaker 1: when Dallas is healthy, I think Denver and Dallas are
Speaker 1: both clearly a level above. But the Lakers, the Clippers,
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves, the Warriors, the Spurs, the Kings, the Suns.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're like I think in that order,
Speaker 1: that's roughly how i'd rank them. You know, I might
Speaker 1: move a couple teams around here there. So they're kind
Speaker 1: of settling more or less where you would expect them to.
Speaker 1: But they're they're separate, They're barely separated. There's not a
Speaker 1: lot that separates those teams. For me. They're all a
Speaker 1: couple of good weeks from their fans, all taking victory laps,
Speaker 1: and a couple of bad weeks from their fans wanting
Speaker 1: to blow up the team. Now here's the thing. None
Speaker 1: of those teams, including the ones that are higher up
Speaker 1: teams like the Lakers, Clippers, Timberwolves, none of those teams
Speaker 1: are going to accomplish anything unless they find a way
Speaker 1: to stabilize and separate. For some of them, it's about
Speaker 1: making the right trade. For others, it's about playing a
Speaker 1: more serious brand of basketball a commitment to the work.
Speaker 1: For most of them, it's about both of those things.
Speaker 1: But again, that group is going to jockey back and
Speaker 1: forth a lot, based on schedule, based on injuries, based
Speaker 1: on whether or not they're in a funk. Guys, that
Speaker 1: Suns team looks like it's I go the rope. I
Speaker 1: promise you. The Lakers had let go the rope for
Speaker 1: like two weeks earlier this season, like it happens, and
Speaker 1: then somehow these teams wake up. They just do. It's
Speaker 1: a competitive spirit thing. There's a lot of really good
Speaker 1: basketball players on these teams, and the league is just tough.
Speaker 1: It'll chew you up and spit you out if you
Speaker 1: don't play good basketball. Lastly, number four, Bucks fans, let's
Speaker 1: relax and let's take a deep breath. I understand in
Speaker 1: the same line of thinking, like what I was talking
Speaker 1: about in just the last segment, you're five and five
Speaker 1: since the N Season Tournament, twenty third in offense in
Speaker 1: that spans some really bad losses there. I've heard a
Speaker 1: lot of negativity from Bucks fans. Here's all I will say.
Speaker 1: I saw this exact same thing happen with the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Lakers last year, a worst version of it because
Speaker 1: they were in the Western Conference. But they win the
Speaker 1: N Season Tournament. In the N Season Tournament, they play
Speaker 1: some of their best basketball in the last few years,
Speaker 1: defending at an extremely high level, an ad dominating games physically,
Speaker 1: and you're looking at it and you're like, this is
Speaker 1: a serious team. And then they go three and ten
Speaker 1: in their next thirteen games and everyone just thinks they suck.
Speaker 1: And then promptly after that three and ten stretch, they're
Speaker 1: one of the very best teams in the league for
Speaker 1: the second half of the season. And again, I know
Speaker 1: they lost to Denver, but they controlled a good portion
Speaker 1: of that series, and if it wasn't for two Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray game winners, that could have been a six or
Speaker 1: seven game series. I thought that Lakers team was good.
Speaker 1: That was a good Lakers team. Again, I don't think
Speaker 1: those like that Lakers team was a top tier contender,
Speaker 1: just like I don't think these Bucks are a top
Speaker 1: tier contender. But they were a good punchers chance playoff
Speaker 1: team that got punched by a couple of game winners
Speaker 1: and didn't advance. When I look back at that sequence,
Speaker 1: hoisting the trophy in early December has a weird psychological
Speaker 1: impact on the team. Before the n season tournament even
Speaker 1: exists existed, everyone struggled with the eighty two because it's
Speaker 1: just a lot of damn basketball games and it just
Speaker 1: gets monotonous and teams lose focus that already was happening.
Speaker 1: Now you add the influx of a perceived achievement a
Speaker 1: third of the way through the season, it naturally leads
Speaker 1: to a relaxation. And that's happening to the Bucks. Same
Speaker 1: exact thing happened to the Lakers. I expect them to
Speaker 1: bounce back in a big way here in the new
Speaker 1: year and play pretty damn solid basketball the rest of
Speaker 1: the way and be a puncher's chance playoff team right
Speaker 1: below that Cleveland in Boston tier. I think they're every
Speaker 1: bit as good as the Knicks. Again, there's an upside too.
Speaker 1: In this ten game span, they're second in defense. Remember
Speaker 1: how much of a concern that used to be with
Speaker 1: this roster. Do you trust Dame Chris Middleton and Giannis
Speaker 1: to be able to create shots in a playoff series?
Speaker 1: I do do. I think this defense is on the
Speaker 1: trajectory to become at least a solid defense in the postseason. Yes,
Speaker 1: I do so. I still feel exactly the way I
Speaker 1: felt about them around the nd season tournament, and I
Speaker 1: would just encourage you guys to relax a little bit
Speaker 1: about this stretch, just from experience having dealt with something
Speaker 1: similar rooting for the Lakers last year. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. As always, as
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 1: Right after this, I'm recording a mailbag that'll be coming
Speaker 1: out tomorrow. Asways, a sincerely appreciate you guys for rocking
Speaker 1: with me and I will see you then the volume.
Speaker 1: What's up guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening
Speaker 1: to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually be really
Speaker 1: helpful for us if you guys would take a second
Speaker 1: and leave a rating and a review. As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take
Speaker 1: a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.