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Speaker 1: to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fan Duel here at the Volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. I'm recording this at a twelve twenty
Speaker 1: seven am here in Tucson. I've watched so much basketball
Speaker 1: tonight i can hardly see straight, but it was a
Speaker 1: highly entertaining night of basketball. We're gonna hit on six
Speaker 1: different games tonight, Nick's Heat, Grizzlies, Nuggets, Net, Celtics, Pelicans, Warriors, Wolves, Lakers,
Speaker 1: and Suns Bowls in that order. So tons to get into.
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Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So if you were waiting for
Speaker 1: Julius Randall and Jalen Brunson to cool off, tonight was
Speaker 1: not that night. On the road in Miami, Randall started
Speaker 1: red hot, Brunson had it going to but the Heat
Speaker 1: made a run in that fourth quarter and actually took
Speaker 1: a lead on Caleb Martin three to go up one
Speaker 1: oh seven, one oh six. And we did a show
Speaker 1: that went on the feeds yesterday talking about the Knicks,
Speaker 1: and I told Carson, and I've said this throughout the season,
Speaker 1: that you know, when we're discussing the ceiling for the Knicks,
Speaker 1: it really is as far as or as high as
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson and Julius Randall can take them. If they
Speaker 1: can produce like offensive superstars, that absolutely changes their ceiling
Speaker 1: to the same level as the teams that we see
Speaker 1: at the top of the league. It all falls on
Speaker 1: those two guys, just like it does for all the
Speaker 1: teams at the top of the league. If Jaylen Brown
Speaker 1: and Jason Tatum weren't superstars all of a sudden, the
Speaker 1: Celtics wouldn't be as good. If Jhannas Antenna co Bout
Speaker 1: didn't play like the best player in the world, the
Speaker 1: Bucks wouldn't be as good as they are. That top tier,
Speaker 1: superstar level production from the players on the best team
Speaker 1: in the league is what separates them and Randall and
Speaker 1: Brunson playing the way they've been playing is exactly why
Speaker 1: they've been winning the way they've been winning. I wanted
Speaker 1: to go play by played down the stretch of this
Speaker 1: game just to talk about how Julius Randall and Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson pulled this out with that superstar level shot making.
Speaker 1: This was a tough environment down the stretch. Julius Randall
Speaker 1: was getting a steady dose of Jimmy Butler like pressuring
Speaker 1: the hell out of him attacking his handle, even caught
Speaker 1: Bam at a bio on a specific possession down at
Speaker 1: the end, which we'll talk about. Jalen Brunson was getting
Speaker 1: a steady dose of Victor al Ladipo. And you know,
Speaker 1: Victor has fallen off in a lot of ways, but
Speaker 1: one of the things he can still do at a
Speaker 1: high level is guard guards around the NBA, and he
Speaker 1: had that matchup. But the heat go up one oh seven,
Speaker 1: one oh six on a Caleb Martin three, and down
Speaker 1: the stretch, every single big important play was Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: or Julius Randall making a tough play over good defense.
Speaker 1: So it's one of seven, one or six and Jalo Brunson,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson runs a pick and roll with Mitchell Robinson
Speaker 1: on the right side of the floor and Bam is
Speaker 1: kind of in like a high drop coverage and Brunson
Speaker 1: comes over the top of that pick, gets downhill and
Speaker 1: knocks down a floater in the lane, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: see a chess match kind of take place over the
Speaker 1: next several possessions. So they get a stop, knicks are
Speaker 1: still up one o eight, one oh seven. They run
Speaker 1: that same action that Brunson Robinson pick and roll, and
Speaker 1: this time they switch it so he's got Bam at
Speaker 1: a Bio on the switch. He actually drives on Bam
Speaker 1: At a Bio and BAM's defending him pretty well, but
Speaker 1: out of nowhere, inexplicably, Victor Oladipo leaves Mitchell Robinson to
Speaker 1: help Bam when he doesn't need help. Julius or Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson makes the right read and makes a nice bounce
Speaker 1: pass in the lane to Mitchell Robinson for dunk. They're
Speaker 1: up one ten, one oh seven. Then Caleb Martin makes
Speaker 1: a couple of free throws to get it back to
Speaker 1: one ten, one o nine. They go right back down
Speaker 1: to that exact same action. This time they switch it
Speaker 1: again and Bam At a bo on Jalen Brunson, but
Speaker 1: they set a second ball screen with Josh Hart, this
Speaker 1: time to get Caleb Martin switched onto Jalen Brunson, and
Speaker 1: from there he goes straight iso and knocks down a
Speaker 1: really nifty spinning fade away over his left shoulder, so
Speaker 1: you can see that progression of the coverage right, so
Speaker 1: like they're in a drop coverage. He gets the floater
Speaker 1: that's too easy. So next time they switch, well they
Speaker 1: get a basket out of it. But Jalen Brunson knows, well,
Speaker 1: it was really because Victor Oladipo made a mistake. It's
Speaker 1: not because I was beaten Bam off the dribble. Let's
Speaker 1: not do that again. So let's run a second ball screen.
Speaker 1: I like my chances against Caleb Martin better. He gets
Speaker 1: that spinning fade away knocks it down. That's that chess
Speaker 1: match that takes place at the end of games and
Speaker 1: further record the only team the only types of players
Speaker 1: that force defenses to make those types of adjustments are
Speaker 1: the superstar level players. And that's the advantage of having
Speaker 1: players that can warp defenses to that extent. When you
Speaker 1: have Eric Spoelstra having to kind of reach deep into
Speaker 1: his bag to come up with strategy to slow you down.
Speaker 1: That when you know you're performing at a high level offensively.
Speaker 1: So they're up one twelve, one on nine, Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: draws a couple of fouls on the next two possessions.
Speaker 1: He goes three for four. That ties the game. Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler was awesome in this game. He's such a warrior.
Speaker 1: I tweeted after the game, like, is are there many
Speaker 1: players in the league that you'd rather have in the
Speaker 1: trenches with you in a must win game than Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 1: Like it must be so awesome to be that guy's teammate.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so it's one, one twelve and the Knicks
Speaker 1: run that exact same action, the Jalen Brunson pick and
Speaker 1: roll with Mitchell Robinson on the right side. Spolstra's next move,
Speaker 1: now that this has been a problem, is he just says,
Speaker 1: screw it, Let's get the ball out of Jalen Brunson's hand.
Speaker 1: So they blitz the ball screen both of Victor Oladipo
Speaker 1: and bam at A Bios to start pressuring Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 1: He takes a retreat dribble and swings it to Julius Randall.
Speaker 1: Julius Randall has it in a late clock situation, and
Speaker 1: he just backs Jimmy Butler down to the foul line
Speaker 1: just below the fall line and knocks down a really
Speaker 1: nice little left shoulder fade in the lane to put
Speaker 1: the Knicks back up one fourteen to one twelve. The
Speaker 1: Knicks get another stop next possession, down Jalen Brunson doesn't
Speaker 1: want the blitz, so what's the best way to avoid
Speaker 1: the blitz? Don't even bring the second defender into the play.
Speaker 1: He just goes straight iso on Victor Oladipo, kind of
Speaker 1: hits him with the hesitation move and gets into the
Speaker 1: lane and makes a really nice, tough floating bank shot
Speaker 1: off the glass to put the Knicks up one sixteen
Speaker 1: to one twelve. Then the heat go on another run.
Speaker 1: Bam hits gets an ally from Tyler Harrow, then Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler gets to put back. Screams of the crowd. It's
Speaker 1: one sixteen, one sixteen, there's one or three left. Nick's
Speaker 1: call a time out. There's another interesting chess match chess
Speaker 1: match peach piece here, So Tom Thibeto takes Mitchell Robinson
Speaker 1: out of the game for this possession to go all
Speaker 1: in on offense. Right. This allows Eric Spoelstra to put
Speaker 1: bam At a bio on Julius Randall now because he
Speaker 1: doesn't need Julius Randall to contend with Mitchell Robinson on
Speaker 1: the glass. Right. That's that's like a little side effect
Speaker 1: of going to offensive subs as you opened up a
Speaker 1: bigger defender to put on too Julius Randall. But Randall
Speaker 1: literally just went right at bam at a baio on
Speaker 1: the right block, backed him down and hit him with
Speaker 1: that shoulder in his chest and spun over his left
Speaker 1: shoulder and hits an and one fade away on the
Speaker 1: baseline to put them up one nineteen to one sixteen.
Speaker 1: Then the Heat come at him again. Tyler Harrow goes
Speaker 1: on a personal four oh run puts the Heat up
Speaker 1: one twenty to one nineteen, and on the ensuing possession,
Speaker 1: the Heat trap Brunson again, who throws a bad pass
Speaker 1: to Julius Randall. He has to like retreat back to
Speaker 1: half court, bobbles it, he gets it, and he secures
Speaker 1: the pass with eight seconds on the game clock, and
Speaker 1: he's out at half court and he rips through. Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler in this situation opts for ball pressure, so he's
Speaker 1: attacking the hell out of Julius Randall. He's swinging at
Speaker 1: the ball. He actually picks it clean, but it bounces
Speaker 1: back to Julius Randall. He somehow composes himself and takes
Speaker 1: his step back three on the right wing with Tyler
Speaker 1: Harrow all up in his grill and he knocks it
Speaker 1: down the toughest shot of the game in the game winner,
Speaker 1: time and time again down the stretch of this game.
Speaker 1: No matter what punch Miami threw offensively to get the
Speaker 1: lead or to get back into the game, no matter
Speaker 1: what coverage Eric Spoelstra threw at those guys, those two
Speaker 1: guys made superstar offensive plays every single possessions possession down
Speaker 1: the floor. That's what superstars do. They make tough shots
Speaker 1: over good defense. And why do I talk about that
Speaker 1: all the time, Because when you get to the playoffs,
Speaker 1: it's always good defense. You might get lucky and catch
Speaker 1: a flawed opponent in the first round, but as soon
Speaker 1: as you get to round two, the rest of the way,
Speaker 1: everyone's good at it. Everyone's good defensively. And then the
Speaker 1: deeper you get into the series, they're ahead of all
Speaker 1: your actions. They've guarded you seventy possessions already in that series,
Speaker 1: and they know all your moves, and it comes down
Speaker 1: to good defense and guys having to make shots over
Speaker 1: that defense. That's why I talk so much about that
Speaker 1: half court shot creation. That's why I talk so much
Speaker 1: about your star talent. Absolutely have to have it. It
Speaker 1: is a prerequisite to score when you get to the
Speaker 1: late rounds of the NBA playoffs, and it's super encouraging
Speaker 1: to see a game like tonight where Miami plays damn
Speaker 1: near perfect defense down the stretch of the game with
Speaker 1: good defensive players, but you just go down and make
Speaker 1: tough shots in their face to win the game. Now,
Speaker 1: is this recent stretch real from the Knicks. I don't know.
Speaker 1: We're gonna find out when we get to the playoffs,
Speaker 1: but I can tell you that I'm very excited to
Speaker 1: find out, and I absolutely think they do have that chance.
Speaker 1: And I'm again, I want to wait until we get
Speaker 1: to April, but I'm like this close to saying that
Speaker 1: they'd beat the Calves in that first round series. So
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens over the course of the next
Speaker 1: few weeks. All right, let's move on to Grizzlies Nuggets.
Speaker 1: So Memphis through one hell of a punch in this game.
Speaker 1: I was really impressed with their defense. They were swarming
Speaker 1: Nickela Yokich and did a really nice jot rotating on
Speaker 1: the back line to make sure they didn't give up
Speaker 1: too many of those wide open threes on the back
Speaker 1: side of the court. They held that high, that high
Speaker 1: powered Nuggets offense to just fifty points in the first half.
Speaker 1: But they also, you know, Denver, to their credit, also
Speaker 1: battled through that whole stretch, and they did a nice
Speaker 1: job defending and keeping Memphis in the half court, preventing
Speaker 1: those fast break opportunities that they get so frequently. Memphis
Speaker 1: only had twelve points in transition in this game. It's
Speaker 1: far cry from the thirty six points in transition that
Speaker 1: they scored against the Lakers on Tuesday. But that's how
Speaker 1: we ended up in a close game going into the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. Excellent Memphis defense, excellent execution from Denver to
Speaker 1: prevent turnovers and getting out in transition. And then in
Speaker 1: that fourth quarter, Jamal Murray, who had been kind of
Speaker 1: locked down by Dylan Brooks for most of the game,
Speaker 1: finally shook loose. Made four shots in the quarter. He
Speaker 1: had all of them were high degree of difficulty, two
Speaker 1: of them on Dylan Brooks and straight Iso, who's one
Speaker 1: of the best defenders in the league. He had a
Speaker 1: spinning step back jump shot on the right wing. He
Speaker 1: had a play where Dylan was kind of pressing him
Speaker 1: on the left wing and he just kind of held
Speaker 1: the ball out to his right and did kind of
Speaker 1: like an invert to jab step where he kind of
Speaker 1: faked like he was gonna go left and went into
Speaker 1: the middle and made like a little push shot. You know,
Speaker 1: he set up Dylan Brooks really well on an off
Speaker 1: ball screen for a curling layup, Like setting up your
Speaker 1: man is the key is succeeding in those off ball situations.
Speaker 1: He just kind of got physical with him and pushed
Speaker 1: him out of position and then came off the screen.
Speaker 1: That was what allowed him to get open, and then
Speaker 1: he sealed the deal. The dagger was a kind of
Speaker 1: a chaotic play that ended up with him on Xavier
Speaker 1: Tilman on the left wing, and he just tough shot,
Speaker 1: making a jab step three writing Xavier Tillman's face. And
Speaker 1: you combine that with a ridiculous defensive half from the Nuggets.
Speaker 1: They held the Grizzlies to just thirty nine points in
Speaker 1: the second half, and that's how you end up with
Speaker 1: a very very comfortable win against a very good team
Speaker 1: at home, revenge for the loss in Memphis. I think
Speaker 1: it was earlier this week or last week. I can't
Speaker 1: remember exactly where Jokis has another triple double at eighteen
Speaker 1: points on just ten shots tennisis eighteen rebounds really quickly.
Speaker 1: On the stat padding, stupid storyline that was around from
Speaker 1: Kendrick Perkins, I don't really have an opinion on it
Speaker 1: because it's just wrong. I have never seen a single
Speaker 1: basketball possession where Nicola Yokich made an unnatural basketball play
Speaker 1: in pursuit of a stat. I just have never seen it.
Speaker 1: And like, I haven't seen every single Nuggets games game
Speaker 1: like Nuggets fans, but I've watched the I watched the
Speaker 1: majority of them because they're one of the teams that
Speaker 1: I'm covering closely, and I've never seen him do it.
Speaker 1: When Russ was you know, Kendrick Perkins was making the
Speaker 1: point like, oh well, everyone called Russ's stat pattern. Look,
Speaker 1: I didn't. I believe in the legitimacy of Russ's statistical achievement.
Speaker 1: I thought it was remarkable, But yeah, he was doing
Speaker 1: some Jakie stuff. I'm sorry. Like I watched Thunder games
Speaker 1: where Steven Adams would have a rebound right in front
Speaker 1: of him and deliberately not grab it so Russ could
Speaker 1: come in and grab it. Like that's where that narrative
Speaker 1: came from. It wasn't from people just hating on Russ.
Speaker 1: It was what we saw when we watched the games.
Speaker 1: Like Russ was doing unbelievable things that year, but he
Speaker 1: also was going out of his way to accumulate stats.
Speaker 1: That's not what Nikola Yokich is doing. If anything, I
Speaker 1: would argue that Nikola Yokich's impact is not properly quantified
Speaker 1: by a box score. It goes far beyond the box score.
Speaker 1: I think he's the best offensive player in the league,
Speaker 1: or right there with Steph and he took ten shots tonight,
Speaker 1: so you're not going to see that type of impact
Speaker 1: in eighteen points on what he does to a defense
Speaker 1: warping it and creating quality shots for his teammates. Last
Speaker 1: thought on that game, Brandon Clark went down with what
Speaker 1: looked like a lower leg injury early in this one.
Speaker 1: I really hope he's all right, because not only does
Speaker 1: that suck for him, but that's a very very important
Speaker 1: piece for Memphis. So prayers up for Brandon Clark. I
Speaker 1: hope that he's all right. Net Celtics. So the Celtics
Speaker 1: led by twenty eight in the middle of the second
Speaker 1: quarter and ended up trailing by sixteen in the fourth
Speaker 1: in what was probably their worst loss of the season.
Speaker 1: There's two things I want to hit from this game.
Speaker 1: First of all, switching defense. This is something I've talked
Speaker 1: about forever and something that I was specifically excited about
Speaker 1: with this NETS team, which is struggled obviously because they
Speaker 1: don't have a ton of offensive skill, but they do
Speaker 1: have a ton of defensive versatility. And you know, one
Speaker 1: of the things that I always have loved about switching
Speaker 1: defenses is the way that they stagnate teams and force
Speaker 1: them to create off the dribble for themselves against excuse me,
Speaker 1: against a set defense, and they stagnated the hell out
Speaker 1: of Boston down the stretch. In this game. Boston scored
Speaker 1: just forty one in the second half. And when you
Speaker 1: look at those lineups, like the primary lineup Spencer Dinwoodie
Speaker 1: with Dorian Phinney, Smith, Michael Bridges, Cam Johnson and Nick Claxton,
Speaker 1: there's just not really an easy target to go after.
Speaker 1: But again, you have to beat switching defenses in one
Speaker 1: of two ways. You can either use complicated screen actions
Speaker 1: to try to confuse the switching defense right So like
Speaker 1: screens are a great example, there was a play in
Speaker 1: this particular game where I believe Jaylen Brown got a dunk,
Speaker 1: and JJ Reddick, who's obviously one of the best people
Speaker 1: in our business. I think he's the very best at
Speaker 1: what he does. He did an amazing job breaking down
Speaker 1: for the people listening to the broadcast how a ghost
Speaker 1: screen works. And basically all the ghost screen is is
Speaker 1: you take usually a perimeter player who the ball handler
Speaker 1: is also a perimeter player, but the screener is the
Speaker 1: perimeter player, and you have him run just right behind
Speaker 1: the defender as if he's about to set his screen,
Speaker 1: but then you just run right past him to the
Speaker 1: three point line. And you're hoping that those two defenders
Speaker 1: hesitate or miscommunicate as to whether or not they're supposed
Speaker 1: to switch. And on this particular play, I think it
Speaker 1: was Royce O'Neill was guarding the screener and Royce O'Neil
Speaker 1: did not switch at all, but the defender guarding Jaylen Brown,
Speaker 1: which I believe is Micail Bridges on this play, thought
Speaker 1: a switch was coming and Jalen had an opportunity to drive.
Speaker 1: So you need to use actions like that to try
Speaker 1: to confuse switching. Another great way to confuse switching schemes
Speaker 1: is a three player screening action. So like any sequence
Speaker 1: of screens that involves three players in rapid secession, because
Speaker 1: then it's not just a I take your man, you
Speaker 1: take my man. It's like which one of those two
Speaker 1: guys am I getting and that guy's thinking the same thing,
Speaker 1: and that guy's thinking it just gets It's it's like
Speaker 1: an order of magnitude above the decision making process of
Speaker 1: a normal switch. And you can hope to get some
Speaker 1: mistakes there. But if you're not going to do it
Speaker 1: through the screening actions, you have to beat the switches
Speaker 1: by applying rim pressure. I talked about this a ton
Speaker 1: in that Lakers Mavericks come back in the first half
Speaker 1: of that game, Dallas is switching everything and Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis weren't pressuring the rim the way they
Speaker 1: were supposed to to get the defense in rotation. That
Speaker 1: gets you the open shots. Because again, in a switching scheme,
Speaker 1: if as soon as you draw help, now you're playing
Speaker 1: normal basketball. Now it's driving kick extend the advantage a
Speaker 1: good shooter with an open shot or an easy opportunity
Speaker 1: at the rim. But the only way you're going to
Speaker 1: draw multiple defenders against the switching scheme is by driving
Speaker 1: to the basket. If you're taking off the dribble jump shots,
Speaker 1: you're not going to be bringing multiple defenders in. That's
Speaker 1: when you start to get stagnant, when you're just taking
Speaker 1: difficult shots over the top of isolation defense and you're
Speaker 1: not drawing multiple defenders. In the second half of that
Speaker 1: Mavericks Lakers game, Lebron James and Anthony Davis just bullied
Speaker 1: the Mavericks to the basket every single time, and they
Speaker 1: either scored at the rim or move the ball around
Speaker 1: for open shooter. Right. That's the way you have to
Speaker 1: attack a switching defense. But the Celtics could never regain
Speaker 1: control of this game. They could never get the requisite
Speaker 1: rim pressure, and before you knew it, the game was over.
Speaker 1: Mikail Bridges in this game when for thirty eight, ten
Speaker 1: and four in eight games since joining the Brooklyn Nets,
Speaker 1: twenty five six and three fifty three percent from the field,
Speaker 1: fifty percent from three, ninety two percent from the That's
Speaker 1: a sixty seven percent true shooting percentage, forty three percent
Speaker 1: on five pull up jump shots per game in two
Speaker 1: stocks per game. That steals plus blocks. So not only
Speaker 1: do you get a big win, strategically over a good
Speaker 1: Celtics team, but mcaial Bridges continues to flash that high
Speaker 1: level scoring now they do have, there's a couple of
Speaker 1: specific things that he has to work on to get
Speaker 1: to the next level to go from being the guy
Speaker 1: who can score the basketball to the guy who's an
Speaker 1: All Star. That next step for him is getting to
Speaker 1: the rim and finishing. He's still low volume at the
Speaker 1: rim for a wing and low efficiency at the rim
Speaker 1: for a wing. He's blow seventy percent and I think
Speaker 1: he's like two point two restricted air he makes per game.
Speaker 1: I always like to see that for wings up above
Speaker 1: three makes per game and up over seventy percent. That's
Speaker 1: where he needs to get to reach that all star level.
Speaker 1: And then the other thing he needs to get better
Speaker 1: at making plays for his teammates that assists to turnover
Speaker 1: ratio isn't where it needs to be. But the scoring
Speaker 1: is real, and when you combine that with what he
Speaker 1: can do defensively, you know the Nets have a serious
Speaker 1: star are from that Kevin Durant deal, and when you
Speaker 1: combine that with all the draft compensation and all the
Speaker 1: other three and D wings that they got at the deadline,
Speaker 1: they're in pretty good shape in the long run in
Speaker 1: my opinion. All Right, Pelicans Warriors, So keeping with the trend,
Speaker 1: the Warriors dug themselves in a seventeen point hole before
Speaker 1: going up by double digits in the fourth quarter for
Speaker 1: a comfortable win. I'm not gonna spend too long on
Speaker 1: this game because Sunday is definitely Warriors Lakers game day.
Speaker 1: Since the two of them are playing each other, they
Speaker 1: will be the focal point of our show on Sunday,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna be going live on AMP right after
Speaker 1: the final buzzer of that game. But I wanted to
Speaker 1: shout out Clay Thompson again, and I know I've done
Speaker 1: that late a lot lately, but he's been incredible and
Speaker 1: he's one of my favorite players, and honestly, he just
Speaker 1: deserves it. He did an absolute number on CJ. McCollum
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor down the stretch of
Speaker 1: this game. I'm gonna go play by play down the
Speaker 1: stretch like I usually do. So the Pells were up
Speaker 1: for middle fourth quarter on a pretty tough fade away
Speaker 1: from Brandon Ingram on a deep post sal I think
Speaker 1: it was over Jordan Pool. If I remember correctly. Then
Speaker 1: Anthony Lamb hits a three to get it back to one,
Speaker 1: and then Clay Thompson checks back into the game and
Speaker 1: from there he demonstrates once again high level half court
Speaker 1: shot creation, which again continues to be the revelation of
Speaker 1: the season for Golden State, one of the main reasons
Speaker 1: why they've been able to float in the standings despite
Speaker 1: being down their two best players for most of the season.
Speaker 1: It's Clay Thompson half court shot creation on the basketball,
Speaker 1: which is such an unusual thing compared to what we've
Speaker 1: seen from him over the course of the rest of
Speaker 1: his career. So Trey Murphy misses the three, and Murphy's
Speaker 1: guarding Clay Thompson on the other end of the floor. Again,
Speaker 1: no point in taking on a better defensive player if
Speaker 1: you don't have to. He calls for a ball screen
Speaker 1: from Jordan Pool to get a switch on too CJ McCollum.
Speaker 1: Soon as CJ McCollums switches onto him, he just confidently
Speaker 1: steps into a thirty foot pull up three and knocks
Speaker 1: it down in CJ's face to put the Warriors up too.
Speaker 1: So then Brandon Ingram comes down and he makes a
Speaker 1: nice play out of a double team that leads to
Speaker 1: a foul under the basket. Pelicans split split the Parrots
Speaker 1: back to one point game, same thing down the floor.
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson on the right wing calls for the ball
Speaker 1: screen from Jordan Pool to get CJ. McCollum on a switch.
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson just drives by CJ McCollum to the right,
Speaker 1: draws multiple defenders, makes a nice kind of hook pass
Speaker 1: out to Jordan Pool on the left wing, hockey assist
Speaker 1: over to Dante DiVincenzo top of the key, knocks down
Speaker 1: the three again. Permiter initiation is not necessarily about making
Speaker 1: the assist or making the basket. It's about drawing multiple defenders.
Speaker 1: It's about getting the defense into rotation. Offensive initiation is
Speaker 1: about that initial compromising and then you're counting on your
Speaker 1: teammates to further the advantage and get the great shot.
Speaker 1: That's what you're asked to do, possession after possession after possession.
Speaker 1: It doesn't always have to be you scoring or making
Speaker 1: v play and this was a great example that gets
Speaker 1: into the lane, draws Herb Jones and help makes a
Speaker 1: pass to a kind of open teammate who makes the
Speaker 1: right who makes the right play to the wide open
Speaker 1: teammate who is the original player who helped on Clay
Speaker 1: Thompson's drive. So the Warriors were up four at that point.
Speaker 1: And again like just so you guys know, plays half
Speaker 1: court shot creation has been off the charts. Oh year long.
Speaker 1: He's eightieth percentile in pick and roll ball handling this year.
Speaker 1: That's one point zero five points per possession. He's ninety
Speaker 1: first percentile in isolation. That's one point two points per
Speaker 1: possession in sixty possessions. He's even scored twenty two points
Speaker 1: on twenty one post ups, which is considered above average
Speaker 1: in all of those are including passes. This is no
Speaker 1: longer just oh, he's doing pretty good for an off
Speaker 1: ball player in a small situation when we've needed him.
Speaker 1: No, no no, no, he's actually just been really damn good
Speaker 1: at initiating offense with the ball in his hands. So
Speaker 1: tip of the caps, Clay. So from that point, brandon
Speaker 1: Ingram makes another tough fade away. He was brandon Ingram
Speaker 1: so damn good. He makes another tough fade away over
Speaker 1: Dante gets it back to ninety eight ninety six and
Speaker 1: they go down in Golden State. Tries to run the
Speaker 1: exact same play again, and on this play, Draymond Green
Speaker 1: actually loses control of the basketball, and when he loses
Speaker 1: control of the basketball, that allows Herb Jones to kind
Speaker 1: of fight through Clay's position and deny the basketball. So
Speaker 1: then Draymond has the audible and he goes to Jordan Pool,
Speaker 1: and Jordan Pool takes like an extremely difficult step back
Speaker 1: three and misses it. But Dante de Vincenzo, who all
Speaker 1: year long has been a monster on the offensive glass,
Speaker 1: just comes flying in and grabs the rebound and hits
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kamenica cutting down the lane for a dunk. But
Speaker 1: from here was what I thought was Clay's best moment
Speaker 1: of the game. So on a crazy offensive rebound, after
Speaker 1: CJ McCollum misses a pull up three, Clay Thompson gets
Speaker 1: switched onto CJ, and CJ tries to iso Clay just
Speaker 1: like Clay's been going to work on him, and Clay
Speaker 1: literally just completely swallows him up, just sits in his stay,
Speaker 1: its arms out wide, sliding with them everywhere. CJ doesn't
Speaker 1: know where to go. Eventually, CJ literally retreats and goes
Speaker 1: all the way back out to the top of the
Speaker 1: key and just throws like an aimless swing pass over
Speaker 1: to Trey Murphy, who misses the three. They go right
Speaker 1: back down the floor. Clay Thompson calls for the same
Speaker 1: damn ball screen from Jordan Pool, gets back on CJ.
Speaker 1: McCollum and just walks him down to the foul line
Speaker 1: and takes his step back right in his face and
Speaker 1: knocks it down to put the Warriors up six, effectively
Speaker 1: the dagger to win the game again. Like especially when
Speaker 1: I'm starting, that's when you really know Clay's back is
Speaker 1: when he's got that perimeter defense element of his game going.
Speaker 1: I think he's one of the better perimeter defenders in
Speaker 1: the league when he's right physically. I've said this before,
Speaker 1: but I think his individual defense on Jylen Brown in
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals was one of the huge swing factors
Speaker 1: that swung things back towards Golden State in Games four, five,
Speaker 1: and six. He's one of the best in the league
Speaker 1: at that and to see him doing what he's doing
Speaker 1: on the basketball too, like I've said before, just just
Speaker 1: an absolute just sheer willpower and just a refusal to
Speaker 1: lose games, allowing them to win five games in a row.
Speaker 1: Without Steph again this year, and Steph's coming back against
Speaker 1: the Lakers on Sunday. Steve Kerr said after the game
Speaker 1: that he thinks the team has turned to corner, and
Speaker 1: I agree. I think they are much more poised for
Speaker 1: a stretch run then I would have expected at this
Speaker 1: point given the injuries and man like, if you're a
Speaker 1: Warriors fan right now, you've got to be feeling great
Speaker 1: about about the way things are falling into place after
Speaker 1: how nightmarish this year has been on so many different levels.
Speaker 1: All right, Grizzlies, Lakers. So everything broke right for the
Speaker 1: Lakers on the schedule tonight. The Blazers got their ass kicked,
Speaker 1: the Jazz got their ass kicked, the Pelicans lost, the
Speaker 1: Clippers lost, so the Lakers had a chance to move
Speaker 1: into a tie in the lost column for the seven seed,
Speaker 1: but they had to beat the Minnesota Nimberwolves, and I
Speaker 1: had a feeling they would really struggle in this particular game.
Speaker 1: Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards, as I've talked about so
Speaker 1: much on this show, are arguably the best to like
Speaker 1: perimeter defense pairing in the league. And they go through
Speaker 1: these defensive runs where they can shut down even some
Speaker 1: of the best players in the league. And when you
Speaker 1: take Lebron James out of the equation and D'Angel Russell
Speaker 1: out of the equation. And look, here's the thing with Delo, Like,
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, I'm really confused as to how an
Speaker 1: ankle tweak that he continued to play on is keeping
Speaker 1: him out for this long. I mean, I understand it
Speaker 1: from the standpoint of like he's in a contract year,
Speaker 1: and I get that he probably wants to be one
Speaker 1: hundred percent healthy for his own sake, and I do
Speaker 1: understand that, to be clear, but like, it is so
Speaker 1: unfortunate for the Lakers that he's not available because they
Speaker 1: cannot beat even play in level teams with that level
Speaker 1: of ball handling on the floor. Dennis Schroder's not good enough.
Speaker 1: Guys like Austin Reeves and Lonnie Walker there. I really
Speaker 1: like Austin Reeves, but you can't have him in this
Speaker 1: type of high usage role. You need him slotted in
Speaker 1: a position where he's a little bit more selective. Right,
Speaker 1: same thing goes with Dennis. He's better off leading bench units,
Speaker 1: not being your primary guy. And so as soon as
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell's out of the lineup, and Lebron James is
Speaker 1: out of the lineup. Everybody is slotted into a position
Speaker 1: that they're underqualified for and it's gonna go poorly. Like
Speaker 1: the Laker guards were an absolute hell tonight against Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards and Jade McDaniels. It was an extremely impressive defensive
Speaker 1: performance from them. Rudy Gobert was awesome, Naz Reid hit
Speaker 1: a bunch of really important threes. You know, it was
Speaker 1: just Minnesota has been playing decently well here in their
Speaker 1: last couple of games, but I was really impressed with
Speaker 1: them on the defensive end of the floor tonight. Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: he had thirty eight points, got to the foul line
Speaker 1: a ton but he just the thing with ad is
Speaker 1: he can't really manage a basketball game in like a
Speaker 1: high usage role the way that some of his peers
Speaker 1: around the league can. His winning impact when he's alongside
Speaker 1: that complimentary ball handling star, his winning impact is every
Speaker 1: bit as high as the best players in the league
Speaker 1: when he's locked in and he's got that complimentary star.
Speaker 1: But when you take away that complimentary ball handling star,
Speaker 1: his impact just tanks because he just can't. He's not
Speaker 1: the guy that can start fifty offensive possessions in a game.
Speaker 1: He doesn't dribble the ball well enough, he doesn't pass
Speaker 1: well enough. He had six turnovers tonight to just to assists.
Speaker 1: He takes way too many high difficulty jumpshots without necessarily
Speaker 1: needing to. And it's frustrating because again, it's like Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis had thirty eight How ridiculous do I sound like
Speaker 1: talking about Anthony Davis having kind of an uneven night
Speaker 1: when he had thirty eight points. But that's the Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis experience. I've been talking about this forever, Like that
Speaker 1: dude can fill up the box score like nobody's business
Speaker 1: because of what he does on the glass and his
Speaker 1: ability to finish around the rim and all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: But like, for whatever reason, like I'm sorry, but like
Speaker 1: I always say, Anthony Davis is one of the best
Speaker 1: players in the world when he's right. If I take
Speaker 1: one of the best players in the world, healthy and
Speaker 1: right and I drop him into that game, he's winning
Speaker 1: that game. Jannis is winning that game against Minnesota, you know,
Speaker 1: Like I even think Jason Tatum has a chance to
Speaker 1: go win that game against Minnesota. It's just because he's
Speaker 1: a perimeter initiator. Like That's the thing that's tough with
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is like he is absolutely one of the guys,
Speaker 1: but he absolutely has to be next to a complimentary
Speaker 1: ball handling star to unlock that level of winning impact.
Speaker 1: Like if Delo doesn't play on Sunday, I don't think
Speaker 1: they can beat the Warriors either, even at home. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just too hard to do without the requisite ball handling.
Speaker 1: All right, lastly, before we get out of here, tonight,
Speaker 1: Sun's Bulls. So and I only watched the first quarter
Speaker 1: of this game, so we're not going to talk too
Speaker 1: much about it. Suns pulled away late, beat the Bulls
Speaker 1: by twenty one. Katie was plus twenty four and thirty
Speaker 1: one minutes. But I have two takeaways that I wanted
Speaker 1: to get into. First of all, I liked how much
Speaker 1: switching the Suns did. They switched every single action that
Speaker 1: involved Kevin Durant, DeAndre Aiden, and the Bulls scored on
Speaker 1: them a few times. Damarda Rosen hit a couple of
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots on DeAndre Aden Vussevic had like
Speaker 1: a deep seal little hook shot over Kevin Durant, but
Speaker 1: it takes Chicago out of the flow of their offense.
Speaker 1: Like again, with switching, it's always a given a take.
Speaker 1: You're going to give some easy shots and some matchups,
Speaker 1: you're gonna give up some offensive rebounds. There are going
Speaker 1: to be some miscommunications. But the upside is is you
Speaker 1: take an MBA offense that is used to a certain
Speaker 1: rhythm and flow and you completely screw that up, and
Speaker 1: now all of a sudden, it forces them to play,
Speaker 1: like we talked about earlier about the Nets and the Celtics,
Speaker 1: a specific type of switch attacking offense, and it throws
Speaker 1: a lot of teams out of whack. And so I'd
Speaker 1: like to see that the Suns aren't leaning too heavily
Speaker 1: on drop coverage and they're doing some switching with their
Speaker 1: front core players that I thought was encouraging. The other
Speaker 1: thing I really liked was just how many easy shots
Speaker 1: that specifically Devin Booker got off the ball, because the
Speaker 1: Suns were running a lot of their actions with Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant in the action, which I thought was interesting because
Speaker 1: I've talked a lot about how I expected him to
Speaker 1: be more off ball, but Booker got some wide open
Speaker 1: catch and shoot threes earlier in this game, And I
Speaker 1: think that's a big part of why he went for
Speaker 1: thirty five. Like I always talk about like building your rhythm,
Speaker 1: like if if you're a tough shot maker, like in
Speaker 1: my as i've gotten older, I've worked really hard on
Speaker 1: off the dribble shooting, and so like most of the
Speaker 1: guys in town, like are expecting me to take a
Speaker 1: certain amount of you know, fade aways over both shoulders
Speaker 1: or step back threes, or pull up twos or pull
Speaker 1: up threes off the dribble. But like, if I go
Speaker 1: into a game and just right at the start, just
Speaker 1: start taking really difficult fadeaways and step back threes, like
Speaker 1: it's gonna be I'll be lucky to make a bunch
Speaker 1: of them and get into a rhythm. But if I
Speaker 1: build my rhythm by attacking the rim or getting a
Speaker 1: cup the catch and shoot threes in the flow of
Speaker 1: the offense to where I feel good about myself and
Speaker 1: I feel like I have my touch dialed in, and
Speaker 1: then I take a fade away or a step back,
Speaker 1: that shot has a higher percentage chance of going in.
Speaker 1: We talked about this a lot with Paul George yesterday
Speaker 1: with Carson. But you want to build your rhythm with
Speaker 1: easy shots and then take the tougher shots. And that's
Speaker 1: what's so scary about this Phoenix offense in particular Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, DeAndre and Chris Paul. These guys are all
Speaker 1: going to get a boatload of easy shots within the
Speaker 1: flow of the offense that are gonna help bolster their rhythm.
Speaker 1: Those rhythm builders are going to help lead to more
Speaker 1: explosive scoring nights like Devin Booker having thirty five tonight.
Speaker 1: The Sons have a couple more easy games before they
Speaker 1: get into that tough stretch like we talked about. I
Speaker 1: think it's Sacramento and then Golden State in the Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be when we learned the most about them.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that's all we have for tonight. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be covering. I think it's it's six bucks tomorrow night,
Speaker 1: So sixers Bucks Tomorrow night. We're gonna be covering as
Speaker 1: part of that show on Sunday when we talk Lakers Warriors.
Speaker 1: So keep an eye on my twitter feed. I'll keep
Speaker 1: you posted as to when we'll go live, but it's
Speaker 1: going to be right after the final buzzer of Lakers Warriors.
Speaker 1: As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys support and I'll
Speaker 1: see you on Sunday. The volume