175. Lebron and Russ pull out the win

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Gambling problem called one eight hundred, next step or text next step to five three three four two in Arizona one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org slash chat in Connecticut one eight hundred gambler or visit FanDuel dot com slash RG in Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, in Virginia one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop in Louisiana one eight hundred to seven zero seven one one seven for confidential

help in Michigan one eight seven seven eight Hope and Why or text hope and Why to four six seven three six nine in New York. In Tennessee redline dial one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in Tennessee, visit www one dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by FanDuel. Here on the volume, I am Jason Timp. Happy Friday, everybody. I hope you all had a great week.

I sincerely apologize for those of you who are listening a little bit earlier. We had some technical difficulties, but we got those resolved. I appreciate you sticking around and or coming back. You may also have noticed that we titled the show Hoops Tonight Tonight instead of Lakers Tonight. All that is is a different brand that we are going to use for nights where we don't go immediately after Lakers games, which is obviously going to be more

relevant as we head into the postseason. Just a new brand doesn't change anything about the show or where you get um. But ironically, the Lakers were the most interesting game tonight, so we will be leading with them. We're gonna talk about Russ's big shot and all the chaos

surrounding that. We're gonna talk about Lebron's vintage fourth quarter, and we're gonna get into a little bit of the things that the Lakers did in that game that they can take forward, lessons that they might have learned that they can apply as they move forward. And then later in the show, we are going to talk about the Mavericks finally losing one of these huge road games in Philly tonight, talk about this recent stretch from them and

what it means. And then for those of you stick around at the end, we're going to talk a little bit of the Chicago Bulls, the team I have not done a deep dive on of late, so let's start with the Lakers. This was a very important win for a bunch of different reasons. Obviously, in the standings, it was important they now have a three game advantage over

the San Antonio Spurs for that eleven spot. So if within that locker room, if they are interested in trying to make a run at this thing, they need to get a certain amount of wins the rest of the season to even stay in that spot. This idea of them just going out every night, rolling over and losing by twenty had this obvious consequence that was gonna involve

them just missing the play in altogether. And then also it has to do with just, you know, some sort of building block, something you can take into the next season regardless of what happens this season, if they missed the play in, if they make the plan but lose in the playing tournament, or if they make it to the first round and get destroyed by Phoenix. Regardless of what happens, basketball has to be played next year, and they need to have something that they can build on.

And so this win is important for all of those reasons that I just laid out. First of all, Toronto is really, really good. I didn't think the Lakers were physically capable of getting this win tonight on the road in Toronto. If you watched that game at the Crypto dot Com Arena the other night, they looked physically outclassed

at almost every position. It was one of those things where you when you try to fathom how they could go into Toronto play that same basketball team with the same pieces at their disposal, for them to fight the way they did was really impressive. And it goes to that the same concept that I talked about in after that game. I talked about the difference between being big and playing big. The Lakers were a small team that also played small. They backed away and shied away from

all of the physical confrontations. They weren't actually trying to win those confrontations. They were conceding those confrontations. That's not what happened tonight. They went in and they were the physical aggressors. Some of that was Toronto pulling back, probably because they expected the Lakers to roll over, but a lot of it was the Lakers coming out swinging and punching and trying to win those physical battles. And they did.

And that's what's so frustrating about this team, because they have a punch that they have access to that has the capability of beating any of these teams in the league on any given night. Are they good enough to win the championship? Probably not. I don't think so. Even with Anthony Davis coming back. They're just too thin at almost every other position group on the floor outside of Lebron and Anthony Davis. But they're nowhere near as bad as the results from this last month would tell you.

If you looked at the results they you would think this is one of the very worst teams in the league, and the same tier as like an Orlando Magic, for instance. But that's not how bad this team actually is. They they may not be a bona fide championship contender, but they are a healthy playoff team that should absolutely be competitive in every single NBA game, and they were disrespecting the game and poisoning their own situation by playing the way that they were playing over the course of this

last month. It's annoying that we know that they can do what they did tonight, maybe not win a couple of bounces go different. They lose tonight, but they were competitive throughout the game. I would argue they controlled that game for the most part. That's what that team is capable of against any of those non contenders. They No, I don't think they can go beat Phoenix, but against

the vast majority of the teams in the league. They should be competitive on any given night, and if Lebron is able to give you what he gave you in the fourth quarter tonight, you should be able to win with this group. And so that's what's been so frustrating about this team this season. I wanted to talk about Russ's shot for a second because I thought it was

genuinely fascinating at so many different levels. You know, Russ is having a really bad season by any stretch of the imagination, and I would argue it's the vast majority of it is his fault. Some of it is circumstances. You know, Frank Vogel hasn't done the best job. He's been elevated to bigger roles because of injury. There are circumstances that are outside of his control that didn't go well.

But the vast majority of this season going poorly was Russ's fault, him not embracing what he needed to do. And I've talked a lot on the show in recent weeks about how he needs to adapt and learn a lesson from this season. Well, that last sequence of possessions at the end of this game taught you everything you need to know about how us has interpreted what has

happened to this season. If you thought he was humbled, if you thought maybe he was thinking about changing some of the aspects of his game, Hell no, that was answered in a resounding fashion. Let's let me just lay this out for you, just so you guys understand exactly how crazy easy those last two shots where from Russell Westbrook. He is shooting less than fourteen percent from three in the fifteen games coming into tonight, Lebron had sixteen points

in the fourth quarter. He had just made a three. Because Toronto was ball pressuring the three point line with size and length, the only guy that was getting quality three point shots was Lebron unless Stanley Johnson wanted to shoot something, but he was moving the ball as he shoot up in that situation, So Lebron comes off of the screen and misses a step back that would have tied the game. Their Lakers get an offensive rebound. It

ends up back in Russ His hands. Here comes Lebron off of another screen, coming back towards Russ, and Precious a Chua dies on the screen. Lebron is open at the top of the key and on top of that Pascal Seacom's guarding Russ and he's up on the jump shot. He's taking away his airspace and Russ shot it anyway, and it was one of the worst misses I have ever seen in an NBA game from a player that's

allegedly as talented as wells of Westbrook Is. He damn near hits the corner of the backboard and he one ups himself because on the very next possession, completely unfazed, he goes down the floor and he makes the shot horribly like the Scotty Barnes was draped all over him, barely had any space, and he knocks down that shot, and it was an amazing shot, and it was the only reason the Lakers had an opportunity to win that game in overtime. So I want to credit that as

best as I possibly can. It was an unbelievable shot saved the night for the Lakers. But that shot tells you everything you need to know about Russ and what he's learned from this season after this catastrophe of a season. His takeaway was, oh, Lebron's got it going tonight, but but I gotta go, oh Lebron just made a three has sixteen points in the fourth corner. No, no, no, this is my turn. Oh I just hit the corner of a backboard and all those other things are true. No,

it's still my turn. That tells you everything you need to know about Russ. That supreme confidence has carried him throughout his career, but it's become a detriment to him at this phase of his career, and that tells you everything you need to know about whether or not he's willing to adapt at some point soon. Maybe that will still happen at some point, but it's clear mentally that

he's not there yet. After the game, Dan Woiki asks him how he prevents those ugly, ugly misses from getting in his head, and he's simply answered, I have twenty three thousand points. And again I admire the confidence. It is Russell Westbrook personified, but the truth of the man. And look here, I don't know. Maybe he gives the ball to Lebron on both of those possessions, and maybe Lebron misses both threes. You know, I can't say that for certain. Russ made the shot, that's all that matters.

But in the moment, those were very poor decisions, very very astonishingly poor decisions. With the rhythm that Lebron had, the fact that he's six ft nine, the fact that he can shoot over the top about just about anybody, and the fact that he had the rhythm that he had, they were confusing decisions, but again, big shot for us saved the game. It just as an interesting dynamic that reveals so much about who Russ is as a basketball player,

what his his basketball character is made up. So moving on to Lebron, I was there were a handful of really really ugly defensive breakdowns at the end of that fourth quarter, getting Gary Trent wide open threes that ended up nearly costing the Lakers the game. And it's funny because I'm not surprised that the sloppy basketball team that's been sloppy all year long made sloppy mistakes in a pivotal moment. That's you know, you are who you are in those ways, and the Lakers are going to continue

to be who they are in those situations. But what was interesting was it was those mistakes were going to ruin a vintage masterpiece of a fourth quarter performance from Lebron. I tweeted out earlier that Lebron has these like five minute stretches that he'll go on where he literally is everywhere on the floor. It's almost like there's five Lebrons out there and he's making every play and it's confusing, and it's like a tidal wave that just takes over

the game. You know, when I'm ranking, when I'm ranking players in the league, you guys, for those of you have been following me for a while, you know, I always prioritize three things. Isolation scoring, the ability to create your own shot, playmaking, the ability to create shots for your teammates, and defensive versatility the ability to impact the game defensively in a bunch of different ways. Well, Lebron is really the only guy in this era that's been

unbelievably elite at all three things. If you look at other guys around the league, like Kevin Durant can be laite defensively, but he's not the best playmaker in the world. Or like Steph Curry, he's actually a very good playmaker as he draws attention, but he's not the best defensive player in the world. So when those guys hit the Jets, when those guys really try to put their stamp on the game. It comes the same way. It's their scoring

out firsts or creating shots with the team. It's things along those lines when Lebron really pushes the turbo button and takes over a game because he's so versatile and all of those areas of the game. Like I talked about, it's that crazy effect that Lebron has where he's all over the floor making every single play and nobody on the on the other team can do anything about it.

My favorite example of this in his career was the two thousand thirteen Finals against the Spurs, and there were two spurts where he did this in Game two in the fourth quarter and in Game six and the fourth quarter, And in both of those games the Spurs had leads and were and had control of the game, but Lebron kind of reached that moment of desperation where he had to empty the tank, empty the clip, do whatever he

could to impact the game. And he was flying around up a Denzil for You'd see him step up and blocked Thiago, splitter block Tim Duncan at the rim, then get his own rebound and split all the way up the floor and like pass fake to a guy in the corner and then pump fake and finish at the basket, or to drive into the lane and draw four bodies and kick it out to Shane Dattier in the corner for for a huge street like that was what made those moments for Lebron so iconic, and what made those

moments for Lebron so like become the fuel for his goat case and everybody who says that they think that he's the best player they've ever seen, it's because of that, and we got to see that tonight. In that fourth quarter, Lebron was everywhere on the back line, making defensive place, getting into the paint, collapsing bodies and kicking out to Avery Bradley, finishing at the rim, using his brain, beating

people on back cuts. That shot that he hit, the three point shot that he banked in, was eerily reminiscent of the one that he hit to send the game to overtime in Washington back in two thousand seventeen. He had a hundred different impact plays in that fourth quarter. It's the thing that I'm gonna miss the most when Lebron is gone, because I don't think there's a player in the league who has that type of burst because all of the players in the league right now have

big strengths, but they also have weaknesses. Lebron has always been the Swiss Army Knife of the NBA, and when he gets going like that, it's always been such a site to behold. One last note on the Lakers before we move on. That was really interesting that they started big.

We've seen so many times this season where Frank Vogel has in a point of desperation, gone super small right, gone to multiple guards, gone to four guards, even sometimes gone to mellow at Center with four guards, And what we haven't seen is him just say screw it, I'm going huge. And it was an interesting reaction to the

way that Toronto physically dominated their first matchup. He started Lebron and when you in Gabriel and Dwight Howard, and I think that was part of what set that physical tone that allowed the Lakers to be the aggressor throughout the game. When you in Gabriel was incredible. Tonight you go. I've done video breakdowns on him and a bunch of stuff about him on the show. This is just what happens when you have size and athleticism and you play hard.

In this NBA, you can automatically have an impact just by going out and playing extremely hard and leaving your physical tools on the floor. Both him and Stanley Johnson had big impacts tonight in that way. I like the idea of going big, especially with Lebron being inconsistent with his defensive effort. If you have another guy at the center position who can take over all those back line responsibilities, then if Lebron is coasting on the defensive ent, it's

less damaging. When Lebron's at center and it's four guards on the floor or four perimeter players on the floor and Lebron's coasting defensively, it's always gonna be a disaster because you have to have somebody on the back line who's willing to rotate around. I thought that was an interesting tactic from very Frank Vogel tonight, and I think it's an interesting approach to potentially try to move forward.

They've had spacing issue and offensive issues all season anyway, why not just lean into that a little bit by having some size and athleticism on the floor. Start your bracket with a bang. Right now, Fandel Sports Book is giving new customers a one hundred and fifty dollar instant bonus guaranteed. That's right. You'll get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus site credit and all you have to do is place your first bet of five dollars or more.

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dot net in West Virginia. Moving on to the Dallas Mavericks. So they lost finally on the road tonight in Philly. They had a couple of huge wins. We broke those down in detail. I did a video on both of them, against the Brooklyn Nets and against the Boston Celtics. The Dallas Mavericks are trending in the direction looking like a bona fide championship contender, but they finally fell flat on their face tonight in Philly. I thought I didn't take

too much from it. I thought it was related to fatigue. It's their fourth game on this road trip, Luca and and Spencer Dinwoodie. I think they went combined a two for fourteen from three. That's a big indicator of legs. That's fatigue starting to play a role. Also, the Sixers shot out of their minds. They had six players who

made at least two threes. They shot four. Two from the game and for the game and the way to beat the Sixers, as we all know, as we've laid out on this show in detail over the last couple of weeks, you have to get out in transition. Dallas did not do that tonight. They only had seven fast breakpoints. You're if you're not gonna attack Philly's weakness, You're gonna struggle in a lot of different ways. I wouldn't take

too much from that game. That said, I still I still like what I've seen from Dallas in this recent stretch of games and I wanted to provide some perspective here because people always expect these top tier contenders to just go in and roll over everybody they play, including the good teams, and that's never how it actually goes. For instance, last year the Milwaukee Bucks won the title, they were only nineteen and seventeen against teams that were

over five five or above. That's pretty average, right, There's nothing to write home about. The previous season the Lakers, they were only twenty and fourteen against teams that were five and above. This season, the Mavericks are twenty one and seventeen. That's pretty solid they are. They have enough signature wins to add legitimacy to what they're doing. We've talked about it a lot on this show. I'm just

a huge believer in what they do defensively. If you guys look at my Twitter feed today, or released a video talking about the way they mixed up their defensive coverages against against the Nets in that big win in Brooklyn. Big credit to Jason Kidd, who's done an awesome job with that team. I don't think they I wouldn't put them in the top tier of contenders. I don't think they're as good as your you know, your Milwaukee's, your Phillies,

r Phoenix is. But I do think they're in that second tier of contenders, meaning they absolutely could win if a handful of things break right for them. All right, moving on to the Bulls. So Sons chugging right along, no issues without Chris Paul, and I think a huge part of that is all of that talent on the roster that I keep telling you guys about that team. All the focus goes on Devin Booker and Chris Paul, but the real reason why they're winning is from top

to bottom. No team in the NBA has more talent than them. Campaign is an awesome a backup guard. He arguably is a better option than Chris Paul and specific matchups because he's one of the best point of attack guards in the league. He beats his man off the dribble almost every time. He gets into the paint at will, which gets defenses to rotate. And when you get defenses to rotate and you have good players around him that can attack those closeouts, you're gonna get some good stuff.

Michael Bridges looks like a star in the making. DeAndre Ayton is unbelievable. Just imagine if DeAndre Ayton got to come up the way that Joel Embiad did on a bad team, shooting twenty shots of game, getting to mix up and take step back jump shots and Hakimola Juan shoulder fakes and all of those things. I'm not saying that DeAndre Ayton is Joel Embiid. We I can flat

out and say he's not. But he is in a different type of development trajectory than Joel Embiid, and he is a really, really, really good player that is playing a smaller role on a team that doesn't need him to do as much. And what you're seeing in this recent stretch of games is he's got great footwork. He's got great he's got a great package of moves out of the post. He's got one of the best little short jump books in the league. He actually has a good jump shot as well. He's got a lot to

him that he can that he's got in reserve. The same goes for Michail Bridges. Those are the guys that are gonna be the huge building blocks alongside Devin Booker in the future, and they're a really exciting team. But I wanted to take a couple of minutes to talk about the Chicago Bulls, their team I haven't talked about really since I started with the Volume, and there's a very specific reason for that. It's because they've been decimated

by injuries. And I know that doesn't sound right because Demarda Rosen's playing every game and you're getting Nikola Vuseovic every game, You're getting zac Lavine every game, so it seems like everything's fine. But the arguably the most important players on this team are Alonzo Ball and Alex crusa which is interesting for a bunch of different reasons, and for the record, the numbers back it up. In four

hundred and fifty nine minutes. By the way, these numbers were coming into tonight because NBA doesn't update their stats till later, But in four hundred and fifty nine minutes this season, with a Lonzo Ball and Alex Cruso on the floor together, the Bowls are plus nine point three points per one possessions. That's awesome. That is a awesome number. They are minus one point four when those two are off the floor per one hundred possessions, they are thirteen

points six points worse on defense. With a Lonzo and Alex Cruso off the floor, then when those guys are on the floor, and it's interesting for a bunch of different reasons. I've talked a lot about the way the game of basketball has been changing over the course of the last five years, and a lot of it has to do with having tons of perimeter players on the floor that can all put the ball on the floor

and get to the basket. And so if you can't contain on the perimeter, if you can't keep a guy in front or at least make it difficult for him to get to the basket, then your team is constantly existing in rotation. And NBA teams are too good to not make you pay for that kind of thing. Perimeter defense is more valuable now in the NBA than it ever has been, and Lonzo Ball and Alex Cruso are two of the best perimeter defensive guards that we have

in the league. Having them on the floor to pick up those perimeter matchups of all the best guards that they play on any given night is what frees up Zach Lavine and DeMar de Rosen to focus on the offensive end limits their defensive shortcomings. Because both of those players have had tons of defensive issues throughout their career. It just makes their job easier. And what's great is Lonzo Ball and Alex Cruso. We think guards who play defense right. They're both big. Alex Cruso six six and

very strong. Alonzo Ball is taller, think he's about six five, So they have great size at the position. So when they go with those lineups with Crusoe and Ball, Levine de Rosen and Nikolavusevitch, they actually have a ton of size in that line up. So it's really difficult to evaluate the Bulls without those two on the court. That would be the That would be the Silver law Ning or the the what you try the little bit of

positivity to cling to if you're a Bulls fan. After a pretty frustrating season, they get off to this awesome start. They're kicking everybody's but two of their most important players get hurt. The rest of the season has been kind of floundering in mediocrity. But these guys are coming back. You have an opportunity. The big question is is Tristan

Thompson and Nicola Vusevich their front court. Are those guys gonna be able to bring enough athletically and physically to hang with these beast front courts that you see elsewhere in the East. Are they gonna be able to hang with Bam out of Bio, I don't know. Are they gonna be able to hang with Joe El Embiid? Are they gonna be able to hang with janas Antana Compo and brook Lopez? Are they gonna be able to hang

with you know, Andre Drummond. Even with the team like the Brooklyn Nets there, they are going to have a massive physical disadvantage in the front court and almost every matchup they can try to come that we've seen like with that list. Dallas doesn't have great front court presence either, but they've made up for it with scheme. Will Chicago be able to put together enough defensively around those guys

to make up for it, I don't know. Patrick Williams is allegedly going to be coming back here in the next week or two. He's a big, strong athlete, so that helps a little bit on that front. That would be my biggest concern with the Bulls, And as is always the case when we're having these conversations, it's like with the Harden and Beat thing, It's not are these guys good. I know they're good. I know DeRozan and Levine are awesome, But are they gonna beat Kevin Durant

in a duel four times out of seven? Are they gonna beat Janie Antennacumpo in a duel four times out of seven? I don't know. If they get out of the East, are they gonna be able to beat that awesome Son's team. That's what's so crazy about how deep the league is right now. When we're evaluating these teams, It's it's wild the standard we have to hold them too if they're gonna have any real success in the NBA.

The Bulls being so far down on everybody's list of contenders with the type of lineups that they can throw out there, that Russo Ball, Levine, de rosen And and Voster Bitch lineup is one of the best lineups in the league. That lineup sounds incredible, but it's probably not good enough. And that just goes to show you how incredibly talented the NBA is right now. And that's why I love this job so much, and I love that I get to do this because the NBA is in

an all time golden age of talent. And it just makes the product amazing. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. We will be back tomorrow after the Lakers game in Washington against the Wizards. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys support and I will see you right after the final buzzard tomorrow. The volume