Hoops Tonight - Anthony Davis & LeBron James lead Lakers to win over Giannis & Bucks, Warriors beat the Bulls

your money out quickly. Use promo code Jason T and download the FanDuel app today to make every moment more This NBA Season twenty one plus in president Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana. Permitted parishes only, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia or West Virginia. First online real money wager only. Refund issued as non withdrawable site credit that expires in fourteen days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sports book dot FanDuel dot com.

Gambling problem called one eight hundred, next step or tech 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 Fandel here at the volume Happy Friday. Everybody, you're happy Saturday morning when you're actually listening to this, of all, if you guys had a great week and that you got big plans to relax this weekend, just gonna be hitting on two games and this show the Warriors and the Bulls, and then that epic overtime game between the

Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics. And then for those of you who were interested in the breakdown to the Bucks Lakers game, I did a separate instant reaction video to that that you can find a little bit further back in the YouTube feed. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt so you guys don't

miss any show announcements. And then, last but not least, if you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, you can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under hoops tonight. Now that let's talk some basketball. So for the Warriors tonight, that was three quarters of easy, breezy, dominant basketball. Never

truly threatened. Steph kind of pulled back his usage a little bit and seated the reins to Clay into Jordan Pool to get a bunch of shots up, and that's exactly what they did. Of course, Jordan Pool got going, which was exactly what he needed. He had a really good game I thought against Dallas. Particularly as a passer. It's so important for Jordan Pool to be making reads into like primarily focused on shot creation rather than necessarily

shot making. But you need to have both and it was good to see him get have a good shot making game, made a bunch of threes, made some tough shots, so those confident Jordan Pool shots that you know are so important to him when he's really really in a groove. So, you know, the the nature of this game kind of allowed them to force feed him and let him get going. Clay was really just jacking shots up and took a

lot of bad ones, particularly in the fourth quarter. But to Clay's credit, he made a couple of huge play days um At the end of that game, he drew a post up foul and gore and dragics and made two free throws, and then he hit a nice pull up jumper at the foul line that basically ice to

the game. But that kind of fast and loose nature the first three quarters went away in the fourth quarter, and the fourth quarter to me was all about the Chicago Bles going on runs against laziness from the Warriors, but then the Warriors taking back control of the game with their execution on both ends of the floor. The first run, the Bulls get it back within four um.

Javonte Green actually goes to the free throw line after an and one with a chance to get it back within three and he misses the free throws, so they're still up for But this stretch the Warriors did it with offensive execution. You guys might remember a play that I drew out, well, didn't draw, but I showed you

guys on my Twitter feed. And then in our last show, it was the show earlier this week, um where the Lakers are The Warriors, excuse me, run like a five outset where they have Kvan Looney on the left kind of like elbow extended up to the three point line, and Clay Thompson on the right, elbow extended up to the three point line, and then the other two players are on the right side, right wing, right corner spotting up and Steph starts all the way on the left

and he comes He drags off of the two screens on the top, and then Clay Thompson comes off of Kevon Looney or Draymond grad whoever. The big is off to the left wing with like a clear side. It's kind of like the Warriors version of a Spain pick and roll that they'll run. Most times Spain pick and roll, the shooter will start under the basket. This time they're

just having Clay start up atop the key. But they ran it um against the Minnesota Timberwolves in that game that I was talking about earlier, and Clay attacked close out and got a floater. So those of you guys who watched that video I put on Twitter will know exactly which play I'm talking about. But the Warriors spanned this play two times in a row, right when the Bulls got it back within four. The first time, both

guards stayed with Steph Curry. Clay Thompson had a wide open three like one that was so wide open that he got to take a free dribble to get the laces right and get his rhythm and knocked it down. Then Lavine goes down and travels. Next time down the floor, they run the exact same thing. Both players stay with Steph or excuse me, uh, Clay's man stays with Clay this time, and as a result, Steff gets downhill on the screen, he gets into Vosovich's body and makes a

right handed lay up. Now they're back up by eight, so again Bulls go on a run. The Warriors settled down, they execute an offense, they get a stop. All of a sudden, it's back to eight. But then the Bulls went on another big run. Russovitch shit a tough jumper with Looney's hand in his face, Javonta Green had a nice little backdoor cut with a layup, and then Zach

Lavine hits the three. All of a sudden, it's one ten to one oh nine, and it's a one point game, and it feels like the game's up in the air. And then the Warriors utterly and completely locked in on defense in Chicago didn't score again until a meaningless draws lay up with a few seconds left that Golden State conceded. Not only did they not score, if I'm remembering correctly from watching that game, they only got one shot off,

they attempted four and three of them were blocked. So they leaned on their defense to put the game away. After they got it back within one, Draymond Green hit a massive three that wasn't really all that open. Then uh kevonm Luney timed the DeRozan pull up. Rosen does like a hard hesitation dribble before he goes into that pull up, So if you jumped too early, or if

you jumped too late, he can get it off. But if you time it right, Luney's got so much length on him there he could get to the shot and he blocked it. Then Clay Thompson post up on the left way. They originally ran it as a post as like a post split cut, but they ended up pulling it out and trying to throw the ball into Clay in the post. This is what's wild. Clay Thompson has scored a grand total of four points on post ups

this year. And instead of just allowing Clay Thompson to catch the ball and attempt a shot Overgore and draw d just got over zealous while the Bulls were in the penalty and foul to Clay on the post entry and he was able to go in and make both free throws. Then Draymond Green blocks Zach Levine at the rim on the play that got challenged. Then Clay goes down and sticks that pull up jumper at the foul line.

Then they go down and Draymond blocks and Alex Cruiso three with a close out, and Draymond Green has always been one of the best players in the league. Get closing out, then the game was over. So like the Bulls barely could even get a shot up once they got it back within one. But that's the Warriors for you. Like, they can mess around, things can get tight, but when it comes to offensive execution and defensive habits, they're just better than most teams, and they're gonna be able to

close to you out there. So it's a really nice win against the reeling Bulls team. The Bulls are now four and nine in their last thirteen games. People were throwing out trades earlier today in the last couple of days involving de Rosen and Vussovich, including the Lakers potentially trading Russell Westbrook for those two guys. If it gets much worse, they might have to consider it, not necessarily

the rush trade, but consider blowing this thing up. But the tough part for Bulls fans is they don't really have a ton to be excited about, aside from like, I mean, I really like I had assume Move is like a defensive guard that can do some stuff offensively. And Patrick Williams, you know, if you watch him on the right night, looks like a two way wing. But neither of them look like stars, you know, neither of them look like you know, stars in the making. So

it's a tough spot. For the Bulls fans to be in. But when you do stuff like that, when you make a trade for a guy like Lucevich and when you go out of your way to get a guy like Derosan, you're going all in on that particular core working. And as a result, they just don't have a ton to work with now that that seems to not be working, although the Bulls have a couple of signature wins this year,

so they're always a threat if they can get things right. Um, I wanted to take a few minutes talk about Draymond Green because in in addition to the massive three point shot that he hit and the two blocks that he had at the end, he had thirteen points, nine rebounds, tennessis and was a team best plus twenty. And so the reason why I bring that up is, you know, one of the keys to the season really turning around for the Warriors has been Steve Kerr doing what I

asked earlier, which is no more hockey. You know lines, line you know, line changes, just stagger your starters with your subs. And one of the keys to this particular season has been staggering Draymond, particularly with Jordan's pool, not just with the bench, but with Jordan Pool coming into tonight. When Jordan Pool has played without Draymond, the Warriors have had a minus twelve net rating many they've They've been outscored by twelve points per one hundred possessions in seven

and fifty seven possessions, pretty bix sample size. But when they played Draymond with Jordan Pool, the Warriors are plus four in five D sixteen possessions, which is also a pretty big sample size. You know, just having Draymond their one so that when they run their screening actions, you have a real high i Q player that can capitalize on that attention that Jordan Pool commands, and then also just kind of reins in Jordan's Pool's decision making having

a really smart player on the floor. I'm a big believer in aggregate anything when it comes to a skill set, aggregate shooting, aggregate quickness, aggregate size, aggregate length, aggregate basketball. Like, you get a bunch of smart basketball players on the floor,

good things usually will happen. Jordan Pool can be a little fast and loose with his decision making sometime, getting him a guy like Draymond in there to just kind of calling him down and get him in the right spots and getting making getting him to help him make the right decisions goes a long way. Uh. And then defensively, Draymond can just make any unit work. It was really fun watching him guard De mar de Rosen tonight, picking him up full court, sometimes applying a bunch up pressure,

making him feel uncomfortable. His really long wingspan bothers him on that pull up shot. Kind of reminded me of when Draymond switched on to Jalen Brown in the NBA Finals. You know, this is the type of versatility that comes with Draymond, and it's why he's one of the best defensive players in the league. It's not just the defensive anchor stuff and the back line stuff, in the intensity, in the in the vocal leadership. He can straight up switch and guard some of the best perimeter scorers in

the league. And that's a big part of what makes him so valuable. You know, Jonathan Cominga had a rough night tonight, but I want to see him get more

reps alongside Draymond at the four. I tried to talk about this a little bit on Tuesday night, but we were having all those technical difficulties um the that in that Dallas game, they Steve Kerve for the first time the season, try to line up of Draymond Green with Dante DiVincenzo, Jordan Pool, Jonathan Cominga and Anthony Lamb, and that lineup was plus twelve in nine minutes against Dallas.

As a matter of fact, this season, when Draymond Green and Jonathan Cominga are on the floor together with no Jamichael Green, no James Wiseman, no Kevon Looney, and no Andrew Wiggins. So when Cominga can truly play the four rather than playing the three where he's got to have more ball handling responsibilities. When he's truly at the four and Draymond is truly at the five, they've actually had

a lot of success. They've in fifty seven percent, excuse me, in fifty seven possessions with that group, which is a small sample, but not nothing. It's half of a basketball game's worth. Um. In those fifty seven possessions with Draymond and Comina at the four five, the Warriors have a one thirty offensive rating in a ninety two defensive rating.

That's plus thirty eight points per one possessions. You know, a big part of it is you know Draymond Green's offensive i Q. They could put him in those in those positions where he's in the short role, which then tucks cominga in the weeks side corner where he doesn't have to make decisions. He just has to if Draymonds roll into the room, cut back door for the dunk or the lob, you know, the drop off or the lob, or crash the offensive glass, it simplifies his defense. It

simplifies his decision making process. And then Jonathan coming his defense has been the thing that separated him from the other young players on the roster and it makes him an exciting prospect. He like, he's just surprisingly big and strong, super long arms, freak athlete, moves his feet well, he's a good defensive player. So the Warriors are back over

five and they have three winnable games coming out. They play the Rockets at home, the Pacers at home, then they have a somewhat tough game on the road in Utah. But if they win all three of those are in a good spot heading into a couple of really tough matchups with the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks back to back. All right, let's move on to this heat Celtics game. This is a really entertaining game. I just just caught up on it here in the last half

hour or so. So the heat on sixteen tat Tatum had a nightmare shooting night. But I went back and watched all the shooting attempts. He was five or eight team from the field and over seven from three. But I actually thought he got pretty decent shot quality. It kind of just felt like nightmare game for him. You know. Bam at a bio and his postgame presser, I was talking about how you know, uh, they're just gonna live

with the result with Jayson Tatum taking tough shots. And I get that, and I get that from a shot from a philosophy. And don't get me wrong, if you're guarding Jayson Tatum, you gotta live with some of these step back threes that he's taken. But I mean Tatum missed at least, by my count, five layups like right around the rim, like easy layups that he does not usually miss. You know, this has been Tatum's best rim

finishing season of his career by far. He clearly worked a lot this season on finishing or offseason on finishing through contact, and he's been hitting in like the mid seventies on high volume around the rim. Just a bad night, it happens, you know. Jimmy Butler once again just has the Celtics number, and anytime you put him in a big game like that, he's just just about guaranteed to play really to play really well. He had a massive jumper to almost seal the game in regulation and then

actually hit the one that ice the game. In Ot made all sorts of huge defensive plays and including a huge block on Jalen Brown at the rim. In Ot Heat fans in general just have to feel good about having him back because he solves so many of their problems. But the real hero that I want to give a bunch of attention to right now is bam At a bio. So he had twenty eight points tonight on eighteen shots.

He scored twenty eight or more, and three of his last four games for the season, he's averaging a career high twenty one points per game on fifty for shooting. And he's just in general finally starting to be aggressive looking for his own shot rather than just trying to play within the flow of the offense, which is something that I've been begging for. You know, the Heat have

a signal. They have a lot of guys that can dribble and can shoot, but you know, athleticism and physical tools are such an important deal, especially when you get into postseason environments like I always talk about, like the mismatch attacking forward and you know, with this Heat roster, one of the weaknesses for them is their guards can't really create shots unless they're coming over screens and getting advantages, and so they really only have one forward is jim

Jimmy Butler who can like consistently create his own shot against a mismatch, and that's been a severe limitation for them. And even with that limitation, they damn near one a title. They were one shot away from making the finals last year, so that's I mean, obviously it's not the same as

getting the trophy, but that's relatively close. So you know, realistically, having Bam become another one of those guys, another big forward that can consistently attack a mismatch, that goes a long way towards solving a lot of Miami's offensive issues. You know, they need, they need not just ultraversatile one of the best defensive players in the world. Bam. They need two way BAM. They need more Anthony Davis than Rudy Gobert, if that makes sense. They need what they

got tonight. So like it's one twelve, one twelve, Jimmy Butler just blocks Jalen Brown at the rim like a ridiculous block with his left hand extended out um and snatches the basketball. They run down and they clear out and isolate Bama a bio on the right block against Grant Williams. And Grant Williams is a great defensive player.

This is a guy who was guarding honest and doing a pretty damn good job last year in the playoffs, and he just backs his way in on Grant, turns over his left shoulder and knocks down a jump shot, a tough, fade away jump shot over his left shoulder. That's difficult, high level shot making, and that ended up giving the Heat the lead. You know, like that that's the thing that's gonna cook that, that's the thing that's gonna put Miami over the edge. High level shot making

from BAM. Legit mismatch attacking from BAM, especially since for him and you know, a lot of the shot making that he displayed tonight was relatively close to the rim and that like five to seven foot range. That could be something that's really reliable in a playoff series. Look at the Lakers tonight with Lebron James and Anthony Davis. At the end of that game, they won with shot making at the rim, like making shots like five seven

ft away from the basket. If Bam can get that stuff nailed down, that could be like Tim Duncan esque reliable go to scoring at the end of games or in big, you know, pivotal stretches of pivotal playoff games. Looking at some of the day, uh Bam has scored fifty points on fifty two post ups, which is below average, but he's been very good in isolation. He scored including passes, which is in the sixty seven percentile in the NBA. Now, the Heat still desperately need a legit two way front

court option just to add some depth. They're my guess is they'll be very I mean, they were literally playing Udonis Haslem in these games like that's a problem. You know. Um, They're gonna need to target somebody either in the trade market in the buyout market to bolster that front court. But if this scoring burst from bam is real, and I hope they keep feeding him all season to try to develop that further and further, there's some real Lebron A D type potential here. You know what makes the

Lebron A D pairing so devastating. It's not just that Anthony Davison Lebron can combine for seventy two points or whatever they did tonight. It's that on the other end of the floor, Lebron was guarding Janice and Anthony Davis was guarding Janice, and A D was protecting the rim, and they were grabbing all these contested rebounds and make all these pivotal defensive plays. That's the key. You need, the two ways pairing of superstars. You've seen it with

Jalen Brownie, Jason Tatum. That sort of thing is such a valuable playoff weapon. And if Bamata Bio can meet Jimmy Butler in that true two way superstar level, that changes the way we have to evaluate the Heat. But massive win, I mean, I was talking about the Lakers earlier tonight because they had a massive road win against the second best team in the league. This was the Mimei Heat getting a massive road win over the very best team in the league. So shout out to the Heat,

Shout out to Bamata Bio. I might have to start talking about the Heat a little bit more, which could be fun because they're a fun team to watch and Jimmy Butler is one of my favorite players. All Right, what a huge win for the Lakers. Do you guys remember what I said on Thursday? I said they've won six out of eight, really should be seven out of eight. You're up seventeen with nine minutes left against the Pacers at home. You should win that game. They choked it away.

They paid dear the for it. But their schedule was weak in that stretch, and a lot of people are going to point to the schedule, which is normal, and honestly, it's the reality of what happened. They beat some bad teams during that stretch, but they also played some good basketball. That's a decent Blazer's team, even without Dame, with a lot of wing size and athleticism that they beat handily on Wednesday. That Pacers team that they were up seventeen on,

that's a decent basketball team. They were playing good basketball, but they needed a signature win something to legitimize it, and you know, it's kind of reminds me of the King's situation. If you guys remember when the Kings went on that long heart hot street. I pointed out the simple fact that they hadn't played many good teams and that they were basically just beating up on weaker competition. But I said, they will have a chance to prove it,

and they did. They went out to Atlanta, Boston, and Phoenix three games in a row and lost all three of them. So when they had an opportunity to prove the legitimacy of their recent good play, they couldn't do it. Now, I expected that with the Kings because they weren't defending well. The reason why I thought the Lakers actually had a decent chance to continue this momentum is Lebron James, Anthony Davis and the seventh best defense in the league that

actually is the second best half court defense. They're just an atrocious transition defense. I thought they had the capability to keep this momentum going, but this was a really difficult first challenge. This Bucks team, I think is the second best team in the league. Um is the second best team in the standings. They were my second championship

pick behind the Golden State Warriors. They were eleven and two at home this year coming into tonight, and they were the best paint defense in the league, giving up just forty four point five points per one possessions in the paint, which was first place in the entire NBA. And this is a Lakers team that is very dependent on getting into the paint. They are fourth and paint points per game, and obviously Lebron James and Anthony Davis do the majority of their damage in the restricted area.

So with Chris Middleton coming back with Pat Connaughton, I think this was his fifth game back, this was a really difficult road game and an excellent opportunity for the Lakers to prove that they've been playing some good basketball, and they did. They controlled this game really. You know, there was a little bit of a back and forth at the beginning, and then the Bucks actually took a brief lead late before the Lakers took it back and

won the game. But the Lakers pretty much controlled this game, kind of stiff armed the Bucks out to that you know, five six points uh through most of that second half until the Bucks got it close, and so it was a really really impressive win, especially when the Bucks made seventeen threes. You get a forty piece from Janice and you still win. It's really impressive. And again for that best paint defense in the league, giving up just forty

four point five points per one possessions in the paint. Yeah, Lebron Russ and Anthony Davis butchered them for seventy paint points in this game. But that's the power of all world talent. You know, when I when I was talking about the Lakers coming into the season, and everyone makes their jokes about the roster, and I get it, dude, I've been talking about the roster too, But the reality of the situation was is Anthony Davis wasn't available for most of last season, and when he was available, he

didn't look like Anthony Davis. He looked like a lesser version of Anthony Davis. He looked like Clint Capella with with the occasional really nice dribble move and a jump shot, although he'd shoot like below on jump shots. That's the type of players you were getting earlier on in the last two seasons with Anthony Davis and then Lebron James wasn't playing very much on the defensive end. He was just scoring the basketball efficient efficiently last year and Russ

was a disaster last year. But if Anthony Davis plays like the Anthony Davis that helped the Lakers win the title in and if Lebron James plays like Lebron James, then you have to scrap all of that. Do they need to make a deal a trade to become a true contender? Yeah, of course, because it's too much to ask for Lebron James and Anthony Davis to go out and score seventy points. Everything will game. But this is

the power of all world talent. This is why it's worth investing, and this is why I've been pushing them to push their chips in the middle. So what I want to do with the Lakers tonight is I just want to focus on their three stars. So let's start with a D forty four and ten with three blocks. I thought he soundly outplayed Janice, who did most of his damage and transition against that horrific Lakers transition defense. I thought they actually defended Janice really well in the

half court. Anthony Davis made nine shots outside of the restricted area in this game, which is reminiscent of Bubble A D. Because that was what Bubble A D did. Really was good in that mid range with his pull up jump shot. He had a critical driving layup past Brook Lopez late in the fourth, grabbed a bunch of critical um, decontested defensive rebounds. He just he just was

dominant all game long. You know, this is I keep talking about the difference between like regular Anthony Davis what I what I jokingly called the better version of Clint Capella. I keep comparing the difference between you know, that version of Anthony Davis and this version of Anthony Davis. And this is why, like and eight where the Lakers lose and he jogs back in transition a bunch, and I'm screaming from the mountaintops, like Anthony Davis is not playing well.

And you know Anthony Davis fans would be like he had five and eight. Yeah, he had and eight. That's not good from him compared to what he is capable of. Look what he's done in this last two and a half three weeks. Yeah, like he when Anthony Davis is actually locked in on both ends of the floor and has that level of shot making that he has when he's in shape, in rhythm and actually like polishing his skills. He is a top five player in the NBA. That's how good he is. That's why I hold him to

that standard. And what happened was is he won the trophy and just let go of the work showed up to camp. It was widely reported that he showed up to camp each of the next two seasons out of shape, which directly leads to things like injuries. And when you're out the gym and you're not working on your game, guess what happens. Your jump shot stops falling. He let

go of it. But you know, as I was hoping coming into the season, the humiliation of the previous two years would be enough to whip a d back into shape. And that's exactly what's happened. He's been incredible this year, just like I expected him to be moving on to Lebron. In the first half, it was a lot of really

good individual defense on Janice. I've always joked about how if you were picking like the perfect defenders to guard Janice, the two names that come to my mind are Draymond Green and Lebron James Lebron just says that unique combination of mobility and legit powerful strength that not many players in the league. Half and then the same thing goes for Draymond and he's not quite the athlete that Lebron is, but he just has incredible defensive instincts, so he's good

at picking up cover. Like Lebron got caught on a late screen for Janice that led to an and one layup that it's like one of those things where you know Lebron's physically equipped for that, but he just didn't anticipate it enough. Draymond Green is gonna be on top of those sorts of things like those are the two guys that I've always thought of as the perfect Johnie defenders. And I thought Lebron did a really nice job on it.

Like I said, uh, he got a few baskets. He had a spinning dunk in the first half, he had that and one layup. In the second half. He had to pull up jump shots that he knocked down in Lebron's face right around like the top of the key um. But for the most part, I thought Lebron did a good job. Most of Janice's damage came in transition and against those two funky line ups that Darvin Hamm ran with no Lebron James and Anthony Davis off the floor while Janice was on and Johannice just bullied his way

to the rim. Off to look at the numbers later, but I think the Lakers the only reason this game wasn't a ten fifteen point when was because of those specific stretches of the game oft to look at those when the data updates. Um. But like he also had like a really nice stretch there in that second quarter where he got some good pick and roll chemistry with

Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis ended up getting a dunk in that sequence, and then in the second half it was just pure shot creation, including a masterful fourth quarter with countless pivotal baskets, like some huge jump shots in layups and feeds for other important shots here that um that uh um really nice like pocket past Anthony Davis in the early fourth right when the Bucks got it back too.

I think it was right after the Bucks tied the game, finished the game with eight and eleven and he didn't even shoot that well. I think he was seven from the field. Know, it's funny. I was thinking at the

end of the third quarter. I think I actually drafted out the tweet and ended up not sending it, But I was thinking that this is a winnable game, and Lebron's had a bad season by his standards for the most part, although he's had some really good games as of late, and this is an opportunity to send a message and to get a monumentally important win for his team. I was curious what he would do in that fourth quarter,

and he was incredible. Um Down the stretch of that game, the Lakers spammed a Lebron Anthony Davis pick and roll out of a triple threat with the cleared side lowered to the basket almost down like seventeen eighteen feet, and I wanted to talk about that from a couple of different angles. So, first of all, the Lebron a d pick and roll is deadly when teams don't switch it.

The problem is is the vast majority of teams will switch that action because they'll just put a big forward on a D and a big forward on Lebron, So who cares about the matchup. They'll switch it, and they probably feel like they can force both of them to settle for jump shots, you know, at least try to

if they switch the action. But the Bucks were guarding it with Janice and help, you know, or sometimes Janice was on Anthony Davis when Brooke was off the floor, but they primarily put Brooke on Anthony Davis and Drew Holiday on Lebron, two very different types of defenders, so they weren't switching the action. They were in a legit

drop coverage towards the end. Drew really tried to ice the coverage, trying to force Lebron towards the baseline, but he just used pivot moves and rescreening to get back towards the middle. But there's a couple of different interesting things there. Why they cleared the side is simple, you push it to that side. It simplifies your reads. You don't have to look both ways to see if there's a helper coming out of the corner in instead, you

just have to see the one side of the floor. Also, by clearing the side, you push the whole action over a bit. Now the help defenders have to come further off of their shooters, which either you know, puts them in more of a a position where they have to make a more difficult decision. Am I gonna a band in the shooter to help or am I gonna stay home? And then the reason why they started low is it

simplifies the shot making piece of it all. So if you run the high pick and roll, and you know, Drew gets caught on the screen, but they're digging over on the roll man and Brooke is containing Lebron as he's driving to the basket, he might have to make some tougher pull up jump shots. He might have to make a pull up you know, eighteen foot or a tougher floater or something along those lines. But when you

move the action inside that far. Once Lebron got over the screen and Drew Holiday was on his backside, he's already at like ten ft, and so from there, if he has a step, it's one extra step to the rim for a layout. If he doesn't have the step and Drew fights over, now he can just go to like a short little jump hook, and Lebron made a couple of really nice little short range jump shots in there.

Just by moving the action in it made it so that the shot making piece of the ball handler and pick and roll was not pull up three pull up you know, long too it was hook shot or lay up. It just simplified the shot making piece. I thought it was really smart, um and that's the kind of thing that Lebron James. You know, he's just a chess master in those sorts of situations. I also thought like just by starting at eighteen feet allowed Lebron to start with

a triple threat rather than with a live dribble. If you go with a live dribble, Drew Holiday can punish the handle, which is one of his best gifts, work it out of a triple threat. Now Drew Holiday can't get into the handle. Lebron's working with ripped throughs and he's protecting the basketball. It's just a lot easier for him to manage Drew's ball pressure at that point. I will I'm I really thought that was an interesting basketball

chess match. So at some point next week, probably on Monday or Tuesday, I'm gonna do a video breakdown of um A that Lebron a d low pick and roll out of triple threat. I thought that was a really interesting sequence. But what an amazing two way performance from Lebron and exactly the type of thing that you're that this team requires in order to beat the best teams on the league, or excuse me, on the road in the league. That was vintage throwback Lebron is fun to watch,

all right, Let's talk about some Russ. What did I say after Wednesday? He was four or four teen from the field and only had four assists, But I said it was one of his best games as a Laker because he limited his mistakes, he got consistent drible penetration, and he played solid on the defensive end. When he does those things, he can still be a damn effective NBA player. And he went out and did all three of those things again tonight to an even higher level.

And what I thought was his best game as a Laker. Some Laker fans are gonna point to. I think it was the Hornets game last year where he had like thirty three or something like that and he won the game with some big time shot making. But that's that to me is a rale. There was bad team on the road, Lebron and d D were out. You were just kind of like, okay, go ahead, Russ, try to win this game. And he did. But this was like high stakes team with real expectations. Season still very much

in play on the road. Second best team in the league. Lebron and a d are out there playing great, and they need Russ to find a way to contribute to the two stars that are playing at the top of their games on this night. They needed him to supplement that, and the only way he could do that is once again limiting mistakes, getting consistent drivel penetration, and playing solid defense. And that's exactly what he did. He had five assists on his first five offensive possessions. I'm not sure I've

ever actually seen that before. It was like there was like Russ assist, Russ assist, Russ assist right like it was. It was unbelievable on his way to an eleven assist night, and he limited his mistakes. He only took two shots I didn't like. There was a a one like fade away over Drew Holiday. I think it was in his first shift that he actually made that was like early shot clock where I was like, man, we probably don't

need that shot, but he made it. And then the second one was the two for one that he went for the pull up three. And the general idea there is you go for the two for one because of the math of it all right, Like, Okay, if I have two possessions, and you know, I run these two actions and I get on average one point whatever points per possession, you know, just by math, I'm gonna have a better chance of scoring, you know, Whereas if I go one possession and they go one possession, just the

odds are are less in my favor. But you know, it's all about shot quality because a pull up early Russ three early and the shot clock has like what a ten twelve percent chance of going in. So when you really look at the points per possession on that possession, it's so low that you're actually better off running a really good, sound offensive possession. But those were the only two shots I like he had. Didn't like he had zero turnovers. That's two games in a row. Was zero

turnovers after he had twelve in the last two games. Um, but yeah, so like I'd say, what two mistakes total? And he played just on just under thirty minutes, Like that's a great way to contribute. And then he played a great defensive game, you know what I gotta I gotta hand it to him too, like that diving play where he dove at the ball. Um when Chris Middleton went to the ground and he kept the ball alive. That led to the run out dunk from Lebron to a d That was a game winning type of play.

You Know, it's funny with Russ. He he has he has so much like moxie an audacity that like, when he sees those opportunities to make those pivotal momentum plays, he always goes for it. And sometimes it can hurt him when he does something like shooting that late through pull up jump shot that he did against the Blazers in the third game of the season. Like you're like, he felt an opportunity to ice the game there and he just couldn't help himself, you know what I mean.

But like in this version of Russ, when he's measured a little bit more and he's a little bit more calm, when he goes for those types of plays. You know, that was that that that's the type of play that you put your heart on the line for. The way that he did um and just just unbelievable um performance from him tonight. Like I said, I thought it was his best game as a Laker. I was talking to one of my co workers at the volume and I said,

to him. You know, I'm like, I still think at this exact moment in time that you know the Russ's salary because of the vehicle that that provides you to bring back multiple larger salaries. I still think that that's the way to go in terms of trade at the

trade market. But it's because these performances like these last two games have been more the exception, Like he's had like probably four or five games where they've met this standard that I think really helped the team, and then another four or five what was kind of a mixed bag,

and then there's been some bad ones. Right, But if he puts together like three or four more like this in a row where it becomes like consistent that he's figured out how to fit within this group, like he's being so productive that at that point you have to

keep him. And so if he puts three or four games like that in a row over the course of this road trip, I will start to think or consider the idea that maybe a Patrick Beverley Kendrick Nunn package targeting one mid level salary is actually a better option. It all depends on how good Russ is and if he's gonna be there, if he's gonna be this good, then that changes that math. The Lakers have a classic

trap game on Sunday there on the road in Washington. UM. I believe that game starts at three pm Pacific Standard time, so it's kind of like an early start. It's off of a big win, so it's tempting to bring a sloppy efforts, like a letdown type of game. They need to keep their foot on the gas, uh, to keep building momentum. Why because they are nine and twelve and they've banked too many losses. They don't have room in

the standings to mess around. A couple of notes on the Bucks, I need to look at the film, but it looked like a rough half court game for your honest it seemed like the vast majority of his damage was in transition. And then, like I said, against those non lebron A D lineups. But I need to look back at the film, so I will dig back into that a little bit to keep an eye on my Twitter feed. And then again, like the Lakers are a good half court defense, or the second best half court

defense in the league. So with a team that struggles to score in the half court like the Bucks and a player generally struggles to score in the half court in Janice against a really good half court defense, you know, that's kind of that thing's uh, that's the kind of thing that's going to happen. But once again in transition, he was completely unstoppable. I bet you he scored on

every single run out. I didn't even think he played all that well, and he had forty seven and five on shooting like he is so clearly the best player in the world. To me, um Chris Middleton, I said that I liked this as a first matchup for him because of the overhelping from the Lakers, which he got some good three point looks from he made three out of four threes, and then the shorter Laker wings I

gave him good options to shoot over the top. He had seventeen points in twenty seven minutes, and I thought he was playmaking. Was the most impressive thing that I saw tonight, and I think that's really gonna help the Bucks in their half court offense moving forward. He finished with seven assists. You know, like, as a Bucks fan, the way you gotta look back at this is like just tip the cap to Lebron in a d because Look,

how did the Lakers win the title? They want it because Lebron was the best player in the world and Anthony Davis was something like the fourth or fifth best player in the world. Two top five players playing at the top of their games. You're gonna have a really

hard time beating them when they're like that. Now. One of the reasons why I don't have the Lakers as my championship favorite and instead I have, you know, the Warriors, Bucks and Celtics, is because I trust your honest and Drew and Chris to be good almost every single night, and I trust Jalen Brown and Jayson Tatum to be good almost every single night. And I trust Steph Curry and those guys to be good every single night. Like this is the first time in a long time that

Lebron and a D have been this dominant together. I would need to see them demonstrate that over months and months for me to really believe in the ultimate ceiling of the Lakers. So as a Bucks fan, you just

gotta tip your cat. You know, Lebron and A D came in to night and they both played like top five players, and you got beat and it was this close anyway in spite of all that, and that just goes to show you how good your team is, and so you gotta be feeling good about where you are, all right, guys, That's all I have for tonight is always I sincerely appreciate your support. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I will see you on Monday. The Volume