Hoops Tonight - Celtics blast Suns, young Warriors step up in loss vs. Jazz, Lakers Trade Targets

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in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fandel here at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having an incredible week. We're gonna be breaking down three games from last night. The Boston Celtics continue their absolute wrecking ball tour around

the NBA by destroying the Phoenix Suns in Phoenix. Then we're gonna talk about the Warriors and the Jazz and kind of a wild ending where the Warriors basically punted the game, resting all their stars and then they damn near one and then the Jazz told it again with a couple of scrappy plays on the defensive end. And then,

last but not least, the Brooklyn Nets. They beat the New Orleans Hornets last night, but we're also gonna just talk about how good the Brooklyn Nets have been playing in general, taking advantage of some soft spots in their schedule. You guys know the drill before we get already subscribed to the volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason Lts.

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minutes before Boston just completely and utterly embarrassed them. There's a little bit of a thing going on with Phoenix where when the going gets tough, they have a tendency to let go of the rope. You saw that obviously famously in game seven last year against Luca don Chets, but it's kind of a recurring theme and it's happened

a few times this year. You know. It was back and forth, and uh, Malcolm Brogden checked in about halfway through the first quarter and immediately scored eight quick points, a couple of pull up threes, like a jab step pull up three in the left corner, and then a dribble pull up three on the right wing, and then a really nice left hand did reverse layup and that was kind of the difference maker early on, and then from there it was just a complete avalanche. You know.

We talked about this a little bit two days ago when we were talking about the Lakers, uh and them playing without Anthony Davis against the Calves, and we were just joke talking about their starting lineup and how there's

kind of like a stagnation that plagues that group. And one of the nice things that you see around the league in that sixth man role is stagnation in a lot of cases is a product of sometimes just overpassing and waiting for something easy to pop up instead of somebody being aggressive and trying to get downhill and make something happen. And you see that a lot with starting

lineups because they're stacked with talent. You usually have most of your best players in those groupings, right, So like even with the Celtics group, it's like, it's Jayson Tatum, it's Jalen Brown, it's Marcus Smart. There's a lot of talent there, right, And so sometimes those guys will look at each other and be like, do you want to be aggressive? Or should I be aggressive? Like which one of us is supposed to hit the jets here? No, the sixth man. It's like, your role is very clear.

You come into the game and you are aggressive, and there are guys that embrace that role and they thrive in it, and you can pretty quickly see the tone of games shift when they get into the game. Just like Malcolm Brogden has been so damn good for the Celtics this year, kind of kickstarting their offense with that

second unit. It's kind of similar to what Russell Westbrook has been doing with the Lakers, Right, Lebron and a d kind of float through that first shift and you end up with random guys like Dennis Shrewder being aggressive

or Patrick Beverley being aggressive. In this game, it was Grant Williams, Like all the Celtics were kind of standing around looking at each other, and Grant Williams was the guy who was like, okay, fine, I'll shoot and like took a really nice jab step three on the left wing, or bullied his way to the basket one time, like cave DeAndre Ayton's chest in with a power dribble. It

made like a little hook in the lane. Like a lot of times, those starting lineups are a little indecisive and you need someone that can be decisive and that sixth man come in and changes that. And that's exactly what Malcolm Brock didn't in yesterday. And then you saw what happened. Jayson Tatum came back in towards the end of the first quarter. Then he starts being super aggressive, and you see that a lot on the Lakers team as well, with their six man. Russ comes in changes

the dynamic of the game. Then Lebron will come back in for that second shift and he's much more aggressive, looking to get downhill, looking to get his shot. It's kind of like a natural staggering from there. And you know, um, that's what makes a sixth man so valuable, Like a Malcolm Brogden. He can come in and change the tone of your offense and get you playing more aggressive. Um. Grant Williams was awesome last night. He went six for six and he's starting to demonstrate more of that high

level shot making. Like I said, that jab step that's an is so move him scoring and basically a late clock rescue possession situation against DeAndre Aten by powering him into the rim. Like that's really impressive stuff. Again, he took a bet on himself by turned down that extension this last summer, and it's got to pay off because he's been one of the best two way wings in

the league this year. Um. On the defensive end, you know, the Celtics have been really uneven up and down for the first chunk of the season, and I kept talking about how they kept showing that switch flipping. Well, even that's gone out the window now because they're really defending at a high level for entire games now, and they were This was an A plus defensive effort from Boston.

You know, they have a really seamless transition from coverage to coverage, so they've got all these different groups and these different defensive identities, like they go. They've been positive without any centers on the floor this year. So when they go real five out with like Grant Williams at the five, they've been a positive this year. And a big part of that is that when they switch everything

with those groups, they can really stagnate teams. And then when they go with Al Horford this year, they've been doing a lot more switching than they did last year, but then they can seamlessly go to like, Okay Horford's out tonight, here comes Blake Griffin and Luke Cornet, you know, running the the big for most of the night, and we're just gonna run drop coverage and they'll switch one through four and there's so seamless in that coverage, like

you'll see uh the Sun's with their classic transitions into their pick and roll where it's like a dribble handoff that flows into the pick and roll, and it'll be like Tatum and Brown will switch it. But then Brown when he switches out, well then immediately fight over the top of the screen because he knows it's a pick

and roll and Blake Griffin's hanging back. That takes a lot of focus and a lot of sharpness in your communication and on the details, and then they're so sharp on their uh defensive rotations on the back end too. One of the things I did really well against Phoenix and this game was digging down from that strong side wing.

You know, like the guy comes over the top of the screen, maybe it's Devin Booker comes over the top of the screen from the left wing, and whoever it is that's guarding the shooter on the right wing will just dig down to the elbow and make them get rid of the basketball. That only works if you're low man is capable of making a rotation out to stop

a shooter. And what the Celtics do a really good job of actually at a clip of this from Derek White, but they close out to passing lanes, which is a really smart way to deal with a two shooter situation. So if a guy comes over the top of a ball screen and you dig out of the strong side wing, I've got a shooter in the corner and a shooter on the wing, and I've got one defender who has sunk down to the block and he's got to close

out to one of those two guys. And what Derek White did on this specific play that you can find on my Twitter feed. Is he closes out between the

two shooters. I think it was Tory Craig on the right wing, and might have been Campaign in the corner I can't remember, might have been Langer sham it with somebody like that, and he closes out to the passing lane, and Tory Craig thinks that Derek White is closing out at him, so instead of looking to catch and shoot, he's looking to catch and swing, and he ends up catching and throwing the swing pass directly into Derek White

because he closes out into the passing lane. I thought that was really cool because that's a specific coverage that the high school team that I coach you uses when we're closing out on the backside, we always close out to the passing lane. Boston is a really nice job of that, and that allows them to over help because they're doing a nice job of closing out and rotating

on the back end. And then once you shut down Phoenix's actions and they did a lot of it with no center last night where they were just switching everything, but also just by fighting over the top of the screens and digging down, it kind of stagnates Phoenix and turns them into an isolation team. And then all night long, Boston did a really good job of contesting Devin Booker without fouling and then staying home off ball. On ISOs.

It's one thing on a pick and roll to dig down from the wing to contain the ball, but it's another thing when it's an ISO and he's not really going downhill and instead he's going against a set defender that's sliding his feet and maybe chest the shoulder with him and riding him into the basket. You don't need

to overhelp there. So they're staying home. And now Devin Booker is struggling to knockdown shots over the top of the defense or he's trying to make kickout passes two guys that are open because the help defenders are staying home. Then Phoenix started turning the basketball over. They forced Phoenix into twenty twenty turnovers, which led to twenty points for Boston on the other end of the floor by just because they were able to get out in transition. It

was a really impressive defensive performance. And to be clear, this is no longer a switch flipping thing. They've kind of figured things out that Boston Celtics are fifth in the entire league in defense since November. That's a solid three week sample size of them being damn good defensively. I'm actually kind of worried about the Robert Williams thing. I've been kind of lower on Robert Williams than most Celtics people for this entire kind of era here. Um,

I've talked about this before. I think he's a little bit too much of a gambler on defense. I think there's some mixed results there. And I really think he janks up there spacing because I mean, obviously he's a good vertical spacer, but vertical spacing is just not the same type of spacing as five out spacing. And the Boston offense is just operating at such a high level.

When Horford is at the center and he can space to the corner, or when they just go pure five out and it's Grant will Hims at the five, they're getting just better stuff there. So, like with how well they're defending now without Rob Williams, obviously you want Rob Williams. You want to have that look. It helps to have a legit, big look with Horford and Williams on the

floor together. But I hope they keep his minutes down because this particular version of Boston is so much better offensively, and now they're defending at an extremely high level UM plus when they're doing more switching, especially with Horford, I think that gives you a better chance to succeed in a playoff environment. And I thought their stubborn nous as it pertained to Golden State and that drop coverage is one of the things that beat them. We started the

year with three contenders. If you guys remember, I had the Bucks, the Warriors in the Celtics, and I ranked them in order. I had Golden State number one, I had Milwaukee number two, and Boston number three. I thought Boston was the most talented team of those three, but I was worried about their ability to execute, particularly in late game situations and things along those lines. In Golden States just a super experienced team that's been there and

done that, and you can count on that. But ever, like all all all season long, from the from the first jump ball back in October eight, Boston has clearly been on a tier by themselves on top of the league. Milwaukee's only two games back, but Boston has been way more dominant. Their net rating is about twice as much. Boston's outscoring teams by about nine points per hunter possessions and Milwaukee's outscoring teams by less than five points per

one hunter possessions, so they've been more dominant. And Milwaukee has also had a really, really easy schedule. They've had the third easiest schedule in the league, So their win loss record it's not fake, but it's not as dominant as Boston's played tougher teams and has been more dominant on the scoreboard. I'm not changing my playoff picks by any stretch of the imagination. It's too early. But if this holds, Boston will eventually become my favorite to win

the Titler. You gotta pay attention to what's happening here, Like let's let's zoom out here to this entire calendar year. So we're on December eight, and this really started for Boston. I want to say it was the January three or January eight, but it was that first ten days of January.

So we're gone eleven months here now, and what actually happened in this eleven months from the beginning of January to the start of the playoffs, Boston was the best offense and the best defense in the entire league, and they kicked everyone's ass, and then they took that into the playoffs and they won their conference. It's a little sloppy because of their issues with execution. They damn near blued against Milwaukee. They damn near blued against Miami, but

damn near doesn't mean anything. They won the Eastern Conference, okay. Then they dominated Golden State through three games. They were up two games to one. Then Golden State on the strength of an absolutely heroic performance by by Steph Curry and a really solid defensive effort from Golden State's wings, namely Andrew Wiggins, Clay Thompson and Draymond Green, they were able to pull out three straight wins against that Boston

Celtics team. Then ever since then, Boston has whooped everybody's ass again, and they've been the best offense in the league and now in the last three weeks their top five defense again. So as we zoom out, it's a whole lot of Boston's whooping everybody's ass. It's a whole lot of Boston being the best offense in basketball and one of the best defenses in basketball. I still think they're the best half court defense that I've ever seen.

That's all there. There's just that three game stretch against Golden State. Now that's an important stretch. That's execution. I still don't trust Boston in big playoffs situations to execute at an extremely high level. They will have to prove that to me. But they look better than last year. Maybe Malcolm Brogden can help them with on ball situations

and crunch time, and maybe it won't even matter. I'm not gonna change my pick yet, but at a certain point, we've got to acknowledge that Boston is playing better basketball than everyone else in the league by a pretty significant margin. Quick notes on Phoenix. This is Chris Paul's first game back, so I don't want to overreact, but he looked completely out of place. Um looked like he was really struggling to get to his spots in a way that he

didn't use to. Devin Booker had forty plus three nights in a row last week, but in the last three games he's averaging sixteen points per game on thirty seven percent shooting. I was very complimentary of Devin Booker. I obviously view him Um. I always obviously have a ton of respect for him and where he is in the league right now. But consistency is a big part of being a superstar. You gotta keep your foot on the

pedal alright. Moving on to the Warriors in the Jazz, This was kind of a fun game for how many players were missing on both teams, like Lori markin and was out, Mike Connolly's out, so they're down a bunch of guys. Um. The Warriors sat Steph Draymond and Andrew Wiggins, so the Warriors were basically punting this game. Um. But Jordan Pool and Johnathan cominga to the Warriors young players combined for sixty points and really kept this thing close.

And then at the end of the game it kind of turned into a Jordan Pool versus Jordan Clarkson shot creation contest, and both of them made some nice passing reads, but neither of them can really make a shot. Jordan Clarkson made a nice little floater, but there in the final minutes they both kind of went cold and the Warriors were scrappy as hell on both ends of the floor. They grabbed a bunch of offensive rebounds, they had some

critical defensive stopped some blocked shots. There's a Jonathan cominga is So possession on Jordan Clarkson where he blocked him kind of at the elbow, and then Uh Clay Thompson had a really nice block that actually saved the Warriors on a potentially game tying three. They played well enough to grind out an ugly win, but Clay Thompson and Jordan Pool were sloppy with the basketball and a couple of late inbounds possessions and it costs them the gate.

Shout out, you know to Nikil Alexander Walker from the Jazz two massive plays at the end of that get that game. There was an extra past the Malik Beasley where Warriors up four. I think it was like one thirteen, one on nine and Nikil gets it down the hill. Downhill, he has an opportunity to take a left handed lay up and I want it looked nice on the box score for him, but it's game probably over there. You

know you're you're still down too. He makes a left handed hook pass that hits uh Molik Beasley on the right wing and he nails at the three. Is a good pass to a wide open shooter that puts you back within one. Then on the inbounds pass to Jordan Pool, he kind of comes over Jordan Pool's left shoulder, and I think he was actually trying to foul, but hey, when you're trying to foul, go for the basketball because

you might be able to make a play. And he came hacking down with his left arm and just happened to get all ball on Jordan Pool and knocked the ball loose, which led to the run out and uh Fontacio ends up getting a dunk and the game was over. So a couple of massive plays Benekiel Alexander Walker to steal that game. I get it as a Warriors fan, that's a heartbreaking loss, but you gotta remember you were

playing with house money. You were expecting to lose that game when you sat all those guys, And even though it still sucks to take that loss in the stay innings, especially when it was an execution couple of execution errors at the end, there was a lot of really exciting stuff from the Warriors young players in that game. First of all, James Wiseman came in and played a really interesting five minute shift. There was a bit of a

mixed bag. He really struggled and dropped coverage. He he was trying to get up to the level of the screen on Jordan Clarkson for pull up jump shots, but he guessed wrong because Jordan was able to reject the screen and get away from him. Then he wasn't back in drops. He needs to be a little bit more kind of like in a middle area where he can wait for Jordan to come over and then come up and contest. He gave up a layup to Jordan Clarkson

and a foul to Jordan Clarkson. There. He also had to play with Rudy Gobert or excuse me, Ruddy Gay drove to the basket and went up with a left handed lay up and he got his hand like cought in the net which stopped him from being able to get a block a block. He also had a missed box out on Walker Kessler, who, by the way, Walker Kessler is a really tough big for James Wiseman to deal with at this phase of his career because he's just he struggles with physicality and Walker is just a

big physical center that works really, really har hard. But other than those things, it honestly was a lot of good from Wiseman. I thought he did a much better job screening. Get a nice uh pick and roll with Clay Thompson up on the right wing where he got a good contact on his screen that freed Clay Thompson up for a wide open three that he made. And then look and this is a big part of it. Why do you guys, You guys who have listened to the show for a while, you know that I'm not

a big fan of traditional centers. And one of the big reasons why is they don't run, or when they do try to run, they're not fast enough to really hang in an up and down game and they struggle to cover ground. This I thought was James Wiseman's best game as a pro in terms of just running the floor up and down. And when you have a big man who legit runs the floor, sprints the floor up

and down, so much good comes from that. There was a play where you got a quick seal on Fontechio because he ran out Ryan Walker Kesler down the floor which led to a transition mismatch, dumped it into him and he got a dunk. There was a play where he beat Walker Kesler down the floor, got underneath a basket. I can't remember who was I think it was Anthony Lamb. Someoneho misses the three walker. Kesler tries to box him out, but he's out of position because Wise been beat him

down the floor. He got an offensive rebound on that play, kicked it out. He actually kicked it out to Anthony Lamb after that, and he missed the three um. And then there was another play where he sprinted back on defense and got back in time to dissuade Kelly Olynnik at the rim and forced to stop. But like, if he can do those kinds of things, those are because

those are under his control. He can sprint up and down the floor, and if he can set good screens and if he can make some improvements and drop coverage, that's functional stuff, especially with the way Golden State has been staggering their starters where he might be useful. But again, I know it's a tough night, tough loss, but a nice little five minute shift from Wiseman. You can tell the G League reps are starting to work for him

a little bit. But I still needs so those are ways to go, but it's a positive step for sure. Moses Moody hit two big threes in the fourth quarter. Um one of them was a really nice movement three where he came off of like a double screen, caught the top of the key and had planted his left foot and had to square up in mid air, get that right foot around, rise up and knock it down.

I had talked to somebody who is connected with the Warriors and and he told me that Moses Moody all summer long, the primary areas of work where movement threes and dribble three's, and you can see that we're kind of paying off. Both of those shots were massively important. And then Jonathan Cominga just an absolute monster on both ends last night. Continues to be the most impressive of

the Warriors young players. You know, I said before the season, earlier in the season that they might not have a real superstar talent in any of these young players. Jonathan Cominga is flashing legit to a superstar upside. He's so good defensively on ball, and he showed some flashes off ball, but he's so good defensively on ball that like that that he kind of could enter. You could see him in a few years entering into that conversation among the

best perimeter defenders in the league. If he can get to the point where he can be a little bit smarter offensively, especially in the Warrior system, you could see a legit two way superstar upside there with Jonathan comingo. But again, depressing, frustrating loss for the Warriors, but a lot of optimism um in a game that you didn't intend to win. Really when you intended, but you didn't expect to win, but you had a chance because you're young.

Players are starting to show some development um. The Brooklyn Nets was the last team that I wanted to talk about today. They beat the Hornets sixteen last night. They really dominated on both ends. They get it, let it get close at the end, just with slopping this, but they were never truly threatened. Kyrie Irving thirty three and nine, did a lot of work at the rim in this game and in mid range, out of is and out

of post ups. For the season, Kyrie is eighty second percentile and picking rolls in seventy six percentile and ISOs including passes. He's having a really good creation season and he's starting to find his groove as of late. In his last eight games, Kyrie Irving's averaging twenty five points per game. In the last eight teen games, the Brooklyn Nets are twelve and six. That's the second most wins

in the entire league during that span. Their ninth in offense, fifth and defense, sixth and net rating, and they've gone three and one since Ben Simmons went down. There's some quality wins in there, like they beat Toronto twice and they beat the Clippers with Paul George. But mostly it's been a soft schedule. Memphis was playing without their three top guys, um Portland was playing without Dame, and then

they lost to the better teams on their schedule. They lost to Philly, they lost to Boston, they lost the Dallas. They they got killed by Sacramento. They lost to Anthony Davis in that first game of the Lakers kind of rejuvenation when A d started his wrecking ball tour. The Nets lost that game. Overall, on the season, the Nets are eight and ten against five and above teams and six and two against losing teams. But that's part of

the pathway of the NBA regular season. You're gonna, you know, struggle a little bit against the better teams when you're a mediocre team and then you're gonna you have to rack up the wins against the bad teams to to gain ground in the standings. And as a result of this reason stretch, the Nets are up to fourth in the East. So after every that happened, after a Kyrie Irving suspension, Ben Simmons kind of being in and out of the lineup and and not being what you expected,

a lot of stuff has gone wrong. T J. Warren just came back, you know, Seth Curry missed time at the start of the year. A lot of stuff went wrong for the Nets, and they're sitting at fourth in the East, so it could be a lot worse. Um, the schedule stays easy for the next week or so, but then they play the Warriors, Bucks and Calves back to back to back. So that's that's like kind of like we were talking about earlier with the Kings or with the Lakers. This is their chance to prove and

add some legitimacy to their success. They need to get a couple of signature wins to give the team confidence to know that they can hang with the better teams in the league. And the last but at least I wanted to throw a shout out to k d Um. You know, as I was talking about with the Lakers to start the year, as I was talking about the Warriors for most of the year, when you have roster limitations for the Warriors, it's the bench for the Lakers,

it's the entire damn roster. For the Nets, it's a little bit of the entire it's a little bit of both of um. But the when you have those kinds of problems, so many things can be cured by a superstar playing like a superstar. The reason why is, like I always say, there's a list of responsibilities on both ends of the floor, shot creation, shot finishing, screening, you know,

whatever it might be. On the defensive end, on like perimeter defense, back line defense, communication, all those different things. You know, guys who can guard wings and and and when they try to pressure their way to the rim and things along those lines. There's all these responsibilities. And when you have a player that fills a ton of responsibilities, like, for instance, look at Anthony Davis, what he's doing anchoring

the back line of the Lakers defense. What he's doing as an isolation score, cleaning up things in garbage, garbage baskets around the rim with offensive rebounds. What he's doing screening and rolling to the basket, He's checking so many of those boxes that suddenly these other lake Kers are able to easily achieve these smaller responsibilities around them. And Kevin Durant is doing the same thing for the Brooklyn Nets.

By being the all world is so guy that he is, By being as good as he has been in pick and roll, by being as good as a passer as he's been, He's generating a ton of high quality spot up opportunities and role opportunities. And those opportunities are so high quality and so frequent that the team, even though they have some inferior role players, are succeeding in those roles. This is Kevin Durant's best defensive season since two thousand seventeen.

So now when you've got enough length in athleticism with him and Nick Claxton and all these guys competing on the defensive end of the floor, Kevin Durant's taking so many of those defensive responsibilities that suddenly gets a lot easier for your lesser guards. When you can ask Kyrie Irving and and and Patty Mills and Seth Curry to pressure the ball more because they have enough length on the back end to kind of clean some of those

men his up. That simplifies their responsibilities. That's why a superstar playing like a superstar can clean up so many messes. And that's why more often than not, we do too much deflecting two role players when superstars aren't holding up their end of the bargain. But shout out to Katie because this year he's doing that, and he's patching a lot of holes on a flawed roster. Now they're starting to get their guys back. T J. Warrens back in the lineup. That dude, when he gets into groove, he's

a bucket. You know, Ben Simmons is not healthy right now, but if he gets healthy over the course of the season, you bank on by the time April comes around everything clicking into place. But you need to be successful enough in the standings until then to give yourself a real chance with a legitimate playoff path. And Katie's doing his job there right now. It's just like with Anthony Davis

and the Lakers. He's floating them in the standings long enough for Rob blinkin Genie Bus to pull their heads out of their butt. Go make a trade so that they have the pieces. I kept telling you guys, Lebron needs to get it together. Anthony Davis held the ship together long enough for Lebron to get it together. And now Lebron looks good. So you can kind of see

how that pathway goes along. So shout outs k D. If the nets continue to move up the standings and he keeps playing like this, he's gonna end up being an MVP candidate before too long. Looking to get more out of this NBA season, well, now is the perfect time to download FanDuel America's number one sports book because new customers get a no sweat first bet up to one thousand dollars. That's free bets back if your first bet doesn't win. Just download the fandel sports Book app.

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moment More with fan Duel. An official sports betting partner of the NBA is the Dallas Mavericks going on the road and beating Denver on a huge shot by Dorian Finney Smith. Late, the Los Angeles Lakers lose to the Calves. Kind of a disappointing game because Anthony Davis goes out with flu like symptoms early on, and then all of a sudden, you're trying to beat a really good team

on the road without your best player. And then the Miami Heat without Jimmy Butler got their butt kicked by a terrible Detroit Pistons game will touch on that as well. You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so we don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore j sent Lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements. That's also where I live. Tweet through some games and

put some video footage breakdowns as well. And then, last but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish. Remember you can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight. Well, so back and forth shot making at the end of this game came down to a couple of double teams. Luca uh Nickel yokits posting up on the left block. Dallas sends a double, generates a wide open three for Bruce Brown. He knocks

it down. They go the other way. Luca don Chech runs a pick and pop with Dorian Finney Smith. Nice little behind the back feed. Uh an interesting decision that Denver decided instead of running to Dorian Phinney Smith, they ran to Spencer Dinwoodie on the right wing. I think I would have rather had Spencer take that shot, especially with how well Dorian Finney Smith was shooting. He knocks it down, Yoki goes down, draws a foult, he misses a free throw. Then pretty much the game is over.

This game was really came down at three point shot result. Denver was better in a bunch of different phases of the game. They were better on the glass, they were better in the paint, they shot better from the field, they had more assists. But the Mavericks were seventeen for twenty excuse me, seventeen for thirty six from three, and that was enough to get the job done. Uh. The big guy that got going, you know here in this last week and a half for Dallas, which has really

changed out look at their entire season. As Tim Hardaway Jr. If you remember we talked about this, uh the night they beat the Warriors. Uh. Tim got off to a horrific shooting start this season, not entirely uncommon. He was dealing with foot issues last year. I actually broke my foot myself between two seasons when I was playing in college and had a nightmare shooting. Uh, first half of the season before I really got my confidence back. It's just your base is so important as a shooter. That's

where you get your lift. That's how you convert different footwork into high quality shots, whether that's you know, movement shooting or off the dribble, shoe eating or anything along those lines. And you just everything is just a little

bit funky when you're coming back from foot injuries. And then also when you get away from NBA basketball for a while, there's a rhythm and a speed um that you're you have to grow accustomed to to get back to where you feel comfortable on the basketball court as a shooter. And you got going early in that Golden State Warriors game. And in the five games since then, Tim Hardaway Jr. Is averaging twenty four points per game,

shooting fifty five percent from three on eleven attempts. He's been a net positive in every single game in plus minus, and the MAVs are four and one in those games. And if you remember, I think one of the big reasons why Dallas let Jalen Brunson go is they were under the opinion that Tim Hardaway Jr. Could kind of slot into that third creator role because he does have a little bit of that higher level off the dribble

creation and he's starting to flash that a lot. In this last five games, he's shooting fift on four pull up jump shots per game, including eight for eleven on pull up threes overall in the season. Although it's in really low volume, he's averaging one point one four points per isolation possession, which is in the eight percentile. So they might need to get a little bit more on ball reps for for Tim Hardaway Jr. Now that he's got his rhythm and see if maybe that helps them.

But him getting going offensively completely changes this basketball team. Remember the Mavericks were really struggling mainly on the offensive end of the floor. Their defense has been pretty good even through their struggles when they went below five hundred briefly. There another huge driving force behind Luca's recent success. Although he had a nightmare shooting night last night against Denver, but lucas starting to shoot the ball better off the dribble.

You know, he started the year like he does most seasons, really poorly with this step back jump shot. That step back three is such an athletic move. It doesn't seem like it because it seems like settling, but kind of like we were talking about earlier with Tim Hardaway Jr. You need to get a ton of lift on a shot like that, especially when you're stepping back, and so it can be a thing that requires can isstioning and

rhythm to really get going. He's taken seven pull up threes during this five game stretch and he's made twenty three of them, which is so him getting going there is obviously helping them a lot as well on the offensive end of the four that's bumped up his ISO numbers, So he's up to two four points on two hundred and fifty six ISOs this year, which is in the

seventy nine percentile. And he's doing a really nice job and pick and roll and pick and pop. So many teams are starting to double or hard hedge on all these Luca picking rolls. Um, it's just their teams are coming to terms with the fact that Dallas doesn't have a ton of dribble creation outside of Luca and that their best bet to chance, the best bet to win, is to double him. That really wasn't the case last year, you know, last year with how much dribble creation they

were getting from Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwoodie. A lot of times it made sense to stay home and turn Luca into a score, but teams are more willing to send extra attention to Luca and force him to be a passer, and he's been doing a really nice job there. Um he's up to five d ex three points on five pick and rolls this year. That's one point one two points per possession, which is the percentile, which is not only amazing from efficiency, but that's just absurd volume.

That's basically where they're getting the vast majority of their offense. Denver tried to really interesting coverage last night that actually worked pretty well on Luca that I'd like to see some other teams try. It's kind of like a bracket ISO coverage. So most teams don't want you to get middle penetration because of the fact that when you get middle penetration it's a lot harder for the defense to rotate out of it and uh the corner that you know,

you you try to funnel team towards the corner. But one of the bad things there is those corner jump shots are a little bit easier because they're shorter distance right, and most NBA role players just rep out and rep out tons and tons of corner threes because that's the easiest shot that you can get from three point uh

from three point range in the game. So what I thought was really interesting was denver when when Luca would get these ISOs on the wing, whether it was light right wing or left wing, they were actually shading him heavily towards the middle. And then whoever it was that was at the top of the key if they were in a five out or on the opposite wing, if they were in a four out, that defender would dig down almost like like one dribble away from where Luca

would get downhill. And the problem is is all a lot of these Naverick shooters have a little bit of a slow release and they need to be comfortable and have lots of time to gather. And so they were having some success like forcing Luca to drive right into that extra defender kick out and then he could easily

close out and dissuade the three. It was kind of like a you could see them hard bracketing because that on ball defenders hard on his uh, you know, sideline shoulder and then that help defenders just sitting right there in that driving lane. I'd like to see some more teams try that specifically to try to slow them down. Denver's defense continues to be a huge problem. They are twenty six in the league now after last night, that's bottom five defense in the league. As a result, they're

really struggling with the good teams in the league. They're five and seven against teams that are five in better. Um kind of reminds me of Sacramento. We were talking about this earlier. They score ship ton of points, they beat up on the bad teams in the league, but Sacramento is six and eight versus teams that are five are better. You know that defensive pieces so vital to any good team being able to beat other good teams.

This is why there's that stat that goes around every year where if you're not a top ten defense, you really don't have a chance to win a title. Historically in the NBA, why defense travels. You know, role players feel comfortable at home, so it's hard to win on the road, But the one thing that certainly travels on the road is your defense. Because it's just about athleticism and playing hard and much less about you know, things

going your way, so to speak. Defense keeps games close so as you struggle, like look at you know, the Lakers countless time this season have been close in games just because they defend well for certain stretches, especially when Anthony Davis is available. So it travels, it keeps games close, and it closes games. When you get into crunch time situations, you need to be able to get stops, and once

again over last night could not get stopped. So what's confusing about it is they added Contavious called Hope and Bruce Brown specifically to help with that, and it just hasn't been enough. Alright, moving on to the Lakers and the Calves. So Adie leaves like what a few minutes into his first shift with flu like symptoms. It's really unfortunate because like in a normal season, guy goes out with the flu, you don't think twice about it. But this is a Laker team that that dug themselves in

a two and ten hole. You know, when you dig yourself in that big of a hole, these losses are that much more painful, you know. If it's it's like we were talking about with the Clippers, yesterday. They've had all this bad health luck, but they're sitting there at fourteen and eleven or whatever it is that they are. You know, it's like you can weather that storm when you've won enough games to remain, you know, in a in a decent position within the standings. The Lakers dug

themselves in a hole. And so now when Anthony Davis leaves a winnable game on the road against Cleveland with Lebron and Russ playing as well as they are and with you know, um getting enough defensively to win these types of games, that's the law us that hurts you more because of where you're at in the standings. You know, you could be eleven and twelve today or you could be ten and thirteen and you lost a player to flew like symptoms. Hurts you in the standings. Jared Allen

was an absolute monster in this game. He towards the Lakers in uh in the short role. You know, there was this dynamic that was taking place. And we're gonna talk about the Lakers starters here in a minute, but when they start Dennis and Pat, you expect them to be excellent defensively, and you specifically expect them to be great chasing guards over the top of screens in pick and roll. But what was happening in this game was

they were getting caught on those screens. And because Cleveland was running two bigs, whichever big Lebron ended up on, whether it was mostly Jared Allen but sometimes it was Evan Mobile, whichever big Lebron ended up on, they would just call him up into the screen. Because obviously Lebron is a good defensive player, but he's not in the same stratosphere as Anthony Davis as a drop coverage big. So what would happen is those guards Pat Pat Beverley

and Dennis Shoulder would get caught on those screen. Means the guard would get downhill, Lebron would have to step up to contain the basketball. Then it's a drop off pass to Jared Allen for a dunk or a floater or short jump shot every single time down the floor. And that's the advantage of having Anthony Davis. And this is why, like after last night, you've got a you know, at least see a little bit more my case for why Anthony Davis has been the defensive player of the

year to this point. But Anthony Davis has such freak physical tools he can kind of even both places at once, which solves a lot of those problems. Lebron is not that guy. He's a little bit, you know, he's a little bit more of a one place type of defender. Right he steps over to help Jared Allen's getting all

these layups. If you're gonna start Dennis Schroeder and Patrick Beverley, especially with their offensive limitations as shooters, you need them to be excellent defensively, and they just weren't last night. But Jared Allen, you know, I have these moments, and I've talked about this before on the show, because of what he does offensively, I have these moments where I think he's a better player than Rudy Gobert. And then I sent out a tweet. I was like, hey, who

would you guys rather have on your basketball team? Rudy Gobert and Jared Allen, And last I checked, it was like ninety to ten in favor of Jared Allen, which might be a little too ridiculous. And I know there's a lot of anti Gobert sentiment out there, but there's some real legitimacy to that case because of how much better he is than Rudy Offensively, He's super crafty around the rim. He's got great touch with his floater, but also with that little short jump shot you saw him

breaking out yesterday. Um, he can score against switches in post ups. And he's actually he's he's got a really good instinct for relocation in the dunker spot. We went over this. I can't remember which day it was, but it was in the last couple of weeks. We went over the different like dunker spot responsibilities. So like, if you're in the dunker spot opposite of the basketball, in the ball crosses the midline, you have to relocate towards the other block, right, because you always want to make

that big man step up and leave you. Whereas if you're on the same side as the ball, he can

be in two places at once. Right. But what Jared Allen was doing really nice last night too, is that other piece of dunker spot relocation that I talked about that day, which is when you drop i've baseline, you need to relocate up to the top, almost like at the charge circle, where you can um give yourself a release valve like a bounce pass in the lane for a short, little floater, and he just has he always knows where to position himself to get those easy opportunities.

Jared Allen has scored seventy two points on fifty five roll man possessions this season, which is in the SIXTI I thought he dominated this basketball game every bit as much as Donovan Mitchell did. Grabbed a bunch of offensive rebounds. The Laker guards were spooked every time they got into the lane, and then, like I said, he scored almost every time he caught it in the role um. Austin Reeves got the Donovan Mitchell assignment last night, and Mitchell

just completely had his way with him. You know, Austin is a positional defender. He's not aggressive on the ball. He gives ground and forces you to shoot over the top of him. That's what makes him a generally a positive defender depending on the matchup. But Donovan Mitchell is so damn quick that that positional defense doesn't work because he can just get around his shoulder and then he can't um give too much ground because Donovan is such a good pull up jump shooter. But you know that

that dynamic just becomes really difficult without Anthony Davis. You know that responsibility changes if Anthony Davis is out there. Anthony Davis is out there, you don't even have to worry about the rim necessarily. You just have to take away those pull up jump shots and the pull up mid range shots. Right That simplifies Austin's role. It may be an achievable task for him at that point, but you take Anthony Davis out of the equation, all of

a sudden, it's not an achievable task. That's not something Austin's physically capable of doing. No disrespect to Austin, that's something the vast majority of defensive players in the NBA would be incapable of doing. And Donovan Mitchell's just playing at a ridiculous level right now. I've had a lot of people compare Austin Reeves to to Alex Caruso over the years, and I think they're pretty equal overall his players.

I think Austin's is significantly better offensive player, but Alex Cruzo is a significantly better defensive player, and he might have had a better chance in a matchup like that. But overall, um, you know, I thought that the Lakers hung pretty tough. I thought it was an impressive effort, you know, if you really factor in a d being out and then they shot like absolute shit. Um, you know, and we're gonna get to that shooting thing here in a little bit. One last guy on the calves I

wanted to shout out was Carris Laverte. He only had seven points, but he generated a ton of quality shots. Um. Looking at the Lakers, poor shooting has been a story all year this year, but it's it's starting to become a problem, specifically with the starters. So the Lakers starting lineup what you saw last night, Patrick Beverley, Dennis Shruder

with Lonnie Walker, Lebron James, and Anthony Davis. They have a minus ten net rating, albeit in a somewhat small sample size this year because Dennis Shrewder only recently came back. But a big part of it is just stagnation and a lack of shooting. You know, starting Patrick Beverley and Dennis Shrewder makes some sense in theory. I talked about it a lot this summer as a lineup that I

actually thought made some sense. But at the time I thought Patrick Beverley would be able to knock down some threes and he's Patrick Beverley is having such a horrific shooting season that that whole lineup is just falling apart. From a functionality standpoint, Lebron and a d Are trying to make things happen, but the teams are packing the paint and the best shot they can get is these kickouts to Dennis Shrewder and uh and Patrick Beverley, and

they're just not making them. I think that starting lineup with like one for five on threes with those two in that opening shift last night, and next thing you know, you've spotted the other team another big lead. And one of the things that's nice is when they go to Russell Westbrook, they take you know, some of the non shooting out and Russ kind of gets that pace going

and starts getting downhill. I'd I'd rather have them go with guys like Austin Reeves and Troy Brown Jr. In the starting lineup at this point with the way they're playing, or maybe just Dennis Schroeder. That way, it's a little bit more of a functional group. And then you just basically put the onus on Lebron, James and Anthony Davis to be aggressive. The way that Russ is being with

that second unit. Um, you know, Patrick Beverley has been so incredibly bad this year and and Darvin Ham is clearly very loyal to him that a trade may be the only way to save Darvin Ham from himself a little bit there, because we've seen such a large sample size over a quarter of the season now that he's just not helping the team really, at least with Dennis Schroder, he's given you some scoring pop and he's got some good chemistry with Anthony Davison pick and roll. I think

you can get away with starting Schroeder. I just don't think you can get away with starting both of those guys. Um. But like, let's pay attention really quickly too, Like, because this game two in the fourth quarter, how is it that the Lakers stay close in this game? They stay close because Lebron James and Russ Russell Westbrook are both

playing damn good basketball right now. Like Anthony Davis has been the best player on the team, maybe even the best player in the world over these last three weeks. But it goes deeper than that. Lebron and Russ are also playing great basketball right now as shot creators. But despite them generating a ton of high quality shots. The Lakers, especially last night, have just been unable to finish off

those plays. Last night on spot up possessions. If you thought it looked like the Lakers were missing a ton of shots, the Lakers scored zero point four or four points per spot up possession last night. It's just gonna be hard to win on nights like that. Um looking at Russ, you know, specifically because of how good he's been lately, I just wanted to kind of zoom out and and and talk about where I'm at with Russ right now. I think he's been more than good enough

to justify keeping him unless the perfect deal arises. I thought it was a ridiculous gamble from Rob Polinka to do so to keep him. But credit to Russ, he's just been a much better player this year, you know. I I it sounds weird because I was so critical of Russ last year, but again, it was never personal with me and Russ. I don't dislike the guy. It's a simple question of analyzing basketball games. Last year, Russ

played horrifically bad on most nights. This year, Russ has been pretty good on most nights and great on others. In that case, it changes the the entire dynamic. Again, I thought it was a reckless gamble, but that gabble appears to have worked out for Rob Polinka. He's just been an outstanding shock creator this year. So in pick and roll he scored two and sixty three points on two and sixty four possessions, which is in the fifty

nine percentile, so just slightly above average. In is a hundred nine points on a hundred four possessions, which is in the sixty seven percentile, so top third right. And then in post ups, and this is where he's been amazing. Sixty one points on forty one possessions, which is in percentile for thirty six from the field is what he's shooting. In post ups he scored on two post ups again

last night. He's scoring on bigger defenders down there too, which is just a testament to how much strength he has. So you actually now have to seriously weigh what it looks like to lose um Russ and what specifically you'd be getting back. What he's doing generating quality spot up opportunities for the role players is super valuable, So now you have to weigh that against what you're bringing back, So I keep it on the table because there are still a lot of re ndon seas, especially with Lebron.

When Lebron and Russ are on the floor together this year, it's been pretty bad. And five possessions, which is a huge sample size, they are minus six points per one possessions, so there are some issues there. But he's been really good off the bench, so you can still have that option on the table trading Russ, but it needs to be a great deal. You can be more picky about that. So what I would do is I would kind of

treat this as a two phase trade season. I think right now the Lakers need to move Patrick Beverley, Kendrick Nunn in another minimum contract, someone like Damien Jones with one of the picks for somebody that can help you right away. Then you hang onto that other option, which is Russ and another one of the picks around the trade deadline. Should something pop up or should things go south with Russ, that's when you look at that potentially as an option. The question becomes who do you target?

Do you target someone like Miles Turner, oh I think

is actually the best player available overall this season? That I've seen engined in trades, or do you target someone that's a wing, And really, to me, it just comes down to who that wing is because in theory, good center, good wing presents you with the issue of do you want to raise your ceiling or do you want to have a better chance of competing on nights without Anthony Davis, because if you go big, if you go with someone like Miles Turner, you have a much better chance of

winning that game against the calves um. You give yourself a legit, a D at the four look, which the Lakers don't really have this year, that would be more similar to what they had in right, But then you have the crunch time issues. Do you want to close with Miles Turner. I think Miles Turner's ability to shoot from the perimeter makes him a player that can close, but it's at least a debate there. With a legit wing, you still struggle on nights where Anthony Davis goes out.

You have some issues with depth, but that ultimate ceiling gets bigger because then you have some of those lineups that resemble the Lakers when they put a D at the five, when they have Lebron at the four, and another big wing. But it really just depends on how good that wing is, because a ridge wing or a below average wing, even if that functionally makes more sense. If he's not nearly as good at basketball as Miles

Turner overall, then the center becomes a better option. That's why I keep an eye out if things go really south for Washington on Kyle Kuzma. Again, it's a long shot. You might even have to throw in two pics for something like that. But if you could somehow get Kyle Kuzma, now you suddenly become such a big line up with a D at the five that allows you to potentially capture some of that to a ceiling that you had in So again that's a super long shot and and

a lot of things would have to break right. Um, But those are the two different directions that the Lakers are gonna have to look at. Looking at Miles Turner as a clear you know, floor raising move that helps you like in the standings during the regular season, or targeting a wing which is more of like a ceiling

a ceiling raising deal. So um, the Detroit Pistons were two and eleven before they went to Miami last night, and if you guys, remember I talk a lot about how Um specifically when they lost p J. Tucker, that the Miami Heat, we're gonna really struggle any night that either Jimmy Butler or Bamata Bio misses, because when one of those guys are out, they just become a comically

small basketball team. And Jimmy Butler was out last night, bama A Bio had to play the five, especially in crunch time, with like four guards, and and even some of your taller players like Tyler Harrow or Duncan Robinson that get out there are not good defensive players that aren't really physically imposing on the basketball game, They're gonna really struggle. And what do you know, the Detroit Pistons lit them on fire. Uh, blew them out in that

fourth quarter. Lots of shot making over the top, like Sediq Bay posting up Victor Oladipo and just getting an easy basket, or Alec Burke's hitting a pull up jump shot. You know, Corey Joseph attacking Tyler Harrow in ISO. And you know, this whole situation is starting to remind me of the Lakers a little bit, where there's a clear need and they have the means with which to make an upgrade, but they're being really picked about trying to find the right guy. But in the process you're sacrificing

ground in the standings, and that's that delicate balance. Like the Lakers might be able to be like, hey, look, Russell Westbrook looks better, or hey, look at this guy we got in this trade. That's a better thing than what was being thrown out this summer. Okay, cool, but

where are you in the standings? Because how much does that matter if you end up in a seven game like slug fest with the with the Golden State Warriors or the Phoenix Suns in the first round and you're banged up and you end up losing to somebody else

in the second round. Like at a certain point, you've got a factor in like ground in the standings when you're talking about these kinds of things and the mind, he just simply need front court depth, and they're gonna and Jimmy Butler, for as long as he's been in the league, has been in and out of the lineup, and so he's probably gonna continue to be in and

out of the lineup. And if you don't fix that problem, you know it's gonna be an issue throughout the season and you might find yourself in the playing tournament at that point. Alright, guys, that is all I have for today. Here's the plan for the rest of the week. We're gonna actually take tomorrow off because we have a stacked slate on Friday and Saturday. So on Saturday morning, we're gonna break down the Friday night games. There's a bunch of big ones there, and then Saturday night is Celtics

Worriers rematch the NBA Finals. So Sunday morning, we're just gonna do a short instant reaction video to that game as well. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys support and I will see you on Saturday morning. The volume