Hoops Tonight - Celtics Win Battle vs. Knicks + Lakers vs. Thunder Round 2

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Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG dot co slash b ball. All right, welcome to him tonight here at the volume heavy Wednesday. Everybody up, all of you guys are having a great week. Got a quick show for you today. We're just hitting two games from

last night, Slate two of the top contender. Two games worth of the top contenders in the league facing off with each other. Our early season top two teams in the East between the Celtics and the Knicks didn't work out that way, but the Knicks got a chance again to try to reverse the embarrassing trends that they've had against the Celtics, and they did have their most competitive game of the season against Boston, but ultimately ended up losing on a pick and pop three by Christops Porzingis.

Lots of interesting stuff in that game, though, and one potential little upside for the Knicks in a potential playoff matchup with the Celtics. And then in the second half of the show, we got Round two of Lakers Thunder, a very predictable shift and effort from both teams, but I thought it manifested in some super interesting ways and it ended up leaving that game even more convinced that the Lakers have a good chance to potentially upset the Thunder in a playoff series. So lots to get into

in those two games. And then don't forget, we're coming back tonight after the final buzzer of Mavericks Lakers a good opportunity for us to see a good old fashioned revenge game with Anthony Davis and Luke on some different teams. I think we'll get to see Lebron and Anthony Davis guard each other tonight. That should be fun. Luca is either going to just go absolutely ape shit or he's going to be terrible. I'll be curious to see which one he ends up being because it's just such a

weird environment. But don't forget we've got that coming up on YouTube later tonight. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Following me on Twitter at underscore JCNLTS. You guys don't misshow announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if we

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with Colon Recher question in there. We'll get to it in our weekly mail bags throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Knicks had by far their most competitive game of the season versus the Celtics, but obviously they end up losing. Pick and pop three from chrisps porzingis kind of like a just a repeated theme in that game. Porzingis getting good, clean

looks above the break. But I want to start with the Knicks for a second and talk about specifically how the Knicks managed to keep things more competitive this time around. This is a matchup where the Knicks have looked They've looked like they've not been in the same class as Boston in the matchups they've had earlier this season. And I thought the two things that shifted that back towards the knicks favor were one, it was their sharpest defensive

discipline game Boston. They weren't really doing anything different per se, still trying their best not to switch with Brunson in towns and staying attached, but they just did a better job, better ball pressure, better staying attached to those screening actions, better rotating, just making Boston a little bit more uncomfortable.

And by the way, I don't think it was a coincidence that this was their best defensive game against Boston because it comes right after the best defensive stretch that Boston excuse me, that the Knicks have had this season

with Jalen Brunson out. As we talked about the other day, they've been top ten, top ten in defense, top ten and defensive rebounding, so two categories that they've been And they've been awesome at forcing turnovers, getting out in transition, forcing more turnovers than they did at any other point in the season, scoring a ton of points per game

in transitions. So just being more of a we're gonna be sharp on the margins type of team instead of leaning on their offense like they did for the majority of this season. I there were a lot of interesting quotes that came out from players and coaches yesterday, but

I don't know if you guys heard Devin Booker. After they got their butts kicked by the Golden State Warriors, Devin Booker talked about, you know, someone asked him what went wrong for the Suns this season, and he said, they never had winning habits and this is a concept I've talked about so much on the show, this idea that your habits are what carry you in these situations.

You're even if you know what you're supposed to do, Like even if you know like, Okay, here's what I do and I'm the low man, these are the reads that I'm looking to make. These are the rotations that I make in these situations. Even if you understand how to play defense, you've got to there is such a thing as defensive rhythm, just like there is offensive rhythm.

When you're in a good stretch where you've been defending really well for a while, you build up these habits to where all those things that I said you would understand by knowing your job actually come to fruition by

you executing those things every single possession. If you could know all those things, but if you don't play back basketball for a couple of weeks, or if you play bad basketball for a couple of weeks, you could enter into a more high leverage situation, and even though you know what you're supposed to do, you're just not in a rhythm defensively to where you're doing those things consistently.

You've got to build defensive rhythm. You have to build defensive habits, and I don't think it's a coincidence that the Knicks were more competitive with Boston in this game after a stretch of time where they built out some winning habits that didn't exist in the earlier part of the season. Another just random quote from yesterday that I wanted to shout out Mark Dagenal before the Lakers Thunder

second game. He was asked about the Lakers shooting in the Sunday game, and basically he just went up there and I was like, literally just in front of my TV just clapping because he was just saying all the stuff that I've been saying on the show NonStop, which is that shot result is connected to the way you play.

And he was pointing out to the press, the guys that were trying to the the you know, the reporters just trying to get him to say something along the lines of like, oh, yeah, well, you know, we know the shots will even out tonight, But that's not what Mark said. Mark was like, yeah, they shot well, but we also allowed them to get great shots, We allowed them to be comfortable. They played better basketball than us. He literally said, they outplayed us the majority of the night.

That's the thing I've been saying this so much. You can't flip shot quality unless you change the way that you're playing. There's all sorts of interesting quotes going around the NBA yesterday, But second piece that kept the Knicks close to Boston yesterday, I thought they found a semi reliable way to attack Boston's defense. And this was Carl Anthony Towns in the post against Boston's guards and forwards.

Did a lot of really great work down there, bullying guys right to the front of the rim, drawing second defenders, and making kickout passes. He ran ten post ups in the game, and the Knicks had a one to thirty offensive rating in those possessions. Here's why that matters for the Knicks. There are certain things from tonight that don't

translate to a series. Like Jalen Brown is banged up and was on a minute's restriction right so with him out and al Horford out in crunch time, the Celtics had to close with Peyton Pritchard or Luke Cornett, and the Knicks really went out those two guys in the fourth quarter stretch. In the fourth quarter stretch when the Knicks built that three point lead before Tatum tied it.

Jalen Brunson in a left shoulder fade over Peyton Pritchard, Ognanovi Ojnnob got an easy offensive rebound put back over Peyton Pritchard right underneath the basket. Then Joe Mizula tweaks, goes, Okay, we're having some trouble with Prichard getting attacked for a lack of size, so he goes with Luke Cornett instead.

Then Jalen Brunson just a meetate edately puts Luke Cornett in the ball screen, draws a blitz two on the ball out like thirty feet from the basket, throws a nice little bounce pass to Josh Hart in the middle of the floor. He hits a little floater that puts him back up by three. So, like a lot of the crunch time attack for the Knicks was stuff that won't necessarily translate to a playoff series, right, But the

Karl Anthony Towns post up stuff. I do think that's a real entry point for them that they can use in a playoff series to generate some more reliable half court offense in this matchup against Boston. But Ultimately, none of it mattered because Tatum carried the Celtics through that fourth quarter, and then the Celtics were able to generate awesome shots in overtime, attacking Karl Anthony Towns and screening actions,

and they ended up getting a win. Tatum had a remarkable shot making stretch in that fourth quarter, just over and over and over again, taking these tough, contested mid range jump shots in isolation situations right in the middle of the floor, just kept hitting shot after shot after and then capped it off with a nasty step back three above the break on the right side of the floor to tie the game and send it to overtime. And I talked about this in the mail bag yesterday.

It's just because Tatum has been cold for a while, and Tatum has for a while before last night, he had been cold as a shot maker, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be cold in the postseason. What I said was, it's a potential variable, right if Tatum goes into the postseason and is elite as a shot maker, it dramatically improves Boston's chances of winning. If he goes in and he shoots poorly, Obviously, it hurts them because the Celtics are going to face stiffer competition

this time around in the postseason. But I thought it was interesting because, like I talked about it, like the difference between Jason Tatum being the Apex guy that he can be, the guy that is in the conversation with Shay Gildas Alexander and Giannis Antennacumbo, and the Tatum that's more in that second tier with the guys that are in that you know, six to ten range in the league.

That all comes down to Tatums jump shooting. Like if he's not making shots, he's very versatile and does so many useful things that he's still one of these superstars in the league. But to be one of the top tier Apex superstars, he's got to have a shot making going. And I mean, you saw that in that game in that fourth quarter as he basically dragged the Celtics into an overtime period, and then in that overtime period, the Celtics just had really good options attacking Karl Anthony Towns.

Ive got some good looks attacking Karl Anthony Towns in regulation too. It's worth mentioning like the three point shot that Jason Tatum drew the foul that Jason Tatum drew on the left side of the floor right before the end of the of regulation. That was a play where they decided to switch with Carl Anthony Towns. There was more switching that New York tried with him down the stretch and it didn't work. They switched him on to Tatum. Tatum drew a foul, they switched him on to Derek

White in an off ball screen. Then they just ran him through another screen with Tatum and Kat lingered too long on on Tatum. Derek White got a wide open three above the break on the left wing that he just left a little bit short. So the switching wasn't really working. And then they went back to their you know, kind of like high drop looks, and then it was just okay, we can go to Porzingis whenever we want. Porzingis got an easy roll to the rim on one

of those. Porzingis got a pick and pop that ended up being the game winner out of one of those. They just got a great look every single time that they put Karl Anthony Towns in the action, and so as a result, the shots came easier for the Celtics and they were able to get the win. And again like that that pick and pop. That's the problem when you can't switch against a pick and pop center. If you switch, now you got to ask Kat to guard

on the ball against Jason Tatum. It's just a disaster right if you and even on the other side of the switcher leaving a smaller player on porzingis and then if you linger, if you run that high drop and recover.

Look in the Knicks tried to peel off like One of the things that the Knicks did, I thought that was an interesting strategic piece is a lot of times in a pick and pop they'll have the center rotate back, so like Cat will show on the ball and then when the kickback pass goes, Cat will sprint or the center, whoever the center is, will sprint. To offer that contest.

One of the things the Knicks were doing is they were just having the guard peel off, so it's not really a switch because he's staying attached to the ball until the passes made. But once the pass is made, they're allowing the quicker footed player the guard to actually sprint back. In contest, they did a bunch of Ojan Andobi, and then they did it with Jalen Brunson on what ended up being the game winner. But Jalen Brunson that like, do you think Porzingis is gonna even see that hand?

With how tall he is compared to Jalen Brunson, It is just an easy shot over the top that ended up winning the game. Porzingis was an amazing all game hit some pick and pop threes, but a lot of his damage came just basic above the break spacing. This is a classic thing that the Celtics do to cause problems

for teams in help side situations. Against the Celtics, they'll situate their guards in the dunker spot and corners, and then they'll situate their wings above the or excuse me, their centers above the break, and that just puts you into these weird situations where the bigs want to help. But in those situations, if they help, it's just too long of a closeout going out to that above the

break line. And if they don't help, now, all the backside helpers are smaller players, because the guys that you have spacing in those situations are smaller players, and so cat a lot of times it was just getting caught right around the elbow, just kind of hanging out and help, whether it be guarding an off ball action or just kind of sitting in a in the help traditional kind of nail help type of position, and it was just swing passes out to the wing and chrisopsworzingis just banging

these twenty seven foot threes and like they were good looks. He hit over and over and over again in that third quarter. He was unbelievable. He also hit like a forty footer in this situation where there was a fumbled ball that ended up in his hands with like seven seconds on the shot clock, caught it like forty feet from the backs it and just let it fly and put it in. He had thirty four points. He was incredible.

It's just a really tough matchup for the Knicks. The Celtics are built to handle just about everything that the Knicks do on both ends of the floor, and so it's really hard for me to see a pathway for the Knicks to make a real series of this when they see each other in the second round. Moving on to Lakers Thunder Round two, as we could all expect, there was a predictable shift in effort for both teams.

The Thunder got embarrassed, so they came out with a much higher level of intensity, and the Lakers, I thought, completely let go of the rope with their game plan discipline two main areas competing on the ball defensively and being sloppy with the basketball on offense. But the way it manifested in the first half was actually super interesting to me. There were some predictable things that happened. As I said a bunch of times this week, what would

it look like when the Thunder controlled this matchup? I said, it would manifest as a lot of defensive to transition sequences and the Lakers not being able to contain the ball as they lose control of the momentum of the game. And that is what happened to them in that first In that first half, they allowed twenty points off of turnovers. In the first half, they allowed a million points in the paint as they just got bludgeoned at the basket.

And when that stuff happened, it just kind of snowballed for them, and as a result, the Thunder just tore them apart for eighty points in that first half. To give you an idea. They scored ninety nine total in the first game, So the way that the Thunder successful stretches in this matchup will look like kind of looked exactly what you saw in that first half. Lots of defense to transition, lots of stuff in the paint as they're just driving through and around Lakers players. So we

got a good look at that. But there were two unexpected things that happened in this game that I think boded very well for the Lakers in this matchup. First, no matter how hard Oklahoma City competed in that first half, they could not stop the Lakers from generating completely unguarded three point shots. Even with the turnovers, the Lakers hung another seventy two points on the Thunder in that first half.

I've talked a lot about OKC and the way they load up on the ball to try to force turnovers and pack the paint, and how if you can just not turn the ball over there are opportunities to generate wide open threes against this team. It's been one of the reasons why I like this matchup for the Lakers against the Thunder. Lebron and Luca are two of the best in the history of the league at getting the ball across the court over the top of help defense

and creating those open shots on the weak side. And so ultimately Lebron and Luca are super comfortable in this matchup because they can get size mismatches or with Luca, mismatches against foot speed, getting their bigs in space. Lebron and Luca are always comfortable. Because they're always comfortable they can take advantage of some of the openings in Okase's defense, attacking mismatches in the middle of the floor or getting the ball across the court overhelp side. They just can

continue to generate great shots. And then as long as Austin Reeves has slotted properly against some of the lesser defenders for Okase, Austin's really comfortable in this matchup as

well and has been cooking the Thunder. I thought it was interesting that in that fourth quarter stretch when Luca got ejected and then JJ stuck with his normal rotation and subbed Lebron out of the game, when Austin was the featured person against the top players for the Thunder, he had some struggles, but in the organic way that this series would go out with Austin only having to lead bench groups alongside Lebron James, I think this Laker

offense is going to consistently be comfortable in this matchup. There was a brief stretch on the second quarter where the Thunder did some damage to Lebron, but then Lebron woke up and he was awesome the rest of the way and looked comfortable. And so the first thing that I think is really interesting for the Lakers in this matchup after that second game is I feel pretty sure, pretty sure that the Lakers are going to be comfortable on offense in a matchup against this Thunder defense, which

is the very best defense in the league. The second thing that happened the Lakers were able to shut the Thunder offense down again in the second half. They came out after that first half where they let go of the rope and their game plan discipline, and in sixteen minutes in the second half up until the point where Luca got ejected, the Lakers held the Thunder to just twenty seven points sixteen minutes of game clock while scoring thirty six points of their own to take a one

point lead with all of the momentum. And then Lucas started talking shit to a fan court side, got himself ejected. From there, like I talked about, it got really weird. The Lakers stuck with their normal rotation, so they subbed Lebron out like right after that, and so we had this weird Lakers lineup in the middle of the fourth quarter. I had three starters missing Lebron, Luca, and Rui all off the floor, and the Thunder starters just ran that

group and they ended up putting the game away. But in that stretch, in that second half, I thought the Lakers demonstrated that they were able to regain control of the situation with their defense against the Thunder, And so from there, like I left that two game set feeling like these were the two best teams in the Western Conference. But I also think the Lakers have a real chance to knock this team off if they faced each other

in the series. I it's to me, it's like a fifty to fifty kind of coin flip between which of these two teams would win. I mean, it's a two game set here. Obviously the Thunder don't have as much to play for, but there's no doubt that in this two game stretch that the Lakers demonstrated more examples of being able to slow down and make the thunders offense uncomfortable than the opposite, than the Thunder being able to make the Lakers offense uncomfortable, and so like that to me,

I thought was encouraging for the Lakers and their chances. Now, for the record, I'm doing a bunch of contender stuff soon. I'm recording with the Nerds right after this, So make sure you go over to the Nerd sash page later this afternoon so you guys can see that episode there. We're gonna be going over our top ten contenders. I'm having Sam Vessini on next week on our show to

go over a similar type of list. I've decided this morning that I'm gonna keep OKAC above the Lakers on the contenders list, mainly because I think they're far more resilient matchup to match up in the Western Conference. Another way of putting it is to say, I think it's more likely that the Lakers lose before OKCE the than OKC getting upset before they face the Lakers, even though I think they're both the best teams in the Western Conference, and even though I think if they faced in a series.

I'd call it roughly a coin flip. Oka See, I think is more equipped to handle all the different types of teams in the Western Conference. So I'm going to have OKC above the Lakers in my contender's list. But I think the Lakers pretty clearly showed that they have some advantages in this matchup. Now, on the refs for a minute. Let's take Luca's element to this and set it aside for a second, because I think there's a conversation to be had about Luca's relationship with refs. Why

do we have refs at basketball games? Like, why are they there at all? They're there to facilitate the flow of basketball games. That's it. I heard these comments from Marked Degenel after the game, a rare Marked Degenal comment that I don't necessarily agree with. And he talked about how a while back he got a TECH from JT, or the official who ejected Luca. He got a TECH from Jtor for what he said was a mild comment. Okay,

so he's Mark's freely admitting upfront that Jtor was being ridiculous. Okay. After that, Mark said that he appreciated that JT held the line on the respect for the game, the integrity of the game, something about the respect for the game. And while I agree with Mark because he said he went on to say that like at a certain point, you got to set a line, and if someone crosses that line, you got to be consistent about it. And

I agree with that. There's a certain line. Like if Luca had gone up to jt Or in that situation and got in his face and started being really boisterous and demonstrative in his face after he already had a tech earlier in the game, I would have found it to be a defensible ejection. You do have to have a line. There is a decorum element to this, There

is a respect to the game element. However, if you are going to eject Luka Doncic from a one point game in a very important game for the Lakers on the seating front and kind of important for the Thunder in terms of their mental confidence in this matchup and us potentially getting to see seven minutes of crunch time basketball between the two best teams in the Western Conference in a game that I mean, it was a league pass game that a lot of eyes were on it.

If you're gonna eject Luca there, you better be damn sure that whatever it is that you're upset about, he did. And Luca had been talking trash to a fan, was clearly talking trash to a fan, was backpedaling away and walking up the court and just looked back and said something towards the fan. Jt Or happened to be standing there. He got sensitive, he got worked up. He kicked Luca out of the game, And that really is the thing, Like, you have to understand that if we could have it

our way, you wouldn't even be there. Officials. You're there because we have to have you there to facilitate the flow of these games. But you are not the You are not the show. Go ref some YMCA game and see how many people pay to show up and watch you ref. You are not the show. The show is the players. All of us wanted to see what happened in that game. I would have preferred to get to also get some crunch time sampled data from this matchup. We didn't get that because jt Or got sensitive over

a comment that wasn't even directed towards him. And that is an issue I've seen time and time again from NBA officials ego thinking it's about them not being able to handle the emotion of the environment. Basketball is an emotional sport. Trash talk is a part of the game, especially between fans and players. Yes, there are certain decorum elements you've got to watch. Like I thought, the Vando tech was perfectly fine. You can't let guys block each other and then run up on each other and get

in each other's faces. You have to stop that because you'll end up getting guys punched in the face, like it will end up in physical altercation. So there are certain things that you have to step up on with trash talk. But fans sit courtside and talk shit all game long. Players talk back to them all the time. Yes, there are times when players and refs get into it, and a ref has to have a line in terms of the way that he's being spoken to. But like you've got to have a read for the emotion of

the environment. That's an intense game. The Lakers needed it. Luca was fired up. He just got another bucket torching Hartenstein on a switch. He was talking shit. He was having his moment in the emotion of the game, and jt Or got sensitive and couldn't handle it, and there's just way too much of that in the NBA that needs to be resolved now looking at Luca, as I said, it is a league wide problem with refs having ego and not being able to manage their emotions in these

intense competitive environments. So one of the most important things that you have to learn how to do as a basketball player is manage your relationships with the ref. If we all agree that they can get sensitive, if we all agree that they have an ego, then you can't sit there and berate him all game long from a distance, towing that line, towing the tech line, talking shit, but keeping your distance and finding a way to not necessarily

get yourself thrown out, but you're still antagonizing it. There was I saw someone say something on Twitter that jt Or during the game had said to Lakers players, anyone can talk to me but Luca. Why did he say that, Luca? He said that because you talked a bunch of shit to him throughout the entire game and he's sensitive about it.

So like, at a certain point, yeah, I believe you, Luca, that you were talking shit to the fan, but you put yourself in a position with the way you managed your relationship with JT or that he was a quick trigger to eject you and he did not give you the benefit of the doubt. As far as I've seen, Lucas never argued his way into getting a better whistle.

He gets the calls when he gets fouled, he doesn't when he doesn't, and when he bitches and moans, it actually makes the refs less willing to give him the calls that he wants. So a big part of his development in the next few years is going to be

learning how to manage his relationships with refs. We could be in a big playoff series series tied at two, big game fourth quarter, and if Luke is talking a bunch of shit to the refs, he could put be in another situation where one is a little sensitive on the verge of kind of losing control of his emotions, and you could cross the line and end up in a situation where you're not available to your team. That is the bottom line. The bottom line is regardless of

what the circumstances were. Your team had to try to beat the thunder last night without Luka Doncic when they were already without Rui and because of the back to back. JJ wasn't about to push Lebron's minutes. You ultimately put your team in a compromising position and it led to a loss. So control what you can control, Luca. You can't control JT or sensitivity. You can't control the sensitivity

of many of these refs around the league. You can control the way that you manage your relationship with refs over the course of games. That's all I got for to this morning, guys. Is always as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show again. We will be back live on YouTube. We are skipping the late game because the Sacramento Kings and Nuggets are both dumpster fires right now, but we are going to sex.

I should give them more credits. The Kings are playing well, DeMar de Rozen and Zach Lavine are lighting people up. But we're going to be going after the MAVs Lakers game tonight live on YouTube. I will see you guys though, So guys, as always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a

minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it. The volume