Hoops Tonight - De'Aaron Fox & Kings take down Warriors, Jalen Brunson leads Knicks over Cavaliers | Hoops Tonight

that I'm very, very excited about. But so I apologize that you guys had to wait a little bit longer. But I'm recording after two thirty am here in Vancouver so that our staff can get it up for you guys bright and early tomorrow morning. We're just gonna focus

on Warriors Kings tonight and Nicks Caves. The Celtics and Sixers also notched very impressive wins, but just for the sake of the situation that I just laid out, we're gonna hit them a little bit later on in this week, so you guys know the drill before we get started. To 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 if for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So it's so funny when you start watching a playoff series, you could start to see these little matchup things start to play out, and you can tell

that's gonna be the story of the series. And it's clear to me already through one game that the story of the series on the Warrior side of things is going to be can they contain Dear and Fox and Malik monk Off? The dribble was the vast majority of their defensive breakdowns tonight was just dribble penetration, and that's going to be a battle that they're going to have

to figure out. And then on the other side of things, on the King side, where they particularly struggled, they defended the three point line really well, and they forced the Warriors into a lot of tough shots. There was some impressive shot making from Stephan Clay and we'll get a little bit deeper into that, but they didn't defend the rim well. As a matter of fact, the Warriors shot

sixty eight percent on twos in this game. So if the Warriors adjust their shot selection and start to play more Warriors basketball and get more aggressive to try to generate rim pressure, they could be in some problem, in some trouble. So those are going to be the two

major matchups that we're going to be looking at. Looking at the perimeter defense element, we talked about this a lot on this show, but I look at perimeter defense like the offensive line defensive line dynamic in the NFL, that push and pull ends up kind of going on underneath the radar a lot of the times because we focus on skill players. It's just the natural inclination we have as fans to focus on the more exciting things

that are happening. But the reality is is whether or not you, you know, get a good push up front when you're trying to run the ball is going to make a lot bigger difference than anything involving the running back correct and whether or not you can protect the quarterback usually is going to go a long way towards giving your quarterback time to make reads and make the right reads and move the ball down the field through the air right. So you just absolutely have to have

quality line play. And the same concept takes place in basketball. I don't care how well you communicate, I don't care how well you rotate. I don't care how athletic you are. If you're constantly in rotation, you will severely struggle to get stops as opposed to if you can flatten out drives and force guys to you know, it kind of goes even further to the way that your help defenders operate.

If your help defender can just kind of sort of dig at the basketball but stay with his man as opposed to having the outright leave his man to hard help, that is makes a world of difference to you know, whether or not got in passing lanes, whether or not you can force turnovers as opposed to a wide open shooter standing on the perimeter. That push pull dynamic of perimeter defense means everything. Now, the encouraging part from the Warriors standpoint is, I do think they have the personnel

to do so. Some of their problems they had down the stretch of this game was you know, getting beat and transition and leading to cross matches, or they spend a good amount of the time with Klay Thompson on Deer and Fox at the end of that game. I'm not sure if that's a matchup they'll be able to

stick with through the whole series. They might have to try to keep Gary Payton on the floor longer, or you know, but here's the problem, Like even Andrew Wiggins was struggling a bit with containing Maleak monk Off the dribble, so you know, and again like obviously he hasn't played a lot lately, so conditioning can play a role in that. Defensive rhythm can play a role in that. But it

is what it is. And by the time this series is over, if the Warriors are going to advance, they're eventually going to have to figure out how to contain Deer and Fox and Malik monk Off the dribble. This is a consistent kind of like theme that you see

in the NBA playoffs. We're going to talk about it a little bit more with the Nixon Cavs here in a minute, involving Cheddy Ousman and their decision to play him over Isaac Cacorro down the stretch, and the way that opened up a matchup for Jalen Brunson to attack. They were attacking Clay at the end of this game. Now, I want to give Clay the benefit of the doubt.

This is a one game sample, and we can even look back to the NBA Finals last year, and if you watch the film of the first three games of that series versus the last three games of that series, and you look at the difference in the way that guys like Klay Thompson were defending guys like Andrew Wiggins, guys like Gary Payton, and then you look at the second half of that series and how they just locked

everybody down. One of the most underrated plot lines of that NBA Finals series was Klay Thompson locked down Jaln Brown down the stretch of that series. And so that battle is something that can win in the long run. They just have to do a better job. It's less about schematics. I mean, maybe Steve Kerr has to get involved if you get deeper into this series and consistent matchups are getting beat But a lot of times it's just do better. You know, Clay's got to slide his

feet better. Guy's got to get back and transition better on the offensive end for the Warriors, you know, and I want to credit the King is a great deal here because again, when you are in a drop coverage, which is the vast majority of what you're going to see in situations where Sabonis is involved in a screening action, right and it's technically not a drop coverage because he's coming up high out of his drop, but the semantics are unimportant. Whoever's guarding the screen or whether he's up

at the level of the screen or he's back. Sabonis is just not bothering a lot as as shooters are coming up over the top. You saw Steph Curry hit a few shots in his face as he was coming over the drop coverage in the fourth quarter. But the guard has a very important job there. His job is to provide what's called a rear view contest, or to provide back pressure, whatever you want to call it. He's

got to chase over the top. And there was a little stretch there in that fourth quarter where Stephan Clay got obscenely hot and they made some incredibly difficult shots. I think the three that Steph him hit in the corner on that like one timer catch and release from behind the backboard that was ridiculous. There was that crazy step back he hit on deer and Fox with like a minute and a half left that got it back

within one. That was ridiculous. They hit some tough shots, Klay Thompson hit a couple of tough ones, but surrounding that were some ones that they missed. And again this is where you have to separate process from results. I'll give you an example. Towards the end of the game,

there was a play where Andrew Wiggins with one. It was that final possession with like twenty something seconds left, Warriors are down one, and the Warriors actually get downhill and create triple penetration, get a paint touch, and they kick to Andrew Wiggins in the weak side corner and he misses the shot. And I get it, like Steph Curry's hot, You're thinking, get the ball to Steph. But

that's a great shot for a good shooter, right. Whereas even the ones that Stephan Clay were making in that fourth quarter, if you asked them, they'd probably say, you know, those are tougher shots in our shot diet shots that were capable of making, but ideally we'd want to get something better. I felt like Steph and Clay were playing a little bit of home run ball there in that fourth quarter, and again like that's where you have to

separate process and results. They made a few of those, but then they kept trying to do that and it wasn't working right and there was no rhythm in flow on their offense. And then they did finally generate a wide open shot for Wiggins and he missed it. So I do believe that over the course of the series, the pathway to victory for the Warriors is figuring out how to contain the basketball on the defensive end of the floor and then improving their offensive process. Don't play

home run ball. The Kings are defending the three point line really well. The pain opportunities are there. They can't protect the rim. That's your opportunity to attack finish at the rim when you have the opportunity to and generate higher quality three point shots on the perimeter that are off the catch or your stand still facing the rim, either wide open or a close out coming that you can attack right like shot quality is going to bear out over a seven game series. In a one game

sample size, anything can happen. There was a really tough shot that Harrison Barnes hit down the stretch of that game, like a poundryable step back, pull up three, really tough shot tip the cap. One game sample that like that can happen. But if you don't solve the shot the shot quality dynamic, then over seven games, that's not going

to work out in your favor. I just rewatched I've watched the fourth quarter of King's Warriors at a at a bar in Los Angele, at an airport bar in Los Angeles while we were waiting for our flight, and I rewatched it just now and just kind of looked at all the offensive possessions there in that fourth quarter, and like, look at the King shots, Like there's there were a couple tough ones in there, right, Like the Harrison Barnes one was tough. That there was a step

back from darreon Fox over Draymond Green. That was tough. But outside of that, it's a lot of like darreon Fox getting tons of separation into a floater, getting all the way the ram, trying to dunk on people Malik Monk getting into the lane and drawing fouls and get into the rim and transition just beaten guys off the dribble and getting incredibly high quality shots. The two threes that Darren Fox hitt in the fourth quarter, Like, yeah, he's not the same type of shooter as Steph Curry,

but he's pretty damn open. Those are good looks for a guy who's having a really good shooting season and has been one of the best players in the league this year. So again, like the series won't flip until they flip the shot quality dynamic. From the standpoint of the Kings, I was just generally impressed with thereff. We talked in our series preview about how they might need to balance out the dynamic of shot creation versus defensive personnel. We saw a lot of Davion Mitchell in this game.

He did a really nice job defending Jordan Poole. That's gonna be a dynamic they're going to have to continue to figure out over the course of the series, especially since Malik Monk in particular can run a little bit hot and cold, and there's no guarantee that he'll continue to shoot that well throughout the series a lot of good. If you're a Kings fan, your guards seem to be defending well. Sabonus didn't play very well. You have to think that he's gonna play better over the course of

the series. Malik Monk and his game translating to the playoffs, lots and lots of good and a lot to be excited about. If you're a Kings fan. That said, you know the Warriors have a championship pedigree. I do believe that they can improve some process things that will help them, particularly on the offensive end of the floor, and then

on the defensive end of the floor. Look like we were looking after Game three against Boston, like they can't guard these guys, and then you know what, suddenly they guarded those guys. And I talked a lot about this before, but when you stand eye to eye with a ball handler and he starts to make moves on you, it might work one time, it might work ten times. Once it gets up to twenty thirty, forty times, you've seen that same dribral combination, you've seen that same move, you've

seen that same body language. You start to solve the offensive player. And that's where, over the course of a series, like, only the truly great players continue to create advantages and you hope that that starts to swing in your favor in the long run. But big time win for the Kings.

Warriors are still in this That was an incredibly exciting first game of that series, and I think we all figured that that would be the most entertaining game in the first round, and it definitely lived up to the hype. But good start for the Kings. Warriors. Need to contain the basketball better and stop going for home runs on offense. Play some Warriors basketball. Let's move on to Knicks Calves. So when I picked the Knicks to beat the Calves, there were a couple of specific reasons that I was

looking at. One, I thought that Jalen Brunson would be able to hold up well in the matchup with Donovan Mitchell, primarily as a decision maker. Right. I thought that bared out today. Donovan Mitchell had put on it, put on a ridiculous show, just like the level of shot making there was that wild stretch in the fourth quarter was like steel buckets, steel bucket, steel bucket. Like Donovan Mitchell

is insane. But here's the problem. He can also kind of go through these extended stretches where he just tries to shoot himself out of every situation. Right, It's like just that tiny bit of Westbrook that he has in him. And I thought you saw that a little bit at the end of the third quarter when the Knicks were going on their run. And Jalen Brunson's he doesn't have the athletic ceiling that Donovan Mitchell has. He doesn't have the ability to get separation against superior athletes the way

that Donovan Mitchell does. But he's just a little bit more measured in his approach. He's much more methodical, and he's a better playmaker. And so, like I thought that would just be able to bridge that gap. And you know what, like Jalen Brunson had a little bit of a rough night in the early portions of the game. He was struggling a bit with Isaac Korro, and then he kind of picked his spots right like right there at the end of the third and then right there

at the end of the fourth quarter. He just knew his time to get involved offensively. And like again, when you spam high, pick and roll all game long the way that Donovan Mitchell does, eventually, and again, what is this? What did I say in the series preview? The Knicks guards are the strength of their defense, and so if the Knicks guards get an extra thirty forty reps guarding this same high pick and roll offense that the Calves run every single time, they're just going to figure out

how to get good contests on Donovan Mitchell. And I don't care how talented he is, those pull up contested jump shots are going to be missed more than half of the time, which means you can go through cold spells, and that's exactly what happened, especially when they needed baskets towards the end of the game. I thought one of

the most interesting matchup things in this series. I talked a lot about this in the series preview again, was can the Calves keep Isaac Corro on the floor when he's clearly their best perimeter defender but he's one of the worst spot up players in the league. I can't remember the exact number off the top of my head, but Isaac Coro is converting spot up possessions at an extremely low rate, despite the fact that he's shooting the

three ball well. Although he did not shoot the ball well in this particular game, and I said, Isaac Accorro needs to shoot in the forties from three to keep him on the floor for his defensive impact. They ended up going with Cheddy Osman instead, and Jalen Brunson just picked on him at the end of that game, getting him on switches, beating him off the dribble for easy shots. And again, that's the thing. Donovan Mitchell can make the most amazing shots in the world because he's one of

the most gifted athletes in the world. He's one of the best basketball players in the world. But he doesn't have that methodical surgeon approach that Jalen Brunson has, where he's just picking on your worst defender and getting easy shots. And that's what separates him. And that's why I believe, even though Donovan has that higher upside, that Jalen can outplay him. In this series, you saw Julius Randall just bring that different, like that versatility element that I talked

about all the time, winning the game with physicality. It's clear that as talented as Evan Mobley is, he's just a little too thin for Julius. He's struggling to contain him. In box outs, he's struggling to stop him from getting to his spots. That's not going to change over the course of the series. In fact, that might get worse, not only as Julius gets in better shape, but he's the bigger, stronger player. He's not gonna wear down the way that Evan Mobley does. You know, I said this

going into the series. The Knicks were what seventeenth in defense during the regular season. But the thing I said was, they defend the Calves well. And you know what, they defended the Calves well again tonight. I would, honestly, I would consider just going with Isaac Carro anyway, even if he's not playing well enough offensively, embrace the rock fight in general, they need to compete better physically. Like Mobiley

and Allen just got bullied on the front line. The Knicks guards bullied the Calves guards to rebounding position as well. The offensive glass was a huge factor in this game. What did I say in the preview? I said Josh Hart's winning impact would scream off of the screen. When you watch that game today, did it feel like Josh Hart's winning impact would scream off the screen? Again, It's just one game. It's a long series. The Calves were favored for a reason. They're a good team, they have

a lot of talent. They absolutely can come back and win this thing. But the concerning thing for the Calves is all of these specific matchup pieces that I saw as advantages for the Knicks going into the series have played out as advantages for the Knicks early in the series. They have to find a way to flip that on their head at find some diversity offensively, mix things up, don't attack the same exact way every single time. You have to play defensive personnel that can switch because Jalen

Brunson is going to attack you throughout the game. You have to compete more in the physicality areas of the game. They simply have to play better. I think that was probably the most disappointing thing for the Cavs is they would get some stops towards the end of the game and then here would come another offensive rebound just to suck the life out of their sales. But yeah, a

very entertaining first day. We will be going I'm not sure if we're going live or covering the games just through a video upload to YouTube that entirely depends on my Wi Fi situation when we get to Whistler tomorrow, but just keep an eye on my Twitter feed at underscore json LT. That's where I'll kind of post show announcements to keep you guys posted as to how everything's going. I apologize again for the delay on this video, but hey,

it's a happy birthday President to my wife. I appreciate you guys, and I will see you the volume