Hoops Tonight - Film Breakdown: Lakers Attacking Gobert + How the Pacers Attacked the Bucks

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series after they upped their intensity. It's just easier to tell when the team kind of meets the moment a little bit and you can start to see the real problems that both teams have on both sides of the floor. Lots of interesting stuff to get into, and Lakers Wolves will lead off there. You guys know the joll before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops and Not YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore JCNLT so you guys

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of the playoffs. All right, let's talk some basketball. So let's get I was trying to decide whether or not I wanted to work through just Minnesota's offense or work through the game, and I decided to work through the game. But I did have a specific focus on Minnesota on offense,

and I have a bunch of specific examples. I'll show you guys on stuff that I think works well, and then different problems that they'll be contending with, and then I'll kind of like summarize my thoughts when we get towards the end.

an example of where it worked for Julius. So the big thing that I noticed with Julius Randall on his drives is they tended to work best when he was in specific spacing situations where he was driving into shooting. So for example, in this specific clip, we're going to set up with Randall against Ruey. But notice we have a very good shooter in the strong side corner in Mike Conley. There was an early screen in the possession.

If you guys look back here, believe a Lebron screen right here boom with Ruey with Rudy that ended up getting Jackson Hayes onto Mike Conley. So that pulls Jackson Hayes away from the Rudy Gobert assignment so that he's not parked right underneath the rim. And so now if you look at the setup, have they run this little

interchange here a couple times? But if you look at the setup, we have Ruy guarding Julius, but we have Jackson removed from the paint, contending with the shooter in the strong side corner, and Lebron's worried about Rudy on a box out and so that actually gives Julius the space to not have to worry about this guy digging down from the corner and a shorter player at the rim in Lebron, plenty of room for Rudy to get it Ruy for Julius to get in there and get

a bucket. I thought the Lakers brought a much much better level of intensity right out the gates in this game. Look at the difference in defensive competitiveness from Austin here.

Austin Reeves. Now look at the difference in the spacing here. As you can see, this is Jaden McDaniels in the corner as opposed to a more knockdown shooter. And so look at who's more willing to help Luca Lucas in the paint. This is a shot that they're more willing to give up, but very nice kickout pass from aunt Jaden just missed the shot. And again is a guy that can knock down shots, as we know, but he's not the guy that's gonna go three for three every

single night. He went three for three in Game one struggle to knock down the threes. In Game two, I liked this attack from Luca against Jadan McDaniels off of the right wing, and this is an example of the spacing concept that I talked about before the series. The Lakers are in their five out group right, so Jackson Hayes is off the floor, Dorian Finney Smith is in

the game. When I talked earlier in the series about Rudy having to make decisions, I should say before the series, I talked about Rudy having to make decisions about whether or not to help at the rim or to stay.

So there was a stat flying around last night that the Lakers were five for twelve against Rudy in ISO so far through the first two games, which paints it in the light that it's like, Okay, that's below forty two percent.

actually really good in a series like this. Now, in a regular season, not necessarily, but then when you start factoring in passes. I'll show you guys examples when we get to the tail end of the film session. But Luca also in the second half started drawing additional help on his ISOs against Rudy. Any Gen rated a couple of wide open threes on kickouts from those Rudy ISOs. So like specifically Luca attacking Rudy and ISO, that one point zero seven points per possession number I quoted. That

also includes Austin and Lebron's ISOs against Rudy. Now, Austin did get two buckets against Rudy and ISO last night, so that influences those numbers a little bit. But if you take all of the Lebron and Austin ISOs out against Rudy, the efficient efficiency goes up even higher. So I actually I did not feel this way before the series.

I've been impressed by Luca. Luca's work against Rudy, specifically in ISO, is actually a very worthwhile play type for the Lakers to keep her scoring, keep attacking throughout the series. It's just the Lebron and Austin ISOs that I think are really difficult, and even Austin's bucket against Rudy that he had in the second half. He had like it was like an insane step through a move that like he just flipped up this crazy spinning finish off the glass.

Like it was extremely highly difficult shot. So like I like specifically Luca attacking Rudy and ISOs just about anybody else, it gets really tricky. We did get to see Luca attacking Jaden McDaniels in the post a couple times in this game, and this is a time where it worked out really well for them getting a quality shot. There was one in the second half Whereluca's spacing was poor, but as you can see, he draws multiple defenders, drops

it off to Dorian swing swing. We get a good look for Austin out of that post up for Luca.

One of the things that I talked about a little bit last night was that it was less about any sort of schematic adjustment for the Lakers, although they were more attentive to Minnesota's better shooters over the course of the game, which was definitely a little bit of a game plan adjustment, but most of it was just like what JJ said in the third end of the third quarter interview in game one, which is not about schematics,

it's about intensity. The Lakers were more or less running the exact same scheme on most of these Anthony Edwards possessions. As you can see, they're funneling him towards the sideline. They have this guy effectively in a strong side zone, ignoring and sliding over in help, and they're pinching off the corner, and so Ant is actually contending with three defenders on basically every single one of these drives, the guy at the point of the attack, the guy pinching down,

and the guy in help. And as you can see, Aunt actually makes the right read here trying to kick to McDaniels. The pass just gets deflected. But look at the difference in intensity. Look at how much more aggressive they are on the ball with those hands to get those deflections. It was the same exact scheme. It just worked more effectively because the Lakers played with the appropriate

force and intensity and discipline. I've really liked the work that Ant's done off the catch in this series, and this is one of the main things that I'm looking at as an opportunity for the Wolves to improve on offense, especially off of Julius post ups. So like when they give the ball to Julius, they start pinching down. As you can see like Dorian finney Smith here. This creates easy kind of like King of the Court style, quick catching ISO opportunities, quick catch and attack off the dribble

opportunities for Aunt. Here's an example off the catch, he's able to with the close out, get Dorian Phinneysmith out of position with a pump fake and get himself a really clean look from three. That's something I would explore more is just on those Julius post ups, set up ant one pass away and just get him some easy opportunities to attack closeouts. There were about three, two from Julius Randall one from nasried early shot clock pull up threes against the Lakers. This is just a bad shot.

There's sixteen on the shot clock when he takes that. There's nobody in to get on the offensive glass. And the biggest thing here is if you take that shot, you're making it so that the Lakers don't have to contend with your physicality at all. On drives, you are literally bailing the Lakers out. I'm not saying you don't take that shot. I'm just saying take that shot. Later in the clock after you've made some sort of attempt to get into the paint.

you're smaller. We're gonna wear you down, and by game six and game seven you won't be able to hang with us anymore. And the only way you're gonna do that is by continually inflicting yourself physically on them every single possession.

you guys the numbers I pulled earlier. Let's see here we are Ant is actually shooting just six for fifteen on layups. So far in the series, Ant's drives have only been worth zero point eighty four points. So like him trying to finish through three people every single time actually is working to the benefit of the Lakers in

their defensive scheme. He's getting some makes mixed in there, but for the most part, and again, if you actually look here, there's an open kickout read to Dante DiVincenzo in the left corner that he's missing to try to force the action through all these people. And so I'll go over. I'll show you guys examples throughout the film session.

But him taking some of these strong side corner reads that are available to keep the defense honest, being willing to throw that pass to Nakil Alexander Walker a few times per game, him being willing to make this kick out past the Dante DiVincenzo to keep the defense honest.

And then I'll show you some examples later. But when they do something to occupy one of these two defenders in some way, shape or form, like a post up while he's driving, or a box out sort of thing with Rudy Gobert, it neutralizes one of these guys and it makes it so Aunt only has to go through two defenders instead of three, and he has some more expense success there. You guys will see some examples of

that here coming up. This was an example of a double team of Luca that I thought actually worked pretty well, gave Vincent scores. Here he hits like a pretty deep three off of the left break. But this is a double team. Here he gets Aunt watched the double come from Nikhil Alexander Walker, just a random double that they decided to throw. This is a this is like a mix up the coverage kind of thing. Let's see if Chris Finch is actually calling it. Yep, there it is.

He watched. You can actually see Chris Finch put his hands up to his face and yell double double, double, double, double double. There comes the double. That's just mixing up the coverage. They weren't doing this at any point in the game. They're just trying to keep Luca off balance. But this actually works. If you see, Luca makes a great read. Naz Reid rotates up to the gay part

of this. Jaden McDaniels is kind of splitting the differences in center field here between Vando and Dorian Finney Smith really nice close out or really nice close out to chase Dorian off the line. Dorian drives baseline. Vando's making himself completely useless underneath the basket. I just don't Vando's got to understand. This is spacing one on one when you're a big man. As soon as the side of the floor's flips. So as soon as this ball gets

across the midline, Vandos got to relocate over here. He's got to get to the opposite dunker spot. That's just bad space. Like Vando's just playing bad offensive basketball there. But as you can see as he drives in the process, they get a force of contested three and so I do think if the wolves ended up in a position where they were unwilling to accept Rudy Gobert, Rudy Gobert ISOs or something along those lines. I do think mixing in doubles is a good option to try to keep

him off balance. This is another driving basket from Julius Randall. I want you guys to look at the spacing. Okay, so let's watch the layup first and then we'll dig in on the spacing. There's Julius left hand. Finish. Look at who is on the left side of the floor. These are the little details that matter when you're setting up the floor. It's Mike Conley, who Vanderbilt doesn't want to help off of, and it's Gabe Vincent guarding nas Reed, who he doesn't want to help off of. Watches Nos

relocates out to this corner. How Gabe follows him. He sees the drive coming and he follows nos Reid. So again, you're getting an easy layup for Julius Randall. Just by setting up the spacing, you put your weakest shooter, Jad McDaniels on his weak hand where he's not driving. So it's very difficult for Dorian Phinney Smith to help here anyway. Yes, it's a difficult pass for Julius to make, but it's very difficult for Dorrian Finney Smith to actually get over

there in time. You set it up properly so that Julius is driving into your bed shooters.

Look at how the floor is set up week at shooter is on Julius Randall's we cand that he's never going to drive to and you have Mike Conley in the corner, and so as Julius is driving, they relocate up Nikhil. Alexander Walker is another one of Minnesota's more deadly catch and shoot shooters. So notice how Gabe and Dorian Finney Smith are completely uninterested in helping on this possession,

which allows Julius to really get downhill. And if you look at Julius getting downhill, he spins here and Lebron's basically dead to rights and he's got to hack him.

Edwards there. This gives Julius plenty of space here to work in the middle of the floor. Good defense from Jordan Goodwin to force him into a tough one there. So this is why, Like this is another example of why in the Lakers base scheme it's important for Ant to function more as a passer. So we have the exact same sequence, right, we have Rudy funneling towards the sideline. We have Dorian Finney Smith pinching down off the strong side corner. We have Austin in the strong side zone.

glass and to take away the lob right. So Ant makes the skip here that forces this rotation from Goodwin, which hits Terrence Shannon up here on the wing. He has a huge runway he gets going downhill and gets a layup. But again, this is the pass. These two passes are passes that Ant's going to have to make to keep the defense honest.

in kick just by Ant making that read. This is what it looks like when Julius tries to ISO when there's not the shooting, the appropriate shooting to space the floor. So now look look at the setup here. Terrence Shannon is in the stronghand position for Julius Randalls. So this is an example of bad spacing that is easy. You

can easily mitigate this. All you need to do is have Julius hold the ball for an extra three seconds, have Terrence Shannon sprint through to where Mike Conley is, have Mike Conley come through the baseline, have Ant slide up so that he's on the wing. All of a sudden, you have Aunt and Mike Conley in these two spots. Now Julius can get to his strong hand. But because they have it set up with Terrence Shannon and Julius Randall's strong hand, Jordan Goodwin can really sit down in

that lane. See he's just ignoring it. That's in Conley's pushing him through to go to this corner. That would have been another perfect example of an opportunity for Tarance Shannon just to locate through here and for Mike Conley to cut through. As a result, Julius just drives Harden too help Ruey's able to rotate the Ant. They're not worried about Terrence. Shannon nice clothes out from Rudy from Ruey, and they end up forcing a miss. Having a Ruey and a Rudy in this series is a huge pain

in the ass for content creation. By the way, all right, let's look at this next one. This is another example of Ant just trying to force his way through three defenders on every single drive. Once again, it's a little bit different geometry because he's going to his right hand, but look on the ball pinch at the rim with Ruey like he makes that one. But this has been a low percentage play for him in this series, him trying to drive through three bodies every time to make

a layup. That one goes in. But once again, he's six for fifteen in the series, just zero point eight four points per drive. That's including fouls. By the way, I didn't include the pump fakes in this film session for timesake, but this is an example of a shot that Ruey can get.

over tall closeouts. Here's an example of what happens when you take away one of the helpers on an ant drive. So watch the way that Rudy on this drive engages Luca's body. Boom with the seal because he engages Luca's body. Now as Ruy is playing that stronghand side, we have the same setup, right, we have Dorian Finney Smith pinching, but Luca is now contending with Rudy under the basket physically.

Because he's contending with Rudy physically, he can't elevate. Because he can't elevate, Ant's not even having to worry about that third defender. So that's an example of a way to get Aunt a really easy one. Have somebody. There's another later example. I'll show you where Julius Ryandall's like

posting up. Do something with those guys that are in this space physically to at least hold that Laker defender on the ground so that Ant doesn't have to contend with another defender in the air when he gets to the rim. Here's another example of Ant attacking off the catch from a Julius post up. I think Aunt misses this one if I remember correctly. So we have Julius post up look r Luca is Luca doubles, Ant gets a clean look, drives the close out and dunks Oliver

Jackson a So this was not a miss. But look at what it comes out of. You got Aunt a runway to dunk all over Jackson Hayes's face out of a catch off of a Julius post up. Something to explore a little bit more over the course of the series. This is just an annoying Laker fan moment for me. I just don't understand why Jackson Hayes is incapable of contesting with verticality at the rim. He can't help himself. He just hacks every damn time off of Julius's drive.

Look at the hack, like, just keep your hands down, Jackson, keep your hands down, jump with verticality and make him make a damn tough shot over your contest. It's like such a basic concept that Jackson struggles with. This was an example of what I talked about in last night's show with the random late switches on Rudy Gobert's ISOs. So, once Luca gets down into this range, they're bringing this second defender up, and then Rudy will peel off and

go to the guy that Jaden was guarding. See that's that random late switch that takes away that disadvantage that Rudy was dealing with there on the floor. Luke ends up missing the shot. Here's another example from earlier in the game, but it ended in a foul. Same sort of thing though. If you watch what right, when Luca gets into the paint, they just basically peel off switch, Rudy goes to Jackson, Dante comes up. Dante just ends

up committing a foul. But that was a wrinkle that we saw from That was a wrinkle that we saw from Minnesota in this game. Here's a clear tide post up for Luca where I thought his spacing was poor. Notice how he was originally way down here, but he works his way up closer to the elbow. And now the reason why he wants to do that technically is to pivot towards the baseline. And I get that, But what you're doing is you're allowing Rudy Gobaert to pressure

you relatively easily. If he's down here instead, it's a lot easier for this to turn into a kickout three. But because he's in this spot on the floor, Rudy's able to get in there and deflect the pass. Austin actually got Rudy and switches twice late in the game, like I talked about, like a quick layup off the glass. This was the crazy finish that he had though, so like with like with these, with these ISOs, if it's not Luca, I think these are beneficial from Minnesota overall.

Like this is an incredibly tough shot from Austin. Ant's attacking off the catch again, just a basic catch and shoot three, like I want him like this is a great This is a great way to get him going as a score when he's in his on ball reps along the slot with them loading up, he needs to function more as a passer, but off the catch, this is where he can look to be super aggressive. Here's that example I talked about earlier about a post up

while Ant's driving. So because Julius is battling Lebron for post position, it removes Lebron as a rim protector. And they actually did this instead of occupying the corner. And so as a result, when Ant drives, there's no pinch from the corner and he only has to contend with one defender at the rim and Rui, and he easily dances around him. And it's because once again one of the help defenders is physically engaged while this is all going down.

Dorian Finny Smith. This is playoff basketball. You're gonna have to hit shots with guys running out at you, and that's what we need from Ruey the rest of this series. There's another Luca Iso Gobert that ends in a wide open three, this time from Dorian Finney Smith out of the left corner ISO double team kick, extra pass Dorian Finney Smith. So like I think the Luca ISOs against Gobert have worked really well through two games. Here's another

big time defensive possession from Ruy. Both both Ruey and Lebron I thought were fantastic defensively last night against Randall. Physicality. Look at I was holding his shoulder. This is what was missing from Ruey with his matchups with Julius Randall in the past, and this was why Julius used to kill him. Look At I was holding his ground, being physical, actually fighting for position back understanding that you can get away with a lot of contact if they're trying to play bullyball.

My main notes again, Luca Rudy ISOs are good, but every other Rudy Iso not so much. Ruby and Lebron on defense were just unbelievable. There was another couple plays from the film session that I didn't include today, a huge Ruie rotation at the rim where he went with the verticality contest and forced to stop, ran out and got a big layup in transition, that steal that Lebron had late when the Wolves were driving in transition, where Lebron just swooped in underneath. Ant got the steal and

drove out the other way for a layup. The two of them both on the defensive glass, especially Lebron on the defensive glass. Those guys were incredible, as promised my

notes on Minnesota's offense, those Ant slot drives. He needs to function more as a passer, but if you're gonna try to get him opportunities to drive, shedding help defenders by either stealing the low man or posting up literally on that strong side of the floor out of the strong side corner while Ant's looking to drive, so that he's going one on two instead of one on three, and then being more willing to take the easy reads that are there, specifically out of the strong side corner

in that skip pass with Julius, Slot drives into shooting, making sure that he has strong like on the strong side of the floor where he's driving, that he's going into shooters so guys aren't pinching down, and then looking for opportunities while he's posting to make kickout passes to

Anthony Edwards to attack closeouts. But here's the thing, like my my feel on that is like you can you can really tell through two games that the pet actions that Minnesota wants to run is ant driving into those triple teams right either as a passer as a score or attacking off the catch Julius attacking slot drives and post ups like that's gonna be Minnesota's offense for the majority of this series. They're little spacing details and little

intricacies they can use. But that's the series for Minnesota. For Minnesota, it's and and Julia's shot creation, and for the Lakers on the other end of the floor, it's Lebron, Luca Austin shot creation. I believe Lebron, Luca and Austin, as long as they can trap the game in the half court, the Lakers are going to win that matchup. I feel strongly that the Lakers are a smarter, more surgical half court team, but the physicality element is Minnesota's advantage.

It will not stop throughout this whole series. Anytime the Lakers lose focus or intensity, Minnesota is going to run the score up on them. And there's a major wear and tear factor in this series that I think heavily favors Minnesota, and so I steel like I'm leaning very much towards coin flip with this series right now. I'm not going to change my pick yet with me picking the Lakers to win, I wouldn't do that unless Minnesota

took a more substantial advantage. But it feels very coin flippy to me right now, which is, if the Lakers can stay healthy and hang onto the rope, they are the better half court team.

physicality element that Minnesota brings. If you can somehow survive this series, you'll feel like a breath of fresh air as you extend into the future series, at least relative to this specific matchup. And so it's all about survival at this point for the Lakers. Hang onto the rope, stay disciplined, find ways to survive this series so that you can find a better matchup down the line. All right, let's talk a little Bucks Pacers before we get out

of here today. So the main piece that we were looking at was the switching with the five, specifically with brook Lopez, and I want to just show specific how untenable this is and why Doc Rivers basically just needs to bail on brook Lopez and either keep his minutes extremely low or bail on him entirely. I would just keep his minutes low, but he's just too slow footed to be able to handle these matchups. As you can see switch the ball screen. Look at how easily Tyree's

can get around him. All he has to do really is this right here. If you look, you can kind of see him. Look up, look at his head right as he sits in that high hesitation right here right there, he's threatening the shot. And when he does you can actually see Brooks weight shift forward. Watch Brooks weight shift forward just barely ready boom waight forward? Right is his weight is forward, Tyrees goes right around him, and you're

going to see that over and over again. Giannis helps easy kick out to Miles Turner Corner three knock down. This one was the fancy scoop shot. This was just really impressive footwork gets Brooke on the switch. Brook does a nice job staying disciplined and not leaning forward on that one, so he ends up actually beating Tyree to the spot. But on this pivot through, look at once

again Brooks weight shift forward right here. You can see his way as he's going backwards, waight forward right as Tyrese is going past him for the layoup.

Watch right on the catch, look at him. Just look at the rim on the catch, Look at the rim in a shot position. Brook immediately starts leaning forward. As soon as he leans forward, Tyre's goes right around him, drop off to Siaka easy bucket, and then inevitably there's going to be something that Brooke does to adjust. This time, he just decides not to come up, so he sits way back and basically just concedes the three. Tyreek knocks it down. These are those scramswitches I was talking about

last night. I thought these were really impressive examples of scouting and game plan discipline from from Indie. So, as you can see, Dame is on nemhard and he's going to get screened by Topping. As he gets screened by Topping, Topping runs down to the block and this is where the scram switches. Torian Prince is going to come over and guard toppin so that Dame can get out and get Nie Smith. Watch how quickly they identify it. Swing

back to Turner. Turner's immediately reading the play, sees Torrian prints coming over, sees Dame sprinting through, rifles a pass to Nie Smith who knocks down the three. Also, this is an example of how important it is for passes to be on time, on target. Dame is running over there that pass hits him right in the shooting pocket though, so he can go up immediately. That's a little detail about passing that makes a huge difference as to whether

or not you can get a clean look. And then this was the Obie top and dunk, same sort of thing. He gets Miles Turner on a switch and a ball screen. They scram him out with Portis. He sprints, Dame Is sprinting, but right as he sprints, look it out quickly they identified Nemhart sees the whole thing happening, the whole time, Top and sees the whole thing happening, immediately cuts baseline, easy dunk. They were just prepared for everything that Milwaukee

tried to do defensively. And then this was that terrible defensive possession late in the game where I just didn't understand how aggressive Portis and Kuzmo were in their help. So again one fifteen, one thirteen, this is the game right here. You get a stop, you got all the momentum, you go down the other end, score, you put all the pressure on Indiana. Look at this defense, like Kuzma right now is matched up with Nie Smith. We're gonna get a switch out right, So Dame's gonna go to Turner.

Siakam's gonna set up here on the wing. They scram Dame out of the mismatch, Dame switches back to Nie Smith. Watch the way the floor is set up, though Siakim is standing right here. Kuzma is allowing himself to get beat by what's called a pinin flair screen here from Miles Turner. He's screening Kuzmas so he can't close out.

But that's bad defense. Kuzman and Porters are straight up not paying attention to a guy in Siakam who's shooting forty four percent on unguarded catch and shoot threes this year. Easy kickout like this is just bad defense. And that doesn't even account for the fact that Indiana missed several clean looks during the run. Anyway, and so again, until Milwaukee finds a way to get stops, and again it's it's getting Lopez off the floor. He's too slow footed

to be able to handle this matchup. Switching containing the basketball being inappropriate help defense situations, so you can throw a close out at least make Indiana beat you by making contested threes. These wide open threes are not going to get you back into this series. All right, guys, it's all I have for today. As always, a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. Tonight we are live on YouTube after the final buzzer

of the Rockets Warriors game. I'm also this afternoon recording a pod that we're getting back with Two Sons podcast with the Star Wars and Or series starting up. I hear in a couple of hours I'm going to be recording a reaction to that, So you head over to Two Sons Podcasts on YouTube. We'll have a reaction if you're a Star Wars fan, if you're in the and Or but then otherwise. I will see you guys on YouTube tonight after the final buzzer of the Rockets Warriors game.