Hoops Tonight - Film Breakdowns: Jalen Brunson’s Late Game Magic + Anthony Edwards Versatile Scoring

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living with the results of switching. I also want to focus on the offensive flow that they generated in the fourth quarter and the really delicate job that Jalen Brunson did when he came back into the game of not taking control of the offense, but rather letting things continue to flow the way that they had been flowing in the early fourth quarter, while then asserting himself when needed

a little bit later in the fourth quarter. I thought the Knicks played their best offensive quarter of the series in that fourth quarter against the Celtics, and it got them a three to one lead. And then in the tail end of the show, I really want to zoom in on the way that Anthony Edwards got to his points yesterday against the Golden State Warriors, specifically all the work that he was.

Michael Jordan archetype rather than as kind of like a James Harden spread pick and roll type of shot creator, which puts more of a kind of pressure on his playmaking ability. So I want to just kind of use last night's game as an example of what that looks like in terms of attacking off the catch. You guys are the job. Before we get started. Subscribe to Hoops and I YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter and underscore json LTC guys,

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get into the film. So, as I mentioned last night in the show, the first thing that shoot out to me was the decision from Tom Thibodeau to go away from Jalen Bronson and go to Douce McBride to start the fourth quarter, essentially forcing the Knicks to run offense through their other players. It essentially puts them in a spot. I think part of it is the score, them being up by three instead of down by twelve or down by eight, you know, kind of where they were in

game one. In game two, it's just like a spot where you can afford to even potentially lose a little bit of ground if you have to. But it's a gamble based on we need Jalen Brunson to make shots late in the game, so we need his legs and then two maybe we might be able to catch some rhythm here. And so what they went to offensively to start the fourth quarter was the steady diet of just high ball screen attack against Luke Cornett. Luke Cornette is

in a drop coverage. What this means is Mikale Bridges doesn't have to straight up iso Derek White. He can attack what they built in advantage. That built in advantage being Derek's going to chase over the top of the screen. He can get him into trail position. So now he's in trail position. So now it opens up a classic drop coverage situation. He needs to find a spot somewhere along this lane line where he's comfortable pulling up. And this is very well defended by the by Luke Cornette

and by Derek White. But as we know, Mikal Bridges kind of like exaggerates his lift and his fade on even catching shoot shots times. And so this is a spot where he can be comfortable and he just kind of gets into that short range and knocks down that little fade away in the middle of the floor. And again, like the baked in advantage is he's able to actually get Derek White behind him, which allows him to then sell that upfake to get that easy separation in the middle of the floor.

in this spot. I talked to last night a lot about the idea of being willing to live with the results with Carl Anthony Town's ISOs, the ISOs against Carl Anthony Town. So this is just a classic transition cross match. Carltown started on Jalen Brown on this possession, but there are a lot of examples where they hunt it just with a basic screening action. But again, Jalen Brown is able to get a bucket here, but watch the other

four defenders. They're not gonna help. They stay home. They're taking away those catch and shoot opportunities and they're letting cat get cooked, so to speak, at the expense of the flow of the Celtics offense. I thought this was a really smart read from Ojan and Obi against the possession of stack pick and roll from the Celtics. So sideline at a bounds stack pick and roll, all it is is just a ball screen with the shooter coming

up from behind backscreening the screen defender. And on this play, as you can see, the great read here from Ojan and Obi is he anticipates Pritchard making this pass back to Jalen Brown, and he baits him into making it by lingering for just a second. If you watch Og, he lingers, but he knows this is the read, and you can actually see him already. Pritchard's still dribbling, isn't even thrown the pass yet, but OG's already planted that

right foot to prepare to jump the passing lane. Prichard goes to throw it, OG's right in the passing lane, and this is just understanding the play. This is just being you know, we talked a lot about IQ last night as one of the things that translates to the postseason as it pertains to solving puzzles. This is an action that every team in the NBA runs, and you have to know what the reds are. He knows that Deuce is in a good position to handle it drive.

He doesn't need to overhelp. He bates him into it and then jumps the passing lane. Really nice work from og In and Obi's.

shoulder turnaround. Floater gets good penetration close to the lane, two doesn't fade. Excellent move from Cat. Here we go ball screen to get Tatum onto Cat once again, living with the results here Tatum on an island against Cat Tatum series of moves. Cat does defend as well as he can. They're shrinking the floor a little bit, but they're not leaving shooters. They're not making clear kickout reads, even Mitch. Like if you look at Mitch, Mitch's stunting,

but he's not committing. OG's staying home to deal with Horford on the glass. They're living with this one on one result, counting on the fact that Boston will just play a bunch of one on one.

the scoreboard. But in this particular spot, he doesn't want to. He actually has the ability here to turn the corner on Porzingis. Porzingis is flat footed, He's got the speed advantage. I mean, he literally does turn the corner, but all he does is instead of turning and attacking into this gap, he just goes, hey, McHale Bridges is in a nice rhythm right now.

him another opportunity, and he got another bucket. This is one of those half court ball screens we saw a lot down the stretch of Game two, if you guys remember, so they catch Og back at half court. This allows Tatum to get ahead of Steam, crosses over Kat loses control of the basketball, which is what stopped him from getting all the way to the rim, but look at where Cat had to recover to all the way down to the charge circle. Tatum's able to pull back out

and hits another jumper in his face. But again this is again living with the results, like allowing Cat to get fried in hopes that the Celtics won't have any other additional offensive rhythm down the stretch, and it doesn't work. Yet it works right when they get to that one ninety nine to ninety eight spot. It's like right in that range where things start to go off the rails for the Celtics offense. It was about the long game. Wal Tatum was hot, the game plan wasn't working, but

eventually Tatum started to get tired. He started settling for shots. You'll see how it goes over the course of the game. This is an interesting action that the Knicks ran that got an easy bucket for Mitchell Robinson. It kind of looks like Stack, but it's not Stack technically because in Stack you want this guy typically to be a shooter. But it kind of just looks like it in the sense that they're setting a ball screen and Mitch's running up to backscreen for Cat's man. In the action, Jalen

Brunson draws too, he pitches it back to Cat. Porzingis has to step up. Everyone in the Celtics Jersey switches. So Horford's now on Brunson, Drew Hollidays now on Mitch. Porzingis is now on Cat. But Mitchell Robinson has inside position. So what does he do? He just rolled Drew Holiday lingers as Cat beats Porzingis on that pump.

are getting. The Knicks are getting buckets from a variety of different guys. Cat's attacking post mismatches, Mikhale Bridges is hitting mid range jump shots, Mitchell Robinson is getting a catch on the roll. We're about to see og In and ob get involved. For the Celtics, it's just a steady diet of Tatum right now. On this plaint the Knicks don't get matched up in transition and they lose control

of Tatum. This happened actually a bunch in the especially in the first half of this game, but you can see them trying to communicate, but it gets botched. Bridges is actually pointing over to get someone else to guard Horford, but then he realizes nobody's gonna do it, so he runs over. But og doesn't realize it because he clearly didn't hear the communication from Bridges, so they both go over.

This generates this wide open closeout opportunity for Tatum. Watch how he beats it with just a really basic jab step to the right, boom step over pull up three. This is a move, by the way, that every young basketball player needs to have in their bag because it's such an easy way to get a clean look from three in any sort of nail help or any sort of like situation where the defender is on your left

shoulder by a wide margin. If you have this type of margin, this guy's gonna be closing out really hard. Towards your right hand, because he's gonna expect you to rack the ball to the right, and so if you can on that catch, just throw a quick jab and sell it. This guy's going to lose his balance moving towards your right hand, then you just easy slide over to your left. Then there's an easy rise in fire three. That's a shot that every young basketball player needs to

add to his bag to attack closeouts. But this was the point in the game where I thought it was interesting. So Boston's up ninety nine to ninety eight, they're up by one point, and it was at this point in the game where I felt pretty strongly that the Knicks were going to win because they just had so much more going for them than just Tatum. And it's not necessarily Tatum's fault. It's just kind of the reality of

the way the Knicks were guarding by switching. If it would have just required Tatum to pitch the ball to someone else to go one on one, and that's just the coverage that the Knicks were running. As you guys have seen, the Knicks were able to get players in rhythm by attacking and drop coverage, and the drop coverage just builds. These like kind of baked in advantages to where Brunson can pitch the ball to Bridges and not have to worry about Bridges having to iso Derek White

at like straight up as a defender loaded up. You can get Bridges clean looks just based on the coverage. The Knicks coverage was baiting the Celtics into isoball and Tatum was the only player in rhythm. The Celtics were running more high drop. As a result, they were able to or low drop. Actually with McHale Bridges, they were running more drop coverage and so as a result they were able to get a different player into rhythm. There's

a classic example right here. Notice Bridges is just running away. They're actually running this play for McHale Bridge. Excuse me, Brunson's running away. They're actually running this play from McHale Bridges in the middle of the floor ballscreen drop coverage. There's that gap in the drop coverage. We always talked about the gap in the drop coverage. It's the gap between the back pressure and the drop coverage. Big Porzingis's weight is clearly shifted backwards. Derek White is a few

feet behind. He can rise and fire into that spot. It's a baked in opening in the coverage, and now he's in great rhythm. This is one of the plays that I talked about last night where I thought Christaps Porzingis looked like he just didn't have very good lift on his rolls to the rim. Watches Porzingis gets that inside position on this role. How he just loses all his momentum once he runs into a defender at the front of the rim. Like, this is a completely manageable

situation for Porzingis. He's got the ball, he's reading, his eyes are up, he's seeing the floor. But you could just literally see he doesn't have the lift. He doesn't even get off the ground there. Probably missed a kick out read to Derek White there on the left wing too. Jalen Brunson again, notice Jalen Brunson is yet to like really try to himself. He's still just feeling out the flow of the game. It's a five, it's a four on five, but the Celtics aren't matched up. Look at

how he identifies. He looks at the situation right here, he sees the floor. He goes, Okay, I've got four Celtics all in front of me. He turns and he sees, Okay, I've got Porzingis trailing the play. Who's trailing Porzingis? Oh, look at og. OG's going to be running with the head of steam. Tatum is literally pointing for Porzingis to grab him. This is an opportunity for og Anobi to attack a big, slow footed center on a closeout. Pitches it to him just a little hesitation fake. You can

see just that eyes on the rim right here. He's a threat to shoot, and you could see Porzingis's weight immediately shift forward and now he's dead to rights. Og hits the gap, gets the left handed layup. Another nasty move from Jason Tatum here. This was the last bucket that Tatum got during the run. He's posting up og. I'm' a fast forward a little bit here, And this is where these shoulder fakes are so important. So on this play, ideally, if you're og Anobi, you want to force Tatum into

a fadeaway jump shot right. So Tatum is gonna pound dribble and fake's shoulder back to his left shoulder. But then he's gonna turn like he's gonna fade over his right shoulder. Here right shoulder fake to the left shoulder fake up. He did double dribble here, but this fake right here. When he turns, you're thinking right shoulder fade. That causes Og to step up. Look at OG's hand. He goes up to contest because he thinks the right

shoulder fad is coming. That's literally why ogn Andobi's jumping like this because he thinks Tatum's about to elevate and shoot that right shoulder fade. Then that's when Tatum steps through and gets the end one. And if you if you watch like Michael Jordan tape, Kobe Bryant tape, Anthony

Edwards is getting good at this move too. If you watch those two guards, they turn and they pumpake over their right shoulder, the defender jumps, that's when they step through and go all the way to the front of the rim. More drop coverage attacks this time oj and Obie on a skip. I talked about this last night, how like Brunson would probe early in possession. So okay, he's running a drop coverage attack. It's not open, Tatum's

guarded it. Well, I'm gonna just pitch it back out and now I'm gonna clear out and then we're gonna run it again on the other side, this time for og And and Obi o g just got a bucket driving a close out. Now he's gonna pull to the right and then step back and knock down the shot in the switch gap there as Porzingis is coming out.

the spot again, causes him to lose the handle. Mitchell Robinson just ends up overplaying the jumper on Drew Holliday and ends up giving up the layup. And Drew and everyone else was in such a poor rhythm offensively at that point shooting the ball that if Mitch would have just let him shoot, he probably would have missed it. Now,

Jalen Brunson's looking to be more aggressive. Two on the ball, hesitation moved to beat Derek White, and you can literally see right when he goes into the step back here, so he sells that left foot boom, step back. Watch Derek White's feet, they're both back in the lane line. Now he jumps right here. So this is the beauty of this sort of fake. Right here, when he jumps, Derek White's entire body is off the ground. Now he's

like suspended in mid air. That makes it so that Jalen Brunson can cover ground and Derek White can't even look to change direction until he lands, and you can literally see by the time he lands and changes direction, Brunson's past him, and then he's able to find that little angle.

Stunt from Og, Tatum's got him beat. He's going all the way to the rim. If Og doesn't do this stunt from Og that forces Tatum to settle for the fade away instead. That's just a really tough shot. I mean, he was going full speed downhill and now he's leaning backwards from like thirteen feet. This shot misses. Porzingis does end up drawing a foul here, but he misses both

free throws. But again it was a stunt too, like if you watch if you watch Og, as he throws the stunt, he gets back immediately to Porzingis and boxes out. He just ends up committing the foul. I absolutely hated this shot from Derek White one oh seven, one o four. Brunson misses the layup. You've got a chance here to get a bucket and restore orders. Four and a half minutes left, and look at this shot from Derek White, just a quick, contested corner three with seventeen on the clock.

And again in the flow of the game, Derek White hadn't touched the ball like in any sort of meaningful context in a long time, and he's just jacking up a three with seventeen on the shot clock on the other end of the floor. Fast forward, Brunson attacks Horford in a ball screen, dribbles out, gets the spacing the way he wants it, and then just drives into the gap and hits a little tough step back moving towards

his left. Notice when Brunson started to assert himself, he's now looking to assert himself with you know, four and a half four minutes left, after being more passive and trusting the flow of his offense. With eight and a half minutes left, and he's put himself in a position to win this game. And this is where Tatum starts to get tired, just settles for a thirty footer way out above the break, like you could just tell he's tired. At this point, he's missed two tough pull up jump

shots in a row. This is the beauty of the game plan. You paid your dues, you took a bunch of ISO buckets in the face. It's obviously frustrating in those moments, but you trust the process and you understand that eventually heal fatigue because we have a bunch of guys in rhythm. He's the only guy that's in rhythm. It was a brilliant game plan from Tom Thibodeau. After the fade, we go up the floor, brunts and attacks.

Early in the possession, Probes pitches it to Michale Bridges trusts him like he doesn't need to throw a shot here. McHale's in rhythm. Jab same sort of fake by the way we talked about earlier.

of repetition in practice. But once again, you could see Derek White because he's way on his left shoulder is guaranteed to close out hard to your right hand because he thinks that's where you're gonna go. So if you throw a jab boom, look at where Derek White goes on the jab boom and it's just done and then he can get into his little right shoulder fade in the middle. Oh, Jana nob really wanted that ball too,

as you can tell. But yeah, so just in general, a lot of flow, really high level point guard play from Jalen Brunson, and the right game plan to beat the Boston Celtics. This is I have preached this exact same game plan for years now as it pertains to Tatum and Brown and just the idea that like if you let them get into their driving kick attack and you let them get into their you know, wide open catch and shoot threes, that they get out of the

flow of their offense, that's when they peak. But if you force them to just play a bunch of one on one basketball, they're good at it, but they're not you know, Luka don Hitch, you know Nikola Jokic, Lebron James and his prime that sort of thing. They're not that type of shot creator, and you can win that battle in the long run. Let's talk about Anthony Edwards working off the catch a lot of similar concepts to what we were just talking about with Michale Bridges and using the.

no chance for him to cut Ant off. Now it's over. Ant beats him off the dribble, gets into the lane, elevates and finishes around Trace Jackson. Davis a lot more left handed finishes in this game than he was using earlier in the series. Watch how badly he breaks off Buddy. Healed on this move off the catch against the Warrior zone. So again, off the catch, he jabs. He jabs towards the corner, which freezes Draymond. You can see Raymond take that really long step to try to cut that off.

Then he steps up. Draymond recovers. Look at the rhythm and flow that he's in. Any simple off the catch, attacks hard off the dribble, jump shot towards his left. Watch it again in full speed jab to freeze Draymond. Now I've just got an ISO against Buddy, easy work, boom.

setup man. Here is this nasty the lefty euro fake that he uses to get.

attacking in an off ball situation. Cominga's already trailing. Now when he drives Kaminga's entrail position, it's kind of like a drop coverage. Look watch Ant methodically slow down, low gather switches to his left hand. I'm gonna play this one in full speed, and just watch how under control he is compared to earlier in the series. Just surgical there in the lane like it was crazy. Like we talked so much about whether or not he'd be able to figure it out over the course of this series,

and I think he's been fantastic. Here's another example of attacking off the catch. It almost like simplifies his thought process when he's catching in these spots, he's thinking score. He's effectively a play finisher in these sorts of spots, and I almost think that's the best way to use him. It's not to say you don't ever go to ant on the ball, of course you do, but I just I think it just kind of idealizes his specific skill set and his mentality as like an assassin's score.

So yeah, just something to keep in mind for his development moving forward. I think it's kind of a fascinating concept.

I don't know who that type of player is yet, but the idea of being paired one day with a setup guy, someone who's going to routinely get him into position to score, and then also building the offense that way Like if I was Chris Finch, I would look hard this summer into developing a lot more of like kind of traditional off guard off ball like kind of two guard sets where he can come attack off the catch, or simple actions where he's screening and slipping out and

having the defender trailing and chasing him out of the screening action to where he can get clean opportunities against the guy closing out against his strong hand. A lot of different stuff like that I think can simplify it,

especially against these better defenses. I'm not worried about whether or not you can slice and dice teams like the Lakers and the Nuggets, but when they run into these like higher tier defenses, I think there's a lot of potential, a lot of potential there for Aunt to have success as an off ball score. All right, guys, it's all I have for this morning. We will be back tonight after the final buzzer of Nuggets Thunder, I will.