Hoops Tonight - How Celtics DISMANTLED Knicks, LeBron & Lakers MAJOR STRIDES with JJ Redick

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gaming resources, see dkang dot co slash b Ball. All right, welcome to Hoop tonight here at the volume heavy Wednesday. Everybody hop all you guys are having a great week so far, got the Jampackshow for you. Today, We're going to do a film session on both of the games from last night. I'm gonna do a little monologue off the top, just going over some of the things that I found, and then I have forty one clips of

film that we are going to look through. If you're listening on the podcast feed, obviously we'll have our monologue off the top, but when we get to that film portion, you're gonna want to head over to YouTube to see that part to actually get the visual representations of what we're talking about. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Following me

on Twitter at underscore JCNLTS. You guysn't miss you announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed where we get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight and they keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. Don't forget also on the podcast feed. It's helpful if you leave a rating and a review there. We're gonna be doing a mail bag after tomorrow night's pod as well, so we're going live after Nuggets Thunder on Thursday night. Bring mail bag questions.

We're gonna be hitting some of those at the tail end of the show. All right, let's talk some basketball. So some stats from the dominant first game of the season from the Boston Celtics. They got one point three points per half court possession. That's obnoxious to good. A one thirty offensive rating in static half court environments where the Knicks had their defense set that's insane. They took sixty nine jump shots and got one point three to

four points per attempt. That's insane. They generated twenty unguarded catch and shoot threes. They got one point sixty five points per attempt on those shots. They took thirty off the dribble jump shots, made fourteen of them for one

point three points per attempt. They got one point two to three points per pick and roll including passes, one point seven to one points per ISO including passes, one point seven five points per post up including passes, and they converted spot up possessions at one point five to eight points per possession. All those numbers are insane in any of those categories. When you're over one point per

possession by any amount, that's good. And they were substantially over one point per possession, closer to two points per possession in many of those cases. It's about as dominant of an offensive performance as you will see. Again, as we talked about last night, a lot of attacking Karl Anthony Towns, Jericho Sims, and Jalen Brunson in action with Brunson, they did it a couple of different ways. Like a lot of times you'll see them attack players with the

live dribble, meaning like or as the screener. So like if Brunson is guarding a guy who doesn't have the ball, and let's say Jason Tatum as the ball, you bring Jaln Brunson's man into the action. Brunson has to hedge, right. We talked about that last night, but they also did a lot of stuff like that where they just had Jlen Brunson on the ball. So essentially Jalen Brunson's guarding

Derek White. Derek White's dribbling out above the break, and they'll have someone like Tatum come up and set a screen and McHale Bridges doesn't want to switch because it causes the same problem where now Brunson is on Tatum, so McHale Bridges is hedging to try to prevent Derek White from just driving right down to the rim and then Tatum would slip out of it and get wide open.

A lot of attacking Brunson like that. The Karl Anthony Towns and Jericho Sims stuff was just classic drop coverage stuff just off on the ball, but also off the ball, where like they use Karl Anthony Towns as man or Jericho simms his man to screen down. Then he's going to help as the guy's coming to curl over the top. And if he's sitting too far back, he can just come right off of that screen and come right out and shoot a three right they It's one of those

things where we talked about this last night. When it comes to Boston, you can't give them baked in advantages, right. What that means is like if there is a coverage that has an automatic advantage that's baked in, so like if you're hedging and the shooter slips out, he's going to be wide open every single time. There's no version of that where you can recover in time. It's not possible.

If the ball handler threatens at all coming off the screen and you hold your hedge long enough to stop that driving lane, the guy slipping out of the screen is guaranteed to be open. And so if you give Boston like baked in openings, they're so good at capitalizing

on those that you're going to get killed. Jason Tatum too, Like you know what, we talked a lot last night about how Boston can generate easy shots, and obviously that's the Lion's share of what they do offensively, But there was a lot of really tough individual shot creation from Jason Tatum last night. Tough isolation jump shots, tough driving layups.

He had a couple of these ridiculous passes. He had a lefty feed to Luke Cornett where a brief window opened up between the rim and that dunker spot area where there were literally two nicks surrounding Cornette, and Cornette just kind of slipped into that gap and Tatum just rifled the left handed pass that had him right in the hands and he was able to pump fake to get Jericho Sims off of his feet and get an

easy layup. And then there was another one where he came off of a ball screen at the top of the key induce mcbright on the right side, sucked into the paint just a little bit, like didn't even get all the way into the paint. He came like maybe three four steps off of I believe it was Derek White, and Tatum comes off in just rifles a left handed pass that gets on a rope right into the shooting pocket,

a knocks down the three. Just some really really high level, high degree of difficulty shot creation from Jason Tatum last night. Here is an absolutely bonker stat that will blow your mind about just how good of a night that Jason Tatum had last night. He ran twenty four ball screens last night, various concepts right so guard screens and slipping out of it, a big man coming up, set in

and pick popping or rolling that sort of thing. Out of twenty four ball screens that Jason Tatum ran last night, ball screens in ISOs, so ISOs, in ball screens combined static shot creation situations, the Celtics scored fifty five points on them. They shot twenty for twenty four from the field in Tatum ISOs and pick and rolls. That's two point twenty nine points per possession. One point twenty nine would be very very good. That's like off the charts,

completely outrageous shot creation from Jason Tatum last night. He was ten for thirteen on jump shots, himself four for five at the rim. Just again, it's only one game, and I for the record, it's not possible to maintain that level of play. If Tatum maintains that level of play's best basketball player of all time, and that's obviously

not going to happen. But if he can stay even anywhere in the same stratosphere of the way that he produced last night, now we're talking about a guy that could very much win MVP if he can keep up this level of play. Boston at a one forty five offensive rating last night, We're gonna take a lot of look at that on film. I've got about twenty clips from that particular game. On the Lakers front, they did a lot of stagnate, like a switching to try to

stagnate Minnesota. So essentially, if you're running a screening action, that's where you get those baked in advantages. Right. This is a big thing I talked about last night with the Knicks. If you're the Knicks and you're trying to beat Boston, you basically have two options for trying to prevent them from attacking Jalen runs In and Karl Anthony Towns. One is just switching everything right, and then you have to ask those guys to contain. Option two is pre switching,

which is something that Boston does a lot. They did it a lot last night to protect guys like Luke Cornett. That means like Luke Cornett's man is coming up to set a ball screen because the Knicks are trying to attack Luke Cornett, well, Drew Holliday might just be like, I'll run with him, you go switch to my man. Now.

There was this interesting possession last night where like Jericho Simms I think it was Jericho Simms and Michale Bridges can't remember who the two Nicks were, but they were trying to decide who was going to go set a screen for Deuce McBride. And as they're trying to pick at first, Jericho goes to go, but then he sees that Drew Holliday is pre switched on to him, so then he stops and he's like, this ain't gonna work.

So he runs back and points to the other Nick who is in that action and says, you go set a screen for him, and then he runs up and Drew Holiday switches on to him, and then Jericho goes like, oh shit, I guess I'll go set it now. He runs up and Drew Holiday switches again onto Jericho Simms. As he goes up, then they're able to just switch the ball screen. That's pre switching. That is a way

that you can protect your weaker defensive players. So just Imagine a scenario where let's say Mikael Bridges is on the ball and you have og Anobi on the weak side with Karl Anthony Towns. If Karl Anthony Towns's man goes to set a screen, just send og with them and ask a cat to stay home on that week side.

That's one way they can look to protect. Secondly, just in situations where they do get switches with Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns, you have to slide your feet and contain the basketball because again, there's baked in advantages that come from the screening actions like we talked about earlier, but when you take those away by switching, it then

becomes about individual advantage creation attacking matchups. Right. There are other ways to attack switching we've gone into right, like attacking the offensive glass on the weakside, slipping out of screens, that sort of thing, but it more comes down to individual greatness at that point. One of the things the Lakers did a lot last night with Minnesota was switch a lot of Ruey lebron ad switching in that three four five group. They were also happy to switch guys

like Austin Reeves or Dalton connect onto Julius Randall. They were just willing to switch everything. And when they switch everything, it takes away the automatic advantages that are baked into the screening action, and then it becomes about can you contain the basketball? And the Lakers just did a really good job for the most part last night containing Julius Randall. Not as much with Amp, but they still did a

decent job on him as well. One of the things too, you'll see is like they'll switch and then it'll be like Ad on Julius Randall, and then as he's going to work, everyone else just stays home and takes away those kickout reads. Ad slides his feet a little bit, absorbs from contact in his chest, forces him to pick up his dribble. Now all of a sudden, all the other guys go into deny mode, and then as Julius is looking to make a kickout pass, he ends up

turning the basketball over. Those are turnovers that are created by switching, containing and playing the passing lanes. Really really sharp stuff from the Lakers last night. A big part of how they were forcing turnovers. AD thirty six points despite going three for twelve on hooks, floaters, and layups. That is an insane stat because those are the go to scoring moves for ad. AD's offensive dominance in recent years has come almost entirely down to hooks, floaters and layups,

and he couldn't make them last night. Still got thirty six, got to the foul line a bunch, He was five for eight on jump shots, hit a couple of massive threes. Just an unbelievably dominant performance from him. The other guy didn't get a chance to talk about last night was Dalton connect seamless fit for the Lakers on offense, And

it really just comes down to a combination of three factors. One, he can come off of a screen and hit a three that is going to force the screen defender in many cases to show high to try to stop him from taking that shot. The three that he hit on the top of the key was a play where Rudy

Gobert was sitting way too far back right. But he also set up Jackson Hayes for a dunk on the exact same action in a play where nas Reed was on the floor and nas Reed showed high and when he showed high, came off and turned like he was gonna shoot jumped, made the feed to Jackson Hayes. Jackson Hayes got a dunk. So the first piece is being able to shoot on the move. The second piece is being able to make the reads. You have to be able to actually see the easy reads that are available

for a movement shooter coming off of a screen. He's able to do that. The third piece of it is bringing real downhill athleticism. There's a play in the third quarter where he's driving on the left wing in a ball screen with Anthony Davis, and because he brings real force, he dragged both guys with him and Ad popped. And remember the pick and pop is a great counter to a drop coverage. Dalton just turned elevated, threw a two handed pass to Ad on the left wing, and he

knocked down a three. So that combination of downhill force, the ability to hit shots on the move, and the ability to make the reads on those screen defenders when he's coming off of those actions just makes him a seamless fit. He had a nice driving finish in transition as well. Again, he got a little bit caught in help a couple times on shooters where he gets up

some decent looks. One in the right corner that win in a couple of others that missed, so he's got a little bit of obviously a lot of growth still to make on the defensive end of the floor. But I thought that was his second quarter shift in particular, just a really really nice first appearance for Dalton connect

in the NBA. One other shout out on the Lakers front de Lo when the Wolves cut it to four early in the fourth quarter, he made two back to back plays and pick and roll that immediately grew the lead back up to eight and kind of get gave the Lakers an opportunity to exhale and kind of saved that shift with ad off the floor and it was a ball screen where he got Dante DiVincenzo and jail meaning he trapped him on his backside, slowly worked into the lane and made a little lefty floater, and then

another one a high paced ball screen where he really got going downhill Kimer who was but somebody fell over for the Wolves and Dante de Vincenzo was chasing him, had to like jump over the top. Dilo got a good head of scheme coming off the ball screen that really forced the big to engage him through a beautiful lob to Jackson Hayes who got it done. Shout out to D'Angelo Russell. Those were two really big plays that

changed the dynamic of that particular game. On the Wolves front, the Julius Randall Nasriie front court was a disaster Defensively. They tried zone two and it didn't work. That was the primary driving force of the second quarter run for the Lakers. That front court for the Wolves was really really bad defensively. They're gonna have to be much better. Julius Randall in general on tape, just a legitimately embarrassingly

bad performance, getting back cut all over the place. The lebron dunk in front with Bronni in the right corner, that was a backcut on Karl Anthony Towns really posterized him on a baseline cut when he wasn't paying attention. He was getting back cut for offensive rebounds. Just again, it's one game, but like, if this continues, Wolves fans should be pissed. This is kind of embarrassing effort for a guy like you got some pressure on you here.

This is a team that made the Western Conference Finals. This is a team that made a trade with the intention of staying in contention, and you just got to bring better effort. It was not a good look for Julius Randall last night. The switching that I talked about, it baited the Wolves into twenty one ISOs. That's a very heavy ISO attack. But that's a big part of

their counter for dealing with switching. That's one of those things where I'd like to see the Wolves add some of those other ways to attack switching right, So like different ways to attack switching, creating proper space for your

ISOs so that they're more efficient in those situations. Changing your screening angles, so like, hey, they're gonna be switching these ball screens, why don't we just have Ant on the left wing and have Julius Randall come set the screen, but instead of screening laterally so that Ant can come off sideways, screen the backside so that when there's a switch, he sealed onto that so that Julius Randall has that inside seal and Ant can just float an easy pass

over the top. Now Julius Randall's going downhill, you have a four on three. Now you don't have to play isolation basketball. You can play advantage basketball at that point One thing they did really well to attack switching was attack the offensive glass, especially in the second half. Again, one of the downsides to switching is a lot of these possessions were ending with Anthony Davis on the perimeter

guarding somebody. When that happens, all of a sudden, when the shot goes up, you're much smaller on the back line, you can do some damage to them on the offensive glass. There. The Wolves rebounded forty five percent of their own misses in the second half, so really really exciting, like a little positive trend in the mess that was last night for the Timberwolves. Love one of the things I talked a lot about in the offseason, a lot of helping off of Jaden McDaniels and him just not being able

to hit shot. Same goes for Nikhil Alexander Walker. They just are going to have to be able to hit more of these jump shots, or more teams are going to copy and sag in the paint and really try to make things tougher on Aunt and Julius Randall. They did shoot better than the Lakers last night. They got zero point ninety six points per jump shot on fifty two attempts. Compared to just zero point seven for the

Lakers per jump shot on forty seven attempts. But that to me is a positive Lakers thing more than anything else like that. That means you could have easily lost by twenty twenty five points if the Lakers at a better shooting night. Just not a good first showing for the Wolves. They got a lot of stuff they need to get better at all. Right, let's take a look at the film. So we're starting with the Celtics first

possession of the game. A little bit of a decoy action here on the left side of the floor where they fake like they're gonna set a little ball screen, but Drew slips out of it. They quick run to Tatum and then Horford runs into the ball screen. One of the things you'll see a lot in the highest levels of basketball, little details like if you walk up into a ball screen, it makes Cat's job easy. If you run into the ball screen, you might catch him

being a little flat footed. Watch as Horford runs into the ball screen, Cat is just too far back and Tatum just comes off and easily knocks off the knocks down the jump shot. A lot of attacking Cat in drop coverage a lot of attacking Jericho Sims in drop coverage. I want you guys to really pay attention in this portion of the film. Study Watch how you're going to see. Watch how you're gonna see the counter You're gonna see the Knicks. A lot of deep drop against Tatum, and

then it's gonna flow into suddenly. Now we're coming way up to the level of the screen, and now we're in rotation the whole time. So good first possession there to get Tatum a good look. Here's an example of the exact same concept in an off ball screen. So we got Kat guarding here on the right wing. Horford's going to set a pin down for Jalen Brown. But as Jalen Brown comes off, this functions just like a drop coverage. So Jalen Brown's going to come over the screen.

Kat is kind of coming up to the elbow to help. As Jalen's curling, watch Horford pop easy swing pass for the three. Now that is the baked in result of the coverage, but also Cat's are just not doing a good job. Kat is capable of closing that gap sooner, just like he's capable of coming up higher on that Jason Tatum pull up three. Celtics were really really attacking Kat's laziness in the first part of this game. These are some examples of corner crashes to generate easy shots

or extra possessions. Excuse me. This dynamic right here out of the corner is one of the most common little push and pull fights that you'll see in a basketball game. These guys crashing out of the corner and these guys trying to either box them out or high point the basketball watches. Derek White just runs in, taps it out. The resulting chaos ends in a wide open three for Derek White in the left corner. Same exact thing here. Fast forward a little bit quick, little dribble handoff three

for Drew Holliday. But watch this dynamic right here, Jaylen Brown og Anobi Jalen Brown just goes over the top, forces a loose ball that goes off of Kat, forms an extra possession for Boston. Another example of Cats laziness. I talk a lot about this is like like big Man in transition just having a habit of just wanting to sag back in the paint and not just not really working anymore. In modern basketball, we have a transition situation, kind of a chaos situation. Look at cats dropping back,

never commits to anybody. He's still not guarding anybody, Still not guarding anybody. Jalen Brunson's reaching instead of just sprinting around to get in front. He should like he should, but Kat's still just not guarding anybody. Kat still just not guarding anybody. As a result, we have this quick two on one at the top of the key. Josh Hart closes out of Drew Holliday. Another wide open three for Jalen Brown. So they were just making it way too easy on Boston at the start of this game.

One of the things I was talking about in the monologue the unwillingness to switch any screening action involving Brunson. Once again, this is with Brunson on the ball, so watches McHale. McHale doesn't want to give up a switch because he doesn't want Tatum and Tatum to be guarded by Brunson. So as Derek White comes off, we'll get our heads right boom hedge. This is where Tatum is

wide open on the slip once again. Noticing the monologue two I talked about screening angles, don't screen laterally to try to get Derek White going side to side, screen the backside so you have inside position. Watch how he screens and ends up on his backside and slips out of it easy back again. That's a baked in screening opening that Boston is going to capitalize on every single time. You can't afford to make those sorts of coverage mistakes

against Boston. Here's that lefty pass from Tatum to Cornette. Let's get in there. So here's that little opening that opens up here. So if McHale bridges on Cornette's right side and Jericho Sims on the left side, look at us tight this window is. It's not really open. The ball's already out. Watch when Tatum throws the ball. McHale Bridges is kind of still in position, but like, look at this pass, lefty rifle on a dot pump, fake

easy finish, beautiful pass from Jason Tatum. A couple more examples of Tatum hitting threes against deep drop coverage with Jericho Sims. Let's fast forward a little bit so he Tatum comes off this ball screen, look at how far back Jericho Simms is. Notice two, This is an example of stackpick and roll and how stackpick and roll will really divide the focus of your ball screen defender. So watch howser. Hawser is going to look to set a backscreen on Jericho Sims as Tatum is coming off the screen.

This pulls Jericho Sims's attention to Houser instead of to Tatum. Then Jericho Simms tries to counter this screen by getting like almost underneath it, so he sprints back. That allows Tatum to settle into a wide open pull up three off the dribble, knocks it down. Same exact thing, same exact action. Here comes the ball screen. The only difference is this time they don't run stack, so they run

more of a ram screen. So essentially, instead of having Houser come up in backscreen for Cornett, they just have Derek White's screen. Jericho Simms before Cornett goes into the action generates a little bit of separation, but once again, in a deep drop, Tatum just settles right into the pull up three off the dribble and knocks it down. So again, pay attention to that as we get into the examples later on. In the video of them putting

two on the ball. At this point in the game, Jason Tatum has already hit three pull up threes against drop coverage and pick and roll, an example defensively of the thing that we're going to see from the Celtics, just like they did so much in the postseason last year, putting centers on the worst above the break shooter and putting Tatum on the actual center. Cornett's guarding Josh Hart. This puts them in a situation where Cornett can help. So we're going to see a quick attack with Jalen

Brunson and Derek White, but watch Cornette. Cornette's not worried about Josh Hart. We have a hard double team here. As Brunston's trying to get separation from White, there's Josh Hart. They'll throw a close out. Just be like, fine, take that shot. See how soft of a closeout that is from Cornett. That's a classic defensive game plan thing that we've seen from Boston for a couple of years now.

How'ser hits at three here? But one of the things I was talking about again, like the refusal to switch. This is an easy action to guard if you talk. Okay, so campaigns guarding Hauser. Duce McBride's on Pritchard, Cats guarding Cornett. Cornett you literally don't have to worry about because he's not going to shoot a three. Why is this not

just a switch? Why isn't duce McBride just switching out to Howser and campaign staying on Pritchard, But instead they try to chase Cornette, gets a good screen on him, duce McBride is late to see it and Cornett and Howser gets an open look like that. That is it coverage. You simply cannot run against Boston. It was not a good defensive game plan for Tom Thibodeau against the Celtics last night. So now we're gonna get another high ball screen.

But notice the difference in the coverage. Boom aggressive up at the level. Here's a switch, So this is what you should do. But instead instead of just asking Kat to slide his feet, they just hard double team with duce McBride and that ends up giving Pritchard a wide open three in the left corner. So just way too often putting two on the ball and two on the ball against Boston, you just can't do it. So instead of a two on one, this is more of a three on two. Watch we get a ball screen and

watch how they guard it. Swing double the swing into a ball screen with Drew Holliday coming off of Horford. Watch Ogn and Ob dig down into the lane. Og digs down Boom. Now we're guarding three on two. We're guarding three on two against this particular team that is about as good as you can possibly be a capitalizing on those situations. Swing to Jalen Brown. Jalen Brown drives

on Anonobe. When he drives on Ananobe because like, look, look where Anob has to close out from Andnobi's closing out from here, that's easy basketball for Jalen Brown beats him off the dribble. This forces Juce McBride to help. Drew Holliday relocates the three point line. Another wide open catching two three knocks it down. Here's another example of just a basic screen that doesn't get switched that generates

an advantage and ends in another wide open three. We're gonna get a high post entry to Jalen Brown at the right elbow, a backscreen of Al Horford Onduce McBride because they're not switching it. This allows a good screen from Horford to get Drew Holliday very deep post position. Boom. Now we have a very deep post position. Drew Holliday is going to score here if you leave him one on one. As a result, Kat has no choice but the double team. He does another wide open three for Horford.

Interestingly enough, here Horford misses. But watch how we have our rotation situation. Horford's wide open. This forces Campaign and og Ananobi to panic close out. Both guys panic close out. Now what happens because Campaign left Sam Hauser. Now Hauser has a wide open corner. Crash gets the offensive, rebound, saves it, shovels it to Jalen Brown, and Jalen Brown

knocks down the three. This was just a ridiculous shot from Jason Tatum, Just a really high level piece of shot making off of a between the legs dribble into his step back run some action. Nobody's open ends in iso good downhill pressure, step back knocks it down. Beautiful shot from Jason Tatum. Another two on the ball situation for Tatum and a ball screen, so we get Tatum a pie Cornette sets. But again, as Jericho Sims was getting torched by that pull up three earlier, he's gonna

come way out to the level boom. Now we have two on the ball again. Cornette slips, Jalen Brunson rotates down to Derek White. This leaves Pritchard open. Nice Reid from Cornette to Prichard. Jalen Brunson long close out. Derek White sees too much congestion in the paint, relocates to the corner again. Another smart spacing principle on display for the Celtics as they get a wide open three out

of it. Here's another just completely ridiculous left handed skip pass from Jason Tatum starts with a little quick post up from Jay the Brown. We swing it back out. Now we're gonna flow into the ball screen with Tatum now, simple action handoff screen, still in a drop, but there's enough congestion here to kind of make the the pull up three tough. Look at what Tatum sees, though Deuce McBride is kind of helping. He's like three steps off

of Derek White. This is only going to end in the three if you can rifle a pass on a line into the shooting pocket for Derek White. Look at how accurate this passes off of a dribble left handed, whips it across the court. Right into the shooting pocket, catch and shoot three for Derek White. Just an insane piece of playmaking from Jason Tatum. Do you guys remember last night when I talked about limbo, a concept that JJ Reddick has been talking about with the Lakers a lot.

I talked about the idea that limbo also applies to help defense as well. Here's a great example of that. So Jason Tatum's gonna look to ISO. I believe he ends up isoing Josh Hart on a switch. So screen switch, here's our ISO again. Limbo to me is when you're not accomplishing either of the tasks that you're set out to do. So a lot of cases here, Kat's responsibilities are basically like help on the drive and then close

out to Horford at the three point line. The one thing you can't afford to do is to leave him open and fail to help. So Tatum makes a move. Kat doesn't actually get in there and help Jason Tatum, but at the same time, al Horford's wide open. This is limbo, This is accomplishing nothing. Tatum goes right through him for a layup, like if if you're gonna help help stop the ball, if you're not stay glued to the shooter, but like getting caught in limbo, that's the

worst thing you can do and help defense. Here's that example that I was talking A second example like of what I was talking about earlier about using Brunson on the ball handler, just because you know that when Brunson's on the ball, the Knicks are going to want to hedge. So Tatum comes in screens same thing we saw earlier, hedge from Michale Bridges baked in screen opening for Tatum. He actually misses this shot, but it's a wide open

catch and shoot three. One more. I wanted to show you guys an example of a beautiful spacing principles from the Celtics in the second half of this game. Another blitz of Tatum up at the level of the screen. So we swing, here's our ball screen, Bridges on the ball, cat comes way up to the level. We got two in the ball now, boom, okay, that makes Tatum's first

read Horford on the pop Ananobe rotates. What I want you to see here is instead of just standing Derek White here and in standing Jalen Brown there, in which case Josh Hart might be able to do something like let's say Let's say that oj and anobe Hard helps here and Tatum has to throw a skip pass. If Tatum throws a skip pass, josh Hart probably can close out to the passing lane. I've talked about this concept on the show in the past. You close out to

the passing lane to prey on indecisiveness. So Tatum throws a skip past to Derek White. If you close out to the passing lane, maybe you get him to not want to take the three because he sees the clothes out coming. But then when he looks over to Jalen Brown, Josh Hart could be right in the passing lane to take that opportunity weigh, which might buy enough time for og And and Nobody to recover and josh Hart to recover. But instead, Derek White flashes to the high post. This

forces josh Hart to fully commit to him. Watch how he flashes boom. Now josh Hart has to commit, and now Jalen Brown is completely wide open. Easy three. And because you don't have anybody in the dunker spot, the next rotation is brunts and he has to come all the way across the floor. So a little detail there just like him flashing high posts instead of staying on the weak side wing generates a better looking shot for Jaln Brown. So we're gonna be moving on to the

Lakers Wolves game here in a second. But again, I just when we talk about the Celtics, it's not just taking threes for the sake of taking threes. They generate high quality threes through quality offense, and running any sort of traditional coverage against them is suicide because their system is set up to capitalize on that by generating elite

shooters wide open threes. And so you have to be willing to switch to shut off screening actions and you have to do a better job of containing the basketball. Beautiful work from Boston last night. All, let's move on to the Laker game. This is a ridiculous move from Ruy Hotcha Mura in a wing attack situation against Anthony Edwards. So Lebron comes to set the screen, Julius Randall ends up tagging the roller, so Anthony Edwards switches back out onto Ruey. Now we get a straight up one on

one here. Anthony Edwards is one of the hardest guys in the league to beat off the dribble without a screen. Now he can struggle with screen navigation, he can struggle off ball with backcuts and things like that, but usually a head up one on one situation, he's so louterally quick and he's so strong he can't do anything with him. Ruy just rips right through and bodies him and dunks all over Rudy Gobert. It was like just like an absolutely insane highlight for Ruyacha Mura mixed into that game.

Some really nice defensive activity from Ruy. Hatcha Mura here. So we get Julius Randall being guarded by Austin Reeves in a transition cross match, Ruey's gonna double team. When he double teams, Julius steps through, which forces Anthony Davis to step up. He throws a drop off pass to go beart. Anthony Davis gets out of position. Look at the recovery from Ruey to get back into the play and block the shot at the rim. Really nice defensive work from Rudy to be in two places at once.

Here's an example of what I was talking about earlier about switching to stagnate the offense. So Rui's on Julius Randall quick run through. Now ad switches okay. Now that Ad switches, there's no advantage in the screen situation. Julius Randall has to tack off the dribble. He attacks off the dribble, Ad shuts it down. Notice these guys aren't overhelping, they're staying the passing lanes. So when Julius Randall goes, oh shit, I need to get rid of the basketball now.

Notice Austin recovers to Conley to deny the passing lane. Dilo recovers to Jaden to deny the passing lane. Julius tries to force it and Delo gets an easy steal switch stagnate contain deny the kickout passes. Here's an inverted ball screen for Anthony Davis that gets him a really good look around the foul line. So we're in a horn set. We get a high post entry to AD. Max Christy cuts through and Austin flashes to the elbow and then he turns and sets the inverted ball screen

for AD. Conley throws a hedge. When he throws the hedge that as he's recovering, he ends up getting in go Bear's way, and that action ends up generating separation for Ad to knock down an easy little fifteen footer. Talks a lot about corner crashes. JJ Redi's been talking about him all preseason. Shot goes up. Here's that battle that we talk about. Max Christy beats a Anthony Edwards ends up generating an extra possession. D Lo hits the three.

That's three extra points you get just by a little detailed, little margin that you're generating crashing out of the corner. Talked about this in the monologue. But one of the downsides to switching AD's on Gobart. That should help you on the defensive glass right, But now we're gonna do some switching here. Austin switches out onto DDV. Ad ends up switching out. Ruey ends up taking Gobert. Ad switches

onto Jaden McDaniels. So when Jaden ends up taking this shot, now we've got a massive size mismatch underneath the basket. Go Bear ends up getting an offensive rebound. Great way to attack teams that switch. Another corner crash this time Ruey Hatchamurrow watch him come flying in, gets the offensive rebound, ends up getting two extra points. Nice little example of

waves of cutting here. So we're gonna get a couple of cuts in a row, one from Dalton connect and then one from D'Angelo Russell and rapid secession, and you're gonna see how it generates an opening. So Dalton pump fakes throws the ball to Rui. Now in this situation, Dalton sees an opening for a cut. When Dalton cuts, Mike Conley goes with him. Look at Dante DiVincenzo too.

Let's watch Dalton first. So as Dalton cuts through boom cut, Mike Conley ends up going with him, And because Conley's going with him, he can't see what's happening behind him. Now watch Dilo. As soon as he sees Dante DiVincenzo not paying attention, not looking at him. Oh shit, my man's not paying attention, I might as well just cut still not paying attention. Cut, okay, but normally you might

see some help side there. But Dalton cutting through ends up essentially clearing the lane for de Lo to easily get the layup on the cut. Wolves a little two three zone with that defensive front court of Naz Red and Julius Randall that they were struggling so much with. Here's a quick, easy basket. They get out of it with a really nice high post feed to D'Angelo Russell. So we're in a two three. Delo kind of sneaks

into the middle. Now, the reason why you want to get the ball to the middle is in a normal two three zone, you have three defenders on the back line. That's a pretty easy setup, right because one guy can guard any corner shooter, one guy can guard the basket, one guy can guard the other corner shooter, and if the ball ends up on the strong side, you can kind of slide over or slide back the other way as the ball switch aside. If you get the ball to the high post, then the center has to step up.

As soon as the center has to step up, now you only have two guys on the back line. If there's only two guys on the back line, someone's going to be open. On a cut. Delo sneaks in there, catches nos Reed steps up. Both Nikhil Alexander Walker and Julius Randall are now on a three on two. As soon as Osried steps up there in a three on two, if Nikil Alexander Walker steps down to Jackson, Ruey's getting a wide open three. If Julius Randall rotates over to Jackson.

Now Dalton connects getting a wide open three instead, none of them do. Jackson Hayes gets a dunk. Nice little attack of the zone there. This is an action I Joe Vat does a really nice job covering the Golden

State Warriors called this out last night. He was digging in through some of the tape of JJ Redick and Lebron James when they were doing that Mind the Game podcast, and JJ talked about a simple action involving a backscreen for someone who's a lob threat and that person being the shooter, the screener being the shooter backscreen for a lob threat, and then after setting that backscreen, that guy then coming off of another screen at the top of

the key looking to shoot. They referred to it as Finland and the Lakers ran a bunch of this kind of action last night and got a lot of really good stuff out of it. I want to show you two different examples. The first one is an example where the screen defender shows and then this The second one is an example where the screen defender does not show

so in the first one. Both times it looks a little different too, because this time they run it with Jackson Hayes having the ball as a dribble handoff guy. The second time, they run the exact same concept, but they have another player up here that's actually making the pass, actually making the entry pass. So watches Dalton connect backscreens for Lebron. He backscreens for Lebron. This causes these guys to sink in and help. Then Dalton connect comes off,

comes off the screen. Notice nos Reed shows high. When nos Reed shows high, that allows Jackson Hayes to slip the screen and get an easy dunk. Here's the exact same concept in a different version. One other thing too. On the defensive end. Here, once again the Lakers and everyone else know you can offer a late contest on Jaden McDaniels. That means Lebron can help in the paint, force the pass, run out, and get a good contest. He's not gonna make them pay enough for it to matter.

But as we go at the other end, we're gonna run Finland again, this time with d Lo as the trigger man up up the top of the key. You can see them setting the play up. Delo dribbles over. Okay. Now, same backscreen for Lebron. Okay, backscreen this time, though, Notice Gobert sits way back, so when Dalton comes off, now there's nobody at the level because Gobert is so far back, so Dalton can just rise up and fire knocks down the three. Those are the types of decisions you make.

Defenses make when you run good action. At the beginning of Possessions, here's a really nice transition attack from Dalton, Connect defensive play from ad. Look at the size and athleticism from Dalton as he gets downhill on Anthony Edwards and finishes easily in the pain. Really nice second quartership from Connect. There's a really nice slip of a screen

from Rudy Gobert. This is a basic screening concept. When you know that your man is going to be showing high, then your screen doesn't matter anymore because the entire purpose of your screen is to get the ball handler downhill or separation. And if he's not gonna get downhill or get separation, because the screen defender is going to show, it's more important for you to slip watches. Go Beart, who's one of the best screeners in the league, doesn't

even try to screen. Austin just slips out because he knows Ad is coming high. Because he knows Ad is coming high, Rardy Gobert slips out of it rolls hard now as Aunt starts to turn the corner. Because Gobert rolls hard, this forces Ruey to stay groundbound as he prepares for the lob. He doesn't jump until the last second. At that point, An it's got too much of ahead of steam. It's an easy and one little screening detail from Gobert. Beautiful set to start the third quarter from

JJ Reddick. We're gonna get Austin off of a pair of screens here at the elbow to catch on this side, and it's gonna flow into ad screening for Lebron, who's then going to flow into a screen for Austin, who's then going to slip the screen. All of this action is designed to occupy Rudy Gobert's attention, which ends up getting Anthony Davis a lob on the switch. Let's watch it one more time in slow motion again. Watch how all of this action just forces the Wolves to make

a bunch of decisions and rapids secession. Lebron comes off, here's a screen. Jaden ends up hedging just for a second because the hedges just for a second. That allows Lebron to get open on the roll. Now Jaden's out of position. Because Jaden's out of position, Rudy has to step up. Because Rudy has to step up, AD's wide open on the lob. I've talked a lot about how Rudy Gobert gets unfairly maligned for the defensive end to the floor and how most of the issues for him

come down to the offensive end. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Here is a lob that maybe not This isn't the most perfect lob in the world. Yeah, as a guy like Luca Gonna maybe put this in a spot where it's easier for Rudy to dunk. Sure, but this still should have been a dunk. Look at where this pass goes. That should be caught, That should be caught and dunked. Why why is that not a catch and a dunk like that is that should be?

That should be a dunk And it's not because Rudy can't catch and finish anything around the basket as well if it, as well as his peers around the league. That is the main issue with Gobert has nothing to do with defense. He just is such a limited offensive player. Talked a lot about Ruey in him after the game, talking about attacking Julius Randall for standing and not paying attention.

Here's a basic example of that here. Julius Randall's not paying attention gets back cut by the time he notices it. Ruy dunk's all over his head. Really rough off ball defensive performance from Julius Randall. I've talked about how Ruey one of the big things standing in his way to becoming a more reliable playoff player is his ability to

track shooters. Here's a good example of that here. So there's a switch he ends up on Dante DiVincenzo gets sucked into help, but he's not tracking man in ball d DV does a nice little relocation to the left wing. By the time Ruey notices it's too late, hits a three. Has to do a better job at tracking shooters. Here's an example of what I was talking about in the show last night about the Wolves changing the pace of the game with ball pressure. Notice this full court ball

pressure picks him up, picks him up. Dante Divincenzo's denying. They switch. Now we're denying over here. This forces the Lakers two guards to waste a bunch of time. So now we have thirteen on the shot clock and the worst ball handler on the floor for the Lakers has the ball in Max Christy. This possession is basically dead on arrival. But this is also what I was talking about last night where Ad had so many opportunities in the third quarter, where it was like he was missing shots.

He was back to back wide open layups on go Berr. He's missing little short, little floaters. He just was struggling right well. They needed him to keep shooting, and so this was kind of where it felt like the lid came off for Ad. Seven seconds on the shot clock, no choice but to create a shot. Does a nice job getting downhill, nice little dribbled into a step back over go Bar knocks it down. Another little action we saw from the Lakers last night several times, and you

get you guys are gonna see the the two different coverages. Okay, so first, Ady's gonna set a backscreen for Gabe and go Beart is not going to help. Because Gobert doesn't help, Gabe gets wide open. This is Dalton connect in the left corner. Even Donte de Vincenzo doesn't want to help because Dalton Connects one of the best shooters on the team. Gabe gets a wide open layup. Next possession, exact same thing. Look at the difference in the way that that it's covered. Okay, backscreen.

This time Gobert sits much further back and nas Reid sinks into the paint. As a result, when nas Reid sinks in, Gabe Vincent makes this kickout pass or sees he sees the kickout pass to Ruy Hachimura, Go Bear sees it happen. Go Bear rotates to Ruy that gets Ad wide open. Ady gets downhill and gets the and one on it. So again, you saw the two different ways to cover it. The first way the first time

Gobert doesn't help. The second time Gobert does help, helps on the corner pass and Ad ends up getting an end one. Last one. This was that read I was talking about with Dalton connect and Anthony Davis, who made five jump shots in the game. Dalton brings nice downhill pressure draws both guys in the ball screen. Ad gets a wide up and three at the top of the key or at the left wing and knocks it down. All right, guys, that is all I have for today,

A good little film session. We're gonna do a bunch more of those, much smaller throughout the season. That was more of like, we don't have any other games to cover,

so let's hit a bunch of film. But the way we're gonna do that during the season is I'm gonna break down the games off the top, and then as I'm watching my film, I'm gonna drop, you know, somewhere between five ten fifteen clips into a folder, and then basically at the tail end of the show, we're gonna do brief film sessions so that you guys can see

those visual representations. That's all I have for today. Again, We're gonna be back tomorrow morning break down some of the Wednesday night games, and then we'll be back on Thursday Night Live after the final buzzer of Nuggets Thunder. I'll see you guys, then the volume. What's up guys? As always, I appreciate you. Thank for listening to and supporting Hoops 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.