Hoops Tonight - Kevin Durant erupts, Suns sink Jokic & Nuggets in OT, Celtics collapse, NBA Mailbag

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You're at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody, hope all of you guys are having a great week. Got a jam packed show for you today. We're gonna be hitting that insane. Just an awesome NBA regular season game last night between the Suns and the Nuggets. Got to see a kind of a Peak Denver type of run down the stretch and then Heydi and Bradley Bealle just snatch it back. Not just for shot making, but with incredible defense on

the other end of the floor. Super interesting game. We're gonna break that down from the perspective of both teams. After that, Boston had their first loss in what twelve thirteen games, however long it's been against the Cleveland Cavaliers last night, blew blowing a twenty two point lead in the fourth quarter. We're gonna break that game down from the perspective of both teams. Also, I've met a lot of people asking for film related breakdowns, and we're actually

experimenting with that today. I recorded something this morning. We're working it up as we speak, so at some point either today or tomorrow, we will have a film breakdown on our YouTube channel of the Boston collaps so we can learn some specific x's and o's things. But we are gonna go over it in this video today. After that, we've got a mailbag and then we'll be out of here. We'll be back tonight on YouTube Live after the final buzzer of Bucks Warriors. You guys know the joefore we

get started. Subscribe to our brandw YouTube channel. I mean a lot to me. If you guys wild take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Follow me on Twitter, underscore json lt so you guys don't miss show announcements or the film threads that I do from

time to time. And then, last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep getting to them throughout the rest of the year. All right, let's talk some basketball. So this was a crazy game again between the Suns and the Nugget's a fun one last night, back and forth. Early Phoenix goes on a big run in the second quarter, the KD goes on the first of two hot streaks that he has in the game, hits a bunch of tough shots

in a row. They start forcing turnovers and getting out in transition and getting easy baskets there, and then Grayson Allen it goes eight for eight from the three point line to start the game, really capitalizing on the issues

that Denver was having in their defensive back line. Denver runs like two different kinds of pick and roll coverages and it basically it's either Nicole Jokic up at the level where he's active with his hands, and that kind of puts their back line into a position where they've got to be really sharp, or against teams that aren't as good with pull up shooting, they'll have Jokic drop much further back and then they can kind of do a better job of staying home on the weak side.

But Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant in particular, they just bring such a high level of off the dribble pop from the perimeter that it does bring Jokic further out, and from there it's just so imperative for that low man to be able to tag the roller but also to be able to rotate back out to the weak side.

And Phoenix can put you in some predicaments where you have, you know, Grayson Allen, who's been, i mean one of the very best, if not the best spot up players in the league this year out there, and usually whoever else is over there can shoot the basketball at least when they're in their best lineups. Obviously, they have some stretches of the game where they have some weaker offensive players out there, but against Phoenix's best line like It's a tough team to deal with on the weak side

with all the shooting that they have out there. I did not think Denver was very sharp on their back line until the fourth quarter. Then when they got sharp at that point, then it turned into more of a shot making contest, and so Denver started to methodically work their way back into the game. Classic Denver offense on one end, but then their back line gets sharper, so they're starting to take away the easy catch and shoot opportunities.

Grace and Allen starts missing shots, they stopped giving up offensive rebounds, and then casep and Aaron Gordon just did a really really good job on Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, getting really good contests and forcing them into really tough shots,

and Denver just starts working their way back and working their way back. Bradley Beal had to pull up three to put them up ninety nine to ninety with about four minutes left, and after that, Denver just goes on this magnificent twelve zero run to go up one oh two ninety nine. It was perfect basketball on both ends of the floor. Arguably could have been better too, because Jokic got stripped by Bradley Beal on like a like a fake, drible handoff as he went towards the towards

the basket on the right side of the floor. But they scored on every other possession that they had, and then Jamal Murray hits a crazy iso jump shot over Royce O'Neil. The last couple possessions, Phoenix goes with Royce O'Neil on Jokic and they switched the Murray Jokic pick and roll. Jamal Murray just picks on Royce O'Neil hits a really tough jumper. They're up one oh two ninety nine.

You're like, here we go again. Denver just denvered their way into winning this game after being down by twenty two points. And then Kevin Durant just hits a really tough, perfectly contested by Aaron Gordon pull up three on the left wing. Kevin Durant had been one for eight from

the field in that fourth quarter, makes that one. On the other end of the floor, Jokic misses a really tough runner along the baseline, and we're going to overtime, and in overtime, all those same tough shots the difficult shot making that was actually putting Phoenix in a predicament there. In the fourth quarter, all of them started going in all of a sudden, but Kevin Durant was hitting that pull up jumper, and then Casep made a couple of

big mistakes. He had a bad close out on Bradley Beal at the top of the key where bal beat him to the left and had a drop off to Drew you Banks for a dunk, and then he was five footed on an offensive rebound Royce O'Neil. They blitzed Kevin Durant pick and roll. Royce O'Neill was the short role man pass over the top. Royceaneil went downhill and missed a floater. Jokic had to come up to contest though the shot came short off the rim and Casep was just standing there. He was in a position to

grab it, didn't grab it. Royce O'Neil got his own rebound kicked it to Bradley Beal. So Casep was a double whamy because not only did he not get the rebound, but then he also wasn't home on the shooter on the weak side. They kicked it to Bradley Beal, he knocks down the three. On the other end of the floor, Jokic Chad drew you Banks on him, but really wasn't looking to score at all, which we're going to talk

about in a minute. Michael Porter Junior and Jamal Murray missed some really tough shots against some great individual defense, and Phoenix ends up winning comfortably. Super super entertaining basketball game. Got to see the best of both teams and the worst of both teams in this particular game. By far, the most impressive element, though, that I wanted to hit on was Phoenix's defense. After the Oklahoma City game, I

talked a lot about them needing to be scrappy. The little stretch where they had their comeback against o Say, okay, see when they took the lead, involved them double teaming Shake Gilga Alexander just doing a much better job of rotating around and chasing guys off the line. Because like, one of the things that Phoenix has is they don't necessarily have outstanding defensive talent, But what they do have is they have a lot of speed. They have a lot of speed, and they actually do have a decent

amount of length. When you look at like Boriso so Neil has long arms, Kevin Duran has long arms. Their guards they're not like you know, short guys, they're just you know six four six five guys that are pretty fast players, and so when they really fly around, they can be impactful defensively. The reason why this is so important is because there's a level of inconsistency in Phoenix's

offensive approach. When you take a lot of really difficult pull up jump shots, you're gonna have stretches where they go in like overtime, and then you're gonna have stretches where they don't, like the fourth quarter. That inconsistency is baked into that shot profile, right, especially Like it's one thing when you're getting the defense in rotation, you're getting wide open catches your threes, but as Denver show, they're

down the stretch. When you're sharp on your weak side rotations, you can kind of chase guys out of those sorts of shots and the ball will end up back in your star's hands and they're going to have to take really difficult shots over the top. So if there's inconsistency baked into your shot profile, you can't also be inconsistent on the defensive end of the floor. That has to be your consistency so that when you go cold, you can weather that storm on the defensive end of the floor.

And that was what carried them. Bradley Beal did an amazing job digging down on Jokic all night. I talked about his big steel coming out of the right corner there towards the end of the fourth quarter in ot he was ignoring Contavious Callwell pope off the ball and

digging down into all of the roll angle. So like when when Yo Kic would throw the little dribble handoff, he rolls into the middle of the floor there, and Bradley Beal was just digging down and taking that pass away, and Jamal Murray wasn't, you know, willing to make that skip pass to KCP to make them pay. So KCP is just standing useless on the other end of the floor. That's how they forced those guys into trying to score on an island. And then guys got stops. Grayson Allen

big stop on Jamal Murray in overtime. They're forcing him into a travel in a post up situation. Their defense was the thing that carried them through in this game. While their shot making was inconsistent, but like I thought, it was their best defensive game of the season. Usuf Durkic and Drew you Banks were both super physical with nicolea Jokic. They had five offensive rebounds between those two guys.

It was just a really, really impressive defensive performance. And then here's the thing, Kevin Durant, Like, that's always a capability that he has. You know, I talked a lot about how over the course of the season, how you can defend your way into making guys feel uncomfortable and they typically will have harder nights where they have to work harder and it's more likely that they'll miss. Like there's a great example that I think KD had thirty five points, but he took thirty four shots to get

them right. That's a great defensive game. But as cold as he was in the fourth quarter, KD always has the capability of getting hot the way that he did in OT. And once he made that big shot to send it to OT, he just was in rhythm at that point and then it didn't really matter where Aaron

Gordon's hand was. There's another bad defensive possession in there where KCP was guarding a KD at the top of the key, and then he just died on a screen, and so a KD came off, and Jamal Murray was kind of back in a drop and he was just way too far back and he knocked it down. KD was magnificent. And then Bradley Beale, you know, his ability to beat people off the dribble continually is something that

kind of brings a different element to Phoenix's offense. And I thought he made a couple of huge plays down the stretch of this one too, just with his overall speed creating shots on the Denver front. Jokis having a bad night really kind of threw everything off Nurkic is. It's interesting Nurkic is big enough to kind of bang with him in a way that makes him work a

little bit harder. I saw a lot of guys on Twitter saying like, oh, like Jokic succeeds just because there's no big guys in the NBA, and it's like, hold on a second, Like, there aren't that many people that big in the entire world, and you can't play in the NBA unless you're that big, and you can do a lot of other things. Why is use of Nurkic and and if you can Zoobatch and Nikola Jokic in the game, why are these like big, you know, rumbling,

stumbling centers still in the game. It's because they are super skilled, right, And so that's the thing, like there just aren't that many people like that. That is a credit to Nurkic, the fact that he can be a physical archetype that's super rare while also being so good at all these things to be the best player in the world. That's a compliment to him. However, when he

runs into some of these matchups like this, it does make things a little bit more challenging for him when he can't just completely physically overwhelm use of Nurkic. That said, there were tons of possessions where you Usip Jerkic was off of a Jokic from the ot period when he had fouled out and he had drew you banks on in the entire quarter. He had there's that the possessions down the stretch of the fourth quarter, he had roys O'Neil on him, straight up roy O'Neil on him, and

he just wasn't even looking to score. And so like, you know, every once in a while, every every player has bad games. Nikole Jokic is kind of in that Lebron James territory where he's so incredibly efficient and he doesn't rely on tough shot making, so like even his his bad games are like extraordinarily rare like shot making types, even the great Michael Jordan, like he'd have a ten for thirty night, you know, every few games, right like that was a part of what happened with his kind

of shot profile. Right like his there was more variants kind of baked into it. For these guys like Jokic, guys like Lebron, guys that are like offensive engines that rely on bullyball, like closer to the basket, it's extremely rare for them to have bad nights. But what did the bad Lebron games look like? What did the best Jokic games look like? They look like this. It's when they are not aggressive enough. It's when they're too willing to just make the right play, when they're too willing

to just keep the ball moving around. And I thought that Nurkic and the rest of the group, with their swarming mentality, did a really nice job of just getting Jokic into a mode mentally where he didn't trust a lot of his shot making ability, and so he was more willing to be passive and look to move the ball around. But again, extremely rare to see a bad

game out of this type of player. But this is what it looks like when that sort of thing happens, right, And as a result, because Jokic wasn't being very aggressive, it turned into Murray and Michael Porter Junior controlling the majority of these possessions, and they rely on tough, over the top shot making. So just like KD, they can go hold and went cold after they went up one twelve, one two to ninety nine, and they weren't able to make up for that. KCP, I just thought had a

bad night. He's a guy that is a super reliable

role player, and I mean at the same time, he made some big shots. He had that huge three on the left wing that actually put them up one hundred and ninety nine, but like, I didn't think that. And also I want to blame Murray a little bit in the sense that he should have identified that Bradley Beal was digging down off of him and been more diligent to get the ball to KCP, but on the defensive end of the floor, I thought it was not kcp's best crunch time, especially they're in OT, and so that's

something that they can build off of. And then lastly, bad back line help and recover situations like that was what killed them when they went down by twenty plus and it's just really hard to dig back, and they did, and they actually had a three point lead. Like Denver looked magnificent in the last quarter and a half of this game before they went into OT. But like they just dug themselves in such a big hole that Katie really only had to make one shot or two shots.

He made that one little drifting fade away in the lane and then he hit the pull up three. Those two shots he made were really all they needed to get to OT because of the hole that they dug themselves in. So, you know, just a bad night the sort of thing happens. Credit Phoenix. They defended extremely well, like jokicch was like losing rebounding battles too. That's something that you're just not usually accustomed to seeing. Just a

bad Denver night. Credit Phoenix for the win. A lot of fixable stuff there on the Denver front, all right, moving on to Boston Cleveland. So just a crazy comeback down twenty two points in the fourth quarter, Dean Wade gets crazy hot, hits a couple of shots on Luke Cornett and then gets comfortable, gets kind of into a rhythm, and then from there, like Darius Garland and Karriselvert, just did a really nice job of finding Dean Wade when he was opened from there, hit a couple of shots.

In transition, hit a couple of shots just kind of relocating off the ball. He was just scalding hot and Boston kept losing him and he shot them back into the game. I wanted to credit George's kneang too. He had two massive ones, had a relocation three on Jason Tatum or Tatum turned his back for a second, he kind of went to the top of the key and knocked it down. Had a three where he ran his lane in transition. George Ding also defended really well down

the stretch. Had a couple of big help defense possessions. There was a shot that poor Zingis made over the top of him in the post where he defended it really well. There was a picking pop where he made it like a chaotic rotation to get back out to him.

It's actually kind of funny because like he's so like awkward sometimes on defense just because of his body type, but like he was stumbling and all over the place, but he was playing his ass off and made a bunch of big plays on both ends of the floor to get them into it. And then the final possession that the game winner for Dean Wade, he just once again identified that Boston was ball watching. Drew Holliday was

on him and he wasn't paying attention. He just snuck right along the right along the left elbow kind of slot cutting through the lane. Darius Garland smokes a left handed layup off the glass, but Dean Wade comes in and dunks it and puts the calves up one. And then on the other end of the floor, the guy I have to shout out is Darius Garland on the defensive end because Boston was really trying to pick on him.

They kept bringing him up into ball screens and he was hedging and recovering and just doing a really nice job of sticking that hand out there to stop them from turning the corner and then sprinting back to the shooter to get a contest. He had a big defensive rebound possession against Luke Cornette where Tatum missed a layup off the glass and he shoved Cornette under the rim

to stop him from getting the rebound. He stopped Derek White on a drive or Derek White got downhill on him, and he literally sprinted back to get in front of Derek White to force him to spin. Derek White ended up stumbling and losing his balance and he missed a shot. And then on the biggest possession of the game there at the end of regulation, up by one, he gets switched on to Jason Tatum and holds his ground and forces him into a really tough left shoulder fade away.

Just really really good defense from the guy that they were trying to target down the stretch of the game. And again I wanted to just crdit. Cleveland like they baited Boston into their worst tendencies. They threw that hedge and recover put them in a situation where Boston was kind of baited into taking repeated catch and shoot threes above the break, which they have a tendency every once in a while, even though they're a very good shooting team.

They have a tendency to go cold. Big time win from Cleveland, snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and did it without Ivan Mitchell once again on the strength of their defense, and like, honestly, their defense hasn't been very good as of late, and so I thought this was really encouraging just to recapture some of that identity

on the Boston end of the floor. I had a Boston fan message me last night on Twitter saying like, hey, go easy on us, you know we you know, this kind of thing happens to everybody, And I agree for the record, like, this kind of thing happens to everyone. It's an eighty two game season. You're gonna have ugly moments. Denver just last night had a nightmarish game on both ends of the floor, particularly their offense fell apart in clutch time. Jokic had one of his worst nights of

the season. So like, yeah, you're right, this kind of thing can happen. However, important checkpoints to getting to the Promised Land, which is the Larry O'Brien Trophy, is having the self awareness to look in the mirror, identify what you're bad at and get better at it so that when you get to May and April and June, you don't make those kinds of mistakes. So we're gonna do a quick little I'm gonna quickly just go over what

I noticed on tape. By the way, we are working up currently a film breakdown version of this, so you should see that on the YouTube feeds soon enough, with some footage to break it down. But first of all, on the defensive end of the floor, the first two shots that got Dean Wade going, I didn't think there were anyone's fault twenty two point game. Luke Cornette's guarding him. Big guys in general have a tendency with shooters to not be as desperate to chase them off the line.

It's just kind of not naturally in their defensive kind of instincts. Right, and then you're down twenty, Like you're not really like playing the hardest defense you've ever played in your life. Right, So the first two threes Dan Wade hit, we're on Luke Cornette on short closeouts where Cornette's there, but he's more just taken away the drive and like, and Dean Wade had missed a bunch of threes earlier in the game, and so he's just trying to see if he'll make it right. So he makes

a couple of threes from there though. Now Dean Wade's hot a lot of ball watching like they're like like you you would see, like they're a critical possession late in the game, the game that the shot that put him up one h two ninety nine, Jalen Brown is on Dean Wade on the right wing and he's just

completely back turned to Dean Wade staring in the lane while Darius Garland and Jared Allen are running a two man game. Porzingis and I think I think it was Porzingis and Derek White have it like completely under control. They have the possession completely defended, there's no advantage there, and Jalen Brown is just standing staring at the play. Jared Allen gets the ball and ends up throwing the swing pass out to Dean Wade and he knocks down

the three. Another big one. And we're gonna talk about their offense in a minute, But some bad offensive possessions led to transition runouts, and they weren't getting matched up in transition. Georgia Kneeing hit a left corner three, not matched up in transition, Dean Wade hit a transition three trailing the play on a dribble handoff from Darius Garland.

Christops Porzingis was sprinting back in transition, got below the three point line, didn't realize he was matched up with the best shooter on the floor and lost him, you know, like Drew Holliday lost Dean Wade on a key three at the top of the key when he wasn't paying attention in transition. So like, it was a lot of ball watching, a lot of just like like I talk about like help and stay home decisions a lot on

this show. When you are driving into the lane and you're on ball defender is in position to force them into a tough shot, and there's another help defender that's in a better position to do something, and you leave a shooter from a different spot, you're not helping anybody. You're not actually causing that shot to be lower percentage. All you're doing is giving an outlet. That's how you

force teams into turnovers. You force teams into turnovers by defending actions one on one and two on two and staying home off the ball at least to at least close enough to the shooter that you're always back in that position, and you want to play the passing lane because then what happens is when you shut the action down one on one or two on two, whoever has the ball has to get rid of it somehow, and usually they're looking to get it back out to the perimeter,

and when you get them into tough spots where they're rushing, they'll force a pass out there, and if you're in the passing lane, you can force the turnover. When you're ball watching, all you're doing is watching your guys do a good job defensively on the ball while conceding an

easy kickout opportunity. And it's just it's one of those things where the offensive approach we're gonna talk about in a second, that's an important part of Boston's issues that they have to directify, but none of it matters if they defend so damn well that there's just a massive margin for air. And like, again we've talked about that a lot on this show, but like Boston's defense is so much more under their control than their offense, and they just got really, really sloppy off the ball. Down

the stretch on the offensive end of the floor. One of the things I've talked about, and I've been harping on NonStop over the course of the last month, is Boston needing to find a way to generate offense on the interior when their jump shots stop falling. From the nine minute mark, when Boston was up by twenty two, they missed every single jump shot they took down the stretch. By the way, that can happen. That is a thing

that happens in basketball games. That is a thing that has happened to Boston a bunch of times this season. So it doesn't matter over the eighty two. If you're the best three point shooting team in the league, it doesn't matter over the eighty two if you have the most volume of three point shots. It doesn't matter if in that individual game you have gone cold. The Celtics made five shots during that run. Those five shots were

all physically aggressive moves towards the rim. What are the four ways that I talked about for Boston to generate points in the paint, Posting up with aggression towards the rim, right, crashing the offensive glass, running in transition for layups, and dunks and then cutting off of the three point line

instead of constantly spotting up. They're five made baskets. During the twenty two point blown lead was a Luke Cornett offensive rebound put back, Al Horford making an aggressive move in the post to a hook with his right hand, christopsport making aggressive move in the post to a hook with his right hand, Drew Holliday cutting off of the weak side wing instead of spotting up and getting a layup, and christops porzingis running his layout his lane in transition

for a layup. So that is why I harp on that concept. When this happens, when the defense is ratchet up, the intensity gets crazy, maybe your team loses some confidence from the three point line and the shots aren't falling. That has resiliency. Attacking the paint has resiliency. In that environment, you're jump shooting. You might make them, but you might not. And when it gets in the team's head and the palms get sweaty, you're probably not going to make them.

You missed every single jumper you took during that run. The biggest problem with it too, they were running actions that are actually designed to generate above the break three point shots. For example, Porzingis pick and pop. They ran a couple of others. They ran I think two Porzingis pick and pops down the stretch of this game, two or three of them, but two of them led to three point shots and on them, like it is exactly what you expect, Like ball screen. You know, George's kneeing

helps recovers back out. Christops Worthings catches and shoots like a twenty six footer. Here's the thing. Krisops Worthinga shoots thirty nine percent on above the break threes, but that means he misses him sixty one percent of the time. And in a game like that, when it's super physical and when there's nerves and there's sweaty palms and all that stuff, it's actually even more likely that he'll miss.

It doesn't matter what the shot value is over the five hundred of them he might take in a season or whatever it is. All that really matters is that specific possession, in that specific game, can you get a high percentage shot? And like that is that action is going to lead to a shot that Porzingis is gonna miss probably two thirds of the time in a big sample size, But in that sample size, it's far more likely that he's going to miss, just because that's the

way the game is going. Also, they were picking on Darius Garland, and the idea behind it is set a ball screen, let me get Darius Garland switched on to me. By get Darius Garland switched onto me, then I can be aggressive. But they couldn't identify that Cleveland was hedging and recovering. So if Darius Garland is hedging and recovering and you're sitting guard guard screens, they are going to result in above the break threes because you're going to

come off that ball screen. Garland's gonna hedge, You're gonna have to pull back. As you pull back, the shooter is slipping to the three point line. You're gonna throw it to him and you're gonna get a three point shot off of it. Right, Jason Tatum missed in above the break three off of a pick and pop. Drew Holliday missed in above the break three off of a pick and pop. They were running actions that were leading

to that specific type of shot. Why it's concerning is they were actually able to get better matchups and get opportunities to attack the rim. But even when they did that, they either couldn't sustain it or they rushed the situation first not sustaining it. There was there at the beginning of the run where Drew Holliday and Al Horford were running pick and roll. They were trying to pick on Sam Merril. This was before the starters came back into the game. They run a ball screen. Al Horford gets

sam Meryl switched on to him. He immediately backs him down in the post and gets an easy right handed hook over his left shoulder and he banks it. In very next possession, they get the same switch. They get the same post touch on the left elbow. This time Horford doesn't even look at the basket. He turns and runs a dribble hand off with Jason Tatum just immediately bails on it. They just got it to work, and

they immediately bailed on it. That's one of those things where the really smart teams in the league will go, this is our advantage, let's keep going to it. And then the second one is when they got advantages rushing the situation. I talked about Darius Garland stopping Derek White on a drive. Derek White comes off the ball screen who's out of a horn set Darius Garland. There's a really nice job beating him back down the floor. Cleveland

goes home. Everyone stays home. George Niang had rotated, but he sprinted back out to the perimeter. He is on an island with just Garland, I'm not a defender within eight feet of him. And instead of slowing down turning his basket and taking his time bullying Darius Garland into the basket, he rushes a spinning shot and he loses his balance and falls over and misses the shot. And then that actually led to a transition run out for another bucket. Then there's another one big possession late in

the game. They run a ball screen, they get a switch. It's Georgi's kneeing on Tatum, Jared Allen on Christops porzingis Jared Allen. They just run the switch. Jared Allen is still right next to Tatum with George's kneeing. Tatum has the switch he wants. Instead of pulling it out, there's tons of time on the chalk clock. There's like fourteen

seconds on the shot clock. Instead of pulling it out and going further to the side to create some space, maybe even clearing the corner and working on the empty side and trying to beat him off the dribble and get to the basket to the layup. Tatum spazes out like just spaz Is and immediately starts trying to drive on George's kneeing. Jared Allen's right there, and so guess what happens Porzingis because he didn't move over far enough. Jared Allen's in this position where he can help and

then get a good clothes out on Porzingis. So Tatum drives into Jared Allen, throws the ball back out to Porzingis, and we get another contested above the break three. If he literally just would have chilled for a second and took it two or three steps off to the right. Now, if he drives and gets Jared Allen to help, it's a wide open three for Chrisaps. Porzingis not in a movement situation where he's sliding out of a ball screen,

but he's standing squared up to the basket. Or maybe you can turn the corner and Jared Allen doesn't help enough and it stays home on Porzingis and you get some kind of layup. But it's like there's no patience, there's no diligence, there's no like, let's be super particular about getting the right shot in this situation. It's the same kind of free flowing offense that you see in

the meat and potatoes of the game. And again, they'll have cold stretches like that and the meat and potatoes of the game too, but it usually doesn't matter because they'll get hot at a different time, make a bunch of shots and win. But in these late game situations, when the shots aren't falling, they have to do a better job of identifying where their advantages are and being super diligent about getting the ball to the right spots for the right shots. And again, it's just a bad night.

Bad nights happen. They've been kicking everyone's ass. They've been the best regular season team in the league this year. But we know this is what it looks like when Boston loses. They have to identify these things and fix these problems before they get to the postseason, all right, really quickly, before get before we get out of here,

let's get to the mailbag. First question, Has Peyton Watson shown enough this season for you to think he could be a sixth Man Starter Slash starter for Nuggets Dynasty love the show, have been watching for a while. Thanks for supporting the show. I think he's incredible on the defensive end of the floor. You saw a little bit of his issues with the jump shot last night, especially in that second half where it just guys are leaving him open, and that can be a little bit of

an issue in the long run. I think he can get better at that. Also, like cutting more like Aaron Gordon does, is a big that Peyton Watson has had a lot of stretches this year where he is super active as a cutter. I think that's a big way that he can kind of mitigate some of the issues with his jumpshot similar to what Aaron Gordon does. But

he's so damn good defensively. That one legged block that he had on Bradley Beal and Radley bil tried to bury him under the basket was such an impressive defensive play at a bunch of blocks against the Lakers in the Laker game too. Like Peyton Watson is just insane.

I'm a big believer in him. I absolutely think he is capable of being not just not just a sixth man but like, he's one of those guys where if there's a version of this two three years from now where you lose Aaron Gordon and Peyton, Watson has to slide into that four spot with a few more years of player development. I absolutely think he could slot into that role. Next question, how do you think about the defensive impact when ranking top players in the league, For example, Jokis, Persianis,

Luca versus Sga and Tatum. So here's the thing. I do think defensive impact matters. I think it's more important to a call out guys who are bad defensive players, Guys like Jokic and Steph Curry for instance, Guys who have worked hard enough on the defensive details to at least not hurt your defense. Those guys, while also being top tier offensive talents, are guys that I'm always gonna

gravitate towards. By the way, this is what makes Lebron the second greatest player of all time is like, when he was at his peak, he was probably the best defensive player in the world and the best offensive player in the world. And that's kind of like the thing that kind of sets him apart. But when it comes

to guys that have some offensive limitations. So guys like Yannis who can struggle a little bit in the half court offensively, guys like Jason Tatum who can struggle a little bit in the half court offensively with late game execution, them being awesome at defense to me isn't enough to

make up for their offensive limitations. For me, like ideally, I always am going to weigh offense a little bit more and I'm always gonna be more willing to overlook a defensive issue as long as those guys work hard enough to not hurt their defense, because at least you can construct a good defense around him. Seen the Warriors and Nuggets construct championship defenses around Nikole Jokic, in around Steph Curry. That's the question. Can you build a championship

defense around a guy like Luka Doncic. That's what we're going to find out in the long run. Next question, you mentioned the variants of the Celtics offense as it's reliant on a lot of jump shooting in the past. I feel this is way more easily reflected last season with many bad losses, whereas this year only one in

any game against someone under five hundred. Can it be the variance is lessons do the added pieces in KP and drew as well as long as well as long as Marcus Smart's inconsistent offense, or is that attributed to a much larger margin for air than last year? Them beating bad teams is all about the margin for air. They're so damn talented that they're just not going to lose to bad teams the vast majority of the time.

Right The variance to me is it's not so much in them relying on jump shooting, like I think they should be a team that takes a lot of jump shots. That's they have a lot of really good jump shooters. It's just they've gone comically so far in that direction up until late. As of late, they've been much more active in the paint, but they've gone comically so far in that direction that they've added variants to a larger extent than it needs to be. That's really all I'm

asking for. I'm just asking for balance. I'm just asking for a little bit more balance and then more like a read the room kind of thing. The best teams in the league, like Nikola Jokic, Let's look at let's take jokicch or Lebron, for instance. Lebron knows when it's the kind of game where he needs to be a passer, and Lebron knows where it's the kind of game where he needs to be more aggressive as a score. Nikole Jokicic last night, notwithstanding, is one of those kinds of

guys too. Those offenses and the best offenses of the league in general, they know what their advantage is on that given night and they lean into it. Boston needs to kind of be better at that Specifically, Hey, tonight, the jumpers aren't falling. We need to adjust into more of this play style. Or hey, our jumpers are falling.

Everyone's confident. Let's keep hunting these things. Let's get fifty of them up in this game, because we're going to make twenty five of them, right, Like, those are the kinds of kind of adjustments that Boston needs to get better at. Next question, Big fan of the show, in your breakdowns, you say before that your big playmaking forward like Lebron or Luca is your favorite archetype of player.

Do you think that this type of player inherently has more value than the big two way forward like Katie Tatum, Lebron at his peak was obviously an elite defender too. But if you had to compare peak Luca or Harden guard but big and control pace, for example, to peak Katie Kawhi Tatum, which has more value to build a perfect roster round in your opinion, here's the tough one.

Luca and Harden are are They are like Luca's a big, play making forward, but him and Harden, they both play such a helio centric style that there's another conversation to have about like their heliocentrism. So for instance, not this last PACER's game, but two Pacers games ago. By the way, Dallas is falling apart there they can't get a stop on anybody. But two Indiana Pacers games ago, Tatum had Ben Mathern on him and he straight I sowed him

five consecutive times to start the game. Kyrie didn't even touch the ball for like three minutes. And I remember watching that and I'm like, this is weird basketball. And I love Luca. Like Luca, I think is an incredible basketball player and I'm a huge believer in his ability. And for both Luca and Harden, I find things as a basketball fan that I'm drawn to specifically footwork stuff. Harden I have stolen most of his step back footwork

stuff that I use myself. Luka Doncic, like I use him as an example when I'm training the high school kids about the advantages of selling every move with every part of your body and how it's less about whipping the basketball around and more about selling things with your body language. There's a lot to learn from those two guys.

But their play styles to me, are very different from the Lebron because, like I would when I think like big playmaking forward, I actually think more like Jokic and Lebron as in, like they're guys that have like a

ton of offensive versatility. They always keep all their teammates involved, not just with catch and shoot threes and dunks, but with actual actions, and they operate as screeners and rollers, and like, to me, the Lebron Jokic archetype is the one that I'd take over, the Kawhi kde Tatum, the Luca Harden archetype. You know, I I think Luca is going to make the adjustments in the long run and get better at this. But I think they're a little bit different, and they're kind of a new archetype that

we're still learning about. And for the record, we have not seen yet a heliocentric player like Luca r. Harden win a championship or even make the finals for that matter. Next question, three more quick ones just the two guys

I've been waiting for. Can I get a segment on five reasons why you guys were wrong about trading Dlo? I remember what you said. This was a comment in the Laker video. I had to hit this one because this is one of my biggest pet peeves. Like sometimes new information comes to the table and then I changed my mind. That's all this was. I didn't switch up on de Lo. I didn't I wasn't wrong about Dlo before and then wrong again about him now or whatever

it is. What happened was is since Delo rejoined the starting lineup in the last twenty three games, he's averaging twenty three points and seven assists on forty seven percent from the field forty four percent from three on massive volume. Before that, in thirty five games, he averaged fifteen points and six assists on forty six percent from the field in thirty nine percent from three. He is a much better basketball player now than he was before this stretch,

he's playing the very best basketball of his career. I wasn't wrong about D'Angelo Russell. I'm just not a stubborn idiot who won't change my mind when new information comes to the table. I don't have an invested interest in being disrespectful or mean to D'Angelo Russell. That's not the case.

I talked about the basketball player he was when he was averaging fifteen and six, and I talked about how they should trade him because he wasn't good enough in addition to being a redundancy with Austin Reeves to not justify using his contract to improve the roster. Now he's playing way better, and it's a completely different conversation. Like this kind of thing, it drives me crazy because like all the time we're getting new information. The Bucks sucked

at defense the entire year. Now they're awesome. I'm excited to watch him against Golden State tonight. Let's let's find out what the new stuff is and let's learn from it. And then and and by the way, if you said, if if you said the Bucks defense sucked and then suddenly the Bucks defense gets great and they win the title, you're not wrong for saying Boston or Milwaukee's defense sucked. Yes it did, and then they changed like that. That

that kind of thing happens. D Lo is averaging eight more points, significantly more efficiently, and another assist per game compared to the way he started the season, and he's defending better like just like he's just playing way better. That That is why I feel differently about D'Angelo Russell. I am not married to any opinion. I will always respond to new information. Next question, what is Derek g Liively's ceiling? What does he need to improve to get there?

I look at Derek Derek Glively as like a Tyson Chandler type of a type of archetype. I think he's three things that I think he could get better at. One help and stay home decisions, So just being better at identifying kind of like we were talking about the

Celtics game. When you're on ball, guy has things under control, and you're more important to stay home and get the defensive rebound versus one of Guy's compromise, and he needs to help becoming a master of the role, not just the vertical spacing, but also the short role passing out of it, and then Lastly, against teams that switch would be really nice if you could add a little left shoulder, right handed hook to just quickly hit a shot over

the top when teams try to switch on him. Last question before we get out of here, why isn't anyone talking about the absurd season Giannis is having, averaging thirty one, eleven and six with two point three stocks on an insane sixty two percent field goals. Only Kareem has averaged thirty ten and five on fifty percent field goals. Giannis did so last year on fifty five and is now on pace to be the only player in history to

average thirty points on sixty percent field goals. Now, people may say that he only dunks, but they only but they forget that not even Shack did this. I think in some years, in some years to come, we will look back and realize that they that this may have been the most underrated individual season of all time. So I said this on the show a couple of weeks ago,

I nicol Jokic is going to win MVP. Nicoli has a huge fan base among the media, and so that's a big part of why he's going to control MVP voting. For a while. I think it's very possible that he racks up a bunch of them. But I actually, even though I think Jokic is the best player in the world, and I think Jokic is better at basketball than yannest, I think Giannis has had the most impressive regular season this year. Set it on the show a few weeks ago.

I would give the MVPD Yannis, Like I think, on a team that has had some significant personnel limitations in the back court, Janis has just been a wrecking ball trying to overcome those issues, and I think he's mostly been awesome this year. I think people that say that Yanis just dunks the ball are silly. I mean, the reason why I think Giannis is not the same level

as a guy like NIKOLEA. Jokic is just in that half court, slow down environment, Yannis still struggles to when he has to kind of do everything as the offensive initiator. We saw that again against Miami last year. Although he was injured, he did not play well in that environment. He still hasn't developed a go to over the top shot. So like, these are limitations that I think of in the big pick or player rankings, But I one hundred

percent agree with you. I think Giannis is having a massively underrated season and I personally would give him the MVP. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. I will see you guys tonight live on YouTube. After the final buzzer of Warriors Bucks, the volume