Hoops Tonight - Knicks huge win vs. Lakers, Nets down Nikola Jokic & Nuggets, Kings-Suns reaction

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on AMP. Don't forget if you're watching on YouTube or listening on the podcast feeds that AMP is the very first place that you guys can get these shows. We have a Jampack show for you today. We're gonna hit three games from this past weekend. The New York Knicks went on the road to a red hot Lakers team and got a big win. Last night, the Brooklyn Nets

went into Denver and got a big road win. I thought that was interesting from a tactical perspective because they went small in the second half and did a lot of damage to the Nuggets best five main groupings, which I want to dive into some of the basketball concepts surrounding that a little bit and just the danger that that presents Denver and some of the ways that they're going to have to adjust to that. And then, last, but not least, on Saturday night, the Sacramento Kings won

in Phoenix. That was their eighth win and nine tries, which is the best record in the league since the All Star Break. Haven't talked a lot of Kings lately, so I want to dive into them a little bit deeper and talk about what I think their playoffs ceiling is. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of these videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements.

And if for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish. Don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, so let's talk some basketball. The Knicks got a huge win. They came in and

threw an outstanding punch. I thought the Lakers were gonna win that game last night just because of the without Jalen Brunson, them not having the same level of pull up shooting that you need to beat Darvin Hamm's defensive coverages. But you know a couple of things. Julius Randall, RJ. Barrett came in and just completely kicked the Lakers ass

on offense. They combined for sixty three points, and I thought the story of the game was the perimeter defense of the Knicks versus the perimeter defense of the Lakers. I've talked a lot on this show about how I view the perimeter defense dynamic, like the line play dynamic and football Like a lot of times in football will talk about a quarterback and how he's getting rid of the ball too quickly and he's not throwing the ball down field and the offense is, you know, slowed down.

But we won't acknowledge the fact that they can't run the ball because the defensive line is killing them, and the quarterbacks running for his life because the defensive line is killing them, and how that usually ends up being the primary driving force of how the game is going to play out. And we just as fans, focus on the skill players because that's just the easy way to direct our attention and we forget some of those details that are taking place. And basketball, the same thing happens

all the time. You know, we'll be like, oh man, he missed that shot. This guy missed that shot, or oh man, this star is settling for this jumper settling for that jumper, and we don't acknowledge the fact that, like so many things about shot quality in the NBA, come down to dribble penetration. Are your guards getting downhill? Because if they're getting downhill, you're drawing in help defenders. If you're drawing in help defenders, the defenses in rotation.

If the defense is in rotation, then your offensive players are attacking with an advantage. And if are attacking with an advantage, they're going to get higher quality shots. It's really that simple. And if you contain the basketball, suddenly those those downhill opportunities aren't there. You're not engaging help defenders, so no one's open, and since no one's open, the guy with the basketball ends up taking and settling for

extremely difficult pull up jump shots. That's what that dynamic looks like, and way too often we ignore that dynamic. And you know, the Nicks have some really good perimeter defensive players, with Jalen Brunson out of manual quickly sliding into that starting point guard role. He's an outstanding perimeter defender. You know. RJ. Barrett, who's been an inconsistent offensive player

in his career, is a good defensive player. Miles McBride, he's got a little bit undersize, but he's super quick, got as quick hands, is aggressive on the basketball, has got a good like stout low center of gravity, and is strong, so he's a good point of attack defender. And then one of the you know again, one of the more bizarre trades of his trade deadline, the Knicks going after Josh Hart, which was kind of like an all in type of move that none of us saw coming.

Josh Hart is one of the better perimeter defenders in the entire game of basketball because he can do what those guards do and he can switch on to bigger wings and contain them on the perimeter. Not that he needed to do that last night against the Lakers much, although he had some battles with Ruby hat Chimura, but those that specific core for the Knicks put the Lakers

guards in hell all night long. And the Laker guards are somewhat limited even with D'Angelo Russell Danzel, you know, with Lebron James being out and with Anthony Davis as great as he is, and he had a rough game last night, we'll talk about that in a little bit, but like as great as he is, he's not a guy that's a you know, that can break you down with the live dribble from the perimeter. I mean, he

was struggling beating Isaiah Hartenstein off the dribble last night. Right, So, all of a sudden, you're looking at the guard corps as the primary offensive decision makers for the Lakers, And you know, D'Angelo Russell is a is a very good guard in this league, but he's not a top t your guard. And then all the other guys like Dennis Roeder and Austin Rees and Malik Beasley, like those are

role player guards in this league. And so if you defend at an extremely high level on the perimeter, you can give the Laker offense a lot of problems, and they did. Any lineup they played three of three of those four guys for a good chunk of that game. Any lineup that had RJ. Barrett, Josh Hart, Miles McBride, and Isaiah Hartenstein, regardless of who the fifth man was,

was plus fifteen in twelve minutes because of RJ. Barrett, Josh Hart, and Miles McBride and the job they were doing on the perimeter, and Isaiah Hartenstein containing Anthony Freakin. Davis I thought that was the difference in the game. There were a lot of wild swings, right like Julius Randall is red hot in the first half and De'angelo Russell was red hot in the first half, and there were these random swings there. RJ. Barrett kind of took

over in the second half. But the primary driving force of the dynamic of that game and the way that the Knicks stayed in control for the most part was that perimeter defense and the fact that the Laker guards could not keep RJ. Barrett out of the lane, could not keep Emmanuel quickly out of the lane while on the other end of the floor. They were forcing D'Angelo russell and to pull up jump shots. They were forcing

Dennis schroder and to pull up jump shots. The only guy that was really getting some dribble penetration was Austin Reeves. But even him, he struggled a little bit. He had three uncharacteristic turnovers trying to throw cross court passes over the Knicks length. That perimeter defense dynamic is what swung that game. Kind Of looking at the Knicks a little bit in the big picture, I think their defense is

for real. When you combine what Mitchell Robinson kind of provides as an option in the front line, Isaiah Hartenstein is kind of a different type of option, and when you look at what they have on the perimeter defensively, their defense is for real. Everything for them comes down to shot creation. As I've talked about many times on this show. You know, obviously when they're healthy, it's Julius

Randall and Jalen Brunson, but Emmanuel Quickly in RJ. Barrett in these recent weeks have done a pretty good job stepping into that that role in providing that little bit of offensive punch to give them a fighting chance in these games we've taught. I consider the Knicks to be their future to be entirely tied to their half court shot creation. I think they're gonna be able to fight in these rock fights with some of these other teams in the Eastern Conference. I know they're gonna be able

to get enough stops. It's can they when they face a team like the Celtics, when they face a team like the Bucks, when they really lock down defensively, Whether it's the Bucks funneling everybody to Brook Lopez in the paint, or it's the Celtics in them having all the great

perimeter defenders that they have. Regardless of which one of those teams it is they going, They're going to need to be able to get baskets consistently in the slowdown environment against those teams, and that comes entirely down to their shot creation. If they play the way they've been playing in the last month, they've got a chance. If they don't, they're going to get beat. That's really what

it comes down to on the Laker front. Obviously, it's a disappointing loss because you've, you know, Laker fans and myself as someone who's been rooting for the Lakers. Obviously, you want to win that game. You're at home, it's the Knicks without Jalen Brunson, You've got an opportunity in the standing. So it's frustrating, But it was a weird night, Like, yes, the Knicks deserve a ton of credit, but there were a lot of Lakers that just had uncharacteristically bad nights.

Like Anthony Davis seventeen points on eighteen shots. Wasn't nearly as impactful defensively around the rim as you would expect, and on offense, he really struggled with Isaiah Hartenstein. And I don't really think that's going to happen much in the future. Like that's a kind of a bizarre circumstance there. Troy Brown Junior, he came in shooting forty five percent from three on four attempts per game in his last seventeen games. He was over seven last night, and a

lot of them were wide open looks. That's pretty unusual. Malike Beasley is shooting thirty two points six percent from three since coming to the Lakers on ninety two attempts. That there's got to be some positive regression there coming, and there's a separate conversation to have about whether Darvin Ham needs to cut his minutes a little bit, because when he's not making shots, he's just not nearly the same defensive player as the other Laker guards Jared Vanderbilt.

That was the first time I've seen him really struggle with a defensive matchup since he came to the Lakers, really struggle with Julius Randall in the first half. I do want to say, though, that I thought that the whistle played a little bit of a factor. Julius Randall picked up I think he shot eight free throws in the first quarter. He picked up a couple of specific ticky tack fouls in the first quarter that I thought really kind of disrupted the rhythm of the game and

got Julius Randall into rhythm. There was one where he kind of dropped his shoulder and just went to the left on Jared Vanderbilt, and Jared Vanderbilt took the contact in the middle of the chest and he got a foul. Didn't like that call. There's like a pump fake jumper in the lane in the first quarter that I didn't

think was a foul. I think that one was on Ruby hat Tamura though, but that I do think that it was telling that in that specific matchup, again, Jared Vanderbilt's giving up some weight there, some size and strength to Julius Randall. He did struggle a little bit there. But what I will say though, is Lebron solves a lot of those problems, like Lebron giving them another big body to throw out Julius Randall, and we'll talk about what he does offensively in a little bit, but Jared

Vanderbilt did struggle with that Julius Randall matchup. Austin Reeves, who's been surgical in the half court as of late, had three uncharacteristic turnovers. So a lot of guys had really bad nights. Honestly, the only guys for the Lakers that I thought played well last night were Ruey Hatchamura, Indiangelo Russell. And so when you have in a you know, nine ten man rotation or whatever it is, when you've got seven or eight guys playing poorly, it's just it's

just gonna be really hard to win games. And honestly, I did. There were a lot of Laker fans that were criticizing Darvin Hamm. There were a lot of Laker fans that were criticizing their defensive effort. I didn't really

think it was any of those things. Of course, the effort wasn't ideal, but effort is directly tied to the way the game is going to Like, when you can't get drivel penetration, it slows down your own rhythm, and when you're not playing as well off pensively, you're not as confident and energetic on the defensive end of the floor. All those things are attached. I didn't think last night I had much to do with Darvin Hamm at all.

There was a couple nitpicky things here, or they're rotation wise, or you know, I didn't like when they went zone when Julius Randall was off the floor, But those are just nitpicky things. I think Darvin Hamm's done a really good job, and that's not why they lost this game. The Knicks lockdown all of the Laker guards, a lot of Lakers played poorly, and the Lakers best players just didn't play well. If Anthony Davis goes out there and gives you thirty and seventeen, you win that game. That's

just a fact. And so a lot of things just didn't go well. I don't want to overthink it. I will say though, like looking at the Lakers glass, I want to take a little bit of a zoom out look at the Lakers from a glass half full perspective and a glass fmty perspective. So glass half full. Obviously ad plays a bad game. He plays better, you win. He even said so after the game, He's like, we lost.

That one's on me. I didn't play well. Specifically, some of the role player struggles were flukey, right, like Troy Brown Junior going over seven. That's not gonna happen often. Malik Beasley is going to be due for some positive regression. And then lastly Lebron being out. We just talked about how that might have helped as just another body to throw Julius Randall. But on the offensive end of the floor, when you have like why were the Knicks able to

play three players six five and smaller on the perimeter defensively? Why? Well, the reason why is because the Lakers didn't have a real rim pressuring forward to attack those smaller guards. Like they went to Ruy Hatchimer in the post a few times, and you know he had a couple tough step backs and fade aways. But that's not a thing that you're gonna be able to run an entire offense around. And obviously Jared Vanderbilt is not an offensive weapon, and Anthony

Davis was matched up with the center all games. So like the real like, if your guards can't get dribble penetration and Anthony Davis can't create from with a live dribble from the perimeter, all of a sudden that rim pressuring forward becomes an absolutely vital position. And what ends up happening there is the way I talked about how you need to get the Knickson rotation right so you can get them flying around and get high quality shots.

The only way you're doing that is throwing the ball to Lebron James and having him initiate stuff from the perimeter where even if they do contain him, he can pass over the top or he can back dudes down in the post to draw that help defender to then get the defense in rotation. Like Lebron fixes almost all of the problems that affected the Lakers last night. That's

the glass half full way of looking at it. The glass half empty way is the Laker perimeter defense is not going to be fantastic, Like they'll have lineups that'll be good, like Dennis Schroeder and Austin Reeves. That's a good defensive backcourt that can hold their own. But offensively that's not enough. I think they're gonna probably end up going down in big games with DeAngelo Russell at the

point and with Austin Reeves at the two. Austin Reeves solid perimeter defender, D'anzel Russell not so much right So, like, perimeter defense is going to be an issue for the Lakers, but that's set. They have an awesome backline defensively between Jared Vanderbilt and Lebron James and Anthony Davis when they're healthy, they're gonna be okay there. They just can't afford Like Anthony Davis had a bad defensive game last night too. If Anthony Davis has a bad defensive game alongside poor

perimeter defense, it's just gonna go poorly. But I do believe the Laker defense is going to be able to get a lot of stops when Anthony Davis is locked in, even with some limited perimeter defense, as we've literally seen in their defensive rating since the trade deadline. They've been able to get a lot of stops, but it's something to keep an eye on. And then lastly, the Lakers

shot creation without Lebron. This is just the reality I have said many times over the course the last couple of weeks that the Lakers will struggle to consistently beat good teams until they have Lebron James back. And the main reason why is like they didn't have much of a chance at all without Daniel Russell. Now with Daniel Russell, they have a pretty decent chance in a lot of these battles, but they're not going to consistently win night in night out against good teams until they get Lebron.

And it's really this simple. Anthony Davis cannot create offense with a live dribble from the perimeter. He needs to be set up, he needs to be tossed the ball on the block and provided the spacing to operate, and he needs to be a play finisher and pick and roll or working on the offensive glass. That's the only way he can really impact a game offensively. He is not a consistent spot up threat from the three point line, and he's not going to stare you in the face

and break you down off the dribble. That's the biggest difference between between guys like him and Janis for instance. Right like that, that's going to be your fundamental difference there. I mean, even Joel Embiid throwing him the ball at the high post, he just has a whole other level that he can go to as an offensive initiator than a guy like Anthony Davis can. So that brings you to the guard corps. And again, Danzel Russell also reives

Dennis Schroeder and Malik Beasley. They're fine. That's a perfectly fine guard core when you've got Lebron, James and Anthony Davis. But when Lebron is out that that group has a certain ceiling to them, they'll win. I think they'll go about fifty fifty against good teams, and then they'll have a really good chance to win all the games against

the bad teams. But until Lebron comes back, there's a certain ceiling to the way you can expect the Lakers to perform on the offensive end of the floor, especially when they run into teams with really good perimeter defenders. I don't think it's a coincidence that they lost to Minnesota the other night with Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards, and I don't think it's a coincidence. They lost last night to that Nick's defensive group that is so good.

So they need Lebron back and they're going to need to kind of figure out how to address their perimeter defense concerns. I think the easy solution there is make sure you always have one of Austin Reeves or Dennis Schroeder out there in the big moments of the games at the end of games, which the easy solution there is you just go to Austin Reeves next to D'angela Russell. I think that's the direction they'll end up going. All right, let's move on to Nets Nuggets. So the Nets won

this game one twenty two to one twenty. The Nuggets were in pretty solid control. I think they were up seventy seven to seventy one at one point in the third quarter. They were really cooking the Nets with Yokis on the floor, especially in the first half. I think he was like a plus twenty in the first half of this game. But they Yokis picks up as a foul on Clackson gets him into foul trouble and Jack

von audibles and goes small right. And I think the lineup, if I remember correctly, was Cam Johnson, Dorian Finney Smith, Spencer Dinwitty, and I believe it was Cam Johnson and Royce O'Neill. I think that was the five man group that they went with. And they immediately go on a twenty seven to ten run to end the third quarter.

A couple of consistent problems that you would see. Centers in particular have notched have a different set of defensive instincts than guards do, right, Like, We've talked about this a lot from the Yoki's perspective on offense with inverted pick and roll, Like a lot of the reason why he has so much success running inverted pick and roll is like he's hands the ball and now you're asking a big man to navigate a ball screen as the

on ball defender. It's just a weird thing for him to do, right Like, point guards have a certain tendency defensively, Wings have a certain tendency defensively. In bigs have a certain tendency defensively. The problem is is when you go five out offensively, suddenly there's no big man on the floor traditionally on the offensive end. So there's no guy screening and rolling to the rim, right, nobody's rolling to the rim. Ball screens are popping to the three point line,

they're spacing you out. It's all driving kicked. The paint is unoccupied. And so one of the problems that big guys have in five out situations defensively is they default back to their natural big guy defensive principles when that's not gonna work because there's no big on the floor offensively. So a couple of consistent problems. We're hurting the Nuggets in this game. First of all, Spencer did what he kept getting Yokich on switches, and Yokis actually was doing

okay against Spencer didn't. Now it's Spencer Dinwoody. If you get to a late round of a playoff series, it's not gonna be Spencer Dinwoody. It's gonna be someone like a you know, a Steph Curry. It's gonna be someone like a deer in Fox right, Like, it's gonna be a much better guard that's gonna be on Yokich in

those situations. But so let's let's look at it from this perspective, Denver was overhelping, right Like they were sending doubles to help Yokich every time he got switched on to Spencer Dinwoody, which was getting Brooklyn some open shots, and like, yeah, part of you as a Nuggets fan, like a lot of Nuggets fans, were like why were they doubling? Like I will live with Spencer Dinwoody Isoa

Nickela Yokich all game long. Yeah, I agree with you, and it was a bad decision in this particular game, but that specific concept will happen in the late rounds of the postseason when it's not Spencer Dinwoody. It's a much better guard that is attacking Yokich in those switches.

And then the second thing that was happening a lot is they would put Yokich in ball screens, and Yokich was guarding them the way a big man normally would in a ball screen, right like he would kind of do a catch headge, which is, you know, he basically is kind of like semi sort of in a high drop where he's containing the ball handler, but he's still

kind of backpedaling and dropping back. And the Denver guards were chasing over the top, and they were leaving shooters open on those pick and pops because again, that big man's not rolling to the rim, it's a guard that's relocating to the three point line, and all five players in that Nets lineup could shoot, So they were relentlessly

attacking Yokich. Some of it was decision making, right, Like I if I was Denver, I would have just switched all those screens and been like, try to iso Yokich all game long, be my guest, right, But that's not what happened, and they were really struggling because their defense was playing back to those four out one in principles despite them being in a five out situation. So that was the offensive side of the twenty seven to ten run.

On the defensive end of the floor, Dorian Finney Smith did a really nice job fronting Yokis in the post and then the Nets were swarming around Yokis every time he catched the ball with doubles and then rotating out of it extremely well. That is a very good defensive group. Royce Neil excellent defensive player. Michael Bridges excellent defensive player. You know, Cam Johnson is Okay, Spencer Dinwood, he has

actually been pretty good. You know, like they've got good defense, Dorian Finney Smith excellent defensive player, all really good defensive players, all really good athletes, so they can really fly around on the perimeter in those rotations, and they some of it was shot selection. Jamal Murray responded to the fronting of Yokich and the bracketing of Yokis by just jacking up a bunch of bad shots. That obviously is less

than ideal. But they really struggled to score and that was kind of the genesis of the twenty seven to ten run. And I want to be clear, it wasn't just Yokich. They were like Michael Bridges was going right at Jamal Murray a lot on the offensive end of the flour Again, Denver's got entry points. It's gonna be a lot of Jamal Murray. It's gonna be a lot of Yokich having to guard on the ball when they

get into the postseason. Then we get to the end of the game because Yokich comes back into the game in the middle of the fourth quarter and sends the Nuggets on a run and they get it back to I think it was one sixteen to one fifteen, So it was a winnable game. But when they got into one sixteen one fifteen, Nikola Yokis made two back to

back defensive mistakes that cost them the game. The first one was both of them were Spencer didn't Wood he pick and rolls with Nikola Yokich's man, which I believe is Jordan Finney Smith. On the first one, Yokis comes up and sets the ball or Finney Smith comes up and sets the ball screen and didn't. He just comes off the ball screen and turns the corner on. Yokich actually beats him off the dribble, which is something that's going to happen, and he makes a kickout pass to

the left wing. And what happens after he makes the kickout pass to the left wing, Spencer didn't. He kind of relocates to the short corner on the left side, and I can't remember who it was that had the ball, but they were being guarded by Christian Braun and they drive towards the middle, and in the process when they're driving towards the middle, Christian Braun kind of has it contained, right. But Yokis is a big man, and you know what

big men are used to doing. They're used to guarding big men, and so they're used to lingering Aroun on the basket, and they're used to help in on drives, and so Yokeet's left Spencer Dinwoody just left him to go help Christian Braun on a drive that he didn't really need help with because that's his natural defensive instinct. Christian Braun made the nice little drop off past to Spencer Dinwoodie in the short corner, wide open, little sixteen foot jump shot, and he knocked it down. That was

defensive mistake number one. The Nuggets actually go down and score. I think I think Yoki gets like an offensive remail put back on, like a misshook shot or something. They

come back down. They were on the exact same action and on this play, Yokis takes a little bit more of an aggressive angle and has Spencer Dinwoody contained, but it's the same coverage and contagious called while Pope is chasing over the top of the screen and is staying with Spencer Dinwoody, So they're running basically like a high drop or a catch. Heage on Dinwoody and leaving Dorian

Phinney Smith wide open on the right wing. Dinwood. He just does a spin back pivot, throws the passage Dorian Phinney Smith, he knocks down the three nets are up four with less than a minute left, and the game

is over. And so again, even though they had some success there in the middle of the fourth quarter, Yokis was on the floor for that entire twenty seven to ten run, and he made the two biggest defensive mistakes down the stretch of that game, simply because they went to a five out offense for Brooklyn and Denver was kind of falling back on their natural four out one in defensive instincts. This is why I talk about this so much. You can put forth the facts simile of

a decent defense in the NBA regular season. The Nuggets are sixteenth in defensive writing this season. That's not awful, like it's bottom half, but it's not awful, right, And there are only a few points away from being twelve or eleventh or whatever, right, So it's not like they're

a bad defense in the regular season. But the way that they've been a decent defense in the regular season is they've found ways to keep Yokis around the rim and to cover for him in space and it hasn't been as much of an issue, but when you get to the postseason, it becomes a little bit more of a chess match, and there are specific ways to attack the Nuggets. It's going to take certain types of teams.

It's gonna take a team that has the necessary perimeter talent to punish them, right, Like, I don't think the Memphis Grizzlies are going to be able to punish Nicola Yokich in the half court offensively. That's like, if they

catch the right matchups, it might not even matter. But if they get against a team and they are a handful of teams, whether it's the Sacramento Kings, or if it's the Los Angeles Lakers or the Los Angeles Clippers or the Phoenix Suns, there are a handful of teams that will be able to put out some lineup groupings that are going to have enough perimeter talent to put this specific dynamic into play where they have to play five out basketball, and if they do, Denver can't rely

on their base scheme that they use in the regular season. They're base scheme that they use in the regular season just got them absolutely barbecued by the Brooklyn nets they need. They need to be able to function five out. Their best bet is to be like fine, attack Yokich all game long, attack Murray all game long, Take bad isolation shots, and we'll probably still be able to win. But it's going they need to have more of that type of

scheme prepared for that playoff situation. As a matter of fact, I'd like to see them here down the stretch of the regular season do a lot more switching. Put Yokis on an island more, at least practice it, because you're going to need to be able to do that in specific matchups when they get later into the postseason. You know, I had some Nuggets fans in my mentions earlier this morning, several of them that were like, like, oh, Yokis was a plus fourteen in this game, and like, look, man,

Yokis is a plus plus minus machine. He's a positive and damn near every single one of his shifts the series. He's been the best player by plus minus in the league this year by a mile. But here's the reality of the situation. He was on the floor for that entire twenty seven to ten run, and he was directly responsible for the two biggest defensive mistakes of the game,

and he was a six in the second half. So it's not like he could have run over to the scorers table and been like, hey, I was a plus fourteen tonight and they were going to switch the outcome in the standings. That's not how it works. I'm not concerned about the Nuggets as a whole in what they're capable of on both ends of the floor. In a eighty two game regular season, They've been the best team in the Western Conference by far. That goes without saying.

What I am specifically saying is that they have some weaknesses. Every team in the West has weaknesses. That's why. And I said this. I went on with Mark Ryan with CBS Sports on a Saturday evening and one of the things I said to him was like, because his first question to me was like, why aren't people taking the Nuggets seriously? If the season ended today, I would pick

the Nuggets to win the Western Conference. Yes I would, because Lebron's not healthy, Kevin Durant's not healthy, Andrew Wiggins is not even with the Warriors, and the Sacramento Kings are just a worse version of the Denver Nuggets. And the Clippers have this Russell Westbrook thing and they're a little bit inconsistent. There isn't anybody out there that looks better than the Nuggets, so they're the safest bet. And if the season ended today, I would pick the Nuggets,

But obviously the season doesn't end today. Kevin Durant's coming back, Lebron James is coming back, right like the Clippers might decide to just bench Russell Westbrook entirely when they get into these specific situations, or maybe they figure out a way to use him in a way that's beneficial. I'd argue they already have to a certain extent. Maybe the Sacramento Kings start playing Kessler Edwards more and getting more stops,

and maybe their offense suddenly becomes a bigger weapon. Things could change, And if they catch the right matchup, there is an opportunity there for teams to attack Denver in a five out setting by going after Jamal Murray, by going after Michael Porter Jr. And by going after Nicola Yokis. That's just a fact. And so we're going to talk about them and talk about what their upside is and

what their downside is. They're upside is they win the West, and then they get into the finals and they you know, catch the They catch the Bucks and they're able to keep Nicola Yokis around the rim and everything works out fine defensively, and they win the title. That is an option, that is a real outcome. But it's also possible that they end up in a bad first round series against the Golden State Warriors and they pick them apart in

five out. That's also on the table. And like, it is amazing to me how many Nuggets fans have ignored that. And I get it. You're a fan and you love Yokis. I know the feeling. Trust me, I get my own judgment clouded all the time with the Lakers and with Lebron right, But what I'm saying is is that, like, let's acknowledge, if, for what it is, they're the best team in the West, I pick them to win the conference today. They are extremely vulnerable. They are extremely vulnerable

if they catch this a certain type of matchup. All right, before we get out of here today, let's talk King's sons. So the Kings of one eight out of nine instance, they all star break. That's the best record in the league over that span. Some quality wins in there too. They beat the Clippers twice, they beat the Pelicans, they beat the Knicks, they beat the Suns on Saturday. That's the game we're gonna talk about tonight. They won twenty eight to one. Nineteen seven Kings were in double figures

in this game. Key adjustment down the stretches, Mike Brown went to Kessler Edwards. Didn't play very much of Keegan Murray or Kevin Hurder in this game, and Kessler Edwards did an outstanding job defending Devin Booker, and he made I think he made three two or three threes in the game as well, so like he was functional enough offensively, did not hurt them and was a much much better

defensive player than Hurder or Kegan Murder. Right. And you know, it's funny because one of the things that one of the ways you can always tell a dude's playing really good defense on a star player is the type of

shots that he's taking. Like there was a late isolation possession in the late fourth quarter where Kessela Edwards is matched up with Devin Booker, and Devin Booker ends up take like a ridiculously difficult step back three going to his right, and like, that's always the thing you can keep an eye on, when you can tell when a guy's got a really good matchup versus a guy who's doing a really good job defensively. I'll give you an

example later. I can't remember if it was earlier or later in the game, but in the same crunch time period, there was a play where Darren Fox got switched on to Tory Craig, and Tory Craig is has no hope in hell at guarding Darren Fox, and Darren hit him with a left or right crossover and got like ten feet of separation and rose up and knocked down the shot. It was a straight up and down, wide open seventeen footer because he was able to get a ton of

separation with Kessler Edwards and Devin Booker. Devin Booker couldn't get separation from him and so he had to take an extremely difficult, nearly impossible, stepping fading jumper to his right from three right. That's kind of like the way that dynamic looks for me. But shout out to Kesler Edwards.

He hasn't played a ton since coming over, but he did a really good job and he was one of the big reasons why the Kings won this game knocked down the biggest shot of the game too, a kickout pass off of a double team in the right corner. We'll talk about that in just a minute. One of the things that stood out to me from the Sun's perspective in this game is just without Kevin Durant, how

poor they look at the forward position. Big shock. I mean, when you trade all your forwards to get the best forward, maybe depending on who you ask, When you trade all of your forwards to get the best forward and then the best forward doesn't play, then suddenly you're playing all your bench forwards, right, So like I mean, there was a steady diet of like Tory Craig and Ishwayne Wright and Josh Akog and some Terrence Ross down the stretch

of this game. And Terence Ross couldn't stay on the floor because he couldn't defend, and then the Kings just weren't even guarding the other three guys, Ishwayne Right, Josh Cog and Tory Craig were wide open pretty much the entire fourth quarter. They were loading up on the Booker and Paul actions, and those guys got great looks and they just couldn't make up those four guys combined to go two for ten from the field in the fourth quarter.

Down the stretch particularly, they went with Jo Shakogi and Tory Craig, and they just couldn't get a quality look because they were just ignoring them. I think Josh Cog mister corner three. I think Tory Craig mister corner three. Just in those last few possessions it was bad. So like Katie coming back obviously helps that. And I always look at it as like the kind of like the aggregate ball handling of the group. I'll talk about this

with the Lakers. A lot like Jared Vanderbilt is a real problem offensively, right, But if he's alongside Anthony Davis, Lebron, James Austin Reeves and DeAngelo Russell, there's so much offensive skill around him that it'll be fine. And that's kind of the way I look at it from the Sun's perspective. If Kevin Durant is in for Tory Craig and that's Josh Akogi is the one week link. Offensively, I think

it all works. But when you have to put two guys like that out there, that's when things just kind of drop below that minimum level of acceptable offensive talent to be able to contend against good teams. But the Kings continue to be ridiculously good in clutch situations down the stretch. It was one fifteen, one fifteen, and the King scored on four straight possessions and three of them were outstanding shot quality, only one of them was tough. So I wanted to kind of go play by play

through that really quick. So when it was one fifteen, one fifteen, they start by running a Molique Monk and Sabonis pick and roll, and this was the play that got Terrence Ross out of the game. The Molique Monk got downhill way too easy, engaged the screen defender, just throw a little shovel pass to Sabonis who got a wide open layup. Right next possession down the floor, Darren Fox runs a pick and roll with Demonus Sabonis and

they actually defend it really well. This is the one possession that they forced the Kings into a tough shot. They contained the pick and roll. Deandreton recovers back to Sabonis. Sabonis is now stuck in the post shot, clocks winding down, and he just kind of like orients himself and hits Eton with the shoulder and comes way out wide with this lefty hook and he puts it in tough shot, you know. But from there, Darren Fox started going at Tory Craig, so he starts calling these ball screens to

get switches. He gets switched on to Tory Craig. First play is the one I told you guys about early hits Tory Craig with the left or right crossover buckles. Zim gets all this separation knocks down the jump shot. So then the very next possession they go at Tory Craig again, get the switch, and the Suns had to double, and when they doubled, it was swing, swing, wide open three for Kessler Edwards that ended up being the dagger. So like the level of offense, it's not hard to

see why this works. The Kings are now twenty two and fourteen in clutch games. That's the sixth best win percentage in the league in those situations. They have a hundred and twenty nine offensive rating in clutch situations, which is the best in the league by a mile. That's eleven point four points better than the second best clutch offense in the league. And to me, it's really simple.

It's an outstanding pick and roll duo. Darren Fox, who you have to chase over the screen, which is going to get him downhill right, and Demonus a Bonus who can catch and finish everything around the rim, is an outstanding screener to get Darren Fox position. And you can't switch the pick and roll because if you switch it, Darren Fox is gonna kill you an ISO or Demonus a Bonus is gonna kill you in a post. So like that dynamic is just a huge pain in the

ass for every team. And what makes it work is Sabonis can finish everything around the rim, and he can make all those quick little hook shots in the lane against switches and deer. And Fox has a great pull up jump shot that he can use in ball screens when he gets too much separation, and that he can beat people with an ISO, and he can get all the way to the rim to such a ridiculous extent that guys play off of him because how quick he is.

Oh and even if he gets into your chest, he can stop short and kind of pull up and make that little short, little left handed float or in the lane, the offensive skill set of those two makes it extremely difficult to guard them, which starts bringing extra defenders into the play. And they're always surrounded by three great shooters, whether it's Harrison Barnes or whether it's Kevin Herder or

today or last night it was you know, Kessler Edwards. Like, regardless regardless of who it ends up being, they went with a lot of Molik Monk in the clutch situations this year the league. Monka is obviously a dead eye shooter, can also run a little second side action if Daron Fox gives the ball up. They're just an extremely difficult team to guard in clutch situations. I don't think it's

I don't think that's flukey. Like if if the Kings can somehow find themselves getting into late game situations and the clutch, obviously their defense is gonna be a problem, but their offense is going to give them a chance to win playoff games down the stretch. Darren Fox has made sixty five clutch field goals this year, which is twenty one more than the next best guy in the league. He's shooting fifty four percent in those situations. Yeah, we talked a little bit about what he can do an

Ione pick and roll with his skill set. Here's where I'm at with the Kings. Do I think they can win the West? Sure, But that mainly has to do with the fact that the West is a shit show. I think that the Kings of like, there's no reason why I should theoretically believe in teams below them, right, Like the Warriors are incredibly unathletic without Andrew Wiggins, and who knows when he's gonna come back. Lebron's out, Kevin Durrant's out. We talked, We talked about all that stuff.

Everybody below the top of the West has so many question marks that like, yeah, any of those teams could win the West, but they could just as easily lose in the play in or or lose in the first round, like all those teams. You know how much I believe in their ceiling. I think the Suns can win the title. I think the Clippers can win the title. I think the Warriors can win the title. I think the Lakers can win the title, but they just have so many

question marks. And then between Denver and Sacramento, I think Denver's better and I'd picked them if they ended up in a Western Conference Finals matchup, but Sacramento presents some of those specific issues we talked about earlier with Denver in five out situations with a much better guard initiating things in deer and Fox, So they have a puncher's

chance to win that series. And then yeah, in the finals, it gets extremely tough because now, like I think, I think they would have almost zero percent chance of beating Boston and Milwaukee. So I kind of put their ceiling at can they win the West, yes? Can they win the Finals? No? And the real thing that's holding them back once again continues to be the defense. Even in this eight in one stretch post All Star Break, they are twenty seventh in defensive rating. They haven't had a

single encouraging stretch of defense during the season. Their best defensive month was December they were fourteenth, But they've been in the bottom half of the league every other month in four of the six seasons. This month or months this season, they've been in the bottom ten in defensive rating. It really comes down to front court. I actually think the guards have done a decent job. You've seen a little bit of Terrence Davis, You've seen a little bit

of Davion Mitchell. Darren Fox is playing really good defensively as of late. Their guards are competing. But it comes down to that same concept that I've talked about forever. Look back at NBA history from now every year back who is the defensive front court? Last year Draymond Greene that one of the best defensive players of all time,

with Kevin Luny a good defensive front court player. Year before Janison brook Lopez arguably the best defensive front court to ever win a championship, right depending on who you ask, Lebron and Anthony Davis in twenty twenty, Kawhi Leonard and Sergebaca in twenty nineteen, the Warriors again in twenty eighteen and twenty seventeen. Except for now it's Draymond and Kevin Durant.

You know, Lebron James and Tristan Thompson in two thousand and sixteen, that back when Lebron was an otherworldly defensive player. Draymond green again in two thousand and fifteen, Tim Duncan in two thousand and fourteen, Boshon Lebron in two thousand and thirteen, boshon Lebron in two thousand and twelve. You know Sean Marion and Tyson Chandler in two thousand and eleven byonhum Gasol byonhum Gasol, Kevin Garnett, we like Tim Duncan,

we can go on forever you need. You're not winning a championship in the NBA unless you have an outstanding defensive front court. The Kings, it's Harrison, Barnes and demonis a bonus. So that's ultimately what's holding them back. In the NBA, your forwards are what contain pick and roll actions. They're what help around the rim, and then when the defense gets in rotation, they have to be able to cover ground and drive and kick basketball. You can't win

unless you have excellent players in those positions. That's what's holding them back. So I've enjoyed watching the Kings. We're gonna cover them very closely Kings fans. We will cover every single playoff game for the Kings this year. We'll do film, deep dives, we'll do instant reactions. It's just I mean, like, as I'm curious if you're a Kings fan, put it in the comments, like do you think they can win the title with the Harrison Barnes demonus a

bonus front court defensively, do you think they can? And let's be honest and let's have a conversation about it. All right, guys, That's all I have for tonight. As always, that sincerely appreciate your support. Rest of the schedule for this week daytime shows Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, taking Friday off, probably gonna have a video Saturday night after Warrior's Grizzlies, and then taking Sunday off before we go into next week. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys, and I will

see you tomorrow morning. The Volume