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one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co slash b ball. All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume heavy Saturday. Everybody, Oh balve. You guys are having a great weekend. I'm actually staying up to record this on Friday night. We've got a jam Pack show for you guys. Today. I'm gonna be breaking down the
Clippers Lakers showdown from last night. As the Lakers, after getting dominated by the Clippers for a long time, they've actually won five out of seven in that matchup another super interesting example of the Lakers dealing with the switching defense. We're going to talk about that. After that, we're going to get into a showdown between the two teams that I believe will eventually face off in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Cleveland Cavaliers survive two massive runs from the Boston Celtics to tie the season series at two, getting a big win on the road in Boston. Then at the tail end of the show, I want to talk a little bit of Denver Nuggets. They've had a uneven stretch of games here recently. They're two and one, I believe on the road trip so far. I want to talk
about two concepts with them. One, the concept of inverted spacing as I watched Jokic pick apart the Pistons off ball defenders through just acting as a passing folkrim at the top of the key. And then I want to talk about the stuff that Denver has to get better at on defense if they want to make a legitimate run to get back into championship contention. You guys know the drip before we get started. To subscribe to the Hoops and I YouTube channels. You don't miss any more
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All right, let's talk some basketball. So when I looked at the initial matchups to start this Clippers Lakers game, I saw the Tylu put Zubach on Dorian Phinney Smith, and so my first impression there was, oh, we might have a repeat of the Knicks game when they put Karl Anthony Towns on Dorian Phinney Smith, and the Lakers just spammed a bunch of pick and pop action to get Dorian Phinney Smith in space. But there was a very smart defensive strategy that Tylu implemented in this game.
After watching a bunch of film of the Lakers struggling against switching, he just decided to have Zubach switch all those screens. That's why you saw so many of those ISOs out around the top of the key with either Lebron or Luca attacking Zubach in space, and I thought generally did a good job. He pretty much contains rebel penetration for the most part and force those guys into
a lot of jump shots over the top. Lebron was really carrying the load in the early part of the game by just settling into that mid range jump shot right around like seventeen eighteen feet out kind of by the top of the key area. But again, like the Lakers did struggle again for the most part, and you know, I don't think they're going to really generate a ton of offense against switching defenses until Luca gets back to the Luka Dancic that we know he's capable of being
an MVP level shot maker. Right. We saw even just a tiny little touch of it at the end of the game when Luca made a couple of big step back threes that led to an adjustment from Tye. We'll get to that in a second. But until Luca really gets back to his MVP level form on the offensive end, and until the Lakers start knocking down their catching shoot attempts, this is their third straight game where they got less than one point per catch and shoot attempt. They've been
struggling to shoot the basketball a lot. I do think they'll shoot better in the long run. But until those two things turn around, until Luca gets going, and until they start knocking down the catch and shoot shots, they're going to struggle against defenses that switch. And they struggled for long stretches in this game. But we did see a little Luca run in that fourth quarter. That was a taste of what things should look like in the
long run when Luca gets going. So it's a couple of step back threes over zubach In switches one on the left wing, one kind of out on the right side of the floor. Now at that point, Tyleru had to make an adjustment. He started putting two on the ball. Once Luka put two on the ball, then they were able to get the defense into rotation and generate quality looks out of that and open look for Dorian Finney Smith in the right corner that he knocked down a dunk for Jackson Hayes on a slip to the rim.
They started to get good looks because they got two to the ball again, like We're gonna talk about this a lot when we get into the Celtics game as well. But there's like an order of operations. In order to break down a switching defense. You have to start getting a matchup you like and attacking it well enough that you score at any rate that is untenable for the defense. Once you start scoring at a rate that's untenable for the defense, then you can start bringing two to the ball.
Once you can start bringing two to the ball, then you can start to generate the same type of opportunities that they got in the Denver game, where it's like, now we're getting a lot of these four on threes in the ball's popping around, We're getting wide open shots for people. They actually handled the double teams better in this game than they did it was the I believe it was the Dallas game if I remember correctly, that
they kind of struggled against double teams. But again, like that's a little tiny taste for Lakers fans and what that could look like in the big picture. Luca going on these scoring runs against switches leading to him getting blitzed, then you have all this opportunity on the backside of that. Now again, like it got a little tricky in this game because it's not Austin Reeves. Austin Reeves leaves the game with the calf injury. He's gonna be getting an
MRI on that. Hopefully Austin's okay, we'll find out soon. Ruyacha Mura Jj Redick talked after the game, is dealing with Peteller tendonitis or tendon tompathy, if I remember correctly, like something's going on with the front of his knee. He's gonna be out for about a week. So take those two guys out of the rotation. You're bringing guys
into the rotation that are lesser offensive players. You know, Trey Jemison basically operating as the backup center when that's been a lot of small ball looks anchored by Ruey and then you're getting a lot more Jordan Goodwin because Austin Reeves is out of the lineup. Right, those guys are not as good in terms of offensive threats. Although they scraped tonight. We're gonna talk about it in a little bit. So they're gonna be a little tricky in these four on threes in the next couple of weeks.
As Lebron and Luca have to kind of shoulder more of that offensive load, and there's just not as much offensive talent off the ball. But in general, I thought you got to see a little taste of what it could look like in the big picture as Lucas starts to get going. That's a beautiful thing about all of this. They've been winning with defense. This is the sixth consecutive game where the Lakers held their opponents to one hundred
and two points or fewer. This is now a twenty one game span of the Lakers being the best defense in the NBA. That's over a fourth of the season. It's a beautiful thing for the Lakers fans because the thing that I've been most excited about with this team in the big picture is what they're capable of on
the offense. Event I imagine a five man grouping with Lebron, Luca and Austin, Dorian Finney Smith and Ruey Hatchamura that could achieve a level of unguardability in a playoff context when Luca gets back to the level that we all know that Lucas capable of reaching. Right, Lebron was fantastic again in this game. By the way, He's been doing a great job of just kind of like pulling the weight as Luca's been working his way back into rhythm. It's just wild to me how he's consistently night tonight
playing at an MVP level. I was in awe of him again tonight. He soundly outplayed Kawhi Leonard, soundly outplayed James Harden, a couple of stars that are a half decade younger than him. Just Lebron continues to just be amazing. I wanted to shout out the Lakers bench in this game, though, because obviously Ruey hat Chamura is out, then we find out Austin's out, the Lakers are down two starters, so I ended up being just Lebron and Luca and a
bunch of discounted role players. But one of the things that I've been preaching about for a while is the value of high motor athletes on an NBA roster, especially on your deep bench. The reason why I'm into this concept is when your main guys are out of the lineup, just playing super fucking hard will go a long way towards keeping your floor up high and giving you a chance to win games. Jordan Goodwin was insane again in
this game. One of the best scrappers that I've rooted for in my time as an NBA fan, Jared Vanderbilt was great. Tray Jemison came in and just played his ass off Dorrian Phinney Smith always plays hard game, Vincent always plays hard. I just think that's how you should build a team when you have championship aspirations and you're trying to survive the regular season, make sure the guys that are outside of your normal rotation are guys who play hard, because that is something you can count on
every single night. When you have offensive players that are not very good and that's why they're end of the bench guys, they could be terrible on a night when they don't have their jump shot going, or when they don't have, you know, a matchup where they're facing switching and they have to create more shots for themselves. Like, you're gonna run into a lot more weaknesses in that regard. And here's the thing. Jordan Goodwin struggled to knock down
spot up threes today. Tree Jemison had a couple of plays where he you know, fumbled the ball away in traffic. There are going you know, a lot of Jared Vanderbilt, right, there's gonna be moments where you're dealing with those guys
in their offensive limitations come to the surface. Jared Vanderbilt still struggles to catch anything in traffic, right, but like just by competing and playing their ass off, like I thought, one of the biggest plays of the game is when the Clippers took that lead off of I believe it was off of a Kwi Hindard three at the top of the key on the left side where I believe Luca goes down and scores, and on the inbound Jordan Goodwin gets a steal in another layup and it reversed
it back to the Lakers being in the lead. It like completely flipped the momentum and Luca ended up taking that group into having a small lead going into the fourth quarter. That's a scrappy play that made a huge difference.
Jared Vanderbilt scrapping, getting on the floor, taking the ball away from James Harden and drawing foul gave Vincent he committed a kicking violation on this play, but applying ball pressure and kicking the ball away from James Harden and again, if you don't hear the whistle, you just keep playing, and he just ran beat everybody to the basketball, got that ball, ran it out and transitioned and got a
lay up. Those dudes scrapped all game long, and it gave the Lakers a chance to win, even down two of their most important offensive players, and Lebron and Luca just grinded out enough buckets against switches out above the break in order to get enough to win that particular game.
I thought the Zubox matchup was interesting. I mean, it's the same type of player as Jokic in terms of like a guy that's just way too big for any Laker to guard, but it's a very different type of matchup because Jokic was the center of the game plan and everything they did was built around like helping off of these non shoes and containing Jokics, right, and like even with Jamal Murray, they were willing to concede these like mildly contested pull up jump shots out above the break.
Right with Zubos though, like he's not the focus of the game plan. The game plan was focused around Kawhi Leonard and James Harden. A lot of similar stuff to what we've seen in other matchups where they were sending all sorts of help at Kawhi Leonard, particularly when he would turn his back, so that when he would go to spin off of a guy, he would just run into bodies. They just did a great job of making Kawhi Leonard feel like he was playing in a crowd.
They pressed up on James Harden's right shoulder so that they could contest without getting up underneath his landing zone, so he wouldn't get to the foul line. Although Jackson Hayes did have a really really bad foul in the fourth quarter where he reached in on James Harden just stuck his hand right on James Harden's left arm, and that's just James has been just had an automatic trigger to just rise and fire when he sees that for the last half, you know, you know, five seven years
of his career to draw additional foul shots right. So like, But for the most part, they played Harden's right shoulder. They tried to funnel him into help where Jackson Hayes was always waiting and he was trying to take that floater. I think he ended up going one for ten from three. They did a good job of closing that gap and keeping things difficult for him, and it worked. They held Kawhi and James Harden to thirty nine points on thirty
nine shots. They forced him into eight turnovers. I thought it was another impressive defensive game plan from JJ Reddick, but again you end up giving things to take things away, right, just like in the Denver series or Denver game, the Lakers were conceding wide open looks to Aaron Gordon, Russell Westbrook,
Christian Brown. Right in this matchup, it was like Zubach was getting some catches, He was getting some catches on the roll, and like the Lakers were constantly reacting to Zubach when he'd already have deep post position as opposed to denying Jokics fronting the posts, forcing him to catch the ball further out so that they could mitigate some
of his size. Was Zubach by the time he caught it underneath the basket most of the time they were just dead to rights already, and Zubach was just able to shoot a little bok shot over the top where he's so dead lean. Zubatch is just an awesome player. I think, what do you have like twenty seven and
sixteen something like that in that game. The thing that has been really impressive to me was Zubach in particular, is like his floater touch, Like when he would catch and there wouldn't be somebody on him, he'd be seven eight feet from the basket, he just turn and shoot like a little floater that would just softly go in the basket every single time. He's just a really good player.
And that was where the Lakers decided to have their defense bend without breaking, and they gave up a ton to Zoobach, they held everyone else in check and again held another opponent to one hundred and two points or less. The Lakers are now seventeen and four in their last twenty one games. That's the best record in the NBA, their tenth in offense, first in defense, eighth in defensive rebounding.
On the Clippers front, the only thing I wanted to get into there, The biggest concern for me that stood out was just the amount of lift that Kawhi Leonard was getting on his jump shot. Kawhi was shooting a really flatball tonight, and it was barely getting over the front of the rim unless he was wide open, like
if he was wide open. That thing was going in and Kawhi just has a very robotic jump shot form to where like if he kind of gets into his energy transfer from the ground up and no one disrupts that, he's gonna knock it down, right. But like just about everything that was contested and everything that involved him trying to shoot through you know, congested defense around him, he
struggled to get lyft. And again, like when Kawhi's at his best, he's always powering through guys, bumping them off with his shoulder, getting to his spot, rising cleanly, and just it just pops in off the back of the rim over and over and over again when he's at his best. And like he's up to seventeen games this year and he's just not getting lyft. I think he's actually up to eighteen games this year. He's just not
getting lyft. And that's the part that concerns me as part of as as far as like his base goes and just like whether or not his knee is capable of getting to where to be for the Clippers to make a real run. But big win for the Lakers again, five out of seven against the Clippers, they've flipped that script. The one thing I'll the last thing I'll say in the Laker front, Guys, like, like I talked about after the Minnesota game, my biggest concern with this team is injuries.
They've been playing their asses off, they've been competing, but guys are starting to drop. Bruy goes down, Austin goes down. We haven't even gotten to the forty year old or the dude who's you know, was significantly overweighted a couple of weeks ago and has already dealt with calf issues throughout the season. So, like, I'm a little worried about the Lakers on the injury front. It's basically the main piece of pessimism that I'm contending with right now as
a fan of the team. But they are playing some really good basketball, and I do think they have a formula to where they can keep things afloat until they get guys back into the lineup. All right, Moving on to Calves Celtics. So the Celtics just jump them right away. Calves missed a couple of decent looks from three. The Celtics are just immediately on fire. I thought Tatum came out looking fantastic, hitting jump shots, spraying the ball out
to shooters, they jump up twenty five to three. Doris Burke had an interesting comment on the broadcast talking about how like the Calves just didn't look like the like they believed they belonged on the same floor with the Celtics, Like they just had this energy in that first stretch of the game where they just didn't look like they
believed they could win. And there was a really cool quote that the broadcast showed from Kenny Atkinson in the huddle saying, like, come on, guys, like this is not us, Like, just believe in what you're doing. Step in and knock some shots down, right, And that's what I thought turned it around. There were two things that I thought like kind of just changed the tone and tender of the game after that twenty five to three start, first drible
penetration from Darius Garland. He started getting buy people off the dribble and getting the defense into rotation to generate some quality shots. That just kind of started to pick up the pace for Cleveland in this game. And then a couple of shooters entered the game, a couple of guys that came in with confidence and knocked down some shots. DeAndre Hunter and Ti Jerome both stepped in and each
knockdown two threes. Ti Jerome, who can be really aggressive as a pull up shooter, hit two kind of contested threes and like had a little bit of attitude about it, and it just loosened up the team, and you could tell that helped them believe that they could get back into the game and they started to settle down and play Cavs basketball. They started to get stops run out in transition, attacking the Celtics defense before it got set.
I thought Darius Garland did a really nice job of like getting up the ball, the ball at the floor quickly and quickly getting into a screening action to immediately draw two to the ball, and then he would drive off of it, drawn nail heelpi to the wing and someone was wide open. Like consistently, they started to get like some really great looks and it got them go on the offensive end of the floor and then on defense, sticking to the game plan, not overreacting to Tatum and
Brown when they were beating switches. This was, you know, this is what I've always talked about in terms of like what I believe is the best strategy to defend the Boston Celtics, and that's switch contain. Try to bait Jalen and Jason into pull up jump shots and hope that they settle a bunch and that you can keep them out of rotation, keep them from getting the wide open catch and shoot threes and the easy stuff at
the rim that makes them unbeatable. And by the way, like it was, their defense was breaking early on, they were conceding the switches. Tatum was picking on everybody, a lot of Garland, but a ton against the Bigs, a lot of Evan Mobley and Jared Allen in space where Jayson Tatum was just going to work and like Jalen Brown did most of his work against Darius Garland, did a ton of damage there, did some damage there in
the fourth quarter. But like I was really impressed by Jason Tatum in his ISO possessions against Evan Mobley and Jared Alla. He was just driving hard at Evan Mobley and just like shucking him off with that right shoulder and getting easy looks to doing the same thing to Jared Allen, although he can't dislodge him as well. But he was showing a lot of impressive over the top short and mid range shot making against Jared Allen, he
who's beating him off the dribble. There was a lot of good for the Celtics attacking Cleveland's game plan in the first half. But again, the goal there for Kenny Atkinson is to stay out of rotation as much as possible and limit Boston's catch and shoot looks. In order to do that, you have to not send too much help and count on those guys to just do the best they can and hope that they eventually wear down over the course of the game and that you start
to get stops when you need him late. By the way, Boston averages thirty two catch and shoot jump shot attempts per game, which is the second most in the entire NBA. The only generated twenty catch and shoot catch and shoot shot attempts in this particular game because they stayed out of rotation, because they allowed Jon Tatum and Jaylen Brown to play one on one And by the way, in the first half, Boston got one point five to four points per ISO and they were getting cooked. But in
the second half just one point per ISO flat. That's much more tenable. And then down the stretch. Cleveland took a page right out of Boston's book and started doing hunting of their own, as Donovan Mitchell just started relentlessly picking on Sam Hauser and was just consistently generating great stuff against him. He had twelve points and two assists in the fourth quarter. I thought he was incredible all night,
Like as great as Jason Tatum was. Donovan Mitchell was basically going step first step with him, and there just aren't that many players in the league who can do that super impressive off the dribbles shot making the step back three, was going really deadly floater tonight. He was getting into the lane and just like shooting that a little easy five to seven foot shot over the top. He was killing the Celtics with that and then Evan Mobley.
One of the concepts that I talk a lot about in this show is the idea of, like, you know what it's like as a basketball player when you're playing poorly, and how you react to that, and how you stay engaged and understand that like nothing really matters. No one's going to remember any of it as long as you make a play that helps your team win and you get out of there with the win. Evan Mobley had a rough game through three quarters. He was picking up
some fouls, he was badly missing some jump shots. He wasn't really accomplishing much as a scorer, but he was amazing in that fourth quarter. He hit two massive threes, He had four offensive rebounds, a couple of putbacks. He finished the fourth quarter with eleven points and eight rebounds, had two of the biggest like had several of the biggest shots of the night, and I thought he was amazing.
And now no one's going to look back at that game and think Evan Mobley played poorly because he found a way to make plays when his team needed to in the fourth quarter and they got got out of there with the win. Really impressive Resilien. It's not the whole team, but especially from Evan Mobley. Big picture with the Cavs, I thought this was an incredibly impressive win,
regardless of the surrounding context. To survive a twenty five to three start and another big Celtics run in the third quarter where they go up by seventeen to win on the road in that building against that team, I thought it was just remarkable mental toughness in belief that they were unwavering and they're just like attack and just like eventually Boston will show some cracks and we're gonna work our way back into this game. And they did.
They completely turned around the vibes from the beginning of the game. And that's twice this year that they beat the Celtics in games that they looked like they lost control of. Again, if you remember the game in Cleveland that Boston or that Cleveland won, Tatum was picking on Garland, doing a bunch of damage short range shot making, looked like the Celtics were gonna get out of there with the win. Donovan Mitchell again just a bunch of crazy shot making down the stretch as he helped pull that
game out. But at the same time, I do think it's important to acknowledge that there was a dynamic gap play in that fourth quarter that won't be in play if these two teams meet in the playoffs. The Calves had an easy target to attack in crunch time in Sam Hauser. In a playoff series, that won't be Sam Hauser, that'll be Drew Holliday. That's the thing that's scary about this matchup in the big picture, and what makes the Celtics such a dangerous team to deal with in a
two week context. The Celtics will always have ways to attack you, especially if you're Cleveland. Right Like Darius Garland, Tatum and Brown both feel very comfortable in that matchup. Jason Tatum, as he demonstrated tonight, looks very comfortable attacking Cleveland's bigs in switches. But the Calves will not have those same high quality options unless the Celtics enter that series with a bunch of injuries. That's more or less where I'm at with this matchup at this point. If
the Celtics are fully healthy, the Calves can win. But I'm definitely going to pick the Celtics. But if the Seas go into that series with a couple of injuries, say it like two of their core six guys, to where someone like a Howser has to play, or someone like a Pritchard has to play, then this series looks a lot more like a coin flip to me, and we'd be foolish should not consider that as a potential outcome.
When chrisops Porzingis missed a bunch of time in the playoffs last year, so yeah, I think health is very important for the Celtics, and I think it's important that they continue to manage the injuries the way they have been with all their guys throughout the season because it's so important that they get there with everyone available. On the Celtics front, I didn't love the idea of Jalen Brown taking nine shots in the fourth quarter with how
well Jason Tatum was playing. There were some good possessions there against Aarius Garland, but there are some really tough shots mixed in there too. And again, like as a team, you only managed eighteen points in the fourth quarter. Very few of those catch and shoot type of attempts generated in the fourth quarter. That's where it becomes an issue.
There was a brief stretch there in the middle of the fourth where Kenny Atkinson went small to mobile and Allen out out of the game, and the Celtics immediately played some really good driving kick basketball. And that's the thing. It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough against a team like Cleveland that can really load up on the ball with their size, right, But like you can't just settle for jump shots. There has to be an attempt
to get as much of that. There has to be an attempt to get as much of that rim pressure as possible. It looks kind of kobesque at times with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown constantly taking really, really difficult off the dribble jump shots. The Celtics took forty off the dribble jump shots in this game and only got thirty six points out of them, zero point nine points per attenp. That's where the Jays have to be more deliberate about that same dynamic we talked about in the
Lakers segment earlier in the show. Pressure the rim force help make it untenable. Gotta generate those driving kick attempts, catch and shoot threes, easy stuff at the rim. That's the championship Celtics off the dribble jump shot is a ceiling raizer. It's a rescue possessions at the end of the shot clock type of thing. But you can't live and die on that. Forty off the dribble jump shots is too many in one game. I'm not gonna be
too concerned about them. On the defensive end in this game, it's just tough to contain the ball without Drew Holliday, but they certainly can do better. The Calves did cut them to pieces after that first quarter. But again, that's gonna be the one thing that is going to look like a potential vulnerability for the Celtics this year in the postseason is if Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown don't bring the requisite a level of downhill aggression against switches.
All right, let's talk a few minutes of Nuggets before we get out of here tonight. So I want to talk about two concepts, the idea of inverted spacing, and then I want to talk a little bit about the
Nuggets on the defensive end of the floor. So I was amazed at how easily the Nuggets were picking apart the Pistons in this game by just having Yokics bring the ball off the floor and you know, dribble up to the elbow or the top of the key kind of extended out above the break, and then they would just have some of their guys run off ball action, and Yokic was just making a read as those guys were either slipping out of a screen or the Pistons would botch a screen and put two on the ball
on accident. Whatever it was that they would do, Yokic would make an easy, little over the top pass. And there's a reason why that's so open for Denver. There are a lot of teams that run off ball action, but most of the teams that run off ball action are not using their center as that type of high level passing folkrum to where one he can make all the reads, but two he also is capable of being a scoring threat to where you have to press up on him right when you have to press up on Jokic.
Where's the big he's on Jokic. So there's a lot of space underneath the basket for guys to get openings slipping out of those actions. And the other part of it is this is where continuity comes to the surface for Denver. MPJ has been playing in this system forever. Al Murray's been playing in this system forever. Aaron Gordon's been playing in the system forever. Christian Brown's been playing in the system for a few years now. These guys have a lot of reps in this system, so they
just know what to do this. Okay. If I set a backscreen and Jamal Murray cuts through off of my back screen but his defenders pinned on my top side, I just wait for Jamal to cut through and then I kind of push off that guy and I know that passing angles right there. Because he's on my top side, I've got an easy opportunity behind me to get to the rid right like, Oh, it's a they're not switching and he's kind of staying glued up. I'm just gonna
curl around it. I have an opportunity to attack that way, or I can come off of yokicch and look to score. They scored a ton on cuts in this game, nineteen points off cuts. It was very similar to the Pacers game or the Portland game a few weeks back, where they just picked him apart with off ball action, with
Jokic operating as that passing fulcrum. It actually reminds me a little bit of the Golden State Warriors when they were in their peak there in the you know, mid twenty tens, because they played such a unique style that in the regular season context especially, but even in playoffs in the beginning of series, as teams had to adjust, they would do a lot of damage to teams just because it'd be like, Oh, I'm used to playing all these normal NBA teams, Now I'm playing Golden State, and
I'm being run through this blender of all of this action as I'm chasing Steph and Clay around and Draymond's strowing fake dribble handoffs, and if we blitz, they're just so good at executing these four on threes they would just pick teams apart like that, Right, that's a similar effect that Denver can have on teams to where they
just have such a unique play style. Actually, I think Tyre's Albert, if I remember correctly, I saw a social media clip of Tyre's Albert making a mention of this himself, talking about his experience and defending some of the stuff that he's seen online about people saying all the teams in the NBA play the same. No, they don't, and I agree, But like that's part of the disadvantage that Denver presents the teams is they just play such a unique style that it can kind of catch teams off
guard if they're not used to it. Right. I just thought it was really interesting watching the Pistons games. They got again a very convincing win against a Pistons team that had been kicking everybody's butt for a while. By the way, Javal Murray was amazing in that game. I want to shout out Zeke Nausey too. Zike Nagy had like a ridiculous defensive set of plays in the first half.
Like he like had a dig down play where he dug down on a drive and like close out to Tim Hardaway Junior and blocked him at the three point line. He like met Asar Thompson at the rim and transition and blocked him. He had another block on a rear view contest of Tim Hardaway Junior where he chased him over the top of the screen. He defended Tobias Harris
well on a post up. He did a lot of good work on Kate Cunningham in the second half where he's just absorbing contact and just making him feel like he was playing in a crowd. I thought Zeke was fantastic, big win for the Nuggets to bounce back from that Bucks game. But I do want to talk a little bit about the defense because they got picked a part at stretches in the Bucks game, and they really got
picked apart in the Lakers game. And there's this consistent issue that's risen to the surface that I've seen, which is the Nuggets are getting picked part in rotation. Now, as we talked about after the Nuggets game, there's a certain amount of existing in rotation for Denver that they can't avoid, basically because how in the world are you going to be able to defend with Luca or with excuse me, NICOLEA Jokic in space? You can't If you have him switched ball screens, You're asking him to guard
on the perimeter. That's not going to work. He's not a good enough rim protector to run deep drop. So you're kind of limited in terms of defensive scheme for Denver with Jokic at the level in ball screens. But they've been getting killed there. So how do the Nuggets get to the point where they can defend at a level that is high enough to win the championship within the concept of that defensive scheme? And there are two elements that I want to do a little bit of
a deeper dive in today. First, this is on Jokis. When he is at the level, he has to be much much, much more active with his hands. For the record against the Detroit I thought he had a lot more quality possessions like that early in the game. Met Kate up at the level got a deflection as he was trying to gather his dribble. There was another one where he got up on the level against Kate and apply good ball pressure and Kate kind of panicked and
rifle to pass out of bounds through the baseline. The reason why being active at the level is so important with Jokic's hands is because being in rotation is hard. One of the things you can do to make existing
in rotation easier is to disrupt the first pass. If you get up to the level and the first pass is just easily rifled across the court or easily dropped off to the role man, now you're existing in rotation and you're dead to rights because every close out is like a fifteen twenty foot close out and you're just
behind the eight ball, so to speak. But if you apply a little pressure and you either get a little bit of a deflection, or you forced that pass to be off target a little bit, or you force that pass to go up in the air for a while before it gets to where it needs to go, all of a sudden, the first rotation has a head start because the ball getting from point A to point B,
whether that's the role man or the weak side. The ball getting to that point is now delayed, and if it's delayed by a split second, that split second can be what it takes for you to make that first rotation, and then from there you have to be as sharp as possible with your rotations on the backside. Denver's not been good with their rotations for the most part this season. If you can, you can do a lot to make shooters shoot poorly by making them feel rushed, and you
can make them feel rushed by being sharper with your closeouts. Again, the openings are going to be there, they're baked into the coverage. You're bringing Yokich up to the level that's unavoidable, but you can be more prepared for it on the back end, and I think that that's going to be a non negotiable for the Nuggets. For them to get to where they need to go, they need Yokic to be more active with his hands at the level, and they need their weekside rotations to be substantially sharper as
they try to contain these teams. All right, guys, that is all I have is always as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We will be back. I'm recording another episode on Sunday night before I go out of town next week that'll be released on Monday morning. That'll break down a bunch of games from Sunday. I'm also pre recording a mail bag that will most likely be airing on Tuesday, so that's why we're doing the mail Bag on Tuesday instead of Friday
this week. But again, as always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show, and I'll see you guys next time the volume. As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.