Hoops Tonight - Lakers-Clippers Reaction: LeBron James CARRIES Lakers to OT win vs. Kawhi’s Clippers

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so far. Well it's November first to the year twenty twenty three, and we all just watched a basketball game where Lebron James was the best player on the floor and Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook were all on the same floor. It was. It was weird a few years ago. Now it's borderline absurd. As Lebron's late career, you know, Star level play just continues to not make any sense at all whatsoever compared to

anything in NBA history. The Lakers played their first extended stretch of good basketball in this young season and notch their most impressive win, beating the Clippers to get to three and two. We're gonna be breaking that game down from the perspective of both teams. We are changing our

kind of layout for coverage this season. I want to try to hit fewer individual games and more deep dives on individual teams, and so in this particular show tonight, we're just breaking down Lakers Clippers for those of you guys who missed it earlier today we broke down sun Spurs from last night. We also did deep dives on the Dallas Mavericks and the Memphis Grizzlies on multiple games, multiple trends, lineup data, big picture stuff going on with

both particular teams. That's gonna be kind of more like what the structure looks like from now On Tomorrow morning, we're gonna cover Warriors Kings, and then we're gonna do deep dives on the Boston Celtics and on the Milwaukee Bucks, another two teams that are having very interesting starts to their season, so that's going to be kind of like the structure of the show, at least in the immediate future.

So in this episode, just covering Lakers, Clippers. Check out our feed for Mavericks, for Grizzlies, don't forget about the Sun's Spurs breakdown, and then tomorrow we're gonna hit a bunch of other stuff from the Wednesday Night Slate. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is our brand new YouTube channel.

We're trying to get it off the ground. It would mean a lot to me if you guys would take a couple seconds just scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our social media feeds TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, so I'm doing video breakdowns and show announcements. I do extensive video breakdowns every morning on my Twitter feed, so that's a good spot to be if you want to see more visual representations. Don't forget about a podcast feed

wherever it's your podcast under Hoops tonight. And then, last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can hit them throughout the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, like I said it'd be at the intro of the show, this was the first

extended stretch of good Laker basketball this season. Even if you look at their couple of wins, like, let's look at the individual games, they got pretty much their ass handed to them from start to finish against the Denver Nuggets, right. You look at the Sacramento Kings lost, they were kind of in trouble throughout that game, then they kind of sort of got some control in the fourth quarter that

immediately blew that and then lost in ot Right. Then you look at the win against the Suns, and they were down big a lot of the second half and just had this hilatious effort in the fourth quarter to get back and win the game. Right. And then after that we had the Orlando Magic game, where once again they trailed big in the second half and they had this hillacious effort to kind of get back into it

in the fourth quarter. And even in those games, there wasn't a lot of encouraging stuff to look at that was like translatable moving forward. As a matter of fact, I said for those of you guys who listened to this afternoon show that I was severely worried about the Lakers in tonight's game because they just weren't playing very good basketball, and the Clippers are playing very well at the start of the season. Well, you saw at the beginning of that game. It was kind of a continuation

of that trend, Clippers playing great basketball. A lot of the same issues that were plaguing the Lakers early on were plaguing them right, like really struggling to score in the half court, Austin Reeves still very much in a funk. The defense just nowhere near where it was last year, which was like a significant chunk of their winning identity, was like playing defense right, like not just go to guys that you depend on, but down the roster, just

commitment to those details. And a lot of those things were going the wrong way for the Lakers to start the season. And the only way you don't just like randomly start making shots and then you start winning games, you have to reverse those trends. On an individual base, they really struggled with defensive rebounding down the stretch, especially

in a bunch of their early games this season. Much better defensive rebounding effort down the stretch of this game just everybody just flying to the basketball to secure contested defensive rebounds, even just look at like little things like Russell. Westbrook bullied Austin Reeves a few times early on in the game, at least once in the first half and then again in the early second half. Right Dangelo Russell has been bullied at the point of attack a bunch

of times this season. Gave Vincent's done better than those two guys, but has still struggled a little bit well critical possession. Late in overtime, Russ tries to bully Austin Reeves and he just does a better job, Like just does a better job and holds his ground and forces Russ into a much tougher shot that he misses. And then again on the on the backside, the gang defensive rebounding the extra efforts defensively. Christian Wood had a massive block on Ivi ka Zubak down the stretch when Ad

went for his pump fake. And then Christian Wood talked about in his postgame presser after the Magic game about him being essentially a second line of defense behind Ad and he's watching Ad. You can literally see on the play christian Wood sees the pump fake looks at Ad, sees Ad jump, stays down, waits for the second one, then goes up and gets it. We talked a lot

in this offseason about over the top shot making. You need guys to make shots at the end of basketball games, and you got none of that out of Lebron and Ad last year. What did you get out of Lebron tonight? Reliable over the top shot making in the half court over contests, beating PJ Tucker for a pull up jump shot, beating a Vika Zubac on a switch with a pull up three. He hit two other tough kind of like semi transition pull up jump shots around the foul line.

You can tell Lebron James feels more comfortable with his pull up jump shot at this exact point in time than he had probably all of last season, which is crazy to say. There was no extent did stretch of Lebron reliably knocking down jump shots last season, And again it's one game, but in terms of the body language and the timing and the level of defense for him to be making those shots, that's super encouraging. That specifically

is a ceiling razer for this team. That was one of the huge things that held them back last year. Early in the season, Austin Reeves was giving you absolutely nothing. A lot of different things going south for him. I mean, he's clearly just in a slump, right, but one of the worst slumps I've seen from a player like he was. He was struggling to impact winning in any of the

ways that he usually does. Right, what happens in that second half, starting in that third quarter, gets a little bit of a heater, right, hits two or three shots in a row, makes a couple of plays. Suddenly when they need him in overtime to take over the offense, He's confident and ready to go in that situation. Again, like Austin Reeves is the third best player on this Lakers team, He's arguably their best pick and roll shot creator. This is not the first time they've relied on him

down the stretch to close out a big game. They did that against the Grizzlies in the first round of the playoffs last year. He just is one of He's the best player on the Lakers at working downhill in pick and roll, in finding those little spots in the mid range to generate his own shot. He can knock down those shots, he can get to the foul line, he can make the reads from there. He made a huge read in pick and roll to Cam Reddish in

the right corner for a wide open three down the stretch. So, like again, all of these trends turning is what made the team play better. Lebron James late game shot making was an issue in the entire last season, a little bit of an issue to start this season. Right then, outside of a few clutch jump shots in the fourth quarter, he struggle to knock down jump shots. Right then we get into this game, the pull up jump shots going in right, Austin Reeves struggling to start the season, Austin

Reeves gets his mojo back. Suddenly the Lakers look like a more dynamic offense. Right, and then the defense. This is the hugest part of it. Like when it comes to the Lakers, their identity is defense. There's a lot of talk about the offense coming into the season, and I certainly expected it to be better than it was.

There's no doubt this is a team that should at the very least be a good offense, right, But this is a team whose best trait is what they can do on the defensive end of the floor, when Lebron James is engaged, when Anthony Davis is engaged. This is the third time in a row where when they've closed with Christian Wood, they've looked excellent defensively down the stretch and been able to pull out a win. And then guys just competing on the point of attack at a

higher level than they had in the past. I thought, I want to credit a couple of specific guys. I thought both Cam Reddish and Max Christi in that third quarter finally started to disrupt Paul George and Kawhi Leonard's rhythm a little bit with good point of attack defense, just physical ball pressure making them feel uncomfortable. Cam b Reddish had a huge steal that led to a runout for the Lakers on Paul Georgie in that third quarter.

And then Anthony Davis and Christian Wood just this devastating back line of two seven foot tall dudes that can block shot, that can grab contested rebounds. They were the ones who turned the game around. Obviously, Lebron James carries you home in the fourth quarter, then they blow the lead late, right, but then Austin Reeves carries you in ot, but it was the defense that got you back into the game. They allowed twenty four points in that third quarter.

A bunch of key possessions were even Anthony Davis and Christian Wood switched on to Kawhi Leonard and got stops. They were able to push out in transition off of those stops. That's their formula, committed defense at all three levels. Point of attack, help, backside, rebounding, right, pushing in transition off of stops and turnovers. Lebron, Anthony Davis, rim pressure in the half court, Austin Reeves spread pick and roll.

I would we're up to me, especially in those lineups sod and Adar and d Lo are on the floor together. Let Austin run the show. Get d Lo off the ball. He's just a little bit more steady of a playmaker in that specific position. It slots everybody properly. The Lakers are just better when they run through Lebron, Anthony Davis and Austin Reeves. But make no mistake, it's got to start on the defensive end of the floor. A lot

of encouraging stuff there. I was literally thinking during the game, you know, going into the game in the first quarter, I felt like the Lakers didn't have much chance at all to win that game. I didn't think they were playing well enough. But what was funny was is I felt the exact opposite going into overtime. Right, So, Paul, Paul George is incredible. He had four impossible pull up threes that he made in the fourth quarter. Every single

one of them was well defended by the Lakers. All of them go in huge part of why they had a chance to win that game. They had a driving and one on Anthony Davis as well. Paul George was just absolutely incredible. But I remember thinking going into the overtime, Lakers got a good chance to win this game. Why because what is replicable about a slow down half court

environment for both teams. The Lakers were getting great shots every time down the floor out of creation by Lebron James and Anthony Davis or excuse me, Lebron James and Austin Reeves, and then Anthony Davis's ability to get a switch, run down to the block, call for the basketball and either get a bucket or draw fout right, So like they were just getting better shots down on the other end of the floor, the Clippers were getting nothing aside

from Paul George making impossible pull up threes. And so if I get five minutes of slow down half court possessions, I feel better about the team that's getting the better shots in that particular situation. Now, they still had themselves a chance thanks to a step back three from Kawhi Leonard and and one in the lane where he got

fouled by Anthony Davis. But he's Kawhi Leonard. He's gonna do that sometimes, right, But I thought the Lakers kind of recaptured a bunch of their specific identity win or lose in this game. Even if let's say Paul George makes all three free throws that go to OT and the Clippers win, I would still feel a lot better about what this Lakers team is doing right now after

that than I would in that first half. A bunch of key trends reversed that looked a lot more like the Lakers that we saw for the entire tail end of the regular season last year and the playoffs. Like I said at the beginning of the season, sometimes basketball teams just play bad basketball, and the Lakers were playing bad basketball to start the season. They played good basketball in the second half and in overtime against the Clippers.

If they continue to play like that, they're going to win a lot of games in this regular season for the Clippers. Paul George is putting his money where his mouth is. He said before the season that he was going to be back on his bully shit, and I thought he played extremely well in this game. The pull up shooting with Paul George, it's always like a give and a take, because what drives me crazy with this particular Clippers team watching them is they almost entirely rely

on tough pull up jump shooting. And again, what do I always say about this kind of stuff? I said the same thing about the Suns. I like tough pull up jump shooting because it's such a great ceiling razor.

But if it is your bread and butter, you are susceptible to cold stretches, right, like Kawhi Leonard Gott couple of pull up threes in ot as well, right, and then a wide open catch and shoot three in the left corner, and it's like, maybe they go in, maybe they don't if they go in different game, right, But juxtapose that with the type of shots the Lakers were getting closer to the rim in ot, pushing down their

throats and transition in ot. Like the Lakers look at Lebron James shot making as a supplementary thing to their rim pressure offense. Right, they look at Austin Reeves hitting the occasional tough jump shot and pick and roll as a supplementary thing to their rim pressure offense. Right. If you rely entirely on pull up jump shooting, there's just

too much variance there. This is where I like the James Harden fit because if you take what Paul George did tonight and you couple that with quality half court offense, Say, for instance, James Harden does exactly what he did with

Joel Embiid, but with Kawhi Leonard. Okay, set him up on the left wing, have Kawhi Leonard set a hard ball screen, have James Harden work downhill towards the right, and set Kawhi Leonard up with like catch ISOs at the elbow or at the top of the key in pick and pop situations, have a defender closing out on him, and just have Kawhi Leonard work with an advantage all

game long. Like or if you have to put some big, strong defender on Kawhi and he switches on to James Harden, he can hit him with the dribble move get the defense into rotation that way. James Harden specializes at getting the defense in rotation. Paul George and Kawhi Leonard specialized on hitting over the top jump shots. Russell Westbrook also

specializes at getting the defense in rotation. But there comes a lot of baggage with that, right You're two bizarre a fourth quarter driving transition attempts where he turned the ball over. The Lakers were ignoring him off the ball all throughout the fourth quarter, which continue to kind of, you know, mess things up for them offensively. I'm sure Lakers fans it felt probably pretty cathartic to be on the other side of those Russell Westbrook late game you

know snafoos. But again, like that's kind of the thing here. Russell Westbrook gets you into rotation, but comes with all of this downside, Right, James Harden, at least within the context of the regular season, is a much more steady version of what Russell Westbrook brings in the half court in terms of getting the ball, getting the ball moving in the defense in rotation. It looks different with Russe it's more just brute force downhill. Right with James Harden,

it's methodical. It's about body position. It's leveraging the defender to lean the wrong way in a ball screen so that he can get downhill. James is excellent. It's setting up his man for ballscreen. James is a great pull up jump shooter in the regular season, consistently right around fifty five percent in effective field goal percentage. Like he's just a better version of that, you know. And that's kind of the way I see the formula in the

big picture. Like when James Harden was to be able to play, Terrence Man was out, they had to lean a lot on Norman Palell and Russell Westbrook down the stretch of this game. There's a different version of this where it's gonna be James Harden and Terrence Man with Kawhi Leonard Paul George And if you get Zubac right, that's that's gonna be a more functional two way lineup on both ends of the floor with their ability to set Kawhi Leonard and Paul George up with better offensive opportunities.

And then on the just a more steady overall approach from the standpoint of decision making, right, Russ is gonna have his opportunities in the loose portions of the game. Now again, it's gonna be a similar type of challenge to what he had with the Lakers. James Harden is a little bit redundant with him, He's gonna have to work off the ball more. He's gonna have fewer touches, fewer minutes, So it's gonna be a challenge for us. But he does seem happier and he does seem to

be a better fit with the Clippers locker room. I've talked to some people who have told me that, like Russell Westbrook just in general jives better with the Clippers in terms of his overall vibe and the vibe of that locker room. So like he's it's gonna be fine, but he's gonna have to make an adjustment when James Harden comes into the picture. That it was one of those games where, like, I feel better about both teams after watching because Paul George looks better than he has

in a couple of years. Kawhi Leonard looks fantastic. He definitely lost his legs a little bit in the second half. That's typical tail end of a back to back right and to pull up jump shot coming up short. In a lot of cases, that's to be expected. But I felt better about the Clippers because Paul George is incredible. James Harden's gonna organize them on offense at a higher level. You know, Terrence Man is gonna be able to bring some of that like physical force that Russell Westbrook does

in that lineup, in that off ball roll. They've got options, They've got depth. I maybe not as much depth as they did before the trade, but I like the position that the Clippers are in right now. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. We're gonna be back tomorrow with a breakdown of the Kings and the Warriors and Klay Thompson's game winner, and then we're gonna do deep dives on the Celtics and the Bucks. As always. I appreciate you guys for supporting the show, and I'll

see you tomorrow. The volume