Hoops Tonight - Lakers Clutch Win Vs. Mavericks, Ja Morant Saves Grizzlies, Pistons Turning It Around

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varies by jurisdiction, void and Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co slash b ball. All right, well Coon doobes tonight you're at the volume. Happy onesday, everybody, hope all you guys are having a great week. On a jampacks show for you. Today, we're hitting three games from last night, as Luka Doncic gets some revenge on the Dallas Mavericks in the interesting game

that showcase two very good switching defenses. After that, an absolute crazy game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Phoenix Suns as Jammer with a couple of brilliant stretches of basketball basically steals victory from the jaws of defeat. There, I want to talk a little bit about John Morant and just how important he is to the foundation that Memphis is trying to build. Then, at the tail end of the show, I guess I lie, it's not a

game from last night. At the tail end of the show, we're gonna do a deep dive on the Detroit Pistons. You've got to win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night for their seventh win in a row. I want to talk about how they've been succeeding on both ends of the floor. You guys are the job. Before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops to not YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS. You guys don't miss show announcements.

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let's talk some basketball. So MAVs Lakers was a game that I was really interested in watching on the Lakers front because in the Hornets game, and in the or the Blazers game, the Hornets game and in the Jazz game, the the Lakers ran into a lot of switching. The Jazz switch everything. The Blazers with Robert Williams, are willing

to do more switching in those types of situations. It gets rid of that dynamic we talked about in the Denver Nuggets video, which was when you bring up Yo kicch to the ball every single time, there's like easy reads for Luca to make in terms of am I hitting the lob threat, the roller down the middle of the laner, am I hitting the skip pass to the

weak side corner. It's more of a simplified process, whereas, again switching, it becomes so much more about like picking on mismatches and handling double teams, which are a different spacing principle than a trapped pick and roll right, and so in these types of situations, it's a very different

style of offense to go up against a team like this. Now, Dallas will run a lot of drop coverage when their bigs are healthy, but in this situation with Derek Lively hurt, with Daniel Gafford hurt, with Anthony Davis hurt, they're running a lot of switching, especially with Kessler Edwards kind of

functioning as the big man in those lineups. And by the way, Dallas is in the same way that the Lakers have been running really good five out or five man switching concepts with a lot of crowding the ball, making one on one situations feel tight and congested and gang rebounding and all those things. Dallas has been doing that really well for the most part. And I thought both of those teams put on good examples of switching

defense last night. Both teams were able to hunt mismatches within that context that led to double teams, which led to a bunch of interesting stuff in terms of the weak side rotations. The MAVs were doubling Luca and Lebron all over the place in the post, sometimes doubling them when they had a live dribble thirty feet from the basket, and then the Lakers they got a little spooked of Clay because Dalton connected and ruey Ha Chamura completely lost control of him for a little while there and he

got hot. So they started putting two on the ball when Clay was coming off of actions in the fourth quarter, and then with Kyrie Irvit when he was attacking Luka Doncic, they were putting two on the ball a lot. So it was a good example of like a lot of switching, a lot of matchup attacking, and then dealing with double teams on each team's best player. The MAVs shot the

ball extremely well in this game. They got one point one to three points per catch and shoot jump shot on thirty on thirty two attempts, is about twenty percent better than the Lakers ended up shooting, especially in the second half. The MAVs got one point three to one points per catch and shoot jumper. The Lakers shot poorly all night, but in the second half they got just

zero point six points per catch and shoot jumper. That was a big difference in that second half as the MAVs kind of worked their way back into the game. The main thing that shrunk the Laker lead in the second half, though, was exacerbated by Ruby Hatchamura and Dalton Connect losing Klay Thompson. So the Lakers are switching everything, right,

that's what they do. And there were two times in a row where Lay Thompson was in an action where he's guarding rue Hatchamura, Dalton Connect's man would come up and screen and it's just a basic switch, right, Dalton should jump out on Clay, Ruey should take Dalton's man. Everything's fine, right, But two times in a row, Dalton Connect just wasn't paying attention and lost track at Klay Thompson and hits two big threes, and then Ruy hot Chimura ends up losing Klay Thompson for the third three

on an offensive rebound. And then there was another drive where Austin Reeves was fully in control of a Max Christie drive and Ruey Hatchamura was just sitting on the lane line, leaving Najie Marshall wide open in the left corner,

who hit another three. And again, I always think it's important when you see a team struggle to identify the stuff that's kind of circumstantial and the stuff that's like, oh, this is something this team actually has some issues with, and like, I think the Lakers are a better shooting

team than they demonstrated last night. I think that's a little bit circumstantial, but there are some realities to the kinds of players that the Lakers have in their extended regular season rotation and even in their playoff rotation in Ruy hot Chimura when it comes to tracking shooters. Even going back to the Jazz game, if you remember, Ruey had a really hard time with Lori Markinen losing him

off ball and helping recover situations. And so as we look at different matchups that the Lakers could run into in the postseason, it's important to acknowledge that Rui's ability to track shooters is something that could potentially be an issue. I don't think Dalton Knneck's gonna play when they get into the postseason, but that is something that stood out to me down the stretch in the fourth quarter of

this game. That was twelve really easy points for the MAVs in a game where the Lakers otherwise defended really well, But as a result of that, it put the Lakers into a tie game with the MAVs in crunch time with Kyrie Irving on the other side, potentially dangerous situation, right, But I thought down the stretch the Lakers played their best basketball. They logged a two hundred offensive rating and a seventy five defensive rating in the clutch last night

versus the MAVs. Dorian Finney Smith was huge in this stretch. He made two absolutely brilliant defensive rotation. We talked earlier about the Lakers having to double Kyrie and Clay coming off of screens late in the game. That's going to

put you into rotation. There were two clean catches, one for PJ Washington in the left corner and one for Klay Thompson in the right corner, where Dorian Phinney Smith identified it a pass in advance and started sprinting from like twenty five thirty feet away to chase those guys

off the corner. He chased PJ Washington out of the left corner as PJ drived and then Lebron drove, and then Lebron had a really nice additional defensive rotation to meet PJ Washington at the ram and force him into a miss, and then he chased Klay Thompson so hard out of that right corner that Clay tried a side step three but he completely lost his base ended up missing badly. Two just absolutely massive defensive rotations from Dorian Phinney Smith, who was great, and then Lebron and Luca

were masterful offensively. I don't know how teams are gonna be able to guard these guys. At the end of games, Luco was posting up and drawing it down team and kicking it back to Lebron for a catch and shoot three on a play where they passed it back and forth like four times, like it was semi pro. Both Lebron and Luca did a great job of kind of meandering into the middle of the floor and drawing the under the basket help defender forward, whether it was PJ.

Washington or Dwight Powell, and that was opening opportunities for lobs or for offensive rebounds, like Lebron drove drew Dwight Powell in and threw a nice lob to Jackson Hayes. Lebron and Luca both missed short shots in the middle of the lane there, but it brought in help so Dorian Finney Smith was able to get an easy little

tap in put back. Lebron James got a tip dunk off of one of those Luca misses that came from help that was drawn by Lebron and Luca in the middle of the floor, and then DFAs made another really nice play setting a backscreen on PJ Washington in the lane when he was about to help on a Luca Doncic drive that allowed Luca to just meander right in there and make a layup. For all of the struggles that the Lakers had against the Dallas switching, guess what

a two hundred offensive rating is. That's two points per possession. To put it very simply, they scored every time down the floor when they needed to. So for all the struggles that they've had against switching in the last couple of weeks, it kind of came together there down the stretch. I also liked like with exception of the Lebron three, it wasn't like they were relying on jump shots. They were getting stuff closer to the rim. They were doing

damage on the back line. We're going to get into some of the issues they had with their switching, with the switching defense that gave them some issues in this game. We'll talk about it in a big picture, but I really thought it functioned more than fine when they needed it to at the end of the game. Here's the thing. It was a game where I thought the Lakers mostly didn't play well and they got the win comfortably down

the stretch. So that to me as a hallmark of a good NBA team, and I did think it was a step forward and a nice learning lesson for the Lakers. A couple of shoutouts Lebron. I thought he was really rough on offense in the first three quarters, and it was part of what was hurting them against the Dallas switching. We'll get into that further in a minute, but I thought he was absolutely incredible in the fourth quarter. He immediately turned up the aggression on the very first possession

of the quarter. Had sixteen points, five rebounds, and two assists with zero turnovers. He had five turnovers in the first half, only one in the second half, so he cleaned that up. I thought he played off of Luca beautifully down the stretch. Again, the post entries and the help the one pass away knocking down that shot, the work he did along the baseline when Luca was driving for that last little fadeaway that he missed. One of

my favorite things about basketball. As long as there's time on the clock, or there's games remaining in a playoff series, there is time for you to make a play or a series of plays that can help your team and flip the script for how things have been going. Lebron was rough for three quarters, but he stayed in it mentally, and he completely made up for it in that fourth quarter. JJ had a comment after the game, because I thought Lebron was great on defense that entire game. JAJ had

a comment after the game. He said, this is not an exaggeration. If you watch our basketball team every night for the last six weeks or so, Lebron is playing at an all defense level. And he's right. This is one of the biggest reasons why the Lakers defense has been turned around. It's not just getting Dorian Phiney Smith Doran Phinney Smith back for D'Angelo Russell. It's not just

getting Jared Vanderbilt back healthy. You got a consistently disengaged defender in Lebron James, at least in the regular season context, into a consistently engaged Lebron James and I've consistently said over the years that Lebron is a very good defender when he needs to be, even at his age, it's just a question of about of him making that commitment. He's making that commitment now, and it's paying dividends for

this team on the defensive end of the floor. This is what's crazy about it, though JJ's talking about this. Last six weeks since January fifteenth, a nineteen games fan, Lebron is averaging twenty seven points, eight remounds, and nine assists on sixty three percent true shooting. So you're getting all defense on one end of the floor twenty seven to eight to nine on super high efficiency on the other end of the floor, all at age forty, all for the team that has the very best record in

the NBA over that span. For you to be an all defense player and averaging nearly a thirty point triple double on insane efficiency, that's MVP level production. He's playing at the same level now as the very best basketball players in the world. It's completely ludicrous. He's not gonna win MVP for obviously, but like he's gonna get votes. You could argue him as high as third. I think he will finish in the top five. Just unbelievable. Twenty

second season and he's playing at this level. It's just a tip of the cap to the greatest basketball player that's ever touched the floor, peaking again at a phase of his career that doesn't really make any sense. I want to talk about Luca for a minute. I thought he did a wonderful job attacking Dallas's switches in doubles. He managed a won twelve offensive rating in his minutes, which was the better offense the Luca led Lunitz and units in that particular game, despite the fact that they

didn't shoot very well. His defensive rebounding, though, was the big that stood out to me, and he has thirty six rebounds in the last three games. He just has a remarkable ability to kind of predict where the ball is going to come off the rim, and then he's a scrapper. He'll get in there in the crowd and there'll be a bunch of athletes around him and he'll just come away with the basketball. He's still struggling to shoot. That will come in time. So far with the Lakers,

he's eleven for fifty one on jump shots. It's obviously really bad. That will get better. But he looks like he's in much better shape. He literally looks smaller than he did a couple of weeks ago. He's competing and doing his job on defense, even though he has his obvious limitations there. He had three steals and two blocks last night. He's rebounding, he's generating advantages. He's already helping the team so much, and he's not even close to

his ceiling yet. It was kind of like a mediocre Luca game last night, and he had nineteen points, fifteen rebounds, twelve assists, three steals, and two blocks. It's unreal. But let's talk a little bit about the Laker space. They had some issues scoring in this particular game. I want to talk about some of the specific things that were causing them problems. Spacing is the big one. JJ Reddick

talked a lot about this after the game. Lebron's first turnover, Luca gets double teamed on the right side of the floor and Lebron, Austin, and Ruey are all standing within like ten feet of each other each other. On the left side of the floor. Lebron's like left lane line extended up to the three point line, Ruey's like ten feet to his left, and then Austin's in the corner, and they're all kind of standing really close to each other. So when Luca throws the pass to Lebron, Lebron has

an easy read to Austin Reeves in the corner. But because they're all just kind of packed in on each other, klay Thompson was able to guard Rui while also sitting in the passing lane for Austin, and Lebron ends up throwing a dart that Klay Thompson just intercepts. But even if Lebron throws it over the top, like with a little bit more pace like a lob on it, it's just an easier rotation at that point because the ball's

in the air longer. There was another possession later in the game where that exact same configuration Lebron, Austin, Rui was spaced out to where Luca took his took the double team closer to the baseline. Lebron came all the way over to the right lane line extended, Austin was closer to like the left lane line extended a little bit further over in the wing, and Rui was in

the corner. All three guys were, you know, seventeen eighteen feet apart instead of ten feet apart, and it was like an easy kickout pass to from Luca to a wide open Austin Reeves and he knocked it down. Those are like little details, like you want to clear the side to give Luca room to work. But Luca's a good tight space operator. You don't need to literally clear the side. You just need to give him enough space to operate. You can spread your shooters out on that

three point line a little bit more. Dealing with double teams, there were several double teams in this game where Dallas came with the second body and the Lakers got rid of the ball and didn't even get an advantage out of it. And a lot of that also came down to spacing. There was a double team of Luca that went nowhere. It was up around the right wing because Lebron and Vando both flashed up to the right elbow, and when you're both standing in the right place, it

makes it easy for one player to guard too. They just need to have better execution of their spacing in those situations. Flashing to the ball is good. It creates effectively like a short role opportunity, but you only need one person there. Off Ball shooters need to relocate to make themselves harder to guard. If you see your man sinking down to the baseline and you're in the corner, kind of slide up the slide up that three point line a little bit to create an easier passing angle.

Ruby got a good one, a good three in the right corner in the first half out of an action like that, relocating, cutting and moving without the ball. There needs to be better activity against those double teams to make it so that you at least get an advantage out of it. Another interesting one that stood out to me last night is Vandam made two threes and he continually has struggled underneath the basket as like a cutter

dunker spot threat. This is interesting because it's the exact opposite of what happened two years ago, i should say last year before he got injured, where he was really struggling shooting out of the corners, but he was kind of doing pretty well as like a cutter. Now, mind you, that was much more of like a ive out motion

style of offense. This is more of a four out one in spacing style of offense, where Vando is just literally standing in the dunker spot, whereas like he was setting screens and rolling a lot more in that system under Darvin Ham, Right, So part of that is that is part of the reason. But also like Vando's shooting four for eleven on catch and shoot three so far, that's twelve points. That's one point zero nine points per possession. He's logged nine possessions as a cutter and only scored

six points. And there are so many examples where he's just not even getting a shot off because he's in traffic. Teams are putting big athletes or centers on him and kind of splitting the difference, feeling like they can step up to help, but then recover back to Vando and prevent him from getting a shot off around the rim.

I'm wondering, in this context, strictly, in this context of having more of a four out one in matchup, attacking, spread, pick and roll style of off that you might actually be better leaving Vando in the corner to shoot threes

because he's literally not making anything around the basket. He's barely even getting opportunities around the basket because he struggles to control the ball sometimes on the catch, and finishing in traffic over bigger bodies is not a strength of his Now It's way too small of a sample to react one way or the other. But I'm just wondering if an easy way to visualize it is, right now, when Vando catches the ball in the cut, he's getting

zero points sixty six points per possession. When he's catching it in the corner and shooting, he's getting one point zero nine points per possession. Over the course of the next few weeks. I'm just curious to see how that dynamic plays out, because it may be that Luca partnered with Vando just makes it work. Luca did get Vando for a cut in this game, and it's like, maybe Luca figures it out to where that's the best option.

But I'm just curious because there are ways to work around that where you can put a guard in the dunker spot, so you can have they Gabe Vincent or an Austin Reeves in the dunker spot, so you have a smaller defender in help and if they do help off a Vando, at least he can make them pay out there in a way that he's been struggling to make them pay underneath the basket. Again, way too small of a sample size either way, but I just want to keep an eye on that in the next few weeks.

If Vando keeps hitting like thirty five percent of his catch and shoot threes, that's a better option than him finishing around the basket because he's just not finishing around the basket right now. And you can still get some of that benefit with him crashing the offensive glass after

the shot goes up. So if he doesn't get a jumper, or if the ball ends up going somewhere else, or Luca takes a little step back jump shot or something in the mid range, Vando can still come flying in and if anything, he's got more of ahead of steam in that situation. He's got a better chance to win some of those jump ball situations. Lastly, Jackson Hayes, I think it's worth leaning into him a little bit more, getting his minutes up a little bit, because he's been

a really valuable vertical spacer in this context. There's a lot of times over the course of the last couple of weeks where I'm seeing Luca and Lebron and kind of work to the middle of the floor, and they like having Jackson as that release valve. In the last two games, the Lakers have a one to twenty offensive rating with Jackson Hayes on the floor. Something to keep an eye on is another thing that could help them

with their spacing in the switching groups. And then lastly, Lebron like in order for switching to not work against this Laker offense, in order for the Lakers to make teams pay for it, they need forty eight minutes of Lebron and Luca constantly applying pressure. And I thought in the first three quarters, even though Lebron is defending, during

that time, I thought he was pretty sloppy. He knew the doubles were coming, so he's like picking up his dribble too early sometimes like before the double would even get there. So then that would lead to a lack of openings for him to get rid of the ball too. That was part of the turnover problem early. His job is to attack enough that that double team fully commits and it happens in a place on the floor where Lebron can actually make teams pay for it, which I

know Lebron can do. He's one of the best ever at it. He just was sloppy for thirty for the first three quarters. And it's something to keep in mind again. For the Lakers to succeed against switching defense, they need Lebron and Luca to be able to apply pressure for forty eight minutes. They gotta have proper spacing off of it,

and then guys gotta hit shots. And so part of their struggles where Lebron didn't have that great of a first three quarters, Luca obviously still doesn't have his jump shot. Guys are missing shots, and the spacing wasn't good. They've been a little shaky in these situations, but they have the personnel to be great against it. It's just one of the main areas of development we're gonna want to keep an eye on here the rest of the way.

All right, moving on to Suns Grizzlies. You know, I'm gonna talk very briefly about the Suns here before we get to the Grizzlies. The Suns are descending into irrelevance

now and that's a whole other issue. But like, it was so interesting watching them because one of my biggest issues with the Suns is their team construct is built around these high level offensive shot creators and Devin Booker and Kevin Durant and like they are actually like pretty good, detail oriented players, like Devin Booker tries and tries to defend, and Kevin Durant's a really good defender. And those guys do their jobs and they're disciplined and they don't make

as many mistakes. Bradley Bealle can make his fair share yet another big offensive rebound. He gave up an overtime last night where he was just standing around and not competing for the ball. That's the kind of thing that drives me crazy with him. But the real issue is they're anchoring Kevin Durant and Devin Booker with a bunch of really undisciplined players that make a lot of mistakes. And it was crazy on a night when when the Suns were playing so well on offense, how many mistakes

they made to undercut their success. In the fourth quarter, Tias Jones just not paying attention off ball gets back cut by Vince Williams Junior for an easy layup. I don't think he played again after that. There was a play where Desmond Baying got an easy driving layup in transition because the Suns just didn't stop the ball. They've been consistently one of the worst transition defenses in the

league this year. Devin Booker although like a not many mistakes from Katie and Devin Booker down the stretch on this one, but he had a really bad foul on John Morant with three minutes left in regulation where he just gifted them two points. He fouled out of the game. He had a couple of bad ones on Desmond bayin two like those are just like little basic things that he can improve. Bow Bull in overtime, just not paying attention when he's guarding one of Memphis's most aggressive catch

and shoot guys in Jalen Wells. Lost him coming off of a pinon Flair in the right corner, knocked down to three. Lost him again on the same action on the very next play where he got into like just was not paying attention, was in trail position, left off of his feet for a simple pump fake and Jalen Wells just stepped through and got an easy layup. They go up four on a nice KD jump shot in overtime. Looks like they're in control, and on the very next

possession on a made basket. They don't get matched up in transition and leave Santi al Dama wide open on the left wing and he makes a three. Brandon Clark has a really nice putback that puts them up one what ended up being the game winner with like what thirty eight seconds left, and instead of Phoenix having an opportunity to take the lead back, Grayson Allen gets pissed off about some physicality from Jalen Wells and shoves him

off offensive foul. Now they're going the other way. I actually like, I actually think they have more talent than their record would lead you to believe. They're just super undisciplined. Katie and Devin Booker need to be surrounded by smart, hard playing athletes, and instead they're surrounded by sloppiness. And it's just not a good winning formula with that core.

And as a result, they look like a basketball team that is just completely off the rails on the Grizzlies front, though several guys made huge plays down the stretch of this game that I wanted to shout out Jalen Wells in overtime we talked about burned Bull Bull twice on off ball screening actions. He also made the dagger which was beating a press in on the final possession where he ended up getting a dunk right underneath the rim. Desmond Baine hits a big shots lady and a pull

up against drop coverage along the left wing. He had that driving layup and transition that we talked about, but he was also a big part of getting Devin Booker into foul trouble and getting him out of the game twice in the fourth quarter. He just made strong left handed drives at Devin Booker and drew fouls on him. And they were kind of interesting situations because Desmond Bain's a little bigger and stronger than Devin Booker is and Booker was sliding with him, and it was kind of

like a contact defense situation. But like, if Desmond Bain just like takes the contact and then sprays the ball out, it's not going to get called. But Desmond Bain forced the official to make a call by meeting Devin Booker's physicality by just trying to power through it. And as he kept driving through it, it forced Devin to be a little more handsy and to hold on just a second too long. That led to those foul calls as a big part of the issue down the stretch of

this game. It's a huge downgrade going from Devin Booker to a different player that ended up being a big part of the of the late game issues that the Suns had in this one. Great work from Desmond bang there and then Brandon Clark had some good switches against Evin Booker and kd in ball screens. He had the biggest play of the game in my opinion, what it ended up being essentially the game winner. John Morant's working

through the lane. He draws Mason Plumley in help. Plumbley makes a unbelievable defensive play, gets a hand up and blocks John Morant on the shot. But again because John Morant drew the center in, Brandon Clark had a big advantage underneath the basket and size. He jumped up and grabbed it with one hand and just guided it softly into the basket for what ended up being the game winner. Huge time, big time play from Brandon Clark. Santi al Dama hit the huge transition three that ended up being

the eventual game winner. Jared Jackson, even though he fouled out in this game, and he wasn't down the floor, down the stretch. I thought he was magnificent all night, Like nobody in the Sun Jersey could even guard him. And it was a really, really impressive come from behind win there for the Memphis Grizzies. But I want to

zero in on John Morant for a minute. There was a report that came out last week that said that we should all keep an eye on John Morant as a potential trade tard get this summer, and I immediately

disagreed when I saw it. And the main reason why is a concept that I've talked a lot about in recent weeks, which is the idea that if you want to win at the absolute highest levels, if you want to win four playoff rounds, if you want to hoist Hilari O'Brien Trophy, you need to have a problem that you present to other teams that they cannot truly solve, that they have to build their entire game plan around.

I think Jared Jackson's an awesome player. You could make an argument he's been the best Grizzly this year, and I think I'd probably agree. He's a nightmare fat matchup for Phoenix. He has a much higher floor than John Morant because of his ability on the defensive end of the floor. But Jared Jackson will eventually inevitably run into a big front line that can match his size and strength that he can't just bulldoze over everyone, and at that point some of his limitations come to the surface.

He has a higher floor than a guy like Job, but the ceiling is lower. He's not a superstar level player on the offensive end of the floor. I'm still young, and he's raw, and he's got a long way to go to get to where he needs to be to

be that type of NBA champion level talent. But when he starts getting going downhill at teams, he has a ceiling he can get to on the offensive end that causes real problems for even the best teams in the league that nobody can really solve, and you just have to hope that he either misses or that he sprays it out to a shooter who misses, And that to me is just a non negotiable, absolutely mandatory, foundational trade

for NBA champions throughout the history of the league. You either need to have an otherworldly defense that nobody can handle or an offense that presents a problem that teams can't solve. I don't think this Memphis team is that type of defense, and John Moran is the only guy on the roster that could reach that point as an offensive player. I would argue that trading Jaw would literally just cut the championship potential off the top of this team.

There isn't anyone else on the roster that has that type of upside, and it's extremely unlikely that you get something back in a Jaw trade that can reach that level. Even if a DRAFTO panned out, it wouldn't fit the timeline of the current roster. How thought, Jaw was unbelievable down the stretch of that game. He had seventeen points in the fourth quarter in overtime. He was going right

at Bradley Beal in regulation and giving him buckets. He made two gigantic plays that sent the game to overtime, to extremely high degree of difficulty jump shots, a three at the top of the key in a little pull up jumper around the left elbow where he literally against like great defense like Bradley Beal was there on the transition three. He was smothered on the game tying shot. He just elevated over the top of his man as the supreme athlete and knocked a shot down. He made

great reads. In overtime, he set Baying up for a wide open three in the left corner that he ended up just missing. He was the one who identified the Jalen Well's ball ball matchup, and instead of hijacking possessions and taking high degree of difficulty shots, he trusted his teammate to make plays, even the game winner from Brandon Clark. The opportunity for Brandon Clark came from the fact that

John Morant kept drawing Mason Plummeley in help. That wasn't even the only offensive rebound opportunity that John Morant generated down the stretch. He straight up stole that game from the Suns twice with his remarkable offensive gifts. And if this team ever hoists the Larry O'Brien Trophy, it will be with John Moran leading the way on offense. You cannot take that element away from this team. It is

a prerequisite for winning at the highest levels. Let's move on to the Detroit Pistons, to have won seven in a row. They got a nice win against the Clippers on Monday night, Kate had a couple of issues with Chris Dunn, but the Pissons generally did a good job of using early screens to get Chris done off of him, and Kate ended up putting up another monster thirty two, nine and seven night the Pistons did an incredible job on a Kazubats. They're both Jalen Duran and Isaiah Stewart.

They're just big and strong enough to handle Zoo's base And like one of the big things that I talk about, when you're battling post up threats, specifically post players that are trying to play bully ball and that have a size advantage, you don't want to try to bother them up top. You're not going to bother them up top, they're bigger than you. You want to bother them down low. You want to disrupt the energy transfer of the shot.

Every shot has a transfer of energy from the floor through your feet, through your knees, through your hips, through your shoulders, your elbow and wrist, all the way up through the finish. And when guys are working on their games in the gym in the summertime, they have a certain flow that they have on those shots, and if you can disrupt their base and push them off their base. You can make them miss and like those two guys straight up shut down Zubach's post ups in that game

just by disrupting his base. It's a great option to have for the Pistons that they just can play forty eight minutes of a big, strong, hard playing center that can cause problems for teams. I did a whole film thread on Twitter. You can follow me there at Underscore Jason lt I did a whole film thread on that game. So if you want to see some video options are some video examples of the things we talked about. You

can find that there. But I want to zero in for a minute on their perimeter defense because that's the thing that has really stood out to me in the last couple of weeks. JB. Bickerstaff has these dudes guarding, and they have some legit perimeter defenders. Sar Thompson did a great job on James Harden all night. Dennis Schroeder

can guard the ball. Ron Holland is guarding. But I've been especially impressed by some of the guys that reputationally have not been good defenders in the historical context, Like I cannot believe how hard Tim Hardaway Junior is playing on defense right now. He's been a really good off

the ball. He was a big part of them disrupting Zubach's catches on like in pick and roll, Isaiah Stewart and Tim Hardaway Junior had some incredible role Maan defense reps against Zubas where they just disrupted him and caused problems in those situations. Kate is playing hard on that end. Even Malik Beasley, who's been maligned as a perimmeter defender over the years, is like trusting the game plan, doing

his job funneling guys into help. They're really really competing on that end of the floor, and they're anchored by big, strong athletes underneath the basket, a couple of wings that they can trust, and then just a bunch of guys that are guarding on the ball. They are number three in defensive rating over this seven game span, but they're also number three in offense. Kate Cunningham has just been doing a wonderful job running the team on that end

of the floor. He's already over one thousand pick and rolls this year. If you guys remember when we do our summertime lists. A thousand pick and rolls is what I consider to be high volume. He's already there. He's getting one point zero nine points per possession in those ball screens that put him up with the top pick and roll guys in the league this year. For example, Shake KOs as Alexander is about is less than one point per one hundred possessions better in pick and rolls

this year than Kay Cunningham is. He's just so good at using his size and strength defend off defenders in ball screens. He's Luca esque with his ability to use physical leverage to generate dribble penetration. Again, like half the battle is getting the defender trapped onto your backside, and the only way you're gonna do that is getting them properly set up for the screen so that your center

can set a good screen. By the way, both Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duran set monster screens, And that's a huge part of what unlocks. It's such an underrated detail in offensive execution, and it gets Kaid's defender behind him. Once Kid's defender is behind him or on his side, he's got the size and strength advantage. That's when he can kind of keep them pinned behind him and start to slowly work down the lane line. When he slowly works down the lane line, he just to wait for

the defense to react. And it's the same set of reads that we've talked about when we talk about Luca and the Lakers. When he's going downhill, if the big man steps over and the low man doesn't rotate to the lob threat, it's an easy drop off to Jalen durn Or as a Stuart right under the basket. If they do tag the roller, then it's the skip pass to the corner where they've consistently kept Caid surrounded by

guys that can knock down shots. But if they don't react, if they let him play one on one there in the middle of the floor. What is the thing that unlocks the high level efficiency in ball screens that we see from the best players in the world, efficient short range, in mid range shot making. It's becoming one of those underrated traits that we see in the best shot creators in the league. It's not about, oh, a mid range

jumper is bad. It's about what can you find inside of seventeen feet that you can hit at least half the time. Yeah, he's taking a bunch of mid range jump shots and you're hitting forty two percent of them, it's bad. But if you can get to a point where you're making half or better of those shots, that's when it becomes untenable for the defense. Because in the half court, anything over a point per possession is pretty good.

He's shooting fifty percent on floaters this year, he's shooting fifty five percent on hooks, and then on the jump shots that he's taking inside of seventeen feet he's shooting forty nine percent. So he's on all of his short to mid range shot making. If you put it all together, he's over fifty percent. That's the conundrum he presents for you. If you want to stay home on the roll man, if you want to stay home in the corner, he's going to get over a point per possession in the

middle of the floor. If you help. They've got guys that can finish under the rim. They got guys that can finish off those skip passes. It also manifests a post up threat, where he's been great this year. Kate has run one hundred and thirty post ups, including pass leading to one hundred and forty two points. That's one point zero nine points per possession. He's really starting to get to the foul line. Now. This stood out to me in that Clippers game. I started digging into it.

Kate has logged double digit free throw tips in four of his last eight games. In his entire career before then, in one hundred and eighty three games, he did it just nine times, and he's done it four times in the last eight games. He's just blossoming into a foundational superstar right before our eyes. I like his attitude and competitiveness. He's got a little bit of a mean streak. I like that he competes on defense. He brings a certain

physicality to the position that I love. He's constantly trying to go through people and talk shit and let him know that they know that they can't guard him. And now they have surrounded him with the talent that allows his gifts to rise. Everybody up to the surface. Malik Beasley's having one of the best shooting seasons in the history of the league. I saw a tweet from Zach Low the other day, the Great Zach Low. Shout out to Zach. Only one player in NBA history. This is

Zach's tweet. Has hit over forty two percent on threes while attempting at least eleven per thirty six minutes. According to Basketball Reference, Steph Curry has done it five times. Someone else is on pace to become the second player ever in this group, Malik Beasley. That's the type of shooting they're getting out of Melik. He brings like a really aggressive brand of movement shooting to where he just comes flying off of screens to the left and to

the right. He's aggressive in transition. He'll miss a lot of threes that are like bad threes, but it doesn't matter because it's part of the overall threat that he brings and it brings a lot of spacing benefits to this team. Tim Hardaway Junior is not shooting the ball as well as Malik is, but he's shooting it really well. He's at thirty eight percent on six attempts per game this year. Just gives kid two options that he can constantly be hunting, especially on his transition pushies. He's been

so good at hunting them in transition this year. Tobias Harris is like legit having a renaissance right now in the win streak, he's averaging nineteen points per game on sixty percent from the field and forty two percent from three. He's giving them an additional point of entry when they're going on offense because he can post up. He's torching

teams a spot up player. He's just been great. And then Dennis Schroeder, like, he's not shooting the ball well yet since he joined the Pistons, but he's such a competitor and he's another guy who just like finds a way even when he's not playing well to make big plays. They went to him down the stretch on a huge possession.

The Clippers had cut the lead to five with about three minutes left, and against a mere Coffee on the right wing, he just hit him with a nasty left to right crossover, a great push ahead dribble to beat him off the dribble, and then rifle to pass across the court to Malik Beasley in the left corner, who knocked down three. You ended up putting him up by eight with a little under three minutes left. They have a clear nine man rotation that I think they can

shrink to eight for the playoffs. My guess is that they'll end up dropping Ron Holland when they get into the postseason. But like everyone knows your role. You have the two centers, Dennis Schroeder is your backup ball handler. You know, you have Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Junior as like the constant, like aggressive shooting threat on the floor at any given moment. They're a good NBA team and I'm excited to watch them play some playoff basketball.

If you look at the situation right now, they're holding down that sixth seed, so like if the season were to end today, they would end up playing the Knicks. Like you don't think Kaid Cunningham is a threat to put cat and ball screens or to punish a guy like Jalen Brunson over and over again like that, They're absolutely a threat. We'll see when we get a matchup how if they end up being a team that I picked to win a series or not, And that'll matchups

will play a big role. We're gonna learn a lot about them tonight they play the they play the Celtics tonight. But they're a good NBA team and I'm really really excited to watch them play in the playoffs and hopefully learn some more about them. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. Is always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with more reactions. I'll see you guys then the volume. What's up guys. 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.