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great week. We're going to be reacting to that incredible game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Tie down one O three with about four minutes left, and then Anthony Edwards happened, and a moment that I thought demonstrated a lot of his growth over the course of this last season and the postseason last year, and some of the mistakes he had dealt with in the past. We're gonna be breaking that game down from the perspective
of both teams. I was doing a live stream with my buddy Pete's As from Laker Film Room during the game, so that interfered with my ability to cover the other two games tonight, but I'm covering them tomorrow morning. So Magic Celtics, Pacers, Bucks will be hitting those games in tomorrow morning's show, but today just Lakers Timberwolves, and then we'll do a mailbag from the audience from the chat at the tail end of the show, and then we'll get out of here for the night. You guys are
the job. Before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore json lt so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast few wherever you get your podcast. Und Hoops Tonight it's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, where Jackson's making great content throughout the year,
make sure you guys follow us there. In the last but not least, keep dropping mailback questions and those YouTube comments so we can keep getting to them throughout the remainder of the postseason. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, as mentioned before, about one oh three to one oh three, but about four minutes left, I was on the playback stream with Pete Zayas and shout out to Pete. He's
does incredible work. Love talking basketball with him. But we had been discussing throughout the game the reality that has been throughout this series that the Lakers are just a little bit more comfortable in the half court creating offense than Minnesota, as long as they can control the controllables right, like stay out of transition, don't turn the basketball over, you know, keep your body positioned properly to force the
Wolves to make decisions and to make shots over the top. Essentially, what I've been referring to in the series is like hanging on to the rope they can hang out of the rope, they're fine, but if they don't hang onto
the rope, they're gonna lose. And even with that last stretch that we saw from Anthony Edwards in that game, the Lakers logged day ninety nine offensive raiding in the half court and the Wolves log day ninety two offensive rating in the half court, there were twenty eight points off of nineteen Laker turnovers, some of the dumbest turnovers that I've ever seen from that team, just coffin the ball up right underneath the basket, like not protecting it
after rebounds, trying to throw passes to guys two feet away that are not ready for the basketball. The Lakers just looked really sloppy and undisciplined, and that got them into a close game late, and in a close game late, Anthony Edwards actually turned out to be the better half court shot creator. So regardless of what the numbers say, we had a one oz three to one oh three with four minutes left, mostly half court basketball, and ant
just badly outplayed the Laker half court shot creators. Obviously, context there being Luca whatever the illness that he was dealing with tonight, But what really impressed me specifically, was the way that Anthony Edwards got the job done. They started moving his ISOs to the t top of the key, which I thought was interesting the ISOs that he had been running on the slot, meaning like more towards the wing.
They allow the Lakers to be more planned in their approach. So, for instance, with Anthony Edwards on the right slot right wing, that defenders going to overplay the middle and try to funnel Ant towards the player who's digging down off the corner and the guy who's helping out from under the rim, effectively making him play one on three on his drives.
We talked about this in our film sessions. A lot of ants layups in this series have been ripped through the primary defender, gather through the guy digging down from the corner, and then some sort of slaloming move around the dude at the rim so that he can get a layup and move him to the top of the key. And one of the things that that does is it puts Ant in a position where the defender guarding him
has to square him up. One of the reasons why that matters is on the wing, when you can overplay aside, you can actually use that arm that you're using to overplay the side to get Closeru're on the pull up jump shot because you're less worried about giving up dribble penetration because you have more of a plan for it. But at the top of the key there, if you lean up like that, you can give up dribble penetration
and be in some trouble. And so he was able to hit two step back threes in one on one situations where he was able to shed the defender that first one against Luca at the top of the key. Big part of that is he's got Lucas squared up. He's able to get that, you know, a little bit of backwards momentum so that he can do that pullback dribble uh and get separation for his shot. And like, as I was talking about with Pete on the broadcast, like the Lakers kind of have to live with that.
There's a certain amount of Anthony Edwards pull up three that they're gonna have to live with unless they start doubling, which we did see a little bit of and I do think we'll see some more of that later in the series, but we'll talk about that in a minute. The play that I thought demonstrated the growth was the assistant nas read off the left wing, so he hits
the step back over Luca. It's one oh six to one oh three, and he gets a drive along the right baseline, and instead of trying to force something up, he elevates and rifles a pass to nas Red on the left wing and he knocks down a three. Those reads have been there for Ant throughout the series. We talked about in Game two in our film session. It wasn't so much that the lake like look. The Lakers did compete more than they did in Game one, but
the same reads were available. The strong side corner reads were there. Ant didn't make it a single time in Game two after he made it several times in Game one.
The skip pass was there.
He was getting into the teeth of the defense, and some of those passes were getting deflected or getting sent into areas where they were tougher for guys to attack off of. In tonight's game, just decisive down the stretch, knew exactly what he wanted to do, rifles that pass to nas Red, he knocks down the three, gets Lebron in a switch, crosses him up and gets into the basket for a layup, just surgical down the stretch, and that was the difference. It was one of three to
one to three. They end on a thirteen to one run, fueled almost entirely by Anthony Edwards in his half court shot creation. That's really the thing. As I mentioned, the Wolves have these overwhelming advantages in the margins right like they are the bigger, more athletic team. They forced nineteen turnovers tonight that lead to twenty eight points. They have fifty six points in the paint compared to just twenty
six for the Lakers. If Anthony Edwards can shrink the half court gap with that level of shot making, with that level of decision making, that's where the Wolves have the potential to end this series sooner than later. Because if they're the better half court team, and they're the better, you know, like detailed margin team, that's where they can end up in some trouble. Now, there's obviously going to be games in this series where Luca doesn't look like
he did tonight. I thought Luca looked like an absolute shell of himself on in every phase of the game. There's a clear and concerted effort from the Wolves early in the game to attack Luca and Iso. We even saw that down the stretch with the shot that An't hit, that was inevitable. We heard a ton of that after the game in the press conferences. We had a feeling that the Wolve's coaching staff would emphasize that they did.
The Timberwolves made a very concerted effort to attack Luca, and it was exacerbated by the fact that Luca just looked slow. The dead giveaway that you could tell Luca wasn't himself was he looked surprised by ball pressure, and he looked surprised by help defense, but like getting into the teeth of the defense and drawing a second body
and then just trying to shoot and getting blocked. Or Jaden McDaniels jumping him along the left wing on one of his early catches with some ball pressure and Luca just looked like he was just like surprised by it as he coughed the ball up, like there was just a like this was a game where Luca was unable to overcome the physical circumstances that he was dealing with. And I thought that that really hurt the Lakers down the stretch as great as Lebron was And obviously Lebron
was incredible tonight on both ends of the floor. His shot making was the best we've seen from him since he came back from his growing injury. That pull up transition three he hit was like one of the most difficult shots I've seen him take under the circumstances. Kind of reminded me of the shot Steph hit against Amn Thompson near half court where it was like sprinting to his right kind of forward, just left right footwork, elevates, just sticks it. You could just tell he just had
great lift and he stuck it. But Lebron is not going to be able to really create offense in a half court as effectively as Luca can when he's right. And that was really the difference in the game tonight when they got it too one o three, one oh three, it was gonna be Anthony Edwards versus Luka Doncic, and Luca just didn't have it tonight, and Anthony Edwards showed
what his ultimate potential is. I was talking with Pete on the broadcast, like, it's been really hard for me in this series because all of you guys who are longtime listeners of the show. Know that Anthony Everards is one of my favorite players and having to root against
him is not a fun experience. But I have so much excitement for Aunt with his big picture potential simply because of the fact that there's really nothing you can do to stop him from either creating a clean look for himself or him being able to dart through the lane and elevate and make a high level kickout pass. You can't stop him from doing one of those two things. The shot that he gave up that he hit on DFS, the shot that he hit on Luca. You have to
concede those. If you take them away, he will go right around you all night long. And so really that that's the big picture potential with ant that's so exciting. Once he learns to really read all these defensive schemes, that is that is where he's going to be able to just oscillate between high level aggression high level kickout passes based on you know, what the defense is giving or taking away from him, And that's where he's going to be able to float his offense for larger portions
of games through higher level playmaking. They're so like this kid is barely scratching the surface of what he's capable of being as a basketball player, and it's it's it's scary to think about twenty seven year old aunt when he still has the forty five inch vertical or whatever the hell he has, and he still is the forty two percent high volume ten threes a game type of guy, but a guy that can get up into that five six seven assists per game, high level kickout reads really
starting to become the half court surgeon. And like you know, before the season, I said Anthony Edwards was the fifth best player in the league that I would pick the lead a franchise from the start of the season through to the through the NBA Finals. And there was another sign to that take involving me bumping Tatum down to seven, which ended up being the wrong part of that. Tatum was fantastic again tonight, at least for the parts that
I watched. And I think that if you were to list the top four players in the league, it's pretty clearly you know, Kitch's, it's Yannis, It's Shay yieldis Alexander, It's Jason Tatum. Maybe Luca again at some point soon if he can get physically right, But Anthony Edwards, to me is arguably that fifth guy. So here we are in April, and through the course of this season from October to now, has shown the growth as a jump shooter, has shown the growth as a half court shot creator.
Think about it in Game one too, He's fantastic in Game one nine. It's just one turnover. He's been playing at a higher level as a half court decision maker than he has at any point in his career, and I think you can make the case that he's encroaching on that top tier of guys. With the level of play that he's reaching, I think that the Lakers are
going to have to start considering double teaming him. We saw a little bit of it towards the end of the game, right after he already put things away, specifically picking him up earlier in the possession out towards half court. The Wolves are not very attentive in those situations, flashing and quickly breaking down the defense in those situations. I think the Lakers are going to have to consider doing that. If ant continues to find that kind of groove in
the fourth quarter. It's not something that I would just bring out first quarter right away. But it's something that I would consider pulling out a little sooner in game in Game four than JJ pulled it out in Game three. But all around, just much smarter approach from the Wolves tonight, attacking Luca instead of just you know, hunting the Lakers better perimeter defenders, Anthony Edwards, the half court surgeon down the stretch, and then they are the physically dominant team.
They were able to get the Lakers to let go of the rope tonight. There were so many examples of them just just getting sloppy rushing and like Austin Reeves had a few turnovers where you could just tell he's rushing, he's struggling against the ball, pressure's dribbling the ball off his knee or losing control of it one way or the other. You know, Jared Vanderbilt looked like he was a little sped up tonight, you know, like Ruyachamura looked
like he was a little sped up tonight. There was just a lot of EXAs amples where the Wolves and their pressure cause the Lakers to let go of the rope, and their pathway is very simple. Even with what Aunt showed tonight, even with the attacks of Luca. The Lakers are the better half court team. If they can keep things in the half court and they don't turn the basketball over and they just surgically go about the process of creating advantages and playing off of it, they can
win the series. But it's gonna be tough, and it doesn't look good with the way that this series breaks down from a schedule standpoint.
Now. I talked a lot over the course of the last couple of days how I.
Viewed Game three as a game the Lakers kind of needed because they don't just turn around and play on Sunday. They turn around and play on Sunday at a twelve thirty tip. So some basic math, that's less than forty hours from now, that they have to turn around, that Lebron after that game has to get his body right, that Luca after dealing with food poisoning has to get his body right. And you know, this is the thing, it's super unfortunate, like win or lose, whether it's Minnesota
or LA that ends up advancing. I'd rather see it happen with both teams at full strength. But you don't get you don't get to you don't get to take a day. You don't get to call in. And we were joking about it on the live stream, like it's it's not like I've had food poisoning before. I know you guys all have. It's pretty shitty feeling. There's a lot of laying around. There's a lot of like, oh I stood up for a minute and now I immediately feel nauseous. There's a lot of like horrible feeling that
comes with that. Can you imagine if it was like, oh shit, I gotta go play the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight. It's it's it's crazy to not just to play the Minnesota Timberwolves, but to have to play them in a high level, high leverage playoff game.
And but it is what it is.
Everyone's dealing with certain types of ailments, whether they be physical, whether they be with health. And you know, Luca just wasn't able to overcome it tonight, and down the stretch they just didn't have a go to action that they could go to.
You could tell.
I mean Luca had two ISOs down the stretch, one against Jaden and one against Julius where he just didn't get any separation and he's like trying to throw what he got Jalen Jayden, excuse me along the left kind of short corner area where you know, Luca did his patented like little fake step back pump fake, and Jaden was just all over it. And he had to rifle a cross court pass to the right corner that wasn't
really open. He went at Julius Randall, and Julius Randall forced him to pick up his dribble around the right block. Like Luca literally wasn't even getting separation down the stretch, and even the shots that he was making tonight, like the shot that he hit over Julius Randall on the left wing, like that was an insanely difficult shot. Like he's not getting separation in this game because of the
physical ailment that he's dealing with. And so the pathway for the Lakers to get back into a position where they're in control of this series, they can get home court just by winning one. The Wolves stole one, They got to steal one in Game four. They need to hang onto the rope. They need a better performance from Luca. They need to maintain the rhythm that we saw from Austin and Lebron. Austin early hits a couple threes. You could tell he was zero for six in Game one,
but he got some clean looks. He found a way to get some of those to go. I thought they're out the game, Like the Lakers shot really well from three in this game, But I thought there were a lot.
Of really good looks.
Lebron hit a couple of tough pull ups, Austin hit a couple of tough pull ups, Luca hit a couple, hit one in particular on the left wing that was pretty tough. But the Ruby catching shoot threes, those are clean looks. The DFS catching shoot threes, those are clean looks. The Gabe Vincent catching shoot threes, those are clean looks. A lot of Austin's were clean looks. If they can take care of the ball, keep the game in the half court, execute their offense, they can win this series.
But they have now put themselves in a position where they got to win three of the next four, and that's just really hard to do under any circumstances. Certainly when two of those games are gonna be in Minnesota's it's a tough spot to be. So we're gonna let's open it up to the chat. Now we can get into any more details about the series that you guys want to if you guys have any specific questions about tonight, But we can also get into some of the other series.
Just remember I have not seen Bucks Pacers at all, and I only saw about the first two thirds of that Celtics Magic game.
We definitely got a lot of questions about this game. First up, last year, Luca dominated the one on one matchup with Jaden McDaniels. You've obviously talked a lot about that. What is different this year?
Jaden has done a better job with his physicality and his pressure in the series. But like I thought all night long, tonight, Luca just didn't have his burst. I thought Luca was just a shell of himself. I mean, all you have to do is look at the box score. Five turnovers, six for sixteen from the field, seventeen points. Like Luca has had high point totals consistently in the lakers last several games. Let me see if I can
pull it up. But like, yeah, thirty one, thirty seven, thirty nine, forty five, twenty three, thirty thirty five, that's the last, you know, eight or so games that lou Is played his seventeen tonight hit sixty eight points against the timber Wolves in the.
First two games. It's just he just didn't have the burst tonight. It is what it is. You don't get to take you don't get a rain check, you don't get to replay game three. That it just it is what it is. The Lakers had to win with the shelle of Luca tonight and they couldn't get it done.
Another question about the Lakers defense. Hey, Jason Duke from Ghana here, don't you think the Lakers are over helping on Ant's drives? Reducing the number of players helping on his drives will sort of help with those Wolves kickout threes?
No, because I think I think Ant Ant has in many cases tried to force the issue through those situations, and I still think your pathway forward is to force Ant to beat you with the pass. So like he's done it twice in this series so far twenty nine points eight assists tonight. But in theory throughout the rest of the series, you want him beating you with the pass.
You want him beating you with force him to make that kickout read over and over again, and like, does he make that same kickout read if it's one oh seven, one oh three Lakers with a little lead late in the game, or does he force the issue like you still want to prey on his inconsistency for the record, and has zero assists in game two, so that game plan can work. It just it's it's it's about playing into his youthful inconsistency.
I agree. I mean, I think here's he's so dynamic downhill and he's become such a good three point shooter. He literally led the league this season and makes that he has through his hard work, has created He's made his game almost impossible to defend. Like you don't have a good option, what are you supposed to do? Let him just iso and not help and let him finish Over the Lakers and lack of improtection, they don't have
any improtectors. It's a lot easier to say we're not gonna we're not gonna overhelp if you have Rudy Gobert on the inside, for example, then it is if you have Jackson Hayes or Ruby Hachimurra or whoever is on the back line. You know, next question, why are the Lakers not utilizing and more on ant is his offense really making him unplayable.
Vando has been really mistake prone in this series. He had a decent first half shift, but like he had that play where he fouled Julius Rayndel because he like failed to pick him up in transition. There was what was the mistake he made in the second oh yeah, where he gets that defensive rebound and like Nikkeil Alexander Walker is like running right up to him and he just holds the ball out and lets Nikkeil Alexander Walker
take the ball away from him. He's just he's just been a little he's been a step slow in his reads. There was a Luca turnover on a blitz where when think of like the Steph Curry blitz sequence that we've seen a thousand times, Draymond short rolls out of it, Steph floats the ball over the top, Draymond goes down the lane, someone steps over and helps either sprays it to the corner, he drops it off to a cutter for a dunk.
Right.
There was a sequence where Jared Vanderbilt was the screener. Luca got blitzed and instead of short rolling out of it, he rolled all the way to the rim and when he rolled all the way to the rim. Luca did not have a play that a player that he could pass the ball to right in the middle of the floor, and so Luca had to try to force a pass all the way down to Vando on the like dunker spot area and ended up in a turnover. Like they're
a couple things. Vando can do a decent job on Ant, but the job of guarding Ant as a five man job, it is not a one man job, and there's just too much mistake making and not enough on offense to justify high minute totals for Jared Vanderbilt. I still think ultimately this series goes down with their core five guys being Dorian Finney Smith as the fifth, with those guys all playing like forty two to forty three minutes in a big game.
Yeah, the mistakes across the board were rough tonight. I mean the Lakers had what nineteen turnovers and it felt like five or six of them or either fumbled passes or dribbled off their.
Leg Yeah, like that's crazy.
Luca got a defensive rebound and saw Austin flash in front of him, and instead of just bringing the ball up the floor like he's always done. He like tried to throw the ball to Austin from two feet away and it just bounced off his lap and went right to Antony, Like that was what happened on the play where Aunt dunked on Luca. Aunt dunked on Luca because Luca coughed the ball up. Lebron on his hot streak.
He gets on his hot streak, catches the ball up on the right wing, immediately just coffs the ball up and like every single one of those cough ups like immediately led to like an and one or a dunk, or like like the Wolves made them pay every single time you gave up thirty points on turnovers in a game that was tied with four minutes left, like it like this was Pete and I were joking during the stream, like that's a game you deserve to lose, Like the
basketball gods are not gonna let you win a game where you play that sloppy, And I'd like ant ant was great all night, and he pulled it out late with his own with his individual greatness. But like the Lakers didn't play well enough to deserve to win that game. They were lucky to be into it.
The way they were thanks to the shot making of Lebron, James and Ousin Reeves.
Yeah, I would have been a complete theft if they were able to come up with that game. What are your You talked time on this briefly, but what are your thoughts on Lebron's ability to have to have a highly impactful game on Sunday considering the short turnaround?
I think Lebron's gonna be fine on Sunday. Do I think he's gonna go for thirty eight again? Probably not, But like I think I Lebron is the most dependable big game player that I've that I've personally ever seen because of his floor being so high. If my entire life is a Lebron fan, every time I've gone into a truly big game, which Game four is a big game, you go down three to one, it's really hard to come. Now,
you gotta win three times in a row against Minnesota Timberls. Like, if the Lakers are gonna win this series, they need to win on Sunday. Lebron knows that you can guarantee at least twenty seven and five and Draymond Green asque defense on Sunday. They're not like like to me, the swing factor is Luca. Luca needs to have a massive bounce back game on Sunday. He like like owes it
to the team and like, I get it. What happened to him was super unfortunate, but ultimately they lost this game because their best player was a complete and total shell of himself. So like they need Luca to get di ivy fluids, getting Lebron's hyper bear chamber, do whatever the hell he needs to do. Hell if it's a beer that he needs to get to get back in shape, like do something get him back on his feet, and like, Luca needs to be amazing on Sunday.
What do you make of Lebron and and Conley laughing and joking around during that late review? Do you care at all? Do you not care?
I don't care at all? Like, did you guys feel like Lebron wasn't competing? Did you guys feel like Mike
Conley wasn't competing? Did you guys feel like Anthony Edwards wasn't Like those guys were like putting it all on the line on the floor, Like, like to me, like Lebron and Ant were Team USA teammates, and Lebron has famously been a guy that will make somewhat light of big moments, Like you remember when he hit the pull up three right after Paul George dunked all over the Birdman, and then he like went up and like went up to Paul George is like, hey, we're playing some great
basketball here. Like that's the thing you gotta remember too, Like that was a hell of a game, guys, that was a show. Lebron and Aunt put on a show tonight. We were treated as basketball fans to an incredible basketball game. And I feel like there's there are some moments where those guys are out there and like, hey, what we're doing is pretty cool here.
This is a funny question from Miles. What did you say when Conley banked in that three?
I thought he banked in it on purpose.
Well, so, if I remember correctly, Luca got beat on a baseline crash by Conley, and then after Conley got the rebound, he dribbled out to the wing. But it was so visibly obvious, like two feet off to the left off of his hand, that I just Mike Commy had to have tried to bank that on purpose. It was a decent look too, like he had a decent amount of separations.
He was laughing coming down the other do you think it was lucky? But either way, man, that's a banked in three in the fourth qut of a playoff game.
Oh my gosh.
What was your opinion on Rudy Gobert's impact in this game and throughout the series? His statistics as well if his offensive impact are almost non existent, but it feels like he's sparked a couple of rounds, especially in the first quarter.
Rudy I thought was good tonight. They ran a lot more diversified coverages with him tonight, like and this is where it's like, yeah, I think it's so fun there there was such a conversation surrounding the Rudy Gobert and the ISOs, and there's a lot of like numbers getting thrown around. My read in game two was that Luca had solved the go Beart switches. In the second half.
He had generated back to back wide open catching three, a catch and shoot threes attacking Rudy and ISOs, one of which was a Dorian Phinney Smith one that he made. The Lakers had been getting one point zero seven points per Iso just counting shot attempts, not even counting passes as a team against Rudy in the first two games. So like for all of the talk, like the coaching, the players and coaches will.
Tell you what they think.
And they came into Game three and they stopped switching with Rudy, So did that should tell you, guys what the Minnesota coaching staff felt about Rudy Gobert defending and switches on the perimeter. They did randomly switch with him once in the second half, and he jumped up on Luca and forced a turnover. But once again, Luca just like like surprised by ballpre like I like, one of
the most bizarre Luca games I've ever seen. And I'm just chalking it up to the food poisoning and throwing it out because I refuse to believe he would play like that under normal circumstances. But they ran a lot of drop coverage. They blitzed with him a few times tonight, so I at the level coverage and Luca just Luca wasn't able to attack it the way that he usually did. But overall, I thought Rudy was fine tonight. They won
his minutes. Like I think in general, like he has, he has provided enough positive impact to justify the minutes that he's been getting. The Lakers have been unable to like play him off the floor. We did see when Luca attacked him along that right lane line and bumped him with that left shoulder and hit that little hook that was a drop coverage possession. It kind of looked like a switch because he was attacking Luke Rudy one
on one, but it was a drop coverage possession. And after that shot they did bail on him and go to Nasried, But I think that could have just as been easily been for offense, and it was Nasried who literally ended up hitting a three on that critical possession late, So like I'd argue that Chris Finch made the right call there for sure.
We can take a couple from some away from this series. Hey, Jason, loved the show. What has been your favorite series to watch so far these playoffs?
That's a really good question, Pistons Nicks. I just there's a lot of players in that series that I really like. That Pistons team, to me, has a lot of likable guys that I think are gonna be fun guys to like root for. For the Pistons over the course of the next half decade.
I would say.
I've gotten a good amount of enjoyment out of Celtics Magic too. I really enjoyed watching that game today. Yeah, and like even though, like I will say, some of these Palo mid range jump shots are like IY sores to me, and it just kills me that he won't work a little closer to the bad place.
It was really funny how on the broadcast I was watching very closely as a Celtics fan, how Jay Billis was like, basically or no, Tim is Tim Legler, And I think Tim Legler's usually great at this kind of stuff, So I'm not taking a shot out really at Tim Legler because I really am a big fan of his. But in this game, he was like those those mid range pull ups when he creates space basically a layup for Paolo.
I was like, well, not exactly, I don't know about that. Yeah, I'm gonna pull up now. I'm curious. I want to see what Polo's shooting from the mid range in this postseason. But it's it's it's one of those things where the even with it, there's a lot of like tough off the dribble, mid range jump shots that are getting taken in that series. But it is just fun because the Magic crowd was great, are super big, been big and physical, and they can play the Celtics into some uncomfortable stretches.
But to me, and I don't know if you feel this way Jackson, even with the loss, the Celtics are still putting together some of the prettiest stretches of basketball two way basketball that I'm seeing in the league right now. And they had a couple tonight, like they had that run right before the half. Tatum had this stretch where he just like went down boom pull up three, went down tough right shoulder fade bam, went down tough.
Pull up three at the top of the key.
Like they will just blitz you in these like short periods of time and make leads just completely disappear. I would say, yeah, Magic Celtics and then Pistons. Pistons Nicks have been two of my absolute favorites. While you're asking the next question, I'll pull up the numbers from Pallo.
Yeah, I think my favorites before the game. The last two games were the Nuggets, Clippers on the Warriors, Rockets, Game one of that series, but then Game two of that series in Game three of Clippers Nuggets were both blow out, so I kind of lost a little bit of the last.
There for me, but really quickly twenty four points on twenty twenty six shots from the mid range shofer, So he's been good. That's that's solid for mid range basketball in the postseason. In the regular season, he was thirty one percent on long twos outside of seventeen feet, but he was fifty one percent inside of seventeen feet, which
is literally the point that I'm trying to make. Like the point that I'm trying to make is that like he actually has such imposing size that he can get short range shots that are high like highly efficient, but as soon as he gets out to the elbows and out, it just turns into not a layup to counter Tim Legler. But like, like that that's really the piece of it. Like he's fifty one percent inside of seventeen feet, thirty one percent outside of seventeen feet, thirty two percent from three.
It's that's really for him, the goal is just fighting to get positioned closer to the basket. He's also forty nine percent on runners floaters.
So there we go.
Okay, we talked about this a little bit last show, but until the game has played tomorrow, it's so an interesting question. What are the Warriors chances to make it past the Rockets, either without Jimmy Butler with a hobble Jimmy Butler, or what's the what's the outlook there?
I told you before the broadcast tonight that I viewed the Lakers now as slightly less than a coin flip. Like I viewed them as about a coin flip in Game one. Now is like slightly less than a coin flip. I am still I still feel like the Warriors are gonna deal with Houston relative like I think they're gonna win Game three, in Game four, like I there is a there is a a reality in that series.
Which is.
Houston cannot score against the Warriors in the half court when they're really engaged and they have their guys and they're healthy, they can't. There is an element with the Lakers where it's like, well, if Ant's gonna hit his pull up threes and make the kickout reads, like we're sol where Like I actually like, I think, what do you think? What do you think is the likelihood. Let's
just put it this way. Do you think it's like, what would you pick as the more the more likely scenario that Jalen Green has less than fifteen points in Game two or that he has more than twenty five.
Oh, less than fifteen, more than twenty five. I would probably say less than fifteen. I'd probably sate lesson.
Yeah, they're gonna they're gonna tighten things up there and they're gonna get that figured out. Like I I I think even if Jimmy Butler didn't play in Game three or Game four, that the Warriors would win Game three in Game four.
That's that's a that's a prediction.
I like that.
Let's see if I can find.
Guys like there's this like reality that happens when Jimmy goes down and leaves the game and Brandon Pajemski is like clearly hampered, and like you there is a feeling within the basketball team where it's like, oh, we we kind of don't have it tonight, you know what I mean? And that trickles into every single element of the game, you know, and like like they're gonna come out and game like I wouldn't be surprised if the Warriors won Game three by twenty plus.
Jalen Green's prop or his player props on DraftKings right now for Game three, they MIAs one fifteen at twenty one plus. They don't give Hi an exact number, which is weird, but twenty one plus is MIUS one fifteen, so they're expecting about twenty one is the over under?
Yeah, so the over under would be around like twenty point five, like in that area and like that that. Yeah, like and I would take the under. I would take the under there.
Yeah.
I texted you after last game. I was like, what are the odds he has another game over twenty five in the whole series? And You're like, I don't think he's get one.
This is this is actually a crazy stat because like I talked about how Jalen Green when he scored thirty points in the regular season, he did it fourteen times and they went thirteen and one, but there were this is this is like crazy, this is how many this is how many times this season he scored single digits. He scored single digits twelve times. He scored fewer than
fifteen points twenty four times. So to the to the point he's like almost twice as likely to fail to reach fifteen than he is to get over thirty, and that like, it's just Jalen Green always has that upside. It just is it's so inconsistent and like to get if I'm a Rockets fan, having gotten it.
Once in the series feels like a luxury. It's hard to match.
It's so crazy because it is hard to imagine him doing it again in Golden State. But if you watch Game two, you're like, this, dude's Anthony Edwards.
Basically, dude, I can never I've been talking about this forever with Jalen Green and with Jonathan Kaminga, which is like the freaky athlete with some size, because that's the key.
It's it's not Scoot Henderson, It's Jalen Green in the sense that like there's some real size there, and real athleticism with size is so hard to give up on because they they really do just have sky high potential and when they do get into their rhythm, when they start to gain that confidence, they can be a force to be reckoned with.
For sure. Let's say one more, This is a non playoff question, what's the Spurs next movie of this offseason? To to keep the path forward.
To contention, scour for vets.
Your timeline is accelerated now you have Dearon Fox, you have Victor Webbanyama. You need to be looking for players that can play at the two and the three and the four, that can defend hit three's attack, closeouts, connective playmaking, that sort of thing. From a draft standpoint too, I think I think because you have Steph Castle, because you have Victor Wembenyama, you no longer need to be drafting for upside. You need to be drafting for immediate utility.
So looking for you know, fourth year seniors, fifth year seniors, guys that have been in college programs that teach fundamentals really well, that are going to produce a lot of pro ready role player type of guys. This is your You're just looking to fill the roster with guys that can do small roles. Now, like Daron Fox is absolutely fine as you're primary perimeter shot creator, Victor women Yama is absolutely fine as a secondary shot creator. You are
teed up for success. You just got to build around the margins at this point. All right, guys, that's all we have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. Jackson, you got a movie time tomorrow morning?
Right? What movie youre going to see?
I'm going to see Sinners all right on.
I need to see that.
I just need to find some time. A Revenge of the Sith is back in the theater, so I need to go find some time to go see that too. But the episode will probably be up. The episode for the Bucks Magic and Bucks excuse me, Bucks Pacers and Celtics Magic will probably be up a little bit closer to noon ish Pacific time. But none of those teams
are playing tomorrow, so they'll still be available. But I think they're worth I think those games are worth digging into because both of those teams managed to get the home win in Game three, so it's worth looking at what they did to succeed. So we'll have that up in the afternoon sometime tomorrow and then live after the final Buzzer Rockets Warrior on YouTube tomorrow night. Last note,
I do have that if you're into Star Wars. We had the first three episodes of and Or Come Out, and my buddy Luke and I recorded about a half hour long podcast reacting to that. You can find that on my twitter feed or wherever. Get your podcast on our two SUNS podcasts. Again, appreciate you guys for supporting us. We're rocking with the rocking with the show. We will see you guys tomorrow morning. What's up guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight.
They 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.
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