Hoops Tonight - Lakers-Timberwolves Reaction + Steph Curry Goes for 56 - podcast episode cover

Hoops Tonight - Lakers-Timberwolves Reaction + Steph Curry Goes for 56

Feb 28, 202540 min
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Episode description

Jason Timpf reacts LIVE after the Los Angeles Lakers got an important win against the Minnesota Timberwolves in a game where Luka Doncic struggled to shoot, LeBron James played great, and Anthony Edwards got ejected. Then he discusses Steph Curry’s 56 point night for the Golden State Warriors and Russell Westbrook’s resurgence with the Denver Nuggets.

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Timeline

4:00 - Intro

5:15 - Lakers/Timberwolves

25:45 - Warriors/Magic

45:00 - Russell Westbrook’s Resurgence

#Volume #Herd

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https://twitter.com/_JasonLT

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Transcript

Speaker 1

The volume.

Speaker 2

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Speaker 1

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Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in 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, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody, hope, All you guys are having a great week for to

be in. Two games from tonight's slate as the Lakers survive a physical, athletic onslaught from the Minnesota Timberwolves and then the Golden State Warriors after getting shot out of the gym in the first half against Orlando Magic. Get some a return back to normal from Orlando or Orlando's jump shooting in the first explosive scoring game of Steph Curry's season.

Speaker 2

A lot of really.

Speaker 1

Encouraging stuff on the Warriors front, and then at the tail end of the show, a brief shout out that I have for Russell Westbrook. You guys have the drill before we get started. To subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore JCNLT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if he leave a rating and a

review on that front. We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year. We're doing some more film stuff on those platforms as well, so make sure you guys follow us there. In the last but not least, keep dropping mailback questions and the YouTube comments. We can get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right,

let's talk some basketball. So I talked a little bit about e after the game right for the All Star break with the Timberwolves about how they're one of those teams.

I'm always looking at teams in the regular season and trying to find out what I think translates to the postseason, and there's always like a certain amount of like sometimes the young athletic teams, there's a little bit of a ceiling that they run into when they get into the postseason when all the vets kind of up their level of intensity and the game planning gets a little bit more intense. Young players tend to have more weaknesses and

they can run into some issues. Right, There are some young teams near the top of the stay in his classic example as years, teams like the Houston Rockets, right that, like, I don't think they're as good as their record is in terms of the type of threat that they represent

in the postseason. But then there is a layer to that, especially on teams that do have more talent, more actual veteran experienced talent, teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves, where their size in physicality can manifest in the postseason in a way that it doesn't manifest in the regular season because they're allowed to get away with more because of their size and physicality. Wearing on a team over the course

of a seven game series. The Timberwolves last year, what they did to the Phoenix Suns, what they did to the Nuggets was a perfect example of that. And if you guys remember I talked about it in that stretch right during the All Star break. Like with Minnesota, I take them more seriously than their record because they just have a bunch of big, strong athletes with veteran president presences, with enough shot creation talent to where they can just

drag you down into the mud. And when you're down in the mud with them, they can make a lot of your players play beneath their capability. You can start to experience some injuries as you get banged up in that environment and it can go south for you pretty quickly. And even without Anthony Edwards in that second half, I thought the Wolves presented an excellent challenge for the Lakers

in terms of that physical imposition that they presented. Terrence Shannon in particular, was just ripping through the Lakers transition defense. Lakers have been really good on defense, including in transition for a while. That was not their best transition defense effort. Terrence Shannon made them pay consistently by just ripping through them.

One of the things things that I want to talk about is like the Lakers have a flaw that's been consistent throughout this season, which is that teams are going to ball pressure the hell out of Lebron and ball pressure the hell out of Austin, and they ball pressured the hell out of d Lo when he was there, and as games progressed, those guys would wear down and get fatigued, and they'd start to get sloppy with their passes.

They'd start to miss a lot of jump shots. Look at how many badly missed jump shots you saw from the Lakers in that second half. And one of the big things that I was really excited about in the Luka Doncics trade is he's like literally the antidote to that problem. He is a guy that can eat up an enormous amount of that usage in terms of bringing the ball up the floor with standing ball pressure, making

that easier. The difference is is that Luca, when he's at his best, brings a level of shot making that he can use to defeat that type of pressure. He can get guys on his side and work his way downhill, get into that ten to fifteen foot zone and make

a bunch of shots. He actually saw a taste of that in that first quarter stretch, which was the stretch where Luca looked his best offensively, and so on the one hand, I thought the Wolves exposed the reality of the Lakers' weaknesses in terms of wearing down under ball pressure. But the reality is that when Luca gets into form, he should be able to handle that better. Luca is still having a hell of a time making jump shots at this point. He came into tonight eleven for fifty

one on jump shots in a Lakers jersey. He ended up making the most ridiculous shot he took tonight, the interesting kind of a late clock sequence where Lebron was kind of caught the ball in the post against Nazriid, and then he was like, you know what, Like I don't see the point me posting up Nasriid, so he pulled him out to the perimeter, but his jumper was

kind of out of rhythm. He had missed a few early in the fourth, so he tries to drive on him and nas does a really nice job shutting off the driving lane kind of traps him along the baseline and Lebron throws basically just an escape pass to Luca on the left wing. Nikhil Alexander Walker is smothering it the whole way, and Luca just bumps him a little bit with that shoulder and leans back and shoots a one leg fade away from like twenty seven feet nothing but the bottom of the net.

Speaker 2

It's funny.

Speaker 1

I had a MAVs fan tweet at me after that that basically said, all MAVs fans knew that shot was going in, And it's just an example of the Luca magic that MAVs fans grew accustoms to during the beginning stretch of his career that Laker fans are going.

Speaker 2

To see a lot of.

Speaker 1

But like to me, lucas not close to where he needs to be as a shot maker. To me, it's obvious because so many of his misses are outside the rim. An easy way to think of it is the basketball rim can actually fit two basketballs on the inside, right, So like there's kind of like a dialing in process.

When you're out of rhythm, You're you're getting a little bit closer on your missus, you're making more shots, right, And like right now, I don't think Luca, Like, I don't think Luca's Luca might have a good game here or there as jump shooter, but I think he's a ways away from actually, like regularly just notching really good shot making games because his jumper's way off right now.

He's missing most of them well outside the rim. He's missing a lot of his short range shot making, like short in front of the rim, Like he's not even like getting it over the front of the rim. So it's gonna be a while. I think. I think we're probably still at least a few weeks out from Luca

really looking like Luca as a shot maker. But he should help solve that problem for the Lakers in terms of wearing down under that type of ball pressure, because even with Luca as he can wear down as we saw like in the Celtics series for instance, Lebron James should be able to help anchor him on that end by giving him a release foul Austin Reeves as well. I think Luca is gonna be an antidote for that problem in the big picture, But you did see that get exposed quite a bit in this game as a

weakness for the Lakers on the defensive end. Dealing with Anthony Edwards, there's another completely different type of offensive matchup that the Lakers personnel had to deal with that JJ and his coaching staff had to come up with a game plan for The game plan that they had for Aunt was pretty simple.

Speaker 2

They just had.

Speaker 1

Whoever was guarding him on the ball basically force him towards the sideline, So play entirely on his inside shoulder and force him to drive towards the sideline, and then they use what's called a strong side zone, basically taking a think of it like this. Normally, if a defender were to sit in the paint and he's not guarding anybody, he would get a defensive three second violation, right. We saw a couple of those tonight.

Speaker 2

One on each team.

Speaker 1

But in that event, one of the counters for that is like guys will sometimes be all the way on the opposite side of the paint and they'll step in and they'll step out, and they'll step in and they'll step out. But a way to avoid that entirely is what if you just have that guy go all the way to the opposite side of the paint and literally just that's what they called a strong side zone. Because

that defender is not actually guarding a man anymore. He's actually effectively a one man's zone who's in help right outside the block on the strong side of the floor where the ball handler is right. So essentially it's like a soft double team of Ant. You're playing his strong side shoulder or his middle side shoulder so that he can't just like easily take pull up threes, and you're trying to force him to drive right into the teeth of the defense. I actually thought At handled it really well.

I mean, the game plan more or less worked the way it was supposed to. The Lakers did get a lot of stops in this game, but I thought At handled it pretty well. He got it to paint quite a bit. He was using his slow down step to deal with help defenders. He was using screening actions to try to get his defender caught on the screen by like like screening and then rescreening to get the dude caught on the underside so he could get a decent look at a pull up three. He got guys off

of him with pump fakes. You know, Ant's just freakishly talented. That's what he's gonna do. He made some really nice skip passes to beat the strong side zone. But then it got worked up and there was a sequence that was kind of like a bang bang play where he drove at Gabe Vincent and like clearly shoved him off with his right arm, and like, yeah, when Gabe was falling, his left foot came up a little bit and kicked Ant in the back of the leg. But like the

ref didn't call it. You want to know why the ref didn't call it because he saw Aunt push him off and and it was just kind of like a bang bang play where he didn't think it was worthy of a whistle. Ant fell down and loses his mind, gets into it with the ref, gets himself ejected. Now he's suspended for tomorrow as well, So like that's really unfortunate, and like one of those things where like I get I could see watching that game how you could be frustrated as a Wolves fan or as a Wolve's player.

The Lakers were getting some tiki tac calls in that game. Is one of those ones where like like Austin was getting hit on the forearm. It's like really light, but at the same time, like you guys know, if you've ever played basketball. If you shoot a jump shot and a guy taps you on the forearm when you're shooting, it can cause the shot to go off by feet because it just affects your follow through. That's all the

power that you're transferring into the basketball, right. But like I can understand that it's a frustrating officiating game for the Wolves. My thing is like you're on the road in the arena with a group of players, specifically Austin and Luca, who are like famous spougrifters. You know you're gonna be on the wrong end to some calls. You got to show some mental toughness to get through that so that you can stay available for your team, and

got himself ejected from there. The Wolves were just like, hey, we got one chance here, Let's muck this up. Let's get super physical, let's make a mess of this game, let's get out in transition.

Speaker 2

And they did. They made it a game.

Speaker 1

But the Lakers, just like they did in the Dallas game, they were lock in down the stretch, get enough stops, get enough good looks, and ended up pulling away and winning relatively comfortably. I thought Lebron was absolutely magnificent all around in this game, but especially on defense as ironic after JJ Reddick touted his all defense level of play over the course of the last six weeks after the Dallas game, I thought this was his best defensive game

of this entire stretch. His rotations all over the floor were amazing, his close outs to the three point line going flying into a row of chairs, his back line wrote around the rim. There were like a half dozen deep catches for the Wolves in the paint in this game where Lebron just like appeared out of nowhere to disrupt the player on the catch and force some miss.

Clean up the defensive glass after that miss. He was incredible on the defensive glass all night and again went like sixteen to seventeen rebounds, so many contested rebounds that he came away with. There was even that one I think it was with Terrence Shannon where both guys had a grip on the ball and they ended up in a wrestling match over it, and Lebron somehow got away with that one as well. He was in groups of three bodies and tapping it out to other Lakers for rebounds.

Speaker 2

He was just.

Speaker 1

Amazing all over the floor on the defensive end of of the ball, getting stops and finishing possessions with the defensive rebound. And then again on a night where Luca couldn't buy a shot, Lebron brought the scoring all night long. He was downhill to the rim all night long, he was dominating in the paint. It was just another game where Lebron was playing at an MVP level in nearly two month stretch where he's consistently.

Speaker 2

Been playing at that level. Uh.

Speaker 1

The one last note I have on the Lakers front here, there are some realities to this team with their depth. This is something I talked about in the if you guys remember in the in the after, in the immediate aftermath of the trade, there are some realities just in the number of like reliable rotation players they have. There's like eight if you include Jackson Hayes. Right, it's Lebron, Austin, Luca, It's Ruey and Jackson, and then it's Dorian Finney Smith,

it's Jared Vanderbilt, it's Gabe Vincent. After that, it gets shaky, right, like you get into that Dalton connect phase. Like I've been kind of lower on Dalton Connect than most Laker fans all year. He just I think he's gonna be a good player in the big picture, but right now, he's a shooter that can't make shots and is a really bad defensive player. Like I don't think he's even really capable of being a consistent rotation player for a

good NBA team right now. Right like Jordan Goodwin, absolute scrapper. He's such a good piece to have for a regular season, but he's not a guy that you're gonna be able to like rely on for significant minutes in a postseason setting. So you got eight guys, and here's the thing, Like eight guys is enough. That's what you wanted a playoff rotation. You want seven and a half, eight guys that you trust to do their job on both ends of the floor.

But there's no margin for error there. As soon as like just tomorrow night, for example, you take Ruey out of the picture. Ruey went down with a knees brain in this game, Dorrian Finney Smith slots into the starting lineup in all likelihood if everyone else plays, But it's very possible that the Lakers hit a bunch of guys tomorrow will see. But like let's just say Ruey's out long term, Like let's say, Ruey's out three four weeks, Dorrian Phinney Smith is starting. You got one forward coming

off the bench, Jared Vanderbilt. Like, now it's gonna be a are we going big? Is it gonna? Is it gonna be a lot of Alex lenn You know that's a huge dropoff from a player of Ruey Hatchi Mura's caliber. And so again, like I want to be clear about this Laker team. I think they absolutely have a championship ceiling. They are proving once again another night where they held a team that that Wolves offense was top ten in

offense in offensive rating over the previous fifteen games. The Lakers held him down, just like the held Dallas down, just like the held Denver down, just like they've been holding everybody down since the middle of January. The defense is real. Luca getting back to being Luca will anchor this offense at a higher floor. I still think they're

shooting well below their shot quality right now. A big part of that is just every game has been super physical, and I think also Luca getting back to form will start to generate better shot quality. But like, I think they're gonna be fine on the offensive end, They have absolutely a championship level unit on both ends of the floor. They're rebounding really well with this group. Everything's great there. However, the margin for air as it pertains to their injury

luck is extremely luck. It's extremely small. Ruey sprains his knee in this game. Jackson Hayes hurt his hip in this game. Luca grabbed at his knee after going knee to knee with somebody. Lebron looked like he was a little banged up at the end of the game. There's definitely a very small window here in terms of they need to get through a really brutal stretch of basketball

here with their roster intact. And so again, like I think it's important every time you see a team struggle, I got talked about it's always important to at least acknowledge what's making them a struggle.

Speaker 2

It's like, oh, ball pressure and physicality.

Speaker 1

Well, yeah, Lucas should help with that, but like, oh, also down the stretch he ended up having to play. You couldn't go to your closing group with Ruey because Ruey's hurt. Okay, So the reality is this team has eight men can that they can trust. But after that, it gets a little sketchy, and it's just something that's a reality of something that they're gonna have to deal with as the season progresses.

Speaker 2

All right, Moving onto Warriors Magic.

Speaker 1

This was an interesting matchup that I had my eye on for the New York Warriors because the Magic are just a much bigger team. It was going to test the Warriors in the paint and on the glass, and I actually thought they held up pretty well on that front. They only gave up eleven second chance points while getting eight of their own. It was actually the Magic down the stretch who weren't able to secure a defensive rebound that Jimmy Butler beat everyone to the ball once. Draymond

Green beat every one of the ball once. So I actually thought it was a relatively successful night on that front. And again, when you have a disadvantage like that, like oh, they're bigger than us, it's not like you're gonna go and just play bigger than them. It's about just minimizing that advantage. You can minimize their size advantage and maximize your speed advantage, you can win that fight.

Speaker 2

Again.

Speaker 1

It's like there's that expression styles make fights, But the way I look at it is like which style wins the fight. A really fast guy and a really big guy get into a fistfight, like it really just depends on who weaponizes their advantage better, right, And like it just felt like in this game, the Warriors held up pretty well onto Orlando's size. The flip side of the Magic being this massive team is that they can't shoot.

And I mean they really can't shoot. They are far and away the worst jump shooting team in the NBA. They're so bad that the gap between them and the twenty ninth ranked jump shooting team, the Washington Wizards, is seven points over seven points per one hundred jump shots. As a matter of fact, the gap between the Magic and the twenty ninth ranked jump shooting team Washington Wizards is the same as the gap between the twenty ninth ranked team in the fourteenth ranked jump shooting team in

the NBA. That's how bad the Orlando Magic art making jump shots. But now, in that first half, Orlando shot the seams off the ball to start this game. They got one point five to three points per jump shot in the first half. That's close to double their season average. But the Warriors didn't over react. They stuck to their game plan and Orlando cooled off in the second half. They got just zero point eight to two points per

jump shot in the second half. Now, again, like I always talked about with shot results, there's two different ways to look at it. Yeah, there's absolutely some variance in jump shooting, but there are also a lot of controllables.

If a team is shooting well, if you start sharpening up your closeouts, making them a little bit more uncomfortable, it's more likely that they'll get out of rhythm and that they'll start missing they like did you guys notice a dynamic where the Warriors were, like in the second half, blocking shots in the right court like threes, or forcing really bad misses.

Speaker 2

Out of the right corner on threes.

Speaker 1

They kept putting two on the ball as the Magic kept attacking out of that left wing, and a simple dynamic was being generated where because they were occupying the dunker spot, there was usually nobody on the right wing. There's someone in the right corner and there was a defender, sometimes there's Moses Moody, sometimes as Jimmy Butler, sometimes Draymond Green. That defender would have to tag the roller as they're putting two on the ball, But then also be accountable

for that shooter in the corner. Their rotations in the second half were fantastic. Sprinting out there, Draymond and Jimmy had several great closeouts forcing bad misses. Moses Moody had to play where he tagged a roller at the foul line and somehow got all the way back that his man made the pass and he got all the way back to the right corner and blocked a three point shot over there. He's just been fantastic on defense consistently since his role has become more were clarified for him.

The Warriors defense was great all around in the second half. I thought it was a great matchup for Quinton Posts because he was able to kind of hang back by the rim and he had several great contests blocks there. Like he was just really impactful as a rim protector in this game. We talked about the defensive rotations from

guys like Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Moses Moody. I think Brandon Pajemski was awesome on defense in that second half with his ball pressure just delaying Orlando getting into their offense. He also had some great rear view contests again, that's when you're in ball screens and the screener screens. You you have to chase over the top, but you have a drop coverage defender or somebody that's helping on the other side of the screen. Your job is to bother

from behind swipe at the basketball. He had some great rearview contest. He had a block in a situation like that. He's been fantastic on defense all around since the Jimmy Trade. Like him and Moody, they've had their roles crystallized and they're just hooping on both ends of the floor with what the team is asking to do. Gary Payton, the second had one of the biggest plays in the game.

The magic cut it into a close game late. He off of an offensive rebound Cole Anthony drove the baseline out of the right corner and it looked like he was going to have a chance there to cut the lead to a one possession game there, Gary just stayed attached from behind, just swatted it out of there, and it actually led to a fast break going the other way.

It was a huge defensive play from Gary Payton. They've been second in defensive rating in the entire NBA in this eight game stretch since Jimmy Butler did join the team. They're fast. Everyone is doing their job. I was talking our new producer, Jackson, He's a really smart basketball mind. We were talking before the show about how, like how the game has changed so much over the course of the last few years in terms of teams are existing in rotation a lot. All these great pull up shooters,

you got to put two on the ball. All these great superstars that are great at attacking mismatches, you got to put two on the ball. You're in rotation a lot. And one of the things that Jackson was talking about before we started recording, and I think he spot on with this, is like having intelligent defenders that make the

right types of decisions in these situations really matters. You're in rotation and there's two shooters on the opposite end of the floor, a guy on the wing and a guy in the corner.

Speaker 2

And one of.

Speaker 1

The guys is a guy that like, if you close out at him short, he won't shoot it. But the other guy's just a burner. Then you need to close out to the better shooter passing lane close out. So that's another thing that really advanced defenses will do where like the pass goes to the wing or the pass goes to the corner, instead of closing out to the shooter, you close out in between them because it makes the shooter think that you're closing out at him, so will

hesitate for a second. But then when he looks to make the extra pass, guess who's in his way? You because you're in the passing lane. Different like bait and switch type of things where you might stunt at a guy to make him hesitate and then get back. The Moses Moody block a great example. He's stunted, I believe I think it was Goga Buttadze who caught on the roll on that play. He like stunted at Gogut and it made him hesitate, which bought him a second for

him to make that extra rotation to the corner. And like Andrew Wiggins, as we've talked about, he is obviously a better just like pick up the ball, full court type of defender right, and that was a huge part how they won the title. But Jimmy Butler has a level of defensive playmaking to him that is a ceiling razer that Andrew Wiggins is incapable of we talked about earlier that intelligence piece. A lot of that is reading plays.

There's a play the other day, I can't even remember which game it was, where he's like tracking a different player on a baseline cut. Jimmy Butler is coming through to the right side of the floor, but a different player got back cut on the Warriors, and Jimmy identified it and peeled off, jumped the passing lane, got it and went the other way. Steph Curry, in my opinion, has always been a very smart defender. Game plan discipline is a huge part of success in the modern NBA.

Your coaches will spend hours pouring over film. Usually there's someone on the staff who's scouting a game three four games down the line. Hey, you're in charge for scouting this game. This guy's in charge of scouting that game. They're pouring over film. This is a guy we calls out short on. This is a guy that doesn't ever shoot a jump shot when he drives to the right, but he always will shoot a jump shot when he drives to the left. This is a guy that we

do this for. This is a guy that we're doing that for. There's so much information there in the scouting report, and a lot of times we see defensive breakdowns, and we blame the coaching staff. A lot of times it's a player who's just not obeying the game plan or not sticking or being disciplined to the game plan. The Warriors have a lot of really really smart defensive players out there, and it's a big part of how they've put together can consistently a top ten defense this season.

But now they're showing an elite defense over the course of this recent stretch of games. But there was another end of the floor in that second half, at the end of the floor where Steph Curry went for thirty five points just in the second half, started with a half court heave right before the buzzer at halftime they cut the lead to fourteen. He cut some favorable coverages

to start the third quarter. They were bringing Paolo and Wendell Carter Junior into the screening action, and those guys were just sitting back and letting Contavious Cobwo Pope just chase Steph over screens. And so he got a couple of really easy looks to start the third quarter, one

that he made and one that he missed. But it actually got step into a groove, and so then when Orlando started to up the pressure, he was already on one of those classic Steph hot streaks because he's hit a three, he just hit a bomb, and the first half he's already in a groove there. I think he had what twenty one in the first half. There was nothing they can do at that point. He's already in

the groove. But these things are usually connected. Like a lot of times, if you play sloppy defense in an early portion of a game, a guy will get confident in a rhythm. It doesn't matter how tight you get on him in the second half or the rest of the game. These are some of the best shot makers in the history of the sport. Right, Steph is the best shooter in the history of the sport. He was getting downhill and he was stepping back in the mid range.

He was getting guys with pump fakes to get separation. He had guys running out his base, drawing fouls. He drew five thousand this game. He full Palow several times in the second half, got him on a pump fake and got him on a foul where he ran out his base. KCP was just getting fried all night. As Steph's primary defensive assignment, I got KCP looked a little slow in this game, and that's another story. This is all super encouraging for the Warriors because Steph had looked

pretty rough before the Jimmy trade. Before Jimmy suited up, he was averaging twenty three points per game on forty three percent from the field in thirty nine percent from three. In the last eight games with Jimmy Butler, he's averaging thirty one points per game, fifty one percent from the field and forty three percent from three. In other words, the Steph Curry that we've grown accustomed to for well

over a decade now. But the one thing that was missing, even with everything having to do with the averages, was the explosive scoring nights, the crazy steps on another heater, guys, everyone get to your TV type of moments. Steph didn't have a single forty point game yet this season. Last year he had six. Last time he had a similar roster before the Jimmy trade, and twenty twenty one he

had ten forty point games. Obviously a younger player, this is this explosive scoring night, getting fifty six, getting like an otherworldly type of performance out of Steph against a good defense is a really, really strong indicator of what this team is capable of moving forward. It's a big part of why I believe in this team. Like the defense was there all year, Jimmy just brings it up a level. Then you get it's Steph, a legitimate offensive

co star in Jimmy. Then you get Knight tonight greatness from Steph back. Now you're getting a real Steph explosion. There's an awesome quote from Jamal Moseley in the postgame presser. He was asked, coach aside from Steph, because he's capable of doing this from time to time. What was the difference? He said, the man had fifty six points. There is no aside from Steph, and like that that's the exciting part. Like, if you're looking at this team as a playoff threat,

it really is simple. They're an elite defense with a bunch of really smart players and a great head coach. And on the other end the floor, it's Steph Curry. Except for now you can't throw the entire kitchen sink at him because Jimmy Butler's out there too. And oh, by the way, Jonathan Minga is not too far behind,

and would be. We can't write this team off when they're this good on defense and they're led by one of the greatest offensive players in the history of the sport and he finally has someone that he can share that load with. Last note on the war, I would be remiss if I did not mention Quinton Posts scoring in this game. I mentioned his or improtection earlier, but he poured in eighteen points to a couple of threes.

By the way, Quinn Post is hitting fifty one percent of his unguarded catch and shoot attempts so far this year, one point five to three points per attempt. That's amazing. Like they're One of the big things that happens with shooting bigs is there's like the shooting big, the guy that's gonna hit thirty five thirty six percent of like to quote Dorian Finney Smith, but naked wide open threes that teams are just conceding to them. And then there's

this guy's got a burner. We have to account for him. I was watching a little bit of Nuggets Bucks tonight and like Jokich is so good on the pick and pop, teams are rotating from the weak side. They're guarding the pick and pop with three players because they can't afford to leave him open. There are a lot of bigs, guys like Miles Turner, guys like Nikola Vucevic. There are a lot of guys that are like, yeah, we'll live with him shooting out there. Quinn Post seems to have

a burner. He looks like the kind of guy you can't leave out there. But I also thought he showed some impressive footwork in this game. He had a couple of buckets in the paint. He had a pick and roll switch where he buried a small under the basket, created a passing angle quick finish over his left shoulder.

He had another playoff of a cut I think it was from Draymond, he might have been from Jimmy actually, where he just really patiently handled a kind of a swarm of players around him and showed some good footwork with a pump bake, stepped through a little layup on the right side of the rim. He's just a really solid player. There's a lot to be excited about in the bay right now, all right, quickly, before we get out of here tonight, welcome to course correction to you

by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under immense pressure to get things done right. They must rise to the occasion, turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries with AI solutions, simplified cloud and data management and trustworthy responsible AI. And when you're in the NBA, you have your own hurdles

to face. In this segment, we explore the challenges faced by teams or star players and how they can turn things around. Whatever you challenge is facing, whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say bring it on. This week, we're discussing Russell Westbrook and his resurgence with the Denver Nuggets. I thought Russ was great in the Bucks game today. He was doing a lot of damage, just getting steals and starting transition sequences for the Nuggets.

He was attacking off of those. His man was the guy that was rotating to Yocic on a lot of those pop situations. The transition for Russ from MVP of the league to role play has been far from smooth. He was traded to the Lakers in a deal that sent out so much role player talent that there wasn't much roleplayer talent left on the roster when Ruscott there.

I've often said after that deal and after that whole era that it's not Westbrook's fault that that era went poorly, but it is the Westbrook trades fault because it gutted the roster. It put Russ in a position where the Lakers like desperately needed him to be a Swiss Army knife. Yeah, they needed him to be a shot creator and lead units when Lebron was off the floor, but they also needed him to play off the ball with Lebron and Ad. They needed him to be active as a cutter and

a screener. They needed him to work on his catch and shoot game so that he could be more impactful and spot up situations on defense. They needed him to be like an APEX perimeter defender. They needed him to box out, to track shooters, to be consistently attentive to the game plan. And he really struggled with those things. Somewhat to be expected when you're an alpha dog MVP level shot creator like he was for most of his career, It's unreasonable to expect him to just be great at

those things that role players get paychecks for. That's why they're in the league. I think we're seeing a similar struggle from Bradley beal right now with the Suns. He's transitioned from being one of those guys with Washington to now in Phoenix. Like they need him to be a really good rebounder, and they need him to be a really good point of attack defender, and it's just not something he spent most of his career doing. It didn't go well in LA for US. It even led to

a lot of animosity with fans. And I'm not trying like I'm not alleviating myself of guilt here. I was super critical of Russ during that phase as well. The point is it got pretty dark. There's a lot of adversity for Russ there. But Russ has completely reinvented himself with the Denver Nuggets as an extremely useful role player. He's already had an excellent demonstration of two man game with Jokich. One of the things that makes it work

with Russ is he brings real downhill force. One of the most valuable things that Jokic brings as a score is it's not just post up stuff in ball screens. When he rolls into the middle of the floor, he's got one of the deadliest little floaters that you'll see in the league, makes over sixty percent of them. But in order for Yokic to get that catch in the pocket, the ball handler has to engage the screen defender, the guy who's guarding Jokic, And the only way that's gonna

happen is if that player is a threat. And the Nuggets haven't had anybody other than Jamal Murray over the years who can be a consistent enough threat and a good enough passer to generate those opportunities for Yokic on the role.

Speaker 2

Now, Jamal did it more with like shot making, a.

Speaker 1

Little bit of floater stuff, a lot of like mid range pull up jump shot making, that kind of thing. Russ is doing it with downhill force. He's bringing that force, engaging Yokic's defender, setting him up with those pocket passes. But by far the biggest change that I've noticed is how much more willing he is to cut to the basket off the ball. He already has more buckets on cuts this year than he did his entire full season

with the Lakers in twenty twenty two. As you saw in the first bucket against Milwaukee, his first bucket, the cut that he had Jokic popped, Russ's man had to rotate. What did Russ do instead of just standing there at the three point line. He immediately saw his man leave him and he cut down the lane in that gap, got to catch there, got an easy layer.

Speaker 2

Like that.

Speaker 1

That is a huge element of just being a threat off the ball that he wasn't really utilizing.

Speaker 2

Before this air.

Speaker 1

He's put in way more work behind the scenes to improve as a jump shooter. He's shooting the third highest percentage on threes for a season in his career. A Russ catch and shoot jump shot has been worth one point zero four points this year. That's perfectly fine for a half court possession. He was at thirty one percent his last year with the Lakers, or just zero point ninety three points per shot. It was kind of untenable.

He's put in the work. He's devoting way more energy to the defensive end, where he's been a big defensive playmaker for the Nuggets, getting them going in transition, forcing turnovers. He's averaging the most steals per minute that he has in his career since twenty nineteen, six years ago. Guys, he's become a very nice, complimentary piece for a dead serious championship contender, which seemed impossible a few years ago. And it's just a testament to his competitiveness and to

his resolve. I've genuinely enjoyed watching him the season as a basketball fan. That's it for this week's course correction. And remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to make bold steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to help drive your business forward. With Microsoft as your trusted partner, you can navigate your journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions and reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com slash challengers

to learn more. All right, guys, it's all I have for tonight. As always, sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We will have another episode out on Saturday morning, covering a slate of games from Friday night.

Speaker 2

I'll see you guys then the volume. What's up guys?

Speaker 1

As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS 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.

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