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All right, welcome on Hoops to night here at the volume. Had you there that everybody, hope all of you guys are having a great week. We are going to briefly touch on all three games from tonight as the Clippers blow out the Denver Nuggets riding an early run in the game, a twenty nine to six run spanning the first and second quarters that they never were able to recover from. The New York Knicks finally got their offense
going against the Detroit Pistons. I really want to dive into that concept a little bit, as they looked much more fluid offensively in a big road wind to steal home court advantage back against the Pistons. Then at the tail end of the show, thanks to the blowout by Clippers against the Nuggets, I was able to catch the fourth quarter of Thunder Grizzlies, and so on the one hand, I missed the early portion of the game when the
Thunder struggled. I'll be watching that on I'm gonna watch that in the morning just to try to see if there's anything worth taking away from that or if it was just a textbook Game three buzzsaw. I always call Game three the buzzsaw game because that's the game. You go on the road, you're a huge under you're a huge favorite, but the underdog obviously is more motivated. It's
just such a tough game in general. But I did see in the fourth quarter, and I'm opportunity for us to look at the thunder clutch offense for the first time in this postseason, so I want to dive into that concept a little bit. And then at the tail end of the show, like we do every single night, we're going to be bringing Jackson on to take a good twenty twenty five minutes questions from the chat so we can get into a bunch of other stuff around the playoffs. All right, let's what I gotta get to
our announcement before we get started. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore JCNLTC. You guys, don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about our podcasts feed wherever gage the podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super healthy helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. We also have social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout
the rest of the season. And then don't forget to keep dropping those mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. So I actually thought the Clippers came out a little sloppy, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. The Nuggets made something crazy like nine of their first ten shots or eight of
their first nine shots. They kept losing, specifically James Harden and Norman Powell kept losing cutters along the baseline, Christian Brown just sneaking around down there, Aaron Gordon sneaking around down there. They were just letting Denver get too comfortable on the offensive end of the floor, and it actually looked like it was going to be a little bit more of like a oh, Denver's going to take an
early commanding lead here kind of thing. They were up twenty six to nineteen, but in a seven minute stretch spanning from about three minutes to go in the first quarter to about eight minutes to go in the second quarter, the Nuggets got outscored twenty nine to six, and that really was the game. They lost control and they were fighting uphill the rest of the way and they never recover. We've seen these two teams when they're both really on top of their game in this series, they kind of
go bucket for bucket with each other. They don't it's going to be really difficult for any team to make up a large deficit in this series, but kind of came down to a couple of things. James Harden just got crazy hot in that first quarter stretch, setting his ball screens a little bit further out so we could get a little bit more of a a kind of like a clean some clean footwork into his pull up
threes coming off of those ball screens. He did a good job of dragging the at the level coverage far away to create extra space for the Clippers to attack on the back end. Jans Tartan was amazing all night. He was the primary driver of the explosive scoring that the Clippers showed in the first half. He had twenty points and four assists with zero turnovers just in the first half. He was the guy who kind of initially
broke things open. I think they ended up going into the quarter end of the quarter, I think thirty five to twenty eight, and then it was just a quick run right at the start a Kawhi Zubats led group in the early second quarter. Kaui had several really nice feeds out of post up double teams in that second quarter,
and that was it. It was forty eight to thirty two, and then they just kind of went back to their nuggets Clippers, We're going to go back and forth the rest of the game type of night, and they just were never able to regain control of the situation. I thought Nick batoom was awesome in that first half. His ability to knock down, catch and shoot threes without needing
to dip as his major ass that is. And if you guys have ever played basketball at any level, you understand that, like when you catch on the perimeter, there's usually like a load up right like you're gonna squat down so that you can get lift up into your shot so that you have an easy, breezy release at
the top. And in the process, a lot of people need to gather the ball somewhere down around their waist right as they bring the ball up and try to transfer that energy from their legs up through the top of the shot. Some of the best shooters in the world, and Nick Batoomb is one of the very best at this specific thing, can catch right from wherever the ball comes and if the passes over here, over here, over here, over here.
Doesn't matter.
They can flow right up into the top of the shot. They don't need to gather the ball down into the pocket in order to rise up and shoot. They can go from wherever they catch the ball straight into the shooting pocket and rise up and release. The reason why that's important is in the playoffs, like we talked about, the closeouts are harder, the openings are fewer and further between. It's a lot harder to get those, you know, clean catch and shoot looks that you get in the regular season.
And Nick Patoom's ability to just easy, quickly, easy, breezy release these catch and shoot threes against closeouts has been super valuable over the course of the early portion of this series. And then honestly, after the Clippers started to build separation in that second quarter, you can kind of feel the Nuggets like go of the defensive rope a
little bit. Norman Powell started to get some really clean looks he got going in this game, some closeouts where Norman Powell was able to drive, and the Nuggets weren't really shrinking the floor the way they were at earlier points in the series. It just kind of went off the rails for there on the Nuggets front. They were basically fine outside of that stretch, like they came out hot,
they were defending well early. It's just this is a series for them, with how bad their defense can be when things get out of control, they can't afford to go of the rope if there is an upside. The Nuggets did defend Kawhi Leonard a little better. I just thought they were more physical with him. That was really the main thing that I noticed is they just basically were like, Hey, there's all these un called fouls that
are happening all over the playoff field. What if we just bring that physicality to Kawhi and maybe disrupt his rhythm a little bit. I thought that had some impact. Westbrook had a rough night after he's been pretty good at the start of this series. He was minus sixteen and nine minutes. There was a report I saw that he's dealing with some inflammation in his foot. So let's
hope that Russell Westbrook is doing okay. But one of the big things that I noticed there is he was just a little too aggressive, which is with his catch and shoot threes. He made one along the left wing that was like an above the break three, and it was a great look. It was like completely wide open. It was out of a post double. I think of Jokic.
If I remember correctly, there was no close out it was clean and easy, but towards the end of that run, out of those five threes, there were two of them that he took that were pretty heavily contested. And like, that's the thing like Russ when he's playing within himself in the sense that he's taking these wide open ketch
and shoot threes preferably out of the corner. And that's the other thing too, Like I would situate him in the corner more because I think you get more off ball utility anyway, in the sense that if you're at the top of the key, there's there's only so much cutting you can do without compromising your transition defense. And when the shot goes up and you're at the top of the key, your responsibility is get back in transition defense,
not to crash the offensive. Class I almost like Russell Westbrook in a situation where he's crashing more cutting along the baseline. I think he's better served in the middle of the floor and out of the corners when he's off the ball alongside Yokich. And so that was just kind of a rough Westbrook shift again, like the one upside them being able to defend Kwai a little bit better, but the Clippers just brought a great punch tonight, and the Nuggets just that was their worst game of the
series in terms of their execution. They really let go of the rope for a little bit. Now they're down to one and they're gonna have to get one of these games, and Game four is going to be an opportunity for them to try to just hang onto the rope throughout the rest of the game, because again for them, as we know, if they can get to five minutes
left within around you know, five eight points. I like the Nuggets chances in this series, but if they allow the Clippers to build margin, it's going to be really difficult for them to hang around. All right, Let's go to Nicks Pistons. How did the Knicks get their offense going?
That was the interesting story of tonight. I think they finished with one hundred and eighteen points, won by a little bit more of a healthy margin than what would the scoreboard would lead you to believe, thanks to some late game just foul shooting and the Pistons knocking down a couple of threes late in the game. But the Knicks in general looked way better on offense in this game.
Started with early transition pushes. This is an easy way to trigger some of their more natural driving kick sequences. So when you're in the half court, you can run ISO, you can run pick and roll, But when you're in transition, transition is not ISO basketball. Transition is driving kick basketball.
When you're pushing the ball up the floor and a guy catches wide open in the corner and a guy sprints off of him and he attacks that close out and everyone's in this chaotic situation and there's all these easy driving kick raids that are available. The ball doesn't stick, the ball moves around, and so early in the game, Michale Bridges gets a clean catch and shoot look up along the left wing in transition that he knocks down ogn Andobi gets a clean look right out of the
right corner. Carl Anthony Towns got like three or four great advantage catches right at the top of the key, drove one and got a foul hit a couple of threes. That was in transition was where they were able to get everybody in rhythm early, and then a little bit of an effort from TIBs to just keep guys involved
with their half court sets. They ran an early screening action for Ogn Andob coming out of the right corner where he slipped a screen and got a dunk, So like again, just making a more deliberate effort to get him involved early post ups for Carl Anthony Towns in the game. There was way less Brunson pick and roll In this game. Brunson attempted a shot and pick and roll just seven times tonight. He did so twenty five
times in the first two games. So they basically like cut Brunson pick and roll reps in half in this game, way more opportunities for everyone else. McKale Bridges only took one shot out of a ball screen in game two. They got five points out of mckayl bridge is shooting out of ball screens tonight. Oj A Nanoby only got one chance to create a shot on an island in game two, a post up of Kate Cunningham where he kind of spun baseline and end up turning the ball over.
He shot out of an iar post up four times tonight, So there's just a lot more of an effort to keep everyone involved, to keep everyone in rhythm, and as a result, the offense looked way better. All four of their stars scored over twenty points. The team scored one hundred and eighteen points. Yet when they got into crunch time, they were still able to be like, all right, we're gonna go to a steady dose of brunts, and they
mixed in some other things. They ran to random cat isolate in the game, which we'll talk about in a minute, But they were able to still go to Brunton down the stretch. But he's fresher like he was able to straight up. He was frying Tobias Harris and Dennis Schroeder down the stretch. But Dennis Schroeder in particular, he powered through him twice, like went through his chest and made it look like he wasn't there and got right to
the front of the rim for easy layups. And a big part of that stems from you don't need him to run as much action during the game, so he has more gas in the tank. Late in the game, JB. Bickerstaff had to literally switch Kay Cunningham onto him because of how much success he was having literally bullying Dennis Schroeder. That was a matchup where Dennis had had some success against him early in the series. It looks like Brunson has that completely figured out. Now they were able to
go to Kat on a big possession late. I thought this was important and this is part of that. This was a face up ISO against Tobias Harris. Now, remember, like we talked about in the show the other day, in game one, Cat runs seven ISOs. He runs zero in game two, and so it's just something that they went away from. They were able to get into that action more frequently tonight. They go to it in crunch time. He rips to the right, Tobias beats him to the spot.
Really nice defense. Kat pivots into like he's gonna spin turn his back to the basket to turn over his right shoulder, and he throws a hard shoulder fake, just a really hard shoulder fake on that fake spin to Bias bites on it and just gets completely shed off of him. That way, Kat's able to pivot back over his left shoulder and great separation. Actually a really nice look for Kat there along the right baseline, and he knocked that shot down. There was a massive shot in
that game. Michale Bridges hit a big catch and shoot three out of the left corner one that put them up eleven. That was the same shot he was missing in Game two. Now, I am of the opinion that that stuff really matters in terms of like connecting throughout the game, the rhythm of the whole team, so that when you're in late game situations, guys feel good about the shots that they're taking. So the guys feel like they're confident and in rhythm.
You know.
That's the thing is like Jalen Brunson can still. I was actually talking about this with my buddy Combo, he's a big Knicks fan, and I tweeted out the link to the show today, so you guys can see it there if you want to hear a little bit more Nicks talk. But like, I uh, one of the things I said to him was like, just because you need to get everybody involved, And this was this morning before the game. I was like, just because you need to get everyone involved doesn't mean you don't go to Brunson
down the stretch. Brunson's the best clutch player in the league right now. Brunson at Brunton is fourteen points in this postseason. That's the most in the entire NBA so far. He's personally outscoring KD. Cunningham fourteen to four in the clutch in the series, you want to ride Jalen Brunson in those situations. You just want to put him in a situation where he's not super exhausted when he gets there.
And then if for whatever reason he does want to take a possession off, you have another action that's in rhythm that you can go to and that all of your catch and shoot guys, your close out drivers, things along those lines are all feeling good and in rhythm. All four of their stars scored over twenty points. You got kat back up over thirty. That's the formula for
the Knicks. Use your defense to get out in transition so that your whole team is moving the ball around and attacking with an advantage, and then in the half court, invest early in the game in action for your co stars so that they're in a better rhythm. Then ride Jalen Brunson late. That's your advantage. In this series. With the Pistons, they have late game execution problems. They have lower, lesser talented players that they're leaning on in big moments
late in the game. You have more aggregate skill if you lean on it, that's your advantage. Once again for the pistonsough late game execution, like Kate had a big turnover late where he shed og and Anovi with frankly just a disgusting spin movie like he drove at him to the right and spun and Og like went into camera row and he just didn't read the floor after that, and then he just went right up against the rim protector. It looked like he ran into a brick wall and
he just immediately lost control to basketball. Just wasn't seeing the floor on that possession. Tobias Harris lost the ball on like a basic dribble move in the fourth quarter where he just tried to make an aggressive dribble move to his left and just lost control of it. Jalen Duran had two really bizarre sequences the jump ball where he has a clear size advantage and he just like slaps the ball out of bounds instead of just like lightly tapping it to his teammates that were there waiting.
I was really confused as to why JB. Bickerstaff had Jalen Duran inbound on that final sequence. That sequence was ridiculous, by the way, and honestly, like I was having a hard time understanding, Like I get why they ended up
just inbounding with five tenths of a second left. But like, considering the clock operator was in Detroit and he's the guy that like pressed play on the clock right after the ball hit the rim, it felt kind of weird that the Pistons were just rewarded with a sideline out of bounds when in theory, the reason why Jalen Brunson is missing that shot is so that the catch is coming off of a rebound instead of off of a deliberate inbounds pass. But regardless, they're gifted the sideline out
of bound sequence. I would have actually gone with Kate. I know it sounds crazy, but like, when you're in those situations, the odds of you even getting a clean look are incredibly low because it's five tenths of a second right, so you basically have to catch and shoot immediately. So like that pass has to be perfect, so you're almost better off just having Kde inbound, even though Kate
is one of your shooters. You have Kde inbound, you park Jalen Duran right underneath the basket because you're only down too, and so if they don't account for Jalen Duran, he's standing right under the basket. You could just literally
throw it up to him. You probably just run basically like that that classic Finland action where you just have a shooter like Malik Beasley backscreen for Jalen Duran, so that Jalen Duran goes to the rim if they don't help at all, or if Jalen Duran's man is just sitting back there, you have a you have an opportunity
to just throw. If Jalen Duran's man is sitting up there, you have Jalen Duran as in a screen there with Malik Beasley coming off of that action, and so then essentially as Duran cuts they're helping at the rim, you get Beasley coming off in action. Just hope that Caid can just laser a pass somewhere where Malik can quick
catch and turn around and shoot. But like in that situation, putting a guy that like clearly doesn't have any touch, Like I mean that that was the issue on the jump ball was the touch, right, and you put him in a situation where you needed him to make like probably the most difficult pass you'll ever make in his life, and predictably he just ended up launching it out of bounds.
But you know, that's really the story of the series for me, Like on the one end of the floor, the Knicks just know exactly what they want to do. Jalen Brunson feels great going right at Schroeder, he feels great going at Tobias Harris. Whichever one of those two you want to have in the game. If you have both of them in the game, he's gonna just take his pick and he's gonna hunt, and then they can
go to Kat against Tobias Harris and Iso. They have like this clear kind of order of operations, and then like clutch points thing we talked about, like Kate only has four clutch points in this series, and this has been a clutch series. This has been a series where it's been about scoring in the final few minutes of the game, and Kate has just struggled to keep up
with Jalen Brunson in that regard. And so it's just no shout out to you know, no shot at Cade, because the reality is is this is his first time. Like we talked about last night, Jalen Brunson has been in what's this is ninth playoff series in the last four years, so like there's obviously an experience gap there, but like Cay just has to be better, and it's gonna be really hard for the Pistons to overcome that
experience advantage that the Knicks have. So Thunder Grizzlies. For obvious reasons, I was focused on the other games tonight, but when I saw the report that Job was out, I actually thought to myself, I'm like, the Thunder probably
can get this game. I think what people don't realize is like that jaw factor, the pace that he plays, with his ability to just draw attention in the middle of the floor, that is what creates advantages for everyone else to play easier brand, an easier brand of basketball.
And as soon as Jaw's out there, it's like, okay, you have Jaron Jackson, and like he he hit a tough hook in the fourth quarter over a triple team, and like, there are a couple sequences where he made passes out of double teams that led to decent looks. But like Jared Jackson's not exactly a half court surgeon,
doesn't been baying. This is just a nightmare matchup for him because he's not particularly tall, and the Thunder just have all sorts of bodies to throw at him and Scotty Pippen Jr. Like, it's really amazing what he's done with his career, turning himself from a two way player to like a legitimate backup point guard in the NBA. And he had a brilliant night shot to basketball really well. But like, it's just a lot to ask him to create offense against the Oklahoma City Thunder defense when they're
really engaged. And so I thought they had a probability, a legitimate probability to win that game. And I was able to switch over in the fourth quarter right after the Clippers put the Nuggets away and we got to see some crunch time Thunder basketball. Now, Predictably, they strangled Memphis offense, like I talked about earlier, not hard to do with John Morant out as a team. They just uped their pressure and intensity and things just got super
difficult for Memphis. But what I'm interested in is what they did on the other side of the floor. This was our first opportunity to look at some crunch time offense from the Oklahoma City Thunder this year. First of all, Alex Cruso ended up being the fifth closer, which I thought was interesting they'd rather close small so that they can switch. I personally think that's the right decision. I
think Cruso is just so good defense. He can scale up defensively, like we saw in that possession where he defended Jaron Jackson one on one and like stripped him clean as he went to go to his.
Left shoulder hook or his right shoulder hook.
Like, Crusoe plays big enough and does enough defensively at every single position that I think it's worthwhile to have him out there as that fifth closer. In that situation, we saw a steady diet of two man game in the middle of the floor, whether it was Shane Ja Dubb if he wanted to attack Scottie Pippen Junr or Shane Alex Crusoe if you want to attack Santiel Dama.
And what I was impressed by is in the early fourth quarter stretch, when the bench group was still out there and they were starting their comeback, Shay was really looking to score, and he was taking a lot of quick jump shots early in the shot clock, pushing the ball in transition, that sort of thing down the stretch.
Though he did not force the issue, he made multiple reads out of doubles, a really nice drop off to lou Dort outside the left block, and lou Dort made like an insane shot over Zach Edy in that situation where he just kind of like flailed up into his body and banked it in. There was a pass to Alix Cruso that led to a driving kick sequence drew the double team, kicked at to Cruso. Cruso drove Chet relocated up out of the right corner up to the right wing, knocked down his fifth three of the game,
I believe, and all those threes were massive. It ended up drawing the hard close out that led to that big dunk that he had driving out of the right slot in the fourth quarter. It was just actually like really nice playing together, sharing the ball, taking the easy
reads that were available. The big thing like not getting rushed, like getting into the middle of the floor and instead of looking to shoot in traffic, looking for the reeds that are there in traffic like they I've been really impressed by the Thunders offense through the first three games, just in the difference in their half court approach compared to last year. Eighty one points for the Thunder Big
three tonight. They're trusting each other. There will obviously be much tougher series for them on the horizon, but the Thunder have the right approach here early in this postseason. They're moving the ball better than they did last year. All right, let's get Jackson up here, and let's get some mailbag questions.
Let's do it, all right, We got a lot of questions in the chats, and I thank you guys for asking your questions, and please.
Subscribe to the show. Let's start. Let's start here.
H If OKC makes the conference finals, what do you think their chances would be in a series against the Lakers or the Warriors?
So the specific thing that the Lakers can do to the Thunder that has me more intrigued by them as a legitimate upset threat. And let's let's let's contextualize this entire conversation, guys. Okay, Like I would pick the Thunder to win the West right now, Okay, they are my second championship favorite behind the Celtics. I don't even know how I would feel if the Lakers and the Thunder
showed up in a Western Conference final series. So much of that depends on, like, how do the how does the Thunder offense look against a potential Clippers matchup in the second round. Lebron and Austin haven't been jump shooting very well this postseason, like they do they get to the point where they shoot their jump shots better. Like, there's so many different factors that could go one way
or another before the series even starts. But in theory, the dynamic that Houston has that causes the Lakers problems, the dynamic that Minnesota has that causes the Lakers problems. It's a lot of like six six to six eight dudes that are pretty big and strong as opposed to guys that are more like six three to six five, And there's some strength advantages that they can go at there.
And so as a result, like Lebron and Luca just look a lot more comfortable against Oklahoma City's defense than they did against other defenses that were maybe not as good reputationally as the Thunder, but that are tougher matchups because they present some more physical size to be able to throw at Lebron and Luca. So it's that and then it's you know the thunderd like you saw a
big one late. How did Scotti p get that three in the in the right corner in crunch time, Like it comes from the way the Thunder defend, but they're fod aggressive. It's a lot of low man help. It's a lot of packing the paint, it's a lot of relying on closeouts. And so when you play elite playmaking talent against them, they move the ball well and they can get to those openings that the Thunder leave in their defense when they're trying to force turnovers by being
forward aggressive. And so in theory, it's the two giant shot creators that are also great passers that make it work. And then on the other end of the four, it's that classic JJ Reddick. We can actually like help off of some of these guys and force them to take and make jump shots against closeouts.
Yeah, I agree. I mean I think that the the lou Dort thing. He's you know, he's he's been an annoyance to Luca in the past, but you only have one of him. It's so different having It's why the Clippers we talked along about them as championship content wal
they had Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. Not that that worked out, but in theory, having two and that's why the Celtics are really tough to be having two six six sixty seven or even bigger in the Lakers case, creators is is just not many teams have that, and not many teams have defenders that can throw two.
Bodies at those those two types of guys.
So really quickly, I wanted to talk about this too, because we didn't have a chance the Uh, we had a lot of people who have opinions on the lou Dort foul, So let's let's discuss this for a minute. So, uh, Jackson and I talked a little bit before the stream. I both fouls are obviously not on purpose. I don't think lou Dort turned around and was like I'm taking John around and ran out tonight. Like, I don't think that's what happened. The Dort foul to me was more
of like a reckless play. The like you mentioned last night when we were in our mail bag. You're like a men Thompson is crashing the offensive glass every single time. That's not exactly a super rare basketball concept, like PJ.
Tucker has made a career out of that.
You know, like there there are a lot of players in the league that their job is to crash the offensive glass every single time because that's one of their big, biggest pieces of utility on offense. So Russell Westbrook does for the Nuggets for instance. Right, we were just talking about that earlier in the show. So like, to me, like that was quite literally just a complete fluke that a men Thompson was crashing the glass and he got
tripped up and it happened the Dort one. On the one hand, it's like he's just trying to make a play, But on the other hand, it's like, like every basketball player knows what it means when you're trailing a player and you're trying to like meet him at the basket and he throws that drop off pass to the guy right behind him, you know it's coming, Like it's almost ninety eight percent of the time going to be a high flying athlete coming right down the lane trying to dunk.
And so it's like, I I'm not it's dirty is the wrong word, But I did. I did think the dort play was just a little bit reckless, did you think so, Jackson?
I did.
Yeah, I mean, sorry, it's it's Algy season.
I gotta I gotta cough, Yeah, I think that.
It's I do think he his his front foot of forget if his left is right, slipped a little bit as he's turning around, and that's sort of what made it especially awkward, because if he doesn't slip, he's jumping and there's it's probably a very physical collision with him and jaw at the rim, but he's not undercutting his legs, right. So I do think that's sort of the the flukey
element of it. But at the same time, to your point, it's rare in that situation when was you see, it's so rare that that results in an actually successful block, right, And most times you're better off getting out of the way and not giving.
A guy an and one.
It's just it's a little dumb or reckless or just unnecessary at minimum to try to make a play like that at that point in the game.
It's not like it's the end of the in the fourth quarter or anything. But what do you what do you what are you trying to accomplish there?
And then additionally, I do think he slipped a little bit which made it, which made the I packed up at all.
To your point, like that that sort of there are unwritten rules in basketball that involve the exposed athlete where it's like, even if it's game point, you don't tackle a guy out of the air on a fast break, like even if it's game point, Like if you wrap him up, you wrap him up while he's on the
ground like that. That's the thing, Like if you it's a different type of play on a drop off on a two on one, but like just imagine like a two on one fast break situation where it's more like both guys are in front and lose like a ware that both of them are there. Like if you're guarding the ball and the dude throws a bounce past it the last second, Like, yeah, in theory, the competitive nature would tell you make him earn it at the line. So yeah, you want to turn and you want to
foul him. But like if the guy's in the air, it's you just don't. You just don't because it's not it's just an unwritten rule in basketball you don't do that to people that are in the air. And so my thing was like, yeah, in theory, he doesn't see what's happening. But like when Scotty threw that drop off pass, like if You're running behind Scotty and you see that drop off pass. You know, nine times out of ten it's probably because he has an athlete trailing, and so
it was just a little bit reckless. But again, neither of them would would be what I considered dirty. Neither of them were. I'm certain that neither of them were on purpose. But it just it just was a little reckless and it was just unfortunate.
Agreed.
Another question from from that game, Hey, Jason, why don't NBA teams attack players more often when they're.
In foul trouble?
At Both Sga and Isaiah Hartenstein had five fouls in the fourth quarter and Memphis didn't attack either of them.
Thinks loved the show.
It's easier said than done in the sense that, like you can scram people out of mismatches, you can double teams out of people out of mismatches. There were a lot of Jared Jackson post ups that ended in double teams. But honestly, like you know, we talked about it earlier, Jared Jackson and Scotty, Pip and June, you're not half court surgeons. They're not going to go up the floor and be really deliberate with the way they attack, And honestly, I thought Memphis is kind of decomposed entirely on.
An offense.
But your only matchup attacker was Jackson, like because Desmond Bain is not a stare you down in ISO guy like Scotty Pippen Junior is not that kind of guy either, Like Jared Jackson is the only guy that's like, Okay, we're on an island playing ones, like I can score here, but they weren't letting him go on one on one unless it was Caruso. So like it's one of those things where it's easier send than done. I don't think Memphis was really set up.
Yeah, it feels so easy to say, and I say the same thing, not even about specific players, but when a team gets in the bonus with eight minutes to go in a quarter or something, it's like, just go downhill, just draw a foul, And it feels like it should be easy because there is so much foul drifting in the NBA, But it's not quite as simple. I don't think as it feels like it should be.
There's a psychological element too, like when a team picks up four fouls in the first three minutes, of a quarter probably means they've been bitching and moaning at the refs NonStop for that first three minutes, and so there's a psychological element to where that that fifth foul, it's gonna have to be a pretty substantial foul for the ref to blow the whistle, especially in the postseason. It's it's always it's always easier seive than done.
Like I know, it's early been a hypothetic. In a hypothetical Clippers versus Okase's second round series, who do you think would have the best player in the series between a healthy Kawhi and Sga.
That would literally be one of the biggest swing factors in the series. Like if the Thunder were able to successfully load up on Shay keep Done and Derek Jones on him all series and play him into an inefficient series, like if Shae averaged thirty three on twenty seven shots a game like the Shaye has a lot of game I mean tonight, he took like twenty six shots.
Shae has a lot of.
Games where like he accumulates volume score excuse me, but he takes so many two's that it's not necessarily the most efficient thing in the world. Some of the times when he gets into these games where he goes like ten for twenty six. If there's a universe where Shay averages thirty three points a game in the series, but he takes twenty six attempts to get there every night, and Kawhi averages, you know, thirty two points a game, but he gets there in seventeen shots every single night,
and he's just like surgical all series. By the way, we talked about the seis miss matches, He's gonna have a boatload of seized miss matches in that series. The biggest fear that I would have is as you start to kind of like dig down through the ways that the Clippers attack, they are going to be able to use Zoo on the offensive glass. They're gonna be able to use Zoo out.
Of the post.
But okay See is going to double the shit out of Kawhi and Zoo on all of their post ups. They're not gonna let those guys sit one on one. Kawhi did it. Had a much better passing game tonight than he did in the first two games of the series. But like Kawhi, Leonard can struggle to handle double teams from time to time. Zoo as well, so and then with James Harden, you're just going up an entire stratosphere
of quality of perimeter defense talent on James Harden. This is a series for James Harden that really lines up well for him from a matchup perspective. Like a high drop team with a big that sometimes gets lazy and doesn't get up to the level like that is suicide against James Harden because it's got all the baked in reads that he's all naturally great at. Right and to James's credit, he just has his three point shot going
in this postseason, which has been huge. But like, okay, see just has so many different options they can go to.
They could switch all the James Harden pick and rolls, double Zoo out of the post, double Kawhi out all his post ups, and basically, I don't know if you've seen this, Jackson, but like there have been times when the Thunder and the Nuggets are in excuse me, the Clippers and the Nuggets are in more of like a dog fight where you can really see the Clippers lack of playmaking talent, where like you'll see you'll just see a guy a split second laid on a read or
like Zoo will make the wrong read, They'll force a pass to a cutter that's not there when someone's opening the corner, something along those lines. There's definitely a little bit of a playmaking deficit sometimes with the Clippers that I think the Thunder would take advantage of. So, like, the Clippers are really good, and they have advantages, but I think the Thunder are kind of built defensively to attack their lack of playmaking.
Yeah, and we have talked on this show, especially this past week and last night, about the concept of secondary playmaking and the roles that Jimmy Butler and Brandon Pagenski played for the Warriors, and the Clippers have none of those guys. All of all of their guys after James Trden are good at a lot of things offensively, but none of them are good at making that.
I mean, Zoo is okay at it in that short role.
He's gotten a lot better, but they don't have any high level secondary playmakers. Norman Powell, Kawhi, Leonard Zoo, Derrick Jones, Kristaan, like, these guys are all probably better off trying to score than trying to playmake for other people.
Even in I this isn't let's let's take it in this direction. My gut tells me that the nu Gets have a better chance to beat the Thunder than the Clippers do.
Do you agree?
I don't know. It's a tough one. I think so. I think so just because.
I feel like Zoo is such a superior Yokic defender than either of the bigs of the Thunder have it. Despite those guys being you know, very skilled defensively, he is just such a matchup problem in a different type of stratosphere as a defender for Yokurs than those guys are.
So because of that, I would I tend to agree.
And there's a swarming that they could do with Jokic that you can't do a Zoo. Like, if you swarm Zoo, he can Like, that's just not a good use of defensive resources in that matchup, so he could do more damage on the offensive glass. Uh, Like, there are definitely advantages that the Clippers have in that series. My main thing is I just think that I I think that the Nuggets can consistently score against the Thunder.
That's the main thing.
They had a game they won this year where they scored one hundred and twenty four points again against them, and they had a game this year where they scored one hundred and forty points against them and they won. And so yeah, so like like there is there is a that that's the team that has a great amount of connective playmaking, and that is on a string with all of their cuts and their relocations, and and they get guys into positions where they can be a threat.
And like, obviously the Thunder would have a bunch of advantages in that series two. But yeah, I'm I I would be I would be hard pressed to take the Clippers instead of the Nuggets in a series against the Thunder. I think the Nuggets present more problems for them.
Yeah, I think that's fair.
Let's move slightly away from that the Okay, see Thunder for a second. If Jimmy Butler misses significant time, there was reporting today that he avoided any structural damage. He has a deep bruise essentially, and he has been officially listed as questionable for their their next game.
But if I.
Would imagine he plays, I think, consider it's Jimmy Butler. But if he if he misses a game or two or three, just you know, it's hard to set at this point how many games he might miss.
How does that change your calculus of the series.
The fact that Golden State is going home, I think is a huge advantage here.
I think that.
I think when Golden State really defends the Rockets can't score on them, that's not exactly a big shock. All you have to do is ask step Heer that that's literally the ideology within the locker room. We have seen
what this Warriors team can do at home. They can ride the wave of their crowd to an insane defensive effort, and they don't need Jimmy to guard the Rockets, and they can do enough stuff defense to transition role players shoot better at home, the old cliche, all that stuff, I think would put them in a situation where if Jimmy had to miss both games, I feel like there's a strong chance the Warriors still split at least and
maybe win them both anyway. So like not having any sort of bone bone issue, bruise break and heading home, I think, under the circumstances for what was an incredibly fluky, incredibly scary play, this is like literally the best case scenario for how it could have gone.
Yeah, I agree, I think.
I don't know about getting two games without Jimmy, but I think a split would definitely be on the table if that happens, And frankly, I would bet he plays.
It's I would bet he plays.
Considering the mental of that guy, I would bet that he plays.
I was thinking the same thing earlier today, because I do think the Warriors have an.
Appropriate fear of Houston.
What I mean by that is like I think they know Houston like hands still win this series, and you know it is with these physical teams, like the Nuggets
won three straight games against Minnesota last year. Jokic puts on the performance of his life in Game five and just fries Gobert for the world to see, and then they lose to in a row because Minnesota just physically overwhelms them, even when it was like, like you they were up twenty in games seven and let go of the rope for a few minutes and all of a sudden they were in a dog fight and they lost
the series. So like I think, I think the urgency of Golden State, thinking that them going up three to one is almost a must, like that's a must for them, will probably push Jimmy towards play.
Another question from the series, Hey, Jason, can you explain how Steph fights off defenders so well? The Rockets have been obviously very physical with him and even though it slightly bothered him and hasn't stopped him quote unquote.
Yeah, so this is this is interesting.
This has been one of the This was the difference I was trying to draw last night when we were talking about officiating, Like, I do believe that Steph gets a shitty whistle when he's shooting, like the you can't be like fouling jump shooters like that. That's the jump shot is such a low margin for air thing, where like if someone just barely tapped you on the forearm with their index finger on your release, it could cause
you to miss by two feet. So like like you like fouling jumps, fouling on jump shots, like Steph, there's way too many of those where he's getting clipped and he's getting pulled and he's getting grabbed and he's getting ran over and they're not getting called. But watch any player in the NBA who functions off ball fight for position. Just because Steph is a guard doesn't mean that he doesn't have to deal with physicality off the ball. Have
you seen like Palabonkaro fight for post position. Have you seen Jason Tatum fight for post position? Have you seen Yokic fight for post position? Have you seen Khi Leonard fight for post position? Have you seen Lebron fight for post position? It's a fucking battle down there. Everyone's grabbing and holding, it's swim moves. It's like it's all physical leverage. And so Steph, by playing off the ball, has put himself into a situation where he is susceptible to a
lot of that off ball contact. But like we talked about last night, it's that is actually an arrangement that works in their favor. And what I mean by that is like Steph has gotten really really good at using simple fakes to shed guys in back door cuts.
He'll just shove a guy to get.
Separation to run off of a screen, which, by the way, like to me, that's legal. You know, you want to know why it's legal, Because it's legal for them to put their hands on Steph when he's trying to move without the ball. It's a given a take, right, Like that's the same reason why I've never had a problem with the whistle that Lebron got, Lebron's trying.
To drop that shoulder.
And if you watch every Lebron left handed drive ever, he's using that right arm like a battering ram, just like swinging guys out of the way.
Like, so, guess what if.
Lebron's gonna do that, There's got to be contact allowed on the other side of it. But it's all about weaponizing that to your effect. And the Warriors just do it through an incredible amount of attention to detailing their screen game, the screens that flow into the screens with their bigs, the seals that they use on their screens, the all the off ball deception that Steph can use. The given goes like, Steph just uses all of that to his advantage in a way that allows him to
generate offense without having to face ball pressure. And that's the other thing too, Like a lot of people go like, hey, guys, why isn't Steph just running high pick and roll? And it's like, Steph will run high pick and roll from time to time. It's not that he doesn't do it, but high pick and roll puts you susceptible to ball pressure,
and ball pressure is exhausting in a different way. When you're off ball dealing with pressure, you can use your hands so you can swim, move off of guys, you can use both hands to push, you can do all this kind of stuff to fight for a position, jockey for position. When you're dribbling, totally different ball game. You need those hands available to dribble the basketball, and so
ball pressure can be difficult in a different way. And I think I think Steve Kerr in the group just wants to try to avoid you know, literally a men Thompson turning steph seven times before he gets up to the up to the spot where he can run a ball screen.
And frankly, I think size and physicality is it even amplifies that to a degree, Like it's a lot easier to separate from a six to seven athletic wing when you were able to run around and put two hands on him. But when you're on the ball, it's not the same. Like I think it's going up against a defender like Gary Payton, for example, as opposed to a defender like Amen Thompson, it's going to both amazing defenders
off the balls. On the ball is going to feel completely differently because you are able to grapple with one but but not in one situation but not the other.
Yeah, it's fundamentally different. Like just this is not even a playoff thing. Just in the regular season next year, what every team in the NBA runs horn sets, Watch the dudes at the elbows fighting for position. That's the same thing that's happening to Steph when he's off ball. It's the same thing that is off ball jockeying for position. That's literally what basketball is.
All right, we'll take a couple more.
Do you still believe Milwaukee has a chance and what can they do differently to flip the series?
They absolutely, they absolutely have a chance because it's very easy to gain momentum over the course of a series as you figure out things that work and you identify things that don't work and you cut them out.
They could get a big.
Win at home riding that energy, get a couple guys in rhythm that weren't in rhythm earlier, build Dame's conditioning, build Dame's rhythm, all of that. My main concern is we said before this, would Doc Rivers be able to manage this whole situation?
And I like if Brook.
Lopez plays thirty minutes in game three or twenty five minutes in Game three. That's twenty five minutes where the Pacers just get great shots every single time down the floor. Is he can identify stuff like the dumb low man sequences that were giving up wide open threes in crunch time in game two. Like there's just a lot of like basic game plan and rotation stuff.
Like AJ Green all year long.
It reminds me of like back in the past with like Darvin ham with like Ruy Hachimura versus Torrian Princes, or like even Frank Vogel with like an Austin Reeves instead of a Avery Bradley, where like there's just clear data that shows that the Bucks are better when AJ Green's on the floor, Like he's good, he can knock down threes. And the big thing is it's this off ball defense. He's like always in the right spots, like he'll get attacked, like it'll be like I could just
see it in Doc River's face. It's like, oh, Pascal Siak and win at AJ Green and hit another bank shot. I got to get him out of the game. And it's like, is Gary try locking these dudes up? Like it, like is Bobby Ports, like Torrian Prince, like like they cut his minutes in game two, but like Torrian Prince is another one of those guys where it's like if he's not hitting his threes, like you got to lean into AJ Green, I would leave, I would be running out.
There a lot of groups that are like Yannis with Kuzman portis where they're switching everything and it's like Gary, Trent Dame or AJ Green, just two of those three. And I've run a lot off of Giannis in the post. He's getting double teamed, he's passing out of it well, and just surround him with shooting and just try to lean on the fact that you're not going to give up as many of the easy openings from attacking Lopez, from transition pushes and stuff, because you have some more
discipline defenders on the floor. Like I just I just am concerned about whether or not Doc's gonna do the right things when they.
Get back home.
Last one, where does Jokic rank among the best passers you've seen?
That's a good question. I've always said that.
There is a level of playmaking talent that is just you're born with. It's not something that you can develop through repetition, Like you see guys like Tatum or like Kdi or brandon Ingram guys over the years that like developed into decent passers, but they're not like surgical half court playmakers, and it's just a rare breed.
And I.
Think that Luka and Jokic both are two of the very best that I've ever seen. They remind me of Lebron Lebron though, Like as good as Lebron was as a passer and he was amazing, there was just that next There was a lot of Lebron's passing ability that was predicated on like his transition athleticism and just his rim pressure and he was particularly great at spraying out
to shooters. And I feel like there's a little bit more dynamic, like like tight window playmaking that you see from guys like Jokic in Luca involving like lob passing. Like I never thought Lebron. I want to cut him some slack for the Anthony Davis relationship because he would just end up getting that screen switched a lot of the times, which would shut down a lot of the lobs that were available. But I never thought Lebron was as good as like a lob passer as Jokic or Luca.
They're both very different, but I would say I don't know that I've seen a player that passed the ball better than Jokic personally. There's a bunch of guys on that tier. That's maybe a question for the summer in terms of like actually putting like kind of nailing down a ranking.
Yeah, I think there's the Jokic playmaking thing, because there's a there's a couple elements to this question. I feel like the physical ability to make the widest variety of types of passes possible, and I think Lebron is at the top of that list. I mean, Jokic has more size, so maybe you give him an advantage there, but Lebron can make pretty much any pass he wants to make.
And then you combine with the fl.
Or understanding and envision and all those things, which is where I think Joki and Luca just have a slight edge over.
Lebron in my opinion.
Yeah, they're just I this is we are splitting hairs between the greatest passers in the history of the game, and like my favorite Lebron moment as a passer was the Indiana Pacers comeback in twenty seventeen in Game three after they were already up two to zero and tylu benched Kyrie and Kevin Love and Lebron let this come
back with like Shanning Fry and Richard Jefferson. And there was a play where Emon Schumpert stripped Paul George on a right shoulder fade around the left elbow, and it led to a fast break, and Lebron was just going right down the middle of the floor. And I literally watched George Hill, who was in between Lebron and the rim.
I watched George Hill vacate the lane to run to the corner to cover a three point shooter because he was terrified of Lebron making the pass, and Lebron just went down to like jackhammer smash, like Lebron his the I feel like people have almost forgotten how good of a passer he is, just simply because at this phase in his career he doesn't create as much advantage as he used to. Is that all we ought for tonight? All right, that's all we have for tonight, guys. We
are not gonna do a film session tomorrow. I'm not sure if you can tell just by watching the show. But i am like completely exhausted and I'm in desperate need of some sleep, So I'm gonna be sleeping in tomorrow and getting a little bit caught up on that front. We have a jam packed weekend ahead of us with the Friday night slate. We have what Lakers Wolves last Tomorrow night game three, Then we have four games on Saturday,
four games on Sunday, so no film session tomorrow. I'll see you guys live on YouTube after the final Brothers are of the Lakers game. And just last note, if you guys are into Star Wars or if you are watching and or head over to my other podcast, two Sun's podcast, we recorded a you know, thirty five minute or so episode where we just kind of broke down the first three episodes with my buddy Luke's make sure
you guys head over there again. A pretty shit you guys for suporting us and supporting the show, and we will see you tomorrow night. 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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