Hoops Tonight - LIVE: Warriors/Lakers Reaction, Giannis Not Going Away, Ja Morant Redemption

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All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the ball. You might be Thursday, everybody, If all of you guys are having a great week, got a jampackshow for you guys tonight. We're hitting that really bizarre game between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Brandon Pajemski badly outplays Luka Doncic game. We're gonna be talking

about that game from the perspective of both teams. One of the things I want to get into there is that, yes, there was a lot of weird stuff tonight that you can sort of compartmentalize a little bit, but there are also some realities there that are scary if you're a Lakers fan. So we're going to be getting into that as well as the Warriors get finally get a signature win in the Jimmy Butler era going on the road and kind of I thought, dominating the Lakers. We're going

to get into that game for quite a bit. After that, we got our weekly Course Correction segment, a segment with Microsoft. I want to talk about Giannis and the unbelievable night he just had tonight on the road in Philly, and then at the tail end of the show, I want to talk a little bit about the Grizzlies heat game and the first game of the TNT Slate, specifically about jam Morant and his superpower and why that kind of keeps things somewhat open minded for me as it pertains

to the Grizzlies future. And then at the tail of the show, just like we do on every one of these nighttime live shows, we're going to do like ten to fifteen minutes of questions from the chat. You just have to be subscribed. Drop your questions and there Jackson's going to come on the show. We'll talk a little bit of hoops. You guys have the jow before we get started. Subscribe to Hoops and Oight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on

Twitter at underscore JCNLTS. You guys don't miss announcement. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's doing some great work on social media. Make sure you follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where we're getting more

content out throughout the course of the year. And the last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments that we can get it into our mail bag next week. All right, let's talk some basketball. So one of the things I talked about in this morning show, if you guys remember correctly, if it's not the first time I've talked about it, but it's a concept of styles making fights, and we did a whole

bit at the tail end of the show. If you guys remember where I talked a little bit about this game specifically and how it was going to be about the Lakers perimeter size versus the Warriors perimeter, and I was curious to see which party in this instance would be able to leverage their advantage more. A lot of times we think of a certain type of player of being unable to play, Oh, he could play this guy off the floor. He can't handle this, or he can't

handle that. Most of the time it comes down to, like, are your fast guys doing a better job of leveraging their speed, then your big guys are doing leveraging their size right, And interestingly enough, in the early portion of the game, the first handful of possessions, the Lakers were getting fantastic shots every single down as time down the floor, posting Smalls with Ruby Hatch murl Lebron James, and Lukadancic, and if it wasn't for Brandon Pajemski's early shooting stretch

that he went on, the Lakers would have built themselves a sizable lead. In the early portion of the game, the Lakers were getting a lot of offensive rebounds, beating the Warriors to the ball. That brief little stretch of time, that first shift, that first whatever it was, five or six minutes, everything was going the Lakers' way as it pertains to those styles making those fights right from that point on, literally for the rest of the game, I

thought the Warriors just kicked their ass. I thought they beat them to every single loose ball. They dramatically compromised the Lakers just about every time down the floor, just by running and getting into their pace in the half court,

getting in and out of actions quickly. I thought one of the perfect examples of that was right when the Lakers cut it to five, and then Steph came in right after the timeout, just zoomed up to the top of the key and curled right around the screen and just had an easy lamp and it literally looked like he just cut through them like a knife through butter, as every Laker was kind of stuck in the mud.

And we're going to get into a bunch of different elements of how this fight manifested between the two styles, but the bottom line is is the Lakers were able to leverage their size for about one shift, and then for the rest of the game, it didn't matter the Warriors, just I thought they completely controlled the game. Every time I looked at the scoreboard, I really couldn't believe that the game was as close as it was the late stretch.

After the Warriors went up, it was just basically Austin Reeves shooting, and the only thing keeping them close there in that middle portion of the game was Ruy Hachimura and Lebron James. I thought just about every Laker outside of Austin in that fourth quarter, and then Lebron and Rue I thought every one of those guys got outplayed by their Warriors counterparts, and I thought it was just a clean, dominant, kind of wired to wire type of victory.

You know, I talk a lot about this concept, I don't really there's a feeling you can get watching a game. It's hard to explain, but like a lot of times, it's separate from the scoreboard because there's so much weirdness, right There's all these like different random things that can happen in a game that swing the result one way or another. But there's a feel that you can feel in a basketball game when one team is just getting things easier than the other thing the other team is

getting them. I'll give you an example, Like I thought the Lakers game when they beat the Pacers, the one where Lebron got the tap in, I thought the Lakers controlled that game. They tricked it off at the end, but throughout the entirety of the game, things just felt easier for the Lakers on offense than it was for the Pacers. Similarly, the Lakers were close in this game for the most part. They kind of hovered within that you know, you know, seven to fifteen point range for

the most part. But as I was watching the game, everything felt like a chore for the Lakers, and everything looked more fluid and easy for the Warriors. And that's concerning for me in the big picture as it pertains to the Lakers. But I want to wait until we get into some Lakers stuff later on the show. So early in the game, Lakers are starting to punish the

Warriors with their size. Brandon Pajemski just goes on that little hot streak right at the start of the game, hitting what three or four threes in the first few minutes, And this is an important part of game plan for opponents for the Warriors, and beating the game plan for

the Warriors themselves. Like I've talked a ton this year about how teams are going to concede three point shots to Draymond Green, They're going to concede three point shots to Brandon Pajemski, They're going to concede three point shots to Jonathan Kaminga. Those guys won eleven for seventeen from three tonight. If that is going to be a sweet

forget about the Lakers for a minute. Regardless of who they play, first round, second round, third round, the Warriors are going to get to where they want to go. Those guys are gonna have to hit shots. It actually kind of reminds me of the dynamic with the Nuggets, because with the Nuggets, it's similar with like Christian Brown and Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson and Russell Westbrook. Like there's these guys that teams, as far as the game plan goes, will concede shots too, and they're going to

have to knock them down. I thought those threes from Brandon early in the game were huge because they covered for that brief stretch of the game when the Lakers were kind of beating them to the ball and just leveraging their size. One of the big game plan things in this game that I thought was fascinating. The Lakers, for the most part when I've watched him, have run a lot of deep drop with Quinton Post. They like him better under the basket that they do on the perimeter.

He can have some issues in space. And this is where like not being married to your basketball philosophy but rather catering your basketball philosophy to the surrounding circumstances is so important because if you do that against the Lakers, they're gonna kill you. Consistently, since Luca went to the Lakers, they have struggled against switching, and they've eviscerated teams that have run traditional coverages chasing over the top of screens

and things along those lines. And again we're gonna talk about the Lakers struggles there here in a minute, But from a game plan standpoint, the smart thing to do with Quentin Post or with anybody is to switch, because even if you give up dribble penetration or you know, first of all, you can force Luca into step back threes, and Luca just his shot making is right back in the gutter like it was when he first came to the Lakers, or you can have a plan for dribble

penetration that is a little easier to manage than blitzing a ball screen or ending up in a really compromise situation on a skip pass because you had to load up the strong side so much and pick and roll because you're sitting in a drop coverage. And so I thought that was really smart just in general, all game long, the Warriors were able to stagnate the Lakers and make them attack post mismatches or general mismatches everywhere on the floor. Right,

here's the problem. The only guys in the game that we're having any sort of success punishing smalls Ruija Chamura and Lebron James. And you're not gonna play through Ruie that much because he's ruy Ha Chamura. You're gonna play through Luca a lot. And like, in order for the Lakers to be able to score against the switching scheme like that, Luca's got to be able to score the basketball. He's got to be able to compromise the defense against these switches. It was a really smart game plan from

Steve Kerr. Everybody did an amazing job in their individual defense possessions. Draymond I thought him specifically in his possessions

off of Lebron and Rui. He You know, one of the things that the that I've talked about consistently this year, specifically with Draymond and Gary Payton, is their ability to like make it look like there's an opening because they've got a foot in the paint, but they are so anticipatory with the way they read the pass before it happens and where the pass is going that they can

throw these clothes out that he raced those openings. There's two early in the game skips to ruy Ha Chamura in the right corner where Draymond Green closed out on him and Luca was dribbling live dribble off the left wing and the Warriors are completely loaded up on the strong side and the skip passes the reef that's the

reader's supposed to make in that situation. But Draymond's superpower is his ability to be able to cover ground the way that he did, and he just did a great job shutting down those windows every single time they appeared.

I thought their rebounding was excellent. Again there was you know, it's so funny watching the difference between Steve Kerr and JJ Reddick, and JJ's new and obviously he's kind of like getting his bearing still in the profession, but you can tell he's like this, like this competitor that runs

super hot. Because I thought, if you watched like the two, if you watch the two press conference, the two like coach interviews after the first quarter and after the third quarter, seeing the two of them juxtaposed with each other was actually really funny because JJ's like clearly really terse and pissed off because his team's playing like shit and all

of his guys are struggling. He's just all upset. Like twenty six twenty two first quarter, I mean, like the Warriors were in control and they had dominated the second half of the first quarter, but Steve Kurt was just like, yeah, like early in the game, I thought we were crashing too hard and the long rebounds were coming out towards the elbows, and we just need to, you know, crash more towards the elbow so we can be more prepared for some of these long rebounds. But we'll be fine.

Like I thought, we controlled things defensively. It's just like so like calm and like measured in his approach. But I thought The bit that he talked about with the rebounding was really fascinating because that's literally what was happening in that first quarter when the Lakers were missing those threes. The corner crashers for the Lakers were crashing up to the elbows and the Warriors were crashing into the paint.

And it's just a simple concept. If you miss a corner three off of the heel of the rim or off of the left side of the rim, like it's just going to go carroning off towards the top of the key. And you got to have guys there to win those battles. And, like I said, just absolute dominance

on the glass by the Warriors. After that first quarter, there was a stretch when the Lakers were making their push periodically in the fourth quarter and it out I was like, this is just a fake, comeback to me until they show that they can get a defensive rebound, because it was like they get it to five, but then they get a stop and then Jimmy Butler would get another offensive rebound, and they just kept getting beat to the ball, even those late game possessions where it's

like somehow Jimmy Butler's just coming away with the ball in these situations when there's all these bodies around, when there's all this congestion around, and like, make no mistake, I talk about it all the time. Basketball's contact sport. These are fistfights. This is not you know, everyone wants to talk about scheme. Everyone wants to talk about some magic solution for why the game went the way it went.

For the most part, it's in the trenches and it's about fighting for position, for loose balls, winning different leverage battles, like little things like big late game possession. Lebron's driving I think it was on Jonathan Kaminga out of the right corner, and like Lebron's trying so hard to turn the corner, and he had turned the corner so many times that game, And like Kaminga won a battle, he won one battle against Lebron sliding his feet across the lane.

That was the one where Lebron through the pass the Dorian Finney Smith cutting along the baseline and it went out of bounds. That's not a scheme thing. It's a physical battle. It was Jonathan Kamina and Lebron James fighting to see Lebron's trying to turn the corner. He's trying to blow through that right shoulder and get that leverage so that he can turn and finish with his left hand at the rim, and Kaminga's fighting like hell to hold his shoulder there and to slide his feet and

to win that leverage battle. This is where these things are won. And I just thought the Warriors kicked their ass tonight and all of those physical parts of the game, and that ultimately, like we talked about off the top, when you're talking about the two styles, their speed, they won the ground battle all game long, and I thought they deserved to win as a result. A couple of other kind of interesting things. Jonathan Kamena showed a little stretch of some matchup hunting in this game that I

thought was fascinating. In that fourth quarter stretch, they capitalized on a couple of switches with Austin Reeves on Kaminga and he got a couple of buckets in a row. I thought that was kind of an interesting example of how now Jonathan Kaminga is going to be an up and down player, and there are gonna be certain games where you're scratching your eyes out and you wish he wasn't on the floor, but there's gonna be other games where he could be instrumental to what you're trying to do.

I mean, he hit seven shots tonight, he was plus nine in his minutes. Like, yeah, that was a big time, big time performance in a big time game. He made more field goals today than Luka Doncic did and that's a huge kind of like swing factor in a game like this. A really really impressive performance from the Golden State Warriors. Again, one of the exciting things too, is like I'm gonna be talking a little bit about with the Lakers, the potential for guys to play better. Right, Like,

there's a version of this game where Luca plays better. Right, there's a version of this game where Dorian Finney Smith plays better. You know those sorts of things. Right, there's also a version of this game where Jimmy Butler plays a lot better. And if you're looking for something in terms of like a potential upside outside of what we saw tonight, Jimmy I thought early in the game was just kind of going through the motions. In general, this

game kind of had a really strange feel. You could really tell in the early part of the game that neither team knew how they wanted to attack each other, and so there's a lot of standing around, a lot passing the ball around the perimeter, a lot of really ugly offensive possessions from both teams, and some of those

possessions for Jimmy Butler manifested. I thought Lebron was doing this too early in the game where where he had those two back to back turnovers where he's driving into the lane and no one's helping, so he's in a one on one, but he's like trying to force some pass to a guy that's guarded. It's like, no, you need to be looking to score. You're leading a unit

without your star on the floor. Same thing goes for Jimmy Butler in those situations, like they need him to look to be aggressive if you're not gonna get you know, eight made threes out of Brandon Pejemski every single night. They're gonna need more production out of Jimmy in that spot. But overall, I thought he made a bunch of big plays late. I thought the corner three he made late

was big. At three steals in the game. Was beating the Lakers to a bunch of loose balls some key situations, really really impressive performance from the Warriors top to bottom. I thought Steph to last piece, I'll say, in the Warriors before we get to the Lakers. You know, Steph has been fantastic since the Jimmy Butler trade. He's at coming into tonight. He was at like twenty eight points per game on sixty six percent tru shooting over his

last twenty three games. On a court that had Jimmy Butler, that had Lebron James, to have Luka Doncic, that had all this star talent on the floor, I thought Steph was the best player on the floor. And I even though Lebron statistically performed really well, I thought Steph was able to consistently break down the defense. I talked earlier about how both teams didn't really seem to know how they wanted to attack each other in the early portions

of the game. It crystallized for Golden State they found out, you know, they're about halfway through that second quarter. In that second quarter, they found out it's like, actually, let's just get Steph out into space against Luca and we'll have him drive by Lucas. Sometimes we'll have him look to attack immediately off the catch off of some off ball screening action. Will There was one late the Big Three he hit late where Draymon fell down like he

had Luca on a switch. But then Draymond just sprinted into a ball screen. I talked earlier today when we were talking about Jared Allen and the Caves. When you sprint into actions, it makes you that much harder to guard. Draymon sprinted into that ball screen and Lebron was too far back and Lebron was late. It was bad defensive possession from Lebron and a big part of that was Draymond sprinted into the ball screen. Got Steph another clean look at it, basically a drop coverage possession off the

left wing. But this is Steph is heating up right in time for what they're going to need him to be in this postseason run. And I thought he just came in here tonight and kicked the shit out of the Lakers and badly outplayed Luca and set his team up to be in a really good position in the standings as we come down the stretch here on the

Lakers front. As I always say, I don't really look at the scoreboard when I'm thinking about the postseason, and one of the main reasons why is because there's just so much noise in the regular season, whether it's from the schedule or it's a random role player doing this or a random guy being out of the lineup for

whatever reason. There's also a lot of noise relative to the postseason where you'll see, oh, you know, the Phoenix Suns beat the Timberwolves every single game last year, and they had this awesome game plan for like how to beat the Timberwolves. But then they get into a playoff series and it's like, oh, actually none of these guys can guard aunt and they're being super physical on defense and we can't even like dribble the ball of the

floor without losing it. So like everything shifted and changed, right. So what I'm looking at is are there any things from tonight that translate to a potential postseason series between these two teams? And the first one that screams off the screen to me is their struggles with switching ever since Luca came over to the Lakers. And again, I've broken this down, but I'll do a very short version

of it here. But the short version of it is against drop coverage, against traditional coverages, Luca is so good at making all the natural reads he can. If you don't pick him up going downhill, he's just gonna get into that like right around the block where he can shoot that little seven foot bank shot that he's gonna

make like sixty percent of the time. If you do step up with your big man, he's throwing a lob to the center for a dunk, and if you tag the roller, he's skipping it to the weak side for a wide open three. And it's just he's so surgical with it that it's just it's a death sentence. There's

literally nothing you can do. And every team, for the most part that has run that coverage against the Lakers this year with Luka Doncic has gotten torch and for the most part, they've had a couple of good games. But for the most part against these teams that just switch with their fives or switched generally everywhere on the floor, they've really struggled to score. And one of the big reasons why is when Lebron was healthy earlier on Luca was bad, and then Lebron goes out. And during the

phase that Lebron was out, Luca was very good. His shot making bounced back in a major way, but they just didn't have that additional defensive rebounding presence in the front court over that span because Ruiy, Lebron, and Jackson were all out. Now everybody's back, but Lebron is still kind of getting back into form, and here goes Luca again into another kind of like spiraling type of sequence. Luca has shot below fifty percent from the field in five of his last six games. He has absolutely no

touch on his short range shot making. Before tonight he was just twenty eight for eighty eight on floaters and or excuse me, on jump shots inside his seventeen feet. So all those like jump shots that he was hitting NonStop in the playoffs last year, he made three of them per game last year in the postseason at forty six percent. He's shooting just thirty two percent on him this year and he's barely making one a game with the Lakers. He has like no touch on his short

range shot, making zero for six from three tonight. Bizarrely ineffective Luka Doncic, And like the thing is is, there's a version of this where the Lakers can theoretically be very good against switching, but it's gonna require the Lebron James that was there before he heard his groin and the Luka Doncic that was there last year in the

NBA playoffs. And so it's one of those things where, like I've talked a lot about this, the Lakers have arguably the largest amount to potentially improve between now and May first. The Lakers could be dramatically better by May first, just simply from Lebron and Luca getting back to form and some team chemistry stuff and regaining their defensive identity, which we'll talk about in a little bit. But the reality is is it's it's also possible that they just don't.

And I'm just gonna be perfectly frank with you, guys. If Luca plays like this in the postseason, they're they're they're gonna get beat. They're gonna get beat in the first or second round. Like it, They're just there's no

going the distance. If you make a trade with Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic and you get this type of performance out of Luca in a big game, and I mean, strangely enough, the Lakers have dominated the middle tier of the NBA since Luca came that every Houston, Minnesota, you know, Phoenix, every team that's in that you know, kind of like just outside the top tier of contenders. The Lakers are

kicking the shit out of those guys. They've faced two of the teams that I said that I would consider as the top tier contenders, Boston, who's been there all year, in Golden State, who I said I would add when we do our contenders list with sa Vassini right before the start of the postseason. And in those two games, the Lakers pretty much got out played wire to wire and Luka Doncic looked really, really bad in both games, and I am I am. Here's the thing. Early on

after the trade, I wasn't worried about it. I was just kind of like, give Luca some time. He'll be fine. He's one of the greatest players that we've ever seen at his age in this league. But here we are, Guys, it's it's been months now, spend two months, and he's going in the wrong direction. So I don't know what's

going on with him. Part of the thing that I'm seeing too, is like he's he's not even trusting himself in the short range, like he's pump faking pn Like he's pump faking NonStop in that ten to fifteen foot range and just looking to grift for fouls instead of looking to take and make the shots that he was hitting half of at decent volume when he was in the postseason last year. So I'm again, I'm hopeful that Luca will figure it out. I'm hopeful that this will

all come together. But guys, like we've already the hoops tonight's staff, we've already gone over our schedule for the week of the playing tournament, Like this shit is right around the corner. It's here, It's like here, now, there's no like, let's give Luca a runway and see what he can do. Like there's a chance you're facing the Clippers, the Timberwolves, how the Warriors in two in three weeks like that. This needs to be this, These problems need

to be resolved yesterday. And so I'm starting to get a little bit concerned about whether or not the Lakers are hitting at the right type of level they need to be hitting at to go on the run that they need to go on the defensive struggle with speed, A lot of miss rotations tonight, a lot of missed

defensive rebounds where they're slower to the ball. In this sort of situation, I want to at least account for some of the fact that the Lakers are kind of not in the same defensive rhythm that they were in in the past. But the reality is there was only a very brief stretch there where they were good defensively with Luca right after the trade. There's been a pretty large sample now after that where they've been pretty bad defensively with Luca and teams are looking to attack him

out front over over and over again. We did see an example in the second half tonight of a pre switch, meaning where they brought Luca's man up into his screen and then Lebron went instead of Luca, but that was the only time I saw it, and for the most part, they were just conceding that switch. And if they're going to concede that switch, then they're just gonna have to

be better in their rotations than they've been being. If they defend like this behind Luca, who's been giving updriple penetration the way that he has, I think they could get pieces by a good offensive team when they get into postseason. I talked a lot in other games about the idea of leveraging your strengths to hide your weaknesses. There's no doubt that all this stuff is connected. I'll give you guys some examples. Luca plays better from the

start of this game. Immediately starts kicking ass, punishing mismatches, drawing double teams, spraying out beautiful kickout passes to shooters. Now, the threes that Dorian gets, the threes that Gabe gets, they're cleaner, they're more in rhythm now instead of those guys going one for ten from three, they have much better shooting nights now. As a result, the team is able to set their defense more. Now that they're setting their defense more and they're in control of the game

and they're not trailing by ten, they're more invigorated. They're more motivated, they're flying around, they're making plays. See how like you can imagine a scenario where these things are connected.

You can leverage your strengths to hide your weaknesses. The part that gets scary for me there is, as I said, like we're on almost a two week stretch there where Lucas just hasn't been as good and so it's just a little concerning from the standpoint of right now, I haven't seen the Lakers put together a consistent stretch of like great basketball since Lebron came back from his injury, and so I'm definitely a little bit I'm a little

bit concerned there. That said, there is time, and you know, if they do get a favorable first round matchup and they end up getting a win, they could have until May to get some of this together before they face a more serious team. Similar to what I talked about with Jonathan Kaminga, I did think we saw one clear advantage for the Lakers tonight, and that's that the Warriors can't guard Lebron. Lebron did exactly what I was just

talking about Luca needing to do. He consistently methodically found mismatches against guards where he liked his size and he liked the spacing of the floor, and he was able to get downhill, and he was able to consistently compromise the defense for kickout passes and for layups right at the front of the rim. That is, to me a translatable thing to a series between the Lakers and Warriors.

And so in an event where the Lakers beat the Warriors in a playoff series, it will require Lebron to continue to leverage that and for Luca to meet him at that level. And that really is the advantage there. If the Lakers are going to leverage their size, it's got to be Lebron and Luca together. They're punishing them all over the floor. All right, that's enough for that one random regular season game. Let's get into our other segments for the night. Welcome to Course Correction, brought to

you by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under immense pressure to get things 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 the teams or star players and how they can turn things around. Whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say bring it on. This week, we're discussing Jannis and Tennankumpo's big night in Philly. Aside from the victory in the N Season Tournament, this year

has been a complete disaster for the Milwaukee Bucks. Year two of the dam Janis experiment, Dame has a full summer to work out, less drama going going on in his life. They have a full training camp, lots of expectations. They start two to eight, then you go fourteen and four over your next eighteen games. That's when they won the N Season Tournament. Now you're sixteen and twelve, you've recovered.

But in the forty eight games since they're twenty six and twenty two, they're thirteenth in offense, fifteenth in defense, twenty fourth and rebounding just incredibly mediocre, thirteenth best team in the league over that span forty two and thirty four, thirteenth best record in the league for the entire season.

Now they're staring down the barrel of having to face either Indy or New York in the first round without home court, then having to go through Boston and Cleveland successively consecutively without home court, and Dame is down in the deep vane thrombosis in his CAF with no timeline to return, and Bobby Portis got himself suspended. There is every reason in the world for Jannis to field defeated right now and to feel like he has no chance

to get this done and to pack it in. But instead he's just continuing to play the best basketball of his career. He was insanely good today on the road in Philly. He relied mostly on high ball screens with either Brooker with guards or wing ISOs. He caught a couple of favorable matchups that he liked against Squashanyamuseli and Colin Castleton, and in space along the wing there and

in the screening actions and in the wing ISOs. He was just punishing them so relentlessly that he was able to generate a lot of clean playmaking opportunities from the defense reacting to him. And he had the best playmaking game of his entire career, making every single type of Reid hitting guards slipping out of his inverted ball screens

to the three point line. There were a couple plays where brook Lopez had inside position as guys tried to front him in the post, and he threw a beautiful over the top feeds that just led brook Lopez right into the basket for layups. He was skipping the ball. They were plays where lowman's in position. He's just rifling a pass to the corner to get another open three, throwing the ball over the top out post ups, driving and dumping the ball off to a guard underneath the basket,

slipping along the baseline. He looked like Magic Johnson. In transition. He had a behind the back pass and transition for a layup. He had another like beautiful lefty scoop pass around a guy's but like a wrap around pass around a defender to Torian Prince cutting along the wing. He was just brilliant tonight in every single facet of the game. Looked like a floor general out there just pointing at guys and telling them where to go, looking methodical and

surgical on every single possession. He finished with thirty five points, seventeen rebounds, and twenty assists. The team was minus ten with him off the floor in just nine minutes. He played thirty nine minutes, and he still managed to lead his team to a thirteen point win, just clearly sending the message that he's not going down without a fight. That's it for this week's course correction. Remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to take 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 who learn more. We have one last short segment tonight on John Morant and the game winner he hit against the Heat. Then we're going to do our mail bag from the chat, So make

sure you guys drop your questions in the chat. Remember you got to subscribe to the channel first drop those questions. Jackson's going to hop on and we'll talk some hoops for about ten fifteen minutes at the tail end of the show. So the Grizzlies beat the Heat one ten to one to eight tonight in a really fun game. Tyler Harrow and John Morant had an awesome duel in the second half, going off every time down the floor.

Bam kind of kicked Jaron Jackson's ass, which was an interesting subplot and a feather in the cap of BAM's just the reputation he has as one of excuse me, as one of the best defenders in the league, kalel Ware had a really fascinating game, one of those classic like young talented player type of games where he just flashes tons of potential, showed some of his rim protection in this game, some of histential as a vertical spacer, as a three point spacer, as a fun game from him.

But John Morant completely takes over down the stretch, generating three straight buckets to win the game. He attacks Tyler Harrow in a screen right around the top of the key, goes right around Tyler Harrow dunks it with two hands. Then there's this random Jaron Jackson possession where he tries to post up bam Adebayo again and it just looks really ugly and he has a bad miss. That possession made no sense to me because they should have been

going through jaw every time. But then you go back to John in the next possession, he goes to attack Harrow again, this time they double team him. Swing swing wide open three for Jaron Jackson in the right corner. He knocks it down and then after Tyler Harrow ties the game with a beautiful floater. By the way, Tyler Harrow, I want to compliment him, I think the very end of his release, just the flip of the wrist might

be the prettiest in the NBA. He literally looks like the coaches when they're trying to teach you to reach into the cookie jar, who says, like that perfect follow through on that little floater to tie the game. But then John Morant very interestingly calls for a ball screen to get kellel Where switched on to him instead of

Tyler Harrow. I thought, my guess is that the Grizzlies were banking on the game plan being to double team specifically off of Harrow, but just to switch anything else, And so I think Jock called for that specific screen with the intent of getting a one on one and

not facing a double team. And he did. He got a one on one with kellow Ware, and he just went right downhill into his chest and took this comically large step back and took one of those patented little short range jump shots that he takes, and he got the bounce and he wins the game at the buzzer. And it's things like that that make Joss such a difficult player for me to like give up on, even with his health issues, even with the off court issues he had earlier in his career. He just has a

bonafide superpower. No one can keep him from scoring one on one. There are ways to deal with him in a team context, forcing lesser players to score. Memphis has a flawed team construct in general. We're going to talk about it here in a minute. But there's not a defender in the league that can stop him from getting to a spot in the short range and just popping up off the ground and shooting one of his patented

little floaters or a little short range jump shots. You can't stop him from getting to that shot, not without sending multiple bodies and just somehow tilting the offense in a different direction. He's fifty percent on floaters this year. He's forty five percent on jumpers inside of seventeen feet.

Those are really good looks for him. It's like it's a coin flip if you get John on one on one at the end of the game, even if you put a rimp protector on him, even if you pack the paint, he can get to the middle of the floor and get just pop off the ground. I've talked about this a lot. The short range shot making, to me, is far more valuable in the postseason context than mid

range shot making. If you can get into that inside of seventeen feet, like inside the paint, paint, non restricted area type of stuff, that's where I feel like there's real dependable shot making in the postseason. That's what Jokic has done for years. Back when Luca used to be able to make those shots, That's what he did for years. Like that is such a valuable part of surgical scoring in the half court. Now the Grizzlies are a mess.

I think they have to find a way to be better defensively around John Moran and Desmond Bay and Jared Jackson, while also making sure you create space so you can't tilt shots away from Jaw. But this is still jaws superpower, the foundational ceiling raising talent that keeps this team interesting and why I think there's always a case to just pivot and try to make it work before just bailing him,

bailing on him as a talent overall. All, Right, Jackson, let's talk some hoops, man, What do you got for us from the chat?

I thought that was different than what happened tonight. I thought tonight Luca was just bizarrely passive, a lot of pump faking, a lot of grifting, and I just didn't think he inflicted himself on the game as well. I thought the Celtics game was much more of like a Jalen you know, stole his lunch money kind of thing.

those faces, makes it specifically challenging.

bigger than Luca's this season? Yeah, that's sort of why I've held off on the question because it seems a little Warriors fanny, But I mean, I can understand the spirit of the question because I think Jimmy does so many different things while Luca is just super super elite at the one thing quote unquote, but come on, guys, we can we can be honest.

into this category. These guys that kind of are like do all like they do all these like little things. They can impact the game in ways that go beyond

their shot making. And so I think that one of the underrated parts about it, like a Drew Holliday or Derek white Is there are such great connective skill players because they can dribble, shoot, and pass really well that even if Drew Hollidy goes oh for three from three or oh for five from three, he can have a couple buckets slipping along the baseline in the dunker spot as a guard. He can slip out of screens with

Tatum and make plays in four on threes. He can be the best defensive player on the floor in any given game. He can do all these like different kinds of things. So I think, I think ultimately that's it, like can you be a like a versatile enough player to be immune to like the differences in in in shot result. And then I think, I think the second piece of it is like legitimate upside, Like there there's a difference between a Jackson Hayes, for example, and let's

say a Bobby Portis. Like Bobby Portis can go for thirty in any given game, right, You're not expecting that type of upside from a Jackson Hayes. Similarly, like DeAndre Hunter with the Calves, he's playing a smaller role with the Calves, but he also has scoring talent that can manifest in oh he has twenty points in game four of a huge playoff game. Like, those are the kinds of things that I think are a little bit different.

Is like, sometimes there are role players that can masquerade as stars for brief stretches as well, But ultimately, I think the night to night versatility, the night to night reliability is the main separator between good and bad role players.

but he's not really elite at anything. Davion Mitchell is insanely elite at defense. Aj Green on the Bucks just insanely good at shooting. Right, if you are like levels above your other role players of your similar type, then that can also sort of be a separator.

the NBA. So I'm gonna think I'm gonna go with this. I think I think Las Lakers Clippers would be a really fun first round series.

We get to solve and we get to round two of that incredible seven game series we got last year. In the East, I'm gonna go with Indie Milwaukee because they hate each other. I'm gonna go with the Nicks and the Pistons because they will hate each other by the end of that series. Oh yeah, and then Celtic's Heat just because that's fun, and then Cav's Magic because they hate each other. So I think, I think I think that would be the the perfect series. What do you think?

couple more. This one is why we You sort of touched on this a little bit in the Lakers segment of the show, But why does Luca foulbait unseemingly every shot? Is it a mental thing right now.

his game. And I think that in general, players tend to get more grifty the more they're struggling, because you're literally just trying to manufacture offense out of nothing, and like and it's just one Like that was kind of the bizarre, Like that was the griftiest I've ever seen Steph play tonight. Did you see that?

I'm like, this guy's fucking incredible. But then he's had other nights where I'm like, this is so bizarre, Like why are you Why are you watching your teammate like give everything he's got and to try to keep his team in this game in Lebron and you're just kind of like jogging and going through the motions like where's a lot of where's where's the verve? Man? Like it just wasn't there. It was bizarre, weird Luca game.

never wins DPO. I uh, because like even when Marcus Smart won it, like I didn't think he was like cut the head off the snake guy. He was more of like defensive playmaker type of guy, you know, yeah, and yeah exactly, And so I I kind of find that to be an interesting case. And I thought Bill's whole point about like his ability to cut the head off the snake as a type of value I thought

was really fascinating. I just think when I watched Raymond Green, I just think he's better at defense than Evan Mobley. And like, look, I've watched a lot of Calves lately. I just watched him the other day in the in the next this morning, in the next game, and like, I just think Draymond is a more disruptive defender I don't think Evan Mobley could do to the Lakers defensively what Draymond Green did to the Lakers. Like Dyson Daniels, really good, really good player. I think he's got a

ton of offensive potential. I've been talking about that on the show a little bit. His shiftiness and his kind of like short range He's got a little bit of that John Morant pop off the ground in the short range and make a little floater kind of thing. It obviously is a wrecking ball on defense, but I think Draymond does more to damage a team's offense than any defender that I watch in the league.

a row, so he wasn't getting the games threshold. And you know, also he was doing a lot of stuff, silly stuff on the court that was sort of taking away from his sort of perception around the league. But it's great to see him sort of get the credit again because he they talked that, they kept talking about it in the broadcast night, how he's trying to get ten All Defense selections and become one of the few

players to have that honor. And I hope he gets there because he has been I think pretty unquestionably the best defender in the NBA over the last ten years, fifteen years.

been awesome. And and a bunch of credits to those guys too, for battling through a pretty limited roster in the first part of the year as well. All right, guys, that's all we have for tonight. As always, we sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We're taking the weekend off for you guys to enjoy

the tournament. There's no nationally televised games other than NBA TV until Monday, if I'm not mistaken, and so I'm actually going Monday Night with Kevin O'Connor, So if you want to hear me talk some college hoops, that's the place to be on Monday night. But OOPS Tonight will

be back on Monday morning. Jackson and I will be back, and then next week we got a bunch of huge games to cover as we get into the final stretch of seeding, and then in the week after that we got our series previews and playing tournament that will be covering, so lots of interesting stuff on the rise. And again, I appreciate you guys for rocking with us, and we will see you on Monday. What's so, 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.