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All right, well, coon hoops tonight you're at the volume heavy Wednesday, everybody. If all of you guys are having a great week so far, well, the NBA Cup Elimination Round got off to a hot start last night. Is the Orlando Magic scared the Milwaukee Bucks, but Dame hit a couple of big shots late. They get out of there with the win. In advance to the semifinals and then a preview of what I think are the two
best teams in the Western Conference. We call it a Western Conference Finals preview, which I mean the Dallas Mavericks and the Oklahoma City Thunder was really revealing and hinged on a couple of specific battles within the game. We're going to do a lot of talk on that specific game because of the fact that I view that as one with a lot of big picture implications in the NBA. As a result of that, we also have a film session at the tail end of the show. It's thirty
eight clips long. There's one clip I want to hit from the Magic Bucks game that kind of shows an interesting basketball concept that came through big in clutch time for the Bucks, and then thirty seven clips on the chess match between the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder. Again, I view that as a Western Conference Finals preview type of matchup, so I want to really dive into the x's and o's and some of the trends that I see between those two teams and just what it might
look like down the line. So we're going to do a deep dive in film at the tail end of the show. You guys had the joke before we get started. Subscribed to the Hoops and Night YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter, at underscore JSNLTS. You guys, don't mis show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast fet where you get your podcast under hoops and I don't forget it's helpful you leave
it rating and a review. On that front, we also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where you guys can get additional content from the channel. Make sure you guys follow us there, and last not at least keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. We're going to be recording the mail bag on Thursday afternoon, so this video is your last chance to submit questions for that mail bag that's going to air on Friday.
Make sure you guys put those questions in the comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, as I mentioned off the top, I think these are the two best teams in the Western Conference, which is why we're going to be doing such an extensive film session on them in the second half of the show, kind of like we did with Cavs Celtics last week. If you remember, these are the teams that I kind of you as the teams most likely to meet in a late playoff
round with major implications for the NBA Finals. We have very interesting defensive game plans from both of these teams, and they were each uniquely designed to accentuate their strengths. For instance, the Thunder are one of the fastest teams in the league, so they tried to leverage their speed as much as possible in this game by blitzing ball screens, doubling post ups and ISOs when they didn't like their matchups,
and then using their speed to rotate out of it. It was one of the more impressive defensive rotation games I've seen in a long time. We're gonna spend a good amount of time talking about that. A ton of aggression to try to force turnovers, like attacking MAVs players right when they come down with defensive rebounds. They'd be just a dude swiping at the basketball or like jumping out
let passes to guards. So like if like someone like Gaffer came down with a defensive rebound and they saw Luca getting ready to come back and get the ball, someone would shoot that gap and try to get a steel there, or in transition kick ahead situations, playing those passing lanes in the half court, digging down and swiping at the basketball. Just a ton of aggression to try to force rote, to try to force turnovers so they can get out in transition. And then what's the downside
of aggression. The downside of aggression is you're often in defensive rotation, meaning like you're in man down situations where it's like a four on three or a three on two or a two on one, And in those situations it requires in connectivity and communication within your unit to be able to cover ground and rotate out of it. And that's a situation where Oklahoma City is very comfortable.
So like unbelievable rotations where they're like blitzing Luca above the break on the right wing and a beautiful skip pass and lou Dort just covers like thirty feet of ground in a split second to force Klay Thompson to pump Bake, or a skip pass where lou Dort rotates to the corner but Kasan Wallace who's right under the basket just flies back out to the wing to take away the next pass. Just making sure those openings are
very brief, they close up quickly. And then it also breeds hesitancy when guys are flying around even when you even when it looks like you're going to be open. Sometimes you're thinking you're not going to be open. It can breed some of that hesitancy in those situations. The play I talked about where loud Dort threw that thirty foot close out, Klay Thompson pump faked and if you would have just gone up with it, he probably would
have got a decent look. But he pump faked because of the fear that Okasee can instill with their like really really intense closeouts on the prim That was the game plan for Oklahoma City. It accentuates their individual strengths as a team, and that was what they tried to weaponize in this matchup the MAVs. The strength of their roster is they have a lot of interior size and rim protection. They have one of the best role player
center rotations that you find in the league. Right, so they were running deeper drop coverages, loading up in the paint, conceding jump shots to mediocre jump shooters off the ball, and really trying to avoid being in rotation as much as possible. Why Because they are playing typically two bigger, slower players Luca and one of the centers, and their
guards are not as fast as Oklahoma City's guards. So if they get in rotation and they have to fly around, they can be in some tough spots, right, And so what was really interesting is these two very different game plans led to two very different results.
In the box score.
There's gonna be a lot of talk today about like, oh, shake Hilles, Alexander by himself outscored Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, and it's like, yeah, but Luca and Kyrie were getting blitzed and doubled all over the floor, and the MAVs were allowing Shay to operate in traditional pick and roll coverages where he was getting a lot of baskets. So like, the game plans dictated that the stat lines would look
roughly the way that they looked. So I'm not more I'm not really all that invested in the box score reading coming out of this game. So let's dive a little bit deeper into the details. Dallas actually won the half court battle in the first half. In the first half, Dallas posted a ninety six offensive rating in the half court and Oklahoma City posted an eighty eight offensive rating in the half court. Pretty substantial advantage for Dallas there.
In the first half. We'll dive deeper into the half court battle here in a minute as we kind of go through the two teams. But Oklahoma City still led at the half by three because they were dominating in two particular margins. One, they were forcing a ton of
turnovers and scoring off of them. And interestingly enough, like I mentioned earlier, a lot of turnovers in the back court, like a lot of like guys diving at the ball right after dude gets an offensive rebound, jumping that outlet pass, jumping those kick ad passes, like I talked about earlier. And what's really interesting about that is it manifested. In another really bizarre stat, the Thunder had thirty six points
off of turnovers in this game. That's an astronomical number, basically the difference in the game, but they only had eight fast break points in percentergy only fourteen total transition points in the entire game. Thirty six points off of turnovers despite only fourteen transition points, it's because so many of them were basically functioning as just additional possessions in the half court. They dominated the offensive glass, right. Big part of that was the MAVs were conceding a lot
of threes. They the Thunder attempted fifty threes, Oklahoma City missed thirty of them. A lot of long rebounds. Long rebounds turned into foot races. Oklahoma City's gonna win a lot of those foot races, right, So misses that turned into offensive rebounds and then miss that turned into defensive rebounds for the MAVs that were quickly turned over in the back court, which turned into additional possessions for the Thunder.
I can't remember the exact sat off the top of my head, but I think the Thunder attempted ten additional shots than Dallas overall in the first half. That's those two margins backcourt turnovers that Oklahoma City was forcing in offensive rebounds that Oklahoma City was beating Dallas to the ball. That is how Oklahoma City went into the half with a lead, despite the fact that Dallas was winning the
half court battle. But again, Dallas was playing so well in the half court that it kept things close until that third quarter. And in that third quarter, shake Yilds Alexander just completely took over the game to start the second half. Again, we talked about the deep drop coverages, but it's kind of interesting the game started with Lively at center, a lot of deep drop. When Gafford came in in the first half shift, it was a lot
more at the level. He was coming up high, making it so that when Shay was coming off those screens he was seeing a body pretty much right in his face. Jason Kidd decides to start Daniel Gafford in the second half instead of Derek Lively and immediately audibles to a deep drop with Gafford, which that was really different, really interesting.
And again for those of you guys who haven't seen some of our breakdowns in the past, all I mean there is in the ball screen coverage the guy who's guarding Shay is chasing over the top, right, a lot of Quinton Grimes tonight, guy guarding Shay is chasing over the top. As he's chasing over the top, the big man has one of two different types of responsibilities. In a deep drop, they call it no roller behind coverage.
His job is to in that as he's kind of backpedaling, He's got to keep Shae in front of him, but he also has to keep the roleman Isaiah Hartenstein in front of him, right, Whereas in a high drop, you're not concerned about the roleman. You're only concerned about the
ball handler. So you're still waiting on the other side of the screen, but you're waiting up higher and you're not concerned about heart and Stein getting behind you because there's a backside to the defense that is designed to handle that in the form of the low man coming over to tag the roller.
Right.
So those are the two differences in those coverages. So again, second, in that first half, when Gafford was playing, he was up at the level Shae was attacking it with pocket passes, trying to get into those four on threes on the weak side. Gafferd starts the second half in a deep drop and Shae immediately just comes right downhill into his mid range area and knocks down a couple of jumpers. This is where isaih Hartenstein was setting monster screens on
Quinton Grimes. That's a gift of Isai Hartenstein's. He's just very good at setting screens. And again, if you lay a good screen on the primary defender and the.
Big is in a deep drop, what do you get.
You get a chasm right there in the mid range where a guy can get comfortable and rise into shots and Shaye was just getting right into that zone. He has two quick ones. He had two easy buckets that he generated in ISO against Klay Thompson and switches. He beat him off the dribble for a layup that ended up getting goaltended. And then there was a play where he spun over his left shoulder against Clay right around
the elbow. Three MAVs kind of coalesced around him. There was a kickout pass to lou Dort in the right corner. Lou Dort drove the close out and got another bucket. Then Shay hits a three off of an offensive rebound from Kason Wallace where he Kaseon just beats lucas being a little lazy in that box out in the corner. Kason gets the ball, kicks it over to Shay in
the corner. He knocks down to three, and then they capitalize on Luca's laziness again in a two man game at the top of the key where Kaseon Wallace comes up and sets a screen, slips out of it just a textabook ghost screen right but on the ghost screen, Luca just kind of walks up to Shay and then just points over at kase on Wallas. Derek Lively doesn't seem to know what's going on until it's too late.
Swing pass to kayse on Wallace, he knocks down the three that put the Thunder up by fifteen, and Dallas never got it back within ten points from there, and never got it back within single digits from that point in the game. So like that was what was interesting about this game. Dallas dominates the half court battle in the first half, but Oklahoma City dominates the margins. Then we go into that third quarter, Shay gets going against
some passive coverages from Dallas. All of a sudden, it's a massive half court win for Oklahoma City in the third quarter, they run away with the game. As a matter of fact, Oklahoma City posted a one forty four offensive rating in the third quarter in the in the half court and Dallas posted a seventy five offensive rating in the half court in the third quarter, and it was all Shay. He took over in that stretch and then it was over. So kind of that was more
about the flow of the game. I want to dive a little bit deeper into the half court battle as it pertains to big picture what this matchup could look like. If these two teams faced a in a playoff series, right, let's finish up with Oklahoma City on offense. So a lot of teams have gone with a similar strategy against Oklahoma City with leaving their mediocre shooters open. Right, they average attempting Oklahoma City does averages attempting sixteen unguarded catch
and shoot jump shots per game. That ranks sixth in the entire NBA. Because a lot of teams are they're gonna let guys like Lou Dort shoot. They're gonna let guys like Aaron Wiggins shoot. They let guys like kease On Wallace, even Chad Holmgren when he was available. Right, guys like Kenrich Williams. These are guys that teams are going to help off of and throw a token close out to at the at the end of the possession
if they need to. Right h So they get the sixth most unguarded catch and shoot attempts per game, but they're kind of middle of the pack in converting them. They get typically about one point two to three points per shot in those unguarded situations. They got one point three to five points per unguarded ketch and shoot jump shot last night. That was the difference in the game. Alex Crusoe hit multiple threes in the same game for the third consecutive game. He had just two games all
season prior where he hit multiple threes. He's done it three games in a row. That's a big deal. Ken Rich Williams, Lou Dort, and kese On Wallace each hit three threes. This is such a huge part of this team's success. They need these role players to hit shots. If you guys remember the Dallas series last year, they weren't hitting those shots. Lou Dort was thirty two percent in the MAVs series last year. Aaron Wiggins was twenty
nine percent in the MAVs series last year. Kasey Wallace was thirty three percent in the mav series last year. Chet Holmgren was twenty two percent in the mav series last year. So again, like that's going to be the important piece. Dallas is going to play a lot of drop coverage. They might come up a little bit higher if Shay gets hot, but they're going to play a lot of traditional coverages. They're going to pack the paint and they're going to force Oklahoma City's mediocre shooters to
make shots. That is going to be one of the biggest swing factors in that series. Moving over to Dallas on offense, I actually thought they did a wonderful job for the most part of navigating the doubles and blitzes in this In this game in the half court. This
is why box score watching is so stupid. Again, Luca and Kyrie did not put up point totals in this game because constantly getting the ball out of their hands and then even when Kyrie and Luca did get looks, those looks are now coming when they're at out of rhythm because they're not getting in a lot of opportunity to work in one on one situations. Right, So I actually thought Luca and Kyrie did a pretty good job as a team.
They missed a.
Couple of the payoff shots right, a couple open threes didn't go in, a couple of cuts around the rim didn't go in. But like at the end of the day, I actually thought that they did pretty well. They converted spot up possessions at one point four to seven points per possession in the first half. They had four shot attempts on cuts, they made three of them. A Dallas pick and roll was worth one point four to one points per possession in the first half.
That's super impressive. So, like, stop looking at the box score.
Who cares that Dallas and Kyrie and Luca didn't put up a bunch of points. They beat Okac's defense in the half court at a high enough level to beat them in that first half stretch, right, It's super impressive because Oklahoma City was very, very good defensively in this game.
As I talked about earlier, their rotations were incredible. Their competitiveness in ball pressure, in gambling and trying to make plays on defense with deflections and steals, all of that was so locked in and so sharp, and Dallas was still handling it really well. The big one there is like the main thing that Luca can do that's just
different than most players. He's big enough, and he's such a gifted passer that he can kind of lean back or jump a little bit, and he can rifle these cross court skit passes that hit dudes right in the shooting pocket. And that's the thing that he kept doing that kept things moving for Dallas in the half court.
So like, here's the thing.
In a weird way, I actually came out of this game pretty encouraged about the Mets. You lost this game on the margins and in a way that can be cleaned up. When you play against Oklahoma City, you need to defensive rebound and then immediately chin the ball, and you can't bring it down to where guys are swiping at it when you look.
Up the floor. You can't look up the floor and just throw the ball right away. You need to look up the floor.
And watch out for those thunder players that are gambling in the passing lanes right to beat Oklahoma City's aggression with execution, That means on corner crashes, you got to box out and beat guys to the ball right. Once you get the defensive rebound, chin it, hold it high. Once you look to make those outlet passes, take the time to read the floor first. You do that, you limit the offensive glass and you limit their points off of turnovers. All of a sudden, it turns into a
half court battle. You won the half court battle in the first half. Maybe you go into up ten. Then you're a little bit more situated to handle a barrage like what Shae Gills Alexander puts you through in that third quarter, right so like, obviously it's more complicated than that. The Thunder half Chettholmgren coming back. PJ Washington didn't play in this game. I think Chet's a better player than PJ.
Washington. But overall, it's gonna change the dynamic a little bit.
But I was talking with Kevin O'Connor the other day and he asked me if I thought that the Thunder would be the favorites to win the West without Chet hoolmgrin.
And I ended up landing on this.
I was like, without Chet, I gave a slight edge to Dallas, but with Chet, I think Oklahoma City is a better team. And that's more or less where I landed after watching last night. That said, I think it's going to be a really interesting Western Conference Finals matchup if they meet each other, If they meet each other in the second round, or if they don't, maybe we'll
just be unlucky in that sense. But if they end up meeting each other in a series, I think it's going to be really interesting, and I think it's going to be really close, and it's gonna hinge back and
forth based on a couple of concepts. One shooting for both teams, Oklahoma City's limited role players hitting conceded threes and Dallas hitting threes out of four on threes with guys sprinting at them and close out situations, and then the turnover and offensive rebound battle, right, so like Dallas being smart with the ball and competing on the glass, and then the star battle, which is going to come
down to Shay hitting pull up jump shots. And then the other big thing in this game is basically Luca and Kyrie are going to have to do some work in ISO against their primary matchup. What that means is, let's talk primary matchup. So let's say, case Wallace is on Kyrie Irving and lou Dort is on uh Luka Doncic or in the case that chats back, it's probably gonna look more like, well, it depends on whether or
not they go big, but let's just call it. Let's just call it Kase on Wallace and loud Dort lud Dohort's on Luca, Kese on Wallace is on Kyrie. If you bring a screen to try to get a more favorable matchup, they're just gonna blitz. And now you're right
back in that same situation. So they're gonna have to be times when Dallas's role players are missing shots where Kyrie is gonna have to look down case On Wallace and attack him one on one, and Luka Donc is just gonna look down lou Dort and take him one on one. Those are really good defenders that match up specifically well with those guys. Lou Dort, uniquely with Luca has the size and strength and low center of gravity to not get dislodged when Luca tries to bump him off.
That's that's the thing that makes life tougher on Luca. Lou Dort is like the quintessential type of defender you need to defend Luca because so much of Luca's game depends on dislodging you from your with his size and strength.
Right.
So that's the challenge in this matchup. If Dallas wants to win. When Chet is back in Oklahoma, City's talent advantage becomes bigger, it's going to require Luca and Kyrie to do a lot of really tough work against elite isolation defenders, and it's going to require quick decision making and play finishing from guys capitalizing on those four on threes It's going to be a really really interesting battle.
Again.
Okaoma City is like Ogoma City is the most connected defensive unit in the league right now, and that obviously they have the highest, the best defensive rating, but it goes so much deeper into like beyond talent, it goes so much deeper into execution and just how committed these
guys are to doing the work off the ball. I had a question in the mail bag yesterday where someone said, like, what do you think is the league's evolution to the three point shooting barrage that we're seeing, And what I talked about was I think the league defensively, we'll just get really really good at putting two on the ball and rotating out of it. The reason why is we
have two major problems for NBA defenses right now. Problem number one, all of these ball handlers can come off of screens and if they get separation, they can hit pull up jump shots. That's a problem. Problem number two is these off ball guys, you give them any space, they're knocking them down. Shooting around. The league just continues
to get better and better and better. Right So with that being the case, you have to run aggressive pick and roll coverages to make these star players not as comfortable coming off of screens, but you also have to have the speed to rotate out of it. And what inevitably ends up happening is in the league, when there's an evolution, there's usually one or two or three teams that kind of leads the way and then everyone else copies.
Right Oklahoma City is one of those teams that's leading the way right now.
They're leading the way with.
Their aggressive on ball defense combine with excellent backside rotations to take away the easy three point shots that you can concede in those situations. I was really really impressed by Oklahoma City last night. Again, these are the best two teams in the West. I get a slight edged to Oklahoma City if they're completely healthy, but I do think Dallas is capable of beating them really really exciting game.
We're gonna get a lot further into that matchup here in the film session later on in the show.
Orlando Milwaukee.
Again, I'm not gonna spend as much time on this game because it doesn't have the same big picture implications as the MAVs as the Maps Thunder game, and it didn't quite have that same level of playoff intensity. Orlando is down their two best players. It kind of put a little bit of a funk on the early part of the game.
I think. I think Milwaukee and Orlando are probably the fourth.
And fifth best teams in the Eastern Conference, behind Cleveland, New York, and Boston. But there's still five takeaways that I want to get into. Number one, another monster Yiannis game. He had thirty seven points with six stocks. Did a ton of damage as a rollman in this game. This is where the advantage of Chris Middleton returning is starting to bear fruit. With Chris Middleton back, you have another
high level ball handler. Now that you have these two high level ball handlers, it allows Giannis to operate as a screener more and as a result, Giannis logged twelve points on rollman possessions last night. That was his first time all season having double digits justin rollman possessions. Twenty of his thirty seven points last night came on cuts in rolls. His previous high this season was thirteen, and that was his only game over ten earlier this season.
So a much more supported game for Giannis in terms of easy opportunities that he's getting on the rolling off of cuts. On cuts, it's like Dame and Chris prodding and ISOs and then Giannis's man stepping over. There was a dunk that for instance that Janniscott where Chris was kind of like methodically working down the left lane line and just scooped it Tiannis under the basket for a dunk.
But like, those are the types of easy opportunities you get when you have additional ball handling on the floor. Dame saved them late in the game. That's my second big takeaway beat Wendo Carter Wendow Carter Junior on a switch along the left wing where he hit like a tough step back three. Orlando had hit a couple of shots and they were up by three in the final minute.
That was a huge shot to tie the game.
And then the dunk that he had or like the kind of drop in above the rim that he had that ended up being the eventual game winner. A really interesting example of off ball action. So Dame is working against Anthony Black way out by the logo, and Anthony Black is pressuring the ball. One of the downsides of pressuring the ball is it makes it easier to give up dribble penetration. But that's okay if you have your
help setup. Dame beats Anthony Black off the dribble to the left, but Chris Middleton and Giannis are running a little off ball action right around the right elbow, and as a result, Kntavius Callwoo Pope and Wendell Carter Jr. Are distracted and they have their backs turned to the play, and so as a result, those two guys just aren't paying attention. Dame has toasted them both off the dribble.
At the same time, Goga Patadse is guarding Bobby Portis, who's cutting through along the baseline to the left corner, and Goga makes a mistake. He makes a mistake by instead of helping Dame and at least forcing Bobby to make a jump shot, he sprints out to Bobby Portas out in the corner, and he ends up giving a wide open layup for Dame. That's the advantage of off ball off ball action. When you run off ball action, just something simple like a little interchange around the right elbow,
or for the case of Bobby, just staying moving. When you do that, you open up opportunities for guys to make mistakes, and in this case, three dudes make mistakes KCP and Wendell Carter Junior both not paying attention to man in ball, and then Goga Toadze making a bad decision off of a cut through from Bobby Portis. As a result, you get a wide open layup that's a product of off ball movement and action. My third big takeaway,
Chris Middleton is just so important to this team. He didn't score a point last night, but he had eight assists, and his ability to kind of probe off the dribble and create opportunities for others is a huge ceiling raizer for this Bucks offense.
He was awesome in the Nets game two.
If you guys remember, and this is a guy that when he gets his legs back underneath him and he finds his rhythm, he's going to average somewhere between fifteen and twenty points per game. It's just a massive talent upgrade over Torreon Prince. Not to mention the fact that when Chris returns to the starting lineup, it will more properly slot Torreum Prince as a bench wing, which is where he can thrive the most in this league.
Fourth.
The path for the Orlando Magic to survive without Palo and Franz Wagner is very clear. Drag games down into the mud with their defense, dominate the glass, force turnovers, and score in transition as much as possible. That's the strength. And again, now that you're done with the Ncason Tournament, you're gonna end up with a home stretch here with a bunch of home games. Those home games are opportunities for you to lean on your crowd to drive energy
and to drag these games down into the mud. And then from there, my fifth takeaway, we're seeing Jalen Suggs blossom into one of the best two way players in
the league. You had a monster second half against Phoenix the other night where he turned a loss into a win when Phoenix had a big second half lead that he had thirty two points in this game, hit a massive pull up three and a pull up two off of like a ridiculous left to right crossover move that put Orlando in a good position to win this game. If Dame doesn't hit that step back three over Wendell
Carter Junior, which rattled in. You're advancing to the semi finals because of your defense, and because Jalen Suggs, once again down the stretch, just like he did in the Suns game, was able to continually generate shots. Jalen Suggs is averaging twenty seven points per game in his last three games. This is in addition to him being the
best and most versatile defensive guard in the NBA. This magic team has an incredibly bright future with a legit Big three, but the challenge will be for Jamal Moseley to try to figure out how to get these guys to play for each other.
This is a magic team that does not move the ball around.
They are twenty fifth in the league and passes made per game this year, they're eighteenth and assists percentage and twenty third overall in offense. And they very clearly have three guys in Palo Franz and Jalen who when they are featured, can really do some stuff. But they have
to be prominently featured when this team gets healthy. They have to figure out a way to play for each other, keep the ball moving from side to side, and have them all capitalize on advantages that they make for each other. If they can do that, then they can contend for a championship, but I think this will be a multi year journey to get there, because I don't think they're close right now. But the exciting part is the potential's there.
What we saw from Franz, what we're seeing from Jalen Suggs, what we saw from Palo to start the year. This is a team that the sky is the limit for. But they've got to find a way to play for each other. All right, guys, let's get into our film session. So we're starting up with what I thought was an interesting kind of example of Isaiah Hartenstein's basketball IQ reflecting
on the defensive end of the floor. So, as we know, Isaiah Hartenstein likes to do a lot of five out, big man connective stuff like in like screening, hitting guys, back cutting, just like acting as an offensive folkrium above the break. This is what Derek Lively's doing here, right, So I'm gonna play this clip through. Derek Lively's got this little spurs cut that he's running here with Klay
Thompson and he's gonna hit Shay Gilds. I called his spurs cut because Tim Duncan used to do this all the time with Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli where he would just kind of catch at the high post and they'd cut off of him and he just kind of pivot into their space and hit him. So he kind of pivots into Shay and he hits them right. Good job, Clay's gonna be open. But Isaiah Hartenstein does this too.
He does this exact same thing on the offensive end all the time, so he knows that it's coming and he's able to drop back into that lane and get the deflection. An example of how offensive basketball like Q can connect to defensive impact. So Oklahoma City comes out with blitzing and tagging right, So we get this ball screen with Lively blitz of Luca. Right as the blitz of Luca happens. How does this all come together. Jalen Williams is going to come in here and tag on
Derek Lively, which is gonna leave Clay Thompson open. Luca makes the beautiful rifle pass right into the pocket, gets wide open. Look for Clay just misses it. For the most part, they paid off those shots throughout the game. Worth mentioning too.
Kyrie.
This clip gets cut off, but Kyrie hits this three on the offensive rebound put back. What's the other downside of blitzing. Watch I'm gonna rewind a little bit, So on this blitz, where's Lively. He's outside of Hartenstein, but as soon as the blitz happens, he's inside of Hartenstein. So now he has the offensive rebounding advantage. So even when Clay misses the shot, look at Hartenstein. He sprints down, but Lively as inside position and he's able to tap
it out. It's another part of the issues with offensive rebounding that Oklahoma City can deal with from time to time, even though they want that battle in this game is when you're aggressive, you're in rotation. When you're in rotation, it's harder to get matched up on the glass. Another blitz of Luca here, same ball screen blitz. The tag comes from kese On. Wallace swing out to Kyrie, great reed, Kaseon rotates again, Klay Thompson gets the same exact shot.
This time he pays it off. As I mentioned earlier, deep drop coverage that the MAVs came out with against Shay and Jalen, So this one's going to be with Jalen Hartenstein's screen. Look at how far back Lively is Lively is pretty far back. He's kind of sitting one
of the things I like though. Instead of Isaiah Hartenstein rolling hard into the lane and putting himself in a position where he's just in more traffic and his vertical spacing is invaluable, he stops around the elbow because he knows he can be a threat there and he makes one of his little patented floaters. Another deep drop coverage with Lively. Clay chases over the top Jalen's far Derek
lives really far back, comfortable shot. Jalen misses this one, but that's a really comfortable shot for him in that mid range. Really really good individual defense by Keason Wallace on Luka Doncic. Here, watch as Luca goes for the step back, Keiseon closes the ground and blocks the shot. Then as Luca drives goes into that spinning move and misses it. One of the big details there I want you to pay attention to because I'm gonna show you guys a clip here in a minute where Luca hits
a bucket over case on Wallace. One of the most important parts of Luca's offensive game is dislodging the defender from his base with a good hard bump. Notice on this play, I'm gonna play it again full speed. Notice Luca never really initiates contact enough to bump Kase on Wallace off. You're gonna see a better example of Luca doing a better job later on here.
This was interesting.
I thought the MAVs in the deep drop were conceding these pull up jump shots, and Shay early in the game didn't want to take them. This is important because in the third quarter he did want to take him the watch Harden seins that's a good pick, really gets into Quentin Grimes. Shae's just wide open, like this is a wide open pull up three. Doesn't feel like taking it yet, right, Look at how far back Derek Lively
is so he gives the bald Hartenstein. But watch how this turns into offense anyway, Hartenstein catches Quentin Grimes is there. Watch Shaye just backcut him boop backcut, gets a nice little look at the mid range, knocks it down. Big part of the offense for Oklahoma City that just hasn't really been there before Hartenstein came around. Luca had been really that was another great kickout from Luke on a
post up double team that Kyrie missed. Again, for the most part, the MAVs paid those shots off in the first half. This I thought was an issue that was taking place a lot in the early part of the game where Luca was just kind of ignoring Lou Dort. So Luca's on Loudort, but he's just conceding the shot. Look sitting in the paint, just not worried about it.
Little token contest at the end. But again, like I said, that that's the key in They did that to Oklahoma City in the playoffs last year and those guys were missing. They're gonna have to hit shots in order to win this matchup when they get to April May, same exact thing. Look at Luca conceding the three to Dort on a help and he hits it. Those are going to be very very important shots for the Thunder.
That his game plan.
That's not on Luca, that's on the game plan. That was a to cap off at thirteen to oh run for Oklahoma City at that point in the game. Another really good read for Luca on the blitz. Here, Luca catches Gafford Kyrie double drag, so we have two on the ball right, Gafford rolls. Lou Dort wants to stay home for Kyrie, so Shay's gonna end up tagging the roller.
Notice Gafford too, he kind of sees Shay there, so instead of like keeping his body running like he's going to shoot a layup, he turns his back so that he can handle the low man as a post player catches, and then turns over his left shoulder for the finish. Nice fine from Luca. This is that possession where Luca did a much better job dislodging case On Wallace. So I'm just gonna let this one play. Watch Luca bump case On with the spin right there to see that.
You see how watchcase On like bump off of him right there. See, that's how he gets the clean separation. Look at out like straight up and down. He is on the fade away because he bumps case On Wallace off of his base. This is what bad transition floor balance looks like. I've talked about this concept quite a bit. We have a ball screen at the top of the key, the ball handlers trying to get downhill. The role man
is rolling downhill. We've got corner occupied, corner occupied dunker spot occupied, so when the shot goes up, there's only one man back because there's four guys.
Below the below the free throw line.
So this allows Dallas to get out in transition and basically craft a quick one on one and Nagee Marshall gets into jaaln Williams's body and finishes. This is that incredible ludor close out on the blitz, So double drag blitz two on the ball. Shay's tagging Gafford. He's there earlier now because Gafford just got a deeper seal. Right, So now Uca makes this unbelievable cross court pass. Look at lou Dort and again Clay could have shot this on the catch.
Watch that's going up. That should go up.
But the point is lou Dort is sprinting so fast that it forced Clay to second guess himself, breaks his rhythm, and he misses the shot. That's elite modern NBA defense, though the ability to put two on the ball be completely compromised. All five Oklahoma City defenders are on the midline or to the right side. Clay Thompson, the second best shooter of all time, is wide open in the
left corner. We have a skip pass that's being thrown forty feet from the rim on the right sideline that is dropped on a dime to Clay and a closeout still gets there. That is what makes the Oklahoma City Thunder such pain in the ass to deal with. As I mentioned earlier in the first half shift, Gafford was in much more of a high drop coverage against Shay. You guys are going to see an example of that. Now, look at how high Gafford is. Gafferd's up at the level,
then he's pulling back. That allows the role man to be opened for this week side three on two which Shay converts to Cruso for three just misses the shot. I'm gonna show you guys a couple examples of this because this is part of how Dallas sets up their spacing, which I think is really smart. One of the things we're going to see is when Luca ISOs and teams want to help from the center spot. In this case, in the switch, Isaiah Joe is technically Derek Lively's man, right.
You can see him kind of guarding each other there. So one of the things that Lively is going to do is he is going to seal case on Wallace on his outside, so that as soon as Isaiah Joe steps up, he creates a vertical pat I'm gonna play in full motion, in full speed first, and then we'll slow it down. Okay, look at how this develops. Watch Derek seal on the inside of Kassan wall See that. See how he seals He's got that left foot over Kasan Wallace's foot. All all that does is create a
super easy read. Now Luka Doncic knows as soon as this guy steps up, Isaiah Joe, all he has to do is just throw the ball somewhere up here, anywhere up here. Derek Lively is inside positions, so he can just jump up and feed it in. You guys will see another example of that with Kyrie Irving and Daniel Gafford here in a little bit, another really good example of Dallas attacking the double team as well. So Lucas setting an off ball screen gets the ball, gets a
better matchup with Isaiah Joe. Here comes a double double team.
Boom.
Okay, right, Reid Spencer, Dinwoodie extra pass. Klay Thompson once again, second best shooter all time. Good look, he just missed it. But Dallas did a pretty good job of navigating the blitzer and doubles in the first half. This time Spencer, same sort of thing, ball screen blitz we have they step over to tag the roller. Now we have this week side two on one with Klay Thompson and Spencer Dinwoody extra pass. Spencer gets a look, miss that one again.
For the most part, I want to say they were at like one point five points per unguarded jump shot in the first half. They did a good job and overall on jump shots in the first half they shot really well. Another blitz, another really good rotation blitz slip Spencer really sharp rotations. So now there's no open corner three, but it's a closeout. This is where having a guy like Naji Marshall who has reel off the dribble pop
is an advantage. Watch him jabs gets middle hooks, Izaho a little bit, hits.
A floater in the lane. That's playoff basketball.
Playoff basketball is you need guys that can take small advantages and turn them into baskets because elite defenses aren't going to give major advantages. They're going to give small advantages most of the time. Big bucket for Spencer Dinwoody here leading the second un He's been doing a really good job leading the second You notice Oklahoma City goes to a deep drop against the backup guard. Here, Fencer gets in the lang, gets a lot and one floater.
It's done a really nice job with him. He hit a big three on the left wing out of a double team earlier too. Oklahoma City ran this play twice in the second quarter. Just a little wide, pinned down action for Jalen. He hit a little elbow jumper the first time. Second time he draws a foul. Just nothing but a wide excuse me, nothing but a wide pin down Like I talked about yesterday, It's still fundamentally ends up in the same action Like this is just like
a ball screen. Right If Jalen Williams was coming off a ball screen, Maxim's prosper would be chasing him over the top, Gafford would be in a high drop, and Hartenstein would be rolling. It looks like that's how off ball action or motion offense like I was talking about Golden State yesterday, more or less manifests with the same concepts as spread, pick and roll. They just happened in the flow of the game. What I like about this
is look where Jalen Williams catches the ball. When he catches the ball, he already has his advantage prosperous trailing the play. So running action like this allows your stars more opportunity to attack with an advantage Earlier in Possessions draws a foul. Here, same exac read I talked about earlier with Lively. This is Dallas Maverick's offense. Notice when Kyrie starts to ISO, gets a switch. He's got Kenrich Williams. As he's going downhill, it pulls out. Okay, here we
have our ISO. So now Kyrie's got a match up he likes. Watch how the play develops. I'm gonna play him full speed first, and then we'll slow it down. ISO iso ISO dunk. Okay, let's watch how it develops. Kyrie's isoing. Gafford is already using a swim move on case on Wallas to get inside position. See inside position. Now the read is very simple. Kyrie knows I think this is Aaron Wiggins. As soon as Aaron Wiggins steps up, all he has to do is throw the ball somewhere
up here, and Gafford's gonna dunk it watch. That's Dallas Mavericks basketball. That's Dallas Mavericks spacing. They can occupy the dunker spot because their bigs are so good at those little details like inside on the lowman to be able to create an easy vertical spacing window right there above right, kind of above the square, just off to the right side.
This was just an example of strong side corner help from Spencer Dinwoode, which is big no no Jyl Williams ISOs goes to the basket, Spencer gets sucked in and he gets a shot. Although one of the things you'll notice on this play if you look, Gafford's not really in position to help, and there's an inside seal on Grime, so he might have had no choice. But the other part of it too is Prosper's kind of on him.
Prosper's in position. So that's just kind of a play where stick to the game plan, don't help out of the strong side corner. There's another one of those high level close out attacks that I talked about, which is part of the advantage of the off ball talent that Dallas has added this year. So ball screen blitz. Okay, on the blitz, we tag right, we're tagging with shay On Gafford. There's our close out, right, not a three,
but a close out against elite playoff defense. Is you got to find a way to convert this into points. Little step back move, Quentin Grimes. If Quentin Grimes were to iso shake Gildes Alexander and like a king of the court situation or in just a set defense situation, not gonna get that kind of separation in all likelihood chase a good defender, but in a closeout situation off the ball, he might be able to get more separation.
That's where his skill could Again, the job of your superstars is to generate easier opportunities for your role players. If you've got some offensive skill in the role player core, you can convert those into points. Gafford started conceding threes to Kenrich Williams at this point in the game, and he hit two of them. No need to get any further into that. Just again, that's just what I was
talking about earlier with the Thunder. Teams are going to concede shots to their mediocre shooters, and they got to hit shots, and they were hitting them in this game. This was a really smart play from Naji Marshall. So transition cross match, right, Kyrie Irving ends up with Isaiah Joe on him, so he starts going to work. So
lou Dort doubles lou Dord. If you watch in the transition cross matches matched up with Naji Marshall, right, Clayton or Kyrie Irving with Isaiah Joe, Naji Marshall with lou Dort, lou Doort goes to double watch Naji Marshall notice it and go, oh shit, my man's doubling. I'm going to make myself available, makes himself available right here in the short range, catches the ball and scores. That's high level
offense from a role player. That is the type of play that a skilled offensive player can make, that it can make more often than say like a Derek Jones junior or a Josh Green for instance. An example of why high hands are so important in a double team. Watching this double team, how lou Dort gets up with his hands that forces Kyrie to throw a higher pass and it forces a turnover that's generated off of high hands.
Then we're going to get into transition and Isaiah Joe is going to hit a three that's the kind of stuff that Oklahoma City is so good at. As I talked about in the monologue portion, one of the most important things for Oklahoma City. Look at how lou Dort sprints back, and look at this effort. Lou Dort should theoretically be transition cross matched elsewhere with Isaiah Joe. He just sprints Isaiah Joe out of it, and Isaiah Joe
sprints out of it, and you're out now. But as I talked about earlier, these are the kinds of matchups Dallas is gonna have to win if they're gonna beat Oklahoma City in a playoff series. Luca is gonna have to be able to beat lou Dort at as his primary defender, and the main issue here is against a smaller guy or a guy that doesn't have the same sort of low center of gravity and strong base, Luca
is gonna dislodge him. Watch how he can't dislodge lou Dort, and so lud Dort's able to close the gap and force a miss. That's what makes lou Dort such a gifted defender in this matchup. Another really nice play from Luca against a double team blitz skip on a dime, unbelievable passes from Luca all night long. This was an interesting action I talked to. Do you guys remember the Rudy the Rudy Gobert with Raymond play where Raymond got
to dunk on the inverted ball screen with Steph. One of the things that happens a lot is like when a guy is guarding a superstar guard and wants to deny him the catch. He's not gonna help on any screening action. So watch as they swing the ball over here. They're trying to make a post entry to Kyrie Irving, but Alex Cruso's denying. See how Alex Cruso is top locking and denying Kyrie Irving. So what Kyrie Irving does here, which is really smart, as he just goes like, hey, man,
drive off of me. If you drive off of me and you can turn the corner here, you're gonna get downhill because Alex Cruso is not going to help, and that's exactly what he does. Watch smart basketball from Kyrie all right into the third quarter. Notice Gafford's in the game, and like we talked about with the high drop early, we're going into a deep drop here. Look at how far back Gafford is. Look at Quinn Grimes kind of die on the screen, shake out of Alexander just settles
into an easy, breezy midrange pull up. Same exact thing on the next possession. Klay Thompson on the ball. Lively's in the game now, so they went early back to Lively, but same thing. Quinn Grimes is on the ball. Hardenstein screens. Look at how far back Lively is. Lively's in the paint. Shay settles into an easy midrange pull up, knocks it
down here. He attacks Klay Thompson in a transition cross match, so he's got Clay Thompson transition cross match, hits him with a little hesitation, dribbled to the right, gets the goaltend. Another nice play out of the double for Dallas. They just missed this shot. Little wide double screen action for Luca as he comes off blitz Lively on the roll. Lively makes the right kickouts to Quentin Grimes wide open three.
Just happens to miss that one. I thought Dallas managed the doubles really well all night, and again that's an encouraging part if you're a Dallas man. Most of their turnover issues were in the backcourt after defensive rebounds. Are before the defensive rebound. Another Shay Iso of Klay Thompson in a transition cross match spins over his left shoulder. Watch how many MAVs coels around him.
Boom.
Lively's two feet in the paint. Quentin Grimes double team. So lou Dort catches and he beats Lively on a close that may or may not have traveled there, but he ends up hitting a little fade away in the lane.
Watch the weak side.
Rotations from lou dorton Case on Wallace. Here Luca off, here's our blitz. Okay on the blitz, Luca's gonna throw the skip. Watch Dort first and then so Dort's playing the two on one. Right, kase On Wallas is playing Lively on the skip.
Live again.
Notice Case on Wallace inside position Unlively so that if Luca tries to throw the lob, he can at least force him to make a hook shot or something over the top. Dort's playing our two on one. Luca throws a beautiful skip pass into the pocket. Look at the close out from Dort and look at kese I Wallace. Boom, now the advantage is gone. Just like that, the advantage is gone. Isaiah Hartenstein drops into help. Another great close out from Shay, gets a great contest on the Clay
Thompson shot and forces a bad miss. Dallas ends up getting an offensive rebound in that possession. Butich just really really nice defensive rotations from the Thunder. And then these are the two threes that put the game basically out of reach. Shaye misses, but watch on the weak side, watch case On Wallace and uh watch kase on Wallace, and Luca case On just goes right behind him and get the offensive rebound because Luca's not paying attention Shae.
It's the corner three on the Chaos. And then this is that impromptu switch on the ghost screen. So again attacking Luca dribbles out. Lively's on the ball, so we're gonna swing it over. Here comes Keason Walls to get Luca into the action, and again Keason just slips out of it. There's no screen. He didn't actually set a screen, he just slipped out of it. Luca ran up on Shay. Lively didn't feel a screen, so Lively's not thinking I have to switch. So there's some poor communication there, he's
laid on the rotation knocks down to three. That pretty much did it. So yeah, really interesting, really quickly before I show this last play again, Like you guys can see the dynamic there. Dallas managed the double teams really well all night. And you can see how Dallas is running those like deep drop coverages and conceding those catch and shoot threes to mediocre shooters. And so it's all going to come down to like capitalizing on those game
plan issues. And then again for Dallas, got to avoid those mistakes they were making in the backcourt by giving up offensive rebounds and turning the ball over right after defensive rebounds. Here's that off ball action that I wanted to show you guys real quick at the end of the Bucks game. So again we have ball pressure on Dame out forty five feet fifty fifty feet from the basket. Dame beats him off the dribble. Here's the off ball action. Giannis is running a pin down for Chris Middleton at
the elbow. CACP is completely keyed in on Middleton. Wendell Carter Junior is completely keyed in on Giannis, so the two of them are now completely removed from the play, Portois is relocating out to the corner. Goga should take this help, but instead he runs through with Bobby Portis and Dame gets a dunk. So again, three players make mistakes because of offball action and off ball player movement. Pretty simple stuff, all right, guys, that is all I
have for today. As always, as sincerely appreciate you for supporting me and rocking with the show. Really really fun stuff from the n season tournament last night, and we got two more great games tonight. I look forward and breaking it all down for you guys tomorrow. I'll see you guys then the volume. So guys, as always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys 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.