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between two of the hottest teams in the league. After that, Victor wemen Yama versus NICOLEA jokicch did not disappoint. Both guys put up monster box score games. Spurs get the last laugh, though Wemby gets a big stop on Jokis late in the game. We're gonna break that game down, and then at the tail end of the show, the Los Angeles Lakers went two and oh on a back to back two Monster Lebron games. They are now seven
and two in their last nine games. We're going to talk a little bit about what's been turning things around for them. You guys have the jope before we get started to subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLTS. You guys, don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also helpful if you leave a
rating and a review on that front. We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where we're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure you guys follow us there and the last not at least keep dropping mail bag questions and those YouTube comments. I'm probably going to record my mail bag this afternoon. Again. The schedules a little weird this weekend because I'm getting ready to head out of town for a ski trip
on Sunday. That's why we're doing a show on Saturday, because we're probably not going to have shows on at least Monday, and probably not Tuesday as well. So little funky schedule here, but still time to drop mail bag questions for that mail bag episode later this weekend. All right, let's talk some basketball. So New York played a really nice game in Oklahoma City, specifically the second quarter, just a really nice job defensively running out in transition. Michael
Bridges was brilliant in that stretch. I talked a lot yesterday when we were talking about Boston Minnesota about the concept of spacing being more than just shooting. It's also about like how to position players off the ball when someone's trying to attack, how to relocate or move without the ball when one you see your help defender doing
something that should trigger a certain type of reaction. Or two, as somebody cuts, as somebody drives, as you have to kind of like be in a mebo with your spacing around that right, Like if someone cuts down the lane and you're sitting in the dunker spot, you should probably clear out right. A simple way to think of it is like if you've got a dude isoing on the right wing and they're shooting in the corner shooter in
the corner, shooter opposite wing, shooter opposite dunker spot. And let's say as that ISO's happening, the guy on the left wing just cuts right through to the basket. If he cuts through to the basket, the dude in the left corner needs to relocate up to that above the break spot. The dude in the dunker spot probably needs to relocate out to the corner so that that cutter can kind of fill in in the dunker spot. Right.
It's important for to stay for you to stay in motion because whenever you have two off ball offensive players just staying in the same spot, you make yourself easy,
easy to guard. And that was something you know, Michael Bridges, I thought just did a brilliant job of that all game last night, but especially in that second quarter stretch where like every single time there was a rotation, every single time there was help, every single time his defender turned his head, any single time somebody cut or drove in his direction, that changed his spacing. He's always cutting
and relocating. It's like, oh, my man turned his head, I'm gonna flash right to the middle of the floor. Might make myself available for a quick cut like, Oh, I'm in the left corner, but I saw my man step up high to head to a tager roller. I'm going to cut along the baseline and make myself available right there in the dunker spot, like Oh, I was
in the corner, but my defender's not paying attention. I'm going to slide up more towards the above the brake line to create a longer close out and to make a clear passing window for Jalen Brunson. Whoever it is to make that kickout pass just did a really really nice job in that quarter, just demonstrating the instinct side
of spacing. Part of it is shooting, part of it is scheme in terms of the coaching staff always having a plan for different types of double teams and help out of different spots on the floor, But a big part of it is just instincts and guys just having a natural feel for getting open. When I talk about off ball scoring, this is a concept I've talked about a lot. What is off ball scoring versus on ball scoring.
Off ball scoring is literally the ability to be a threat to score even though the action's not being run for you, and so part of that is like having a natural ability to find open spots on the move. It's one of the big reasons why for a team like Denver, I'm against trading Michael Porter Junior for Jimmy Butler. Michael Porter Junior's off ball scoring is uniquely valuable to Denver because you're usually running through the Jokich Murray two
man game. Jimmy Butler, you're not gonna get as much of the on ball stuff out of him because of what they already do on ball, and if he's off ball, he's not going to be as much of a threat to score, not just to shoot, but to score off
the ball the way that Michael Porter Junior does. It's brilliant effort from og Anobi and mchal Bridges in that stretch, but it was it kind of turned into a war of attrition in the second half, where all Knicks starters played over forty minutes in this game, and Shay and j Dubb in particular both played thirty seven minutes. The other Thunder starters played in the low thirties, so there was a substantial gap in workload between the Oklahoma City
starting lineup and the Knick starting lineup. Not to mention the fact that for Oklahoma City, they have a tendency to kind of like put starters in and out based on what the game calls for Aaron Wiggins, for instance, getting a lot of run down the tail end of this one. So as a result, all of these effort and fatigue related battles started to go towards Oklahoma City. In that fourth quarter, they started to win all of
the loose ball battles. Isaiah Hartenstein got a huge save on a ball that was going out of bounds that led to Aaron Wiggins hitting a three. The Knicks lost a huge offensive rebound out of late on the week side where it was Josh hart and Karl Anthony Towns
versus Isaiah Hartenstein and Aaron Wiggins. And Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Hartenstein just beat those guys to the spot, forced them to fumble it out of bounds and it was a possession for the thunder that went that turned immediately into another three for Actually, you know Shay Gildas Alexander hit a little jump shot against Karl Anthony Towns and drop off of that, so like another offensive rebound that led you an extra two points, it's five extra points
that the thunder got in the fourth quarter just off of like effort and energy stuff. Like every Knicks jumper seemed to be short off the front of the rim down the stretch of the game. That's always a big sign that your legs are starting to get tired. And then the Nick started to get sloppy with their execution, like they weren't matched up in transition. A few times they left Aaron Wiggins wide open on the left wing
on a transition runout. Jalen Brunson, who was doing a really good job handling pressure for the most part, like made a couple really sloppy mistakes late in the game. The one in particular where he tried to fire that bounce pass I think to Josh Hart and the dunker spot that one was obviously fatigue. To me. It wasn't open.
And when you see offensive players start to kind of like get rid of the ball even though people aren't open, it's a sign that they're just tired and they're kind of just like looking for somebody else to do something to try to help them hit another turnover against some ball pressure late in the game. So you could just tell that the fatigue element really started to work against New York late in the game, which, by the way, is the strength of Oklahoma City. They have that depth.
They don't need to lean on those players as much. You go to the Knicks and it's like Landry Shamitt, Precious Shia, and Campaign are the only guys playing for them off the bench, and those guys all have big issues. They're just they're not as good as the guys coming off of the bench. For Oklahoma City. They just have a depth advantage there, and that manifested over the course of this game. Aaron Wiggins was really the guy who iced it. He hit the three off of the Hartenstein
offensive rebound. He hit the three on the play where the Knicks didn't get matched up in transition. He hit the three on a relocation another kind of similar type of relocation. He was in the corner. Lou Dort slipped out of a ball screen, and when he slipped out of the balls screen, all this congestion happened right at the basket. Aaron Wiggins just slid up the lane line or up the corner three point line and came up to the above the brake line. Dort was able to
hit him. He knocked down a big three. He got an and one slipping out of a screen of his own. That was kind of the story of the game in terms of late game execution for Oklahoma City, everything was really just about Shae attacking Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns and specifically in hedges. And so what was happening is Shaye would just like call lou Dort up into the screen. Lou Dort's being guarded by Brunson, Brunson would hedge,
and right when Brunson would hedge, Dort would slip. And as he's slipping, you can imagine if Shay's dribbling at the top of the key and his on ball defender Michael Bridges is on him and Brunson is briefly on him in a hedge, you have two on the ball and Dort slips out of that you hit him in stride. All of a sudden, it's a four on three on
the backside. All the knicks help at the rim. That leads to the wide open three for Aaron Wiggins, Aaron Wingins and the and one that he got, same exact thing he on that play, I believe was being guarded by Carl Anthony Towns. He Carl Anthony Towns tosses a hedge, Wiggans slips out of it, boom bounce pass hits him right in the the pocket. He goes right up with
it and he ends up getting that and one. Even the final the final little jumper that Shake Gilds of Alexander hit kind of coming off of that curl on the sidelines sideline out of bounds. It was a drop coverage play for Karl Anthony Towns, Like Carl Anthony Towns was dropping. Shay's got his defender chasing him over the top. He knocks down that little mid range jump shot. So that was kind of like the half court surgery part, Like the thunder we're defending the thunder, we're getting out
in transition. They were causing a lot of havoc on those offensive rebound sequences, on those transition sequences, But it was a big, a big part of like the half court element. Down the stretch of the game was just Shay picking on Carl Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson and then the dagger, you know, the one that kind of
ended up icing the game. It was like one O eight, one O three, and they again they had been hedging and slipping and getting stuff out of the hedge with the slip, right, So on this last possession, Jalen Brunson just switched right. So like if Jalen Brunson is hedging and again all the hedges is as the screen is
coming and Shay's trying to come off the screen. The guy who's hedging, his one job is just to show, like to get out there and stop him from turning the corner, right, because if you aren't there, he's gonna come off the screen and he's gonna go downhill. So you get out there to stop him from turning the corner and then you sprint like hell back to your man.
That's how hedge and recover works. But that brief little instance where he's hedging, if the guy slips, he can get open, and that's how they were causing the problems, right, So on that final one, Jalen just switches, so allowing the defender that was guarding Jalen to follow the screener. Right. Now, it's a one on one situation, but the advantage is Shae has New York's weakest perimeter defender on him. He just goes right through Jalen Brunston and gets to the
basket and gets a layup. It was really just like a really well closed game for the Thunder. I thought Ja Dubb was brilliant in the early fourth quarter stretch with his athletic aggression. He was just going downhill every time he saw an opening, which was usually on chaos, like, oh, semi transition, I'm going downhill and I'm attacking. Oh, I missed a three, but the ball came right back to me. There's a runway. I'm going right downhill. I'm attacking. Oh,
I'm on the weak side. Guys closing out at me. I'm going right downhill. I'm attacking. Even on defense with that huge block on og Anobi at the rim, he had another big play where he drove and drew a foul and got two free throws. Like JDub, just his straight line athleticism. His powerful straight line athleticism caused all sorts of problems for the next down the stretch of this game, and then like again, once things got stuck
in the half court, because that was the thing. There was a lot of that pressure from J Dub, a lot of really good defense, forcing turnovers, getting out in transition, attacking the offensive glass, all of that stuff that's made Oka see okce over this stretch and then just that surgical approach from Shay down the stretch, attacking mismatches whenever he could get a chance to Other notes on the thunder the value of depth within their play style again, like this is the value of having a guy like
aj Mitchell that can step band, a guy like Aaron Wiggins, a guy like case on Wallace. They have so many different guys Kenrich Williams. They can go Jalen Williams, I thought had a nice stretch. He hit a big pick and pop three early in the game. Like, they have so many good players that can come in and play that it allows them the ability to play a style
like what they play. Because when you do apply a lot of ball pressure, when you do a lot of blitzing, when you do a lot of like existing in rotation and covering the ground, running up and down the floor in transition, that tasks your body with a lot right, and so if you can alleviate that by keeping minutes down and keeping guys in and out of the game so that you have fresh legs, that goes a long way towards affording you the ability to play that play style.
Teams that aren't as deep aren't going to play nearly as aggressive defensively in those situations, like the Knicks are running an eight man rotation to be really really tough to try to play with like good defense of pressure for an entire game in that sort of situation, right, the value of making shots. Oklahoma City shot lights out in this one. They converted ketch and shoot jump shots at one point five to seven points per possession. For the game. They were eight for eleven on catch and
shoot jump shots in the second half. They were five for five on catch and shoot jump shots in the fourth quarter. I've talked about this a lot this year, but this, to me is the factor that will determine the fate of Oklahoma City's season for the entire season. According to Synergy, their ability to convert unguarded catch and
shoot jump shots ranks eighteenth. Even after last night, they've been a bottom third type of team or a bottom half type of team in terms of the ability to knock down those concession jump shots, the shots that teams are giving up when they make them, they look unbeatable. When they don't, their offense can stall out, and by virtue of that number eighteen rank, that is one of those things that goes to show you that that's a
potential outcome. But that's going to be the thing that termins whether or not Oklahoma City can win for playoff rounds. They're gonna have to hit shots. They're gonna need Aaron Wiggins to hit shots. They're gonna need Lou Dort to hit shots. They're gonna need Keeson Wallace to hit shots. They're gonna need Chet Holmgren to hit shots. That was a huge swing factor down the stretch of that game.
When you connect everything Shaye does as when you connect everything Shaye does as a half court surgeon, with everything this team can do defensively, with everything about their spacing principles, the way they run their running principles in transition, when you combine all that with guys paying off the shots at the tail end of those sequences, that's what turns this Thunder team into a championship threat, a legitimate championship threat.
Shaye and j dubb I thought, you know, one of the things that we talk about is we talk about all these things on the margins. Oh, here's what this role player did. Here's what here's this you know, random margin, whether it's offensive rebounding or transition scoring, turnovers, whatever it is, here's this area where they're doing damage. But a lot of things come down to, like you need guys to
just get buckets in certain matchups. Right, Like there was a lot of Karl Anthony Towns and drop coverage, and how do you beat that coverage? Like a deeper drop coverage where Karl Anthony Towns is not letting the roller get behind him. A no roller behind coverage is defending a pick and roll two on two. If you're defending a pick and roll two on two, the kickout reads aren't there. If the kickout reads aren't there, then you
have to beat the coverage by knocking down shots. And throughout the game, a lot of good mid range shot making from Shae from j dub in that drop coverage like that, that's what you have to do. That is what the Knicks were conceding within that coverage. That big shot late that Shay Gilders Alexander hit against Cat and drop,
that's a big one. Another big one is just like attacking your defender, Like there were times there's a big one in the fourth quarter where Shaye was like, I got Mchal Bridges on me, I'm just gonna take him
to the basket and get a bucket here. There's a certain amount of like, there's a certain amount of like you have to just beat the coverage sometimes, and there was a great amount of that from Shay and j dubb in last night's game, and then Aaron Wiggins, Like we talked about the shooting stretch that add at the end of the game, and it was cool when he hit that last the last three, the one that I think it was the one that tied the game. But
he had a bunch of threes down the stretch. I can't even remember all of them, but he hit that one on the left wing. He's like running up and down the floor, like jumping and screaming. I was like, dude, it's such a good feeling when like you put in a bunch of hard work behind the scenes and then shots start to fall and then it just feels like the a lot of stuff coming to fruition. But I
thought his success started in his first shift. He came in and Michale Bridges was red hot and Kail Bridges was doing a bunch of damage attacking like Shay and Isaiah Joe and the post. He came in and cooled him off, force him into a really tough one like fade away that kind of disrupted mckail bridge's rhythm. He started to miss some shots during that stretch. He broke up a transition run out with a steel against Landry Shammitt.
He blocked Josh Hart at the rim and an iso like he got into the game and he started to impact things defensively. And again that builds confidence, which makes you feel better about yourself and less pressure to knock down shots, which can lead to you knocking down shots. Very very impressive when for this red hot Oklahoma City Thunder team again that everything's gonna come down to knocking down shots. That's gonna be the story of the season for this particular team. On the next front, a couple
of things. Fatigue is the reality of running an eight man rotation. You know, obviously everyone kind of strengths their rotation to a certain extent when you get into the postseason, but depth is not a strength of this Knicks team. And that's just something to keep in mind. It's a it's a reality as we discussed them compared to other teams around the league, like they will get tired if they run that type of rotation. And by the way,
that's kind of what happened last year. They just ran out of gas, got hurt against Indiana the attacking of Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns in action. It was how Olgoame City got all their shots late in the game, other than the ones that were in chaos situations. And again, that problem is not going away. You're gonna have to come up with a plan to deal with that. Team Slipping out of hedges is a problem because you're constantly getting compromised. You gotta be more active with your hands
there to try to Like, here's the thing. If a team's gonna slip out of a hedge, then a camp be ahedge. You might as well blitz at that point because if you're gonna be stuck with two on the ball, you need to try to disrupt that first pass. If you disrupt that first pass, meaning like if you make it deflected or make them throw a weird looping pass over the top, that buys you a chance to rotate.
But if they're cleanly getting out of those hedges with pocket passes, you're gonna be picked apart in those four on threes. So like whether it's implementing a little bit more of an aggressive blitz in those sorts of situations to try to disrupt that action, like just tell Brunson, like as soon as the screen comes, just sprint at the ball handler and attack the basketball as hard as
you can, like that sort of thing. But that they're they're doing that, They're attacking bruns and they're attacking Cat. They're gonna have to come up with a plan for how to deal with that in late playoff situations because that's a reality. And then I just want to shout up to Kilbridge. It's that he played a great game. I talked about his spacing principles earlier in the game.
He's doing a bunch of damage posting small guards. His off ball scoring ability is still, in my opinion, one of the most valuable traits in the league for a guy who's also playing pretty damn good defense as of late. All Right, moving on to Spurs Nuggets Wenby, I thought
the story of this game was him posting mismatches. It's an interesting type of thing that he's gonna have to do, especially as a playoff score, because it's the type of chess match piece that you're gonna end up running into a lot a team that feels comfortable putting someone on Chris Paul and someone on Wemby that they can switch the action to prevent him from getting easy picking pop threes or easy slips to the rim. Okay, well, how do you attack that? You take that person to the post.
And he was doing a ton of damage in this game, particularly on the left block, although he also got a big one on the left elbow late against Christian Brown where he hit a little step back, but a lot of damage on the left block against guys like Russell Westbrook, against guys like Peyton Watson, against guys like Jamal Murray, just smaller defenders quickly getting good position, identifying when a guy who was trying to front and creating a passing angle for that over the top pass or for that
like more of an angled pass, and then just quick efficient moves to get easy baskets to beat those switches. I thought he just did a wonderful job of that all game and then the transition threes, which ended up being a huge part of the game late because he hitting him off the dribble, just like kind of dribbling up the floor, catching a screen at like twenty seven feet and just like crossing over and knocking down a
three or those trailer threes. The transition trailer threes are what all the best stretch bigs in the league do because opposing centers have a tendency to run back and transition to the rim. But he's hitting a bunch there, and then he was able to weaponize that with his passing ability to get Keldon Johnson a big and one. Late, he took like a faked like he was gonna take
like a thirty five footer up above the break. Three Nuggets jumped at him, and all of a sudden, there was just a literally a four on two on the backside. He hits Keldon Johnson in stride and he gets the end one. He made a bunch of huge defensive plays late. He forced Jokich to settle for a bad three above the break, but there was still like eight or nine seconds on the shot clock, and he just like heaved one up over over the top of Wemby and then the double, the late play, the play that led to
the the Devin Vessel steel and the transition dunk. Really smart double team that doubled two Jokicic's right shoulder, and they had one. And this is some of the reality of when Aaron Gordon's out and you're closing with Russell Westbrook, you don't have your spacing principles that you've had literally for the last five years or not quite five years, but for the last you know, very long time. And so as a result, the Spurs were able to kind of effectively double Jokic out of post ups in the
last few possessions without any trouble. So Jokic had no choice when the double came on the final possession, he had to turn over his left shoulder. Double's coming at his right shoulder, has to turn over his left shoulder. Wemby immediately identifies it and just sells out to that left shoulder move ends up getting that steal on Nicole Jokic, which leads to the runout. Just a monster game from Wemby.
I thought he showed some growth as a passer. I know, you see the turnovers, and yeah, he needs to turn. He needs to stop turning the ball over too much. Reminds me of KD where like when he was younger, where like he's just so far off the ground that every time he's dribbling, the ball's exposed. And then he's got such long arms that the ball's always exposed because how far the ball is away from his body. Some of that is just the reality, but he'll get better
at that in the long run. I still thought late in the game he was getting rid of the ball quickly against doubles, which was leading to good shots. They were getting good stuff out of wemby drawing double teams and just quickly getting rid of the ball. The Julian Champagnee three on the left wing or left corner. Victor draws a double team. Jokic is the double Victor gets rid of the ball to Chris Paul. Jokic rotates back
down to the paint. Chris Paul just rifles a pass to Julian Champagnee in the left corner, who caught Jokic sleeping, and he knocks down the three. That was something that came out of the positive effect of Wenby drawing a double team, He's just playing at an insanely high level, and that really was the big thing. I was texting
my buddy dumb On about this last night. I don't think since Lebron we've had a player that has been more of a sure thing to be a at least five years as the best player in the world than Victor woman Yama. Since Lebron, we haven't had a guy like that, And I don't think there's a safer bet in all the players that we've looked at since then. There's this combination of talent which is obviously freaky. You know, Jokic just makes it look so easy against everyone else.
And by the way, Yokic still made it look easy against Wemby a few times last night where he just pump fakes a little bit, gets Wenby off his feet and leans back a little bit, knocks down a bank shot or just that drop step into his left shoulder where he can just dislodge Wemby and get to where he needs to go. There were times where he made it easy, but there were times where Wenby won that battle. And he's got the talent to smother a player that
seemingly seems unsmotherable. Right in Nikole Jokic, he has the talent, Like, you know, it's crazy. I was actually thinking last night. I remember when I watched the first Victor wemen Yama game that I watched, which was that the exhibition game against Scoot Henderson, the two games that they played that were on ESPN, and I remember the first thing that stood out to me. Those of you guys who were following the show at that point, we'll remember this. I
was like, this is a movement shooter. Like everyone was talking about him as like the next grade center in the league, and I was like, watching that game, I'm like, this is a movement shooter. This is a guy who's very comfortable stepping both directions, like right footwork going right right, left footwork going left off, the move off the dribble, turning over each shoulder. Like this was a guy who very clearly was headed on a trajectory of being an
advanced shot maker. Now we're watching him like getting NBA teams to triple team him thirty plus feet from the basket. The talent is obviously there, but then you combine it with the fact that he has that like competitive obstinence that all the grades have had, that like like, oh yeah, they beat us, but they're not better than us. That oh yeah, none of these guys work hard enough. I'm
better than these guys. Even last night, just like putting his hand on Russell Westbrook's shoulder and kind of like talking down to him a little bit. There's just a audaciousness with Victor Weminyam, that competitive fierceness that combined with his talent makes him a sure thing. And then the big concern with all tall guys's injuries and I don't want to like we want to knock on wood here. I don't want to sit here and pretend like he's
incapable of getting hurt. But this is a guy who spends an enormous amount of time on pliability and stretching and prepping his body for this. It is obsessive work ethic, obsessive competitiveness, and insane natural ability. It makes him the surest thing to be the best player in the world for a long time, Like it feels a certainty that he will win multiple MVPs. It feels a certainty that he will be the undisputed best player in the world for a five to ten year stretch. And it's because
of the combination of all those factors. We've seen a lot of guys in the league that have all of the talent, all of the work ethic, but don't seem to have the personality. We've seen all the guys. We've seen guys that have the personality, have the talent, but don't have the work ethic. We've seen combinations of those.
It's exceptionally rare to have a player that has transcendently great talent, transcendently great competitiveness, and a transcendently great work ethic, and it just makes him a sure thing to be a truly dominant player in NBA history, and I'm excited to see what he can do. Other Spurs. I wanted to shout out Julian Champagne had fifteen points. He's one of their most trustworthy catch and shoot guys, so he's been getting a lot of like big late game opportunities.
Hit that huge corner. Three also had a big play where he met Jamal Murray at the rim late on a play coming off of a screening actional he forced him into a big miss. Really solid role player. Minutes from Julian Champagne, Chris Paul too, so many big plays hit that huge pull up three over Jokich late, he
had that pass to Champagne, which was genius. Just caught Jokic sleeping like jokicch as soon as he got out of the double, he just relaxed for a second and just sat in the paint for a second, and Chris Paul made him paid for it. That late blowby of Russell Westbrook, which you want to be like, Okay, what's up with all these blowbuys that Russell Westbrook's giving up in late game situations, But very old Chris Paul just toasted Russell Westbrook one on one off the dribble for
a scoop shot late. That was a huge bucket in that game. Having competent ball handling next to victim women Yam has made such a huge difference this year. And then Devin Vessel he had that runout dunk late obviously had this beautiful driving dunk late off of this nasty hesitation dribble against nicolea Jokic in a switch. But I was really impressed by his off ball defense in this one. He's got really good size and quickness and he can cover some ground in rotation. He had a couple plays
where he was chasing multiple shooters off the line. He cares, he makes the effort, and specifically his combination of length and effort and athleticism made him an interesting groundcoverage option late in that game, which I thought was an interesting kind of like thing to keep an eye on in terms of the Spurs and the big picture and how to use Devin Vassel as an off ball defender on the Denver front. So Jokic goes for forty one eighteen to nine, and yeah, winby won some battles, but Yokic
won some battles too. There were three or four times in this game where Yokic scored on him one on one and made it look easy, which was obviously fun to watch it, and that's an unbelievable box score. The main frustrating thing for me with Denver watching that game was just their defense, just several sloppy mistakes late, like Jokics, like I talked about, lingering in the paint for too long when Julian Champagne was wide open in the corner.
There was a random play towards the middle of the fourth quarter where like Zach Collins just took Yokich one on one and just busted his ass with a drop set and hit a little bank shot, And I'm like, dude, you got like you gotta stop Zach Collins there, right, And it's not even like Wenby or it's not even like Jokic can. Of course he can't, or of course he can. He just he was falling asleep. He's falling making mistakes in those situations. And I understand there's fatigue,
he's taking thirty plus shots, he's tired. There's a lot into it, but like he just has to do better. And then like that drive that Russell Westbrook gave up again, Like like that's multiple times this year where it's a late game situation and Russ is like opening up his stance and just letting good a guy go right around him, like Chris Paul like no resistance, just went right around Russell Westbrook. There. They've got to find a way to defend at a higher level. That's been the biggest thing
to keep an eye on with them this year. And then san Antonio was able to double the ball out of Yokic's hand a few times without getting without giving up an advantage, especially late in the game, and again part of that's the deal when you're closing with Russ instead of Aaron Gordon. But I thought that that was just something to keep an eye on. I said this last night about Contenders. Is the last thing I'll say about Denver Boston kind of trying to trick us into
thinking they're bad. I think they're just tricking us. I still think Boston is the favorite. Like, mixed in with all of these bad losses that they've had have been these incredibly dominant wins. So it's clear that like even though they're having a lot of nights where they're relaxing, they just lock in and they get the job done. Which makes you feel like even if you were to take an early playoff series lead against them, that they would be able to just kind of engage themselves and
get to the level they need to get to. But at least Boston's at least trying to trick us into thinking things are more wide open. And as a result, they've been all these peaks, right like Milwaukee and what they did to Oklahoma City and the n Season Tournament and everything they did during that massive win streak that they had that was like a really interesting peak. As a contender Oklahoma City and the run that they're on
right now. The Knicks have had a couple stretches this year where they've looked really, really good years, winning at a seventy two win pace. Right, Like, all of these teams are like lining up Denvers or Dallas as a team that, like, even though they haven't really had a peak because of injuries, it's a roster that I feel
pretty strongly about. Everything feels pretty open. It's again, I think it's a little bit of fools goal because I think Boston's clearly better, but like there's everything feels open, and Denver's one of those teams that, like, I can't count out because I know Jokic is capable of doing things that no one else in this league is capable of.
But it's a little concerning that they haven't had that stretch yet where they put together, you know, ten to fifteen games where they just look like that type of excellent basketball team. And I'm hoping, I'm hoping that we see that from them at some point here soon, because it feels like they're due for that type of stretch. All right. Before we get out here, we'll talk a
little bit of Lakers. So Lakers go back to back, they go to and Zho, they beat a bad Portland team, and then they controlled a pretty good Atlanta Hawks team last night. They are now seven to two in their last nine games, seventh in offense, twelfth in defense, eighth in net rating over the course of this nine game span. I want to talk about the offense for a minute.
So obviously there's seventh in offense during the stretch. They're also tenth in offense since losing d Lo, which was a major concern, right and again, when you go that direction, when you go towards defensive personnel as a team, they've gone towards a defensive focus. I was concerned about their offense being able to stay afloat, but it's been pretty
solid so far. And the main thing is when when Delo went out, it just put a lot of pressure on Austin Reeves and Lebron James to be their primary shot creators, and those two guys have just been absolutely crushing it. Look at these numbers Lebron's last six games again, forty year old Lebron James last six games thirty points, five rebounds and eight assists fifty eight percent from the field forty six percent from three to eighty eight percent
from the line. That's that's insane. Just two point seven turnovers too, Like member focus was the big thing that he was having a problem with in that bad stretch that he was having. Just turning the ball over just seemed like he wasn't really paying attention. He's been so locked in and so good since he came back from that little break that he took. And again, fifty eight forty six, eighty eight splits on thirty five and eight. That's like top five player in the world type of
production from Lebron James. Those are the types of numbers that Lebron was putting up post All Star Break last year. That's when I was screaming from the mountaintops, like Lebron's playing at a top five level, Like is anybody skiing this? And again, those two guys, Lebron and Nadi were monsters against Denver. Just wasn't enough because of the issues with their supporting cast. But like this, this is the kind of thing that if Lebron can sustain, this team has
an upside that I think we need to recalculate. This is the player that we didn't get over the course of the beginning stretch of the season. Again, it's only six games, so I'm not about to say that this is like feels like a dependable thing at this point. But Lebron seems to be getting his legs underneath him and he's playing some really special basketball over the course of this stretch. Austin Reeves last ten games twenty one points,
seven rebounds, and eight assists. He's now averaging eighteen point three points per game this season, four point six rebounds and five point nine assists. There are only fourteen players in the entire league that are hitting those numbers eighteen point three, four point six and five point nine, Like that's the type of production that Austin's giving you. And then what like twenty one to seven to eight in the last ten games, some absolutely monster games, a triple
double like Austin is hooping his ass off. And so since Lebron, James and Austin Reeves have been playing this well on offense, it has allowed Anthony Davis to refocus his energy as a defense first player, and as a result, he's back to playing some of the most special defense that he's played over the course of this season. He had another six stock game last night, six steals in blocks. He's averaging four stocks per game over his last ten.
The Lakers have a one hundred and six defensive rating with Anthony Davis on the floor over that stretch, so as a result, you're getting defensive Player of the Year type of play from Anthony Davis, extremely high level offense from Lebron. Lebron and Austin are basically giving you fifty plus points and sixteen plus assists hyper efficiently over the
course of this stretch. As a result of that, it is creating these small achievable roles for everyone else, and several guys have started to play really well Max Christy, including what he's doing on the defensive end. He's averaging twelve points a game over the seven and two stretch, fifty one percent from the field, forty five percent from three excuse me, ninety three percent from the foul line.
That's really really good. He's doing a lot of work on inverted ball screen screening for Lebron and slipping out of it. He had another dunk last night where he post as a dude with two hands. He's so good at like quickly bouncing off the floor, regardless of the you know, the the regardless of the footwork that feeds into it. He could just pop up off the ground off of two feet and dunk on anybody. He's playing really good basketball. Dalton only broke out of his slip
last night. Joan Finney Smith, he's you know, he hit a three last night. He's not quite hitting shots at the level that you would hope for as a Lakers fan yet, but just having a guy out there that's a good defensive player, that seems to know what he's supposed to do offensively and as a guy that's guarded as a shooter is already revealing itself as a huge value add to this team. He's closed the last couple of games, which I think is interesting as Rui's kind
of been struggling a little bit. I'll say, I don't know if it was the embarrassment, I don't know if it was something else, but the Lakers have been playing the most consistent stretch of serious basketball I've seen them play in the first half of a season since they were fighting through those injuries in the Western Conference Finals season last year. It was a lot of like just chillin' until it got desperate and then they locked in and they played really good every night for a long time.
But like that last year it was or the year before that, the year they made it to the Western Conference Finals, they were doing that earlier in the season, but it was because of injuries. Lebron was out for a while, Anthony Davis was out for a while, you knew a trade was on the and those guys were fighting every night just to stay afloat in the standings. This is like, they're in a good spot in the standings.
They have the fourth best record in the Western Conference, they have the seventh best record in the league, and they're just staying focused and I think that is encouraging. It's way too small of a sample size to take them seriously, but it is absolutely a positive trend for this team. I was listening to JJ Redick's postgame presser last night and he said a lot of things that were really interesting to me. First of all, heavy emphasis on game plan discipline. He was bitching about the boy
the Bogdn mcdonovic slip it slips. So we were talking about this earlier with Hedgen Recover. As it pertains to guys like Jalen Brunson with the Knicks, right, But like what they do is they have Brogden just excuse me, Bogden Mcgdanovic run into pretend like he's screening for Trey and then he'll just sprint, pass or run to the three point line. The idea there is you hope they confuse like are about to switch, and then in that interchange Bogdanovitch has a chance to sprint and get open.
And JJ Reddick went to his guys before the game and was like, the last five times to Bogdan Bogdanovic has played. Every single time he's run up to set that ghost screen on Trey Young, he hasn't set the screen,
He's just run past. So as a game plan, just stay attached the on ball guy doesn't need to do anything the guy who's running up with the screen or tell him, you know, whatever their identifier was, if they say ghost or stay home or whatever it is, they yelled that identify her out and they just sprint and they stay. Guys not open. Right in the first half, they were fucking that coverage up time and time again.
JJ Redick was super pissed about it. JJ Reddick was super pissed about some of their basic game plan discipline stuff. He's calling dudes out in press conferences. Max Chrissy, I didn't like your shift the other night, Dori Infinney Smith, I didn't think you did a good job defensively in the first half. He's calling dudes out, he's holding him accountable. He's understanding the importance of the game plan. He had
a speech. He goes to the guys and he goes, he goes, you know why we why we need you guys to pay attention to this game plan, because I don't want to coach a good team. I want to coach a great team. JJ is appealing to their pride. He's appealing to their pride, and he's holding them accountable as part of a goal to play real basketball. And the part, the last thing I'll say about it, and the thing that stood out to me the most was
his comment about playing pickup versus serious basketball. And he was talking about the Hawks, and he was talking about the Kings and some of these teams that play up and down in transition. They're teams that defend and weaponize their athletes in the open floor, and they just kind of play off of the advantages that that creates, right, And one of the things that JJ said is like, if we play that type of game, if we play a pickup game with these guys, we're gonna lose. Why
we're not as athletic or not. We don't have like a bunch of dudes that can just like thrive in that type of setting. And so what JJ said is like, we have to play serious basketball. What does that mean? That means we do have to get back in transition every single time when we get into the half court, we have to be organized, meaning like we got to run action. We have to set good screens. We have to sell every part of the play, every cut, every screen,
every fake, every relocation. Everything has to be a sprint. Everything has to be a good, solid screen. Everything has to be executed for this team to get to where they want to go. This is something that I've been screaming about from the mountaintops forever. JJ kept emphasizing in the postgame presser habits, establishing habits. Why Because when you get into a big spot against a great team in a late playoff series, everyone on the floor is good,
all the players are good. You know what ends up being a big determining factor over the course of the hundreds of possessions that take place in a playoff series. How often do you not do your job? How often do you give up a wide open something because you're not sharp, because you don't have good habits compared to the other team. If they have an advantage there against you on that front, it's a problem. And as JJ's pointed out, he kept saying, this Western Conference is really good. Everybody,
they can beat everybody. He's right. I've been saying for the last couple of days, this conference is wide open because Oklahoma City can go so cold as perimeter jumpshooters. This conference is wide open. And the Lakers are not the most talented team in the conference. So if they're going to win, if they have a real goal, if the guys in that locker room really want to hoist I Larry O'Brien Trophy, it starts now, or more appropriately, in the Portland Trailblazers game, when they started to turn
the season around. It started then, and it has to go to mid April. That doesn't mean it has to be perfect. You can have a bad night here there. It's like I talked about what concerned me early on is weeks. You go two and five in a seven game stretch and then quit in against Miami. I had a many comments like, why are you so much more forgiving of Golden State than the Lakers. You guys are missing the point. I think the Lakers have more talent
on the roster right now than Golden State. Golden State is a more serious basketball team, or at least they were over the course of the entire season. They have overachieved relative to their talent. The Lakers help. They should probably be a couple games better than they are right now when you look at the games they've blown. I am talking about the overall effort and focus. Golden State doesn't have that issue. They have a talent issue. If they address the talent issue in the trade market, they
have a chance to go on a run. It's a slim chance, sure, but it's a chance for the Lakers. They have the talent. They also could use some more talent, but they have more talent. They in the early part of the season. They won those first three games, and they were in chill mode for the next month. That's not how you play championship basketball. That's not how you
establish those habits. This Lakers team has to be so sharp that they keep every game close against the best teams at the top of the league, so that maybe, just maybe the thing that won you would chip Lebron James and Anthony Davis with the shot creation of Austin Reeves can squeeze out a little bit more than the other team and you can advance. But they are not
going to overcome execution errs. Lebron James, Anthony Davis and Austin Reeves are not going to be able to outplay Luca and Kyrie, Jada Shay and chet of like Yo Kitchen Murray, these guys at the top of the West. They're not going to be able to outplay them enough to make up for a bunch of executioners. The only pathway for them is attack the regular season and become the sharpest team that they could possibly be. That's what
JJ is preaching. It's up to the players to stick with it and to build that identity out over the remainder of this season. I think Rob Polinka, by supporting them with Dorian Phinney Smith, has provided them with a little bit more belief. I think he needs to further that by continuing to anchor this. I've seen a lot of people talk about, like, oh, you don't want to trade make a trade that takes Max out of the
starting lineup. I'm not necessarily saying that you need to take Max out of the starting lineup, but I would like to have another option for a veteran guy there in case you get to a playoff series in Max Pee's down his leg and you need to have somebody that you can go to at that two spot. But like, that's the type of move that I still think the Lakers should make at the deadline, Just something preferably to turn Ruie into a starting caliber two guard that doesn't
necessarily need to start. If you want to invest in Max and give them all the starting reps and all that kind of stuff. But if it's a close game late and Max isn't the guy, you need to have an option, a starting caliber two that you can go into that spot. If you bring in that talent, if you make another talent play, if you're Rob Polinka, you will further incentivize Lebron James Anthony Davis to stay bought in by virtue of them believing that there's an opportunity
here to get this thing done. Excellent stretch from the Lakers to get back on track. Confusing ass basketball team. I can't believe this is the same group that did what they did in Miami. But it's not about ten games, it's about eighty two. Got a lot of work to go to get to where they want to go. All right, guys, It's all I have for today is always a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
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