Hoops Tonight - NBA Reaction: LeBron, Luka & Lakers take L + Suns, Celtics & Shai’s Thunder cruise

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to hoop tonight here as the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody, Oh balf, you guys are having a great week. We're hitting three games from last night as the Boston Celtics get their seventh win and eight tries against the San

Antonio Spurs. After that, the Miami Heat are up ten in their early fourth quarter in the Oklahoma City Thunder demonstrate their upside with a dombin It twenty four to zero run to start that quarter, and then after that the Luka Doncics Lakers suffered their first loss on the road in Utah, a game that mostly just came down to a lackadaisical likers effort, but I did think kind of mixed in there were some good examples of the weaknesses of this new likers group, so I want to

take some time to really get into those at the tail end of the show. You guys have the drip before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore JCNLTC. You guys, don't miss announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you's your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful for you

leave a rating and a review on that front. Don't forget about our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year. The last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so that we can get to them in our Friday mail bag tomorrow, All right, let's talk some basketball. So I thought Jason Tatum just completely dominated the first

quarter of that's game. Set the tone, built that initial advantage, and there was something that the Spurs just couldn't overcome. On the defensive end of the floor. Boston had a switching group out there that was just doing a really

nice job just staying attacked, shutting down screening actions. Switching puts an emphasis on running action, good action that confuses switching, like three man action, lots of ball in player movement to try to get guys to make mistakes, and then when teams successfully switch, you've got to be aggressive against those switches getting to the basket to get super high value shots or to draw multiple defenders. You can run into a trap where you start settling, and that was

what happened in that first quarter. There was a few examples of good action. There was like a little Chicago action like a downscreen into a dribble handoff where they pitched it back to Julian Champagnee on the right wing and knocked down a three. There were a couple examples like that, but it was a lot of like Daron Fox contested pull up jump shots, Victor Wim Benyama contested pull up jump shots. They weren't doing a very good

job of attacking the switching. And then on the other end of the floor in the first quarter, Jason Tatum goes for fourteen points, six rebounds and three assists with zero turnovers. Did a ton of scoring in that short to mid range, attacking the spurs smaller players when they'd get switched onto him mismatches. There was a stretch in the late first quarter where they started spamming a stack, pick and roll action with Luke Cornette and Peyton Pritchard.

Just a ball screen with Tatum and Cornette with Pritchard backscreening generated a wide open three for Pritchard at the top of the key that he happened to miss. He ended up hitting a pull up three on the right wing when they botched a switch again. Three man action is a great way to get teams to botch switches, and Victor Wenbinyamo was basically just sticking with the screen the guy who was backscreening him in the action instead of dealing with Tatum coming off of that screen. He

just stepped into it. Knocked down at three. He finished the quarter off with a beautiful driving kick like sweeping hook pass over to the left wing to al hor Tatum just immediately looked like by far, the best player on the floor in a game that had two players that are considered top twenty five players in the league in my opinion, in deer Fox and Deeran Fox and Victor Weinbinyama, and Tatum was just completely outclassing them to start the game. And this is just the groove that

Jason Tatum's in right now. During this three game winning streak, He's averaging thirty five points per game on sixty one percent true shooting. I thought Porzingis was the catalyst of the early second group, the early second quarter group that had some success. They pushed the lead all the way up to twenty three points. He was just running the floor in transition. He had a play where he beat everyone down the floor for a Dunky had another play where he ran his lane and transition on the right

wing and hit a three. Throughout the entire first half, he was doing a great job of posting switches the same way that Jason Tatum was getting short range efficient shots. And then his rim protection was great. This is a Spurs team that can struggle with driving kick decisions, and so if you get Porzingis parked underneath the basket, he can do some real damage to a team that can struggle to be surgical in the half court. The Celtics really controlled the game throughout. They led by twenty ish

for most of the first half. The Spurs did cut it down to eight in the early fourth quarter, but then the Celtics immediately regained control. Chrisops Porzingis hit a three, Peyton Pritchard hit a three, Sam Hauser hit a three, or excuse me, Sam Howser got fouled on a runout May two free throws. They had a couple of really good defensive possessions mixed in there, and then all of a sudden, their back up sixteen in the game's basically over.

The Celtics seem to have regained their footing, though they have won seven out of eight after a really uneven couple of months there. They're seventh in offense in that span, third in defense in that span, and that's despite a bunch of guys being out of the lineup. Jalen Brown has missed two games in that stretched chrisops Porzingis has missed a game, Drew Hollidays missed four games in that span. At Horford's missed a game, but a couple of guys

stepping up. Jason Tatum has just been consistently great. I've seen a lot of talk about I've seen a lot of talk of late about like a Celtics fans calling Jason Tatum the best four since Lebron And when I when I first heard that, I had this like kind of reflex that came up in me that it was like, well,

what about Kawhi And like what about Kevin Durant? And I think Kevin Durant would be the guy that I'd probably still put over Tatum in the sense that, like, in that like twenty eighteen to twenty twenty one stretch, he was just like and that's like spanning with an achilles injury in the middle, but in that like I should say, like twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one stretch, he was just so incredibly good on both ends of

the floor. I'm not quite there, but I do think he's been better than Kawhi if you like piece everything together, because like what Tatum is to me is he's a Swiss Army knife type of forward in the same vein as a as a Lebron James. So, for instance, like Kevin Durant has a lot of impact, I think Kevin Durant has arguably just as good of an impact on the defensive end in terms of his ability to protect

the rim, defensive rebound, switch out onto the perimeter. But Kevin Durant has a little bit of a susceptibility to size and strength. We saw that in the Memphis game two nights ago when Jared Jackson was able to just kind of toss Katie around at certain times and he got two easy buckets on him in the post late in the game, or an easy bucket and a foul late in the game, where I think Tatum's a little

bit sturdier for that type of matchup. But I think Katie also is a little bit longer, a little bit better rimp protector, So like the two of them are more or less even on the defensive end of the floor. But I do think that Tatum has a certain Swiss Army knife quality in terms of just his ability to keep the ball moving, his playmaking ability. Jason Tatum has

become a really, really gifted playmaker in this league. And so we can debate whether or not Tatum has reached a level that's higher than Kawhi or higher than Katie. I'm hesitant to go that far, but what I will say is that Tatum is becoming the Swiss Army Knife of this generation, which is what Lebron was in his generation. It's a type of player that I'm drawn to because I think it demonstrates a first of all, a versatility,

but also just to admit to winning. There's a lot of stuff in there that guys aren't willing to do. A simple example is like, as good as Kevin Durant has been defensively, I think he's kind of underachieved on that end over the course of his career, whereas Tatum, you can tell, is maximizing his potential on that end of the floor. I think it's just a testament to the type of leader he is, the type of competitor

that he is. Again, a lot of times we see guys like that that are a little bit more mellow and not as like loud and boisterous with their personality, and we or even guys that are boysterous that are but that are positive. We think of them as like

not competitors because they're not Kobe Bryant type assholes. And the truth of the matter is is like the work that Jason Tatum does is a pretty clear demonstration of the type of competitor that he is, and he stepped up big time over the course of this recent stretch. Derek White is finally shooting the ball better again. They've

been getting key contributions. Al Horford was talking about this the other day in an interview, But Luke Cornett has been so good as of late, getting those backup center minutes, protecting the rim, just being in the right spot all the time. I'm doing his job in ballscreen actions on offense, Sam Hauser is back to shooting the ball really well. After a rough start to the season. Things are rounding out for this Celtics group finally, after an uneven middle

portion of the season. Every single time I watched San Antonio play, their youth and inexperience still just like screams off of the screen, like I'm watching early in the game, and like Jeremy Sohan drives into the lane and Porzingis is right there at the rim and Harrison Barnes is just standing completely unguarded in the right corner, and instead of just making that simple kickout pass to a guy that's one of the best three point shooters in the

league this year, he tries to force his way through Porzingis at the rim and misses, or like Steph Castle, takes a wide open three at the top of the key. This is in the early second quarter stretch. Like wide open three at the top of the key. He's at the top of the key. When you are at the top of the key, your job as a guard is as soon as the shot goes up, you're back in

transition defense. Remember first two jobs in transition defense are stop the ball and get to the basket right And like literally takes the three to the top of the key, Porzingis just runs right by him as Steph Castle's just in a light little back pedal going back and Porzingis gets a dunk, like or even Victor Webbinyama just taking really tough mid range jump shots early in the clock

when he can get that same shot later in the clock. Honestly, right now, I hate about half of the shots Wenby takes, Like right after that leak out dunk that krisops Porzingis got that put Boston up twenty. They were up twenty, so like you need a good shot to like reset things and get control of the game. In Victor Webinyama, with nineteen seconds on the shot clock, takes a completely smothered step back three against Al Horford, the one that

has like absolutely no chance of going in. Now. To be clear, I'm choosing to view that as more of a positive thing, just simply because most young basketball players struggle with shots selection, especially ones that have a great skill talent, because they trust their skill in a way that it's like, oh, I can get to this shot whenever I want, so why don't I just take it when there should be a little bit more deliberate process. And that deliberate process comes as you get more experience

as a basketball player. So I'm not particularly worried about it, but there is some reality to the fact that this team is really young. They've got a lot of young players that still make a lot of mistakes, and it just goes to show you that this is not a this year type of goal. This is a multi year journey to try to figure out how to win with this group, which takes me to the big thing I wanted to get into with the Spurs today, which is the reality of what it's going to take for dieron

Fox and Victor Wemenyama to beat teams that switch. Okay, so they ran into a switching look today. We've talked a lot in recent weeks about how the pick and pop works. Right in a pick and pop action, any sort of traditional coverage where you use the screen defender to contain the ball handler either in a deeper drop

or up at the level. Anytime you do that, Victor Wemenyama is going to be wide open, popping to the three point line and whatever they run teams with traditional coverages, they're going to get a lot of great stuff because every possession that has Victor Wei Minyama standing at the top of the key unguarded with like sixteen seventeen seconds left on the shot clock is probably going to end

in a good shot for your team. Right. But again, when we talk about the ultimate goal of winning an NBA championship, you've got to win four playoff rounds in two months, meaning you've got to be four excellent teams that are probably going to be very different. You're probably gonna have to go on the road at least one like in have to win a must win game on the road. At various points. There are going to be

challenges you face along the way. It's inevitable that in that journey the Spurs are going to run into a team that can switch that screen, meaning they're going to have Boston's a great example having a set of players where they feel comfortable with the guy who's guarding Wemby also guarding Fox, and the guy who's guarding Fox also

guarding Wemby. So like again, I was talking about the big picture goal over the next few years of the Spurs rounding out their young talent, getting the experience they need, improving their decision making, getting to where they need to win multiple playoff rounds. Part of that journey is going to be deeron Fox and Victor Weman yam up beating

a switching look. So one of the things that bothered me watching that game last night was Fox and Wemby attacking those switches, just taking bad jump shots early in the game. I've talked a lot about this as it pertains to the Celtics during the times that they've struggled this year. When you are matchup hunting against switches, there is an important order of operations you need your attackers to do in those situations, Right, you have to generate a shot in one on one that is so valuable

that it's untenable for the defense. So if you go out there and you shoot forty seven eight percent on mid range jump shots, which by the way, deeron Fox can do, like the team that's guarding that shot isn't going to overreact to it. Why because, like, for instance, Aaron Fox hit two contested mid range jump shots against against ISOs or against switches early in that game. But from the Celtics standpoint, it's like that's a shot that's

gonna be worth less than one point per attempt. Same thing goes for Victor Wembinyama in the mid range, right, So as soon as you do that, you're making Boston's coverage worth it. As Boston is sitting in their locker room talking about the game plan, they're thinking to themselves, if we can switch all these actions and shut down the picking pop, we can probably bait deeron Fox into Victor Wembenyama into taking contested jump shots that they're not

gonna make enough of to beat us. That's the game plan, and so as soon as you start doing that, you're playing directly into their hands. So how do you flip the script on that? Deeron Fox against bigger players needs to get dribble penetration and get into the short range where he's much more efficient on those short range floaters, stuff right at the basket, getting to the foul line. Victor Wembinyama, same sort of thing has to get too,

looks that are closer to the basket. Once you start getting into the one point one points per attempt one point two points per tempt again, those are like one to twenty offensive rating. That's where it gets untenable for the defense. Once it gets untenable for the defense, then

they will start sending additional defenders. If dearon Fox starts toasting that guy off to dribble and getting dribble penetration and spraying the ball out, now you're getting the defense in rotation, you're gonna get a lot of great shots. If Victor webbin Yama starts drawing double teams because he's doing a lot of damage closer to the rim. Now you're spraying the ball out. Now you're getting great shots.

Now you're accomplishing the same thing that you accomplish in a pick and pop. When you get Victor Wembin Yama standing completely unguarded out above the break, that's the ultimate goal. When you're attacking a switching defense, you need to get the defense into rotation. If you attack a switching defense just playing one on one all night, it's going to be a problem. You have to get so successful in those one on one situations that the defense starts reacting

and you get them into rotation. Again, we talked about action early. You want to run three man action. You want to try to force as many mistakes as possible to generate good looks. But inevitably you're going to run into an elite, well coached, well disciplined defense that can switch to dearon Fox Victor women Yama pick and pop, and in that situation, it's going to be on Fox and Wemby to beat it with aggression that is untenable for the defense instead of passively settling for jump shots

that can get them into trouble. Just something to keep an eye on with the development of that duo over the course of the next few years. All right, Moving on to Heat Thunder. Heat defense was giving Oklahoma City a lot of issues early in this game. Andrew Wiggins and Davion Mitchell just for putting up a bunch of good ISO reps on Schegos Alexander forcing him into tough jumpers that line up with Bam and kell al Ware too. They can really protect the rim well and think we're

awesome on offense. To start this game, Miami scored twenty two points in the first six minutes. Bam had a boy, I was cooking Isaiah Hartenstein in one on one situations. He dunked all over his head on a baseline drive. Tyler Harrow had it going, had his floater going early in the game. They were getting runouts off their transition defense really good early in the game. I also thought the Heat were doing a great job of generating paint

touches against Oklahoma Cities switching by slipping out of screens. Again, that's another example that we were talking just a minute ago about how to beat switching. A great example is like just run up the screen and slip out of it as quick as you can, and you might be able to get little angles for over the top passes that generate four on threes without you having to beat somebody off off the dribble right. So the Heat ended

up going up by ten. They kind of hung around that area until about the middle second quarter, and then they go on another run in the middle second quarter and they end up going up by twenty one points. They had to switch everything group out there with Bam at center. Continued defending really well. The Heat defended really well for the most part in this game. Andrew Wiggins got going a little bit. He had a movement jumper going to the left, he scored out of the post.

Pella Larson hit a couple of huge threes. They just got going offensively. They ended up getting a bucket off of a Nikola Yovich back back door cut out of a Harrow Bam two man game where Bam slipped out of it four on three drop off to Yovich. Jovich lays it up twenty one point lead. So looking like they're in complete control of the game down in Oklahoma City. The comeback started in the late second quarter with a little three point shooting burst as Jalen Williams excuse me,

lou Dort and Shake Gosounder Alexander each make threes. Before the end of the half, they cut it back to eleven, which again is just a much more achievable type of thing for them to overcome. In the second half. They go back and forth throughout the third quarter, and that's where we end up with this fourth quarter run. So it's ninety three to eighty three heater up to start the fourth quarter and Oklahoma City goes on a twenty four to zero run over the next five and a

half minutes. I want to zoom in on the defensive end because I've been really talking about this idea of like, what does your basketball team present that's an unsolvable problem, something that like every team in the league is going to struggle with to a certain extent. Now here's the thing. The thunder were great on offense in that stretch. The thunderscored twenty four points in five and a half minutes.

It was a complete explosion. Shay was unbelievable, was hitting a ton of big shots, he was getting doubled a lot, and guys were hitting threes off of it. But we know Oklahoma City's offense is a bit streaky. It's a bit prone to cold spells. That's how they ended up down twenty to begin with, struggling against Miami switching like their offense has a little bit of a like a kind of a ricketiness to it, if that makes sense.

Their defense is their ace in the hole, that is their reliably great punch that there isn't much of an answer for from any team in the league. I thought it started with lou Dort in the early fourth quarter. Lou Dort just decided enough was enough with Tyler Harrow.

He ratcheted up ball pressure and got super physical with him and Tyler like straight up peede down his leg, like he couldn't even dribble within five feet of lou Dort without Dort either just taking the ball away from him him dribbling the ball out of bounds, or getting into trouble and just throwing the ball away to somebody else on Oakley, Oklahoma City in a passing lane like lou Dort is just one of the apex perimeter defenders in this league. He gives the very best offensive players

in this league issues, even guys like Luka Doncic. But Tyler Harrow is basically food to a guy like lou Dort, and he just annihilated him to start the fourth quarter, cut the head off the snake. The other two guys that were super dominant in that stretch defensively Kenrich Williams and jay Lynn Williams. Jay Will off the bench backup center, a couple of bench guys who came in and defended extremely well. Jay Will was protecting the hell out of

the rim, excellent rotations time and time again. Had a big block on a Andrew Wiggins pull up three against a switch, and then Kenrich Williams just erased Andrew Wiggins physical absorbing contact, disrupting Wiggins's base and making him playoff balance, which makes his short range shot making less effective. And the Thunder just took a Miami offense that was lighting them up for three quarters and just put them in an ice crip. And they were completely helpless. And it

wasn't like they were just missing open shots. They couldn't get anything decent. And even on the catch and shoot looks they got, they were rushed. They barely made it to the rim. They chewed up and spit out that Miami heat offense in that fourth quarter, And that's really the exciting part even dating back to the Dallas series last year, the way they almost won that series was with their ability to truly make Luca uncomfortable and to

go on these massive defensive runs. I thought last night was one of those regular season moments that you'll look back at as kind of like a defining moment of this Thunder team if they ever do get the trophy. They have become a truly dominant defense. The Thunder are four point one points better per one hundred possessions and defensive rating than anyone in the league. This season. The gap between the Thunder and the second best defense is the same as the gap between the second best defense

and the eleventh best defense. And that's with chet Holmgan playing twelve games this year, seven wins in a row for the Oklahoma City Thunder playing some really special basketball right now. You know, I remember for you Thunder fans, like I remember when I was rooting for the Lakers in twenty twenty, the year that they won the title and even the year after that, the defining characteristic of that team was defensive runs. They just about a dozen

times in the regular season. You just see them, whether it was against like who, regardless of who was against where they just be like, Hey, we're gonna lock in on defense now and this team's just not gonna score and then we're gonna win. And I get very similar vibes from this Oklahoma City defense this season. All right, let's talk about the Lakers losing in Utah first and foremost,

no reason to overreact to this at all. One, they just beat the living shit out of the same group of NBA players two nights ago, and they were clearly nowhere near as engaged. I was exacerbated by the fact that they were without two of their most important energy guys and gave Vincent and Dorian Finney Smith two It's like the famous last game before a long break. I shared the story on Twitter this morning. But I remember my last year in college. I was playing Anaia up

in Phoenix at Arizona Christian University. We at various points in the season were top five in the nation. We were one of the best Anaia teams in the country. We started the year twelve and zero and we even beat a Division One. Like a Division one team scheduled US as a team in the Big Sky Conference called Northern Arizona University scheduled US for like a tune up game, and we just went into their house and handled them like wire to wire, just controlled the game from start

to finish. We were really good at Anaia. Team an Aia was weird because, like the age rules are different, so we like had like a twenty nine year old point guard and a thirty one year old shooting guard. I was like one of the younger guys on the team at twenty two. At that point, we were just stacked with talent relative to the college level, and we were really good team. But we had a break at winter, like for the holidays, and it was like, you know,

an eight or nine day break. And the week before we went on the break, we had four games in a single week, and in that week we had to play two top five teams or two top ten teams if I remember correctly, in the country, and like we beat We start the week three and zero and we beat both of the top ten teams, and so we're twelve and oh and everything looks great, and we have a game on a Friday. I'm trying to remember. I think it was called Great Falls. I think it was

Great Falls was the name of the school. But we played in a five hundred NAIA team from the Midwest, and they just beat the shit out of us. And we all had flights out of town the next day, and I remember our coach. We get in the locker room and the coach is literally like the coach is literally like half of you guys were already on the airplane.

This total bullshit. He was chewing us out. And it was just crazy because we started twelve and oh and we were beating all these great teams, and then we ended up losing to a really bad team right before we went on a break. And I think it's just a classic case of like when you get to take a like basket is such a mental grind when you do it in an organized context, and you can imagine how much harder that is in the pros when you've got all these extended road trips and stuff like that.

But like, it's a grind, it's a mental grind, and when you see an opportunity to rest, it's hard to get that out of your mind. And I think again, like lots of teams were playing their last game before the break last night and played better basketball. Not saying it's the ultimate excuse. I just think it's one of the factors that led to that crappy effort. And then three, the Lakers have been one of the top teams in the league for a month and they were kind of

do a bad night. Bad nights happen in the NBA, and they really don't concern me unless they become a recurring thing. Like earlier in the year. What you saw last night in Utah was like kind of like once a week, twice a week kind of thing that you'd see from the Lakers. That hasn't been the case over the course of the last month or so, so I'm trying to cut them some slack. That's it was very clear that the Lakers were not close to their best.

Luca was awful, which is equal parts in being out of rhythm and out of shape, but also him just trying to feel out his new teammates. He hasn't been very aggressive since he joined the team, and I think that that's played a role in him just being at a rhythm. Austin Reeves is hilarious because, like he's such a dependable big game player, but yeah, he can throw out like an absolute stinker like he did last night against a team like the Jazz, So I'm not worried

about it. That said, regardless of who you are, even if you're a top tier team in this league, like the Celtics or the Thunder, there is value in taking a closer look at your losses just to remind yourself of your own vulnerability. Even on nights when you have poor effort, Eventually you find yourself down big and you're like, hey, let's try to get this game, and you try to assert control, but obviously you lose the game, right, So like, you fail to assert control and you still end up losing.

And usually in those moments there's a weakness or two that you can at least look at and acknowledge exists, like even Bob. Let's just take Boston for example. A lot of the Boston losses this year, even when their effort has been poor, has had a lot to do with offensive process. They've had some relapses to older versions of themselves, or they settle for bad shots and they don't attack, they don't move the ball around, they don't

generate great catch and shoot looks. It's good for the Celtics to be reminded that they're not invincible and that if they don't stay diligent in their offensive process. They can get beat with Oklahoma City. It's like the shooting of their role players and some of their offensive process stuff as well, challenging rim protectors, not moving the ball around, they can go super cold on offense. So here's the

thing for last night. Even though we all obviously know that if the Lakers had to play the Jazz again tomorrow that they beat them by twenty plus. If they needed to beat them, like if it was like you gotta go beat you ta tomorrow, they'd handle them. But it's still important to acknowledge how the Jazz gave the Lakers issues last night. So here are all the big picture weaknesses that I noticed that were on display last night that the Lake need to sharpen up if they

want to achieve their big picture goals. First and foremost point of attack defense. Part of this again last night was some unusual guys playing because Gabe and Dorian Finney Smith were out, like Daltonknact was getting cooked a lot one on one and he's not going to be in the rotation when he's in the playoffs. But it was some core guys too. Austin Reeves had a really rough game on both ends, and he was giving up a ton of dribble penetration. Ruy Hatchamurro was getting blown by

time and time again. Now here's the thing. During this streak when the Lakers have been offens awesome on defense, both of those two guys have been fantastic on defense. But it's just a reminder that those are two guys. Really the whole team has to compete on the ball. They're not so gifted athletically that they can give poor effort.

They have to compete on the ball, and then the Lakers have to support them by shrinking the floor around them, flying around in rotation, and if they don't, this defense can dip into being pretty bad For a team that was the number one defense in the league over the previous thirteen games. They looked absolutely atrocious in that third quarter, as as a Collier was just beating them time and time again downhill, Jordan Clarkson time and time again downhill

and just picking them apart. Second big thing that stood out to me Ruey tracking shooters. Ruey spent a good amount of time matched up on Lourie markmen, and Laurie burned him time and time again for helping and just knocking down threes off of skip passes. We all know that Ruey is susceptible to that kind of thing when he's not focused. He was the guy that really hurt the Lakers in the first round series last year by

not tracking Michael Porter Junior. It was just a good reminder last night that Ruey can struggle sometimes with tracking shooters and that JJ might have to account for that by going with a guy like Dorian Finney Smith or keeping him in a matchup that doesn't have him tracking shooters around. That was something that stood out to me last night. The third issue the Lakers are super thin

at center. Jackson Hayes has been playing great, but he went down with a facial contusion in the middle of the first quarter and suddenly it was a large diet of Alex Lynn and I gotta say, like, I knew Alex wasn't going to be a significant edition. I talked about it when we talked about the signing, like he's barely played in the last five years. His coaches clearly

don't trust him. I thought of him basically strictly as just a big two hundred and fifty pound body, to throw at Jokic from time to time maybe and not much else. But my god, Alex Lynn was awful last night. He quite literally doesn't do anything well aside from being an okay rebounder for his size. Can't finish at the rim, he can't finish away from the rim. He's awful on defense, both in space and at the rim. Doesn't offer any

resistance there. Like, I don't really know how Alex lenn is going to be able to help the Lakers much at all, but maybe I'll be wrong. I thought Christian Kaloko did okay, but he also got tossed around by Kessler quite a bit, got beat by Kessler in some vertical spacing situation. It was still clear that Christian Cloco is a two way type of talent and not a guy that can be playing big minutes in a big situation. By the way, shout out to Walker Kessler. He absolutely

dominated this game on both ends of the floor. Sixteen points without missing a shot, six blocks. The entire NBA world should be very thankful that Danny Ainge did not accept that Mark Williams package. I had heard from behind the scenes that the Lakers offered that exact same package Dalton the twenty thirty one first the pick swap. They offered that to Utah and Danny Ainge turned it down.

The NBA world should be very thankful that Danny Age said no to that, because if Walker Kessler was on this Lakers team, they would be an absolute force on both ends and they'd probably enter into that same tier with Oklahoma City in Boston. But that brings me to the last issue that was on display last night, which is spacing. There's a reason why Kessler was able to protect the rim the way he did and bogged down

the Laker offense. When Jack ex and Hayes is healthy, he can beat a guy like Kessler with that vertical spacing, right. That was how they picked apart Utahon Monday. When Dorian Phinney Smith is healthy, they can put together small ball groups with Ruey and Dorian Phinney Smith and Lebron where they can still defend and rebound well enough, but they can put Kessler out in space, and that was another

way they picked apart Utah Monday. But without those two guys, one of Jared Vanderbilt or Christian KloCo or Alex lenn was on the floor. At all times, and that allowed Utah to park Kessler underneath the basket, and that really made it hard for the Lakers to generate quality shots. What this means to me is that the Lakers are one injury in a bad matchup against a team that can protect the rim away from being very vulnerable in a playoff series. Now. Fortunately, they have space for another

veteran minimum contract before the end of the season. So if there is a big forward that can shoot, or a center with true spacing ability like whether it's popping spacing or vertical spacing, if there is a player like that that becomes available, the Lakers getting that guy could make a huge difference in their potential this year. Just

something to keep an eye on. Again, nothing to overreact to, but those were the obvious issues on display last night that the Lakers are going to have to work on improving to give themselves the best chance to win in the playoffs this year. This is a team that has to compete on at the point of attack and they have to support their weaker perimeter defenders with help side on the back right. This is a team that has

some young, flawed guys in their rotation. Guys like Ruy Hachimura that JJ Redick is gonna have to be very delicate with how he deploys him in the postseason to prevent him from being damaging, especially on the defensive end of the floor. Their center depth is an issue, and all of a sudden, Jackson Hayes becomes really important to this team, Dorian Finney Smith becomes really important to this team.

Ruby Hachimura becomes very important to this team. These big players that can shoot in Jackson's vertical spacing are like vitally important, and it's just it's just something to keep in mind in terms of their margin for air as it pertains to the injury front. And again, like they're they're this team has to be unguardable offensively because they're not gonna be good enough defensively. I think they're better defensively than they showed last night. Again they've shown that

for a month. But like if they're gonna get to where they want to go, they're going to have to be able to score against everybody, and that means they're gonna have to be able to space rim protectors out and last night without Jackson, without Dorian Finney Smith, they really struggle to space rimt protectors out. That's something to keep an eye on as we're tracking them through the postseason.

And again, like I always talk about how the playoffs are about matchups when I do my series previews, the Lakers are playing a team that's got a rim protector and they have an injury somewhere in the front court to where a guy like Jackson, a guy like Dorian, a guy like Rui's out. That infinitely cuts into the Lakers' ability to be able to withstand a series like that. Just something to keep in mind. All right, guys, that's

all I have for today. As always a sincere. Really appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We will be back tomorrow with some more game breakdowns as well as a mailbag. I will see you guys then the volume. What's up guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review.

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