Hoops Tonight - Nuggets own LeBron James & Lakers, LA's late-game issues, Mavs-Celtics + NBA Mailbag

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to night here at the Volume. Happy Sunday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having an incredible weekend. We have a jam pack show for you today. I just finished watching the Lakers Nuggets, which looked just like every other Lakers Nuggets games. We're gonna break that game down from the perspective of both teams. Then we're gonna hit Celtics mams from Friday night, and then after that, I've got a mail bag for you guys. You guys have the jove before we get started. Subscribe to our brand

new YouTube channel. It mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops tonight. It would also be helpful if you guys will leave a rating in a review on that front. Don't forget about my Twitter feed at Underscore Jason LT. That's where Lee film threads, like the film thread I made tonight involving the crunch

time stretch of Lakers Nuggets. That's also where I put show announcements and then last minute least, keep dropping mailbag questions in those comments so we can keep hitting them throughout this season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So I'm gonna give the Nuggets their props for a few minutes here, and then I want to go on like an old fashioned angry fan rant because I'm really irritated with a specific tactical stuff from the Lakers down the

stretch of this game. But that's for later on. I thought, this game, you know, it's funny. I bet you if you went into the locker room and asked Nuggets fans, they'd tell you that this wasn't their best game that they played this year, and it certainly was, and I didn't think they gave a great effort in the first half in particular, but in a weird way, I thought it was a resounding demonstration of just how good they are. If you got Jamal Murray on a bum ankle, they're

floating through the first half of the game. It's a Lakers team that just needs this game, so so so much more than the Nuggets, not just because of the standings, but also because of the reality of the mental advantage in this matchup. The Lakers just need a win against the Nuggets so that they can feel like they have

a shot against the Nuggets. Like that's the thing. Like I think if you asked Lakers, any Lakers fan, any Lakers player, any Lakers coach, and any Nuggets fan player or coach, they'd all say that if a player like true serum, they'd all say that the Nuggets would probably beat the Lakers in a series. But this is always

the case. There's like a spectrum there right, Like it's not one hundred percent chance, it's just like ninety percent chance, right, But like what's that ten percent? What's that little bit of hope that you cling to, right, And like whatever that is, there's a basketball formula to get there, But like, in order for you to believe that in that ten percent when you get there, you need to have a win.

You need to have a win in a regular season game where you just remind yourselves like, yeah, we're capable of beating these guys, even if it is a long shot, We're capable, right, And the Nuggets just snuffed that out tonight in such a big way. You know, the Lakers offense has been so much better as of late. It's a big part of what has kind of like kept them afloat in this recent stretch without Jared Vanderbilt, which has basically been they figured out their five out offense stuff.

They mean, a lot of guys that are good on the ball, a lot of guys that can finish plays.

That bomb movement is really really good, and they can have some success. And that's how they were picking the Nuggets apart in pick and roll early in this game,

but they were able to get stops there. We're gonna break it down specifically why here in just a few minutes, and then on the other end of the floor, it just still comes down to the fact that Jamal Murray can get whatever he wants, Nicole Jokic can get wherever he wants, make whatever he wants, gets all these little high percentage shots around the basket, whether it's a left handed hook over Ruy Hatchamura, or it's a floater in the lane off of a catch off a pocket pass

and pick and roll. For Jamal Murray, whether it's you know, a three at the top of the key off of a dribble combination, or a turnaround jumper over his right shoulder, or even just working around a ball screen and getting into the lane like he did for that final basket on cam Reddish, where he just kind of dribbles and dribbles and dribbles until something opens up and he takes advantage of it. Even those two corner threes. Late, I saw a lot of Lakers fans like, oh man, I

can't believe Justin Holiday made that shot. I can't believe Aaron Gordon made that shot. Justin Holliday is a forty seven percent corner three point shooter. So like, yeah, if you gonna if you're gonna tag Aaron, if you're gonna double off of Aaron Gordon with AD, you're gonna tag Aaron Gordon on the baseline the kickout passes there to Justin Holiday in the corner, he's gonna probably make it half the time. It's one point, you know whatever. That comes out to a little bit under a point and

a half per shot. That's a really high percentage. Look for then even Aaron Gordon. This is what was crazy. You know, I didn't really notice it until I was digging into the numbers after the game. I was like, man, I can't believe how confidently Aaron Gordon rised into that shot. And the main reason why I was thinking that is like, like Doris Burke pointed out in the broadcast, She's like, his first few misses from three were really ugly, and

they were. But here's the crazy part. Aaron Gordon is twenty five percent on above the break threes this year. He's also twenty seven percent on left corner threes this year. This is coming into tonight's game, He's fifty three percent on right corner threes. So, like, there's something that happens with shooters where it's like there's something about like driving confidence as you go into your muscle memory that really helps. And like when you know, like this is my hot spot,

like you feel comfortable going into that shot. And again, I don't know if that's the scouting department for the Lakers not doing a good job of making Anthony Davis aware, or if Anthony Davis was just falling asleep on that possession or being lazi or what the deal was. But like Aaron Gordon made them pay with the right corner three that he's been making all season long. So like again, like a lot of it is just this is what Denver does right, and this is the result that you

can see. And then at the end of the game, getting stops in the pick and roll they were getting they were getting killed because their backside help wasn't particularly sharp and you know, specifically Denver's pick and roll coverage tends to kind of concede the pocket pass, and so the Lakers were having a lot of success hitting you know, Anthony Davis with those little passes into the pocket and

getting good shots out of that. Well, what happened down the end of the down the stretch of the game, they finally sharpened up their back line help by specifically helping off of Ruey and Cam Reddish, and I clipped several examples of this, and you guys can see in my twitter feed again underscore JSONLT you could see a bunch of specific examples of them loading up on the ballscreen actions for the Lakers and causing problems like whether

it's Aaron Gordon, you know, really being aggressive on Lebron with back pressure because he knows Jokic can help, because they're ignoring Reddish and Rui and you know, able to box Ad out of the lane, right, or if it's like that last strip that Michael Porter Junior had on Anthony Davis, he was just completely ignoring Rui had to murder by the way Rui was open in the nunker spot. And Anthony Davis is, you know, he's a player, has made some progress as a passer this year, but he's

not Jokic. He's not the guy that, like, when you bring help from a specific spot, he identifies it and

makes you pay every single time. That's not Ad. And so the Nuggets did what they're good at, which is they find a way to get stops against their particular opponent, in this case, loading up on the roll man in the half court off of the if he shooters for the Lakers, and they got enough stops and next thing, you know, they end up with a double figure win in a game that it felt like the Lakers controlled for you know, two and a half quarters. You know,

here's the bottom line. There are some things with the Lakers that really pissed me off tonight, and I'm gonna go off on him in a minute. But the bottom line is Jamal Murray and Nikole Jokicic consistently just straight up outplay Lebron James and Anthony Davison crunch time every single time they play, no matter what the surrounding factors are. Jamal can make shots, Nikole Jokicic can make shots, Lebron can't make shots, and Ady can't make shots in this matchup.

And it gets even crazier when you factor in that Lebron and Ad have been awesome in the clutch this year. Did you guys know that coming into tonight the Lakers were literally the very best clutch team in basketball. They were eighteen and seven. That's a seventy two percent win percentage, best in the League. Lebron James has been amazing offensively in the clutch all season. Did it again against the Wizards the other night, did it again against the Clippers

the other night. He's been doing it to everybody. But there's something up here with this particular matchup or the two of them. I don't know if they lose their mojo or what the deal is, but they struggle. And by the way I put that, I give that credit to Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic. There is a thing. And again, this is one of those things that you'd never be able to quantify with analytics. You'd never be able to quantify with a catch all metric or anything

like that. But if you've played the game, you know that there is a mental dynamic that takes place on the floor. And when a player has a mental advantage over his opponent, his opponent will usually behave uncharacteristically either taking weird shots, not rising as confidently in shots as you as he usually does. Like even Lebron's like kind

of kind of rising up. The wing three that he took at the end of the game barely grazed the side of the rim, and it's like Lebron in the in the last clutch game a few weeks ago, when they played like he badly bricked a floater driving along the baseline, that like a shot that you're usually that you usually see him make. It's like there, Jamal Murray and Nicole k have actually sapped Lebron and ad of

their confidence in these situations, which is crazy. Eighteen and six in clutch games against the rest of the league, zero to two against the Denver Nuggets, and it's something that they're going to have to find a way to shake if they want to have any chance of capitalizing on that small sliver of a chance that they have to potentially win in a playoff series against these guys. And hell, I mean, it's not even guaranteed that they would get that opportunity at this point, being that they're

in the ten seed. Right last year, guys, I wanted to shout out for the Nuggets. I thought Justin Holliday played a great game. I thought he made a bunch of big time defensive plays. I thought he made timely shots. And then Peyton Watson, I thought he was just an absolute wrecking ball on defense. He had three blocks in

sixteen minutes. The Denver Nuggets. They're the team that you know all year long, I've been saying, if they can stay healthy, if they can get those core five guys into April, and if they can hold up for two months, I would just be surprised if they didn't win at this point. That's how much better I think they are than everybody else that slow down half court basketball. All right on the Lakers front. First of all the disclaimers again, I'm just gonna say this again before I go in

my rant. The Nuggets are just a much better basketball team than the Los Angeles Lakers, and Lebron and Ad specifically deserve a lot of blame for how the end of this game went. I thought Ad was super passive, in borderline ineffective on the defensive end down the stretch, which is literally his superpower. Lebron had two really ugly

turnovers trying to get downhill in the fourth quarter. The two of them in general just had no ability to take control of the game offensively, while on the opposite end of the floor, Jamal Murray and Nikole Jokic were dominating the game offensively, but some of that was the reality of the lineup that was on the floor. Crunch time was an absolute disaster for the Lakers in this game, and the Lakers quite literally looked like a poorly coached team.

First of all, there's three things that I want to hit on. First of all, why was Cam Reddish in the game? Cam Reddish is a player that has been

passed around the league already in his brief career. Nobody seems to want him because of the fact that at this phase in his career he's an inattentive, ineffective defensive player with severe offensive limitations, all kinds of potential, and I believe he belongs in the NBA on a roster somewhere where he can be in a developmental situation where like maybe, just maybe it clicks eventually and he becomes

a useful player. He belongs on a roster. I don't even dislike him necessarily on the Lakers roster, but just like with the Torrean print situation, he is being misused. Why did Darvin Ham play Cam Reddish down the stretch? Because Darvin is under the impression that Cam Reddish is some sort of lockdown perimeter defender and he's just not. He's not a good defensive player. He has great defensive tools, and if you watch specific possessions when he kind of

puts it all together, it'll look good. But more often than not, he loses balance. He does a poor job navigating screens. He ducked under a late pick on Jamal Murray, like he like, he just struggles on that end of the foy. He did nothing in this game to remotely make Jamal Murray feel uncomfortable and then on the other end of the floor because of the severe offensive limitations that Cam Reddish has. I clipped every single defensive possession with less than five minutes left in this game on

my Twitter feed. Watch how often Jamal Murray is literally chilling while Cam Reddish is on the floor he's guarding camp. There were two or three possessions that I clipped the Lakers are playing basketball and Jamal Murray's literally sitting there with his hands on his knees, chilling, chilling. There were other ones where he's not on his knee but he's just standing there like this. Literally, it's like the body language just screams, I don't have to guard this guy.

I'm just gonna save my legs so that I can make shots, and then you wonder why he looks so damn spry. On the other end of the floor, he's playing half the game. He's playing half the game because instead of playing D'Angelo Russell, who, by the way, also can't guard Jamal Murray, but neither can Cam. Like, we're gonna talk about Jared Vanderbilt in a minute, Jared Vanderbilt, you're also gonna ignore him. But first of all, he's a much better cutter than Cam Reddish. He's a much

better offensive free better than Cam Reddish. Jared Vanderbilt, super flawed offensive player, is a much better offensive player than Cam Reddish. And on the other end of the floor, you get a starting caliber, legitimate perimeter defender. He's probably he's not like in that top tier perimeter defenders, but he's probably in that like second tier of versatile perimeter defenders that can guard a bunch of different types of

offensive initiators. So, Jared Vanderbilt, it's a totally different situation. Right with Cam Reddish, you are getting a limited defensive player that cannot guard Jamal Murray and who is one of the very worst offensive players in the NBA. On the other end of the floor, and you bought Jamal Murray the ability to rest before he went over to the other end and cooked your ass. That was the first thing that I didn't understand. Like, here's the thing.

The Lakers are not even a serious playoff team without Jared Vanderbilt, which is a whole other thing that we got to get into. But if you're gonna give yourself your best chance to win a game like this against

the Nuggets, you've got to play your best players. And D'Angelo Russell is much better than he was last year, is playing the best basketball of his career in the last couple of months, and is definitively your third or fourth best player, and you left him on the bench for a player that would not crack the rotation for any other serious basketball team in the league. That's malpractice. That's playing with an arm behind your back. That's that's

spotting the other team in advantage. It was literally blowing up the Lakers pick and roll attack at the end of the game. It was a huge problem. Secondly, Anthony Davis on Aaron Gordon instead of Nikola Jokich. Here's the thing. I understand why you try Ruey on Jokis I even recommend doing it in spurts. They started the game with it, though Jokic cooked him throughout the game, and then at the end of the game they went down with it.

And on pivotal possessions it was Jokic beating Ruey with a hook shot over the top over his left shoulder, beating Ruey and drawing a double team, and then still making good kickout passes to shooters. It did not function. It did not work. And here's the thing. You can run the exact same configuration with Anthony Davis on Jokic. You can have Ruy guard Aaron Gordon, offer late help when it's there, and stay home when he doesn't need it.

You can run the exact same configuration with ad on Nikolijokic, and maybe you give yourself a better chance of holding up in that spot. Most importantly, insanity is doing the exact same thing over and over again in expecting different results. There was not a single possession where Ruy was able to bother Nikola Jokic on an island. I get why you try it again. I'd recommend it in small bursts,

as you're trying to mix coverages. But the idea, the fact that they did not even try Anthony Davis on Nikoliokich at the end of the game is baffling to me. And by the way, part of that's on Ad. Part of that's like, Ad, you got to go over to Darvin and be like, hey, I'm gonna get him now, and he just didn't do so. And that's why I was critical of Ad earlier for being kind of passive

down the stretch of this game. And then lastly, organization in scouting Aaron Gordon, as I mentioned earlier, twenty five percent on above the break threes, twenty seven percent on left corner threes, fifty three percent on right corner threes. That is why he rows up confidently into that shot in crunch time of a basketball game when he had just missed all the other jumpers that he took in

the game, except for the couple short ones that he made. Like, literally, somebody in the Lakers staff needs to get an AD's ear and be like, when you're helping off Ag, be careful when he starts to venture to that right corner. That's his sweet spot. He likes it out there, and he's been making more than half of them this season. Like, where is that how is that not something that is being made known to the players or did Ad know and he just, you know, was lazy on that possession.

Who knows? But that to me is organization and scouting. And then on the other end of the floor there was a possession that you guys might remember where Ruey ha Chimura missed a pull up jumper on the right elbow and it was bad floor organization. Typically, what you want in a floor setup is you want your primary

action on one side of the right. In this case, the specific possession started with the lebron Ad pick and roll on the opposite end of the floor, though there was Ruey on the left wing in Austin Reeves in the left corner. That's poor organization because Austin Reeves is your second side creator. The guy in the wing inevitably ends up running the second action lebron Wi running the pick and roll it doesn't work. He's gonna swing it to the wing. From there, you're running action out of that.

And so typically what you'd want is Ruey in the corner where he can spot up in Austin on the wing where he can run action because he's your best secondary shot creator. Beyond Lebron James right at least in that lineup, but instead the ball ends up in Ruey Hachimura, your fourth best offensive player in that lineup, to take a pivotal shot in the game, just because of basic floor organization stuff. Here's why I bring that up. You know who never makes those kinds of fucking mistakes is

the Denver Nuggets. They never make those kinds of mistakes. Somehow, Aaron Gordon does find himself in his sweet spot. Somehow, Justin Holliday is in the corner where he's deadly. Somehow Jamal Murray does get to his sweet spots on the floor where he likes to work. Somehow Nikola Jokic does. That's the difference. And like again, like, personnel plays a big role in this kind of stuff, but coaching matters.

Coaching is how you maximize the result. Coaching is how you get the very most out of whatever you have in your locker room. And like, here's the thing with darvinham big picture. Last year, I thought he did a much better job, particularly managing the rotation. I thought he hit the right notes when he got to the postseason. It was a little touch and go during the regular season but he hit the right notes when he got to the postseason, and then two he had the group motivated.

The Lakers played hard last year, they were ravaged by injuries, and they played hard this year. They've been the worst energy and effort team in the league. They're one of the Here's the thing, the Lakers are not a like, they're not a championship contender. I have them in my long shot tire. I have him I think eighth among

all my championship contenders. But here's the thing, Like, they're way worse, are way better than their record would lead you to believe, because they've been such a bad energy and effort, energy and effort team this year, and so when you have the inability to motivate your guys to bring consistent effort, when you have Darvin consistently playing lesser players on his team big minutes over better players, it's

a concern. I think he's in completely over his head leaving your third or fourth best player on the bench against the best team in the league while playing Cam Reddish, who literally his only spot in the NBA SH right now should be playing garbage time and working with player development behind the scenes to see if maybe he can turn into a useful player. He is not a player that should be playing crunch time for any sort of serious basketball team. That is the that is on the

coaching staff. That is on the coaching staff. And like again, this Laker team already has an uphill climb, Jared Vanderbilt is completely an utterly indispensable to this roster. And that's your one tiny little bit of hope. Like, if you're a Lakers fan and you're looking to cling to something,

you're clinging to Jared Vanderbilt. Because he didn't play in any of the Nuggets games this year, and yes, last year he couldnt play against the Nuggets, but the Lakers ran a completely different offense last year of four out offense where Jared was spotting up. This year they run a five out offense with lots of ball in player movement, and Jared Vanderbilt has been much more effective in their offense this year. That's your tiny little sliver of hope.

Do I think Jared Vanderbilt puts the Lakers over the Nuggets? No, I do not, But that's your tiny little sliver of hope.

And that's on the front office. It's on the front office that This guy is completely indispensable because we knew after the Denver Nuggets series that they needed a high level starter that could defend and be a positive offensive player, and they failed to do it over the offseason, and they failed to do it at the deadline, and so as a result, a foot injury to Jared Vanderbilt that cost you six weeks can literally cost you everything. And

that's on the front office. But with the group that is there, there is a slim chance, and I just don't think Darvin is capable of getting them to that slim chance. All Right, I'm off of my soapbox. I needed to just vent for a little bit. All Right, We're gonna get to Boston Dallas. This was one of Boston's best offensive games of the season. They had a one thirty eight offensive rating. That's like completely and utterly insane. They were taking a ton of jumpers, but their jumpers

were going. They took fifty three jumpers in this game for seventy two points. They were at one point per pull up jumper. I think twenty one points on twenty one pull up jumpers. But they were staggering one point five nine to four points per catch and shoot jumper. In the game against Dallas, they made twenty one threes on forty nine percent shooting, so obviously a great example of Boston's perimeter skill. But they also had a great

paint scoring game. And this is something I've been harping on a lot on the show, and I wanted to dive a little bit further into their recent successive. They had sixty two points in the paint against Dallas. Six offensive rebound put backs. Mentioned this earlier but in earlier shows, but they averaged just two point six offensive rebound put backs per game. That ranks twenty first in the NBA, and they had six of them against Dallas, more than double their usual output. It was a big part of

their late third quarter run. Jason Tatum was beating his man off the dribble, drawing in Maxicicliba into help, and Al Horford and Porzingis were capitalizing on the back end with offensive rebound putbacks. It was actually how they helped push the lead from seven to thirteen. During that span. They scored on a cut to the basket six times in this game. They averaged just three point six per game,

which ranks twentyeighth in the league. Again, these are all areas that they've massively improved on over the course of the last week. For Boston, early on their cutting was in Dallas's two three zone look. Drew Holliday and Jalen Brown both scored on flash cuts to the middle of the floor where they were able to get easy baskets. Al Horford, though, had two buckets out of the dunker spot in possessions where he typically operates out of the

three point line. There was a I want to say it was a it was a I can't remember if it was a Jalen Brown or a Jason Tatum pick and roll, but Xavier Tillman slipped to the basket. Dallas is putting two on the ball most of the ball screens. Late in the game, they were getting absolutely torched. Boston scored one point four to eight points per pick and roll including passes in this game, which is like completely insane.

So Dallas was putting two on the ball in the second half and Xavier Tillman slipped to the basket, and al Horford, in a lot of these situations, has been just chilling in the right corner waiting for a three, but instead he worked his way along the baseline into the dunker spot and got an easy lay up. Again, these are ways to manufacture paint points for a team that hasn't been scoring a ton in the paint this season. Xavier Tillman scored on a cut along the baseline where

Jaylen Brown hit him by the way. Jaalen Brown had an awesome playmaking game in this game. He had five assists with no turnovers. Thought he had a bunch of timely reads, specifically where the defense was loading up on him, and then Jason Tatum's physical aggression that was a big part of their paint output in this game. There was a stretch in the middle of the second quarter where

Dallas put Josh Green on him. And one of the specific things I've been talking about with Jason Tatum because I want to say a lot of people get the wrong meaning of what I'm talking about when I talk about scoring in the paint versus pull up jump shots. Like, the pull up jumper is a part of basketball. It's a huge part of basketball. It's a huge part of my game personally, Like you got to be able to

make pull up jump shots. I'm just a big believer in like working with pull up jump shots within your physical advantages. So why I've always been such a big Qui fan. Kawi takes a lot of pull up jumpers, but the majority of the ones he takes, he uses his physicality to get close to the rim and takes short range pull up jump shots. Tatum, I was so impressed just literally bullying Josh Screen into that little area right inside the foul line for short range pull up

jump shots. He made four pull up jumpers that were inside the paint in this game, and I don't even think you had to miss in that range off of a jump shot. The one jumper that he missed inside the three point line was like a right elbow extended one that was like a like a nineteen twenty footer. So like he got to these short range pull up jumpers and he was like, and again, they're tough. Like

one of them was like a right shoulder fade, one of them was like a one leg fade away, one of them was kind of like a step through leaner going to his left. They're kind of tough, but they're tough close to the rim, which dramatically improves your accuracy in that range. And I thought all of that was

significant in the Boston paint attack in this games. Do you guys remember after the Bulls game, I said that the Celtics were averaging just forty seven points in the paint per game, which ranked twenty seventh in the league. They're averaging sixty one points in the paint per game over their last three games, which ranks fourth in the league over that span. Really really encouraging trends in that approach. All of them stuff that I've been talking about on

the show. This game wasn't so much the running in transition for layups and threes, but for layups instead of threes, but that was a big one in previous games. Crashing the offensive glass, cutting more instead of spotting up, the physical aggression into the paint in their post up situations. All of has helped turn around their paint attack over

the course of the last week. Chris tops Porzingis. We've talked a lot on the show about just how important he is and how he unlocks everything that Boston does because of his ability to shoot the basketball, to beat switches, and to protect the room credibly. He made eight field goals in this game on his way to twenty four points. He had one but that was outside of those specific

play types. It was a kind of like an off screen move on Maxi Kliba where he like he took him downhill, turned his back and then went like with a really hard sell on a left shoulder fade with like a really hard pump fake Max He went for it. Then he stepped through and dunked it with two hands. But every single other one of his seven shots, or the seven others of his eight shots that he made, all of them were either helped beaters or switch beaters.

At the start of the game, Dallas had Derek Lively roaming all over the floor like and it wasn't even just like you know, sitting back to drop coverage. It was like Jalen Brown catch the ball on the post and Derek Gliveley would just sprint down to the basket and just offer backside help. And it was clearly it was clearly schematic because like Derek would run and then he'd immediately point to other Dallas players to rotate around. So clearly that was part of the game plan coming

into this game. But here's the thing. If you're gonna have a game plan where your center is ignoring your center to go help underneath the basket. You gotta have a guy who can burn him there, and Christops Porzingis just burned him time and time again by hitting deep threes. And then one of the biggest stories of this game, I thought was Boston trying to attack Luca and Kyrie as much as they possibly could in screening actions and in ice own post up situations. Porzingis was a big

part of that. He had multiple baskets attacking both Luca and Kyrie, irving in post up situations, and I just thought it was a great example of just how important Porzingis is to kind of growing the margin of error for this team and raising this team's ceiling. I thought he was incredible. And then Jaln Brown, He's just been outrageously good in the last couple of weeks. I was super impressed by his playmaking in this game. Like I mentioned earlier, he was one of the guys that kept

punishing Lively for helping. Had four assists just in the first half without a single turnover. He was another one of those guys that was attacking Luca and Kyrie and switches. He blew by Luca on a baseline drive and went through him for an and one. He like bullied Kyrie into the middle of the floor for a little push

out in the lane. I thought he was awesome. And then he blew the game open in the in the early fourth quarter with that run where he beat Luke off the dribble and then made the three sixty layup, and then he had a step back three against I want to say it was against Daniel Gafford in like a drop coverage on the left wing, but he was a big part of how they blew the game open.

Jalen Brown's last four games twenty seven points, seven rebounds, and four assists, sixty percent from the field, forty three percent from three, and has had a plus minus of at least plus fifteen in all four of his games. And again, the points in the paint stuff is just super super encouraging. They're starting to figure out that they need more offensive versatility. I've been really really happy with what I'm seeing from them on that end of the floor,

on the Dallas front. I said on the show that they had been defending really well, but that it was against a weaker stretch in their schedule. They had a couple of tough games in there, against the Thunder and against the Suns, but for the most part in that stretch it was bad teams or good teams that were

severely injury limited. And so this road this road trip was like a great test for them, an opportunity to see if their defense is legitimate or if it was some fools gold And like, I know, it's just four games, but man, did they fail the test miserably. They end up going one to three. They give up at least one hundred and twenty points in every game. They had a one twenty six point four defensive rating in the

four games. And for perspective, just so you guys can get a feel for what that number means, Washington currently holds the worst defensive rating in the league at one to nineteen point nine. So like we're talking catastrophically bad

defense from Dallas now on tape. It mostly comes down to poor point of attack defense and over helping talked a lot about this in the Boston game as it pertained to like leaving Chris tops porzingis, but it's a pretty consistent issue where like, even from the guard position, they're just ignoring corner shooters to come into the lane to try to tag rollers and things along those lines. They gave up seventeen made threes on the road trip on forty four percent shooting, both of those dead last

in the league over that four game span. They only gave up fifty one points in the paint per game over that span, which is pretty solid. Actually, like that's not bad at all. So, like overhelping was the main culprit of their defensive issues. That in transition defense, which we'll talk about it in a little bit, there was a big part of Boston's run there where like PJ.

Washington got red hot from three, he made three threes in a row and it was eighty one to seventy nine in the middle of the third quarter, and then Boston literally just scored in transition time and time again right after that as they blew the game open because Dallas just wasn't matched up, not talking, not communicating, like two guys on the big man running the floor, nobody

brunning out to shooters on the wing. They blew the game with defensive execution in transition and in overhelp situations. You know, I like, and I want to be clear, a lot of this I put on Jason Kidd because like, I like Derek Lively looked like on tape that he wasn't just helping freelancing. It looked like he would leave his leave porzingis to dive down into the lane and he'd be directing traffic and telling people to rotate. That tells me it's schematic. So like the encouraging side of

that is like that means that it's fixable. You know, like this transition defense stuff, they're twenty sixth then transition defense according to Cleaning the Glass, it's like points added per transition possession or something like that is the name of the metric. But it's like they're kind of like all inclusive transition metric and they're twenty six They give up one point three to three points per transition possession,

which I think ranks twenty seventh in the league. So like the transition defense thing has been an issue all season, that to me is always fixable. That's just run hard and communicate. That's literally all it is, Run hard and communicate. But that said Dallas fans, I understand that it can look really dark right now. I have five silver linings for you guys. That makes me feel like there's still light at the end of this tunnel, even after the

discouraging road trip. First of all, one, many of the defensive issues they have are fixable, and they have the personnel to be better than they've showed transition defense, like I talked about, just execution, running back and communicating. Overhelping scheme and execution that's on the coach that can be remedied. And then three the personnel. They have good perimeter defenders and Derek Lively, Like this is my second silver lining.

Derek Lively is just awesome. Again, the overhelping thing was a scheme. I actually thought he had a really nice two way game. He has really good instincts and length and mobility. He had an awesome game on offense two running his lane in transition and rolling hard to the rim and pick and roll. He had like this nasty dunk or he dunked on like three Celtics. He actually reminds me a lot of Tyson Chandler, which obviously was

the anchor of the Dallas championship team. So like, no matter what happens this season for Dallas, that's a massive silver lining. Just how damn good Derek Lively is. Third silver lining as a team. They rebounded really well on the road trip. They grabbed seventy three point four percent of available defensive rebounds on the road, which I think is a really strong indicator that the deadline moves they

made helped them four to five. One of their biggest weaknesses again, that was a huge issue for the initial chunk of the season. They were not a good defensive rebounding team. Fourth silver lining. PJ Washington got his three point shot going. Talked about the three to threes in a row that he hit in the third quarter against Boston to get the game close, but he shot thirty six percent from three on six point three attempts during the road trip. That's super encouraging. And then lastly the

fifth silver lining, both Kyrie and Luca were awesome. Luca on the road trip thirty six, ten and twelve on fifty three percent from the field in thirty nine percent from three, Kyrie twenty seven to four and three on forty seven percent from the field in thirty nine percent from three. That duo gives you a real chance as long as you can sharpen those things up on the defensive end. So really discouraging, borderline disastrous road trip, but

some silver linings in there for Dallas. All right, let's get to the mailbag. Hey, Jason, I love your show, and you've really educated me on the schematics of basketball. I was wondering, how come when people talk about the two thousands, they say it was Kobe's era, that he was the undeniable best player during the era. I believed Tim Duncan was just as good, if not better, and deserves more respect as the best player in the two thousands.

I believe people should look at this era like they look at the eighties with Magic and Bird, two all time great players who dominated the decade. I would love to get your opinion on this, please, and thank you. First of all, thank you for sporting the show and

for the kind words. So I look at it more like I look at like two thousand to two thousand and two as like the Shack dominant stretch, and then like two thousand and three to two thousand and seven as like the Duncan dominant stretch, and then I look at eight to twenty ten as like the Kobe dominant stretch. But I think all three of them had really dominant stretches during that run. But that was definitely a Golden era of the NBA, just in terms of the top

end talent that they had in the league. Next question, wouldn't Steph winning four championships against the second greatest player of all time Lebron make it that much more impressive than Jokic winning against a bang up, banged up Tyler Harrow as eighth seed. So this is a great example of kind of like shaping the narrative. Steph won two of those titles against Lebron with Kevin Durant on his team.

Like that's you're taking the three best players in the league, Lebron the best player in my opinion, Stephen Katie the second and third best player on the team. They together beat Lebron while also having Klay Thompson, who is the second best shooter of all time, and a excellent perimeter defender, Andre Gudala who is the best wing defender in the league at that time, and Draymond Green, who is the

best defensive player of his era. Right like that that mid twenty ten stretch, he was the best defensive player. So like, like, I mean, I'm not all championships are championships, to be clear, But all you have to do is

ask an NBA player, and they'll tell you which NBA championship meant more of them. Lebron will tell you twenty sixteen meant more to him, right than maybe twenty twenty did, right. Like, So that's the thing is like all championships are championships, but not all championships are the same. And that doesn't discredit Steph. It's just I think it's really like, I think it's really unfair framing to just be like Steph

beat Lebron four times in his era. It's like, yeah, but he had the help of the other guy that was on his tier in Kevin Durant, right, and had the most talented roster in the league, the most talented roster in NBA history in the twenty seventeen twenty eighteen era. That's not a shot at Steph. I just think turning

that against Lebron, I think is particularly unfair. And then also like just mentioning Tyler harrow Less for the NBA Finals that's he ripped through Katie and Devin Booker, Lebron, James and Anthony Davis and Jimmy and Bam and like whatever you want to say about the heat, Jimmy and bam are literally like the one of the very best

playoff duos in the league. So they took the two, They took three legitimate dominant duos and just ripped through them without an issue, And I think undercutting that is silly. Next question, all of the Bucks players other than Damon Giannis are in the bottom ten ten to fifteen ish percentile or lower in rim attempts, meaning no other no one other than them touches the paint much. I think

this makes them easier to guard. And despite them trending in a good direction, I don't think they can peak. Their peak can contend with Boston. But I really love the show and wanted to know your thoughts. So bost Milwaukee's been playing a lot better, but they've been playing a week schedule. Over the course of their last four games, they played what they injured sixers, and then they played

the Hornets twice, and then they played the Bulls. So they're heading into a really tough part of their schedule now and we're gonna be covering them very closely. I want to kind of withhold my take there until I see them against some of these really good teams in the next week. In week or two, just so we can get a better feel of where their defensive progress is. Next question, This one was funny. I actually enjoyed this. I know you cover only the top half of the league.

That's where covering, But can you provide a quick minute thought on what Chicago's lineup of Vouch at the four and Drummond at the five would look like? Kind of akin to Mini's lineup of Gobert and Towns. Chicago a playing team, so technically you're obligated to talk about them the same way as the Lakers and the Warriors. I

thought that was funny. I shouldn't say what it looks like they roll it out against Cleveland or whenever a team is a couple of bigs, But why not just adopt that philosophy entirely to see how it works down the stretch. Stop playing the opponent and just roll out the two towers and work around them. So, first of all, I pulled the numbers just for fun. Vusovich and and

Drummond have played three hundred and ten possessions together. They have a one to nineteen offensive rating, which is very good, but they have a one to twenty one defensive rating, and that to me, is the big difference between the Gobert like a drum and Vusovich versus a Gobert Towns lineup. Like Drummond is a really interesting player in the sense that, like, if you catch him on the right night, he can be particularly dominant. I know this just because I covered

him when he was with the Lakers very closely. But there's a difference in foot speed between those two duos. Rudy Gobert is just so far and away better defensively than either of those Chicago guys. I think what makes the two big lineup work there for Minnesota is one Kat's a great shooter, but so is Vouch, and Rudy Gobert is just this like transcendently great defensive player that can switch and can drop and cover all this ground.

Like to me, it's just fundamentally different because of Rudy Gobert and the lack of foot speed I think has been clear in those lineups. Three hundred and ten possessions is not a non existent sample size, it's a pretty decent sample size, and they've just gotten run over on defense in that group. Next question, you said a team has to have the guy to win the title. Who was the guy at San Antonio in twenty fourteen, in Golden State in twenty fifteen, Golden State in twenty fifteen,

is Steph. Don't let the Finals MVP narrative fool you. He was very clearly the Finals MVP in twenty fifteen. It's one of the biggest travesty's in NBA history. Andre Guidala got to guard Lebron with like seventeen helped defense behind him because everyone else on that Cavs team was severely limited offensively or at least other than j R. Smith,

and so he was able to limit his efficiency. And then the Cavs started blitzing Steph Curry late in that series, which was leading to Draymond Green short roles, which was leading to Andre Gudala corner threes and cuts, which is where he got all of his scoring from. So like, I think the twenty fifteen NBA Finals MVP was a textbook example of like a good chunk of NBA media not really knowing what they're watching when they're watching basketball games.

Next question, what is your opinion of the NCS and tournament given how poorly the Lakers have been doing ever since winning it? Any improvements. He would recommend a couple things. Jared Vanderbilt is completely and utterly indispensable to the Lakers. He's their only starting caliber perimeter defender, so like, without him, they look like shit. And despite all of that, they've still the Lakers have been pretty solid since January seventh,

you know, So, like I do think the Lakers are better than their record looks, and I do think their Nc's Tournament win was legitimate. It's just without without Jared Vanderbilt, they just can't ever compete defensively the way that they

did it during that Ncason Tournament stretch. That does not mean that I think they're a top tier contender or anything like that, but I do think they're winning the tournament was an indicator of them being a really good team at that time, which was the best version of this particular Lakers team, like a dominant physical press presidence of Lebron James and Anthony Davis. But they also were a really good defense during that time because of Jared

vanderbilt improvements for the Ncason Tournament. I don't know. It's a good question. I have to think more about it. I would say that, like I would do, I could do without the obnoxious red court. I'm not even anti painted courts, but the red was a little much. Also, like I think, I think that you could probably push it to an even bigger field, like maybe play for seeding and then have sixteen teams, maybe just because the single elimination format was so much fun. But here's the thing,

I think they'll tinker with it. I think they'll tinker with different times of the season too, But overall, I was just I was really happy with it. Next question, dude, On a separate note, I hate to break it to you, but when your body starts to fail you and slow down, you won't have time to play guitar. At that point in your life. You will most likely be spending your time as a fan, traveling all over the place watching

your kids sports activities. I loved this comment. For those of you guys who didn't get the backstory, I did say in our last mail bag that when my body finally fails me, that's what I'm gonna devote more time to playing guitar because right now I just only do it for a few hours a week. Here's the thing, Yeah, that's probably what's going to happen. I'm probably gonna end up just going around to all my kids' sports activities. But let me just pretend I'm gonna try to still

have hobbies when I get there. Let me at least just go into it with an optimistic attitude and see if maybe I get lucky. You made the argument that Yo gets they have a higher peaker, a higher peak than Steph, but he has a ton of ground to gain before before he can be in the same conversation as him all time. Wouldn't that be the same argument for Lebron and Jordan had the highest peak six chips in eight years, but Lebron clearly has had the better

career in totality. Thanks and love the show. Thanks again for supporting the show. This is what makes the go argument so silly. Everyone's criteria is different. If you lean towards dominance, it's obviously mj like, here's the advantage of longevity, Like so much of this is outside of your control, right, like Lebron getting drafted into a bad franchise like the Cleveland Cavaliers who were poorly run at the time, right.

Or Dwayne Wade's rapid decline after he went to Miami, Right, Or like Anthony Davis's injury availability, Kyrie Irving in his demanding of a trade in twenty eighteen, hell Kevin Durant decided to go to the Warriors. All these different things are different variables in Lebron's career, right, So like variables are variables. So the longevity case is, if I get twenty one years of all NBA caliber play consecutively in a vacuum, do I have more chances to win a

title than say Jordan, who did less over less time. Right, That would be where it gets complicated. My thing is that's really difficult to quantify, whereas trophies are very easy to quantify. There's trophies, ones got six, ones got four. That's not the end of the day or end of the argument. But that's why I lean slightly more towards the dominant side than I do the longevity side. I

still factor in the longevity. I think Lebron's longevity has made it razor thin, and like, who knows, maybe when I look back at this five years from now, I might feel differently than I feel now, But right now I still feel like Jordan, to me is the greatest basketball player that has ever played, and Lebron is just a very very close second. That's where I feel right now. You know, I may look at it differently in the future.

And here's the thing that I'm not one of those guys that, like Is, will refuse to change his mind. Like I always am evolving and taking in new information, My perspective changes sometimes, like I may just feel differently about the game in five years. But that's where I stand as of right now. Hey, Jason Love the show, could you explain how much the mechanics of a jump shot means to your success as a shooter. For example, Shot Marion had a very unorthodox shooting form, but still

wasn't a terrible shooter. How much do you think a quick release helps a player. It's obviously been pivotal for Curry to have such a quick release. How much do you think Aunt or Lucas shot could improve if they had quicker releases lower set points. First of all, the mechanics, to me, it's way less about your release, in way more about can you do the exact same thing every single time. The two primary things that I look at with shooting is one a lack of wasted movement. In

two repeating the same exact form every single time. And what I mean by lack of wasted movement, they're like hitches, whether that's a hitch in your lower half, a hitch in your upper half, whatever it is, where like you just waste movement on your way up. That's why I practice a lot on like no dip shooting and like a bad pass shooting, where like the ball comes at a different angle and you go straight into your shooting

pocket from a different angle. I try to start every shot from up because that allows me to have less waste movement wasted movement. Also, if I can repeat the exact same motion every time, it doesn't matter if I shoot like that, Like, if I can do the exact same thing every time, it'll go in. And that's kind of the Sean Marriyon case, right, who was a guy who could be a good shooter right and had seasons in his career where he shot the ball really well.

So that that's the mechanics side of it. On the release side of it, like a quicker release obviously is a huge advantage. The thing is is like a lot of the bigger players out there just haven't needed to have a quick release, and so they're able to kind of have success with a slower release, but like to me, a quicker release is always going to be an advantage just because it gives you a you know, the ability

to get the shot off in shorter windows. Another big part of it, too is a guy like Curry lives and breathes with his jump shot. You know a lot of other guys like you know, like a Lebron for instance, Like that's just kind of more of a counter in his game, right, And so for him, it's not something that he probably has devoted nearly as much time to well clearly hasn't devoted nearly as much time to five more.

What can the Pacers do to have a better defense? So, first of all, Tyre's Haliburton and Ben Mathern are both really really bad perimeter defenders. I think Aaron Nei Smith being out has really hurt them, although he did come back in the Pelicans game. Although that Pelicans game they just ran into a buzz saw. Here's the thing. When you lose Bruce Brown into trade and then you also lose Aeron Neesmith to injury, Andrew Emphard is like your best perimeter defender and that's just not going to get

the job done from there. Constructing it is really simple. You have the front line right, you have a good rim protector in Myles Turner who's actually pretty solid and switches too, and you have Pascal Siakam is that big forward that can be your low man help defender and a guy who can clean up the defensive glass from there.

If you have a good point of attack defender in there somewhere, if someone like an Aaron Neesmith, or if they can upgrade that at some point, or if Ben Mathern can become that guy, then it's about your other two guys in that back court just being able to

do their jobs. So for a guy like Tyre's Haliburton, for instance, it would be competing in hedging and recover situations, so like hedging so that you don't so that the guy can't turn the corner, and then sprinting back to chase a shooter, helping, defensive, rebounding, all the different things. If you can craft smaller roles for them, with a good perimeter defender and with Siakam and Turner anchoring things, those guys can do good do a good job, and

there's smaller defensive roles. That's kind of like the pathway towards constructing a better defense for them. Next question, I wish there was another way to see your video analysis because I haven't used Twitter in like ten years. So here's the thing. Why don't I always point you guys to Twitter. That's where I originally built up my platform.

So as a result, like I have the majority of my followers are there, right, So, like my Instagram account, for instance, only has like thirty seven hundred followers, but I have I don't even know how much on Twitter, but I have a lot more on Twitter, right. So, Like on Twitter, that's where I put out most of my like in between show content, just because that's where most of my audiences. That's where I do my film threads.

But I am aware of the fact that like more people want to see more video stuff, So I'm actually working on that at the moment. I've a couple of different things in mind. We might try to produce it into the YouTube show again, and it just gets a little tricky with like the with like getting flagged by YouTube for using NBA footage, and it's just always like a risk because if they flag you a few times, all of a sudden you can't monetize anymore, so it

gets a little tricky. But another thing I'm thinking I'm gonna try and probably try in the next week is something called watch playback, or I think it's actually now just called playback, but it's an opportunity that allows me to actually put my Synergy feed on the screen and then I can literally go through game film on the screen in almost like a stream that you guys can jump on. It kind of has like a little bit of like a twitch vibe. So I'm gonna be trying

that in the next week. I'll shout it out on Twitter, though, so like, try to get on Twitter at least for the announcement portion of it, and then I will point you guys towards playback and then you guys will be able to see film sessions there. Next question Philly Jason. I played basketball myself and also sprain my ankles maybe seven or eight times in total. I never want to watch basketball injuries because I know how painful they are. The difference being that these people are playing on their

ankles maybe a week or two later. It took me about a month to even walk properly. So I used to add. When I first got out of call, I was pretty I broke my foot my second year in college, but other than that, I did pretty well with injuries. But when I got out of college, like three consecutive years in a row, I had like one really bad ankle injury, and all three times I was out for

like like three weeks like you're talking about. But what actually put me onto this new thing was Connor McGregor's trainer.

I saw some video of Connor McGregor's trainer doing these like gnarly ankle flexibility exercises that made it so that like he could withstand ankle sprains, And so I started every single day literally twisting the hell out of my ankle in both directions three ways, so like I'd literally get up on my toe and I'd roll it like as hard as I can without being in like severe pain, three times both ways. And now ever since then, even when I do tweak my ankle, I'm able to usually

get right back up and play on it. So like, I don't know what it is about that exercise, but it just kind of builds like an additional layer of like flexibility and pliability and your ankle tendons and makes it so that when you sprain your ankle, well, it's not an issue. I haven't missed a significant knock on wood. I haven't missed a significant chunk of time with an ankle injury. And I'm talking about even a couple of days. I haven't missed a couple of days with an ankle

injury since I started doing that exercise. Now, hopefully nothing bad happens after I just jinxed myself. But that is just a simple exercise that I would recommend to people. Next question, I appreciate you talking about your playing career. I felt the underlying tinge of being ass at ball during high school. Lol. Also never knew you were a giant sixty six. Oh nah, But yeah, man, love it

and appreciate what you do. Here's my question. You said you had consistent You said you had a consistent shooting routine. And with me being a young adult, I'm getting more into basketball, and I wonder if there's a burnout when it comes to shooting. When I shoot a lot, my wrist literally starts to hurt, not in a good way, more in a I could injure my wrist kind of way. So yeah, there is like a built in limit with the human body when it comes to shooting, or does

pushing through it help in the long run? My bad with the essay, long question. No worries at all. I just appreciate you supporting the show and interacting with us. So here's the thing. I do an obnoxious amount of shooting. Obviously, I had an injury though related to overuse. This was actually when I was in Charlotte. This was in twenty seventeen. The story behind this is crazy. I was playing in a league there in town. I was. Charlotte had such

an awesome basketball community. I was playing in like three different leagues a week. Every pickup run had like a half dozen dudes who played professionally overseas, either in the past or currently. Like it was. It was just so much fun. And we were in a championship game, and I actually, ironically this was a great example of one of those ankle sprains. I sprained my ankle in the game and was it was in the championship game. Sprained my ankle in the game and was able to come

back and play just like more or less fine. And it was tie game with like five seconds left, and I just hit a dribble combination into a pull up three and hit it, and we won the championship, and I was super stoked and like all like obviously, like at this point in time, I was still trying to play professionally overseas too, so like I was like fulfilled because I felt like this this like, oh my gosh, my hard work is paying off, Like this is so cool.

I literally woke up the next morning and I couldn't extend my right elbow all the way. And it was weird because I didn't feel any pain during the game the previous day in my elbow. So I'm like, that's weird. So I go up to the gym to do my usual shooting routine, and I start my shooting routine by going around the world. So I start on the block and I make a shot at the block, and then I make a shot at the next block, in the next block, in the next block, then the elbow. Then

I make five free throws. Then I go into my routine. That's just how I kind of like warm up. It's kind of like form shooting basically. Right, I go to do my form shooting and I can't, Like I stand at the block and I go to shoot once and it's just this horrible pain and I like can't shoot. And so my buddy is a doctor. Those of you guys who follow my other podcast, Two Sons podcast, that one I the buddy that I recorded with as a doctor. So I asked him, I'm like, what's going on. He's like, dude,

you have tennis elbow. So, like tennis elbow is basically like an inflammation of that tendon in your elbow. And so I ended up having to wear like this gnarly brace and I periodically deal with inflammation in that area although I can, I've learned how to deal with it. But like that's the one injury I've had that I

think is effectively burnout when it comes to shooting. But with that kind of stuff, it's just ice and ibuprofen to treat the inflammation, and like, honestly, it should be fine, Like your body should be able to withstand high volume shooting. Last question Love the show is their TV footage of when you played college basketball. So I played at a small school, an Naia school in Phoenix that had less

than a thousand students. Now we were a really good basketball team, Like we beat a Division one while I was there, and we like were top five in the nation for Naia most of the season. We ended up actually the team that won the national title that year. During the regular season, we went to their place and beat them soundly, like we were really good Anaia team.

But like obviously we didn't. We weren't on television. So like I have if you go to my Twitter feed out underscore jsonlt in my pinned tweet, I have like a two and a half minute long video that's like a compilation of like like footage of me playing in college, footage of me playing in Juco, footage of me playing in showcases, footage of me playing pickup. You can find that stuff there that I'll give you just a general idea of what I look like as a basketball player.

All right, guys, As always, I sincerely appreciate you for supporting the show. We were planning on going for Celtics Warriors tomorrow, but it looks like Steph Curry is gonna sit, so I think we're gonna end up taking that one off and going Monday morning. So be ready for the show on Monday for power rankings as well as some game breakdowns. I'm planning on hitting like Kings, Wolves, and maybe one or two games from the Sunday slate. As always,

I appreciate you guys and I'll see you Then. The volume