Hoops Tonight - Playoff Preview With One Regular Season Game Left

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Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG dot co. Slash b Ball. All right, welcome to hop tonight. You're at the ball. You've had me Saturday. Everybody, Oh ball. You guys are having a great weekend. I've actually recorded this episode late night on Friday, after the ultimate night of the NBA regular season. Basically, here's that's what we're

gonna do in today's show. I'm gonna go over a few of the games from last night a couple of the things that I noticed. Then we're gonna look at both the East and the West and what we know about the playoff picture going into Sunday. We obviously have some more clarity out East. I'll talk very briefly about those first round matchups. Obviously, we're not gonna get into too much detail until next week. I will have comprehensive breakdowns of all eight first round series during the week

next week. Obviously a bunch more up in the air in the Western Conference. I'll be going over scenarios for you guys. I'll talk about which matchups I prefer for all of the teams, and not too much Lakers talk for you Laker fans today. But at the tail end of the show, I am gonna go over just a couple seating scenarios which I think are valuable for Laker fans. But again, just gonna dance around the penultimate night in the NBA regular season and talk about everything that we

learned and everything that we need for Sunday. You guys know the job 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 JSNLT, so you guys don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed where we get your podcast on our hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and

a review on that front. We also have social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where Jackson's doing great work this year. Make sure you guys follow us there. And the last but not least, keep dropping those mail bag questions so we can get to them in our weekly mail bags throughout the rest of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball, and let's start out in the Eastern Conference, so the Bucks get a big win on the road in Detroit, clinch the five seed, and make

Sundays rematch with the Pistons completely unnecessary. Giannis was incredible

in this game. He goes for fifteen assists, his fifth double digit assist game in his last seven games, and tonight it was just this surgical point forward playmaking piece semi transition attacks, getting the defense to lean one way or another, and making great cross court and skip passes or swing passes to shooters, finding cutters on the baseline, postfeeds to Brook Lopez again and post double team kickouts, handling, blitzes and traps, well, just methodical playmaking and like obviously

the blood clot for Dame is very scary and you'd prefer that he was healthy and ready to play. But this opportunity that has opened up in terms of ball handling responsibility for Milwaukee has been super revealing on a bunch of levels. On the one hand, Kevin Porter Junior, to his credit, has developed a decent little two man game with Giannis. They're good at screening and rescreening and doing what it takes to get one of the defenders out of position so that they can create some of

those short role opportunities for Yannis. They got one of those in the second half tonight for a little swing pass to the week side for I believe a Gary Trent Junior three opportunities for Yannis in the pocket. As they run that two man game, Kevin Porter's found some scoring opportunities in there, working against ice coverages along the

baseline giving goes with Yiannis. They have a nice little chemistry that they found there that I think they're gonna endp potentially having to lean on a lot in their first round series. If Dame is unable to come back.

On the other hand, that opening in ball handling responsibility has just given the ball to Yanis a ton and there are a ton of possessions where it's just Giannis bringing the ball off the floor in semi transition and he's just playing basketball, making a quick attack to see if the defense does something, dribbling into a post up

to see if the defense does something. Just a lot of really nice methodical playmaking from Yannis, and it's not the old school Yiannis like five years ago bowling a China shop stuff where he's just dropping his shoulder and trying to go through everybody. He's attacking slowly. At times, he's putting guys in jail, meaning trapping them on his backside and methodically waiting for plays to open up. He's manipulating help defenders with his eyes and with ball fakes. Again,

it's not a coincidence. It's not easy to put up five double figure assist games in seven nights the way that he did. That's something that we usually only see from the top end playmaking talent in this league. And I just think that that's a very interesting trend for the big picture for Milwaukee in the sense that it used to be that you felt like you needed a Dame because of Jannie's half court shortcomings. You needed Chris

Middleton because of Janni's half court shortcomings. And I'm starting to think that it's worth a shot, at least in terms of team building, if Milwaukee wants to try going this route this summer, or if a team were to trade for Giannis. I think Giannis is at a caliber as a half court playmaker now that you can start looking more towards like three and D type of talent off of jannis athleticism, defensive talent, trusting that Jannis is going to be able to set them up with enough

quality opportunities for you to be able to score. I think that's a real growth piece in Janni's game. That's an exciting big picture trend for the Bucks, especially as they potentially have to head into a pivot like a soft rebuild this summer. Our Eastern Conference playoffs are officially set, or at least for the teams that are not going to play play in teams. We're going to get Milwaukee versus Indiana with Indiana having home court, and Detroit versus

New York with the Knicks having home court now. Obviously, as I mentioned, we're gonna do our comprehensive series previews next week, but here are my very very brief initial thoughts for Pacers Bucks. This has at times been a tough matchup for Milwaukee. All the Milwaukee's fared much better this year than they did last year, and obviously Dane being out makes for a ton of responsibility on Giannis and then obviously a lot of pressure on some lower level guys to knock down a lot of shots off

of Gianni's passes. And so my initial gut feeling is to take Indie. Indie's playing really well right now. They have it more, They're obviously in a better position in terms of health, they have their identity is really clicking right now on both ends of the floor. But Giannis is playing so incredibly well that I'm really gonna have to think long and hard about this one, and I'm gonna spend a good amount of time watching film, and

again I'll save my prediction for next week. I'm leaning Indiana right now, but Yannis has me seriously second guessing that New York a better matchup for Detroit than Indiana is Detroit really struggled with Indiana this year. They actually beat the Knicks three times in a row. Caid has looked super comfortable attacking Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns

in action. But obviously the Knicks have a lot of experience and talent, and I would just flat out say they have a more well equipped playoff roster than Detroit was, or than Detroit has. So my initial gut feeling is to take the Knicks there. Obviously, the young, inexperienced team to a star that's never been in the postseason before. There's a lot of question marks there. But New York

does have advantages there. Excuse me, the Pistons do have advantages there, and I could see that series getting dragged out based on Cad being able to operate in a bunch of comfort and just him just being able to be in a groove for most of that series. But again, my initial gut feeling is Nicks and Pacers. But we will have our predictions next week with our comprehensive previews

as we go through all eight first round series. Moving out to the Western Conference, the Clippers took care of business and another must win game on the road in Sacramento. Their defense was incredible all night. Kawhi basically erase to Marta Rosen, Chris Don and Derek Johnes Junior did a great job on zach Levine. They had balanced scoring across the board. Their big four went for eighty four points,

got a little squirrely late. Zach Levine and Demarta Rosen finally got hot hit some shots, and the Clipper offense stalled out a bit. They had a couple of late game execution mistakes, including turning the ball over on a sideline out of bound sequence, but credit to a Vika Zubats who created two extra possessions on a critical late game possessions just by bullying some bonus underneath the basket and creating tap out rebounds, and they ended up scoring

on that possession. The Clippers were able to survive this kind of crazy late game sequence with that turnover into Marta Rosen trying to split a double team for heave, and they end up getting out of there with the much needed win. So now the Clippers controlled their destiny. On Sunday, if they beat the Warriors, they will get the five seed and a date with Denver in the first round. After I get through these couple other things from tonight, I'm going to go in detail through the

Western Conference seating situation. That's going to be at the tail end of the show. But before we move on to the next games, I wanted to take a minute to compliment the Clippers on what I think has been a very successful season for them and what I think was a really smart gamble by Lawrence Frank and that front office. Letting Paul George walk is not an easy decision to make. He had just played in seventy four games. He had a very good season, twenty three points per game,

sixty one percent tru shooting. That's a lot of talent to let walk out the door for nothing. But there were obvious realities with the CBA and the way that you can handcuff yourself if you end up in that second abron, And so the organization just believed in their strong basketball culture. They have a smart front office, and they made a couple of moves last summer that I think should teach us all a lot in and roster

building in the NBA. This was something I talked a lot about at the time, the idea of this perimeter speed finding athletes on the perimeter make life easier in the regular season, and it kind of fits into a concept of believed a long time, which is essentially that your talent is unique to what your team actually needs from you. Right. So, okay, you can't get a superstar player in free agency, right you let Paul George walk. You don't have the cap space to just sign a superstar.

It wouldn't really anybody available. But what if you can get players that are such seamless fits into the roles that you have available that you can get great value. For instance, Chris Don and Derek Jones junior total at just fourteen point six million dollars per year in salary.

But because you have the ballscreen game with James Harden and Ivica Zubats, Zubots's development as a player in the pocket with this deadly floater hit several more super important floaters tonight, that game with those two has generated a lot of lowman help, a lot of situations where guys are having to tag Zoo. When they tag Zoo, that

leaves the corner open. And so they've been able to generate these like pretty simple reads for their three and D guys out of that fifth starter, he's basically going to cut along the baseline if there's enough of a runway. We saw a key one out of a late time out late in this game where they ran a ball

screen for James Harden going towards the left wing. Knew the tag was coming because Zoo had done a bunch of damage there with floaters, and James Harden instead of throwing the pocket to Zoo just throws a lob to Derek Jones cutting out of that right corner and gets a nasty two handed dunk. Again, that is the type of runway that develops because of the hardened Zoo two man game. They're gonna get clean catch and shoots and

clean runway cutting opportunities out of that corner. And so as a result, you get two players for fourteen million that because they're also guard the other team's best player and pressuring full court and doing all this stuff to make them uncomfortable, you're getting great value and maybe not an exact approximation of what Paul George does, but you're getting so much more offensively out of what Zoo is doing and out of what Norman Powell is doing through

their internal development that you don't necessarily need the offensive firepower. And now Derek Jones and Chris Dunn are actually kicking ass in these smaller roles, and so it just has been a masterclass and roster building in the NBA. I've talked about this emphasis on perimeter speed and guys that can really guard the ball and how that raises your

floor in the regular season. I talked before the season starts how I expected the Clippers to be a team that hung out above the play in for the most part, and they did all this season. They just have a great basketball culture, a great front office that understands the game and how to build within the confines of what your payroll can trap you into. A head coach that I think is among the best in the league. A couple are really really smart stars leading the way. Kawhi

Leonard continues to look fantastic. He's looked so much more athletic towards the rim. He keeps trying to dunk on everybody. Now all of a sudden, like it's looking really really exciting for the Clippers, And so here we are. You hit on those two signings, and I believe the Clippers are a better basketball team today than they were with Paul George, So shout out to the Clippers again. We'll talk about some more stuff with the seeding when we get to the final segment of the night before we

get out of here. Welcome to Course Correction, brought to you by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under immense pressure to get things right. They must rise to the occasion, turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft's empowers these visionaries with AI solutions, simplified cloud and data management and trustworthy responsible AI. And when you're in the NBA, you have your own hurdles

to face. In this segment, we explore the challenges faced by teams or star players and how they can turn things around. Whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say bring it on. Tonight, we're discussing the Denver Nuggets in their late game defense against the Memphis Grizzlies in a must win game tonight. The Grizzlies controlled Tonight's game for a little over three quarters. They

were victimizing the week. Denver pick and roll coverage with Desmond Bane and John Morant just getting to whever they wanted, and screening actions off of you know, off ball curls for Desmond Baan, a lot of on ball stuff for John Morant, just cutting them to pieces. The Grizzlies ran thirty two ball screens including passes in the first three quarters, getting one point zero six points per possession including passes, again just cutting them to pieces. A lot of the

same usual problems for Denver weak ball pressure. Jokic had some really bad at the level reps in that third quarter. He had one of the most embarrassing ones I've seen from him in a while on a player Zach Edie got a dunk where he like showed on a John Morant ball screen. John Morant just threw a swing pass and Edie just ran behind him, and Jokic just kind of started walking back, and Edie got another wide open dunk, and it looked a lot like what you've sad from

Denver over the course of the last several weeks. And the Grizzlies had a five point lead with less than five minutes left, and then for that final five minutes, the Nuggets transformed into the same devastating clutch time team that the Nuggets had been in years past getting stops with strong positional defense, keeping the ball in front, some

smart game plan stuff. They did some switching on job ball screens, having a Jokic sit back critically switched back on one, and John ended up missing a three going under a couple of job ball screens to keep the ball in front. They logged one of their best reps on a Jaron Jackson post up. Jared had been doing some damage from that right block, getting into the middle of the lane for his left handed hook. They got a great rep blake where Christian Brown held his ground

really well. Aaron Gordon shrunk the by digging down off of John Morant on the wing, and they just barely bothered Jaron Jackson enough to get him to miss one of those hook shots. Russell Westbrook made two massive defensive plays down the stretch. He stole a pick and roll pocket pass on a play Den has been baying, curled a screening action. He literally just after he saw Desmond

Man going downhill. He peeled off of him and ran to the role Man instead, and Desmond Bain tried to throw them behind the back pass ended up being stolen by Russell Westbrook just because of some great pursuit over the top of his screen. He had another play where he challenged Zach Edie at the rim on a cut an extra effort defensive player where he was kind of out of position. He just made an effort, got up

there and forced Edie to miss a layup. Jamal Murray and Nikole Jokic, they had some really bad pick and roll reps in the third quarter. In that fourth quarter, they had a very strong pick and roll rep against John Morant on the right wing where Jamal did a great job pressuring from behind, and Jokic, even though he was getting sealed, jumped over his man and got a contest on John Rant, forced him to rush the floater and Josh shot the floater way long off of the

off of the backboard. It was just them competing on defense and then on the other end, looking like the Nuggets on offense running in transition. They got an early Yokic po stuff in a transition situation. They got another Jokic deep post catch off of an offensive rebound. Then we saw a bunch of that classic Jokich Murray two man game, a couple of Jamal Murray mid range pull ups in the two man game, a pocket pass the Jokics for the floater. The Nuggets closed that game on

a fourteen to one run. Talked about the defense. They defended twelve pick and rolls in the fourth quarter and allowed just nine points to zero point seventy five points per possession, just by doing better by competing on the defensive end of the floor. Just a casual reminder of what made this team true contenders over the last few years. I get kind of annoyed when I watch them now because it feels like a missed opportunity. This team is so good on offense. They don't need to be some

sort of all world defensive team. They just need to be competent. They need solid game planning and solid game plan discipline. That is all they need to make a deep playoff run with the offense that they had. And here's the thing. At this point, it might be too late for them to really get their habits to where

they need to be to win four playoff rounds. But this Nuggets team over the last couple of games has shown just a tiny bit of life here, just that tiny bit of hope as they head into the postseason. After the Mike Malone firing. That is it for this week's course correction. Remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to take bold steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas

to help drive your business forward. With Microsoft as your trusted partner, you can navigate your journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions, and reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com Slash challengers to learn more. One last note from that Grizzlies Nuggets game. Switching over to Memphis, both Ja Moran and Desmond Bain were really bad down the stretch of that game. Desmond Bain tried this like weird low gather move on Russ and just turned it over even against

no defensive pressure. That behind the back pass turnover to Russ. That was just a really sloppy pass or really high risk pass in that situation. John Morant twice on the two Jokic deep seal post ups, was the guy who needed to be the guy double teaming and he just wasn't paying attention, got lost off ball. He obviously couldn't get anything going offensively down the stretch in the ballscreen game. And here's the thing. The Grizzlies have their issues with personnel.

They're not big and physical enough on defense. They sorely miss a guy like Dylan Brooks on the wing. They don't have enough shooting. Their bigs all have flaws, whether it's Jaren Jackson's rebounding or Zach Yedee's ability to defend in space. They have their weaknesses. But ultimately, John Morant and Desmond Bane, their two primary shot creators, just aren't nearly as good as the other stars in the Western Conference,

and that's what's ultimately holding them back. As I've said many times on the show, I truly believe John Morant is the type of superstar that has an upside with his athleticism to get to the point where he can be one of the guys that can compete in the Western Conference. But here we are. He's twenty five years old, and John's basically the same player he was four years ago.

You could argue he's actually regressed a little bit. So I don't really know where Memphis goes from here, because it's one of those things where it feels somewhat like a turning point. This was the year where everything was supposed to go right for Memphis there for a while. It looked like it was going to, but they never could get together other than that win on the road

in Boston. In a handful of other nights this season, they couldn't put together the signature wins and the swagger that they had in years past, and again it just seems like their stars are plateauing. Desbon Bain obviously has his certain limitations based on his talent. John Morant has just not been developing the way that you would expect a young player his age. It just doesn't look good for Memphis at this point as they fall to the

eight seed in the Western Conference. So big picture in the West, the Grizzlies clinch a play in Birth with the loss, and the Warriors win tonight, they'll be the eighth seed no matter what. From what I understand, here's how the rest of it works. Denver and Minnesota's games on Sunday are games that they should win. Minnesota plays Utah even without Ant with a suspension. They should win

that game if they leverage their athletics defensively. Denver plays Houston, who, according to their last two games against Clippers and Lakers, have shut down their starters for the season. So if that holds, in Houston doesn't play their starters. Minnesota and Denver should win on Sunday. If they both win, Denver locks up the four seed. No matter what happens, Denver's your four. So that leaves the Clippers and the Warriors in their game on Sunday as the massive swing factor

heading into the postseason. That game is in Golden State. I would expect the Clippers or excuse me, the Warriors to be a slight favorite in that game. I would pick the Warriors to win that game. If Golden State wins, that pushes Minnesota all the way up to five, and then we're gonna get our rematch to the Western Conference semifinals last year with Denver holding home court over the

Timberwolves if Golden State. If Golden State wins, Minnesota goes to five, Golden State goes the s then we get our rematch of Warriors Lakers from a couple years ago. That's the matchup that I'm particularly worried About'll talk about in a minute. Clippers would drop down to seven. They would have to beat the Grizzlies to get Houston in Round one. If the Clippers win on Sunday. So again, Denver beats Houston, Minnesota beats Utah, Clippers beat the Warriors.

Then the Clippers jump all the way up to five. They get Denver in round one. The Wolves would jump up to six, they'd get the Lakers. The Warriors would drop to seven and have to beat the Grizzlies in the plane to match up with Houston. So still a lot up in the air. I'm personally rooting for the Clippers on Sunday because I'd much or rather face the Timberwolves in the first round as a Lakers fan, then I would face the Warriors. The Warriors scare me for

one reason. I don't think they have anybody that can really make Steph uncomfortable. He's just too fast for all of them. So even though I think the Lakers have a lot of advantages and I would probably pick the Lakers to win that series, the Steph wild card and just him being comfortable all series is enough of a wild card to swing that either way, and so I would be nervous about that particular matchup if I was

a Lakers fan. I think they can match up in terms of their defensive game planning way better with Minnesota. Minnesota is a team that struggles with indecision against those types of aggressive defensive schemes. I think JJ Reddick would prey on Anthony Edwards's playmaking deficiencies and their team deficiencies and aggregate connective playmaking. I like that matchup for the Lakers. Also, Jaden McDaniels can't guard Lebron or can't guard Luca. He's

just not big and strong enough for him. I just think it's a matchup that favors the Lakers better than the Warriors if they were to match up with the Lakers. So that's what I'm personally rooting for. I would imagine Denver is also rooting for the Clippers because they don't want to see the Timberwolves in Round one. So my guess is you're gonna have Denver in La rooting for

the Clippers in that game. Obviously, the Warriors want to win because they want to stay out of the plan, and the Clippers want to win because they want to stay out of the plan. But everything will be resolved in that twelve thirty Pacific time slate on Sunday. Here's the deal for the show. Just so you guys know, we are not going on Sunday, but I am going with Colin Cowhard, so go to the Colin Cowhard podcast feed on Sunday evening. That's where you'll see the instant

reaction to everything that went down on Sunday. I will be back on Monday morning with a reaction to the weekend's games, and then we're gonna dive literally right into series previews all week long, so tons of content coming from here on out, and then once we get into the postseason, we literally go live every single night, So that's the journey from here. That's all I have for tonight. As always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me

and supporting the show. We will be back on Sunday with Colin, and then with this show on Monday, I will see you guys. Then it's up guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us. If you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it. The volume