Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry & Warriors take down Donovan Mitchell & Cavaliers, Lakers keep losing

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in West Virginia. All right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Vandel here at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody. I hope you guys weekends are off to a good start. I'm supposed to have today off, but my wife is working one of her bigger events of the year, and I've got nothing but my brother's baby shower later today.

So I was like, you know what, there's some good basketball games on last night, drinking my coffee watching them, and I had some thoughts, so figured might as well get a reaction video in We're just gonna hit on Calves, Warriors and on Lakers Kings. I know I said that I would also touch on Celtics snuggets, UM and that timber Wolves Grizzlies game, but I'll get to those on Monday. Um, you guys know the drip before we get started. Subscribe

to the volume's YouTube channel. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss show announcements. I also do video breakdowns there. I plan on doing one later today if I have some time that covers the pick and roll issues that the Lakers were having with the Kings. UM. And then, last but not least, if you miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish them, you find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, so calvs.

Warriors super entertaining game, very playoff field, not just with the intensity and how hard the teams were playing in the defense, but also because of all of the matchup attacking. That's always reminds me the most of the playoffs because it's really it's really a simple. When you get into a playoff series, everything is scouted. Everybody knows each other's strengths and weaknesses, so you're not just gonna go down and run your sets and get great stuff every single time.

So it becomes kind of more of a personnel matchup. You're looking at what personnel do we have that can punish specific personnel on their team and vice versa. And you saw a lot of like attacking Darius Garland in the post with guys like Andrew Wiggins. That's a legitimate playoff chess match type of of move that you would see. You saw a step attacking the Cleveland Bigs both on switches and when they were too low and drop coverage. Some of you Celtics fans who watched that game probably

had some PTSD watching that. Uh, Donovan Mitchell and Carreras Lavert attacking Jordan Pool every time they had a chance because he's one of the weakest perimeter defensive players on the Warriors. Um Steph got a lot of attacks in on Darius Garland late in the game because, as crazy as it sounds, he's a lot bigger than Darius Garland, and Garland's not a great defensive player, but a real chess match type of feel, and that type of chess

match is gonna go the way of the Warriors. As I've always said, I don't trust any team in the league in terms of of management, coaching, players, experienced, continuity, talent, all those things. The way I trust the Warriors in a big part of that, that coaching part, that experience and continuity part that manifests in these chess matches. And it was interesting because, like I'll give you an example. So like Donovan Mitchell versus Steph Curry. So Donovan Mitchell

was amazing in this game. He had twenty nine points, ten rebounds, and assists. He made a ton of big shots, big plays as a passer. His development as a pastor this year as a whole other conversation, like the leap he's taken with shot making and with passing has taken him from somewhere in the you know twenty range of player in the league too, firmly in the top ten, maybe even top five this season. That's how much of

an improvement he's made there. But late in the game, when we got you know, into the last handful of possessions, he got thoroughly out executed by Steph Curry. He missed a couple of pull up jumpers short, which will happen.

That's that's gonna happen when you're tired, and he was probably tired, um, but at he missed a pull up jumper on step at the top of the key, like a step back, and Steph contested the shot and ran out the other way, and Donovan Mitchell kind of like on his follow through, just kinda sat there and looked at the rim for like three or four seconds and made no effort to get back, And like, transition defense

is all about floor balance. Generally speaking, most coaches will tell you, like, if you're you know, in the corner, you can crash before you get back. If you're the dunker spot, you can crash before you get back. But if you're at the top of the key or if you're on the wings, the general idea is to get back because you're unlikely to get the rebound and in all likelihood you're the only guy that has a chance to stop in transition. Donovan Mitchell took that jumper from

the top of the key. He's his primary responsibility is in that position after the shot goes up, is to get back in transition defense. He didn't. Uh, Darius Garland ran back from the wing, but he was late. They threw it out ahead to Steph, and Steph got a layup that effectively amounted to the final lead. It was the last lead change of the game. That's a critical defensive mistake from Donovan Mitchell down the stretch of the game. Um and then on the dagger three, the one that

Steph hit, Like, yeah, it was an illegal screen. I mean it was one of the worst illegal screens I've ever seen. Klay Thompson literally just threw a block. But there are probably roughly thirty to forty illegal screens per NBA game that go uncalled, and you'll see another half dozen or so get called. Right, you can't bank on

that getting called. And even if it was an illegal screen, the way that that action is defended is the same regardless of whether it's illegal or not, because there's always that chance that Isaac a Coral is going to get caught on the screen, even if Clay sets a legal screen. Now that specific action, you've got Steff with the ball at the top of the on the left wing. He's trying to come downhill towards the right and they're coming up with Clay, and they usually do one of two

things there. Most of the time, they run what's called a ghost screen, which is really just a fancy way of saying that he just slips the screen. So he runs up like he's gonna set a screen, but before he sets the screen, he'll just vacate out off to the left wing and it throws the defenders in a loop usually, but in that specific case, no matter what, there's only two ways to guard it. You're either going to switch it out right because it's a guard to

guard screen with two shooters. So a coro would basically signal to Donovan Mitchell like, hey, you're taking Steff, I'm gonna take Clay as he comes off this, or you're gonna do a brief hedge before you recover. So Donovan Mitchell, as he's coming up behind Clay, which is kind of lunge out and just swipe with his left arm, just to swipe, just something to dissuade Steph from that easy pull up three before he vacates out to get Clay,

and instead he just did nothing. He just kind of jogged behind Clay and stood there while Clay through the block and then there was nobody guarding step when he knocked down the game winning three. So like at the end of the day. That's two players that have both played like top five players this season. Both of them made top five in my player rankings on Thursday. Both of them are playing at the absolute peak of their

powers offensively. But we got to a chess match at the end of the game and Steph made all of the winning plays and Donovan Mitchell made critical defensive mistakes. And those of you guys who have been watching my show all season know that I've been I've been calling this specifically out with Donovan Mitchell had made a bunch of them against the Celtics as well. He's been particularly

bad on defense and crunch time this season. That's an issue, and that's something he's to work out because that could be the difference between him being a first round exit type of team with the Calves this year or somebody that has legitimate aspirations. Steph made every big play down the stretch of this game. They were down eight with

about four minutes left. After that wild sequence where they I think Jordan Pool flagrant fouled Carris Laverd on a step back three um, they ended up going up by eight. They then every possession down the stretch, it was Steph. He hit a three against Jared Allen and dropped on the left wing where Jared was way too low. Then he got Alan on a switch on the left wing and beat him off the dribble, which got Draymond Green open.

He dropped it off and drey made a basket. Uh, there was the relocation three on Darius Garland, so this was Uh, this was kind of an interesting play because he drove into Darius Garland's chest and Darius did his job. He held his ground, took the contact in the chest and cut Steff off. But here's the difference. Steph got cut off, gave the basketball up, and then sprinted back

out to the three point line. As soon as Darius Garland took that contact contact in the chest, he stood up out of his defensive stance and quit on the play. So so Jared Allen was like what am I supposed to do? When he ran over and threw a late contest, but it was too late. Steph was wide open on the left wing. That was the three that tied the game at eight. So again, good defense from Darius Garland for half of the possession, but didn't finish the possession.

And then on the run out lay up for We talked about that that was bad transition defense from Donovan Mitchell, and then on the dagger three oh, we talked about that action as well. But every single play down the stretch from when they were down by eight two when they effectively ice the game one, it was Steph making

the play. In the last three games, steps are averaging forty two points, five rebounds, and seven assists on eighty two percent true shooting, which is just ridiculous in clutch situations this year, So when the score is within five points with less than five minutes left, he's twelve for twenty two from the field, five for twelve from three

and seven assists to just two turnovers. He's a You Warriors wins away from being the MVP front runner, because as good as Your Honest has been, his m VP front running status is largely based on how good the Bucks have been. In crunch time. He's been you know, it's he's playing good on defense, but it's not his best defensive season. His perimeter shot has completely fallen apart. He's really only dominating in the paint. He's been good, Honest,

has been honest. He's deserves to be called the best player in the league right now. But Staff is actually playing a little bit better basketball than him. The team just isn't winning enough to make it all work. But they've won a couple in a row here, and if he can get the Warriors back into that you know, top half of the Western Conference standings where they're you know, in home court in the first round type of thing. At this at the level he's playing, you're looking at

a third m VP there. Um. A couple of quick notes on the guards are on the calves the guards. It's gonna be a legitimate issue here because Darius Garland was pretty bad on both ends of the floor tonight. Pretty bad defensively, which we talked about his offensively. One of the things I've noticed with Darius Garland throughout his career, a lot of guys compared Darry Scarland to Kyrie Irving

because he's really shifty guard. Right. I don't really see that comparison, mainly because Darius is a better pastor than Kyrie Ever was, and then on the offense, like the scoring perspective, the Kyrie is just there's a massive chasm between those two. And one of the main reasons why is Darius Garland, like a lot of young players in the league, of young players in general, now shoot really far down below, like almost below his chin. That's where

he starts his shooting pocket. And the problem with that is it makes it extremely difficult to get shots off. Um there are a handful of guys like step shoots like that, but he's one, he's the best shooter of all time. Two, he's arguably the best ball handler in the league. And three he's six ft three and a much better athlete than Darius Garland, so you can get to his spots a lot easier. So like he's kind

of the exception to the rule. But Kyrie Irving elevates into his shot and has a higher release point which allows him to actually get off shots against elite defense. As a guy like Darius Garland, I concerned about his ability. I am scerned about his ability to get to his spots and knockdown shots against the better defenses in the league.

And he really really struggled last night. And then fundamentally, you gotta look at like, can you win with two small guards in your primary lineups that don't defend and I mean Donovan Mitchell, he doesn't defend but at least he can make some plays with his athleticism on the periphery, so he can grab contested rebounds, like and he grabbed a huge contested rebound late in this game. I think

it was when it was or something like that. The uh, he's going to make the occasional defensive play with his athleticism because he's just such a big, strong athlete at the guard position. But you're not getting any of that out of Darius Garland. He's just completely overmatched this season. When Darius Garland doesn't play their six and oh and when he does play there two and four. Now, does that mean you trade Darius Garland? I don't know. That's

not an easy question. I would certainly give this a lot longer and ride it out till at least the deadline. But there's no point in going down prideful. You made a trade for a really good guard that does everything that Darius Garland does and does it better and is a more functional athlete on your defensive in your defensive scheme, although he's flawed there. So yes, I get that you drafted Darius. Yes, I get that the fan base is

attached to him. I'm sure Cavs fans will recoil when they hear this, But at a certain point, you gotta look at this and go, I've got Jared Allen, Evan Mobley, you know I've got Donovan Mitchell. Would I be better served it caresul Vert's playing well? Would I be better served with a wing out of that specific position? Is their team out there? Like? Could I call Toronto and try to functionally swap Darius Garland for like an O, G N and Noby? Would I be better off if

I did something like that with Toronto? Appreciate having the offensive firepower with all the size that they have on the perimeter, Like those are the kinds of questions that Cleveland's gonna have to ask themselves as we get closer to the trade deadline. Won't do anything now? Too small example size. You gotta ride this out to the deadline. But you gotta pay really close attention to how you're

losing these games. And a couple of their recent losses have been because of their weak uh size and physicality and defense in the backcourt. Last note from the Caves. I was so impressed with Evan Mobile last night and four, mainly his physical aggression He's still pretty thin, but he fights hard for position. He's fearless when he's attacking smaller defensive players. He had two specific post moves in this

game that I like. There was one in the first half where he got Andrew Wiggins on a switch and he just battled for positions and Wiggins. Wiggins is a big, strong man now, and you know, Mobile is still basically a kid, and he's jockeying for position against Wiggins and actually fights and gets a decent spot on the floor about ten ft from the rim, and then just does a really physical, like violent ripped through to the baseline and finishes with his left hand on the other side

of the rim. That was impressive. And then he got Lamb on a switch in the fourth quarter and made a really good aggressive post move towards the middle of the floor, made like a sweeping hook shot in the lane. That was actually a big play in this game. UM. I like him a lot. I like his physical aggression. I like how quick his feet is compared to so many of these other lanky defensive bigs that have come

through the league. Um, he's really really exciting and and even how good do you gotta feel as the Calves, where like you're Darius Garland problem is not that big of a problem because how good Jared Allen is, how good Evan Mobley is, and how good Donovan Mitchell is. All right, let's talk about the Kings and the Lakers. So the Lakers took a thirteen point lead late in the second quarter of this game, and then they let Sacramento get it back to four with like two minutes left.

Um uh, they were up their team with about two minutes left, and by halftime it was back to four. And then the rest of the game is really about as back and forth as you could possibly imagine, until the Lakers went cold at the end of the game. Sacramento went on an eight oh run at the end of this game. So first of all, um, they get a stop, but Anthony Davis gets buried under the rim by Sabonis and as a result, there's a rebonding foul.

I think uh, Patrick Beverley saw him in trouble and came flying over and ended up fouling Sabonis on the ensuing possession. Harrison Barnes ends up getting a bailout foul at the end of the shot clock, so he makes two Free throws. Then they go down the other way and in pick and roll, Russ just for some reason takes an impossible bank shot leaning towards his life and misses it very next possession. Um, I was just talking about that ghost screen. Actually, I was telling you guys

about well, I believe it might have been. It was either I think it was Terrence Davis, it might have been davey On Mitchell, I can't remember, but Austin Reeves was guarding one of the other king's guards, but have even been Malik Monk, but they ran up instead a ghost screen, so like ran past Deer and foxon didn't actually set a screen and in in the process Austin Reeves froze for just a second but then recovered out and Russell Westbrook just just quit on the play, didn't

didn't switch out to the other uh to the other King's guard, and also didn't stay in front of Deer and Fox literally just let him drive around. I just tweeted out the clip earlier today was one of the most bizarre defensive player I've ever seen. Fox just goes right downhill and scores. Now it's a four oh run.

Then they double Anthony Davis in the poet liston on the back side of Patrick Beverley ends up missing a pretty decent look from three at the top of the key, and then Darren Fox hits a really tough turnaround over Austin Reeves and from there, Lonnie Walker miss the three out of a time out that was kind of like, you know, they were already down four at that point, and then Harrison Barns made two free throws and then

the game was over. So, I mean, you know, it's kind of a depressing loss of you're a Lakers fan, right because you're kind of hanging around the entire game. You have a late lead at one, four, one twelve, and then you blow it, giving up an eight over run.

I mean, but here's the reality, Like, uh, I gotta Anthony Davis continues to be one of the most frustrating players that have ever covered, because like you look at the box score, and you look at the production, and you look at like the defensive highlights for most possessions and it's so good. But the types of mistakes he makes, particularly in transition defense and particularly uh in box out situations,

can be so frustrating. He he got bullied against the Clippers in the second half on the offensive glass and then critical possession. It's one four, one twelve, there's two minutes left in the game. You have the lead, you get a stop, and you don't box out Sabonus. He buries you under the rim. They get an extra possession

and that triggers their run. Like that's the kind of stuff where it's like, oh, man, Anthony Davis, Like, you can't make that mistake as a guy who calls himself one of the top ten players in the league, you can't make that particularly mistake. Like this season, the bouts of bad transition defense and the bouts of bad defensive rebounding from Anthony Davis has been really problematic for this team, and they've lost games because of it, Like that King's

game last night. I'm not gonna say that's the reason they lost, but that was a big play when you had a late lead, and then they lost that game up in Denver earlier this season strictly because Anthony Davis wasn't running back in transition. Um they were. The Lakers in particular, were really struggling with Sacramentos pick and roll in the fourth quarter. And if I have some time later today, I'm gonna make a video about this because

I think it's really interesting. So basically, um uh so early in the quarter it was Chebezzi met Too and Darren Fox and they were guarding it with when you in Gabriel and Troy Brown Jr. And so you kind of when you're running a drop coverage, like we always talked about, guard chases over the top of the screen. Right, so Darren Fox is coming downhill, Troy Brown Juniors trailing

him right when you Gabriel. Because Troy Brown Junior is behind the ball handler, he has to step over and kind of contain the ball handler while they're getting downhill. But there's an important thing that's supposed to happen in that coverage. If the guard gets completely out of position to where the big has to step up, then the guard is supposed to peel off of the guard and run down to the big and box him out of the lane so that he can't get an offensive rebound.

And they got killed in that specific matchup because you know, like Troy Brown Junior word chase Fox over the top when you would step up, Fox would miss like a short jump shot, basically being bracketed by when you Gabriel and Troy Brown Junior and Chevezi met Too come in unguarded to tip dunk the basketball into the hoop. Then there was another play later in the like a few possessions later. Now Anthony Davis checks backs into the checks

back into the game, same type of deal. Austin Reeves is chasing Deer and Fox over the top of the screen. Anthony Davis steps up their bracketing Fox. He misses the shot, but Austin doesn't dig down to the big and there's Demonis Sabonis making a layup right at the front of the rim. So finally, at the end of the fourth quarter, they did what you're supposed to do with the peel off switches with Patrick Beverley on Deer and Fox, and they did it twice, and Beverley did his job, peeled

over the top, applied some back pressure. As soon as he saw Anthony Davis step up to contain, he ran down and boxed Demonis Sabonis out. But a d couldn't get a damn stop. And two times in a row he gave Deer and Fox way too much space and he knocked down back to back contested contested jumpers over the top, and so that's what's frustrating, is like early in the fourth quarter you're struggling because the guards aren't

doing their job. Then you bring in the guy that I've been calling the defensive player or the year, and he's not doing his job and he can't get a stop on deer. And Fox's a mid level point guard in this league. In those isolation situations, office switches and so you know that specific action and I'll try to break it down in the video later today, Like I said, if I have some time, so keep an eye on my Twitter feed. Um, but yeah, that was that was the specific action that was killing l A down the

stretch of this game. A couple of quick notes on Sacramento. They're up to five and six now, they're five and two since their own four start in that span, their fifth and offense, twenty defense, eleventh and net rating on the season, dear, and Fox is averaging twenty three five and six on sixty two true shooting in crunch time

this season. He's fifteen for twenty four. Excuse me that twenty five and six six is just in this last uh seven games span when they're five and two UM in crunch time this season, Deer and Fox fifteen for twenty four from the field, three of six from three, and he's perfect from the line. So he's been incredible and crunch time, although it hasn't necessarily mounted to wins for them in the U in clutch situations over the season. Kevin Herder is also having a great season from three

on eight attempts. Seed another big shot in the fourth quarter last night, and then Sabonis made two huge plays down the stretch on the offensive glass, one and pick and roll and one on that offensive rebound against Anthony Davis that I told you about. UM, this is a fun team. They don't defend and they're likely not going anywhere, so we're not gonna spend a ton of time talking about them this season, but they are fun. A couple

of quick notes on the Lakers. I wonder how much longer the upper management is going to watch this team spiral out of control. UM, Like it's an hour never kind of thing. Now where never was this summer, but now it's definitely an now or never. You're two in ten, like at a certain point you've gotta if you're going to give them a fighting chance. Give them a fighting chance now before they're too far below in the standings.

If you're not going to give him a fighting chance, then stop making Lebron play through foot soreness, Stop making Anthony Davis play through lower backs soreness. If you have are If you do not care about this team and you do not care about what they can accomplish, then pull the freaking plug before somebody gets hurt, because you keep talking about next summer and it won't matter if

they if one of them suffers a serious injury. So like this weird thing where you're like beating the hell out of Lebron and Anthony Davis to try to win games, but not actually giving them the requisite pieces to compete. It's just horrific leadership from the Lakers up top, and and I wish they would just pick what the heck they want to do. If you don't believe in these guys and you don't want to give them a fighting chance, then pull the plug before one of them gets hurt.

All right, that's all I have for today, guys. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support. Like I said, we'll get to some of the other games from Friday night and the Saturday Sunday games on Monday. I will see you guys after the weekend.