Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry EXPLODES, Warriors stun Celtics, Ja Morant's game-winner lifts Grizzlies

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incredible week, A fun live show on YouTube again. It's been a long time since we've done this, but I miss it and I'm glad we're gonna be doing it again, something we plan on doing every week basically from here on out. And then, obviously, as you guys know, every day when we get to the playoffs, so we're gonna be breaking down that unbelievable basketball game between the Golden

State Warriors and the Boston Celtics. I have thoughts on John Morant's scintillating return to action, and then I have a quick little shout out I want to give to Dame Lillard to hit twenty thousand career points tonight, you guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. I mean a lot to me if you guys would take ten seconds to scroll

down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under oops tonight, follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lts you guys don't miss any show announcements as well as the film threads that I do from time to time throughout the week, and then last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so that we can hit them throughout the remainder of the season.

right now versus things that aren't. And for those of you who have been listening this season, you know that one of the trends that I've been clinging to is this idea of the high motor athlete. Basically, especially during the course of an eighty two game season, night in and night out, with all the traveling, with all the swings and motivation level and all the things that can influence basketball games, it's really difficult to play hard all

the time, especially when you're older. You know, like I'm only thirty two, and I have a hell of a lot fewer miles on me than a lot of the veterans that are playing around the NBA, and I just don't move the way that I used to on a daily basis.

especially over the course of the regular season. Think of it like this transition defense, it's about sprinting back right, just simple perimeter defense in the NBA, it's about navigating screens and sitting down in his stance and sliding your feet. Defensive rebounding, it's about positioning yourself between man and ball

and pursuing the basketball. Offensive rebounding is about pursuing the basketball when you screen and roll to the basket, like Tray Jackson Davis did so many times tonight, and he was killing the Celtics just screening and rolling hard to the basket. That key offensive rebound late that led to the Steph Curry dagger three in overtime was a Steph Curry split in a pick and roll against Al Horford. He got downhill. Both Al Horford and Derek White ran with him to the rim and Steph just had to

get it up there where. But Tray Jackson Davis, who set the screen twenty five feet from the basket, has to get down to the rim to get into that scrum and get to the basketball. I'm just not sure if that's a play that Dario Sarich can make right, just from an athleticism standpoint, Tray Jackson Davis slipping early at his screens. He had a bunch of success against Klay Thompson or with Klay Thompson, excuse me in that third quarter stretch, just setting good hard screens as the

Celtics were showing, just rolling hard to the rim. Like Tray Jackson Davis last year was one of the better pick and role players in the country in college and specifically I remember like watching the film when I was scouting him and thinking, like, man, this dude is just getting swarmed on every single one of these ball screens. And it was just one of those things where I thought, when he gets to the NBA, he's just gonna have so much more space to operate. And you're seeing his

finishing ability play a role there. When Steve Kurr first put the bench group out there in the late first early second quarter, it was Dario Sorry Jet center. They were struggling to protect the rim. Trace Jackson Davis had two massive blocks on Jalen Brown on drives, one on the in the first half. You remember he pinned on the glass. You could hear on the broadcast he screwed, give me that shit, you know, because he says bringing that energy, he just has that ferocity that you need

from that specific position. And then in ot when Jalen got downhill, and it was one of the rare times where I thought going for a dunk was probably the wrong idea, because if he would have just kind of kept his arm out and went for a lefty layup, I don't think Trace could have got there. But he tried to dunk it, and Trace made that extra effort and he got there and he beat Jalen Brown to

the rim and made a play. And like again, we talked a lot about Jonathan Kaminga and Moses Moody and whether or not they have the wherewithal to make solid decisions and to do their jobs within the sixteen game goal of the NBA playoffs, But that's different from the regular season. And like we saw last year, like Moses Moody was a guy that they could depend on or at least for a few shifts a game. But it was a little bit of a question mark with Jonathan Kaminga.

But it's like, in this sort of setting, why the hell not lean into him, especially at home when you know your young guys are gonna play super hard and bring that energy for the home crowd. He did an amazing job down the stretch on Jason Tatum got a key stop before the end of regulation that sent it to ot and then on offense down the stretch of the game. For the Warriors, it was just a steady diet of Steph attacking Al Horford in pick and roll.

Big flashbacks to the NBA Finals, if you guys remember, and if you remember in the NBA Finals, it followed a very similar pattern in the sense that the Celtics are running what was supposed to be a high drop, but Steph's running these ball screens so far away from the basket that it's just really hard for the big to get up high enough. And Steph hits that big three on the left wing, I think it was the

one that tied it at one eighteen. Hits that big three on the left wing against Horford in drop coverage and then what ends up happening, inevitably, the Celtics get worried about that shot, so they bring Al Horford out further, which Steph usually drags the ball screen out to then force the switch, and now it's Al Horford on an island against Steph Curry and it's that hard in and out step to the side for the Big three that

tied it. After the Derek White three. It was a steady diet of Steph attacking Horford, and there were even you know, it kind of devolved into what so many rock fights do, where you're seeing in ot everyone's fatigued, and it's like Klay Thompson missing good looks and Jason Tatum smoking a layup right at the rim, and a

couple other Celtics miss good looks. But that's just the way rock fights are, and a lot of times in a situation like that, making a play like what Steph made there down the stretch again, another Al Horford, another opportunity to attack Al Horford and pick and roll, bringing him out above the foul line, splitting the pick and roll,

getting downhill, Derek White's trying to apply back pressure. You're bringing two guys to the basket, so even if you do miss that layup, you just are providing your teammate in trace Jackson Davis with basically a free run to

the offensive glass. I was so impressed by Steph in this particular game, just from the standpoint of his conditioning, because there was a stretch there where he was really struggling in the second half before he got it going late and you know, the Lakers kind of put together a game plan that works pretty damn well against the Golden State Warriors, at least in terms of the way

they tried to wear down Steph. Like we saw the top locking on all of the perimeter players and funneling him towards Anthony Davis and Lebron James on the back line.

he's not. He's a firmly above average defensive player. He's got good size for the position at six three, he's strong,

he does his job right. But if you just attack him in the post every single possession or from the perimeter every single possession, you can wear on his legs and that could potentially lead to missing shots and I was so impressed by Steph's conditioning in this game, because he was the guy making shots late despite the fact that Boston was going at him relentlessly in the post, which again, and you got to think when you're defending in the post, it's like you're legitimately sitting down in

a low stance and absorbing contact. That's all heavy exertion on your legs. I was really impressed by Steph. It was a classic game on that front. And then again, you have to get secondary support. This is something we've talked about a lot over the course of the season. When the secondary support is not there, Steph has to do that much more. And then the fatigue hand play role. We saw that in the Lakers series right when. We've seen this in general over the course of recent weeks.

As Steph has his efficiency has gone down a little bit, it's just a byproduct of not getting that secondary support. Well, this is I mean, we're on a little over a week now. If Clay pay playing significantly better gives you twenty four tonight, hit a bunch of key shots there late in regulation. I know he got cold in ot, but he had some big shots in regulation. He again that that this is something we really started to see

towards the tail end of last year. But Clay is exceptionally good at at using the over the top kind of like float pass because he's taller than most guards that are flying off the screens, that over the top float pass to hit the role man, and he was having success generating offense, making dump offs to trace Jackson Davis as he was coming off of curls, and again, just that little bit of extra support pushes you over the top. Now, this is going to be a challenge.

We talked about this a lot over the course of this week. This this this Warriors team is in a in a strange predicament because as of right now, they're outside of the plan and we've got this, you know, presumably another three weeks or so, according to the reports that came out in the last couple of days, where

Draymond's not going to be around. Okay, so we're talking like another ten to twelve games, right I haven't looked at the schedule to see exactly how many, but over the course that span, it's going to be difficult, and it's going to require a lot of heroic efforts from specific guys. It's gonna require Steph to be at an

MVP level like he was tonight. It's gonna require Klay Thompson to be a guy who's consistently in the mid twenties and who's generating additional offense with his passing ability. It's gonna require Steve Kerr leaning into the athletes and just counting on them to get a lot of the work done. Again, you can figure out playoff rotations down the line. You don't know what you're gonna do with

the deadline. I think I think the I think we're pretty certain at this point that the Warriors are gonna be a team that's gonna look to do something at the deadline. Right So, like this, who knows what it's gonna look like down the line. You've got to float things right here. Not to keep bringing up Lakers comps, but this is exactly what happened to the Lakers last year. It's like Anthony Davis gets hurt. You know, you're trading Russ at the deadline. It's like we got this weird team.

It's like Lebron, Russ and Dennis and like we're small and we're just gonna have to find a way to win games.

in personnel. Draymond Green being out obviously hurts this team, but they just got to find a way to hover as close to five hundred as they can and doing things like winning the home games, in particular, when you know your young young guys are gonna bring that energy that goes a long way towards helping you accomplish that goal.

Now before, I'm not gonna talk any more Warriors. Tonight Tomorrow, sam Is Fondiari from the Light Years podcast Friend of Mine is going to come on the show and we are going to do a deep dive on the Golden State Warriors. We're gonna be recording that in the relatively early portion of tomorrow morning. So tomorrow afternoon, Warriors fans, keep an eye on the feed. You're going to see a lot more Warriors related content in the right around

noon tomorrow. On the Boston front, you know, this is something that I've been harping on all season long, and Boston plays such a consistent style night in a night out that it just kind of becomes part of the story, right. And it was frustrating because throughout the Lion's share of this game, the Celtics were approaching it in a very a unique way compared to the way that they usually play. They were relentless attacking in the post. Now, the Celtics

are a high post up team in general. They like to post up a lot with Drew Holliday, they post up a lot with Jaylen Brown, they post up a lot with Jason Tatum. They occasionally throwing a post up there with Al horfordps Porzingis has been deadly in the post this year. They run a lot of post ups, but when krisops Porzingis is out of the lineup, they're

not that heavy of a post up team. But they were running a ton of post ups in this particular game, and they were relentless punishing Golden State smaller players inside. But what happened, and it's something that happens so often with the Celtics team, is they have a tendency to cling to the good shot rather than the great shot. This is a concept I talk about a lot on this show, right Like, I want to give you guys a couple of basic examples. Al Horford took a corner

three in transition quick trigger. If it was it was it was in ot if I remember correctly, I remember when he shot it. I was like, man, like, how do you not try to run some offense and see if you can get something better and see if maybe that's a shot you end up with. Not to mention when you're running in transition, your legs are tired from running, and you're not squared up. You're running back looking for the ball.

Do you guys see the difference between that that's an open al Horford three in transition versus a wide open Al Horford three on a stan still situation out of a double team. From that Jalen Brown draws out of the post. One is a decent shot, the second is a great shot, right, That's the difference.

to think about it. His feet are already said he didn't just sprint in transition, and Derek White knocks it down again. Derek White transitioned three. Okay shot. Derek White catch and shoot three facing the rim, standing still out of a double team, when Jason Tatum is posting up a smaller guard, great shot. And again, like, one of the things that's tough with this Boston team is they're so damn talented that a lot of times the okay

shots go in. But one of the biggest problems with this particular team is they are not methodical enough about seeking out the great shots down the stretch of games.

Or a pick and pop fourth or something like that, right, And I think those are good trends to follow over the course of an eighty two game season, and the kinds of shots are getting over the course of forty eight minute games. But once you get to crunch time, shot value doesn't matter anymore. Field goal percentage does. Because if I could run beautiful offense for catch and shoot threes and miss six in a row, oh like, just take a take a steph Curry and just chart every

single catch and shoot three he takes. He'll have stretches where he makes eight out of ten, and it all stretches where he misses like four or five in a row. How often do you see guys miss four or five shots in a row within five feet of the basket. It just doesn't happen at the end of games. That field goal percentage matter is what matt That number is what matters in the small sample size. It no longer becomes about aggregate shot value over a large sample size.

It becomes about generating the best quality shots. And again it's just this team, like like Al Horford in particular is a great example.

And that, to me is the is the big thing that's standing in the way we talked about. Jason Tatum once again ops for a pull up three on Jonathan Kminga late in the game on the right wing when he had the final possession. Derek White was right there, there was like seven or eight seconds left. I thought he should have had. Derek White comes at another ghost screen, try to see if he can make something happen there to get a higher quality shot, but no, it takes

a pull up three. Jason Tatum is one of eight players in the NBA this year that attempts at least five pull up threes per game. All of the other guys shoot thirty five percent or better on him. Jason Tatum coming into the night twenty nine point nine percent. Jayson Tatum last year five attempts per game twenty nine point one percent. For whatever reason, he just hunts that shot and he's not good at it. He was once upon a time, back in like twenty nineteen he could

make that shot. But we're pushing like a thousand reps here now dating back three seasons where that shot has been worth well below a point per possession, and Tatum is just hunting it and hunting it and hunting it. And a big part of it is like back then, he wasn't hunting it as frequently, his volume was lower. I'm not saying Jayson Tatum shouldn't take pull up threes. They should just be a shot that he takes when he generates outstanding separation on a move or you know,

late clock situation. It's it's a rescue shot. I just need to get something up. I get that he should he should take two or three of them a game, but like he shouldn't push the volume. He's taking six of them a game this year. He shouldn't push his volume up to that point until he's got it going. He's just doing the defensive favor in those particular situations

that Tatum had some good stretches in this game. He in the middle of the fourth quarter, I thought he did an excellent job of just putting relentless rim pressure as he generated quality shot after quality shot. I thought, like that possession after Steph tied it at one eighteen when he methodically ran that two man game with Derek White, drew the double team and hit Derek, Like that was

really high quality offense. But then it would be like there was a possession in ot where he hopped the ball in the left wing with Steph on him, was seven on the shot clock, and he passed it away immediately to Jalen Brown in the corner, who promptly drove

into traffic and missed a layup. And I will like, that's the thing is like we talk about like heliocentrism and like how that can be monotonous over the when you see guys like Luka Doncicch do it like seventy five times in a game, or James Harden do it seventy five times in a game back in the old Rocket Stays. But spamming in action is actually a good thing in a small sample because it's just a simple

matter of personnel. My guy's bigger and stronger than yours, and we're gonna get a great shot just by attacking that. It's just that offensive process piece. It's like it just consistently comes to the forefront with Boston, and it only comes to the forefront in these big games. You know, I had a Boston fan a tweet at me tonight. He goes Jason Tatum has won four or five playoff series with that pull up shot, and like, don't get

me wrong, I remember some of these shots. I remember Jason Tatum hitting a huge right shoulder fade over the Milwaukee Bucks in Game six, if I remember correctly, in Milwaukee. I've seen Jason Tatum take and make big time shots. I'm not saying that he shouldn't take them. I'm not saying they shouldn't be part of his game, but there's no question at this point that it's too big of a part in this game. And again, that Milwaukee buck shot I was talking about that was a range jump shot.

It's funny I got into the doghouse this summer because I said we were doing player rankings, I think, and I had Jalen Brunson over Ja Morant, and everyone hyper focused on it as being some sort of negative jam Morant take, which is not the case. It's just Jalen Brunson is one of my favorite players in the league, and he's awesome at basketball. Just had fifty the other night.

He's been averaging twenty eight for like a month. He's been one of the most efficient scorers in the league over that spand like, Jalen Brunston, you just kicked the Lakers ass last night. Like Jalen Brunson is incredible, right, Tyres Aliburton is incredible.

to watch in the league. And what you saw tonight was what happens when you have a guy with a superpower and how that can make the game of basketball so much easier. John Morant's superpower is that he's so damn fast. He makes the NBA's fast guys look not fast. That's his superpower. And we're going to talk about his scoring in a minute, but it was his passing in particular that I thought demonstrated this concept so well tonight.

There was a pass that he had in the first half, a transition push where he was working his way.

the same thing. There was a ball screen with it was a staggered pick and roll with Zaire set in the first pick and then Jaron Jackson setting the second picks on the right wing. Was in the first half, and Trey Murphy ends up jumping the first ball screen and hedging really hard on Jaw, and as a result of that, Jaw had to split, and so he does. When Jared Jackson recognizes that Jaw's not going to use the second pick because he splits, he immediately slips to

the rim. But this whole thing happens so fast. Jaw goes off the pick splits and then just funnels up a left handed scoop lob to Jaron Jackson, who dunks it at the basket. Yonas Valanciunas is in like kind of a drop coverage in this situation. The whole thing happens so fast. Not only does Jonas Valacunas not get not get a hand up, or not only does he not jump, he didn't even get a hand up. He's

stuck in the mud. He's like he just turns around and suddenly Jaron Jackson's on the rim because of how quickly, Like that's a read that we see a lot like, Oh, it's a hedge. You split the head, you gotta engage the drop coverage defender. Then you throw that lob to the vertical spacer. It's a play we see a lot in the NBA, but it never looks like that because

no one ever does it that fast. And again, like we talk so much about all these different skill set things, but like that individual athletic superpower is one of the most warping things that an individual player can do for a basketball team. And he's just he's always just been a gifted passer in general. Now, the Pelicans are generally a hard held team, but consistently John Moran tonight was raaiding the lowman really well, hit multiple threes in the

weak side corner with skip passes. It's just he's he is going to make offense so much easier for this Grizzly team. We're gonna talk a lot about but we're gonna talk a little late in this show about what they have lying in front of them as as a challenge, but there's no doubt that it's just gonna be a lot easier for this team with John Moran in the court. Then down the stretch, John gets three straight buckets in the final minute and a half. Starts with an ISO

of Herb Jones out of the right corner. Herb is a kind of opened up a little bit and John just just drives right behind to the left and goes to that little left hand to push out in the lane. Then very next possession, Now this is something that we saw. Do you guys remember the the spinning and one that John Murran had in the third quarter. This is the concept that that that is another thing that's really to speed. Joh comes off the pick yonas is in a drop.

It's kind of like a high drop, right, Like the Pelicans usually bring Yonas as high as they can into the ball screen and then they're a big backside help team. That's just kind of the way that they kind of deal with Yonas's limitations in pick and roll coverage.

further away from the basket to evade the hedge. That gives him time to recover. You're on ball defender a chance to get back to the ball. That's why teams do a hard hetch. Here's the problem. Jow's two dan fast for herb Jones crossed over left to right instead, So when Yonas was waiting for him on the right side of the pick for the on the left side of the pick for the hedge, Jaw's going right and now there's no weak side help and Zion was late

coming out of the corner. He tried to block him and had no chance, and Joh lazed it and then down the stretch the final possession the game winners a one four low.

makes that shot at a really high clip. It ends up being the game winner. Now again, like we can talk about the pelic and why the hell they just kept letting Jago one on one. That's a story for a different day. But like, just just from a sheer standpoint of athletic gifts, think of it like this. Herb Jones is one of the best perimeter defenders in the game. You know, have you ever heard, you guys, ever heard of the concept like defending on your heels? You know,

one of the things that I noticed. And we're gonna talk Lakers on probably Thursday, is my guess. But in the next game last night were I if you guys who follow me on Twitter and saw the film thread that I did this morning, I kind of broke down the differences for Ruey Hachamura when he would try to actually hold his ground and meet Julius Randall with force, and how that forced Julius into tough fadeaways versus when he opened.

he's opening his shoulders. Never once did he actually try to cut John Moran off because he's out of position. Because Jos's way too damn fast for him. And that's the superpower. There are superpowers, and then there are superpowers where even the dude on the other team that has the same type of super power can't handle it. When your best perimeter defenders can't do anything with him like that,

it just puts your defense in a huge predicament. Now you're gonna have to just double team him and pray someone else misses a shot, right, which Pels didn't do, and you know that's their prerogative. But honestly, just this is all I'm gonna say about it. As a basketball fan, I had so much fun watching John Moran tonight. I'm so glad he's back playing basketball. The Grizzlies are in a tough spot. They're seven games out of the ten spot with fifty six games left, and they have a

lot of issues that extend beyond jaw. It's possible, but it's going to be really, really tough. But what's great about it is you've got one of those guys. Anthony Edwards, Tyree Saliburton, John Morant, Shake Gildess, Alexander all four of these young guards are like Quo to FID, superstars in my opinion, in the making, either there or in the making, and like, you've got one of those guys. We talk a lot about this on on this show. The idea of like you got to have step one is get

the guy. Once you get the guy, you've categorize the strengths and weaknesses and you build a roster around him.

across twenty thousand career points. But most importantly because shout out to Dame for hitting twenty thousand points, but he's

averaging thirty seven per game in his last three. Those of you guys Bucks fans, remember I did a deep dive on Monday about their win over the Rockets and all of the positive trends that came out of that, right, and I didn't love that they just like I understand, Andre Jackson's just not as good as Malik beasily you have to go back to him in the starting lineup, But I just wish we could see the Bucks with

that type of defender in that spot. That said, one of the key elements of that whole spiel that I gave that day was, Yes, it's about having a point of attack defender next to Dame. Yes, it's about Chris giving you eighteen to twenty a night just in scoring on the margins. Yes, it's gianness being honest. Yes it's broken a deep drop and out playing your other team

center and doing all the those things. But at the head of the snake, you need MVP level, top tier half court surgeon Damian Lillard, and he was not that for the first quarter of the season, and it's been a hell of a journey him getting his legs underneath him. But I think we're starting to see that and so above and beyond any sort of recognition for Dame on a great career accomplishment, that dude just seems ready to take a run, and I think the Bucks are going

to follow. All Right, guys, that's all I have for tonight. We'll be back tomorrow with Samusfondii from Light Years, and we'll have a couple of film sessions on Thursday Friday before the weekend. As always, I appreciate you guys, and I will see you tomorrow. The volume