Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry takes over in Warriors win vs. Bucks, Raptors-Lakers, Blazers-76ers

more twenty one plus in select states. FanDuel is offering online sports way during in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem called one eight hundred Gambler or visit FanDuel dot com slash RG. In Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia call one eight hundred, next step or text next step to five three three four two. In Arizona dial one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven seven, or

visit CCPG dot org slash chat. In Connecticut dial one eight hundred nine with it. In Indiana, dial one eight hundred five two two forty seven hundred, or visit KS gamblinghelp dot com. In Kansas dial one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop. In La call one eight hundred three two seven five zero five zero, or visit www dot M A h E. LP l I NE dot org slash problem Gambling visit www dot MD gambling help dot org. In Maryland dial one eight seven seven eight Hope n Y. Or text Hope n Y to four

six seven three six nine in New York. Dial one eight hundred five two two forty seven hundred in Wyoming, or visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, you welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by FanDuel here at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great weekend so far. Steph and Curry snatched victory from the

jaws of defeat against the Milwaukee Bucks. Tonight, we're gonna talk about that game and three games from last night, including Joel Embiid and his nasty game winner against the Portland Trailblazers. The Lakers notching yet another impressive win without Lebron James and then I have a couple of thoughts, a couple of basketball concepts I want to get into that I thought were interesting at the end of the NETS win on the road in Minnesota against the Timberwolves

last night. You guys know the drill. Before we get started, subscribed to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements. And if, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube

to finish, don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts Under Hoops tonight, and last but not least, before we get started, you guys have heard me talk about game Time, the fast growing ticketing app in the United States. If you're looking to get out to an NBA game, or a college basketball game, or a baseball game, or an NHL game, or a concert or even a comedy show, game Time has amazing last minute deals on

tickets to all of these. I have never been to an NBA playoff game before, so I'm gonna try to get up to Phoenix this year to see Kevin Durant and the Suns play in a playoff game just right up the road. For me, Gametime is an incredible user experience. I know I'm going to find a great seat. I know I'm gonna get a great deal on it. I've used it before and I've really liked it. I want you guys to check it out, no matter where you live,

get out and have some fun this week. Download the game Time app and to your email and redeem code Hoops for twenty dollars off your first order. Terms apply again and to your email and the code Hoops. That's h Oops for twenty dollars off. Download game Time today, Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed again. Steph Curry, that game was all but over down eight with less than

two minutes left. You're being guarded by the best guard defender in the league who did a really nice job on Steff throughout the game, who also drew holiday in

the final minute. Hit a tough contest at three on the right wing, so you're basically dugg in an eleven point hole effectively there and Steph goes four for four on ridiculous shot difficulty to send the game to ot Clay gets gets going, and ot hits two shots to build a little bit of a margin, and then Steph closes the deal with a ridiculous three on the left

wing and a driving layup. And Draymond also was magnificent defensively down the stretch, got a kist stop on brook Lopez in the post, had a really nice close out on a brook Lopez three in the right corner. Hit a pretty nasty ankle injury earlier in the game and battled through it. He was a plus twenty two in this game. It was a vintage Warriors win, and that's why they've won some n games. They just understand all those little things that you gotta do at the end

of the games. This was a you know, it's been a tough execution year for the Warriors on a bunch of different levels, a lot of different factors at play, and you know, there was some bad intel that came out from the Andrew Wiggins thing. I think it was Anthony Slayter, if I remember correctly. I hope I'm right about that, but he had mentioned that there's a suspicion that Andrew hasn't even touched a basketball court in several weeks. Jonathan Cominga. He's day to day with the ankle injury,

but he's missing multiple games here. Gary Payton still hasn't played so like especially going into a matchup like this against a Bucks team that is pretty damn good without Yannis. They were nine and five coming into the night when Jannis sits out. Even without Jannis, there's still an unbelievable defensive team. They've got still Brook Lopez, who's you know, every bit of the defensive Player of the Year candidate that he's always been. Drew Holliday, one of the best

guard defenders in the league. Like we mentioned earlier, this was a tough game to win, even for the Warriors at home. And you know what was interesting is Golden State came in with a really good game plan. I thought, you know, one of the interesting things about the Bucks is with Yannis, they run the floor in transition like crazy on almost twenty percent of their possessions, and they're really effective there because of what Jannis can do in

the open floor. But without Yannis, they are much more of a half court team. They're not a very athletic team once you get Yannis off the floor, and they're not a team that looks to run very often. And you know, one of the kind of balances that takes place in a basketball game is how much are you willing to crash the offensive glass versus getting back in transition to contain a team that likes to get back.

For instance, if you're playing against the Bucks with Yannis, like you need to get back and you need to build a wall, so you might not be able to be as aggressive to the offensive glass. I thought it was intentional. I would imagine it was part of the game plan, but Golden State was recklessly attacking the offensive glass.

And I thought it was smart because when Yannis is off the floor, the percentage of possessions that Milwaukee looks to run in transition plummets down to like thirteen percent according to Cleaning the Glass, and they're way less effective on a points per possession basis when they run. They're just not a very good transition team without Giannis, And so I thought it was a really smart game plan they had. I think they had like eighteen or nineteen

offensive rebounds on this game, which is absolutely insane. It was the way they wanted ot with all the extra chances that they got it. They had a good game plan, but at the end of the day, they were still down one o eight to one hundred with less than two minutes left because once again against that Bucks team, which is so big and so good defensively. I've talked about this a lot about you know, because you guys know how much I believe in Steph Curry and Draymond Green.

It's kind of similar to the way I've talked about Lebron and Anthony Davis over the years. I have a huge believer in those two. I'm a huge believer in Stephan Draymond. But the reality is is one of the things that we all can learn about the game of basketball is it is a team sport no matter what, and there are certain responsibilities that have to be checked on the floor. Stephan Draymond are both below average athletes for their position, and so you need to surround them

with a certain level of athleticism. Like even when we go back to the Warriors in their absolute prime, whether it was Kevin Durant or in his prime Andrea Guadala, Harrison Barnes, or playing with Andrew Bogae at center, there was a size and athleticism that went beyond their core that could help cover those bases, and it's just really hard, especially in the modern NBA with how deep these teams are with talent, to win when you're as unathletic as

the Warriors are without Andrew Wiggins, without Gary Payton, without Jonathan Cominga. So they were still in a hole there, and that's why I said this was snatching the victory from the jaws of defeat by Steph Curry. They were supposed to lose that game, and Steph simply would not let them. The types of shots he was hitting there down the stretch, it was putting the ball in the

basket through sheer force of will. That last three he hit to match the one that Drew Holliday hit open or no ball screen, no nothing, just took Drew Holiday and hit him with the step back. Didn't get that much separation, but he got enough and that's enough for him to get his shot off and he willed the ball into the rim again. Four for four down the

stretch of that game, with ridiculous shot quality. It was almost like Steph Curry just kind of felt the situation and went, We're not winning this game unless I just catch a heater right here and he tried like hell to do so, and he did again. It's gonna be really tough. It's gonna get harder for the Warriors here.

They have a tough matchup with the Suns coming up at home, who are playing really good basketball right now, even without Kevin Durant, Devin Bookers on a tear, and then they go back on the road, I think for five games, and you know how the Warriors have struggled on the road. Now this is gonna be the thing. Is this gonna be the moment that galvanizes this group. Are they gonna be able to pull together and get

some wins on the road? I'd like to think from a motivational standpoint, that'll help, But the reality of the situation is without the athleticism of Andrew Wiggins, without the athleticism of Gary Payton, it's just gonna be really hard for them too. I do think Andrew, excuse me, Jonathan Comingo will come back sooner than later, and that will

certainly help things. But this group is going to have to be incredibly locked in down the stretch of this season to get out of the play in because they are at a personnel disadvantage, a athleticism and height disadvantage almost every single night, and you know what it might require Steph being all world good the way that he is in order to float them during the stretch, which you know, that's what superstars do, and he's done it in the past, and I think he can do it again.

I will say though, as a basketball fan, that was fun. That was a fun end of that game to watch. And you know, I will never stop believing in this group and what they're capable of when they're fully healthy, Because when it comes down to it in a key moment and a key playoff series, if I've got Steph Curry and Clay Thompson and Draymond Green and Kevon Looney and hopefully Andrew Wiggins, you know that it's just gonna

be really hard to bet again that group. You know, as I've kind of settled in, I've had the Bucks as my championship favorite for about a month or two now,

pretty much since the last Steph Curry injury. Not because I don't believe in the Warriors when they're healthy, but just the reality of their predicament, which we just went over and everyone else in the league has massive question marks, like you know Denver can't defend nearly as well as Milwaukee, and they're kind of on a slide defensively right now. Phoenix is missing their best player. The Lakers are missing their best player. Philly has no bench, and I have

some question marks about him Beat and James Harden. When we get to the postseason, I think Boston has the best chance, but Milwaukee I think is just slightly better than them, and I trust them a little bit more. And not only that, be honest, is just by far the best player in that particular series should they ever get to that point. Now, we'll reapproach this when we get to April. Like I expect to be able to

see Kevin Rant the Sons a little bit more. I expect the Warriors to hopefully get whole and put together some games in April where they look more or less like the version of themselves that we're going to see in the playoffs. I'm really interested to see what the Lakers look like if they can get four or five games in a row with Lebron James on the court with them. There's a lot of stuff that I want to see. I want to see how good, how well Denver's defending over the course of the last month of

the season. Their personnel limitations are real on the defensive end of the floor, Like in most of their late round playoff series, They're not going to have nearly the same defensive personnel as their opponent. That doesn't mean that they can't win, but that means they have to be incredibly sharp in their details like that go beyond athleticism in size. They're gonna need to be super sharp in their execution defensively. I need to see that from them

in the time leading up to the postseason. So we'll reapproach this when we get to mid April. But as of right now, the Bucks are the safest bet. And I thought, you know, aside from some nightmarish late game execution tonight, Drew Holiday inexplicably dribbling into a turnover after that Brook Lopez block and then looking off Joe Ingles in the corner on that final possession, and Steph Curry making a really nice defensive play on him at the rim,

but in the process Drew leaving time on the clock. Like, they made a lot of mistakes down the stretch of this game, but they have been a really impressive basketball team throughout this season. They seem locked in and ready and unless I see some of those other teams get it together in a bunch of different ways. As of right now, the Bucks are still my favorite. But like I said, we'll reapproach that when we get to April.

All right, let's move on to Blazer sixers. So this was an interesting game in the early slate last night. The Blazers came out red hot. From three Anphony Simons made eight threes. Here's some trivia for you, guys. How many players in NBA history have made at least nine threes in a game at least five times? Take a guess I wish we had. We could insert some trivia sound the answers six. Now try to guess who those

players are. Now, there's gonna be the regular ones you would expect, right, Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Damian Lillard, James Harden, the volume guy. But there's two additional guys, j R. Smith and an Fonny Simons. Literally, he's made nine threes in a game five times. He's actually one of the best heat check guys in the league. Although he was stuck on eight in that game, and they could have

used one more out of him under the circumstances. Last little bit of trivia, how many times do you think Steph has hit at least nine threes in a game? Thirty nine times. Thirty nine times. That's as much as all of the active guys on that list combined that have made at least five. So it's just just another stratosphere for the greatest shooter of all time. But down the stretch, the Sixers locked in on both ends of

the floor. They held the Blazers to just five points in the final five minutes of the game, and Joel

Embiid hits the game winner. There was an interesting kind of sequence there where he was isolating Nurkics, but the spacing wasn't quite right, and Doc Rivers called a time out, and I was confused by it in the moment because I was like, Oh, this is just gonna give Chauncey Billups the opportunity to double team Joel, and he didn't double team Joel left him on an island again, which gave Doc Rivers the opportunity to set up better spacing on Joel's first attempt, like they were a little bit

crowded on him on the wings, and on the play out of the time out, they cleared the top of the floor and gave Joel the entire middle of the floor so that when he did that spin back towards the middle, he had more space to go. Again, if you do that same move and there's a shooter on the left wing, that guy can dig down and disrupt Joel in a way that he can't if it's vacated. So I thought it was a gamble from Doc because I thought he might have set Joel up for a

double team. But it ended up paying off and Joel embiid just a ridiculous high level of skill in that

spin move. I went on with Mark Ryan with CBS Sports Radio this earlier this evening, and we were talking a little bit about the Kendrick Perkins thing, and you know what was funny is like I think that there is actually a little bit of like a European type of bias that takes place where basketball fans just assumed that European players are more skilled than American players, and American players are all players are often characterized by their

you know, kind of tunnel vision in terms of isolation, scoring and a lot of focus on their athleticism, and then the European players it's all the passing and the skill and the flare, And like, I think that that gets a little ridiculous because there's no doubt that in Europe there's a lot of players that play really well in terms of playmaking and things along those lines. But it's a very physical game over there, so isolation scoring

is a little bit less impactful. The spacing is different, and you actually need to move the ball a lot a lot more over there. So a lot of it's just the way they're play the way that they play growing up over there. But I would push back on that concept a lot. I think that American players are extremely underrated in terms of their skill level, and Joel

Embiads a great example of that. Like, yes, Joel Embiad's level of skill is very different than Nikola yokis because it manifests more in scoring skill set, but his scoring skill set his miles and miles and miles ahead of what Nicola Yokis is is. Nicol Yokich is a very efficient score but he does it a lot within the flow of the offense, and he's very good at creating

advantages for himself. But he's not in the same stratosphere as a player as Embiid when it comes to that staring your man in the face and just getting a bucket over the top of him. And so I want to do a better job, and I'm gonna try to work on it on this show and kind of point it out when I see it elsewhere. But the skill

level of American players is insane too. Now. Joel Embid obviously has came from overseas originally, but in terms of his basketball development, for the most part, it's taken place in the United States, and he's thought of in a lot of ways as an American player, even though he's not. So I want to be clear about that. I just think that Joel gets kind of lumped in with that group,

and Yokis kind of with the other groups. I just wanted to kind of differentiate that a little bit, but to be clear, like and beads on a damn tear man, And about two months ago, I was one of those people that thought Yokis was better. And I always have been gravitating towards playmakers. You guys know that about me. I gravitate towards perimeter players, and I gravitate towards playmakers, and so even amongst the centers, I gravitated towards Yokich.

And then there were some specific things that thought mb relied really heavily on foal bating, which is not a thing that I like a lot. And then obviously he hasn't played as well in the postseason as he does in the regular season. Those are two things that are going to kind of point me in opposite directions. But a couple of things. His perimeter jump shot is real. This is a huge sample size that's gone extremely well for him. He's not relying on the foul bating nearly

as often lately. He's drawing a lot of free throws just by dropping his head and going into the lane with a ton of physicality, and it just in generally, there's like a demeanor with him that I've been on for months now, and James harted a fight, a competitiveness that is another level above what I've seen from him early in his career. Every single big game of late, he has shown up in in a big way, especially down the stretch of games. These are a couple of

crazy numbers for you in clutch situations. So when the game is within five points with less than five minutes left. He is scoring at a rate of thirty seven points per thirty six minutes, So if you extrapolated his scoring out to a normal thirty six minute game, it's like he's averaging thirty seven points per game focused within that clutch time situation, shooting fifty percent from the field, thirty six percent from three, and eighty six percent from the line.

The Sixers have a defensive rating of eighty four point six in clutch situations. With Joe Ellen beat on the floor. He made every big play down the stretch as they beat the Denver Nuggets in a head to head matchup with Yokich on both ends of the four. He made every single big play down the stretch in a big game against the Milwaukee Bucks, including the eventual game winner in that three point shot from the top the key and a bunch of monster defensive players in pick and

roll as a switcher and in drop coverage. Even in the Boston game that they lost at the buzzer to Tatum, he was magnificent on both ends down the stretch of that game, and then once again last night against Portland, just incredible on both ends of the floor against a red hot shooting Portland team to get the win. I am switching my stance. Two months ago, I would have told you I thought Yokich is better than Embiid. I think Mbiad has proven over the course of the last

two months that he is a better player. I think his ceiling as an impactful shot maker, you know, downhill fource, drawing fouls at the rim, a defensive on the defensive end of for just another stratosphere ahead. If where Yokich is, I think he's the better player right now, So I'm flipping that now again. I gravitate towards perimeter players, so I'd still take guys like Steph and Kde and Janis

over Yokichen Embiid. But I think Embead is nipping on those guys hills, and I do think he's better than Yokis right now. I think he's proved that. All right, Let's move on to the Raptors and the Lakers. This was yet another really impressive win for the Lakers. Toronto threw a great punch too. They'd come into the game six and five since they traded for Yaka Pearl, their first real center that they've had in a long time. Nick Nurse played his starters together as much as humanly possible.

I think they combined to play twenty seven minutes together, and that group was excellent, and they performed really well against the Lakers. Oge and Obi and Scotty Barnes both had amazing nights to combine for sixty three points on thirty three shots. Og and and Obe knocking down every single spot up three he took, had some really nice isolation plays in the second half. Scotty Barnes was just backing down the Laker guards into the lane for easy

little hook shots and jumpers in the lane. He was awesome. It was just a really really good punch from Toronto. They were frightening defensively. They locked in there at the start of the second half and held the Lakers to just five points in the first seven minutes of the second half, and then three adjustments from Darvin Ham I thought got the Lakers the win. So I wanted to kind of dive into the strategy of that for a minute.

First of all, he went to his zone. This was very important because og and Obi, in particular Scotty Barnes in particular little Pascal Siakom too. All of the big Toronto forwards we're bullying the Laker guards inside to take little pushhots over the top. Now, Toronto's a weird team because the Lakers are big two. Like when the Lakers are healthy, when they have Lebron and you go ad Lebron Jared Vanderbilt, they're a huge team. But even in that case, because of the way Toronto plays eighties on

Yaka Purdle, Lebron can guard a big forward. Jared Vanderbilt can guard a big forward. But that's there's three other big forwards out there between Og and Scottie and Pascal, like one of them is going to end up being guarded by Malik Beasley or D'Angelo Russell. So from a match up perspective, some of it is just how weird Toronto is. They are an uncharacteristically massive team that is playing like a three four type of forward at the two guard position just because that's the way they want

to play. So some of it's a little unusual. But when Darvenham went zone, it helped in a couple of different ways. First of all, it allowed Anthony Davis to stay around the rim, so that now when you're taking those short range little push shots and hook shots and turnaround jumpers and stuff, now you're shooting them maybe over a smaller guard, but most likely over Anthony Davis and a smaller guard or just Anthony Davis. So Anthony Davis lingering around the rim was able to help. Also, zone

defenses require teams to execute at a higher level. There's a level of positioning on the floor, moving the ball around to get the zone to reverse sides a bunch of times, getting that guy to the high post that can try to pull Anthony Davis away from the rim to open up stuff on the back line. There's a

bunch of stuff within the zone that requires execution. And what's the biggest weakness for that Toronto Raptors lineup, Like when you've got Fred van vleet, O Gannaobi, Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes and Yaka Purdle, there's just not a whole lot of ball hand and shooting in basketball IQ. That's not a strength of that group. That is a sheer force of size and athleticism type of lineup, and so challenging their ability to execute was I thought a

really smart strategy. It really stagnated that Raptors offense and allowed the Lakers to linger around long enough for them to break through offensively. So adjustment number one, going to his own adjustment number two, Darvin ham went with three guards. And again this is something that Hamm has been criticized for a lot, so it was frank last year, but I thought it was an interesting adjustment. And what would Dlo Austin and Dennis Schroder down the stretch of this game?

And I thought the main reason why is Toronto's rotations, their defensive rotations, flying around the perimeter, especially out of their double teams of Anthony Davis, and they just doubled the hell out of Anthony Davis every single time he even tried to get into a position where he could catch the basketball, which is a big part of why I think he only had eight points. But because of how good Toronto was in their defensive rotations, you weren't

breaking down Toronto on the first action. They needed multiple act as to get that opening to score, extending the advantage, that extra little pass here, that extra drop off there, that extra cut here, And the only way they were going to do that was by increasing the aggregate ball

handling shooting in basketball IQ of that group. And so going with a group that had Anthony Davis and Dennis Roeder and Austin Reeves and D'angela Russell gave them the necessary amount of ball handling for them to be able to score. And then lastly, the last adjustment, Darvin Hamm started running interchanges into every single pick and roll, like a screening action before the pick and roll. So one of the defensive adjustments from Nick Nurse in this game

was he put Yaka Peurdle on Jared Vanderbilt. Jared Vanderbilt, he made two corner threes in the first half, but like I think he was, he's gonna knock down under forty percent of him typically even though he's standing by himself out there completely unguarded. So that allowed Yaka Peurdle to linger around the basket. Then what he did is he put og and and Obi on Anthony Davis and

basically had him hug up onto him. Right, So, because he was hugged up onto Anthony Davis, ad was not an option and the rim was not an option, and so really the Lakers' best opportunity to score was to try to get separation for their guards coming over the top of the screen to hopefully get some opportunities for some pull up jump shots. I thought that was their best opportunity to score, and so Darvinham started running some interchanges flowing into the pick and roll to help those

guards get separation. They were back to back possessions where D'Angelo Russell hit pull up jumpers, a pull up two and then a pull up three where what they did is a quick dribble handoff before D'Angelo Russell came over the Anthony Davis screen. Here's why that matters because with Peartle on Vanderbilt essentially zoning up under the rim, and with og and Anobi hugged up on Anthony Davis, they

were switching all of the screens between the three guards. Now, right after you switch, there's like a little bit of a delay before you're ready for whatever comes next. Right, if i'm guard, you're about to go over a ball screen, I'm prepped for the ball screen. I see it coming. You start heading that way. I can position myself to kind of sidle up on top of the screen, or to try to fight over the top right, or even

just lock and trail to apply back pressure. But what if I'm guarding the ball handler and they set a quick screen. Now I'm not guarding the ball handler, okay, because we switched under Toronto scheme. What if I'm guarding the guy setting the screen? Well, they like I think the two plays that I'm referencing, and I posted these clips on my Twitter feed. You guys can find them there at underscore Jason LT. But Dennis Shorter comes down the floor, sets a dribble handoff. Now, all of a sudden,

Dennis's man is actually guarding D'Angelo Russell. In both cases, I think it was Fred van Vleet or it might have been Fred van Vleet the first one, then Scotty Barnes on the second one. But what ends up happening there is in that brief second after the switch, if I'm guarding Dennis and I'm switching on to Dilo, Now I'm not ready for that ball screen because I was attention going this way as Dennis was dribbling that way. Suddenly I'm guarding Dilo going back this way to a

ball screen. That little interchange in that brief delay, and you, guys, again I encourage you to go to my Twitter feed and watch the video because you can see it pretty clear that little delay bought D'Angelo Russell a ton of separation coming over that Anthony Davis screen, and again Oganna Noby is hugged up on Anthony Davis so he's not helping. So if you could get over that screen and get separation from the on ball guy, there's a wide open pull up shot there. Dilo got two wide up and

pull up shots knocked it down. There was another one later in the corner where they ran a similar thing involving ad. They had D'Angelo Russell on the inbounds play run over and set a hard pick on og Na Noby and og didn't want to switch, but he had to because of a good pick. Anthony Davis set him up well, gave him a little bit of a shove, and Anthony Davis came right off the pick into a ball screen with I believe Austin Reeves okay, that all of a sudden confused Toronto because it was a three

man switch, right. I talked about this all the time, beating switching schemes with three man actions because now no one knows who to guard, right, It's it's way less straightforward than I'll guard your man, you guard by man. Right in the process, after Delo sets that pick, he

quick pops out to the left wing. Og Ana Nobe hesitates for just a second because Austin Reeves is coming off that ad screen and he's open, and so og lingers in at the top of the at the top of the key to contain Austin easy swing pass, a D'Angelo Russell knocks down to three again. Toronto was frightening defensively at the end of this game. They were playing with a really smart scheme, sagging yakapurtle off, ignoring Jared Vanderbilt, hugging up on Anthony Davis, doubling him every time on

the catch, rotating out of it frighteningly well. Their only chance was backcourt skill, which they didn't have nearly as much of before the trade deadline, and smart actions to buy those guards the separation they needed to make shots. I thought Darvin hand did a really nice job down the stretch of this game. I thought he's down a really nice job since the trade deadline, so I want to shout out him. Austin Reeves also had his very best game as a pro was magnificent in the second

half of this game. In particular, Man, when he had that dunk in that half court set, when he cocked it back with two hands and threw it down, you could tell he was really feeling himself. It was really cool to see. You know, I've always been high on Austin Reeves as a role player. He has flashed high level ball handling this season that I didn't even remotely

expect watching him last season. I always do he had a little bit of that, like second side action ability to make plays off the dribble, but like, this is high level stuff against high level defenders that he's doing. This is real. I think Austin Reeves is a very, very good basketball player. That was his best game as

a pro. I've said it all before. I'm not going to get into it again, but the Lakers are really good, and all I'm gonna say is, if Lebron can come back and look like seventy percent of himself for a few games before the playoffs, I'm going to take a really hard look at them as a team that can come out of the West. They just check a whole lot of boxes. Like I broke down the other day, I really quickly before we get out of here tonight. I'm not going to spend more than just a couple

of minutes on this. But one of the two games, one of the three games I watched last night was the Brooklyn Nets getting a win on the road in Minnesota against the Wolves. I've been watching a lot of Wolves lately because I'm fascinated by their young core. I really liked Anthony Davis, Jade McDaniels, Rudy Gobert pairing as long as they can surround them with the right types of players. But these were, you know, two mediocre teams

and Brooklyn gotta win. But I thought it was a great example of a small detail in basketball that I wanted to touch on. And you know, we talked about this in the in the Lakers game, og and Obi when he when he overhelped on that Austin Reeves drive and left Angela Russell open. Austin had a little bit of an advantage coming over the screen, but it probably

would have been a tough shot for him. And I think sometimes we obsessed with shot quality and we ignore the reality of the Excuse me, we folks focused so much on shot value we ignore the quality of shot, the realities of shot quality. So, for instance, like a lot of teams will be like, oh, like a layup is a high percentage shot, high value shot, so we should take that away and concede a three, which is

a lower value shot. Even if it's a higher value than a contested to like mid range jump shot, it's still a higher value than a rim attempt. Right, But even then I think that a contested rim attempt is a much lower value shot than a wide open three. And so a lot of times when these teams overhelp. In Toronto is a classic case of a team that overhelps. But when you overhelp, you open up wide open shots on the weak side, and those I actually think are the kinds of shot that gets a team in, the

kinds of shots that gets a team into rhythm. And so this happened on two key possessions at the end of the Minnesota game against the Nets, and this is what costs them. They lost by one in OT and there were two plays, one at the end of regulation, one at the end of OT where we saw this happen. The first one at the end of regulation, Rudy Gobert

is guarding Spencer Dinwoody and kinda has him contained. He had got he had went up and under and went through with a step through, but Rudy Gobert was right on his backside. It was going to be an extremely difficult scooping layup with Rudy Gobert there potentially blocking the shot.

Anthony Edwards is guarding Royce O'Neil on the left wing, and Anthony Edwards, for no reason at all whatsoever, overhelps and runs in and stops Spencer Dinwoody from attempting his crazy wild scoop shot, but in the process concedes a wide open three to spend to Royce O'Neil on the left on the right wing, and he knocks it down. And it was funny because right after the shot, by the way, I tweeted out both of these videos as well,

so you can find those on my Twitter feed. Right after the shot, Rudy Gobert and Kyle Anderson both throw their hands up like dude, what are you doing? And the funny thing is has happened to Rudy Gobert. In overtime, Spencer Dinwoodie is driving on Kyle Anderson. Kyle Anderson has him contained Anderson has body position in front of him at the rim and has the length and size advantage.

It was going to be a super difficult contested floater and Rudy Gobert abandons I think it was dor and Finney Smith out of the left corner to corral Spencer Dinwiddie and concedes a wide open three that ends up being the shot that beats them. And Kyle Anderson, you've I felt bad for him after the game. He just throws his hands up and it's like, what are you doing? Man?

And like, you know, so many times we get we get caught up on personnel, and we get caught up on you know, scheme, and we get caught up on a bunch of different things when we're talking about basketball games. But so much of it is just execution, not making the key mistakes it is. I would imagine that it's not in Minnesota's scheme to overhelp uncontained ball handlers driving to the rim, But in that moment, if you make a poor decision as a help defender, it can literally

cost you a game. Minnesota has been playing good basketball. They played well enough to beat Brooklyn, and two execution mistakes at the end of the game cost them, and I think that's just such an important thing that gets lost when we're talking about teams. It's one of the big reasons why I've always been such a big believer in Golden State. They're one of the best execution teams in the league, even though they haven't shown it all

the time this year. Why do you think the Miami Heat or one shot away from the NBA Finals last year despite having significantly less talent than many of the teams in that conference. It's execution, it's coaching, and it's always doing the right thing on the pivotal possessions at the end of games. That kind of thing is how you win, and way too often we do not factors that in enough when we're evaluating teams. All Right, I

guess that's all I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support and I will see you guys next week.