Hoops Tonight - Tatum to blame for Celtics loss vs. Haliburton’s Pacers + Kings-Pelicans reaction

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restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. Terms at sportsbook dot DraftKings dot com slash basketball terms. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had a great start to your week. The n Season tournament quarterfinals were last night, or at least the first round of them, and they were highly, highly entertaining. We're gonna be breaking down both games from the perspective

of all four teams. It's going to be a double show day. We're also going to be coming back later tonight to break down Nicks, Bucks and Lakers' sons. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. It would mean a lot to me if you'd scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any film threads

or show announcements. I did a couple of film threads on both games from last night, this morning, and then last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them at the end of the Show's no mail bag today, but we'll be doing it again later on this week. Also, basketball is back. Spend a long offseason, and if you're like me, you're psyched to be seeing all these pro

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All right, let's talk some basketball. You know, it's funny. Just a big picture about the N Season tournament. My takeaway when it first happened was, as it pertains to the actual as it pertains to the actual tournament itself, I wanted to have a wait and see approach, meaning like, let's see what it looks like before we come up with an opinion. However, what I did say is like I did think it was the wrong kind of idea

in terms of what's wrong with the regular season. Like, in my opinion, when you have this many back to back in your schedule, and you have teams not valuing the regular season the way that you'd hope, and it's leading to stars sitting out games, it hurts the total product so much in my opinion, that any sort of financial benefit that you have from more games is canceled out by just lower quality games as teams just don't seem to care as much, and so I've said this

many times on the show. I'm a big believer in dropping the season down to sixty six games because it gets rid of back to backs, makes it far more likely that stars will play, not only from a rest perspective, but also every game is twenty percent more valuable to the standings at the end of the day. So in the big picture, that's one of the things that I'd

like to see them do. However, as it pertains to the nd season tournament itself, I was interested to see how it would actually play out in practice, and we've seen now through the regular season games and through this first round of quarterfinals that it's just making something different happen during this phase of the season. If you really look at the NBA regular season, it basically is like the first two thirds or so just go off the

same every single week. Right It's October same thing, November same thing, December same thing, January same thing, first week of February same thing. Right. Then there's like this brief kind of chaotic stretch where it's like we have the trade deadline, and after the teams make their trades, they play one or two games with their new guys, and then we head into the All Star break, and now the All Star breaks a little bit longer, so there's

that kind of weird stretch there. But then we go into like kind of the ramp up into the playoffs and the Super Bowls over and all the football fans kind of dial into basketball, and it kind of takes off from there, right, But for the first you know, two thirds of the season, it gets super repetitive and redundant, and it's a lot of the same stuff, right, And so having something like this where we've played, you know a little over a fourth of the season and we

can just do something different for a week. I really appreciate that. And like even in the month leading up to this, when we played the the seeding games, those Tuesday Friday in season tournament, you know pool play games. Actually we're pretty entertaining from just adding some differences in the way the games looked in terms of the courts all the way to just the level of intensity that the teams were playing with. It's clear that people want

to win this. Did you see the Pacers bench last night? It like those guys were going absolutely crazy down the stretch of this game, and so I applaud Adam Silver just simply from the perspective of like trying something that, like, even if it doesn't necessarily fix the big picture issues of the regular season, at least gives us something different

to kind of break things up. Because now it's like we go a month or so of regular basketball and then you get kind of breakups with the pool games, and then you have this exciting tournament the first week of December. Then we'll go rest of December January, another month, month and a half of things kind of settling back down into that cycle, right, but then it'll be broke up by the trade deadline. And so I think it just kind of breaks up and partitions out the NBA

season in a more palatable way. And so I've really enjoyed it so far, and I think it's only going to get better as we head further into this week. So Celtics Pacers is where we're gonna start. I'm gonna start with this third quarter run. So the Celtics were up I think seven at halftime, a late run there right before the half to kind of build the lead. As the Pacers, I think we're up by one with

about three four minutes left. But in that third quarter, Tyres Haliburton completely takes over and I put together a full thread of the way he was picking apart the Celtics defense in that third quarter run. So I want you guys to go take a look at that again on my Twitter feed out and underscore Jason lt But it started with Buddy Heeld's ghost screens. Now, last time we did a Pacers video, we talked a lot about this specific concept, but it's one of the pet actions

that the Pacers run a lot. And it's a very simple concept, right, Like, you're gonna put a point of attack type of dude that is going to guard a dribble drive guy on Tyrese Haliburton, and you're probably gonna put one of your lesser defenders on Buddy Heeld. There's going to be more of a lock and trail position, right, And so a lot of times in those situations, if they're not switching, it's gonna be a hedge and recover

situation and Tyreese might be able to get downhill. And if they switch, you're gonna get Tyree's or Buddy Heeld operating with a little bit of an advantage because there's always that little kind of lag in between switches. There's a specific play where I put it in the film Thread where Buddy Hild missed the three on the left wing on a ghost screen where Drew Holliday was originally guarding Tyrese Haliburton and Derek White was guarding Buddy Heeld.

But as Buddy Heeld ran the screen and then slipped it, Drew Holliday was chasing Halliburton this way, and so when Buddy Hild cut across his face, he had to turn to go back, and by the time he turned and recovered, the ball was already in Buddy Heald's shooting pocket and he was elevating into a shot. So it's just a

difficult action to guard in general. Now. To start in this third quarter stretch, the Celtics were not switching this action, and so as a result of that, Tyre's kept getting downhill because Drew Holliday, just in that little interchange, kept giving up an angle, and Tyrese is a little bit faster, a little bit bigger, and he was able to get past me and get downhill, and then from there they were able to get good stuff out of it. The first one that I wanted to point out. This was

the one where he kind of switched. He jumped up with his right hand into Horford and then switched into his left hand and laid it in on that play, This was a great example of why it's important to run weak side action. There was a weakside action between I think Nie Smith and Brown if I remember correctly, but in that week side action, Al Horford actually was

Miles Turner and Bruce Brown. Miles Turner just said a flare screen for Bruce Brown down towards the corner on the weak side of the ball, and as a result, because of that action, Horford's attention is directed in that way, right, because he's got a coverage for any sort of off

ball screening action. Right, So as Tyree's turns the corner coming off of that ghost screen as he gets around Drew Holliday because the Celtics weren't switching it, which again I disagree with from a strategy standpoint, because we're talking Derek White and Drew Holliday. There's no reason to make Drew Holliday navigate a screen and have to try to beat ty resee when he's got that type of advantage

when you can just switch it. And Derek White's a capable of just as capable of a perimeter defender as Drew Holliday is right, and then Drew Holliday obviously can handle the buddy heel issue, but they weren't switching it right. So Tyreese gets downhill. Because Horford's watching that backscreen for Bruce Brown, He's a second late to get back to the rim and help, which gives ty Resee the angle to get into his body and then switch into his

left hand and then make it right. And then there was another one on the right side of the court, just a couple possessions later, same sort of thing goes screen, no switch, Drew's a little out of position. Tyreese gets all the way downhill, engages Jason Tatum and help drops off a perfect pass to Obi Top in the dunker spot, who rises up and lays it in right. So then from there the Celtics starts switching. When they start switching, immediately Tyrese Halliburton catches it was I want to say,

Derek White in the post on Al Horford. It arches me on Miles Turner and they just dump it into Myles turner who quickly just turns and scores right at

the basket. Right then there was a there was another screen on the left side of the floor where now this is a semi transition possession, And the Pacers do a lot of this kind of stuff, and I think it's really really smart, where like they will just if tyresee is coming down the floor with pace and he's got that little hop in his step, they'll just run and set that ball screen from somebody way out, like thirty thirty five feet from the basket, and it just

kind of spreads everything out and makes even more room for him to make those reads. And like, Tyre Haliburton is not like this outstanding vertical pop type of athlete, but he is a very quick lateral athlete, and so when he has that kind of space to change direction and kind of snake through the lane and make reads, he's really really tough to guard. And so on this particular play, and again this one's in that film thread Obi Topping, the Haliburton's coming up to the floor in

a semi transition set up the left side. Topping comes up to set the screen on that left side, and you see Drew Holliday kind of open up to prepare to run over the top of that screen. It's also possible that he was expecting a different coverage from Horford. I'm not sure exactly what was happening in that possession, but he just quickly cuts back over to the right and drew his way out of position, gets way downhill, Obi top and just pops back to the top. Horford

comes over and helps. He just slings it back over his head to Obi Toppin on the left wing. You get the point here, depending not it didn't matter which coverage. It was like they ran a pick and pop with Miles Turner, just a basic pick and pop action that the Celtics iced, which means Drew Holliday basically denied him the screen. He just cut back to the left and got downhill, engaged Horford and help easy drop off past to Miles Turner at the top of the key for

a wide open three. And like this is like separating process from results is important because, especially with a team like the Celtics, you can have stretches where they score a shit ton of points taking bad shots because they're that good. That's how much talent they have. But this is what's interesting about watching this Pacers team. Miles Turner is a good offensive player, not a great offensive player. You know, Obi Toppen is a below average NBA offensive players.

Brown is a very good defensive player, very good athlete. He's not a great offensive player, right Like, It's not like you're he's out there surrounded by tons of offensive talent. But what he's doing is he's setting these guys up with great looks like Obi Toppins. Not a guy that's going to pick you apart in a half court set and post ups and pick and rolls and stuff. But if you just get him stay and still catch and

shoot threes, you can knock him down. If you get him wide open catches underneath the basket in the dunker spot, he can rise up and finish. If you give Miles Turner wide open catch and shoot threes at the top of at top of the key, he can score. In the fourth quarter, which we haven't even talked about yet. A big part of it was Aaron Nesmith and his ability to attack closeouts. But what do you have to do to give Aaron nee Smith the ability to attack

a closeout? You have to consistently have the defense in rotation, which happens as a result of Tyrese Halliburton in his ability to consistently generate dribble penetration regardless of the coverage that the Celtics employed against him. So then at this point, I want to say, in the run, like the Pacers had gone up by like three, four or five points in that area. TJ McConnell comes in and there's this brief bench stretch there to end the third quarter where

TJ is incredible. He ends up beating Cornett on a switch with his nifty kind of step through move. He has a play and pick and roll where he draws multiple defenders, engages the low man and makes a kickout pass to Ben Mathern in the left corner, and then he had a big steal on the This entire lineup, this was TJ McConnell, Obi Top and Aaron Nei Smith, Buddy Yield and Ben Mathern. They had an awesome defensive stretch there to end that third quarter. Was rough offense too,

from Drew Holliday and from Jalen Brown. By the way, random statf for U Celtics fans, the Celtics have had the second worst offense in the league in third quarters this season. This has been a pretty consistent theme for them. But a lot of after the TJ mcconnal gets a steal and throws it ahead and Buddy Field ends up getting a dunk. A lot of scoring, pop and effective defense from that Pacers unit, and they actually built the

lead up a little bit. I thought it was a really really impressive, you know, a stretch from that group to just kind of extend and expand the lead at that point. Then down the stretch the Celtics, predictably with all the talent they have to make a little run

turns into a close game down the stretch. And I want to really paint for you guys the difference in the quality of shots that the Pacers were getting, and what I appreciate about it is, like, you know, Tyres Haliburton is a really good score, right, and he had

two massive pull up threes down the stretch. I want to be clear, but like Tyree's understood that, like in this large sample size of fifteen ish clutch possessions in the last five six minutes of the fourth quarter, it's more important just to continually generate quality shots and trust that a certain amount of them are going to go in than any singular possession and trying to punish a specific matchup or whatever it might be. Now, what they

went with was guard to guard screens. It wasn't always, but healed a lot of it was Bruce Brown as well, but they were using guard to guard screens to get tyres Haliburton Downhill. In the event of a switch, he would have just attacked the switch defender downhill. If they lagged in their switch or didn't make a switch, he'd

get Downhill out of that. But he was making kickouts to Aaron Nesmith with an advantage, and Aaron Nesmith was just all fourth quarter, was just ripping through to the right as hard as he could all the way to the rim. There were even a couple of players that weren't close outs where he did it off the dribble, one where Jaln Brown swatted him out of bounds and

another where he drew a foul on it. But like Aaron Nei, Smith actually was producing a lot of the rim pressure that the Pacers were coming up within that fourth quarter run. And by the way, Nie Smith had a had two closed out attacks down the stretch he had one on the right wing where he kind of did a nice job relocating out of the corner, which created a better angle for him to beat Tatum. Tatum jumped out of his shoes on the pump, fake ripped through,

easy floater off the glass. Another one kick out to the left corner. Nie Smith just racks to the right right, gets into Tatum's chest and finishes athletically at the rim. By the way Aaron Neith Smith this year sixty two closeout opportunities he's converted into ninety points ninety one point

four to five points per possession. And then obviously the two big shots of the game from Tyres Halliburton nasty left to right crossover on Drew Holliday into a pull up three, and then the one against Jalen Brown, which is crazy because he had Horford on a switch and Haliburn's been cooking switches all year long. He's been up over like one point three points per ISO, which is insane.

And then Buddy Heild is Jalen Brown on him, and Buddy Hild runs over to set another ghost screen and I'm like, oh no, what are you doing, Like, don't do that. He's got the right matchup, don't bring an extra defender into it, which is exactly what happened. Jalen Brown just peels off a Buddy Heeld and contests the Tyrese Haliburton pull up three and actually got a really

good contest out. He just fouled him right, But Tyre's makes it anyway, because guess what, a Tyre's Halliburton pull up three has been worth one point two six points per possession so far this year. He's been one of the best pull up jump shooters in the league. We're talking that's over sixty percent in effective field goal percentage. That's like steph territory that we're seeing out of Tyres

Saliverton as a pull up jump shooter. It didn't matter even though Buddy Hild made a bizarre decision, he just made the shot anyway. And then the Pacers ended up icing the game with an inbounds play where Buddy Hill came up to the top of the key, Tatum and Drew Holliday kind of miscommunicated on a switch and Buddy Hill hits a three at the top of the key and the game is basically over. One thing I want to point out on the defensive end of the floor.

There were a couple of switches where they ended up getting Tyre's Halliburton onto Jason Tatum, and Jason Tatum did them favors by settling for jump shots, which we'll get to in a minute. But for the most part, I thought Aaron Nesmith did a really nice job on Jason Tatum, navigating those screening actions and avoiding switches as much as possible. Every single post up iso that Jason Tatum had on aaron Ne Smith down the stritch of that game, he

forced him into a tough, long contested too. Not a single time did he get downhill to the rim in an on ball set. There was that one horn set where he kind of slipped to the basket and drew a foul when he was off ball, but he did not beat aaron Ne Smith off the dribble a single

time down the stretch of that game. It was again and this is this to me, is like, what's what's so exciting about this team in the long run, This team so badly needs like an athletic wing defender, right, and Aaron Smith, good player who played a great game last night, But like, now, just imagine what that would look like if you had a above average starter caliber three and D guy on the wing, right, if you actually had like a like an Herb Jones or Jaden

McDaniels type on the wing alongside Tyres Haliburt, And that's what you're seeing there is like Aaron Neith Smith is providing a version of that for the Pacers, and it brings great value because they have such a need of that position type. I've been talking about this with the Lakers fans like, oh my gosh, look at Max, Max Christie or Cam Reddish and it's like, yeah, they're showing you how bad this team needs point of attack defense.

So that these bench level guys are producing at a high level because that's what the team needs, right, And they're playing alongside a good rim protector, right that like, ideally you have a better version of that and you get that much more impact out of that position. Right. I mean you could even say that the Denver Nuggets upgrading Jeremy Grant into Aaron Gordon a better version of all of the dirty work things that Jeremy Grant did push them over the top in a lot of ways.

And so again, shout out to Aaron neies Smith. I'm not trying to undercut him, but that, to me was an interesting look ahead at just how important that specific piece is for the Pacers and a team that struggled defensively and has struggled on the glass throughout this season, having like, if you could slot Aaron Nesmith properly as an off the bench wing, that could even push you

guys to a higher level at that point. In general, I was really impressed by the Pacers defense down the stretch of this game, and I think it's a strong indicator of what I said during the Pacers deep dive last week. They are an awful defensive team and an awful rebounding team, and some of it is personnel, right. Tyree Salliburton is a really weak point of attack defender, Buddy Healed is a really weak point of attack defender. Bruce Brown is good, but he's not having a great season.

And then on the back line, Obi Toppin and Miles turn Of Miles Turner is just running around trying to clean up messes all game long, and Obie Toppin is not the best low man in the world, right, So, like there's some personnel limitations there, but the Pacers have a lot of speed. They're capable of rotating better, They're capable of defending at the point of attack better. They are capable of doing a better job. And so that's the thing. Do you want to be the Sacramento Kings

or do you want to be a serious team? And if they play and compete in the dirty work details of the game the way they did down the stretch against Boston, they do have a chance to make noise in the playoffs. Why because Tyre's Halliburton is playing like a top ten player in the league. That's just the level he's at right now. His pull up shooting is real.

I was on with the Watch playback guys last night and we were breaking down the game and somebody in the comments asked like, Hey, is there any parallel between Tyres Haliburt and Steph Curry in twenty fifteen? And the answer is yes on the offensive end of the floor.

But the thing is is Steph Curry and Klay Thompson were coming off of that twenty fourteen Feebo World Cup where they both engaged on the defensive end of the floor, and that Warriors team was the best defense in the league and Stephan Clay did their part to contribute to that, and so that's the next step is like Tyree's has Steph Curry twenty fifteen type potential as an offensive creator. He's faster, he's taller, He's showing some similar shooting capability.

I wouldn't put him in the same conversation as Steph. I think that's blasphemy. But he's kind of trending in that direction, you know, like in a lot of ways, and he's such a gifted on ball passer, Like he has the potential to kind of lead to that type of renaissance in Indy. But from the top down, there needs to be a commitment to the defensive end, like what you saw in that Celtics game. They can't do it.

They don't have to be the best defense in the league, but they need to be closer to that fifteen mark, right and it's something that they have to personnel to do.

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type of fan. Netflix turns us all into fans. On the celt front, I have been saying forever, even including this season, that the Celtics could win forty games in a row and I would still be skeptical of their ability to win on the biggest stages at the highest level of the NBA Playoffs. You'll notice the Celtics are number one or work number one in my power rankings yesterday,

but in my contender list. I've consistently had them behind Denver, regardless of the fact that they've looked better this season, and it's just because time and time again, specifically, when they get alpha dogged by a star, they fail to regain control of a basketball game, specifically with offensive execution. Right. Yeah, they can beat the Sixers. Why because Joel Embiid specifically really struggles in the playoff setting and James Harden specifically

really struggles in the playoff setting. Yeah, you beat Jimmy Butler once. You beat Jimmy Butler once, and he still came this close to beating you a pull up three in Game seven that literally would have sent you home. And then the next year he did send you home. And then when you ran into Steph Curry in twenty twenty two, he alpha dogged you, guys, and he sent you home. This is a consistent problem with this team.

Down the stretch of that game, I had Tyres Halliburton consistently generating great offensive opportunities for lesser offensive players, and then on the other end of the floor, Jason Tatum could not generate quality shots. He made a couple, he made a step back mid range jump shot over Aaron E. Smith on a clear side post up on the right side of the floor. He made like a jab step jumper against Aaron Smith about a twenty one footer up on the kind of right elbow extended out right. He

made a couple of tough shots. But where was the Where was the easy shot? Where was the I'm going to back Aaron Nee Smith down, draw a second defender and make a kickout pass to a high quality three point shot. Where was he? He had Tyre's Halliburton twice on switches, once with a cleared side and ten seconds on the shot clock, and he literally stood there and waited for the shot clock to run down and jacked

up a jumper and he missed it. There was another one Tyres Halliburton switch left wing, this time like twelve seconds on the shot clock. Now I would have had Jalen Brown clear out the side, but it would have been easy enough to have Jalen Brown just run through to the other side, and then Tatum just ripped through to the left, turn his back post up, back down, draw the second defender, make the kick got pass, get

a wide up in three. Nope, he stood there, dribbled until the shot clock ran out and took a pull up three and he missed it. And by the way, like this is the concern with Jason Tatum. One of the things I said before the season is like the positive, you know spin of this situation is Tatum keeps getting better. Right, And Tatum made some steps at the end of the Heat series last year, clearing the side, working out of the post. But to start this season he was posting

up more and he was making the threes. But his post up attempts per game has been trending downwards, and now his pull up jump shots falling apart. You remember at the beginning part of the season when he was making all his pull up jump shots. He's now back down to zero point eighty seven points per pull up jump shot. So a Tatum pull up jump shot is objectively a bad shot for this team. It was a bad shot in this regular season so far. It was

a bad shot last year in the regular season. He cannot even get more than one point per pull up jumper, yet is a consistent part of his shot diet. Meanwhile, he's had success backing down in the post, drawing fouls, getting closer to the rim. And what I need to see is in a big game like last night, when he's getting alpha dogged by Tyrese Slliburton, when he needs to arrest control of the situation, he can't go generate a quality shot. And that's what's discouraging to me, because

he holds the keys. I've said this to Celtics fans NonStop over the years. It's not about a trade. It's not about bringing another guard in. It's not about you know, I miss miss a diagon the situation after the the the after the Warriors series, that it wasn't about aggregate ball handling. I was like, Oh, they just need to go get another guard. They got Malcolm Broggett. No, that's not the trick. What dawned on me last year is like, it just doesn't matter because the ball ends up in

Jason Tatum's hands at the end of the day. That's where it ends up. And so it really is up to him. And this was again He's gonna have a lot more chances, especially as we get close, as we

get into the postseason. Right, But this was a high leverage game, single elimination, first n season tournament on the road, tough crowd, top ten player in the league, at least in terms of the level of play he's playing at right now, and Tyre Saliburton is taking it to him and like he can't regain control of the game on the other end of the floor. And again, I'm a big process over a results guy. This wasn't it. This wasn't Oh the Celtics just missed their open threes. No,

that's not what happened. The jumpers that got down the stretch were tough jumpers. Jaln Brown tough mid range pull up over Bruce Brown missed it. Jaln Brown tough step back three out of the left side corner overl over Miles Turner missed it. Jason Tatum tough fadeaway right shoulder fade that over Aaron Neith Smith that he got bailed out on and drew a foul. Another tough fadeaway over Aaron Smith on the left side that he missed. He made a tough one legged fade away out of the

right block. He made a tough jab step pull up jump shot he may he missed another tough pull up three point shot over Tyre's Halliburton. It's not like I can point to, oh, they did this process thing correctly and generated high quality shots, and they just missed him. No. Down the stretch of that game, Tyris Haliburton generated significantly higher shot quality than Jason Tatum over a large sample of like fifteen twenty possessions to determine a single elimination game,

and so the Pacers won comfortably. It's literally that simple. Like, and here's the thing, Jason, Tyris Haliburton took two pull up threes. Why don't you get mad at him? A couple things. Tyre's Halliburton's just way better at pull up threes. A Tyre's Haliburton jump, pull up three or pull up jump shot is worth about forty percent more than a Jason Tatum pull up jump shot. So just from the simple standpoint of shot value, it's much better. And then secondly,

he only took two of them. What did he do the rest of the time running his pet actions, whether it was ball screens like traditional ball screens or ghost screens with Buddy Yield, getting downhill, making kickout passes to guys who had an advantage. It empowers the whole system. Everybody's in a flow, they get better shots, they make them. It's that simple. Now, one thing can Chris tops Porzingis help the Celtics issues in lit game situations because obviously

he didn't play last night. Yes, but only if they execute properly. So, for instance, like I was at last night on the broadcast, what do you think is the Celtics pet action like the thing they're gonna run if they need a bucket? And what I said was Tatum Derek White ghost screen, which ended up being primarily what they ran at the end of the game, which was how they got Haliburton switched on to him a few times.

Aaron Nesmith in general did a good job of avoiding those switches, but that was the primary action they ran down the stretch of that game, and they actually did get into some good matchups, even in the Aaron Neismith stuff, Like Aaron Neismith is a lesser perimeter defender, a lesser wing defender than the vast majority of the guys that are going to be guarding Tatum in late game situations

in the postseason. And so what I like about the Porzingis piece is he's gonna draw a big in all likelihood, which means they're not going to switch. They're gonna run probably a traditional drop coverage, which is going to allow him to make kickout passes to Porzingis wide open at the top of the key. And that's good question, is it. Let's say that Tatum identifies that as his advantage. Let's say they're playing the Calves in a playoff series, and

it's like it's a there. He knows Jared Allen is going to in all likelihood run a drop and you know it's Knax Strews on the ball and he's chasing over the top, and he knows he can consistently get the defense in rotation by just hitting Porzingis at the top of the key into pick and pop. Will he do it? Will he spam it? Will he go down the floor five times in a row and just draw the second defender and kick make the drop off pass to Porzingis so that he can extend the advantage or

knock down the shot or whatever it is. Will he do that? Because like I watched him have Haliburton cleared side plenty of time on the shot clock and just stand there and do nothing. And so that's the concerning thing to me is it's like something has to click there with Tatum to where because we've all seen him do it for bursts. We saw him just pick on

the sixers down the stretch of Game seven. We saw him in Game five and six of the Celtics Heat series last year clear the side work methodically generate quality shots. We know he can do it, but will he do it and do it consistently. That's the thing that we have to keep an eye on moving forward. And the last note on the Celtics. I was really confused in general by their defensive process in this game. They were really sloppy on their switches and they blew a bunch

of them they got. Obviously, Buddy Yield's final three point shot that he made was on a blown switch. They had this weird play where aaron Ne Smith got an easy bucket on a baseline out of bounds because Al Horford like did this wildly aggressive show on a Buddy Heald screen when Buddy Hill was running like thirty feet away from the basket and aaron Ne Smith just slipped

it and got a wide open layup. All of those actions where where Tyres Haliburton was getting Downhill, a lot of those were coming out of actions the Celtics should have been switching, especially the guard to guard actions. Now, I get it, like even in switching guard to guard actions, it is difficult, but I think it's an easier goal than asking Drew Holliday to stay in front of Tyres Haliburton.

Somehow he's getting ghost screened, right, And you know, again with the ghost screen action, more often than not, it just forces the defensive player to open up a little bit as he kind of works his way around, and just that little bit of advantage is all a speed guard like Tyrese Haliburton needs to beat him off the dribble. And so in general, I didn't think it was their best defensive effort, but like with the offensive quality of

a shot they were getting, it didn't matter. They weren't gonna win that game, and that to me is the more concerning part. Moving on to Pelicans Kings. The Kings are nine and four in their last thirteen games, and they've beat a bunch of good teams in that span. They beat the Thunder, they beat the Cavs, They went into LA and beat the Lakers, blew them, ount went into Dallas and blew out the MAVs, went into Minnesota

and blew out the Timberwolves. Then they had that wild twenty plus point comeback against Golden State to win on the Molik Monk game winner. They even beat the Nuggets. That was as impressive a nine wins in thirteen span as you can find around the lead right now. But the four losses they lost to the Clippers on a back to back after the Warriors game, and then three losses to the Pelicans. And it's interesting to me because

after last night obviously the third loss. And it's interesting to me because it's an interesting example of basketball matchups because the Pelicans have been pretty mediocre team, just lost to the Bulls last they just lost two games in Utah. They have been pretty mediocre right twelve and ten this year. They've had to Cejim McCollum injury, but there's a case to be made that they've been better without him just in terms of overall point of attack defense with Dyson

Daniels in the starting lineup right. And what's interesting to me is like that is, how does a team that's that mediocre have the number of a Kings team that's dominated most of the good teams in the league. And to me, that's where it's This is why I always talk about basketball being more art than science. This is why you could never just assign a single catch all metric to quantify the abilities of a basketball player. Matchups matter.

The specific reason why the King struggle so much against the Pelicans is they have this specific type of defensive personnel to bother them at all three levels of their offense. So like it starts with the point of attack guys, whether it's Herb Jones or it's Dyson Daniels, or it's Naji Marshall or it's Jose Alvaredo, it is just a steady diet of outstanding point of attack defenders on Malik

Monk and Darren Fox. Then even if you do get switches, guys like Brandon Ingram and Trey Murphy are not slouches in that area. They've got the lankedin athleticism to at least do a decent job. I even thought CJ. McCollum did a really good job on the ball in this game, had several deflections he was locked in, and with how high they bring Yonis Malachunus up in their drop, it's

a doable job. And again this is where this is what I meant by when I'm talking about all three levels, because then you end up with this backside situation where it's brandon Ingram or Zion Williamson or Trey Murphy usually two of those three guys at any given possession. So I've got six ' nine athlete with long arms, I've got Zion Williamson, one of the most freaky athletes in the NBA right now, and I've got try Murphy Trey Murphy, a six eight sixty nine long armed freak athlete that

are on the backside. And so those guys are just blowing plays up. Zion Williamson once again two possessions that he blew up as a lowman. He reached in and ripped Keegan murray on on a on a play where he was coming out of the the low man spot there in the out of the left corner. He had that play where I think it was I'm trying to remember who's fronting, but they uh. There was that play where you saw uh uh Sabonus get the deep seal in transition, and I want to say it was somebody.

It was one of the one of the Pelicans guards. I think that was fronting the post and Zion's way up on the left wing, and Fox or Monk, whoever it is, throws the over the top pass to Sabonas and it looks like the sides cleared behind him. Zion just comes flying in from the wing and just snatches the basketball out from over the top, and like that, to me is what makes that defense so exciting. Is

it's like like Zion has that kind of potential. He's got the anticipation, he's got the instincts, he's got the athleticism. Brandon Ingram and Trey Murphy bring that same type of disruption, and so when you've got that athleticism on the weak side and you've got that sort of point of attack personnel, you can afford to bring yonus up in ball screens. This is the Denver Nuggets thing. Everybody's wondering, how is it the Denver Nuggets are getting stops when they have

a weak grim protector. And it's literally because they can do whatever they want with Jokic. They can drop him deep, they can drop him up at the level of the screen. It doesn't matter because Contavious Callbo Pope is getting over the top of that screen and he's applying back pressure.

Christian Brown is getting over the top of that screen and he's applying back pressure right and then on the weak side at leets like Michael Porter Junior and Aaron Gordon are blowing actions up by anticipating and using their length and athleticism, and it has allowed them to not need Jonas Valentinas to clean up all the messes. It's allowed the Nuggets to not need Nicole Jochic to clean

up all the messes. And that's what's kind of interesting to me about modern defense is like you kind of have to be strong in two of your cores, right. One of the things, like the Lakers have been one of the best defenses in the league over the last month or so, they've been top five, and a big part of that is they have outstanding rim protection and their help defense has been good. They've been they like the point of attack has been a little bit of

a mess. Austin's a little rough, Delos a little rough. You've been getting stretches out of maxim cam. But it's been a little rough, right, But the weak side, the Ruy Hatcher, Mura, the Lebron James, the Christian Wood, the weak side help and the and the rim protection of Anthony Davis has allowed them to be a great defense

despite having below average point of attack personnel. And that's what's exciting about Jared Vanderbilt coming back, is they could potentially then take a leap up to the next level from there. But I think it's an interesting example of that.

Like if you if you have strong point of attack personnel and strong help personnel, you can get away with the weak rim protector if you have you know, like if you're excellent at the point of attack and you're excellent in rim protection, you don't even need to send a third defender into ball screens and so now your weak side defense isn't as important. You guys kind of get the point. I think it's an interesting example of that. But this defense is given the Kings in particular a

lot of issues. To give you an idea in the three games against the Pelicans, Darren Fox, but by the way, he's been playing like an MVP against everyone else. Twenty three points per game, forty percent from the field, nineteen percent from three and more turnovers than assists in three games. Malik Monk three games versus the Pels thirteen points per game, thirty six percent from the field, thirty eight percent from three.

They've consistently given this team issues. And then on the other end, I mean, I thought the Kings did a better job swaring, swarming Zion Williamson in this game, keeping him under control. And the first two losses, Zion Wimpson just sliced and diced him. But this time Brandon Ingram just completely picked them apart thirty points, six assists, Kings got within five, and then Brandon just took the game over. He hit like this really nice jab step pull up

jumper going left over Keegan Murray. Then he had this ball screen where he drew a second defender, so bonus up to the level of the screen, and it's actually this really cool possession where Jonas rolls and Harrison Barnes comes over and stands right under the basket and basically like takes away that easy roll pass and Brandon, like Jonas, gives him a window that's kind of out to the side, and Brandon throws a beautiful pass that hits Jonas in that side so that he could just quick turn and

shoot the hook shot over Harrison Barnes, who has no chance of blocking the hook shot. He catches it and makes it. I thought it was a really nice play from Brandon Ingram to get a high quality shot out of a good defensive possession from Zacramento. And then it ended with a just a simple double team. Brandon Iso out of the right wing, gets downhill, gets down to kind of like the dunker spot area draws, the second

defender makes a kickout pass. Hockey assist Trey Murphy on the left wing knocks down the three, and the game is over. But like it was just methodical, beautiful shot creation from Brandon Ingram with excellent defense on the other end of the floor closing things out. A couple of guys, I want to shout out herb Jones he had. Herb Jones, I should say, had I'm trying to work on pronouncing names correctly, so please keep correcting me when I when I mess that up. Herb Jones had twenty three points.

Had a huge offensive rebound. After the Kings Malik Mont goes down, he hiss a pull up three. He gets it to five, and then the Kings have a great defensive possession and for CJ. McCollum into a tough step back jump shot that he misses. But herb Jones is just a completely unboxed out underneath the basket, gets an offensive rebound put back, which is a lot of that's on the kings, which we'll talk about in a minute.

And then he's we talked about this when we covered a Pelicans game a week or two ago, but he's doing a lot of work putting the ball on the floor. He had a couple of huge possessions putting the ball on the floor in this game. He converted nine spotted possessions in this game into thirteen points. And I think that that's just again with it. When you have that specific skill set that he has, which is he's an

outstanding perimeter defender. Right when you have that, if you can be a not just a guy you can knock down a three, but also be a dribble shooting pass guy, if you can actually be a connective piece in a driving kick system, that just pushes your value that much higher, and that you know, that's the different like Herb Jones. If he can get on that Jaden McDaniels track where he's got a little bit more of that off the dribble pop, it can just push him up to that

next level. Un raised the ceiling of this team. And then last thing, I wanted to shout out Trey Murphy. I've been shouting out this type of guy around the league a lot lately. It's this, you know, whether it's Sam Houser, it's Duncan Robinson, or it's Michael Porter Junior. But like the taller, spot up guy on the weak side has a has a little bit off the dribble pop in his hyper aggressive and catch and shoot situations even when he's not really open. I think that brings

a ton of value. Trey Murphy the season's five for eleven on guarded catch and shoot threes, which is a huge asset. Like he hit a couple of them in this game where it's like the guy's there and it just doesn't matter. And I think that having Trey Murphy back has been a lot this team. This team has potential to be really, really great with the defensive personnel that they have if they can continue to get high level shot creation at of Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson

on the King's front. I don't want to, like, I don't want to overdo it because I think some of this is in their head, Like there were some good looks down the stretch of that game that they missed some good catch and shoot threes that they missed, so Bonus like smoked a lefty hook right at the rim that he shot way long off the back of the rim that would have cut it to like four, I think down the stretch. So I think some of it's

in their head. They were sloppy on the glass, Like the Kings have been the best defensive rebounding team in the league over the last month, and they just had a bunch of mistakes on the glass in this game

thirteen offensive rebounds. So, like, I don't want to overthink it, but I think one of the things you'll see happen in basketball is especially with the bad matchup, a team will struggle with some of the mental elements of it, and you almost just kind of like need to get the monkey off your back, right, You need to get a big win against this team just to kind of reset your confidence. And I'm not now that they've played

three times, I would assume. I would assume, because they're both in the West, will play at least one more time this year. But I think, especially because you don't want to run into a playoff series, with that problem if they were to catch each other in a matchup. And so I think it's important for the Kings to nach a win against the Pelicans at some point this season. All right, guys, that's all I have for this part

of today. We're gonna be back later tonight for a breakdown of the Knicks, Bucks, as well as the Suns and the Lakers. I will see you guys. Then the volume