Hoops Tonight - Thunder-Nuggets Reaction: Westbrook ERUPTS, Jokic & Denver AVENGE opening night

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desperate to get contributions from. And then Russell Westbrook had one of his best games of the season, and that one as well. After that, the Phoenix Suns continue their dominant start to the season with yet another come from behind victory against the Miami Heat, where once again Kevin

Durant was incredible on both ends of the floor. I want to talk a little bit about Kevin Durant, I want to talk about the late game offense that Phoenix was running, and then we're going to talk a little bit about the Miami Heat and some of their early season struggles. And then at the tail end of the show to I rewatched the Celtics Warriors game this morning.

I just wanted to go through some specific notes on some of the ways that they had success trapping now that I've had a better chance to look things back over on film. And then at the very end, we have another version of Timp's tape where I have I think twenty four clips that we're going to go through from all those games to just get a little bit of a visual representation for the things that I'm talking about.

You guys, are the job Before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore jsonlts you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. We also have brand new social media feeds on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter under the Hoops Tonight handle,

so make sure you guys go find them. We're gonna be releasing some more content like reels and shorts and stuff like that on those accounts, and then last min at least, keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them in our Friday mail bags. My staff is out of town, so we already recorded the Friday mail bag for tomorrow. That's why I recorded it yesterday. That's why the week is a little bit funky this week, but usually I'll be recording

it on Friday. So keep dropping those mail back questions in the YouTube comments and we'll get to him throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So Denver be Oklahoma City with a ridiculous defensive run in the second half. So the way they kind of configured things. They had Peyton Watson on chet Holmgrin right.

This is a I talk a lot about how the game is a copycat league, right, And we saw Boston just regularly throughout the season last year just put Tatum on centers and put their center on the weakest above the break shooter. For the other team in here, Rio Denver, as with many other teams that we've seen around the league this year, are copying that strategy. They would put Jokic on the weakest above the break shooter in this case, either Lou Dort or Alex Caruso, and then you put

Peyton Watson on chet Holmgren. Then they put their best on ball defender on Shay. In this case it was either Christian Brown or Peyton Watson. So then they're pressuring the ball. You have Jokic kind of consistently hanging around the basket and help and in defensive rebounding situations, Peyton Watson's ability to switch ball screens should they need to it, especially since Christian Brown is big and strong enough and Russell Westbrook are big and strong enough to switch onto

onto a forward or center like chet Holmgren. Right, And it just gave them like a good defensive foundation to work on, and they were incredible defensively in the second

half of this game against Oklahoma City. I wanted to spend some time talking about Peyton Watson in helpside because you know, I talk about do you remember when Sam Massini came on the show right after the NBA Finals last year and we talked about the most important thing that we learned about the NBA last season, And one of the things that Sam Massini talked about was the

idea of ground coverage. And essentially, if you think of it, like NBA offenses are so damn good that and they're the star players are so damn good that you're constantly having to be aggressive in your defensive coverages. Right, Like you're pressuring the ball, chasing over the top and ball screens, you're bringing the guy up, your screen defender up to the level of the screen, you're digging down off the ball.

It's a lot of like shrinking the floor on the star, which creates opportunities for you know, skip passes, swing passes, drop off passes to cutters, things along those lines, right, And so your help side defense, the ability to have a player in this case, a guy like Peyton Watson who can feasibly cover so much ground that even when it looks like there are openings, there aren't actually openings.

That is the hallmark of a truly great defense. There were multiple situations in this game where Peyton Watson was like playing the middle ground between a guy rolling to the basket and a skip pass for three, and they both look kind of open, right, and it's like, I'm gonna hit the cutter here and it's you know, Alex Kruser right under the basket, and Peyton Watson just shoots over and swallows the shot up right. Or it's like, oh, I make you know, I'm gonna make this swing pass.

Peyton's digging pretty far down into the elbow. I'm gonna make this swing pass to the shooter above the break. Nope, Peyton's shooting out there on a closeout and it's just completely gone right Like that is what makes the truly elite defenses so great is even when they appear to give openings, they aren't really openings, and that comes down to athleticism and helpside in the ability to cover ground. Peyton Watson was unbelievable in help in this game. And

then once again down the stretch, biggest play of the game. Okay, see cuts it to two, right, Russell Westbrook picks up Shake Gilders Alexander all the way out, like way out past the three point line, and again.

a guy like RJ. Barrett, you can trust Russ to kind of cover both bases by himself, but with the matchup against a guy like Shae Gilders Alexander, I thought it was smart picked him up far out like he was well outside the three point line, forced to shade to drive, and he drove right into the teeth of the defense where Peyton Watson was able to meet him with verticality and get a big time block. Unbelievable defensive possession at the end of that game. Unbelievable defense throughout

the entire second and half. Forty Denver Nuggets Russell Westbrook twenty nine points, six rebound, six assists, tons of rim pressure and playmaking, and one of those games where everything was really clicking for him. He had three threes as well, made several huge defensive plays. We talked about the play on Shae. He also stripped Shay in the second half on a drive along the right side close to the baseline.

As I talked about before the season, there was a lot of Russell Westbrook's floor at the start of the season right like really really ugly games and even throughout that, what did I consistently tell you guys, like this is the Russell Westbrook experience. His floor is substantially lower than Reggie Jackson's, but his ceiling is substantially higher than Reggie Jackson's. And there have been a few games this year where he's put it all together and it's like, holy shit,

you got another star last night. How many players in the NBA can realistically put up twenty nine, six and six even once, right, Like, there's maybe thirty, forty, maybe fifty guys in the entire NBA who are capable of putting together that stat line. And you got that last night from a really discounted contract off of your bench. And so again, that's the Russell Westbrook experience. There's going to be games where it's really ugly, but there's also going to be games where he's able to do things

that very few players in the league can do. And on a game like last night with Jamal Murray out, you win that game because of Russell Westbrook, and you don't if he's not there, right, you lose that game with Reggie Jackson. And so that's part of the upside of the Russell Westbrook experience. Christian Brown, this is something that you know, again, part of the deal with this show is I'm right about a lot of stuff some of the time, and then I'm wrong about a lot of stuff some of the time.

point of attack. Right then, but I think he's more versatile because he can switch and can guard bigger athletes, like, for instance, he can match up with Anthony Edwards in a way kN tavi's coubble Pope never can.

One of the things that they spammed at the end of this game, the Nuggets basically closed this game by just spamming Yokic's post ups against Chet, getting the double team and playing out of it. And one of the things Christian Brown did consistently is when they would rotate so like basically it'd be post entry to yokicch and sometimes okay as he would botch it where they would just help one pass away like they did that once late with Michael Porter Junior and Michael Porter Junior hit

a three. But when they had their windshield wiper rotations down, meaning like what they would do is it would be Michael Porter Junior throws the post entry, there's a double team, the next guy slides over, the next guy slides over. As soon as Christian Brown's man would would slide over, Christian Brown would slash to the front of the rim, and then after it was usually like it was usually

like Strawther, who was like cutting through. As Strather would cut through, he would replace up to the wing where Christian Brown just was. And like as Christian Brown cut, he'd either get open and finish, which he did, or he would drag multiple defenders on his cut because cutting is a form of rim pressure. If you're a good cutter who can finish and you just run hard to the front of the rim, help defenders will come with you and then they would have openings in the skip

pass situations. Right But like they it was just like Christian Brown throughout this entire season has demonstrated among again, it's not been a perfect stretch for the Nuggets front office, right Like they've lost some depth on their bench, It's been a lot of trust in young players. There's been a disconnect with the coaching staff about how to use

those young players. It has not been perfect. But I do think letting Kntavius Colwell Pope go and Christian Brown kind of sliding into that starting spot and being a feasible starter, that was a gamble for a front office on a financial level that I thought made some sense and it worked, and Christian Brown is playing really really good basketball right now. But again everyone hit big shots off of those jokic shubble teams. Like I talked about, Michael Porter Junior hit a big three one pass away,

Peyton Watson hit a big three. Julian Strather has been actually hitting some big shots for this team. He had like a massive lead changing layup against the Toronto Raptors in like a tough defense situation late game that was a big shot. Hit a big three in the late third quarter of this game to cut the lead down to three, and then just he brings another wave of athleticism too. He had a tip slam in transition where

he was just trailing a play. Really really impressive win for the Denver Nuggets to get one back from that Oklahoma City team that dominated them on opening night on the Oklahoma City front. I thought they settled for a lot of tough pullup jumpers in the second half. They were actually twelve for thirty three from two in the second half of this game, so a lot of like tough, difficult shots in the short to mid range, took a lot of step back jump shots with a lot of

time on the shot clock. That had seven turnovers. They gave up nine offensive rebounds but it's their first lot of loss of the season, so I don't think it's worth really overreacting to. And again they you know, Shakos as Alexander has a shot to tie the game late, right,

So no reason for panic in Oklahoma City town. But one of the things I wanted to talk about that I thought was interesting in this game, and this is something I've seen kind of periodically throughout the season, but the Thunder are doing something really interesting on offense that I don't that I haven't seen around the league actually yet. And it's kind of like, so we talk about like Spain or stack pick and roll. Spain or stack pick and roll is where you have you know, Shay running

a ball screen. Let's call it with Chet or really let's just say any team.

going to the top of the key. You'll also see variations of it where the rollman actually screens for the shooter coming up. But it's basically a three man interchange, right, that's all Stack or Spain is, right, It's just ball handler, ball screen, shooter, and then the screener and the shooter replace as the ball handler is working downhill.

guards while they're forwards are in the corners. What I think is really fascinating about this is most teams run out of guard defenders, right, So most teams don't have three really good guys to guard guards, and so what they're doing is they're putting you. They're putting you in a predicament where you have to navigate a bunch of switches, and one you might just make a mistake where somebody botches the switch and someone gets wide open.

of your offense. Like a lot of times you just run the three man interchange just to see if they fuck up, and if they fuck up, then you get that really big initial advantager, maybe a great look early in the possession. But like I thought, it was kind of an interesting offensive approach from Oklahoma City and something I'm gonna be keeping an eye on, not just for them, but around the rest of the league. Here in the early part of the season, Miami Phoenix Kevin Durantz playing

like an MVP. He's averaging twenty eight point seven rebounds and three assists on sixty six percent true shooting. He's hit ten clutch shots. That's when the game is within five with less than five minutes left. That is the most in the entire NBA on only fifteen attempts. So he's ten for fifteen from the field in the clutch, he's got three clutch blocks. He's straight up stolen games.

Dominated another game down the stretch last night, the Suns were spamming ball screens with Tyas Jones Kevin Durant to try to get Tyler Harrow switched on to KD and he was just hitting shots over the top. And then one of the things too, is like Miami's a really well coached team and they had two possessions late in this game where they perfectly executed their defensive strategy and

KD still burned them. There was one where Kade got hair on the switch and right as they were dumping it to KD, Harrow runs out and high.

just defend it really well. Tyler Harrow gets through the screen, Hayward high Smith kind of stays attached to KD, forces KD to catch a triple threat twenty two feet away from the rim above the top of the key, Like that's as good as you can do in that action. Not give up the switch and force KD to catch in long two territory and KD just turns faces, rises up and knocks down the twenty two foot or off the jab step like like what do you do?

plus fifty one per one hundred possessions. They're grabbing fifty nine percent of available rebounds, and they're six to zero. So it's the same thing, damn thing every time they end up in a close game late, usually trailing, but like once they get into these fourth quarters, which is like shockingly different than what it was like last year under Frank Vogel, they just really lock in on defense

and start getting stops. And then on the other end of the floor, Kevin Durant has been the most comfortable superstar in the league in the half court, executing late, and he's just picking these teams apart. And again, I'm not even doing justice because Kevin Durant is being just as impactful on the defensive end to this point in

the season as he's been on the offensive end. You know, he's kind of like, you know how like in baseball, they talk about like a five tool player, which I think is like the ability to it's the ability to hit for contact, hit for power, to like speed on the base paths, and then it's like the ability to field well and the ability to throw from the field well. Right, Like that's what makes a five tool player, right, if I remember correctly, I've been kind of disconnected from the

baseball world. They played a lot when I was a kid, but it's been a while. In my Arizona Diamondbacks are not as consistently good as they used to be. But Kevin Durant to me, is like the five tool player on the defensive end in the basketball world. Like he can real realistically guard the ball well. He can play off ball defense well, he can protect the rim, he can defensive rebound, and he can't what was the fifth one that I put down. He can guard the ball,

he can guard and help. He can cover ground in rotation, so like when they're in driving kick situations, he can cover ground. Like there's a play where he straight up chased Duncan Robinson off the three point line then recovered back on the drive to block Duncan Robinson at the rim.

He was helping on a different player in the lane when the kickout passed that Duncan Robinson happened Like that is unbelievable to be able to like, Oh, I'm gonna put you on Tyler Harrow, and Tyler Harrow wants nothing to do with you. He's going to get rid of the basketball to be able to in help contain guys that are driving into him, but also be able to cover ground in rotation back to the perimeter while also being able to protect the rim with real vertical length,

while also being a dominant defensive freebounder. He's the base. He's the basketball version of a five too player on the defensive end of the floor. I'm gonna show you guys some clips when we get in there. But he just he's just dominating these games in crunch time. He's anchoring it all on both ends of the floor. I can't say enough about how good Kevin Duran has been to start this year. Usuf Nurkic, here's the thing. Usuf

Durkich is a lower tier starting center in this league. Right, Like, he's definitely one of the lesser guys that's in that specific type of role, but he's not as bad as he showed in the early part of the season, and he finally had his breakout game last night. Twenty points, eighteen rebounds, hit a huge bomb three in the second half from like thirty feet away. He was diving on

loose balls. He had two blocks in his steel. Remember, like Nurkich when he's at his best, is actually a pretty decent active hands kind of like drop coverage big. He just hasn't been so to start this season. But he's got good instincts, he's got long arms, he's got good size, he can do some damage down there, and he's one of the best rebounders in the league when he's really engaged. He was due for a breakout game.

He finally had one. Phoenix Sun's playing some really damn good basketball on the Miami Front, just not enough offensive firepower coming from bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler. They had twenty seven points on thirty four shots last night. For the season, Jimmy Butler is at his lowest points per game total since twenty fourteen, over ten years ago, and bam Adebayo is on his lowest points per game total. Excuse me, j Bride the struggle bus today It's been a long week. It's the sixth show of the week.

Jimmy Butler is at his lowest points per game total since twenty fourteen and his lowest efficiency and true shooting percentage since twenty sixteen. Bamitebayo is averaging his lowest points per game total since twenty nineteen and on the lowest efficiency of his career. And again, Tyler Harrow was great last night, but both him and Terry Rogier are really

inconsistent offensive players. It's just going to be really hard for Miami to contend in this league with the lack of offensive firepower that they've had to start this year. Not sure what to make of this Heat team through the early stretch of the season. Really quickly on Golden State in Boston. Again, we did a breakdown on it last night, just kind of like an instant reaction. But

we're going to talk some more in film. But there were two main concepts that I wanted to kind of dive a little bit firm they're into now that I've had a chance to rewatch the game. So first of all, the concept in Golden State's traps. So one of the things that I talk about a lot on this show, is like, in order for a trap to be functional, you have to have active hands on the ball, right, because as soon as you put two on the ball,

you're compromised. Behind that there's a full on three guys are open, right, That's part of the price you pay when you put two on the ball. But if you pressure the ball with long arms and active hands, you can force either one like if my arm is like this and you have to throw over it, you're either going to get a deflection or you're going to force a looping kind of like lobbing pass.

you can shut down the advantage. On the back side of that. You'll see some examples, but they were getting lots of deflections enforcing lots of off target, off time passes from Boston, which was allowing them to get away with their traps without having to worry about giving up easy opportunities on the backside. The second part of it was breeding in decisiveness with off ball positioning. There was a steal that they had in the first half where

like they trapped the ball. Draymond is active hands, Andrew Wiggins is active hands, and Buddy Healed. He gets inside position on Cornett. Luke Cornett's at the top of the key, and then there's another Celtic that's across the wing right. So the read there for Tatum out of the trap is to make the swing pass not to Cornette but to the next guy. But Buddy Heal takes inside position on Cornette and just sits there waiting for the swing

pass so he can jump in. So then when the pass gets made, there's a little bit of a deflection, and so now it turns into a foot between Buddy Held and Luke Cornett to get to this loose ball that was intended on the swing pass for the next guy down the line. But Buddy Heild's faster and he had inside position, so he's able to leverage that, get out to it and tap out. The basketball forces a turnover. They go out the other way. Right, there was another one on the weak side. There was a two on one.

There's I want to say it was Pritchard in the right corner and it was Horford on the right wing. Right, there's your two on one. Buddy Heeld is there on the swing. Pass out of the trap. Buddy Heald does a textbook passing lane close out, really smart. The pass is on target to Al Horford, but Buddy Heeld closes out, not to Al Horford, but in between the two of them. So Horford catches thinking Buddy Held is closing out at him. So his first read is to turn and look to

the corner. But when he turns and looks to the corner, he sees Buddy Held just standing in the passing lane, so he can't actually make that pass. Then he turns and he looks at the basket again and Buddy kind of stunts at him. So then Horford looks again to the corner. It's not open again, and then he has no choice but to throw it up. And now it's a break rhythm situation. Even though it's a good look, he's been second guessing himself for a few seconds before

that shot. That is the type of defensive positioning that forces indecisiveness. Everything about what made that defense work for Golden State last night was about pressuring the ball with active hands, forcing rushed decisions. And then when there were openings, they were splitting the difference with their athleticism and forcing indecisiveness from Boston, which allowed them to shrink those openings quickly. And then the third part of it is just ridiculously

ridiculous athleticism. Gary Payton, the second is the guy that really stood out to me on film last night, where it's like there's a loose ball, he's diving on the ground and getting it.

closed out and blocked the damn shot. That goes back to what we were talking about with Peyton Watson, where it's like when you have defensive players in help that can legitimately be in two places at once and cover all of that ground, that is what unlocks a level of defense that becomes really difficult to overcome, even for the best offenses in the league. It was a really, really impressive job defensively from Golden State. You're gonna see

a bunch of examples of that in film. And then Boston. The last thing I wanted to talk about before we get to the film, Boston's late game execution on defense. A lot of mistakes down the stretch. Drew Holliday in particular, batched two switches. There was one between him and Tatum where there was a miscommunication and Steph got wide open for three. That was the one that cut the lead down to I think he had the three free throws

first and then that to cut it to one. So like that was the shot that cut it to one, and then there was another one. Do you guys remember when Steph had that wide open back cut for the layup. All Steph did was run up like he was going to come off the wing and then backcut, and Drew Holliday just assumed there was going to be a switch and so he got backcut, easy layup for Steph And then the first offensive rebound that Al Horford had, Drew Holliday had inside position to box him out or not

al Horford, excuse me. The first offensive rebound that Kevon Looney got, Drew Holliday had inside position on Cavan and just gave up on the play and Looney went right around him. He got an offensive rebound. So like three pretty significant execution mistakes from Drew Holliday. Late Derek White lost Buddy Healed on a corner crash where he just kind of drifted into the lane looking for the ball while Buddy was sprinting for it, beat him to the ball,

got an offensive rebound. And then Tatum in addition to that kind of like grifty, he'd like tried to take a met range jump shot against Looney or Looney did not foul him, and he just missed the shot, and he like turned and bitched at the refs, jogged back on defense and then lost Buddy Healed off the ball in a relocation and gave up a three, So like a lot of just like sloppy execution mistakes from Boston. Now, to be clear, I'm not worried about Boston at all

in the big picture. I'm just saying last night will be a good game for Joe Mizzoula to kind of kick them in the ass a little bit and try to kind of help use that as an opportunity to drive home some of the attention to detail that has made this team so good over the course of the last year. All right, let's get into some film. First clip. This is a really nice defensive possession from Kevin Durant. So's on. Jimmy Butler gets kind of beat towards the baseline,

but recovers there's your help side right again. It's okay to get beat if you get beat within the scheme. In this case, you don't want to give up middle penetration. You want to get beat towards the baseline because Plumbley's in position to help. Jimmy Butler gets a little drill penetration.

Watch Kevin Durant's recovery here on the kickout he switches down to kill o where underneath the basket we have another drive helps shuts it off, forces the skip pass, closes out on Duncan, Robinson chases him off the line again looks as he shuts down that help shuts down the Duncan Robinson play. There's the kickout Duncan Robinson quickly relocates. KD gets a little bit lost, but look at his

ability to cover ground. He gets out to one of the best shooters in the league on a close out, chases him off the line, then recovers and blocks him at the basket. That's just an unbelievable defensive play from Kevin Durant. Another really good one here on Jimmy Butler, just using his length to disrupt the pull up a pull up three gets a great contest offensive rebound gets picked kicked back out to Jimmy. Watch the individual defense

from KD on Jimmy Butler. So again, already in this sequence, you've seen in the last two clips, you've seen him guard on the ball. You've seen him guard in help, and you've seen him guard in rotation like that. That's and you've also seen him protect the rim and like the I don't think I have a clip of him getting any specific defensive rebounds, but he was really good defensive rebound. He's just getting to fifty fifty balls late in this game. So this has been Phoenix's go to

late game action, right. So you're they're trying to get Tyler Harrow on to Ties Jones. So you set this screen with Beale to get the switch with Harrow, and then they would bring Kevin duran up to set the screen to try to get Harro on the switch. Then he gets his matchup that he likes. He's got Harrow, he's gonna turn over that right shoulder, and Katie's been getting doubled on his backside this whole season and it just hasn't mattered because he's just shooting right over the top.

So here's Miami again doing a really nice job do scram switching out of it, right, So we get the first switch with Harrow onto Ties Jones, come to set the second ball screen forces the switch. But so here comes the scram right, So high Smith is getting ready, Kevin Durant's getting to his spot where he wants it. Watch right as the pass goes up, there's the pass. Tyler Harrow is now sprinting out of it. Heywood, high Smith is switching back, So see how they like basically

scram Tyler Harrow out of that mismatch. Hey, high Smith is there, he gets a contest, but it's Kevin freakin Durant and he just turns right over his right shoulder and knocks it down. And then this one, this one is literally perfect defense. Two point game, thirty three seconds left. You get a stop, you get a chance to win this game. Bill comes sets the first screen, gets Harrow in the switch. Here comes KD. This is really well defended. Look so Hi Smith shoves shoves KD a little bit

to create a gap. That creates a gap. Harro is able to recover. He lingers just for a second. Harrow gets there, kick back to KD. Thinking there's an opportunity for an advantage. High Smith is boom there, that is as good as you can defend that action. And now KD is in an iso twenty two feet from the basket and he just turns faces and knocks the shot down. Like what the hell do you do with that? There's just nothing you can do, like you're just sometimes you

just get to lose to Kevin Durant. And that's what happened to the miam Me heat last night. This is Russell Westbrook at his best from the thunder Oklahoma City. The Thunder Nuggets game gets Downhill drives all the help in the paint, makes a nice little corner kicked. Christian Brown has all day to knock down the three. This is a really nice slot cut from Russ. Again, a lot of uh spamming the Yokic post up stuff late

in this game. Watch as the double team goes. This is a I was talking about this earlier with Christian Brown, but watch as the double team goes. You're gonna see Shay go Jalen slide over. As soon as Jalen slides over. Instead of just standing here and making this in above the break three, Russ just cuts to the rim. Watch cut catch. Now he's got a head of steam. He draws Chet in help so he can drop it off to Yokic, who then just gets like a little easy

bank shot. See that's how you can create spacing without knocking down threes. This is what everyone's been begging Russell Westbrook to do since the beginning of time. Another big time play from Russ. Chet spins on Peyton Watson. Russ comes digging in, swipes the ball away from Chet and then look at him on the runout trailing. The play

had a steam nice little scoop shot. This is talk a lot about how the Yokic hitting threes is less about him like actually like getting a bunch of points every game from threes, but more adding the close out attacking part of his game, which is where he's so deadly. The reason why he's so deadly in these situations is because he's so damn strong that as soon as he gets a slight angle on you, he can use his elbows and shoulders to kind of maintain that angle as

he lumbers down the lane. Right, But all that stems off of he's got to be able to knock this shot down because Chet's not lunging out like this unless he can knock the shot down. Chet lunges out, Jokic gets an angle, then he can rumble down the lane and once again, look, once he has that angle, watch how he uses that right elbow right here on the gather. Watch how he uses his elbow clears that space, slows himself down for Chet to run by, and the knock

knocks down the layup. That's such a huge part of Yokic's game when he's at his best, and it is entirely predicated on his ability to knock down those three point shots when they're available. Here's one of those two places that once plays from Peyton Watson, right. So I'm Jaylen Williams. I'm looking sorry, guys, I'm Jayalen Williams. I'm looking for an opening here on the roll right once again noticing uh, they're running the action with all their guards,

which I think is fascinating. Crusoe rolls. Here's our opening. So if you're Jalen Williams, this is the right read, right, like Peyton Watson is. If you can't throw this skip pass, if you throw that skip pass, Peyton's getting that right. So like, this is the right read. There's a two on one here and Peyton is kind of sort of overplaying the corner, but like, look at how quickly he just teleports over there and swipes this shot away. I'm gonna I'm gonna put it in full speed because this

really is a crazy play. Watch how quickly Peyton Watson recovers. Like, what do you do about that?

That is excellent basketball. That is when you can put two onto Shay but still recover on the backside without leaving anybody open, and especially with the guy like Jokic moving his feet like that, that is once again the level of detail you need on defense to be able to guard the best players in the league. Force his chat to step out of bounds on the baseline. Really nice cut here from Christian Brown off of another Yokic post up double. Same sort of concept we were talking

about earlier with Rus right. So we're gonna throw it in, okay, Now, straw The is kind of cutting through right. The double team comes from Dort. As Dort goes, Strawther relocates, Caruso takes mpj in Brown. Look at Brown, Brown hard slot cut because he cuts. That brings everybody in here and leave Strawther wide open. Strawther's wide open. That forces the close out from Shae. In that process, Christian Brown finds himself wide open under the basket. So watch it one

more time. Brown cuts, brings Isaiah Joe with him, kick out to Strawther. Both Joe and Shay show out on Strawther. That leaves Christian Brown wide open. Pass fake to Peyton, Watson occupies Joe for a second, and Christian Brown gets a lay up once again, like you can create spacing without shooting threes. You just have to be a smart cutter and you have to bring that real rim pressure

with the athleticism of your cuts. Another one here, same sort of deal, crosscreen, post entry, Strather cuts through again. This is the same kind of sequence that you keep seeing. Right, Strather cuts through. Here comes the double team winshield wipeer rotation. As soon as Shay goes, watch Christian Brown down cut Shay go's Christian Brown cuts. Jalen Williams tries to meet him there, but Brown beats him. Now he's got a head of steam against a smaller, less athletic player at

the rim. Christian Brown's able to get a bucket doing a really nice job of manufacturing spacing without having to shoot the basketball. Here's another great health defense possession from Peyton Watson. Well you don't see that shot miss from Yokaus very often, do you. Really nice athletic play from Shay to beat Christian Brown off the dribble. Peyton's kind of at a position. Watch him wall him up, walls him up and forces the miss. Really good health defense

from Peyton Watson. Transition defense here from Julian Straw There It'd be really easy to let Lou Dort go here, but instead he just sprints back and jumps up vertically and Lou blows a lay up. Lou is foolishly going for a foul. He should have just stayed on that left side of the basket laid it up. Instead, he tries to go for the foul and doesn't get it. But that's the thing did his job. Sprinted back straight verticality, forced a miss, got a huge stop late in this game.

And then here's the biggest play of the game. Peyton Watson in help once again. So watch Russ. Russ picks up Shae like twenty five feet out. This removes the pull up jumper from the equation, enforces Shay to drive. He's not going to methodically work into a pull up jump shot from this faraway from the basket. Now you can plan. You can plan for the drive by helping.

And in this case, yokicch and Peyton Watson are going to say, the only thing you're taking here is an Alex Cruso three, and he had just bricked long an open three from the right wing earlier in the fourth quarter. He's the one you want shooting it. Right, So again, watch what happens here. Russ gives up the drive, but it's a drive they can plan for lefty drive. Peyton Watson leaves Chet to step up, and you're gonna see Yokic drop to box out Chet, so that the only

opening is this corner kicked Ruso. Peyton Watson gets there. Look at the verticality blocks the shot game over all. Right, let's move over to that Warrior Celtics game. So again, look at the indecisiveness here. So I, uh, this play had a transition element, so that's why I clipped it at this point, but I think there might have been an offensive rebound.

the weekside. Right, Pritchard and Horford watch where Buddy Heel closes out to the passing lane. He's in the passing lane, so watch Horrerford on the catch look to make the extra pass, but it's not there because Buddy Heel's playing the passing lane. Then he looks, hesitates, hesitates, and basically has to jack up a break rhythm three, which forces a bad miss. Here's a classic Steph gravity play. Just the textbook forced the big to show and then slip out of the screening action.

to try to play that passing lane. Pritchard makes the pass, Wiggins gets a hand on it. That's everything. If he doesn't get a hand on it, it's on a rope to Horford. Now it's gonna be a rotation from Gary Payton in a wide open three for Tatum in the corner. But instead he gets a hand on it. Now it's a loose ball and Buddy held as inside position and he's able to beat Cornette to it with a deflection. And then once again, look at the closing speed from

Gary Payton on this deflection. Right here, Horford's closer to the ball than Gary Payton, but Gary Payton's faster. Gary Payton gets on it quicker, forces the deflection. Now we're running out the other way for the Andrew Wiggins dunk. Actually, I think I think I think that might have been Andrew Wiggins missing the layup, which was maybe the worst blown layup I've ever seen in my time watching the NBA. Look at the Look at how fast Gary Payton is on this roll to the rim. He's gonna play this

one at full speed. Watch how fast he gets past Cornett speed speed everywhere on the floor for the Golden State Warriors. Here's Gary Payton being two places at once. It's guarding Pritchard digs down right here, watch.

that cut from seven to five like that. Here's an example of how the Warriors just constant motion causes you to make mistakes. This was one of the mistakes that I talked about Drew Holiday making.

back cuts him and gets an easy layup. Big time mistake from Drew Holliday in a big moment, though, this I thought was just an unbelievable athletic play from Buddy Held who just Buddy Heeld just continues to look amazing. Look at this lefty finish on the rip over the top rip move. Really nice finish from Buddy Heeld. Nice play from Steph here, Probably not this is a dynamic you're not gonna see when you play Boston for real

in a real series. But gets nimus Quai on a switch and just goes right around him, and Boston planned for it. I mean you can literally see Horford and Derek White, Derek White zoning up on the strong side de Horford's basically telling meet him at the rim, and he does a great job jumps up with verticality, but Steph just scoops it in over the top and then this These are the two big mistakes from Tatum. Late didn't like this shot against loony, just worried about the refs.

Didn't even get fouled, turning complaining to the refs. Kind of a little bit unfocused. Watch this next possession, but I miss it. I thought I added that clip that I didn't. But on the very next possession, basically Buddy Healed just relocates on Jason Tatum off of the right wing and Jason Tatum is not paying attention and gives up the wide open three in the right corner. All right, guys, that is always always all I have for today. Man, I'm having the hardest time talking today. It's all I

have for today is always that. Sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.