Hoops Tonight - Top 10 NBA Contenders: Will Clippers or Suns dethrone Nuggets?

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five and number four of our contender rankings. Happens to be two teams that had a showdown last night, an absolute and complete ass kicking by the Los Angeles Clippers of the Phoenix Suns. For those of you guys interested in that specific game, we are going to be doing a full film breakdown. I have seventeen clips from the thirty five to four run from the Clippers to start

that game. We're gonna break it all down. But because of the podcast audience We're trying to order this in a way to where audio stuff is at the front, and don't worry, we'll end up running it as a breakout clip anyway. But we're gonna lead with our contender rankings five and then four, and then the tail end of the show, we're going to be doing a deep dive in the film of the Clippers ass kicking of the Suns from last night. You guys are the joke

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dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. We are going to be doing a mail bag during tomorrow's show. And on that note, let's talk some basketball. So number five, I have the Phoenix Suns. I have the Clippers, the MAVs, and the Suns kind of all in the same kind of grouping, and it's funky because I think the Suns are the worst team of that group, but I also think they have the best matchup advantages to potentially beat Denver.

So once again, like I said at the beginning of this contender list, I kind of view three through nine as all kind of bunched up to begin with, and most of it's gonna come down to who plays who. For instance, I think the Clippers are a better basketball team than the Suns, but they have the most likely the Dallas Mavericks in the first round, and then if Denver beats Minnesota tonight, they're gonna have to turn around

and play Denver right after that. So it might be one of those things where the Suns just get better matchups if they get out of this mess, and maybe they end up making it farther anyway, So when it comes to this group of teams, this three through nine on my list, it really just has to do with who they end up playing to begin with, So keep that in mind. But obviously got the Suns at number five. They're forty six thirty three right now, currently the seventh

seed in the Western Conference. They are tenth in offensive rating for the season, thirteenth in defensive rating for the season, twentieth in defensive rebounding. Although they are a good offensive rebounding team, they're tenth in offensive rebounding. A big part of that is they're just so good at getting defenses into rotation, and like I talk about a lot on the show, get the defense into rotation, your rebounding matchups

aren't as solid. You're kind of chasing people around, you have a clear box out in front of you, and so you can give up a lot offensive rebounds in those situations. They're strengths again, like we are gonna do with this team exactly what we do with the other teams in this list, strengths, weaknesses, and then what their

playoff path looks like. So they have the best drive and kick game in the league in my opinion, when they play advantage basketball, which is not every night, they're a little bit We're gonna talk about this in a little bit. The Suns are, in my opinion, like the most inconsistent team of all these good teams on this list. They're ceiling in floora pretty far apart. It's a big part of why they've been had so many questionable losses. This year. For example, they have ten losses this year

against teams that are below five hundred. That's more than anybody in the top ten in the Western Conference. As a matter of fact, it's to give you some perspective. Utah Jazz have eleven losses to teams that are below five hundred. So we've seen a lot of good and bad basketball from the Suns, which kind of poisons the data. And what makes it complicated because we're thinking about them in terms of their ceiling, but we know that they're

capable of nights like last night as well. But when they play advantage basketball, and what I mean by that is the Stars actually taking it seriously just to get the defense in rotation rather than tough shot making and play advantage basketball off of that, they can be very good. I look at offense as a three step process. One advantage creation that means drawing multiple defenders to the ball and creating a closeout opportunity somewhere on the floor. Step

two advantage extending. That's taking that close out opportunity and driving it to generate an even better close out opportunity or an opportunity to finish the play. That third step play finishing. That's your vertical spacer under the rim, who's either dunking a lob or dunking out of the dunker spot. That's your guy catching and knocking down a three point shot on the weak side. That's your guy, you know, against an elite defense that's doing a good job of

chasing you off the line and defending the rim. That's the guy that can you know, pump, fake and rip through and hit a wonderable pull up in a soft spot in the middle of the defense. Those are the three steps, and the Suns have really good players in all three groups. They have three guys that can consistently get the defense in rotation in Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant. A fourth and use of Nurkics, which

we've talked about in our video film sessions. Again, we did a whole film session on the Sun's advantage creation basketball in last week's episodes to make sure you go back in the feed and look for that if you're looking for more visible examples. But they have a lot of guys that can get the defense in rotation, and Nurkic is one of them. Switch a pick and roll toss it down to the post against a guard, he's gonna draw that second defender and they can play off

of that advantage. Extending to me, they've got a lot of guys that can take a close out opportunity and turn it into something better. All of the stars who get tons of opportunities off the ball, Grayson Allen's great at it as well, and then play finishing. There's literally a ton of that all over the four. All their role players that are in the rotation when they're healthy can shoot. They can really spread you out and pick

you to pieces like that. Again, it's just about whether or not they're diligent enough to do it with consistency. Another strength they have a lot of foot speed on the perimeter. That's the strength of this group from an athletic standpoint. They've got length and speed. They're not an overly strong group. They're not an overly tall group, but they have strength and speed, and so when they're engaged defensively they can be very good, which we'll talk about

in a little bit. They also have a plethora of star talent to squeeze something out of nothing. They've been the most efficient pull up shooting team in the league. This year, they get one point zero five points per pull up jump shot. That is number one in the NBA. That's a great ceiling razor rescue possessions. That means, you know, six seconds on the shot clock, your primary actions got shut down. There's not enough time to run something else.

Somebody's just got to go create a bucket off the bounce. The Suns are great at that coverage beaters. That means like if they are defending a pick and roll two on two and they are running a deep drop coverage and staying glued off the ball to stay out of rotation, they have guys that can set their man up on the ball screen, get them trapped on the other side, get down to a spot, you know, whether it's at the three point line or just inside the three point line,

and they can get a quality jump shot. There will

be It's very possible, at least for stretches. Denver, for instance, is a team that could potentially do this to them if they run into if they happen to get the seven seed out of the play in tournament, and let's say Denver loses to Minnesota tonight and it ends up being Denver Phoenix We've seen Denver show for stretches that they're willing to kind of concede those types of those types of mid rangs, pull up jump shots for KD and Devin Booker, those are coverage beaters, and we know

the Suns are capable of hitting those. We literally saw them do it against Denver at points in the past. And then lastly, late game shot making again another great example from the Nuggets game. Just you do everything right all game long, but you know Katie hits a big pull up three over the top of Aaron Gordon, makes a couple more in ot and you end up losing. Right. So that's a strength of this rosters. They've got a lot of top end talent that can convert those. Again,

the rescue possessions, coverage beaters, and late game shot making. Also, Frank Vogel is a very good defensive coach who excels at scouting and adjusting to opposing offense. This is something I noticed firsthand rooting for him when he was the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. The fallout with Frank Vogel and the Lakers pretty much stemmed around by in and just like them hearing the same voice for too long and the Lakers Stars particularly just tuning Frank Vogel out.

That was why he had to go. I always thought that Frank Vogel was a good coach, even if he could be stubborn with some of his personnel decisions from time to time. And then lastly, use of Nurkics. I know it doesn't seem like much, and honestly, before the season, I'll freely admit I was one of the guy that was wrong about this deal just because I thought Deandratan was a more talented basketball player, and there's a case to be made that Deandraytan would be a better option.

And just about every situation except for this particular Denver matchup, use of Nurkic just does a really nice job with his size battling Jokic off of positions and making things more difficult for them. There's also been a you know, even beyond the Jokic matchup, he's been really good just as a connective piece for them offensively. But in this particular case, I'm leaving him in as a strength for the Denver Nuggets matchup. I think his size is a legit asset that a lot of teams in the Western

Conference do not have for that specific matchup. Now, they're weaknesses, We're gonna talk about some specifics, but the major weakness this team has is exactly what you saw last night. They are not a very physically imposing roster, like we talked about. They have some speed, they have some length, but they are not a strong team, especially without use of Nurkic like the last night. Obviously Nurkic did not play, but even with Nurkice, they're not a physically strong team.

And when you punch them in the mouth with physicality, they can stagger a bit and they can lose their mojo. We saw something very similar from the same kind of Clippers set up last year in the first round before Kawhi Leonard got hurt. They went into that playoff series as the more talented team. The Clippers just mucked it up right away when they got into that first round series and stole a game off of them, and then obviously Kawhi gets hurt in Game two. But like to

put it simply, basketball is pretty. It's a pretty game, especially with the Sun, especially with all their offensive skill that they have. But it's pretty until it's not and then it evolves into something else. It becomes about toughness and fight and motor and execution. It gets ugly, it becomes a rock fight. And the Sons are capable of playing in that type of style, but it doesn't come naturally to them, and so they can be very inconsistent

in those types of games. Like I talked about earlier, one of the largest gaps in the league between their floor and their ceiling, and that concerns me if they run into a tough, physical type of matchup, for instance,

of a we talked about the Denver matchup. They have succeeded in that group when they can spread them out and obviously with the matchup of nurkichon Jokich, but they've also struggled when Denver's been able to strangle the game, tie things down into the half court, and out execute them,

leading into that Kevin Durant pull up jump shot. I think it was a twelve ozho run from the Nuggets in that first matchup where the Suns won in overtime is a twelve oh run where Denver kind of played bullyball on them, and that can be a weakness for them. A couple of specifics when it comes down to their struggles in physicality. They don't defensive rebound well. They're twentieth in defensive rebound percentage. They are twenty seventh in points

in the paint scored per one hundred possessions. They do not score baskets easily inside the painted area. They take the third most jump shots per possession in the league, so they are a jump shot variance type of team.

They do not have a defensive strong point. This is something I was looking at today, which is concerning twentieth and three pointers made allowed per one hundred possessions, fifteenth in points in the paint allowed per one hundred possessions, So they don't guard the three or the paint particularly well. They are not good at defensive rebounding like you mentioned earlier, and they are not good in transition defense. So those

are their weaknesses. Their pathway got to be able to hold up in rock fight basketball and match physicality, so they do. Their talent can shine through, but that's definitely like we talked about earlier, weakness got to play advantage basketball. I want to see their assist percentage in the postseason in the mid sixties instead of in the high fifties. That to me is a strong indicator of the style

of basketball that they're playing. If they lean on just top tough shot making, they're gonna go cold and they're gonna lose. But if they play advantage basketball and they spread teams out and get great shots, they have a really good chance to go on a run. And then lastly, they need an all time defensive run from Kevin Durant. He is the one guy on this team that has the supreme athletic gifts to really impact the game defensively regardless of matchup. It's a lot of pressure on him,

but it's what they need him to do. Number four the Los Angeles Clippers the fifty one and twenty eight fourth in the Western Conference and a third in offense, fifteenth in defense, twenty third in defensive rebounding. Their strengths positional strength, and by strength I mean literally physical strength. Kawhi Leonard, big strong forward who can really be handsy and physical and cause problems for players if he can. Zubach at the center position is very much that Russell Westbrook.

Once again, you saw last night the type of wrecking ball he can be physically because of his size and strength at the guard position. And then Terrence Man started the game on Devin Booker last night and did an incredible job with his physicality. Again, we're gonna dig into the film here. I've got a film session on the Clipper Sons game that we're gonna go over right after this particular segment. And so if you haven't seen that yet, you can either check out the breakout Clipper, you can

hang around. It'll be up here in a minute. They put their hands on you and they make everything in pain in the ass, and when they're locked in as a switching defense, they can really stagnate you and bully you like you get stuck on an island with the Kawhi, with the Zubas, with the Russ with the Terrence Man. And they're just physical. They're handsy, they keep you in front and they make you uncomfortable, and they can be really good defensively when that shines through. They're a very

good three point shooting team. They don't take a ton of them because they take so many mid range jump shots, but they're very accurate when they do. They're the fourth highest three point percentage in the league. They're good at forcing turnovers and running. This is like they're not a transition, push paced team. They do when Russ plays and use not a lot of that last night, where like Russ, we'll just get a defensive rebound and just really bring the ball up the floor with verve and kind of

get them set into the half court quickly. But they don't really do that for the most part over the course of the large sample, especially when James Harden is on the floor. But they do get a lot of steals, and they do get a lot of transition opportunities off of those steals. So they are seventh in steals per one hundred possessions and seventh in transition frequency per cleaning

the glass, and they're also eight in transition efficiency. So they get steals, they run, they get baskets out of that couple of examples from the Sun's game last night that you guys will see here in just a couple of minutes. Paul George is getting hot at the right time. Twenty five points, five rebounds, and four assists per game

in his last fifteen games. Check this out. Fifty two percent from the field, forty eight percent from three to ninety seven percent from the line, that's about as preposterous efficiency as you could hope to see from a volume score like that. And then Kawhi Leonard if he's healthy. In my opinion, he's one of the top five playoff

players in the league. I think you're taking Jokic one, and then it's probably Luca two, Luka Jyannis in that mix, and then it's Kawhi and like you know, like you can make a case Kawai's ahead of Luca and Janis if you want to, but he's certainly in the top four there of playoff players when you get into this kind of physical environment. The reality is his combination of size and strength and footwork. Like I talked about, footwork

is the skill element of getting to spots. It makes it impossible to stop him from getting to his spots, and that translates even as the physicality increases in these playoff environments. It's a big part of what makes him one of the best playoff players in the league. He can just get to spots ten to fifteen feet away from the basket and get really easy shots pretty consistently.

Clipper's weaknesses not a very fast team. They do have fast players, right like Terrence Man super fast, Russell Westbrook super fast, but their advantage is more from a personnel standpoint in strength and length. They are not a great straight line speed type of team. If you look at their starters, four of their starters are not overly fast. James Harden pretty slow. If you get Zubats pretty slow, Kawhi Leonard, he's a power player, he's not a straight

line speed player. And then Paul George at thirty four years old, is not the fastest guy in the world either, and he's more of a finesse, over the top type of shot maker. Right. He's not a guy that's just bringing overwhelming straight line speed to the table. And so we see that weakness manifest in a bunch of specific areas. First of all, they're a terrible transition defense. They have the eighth worst transition frequency allowed per cleaning the glass

and the fifth worst transition efficiency allowed. They also don't put a lot of pressure on the rim in the half court. Most of their points in the paint come in runouts in transition. This is not a team that is just slashing to the basket and getting easy layups like that. It'll be interesting to see how much Russell Westbrook plays when they get in the postseason. That's something I have in my path segment is like if James Harden,

who by the way, is not playing well as of late, if he falls apart in the postseason and they lean into Russ, Russ could be a guy who brings some of that rim pressure to address that specific issue. But with their starting group, they don't put a lot of pressure on the rim in the half court. They also can get beat to loose balls and long rebounds as a result of their lack of foot speed. So that's

why they're a bad defensive rebounding team. That's why they don't force to turn the turnovers their twentieth and turnovers forced per one hundred possessions. Again, they get steals on the ball with their physicality, but they're not a passing lane type of team. They're not like the Oklahoma City Thunder jumping passing lanes and getting out. It's mostly just physical on the ball. Russ and Kwhi snatching the ball away from you, Terrence Man snatching the ball away from

you and running out the other way. They're high steels team, but not a high turnover team like that. Teams that are typically really good at forcing turnovers, are super fast, right like Oklahoma City is number one and turnovers force per one hundre possessions. Blazing fast team. The Orlando Magic are second in forcing turnovers. They have really fast and physical on the ball defenders, and then Memphis is third. So young and fast is typically what forces a turn

of turnovers. The Clippers are not that type of team. They're also a little bit jump shot reliant. They're eighth in jump shot frequency, first in pull up jump shot frequency. We've seen them go cold, namely in the twenty twenty season as pull up jump shooters. But they are a little bit susceptible to variants when it comes to that jump shooting, especially against teams that have real length that can offer contests without fouling. And then lastly, is Kawhi

going to be healthy and ready to go? Like obviously he's sitting out right now. We don't have any word, you know, how it is with Kawhi's camp. Whenever he gets hurt, it's just it's just like batting up the hatches and no one tells anybody anything. And so we'll see what ends up happening. But obviously Kawhi is a history of falling apart physically when he gets into the postseason. His last two playoff runs that he played, he broke down before he could get to the finish line. Now

he's breaking down. He's not even there yet, So that obviously is a potential weakness. To keep in mind. Their path very simple. Kawhi has to be healthy and play like Kawhi. Tylu has to really manage that James Harden

Russell Westbrook dynamic. It's interesting because, like guys, you guys know, I'm not a huge Russell Westbrook fan, but like, weirdly enough, in the postseason, his effectiveness goes up a level just because he's such a freak athlete and in that physical environment he can really be impactful, especially if he's on the ball, because it's gonna be a little bit tricky and uh, we're gonna show some examples, but he can be a little bit of an aggressive off ball defender

that can make some mistakes off the ball. But James Harden can fall apart in in my opinion, worst ways than what Russell Westbrook can fall apart doing. And so even though there will be some spacing concerns, it's gonna be an interesting dynamic for Tylou to kind of measure where it's like, oh, this is a Russ series, or this is a Ross game versus oh, this is a James Harden series, or this is a James Harden game. That's gonna be the type of balance he's gonna have

to strike. The need to shoot the ball well obviously, and then the big thing is gonna be matchups for them. They got to find a way to get through Luca and nikolea Jokic. Tonight, the Timberwolves go to Denver. If Denver wins that game, which they'll be favored, and obviously depends on if all the stars play. But let's say Denver plays their guys and they win, then it's probably

going to be Clippers MAVs in the first round. And Luca has consistently given the Clippers issues in the postseason, even though the Clippers have escaped those series, those were limited in terms of talent. Clippers teams that push them to the brink consistently, and then if they happen to beat Dallas, waiting for them on the other side will be the Denver Nuggets, And so matchups are going to be tough. For them. It's kind of a pain in

the butt for the Clippers. It's like, you have this great regular season, you finish fourth in the Western Conference, and your reward is just a preposterously difficult playoff path. But hey, that's what the Western Conference is at this point. So I have the Clippers at number four. We have three more that we're gonna be hitting, probably gonna hit all of them tomorrow in all likelihood. You guys can probably guess what the order is going to be if

you've listened to me this season. But that's where we're at at this point. All right, let's head over to the film. I've titled this segment the Anatomy of an ass Kicking. So the Clippers got off to a thirty five to four start against the Suns. We're gonna look

at these specifics here on some film, all right. So first we're gonna go over the main coverage issue that Phoenix was having with the Clippers, And the main coverage issue was they were, on account of Paul George being such a good pull up jump shooter, they were hedging and recovering on ball screens. So here we have Grayson Allen guarding Paul George. We have Zubach getting ready to set the screen use of nurkic or excuse me, Drew

you banks again. What his job here is with the hedge and recover is to stop Paul George from making a drive to his left hand side and then recover inside. But Paul George is beating it and Zubach is beating it just with the basic slip. So what we're gonna see here, We're gonna see. We're gonna see Zuboch step out and as he steps out the lunch step, Paul

George picks up his dribble immediately. There's not a lot of length on the ball to disrupt this pass, unfortunately, so it's a really easy over the top pass to Zubach slipping down the lane. He's gonna slip and that's Bradley Beale waiting for him at the rim. It's just not enough size in that case. He misses this layup, but again he's just too big for all these guys down low, and he's able to clean it up and

get another offensive rebound. Same exact sort of thing here off of the KD miss free throw is doomed from the start and miss first two free throws. Just a weird game for the Suns. But here we go, same exact sort of thing. We got KD on the ball

this time, so more length on the ball. You Banks is guarding Zubach, We're gonna get another slip, and again Kd's got to do a better job with active hands here Again when we talk about the defense getting into rotation, if you make this pass difficult, this pass to the slipper, if you make it difficult, he might fumble it. It might be harder for him to make a playout of it. But if you just let him easily get a catch on the slip, same sort of hedge from U Banks.

If you let him easily get a catch, then your compromise. He comes downhill. Grayson Allen is tagging off of Norman Powell here in the left corner, and Norman Powell just cuts along the baseline and gets an easy dunk. So as you can see, the main coverage issue that the Sons were dealing with at the beginning of the game was they were hedging and getting giving up easy slips

on the back end. This is a great example of individual defense from Terrence Mann leading to defensive playmaking from Russ, So I cut this play with the transition sequence so that we can see Russ's dunk. But on this play, Terrence Man is doing what's called top locking. So u Banks has the ball. Then Grayson Allen is setting a pin down on Devin book on Terrence Man to get help Devin Booker get open, and then Devin Booker is gonna come all the way around this dribble handoff from

you Banks. See how Terrence Man has positioned himself between Booker and the screen. It's called top locking. He's refusing the use of the screen, and Zubach is there to help on a back door cut because Drew you Banks is a non shooter. Now, Devin Booker does eventually get around him, but it's more difficult, right, He's been dealing with a physical aggressive play from Terrence Man that is now going to cause Devin Booker to rush the sequence.

Terrence Man recovers and now he's locking and trailing. He's right behind him, right, So this is a pretty easy read for Devin Booker as he comes down here. Russell Westbrook is digging down with what's called nail help because he's coming down off the wing to the nail to help if he just takes his time and makes this over the top kick to Bradley Beal. Now we're in rotation.

We have a baked in driving lane ripped through to the right that is almost certainly going to draw Paul George in help, which is going to generate a wide open three for Kevin Durant. But instead, and I attribute this to Terrence Man, Devin Booker's rushing and he just throws a lazy swing pass that gets easily stolen and taken the other way for a dunk. That's an example of making an offensive player uncomfortable with physical ball pressure. So moving onto our next clip, we're gonna get another

example of extra efforts from the Clippers. First, as Grayson Allen is running out on this transition possession, Norman Palell is gonna make an effort to make Grayson Allen change his shot. That effort forces him to shoot a tougher up and under layup. But watch Terrence Man bringing the physicality to the situation. Kevin Durant has inside position. All he has to do is squat down loan in a

box out and hold his ground. But he's too passive Terrence Man just goes right through room, shoves him, taps out the rebound, and again you're gonna be like, oh, that's an over the back foul. Not the postseason. It's not that shit's allowed all the time. Like I was talking about in our power ranking segment, these games they get physical, they turn into rock fights. The Clippers are punching.

What you're seeing right now is you were watching the Clippers punch the Suns in the mouth and them just sit there and take it. And that's the reality of this type of physical type of game. The tap out goes to Paul George. Paul George just confidently walks into a pull up three point shot. Another hedge in recover sequence, Russell Westbrook on the ball, Bradley Beal defending him. We're gonna get our ball screen. Excuse me, it's gonna be Paul George with Kevin Durant on him. We're gonna get

the ball screen with U Banks. Another hedge. On the hedge, Zuboch is slipping, but he's a little bit late to get back, which brings Devin Booker into the lane here. So we get another one. Another hedge, this time U Banks is a little further out, Zuboch is gonna slip into the middle of the lane because of this slip.

So remember when we typically are in a drop coverage're running what's called no roller behind, which means his job is to stay further back and keep Zubach in front so that Devin Booker can stay in a position to close out. But because he's hedging, the roller is getting behind. When the roller does get behind, you have to tag. When there's a tag that's gonna leave an open shooter on the weak side. Paul George makes a really nice read here because Bradley Beal is helping down off the

nail and leaving Russell Westbrook open. Russell makes the extra pass to Terrence Man in the corner and he knocks down the three. So once again, that's our third example here in the opening sequence in just two and a half minutes of basketball of that hedge and recover scheme, Burning Phoenix, here's a great example of incredible individual defense by Terrence Man on Devin Booker once again physical from the start. Watch, Okay, Terrence Man identifies this action is

for him. We're gonna get the exact same sequence we saw earlier. A pinned down from Grayson Allen on to Terrence Man in a dribble handoff from you Banks kind of coming over to this side this time though, We're not gonna get nail help from Paul George. He's gonna stay home on Bradley Beal. So as Bradley Beal comes through, or as Devin Booker fights over the top, look at Terrence Man stay attached over the top of the screen. Look at this individual defense here, Chase Chase, Chase, slide

back in front. He gets back in front and gets a great contest on Devin Booker. That's outstanding individual defense.

It's by Terrence Mann. And again to be clear, we know Devin Booker can handle that type of defense. We know Devin Booker can make that shot. But this is how you help lead a player into the lesser efficient outcomes. This is how you control your destiny and make it more likely that he's having an off night. Here's a possession from earlier in the game with a similar back pressure applied by Russell Westbrook ball screen. Bradley Beal is going downhill, He's got a head of steam. Russ just

gets over the top. He has one job make Bradley Beal. Think about him coming there over the top gets a good final contest. That's how you prevent an offensive player from getting comfortable. Here's an example of how switching can stagnate a defense or stagnated offense. So again, we have Russell Westbrook on Kevin Durant, we have Norman Powell on Great Allen. Now it's a switch. Now Norman Powell is

on KD and Russell Westbrook is on Grayson Allen. So whatever little action they were running, that action is now over. Now U Banks is going to set a pin down on Norman Powell. Problem is they don't want Zubotch to switch onto KD. So this is kind of like just an example of a smart pre switch. Instead, they just have Russell Westbrook switch back out onto KD so that Norman Powell can switch back out onto Grayson Allen and Zuboch can say stay on you Banks. So smart little

switching scheme to shut down that action. Now KD comes up to set the ball screen. Russ and Paul George just switch and so all of that action that they just ran accomplished absolutely nothing. Now Russell Westbrook a very good perimeter defender. Is on Bradley Beal. Bradley Beal doesn't really know what to do. There's only ten seconds on the shot clock. He just throws this super lazy swing pass to Grayson Allen that gets a turnover. That's a

turnover caused by stagnation. Stagnation caused by switching. Just a ridiculous piece of shot making by Paul George over Kevin Durant in the corner, a little step back. Unbelievable piece of shot making. This is a really high IQ example of defensive playmaking by Russell Westbrook. The Sons are going to set up for what's called stack pick and roll. So Kevin, excuse me, Bradley Beal has the ball drew You Banks is going to set the ball screen on

Terrence Man. Zubach is in a drop coverage. Now we know we've covered stack pick and roll on the show before. Bradley Beal has one job here. He needs to set a backscreen on Ivach a Zubach. Okay, And the reason why he's setting that backscreen on of each a Zooboch is to basically open up this role for you Banks coming over the top, because if Zubach gets backscreened, and Russell Westbrook follows Bradley Beal. U Banks is gonna slip

wide open on that backside. Russell Westbrook, he knows it's coming. You can't hear it because I have the sound turned off, but you actually hear of Russell Westbrook screaming out the coverage as this happening, and you can actually see his mouth open as he's yelling. But as he's yelling, Bradley Beal comes to set the backscreen on Zoobach. Russell Westbrook knows the play. He knows this is the read. This

is a backscreen. This guy's the read. Russell Westbrook is going to peel off of Bradley Beal and jump into that passing lane and get a steal. So again, that's one hundred percent scouting and understanding the set that the offense is running. That is a high IQ defensive play made by Russell Westbrook to get a dunk out the other way. Alrighty, this is just a bad possession of off ball defense from Devin Booker. We're gonna get a

run through from Paul George Here. Kevin Durant appears to be trailing Devin Booker takes a step up like he's gonna switch, but I don't know why, like because Kevin Durant's going through. So this is poor communication here and again, like the suns, I've shown examples. We went over it on film last week. They can communicate. I've seen Devin Booker be the leader of that communication. This is just

poor effort. They're not talking as a result. Terrence Fan slips back door and Russell Westbrook hits him with the dunk. Here's an example of that physical punching in the mouth that I was talking about. How about just a transition kick ahead to Terrence Man. Watch Terrence Man just bully Kevin Durant into his chest and get all the way to the rim. That's bring in the fight. Here's an example of the difference in physical advantages. Kevin Durant huge

heid advantage over Terrence Man. He's gonna get a tough turnaround jump shot that was well contested. That turns into a miss. Now we're gonna look at another matchup this guy right here. If each Zubach way bigger than this guy right here? Bull bull? Why make the game more difficult than it needs to be. Ball gets thrown to us. Watch Russ immediately identify it. Russ catches, he looks, he

sees Zubach has a deep seal on Bull. Bull. He's just gonna back him down further into the lane and we're gonna get a really nice post entry feed from us for one dunk. So again, physical advantage on one end, tough pull up jump shot, physical advantage on the other end, bury him under the rim and dunk in his face. That's a huge difference in the physical imposition of the game. Like I talked about in our in our Contender ranking segment,

basketball is beautiful until it's not. And that turnaround jumper looks real damn pretty when it goes in. But you know what goes in every single time, the bigger dude just dunking on the smaller dude. There's no it's not as pretty in terms of shot making, but it's way more effective. Alrighty, This this next one is a defensive play by a Terrence Man that's gonna lead to another

transition runout. So first of all, right, here a mere coffee's chasing Devin Booker, and because he's chasing him with real length and athleticism, Devin Booker is going to be like I need to go to the opposite side of the rim. This is a textbook example of an offensive player using the rim as an extra piece of almost

like a screen. So he doesn't he knows that a Mere Coffee's best chance to block him is on this left side of the basket, So he's gonna come around to the right side of the basket, and Terrence Man is gonna meet him there and force him to kind of go up and under, and he's gonna smoke the layup then running out the other end. We're gonna get the exact same kind of sequence. This time Zoobach is ahead of bull Bull, so in the transition defense, someone

else is gonna pick him up. This time it's Grayson Allen, hands up already, Paul George identifies it, throws it to Zoobatch, buries him, and dunks it. Here we're gonna get another really nice piece of shot making from Paul George hitting a nice little dribble pull up over Bradley Beal on the right elbow area. See, they can do the pretty shit too, but they can do the pretty shit, but

they can also kick your ass. This is something outstanding individual defense by a Mere Coffee on Kevin Durant, So look, he's getting set up for this screening action. He knows Zubach is not switching, so he's got to stay attached. He does. The action gets him a little bit of an advantage here. Nice little tag from Paul George, by the way, to stop Kevin Durant from just immediately turning the corner turns into an iso. Look at this physical in his face, both hands on his body, gets a

hands off so he doesn't get the call. He knows the rip through is coming, so he's got to take his hands off. Hands off. Look at that. That's such a smart defense there. Physical. But as soon as he sees the rip through coming, hands off to prevent the foul. Look at that, gets his hands away just in time, slides his feet to the right. Gets an outstanding contest on the on Literally the guy at the highest release

point in the league forces an airball. Think about how often Kevin Rant works on that shot and how difficult it is to force him into an airball. Excellent individual defense by a mere coffee. And then here we go, last possession of this sequence. We're thirty two to four at this point, we're gonna get what's called a soft switch. So Paul George again outstanding pull up shooter. The Suns want to switch this action because bad Young as a

forward is capable of switching. Roy O'Neil is going to call for the switch on the screen, but this is a passive switch because he's back. An aggressive switch, that Young would have met him right here, but he's in a passive switch. You can literally see his weight on his heels and Paul George's rises right over the top

of him and knocks it down. So that's a great example, a little example from film of how the Clippers are capable of playing a very physically imposing brand of basketball and how Phoenix if you punch him in the mouth, they have a tendency to kind of stagger and lose their confidence and fall apart in that sort of setting. We also know they can thrive in that setting, but

they're very inconsistent in that type of setting. Like I talked about earlier, it doesn't come naturally to them the way it does for the Clippers, And to me, it gives the Clippers a little bit more resiliency in the way that their game translates to the postseason, and that is, in my opinion, a good breakdown or a good example of why I have the Clippers one step ahead of the Suns in my contender rankings. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely

appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with UH game breakdown of Denver Minnesota as well as the three two one in our contender rankings and a mail bag. And then we have the Nerd Sash guys coming on on Friday, which should be fun. I will see you guys, come up the volume