Hoops Tonight - Warriors fall to Nuggets, Lakers blown out by Rockets + Sixers beat Celtics

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so far, jampacks for you today. We had excellent games in our Wednesday night. Late last night, the Boston Celtics went on the road into Philly and the Philadelphia seventy six ers kind of took care of business against them.

We're up fifteen to late before a late flurry from Jalen Brown and Christops Porzingas kind of made it look like it was a game, but it was a dominant effort from the Philadelphia seventy six Ers, and then we got kind of a weird version of the Nuggets Warriors matchup as Jamal Murray and Raymond Green missed the game. Klay Thompson kind of sort of had a chance at the end of the game to potentially type it fumble

to pass away from Chris Paul. A lot of interesting stuff to get into, and then I want to complain about the Lakers a little bit more, but they are officially relegated to the end of the show. That's where the Lakers are going to be until they start playing good basketball. But I have some compliments that I want to pay to the Houston Rockets, who are, guess what, one of four teams in the NBA to be top

ten in both offense and defense right now. Philadelphia seventy six Ers, Denver Nuggets, the Boston Celtics, and the Houston Rockets are your four teams that are top ten in both. So we're gonna lay a little bit of praise on the Rockets. I'm gonna complain about the Lakers, and then we'll be done for the day. You guys know the job for we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. Don't forget we're doing a giveaway for anybody

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Enter your email and code Hoops. That's Hops for twenty dollars off. Download game Time today, last minute take gets lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So again, weird game in Nuggets Warriors. Jamal Murray was out, and so you got a steady dose of Reggie Jackson, which just doesn't really bring the other half of that two

man game gravity that Jamal Murray brings. So even though Draymond was out, which presented a bunch of other weird things, right Like, you got a lot of like Dario Sarich minutes with Nikole Jokic on the floor, which I don't think will ever happen in a playoff series as long

as the Warriors are healthy. So like, obviously a weird game in terms of the matchups and some of the chess pieces that you would see in a playoff series, right Like, arguably the second or third best player for the Warriors and arguably or for sure the second best

player on the Nuggets missing that game. But at the same time, it was a good opportunity to learn about some specific different things, right like down the stretch that game, the Warriors were really spamming pick and roll and I want to I want to give a special shout out to JJ Reddick here and Mark Jones for doing a really nice job during the broadcast of just calling out

out this chess match as it was taking place. I think having JJ Reddick on ESPN to do these the color commentary on these games has been such a treat for basketball fans because, like he just brings so much of that basic insight to help fans understand the actual tactical things that are taking place on the floor. So

shout out to JJ Reddick there. But he did a really nice job pointing out what was taking place down the stretch of this game, which was the Warriors were basically trying to pull Nicole Jokic away from the rim in pick and roll and essentially bring two on the ball to Steph Curry and then hit Kevon Looney with that pass into the pocket. And then JJ did a really nice job breaking down what are the big differences between what the Warriors do and a lot of other teams.

Is they cut out of the weak side corner, which is just a higher percentage play. You gotta have an athlete there, but think of it, to put it simply, think of it like this. A lot of times in pick and roll you're making that kickout pass and it's a it's a wide open corner three right, and the Warriors still will occasionally get those corner threes. We saw those famously in the twenty fifteen NBA Finals, with Andrea Gudala getting the benefit of those off of Draymond Green

passes right. One of the things the Warriors have done in recent years is there again, it requires the way Steph gets guarded for this to work, because in a normal pick and roll coverage, if the guard's working downhill and the big is in more of a little bit more of a drop than a high hedge or or a blitz if he's dropping back, then that lowman, the lowman is the guy guarding the guy in the weak side corner. He can kind of help without having to fully abandon his matchup and still kind of keep an

eye on man and ball right. That's the difference. Whereas with Steph, because of the fact that he pulls that second defender so far away from the basket. Now the roleman in this case, Kavon Looney is catching with a clear run to the basket, and so as a result that Loman has to completely abandon that corner to step up and help. And so if you have the timing right and as long as it's a habit from that lineup, and it's a lot of their athletes, right, it's Andrew Wiggins,

it's Jonathan Kaminga, it's Gary Payton. The second out of that week side corner, they will cut along the baseline and it's just an easy drop off for a basket.

So they got the Nuggets I think three or four times with that in the fourth quarter as they started to get going, and you know, it kind of like it starts slow, right, Like there was a play in the second quarter where Steph got Kidtavious called a Pope cat on a screen because KCP was doing a really nice job guarding Steph for the majority of the game. But it's just a really really difficult job to do to stay glued to a player that that's gifted moving

without the basketball. Steph is incredibly gifted. It's setting his man up for screens because he's got such a good handle and he's always a threat to reject the screen and go the other way. Right, KCP just constantly stayed attached. But towards the end of the game, the Warriors finally started to generate just tiny bits of separation. You saw in that second quarter. He finally got I clipped this place.

You can see it on my Twitter feed, but you see he finally gets kcpcot on the screen and Yokich is in more of a high drop than a blitz, and so he's up at the level, but he's still giving Steph a little bit of space. He hits him with it between the legs, step back and hits a pull up three. Right. That's kind of the progression. He burns you a couple times, then you start just basically blitzing and coming way out higher above the level of the screen to try to contain that, which is then

what opens up the short role. Well, what Mike Malone did with a few minutes left to counter that, and it completely changed the dynamic of the Warriors offense down the stretches. They moved Aaron Gordon on onto Kevon Looney, which allows them to switch that Steph Looney pick and

roll right. Now, what was interesting there is that ended up leading to the next phase of the chess match, which is, okay, where do you put jokicch in this case, well, there were several possessions down the stretch and he ended up on Chris Paul for two of them, and then he ended up on Klay Thompson for another. And so then the Warriors. What was kind of cool about it from the same point of the Nuggets is the Warriors did what you would kind of expect, right, so they

immediately just went to attacking Jokic through those other two matchups. Right, So, like Chris Paul starts trying to iso Nikola Jokic on the right wing and he just can't shake him free. Right, then there's Klay Thompson. Klay Thompson gets Jokic on the next possession and he actually manages to beat him off the dribble, but like Jokic kind of flattens the drive out,

so he's not really going aggressively towards the basket. But I think it was Reggie Jackson out of the left side corner, reaches in and just rakes down on Klay Thompson as he's driving, which gives him two free throws. Right. But then there was another possession where Chris Paul got Nikola jokicen pick and roll. They ended up setting a

ball screen and he missed a pull up three. A decent look at a pull up three, but he missed it, and then there was one possession where because of the way things went in transition, Jokic did end up on Looney again, and when he was on Loony, Chris Paul ran a ball screen with Jokic and got Loony on the slip for the into the basket. But notice whose name I didn't say in any of that that little

die dribe there, Steph Kurt. He was basically completely removed from the offense until that transition pull up three he made late that kind of gave him a chance right before it turned into a foul shooting contest. And that's the beauty of it. Like by virtue of the by virtue of that chess match move, by moving Aaron Gordon onto Kevon Looney, they effectively tricked or Jedi mind trick, whatever you want to call it, the Warriors into going

away from Steph. Whereas what they should have done in that case is like, just bring Chris Paul back up into the ball screen if he's got Yokic on it, it, run a Steph Chris Paul pick and roll, or have Steph set the ball screen on Nikola Jokic. Well, Chris has the ball because Jokic might not navigate the screen really well, maybe you end up getting a switch with Steph onto Jokic and then he can isolate there and

make a play. But that's kind of the beauty of it is like Steph was spamming this action and he was killing you. You made a smart adjustment in a kind of Jedi mind, tricked the Warriors into going away from their best player. Then down on the end the other end of the floor, they got a couple of really good looks out of Jokic actions that iced the game.

They ran an inverted ball screen with Reggie Jackson on the right wing, and one of the things that the Warriors will do whenever they run guard screens, meaning like guards setting the screen with Steph Curry's man, they'll do a classic hedge and recover. So they'll have Steph essentially show high on whoever it is that's the ball handler, and then as soon as whoever the ball handler's man recovers, Steph will sprint back to whoever the guard is who

set the screen and play defense. Well, Jokicic caught him hanging around just a second too long, and Reggie Jackson set the screen. He popped to the top of the key and Steph stage just a second two long on that hedge, and when he recovered, Reggie Jackson just ripped right to the basket and made a right handed layup.

And then on the final kind of post up from Jokic on the right block, he had Looney, Conavious Cabbo Pope made the post entry, and on the post entry, KCP just makes a basic cut to the rim just right off of Jokic's inside side, and Clay just on that cut is with KCP. But I don't know if it was from Steve Kerr from the standpoint of a game plan, a piece that came out of the huddle, or if it was just kind of an impromptu sort

of thing from Clay. But Clay kind of like, as he was passing Jokic was like, maybe I'm gonna help here, or maybe I'm gonna double, and so he lingered just a second too long right as he was passing Jokic on that cut, and Can Davis called the Pope was wide open for the layup that basically ice the game. Now late we still got a Steph Curry left handed layup off of a drive on KCP that he missed and obviously we had the jump ball and the Klay Thompson kind of fumbled bad bounce pass from Chris Paul.

But a lot of that was because a miss free throws, like Nicola Jokic just inexplicably missed two free throws that never happens. I think Reggie Jackson missed one as well. So like they missed three free throws at the game that gave the Warriors some late chances that otherwise they would not have had. But it was an interesting kind of little chess match there, and I think, like in general, you know, I just lived through this chess match as

a fan. I mean, obviously I covered all the series last year, but as a fan rooting for a team. I was rooting for the Lakers in that Lakers Warriors series last year, and I lived through all of this. I lived through the experience of trying to navigate how difficult it is to guard Steph Curry and pick and roll.

And one of the things they did in the one of the things they did in the Lakers series, which was smart, was they just kept bringing Anthony Davis's man up into the ball screen, regardless of who he was guarding. So if like if it ended up being Gary Payton, they just bring Gary Payton up into the screen, right, Like whoever it was, they brought them up. And so that's the thing that the Warriors didn't do in this

one game regular season sample size. But that's the thing that that would be the inevitable adjustment, right as you just start bringing Jokic up into the ball screen, regardless of whether he's guarding Chris Paul or he's guarding Kavan Looni. Right. But that said, like I thought, like in a lot of ways, it demonstrated the types of advantages that Denver is gonna have regardless, Like they the transition pushes. I think they're the I think they're the best at this

in the league, just whenever they have an opportunity. You know, it's funny because they're not a particularly fast team. Like I'd say, Contavious cab of Pope is a really is an elite straight line athlete, and Aaron Gordon is an elite straight line athlete. But Michael Porter, Junior, Nicola Jokis, Jamal Murray, these are average to below average athletes. Right. They have great size, Like Jamal Murray is huge and strong for a guard Michael Porter Junior is tall, has

long arms and can move well. Michael's actually moving really well right now, but he's not as athletic as your typical wings that we have in the league. Right and then Jokic is a is a is a big body that's, you know, theoretically not a top tier linear athlete. Their bench is super athletic, like the Nuggets bench has all sorts of straight line athletes, but like somehow the Nuggets still kill everybody in transition. And to me, it's a habit.

They just have really good habits of identifying when there are opportunities to push the pace. It's almost like they identify whenever Aaron Gordon's man or Nikole Yokich's man like misses a layup or crashes the offensive glass on their end of the floor, they will identify that and sprint. And then they get these quick mismatches in transition and it's a bucket damn near every time they got Aaron Gordon on Steph Curry switched a bunch of times in

this game. Jokic has been killing people all season long with that type of transition push that I think is super just. It's funny we talk about, you know, half court offense and half court offense in and of itself is the bread and butter of what determines the outcomes of playoff series, but it isn't the entire thing. Like, let's just throw an arbitrary number, Like, let's pretend that half court offense piece is seventy percent of it. What's

the other thirty percent? The other thirty percent of it is everything on the margins. So like being a good transition defense, being a good transition offense, good on the glass, on both ends of the floor, execution out of timeouts, execution at the end of games, Like your defensive versatility,

your ability to switch up schemes depending on what's going on. Like, it's a huge advantage that Aaron Gordon is both strong enough to hang with an imposing post player but quick enough to hang on the perimeter and a switch against someone like Steph Curry credibly right, Like, obviously he's not gonna lock up Steph Curry, but he can do as well on Steph Curry as what you'd expect from other perimeter defenders. Right, That sort of versatility is a huge

advantage there. So they have defensive versatility they are a great transition offense. They're elite on the glass on both ends of the floor, and all that does is make it so that you can't It's not just oh, you have to beat the Nuggets in the half court, You've got to beat them everywhere in every facet of the game because they're good everywhere, and that just kind of increases their margin for air. It makes it so that they can be without Jamal Murray and win games against

elite teams. Right. You know, Jokic kind of has this ability I talked about yesterday on our show, But like Nicole, Jokic going into last night's game was shooting damn near ninety percent on floaters and push shots. And he struggled a little bit with Looney in the first part of this game, but then I thought he kind of figured

him out towards the end. The accuracy he has on those shots, the shot making ability that he has, puts him in a position where when Jamal Murray's out, he can just push up his usage and then make things happen like that. So he I think he missed eleven shots last night, and that's uncharacteristic for Jokic, But because he's so damn efficient. He was still fourteen for twenty five or whatever it is that he was, and he still got, you know, generated more than enough offense to

win the game. This team just has a massive margin for air and they're getting you know, solid production out of specific key role players off the bench. That's kind of maintaining that kind of flexibility as they navigate the ebbs and flows of the regular season. They's just a really good spot. And you know, Michael Porter Junior is the last guy I wanted to shout out. He has been so good in so many ways, especially over the course of the last two weeks. He's making such better

help and recover decisions. Defensively, he's leveraging his length and athleticism. Again, like I don't think he moves as well as some of the other wings in the league, but when you combine how well he moves with him being six ' ten with super long arms, he can still be really impactful. He had another tip dunk last night off of an Aaron Gordon post up. He caught Chris Paul not paying attention in help side, and that was his eighth offensive rebound put back of the season so far. He has

the tenth most offensive rebound put backs in the entire NBA. Like, that's how active Michael Porter Junior has been on the offensive glass, and now his shots starting to come around. He was thirty one percent from three in six attempts in his first five games of the season, and now he's up to forty four percent on eight attempts in his last four games. So that's a really a good sign.

Jamal Murray apparently is going to be out the rest of the month with his hamstring injuries, so it'll be all that concept that I'm talking about in terms of malleability, variety and margin for error is going to be put to the test in a big way over the course of the rest of this month and especially as it

pertains to the Plan tournament. But that's the thing, like, if if Denver ends up, you know, running off a bunch of games without Jamal Murray, to me, that's a pretty strong indicator that this team is on track to be in a really good spot to repeat Golden State. A couple of specific things I wanted to hit jonathanaminga hit another left shoulder fade away in the post. He's up to twenty five points on twenty one post ups this year, including passes, that's one point one to nine

points per possession. He's now tied with Lebron and Tobias Harris for the twenty first most post points in the NBA. So like he's become like a legitimate matchup attacking wing for them. I was talking with Adam Marris about this a little bit this morning, you know, because he thinks that it's a little bit more hot and cold, and

I agree. There's a lot of bad with Kamina in the post, like turnovers, you know, forcing extremely difficult shots against smaller defenders when he could be going more aggressively to the rim. But he's making enough shots and he's getting to the foul line and it's producing the points. And so at the end of the day, like young guys,

you expect highs and lows. You expect highlights and you expect mistakes, whereas like as players get better, there's fewer highlights, but there's more consistent, boring success and then there's way

fewer mistakes. Right, So, like obviously, like the young player experience kind of comes with that sort of thing, But in general I find that to be an encouraging early season trend that Kaming has been so good attacking matchups in the post and then don't forget in the long term like this, dude's gonna have another seventy plus games or reps like this, So it's very possible that he ties off a lot of the mistake making tendencies as

he moves along. Again. Another game that came down to a late game pick and roll chess match, like we talked about earlier, one of the things that would like kind of stood out to me is like you had CP three with really favorable matchups as Jokic moved over to him, and he couldn't produce a bucket aside from the one time that Jokic was back on Looney when he could run his traditional pick and roll, and like that's one of the things is like, like Chris is

going to have to be able to occasionally pitch in with a with a bucket against the switch, particularly against the center when things kind of go that way. And there's been a handful of games this year when Chris has had some scoring pop, but for the most part, he's really struggled to put the ball in the basket. And so that's something just to keep an eye on over the course of the rest of the season, but

overall a really encouraging effort. Again, Draymond's out, it's gonna be totally different if if Jamal Murray's in there too, because like you're gonna slide Andrew Wiggins onto Jamal Murray in all likelihood. With Draymond in the lineup, you can do a lot more. Uh, you have a little bit more flexibility with the way you guard Jokic, Like Jokic

was really targeting Sarag in this game. There's a game where or there's a play where he ran in inverted pick and roll where Sarge was on Gordon and he ran like a ball screen where he was the ball handler with Gordon at ten feet away from the basket, got the switch onto Sarag. Then Gordon cleared out and took Looney with him, and then he just kind of hit Sarge with a basic drop step and put it in the basket. Like every time Jokic saw Sorage, he saw food and his eyes lit up and he got

an easy basket. So like, are we gonna see Sarge on the floor with Jokic at the same time at all during a playoff series? Probably not. It's probably gonna be a steady diet of Draymond and Looney with Sarge against their bench units running pick and pops with Chris Paul right. So, like, don't want to take too much away from this matchup, but I did think it was

an encouraging effort. Not many teams have gone into I talked about this earlier, but that's the eighth win for the Nuggets, and I want to say that's just the third win of those eight that required a clutch situation, meaning the score was within five with less than five

minutes left. So like they've been pretty much dominating people, and so for you to go into Denver and make a game of it and have a left handed layup from staff that could have tied the game late even with the miss free throws, that is a really encouraging outcome. I also thought it was you know, again, Looney is not a Jokic stopper. I think that's overstated. I do think you can get away with more single coverage stuff with Looney than you normally would in a playoff series,

and that's an advantage. Again, Like that's the thing, like if you can get when it comes to superstars you're not trying to stop them, especially the best players in the league. You're not trying to stop them. You're just trying to make the game harder for them. And I think Looney is capable of at least making Jokic work harder.

And it's a really interesting idea of like the matchup archetypes, because like I think Anthony Davis is the best and most versatile defender in the NBA, and like there's a couple other guys that are on that list, on that tier, right, like guys like bam at a Baio, guys like Rudy Gobert, guys like Giannis. But like the problem is is, like most of those guys are too skinny to really hang

with Jokic in his back down situations. So it's interesting to me that you see guys like Joel Embiid, like Carl Town, even like Kevon Looney, like the more the for lack of a better word, like the kind of chunkier and I mean again, like they're professional athletes. That's not what I mean, but I just mean relative to the lean kind of like skinnier looking athlete versus more of the chunkier kind of like low center of gravity,

heavy weight bigs. They tend to hold up better against Jokic because he's a backdown player, and if you can hold your ground, you can force him into tougher shots. And again, like that, that's not the same way saying Jokic stopper. It just it just is a is an example of a type of player that can make Yokic work harder, and the Warriors have one of those guys. And I think that that is a a legitimate point

of optimism. And again, your offense had some real success against the Nugget defense in the fourth quarter up until that final adjustment with the Aaron Gordon switch, which the Warriors in a regular season see setting were unable to kind of keep up with. All right, moving on to

sixer Celtics weird game. They start with Drew Holliday on Joel Embiid and which you know it was because it started with a Basically, what they were doing is theyd have Porzingis on Porzingis and Tatum on either Ubre or Harris, and they would bring those guys in help and basically just kind of like whenever Embiid kind of put Drew in a precarious position, that's what they would offer, right as that kind of backside help, especially when Drew was

trying to front the post. And there was an early play where you embiid spun off on the baseline and like dunked easily along the baseline and everyone's like, uh oh, like I'm not sure this matchup is gonna work, and then Drew Holliday actually got a bunch of stops. In general, I thought their defensive strategy was sound. They held him Bead to twenty seven points on ten for twenty shooting with six turnovers. In general, I thought it was a good defensive game for the Celtics, but it was a

dominant defensive game from Philly. There's again, there was a late flurry from Christops Porzingis and Jalen Brown that made it look closer than it was. Right Like Chrisops Porzingis got a wide open three on the left wing that could have tied the game, but it was just it was a kind of a flur of things. Jalen Brown hit two really tough threes in that stretch, and Porzingis got hot with his above the break three point shooting

and it kind of came down to that. But This was a pretty dominant performance, Like they held the Celtics to just eighty seven points. They were right about forty five minutes of the game. It really comes down to that combination that I always talk about, Like, we're not gonna hit the Timberwolves today. Timberwolves fans, I know you're wanting to God knows, I love the Timberwolves and I'm super high on that team. I was high on them coming into the season. But I want to spend it.

I want to do a deep dive on them. So we have a really small slate tonight and the Thursday night slate, So tomorrow we are going to hit a deep dive on the Minnesota Timberwolves and talk all about how good they've been to start this season. But what did I talk about with the Timberwolves, Like, it's that combination of perimeter defense with brim protection. If you can kind of put those two pieces together, you can be an excellent defense, especially if you can control the glass.

And the Sixers are kind of high on perimeter defenders. Liked Anthony Melton is a very good perimeter defender. Patrick Beverly when he's actually guarding guards, is a good perimeter defender. They're getting really good perimeter defense right now out of Tobias Harris, Kelly Ubray and then Nick batoom I was impressed with him flying around screens and playing good physical defense.

Has had several really good possessions on Jason Tatum. And so they're basically just hounding the Celtics perimeter players all game long because they can match up with their guards and with their wings and then embiids behind bothering shots in the paint, right. And that's the thing, Like, if if you can, if you can really contain on the perimeter at least to the best of the best that you're capable of against a team that's talented, you can

actually start to bait the Celtics into their worst tendencies. Because, like when the Celtics really are operating freely and they're driving and kicking and they've got all their guys in rhythm, they're damn near impossible to guard. There's just too much ball handling and shooting on the floor, right. But like if you can kind of stagnate them a little bit and force them to like really have to work hard to generate quality shots, typically they won't do that. They

won't patiently operate to generate quality shots. They'll usually just start settling for quick early threes. And that was what they were able to do in this game. They forced them, I think. I think the Celtics took forty seven threes and a lot of them were rushed early shots in the shot clock. Did they miss them open looks too, Yes, But that's part of kind of that process. Like you can throw a team out of rhythm and then they

start to miss the open ones as well. And that kind of looked like again, like I don't care how good the Sixers played defense, I don't care how poorly they shot compared to their expected quality. The Celtics straight up should never have eighty seven points through forty five minutes of NBA basketball. They have too much talent on their roster for that to happen. And so that's the thing is, like it's kind of a two part effort when it comes to slowing down the Celtics as it

pertains to their you know, talent advantage. You've got to you've got to do your part in terms of the defensive con painment on the perimeter. But then you have to essentially count on the Celtics to piss down their leg for the other half of it, right, And like that's kind of been a consistent theme over the course of the last few years. It's like the Celtics kind

of have two modes. They have like their good basketball thought process approach offensively mode, and then they have there we're settling for bad early threes mode and making poor rim decisions and things like that like that, if you can bait them into that, you can cause real problems. And then about the late game offense from Philly was

really interesting. Tyree Maxey really dominated the early portion of the fourth quarter, Like basically from the beginning of the fourth quarter to about halfway through, he was really attacking Chrisops, Porzingis and pick and roll. So there was a play. It was kind of like a sequence and you could see the adjustments. So it started with a Porzingis in

a deep drop coverage. Maxi gets a good screen I think Paul Reid was his screening partner at this point, gets downhill, makes a floater over the top of Porzingis right, So the next time they run it, Porzingis just switches right because he's got to come out higher. They said it a good screen and roll, Porzingis switches out to Maxi. Maxi takes his time, hits a dribble combination, beats Porzingis to the basket, and makes a floater to get another bucket.

So then on the next switch, when when Maxi gets Porzingis switched on the left wing Derek White, it basically offers a soft double team from the right wing and basically comes over to the nail to basically help Porzingis contain Maxi on the switch, And so Tobias Harris just cuts out of the slot and Maxi hits him with the bounce pass, and Tobias hits like a little five foot jump shot in the lane. So like that's what's really impressive. It's impressive in a couple of different ways.

First of all, it just goes to show you how dominant tyres Maxi can be in terms of his speed in beating people off the dribble. But secondly, that's a

high level shot creation piece. Like if you need Maxi to be your best perimeter offensive option, and I don't know that he will be when the end of the season comes around, because I think the Sixers can make a trade which we'll talk about in a little bit, But like you want to see Maxi make high level reads, you want to see him be able to deal with adjustments, beating a drop, coverage, beating a switch, then beating a switch with soft help or soft double team. That's an

example of a progression. And he hit three of them in a row, got three straight buckets, and that was a huge part of their offensive success in the fourth quarter. Right, So Joe Mizzoula responds by removing chrisops Porzingis from the game. So from there they run a ball screen and Embiid gets a switch. So Embiid goes down to the post, and when they throw the post entry to Embiid, Horford

tries to scram them out of the switch. And when he SCRAMs them out of the switch, they're slow on the rotation and Tobias Harris gets a wide open three on the left wing. Then on the down the stretch, we had the left block post up from Embiid and again, like one of the things you want to do with Embiid is you want to double off the dribble instead of when he has a live dribble, excuse me, double when he's dribbling versus when he's in a triple threat.

Because Embiid, when he kind of can hold onto the basketball and protect it with his body, he's actually a decent passer. It's when he puts the ball on the floor that he really struggles to transition out of dribbling into making a read. So but one of the things you can't do is make a really easy read for him, and the Celtics ended up doubling off of Tyree Maxi one pass away and in the process it was just like Embiid was dribbling, but it's not a hard read.

It's like boop right there and easy left wing three from Tyree Maxis. So like they just basically picked the Celtics apart down the stretch of this game. On offense, did a really nice job containing them and forcing them into their worst tendencies on the defensive end of the floor. Again, we had that crazy run late, but then even then

Embiid iced it effectively iced it. I shouldn't even say that, because porzing Get still let a chance to tie, but they were able to go down to Embiid against the switch against Jason Tatum, and he had a really nice right shoulder fade over the top. That was like an easy shot that he got great separation that he's probably going to hit five out of ten times. Right, So, like a lot of really encouraging stuff on the offensive

end from the Sixers in that game as well. The Sixers have won six consecutive games since that regular season opener against Milwaukee, which, in my opinion, they got absolutely hosed by the officials in that game. And you guys know I almost never say that, so clearly they did get hosed. They are now fifth in defense, They look awesome, and again, like I mentioned earlier, they are very well positioned for a mid season trade which could end up

pushing them over the top. Like we're gonna talk about the Lakers and the potential mid season trade later, and like that's what's kind of exciting about the Sixers is like they're already good even if they don't make this type of trade. Can they win win the championship is currently constructed, No, not in my opinion, not unless Embiide just finally translates his offensive success to the postseason. But

that feels like a gamble. My guess is they're going to try to bring in more firepower and if they do, they immediately vault into that top tier of contenders. For the Celtics late game execution, there was a Jason Tatum, especially in the defensive end. Is when I'm referencing here.

There was a Jason Tatum backcourt steel attempt where the Sixers were in transition and Tatum just like made this like half assed bullshit like like jump a passing lane thing in the back court, which ended up leaving them

horribly undermanned on the in transition defense. And Tobias Harris just had an easy driving layup out of the right corner, the doubling off of Phillies' best three point shooter one pass away, that post up with embiid Off where they made the kickout pass to Tyres Maxey, Like that's not even just the best shooter on the Sixers, that's one of the best three point shooters in the entire NBA. That you're just doubling off of one pass away and to read that and bead it's gonna make every time

like that needs to be. That needs to be a like literally like a windshield wiper rotation, where like as the doubles coming, Jalen Brown's already there at Tyres Maxie instead of like Horford goes and then Jalen Brown goes a second and in that second they end up getting a wide open look. I talked about the botched scram switch.

This is the one where like Embiid catches on the on the right block and or Embiid posts up on the right block and Horford runs over to basically scram them out of the switch, but they don't rotate on the back end and it's a wide open three for Tobias Harris. So like again, down the stretch of the game, they just have to actually stick to their game plan and do their jobs. If they do that, that would go a long way towards giving them a better chance

and then their offensive approach. This is something I've seen in general with the Celtics over the years, and it really comes down to this, like, like they're so damn good and they have so many talented players that like like they see shots that they like. Their bar for what they consider to be a shot that they like to take is very low. And it's not because they're not capable or wanting to find higher quality shots. It's

just because that's what they're capable. Of like a semi contested Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, Derek White three is like an okay shot, and they'll win a lot of games making those shots, right, But they have so much ball handling in athleticism and quickness on the perimeter that they're actually capable of getting great shots, like truly great shots, and so they could tend to be a little impatient in their execution, especially in games against good perimeter defenses

where it's not quite as easy and quick. And I thought that was a good example, Like they were fifteen for forty seven from three in this particular game, and I counted like a couple dozen threes where I'm like, eh, there's a lot of time left on the shot clock here, Like why are you taking that three? You know what I mean. Tatum had his worst game of the season in my opinion. Big part of that was the same

type of thing. There were two players in particular, one on Nick Patoomb and one on Joel Embiid where he caught the ball in a cleared iso with plenty of space to operate in a with like twelve thirteen seconds on the shot clock, and one of them he just kind of like hit the tune with a series of jab steps and took a three, like a really tough three, and then another one he took. He ended up like just jabbing at him, beat a bunch of times in the right corner. I clipped this play and put it

on my Twitter feed. He jabbed it and beat a few times just to try to see if maybe he could concede a three point shot to him, and then he swung the ball out of it. And I'm like, dude, like, you torched this guy in the playoffs last year when he was playing too far off of you by shooting, but he's pressing up on you, like, and you're way

quicker than him. Beat him off the dribble and make a play that way, like they're just in general, I think that I think the Celtics just can be lulled to sleep in terms of their shot selection, and they can really fall into extended stretches of taking bad shots.

And this is an example of that. And that's why, like, no matter how good their net rating is, no matter how dominant they are in this regular season, like, I can't in my right mind pick the Celtics to win the title before the playoffs unless there is a significant injury to someone on the Nuggets or on the on the Bucks, right, because like, as far as I'm concerned, it is not a regular season issue. It is a

postseason issue. They are they are capable of long, extended offensive lolls, and it starts with Tatum and Brown in their approach, and until that changes, it is it's just not a problem that's going away. And like it's very possible that this year ends up being the year where Tatum figures it all out and the Celtics kind of are pushed over the top by that. But I can tell you right now what it's going to be like from my perspective, I'm not going to pick the Celtics.

I certainly know that they're capable of it, and I'm gonna have to be one of those guys that's like, shit, I'm late to the party. Like Tatum's that guy. Now you know, he won the title, he got it all done. Like I can't. I can't in my right mind make that prediction because it's wishful thinking based on something that I haven't seen yet. If that makes sense, all right, Last night or last game before we get out of here,

Rockets Lakers shout out to the Houston Rockets. Like I said earlier, there are four teams in the NBA that are top ten in both offense and defense, the Celtics, the Sixers, the Nuggets, and the Houston Rockets. Now they're on the fringes that they're ninth in defense and tenth in offense, but still really impressive. Nonetheless, very fun team. They're a very fun team. Hey, one sec a phone call.

They're a very fun team. Jalen Green and again, this is a really good matchup for him against the unathletic Laker guards. But he just has this incredible combination of athleticism and quickness to beat people off the dribble mixed with like top tier vertical athleticism to finish at the rim. And he's got this jump shot piece of it. And it's a little inconsistent right now, but that's what you expect from younger guards. But he got that jump shot going last night, and you can kind of see how

difficult it is to guard him when that happens. I'll prin Shangoon in my opinion as one of the top you know, i'd have to make a list, but he's certainly in that list of like elite offensive centers in

the league. That just makes it incredibly difficult to guard the Rockets because you like you literally can't switch anything but a good post defender onto Shangun, like he even against bigger, stronger players like he buried he buried Ruby Hatchamura under the rim of a bunch of time times he was killing Christian Wood like they just couldn't guard

him down there. And that this is it been a somewhat consistent theme throughout the season, like he may Udoka just really trusts Shangoon to kind of be somewhat of a folk rum in their offense because of his ability to operate in pick and roll and in the post. And then Dylan Brooks and Javaris Smith Junior just bring that perimeter defense element there their ninth in defensive rating. Javaris Smith is one of my favorite young players in

the league. I was my friend Sam Aspondiari covers the Warriors with the Light Years podcast and he also run helps to run the Watch playback program. He tweeted this out last night. I thought it was a really interesting point.

He's like, He's like, remember when Memphis basically blamed Dylan Brooks for all of their issues, which is another thing that we talked about after the season, like how they kind of scape go Toed Dylan for it, and like here we are now and the Grizzlies can't win a damn game and the Rockets are top ten in defense, and what you know, I said, I said in the summer, and I mean I meant this sincerely. Like Dylan Brooks

is not my favorite players. It's specifically the there's a difference between talking trash and the court and talking trash in the media. Talking trash in the court to me

is like natural competitiveness. Talking trash in the media to me, is performative for attention, and he leans really heavy on that and can be actually kind of flat out disrespectful to some of the to many of the great NBA players that have played in this league, Like Lebron's just one of many people that he's kind of talked like that too and about. And then secondly the injuries, like the what he's I've seen him, it's not just the Gary Payton play from the playoff series two years ago.

Like Dylan Brooks is like kind of reckless with some of his overt physicality in a way that can hurt players, and that, to me, I have just a huge problem with because you're starting to mess with people's livelihood there, right, Like Gary Payton was a guy who now has kind of like an established place in the league, but at that point in time was very much kind of there, you know, just you know, hanging out, maybe maybe gets to make the roster next year, right, and like ended

up being an injury he was able to return from, but what if it had been worse, It could have literally ended his NBA career. So, like, I have a huge problem with some of the things that Dylan Brooks does. But based purely on his defense, he is worth the contract that he signed. And when you combine that with the fact that he's actually starting to hit shots. We saw this a little bit in FOBA, and then we're

seeing it so far this year. Like he's just been a more efficient and smarter offensive player than he was in earlier years in his career. And so he's actually a deeply impactful winner on that team. And then they just have a ton of athleticism off the bench. They had eleven offensive rebounds just from their bench group in that game. Guys like you know tari Eathan, Jeff Green, I think I had three or four offensive rebounds they did. They did a really nice job just punishing the Lakers

for their lack of effort and intensity and athleticism. So what's wrong with the Lakers? I want to put down three key issues. And again, like I know, we've talked about this to death, but I'm a Laker fan and i want event for a little while. So just I'm gonna tuck this again. They're relegated to the end of the show, and they're going to be at the end of the show for the foreseeable future until they start

playing better basketball. But Anthony Davis being hurt, obviously, that plays a role injuries in general, A big one here early on. Jared Vanderbilt is your best perimeter defender. He's out. Anthony Davis is your best player, he's out. Gabe is your best perimeter defender from the guard corps, he's out. Jackson Hayes is literally the backup center. You need to have two NBA level centers when Anthony Davis is out

of the lineup. He's out, and two of those guys are you are among your most important rebounders, like Jared Vanderbilt literally average seven rebounds a game last year. Again, like you have to understand the Lakers post deadline last year with the same core of players post deadline last year. The only difference is Dennis Schroeder, right, And Gabe Vincent is not as good as Dennis Schroeder, but he is

a reasonable facsimile of him as a perimeter defender. Right, Dennis is an elite perimeter defender and Gabe Vincent is just good, but he's a reasonable fact simile of what he does, and he's a better offensive player. So they're like, even if you just take the one rotation piece out from last year, they replaced him with the guy who

started for an NBA Finals team last year. Right, So same core guys post deadline last year were second in defensive rating and fourth and defensive rebounding percentage, So they are excuse me, fourth and rebounding percentage. I think they were sixth in defensive rebounding percentage. So this was an elite defense and an elite rebounding team last year with

the same group of players. But what you're seeing is like Jared Vanderbilt is kind of vitally important there, and then when you take him and Anthony Davis out of the equation, they just become completely incapable of hanging with any sort of athletic team. And now here's the question, like, is that a problem in the big picture. No, if they're healthy, right, but because we literally saw they were

elite in both categories when those guys are healthy. But it is a reality in the sense that, like, they don't have any margin for error there, So like if one of those guys goes down, they struggled too much to contend in those areas of the game. So that is a great example of how like bolstering the backcourt with athleticism, getting an athletic Garden there to play next to Austin Reeves would go a long way towards helping them in that situation. But make no mistake, injuries are

playing a significant role here. Number two, the guards are not consistently scoring the basketball, which is what you pay them for. Austin and Dilo both signed long term deals with the Lakers this summer at big numbers. Literally because they are excellent offensive players. They are both excellent spot up players, They are both excellent pick and roll shot creators. At least within the context of the regular season. D'Angel

Russell in the playoffs as a whole other thing. But even though he's matchup dependant, had some issues, like the Nuggets kicked him out, he had some big games and you know, hit a bunch of big shots in Game four against Memphis in that game that they want. He had a bunch of big moments in the Golden State Warrior series. So like, I don't see d'angela Russell on

this roster post deadline. But strictly within the context of the regular season, he was supposed to be a guy that could score the basketball and set you up, and so was Austin and instead it's been super inconsistent. It's like this game, you get really solid production in the second half out of D'Angelo Russell, but you get an

absolute dud out of Austin Reeves. You go back to the Miami game, you get a pretty damn good game out of Austin Reeves, which you get an absolute dud out of D'Angelo Russell, and it's like they just can't get consistent production out of those two. Here's where that's a problem. When those guys are playing great offensively, it makes it easier for you to deal with some of their limitations, right, and the whole team. When guys are making shots, the whole team plays harder, and it kind

of manifests in a bunch of positives, right. But when they're not scoring the basketball and they're not making shots, then their defensive limitations and rebounding limitations like scream at you in the face when you're watching on the television, right, And so that's kind of the issue here is Like last year, I think what made the Austin Dilo backcourt work for the most part in most matchups was Jared Vanderbilt, because Jared Vanderbilt was essentially a guard on the defensive

end because he guarded the other team's best perimeter player. And then he was also an excellent rebounder, and so that kind of like solved that issue, right, And then we found out like when you got into like the Nuggets series and you found a team that could like ignore Jared Vanderbilt and cause some problems for you on your offensive end of the floor while at the same time punishing your lack of athleticism on the other end

of the floor. Suddenly D'Angelo Russell becomes completely unplayable and it's untenable, right, So like that, in my opinion, we're gonna talk about it in a second, like there's going to be a D'angela Russell trade this season. In my opinion, I think it's like one of the safest bets to take place this year. But that can't happen until at a minimum January fifteenth. So what happens until then, Well, if the Lakers want to have any chance to float the ship until then, they need Austin and Dilo to

score the damn basketball. Now, one of the concepts that is important here is the way that they're playing. In my opinion, the best team specific podcast out there, like a group of podcasters that strictly covers one team, is the Laker Film Room guys, and Pete Zais in particular, and Darius Oreanom and Mike as well, Mike Trudell. They do a really nice job covering the Lakers on a

day to day basis. But one of the things that Pete Zas has been like heavily hammering on this season that we haven't talked about much is the overall offensive approach. So the Lakers are running more of a five out offense this year versus a four out one in offense?

What does that mean? A five out offense is like what Golden State runs, right, And we've talked about this a ton in our Golden State coverage, right, the concept of their five out offense and the way that it works, and how everything kind of centers around inverted spacing and pulling defenders away from the basket, and it's like read and react, like dribble handoff flowing into another, dribble hand off flowing into a ball screen while off ball guys

are interchanging as well. Like it's just it's a lot of ball and player movement centered around the perimeter. But it's more difficult to generate dribble penetration in those situations. And the main reason why is just think of it from the same point of geometry. If I were to take the three point line and stretch it out in a long, thin line and I put four dots on it, they'd be really far apart, right, But if I put five dots on it, they'd all be a little bit closer, right.

And so as a result of that, like the actual gaps that you have to shoot through are smaller. Now if you can shoot through the gap. It's much harder to rotate on the backside because you don't have a rim protector waiting for you. Typically that protector has been pulled out to the perimeter. It's just harder to shoot through those gaps. And specifically you're seeing Austin Reeves and

D'Angelo Russell struggled to break through those gaps, right. And Lebron James has been one of the best offensive players for the Lakers er in the season, and it's because he's a downhill threat. He's the guy that can actually like see a small gap and he doesn't really have to come through it clean because he's so damn big and strong that he can just power through that gap, right. And he can also generate rim pressure through post ups

and in transition and things along those lines. Right. So, like one of the things that I would like to see the Lakers do more often just go back out to their traditional four out one in spacing. What does that look like? That looks like you put you know, shooter in the you want your you want to shooter in the strong side corners. They don't help out of

the strong side corner. You have a shooter in the weakside corner, and then you have a shooter on the right wing right, and then basically you have Anthony Davis come up and set ball screens in a in a spaced out floor. For typically you want your ball handler in the in the position where they're most comfortable, so like for D'Angelo Russell and Ausin Ras it might be different.

But then basically you're just bringing ad up to set a ball screen, and you're working off that ball screen trying to make something happen, and if it doesn't work, you kick it back out and you run another ball screen. And what the thing is is like that's what the Lakers do for the most part last season, and Austin Reeves in particular really thrived with that. But even D'Angelo

Russell as well operated well in that system. And so you know, one of the things I'd like to see the Lakers do is just kind of like go back to more spread pick and roll and let their guys operate with more space and with more opportunity to dribble

and less of the read and react thing. I think that there's advantage to being able to play that way, and I don't want them to like discard it entirely, but like, to me, it's a pretty clear sign that, like, you played a certain type of offensive approach last year and it worked really well, and then you're playing a different type of offensive approach this year and it's struggling a little bit, right, And so like I'd like to see them kind of go back to to running more

spread pick and roll for their best ball handlers, and then just in general, like I think, especially if your big picture plan is to potentially trade D'Angelo Russell, I would lean more on Lebron and Austin, And like, I don't think it's a coincidence that Lebron and Austin were the ones that kind of brought you back. Again it's the Miami heat. And again I'm not trying to let

Austin off the hook. He didn't play well in that game last night, and he's been pretty inconsistent to start the season, right, But like we've just seen in the playoff context, like Austin is just a significantly better and more reliable playoff player than D'Angel Russell is. Like, that's your big picture offense, is Lebron and ad or Lebron and Austin kind of running things with Anthony Davis as a screener, with Lebron James as a screener, right, And so to me, like I would kind of lean on

de Lo more in an off ball roll anyway. I think he's a very good off ball shooter. He's not shooting the ball well this year, but that's something that he can do at a high level, and so I think that that's something that I'd like to see them lean into a little bit more. The last major issue

is just general defensive energy. I think that in general with this Laker team, I think they were fooled in the preseason by thinking they were a great offense because they were a great offense in the preseason and it was the same personnel that wasn't a great offense last year. Right, They were just a good offense last year, and they struggled in a half court. Right. So with that being the case, Like, the only way this team can win is by being a dominant defense and rebounding team. That's

how they want. The same group of guys won by being top five in defense, top five and rebounding and just enough offense. Right, And this year it's been like you can just tell in terms of their allocation of resources in terms of energy and effort. They're just not playing hard enough on a defensively and on the glass, and so I think that that is just an attitude adjustment that the whole group needs. Right, So the question

is what's fixable and what is it? So are the Lakers a bad defense and rebounding team in the big picture when they're healthy. No, we know that from the numbers, But they're very dependent on Jared Vanderbilt in this case and Anthony Davis. So in general, I think I would view that as a roster need, like they need to improve their perimeter defense to give them the ability to have not just depth night in and night out, but

a playoff option as a point of attack defender. If Jared Vanderbilt can't make enough shots to stay on the floor, right, So that to me probably needs to be addressed in a trade. At some point. Our guys gonna keep missing shots. We talked about yesterday, like every key Lakers rotation player is shooting well below their career norms in terms of three point shooting. Now, again, there's two sides to this coin.

What do I always say about shooting? I just talked about this with the Celtics, Like it's a it's a little bit of both, Like, are guys missing shots, Yeah, but also you're not generating enough rim pressure and so you're not getting the high quality three point shots that'll get these guys into a rhythm. Right. That kind of goes back to the five out versus spread pick and

roll thing that we were talking about earlier. So in general, I'd like to see guys start making shots, but I don't think it's really gonna happen until they just start executing better offensively. That said, do I think the Lakers have a shooting problem, No, because Austin Reeves can really shoot it, D'Angelo Russell can really shoot it, even if they trade him, Gabe Vincent can really shoot it. Torrian Prince can really shoot it. Ruy Hacha Mura can really

shoot it, even if he ends up getting traded. Like, like, they have enough backcourt and off balls shooting to be good enough, especially if they get a player back in a trade that can also shoot the basketball. I just don't think they'll shoot better in the short term until they start executing better offensively. And then lastly, like the Austin Dilo backcourt is that fixable. No. In my opinion,

that's something they have to eventually address. And this is why I think Dangel Russell getting traded is like one of the safer bets of this NBA season. You can't have that kind of redundancy in your back court if you want to try to win a championship. It's the same reason why I think the Bucks will inevitably make some sort of move with Maliite Beasley and Pat connatt In at that two guard spot, like to upgrade that

position in some way, shape or form. Like you just can't win when you have two players in your backcourt that struggle at the point, attack and on the glass. And so from there, Austin's clearly the better player. You actually have him tied up long term at a better number. He's your better playoff player as well. And Dangel Russell, like, to me, like was the one guy last year and in the playoff run that like struggled the most in terms of the night in, night in, night out consistency.

So like to me, del doesn't fit with Austin. Ruey plays the same position as Lebron, So you pair those two together, you get to thirty something million in salary, you have two first round picks to use. That's a really good trade package. Ruey is a good starter level NBA player who can play for someone in the league. D'Angelo Russell is a good starter level NBA player that can start for a team as long as they're not

trying to compete for a title. Right. So, like someone out there is going to see value in those two guys. And then the draft picks. Again, any Laker draft pick, especially with their tendency to go through long extended poor play and the Genie Bus era, those draft picks have real value, right, And so I think they're in a position where, like everything comes down to that trade deadline

for the Lakers. If they can hit one really high quality trade with d Lo and RUI, I think that can kind of round out some of the other pieces of the roster. Now, the good news, and this is the upside from a bad start, because like three and five obviously is a disaster. But the good news is Lebron James and Christian Wood look great. Lebron's sixty three percent through shooting, his volume is down, his scoring numbers are down. He's at like twenty four and a half points,

per game. But a huge part of that is usage, right, Like there's just a huge convoluted nature to their ball handling, and Lebron's usage is actually the lowest it's been since twenty seventeen, which is like what six or seven years. So like, even though the box score numbers don't show it, I actually think Lebron looks better than he did at any point last year. His shot making looks much better.

I think that's all really really good. So then one of the things we've learned is that Christian Wood is actually a very good defensive player for the Lakers as a help side defender versus as a pick and roll defender. And that was the thing. Is like, when they sign Christian Wood, everyone looked at all these defensive possessions of Christian Wood defending pick and roll with the MAVs, and he struggled with it, and it's like, that's not what

he's good at. He's not good at kind of striking that balance between offering help on a ball handler and keeping track of a role man. He's not going to be that guy who can ride the yo yo up and down and pick and roll coverages. So what he

can do is be the low man. So like if you can put him on a non shooter relatively less deadly shooter, and you have Anthony Davis run your ballscreen defense, and Christian Wood operates as that lowman, So like when Anthony Davis comes up, Christian Wood is the one that comes over and help. He's actually a very impactful defender there because he's got good instincts to go up for shot blocks and then secondly he's a good defensive rebounder.

And so that to me, like with that combined with Christian Wood starting to hit threes and with what he can do offensively to maintain their spacing with two bigs on the floor, like that's a huge silver lining. And so it's weird because like I look back and I go like, did I think the Lakers would be able to get stops or rebounds without Jared Vanderbilt and Anthony Davis. No, I never thought they would, So that's not a shock. Did I think Austin and dil could be the backcourt

for a championship team? No, I never thought that. I said before the season that I didn't think that would work and inevitably would end into trade. Right, So, like those problems were problems we already knew about. Here's what we didn't know. We didn't know that Lebron might look

better than he did last year, which he does. And we didn't know that Christian Wood might be a viable option as to give the Lakers a legitimate big look, and so like, as crazy as it sounds like, there's actually a lot of reason for optimism for the Lakers in their three and five start, because there are little things that, like you weren't expecting, that are positives, and most of their struggles they're mostly due to injuries in a trade the inevitably they were inevitably going to have

to make anyway, right, So, like, obviously it sucks. I kind of hate this basketball team early on because they don't play hard all the time. As a fan, they're not super fun to watch right now, But I think in the big picture there's still reason for optimism with that group. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I appreciate your support. We'll be back tomorrow. Might break down one of the Thursday night games for sure. Going to do a deep dive on

the Minnesota Timberwolves. The volume