Hoops Tonight - Warriors WILD COMEBACK vs. Pelicans, Luka & Mavericks BURY Wolves

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You're at the volume heavy Wednesday. Everybody hop BAF. You guys are having a great week on a jam pack show for you. Today, We're I'm hitting two games from last night as the Dallas Mavericks continue their dominance over the Minnesota Timberwolves. We're gonna be breaking that game down

from the perspective of both teams. And then the Golden State Warriors without Steph Curry, without Andrew Wiggins, without the Anthony Melton get a big dominant win over the New Orleans Pelicans despite brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson going off. We're going to break that game down from the perspective of both teams, and then I have twenty three clips for an episode of Timp's tape at the tail end

of the show. It's actually a couple of days worth because we didn't do one yesterday, So I've got some clips from the Celtics and some other games that we talked about earlier this week in there, as well a bunch of stuff to get into in the film session. You guys know the jope before we get started. Subscribed to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at

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That's Hops for twenty dollars off. Download Game Time today. What time is it? Game time? All right, guys, let's talk some basketball. So Mavswell was really interesting flow in this game and comes out He's just shooting the shit out of the basketball to start this year. Comes out hotter than blazes to start the game. He's hitting all sorts of threes off the catching, off the dribble, a

couple of ridiculous drives to the rim. He has this like dribble combination on Klay Thompson on the first possession of the game where he tows him off the dribble and then Euro steps around Gafford and reverses it in on the opposite side of the basket.

has his best stretch of the game. You know, it's kind of interesting. The MAVs has been running a lot of different, more advanced offensive stuff this season than they did in years past, for good reason, because they have so much more offensive skill on this particular roster. But in this particular game, they kind of leaned back on a lot of the same stuff that they did in the playoffs last year, which for the record, made sense for this particular matchup, Like their brute force high ball

screen attack. The Wolves had almost no answers for in that in that Western Conference Final series, and in that second quarter they just kind of started spamming that. And like every time he got downhill, he'd kind of get into that mid range to make shots off the dribble. If he forced a switch that he'd like he'd just try to beat that guy off the dribble and then throw a lob If the big man stepped up, he

was just absolutely cooking him. The MAVs kind of chip away at the lead and they end up actually going into halftime with a two point lead. Then in the third quarter, Kyrie Irving gets insanely hottie it's four threes. Quinn Grimes added a couple three of his own. The MAVs did a lot of damage in transition in this run as well. Throughout the whole game, Dallas kept beating Minnesota up the floor on leakouts, sometimes on made baskets

too really bad transition defense. One of the consistent themes of this game was both Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively just kicking go Beart's ass in every single phase of the game. A couple of guys who combined to make about half what Rudy Gobert makes, and he was just they were just kicking his ass and specifically just out running him down the floor.

the tail end. But there were just plays where like Gaffer just shot, will go up and as soon as the defensive rebound was secured, he just literally would just sprint up the floor, just beat go Bear up the floor, and the forwards and guards for Minnesota were not helping to track on that back line when go Beart would get beat and they were just getting easy ones. In transition, the MAVs really take over the game in the stretch and they end up going up by as much as thirteen.

Then the Wolves actually go to more spacing looks in the fourth quarter. They try a Ant Nikhil, Alexander Walker, Jada McDaniels, Julius Randall nos Reed look, and then they try a centerless look with no go Beart or nos Reed with Dante DiVincenzo in for nas Reid, So essentially Dante, Nikhil, Alexander Walker, two three and d guards and Nikil's been shooting the ball really really well to start the year and as another guard, and then Jada McDaniels and Julius

Randalls so much better spacing. They start getting lots of dribble penetration, They're faster in rotation, and in transition they kind of get themselves back into the game, and they actually cut it back to two with a couple of minutes left.

to it, ends up tapping at it. Then there's another fifty to fifty ball with both Gobert and Lively kind of staring at it, and Lively beats Gobert to it, and so a couple of extra efforts for MAVs outworking Wolves, extra possession ball ends up in Kyrie Irving's hands at the top of the key. He mixes up Julius Randall hits a pull up three. All of a sudden, it's a five point game. Secure a defensive rebound there and

you have a chance to hire take the lead. Now you're down two possessions, so big sequence there for the MAVs. Then the Wolves go down and score. They cut it to three. Then Kyrie gets Julius Randall on a switch again, and the Wolves don't want to allow that to happen, so they double team. Kyrie gets swung swung over to the left corner and Luka Doncic gets Gobert closing out at him. Luca beats him off the dribble. Kind of

an interesting theme at the end of this game. Like the go Beart, the lineups without Gobert early in the quarter will perform really well, right, But Chris Finch makes an interesting decision to go back to Gobart and crunch time, even though the small ball lineups were what was working, And then Gobaar ended up making a bunch of mistakes down the tail end of this game. But Golbert throws a bad close out at Luca, Luca easily tows him off the dribble and scoops in a little layup that

puts him back up five. Then the MAVs go down and get a stop. They got an opportunity to end the game, they get the MAVs or the Wolves get another stop, another chance to secure a defensive rebound, and once again both PJ. Washington and Derek Lively in reverse order. This time, this time Derek Lively beats Gobert to it and taps at it, and then PJ. Washington comes flying in and gets the rebound, another extra possession for Dallas.

Luca burns them by hitting just this ridiculous thirty five footer that ices the game and puts the MAVs up by eight. So once again that second run from Luca, the driving close out on Gobart, and then the dagger three at the top of the key that kind of ice the game. But what I thought was really fascinating there is Lively and PJ. Washington and particular really giving the MAVs extra possessions and extra chances to go for that knockout blow just by outworking guys like Jaden McDaniels

and Rudy Gobert. Again, that's part of the basketball character of this team and a big part of why they win. It's not just Kyrie and Luca, it's athletes that do the dirty work and do it well. And consistently kick ass against the other dirty work players on the other teams. They're going to talk about Lively a little bit later, but Lively was just an absolute monster in every phase of the game in this particular one. But good win

for the MAVs. They clearly have the Wolves number, like they held Luca down in the box score, but Luca still thought got whatever he wanted really and really picked him apart in the half court for extended stretches and then killed them in crunch time. He's just too big for all their perimeter guys, like they had some deflections and forced him into some misses. It also looked like he kind of hurt his knee again at one point

in this game. Kyrie eviscerates them every single time they play, and on defense they just load up on Anthony Edwards because they aren't worried about Rudy gober Like, yeah, he got into the paint a little bit with those small ball looks, but every time Gobert is on the floor against Dallas, they're able to basically turn Ant into a

jump shooter. And when Ant's hitting his jump shots, obviously, like in the first half, it looks good, but like when Ant starts missing or when they start to pressure him a little bit more, there's just so much traffic in the paint that they can't really get quality looks. Go Beart was just so bad in this game. Lively and Gafford always kick his ass. He missed a bunch of shots on cuts and rolls around the rim, just was getting it, just getting beat on the glass, getting

beaten transition. It just it just wasn't pretty for Rudy Gobert in this game. And then to top it all off, they're just playing harder. Like so when your stars have significant advantages, when you have a defensive game plan that works against the opposing star and you're just out working them, that's gonna lead to a lot of losses in an

individual matchup. For a team like Minnesota and this type of dynamic, there's also like a clear psychological element you could just tell, like it doesn't even look like Minnesota

really believes they can be Dallas right now. Kind of reminds me of like the last few years with the Lakers and the Nuggets, where it just kind of felt like even when the Lakers were in games and had chances, it just always felt like Denver was going to come back and beat him because of that psychological advantage, right, So it.

and I'm personally loving it. Like again in this game, even though they ran a lot more of their offense from last year for this particular matchup, they still had some sequences where they went to Derek Lively at the top of the key holding the basketball for off ball action.

He got another wide open layup for Kyrie on one of those like spurs cuts where he kind of cuts off lively shoulder and Lively pivots into the defender as he throws the lob to the little over the top pass to Kyrie for the layup.

hitting the shooter wide open in the corner. Once again, Luca generating a wide open three without even having to dribble the basketball. That's the type of advantage that that you have. That's the type of ceiling raising that operating with more offensive variety can do for you. I talk about it all the time, but ball pressure can really wear players down. When you have the ability to score off the ball or to run action off the ball,

it avoid any ball pressure. There's no ball pressure when you don't have to dribble, and that is one of the ways that Dallas is adding variety to their offense. And I, by the way, I put both of those plays in the TIMPs tape segments so you guys will see visual representations of it. But again, they went to a lot of their four out stuff, a lot of their brute force, high pick and roll stuff in this game just because it works so well against Minnesota, and

that makes sense to me. But I love like this is the thing I said this in the season preview. I don't want Dallas to ditch that stuff entirely. They got to the finals doing that stuff. That's an important punch for them to have. I just want them to have more punches, more variety, so that when they run into something that doesn't work, they can audible and have another way to attack offensively. And I really really like how they're starting to build all of this out over

the course of the season. There's a really high offensive ceiling for this group that is available there in the long run.

I've seen tons of it already this year. There's going to be opportunities where it makes sense for them to kind of go play more brute force and have Clay just spot up. And then there's gonna be times where it makes more sense for them to do more ball in player movement to try to keep everybody involved, and that to me is the variety that they that they need. Last two shoutouts Derek Lively and PJ Washington. PJ Washington was a monster on the glass in this game. He

had four offensive rebounds, all of them were huge. He also poured in seventeen points. It was a season high for him. Looks really confident shooting the ball from three. Lively was just an absolute monster on defense in this game, just shutting everything down at the rim, forcing Gobert into a lot of like fumbles and misses at the rim.

He defended really well on switches. He locked up both ant and Julius Randall at different points in the game and just straight switches and isolation situations generating offense as a passer like we broke down earlier. He's just gonna be so fucking good in the long run. I'm super super excited for MAVs fans. Derek Lively is a franchise changing talent that they have in there with Luca. On the Wolves front, there are issues with Dallas, like Gobart

just has to be better. Got his ass kicked by a couple of guys who combined to make half of what he does.

Dallas too. When they have bad offensive possessions, Dallas consistently burns them in transition. It's kind of like it's kind of like an interesting dynamic because when the Wolves play better offensively, that's when they have good stretches against Dallas. But it's always when their offense falls apart that Dallas starts getting going in transition, start getting easy stuff. Lucas starts to kind of psychologically take over the game at

that point. Definitely an execution issue in this particular matchup as well. Lots of stuff though to get into that's kind of exciting. Ants shooting or sixty five jump shots into the season, he's at one point one to seven points per jump shot. Again I I one of my big beliefs is that this shooting stretch from Anthony Edwards is real and this is super exciting.

is an excellent shot for this team right now. One of the best shots that Minnesota can get right now is anything that Anthony Edwards takes at the three point line. So like, here's the deal. In an ideal universe, do you want a little bit more balance? But my thing too, is like, that's easier on his legs, it's easier on wear and tear. And also, this is a team that really struggles with a packed paint. There's not really many

opportunities to drive when things spread out. When they went to those small ball looks, which we're going to talk about in a minute, all of a sudden, Ans started getting downhill again. And so my thing is like, it's almost like a variety. Like we talked about, it would be nice if on the go bear groups and could rely on his jump shot more because of the issues

that he has in the paint with that lineup. And then when they go to their small ball groups and he's on the floor with more spacing, that's when he can look to drive and be more aggressive. But I like, here's the thing. Anson is a scoring guard. He's not a guy that's going to have twelve assists per game or pick you apart with surgical passing, that's not his game.

He is a scoring guard, and so this is a guy that you need averaging thirty thirty two points a game in order to reach his individual ceiling kind of like Michael Jordan did, kind of like Kobe Bryant did, right, Like, that's his archetype. And so in order for him to get to that type scoring volume, it can't all just be driving to the basket all damn day long, like he's like he's Dwayne Wade. There's got to be a

balance to it. And so a dominant, aggressive jump shot combined with that downhill ability is what will allow him to be that consistent, high volume score that Minnesota needs him to be in the long run. So, to make a long story short, like, as long as he's making forty percent of them or more, I'm cool with Aunt

taking thirteen threes a game. But yeah, if we get two months into this thing and he's still taking thirteen threes a game and he's only shooting thirty six and a half percent, then there's a different conversation to have about maybe wanting to tick that down from thirteen attempts to something lower so that he can get some more efficient looks. But as long as he's hitting him like this, it's a very efficient shot that's easy on his legs and gives him a way to attack when the paint

is really really packed. So like it all just depends on how real of a jump shooter Anthony Edwards is, and we're going to find out as we get further in small ball looks. This season, with Rudy Gobert on the floor, the Wolves are getting outscored by three points per one hundred possessions.

minutes a little bit. Go Bear's playing in thirty five minutes a game right now, I'd cut that down a bit into that like twenty eight to thirty minute range. Last night, for instance, the small ball groups got them back in the game. Then Rudy Gobert checks back in, and they can't go bucket for bucket with Dallas late. And you check Rudy in to help you with the already work, and he promptly gives up two offensive rebounds and throws a bad close out at Luka Doncic that

gives up a bucket. So you put him out there to get the benefit of Gobert, and you did not get the benefit of Gobert while also getting the downsides that come with him on the offensive end of the floor.

I think cutting him down to twenty eight thirty minutes a game, leaning more on your small ball looks like we talked about this a lot, but like at end of game situations, the ability to contain the ball and the perimeter is something that is super valuable that Nikhil, Alexander Walker, Dante DiVincenzo Jada McDaniel's aunt and Julius Randall

look could be a really interesting switching look. Or they contain the ball and just rely on their perimeter defense at the end of these games and try to outscore teams in the half court with better spacing. So again, we'll see how it looks in the long run. But it's just a lot of Rudy Gobert right now and he's just not playing particularly well. I just want to I just want to see a little bit more exploration

of those small ball looks. All right, let's move on to Pelicans Warriors, another game that had a really interesting back and forth flow. The Pelicans take a twenty point lead early in this game, just an obvious gap in firepower to start the game. The Warriors guards that were being aggressive early. So like Buddy Heialed in the early part of the game, he is just with missing shots.

But then really Brandon Pazemski and Jonathan Kaminga and the tail end of the first quarter were really playing a lot of one on one And if you're going to get into like a singular firepower contest with the Pelicans when you have Andrew Wiggins and Steph Curry and Street clothes, you're gonna lose that battle, and they did early Like Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson and CJ.

what is the Warrior's identity beyond Steph Curry? Right, Like, the identity of the Warriors is Steph Draymond and Steve Kurr and everything that they've established over the course of the last ten years. But beyond Steph Curry, they have a strong identity, which is speed. They are fast as hell on offense and on defense. On offense through player movement and quick decision making, and on defense with ball

pressure and covering ground really really fast in rotation. They fly around and they have a depth of guys that can do it. So that even with Andrew Wiggins, who when he's healthy and in when his mind is right is one of the very best Perimmeter defenders in the game. And the Anthony Meltain, who's a very good starting caliber defensive guard. When those guys are out of the lineup, they still have waves of guys come in. Lindy Waters. Guess what he's really good? Here comes a bigger Moses Moody,

Like Moses Moody starts the game. Well, guess what he's really good too. There's all these different guys that can do this job on this roster. In that second quarter, they started flying around on both ends and got back into the game. The Warriors forced nine turnovers in that quarter. They scored twenty four points just in transition, just in the second quarter, Like it was a crazy run that

they went on to get back in the game. Then going into the second half, Steve kerrmakes a really interesting call, So, like one of the things that happened in the first quarter is Buddy Heel was missing and Lindy Waters comes in and kind of has a really good shift, Like he's aggressive shooting the ball. His first bucket like just cutting moving without the basketball, cuts out of a split cut on a post up and gets a wide open layup. He just looked like more aggressive and he looks comfortable.

So Steve Kerr makes this decision. He benches Buddy Heel to start the second half and starts Lindy Waters and it worked out literally perfectly. Lindy goes on another scoring run to start the third quarter. Brandon Pitzemski, by the way, finally had a breakout offensive stretch there in that early third quarter. He scores ten quick points. Jonathan Kaminga comes in the third late third, has a really nice run. He had a driving left handed layup by Herb Jones.

He had a pull up three in a ball screen I think with Kavon Looney if I remember correctly. And then he has this crazy sequence where he gets a block at the rim, secures the rebound, runs the length of the floor and throws a beautiful love to trace Jackson Davis at the rims. So he goes on this individual run and then Buddy Healed, the guy that Steve Kerr bench to start the second half, he comes in and finally starts just hitting shots and he gets crazy hot, and.

total after the first quarter. They forced them into twenty five turnovers that led to thirty four points in the game. Really really good two way performance from the Warriors as they get a dominant, impressive win over a playoff team without their best player and without two of their very of their most important role players that they have on

this roster. Just a resounding statement of the depth that this team has, and that really has been the story of this Warrior season in the early going in my opinion, Like they just want a game without Steph Curry, Anthony Mountain, Andrew Wiggins because They're so damn deep with fast guys that can both defend and run action properly in the Warrior system. That is what has their floor so high. They have a strong identity that is separate from Steph Curry.

They're an elite defense that forces a lot of turnovers, scores a lot in transition off of those misses in those turnovers. Just a couple of stats to demonstrate how good the Warriors have been with their speed to start this season, second in defensive rating, sixth in pace. They have forced twenty one turnovers per game, that's second only to the Oklahoma City Thunder. They're scoring twenty six points per game off of turnovers, that's the most in the

entire NBA. They're scoring twenty two fast break points per game, that's first in the entire NBA. They're getting out in transition on twenty two percent of their overall possessions. That's number one in the NBA. So speed is the identity of this team. That is where they are driving success. That is separate from Steph Curry. And again, like Steph, even when he was in the lineup to start the year, he hadn't even had a game where he scores more

than twenty points. Yet if Steph actually manages to rejoin this system and to reach a level closer to what he was at two years ago and they hit on a trade, you bet your ass this is a team that can make some noise that they are much better than I expected them to be this season, and they're showing it here in the first few And again, the depth is the important piece.

Turnovers really killed them in this one. When they were patient, they got they consistently got great stuff from Zion and bib I. Just you know, b Ice had a couple of rough games, but he's also had a couple of really really good games, and one of the rough games he ended up hitting a game winner in any way,

just really really comfortable getting into that mid range. Also without Dejhonte Murray getting a lot more high ball screen touches, and he's just one of the more gifted forwards at passing out of high ball screens that we have in the league, but turnovers killed them in this one. They gave up thirty four points off of turnovers. In this game, Zion finally had his big breakout game on offense. He was really rough in his first two games. Both Draymond

Green and Von Luney were hopeless against him. It was interesting how he attacked both guys too. Like with Looney, it was aggression in his straight line, just go to the rim and get a bucket, and he was getting a bunch of buckets like that. Draymond, obviously a much more gifted defender, was doing a good job of beating Zion to the first spot. And so this is something

we talked about in preseason. But Zion has worked on this like little like hard drive to the right for a left handed player so that he could pound into a spin over his right shoulder for a left handed hook shot. And he got Draymond with that a bunch of times in this game where he make an aggressive move. Draymond good defense, slide his feet, take the contact, but Zion's just so quick with that spin over his right shoulder.

He also has done it a few times where he gets caught dead to rights, where like he gets caught dead to rights and all he'll do is just quick pivot towards the baseline to fake like he's gonna go reverse, and then he'll just turn right back over his right shoulder and go to that hook. That left handed hook is going to be such an important go to move

for him in the long run. But like again, he had such a dominant performance against the Lakers in the playing game, and we were wondering if he was going to be able to continue some momentum off of that comes into to the season. Get sick, miss is the first game doesn't look good in the first two games that what we saw last night was closer to the Zion that we expect now. Really rough on defense in this one, especially in the second half, But the Warriors defense,

the Warriors offense is a blender. They really test your attentiveness and your ability to navigate screens and to defend multiple actions, to make multiple efforts on the same possession, and to cover ground. And again that attentiveness is everything that they're testing. And so that's just a weakness of Zion that he's gonna have to work on. But I did think it was an encouraging I didn't think it was an encouraging offensive performance for Zion. They're two and

two right now. They beat Chicago on Opening Night, they beat the Blazers on that crazy game in Portland where Brandan Ingram hits the game winner over Anthony Simons, and then Zion has that crazy help side defense block. But then they got blown out by the Blazers, and then they got blown out by the Warriors without Wigans and Steph their twenty second in offense through four games, eighteenth

in defense. Hard to read too much into these results, though, because like the Dejontae Murray trade, I really like Dejontay Murray. When he's healthy, he's gonna help this team. But with him being out with the injury, I think he's gonna be out for the better part of six weeks. That really sapped them of depth, right Like Dyson Daniels is a really good player, specifically of a very valuable archetype, which is that defensive guard that can pressure the ball,

fly around in rotation. He's off to a good start in Atlanta. Larry Nance is better than any center you have on the roster right now. Like Ive Smithy had a couple nice plays today. He met Jonathan Kminge at the rim at a really nice block, had a good offensive rebound put back, Like he's got some potential, but he's got a long way to go. And Daniel Tye is a stretch five that doesn't really hit threes the

way that stretch fives usually do. So like, I think they're gonna hover around five hundred or maybe even a little below five hundred until de Jontay Murray gets back because they're just not as deep, not very good defensively on that front line, and they need to be so good on the perimeter to make up for that, and they're not going to be until they get de jhon Tay Murray. I think it's Jordan Hawkins was the last

guy I wanted to talk about. He's shooting the ball really really well this year, but obviously Golden State really pressures the ball and contests really well. He had trouble breaking open against Golden State. That's a good example, Like Jordan Hawkins, good player, brings some of that movement shooting has been helping with the Trey Murphy absence. But the reality is is like he's got a certain athletic limitation that he's going to run into when he runs into

teams like this. That's where it's like, man, if de Jontay Murray's in this lineup, he can kind of help hang in these super athletic environments slots.

our film session for today. You're listening on the podcast feed and you're gonna want to head over to YouTube to see that part to actually get the visual representations of what we're talking about. We're actually starting in Boston from the Bucks game. This was stuff that I covered in yesterday show, but I wanted to I just like basically drop all these clips in a folder, and I just didn't have a chance to do Tim's tape yesterday,

so I just bumped it into today. So, first of all, this is an example of These are examples of all of the mistakes that Milwaukee made when they lost control of the game against Boston. So, as you can see eighty two to eighty minute thirty nine left, this is a game that is there for the taking. Bobby Portis misses a little right shoulder fade. We go to the other end, and I talked yesterday about the interchange that takes place on a switch. So here's Derek White. We

have Xavier Tillman going to set the screen. Giannis is on Derek White, Bobby Portis is in the switch. I talk all the time about the difference between an aggressive switch and a switch. On an aggressive switch screen comes Portis would run out and meet Derek White out here, specifically so that Derek White doesn't have that interchange to take advantage of where he can take a look at a three point shot. Instead, Bobby Portis sits back on

his heels. So when the switch happens again, Tillman's rolling Yiannis is gonna go with it. Bobby's sitting back on his heels behind the three point line. Derek White's like, please and thank you. I'll just go ahead and rise up into this three over the top he had just hit one over here too on an offensive rebound. The

Bucks were actually up eighty to seventy nine. So like, Derek White's just hit a three, you can't that can't be the possession where you're lazy on a switch and you can see it an easy pull up jump shot off the dribble. This was one of the wildest defensive plays I've ever seen from a guard. How about Derek White single handedly stopping a Damianis ball screen. So here comes there, Dami ball screen, Dame gets downhill, Derek White Stonewall's the drive. We have a pitch back to Giannis.

Look at Derek White meets Giannis up top and blocks him. That was an unbelievable defensive play from Derek White. Here's that corner crash that I talked about yesterday. So Jordan Walsh again, So we're loading up on the strong side for a Tatum post up. Watch Giannis and Bobby Portis. They are completely keyed in and help, and no one's paying attention to Jordan Walsh. Tatum draws that double team.

Derek White ends up taking his third three. Watch Jordan Walsh, though Bobby Portis and Giannis both key on on Xavier Tillman, Jordan Walsh game playing discipline again, corner crashing is a huge part in the modern NBA of winning on the margins. Jordan Walsh just comes flying in, gets the offensive rebound put back, big time play, a lot of hustle plays going Boston's direction. At the tail end of this one, here's another loose ball, So Derek kick out to Jordan Walsh, Derek White.

went in. Just that It really has developed a reputation as being one of the best end of quarter players in the league. This is where it all went south. This was basically the dagger, so a blitz of Jason Tatum or if Jalen Brown, excuse me, up on the right wing. So Portis is on Cornette. We're getting at Finland action, right, So Jaylen Brown's gonna backscreen for Prichard

before he comes off the DHO. But as actually it was just more of a ball screen than a dh O. But essentially, as this ball screen happens, Portis is going to trap. But once you trap here, the most important thing for you to do is to contain the ball and then to pressure the ball so that the pass that comes out of this, whether it's a skip pass or it's something to Cornett, is deflected or lobbed so that you can rotate out of it. The worst thing you can do is not even contain the ball. And

Jalen Brown just splits Bobby Porta. It's just a really bad blitz. Now you're just completely fucked. It's a five on three. Pritchard ends up wide open in the right corner and that ends up being the So again you're up by one with roughly two minutes left in the third quarter, and you get out hustled and out executed on both ends of the floor and you end up all of a sudden down thirteen in a matter of

like three minutes. And that really is the thing is like Giannis and the Bucks, they're hanging on for dear life. We're hanging with the Boston Celtics. We can do this, guys, and then it's like they let go. And it's because unless you make a habit, I mean habit is the keyword,

meaning like it is almost instinctual. Through just relentless work and attention to detail over a large sample size, it becomes a habit for you to do the right thing versus when you play lazy and then all of a sudden in a big game, you have to be sharp.

You can be sharp for a spurt, you sharp for a quarter, sharp for two quarters, maybe even three quarters, but eventually you're going to like kind of just go back to what you are at your core of your being, which is an unseerious basketball team like the Milwaukee Bucks. And they end up dropping this game all right into Orlando.

This was the ghost screen action that we all knew was gonna happen a lot this year for Pallow and Kentavious Callbo Pope, So KCP is gonna run through He's going to set the ghost screen for Pallow draw two to the ball see and again what causes the ghost screen to function is we're taking advantage of the hedge. So Tyreese Halliburton is in this case going to hedge. Why because KCP is going to set a screen. So

if Halliburton doesn't hedge and Nie Smith gets screened. If Halliburton stays glued to the bottom side of KCP, Palo Bonkaro is going to get If that screen gets set and Halliburton does not hedge, Polo is gonna get downhill this way, and now you're in real trouble. So Halliburton has to hedge out. Here's our hedge. So Halliburton runs out there for the specific purpose of stopping Polo from turning the corner. But then he's got to recover to KCP.

He's slow. KCP is a good movement shooter who can knock the shot down, so they have to rotate from the weak side. Andrewn Nemhard rotates over Albi Toppin's going to rotate over up, generating a wide open three for Anthony Black in the right corner and shout out to Anthony Black. He misses this one, but keeps his confidence

because he oh he actually does make that one. I apologize, but he ends up hitting another huge three in the He misses another corner three later on in the fourth quarter, but then he ends up hitting the game winner in the left corner. So corner three point shooting for Anthony Black was a big one in this particular game. Another KCP goes screen, same kind of concept. Oh wait, nope, we got the KCP gohos screen is on the next possession.

So this was that play that I talked about in the game breakdown yesterday where randomly fourth quarter magic down five five minutes left. This is basically a crunch time possession, even though it won't log is a crunch time possession for another five seconds. But Wendell Carter Junior Anthony Black cleared side ball screen. How about the second your player getting an opportunity to run some action engages the screen defender makes the pocket pass, gets Wendell Carter a good role,

and Wendell Carter draws a foul. Really nice play from Anthony Black. Here's the KCP gohoes screen. I apologize for the earlier all right, so we have Pallo Casey p cuts through go screen hedge slip right that draws the wide open three for Jalen Suggs. Now, as you can see, Pascal Siakam is actually keyed in on Suggs. But this is a bad hedge from Haliburton because he doesn't actually cut him off. The entire purpose of the hedge for Haliburton is to stop the drive. Now you've done the

worst of both worlds. You've left your defender wide open and you haven't contained the ball. Pallow easily gets downhill. That forces Pascal to step over and help. Palo has got two options here. You can go to Anthony Black Black in the right corner or Jalen Sugs in the left corner. Ends up going to Suggs. He knocks down the shot.

wide open three. Love how much more often the Mavericks have been running Luca off of off ball action instead of just having him bring the ball up the four and deal with ball pressure again. Jada McDaniels when he gets down here has no chance against Luca, but in the open court he can wear him down with speed and just poking at the basketball. So just ease that up on him, run him off. This off ball action functions just like a ball screen. Right now, Jaden is

in trail position. Gafford can roll. It's the same function as a ball screen. Obviously, Mike Conley's not going to stay away from Klay Thompson, so he's only stunting. He stays home, catches Jada and mc daniels crawling up his back gets a little floater in the end. One I talk to you guys about how I thought Spencer Dinwoodie with the Lakers was actually a really, really good defender

of guards. I thought this was a good lock and trail possession again gets a little bit of distance, but look at the closing speed and the length to bother the shot. Watch the length he's got super long arms. Great contest, and look at the drift. Look at the drift from Dante. He forces him to change his shot and drift and lean to his left with a really good pursuit from behind, forces a miss back to the left in a missed shortened left. Probably not a coincidence.

Julius Randall drawing help from the post. Really nice shot creation example, or in a spaced outlook. This is another one of those small ball looks where there's no non shooter on the floor. Julius goes to work against Derek, picks up his dribble, but catches Klay Thompson. This is 'rim pressure right like, even though they're not double teaming, it's instinctual for when they see a guy get into the paint to kind of suck into the paint. Julius

those a really nice kickout pass to Dante. DiVincenzo knocks down to three. Here's those two plays that I talked about where Lively is operating. Is the passing fulcrum at the top of the key for offball action. They've been doing a lot of this with bench groups with Luca off the floor. So again fake dribble handoff to Hardy that flows into the wide screen for Kyrie, who then

cuts off Lively. But this allows Lively to basically set another screen for Kyrie and just pivot into him, and he gets another wide open layup, again generating easy baskets without having to rely on your superpowers as often as you would otherwise. And then here's the one in the second half that I thought was really cool. So once again Lively at the top off ball action, we have Naji Marshall screening for Kyrie. Then what He's just staying in the left corner. But watch Luca, He's got a

top block here. So again we talk about this a lot. Jada McDaniels is trying to stop Luca from coming off of this top side from Lively, so he's ceiling the top side. So Luca is now pushing Jadeen as high as he can to try to create a passing angle for Lively to throw the ball in. Here he does, Lively throws a perfect pass that forces Anthony Edwards to help. Now we get our beautiful behind the back pass from Luca to Spencer.

enough to contain the drive. Now he's like kind of indecisive about what he wants to do, and like even here, like he gets a little separation and he might take this shot, but Derek Lively's got enough length that he's like, I'm not sure I got enough separation, So he ends up having to give it up, ends up being a heave from Jade McDaniel's really nice defense from Derek Glively. Here's an example of off ball relocation being valuable. So

offensive rebound. Get another Derek Lively offensive rebound. He's such a monster in this game, all right. So Dante de Vincenzo's guarding Queen Grimes. He's keyed in on the ball.

Now Jordan Hawkins is going to drive. Watch how fast Gary Payton shoots down and gets the jump ball boom. It's so much speed to cover ground. I thought this was just a beautiful example of split cut action that the Warriors ran. So we're gonna go to Draymond in the post. Okay, watch this play develop. So we're gonna go to Draymon in the post. Then the classic Warriors split cut is the guy who makes the post entry just screens away for the guys top of the key

right goes a screen. This time Kminga actually screens Buddy Healed gets a little bit of an angle on this slip that draws Zion Williamson and help extra pass to Kyle Anderson forces Jordan Hawkins to rotate. Probably a bad close out from Jordan Hawkins. You just make Kyle Anderson take that three, but Lindy Waters ends up getting a wide up and three out of it.

get a better one. There's thirteen seconds on the shot clock. Swing the moody. Moody's got a look. Uh, don't really like the look. If I throw it to POD's there, he's going up against the center underneath the basket. I don't think this is the best option. Let's see if we can't drive this close out. He drives right, Pods relocates. Now you get a wide open three. So again, the diligence to turn down a couple of okay shots ends

up getting you a great shot that goes in. I've talked a lot about beating ball pressure with a swing pass, then making the swing pass guy hit the roll man. This, so I thought, was a great example of that. So like you can see that dynamic taking place. Lindy Waters are our ball handler. Tray Jackson Davis is going to go set a ball screen. The Pells are gonna put two on the ball. Okay, when the Pells put two

on the ball, the roleman gets open. But the problem is when the roleman's open, there's ball pressure here, so that becomes a different a difficult pass to make. Padziemski, as a swing pass man, is not being ball pressured. He can make the pass. He hits trace. Now we have our week side two on one. Moody cuts get an easy lay, a beautiful basketball from the Golden State Warriors. And then this was that crazy Jonathan comming a block

to lob sequence blocks CJ. McComb at the rim, gets a rebound, runs it down patiently pass fake boom dunk. I know your Warriors fans really enjoyed that one last night. That was a really really fun game to watch. All right, guys, that is all I have for today is always I

sincerely appreciate the show. Cleveland Cavaliers fans. I was gonna do Calves today, but then the Calves play the Lakers tonight, and I'm obviously gonna watch that, so figured might as well move it tomorrow, So we're gonna do a deep dive on the Cavs game. We'll be hitting Nick's calves as well as, just like the season at large, in a lot of detail in tomorrow's show. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. I'll see

you guys, guys tomorrow the volume What's Up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.