Hoops Tonight - What is happening to Jokic & Nuggets? Are Anthony Edwards & Wolves UNSTOPPABLE?

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in Kansas twenty one plus age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See dkang dot co slash bball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. I'll ball if you guys are having a great start to your week. Gonna do a film session on game two between the minutes on the Timberwolves and the Denver Nuggets.

Fair warning off the top. We did this for Game one, and then YouTube wouldn't let us post the film, So if you're just getting the kind of like monologue portion of this and not the film, that's what happened. But I promise we're still working on it. I have twelve clips that we're gonna go over. There are eleven clips, I should say at the end of the show. Again, that's the way this is being produced. But if something

goes wrong, at least you guys will know what happened. Again, just breaking down, gonna give my thoughts on kind of the press conference from last night. We're gonna go over some numbers, just some of my overarching takeaways from game two, and then we'll get to eleven clips and then we'll get out of here until tonight's games. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to our Brandon

YouTube channel so you don't miss any more videos. Follow me on Twitter, underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight, and then keep dropping me ail back questions in the YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. So I went back and listened to the press conferences from last night, and there's some good and there were some bad. Right like Reggie Jackson

and Justin Holliday. I thought they handled it like vets in a lot of ways. Reggie Jackson was using a lot of the same terminology that I was using in the show last night. I said, they got punked. He

specifically used the word they got punked. I talked about how this isn't about basketball yet, it's about their force of will, and he specifically said the phrase this is a test of our will and our manhood, which I thought was really fascinating in the sense that Reggie's kind of seeing things the same way that I am, which is like, you can't even get to basketball and adjustments and all of these different things until you actually show

up to the fight. You got punched in the mouth, and you've staggered, and you've reacted emotionally to a lot of stuff, but you haven't reacted in a basketball sense really at all yet in this series. And so Reggie's right, in my opinion, I think that we can't even really get into some of the basketball elements until they show

up to the fight. One of the other things that we heard from a bunch of different guys, Reggie Jackson said this, Michael Malone said this the idea of owning your space, which is gonna be a big concept that we talk about when we get to the film, and basically to me, owning your space is like there are spots on the floor that you're supposed to be offensively so, and those spots actually really matter. So just imagine like a horn set. Okay, and let's say you run a

Chicago action off of a horn set. What that means is, let's say you remember the horns. The two You usually have your at least one of your post players, if not both, at the two elbows. Two guys in the corner, guy at the top of the key. You'll make a post entry, a high post entry to like the guy on the right elbow, and then you'll run down and you'll set a wide pin down like a downscreen for the guy in the corner, and he's going to come off of that downscreen into the dribble handoff from the

guy at the elbow. It's very important that the guy catches the ball at the elbow, not just so that you can run the play there, but that spot is also important because there's a lot of the spacing con that the rest of the floor is designed around requires the action to be run in that specific spot. That's a big way that defenses can disrupt an offense is by fighting guys off of their spots. Oh this guy wants to post up, well, I'm going to make him

catch at seventeen feet instead of thirteen feet. Right, Okay, this shooter wants to come off of these two screens while I'm going to top block him and move him around and make him take a weird angle so the entire geometry of the play gets messed up. That's a big way that defenses tried to confront that, right, And like it's to Reggie Jackson's point, that is one of the areas of basketball that is more about a force

of will. It is more about just competing physically. I was working through a three on three drill yesterday with my high school team that I work on at work with, and there was one of the seniors was kicking the shit out of one of the younger players fighting for position at the high post for a set that we were trying to run, and he was kind of getting worked up and getting a little upset about it, and I had to tell him, like, no, no, no, no, no, Like you have to fight him. He is bullying you off

of your spot. You have to fight for that catch in that spot. And like he would get catches ten to fifteen feet away from where he was supposed to catch, and then the action just falls apart. Right, It's not about basketball at that point. It's not about anything other than are you willing to get dirty? Are you willing to squat down hit somebody? Are you willing to get in the weight room to put in the work behind the scenes so that you can have a better chance

to fight for a position. It is not about basketball anymore at that point. It is strictly about fighting and a lot I thought it was interesting that a lot of Denver players in the coaches were talking about that owning your space concept last night, because that is step

one to fixing this problem. In order for Denver's offense to function, you need to get the ball into the right spots, and you need to get there early in the clock so that you can run action to generate an advantage, or maybe get a ball reversal to run another action so that you can get higher quality close

out opportunities for your high level offensive players. You're not gonna get that if you're fighting ball pressure and you can't even make the high post entry until thirteen seconds are on the shot clock, and by the time you make the high post entry. He's catching it four feet off of his spot. Now there's nine on the shot clock and the entire play is dead. And now it's

like I've got a bunch of guys. I've got Jamal Murray who's in jail, Nikole Jokic who's getting double teamed, Aaron Gordon taking a bunch of jump shots, and Michael Porter Junior is struggling to break free in game two. Right, So like again, it's all that owning of the space thing is a basic basketball concept from early phases that is all about just fight. It's physical, it's fighting. It is a wrestling match. You're wrestling for position on the floor.

Same thing goes for ball pressure, like when a guy is getting up into your grill and getting physical with you. And I'm not talking about the double team stuff because we're gonna go over some examples where guys were like trying to attack ball pressure for no particular reason. But even with ball pressure, it's like, you got to make good strong moves. You gotta you gotta fight that. When the dude's reaching and claw at you, you got to

use that off farm and bump him off. And then you've got to hit quick retreat dribbles, and be really efficient with your movements. It's all about meeting force with force. If you kind of wilt underneath that physical ball pressure, that's when they've won that battle. And so I thought that was a really interesting kind of takeaway from the

from the pressers last night. At least Denver knows that they're getting bullied out of their specific spots on the floor, and if they approach game three that main attitude like own your space, that'll go a long way towards, uh, towards towards helping them. Again, it's very simple, own that space on the floor. If you're supposed to catch at the elbow, do not let him take you off the elbow. If he tries to, you fight him right back off of that spot. Right That's that's gonna be the big

battle moving forward. Justin Holliday, similar type of uh, you know, similar type of sentiment in the sense that he was like, this is what the playoffs are supposed to be, Like, we got to meet that playoff level. Michael Malone. It was kind of there were some things that I liked and things that I didn't like about what he said. He was very straightforward, we got bullied, we got embarrassed,

all that kind of stuff. The two things that concerned me is one he said he didn't like the body language in the locker room, which like I get in the sense that it's not you don't go into your locker room when you're getting embarrassed and just act all

like jovial and happy. But there was some of that weird stuff where like no one really seems to be angry about what's happening, you know, Reggie Jackson was the one guy who seemed kind of like pissed off, right, and so like there needs to be I want to see some fight from them moving forward. And then secondly,

he defended himself for yelling at the ref. Now he explained himself, and after he explained himself, what he said actually made a lot of sense in the sense that like, he was pissed off about a Carl Town's post up on the left block on the previous possession where kat ripped through and he did he ran him all over

and it should have been an offensive foul. He was right about that, But again, bad calls happened in basketball games, and he bum rushed thereat and like He's right, like the coaches do have a certain responsibility to advocate for the players, but he went too far. And the part that bothered me is he defended himself and acted like he was just being a good coach. I thought that was a really good opportunity for him to kind of like set an example for Jamal Murray and be like,

you know what, I lost my cool. I was pissed off about a bad charge call. I know I'm supposed to be advocating for my players, but I lost my cool and I behaved in a way that didn't actually help the situation. If he says something like that, that gives you the ability to go to Jamal Murray and be like, hey, dude, like you got your ass kicked, own it, and let's move forward and let's find a way to address this problem. So kind of up and down with Michael. Malone really didn't like what Jokic said

after the game. There's this kind of like indifference from him. And we're gonna talk about Yokic in a bigger picture here in a minute, but like there was like a kind of an indifference. He was specifically asked about the team losing control of their emotions in Jamal Murray in particular, and his response was basically, I didn't lose control of

my emotions, So go ask Jamal. And it's like like that's one of those ones where you're the leader of the team, like they're expecting you to kind of speak on Jamal's behalf and be like that's where you say, like, yeah, you know what, Jamal loss is cool today, but he knows, he knows, and he's gonna be better in game three. You know, like there's it was just kind of like a weird vibe coming from that locker room and then

Jamal no showing the presser. Look, it's easy to talk to the press when you're winning, like like, it'd be great if you just took the only the good parts of anything you have to do in your life. No, Like, sometimes you have to do things when the circumstances are not great. Right, It's easy to come home and be a good husband or go to a social event and be a good friend or family member when things are going well in your life. It's more challenging when you

have a lot of stresses behind the scenes. So you had a really rough day and then you have to go into that situation and be the best version of yourself. There's a responsibility that comes from being one of the best players on your team and being a leader and talking to the press. And when you go to talk to the press every single time you hit a game winner, and then you bail on the press when you play like shit, that's that's not handling your responsibilities as a leader.

Jamal Murray is going to be a guy that has to play better for the Nuggets to get back in the series. And I don't even think his head's in the right place yet. I don't think he really has embraced the reality of what's going on. And again, as far as the calf muscle goes, there's no doubt that he's not moving as well as he could if his calf muscle was going was healthy. That said, if you didn't know Jamal Murray was injured, you wouldn't know that

Jamal Murray's injured because he's moving well enough. The reason why he's struggling with Minnesota is because Minnesota is kicking his ass. That's why. So if he thinks that like the only reason this is happening is the calf muscle, then he might end up in a series with Minnesota next year and have the exact same problem. Right, The real problem is he needs to meet their force with force,

be more decisive against their ball pressure. And one of the things I liked from Nicole jokicch in his press conference, Jokic talked about trusting the pass. And I'll show you guys an example here when we get to film. But there are a lot of times where Jamal is trying to beat the pressure or over penetrate with the dribble and he needs to be more willing to trust the pass.

So like, there's a lot that Jamal can get better at even if he is moving at you know, ninety two percent of his normal mobility or whatever the hell it is. Which, by the way, everyone in the playoffs is banged up, so you're not gonna get sympathy points there when like Donovan Mitchell's playing on a bad knee. Like a bunch of guys are playing banged up right now. So it's kind of just like part of what it's

like playing in the NBA playoffs. I talked about this in a bigger picture sense after Game one, But there are different types of playoff runs. Sometimes you're really healthy, and everyone shoots really well. You get favorable matchups and you just kick everyone's ass. And that's what happened last year, and they beat some really good teams along the way. I've seen a lot of people going revisionist history on

the Nuggets after last night. I think that's stupid. They they beat less a lesser version of this Timberwolves team last year handily. They beat Katie and Devin Booker handily. They beat Lebron James and Anthony Davis handily, They beat Jimmy Butler and Bamane Bio handily. So like, I'm not about to like go back and rewrite history on Denver. They're awesome. They just got punched in the mouth. This is their first bit of like real adversity and they're

not handling it well. And so again like there's not there's it's not gonna be smooth. It was never gonna be smooth. I talked about this before the playoff run. You're you're facing better teams this year. Not to mention the motivational shift, like all of these teams are pissed off, have a chip on their shoulder, really want to get to the mountaintop. You're on the mountaintop and they're coming for your spot, So of course they're gonna be playing harder.

They're gonna be bringing another level of physicality to the equation. Of course, they're like, there's obviously going to be a shift when you're the defending champion. I saw Adam Autas from DNVR tweeted this out last last night. I thought it was really fascinating. He was like Michael Malone at the beginning of the season talked about how winning the first time takes talent, repeating takes character, and he's right,

because it's always harder the second time around. And now it's going to be more about a different side of Denver's personality. We knew that they had all the talent in the world. We knew that they had the best player in the world. But what are they gonna do when shit's not going right? What are they gonna do when they're a little banged up. What are they gonna do when Jokic's jumper isn't as sharp as it was

last year? What are they gonna do when they face Minnesota, who, by the way, is probably a better team than any of the teams they faced last year, Right, what are they gonna do when the stakes are raised, when the difficulty goes up a level, how are they going to respond? This is where I want to get to Nicole Jokic. I said this to you guys after Jokic won the title last year. I'm a big believer in the trophy. The trophy is the only reason we do this, right.

But at the same time, with great power comes great responsibility. Lebron fans, A lot of Lebron fans don't like me, you know why, because like when you say things like you're the greatest basketball player of all time, which On himself has said, and so many of these so many of his fans strongly believe, and like, I held him to a different standard this year too, because I thought he was playing at a top five level going into

the postseason. And so with that comes me covering him and talking about him and analyzing his game from the perspective of being a guy in the running for best player of all time. Now I think he's second, but still same same standard, right Like when you're in that conversation, when you're one of those bona fide Mount Rushmore guys in NBA history, there is an expectation that comes from that.

And last night, in a must win game, when Jokic had the best matchups and when his when his team was falling apart at the seams, Jokic wasn't able to regain control of the situation. Now, there's a lot of basketball left. And here's the other thing too. Maybe Jokic doesn't care. There's been a level of indifference from him in general over the last year, even with his dominance, and maybe he doesn't care. And maybe if Aunt just kicks him off of his spot and pisses all over

his territory, he won't care. Maybe he'll just go back to Serbia and be happy and come back next season and try it again. But if he wants to be recognized as the perennial best player in the world, there is a standard and expectation that comes from that. And what that is is, you can't get your ass kicked to this extent. You have to show more fight. I've said consistently through the series. He has to look to

score more. Yes, there have been double teams, but there still are plenty of times where he's not being aggressive enough. There's a clip early in this game where he had Carl Towns in single coverage in the post, no double team, and he passed out of it for no reason. You are the guy that can save them. You're the one guy I said after Game one. If you're expecting Jamal Murray, with the best permmeter defender in the world, to flip this script, that's not going to happen. You have to

do it. You have to be the one that saves them. And you're the best player in the world. And I've come up here and said that you have your you have a sizeable gap between you and the second best player, which, by the way, I believe his climb in that. And if Ant beats this Denver team and he runs through and he wins the championship, like then he's got a really damn good claimt. But like he's got like there is pressure and expectation that comes from that. And again,

maybe Jokic doesn't care. Maybe he just doesn't care. But if he doesn't care and he gets his ass kicked in the series, then he's not the best basketball player in the world. Because the best basketball player in the world wouldn't let this happen to this extent. He would do more Jokic can do more. That's the bottom line. Of Course, this is hard. Of course he's he's getting double teamed and there's big dudes all around him. He

can do better. Like, here's the thing. When I was hesitant to refer to Jokic as the best player in the world, there was a very specific reason. Why do you guys, Remember I say, big, slow footed guys struggle to hang in transition and in defensive coverage situations, particularly dropped coverage. I was making videos last year of Jason Tatum cooking him in drop coverage and all these different things, and talking about how this is a little bit of

an issue. This is what he has to fix if he's going to be the best player in the world. Last year, in the postseason, he was very good defensively. This year he has been bad. Not just okay, not just down a level from last year. He's been bad. Anthony Davison. Anthony Davison and Lebron James barbecued him. They absolutely barbecued him. And now Minnesota and Anthony Edwards are doing the same thing. He is a traffic cone in

these drop coverages. They're going right around him. So like, even if we acknowledge the fact that your double teams are taking you out of your offense, which, by the way, there's some of that, but there's plenty of opportunities that Jokic is being too passive. Game one, in particular, way too pass came into this game four more turnovers in the first half. He literally has had a He had eleven turnovers in the first six quarters of this series. So I I do think he can do much better

on offense. But even if we write that off, you're getting barbecued on the other end of the floor. You are getting absolutely fried. So do something about it. Defend your defend your ground. You're the best player in the world. Own that. Defend it, show some fight like there's there's pressure and responsibility and expectation that comes with holding that title. It's a title like there are very There are a lot of things in the NBA big picture, things that

I don't care much about. An MVP whatever awards doesn't really matter all that much to me. All Star selections, all that, all Star MVPs, that kind of thing. There are things that really matter to me, and one of them is who's the best player in the world. Who having the title of the best basketball player in the world is an unbelievable honor. Look at the guys who

came before you. The guy who had that spot for for nine seasons from twenty twelve to twenty twenty, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant in the late two thousands and early twenty tens, Uh, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal, Michael Jordan. Like you are in a rare company of players in NBA history, and you got the spot for one year, and now someone's trying to kick you off of it, and you're like, talk to Jamal, I guess we'll see what happens in game three, Like there's there show some damn fight. I have big

expectations for Nicola jokicch in Game three. I want to see him go. I want to see him go, not like this. I want to see him go. I'm if I'm gonna go down, I'm going down swinging. I'm going down with you know, forty points on thirty two shots if I have to, and twenty three rebounds because I just started throwing cat around the gym. That's what I want to see from Nicola jokicch And by the way, that is a prerequisite of being an all time great. The bit Lebron James Game six, down three to two

going into Boston and dropping forty five. Steph Curry twenty twenty two, down two to one going into Boston. What he dropped forty three? Like, when your back is against the wall and shit is not in your favor, that is when you show who the best player in the world is. When it's easy is only part of it. Dominance is only part of it. I talked about this

earlier in this series. Those late Chicago Bulls teams in the late nineties, they were falling apart at the seams health wise, got Pippins, got a bad back, Dennis Rodmans leaving the team, and Michael Jordan's just like, I gotta figure out a way to get this done. That is part of the journey, is what do you do when it looks ugly? And Game two. Game two was the first time where it was like, must win. You're the guy with the advantages. You got to find a way

to make this happen. And what did you have? Sixteen points? That's just not gonna cut it. It's just not gonna cut it. And again like that, but before before yokch fans get mad at me. This is what this If whoever it is that has the best player in the world title on this show, that's the standard that I look at them through. If you're the best player in the world, there is a standard down expectation that comes with that. A couple of metrics before we move on.

Minnesota won the half court battle again, ninety two point one points per one hundred half court plays to seventy six point nine for Denver. They're now up one hundred to eighty nine for the series, so Minnesota's outclassing them in the half court again. Like I mentioned, one of the big things that's being overlooked for Minnesota is their offense has been awesome in transition. Minnesota twenty one points on nineteen possessions, Denver fifteen points on twenty one possessions.

I thought a big thing that I noticed there on film is them just getting sped up by ball pressure and over penetrating too much, especially early in the sessions. Jump shooting. Minnesota shot just like they did in Game one, one point one to two points per jump shot, Denver zero point eighty three points per jump shots. A rough shooting night as well, but again I believe those things are related. All right, guys, That is all I have for today. Is always as sincerely appreciate you guys for

supporting the show. We're gonna be back tonight live after the final buzzer of MAVs Thunder, I will see you guys. Then the volume