Hoops Tonight -Kevin Durant returns, LeBron James leads Lakers win, Warriors come back again

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Quick show, we're gonna be hitting two games from last night, the return of Kevin Durant so the Phoenix Suns in

a big win over red hot Minnesota Timberwolves team. Then we're gonna talk about the Los Angeles Lakers getting revenge on the Chicago Bulls, and then we're gonna go into a game from the previous night, the red hot Pelicans, winners of five in a row, going into Golden State getting up to a twenty point lead, but then, once again, as has been a recurring theme throughout this season, the Golden State Warriors somehow managed to get red hot in

the second half themselves and come back to win that game. And then, last but not least, I'm gonna give some thoughts on the latest straw poll, which has Janis' Lee way behind Jokichen Embiid down the stretch here of the MVP race. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribed to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore

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Under Hoops tonight, All right, let's talk some basketball. So Kevin Durant's reward for getting back onto the basketball court is he has to go up against one of the best perimeter defenders in the league this season, mister Jaden McDaniels, someone that I've had so much fun watching this year. There's been a lot of talk of his offensive development

and there's definitely some potential there. But make no mistake, Jade McDaniels has been one of the very best unball perimeter defenders this year, especially guarding and giving issues to NBA superstars. The local broadcast was referring to him to him as the seat belt last night, and I think he's just served and earned that nickname. It was it was a very tough matchup for Kevin Durant his first game back, and he ended up having a very uncharacteristic

poor shooting night. You know what's interesting with KD is so many of the players that I followed in my time cover in the Game of basketball are rhythm players, and so when they come back from an extended absence, you almost expect them to struggle for three or four games as they try to work their way back into

the flow and speed of NBA games. Lebron James, my personal favorite player, is someone like that, and even in his first matchup with the Chicago Bulls, even though he did a lot of good things, like you could tell the handle wasn't quite there. You could tell the shot wasn't quite there. That's pretty common, but interesting, interestingly enough,

Kevin Durant's never been that type of guy. He's the guy that can miss an extended period of time, and for whatever reason, he just naturally catches his rhythm the minute he steps back onto the court. Most famously, you guys might remember in the twenty nineteen finals, before his Achilles tear, he had like eleven points in the first quarter of that game and looked locked in with his handle and his jump shot. It's just kind of one of his unique superpowers. But Jade McDaniel's testament to him,

managed to throw off that trend. It was kind of an interesting combination of super aggressive and physical ball pressure which forced Kadie not only on his drives to attack the rim. But Katie, I've always talked about, is one of the best players in the league get working off

the ball as a scorer. So like he'll kind of work his man down to the block and kind of give him a little shove and then come down like a wide pin down, which is just an off ball screen and catch at like fifteen feet and go to work. But Jaden was doing such a good job of staying attached to him on all those actions as well as well as his ball screens that he was forcing him to curl around those, because it's kind of like you're making reads as the as the off ball player, Right,

I come off of that screen. If he's trailing behind me and I got space, I'm catching it. I'm shooting. But if he's trailing behind me and he's close to me, I want to keep him on that screen as long as possible. So I'm going to curl around the screen to give myself more opportunity and give my screen or more opportunity to flip the angle to try to stop him at some point as he's chasing me. Right, But if you can stay attached, then you have the opportunity

to apply back pressure. And Jade McDaniels has super long arms, and he was giving Katie issues as he would curl around those offball actions and get into the lane to try to rise up in that little ten fifteen foot area. Jaden was able to give him some issues with back pressure, just pressuring from behind and forcing him to change his release. You know, Kevin Durant, for as good as he is at everything else, I think he's made massive strides as

a playmaker. He's having one of his better defensive seasons of his career. Obviously when it comes up, pull up shooting and playmaking and pick and roll is at the absolute peak of his game. But if there's one thing in Kevin Durant's game that you can be a little nitpicky about, he does not like to attack the rim.

Compared to most of the big superstar wings that we have in the league, he does not apply rim pressure, and so when he's coming off of those curls and stuff, he's not looking to go all the way the rim. He's looking to pull up. That's where he's most comfortable. Even in the short short range like seven eight, nine to ten feet, he's looking to rise up and shoot

a jump shot. So that buys Jaden McDaniels an opportunity to get back into the play in a way that he might not be able to if Katie kept his downhill aggression to go towards the rim. But he did. He had a lot of success against Katie in this game. He started just two for eleven from the field, finished just five for eighteen. Most of Katie's success in this game actually came kind of in their ball screen system. They had some success popping him to the top of

the key. You know, classic case of he sets a ball screen and the dude who's guarding on the ball is trying to fight back into the play. But you know, Devin Booker or Chris Paul, whoever it is, is going downhill soever's guarded Katie's man is having to kind of contain them in the paint, and Katie pops out to

the three point line. That's where that's open there. You can really only guard that by switching, which is something Minnesota wasn't doing, and so he got some good looks there and I think he had two threes in this game. That was where he kind of had the most success. And you know, honestly, to Jane McDaniel's credit, I thought, Kate, you know, Katie is such a good decision maker, and this was an uncharacteristically bad game for Katie from the

standpoint of making decisions. When he would get the ball into his spots rather than moving it, he was kind of forcing it a little a bit. And I think I think Katie is so it's so unusual for him to have games like this that I think he handled it a little bit poorly. He's not your typical score that goes like hot night off night, hot night off night, like he is. He runs red hot all the time. His bad nights, he'll go ten for twenty two, you

know what I mean. So he's so like relentlessly and consistently efficient that I think I think that specific game kind of threw him off a little bit. I would just crumple it up and throw it out. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see a bad shooting game like that from Katie the rest of the season, even through the playoffs. Chris Paul, interestingly enough, because you know,

this is the thing with Minnesota. Anthony Edwards is going to take an assignment, Jade McDaniels is going to take an assignment, and those two guys are going to struggle. Devin Booker most of his success came against Minnesota's bench groups. Jade McDaniels obviously did his job. They kind of took those two guys not out of the equation, but severely limited them. But Chris Paul was the one who found himself coming off of those ball screens open a lot and he hit a lot of shots. I think he

was seven for fifteen in this game. He was the one who kind of found himself in the situations where he was able to score this physicality though, because like Aunton, Jaden really brought the physicality from the opening tip. And it kind of came back to bite Minnesota because in that third quarter they picked up a bunch of fouls early and then they were in the penalty the whole third quarter. Phoenix ended up shooting thirteen free throws in

the quarter. That's how they turned a ten point deficit to a seven point lead in that quarter. For the game, they had a twenty seven to twelve free throw advantage. I wonder if Devin Booker and Monty Williams went to the presser after and argued about how they got unfair treatment in a positive way. Sorry, no shade necessarily towards the Phoenix suns. I just you guys, just know I hate when people complained about officiating. It's like one of

my big pet peeves, my biggest concern with Phoenix. A few times that I've watched them, this is the fourth game we've seen them with KD. They're a little thin. You can push them around physicality. We saw that a little bit, and then they're not going to win the rim pressure battle. And I'm not talking about points in the paint necessarily, because points in the paint is a

product of a bunch of different things. Like, for instance, the Warriors are not a team that drives to the basket really ever, but they do get a lot of paint points by virtue of attention that they're guards garner away from the rim, pulling everything, pulling all the bigs out, which actually creates open opportunities for guys like Draymond and

Kevon Looney's slipping to the rim right. Well, when it comes to actual driving rim pressure, I look at that as a different type of thing that doesn't necessarily manifest in points in the paint. Often it actually manifests in higher quality three point shots because when you drive the ball to the rim relentlessly, you collapse the defense. That's when you get those really high quality stand still, squared up, balanced, easy catch and shoot threes on the week side of

the floor when you've sucked in those help defenders. And you know the thing is is, you know, before Kad came, the Suns were a heavy pull up jump shooting team. They were twenty nine or excuse me second in the NBA and pull up jump shots attempted per game, and then they added Kad to the roster, who's one of the most you know, prolific pull up jump shooters in the league. And so the problem is is it's kind

of similar to the Brooklyn thing. They just rely heavily on guys knocking down tough, contested pull up jump shots and when they go in, everyone's gonna be helpless. And to be honest, it has worked really well since Katie started playing with the Suns. But the reality is is in the postseason there will be Knights when that doesn't work. And where are your wide open catch and shoot threes. Where are your driving layups and free throw free throw

attempts that you're gonna get from that rim pressure. Who's gonna be the guy that does that for Phoenix Because Kevin's driving to pull up, but Devin Booker's driving to pull up, and Chris Paul's driving to pull up. And I think that something to keep an eye on in this postseason run. But that said, early returns Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul and DeAndre Eton lineups are plus twenty nine point eight points per one hundred possessions in

one hundred and fifty four possessions. Again, super small sample size, only four games, but four now and whooping everybody's asked when those four guys are on the floor. That was a big part of why I talked about how terrified I am of this Phoenix Suns team, especially in the

long run. The later they get into the postseason, they're going to figure out the specific lineups and guys that they can plug in that make it work well enough that the longer this postseason run goes, the scarier Phoenix gets. But next year, forget about it, Like those guys are gonna be insane, especially if they can bolster with just one or two good you know, higher level defensive players with like the mid level exception and maybe a trade here there one last note of Minnesota. I love that

team so much. I know I've talked about this a lot on that show, but that combination of perimeter defense and downhill force from Anthony Edwards with Rudy Gobert protecting the back line is super interesting to me, and I've but that said, like I there's obviously a ceiling on this for right now. They just continually, game after game run into issues in the late portions of the game, like late third, late fourth, because of the fact that

they just can't score in the half courts. There's just not enough offensive skill on the floor when you have Rudy Gobert, when you have Kyle Anderson, when you have Jade McDaniels, and Jay McDaniels has had some scoring nights he has, but against elite set half court defenses, he is a below average offensive player. So is Kyle Anderson, so is Rudy Gobert. That's just a lot on Mike Conley and Anthony Edwards to create shots or Karl Anthony

Towns if he's out there. And when you go with Karl Anthony Towns, you either have to go with two bigs, which then messes up your transition defense and messes up your ability to cover ground in rotation because you're too slow, or you take Gobert off the flour and put Cadet center and then your defense falls to parts falls apart.

So they definitely have to figure out those pieces on the margin, like I was talking about, But that fundamental core of Anthony Edwards, Jade McDaniels, and Rudy Gobert continues to be one of the most exciting young cores in the league in my opinion. Let's move on to Lakers Bulls. So what did I say after the last Lakers Bulls game. I said that I said that there was a super unaggressive Anthony Davis, which is super uncharacteristic. He had great

matchups all game long, only took eight shots. I said that Chicago shot making was off the charts. They were, you know, the worst team in the league and making three point shots in a game. They were averaging like ten Maye threes a game, which was literally dead last in the league, and they made like fourteen against the Lakers and shot almost fifty percent in the Sunday game. So there was some shot making stuff that was off

the charts for Chicago. And then they the guards. The Laker guards, as they've done since the deadline, really struggled with Chicago's ball pressure and they had a million turnovers in that Sunday game. They were able to flip the script in all three of those areas in this game, and I predicted that they would go into Chicago and win by double digits on Wednesday, and thankfully the Lakers made me look smart. That could have gone south with some of those bench lineups that we saw, which we're

gonna get to La Fans. I do want to spend some time talking about those all bench groups, but let's talk a little bit about the those specific reversals of fortune there. So, first of all, the Lakers did just bring a better defensive effort on Sunday. They could not contain the basketball to save their lives. There was just NonStop downhill pressure from guys like Zach Levine and Kobe White and even Demarta rozen to a certain extent in this game from the opening tip. They just did a

much better job of containing the basketball. And again, like the Lakers play guy actually had a little statement that I thought kind of colored this concept in a really good way. He called it leveling out the ball handlers. But I've talked about this before, but when a straight line drive occurs, like when he just absolutely toasts the perimeter defender and he's downhill with force, it takes hard help, like guys have to fly into the lane to stop.

That compromises your defense because guys don't even know which guy should help because it's such a compromising drive. Now there's open shooters, you kick to the shooter. Now that guy's driving, and it just becomes an absolute nightmare. But if instead of a straight line drive, you level that drive out so instead of him going directly to the basket, he's fighting past your shoulder and he's taken like a banana route kind of wide, that is what makes it

so that he never gets that true downhill acceleration. And it makes it so your help defenders can dig from the perimeter and just kind of lungeon and stick a hand out, but stay with their man as opposed to having to abandon their man to help in the paint. That all of a sudden makes it so that those kickout passes aren't nearly as open. Maybe a shooter has to relocate, or you have to throw a looping pass. Now that's an easier close out. It just prevents your

defense from going into those compromising rotation situations. And in this game, just fundamentally from the start, they just did a much better job of containing all their ball handlers, which lowered the quality of Chicago's three point looks and lowered the quality of the pull up shots the guys like Zach Levine into Marda Rosen goot. Just like that, Chicago started to look like Chicago again. They shot, you know,

in the twenties from three. They only made nine of them in the game to de rose In and Levine, They're off. The dribble shop making went down a level from where it was on Sunday. They were able to flip that script now on the other end of the floor,

you know it was. It's a really smart adjustment because you know, there's no reason to go against ball pressure for no reason at all, Like, like you don't get bonus points by giving the ball to your point guard and having him bring it up against an on ball defender. You just have to get the ball across half court

right and most importantly, that's just unnecessary fatigue. I see this all the time, and when I'm playing here in town, like a lot of teams will try to put like smaller guards on me to try to pressure the basketball, and it's like, yeah, I could bring it up, but why would why Like what matter of pride is that?

For Like, I'll typically just find the player on my team that's being guarded by the worst on ball defender or the laziest guy, and I'll be like, hey, bring the ball up, and then I'll run down and if this little guy is gonna be on me, I'm gonna post him up and then I'm just going to demand the basketball and then I'll be able to use my physical advantages against him without having to try to drip in front of him for no reason at all. Even if I'm capable of that, it's just a waste of

effort and it opens up risk that's unnecessary. What did the Lakers do from the opening tip of this game? Instead of having Austin Reeves and bring the ball up against Patrick Beverley or D'Angelo Russell bring the ball up against ball pressure, instead of even having Lebron bring the ball up against Alex Caruso, who's a great ball pressure guard, they just threw the ball to Anthony Davis, and Anthony Davis brought the ball to flour And where was Vussovich.

Russovich is never guarding guys full court. He's sitting all the way back in the paint. So they didn't even have to worry about Chicago's ball pressure because ad was just bringing the ball up the floor. And then from the opening tip, it was clear that their intention was to run through the post with Lebron James and Anthony Davis, which is the way that this team should be run. And they would have won by forty in this game if they didn't get away from it for several stretches,

which we'll get two in a minute. But they ran up to the wing, they inbounded the ball or made the post entry to Lebron James, and Lebron would go to work on Alex Cruso and he was either drawing double teams to get the team into rotation from wide open threes, or he was getting to the rim, and then they'd flip that and they'd run the same thing through Anthony Davis, and they butchered Chicago in the post.

In this game. They had twenty post ups for twenty two points in shooting possessions and countless more opportunities where they put Chicago in rotation and were able to play driving kick basketball out of that, compared to Chicago who had just six post ups for just four points. So that was a big swing factor in this game. So the Lakers ended up going up big early and then almost immediately Chicago brought. I think they went on like a twenty seven to five run spanning the late first

early second quarters. And the big problem there was, not only did Darvin Ham not stagger Lebron James and Anthony Davis properly. So you had this stretch to end the first quarter, We're both Lebron and Ad are off the floor, which is inexplicable. But I didn't think that was nearly as bad as the staggering of the rest of the group. So think of it like this, who were the five best players on the Lakers. I would argue it's Lebron James,

Anthony Davis, Austin Reeves, Deangela Russell, and Dennis Schroeder. I think those are the five best overall players on the Lakers, especially when it comes to offensive initiation. That bench group that Darvin Ham went with not just ending the ending the first quarter, but even in the early second it was just Dennis Schroeder with a bunch of guys or be like Anthony Davis and Dennis Schroder was just some guys like off the bench. And the problem there is

when you this is why staggering is so important. I talk a lot about the responsibilities on a basketball court that a five man unit has to fill. There's ball handling responsibilities, there's off ball spacing responsibilities, there is rim like lob threat responsibilities, there's guys who can cut and screen.

That that's all on the offensive end, but then on the defensive end, there's like rim protection, perimeter defense, wing defense, all those lock and trail, all those different things, right, and so role players thrive at certain things right, Like role players can guard, role players can lock and trail. Role players can knock down spot up shots. Role players can you know, they can cut to the basket or set a good screen, But what they can't do is

consistently create high quality shots. And so what's so when you have five guys like that, there's never a reason to have four of them on the bench and just one out there. All you're doing there is you're making it so that fewer of the important responsibilities are filled. So all of a sudden, small roles that role players can thrive in become big roles that role players are destined to fail in. I talk about this concept all the time on this show. When you create small achievable roles,

role players will knock them out of the park. When you ask them to do more than what they're good at, they will trip and stumble and fall over themselves because that's not what they're meant to do on a basketball court. And so if you stagger properly, you should always have at least two of those five guys on the floor at any given moment. If it's Anthony Davis and Dennis Schroeder, that's enough shot creation and rim protection and on ball defense to make it so that the other three guys

have small responsibilities that they can succeed in. Take Anthony Davis off that floor all of a sudden on defense, Chicago can really key in on Dennis Schroeder on those ball screens. Now you've got four guys that are needing to create offense that aren't offensive creators, and that's when

you see things start to fall apart. And so I just disagreed with that specific staggering concept from Darvin Ham about too often he kept too many of his best players off the floor, and that was a huge part of how the starters were so dominant in this game. But the bench groups in both the first half and the second half allowed the lead to shrink several times. That said, every single time the Lakers were able to

respond and close the deal. Lebron was amazing to start the fourth quarter, Anthony Davis was amazing to end the fourth quarter. Deans La Russell made some plays to the Lakers look fantastic. The other example where where you'll see this that Denver Yoka's MVP case thing where everyone's like, oh, there's so much better when Yoka is on the floor versus when he's off. A big part of that is

they don't stagger. They basically do line shifts. They have a full starter group and they have a full bench group, and so of course their full bench group goes out there with you know, Reggie Jackson and Jeff Green and Zeke Naji and Christian Brown, and they lose because there's just a bunch of guys that aren't capable of that. Whereas if you staggered it more, then you'd have more lineups that had one of Jamal Murray or Nikola Yokis or Michael Porter Jr. In with some of those bench guys.

Then all of a sudden, those role players would have smaller roles and they'd have a better chance of succeeding, but instead they don't and what we end up having and it's it's I'm not saying it's intentional for the MVP case, but sometimes it feels like that because as a result, you've got these ridiculous plus minus numbers for the Denver starters and then awful plus minus numbers for the Denver bench, which inflates the feeling of value when really what it is is just really bad strategy from

Mike Malone, like you need to find a way to give your bench unit's a chance by sacrificing something from

that starting group. An easy way to do it from the Lakers perspective, for instance, is like start with the Angelo Russell, Osta Reeves, Lebron, Jared Vanderbilt, and Anthony Davis, and then about six minute into the game, like right at that first time out, take D'Angel Russell out and Lebron and bringing Malik Beasley or bringing Dennis Schroeder and bringing Ruey Hatchmura, and then you go with this group that has Anthony Davis and Austin Reeves and Dennis Schroeder.

That group's got a good chance. They go for several minutes, Anthony Davis checks out at the nine minute mark. Then you bring Lebron back in right, like if you stagger it, Like, yeah, you're not gonna have those amazing plus minus numbers with your starters just playing twenty minutes a night and kicking everyone's ass. But you'll have success in every phase of

the game. And then it helps with rhythm. When you have five really good players in one lineup, you're gonna have like you're gonna have even in a dominant like that first shift for the Lakers. I think D'Angel Russell's he had like one layup in kind of like in a semi transition possession, and then he shot a catch and shoot three on the left wing that he missed, but that was it. Like so Dangel Russell kind of got squeezed out of that lineup in the first shift.

Now he had his moments later on, but he got squeezed out of that line up in the first shift. That's gonna happen in almost every shift because there's five guys, they can't all have the basketball, right And so by staggering more, you give D'Angel Russell more minutes with Lebron off the floor, or more minutes without Austin Reeves or without or without Anthony Davis. In those groups, he has more opportunity to be more aggressive, which helps him get

his rhythm. That's why you stagger. You stagger so you give everybody the best opportunity not only to succeed in all phases of the game, but to have more opportunities to be aggressive. I thought Lebron played a really good all around game so far. The Lakers. I had the numbers. I tweeted them out yesterday, so I might be misremembering this, but I believe they're two games now. The Lakers are plus twenty seven when Lebron James is on the floor

and minus twenty six when he's off the floor. Now, again, some of that is that staggering thing we were talking about, but also I think Lebron's played well. He's playing straight up old man style. He did have two really nice hard drives to the rim there the second half, a crossover move on Patrick or on I think it was on Patrick Williams, but he had a really nice crossover mover ut it leap. He had another one where he

got downhill and someone shoved him in the back. He didn't get a call but everything else with savvy stuff, scoring out of the post, cutting the basket. He was active on the offensive glass in this game. He had a really nifty kind of coming along the baseline, offensive rebound put back. He just just savvy old man. Game got to twenty five points. But then Anthony Davis finally brought the aggression that he didn't bring on Sunday. Again.

I was very critical of him on Sunday because he had he had the best matchups all game long, but while the guards were struggling with the ball pressure guards for Chicago and Lebron, James wasn't quite himself. Although I thought he actually played okay in the Sunday game as well, this game, Anthony Davis brought the aggression and guess what, nobody can guard him? Thirty eight and ten with four assists,

two blocks. You know, That's why it gets so critical of Anthony Davis, like like, there's no excuse for taking eight shots in a must win game when we all know what happens when you take twenty shots against the same team, like it. It was an inexcusable performance on Sunday, especially under the circumstances. That's why I get so frustrated with Anthony Davis from time to time. The last thing I wanted to talk about with the Lakers is this

idea of running through their guards versus their bigs. One of the big things that I thought really caused issues in this Chicago game, this one last night, where Chicago is able to shrink the lead. I thought a big driving force behind that was just the simple fact that too often guards are looking for their own shot versus trying to get the ball to Anthony Davis and Lebron. It made sense when Lebron was out because Anthony Davis

can be inconsistent as an on ball creator. So like some nights you throw it to him and at works, some nights you don't, And so getting him into pick and roll is another way to keep him involved in the offense. Right But with Lebron out there, there's so much shot creation just out of the post with Lebron, James and Anthony Davis, that like, those two guys need to be the focal point of the offense, and way too often they get away from that and run things

through the guards. And the guards are good players, but they're at their best when they operate with an advantage and when they're attacking set defenses in the half court, they're not superstars, and so they're going to be inconsistent, whereas Lebron James and Anthony Davis will be more consistent. That's why you've got to continue to run the offense through them. I disagreed with that. From a strategic standpoint, Lakers control their destiny now. They're tied in the lost

column with Minnesota. They play them on Friday, So if they win that game, they won't have the tiebreaker with Minnesota, but they'll be one game up on them, and they'll control their destiny effectively down the stretch of the season. But give them a great chance to end up with at least the seventh seed. The seventh seed, to me, is like the goal for the Lakers, because I think the Lakers can beat Denver, but I don't I wouldn't

want to face them in the first round. So getting that seventh seed gives you a home game against probably Minnesota and the Plan, and if you win that game, then you get to play Memphis, which is a matchup I really like for the Lakers because they thrive in the paint, and the Lakers have Anthony Davis, which is just fundamentally going to disrupt what Memphis likes to do. And they have a lot of shooters that Lakers can ignore and clogged the paint, which is Darvin Hamm's favorite

defensive strategy. I really like the Memphis matchup for the Lakers. Got to get to the seven seed. To do that, gotta beat Minnesota on Friday in order to accomplish that. It'll be a really interesting matchup. It's going to be in Minnesota, so the crowd's going to be crazy. Minnesota's gonna see it is like, if we win this, we effectively get the seventh seed, because then they'll be a game up on the Lakers, and they have the tiebreakers, so it's effectively a two game lead at that point.

So at that it's just vitally important that the Lakers win that game, and it's vitally important that the Wolves win that game, which should make it an Altimer. And we are going to be covering that game on Saturday morning, by the way, with the rest of the Thursday and Fridays late. All right, quickly, before we get out of here, let's talk some Warriors Pelicans. I'm not gonna spend too long on this game. I did do another interview with the guys at at the game in San Francisco. You

can find that on their YouTube channel. Yesterday. The Warriors really struggled with New Orleans length in this game. It's funny because I talked about the different types of defenders. We get obsessed with wings a lot, but there's like point of attack defenders, and then there's like skinny wings,

and then there's power wings. I've been talking a lot about this concept, but like what's interesting is when you have too many skinny lanky wings, sometimes you can really struggle to defend on the perimeter because skinny lanky wings really struggle to navigate ball screens and off ball screens. They're they're big targets and fighting through screens as a game of physicality, you need to be strong, you need to be active with your hands. It's like swim moves.

It's like being a defensive end. You're trying to fight past that left tackle, and it's a very physical game to get over those ball screens and off ball screens. So really skinny thin players who are also big targets for screens, they typically struggle to get around screens but they're amazing in passing lanes and when they stick their arms up, if you're not paying attention, you can throw the ball away. And the Warriors were just straight up

ridiculously sloppy with the basketball in the first half. I think they had fourteen turnovers in the first half. Is a big part of how they got down by twenty points in this game. I was frustrated watching it because I'm sitting there thinking, like, man, if they can just take care of the basketball, they're gonna be fine, because Steph is getting open all the time, Like like, whether it was c J mccon, whether it was IRB Jones, whether it was Trey Murphy, whether it was Brandon Ingram,

whoever it was that was getting switched onto Steph. They were they were slow with their switches getting out on Steff and then he was running them through the ringer on these screens and getting wide open looks compared to what Steph usually gets right, And so I was like, if they could just take care of the basketball, things will be fine. And they ended up finally taking care of the basketball in the second half. They had just five turnovers. There were a couple of big plays in

the early third quarter that I thought ignited them. Dante DiVincenzo on a step missed three on the right wing, another wide open shot. Again, if you just go look at Stef's shots in this game, you just got great looks. But Dante gets a dunk and Stave mean. Gundy actually had a really interesting take on the broadcast after that that you guys might remember. He basically said, you know, everyone talks and people be like, come on, guys, let's get going. They'll get in a huddle to scream at

each other to do all those things. But he's like, nothing inspires a team like making a play that gives your team a boost that will then become a momentum that translates through the rest of the roster. And I under agree, like, sometimes whether it's a momentum, like sometimes it's just like your best player getting downhill and dunking on somebody is a good way to just kind of like bring a certain level of confidence to the rest of the roster. But role players making hustle plays as

another big part of that. Like steph misses a three, that's a negative play. Long threes. Long miss threes typically lead to runouts for dunks or transition plays. Nope, someone forgot to box out Dante DiVincenzo, his relentless offensive rebounding effort which he's brought all season long. He gets a tip dunk, it ignites the Warriors. I thought kevn Looney also in that third quarter, just attacking the offensive glass

inspired the Warriors to pick things up defensively. Then they started to get stops, Steph Curry started to finally get going again. Just look at Steph Curry's makes in this game, just constantly getting guys like IRB Jones caught on screens because they're too big, they're too lanky, and it's just a great example of how you need more defensive versatility. Like it doesn't matter if you have Herb Jones, Trey

Murphy and brandon Ingram, if CJ. McCollum is out there and you don't actually have a guy who specializes in point of attack defense. Ideally, what you'd want is you want Herb Jones on a wing, and you'd want brandon Ingram on someone like like you'd want Herb Jones, brandon Ingram and Trey Murphy on your Andrew Wiggins. And you're Dante DiVincenzo and you're Clay Thompson because they're less quick with the basketball in terms of onball creation or flying

off of screens. And then you have a bulldog, someone who is shorter, better center of gravity, that's lower to the ground, stronger, who can fight like hell through screens. That's the kind of guy you want on Steph Curry. And so it's just a classic example of like when you're building a defensive roster. Yeah, wings might be the most valuable, but you can't just have wings. You've got to have guys that can guard on the perimeter. They couldn't do that to see j McCollum, he'd get barbecued.

So they ended up going with Herb Joe, and he struggled to navigate screens. There's your problem. You've got to have somebody out there that specializes in guarding on the perimeter against guards navigating through screens. But the Warriors completely dominated the second half and they won comfortably. Jordan Poole had another good game. He's in a good groove right now.

Jonathan Cominga, I thought, I've played another really nice game, kind of slotting into that Andrew Wiggins role, and I think they have a good chance to end up with the five seed. It's funny because I said this on the radio yesterday, but there's kind of like two ways

to look at this. Like there's the undeniable question mark, which is like, hey, if they don't have Wiggins, can they beat the best teams in the league, And genuinely, right now, I don't think so, and I would imagine most Warriors fans would agree, But like, if you're gonna beat the best of the best in this league, you're gonna need your second best player, and so Andrew Wiggins is kind of this big question mark. But I'm very positive as it pertains to where they land in the

standings right now. The Clippers have a tough schedule here down the stretch and they're only a game back. The Warriors are only in a game back of them. So I think there's a good chance that the Warriors end up with the five seed, and I think they're comfortable

in good position for the sixth seed. But I think the five seeds there for the taking, and I actually really like their matchup with Phoenix, So for the Suns, for the Warrior's sake, I think trying to get into that matchup with Phoenix in that five four is your best possible spot. You're one of the biggest factors there is just what I was talking about, Like the Suns

have awful point of attack defense. That's a great way to get Steph Curry and Clay Thompson good looks with the way that their system is because who cares about Kevin Durant protecting the rim? Who cares about demandre and protecting the rim? It's really just about can Stephan, Clay and those guys shake free of their guards, which I think they're going to be able to do, all right. Last note before we get out of your Hoannis on

the straw pole. So Tim Bontemp's released a straw pole, and basically it's got a slight edge to Mbid right now, very slight. I want to say, it's like by two aggregate points and yokag is in second, but then there's a big gap before you get down at Jannis, and I just think this is insane because who's the best player in the league. Yannis clearly right, better defensive player than both Embiid and Yokichum. Who's the best offensive player

from that group? Yeah, slight nod the Yokis probably, but then like like Embiad and Yannis are right there with him, who's got the best team in the league? The Bucks by far. They're what two and a half games up on or two games two and a half games up on the field in that first first place, first overall seed.

The Bucks have won seventy five percent of their games when Yannis plays, The Nuggets of only won seventy two percent of their games when Yokis plays, and the Sixers have only won sixty six percent of their games when Embiad plays. I just to me, it's so clearly honest, like it's close, but it's the honest. He's better than the other two guys both at basketball and with the um um playoff resume, right Like he's got that championship pedigree.

We know his game translates to the postseason better than the other two guys to do, and he's just done more within this season the impact winning. I just it's to me, the voters are overthinking this. They've been overthinking it for decades, but this is especially agree just example that like Embiad's case is based purely on narrative, he

clearly has the worst case of the three. In my opinion, Nickel Yokich, it's based entirely on advanced metrics and inflated on off numbers that are perpetuated by Mike Malone's rotations. Jannis is just a better player, and I'm not going to punish him just because the Bucks are a little bit better of a team that float the situation better when Yannis is off the floor. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. We're gonna be back later tonight Live with Colin Coward after the final buzzer of

Celtics Bucks. Keep an eye on Twitter feed. I'll let you guys know when that shows about to start. As always, I appreciate you guys, and I'll see you later tonight.