Hoops Tonight - LeBron James game-winner lifts Lakers in OT, Steph Curry & Warriors win vs. Thunder

And then the Golden State Warriors, after a disaster class in the first half defensively, put together a masterclass in the second half defensively to notch a much needed win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. We're gonna be breaking down those two games. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribed to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss

any show. Announce spins and for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish. Don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight. All right, let's talk some basketball. So this is a really weird game for the Lakers on a bunch of different levels. First of all, it's the last game of a long

road trip. This is just a reality of basketball. When you're away from your family for a long time and you've got a flight home that evening, it's just really hard to get focused on the game at hand when you're really just thinking about getting on the team plane and going home to see your wife and to see your kids and stuff. Like the Lakers broadcast was actually

directly saying this during the game. They're like, oh, the Lakers are clearly thinking about the team plane, and they did just about everything they needed to do to get there. They were up ten when a minute and forty five seconds left, but then then they ended up blowing it and sending it to ot. But it was a weird game. I mean, the Utah Jazz again, they're not very talented. That's just a reality. Kelly Olinok was the only starter from the season opener against the Denver Nuggets who actually

played in this game. So you've got to remember that even though they like even though they are well coached and they play hard, and they got athleticism, and they've got little matchup things that can cause you problems. Pick and pop bigs have caused the Lakers problems throughout this entire season just because of the way Darvin Haam likes

to keep Anthony Davis around the rim. There were matchup things there, But the reality is is that there's just it's the Utah Jazz missing a bunch of guys, and it's gonna be hard to get your team fired up for even in a must win situation on the last game of a road trip against a team like the Utah Jazz. So they ended up in a little bit of trouble. But I'm honestly impressed by the way the Lakers regained control in the overtime period because it was it was a disaster. They blew the ten point lead

going into ot. Then on the jump ball, they lose track of Kelly Olinik. He steals the tip, ends up running down the other way and getting an and one, and suddenly it's one twenty seven, one twenty four, and the Utah crowd is just crazy and it just feels like things have gone off the tracks, but they regained control. Lebron James goes down it hits the three and ties the game. Anthony Davis had kind of a rough a rough end of that game from an offensive perspective with

his jump shot and scoring around the rim. He also missed two free throws, but he just what I always say, when your skill stuff isn't working, find a way to impact the game with your athleticism. There was a pivotal play at the end of this game or an OT where Lebron missed a little jump shot from the left elbow. Anthony Davis came flying in for the offensive rebound and hit Lebron James cutting down the lane. He tried to dunk on Kelly Olnik and got rim stuff, but he

got the foul. Then Lebron made both free throws. That was actually a lead changing play at the end of OT. So Anthony Davis, again just with his athleticism, found a way to make a play that impacted the game. And then I will say, down the entire fourth quarter in overtime, with all the disaster going on for the Lakers defensively, Anthony Davis was phenomenal at the rim, deterring shots and blocking shots. But then like Austin Reeves had a big play.

It was one twenty eight. I think it was Kelly Olinok had a picking pop three to put them up by three. I think it was one thirty two to one twenty nine if I remember correctly. And again crowd going crazy. Only a couple of minutes left, and Austin Reeves just goes down the left side of the floor, catches a quick ball screen, goes to the elbow and knocks down like a seventeen foot jump shot early in

the shot clock. How many guys have the confidence with Lebron James and Anthony Davis on the floor in ot of a must win game that early in the shot clock to rise up and knock down a shot. I thought that was a great indicator of Austin's overall confidence, and I think that bodes well for him potentially thriving under the playoff stage. In the playoff lights, he had twenty eight points on thirteen shots in this game and

was a plus ten. And then at the end of the game, despite what I thought was a tricky decision from Darvin Ham subbing Jared Vanderbilt, in cold off the bench to guard Taylor Horton Tucker again. Dennis Schroder had Taylor Horton Tucker locked up, and to me, it was an example of overcoaching, like he's thinking, oh, I'm gonna take Austin out and I'm gonna put Jared Vanderbilt in,

so it's a better defensive lineup. But then he also put Jared Vanderbilt on the ball on Taylor, even though he was obviously going to be the guy to go to work. Then here's the thing. When you're sitting on the bench for what probably was about fifteen minutes of real time, you're gonna get cold. And he stepped out on the floor and he wasn't moving as well as he was earlier in the game, and he immediately got dusted to the basket and they ended up having to foul.

Taylor goes one for two from the line, and then Lebron James, after getting a great look at the end of regulation and smoking a left handed layup, goes right back at O'Shea Baji with a nasty spin move and then jumps into Damian Jones's chest and gets that right arm out there and makes the layup. This time it was a big play in a couple of different levels.

Not only did he give the Lakers the lead, but he gave the Lakers the lead with like twenty eight seconds on the shot clocks, So the Utah Jazz, even if they score or there was a guarantee that the

Lakers would have a chance to win the game. At the end, there's a big time, quick, smart move from Lebron James and then Dennis Schroeder matched up back with Taylor Horton Tucker where he belonged on the previous possession, forced him into an extremely difficult one legged fade away off the left elbow that he missed, and the Lakers ended up winning. So all of that chaos, all of that nastiness and ends up in the Lakers getting the win that we expected at the beginning of the night.

You know, the glass half empty way to look at it is, man, you had to waste all that energy getting the win. Like there's no doubt that the Lakers were playing down to their competition. Anybody who watches that game would feel that way. But it's unfortunate when you have to spend thirty eight minutes from Lebron in forty two minutes from Anthony Davis on the front end of a back to back. So that's like the glass half

empty way of looking at it. But I'm gonna go optimistic and I'm gonna say, hey, you got a big Lebron moment. I think he finished with like thirty seven points in this game, if I remember correctly, hit what effectively amounted to the game winner. He hit massive shots in ot including that three that took away the Kelly olinok and one to start to start the overtime period. The way I look at it, like, you need Lebron James at a superstar level to have any chance of

winning the championship this year. You might be able to upset one of these flawed Western Conference teams or two of them, but whatever the best Western Conference team at the end of the day in the Western Conference finals, or whoever comes out of the Eastern Conference, you need Lebron James and Anthony Davis at a superstar level to win.

And so I looked at it as a big confidence boosting moment for Lebron James at the end of that game to make all the plays that brought them home again, even just knocking down two clutch free throws in the final minute that put the Lakers up one All in all, I'm gonna look at it positively despite the disappointment of yet another late game collapse. You think the Lakers would have learned their lesson by now. But here's the deal.

We're heading into a back to back against the Clippers for the Lakers, and it's arguably the most important regular season game of the season because depending on who wins, so many different things get jockey to round. And there's this other big problem where everyone's paranoid about potentially playing

the Phoenix Suns in the first round. But at the same time, it's a three way tie right now, and so like, there's just so many different ways it could go that even if you wanted to jockey yourself into a certain position, there's no guarantee that you'll end up there with so many other elements that are outside of your control. And like, look, ideally, yeah, ideally, for the Lakers, you'd prefer to not play the Phoenix in the first round. First of all, I like the way Phoenix. I like

the way the Lakers match up with Phoenix. The Phoenix Suns are a bad point of attack. Defense team in my opinion, and the Lakers are a great pick and roll team. I like the idea of Lebron James and Anthony Davis battling with Kevin Durant and DeAndre Ayton on

the front line all series long. Darvinham loves to ignore non shooters, and I think for most of that series they're gonna have to go with guys like they're gonna have to go with some sort of point of attack defensive player in that at fifth starter position, and it's gonna be somebody that they don't have to guard. It's gonna be someone like a Tory Craig that they're gonna

be helping off of the entire game. Right, So I like that matchup for the Lakers, But with all of the shot making with Kevin Durant, with all the shot making with Devin Booker, with what Chris Paul is going to do with the defensive matchup that he has, I'd prefer it for the Laker's sake if Lebron James was

in a better groove. So ideally you face him in the second third round, where you have an extra three weeks from now for Lebron James to build his conditioning to get in that gym and work on his ball handling and his shooting. He was three for ten from three again tonight. Ideally you want him in a peak offensive position for that series. I get that, but there's also only one other seat available, and that's the sixth seat, because the play in tournament is not worth the risk

to avoid the suns. There's too much variation, Like the Lakers are a bad three point shooting team that can go ice colds sometimes times. I mean, they've gotten a lot better since the deadline, but they can go really cold from three sometimes. So that's a variance piece that

can get you beat. In a playing game, Anthony Davis is the type of guy that can go hot and cold, you know, and have a game where he takes twenty five shots, and then have a game where he takes eight shots, And that can directly affect a single game sample like a playing game. And what if you lose the first one and then suddenly you're in a must win game and it's a team like the Oklahoma City's thunder and Gildas Alexander goes off for forty five points and you lose and you go home. If you don't

believe that's a risk. Just ask the Golden State Warriors from twenty twenty one. They were clicking going into the playoffs. They had won fifteen of their last twenty games. Everything was working for them, and then they got into the play in tournament, lost to the Lakers on a game winning three from Lebron James, and caught a bad matchup against an Memphis Grizzlies team and loss. So the play in tournament is not worth the risk. The five seed gives you the Sun, and there's no way to guarantee

you'll get the sixth seed. There's just too many moving parts, too many complications in the tiebreaker. So the clear answer here is go beat the Clippers tomorrow. You control your own destiny. Try to win every game. If you lose one of those games and you end up with the sixth seed, then great. But if you win out and you face the Suns, so be it. Any of that is better than having to deal with the play in tournament and all the variants that comes into play in

that situation. So if you're up to me, I would play everyone tomorrow. And then the other big part of it you gotta think of it is like, okay, yeah, it's back to back, Lebron and ad just combined to play eighty minutes. But if you don't go to the play in tournament, you finish the game on Sunday against the Jazz, which, by the way, if things break right, you might be locked into a seed and not have

to play that game. Beat the Clippers, beat the Suns, you might not have to play against the Jazz, in which case you can take Sturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and maybe even Saturday off. That's eight consecutive days for you to rest your guys and put in new sets and things in practice and to work out those details. Or if you have to play against the Jazz, you're

guaranteed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday off. So to me, it's a no brainer, like, yeah, ideally you don't want to play the Suns, but don't play with the basketball gods. Like trying to dodge somebody is effectively signing up for bad karma in my opinion, And most importantly, there's no version of this scenario where you get to just easily jerry rig yourself to a matchup that you like too much is up in the air. Go in the games.

All right, let's move on to Thunder. Warriors really rough start defensively in this game. They give seventy nine points in the first half. Point of attack. Defense was a massive problem for the Warriors in the first half, which we're gonna get to in a minute, because I thought it led to a very important adjustment from Steve Kerr in the second half of this game. Defense is vitally important to the Warriors, Like it's just it's a non starter for them to try to win any other way.

They've never won without defending an extremely high level. The same can be said for every champion in NBA history. That's part of their identity. That is a core principle of Golden State Warriors basketball. They have to defend at an extremely high level. Then, in addition to that, it helps them get out in transition. You know, in half court sets, now, teams are all guarding the Warriors the

same way. They're blatantly ignoring Draymon, they're blatantly ignoring Cavan Loni, they're blatantly ignoring guys like Jonathan Cominga and Gary Payton the second and they're sagging back into the paint, and then they're trying to chase around the guards like hell and try to force them into backcuts so that they cut back into all of that congestion around the rim.

It is hard to score in the half court in the NBA for any team, but when it comes to stopping the Warriors, that's by far the best way to stop them. So getting out in transition before a defense gets a chance to get set, that's a really good way for to get Jordan Pool shook free for a three, to get Steph Curry shook free for three. So defense for them is just it's a non starter for them if they're not defending. And they weren't defending in the first half, and guess what, they were down ten, but

they locked in. They gave up just forty six points in the second half, including nineteen in the fourth quarter. I thought one of the key adjustments, and you saw this big time in the fourth quarter of this game was Gary Payton the second and switching him onto the point of attack against Shaye Guild just Alexander. He got a couple of buckets in the quarter, like getting switches, Like you've got to switch on a Steph Curry once

and just bullied into the basket. He also drew a foul on Gary Payton that was kind of an if he call. I thought shape pushes off a lot, So I'm a big believer in like the give and take defensively, Like if a player is gonna push off, you gotta let the defensive player kind of be physical back with them. But for the most part, Gary Payton kind of took Shay out of his element in that fourth quarter, and it was a huge part of them slowing down the

Thunders offense. And again, I can't even begin to describe how valuable it is in the NBA, in this high pick and roll league, in this spreads you out isolation, beat a guy off the dribble driving kick league. To have a guy like Gary Payton that you can just stick on the other team's best guard and just know like, hey,

we're good there, that's a huge asset. It's a big part of why I talked about him so much during the season, both before the trade talking about how much they missed him, and then after the trade obviously when he was dealing with the injury. I mean, don't forget, but go look at the on off numbers for Gary Payton in the playoffs last year. They were beating the shit out of everybody when he was on the floor, and it was a much more competitive competitive environment when

he was off the floor. It's just a fact he's so important to their defense. And again, like specifically in that Shake Gildas Alexander matchup, Shay is a very physical old school guard who likes to push off, and like I was saying, like Gary Payton, he's so damned strong, and he's got such a low center of gravity, and he's a he's got such strong legs, it's so difficult to push him off of his spot. So that bullyball style from Shay just doesn't work on guys like Gary

Payton I thought. I thought his defense on Shay was just a massive swing factor in the fourth quarter of this game. He also made really good reads on offense. He had three offensive rebounds. He's plus nine in seventeen minutes. Draymond Green, I mean, how many times this year have I talked about Draymond Green having a defensive masterclass in the fourth quarter once again in this game, flying around

protecting the rim. There were two plays in this game in the fourth quarter where thunder players thunder guards tried to beat Draymond off the dribble and he just stuck his arm out and poked the ball free. Both of them led to runouts. Again, Draymond, he's viewed as an undersized forward, and he is. But he's got a seven one wingspan. That's that's ridiculous for a guy his size. Seven one wingspan is great for any for a center

in this league. So you know, having those long arms to reach and poke the ball free, I mean, that's that's that's also a dangerous weapon to have. But he was incredible in the fourth quarter. And then Jordan Poole. I thought his three point shooting was a huge part of their fourth quarter run late third, early fourth, just

him being super aggressive. He drew a foul. It might have been a little bit of an if he call kicked his foot out a little bit, but again that's drifting points, which is who cares as long as it goes to the scoreboard. And then I thought, honestly, those free throws he missed the first one that he made a couple those free throws, I thought helped build his rhythm to knock down the important threes late in the

game and then Steph Curry. I mean a lot of times when I'm doing this show, we gloss over the best players because we like to focus on the nitty greedy details. And honestly, it's just like, how many times are you gonna say, like, Steph is incredible, he's amazing. How many times are gonna say Lebron is incredible, he's amazing. How many times you're gonna say Joel Embiid is incredible,

He's amazing. It's like a lot of times we focus on more of the variance pieces in a game, like, oh, so and so played well today, so and so really struggled today, right and so. Honestly, sometimes in the show I can gloss over guys like Steph had I think

thirty four in this game. He was freaking incredible, and we're not going to talk that much about him, but I thought he hit the I thought he hit the biggest shot of the game when it was one fifteen one fifteen, he had a step back three over lu Doran on the right wing, and I thought it completely changed the psychological complexion of the game. Immediately after that, the thunder fell apart. They lost their composure, They gave up a layup to Draymond on the very next possession.

It's this weird play where like they're trying to sub Jalen Williams into the game. Mark Degenell's freaking out. Uh. They trap uh Dante DiVincenzo on the left wing. He throws that little split pocket pass to Gary Payton who drops it off to Draymond Green completely uncontested under the rim. Again, it was a massive defensive breakdown. Then they end up getting a technical foul. Next thing you know, they're up

like fifteen again. The Steph has a tendency to try to snatch your heart, and he'll he knows when to try to like put his fingerprints on a game to where you could tell when he first stubbed into the game, he was still giving the ball to Jordan Pool because Jordan Pool was hot. He had a going that was the guy to bring it home at that point. But then it was like one fifteen, one fifteen. It's like

a shark smelling blood in the water. It was like he just saw that he saw the game and the time and score, he saw the flow of the game. He saw that lou Dort was just a little bit too far back, and he just went to that patented step back jumper to his right stuck it. I thought that was the biggest shot in the game. And then the wheels came off from there and and the Warriors won by double digits. They're forty two and thirty eight. Now,

they've won six of their last eight remaining schedule. They've got a really tough one in Sacramento on Friday, and then they go to Portland on Sunday for the last night of the season. That's a that's a game they should win. There's two things the Warriors need to hope for now. They need to hope for the Lakers to rest their guys against the Clippers tomorrow, which I think is very much on the table. And then then they need to hope for Sacramento to rest their guys on Friday,

because here's the thing. If the Kings treat that game like a playoff dress rehearsal and play all of their guys, it's just gonna be a really tough game to win. Again, like without Andrew Wiggins, I just always view those games against the great teams in the league for the Warriors is like coin flips, especially on the road as we've seen throughout the entire season. So if Sacramento arrests all their guys in the game, that gives the Warriors a

much better chance to win out. But here's the reality. Unfortunately, as a result of them blowing that game to Minnesota and then falling apart at the end of the game against Denver, they don't control their own destiny. The Lakers have the tiebreaker, so they need to somehow lose one fewer game than the Lakers do to the rest of

this week. So that's what I'm saying. If the Lakers punt the game against the Clippers and then the Kings end up punting the game on Friday, then the Warriors will find themselves in a position where they most likely will be out of the plane. But they're gonna need some help Andrew Wiggins. So in our last show, I talked about how we had seen some reporting that Andrew Wiggins may or may not have returned to the city

of San Francisco after being away for a little while. Well, we got reporting, i think yesterday, that he's returning to the team. They did a full press conference today, so Andrew Wiggins is effectively back. He's not gonna play until I think maybe this weekend. But really it comes down to this, can he be ready in time for what's gonna be a blood bath of a first round series. You get the five seed, you get Phoenix, that's gonna be a blood bath. You get the sixth seed, you

get Sacramento, still gonna be a blood bath. You get the seven seed, Memphis definitely gonna be a blood bath, eight seed Denver gonna be a bloodbath. You're gonna need Andrew Wiggins playing well to win those get any of those series because of what he does at the point of attack and what he does off the ball. Again, like we talk so much about Andrew Wiggins point of attack defense on the show, but it goes beyond that to the fact that he was like an eighteen point

per game guy in the playoffs last year. He is scoring pop, legitimate scoring Pop, gets good matchups, and he gets high percentage shot It's either aggressive spot up shooting or ripped throughs to the middle of the floor for those little pop shots and floaters and fifteen foot pull ups. Right. So again, he's a little bit of a rhythm player. He's got a very he doesn't have much arc on his jump shot, and guys that have line drive jump shots are a little bit more, you know, rhythm oriented.

So the real question is, is it's great that Andrew Wiggins's back. Obviously they needed him to have any sort of championships ceiling, but can he be ready in time? Understanding there? Right now, it's Tuesday, and they're gonna need him in about what's that ten or eleven days? Twelve days? They're gonna need him in less than two weeks to be ready to play in an absolute blood bath of a playoff series. And it's just a lot to ask.

And so it'll be really important to see how how he progresses throughout this week in their workouts, and we're gonna find out pretty quickly how well he stayed in shape all he was away. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. We will be back tomorrow night after the final buzzer of Clippers Lakers to break down what would be the most pivotal night in the Western Conference playoff picture this season. As always, I appreciate you guys, and I will see you next time. The volume