Jason reacts to the game between the Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets where Cade Cunningham's team got the win but the biggest story of the night was the fight involving Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart, Moussa Diabate, and Miles Bridges. Then he breaks down how James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, and the Cleveland Cavaliers got an impressive win over Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, as well as the Oklahoma City Thunder beating the Los Angeles Lakers in a game without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, Aldwit to him said, I here
at the volume. Happy twoesday everybody. Hope all of you
guys are having a great week so far. Just a
quick show for you guys today, we're gonna do instant
(00:22):
reactions to three games from last night. As the Detroit
Pistons get a huge win on the road against the
Charlie Hornets, we have a huge fight that I want
to talk a little bit about that happened in the
third quarter of that game that's likely going to lead
to several lengthy suspensions. The Calves come back down again
double digits in the second half to win their second
game with James Harden on the road in Denver against
(00:45):
the Nuggets. And then at the tail end of the show,
Lakers thunder in the evening slate a demonstration of the
gap and talent down the roster between those two teams.
So three game breakdowns. You guys know the joke. Before
we get started, subscribe Toroops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't
miss any more of our videos. Make sure you like
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last not at least if you want to get mailbag
questions into our mail bags, drop them in the comments
(01:08):
underneath their full episodes on YouTube, and we'll get to
them weekly throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So Pistons Hornets turned on a
huge Pistons run that spanned from the end of the
second quarter to the start of the third quarter, so
thirty eight to fourteen run classic Pistons. During that run,
their defense was incredible. Charlotte is a very good offense,
(01:30):
and they generated a lot of good shots in this
game for over various stretches of it. But during this
stretch of the game, they were able to tighten the
screws at the point of attack and in their rotations,
especially around the rim. I thought they're kind of like
gapping in help rotations at the rim, like shrinking the
floor and making those kickout reads look a little tighter
and a little more high risk than they actually were.
I thought that did a good job of just kind
(01:51):
of stifling especially LaMelo Ball. LaMelo really struggled during that run,
spanning the end of the second quarter into the early
third quarter. Again, they held the Hornet to just fourteen
points in that eleven and a half minute stretch. Then
on the other end of the floor, Like Jalen Durt
only had fifteen points in this game, but he did
most of his damage during the first chunk of that
run just with his inside positioning. Did a little bit
(02:14):
of ISO work on some drives as well, but just
was bullying the Hornets underneath the basket until obviously he
gets removed from the game for the fight. We'll talk
about that in a little bit. And then Caid in
that like kind of as we got into the third
quarter portion of it. Caid was just especially in that
middle third quarter, just did a ton of damage going
towards the rim, just doing that thing that he always does,
just relentlessly attacking the rim, getting high percentage shots close
(02:38):
to the basket. That just created the distance that Detroit
was able to ride to the finish line. I think
they went up by as much as sixteen during that stretch,
and the Hornets battled back admirably. Their offense generated countless
wide open threes in that fourth quarter. There were four
wide open catch and shoot looks for Brandon Miller and
Konk Nipple just in the final minutes of that game.
(02:59):
That all claimed, so it could have been a very
different result if those guys hit those shots. They generated
nineteen wide open catch and shoot threes in this game,
which is an insane number, which is a credit to
their offense and what they can generate. They hit over
forty percent of them. They just missed four in a
row to end it, and that ended up kind of
being the difference in the game. Now, obviously there's some
(03:21):
context there. Detroit was down their whole center rotation. Obviously
Musadiabatte was out as well, so a little bit different
in terms of the health of the help dynamic at
the rim. But I still think that that concept for
Charlotte is something that is real to build around. I'm
going to talk about this concept even more when we
get to Cleveland, but just the idea of running action
with a high level shot creator, a roleman who can
(03:44):
do whatever the role man needs to do in terms
of being able to screen slip and then you know
whether it's making floaters, making short roll reads, making dunks
on vertical spacing situations, finishing in traffic, all that kind
of stuff. When you have that two man game foundation
and you can truly space the floor like all those
wide open looks that Brandon Miller and Konk Nipple got
(04:06):
at the end of the game. They came out of
the concept of them too, being situated on the weak
side while LaMelo Ball is running action. It just makes
it so that, like, if you want to tag rollers,
they're gonna have to give up an open shot, right, Like,
if you want to help on a LaMelo Ball drive,
you're gonna have to give up an open shot, and
not just to anybody, but to a really high level shooter.
(04:27):
This is a team in the Hornets that's been top
three in three pointers made and three pointers of and
three point percentage during the nine game winning streak. So, like,
you know, in a lot of ways, it was kind
of what you would expect from this type of fun
matchup between two up and coming young teams that are
very different types of teams and that are at two
(04:49):
very different stages of their development, right Like the Pistons
are further along. They also have, you know, more veteran
presences on board with guys like Tobias Harrison Duncan. Robinson
Duncan was also fantastic stick in this game. Tobias ended
up hitting a huge shot that kind of helped ice
the game late, Like you just have a further along
more even more physically developed, like all like Caid's big
(05:11):
and strong now, Jalen Duran's big and strong now. So
they're just further along. They were able to play a
longer stretch of dominant basketball there in that late second
early third quarter run, and they dominated using the identity
they've built all season, a lot of defense to transition sequences.
They had a lot of points off of Hornet's turnovers
in this game, mauling you in the paint. They had
(05:31):
a sixty to twenty six points in the paint advantage
in this game. That's a margin they always win by
like something like crazy, like fourteen to fifteen points a game,
but won it by thirty six or thirty four points
in that game in Charlotte, fourteen offensive rebounds, and then
Kate Cunningham just being relentless on the attack on the
(05:52):
dribble drive. So like that's what you'd expect. They're further
along both physically and in roster development, more veterans on board,
they have a longer identity that they've built throughout the
entire season. You expect them to be able to go
and get a win like that on the road, and
they did. The Hornets they're early in their development and
they're a very different type of team, but they still
(06:12):
have enormous upside, and we saw that upside get flashed
through the game stretches of good defense. They've been an
excellent defense in this nine game winning sure. You think
they were fifth if I remember correctly in defensive rating
over that nine game span. Their offense can constantly generate
good looks for a variety of shooters and all of
that dynamic in terms of the constant threat of you know,
(06:34):
having three four shooters on the floor at all times
creates these help dynamics and screening actions that can open
up lanes for their bigs to crash the offensive glass.
And they got eleven offensive rebounds last night. And it's
a very athletic Detroit Pistons team. So in that way,
it was a game that lived up to the hype
and was a really fun showcase for both teams. I
recorded a mail bag episode yesterday that's airing later this
(06:57):
week where someone asked me about this horny stretch and
whether or not I believe in it, and I do.
I was not super high on the Hornets coming into
the season. I looked at them as a team that
was like a solid two three years away from being
kind of more serious in that Eastern Conference, just because
of how young they were and how flawed they were.
At least in my impression of the team to start
the year, I was wrong about that. They're way ahead
(07:18):
of schedule. They might make the playoffs this year. I
think they're almost certainly going to be like a legitimate
playoff team in the Knicks next year. I get into
it in a lot more detail in that mail back episode,
but I thought that was a fun showcase for Charlotte
last night, and then a demonstration from the Pistons of
why they've been the most impressive team in the regular
(07:39):
season this year, something we talked about yesterday, as they've
been ten and four this season against teams that are
in the top ten in point differential, and twenty eight
of the thirty teams have lost at least eight games
against teams that are top ten in point differential. There's
one team that's won lost seven. The Pistons have only
lost four. They've consistently in these big, high profile games,
(07:59):
and Charlotte doesn't necessarily fit that bill in terms of
their big picture record, a big picture metrics, but a
red hot team, one of the best teams in the
league that's been beaten a lot of really good teams
in this stretch, and Detroit went in there and kind
of handled them. Right now, as we talk about the fight,
I have very complicated feelings about this sort of thing,
and I'm sure some people are not gonna like my
(08:20):
answer here, but this is just my kind of perspective
on this sort of thing. I generally think fighting is stupid,
but I also think that it's more complicated. It's complicated
because of the emotion of the situation. I do have
a great deal of sympathy for the emotion of these
types of moments. When your competitive motor is running really hot,
(08:42):
it unlocks a part of every human being that is
borderline primal, right Like, there's an energy that flows through
you that is very, very different than when you're in
a relaxed state. It's that fight or flight response, right like,
you're in a very keyed up fight type of response.
Only have a dark side that comes out of me
(09:02):
sometimes on the basketball court, not so much as I've
gotten older, I've had better control over it as I
get into my mid thirties now compared to when I
was in my mid twenties, but still to this day.
Every once in a while, like someone will challenge me
on the court in a way that's either verbally or physically,
and I I just see red and I start being
a complete asshole. And I have a lot of these
moments where sometimes I'll be sitting at home later feeling
(09:25):
really bad about the way I acted or the way
I treated somebody. The only point I'm trying to make
here is that, like I do believe, it's a lot
easier said than done then, like when it comes to
keeping your emotions in check in these highly competitive environments.
One of my favorite random examples of this is the
Richard Sherman interview, and I think it was the NFC
Championship game when he got that big deflection on the
(09:46):
fade route to Michael Crabtree in the right corner of
the end zone. A lot of people who don't know
any better were upset at him for the way he
acted on national television in that interview. Anybody who's actually
spent a lot of time in highly compitive environments knew
exactly what was going on there. You stuck a microphone
in that dude's face mere seconds after one of the
(10:07):
biggest competitive victories of his life when him and Michael
had been john at each other, So he was in
a shit talking mood. If you wait ten minutes in
interview him after he's cooled off, he's going to behave
completely differently. The point being there is this, when you're
in that competitive, keyed up type of situation, it is
a lot easier said than done to control your emotions,
(10:29):
and there is a deep, primal part of you that
comes out a fight or flight response that is very
different than your relaxed state. And this Hornet's Pistons game
is an even more exaggerated version of that idea, like
Diabat's reaction for example, when Musa flew off the handle
like that. Jalen Deurn was bullying the hell out of
(10:49):
the Hornets front line for like ten straight minutes leading
into that, So there's always already like a physical, keyed
up response where you're fighting back against that bully ball attack.
Then when they face up and they go face to
face with each other, Jalen Duran straight up grabs him
by the face and shoves him. That's wildly disrespectful to
(11:09):
do to somebody. So I'm not surprised at all that
Musa saw red and wanted to fly off the handle
like that. Again, like I said, I very much sympathize
with the emotion of the situation. The main thing that
I want to get to here is the idea of
understanding what you have to lose. There's this idea that
(11:31):
great power comes with great responsibility. Right. Being an NBA
player is the modern version of great power. Right. You're
a multimillionaire, you're a celebrity, you live a life that
is a dream compared to the majority of the humans
in the world, but it comes with great responsibility. You
represent the NBA, and the NBA expects a lot from
its players in terms of behavior. You're also a part
(11:52):
of a team, and your team has goals, goals that
are far greater than the goals of the individual. And
so one of the things that comes with being an
NBA player is you can't allow your emotions to just
dictate your actions with impunity. In other words, you have
a lot to lose, even on the low end. For
(12:13):
a team like the Hornets, that may or may not
make the playoffs this year, you had just won nine
games in a row. You're really building towards something special.
As I mentioned, we're gonna go do a deep dive
on the Hornets in the mail Bag episode. I think
it's coming out tomorrow. In that mail Bag I talked
about how I do believe in these guys. I do
(12:35):
think that the Conkainipple, Brandon Miller, Mussa Diabate Corps is
an excellent foundation and that they're gonna be and in
the mixed playoff team sooner than later. I'm not even
really like there are times that I've watched the Hornets
during this stretch from like man LaMelo balls shot creation
in conjunction with this shooting is what's making this work
(12:56):
in a lot of ways. I'm not the biggest LaMelo
ball fan, but I'm not ready to give up on
him in this court either. I am buying Hornet stock
in a way that I didn't think I would this year.
What if Musa has to go miss five ten games
right now? It's a smaller version of Steaks, It's a
smaller wrench, but it's a wrench thrown into the development
(13:18):
of this team. Nonetheless, and again, I know it's easier
said than done, but what Musa needs to do there
is when Jalen Duran does that, give him a shove
in the chest something that will never end in the suspension.
Just give him a shove, tell him to fuck off,
and then let the league handle the face shove, send
a tape to the league. Let the league handle it.
(13:39):
I know it's an imperfect solution, but it's the one
that keeps Musa on the court with his team, which
is important when you have these team wide goals and
when you're building real momentum to what could be a
special era of for in its basketball. And again, the
stakes do get higher at the Isaiah Stewart situation. Now,
(14:03):
Isaiah Stewart is a very important rotation player for the
Pistons and we will likely not see him again for
a long time because he had a similar incident where
he flew off the handle with the Lebron James Inadvertnelle
both it and here's the thing again, I sympathize with
the emotion. I understand why Isaiah Stewart wanted to stick
(14:25):
up for his teammates as they've done for him in
the past, but I would imagine if you went up
to Jalen Dirt and you know, you went up to
me and you asked him, You're like, would you rather
have Isaiah Stewart come flying in to settle the score
and have your back? Or would you rather have Stu
hangback because of his history and avoid the suspension that
(14:49):
would inevitably follow from something like that. Because the Pistons
have bigger goals, because the Pistons are building towards something special,
I could immortalize these Pistons guys in basketball history. We
all know what Jalen Duran would say. He'd be like, Stu,
I'm good, hang back. I fucked up. I pushed him
(15:10):
in the face. I'm gone already, you hang back. We
got bigger things that we're trying to accomplish though. In short,
it's just not worth it. It's not worth it to
give in to your emotions in those situations. And just
like I said earlier, the stakes keep getting higher. Draymond
(15:33):
Green missed an NBA Finals game and possibly could have
cost his team a championship because of his inability to
control his emotions. I know it's easier said than done,
as I've said several times, but every young basketball player
has to find a way to control their emotions when
they're running hot competitively. If you're playing in college, like
(15:54):
let's say you have a college scholarship and you fly
off the handle in a game and you punch some
that could dramatically affect your future. You could lose your scholarship.
It could change the trajectory of your entire life. In
other words, like I said earlier, you have a lot
to lose and it's not worth it, and so that
(16:18):
requires more self control, even if it is easier said
than done. Hopefully, for all of these guys who got
suspended from this fight, they'll learn a lesson and not
make those mistakes in the future. Today's show is brought
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gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee,
or Virginia. All Right, Moving on to calvs. Nuggets, second
game with James Harden, second game with the double digit
(18:03):
second half comeback win. The Cavs closed this game with
a Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Jared Allen lineup that had
Sam Merrill and Jalen Tyson off the ball, So essentially,
two excellent shot creators that can both play off the
ball because they're both great catch and shoot players, an
excellent screen and role partner in Allen, and two dudes
who have literally made over forty five percent of their
(18:26):
threes this year. There was a sequence where James Harden
kind of drove through the middle of the lane and
he throws like a no look where he's kind of
like looking at Donovan Mitchell in the right corner, but
he ends up throwing across his body to Jalen Tyson
at the top of the key. And if you watch
Donovan Mitchell in the right corner. He starts celebrating, like
fist pumping, celebrating right when the pass was made because
he knows damn well that Jalen Tyson's gonna knock that
(18:47):
shot down. Both of those guys on wide open catch
and shoot threes are shooting obscene percentages this year. Aut paper,
it sounds impossible to guard. Right two deadly knockdown shooters,
two shot creators that are both excellent in pick and
roll and excellent as catch and shoot three point shooters,
and the screen and roll partner and Allen. It sounds
(19:09):
impossible to guard and it is in reality as well.
In the last nine minutes of clutch basketball. Over these
two games in Sacramento and Denver, the calves of log
day one forty offensive rating. It gets even tougher for
a team like Denver, for example. We talked about this
in the power rankings yesterday. You know, there's a lot
of like hoopli like oh, like you guys want to
know why the Nuggets were above five hundred without Jokic
(19:32):
and now they're suddenly two and four with Yokich. It's
not because Jokic is bad for the team or anything.
Like that. It's because he fundamentally changes the way they
have to play defense. The team got used to playing
defense as Shertain style. When Jonas and Jokic were both out.
There was a lot more switching, a lot more athleticism
on the floor. It was a very different defensive scheme.
It was less reliant on help and recover, more reliant
(19:56):
on individual defense in one on one because you were
doing so much switching right in these particular looks. With
Jokic on the floor, they've had to run a lot
of zone. They've had to run a lot of high
drop right and let's take high drop for example. So
if I am bringing Jokic up to the level and
pick and roll, that requires a lot in the form
(20:16):
of backside rotation. So that's been difficult for the Nuggets
to adjust to anyway, irrespective of the situation that the
Calves present, the Nuggets are really defending poor Lison's Jokic
came back because they have to get back into a
very different groove defensively that is very much more a
help and rotate style of defense rather than a switch
(20:37):
and contain style of defense. And so the Nuggets been
struggling with that Anyway, now you add this problem that
the calves present, right, So like, if Jokic has to
come up to the level, what is the next stage
in that defensive sequence, right, it's a tag of the roller.
And if you don't like there is a player where
Jared Allen caught a you know, so James Harden's coming
(20:58):
right off the top of the keys, getting too his
right hand. Jared Allen does a good job not only
laying the screen, but he lingers for just a second
to kind of create a larger pocket pass window. He
holds his screen for an extra second and then he rolls.
James Harden hits him on the bounce. There's no tag,
so he just goes right downhill. There was a tag,
I think it was late and he ends up I
think he ended up trying a foul on that play
from ever correct, but it gets two easy points out
(21:19):
of it. You have to tag the roller if you're
late on the tag Jared Allen's scoring, or if you
don't tag Jared Allen scoring. If you do tag, there's
four dudes on the floor off of Jared Allen, including
the ball handler, who are all over forty percent on
catch and shoot. Three so like it's one of these
situations where they're difficult to guard under normal circumstances, but
(21:43):
because of the way the Nuggets play defense with Nikola Jokic,
it's borderline impossible. And so there was a tough shot
and there James Harden hit a ridiculous step back three
on the left wing one way he probably got fouled
that ended up tying the game. But every other bucket
was easy, easy finishes and fouls for Jared Allen on rolls,
a layup for Donovan Mitchell on this nasty spin move
(22:03):
in semi transition, driving down the right side of the floor.
The move was tough, but once he got past him,
there's nobody help him because of all that shooting on
the floor. Wide open layup, wide open threes for Jalen Tyson.
He had two wide open ones, one on the right
wing or one right at the top of the key
down the stretch. Those are all really easy shots that
are built from that dynamic of having two really high
(22:24):
level shot creators, a pick and roll threat as a
screener that's one of the best in the league, and
then literally two dudes who make damn near half of
their catch and shoot threes. That's just extremely difficult to guard.
And it's one of the big reasons why I'm so
high on this Cavs team, and I want to credit
the Cavs defense down the stretch. In this game too,
James Harden made some key defensive rotations late in the game.
(22:46):
He had one where he forced Tim Hardaway junior. Tim
Hardaway had one of those classic kind of like screen
slip sequences with Jokic off the top with Jamal Murray
coming off, and so Jokic dumps it over the top
and Harden made a really nice on time rotation, got there,
got a good contest. Tim Hardaway just hit a contested floater.
Shout out to him, it's tough shot. And he had
(23:07):
another one where he forced a turnover on Jokich Jokic
post up. They're running that like classic kind of post
entry two man game with Murray and Jokic off of
the left wing and left block, and Jokic goes to
spin over his left shoulder. Harden sees it coming, rotates,
gets there in time, feet set and as Jokic tries
to step through, it's no foul because Harden is standing still.
(23:27):
He throws his arms into Harden and ends up turning
the basketball over his huge pivotal stop late in the game. Like,
one of the things with James Harden to keep an
eye on is that specific kind of thing as it
pertains to this team and their potential, because James Harden
is a much better one on one player defensively than
he gets credit for. He has been awesome guarding one
on ones this year. It was one of the big
upside things that I talked about in the Trade Reaction pod.
(23:50):
Compared to a guy like Darius Garland who was just
getting brutalized in one on ones this year, James is
better one on one defender. But James can be an undisciplined,
unfocused off ball defender. He can miss rotations, he can
be laid on rotations, he can miss box outs, he
can lose shooters, he can get back cut, all of
that kind of stuff. And so James being attentive like
that on defense and being on time with his rotations
(24:11):
and just being in the right spot in the defensive
scheme is the pathway to him becoming a functional quality
defender in the best version of this team. I think
they're gonna need Evan Mobley, like they have not defended
well really in the big picture since since James Harden
joined the team in the two games. But I do
think that Evan Mobley's gonna help a lot with that
when he gets back. And to their credit, they have
(24:32):
a one toh five defensive rating and crunch time last
night against that awesome Nuggets offense, I thought that was
a good impressive stretch of defense, some really impressive things.
There was a as a team, I thought they defended
Jamal Murray really well. They forced him into some tough
contested shots that he missed. There was this blitz from
Keon Ellis and Jared Allen where they forced a turnover
(24:53):
on Jamal Murray just with excellent ball pressure where he
tried to get the pass off to Yonis kind of
slipping out of the screen, but they just got such
great pressure they got a deflection that led out to
a runout the other way. I'm just I'm buying all
sorts of Calvestock right now. You guys will see in
my contender rankings with koc that come out. I think
on Thursday this week I have him in my as
my favorite to win in the Eastern Conference. Now after
(25:16):
the trades, I looked at it as very jumbled up,
but I looked at the Knicks as my slight favorite
before the deadline. I think the addition of Keon Ellis,
Dennis Schroeder, and James Harden vault the Calves above every
other team in that group. It's all very close. Like
you know, obviously we're looking at Detroit, New York, Boston
and Cleveland as the main ones. Toronto's kind of like
(25:36):
hanging on to the bottom end of that group there,
but like they're all still very bunched up. But to me,
these moves and especially seeing it kind of like come
to fruition and just the type of basketball scene from
them in the last couple of days, I think I
put the Calves at the top of that group, and
they're the team that I have and in that group,
the one team in that group that I have as
a top tier contender in our contender rankings that come
(25:59):
out later this week. It's really a simple I think
when you add Evan Mobley to the mix, there will
be a combination of shot creation, high level role man play,
off ball shooting, perimeter defense, and rim protection. A combination
of those five things that is sort of unrivaled in
(26:20):
the East. They're not a perfect team. I'm still a
little worried about their frontline getting pushed around in certain
types of series. You know, big physical front lines. But
of all the top teams in the East, and all
of them are flawed to a certain extent, I think
this is the most complete team. And I'm just really
believing and buying in on this calvs. Group as we
(26:41):
had down the stretch of this season last game for today,
Lakers Thunder not overly surprised by the result here. I
think the Thunder without Shay are just a better basketball
team than the Lakers without Luca. That's not exactly a
bold take. When you factor in just overall offense and
defensive talent, the Thunder are the most talented roster in
(27:01):
the league when they're fully healthy, and if you take
Shay off and you take Luca off, you find out
pretty quickly that the Lakers have a flawed roster by comparison.
And it's a little closer than it would look on
paper for this type of game, just strictly looking at
this matchup in the regular season, simply because the Thunder
offense completely falls apart without Shay. Their offense straight up
(27:22):
can't score without Shaye relative to when he's on the floor.
The Lakers, as a counter example, have only been two
point six points worse per one hundred possessions when Luca's
off the floor this year because they still have high
level shot creators and they get better defensively by about
two point four points. And so even though the offense
is a little better with Luca, it's just not as
big of a gap because you have Austin and Lebron,
(27:43):
these two super high level shot creators. So in a
game like this, the Lakers are still capable of replicating
some of what they do on offense, and they're more
or less the same, if not a slightly better defensive
team the Thunder. Without Shay, they usually have a hard
time scoring. And so that's why even though these rosters
after their stars tilt heavily towards the Thunder, it was
(28:06):
a competitive game because the Lakers, you know, they have
more resilience on offense without their superstar because of the
way their roster is built. But even when we apply
that context, Okay, so he just has better basketball players,
And I thought it was on display throughout the game
there's so many individual examples of that difference. So like,
for instance, like you look at the scrappiness of the Bigs,
(28:28):
DeAndre Ayton has the ball straight up taken away from
him twice down the stretch because he's just completely unprepared
for the scrappiness of this environment. He has an offensive rebound,
gets stripped, has a defensive rebound gets stripped underneath the basket,
and it leads to a dunk. Chet. As a counter example,
the Lakers in a switching group end up leaving Lebron
(28:51):
James on an island out on the perimeter. That puts
Marcus Smart in a situation where he's got to scrap
with Chet Holmgren. Same dynamic. Right, Ayton got out scrapped
by guards. Right here, you have Chet matched up with
an even scrappier guard right in Marcus Smart, one of
the scrappiest guards of all time, and Chet just beats
him to the ball and gets a dunk. So like
(29:12):
in the scrap, Chet's better at scrapping than DeAndre, in
addition to being a better defensive player. Got some huge
stops down the stretch, including a big isostop on Marcus
Smart driving down the lane. But Chet's just a way
better basketball player than DeAndre and that's not a surprise there, right,
Guys like Alex Crusoe and Lou Dort and jay Lynn
Williams hitting threes while Jake Laaravia and Jared Vanderbilt are
(29:35):
clanking from the corners like that's not a surprise. The
Thunder have better shooting talent. The Thunder are fifteenth and
catch and shoot three point percentage this year. The Lakers
are twenty fifth. The Thunder were twelve for twenty six
on catch and shoot threes last night, the Lakers were
seven for twenty three. That's in line with what you
would expect from the talent available on these rosters. Even
the perimeter physicality stuff like Cason Wallace, Chet, Holmerun and
(29:58):
Jalen Williams all were able to go right at Austin
Reeves late in the game for easy twos. Austin defended
every single one of those plays pretty well, kept his
body in front, was competing physically, but he's just giving
up an athletic advantage against all three of those guys.
That's an advantage that Oklahoma City has that would not
go away even if the Stars were available, even just
(30:18):
Oklahoma City forcing fifteen turnovers and scoring twenty three points
on them. Cason Wallace, by the way, menace in this game,
just hounding Austin Reeves up and down the floor, getting
those big late strips on DeAndre eight and as well.
Lebron talked about it after the game. There's just a
simple difference between these two teams. One's a championship contender
and one is not. He plainly stated that last night.
(30:41):
There are levels to hoop in the NBA. The Lakers
every time they run into this level seemed to get exposed.
So for example, in this eight and four stretch, where
they've been top ten in offense and defense. During the
eight and three they were top ten in offense and defense.
I'm not sure how last night's numbers affected that, but
during the stretch where they've been playing their best backasketball
the season, they're eight and four. They're zero to three
(31:03):
in that stretch against teams that are in the top
ten and point differential according to Cleaning Glass, just five
and eleven this season against teams that are in the
top ten and point differential. The following teams have all
been better by win percentage against teams in the top
ten and point differential, the Clippers, the Blazers, the Jazz,
the Hawks, and the Hornets. All five of those teams
(31:24):
are below five hundred in the big picture, but they
have performed better this season against the best teams in
the league. So like, this is just kind of what
it is. Now. The counter that you would hear from
some people is like, hey, well, what about if the
Lakers get all their stars healthy? And again, what I
would say in that specific context is like, is there
a chance that the Lakers will compete better against the
(31:45):
teams that are in the top ten and point differential
if they have all their stars healthy? Yeah, of course
there will. I don't think that that's too far of
a bridge to cross, so to speak. But even in
that context, it's one thing to be better than the Clippers, Blazers, Jazz, Hawks,
and and it's another thing to actually be ready to
compete nightly against the best teams in the NBA. And
I just think this Lakers team is miles away from that.
(32:07):
Several of the thunder players I wanted to shout out
Alex Caruso. I thought his off the dribble shot creation
in this game was huge he's sneaky, been really good
at it all year. When called upon, He's run forty
pick and rolls, which is super low volume, but he's
generated forty five points including passes, so well over a
point for possession. He just hit a variety of pull
up jumpers and driving layups and made some passing reads
(32:28):
that just felt like found money in a game like
this where you only have one of your primary dribble
drive guys healthy. The Isaiah Joe first half hot streak,
I thought that was a huge part of that first
bit of separation that Oklahoma City built in the game.
Cason Wallace in those pick sixes out at half court.
Those are huge momentum plays. Jalen Williams the you know
Jaylynn Williams coming off the bench. It's always tough for
(32:50):
me to differentiate between those two and I'm verbalizing their names.
But he's been amazing all year in all sorts of
ways for this team, just kind of you know, obviously,
he was big during the Hertenstein injury, being another big
body for them off the bench. He's just a big,
smart defender who's always in the right place at the
right time, and he continues to just hit timely threes
for this team. Hit some huge ones in the fourth
(33:10):
quarter last night. I thought Jared McCain's first shift was awesome.
Just came in aggressive looking for a shot, which is
what the team needs from him right now with all
of the injuries. And then Chet just huge defensive stands
down at the rim late in the game in addition
to that big offensive rebound put back late. You have
to play really solid team basketball when you're down your superstar,
(33:31):
and the Thunder did that and they got a big win.
And then lastly, just Jaylen Williams. Jaylen Williams, good to
see him back last night, held up physically, which is
good news. I was a little worried that they were
bringing him back too quick for a soft tissue injury
when he's so important to the final version of this team.
But he looked great last night, had some big, big
buckets late in the game when this team needed him late.
(33:52):
Just an awesome performance from a team that I believe
is going to win the championship this year in Oklahoma City. Thunder.
All right, guys, that's all I have for today is
always I Sally appreciate you guys for supporting us and
supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with a mailbag.
This the schedule the rest of this week is a
little funky, could have a This is my last like
little break before the home stretch. And so I've got
a buddy coming in town today and we're going to
(34:13):
do some skiing over the next few days. So I've
got a mail bag coming out tomorrow. Today I'm recording
contender rankings with KOC that's going to air on Thursday,
and then we'll be back on Monday with our normal
power rankings Again. As always, I appreciate you guys, and
I will see you tomorrow
The volume. All right, Aldwit to him said, I here
at the volume. Happy twoesday everybody. Hope all of you
guys are having a great week so far. Just a
quick show for you guys today, we're gonna do instant
(00:22):
reactions to three games from last night. As the Detroit
Pistons get a huge win on the road against the
Charlie Hornets, we have a huge fight that I want
to talk a little bit about that happened in the
third quarter of that game that's likely going to lead
to several lengthy suspensions. The Calves come back down again
double digits in the second half to win their second
game with James Harden on the road in Denver against
(00:45):
the Nuggets. And then at the tail end of the show,
Lakers thunder in the evening slate a demonstration of the
gap and talent down the roster between those two teams.
So three game breakdowns. You guys know the joke. Before
we get started, subscribe Toroops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't
miss any more of our videos. Make sure you like
this video and then turn on our post notification so
that you guys can help our channel grow. And then
last not at least if you want to get mailbag
questions into our mail bags, drop them in the comments
(01:08):
underneath their full episodes on YouTube, and we'll get to
them weekly throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So Pistons Hornets turned on a
huge Pistons run that spanned from the end of the
second quarter to the start of the third quarter, so
thirty eight to fourteen run classic Pistons. During that run,
their defense was incredible. Charlotte is a very good offense,
(01:30):
and they generated a lot of good shots in this
game for over various stretches of it. But during this
stretch of the game, they were able to tighten the
screws at the point of attack and in their rotations,
especially around the rim. I thought they're kind of like
gapping in help rotations at the rim, like shrinking the
floor and making those kickout reads look a little tighter
and a little more high risk than they actually were.
I thought that did a good job of just kind
(01:51):
of stifling especially LaMelo Ball. LaMelo really struggled during that run,
spanning the end of the second quarter into the early
third quarter. Again, they held the Hornet to just fourteen
points in that eleven and a half minute stretch. Then
on the other end of the floor, Like Jalen Durt
only had fifteen points in this game, but he did
most of his damage during the first chunk of that
run just with his inside positioning. Did a little bit
(02:14):
of ISO work on some drives as well, but just
was bullying the Hornets underneath the basket until obviously he
gets removed from the game for the fight. We'll talk
about that in a little bit. And then Caid in
that like kind of as we got into the third
quarter portion of it. Caid was just especially in that
middle third quarter, just did a ton of damage going
towards the rim, just doing that thing that he always does,
just relentlessly attacking the rim, getting high percentage shots close
(02:38):
to the basket. That just created the distance that Detroit
was able to ride to the finish line. I think
they went up by as much as sixteen during that stretch,
and the Hornets battled back admirably. Their offense generated countless
wide open threes in that fourth quarter. There were four
wide open catch and shoot looks for Brandon Miller and
Konk Nipple just in the final minutes of that game.
(02:59):
That all claimed, so it could have been a very
different result if those guys hit those shots. They generated
nineteen wide open catch and shoot threes in this game,
which is an insane number, which is a credit to
their offense and what they can generate. They hit over
forty percent of them. They just missed four in a
row to end it, and that ended up kind of
being the difference in the game. Now, obviously there's some
(03:21):
context there. Detroit was down their whole center rotation. Obviously
Musadiabatte was out as well, so a little bit different
in terms of the health of the help dynamic at
the rim. But I still think that that concept for
Charlotte is something that is real to build around. I'm
going to talk about this concept even more when we
get to Cleveland, but just the idea of running action
with a high level shot creator, a roleman who can
(03:44):
do whatever the role man needs to do in terms
of being able to screen slip and then you know
whether it's making floaters, making short roll reads, making dunks
on vertical spacing situations, finishing in traffic, all that kind
of stuff. When you have that two man game foundation
and you can truly space the floor like all those
wide open looks that Brandon Miller and Konk Nipple got
(04:06):
at the end of the game. They came out of
the concept of them too, being situated on the weak
side while LaMelo Ball is running action. It just makes
it so that, like, if you want to tag rollers,
they're gonna have to give up an open shot, right, Like,
if you want to help on a LaMelo Ball drive,
you're gonna have to give up an open shot, and
not just to anybody, but to a really high level shooter.
(04:27):
This is a team in the Hornets that's been top
three in three pointers made and three pointers of and
three point percentage during the nine game winning streak. So, like,
you know, in a lot of ways, it was kind
of what you would expect from this type of fun
matchup between two up and coming young teams that are
very different types of teams and that are at two
(04:49):
very different stages of their development, right Like the Pistons
are further along. They also have, you know, more veteran
presences on board with guys like Tobias Harrison Duncan. Robinson
Duncan was also fantastic stick in this game. Tobias ended
up hitting a huge shot that kind of helped ice
the game late, Like you just have a further along
more even more physically developed, like all like Caid's big
(05:11):
and strong now, Jalen Duran's big and strong now. So
they're just further along. They were able to play a
longer stretch of dominant basketball there in that late second
early third quarter run, and they dominated using the identity
they've built all season, a lot of defense to transition sequences.
They had a lot of points off of Hornet's turnovers
in this game, mauling you in the paint. They had
(05:31):
a sixty to twenty six points in the paint advantage
in this game. That's a margin they always win by
like something like crazy, like fourteen to fifteen points a game,
but won it by thirty six or thirty four points
in that game in Charlotte, fourteen offensive rebounds, and then
Kate Cunningham just being relentless on the attack on the
(05:52):
dribble drive. So like that's what you'd expect. They're further
along both physically and in roster development, more veterans on board,
they have a longer identity that they've built throughout the
entire season. You expect them to be able to go
and get a win like that on the road, and
they did. The Hornets they're early in their development and
they're a very different type of team, but they still
(06:12):
have enormous upside, and we saw that upside get flashed
through the game stretches of good defense. They've been an
excellent defense in this nine game winning sure. You think
they were fifth if I remember correctly in defensive rating
over that nine game span. Their offense can constantly generate
good looks for a variety of shooters and all of
that dynamic in terms of the constant threat of you know,
(06:34):
having three four shooters on the floor at all times
creates these help dynamics and screening actions that can open
up lanes for their bigs to crash the offensive glass.
And they got eleven offensive rebounds last night. And it's
a very athletic Detroit Pistons team. So in that way,
it was a game that lived up to the hype
and was a really fun showcase for both teams. I
recorded a mail bag episode yesterday that's airing later this
(06:57):
week where someone asked me about this horny stretch and
whether or not I believe in it, and I do.
I was not super high on the Hornets coming into
the season. I looked at them as a team that
was like a solid two three years away from being
kind of more serious in that Eastern Conference, just because
of how young they were and how flawed they were.
At least in my impression of the team to start
the year, I was wrong about that. They're way ahead
(07:18):
of schedule. They might make the playoffs this year. I
think they're almost certainly going to be like a legitimate
playoff team in the Knicks next year. I get into
it in a lot more detail in that mail back episode,
but I thought that was a fun showcase for Charlotte
last night, and then a demonstration from the Pistons of
why they've been the most impressive team in the regular
(07:39):
season this year, something we talked about yesterday, as they've
been ten and four this season against teams that are
in the top ten in point differential, and twenty eight
of the thirty teams have lost at least eight games
against teams that are top ten in point differential. There's
one team that's won lost seven. The Pistons have only
lost four. They've consistently in these big, high profile games,
(07:59):
and Charlotte doesn't necessarily fit that bill in terms of
their big picture record, a big picture metrics, but a
red hot team, one of the best teams in the
league that's been beaten a lot of really good teams
in this stretch, and Detroit went in there and kind
of handled them. Right now, as we talk about the fight,
I have very complicated feelings about this sort of thing,
and I'm sure some people are not gonna like my
(08:20):
answer here, but this is just my kind of perspective
on this sort of thing. I generally think fighting is stupid,
but I also think that it's more complicated. It's complicated
because of the emotion of the situation. I do have
a great deal of sympathy for the emotion of these
types of moments. When your competitive motor is running really hot,
(08:42):
it unlocks a part of every human being that is
borderline primal, right Like, there's an energy that flows through
you that is very, very different than when you're in
a relaxed state. It's that fight or flight response, right like,
you're in a very keyed up fight type of response.
Only have a dark side that comes out of me
(09:02):
sometimes on the basketball court, not so much as I've
gotten older, I've had better control over it as I
get into my mid thirties now compared to when I
was in my mid twenties, but still to this day.
Every once in a while, like someone will challenge me
on the court in a way that's either verbally or physically,
and I I just see red and I start being
a complete asshole. And I have a lot of these
moments where sometimes I'll be sitting at home later feeling
(09:25):
really bad about the way I acted or the way
I treated somebody. The only point I'm trying to make
here is that, like I do believe, it's a lot
easier said than done then, like when it comes to
keeping your emotions in check in these highly competitive environments.
One of my favorite random examples of this is the
Richard Sherman interview, and I think it was the NFC
Championship game when he got that big deflection on the
(09:46):
fade route to Michael Crabtree in the right corner of
the end zone. A lot of people who don't know
any better were upset at him for the way he
acted on national television in that interview. Anybody who's actually
spent a lot of time in highly compitive environments knew
exactly what was going on there. You stuck a microphone
in that dude's face mere seconds after one of the
(10:07):
biggest competitive victories of his life when him and Michael
had been john at each other, So he was in
a shit talking mood. If you wait ten minutes in
interview him after he's cooled off, he's going to behave
completely differently. The point being there is this, when you're
in that competitive, keyed up type of situation, it is
a lot easier said than done to control your emotions,
(10:29):
and there is a deep, primal part of you that
comes out a fight or flight response that is very
different than your relaxed state. And this Hornet's Pistons game
is an even more exaggerated version of that idea, like
Diabat's reaction for example, when Musa flew off the handle
like that. Jalen Deurn was bullying the hell out of
(10:49):
the Hornets front line for like ten straight minutes leading
into that, So there's always already like a physical, keyed
up response where you're fighting back against that bully ball attack.
Then when they face up and they go face to
face with each other, Jalen Duran straight up grabs him
by the face and shoves him. That's wildly disrespectful to
(11:09):
do to somebody. So I'm not surprised at all that
Musa saw red and wanted to fly off the handle
like that. Again, like I said, I very much sympathize
with the emotion of the situation. The main thing that
I want to get to here is the idea of
understanding what you have to lose. There's this idea that
(11:31):
great power comes with great responsibility. Right. Being an NBA
player is the modern version of great power. Right. You're
a multimillionaire, you're a celebrity, you live a life that
is a dream compared to the majority of the humans
in the world, but it comes with great responsibility. You
represent the NBA, and the NBA expects a lot from
its players in terms of behavior. You're also a part
(11:52):
of a team, and your team has goals, goals that
are far greater than the goals of the individual. And
so one of the things that comes with being an
NBA player is you can't allow your emotions to just
dictate your actions with impunity. In other words, you have
a lot to lose, even on the low end. For
(12:13):
a team like the Hornets, that may or may not
make the playoffs this year, you had just won nine
games in a row. You're really building towards something special.
As I mentioned, we're gonna go do a deep dive
on the Hornets in the mail Bag episode. I think
it's coming out tomorrow. In that mail Bag I talked
about how I do believe in these guys. I do
(12:35):
think that the Conkainipple, Brandon Miller, Mussa Diabate Corps is
an excellent foundation and that they're gonna be and in
the mixed playoff team sooner than later. I'm not even
really like there are times that I've watched the Hornets
during this stretch from like man LaMelo balls shot creation
in conjunction with this shooting is what's making this work
(12:56):
in a lot of ways. I'm not the biggest LaMelo
ball fan, but I'm not ready to give up on
him in this court either. I am buying Hornet stock
in a way that I didn't think I would this year.
What if Musa has to go miss five ten games
right now? It's a smaller version of Steaks, It's a
smaller wrench, but it's a wrench thrown into the development
(13:18):
of this team. Nonetheless, and again, I know it's easier
said than done, but what Musa needs to do there
is when Jalen Duran does that, give him a shove
in the chest something that will never end in the suspension.
Just give him a shove, tell him to fuck off,
and then let the league handle the face shove, send
a tape to the league. Let the league handle it.
(13:39):
I know it's an imperfect solution, but it's the one
that keeps Musa on the court with his team, which
is important when you have these team wide goals and
when you're building real momentum to what could be a
special era of for in its basketball. And again, the
stakes do get higher at the Isaiah Stewart situation. Now,
(14:03):
Isaiah Stewart is a very important rotation player for the
Pistons and we will likely not see him again for
a long time because he had a similar incident where
he flew off the handle with the Lebron James Inadvertnelle
both it and here's the thing again, I sympathize with
the emotion. I understand why Isaiah Stewart wanted to stick
(14:25):
up for his teammates as they've done for him in
the past, but I would imagine if you went up
to Jalen Dirt and you know, you went up to
me and you asked him, You're like, would you rather
have Isaiah Stewart come flying in to settle the score
and have your back? Or would you rather have Stu
hangback because of his history and avoid the suspension that
(14:49):
would inevitably follow from something like that. Because the Pistons
have bigger goals, because the Pistons are building towards something special,
I could immortalize these Pistons guys in basketball history. We
all know what Jalen Duran would say. He'd be like, Stu,
I'm good, hang back. I fucked up. I pushed him
(15:10):
in the face. I'm gone already, you hang back. We
got bigger things that we're trying to accomplish though. In short,
it's just not worth it. It's not worth it to
give in to your emotions in those situations. And just
like I said earlier, the stakes keep getting higher. Draymond
(15:33):
Green missed an NBA Finals game and possibly could have
cost his team a championship because of his inability to
control his emotions. I know it's easier said than done,
as I've said several times, but every young basketball player
has to find a way to control their emotions when
they're running hot competitively. If you're playing in college, like
(15:54):
let's say you have a college scholarship and you fly
off the handle in a game and you punch some
that could dramatically affect your future. You could lose your scholarship.
It could change the trajectory of your entire life. In
other words, like I said earlier, you have a lot
to lose and it's not worth it, and so that
(16:18):
requires more self control, even if it is easier said
than done. Hopefully, for all of these guys who got
suspended from this fight, they'll learn a lesson and not
make those mistakes in the future. Today's show is brought
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or Virginia. All Right, Moving on to calvs. Nuggets, second
game with James Harden, second game with the double digit
(18:03):
second half comeback win. The Cavs closed this game with
a Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Jared Allen lineup that had
Sam Merrill and Jalen Tyson off the ball, So essentially,
two excellent shot creators that can both play off the
ball because they're both great catch and shoot players, an
excellent screen and role partner in Allen, and two dudes
who have literally made over forty five percent of their
(18:26):
threes this year. There was a sequence where James Harden
kind of drove through the middle of the lane and
he throws like a no look where he's kind of
like looking at Donovan Mitchell in the right corner, but
he ends up throwing across his body to Jalen Tyson
at the top of the key. And if you watch
Donovan Mitchell in the right corner. He starts celebrating, like
fist pumping, celebrating right when the pass was made because
he knows damn well that Jalen Tyson's gonna knock that
(18:47):
shot down. Both of those guys on wide open catch
and shoot threes are shooting obscene percentages this year. Aut paper,
it sounds impossible to guard. Right two deadly knockdown shooters,
two shot creators that are both excellent in pick and
roll and excellent as catch and shoot three point shooters,
and the screen and roll partner and Allen. It sounds
(19:09):
impossible to guard and it is in reality as well.
In the last nine minutes of clutch basketball. Over these
two games in Sacramento and Denver, the calves of log
day one forty offensive rating. It gets even tougher for
a team like Denver, for example. We talked about this
in the power rankings yesterday. You know, there's a lot
of like hoopli like oh, like you guys want to
know why the Nuggets were above five hundred without Jokic
(19:32):
and now they're suddenly two and four with Yokich. It's
not because Jokic is bad for the team or anything.
Like that. It's because he fundamentally changes the way they
have to play defense. The team got used to playing
defense as Shertain style. When Jonas and Jokic were both out.
There was a lot more switching, a lot more athleticism
on the floor. It was a very different defensive scheme.
It was less reliant on help and recover, more reliant
(19:56):
on individual defense in one on one because you were
doing so much switching right in these particular looks. With
Jokic on the floor, they've had to run a lot
of zone. They've had to run a lot of high
drop right and let's take high drop for example. So
if I am bringing Jokic up to the level and
pick and roll, that requires a lot in the form
(20:16):
of backside rotation. So that's been difficult for the Nuggets
to adjust to anyway, irrespective of the situation that the
Calves present, the Nuggets are really defending poor Lison's Jokic
came back because they have to get back into a
very different groove defensively that is very much more a
help and rotate style of defense rather than a switch
(20:37):
and contain style of defense. And so the Nuggets been
struggling with that Anyway, now you add this problem that
the calves present, right, So like, if Jokic has to
come up to the level, what is the next stage
in that defensive sequence, right, it's a tag of the roller.
And if you don't like there is a player where
Jared Allen caught a you know, so James Harden's coming
(20:58):
right off the top of the keys, getting too his
right hand. Jared Allen does a good job not only
laying the screen, but he lingers for just a second
to kind of create a larger pocket pass window. He
holds his screen for an extra second and then he rolls.
James Harden hits him on the bounce. There's no tag,
so he just goes right downhill. There was a tag,
I think it was late and he ends up I
think he ended up trying a foul on that play
from ever correct, but it gets two easy points out
(21:19):
of it. You have to tag the roller if you're
late on the tag Jared Allen's scoring, or if you
don't tag Jared Allen scoring. If you do tag, there's
four dudes on the floor off of Jared Allen, including
the ball handler, who are all over forty percent on
catch and shoot. Three so like it's one of these
situations where they're difficult to guard under normal circumstances, but
(21:43):
because of the way the Nuggets play defense with Nikola Jokic,
it's borderline impossible. And so there was a tough shot
and there James Harden hit a ridiculous step back three
on the left wing one way he probably got fouled
that ended up tying the game. But every other bucket
was easy, easy finishes and fouls for Jared Allen on rolls,
a layup for Donovan Mitchell on this nasty spin move
(22:03):
in semi transition, driving down the right side of the floor.
The move was tough, but once he got past him,
there's nobody help him because of all that shooting on
the floor. Wide open layup, wide open threes for Jalen Tyson.
He had two wide open ones, one on the right
wing or one right at the top of the key
down the stretch. Those are all really easy shots that
are built from that dynamic of having two really high
(22:24):
level shot creators, a pick and roll threat as a
screener that's one of the best in the league, and
then literally two dudes who make damn near half of
their catch and shoot threes. That's just extremely difficult to guard.
And it's one of the big reasons why I'm so
high on this Cavs team, and I want to credit
the Cavs defense down the stretch. In this game too,
James Harden made some key defensive rotations late in the game.
(22:46):
He had one where he forced Tim Hardaway junior. Tim
Hardaway had one of those classic kind of like screen
slip sequences with Jokic off the top with Jamal Murray
coming off, and so Jokic dumps it over the top
and Harden made a really nice on time rotation, got there,
got a good contest. Tim Hardaway just hit a contested floater.
Shout out to him, it's tough shot. And he had
(23:07):
another one where he forced a turnover on Jokich Jokic
post up. They're running that like classic kind of post
entry two man game with Murray and Jokic off of
the left wing and left block, and Jokic goes to
spin over his left shoulder. Harden sees it coming, rotates,
gets there in time, feet set and as Jokic tries
to step through, it's no foul because Harden is standing still.
(23:27):
He throws his arms into Harden and ends up turning
the basketball over his huge pivotal stop late in the game. Like,
one of the things with James Harden to keep an
eye on is that specific kind of thing as it
pertains to this team and their potential, because James Harden
is a much better one on one player defensively than
he gets credit for. He has been awesome guarding one
on ones this year. It was one of the big
upside things that I talked about in the Trade Reaction pod.
(23:50):
Compared to a guy like Darius Garland who was just
getting brutalized in one on ones this year, James is
better one on one defender. But James can be an undisciplined,
unfocused off ball defender. He can miss rotations, he can
be laid on rotations, he can miss box outs, he
can lose shooters, he can get back cut, all of
that kind of stuff. And so James being attentive like
that on defense and being on time with his rotations
(24:11):
and just being in the right spot in the defensive
scheme is the pathway to him becoming a functional quality
defender in the best version of this team. I think
they're gonna need Evan Mobley, like they have not defended
well really in the big picture since since James Harden
joined the team in the two games. But I do
think that Evan Mobley's gonna help a lot with that
when he gets back. And to their credit, they have
(24:32):
a one toh five defensive rating and crunch time last
night against that awesome Nuggets offense, I thought that was
a good impressive stretch of defense, some really impressive things.
There was a as a team, I thought they defended
Jamal Murray really well. They forced him into some tough
contested shots that he missed. There was this blitz from
Keon Ellis and Jared Allen where they forced a turnover
(24:53):
on Jamal Murray just with excellent ball pressure where he
tried to get the pass off to Yonis kind of
slipping out of the screen, but they just got such
great pressure they got a deflection that led out to
a runout the other way. I'm just I'm buying all
sorts of Calvestock right now. You guys will see in
my contender rankings with koc that come out. I think
on Thursday this week I have him in my as
my favorite to win in the Eastern Conference. Now after
(25:16):
the trades, I looked at it as very jumbled up,
but I looked at the Knicks as my slight favorite
before the deadline. I think the addition of Keon Ellis,
Dennis Schroeder, and James Harden vault the Calves above every
other team in that group. It's all very close. Like
you know, obviously we're looking at Detroit, New York, Boston
and Cleveland as the main ones. Toronto's kind of like
(25:36):
hanging on to the bottom end of that group there,
but like they're all still very bunched up. But to me,
these moves and especially seeing it kind of like come
to fruition and just the type of basketball scene from
them in the last couple of days, I think I
put the Calves at the top of that group, and
they're the team that I have and in that group,
the one team in that group that I have as
a top tier contender in our contender rankings that come
(25:59):
out later this week. It's really a simple I think
when you add Evan Mobley to the mix, there will
be a combination of shot creation, high level role man play,
off ball shooting, perimeter defense, and rim protection. A combination
of those five things that is sort of unrivaled in
(26:20):
the East. They're not a perfect team. I'm still a
little worried about their frontline getting pushed around in certain
types of series. You know, big physical front lines. But
of all the top teams in the East, and all
of them are flawed to a certain extent, I think
this is the most complete team. And I'm just really
believing and buying in on this calvs. Group as we
(26:41):
had down the stretch of this season last game for today,
Lakers Thunder not overly surprised by the result here. I
think the Thunder without Shay are just a better basketball
team than the Lakers without Luca. That's not exactly a
bold take. When you factor in just overall offense and
defensive talent, the Thunder are the most talented roster in
(27:01):
the league when they're fully healthy, and if you take
Shay off and you take Luca off, you find out
pretty quickly that the Lakers have a flawed roster by comparison.
And it's a little closer than it would look on
paper for this type of game, just strictly looking at
this matchup in the regular season, simply because the Thunder
offense completely falls apart without Shay. Their offense straight up
(27:22):
can't score without Shaye relative to when he's on the floor.
The Lakers, as a counter example, have only been two
point six points worse per one hundred possessions when Luca's
off the floor this year because they still have high
level shot creators and they get better defensively by about
two point four points. And so even though the offense
is a little better with Luca, it's just not as
big of a gap because you have Austin and Lebron,
(27:43):
these two super high level shot creators. So in a
game like this, the Lakers are still capable of replicating
some of what they do on offense, and they're more
or less the same, if not a slightly better defensive
team the Thunder. Without Shay, they usually have a hard
time scoring. And so that's why even though these rosters
after their stars tilt heavily towards the Thunder, it was
(28:06):
a competitive game because the Lakers, you know, they have
more resilience on offense without their superstar because of the
way their roster is built. But even when we apply
that context, Okay, so he just has better basketball players,
And I thought it was on display throughout the game
there's so many individual examples of that difference. So like,
for instance, like you look at the scrappiness of the Bigs,
(28:28):
DeAndre Ayton has the ball straight up taken away from
him twice down the stretch because he's just completely unprepared
for the scrappiness of this environment. He has an offensive rebound,
gets stripped, has a defensive rebound gets stripped underneath the basket,
and it leads to a dunk. Chet. As a counter example,
the Lakers in a switching group end up leaving Lebron
(28:51):
James on an island out on the perimeter. That puts
Marcus Smart in a situation where he's got to scrap
with Chet Holmgren. Same dynamic. Right, Ayton got out scrapped
by guards. Right here, you have Chet matched up with
an even scrappier guard right in Marcus Smart, one of
the scrappiest guards of all time, and Chet just beats
him to the ball and gets a dunk. So like
(29:12):
in the scrap, Chet's better at scrapping than DeAndre, in
addition to being a better defensive player. Got some huge
stops down the stretch, including a big isostop on Marcus
Smart driving down the lane. But Chet's just a way
better basketball player than DeAndre and that's not a surprise there, right,
Guys like Alex Crusoe and Lou Dort and jay Lynn
Williams hitting threes while Jake Laaravia and Jared Vanderbilt are
(29:35):
clanking from the corners like that's not a surprise. The
Thunder have better shooting talent. The Thunder are fifteenth and
catch and shoot three point percentage this year. The Lakers
are twenty fifth. The Thunder were twelve for twenty six
on catch and shoot threes last night, the Lakers were
seven for twenty three. That's in line with what you
would expect from the talent available on these rosters. Even
the perimeter physicality stuff like Cason Wallace, Chet, Holmerun and
(29:58):
Jalen Williams all were able to go right at Austin
Reeves late in the game for easy twos. Austin defended
every single one of those plays pretty well, kept his
body in front, was competing physically, but he's just giving
up an athletic advantage against all three of those guys.
That's an advantage that Oklahoma City has that would not
go away even if the Stars were available, even just
(30:18):
Oklahoma City forcing fifteen turnovers and scoring twenty three points
on them. Cason Wallace, by the way, menace in this game,
just hounding Austin Reeves up and down the floor, getting
those big late strips on DeAndre eight and as well.
Lebron talked about it after the game. There's just a
simple difference between these two teams. One's a championship contender
and one is not. He plainly stated that last night.
(30:41):
There are levels to hoop in the NBA. The Lakers
every time they run into this level seemed to get exposed.
So for example, in this eight and four stretch, where
they've been top ten in offense and defense. During the
eight and three they were top ten in offense and defense.
I'm not sure how last night's numbers affected that, but
during the stretch where they've been playing their best backasketball
the season, they're eight and four. They're zero to three
(31:03):
in that stretch against teams that are in the top
ten and point differential according to Cleaning Glass, just five
and eleven this season against teams that are in the
top ten and point differential. The following teams have all
been better by win percentage against teams in the top
ten and point differential, the Clippers, the Blazers, the Jazz,
the Hawks, and the Hornets. All five of those teams
(31:24):
are below five hundred in the big picture, but they
have performed better this season against the best teams in
the league. So like, this is just kind of what
it is. Now. The counter that you would hear from
some people is like, hey, well, what about if the
Lakers get all their stars healthy? And again, what I
would say in that specific context is like, is there
a chance that the Lakers will compete better against the
(31:45):
teams that are in the top ten and point differential
if they have all their stars healthy? Yeah, of course
there will. I don't think that that's too far of
a bridge to cross, so to speak. But even in
that context, it's one thing to be better than the Clippers, Blazers, Jazz, Hawks,
and and it's another thing to actually be ready to
compete nightly against the best teams in the NBA. And
I just think this Lakers team is miles away from that.
(32:07):
Several of the thunder players I wanted to shout out
Alex Caruso. I thought his off the dribble shot creation
in this game was huge he's sneaky, been really good
at it all year. When called upon, He's run forty
pick and rolls, which is super low volume, but he's
generated forty five points including passes, so well over a
point for possession. He just hit a variety of pull
up jumpers and driving layups and made some passing reads
(32:28):
that just felt like found money in a game like
this where you only have one of your primary dribble
drive guys healthy. The Isaiah Joe first half hot streak,
I thought that was a huge part of that first
bit of separation that Oklahoma City built in the game.
Cason Wallace in those pick sixes out at half court.
Those are huge momentum plays. Jalen Williams the you know
Jaylynn Williams coming off the bench. It's always tough for
(32:50):
me to differentiate between those two and I'm verbalizing their names.
But he's been amazing all year in all sorts of
ways for this team, just kind of you know, obviously,
he was big during the Hertenstein injury, being another big
body for them off the bench. He's just a big,
smart defender who's always in the right place at the
right time, and he continues to just hit timely threes
for this team. Hit some huge ones in the fourth
(33:10):
quarter last night. I thought Jared McCain's first shift was awesome.
Just came in aggressive looking for a shot, which is
what the team needs from him right now with all
of the injuries. And then Chet just huge defensive stands
down at the rim late in the game in addition
to that big offensive rebound put back late. You have
to play really solid team basketball when you're down your superstar,
(33:31):
and the Thunder did that and they got a big win.
And then lastly, just Jaylen Williams. Jaylen Williams, good to
see him back last night, held up physically, which is
good news. I was a little worried that they were
bringing him back too quick for a soft tissue injury
when he's so important to the final version of this team.
But he looked great last night, had some big, big
buckets late in the game when this team needed him late.
(33:52):
Just an awesome performance from a team that I believe
is going to win the championship this year in Oklahoma City. Thunder.
All right, guys, that's all I have for today is
always I Sally appreciate you guys for supporting us and
supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with a mailbag.
This the schedule the rest of this week is a
little funky, could have a This is my last like
little break before the home stretch. And so I've got
a buddy coming in town today and we're going to
(34:13):
do some skiing over the next few days. So I've
got a mail bag coming out tomorrow. Today I'm recording
contender rankings with KOC that's going to air on Thursday,
and then we'll be back on Monday with our normal
power rankings Again. As always, I appreciate you guys, and
I will see you tomorrow
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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