June 8, 2026 • 23 mins
Jason reacts to and breaks down the film on Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks. He shows how Victor Wembanyama, De'Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper and the Spurs were able to come back in the fourth quarter against Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, explaining how these strategies can be helpful in Game 3 and beyond.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, well, good Hoops tonight, you're at
the volume. Happy Sunday, everybody, uphile. You guys are having
an incredible weekend. Going to keep it super simple today
(00:21):
for our film session, I'm going to focus on every
single play from the Spurs comeback from down fourteen in
the fourth quarter of Game two. Obviously, the Knicks end
up winning the game, which we'll talk about when we
get to those final sequences, but I really want to
dive into what specifically they did differently, what can translate
forward into the series, and whether or not it means
the Spurs have much of a chance to try to
make this thing a series. You guys know the joke
(00:42):
before we get started. Subscribe to Hoops and Not YouTube channels.
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that helps us a lot. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Let's get right into it. We're going toe be starting
with the first bucket after so ognnob it's the dunk
(01:05):
driving on Wembee in a closeout situation. And look at
how fast the Spurs get up the floor after a
made basket. And this really is the story of how
they got going here. Down the stretch, Harper draws a
foul in the open floor. This is the biggest thing
that can translate forward to them. They have got to
play with as much pace as possible to weaponize some
of that youthful exuberance and athleticism they have because of
(01:28):
the troubles that they're having in the half court, because
of how big of a jump shooting gap there is.
We talked about this a little bit last night, but
the Knicks have been the very best jump shooting team
in the NBA in this playoff run. The Spurs have
been more of a middle of the pack jump shooting
team among the playoff teams. So like it's very important
for them to avoid that slow down half court environment
(01:49):
where in the driving kick setting, where the physical dynamic
isn't as advantageous for the Spurs as it was in
the last round, they need to be in the open
floor more in the half court, the Knicks can really
load up on the ball can kind of counter that advantage.
So this is the difference in the defensive look we saw,
and you're gonna see a couple of different coverages down
the stretch of this game, but the main thing was
(02:11):
essentially no more of these outrageous, like kind of just
outright double teams of Jalen Brunson far away from the basket,
simplifying his decision making tree and getting their defense into rotation.
Here you're gonna see effectively a double drag. But Deuce,
who's gonna slip out of the first screen. We're just
gonna get a switch. Fox is gonna stay on Michale bridges,
(02:31):
and now Wemby's guarding one on one. The reason why
I kind of like this idea is one it forces
Brunson to then attack Victor wemen Yama in space, but
you're already kind of conceding Karl Anthony Towns a mismatch
underneath the basket. Anyway, this is something you've conceded the
second you decided not to guard him with Wemby. So
if you're already gonna have Wemby basically functioning as a
(02:53):
perimeter defender. Why not use him on the other end
of screens to try to get stops against Brunson. He
gets multiple stops against Brunson down the stretch of the
game in a way that helped them come back. Here's
an example. You're gonna see him force him into kind
of a step through move. Now everyone's guarded because you
didn't double team. You have good perimeter defender guarding Brunson.
(03:14):
Everyone else is staying home off the ball. The resulting
effect Brunson has to force this kind of like low
percentage bounce past the cat, which Kat gets and he
goes up quick, but he has no advantage. He's coming
from behind the backboard and Champagne ends up blocking him clean.
We end up with a shot clock violation. Now we're
gonna run double drag. This double drag is gonna end
(03:35):
up forcing a switch with Jalen Brunson on Darren Fox.
This was one of the other stories of the late
run in this game. In the half court, the Spurs
indexed more towards trying to attack Brunson and action. Here
Darren Fox just gets into a step back three over
the top and knocks it down, gets tons of separation
much more comfortable there. When you're allowing Brunson to work,
(03:56):
you don't want to just let him work solely one
on one. If he gets any sort of deep dribble penetration,
you want to try to strength the floor on him
a little bit instead of an outright double team like
if Champenny. Let's talk about what this looks like after
the switch. So Brunson likes the Champagnie matchup, he goes
at Champenny, Fox is on Michale Bridges. So if dearon
Fox just outright goes in double teams Jalen Brunson. Brunson
(04:20):
has the easiest decision in the world. I'm not shooting
this thing. I'm just throwing the ball to McHale. I
throw the ball to McHale. He's gonna take a shot.
You'll see an example of that here in a minute
where the Spurs end up leaving McHale Bridges wide open.
He just happens to miss a shot, but by virtue
of sending more of a dig down. See how it's
a dig down by virtue of sending a dig down
rather than a hard double team. Can see how he
(04:41):
like lunges at the ball, but then he lunges back
out into the passing lane. Of course Mkale back cuts
him and he's actually wide open. But the point is
is you made this a more complicated decision. Now it's like, well,
I might just shoot anyway, even though there's an open
man here that can prey on Jalen Brunson making the
(05:01):
wrong decision and being overly aggressive, which is what he
does here. The right read is to Mikhale Bridges, who's
wide open on the wing. But because you sent a
dig down instead of an early double, you made him
make a tougher decision. He makes the wrong decision. He
forces it up and ends up missing. Karl Anthony Towns
ends up keeping it alive. I'm not going to show
(05:22):
the next clip, but with four seconds left they just
run up based on out of bounce play that goes nowhere.
Duce McBride gets the ball in the wing, ends up
forcing up a tough fifteen footer and misses it. Actually,
I am showing you the play, so uh, Deuce McBride
misses the little shot. Good box out from Wemby. They
get the rebound in the push ahead. In transition, we
get a cross match that transition cross match ends up
(05:42):
with Jalen Brunson on Deer and Fox Deer and Fox
ends up working in one on one, goes to this
nasty little step through move towards his left hand to
score off the glass. Something to keep in mind there
if the Spurs do try going to their all guard lineup,
so Vicel, Fox, Castle and Harper all together, there's going
He's gonna start on Vassell, who, by the way, Vassell's
(06:05):
a better movement shooter than Champagnee, So the hedge and
recover will be less effective there. But in these situations
there will just be more possessions because there's three great
ball handlers on the floor, there will be more possessions
where Brunson just ends up on a ball handler and
a transition cross match and you have an opportunity to
quick attack him one on one. This is that play
where they leave McHale bridges open. So this is kind
(06:27):
of like a weird, confusing sequence where I think Wemby
was starting the possession on Michale bridges, but then he
was like moving over, nevermind, I'm gonna get cat. Vassell
gets kind of caught in between. But this is an
example of when you make the decision tree easy. Brunson's
not gonna mess around. He's just gonna throw the pass.
That's why you don't even though this wasn't a double team.
That's why you don't double team though, so you don't
(06:48):
have just a very simple, easy decision to an open shooter.
He gets Vasselle with a basic pump fake. He just
happens to miss the shot going the other way though.
Look at Victor Womeny, I'm a playe off two feet.
I don't like these Victor ISO's too much right now,
just because he's given up too much strength. But this
is an example of how it can work for him
in the long run. Watch him make a hard move
and dislodge cat Boom, dislodge his cat, but instead of
(07:12):
rumbling stumbling off on one foot, plays off a two feet,
keeps a strong base and is able to pivot and
get back to his left hand for a layup. That's
why it's important to play off a two feet. This
is an example of the one play down the stretch
where they went to cat with off ball action and
they just never went back to this for whatever reason,
but they ended up getting what should have been an
open shot, So watch Kat gets the ball. Brunson's gonna
(07:33):
set a backscreen on Fox. When he does backscreen, now
he's got inside position. Great read from Brunson. He slips
out of it, cat season boom, great read right now.
From here, Brunson once again is in the decision making
zone and he has two great opportunities. Wenby's gonna come
over late here, which you'll see in a second. But
(07:54):
Michale Bridges is butt naked in the right corner, wide open. Brunson, though,
continues to force the issue you and goes up against
two guys as you can see here as he starts
to attack. Even Blander Shammitt is open too. But this
is a little bit harder read. This is why late
help is good when I talk about late help. When
you send late help rather than early help, it's more
likely that the ball handler will miss it and fail
(08:16):
to make the correct read when he ends up swatting
his ass off the glass. But again, you put Brunson
into the decision making zone here. He's making a lot
of poor pass shoot decisions. That's a big part of
how the Spurs came back down the stretch of this game.
It's a big adjustment that Brunson needs to make as
he heads into the next game when these help decisions
(08:36):
are coming later. Brunson's fucking up. When you make the
mistake out twenty five thirty feet from the basket, the
double team or the mistake like we saw on the
McHale Bridges one, it's just a much easier decision for Brunson.
He's not going to make that mistake as often five
on four because Brunson's on the ground. We get in
transition the advantage Devin Vessel trailing the play. Classic great
(09:01):
lift jump shot from Devin Vessel goes in. Here's another
force from Brunson. So earlier on we saw Wemby switching
ball screens. We're going to see another example of it
here later on in a few minutes. We good ball
pressure up here up top on the switch makes life hell,
but the ball does get to Brunson, We're going to
run into a double drag. It kind of turns into
(09:21):
forty five action as og Anobi flips the screen. But
now we have this ball screen right Vasell and Wemby
and Wenby switching. It is what he's thinking, and that's
honestly what Vissell should do. Viscell is making a mistake here, frankly,
and I'm hoping that in game Game three and MSG,
the Spurs continue to just kind of stay home and
(09:42):
let Brunson hunt Wemby ond switches. But as he's hunting
Wemby on the switch, he sees Wemby hanging back a
little bit, so he goes into his hesitation pull up.
What he doesn't see is Devin Vassell ends up basically
double teaming him and Michale Bridges is wide open with
five seconds on the shot clock. But once again because
he sent the help eight rather than sending the help
(10:02):
or the double team early, it puts Brunson into a
shot pass decision which is a little bit more complicated,
and he continues to make the wrong decision basically every
single time here down the stretch. Today's show is brought
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Darren Fox ends up having a turnover here in the
open court. This was an example of why I didn't
(12:09):
love the lack of a time out for Mitchell Robinson
the Spurs. We're just kind of a little chaotic in transition,
so on a final possession I would have slowed down.
He ends up turning it over, thrown it back to McHale.
McHale ends up making a nice read at the rim
that goes to a wide open Jalen Brunson. He just
smokes the three. But in transition off the cross match.
(12:31):
After that miss three, here we get our transition cross match.
Harper has Brunson now as he snakes through the lane,
pulls it out. Now he's got his cross match. And
this is again why I want to see that four
guard lineup. I want to see more of this. M
Harper goes right at Brunson, scores easily ties the game.
(12:52):
Bad play here from Julian Champagne. I'm gonna fast forward
through it. Brunson ends up giving up the ball to
sham It. After he gives up the ball to sham It,
Shamit drives. He's going nowhere. He's locked up at this point.
Champagnie has one job, champ like Fox doesn't need help here.
Your one job is to make sure this easiest pass
is not available. Champenni ends up losing sight of OJ Andnobie.
(13:14):
Big mistake leaves his feet that puts himself in a
predicament where Og relocates. He ends up fouling a shoot, big, big,
big mistake from Julian Champenni there down the stretch. This
is a very well executed double drag go into the
double screen Brunson shows Fox goes to the behind the
back dribble to split. Really nice play from Fox because
he cleanly beats these two guys. That forces Kat to
(13:36):
step up, which opens up the easy lob pass to Wemby.
This was a huge sequence from Ojan and Obi and
Karl Anthony Towns that kind of got lost in the
shuffle last night. We're playing through McHale bridges. McHale ends
up in some trouble, kind of going nowhere, but in
this little slip screen with Og, Og gets the ball
and ends up cleanly beating dep Look at how much
(13:57):
times on the shot clock. OG's got the ball thirty
feet from the basket with two point one on the
shot clock. And look at how he screams downhill and
gets something off the glass, which forces Dylan Harper to
step up, which then leaves Cat an offensive rebound position.
Kat keeps it alive. Champagne hits that out of bounds,
(14:18):
so two seconds on the shot clock, that possession is dead,
probably ending up with a jacked up shot with a
matched up player against Kat who can at least box
him out. The Spurs might have a chance to get
a rebound now, they could be going down to take
the lead. Instead, Og turns a nothing into something, gets
something up off the glass, forces help gets Karl Anthony
(14:38):
Towns the offensive rebound opportunity. Then on the sideline baseline
out of bounds. Look at this play. McHale Bridge is
coming off Wenby doesn't want to help because he doesn't
want to come off of cat Fox gets wiped out
on the screen. Because he gets wiped out on the screen,
Dylan Harper steps up. Because Dylan Harper steps up, McHale
hits Jalen Brunton coming back in bound. There's Champennie in
(15:02):
the late couple things there. Champagne's probably a little too
locked in on Josh Hart there, probably needs to come
over further. And then also, if I'm Dylan Harper, I'd
rather have McHale Bridges take a contested pull up MIDI
here than give up a layup to Brunson. So another
kind of defensive breakdown from the Spurs. But again that's
a layup that made it one O two ninety nine
because Ognnobi and Karl Anthony Towns turned a broken possession
(15:25):
into an extra possession on this play. This was kind
of a chaotic transition sequence, I think if I remember correctly,
Wemby airballs a corner three. Wenby airballs a corner three.
In transition going the other way, Brunson smokes the layup
on Fox would go out the other way. Dylan Harper
in transition gets downhill and puts it up on the
glass and gets the goaltending call on cap. Brunson on
(15:47):
this entire possession. I'm going back here because I'm connecting
the transition piece here. Bruns In on this entire possession
just basically takes the possession off and he goes and
stands in the corner. They run through McHale bridges to
get the little slip screen here with Ognobe that allows
McHale to turn the corner. But we get a nice block
in this case from Devin Vessel who comes off of
Josh Hart in the corner, so he gets the stop
(16:07):
on McHale Bridges. Spurs run out the other way. McHale,
you have Wenby trailing the play and he draws the
foul for the end. One big, big play. This is
the Jalen Brunson tough bucket. This is the stuff you
gotta live with. Though again, Brunson has been putrid down
the stretch of this game, so like, I get it,
he tied the game here, but like, this is where
(16:29):
you got to trust your process and not go into
game three thinking, oh, we need to double team Brunson
because he hit a clutch shot. No, the Spurs were
down fourteen and now they're up by two, in large
part because this guy keeps shooting bad shots, so you
need to continue to trust the process. Here he does,
like the champagnee matchup, gets downhill into Champagne's chest with
(16:51):
this hard drive and goes into a very very nifty
one like fadeaway, big time shot from Jalen Brunson, tip
of the cat. But again, this is where if I'm
a Spurs, if I'm running this, I'm trusting the process.
Moving forward, here's our first two for one possession. Did
not like this. These straight ISOs for Wemby against Mitch.
This is a heavily contested shot. Look at the contest
(17:12):
for Mitch, Like Mitch gets a very good contest on
the release, He's timed it perfectly, kind of disrupts Wemby's
base a little bit and as a result, the shot
barely grazes the outside of the rim. Didn't love that
shot going the other way. This is kind of the
beginning of the end here. Did not like this play
from Steph Castle. He's guarding Jalen Brunson unnecessarily pressuring him
(17:36):
really far from the basket with twenty two seconds left.
He's just trying to take a foul here because they
have a foul to give. So Brunson drives and he
just rakes him reaching in. He's just being super aggressive.
You pick up that foul now you don't have a
foul to give, which is precisely what sends Brunson to
the foul line after the turnover that Wemby has in
a minute. My thing is like, play him straight up,
(17:59):
give him more, and yeah, if you're compromised, take the foul.
Like if Brunson beats you with a good move and
you think he's gonna score, by all means commit a foul.
But This is just giving a foul for the sake
of giving a foul, which then puts them in the
penalty the rest of the way. Now we go to
the final possession. I skipped ahead for this clip so
you can see the transition sequence. But we get the
(18:19):
ball screen and it's a switch. Okay, so now we're
going back to switching the ball screen. Wemby's on Jalen
Brunson forces him into a tough pull up, misses it
gets the rebound boom. Now Wemby has the ball. There's
thirteen seconds on the shot clock. But Wemby has the
ball literally ninety two feet from the basket with his
back turned towards the towards his own rim, facing his
(18:43):
own bench. Call it time out, Call a time out,
get a good shot. I was talking about this on
the All NBA Pod with Adamars on Saturday. But like,
I've been thinking a lot about this concept because I
went right after the game last night and I thought
there was less time left. I ended up thinking there
were seven seconds left at the time of this time
out ends up being that there's thirteen, so there's more time.
(19:05):
But I still feel the same way, and the main
reason Why is I think that you trust your guys
to go make something happen in a situation like that
if they are rock solid ball handlers. And I like Wemby,
I think he's the best player in the world. He
is not a rock solid ball handler. Neither is Dearon Fox.
(19:26):
Neither's Steph Castle, neither is Dylan Harper. This is a
timeout team, not to let him play team. The list
of guys I would trust in a situation like that
is only like a half dozen long. It's like Luka Jokic,
Shay Lebron. You know, there's a handful of guys. Jalen
Brunson is one of them. There's a handful of guys
(19:48):
that I trust in a situation like that to walk
the ball up the floor if it's if it's a
player that's not necessarily a super steady ball handler, call
a time out. Now, as you guys can see, is
looking because now I'm already saying it's Mitch's fault. It's
Mitch's fault, it's Mitch's fault. But now that we're playing,
let's look at what happened. You guys might have seen
a clip from a camera that was down here facing
(20:11):
this way where you see Steph Castle is looking for
the ball. But even above and beyond anything having to
do with whether or not Steph is looking, because he
turns his head and Wemsey Wenby throws it to him.
But the other problem here is look at where Jalen
Brunson is. Even if you hit Castle and he catches
this ball, he's got a defender right in front of
(20:34):
him who is notorious for trying to take charges and
swipe down at the basketball. If Brunson's not here and
Brunson's over here, by all means throw the ball to Castle.
He's got a lane, he's got advantage. But this is
just a poor decision from Wemby under these circumstances. Again,
though I keep thinking you had multiple transition turnovers before
(20:54):
this point. This is a chaotic play. Call a time
out and get your guys a good look. And then
after the play, Wemby ends up running into Brunson, who
falls over. And now you're in the penalty because of
what happened on that previous play where you just put
them in the penalty for no reason. Now Brunson goes down,
makes one of two free throws. You call a time out.
(21:16):
You actually end up running a good play here. What
I like about the difference between this play and the
one where Wenby missed over Mitch earlier was the one
where Wenby missed over Mitch was an iso. Here we
have a ball screen which drags Mitch further away, which
gets Wemby basically a closeout. He fakes that jab. See
how he like kind of catches looks down jab. It
(21:41):
freezes Mitch for a second. Now look at the difference
in separation. When Mitch isn't even in the frame, Wenby
gets a great look. That's why I like get If
you're gonna run a play for Wemby as a scorer,
get it to him as part of a screening action
rather than in a situation where he's, you know, a
static up against a guy who's got a size and
(22:03):
strength advantage on him. Anyway, big adjustments moving forward into
game three. You gotta see less aggressive coverages on Brunson
that stress his decisions in the shoot past zone there
in the middle of the floor. I think Brunson will
make mistakes and take a lot of bad shots like
he did down the stretch. Two. Get out and transition
(22:25):
as much as possible to avoid the half court situation.
Three in the half court, target Brunson as much as
humanly possible. When you're targeting Brunson, you'll have an easier
time if you go to your four guard lineup with Vasel, Vassell, Castle, Wemby,
Harper and Fox. It just puts Brunson in a situation
where he has to guard somebody that can score. Last thing,
(22:47):
which was clearly screaming off the film here. You can't
afford mistakes. You can't afford to leave guys open. You
can't afford to lose contain on the ball with two
seconds on the shot clock. You can't afford to foul
a three point shooter. You can't afford to overhelp on
a baseline out of bounds and give up a slip layup. Like.
There's just too many mistakes from the Spurs when the
(23:07):
margins are this tight, and that's where they're gonna have
to be better if they're gonna have any chance to
make a series out of this thing. All right, guys,
it's all I have for today is always to sincerely
appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.
We will be back tomorrow night after the final buzzer
of Game one should be a ton of fun. Hope
to see you guys there
The volume. All right, well, good Hoops tonight, you're at
the volume. Happy Sunday, everybody, uphile. You guys are having
an incredible weekend. Going to keep it super simple today
(00:21):
for our film session, I'm going to focus on every
single play from the Spurs comeback from down fourteen in
the fourth quarter of Game two. Obviously, the Knicks end
up winning the game, which we'll talk about when we
get to those final sequences, but I really want to
dive into what specifically they did differently, what can translate
forward into the series, and whether or not it means
the Spurs have much of a chance to try to
make this thing a series. You guys know the joke
(00:42):
before we get started. Subscribe to Hoops and Not YouTube channels.
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that helps us a lot. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Let's get right into it. We're going toe be starting
with the first bucket after so ognnob it's the dunk
(01:05):
driving on Wembee in a closeout situation. And look at
how fast the Spurs get up the floor after a
made basket. And this really is the story of how
they got going here. Down the stretch, Harper draws a
foul in the open floor. This is the biggest thing
that can translate forward to them. They have got to
play with as much pace as possible to weaponize some
of that youthful exuberance and athleticism they have because of
(01:28):
the troubles that they're having in the half court, because
of how big of a jump shooting gap there is.
We talked about this a little bit last night, but
the Knicks have been the very best jump shooting team
in the NBA in this playoff run. The Spurs have
been more of a middle of the pack jump shooting
team among the playoff teams. So like it's very important
for them to avoid that slow down half court environment
(01:49):
where in the driving kick setting, where the physical dynamic
isn't as advantageous for the Spurs as it was in
the last round, they need to be in the open
floor more in the half court, the Knicks can really
load up on the ball can kind of counter that advantage.
So this is the difference in the defensive look we saw,
and you're gonna see a couple of different coverages down
the stretch of this game, but the main thing was
(02:11):
essentially no more of these outrageous, like kind of just
outright double teams of Jalen Brunson far away from the basket,
simplifying his decision making tree and getting their defense into rotation.
Here you're gonna see effectively a double drag. But Deuce,
who's gonna slip out of the first screen. We're just
gonna get a switch. Fox is gonna stay on Michale bridges,
(02:31):
and now Wemby's guarding one on one. The reason why
I kind of like this idea is one it forces
Brunson to then attack Victor wemen Yama in space, but
you're already kind of conceding Karl Anthony Towns a mismatch
underneath the basket. Anyway, this is something you've conceded the
second you decided not to guard him with Wemby. So
if you're already gonna have Wemby basically functioning as a
(02:53):
perimeter defender. Why not use him on the other end
of screens to try to get stops against Brunson. He
gets multiple stops against Brunson down the stretch of the
game in a way that helped them come back. Here's
an example. You're gonna see him force him into kind
of a step through move. Now everyone's guarded because you
didn't double team. You have good perimeter defender guarding Brunson.
(03:14):
Everyone else is staying home off the ball. The resulting
effect Brunson has to force this kind of like low
percentage bounce past the cat, which Kat gets and he
goes up quick, but he has no advantage. He's coming
from behind the backboard and Champagne ends up blocking him clean.
We end up with a shot clock violation. Now we're
gonna run double drag. This double drag is gonna end
(03:35):
up forcing a switch with Jalen Brunson on Darren Fox.
This was one of the other stories of the late
run in this game. In the half court, the Spurs
indexed more towards trying to attack Brunson and action. Here
Darren Fox just gets into a step back three over
the top and knocks it down, gets tons of separation
much more comfortable there. When you're allowing Brunson to work,
(03:56):
you don't want to just let him work solely one
on one. If he gets any sort of deep dribble penetration,
you want to try to strength the floor on him
a little bit instead of an outright double team like
if Champenny. Let's talk about what this looks like after
the switch. So Brunson likes the Champagnie matchup, he goes
at Champenny, Fox is on Michale Bridges. So if dearon
Fox just outright goes in double teams Jalen Brunson. Brunson
(04:20):
has the easiest decision in the world. I'm not shooting
this thing. I'm just throwing the ball to McHale. I
throw the ball to McHale. He's gonna take a shot.
You'll see an example of that here in a minute
where the Spurs end up leaving McHale Bridges wide open.
He just happens to miss a shot, but by virtue
of sending more of a dig down. See how it's
a dig down by virtue of sending a dig down
rather than a hard double team. Can see how he
(04:41):
like lunges at the ball, but then he lunges back
out into the passing lane. Of course Mkale back cuts
him and he's actually wide open. But the point is
is you made this a more complicated decision. Now it's like, well,
I might just shoot anyway, even though there's an open
man here that can prey on Jalen Brunson making the
(05:01):
wrong decision and being overly aggressive, which is what he
does here. The right read is to Mikhale Bridges, who's
wide open on the wing. But because you sent a
dig down instead of an early double, you made him
make a tougher decision. He makes the wrong decision. He
forces it up and ends up missing. Karl Anthony Towns
ends up keeping it alive. I'm not going to show
(05:22):
the next clip, but with four seconds left they just
run up based on out of bounce play that goes nowhere.
Duce McBride gets the ball in the wing, ends up
forcing up a tough fifteen footer and misses it. Actually,
I am showing you the play, so uh, Deuce McBride
misses the little shot. Good box out from Wemby. They
get the rebound in the push ahead. In transition, we
get a cross match that transition cross match ends up
(05:42):
with Jalen Brunson on Deer and Fox Deer and Fox
ends up working in one on one, goes to this
nasty little step through move towards his left hand to
score off the glass. Something to keep in mind there
if the Spurs do try going to their all guard lineup,
so Vicel, Fox, Castle and Harper all together, there's going
He's gonna start on Vassell, who, by the way, Vassell's
(06:05):
a better movement shooter than Champagnee, So the hedge and
recover will be less effective there. But in these situations
there will just be more possessions because there's three great
ball handlers on the floor, there will be more possessions
where Brunson just ends up on a ball handler and
a transition cross match and you have an opportunity to
quick attack him one on one. This is that play
where they leave McHale bridges open. So this is kind
(06:27):
of like a weird, confusing sequence where I think Wemby
was starting the possession on Michale bridges, but then he
was like moving over, nevermind, I'm gonna get cat. Vassell
gets kind of caught in between. But this is an
example of when you make the decision tree easy. Brunson's
not gonna mess around. He's just gonna throw the pass.
That's why you don't even though this wasn't a double team.
That's why you don't double team though, so you don't
(06:48):
have just a very simple, easy decision to an open shooter.
He gets Vasselle with a basic pump fake. He just
happens to miss the shot going the other way though.
Look at Victor Womeny, I'm a playe off two feet.
I don't like these Victor ISO's too much right now,
just because he's given up too much strength. But this
is an example of how it can work for him
in the long run. Watch him make a hard move
and dislodge cat Boom, dislodge his cat, but instead of
(07:12):
rumbling stumbling off on one foot, plays off a two feet,
keeps a strong base and is able to pivot and
get back to his left hand for a layup. That's
why it's important to play off a two feet. This
is an example of the one play down the stretch
where they went to cat with off ball action and
they just never went back to this for whatever reason,
but they ended up getting what should have been an
open shot, So watch Kat gets the ball. Brunson's gonna
(07:33):
set a backscreen on Fox. When he does backscreen, now
he's got inside position. Great read from Brunson. He slips
out of it, cat season boom, great read right now.
From here, Brunson once again is in the decision making
zone and he has two great opportunities. Wenby's gonna come
over late here, which you'll see in a second. But
(07:54):
Michale Bridges is butt naked in the right corner, wide open. Brunson, though,
continues to force the issue you and goes up against
two guys as you can see here as he starts
to attack. Even Blander Shammitt is open too. But this
is a little bit harder read. This is why late
help is good when I talk about late help. When
you send late help rather than early help, it's more
likely that the ball handler will miss it and fail
(08:16):
to make the correct read when he ends up swatting
his ass off the glass. But again, you put Brunson
into the decision making zone here. He's making a lot
of poor pass shoot decisions. That's a big part of
how the Spurs came back down the stretch of this game.
It's a big adjustment that Brunson needs to make as
he heads into the next game when these help decisions
(08:36):
are coming later. Brunson's fucking up. When you make the
mistake out twenty five thirty feet from the basket, the
double team or the mistake like we saw on the
McHale Bridges one, it's just a much easier decision for Brunson.
He's not going to make that mistake as often five
on four because Brunson's on the ground. We get in
transition the advantage Devin Vessel trailing the play. Classic great
(09:01):
lift jump shot from Devin Vessel goes in. Here's another
force from Brunson. So earlier on we saw Wemby switching
ball screens. We're going to see another example of it
here later on in a few minutes. We good ball
pressure up here up top on the switch makes life hell,
but the ball does get to Brunson, We're going to
run into a double drag. It kind of turns into
(09:21):
forty five action as og Anobi flips the screen. But
now we have this ball screen right Vasell and Wemby
and Wenby switching. It is what he's thinking, and that's
honestly what Vissell should do. Viscell is making a mistake here, frankly,
and I'm hoping that in game Game three and MSG,
the Spurs continue to just kind of stay home and
(09:42):
let Brunson hunt Wemby ond switches. But as he's hunting
Wemby on the switch, he sees Wemby hanging back a
little bit, so he goes into his hesitation pull up.
What he doesn't see is Devin Vassell ends up basically
double teaming him and Michale Bridges is wide open with
five seconds on the shot clock. But once again because
he sent the help eight rather than sending the help
(10:02):
or the double team early, it puts Brunson into a
shot pass decision which is a little bit more complicated,
and he continues to make the wrong decision basically every
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Darren Fox ends up having a turnover here in the
open court. This was an example of why I didn't
(12:09):
love the lack of a time out for Mitchell Robinson
the Spurs. We're just kind of a little chaotic in transition,
so on a final possession I would have slowed down.
He ends up turning it over, thrown it back to McHale.
McHale ends up making a nice read at the rim
that goes to a wide open Jalen Brunson. He just
smokes the three. But in transition off the cross match.
(12:31):
After that miss three, here we get our transition cross match.
Harper has Brunson now as he snakes through the lane,
pulls it out. Now he's got his cross match. And
this is again why I want to see that four
guard lineup. I want to see more of this. M
Harper goes right at Brunson, scores easily ties the game.
(12:52):
Bad play here from Julian Champagne. I'm gonna fast forward
through it. Brunson ends up giving up the ball to
sham It. After he gives up the ball to sham It,
Shamit drives. He's going nowhere. He's locked up at this point.
Champagnie has one job, champ like Fox doesn't need help here.
Your one job is to make sure this easiest pass
is not available. Champenni ends up losing sight of OJ Andnobie.
(13:14):
Big mistake leaves his feet that puts himself in a
predicament where Og relocates. He ends up fouling a shoot, big, big,
big mistake from Julian Champenni there down the stretch. This
is a very well executed double drag go into the
double screen Brunson shows Fox goes to the behind the
back dribble to split. Really nice play from Fox because
he cleanly beats these two guys. That forces Kat to
(13:36):
step up, which opens up the easy lob pass to Wemby.
This was a huge sequence from Ojan and Obi and
Karl Anthony Towns that kind of got lost in the
shuffle last night. We're playing through McHale bridges. McHale ends
up in some trouble, kind of going nowhere, but in
this little slip screen with Og, Og gets the ball
and ends up cleanly beating dep Look at how much
(13:57):
times on the shot clock. OG's got the ball thirty
feet from the basket with two point one on the
shot clock. And look at how he screams downhill and
gets something off the glass, which forces Dylan Harper to
step up, which then leaves Cat an offensive rebound position.
Kat keeps it alive. Champagne hits that out of bounds,
(14:18):
so two seconds on the shot clock, that possession is dead,
probably ending up with a jacked up shot with a
matched up player against Kat who can at least box
him out. The Spurs might have a chance to get
a rebound now, they could be going down to take
the lead. Instead, Og turns a nothing into something, gets
something up off the glass, forces help gets Karl Anthony
(14:38):
Towns the offensive rebound opportunity. Then on the sideline baseline
out of bounds. Look at this play. McHale Bridge is
coming off Wenby doesn't want to help because he doesn't
want to come off of cat Fox gets wiped out
on the screen. Because he gets wiped out on the screen,
Dylan Harper steps up. Because Dylan Harper steps up, McHale
hits Jalen Brunton coming back in bound. There's Champennie in
(15:02):
the late couple things there. Champagne's probably a little too
locked in on Josh Hart there, probably needs to come
over further. And then also, if I'm Dylan Harper, I'd
rather have McHale Bridges take a contested pull up MIDI
here than give up a layup to Brunson. So another
kind of defensive breakdown from the Spurs. But again that's
a layup that made it one O two ninety nine
because Ognnobi and Karl Anthony Towns turned a broken possession
(15:25):
into an extra possession on this play. This was kind
of a chaotic transition sequence, I think if I remember correctly,
Wemby airballs a corner three. Wenby airballs a corner three.
In transition going the other way, Brunson smokes the layup
on Fox would go out the other way. Dylan Harper
in transition gets downhill and puts it up on the
glass and gets the goaltending call on cap. Brunson on
(15:47):
this entire possession. I'm going back here because I'm connecting
the transition piece here. Bruns In on this entire possession
just basically takes the possession off and he goes and
stands in the corner. They run through McHale bridges to
get the little slip screen here with Ognobe that allows
McHale to turn the corner. But we get a nice block
in this case from Devin Vessel who comes off of
Josh Hart in the corner, so he gets the stop
(16:07):
on McHale Bridges. Spurs run out the other way. McHale,
you have Wenby trailing the play and he draws the
foul for the end. One big, big play. This is
the Jalen Brunson tough bucket. This is the stuff you
gotta live with. Though again, Brunson has been putrid down
the stretch of this game, so like, I get it,
he tied the game here, but like, this is where
(16:29):
you got to trust your process and not go into
game three thinking, oh, we need to double team Brunson
because he hit a clutch shot. No, the Spurs were
down fourteen and now they're up by two, in large
part because this guy keeps shooting bad shots, so you
need to continue to trust the process. Here he does,
like the champagnee matchup, gets downhill into Champagne's chest with
(16:51):
this hard drive and goes into a very very nifty
one like fadeaway, big time shot from Jalen Brunson, tip
of the cat. But again, this is where if I'm
a Spurs, if I'm running this, I'm trusting the process.
Moving forward, here's our first two for one possession. Did
not like this. These straight ISOs for Wemby against Mitch.
This is a heavily contested shot. Look at the contest
(17:12):
for Mitch, Like Mitch gets a very good contest on
the release, He's timed it perfectly, kind of disrupts Wemby's
base a little bit and as a result, the shot
barely grazes the outside of the rim. Didn't love that
shot going the other way. This is kind of the
beginning of the end here. Did not like this play
from Steph Castle. He's guarding Jalen Brunson unnecessarily pressuring him
(17:36):
really far from the basket with twenty two seconds left.
He's just trying to take a foul here because they
have a foul to give. So Brunson drives and he
just rakes him reaching in. He's just being super aggressive.
You pick up that foul now you don't have a
foul to give, which is precisely what sends Brunson to
the foul line after the turnover that Wemby has in
a minute. My thing is like, play him straight up,
(17:59):
give him more, and yeah, if you're compromised, take the foul.
Like if Brunson beats you with a good move and
you think he's gonna score, by all means commit a foul.
But This is just giving a foul for the sake
of giving a foul, which then puts them in the
penalty the rest of the way. Now we go to
the final possession. I skipped ahead for this clip so
you can see the transition sequence. But we get the
(18:19):
ball screen and it's a switch. Okay, so now we're
going back to switching the ball screen. Wemby's on Jalen
Brunson forces him into a tough pull up, misses it
gets the rebound boom. Now Wemby has the ball. There's
thirteen seconds on the shot clock. But Wemby has the
ball literally ninety two feet from the basket with his
back turned towards the towards his own rim, facing his
(18:43):
own bench. Call it time out, Call a time out,
get a good shot. I was talking about this on
the All NBA Pod with Adamars on Saturday. But like,
I've been thinking a lot about this concept because I
went right after the game last night and I thought
there was less time left. I ended up thinking there
were seven seconds left at the time of this time
out ends up being that there's thirteen, so there's more time.
(19:05):
But I still feel the same way, and the main
reason Why is I think that you trust your guys
to go make something happen in a situation like that
if they are rock solid ball handlers. And I like Wemby,
I think he's the best player in the world. He
is not a rock solid ball handler. Neither is Dearon Fox.
(19:26):
Neither's Steph Castle, neither is Dylan Harper. This is a
timeout team, not to let him play team. The list
of guys I would trust in a situation like that
is only like a half dozen long. It's like Luka Jokic,
Shay Lebron. You know, there's a handful of guys. Jalen
Brunson is one of them. There's a handful of guys
(19:48):
that I trust in a situation like that to walk
the ball up the floor if it's if it's a
player that's not necessarily a super steady ball handler, call
a time out. Now, as you guys can see, is
looking because now I'm already saying it's Mitch's fault. It's
Mitch's fault, it's Mitch's fault. But now that we're playing,
let's look at what happened. You guys might have seen
a clip from a camera that was down here facing
(20:11):
this way where you see Steph Castle is looking for
the ball. But even above and beyond anything having to
do with whether or not Steph is looking, because he
turns his head and Wemsey Wenby throws it to him.
But the other problem here is look at where Jalen
Brunson is. Even if you hit Castle and he catches
this ball, he's got a defender right in front of
(20:34):
him who is notorious for trying to take charges and
swipe down at the basketball. If Brunson's not here and
Brunson's over here, by all means throw the ball to Castle.
He's got a lane, he's got advantage. But this is
just a poor decision from Wemby under these circumstances. Again,
though I keep thinking you had multiple transition turnovers before
(20:54):
this point. This is a chaotic play. Call a time
out and get your guys a good look. And then
after the play, Wemby ends up running into Brunson, who
falls over. And now you're in the penalty because of
what happened on that previous play where you just put
them in the penalty for no reason. Now Brunson goes down,
makes one of two free throws. You call a time out.
(21:16):
You actually end up running a good play here. What
I like about the difference between this play and the
one where Wenby missed over Mitch earlier was the one
where Wenby missed over Mitch was an iso. Here we
have a ball screen which drags Mitch further away, which
gets Wemby basically a closeout. He fakes that jab. See
how he like kind of catches looks down jab. It
(21:41):
freezes Mitch for a second. Now look at the difference
in separation. When Mitch isn't even in the frame, Wenby
gets a great look. That's why I like get If
you're gonna run a play for Wemby as a scorer,
get it to him as part of a screening action
rather than in a situation where he's, you know, a
static up against a guy who's got a size and
(22:03):
strength advantage on him. Anyway, big adjustments moving forward into
game three. You gotta see less aggressive coverages on Brunson
that stress his decisions in the shoot past zone there
in the middle of the floor. I think Brunson will
make mistakes and take a lot of bad shots like
he did down the stretch. Two. Get out and transition
(22:25):
as much as possible to avoid the half court situation.
Three in the half court, target Brunson as much as
humanly possible. When you're targeting Brunson, you'll have an easier
time if you go to your four guard lineup with Vasel, Vassell, Castle, Wemby,
Harper and Fox. It just puts Brunson in a situation
where he has to guard somebody that can score. Last thing,
(22:47):
which was clearly screaming off the film here. You can't
afford mistakes. You can't afford to leave guys open. You
can't afford to lose contain on the ball with two
seconds on the shot clock. You can't afford to foul
a three point shooter. You can't afford to overhelp on
a baseline out of bounds and give up a slip layup. Like.
There's just too many mistakes from the Spurs when the
(23:07):
margins are this tight, and that's where they're gonna have
to be better if they're gonna have any chance to
make a series out of this thing. All right, guys,
it's all I have for today is always to sincerely
appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.
We will be back tomorrow night after the final buzzer
of Game one should be a ton of fun. Hope
to see you guys there
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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