April 1, 2025 • 45 mins
Jason reacts LIVE after the Lakers beat the Rockets and Celtics beat the Grizzlies, then answers mailbag questions from the YouTube chat.
Timeline
0:00 - Start
4:00 - Lakers/Rockets reaction
18:00 - Celtics/Grizzlies reaction
#Volume
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume, the finals are here. The only thing for
sure is it's the last time to bet on college
basketball this season. It's been an amazing ride to get here,
full of the unexpected happenings. Maybe there will be more.
Get in on all the action, expected and unexpected with
DraftKings Sports Book. With live betting, exclusive content, promos, and parlays,
(00:24):
DraftKings is the ultimate college basketball destination for March. Ready
to make your first bet, check out the matchups and
pick a team to win. It is that simple. I
have a big Arizona fan here from twoson Arizona big
underdogs against Duke this weekend. If you believe in the
Arizona Wildcats and their chances to win, They're currently listed
at plus four thousand on Draft Kings first time. Here's
(00:46):
something special just for you new DraftKings customers. Bet five
dollars to get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets.
Instantly bet the unexpected with Draft Kings Sports Book. Download
the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code hoops that's code
hoops aps for new customers to get one hundred and
fifty dollars in bonus bets When you bet just five
bucks only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem
(01:07):
called one eight hundred Gambler New York call eight seven
seven eight Hope en Y or text hope n Y
to four six seven three sixty nine. In Connecticut, help
us available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven
eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org.
Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
in Kansas twenty one plus. Age in eligibility varies by jurisdiction.
(01:27):
Void in Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire one
hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms
and responsible gaming resources, say DKG dot co slash audio.
(01:52):
All right, welcome to tonight. You're at the ball. You
have your Monday everybody hope all of you guys are
having a great start to your week. Got a jam
packshow for you tonight. We're hitting both of the TNT
games as the Lakers get a big win against the
red hot Houston Rockets team. The Celtics are peaking offensively
right now. We're gonna be talking about them in their
big win against the Memphis Grizzlies, and then, like we've
done for our last two live shows, the tail end
(02:13):
of the show, Jackson's gonna hop on with us and
we're gonna take questions from the chat for about ten
to fifteen minutes. Remember, if you want to get questions
in the chat, you gotta subscribe to the channel. So
subscribe to the channel, drop your questions in the chat.
We'll get to them at the tail end of the show.
You guys are the joke before we get started, subscribe
to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any
more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLTS.
You guys, don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about a
(02:33):
podcast fet wherever. You'ture podcasts on our Hoops Tonight so
also super helpful if you leave a rating in a
review on that front. We also have brand new social
media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where Jackson's doing
incredible work with film stuff. Make sure you guys follow
us there. Then, last, but not least, keep dropping mail
bag questions in the YouTube comments. Tomorrow morning, we're recording
a mail bag. Since we're covering tonight's games, this episode
(02:55):
will be your last chance to drop mailbag questions for
tomorrow's mail bag as well. All right, let's talk some basketball.
So the Rockets have been a team that I've been
interested to see play the Lakers for several different reasons. One,
they present probably the biggest physical mismatch for the Lakers
on the perimeter. But they also have this Shanguon problem,
(03:16):
and I've been watching Shangoon kick everyone's ass seemingly as
of late. And they have these big, strong athletes that
can wear on the you know, somewhat lesser athletes that
the Lakers have on the perimeter. The Lakers have good
size on the perimeter, but they're not particularly athletic, and
I think you saw a lot of examples of that today.
There were a couple of plays with Dorian Finney Smith
(03:37):
where like Dorian Phinney Smith is one of the better
athletes on the Lakers, And there were a couple of
plays today that The one that comes to mind are
that Tarry Easton driving Iso smash in his face, just
the two handed crunch right in his face off of
that little low gather move. And then the play where
Men Thompson, who just every time I watched Men Thompson.
I'm just completely blown away. But he had this euro
(03:59):
step on the bastine where he left Dorian Infinny Smith
just in the mud. And there were other examples where
it's like Lebron's trying to back down Dylan Brooks, and
like I always talk about those back down situations of
like a contest to see who can dislodge the other
player's base first is what those contests usually come down to.
And Dylan Brooks is dislodging Lebron's base, He's dislodging Luca's base,
(04:23):
and so there's a bunch of physical mismatches at play.
They're a team that can do quite a bit of switching,
as you saw down the stretch as the Lakers were
attacking Fred van Vliet quite a bit. And they also
run a lot of zone defense as a late they
didn't run. I pulled the stat on the show a
couple of days ago or last week, but the Rockets
for like fifty something games this year ran zero possessions
of zone and then suddenly in the last month they've
(04:44):
just been running a ton of it, and they run
a couple of different variations of it. But this was
gonna be a good test for the Lakers on a
bunch of different fronts, and I thought in general they
passed the test in a lot of ways. I thought
the main reason today didn't look more like a convincing
win or ten to fifteen point Laker win is none
of the Lakers stars played well on offense. None of
(05:05):
them provided volume scoring. But some of that is because
they did the job, which is hanging with Houston physically.
And there were a couple stretches, like in the early
part of the game, and the Lakers were missing shots
against the zone, or they gave up some transition kick
ahead stuff where guys are just standing wide open under
the basket. Some of those kinds of mistakes, But for
(05:25):
the most part, the Lakers held up on the margins.
They tied them in offensive rebounds both teams at ten.
They held them to just thirteen fast break points. Those
are the two main areas where they can get thrashed
by this type of team, and they held up there.
But there is something to be said about the cumulative
wear and tear that happens when you play against a
team like the Houston Rockets. Like I talked about this
(05:47):
all the time, I talked about it earlier this morning
when we were I think it was when we were
talking at the tail end of the show about Zachary
Rossauche but talked about the difference between like what causes
a shot to miss, while also acknowledging that there is
a certain amount of luck in shooting. Generally speaking, I
think that there's far more controllable in shot result than uncontrollable.
(06:12):
What kinds of shots are you getting? What else are
you having to do in the gate? Like if you're
getting worn down physically because you're fronting the post against
Shane Goon and doing all this crackdown, rebounding to deal
with their bigs underneath the basket, and sprinting back in transition,
every single time there's a certain amount of it's difficult
to then get the lift you need into a shot.
(06:34):
Did you see Austin Reeves leaving that jumper short off
the front of the rim? Do you see that last
wide open Rui Hachimura three that literally airballed short. Luca
on all of his step backs couldn't get the ball
to the rim. He had a couple alligator arm shots
in this game that were well short of the front
of the rim. Those are connected. That is a product
of that cumulative wear and tear that a team like
(06:55):
Houston puts on your legs. And as I always talk about,
the jump shot is an energy transfer from the floor
all the way through to the release. If you disrupt
the base or you disrupt the gather, it doesn't even
feel like the same shot at the top. And there's
a lot of that sort of thing where you could
just feel the Lakers struggling to get their lift, and
I do think there's a certain amount of like they're
gonna have to overcome that if they run into Houston
(07:16):
in a second round series. There's a chance here if
the way things shake out that the Lakers and the
Rockets end up at the two three, and if the
Rockets beat whoever comes out of that seven seed, there's
a chance that it ends up being La Houston in
round two. And if that happens, it's going to be
important that Lebron, Luca, and Austin find a way to
(07:37):
contribute at a higher rate offensively while also winning these
physical battles that they're gonna have to win, or losing
fewer of the physical battles than you can lose to
a team like Houston, same thing goes for the spot
up shooters. There are a couple guys try really well tonight, right,
like Dorian Finney Smith and gave Vincent May twelve threes
between the two and that that was massive, just absolutely
(07:57):
massive for them in this game. Gabe was getting a
ton of open threes in the corner out of their
zone attack, and then Dorian Finney Smith was getting a
ton of threes at the top of the key out
of the pick and pop. But everyone else shot poorly,
you know, Ruy Hatcha Mura goes one for six, Austin
Reeves goes oh for three, Jordan Goodwin gets two fantastic
wide open looks and he goes oh for two. There's
(08:18):
a certain amount of that, where like the Lakers are
going to have to make shots and generate offense while
they're dealing with a very difficult physical ask to box
out and run the floor in transition and do all
of those things. I thought they handled the zone really well.
I thought they consistently generated great shots. There's a certain
there's a bunch of different stuff that happens with zone
(08:40):
to everybody involved. Defenses tend to struggle with rebounding why
because they're not matched up, there's not clean box outs.
Zones tend to breed passivity, meaning like guys feel like
they're just in their spot and they don't need to
cover a ton of ground, so they're less crashy, and
so they can give up some offensive rebounds. And then
on offense, it fundamentally changes the way your shots come
from right. Like we're gonna talk about this when we
(09:01):
get into the Celtics, when we talk about Al Horford
and chrisops Porzingis. But like, you run into a very
different style of game, a very different style of offense,
a very different style of defense. It can catch you
off guard and it can be difficult to adjust to. So,
for instance, like where do the Lakers usually get their
catch and shoot threes. They're typically coming out of skips
and ball screens, like maybe an extra pass up the wing,
(09:22):
but a lot of weak side wing, week side corner threes,
a lot of picking pop threes in ball screens when
they have a big on Dori and Finney Smith. That's
where they tend to get their threes from right. Once
you bring in a zone, it changes the way you
get your threes. There's more threes off of swing passes,
so you're not getting the ball out of the paint
as often. A lot of times it's off of a
(09:44):
sideway's pass. You're changing your perspective on the basket as
you turn to shoot. The closeouts tend to be different.
A lot of times those gaps are with a defender
closing out at you on your side as opposed to
closing out at your face. It's a very different type
of feel, and often even when you get great shots
against zone, it can take time for you to kind
of like get comfortable taking and making shots in those situations.
(10:06):
That said, this is why I feel so strongly about
that concept. I talked earlier about shot quality and how
variance plays a role, but ultimately it's about the kind
of basketball that you're playing on both ends of the floor.
If you continue to generate great shots for great shooters,
they're gonna go in. And Gabe was off early in
the game. They had a couple bad misses out of
the corner, but he just kept getting clean looks. Two
(10:29):
damn good of a shooter. He's a pro. These guys
are in the gym every damn day, shooting hundreds of shots.
If you let him just sit there and set his feet,
get his rhythm, he's gonna eventually knock him down. And
that's the thing. Like these were like wide open looks
for Dorian Finney Smith at the top of the key.
These were wide open looks for Gave gay Vinson hit
a couple of more tightly contested ones out of the corner,
(10:52):
but he got going with these wide open shots, and
so to the Lakers credit, they trusted their shot. Qual
I thought that was kind of like the theme of
the game for the Lakers, like trusting the process. Like
there's a certain amount of like you'll see a lot
of old heads do this. I don't know if you
guys have ever played with an older guy when you're
playing pickup, where like you take a couple of wide
(11:12):
open threes and you miss them, and the old guy
goes like, we need to stop settling, we need to
go to the basket. Like it just starts yelling at
you that kind of shit, Like we've all dealt with
that before. But it's like a lot of times that
can be the worst thing you can do because a
lot of times those threes are open because the defense
is packing the paint the defense is conceding those threes
in a lot of cases. Case in point, the Dorian
Finney Smith picking pop. Dorrian Finney Smith is gonna hit
(11:36):
about five percent of those wide open above the break threes.
As Luke is coming off of that ball screen, whether
it's Steven Adams or Alpern Shangoon, he's got two on
the ball, he is driving to the basket. There's red
jerseys or Rockets jerseys all around them. And so ultimately,
(11:57):
what you need to do in that situation instead of
trying to ram your head through the brick wall, is
take what the defense is giving. Now, I agree with
the old heads. If you're settling for bad shots, that's
a totally different game. Like if you're coming down the
floor and you're doing the Jalen Green thing where it's
like you're coming off of the top of the screen
and you're getting off the dribble three with a rear
(12:18):
view contest and you make a couple, but then you
start missing. Like I, as a coach would probably be like, hey,
like let's try to generate more clean catch and shoot
looks instead of these like lower percentage types of shots.
But if you're getting if your offense is generating clean
catch and shoot looks for good shooters, you don't bail
on that just because they miss three or four early
(12:38):
in the game. You trust that shot quality. Dorian Finney,
Smith and Gabe Vincent total twenty four to three point
attempts tonight. That is relentless faith in the shot quality
that they were generating, And so I just thought that
was a really like there's a certain amount of it
too with Houston, where it's like you can tell, like Lebron,
(13:00):
you could literally see it in the body language of
every Laker tonight, whether it's Luca dealing with Dylan Brooks
or Lebron dealing with Dylan Brooks, or all those guys
dealing with the men. Thompson and DFS got into it
with Steven Adams. No matter who beats the Rockets, whether
it's the Lakers or it's somebody else, whoever gets rid
(13:21):
of them, that's gonna be a shitty two weeks like that.
You're going to be dealing with pain in the ass,
physical athletes that are gonna talk shit like Jalen Green's
rocking the baby every time he gets a driving layup
in this game. Dylan Brooks every time he stonewalls Lebron
or Luca is like talking shit. I literally saw him
call Lebron trash after he got knocked over on the
(13:41):
last one. Like there's a certain amount of like this
is gonna suck under any circumstances for anybody to play.
And you could see the Lakers kind of in survival
mode tonight, where they're like, can we just get out
of here with a win and not see these guys
for a while. But the reality is they might see them.
And that's why I think it's just so important for
the Lakers to attack these final Cup weeks to improve
their conditioning, to improve their ability to handle the physicality,
(14:04):
because ultimately they're gonna need to against a big, physical
athletic team. If it's not Houston, it'll be okay See,
who's just a much better version of Houston. And in
that sort of situation, they're gonna have to be able
to make good decisions, make good reads, and get their
legs up into these shots so that they can knock
some of these shots down if they're going to beat
a team like Okay See. One of the things that
(14:26):
stood out to me in this game was just in
general the effort that the Lakers gave holding like finding
ways to contribute even when they're not making shots, and
all the three stars I thought deserved some credit for this. So,
for instance, like Austin reeves brutal shooting game. Jackson and
I were talking before the show, like he definitely has
(14:46):
a lower floor and he's more inconsistent against these really
athletic teams just because they can wear on him physically
to a certain extent. But one of the things I'll
give Austin credit for is like he can identify when
he's having that type of game, he'll just find ways
to make plays. There was a big sequence late in
this game where he gets a pretty good look off
of a nasty left right snatchback crossover against Jalen Green
(15:10):
right around the right elbow, leaves it short off the
front of the rim. It misses, and Jalen Green, you
could tell, is just like, oh yeah, well watch this.
So he goes down the other end and he starts
go right at Austin's chest and Austin cleanly strips him,
absorbs the contact, slides open, waits for Jalen to expose
the ball in his shooting pocket and reaches out and
he strips him clean. Look at the way Austin was
flying around on rebounds. He had a contest on a
(15:33):
Dylan Brooks left shoulder fade away, which, by the way,
like there are a lot of guys in this league
where if Dylan Brooks went to take a left shoulder
fade away, they'd be like, all right, bro, Like you
go ahead and shoot that, We'll just grab the rebound.
Austin was like, no, Like, I am not leaving this
to chance. I am going to get the best possible
contest I can get, and he damn near blocked Dylan
Brooks on that left shoulder fade along the baseline. Lebron
(15:53):
making that defensive play against Shangun. Shang Gun spins off
of Austin, gets him in a switch. There's no help
out of that right corner because it's vacant. Shangun has
an easy drop step to his right hand on that
right side of the basket. He makes that. It's the
exact same situation they were just in where they were
struggling to get the ball in bounds and they could
potentially turn the ball over there like they did against Chicago,
or have to go make more free throws. Lebron said, nah,
(16:16):
fuck that, I'm gonna make a defensive play here. He
read the whole thing from the start. You know, Shanegun,
he really is Jokich light and I really enjoy watching
him for a lot of the same reasons. But the
two biggest differences is he's just not as big as
Yokich and he's just not as good a passer as
Jokich is. And like Shanggun really just telegraphed and mailed
in that move to where Lebron just saw it coming
(16:37):
a mile away, got up there and make the block.
He had those two clutch free throws at the end
of the game. Luca, like we talked about it the
shot making earlier, like he was leaving everything short. Was
just brutally bad as a shot maker in this game.
But he was the guy that was consistently generating those
fantastic looks for Dorian Finney Smith at the top of
the key. He also hit Gabe a few times on
(17:00):
skips in ball screens. Like to Luca's credit, he generated
great shots for his team in this game as best
as he could, even though the shot making wasn't there,
and so all in all, I thought it was an
impressive effort for the Lakers, while at the same time
revealing of the fact that there's a certain amount of
wear and tear that these young athletic teams can inflict
on this Lakers roster. And so there's a certain amount
(17:22):
of like that war of attrition, which is, like how
much can the athletes wear down the Lakers stars versus
how much can the Lakers Stars solve these defenses to
the point where it starts to get easier for them.
And so there's a certain amount of that sort of
like tug of war that's going to be an important
swing factor for the Lakers as they head into the postseason,
(17:42):
which is, are they willing and able to survive a
two week series against a super athletic, super young team
and gets stronger as the series progresses, because that can
also go the other way, and we've seen, like I mean,
just like at Minnesota versus Phoenix last year, where sometimes
the physicality ratchets up, those athletes really start to get
their hands on you, and it can turn into something
(18:04):
that gets ugly pretty quick. But yeah, so it was
a good win for them. I think they're trending in
the right direction. This was one of their better physical,
competitive types of games in the last week or so,
But this was also the game where their offense took
a step back after their offense had been starting to
gain some ground in recent weeks. So ultimately, for the Lakers,
it's about putting it all together and getting to the
(18:26):
point where all these different facets of what make them
good are all available and reliable at the same time.
Moving out to Boston Memphis, I talked earlier about running
into an opponent that plays a dramatically different style, right
with the Lakers running into a zone defense. I talked
about this concept with Porzingis and Horford in the Suns game.
(18:48):
If you guys remember, they're just a matchup problem for
most front courts in the NBA. They had Zach Edy
and Santi Aldamin hell tonight. There was a stretch at
the beginning of this game for about quarter and a
half or the Grizzlies were hooping, John Morant was cooking,
and most of Boston's perimeter players were cold. Derek White
(19:08):
and Drew Holliday had like zero points through the first
you know, twelve fourteen minutes or so of this game,
and Al Horford and Chris hops Porzingis literally kept them
in the game until their offense finally got going in
that late second quarter stretch and Drew Halliding and Derek
White started hitting three, Jason Tatum started getting aggressive. That
was when they took over and they were able to
kind of slowly and methodically take control of the game
(19:29):
from there. But they were hanging on for dear life
early on as none of their perimeter players can get
anything going, and John Morant was really going and guys
were hitting threes, and it just was one of those
things where they needed somebody to keep them attached, and
it was Horford and Porzingis. The Celtics make you play
a different type of game. So many teams that run spread,
pick and roll in the NBA allow teams to kind
(19:51):
of set their defense up in a way that is repetitive. Right,
So say you're guarding Luca Jackson ball screen. Right, You're
gonna have a guy chase over the top, your BIG's
gonna come up to the level or whatever. You're gonna
tag the roller. That means a skip is open. But
there's a classic rotation from the wing to the skip
and the two on the ball have to disengage and
(20:12):
someone's got to rotate to the wing, and there's a
certain amount of like when you're facing these spread, pick
and roll teams, where like you play sixty games a
year playing that type of defense, and so you kind
of get really good at it. You kind of get
your reads down, you get your your it kind of
becomes instinctual, like what you're gonna do in all these
different types of situations. One of the things that the
Celtics do is they allow them They allow their team
(20:36):
to play with Horford and porzingis they allow their team
to play a brand of driving kick basketball that is
positionless in the purest sense of where guys are on
the floor, meaning like sometimes it is Tatum in the
corner and Horford on the wing and a guard in
the dunker spot and porzingis on the opposite wing. But
then sometimes Horford's in the corner and sometimes porzingis is
operating out against a switch in the middle of the floor.
(20:57):
Everyone's in a different spot all the time. It happening
is like everybody on the team is like doing these
weird things like oh, you're a guard and now you're
making a help side rotation underneath the basket because your
bigs are out above the break and there's a guard
in the dunker spot, so like it's your help rotation.
So now you're protecting the rim as like a six
foot two athletic thin guard or whatever it might be, right,
(21:20):
or you're as a big man like all of a sudden,
like you're defending in a driving kick situation where it's like, oh,
I'm dealing with Horford and a pick and pop, or
now I'm Zach Edy, I'm switched on to Derek White
on the left wing, and like now I'm like trying
to slide my feet against Derek White, and all he
has to do is kind of shimmy a little bit
and he back pedals too much and then he rises
up and knocks down a pull up three right in
(21:42):
his face. It just puts everybody in these like really
awkward situations, and you could tell the Celtics new that
that was their best option because they were hunting it relentlessly.
They even ran in action at one point, it was
in the second quarter if I remember correctly, where they
had Horford and Porzingis run an off ball action off
of the wing and Horford screens Santiel Dama and Porzingis
(22:04):
cuts or kind of kind of curls it and they
defend it like a drop coverage. So Santel Dama is
like chasing over the top and Edie is in a
kind of like a drop right around like ten feet
from the basket. Porzingis catches the ball in the move
and he's going downhill right at Edie's face, and he
just spins into it, just dunks it with two hands
right in his head. And I'm like, like, this is
not normal stuff you expect to deal with when you're coaching.
(22:26):
Zach Edy like like, all right, you know how you
ran drop coverage for the last two weeks, Well tonight,
we need you to be defending off ball action for
a big who can shoot twenty seven footers and post
up and do all and spin into dunks in your
face and all this different kind of stuff. Al Horford,
it's not just the shooting. It's it's confident and aggressive shooting,
which are two very different things. I'm able to knock
(22:46):
down to catch and shoot three. It's not the same
as if you leave me open, I'm gonna shoot it
and I'm gonna hit you know, close to forty percent
of them, and that just puts you in all these
different predicaments. Like I watched Horford tonight jab into the corner,
drive middle hit a little fling hook shot in the lane.
That's a guard move. That's a guard move that you're
asking your bigs to defend in space. Like it just
(23:07):
ultimately puts you in all of these uncomfortable positions. And
like I thought, Zach Eatie in particular and santi all
Dom in particular just looked completely lost on the floorida night.
And that's what Horford and Porzingis do to you. And
they were spamming that advantage. Boston was a lot of
Porzingis post ups in this game. I thought Porzingis gave
them issues with his rim protection as well. It's just
(23:29):
been really fun in the last few weeks to watch
those guys give teams fits. The CEA's perimeterive players finally
got going that second quarter as well. I've been talking
a lot lately about the Celtics in their pursuit of
great shots right, and this might have been their best
offensive process game of the season. Thirty assists on thirty
nine midfield goals, They generated thirty two unguarded catch and
(23:53):
shoot jump shots in that game that was by far
their highest total of the season. They've general at least
twenty unguarded catch and shoots in five consecutive games, and
that's the exciting part. Like most of this is shaping
up exactly like you would hope for a title defense.
(24:15):
They're having an excellent regular season, but at the same time,
they're not over extending themselves trying to keep up with
a couple of young athletic teams in Cleveland and OKC.
They're taking care of their bodies, sitting guys when they
need to sit guys, while also maintaining their identity while
also giving young guys a lot of opportunity. We've seen
(24:35):
a lot more Baylor shiremen as of late. They're allowing
themselves to have a multifaceted approach to this regular season,
while at the same time, right now March thirty first,
turning up their intensity in time for the playoffs. They've
won nine in a row, just had their best shot
quality game of the season, five consecutive games of just
(24:56):
a lot of really good catch and shoot looks, which
to me are like the number one barometer for the
Celtics in their offense. There's just a lot to get
excited about if you're a Celtics fan. They are peaking
at the right time on the Memphis front. Their defense
has been awful in the skid. They have a one
to twenty point three defensive rating in this one and
six stretch, and I'm not surprised at all that they
(25:16):
were the team that gave up the most wide open
threes to Boston. This was an issue throughout the entirety
of the Taylor Jenkins era, and we've talked about this
on the show many times. They're an overhelped team. There's
a huge difference between digging and recovering and just sitting
in driving lanes and conceiting threes. Over the course of
this span. I checked before the show it's either fifth
(25:37):
or sixth, But in the seven game span, they've given
up the fifth or sixth most unguarded catch and shoot,
jump shot or wide open PERMBA dot Com at least
six feet away defenders or defender at least six feet away.
They've given up, let's just say, the sixth most in
the league over this seven game span. There's a certain
amount of that where you're going to allow teams to
(26:00):
pick you apart and get great looks, and it's just
gonna be really difficult for you to get enough stops.
If you're deliberate with your shot selection in ball movement
against Memphis, you can absolutely get open looks against them.
They look a little bit like a team that's letting
go of the rope right now, doing the exact opposite
of what we talked about with Boston. They're losing team
as we had for the postseason. I don't think they're
good enough on either end of the floor to win
(26:21):
four playoff rounds. Definitely looking a little bleak in Memphis.
All right, Jackson, let's get into that mail bag. What
do you got for us?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
All right, let's do it. We are going to start
off with a question from JM, who's in the chat
super chatting sending us a few dollars, Thank you, JM.
Do you think Denver will fall to the four seed
and rest players to avoid a potential Warriors or Timberwolves
matchup in the first round of the playoffs, And we
can sort of expand the question I think generally to like,
(26:52):
do you think teams actually do this try to intentionally
lose games or intentionally how much do these teams think
about seeding and their potential first round matchups against teams
they might struggle with.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
I think there's a certain amount of they should have
a certain awareness of Minnesota and Golden State coming out
of that six to seven slot. At the same time, though,
knowing the competitors that are in that locker room, the
champions that they are, I just doubt they're wired that way.
I generally tend to think that the basketball gods will
(27:25):
reward you most when you attempt to play the best
possible basketball, and that ultimately, even if you were able
to avoid Minnesota or a Golden State in the first round,
you're gonna have to face somebody that attacks your weaknesses
at some point in the postseason. The best thing you
can do to prepare for that is to be the
best basketball team that you can be, and the only
(27:45):
way to do that is to attack every day in
the process of becoming a better basketball team. So, like
I think there's a fan case for it, I just
don't think there's a basketball case for it, just simply
because it's just bad process for a basketball team. What
do you think, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Think I just think there's too much unpredictability like it's
you just don't know if if if you have a
hot shooting series, you're If Denver has a hot shooting series,
they're rolling through Minnesota. Like if if Denver has a
cold shooting series, they're they're probably getting beat by the
team with that much size. Like it's it's there's so
much variance, and you need to be trying to play
(28:21):
your best basketball. I think going into the playoffs and
in those early parts of the playoffs, if you want
it's it's not like Denver's a team that would be
happy to win one one round, right, If you're a
genuine title contender, you want to be playing your best
basketball because whoever you get. If you're if you're Denver,
you're thinking a lot more about how do you beat
Okay see than you are how you beat If you're
(28:41):
if you're stressing about how do you beat Minnesota, you're
not beating Okay. So so exactly, yeah, all right, next question,
we'll do this one's sort of about tonight's connected tonight's game,
because it does feel like there was a lot of
talk on the broadcast about Jalen green Is sitting at
the end of the game. Uh, do you think the
Rockets will look target a veteran star they can help
(29:01):
them score in crunch time this offseason. Who do you
think the ideal fit would be. I know, Kevin Durant
sort of be obvious, he's been rumored to them in
the past. But what's the sort of solution, potential solution
to their late game execution offensive sort of struggles.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
I think Katie's the only one that makes sense. I mean,
if there was the only other thing I can see
is if, like if they've ended up pulling some sort
of crazy deal where like Golden State ended up like
flipping Jimmy for Katie or something like that, and suddenly
Jimmy was available. He's a guy that I think would
fit that role pretty well. But like I first of all,
I thought the benching a Jalen Green was interesting. I
thought it was the right call. Layton games are gonna
(29:39):
play through Shangun and Fred Van Vliet. I thought Jabari
Smith was amazing in this game on the glass and
then his timely jump shooting. That three hit in transition
on the right wing was huge. That little shot he
hit from Shaneguon in the like ten twelve feet there
in the lane that little soft jump shot he shot,
and then Dylan obviously you need him for defense. Shangon
(30:00):
was your biggest matchup advantage, and then a men Thompson
was crushing everybody, So like, who who are you taking
out for Jalen Green when you're gonna be running the
offense to Fred Van Vliet anyway, So I thought that
was the right call. But yeah, ultimately I think there
I was advocating for this around the deadline. This was
before you started working with us Jackson, but I was
like NonStop. I was like, I was like, should the
(30:22):
Rockets be training for some of these guys? Like there's
do you remember that stretch in the early part of
the or middle part of the season where they just
beat great teams every single night for like a month.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
On some nights they look unstoppable because of all their athletes.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Yeah, and like like because they've had a pretty light
schedule here down the stretch, and like they deserve it
because they went through the gauntlet earlier and they beat everybody.
But during that stre stretch, I kept thinking, I'm like,
with this defense, with all this depth of athleticism, if
you give these guys a surgical half court scorer, they
can beat anybody, and so obviously they're not gonna do
it this year, and we'll see ultimately. I mean, their
(30:59):
offense looked so brutally bad at times tonight, and it
always tends to do that and just about every single game.
So there's a certain amount of like I think Houston
need their GM, their front office needs to see just
how bad their offense looks in April before they end
up understanding just how serious they need to get about
(31:20):
chasing down that type of scoring talent.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yeah, they have such a weird roster that they have
so many very good players, but they don't have any
true superstar. And not just that, they don't have really
any guys that I think project to be an offensive
superstar like that. I think I'm in Thompson obviously has
you know, crazy high ceiling, but I don't know what
he's going to be, right, But even Jalen Green and Sengoon,
who are are awesome at times, like I don't think
(31:44):
either of those guys because of Sengoon sort of passing
in size struggles and that per your point about the
Yoakic comparison and Jalen Green sort of consistency and efficiency struggles.
I don't know if either of those guys project to
be legitimate playoff go to scorers in the half court,
and if and if they don't have even one of
those guys, it's like, what.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Is their roster.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
It's I don't know, it's strange. I mean, if someone
in the chat said, this isn't exactly the type of
guy I think we're talking about, but that if the
if the Sixers blow it up, maybe they should make
a run at Maxi, and like that's sort of he'd
be fantastic, he'd be awesome with them, even if he's
not like a big wing sort of score type that
is sort of a prototype a lot of times. But
like it does feel like they have an okay, see
(32:26):
like build, But that's without Shay. You know, they like
don't have They need to cash in some of their
hips to try to go after someone who can actually
lift them over the top and the half court offensively.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Well, to your point, there's just not enough long term growth.
Like Shanegon. One of the things I've noticed with Shanegon
is like if you don't have elite defenders in your
front court, he's gonna crush you. Like Shaneguon is a problem.
But like it seems just about every time he runs
into like a real good defensive front court that all
of a sudden he can't get as much separation for
(32:57):
that little right left shoulder hook or he just there's
a certain like ceiling with him that's there. And so
to your point, like if you don't have somebody that's like, oh,
this guy, Like it's like the Anthony Edwards conundrum with Minnesota,
it's like a certain amount of their a certain amount
of their like game plan for the franchise is like
we expect Aunt to make dramatic leaps every year for
(33:18):
the next like five years, whereas like I think aman
Thompson's gonna take those kinds of leaps, but I just
don't see him as the surgical There's not a guy
in there that's gonna be that surgical offensive player. And
so if you're not gonna get that player through the draft,
then you gotta find that guy out in free agency
or in u in the trade market. And so ultimately,
I think I think it's just a matter of when
they pulled the trigger.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah, I agree, let's do this one. Who in the
West do you think has the best matchup has the
best chance to beat okay See.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Oh that's a good question, very good question. I really
like the way Golden State matches up with Okay See.
They have on several different occasions shown they just Oklahoma
City has a like a Golden State, I should say,
has an underrated trait, which is that they are pretty
fast on the perimeter and they can fly around in rotation.
(34:10):
And they also have this like anchored front court with
Raymond Green protecting the rim, and so there's a certain
amount like with with Golden State, they can make them
feel uncomfortable on defense while also having the jimmy to
attack matchups of various perimeter size matchups. And Steph has
just been really comfortable against them, and he's made a
(34:31):
lot of plays against them, and so I think Golden
State's an interesting example. Minnesota would be another example with
like really good rim protection, because we've seen we've seen
Oklahoma City struggle in the Dallas series last year against
really good rim protection. The Lakers are another example of
a team that they have the Luca Lebron, who are
(34:56):
you gonna Who's gonna guard them? Type of problem. The
thing that scares me for the Lakers with Oklahoma City
is their turnover to transition problem. Yeah, And like I
could see that series having a little bit of a
Minnesota Denver type of feel where there are these games
where the Lakers methodically beat okay See, but then there
(35:17):
are these games where Okay Se just kicks the shit
out of them because they let go of the rope
and they start turning the ball over and it's just
a track meet and transition.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Right.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Those are the three teams that I think have good chances.
That said, I think if I had to pick one
team that could upset okay See from down there and
that part of the bracket, I'd say Golden State.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, it's hard because it sort of feels okay See.
It sort of has created this basketball machine that feels
almost unmeetable in a seven game series at this point.
But I mean depending on the shot and making in
the playoffs. But I I those three teams feel like
the right answer just because you need some sort of
transcendent to something it feels like to beat the thunder.
And whether it's the Luca Lebron plot problem, the stuff problem,
(35:59):
or they ok problem, Like those three teams have some
sort of skeleton key that can just unlock a playoff
series in a way that the other Western Conference teams
don't really have offensively.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
But I don't know, man, I should have included Denver too.
Denver I think has a chance to beat them. Those
are the four teams that I think have a chance.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Yeah, let's do this one. When it comes to defense,
what do you believe is the most important factor? Rim
protection or being able to contain the ball.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I'm going to say the ability to contain the ball,
because ultimately we talked about it earlier. With the way
that Boston can like get you out of your kind
of base defensive scheme and force you to play an
uncomfortable style, You're inevitably going to run into somebody that
can pull your room protector away from the rim. Yeah,
(36:50):
and if you can't guard on the perimeter, you have
no chance. I think the best example of this in
NBA history is the twenty twenty one Jazz. Like right,
I was going to say all season long they were
able to maintain a certain baseline with their defense because
of Rudy Gobert. In the large sample, it was really
effective until the Clippers were like, let's see how you guys,
garden space. Yeah, and I mean they beat them without
Kawhi like that. That was like a pretty dramatic type
(37:12):
of upset. So I think I think, like overall, athletic
perimeter speed is more valuable than rim protection. Like Boston
I think is a great example. Like I think Boston's
defensive look with Horford at center, with the with the
their four other great perimeter players, that's the look where
it's like we're switching everything and it's like take your pick,
(37:33):
who do you want to try to score on. You
don't really have a good option here. I think that
that has more resilience in the playoffs than just pure
rim protection. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
I mean I think if you said rim protection with
that player also being able to be switchable, then it's
like that's kind of how you unlock it. Like it's
the Draymond Green versus Rudy Gobert problem, Like one of
those guys is the best rim protector in the league.
One of them can guard five positions, and the guy
who can guard five positions is just more valuable.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Very well, people just couldn't more Yeah, very well. Put
like you ultimately like you should, like your dream should
be to have multiple defensive looks and the only way
that's going to be possible is if you have a
good rip protector rim protector that can also switch.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Yeah, speaking of the Celtics, this is an interesting one
just to humor me as a Celtics fan. Uh, there
as there was, and also because there was a report
I can think it was last week about the Celtics
getting expensive at some point in the next couple of years,
and maybe they're gonna have to trade one of Drew
Holiday or Christas Perzingis in a year or two, depending
(38:35):
on on how their contracts and how the new owners
feel and YadA YadA. And then there's also people also
doing these Cooper flag to the Celtics after his Ricky
dealer rumors. So the Celtics are going to be really
expensive moving forward. What lottery team, if any, would accept
a Drew Holliday, Jalen Brown and a couple first round
picks for the number one overall pick to get Cooper
(38:56):
flag to the Celtics.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Okay, so uh read me the package one more time.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Drew Holiday, Jalen Brown and whatever amount of first round
picks feel so appropriate.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Holiday, Brown and a bunch of first round picks would
Washington be stupid enough to do that? Would they? Would
Washington say give me Drew Holiday, Jalen Brown and Alex
Aar with these couple of these other young dudes that
we have that are hooping with Jordan Poole Washington. Maybe,
(39:30):
So theoretically it would be a team that already is
kind of anchored at the four spot Charlotte.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Maybe I was gonna say, Charlotte's a weird one.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
I the Yeah, New Orleans they're like they but then
they would.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Like it's yeah, like the Pelicans both have like theoretically
foundational pieces at the four, but neither of them feel
like guys that they're like truly wed to.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
You know what I mean, like married to. Yeah, that
that's interesting. Yeah, if you're let's take Utah for example, Yeah,
you already have Lori Markinen and Walker Kessler. Boston calls
you and offers Drew Holliday, Jalen Brown, and a bunch
of first round.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Draft any this is your guy you drafted Jalen Brown, Danny.
You love Jaylen Brown, Danny.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
So it's you'd have Colin Sexton, Drew Holliday, You'd have
Jalen Brown next to Lori Markin and with Walker Kessler,
and you've already got a million draft picks and you
can go after whatever you like. That teams. Actually would's
not a bad one.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Like you you stick a couple of like strong perimeter
defenders who can play on obviously offensively, as well as
Jalen Brown next to Lowry Markin who needs some defensive help,
and next to Walker Kessler, who's not one of those
switchabowl guys. It's not the worst one. It's not the worst.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
So let's take it a step further though. If you're Boston,
Cooper Flagg and Jason Tatum effectively play the same position
in my opinion, so there's a certain there's a certain
diminishing return you could face. There there are ways to
account for it, Like I think we overthink this sometimes
where it's like, can Cooper Flag and Jason Tatam play
basketball together? Yes, they can, like they can't, there's no doubt.
(41:10):
But there's a certain amount of, like your foot speed.
If you have a center with those two guys playing
at three four, there's a certain like foot speed, like
Jalen Brown's fastest ship and guards the other team's best
player every day. Yeah, like there's a like can Cooper
Flag do that? You know, there's a certain amount of
that sort of thing. But this is an interesting thought exercise,
and I think I think you. I think Utah. You
talked to me into Utah. That makes it. That's a
(41:32):
that that one makes a little bit of sense.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Yeah, I know we have some some people in the
chat saying this, that's our second Aprin team. This is
not gonna it's it's almost it's a sure, they're not
gonna have can we have some fun? But it's a
it's a fun thought exercise. Let's do Let's do one more.
Jason big Fan from Argentina, what is the most shout
out to our international listeners? What is the most favorable
(41:55):
parentheses and realistic first round matchup for the Lakers? Okay,
that's a really lot of Memphis because they feel like
the easiest first round matchup forever.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Bet Yeah Memphis. Yeah, Memphis is just like about to
crash and burn here. I think it's so much of
this you and I were talking about it before the show.
So much depends on where all these teams shake out.
It looks if you look at things, man, Houston's one
loss ahead of Denver, who's one loss ahead of the Lakers,
who's two losses ahead of Memphis, tied with Golden State,
(42:26):
who's only one loss ahead of the eight seed. Like
the Lakers at the four seed are only three losses
ahead of the Clippers at the eight seed, So like
it could literally be anybody. Yeah, I think I think
the Lakers would do destroy Memphis because they run too
many traditional coverages. Golden State is a tricky one because
(42:48):
they haven't played since Jimmy Butler came on board. I
personally am scared of Golden State as a fan who's
rooting for the Lakers. Golden State is a team I'd
rather not play. Minnesota is a team I'd rather not play.
I just know that they can, like really physically alter
a series to the point where it becomes a big problem.
(43:10):
I think the Lakers would beat Denver. I know Nugget
Nuggets fans will kill me for saying that, but I
think I think the Lakers are a better team than
Denver right now. I think they also, I think Luca
just fundamentally changes the matchup. Yeah, Like, like Luca just
goes from Denver's defense can hold up reasonably well against
the Lakers to now, Denver's defense is hopeless to stop
the Lakers from generating wide open threes every single time
down the floor. So I think the Lakers would define
(43:33):
against Denver. I think the Lakers would do fine against Memphis.
I'd say Golden State in Minnesota would be the two
that I'd be worried about in first round matchups.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Yeah, I tend to agree.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
I think the.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
It doesn't feel like this is particularly possible because the
way that this standing sit right now, but like you said,
there's so many ways could check out. I think the
Lakers should be looking for the Clippers. I think I
think if they get the Clippers the first round, they're
they're taking out the Clippers. They're getting they're getting every
games a home game that I think. I think that's
probably their their best first round matchup.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
So they get up to two, get up or the
Clippers can Clippers Clippers can get up.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Could also end up in six, like relatively easily. So
I do think that's true. Like Jenny, it's not off
the table anyway.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
All of this is possible except for Dallas and Sacramento.
You're right, yeah, And even then Dallas and Sacramento is
possible if you sing if the Lakers get up to
Tuesdays right, how Phoenix is still possible.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
It is gonna be crazy last couple of weeks in
the Western Conference.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Yeah, anything else that we're good for this, let's call
it all right, guys. As always, sincerely appreciate you guys
for supporting me and supporting the show, supporting us and
supporting the show. Also, make sure you continue to drop
mail bag questions if you got a question that we
didn't get to tonight. We are literally waking up tomorrow
morning and recording a mail bag. I think that's going
to air on Wednesday morning, and then we're actually going
(44:50):
live again on Wednesday night and covering the ESPN slate
that night. So make sure you guys drop those questions,
and then I will see you guys for the mail
bag on Onenesday morning and then also live on Wednesday night. Again,
we appreciate you, guys, and we'll see you next time.
But so guys, as always, I appreciate you for listening
to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really
helpful for us if you guys would take a second
(45:11):
and leave a rating and a review. As always, I
appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take
a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
The volume
The volume, the finals are here. The only thing for
sure is it's the last time to bet on college
basketball this season. It's been an amazing ride to get here,
full of the unexpected happenings. Maybe there will be more.
Get in on all the action, expected and unexpected with
DraftKings Sports Book. With live betting, exclusive content, promos, and parlays,
(00:24):
DraftKings is the ultimate college basketball destination for March. Ready
to make your first bet, check out the matchups and
pick a team to win. It is that simple. I
have a big Arizona fan here from twoson Arizona big
underdogs against Duke this weekend. If you believe in the
Arizona Wildcats and their chances to win, They're currently listed
at plus four thousand on Draft Kings first time. Here's
(00:46):
something special just for you new DraftKings customers. Bet five
dollars to get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets.
Instantly bet the unexpected with Draft Kings Sports Book. Download
the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code hoops that's code
hoops aps for new customers to get one hundred and
fifty dollars in bonus bets When you bet just five
bucks only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem
(01:07):
called one eight hundred Gambler New York call eight seven
seven eight Hope en Y or text hope n Y
to four six seven three sixty nine. In Connecticut, help
us available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven
eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org.
Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
in Kansas twenty one plus. Age in eligibility varies by jurisdiction.
(01:27):
Void in Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire one
hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms
and responsible gaming resources, say DKG dot co slash audio.
(01:52):
All right, welcome to tonight. You're at the ball. You
have your Monday everybody hope all of you guys are
having a great start to your week. Got a jam
packshow for you tonight. We're hitting both of the TNT
games as the Lakers get a big win against the
red hot Houston Rockets team. The Celtics are peaking offensively
right now. We're gonna be talking about them in their
big win against the Memphis Grizzlies, and then, like we've
done for our last two live shows, the tail end
(02:13):
of the show, Jackson's gonna hop on with us and
we're gonna take questions from the chat for about ten
to fifteen minutes. Remember, if you want to get questions
in the chat, you gotta subscribe to the channel. So
subscribe to the channel, drop your questions in the chat.
We'll get to them at the tail end of the show.
You guys are the joke before we get started, subscribe
to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any
more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLTS.
You guys, don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about a
(02:33):
podcast fet wherever. You'ture podcasts on our Hoops Tonight so
also super helpful if you leave a rating in a
review on that front. We also have brand new social
media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where Jackson's doing
incredible work with film stuff. Make sure you guys follow
us there. Then, last, but not least, keep dropping mail
bag questions in the YouTube comments. Tomorrow morning, we're recording
a mail bag. Since we're covering tonight's games, this episode
(02:55):
will be your last chance to drop mailbag questions for
tomorrow's mail bag as well. All right, let's talk some basketball.
So the Rockets have been a team that I've been
interested to see play the Lakers for several different reasons. One,
they present probably the biggest physical mismatch for the Lakers
on the perimeter. But they also have this Shanguon problem,
(03:16):
and I've been watching Shangoon kick everyone's ass seemingly as
of late. And they have these big, strong athletes that
can wear on the you know, somewhat lesser athletes that
the Lakers have on the perimeter. The Lakers have good
size on the perimeter, but they're not particularly athletic, and
I think you saw a lot of examples of that today.
There were a couple of plays with Dorian Finney Smith
(03:37):
where like Dorian Phinney Smith is one of the better
athletes on the Lakers, And there were a couple of
plays today that The one that comes to mind are
that Tarry Easton driving Iso smash in his face, just
the two handed crunch right in his face off of
that little low gather move. And then the play where
Men Thompson, who just every time I watched Men Thompson.
I'm just completely blown away. But he had this euro
(03:59):
step on the bastine where he left Dorian Infinny Smith
just in the mud. And there were other examples where
it's like Lebron's trying to back down Dylan Brooks, and
like I always talk about those back down situations of
like a contest to see who can dislodge the other
player's base first is what those contests usually come down to.
And Dylan Brooks is dislodging Lebron's base, He's dislodging Luca's base,
(04:23):
and so there's a bunch of physical mismatches at play.
They're a team that can do quite a bit of switching,
as you saw down the stretch as the Lakers were
attacking Fred van Vliet quite a bit. And they also
run a lot of zone defense as a late they
didn't run. I pulled the stat on the show a
couple of days ago or last week, but the Rockets
for like fifty something games this year ran zero possessions
of zone and then suddenly in the last month they've
(04:44):
just been running a ton of it, and they run
a couple of different variations of it. But this was
gonna be a good test for the Lakers on a
bunch of different fronts, and I thought in general they
passed the test in a lot of ways. I thought
the main reason today didn't look more like a convincing
win or ten to fifteen point Laker win is none
of the Lakers stars played well on offense. None of
(05:05):
them provided volume scoring. But some of that is because
they did the job, which is hanging with Houston physically.
And there were a couple stretches, like in the early
part of the game, and the Lakers were missing shots
against the zone, or they gave up some transition kick
ahead stuff where guys are just standing wide open under
the basket. Some of those kinds of mistakes, But for
(05:25):
the most part, the Lakers held up on the margins.
They tied them in offensive rebounds both teams at ten.
They held them to just thirteen fast break points. Those
are the two main areas where they can get thrashed
by this type of team, and they held up there.
But there is something to be said about the cumulative
wear and tear that happens when you play against a
team like the Houston Rockets. Like I talked about this
(05:47):
all the time, I talked about it earlier this morning
when we were I think it was when we were
talking at the tail end of the show about Zachary
Rossauche but talked about the difference between like what causes
a shot to miss, while also acknowledging that there is
a certain amount of luck in shooting. Generally speaking, I
think that there's far more controllable in shot result than uncontrollable.
(06:12):
What kinds of shots are you getting? What else are
you having to do in the gate? Like if you're
getting worn down physically because you're fronting the post against
Shane Goon and doing all this crackdown, rebounding to deal
with their bigs underneath the basket, and sprinting back in transition,
every single time there's a certain amount of it's difficult
to then get the lift you need into a shot.
(06:34):
Did you see Austin Reeves leaving that jumper short off
the front of the rim? Do you see that last
wide open Rui Hachimura three that literally airballed short. Luca
on all of his step backs couldn't get the ball
to the rim. He had a couple alligator arm shots
in this game that were well short of the front
of the rim. Those are connected. That is a product
of that cumulative wear and tear that a team like
(06:55):
Houston puts on your legs. And as I always talk about,
the jump shot is an energy transfer from the floor
all the way through to the release. If you disrupt
the base or you disrupt the gather, it doesn't even
feel like the same shot at the top. And there's
a lot of that sort of thing where you could
just feel the Lakers struggling to get their lift, and
I do think there's a certain amount of like they're
gonna have to overcome that if they run into Houston
(07:16):
in a second round series. There's a chance here if
the way things shake out that the Lakers and the
Rockets end up at the two three, and if the
Rockets beat whoever comes out of that seven seed, there's
a chance that it ends up being La Houston in
round two. And if that happens, it's going to be
important that Lebron, Luca, and Austin find a way to
(07:37):
contribute at a higher rate offensively while also winning these
physical battles that they're gonna have to win, or losing
fewer of the physical battles than you can lose to
a team like Houston, same thing goes for the spot
up shooters. There are a couple guys try really well tonight, right,
like Dorian Finney Smith and gave Vincent May twelve threes
between the two and that that was massive, just absolutely
(07:57):
massive for them in this game. Gabe was getting a
ton of open threes in the corner out of their
zone attack, and then Dorian Finney Smith was getting a
ton of threes at the top of the key out
of the pick and pop. But everyone else shot poorly,
you know, Ruy Hatcha Mura goes one for six, Austin
Reeves goes oh for three, Jordan Goodwin gets two fantastic
wide open looks and he goes oh for two. There's
(08:18):
a certain amount of that, where like the Lakers are
going to have to make shots and generate offense while
they're dealing with a very difficult physical ask to box
out and run the floor in transition and do all
of those things. I thought they handled the zone really well.
I thought they consistently generated great shots. There's a certain
there's a bunch of different stuff that happens with zone
(08:40):
to everybody involved. Defenses tend to struggle with rebounding why
because they're not matched up, there's not clean box outs.
Zones tend to breed passivity, meaning like guys feel like
they're just in their spot and they don't need to
cover a ton of ground, so they're less crashy, and
so they can give up some offensive rebounds. And then
on offense, it fundamentally changes the way your shots come
from right. Like we're gonna talk about this when we
(09:01):
get into the Celtics, when we talk about Al Horford
and chrisops Porzingis. But like, you run into a very
different style of game, a very different style of offense,
a very different style of defense. It can catch you
off guard and it can be difficult to adjust to. So,
for instance, like where do the Lakers usually get their
catch and shoot threes. They're typically coming out of skips
and ball screens, like maybe an extra pass up the wing,
(09:22):
but a lot of weak side wing, week side corner threes,
a lot of picking pop threes in ball screens when
they have a big on Dori and Finney Smith. That's
where they tend to get their threes from right. Once
you bring in a zone, it changes the way you
get your threes. There's more threes off of swing passes,
so you're not getting the ball out of the paint
as often. A lot of times it's off of a
(09:44):
sideway's pass. You're changing your perspective on the basket as
you turn to shoot. The closeouts tend to be different.
A lot of times those gaps are with a defender
closing out at you on your side as opposed to
closing out at your face. It's a very different type
of feel, and often even when you get great shots
against zone, it can take time for you to kind
of like get comfortable taking and making shots in those situations.
(10:06):
That said, this is why I feel so strongly about
that concept. I talked earlier about shot quality and how
variance plays a role, but ultimately it's about the kind
of basketball that you're playing on both ends of the floor.
If you continue to generate great shots for great shooters,
they're gonna go in. And Gabe was off early in
the game. They had a couple bad misses out of
the corner, but he just kept getting clean looks. Two
(10:29):
damn good of a shooter. He's a pro. These guys
are in the gym every damn day, shooting hundreds of shots.
If you let him just sit there and set his feet,
get his rhythm, he's gonna eventually knock him down. And
that's the thing. Like these were like wide open looks
for Dorian Finney Smith at the top of the key.
These were wide open looks for Gave gay Vinson hit
a couple of more tightly contested ones out of the corner,
(10:52):
but he got going with these wide open shots, and
so to the Lakers credit, they trusted their shot. Qual
I thought that was kind of like the theme of
the game for the Lakers, like trusting the process. Like
there's a certain amount of like you'll see a lot
of old heads do this. I don't know if you
guys have ever played with an older guy when you're
playing pickup, where like you take a couple of wide
(11:12):
open threes and you miss them, and the old guy
goes like, we need to stop settling, we need to
go to the basket. Like it just starts yelling at
you that kind of shit, Like we've all dealt with
that before. But it's like a lot of times that
can be the worst thing you can do because a
lot of times those threes are open because the defense
is packing the paint the defense is conceding those threes
in a lot of cases. Case in point, the Dorian
Finney Smith picking pop. Dorrian Finney Smith is gonna hit
(11:36):
about five percent of those wide open above the break threes.
As Luke is coming off of that ball screen, whether
it's Steven Adams or Alpern Shangoon, he's got two on
the ball, he is driving to the basket. There's red
jerseys or Rockets jerseys all around them. And so ultimately,
(11:57):
what you need to do in that situation instead of
trying to ram your head through the brick wall, is
take what the defense is giving. Now, I agree with
the old heads. If you're settling for bad shots, that's
a totally different game. Like if you're coming down the
floor and you're doing the Jalen Green thing where it's
like you're coming off of the top of the screen
and you're getting off the dribble three with a rear
(12:18):
view contest and you make a couple, but then you
start missing. Like I, as a coach would probably be like, hey,
like let's try to generate more clean catch and shoot
looks instead of these like lower percentage types of shots.
But if you're getting if your offense is generating clean
catch and shoot looks for good shooters, you don't bail
on that just because they miss three or four early
(12:38):
in the game. You trust that shot quality. Dorian Finney,
Smith and Gabe Vincent total twenty four to three point
attempts tonight. That is relentless faith in the shot quality
that they were generating, And so I just thought that
was a really like there's a certain amount of it
too with Houston, where it's like you can tell, like Lebron,
(13:00):
you could literally see it in the body language of
every Laker tonight, whether it's Luca dealing with Dylan Brooks
or Lebron dealing with Dylan Brooks, or all those guys
dealing with the men. Thompson and DFS got into it
with Steven Adams. No matter who beats the Rockets, whether
it's the Lakers or it's somebody else, whoever gets rid
(13:21):
of them, that's gonna be a shitty two weeks like that.
You're going to be dealing with pain in the ass,
physical athletes that are gonna talk shit like Jalen Green's
rocking the baby every time he gets a driving layup
in this game. Dylan Brooks every time he stonewalls Lebron
or Luca is like talking shit. I literally saw him
call Lebron trash after he got knocked over on the
(13:41):
last one. Like there's a certain amount of like this
is gonna suck under any circumstances for anybody to play.
And you could see the Lakers kind of in survival
mode tonight, where they're like, can we just get out
of here with a win and not see these guys
for a while. But the reality is they might see them.
And that's why I think it's just so important for
the Lakers to attack these final Cup weeks to improve
their conditioning, to improve their ability to handle the physicality,
(14:04):
because ultimately they're gonna need to against a big, physical
athletic team. If it's not Houston, it'll be okay See,
who's just a much better version of Houston. And in
that sort of situation, they're gonna have to be able
to make good decisions, make good reads, and get their
legs up into these shots so that they can knock
some of these shots down if they're going to beat
a team like Okay See. One of the things that
(14:26):
stood out to me in this game was just in
general the effort that the Lakers gave holding like finding
ways to contribute even when they're not making shots, and
all the three stars I thought deserved some credit for this. So,
for instance, like Austin reeves brutal shooting game. Jackson and
I were talking before the show, like he definitely has
(14:46):
a lower floor and he's more inconsistent against these really
athletic teams just because they can wear on him physically
to a certain extent. But one of the things I'll
give Austin credit for is like he can identify when
he's having that type of game, he'll just find ways
to make plays. There was a big sequence late in
this game where he gets a pretty good look off
of a nasty left right snatchback crossover against Jalen Green
(15:10):
right around the right elbow, leaves it short off the
front of the rim. It misses, and Jalen Green, you
could tell, is just like, oh yeah, well watch this.
So he goes down the other end and he starts
go right at Austin's chest and Austin cleanly strips him,
absorbs the contact, slides open, waits for Jalen to expose
the ball in his shooting pocket and reaches out and
he strips him clean. Look at the way Austin was
flying around on rebounds. He had a contest on a
(15:33):
Dylan Brooks left shoulder fade away, which, by the way,
like there are a lot of guys in this league
where if Dylan Brooks went to take a left shoulder
fade away, they'd be like, all right, bro, Like you
go ahead and shoot that, We'll just grab the rebound.
Austin was like, no, Like, I am not leaving this
to chance. I am going to get the best possible
contest I can get, and he damn near blocked Dylan
Brooks on that left shoulder fade along the baseline. Lebron
(15:53):
making that defensive play against Shangun. Shang Gun spins off
of Austin, gets him in a switch. There's no help
out of that right corner because it's vacant. Shangun has
an easy drop step to his right hand on that
right side of the basket. He makes that. It's the
exact same situation they were just in where they were
struggling to get the ball in bounds and they could
potentially turn the ball over there like they did against Chicago,
or have to go make more free throws. Lebron said, nah,
(16:16):
fuck that, I'm gonna make a defensive play here. He
read the whole thing from the start. You know, Shanegun,
he really is Jokich light and I really enjoy watching
him for a lot of the same reasons. But the
two biggest differences is he's just not as big as
Yokich and he's just not as good a passer as
Jokich is. And like Shanggun really just telegraphed and mailed
in that move to where Lebron just saw it coming
(16:37):
a mile away, got up there and make the block.
He had those two clutch free throws at the end
of the game. Luca, like we talked about it the
shot making earlier, like he was leaving everything short. Was
just brutally bad as a shot maker in this game.
But he was the guy that was consistently generating those
fantastic looks for Dorian Finney Smith at the top of
the key. He also hit Gabe a few times on
(17:00):
skips in ball screens. Like to Luca's credit, he generated
great shots for his team in this game as best
as he could, even though the shot making wasn't there,
and so all in all, I thought it was an
impressive effort for the Lakers, while at the same time
revealing of the fact that there's a certain amount of
wear and tear that these young athletic teams can inflict
on this Lakers roster. And so there's a certain amount
(17:22):
of like that war of attrition, which is, like how
much can the athletes wear down the Lakers stars versus
how much can the Lakers Stars solve these defenses to
the point where it starts to get easier for them.
And so there's a certain amount of that sort of
like tug of war that's going to be an important
swing factor for the Lakers as they head into the postseason,
(17:42):
which is, are they willing and able to survive a
two week series against a super athletic, super young team
and gets stronger as the series progresses, because that can
also go the other way, and we've seen, like I mean,
just like at Minnesota versus Phoenix last year, where sometimes
the physicality ratchets up, those athletes really start to get
their hands on you, and it can turn into something
(18:04):
that gets ugly pretty quick. But yeah, so it was
a good win for them. I think they're trending in
the right direction. This was one of their better physical,
competitive types of games in the last week or so,
But this was also the game where their offense took
a step back after their offense had been starting to
gain some ground in recent weeks. So ultimately, for the Lakers,
it's about putting it all together and getting to the
(18:26):
point where all these different facets of what make them
good are all available and reliable at the same time.
Moving out to Boston Memphis, I talked earlier about running
into an opponent that plays a dramatically different style, right
with the Lakers running into a zone defense. I talked
about this concept with Porzingis and Horford in the Suns game.
(18:48):
If you guys remember, they're just a matchup problem for
most front courts in the NBA. They had Zach Edy
and Santi Aldamin hell tonight. There was a stretch at
the beginning of this game for about quarter and a
half or the Grizzlies were hooping, John Morant was cooking,
and most of Boston's perimeter players were cold. Derek White
(19:08):
and Drew Holliday had like zero points through the first
you know, twelve fourteen minutes or so of this game,
and Al Horford and Chris hops Porzingis literally kept them
in the game until their offense finally got going in
that late second quarter stretch and Drew Halliding and Derek
White started hitting three, Jason Tatum started getting aggressive. That
was when they took over and they were able to
kind of slowly and methodically take control of the game
(19:29):
from there. But they were hanging on for dear life
early on as none of their perimeter players can get
anything going, and John Morant was really going and guys
were hitting threes, and it just was one of those
things where they needed somebody to keep them attached, and
it was Horford and Porzingis. The Celtics make you play
a different type of game. So many teams that run spread,
pick and roll in the NBA allow teams to kind
(19:51):
of set their defense up in a way that is repetitive. Right,
So say you're guarding Luca Jackson ball screen. Right, You're
gonna have a guy chase over the top, your BIG's
gonna come up to the level or whatever. You're gonna
tag the roller. That means a skip is open. But
there's a classic rotation from the wing to the skip
and the two on the ball have to disengage and
(20:12):
someone's got to rotate to the wing, and there's a
certain amount of like when you're facing these spread, pick
and roll teams, where like you play sixty games a
year playing that type of defense, and so you kind
of get really good at it. You kind of get
your reads down, you get your your it kind of
becomes instinctual, like what you're gonna do in all these
different types of situations. One of the things that the
Celtics do is they allow them They allow their team
(20:36):
to play with Horford and porzingis they allow their team
to play a brand of driving kick basketball that is
positionless in the purest sense of where guys are on
the floor, meaning like sometimes it is Tatum in the
corner and Horford on the wing and a guard in
the dunker spot and porzingis on the opposite wing. But
then sometimes Horford's in the corner and sometimes porzingis is
operating out against a switch in the middle of the floor.
(20:57):
Everyone's in a different spot all the time. It happening
is like everybody on the team is like doing these
weird things like oh, you're a guard and now you're
making a help side rotation underneath the basket because your
bigs are out above the break and there's a guard
in the dunker spot, so like it's your help rotation.
So now you're protecting the rim as like a six
foot two athletic thin guard or whatever it might be, right,
(21:20):
or you're as a big man like all of a sudden,
like you're defending in a driving kick situation where it's like, oh,
I'm dealing with Horford and a pick and pop, or
now I'm Zach Edy, I'm switched on to Derek White
on the left wing, and like now I'm like trying
to slide my feet against Derek White, and all he
has to do is kind of shimmy a little bit
and he back pedals too much and then he rises
up and knocks down a pull up three right in
(21:42):
his face. It just puts everybody in these like really
awkward situations, and you could tell the Celtics new that
that was their best option because they were hunting it relentlessly.
They even ran in action at one point, it was
in the second quarter if I remember correctly, where they
had Horford and Porzingis run an off ball action off
of the wing and Horford screens Santiel Dama and Porzingis
(22:04):
cuts or kind of kind of curls it and they
defend it like a drop coverage. So Santel Dama is
like chasing over the top and Edie is in a
kind of like a drop right around like ten feet
from the basket. Porzingis catches the ball in the move
and he's going downhill right at Edie's face, and he
just spins into it, just dunks it with two hands
right in his head. And I'm like, like, this is
not normal stuff you expect to deal with when you're coaching.
(22:26):
Zach Edy like like, all right, you know how you
ran drop coverage for the last two weeks, Well tonight,
we need you to be defending off ball action for
a big who can shoot twenty seven footers and post
up and do all and spin into dunks in your
face and all this different kind of stuff. Al Horford,
it's not just the shooting. It's it's confident and aggressive shooting,
which are two very different things. I'm able to knock
(22:46):
down to catch and shoot three. It's not the same
as if you leave me open, I'm gonna shoot it
and I'm gonna hit you know, close to forty percent
of them, and that just puts you in all these
different predicaments. Like I watched Horford tonight jab into the corner,
drive middle hit a little fling hook shot in the lane.
That's a guard move. That's a guard move that you're
asking your bigs to defend in space. Like it just
(23:07):
ultimately puts you in all of these uncomfortable positions. And
like I thought, Zach Eatie in particular and santi all
Dom in particular just looked completely lost on the floorida night.
And that's what Horford and Porzingis do to you. And
they were spamming that advantage. Boston was a lot of
Porzingis post ups in this game. I thought Porzingis gave
them issues with his rim protection as well. It's just
(23:29):
been really fun in the last few weeks to watch
those guys give teams fits. The CEA's perimeterive players finally
got going that second quarter as well. I've been talking
a lot lately about the Celtics in their pursuit of
great shots right, and this might have been their best
offensive process game of the season. Thirty assists on thirty
nine midfield goals, They generated thirty two unguarded catch and
(23:53):
shoot jump shots in that game that was by far
their highest total of the season. They've general at least
twenty unguarded catch and shoots in five consecutive games, and
that's the exciting part. Like most of this is shaping
up exactly like you would hope for a title defense.
(24:15):
They're having an excellent regular season, but at the same time,
they're not over extending themselves trying to keep up with
a couple of young athletic teams in Cleveland and OKC.
They're taking care of their bodies, sitting guys when they
need to sit guys, while also maintaining their identity while
also giving young guys a lot of opportunity. We've seen
(24:35):
a lot more Baylor shiremen as of late. They're allowing
themselves to have a multifaceted approach to this regular season,
while at the same time, right now March thirty first,
turning up their intensity in time for the playoffs. They've
won nine in a row, just had their best shot
quality game of the season, five consecutive games of just
(24:56):
a lot of really good catch and shoot looks, which
to me are like the number one barometer for the
Celtics in their offense. There's just a lot to get
excited about if you're a Celtics fan. They are peaking
at the right time on the Memphis front. Their defense
has been awful in the skid. They have a one
to twenty point three defensive rating in this one and
six stretch, and I'm not surprised at all that they
(25:16):
were the team that gave up the most wide open
threes to Boston. This was an issue throughout the entirety
of the Taylor Jenkins era, and we've talked about this
on the show many times. They're an overhelped team. There's
a huge difference between digging and recovering and just sitting
in driving lanes and conceiting threes. Over the course of
this span. I checked before the show it's either fifth
(25:37):
or sixth, But in the seven game span, they've given
up the fifth or sixth most unguarded catch and shoot,
jump shot or wide open PERMBA dot Com at least
six feet away defenders or defender at least six feet away.
They've given up, let's just say, the sixth most in
the league over this seven game span. There's a certain
amount of that where you're going to allow teams to
(26:00):
pick you apart and get great looks, and it's just
gonna be really difficult for you to get enough stops.
If you're deliberate with your shot selection in ball movement
against Memphis, you can absolutely get open looks against them.
They look a little bit like a team that's letting
go of the rope right now, doing the exact opposite
of what we talked about with Boston. They're losing team
as we had for the postseason. I don't think they're
good enough on either end of the floor to win
(26:21):
four playoff rounds. Definitely looking a little bleak in Memphis.
All right, Jackson, let's get into that mail bag. What
do you got for us?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
All right, let's do it. We are going to start
off with a question from JM, who's in the chat
super chatting sending us a few dollars, Thank you, JM.
Do you think Denver will fall to the four seed
and rest players to avoid a potential Warriors or Timberwolves
matchup in the first round of the playoffs, And we
can sort of expand the question I think generally to like,
(26:52):
do you think teams actually do this try to intentionally
lose games or intentionally how much do these teams think
about seeding and their potential first round matchups against teams
they might struggle with.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
I think there's a certain amount of they should have
a certain awareness of Minnesota and Golden State coming out
of that six to seven slot. At the same time, though,
knowing the competitors that are in that locker room, the
champions that they are, I just doubt they're wired that way.
I generally tend to think that the basketball gods will
(27:25):
reward you most when you attempt to play the best
possible basketball, and that ultimately, even if you were able
to avoid Minnesota or a Golden State in the first round,
you're gonna have to face somebody that attacks your weaknesses
at some point in the postseason. The best thing you
can do to prepare for that is to be the
best basketball team that you can be, and the only
(27:45):
way to do that is to attack every day in
the process of becoming a better basketball team. So, like
I think there's a fan case for it, I just
don't think there's a basketball case for it, just simply
because it's just bad process for a basketball team. What
do you think, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Think I just think there's too much unpredictability like it's
you just don't know if if if you have a
hot shooting series, you're If Denver has a hot shooting series,
they're rolling through Minnesota. Like if if Denver has a
cold shooting series, they're they're probably getting beat by the
team with that much size. Like it's it's there's so
much variance, and you need to be trying to play
(28:21):
your best basketball. I think going into the playoffs and
in those early parts of the playoffs, if you want
it's it's not like Denver's a team that would be
happy to win one one round, right, If you're a
genuine title contender, you want to be playing your best
basketball because whoever you get. If you're if you're Denver,
you're thinking a lot more about how do you beat
Okay see than you are how you beat If you're
(28:41):
if you're stressing about how do you beat Minnesota, you're
not beating Okay. So so exactly, yeah, all right, next question,
we'll do this one's sort of about tonight's connected tonight's game,
because it does feel like there was a lot of
talk on the broadcast about Jalen green Is sitting at
the end of the game. Uh, do you think the
Rockets will look target a veteran star they can help
(29:01):
them score in crunch time this offseason. Who do you
think the ideal fit would be. I know, Kevin Durant
sort of be obvious, he's been rumored to them in
the past. But what's the sort of solution, potential solution
to their late game execution offensive sort of struggles.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
I think Katie's the only one that makes sense. I mean,
if there was the only other thing I can see
is if, like if they've ended up pulling some sort
of crazy deal where like Golden State ended up like
flipping Jimmy for Katie or something like that, and suddenly
Jimmy was available. He's a guy that I think would
fit that role pretty well. But like I first of all,
I thought the benching a Jalen Green was interesting. I
thought it was the right call. Layton games are gonna
(29:39):
play through Shangun and Fred Van Vliet. I thought Jabari
Smith was amazing in this game on the glass and
then his timely jump shooting. That three hit in transition
on the right wing was huge. That little shot he
hit from Shaneguon in the like ten twelve feet there
in the lane that little soft jump shot he shot,
and then Dylan obviously you need him for defense. Shangon
(30:00):
was your biggest matchup advantage, and then a men Thompson
was crushing everybody, So like, who who are you taking
out for Jalen Green when you're gonna be running the
offense to Fred Van Vliet anyway, So I thought that
was the right call. But yeah, ultimately I think there
I was advocating for this around the deadline. This was
before you started working with us Jackson, but I was
like NonStop. I was like, I was like, should the
(30:22):
Rockets be training for some of these guys? Like there's
do you remember that stretch in the early part of
the or middle part of the season where they just
beat great teams every single night for like a month.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
On some nights they look unstoppable because of all their athletes.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Yeah, and like like because they've had a pretty light
schedule here down the stretch, and like they deserve it
because they went through the gauntlet earlier and they beat everybody.
But during that stre stretch, I kept thinking, I'm like,
with this defense, with all this depth of athleticism, if
you give these guys a surgical half court scorer, they
can beat anybody, and so obviously they're not gonna do
it this year, and we'll see ultimately. I mean, their
(30:59):
offense looked so brutally bad at times tonight, and it
always tends to do that and just about every single game.
So there's a certain amount of like I think Houston
need their GM, their front office needs to see just
how bad their offense looks in April before they end
up understanding just how serious they need to get about
(31:20):
chasing down that type of scoring talent.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yeah, they have such a weird roster that they have
so many very good players, but they don't have any
true superstar. And not just that, they don't have really
any guys that I think project to be an offensive
superstar like that. I think I'm in Thompson obviously has
you know, crazy high ceiling, but I don't know what
he's going to be, right, But even Jalen Green and Sengoon,
who are are awesome at times, like I don't think
(31:44):
either of those guys because of Sengoon sort of passing
in size struggles and that per your point about the
Yoakic comparison and Jalen Green sort of consistency and efficiency struggles.
I don't know if either of those guys project to
be legitimate playoff go to scorers in the half court,
and if and if they don't have even one of
those guys, it's like, what.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Is their roster.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
It's I don't know, it's strange. I mean, if someone
in the chat said, this isn't exactly the type of
guy I think we're talking about, but that if the
if the Sixers blow it up, maybe they should make
a run at Maxi, and like that's sort of he'd
be fantastic, he'd be awesome with them, even if he's
not like a big wing sort of score type that
is sort of a prototype a lot of times. But
like it does feel like they have an okay, see
(32:26):
like build, But that's without Shay. You know, they like
don't have They need to cash in some of their
hips to try to go after someone who can actually
lift them over the top and the half court offensively.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Well, to your point, there's just not enough long term growth.
Like Shanegon. One of the things I've noticed with Shanegon
is like if you don't have elite defenders in your
front court, he's gonna crush you. Like Shaneguon is a problem.
But like it seems just about every time he runs
into like a real good defensive front court that all
of a sudden he can't get as much separation for
(32:57):
that little right left shoulder hook or he just there's
a certain like ceiling with him that's there. And so
to your point, like if you don't have somebody that's like, oh,
this guy, Like it's like the Anthony Edwards conundrum with Minnesota,
it's like a certain amount of their a certain amount
of their like game plan for the franchise is like
we expect Aunt to make dramatic leaps every year for
(33:18):
the next like five years, whereas like I think aman
Thompson's gonna take those kinds of leaps, but I just
don't see him as the surgical There's not a guy
in there that's gonna be that surgical offensive player. And
so if you're not gonna get that player through the draft,
then you gotta find that guy out in free agency
or in u in the trade market. And so ultimately,
I think I think it's just a matter of when
they pulled the trigger.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah, I agree, let's do this one. Who in the
West do you think has the best matchup has the
best chance to beat okay See.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Oh that's a good question, very good question. I really
like the way Golden State matches up with Okay See.
They have on several different occasions shown they just Oklahoma
City has a like a Golden State, I should say,
has an underrated trait, which is that they are pretty
fast on the perimeter and they can fly around in rotation.
(34:10):
And they also have this like anchored front court with
Raymond Green protecting the rim, and so there's a certain
amount like with with Golden State, they can make them
feel uncomfortable on defense while also having the jimmy to
attack matchups of various perimeter size matchups. And Steph has
just been really comfortable against them, and he's made a
(34:31):
lot of plays against them, and so I think Golden
State's an interesting example. Minnesota would be another example with
like really good rim protection, because we've seen we've seen
Oklahoma City struggle in the Dallas series last year against
really good rim protection. The Lakers are another example of
a team that they have the Luca Lebron, who are
(34:56):
you gonna Who's gonna guard them? Type of problem. The
thing that scares me for the Lakers with Oklahoma City
is their turnover to transition problem. Yeah, And like I
could see that series having a little bit of a
Minnesota Denver type of feel where there are these games
where the Lakers methodically beat okay See, but then there
(35:17):
are these games where Okay Se just kicks the shit
out of them because they let go of the rope
and they start turning the ball over and it's just
a track meet and transition.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Right.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Those are the three teams that I think have good chances.
That said, I think if I had to pick one
team that could upset okay See from down there and
that part of the bracket, I'd say Golden State.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, it's hard because it sort of feels okay See.
It sort of has created this basketball machine that feels
almost unmeetable in a seven game series at this point.
But I mean depending on the shot and making in
the playoffs. But I I those three teams feel like
the right answer just because you need some sort of
transcendent to something it feels like to beat the thunder.
And whether it's the Luca Lebron plot problem, the stuff problem,
(35:59):
or they ok problem, Like those three teams have some
sort of skeleton key that can just unlock a playoff
series in a way that the other Western Conference teams
don't really have offensively.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
But I don't know, man, I should have included Denver too.
Denver I think has a chance to beat them. Those
are the four teams that I think have a chance.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Yeah, let's do this one. When it comes to defense,
what do you believe is the most important factor? Rim
protection or being able to contain the ball.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I'm going to say the ability to contain the ball,
because ultimately we talked about it earlier. With the way
that Boston can like get you out of your kind
of base defensive scheme and force you to play an
uncomfortable style, You're inevitably going to run into somebody that
can pull your room protector away from the rim. Yeah,
(36:50):
and if you can't guard on the perimeter, you have
no chance. I think the best example of this in
NBA history is the twenty twenty one Jazz. Like right,
I was going to say all season long they were
able to maintain a certain baseline with their defense because
of Rudy Gobert. In the large sample, it was really
effective until the Clippers were like, let's see how you guys,
garden space. Yeah, and I mean they beat them without
Kawhi like that. That was like a pretty dramatic type
(37:12):
of upset. So I think I think, like overall, athletic
perimeter speed is more valuable than rim protection. Like Boston
I think is a great example. Like I think Boston's
defensive look with Horford at center, with the with the
their four other great perimeter players, that's the look where
it's like we're switching everything and it's like take your pick,
(37:33):
who do you want to try to score on. You
don't really have a good option here. I think that
that has more resilience in the playoffs than just pure
rim protection. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
I mean I think if you said rim protection with
that player also being able to be switchable, then it's
like that's kind of how you unlock it. Like it's
the Draymond Green versus Rudy Gobert problem, Like one of
those guys is the best rim protector in the league.
One of them can guard five positions, and the guy
who can guard five positions is just more valuable.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Very well, people just couldn't more Yeah, very well. Put
like you ultimately like you should, like your dream should
be to have multiple defensive looks and the only way
that's going to be possible is if you have a
good rip protector rim protector that can also switch.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Yeah, speaking of the Celtics, this is an interesting one
just to humor me as a Celtics fan. Uh, there
as there was, and also because there was a report
I can think it was last week about the Celtics
getting expensive at some point in the next couple of years,
and maybe they're gonna have to trade one of Drew
Holiday or Christas Perzingis in a year or two, depending
(38:35):
on on how their contracts and how the new owners
feel and YadA YadA. And then there's also people also
doing these Cooper flag to the Celtics after his Ricky
dealer rumors. So the Celtics are going to be really
expensive moving forward. What lottery team, if any, would accept
a Drew Holliday, Jalen Brown and a couple first round
picks for the number one overall pick to get Cooper
(38:56):
flag to the Celtics.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Okay, so uh read me the package one more time.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Drew Holiday, Jalen Brown and whatever amount of first round
picks feel so appropriate.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Holiday, Brown and a bunch of first round picks would
Washington be stupid enough to do that? Would they? Would
Washington say give me Drew Holiday, Jalen Brown and Alex
Aar with these couple of these other young dudes that
we have that are hooping with Jordan Poole Washington. Maybe,
(39:30):
So theoretically it would be a team that already is
kind of anchored at the four spot Charlotte.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Maybe I was gonna say, Charlotte's a weird one.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
I the Yeah, New Orleans they're like they but then
they would.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Like it's yeah, like the Pelicans both have like theoretically
foundational pieces at the four, but neither of them feel
like guys that they're like truly wed to.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
You know what I mean, like married to. Yeah, that
that's interesting. Yeah, if you're let's take Utah for example, Yeah,
you already have Lori Markinen and Walker Kessler. Boston calls
you and offers Drew Holliday, Jalen Brown, and a bunch
of first round.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Draft any this is your guy you drafted Jalen Brown, Danny.
You love Jaylen Brown, Danny.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
So it's you'd have Colin Sexton, Drew Holliday, You'd have
Jalen Brown next to Lori Markin and with Walker Kessler,
and you've already got a million draft picks and you
can go after whatever you like. That teams. Actually would's
not a bad one.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Like you you stick a couple of like strong perimeter
defenders who can play on obviously offensively, as well as
Jalen Brown next to Lowry Markin who needs some defensive help,
and next to Walker Kessler, who's not one of those
switchabowl guys. It's not the worst one. It's not the worst.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
So let's take it a step further though. If you're Boston,
Cooper Flagg and Jason Tatum effectively play the same position
in my opinion, so there's a certain there's a certain
diminishing return you could face. There there are ways to
account for it, Like I think we overthink this sometimes
where it's like, can Cooper Flag and Jason Tatam play
basketball together? Yes, they can, like they can't, there's no doubt.
(41:10):
But there's a certain amount of, like your foot speed.
If you have a center with those two guys playing
at three four, there's a certain like foot speed, like
Jalen Brown's fastest ship and guards the other team's best
player every day. Yeah, like there's a like can Cooper
Flag do that? You know, there's a certain amount of
that sort of thing. But this is an interesting thought exercise,
and I think I think you. I think Utah. You
talked to me into Utah. That makes it. That's a
(41:32):
that that one makes a little bit of sense.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Yeah, I know we have some some people in the
chat saying this, that's our second Aprin team. This is
not gonna it's it's almost it's a sure, they're not
gonna have can we have some fun? But it's a
it's a fun thought exercise. Let's do Let's do one more.
Jason big Fan from Argentina, what is the most shout
out to our international listeners? What is the most favorable
(41:55):
parentheses and realistic first round matchup for the Lakers? Okay,
that's a really lot of Memphis because they feel like
the easiest first round matchup forever.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Bet Yeah Memphis. Yeah, Memphis is just like about to
crash and burn here. I think it's so much of
this you and I were talking about it before the show.
So much depends on where all these teams shake out.
It looks if you look at things, man, Houston's one
loss ahead of Denver, who's one loss ahead of the Lakers,
who's two losses ahead of Memphis, tied with Golden State,
(42:26):
who's only one loss ahead of the eight seed. Like
the Lakers at the four seed are only three losses
ahead of the Clippers at the eight seed, So like
it could literally be anybody. Yeah, I think I think
the Lakers would do destroy Memphis because they run too
many traditional coverages. Golden State is a tricky one because
(42:48):
they haven't played since Jimmy Butler came on board. I
personally am scared of Golden State as a fan who's
rooting for the Lakers. Golden State is a team I'd
rather not play. Minnesota is a team I'd rather not play.
I just know that they can, like really physically alter
a series to the point where it becomes a big problem.
(43:10):
I think the Lakers would beat Denver. I know Nugget
Nuggets fans will kill me for saying that, but I
think I think the Lakers are a better team than
Denver right now. I think they also, I think Luca
just fundamentally changes the matchup. Yeah, Like, like Luca just
goes from Denver's defense can hold up reasonably well against
the Lakers to now, Denver's defense is hopeless to stop
the Lakers from generating wide open threes every single time
down the floor. So I think the Lakers would define
(43:33):
against Denver. I think the Lakers would do fine against Memphis.
I'd say Golden State in Minnesota would be the two
that I'd be worried about in first round matchups.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Yeah, I tend to agree.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
I think the.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
It doesn't feel like this is particularly possible because the
way that this standing sit right now, but like you said,
there's so many ways could check out. I think the
Lakers should be looking for the Clippers. I think I
think if they get the Clippers the first round, they're
they're taking out the Clippers. They're getting they're getting every
games a home game that I think. I think that's
probably their their best first round matchup.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
So they get up to two, get up or the
Clippers can Clippers Clippers can get up.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Could also end up in six, like relatively easily. So
I do think that's true. Like Jenny, it's not off
the table anyway.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
All of this is possible except for Dallas and Sacramento.
You're right, yeah, And even then Dallas and Sacramento is
possible if you sing if the Lakers get up to
Tuesdays right, how Phoenix is still possible.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
It is gonna be crazy last couple of weeks in
the Western Conference.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Yeah, anything else that we're good for this, let's call
it all right, guys. As always, sincerely appreciate you guys
for supporting me and supporting the show, supporting us and
supporting the show. Also, make sure you continue to drop
mail bag questions if you got a question that we
didn't get to tonight. We are literally waking up tomorrow
morning and recording a mail bag. I think that's going
to air on Wednesday morning, and then we're actually going
(44:50):
live again on Wednesday night and covering the ESPN slate
that night. So make sure you guys drop those questions,
and then I will see you guys for the mail
bag on Onenesday morning and then also live on Wednesday night. Again,
we appreciate you, guys, and we'll see you next time.
But so guys, as always, I appreciate you for listening
to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really
helpful for us if you guys would take a second
(45:11):
and leave a rating and a review. As always, I
appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take
a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
The volume
Host
Jason Timpf
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.