Hoops Tonight - NBA Reaction: Cavaliers AVENGE Celtics loss, Rockets stun Thunder, Warriors SLIDE - Hoops Tonight with Jason Timpf

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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(01:36):
All right, well, coome to hoops tonight here at the
volume heavy Monday, everybody. If all of you guys had
a great weekend, we have a jam packshow for you today.
We are going to hit the two big games from
yesterday where the top two seeds in each conference faced
off against each other. As the Cleveland Cavaliers got some
revenge on the Boston Celtics, albeit short handed. We're gonna

(01:57):
get into that game. It turned into a really interesting
chess match down the stretch. And then two of the
best young athletic teams in the league, the two top
seeds in the Western Conference, the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma
City Thunder faced off as the Houston Rockets got a
big win, kind of a wild finish on that game.
So we're going to hit both of those games from
the perspective of both teams. Then we're going to do

(02:17):
a new edition of power Rankings. We're going to go
over the top ten teams in the league. And then
at the tail end of the show, I have thirty
four clips of film that we are going to go
through hitting from both of the games we talked about
off the top of the show, but also some other
stuff as well. Just a ton of basketball to get into.
It's going to be a lot of fun. You guys
are the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the
Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You don't miss any more

(02:38):
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as well. In the last but not least, keep dropping

(02:58):
mail back questions in the YouTube comments. We will be
doing a mail bag in the Friday Show later this week.
All right, let's talk some basketball. So Celtics Calves turned
into an interesting chess match. Both teams were attacking the
weak spot in each other's defense. So obviously, for the
Calves the weak spot is Darius Garland, and it was
a steady dose of the Celtics looking to attack Darius

(03:22):
Garland every time down the floor. For the Calves, it
was about attacking the Celtics bigs in pick and roll.
Now we're gonna get into it. It's more complicated because
when Derek White and Jalen Brown are out there, they're
just more athletic and long and more better overall, like
basketball defensive instincts to be able to cover for those guys.
But Al Horford at this phase of his career and

(03:42):
Chrisops Porzingis with some of his mobility limitations, they can
be attacked in ball screens, right, And so that was
kind of the dynamic. It was Darius Garland and Donovan
Mitchell trying to attack Porzingis and Horford and Ball screens
incessantly down the stretch of the game, and then the
Celtics hunting Darius Garland. The Celtics were getting great looks
just about every time down the floor. I even thought

(04:03):
they got some great looks at the end of this
game that didn't go down. Al Horford got a wide
open corner three off of a Darius Garland switch on
to Jason Tatum where he kicked it out. He had
another wide open corner three in the right corner that
he missed late in the game. All that the pass
was a little funky. Jason Tatum smoked a layup right
at the rim with Darius Garland, but for the most
part it was the same sort of thing. They were

(04:24):
attacking through a bunch of different functions, Like Christops Porzingis
in a switch, ended up attacking Garland, drew a double
team kickout pass, Howser made a really nice three on
the left wing. Is actually kind of a crazy play
because Donovan Mitchell closed out to the passing lane and
Howser just like really really calm, just like sat there
and let him fly by and knocked down the jump shot.

(04:46):
Peyton Pritchard even attacked Darius Garland late in the game,
just buried him underneath the basket and kind of a
really funky looking play where he just kind of just
took a bunch of drop step dribbles or just power
dribbles and then just kind of shoved off Darius with
his left arm and then sunk a little bank shot.
But for the most part, it was Jason Tatum and
same sort of thing every down. Every time down the floor,
he'd kind of get him onto his switch and then

(05:07):
he'd get either into that wing position or that top
of the key position. They'd space the floor and the
Calves were letting him go to work one on one.
And one of the things that he was doing is,
you know, the the Calves were occupying or the Celtics
were occupying the dunker spot, and they usually would have
a defender getting ready to help at the rim. And
so what Jason Tatum did that was really smart during
the majority of the second half possessions is he didn't

(05:30):
try to just go all the way through Garland to
the rim, because in a lot of those cases that's
where the help is. Right you beat Garland, you just
run into another defender. And one of the things that
Jason Tatum did is he just got surgical with that
little short jump shot. A couple of times he just
dribbled into his space and then a shot just right
over the top of him from ten feet. Sometimes it
was a little left shoulder fade as he turned, you know,

(05:53):
kind of into like a half spin into his little
fade away jump shot. But he was killing Garland in
the short range right. The reason why that's so important is,
like I want you to think about Nikolea Jokic for example,
when you're playing with the size advantage in particular, and
you're dealing with guys that are helping on the back line,
then over penetrating can actually become an issue as you

(06:15):
run into more help like I was talking about. And
so one of the best ways to attack those sorts
of mismatches, as long as you have the touch for it.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Is short range shot making.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
What Yokic will do will be like, oh, you're putting
your forward on me and you're going to have your
center roaming on the back line. Well, I won't go
just threw my guy into an extra defender. I'll just
kind of body and shoot that little left shoulder hook
shot over the top Now, in Jason Tatum's career, he's
been somewhat inconsistent with that short range shot making, but

(06:45):
last night he really had it going. And as long
as he continues to build out that shot over the
course of his prime here in his late twenties, that's
going to be a deadly thing for him against size mismatches,
because it's a problem when you can attack a mismatch
without having to engage in traffic around the basket, when
there's tons of bodies in front of you. Sometimes fouls

(07:06):
don't get called. Sometimes you just miss shots. Like if
you can work in that short range, you can be
effective there. And so he was burning Garland in the
short range. That turned into double teams. Out of the
double teams, they started getting good looks out of it,
offensive rebounds out of it. Remember, even when you're in
scramble situations in rotation, even if you don't necessarily give
up a great shot, you're still in position. You're not

(07:30):
in rebounding position, right because guys aren't matched up, they're
all running around. This is where you end up giving
up offensive rebounds. Remember in the thunder Lakers game, that
was something that Lebron James was talking about after the game,
it's like we're in rotation, we're shading towards Shay or
not in rebound position.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Right.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
There was a huge offensive rebound that Porzingis got late
in this game off of a double team of Tatum
when he was attacking Garland in a switch that they
forced Peyton Pritchard into a pretty tough three point shot
from above the break on the right side, but Porzingis
was un guarded on the weak side because they were
in rotation. He swooped in and grabbed the rebound swing swing.
All of a sudden, Drew Holliday has a wide open layup.

(08:07):
So they were like consistently getting great stuff out of
those switch attacks with Jason Tatum on Darius Garland. Jayson
Tatum was just absurdly good in that second half. There
were a couple of ugly possessions, but overall, I thought
he did an insanely good job of consistently generating great
shots for his team against a very good defense.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
It was some of the.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Most calm and surgical half court work I've ever seen
Jason Tatum do. And if he makes that easy layup,
and if Val Horford hits one of his two wide
open corner threes. All of a sudden we're looking at
potentially a different result. So I was really impressed by
Jason Tatum in this game. But on the other side
of the floor they were getting great looks. The Calves
were out of ball screens. So the two dynamics that

(08:47):
we saw there was one Darius Garland ball screens when
he was bringing Poorzingis into the action. They were showing
high with Porzingis up at the level, and so twice
down the stretch of the game and crunch time, the
Calves were able to get great looks out of the
Celtics putting two on the ball. So the first one
they put two on the ball on the right wing

(09:07):
on a Garland ball screen, Porzingis comes up high, Garland
hits the roll man, swing to the corner, swing to
the above, the above the brake on the left wing,
Donovan Mitchell gets a wide open three because you put
two on the ball against Darius Garland. And then the
shot that ended up being the dagger. If you remember
the one where Moblei got the dunk, same sort of thing.

(09:27):
Porzingis up at the level, a Coorro slips the screen,
Garland hits him, and then a coro draws in the
help drops it off to Moblei, and Mobley goes up
and dunks it. So they were getting stuff out of
those Garland ball screens by bringing Porzingis up to the level,
and then Donovan Mitchell was just attacking the bigs and
drop whatever he could. He was specifically going at Al
Horford a lot late in the game, the lead changing floater,

(09:50):
the floater that he hit after Tatum missed his first shot.
He got in the lane and snaked the pick and
roll on the left side and Horford was just a
bit too far back and he hit that little floater.
And then one of the most common moves you'll see
really good guards do is reject ball screens at the
moment that the defensive guards starts to fight over the
top of the screen, and that was how Donovan Mitchell

(10:11):
got that other really good look pull up three from
the top of the key. By the way, a lot
of these actions that I'm discussing are going to be
in the film session later today, So if you happen
to be watching this in a breakout clip, if you
want to see video representation of this, it's just going
to be at the tail end of the show. I
always do film at the tail end of the show
instead of in the middle because of our podcast audience

(10:33):
and I want this to be something that functions for
them as well. So if you want to see visual representations,
just hang out for the tail end of the show.
But the second three that Donovan Mitchell hit late, he
actually hit three late because he hit a huge one
over a switch a same houser before all this, but
he the one where he kind of put Drew Holliday
in the blender. All he's doing there is he's dribbling
at the ball screens. So there's a ball screen at

(10:54):
the top of the key and he's dribbling like he's
going to go off the ball screen. What does Drew
Holliday have to do there? He is one of the
hard jobs in basketball, when we talk about all the
time on the show. Screen navigation at the point of
attack is one of the most challenging things that NBA
guards have to deal with defensively, Drew Halliday started to
fight over the screen and like right when he started
to commit to that process, Donovan snatched it back to

(11:17):
the left hand and just had all the separation in
the world and was able to rise up and knock
down a shot. But again we had both offenses getting
great stuff by virtue of the Calves attacking in ball
screens and the Celtics attacking Darius Garland and switches. But
the Calves were able to get two big stops late.
And this is where I want to give Darius Garland

(11:37):
some credit, because it was a real problem. Tatum was
scoring on him every time in single coverage. There were
double teams that were giving up wide open threes in
offensive rebounds. Sometimes you just have to do a better job.
Sometimes that's the adjustment from the coaching staff. It's not like, oh,
we came up with this magical scheme to finally get
a stop on Jason Tatum or whatever. It is a
lot of times we want to try to look for

(11:58):
something like that because it's tana right, Like it's easy
for us to point to something like that and be like, oh,
that's how they did it right. But a lot of
times it's like the same guy that was the problem
just does a better job and now all of a
sudden he's not a problem anymore. And Darius Garland, after
getting fried a lot throughout this game, got two really
big stops. The second one was kind of lucky, right

(12:21):
Tatum beat him to the right, went all the way
to the ram, and Garland did a good job trying
to get in his way. But I felt like that
was a layup Jason Tatum's going to make nine times
out of ten. He just happened to smoke it right
the first one, though he legitimately did a better job.
One of the things that Tatum was doing was kind
of methodically getting into that short to mid range to
shoot over the top of Garland. One of the things

(12:42):
that Garland did in that first stop that he got
was he got more aggressive at the point of attack
out past the three point line early in Tatum's attack
of the switch to disrupt rhythm, and you guys will
see this in the video, but he immediately starts slip
swiping at the ball, trying to poke at it, trying
to disrupt Tatum's flow. And then Tatum promptly gets sped

(13:03):
up by that and over penetrates, goes past Garland into
a bunch of help and missus a shot pretty badly
in traffic. And again, like that's one of those things,
like a lot of times, like, yeah, if you if
you're giving up size and you just let a guy
work down to whatever spot he wants and shoot over
the top of you, then there's nothing you can do

(13:24):
that's going to make him feel uncomfortable. Right, But if
you actually use your advantage, which is quickness and just
being scrappy, maybe you can force a player to just
make an uncharacteristic mistake, right, And that's the thing. Like,
Jason Tatum is an excellent of one of the best
half court shot creators we've seen in the league so
far to start this year, and he did a lot
of damage to you, But in a game this close,

(13:46):
you made him make one mistake, and that one mistake
ended up being a big difference. Shout out to Darius
Garland because, like again I'd like, it wasn't pretty all
the time, but he did get a couple of big
stops at the tail end and that ended up being
enough for the Calves to get the win. Now, obviously
it's a big win for the Calves, but I did
think that they demonstrated a couple of their biggest advantages

(14:08):
in this matchup, and the two biggest advantages that Cleveland
has in this matchup are one, Boston's Biggs can struggle
to handle in pick and roll. To handle them in
pick and roll, which is to be expected, right, especially
when you're down bodies like that. It's just those are
the easiest ways to attack. We saw a lot of
two big looks in this game as well, and so
Cleveland was able to generate great shots. The second piece

(14:28):
of it is Donovan Mitchell is capable of out gunning
a guy like Jason Tatum at the end of games.
But there are two big caveats right. Number One, Derek
White and Jaylen Brown are both outstanding defensive players with
a lot of length and quickness, specifically as athletes in rotation,
and that's a big part of their ability to cover
for Al Horford and chrisops porzingis it's just not going

(14:51):
to be that easy when the Celtics are healthy. And two,
it's one thing to outgun Jason Tatum one time, but
it's different to do it four.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Times in two weeks.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
First of all, you got to keep all the games
close enough for late game shot making to actually be
the differentiator, which is really hard to do against Boston.
And then two, Tatum has the second most clutch points
in the entire league this year, only Dearon Fox has more.
It's got like a dozen clutches cists as well, Like
he's gonna win that matchup sometimes, so in addition to
keeping games close enough for you to try to out

(15:21):
execute them in those situations like yeah, like Tatum was
a mislayup and like I said, maybe one of those
corner threes going in away from that being a game
that Boston won anyway despite being down Derek White and
Drew Holliday or excuse me, Derek White and Jalen Brown
because of the ability Jason Tatum has to play at
that level he's playing, I mean, and again that really,

(15:43):
that really is why I still feel like Boston has
a substantial advantage in this matchup. Like one, I don't
think the Garland problem is going away, Like Boston just
is going to be able to get them in rotation
by attacking Garland. It's just gonna continue to be a problem.
And I think it's a bigger problem for Cleveland than Cleveland.
Attacking Boston centers and pick and roll is a problem

(16:03):
for the Celtics, if that makes sense. And then secondly,
this is the best that Jason Tatum has ever been
at basketball. He's up over a point per shot on
pull up jump shots on a pretty large volume to
start the season. It's the first time for a whole
season he's been over one point per pull up jump
shots since the twenty nineteen twenty twenty campaign. Like that,
that's the type of shooting that we're getting out of

(16:24):
him in a couple of like ridiculous off the dribble
jump shots. In that third quarter run, He's shooting a
preposterous one point two to six points per shot in
catch and shoot jumpers. That's just outrageous. Don't even know
what to say about that. And his playmaking and overall
feel for the game is the highest that I've seen
in his time in the NBA. You know, Like even
when he was struggling last year during the playoffs, I

(16:46):
kept saying that I just thought it was a slump,
and most importantly, I said that this Boston team would
likely be way better this year just on account of
gaining a better version of Jason Tatum. And even what
I anticipated from Tatum this year has not come close
to the player that he has actually been. He's encroaching
on the top guys. For me, I don't think he's

(17:08):
quite there yet, but he's close and on a roster
this talented. It just doesn't matter with this version of Tatum,
I'm having a really hard time even conceptualizing a team
that has the juice to beat them. We're about to
talk about Okay, see here in a minute, But to me,
they just feel a lot like Boston a few years ago.
There's a lot of bad process still taking place there

(17:30):
for them. On the offensive end of the floor, I
don't think they're ready, And then the other teams in
the league, I just don't think they have the talent necessary.
So I've seen Celtics fans behaving very confidently, and they should.
This is a team that looks to me like they're
on a tier by themselves at the top of the league.

(18:00):
Moving on to Thunder Rockets. Crazy late game sequences. Tied
it one hundred and five late and the Thunder get
it three out of case on Wallace on a tag
of Isaiah Hartenstein such just a basic ball screen. They
tag Hartenstein cross court pass in the corner, knocks down
the three right, but then the Rockets go to Shangoon
in the post and case on Wallace right after making

(18:21):
the big play to give him a lead, kind of
over digs down. You gotta just kind of let Shangun
go at hard and sign one on one when he's
that far out, he was kind of like ten twelve
feet out. Overhelped kicks out to Fred van Vliet. He
knocks down the three and now we're tied at one awight.
Then both teams get offensive rebound put backs very different
ways too, which was fascinating. Shay gets all the way
to the rim and Dylan Brooks does a really nice

(18:42):
job of pursuing over the top of the screen and
gets a block on Shay, but it falls right back
into his hands and he puts it back in.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
It's kind of like bad luck right on the other one.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
Though, we talked about rejecting ball screens in the Celtics video.
If you remember, like just that play where Donovan Mitchell
just whipped it across to his left hand right as
Drew Holliday was getting ready to fight over screen. Fred
van Vliet did a similar thing to Cassan Wallace and
beat him downhill, and this really weird thing happened where
Fred van Vliet goes in and misses a layup in traffic,
but you know how it goes when you miss layups

(19:12):
against rim protectors. There's usually just like more athletes coming
in behind them to finish up the play. Right, But
as Hartenstein and and Shangun were both up at the
level of the screen, Shane gun like ran right down
the middle of the lane and got an offensive rebound
put back, And I'm like, what the hell was Hartenstein doing?
So I rewind and I watched the clip again. Hartenstein

(19:32):
like veered way off to the right and like ran
to the short corner for some reason, I couldn't really
figure it out. It it was like maybe he was trying
to box out the guy crashing from the corner, but
he wasn't in any real position to do that. So
it was like a bad luck situation gives the Thunder
an easy two, and then a really weird play by
Hartenstein ends up giving the Rockets an easy to. Now,
all of a sudden, we're tied at one ten again,

(19:54):
and then we got a really big play from Fred
van Vliet Andrew Aaron Wiggins ends up iving a closeout
off the left wing and he smokes the layup, but
when he misses the leyup, Hartenstein comes flying in to
get the offensive rebound. He's trying to catch it and
finish it in one fluid motion, but Fred van Vliet
comes in out of that right corner and slaps down
on the basketball and just forces Hartenstein to come down

(20:17):
with it. So Hartenstein's thinking, I'm gonna get an easy
offensive rebound put back, but Fred van Vliet just makes
him come down with it first. And when he comes down,
he's got so much momentum that he lands on the baseline.
So like just a little detail, just swiping out the basketball,
making things a little difficult, a little bit more of
an effort, right. A lot of players in the league
just let Hartenstein finish that because they think the play's over.

(20:39):
Little competitive burst there for fred van Vliet forces a turnover.
Then on the next possession there's a jump ball late
clock situation and Fred van Vliet literally hits like a
forty foot prayer, kicking his legs as the shot clock expires.
Biggest shot of the night was really what kind of
turned things around off the like literally off of a

(21:00):
jump ball with like three seconds on the shot clock,
just throws it up and it goes in. It's one
thirteen to one ten. Then Dylan Brooks does a really
nice job in ISO defending shake Yalders Alexander along the
left wing and forces him into a tough step back
three and he misses. But alprin Shang Gun is face
guarding Hartenstein on the offensive glass, really trying to box
him out. Hartenstein just reaches over the top pitches it

(21:22):
out to Kason Wallace on the right corner and he
knocks it down case on Wallace a couple of massive
threes that he hit. At the tail end of this game,
we're back tied at one thirteen. As we go to
the other end of the floor one thirteen, one to thirteen,
Shang Gun slips on the ball like as he's trying
to post up on a roll where he just kind
of falls on the ground right and he's got the
ball in his hands. And another just like little detail,

(21:45):
Dylan Brooks and shake Yalders Alexander are matched up in
the left corner and as Shane Gun goes down, Dylan
Brooks alertly just flashes to him to try to get
the ball, and Shay is just a split second late
react to Dylan Brooks's cut and so Dylan gets the
ball from Shanguon and just turns immediately over his left shoulder,

(22:06):
shoots a little ten foot fade away, and Shake gets
back in the play and gets an okay contest on it.
But if he was sharper, if he was paying more attention,
he would have taken that shot away.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
He did it.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Dylan Brooks sinks the left shoulder fade, puts him up
one fifteen to one thirteen. And then on the other
end of the floor, Tari Easton got a really good
contest on a Shae Gilders Alexander mid range pull up
that actually forced Shay to double pump, and when he
forced him to double pump, he ended up just kind
of flinging in that the rim, it had no arc
on it, hit the front of the room and bounced off.
They ended up playing the foul game, and the Thunder

(22:37):
got like a prayer off that could have potentially tied it,
but that essentially was the game and the Rockets ended
up getting it. So again, a lot of times in
a game like that, it's like a couple shots go here,
a couple shots go there, and it's a different type
of game, right, Like we're talking about a prayer from
forty feet from Fred van Vliet. We're talking about kind
of a chaotic sequence where Upper and Shangun falls on

(22:58):
the floor, right, So it's like it's kind of crazy.
So I just kind of want to focus on the
specific basketball that both of these teams are playing beyond
the craziness of just that individual game.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
A'l Burn.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Shangoon is going to make his first All Star Game
this year. In his last twelve games, he's had twenty
plus points in eight of those twelve games. He's averaging
twenty one points, eleven rebounds, and six assists. In those
twelve games, he's got two point five stocks per game
steals plus blocks in that span, now averaging for the
season nineteen points, eleven rebounds, and five assists. Really high

(23:30):
level production, really greases the wheels for this team on offense. Now,
they're fifteen points better per one hundred possessions overall according
to Cleaning the last nine points better on defense, but
they're also six points better on offense per one hundred possessions.
Win Chenggoon's on the floor versus off and the main
thing there is he's a perfect screening partner for Fred

(23:51):
van Vliet. He sets good hard screens. He has a
good feel for when to rescreen or to slip out
of his screen, so he's got good screening technique.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
If he gets to his.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Clean work on a roll, like he'll dunk on you.
Like he's got the length and the footwork down to
kind of take off off of right lefts and left
rights and off of one foot, so like, if he
gets his runway, he can really take off and dunk
on you. But if her rolls into traffic, he's an
excellent decision maker in terms of spraying it out in
four on threes, and he's a very good short range scory.
He's over fifty percent on fifty nine hooks and floaters

(24:21):
this year, so that's a good shot for him there
in the short range. And he's a three to one
assist the turnover guy. So really really good ballscreen partner
for Fred van Vliet. But he also can run offense
out of the post and that was something that he
struggled with to start the year, but he's really coming
on strong as of late. The Rockets ran thirteen post
ups through Shang Gun against the Thunder last night and
they generated seventeen points out of him. That's one point

(24:43):
three to one points per possession, a lot of really
good work, a key kickout pass to Fred van Vliet
and crunch time out of the post that ended in
a bucket. And again it's about distraction, like even on
the play where he fell over kind of with his
back turned to Hartenstein, just all eyes are on him
and that's what opens up that cut for Dylan Brooks
to come through the and get that bucket as well.
And then lastly, he's been one of the best offensive

(25:04):
rebounders in the league this year. I'll brin Shangun has
seventy four offensive rebounds. Only Musa Dibate, Ivi Kazubac and
Yakapurtle have more in the entire NBA this year. He
just snatched his fourth consecutive twenty point game. Now where
it gets weird for the Rockets is outside of Shangun,
nobody is consistent offensively like Jaleen M. Green has been
wildly and consistent. He has four This is crazy. I

(25:27):
pulled the stat on Twitter earlier this morning, but look
at the dispersion of the scoring for Jalen Green and
for Fred van Vliet. Jalen Green has four games with
at least ten points or excuse me, with less than
ten points. His four games with less than ten points,
five games between ten and fifteen points, three games between
sixteen and twenty points, five games between twenty and twenty

(25:49):
five points, two games between twenty six and thirty five points,
and two games with thirty six points or more. So
it's like wild dispersion of production from him. Like he
just had nine points against the Thunder, he had forty
one the game before that, and then nine the game
before that. That's some of the wildest oscillation in production

(26:10):
that I've seen. They got thirty eight points out of
Fred van Vliet last night. He was amazing in that game,
got timely dribble penetration, it's several huge jump shots late.
But he also has crazy point distribution. He has four
games with single digits, six games between ten and fifteen,
five games between sixteen and twenty in five games with
more than twenty. So your two best guards are like

(26:31):
feast or famine. On the offensive end of the four,
Dylan Brooks is shooting the three better and he has
some decent polish and he can make some plays off
the bounds. A huge shot over his left shoulder in
that game, but fifty three percent true shooting this season,
and he can still make some really boneheaded decisions with
the ball because he still kind of thinks he's better
offensively than he actually is. Jabari Smith is starting to

(26:51):
shoot the ball better. He's fifty percent from three on
five attempts per game over the last six games, but
he's also had nine games with single digit scoring output
this year, only six games with fifteen points or more.
So he's inconsistent offensively. A Men Thompson and Tari Easan,
they can provide some rim pressure, like there are moments
where the Houston Rockets offense bogs down and someone like
Tari or Men will just beat somebody off the dribble

(27:14):
and something good will happen. There's a lot of good
that they bring there, but again they aren't high level
shot creators. And then Raid Shepherd has been struggling. It
seems to me in my time watching him on tape
that he's struggling a little bit with the size and
athleticism here in the NBA to get separation from people.
So like in the half court, they have no choice
but to play through Shangun or through Jalen Green or

(27:34):
Fred van Vliet and just Shangun is really really good,
but he's not one of the you know, top level
shot creators in the league. And then Jalen and Fred
are just so inconsistent, Like it's that inconsistency from Fred
and Jalen that gets them beat. Look at their losses
this month, the Portland loss at home, Fred van Vliet
and Jalen Green go for eighteen points on twenty seven shots.

(27:55):
When OKC blew them out earlier this month, Fred went
four for nine. Jalen went five for fourteen. When Golden
State beat them earlier this month, Fred and Jalen went
four for twenty five from the field combined. So that's
the main reason why I think the Houston Rockets are
kind of like this season's surprise regular season wins juggernaut

(28:15):
that probably can't win their conference. We've seen this sort
of thing a lot of times in recent NBA history, right,
like young athletic plays extremely hard every single night and
have good injury luck throughout the year, like that kind
of team. Right last year was Minnesota. They actually upset
Denver in the playoffs, but then they ran into a

(28:36):
team that could slow things down and protect the rim
and then they fell apart, right Like, that's the thing,
these young kind of inconsistent, limited shot creators that struggle
with the surgical stuff you need to win three four
playoff rounds.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
Right.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
The year before Minnesota, it was Sacramento. The year before that,
it was Memphis. Right like there, it's a pretty consistent theme. Now,
this Rockets defense is so good that they're gonna be
in every single game, and it's a defense structured around
what works in the modern NBA, which is athletic size, switchability,
good ball pressure, and physicality. Right and on the nights

(29:10):
where Jalen and Fred can actually reach that star level
offensively to compliment what Shane Gun does, they can even
be at the elite teams at the top of the league.
But I just don't think they have the consistent shot
creation to even be a second tier contender for me.
But I do think they'll hold their own near the
top of the West standings throughout the year. And for
Rockets fans, this is not an insult. Yeah, I'm predicting

(29:32):
you guys to win a lot of regular season games
and then losing the first or second round, but this
is part of the journey. To becoming a contender doesn't
happen overnight for young teams, and it can happen overnight
for teams that are built through things like you know,
the Celtics make a trade for KG, they immediately go
win the title. Lakers make a trade for Anthony Davis,
they immediately go win the title. The Bucks make a
trade for Drew Holliday, they immediately go win the title.

(29:54):
The Warriors make a trade for KD. They immediately go
win the title. Like they're examples of teams that do that.
But for the young teams that are in the development process,
it's about steps, and the important thing to remember is
this is not the last step. There's a lot that
happens from this phase where like look at Minnesota this year,
they seem to kind of be struggling with the grind

(30:17):
of the regular season. It's about like guys have to
continue to develop in their skill development, right, they have
to continue to get better year after year. You have
to make the right tweaks to the roster. It's very
possible that Minnesota made the wrong tweak to the roster
bringing in Julius Randam. We'll see in the long run, right,
And so that's the thing, Like, what is this team's
move eventually going to be? And like my guess is

(30:40):
that they end up trading Jalen Green at some point.
He just kind of strikes me as the guy that's
kind of an awkward fit and most importantly, like he's
the type of young talent that could actually help them
bring in a super.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
High level player.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
But ideally, if you could find a way to maintain
the identity of the team in terms of the athleticism
around them and bring in the type of superstar level
half court shot creator you need to really contend in
this league, sky's the limit for this team. But yeah,
I do view them as more or less just a
regular season wins juggernaut this year on the thunderfront isay
Harden's sein is such an incredible pickup.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
I mean, we all knew this.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
It's not exactly some sort of basketball rocket science, right
Like this is he's just a really really good role
player that is going to play really well alongside a
team that has a lot of talent on the perimeter
and specifically had need of what he bring brought to
the table. Right, Like, he completely changes the physical profile
of the team. He sets monster screens to free up
the guards, something that the Thunder really haven't had since

(31:35):
Steven Adams. It's such a simple thing, but it's an
important thing. You know, Like you if you set a
really good screen to free up your ball handler and
he doesn't have to worry about the dude draped over
his back, then he can comfortably operate in the mid
range and he's going to be a lot better there
shot making and playmaking out of it. But if the
guys gets over the top of the screen and he's
draped on his backside, he can funnel him into the

(31:58):
help take away the shot making piece in the middle
and make it easier for guys to stay home off
the ball. Setting really good screens at the point of
attack for your ball handlers is a vital part of
freeing things up for your offense. Something Isai Hartenstein is
excellent at. He's an excellent defensive rebounder. The Thunder this season,
when Isaiah Hartenstein is off the floor get just sixty

(32:20):
seven percent of opponent's misses. When Isaiah Hartenstein's on the floor,
they get seventy three percent of their opponent's misses. Basically,
the difference between being a batterybounding team and an OK
rebounding team like a middle of the pack rebounding team
is having Isaiah Hartenstein on the floor. He's also a
good smart defender with good size and mobility to anchor
their defense, but he does so much more on the

(32:40):
offensive end beyond the screening. In this Houston game, we
saw him hit multiple back cuts where like he was
at the top of the key and like Shay's driving.
You know, Dylan Brooks has got his back turned to
the ball and he's just holding on to Shae with
two hands, and Shae could just throw a hard cut
towards the basket and time can hit him on the bounce.

(33:01):
Now it's like you just be It's the same effect
as beating him off the driple because now you have
the ball and you're past Illan Brooks. That's an important
part of attacking teams in space, right, having bigs that
can make those backcut passes. Right, we saw him. We
talked about, you know, those strong left handed drives. Like
a lot of times, like Hardenstein's sitting there looking around

(33:21):
and a team is just doing a really good job
denying and everyone's glued up off the ball and there's
just a chasm of space around the rim. You had
to play like that in the second half where he
just hard drove left at shanegun and then spun into
a right handed layup at the basket. That's how you
capitalize on the space that's provided by everyone off ball
being denied. That's an important part. And then he's a

(33:42):
release valve when things stall out, he can flash to
the top of the key, get the ball, and flow
into action on the other side of the floor. Oh
like it's late shot clock, Well, he'll flash to the elbow.
He had a play where he caught at the left elbow,
so like sixteen sixteen and a half, seventeen feet away
from the rim. Cott turned took one step in and

(34:04):
shot a little like kind of thirteen foot floater that
he made, by the way, thirteen for twenty two on
floaters this year. That's fifty nine percent or one point
one to eight points per shot. As I mentioned, he's
just a professional role player center and when you put
him around elite perimeter talent like what Okayse has, he
can push them to a special level. A couple other
small bits on the thunder Kison Wallace I thought he

(34:25):
lost contain on Fred van Vlid a few times in
the clutch. Definitely not his best defensive game. I thought
he overhelped on that Fred van Vliet three in the
post as well, but he had a couple of gigantic
threes in this game to give Okasee a chance. And again,
this has been an issue for OKAC this year, role
players hitting shots, and Cassan has been off. A bunch
of guys have been off. Those are some big ones
and a good positive sign for the Thunder. Then Jalen Williams,

(34:47):
He's been playing really well this season, but this was
another game this year where I thought his decision making
was a bit rough. He took some tough early clock
jump shots, and then they had three or four plays
in the fourth quarter. The big one with Jaylen Williams
that stood out to me in the Dallas series last year.
He challenges rim protectors and a lot of times missus
easy kickout raads, and he had three or four plays
in the fourth quarter of that Houston game where he
just drove into tons of bodies and tried to force

(35:10):
stuff up. He got blocked twice at the rim in
this one in the fourth quarter, missed a couple of
layups too, and it's like, I think he could loosen
things up for himself. He's a good enough playmaker to
see it. It's just a decision making thing, like he
just has to be a little bit more willing to
make those kickout passes. Everything about this Thunder team screams
to me that they still lean another year to just

(35:30):
kind of improve their experience and collective basketball IQ. But
then I remember that they have Chet Holmer coming back,
and that Alex Cruso will come back and he'll probably
play better than he did to start the year. They
just have so much margin for error, and Shay is
really that good, and so like, I'm not at the
point where I as of right now, Boston to me
feels like the clear number one, but I still have

(35:53):
Oklahoma City kind of clinging to that tier just because
of their sheer amount of talent, and I do think
they can play a lot better than they have. But like, again,
every my basketball heart is screaming to me that Boston
is just far and away the best team in the
league this year, and that's kind of where I'm at
right now.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
All right, let's.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Move on to our power rankings, So we're gonna also
from now we're gonna start including championship odds and conference
odds as part of this process, and I'm just gonna
read them off to you guys when we get to
the tail end of each team in this list. And
then also, as you can probably imagine, the top four

(36:31):
teams in this list are teams that we hit today,
so I'm not going to go into too much detail
on them. You can find that if you happen to
have clicked on a breakout clip for the Power Rankings
and you want to hear for the top four teams.
Remember that's at the top of today's full episode. All
lines and odds are provided by our partner DraftKings, just
so you guys know. And then also, Lakers fans not

(36:53):
gonna do any Lakers today because they play the Timberwolves tonight,
and we will talk a lot of Lakers tomorrow. So
everything involving them in the crappy basketball they've been playing
as of late, we will discuss in detail in tomorrow's show.
But without any further ado, let's get going. The Golden
State Warriors at number ten, an oh to three week
for the Warriors losses to Brooklyn, OKC and Phoenix. They've

(37:15):
lost four in a row. Overall, in their offense has
just really fallen apart. They have one hundred and seven
offensive rating in the four game slide. Steph just hasn't
been good. He's obviously a little banged up with the
he's had some bilateral knee tendonitis. Twenty one points seven
points per game on thirty nine percent from the field
in this four game slide. Andrew Wiggins is scoring eighteen
points a game, but he hasn't been very efficient. He's

(37:37):
taken like seventeen shots to get those eighteen points. Kaminga's
been awful, but he's been fine. But he's just like
the old buddy, who's a guy who can hit a
couple of shots and make a couple of plays, but
isn't good enough to really be an offensive hub. Brandon
Pajemski is still cold, Lindy Waters has gone cold, Draymond
Green hasn't been hitting the threes the way he did
to start the year. Moses Moody is cold, and so

(37:59):
obviously the Warriors have some offensive personnel limitations, but also,
as I said a couple of times with other teams
in the last few weeks. Sometimes you just play bad basketball.
Sometimes a team enters into a little bit of a
funk and you just have to find a way to
snap out of it. Part of the eighty two game
journey is there will be three or four different times
during the season where for about a week you play

(38:20):
bad basketball and you just have to find a way
to figure out what's causing it and snap out of it.
And the thing is there's no relief on the schedule
right now. The next eleven games for Golden State at Denver,
home for Houston, home for Minnesota, home for Minnesota, at
Memphis at Minnesota, home for the Pacers and the Lakers,
at the Clippers, and then home for Phoenix and Cleveland. Now,

(38:42):
the thing there is a lot of home games, so
specifically that three game stretch at home with Houston and
two at Minnesota, two against Minnesota. That's a good spot
for them to ride their home crowd. You hopefully hit
some shots and regain some confidence and play some better basketball.
Gold State Warriors right now are plus seventeen hundred to
win the title on draft Kings and plus nine hundred
to win the Western Conference. Number nine. The Milwaukee Bucks

(39:06):
a light week for them. They went two to zero
to extend their straight to six games that have won
eight out of nine as well, huge road win in
Miami where Dame just shot the ball so well that
Miami had no choice but to double team him every
time down the floor. And then AJ Green was the
hero at the end of that one, made a couple
of huge threes to beat double teams. They also defended
extremely well as a team, and that's the really exciting
part if you're a Bucks fan. The Bucks are eighth

(39:28):
in defense over the last nine games, up to fourteenth
on the season, thanks to a renaissance from guys like
Brook Lopez and Janis Antennacumbo in some really level of
really high level perimeter defense from guys like AJ Green
and Andre Jackson giannas Antena Kupo's averaging thirty five points
per game over this nine game span. The Milwaukee Bucks

(39:48):
right now are plus twenty two hundred to win the
title in plus one thousand to win the conference. Number
eight the Los Angeles Clippers. Two and two week for
them all over the place, Like they get annihilated by
Boston where they give up fifty points in the second quarter,
then they go blow out the Wizards in Washington. Then
they lose an absolute heartbreaker to Minnesota in this rock

(40:10):
fight of a game where they still had a chance
to win late christn slips and loses.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Control of the ball.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
And then they get a big win against Denver. So
the very up and down week. But the big highlight
is James Harden. I had a feeling coming into the
season that the Clippers would be a very good regular
season team because of their roster and the way it
fits modern basketball so effectively on both ends of the floor.
But James Harden was a big part of that in
his ability to raise the floor on the offensive end,
and he was pretty inefficient to start the year, and

(40:35):
they were just still winning anyway because he was doing
enough and Norman Powell was so so so hot and
they were defending so well. Now James Harden's breaking out.
He had thirty nine to nine and eleven in the
win against Denver. In James Harden's last seven games, he's
averaging twenty seven points, six rebounds, and nine assists on
sixty two percent true shooting, and the Clippers are five
and two in that span. So, like, I know, this

(40:56):
is a upfront I know this is a preposter is
lee big if, But if Kawhi Leonard can rejoin this
team and reach a superstar level, I do think they
have the ability to contend for a championship because of
their personnel strengths, because of the hard and fit as
long as Kawhi Leonard can actually remain healthy through the

(41:17):
end of the playoffs. At that level, this roster does
have that type of talent, respectfully in the ways that
you need to get through this conference. A big body
to match up with Jokich in the form of Zubas
right perimeter talent, good secondary and tertiary shot creation with
Harden and Powell. If Harden, if Kawhi Leonard gets healthy again,
like that's the issue. Kawhi Leonard is the guy that

(41:39):
gives this team a real upside, and it's just about
whether or not even to get back. Now again, that's
a preposterously big if. What do you think what do
I think is going to happen? I think Kawhi Leonard's
not going to be able to get back to form,
and the Clippers will have that ceiling that prevents them
from getting there. But it's hard to not get a
little bit of excited if you're a Clippers fan and
if you believe in that, plus fifty five hundred to
win the title, plus twenty five hundred to win the conference.

(42:02):
So like again, if Kawhi gets back, they got a
chance to win the conference. So it's something to keep
in mind in terms of the odds in the value
there all right. Number seven, the Memphis Grizzlies four to
oh this week, six straight wins overall, capitalizing on a
stretch of week schedule. They beat Philly, Chicago, Portland, Detroit,
New Orleans, and Indiana in the span. But starting to
get some tougher games here in December. They've had the

(42:24):
number one offense in the league over the six game span,
really balanced scoring. Seventy two percent of Memphis Grizzly baskets
have been assisted over the course of the six game
win streak. They're almost fully healthy now. Zaki's the main
guy they're waiting on, and they're looking super deep with talent.
But again, schedule's about to get tougher. They're at Dallas
tomorrow night. They have Boston, Golden State, the Clippers, the Thunder,

(42:45):
and the Suns all before the end of this month.
So we'll get to learn a lot more about the
Grizzlies over that span. The Grizzlies are currently plus thirty
five hundred to win the title and plus sixteen hundred
to win the Western Conference Number six. The Dallas also
a four to OH league. This team is one of
the hottest teams in basketball right now. They've won eight
out of nine and if not some really impressive wins

(43:06):
one at Denver and at Oklahoma City in that span.
Luca did not play in five of the eight wins,
including either of the Oklahoma City or Denver games. Over
this nine game span, they are fourth and offense, seventh
in defense, and second in net rating. They're playing with
a lot of pace in transition in the half court,
getting a lot of production down the roster. Kyrie obviously

(43:27):
is awesome, but Naji Marshall has really taken off. Quinton
Grimes is like shooting the seams off the basketball. Spencer
Dinwoode has provided big shot making and he's one of, like,
kind of the underrated playmaking guards in the league. He's
been doing some really high level playmaking in the stretch.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
PJ.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
Washington has been great and has made some big plays
in big spots at the end of games and now
Luca's back, and it just feels to me like this
team is about to go on a run. And Dallas
fans just go look at your schedule for the rest
of the month of December. You get Luca back, get
into a groove, keep everybody's minutes reasonable. This could be
a situation where you head into January with a really
strong pass in the standings, good opportunity in front of Dallas.

(44:02):
A lot of people were just like off of Dallas
early in the year as they're trying to incorporate new
pieces and Lucas clearly just banged up and not playing
good basketball. I just thought it was way too early
to jump off of them, like their team that we're
going to see get stronger and stronger over the course
of this season. The Dallas Mavericks right now are plus
eleven hundred to win the title and plus five point

(44:24):
fifty to win the conference. Some decent odds there to
get them to win the conference. Number five the Orlando
Magic another four o week really light schedule, though they
beat Charlotte, Chicago and Brooklyn twice last week. CACP, though,
is back and starting to get it going for them.
Seven three point attempts per game last week shot fifty
four percent from three, and that's made a bunch of
big plays at him. The Magic have won twelve out

(44:46):
of thirteen without Palo. They have the number one defense
in the league over that span. In their twelfth in offense,
some of the best offense we've seen out of the
Magic in this era. And so I'll be really interested
to see how they choose to reincorporate palavon Kara he
comes back from his injury again, like he's too talented
to just be like, oh, go stand in the corner
and let Franz run the show. But got to find
a way to make sure that you maintain this comfort,

(45:08):
the level of comfort that you're seeing out of Fronds
over this span. And I think they'll figure it out.
A lot of staggering, a lot of like finding ways
to keep them both involved in the action. Jamal Moosey
is gonna have his work cutout for him. But I
think it'll be really cool to see. No way to
look at that as other than optimistic that you lose
your who I think is their best player in Palamoncaro
and you go in a win twelve out of thirteen games.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
Really interesting stuff there. Again.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
The last four teams, again we also with the Magic
their odds. They're plus five thousand to win the title
and plus fifteen hundred to win the Eastern Conference. And
again our last four. We hit all of these teams
in detail at the top of the show, So if
you're clicking on the Power Rankings breakout clip and you
want to hear Thunder, Rocket, Celtics, Cavs stuff. In our
full episode from today, we did a full breakdown on

(45:52):
those two teams at the top. Number four, I have
the OKC Thunder. They are currently plus four to twenty
five to win the title, plus two to ten to
win the West. Number three the Houston Rockets plus five
plus fifty five hundred to win the title, plus two
thousand to win the West. I actually like that number
just because these West teams are so injury prone and
really anything can happen, and also Houston could be potentially

(46:14):
a team that makes an aggressive trade this year, So
for them at plus fifty five hundred to win the
title or plus two thousand to win the West, kind
of some interesting odds there. And then the Celtics number
two plus two forty to win the title, plus one
hundred to win the East, and the Cleveland Cavaliers plus
fourteen hundred to win the title plus five point fifty
to win the East. Again, all of those odds are
provided by our partner Draft Kings. And then also really

(46:36):
simply the reason why I put the Rockets over the Thunder.
Obviously I think the Thunder are a better team, but
the Rockets won that individual game. For the purposes of
our regular season power rankings, they get the edge for
this week. Same thing goes for the Celtics. I'd pick
the Celtics beat the Calves in five or six games
that they played in the playoff series, but the Calves
won last night, so we'll give them the nod for
right now. All right, let's get into our film before

(47:10):
we get out of here for the day. If you're
listening on the podcast fee and you're gonna want to
head over to YouTube to see that part to actually
get the visual representations of what we're talking about. We're
going to head out to Phoenix to start and this
first possession here is an ISO of Kevin Durant of
Gary Payton. One of the things I wanted to talk about,
do you guys, Remember how often I talk about attacking

(47:32):
the base to disrupt rhythm rather than trying to contest shots.
I want to just play this in slow motion and
then I'll play it in full. I'll play it in
a fast motion first, and then we'll play it in
slow motion. Watch the way Gary Payton is not so
concerned about attacking up top to contest the shot, but
rather to disrupt his base. See I was shoving on
his body. All of that damage is being done down low,

(47:55):
fighting down the leaning on him, shoving on him, and
you can actually see KD get his power just disrupted
in that lift, and that ends up causing the shot,
the shot to miss. I'm gonna play it in slow
motion here. Watch again how aggressive he is attacking the base,
leaning on him, pushing, leaning right there. That little shove
there caused him to lose balance and then he ends

(48:16):
up taking a really tough fallaway and missing. I've always
believed small guys in mismatches don't try to contest, Especially
professional shooters, find a way to disrupt their rhythm down low.
This next clip here very very impressive defensive possession for
the Phoenix Suns Warriors post splits right so we're gonna
go to the block. Watch the attachment off the ball.

(48:37):
So we have Booker on Moody, we have Royce O'Neil
and Buddy Healed. Watch the attachment here. Royce O'Neil stays
through boom switch stay attached, Chase over the top, attached
from Monty Morris. Take away that three in the corner.
Kaminga has a chance to attack, but Ran Dunn contains. Now,
all of a sudden, there's two seconds on the shot

(48:58):
clock and you have to throw up a heavily contested,
really really high level defense there from the Phoenix Suns. Obviously,
Ryan Dunn's been getting a lot of the hype, but
also A Gadaro has been playing really really well as
one of the backup centers for Phoenix. I thought this
was a really smart step up screen right here. Watch
how Kevon Looney is running really hard as his back turn.

(49:19):
Agdaro sees an opportunity to get Devin Booker a quick shot,
but Kadawi just gives a little shove to Looney and
to sprints into his screen.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
Boom.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
Just that little detail there, capitalizing on Looney over playing
the paint in transition and setting that little impromptu screen
gets a clean look for Devin Booker, who knocks it down.
Really smart stuff there, Agadaro again, here are just a
week side cut as a lowman on a low man possession.
So again, little guard guard screen. Devin Booker gets downhill
as the Warriors botched the switch, Cavan Loney has no choice.

(49:49):
Put to step up. Don't make this a three. You
have all the space in the world. It's a runway.
Throw it up, boom dunk. Easy stuff there. One of
the things I've been talking about, by the way that
I put in my notes Obi Toppin in Indiana, Remember
that was how Obi Toppin like kind of reinvigorated his career.
Was like he just figured out how to time baseline

(50:09):
cuts perfectly and made himself a real threat in the
weakside corner as a vertical spacer out of those situations.
That's that athletic spacing. It's a different type of spacing,
but it is a form of spacing. One of the
things I've talked about a lot for the Suns this
year is how good their closeouts have been. I want
you guys to watch Grayson Allen on this one again.
The closeouts are everything because they're the ability to get

(50:29):
into the paint and help while also maintaining your contained
on the perimeter.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
So we got Kaminga getting downhill. Watch Grayson Allen.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
He gets relocated, so he's in a really tough spot here,
but watch how sharp this closeout is gets there, contains slides,
cuts him off. That's excellent defense from Grayson Allen containing
in the perimeter because again, if you look at where
this is at right here, as Kaminga's driving boom right
here on the relo, you could be in big trouble here.

(51:01):
That's a heavy advantage for Moses Moody and just a
really really sharp close out from Grayson Allen. Here's a
good driving kick possession for the Suns. It's gonna start
with Devin Booker on the strong side of the floor,
but it's gonna work its way back to Devin Booker
and the driving kick, so it just beats his man off.
The dribble brings all these bodies into the paint right,

(51:21):
So just dribble penetration our kick to the corner here.
All we're gonna get is a quick dribble handoff. Agadaro
gets a little bit of contact there that allows him
to slip the screen as Looney shows. Now we got
our four on three right, here's our four on three
kick out to Royce O'Neill. Swing over to Monti Morris.

(51:42):
There's the rotation off of Booker's man. Now Booker gets
a wide open three in the corner out of it.
So again it's all about advantage creation and advantage extending.
Devin Booker creates the initial advantage. Right, there's our initial advantage.
Agadaro's job here is to extend the advantage. The way
he does that is through a quick dribble handoff. Hey,

(52:02):
I can't actually do anything with this, but I can
get you more open. Oh wait, now I've got two
on the ball. So now we went from Devin Booker
driving as the early advantage. This is a bigger advantage.
Now this is a four on three. Now it's about
decision making. Buddy Heald is playing this two on one,
but he's closer to Grayson Allen than he is de
Royce O'Neil. If he throws this ball to Grayson Allen

(52:24):
might not end in an open three. For your best
shooter makes the kickout. Now we have the two on
one working back over to Devin Booker. It's all about
advantage creation, advantage extending, and making the right decision for
the kill pass. Kevin Durant's been just having an unbelievable
defensive season this year. I thought he was incredible in
this possession, helps at the rim twice, beats Looney there
on the slip. Another drive from Lindy Waters contains him

(52:47):
dribbles out. Now it's an ISO, so he's shut down
two actions at the rim. Now we're in a late
clock situation with four point six seconds left and just
completely smothers Lindy Watt like actually literally smothers Lindy Waters
and just takes the ball away from him, like child's
play over there.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
All right, we're moving on to O Case Houston.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
That was a game that I watched over Thanksgiving break
and I just shared some clips so that I thought
we could get into a little bit. This was a
play that the Thunder ran twice for dunks in this game.
A great example of using your best player on the
strong side for spacing and then weak side action to
occupy help defenders, so that all that happens here is
they run a little pin down for Jalen Williams with

(53:25):
caseon Wallace so he can catch and then immediately come
off of a ball screen with Isaiah Hartenstein. That's all
the action is. The only difference is after kaseon Wallace
sets the pin down, he runs through off of this
exit screen from lou Dort. So again you can see
Case on Wallace set's the pin down, Jalen Williams comes up,
forces the switch. Here's our ball screen. The two things

(53:46):
I want you to watch. Don't even worry about the
ball screen for a second. Up top here, Dylan Brooks,
because he's guarding Shake, kills Alexander's face, guarding him out
of the play. And now I want you guys to
watch Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Junior. And what they
do is Lou dor and case On Wallace run this action.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
Look at them.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
Both of them have their heads completely turned away from
the play because Jalen is like, hey man, a screen's
about to come, or excuse me. Jabari is about, hey man,
a screen's about to come, and Jalen Green is like, okay,
I'm about to get screen right. This is an exit screen.
All it is is a little baseline screen for the
shooter coming out to the corner. It is designed to
keep these guys busy. Now, as a result, there's nobody

(54:23):
guarding the ball screen except for Shangoun and Fred van Vliet,
and it ends an easy dunk. Watch it again again
as Jalen comes off, watch the two help defenders immediately
get occupied. Now we have our simple drop coverage. Hartenstein
gets behind. That's the value of offball action. It occupies
help defenders. Here's an example of the waves of athleticism

(54:44):
that Houston can bring. This is just a little semi
transition drive from Dylan Brooks misses it, gets in the lane,
but then you got this Stephen Adams size advantage. He
stabs at the ball that gets it to a Men
Thompson who lays it up bucket. That's not any sort
of surgical offensive process. It's just waves of athleticism. Watch

(55:05):
it again. Dylan Brooks hard drive, misses the shot, Steven
Adams stabs at it, a Men Thompson is the bigger,
better athlete, grabs it and finishes a bunch of just
size and strength and athleticism advantage in that one. Here's
the exact same action that they started the game with
that I showed you guys pinned down, Jalen Williams comes
up ball screen exit screen. This time Jabari Smith sees

(55:29):
it coming, but by the time he sees it coming,
Isaiah Hartenstein already has a head of steam and it's
just too late boom, And once again you're kind of
dead to rights because it's like lou dord is setting
this exit screen. So if Jabari Smith just overplays that,
Jalen Williams has an easy kickout past to Aaron Wiggins
here in the corner. Here's an example of Isaiah Hartenstein
creating dribble penetration just through backcut. So again, look at this,

(55:53):
Hartenstein catches Dylan Brooks is top blocking, so he's denying
Shay Gilders Alexander the ability to go get this dribble handoff.
So the way you counter that is back cutting, and
the only way you can counter it with back cutting
is if your big man can make the pass. This time,
Shay Gilviss Alexander makes the right read. My man is
full deny, I'm just gonna cut. And by the way,
if he's grabbing and holding, if you cut hard, you'll

(56:14):
draw the foul as the ref season holding you. So
it's like the right decision to just cut out of this.
Hartenstein hits him, they get a layup out of it,
easy basketball that Isaiah Hartenstein unlocks with his passing ability.
Here's an example of Isaiah Hartenstein with all off ball denial.
So again Lou Dort again is running that action. Off

(56:36):
of that, jenlel Williams has the early transition drive. It
gets pitched to Lou Lou drives. Here's the release valve. Right,
there's fifteen seconds on the shot clock. The play is contained,
everyone is guarded, so we need to find a way
to reinvigorate the offense. Well, Isaiah Hartenstein will do this
all the time, where he'll just flash, He'll flash up
high and he'll be like, all right, I've got the ball.
Now there's twelve seconds on the shot clock. Let's get

(56:59):
back into our offense. And so usually what he'll do
here is try to then get the offense flowing back
this way. And so I think this is Jay Dub
up here. Yeah, so j Dub is gonna come off
of this dribble handoff right, But Jabari Smith does a
good job chasing and it's not open. It's not open,
but everyone's glued up. Jabari Smith is glued up, Fred
Van Blid is glued up. Dylan Brooks is kind of

(57:20):
in help, but he's not in a strong position. Jalen
Green's on the weak side. So Hartenstein just turns and
goes spins. He's got Look at all the space. He's
got all this space because they're not respecting him. They're
worried about this whirling dervish of action that they have
going around him. Right, this is where Isaiah can look
to attack, gets an easy layup. Here's another release valve possession,

(57:42):
this time that it happens later in the clock. So
again early clock. Okay, nothing's there, right, Jadub Drives gets
contained all right, So we need a release valve just
to keep the action running. Okay, Isaiah Hartenstein is gonna
fly flash now once again.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
What are we gonna do. Let's try to run some action.
Shae cuts, Shaye drives.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
This is where Isaiah Harten design makes himself available right here,
seventeen feet from the basket. Catch easy pop shot and
again he's shooting like fifty nine percent on those this season.
All right, moving on to Boston Cleveland this time, I'm
gonna show you a bunch of stuff of Tatum attacking Garland.
We're gonna get into a bunch of details from this game.
I got like twenty clips from this game. I thought
it was super fascinating down the stretch. But this one

(58:25):
is transition cross match, so Darius Garland ends up picking
up Tatum just because it's in transition, so it's no
real screening action to get there. But watch how Tatum
just kind of easily methodically marches down and gets to
that like little fifteen foot jump shot. Easy work there.
That's where he felt most comfortable. You can also see too,
as he's attacking, notice where the help is. Like if

(58:46):
he tries to really drive to the left, Donovan Mitchell
will engage now and then he could make a kickout potentially,
but then he could also lose the basketball. He's purposefully
working in this range because this is where he can
get away from the help. This is a big way
that the Celtics were getting or that the Caves are
attacking the Celtics on the offensive end in this game,
just attacking porzingis in a deep drop coverage. Good ball

(59:08):
screen set on Drew forces him to go under a rescreen,
gets into the lane, Porzingis is a bit too far back,
works into the floater, so this time they run the
double drag that ends up in a couple switches right.
So Tatum switched on to Garland, but then he goes
off the second screen. Now Garland's on Porzingis, so now
we're gonna try to throw it to him at the
elbow right, creates the angle, does a good job fighting

(59:28):
that front by creating a passing angle there. A coorro
comes over to help. As that double team comes, Houser
relocates up a little bit higher on the wing. This
is where I was talking about Sam Houser just like
staying super cool, calm and collected against a passing lane
close out. So a lot of times in these two
on ones on the weak side, this guy will just

(59:49):
close out to the passing lane to try to bait
on this guy's indecisiveness, because if he passes to Drew Holliday,
he's in the passing lane to intercept it. If he
just pump fakes and does nothing, your team has a
chance to rotate. Right if he shoots it, it's the
same problem that you were giving up. If you give
up a shot anyway, right, so this passing link closed out.
Really smart play from Donovan Mitchell. But Watchhouser just completely

(01:00:13):
ignore it. Watch how like calmly he just pass fakes
out of it. So Porzingis creates the passing angle on Garland.
There's the pass double Watchhouser and watch how calm he
is pass fake easy shot, just ice in his veins
under pressure. There another transition cross match right, so misshot.

(01:00:36):
Everyone just gets back and grabs a person that's relatively close.
In this case, Coro ends up picking up back here
or Lavert ends up picking up back here. So Garland's
on Tatum straight up, same sort of thing, left shoulder
fade again, that's a tough shot, but a couple of
big details here left shoulder face. But look he goes
right up and down. Okay, so he barely fades because

(01:00:58):
he doesn't need to because he's got size. And look
at how close he is to the basket. This is
a ten foot shot. Like, yeah, technically a left shoulder
fade is a tough shot for a right handed player,
but not when you have that size advantage, when you
don't fade that much, and when you're that close to
the rim. That was where He looked really comfortable in
this game. This is that switch interchange that I always
talk about. So here comes the screen, and then right

(01:01:18):
in the interchange, right before the switch actually takes place,
he rises into the shot knocks it down. It's also
like a twenty nine footer, so that's pretty tough to
guard under any circumstances. Really nice skip pass and pick
and roll here from Tatum basic. Here's our low man
right as the ball handler. You're typically watching this guy
the most come off of the screen. He helps easy

(01:01:42):
swing across the court. Peterson knocks it down. Drew Peterson,
by the way, eight points and four rebounds, twenty five minutes.
Not a bad night for him. Another little fadeaway jump shot,
this time against Donovan Mitchell, who does a really good
job fighting over the screen. The entire possession. Once again
just kind of methodically works into that space. You could
tell that was where he felt most comfortable, in that

(01:02:04):
short fadeaway range. All right, here we are in crunch time.
Inside five minutes, we get a ball screen. Garland is
on the switch. He's gonna beat him off the dribble.
When he does, he draws Jared Allen in help. We
have our week side two on one, Tatum's eyes are
on Hawser, which forces Merrill to commit no look past,

(01:02:26):
generates the opening for Horford. Again, look at Tatum's eyes.
Tatum's eyes create that opening, doesn't actually look at Horford
until the ball's out of his hands. That was one
of the two wide open corner threes that Horford missed
down the stretch of this game. Really big play from
Isaac Occory here. One of the things they were doing. Again,
We've seen this with the Celtics a lot. Put Tatum

(01:02:47):
on your center, put Al Horford on your weakest above
the break shooter. In this case, he's guarding a coral.
Tatum stays home on Allen, look at Al Horford, Al Horford,
and so it's a kind of like a Spain pick
and roll, right and roll. Merrill's relocating to the top.
Horford has contained which allowed Hawser to stay attached. But

(01:03:08):
the prices you leave a coral wide open knocks down
the three. Big time shot this time another switch attack
of Garland in the short range. Get him on the switch.
Notice one of the big differences I want you to
pay attention to here compared to the big stop he
got late watch how Garland makes no attempt to disrupt
Tatum's rhythm, so he's just letting him dribble comfortably, letting

(01:03:31):
him dribble, work him down, work him down, easy shot.
You'll notice on the stop that Darius Garland does a
much better job attacking the pocket and disrupting Tatum's rhythm.
Little transition cross match here Tatum ends up on Lavert.
This leaves all guards guarding the Spain pick and roll
at the top of the key or the double drag
in this case, no ut stack because he's trying to

(01:03:51):
backscreen for Jared Allen. Either way, though, because Tatum's not
on Jared Allen, they have a post mismatch, so they
throw the ball to Jared Allen against Hawser. But now
Horford just got burned by a coro on the previous
a couple possessions earlier, so he doesn't feel comfortable committing.
Jared Allen gets the end one all those like little details.
Cora doesn't hit that shot. Horford probably just hard doubles there,

(01:04:14):
right alrighty, another switch onto Darius Garland. Garland gets a
little more aggressive here, not at the start, but you
watch him reach a little bit right here pokes at
it a little bit, but at this point Tata just
kind of methodically works him down and hits that little
right shoulder fade away again, right shoulder step back. I

(01:04:35):
should say this was a tough shot, late clock situation
they try to run with Allen. Ball gets swung back
to Mitchell. We're down to seven seconds on the shot clock.
A Korra runs in in screen, so it's like, all right,
Donovan's gonna have to ISO. Let's at least have him ISO,
a lesser defender than Drew Holliday gets Houser. This is
honestly a really good defense, but like, look at this

(01:04:57):
shot boom, that's a really good defense. He just stuck
it because he's a star and that's what he can do. Now,
Jason Tatum has been torching the Garland double teams, right,
So I skipped ahead in this possession because it's an
offensive rebound. This is our double team, right, So two
on the ball on Tatum, Prichard is the kickout gets

(01:05:19):
a decent look from on like a little twenty seven footer, right.
But the key here is in rotation, right, because we
put two on Tatum, which ended up in three players
on two Celtics over here above the break on the right,
Donovan Mitchell runs over to box out or to deal
with Al Horford in the right corner, and Jared Allen
is dropping to potentially deal with Drew Holiday right. See

(01:05:42):
what does that leave Chris tops Porzingis on a wide
open rim run, gets the rebound kick out. Prichard makes
the pass to Drew Holliday underneath the basket. So again,
if you watch this in full speed, I'm not gonna
stop it. This is a Tatum double team that ends
in a layup, even though it won't show up as
an assist for him because Porzingis got an offensive rebound

(01:06:05):
out of the chaos from the Calves being in rotation.
Two on the ball, kick two on Pritchard, easy offensive rebound, swing,
swing layup. Here's the action that the Calves were getting
good stuff off for Garland at the end of the game.
Just basically anything that had Porzingis involved. Porzingis at the
level that means an easy slipice. Notice a Korro's not

(01:06:28):
even trying to set a screen, He's just trying to slip.
Look see pushes off Slipcord did this twice in the
crunch Time did a really good job on both. Tatum
has to step up, Horford has to sink right. That
makes Mobley the kickout. Mobley catches Drew Holiday rotates that
leaves Donovan Mitchell wide open.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
Boom three.

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
Another double team of Tatum Mcgarland double Prichard slips that
allows him to catch the ball deep against Garland. And
this is where Pritchard just goes right through Garland his
chest just dribble, dribble, dribble, push off bucket. It's a
rock fight. You can get away with that kind of
stuff in a situation like that. This was the play

(01:07:10):
where Donovan Mitchell rejects the screen on Drew Holliday and
breaks him off. Let's watch it full speed first Boom three.
But again watch watch right as Drew Holliday gets Drew
Halliday's got his head and his body turned. He's prepping
for this screen. It's trying to get that top foot
over the top right. That's right when Donovan Mitchell crosses over.

(01:07:31):
That's the beauty of it. First of all, this is
why this job is so damn hard. Like I talked
about earlier in the show, it's the hardest thing that
any NBA guard has to do, and it's one of
the hardest defensive jobs in the sport. You you have
to stay in front.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
Of a man one on one while navigating an.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
Obstacle like all in the obstacle moves and a lot
of screens in the NBA moving and don't get called.
So it's like it's just it's a really difficult job.
Andrew Drew just gets caught on the screen there and
Donovan Mitchell knocks down the shot. Here's where Darius Garland
finally gets the stop. I want you to pay attention
to how much more aggressive Garland is right at the beginning.

(01:08:10):
So this first gram porzingis to get Jared Allen. Here
comes Pritchard to get Garland. Now watch watch seven seconds
on the shoclock. Garland immediately picks up Tatum. Reach, grab
his arm. We're gonna reach again. Reach, swat, swat, reach,
We're being aggressive and it forces him to speed up.
Then he over penetrates into all of this help and

(01:08:33):
forces up a bad shot. The only bad shot that
Jason Tatum took in the fourth quarter of this game,
because you sped him up, because you made things more difficult.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
Again, like if you do that all quarter.

Speaker 1 (01:08:43):
Jason Tatum's gonna make a lot of good plays because
he's one of the best players in the world, right.
But the point is, if you want to make every
player in the world makes mistakes, even the best players,
and if you want to make it more likely for
them to make a mistake, you have to be an
active participant in your own survival. If you're in these switches,
you just got to find a way to do better.
And in this case, Darius Garland, who had been getting cooked,
finally decided to show some fight on a switch, fought

(01:09:06):
really hard and aggressively sped Jason Tatum up and forced
to miss Reach Reach again.

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
Hands on.

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
That's good disruptive defense from Darius Garland. As we go
to the other end, this is where Donovan Mitchell gets
at Horford in a ball screen you can see quick
early screen from mobiley.

Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
Now we're downhill against.

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
Horford in space, which is again one of the weak
points for the Celtics defense. Easy little floater in the
mid range knocks it down.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
This is like.

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
Just Tatum missing a shot, like you just I don't
know what else to say. I feel like Tatum is
gonna make this nine times out of ten, Crossover gets
into the lane. Like Garland does a good job of
putting himself in his way, but like he should he
just should have made this as all. And then here
we go, same exact Garland action with Porzingis. Actually this
time it was Mitchell, but again poor Zingis is up high.

(01:10:01):
A Chorro slips gets behind Porzingis that forces Horford to
step up. Forford has to step up, Porzingis kind of
commits to blocking a Korro that leaves Mobile in for
the dunk. All right, guys, that is all I have
for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for
supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow
with a breakdown of a couple of good Monday night

(01:10:22):
games as well as some more film.

Speaker 2 (01:10:24):
I'll see you guys then the volume. What's up guys?

Speaker 1 (01:10:29):
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 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.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Hoops Tonight - NBA Reaction: Cavaliers AVENGE Celtics loss, Rockets stun Thunder, Warriors SLIDE