February 13, 2025 • 36 mins
Jason Timpf returns to break down all of the action across the NBA on Wednesday night, leading off with Jayson Tatum’s Boston Celtics defeating young superstar Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs 116-103. Jason breaks down how Jayson Tatum has become his generation’s Swiss-army knife, a la LeBron James, and details why the Celtics’ consistency on both ends of the floor could lead to back-to-back NBA titles this year. Next, Timpf dives into Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder beating the Miami Heat 115-101 and explains why the Thunder’s run is indicative of how dangerous this squad can be in the playoffs.
Timeline:
4:15 - Intro
5:30 - Celtics/Spurs
24:30 - Heat/Thunder
30:45 - Lakers/Jazz
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Episode Transcript
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see DKG dot co. Slash b ball. All right, welcome
to hoop tonight here as the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody,
Oh balf, you guys are having a great week. We're
(01:50):
hitting three games from last night as the Boston Celtics
get their seventh win and eight tries against the San
Antonio Spurs. After that, the Miami Heat are up ten
in their early fourth quarter in the Oklahoma City Thunder
demonstrate their upside with a dombin It twenty four to
zero run to start that quarter, and then after that
the Luka Doncics Lakers suffered their first loss on the
(02:12):
road in Utah, a game that mostly just came down
to a lackadaisical likers effort, but I did think kind
of mixed in there were some good examples of the
weaknesses of this new likers group, so I want to
take some time to really get into those at the
tail end of the show. You guys have the drip
before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels.
You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
(02:32):
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Friday mail bag tomorrow, All right, let's talk some basketball.
(02:54):
So I thought Jason Tatum just completely dominated the first
quarter of that's game. Set the tone, built that initial advantage,
and there was something that the Spurs just couldn't overcome.
On the defensive end of the floor. Boston had a
switching group out there that was just doing a really
nice job just staying attacked, shutting down screening actions. Switching
(03:16):
puts an emphasis on running action, good action that confuses switching,
like three man action, lots of ball in player movement
to try to get guys to make mistakes, and then
when teams successfully switch, you've got to be aggressive against
those switches getting to the basket to get super high
value shots or to draw multiple defenders. You can run
(03:37):
into a trap where you start settling, and that was
what happened in that first quarter. There was a few
examples of good action. There was like a little Chicago
action like a downscreen into a dribble handoff where they
pitched it back to Julian Champagnee on the right wing
and knocked down a three. There were a couple examples
like that, but it was a lot of like Daron
Fox contested pull up jump shots, Victor Wim Benyama contested
(04:01):
pull up jump shots. They weren't doing a very good
job of attacking the switching. And then on the other
end of the floor in the first quarter, Jason Tatum
goes for fourteen points, six rebounds and three assists with
zero turnovers. Did a ton of scoring in that short
to mid range, attacking the spurs smaller players when they'd
get switched onto him mismatches. There was a stretch in
the late first quarter where they started spamming a stack,
(04:24):
pick and roll action with Luke Cornette and Peyton Pritchard.
Just a ball screen with Tatum and Cornette with Pritchard
backscreening generated a wide open three for Pritchard at the
top of the key that he happened to miss. He
ended up hitting a pull up three on the right
wing when they botched a switch again. Three man action
is a great way to get teams to botch switches,
and Victor Wenbinyamo was basically just sticking with the screen
(04:46):
the guy who was backscreening him in the action instead
of dealing with Tatum coming off of that screen. He
just stepped into it. Knocked down at three. He finished
the quarter off with a beautiful driving kick like sweeping
hook pass over to the left wing to al hor
Tatum just immediately looked like by far, the best player
on the floor in a game that had two players
(05:07):
that are considered top twenty five players in the league
in my opinion, in deer Fox and Deeran Fox and
Victor Weinbinyama, and Tatum was just completely outclassing them to
start the game. And this is just the groove that
Jason Tatum's in right now. During this three game winning streak,
He's averaging thirty five points per game on sixty one
percent true shooting. I thought Porzingis was the catalyst of
(05:27):
the early second group, the early second quarter group that
had some success. They pushed the lead all the way
up to twenty three points. He was just running the
floor in transition. He had a play where he beat
everyone down the floor for a Dunky had another play
where he ran his lane and transition on the right
wing and hit a three. Throughout the entire first half,
he was doing a great job of posting switches the
same way that Jason Tatum was getting short range efficient shots.
(05:50):
And then his rim protection was great. This is a
Spurs team that can struggle with driving kick decisions, and
so if you get Porzingis parked underneath the basket, he
can do some real damage to a team that can
struggle to be surgical in the half court. The Celtics
really controlled the game throughout. They led by twenty ish
for most of the first half. The Spurs did cut
it down to eight in the early fourth quarter, but
(06:10):
then the Celtics immediately regained control. Chrisops Porzingis hit a three,
Peyton Pritchard hit a three, Sam Hauser hit a three,
or excuse me, Sam Howser got fouled on a runout
May two free throws. They had a couple of really
good defensive possessions mixed in there, and then all of
a sudden, their back up sixteen in the game's basically over.
The Celtics seem to have regained their footing, though they
have won seven out of eight after a really uneven
(06:32):
couple of months there. They're seventh in offense in that span,
third in defense in that span, and that's despite a
bunch of guys being out of the lineup. Jalen Brown
has missed two games in that stretched chrisops Porzingis has
missed a game, Drew Hollidays missed four games in that span.
At Horford's missed a game, but a couple of guys
stepping up. Jason Tatum has just been consistently great. I've
(06:52):
seen a lot of talk about I've seen a lot
of talk of late about like a Celtics fans calling
Jason Tatum the best four since Lebron And when I
when I first heard that, I had this like kind
of reflex that came up in me that it was like, well,
what about Kawhi And like what about Kevin Durant? And
(07:12):
I think Kevin Durant would be the guy that I'd
probably still put over Tatum in the sense that, like,
in that like twenty eighteen to twenty twenty one stretch,
he was just like and that's like spanning with an
achilles injury in the middle, but in that like I
should say, like twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one stretch,
he was just so incredibly good on both ends of
(07:33):
the floor. I'm not quite there, but I do think
he's been better than Kawhi if you like piece everything together,
because like what Tatum is to me is he's a
Swiss Army knife type of forward in the same vein
as a as a Lebron James. So, for instance, like
Kevin Durant has a lot of impact, I think Kevin
Durant has arguably just as good of an impact on
(07:55):
the defensive end in terms of his ability to protect
the rim, defensive rebound, switch out onto the perimeter. But
Kevin Durant has a little bit of a susceptibility to
size and strength. We saw that in the Memphis game
two nights ago when Jared Jackson was able to just
kind of toss Katie around at certain times and he
got two easy buckets on him in the post late
in the game, or an easy bucket and a foul
(08:16):
late in the game, where I think Tatum's a little
bit sturdier for that type of matchup. But I think
Katie also is a little bit longer, a little bit
better rimp protector, So like the two of them are
more or less even on the defensive end of the floor.
But I do think that Tatum has a certain Swiss
Army knife quality in terms of just his ability to
keep the ball moving, his playmaking ability. Jason Tatum has
become a really, really gifted playmaker in this league. And
(08:37):
so we can debate whether or not Tatum has reached
a level that's higher than Kawhi or higher than Katie.
I'm hesitant to go that far, but what I will
say is that Tatum is becoming the Swiss Army Knife
of this generation, which is what Lebron was in his generation.
It's a type of player that I'm drawn to because
I think it demonstrates a first of all, a versatility,
(08:59):
but also just to admit to winning. There's a lot
of stuff in there that guys aren't willing to do.
A simple example is like, as good as Kevin Durant
has been defensively, I think he's kind of underachieved on
that end over the course of his career, whereas Tatum,
you can tell, is maximizing his potential on that end
of the floor. I think it's just a testament to
the type of leader he is, the type of competitor
that he is. Again, a lot of times we see
(09:20):
guys like that that are a little bit more mellow
and not as like loud and boisterous with their personality,
and we or even guys that are boysterous that are
but that are positive. We think of them as like
not competitors because they're not Kobe Bryant type assholes. And
the truth of the matter is is like the work
that Jason Tatum does is a pretty clear demonstration of
(09:41):
the type of competitor that he is, and he stepped
up big time over the course of this recent stretch.
Derek White is finally shooting the ball better again. They've
been getting key contributions. Al Horford was talking about this
the other day in an interview, But Luke Cornett has
been so good as of late, getting those backup center minutes,
protecting the rim, just being in the right spot all
the time. I'm doing his job in ballscreen actions on offense,
(10:02):
Sam Hauser is back to shooting the ball really well.
After a rough start to the season. Things are rounding
out for this Celtics group finally, after an uneven middle
portion of the season. Every single time I watched San
Antonio play, their youth and inexperience still just like screams
off of the screen, like I'm watching early in the game,
and like Jeremy Sohan drives into the lane and Porzingis
(10:25):
is right there at the rim and Harrison Barnes is
just standing completely unguarded in the right corner, and instead
of just making that simple kickout pass to a guy
that's one of the best three point shooters in the
league this year, he tries to force his way through
Porzingis at the rim and misses, or like Steph Castle,
takes a wide open three at the top of the key.
This is in the early second quarter stretch. Like wide
open three at the top of the key. He's at
(10:47):
the top of the key. When you are at the
top of the key, your job as a guard is
as soon as the shot goes up, you're back in
transition defense. Remember first two jobs in transition defense are
stop the ball and get to the basket right And
like literally takes the three to the top of the key,
Porzingis just runs right by him as Steph Castle's just
in a light little back pedal going back and Porzingis
(11:07):
gets a dunk, like or even Victor Webbinyama just taking
really tough mid range jump shots early in the clock
when he can get that same shot later in the clock. Honestly,
right now, I hate about half of the shots Wenby takes,
Like right after that leak out dunk that krisops Porzingis
got that put Boston up twenty. They were up twenty,
so like you need a good shot to like reset
(11:28):
things and get control of the game. In Victor Webinyama,
with nineteen seconds on the shot clock, takes a completely
smothered step back three against Al Horford, the one that
has like absolutely no chance of going in. Now. To
be clear, I'm choosing to view that as more of
a positive thing, just simply because most young basketball players
struggle with shots selection, especially ones that have a great
(11:51):
skill talent, because they trust their skill in a way
that it's like, oh, I can get to this shot
whenever I want, so why don't I just take it
when there should be a little bit more deliberate process.
And that deliberate process comes as you get more experience
as a basketball player. So I'm not particularly worried about it,
but there is some reality to the fact that this
team is really young. They've got a lot of young
(12:13):
players that still make a lot of mistakes, and it
just goes to show you that this is not a
this year type of goal. This is a multi year
journey to try to figure out how to win with
this group, which takes me to the big thing I
wanted to get into with the Spurs today, which is
the reality of what it's going to take for dieron
Fox and Victor Wemenyama to beat teams that switch. Okay,
so they ran into a switching look today. We've talked
(12:36):
a lot in recent weeks about how the pick and
pop works. Right in a pick and pop action, any
sort of traditional coverage where you use the screen defender
to contain the ball handler either in a deeper drop
or up at the level. Anytime you do that, Victor
Wemenyama is going to be wide open, popping to the
three point line and whatever they run teams with traditional coverages,
(12:57):
they're going to get a lot of great stuff because
every possession that has Victor Wei Minyama standing at the
top of the key unguarded with like sixteen seventeen seconds
left on the shot clock is probably going to end
in a good shot for your team. Right. But again,
when we talk about the ultimate goal of winning an
NBA championship, you've got to win four playoff rounds in
(13:18):
two months, meaning you've got to be four excellent teams
that are probably going to be very different. You're probably
gonna have to go on the road at least one
like in have to win a must win game on
the road. At various points. There are going to be
challenges you face along the way. It's inevitable that in
that journey the Spurs are going to run into a
team that can switch that screen, meaning they're going to
(13:38):
have Boston's a great example having a set of players
where they feel comfortable with the guy who's guarding Wemby
also guarding Fox, and the guy who's guarding Fox also
guarding Wemby. So like again, I was talking about the
big picture goal over the next few years of the
Spurs rounding out their young talent, getting the experience they need,
improving their decision making, getting to where they need to
(13:59):
win multiple playoff rounds. Part of that journey is going
to be deeron Fox and Victor Weman yam up beating
a switching look. So one of the things that bothered
me watching that game last night was Fox and Wemby
attacking those switches, just taking bad jump shots early in
the game. I've talked a lot about this as it
pertains to the Celtics during the times that they've struggled
this year. When you are matchup hunting against switches, there
(14:22):
is an important order of operations you need your attackers
to do in those situations, Right, you have to generate
a shot in one on one that is so valuable
that it's untenable for the defense. So if you go
out there and you shoot forty seven eight percent on
mid range jump shots, which by the way, deeron Fox
(14:43):
can do, like the team that's guarding that shot isn't
going to overreact to it. Why because, like, for instance,
Aaron Fox hit two contested mid range jump shots against
against ISOs or against switches early in that game. But
from the Celtics standpoint, it's like that's a shot that's
gonna be worth less than one point per attempt. Same
(15:03):
thing goes for Victor Wembinyama in the mid range, right,
So as soon as you do that, you're making Boston's
coverage worth it. As Boston is sitting in their locker
room talking about the game plan, they're thinking to themselves,
if we can switch all these actions and shut down
the picking pop, we can probably bait deeron Fox into
Victor Wembenyama into taking contested jump shots that they're not
(15:24):
gonna make enough of to beat us. That's the game plan,
and so as soon as you start doing that, you're
playing directly into their hands. So how do you flip
the script on that? Deeron Fox against bigger players needs
to get dribble penetration and get into the short range
where he's much more efficient on those short range floaters,
(15:44):
stuff right at the basket, getting to the foul line.
Victor Wembinyama, same sort of thing has to get too,
looks that are closer to the basket. Once you start
getting into the one point one points per attempt one
point two points per tempt again, those are like one
to twenty offensive rating. That's where it gets untenable for
the defense. Once it gets untenable for the defense, then
(16:05):
they will start sending additional defenders. If dearon Fox starts
toasting that guy off to dribble and getting dribble penetration
and spraying the ball out, now you're getting the defense
in rotation, you're gonna get a lot of great shots.
If Victor webbin Yama starts drawing double teams because he's
doing a lot of damage closer to the rim. Now
you're spraying the ball out. Now you're getting great shots.
Now you're accomplishing the same thing that you accomplish in
(16:27):
a pick and pop. When you get Victor Wembin Yama
standing completely unguarded out above the break, that's the ultimate goal.
When you're attacking a switching defense, you need to get
the defense into rotation. If you attack a switching defense
just playing one on one all night, it's going to
be a problem. You have to get so successful in
those one on one situations that the defense starts reacting
(16:48):
and you get them into rotation. Again, we talked about
action early. You want to run three man action. You
want to try to force as many mistakes as possible
to generate good looks. But inevitably you're going to run
into an elite, well coached, well disciplined defense that can
switch to dearon Fox Victor women Yama pick and pop,
and in that situation, it's going to be on Fox
(17:11):
and Wemby to beat it with aggression that is untenable
for the defense instead of passively settling for jump shots
that can get them into trouble. Just something to keep
an eye on with the development of that duo over
the course of the next few years. All right, Moving
(17:38):
on to Heat Thunder. Heat defense was giving Oklahoma City
a lot of issues early in this game. Andrew Wiggins
and Davion Mitchell just for putting up a bunch of
good ISO reps on Schegos Alexander forcing him into tough
jumpers that line up with Bam and kell al Ware too.
They can really protect the rim well and think we're
awesome on offense. To start this game, Miami scored twenty
two points in the first six minutes. Bam had a boy,
(18:00):
I was cooking Isaiah Hartenstein in one on one situations.
He dunked all over his head on a baseline drive.
Tyler Harrow had it going, had his floater going early
in the game. They were getting runouts off their transition
defense really good early in the game. I also thought
the Heat were doing a great job of generating paint
touches against Oklahoma Cities switching by slipping out of screens. Again,
(18:20):
that's another example that we were talking just a minute
ago about how to beat switching. A great example is
like just run up the screen and slip out of
it as quick as you can, and you might be
able to get little angles for over the top passes
that generate four on threes without you having to beat
somebody off off the dribble right. So the Heat ended
up going up by ten. They kind of hung around
that area until about the middle second quarter, and then
(18:43):
they go on another run in the middle second quarter
and they end up going up by twenty one points.
They had to switch everything group out there with Bam
at center. Continued defending really well. The Heat defended really
well for the most part in this game. Andrew Wiggins
got going a little bit. He had a movement jumper
going to the left, he scored out of the post.
Pella Larson hit a couple of huge threes. They just
got going offensively. They ended up getting a bucket off
(19:06):
of a Nikola Yovich back back door cut out of
a Harrow Bam two man game where Bam slipped out
of it four on three drop off to Yovich. Jovich
lays it up twenty one point lead. So looking like
they're in complete control of the game down in Oklahoma City.
The comeback started in the late second quarter with a
little three point shooting burst as Jalen Williams excuse me,
(19:29):
lou Dort and Shake Gosounder Alexander each make threes. Before
the end of the half, they cut it back to eleven,
which again is just a much more achievable type of
thing for them to overcome. In the second half. They
go back and forth throughout the third quarter, and that's
where we end up with this fourth quarter run. So
it's ninety three to eighty three heater up to start
the fourth quarter and Oklahoma City goes on a twenty
(19:51):
four to zero run over the next five and a
half minutes. I want to zoom in on the defensive
end because I've been really talking about this idea of like,
what does your basketball team present that's an unsolvable problem,
something that like every team in the league is going
to struggle with to a certain extent. Now here's the thing.
The thunder were great on offense in that stretch. The
thunderscored twenty four points in five and a half minutes.
(20:13):
It was a complete explosion. Shay was unbelievable, was hitting
a ton of big shots, he was getting doubled a lot,
and guys were hitting threes off of it. But we
know Oklahoma City's offense is a bit streaky. It's a
bit prone to cold spells. That's how they ended up
down twenty to begin with, struggling against Miami switching like
their offense has a little bit of a like a
kind of a ricketiness to it, if that makes sense.
(20:35):
Their defense is their ace in the hole, that is
their reliably great punch that there isn't much of an
answer for from any team in the league. I thought
it started with lou Dort in the early fourth quarter.
Lou Dort just decided enough was enough with Tyler Harrow.
He ratcheted up ball pressure and got super physical with
him and Tyler like straight up peede down his leg,
(20:56):
like he couldn't even dribble within five feet of lou
Dort without Dort either just taking the ball away from
him him dribbling the ball out of bounds, or getting
into trouble and just throwing the ball away to somebody
else on Oakley, Oklahoma City in a passing lane like
lou Dort is just one of the apex perimeter defenders
in this league. He gives the very best offensive players
(21:16):
in this league issues, even guys like Luka Doncic. But
Tyler Harrow is basically food to a guy like lou Dort,
and he just annihilated him to start the fourth quarter,
cut the head off the snake. The other two guys
that were super dominant in that stretch defensively Kenrich Williams
and jay Lynn Williams. Jay Will off the bench backup center,
(21:37):
a couple of bench guys who came in and defended
extremely well. Jay Will was protecting the hell out of
the rim, excellent rotations time and time again. Had a
big block on a Andrew Wiggins pull up three against
a switch, and then Kenrich Williams just erased Andrew Wiggins
physical absorbing contact, disrupting Wiggins's base and making him playoff balance,
(21:58):
which makes his short range shot making less effective. And
the Thunder just took a Miami offense that was lighting
them up for three quarters and just put them in
an ice crip. And they were completely helpless. And it
wasn't like they were just missing open shots. They couldn't
get anything decent. And even on the catch and shoot
looks they got, they were rushed. They barely made it
(22:19):
to the rim. They chewed up and spit out that
Miami heat offense in that fourth quarter, And that's really
the exciting part even dating back to the Dallas series
last year, the way they almost won that series was
with their ability to truly make Luca uncomfortable and to
go on these massive defensive runs. I thought last night
was one of those regular season moments that you'll look
(22:41):
back at as kind of like a defining moment of
this Thunder team if they ever do get the trophy.
They have become a truly dominant defense. The Thunder are
four point one points better per one hundred possessions and
defensive rating than anyone in the league. This season. The
gap between the Thunder and the second best defense is
(23:01):
the same as the gap between the second best defense
and the eleventh best defense. And that's with chet Holmgan
playing twelve games this year, seven wins in a row
for the Oklahoma City Thunder playing some really special basketball
right now. You know, I remember for you Thunder fans,
like I remember when I was rooting for the Lakers
in twenty twenty, the year that they won the title
and even the year after that, the defining characteristic of
(23:23):
that team was defensive runs. They just about a dozen
times in the regular season. You just see them, whether
it was against like who, regardless of who was against
where they just be like, Hey, we're gonna lock in
on defense now and this team's just not gonna score
and then we're gonna win. And I get very similar
vibes from this Oklahoma City defense this season. All right,
let's talk about the Lakers losing in Utah first and foremost,
(23:48):
no reason to overreact to this at all. One, they
just beat the living shit out of the same group
of NBA players two nights ago, and they were clearly
nowhere near as engaged. I was exacerbated by the fact
that they were without two of their most important energy
guys and gave Vincent and Dorian Finney Smith two It's
like the famous last game before a long break. I
(24:11):
shared the story on Twitter this morning. But I remember
my last year in college. I was playing Anaia up
in Phoenix at Arizona Christian University. We at various points
in the season were top five in the nation. We
were one of the best Anaia teams in the country.
We started the year twelve and zero and we even
beat a Division One. Like a Division one team scheduled
US as a team in the Big Sky Conference called
Northern Arizona University scheduled US for like a tune up game,
(24:35):
and we just went into their house and handled them
like wire to wire, just controlled the game from start
to finish. We were really good at Anaia. Team an
Aia was weird because, like the age rules are different,
so we like had like a twenty nine year old
point guard and a thirty one year old shooting guard.
I was like one of the younger guys on the
team at twenty two. At that point, we were just
stacked with talent relative to the college level, and we
(24:57):
were really good team. But we had a break at winter,
like for the holidays, and it was like, you know,
an eight or nine day break. And the week before
we went on the break, we had four games in
a single week, and in that week we had to
play two top five teams or two top ten teams
if I remember correctly, in the country, and like we
beat We start the week three and zero and we
(25:18):
beat both of the top ten teams, and so we're
twelve and oh and everything looks great, and we have
a game on a Friday. I'm trying to remember. I
think it was called Great Falls. I think it was
Great Falls was the name of the school. But we
played in a five hundred NAIA team from the Midwest,
and they just beat the shit out of us. And
we all had flights out of town the next day,
(25:40):
and I remember our coach. We get in the locker
room and the coach is literally like the coach is
literally like half of you guys were already on the airplane.
This total bullshit. He was chewing us out. And it
was just crazy because we started twelve and oh and
we were beating all these great teams, and then we
ended up losing to a really bad team right before
we went on a break. And I think it's just
a classic case of like when you get to take
a like basket is such a mental grind when you
(26:01):
do it in an organized context, and you can imagine
how much harder that is in the pros when you've
got all these extended road trips and stuff like that.
But like, it's a grind, it's a mental grind, and
when you see an opportunity to rest, it's hard to
get that out of your mind. And I think again,
like lots of teams were playing their last game before
the break last night and played better basketball. Not saying
it's the ultimate excuse. I just think it's one of
(26:23):
the factors that led to that crappy effort. And then three,
the Lakers have been one of the top teams in
the league for a month and they were kind of
do a bad night. Bad nights happen in the NBA,
and they really don't concern me unless they become a
recurring thing. Like earlier in the year. What you saw
last night in Utah was like kind of like once
a week, twice a week kind of thing that you'd
(26:44):
see from the Lakers. That hasn't been the case over
the course of the last month or so, so I'm
trying to cut them some slack. That's it was very
clear that the Lakers were not close to their best.
Luca was awful, which is equal parts in being out
of rhythm and out of shape, but also him just
trying to feel out his new teammates. He hasn't been
very aggressive since he joined the team, and I think
(27:05):
that that's played a role in him just being at
a rhythm. Austin Reeves is hilarious because, like he's such
a dependable big game player, but yeah, he can throw
out like an absolute stinker like he did last night
against a team like the Jazz, So I'm not worried
about it. That said, regardless of who you are, even
if you're a top tier team in this league, like
(27:26):
the Celtics or the Thunder, there is value in taking
a closer look at your losses just to remind yourself
of your own vulnerability. Even on nights when you have
poor effort, Eventually you find yourself down big and you're like, hey,
let's try to get this game, and you try to
assert control, but obviously you lose the game, right, So like,
(27:47):
you fail to assert control and you still end up losing.
And usually in those moments there's a weakness or two
that you can at least look at and acknowledge exists,
like even Bob. Let's just take Boston for example. A
lot of the Boston losses this year, even when their
effort has been poor, has had a lot to do
with offensive process. They've had some relapses to older versions
(28:10):
of themselves, or they settle for bad shots and they
don't attack, they don't move the ball around, they don't
generate great catch and shoot looks. It's good for the
Celtics to be reminded that they're not invincible and that
if they don't stay diligent in their offensive process. They
can get beat with Oklahoma City. It's like the shooting
of their role players and some of their offensive process
(28:30):
stuff as well, challenging rim protectors, not moving the ball around,
they can go super cold on offense. So here's the
thing for last night. Even though we all obviously know
that if the Lakers had to play the Jazz again
tomorrow that they beat them by twenty plus. If they
needed to beat them, like if it was like you
gotta go beat you ta tomorrow, they'd handle them. But
it's still important to acknowledge how the Jazz gave the
(28:53):
Lakers issues last night. So here are all the big
picture weaknesses that I noticed that were on display last
night that the Lake need to sharpen up if they
want to achieve their big picture goals. First and foremost
point of attack defense. Part of this again last night
was some unusual guys playing because Gabe and Dorian Finney
Smith were out, like Daltonknact was getting cooked a lot
one on one and he's not going to be in
(29:15):
the rotation when he's in the playoffs. But it was
some core guys too. Austin Reeves had a really rough
game on both ends, and he was giving up a
ton of dribble penetration. Ruy Hatchamurro was getting blown by
time and time again. Now here's the thing. During this
streak when the Lakers have been offens awesome on defense,
both of those two guys have been fantastic on defense.
(29:36):
But it's just a reminder that those are two guys.
Really the whole team has to compete on the ball.
They're not so gifted athletically that they can give poor effort.
They have to compete on the ball, and then the
Lakers have to support them by shrinking the floor around them,
flying around in rotation, and if they don't, this defense
(29:56):
can dip into being pretty bad For a team that
was the number one defense in the league over the
previous thirteen games. They looked absolutely atrocious in that third quarter,
as as a Collier was just beating them time and
time again downhill, Jordan Clarkson time and time again downhill
and just picking them apart. Second big thing that stood
out to me Ruey tracking shooters. Ruey spent a good
(30:17):
amount of time matched up on Lourie markmen, and Laurie
burned him time and time again for helping and just
knocking down threes off of skip passes. We all know
that Ruey is susceptible to that kind of thing when
he's not focused. He was the guy that really hurt
the Lakers in the first round series last year by
not tracking Michael Porter Junior. It was just a good
(30:40):
reminder last night that Ruey can struggle sometimes with tracking
shooters and that JJ might have to account for that
by going with a guy like Dorian Finney Smith or
keeping him in a matchup that doesn't have him tracking
shooters around. That was something that stood out to me
last night. The third issue the Lakers are super thin
at center. Jackson Hayes has been playing great, but he
(31:02):
went down with a facial contusion in the middle of
the first quarter and suddenly it was a large diet
of Alex Lynn and I gotta say, like, I knew
Alex wasn't going to be a significant edition. I talked
about it when we talked about the signing, like he's
barely played in the last five years. His coaches clearly
don't trust him. I thought of him basically strictly as
(31:22):
just a big two hundred and fifty pound body, to
throw at Jokic from time to time maybe and not
much else. But my god, Alex Lynn was awful last night.
He quite literally doesn't do anything well aside from being
an okay rebounder for his size. Can't finish at the rim,
he can't finish away from the rim. He's awful on defense,
both in space and at the rim. Doesn't offer any
(31:44):
resistance there. Like, I don't really know how Alex lenn
is going to be able to help the Lakers much
at all, but maybe I'll be wrong. I thought Christian
Kaloko did okay, but he also got tossed around by
Kessler quite a bit, got beat by Kessler in some
vertical spacing situation. It was still clear that Christian Cloco
is a two way type of talent and not a
guy that can be playing big minutes in a big situation.
(32:06):
By the way, shout out to Walker Kessler. He absolutely
dominated this game on both ends of the floor. Sixteen
points without missing a shot, six blocks. The entire NBA
world should be very thankful that Danny Ainge did not
accept that Mark Williams package. I had heard from behind
the scenes that the Lakers offered that exact same package
(32:27):
Dalton the twenty thirty one first the pick swap. They
offered that to Utah and Danny Ainge turned it down.
The NBA world should be very thankful that Danny Age
said no to that, because if Walker Kessler was on
this Lakers team, they would be an absolute force on
both ends and they'd probably enter into that same tier
with Oklahoma City in Boston. But that brings me to
(32:49):
the last issue that was on display last night, which
is spacing. There's a reason why Kessler was able to
protect the rim the way he did and bogged down
the Laker offense. When Jack ex and Hayes is healthy,
he can beat a guy like Kessler with that vertical spacing, right.
That was how they picked apart Utahon Monday. When Dorian
Phinney Smith is healthy, they can put together small ball
(33:11):
groups with Ruey and Dorian Phinney Smith and Lebron where
they can still defend and rebound well enough, but they
can put Kessler out in space, and that was another
way they picked apart Utah Monday. But without those two guys,
one of Jared Vanderbilt or Christian KloCo or Alex lenn
was on the floor. At all times, and that allowed
(33:32):
Utah to park Kessler underneath the basket, and that really
made it hard for the Lakers to generate quality shots.
What this means to me is that the Lakers are
one injury in a bad matchup against a team that
can protect the rim away from being very vulnerable in
a playoff series. Now. Fortunately, they have space for another
(33:52):
veteran minimum contract before the end of the season. So
if there is a big forward that can shoot, or
a center with true spacing ability like whether it's popping
spacing or vertical spacing, if there is a player like
that that becomes available, the Lakers getting that guy could
make a huge difference in their potential this year. Just
something to keep an eye on. Again, nothing to overreact to,
(34:13):
but those were the obvious issues on display last night
that the Lakers are going to have to work on
improving to give themselves the best chance to win in
the playoffs this year. This is a team that has
to compete on at the point of attack and they
have to support their weaker perimeter defenders with help side
on the back right. This is a team that has
some young, flawed guys in their rotation. Guys like Ruy
(34:34):
Hachimura that JJ Redick is gonna have to be very
delicate with how he deploys him in the postseason to
prevent him from being damaging, especially on the defensive end
of the floor. Their center depth is an issue, and
all of a sudden, Jackson Hayes becomes really important to
this team, Dorian Finney Smith becomes really important to this team.
Ruby Hachimura becomes very important to this team. These big
(34:56):
players that can shoot in Jackson's vertical spacing are like
vitally important, and it's just it's just something to keep
in mind in terms of their margin for air as
it pertains to the injury front. And again, like they're
they're this team has to be unguardable offensively because they're
not gonna be good enough defensively. I think they're better
(35:17):
defensively than they showed last night. Again they've shown that
for a month. But like if they're gonna get to
where they want to go, they're going to have to
be able to score against everybody, and that means they're
gonna have to be able to space rim protectors out
and last night without Jackson, without Dorian Finney Smith, they
really struggle to space rimt protectors out. That's something to
keep an eye on as we're tracking them through the postseason.
(35:38):
And again, like I always talk about how the playoffs
are about matchups when I do my series previews, the
Lakers are playing a team that's got a rim protector
and they have an injury somewhere in the front court
to where a guy like Jackson, a guy like Dorian,
a guy like Rui's out. That infinitely cuts into the Lakers'
ability to be able to withstand a series like that.
Just something to keep in mind. All right, guys, that's
(35:58):
all I have for today. As always a sincere. Really
appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
We will be back tomorrow with some more game breakdowns
as well as a mailbag. I will see you guys
then the volume. What's up 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 and leave a rating and a review.
(36:20):
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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see DKG dot co. Slash b ball. All right, welcome
to hoop tonight here as the volume heavy Thursday. Everybody,
Oh balf, you guys are having a great week. We're
(01:50):
hitting three games from last night as the Boston Celtics
get their seventh win and eight tries against the San
Antonio Spurs. After that, the Miami Heat are up ten
in their early fourth quarter in the Oklahoma City Thunder
demonstrate their upside with a dombin It twenty four to
zero run to start that quarter, and then after that
the Luka Doncics Lakers suffered their first loss on the
(02:12):
road in Utah, a game that mostly just came down
to a lackadaisical likers effort, but I did think kind
of mixed in there were some good examples of the
weaknesses of this new likers group, so I want to
take some time to really get into those at the
tail end of the show. You guys have the drip
before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels.
You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
(02:32):
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comments so that we can get to them in our
Friday mail bag tomorrow, All right, let's talk some basketball.
(02:54):
So I thought Jason Tatum just completely dominated the first
quarter of that's game. Set the tone, built that initial advantage,
and there was something that the Spurs just couldn't overcome.
On the defensive end of the floor. Boston had a
switching group out there that was just doing a really
nice job just staying attacked, shutting down screening actions. Switching
(03:16):
puts an emphasis on running action, good action that confuses switching,
like three man action, lots of ball in player movement
to try to get guys to make mistakes, and then
when teams successfully switch, you've got to be aggressive against
those switches getting to the basket to get super high
value shots or to draw multiple defenders. You can run
(03:37):
into a trap where you start settling, and that was
what happened in that first quarter. There was a few
examples of good action. There was like a little Chicago
action like a downscreen into a dribble handoff where they
pitched it back to Julian Champagnee on the right wing
and knocked down a three. There were a couple examples
like that, but it was a lot of like Daron
Fox contested pull up jump shots, Victor Wim Benyama contested
(04:01):
pull up jump shots. They weren't doing a very good
job of attacking the switching. And then on the other
end of the floor in the first quarter, Jason Tatum
goes for fourteen points, six rebounds and three assists with
zero turnovers. Did a ton of scoring in that short
to mid range, attacking the spurs smaller players when they'd
get switched onto him mismatches. There was a stretch in
the late first quarter where they started spamming a stack,
(04:24):
pick and roll action with Luke Cornette and Peyton Pritchard.
Just a ball screen with Tatum and Cornette with Pritchard
backscreening generated a wide open three for Pritchard at the
top of the key that he happened to miss. He
ended up hitting a pull up three on the right
wing when they botched a switch again. Three man action
is a great way to get teams to botch switches,
and Victor Wenbinyamo was basically just sticking with the screen
(04:46):
the guy who was backscreening him in the action instead
of dealing with Tatum coming off of that screen. He
just stepped into it. Knocked down at three. He finished
the quarter off with a beautiful driving kick like sweeping
hook pass over to the left wing to al hor
Tatum just immediately looked like by far, the best player
on the floor in a game that had two players
(05:07):
that are considered top twenty five players in the league
in my opinion, in deer Fox and Deeran Fox and
Victor Weinbinyama, and Tatum was just completely outclassing them to
start the game. And this is just the groove that
Jason Tatum's in right now. During this three game winning streak,
He's averaging thirty five points per game on sixty one
percent true shooting. I thought Porzingis was the catalyst of
(05:27):
the early second group, the early second quarter group that
had some success. They pushed the lead all the way
up to twenty three points. He was just running the
floor in transition. He had a play where he beat
everyone down the floor for a Dunky had another play
where he ran his lane and transition on the right
wing and hit a three. Throughout the entire first half,
he was doing a great job of posting switches the
same way that Jason Tatum was getting short range efficient shots.
(05:50):
And then his rim protection was great. This is a
Spurs team that can struggle with driving kick decisions, and
so if you get Porzingis parked underneath the basket, he
can do some real damage to a team that can
struggle to be surgical in the half court. The Celtics
really controlled the game throughout. They led by twenty ish
for most of the first half. The Spurs did cut
it down to eight in the early fourth quarter, but
(06:10):
then the Celtics immediately regained control. Chrisops Porzingis hit a three,
Peyton Pritchard hit a three, Sam Hauser hit a three,
or excuse me, Sam Howser got fouled on a runout
May two free throws. They had a couple of really
good defensive possessions mixed in there, and then all of
a sudden, their back up sixteen in the game's basically over.
The Celtics seem to have regained their footing, though they
have won seven out of eight after a really uneven
(06:32):
couple of months there. They're seventh in offense in that span,
third in defense in that span, and that's despite a
bunch of guys being out of the lineup. Jalen Brown
has missed two games in that stretched chrisops Porzingis has
missed a game, Drew Hollidays missed four games in that span.
At Horford's missed a game, but a couple of guys
stepping up. Jason Tatum has just been consistently great. I've
(06:52):
seen a lot of talk about I've seen a lot
of talk of late about like a Celtics fans calling
Jason Tatum the best four since Lebron And when I
when I first heard that, I had this like kind
of reflex that came up in me that it was like, well,
what about Kawhi And like what about Kevin Durant? And
(07:12):
I think Kevin Durant would be the guy that I'd
probably still put over Tatum in the sense that, like,
in that like twenty eighteen to twenty twenty one stretch,
he was just like and that's like spanning with an
achilles injury in the middle, but in that like I
should say, like twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one stretch,
he was just so incredibly good on both ends of
(07:33):
the floor. I'm not quite there, but I do think
he's been better than Kawhi if you like piece everything together,
because like what Tatum is to me is he's a
Swiss Army knife type of forward in the same vein
as a as a Lebron James. So, for instance, like
Kevin Durant has a lot of impact, I think Kevin
Durant has arguably just as good of an impact on
(07:55):
the defensive end in terms of his ability to protect
the rim, defensive rebound, switch out onto the perimeter. But
Kevin Durant has a little bit of a susceptibility to
size and strength. We saw that in the Memphis game
two nights ago when Jared Jackson was able to just
kind of toss Katie around at certain times and he
got two easy buckets on him in the post late
in the game, or an easy bucket and a foul
(08:16):
late in the game, where I think Tatum's a little
bit sturdier for that type of matchup. But I think
Katie also is a little bit longer, a little bit
better rimp protector, So like the two of them are
more or less even on the defensive end of the floor.
But I do think that Tatum has a certain Swiss
Army knife quality in terms of just his ability to
keep the ball moving, his playmaking ability. Jason Tatum has
become a really, really gifted playmaker in this league. And
(08:37):
so we can debate whether or not Tatum has reached
a level that's higher than Kawhi or higher than Katie.
I'm hesitant to go that far, but what I will
say is that Tatum is becoming the Swiss Army Knife
of this generation, which is what Lebron was in his generation.
It's a type of player that I'm drawn to because
I think it demonstrates a first of all, a versatility,
(08:59):
but also just to admit to winning. There's a lot
of stuff in there that guys aren't willing to do.
A simple example is like, as good as Kevin Durant
has been defensively, I think he's kind of underachieved on
that end over the course of his career, whereas Tatum,
you can tell, is maximizing his potential on that end
of the floor. I think it's just a testament to
the type of leader he is, the type of competitor
that he is. Again, a lot of times we see
(09:20):
guys like that that are a little bit more mellow
and not as like loud and boisterous with their personality,
and we or even guys that are boysterous that are
but that are positive. We think of them as like
not competitors because they're not Kobe Bryant type assholes. And
the truth of the matter is is like the work
that Jason Tatum does is a pretty clear demonstration of
(09:41):
the type of competitor that he is, and he stepped
up big time over the course of this recent stretch.
Derek White is finally shooting the ball better again. They've
been getting key contributions. Al Horford was talking about this
the other day in an interview, But Luke Cornett has
been so good as of late, getting those backup center minutes,
protecting the rim, just being in the right spot all
the time. I'm doing his job in ballscreen actions on offense,
(10:02):
Sam Hauser is back to shooting the ball really well.
After a rough start to the season. Things are rounding
out for this Celtics group finally, after an uneven middle
portion of the season. Every single time I watched San
Antonio play, their youth and inexperience still just like screams
off of the screen, like I'm watching early in the game,
and like Jeremy Sohan drives into the lane and Porzingis
(10:25):
is right there at the rim and Harrison Barnes is
just standing completely unguarded in the right corner, and instead
of just making that simple kickout pass to a guy
that's one of the best three point shooters in the
league this year, he tries to force his way through
Porzingis at the rim and misses, or like Steph Castle,
takes a wide open three at the top of the key.
This is in the early second quarter stretch. Like wide
open three at the top of the key. He's at
(10:47):
the top of the key. When you are at the
top of the key, your job as a guard is
as soon as the shot goes up, you're back in
transition defense. Remember first two jobs in transition defense are
stop the ball and get to the basket right And
like literally takes the three to the top of the key,
Porzingis just runs right by him as Steph Castle's just
in a light little back pedal going back and Porzingis
(11:07):
gets a dunk, like or even Victor Webbinyama just taking
really tough mid range jump shots early in the clock
when he can get that same shot later in the clock. Honestly,
right now, I hate about half of the shots Wenby takes,
Like right after that leak out dunk that krisops Porzingis
got that put Boston up twenty. They were up twenty,
so like you need a good shot to like reset
(11:28):
things and get control of the game. In Victor Webinyama,
with nineteen seconds on the shot clock, takes a completely
smothered step back three against Al Horford, the one that
has like absolutely no chance of going in. Now. To
be clear, I'm choosing to view that as more of
a positive thing, just simply because most young basketball players
struggle with shots selection, especially ones that have a great
(11:51):
skill talent, because they trust their skill in a way
that it's like, oh, I can get to this shot
whenever I want, so why don't I just take it
when there should be a little bit more deliberate process.
And that deliberate process comes as you get more experience
as a basketball player. So I'm not particularly worried about it,
but there is some reality to the fact that this
team is really young. They've got a lot of young
(12:13):
players that still make a lot of mistakes, and it
just goes to show you that this is not a
this year type of goal. This is a multi year
journey to try to figure out how to win with
this group, which takes me to the big thing I
wanted to get into with the Spurs today, which is
the reality of what it's going to take for dieron
Fox and Victor Wemenyama to beat teams that switch. Okay,
so they ran into a switching look today. We've talked
(12:36):
a lot in recent weeks about how the pick and
pop works. Right in a pick and pop action, any
sort of traditional coverage where you use the screen defender
to contain the ball handler either in a deeper drop
or up at the level. Anytime you do that, Victor
Wemenyama is going to be wide open, popping to the
three point line and whatever they run teams with traditional coverages,
(12:57):
they're going to get a lot of great stuff because
every possession that has Victor Wei Minyama standing at the
top of the key unguarded with like sixteen seventeen seconds
left on the shot clock is probably going to end
in a good shot for your team. Right. But again,
when we talk about the ultimate goal of winning an
NBA championship, you've got to win four playoff rounds in
(13:18):
two months, meaning you've got to be four excellent teams
that are probably going to be very different. You're probably
gonna have to go on the road at least one
like in have to win a must win game on
the road. At various points. There are going to be
challenges you face along the way. It's inevitable that in
that journey the Spurs are going to run into a
team that can switch that screen, meaning they're going to
(13:38):
have Boston's a great example having a set of players
where they feel comfortable with the guy who's guarding Wemby
also guarding Fox, and the guy who's guarding Fox also
guarding Wemby. So like again, I was talking about the
big picture goal over the next few years of the
Spurs rounding out their young talent, getting the experience they need,
improving their decision making, getting to where they need to
(13:59):
win multiple playoff rounds. Part of that journey is going
to be deeron Fox and Victor Weman yam up beating
a switching look. So one of the things that bothered
me watching that game last night was Fox and Wemby
attacking those switches, just taking bad jump shots early in
the game. I've talked a lot about this as it
pertains to the Celtics during the times that they've struggled
this year. When you are matchup hunting against switches, there
(14:22):
is an important order of operations you need your attackers
to do in those situations, Right, you have to generate
a shot in one on one that is so valuable
that it's untenable for the defense. So if you go
out there and you shoot forty seven eight percent on
mid range jump shots, which by the way, deeron Fox
(14:43):
can do, like the team that's guarding that shot isn't
going to overreact to it. Why because, like, for instance,
Aaron Fox hit two contested mid range jump shots against
against ISOs or against switches early in that game. But
from the Celtics standpoint, it's like that's a shot that's
gonna be worth less than one point per attempt. Same
(15:03):
thing goes for Victor Wembinyama in the mid range, right,
So as soon as you do that, you're making Boston's
coverage worth it. As Boston is sitting in their locker
room talking about the game plan, they're thinking to themselves,
if we can switch all these actions and shut down
the picking pop, we can probably bait deeron Fox into
Victor Wembenyama into taking contested jump shots that they're not
(15:24):
gonna make enough of to beat us. That's the game plan,
and so as soon as you start doing that, you're
playing directly into their hands. So how do you flip
the script on that? Deeron Fox against bigger players needs
to get dribble penetration and get into the short range
where he's much more efficient on those short range floaters,
(15:44):
stuff right at the basket, getting to the foul line.
Victor Wembinyama, same sort of thing has to get too,
looks that are closer to the basket. Once you start
getting into the one point one points per attempt one
point two points per tempt again, those are like one
to twenty offensive rating. That's where it gets untenable for
the defense. Once it gets untenable for the defense, then
(16:05):
they will start sending additional defenders. If dearon Fox starts
toasting that guy off to dribble and getting dribble penetration
and spraying the ball out, now you're getting the defense
in rotation, you're gonna get a lot of great shots.
If Victor webbin Yama starts drawing double teams because he's
doing a lot of damage closer to the rim. Now
you're spraying the ball out. Now you're getting great shots.
Now you're accomplishing the same thing that you accomplish in
(16:27):
a pick and pop. When you get Victor Wembin Yama
standing completely unguarded out above the break, that's the ultimate goal.
When you're attacking a switching defense, you need to get
the defense into rotation. If you attack a switching defense
just playing one on one all night, it's going to
be a problem. You have to get so successful in
those one on one situations that the defense starts reacting
(16:48):
and you get them into rotation. Again, we talked about
action early. You want to run three man action. You
want to try to force as many mistakes as possible
to generate good looks. But inevitably you're going to run
into an elite, well coached, well disciplined defense that can
switch to dearon Fox Victor women Yama pick and pop,
and in that situation, it's going to be on Fox
(17:11):
and Wemby to beat it with aggression that is untenable
for the defense instead of passively settling for jump shots
that can get them into trouble. Just something to keep
an eye on with the development of that duo over
the course of the next few years. All right, Moving
(17:38):
on to Heat Thunder. Heat defense was giving Oklahoma City
a lot of issues early in this game. Andrew Wiggins
and Davion Mitchell just for putting up a bunch of
good ISO reps on Schegos Alexander forcing him into tough
jumpers that line up with Bam and kell al Ware too.
They can really protect the rim well and think we're
awesome on offense. To start this game, Miami scored twenty
two points in the first six minutes. Bam had a boy,
(18:00):
I was cooking Isaiah Hartenstein in one on one situations.
He dunked all over his head on a baseline drive.
Tyler Harrow had it going, had his floater going early
in the game. They were getting runouts off their transition
defense really good early in the game. I also thought
the Heat were doing a great job of generating paint
touches against Oklahoma Cities switching by slipping out of screens. Again,
(18:20):
that's another example that we were talking just a minute
ago about how to beat switching. A great example is
like just run up the screen and slip out of
it as quick as you can, and you might be
able to get little angles for over the top passes
that generate four on threes without you having to beat
somebody off off the dribble right. So the Heat ended
up going up by ten. They kind of hung around
that area until about the middle second quarter, and then
(18:43):
they go on another run in the middle second quarter
and they end up going up by twenty one points.
They had to switch everything group out there with Bam
at center. Continued defending really well. The Heat defended really
well for the most part in this game. Andrew Wiggins
got going a little bit. He had a movement jumper
going to the left, he scored out of the post.
Pella Larson hit a couple of huge threes. They just
got going offensively. They ended up getting a bucket off
(19:06):
of a Nikola Yovich back back door cut out of
a Harrow Bam two man game where Bam slipped out
of it four on three drop off to Yovich. Jovich
lays it up twenty one point lead. So looking like
they're in complete control of the game down in Oklahoma City.
The comeback started in the late second quarter with a
little three point shooting burst as Jalen Williams excuse me,
(19:29):
lou Dort and Shake Gosounder Alexander each make threes. Before
the end of the half, they cut it back to eleven,
which again is just a much more achievable type of
thing for them to overcome. In the second half. They
go back and forth throughout the third quarter, and that's
where we end up with this fourth quarter run. So
it's ninety three to eighty three heater up to start
the fourth quarter and Oklahoma City goes on a twenty
(19:51):
four to zero run over the next five and a
half minutes. I want to zoom in on the defensive
end because I've been really talking about this idea of like,
what does your basketball team present that's an unsolvable problem,
something that like every team in the league is going
to struggle with to a certain extent. Now here's the thing.
The thunder were great on offense in that stretch. The
thunderscored twenty four points in five and a half minutes.
(20:13):
It was a complete explosion. Shay was unbelievable, was hitting
a ton of big shots, he was getting doubled a lot,
and guys were hitting threes off of it. But we
know Oklahoma City's offense is a bit streaky. It's a
bit prone to cold spells. That's how they ended up
down twenty to begin with, struggling against Miami switching like
their offense has a little bit of a like a
kind of a ricketiness to it, if that makes sense.
(20:35):
Their defense is their ace in the hole, that is
their reliably great punch that there isn't much of an
answer for from any team in the league. I thought
it started with lou Dort in the early fourth quarter.
Lou Dort just decided enough was enough with Tyler Harrow.
He ratcheted up ball pressure and got super physical with
him and Tyler like straight up peede down his leg,
(20:56):
like he couldn't even dribble within five feet of lou
Dort without Dort either just taking the ball away from
him him dribbling the ball out of bounds, or getting
into trouble and just throwing the ball away to somebody
else on Oakley, Oklahoma City in a passing lane like
lou Dort is just one of the apex perimeter defenders
in this league. He gives the very best offensive players
(21:16):
in this league issues, even guys like Luka Doncic. But
Tyler Harrow is basically food to a guy like lou Dort,
and he just annihilated him to start the fourth quarter,
cut the head off the snake. The other two guys
that were super dominant in that stretch defensively Kenrich Williams
and jay Lynn Williams. Jay Will off the bench backup center,
(21:37):
a couple of bench guys who came in and defended
extremely well. Jay Will was protecting the hell out of
the rim, excellent rotations time and time again. Had a
big block on a Andrew Wiggins pull up three against
a switch, and then Kenrich Williams just erased Andrew Wiggins
physical absorbing contact, disrupting Wiggins's base and making him playoff balance,
(21:58):
which makes his short range shot making less effective. And
the Thunder just took a Miami offense that was lighting
them up for three quarters and just put them in
an ice crip. And they were completely helpless. And it
wasn't like they were just missing open shots. They couldn't
get anything decent. And even on the catch and shoot
looks they got, they were rushed. They barely made it
(22:19):
to the rim. They chewed up and spit out that
Miami heat offense in that fourth quarter, And that's really
the exciting part even dating back to the Dallas series
last year, the way they almost won that series was
with their ability to truly make Luca uncomfortable and to
go on these massive defensive runs. I thought last night
was one of those regular season moments that you'll look
(22:41):
back at as kind of like a defining moment of
this Thunder team if they ever do get the trophy.
They have become a truly dominant defense. The Thunder are
four point one points better per one hundred possessions and
defensive rating than anyone in the league. This season. The
gap between the Thunder and the second best defense is
(23:01):
the same as the gap between the second best defense
and the eleventh best defense. And that's with chet Holmgan
playing twelve games this year, seven wins in a row
for the Oklahoma City Thunder playing some really special basketball
right now. You know, I remember for you Thunder fans,
like I remember when I was rooting for the Lakers
in twenty twenty, the year that they won the title
and even the year after that, the defining characteristic of
(23:23):
that team was defensive runs. They just about a dozen
times in the regular season. You just see them, whether
it was against like who, regardless of who was against
where they just be like, Hey, we're gonna lock in
on defense now and this team's just not gonna score
and then we're gonna win. And I get very similar
vibes from this Oklahoma City defense this season. All right,
let's talk about the Lakers losing in Utah first and foremost,
(23:48):
no reason to overreact to this at all. One, they
just beat the living shit out of the same group
of NBA players two nights ago, and they were clearly
nowhere near as engaged. I was exacerbated by the fact
that they were without two of their most important energy
guys and gave Vincent and Dorian Finney Smith two It's
like the famous last game before a long break. I
(24:11):
shared the story on Twitter this morning. But I remember
my last year in college. I was playing Anaia up
in Phoenix at Arizona Christian University. We at various points
in the season were top five in the nation. We
were one of the best Anaia teams in the country.
We started the year twelve and zero and we even
beat a Division One. Like a Division one team scheduled
US as a team in the Big Sky Conference called
Northern Arizona University scheduled US for like a tune up game,
(24:35):
and we just went into their house and handled them
like wire to wire, just controlled the game from start
to finish. We were really good at Anaia. Team an
Aia was weird because, like the age rules are different,
so we like had like a twenty nine year old
point guard and a thirty one year old shooting guard.
I was like one of the younger guys on the
team at twenty two. At that point, we were just
stacked with talent relative to the college level, and we
(24:57):
were really good team. But we had a break at winter,
like for the holidays, and it was like, you know,
an eight or nine day break. And the week before
we went on the break, we had four games in
a single week, and in that week we had to
play two top five teams or two top ten teams
if I remember correctly, in the country, and like we
beat We start the week three and zero and we
(25:18):
beat both of the top ten teams, and so we're
twelve and oh and everything looks great, and we have
a game on a Friday. I'm trying to remember. I
think it was called Great Falls. I think it was
Great Falls was the name of the school. But we
played in a five hundred NAIA team from the Midwest,
and they just beat the shit out of us. And
we all had flights out of town the next day,
(25:40):
and I remember our coach. We get in the locker
room and the coach is literally like the coach is
literally like half of you guys were already on the airplane.
This total bullshit. He was chewing us out. And it
was just crazy because we started twelve and oh and
we were beating all these great teams, and then we
ended up losing to a really bad team right before
we went on a break. And I think it's just
a classic case of like when you get to take
a like basket is such a mental grind when you
(26:01):
do it in an organized context, and you can imagine
how much harder that is in the pros when you've
got all these extended road trips and stuff like that.
But like, it's a grind, it's a mental grind, and
when you see an opportunity to rest, it's hard to
get that out of your mind. And I think again,
like lots of teams were playing their last game before
the break last night and played better basketball. Not saying
it's the ultimate excuse. I just think it's one of
(26:23):
the factors that led to that crappy effort. And then three,
the Lakers have been one of the top teams in
the league for a month and they were kind of
do a bad night. Bad nights happen in the NBA,
and they really don't concern me unless they become a
recurring thing. Like earlier in the year. What you saw
last night in Utah was like kind of like once
a week, twice a week kind of thing that you'd
(26:44):
see from the Lakers. That hasn't been the case over
the course of the last month or so, so I'm
trying to cut them some slack. That's it was very
clear that the Lakers were not close to their best.
Luca was awful, which is equal parts in being out
of rhythm and out of shape, but also him just
trying to feel out his new teammates. He hasn't been
very aggressive since he joined the team, and I think
(27:05):
that that's played a role in him just being at
a rhythm. Austin Reeves is hilarious because, like he's such
a dependable big game player, but yeah, he can throw
out like an absolute stinker like he did last night
against a team like the Jazz, So I'm not worried
about it. That said, regardless of who you are, even
if you're a top tier team in this league, like
(27:26):
the Celtics or the Thunder, there is value in taking
a closer look at your losses just to remind yourself
of your own vulnerability. Even on nights when you have
poor effort, Eventually you find yourself down big and you're like, hey,
let's try to get this game, and you try to
assert control, but obviously you lose the game, right, So like,
(27:47):
you fail to assert control and you still end up losing.
And usually in those moments there's a weakness or two
that you can at least look at and acknowledge exists,
like even Bob. Let's just take Boston for example. A
lot of the Boston losses this year, even when their
effort has been poor, has had a lot to do
with offensive process. They've had some relapses to older versions
(28:10):
of themselves, or they settle for bad shots and they
don't attack, they don't move the ball around, they don't
generate great catch and shoot looks. It's good for the
Celtics to be reminded that they're not invincible and that
if they don't stay diligent in their offensive process. They
can get beat with Oklahoma City. It's like the shooting
of their role players and some of their offensive process
(28:30):
stuff as well, challenging rim protectors, not moving the ball around,
they can go super cold on offense. So here's the
thing for last night. Even though we all obviously know
that if the Lakers had to play the Jazz again
tomorrow that they beat them by twenty plus. If they
needed to beat them, like if it was like you
gotta go beat you ta tomorrow, they'd handle them. But
it's still important to acknowledge how the Jazz gave the
(28:53):
Lakers issues last night. So here are all the big
picture weaknesses that I noticed that were on display last
night that the Lake need to sharpen up if they
want to achieve their big picture goals. First and foremost
point of attack defense. Part of this again last night
was some unusual guys playing because Gabe and Dorian Finney
Smith were out, like Daltonknact was getting cooked a lot
one on one and he's not going to be in
(29:15):
the rotation when he's in the playoffs. But it was
some core guys too. Austin Reeves had a really rough
game on both ends, and he was giving up a
ton of dribble penetration. Ruy Hatchamurro was getting blown by
time and time again. Now here's the thing. During this
streak when the Lakers have been offens awesome on defense,
both of those two guys have been fantastic on defense.
(29:36):
But it's just a reminder that those are two guys.
Really the whole team has to compete on the ball.
They're not so gifted athletically that they can give poor effort.
They have to compete on the ball, and then the
Lakers have to support them by shrinking the floor around them,
flying around in rotation, and if they don't, this defense
(29:56):
can dip into being pretty bad For a team that
was the number one defense in the league over the
previous thirteen games. They looked absolutely atrocious in that third quarter,
as as a Collier was just beating them time and
time again downhill, Jordan Clarkson time and time again downhill
and just picking them apart. Second big thing that stood
out to me Ruey tracking shooters. Ruey spent a good
(30:17):
amount of time matched up on Lourie markmen, and Laurie
burned him time and time again for helping and just
knocking down threes off of skip passes. We all know
that Ruey is susceptible to that kind of thing when
he's not focused. He was the guy that really hurt
the Lakers in the first round series last year by
not tracking Michael Porter Junior. It was just a good
(30:40):
reminder last night that Ruey can struggle sometimes with tracking
shooters and that JJ might have to account for that
by going with a guy like Dorian Finney Smith or
keeping him in a matchup that doesn't have him tracking
shooters around. That was something that stood out to me
last night. The third issue the Lakers are super thin
at center. Jackson Hayes has been playing great, but he
(31:02):
went down with a facial contusion in the middle of
the first quarter and suddenly it was a large diet
of Alex Lynn and I gotta say, like, I knew
Alex wasn't going to be a significant edition. I talked
about it when we talked about the signing, like he's
barely played in the last five years. His coaches clearly
don't trust him. I thought of him basically strictly as
(31:22):
just a big two hundred and fifty pound body, to
throw at Jokic from time to time maybe and not
much else. But my god, Alex Lynn was awful last night.
He quite literally doesn't do anything well aside from being
an okay rebounder for his size. Can't finish at the rim,
he can't finish away from the rim. He's awful on defense,
both in space and at the rim. Doesn't offer any
(31:44):
resistance there. Like, I don't really know how Alex lenn
is going to be able to help the Lakers much
at all, but maybe I'll be wrong. I thought Christian
Kaloko did okay, but he also got tossed around by
Kessler quite a bit, got beat by Kessler in some
vertical spacing situation. It was still clear that Christian Cloco
is a two way type of talent and not a
guy that can be playing big minutes in a big situation.
(32:06):
By the way, shout out to Walker Kessler. He absolutely
dominated this game on both ends of the floor. Sixteen
points without missing a shot, six blocks. The entire NBA
world should be very thankful that Danny Ainge did not
accept that Mark Williams package. I had heard from behind
the scenes that the Lakers offered that exact same package
(32:27):
Dalton the twenty thirty one first the pick swap. They
offered that to Utah and Danny Ainge turned it down.
The NBA world should be very thankful that Danny Age
said no to that, because if Walker Kessler was on
this Lakers team, they would be an absolute force on
both ends and they'd probably enter into that same tier
with Oklahoma City in Boston. But that brings me to
(32:49):
the last issue that was on display last night, which
is spacing. There's a reason why Kessler was able to
protect the rim the way he did and bogged down
the Laker offense. When Jack ex and Hayes is healthy,
he can beat a guy like Kessler with that vertical spacing, right.
That was how they picked apart Utahon Monday. When Dorian
Phinney Smith is healthy, they can put together small ball
(33:11):
groups with Ruey and Dorian Phinney Smith and Lebron where
they can still defend and rebound well enough, but they
can put Kessler out in space, and that was another
way they picked apart Utah Monday. But without those two guys,
one of Jared Vanderbilt or Christian KloCo or Alex lenn
was on the floor. At all times, and that allowed
(33:32):
Utah to park Kessler underneath the basket, and that really
made it hard for the Lakers to generate quality shots.
What this means to me is that the Lakers are
one injury in a bad matchup against a team that
can protect the rim away from being very vulnerable in
a playoff series. Now. Fortunately, they have space for another
(33:52):
veteran minimum contract before the end of the season. So
if there is a big forward that can shoot, or
a center with true spacing ability like whether it's popping
spacing or vertical spacing, if there is a player like
that that becomes available, the Lakers getting that guy could
make a huge difference in their potential this year. Just
something to keep an eye on. Again, nothing to overreact to,
(34:13):
but those were the obvious issues on display last night
that the Lakers are going to have to work on
improving to give themselves the best chance to win in
the playoffs this year. This is a team that has
to compete on at the point of attack and they
have to support their weaker perimeter defenders with help side
on the back right. This is a team that has
some young, flawed guys in their rotation. Guys like Ruy
(34:34):
Hachimura that JJ Redick is gonna have to be very
delicate with how he deploys him in the postseason to
prevent him from being damaging, especially on the defensive end
of the floor. Their center depth is an issue, and
all of a sudden, Jackson Hayes becomes really important to
this team, Dorian Finney Smith becomes really important to this team.
Ruby Hachimura becomes very important to this team. These big
(34:56):
players that can shoot in Jackson's vertical spacing are like
vitally important, and it's just it's just something to keep
in mind in terms of their margin for air as
it pertains to the injury front. And again, like they're
they're this team has to be unguardable offensively because they're
not gonna be good enough defensively. I think they're better
(35:17):
defensively than they showed last night. Again they've shown that
for a month. But like if they're gonna get to
where they want to go, they're going to have to
be able to score against everybody, and that means they're
gonna have to be able to space rim protectors out
and last night without Jackson, without Dorian Finney Smith, they
really struggle to space rimt protectors out. That's something to
keep an eye on as we're tracking them through the postseason.
(35:38):
And again, like I always talk about how the playoffs
are about matchups when I do my series previews, the
Lakers are playing a team that's got a rim protector
and they have an injury somewhere in the front court
to where a guy like Jackson, a guy like Dorian,
a guy like Rui's out. That infinitely cuts into the Lakers'
ability to be able to withstand a series like that.
Just something to keep in mind. All right, guys, that's
(35:58):
all I have for today. As always a sincere. Really
appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
We will be back tomorrow with some more game breakdowns
as well as a mailbag. I will see you guys
then the volume. What's up 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 and leave a rating and a review.
(36:20):
As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
appreciate it.
Host
Jason Timpf
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