January 8, 2025 • 27 mins
Jason Timpf reacts to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder's 105-92 win over Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics. Jason discusses SGA "resoundingly" outplaying Tatum, the Thunder defense stifling Boston in the second half, and whether this changes his outlook on each team moving forward this NBA season. Later, Jason discusses LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers’ 118-97 loss to Klay Thompson and the Dallas Mavericks. Jason discusses the key issue JJ Redick must address as the Lakers continue their efforts to return to a championship-caliber team.
Timeline:
4:00 - Introduction
5:15 - Celtics-Thunder Reaction
25:00 - Lakers lose control vs. Mavericks
(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(01:34):
welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume heavy Wednesday, everybody.
If all of you guys are having a great week,
it is good to be back. Felt could to get
some skiing in the northern Arizona. Here's the plan for
the rest of this week. Obviously I missed a bunch
of basketball over the course of the weekend. It's going
to take me about a day to get caught up.
But I wanted to get something out quickly, so this
morning I'm just gonna do a short show. We're going
to talk Celtics Thunder off the top of big deep
dive into Celtics Thunder, and then I'm gonna talk a
(01:56):
little bit about Mavericks Lakers from last night and this
oh and to Lakers road trip. That's all we're doing
in this morning's episode. As soon as I'm done, though,
I'm gonna start diving back into film. We're gonna have
a bunch of stuff coming out throughout the rest of
the week, including tomorrow. We got just a ridiculous game
between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder to
get into that one's gonna be a lot of fun.
We also have a mail bag leader this week. Lots
(02:17):
of content we're gonna get into, but just in this
show today Celtics Thunder and Lakers maps. You guys know
the joke before we get started. Subscribe to Oops to
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(02:37):
the year. Make sure you guys follow us there and
the last night at least keep dropping mail bag questions.
We're gonna have a mail bag that's gonna come out
on either Friday or Saturday this week, so make sure
you drop those questions in the comments. All right, let's
talk some basketball. So it's always fun watching two really
damn good basketball teams because it's fun to watch teams
that consistently do all the things that good basketball teams do,
(02:58):
meaning they don't just real on their talent. You know,
I think it's important for us to differentiate between super
talented and super talented and plays good basketball. There are
a lot of really talented teams in the league. I
do think Boston is the most talented roster in the league,
but I also thought they were the most talented roster
in the league in twenty twenty two. They just weren't
playing as good a brand of basketball. There was growth
(03:18):
that occurred between then and now. It's too simple to
just say, oh, they're that talented. It's an important thing
to bring up. They are the most talented team in
the league, but they also play one of the best
brands of basketball that we see around the league. And
same goes for Okay. See, they don't just rely on
their talent. They hunt every single possible advantage, every single
possible margin that will help them win basketball games. Just
(03:40):
a couple examples to list, like pushing in transition off
of makes That's an important thing that all good teams do,
and it works, especially when they're cross matches, which is
something that's happening in this game, right Like if Hartenstein's
guarding Porzingis on offense, but Porzingis is guarding case on
Wallace on defense, there's a cross match there, right, Like
if guys are guarding different guys the opposite ends of
(04:00):
the floor when the ball transitions, meaning like when there's
a miss or when there's a steal, there is a
moment where the guy that you're supposed to be guarding
is far away, and so pushing in transition you can
get a lot of cross matches. You can get initial
advantages when a team just isn't back and you can
maybe get them in rotation. Sometimes you'll get a complete
breakdown and get a layup or dunk. There were several
(04:21):
at the beginning of this game where both the Celtics
and the Thunder were getting like dunks and easy shots
in transition just by pushing off of makes. That's something
that good teams do. You should you should push on
a make because the entire purpose of why we run
offense is to get an advantage. And if you can
get an advantage without having to run offense, then by
all means you should look to do that right. Generating
(04:42):
advantages with basic fundamentals in the half court, So like
quick moves off the catch, Derek White catching in the
corner even though he's guarded, but just quickly ripping baseline
and beating his man off the dribble suddenly Drew Holliday's
going to wide open three at the top of the
key right, or case On Wallace did something similar to
Jason Tatum caught in the wing, just quickly racked to
the right, I got in the lane and made like
that lefty scoop shot that he made in the lane.
(05:03):
Those are things that good basketball teams do, Like, Okay,
nothing's open right now, somebody's got to create an advantage.
When I catch, I'm ripping and I'm going to see
if I can beat this dude off the dribble and
maybe make something good happen off ball player movement Again,
for both teams, guys are constantly cutting and relocating around
the three point line, crashing the offensive glass out of
the corner to get additional possessions ball pressure, Like, how
(05:25):
often in that second half, in particular, do you see
the Celtics end up in like a late clock situation
where they haven't run anything just because okay See's pressuring
the ball and not letting them get the ball up
the floor quickly. It's always fun watching two great basketball
teams go at it, and I really enjoyed watching the
film and this one. I thought the story of the game, though,
was okay C's ability to contain the basketball in the
(05:47):
second half compared to the first half. I'll talk about
containing the basketball a lot in the NBA because it's
a concept that reminds me of lying play in the NFL.
It's the push and pull that determines most possessions. Whether
you can run the ball has everything to do with
whether or not your line can get a push. Whether
or not you can throw the ball has a lot
to do with your ability to protect the quarterback long
enough for receivers to get open so that you can
(06:09):
make a throw down the field, right, Like I just
the reason why I always fall back on this example
is like I was a Dallas Cowboys fan growing up.
All my families from the Dallas Fort Worth area, and
like I rooted for that team in the mid twenty
tens where it was like we were just running all
over everybody and the game was just easy. We could
go on the road to Green Bay, on the road
(06:30):
to Pittsburgh and we could just run the ball down
everyone's throat and it didn't matter, you know what advantages
the other team had because we just could control the
line of scrimmage. And then recent years it's the exact opposite, right,
Like guys get hurt, guys retire all of a sudden.
Tyron Smith, who was like the foundation of that line,
is like just getting beat by quicker players, you know,
and it just all of a sudden things start to
(06:51):
break down. They don't look as good's. It is the
push and pull that determines most possessions in football, and
the same thing goes for basketball. Like if you are
giving up straight line drives and guys are hard helping,
and you're existing in rotation, and every player is playing
with an advantage, the game looks really easy. But if
(07:12):
you're containing the ball and you're not allowing dribble penetration,
and you're not allowing and you're not getting into situations
where you have to hard help, and you're not existing
in rotation, and guys are constantly playing with a guy
in front of them instead of a guy closing out
at them, the entire situation can tilt in favor of
the defense, and most of it comes down to can
(07:32):
you contain the ball. In the first half of this game,
Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and chrisops porzingis in particular through drives,
power drives, trying to go through people and post ups.
Just kept getting the ball into the paint, going through guys,
attacking switches with seals, winning that physicality battle at the
point of attack. Boston had forty points in the paint
(07:54):
in this game. Thirty four of them came in the
first half, and then in the second half started to
win that same battle. It shifted towards ok see. Mark
Dagenal attributed it to lou Dort moving over to Jalen
Brown happened in like the late first half, Jalen Brown
hit like another like little right shoulder fade away in
the lane. I think over Shae if I remember correctly,
and next thing you know, it's Lou Dort that's guarding
(08:17):
Jalen instead of Jason Tatum. I didn't. I think that
certainly played a role, but I thought it was everybody,
because there's just so much switching in this game. Like
it wasn't just Lou Dort on an Island, it was
really everyone in Oklahoma City, Jersey just competing and winning
that battle. Kenridge Williams standing Jalen Brown up and getting
the steal, Aaron Wiggins standing guys up, shake Gildas, Alexander
(08:38):
winning some of those post up battles that he had
been losing in the first half of the game. Case
on Wallace holding his ground better than he had been then.
Everyone pressuring the ball. Tatum and Brown were fumbling the
basketball everywhere, so even when they did draw and help,
they couldn't get the ball out quickly enough to the
guys that could make them pay for it. They okay,
So he started to dominate at the point of a
(09:00):
the paint touches fell off a cliff, the quality shots
fell off of a cliff, and Okac completely took control
of the game. The stats that came out of that
Okac defensive effort and in the second half were crazy.
They allowed just twenty seven points, just six points allowed
in the paint after allowing thirty four in the first half.
Of the seventeen catch and shoot jump shots they allowed,
(09:21):
fourteen of them were classified by guarded percentergy. Again, this
is a team in Boston that generates sixteen unguarded catch
and shoot jump shots a game which ranked second in
the entire NBA. Believe it or not, the Chicago Bulls
get over twenty. That's actually number one in the league.
But a big part of that is like guys that
you concede shots too. But Boston again consistently generates open
(09:42):
shots against everybody. They only generated three unguarded catch and
shoot jump shots against the Thunder in the second half.
Boston could not generate good looks. And there's gonna be
talk about shooting. And for the record, there is definitely
a gap in shooting in this game. Like both teams
attempted thirty on one catch and shoot jump shots total,
(10:02):
but Boston made five in Oklahoma City made thirteen. Like
they definitely shot better. I'm not gonna sit here and
pretend that's not the case. But nineteen of Oklahoma City's
thirty one catch and shoot jump shots were unguarded. Only
eight of the thirty one catch and shoe jump shots
for Boston in the entire game were unguarded, including only
three in the second half when Oklahoma City took control. So, like,
(10:24):
if you leave that game as a Celtics fan or
as a Celtics player, as a Celtics coach thinking they
just outshot you, that would be a mistake. They outplayed you,
got better shots, and then they outshot you on those
better shots. And remember these things are all connected. You
build rhythm, you start to make the contested ones. When
you're getting open ones that you're also making, you build
rhythm and confidence you start to knock down shots. The
(10:45):
thunder were able to get out in transition off of
their defense in the second half. They had just five
transition points in the first half. They had twenty transition
points in the second half. They forced Boston into ten
turnovers in the second half, scored seventeen points off of
them getting just five points in transition or off of
turnovers in that first half. Again, twenty of your fifty
(11:06):
points that you score in the second half, we're in transition.
That's forty percent of their offense. Oklahoma City at twenty
transition points, Boston at twenty seven points total in the
second half, and then when they were in the half court.
Shay was able all game to get consistent dribble penetration.
Early in the game, he just made it clear, Like
first couple possessions, he beat Jalen Brown cleanly off the
(11:27):
dribble with the straight line drive twice in the first
two minutes, did it to Jason Tatum a few times
in the game. He just was able to beat everybody
off the dribble. He's got this move. Shae has this move.
It's like a between the legs dribble that flows into
a dribble drive. But there's like a change of pace
element to it, so like he'll be operating slowly off
that dribble and he'll slowly dribble through the legs. But
(11:49):
then as soon as he's ready to go, like he'll
be slowly dribbling through his legs and as soon as
that ball touches the right hand, he'll just explode forward
and it's almost like a It almost like lulls you
to sleep. But in addition to his elite first step,
it just makes them really really difficult to keep in front.
I thought his shot making was huge, especially at the
start of the second half when he kind of like
began things as Oklahoma City started to take control. And
(12:12):
then I thought he made to play the game in
the fourth quarter blocking Jason Tatum at the rim and
transition and then down on the other end feeding Isah
Hartenstein on the lob for that poster, Donk, what the hell?
What a hell of an exclamation point for Oklahoma City
to end that game. I thought he pretty clearly looked
like the best player on the floor in this one. Again,
Tatum will have another shot. These two teams play in
mid March in Boston, and they might play again in
(12:34):
the finals. That's certainly a possibility of maybe even one
of the most likely possibilities. But round one for this
matchup in the regular season went pretty resoundingly to Shay
in my opinion. A couple other thunder guys I wanted
to shout out. Lou Dort was just a physical, wrecking
ball all game. He's fighting dudes off of spots, pressuring
the ball, forcing turnovers, winning contested rebound battles. He's super
valuable in this matchup because he's quick enough to beat
(12:57):
Tatum in Brown to spots, but he's also strong enough
that they can't go through him, which makes him unique
in that, like those guys almost have to get off
of dort in order to really create an advantage against
this team. Kase On Wallace, the Sea started porzingis on
him in this game. And again, the idea there is
you're trying to make Kayson Wallace make above the break threes. Theoretically,
that's like the idea behind it, right, and you know,
(13:19):
first possession it worked like kase On Wallace like caught
with you know, nine or eight seconds on the shot
clock and just dribbled into a contested mid range pull up,
you know, like a bad shot. But for the rest
of the game he settled down and you know he
knocked down to catch and shoot three. He was driving
hard into openings like coming off of action, which is
something I talked about with the Mavericks series last year,
Like when you have a guy like Derek Jones, it's
(13:40):
being guarded by Porzingis. Get him the ball so that
he can go downhill and like in his screening action
because Porzingis is going to struggle to navigate screens. Never
did that. Kason Wallace consistently involved attacking in transition. That
was a big thing in the second half. But also
just like coming off of dhos and getting into the lane,
making floaters, making scoop shots, attacking be a threat. When
(14:01):
they put Porzingis on you like that, they're saying, we
don't think you're a threat to score. That's literally the
idea there. That's why they put Jason Tatum on centers
typically so that they can switch that actual they actually
started with Drew Holliday on Hartenstein in this one so
they can switch, but they do it with both heart
Holiday and Tatum. But like the idea is, they want
the Seas want to switch ball screens with your normal
(14:23):
ballscreen partners, and they want to take your weakest defensive
offensive player and put Porzingis on him. Case on Wallace
had to make him pay, and he did. Made six
shots in this game. Aaron Wiggins, this dude is such
a pro. He's sneaky. One of the older and more
experienced guys on this Thunder roster. But he just plays
in his role. He defends, he rebounds, he makes quick
decisions off the catch. He's been one of the more
reliable catch and shoot guys for the Thunder this year.
(14:46):
The Thunder just really resounding statement in that second half
against the Celtics. On the Celtics front, I didn't think
Tatum was bad, but I didn't think he was very
good either. His biggest job on this team is to
get the defense in rotation, and he just wasn't a
to do so. He had just one assists, which was
his lowest total of the season. And again, the Seas
just didn't generate open looks in this game, and that
(15:07):
was the main reason why shots didn't go in. Right.
If you're not gonna get open looks, they're probably not
going to go in. This particular matchup will test Tatum's ceiling.
Should these teams meet in the finals, Tatum is going
to have to in this matchup consistently get to matchups.
He likes beat that matchup and generate easy shots. If
he doesn't, the Thunder will beat them, and he's capable.
(15:27):
Here's a lot of size advantages on the floor. But
he's got to do a better job than he did
in that second half of getting compromising Oklahoma City's defense
to generate quality shots. Jalen Brown is just the tail
of two halves. Like first half he's going through guys
and causing problems for the Thunder and the Paint. But
then in the second half it's a lot of the
old Jalen, a lot of like losing his handle against pressure,
tough shots, election, a couple of really bad turnovers in
(15:50):
the fourth quarter where he's just driving into the teeth
of the defense and getting swiped, just like kind of
old school stuff that we used to deal with with
Jalen in the past. Right. Porzingis, on the one hand,
his post up mismatching looked good. They went to him
three times against Thunder. Smaller players in the post scored
every single time. But the Celtics defense could not get
stops against Oklahoma City with Porzingis on the floor. They
(16:12):
had a one twenty two defensive rating with Porzingis on
the floor in this game. So in the big picture,
this is good for the league, you know, especially with
where I was at a few a few months ago,
Like not even like one month ago, I thought Boston
was on a tier by themselves at the top of
the league. Now it feels like we have three completely
(16:33):
legit teams in our contender tier, in our top tier
contender tier, and they're all good in different ways. Like
Boston is the hyper versatile, older, more experienced team, right
they've won a championship. Cleveland is the insanely good offense,
and Oklahoma City is the insanely good defense. Right. Those
are like the three calling cards, but all three of
(16:55):
those teams have different approaches to win it. Each team
has a weakness, like Boston doesn't look as sharper as
focused as they were last year. But I think this
okaysee in Cleveland run is gonna be a wake up
call for them, and I think Boston's gonna play much
better in this next portion of the season. Oklahoma City's
shooting is still super unreliable. Even after shooting the lights
out last night, they're still just twentieth and three point
(17:16):
percentage on the season. Cleveland has some entry points into
their defense with a couple of small guards, and they're
not a good defensive rebounding team. I think they're twentieth
or twenty seconds. I think they're bottom ten in defensive rebounding, so,
like all teams have their weaknesses as well. This is
why I would say, like, there's no point in taking
regular season victory laps Oklahoma City. You're about to go
on the road to Cleveland. You can absolutely lose that game,
(17:37):
right Like Boston again is gonna play you again at home.
It's gonna be a different type of game. This is
This is a battle that's gonna be determined in the postseason.
This is not a battle that's gonna be determined in
the regular season. All three of these teams can beat
each other again. Cleveland absolutely could beat Oklahoma City tonight.
Like this can go a bunch of different ways. I
will say though, again I used to view Boston in
a tier by themselves on top of the league. I
(17:58):
no longer feel that way. I feel like Cleveland and
Oklahoma City absolutely deserve to be on the same tier
with them. Moving on to Lakers. Maps interesting game in
(18:19):
the first half, the Lakers weren't really all that locked in,
but this is a MAVs offense that has struggled to
score when Luca and Kyrie have been out, and so
the Lakers still kind of had a lead there in
that late first half, but I thought the Lakers lost
this game in two particular stretches. First was the Clay
rundown in the first half, and the first three that
he hit wasn't bad defense, but it was conservative defense.
(18:39):
He's running off of a screening action towards the left wing.
Max Christy's trailing him, sprinting as hard as he can.
He's a little detached, but he's trying, and Ad like
he could show up at the level. Probably should because
it's Klay Thompson, but like I think at that point
he hadn't hit a three yet and he would have
given up an easy pocket pass if he had stepped up,
So Ad just kind of token half shows basically, like,
let's see Clay can make the shot, and he makes
(19:01):
a shot, so whatever he makes the first one, it's
a relatively tough shot. He gets a conservative defensive look.
But the next two threes he hit were just total
defensive breakdowns, like Ruey guarding I think Spencer Dinwoodie on
the play and Austin Reeves is being guarded by Clay
and there's a two man game. It's obviously a switch
It's just that should be a switch. Every single time
Austin thinks it's a switch. Ruey just stands still and
(19:23):
Clay slips out of it and knocks down to three.
Just a complete defensive breakdown from Ruey. Ha Chamura gives
up a wide open three to Klay Thompson. He hits it,
and then the one that he hit in the left
corner in transition was Lebron's fault. He just the rim
was already accounted for. His job was to spray out
to shooters. He should have been on Clay in the
left corner. He wasn't there, and he knocked it down.
So gives up a shooting run to Klay Thompson. They
(19:43):
immediately go on this run. It's in twenty one to
three run spanning halftime. Now, all of a sudden, the
Lakers go from up by six to down by twelve.
But then the Lakers play a nice stretch of basketball
and they cut the lead down to five, and they
promptly give up another shooting run to Jaden Hardy once
again started in something that was a conservative look. It
was his own look. Ball gets swung to the left wing.
(20:06):
Jaden Hardy is the right read to try to beat
the zone, and again the zone is designed to concede
that sort of thing. He knocks down the shot whatever,
But on the very next possession, Max Christy just loses
him in the same spot. I think he's trying to
check a cutter's like Max to Klebo was like cutting
down the lane, and Max was like trying to hit him,
but he like went way underneath him, like like way
in the paint. And as a result, Jayden Hardy's just
(20:28):
wide open for three on the left wing knocks it
down again again. He had just hit one from the
same spot. It's a defensive breakdown. You can't be like,
you can't be detached from the guy who just made
a shot in that spot. And then on the next possession,
Gabe and Max switch, presumably so that that mistake doesn't
happen again, and then Gabe makes the exact same mistake.
Kleba cuts into the lane, Gabe tries to get up
(20:50):
underneath him to check him, and they just swing the
ball up to Jaden Hardy and he knocks down to
three again. I literally couldn't believe it when I was
watching the tape, Like you just switched presumably to patch
up this defensive bright down, and then you made the
exact same defensive breakdown right after that. On the next possession,
Ad smokes a little floater in the lane. Quentin Grimes
dribbles into a transition three where Ad does not pick
him up, knocks down to three. All of a sudden,
(21:11):
the leads back up to fifteen. Two stretches, two brief
stretches with a bunch of defensive breakdowns where you completely
lose control of the game. This MAV's offense has definitely
struggled with the injuries. That's to be expected, but they're
still a tough team. I've said this before, but I
think the Mavericks have the second best roster in the
Western Conference in terms of total talent on both ends
of the floor. They still have a ton of defensive
(21:32):
personnel and they have plenty of ball handling to run
a coherent offense without their stars. If you don't bring
your a game against Dallas, you absolutely can lose. And
the Lakers made several runs in this game. They played
beautiful basketball for stretches. I think Lebron's playing really well
right now. It's kind of crazy the level that Lebron's
playing at right now, I feel like he's getting wherever
he wants and generating quality shots whenever he wants. He's
(21:53):
getting a lot of rim pressure. He looks better athletically
than he did at any point in the season. But
as a team, they just have way too many defensive breakdowns. Again,
there's a difference between breakdowns and weaknesses. A defensive weaknesses
is like you do your job, but the guy scores
anyway because they haven't advantage. So like PJ. Washington and
Spencer Dinwoody driving through Austin reeves or Dalton connect and
(22:15):
getting buckets. Those are weaknesses Austin, usually on the road,
usually when he's been playing every night for a couple
of weeks, we'll have a night like that where he
just doesn't hold up very well and teams attack him. Generally,
in the big picture, Austin holds up pretty well, but
he has nights like that sometimes where teams can go
through him. Dalton obviously not a very good defensive player.
(22:36):
Those are just weaknesses. That kind of thing I think
you can account for and plan for in a defense.
The best defenses in the league still give up about
one hundred points per one hundred possessions. So it's not
like you can just stop teams and strangle him. You're
gonna give up points with your disadvantages and your mistakes,
but you have to limit them as much as possible.
Breakdowns are fundamentally different. That's like I didn't do my
job and now this guy's wide open. That is unacceptable.
(23:01):
Those are the kinds of things that you have to
fight against. Those are the things that will cost you games.
You lost this game with two shooting runs from Klay
Thompson and Jaden Hardy that centered around defensive breakdowns, guys
just not doing their jobs. And so as I look
in the big picture, like in the three losses since
(23:21):
the Dori and Finney Smith trade, the Lakers have a
one to twenty six defensive rating that's abysmal. But then
you watch them and it's like the third quarter run
against Houston, there's quarters stretches for five to six minutes
where they look awesome on defense. The same team that's
giving up a one to twenty six defensive rating in
(23:43):
these three losses in those same games has looked very
good defensively for stretches. That is a clear sign that
this is an execution issue. And there are many reasons
why Anthony Davis still doesn't look quite like the same
defender he was even a year ago. He's getting lost
around the rim a lot. That was weird at the
(24:05):
end of the Houston game, how everyone's just going right.
Adam shang Gun's is going right at him, Jalen Green's
going right at him, Fred Van vliet'z going right at him,
and they're just shooting over the top of him and scoring.
Like hey, dude, like I say, you're the best defensive
player in the world. That's a standard, that's a standard
that we hold you too, and you're not living up
to that standard right now. Right the Lebron still has
(24:26):
his lackadaisical moments, but it mostly comes down to the
breakdowns for me, guys like Ruey who are just not
good at tracking, guys on the perimeter who just are
lost within this scheme at times. And then Max like again,
like Max has all this talent and he's always playing hard,
but he's prone to a lot of breakdowns on defense,
in large part because he's a young player. Young players
(24:46):
make mistakes and so like interestingly enough, I think the
Lakers are trying to be good when I was frustrated
with them in the early part of the season after
that Miami Heat game. What specifically bothered me was the
letting go of the rope for weeks on end, bad
games happen. Even last night, I was not all that
worked up about that game. As a Lakers fan, I
(25:08):
do think Dallas is dangerous. I know they haven't won
a ton since the guys have been hurt. I think
that's a good roster. I think that's a team that'll
beat you on a bad night. And the Lakers had
a bad night and they lost. But in the early
part of the season, it was like, you're two and
five and you're on the road in a very winnable
game against the Heat team that had just lost to
in a row, that's spiraling in their own way, and
(25:30):
you quit in your first shift, Like that tells me
you don't even want to be good. Ironically enough, and
this is where it's been weird, because I've never seen
this from this group in the last couple of years.
Over the last month or two, three weeks, however long
it's been since Lebron came back, they actually look like
they want to be good. They've it looks like they've
been humiliated or they've felt their purpose. Finally, I don't
(25:52):
know what it is, but mentally, it looks like a
very different team than they did in the first fifteen
games or so. They look like they want to be good.
It's not about the one, it's about stringing this together.
JJ Redick is preaching constantly about attention to detail and
trying to work these things out. Lebron after the Houston game,
said I want to be a great team. When I
heard that, I'm like, Okay, he's parenting the same thing.
(26:13):
JJ Reddick just said, clearly, these guys want it and
they're trying, but they're not there yet. They got a
long way to go. There's still way too many breakdowns.
And then, lastly, when you're relying on guys like Ruy,
like Max, young players that can struggle with attention to detail,
mistakes happen with those guys, which is why I've been
advocating for bringing in more veteran options, preferably at the two,
(26:36):
so that on nights when those guys are making mistakes,
you have an option you can go to that has
a higher floor, that can avoid those sorts of mistakes.
I'm gonna be talking to some Lakers today with Yovann.
I'm actually about to hop off of this and go
to see him right now. But when I'm done with Yovann,
make sure you guys head over to his channel to
check out that episode, and then we're gonna have yovonn
On next week to talk more Lakers. Lots of content
(26:56):
coming out the rest of this week. I may even
have something else coming out later today, depending on how
my film sessions go. As always, sincerely appreciate you guys
for supporting me. Plenty of content. I'll see you guys
tomorrow the volume What's Up guys? As always, I appreciate
you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would
actually be really helpful for us if you guys would
take a second and leave a rating and a review.
(27:19):
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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(01:34):
welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume heavy Wednesday, everybody.
If all of you guys are having a great week,
it is good to be back. Felt could to get
some skiing in the northern Arizona. Here's the plan for
the rest of this week. Obviously I missed a bunch
of basketball over the course of the weekend. It's going
to take me about a day to get caught up.
But I wanted to get something out quickly, so this
morning I'm just gonna do a short show. We're going
to talk Celtics Thunder off the top of big deep
dive into Celtics Thunder, and then I'm gonna talk a
(01:56):
little bit about Mavericks Lakers from last night and this
oh and to Lakers road trip. That's all we're doing
in this morning's episode. As soon as I'm done, though,
I'm gonna start diving back into film. We're gonna have
a bunch of stuff coming out throughout the rest of
the week, including tomorrow. We got just a ridiculous game
between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder to
get into that one's gonna be a lot of fun.
We also have a mail bag leader this week. Lots
(02:17):
of content we're gonna get into, but just in this
show today Celtics Thunder and Lakers maps. You guys know
the joke before we get started. Subscribe to Oops to
Night YouTube channel so we don't miss any more of
our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLTS. You
guys don't ma show announcement. Still, forget about a podcast
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also helpful if you leave a rating and a review
on that front. We also have new social media feeds
on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where we're releasing content throughout
(02:37):
the year. Make sure you guys follow us there and
the last night at least keep dropping mail bag questions.
We're gonna have a mail bag that's gonna come out
on either Friday or Saturday this week, so make sure
you drop those questions in the comments. All right, let's
talk some basketball. So it's always fun watching two really
damn good basketball teams because it's fun to watch teams
that consistently do all the things that good basketball teams do,
(02:58):
meaning they don't just real on their talent. You know,
I think it's important for us to differentiate between super
talented and super talented and plays good basketball. There are
a lot of really talented teams in the league. I
do think Boston is the most talented roster in the league,
but I also thought they were the most talented roster
in the league in twenty twenty two. They just weren't
playing as good a brand of basketball. There was growth
(03:18):
that occurred between then and now. It's too simple to
just say, oh, they're that talented. It's an important thing
to bring up. They are the most talented team in
the league, but they also play one of the best
brands of basketball that we see around the league. And
same goes for Okay. See, they don't just rely on
their talent. They hunt every single possible advantage, every single
possible margin that will help them win basketball games. Just
(03:40):
a couple examples to list, like pushing in transition off
of makes That's an important thing that all good teams do,
and it works, especially when they're cross matches, which is
something that's happening in this game, right Like if Hartenstein's
guarding Porzingis on offense, but Porzingis is guarding case on
Wallace on defense, there's a cross match there, right, Like
if guys are guarding different guys the opposite ends of
(04:00):
the floor when the ball transitions, meaning like when there's
a miss or when there's a steal, there is a
moment where the guy that you're supposed to be guarding
is far away, and so pushing in transition you can
get a lot of cross matches. You can get initial
advantages when a team just isn't back and you can
maybe get them in rotation. Sometimes you'll get a complete
breakdown and get a layup or dunk. There were several
(04:21):
at the beginning of this game where both the Celtics
and the Thunder were getting like dunks and easy shots
in transition just by pushing off of makes. That's something
that good teams do. You should you should push on
a make because the entire purpose of why we run
offense is to get an advantage. And if you can
get an advantage without having to run offense, then by
all means you should look to do that right. Generating
(04:42):
advantages with basic fundamentals in the half court, So like
quick moves off the catch, Derek White catching in the
corner even though he's guarded, but just quickly ripping baseline
and beating his man off the dribble suddenly Drew Holliday's
going to wide open three at the top of the
key right, or case On Wallace did something similar to
Jason Tatum caught in the wing, just quickly racked to
the right, I got in the lane and made like
that lefty scoop shot that he made in the lane.
(05:03):
Those are things that good basketball teams do, Like, Okay,
nothing's open right now, somebody's got to create an advantage.
When I catch, I'm ripping and I'm going to see
if I can beat this dude off the dribble and
maybe make something good happen off ball player movement Again,
for both teams, guys are constantly cutting and relocating around
the three point line, crashing the offensive glass out of
the corner to get additional possessions ball pressure, Like, how
(05:25):
often in that second half, in particular, do you see
the Celtics end up in like a late clock situation
where they haven't run anything just because okay See's pressuring
the ball and not letting them get the ball up
the floor quickly. It's always fun watching two great basketball
teams go at it, and I really enjoyed watching the
film and this one. I thought the story of the game, though,
was okay C's ability to contain the basketball in the
(05:47):
second half compared to the first half. I'll talk about
containing the basketball a lot in the NBA because it's
a concept that reminds me of lying play in the NFL.
It's the push and pull that determines most possessions. Whether
you can run the ball has everything to do with
whether or not your line can get a push. Whether
or not you can throw the ball has a lot
to do with your ability to protect the quarterback long
enough for receivers to get open so that you can
(06:09):
make a throw down the field, right, Like I just
the reason why I always fall back on this example
is like I was a Dallas Cowboys fan growing up.
All my families from the Dallas Fort Worth area, and
like I rooted for that team in the mid twenty
tens where it was like we were just running all
over everybody and the game was just easy. We could
go on the road to Green Bay, on the road
(06:30):
to Pittsburgh and we could just run the ball down
everyone's throat and it didn't matter, you know what advantages
the other team had because we just could control the
line of scrimmage. And then recent years it's the exact opposite, right,
Like guys get hurt, guys retire all of a sudden.
Tyron Smith, who was like the foundation of that line,
is like just getting beat by quicker players, you know,
and it just all of a sudden things start to
(06:51):
break down. They don't look as good's. It is the
push and pull that determines most possessions in football, and
the same thing goes for basketball. Like if you are
giving up straight line drives and guys are hard helping,
and you're existing in rotation, and every player is playing
with an advantage, the game looks really easy. But if
(07:12):
you're containing the ball and you're not allowing dribble penetration,
and you're not allowing and you're not getting into situations
where you have to hard help, and you're not existing
in rotation, and guys are constantly playing with a guy
in front of them instead of a guy closing out
at them, the entire situation can tilt in favor of
the defense, and most of it comes down to can
(07:32):
you contain the ball. In the first half of this game,
Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and chrisops porzingis in particular through drives,
power drives, trying to go through people and post ups.
Just kept getting the ball into the paint, going through guys,
attacking switches with seals, winning that physicality battle at the
point of attack. Boston had forty points in the paint
(07:54):
in this game. Thirty four of them came in the
first half, and then in the second half started to
win that same battle. It shifted towards ok see. Mark
Dagenal attributed it to lou Dort moving over to Jalen
Brown happened in like the late first half, Jalen Brown
hit like another like little right shoulder fade away in
the lane. I think over Shae if I remember correctly,
and next thing you know, it's Lou Dort that's guarding
(08:17):
Jalen instead of Jason Tatum. I didn't. I think that
certainly played a role, but I thought it was everybody,
because there's just so much switching in this game. Like
it wasn't just Lou Dort on an Island, it was
really everyone in Oklahoma City, Jersey just competing and winning
that battle. Kenridge Williams standing Jalen Brown up and getting
the steal, Aaron Wiggins standing guys up, shake Gildas, Alexander
(08:38):
winning some of those post up battles that he had
been losing in the first half of the game. Case
on Wallace holding his ground better than he had been then.
Everyone pressuring the ball. Tatum and Brown were fumbling the
basketball everywhere, so even when they did draw and help,
they couldn't get the ball out quickly enough to the
guys that could make them pay for it. They okay,
So he started to dominate at the point of a
(09:00):
the paint touches fell off a cliff, the quality shots
fell off of a cliff, and Okac completely took control
of the game. The stats that came out of that
Okac defensive effort and in the second half were crazy.
They allowed just twenty seven points, just six points allowed
in the paint after allowing thirty four in the first half.
Of the seventeen catch and shoot jump shots they allowed,
(09:21):
fourteen of them were classified by guarded percentergy. Again, this
is a team in Boston that generates sixteen unguarded catch
and shoot jump shots a game which ranked second in
the entire NBA. Believe it or not, the Chicago Bulls
get over twenty. That's actually number one in the league.
But a big part of that is like guys that
you concede shots too. But Boston again consistently generates open
(09:42):
shots against everybody. They only generated three unguarded catch and
shoot jump shots against the Thunder in the second half.
Boston could not generate good looks. And there's gonna be
talk about shooting. And for the record, there is definitely
a gap in shooting in this game. Like both teams
attempted thirty on one catch and shoot jump shots total,
(10:02):
but Boston made five in Oklahoma City made thirteen. Like
they definitely shot better. I'm not gonna sit here and
pretend that's not the case. But nineteen of Oklahoma City's
thirty one catch and shoot jump shots were unguarded. Only
eight of the thirty one catch and shoe jump shots
for Boston in the entire game were unguarded, including only
three in the second half when Oklahoma City took control. So, like,
(10:24):
if you leave that game as a Celtics fan or
as a Celtics player, as a Celtics coach thinking they
just outshot you, that would be a mistake. They outplayed you,
got better shots, and then they outshot you on those
better shots. And remember these things are all connected. You
build rhythm, you start to make the contested ones. When
you're getting open ones that you're also making, you build
rhythm and confidence you start to knock down shots. The
(10:45):
thunder were able to get out in transition off of
their defense in the second half. They had just five
transition points in the first half. They had twenty transition
points in the second half. They forced Boston into ten
turnovers in the second half, scored seventeen points off of
them getting just five points in transition or off of
turnovers in that first half. Again, twenty of your fifty
(11:06):
points that you score in the second half, we're in transition.
That's forty percent of their offense. Oklahoma City at twenty
transition points, Boston at twenty seven points total in the
second half, and then when they were in the half court.
Shay was able all game to get consistent dribble penetration.
Early in the game, he just made it clear, Like
first couple possessions, he beat Jalen Brown cleanly off the
(11:27):
dribble with the straight line drive twice in the first
two minutes, did it to Jason Tatum a few times
in the game. He just was able to beat everybody
off the dribble. He's got this move. Shae has this move.
It's like a between the legs dribble that flows into
a dribble drive. But there's like a change of pace
element to it, so like he'll be operating slowly off
that dribble and he'll slowly dribble through the legs. But
(11:49):
then as soon as he's ready to go, like he'll
be slowly dribbling through his legs and as soon as
that ball touches the right hand, he'll just explode forward
and it's almost like a It almost like lulls you
to sleep. But in addition to his elite first step,
it just makes them really really difficult to keep in front.
I thought his shot making was huge, especially at the
start of the second half when he kind of like
began things as Oklahoma City started to take control. And
(12:12):
then I thought he made to play the game in
the fourth quarter blocking Jason Tatum at the rim and
transition and then down on the other end feeding Isah
Hartenstein on the lob for that poster, Donk, what the hell?
What a hell of an exclamation point for Oklahoma City
to end that game. I thought he pretty clearly looked
like the best player on the floor in this one. Again,
Tatum will have another shot. These two teams play in
mid March in Boston, and they might play again in
(12:34):
the finals. That's certainly a possibility of maybe even one
of the most likely possibilities. But round one for this
matchup in the regular season went pretty resoundingly to Shay
in my opinion. A couple other thunder guys I wanted
to shout out. Lou Dort was just a physical, wrecking
ball all game. He's fighting dudes off of spots, pressuring
the ball, forcing turnovers, winning contested rebound battles. He's super
valuable in this matchup because he's quick enough to beat
(12:57):
Tatum in Brown to spots, but he's also strong enough
that they can't go through him, which makes him unique
in that, like those guys almost have to get off
of dort in order to really create an advantage against
this team. Kase On Wallace, the Sea started porzingis on
him in this game. And again, the idea there is
you're trying to make Kayson Wallace make above the break threes. Theoretically,
that's like the idea behind it, right, and you know,
(13:19):
first possession it worked like kase On Wallace like caught
with you know, nine or eight seconds on the shot
clock and just dribbled into a contested mid range pull up,
you know, like a bad shot. But for the rest
of the game he settled down and you know he
knocked down to catch and shoot three. He was driving
hard into openings like coming off of action, which is
something I talked about with the Mavericks series last year,
Like when you have a guy like Derek Jones, it's
(13:40):
being guarded by Porzingis. Get him the ball so that
he can go downhill and like in his screening action
because Porzingis is going to struggle to navigate screens. Never
did that. Kason Wallace consistently involved attacking in transition. That
was a big thing in the second half. But also
just like coming off of dhos and getting into the lane,
making floaters, making scoop shots, attacking be a threat. When
(14:01):
they put Porzingis on you like that, they're saying, we
don't think you're a threat to score. That's literally the
idea there. That's why they put Jason Tatum on centers
typically so that they can switch that actual they actually
started with Drew Holliday on Hartenstein in this one so
they can switch, but they do it with both heart
Holiday and Tatum. But like the idea is, they want
the Seas want to switch ball screens with your normal
(14:23):
ballscreen partners, and they want to take your weakest defensive
offensive player and put Porzingis on him. Case on Wallace
had to make him pay, and he did. Made six
shots in this game. Aaron Wiggins, this dude is such
a pro. He's sneaky. One of the older and more
experienced guys on this Thunder roster. But he just plays
in his role. He defends, he rebounds, he makes quick
decisions off the catch. He's been one of the more
reliable catch and shoot guys for the Thunder this year.
(14:46):
The Thunder just really resounding statement in that second half
against the Celtics. On the Celtics front, I didn't think
Tatum was bad, but I didn't think he was very
good either. His biggest job on this team is to
get the defense in rotation, and he just wasn't a
to do so. He had just one assists, which was
his lowest total of the season. And again, the Seas
just didn't generate open looks in this game, and that
(15:07):
was the main reason why shots didn't go in. Right.
If you're not gonna get open looks, they're probably not
going to go in. This particular matchup will test Tatum's ceiling.
Should these teams meet in the finals, Tatum is going
to have to in this matchup consistently get to matchups.
He likes beat that matchup and generate easy shots. If
he doesn't, the Thunder will beat them, and he's capable.
(15:27):
Here's a lot of size advantages on the floor. But
he's got to do a better job than he did
in that second half of getting compromising Oklahoma City's defense
to generate quality shots. Jalen Brown is just the tail
of two halves. Like first half he's going through guys
and causing problems for the Thunder and the Paint. But
then in the second half it's a lot of the
old Jalen, a lot of like losing his handle against pressure,
tough shots, election, a couple of really bad turnovers in
(15:50):
the fourth quarter where he's just driving into the teeth
of the defense and getting swiped, just like kind of
old school stuff that we used to deal with with
Jalen in the past. Right. Porzingis, on the one hand,
his post up mismatching looked good. They went to him
three times against Thunder. Smaller players in the post scored
every single time. But the Celtics defense could not get
stops against Oklahoma City with Porzingis on the floor. They
(16:12):
had a one twenty two defensive rating with Porzingis on
the floor in this game. So in the big picture,
this is good for the league, you know, especially with
where I was at a few a few months ago,
Like not even like one month ago, I thought Boston
was on a tier by themselves at the top of
the league. Now it feels like we have three completely
(16:33):
legit teams in our contender tier, in our top tier
contender tier, and they're all good in different ways. Like
Boston is the hyper versatile, older, more experienced team, right
they've won a championship. Cleveland is the insanely good offense,
and Oklahoma City is the insanely good defense. Right. Those
are like the three calling cards, but all three of
(16:55):
those teams have different approaches to win it. Each team
has a weakness, like Boston doesn't look as sharper as
focused as they were last year. But I think this
okaysee in Cleveland run is gonna be a wake up
call for them, and I think Boston's gonna play much
better in this next portion of the season. Oklahoma City's
shooting is still super unreliable. Even after shooting the lights
out last night, they're still just twentieth and three point
(17:16):
percentage on the season. Cleveland has some entry points into
their defense with a couple of small guards, and they're
not a good defensive rebounding team. I think they're twentieth
or twenty seconds. I think they're bottom ten in defensive rebounding, so,
like all teams have their weaknesses as well. This is
why I would say, like, there's no point in taking
regular season victory laps Oklahoma City. You're about to go
on the road to Cleveland. You can absolutely lose that game,
(17:37):
right Like Boston again is gonna play you again at home.
It's gonna be a different type of game. This is
This is a battle that's gonna be determined in the postseason.
This is not a battle that's gonna be determined in
the regular season. All three of these teams can beat
each other again. Cleveland absolutely could beat Oklahoma City tonight.
Like this can go a bunch of different ways. I
will say though, again I used to view Boston in
a tier by themselves on top of the league. I
(17:58):
no longer feel that way. I feel like Cleveland and
Oklahoma City absolutely deserve to be on the same tier
with them. Moving on to Lakers. Maps interesting game in
(18:19):
the first half, the Lakers weren't really all that locked in,
but this is a MAVs offense that has struggled to
score when Luca and Kyrie have been out, and so
the Lakers still kind of had a lead there in
that late first half, but I thought the Lakers lost
this game in two particular stretches. First was the Clay
rundown in the first half, and the first three that
he hit wasn't bad defense, but it was conservative defense.
(18:39):
He's running off of a screening action towards the left wing.
Max Christy's trailing him, sprinting as hard as he can.
He's a little detached, but he's trying, and Ad like
he could show up at the level. Probably should because
it's Klay Thompson, but like I think at that point
he hadn't hit a three yet and he would have
given up an easy pocket pass if he had stepped up,
So Ad just kind of token half shows basically, like,
let's see Clay can make the shot, and he makes
(19:01):
a shot, so whatever he makes the first one, it's
a relatively tough shot. He gets a conservative defensive look.
But the next two threes he hit were just total
defensive breakdowns, like Ruey guarding I think Spencer Dinwoodie on
the play and Austin Reeves is being guarded by Clay
and there's a two man game. It's obviously a switch
It's just that should be a switch. Every single time
Austin thinks it's a switch. Ruey just stands still and
(19:23):
Clay slips out of it and knocks down to three.
Just a complete defensive breakdown from Ruey. Ha Chamura gives
up a wide open three to Klay Thompson. He hits it,
and then the one that he hit in the left
corner in transition was Lebron's fault. He just the rim
was already accounted for. His job was to spray out
to shooters. He should have been on Clay in the
left corner. He wasn't there, and he knocked it down.
So gives up a shooting run to Klay Thompson. They
(19:43):
immediately go on this run. It's in twenty one to
three run spanning halftime. Now, all of a sudden, the
Lakers go from up by six to down by twelve.
But then the Lakers play a nice stretch of basketball
and they cut the lead down to five, and they
promptly give up another shooting run to Jaden Hardy once
again started in something that was a conservative look. It
was his own look. Ball gets swung to the left wing.
(20:06):
Jaden Hardy is the right read to try to beat
the zone, and again the zone is designed to concede
that sort of thing. He knocks down the shot whatever,
But on the very next possession, Max Christy just loses
him in the same spot. I think he's trying to
check a cutter's like Max to Klebo was like cutting
down the lane, and Max was like trying to hit him,
but he like went way underneath him, like like way
in the paint. And as a result, Jayden Hardy's just
(20:28):
wide open for three on the left wing knocks it
down again again. He had just hit one from the
same spot. It's a defensive breakdown. You can't be like,
you can't be detached from the guy who just made
a shot in that spot. And then on the next possession,
Gabe and Max switch, presumably so that that mistake doesn't
happen again, and then Gabe makes the exact same mistake.
Kleba cuts into the lane, Gabe tries to get up
(20:50):
underneath him to check him, and they just swing the
ball up to Jaden Hardy and he knocks down to
three again. I literally couldn't believe it when I was
watching the tape, Like you just switched presumably to patch
up this defensive bright down, and then you made the
exact same defensive breakdown right after that. On the next possession,
Ad smokes a little floater in the lane. Quentin Grimes
dribbles into a transition three where Ad does not pick
him up, knocks down to three. All of a sudden,
(21:11):
the leads back up to fifteen. Two stretches, two brief
stretches with a bunch of defensive breakdowns where you completely
lose control of the game. This MAV's offense has definitely
struggled with the injuries. That's to be expected, but they're
still a tough team. I've said this before, but I
think the Mavericks have the second best roster in the
Western Conference in terms of total talent on both ends
of the floor. They still have a ton of defensive
(21:32):
personnel and they have plenty of ball handling to run
a coherent offense without their stars. If you don't bring
your a game against Dallas, you absolutely can lose. And
the Lakers made several runs in this game. They played
beautiful basketball for stretches. I think Lebron's playing really well
right now. It's kind of crazy the level that Lebron's
playing at right now, I feel like he's getting wherever
he wants and generating quality shots whenever he wants. He's
(21:53):
getting a lot of rim pressure. He looks better athletically
than he did at any point in the season. But
as a team, they just have way too many defensive breakdowns. Again,
there's a difference between breakdowns and weaknesses. A defensive weaknesses
is like you do your job, but the guy scores
anyway because they haven't advantage. So like PJ. Washington and
Spencer Dinwoody driving through Austin reeves or Dalton connect and
(22:15):
getting buckets. Those are weaknesses Austin, usually on the road,
usually when he's been playing every night for a couple
of weeks, we'll have a night like that where he
just doesn't hold up very well and teams attack him. Generally,
in the big picture, Austin holds up pretty well, but
he has nights like that sometimes where teams can go
through him. Dalton obviously not a very good defensive player.
(22:36):
Those are just weaknesses. That kind of thing I think
you can account for and plan for in a defense.
The best defenses in the league still give up about
one hundred points per one hundred possessions. So it's not
like you can just stop teams and strangle him. You're
gonna give up points with your disadvantages and your mistakes,
but you have to limit them as much as possible.
Breakdowns are fundamentally different. That's like I didn't do my
job and now this guy's wide open. That is unacceptable.
(23:01):
Those are the kinds of things that you have to
fight against. Those are the things that will cost you games.
You lost this game with two shooting runs from Klay
Thompson and Jaden Hardy that centered around defensive breakdowns, guys
just not doing their jobs. And so as I look
in the big picture, like in the three losses since
(23:21):
the Dori and Finney Smith trade, the Lakers have a
one to twenty six defensive rating that's abysmal. But then
you watch them and it's like the third quarter run
against Houston, there's quarters stretches for five to six minutes
where they look awesome on defense. The same team that's
giving up a one to twenty six defensive rating in
(23:43):
these three losses in those same games has looked very
good defensively for stretches. That is a clear sign that
this is an execution issue. And there are many reasons
why Anthony Davis still doesn't look quite like the same
defender he was even a year ago. He's getting lost
around the rim a lot. That was weird at the
(24:05):
end of the Houston game, how everyone's just going right.
Adam shang Gun's is going right at him, Jalen Green's
going right at him, Fred Van vliet'z going right at him,
and they're just shooting over the top of him and scoring.
Like hey, dude, like I say, you're the best defensive
player in the world. That's a standard, that's a standard
that we hold you too, and you're not living up
to that standard right now. Right the Lebron still has
(24:26):
his lackadaisical moments, but it mostly comes down to the
breakdowns for me, guys like Ruey who are just not
good at tracking, guys on the perimeter who just are
lost within this scheme at times. And then Max like again,
like Max has all this talent and he's always playing hard,
but he's prone to a lot of breakdowns on defense,
in large part because he's a young player. Young players
(24:46):
make mistakes and so like interestingly enough, I think the
Lakers are trying to be good when I was frustrated
with them in the early part of the season after
that Miami Heat game. What specifically bothered me was the
letting go of the rope for weeks on end, bad
games happen. Even last night, I was not all that
worked up about that game. As a Lakers fan, I
(25:08):
do think Dallas is dangerous. I know they haven't won
a ton since the guys have been hurt. I think
that's a good roster. I think that's a team that'll
beat you on a bad night. And the Lakers had
a bad night and they lost. But in the early
part of the season, it was like, you're two and
five and you're on the road in a very winnable
game against the Heat team that had just lost to
in a row, that's spiraling in their own way, and
(25:30):
you quit in your first shift, Like that tells me
you don't even want to be good. Ironically enough, and
this is where it's been weird, because I've never seen
this from this group in the last couple of years.
Over the last month or two, three weeks, however long
it's been since Lebron came back, they actually look like
they want to be good. They've it looks like they've
been humiliated or they've felt their purpose. Finally, I don't
(25:52):
know what it is, but mentally, it looks like a
very different team than they did in the first fifteen
games or so. They look like they want to be good.
It's not about the one, it's about stringing this together.
JJ Redick is preaching constantly about attention to detail and
trying to work these things out. Lebron after the Houston game,
said I want to be a great team. When I
heard that, I'm like, Okay, he's parenting the same thing.
(26:13):
JJ Reddick just said, clearly, these guys want it and
they're trying, but they're not there yet. They got a
long way to go. There's still way too many breakdowns.
And then, lastly, when you're relying on guys like Ruy,
like Max, young players that can struggle with attention to detail,
mistakes happen with those guys, which is why I've been
advocating for bringing in more veteran options, preferably at the two,
(26:36):
so that on nights when those guys are making mistakes,
you have an option you can go to that has
a higher floor, that can avoid those sorts of mistakes.
I'm gonna be talking to some Lakers today with Yovann.
I'm actually about to hop off of this and go
to see him right now. But when I'm done with Yovann,
make sure you guys head over to his channel to
check out that episode, and then we're gonna have yovonn
On next week to talk more Lakers. Lots of content
(26:56):
coming out the rest of this week. I may even
have something else coming out later today, depending on how
my film sessions go. As always, sincerely appreciate you guys
for supporting me. Plenty of content. I'll see you guys
tomorrow the volume What's Up guys? As always, I appreciate
you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would
actually be really helpful for us if you guys would
take a second and leave a rating and a review.
(27:19):
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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