November 7, 2024 • 47 mins
Jason Timpf reacts to Nikola Jokic, Russell Westbrook, and the Denver Nuggets' 124-122 win over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Jason discusses Westbrook's big night and what's next for both teams moving forward this NBA season!
Timeline
4:00 - Introduction
5:30 - Nuggets/Thunder
23:30 - Heat/Suns
44:30 - Film Study
(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 2 (01:33):
Slash b Ball.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
All right, welcome to Hoo tonight. You're at the Valume.
Happy Thursday, everybody, ow Ball. The guys are having a
great week. We have a jam packed show for you today,
a really fun Wednesday Night slate in the NBA. We're
gonna talk about Denver getting revenge for their night beat
down at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder last
night in a super entertaining game with an awesome defensive
run late a couple of the big plays being made
(02:09):
by the young players that Denver fans have been so
desperate to get contributions from. And then Russell Westbrook had
one of his best games of the season, and that
one as well. After that, the Phoenix Suns continue their
dominant start to the season with yet another come from
behind victory against the Miami Heat, where once again Kevin
Durant was incredible on both ends of the floor. I
want to talk a little bit about Kevin Durant, I
want to talk about the late game offense that Phoenix
(02:31):
was running, and then we're going to talk a little
bit about the Miami Heat and some of their early
season struggles. And then at the tail end of the
show to I rewatched the Celtics Warriors game this morning.
I just wanted to go through some specific notes on
some of the ways that they had success trapping now
that I've had a better chance to look things back
over on film. And then at the very end, we
have another version of Timp's tape where I have I
(02:54):
think twenty four clips that we're going to go through
from all those games to just get a little bit
of a visual representation for the things that I'm talking about.
You guys, are the job Before we get started. Subscribe
to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss
any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at
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about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under
Hoops Tonight. We also have brand new social media feeds
(03:14):
on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter under the Hoops Tonight handle,
so make sure you guys go find them. We're gonna
be releasing some more content like reels and shorts and
stuff like that on those accounts, and then last min
at least, keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube
comments so we can keep hitting them in our Friday
mail bags. My staff is out of town, so we
already recorded the Friday mail bag for tomorrow. That's why
(03:35):
I recorded it yesterday. That's why the week is a
little bit funky this week, but usually I'll be recording
it on Friday. So keep dropping those mail back questions
in the YouTube comments and we'll get to him throughout
the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball.
So Denver be Oklahoma City with a ridiculous defensive run
in the second half. So the way they kind of
(03:55):
configured things. They had Peyton Watson on chet Holmgrin right.
This is a I talk a lot about how the
game is a copycat league, right, And we saw Boston
just regularly throughout the season last year just put Tatum
on centers and put their center on the weakest above
the break shooter. For the other team in here, Rio Denver,
as with many other teams that we've seen around the
league this year, are copying that strategy. They would put
(04:15):
Jokic on the weakest above the break shooter in this case,
either Lou Dort or Alex Caruso, and then you put
Peyton Watson on chet Holmgren. Then they put their best
on ball defender on Shay. In this case it was
either Christian Brown or Peyton Watson. So then they're pressuring
the ball. You have Jokic kind of consistently hanging around
the basket and help and in defensive rebounding situations, Peyton
(04:36):
Watson's ability to switch ball screens should they need to it,
especially since Christian Brown is big and strong enough and
Russell Westbrook are big and strong enough to switch onto
onto a forward or center like chet Holmgren. Right, And
it just gave them like a good defensive foundation to
work on, and they were incredible defensively in the second
half of this game against Oklahoma City. I wanted to
(04:57):
spend some time talking about Peyton Watson in helpside because
you know, I talk about do you remember when Sam
Massini came on the show right after the NBA Finals
last year and we talked about the most important thing
that we learned about the NBA last season, And one
of the things that Sam Massini talked about was the
idea of ground coverage. And essentially, if you think of it,
like NBA offenses are so damn good that and they're
(05:20):
the star players are so damn good that you're constantly
having to be aggressive in your defensive coverages. Right, Like
you're pressuring the ball, chasing over the top and ball screens,
you're bringing the guy up, your screen defender up to
the level of the screen, you're digging down off the ball.
It's a lot of like shrinking the floor on the star,
which creates opportunities for you know, skip passes, swing passes,
(05:44):
drop off passes to cutters, things along those lines, right,
And so your help side defense, the ability to have
a player in this case, a guy like Peyton Watson
who can feasibly cover so much ground that even when
it looks like there are openings, there aren't actually openings.
That is the hallmark of a truly great defense. There
were multiple situations in this game where Peyton Watson was
(06:06):
like playing the middle ground between a guy rolling to
the basket and a skip pass for three, and they
both look kind of open, right, and it's like, I'm
gonna hit the cutter here and it's you know, Alex
Kruser right under the basket, and Peyton Watson just shoots
over and swallows the shot up right. Or it's like, oh,
I make you know, I'm gonna make this swing pass.
Peyton's digging pretty far down into the elbow. I'm gonna
(06:28):
make this swing pass to the shooter above the break. Nope,
Peyton's shooting out there on a closeout and it's just
completely gone right Like that is what makes the truly
elite defenses so great is even when they appear to
give openings, they aren't really openings, and that comes down
to athleticism and helpside in the ability to cover ground.
Peyton Watson was unbelievable in help in this game. And
(06:50):
then once again down the stretch, biggest play of the game. Okay,
see cuts it to two, right, Russell Westbrook picks up
Shake Gilders Alexander all the way out, like way out
past the three point line, and again.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Like he got beat off the dribble.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
But it's one of those things where like when you're
going against the best of the best, like this isn't RJ. Barrett, Okay,
this is one of the top five players.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
In the NBA.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
You're going to get beat one way or another. You're
either gonna get beat with a pull up jump shot
or you're gonna get beat off the dribble. Right, But
if it's a pull up jump shot, you give Shay
an opportunity to get comfortable, right, you're playing off of him.
Maybe he can get comfortable and he can get to
a look right. But if you press him and you
make him drive, you can plan for that in help
(07:32):
side defense. And I thought that was really interesting. Again,
a guy like RJ. Barrett, you can trust Russ to
kind of cover both bases by himself, but with the
matchup against a guy like Shae Gilders Alexander, I thought
it was smart picked him up far out like he
was well outside the three point line, forced to shade
to drive, and he drove right into the teeth of
the defense where Peyton Watson was able to meet him
(07:52):
with verticality and get a big time block. Unbelievable defensive
possession at the end of that game. Unbelievable defense throughout
the entire second and half. Forty Denver Nuggets Russell Westbrook
twenty nine points, six rebound, six assists, tons of rim
pressure and playmaking, and one of those games where everything
was really clicking for him. He had three threes as well,
made several huge defensive plays. We talked about the play
(08:14):
on Shae. He also stripped Shay in the second half
on a drive along the right side close to the baseline.
As I talked about before the season, there was a
lot of Russell Westbrook's floor at the start of the
season right like really really ugly games and even throughout that,
what did I consistently tell you guys, like this is
the Russell Westbrook experience. His floor is substantially lower than
(08:38):
Reggie Jackson's, but his ceiling is substantially higher than Reggie Jackson's.
And there have been a few games this year where
he's put it all together and it's like, holy shit,
you got another star last night. How many players in
the NBA can realistically put up twenty nine, six and
six even once, right, Like, there's maybe thirty, forty, maybe
(08:59):
fifty guys in the entire NBA who are capable of
putting together that stat line. And you got that last
night from a really discounted contract off of your bench.
And so again, that's the Russell Westbrook experience. There's going
to be games where it's really ugly, but there's also
going to be games where he's able to do things
that very few players in the league can do. And
(09:20):
on a game like last night with Jamal Murray out,
you win that game because of Russell Westbrook, and you
don't if he's not there, right, you lose that game
with Reggie Jackson. And so that's part of the upside
of the Russell Westbrook experience. Christian Brown, this is something
that you know, again, part of the deal with this
show is I'm right about a lot of stuff some
of the time, and then I'm wrong about a lot
of stuff some of the time.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Right, So it's like it's part of.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
The deal and one of the things that I've been
really keyed in on since the start of this since
this offseason, is like, I think Christian Brown is a
great fit with the starters. He's very different from kcp's
fundamentally different archetype of play. Right on the defensive end,
Christian Brown is a bigger, stronger athlete who's a little
more versatile, but maybe not quite as quick at the
point of attack. Right then, but I think he's more
(10:03):
versatile because he can switch and can guard bigger athletes, like,
for instance, he can match up with Anthony Edwards in
a way kN tavi's coubble Pope never can.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
But they're different types of players, Right, you go to
the other end of the floor on offense and it's like, no,
he's not the shooter that CACP is. No, he's not
the guy that can come off of a dribble handoff
and rise up from fifteen feet and knock down the
jumper the way that KCP can.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
No, he can't run in.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Transition to the corner and knock down a corner three
off the move as well as KCP can. But what
he can do is he can screen, and he can cut,
and he can just bring waves of athleticism to the
offensive end of the floor, and he has consistently been
a plus offensive player in this lineup just with his
athletic activity, not just taking catch and shoot threes, but
(10:48):
driving closeouts and getting all the way to the rim.
One of the things that they spammed at the end
of this game, the Nuggets basically closed this game by
just spamming Yokic's post ups against Chet, getting the double
team and playing out of it. And one of the
things Christian Brown did consistently is when they would rotate
so like basically it'd be post entry to yokicch and
(11:09):
sometimes okay as he would botch it where they would
just help one pass away like they did that once
late with Michael Porter Junior and Michael Porter Junior hit
a three. But when they had their windshield wiper rotations down,
meaning like what they would do is it would be
Michael Porter Junior throws the post entry, there's a double team,
the next guy slides over, the next guy slides over.
As soon as Christian Brown's man would would slide over,
(11:31):
Christian Brown would slash to the front of the rim,
and then after it was usually like it was usually
like Strawther, who was like cutting through. As Strather would
cut through, he would replace up to the wing where
Christian Brown just was. And like as Christian Brown cut,
he'd either get open and finish, which he did, or
he would drag multiple defenders on his cut because cutting
(11:52):
is a form of rim pressure. If you're a good
cutter who can finish and you just run hard to
the front of the rim, help defenders will come with
you and then they would have openings in the skip
pass situations. Right But like they it was just like
Christian Brown throughout this entire season has demonstrated among again,
it's not been a perfect stretch for the Nuggets front office,
(12:13):
right Like they've lost some depth on their bench, It's
been a lot of trust in young players. There's been
a disconnect with the coaching staff about how to use
those young players. It has not been perfect. But I
do think letting Kntavius Colwell Pope go and Christian Brown
kind of sliding into that starting spot and being a
feasible starter, that was a gamble for a front office
on a financial level that I thought made some sense
(12:35):
and it worked, and Christian Brown is playing really really
good basketball right now. But again everyone hit big shots
off of those jokic shubble teams. Like I talked about,
Michael Porter Junior hit a big three one pass away,
Peyton Watson hit a big three. Julian Strather has been
actually hitting some big shots for this team. He had
like a massive lead changing layup against the Toronto Raptors
(12:58):
in like a tough defense situation late game that was
a big shot. Hit a big three in the late
third quarter of this game to cut the lead down
to three, and then just he brings another wave of
athleticism too. He had a tip slam in transition where
he was just trailing a play. Really really impressive win
for the Denver Nuggets to get one back from that
Oklahoma City team that dominated them on opening night on
(13:18):
the Oklahoma City front. I thought they settled for a
lot of tough pullup jumpers in the second half. They
were actually twelve for thirty three from two in the
second half of this game, so a lot of like tough,
difficult shots in the short to mid range, took a
lot of step back jump shots with a lot of
time on the shot clock. That had seven turnovers. They
gave up nine offensive rebounds but it's their first lot
(13:39):
of loss of the season, so I don't think it's
worth really overreacting to. And again they you know, Shakos
as Alexander has a shot to tie the game late, right,
So no reason for panic in Oklahoma City town. But
one of the things I wanted to talk about that
I thought was interesting in this game, and this is
something I've seen kind of periodically throughout the season, but
the Thunder are doing something really interesting on offense that
(14:02):
I don't that I haven't seen around the league actually yet.
And it's kind of like, so we talk about like
Spain or stack pick and roll. Spain or stack pick
and roll is where you have you know, Shay running
a ball screen. Let's call it with Chet or really
let's just say any team.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
So let's say it's.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Jamal Murray with Chet or Jamal Murray with Jokic, and
there's the ball screen and as Jokic is rolling or
they usually all do it with like a more athletic
a type of rim runner. But as the screen the
screener is rolling to the basket, you have a shooter
underneath the rim who's either just replacing to the top
of the key, meaning he's just running to the top
of the key, or is backscreening for Jokic as he's
(14:37):
going to the top of the key. You'll also see
variations of it where the rollman actually screens for the
shooter coming up. But it's basically a three man interchange, right,
that's all Stack or Spain is, right, It's just ball handler,
ball screen, shooter, and then the screener and the shooter
replace as the ball handler is working downhill.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Well, one of the.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Things that The Thunder we're doing a lot last night,
and something they've been doing a lot this season that
I think is super fascinating is they're running Spain or
Stack or like kind of that three man interchange where
there's a ball screen and a shooter and they're just
replacing as they're rolling. They're running that with all three
guards while they're forwards are in the corners. What I
think is really fascinating about this is most teams run
(15:17):
out of guard defenders, right, So most teams don't have
three really good guys to guard guards, and so what
they're doing is they're putting you. They're putting you in
a predicament where you have to navigate a bunch of switches,
and one you might just make a mistake where somebody
botches the switch and someone gets wide open.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Or two, somewhere in.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
That scrum, that weakest defender is going to be slightly
out of position. You can swing to whatever he's on
and that guy can quickly look to attack. But it's
kind of a really fascinating approach to modern basketball. One
of the things I talk about with running action, running
action is just about just is just as much about
trying to get a defense to make a mistake as
it is to kind of like get into the flow
of your offense. Like a lot of times you just
(15:59):
run the three man interchange just to see if they
fuck up, and if they fuck up, then you get
that really big initial advantager, maybe a great look early
in the possession. But like I thought, it was kind
of an interesting offensive approach from Oklahoma City and something
I'm gonna be keeping an eye on, not just for them,
but around the rest of the league. Here in the
early part of the season, Miami Phoenix Kevin Durantz playing
(16:33):
like an MVP. He's averaging twenty eight point seven rebounds
and three assists on sixty six percent true shooting. He's
hit ten clutch shots. That's when the game is within
five with less than five minutes left. That is the
most in the entire NBA on only fifteen attempts. So
he's ten for fifteen from the field in the clutch,
he's got three clutch blocks. He's straight up stolen games.
Dominated another game down the stretch last night, the Suns
(16:56):
were spamming ball screens with Tyas Jones Kevin Durant to
try to get Tyler Harrow switched on to KD and
he was just hitting shots over the top. And then
one of the things too, is like Miami's a really
well coached team and they had two possessions late in
this game where they perfectly executed their defensive strategy and
KD still burned them. There was one where Kade got
(17:17):
hair on the switch and right as they were dumping
it to KD, Harrow runs out and high.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Smith sprints in.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So they call that a scram switch, meaning like you
get a post mismatch, you're going to throw the post entry,
and basically while the balls in the air while they're
trying to get the post entry, you just quick execute
a switch back and basically capitalize while the ball's in
the air as an opportunity to get your defenders reconfigured, and.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Hei Smith sprints there.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
He's right there on the catch when KDE catches, but
he just turns over his right shoulder and he's seven
feet tall and he knocks the jump shot him. And
then the next time both of these possessions, by the way,
we're in a two point game. Late next time down
the floor they run it again the ghosts or the
ball screen with Tys Jones and Kevin Durant and they
just defend it really well. Tyler Harrow gets through the screen,
(18:06):
Hayward high Smith kind of stays attached to KD, forces
KD to catch a triple threat twenty two feet away
from the rim above the top of the key, Like
that's as good as you can do in that action.
Not give up the switch and force KD to catch
in long two territory and KD just turns faces, rises
up and knocks down the twenty two foot or off
(18:27):
the jab step like like what do you do?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
What do you do?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
There's nothing you can do. And that's really been the
story of the Suns this season is they get into
these close games, they're in close games almost every time
down the floor. They've been in six of them already.
I shouldn't say every time down the floor, every time
on their schedule, they've been in six of them already.
In those six games, they have a one thirty two
offensive rating an eighty one defensive rating, which means they're
plus fifty one per one hundred possessions. They're grabbing fifty
(18:51):
nine percent of available rebounds, and they're six to zero.
So it's the same thing, damn thing every time they
end up in a close game late, usually trailing, but
like once they get into these fourth quarters, which is
like shockingly different than what it was like last year
under Frank Vogel, they just really lock in on defense
and start getting stops. And then on the other end
of the floor, Kevin Durant has been the most comfortable
superstar in the league in the half court, executing late,
(19:13):
and he's just picking these teams apart. And again, I'm
not even doing justice because Kevin Durant is being just
as impactful on the defensive end to this point in
the season as he's been on the offensive end. You know,
he's kind of like, you know how like in baseball,
they talk about like a five tool player, which I
think is like the ability to it's the ability to
hit for contact, hit for power, to like speed on
(19:36):
the base paths, and then it's like the ability to
field well and the ability to throw from the field well. Right,
Like that's what makes a five tool player, right, if
I remember correctly, I've been kind of disconnected from the
baseball world. They played a lot when I was a kid,
but it's been a while. In my Arizona Diamondbacks are
not as consistently good as they used to be. But
Kevin Durant to me, is like the five tool player
on the defensive end in the basketball world. Like he
(19:59):
can real realistically guard the ball well. He can play
off ball defense well, he can protect the rim, he
can defensive rebound, and he can't what was the fifth
one that I put down. He can guard the ball,
he can guard and help. He can cover ground in rotation,
so like when they're in driving kick situations, he can
cover ground. Like there's a play where he straight up
(20:19):
chased Duncan Robinson off the three point line then recovered
back on the drive to block Duncan Robinson at the rim.
He was helping on a different player in the lane
when the kickout passed that Duncan Robinson happened Like that
is unbelievable to be able to like, Oh, I'm gonna
put you on Tyler Harrow, and Tyler Harrow wants nothing
to do with you. He's going to get rid of
the basketball to be able to in help contain guys
(20:41):
that are driving into him, but also be able to
cover ground in rotation back to the perimeter while also
being able to protect the rim with real vertical length,
while also being a dominant defensive freebounder. He's the base.
He's the basketball version of a five too player on
the defensive end of the floor. I'm gonna show you
guys some clips when we get in there. But he
just he's just dominating these games in crunch time. He's
(21:04):
anchoring it all on both ends of the floor. I
can't say enough about how good Kevin Duran has been
to start this year. Usuf Nurkic, here's the thing. Usuf
Durkich is a lower tier starting center in this league. Right, Like,
he's definitely one of the lesser guys that's in that
specific type of role, but he's not as bad as
he showed in the early part of the season, and
he finally had his breakout game last night. Twenty points,
(21:24):
eighteen rebounds, hit a huge bomb three in the second
half from like thirty feet away. He was diving on
loose balls. He had two blocks in his steel. Remember,
like Nurkich when he's at his best, is actually a
pretty decent active hands kind of like drop coverage big.
He just hasn't been so to start this season. But
he's got good instincts, he's got long arms, he's got
good size, he can do some damage down there, and
(21:44):
he's one of the best rebounders in the league when
he's really engaged. He was due for a breakout game.
He finally had one. Phoenix Sun's playing some really damn
good basketball on the Miami Front, just not enough offensive
firepower coming from bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler. They had
twenty seven points on thirty four shots last night. For
the season, Jimmy Butler is at his lowest points per
(22:06):
game total since twenty fourteen, over ten years ago, and
bam Adebayo is on his lowest points per game total.
Excuse me, j Bride the struggle bus today It's been
a long week. It's the sixth show of the week.
Jimmy Butler is at his lowest points per game total
since twenty fourteen and his lowest efficiency and true shooting
percentage since twenty sixteen. Bamitebayo is averaging his lowest points
(22:28):
per game total since twenty nineteen and on the lowest
efficiency of his career. And again, Tyler Harrow was great
last night, but both him and Terry Rogier are really
inconsistent offensive players. It's just going to be really hard
for Miami to contend in this league with the lack
of offensive firepower that they've had to start this year.
Not sure what to make of this Heat team through
the early stretch of the season. Really quickly on Golden
(22:49):
State in Boston. Again, we did a breakdown on it
last night, just kind of like an instant reaction. But
we're going to talk some more in film. But there
were two main concepts that I wanted to kind of
dive a little bit firm they're into now that I've
had a chance to rewatch the game. So first of all,
the concept in Golden State's traps. So one of the
things that I talk about a lot on this show,
is like, in order for a trap to be functional,
you have to have active hands on the ball, right,
(23:11):
because as soon as you put two on the ball,
you're compromised. Behind that there's a full on three guys
are open, right, That's part of the price you pay
when you put two on the ball. But if you
pressure the ball with long arms and active hands, you
can force either one like if my arm is like
this and you have to throw over it, you're either
going to get a deflection or you're going to force
a looping kind of like lobbing pass.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Over the top.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Either way, it's not getting there on a line, which
is allowing you the time to rotate. If you don't
have active hands and you put two on the ball
and you give up an easy pocket pass or an
easy swing pass, you're screwed because now it's the four
on three. You have two on the ball, and you
still have two on the ball while the next player
already has the basketball ready to attack it. Whereas if
(23:58):
you get that deflection, if you force that being passed,
you can rotate out of it with your speed and
you can shut down the advantage. On the back side
of that. You'll see some examples, but they were getting
lots of deflections enforcing lots of off target, off time
passes from Boston, which was allowing them to get away
with their traps without having to worry about giving up
easy opportunities on the backside. The second part of it
(24:21):
was breeding in decisiveness with off ball positioning. There was
a steal that they had in the first half where
like they trapped the ball. Draymond is active hands, Andrew
Wiggins is active hands, and Buddy Healed. He gets inside
position on Cornett. Luke Cornett's at the top of the key,
and then there's another Celtic that's across the wing right.
(24:42):
So the read there for Tatum out of the trap
is to make the swing pass not to Cornette but
to the next guy. But Buddy Heal takes inside position
on Cornette and just sits there waiting for the swing
pass so he can jump in. So then when the
pass gets made, there's a little bit of a deflection,
and so now it turns into a foot between Buddy
Held and Luke Cornett to get to this loose ball
(25:03):
that was intended on the swing pass for the next
guy down the line. But Buddy Heild's faster and he
had inside position, so he's able to leverage that, get
out to it and tap out. The basketball forces a turnover.
They go out the other way. Right, there was another
one on the weak side. There was a two on one.
There's I want to say it was Pritchard in the
right corner and it was Horford on the right wing. Right,
(25:23):
there's your two on one. Buddy Heeld is there on
the swing. Pass out of the trap. Buddy Heald does
a textbook passing lane close out, really smart. The pass
is on target to Al Horford, but Buddy Heeld closes out,
not to Al Horford, but in between the two of them.
So Horford catches thinking Buddy Held is closing out at him.
(25:44):
So his first read is to turn and look to
the corner. But when he turns and looks to the corner,
he sees Buddy Held just standing in the passing lane,
so he can't actually make that pass. Then he turns
and he looks at the basket again and Buddy kind
of stunts at him. So then Horford looks again to
the corner. It's not open again, and then he has
no choice but to throw it up. And now it's
a break rhythm situation. Even though it's a good look,
(26:05):
he's been second guessing himself for a few seconds before
that shot. That is the type of defensive positioning that
forces indecisiveness. Everything about what made that defense work for
Golden State last night was about pressuring the ball with
active hands, forcing rushed decisions. And then when there were openings,
they were splitting the difference with their athleticism and forcing
(26:28):
indecisiveness from Boston, which allowed them to shrink those openings quickly.
And then the third part of it is just ridiculously
ridiculous athleticism. Gary Payton, the second is the guy that
really stood out to me on film last night, where
it's like there's a loose ball, he's diving on the
ground and getting it.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Had a huge loose ball that he dove on in
the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Then the unique ability he has and we've been talking
about this all season, but to dig down into the
lane but also recover out to a three point shooter.
There was a play where he hard helped in the lane,
left Peyton Pritchard wide open on the wing. The swing
pass was made right to Peyton Pritchard and Gary Payton
closed out and blocked the damn shot. That goes back
to what we were talking about with Peyton Watson, where
(27:10):
it's like when you have defensive players in help that
can legitimately be in two places at once and cover
all of that ground, that is what unlocks a level
of defense that becomes really difficult to overcome, even for
the best offenses in the league. It was a really,
really impressive job defensively from Golden State. You're gonna see
a bunch of examples of that in film. And then Boston.
(27:30):
The last thing I wanted to talk about before we
get to the film, Boston's late game execution on defense.
A lot of mistakes down the stretch. Drew Holliday in particular,
batched two switches. There was one between him and Tatum
where there was a miscommunication and Steph got wide open
for three. That was the one that cut the lead
down to I think he had the three free throws
(27:51):
first and then that to cut it to one. So
like that was the shot that cut it to one,
and then there was another one. Do you guys remember
when Steph had that wide open back cut for the layup.
All Steph did was run up like he was going
to come off the wing and then backcut, and Drew
Holliday just assumed there was going to be a switch
and so he got backcut, easy layup for Steph And
then the first offensive rebound that Al Horford had, Drew
Holliday had inside position to box him out or not
(28:12):
al Horford, excuse me. The first offensive rebound that Kevon
Looney got, Drew Holliday had inside position on Cavan and
just gave up on the play and Looney went right
around him. He got an offensive rebound. So like three
pretty significant execution mistakes from Drew Holliday. Late Derek White
lost Buddy Healed on a corner crash where he just
kind of drifted into the lane looking for the ball
(28:32):
while Buddy was sprinting for it, beat him to the ball,
got an offensive rebound. And then Tatum in addition to
that kind of like grifty, he'd like tried to take
a met range jump shot against Looney or Looney did
not foul him, and he just missed the shot, and
he like turned and bitched at the refs, jogged back
on defense and then lost Buddy Healed off the ball
in a relocation and gave up a three, So like
(28:53):
a lot of just like sloppy execution mistakes from Boston. Now,
to be clear, I'm not worried about Boston at all
in the big picture. I'm just saying last night will
be a good game for Joe Mizzoula to kind of
kick them in the ass a little bit and try
to kind of help use that as an opportunity to
drive home some of the attention to detail that has
made this team so good over the course of the
last year. All right, let's get into some film. First clip.
(29:31):
This is a really nice defensive possession from Kevin Durant.
So's on. Jimmy Butler gets kind of beat towards the baseline,
but recovers there's your help side right again. It's okay
to get beat if you get beat within the scheme.
In this case, you don't want to give up middle penetration.
You want to get beat towards the baseline because Plumbley's
in position to help. Jimmy Butler gets a little drill penetration.
(29:52):
Watch Kevin Durant's recovery here on the kickout he switches
down to kill o where underneath the basket we have
another drive helps shuts it off, forces the skip pass,
closes out on Duncan, Robinson chases him off the line
again looks as he shuts down that help shuts down
the Duncan Robinson play. There's the kickout Duncan Robinson quickly relocates.
(30:14):
KD gets a little bit lost, but look at his
ability to cover ground. He gets out to one of
the best shooters in the league on a close out,
chases him off the line, then recovers and blocks him
at the basket. That's just an unbelievable defensive play from
Kevin Durant. Another really good one here on Jimmy Butler,
just using his length to disrupt the pull up a
pull up three gets a great contest offensive rebound gets
(30:34):
picked kicked back out to Jimmy. Watch the individual defense
from KD on Jimmy Butler. So again, already in this sequence,
you've seen in the last two clips, you've seen him
guard on the ball. You've seen him guard in help,
and you've seen him guard in rotation like that. That's
and you've also seen him protect the rim and like
the I don't think I have a clip of him
(30:55):
getting any specific defensive rebounds, but he was really good
defensive rebound. He's just getting to fifty fifty balls late
in this game. So this has been Phoenix's go to
late game action, right. So you're they're trying to get
Tyler Harrow on to Ties Jones. So you set this
screen with Beale to get the switch with Harrow, and
then they would bring Kevin duran up to set the
screen to try to get Harro on the switch. Then
(31:19):
he gets his matchup that he likes. He's got Harrow,
he's gonna turn over that right shoulder, and Katie's been
getting doubled on his backside this whole season and it
just hasn't mattered because he's just shooting right over the top.
So here's Miami again doing a really nice job do
scram switching out of it, right, So we get the
first switch with Harrow onto Ties Jones, come to set
the second ball screen forces the switch. But so here
(31:40):
comes the scram right, So high Smith is getting ready,
Kevin Durant's getting to his spot where he wants it.
Watch right as the pass goes up, there's the pass.
Tyler Harrow is now sprinting out of it. Heywood, high
Smith is switching back, So see how they like basically
scram Tyler Harrow out of that mismatch. Hey, high Smith
is there, he gets a contest, but it's Kevin freakin
(32:02):
Durant and he just turns right over his right shoulder
and knocks it down. And then this one, this one
is literally perfect defense. Two point game, thirty three seconds left.
You get a stop, you get a chance to win
this game. Bill comes sets the first screen, gets Harrow
in the switch. Here comes KD. This is really well defended.
Look so Hi Smith shoves shoves KD a little bit
(32:24):
to create a gap. That creates a gap. Harro is
able to recover. He lingers just for a second. Harrow
gets there, kick back to KD. Thinking there's an opportunity
for an advantage. High Smith is boom there, that is
as good as you can defend that action. And now
KD is in an iso twenty two feet from the
basket and he just turns faces and knocks the shot down.
(32:45):
Like what the hell do you do with that? There's
just nothing you can do, like you're just sometimes you
just get to lose to Kevin Durant. And that's what
happened to the miam Me heat last night. This is
Russell Westbrook at his best from the thunder Oklahoma City.
The Thunder Nuggets game gets Downhill drives all the help
in the paint, makes a nice little corner kicked. Christian
Brown has all day to knock down the three. This
is a really nice slot cut from Russ. Again, a
(33:06):
lot of uh spamming the Yokic post up stuff late
in this game. Watch as the double team goes. This
is a I was talking about this earlier with Christian Brown,
but watch as the double team goes. You're gonna see
Shay go Jalen slide over. As soon as Jalen slides over.
Instead of just standing here and making this in above
the break three, Russ just cuts to the rim. Watch
(33:26):
cut catch. Now he's got a head of steam. He
draws Chet in help so he can drop it off
to Yokic, who then just gets like a little easy
bank shot. See that's how you can create spacing without
knocking down threes. This is what everyone's been begging Russell
Westbrook to do since the beginning of time. Another big
time play from Russ. Chet spins on Peyton Watson. Russ
(33:47):
comes digging in, swipes the ball away from Chet and
then look at him on the runout trailing. The play
had a steam nice little scoop shot. This is talk
a lot about how the Yokic hitting threes is less
about him like actually like getting a bunch of points
every game from threes, but more adding the close out
(34:08):
attacking part of his game, which is where he's so deadly.
The reason why he's so deadly in these situations is
because he's so damn strong that as soon as he
gets a slight angle on you, he can use his
elbows and shoulders to kind of maintain that angle as
he lumbers down the lane. Right, But all that stems
off of he's got to be able to knock this
shot down because Chet's not lunging out like this unless
(34:28):
he can knock the shot down. Chet lunges out, Jokic
gets an angle, then he can rumble down the lane
and once again, look, once he has that angle, watch
how he uses that right elbow right here on the gather.
Watch how he uses his elbow clears that space, slows
himself down for Chet to run by, and the knock
knocks down the layup. That's such a huge part of
Yokic's game when he's at his best, and it is
(34:49):
entirely predicated on his ability to knock down those three
point shots when they're available. Here's one of those two
places that once plays from Peyton Watson, right. So I'm
Jaylen Williams. I'm looking sorry, guys, I'm Jayalen Williams. I'm
looking for an opening here on the roll right once
again noticing uh, they're running the action with all their guards,
(35:11):
which I think is fascinating. Crusoe rolls. Here's our opening.
So if you're Jalen Williams, this is the right read, right,
like Peyton Watson is. If you can't throw this skip pass,
if you throw that skip pass, Peyton's getting that right.
So like, this is the right read. There's a two
on one here and Peyton is kind of sort of
(35:33):
overplaying the corner, but like, look at how quickly he
just teleports over there and swipes this shot away. I'm
gonna I'm gonna put it in full speed because this
really is a crazy play. Watch how quickly Peyton Watson recovers. Like,
what do you do about that?
Speaker 2 (35:52):
That?
Speaker 1 (35:53):
That is that is the layering of an elite defense.
When you have a guy on the backside that can
be two places at once. Here's some really nice week
side rotations from Denver. After the Yoks miss three, watch
these rotations. Ball screen switch, swing.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Two on the ball. Right.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
So now we have all of this action over here Peyton,
Watson and Yokic have to deal with.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
So the way that Olkaoma City looks to attack it,
lou Dort sets what's called a pin in flair. He
screens the backside of Watson so that Chet can close
out to the check can go out to the corner
here right. So that makes it so that in this case,
Peyton's being kind of occupied by this, which is leaving
Jalen Williams wide open.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Once again, just like we talked about on that last
lowman possession, there is a clear and obvious read here
that looks open. I'm gonna move this to full speed.
Watch how fast Peyton Watson closes out. Boom gone Right,
there's your extra pass to Chat in the corner. But
look at the rotation from Yokic. Is him off the line.
That is excellent basketball. That is when you can put
(37:05):
two onto Shay but still recover on the backside without
leaving anybody open, and especially with the guy like Jokic
moving his feet like that, that is once again the
level of detail you need on defense to be able
to guard the best players in the league. Force his
chat to step out of bounds on the baseline. Really
(37:26):
nice cut here from Christian Brown off of another Yokic
post up double. Same sort of concept we were talking
about earlier with Rus right. So we're gonna throw it in, okay, Now,
straw The is kind of cutting through right. The double
team comes from Dort. As Dort goes, Strawther relocates, Caruso
(37:50):
takes mpj in Brown. Look at Brown, Brown hard slot
cut because he cuts. That brings everybody in here and
leave Strawther wide open. Strawther's wide open. That forces the
close out from Shae. In that process, Christian Brown finds
himself wide open under the basket. So watch it one
(38:12):
more time. Brown cuts, brings Isaiah Joe with him, kick
out to Strawther. Both Joe and Shay show out on Strawther.
That leaves Christian Brown wide open. Pass fake to Peyton,
Watson occupies Joe for a second, and Christian Brown gets
a lay up once again, like you can create spacing
(38:33):
without shooting threes. You just have to be a smart
cutter and you have to bring that real rim pressure
with the athleticism of your cuts. Another one here, same
sort of deal, crosscreen, post entry, Strather cuts through again.
This is the same kind of sequence that you keep seeing. Right,
Strather cuts through. Here comes the double team winshield wipeer rotation.
(38:56):
As soon as Shay goes, watch Christian Brown down cut
Shay go's Christian Brown cuts. Jalen Williams tries to meet
him there, but Brown beats him. Now he's got a
head of steam against a smaller, less athletic player at
the rim. Christian Brown's able to get a bucket doing
a really nice job of manufacturing spacing without having to
shoot the basketball. Here's another great health defense possession from
(39:22):
Peyton Watson. Well you don't see that shot miss from
Yokaus very often, do you. Really nice athletic play from
Shay to beat Christian Brown off the dribble. Peyton's kind
of at a position. Watch him wall him up, walls
him up and forces the miss. Really good health defense
from Peyton Watson. Transition defense here from Julian Straw There
(39:44):
It'd be really easy to let Lou Dort go here,
but instead he just sprints back and jumps up vertically
and Lou blows a lay up. Lou is foolishly going
for a foul. He should have just stayed on that
left side of the basket laid it up. Instead, he
tries to go for the foul and doesn't get it.
But that's the thing did his job. Sprinted back straight verticality,
forced a miss, got a huge stop late in this game.
(40:09):
And then here's the biggest play of the game. Peyton
Watson in help once again. So watch Russ. Russ picks
up Shae like twenty five feet out. This removes the
pull up jumper from the equation, enforces Shay to drive.
He's not going to methodically work into a pull up
jump shot from this faraway from the basket. Now you
can plan. You can plan for the drive by helping.
(40:34):
And in this case, yokicch and Peyton Watson are going
to say, the only thing you're taking here is an
Alex Cruso three, and he had just bricked long an
open three from the right wing earlier in the fourth quarter.
He's the one you want shooting it. Right, So again,
watch what happens here. Russ gives up the drive, but
it's a drive they can plan for lefty drive. Peyton
Watson leaves Chet to step up, and you're gonna see
(40:56):
Yokic drop to box out Chet, so that the only
opening is this corner kicked Ruso. Peyton Watson gets there.
Look at the verticality blocks the shot game over all. Right,
let's move over to that Warrior Celtics game. So again,
(41:16):
look at the indecisiveness here. So I, uh, this play
had a transition element, so that's why I clipped it
at this point, but I think there might have been
an offensive rebound.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Actually, but here's your blitz of Tatum. Right.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
So now we're trying to breed indecisiveness. So we have
our week side two on one, which is Horford and Prichard.
Watch where Buddy Heel closes out. Yeah here it is okay,
so he actually makes the pass to nimus Quita. But
watch how quickly, Watch how quickly Gary Payton gets in
there and strips the ball, but the ball get stays
live and here's your corner kick. Okay, So here's our
two on one. This is what I was actually trying
(41:48):
to get to So here's our two on one on
the weekside. Right, Pritchard and Horford watch where Buddy Heel
closes out to the passing lane. He's in the passing lane,
so watch Horrerford on the catch look to make the
extra pass, but it's not there because Buddy Heel's playing
the passing lane. Then he looks, hesitates, hesitates, and basically
(42:09):
has to jack up a break rhythm three, which forces
a bad miss. Here's a classic Steph gravity play. Just
the textbook forced the big to show and then slip
out of the screening action.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
This time Gary Payton.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Just pitt down two on the ball, easy pass over
the top dunk. I don't know what Jason Tatum was
doing here either. There's glued up to Andrew Wiggins.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
On the weak side.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Not really important in that situation. So here's the importance
of active hands on the blitz. And this is that
play that I was talking about with Buddy Heeld, kind
of getting the inside seal on Cornett. So Tatum on Wiggins,
here comes the blitz. Okay, so we have active hands
(42:56):
right on the blitz. Look at how active they are
with their hands to try to get a deflection. Watch
Buddy healed. Buddy Heel gets inside position on Luke Cornette
so that even though this swing passes open, he wants
to try to play that passing lane. Pritchard makes the pass,
Wiggins gets a hand on it. That's everything. If he
(43:16):
doesn't get a hand on it, it's on a rope
to Horford. Now it's gonna be a rotation from Gary
Payton in a wide open three for Tatum in the corner.
But instead he gets a hand on it. Now it's
a loose ball and Buddy held as inside position and
he's able to beat Cornette to it with a deflection.
And then once again, look at the closing speed from
Gary Payton on this deflection. Right here, Horford's closer to
(43:41):
the ball than Gary Payton, but Gary Payton's faster. Gary
Payton gets on it quicker, forces the deflection. Now we're
running out the other way for the Andrew Wiggins dunk. Actually,
I think I think I think that might have been
Andrew Wiggins missing the layup, which was maybe the worst
blown layup I've ever seen in my time watching the NBA.
Look at the Look at how fast Gary Payton is
(44:03):
on this roll to the rim. He's gonna play this
one at full speed. Watch how fast he gets past
Cornett speed speed everywhere on the floor for the Golden
State Warriors. Here's Gary Payton being two places at once.
It's guarding Pritchard digs down right here, watch.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Dig down.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
He's out of position. He's dead to rights right, knockdown
shooter pass in the shooting pocket. Look at that closing speed.
That is the layering of an elite defense when you
can leave an opening but it's not actually an opening.
I thought this was kind of an underrated to play
from this game. So that they're down seven, but watch
(44:47):
this play from Steph Curry pokes the ball away from
behind on Derek White, forces the turnover leak out Andrew
Wiggins layout basically a P six initiated by Steph Curry
that cut from seven to five like that. Here's an
(45:07):
example of how the Warriors just constant motion causes you
to make mistakes. This was one of the mistakes that
I talked about Drew Holiday making.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Again.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
All he's gonna do, Steph is he's going to jog
up like he's going to interchange with Wiggins and then
backcut boom, backcut. Drew Holliday's probably thinking switch here because
Tatum is gonna go out with Steph and he's gonna
take Wiggans, So he's keening on Wiggins and Steph just
back cuts him and gets an easy layup. Big time
mistake from Drew Holliday in a big moment, though, this
(45:37):
I thought was just an unbelievable athletic play from Buddy
Held who just Buddy Heeld just continues to look amazing.
Look at this lefty finish on the rip over the
top rip move. Really nice finish from Buddy Heeld. Nice
play from Steph here, Probably not this is a dynamic
you're not gonna see when you play Boston for real
in a real series. But gets nimus Quai on a
(46:00):
switch and just goes right around him, and Boston planned
for it. I mean you can literally see Horford and
Derek White, Derek White zoning up on the strong side
de Horford's basically telling meet him at the rim, and
he does a great job jumps up with verticality, but
Steph just scoops it in over the top and then
(46:22):
this These are the two big mistakes from Tatum. Late
didn't like this shot against loony, just worried about the refs.
Didn't even get fouled, turning complaining to the refs. Kind
of a little bit unfocused. Watch this next possession, but
I miss it. I thought I added that clip that
I didn't. But on the very next possession, basically Buddy
(46:43):
Healed just relocates on Jason Tatum off of the right
wing and Jason Tatum is not paying attention and gives
up the wide open three in the right corner. All right, guys,
that is always always all I have for today. Man,
I'm having the hardest time talking today. It's all I
have for today is always that. Sincerely appreciate you guys
for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Again.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
I've got a mail back coming up tomorrow that I
already recorded. On Wednesday, we will be back with our
usual Monday routine, so maybe a game reaction or two
and then power rankings.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
I will see you guys then the volume. What's up guys.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
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. 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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Speaker 2 (01:33):
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Speaker 1 (01:47):
All right, welcome to Hoo tonight. You're at the Valume.
Happy Thursday, everybody, ow Ball. The guys are having a
great week. We have a jam packed show for you today,
a really fun Wednesday Night slate in the NBA. We're
gonna talk about Denver getting revenge for their night beat
down at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder last
night in a super entertaining game with an awesome defensive
run late a couple of the big plays being made
(02:09):
by the young players that Denver fans have been so
desperate to get contributions from. And then Russell Westbrook had
one of his best games of the season, and that
one as well. After that, the Phoenix Suns continue their
dominant start to the season with yet another come from
behind victory against the Miami Heat, where once again Kevin
Durant was incredible on both ends of the floor. I
want to talk a little bit about Kevin Durant, I
want to talk about the late game offense that Phoenix
(02:31):
was running, and then we're going to talk a little
bit about the Miami Heat and some of their early
season struggles. And then at the tail end of the
show to I rewatched the Celtics Warriors game this morning.
I just wanted to go through some specific notes on
some of the ways that they had success trapping now
that I've had a better chance to look things back
over on film. And then at the very end, we
have another version of Timp's tape where I have I
(02:54):
think twenty four clips that we're going to go through
from all those games to just get a little bit
of a visual representation for the things that I'm talking about.
You guys, are the job Before we get started. Subscribe
to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss
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Hoops Tonight. We also have brand new social media feeds
(03:14):
on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter under the Hoops Tonight handle,
so make sure you guys go find them. We're gonna
be releasing some more content like reels and shorts and
stuff like that on those accounts, and then last min
at least, keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube
comments so we can keep hitting them in our Friday
mail bags. My staff is out of town, so we
already recorded the Friday mail bag for tomorrow. That's why
(03:35):
I recorded it yesterday. That's why the week is a
little bit funky this week, but usually I'll be recording
it on Friday. So keep dropping those mail back questions
in the YouTube comments and we'll get to him throughout
the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball.
So Denver be Oklahoma City with a ridiculous defensive run
in the second half. So the way they kind of
(03:55):
configured things. They had Peyton Watson on chet Holmgrin right.
This is a I talk a lot about how the
game is a copycat league, right, And we saw Boston
just regularly throughout the season last year just put Tatum
on centers and put their center on the weakest above
the break shooter. For the other team in here, Rio Denver,
as with many other teams that we've seen around the
league this year, are copying that strategy. They would put
(04:15):
Jokic on the weakest above the break shooter in this case,
either Lou Dort or Alex Caruso, and then you put
Peyton Watson on chet Holmgren. Then they put their best
on ball defender on Shay. In this case it was
either Christian Brown or Peyton Watson. So then they're pressuring
the ball. You have Jokic kind of consistently hanging around
the basket and help and in defensive rebounding situations, Peyton
(04:36):
Watson's ability to switch ball screens should they need to it,
especially since Christian Brown is big and strong enough and
Russell Westbrook are big and strong enough to switch onto
onto a forward or center like chet Holmgren. Right, And
it just gave them like a good defensive foundation to
work on, and they were incredible defensively in the second
half of this game against Oklahoma City. I wanted to
(04:57):
spend some time talking about Peyton Watson in helpside because
you know, I talk about do you remember when Sam
Massini came on the show right after the NBA Finals
last year and we talked about the most important thing
that we learned about the NBA last season, And one
of the things that Sam Massini talked about was the
idea of ground coverage. And essentially, if you think of it,
like NBA offenses are so damn good that and they're
(05:20):
the star players are so damn good that you're constantly
having to be aggressive in your defensive coverages. Right, Like
you're pressuring the ball, chasing over the top and ball screens,
you're bringing the guy up, your screen defender up to
the level of the screen, you're digging down off the ball.
It's a lot of like shrinking the floor on the star,
which creates opportunities for you know, skip passes, swing passes,
(05:44):
drop off passes to cutters, things along those lines, right,
And so your help side defense, the ability to have
a player in this case, a guy like Peyton Watson
who can feasibly cover so much ground that even when
it looks like there are openings, there aren't actually openings.
That is the hallmark of a truly great defense. There
were multiple situations in this game where Peyton Watson was
(06:06):
like playing the middle ground between a guy rolling to
the basket and a skip pass for three, and they
both look kind of open, right, and it's like, I'm
gonna hit the cutter here and it's you know, Alex
Kruser right under the basket, and Peyton Watson just shoots
over and swallows the shot up right. Or it's like, oh,
I make you know, I'm gonna make this swing pass.
Peyton's digging pretty far down into the elbow. I'm gonna
(06:28):
make this swing pass to the shooter above the break. Nope,
Peyton's shooting out there on a closeout and it's just
completely gone right Like that is what makes the truly
elite defenses so great is even when they appear to
give openings, they aren't really openings, and that comes down
to athleticism and helpside in the ability to cover ground.
Peyton Watson was unbelievable in help in this game. And
(06:50):
then once again down the stretch, biggest play of the game. Okay,
see cuts it to two, right, Russell Westbrook picks up
Shake Gilders Alexander all the way out, like way out
past the three point line, and again.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Like he got beat off the dribble.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
But it's one of those things where like when you're
going against the best of the best, like this isn't RJ. Barrett, Okay,
this is one of the top five players.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
In the NBA.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
You're going to get beat one way or another. You're
either gonna get beat with a pull up jump shot
or you're gonna get beat off the dribble. Right, But
if it's a pull up jump shot, you give Shay
an opportunity to get comfortable, right, you're playing off of him.
Maybe he can get comfortable and he can get to
a look right. But if you press him and you
make him drive, you can plan for that in help
(07:32):
side defense. And I thought that was really interesting. Again,
a guy like RJ. Barrett, you can trust Russ to
kind of cover both bases by himself, but with the
matchup against a guy like Shae Gilders Alexander, I thought
it was smart picked him up far out like he
was well outside the three point line, forced to shade
to drive, and he drove right into the teeth of
the defense where Peyton Watson was able to meet him
(07:52):
with verticality and get a big time block. Unbelievable defensive
possession at the end of that game. Unbelievable defense throughout
the entire second and half. Forty Denver Nuggets Russell Westbrook
twenty nine points, six rebound, six assists, tons of rim
pressure and playmaking, and one of those games where everything
was really clicking for him. He had three threes as well,
made several huge defensive plays. We talked about the play
(08:14):
on Shae. He also stripped Shay in the second half
on a drive along the right side close to the baseline.
As I talked about before the season, there was a
lot of Russell Westbrook's floor at the start of the
season right like really really ugly games and even throughout that,
what did I consistently tell you guys, like this is
the Russell Westbrook experience. His floor is substantially lower than
(08:38):
Reggie Jackson's, but his ceiling is substantially higher than Reggie Jackson's.
And there have been a few games this year where
he's put it all together and it's like, holy shit,
you got another star last night. How many players in
the NBA can realistically put up twenty nine, six and
six even once, right, Like, there's maybe thirty, forty, maybe
(08:59):
fifty guys in the entire NBA who are capable of
putting together that stat line. And you got that last
night from a really discounted contract off of your bench.
And so again, that's the Russell Westbrook experience. There's going
to be games where it's really ugly, but there's also
going to be games where he's able to do things
that very few players in the league can do. And
(09:20):
on a game like last night with Jamal Murray out,
you win that game because of Russell Westbrook, and you
don't if he's not there, right, you lose that game
with Reggie Jackson. And so that's part of the upside
of the Russell Westbrook experience. Christian Brown, this is something
that you know, again, part of the deal with this
show is I'm right about a lot of stuff some
of the time, and then I'm wrong about a lot
of stuff some of the time.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Right, So it's like it's part of.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
The deal and one of the things that I've been
really keyed in on since the start of this since
this offseason, is like, I think Christian Brown is a
great fit with the starters. He's very different from kcp's
fundamentally different archetype of play. Right on the defensive end,
Christian Brown is a bigger, stronger athlete who's a little
more versatile, but maybe not quite as quick at the
point of attack. Right then, but I think he's more
(10:03):
versatile because he can switch and can guard bigger athletes, like,
for instance, he can match up with Anthony Edwards in
a way kN tavi's coubble Pope never can.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
But they're different types of players, Right, you go to
the other end of the floor on offense and it's like, no,
he's not the shooter that CACP is. No, he's not
the guy that can come off of a dribble handoff
and rise up from fifteen feet and knock down the
jumper the way that KCP can.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
No, he can't run in.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Transition to the corner and knock down a corner three
off the move as well as KCP can. But what
he can do is he can screen, and he can cut,
and he can just bring waves of athleticism to the
offensive end of the floor, and he has consistently been
a plus offensive player in this lineup just with his
athletic activity, not just taking catch and shoot threes, but
(10:48):
driving closeouts and getting all the way to the rim.
One of the things that they spammed at the end
of this game, the Nuggets basically closed this game by
just spamming Yokic's post ups against Chet, getting the double
team and playing out of it. And one of the
things Christian Brown did consistently is when they would rotate
so like basically it'd be post entry to yokicch and
(11:09):
sometimes okay as he would botch it where they would
just help one pass away like they did that once
late with Michael Porter Junior and Michael Porter Junior hit
a three. But when they had their windshield wiper rotations down,
meaning like what they would do is it would be
Michael Porter Junior throws the post entry, there's a double team,
the next guy slides over, the next guy slides over.
As soon as Christian Brown's man would would slide over,
(11:31):
Christian Brown would slash to the front of the rim,
and then after it was usually like it was usually
like Strawther, who was like cutting through. As Strather would
cut through, he would replace up to the wing where
Christian Brown just was. And like as Christian Brown cut,
he'd either get open and finish, which he did, or
he would drag multiple defenders on his cut because cutting
(11:52):
is a form of rim pressure. If you're a good
cutter who can finish and you just run hard to
the front of the rim, help defenders will come with
you and then they would have openings in the skip
pass situations. Right But like they it was just like
Christian Brown throughout this entire season has demonstrated among again,
it's not been a perfect stretch for the Nuggets front office,
(12:13):
right Like they've lost some depth on their bench, It's
been a lot of trust in young players. There's been
a disconnect with the coaching staff about how to use
those young players. It has not been perfect. But I
do think letting Kntavius Colwell Pope go and Christian Brown
kind of sliding into that starting spot and being a
feasible starter, that was a gamble for a front office
on a financial level that I thought made some sense
(12:35):
and it worked, and Christian Brown is playing really really
good basketball right now. But again everyone hit big shots
off of those jokic shubble teams. Like I talked about,
Michael Porter Junior hit a big three one pass away,
Peyton Watson hit a big three. Julian Strather has been
actually hitting some big shots for this team. He had
like a massive lead changing layup against the Toronto Raptors
(12:58):
in like a tough defense situation late game that was
a big shot. Hit a big three in the late
third quarter of this game to cut the lead down
to three, and then just he brings another wave of
athleticism too. He had a tip slam in transition where
he was just trailing a play. Really really impressive win
for the Denver Nuggets to get one back from that
Oklahoma City team that dominated them on opening night on
(13:18):
the Oklahoma City front. I thought they settled for a
lot of tough pullup jumpers in the second half. They
were actually twelve for thirty three from two in the
second half of this game, so a lot of like tough,
difficult shots in the short to mid range, took a
lot of step back jump shots with a lot of
time on the shot clock. That had seven turnovers. They
gave up nine offensive rebounds but it's their first lot
(13:39):
of loss of the season, so I don't think it's
worth really overreacting to. And again they you know, Shakos
as Alexander has a shot to tie the game late, right,
So no reason for panic in Oklahoma City town. But
one of the things I wanted to talk about that
I thought was interesting in this game, and this is
something I've seen kind of periodically throughout the season, but
the Thunder are doing something really interesting on offense that
(14:02):
I don't that I haven't seen around the league actually yet.
And it's kind of like, so we talk about like
Spain or stack pick and roll. Spain or stack pick
and roll is where you have you know, Shay running
a ball screen. Let's call it with Chet or really
let's just say any team.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
So let's say it's.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Jamal Murray with Chet or Jamal Murray with Jokic, and
there's the ball screen and as Jokic is rolling or
they usually all do it with like a more athletic
a type of rim runner. But as the screen the
screener is rolling to the basket, you have a shooter
underneath the rim who's either just replacing to the top
of the key, meaning he's just running to the top
of the key, or is backscreening for Jokic as he's
(14:37):
going to the top of the key. You'll also see
variations of it where the rollman actually screens for the
shooter coming up. But it's basically a three man interchange, right,
that's all Stack or Spain is, right, It's just ball handler,
ball screen, shooter, and then the screener and the shooter
replace as the ball handler is working downhill.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Well, one of the.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Things that The Thunder we're doing a lot last night,
and something they've been doing a lot this season that
I think is super fascinating is they're running Spain or
Stack or like kind of that three man interchange where
there's a ball screen and a shooter and they're just
replacing as they're rolling. They're running that with all three
guards while they're forwards are in the corners. What I
think is really fascinating about this is most teams run
(15:17):
out of guard defenders, right, So most teams don't have
three really good guys to guard guards, and so what
they're doing is they're putting you. They're putting you in
a predicament where you have to navigate a bunch of switches,
and one you might just make a mistake where somebody
botches the switch and someone gets wide open.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Or two, somewhere in.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
That scrum, that weakest defender is going to be slightly
out of position. You can swing to whatever he's on
and that guy can quickly look to attack. But it's
kind of a really fascinating approach to modern basketball. One
of the things I talk about with running action, running
action is just about just is just as much about
trying to get a defense to make a mistake as
it is to kind of like get into the flow
of your offense. Like a lot of times you just
(15:59):
run the three man interchange just to see if they
fuck up, and if they fuck up, then you get
that really big initial advantager, maybe a great look early
in the possession. But like I thought, it was kind
of an interesting offensive approach from Oklahoma City and something
I'm gonna be keeping an eye on, not just for them,
but around the rest of the league. Here in the
early part of the season, Miami Phoenix Kevin Durantz playing
(16:33):
like an MVP. He's averaging twenty eight point seven rebounds
and three assists on sixty six percent true shooting. He's
hit ten clutch shots. That's when the game is within
five with less than five minutes left. That is the
most in the entire NBA on only fifteen attempts. So
he's ten for fifteen from the field in the clutch,
he's got three clutch blocks. He's straight up stolen games.
Dominated another game down the stretch last night, the Suns
(16:56):
were spamming ball screens with Tyas Jones Kevin Durant to
try to get Tyler Harrow switched on to KD and
he was just hitting shots over the top. And then
one of the things too, is like Miami's a really
well coached team and they had two possessions late in
this game where they perfectly executed their defensive strategy and
KD still burned them. There was one where Kade got
(17:17):
hair on the switch and right as they were dumping
it to KD, Harrow runs out and high.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Smith sprints in.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So they call that a scram switch, meaning like you
get a post mismatch, you're going to throw the post entry,
and basically while the balls in the air while they're
trying to get the post entry, you just quick execute
a switch back and basically capitalize while the ball's in
the air as an opportunity to get your defenders reconfigured, and.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Hei Smith sprints there.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
He's right there on the catch when KDE catches, but
he just turns over his right shoulder and he's seven
feet tall and he knocks the jump shot him. And
then the next time both of these possessions, by the way,
we're in a two point game. Late next time down
the floor they run it again the ghosts or the
ball screen with Tys Jones and Kevin Durant and they
just defend it really well. Tyler Harrow gets through the screen,
(18:06):
Hayward high Smith kind of stays attached to KD, forces
KD to catch a triple threat twenty two feet away
from the rim above the top of the key, Like
that's as good as you can do in that action.
Not give up the switch and force KD to catch
in long two territory and KD just turns faces, rises
up and knocks down the twenty two foot or off
(18:27):
the jab step like like what do you do?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
What do you do?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
There's nothing you can do. And that's really been the
story of the Suns this season is they get into
these close games, they're in close games almost every time
down the floor. They've been in six of them already.
I shouldn't say every time down the floor, every time
on their schedule, they've been in six of them already.
In those six games, they have a one thirty two
offensive rating an eighty one defensive rating, which means they're
plus fifty one per one hundred possessions. They're grabbing fifty
(18:51):
nine percent of available rebounds, and they're six to zero.
So it's the same thing, damn thing every time they
end up in a close game late, usually trailing, but
like once they get into these fourth quarters, which is
like shockingly different than what it was like last year
under Frank Vogel, they just really lock in on defense
and start getting stops. And then on the other end
of the floor, Kevin Durant has been the most comfortable
superstar in the league in the half court, executing late,
(19:13):
and he's just picking these teams apart. And again, I'm
not even doing justice because Kevin Durant is being just
as impactful on the defensive end to this point in
the season as he's been on the offensive end. You know,
he's kind of like, you know how like in baseball,
they talk about like a five tool player, which I
think is like the ability to it's the ability to
hit for contact, hit for power, to like speed on
(19:36):
the base paths, and then it's like the ability to
field well and the ability to throw from the field well. Right,
Like that's what makes a five tool player, right, if
I remember correctly, I've been kind of disconnected from the
baseball world. They played a lot when I was a kid,
but it's been a while. In my Arizona Diamondbacks are
not as consistently good as they used to be. But
Kevin Durant to me, is like the five tool player
on the defensive end in the basketball world. Like he
(19:59):
can real realistically guard the ball well. He can play
off ball defense well, he can protect the rim, he
can defensive rebound, and he can't what was the fifth
one that I put down. He can guard the ball,
he can guard and help. He can cover ground in rotation,
so like when they're in driving kick situations, he can
cover ground. Like there's a play where he straight up
(20:19):
chased Duncan Robinson off the three point line then recovered
back on the drive to block Duncan Robinson at the rim.
He was helping on a different player in the lane
when the kickout passed that Duncan Robinson happened Like that
is unbelievable to be able to like, Oh, I'm gonna
put you on Tyler Harrow, and Tyler Harrow wants nothing
to do with you. He's going to get rid of
the basketball to be able to in help contain guys
(20:41):
that are driving into him, but also be able to
cover ground in rotation back to the perimeter while also
being able to protect the rim with real vertical length,
while also being a dominant defensive freebounder. He's the base.
He's the basketball version of a five too player on
the defensive end of the floor. I'm gonna show you
guys some clips when we get in there. But he
just he's just dominating these games in crunch time. He's
(21:04):
anchoring it all on both ends of the floor. I
can't say enough about how good Kevin Duran has been
to start this year. Usuf Nurkic, here's the thing. Usuf
Durkich is a lower tier starting center in this league. Right, Like,
he's definitely one of the lesser guys that's in that
specific type of role, but he's not as bad as
he showed in the early part of the season, and
he finally had his breakout game last night. Twenty points,
(21:24):
eighteen rebounds, hit a huge bomb three in the second
half from like thirty feet away. He was diving on
loose balls. He had two blocks in his steel. Remember,
like Nurkich when he's at his best, is actually a
pretty decent active hands kind of like drop coverage big.
He just hasn't been so to start this season. But
he's got good instincts, he's got long arms, he's got
good size, he can do some damage down there, and
(21:44):
he's one of the best rebounders in the league when
he's really engaged. He was due for a breakout game.
He finally had one. Phoenix Sun's playing some really damn
good basketball on the Miami Front, just not enough offensive
firepower coming from bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler. They had
twenty seven points on thirty four shots last night. For
the season, Jimmy Butler is at his lowest points per
(22:06):
game total since twenty fourteen, over ten years ago, and
bam Adebayo is on his lowest points per game total.
Excuse me, j Bride the struggle bus today It's been
a long week. It's the sixth show of the week.
Jimmy Butler is at his lowest points per game total
since twenty fourteen and his lowest efficiency and true shooting
percentage since twenty sixteen. Bamitebayo is averaging his lowest points
(22:28):
per game total since twenty nineteen and on the lowest
efficiency of his career. And again, Tyler Harrow was great
last night, but both him and Terry Rogier are really
inconsistent offensive players. It's just going to be really hard
for Miami to contend in this league with the lack
of offensive firepower that they've had to start this year.
Not sure what to make of this Heat team through
the early stretch of the season. Really quickly on Golden
(22:49):
State in Boston. Again, we did a breakdown on it
last night, just kind of like an instant reaction. But
we're going to talk some more in film. But there
were two main concepts that I wanted to kind of
dive a little bit firm they're into now that I've
had a chance to rewatch the game. So first of all,
the concept in Golden State's traps. So one of the
things that I talk about a lot on this show,
is like, in order for a trap to be functional,
you have to have active hands on the ball, right,
(23:11):
because as soon as you put two on the ball,
you're compromised. Behind that there's a full on three guys
are open, right, That's part of the price you pay
when you put two on the ball. But if you
pressure the ball with long arms and active hands, you
can force either one like if my arm is like
this and you have to throw over it, you're either
going to get a deflection or you're going to force
a looping kind of like lobbing pass.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Over the top.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Either way, it's not getting there on a line, which
is allowing you the time to rotate. If you don't
have active hands and you put two on the ball
and you give up an easy pocket pass or an
easy swing pass, you're screwed because now it's the four
on three. You have two on the ball, and you
still have two on the ball while the next player
already has the basketball ready to attack it. Whereas if
(23:58):
you get that deflection, if you force that being passed,
you can rotate out of it with your speed and
you can shut down the advantage. On the back side
of that. You'll see some examples, but they were getting
lots of deflections enforcing lots of off target, off time
passes from Boston, which was allowing them to get away
with their traps without having to worry about giving up
easy opportunities on the backside. The second part of it
(24:21):
was breeding in decisiveness with off ball positioning. There was
a steal that they had in the first half where
like they trapped the ball. Draymond is active hands, Andrew
Wiggins is active hands, and Buddy Healed. He gets inside
position on Cornett. Luke Cornett's at the top of the key,
and then there's another Celtic that's across the wing right.
(24:42):
So the read there for Tatum out of the trap
is to make the swing pass not to Cornette but
to the next guy. But Buddy Heal takes inside position
on Cornette and just sits there waiting for the swing
pass so he can jump in. So then when the
pass gets made, there's a little bit of a deflection,
and so now it turns into a foot between Buddy
Held and Luke Cornett to get to this loose ball
(25:03):
that was intended on the swing pass for the next
guy down the line. But Buddy Heild's faster and he
had inside position, so he's able to leverage that, get
out to it and tap out. The basketball forces a turnover.
They go out the other way. Right, there was another
one on the weak side. There was a two on one.
There's I want to say it was Pritchard in the
right corner and it was Horford on the right wing. Right,
(25:23):
there's your two on one. Buddy Heeld is there on
the swing. Pass out of the trap. Buddy Heald does
a textbook passing lane close out, really smart. The pass
is on target to Al Horford, but Buddy Heeld closes out,
not to Al Horford, but in between the two of them.
So Horford catches thinking Buddy Held is closing out at him.
(25:44):
So his first read is to turn and look to
the corner. But when he turns and looks to the corner,
he sees Buddy Held just standing in the passing lane,
so he can't actually make that pass. Then he turns
and he looks at the basket again and Buddy kind
of stunts at him. So then Horford looks again to
the corner. It's not open again, and then he has
no choice but to throw it up. And now it's
a break rhythm situation. Even though it's a good look,
(26:05):
he's been second guessing himself for a few seconds before
that shot. That is the type of defensive positioning that
forces indecisiveness. Everything about what made that defense work for
Golden State last night was about pressuring the ball with
active hands, forcing rushed decisions. And then when there were openings,
they were splitting the difference with their athleticism and forcing
(26:28):
indecisiveness from Boston, which allowed them to shrink those openings quickly.
And then the third part of it is just ridiculously
ridiculous athleticism. Gary Payton, the second is the guy that
really stood out to me on film last night, where
it's like there's a loose ball, he's diving on the
ground and getting it.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Had a huge loose ball that he dove on in
the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Then the unique ability he has and we've been talking
about this all season, but to dig down into the
lane but also recover out to a three point shooter.
There was a play where he hard helped in the lane,
left Peyton Pritchard wide open on the wing. The swing
pass was made right to Peyton Pritchard and Gary Payton
closed out and blocked the damn shot. That goes back
to what we were talking about with Peyton Watson, where
(27:10):
it's like when you have defensive players in help that
can legitimately be in two places at once and cover
all of that ground, that is what unlocks a level
of defense that becomes really difficult to overcome, even for
the best offenses in the league. It was a really,
really impressive job defensively from Golden State. You're gonna see
a bunch of examples of that in film. And then Boston.
(27:30):
The last thing I wanted to talk about before we
get to the film, Boston's late game execution on defense.
A lot of mistakes down the stretch. Drew Holliday in particular,
batched two switches. There was one between him and Tatum
where there was a miscommunication and Steph got wide open
for three. That was the one that cut the lead
down to I think he had the three free throws
(27:51):
first and then that to cut it to one. So
like that was the shot that cut it to one,
and then there was another one. Do you guys remember
when Steph had that wide open back cut for the layup.
All Steph did was run up like he was going
to come off the wing and then backcut, and Drew
Holliday just assumed there was going to be a switch
and so he got backcut, easy layup for Steph And
then the first offensive rebound that Al Horford had, Drew
Holliday had inside position to box him out or not
(28:12):
al Horford, excuse me. The first offensive rebound that Kevon
Looney got, Drew Holliday had inside position on Cavan and
just gave up on the play and Looney went right
around him. He got an offensive rebound. So like three
pretty significant execution mistakes from Drew Holliday. Late Derek White
lost Buddy Healed on a corner crash where he just
kind of drifted into the lane looking for the ball
(28:32):
while Buddy was sprinting for it, beat him to the ball,
got an offensive rebound. And then Tatum in addition to
that kind of like grifty, he'd like tried to take
a met range jump shot against Looney or Looney did
not foul him, and he just missed the shot, and
he like turned and bitched at the refs, jogged back
on defense and then lost Buddy Healed off the ball
in a relocation and gave up a three, So like
(28:53):
a lot of just like sloppy execution mistakes from Boston. Now,
to be clear, I'm not worried about Boston at all
in the big picture. I'm just saying last night will
be a good game for Joe Mizzoula to kind of
kick them in the ass a little bit and try
to kind of help use that as an opportunity to
drive home some of the attention to detail that has
made this team so good over the course of the
last year. All right, let's get into some film. First clip.
(29:31):
This is a really nice defensive possession from Kevin Durant.
So's on. Jimmy Butler gets kind of beat towards the baseline,
but recovers there's your help side right again. It's okay
to get beat if you get beat within the scheme.
In this case, you don't want to give up middle penetration.
You want to get beat towards the baseline because Plumbley's
in position to help. Jimmy Butler gets a little drill penetration.
(29:52):
Watch Kevin Durant's recovery here on the kickout he switches
down to kill o where underneath the basket we have
another drive helps shuts it off, forces the skip pass,
closes out on Duncan, Robinson chases him off the line
again looks as he shuts down that help shuts down
the Duncan Robinson play. There's the kickout Duncan Robinson quickly relocates.
(30:14):
KD gets a little bit lost, but look at his
ability to cover ground. He gets out to one of
the best shooters in the league on a close out,
chases him off the line, then recovers and blocks him
at the basket. That's just an unbelievable defensive play from
Kevin Durant. Another really good one here on Jimmy Butler,
just using his length to disrupt the pull up a
pull up three gets a great contest offensive rebound gets
(30:34):
picked kicked back out to Jimmy. Watch the individual defense
from KD on Jimmy Butler. So again, already in this sequence,
you've seen in the last two clips, you've seen him
guard on the ball. You've seen him guard in help,
and you've seen him guard in rotation like that. That's
and you've also seen him protect the rim and like
the I don't think I have a clip of him
(30:55):
getting any specific defensive rebounds, but he was really good
defensive rebound. He's just getting to fifty fifty balls late
in this game. So this has been Phoenix's go to
late game action, right. So you're they're trying to get
Tyler Harrow on to Ties Jones. So you set this
screen with Beale to get the switch with Harrow, and
then they would bring Kevin duran up to set the
screen to try to get Harro on the switch. Then
(31:19):
he gets his matchup that he likes. He's got Harrow,
he's gonna turn over that right shoulder, and Katie's been
getting doubled on his backside this whole season and it
just hasn't mattered because he's just shooting right over the top.
So here's Miami again doing a really nice job do
scram switching out of it, right, So we get the
first switch with Harrow onto Ties Jones, come to set
the second ball screen forces the switch. But so here
(31:40):
comes the scram right, So high Smith is getting ready,
Kevin Durant's getting to his spot where he wants it.
Watch right as the pass goes up, there's the pass.
Tyler Harrow is now sprinting out of it. Heywood, high
Smith is switching back, So see how they like basically
scram Tyler Harrow out of that mismatch. Hey, high Smith
is there, he gets a contest, but it's Kevin freakin
(32:02):
Durant and he just turns right over his right shoulder
and knocks it down. And then this one, this one
is literally perfect defense. Two point game, thirty three seconds left.
You get a stop, you get a chance to win
this game. Bill comes sets the first screen, gets Harrow
in the switch. Here comes KD. This is really well defended.
Look so Hi Smith shoves shoves KD a little bit
(32:24):
to create a gap. That creates a gap. Harro is
able to recover. He lingers just for a second. Harrow
gets there, kick back to KD. Thinking there's an opportunity
for an advantage. High Smith is boom there, that is
as good as you can defend that action. And now
KD is in an iso twenty two feet from the
basket and he just turns faces and knocks the shot down.
(32:45):
Like what the hell do you do with that? There's
just nothing you can do, like you're just sometimes you
just get to lose to Kevin Durant. And that's what
happened to the miam Me heat last night. This is
Russell Westbrook at his best from the thunder Oklahoma City.
The Thunder Nuggets game gets Downhill drives all the help
in the paint, makes a nice little corner kicked. Christian
Brown has all day to knock down the three. This
is a really nice slot cut from Russ. Again, a
(33:06):
lot of uh spamming the Yokic post up stuff late
in this game. Watch as the double team goes. This
is a I was talking about this earlier with Christian Brown,
but watch as the double team goes. You're gonna see
Shay go Jalen slide over. As soon as Jalen slides over.
Instead of just standing here and making this in above
the break three, Russ just cuts to the rim. Watch
(33:26):
cut catch. Now he's got a head of steam. He
draws Chet in help so he can drop it off
to Yokic, who then just gets like a little easy
bank shot. See that's how you can create spacing without
knocking down threes. This is what everyone's been begging Russell
Westbrook to do since the beginning of time. Another big
time play from Russ. Chet spins on Peyton Watson. Russ
(33:47):
comes digging in, swipes the ball away from Chet and
then look at him on the runout trailing. The play
had a steam nice little scoop shot. This is talk
a lot about how the Yokic hitting threes is less
about him like actually like getting a bunch of points
every game from threes, but more adding the close out
(34:08):
attacking part of his game, which is where he's so deadly.
The reason why he's so deadly in these situations is
because he's so damn strong that as soon as he
gets a slight angle on you, he can use his
elbows and shoulders to kind of maintain that angle as
he lumbers down the lane. Right, But all that stems
off of he's got to be able to knock this
shot down because Chet's not lunging out like this unless
(34:28):
he can knock the shot down. Chet lunges out, Jokic
gets an angle, then he can rumble down the lane
and once again, look, once he has that angle, watch
how he uses that right elbow right here on the gather.
Watch how he uses his elbow clears that space, slows
himself down for Chet to run by, and the knock
knocks down the layup. That's such a huge part of
Yokic's game when he's at his best, and it is
(34:49):
entirely predicated on his ability to knock down those three
point shots when they're available. Here's one of those two
places that once plays from Peyton Watson, right. So I'm
Jaylen Williams. I'm looking sorry, guys, I'm Jayalen Williams. I'm
looking for an opening here on the roll right once
again noticing uh, they're running the action with all their guards,
(35:11):
which I think is fascinating. Crusoe rolls. Here's our opening.
So if you're Jalen Williams, this is the right read, right,
like Peyton Watson is. If you can't throw this skip pass,
if you throw that skip pass, Peyton's getting that right.
So like, this is the right read. There's a two
on one here and Peyton is kind of sort of
(35:33):
overplaying the corner, but like, look at how quickly he
just teleports over there and swipes this shot away. I'm
gonna I'm gonna put it in full speed because this
really is a crazy play. Watch how quickly Peyton Watson recovers. Like,
what do you do about that?
Speaker 2 (35:52):
That?
Speaker 1 (35:53):
That is that is the layering of an elite defense.
When you have a guy on the backside that can
be two places at once. Here's some really nice week
side rotations from Denver. After the Yoks miss three, watch
these rotations. Ball screen switch, swing.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Two on the ball. Right.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
So now we have all of this action over here Peyton,
Watson and Yokic have to deal with.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
So the way that Olkaoma City looks to attack it,
lou Dort sets what's called a pin in flair. He
screens the backside of Watson so that Chet can close
out to the check can go out to the corner
here right. So that makes it so that in this case,
Peyton's being kind of occupied by this, which is leaving
Jalen Williams wide open.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Once again, just like we talked about on that last
lowman possession, there is a clear and obvious read here
that looks open. I'm gonna move this to full speed.
Watch how fast Peyton Watson closes out. Boom gone Right,
there's your extra pass to Chat in the corner. But
look at the rotation from Yokic. Is him off the line.
That is excellent basketball. That is when you can put
(37:05):
two onto Shay but still recover on the backside without
leaving anybody open, and especially with the guy like Jokic
moving his feet like that, that is once again the
level of detail you need on defense to be able
to guard the best players in the league. Force his
chat to step out of bounds on the baseline. Really
(37:26):
nice cut here from Christian Brown off of another Yokic
post up double. Same sort of concept we were talking
about earlier with Rus right. So we're gonna throw it in, okay, Now,
straw The is kind of cutting through right. The double
team comes from Dort. As Dort goes, Strawther relocates, Caruso
(37:50):
takes mpj in Brown. Look at Brown, Brown hard slot
cut because he cuts. That brings everybody in here and
leave Strawther wide open. Strawther's wide open. That forces the
close out from Shae. In that process, Christian Brown finds
himself wide open under the basket. So watch it one
(38:12):
more time. Brown cuts, brings Isaiah Joe with him, kick
out to Strawther. Both Joe and Shay show out on Strawther.
That leaves Christian Brown wide open. Pass fake to Peyton,
Watson occupies Joe for a second, and Christian Brown gets
a lay up once again, like you can create spacing
(38:33):
without shooting threes. You just have to be a smart
cutter and you have to bring that real rim pressure
with the athleticism of your cuts. Another one here, same
sort of deal, crosscreen, post entry, Strather cuts through again.
This is the same kind of sequence that you keep seeing. Right,
Strather cuts through. Here comes the double team winshield wipeer rotation.
(38:56):
As soon as Shay goes, watch Christian Brown down cut
Shay go's Christian Brown cuts. Jalen Williams tries to meet
him there, but Brown beats him. Now he's got a
head of steam against a smaller, less athletic player at
the rim. Christian Brown's able to get a bucket doing
a really nice job of manufacturing spacing without having to
shoot the basketball. Here's another great health defense possession from
(39:22):
Peyton Watson. Well you don't see that shot miss from
Yokaus very often, do you. Really nice athletic play from
Shay to beat Christian Brown off the dribble. Peyton's kind
of at a position. Watch him wall him up, walls
him up and forces the miss. Really good health defense
from Peyton Watson. Transition defense here from Julian Straw There
(39:44):
It'd be really easy to let Lou Dort go here,
but instead he just sprints back and jumps up vertically
and Lou blows a lay up. Lou is foolishly going
for a foul. He should have just stayed on that
left side of the basket laid it up. Instead, he
tries to go for the foul and doesn't get it.
But that's the thing did his job. Sprinted back straight verticality,
forced a miss, got a huge stop late in this game.
(40:09):
And then here's the biggest play of the game. Peyton
Watson in help once again. So watch Russ. Russ picks
up Shae like twenty five feet out. This removes the
pull up jumper from the equation, enforces Shay to drive.
He's not going to methodically work into a pull up
jump shot from this faraway from the basket. Now you
can plan. You can plan for the drive by helping.
(40:34):
And in this case, yokicch and Peyton Watson are going
to say, the only thing you're taking here is an
Alex Cruso three, and he had just bricked long an
open three from the right wing earlier in the fourth quarter.
He's the one you want shooting it. Right, So again,
watch what happens here. Russ gives up the drive, but
it's a drive they can plan for lefty drive. Peyton
Watson leaves Chet to step up, and you're gonna see
(40:56):
Yokic drop to box out Chet, so that the only
opening is this corner kicked Ruso. Peyton Watson gets there.
Look at the verticality blocks the shot game over all. Right,
let's move over to that Warrior Celtics game. So again,
(41:16):
look at the indecisiveness here. So I, uh, this play
had a transition element, so that's why I clipped it
at this point, but I think there might have been
an offensive rebound.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Actually, but here's your blitz of Tatum. Right.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
So now we're trying to breed indecisiveness. So we have
our week side two on one, which is Horford and Prichard.
Watch where Buddy Heel closes out. Yeah here it is okay,
so he actually makes the pass to nimus Quita. But
watch how quickly, Watch how quickly Gary Payton gets in
there and strips the ball, but the ball get stays
live and here's your corner kick. Okay, So here's our
two on one. This is what I was actually trying
(41:48):
to get to So here's our two on one on
the weekside. Right, Pritchard and Horford watch where Buddy Heel
closes out to the passing lane. He's in the passing lane,
so watch Horrerford on the catch look to make the
extra pass, but it's not there because Buddy Heel's playing
the passing lane. Then he looks, hesitates, hesitates, and basically
(42:09):
has to jack up a break rhythm three, which forces
a bad miss. Here's a classic Steph gravity play. Just
the textbook forced the big to show and then slip
out of the screening action.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
This time Gary Payton.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Just pitt down two on the ball, easy pass over
the top dunk. I don't know what Jason Tatum was
doing here either. There's glued up to Andrew Wiggins.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
On the weak side.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Not really important in that situation. So here's the importance
of active hands on the blitz. And this is that
play that I was talking about with Buddy Heeld, kind
of getting the inside seal on Cornett. So Tatum on Wiggins,
here comes the blitz. Okay, so we have active hands
(42:56):
right on the blitz. Look at how active they are
with their hands to try to get a deflection. Watch
Buddy healed. Buddy Heel gets inside position on Luke Cornette
so that even though this swing passes open, he wants
to try to play that passing lane. Pritchard makes the pass,
Wiggins gets a hand on it. That's everything. If he
(43:16):
doesn't get a hand on it, it's on a rope
to Horford. Now it's gonna be a rotation from Gary
Payton in a wide open three for Tatum in the corner.
But instead he gets a hand on it. Now it's
a loose ball and Buddy held as inside position and
he's able to beat Cornette to it with a deflection.
And then once again, look at the closing speed from
Gary Payton on this deflection. Right here, Horford's closer to
(43:41):
the ball than Gary Payton, but Gary Payton's faster. Gary
Payton gets on it quicker, forces the deflection. Now we're
running out the other way for the Andrew Wiggins dunk. Actually,
I think I think I think that might have been
Andrew Wiggins missing the layup, which was maybe the worst
blown layup I've ever seen in my time watching the NBA.
Look at the Look at how fast Gary Payton is
(44:03):
on this roll to the rim. He's gonna play this
one at full speed. Watch how fast he gets past
Cornett speed speed everywhere on the floor for the Golden
State Warriors. Here's Gary Payton being two places at once.
It's guarding Pritchard digs down right here, watch.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Dig down.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
He's out of position. He's dead to rights right, knockdown
shooter pass in the shooting pocket. Look at that closing speed.
That is the layering of an elite defense when you
can leave an opening but it's not actually an opening.
I thought this was kind of an underrated to play
from this game. So that they're down seven, but watch
(44:47):
this play from Steph Curry pokes the ball away from
behind on Derek White, forces the turnover leak out Andrew
Wiggins layout basically a P six initiated by Steph Curry
that cut from seven to five like that. Here's an
(45:07):
example of how the Warriors just constant motion causes you
to make mistakes. This was one of the mistakes that
I talked about Drew Holiday making.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Again.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
All he's gonna do, Steph is he's going to jog
up like he's going to interchange with Wiggins and then
backcut boom, backcut. Drew Holliday's probably thinking switch here because
Tatum is gonna go out with Steph and he's gonna
take Wiggans, So he's keening on Wiggins and Steph just
back cuts him and gets an easy layup. Big time
mistake from Drew Holliday in a big moment, though, this
(45:37):
I thought was just an unbelievable athletic play from Buddy
Held who just Buddy Heeld just continues to look amazing.
Look at this lefty finish on the rip over the
top rip move. Really nice finish from Buddy Heeld. Nice
play from Steph here, Probably not this is a dynamic
you're not gonna see when you play Boston for real
in a real series. But gets nimus Quai on a
(46:00):
switch and just goes right around him, and Boston planned
for it. I mean you can literally see Horford and
Derek White, Derek White zoning up on the strong side
de Horford's basically telling meet him at the rim, and
he does a great job jumps up with verticality, but
Steph just scoops it in over the top and then
(46:22):
this These are the two big mistakes from Tatum. Late
didn't like this shot against loony, just worried about the refs.
Didn't even get fouled, turning complaining to the refs. Kind
of a little bit unfocused. Watch this next possession, but
I miss it. I thought I added that clip that
I didn't. But on the very next possession, basically Buddy
(46:43):
Healed just relocates on Jason Tatum off of the right
wing and Jason Tatum is not paying attention and gives
up the wide open three in the right corner. All right, guys,
that is always always all I have for today. Man,
I'm having the hardest time talking today. It's all I
have for today is always that. Sincerely appreciate you guys
for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Again.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
I've got a mail back coming up tomorrow that I
already recorded. On Wednesday, we will be back with our
usual Monday routine, so maybe a game reaction or two
and then power rankings.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
I will see you guys then the volume. What's up guys.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
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. 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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