December 16, 2025 • 32 mins
Jason reacts to a fun night of NBA basketball including Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and the Denver Nuggets winning an overtime game against Kevin Durant, Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, and the Houston Rockets. Then he breaks down Cade Cunningham's incredible game for the Detroit Pistons in a clutch win over Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, welcod to Hoops Tonight. You're at
the volume heavy Tuesday, everybody. Hope all you guys are
having a great week. Just a quick show today, we're
gonna hit both of the peacock games from last night.
(00:23):
So the Denver Nuggets got another win over the Houston
Rockets at one point, scoring seven consecutive times in crunch
time against that Houston defense to get a big win.
And then in the tail end of the show, we're
going to talk about Kay Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons
winning their fourteenth clutch game of the season. Against the
Detroit Pistons, I'm gonna be really zooming in on their
defense though, which has been driving a lot of their
(00:45):
success this season. You guys are the job. Before we
get started, subscribed to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel, scroll
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All Right, let's talk some basketball. So another instant classic
(01:05):
in Denver between the Rockets and the Nuggets and what's
been a very entertaining regular season in the NBA. I
talked about yesterday in our power ranking segment. If you
guys remember about how much I was really enjoying the
Rockets clutch offense. I just think they get really good
shots for a team that doesn't have your traditional point
guard or your traditional super high level playmaker, like high
(01:27):
level passing talent right and their top ten in clutch
offensive rating this season, and they had a one to
nineteen clutch offensive rating against Denver last night. And then
you have the Nuggets, who haven't been great statistically in
the clutch. The season is kind of an outlier for them,
but they have the best half court offense in the
entire NBA by a pretty decent margin right now, and
they've historically been one of the most reliable clutch kind
(01:50):
of like half court slowdown offenses that we've seen. And
so a matchup basically between two very high level clutch
offenses and that did not disappoint. We had an epic
show down a high level offense down the stretch and
otherworldly shot making. All four stars showed up. I want
to talk about that a little bit later on in
the show, but it was a very very interesting battle
(02:10):
down the stretch, and both teams, essentially with the way
they were attacking on offense, were trying to put the
opposing big in action. Everything that both teams were doing
on both ends of the floor, there were a handful
of like little mix ups, like Jamal Murray had a
possession where he randomly posted up Reed Shepherd to hit
a little right shoulder fad Kevin Durant had a possession
where he randomly tried to attack Spencer Jones in the
(02:33):
middle of the floor, missed a little right shoulder fade
away around the left elbow. But other than that, it
was a steady diet of attacking for Denver attacking Shangoon
in pick and roll and for Houston attacking Jokic in
pick and roll. And the reason why is because neither
team wanted to switch the action. Denver actually tried switching
it twice the play where Shangun hit what could have
(02:54):
been the game winner if it wasn't for the late
free throw from Jamal Murray. What happened on that play
two man game with Kadie and Shangoon, they switch it.
That leaves Spencer Jones on Alpern Shangoon in the middle
of the floor. He powered through him, got to that
little right shoulder hook, that lefty hook that put the
rockets up one and then there was another one. It
(03:14):
was a little bit earlier in the game where it
was like a little less than two minutes left in regulation.
Whereas a reed Shepherd Shangun pick and roll, they also
switched it more of like a peel switch. So Tim
Hardaway Junior ends up peeling off and Jokic ends up
following reed shepherd out to the right corner. They try
to interchange back and while Yokic just closing out to
Shangoon right there around the high like the charge circle area,
(03:37):
Kevin Durant hits, Shangun hits a little easy too, and
so when they tried switching it, they gave up a
couple of easy buckets. So they were trying really hard
not to switch it. And on the other end of
the floor, same exact thing. They weren't gonna switch Shangoon
onto Jamal Murray. And so as a result, there were
all sorts of these little like you know, classic pick
and roll sequences that we saw down the tail end
of this game against drop coverage looks. So the guard
(04:01):
was chasing over the top and the big was coming
pretty up close to the level, and both teams are
getting good looks out of it. Like we had pocket
passes that led to four on threes that led to
open corner three. Spencer Jones got two wide open corner
threes in the right corner off of tags of Jokic
on the roll. Shane Gouon got tagged on a roll
that led to a wide open three for Jabari Smith
(04:23):
in the left corner. A lot of those like classic sequences, right,
What are other classic drop covered sequences, pull up jump shots.
Kevin Durant hits a pull up three over NICOLEA Jokic
in a drop coverage on the right wing. Towards the
end of regulation, Reed Shepherd hit a pull up three
on the left wing against the drop coverage look in
crunch time, I was actually amazed at how often Houston
(04:46):
was running their ball screen action through Reed Shephard down
the stretch. And you know, to his credit, most of
his reps were good reps. There weren't really any reps
in there where I was like, oh, Reid didn't make
the right decision or he took a bad shot. As
a matter of fact, he pretty much did the right
thing on every single one of those reps. But it
was just kind of strange that they ran through him
as much as they did when Kevin Durant wasn't quite
(05:07):
as involved in the offense. Yokic hit a couple of threes.
Those were classic kind of pick and pop style actions.
I talk about this all the time, but the pick
and pop is like the antidote to any sort of
drop coverage because the drop coverage essentially leaves the big
sagging back against the ball handler, maybe a little closer
to the level, but dealing with the ball handler any
(05:29):
of the guard chasing over the top. So if the
big doesn't roll into the drop coverage but instead pops
out to the three point line, he's going to be
wide open every single time. And both threes that he
hit were essentially picking pops. Won a very traditional pick
and pop with Jamal Murray where he set the screen,
popped out to the top of the key, Jamal pitched
it back he hit a three. The other one, Jamal
(05:50):
is actually cutting in an off ball action off of Joki.
Jokic is just holding the ball out up top. This
is the one that was just over a minute left
in regulation, and Jamal comes off of a little screen
from Tim Hardaway Junior and then curls around Jokic. And
what happens, Shang Gun has to drop back to help
on Jamal cutting, which leaves Jokic open. He just rises
(06:12):
up and knocks it down. So even though Jokic had
the ball that whole time, it's still fundamentally as a
coverage works the same way as a pick and pop
against drop because the big is dropping the on ball
guy that in this case, Jokic is popping out and
he just hits that three over the top. And so
as a result, like both teams just could not get
a stop down the stretch of this game because of
(06:35):
the simple fact that they were unable to deal with
their uh to get stops with their bigs in these
pick and roll actions. Jamal Murray I thought did a
masterful job of managing the ball screens the entirety of
crunch time generated a ton of advantages just by getting
the ball to Jokic in the pocket. He had one
where one of the consistent things that Denver was doing
(06:56):
down the stretch of this game is they were trying
to get Amen Thompson off of Jamal Murray. So the
easy way to do that is just to have Tim
Hardaway Junior come over and set an early screen. You
set that early screen to get read Shepherd switched on
to Jamal, then you run whatever action you want to run.
But they had to play with Jamal just rejected the
screen on Tim Hardaway Junior and toasted him and Thompson
(07:16):
off the dribble. Shane Gun had to fly back in
rotation easy little pocket past to Jokic, swing to the corner,
wide open spencer Jones three another one where he got
Read Shepherd in a switch early screen from Tim Hardaway
gets red Shepherd switched on to him, then he runs
the ball screen with Jokic. He easily gets read Shepherd
caught on the screen. That forces Shangun to step up
(07:39):
easy pocket past the Jokic. Kevin Durant taggs another wide
open corner three for Shanegun. So what's the natural progression there?
If Jamal Murray's torching you in the pocket, Shangun's gonna
be hesitant to leave the pocket, right, So that first
layup that Jamal gets in overtime. What happens there, He's
driving off the left side in a ball screen with Joki,
(08:00):
which Shangun doesn't want to help because he's getting killed
in the pocket. So Jamal is able to go right
by Shangoun and get a wide open layup. And then
we continued to see Jamal hunt Reed Shepherd. The first
bucket he got in ot was that little right shoulder fade.
He got Reed Shepherd on a switch, walked him down
to the right block, backed him down and hit a
little right shoulder fade again. They scored on seven consecutive
(08:22):
possessions spanning the tail end of the fourth quarter in
the start of overtime, and Jamal Murray was masterful running
those ball screens in that sequence. And really where it
all turned around where the Nuggets were able to take
an advantage is they got three straight stops to start overtime.
And one of the things that they did in order
to try to force Houston into making a mistake is
(08:45):
they were bringing Jokic up high to the level. They
ended up hitting Shangun on a short real pass on
the first play of overtime, and he missed Jabari Smith
wide open under the basket because he missed him. The
play kind of broke down. It ended up in a tough,
contested mid range pull up from Reed Shephard on their
second possession of overtime. I thought Kevin Durank kind of
(09:05):
rushed an ISO on Spencer Jones just dribbled right up
into a tough, little left elbow jumper that he left
short on the rim. And then we finally got to
see a switch work for Denver as they switched Cam
Johnson onto Shangoon and Shangun missed a left shoulder hook
over Cam Johnson. And so three straight misses from Houston
to start overtime, three straight makes from Denver to start overtime.
(09:29):
We had a seven point lead. They were unable to
recover from that, even with Jokic fouling out of the game.
And that's really the crux of the problem when it
comes to guarding the Denver Nuggets in a close game.
They've gone through again if you look at those sequences, right.
So both teams were struggling to guard the pick and roll,
but there was a read that got missed on a
Houston ball screen. To start overtime, they hit a short
(09:51):
role to Jabari Smith or to Shanguon and Jabari Smith
was wide open in the dunker spot on the right side,
Jabari alpurn misses him, whereas on the other end of
the floor, whenever they got their four on threes, Jokch
is on time, on target, making the right read immediately
every single time. And that's the thing. Like these guys,
like Denver fans have been celebrating this thing. They're calling
(10:15):
it yok miss and I believe I'm if I'm reading
the tea leaves here correctly, they're just celebrating that. Around
Christmas in twenty sixteen was when Nikola Jokic entered the
starting lineup for them, and it was like essentially the
beginning of the Nikola Jokic era. And it's crazy because
you go back and you watch footage for back then
and it's like there's Jokich Murray two man game taking
place damn near ten years ago. Guys, like that's the
(10:38):
crazy thing about this, Like there's no good answer for
them because they've been seeing all of this shit for
ten years. If you run a traditional drop, they're gonna
kill you with Jokic popping to the top of the
key or Jamal Murray Hitt and pull up jumpers. If
you key in on Jokic on the roll, Jamal's just
gonna drive right by you for a layup like he
did to start overtime. Right Like, if you defend the
(10:59):
action three on two, yo Kich is so good at
making that skip to the corner immediately on time on
target that it becomes an extremely difficult rotation for the
defense to make. Those were wide open looks for Spencer Jones,
like wide, wide open looks. And then if you do switch,
which Houston didn't really try down the stretch of this game,
(11:19):
But if you do switch, that's two of the very
best one on one players in the league. And maybe
Houston probably should have tried that, but I'm not sure
it would have mattered because again Yo kich is probably
going right to the post and he's getting either a
great shot for himself or drawing that second defender and
causing the same issue again. Like that was really the
gist of the battle there, that both a crunch time
(11:40):
offenses were scoring at will, but Denver was able to
get a kill a sequence of three straight stops to
start overtime while they continued to score on the other end,
and that really was the difference in the game. Now,
as far as the late game officiating goes, Houston fans
are pissed off this morning because of a couple of
bad calls at the end of the game, specifically a
(12:00):
foul and a Jokic spin move. I didn't see. This
is the one with Kevin Durant kind of raked over
the top and it looked like he might have blocked
him clean. I didn't get a good solow motion replay
of this one, so I couldn't tell you for sure
whether or not it was a good call, but yeah,
I could have gone either way, right and like if
it was a non call in the moment, I don't
think it would have been too much of an issue.
And then the foul on a Men Thompson where he
trips Tim Hardaway Junior kind of flashing up to the
(12:21):
top of the key at the end of regulation, which
on replay it did look like a Men Thompson's shin
hit Tim Hardaway's foot and initiated the trip. But at
the same time, it's like kind of incidental contact that
happens all the time in basketball, and so I understand
why that frustrates Rocket fans. But I'm gonna say the
same thing that I've said every single time something like
(12:42):
this comes up. Officiating is a wild card at the
end of games. It is a variable you have to
be prepared for. It can go in your favor and
it can go against you. There's gonna be a half
dozen or so whistles in any crunch time game, and
you might get four the calls, and then to go
against you, you might get two of the calls in
four go against you. That's literally just the nature of
(13:03):
the way these games go down the stretch, and it
remains to me an absolute loser thing to focus on.
Like you were playing against the Nuggets, down three of
their top six players, and down all of their top athletes,
No Aaron Gordon, no Christian Brown, no Peyton Watson. They
had zero vertical spacing on the floor. There were multiple
(13:26):
sequences or Spencer Jones ended up in the dunker spot
and Yokich either didn't throw it because he's like, he's
not gonna be able to score there against all that size,
or there was one where they did throw it to
him and he had a deep sealed against Alpern Shangouni.
He took like a little left shoulder hook and he
smoked it off the back of the room because he's
shooting over a dud who's taller than it. They didn't
have the oh, I can just throw this lob to
(13:46):
Aaron Gordon and he's dunking it, or I can throw
this lob to Peyton Watson and he's dunking it. You
had more than enough going in your favor to win
a game like this. Do you think you lost because
of a single Jamal Murray free throw off of a
tripping foul? Or do you think you lost because you
gave up a one forty four offensive rating to Denver
(14:10):
in ten minutes of clutch basketball last night? Do you
think you lost because you allowed them to score on
seven consecutive possessions spanning the end of the fourth quarter
in overtime. That's why you lost the game, not because
of a couple of questionable calls. I just think that's
a loser way to approach the game. And frankly, it
wasn't like there was some blatant, obvious screw job going on. Well,
(14:34):
they were calls that were kind of coin flippy calls
that went against you, which is literally something we all
know that can happen in a crunch time basketball game.
And that's actually the bigger picture thing I want to
focus on for both of these teams. Both of these
teams have struggled a little bit in the clutch this year.
Houston is six and six and clutch games and Denver
is four and six, And for both of them, it's
(14:55):
been their clutch defense that's been the problem. And Houston
six clutch losses, they've logged a one forty defensive rating.
In Denver's six clutch losses, they've logged a one fifty
two defensive rating. And for both teams it's the same problem.
They're bigs get attacked in ball screens and they can't
(15:16):
get stops, and you just have to find a way,
like Denver found a way in overtime. They tried putting
two on the ball and Shanggun missed a Reid in
the middle of the floor to Jabari Smith in the
dunker spot, and they tried switching cam Johnson bodied up
four shang Gun into a hook shot that he actually missed.
Houston literally could not find a way to get a
(15:38):
stop until Jokic fouled out of the game. That's why
they lost. If you can't get a stop on seven
consecutive possessions, you don't get to bitch about the refs.
And the same goes for Denver. Like if Denver wants
to flip the script on their clutch issues this year
and have some sustained success outside of just last night,
they got to be better on defense. They almost lost
(16:01):
this game too because they couldn't get a stop at
the end of regulation. But at least with Denver you
can look at some reinforcements on the way again, they
were down their three best athletes. One of the things
that Denver has done consistently over the years to get
stops in crunch time is put Yokic up at the
level and trust their ability to rotate on the back line.
(16:22):
That's worked for them in the past, but it's built
on those athletes on the back line, which they don't
have right now. For the record, I do think that's
what Houston should do too. I would bring Shandun up higher,
either in super high drops where he's up at the
level or just straight up switch and then trust your
ability to rotate on the back line to help and
recover behind him if he switches. Those are the kinds
(16:45):
of things that I think accentuate Houston's strength as a roster,
which is their athleticism. But all four stars showed out
in this one. I thought KD was amazing. He didn't
get many opportunities on offense, but he did capitalize when
he did, and he was a problem for Denver with
his defense down the stretch, his rim protection, He's he
provides an element defensively in terms of that vertical rim
(17:08):
protection that they haven't had really in this era. And
it's kind of a force multiplier for this team because
of how big and strong they are at the center
position and how athletic they are on the perimeter. KD
just brings that other layer and he was blocking shots.
He blocked Jokic at the rim, He blocked Jamal Murray
at the rim. He stripped Nicole Jokic on a double
team on a post up late in this game. He
was like a defensive wrecking ball. And it's a casual reminder,
(17:31):
like you know KD in the times that he has
won championships, namely in Golden State, he was an incredible
defensive weapon for those teams as well. Shane Gun if
you remember the last game, the game down in Houston,
jokichate his lunch. I thought Shanegun had a much better
showing this time, thirty three to ten, and ten almost
won the game late beating Spencer Jones on that switch.
(17:54):
Did a ton of work one on one against Jokich
in this game. Was attacking him a lot early in
the game. Hit a class like somber shuffle shot over
the top of Jokic in the middle of the floor,
drove by him for a layup, and overtime did a
lot of damage. I thought he acquitted himself much much
better this time than he did the last time they
faced off, but ultimately jokicch and Murray were better. Jokic
(18:15):
goes for thirty nine, fifteen and ten. Just bullied Houston
at the basket. He had four putbacks in this game.
One of the things with Jokic that's so ridiculous is
when he catches the ball in the middle of the
floor and he shoots one of his floaters, he just
follows his shot by battering ramming his way to the
rim and he just gets so many offensive rebounds that way.
He had four of those where he missed a shot,
got his own rebound and just put it right back
(18:35):
up and in we talk about his kickouts in the
short roll situations. Those were key generating those quality looks
for Spencer Jones, the five threes that he hit in
this game, killing the rockets popping out of ball screens.
And then Jamal Murray thirty five, three and five was
a maister at the end of the game and pick
and roll generating advantages. He did a really good job
(18:56):
getting to the foul line. He had a play where
he saw Shane gun trying to fight or an inverted
ball screen and he knew he was like Shaneguon's gonna
drop his shoulder and run me over. So he basically
like took a charge so to speak, on a screen,
got some free throws out of it. Had another one
where he got Shangon in a switch where he dribbled
all the way around the floor and then drove on
him and ended up getting to the foul line. I
think he had like fourteen or fifteen foul shot attempts
(19:17):
in this game. Did a good job working his way
to the line, and then again just making all those
decisions and pick and roll that ran the Denver offense
down the stretch, highly entertaining game. I would love to
see these two teams face off in a playoff series.
Kind of an interesting sort of set of strengths and
weaknesses between these two teams because they're so good, but
they just just have that issue getting stops at the
end of games. We want to know where I bet
(19:40):
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New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia. Piston Celtics really just
(21:08):
a masterpiece from Kate Cunningham. The Pistons defense was phenomenal
in this game and really strangled the life out of
that red hot Celtics offense. That's been frying everybody. I
do want to deep dive into that concept, specifically that
defensive end of the floor here in a little bit.
But we have to start with Kate thirty two points
and tennis sists in this one ice the game with
back to back mid range pull ups over Derek White
(21:29):
and just looked really comfortable in his one on ones
down the stretch. In this game. It wasn't just Derek
White and like size mismatchups. He had a little iso
against Jordan Walsh where he just hit a couple of
scissor dribbles, got to that kind of left lane line
and just bumped him off with that right shoulder and
hit a short, little fade away. Hit it the same
kind of shot against Derek White, and then that nasty
spin move in the middle of the floor that ice
(21:51):
the game. He's again we talked about this last week,
but he's been the second best clutch player in the
entire NBA this season behind Shake kild of Alexander. He's
twenty six for forty eight eight from the field. A
few more clutch buckets for him last night. He also
had some big catch and shoot threes in the second half.
One off of a post up at Tobias Harris and
then another off of a baseline drive by Tobias Harris.
And that's encouraging because that's been a random week point
(22:15):
for kid this season. Like he's been considerably better on
pull up threes than he was last year. He was
like thirty two percent last year. He's like thirty six
and a half percent this year. But his catch and
shoot shooting has fallen off a cliff. He's been brutally
bad in catch and shoot three point shot situations. Good
signed last night him hitting those couple in the second half.
But the formula for the Pistons is clear. They're a
(22:37):
good offense, but not a great one in the large sample.
Nothing super surprising there. They play a lot of defensive
personnel and they only have one super high level offensive player,
So they're not the kind of team that's going to
go hang a one twenty two offensive rating like some
of these other teams in the league. But they're an
absolutely dominant team on defense, and they're absolutely dominant on
(22:58):
the margins. They can keep any game close, and then
when they get into a close game late, they have
this devastating combination of being an elite defense. They're the
best clutch defensive rebounding team in the NBA this year.
And then Caid is just this surgical shot creator when
they get into the half court, and that just wasn't
(23:18):
the case last year. Caid was bad in the clutch
last year. He had as many turnovers as assists. He
was twenty two for sixty four from the field in
clutch last year, So he already has four more clutch
shots made than he did the entirety of last season.
Their defense wasn't as good last year. Their defensive rebounding team,
they were like bottom half in the league in clutch
(23:40):
defensive rebounding and so as a result, last year in
forty four clutch games, they were twenty one in twenty three.
They reversed all those trends this year. Now they're fourteen
to four in clutch games. That's a huge part of
why they are where they are where they're at in
the standings. But I want to get back to the defense,
because that's the thing that makes this sustainable. Sometimes, especially
(24:03):
in a smaller sample a third of the season, sometimes
shot making can go in and sometimes it can go cold,
right like Denver for example. That's a historically great clutch offense,
and they were great last night, but they've generally been
down in the clutch this year compared to years past.
Sometimes the shots just don't go in, but defense is
(24:24):
much more consistent night tonight. And this Piston's defense is
elite by any measure. They're now second in the entire
NBA in defensive rating, right behind Oklahoma City. Albeit there's
a gap there because Okay s he's so transcendently great.
But they're the second best defense in the league and
it's not hard to see why on tape. Similarly to
ok See, and this is just a formula that works
in the NBA, the Pistons have like a half dozen
(24:47):
dudes who sit in a damn stance and get up
into the basketball and can really guard on the perimeter.
They're super athletic and strong. They get up underneath ball
handlers that make them uncomfortable. One of the big swing
portions of this game again, those bench groups and the
end of the third quarter and started the fourth quarter
where you've got some combination of Jade and Ivy and
(25:08):
Karis Zavonte Green and Ron Holland out there. Those guys
had the Celtics guards in Hell. Javonte Green had one
of the highlights of the season to play where he
kind of stonewalled a lefty drive from Peyton Pritchard, caused
him to lose control of the basketball, swiped it from him,
ran out to the other end, and just jackhammer smashed
it on the entire Celtics team and ended up bumping
(25:29):
into the ref and picking up a technical. Unbelievable highlight
from Javonte Green. They had seventeen points off of Boston
turnovers in this game, by the way, that came right
off the heels of him hitting a massive three off
the right wing to beat some nail help they were
swarming at the rim. I thought it was one of
Isaiah Stewart's better defensive games this season, especially in that
second half of some of his rotations at the rim.
(25:50):
The Celtics were cold from three all night, but I
thought the Pistons really played them into that result. Like
the Celtics attempted thirty nine threes, but Synergi only sified
nine of them as unguarded catch and shoots, meaning thirty
of those thirty nine threes were either off the dribble
or some form of contested catch and shoot, and again,
(26:12):
there is just a proven formula for winning games in
the NBA that Detroit's following here defend at an extremely
high level, win the margins like this is crazy. They're
plus two point three points every single night in the
fast break, they're plus one point two points every night,
and second chance points. They're plus three point nine points
(26:33):
every night in points off of turnovers, and they win
their bench units. They're plus seven this year per one
hundred possessions. With Kaid off the floor, they get dribble
penetration from guys like Ron Holland and Jaden Ivy, just
hard rips to the basket where they can get easy layups.
Kris LeVert was a zone buster last night, hit a
couple of huge threes off the right wing and had
big driving layup against the zone. All of those guards
(26:56):
get up into the ball. Non kid lineups again were
plus five last night. So if you're defending at an
elite level and you're winning on the margins, that keeps
you in every game. Then you get into a close
game light and they have one of the best clutch
players in the entire NBA, a half court surgeon that
can beat any coverage in pick and roll and can
beat mismatches in ISO. You blitz him. He showed early
(27:17):
this year he's just gonna make the right read every
time the Pistons find a way to score on the
four and threes, you run a drop coverage, he just
methodically Lucas style, works his way into the lane, shields
off the defender, and gets some sort of quality look
for himself. You switch. He's one of the best ISO
scorers in the league. He's just a problem in that
sort of slow down half court environment. Do I think
(27:38):
the Pistons could use a little bit more offensive firepower? Yeah,
this is still my favorite Michael Porter junior team. I
just think he rounds out things perfectly in their best lineups,
like essentially as a massive upgrade of Tobias Harris. And
I think it's like a realistic thing. Like you know,
I'm a Laker fan. I want a guy like Herb
Jones for the Lakers. It just seems like such a
long shot. I don't know if they have enough. I
(27:59):
don't know if the Pelicans want to get rid of him.
Brooklyn really should flip Michael Porter Junior for another first
round pick so they can say they turned Cam Johnson
into two first round picks. The Pistons have the means
with which to make that happen. I think they should
be front and center in the Michael Porter Junior race.
And again, he adds another element to their defense too.
(28:20):
He's not quite as good on the ball as a
guy like Tobias Harris for obvious reasons. He's not as
quick and he's not as physical. But he's a very
good defensive rebounder for a team that's what fourteenth in
defensive rebounding overall this season. He's a very good secondary
rim protector, which can help for a couple of undersized centers.
He's a guy that is like a dead eye, knockdown,
catch and shoot shooter that also has the ability to
(28:40):
drive closeouts and do a little bit of work on
the ball. He'd be a beautiful transition weapon for those
kick aheads from Kate Cunningham. I just think in general,
he's the guy that rounds everything out for them. I
think he's the guy that they should be lining up for.
But this is a truly special basketball team. And when
you can defend like that and you can win on
the margins like that, you put Kate in position to
lift you over the top, and I think they're absolutely
(29:02):
a threat to make it to the NBA Finals this year.
On the Celtics front, it's just a bad matchup for
their guards in a lot of ways. Like Derek White
showed some impressive shot making, like over the top shot
making in that second half that helped keep them in it,
but all of their guards, including Derek, struggled to like
truly break down the Pistons defense, meaning like break them
(29:23):
down in a way that generates easy shots, not tough
over the top shots. Like Jalen Brown was really the
only guy who looked comfortable driving the basketball in this game.
Jalen was fantastic. He was also a battering ram last night,
just bullying through guys to the front of the rim
following his own misses for offensive rebounds. It was super impressive.
Jalen again like in a physical, blood bath type of game,
(29:44):
and it's a tough Detroit team. I thought he was
really really good, but I found myself feeling like this
is the sort of matchup or a guy like Jason
Tatum becomes super helpful. I've talked about this concept a
lot with the Lakers as it pertains to their matchup
with a team like the thunder Rhetically, the best way
to counter ball pressure guards is to have big forwards,
(30:05):
big wings who can overpower them and either score easy
twos or draw the defense for kickouts. They have the
strength to counter the pressure, right And you saw that
just with how comfortable Jaylen Brown was last night. Another
guy like that in Jason Tatum, that gives you a
much better chance to score in a game last night
(30:27):
like last night, Like another layer, another method with which
to break down the defense. Again, that's the fundamental difference
between this guy's hitting tough shots and we're generating layups
and open threes that is gonna come from a player
that breaks down the defense, and having another guy like
Jayson Tatum, especially with how much more of a gifted
passer Tatum is even than a guy like Jaylen Brown.
(30:50):
I just think having him back, all I could think
about last night is I was like, man, this is
now that it seems like a real possibility, not just
a real possibility, it seems like a likelihood that Jayson
Tatum comes back and plays basketball this season. I just
thought about him as just another layer to help that offense,
because like, ultimately You're not gonna shoot better unless you
generate quality shots. Adam Taylor does a great job covering
(31:12):
the Celtics on an individual level. He was tweeting out
these stats last night. The Celtics are now three for
thirteen when shooting under thirty five percent from three. They're
on pace for thirty nine games this year shooting under
thirty five percent. That's the worst of the Joe Missoula era,
and they're winning those games at under a twenty five
percent clip. The only way to rectify that is generate
(31:33):
better shots. Last season, they generated the second most unguarded
catch and shoot three point attempts in the entire league.
This year they generate the seventh most. It's a modest
drop off, but it's a dropoff overall. To be clear,
I still think the Celtics offense is awesome. You can't
deny it. They're fourth in offensive rating this season. But
they just aren't quite as resilient as they were with
(31:54):
Tatum because their shot quality is a little bit worse
than it was last season. And I think again it's
that extra layer, that extra help in the form of
another big shot creator that can help break down ball pressure.
Teams like the Detroit Pistons. All Right, guys, It's all
I have for today is always a sincerely appreciate you
guys for supporting us in supporting the show. Again, I
mentioned this yesterday, but I have a little bit of
(32:15):
a scheduling conflict tonight, so I'm not gonna be able
to go live on YouTube after the n Season Tournament final,
but we will have a reaction to it first thing
tomorrow morning. Again, that's all I have for today is
always a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us, and
I will see you tomorrow morning for in season tournament
finale reaction.
The volume. All right, welcod to Hoops Tonight. You're at
the volume heavy Tuesday, everybody. Hope all you guys are
having a great week. Just a quick show today, we're
gonna hit both of the peacock games from last night.
(00:23):
So the Denver Nuggets got another win over the Houston
Rockets at one point, scoring seven consecutive times in crunch
time against that Houston defense to get a big win.
And then in the tail end of the show, we're
going to talk about Kay Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons
winning their fourteenth clutch game of the season. Against the
Detroit Pistons, I'm gonna be really zooming in on their
defense though, which has been driving a lot of their
(00:45):
success this season. You guys are the job. Before we
get started, subscribed to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel, scroll
down and like this video. It really helps us if
you take a second, hit that like button. And then
if you want to get mail bag questions in, I'm
gonna be recording the mail bag on Thursday this week,
so make sure you guys get your questions in before Thursday.
All Right, let's talk some basketball. So another instant classic
(01:05):
in Denver between the Rockets and the Nuggets and what's
been a very entertaining regular season in the NBA. I
talked about yesterday in our power ranking segment. If you
guys remember about how much I was really enjoying the
Rockets clutch offense. I just think they get really good
shots for a team that doesn't have your traditional point
guard or your traditional super high level playmaker, like high
(01:27):
level passing talent right and their top ten in clutch
offensive rating this season, and they had a one to
nineteen clutch offensive rating against Denver last night. And then
you have the Nuggets, who haven't been great statistically in
the clutch. The season is kind of an outlier for them,
but they have the best half court offense in the
entire NBA by a pretty decent margin right now, and
they've historically been one of the most reliable clutch kind
(01:50):
of like half court slowdown offenses that we've seen. And
so a matchup basically between two very high level clutch
offenses and that did not disappoint. We had an epic
show down a high level offense down the stretch and
otherworldly shot making. All four stars showed up. I want
to talk about that a little bit later on in
the show, but it was a very very interesting battle
(02:10):
down the stretch, and both teams, essentially with the way
they were attacking on offense, were trying to put the
opposing big in action. Everything that both teams were doing
on both ends of the floor, there were a handful
of like little mix ups, like Jamal Murray had a
possession where he randomly posted up Reed Shepherd to hit
a little right shoulder fad Kevin Durant had a possession
where he randomly tried to attack Spencer Jones in the
(02:33):
middle of the floor, missed a little right shoulder fade
away around the left elbow. But other than that, it
was a steady diet of attacking for Denver attacking Shangoon
in pick and roll and for Houston attacking Jokic in
pick and roll. And the reason why is because neither
team wanted to switch the action. Denver actually tried switching
it twice the play where Shangun hit what could have
(02:54):
been the game winner if it wasn't for the late
free throw from Jamal Murray. What happened on that play
two man game with Kadie and Shangoon, they switch it.
That leaves Spencer Jones on Alpern Shangoon in the middle
of the floor. He powered through him, got to that
little right shoulder hook, that lefty hook that put the
rockets up one and then there was another one. It
(03:14):
was a little bit earlier in the game where it
was like a little less than two minutes left in regulation.
Whereas a reed Shepherd Shangun pick and roll, they also
switched it more of like a peel switch. So Tim
Hardaway Junior ends up peeling off and Jokic ends up
following reed shepherd out to the right corner. They try
to interchange back and while Yokic just closing out to
Shangoon right there around the high like the charge circle area,
(03:37):
Kevin Durant hits, Shangun hits a little easy too, and
so when they tried switching it, they gave up a
couple of easy buckets. So they were trying really hard
not to switch it. And on the other end of
the floor, same exact thing. They weren't gonna switch Shangoon
onto Jamal Murray. And so as a result, there were
all sorts of these little like you know, classic pick
and roll sequences that we saw down the tail end
of this game against drop coverage looks. So the guard
(04:01):
was chasing over the top and the big was coming
pretty up close to the level, and both teams are
getting good looks out of it. Like we had pocket
passes that led to four on threes that led to
open corner three. Spencer Jones got two wide open corner
threes in the right corner off of tags of Jokic
on the roll. Shane Gouon got tagged on a roll
that led to a wide open three for Jabari Smith
(04:23):
in the left corner. A lot of those like classic sequences, right,
What are other classic drop covered sequences, pull up jump shots.
Kevin Durant hits a pull up three over NICOLEA Jokic
in a drop coverage on the right wing. Towards the
end of regulation, Reed Shepherd hit a pull up three
on the left wing against the drop coverage look in
crunch time, I was actually amazed at how often Houston
(04:46):
was running their ball screen action through Reed Shephard down
the stretch. And you know, to his credit, most of
his reps were good reps. There weren't really any reps
in there where I was like, oh, Reid didn't make
the right decision or he took a bad shot. As
a matter of fact, he pretty much did the right
thing on every single one of those reps. But it
was just kind of strange that they ran through him
as much as they did when Kevin Durant wasn't quite
(05:07):
as involved in the offense. Yokic hit a couple of threes.
Those were classic kind of pick and pop style actions.
I talk about this all the time, but the pick
and pop is like the antidote to any sort of
drop coverage because the drop coverage essentially leaves the big
sagging back against the ball handler, maybe a little closer
to the level, but dealing with the ball handler any
(05:29):
of the guard chasing over the top. So if the
big doesn't roll into the drop coverage but instead pops
out to the three point line, he's going to be
wide open every single time. And both threes that he
hit were essentially picking pops. Won a very traditional pick
and pop with Jamal Murray where he set the screen,
popped out to the top of the key, Jamal pitched
it back he hit a three. The other one, Jamal
(05:50):
is actually cutting in an off ball action off of Joki.
Jokic is just holding the ball out up top. This
is the one that was just over a minute left
in regulation, and Jamal comes off of a little screen
from Tim Hardaway Junior and then curls around Jokic. And
what happens, Shang Gun has to drop back to help
on Jamal cutting, which leaves Jokic open. He just rises
(06:12):
up and knocks it down. So even though Jokic had
the ball that whole time, it's still fundamentally as a
coverage works the same way as a pick and pop
against drop because the big is dropping the on ball
guy that in this case, Jokic is popping out and
he just hits that three over the top. And so
as a result, like both teams just could not get
a stop down the stretch of this game because of
(06:35):
the simple fact that they were unable to deal with
their uh to get stops with their bigs in these
pick and roll actions. Jamal Murray I thought did a
masterful job of managing the ball screens the entirety of
crunch time generated a ton of advantages just by getting
the ball to Jokic in the pocket. He had one
where one of the consistent things that Denver was doing
(06:56):
down the stretch of this game is they were trying
to get Amen Thompson off of Jamal Murray. So the
easy way to do that is just to have Tim
Hardaway Junior come over and set an early screen. You
set that early screen to get read Shepherd switched on
to Jamal, then you run whatever action you want to run.
But they had to play with Jamal just rejected the
screen on Tim Hardaway Junior and toasted him and Thompson
(07:16):
off the dribble. Shane Gun had to fly back in
rotation easy little pocket past to Jokic, swing to the corner,
wide open spencer Jones three another one where he got
Read Shepherd in a switch early screen from Tim Hardaway
gets red Shepherd switched on to him, then he runs
the ball screen with Jokic. He easily gets read Shepherd
caught on the screen. That forces Shangun to step up
(07:39):
easy pocket past the Jokic. Kevin Durant taggs another wide
open corner three for Shanegun. So what's the natural progression there?
If Jamal Murray's torching you in the pocket, Shangun's gonna
be hesitant to leave the pocket, right, So that first
layup that Jamal gets in overtime. What happens there, He's
driving off the left side in a ball screen with Joki,
(08:00):
which Shangun doesn't want to help because he's getting killed
in the pocket. So Jamal is able to go right
by Shangoun and get a wide open layup. And then
we continued to see Jamal hunt Reed Shepherd. The first
bucket he got in ot was that little right shoulder fade.
He got Reed Shepherd on a switch, walked him down
to the right block, backed him down and hit a
little right shoulder fade again. They scored on seven consecutive
(08:22):
possessions spanning the tail end of the fourth quarter in
the start of overtime, and Jamal Murray was masterful running
those ball screens in that sequence. And really where it
all turned around where the Nuggets were able to take
an advantage is they got three straight stops to start overtime.
And one of the things that they did in order
to try to force Houston into making a mistake is
(08:45):
they were bringing Jokic up high to the level. They
ended up hitting Shangun on a short real pass on
the first play of overtime, and he missed Jabari Smith
wide open under the basket because he missed him. The
play kind of broke down. It ended up in a tough,
contested mid range pull up from Reed Shephard on their
second possession of overtime. I thought Kevin Durank kind of
(09:05):
rushed an ISO on Spencer Jones just dribbled right up
into a tough, little left elbow jumper that he left
short on the rim. And then we finally got to
see a switch work for Denver as they switched Cam
Johnson onto Shangoon and Shangun missed a left shoulder hook
over Cam Johnson. And so three straight misses from Houston
to start overtime, three straight makes from Denver to start overtime.
(09:29):
We had a seven point lead. They were unable to
recover from that, even with Jokic fouling out of the game.
And that's really the crux of the problem when it
comes to guarding the Denver Nuggets in a close game.
They've gone through again if you look at those sequences, right.
So both teams were struggling to guard the pick and roll,
but there was a read that got missed on a
Houston ball screen. To start overtime, they hit a short
(09:51):
role to Jabari Smith or to Shanguon and Jabari Smith
was wide open in the dunker spot on the right side,
Jabari alpurn misses him, whereas on the other end of
the floor, whenever they got their four on threes, Jokch
is on time, on target, making the right read immediately
every single time. And that's the thing. Like these guys,
like Denver fans have been celebrating this thing. They're calling
(10:15):
it yok miss and I believe I'm if I'm reading
the tea leaves here correctly, they're just celebrating that. Around
Christmas in twenty sixteen was when Nikola Jokic entered the
starting lineup for them, and it was like essentially the
beginning of the Nikola Jokic era. And it's crazy because
you go back and you watch footage for back then
and it's like there's Jokich Murray two man game taking
place damn near ten years ago. Guys, like that's the
(10:38):
crazy thing about this, Like there's no good answer for
them because they've been seeing all of this shit for
ten years. If you run a traditional drop, they're gonna
kill you with Jokic popping to the top of the
key or Jamal Murray Hitt and pull up jumpers. If
you key in on Jokic on the roll, Jamal's just
gonna drive right by you for a layup like he
did to start overtime. Right Like, if you defend the
(10:59):
action three on two, yo Kich is so good at
making that skip to the corner immediately on time on
target that it becomes an extremely difficult rotation for the
defense to make. Those were wide open looks for Spencer Jones,
like wide, wide open looks. And then if you do switch,
which Houston didn't really try down the stretch of this game,
(11:19):
But if you do switch, that's two of the very
best one on one players in the league. And maybe
Houston probably should have tried that, but I'm not sure
it would have mattered because again Yo kich is probably
going right to the post and he's getting either a
great shot for himself or drawing that second defender and
causing the same issue again. Like that was really the
gist of the battle there, that both a crunch time
(11:40):
offenses were scoring at will, but Denver was able to
get a kill a sequence of three straight stops to
start overtime while they continued to score on the other end,
and that really was the difference in the game. Now,
as far as the late game officiating goes, Houston fans
are pissed off this morning because of a couple of
bad calls at the end of the game, specifically a
(12:00):
foul and a Jokic spin move. I didn't see. This
is the one with Kevin Durant kind of raked over
the top and it looked like he might have blocked
him clean. I didn't get a good solow motion replay
of this one, so I couldn't tell you for sure
whether or not it was a good call, but yeah,
I could have gone either way, right and like if
it was a non call in the moment, I don't
think it would have been too much of an issue.
And then the foul on a Men Thompson where he
trips Tim Hardaway Junior kind of flashing up to the
(12:21):
top of the key at the end of regulation, which
on replay it did look like a Men Thompson's shin
hit Tim Hardaway's foot and initiated the trip. But at
the same time, it's like kind of incidental contact that
happens all the time in basketball, and so I understand
why that frustrates Rocket fans. But I'm gonna say the
same thing that I've said every single time something like
(12:42):
this comes up. Officiating is a wild card at the
end of games. It is a variable you have to
be prepared for. It can go in your favor and
it can go against you. There's gonna be a half
dozen or so whistles in any crunch time game, and
you might get four the calls, and then to go
against you, you might get two of the calls in
four go against you. That's literally just the nature of
(13:03):
the way these games go down the stretch, and it
remains to me an absolute loser thing to focus on.
Like you were playing against the Nuggets, down three of
their top six players, and down all of their top athletes,
No Aaron Gordon, no Christian Brown, no Peyton Watson. They
had zero vertical spacing on the floor. There were multiple
(13:26):
sequences or Spencer Jones ended up in the dunker spot
and Yokich either didn't throw it because he's like, he's
not gonna be able to score there against all that size,
or there was one where they did throw it to
him and he had a deep sealed against Alpern Shangouni.
He took like a little left shoulder hook and he
smoked it off the back of the room because he's
shooting over a dud who's taller than it. They didn't
have the oh, I can just throw this lob to
(13:46):
Aaron Gordon and he's dunking it, or I can throw
this lob to Peyton Watson and he's dunking it. You
had more than enough going in your favor to win
a game like this. Do you think you lost because
of a single Jamal Murray free throw off of a
tripping foul? Or do you think you lost because you
gave up a one forty four offensive rating to Denver
(14:10):
in ten minutes of clutch basketball last night? Do you
think you lost because you allowed them to score on
seven consecutive possessions spanning the end of the fourth quarter
in overtime. That's why you lost the game, not because
of a couple of questionable calls. I just think that's
a loser way to approach the game. And frankly, it
wasn't like there was some blatant, obvious screw job going on. Well,
(14:34):
they were calls that were kind of coin flippy calls
that went against you, which is literally something we all
know that can happen in a crunch time basketball game.
And that's actually the bigger picture thing I want to
focus on for both of these teams. Both of these
teams have struggled a little bit in the clutch this year.
Houston is six and six and clutch games and Denver
is four and six, And for both of them, it's
(14:55):
been their clutch defense that's been the problem. And Houston
six clutch losses, they've logged a one forty defensive rating.
In Denver's six clutch losses, they've logged a one fifty
two defensive rating. And for both teams it's the same problem.
They're bigs get attacked in ball screens and they can't
(15:16):
get stops, and you just have to find a way,
like Denver found a way in overtime. They tried putting
two on the ball and Shanggun missed a Reid in
the middle of the floor to Jabari Smith in the
dunker spot, and they tried switching cam Johnson bodied up
four shang Gun into a hook shot that he actually missed.
Houston literally could not find a way to get a
(15:38):
stop until Jokic fouled out of the game. That's why
they lost. If you can't get a stop on seven
consecutive possessions, you don't get to bitch about the refs.
And the same goes for Denver. Like if Denver wants
to flip the script on their clutch issues this year
and have some sustained success outside of just last night,
they got to be better on defense. They almost lost
(16:01):
this game too because they couldn't get a stop at
the end of regulation. But at least with Denver you
can look at some reinforcements on the way again, they
were down their three best athletes. One of the things
that Denver has done consistently over the years to get
stops in crunch time is put Yokic up at the
level and trust their ability to rotate on the back line.
(16:22):
That's worked for them in the past, but it's built
on those athletes on the back line, which they don't
have right now. For the record, I do think that's
what Houston should do too. I would bring Shandun up higher,
either in super high drops where he's up at the
level or just straight up switch and then trust your
ability to rotate on the back line to help and
recover behind him if he switches. Those are the kinds
(16:45):
of things that I think accentuate Houston's strength as a roster,
which is their athleticism. But all four stars showed out
in this one. I thought KD was amazing. He didn't
get many opportunities on offense, but he did capitalize when
he did, and he was a problem for Denver with
his defense down the stretch, his rim protection, He's he
provides an element defensively in terms of that vertical rim
(17:08):
protection that they haven't had really in this era. And
it's kind of a force multiplier for this team because
of how big and strong they are at the center
position and how athletic they are on the perimeter. KD
just brings that other layer and he was blocking shots.
He blocked Jokic at the rim, He blocked Jamal Murray
at the rim. He stripped Nicole Jokic on a double
team on a post up late in this game. He
was like a defensive wrecking ball. And it's a casual reminder,
(17:31):
like you know KD in the times that he has
won championships, namely in Golden State, he was an incredible
defensive weapon for those teams as well. Shane Gun if
you remember the last game, the game down in Houston,
jokichate his lunch. I thought Shanegun had a much better
showing this time, thirty three to ten, and ten almost
won the game late beating Spencer Jones on that switch.
(17:54):
Did a ton of work one on one against Jokich
in this game. Was attacking him a lot early in
the game. Hit a class like somber shuffle shot over
the top of Jokic in the middle of the floor,
drove by him for a layup, and overtime did a
lot of damage. I thought he acquitted himself much much
better this time than he did the last time they
faced off, but ultimately jokicch and Murray were better. Jokic
(18:15):
goes for thirty nine, fifteen and ten. Just bullied Houston
at the basket. He had four putbacks in this game.
One of the things with Jokic that's so ridiculous is
when he catches the ball in the middle of the
floor and he shoots one of his floaters, he just
follows his shot by battering ramming his way to the
rim and he just gets so many offensive rebounds that way.
He had four of those where he missed a shot,
got his own rebound and just put it right back
(18:35):
up and in we talk about his kickouts in the
short roll situations. Those were key generating those quality looks
for Spencer Jones, the five threes that he hit in
this game, killing the rockets popping out of ball screens.
And then Jamal Murray thirty five, three and five was
a maister at the end of the game and pick
and roll generating advantages. He did a really good job
(18:56):
getting to the foul line. He had a play where
he saw Shane gun trying to fight or an inverted
ball screen and he knew he was like Shaneguon's gonna
drop his shoulder and run me over. So he basically
like took a charge so to speak, on a screen,
got some free throws out of it. Had another one
where he got Shangon in a switch where he dribbled
all the way around the floor and then drove on
him and ended up getting to the foul line. I
think he had like fourteen or fifteen foul shot attempts
(19:17):
in this game. Did a good job working his way
to the line, and then again just making all those
decisions and pick and roll that ran the Denver offense
down the stretch, highly entertaining game. I would love to
see these two teams face off in a playoff series.
Kind of an interesting sort of set of strengths and
weaknesses between these two teams because they're so good, but
they just just have that issue getting stops at the
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(19:40):
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New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia. Piston Celtics really just
(21:08):
a masterpiece from Kate Cunningham. The Pistons defense was phenomenal
in this game and really strangled the life out of
that red hot Celtics offense. That's been frying everybody. I
do want to deep dive into that concept, specifically that
defensive end of the floor here in a little bit.
But we have to start with Kate thirty two points
and tennis sists in this one ice the game with
back to back mid range pull ups over Derek White
(21:29):
and just looked really comfortable in his one on ones
down the stretch. In this game. It wasn't just Derek
White and like size mismatchups. He had a little iso
against Jordan Walsh where he just hit a couple of
scissor dribbles, got to that kind of left lane line
and just bumped him off with that right shoulder and
hit a short, little fade away. Hit it the same
kind of shot against Derek White, and then that nasty
spin move in the middle of the floor that ice
(21:51):
the game. He's again we talked about this last week,
but he's been the second best clutch player in the
entire NBA this season behind Shake kild of Alexander. He's
twenty six for forty eight eight from the field. A
few more clutch buckets for him last night. He also
had some big catch and shoot threes in the second half.
One off of a post up at Tobias Harris and
then another off of a baseline drive by Tobias Harris.
And that's encouraging because that's been a random week point
(22:15):
for kid this season. Like he's been considerably better on
pull up threes than he was last year. He was
like thirty two percent last year. He's like thirty six
and a half percent this year. But his catch and
shoot shooting has fallen off a cliff. He's been brutally
bad in catch and shoot three point shot situations. Good
signed last night him hitting those couple in the second half.
But the formula for the Pistons is clear. They're a
(22:37):
good offense, but not a great one in the large sample.
Nothing super surprising there. They play a lot of defensive
personnel and they only have one super high level offensive player,
So they're not the kind of team that's going to
go hang a one twenty two offensive rating like some
of these other teams in the league. But they're an
absolutely dominant team on defense, and they're absolutely dominant on
(22:58):
the margins. They can keep any game close, and then
when they get into a close game late, they have
this devastating combination of being an elite defense. They're the
best clutch defensive rebounding team in the NBA this year.
And then Caid is just this surgical shot creator when
they get into the half court, and that just wasn't
(23:18):
the case last year. Caid was bad in the clutch
last year. He had as many turnovers as assists. He
was twenty two for sixty four from the field in
clutch last year, So he already has four more clutch
shots made than he did the entirety of last season.
Their defense wasn't as good last year. Their defensive rebounding team,
they were like bottom half in the league in clutch
(23:40):
defensive rebounding and so as a result, last year in
forty four clutch games, they were twenty one in twenty three.
They reversed all those trends this year. Now they're fourteen
to four in clutch games. That's a huge part of
why they are where they are where they're at in
the standings. But I want to get back to the defense,
because that's the thing that makes this sustainable. Sometimes, especially
(24:03):
in a smaller sample a third of the season, sometimes
shot making can go in and sometimes it can go cold,
right like Denver for example. That's a historically great clutch offense,
and they were great last night, but they've generally been
down in the clutch this year compared to years past.
Sometimes the shots just don't go in, but defense is
(24:24):
much more consistent night tonight. And this Piston's defense is
elite by any measure. They're now second in the entire
NBA in defensive rating, right behind Oklahoma City. Albeit there's
a gap there because Okay s he's so transcendently great.
But they're the second best defense in the league and
it's not hard to see why on tape. Similarly to
ok See, and this is just a formula that works
in the NBA, the Pistons have like a half dozen
(24:47):
dudes who sit in a damn stance and get up
into the basketball and can really guard on the perimeter.
They're super athletic and strong. They get up underneath ball
handlers that make them uncomfortable. One of the big swing
portions of this game again, those bench groups and the
end of the third quarter and started the fourth quarter
where you've got some combination of Jade and Ivy and
(25:08):
Karis Zavonte Green and Ron Holland out there. Those guys
had the Celtics guards in Hell. Javonte Green had one
of the highlights of the season to play where he
kind of stonewalled a lefty drive from Peyton Pritchard, caused
him to lose control of the basketball, swiped it from him,
ran out to the other end, and just jackhammer smashed
it on the entire Celtics team and ended up bumping
(25:29):
into the ref and picking up a technical. Unbelievable highlight
from Javonte Green. They had seventeen points off of Boston
turnovers in this game, by the way, that came right
off the heels of him hitting a massive three off
the right wing to beat some nail help they were
swarming at the rim. I thought it was one of
Isaiah Stewart's better defensive games this season, especially in that
second half of some of his rotations at the rim.
(25:50):
The Celtics were cold from three all night, but I
thought the Pistons really played them into that result. Like
the Celtics attempted thirty nine threes, but Synergi only sified
nine of them as unguarded catch and shoots, meaning thirty
of those thirty nine threes were either off the dribble
or some form of contested catch and shoot, and again,
(26:12):
there is just a proven formula for winning games in
the NBA that Detroit's following here defend at an extremely
high level, win the margins like this is crazy. They're
plus two point three points every single night in the
fast break, they're plus one point two points every night,
and second chance points. They're plus three point nine points
(26:33):
every night in points off of turnovers, and they win
their bench units. They're plus seven this year per one
hundred possessions. With Kaid off the floor, they get dribble
penetration from guys like Ron Holland and Jaden Ivy, just
hard rips to the basket where they can get easy layups.
Kris LeVert was a zone buster last night, hit a
couple of huge threes off the right wing and had
big driving layup against the zone. All of those guards
(26:56):
get up into the ball. Non kid lineups again were
plus five last night. So if you're defending at an
elite level and you're winning on the margins, that keeps
you in every game. Then you get into a close
game light and they have one of the best clutch
players in the entire NBA, a half court surgeon that
can beat any coverage in pick and roll and can
beat mismatches in ISO. You blitz him. He showed early
(27:17):
this year he's just gonna make the right read every
time the Pistons find a way to score on the
four and threes, you run a drop coverage, he just
methodically Lucas style, works his way into the lane, shields
off the defender, and gets some sort of quality look
for himself. You switch. He's one of the best ISO
scorers in the league. He's just a problem in that
sort of slow down half court environment. Do I think
(27:38):
the Pistons could use a little bit more offensive firepower? Yeah,
this is still my favorite Michael Porter junior team. I
just think he rounds out things perfectly in their best lineups,
like essentially as a massive upgrade of Tobias Harris. And
I think it's like a realistic thing. Like you know,
I'm a Laker fan. I want a guy like Herb
Jones for the Lakers. It just seems like such a
long shot. I don't know if they have enough. I
(27:59):
don't know if the Pelicans want to get rid of him.
Brooklyn really should flip Michael Porter Junior for another first
round pick so they can say they turned Cam Johnson
into two first round picks. The Pistons have the means
with which to make that happen. I think they should
be front and center in the Michael Porter Junior race.
And again, he adds another element to their defense too.
(28:20):
He's not quite as good on the ball as a
guy like Tobias Harris for obvious reasons. He's not as
quick and he's not as physical. But he's a very
good defensive rebounder for a team that's what fourteenth in
defensive rebounding overall this season. He's a very good secondary
rim protector, which can help for a couple of undersized centers.
He's a guy that is like a dead eye, knockdown,
catch and shoot shooter that also has the ability to
(28:40):
drive closeouts and do a little bit of work on
the ball. He'd be a beautiful transition weapon for those
kick aheads from Kate Cunningham. I just think in general,
he's the guy that rounds everything out for them. I
think he's the guy that they should be lining up for.
But this is a truly special basketball team. And when
you can defend like that and you can win on
the margins like that, you put Kate in position to
lift you over the top, and I think they're absolutely
(29:02):
a threat to make it to the NBA Finals this year.
On the Celtics front, it's just a bad matchup for
their guards in a lot of ways. Like Derek White
showed some impressive shot making, like over the top shot
making in that second half that helped keep them in it,
but all of their guards, including Derek, struggled to like
truly break down the Pistons defense, meaning like break them
(29:23):
down in a way that generates easy shots, not tough
over the top shots. Like Jalen Brown was really the
only guy who looked comfortable driving the basketball in this game.
Jalen was fantastic. He was also a battering ram last night,
just bullying through guys to the front of the rim
following his own misses for offensive rebounds. It was super impressive.
Jalen again like in a physical, blood bath type of game,
(29:44):
and it's a tough Detroit team. I thought he was
really really good, but I found myself feeling like this
is the sort of matchup or a guy like Jason
Tatum becomes super helpful. I've talked about this concept a
lot with the Lakers as it pertains to their matchup
with a team like the thunder Rhetically, the best way
to counter ball pressure guards is to have big forwards,
(30:05):
big wings who can overpower them and either score easy
twos or draw the defense for kickouts. They have the
strength to counter the pressure, right And you saw that
just with how comfortable Jaylen Brown was last night. Another
guy like that in Jason Tatum, that gives you a
much better chance to score in a game last night
(30:27):
like last night, Like another layer, another method with which
to break down the defense. Again, that's the fundamental difference
between this guy's hitting tough shots and we're generating layups
and open threes that is gonna come from a player
that breaks down the defense, and having another guy like
Jayson Tatum, especially with how much more of a gifted
passer Tatum is even than a guy like Jaylen Brown.
(30:50):
I just think having him back, all I could think
about last night is I was like, man, this is
now that it seems like a real possibility, not just
a real possibility, it seems like a likelihood that Jayson
Tatum comes back and plays basketball this season. I just
thought about him as just another layer to help that offense,
because like, ultimately You're not gonna shoot better unless you
generate quality shots. Adam Taylor does a great job covering
(31:12):
the Celtics on an individual level. He was tweeting out
these stats last night. The Celtics are now three for
thirteen when shooting under thirty five percent from three. They're
on pace for thirty nine games this year shooting under
thirty five percent. That's the worst of the Joe Missoula era,
and they're winning those games at under a twenty five
percent clip. The only way to rectify that is generate
(31:33):
better shots. Last season, they generated the second most unguarded
catch and shoot three point attempts in the entire league.
This year they generate the seventh most. It's a modest
drop off, but it's a dropoff overall. To be clear,
I still think the Celtics offense is awesome. You can't
deny it. They're fourth in offensive rating this season. But
they just aren't quite as resilient as they were with
(31:54):
Tatum because their shot quality is a little bit worse
than it was last season. And I think again it's
that extra layer, that extra help in the form of
another big shot creator that can help break down ball pressure.
Teams like the Detroit Pistons. All Right, guys, It's all
I have for today is always a sincerely appreciate you
guys for supporting us in supporting the show. Again, I
mentioned this yesterday, but I have a little bit of
(32:15):
a scheduling conflict tonight, so I'm not gonna be able
to go live on YouTube after the n Season Tournament final,
but we will have a reaction to it first thing
tomorrow morning. Again, that's all I have for today is
always a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us, and
I will see you tomorrow morning for in season tournament
finale reaction.
Host
Jason Timpf
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