November 12, 2025 • 33 mins
Jason reacts to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets staying hot with a win over Russell Westbrook and the Sacramento Kings. Then he breaks down how Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder dominate the Golden State Warriors in Steph Curry's first game back from illness + Tyrese Maxey and the Philadelphia 76ers skate by Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, Well, go to Hoopsini. You're at
the volume heavy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all you guys are
having a great week so far. Got a quick show
(00:21):
for you guys today. We're just gonna quickly touch on
three games from last night. The two teams that I
have in the top tier of championship contenders, the Denver
Nuggets and the Oklahoma City Thunder, both cruise to wins
last night. We're gonna be briefly touching on both of
those games that At the tail end of the show,
we had a fun kind of like guard versus guard
slugfest between the Philadelphia seventy six Ers and the Boston Celtics,
(00:44):
as the Sixers end up coming out with a win
late on a put back by Kelly Oubrey as Philly
improves to seven and four on the season. You guys
owe the joke before we get started. To subscribe to
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(01:05):
a review on that front. Jackson's doing an incredible work
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Make sure you guys follow us there for more content
throughout the season. In the last, but not least, if
you want to keep getting mail bag questions into our
mail bags, we're we're gonna be recording another one on Friday.
Make sure you get them into our full episodes on YouTube.
In the comments right mail bag colon, write your question.
(01:26):
We'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of
the season. One last announcement before we get started, We're
continuing our watch playback watch along parties with tonight's Thunder
Lakers game. So six point thirty pm Pacific time, come
hang out on playback for Lakers Thunder. We're gonna be
breaking the game down as it goes along. Anthony Orwin
(01:49):
is going to be joining us in the first quarter
to hang out for a little bit. We'll also be
taking some callers later on. The show should be a
fun one, so make sure you guys come and hang
out for that game. All right, let's talk some basketball,
So Nuggets, King this is where we're going to start today.
The King's hung tough for three quarters in this one.
They did a lot of damage in transition, shot the
ball well, especially through the first three quarters of the game.
(02:10):
Russ didn't shoot the ball well in this game, although
he shot the ball well off the catch this season,
but he did a lot of damage in this game
with his rim pressure and his playmaking. I thought Sacramento's
kings played well ex kings. Sacramento's biggs played well in
like that kind of short range, little release valvearia, making
little hook shots and push shots and floaters and things
along those lines. So the Bonus did a lot of
(02:31):
damage there early in the game. I thought the Bonus
in general kind of anchored Sacramento early in this game
with his passing and with his finishing around the basket.
But they just got absolutely demolished by Nicola Jokic. They
opted for a lot of single coverage with him with
their bigs, and every single time that sort of thing
happens with Jokic, he just kind of flips a switch
(02:51):
into scorer mode, and those dudes like he just bullied
every single one of them for not just buckets but
easy buckets right at the front of the rim. He
did it to Sabonis, he did it to Precious Sachua,
he did it to Drew Ubanks. He was sixteen for
nineteen from the field for thirty five points, fifteen rebounds,
(03:11):
five of which were offensive rebounds. A lot of damage
done on the offensive glass in this game for Denver
and seven assists for Yokics. By the way, remember Jokic's
kind of like slow start relative to the other top
tier superstars in the league. Wall came out guns blazing well.
In Jokic's last five games. He's averaging thirty two points,
twelve rebounds, and twelve assists on seventy three percent from
(03:33):
the field, forty eight percent from three, and eighty five
percent from the line. Just completely outrageous. He's been very
active defensively in this span, two point six stocks per game. Again,
this is for the second best defense in the league.
Here in the early going, and then continuing a season
long trend where the bench when Jokic is off the
(03:53):
floor hasn't been nearly as bad as they were in
previous years, the Nuggets bench really blew the game open,
especially in the early fourth quarter. There's a lineup that
they've been using that's mostly been bad to start the
season that finally got going last night. It's a lineup
that I kind of like the structure on paper. It's
(04:14):
got these big, physical athletes on the front line, right,
It's got Yonas Valancunas, Peyton Watson, and Bruce Brown. A
bunch of guys that can do damage on the offensive
glass guys that you know, obviously between Bruce and Peyton,
that can do damage defensively flying around. Yonas brings like
that traditional schematic anchor on both ends of the floor
is the guy who can run drop coverage, but also
(04:35):
as a guy that can set screens and be your
passing volcrum also play out of the post on the
offensive end of the floor. But for any spacing concerns
you have with that group, you have your two best
over the top, kind of like super aggressive shot makers
in the backcourt, Tim Hardaway Junior and Jamal Murray. Jamal
Murray and Tim Hardaway, they both excel at making contested shots,
(04:58):
which is something they're gonna have to in a lineup
that has guys like Bruce Brown, Peyton Watson, and Yonas
Valanciunis on it. That's a unit that should be able
to do a lot of damage, but for whatever reason,
to this point in the season, it's been a lot
of things. They haven't been very good defensively, They weirdly
haven't been good on the defensive glass for having as
many kind of scrappy rebounders as they've had, and they
(05:19):
haven't been very good on offense. But last night they
finally got it going, did a bunch of damage on
the offensive glass, and their first shift in the first
half that was a big thing that stood out to
me just kind of watching them physically, Like in that
first half, Bruce Brown gets an offensive rebound put back,
Jonas Valenciunas gets an offensive rebound put back. That lineup,
(05:40):
by the way, grabbed a third of their own misses
in last night's games. Jonas actually in the fourth quarter,
Run got a big offensive rebound where he just went
up and dunked it in traffic as well. But they
were able to score as a unit. That was really
the big thing that was different from some of their
previous shifts that they've had as a unit. Jamal was great,
(06:01):
especially in that fourth quarter. Run was hitting his pull
up jump shot, was getting to the basket on Keon
Ellis and drawing fouls. He was just doing a bunch
of one on one damage to ke On Ellis, who's
just way too small for him. Bruce Brown had a
pick six layup with the deflection, chase it down, got
all the way down to the other end for a layup.
He hit a big three off of the right wing
on a skip pass. They were able to score the ball,
(06:23):
and then on the other end of the floor they
executed their game plan. It was for the Kings, it
was a Demart Rosen Russell Westbrook led unit and with DeRozan.
Basically the game plan was they were trying to essentially
remove Demarta Rosen from the equation and force them to
be a Russell Westbrook team. And so with Damar, they
were fronting any of his catches and then if he
(06:43):
did happen to catch, they were strong side zoning, So
they're bringing the big all the way over to the
opposite side and essentially having the on ball player just
play towards the middle, so that it essentially funnels Damar
right into where your strong side zone is. And then
obviously you're throwing kickout passes to guys that are not
necessarily very reputable shooters, and so they were just executing
(07:05):
their defensive game plan. They were shagging off of Russ
on his drives. They got a bunch of stops, and
they blew that game open. I think they were up
seventeen before Jokic even had to re enter the game.
And so really nice run from that Denver bench group
and an encouraging sign for a lineup that Denver needs
to be good. And again it makes some sense on paper,
(07:27):
it just needs to come together and work. A couple
other notes on the Denver front. Cam Johnson, I get
only five points and he's still, you know, struggling a bit,
But I do like how much more of an effort
David Adelman's making to get him involved, especially early in
the game. But there was a lot more two man
game reps with Jokic and Cam Johnson where Cam's coming
(07:49):
off of the screen and looking to get downhill in
the lane or to be active hitting Nikole Jokic in
the pocket, even when Jamal Murray was on the floor.
And I just think that's smart. They're making an investment there. Cam,
for whatever reason, didn't come into the season ready above
and beyond anything having to do with his aggressiveness, above
and beyond anything having to do with the opportunities he's
(08:11):
been given. He's also not making shots and missing layups
and making mistakes, and so a good portion of this
is Cam's fault for just not coming into the season
ready to play. But I do believe in him as
a basketball player when he's in rhythm and inform in
this system, and so you just got to keep investing
(08:31):
in him and hope that in the long run it
comes together into a version of Cam that can make
this team better than what they were with Michael Porter.
Junior hasn't been a good start, but I'm still a
big believer in I think he's still like their third
best plus minus guy behind Christian Brown and Nicole Jokic
in terms of on off numbers. So I'm still a
believer in it. I like the investments they've made and
(08:52):
to try to get him into a rhythm. It just
needs to eventually come together, which I believe it will.
This is a long season. If there's if there's a
league where you can afford to come into camp a
little out of shape, it's in the NBA. As long
as you avoid getting hurt and so I far Cam
has been available, he just needs to play better basketball
than he's been playing. Denver has won five in a row,
number two in offense and number two in defense to
(09:14):
start the year, really strong statistical performance. We said before
the year that Denver and OKC were the two teams
in the top tier, and it's looked very much like that,
as both teams have had thirteen or better net ratings
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Tennessee or Virginia. All right, Warriors Thunder really bad combination
for a blowout in the sense that you have the
champs playing some of their best basketball right now, and
(11:25):
then you have a Warriors team that's been in kind
of like a weeks long funk that's been fueled by
a brutal schedule with a lot of back to backs,
an illness that took Steph Curry out of the lineup
for a while, and a team wide inability to win
on the road. And the Warriors hung around early mainly
because they were turning Oka See over and they were
getting out in transition off of it. But Oka See
(11:47):
grabbed the lead late in the first quarter and basically
just ran away with that game. It was never even
really competitive. Anybody who was watching that game would have
seen pretty quickly the gigantic chasm and shot quality between
the two teams. Like ultimately, Shae was just doing a
better job of breaking down Golden State's defense than Steph
was doing of breaking down Oklahoma City's defense, and that
(12:09):
ultimately was the dynamic that was kind of trickling down
to every other part of the game. I thought Shaye
was doing a fantastic job of penetrating the first line
of Golden State's defense a lot of like rejecting ball
screens and so that he could avoid Draymond and get downhill.
He was making very good kickouts. I thought it was
a great floor game type of night from Shaye. I
think he had eleven assists, which was the second double
(12:32):
digit assist game of the season. Oklahoma City got fifteen
unguarded catch and shoot jump shot looks compared to just
ten for Golden States, so a pretty significant gap in
shot quality. And Shaye was also scoring in all sorts
of the usual Shaye ways, Like he was hitting step
back threes early in the game against some soft coverage
that Thunder were doing a lot of attacking Quinton Post
(12:54):
early in the game through Shae and also through Chet
in one on ones, and Shay ended up hitting a
little step back three against Quinton Posts on the left wing.
He was also getting all the way into the paint
he's hitting his little midrange looks all just the classic
shade stuff. Twenty eight points in just twenty eight minutes
of action last night, and again I thought he had
a very good floor game. He looked very in control
(13:15):
all night against a great Warriors defense and was just
consistently compromising them, making quick decisions breaking that defense down
so that his role players could capitalize on that attention.
And then on the other side, I just Steph just
wasn't very good last night at all. And I was
worried about him in this game because he'd been out
for a little while with his illness, and so much
(13:37):
of his game is predicated on conditioning, the conditioning to
consistently have his speed as he's running around to the
conditioning so that he gets that he gets good lift
on his jump shot after dribble combinations. And obviously your
conditioning is going to be affected when you have a break,
and it's going to be exacerbated when you've been ill,
right when you have an upper respiratory infection the way
(13:58):
that he did. And then you combine that with the
fact that Oklahoma City is just such a difficult defense
to score on under any circumstances. And to kind of
like put it all together, it's a bad matchup for
the Warriors. I've talked about this with Steph and the
Warriors for a little while, but like he can cause
real problems for big and slow teams because of his
(14:19):
movement and his ability to pull bigs out to the
level of screens. It just puts defenses into rotation and
then you're a faster team. And so if you're ahead
of them already in rotation and you've got a speed
advantage and you've got to read and react playmaking advantage,
you can really pick teams apart. But this is a very,
very very different Oklahoma City team. Cason Wallace guarded Steph
(14:40):
for most of the game and he was basically a
lockstep with him as a very quick guard that can
stay with him. Lost him on a couple back cuts
early in the game, but for the most part was
able to hang with him, and then there are no
weak links for him to attack. If he gets any
guard in a transition cross match, it's also a good
defender if he gets any guard switches and with the
guard guard screen, they're also a great defender. And then
Chet and Isaiah Hartenstein are both very mobile at the
(15:03):
center position. They are not big and slow. They are
big and fast, and so it just caused a lot
of problems for that Golden State offense. Even when Steph
managed to draw two to the ball, whether it was
through classic Steph gravity or if he you know, there
are several sequences where he'd come off a ball screen
and they'd come up to the level and basically chase him,
and he would kind of drag the two defenders with
(15:24):
him and then try to get rid of the ball.
I thought Oklahoma City did a wonderful job rotating out
of that. There was a classic example of it in
the second half. Early second half. Steph comes off of
a ball screen on the left side of Quinton Post
and he gets kind of down to like the left block,
extended out towards more like the short corner, and he
brings two guys with him on the play. Quinton Post
(15:45):
pops to the top of the key. I believe his
chet was the guy that was on Steph if I
remember correctly, and Isaiah Hartenstein, they throw the kick out
past the Quinton Post. Isaiah Hartenstein flies out in rotation,
chases Quinton Posts off the line, Post drives into the lane.
Aj Mitchell is guarding a. I think it was Pajemski,
I can't remember who it was on the on the
(16:07):
weak side of the form, might have been Kaminga. But
aj Mitchell ends up rotating out to the corner. After
Quentin Post makes a kick out passing Bam, the advantage
is gone. Steph comes off a screen, draws too, makes
the right read. But okay, see he's just so fast
in rotation that the advantage has gone, and all of
a sudden, everything you just did was for nothing. And
so there was even like a stretch there in the
(16:28):
second quarter where like you could tell that Steph was
getting flustered by just the ability for them to rotate
out of ball screens, and so he started looking to
attack their guards one on one, and he took like
three or four pretty questionable, like tough step back jump
shots in a row in that second quarter and missed
every single one of them. And you could tell too
that he wasn't getting great separation. It wasn't getting great
(16:50):
like lyft, Like it wasn't the textbook Steph like break
the dude off and get a clean look. Like they
were pretty tough shots that he was missing, and so
it's just, you know, it just was a rough night
for Steph and it was a bad It's a combination
of circumstances. You've got a team that's not playing well
in Golden State at large, right, You've got Steph coming
(17:11):
back from a break which affects his conditioning. He had
an upper respiratory illness which affects his conditioning even more,
and you're walking him right back into the damn blender
that is the Oklahoma City defense, and it just didn't
it just it just wasn't a good showing for Steph.
And again, like that was really the fundamental driver of
the blowout. Shay was consistently breaking down Golden State's defense
(17:33):
and Steph was just not able to break down Oklahoma
City's defense on the other end of the four. And
then things were just exacerbated down the roster by a
lack of support from secondary ball handling. Jimmy had a
bad night. He was not able to break down Oklahoma
City's defense in any real way outside of a few
broken plays where like kind of chaos type of sequences
where he'd get and ones or fouls. Johnathan coming has
(17:54):
scored the ball well, but he also had five turnovers,
and you're starting to see some of that like tunnel
vision stuff come back. A couple possessions in that third
quarter run where he just like tried to iso off
the top of the key and just put his head
down and either turned the ball over. There was one where,
like Draymond Green had just hit a three in the
left corner and he's been statistically one of Golden State's
best three point shooters this year. He's wide open in
(18:15):
the right corner and Kaminga doesn't see Draymond's man come
in a double team, and instead of making the easy
kickout pass to Draymond, he tries to power into his
spin move and then ends up just smoking a layup
at the rim. And so again like this is the
thing with Jonathan Kaminga. It's like, you know, played really
well to start the season, really improving as a read
and react player, but ultimately he's got to be able
(18:36):
to sustain it, especially against higher level competition, and this
was a big test against Oklahoma City. I don't want
to overdo the cominga stuff though, because again as a team,
everybody on the Warriors played poorly last night. So I
don't think it's fair to just like go after Kaminga,
but it was an elite Oklahoma City defense where Kaminga,
other than you know, scoring the basketball a little bit
the way that he did kind of struggled against the
(18:58):
speed and physicality that it brought to the t. And
then on the other end of the court, Chet Holmgren
played damn near a perfect game in support of Shay.
He gave a couple of one on one buckets to
Quinton Post early in the game. Nasty little step through,
remove a little left shoulder fade away right in the
middle of the lane. He burned Quinton Post in spot
up situations with threes. He was killing them in the
(19:18):
dunker spot off drop offs from Shay's drives. Shout out
to Shay too, really quality interior passes when he would
get downhill into the lane to Chet, and Chet just
goes up and dunks everything in that area, which can
be a problem. Twenty three points for Chet on nine
for nine shooting, all while being the dominant defensive force
that he always is, showing up high on steph screens,
(19:39):
being active with his hands to make the passes out
of their difficult cleaning up back cuts. He cleaned up
a steph backcut with the block on the left side
of the basket in the first half, controlling the defensive glass,
he had a strong rebounding game. Just Chet's playing really
damn good basketball. He's slotted very nicely into that second
best player on the team roll with jaydub Out, and
he's just been ki an ass. There's no way around it.
(20:01):
Aj Mitchell scored more points than any Warrior, Isaiah Joe
scored more points than any Warrior. Just it was outclassing
literally from the top down in the roster. Isaiah Hartenstein
dominated the offensive glass in the third quarter to help
blow the game open. Jalen Williams came in and torched
the Warriors with his three point shooting. They just dominated them.
(20:23):
I can't say enough about the job that Shay's doing
to continue to drive this offense through the injuries. I
can't say enough about how connected they look on defense.
I can't say enough about how physically imposing they look
on defense. They're just off to a great start in
their title defense. And watch out, because if they beat
the Lakers tonight, their next six games are super soft.
(20:47):
We'd be looking at an eighteen to one Thunder team
that is legitimately on pace to make a run at
seventy plus wins. A couple of notes for tonight's Lakers game,
we're gonna be covering it on playback, So six point
thirty pm Pacific time, come hang out with me on
we'll be watching UH Lakers Thunder in detail, kind of
breaking the game down as it goes. A couple of
things I have my eyes on. I really want to
(21:07):
see how they guard Luca. I don't know iflu Dort's
gonna play tonight. He didn't play last night, so I
have a feeling he's not going to. But if you
look at the roster, Jay Dubb, Loudort, Nowlex Crusoe, or
they're really there are only three options of guys that
can guard Luca, and with Ja Dub and Lou Dort
presumably out, you know, I think Cason Wallas is too
small for him, so it's gonna put a lot of
(21:27):
responsibility on Caruso in the main on ball matchup with
Luka Doncic, which I'm really curious about. I wouldn't be
surprised if they switch with their big So we'll get
to see a lot of reps of Okase, he's bigs
guarding Luca. That's gonna be a thing I have my
eye on. And then as a Laker fan, I have
my on Austin Reeves. He struggled in the past with
some of these really fast physical teams. Doesn't get any
more fast and physical than this OKAC team. Should be
(21:49):
a fun game. Again. We're gonna be watching on playback
tonight at six point thirty, all the Warriors front really quickly.
I'm getting a lot of like sky is falling type
of energy for Warriors fan, and I get it. I'm
not going to sit here and pretend like it's a
good thing that you got your teeth kicked in by
the thunder. It's certainly not. They proved that they're clearly
on another level than you right now, and they represent
(22:12):
the amount of improvement you need to demonstrate between now
and the end of the season, either internally through just
internal improvement or through some sort of trade if you
want to get to the level to compete with this team.
But I also think they're better than their record looks like.
I think they succumbed a little bit to the intensity
of their early season schedule, which I think is especially
reflected in their road record and some of the bad
(22:34):
losses they've had toasting off that game against Indiana, dropping
a game in Milwaukee without Giannis, the back to back
loss importantly, Like some of those losses I think are
reflected from the just difficulty of the early season schedule. Again,
you had no business losing that game to Indiana. You're
up eleven in the middle of the fourth quarter. That's
a game you got to close out. And then Steph
(22:55):
goes down with an injury, and it's going to be
very difficult for this team to win without Steph under
any circumstances, especially on the road the way that they were.
And so you drop two more games there on the
road in Sacramento in Denver that you probably don't lose
both of if Steph plays right. So like, let's just
say that you just don't blow the Pacers game and
Steph doesn't get six, so you beat Sacramento. Now you're
(23:16):
eight and five. So, like, I don't think they're quite
as bad as the record looks. I think they're gonna
beat San Antonio tonight, like they are on the back
to back, but they barely played last night because they
got their teeth kicked in right. So like Victor Womnyama
had a huge game against Chicago because they allowed him
to work in single coverage versus their bigs. But he
is still kind of working through the issues with the
(23:36):
double teaming and the putting a big, bigger athletic forward
that gets up underneath him and is super physical. I
think Steve Kerr is going to put together an excellent
double and swarm game plan tonight. I think Draymond and
Jimmy are both gonna see some time on Victor Women Yam.
I think Kamingo will see some time on Victor Women Yama.
And I think they're gonna get up underneath him. They're
gonna pssure him, and they're gonna be physical with him,
(23:56):
and they're gonna double team him. They're gonna force some
of San Antonio's life or shooters to make shots. And
I think Golden State's gonna get a bounce back win tonight.
We'll see. San Antonio is a very good team, and
they're at home, so it's certainly not a guarantee. But
I still think this Warriors team is good. Like I'm
not one hundred percent sure what they are, but I'm
one hundred percent sure they're not bad. They're better than
they look. I don't think they're a five hundred team.
(24:18):
They're gonna have something to say at some point here.
I think they bounce back tonight in San Antonio, all right,
before we get out of here. Tonight Boston Philly kind
of a fun little defensive slugfest between two teams that
have incredible perimeter talent but that have thin front lines. Right,
(24:40):
Joel Embiide out of the lineup. Obviously, we know all
the guys that are out for Boston. I was really
impressed by the sharpness of both teams with their defensive
rotations on the perimeter and just the overall speed of
their roster on display. The Celtics did a very good
job defending Tyrese Maxi. Bunch of guys got reps on him.
Pritchard got reps on him, Derek White got reps on him.
Jordan Wall she played a really, really good basketball in
(25:03):
that second half. Like Josh might not ended up. Joe
Mizula didn't give us any details, but I think it
was like a behavior thing, kind of like a in
the coach's doghouse kind of thing. But Josh Mynott basically
didn't play after his first shift, so Jordan Walsh ended
up getting the start in the second half, and he
was very good did a very good job guarding Tyree
Smacksy As a team, the Celtics swarmed him and forced
(25:25):
him into some really tough shots. On the other end
of the floor, Philly showed some more resilience defensively than
they've shown over the course of the last few weeks.
They held the Celtics below one hundred and ten points,
which is the first time they've done that to an
opponent since Brooklyn, which was like a few weeks back.
So finally got to see some defensive resistance from Philly,
and you get to see a lot of their guard speed,
(25:46):
like Tyrae Smacksy doing a better job defending in hedges
and recovers better job chasing guys off the line in
their rotations. The game basically swung back and forth on
two hot streaks. Derek White had a massive third quarter
run where he started to get going as a sh
shot maker and just hit a bunch of tough ones
in a row. Gave the Celtics a nine point lead,
and then in the fourth quarter and something that's kind
(26:06):
of been a recurring trend here for the Sixers. I've
watched several Sixers games this year with Justin Edwards' second
half shooting ended up playing a big role. He got
crazy hot from three again. He had three threes in
a row in that fourth quarter stretch in the middle
of the fourth quarter, and he ended up putting the
Sixers back up by one. Kind of degraded down into
super ugly basketball down the stretch, Tyrese couldn't really get
(26:28):
a good look for himself. The Celtics actually got several
good looks that they just missed. Peyton Pritchard missed a
little mid ranger against drop coverage around the foul line.
That's a really good look for him. In the final minutes,
Derek White Jalen Brown had a really nice play where
he got vj Edgecomb on a post, backed him down,
drew a double team out of the strong side corner
(26:48):
from Derek White's man made to kick out Derek White
wide open corner three, and he just happened to miss it.
And in that ugliness, the Sixers just got the last word.
There was a play where Tyrese Maxey drives down the
right lane line and Jalen Brown comes over and throws
kind of an impromptu double team against Maxie that ends
up leaving Justin Edwards wide open at the top of
(27:10):
the key. Peyton Pritchard has inside position on Kelly Ubra
and is guarding him, but he has to throw a
close out at Justin Edwards, so he throws the close
out at Justin Edwards. Justin Edwards misses the three, but
that leaves Kelly Ubra standing underneath the basket with inside position.
He gets a very easy offensive rebound put back. Derek
White ends up fumbling the ball away on the ensuing
(27:31):
possession and having to settle for like a forty five
foot heave. Kenda gets like a decent little opportunity for
a putback, but it's a really tough play on such
a long distance three like that, and Philly ends up
getting out of there with a win and just goes
to show you on that final possession. Like you know,
we talk about that ability to be an advantage creator.
When you bring two to the ball, there's all sorts
(27:53):
of trickle down effects. Like one of the trickle down
effects is you generate a wide open three for Justin Edwards. Right.
But the other trickle down effect is you actually brought
Peyton Pritchard to throw a close out even though he
didn't really have any chance to get out there, and
then ended up leaving Kelly Ubray wide open and rebounding position.
Another trickle down effect of the advantage creation of Tyres
(28:14):
Maxi in his ability to consistently draw lots of attention
from Boston's defense. I want to turn the focus to
Phillis defense for a minute again. It was their first
time holding an opponent under one hundred and ten points
since the Brooklyn game a few weeks back. We talked
so much about their speed on offense, but I think
we saw more of its efficacy on the defensive end
of this game, with Tyras Maxey doing a good job
(28:35):
being like being active in his hedges and recovers as
Boston was really looking to attack Tyras Maxey with guard
guard screens in this game. And then I thought they
rotated really well. Again, when you're fast, you can do
a better job rotating around than the team that is slower.
In theory, that's something that it should be a strength
of this particular team. I thought they're on ball. Guys
did a great job on Boston's guards all game in
(28:57):
their individual work. Again, Philly's been one of this surprises
of the early part of the season. But ultimately, if
they're gonna have any chance to compete in the conference,
they're gonna have to guard, and I thought you saw
a much better effort from them on that end of
the floor in this game. On the Celtics front, some
really good minutes from Jordan Walsh. Again, this is something
(29:18):
that we've seen, like this high motor kind of do
everything athletic forward is always popping from Boston, which I
think is a really strong indicator of just what made
Jason Tatum so valuable to this team. He did all
of that stuff, the switch ability to guard on the perimeter,
the excellent defensive rebounding, the athleticism in rim pressure that
(29:39):
he brings to the table, but then at the same time,
he also brought superstar level shot creation as part of
that responsibility, which is what makes him one of the
best players in the league when he's healthy. But like
Josh might not, you know, ends up getting into Joe
Mizula's doghouse, and Jordan Walsh just hooped his ass off.
He guarded Maxi really well. He was active running the
(30:01):
floor in transition and as a cutter and as a rebounder.
He got like a little contact dunk on a transition sequence.
He hit a corner three out of the left corner. Again.
I just think it's a reminder of how that high
motor forward is the clear area of opportunity for this
season's version of the team while Jason Tatum is out.
I thought the third quarter was a good sign that
(30:22):
Derek White is starting to find some rhythm after a
brutal start to the season. He's still not efficient, but
he's starting to score at more volume over the course
of the last three games, and then again that third
quarter in particular, I just think it's like a sign
of him kind of building momentum towards being a better
and more efficient offensive player. But this defensive rebounding thing
continues to be an issue. They've been the fourth worst
(30:44):
defensive rebounding team in the league to start the season,
and it just cost them another game. And I want
to call some attention to Jalen Brown here, and to
be clear, it is not just Jalen Brown's fault. I'm
coming after Jalen Brown here because he's one of the
guys who has the tools to really help impact this
flaw that the team is having. So just look at
the final possession. For instance, if you watch the film,
(31:05):
after Jalen Brown throws the double team at Maxi and
the ball gets swung around to Justin Edwards, he actually
does go back under the basket, but then he just
kind of stands there and looks up while Kelly Ubre
gets the ball instead of seeking out Kelly throwing a
box out or high pointing the ball going and getting
that thing right, and like, this is the thing, Like
Jalen Brown's averaging his lowest rebounds per game since twenty
(31:26):
nineteen in this season, and he's capable of being better.
This is a player who averaged seven rebounds per game
in twenty twenty three. He is the guy who is
most athletically capable of supporting his team on the glass
for the majority of their lineups. I think Jalen devoting
a little bit more of his energy and focus resources
towards being a ballhawk on the defensive end when the
(31:48):
shot goes up will go a long way towards helping
them survive on the glass. The Celtics are right there
on the precipice of starting to pull some of these
games out. They've lost five clutch games so far, which
is the second most in the NBA. They're two to
five and seven clutch games, and they can clean that up.
They're giving up an offensive rebound on forty one percent
of their opponents misses in crunch time this season. They
(32:11):
can do better than that. They've been missing some clean looks,
like we talked about with the Derek White and Peyton
Pritchard shots. If those go in, it gives you a
better chance to win, right, Like Derek White missed a
little floater in the lane that like literally hit every
single part of the rim and barely rolled off with
like a minute left. That like, just a little bit
more of that shot making clean up the defensive rebounding.
(32:33):
They can be a little better defensively than they've been.
I think they have a one to thirty one off
defensive rating and crunch time to start. If you can
start flipping those close games from losses into wins, then
you're in much better shape in the standings. And they
have some fixable things that can do there to help
address that. All right, guys, it's all I have for
today as always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting
(32:53):
us and supporting the show again. We'll be back tonight
on playback for Lakers Thunder and then tomorrow morning for
some game reaction. I will see you guys. They h
The volume. All right, Well, go to Hoopsini. You're at
the volume heavy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all you guys are
having a great week so far. Got a quick show
(00:21):
for you guys today. We're just gonna quickly touch on
three games from last night. The two teams that I
have in the top tier of championship contenders, the Denver
Nuggets and the Oklahoma City Thunder, both cruise to wins
last night. We're gonna be briefly touching on both of
those games that At the tail end of the show,
we had a fun kind of like guard versus guard
slugfest between the Philadelphia seventy six Ers and the Boston Celtics,
(00:44):
as the Sixers end up coming out with a win
late on a put back by Kelly Oubrey as Philly
improves to seven and four on the season. You guys
owe the joke before we get started. To subscribe to
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(01:05):
a review on that front. Jackson's doing an incredible work
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Make sure you guys follow us there for more content
throughout the season. In the last, but not least, if
you want to keep getting mail bag questions into our
mail bags, we're we're gonna be recording another one on Friday.
Make sure you get them into our full episodes on YouTube.
In the comments right mail bag colon, write your question.
(01:26):
We'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of
the season. One last announcement before we get started, We're
continuing our watch playback watch along parties with tonight's Thunder
Lakers game. So six point thirty pm Pacific time, come
hang out on playback for Lakers Thunder. We're gonna be
breaking the game down as it goes along. Anthony Orwin
(01:49):
is going to be joining us in the first quarter
to hang out for a little bit. We'll also be
taking some callers later on. The show should be a
fun one, so make sure you guys come and hang
out for that game. All right, let's talk some basketball,
So Nuggets, King this is where we're going to start today.
The King's hung tough for three quarters in this one.
They did a lot of damage in transition, shot the
ball well, especially through the first three quarters of the game.
(02:10):
Russ didn't shoot the ball well in this game, although
he shot the ball well off the catch this season,
but he did a lot of damage in this game
with his rim pressure and his playmaking. I thought Sacramento's
kings played well ex kings. Sacramento's biggs played well in
like that kind of short range, little release valvearia, making
little hook shots and push shots and floaters and things
along those lines. So the Bonus did a lot of
(02:31):
damage there early in the game. I thought the Bonus
in general kind of anchored Sacramento early in this game
with his passing and with his finishing around the basket.
But they just got absolutely demolished by Nicola Jokic. They
opted for a lot of single coverage with him with
their bigs, and every single time that sort of thing
happens with Jokic, he just kind of flips a switch
(02:51):
into scorer mode, and those dudes like he just bullied
every single one of them for not just buckets but
easy buckets right at the front of the rim. He
did it to Sabonis, he did it to Precious Sachua,
he did it to Drew Ubanks. He was sixteen for
nineteen from the field for thirty five points, fifteen rebounds,
(03:11):
five of which were offensive rebounds. A lot of damage
done on the offensive glass in this game for Denver
and seven assists for Yokics. By the way, remember Jokic's
kind of like slow start relative to the other top
tier superstars in the league. Wall came out guns blazing well.
In Jokic's last five games. He's averaging thirty two points,
twelve rebounds, and twelve assists on seventy three percent from
(03:33):
the field, forty eight percent from three, and eighty five
percent from the line. Just completely outrageous. He's been very
active defensively in this span, two point six stocks per game. Again,
this is for the second best defense in the league.
Here in the early going, and then continuing a season
long trend where the bench when Jokic is off the
(03:53):
floor hasn't been nearly as bad as they were in
previous years, the Nuggets bench really blew the game open,
especially in the early fourth quarter. There's a lineup that
they've been using that's mostly been bad to start the
season that finally got going last night. It's a lineup
that I kind of like the structure on paper. It's
(04:14):
got these big, physical athletes on the front line, right,
It's got Yonas Valancunas, Peyton Watson, and Bruce Brown. A
bunch of guys that can do damage on the offensive
glass guys that you know, obviously between Bruce and Peyton,
that can do damage defensively flying around. Yonas brings like
that traditional schematic anchor on both ends of the floor
is the guy who can run drop coverage, but also
(04:35):
as a guy that can set screens and be your
passing volcrum also play out of the post on the
offensive end of the floor. But for any spacing concerns
you have with that group, you have your two best
over the top, kind of like super aggressive shot makers
in the backcourt, Tim Hardaway Junior and Jamal Murray. Jamal
Murray and Tim Hardaway, they both excel at making contested shots,
(04:58):
which is something they're gonna have to in a lineup
that has guys like Bruce Brown, Peyton Watson, and Yonas
Valanciunis on it. That's a unit that should be able
to do a lot of damage, but for whatever reason,
to this point in the season, it's been a lot
of things. They haven't been very good defensively, They weirdly
haven't been good on the defensive glass for having as
many kind of scrappy rebounders as they've had, and they
(05:19):
haven't been very good on offense. But last night they
finally got it going, did a bunch of damage on
the offensive glass, and their first shift in the first
half that was a big thing that stood out to
me just kind of watching them physically, Like in that
first half, Bruce Brown gets an offensive rebound put back,
Jonas Valenciunas gets an offensive rebound put back. That lineup,
(05:40):
by the way, grabbed a third of their own misses
in last night's games. Jonas actually in the fourth quarter,
Run got a big offensive rebound where he just went
up and dunked it in traffic as well. But they
were able to score as a unit. That was really
the big thing that was different from some of their
previous shifts that they've had as a unit. Jamal was great,
(06:01):
especially in that fourth quarter. Run was hitting his pull
up jump shot, was getting to the basket on Keon
Ellis and drawing fouls. He was just doing a bunch
of one on one damage to ke On Ellis, who's
just way too small for him. Bruce Brown had a
pick six layup with the deflection, chase it down, got
all the way down to the other end for a layup.
He hit a big three off of the right wing
on a skip pass. They were able to score the ball,
(06:23):
and then on the other end of the floor they
executed their game plan. It was for the Kings, it
was a Demart Rosen Russell Westbrook led unit and with DeRozan.
Basically the game plan was they were trying to essentially
remove Demarta Rosen from the equation and force them to
be a Russell Westbrook team. And so with Damar, they
were fronting any of his catches and then if he
(06:43):
did happen to catch, they were strong side zoning, So
they're bringing the big all the way over to the
opposite side and essentially having the on ball player just
play towards the middle, so that it essentially funnels Damar
right into where your strong side zone is. And then
obviously you're throwing kickout passes to guys that are not
necessarily very reputable shooters, and so they were just executing
(07:05):
their defensive game plan. They were shagging off of Russ
on his drives. They got a bunch of stops, and
they blew that game open. I think they were up
seventeen before Jokic even had to re enter the game.
And so really nice run from that Denver bench group
and an encouraging sign for a lineup that Denver needs
to be good. And again it makes some sense on paper,
(07:27):
it just needs to come together and work. A couple
other notes on the Denver front. Cam Johnson, I get
only five points and he's still, you know, struggling a bit,
But I do like how much more of an effort
David Adelman's making to get him involved, especially early in
the game. But there was a lot more two man
game reps with Jokic and Cam Johnson where Cam's coming
(07:49):
off of the screen and looking to get downhill in
the lane or to be active hitting Nikole Jokic in
the pocket, even when Jamal Murray was on the floor.
And I just think that's smart. They're making an investment there. Cam,
for whatever reason, didn't come into the season ready above
and beyond anything having to do with his aggressiveness, above
and beyond anything having to do with the opportunities he's
(08:11):
been given. He's also not making shots and missing layups
and making mistakes, and so a good portion of this
is Cam's fault for just not coming into the season
ready to play. But I do believe in him as
a basketball player when he's in rhythm and inform in
this system, and so you just got to keep investing
(08:31):
in him and hope that in the long run it
comes together into a version of Cam that can make
this team better than what they were with Michael Porter.
Junior hasn't been a good start, but I'm still a
big believer in I think he's still like their third
best plus minus guy behind Christian Brown and Nicole Jokic
in terms of on off numbers. So I'm still a
believer in it. I like the investments they've made and
(08:52):
to try to get him into a rhythm. It just
needs to eventually come together, which I believe it will.
This is a long season. If there's if there's a
league where you can afford to come into camp a
little out of shape, it's in the NBA. As long
as you avoid getting hurt and so I far Cam
has been available, he just needs to play better basketball
than he's been playing. Denver has won five in a row,
number two in offense and number two in defense to
(09:14):
start the year, really strong statistical performance. We said before
the year that Denver and OKC were the two teams
in the top tier, and it's looked very much like that,
as both teams have had thirteen or better net ratings
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Tennessee or Virginia. All right, Warriors Thunder really bad combination
for a blowout in the sense that you have the
champs playing some of their best basketball right now, and
(11:25):
then you have a Warriors team that's been in kind
of like a weeks long funk that's been fueled by
a brutal schedule with a lot of back to backs,
an illness that took Steph Curry out of the lineup
for a while, and a team wide inability to win
on the road. And the Warriors hung around early mainly
because they were turning Oka See over and they were
getting out in transition off of it. But Oka See
(11:47):
grabbed the lead late in the first quarter and basically
just ran away with that game. It was never even
really competitive. Anybody who was watching that game would have
seen pretty quickly the gigantic chasm and shot quality between
the two teams. Like ultimately, Shae was just doing a
better job of breaking down Golden State's defense than Steph
was doing of breaking down Oklahoma City's defense, and that
(12:09):
ultimately was the dynamic that was kind of trickling down
to every other part of the game. I thought Shaye
was doing a fantastic job of penetrating the first line
of Golden State's defense a lot of like rejecting ball
screens and so that he could avoid Draymond and get downhill.
He was making very good kickouts. I thought it was
a great floor game type of night from Shaye. I
think he had eleven assists, which was the second double
(12:32):
digit assist game of the season. Oklahoma City got fifteen
unguarded catch and shoot jump shot looks compared to just
ten for Golden States, so a pretty significant gap in
shot quality. And Shaye was also scoring in all sorts
of the usual Shaye ways, Like he was hitting step
back threes early in the game against some soft coverage
that Thunder were doing a lot of attacking Quinton Post
(12:54):
early in the game through Shae and also through Chet
in one on ones, and Shay ended up hitting a
little step back three against Quinton Posts on the left wing.
He was also getting all the way into the paint
he's hitting his little midrange looks all just the classic
shade stuff. Twenty eight points in just twenty eight minutes
of action last night, and again I thought he had
a very good floor game. He looked very in control
(13:15):
all night against a great Warriors defense and was just
consistently compromising them, making quick decisions breaking that defense down
so that his role players could capitalize on that attention.
And then on the other side, I just Steph just
wasn't very good last night at all. And I was
worried about him in this game because he'd been out
for a little while with his illness, and so much
(13:37):
of his game is predicated on conditioning, the conditioning to
consistently have his speed as he's running around to the
conditioning so that he gets that he gets good lift
on his jump shot after dribble combinations. And obviously your
conditioning is going to be affected when you have a break,
and it's going to be exacerbated when you've been ill,
right when you have an upper respiratory infection the way
(13:58):
that he did. And then you combine that with the
fact that Oklahoma City is just such a difficult defense
to score on under any circumstances. And to kind of
like put it all together, it's a bad matchup for
the Warriors. I've talked about this with Steph and the
Warriors for a little while, but like he can cause
real problems for big and slow teams because of his
(14:19):
movement and his ability to pull bigs out to the
level of screens. It just puts defenses into rotation and
then you're a faster team. And so if you're ahead
of them already in rotation and you've got a speed
advantage and you've got to read and react playmaking advantage,
you can really pick teams apart. But this is a very,
very very different Oklahoma City team. Cason Wallace guarded Steph
(14:40):
for most of the game and he was basically a
lockstep with him as a very quick guard that can
stay with him. Lost him on a couple back cuts
early in the game, but for the most part was
able to hang with him, and then there are no
weak links for him to attack. If he gets any
guard in a transition cross match, it's also a good
defender if he gets any guard switches and with the
guard guard screen, they're also a great defender. And then
Chet and Isaiah Hartenstein are both very mobile at the
(15:03):
center position. They are not big and slow. They are
big and fast, and so it just caused a lot
of problems for that Golden State offense. Even when Steph
managed to draw two to the ball, whether it was
through classic Steph gravity or if he you know, there
are several sequences where he'd come off a ball screen
and they'd come up to the level and basically chase him,
and he would kind of drag the two defenders with
(15:24):
him and then try to get rid of the ball.
I thought Oklahoma City did a wonderful job rotating out
of that. There was a classic example of it in
the second half. Early second half. Steph comes off of
a ball screen on the left side of Quinton Post
and he gets kind of down to like the left block,
extended out towards more like the short corner, and he
brings two guys with him on the play. Quinton Post
(15:45):
pops to the top of the key. I believe his
chet was the guy that was on Steph if I
remember correctly, and Isaiah Hartenstein, they throw the kick out
past the Quinton Post. Isaiah Hartenstein flies out in rotation,
chases Quinton Posts off the line, Post drives into the lane.
Aj Mitchell is guarding a. I think it was Pajemski,
I can't remember who it was on the on the
(16:07):
weak side of the form, might have been Kaminga. But
aj Mitchell ends up rotating out to the corner. After
Quentin Post makes a kick out passing Bam, the advantage
is gone. Steph comes off a screen, draws too, makes
the right read. But okay, see he's just so fast
in rotation that the advantage has gone, and all of
a sudden, everything you just did was for nothing. And
so there was even like a stretch there in the
(16:28):
second quarter where like you could tell that Steph was
getting flustered by just the ability for them to rotate
out of ball screens, and so he started looking to
attack their guards one on one, and he took like
three or four pretty questionable, like tough step back jump
shots in a row in that second quarter and missed
every single one of them. And you could tell too
that he wasn't getting great separation. It wasn't getting great
(16:50):
like lyft, Like it wasn't the textbook Steph like break
the dude off and get a clean look. Like they
were pretty tough shots that he was missing, and so
it's just, you know, it just was a rough night
for Steph and it was a bad It's a combination
of circumstances. You've got a team that's not playing well
in Golden State at large, right, You've got Steph coming
(17:11):
back from a break which affects his conditioning. He had
an upper respiratory illness which affects his conditioning even more,
and you're walking him right back into the damn blender
that is the Oklahoma City defense, and it just didn't
it just it just wasn't a good showing for Steph.
And again, like that was really the fundamental driver of
the blowout. Shay was consistently breaking down Golden State's defense
(17:33):
and Steph was just not able to break down Oklahoma
City's defense on the other end of the four. And
then things were just exacerbated down the roster by a
lack of support from secondary ball handling. Jimmy had a
bad night. He was not able to break down Oklahoma
City's defense in any real way outside of a few
broken plays where like kind of chaos type of sequences
where he'd get and ones or fouls. Johnathan coming has
(17:54):
scored the ball well, but he also had five turnovers,
and you're starting to see some of that like tunnel
vision stuff come back. A couple possessions in that third
quarter run where he just like tried to iso off
the top of the key and just put his head
down and either turned the ball over. There was one where,
like Draymond Green had just hit a three in the
left corner and he's been statistically one of Golden State's
best three point shooters this year. He's wide open in
(18:15):
the right corner and Kaminga doesn't see Draymond's man come
in a double team, and instead of making the easy
kickout pass to Draymond, he tries to power into his
spin move and then ends up just smoking a layup
at the rim. And so again like this is the
thing with Jonathan Kaminga. It's like, you know, played really
well to start the season, really improving as a read
and react player, but ultimately he's got to be able
(18:36):
to sustain it, especially against higher level competition, and this
was a big test against Oklahoma City. I don't want
to overdo the cominga stuff though, because again as a team,
everybody on the Warriors played poorly last night. So I
don't think it's fair to just like go after Kaminga,
but it was an elite Oklahoma City defense where Kaminga,
other than you know, scoring the basketball a little bit
the way that he did kind of struggled against the
(18:58):
speed and physicality that it brought to the t. And
then on the other end of the court, Chet Holmgren
played damn near a perfect game in support of Shay.
He gave a couple of one on one buckets to
Quinton Post early in the game. Nasty little step through,
remove a little left shoulder fade away right in the
middle of the lane. He burned Quinton Post in spot
up situations with threes. He was killing them in the
(19:18):
dunker spot off drop offs from Shay's drives. Shout out
to Shay too, really quality interior passes when he would
get downhill into the lane to Chet, and Chet just
goes up and dunks everything in that area, which can
be a problem. Twenty three points for Chet on nine
for nine shooting, all while being the dominant defensive force
that he always is, showing up high on steph screens,
(19:39):
being active with his hands to make the passes out
of their difficult cleaning up back cuts. He cleaned up
a steph backcut with the block on the left side
of the basket in the first half, controlling the defensive glass,
he had a strong rebounding game. Just Chet's playing really
damn good basketball. He's slotted very nicely into that second
best player on the team roll with jaydub Out, and
he's just been ki an ass. There's no way around it.
(20:01):
Aj Mitchell scored more points than any Warrior, Isaiah Joe
scored more points than any Warrior. Just it was outclassing
literally from the top down in the roster. Isaiah Hartenstein
dominated the offensive glass in the third quarter to help
blow the game open. Jalen Williams came in and torched
the Warriors with his three point shooting. They just dominated them.
(20:23):
I can't say enough about the job that Shay's doing
to continue to drive this offense through the injuries. I
can't say enough about how connected they look on defense.
I can't say enough about how physically imposing they look
on defense. They're just off to a great start in
their title defense. And watch out, because if they beat
the Lakers tonight, their next six games are super soft.
(20:47):
We'd be looking at an eighteen to one Thunder team
that is legitimately on pace to make a run at
seventy plus wins. A couple of notes for tonight's Lakers game,
we're gonna be covering it on playback, So six point
thirty pm Pacific time, come hang out with me on
we'll be watching UH Lakers Thunder in detail, kind of
breaking the game down as it goes. A couple of
things I have my eyes on. I really want to
(21:07):
see how they guard Luca. I don't know iflu Dort's
gonna play tonight. He didn't play last night, so I
have a feeling he's not going to. But if you
look at the roster, Jay Dubb, Loudort, Nowlex Crusoe, or
they're really there are only three options of guys that
can guard Luca, and with Ja Dub and Lou Dort
presumably out, you know, I think Cason Wallas is too
small for him, so it's gonna put a lot of
(21:27):
responsibility on Caruso in the main on ball matchup with
Luka Doncic, which I'm really curious about. I wouldn't be
surprised if they switch with their big So we'll get
to see a lot of reps of Okase, he's bigs
guarding Luca. That's gonna be a thing I have my
eye on. And then as a Laker fan, I have
my on Austin Reeves. He struggled in the past with
some of these really fast physical teams. Doesn't get any
more fast and physical than this OKAC team. Should be
(21:49):
a fun game. Again. We're gonna be watching on playback
tonight at six point thirty, all the Warriors front really quickly.
I'm getting a lot of like sky is falling type
of energy for Warriors fan, and I get it. I'm
not going to sit here and pretend like it's a
good thing that you got your teeth kicked in by
the thunder. It's certainly not. They proved that they're clearly
on another level than you right now, and they represent
(22:12):
the amount of improvement you need to demonstrate between now
and the end of the season, either internally through just
internal improvement or through some sort of trade if you
want to get to the level to compete with this team.
But I also think they're better than their record looks like.
I think they succumbed a little bit to the intensity
of their early season schedule, which I think is especially
reflected in their road record and some of the bad
(22:34):
losses they've had toasting off that game against Indiana, dropping
a game in Milwaukee without Giannis, the back to back
loss importantly, Like some of those losses I think are
reflected from the just difficulty of the early season schedule. Again,
you had no business losing that game to Indiana. You're
up eleven in the middle of the fourth quarter. That's
a game you got to close out. And then Steph
(22:55):
goes down with an injury, and it's going to be
very difficult for this team to win without Steph under
any circumstances, especially on the road the way that they were.
And so you drop two more games there on the
road in Sacramento in Denver that you probably don't lose
both of if Steph plays right. So like, let's just
say that you just don't blow the Pacers game and
Steph doesn't get six, so you beat Sacramento. Now you're
(23:16):
eight and five. So, like, I don't think they're quite
as bad as the record looks. I think they're gonna
beat San Antonio tonight, like they are on the back
to back, but they barely played last night because they
got their teeth kicked in right. So like Victor Womnyama
had a huge game against Chicago because they allowed him
to work in single coverage versus their bigs. But he
is still kind of working through the issues with the
(23:36):
double teaming and the putting a big, bigger athletic forward
that gets up underneath him and is super physical. I
think Steve Kerr is going to put together an excellent
double and swarm game plan tonight. I think Draymond and
Jimmy are both gonna see some time on Victor Women Yam.
I think Kamingo will see some time on Victor Women Yama.
And I think they're gonna get up underneath him. They're
gonna pssure him, and they're gonna be physical with him,
(23:56):
and they're gonna double team him. They're gonna force some
of San Antonio's life or shooters to make shots. And
I think Golden State's gonna get a bounce back win tonight.
We'll see. San Antonio is a very good team, and
they're at home, so it's certainly not a guarantee. But
I still think this Warriors team is good. Like I'm
not one hundred percent sure what they are, but I'm
one hundred percent sure they're not bad. They're better than
they look. I don't think they're a five hundred team.
(24:18):
They're gonna have something to say at some point here.
I think they bounce back tonight in San Antonio, all right,
before we get out of here. Tonight Boston Philly kind
of a fun little defensive slugfest between two teams that
have incredible perimeter talent but that have thin front lines. Right,
(24:40):
Joel Embiide out of the lineup. Obviously, we know all
the guys that are out for Boston. I was really
impressed by the sharpness of both teams with their defensive
rotations on the perimeter and just the overall speed of
their roster on display. The Celtics did a very good
job defending Tyrese Maxi. Bunch of guys got reps on him.
Pritchard got reps on him, Derek White got reps on him.
Jordan Wall she played a really, really good basketball in
(25:03):
that second half. Like Josh might not ended up. Joe
Mizula didn't give us any details, but I think it
was like a behavior thing, kind of like a in
the coach's doghouse kind of thing. But Josh Mynott basically
didn't play after his first shift, so Jordan Walsh ended
up getting the start in the second half, and he
was very good did a very good job guarding Tyree
Smacksy As a team, the Celtics swarmed him and forced
(25:25):
him into some really tough shots. On the other end
of the floor, Philly showed some more resilience defensively than
they've shown over the course of the last few weeks.
They held the Celtics below one hundred and ten points,
which is the first time they've done that to an
opponent since Brooklyn, which was like a few weeks back.
So finally got to see some defensive resistance from Philly,
and you get to see a lot of their guard speed,
(25:46):
like Tyrae Smacksy doing a better job defending in hedges
and recovers better job chasing guys off the line in
their rotations. The game basically swung back and forth on
two hot streaks. Derek White had a massive third quarter
run where he started to get going as a sh
shot maker and just hit a bunch of tough ones
in a row. Gave the Celtics a nine point lead,
and then in the fourth quarter and something that's kind
(26:06):
of been a recurring trend here for the Sixers. I've
watched several Sixers games this year with Justin Edwards' second
half shooting ended up playing a big role. He got
crazy hot from three again. He had three threes in
a row in that fourth quarter stretch in the middle
of the fourth quarter, and he ended up putting the
Sixers back up by one. Kind of degraded down into
super ugly basketball down the stretch, Tyrese couldn't really get
(26:28):
a good look for himself. The Celtics actually got several
good looks that they just missed. Peyton Pritchard missed a
little mid ranger against drop coverage around the foul line.
That's a really good look for him. In the final minutes,
Derek White Jalen Brown had a really nice play where
he got vj Edgecomb on a post, backed him down,
drew a double team out of the strong side corner
(26:48):
from Derek White's man made to kick out Derek White
wide open corner three, and he just happened to miss it.
And in that ugliness, the Sixers just got the last word.
There was a play where Tyrese Maxey drives down the
right lane line and Jalen Brown comes over and throws
kind of an impromptu double team against Maxie that ends
up leaving Justin Edwards wide open at the top of
(27:10):
the key. Peyton Pritchard has inside position on Kelly Ubra
and is guarding him, but he has to throw a
close out at Justin Edwards, so he throws the close
out at Justin Edwards. Justin Edwards misses the three, but
that leaves Kelly Ubra standing underneath the basket with inside position.
He gets a very easy offensive rebound put back. Derek
White ends up fumbling the ball away on the ensuing
(27:31):
possession and having to settle for like a forty five
foot heave. Kenda gets like a decent little opportunity for
a putback, but it's a really tough play on such
a long distance three like that, and Philly ends up
getting out of there with a win and just goes
to show you on that final possession. Like you know,
we talk about that ability to be an advantage creator.
When you bring two to the ball, there's all sorts
(27:53):
of trickle down effects. Like one of the trickle down
effects is you generate a wide open three for Justin Edwards. Right.
But the other trickle down effect is you actually brought
Peyton Pritchard to throw a close out even though he
didn't really have any chance to get out there, and
then ended up leaving Kelly Ubray wide open and rebounding position.
Another trickle down effect of the advantage creation of Tyres
(28:14):
Maxi in his ability to consistently draw lots of attention
from Boston's defense. I want to turn the focus to
Phillis defense for a minute again. It was their first
time holding an opponent under one hundred and ten points
since the Brooklyn game a few weeks back. We talked
so much about their speed on offense, but I think
we saw more of its efficacy on the defensive end
of this game, with Tyras Maxey doing a good job
(28:35):
being like being active in his hedges and recovers as
Boston was really looking to attack Tyras Maxey with guard
guard screens in this game. And then I thought they
rotated really well. Again, when you're fast, you can do
a better job rotating around than the team that is slower.
In theory, that's something that it should be a strength
of this particular team. I thought they're on ball. Guys
did a great job on Boston's guards all game in
(28:57):
their individual work. Again, Philly's been one of this surprises
of the early part of the season. But ultimately, if
they're gonna have any chance to compete in the conference,
they're gonna have to guard, and I thought you saw
a much better effort from them on that end of
the floor in this game. On the Celtics front, some
really good minutes from Jordan Walsh. Again, this is something
(29:18):
that we've seen, like this high motor kind of do
everything athletic forward is always popping from Boston, which I
think is a really strong indicator of just what made
Jason Tatum so valuable to this team. He did all
of that stuff, the switch ability to guard on the perimeter,
the excellent defensive rebounding, the athleticism in rim pressure that
(29:39):
he brings to the table, but then at the same time,
he also brought superstar level shot creation as part of
that responsibility, which is what makes him one of the
best players in the league when he's healthy. But like
Josh might not, you know, ends up getting into Joe
Mizula's doghouse, and Jordan Walsh just hooped his ass off.
He guarded Maxi really well. He was active running the
(30:01):
floor in transition and as a cutter and as a rebounder.
He got like a little contact dunk on a transition sequence.
He hit a corner three out of the left corner. Again.
I just think it's a reminder of how that high
motor forward is the clear area of opportunity for this
season's version of the team while Jason Tatum is out.
I thought the third quarter was a good sign that
(30:22):
Derek White is starting to find some rhythm after a
brutal start to the season. He's still not efficient, but
he's starting to score at more volume over the course
of the last three games, and then again that third
quarter in particular, I just think it's like a sign
of him kind of building momentum towards being a better
and more efficient offensive player. But this defensive rebounding thing
continues to be an issue. They've been the fourth worst
(30:44):
defensive rebounding team in the league to start the season,
and it just cost them another game. And I want
to call some attention to Jalen Brown here, and to
be clear, it is not just Jalen Brown's fault. I'm
coming after Jalen Brown here because he's one of the
guys who has the tools to really help impact this
flaw that the team is having. So just look at
the final possession. For instance, if you watch the film,
(31:05):
after Jalen Brown throws the double team at Maxi and
the ball gets swung around to Justin Edwards, he actually
does go back under the basket, but then he just
kind of stands there and looks up while Kelly Ubre
gets the ball instead of seeking out Kelly throwing a
box out or high pointing the ball going and getting
that thing right, and like, this is the thing, Like
Jalen Brown's averaging his lowest rebounds per game since twenty
(31:26):
nineteen in this season, and he's capable of being better.
This is a player who averaged seven rebounds per game
in twenty twenty three. He is the guy who is
most athletically capable of supporting his team on the glass
for the majority of their lineups. I think Jalen devoting
a little bit more of his energy and focus resources
towards being a ballhawk on the defensive end when the
(31:48):
shot goes up will go a long way towards helping
them survive on the glass. The Celtics are right there
on the precipice of starting to pull some of these
games out. They've lost five clutch games so far, which
is the second most in the NBA. They're two to
five and seven clutch games, and they can clean that up.
They're giving up an offensive rebound on forty one percent
of their opponents misses in crunch time this season. They
(32:11):
can do better than that. They've been missing some clean looks,
like we talked about with the Derek White and Peyton
Pritchard shots. If those go in, it gives you a
better chance to win, right, Like Derek White missed a
little floater in the lane that like literally hit every
single part of the rim and barely rolled off with
like a minute left. That like, just a little bit
more of that shot making clean up the defensive rebounding.
(32:33):
They can be a little better defensively than they've been.
I think they have a one to thirty one off
defensive rating and crunch time to start. If you can
start flipping those close games from losses into wins, then
you're in much better shape in the standings. And they
have some fixable things that can do there to help
address that. All right, guys, it's all I have for
today as always to sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting
(32:53):
us and supporting the show again. We'll be back tonight
on playback for Lakers Thunder and then tomorrow morning for
some game reaction. I will see you guys. They h
Host
Jason Timpf
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