April 9, 2025 • 30 mins
Jason reacts to the Boston Celtics earning their fourth win of the season over the New York Knicks in a game where Jayson Tatum brought them back in the fourth quarter, Kristaps Porzingis had a dominant effort, Karl-Anthony Towns finally got going, and Jalen Brunson continued his strong play in coming back from injury. Then Jason discusses the second consecutive game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder, Luka Doncic's ejection, refereeing issues, and why he'd be so excited to watch this matchup in the NBA playoffs.
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co slash b ball. All right, welcome to him tonight
(02:03):
here at the volume heavy Wednesday. Everybody up, all of
you guys are having a great week. Got a quick
show for you today. We're just hitting two games from
last night, Slate two of the top contender. Two games
worth of the top contenders in the league facing off
with each other. Our early season top two teams in
the East between the Celtics and the Knicks didn't work
out that way, but the Knicks got a chance again
(02:26):
to try to reverse the embarrassing trends that they've had
against the Celtics, and they did have their most competitive
game of the season against Boston, but ultimately ended up
losing on a pick and pop three by Christops Porzingis.
Lots of interesting stuff in that game, though, and one
potential little upside for the Knicks in a potential playoff
matchup with the Celtics. And then in the second half
(02:47):
of the show, we got Round two of Lakers Thunder,
a very predictable shift and effort from both teams, but
I thought it manifested in some super interesting ways and
it ended up leaving that game even more convinced that
the Lakers have a good chance to potentially upset the
Thunder in a playoff series. So lots to get into
in those two games. And then don't forget, we're coming
(03:08):
back tonight after the final buzzer of Mavericks Lakers a
good opportunity for us to see a good old fashioned
revenge game with Anthony Davis and Luke on some different teams.
I think we'll get to see Lebron and Anthony Davis
guard each other tonight. That should be fun. Luca is
either going to just go absolutely ape shit or he's
(03:29):
going to be terrible. I'll be curious to see which
one he ends up being because it's just such a
weird environment. But don't forget we've got that coming up
on YouTube later tonight. You guys know the drill before
we get started. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You
don't miss any more of our videos. Following me on
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(03:49):
leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's
doing some great work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
and facebooks. Make sure you guys follow Hoops Tonight there,
and last, but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions
in the youtub t comments. We already did our mail
bag this week, but there's still tons of time to
get questions in for next week's mail bag. Remember just
in our full episodes in the comments right. Mail Bag
with Colon Recher question in there. We'll get to it
(04:12):
in our weekly mail bags throughout the remainder of the season.
All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Knicks had
by far their most competitive game of the season versus
the Celtics, but obviously they end up losing. Pick and
pop three from chrisps porzingis kind of like a just
a repeated theme in that game. Porzingis getting good, clean
looks above the break. But I want to start with
(04:33):
the Knicks for a second and talk about specifically how
the Knicks managed to keep things more competitive this time around.
This is a matchup where the Knicks have looked They've
looked like they've not been in the same class as
Boston in the matchups they've had earlier this season. And
I thought the two things that shifted that back towards
(04:54):
the knicks favor were one, it was their sharpest defensive
discipline game Boston. They weren't really doing anything different per se,
still trying their best not to switch with Brunson in
towns and staying attached, but they just did a better job,
better ball pressure, better staying attached to those screening actions,
better rotating, just making Boston a little bit more uncomfortable.
And by the way, I don't think it was a
(05:15):
coincidence that this was their best defensive game against Boston
because it comes right after the best defensive stretch that
Boston excuse me, that the Knicks have had this season
with Jalen Brunson out. As we talked about the other day,
they've been top ten, top ten in defense, top ten
and defensive rebounding, so two categories that they've been And
(05:38):
they've been awesome at forcing turnovers, getting out in transition,
forcing more turnovers than they did at any other point
in the season, scoring a ton of points per game
in transitions. So just being more of a we're gonna
be sharp on the margins type of team instead of
leaning on their offense like they did for the majority
of this season. I there were a lot of interesting
(05:59):
quotes that came out from players and coaches yesterday, but
I don't know if you guys heard Devin Booker. After
they got their butts kicked by the Golden State Warriors,
Devin Booker talked about, you know, someone asked him what
went wrong for the Suns this season, and he said,
they never had winning habits and this is a concept
I've talked about so much on the show, this idea
that your habits are what carry you in these situations.
(06:20):
You're even if you know what you're supposed to do,
Like even if you know like, Okay, here's what I
do and I'm the low man, these are the reads
that I'm looking to make. These are the rotations that
I make in these situations. Even if you understand how
to play defense, you've got to there is such a
thing as defensive rhythm, just like there is offensive rhythm.
When you're in a good stretch where you've been defending
(06:42):
really well for a while, you build up these habits
to where all those things that I said you would
understand by knowing your job actually come to fruition by
you executing those things every single possession. If you could
know all those things, but if you don't play back
basketball for a couple of weeks, or if you play
(07:03):
bad basketball for a couple of weeks, you could enter
into a more high leverage situation, and even though you
know what you're supposed to do, you're just not in
a rhythm defensively to where you're doing those things consistently.
You've got to build defensive rhythm. You have to build
defensive habits, and I don't think it's a coincidence that
the Knicks were more competitive with Boston in this game
(07:26):
after a stretch of time where they built out some
winning habits that didn't exist in the earlier part of
the season. Another just random quote from yesterday that I
wanted to shout out Mark Dagenal before the Lakers Thunder
second game. He was asked about the Lakers shooting in
the Sunday game, and basically he just went up there
(07:47):
and I was like, literally just in front of my
TV just clapping because he was just saying all the
stuff that I've been saying on the show NonStop, which
is that shot result is connected to the way you play.
And he was pointing out to the press, the guys
that were trying to the the you know, the reporters
just trying to get him to say something along the
lines of like, oh, yeah, well, you know, we know
(08:08):
the shots will even out tonight, But that's not what
Mark said. Mark was like, yeah, they shot well, but
we also allowed them to get great shots, We allowed
them to be comfortable. They played better basketball than us.
He literally said, they outplayed us the majority of the night.
That's the thing I've been saying this so much. You
can't flip shot quality unless you change the way that
(08:30):
you're playing. There's all sorts of interesting quotes going around
the NBA yesterday, But second piece that kept the Knicks
close to Boston yesterday, I thought they found a semi
reliable way to attack Boston's defense. And this was Carl
Anthony Towns in the post against Boston's guards and forwards.
(08:53):
Did a lot of really great work down there, bullying
guys right to the front of the rim, drawing second defenders,
and making kickout passes. He ran ten post ups in
the game, and the Knicks had a one to thirty
offensive rating in those possessions. Here's why that matters for
the Knicks. There are certain things from tonight that don't
(09:13):
translate to a series. Like Jalen Brown is banged up
and was on a minute's restriction right so with him
out and al Horford out in crunch time, the Celtics
had to close with Peyton Pritchard or Luke Cornett, and
the Knicks really went out those two guys in the
fourth quarter stretch. In the fourth quarter stretch when the
(09:35):
Knicks built that three point lead before Tatum tied it.
Jalen Brunson in a left shoulder fade over Peyton Pritchard,
Ognanovi Ojnnob got an easy offensive rebound put back over
Peyton Pritchard right underneath the basket. Then Joe Mizula tweaks, goes, Okay,
we're having some trouble with Prichard getting attacked for a
lack of size, so he goes with Luke Cornett instead.
(09:58):
Then Jalen Brunson just a meetate edately puts Luke Cornett
in the ball screen, draws a blitz two on the
ball out like thirty feet from the basket, throws a
nice little bounce pass to Josh Hart in the middle
of the floor. He hits a little floater that puts
him back up by three. So, like a lot of
the crunch time attack for the Knicks was stuff that
won't necessarily translate to a playoff series, right, But the
(10:22):
Karl Anthony Towns post up stuff. I do think that's
a real entry point for them that they can use
in a playoff series to generate some more reliable half
court offense in this matchup against Boston. But Ultimately, none
of it mattered because Tatum carried the Celtics through that
fourth quarter, and then the Celtics were able to generate
awesome shots in overtime, attacking Karl Anthony Towns and screening actions,
(10:46):
and they ended up getting a win. Tatum had a
remarkable shot making stretch in that fourth quarter, just over
and over and over again, taking these tough, contested mid
range jump shots in isolation situations right in the middle
of the floor, just kept hitting shot after shot after
and then capped it off with a nasty step back
three above the break on the right side of the
floor to tie the game and send it to overtime.
(11:07):
And I talked about this in the mail bag yesterday.
It's just because Tatum has been cold for a while,
and Tatum has for a while before last night, he
had been cold as a shot maker, but that doesn't
necessarily mean he's going to be cold in the postseason.
What I said was, it's a potential variable, right if
Tatum goes into the postseason and is elite as a
(11:28):
shot maker, it dramatically improves Boston's chances of winning. If
he goes in and he shoots poorly, Obviously, it hurts
them because the Celtics are going to face stiffer competition
this time around in the postseason. But I thought it
was interesting because, like I talked about it, like the
difference between Jason Tatum being the Apex guy that he
(11:49):
can be, the guy that is in the conversation with
Shay Gildas Alexander and Giannis Antennacumbo, and the Tatum that's
more in that second tier with the guys that are
in that you know, six to ten range in the league.
That all comes down to Tatums jump shooting. Like if
he's not making shots, he's very versatile and does so
many useful things that he's still one of these superstars
(12:13):
in the league. But to be one of the top
tier Apex superstars, he's got to have a shot making going.
And I mean, you saw that in that game in
that fourth quarter as he basically dragged the Celtics into
an overtime period, and then in that overtime period, the
Celtics just had really good options attacking Karl Anthony Towns.
Ive got some good looks attacking Karl Anthony Towns in
(12:34):
regulation too. It's worth mentioning like the three point shot
that Jason Tatum drew the foul that Jason Tatum drew
on the left side of the floor right before the
end of the of regulation. That was a play where
they decided to switch with Carl Anthony Towns. There was
more switching that New York tried with him down the
stretch and it didn't work. They switched him on to Tatum.
(12:55):
Tatum drew a foul, they switched him on to Derek
White in an off ball screen. Then they just ran
him through another screen with Tatum and Kat lingered too
long on on Tatum. Derek White got a wide open
three above the break on the left wing that he
just left a little bit short. So the switching wasn't
really working. And then they went back to their you know,
kind of like high drop looks, and then it was
(13:17):
just okay, we can go to Porzingis whenever we want.
Porzingis got an easy roll to the rim on one
of those. Porzingis got a pick and pop that ended
up being the game winner out of one of those.
They just got a great look every single time that
they put Karl Anthony Towns in the action, and so
as a result, the shots came easier for the Celtics
and they were able to get the win. And again
(13:37):
like that that pick and pop. That's the problem when
you can't switch against a pick and pop center. If
you switch, now you got to ask Kat to guard
on the ball against Jason Tatum. It's just a disaster
right if you and even on the other side of
the switcher leaving a smaller player on porzingis and then
if you linger, if you run that high drop and recover.
(13:58):
Look in the Knicks tried to peel off like One
of the things that the Knicks did, I thought that
was an interesting strategic piece is a lot of times
in a pick and pop they'll have the center rotate back,
so like Cat will show on the ball and then
when the kickback pass goes, Cat will sprint or the center,
whoever the center is, will sprint. To offer that contest.
One of the things the Knicks were doing is they
were just having the guard peel off, so it's not
(14:20):
really a switch because he's staying attached to the ball
until the passes made. But once the pass is made,
they're allowing the quicker footed player the guard to actually
sprint back. In contest, they did a bunch of Ojan Andobi,
and then they did it with Jalen Brunson on what
ended up being the game winner. But Jalen Brunson that like,
do you think Porzingis is gonna even see that hand?
With how tall he is compared to Jalen Brunson, It
(14:40):
is just an easy shot over the top that ended
up winning the game. Porzingis was an amazing all game hit
some pick and pop threes, but a lot of his
damage came just basic above the break spacing. This is
a classic thing that the Celtics do to cause problems
for teams in help side situations. Against the Celtics, they'll
situate their guards in the dunker spot and corners, and
(15:02):
then they'll situate their wings above the or excuse me,
their centers above the break, and that just puts you
into these weird situations where the bigs want to help.
But in those situations, if they help, it's just too
long of a closeout going out to that above the
break line. And if they don't help, now, all the
backside helpers are smaller players, because the guys that you
(15:24):
have spacing in those situations are smaller players, and so
cat a lot of times it was just getting caught
right around the elbow, just kind of hanging out and help,
whether it be guarding an off ball action or just
kind of sitting in a in the help traditional kind
of nail help type of position, and it was just
swing passes out to the wing and chrisopsworzingis just banging
these twenty seven foot threes and like they were good looks.
(15:47):
He hit over and over and over again in that
third quarter. He was unbelievable. He also hit like a
forty footer in this situation where there was a fumbled
ball that ended up in his hands with like seven
seconds on the shot clock, caught it like forty feet
from the backs it and just let it fly and
put it in. He had thirty four points. He was incredible.
It's just a really tough matchup for the Knicks. The
Celtics are built to handle just about everything that the
(16:09):
Knicks do on both ends of the floor, and so
it's really hard for me to see a pathway for
the Knicks to make a real series of this when
they see each other in the second round. Moving on
to Lakers Thunder Round two, as we could all expect,
there was a predictable shift in effort for both teams.
The Thunder got embarrassed, so they came out with a
(16:30):
much higher level of intensity, and the Lakers, I thought,
completely let go of the rope with their game plan
discipline two main areas competing on the ball defensively and
being sloppy with the basketball on offense. But the way
it manifested in the first half was actually super interesting
to me. There were some predictable things that happened. As
I said a bunch of times this week, what would
(16:52):
it look like when the Thunder controlled this matchup? I said,
it would manifest as a lot of defensive to transition
sequences and the Lakers not being able to contain the
ball as they lose control of the momentum of the game.
And that is what happened to them in that first
In that first half, they allowed twenty points off of turnovers.
In the first half, they allowed a million points in
(17:13):
the paint as they just got bludgeoned at the basket.
And when that stuff happened, it just kind of snowballed
for them, and as a result, the Thunder just tore
them apart for eighty points in that first half. To
give you an idea. They scored ninety nine total in
the first game, So the way that the Thunder successful
stretches in this matchup will look like kind of looked
(17:35):
exactly what you saw in that first half. Lots of
defense to transition, lots of stuff in the paint as
they're just driving through and around Lakers players. So we
got a good look at that. But there were two
unexpected things that happened in this game that I think
boded very well for the Lakers in this matchup. First,
(17:55):
no matter how hard Oklahoma City competed in that first half,
they could not stop the Lakers from generating completely unguarded
three point shots. Even with the turnovers, the Lakers hung
another seventy two points on the Thunder in that first half.
I've talked a lot about OKC and the way they
load up on the ball to try to force turnovers
(18:15):
and pack the paint, and how if you can just
not turn the ball over there are opportunities to generate
wide open threes against this team. It's been one of
the reasons why I like this matchup for the Lakers
against the Thunder. Lebron and Luca are two of the
best in the history of the league at getting the
ball across the court over the top of help defense
(18:36):
and creating those open shots on the weak side. And
so ultimately Lebron and Luca are super comfortable in this
matchup because they can get size mismatches or with Luca,
mismatches against foot speed, getting their bigs in space. Lebron
and Luca are always comfortable. Because they're always comfortable they
(18:58):
can take advantage of some of the openings in Okase's defense,
attacking mismatches in the middle of the floor or getting
the ball across the court overhelp side. They just can
continue to generate great shots. And then as long as
Austin Reeves has slotted properly against some of the lesser
defenders for Okase, Austin's really comfortable in this matchup as
(19:19):
well and has been cooking the Thunder. I thought it
was interesting that in that fourth quarter stretch when Luca
got ejected and then JJ stuck with his normal rotation
and subbed Lebron out of the game, when Austin was
the featured person against the top players for the Thunder,
he had some struggles, but in the organic way that
this series would go out with Austin only having to
(19:40):
lead bench groups alongside Lebron James, I think this Laker
offense is going to consistently be comfortable in this matchup.
There was a brief stretch on the second quarter where
the Thunder did some damage to Lebron, but then Lebron
woke up and he was awesome the rest of the
way and looked comfortable. And so the first thing that
I think is really interesting for the Lakers in this
(20:01):
matchup after that second game is I feel pretty sure,
pretty sure that the Lakers are going to be comfortable
on offense in a matchup against this Thunder defense, which
is the very best defense in the league. The second
thing that happened the Lakers were able to shut the
Thunder offense down again in the second half. They came
out after that first half where they let go of
(20:24):
the rope and their game plan discipline, and in sixteen
minutes in the second half up until the point where
Luca got ejected, the Lakers held the Thunder to just
twenty seven points sixteen minutes of game clock while scoring
thirty six points of their own to take a one
point lead with all of the momentum. And then Lucas
(20:45):
started talking shit to a fan court side, got himself ejected.
From there, like I talked about, it got really weird.
The Lakers stuck with their normal rotation, so they subbed
Lebron out like right after that, and so we had
this weird Lakers lineup in the middle of the fourth quarter.
I had three starters missing Lebron, Luca, and Rui all
off the floor, and the Thunder starters just ran that
(21:07):
group and they ended up putting the game away. But
in that stretch, in that second half, I thought the
Lakers demonstrated that they were able to regain control of
the situation with their defense against the Thunder, And so
from there, like I left that two game set feeling
like these were the two best teams in the Western Conference.
(21:29):
But I also think the Lakers have a real chance
to knock this team off if they faced each other
in the series. I it's to me, it's like a
fifty to fifty kind of coin flip between which of
these two teams would win. I mean, it's a two
game set here. Obviously the Thunder don't have as much
to play for, but there's no doubt that in this
two game stretch that the Lakers demonstrated more examples of
(21:52):
being able to slow down and make the thunders offense
uncomfortable than the opposite, than the Thunder being able to
make the Lakers offense uncomfortable, and so like that to me,
I thought was encouraging for the Lakers and their chances. Now,
for the record, I'm doing a bunch of contender stuff soon.
I'm recording with the Nerds right after this, So make
(22:14):
sure you go over to the Nerd sash page later
this afternoon so you guys can see that episode there.
We're gonna be going over our top ten contenders. I'm
having Sam Vessini on next week on our show to
go over a similar type of list. I've decided this
morning that I'm gonna keep OKAC above the Lakers on
the contenders list, mainly because I think they're far more
(22:35):
resilient matchup to match up in the Western Conference. Another
way of putting it is to say, I think it's
more likely that the Lakers lose before OKCE the than
OKC getting upset before they face the Lakers, even though
I think they're both the best teams in the Western Conference,
and even though I think if they faced in a series.
(22:56):
I'd call it roughly a coin flip. Oka See, I
think is more equipped to handle all the different types
of teams in the Western Conference. So I'm going to
have OKC above the Lakers in my contender's list. But
I think the Lakers pretty clearly showed that they have
some advantages in this matchup. Now, on the refs for
a minute. Let's take Luca's element to this and set
(23:19):
it aside for a second, because I think there's a
conversation to be had about Luca's relationship with refs. Why
do we have refs at basketball games? Like, why are
they there at all? They're there to facilitate the flow
of basketball games. That's it. I heard these comments from
Marked Degenel after the game, a rare Marked Degenal comment
(23:42):
that I don't necessarily agree with. And he talked about
how a while back he got a TECH from JT,
or the official who ejected Luca. He got a TECH
from Jtor for what he said was a mild comment. Okay,
so he's Mark's freely admitting upfront that Jtor was being ridiculous. Okay.
After that, Mark said that he appreciated that JT held
(24:06):
the line on the respect for the game, the integrity
of the game, something about the respect for the game.
And while I agree with Mark because he said he
went on to say that like at a certain point,
you got to set a line, and if someone crosses
that line, you got to be consistent about it. And
I agree with that. There's a certain line. Like if
Luca had gone up to jt Or in that situation
(24:27):
and got in his face and started being really boisterous
and demonstrative in his face after he already had a
tech earlier in the game, I would have found it
to be a defensible ejection. You do have to have
a line. There is a decorum element to this, There
is a respect to the game element. However, if you
are going to eject Luka Doncic from a one point
(24:50):
game in a very important game for the Lakers on
the seating front and kind of important for the Thunder
in terms of their mental confidence in this matchup and
us potentially getting to see seven minutes of crunch time
basketball between the two best teams in the Western Conference
in a game that I mean, it was a league
pass game that a lot of eyes were on it.
(25:12):
If you're gonna eject Luca there, you better be damn
sure that whatever it is that you're upset about, he did.
And Luca had been talking trash to a fan, was
clearly talking trash to a fan, was backpedaling away and
walking up the court and just looked back and said
something towards the fan. Jt Or happened to be standing there.
(25:33):
He got sensitive, he got worked up. He kicked Luca
out of the game, And that really is the thing, Like,
you have to understand that if we could have it
our way, you wouldn't even be there. Officials. You're there
because we have to have you there to facilitate the
flow of these games. But you are not the You
(25:56):
are not the show. Go ref some YMCA game and
see how many people pay to show up and watch
you ref. You are not the show. The show is
the players. All of us wanted to see what happened
in that game. I would have preferred to get to
also get some crunch time sampled data from this matchup.
We didn't get that because jt Or got sensitive over
(26:20):
a comment that wasn't even directed towards him. And that
is an issue I've seen time and time again from
NBA officials ego thinking it's about them not being able
to handle the emotion of the environment. Basketball is an
emotional sport. Trash talk is a part of the game,
especially between fans and players. Yes, there are certain decorum
(26:44):
elements you've got to watch. Like I thought, the Vando
tech was perfectly fine. You can't let guys block each
other and then run up on each other and get
in each other's faces. You have to stop that because
you'll end up getting guys punched in the face, like
it will end up in physical altercation. So there are
certain things that you have to step up on with
trash talk. But fans sit courtside and talk shit all
(27:06):
game long. Players talk back to them all the time. Yes,
there are times when players and refs get into it,
and a ref has to have a line in terms
of the way that he's being spoken to. But like
you've got to have a read for the emotion of
the environment. That's an intense game. The Lakers needed it.
Luca was fired up. He just got another bucket torching
(27:27):
Hartenstein on a switch. He was talking shit. He was
having his moment in the emotion of the game, and
jt Or got sensitive and couldn't handle it, and there's
just way too much of that in the NBA that
needs to be resolved now looking at Luca, as I said,
it is a league wide problem with refs having ego
(27:48):
and not being able to manage their emotions in these
intense competitive environments. So one of the most important things
that you have to learn how to do as a
basketball player is manage your relationships with the ref. If
we all agree that they can get sensitive, if we
all agree that they have an ego, then you can't
sit there and berate him all game long from a distance,
(28:11):
towing that line, towing the tech line, talking shit, but
keeping your distance and finding a way to not necessarily
get yourself thrown out, but you're still antagonizing it. There
was I saw someone say something on Twitter that jt
Or during the game had said to Lakers players, anyone
can talk to me but Luca. Why did he say that, Luca?
(28:33):
He said that because you talked a bunch of shit
to him throughout the entire game and he's sensitive about it.
So like, at a certain point, yeah, I believe you, Luca,
that you were talking shit to the fan, but you
put yourself in a position with the way you managed
your relationship with JT or that he was a quick
(28:54):
trigger to eject you and he did not give you
the benefit of the doubt. As far as I've seen,
Lucas never argued his way into getting a better whistle.
He gets the calls when he gets fouled, he doesn't
when he doesn't, and when he bitches and moans, it
actually makes the refs less willing to give him the
calls that he wants. So a big part of his
(29:14):
development in the next few years is going to be
learning how to manage his relationships with refs. We could
be in a big playoff series series tied at two,
big game fourth quarter, and if Luke is talking a
bunch of shit to the refs, he could put be
in another situation where one is a little sensitive on
the verge of kind of losing control of his emotions,
and you could cross the line and end up in
(29:36):
a situation where you're not available to your team. That
is the bottom line. The bottom line is regardless of
what the circumstances were. Your team had to try to
beat the thunder last night without Luka Doncic when they
were already without Rui and because of the back to back.
JJ wasn't about to push Lebron's minutes. You ultimately put
your team in a compromising position and it led to
(29:56):
a loss. So control what you can control, Luca. You
can't control JT or sensitivity. You can't control the sensitivity
of many of these refs around the league. You can
control the way that you manage your relationship with refs
over the course of games. That's all I got for
to this morning, guys. Is always as sincerely appreciate you
guys for supporting me and supporting the show again. We
(30:19):
will be back live on YouTube. We are skipping the
late game because the Sacramento Kings and Nuggets are both
dumpster fires right now, but we are going to sex.
I should give them more credits. The Kings are playing well,
DeMar de Rozen and Zach Lavine are lighting people up.
But we're going to be going after the MAVs Lakers
game tonight live on YouTube. I will see you guys though,
So guys, as always, I appreciate you for listening to
(30:41):
and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful
for us if you guys would take a second and
leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate
you guys supporting us, but if you could take a
minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it. The volume
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co slash b ball. All right, welcome to him tonight
(02:03):
here at the volume heavy Wednesday. Everybody up, all of
you guys are having a great week. Got a quick
show for you today. We're just hitting two games from
last night, Slate two of the top contender. Two games
worth of the top contenders in the league facing off
with each other. Our early season top two teams in
the East between the Celtics and the Knicks didn't work
out that way, but the Knicks got a chance again
(02:26):
to try to reverse the embarrassing trends that they've had
against the Celtics, and they did have their most competitive
game of the season against Boston, but ultimately ended up
losing on a pick and pop three by Christops Porzingis.
Lots of interesting stuff in that game, though, and one
potential little upside for the Knicks in a potential playoff
matchup with the Celtics. And then in the second half
(02:47):
of the show, we got Round two of Lakers Thunder,
a very predictable shift and effort from both teams, but
I thought it manifested in some super interesting ways and
it ended up leaving that game even more convinced that
the Lakers have a good chance to potentially upset the
Thunder in a playoff series. So lots to get into
in those two games. And then don't forget, we're coming
(03:08):
back tonight after the final buzzer of Mavericks Lakers a
good opportunity for us to see a good old fashioned
revenge game with Anthony Davis and Luke on some different teams.
I think we'll get to see Lebron and Anthony Davis
guard each other tonight. That should be fun. Luca is
either going to just go absolutely ape shit or he's
(03:29):
going to be terrible. I'll be curious to see which
one he ends up being because it's just such a
weird environment. But don't forget we've got that coming up
on YouTube later tonight. You guys know the drill before
we get started. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You
don't miss any more of our videos. Following me on
Twitter at underscore JCNLTS. You guys don't misshow announcements. Don't
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on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if we
(03:49):
leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's
doing some great work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
and facebooks. Make sure you guys follow Hoops Tonight there,
and last, but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions
in the youtub t comments. We already did our mail
bag this week, but there's still tons of time to
get questions in for next week's mail bag. Remember just
in our full episodes in the comments right. Mail Bag
with Colon Recher question in there. We'll get to it
(04:12):
in our weekly mail bags throughout the remainder of the season.
All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Knicks had
by far their most competitive game of the season versus
the Celtics, but obviously they end up losing. Pick and
pop three from chrisps porzingis kind of like a just
a repeated theme in that game. Porzingis getting good, clean
looks above the break. But I want to start with
(04:33):
the Knicks for a second and talk about specifically how
the Knicks managed to keep things more competitive this time around.
This is a matchup where the Knicks have looked They've
looked like they've not been in the same class as
Boston in the matchups they've had earlier this season. And
I thought the two things that shifted that back towards
(04:54):
the knicks favor were one, it was their sharpest defensive
discipline game Boston. They weren't really doing anything different per se,
still trying their best not to switch with Brunson in
towns and staying attached, but they just did a better job,
better ball pressure, better staying attached to those screening actions,
better rotating, just making Boston a little bit more uncomfortable.
And by the way, I don't think it was a
(05:15):
coincidence that this was their best defensive game against Boston
because it comes right after the best defensive stretch that
Boston excuse me, that the Knicks have had this season
with Jalen Brunson out. As we talked about the other day,
they've been top ten, top ten in defense, top ten
and defensive rebounding, so two categories that they've been And
(05:38):
they've been awesome at forcing turnovers, getting out in transition,
forcing more turnovers than they did at any other point
in the season, scoring a ton of points per game
in transitions. So just being more of a we're gonna
be sharp on the margins type of team instead of
leaning on their offense like they did for the majority
of this season. I there were a lot of interesting
(05:59):
quotes that came out from players and coaches yesterday, but
I don't know if you guys heard Devin Booker. After
they got their butts kicked by the Golden State Warriors,
Devin Booker talked about, you know, someone asked him what
went wrong for the Suns this season, and he said,
they never had winning habits and this is a concept
I've talked about so much on the show, this idea
that your habits are what carry you in these situations.
(06:20):
You're even if you know what you're supposed to do,
Like even if you know like, Okay, here's what I
do and I'm the low man, these are the reads
that I'm looking to make. These are the rotations that
I make in these situations. Even if you understand how
to play defense, you've got to there is such a
thing as defensive rhythm, just like there is offensive rhythm.
When you're in a good stretch where you've been defending
(06:42):
really well for a while, you build up these habits
to where all those things that I said you would
understand by knowing your job actually come to fruition by
you executing those things every single possession. If you could
know all those things, but if you don't play back
basketball for a couple of weeks, or if you play
(07:03):
bad basketball for a couple of weeks, you could enter
into a more high leverage situation, and even though you
know what you're supposed to do, you're just not in
a rhythm defensively to where you're doing those things consistently.
You've got to build defensive rhythm. You have to build
defensive habits, and I don't think it's a coincidence that
the Knicks were more competitive with Boston in this game
(07:26):
after a stretch of time where they built out some
winning habits that didn't exist in the earlier part of
the season. Another just random quote from yesterday that I
wanted to shout out Mark Dagenal before the Lakers Thunder
second game. He was asked about the Lakers shooting in
the Sunday game, and basically he just went up there
(07:47):
and I was like, literally just in front of my
TV just clapping because he was just saying all the
stuff that I've been saying on the show NonStop, which
is that shot result is connected to the way you play.
And he was pointing out to the press, the guys
that were trying to the the you know, the reporters
just trying to get him to say something along the
lines of like, oh, yeah, well, you know, we know
(08:08):
the shots will even out tonight, But that's not what
Mark said. Mark was like, yeah, they shot well, but
we also allowed them to get great shots, We allowed
them to be comfortable. They played better basketball than us.
He literally said, they outplayed us the majority of the night.
That's the thing I've been saying this so much. You
can't flip shot quality unless you change the way that
(08:30):
you're playing. There's all sorts of interesting quotes going around
the NBA yesterday, But second piece that kept the Knicks
close to Boston yesterday, I thought they found a semi
reliable way to attack Boston's defense. And this was Carl
Anthony Towns in the post against Boston's guards and forwards.
(08:53):
Did a lot of really great work down there, bullying
guys right to the front of the rim, drawing second defenders,
and making kickout passes. He ran ten post ups in
the game, and the Knicks had a one to thirty
offensive rating in those possessions. Here's why that matters for
the Knicks. There are certain things from tonight that don't
(09:13):
translate to a series. Like Jalen Brown is banged up
and was on a minute's restriction right so with him
out and al Horford out in crunch time, the Celtics
had to close with Peyton Pritchard or Luke Cornett, and
the Knicks really went out those two guys in the
fourth quarter stretch. In the fourth quarter stretch when the
(09:35):
Knicks built that three point lead before Tatum tied it.
Jalen Brunson in a left shoulder fade over Peyton Pritchard,
Ognanovi Ojnnob got an easy offensive rebound put back over
Peyton Pritchard right underneath the basket. Then Joe Mizula tweaks, goes, Okay,
we're having some trouble with Prichard getting attacked for a
lack of size, so he goes with Luke Cornett instead.
(09:58):
Then Jalen Brunson just a meetate edately puts Luke Cornett
in the ball screen, draws a blitz two on the
ball out like thirty feet from the basket, throws a
nice little bounce pass to Josh Hart in the middle
of the floor. He hits a little floater that puts
him back up by three. So, like a lot of
the crunch time attack for the Knicks was stuff that
won't necessarily translate to a playoff series, right, But the
(10:22):
Karl Anthony Towns post up stuff. I do think that's
a real entry point for them that they can use
in a playoff series to generate some more reliable half
court offense in this matchup against Boston. But Ultimately, none
of it mattered because Tatum carried the Celtics through that
fourth quarter, and then the Celtics were able to generate
awesome shots in overtime, attacking Karl Anthony Towns and screening actions,
(10:46):
and they ended up getting a win. Tatum had a
remarkable shot making stretch in that fourth quarter, just over
and over and over again, taking these tough, contested mid
range jump shots in isolation situations right in the middle
of the floor, just kept hitting shot after shot after
and then capped it off with a nasty step back
three above the break on the right side of the
floor to tie the game and send it to overtime.
(11:07):
And I talked about this in the mail bag yesterday.
It's just because Tatum has been cold for a while,
and Tatum has for a while before last night, he
had been cold as a shot maker, but that doesn't
necessarily mean he's going to be cold in the postseason.
What I said was, it's a potential variable, right if
Tatum goes into the postseason and is elite as a
(11:28):
shot maker, it dramatically improves Boston's chances of winning. If
he goes in and he shoots poorly, Obviously, it hurts
them because the Celtics are going to face stiffer competition
this time around in the postseason. But I thought it
was interesting because, like I talked about it, like the
difference between Jason Tatum being the Apex guy that he
(11:49):
can be, the guy that is in the conversation with
Shay Gildas Alexander and Giannis Antennacumbo, and the Tatum that's
more in that second tier with the guys that are
in that you know, six to ten range in the league.
That all comes down to Tatums jump shooting. Like if
he's not making shots, he's very versatile and does so
many useful things that he's still one of these superstars
(12:13):
in the league. But to be one of the top
tier Apex superstars, he's got to have a shot making going.
And I mean, you saw that in that game in
that fourth quarter as he basically dragged the Celtics into
an overtime period, and then in that overtime period, the
Celtics just had really good options attacking Karl Anthony Towns.
Ive got some good looks attacking Karl Anthony Towns in
(12:34):
regulation too. It's worth mentioning like the three point shot
that Jason Tatum drew the foul that Jason Tatum drew
on the left side of the floor right before the
end of the of regulation. That was a play where
they decided to switch with Carl Anthony Towns. There was
more switching that New York tried with him down the
stretch and it didn't work. They switched him on to Tatum.
(12:55):
Tatum drew a foul, they switched him on to Derek
White in an off ball screen. Then they just ran
him through another screen with Tatum and Kat lingered too
long on on Tatum. Derek White got a wide open
three above the break on the left wing that he
just left a little bit short. So the switching wasn't
really working. And then they went back to their you know,
kind of like high drop looks, and then it was
(13:17):
just okay, we can go to Porzingis whenever we want.
Porzingis got an easy roll to the rim on one
of those. Porzingis got a pick and pop that ended
up being the game winner out of one of those.
They just got a great look every single time that
they put Karl Anthony Towns in the action, and so
as a result, the shots came easier for the Celtics
and they were able to get the win. And again
(13:37):
like that that pick and pop. That's the problem when
you can't switch against a pick and pop center. If
you switch, now you got to ask Kat to guard
on the ball against Jason Tatum. It's just a disaster
right if you and even on the other side of
the switcher leaving a smaller player on porzingis and then
if you linger, if you run that high drop and recover.
(13:58):
Look in the Knicks tried to peel off like One
of the things that the Knicks did, I thought that
was an interesting strategic piece is a lot of times
in a pick and pop they'll have the center rotate back,
so like Cat will show on the ball and then
when the kickback pass goes, Cat will sprint or the center,
whoever the center is, will sprint. To offer that contest.
One of the things the Knicks were doing is they
were just having the guard peel off, so it's not
(14:20):
really a switch because he's staying attached to the ball
until the passes made. But once the pass is made,
they're allowing the quicker footed player the guard to actually
sprint back. In contest, they did a bunch of Ojan Andobi,
and then they did it with Jalen Brunson on what
ended up being the game winner. But Jalen Brunson that like,
do you think Porzingis is gonna even see that hand?
With how tall he is compared to Jalen Brunson, It
(14:40):
is just an easy shot over the top that ended
up winning the game. Porzingis was an amazing all game hit
some pick and pop threes, but a lot of his
damage came just basic above the break spacing. This is
a classic thing that the Celtics do to cause problems
for teams in help side situations. Against the Celtics, they'll
situate their guards in the dunker spot and corners, and
(15:02):
then they'll situate their wings above the or excuse me,
their centers above the break, and that just puts you
into these weird situations where the bigs want to help.
But in those situations, if they help, it's just too
long of a closeout going out to that above the
break line. And if they don't help, now, all the
backside helpers are smaller players, because the guys that you
(15:24):
have spacing in those situations are smaller players, and so
cat a lot of times it was just getting caught
right around the elbow, just kind of hanging out and help,
whether it be guarding an off ball action or just
kind of sitting in a in the help traditional kind
of nail help type of position, and it was just
swing passes out to the wing and chrisopsworzingis just banging
these twenty seven foot threes and like they were good looks.
(15:47):
He hit over and over and over again in that
third quarter. He was unbelievable. He also hit like a
forty footer in this situation where there was a fumbled
ball that ended up in his hands with like seven
seconds on the shot clock, caught it like forty feet
from the backs it and just let it fly and
put it in. He had thirty four points. He was incredible.
It's just a really tough matchup for the Knicks. The
Celtics are built to handle just about everything that the
(16:09):
Knicks do on both ends of the floor, and so
it's really hard for me to see a pathway for
the Knicks to make a real series of this when
they see each other in the second round. Moving on
to Lakers Thunder Round two, as we could all expect,
there was a predictable shift in effort for both teams.
The Thunder got embarrassed, so they came out with a
(16:30):
much higher level of intensity, and the Lakers, I thought,
completely let go of the rope with their game plan
discipline two main areas competing on the ball defensively and
being sloppy with the basketball on offense. But the way
it manifested in the first half was actually super interesting
to me. There were some predictable things that happened. As
I said a bunch of times this week, what would
(16:52):
it look like when the Thunder controlled this matchup? I said,
it would manifest as a lot of defensive to transition
sequences and the Lakers not being able to contain the
ball as they lose control of the momentum of the game.
And that is what happened to them in that first
In that first half, they allowed twenty points off of turnovers.
In the first half, they allowed a million points in
(17:13):
the paint as they just got bludgeoned at the basket.
And when that stuff happened, it just kind of snowballed
for them, and as a result, the Thunder just tore
them apart for eighty points in that first half. To
give you an idea. They scored ninety nine total in
the first game, So the way that the Thunder successful
stretches in this matchup will look like kind of looked
(17:35):
exactly what you saw in that first half. Lots of
defense to transition, lots of stuff in the paint as
they're just driving through and around Lakers players. So we
got a good look at that. But there were two
unexpected things that happened in this game that I think
boded very well for the Lakers in this matchup. First,
(17:55):
no matter how hard Oklahoma City competed in that first half,
they could not stop the Lakers from generating completely unguarded
three point shots. Even with the turnovers, the Lakers hung
another seventy two points on the Thunder in that first half.
I've talked a lot about OKC and the way they
load up on the ball to try to force turnovers
(18:15):
and pack the paint, and how if you can just
not turn the ball over there are opportunities to generate
wide open threes against this team. It's been one of
the reasons why I like this matchup for the Lakers
against the Thunder. Lebron and Luca are two of the
best in the history of the league at getting the
ball across the court over the top of help defense
(18:36):
and creating those open shots on the weak side. And
so ultimately Lebron and Luca are super comfortable in this
matchup because they can get size mismatches or with Luca,
mismatches against foot speed, getting their bigs in space. Lebron
and Luca are always comfortable. Because they're always comfortable they
(18:58):
can take advantage of some of the openings in Okase's defense,
attacking mismatches in the middle of the floor or getting
the ball across the court overhelp side. They just can
continue to generate great shots. And then as long as
Austin Reeves has slotted properly against some of the lesser
defenders for Okase, Austin's really comfortable in this matchup as
(19:19):
well and has been cooking the Thunder. I thought it
was interesting that in that fourth quarter stretch when Luca
got ejected and then JJ stuck with his normal rotation
and subbed Lebron out of the game, when Austin was
the featured person against the top players for the Thunder,
he had some struggles, but in the organic way that
this series would go out with Austin only having to
(19:40):
lead bench groups alongside Lebron James, I think this Laker
offense is going to consistently be comfortable in this matchup.
There was a brief stretch on the second quarter where
the Thunder did some damage to Lebron, but then Lebron
woke up and he was awesome the rest of the
way and looked comfortable. And so the first thing that
I think is really interesting for the Lakers in this
(20:01):
matchup after that second game is I feel pretty sure,
pretty sure that the Lakers are going to be comfortable
on offense in a matchup against this Thunder defense, which
is the very best defense in the league. The second
thing that happened the Lakers were able to shut the
Thunder offense down again in the second half. They came
out after that first half where they let go of
(20:24):
the rope and their game plan discipline, and in sixteen
minutes in the second half up until the point where
Luca got ejected, the Lakers held the Thunder to just
twenty seven points sixteen minutes of game clock while scoring
thirty six points of their own to take a one
point lead with all of the momentum. And then Lucas
(20:45):
started talking shit to a fan court side, got himself ejected.
From there, like I talked about, it got really weird.
The Lakers stuck with their normal rotation, so they subbed
Lebron out like right after that, and so we had
this weird Lakers lineup in the middle of the fourth quarter.
I had three starters missing Lebron, Luca, and Rui all
off the floor, and the Thunder starters just ran that
(21:07):
group and they ended up putting the game away. But
in that stretch, in that second half, I thought the
Lakers demonstrated that they were able to regain control of
the situation with their defense against the Thunder, And so
from there, like I left that two game set feeling
like these were the two best teams in the Western Conference.
(21:29):
But I also think the Lakers have a real chance
to knock this team off if they faced each other
in the series. I it's to me, it's like a
fifty to fifty kind of coin flip between which of
these two teams would win. I mean, it's a two
game set here. Obviously the Thunder don't have as much
to play for, but there's no doubt that in this
two game stretch that the Lakers demonstrated more examples of
(21:52):
being able to slow down and make the thunders offense
uncomfortable than the opposite, than the Thunder being able to
make the Lakers offense uncomfortable, and so like that to me,
I thought was encouraging for the Lakers and their chances. Now,
for the record, I'm doing a bunch of contender stuff soon.
I'm recording with the Nerds right after this, So make
(22:14):
sure you go over to the Nerd sash page later
this afternoon so you guys can see that episode there.
We're gonna be going over our top ten contenders. I'm
having Sam Vessini on next week on our show to
go over a similar type of list. I've decided this
morning that I'm gonna keep OKAC above the Lakers on
the contenders list, mainly because I think they're far more
(22:35):
resilient matchup to match up in the Western Conference. Another
way of putting it is to say, I think it's
more likely that the Lakers lose before OKCE the than
OKC getting upset before they face the Lakers, even though
I think they're both the best teams in the Western Conference,
and even though I think if they faced in a series.
(22:56):
I'd call it roughly a coin flip. Oka See, I
think is more equipped to handle all the different types
of teams in the Western Conference. So I'm going to
have OKC above the Lakers in my contender's list. But
I think the Lakers pretty clearly showed that they have
some advantages in this matchup. Now, on the refs for
a minute. Let's take Luca's element to this and set
(23:19):
it aside for a second, because I think there's a
conversation to be had about Luca's relationship with refs. Why
do we have refs at basketball games? Like, why are
they there at all? They're there to facilitate the flow
of basketball games. That's it. I heard these comments from
Marked Degenel after the game, a rare Marked Degenal comment
(23:42):
that I don't necessarily agree with. And he talked about
how a while back he got a TECH from JT,
or the official who ejected Luca. He got a TECH
from Jtor for what he said was a mild comment. Okay,
so he's Mark's freely admitting upfront that Jtor was being ridiculous. Okay.
After that, Mark said that he appreciated that JT held
(24:06):
the line on the respect for the game, the integrity
of the game, something about the respect for the game.
And while I agree with Mark because he said he
went on to say that like at a certain point,
you got to set a line, and if someone crosses
that line, you got to be consistent about it. And
I agree with that. There's a certain line. Like if
Luca had gone up to jt Or in that situation
(24:27):
and got in his face and started being really boisterous
and demonstrative in his face after he already had a
tech earlier in the game, I would have found it
to be a defensible ejection. You do have to have
a line. There is a decorum element to this, There
is a respect to the game element. However, if you
are going to eject Luka Doncic from a one point
(24:50):
game in a very important game for the Lakers on
the seating front and kind of important for the Thunder
in terms of their mental confidence in this matchup and
us potentially getting to see seven minutes of crunch time
basketball between the two best teams in the Western Conference
in a game that I mean, it was a league
pass game that a lot of eyes were on it.
(25:12):
If you're gonna eject Luca there, you better be damn
sure that whatever it is that you're upset about, he did.
And Luca had been talking trash to a fan, was
clearly talking trash to a fan, was backpedaling away and
walking up the court and just looked back and said
something towards the fan. Jt Or happened to be standing there.
(25:33):
He got sensitive, he got worked up. He kicked Luca
out of the game, And that really is the thing, Like,
you have to understand that if we could have it
our way, you wouldn't even be there. Officials. You're there
because we have to have you there to facilitate the
flow of these games. But you are not the You
(25:56):
are not the show. Go ref some YMCA game and
see how many people pay to show up and watch
you ref. You are not the show. The show is
the players. All of us wanted to see what happened
in that game. I would have preferred to get to
also get some crunch time sampled data from this matchup.
We didn't get that because jt Or got sensitive over
(26:20):
a comment that wasn't even directed towards him. And that
is an issue I've seen time and time again from
NBA officials ego thinking it's about them not being able
to handle the emotion of the environment. Basketball is an
emotional sport. Trash talk is a part of the game,
especially between fans and players. Yes, there are certain decorum
(26:44):
elements you've got to watch. Like I thought, the Vando
tech was perfectly fine. You can't let guys block each
other and then run up on each other and get
in each other's faces. You have to stop that because
you'll end up getting guys punched in the face, like
it will end up in physical altercation. So there are
certain things that you have to step up on with
trash talk. But fans sit courtside and talk shit all
(27:06):
game long. Players talk back to them all the time. Yes,
there are times when players and refs get into it,
and a ref has to have a line in terms
of the way that he's being spoken to. But like
you've got to have a read for the emotion of
the environment. That's an intense game. The Lakers needed it.
Luca was fired up. He just got another bucket torching
(27:27):
Hartenstein on a switch. He was talking shit. He was
having his moment in the emotion of the game, and
jt Or got sensitive and couldn't handle it, and there's
just way too much of that in the NBA that
needs to be resolved now looking at Luca, as I said,
it is a league wide problem with refs having ego
(27:48):
and not being able to manage their emotions in these
intense competitive environments. So one of the most important things
that you have to learn how to do as a
basketball player is manage your relationships with the ref. If
we all agree that they can get sensitive, if we
all agree that they have an ego, then you can't
sit there and berate him all game long from a distance,
(28:11):
towing that line, towing the tech line, talking shit, but
keeping your distance and finding a way to not necessarily
get yourself thrown out, but you're still antagonizing it. There
was I saw someone say something on Twitter that jt
Or during the game had said to Lakers players, anyone
can talk to me but Luca. Why did he say that, Luca?
(28:33):
He said that because you talked a bunch of shit
to him throughout the entire game and he's sensitive about it.
So like, at a certain point, yeah, I believe you, Luca,
that you were talking shit to the fan, but you
put yourself in a position with the way you managed
your relationship with JT or that he was a quick
(28:54):
trigger to eject you and he did not give you
the benefit of the doubt. As far as I've seen,
Lucas never argued his way into getting a better whistle.
He gets the calls when he gets fouled, he doesn't
when he doesn't, and when he bitches and moans, it
actually makes the refs less willing to give him the
calls that he wants. So a big part of his
(29:14):
development in the next few years is going to be
learning how to manage his relationships with refs. We could
be in a big playoff series series tied at two,
big game fourth quarter, and if Luke is talking a
bunch of shit to the refs, he could put be
in another situation where one is a little sensitive on
the verge of kind of losing control of his emotions,
and you could cross the line and end up in
(29:36):
a situation where you're not available to your team. That
is the bottom line. The bottom line is regardless of
what the circumstances were. Your team had to try to
beat the thunder last night without Luka Doncic when they
were already without Rui and because of the back to back.
JJ wasn't about to push Lebron's minutes. You ultimately put
your team in a compromising position and it led to
(29:56):
a loss. So control what you can control, Luca. You
can't control JT or sensitivity. You can't control the sensitivity
of many of these refs around the league. You can
control the way that you manage your relationship with refs
over the course of games. That's all I got for
to this morning, guys. Is always as sincerely appreciate you
guys for supporting me and supporting the show again. We
(30:19):
will be back live on YouTube. We are skipping the
late game because the Sacramento Kings and Nuggets are both
dumpster fires right now, but we are going to sex.
I should give them more credits. The Kings are playing well,
DeMar de Rozen and Zach Lavine are lighting people up.
But we're going to be going after the MAVs Lakers
game tonight live on YouTube. I will see you guys though,
So guys, as always, I appreciate you for listening to
(30:41):
and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful
for us if you guys would take a second and
leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate
you guys supporting us, but if you could take a
minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it. The volume
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