November 18, 2025 • 29 mins
Jason reacts to the Denver Nuggets taking a tough loss to the Chicago Bulls. He breaks down how the Nuggets bench has been up and down, how Nikola Vucevic slowed down Nikola Jokic, Josh Giddey's continued impressive play, Jamal Murray's defensive struggles, and more. Then he discusses Paul George making his season debut for the Philadelphia 76ers in a win over the Los Angeles Clippers, the Toronto Raptors staying hot, and the Miami Heat's impressive wins.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at
the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. If ave you guys are
having a great we got a quick show for you
guys today. We're gonna be touching on four games from
(00:24):
last night's slate. We're gonna be going deep on Chicago, Denver,
and then I want to talk about Paul George's debut
at the Philadelphia seventy six ers. And then we'll be
briefly touching on wins by the Toronto Raptors and Miami
Heat from last night. You guys know the joke before
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(00:45):
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(01:06):
through the comments, and we'll get to them on Fridays
throughout the remainder of the year. Also, it's looking like
Lebron's probably going to play tonight, so our first playbackstream
of the week will probably be tonight for Lakers Jazz.
If he's a late scratch, then we'll just push it
to the Sunday night game when Lebron will inevitably debut. Then,
but I'm expecting Lebron to play tonight, we'll be live
on playback for that game, and then our second playback
(01:28):
stream this week is going to be for Nuggets Rockets
on Friday Night. Those are watch alongs. We're going through
the entire game. We take questions, we take callers, we
hang out, we watch oops. It's a lot of fun.
You guys should come check it out. All right, let's
talk some basketball. So Chicago snaps a five game losing
streak on the road in Denver last night, essentially riding
two big runs, one with Yokacho off the floor and
(01:50):
one with Yokaja on the floor, and then some timely
shot making in the clutch and one big defensive play.
I really want to zoom in on the matchup problem
that is Nicola Vusi when we get into crunch time.
But the first run was a run with Nicole Jokic
off the floor, and it started on defense. Ayod tos
Soon moved it a good job in Jamal Murray forced
him into a couple of misses, and then all of
(02:11):
Chicago's bigs did an amazing job in this game on
Yona's and on Joki. Jokich had thirteen misses in this game,
which was by far the most he's had since the
season opener against Golden State, and you know it's a
combination of him missing that pick and pop three point
shot but also forcing some misses around the basket. And
I want to shout out Patrick Williams, Jalen Smith, Smith,
(02:33):
Vussovich himself. All those guys did a great job battling
Denver's bigs. But during that first bench run, Patrick Williams
and Jalen Smith got a couple of really nice one
on one stops against Jonas Valancunis. Patrick had one against
Yonis where he forced him into a really bad miss
where he like hit the backboard first on a hook
shot that was right in front of the rim. And
basically if you watch him, he uses his left arm
(02:54):
and he gets down into the pocket and starts disrupting
the basketball. Which we talked about this all the time,
like if you just try to contest a guy up top,
these dudes are pros. These dudes practice making shots when
they're contested. That's not going to bother them. You've got
to find a way to disrupt their rhythm in one
way or another. We've talked about this concept with the
difference between like a Jonathan Kminga versus Moses Moody when
we talk about Golden State's perimeter defenders, Kaminga's often there
(03:18):
but not being disruptive, whereas Moses Moods constantly reaching and
being physical and can disrupt rhythm. Patrick Williams on this
play gets into the pocket, disrupts Jonas Valanciunas so that
when he goes up for his hook, he's way out
of rhythm and he ends up smoking it badly off
the back like way high up off the backboard, right
Jalen Smith gets a big stop stop on Yonas where
(03:39):
he tries to take away the middle. Yonas wants to
get towards the middle on either side of the block.
He's on the left block, he wants to get to
the middle for his left shoulder hook. If he's on
the right block, he wants to get to the middle
for that short little turnaround over his right shoulder, more
of kind of like a turnaround jump shot, but he
likes to get middle. Jalen took that away stood middle.
Us tries to bully threw him anyway, and he picked
(04:01):
up a big offensive foul. So they got the stops
on Murray. They got the stops on Yonis, and then
going down the other end, a nice combination of some
dribble penetration from Iotasumu and Dalen Terry, some transition pushes
from them that got easy layups, and hot three point shooting.
Jalen Smith continues to shoot the ball well. He hit
a couple of threes. Javon Carter hit a couple of
threes during that run. Iodasumo hit one, and the Bulls
(04:23):
found themselves up by eighteen in the middle of the
second quarter. Now Jokic comes in, he immediately helps reassert control.
The Nuggets come all the way back. We'll talk about
the Nuggets bench later, because that's becoming kind of a
weird up and down subplot for them this season. The
second run, though, is with Jokic on the floor in
the late third quarter, and this was the classic transition
(04:46):
pushes that Chicago has been killing teams with all season.
A ton of damage in transition during that third quarter run.
Josh Kitty got a layup, Iodasuon Mu got a layup,
Jalen Smith got an and one. Javon Carter hit another
three on one of those transition sequences off of an
offensive rebound. They also did some nice work against Denver
zone defense. They kept getting the ball to the middle,
(05:07):
and one of the things that happens in his zone
is once you get the ball to the middle, it
inverts everybody's eyes. So now all of a sudden, if
you're up top, you're looking down towards the middle, so
the guys behind you are hard to see. And if
you're at the basket, you're looking towards the middle, which
can cause you to lose sight of the baseline. And
I had assume who ended up getting two really nice
buckets off of cuts because the ball got to the middle.
(05:28):
Vusevich caught the ball in the middle. Disumu cut along
the baseline, got himself like a little floater there right
along the left block. Another one, Patrick Williams dribbles into
the middle of the lane, gets the ball into the
middle of the zone. Tim Hardaway Junior turns, puts his
back towards Patrick Williams. That allows assuming to cut right
behind him. He gets another layup against the zone. So
(05:49):
they end up getting another double digit lead in that
third quarter run, this time with Nikolay Jokic on the floor.
But to Denver bench's credit, the Denver bench did have
a nice response compared to their first shift. In the
early fourth quarter, they made an adjustment. Instead of going
with Valan Chunis with jokichat they went with Aaron Gordon
at center, and they actually managed to cut the lead
(06:10):
down to six on a Jamal Murray and one before
nikola Jokic came back. And then we got ourselves a
classic clutch battle. And while Denver continued to score like
they always do in the clutch, Chicago went bucket for
bucket with them some really high quality offense, a steady
diet once again, like we've talked about all season of
that Vusovich Giddy two man game or any sort of
(06:32):
ball screen involving Nikola Vusovich, and that was causing problems
for Denver. Giddy got downhill on one, got into Cam
Johnson's chest and spun over his left shoulder and made
a little hook shot. So Denver didn't want to give
up that level of downhill rim pressure. They didn't want
to give up that runway, so they started bringing Jokic
up to the level for the specific purpose of stopping
(06:53):
the basketball. That ended up leading to a bunch of
other problems. They had one sequence where it led to
a series of switches, is where Yokic got switched off
and Gordon got switched on too Vusovich. They ran a
quick interchange on the weak side, and so now Vusovich
had Cam Johnson on him. Cam Johnson starts back or
Vusovich starts backing down Cam Johnson. Jokic, who had been
(07:13):
switched on to Kevin Herder at that point, ends up
throwing a double team from the top side. Vusovich kicks
it out to hurt her and he hits a three,
so you come up to the level to try to
stop the dribble penetration, but that ends up leading to
a peel switch in a series of switches that gives
you a mismatch with Vusovich in the post, which leads
to an open three when Jokic rotates off of a shooter.
(07:35):
And then the game, the play that iced the game,
that Vusovich pick and pop at the top of the key,
that is the exact same type of sequence that is
always going to be open in a pick and roll
coverage where you don't switch. Jokic came up to the level,
they pitch it back to Vusovich wide open, popping out
of the screen, and he's just there at the top
of the key, and it's basically mak er miss at
(07:56):
that point, and he knocked it down. And so that
ball screen ended up causing all sorts of problems for
Denver down the stretch, with the combination of Josh Getty's
ability to get downhill off of those ball screens, what
that forced Denver to do and trying to contain him
at the level, which then led to all of the
shortcomings and the switches, and in the pick and pop
(08:17):
that Vusovich was able to do damage in and by
the way, he ends up making the biggest defensive play
of the game during that stretch. He ends up they're
up by one, they go down to the other end
Murray Jokic two man game. Vusovich himself comes up to
the level and gets a very nice deflection on a
pass towards Jokic in the pocket. That deflection ends up
(08:38):
leading to a just soon moved dunk going out the
other way. So really really nice basketball from the Bulls
down the stretch, fueled by that matchup problem that is
Nikola Vusovich. Now vouch is a matchup problem because he's
great at coverage beaters, right. So, like when you have
these different options on how to guard ball screens, whether
(08:59):
it's a deep drop or if it's a higher drop,
or it's a blitz or it's a switch, whatever it
is that you're doing to defend ball screens, there's a
way to beat every version of it. Right. For a
deep drop coverage, the deep drop is designed to take
away the roll and the rim right, so that opens
up mid range shot making right, or even sometimes three
point shot making if you can wipe the dude out
(09:20):
on a screen right. But then at the level coverages
they open up the role right or the skip if
you tag the roller right. Blitzes they open up the
four on three sequences where teams can pick you apart
in quick little you know, tic tac toe sequences for
layups and wide open threes, and then switches they open
up mismatch attacking right, a guard against the big or
(09:42):
a big against a guard. Those are the coverage beaters
for the coverage that you're trying to run right, and
Vucevic is just a textbook example of a coverage beater.
The pick and pop three is a perfect example. If
you come up to the level or run any variation
of drop coverage that doesn't involve you switching, you're going
to leave the pick and pop open, or at the
(10:05):
very least, if you rotate to it from the weak side,
someone's open on the skip like you are guaranteed to
leave a three point shooter wide open. If you have
a pick and pop big and you're not switching ball screens,
that is a coverage beater that Nikola Vusovich is bringing
to the table. That post up weapon. Okay, you switch
all of a sudden, you run a series of switches
(10:26):
and now Cam Johnson's on Nikola Vusovich. Yeah, you can
leave him on an island there, but vouch is probably
gonna do some damage one on one against a guy
like Cam Johnson. Okay, you double team off of a shooter.
There's an easy little kickout pass and a guy's knocking
down the shot, right. And so when you have that
type of weapon in a two man game, especially when
(10:46):
you've got someone who can do some damage on the
other side of it. I mean, Denver fans know this
personally rooting for Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, but Usovich
just did a lot of damage last night and then
last shout out here again I said this off the top,
but all game long, Chicago's bigs and forwards battled Jokics
really well, and I thought they had an underrated defensive
performance in this game, forcing the misses that they forced,
(11:07):
and they just made life difficult. Really nice win, a
nice little bounce back for the Bulls to get back
over five hundred. Before we move on to the next game,
I wanted to talk briefly about Denver's bench we talked
to yesterday about how Denver's bench has been super weird
this year. Like, statistically they're better than previous seasons. They're
about six and a half points negative net per one
hundred possessions when Yokic is off the floor. That's about
(11:30):
half of what it's been in most of the previous seasons.
So that's good, but it's still feast or famine and
it's still statistically bad and a large sample. Like I
was hoping they'd be slightly positive with Yokich off the
floor this year, that has not happened, but it's manifesting
very much in this feast or famine way, right, Like
I talked about this before this last weekend, talked about
(11:51):
how it was like you'd have these games where they
would win a game because of their bench, like the
Sacramento game, right, But then they'd have these other games
where they'd lose a game because of their bench. They
lose control in those minutes. And then we just got
a perfect example of that. In their last two games.
They're plus eight and really help you win a game,
a tough road game against Minnesota, but then they're a
disaster and they have a minus fifteen shift spanning the
(12:14):
first and second quarter last night that digs you into
a sixteen point hole before Jokic comes in. But then
suddenly they come back and have a good shift in
the fourth quarter that helps shrink the lead back to
six before Yokic comes back. It's very up and down,
and it's one of those things where like there's two
different kinds of variants with that group that I think
are worth addressing here, variants that's kind of out of
(12:35):
their control and variance that's in their control. Like, for instance,
I do expect some offensive variance with this group no
matter what. Jamal Murray's a tough shot maker. Sometimes he's
gonna miss shots like that little drop coverage floater he
missed in the first bench unit in the first half.
That's a shot that is a tough shot. He can
make it, but it's a tough shot. He missed another
(12:56):
little mid range pull up during that stretch. It's a
tough shot and he can make it, but like he's
gonna miss it sometimes right the Yonas Valenciunas post ups,
Like we've seen Yonas win that battle and various points
this season. He got a couple of chances with that
first bench group and Jalen Smith and Patrick Williams won
their battles. Like credit to them, that's gonna happen. Sometimes
(13:17):
you're playing with offensive players in those groups that are
gonna be hot and cold sometimes. To me, the controllables, though,
the variants that they can control is on the defensive
end of the floor. Statistically, they've been okay on defense
when Yokich is off the floor. That's been how they've
won a lot of their shifts with that group during
the season. But they've had other stretches where they've been
(13:38):
really bad on defense with Yokich off the floor. And
I thought last night was an example of that, and
there were just a lot of different silly mistakes. I
thought Jamal Murray and Tim Hardaway Junior in particular were
very bad on defense in this game. Jamal there were
like four or five different possessions where he was like sagging,
not even in a defensive stance where he's helping and rotating,
but just sagging off the ball on a shooter and
(14:01):
it's like swing swing. There's Javon Carter hitting a three
when like they didn't even break down your defense, or
there's Ayodasummu hitting a catch and shoot three on the
left wing when they didn't even break down your defense
or swing the ball to Jamal's man and he just
rips the clothes out and Jamal is just asleep, and
now he's giving up dribble penetration, easy drop off for
a dunk for Dayalean Terry. Like there's a lot of
(14:21):
like just silly, fixable, like laziness mistakes happening defensively with
those bench groups in some of these nights where it's
like that is under your control. I like Jamal getting
to a spot and rising up, it's gonna go in
or it's not. You post up Jonas and he gets
single coverage. He's either gonna score or he's not. There's
(14:42):
a certain amount of variants there that's out of your control.
But there's these fixable problems on the defensive end of
the floor that they can that they can absolutely rectify.
Timartoway Junior was just kind of like space Casey last
night on defense, and like there's just a certain amount
of additional attention to detail that can go a long
way towards helping him avoid some of the catastrophe bench
nights like they had last night. Like at the end
(15:04):
of the game, anything can happen, right. It's a close game,
Like you synthesize any basketball game down to like a
half dozen possessions, and now anything can happen, right, Like
if Jamal Murray gets the ball to Jokic in the
pocket instead of throwing it into Yonis into Nikola Vusovich's
hand leading to the disson moved dunk. If he completes
(15:25):
that pass, Denver probably scores there, they have a really
good chance to win. Like if Jokic doesn't double off
of Herder one pass away on the Vusovich post up
and instead you double from the weak side off of
a lesser offensive player, maybe you get to stop there,
maybe you end up winning the game. That's close games,
they can go either way. There's you know, tough shot making.
Get Jokic HiT's a tough right shoulder fade in there,
(15:46):
like Giddy hits a tough little left shoulder hook in there.
Like there's a certain amount of anything can happen in
a close game that's got a half dozen possessions. What
you can't afford to do is spot a team like
the Bulls a eighteen point second quarter lead, because you
you have these like brutally bad stretches of your bench,
where like in a couple of minutes, you completely lose
control of a game. And I do think some of
(16:07):
that is fixable by just becoming a little bit more
attentive on the defensive end of the floor. Today's show
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Moving on to Paul George's debut. The Sixer's got a
(17:57):
really nice come from behind a win against the Clippers
last night. Just an unbelievable performance from Quinton Grimes in
the second half of that game. James Harden came out
the gates and just absolutely fried the seventy six Ers
in the first half. And to James Harden's credit, the
first couple weeks of the season, you know, like he
was good, not great, right, like just kind of a
(18:17):
a like one of the many things going on with
the Clippers to start the season between the KWHI Leonard
injury and Chris Paul not playing very well and brad
Leyveal getting hurt, and like James Harden was good but
not great to start the season. James Harden has been
absurdly good over the last week. He's averaging thirty three points,
nine rebounds, and eight assists in his last five games. So, like,
(18:38):
James Harden's been on an absolute heater. And he did
a bunch of damage to the Sixers in the first
half of this game, and then they started the second
half with Quinton Grimes on him, and Quinton Grimes just
put the fire out. I thought he did a really
nice job of consistently funneling him towards his right hand,
so getting situated on that left hand side, but also
keeping his hands out of the cookie jar, like he
(18:58):
was picking up some foul on guys who were just
getting up underneath him or getting it at their hands.
Caught vj Edge Comb had one where he's like playing
with his hand out and all that James Harden does
when he sees that is he just goes into his
gather into your arm. I mean him and Embiid have
been doing that for years, right, and so like Quentin
Grimes just funneling him towards his right hand and keeping
his hands out of the cookie jar, which basically forced
(19:21):
Harden to just make contested shots and that ended up
cooling him off. So really nice job defensively. And then
Queen Grimes killed the Sixers in the fourth quarter with
his rim pressure off of drives and off of cuts
in transition and in the half court. He ended up
hitting basically the biggest shot of the game, a pull
up three over John Collins along the right wing. Just
an awesome game from Grimes, who very much looked like
(19:44):
a guy who wants a big contract next year. And
once again for the Sixers, the key is defense for
them to have any sort of sustained success. Tyree s
Maxy poured in another thirty eight points. He's leading the
league in minutes played up over forty minutes per game,
and he's leading the league and field hole attempts this year.
Kind of crazy. Status's taking twenty four shots per game.
Table that for a second, because I want to get
(20:05):
back to that when we're done talking about Paul George.
We got to see Paul George back on an NBA
court last night, though, and I thought he had a
better game than what you would think looking at the
box score, Like it'ld be really easy just to look
at the box score and go, oh, he's two for nine.
But I actually thought he did some decent shot creation
off the bounce. He ended up drawing a foul and
a three point shot on one of those, and then
he had some really nice driving kick sequences that led
(20:26):
to easy shots. I actually thought there was some decent
shot creation in there, and then he showed a little
bit of the scoring ability, like he hit a pull
up three to start the game. He had a play
where he got a driving layup or zubots where I
actually thought it was like kind of an encouraging sign
for his body, Like he really dislodged Zubots with like
a hard step right into his chest and led with
(20:47):
his shoulder and really knocked him off so that he
could go over the top of the little floater. And
I was like, you don't do that against Zubots unless
you trust your lower body. So I thought that was
a good sign of just where his physical and mental
confidence is right now. Again, I know he's two for nine,
but I thought he did some better shot creation than
what you'd think looking at the box score. He's not
moving super well, but he did have a couple of
(21:08):
ISOs where he got to his spot and was able
to make some stuff happen. A couple others where he
looked like he struggled to get separation, and that's to
be expected. This is his first basketball game in forever,
so it's gonna take a little while for him to
get his lungs and to get his full mobility, at
least whatever that full mobility looks like at this phase
of his career, after all the injuries he's dealt with.
But I left that game thinking the Sixers are gonna
(21:30):
need him, Like, in addition to forward depth, which is
obviously going to be tested with Kelly Ubre out for
a little while, the team also just needs more firepower,
Like the team has a one twenty offensive rating with
Tyre's Maxie on the floor according to Cleaning the Glass,
but just one eleven point five when he's off the floor.
And we talked earlier about the minutes load and usage,
Like Tyres Maxie's playing over forty minutes a game, Tyres
(21:54):
Maxie is leading the league in field goal attempts twenty
four shot attempts per game. Like, you got to find
a way to make things just a little easier for him.
And one of the things that I like about Paul
George's game in particular is I think it fits their
current style of play better than embiid does. EMBIID. You know,
he can struggle to get up and down the floor
with the speed they want to play with. He can
(22:15):
be a little bit of a ball stopper, He can
struggle sometimes with playmaking. I think Paul George actually functions
a little bit more naturally as a second side creator
off of Tyrese Maxi. And again he made some kickout
reads yesterday that were the kinds of things that were
missing from the Sixers early in the season to try
to grease the wheels in the half court for them.
I just hope you can stay healthy and regain a
(22:37):
little bit more of his mobility, because he does add
a dynamic to the Sixers that I think helps them.
A couple other quick shoutouts from last night before we
get out of here. The Rafters won a fun game
against the Hornets, and Scotty Barnes and Brandon Ingram basically
won the game with a couple of massive two way sequences.
Scotty Barnes backed down Miles Bridges and basically just buried
(22:58):
him under the basket and dunked in kind of like
a shocking play. You don't see that very often, just
a back down dunk in the post, and then brandon
Ingram a little iso out of the right corner. He
ended up drawing a bunch of attention and he made
a very nice feed to RJ Barrett cutting off of
the left wing. Another example of just the combination of
high level playmaking talent that the Raptors have which has
(23:18):
made them a better half court offense than you would
think to start the year, and then both of those
guys there were a couple of easy layups and dunks
that the Hornets generated out of action late in the game,
where Brandon Ingram ended up getting Ryan Kalchbrenner with a
massive dunk, or he was about to go dunk and
he got a massive block off the glass, and then
Scotty Barnes ended up doing the same thing to save
(23:40):
a layup on the very next possession. Like a couple
of huge defensive plays from those guys and Scotty Barnes
and Brandon Ingram last night forty three points, twelve rebounds,
and nine assists, three steals, in five blocks between the
two of them, and the Raptors have now won four
in a row, currently sitting third in the Eastern Conference.
We did a dive in the Raptors on Friday for
(24:01):
those of you guys who missed it. We discussed a
combination of their defensive transition attack, but also they're really
high level half court playmaking that leads to these really
high level driving kick concepts and spacing concepts that make
them tough to guard. Playing really fun basketball right now.
The Toronto Raptors and then lastly for today, the Miami Heat.
I caught just the fourth quarter of their win last
(24:23):
night versus the Brunson and Ananobi list Nicks, and it's
kind of another classic Miami Heat game from this year.
They had seven dudes in double figures. Everybody was involved
in the offense. Late in the game, Davion Mitchell hit
two of the most ridiculous lefty scoop shots that you'll
see a small guard make, and so I was digging
into the numbers. I was like, man, it feels like
dave Ion's been hitting these tough layups like all season.
(24:46):
He's sixty five percent on layups this year, and again,
that's an insane number for such a small guard. The
vast majority of guards below sixty three you'll see in
that like fifty three to fifty seven percent range seven
being the high end for these like small guards. Like
for him to be making sixty five percent of his
layups shows really impressive touch around the rim. And then
(25:09):
they won the game with their perimeter defense, like the
Nicks were killing them with dribble penetration. In the early
fourth quarter, Duce McBride had this like absurd dunk in transition.
Russell Westbrook esque where he just took off like a
freight train and then just exploded off of one leg
and dunked it with his right hand. Jordan Clarkson was
killing him in the paint. Karl Anthony Towns b Timy
(25:29):
Hawkes off the dribble and gets a little bank shot
like they were doing a bunch of damage off the dribble.
But in the final minutes, the heat started to keep
the ball in front, which started leading to some tougher
contested jump shots that didn't go in and then kill
el Ware at Norman Powell ended up having a couple
of big buckets each late in the game that iced
the game. I'm still not super high on the heat.
(25:50):
They're a little gimmicky to me. They're reliant on catching
teams sleeping in transition by not stopping the ball with
those early drives that they constantly hit teams with. If
you can keep the heat in front, they're not gonna
beat great defense consistently in the half court, and that's
shown in their record splits, like they're five and oh
this year against teams that are below five hundred, but
(26:11):
they're just three and six against teams that are five
hundred or better, and two of those three wins were
against the Cavs in a game they lost Arius Garland
and the Knicks without Jalen Brunson and Ogannobe, although to
their credit, they did beat that healthy Knicks team early
in the season. To be clear, I don't mean that
as a negative thing about the Heat, like this is
not a very good roster, like you're not if you're
(26:31):
stacking up the Miami Heats talent on paper, compared to
the other teams in the NBA, They're they're firmly in
like the sixteen to twenty range. They're not a very
talented roster compared to some of the other teams around
the NBA. I mean, they were without bam Adebayo and
Tyler Harrow last night, right. I mean, but even when
they're fully healthy, I don't see them to be like
(26:53):
a very imposing set of talent. Right. But once again,
they're sitting at eight and six. They're full mix in
the Eastern Conference. And it's because Eric Spolstra just keeps
finding ways to maximize talent in the modern NBA. Like
this year, he saw the clear strength on his roster,
like oh Man, like Jim Hawkez can beat dudes off
(27:13):
the dribble like uh, you know, Davion Mitchell can initiate
a dribble drive attack. We've got some good read and
react talent relative to some of the other teams in
the league, and so he kind of built this drive
and kick system that maximizes that specific set of talent.
You've got just that little bit of top end from
Norman Powell, who has been fantastic this year, is a
(27:34):
guy who can score coming off coming off of action
by hitting shots over the top. The Heat are like
one of the very lowest frequency teams when it comes
to off the dribble jump shooting. But they got a
couple of guys like Norman Palellin and Tyler Harrow when
he comes back, that can do that, and it just
provides a little bit of a counter to their driving
kick system. And then they just dominate the margins like
(27:56):
every Eric Spolster team does. They dominate the transition battle,
they dominate turnovers and points off of turnovers, and so
they just find ways to manufacture higher level basketball than
what you would expect from the talent on the roster. Again,
I'm not trying to say they don't have any talentsince
the league is stacked, like they're not going out there
with you know, even like Brandon Ingram and Scottie Barnes
(28:19):
level a type of players that you see in terms
of top end compared to some of the other rosters
in the league, like the Heat are operating at a
talent deficit and they're competing every single night in a
stacked NBA because of Eric Spolser's ability to just find
what his specific teams strength is and leverage that strength
on a night to night basis to win games. All right, guys,
(28:40):
It's all I have for today is always to sincerely
appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show again.
We'll be back most likely tonight as long as Lebron
plays for the playback stream for Jazz versus the Lakers,
then we'll be back tomorrow with more game reaction. I
will see you guys though. F
The volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at
the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. If ave you guys are
having a great we got a quick show for you
guys today. We're gonna be touching on four games from
(00:24):
last night's slate. We're gonna be going deep on Chicago, Denver,
and then I want to talk about Paul George's debut
at the Philadelphia seventy six ers. And then we'll be
briefly touching on wins by the Toronto Raptors and Miami
Heat from last night. You guys know the joke before
we started. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you
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(00:45):
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for more content throughout the season. Then, last, but not least,
if you guys want to get questions into our Friday
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in the comments right mail bag with a colon, drop
your question that helps me find them when I'm sorting
(01:06):
through the comments, and we'll get to them on Fridays
throughout the remainder of the year. Also, it's looking like
Lebron's probably going to play tonight, so our first playbackstream
of the week will probably be tonight for Lakers Jazz.
If he's a late scratch, then we'll just push it
to the Sunday night game when Lebron will inevitably debut. Then,
but I'm expecting Lebron to play tonight, we'll be live
on playback for that game, and then our second playback
(01:28):
stream this week is going to be for Nuggets Rockets
on Friday Night. Those are watch alongs. We're going through
the entire game. We take questions, we take callers, we
hang out, we watch oops. It's a lot of fun.
You guys should come check it out. All right, let's
talk some basketball. So Chicago snaps a five game losing
streak on the road in Denver last night, essentially riding
two big runs, one with Yokacho off the floor and
(01:50):
one with Yokaja on the floor, and then some timely
shot making in the clutch and one big defensive play.
I really want to zoom in on the matchup problem
that is Nicola Vusi when we get into crunch time.
But the first run was a run with Nicole Jokic
off the floor, and it started on defense. Ayod tos
Soon moved it a good job in Jamal Murray forced
him into a couple of misses, and then all of
(02:11):
Chicago's bigs did an amazing job in this game on
Yona's and on Joki. Jokich had thirteen misses in this game,
which was by far the most he's had since the
season opener against Golden State, and you know it's a
combination of him missing that pick and pop three point
shot but also forcing some misses around the basket. And
I want to shout out Patrick Williams, Jalen Smith, Smith,
(02:33):
Vussovich himself. All those guys did a great job battling
Denver's bigs. But during that first bench run, Patrick Williams
and Jalen Smith got a couple of really nice one
on one stops against Jonas Valancunis. Patrick had one against
Yonis where he forced him into a really bad miss
where he like hit the backboard first on a hook
shot that was right in front of the rim. And
basically if you watch him, he uses his left arm
(02:54):
and he gets down into the pocket and starts disrupting
the basketball. Which we talked about this all the time,
like if you just try to contest a guy up top,
these dudes are pros. These dudes practice making shots when
they're contested. That's not going to bother them. You've got
to find a way to disrupt their rhythm in one
way or another. We've talked about this concept with the
difference between like a Jonathan Kminga versus Moses Moody when
we talk about Golden State's perimeter defenders, Kaminga's often there
(03:18):
but not being disruptive, whereas Moses Moods constantly reaching and
being physical and can disrupt rhythm. Patrick Williams on this
play gets into the pocket, disrupts Jonas Valanciunas so that
when he goes up for his hook, he's way out
of rhythm and he ends up smoking it badly off
the back like way high up off the backboard, right
Jalen Smith gets a big stop stop on Yonas where
(03:39):
he tries to take away the middle. Yonas wants to
get towards the middle on either side of the block.
He's on the left block, he wants to get to
the middle for his left shoulder hook. If he's on
the right block, he wants to get to the middle
for that short little turnaround over his right shoulder, more
of kind of like a turnaround jump shot, but he
likes to get middle. Jalen took that away stood middle.
Us tries to bully threw him anyway, and he picked
(04:01):
up a big offensive foul. So they got the stops
on Murray. They got the stops on Yonis, and then
going down the other end, a nice combination of some
dribble penetration from Iotasumu and Dalen Terry, some transition pushes
from them that got easy layups, and hot three point shooting.
Jalen Smith continues to shoot the ball well. He hit
a couple of threes. Javon Carter hit a couple of
threes during that run. Iodasumo hit one, and the Bulls
(04:23):
found themselves up by eighteen in the middle of the
second quarter. Now Jokic comes in, he immediately helps reassert control.
The Nuggets come all the way back. We'll talk about
the Nuggets bench later, because that's becoming kind of a
weird up and down subplot for them this season. The
second run, though, is with Jokic on the floor in
the late third quarter, and this was the classic transition
(04:46):
pushes that Chicago has been killing teams with all season.
A ton of damage in transition during that third quarter run.
Josh Kitty got a layup, Iodasuon Mu got a layup,
Jalen Smith got an and one. Javon Carter hit another
three on one of those transition sequences off of an
offensive rebound. They also did some nice work against Denver
zone defense. They kept getting the ball to the middle,
(05:07):
and one of the things that happens in his zone
is once you get the ball to the middle, it
inverts everybody's eyes. So now all of a sudden, if
you're up top, you're looking down towards the middle, so
the guys behind you are hard to see. And if
you're at the basket, you're looking towards the middle, which
can cause you to lose sight of the baseline. And
I had assume who ended up getting two really nice
buckets off of cuts because the ball got to the middle.
(05:28):
Vusevich caught the ball in the middle. Disumu cut along
the baseline, got himself like a little floater there right
along the left block. Another one, Patrick Williams dribbles into
the middle of the lane, gets the ball into the
middle of the zone. Tim Hardaway Junior turns, puts his
back towards Patrick Williams. That allows assuming to cut right
behind him. He gets another layup against the zone. So
(05:49):
they end up getting another double digit lead in that
third quarter run, this time with Nikolay Jokic on the floor.
But to Denver bench's credit, the Denver bench did have
a nice response compared to their first shift. In the
early fourth quarter, they made an adjustment. Instead of going
with Valan Chunis with jokichat they went with Aaron Gordon
at center, and they actually managed to cut the lead
(06:10):
down to six on a Jamal Murray and one before
nikola Jokic came back. And then we got ourselves a
classic clutch battle. And while Denver continued to score like
they always do in the clutch, Chicago went bucket for
bucket with them some really high quality offense, a steady
diet once again, like we've talked about all season of
that Vusovich Giddy two man game or any sort of
(06:32):
ball screen involving Nikola Vusovich, and that was causing problems
for Denver. Giddy got downhill on one, got into Cam
Johnson's chest and spun over his left shoulder and made
a little hook shot. So Denver didn't want to give
up that level of downhill rim pressure. They didn't want
to give up that runway, so they started bringing Jokic
up to the level for the specific purpose of stopping
(06:53):
the basketball. That ended up leading to a bunch of
other problems. They had one sequence where it led to
a series of switches, is where Yokic got switched off
and Gordon got switched on too Vusovich. They ran a
quick interchange on the weak side, and so now Vusovich
had Cam Johnson on him. Cam Johnson starts back or
Vusovich starts backing down Cam Johnson. Jokic, who had been
(07:13):
switched on to Kevin Herder at that point, ends up
throwing a double team from the top side. Vusovich kicks
it out to hurt her and he hits a three,
so you come up to the level to try to
stop the dribble penetration, but that ends up leading to
a peel switch in a series of switches that gives
you a mismatch with Vusovich in the post, which leads
to an open three when Jokic rotates off of a shooter.
(07:35):
And then the game, the play that iced the game,
that Vusovich pick and pop at the top of the key,
that is the exact same type of sequence that is
always going to be open in a pick and roll
coverage where you don't switch. Jokic came up to the level,
they pitch it back to Vusovich wide open, popping out
of the screen, and he's just there at the top
of the key, and it's basically mak er miss at
(07:56):
that point, and he knocked it down. And so that
ball screen ended up causing all sorts of problems for
Denver down the stretch, with the combination of Josh Getty's
ability to get downhill off of those ball screens, what
that forced Denver to do and trying to contain him
at the level, which then led to all of the
shortcomings and the switches, and in the pick and pop
(08:17):
that Vusovich was able to do damage in and by
the way, he ends up making the biggest defensive play
of the game during that stretch. He ends up they're
up by one, they go down to the other end
Murray Jokic two man game. Vusovich himself comes up to
the level and gets a very nice deflection on a
pass towards Jokic in the pocket. That deflection ends up
(08:38):
leading to a just soon moved dunk going out the
other way. So really really nice basketball from the Bulls
down the stretch, fueled by that matchup problem that is
Nikola Vusovich. Now vouch is a matchup problem because he's
great at coverage beaters, right. So, like when you have
these different options on how to guard ball screens, whether
(08:59):
it's a deep drop or if it's a higher drop,
or it's a blitz or it's a switch, whatever it
is that you're doing to defend ball screens, there's a
way to beat every version of it. Right. For a
deep drop coverage, the deep drop is designed to take
away the roll and the rim right, so that opens
up mid range shot making right, or even sometimes three
point shot making if you can wipe the dude out
(09:20):
on a screen right. But then at the level coverages
they open up the role right or the skip if
you tag the roller right. Blitzes they open up the
four on three sequences where teams can pick you apart
in quick little you know, tic tac toe sequences for
layups and wide open threes, and then switches they open
up mismatch attacking right, a guard against the big or
(09:42):
a big against a guard. Those are the coverage beaters
for the coverage that you're trying to run right, and
Vucevic is just a textbook example of a coverage beater.
The pick and pop three is a perfect example. If
you come up to the level or run any variation
of drop coverage that doesn't involve you switching, you're going
to leave the pick and pop open, or at the
(10:05):
very least, if you rotate to it from the weak side,
someone's open on the skip like you are guaranteed to
leave a three point shooter wide open. If you have
a pick and pop big and you're not switching ball screens,
that is a coverage beater that Nikola Vusovich is bringing
to the table. That post up weapon. Okay, you switch
all of a sudden, you run a series of switches
(10:26):
and now Cam Johnson's on Nikola Vusovich. Yeah, you can
leave him on an island there, but vouch is probably
gonna do some damage one on one against a guy
like Cam Johnson. Okay, you double team off of a shooter.
There's an easy little kickout pass and a guy's knocking
down the shot, right. And so when you have that
type of weapon in a two man game, especially when
(10:46):
you've got someone who can do some damage on the
other side of it. I mean, Denver fans know this
personally rooting for Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, but Usovich
just did a lot of damage last night and then
last shout out here again I said this off the top,
but all game long, Chicago's bigs and forwards battled Jokics
really well, and I thought they had an underrated defensive
performance in this game, forcing the misses that they forced,
(11:07):
and they just made life difficult. Really nice win, a
nice little bounce back for the Bulls to get back
over five hundred. Before we move on to the next game,
I wanted to talk briefly about Denver's bench we talked
to yesterday about how Denver's bench has been super weird
this year. Like, statistically they're better than previous seasons. They're
about six and a half points negative net per one
hundred possessions when Yokic is off the floor. That's about
(11:30):
half of what it's been in most of the previous seasons.
So that's good, but it's still feast or famine and
it's still statistically bad and a large sample. Like I
was hoping they'd be slightly positive with Yokich off the
floor this year, that has not happened, but it's manifesting
very much in this feast or famine way, right, Like
I talked about this before this last weekend, talked about
(11:51):
how it was like you'd have these games where they
would win a game because of their bench, like the
Sacramento game, right, But then they'd have these other games
where they'd lose a game because of their bench. They
lose control in those minutes. And then we just got
a perfect example of that. In their last two games.
They're plus eight and really help you win a game,
a tough road game against Minnesota, but then they're a
disaster and they have a minus fifteen shift spanning the
(12:14):
first and second quarter last night that digs you into
a sixteen point hole before Jokic comes in. But then
suddenly they come back and have a good shift in
the fourth quarter that helps shrink the lead back to
six before Yokic comes back. It's very up and down,
and it's one of those things where like there's two
different kinds of variants with that group that I think
are worth addressing here, variants that's kind of out of
(12:35):
their control and variance that's in their control. Like, for instance,
I do expect some offensive variance with this group no
matter what. Jamal Murray's a tough shot maker. Sometimes he's
gonna miss shots like that little drop coverage floater he
missed in the first bench unit in the first half.
That's a shot that is a tough shot. He can
make it, but it's a tough shot. He missed another
(12:56):
little mid range pull up during that stretch. It's a
tough shot and he can make it, but like he's
gonna miss it sometimes right the Yonas Valenciunas post ups,
Like we've seen Yonas win that battle and various points
this season. He got a couple of chances with that
first bench group and Jalen Smith and Patrick Williams won
their battles. Like credit to them, that's gonna happen. Sometimes
(13:17):
you're playing with offensive players in those groups that are
gonna be hot and cold sometimes. To me, the controllables, though,
the variants that they can control is on the defensive
end of the floor. Statistically, they've been okay on defense
when Yokich is off the floor. That's been how they've
won a lot of their shifts with that group during
the season. But they've had other stretches where they've been
(13:38):
really bad on defense with Yokich off the floor. And
I thought last night was an example of that, and
there were just a lot of different silly mistakes. I
thought Jamal Murray and Tim Hardaway Junior in particular were
very bad on defense in this game. Jamal there were
like four or five different possessions where he was like sagging,
not even in a defensive stance where he's helping and rotating,
but just sagging off the ball on a shooter and
(14:01):
it's like swing swing. There's Javon Carter hitting a three
when like they didn't even break down your defense, or
there's Ayodasummu hitting a catch and shoot three on the
left wing when they didn't even break down your defense
or swing the ball to Jamal's man and he just
rips the clothes out and Jamal is just asleep, and
now he's giving up dribble penetration, easy drop off for
a dunk for Dayalean Terry. Like there's a lot of
(14:21):
like just silly, fixable, like laziness mistakes happening defensively with
those bench groups in some of these nights where it's
like that is under your control. I like Jamal getting
to a spot and rising up, it's gonna go in
or it's not. You post up Jonas and he gets
single coverage. He's either gonna score or he's not. There's
(14:42):
a certain amount of variants there that's out of your control.
But there's these fixable problems on the defensive end of
the floor that they can that they can absolutely rectify.
Timartoway Junior was just kind of like space Casey last
night on defense, and like there's just a certain amount
of additional attention to detail that can go a long
way towards helping him avoid some of the catastrophe bench
nights like they had last night. Like at the end
(15:04):
of the game, anything can happen, right. It's a close game,
Like you synthesize any basketball game down to like a
half dozen possessions, and now anything can happen, right, Like
if Jamal Murray gets the ball to Jokic in the
pocket instead of throwing it into Yonis into Nikola Vusovich's
hand leading to the disson moved dunk. If he completes
(15:25):
that pass, Denver probably scores there, they have a really
good chance to win. Like if Jokic doesn't double off
of Herder one pass away on the Vusovich post up
and instead you double from the weak side off of
a lesser offensive player, maybe you get to stop there,
maybe you end up winning the game. That's close games,
they can go either way. There's you know, tough shot making.
Get Jokic HiT's a tough right shoulder fade in there,
(15:46):
like Giddy hits a tough little left shoulder hook in there.
Like there's a certain amount of anything can happen in
a close game that's got a half dozen possessions. What
you can't afford to do is spot a team like
the Bulls a eighteen point second quarter lead, because you
you have these like brutally bad stretches of your bench,
where like in a couple of minutes, you completely lose
control of a game. And I do think some of
(16:07):
that is fixable by just becoming a little bit more
attentive on the defensive end of the floor. Today's show
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Moving on to Paul George's debut. The Sixer's got a
(17:57):
really nice come from behind a win against the Clippers
last night. Just an unbelievable performance from Quinton Grimes in
the second half of that game. James Harden came out
the gates and just absolutely fried the seventy six Ers
in the first half. And to James Harden's credit, the
first couple weeks of the season, you know, like he
was good, not great, right, like just kind of a
(18:17):
a like one of the many things going on with
the Clippers to start the season between the KWHI Leonard
injury and Chris Paul not playing very well and brad
Leyveal getting hurt, and like James Harden was good but
not great to start the season. James Harden has been
absurdly good over the last week. He's averaging thirty three points,
nine rebounds, and eight assists in his last five games. So, like,
(18:38):
James Harden's been on an absolute heater. And he did
a bunch of damage to the Sixers in the first
half of this game, and then they started the second
half with Quinton Grimes on him, and Quinton Grimes just
put the fire out. I thought he did a really
nice job of consistently funneling him towards his right hand,
so getting situated on that left hand side, but also
keeping his hands out of the cookie jar, like he
(18:58):
was picking up some foul on guys who were just
getting up underneath him or getting it at their hands.
Caught vj Edge Comb had one where he's like playing
with his hand out and all that James Harden does
when he sees that is he just goes into his
gather into your arm. I mean him and Embiid have
been doing that for years, right, and so like Quentin
Grimes just funneling him towards his right hand and keeping
his hands out of the cookie jar, which basically forced
(19:21):
Harden to just make contested shots and that ended up
cooling him off. So really nice job defensively. And then
Queen Grimes killed the Sixers in the fourth quarter with
his rim pressure off of drives and off of cuts
in transition and in the half court. He ended up
hitting basically the biggest shot of the game, a pull
up three over John Collins along the right wing. Just
an awesome game from Grimes, who very much looked like
(19:44):
a guy who wants a big contract next year. And
once again for the Sixers, the key is defense for
them to have any sort of sustained success. Tyree s
Maxy poured in another thirty eight points. He's leading the
league in minutes played up over forty minutes per game,
and he's leading the league and field hole attempts this year.
Kind of crazy. Status's taking twenty four shots per game.
Table that for a second, because I want to get
(20:05):
back to that when we're done talking about Paul George.
We got to see Paul George back on an NBA
court last night, though, and I thought he had a
better game than what you would think looking at the
box score, Like it'ld be really easy just to look
at the box score and go, oh, he's two for nine.
But I actually thought he did some decent shot creation
off the bounce. He ended up drawing a foul and
a three point shot on one of those, and then
he had some really nice driving kick sequences that led
(20:26):
to easy shots. I actually thought there was some decent
shot creation in there, and then he showed a little
bit of the scoring ability, like he hit a pull
up three to start the game. He had a play
where he got a driving layup or zubots where I
actually thought it was like kind of an encouraging sign
for his body, Like he really dislodged Zubots with like
a hard step right into his chest and led with
(20:47):
his shoulder and really knocked him off so that he
could go over the top of the little floater. And
I was like, you don't do that against Zubots unless
you trust your lower body. So I thought that was
a good sign of just where his physical and mental
confidence is right now. Again, I know he's two for nine,
but I thought he did some better shot creation than
what you'd think looking at the box score. He's not
moving super well, but he did have a couple of
(21:08):
ISOs where he got to his spot and was able
to make some stuff happen. A couple others where he
looked like he struggled to get separation, and that's to
be expected. This is his first basketball game in forever,
so it's gonna take a little while for him to
get his lungs and to get his full mobility, at
least whatever that full mobility looks like at this phase
of his career, after all the injuries he's dealt with.
But I left that game thinking the Sixers are gonna
(21:30):
need him, Like, in addition to forward depth, which is
obviously going to be tested with Kelly Ubre out for
a little while, the team also just needs more firepower,
Like the team has a one twenty offensive rating with
Tyre's Maxie on the floor according to Cleaning the Glass,
but just one eleven point five when he's off the floor.
And we talked earlier about the minutes load and usage,
Like Tyres Maxie's playing over forty minutes a game, Tyres
(21:54):
Maxie is leading the league in field goal attempts twenty
four shot attempts per game. Like, you got to find
a way to make things just a little easier for him.
And one of the things that I like about Paul
George's game in particular is I think it fits their
current style of play better than embiid does. EMBIID. You know,
he can struggle to get up and down the floor
with the speed they want to play with. He can
(22:15):
be a little bit of a ball stopper, He can
struggle sometimes with playmaking. I think Paul George actually functions
a little bit more naturally as a second side creator
off of Tyrese Maxi. And again he made some kickout
reads yesterday that were the kinds of things that were
missing from the Sixers early in the season to try
to grease the wheels in the half court for them.
I just hope you can stay healthy and regain a
(22:37):
little bit more of his mobility, because he does add
a dynamic to the Sixers that I think helps them.
A couple other quick shoutouts from last night before we
get out of here. The Rafters won a fun game
against the Hornets, and Scotty Barnes and Brandon Ingram basically
won the game with a couple of massive two way sequences.
Scotty Barnes backed down Miles Bridges and basically just buried
(22:58):
him under the basket and dunked in kind of like
a shocking play. You don't see that very often, just
a back down dunk in the post, and then brandon
Ingram a little iso out of the right corner. He
ended up drawing a bunch of attention and he made
a very nice feed to RJ Barrett cutting off of
the left wing. Another example of just the combination of
high level playmaking talent that the Raptors have which has
(23:18):
made them a better half court offense than you would
think to start the year, and then both of those
guys there were a couple of easy layups and dunks
that the Hornets generated out of action late in the game,
where Brandon Ingram ended up getting Ryan Kalchbrenner with a
massive dunk, or he was about to go dunk and
he got a massive block off the glass, and then
Scotty Barnes ended up doing the same thing to save
(23:40):
a layup on the very next possession. Like a couple
of huge defensive plays from those guys and Scotty Barnes
and Brandon Ingram last night forty three points, twelve rebounds,
and nine assists, three steals, in five blocks between the
two of them, and the Raptors have now won four
in a row, currently sitting third in the Eastern Conference.
We did a dive in the Raptors on Friday for
(24:01):
those of you guys who missed it. We discussed a
combination of their defensive transition attack, but also they're really
high level half court playmaking that leads to these really
high level driving kick concepts and spacing concepts that make
them tough to guard. Playing really fun basketball right now.
The Toronto Raptors and then lastly for today, the Miami Heat.
I caught just the fourth quarter of their win last
(24:23):
night versus the Brunson and Ananobi list Nicks, and it's
kind of another classic Miami Heat game from this year.
They had seven dudes in double figures. Everybody was involved
in the offense. Late in the game, Davion Mitchell hit
two of the most ridiculous lefty scoop shots that you'll
see a small guard make, and so I was digging
into the numbers. I was like, man, it feels like
dave Ion's been hitting these tough layups like all season.
(24:46):
He's sixty five percent on layups this year, and again,
that's an insane number for such a small guard. The
vast majority of guards below sixty three you'll see in
that like fifty three to fifty seven percent range seven
being the high end for these like small guards. Like
for him to be making sixty five percent of his
layups shows really impressive touch around the rim. And then
(25:09):
they won the game with their perimeter defense, like the
Nicks were killing them with dribble penetration. In the early
fourth quarter, Duce McBride had this like absurd dunk in transition.
Russell Westbrook esque where he just took off like a
freight train and then just exploded off of one leg
and dunked it with his right hand. Jordan Clarkson was
killing him in the paint. Karl Anthony Towns b Timy
(25:29):
Hawkes off the dribble and gets a little bank shot
like they were doing a bunch of damage off the dribble.
But in the final minutes, the heat started to keep
the ball in front, which started leading to some tougher
contested jump shots that didn't go in and then kill
el Ware at Norman Powell ended up having a couple
of big buckets each late in the game that iced
the game. I'm still not super high on the heat.
(25:50):
They're a little gimmicky to me. They're reliant on catching
teams sleeping in transition by not stopping the ball with
those early drives that they constantly hit teams with. If
you can keep the heat in front, they're not gonna
beat great defense consistently in the half court, and that's
shown in their record splits, like they're five and oh
this year against teams that are below five hundred, but
(26:11):
they're just three and six against teams that are five
hundred or better, and two of those three wins were
against the Cavs in a game they lost Arius Garland
and the Knicks without Jalen Brunson and Ogannobe, although to
their credit, they did beat that healthy Knicks team early
in the season. To be clear, I don't mean that
as a negative thing about the Heat, like this is
not a very good roster, like you're not if you're
(26:31):
stacking up the Miami Heats talent on paper, compared to
the other teams in the NBA, They're they're firmly in
like the sixteen to twenty range. They're not a very
talented roster compared to some of the other teams around
the NBA. I mean, they were without bam Adebayo and
Tyler Harrow last night, right. I mean, but even when
they're fully healthy, I don't see them to be like
(26:53):
a very imposing set of talent. Right. But once again,
they're sitting at eight and six. They're full mix in
the Eastern Conference. And it's because Eric Spolstra just keeps
finding ways to maximize talent in the modern NBA. Like
this year, he saw the clear strength on his roster,
like oh Man, like Jim Hawkez can beat dudes off
(27:13):
the dribble like uh, you know, Davion Mitchell can initiate
a dribble drive attack. We've got some good read and
react talent relative to some of the other teams in
the league, and so he kind of built this drive
and kick system that maximizes that specific set of talent.
You've got just that little bit of top end from
Norman Powell, who has been fantastic this year, is a
(27:34):
guy who can score coming off coming off of action
by hitting shots over the top. The Heat are like
one of the very lowest frequency teams when it comes
to off the dribble jump shooting. But they got a
couple of guys like Norman Palellin and Tyler Harrow when
he comes back, that can do that, and it just
provides a little bit of a counter to their driving
kick system. And then they just dominate the margins like
(27:56):
every Eric Spolster team does. They dominate the transition battle,
they dominate turnovers and points off of turnovers, and so
they just find ways to manufacture higher level basketball than
what you would expect from the talent on the roster. Again,
I'm not trying to say they don't have any talentsince
the league is stacked, like they're not going out there
with you know, even like Brandon Ingram and Scottie Barnes
(28:19):
level a type of players that you see in terms
of top end compared to some of the other rosters
in the league, like the Heat are operating at a
talent deficit and they're competing every single night in a
stacked NBA because of Eric Spolser's ability to just find
what his specific teams strength is and leverage that strength
on a night to night basis to win games. All right, guys,
(28:40):
It's all I have for today is always to sincerely
appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show again.
We'll be back most likely tonight as long as Lebron
plays for the playback stream for Jazz versus the Lakers,
then we'll be back tomorrow with more game reaction. I
will see you guys though. F
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