May 27, 2024 • 29 mins
Jason Timpf reacts to Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks' 116-107 Game 3 win over Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals. Jason breaks down the game's biggest highlights and discusses what's next for both teams following Dallas taking a 3-0 series lead. #volume #Herd
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. We're this close to crowning a new NBA champ,
and with the action heating up on the court, it's
even hotter. At DraftKings sports Book, an official sports betting
partner of the NBA. There's only so many games left,
and Draftking Sportsbook has you covered with same game parlays,
live betting odds, boosts in so much more. Don't miss
out or you'll have to wait until next NBA season
(00:21):
to place your bets. It's super easy for first timers
to get started. Try betting on something simple like picking
a team to win. Go to the Draftking Sportsbook app,
select your squad, and place your first bet. It's that simple.
The championship odds right now as we head into the
conference finals according to DraftKings, Boston's at minus one point fifty,
the Timberwolves at plus two to seventy five, the Mavericks
(00:41):
at plus five hundred, and the Indiana Pacers a long
shot at plus twenty five hundred. New to DraftKings, listen up.
New customers can get a no sweat bet up to
fifteen hundred bucks. Just deposit at least five bucks and
you'll get a bonus bet back equal to your first
bet if it doesn't hit alough the DraftKings sportsbook gap
now and use code hoops that's h oops. That's code
(01:05):
hoops for new customers to get a no sweat bet
up to fifteen hundred bucks if your first bet doesn't
hit only on DraftKings, the Crown is yours. Gambling problem
called one eight hundred gambler or in West Virginia, visit
www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net. In New York,
call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text
(01:26):
hope and why to four six seven three sixty nine.
In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling called eight
eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or
visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of
Boothill Casino and resort In Kansas twenty one plus age
varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. One no sweat bet
(01:47):
per new customer issued as one bonus bet based on
amount of initial losing bet. Bonus bets expire one hundred
and sixty eight hours after issuance. See DKNG dot co
slash bball for l eligibility, wagering and deposit restrictions. Terms
and responsible gambling resources. All right, welcome to HOOPSINAI here
(02:16):
at the volume. Happy Sunday, everybody. Hope all of you
guys have had a great weekend. Well, the Dallas Mavericks
have gone up three to zero on the Minnesota Timberwolves
in a game that kind of felt just like every
other game in this series has felt to this.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Point, some few different factors.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Dallas shoots a little bit better, Anthony Everigs plays a
little bit better, but the same basic dynamic takes place,
and Dallas pulls away late and crunch time, he gets
a win to go up three to zer. We're gonna
break it down from the perspective of both teams. You
guys said the drop before we get started. Subscribed to
the Hoops and I YouTube channels. You don't miss any
more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS.
You guys, don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about a
podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight,
(02:52):
and they keep dropping mailback questions in the YouTube comments
so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of
the postseason. All right, let's talk some basketball. So this
series is actually a kind of reminds me a little
bit of some of those Lakers Nugget series where it
just feels like no matter how hard Minnesota plays, no
matter how hard the Lakers play, the same base issues
rise to the surface eventually at some point over the
(03:13):
course of the game, and they all seem to end
the exact same way, and it's like Minnesota just scrounging
all these different ways to stay in the game.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
But when it push, when push comes.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
To shove, Dallas is just a much better half court team.
And when they get into these slow down situations, when
they get stuck into the half court and it becomes
about execution, Dallas is just better. Did anybody think when
it was one o four, one oh four that Minnesota
was gonna win that game? Of all of the close
(03:43):
playoff series, and I'm not talking about these Boston ones
where they're playing against mostly bad or injured teams. Like
among the relatively evenly matched series, this one has felt
the most inevitable to me by far, because the basic
issues that plague Minnesota and the advantages that that Dallas has,
they are not things that Minnesota can counter. It would
(04:05):
require just bizarre shot making in order to lift Minnesota
over the top in these slow down half court environments,
and it's just unlikely. It's not that it's impossible, it's
just highly unlikely, and it's certainly unlikely given the fact
that they now have to do it four consecutive times
after tonight Tonight. According to Cleaning the Glass, Dallas gets
one hundred and twenty points per one hundred half court plays.
(04:28):
Minnesota gets one oh two point three, So that's an
eighteen point per one hundred play gap. Game two is
one hundred to ninety six point seven in favor of Dallas.
Game one one oh three point three to eighty three
point five in favor of Dallas, yet again a twenty
point gap. It has been a chasm between these two
teams in terms of actually executing against a set and
(04:50):
loaded up defense. I shared some of the ISO stats
for you guys after Game two, but they're like shocking.
When the teams take a shot out of ISO. Game
one one point six to zero point five points per
possession in favor of Dallas. Game two, one point five
to zero point three points per possession in favor of Dallas.
(05:13):
One point two to one point zero. Tonight in favor
of Dallas in Game three. So Minnesota finally had their
best ISO game of the series in terms of shooting
out of ISO, and it was beneath where Dallas has
been in all three games. And that really is wherever
where this all comes down to. Jaden McDaniels is incapable
(05:33):
of making Luka Dancich feel uncomfortable, whereas Karl Anthony Towns
and Anthony Edwards both look completely and totally flummixed from
the time it was one oh four, one oh four.
On the very next possession for Dallas, they go down
the floor, we have a huge defensive breakdown from Ant.
He's on the weak side, PJ Washington's in the corner,
and I want to say, Kyrie Irving was on the
(05:55):
left wing, and Luca's dribbling the ball at the top
of the key and Ant inexplicably for no particular reason
and just sinks all the way down underneath the basket.
Luca just throws a simple swing pass to Kyrie, extra
pass to PJ. Washington in the corner, and he knocks
down the three.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Again.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
This is where it comes down to half court decision making.
That was the possession where Luca just got rid of
the ball. Why, Because he is a half court surgeon.
He's looking at what the defense is doing, finding where
his advantage is and picking it apart. There is a slow,
methodical approach to Luca, which is what makes him one
of the best, if not the best, perimeter half court
surgeon in the league. You don't need to do anything
(06:29):
difficult if you're gonna make that stupid mistake and sink
into the lane and leave a shooter open, especially on PJ. Washington,
who from above the break has struggled but has burned
you in the corner for threes in this series. He
did it in Game one. That was one of the
biggest shots of the game. There after that Jada McDaniel's
turnover along the baseline, But from there after Dallas went
up one o seven to one oh four. Kyrie and
(06:50):
Luca hit three pull up mid range jump shots, tough
contested over the top jump shots, and the Timberwolves did
not make a single field goal until Anthony Edwards got
a lay up in garbage time when they were already
down eleven. That's the game, that's all it is. They go,
Minnesota goes down, Ant comes off a ball screen. Derek
(07:10):
Jones is in his face. There's a big up high.
There's swing passes available, but Aunt either it's just a
little bit slow to make the read or can't get
the pass on time on target, or Dallas just rotates
and chase them off the line. Minnesota does have a
weakness in terms of converting spot up possessions. That's been
an issue all season long. They were a good catch
and shoot team, but they weren't a good like after
(07:30):
you chase them off the line type of team. That
was an issue again all season long. There's random co
opted possessions where Karl Anthony Towns just takes a pull
up three, even though he was zero for six from
three to that point. There's a random possession that just
gets run through Mike Conley late. This was a team
that was a bad half court execution team all season long.
They had a one oh four offensive rating in crunch
(07:51):
time when the score was within five with less than
five minutes left. This has been an issue all season long.
On the other end of the floor, Kyrie Irving and
Luka Doncic comfortable getting to their It doesn't matter if
you have your best perimeter defender on Luca, He's just
comfortable there. He loves that matchup. Had Jada McDaniel so frustrated.
He was just committing silly fowls all night as well,
And like what was crazy is Jaden got really good
(08:12):
contests on both of those last two the fadeaway towards
the middle of the floor and then the fadeaway on
the right side on the right elbow, great contests. It
just doesn't matter. Those are shots that Luca works on
and again, like he just doesn't The big thing I
talk about all the time with fadaway jump shooting, you
want to disrupt the base. You're trying to disrupt the
legs so they don't get the lift that they need
to knock down the shot. Lou Dort was able to
(08:35):
bother Luca more there than Jada McDaniel's. Its right, And
like that, honestly, if there's something to look back as
we go, look back at this series as a whole,
and like how favored Minnesota was. Minnesota was, like I
want to say, they were like a minus one ninety
favorite going into the series. A lot of people picked them.
I picked them myself. Coming into the series. I saw tweet,
(08:55):
I had a tweet that somebody put I want to
say it was in a mail bag, might have been
in a mailbag, It might even just spend a YouTube comment.
But somebody said something really fascinating. They just said, this
series is a great reminder that every single matchup should
be approached in a vacuum. And I thought that was
super profound, because this is such an interesting example of
like you watch Minnesota just beat the living shit out
(09:18):
of a super team and with Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal
and Devin Booker and like literally just manhandle him for
four straight games and get him out here quickly. Then
you see them like eliminate the defending champion and the
team that has the player that most people think is
the best player in the world at this point, and
like goes toe to toe with him and they win, right,
(09:38):
And then you come into this series and all of
a sudden they look completely incapable of dealing with the
Dallas problem. And again, that's where it comes down to
the matchup elements, right, Like, in the same way that
in the same way that Minnesota is constructed to beat
a team like Denver because they have long defenders like
Anthony Edwards and Jae mcdanie to put on Jamal Murray,
(10:01):
who all of a sudden looks small when he gets
a defender on his backside in ball screens, or the
size on the front line with Karl Anthony Towns and
Nas Red, you know, banging bodies with Luka Doncic and
Rudy Gobert hunting on the back line. All of that
stuff was excellent for that specific matchup. But then you
get into this matchup and it's the exact same kind
(10:21):
of thing in favor of Dallas. Like Jaden McDaniels and
Anthony Edwards on Luka doncicch they're just too small. If
he puts them in jail, he can comfortably operate in
the middle of the floor and protect the basketball and
manipulate the rim protector in the low man until he
finds whatever opening he wants to attack rim protection versus
Anthony Edwards, Nikola Jokic and Yusuf Nurkicic just could not
(10:43):
protect the rim. It was just going right around and
through those guys all series long. He's attempting over seven
shots in the restricted area per game in the Denver series.
Right like now you put him against some real athletic
rim protection. Suddenly this is a young twenty two year
old downhill athlete that's going up against other young athletic bigs,
and all of a sudden, he looks like he's struggling there, right,
(11:06):
Luca and Rudy Gobert, Right, Like, Luca's just done a
really good job of taking one of the strengths of
Minnesota's defense, their ability to protect the rim. He has
just manipulated the hell out of Go Bear all series long.
He just has had no idea where to go. Guess
the ball handler, guess the role man, whatever it is.
He's been lost. And then even just Derek Jones Junior
as an on ball defender against Anthony Edwards. Anthony Edwards
(11:28):
is a top tier perimeter athlete, like the best perimater
athlete we've seen in the league since Dwayne Wade as
a primary ball handler. And here's the thing. KCP couldn't
hang with that. The Bradley Beal couldn't hang with that.
Roy O'Neil couldn't hang with that. But Derek Jones Junior,
Go look up some tape of him playing in collegeen
(11:50):
in high school. Go look at his best dunks as
a pro in the NBA. Watched him in the way
he moves around on the basketball court. He is a
Tier one NBA athlete and the dude is playing by
the way, he's on a veteran minimum contract this year.
It's going to be one of the biggest wrinkles for
Dallas into this offseason because if I'm not mistaken, if
I know the CBA properly, I don't think they're gonna
(12:13):
be able to offer him more than their their mid
level exception. Right, So we'll see if they can keep him.
But he's playing at the level of a player deserves
to make about fifteen million a year because he's been
one of the best perimeter defenders in this postseason run.
And so that's the thing is like Dallas just is
constructed at the point of attack and at the rim
on their defensive side of things and on the offensive
(12:34):
side of things, with the perfect complimentary corner three point
shooters and vertical spacers for Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving
and Lucas size to deal with some of the length
that Minnesota has on the perimeter. It's just a nightmare
matchup and it's something that it's something that Minnesota can't
hang with and so I find that really fascinating. Going
back to that tweeter, that comment that I received, Like,
(12:55):
that's a big lesson that I've learned in this postseason run,
is like, don't get caught up in the momentum of
any individual team, because momentum is only as strong as
whatever your advantages are in the next series. It's really
that simple, and we got to keep that in mind
when we get to the NBA Finals. I'm not making
any NBA Finals pick today. Both series are three to zero,
(13:16):
so God knows we're gonna be able to take our
sweet time working through series preview content and I plan
on going crazy. We're gonna go through the regular season games,
We're gonna do deep dive film study, We're gonna do
it all to get prepared for that series. But we
got to keep that in mind for the finals. It
doesn't matter how hot Boston is or how hot Dallas is.
It's gonna come down to the matchups. How does this
(13:37):
guy fair against this guy, How does this scheme fair
against this player's strengths and weaknesses. That is going to
be what determines the NBA Finals when we get there,
one of the things I thought was super fascinating in
this particular game, and I thought was a great example
of the dynamic that I taught talked about after game
one and two. If you guys remember I tweeted out
during Game two and I talked about after the game,
(13:59):
no matter what had happened in that game, even if
Naserit had hit his shot or if Luca had missed his,
I would have picked Dallas to win the series. I
thought that the half court dynamic that I just explained
at nauseum there for a minute, I thought that dynamic
wasn't going away, and I didn't think that that was
something Minnesota could solve. And I also thought the gap
was much wider than it looked, even though both of
those games came down to a couple of crunch time
shots from Luka Doncic, I thought Dallas dramatically outplayed Minnesota
(14:24):
and every single phase of the game except for jump shooting.
I read the jump shooting numbers in the last show,
but like massive gaps and jump shot performance in both games,
and that honestly masked and hid just how big of
a chasm there was between these two teams in terms
of half court execution. So what's fascinating about that is
(14:44):
Minnesota actually played a lot better tonight in a lot
of different ways. They made one adjustment. They put Mike
Connelly on on Kyrie Irving to try to save Ant's legs.
I didn't like that strategy simply because Ant is a
pretty bad off ball defender, and that ended up burning
them late in the game when he was on PJ.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Washington.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
We'll get into that in a little bit more detail
when we talk about Aunt, but that it did have
some upside in that Aunt had just a little bit
more energy to continue to attack the rim downhill and
certainly looked more aggressive in this game than he has
all series to this point. They won the rebounding battle,
they got killed on the glass the first two games.
They won the turnover battle. They protected the paint way better.
(15:24):
They got demolished in the paint in the first two games.
It was they allowed fifty four points in game two,
sixty two points in game three. They held Dallas to
just forty points in the paint in this game. Specifically,
from our film session, if you guys remember the film
session I did yesterday, I talked a lot about Karl
Anthony Towns and the other guys nas reading Karl Anthony
Towns mostly as low men being way too preoccupied with
(15:46):
corner three point shooting and leaving dunkers open. And again,
like Dallas shot fifty percent from three tonight, Guess how
much fifty percent from three ranks on a points per
possession basis, It's one point five. Guess how much a
wide open unk is worth two points every single damn time.
If you have your screen defender up at the level
of the screen and the roller gets behind him and
(16:08):
you don't tag him, it's a seven foot athlete going downhill.
He's gonna dunk it every single time. There's no variants there.
That's just a bucket. And they just did a much
better job tonight tagging the roller and making those kickout
passes to the corner. But it didn't matter. It didn't
matter because Dallas finally had some of the jump shooting
flip their way. As they shoot fifty percent from three,
(16:30):
they go fourteen for twenty eight overall. As a team.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
PJ.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Washington and Derek Jones Junior were five for nine from
the three point line. Josh Green came in and hit
a big one it just the shooting swung back towards Dallas,
and so it didn't even matter that Minnesota did some
things better, because again, once we peel back the layers
here underneath the shooting variants, Dallas was out playing Minnesota
by a wide margin. So even when Minnesota managed to
(16:55):
close the gap a little bit, Dallas got a little
bit of shooting support and they get their most convincing
win of the series to this point. I even thought
Aunt had a much better offensive game. I know the
numbers don't really show it, but I thought he attacked
in a much smarter way in this game. A lot
of Iso drives like I talked about in her film sessions,
like forget about the ball screen, just beat your man
off the dribble and make kickout Raids. Did a really
(17:17):
nice job with that. Generated a lot of quality shots tonight.
I think he had eight assists, had his most aggressive
downhill finish of the series to this point. They cleared
the side for him, ran him off of a little
iverson cut, which is basically just you cut from one
side of the floor to the other. There's usually a
screen around the elbow to try to get a little
bit of separation. And then you just looked to attack
off the catch. It's an action that Alan Iverson used
(17:38):
to use a lot when he was with the Sixers.
But they ran that on a cleared side of the floor,
and I think it was Josh Green was on him.
He was chasing over the top, so when Aunt caught,
he just quick ripped towards the baseline, got good separation.
Gafford was just a step late, and Aunt just absolutely
jammed on him right. Lots of really good stuff from
Minnesota that they didn't do in the first two games,
but it just didn't matter because they were lucky to
(18:00):
even be in those games with as poorly as they
were playing. Some of the variants went the other way,
and then Dallas ended up getting the win tonight. So
like you know, makeup, make up, make no mistake, Like
there's no sort of of of adjustment that Minnesota can make.
There's no sort of shooting result that can hide the
(18:22):
fact that Dallas is just a better half court team
than Minnesota. And no matter what happens, even if Minnesota
comes out just plays a really tough defensive game, they're
probably gonna end up in a game that's about one
hundred to one hundred ish with about five minutes left,
and it's gonna be the same damn problem, and and
Kat don't know what to do. Luca and Kyrie know
(18:42):
exactly what to do, and that's the bottom line. Like
Luca is a top tier superstar who's playing like the
best player in the world, Anthony Edwards is a guy
that has that potential. But at twenty two years old,
it's obvious, especially after this series in a different matchup,
that he needs considerably more time to get to that point.
Because again, like one of the things we talk about,
(19:04):
like versatility is the is the hallmark of a top
tier superstar, being able to succeed against different coverages, being
able to succeed against different types of players, and ant
he showed through two matchups that he's capable of playing
at that level, but he was he could not keep
up that level of play against a different matchup that
(19:24):
targeted and exposed some more of his weaknesses. Whereas here
we are with Luca and he's had some struggles in
this postseason run, but he's he was able to get
through those struggles and now he's in a more favorable
matchup and he's barbecuing these guys, and it's a huge problem.
Kyrie playing his best playoff basketball since he was hooping
in the finals alongside Lebron James like again, like just
(19:46):
a perfect role for him once again. Came in in
that fourth quarter stretch just started poortne Khill, Alexander Walker.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
He looked helpless out there.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
And the flailing he was doing to try to get
contests on Kyrie IRV and it just was having absolutely
no success.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Like it's just you know, they were.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Talking about them as the best offensive backcourt in the
history of the NBA. I need to look at that
over the summer and really consider all of the other options,
but they're sure as hell playing at it like that
right now. Last guy wanted to shout out Daniel Gafford.
He gets a lot of slander from MAVs fans, surprisingly,
at least from what I've noticed, and I think it's
just like it's because Lively is better than him, and
(20:28):
I get that, and Lively probably is better than him,
but Gafford brings a lot to the table in terms
of his athleticism and strength, and I thought he made
several huge plays down the stretch of this game, protecting
the rim and rolling hard to the rim in ball
screens and like he just has that timing down and
pick and roll with Luca. It was cool to see
him have that moment after he kind of struggled. If
you guys remember when Lively went down, he was not
(20:50):
good in that third quarter stretch and it got a
little ugly. You could tell he was a little frustrated,
and honestly like having him to have that moment where
he got to kind of scream and yell and kind
of celebrate a little bit that I thought was a
really cool moment for Daniel Gafford, a big bounce back
fourth quarter from him. The Derek Lively news looks like
(21:11):
he's sprained his neck. That was a nasty hit that
he took on that knee from Karl Anthony Towns. Here's
the thing, it's bad news, but you can absolutely win
the series without him, and if you win on Tuesday,
you'll get eight full days off before the NBA Finals.
So like, if something like this had to happen, it's
not the worst timing in the world. But hopefully Derek
Lively is okay and there's not anything more serious going
on before we get out of here. I want to
(21:32):
talk a little bit about Anthony Edwards. I feel like
we've learned a lot about him in this playoff run.
For instance, like if you don't have a top tier
athlete on the perimeter and you can't protect the rim,
forget about it. He's just gonna kill you. He's gonna
cut you to pieces, right, But I think the weaknesses
have been made clear in this particular round. And then
a little bit towards the end of the Denver Series one,
(21:54):
he struggles to pick up hard a loaded up defense,
So like when you throw consistent doubles at him, are
consistent in ball screens, he doesn't really know how to
attack that yet, and so it'll take work for him
to kind of learn how to be more methodical in
those situations to find the kill pass, meaning the pass
that beats the coverage, not the pass that just gets
rid of the basketball. Specifically in ball screens, when he
(22:16):
faces that high drop with the low tag, that means
defending three on two essentially schematically, when it comes over
the screen, the defender chases him. The screen defender's waiting
for him right when he gets off the screen, and
even when Go Bear rolls, they have a third defender
tagging and so they're fully loaded up on him in
those situations. That's the same coverage Minnesota has used in
(22:37):
large portions of the series against Luca. What you have
to do is do what Luca did. Come over the
top of the screen, put the defender in jail, get
him trapped on your backside. As go bear rolls, the
screen defender will kind of roll back with him. You
methodically work downhill, and then you have a three on two.
The three on two is your ability to make that
mid range shot, the little floater as the defender's trapped
(22:58):
on your backside, the role man going downhill, and the
shooter in the corner. It is a three on two
because you have the screen defender in front of you
and you have the low man, and you are basically
manipulating those two. If they stay glued to the roller
into the a week side shooter, that's when you got
to take that little floater in the lane right, or
do what Luca does and sometimes yank a pullback dribble
(23:19):
as the guy's chasing behind you so that he gets
back in front, and then shoot a little mid range
jump shot right. Or if they come up to you
and tag the roller, it's the skip pass. If they
come up to you and they don't tag the roller,
it's the lob pass. It's all those little reads working
more methodically in ball screens that Ant's going to have
to get a lot better at over the years. Secondly,
passes on time and on target. How many times in
(23:41):
this series have you seen Aunt make the right read,
but the pass is like a like a little bit
off target or like a high lob, so the defense
can rotate again when you One of the things that
lucas amazing at is that pass is always hitting the
shooter right in the shooting pocket. So like, even if
you're actually set up to rotate, there's just less time
(24:02):
for you to get out there because the shooter can
go right up with it off of the catch. If
you throw that pass off target, he has another couple
of seconds while you're gathering and getting into your shooting
pocket to get and close out and chase you off
of the line. So like being more diligent and deliberate
about making sure those passes get there on target. And
then lastly, on the defensive end of the floor, I
thought he's been mostly bad outside of some specific responsibilities
(24:26):
some on an Island Iso defense. I thought he did
a really good job funneling on Jamal Murray in the
second half of Game seven against Denver. But like a
lot of his screen navigation has been bad in all
serieses all series. Excuse me and his off ball awareness
in particular, just anytime he's not like actively engaged on
(24:47):
the ball, he tends to relax, get out of a
defensive stance and kind of just meander into the lane.
He got burned in a big way tonight on that
with the PJ. Washington corner three and so like in general,
those are all things that are going to take time.
The defense stuff, it comes down to two things for me,
scar tissue. What I refer to that as is like
you need to lose and have it be painful so
(25:10):
that you realize just how important it is to be
so locked in on the defensive end of the floor.
Like I think this will hurt Ant to be eliminated
in the conference finals and to play very.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Poorly doing so. He's gonna understand.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
I'm sure that a lot of his mistakes have been
called out in film sessions or that he's been made
aware in some way, shape or form, he's going to
look back at that and be like, man, like I
let my team down. I got to get better in
that way. Maybe it'll require him losing a few more times.
Maybe when he's twenty five years old, he'll lose a
big conference finals series, and then finally he'll be like,
(25:42):
I have to get better at these specific things. The
second piece of it is conditioning. You can tell that
that's an area where Aunt tries to save energy right now.
And look, I get it when it's an old guy.
I get it when you're in your mid to late
thirties and you're trying to conserve energy. But all of
the all time grates, all of the all time greats,
Kobe Lebron, Michael Jordan, those are literally the three best
(26:04):
perimitive players in the history of the league.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
In my opinion.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
All three of those guys had runs where they made
all defense year after year, and they did it because
they did it while being the primary offensive initiator for
their team. That is a level that he has to
get at. Get two if he wants to be regarded
on the same level of those guys all time. He
has to be willing and capable physically of committing himself
(26:28):
to both ends of the floor. I still feel very
strongly that there is a player in there that can
reach the level that Luca and Nicole Yokich are on
right now, I think, and has that potential. He's just
gonna need more time. And this is very valuable experience
playing against a really bad matchup for him Like this,
this goes a long way towards towards him him, like
(26:52):
learning about what it's like when you get to these
stages again, Like he's gonna know forever now that no
matter what happens, no matter how good he looks in
one round, no matter how good of a regular season
he has, He's gonna know eventually, I'm going to run
into sometime over a four round stretch. I'm going to
run into a team that has an athlete on the
perimeter that can kind of hang with me and rim
(27:13):
protection to funnel me into. How am I going to
solve that problem? That is the problem that every single
great player has to solve, right, Kobe had to learn
how to manipulate defenses with the past Lebron James, like
the two thousand and seven Spurs and the two thousand
and eight Celtics, both really sagged off of him and
packed the paint and he had to learn how to
consistently knock down jump shots. That became a problem again
(27:36):
in twenty eleven as well, as they've played a lot
of two big lineups and the paint was packed against Dallas.
A lot of his post footwork and bullyball game had
to be refined. He had to encounter teams that exposed
his weaknesses and humiliated him for him to learn how
to polish up those specific weaknesses. These are all part
of the journey, right and so like I'm still a
(27:58):
big believer in Aunt, my opinion on it and his
potential has changed zero over the course of this series. However,
I think that Dallas has revealed that he has a
little bit longer to go to get to that point
than maybe we thought after that Denver series. All right, guys,
that is all I have for tonight. As always, I
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We're going
to be back tomorrow morning with a little film session
(28:20):
on this particular game, probably a mail bag as well.
As a matter of fact, I've been doing the mailbags
from Twitter. Why don't you guys drop the mailbag questions
in this video and I'll use this particular videos comments
to do the mail bag tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
I will see you guys. Then the volume
The volume. We're this close to crowning a new NBA champ,
and with the action heating up on the court, it's
even hotter. At DraftKings sports Book, an official sports betting
partner of the NBA. There's only so many games left,
and Draftking Sportsbook has you covered with same game parlays,
live betting odds, boosts in so much more. Don't miss
out or you'll have to wait until next NBA season
(00:21):
to place your bets. It's super easy for first timers
to get started. Try betting on something simple like picking
a team to win. Go to the Draftking Sportsbook app,
select your squad, and place your first bet. It's that simple.
The championship odds right now as we head into the
conference finals according to DraftKings, Boston's at minus one point fifty,
the Timberwolves at plus two to seventy five, the Mavericks
(00:41):
at plus five hundred, and the Indiana Pacers a long
shot at plus twenty five hundred. New to DraftKings, listen up.
New customers can get a no sweat bet up to
fifteen hundred bucks. Just deposit at least five bucks and
you'll get a bonus bet back equal to your first
bet if it doesn't hit alough the DraftKings sportsbook gap
now and use code hoops that's h oops. That's code
(01:05):
hoops for new customers to get a no sweat bet
up to fifteen hundred bucks if your first bet doesn't
hit only on DraftKings, the Crown is yours. Gambling problem
called one eight hundred gambler or in West Virginia, visit
www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net. In New York,
call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text
(01:26):
hope and why to four six seven three sixty nine.
In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling called eight
eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or
visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of
Boothill Casino and resort In Kansas twenty one plus age
varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. One no sweat bet
(01:47):
per new customer issued as one bonus bet based on
amount of initial losing bet. Bonus bets expire one hundred
and sixty eight hours after issuance. See DKNG dot co
slash bball for l eligibility, wagering and deposit restrictions. Terms
and responsible gambling resources. All right, welcome to HOOPSINAI here
(02:16):
at the volume. Happy Sunday, everybody. Hope all of you
guys have had a great weekend. Well, the Dallas Mavericks
have gone up three to zero on the Minnesota Timberwolves
in a game that kind of felt just like every
other game in this series has felt to this.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Point, some few different factors.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Dallas shoots a little bit better, Anthony Everigs plays a
little bit better, but the same basic dynamic takes place,
and Dallas pulls away late and crunch time, he gets
a win to go up three to zer. We're gonna
break it down from the perspective of both teams. You
guys said the drop before we get started. Subscribed to
the Hoops and I YouTube channels. You don't miss any
more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS.
You guys, don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about a
podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight,
(02:52):
and they keep dropping mailback questions in the YouTube comments
so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of
the postseason. All right, let's talk some basketball. So this
series is actually a kind of reminds me a little
bit of some of those Lakers Nugget series where it
just feels like no matter how hard Minnesota plays, no
matter how hard the Lakers play, the same base issues
rise to the surface eventually at some point over the
(03:13):
course of the game, and they all seem to end
the exact same way, and it's like Minnesota just scrounging
all these different ways to stay in the game.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
But when it push, when push comes.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
To shove, Dallas is just a much better half court team.
And when they get into these slow down situations, when
they get stuck into the half court and it becomes
about execution, Dallas is just better. Did anybody think when
it was one o four, one oh four that Minnesota
was gonna win that game? Of all of the close
(03:43):
playoff series, and I'm not talking about these Boston ones
where they're playing against mostly bad or injured teams. Like
among the relatively evenly matched series, this one has felt
the most inevitable to me by far, because the basic
issues that plague Minnesota and the advantages that that Dallas has,
they are not things that Minnesota can counter. It would
(04:05):
require just bizarre shot making in order to lift Minnesota
over the top in these slow down half court environments,
and it's just unlikely. It's not that it's impossible, it's
just highly unlikely, and it's certainly unlikely given the fact
that they now have to do it four consecutive times
after tonight Tonight. According to Cleaning the Glass, Dallas gets
one hundred and twenty points per one hundred half court plays.
(04:28):
Minnesota gets one oh two point three, So that's an
eighteen point per one hundred play gap. Game two is
one hundred to ninety six point seven in favor of Dallas.
Game one one oh three point three to eighty three
point five in favor of Dallas, yet again a twenty
point gap. It has been a chasm between these two
teams in terms of actually executing against a set and
(04:50):
loaded up defense. I shared some of the ISO stats
for you guys after Game two, but they're like shocking.
When the teams take a shot out of ISO. Game
one one point six to zero point five points per
possession in favor of Dallas. Game two, one point five
to zero point three points per possession in favor of Dallas.
(05:13):
One point two to one point zero. Tonight in favor
of Dallas in Game three. So Minnesota finally had their
best ISO game of the series in terms of shooting
out of ISO, and it was beneath where Dallas has
been in all three games. And that really is wherever
where this all comes down to. Jaden McDaniels is incapable
(05:33):
of making Luka Dancich feel uncomfortable, whereas Karl Anthony Towns
and Anthony Edwards both look completely and totally flummixed from
the time it was one oh four, one oh four.
On the very next possession for Dallas, they go down
the floor, we have a huge defensive breakdown from Ant.
He's on the weak side, PJ Washington's in the corner,
and I want to say, Kyrie Irving was on the
(05:55):
left wing, and Luca's dribbling the ball at the top
of the key and Ant inexplicably for no particular reason
and just sinks all the way down underneath the basket.
Luca just throws a simple swing pass to Kyrie, extra
pass to PJ. Washington in the corner, and he knocks
down the three.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Again.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
This is where it comes down to half court decision making.
That was the possession where Luca just got rid of
the ball. Why, Because he is a half court surgeon.
He's looking at what the defense is doing, finding where
his advantage is and picking it apart. There is a slow,
methodical approach to Luca, which is what makes him one
of the best, if not the best, perimeter half court
surgeon in the league. You don't need to do anything
(06:29):
difficult if you're gonna make that stupid mistake and sink
into the lane and leave a shooter open, especially on PJ. Washington,
who from above the break has struggled but has burned
you in the corner for threes in this series. He
did it in Game one. That was one of the
biggest shots of the game. There after that Jada McDaniel's
turnover along the baseline, But from there after Dallas went
up one o seven to one oh four. Kyrie and
(06:50):
Luca hit three pull up mid range jump shots, tough
contested over the top jump shots, and the Timberwolves did
not make a single field goal until Anthony Edwards got
a lay up in garbage time when they were already
down eleven. That's the game, that's all it is. They go,
Minnesota goes down, Ant comes off a ball screen. Derek
(07:10):
Jones is in his face. There's a big up high.
There's swing passes available, but Aunt either it's just a
little bit slow to make the read or can't get
the pass on time on target, or Dallas just rotates
and chase them off the line. Minnesota does have a
weakness in terms of converting spot up possessions. That's been
an issue all season long. They were a good catch
and shoot team, but they weren't a good like after
(07:30):
you chase them off the line type of team. That
was an issue again all season long. There's random co
opted possessions where Karl Anthony Towns just takes a pull
up three, even though he was zero for six from
three to that point. There's a random possession that just
gets run through Mike Conley late. This was a team
that was a bad half court execution team all season long.
They had a one oh four offensive rating in crunch
(07:51):
time when the score was within five with less than
five minutes left. This has been an issue all season long.
On the other end of the floor, Kyrie Irving and
Luka Doncic comfortable getting to their It doesn't matter if
you have your best perimeter defender on Luca, He's just
comfortable there. He loves that matchup. Had Jada McDaniel so frustrated.
He was just committing silly fowls all night as well,
And like what was crazy is Jaden got really good
(08:12):
contests on both of those last two the fadeaway towards
the middle of the floor and then the fadeaway on
the right side on the right elbow, great contests. It
just doesn't matter. Those are shots that Luca works on
and again, like he just doesn't The big thing I
talk about all the time with fadaway jump shooting, you
want to disrupt the base. You're trying to disrupt the
legs so they don't get the lift that they need
to knock down the shot. Lou Dort was able to
(08:35):
bother Luca more there than Jada McDaniel's. Its right, And
like that, honestly, if there's something to look back as
we go, look back at this series as a whole,
and like how favored Minnesota was. Minnesota was, like I
want to say, they were like a minus one ninety
favorite going into the series. A lot of people picked them.
I picked them myself. Coming into the series. I saw tweet,
(08:55):
I had a tweet that somebody put I want to
say it was in a mail bag, might have been
in a mailbag, It might even just spend a YouTube comment.
But somebody said something really fascinating. They just said, this
series is a great reminder that every single matchup should
be approached in a vacuum. And I thought that was
super profound, because this is such an interesting example of
like you watch Minnesota just beat the living shit out
(09:18):
of a super team and with Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal
and Devin Booker and like literally just manhandle him for
four straight games and get him out here quickly. Then
you see them like eliminate the defending champion and the
team that has the player that most people think is
the best player in the world at this point, and
like goes toe to toe with him and they win, right,
(09:38):
And then you come into this series and all of
a sudden they look completely incapable of dealing with the
Dallas problem. And again, that's where it comes down to
the matchup elements, right, Like, in the same way that
in the same way that Minnesota is constructed to beat
a team like Denver because they have long defenders like
Anthony Edwards and Jae mcdanie to put on Jamal Murray,
(10:01):
who all of a sudden looks small when he gets
a defender on his backside in ball screens, or the
size on the front line with Karl Anthony Towns and
Nas Red, you know, banging bodies with Luka Doncic and
Rudy Gobert hunting on the back line. All of that
stuff was excellent for that specific matchup. But then you
get into this matchup and it's the exact same kind
(10:21):
of thing in favor of Dallas. Like Jaden McDaniels and
Anthony Edwards on Luka doncicch they're just too small. If
he puts them in jail, he can comfortably operate in
the middle of the floor and protect the basketball and
manipulate the rim protector in the low man until he
finds whatever opening he wants to attack rim protection versus
Anthony Edwards, Nikola Jokic and Yusuf Nurkicic just could not
(10:43):
protect the rim. It was just going right around and
through those guys all series long. He's attempting over seven
shots in the restricted area per game in the Denver series.
Right like now you put him against some real athletic
rim protection. Suddenly this is a young twenty two year
old downhill athlete that's going up against other young athletic bigs,
and all of a sudden, he looks like he's struggling there, right,
(11:06):
Luca and Rudy Gobert, Right, Like, Luca's just done a
really good job of taking one of the strengths of
Minnesota's defense, their ability to protect the rim. He has
just manipulated the hell out of Go Bear all series long.
He just has had no idea where to go. Guess
the ball handler, guess the role man, whatever it is.
He's been lost. And then even just Derek Jones Junior
as an on ball defender against Anthony Edwards. Anthony Edwards
(11:28):
is a top tier perimeter athlete, like the best perimater
athlete we've seen in the league since Dwayne Wade as
a primary ball handler. And here's the thing. KCP couldn't
hang with that. The Bradley Beal couldn't hang with that.
Roy O'Neil couldn't hang with that. But Derek Jones Junior,
Go look up some tape of him playing in collegeen
(11:50):
in high school. Go look at his best dunks as
a pro in the NBA. Watched him in the way
he moves around on the basketball court. He is a
Tier one NBA athlete and the dude is playing by
the way, he's on a veteran minimum contract this year.
It's going to be one of the biggest wrinkles for
Dallas into this offseason because if I'm not mistaken, if
I know the CBA properly, I don't think they're gonna
(12:13):
be able to offer him more than their their mid
level exception. Right, So we'll see if they can keep him.
But he's playing at the level of a player deserves
to make about fifteen million a year because he's been
one of the best perimeter defenders in this postseason run.
And so that's the thing is like Dallas just is
constructed at the point of attack and at the rim
on their defensive side of things and on the offensive
(12:34):
side of things, with the perfect complimentary corner three point
shooters and vertical spacers for Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving
and Lucas size to deal with some of the length
that Minnesota has on the perimeter. It's just a nightmare
matchup and it's something that it's something that Minnesota can't
hang with and so I find that really fascinating. Going
back to that tweeter, that comment that I received, Like,
(12:55):
that's a big lesson that I've learned in this postseason run,
is like, don't get caught up in the momentum of
any individual team, because momentum is only as strong as
whatever your advantages are in the next series. It's really
that simple, and we got to keep that in mind
when we get to the NBA Finals. I'm not making
any NBA Finals pick today. Both series are three to zero,
(13:16):
so God knows we're gonna be able to take our
sweet time working through series preview content and I plan
on going crazy. We're gonna go through the regular season games,
We're gonna do deep dive film study, We're gonna do
it all to get prepared for that series. But we
got to keep that in mind for the finals. It
doesn't matter how hot Boston is or how hot Dallas is.
It's gonna come down to the matchups. How does this
(13:37):
guy fair against this guy, How does this scheme fair
against this player's strengths and weaknesses. That is going to
be what determines the NBA Finals when we get there,
one of the things I thought was super fascinating in
this particular game, and I thought was a great example
of the dynamic that I taught talked about after game
one and two. If you guys remember I tweeted out
during Game two and I talked about after the game,
(13:59):
no matter what had happened in that game, even if
Naserit had hit his shot or if Luca had missed his,
I would have picked Dallas to win the series. I
thought that the half court dynamic that I just explained
at nauseum there for a minute, I thought that dynamic
wasn't going away, and I didn't think that that was
something Minnesota could solve. And I also thought the gap
was much wider than it looked, even though both of
those games came down to a couple of crunch time
shots from Luka Doncic, I thought Dallas dramatically outplayed Minnesota
(14:24):
and every single phase of the game except for jump shooting.
I read the jump shooting numbers in the last show,
but like massive gaps and jump shot performance in both games,
and that honestly masked and hid just how big of
a chasm there was between these two teams in terms
of half court execution. So what's fascinating about that is
(14:44):
Minnesota actually played a lot better tonight in a lot
of different ways. They made one adjustment. They put Mike
Connelly on on Kyrie Irving to try to save Ant's legs.
I didn't like that strategy simply because Ant is a
pretty bad off ball defender, and that ended up burning
them late in the game when he was on PJ.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Washington.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
We'll get into that in a little bit more detail
when we talk about Aunt, but that it did have
some upside in that Aunt had just a little bit
more energy to continue to attack the rim downhill and
certainly looked more aggressive in this game than he has
all series to this point. They won the rebounding battle,
they got killed on the glass the first two games.
They won the turnover battle. They protected the paint way better.
(15:24):
They got demolished in the paint in the first two games.
It was they allowed fifty four points in game two,
sixty two points in game three. They held Dallas to
just forty points in the paint in this game. Specifically,
from our film session, if you guys remember the film
session I did yesterday, I talked a lot about Karl
Anthony Towns and the other guys nas reading Karl Anthony
Towns mostly as low men being way too preoccupied with
(15:46):
corner three point shooting and leaving dunkers open. And again,
like Dallas shot fifty percent from three tonight, Guess how
much fifty percent from three ranks on a points per
possession basis, It's one point five. Guess how much a
wide open unk is worth two points every single damn time.
If you have your screen defender up at the level
of the screen and the roller gets behind him and
(16:08):
you don't tag him, it's a seven foot athlete going downhill.
He's gonna dunk it every single time. There's no variants there.
That's just a bucket. And they just did a much
better job tonight tagging the roller and making those kickout
passes to the corner. But it didn't matter. It didn't
matter because Dallas finally had some of the jump shooting
flip their way. As they shoot fifty percent from three,
(16:30):
they go fourteen for twenty eight overall. As a team.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
PJ.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Washington and Derek Jones Junior were five for nine from
the three point line. Josh Green came in and hit
a big one it just the shooting swung back towards Dallas,
and so it didn't even matter that Minnesota did some
things better, because again, once we peel back the layers
here underneath the shooting variants, Dallas was out playing Minnesota
by a wide margin. So even when Minnesota managed to
(16:55):
close the gap a little bit, Dallas got a little
bit of shooting support and they get their most convincing
win of the series to this point. I even thought
Aunt had a much better offensive game. I know the
numbers don't really show it, but I thought he attacked
in a much smarter way in this game. A lot
of Iso drives like I talked about in her film sessions,
like forget about the ball screen, just beat your man
off the dribble and make kickout Raids. Did a really
(17:17):
nice job with that. Generated a lot of quality shots tonight.
I think he had eight assists, had his most aggressive
downhill finish of the series to this point. They cleared
the side for him, ran him off of a little
iverson cut, which is basically just you cut from one
side of the floor to the other. There's usually a
screen around the elbow to try to get a little
bit of separation. And then you just looked to attack
off the catch. It's an action that Alan Iverson used
(17:38):
to use a lot when he was with the Sixers.
But they ran that on a cleared side of the floor,
and I think it was Josh Green was on him.
He was chasing over the top, so when Aunt caught,
he just quick ripped towards the baseline, got good separation.
Gafford was just a step late, and Aunt just absolutely
jammed on him right. Lots of really good stuff from
Minnesota that they didn't do in the first two games,
but it just didn't matter because they were lucky to
(18:00):
even be in those games with as poorly as they
were playing. Some of the variants went the other way,
and then Dallas ended up getting the win tonight. So
like you know, makeup, make up, make no mistake, Like
there's no sort of of of adjustment that Minnesota can make.
There's no sort of shooting result that can hide the
(18:22):
fact that Dallas is just a better half court team
than Minnesota. And no matter what happens, even if Minnesota
comes out just plays a really tough defensive game, they're
probably gonna end up in a game that's about one
hundred to one hundred ish with about five minutes left,
and it's gonna be the same damn problem, and and
Kat don't know what to do. Luca and Kyrie know
(18:42):
exactly what to do, and that's the bottom line. Like
Luca is a top tier superstar who's playing like the
best player in the world, Anthony Edwards is a guy
that has that potential. But at twenty two years old,
it's obvious, especially after this series in a different matchup,
that he needs considerably more time to get to that point.
Because again, like one of the things we talk about,
(19:04):
like versatility is the is the hallmark of a top
tier superstar, being able to succeed against different coverages, being
able to succeed against different types of players, and ant
he showed through two matchups that he's capable of playing
at that level, but he was he could not keep
up that level of play against a different matchup that
(19:24):
targeted and exposed some more of his weaknesses. Whereas here
we are with Luca and he's had some struggles in
this postseason run, but he's he was able to get
through those struggles and now he's in a more favorable
matchup and he's barbecuing these guys, and it's a huge problem.
Kyrie playing his best playoff basketball since he was hooping
in the finals alongside Lebron James like again, like just
(19:46):
a perfect role for him once again. Came in in
that fourth quarter stretch just started poortne Khill, Alexander Walker.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
He looked helpless out there.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
And the flailing he was doing to try to get
contests on Kyrie IRV and it just was having absolutely
no success.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Like it's just you know, they were.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Talking about them as the best offensive backcourt in the
history of the NBA. I need to look at that
over the summer and really consider all of the other options,
but they're sure as hell playing at it like that
right now. Last guy wanted to shout out Daniel Gafford.
He gets a lot of slander from MAVs fans, surprisingly,
at least from what I've noticed, and I think it's
just like it's because Lively is better than him, and
(20:28):
I get that, and Lively probably is better than him,
but Gafford brings a lot to the table in terms
of his athleticism and strength, and I thought he made
several huge plays down the stretch of this game, protecting
the rim and rolling hard to the rim in ball
screens and like he just has that timing down and
pick and roll with Luca. It was cool to see
him have that moment after he kind of struggled. If
you guys remember when Lively went down, he was not
(20:50):
good in that third quarter stretch and it got a
little ugly. You could tell he was a little frustrated,
and honestly like having him to have that moment where
he got to kind of scream and yell and kind
of celebrate a little bit that I thought was a
really cool moment for Daniel Gafford, a big bounce back
fourth quarter from him. The Derek Lively news looks like
(21:11):
he's sprained his neck. That was a nasty hit that
he took on that knee from Karl Anthony Towns. Here's
the thing, it's bad news, but you can absolutely win
the series without him, and if you win on Tuesday,
you'll get eight full days off before the NBA Finals.
So like, if something like this had to happen, it's
not the worst timing in the world. But hopefully Derek
Lively is okay and there's not anything more serious going
on before we get out of here. I want to
(21:32):
talk a little bit about Anthony Edwards. I feel like
we've learned a lot about him in this playoff run.
For instance, like if you don't have a top tier
athlete on the perimeter and you can't protect the rim,
forget about it. He's just gonna kill you. He's gonna
cut you to pieces, right, But I think the weaknesses
have been made clear in this particular round. And then
a little bit towards the end of the Denver Series one,
(21:54):
he struggles to pick up hard a loaded up defense,
So like when you throw consistent doubles at him, are
consistent in ball screens, he doesn't really know how to
attack that yet, and so it'll take work for him
to kind of learn how to be more methodical in
those situations to find the kill pass, meaning the pass
that beats the coverage, not the pass that just gets
rid of the basketball. Specifically in ball screens, when he
(22:16):
faces that high drop with the low tag, that means
defending three on two essentially schematically, when it comes over
the screen, the defender chases him. The screen defender's waiting
for him right when he gets off the screen, and
even when Go Bear rolls, they have a third defender
tagging and so they're fully loaded up on him in
those situations. That's the same coverage Minnesota has used in
(22:37):
large portions of the series against Luca. What you have
to do is do what Luca did. Come over the
top of the screen, put the defender in jail, get
him trapped on your backside. As go bear rolls, the
screen defender will kind of roll back with him. You
methodically work downhill, and then you have a three on two.
The three on two is your ability to make that
mid range shot, the little floater as the defender's trapped
(22:58):
on your backside, the role man going downhill, and the
shooter in the corner. It is a three on two
because you have the screen defender in front of you
and you have the low man, and you are basically
manipulating those two. If they stay glued to the roller
into the a week side shooter, that's when you got
to take that little floater in the lane right, or
do what Luca does and sometimes yank a pullback dribble
(23:19):
as the guy's chasing behind you so that he gets
back in front, and then shoot a little mid range
jump shot right. Or if they come up to you
and tag the roller, it's the skip pass. If they
come up to you and they don't tag the roller,
it's the lob pass. It's all those little reads working
more methodically in ball screens that Ant's going to have
to get a lot better at over the years. Secondly,
passes on time and on target. How many times in
(23:41):
this series have you seen Aunt make the right read,
but the pass is like a like a little bit
off target or like a high lob, so the defense
can rotate again when you One of the things that
lucas amazing at is that pass is always hitting the
shooter right in the shooting pocket. So like, even if
you're actually set up to rotate, there's just less time
(24:02):
for you to get out there because the shooter can
go right up with it off of the catch. If
you throw that pass off target, he has another couple
of seconds while you're gathering and getting into your shooting
pocket to get and close out and chase you off
of the line. So like being more diligent and deliberate
about making sure those passes get there on target. And
then lastly, on the defensive end of the floor, I
thought he's been mostly bad outside of some specific responsibilities
(24:26):
some on an Island Iso defense. I thought he did
a really good job funneling on Jamal Murray in the
second half of Game seven against Denver. But like a
lot of his screen navigation has been bad in all
serieses all series. Excuse me and his off ball awareness
in particular, just anytime he's not like actively engaged on
(24:47):
the ball, he tends to relax, get out of a
defensive stance and kind of just meander into the lane.
He got burned in a big way tonight on that
with the PJ. Washington corner three and so like in general,
those are all things that are going to take time.
The defense stuff, it comes down to two things for me,
scar tissue. What I refer to that as is like
you need to lose and have it be painful so
(25:10):
that you realize just how important it is to be
so locked in on the defensive end of the floor.
Like I think this will hurt Ant to be eliminated
in the conference finals and to play very.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Poorly doing so. He's gonna understand.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
I'm sure that a lot of his mistakes have been
called out in film sessions or that he's been made
aware in some way, shape or form, he's going to
look back at that and be like, man, like I
let my team down. I got to get better in
that way. Maybe it'll require him losing a few more times.
Maybe when he's twenty five years old, he'll lose a
big conference finals series, and then finally he'll be like,
(25:42):
I have to get better at these specific things. The
second piece of it is conditioning. You can tell that
that's an area where Aunt tries to save energy right now.
And look, I get it when it's an old guy.
I get it when you're in your mid to late
thirties and you're trying to conserve energy. But all of
the all time grates, all of the all time greats,
Kobe Lebron, Michael Jordan, those are literally the three best
(26:04):
perimitive players in the history of the league.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
In my opinion.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
All three of those guys had runs where they made
all defense year after year, and they did it because
they did it while being the primary offensive initiator for
their team. That is a level that he has to
get at. Get two if he wants to be regarded
on the same level of those guys all time. He
has to be willing and capable physically of committing himself
(26:28):
to both ends of the floor. I still feel very
strongly that there is a player in there that can
reach the level that Luca and Nicole Yokich are on
right now, I think, and has that potential. He's just
gonna need more time. And this is very valuable experience
playing against a really bad matchup for him Like this,
this goes a long way towards towards him him, like
(26:52):
learning about what it's like when you get to these
stages again, Like he's gonna know forever now that no
matter what happens, no matter how good he looks in
one round, no matter how good of a regular season
he has, He's gonna know eventually, I'm going to run
into sometime over a four round stretch. I'm going to
run into a team that has an athlete on the
perimeter that can kind of hang with me and rim
(27:13):
protection to funnel me into. How am I going to
solve that problem? That is the problem that every single
great player has to solve, right, Kobe had to learn
how to manipulate defenses with the past Lebron James, like
the two thousand and seven Spurs and the two thousand
and eight Celtics, both really sagged off of him and
packed the paint and he had to learn how to
consistently knock down jump shots. That became a problem again
(27:36):
in twenty eleven as well, as they've played a lot
of two big lineups and the paint was packed against Dallas.
A lot of his post footwork and bullyball game had
to be refined. He had to encounter teams that exposed
his weaknesses and humiliated him for him to learn how
to polish up those specific weaknesses. These are all part
of the journey, right and so like I'm still a
(27:58):
big believer in Aunt, my opinion on it and his
potential has changed zero over the course of this series. However,
I think that Dallas has revealed that he has a
little bit longer to go to get to that point
than maybe we thought after that Denver series. All right, guys,
that is all I have for tonight. As always, I
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We're going
to be back tomorrow morning with a little film session
(28:20):
on this particular game, probably a mail bag as well.
As a matter of fact, I've been doing the mailbags
from Twitter. Why don't you guys drop the mailbag questions
in this video and I'll use this particular videos comments
to do the mail bag tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
I will see you guys. Then the volume
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.