February 28, 2025 • 39 mins
Jason Timpf reacts LIVE after the Los Angeles Lakers got an important win against the Minnesota Timberwolves in a game where Luka Doncic struggled to shoot, LeBron James played great, and Anthony Edwards got ejected. Then he discusses Steph Curry’s 56 point night for the Golden State Warriors and Russell Westbrook’s resurgence with the Denver Nuggets.
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Timeline
4:00 - Intro
5:15 - Lakers/Timberwolves
25:45 - Warriors/Magic
45:00 - Russell Westbrook’s Resurgence
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(01:39):
to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody, hope,
All you guys are having a great week for to
be in. Two games from tonight's slate as the Lakers
survive a physical, athletic onslaught from the Minnesota Timberwolves and
then the Golden State Warriors after getting shot out of
the gym in the first half against Orlando Magic. Get
some a return back to normal from Orlando or Orlando's
(02:02):
jump shooting in the first explosive scoring game of Steph
Curry's season.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
A lot of really.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Encouraging stuff on the Warriors front, and then at the
tail end of the show, a brief shout out that
I have for Russell Westbrook. You guys have the drill
before we get started. To subscribe to the Hoops Tonight
YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at Underscore JCNLT so you guys
don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed
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also super helpful if he leave a rating and a
review on that front. We also have brand new social
(02:28):
media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content
throughout the year. We're doing some more film stuff on
those platforms as well, so make sure you guys follow
us there. In the last but not least, keep dropping
mailback questions and the YouTube comments. We can get to
them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So I talked a little bit
about e after the game right for the All Star
(02:48):
break with the Timberwolves about how they're one of those teams.
I'm always looking at teams in the regular season and
trying to find out what I think translates to the postseason,
and there's always like a certain amount of like sometimes
the young athletic teams, there's a little bit of a
ceiling that they run into when they get into the
postseason when all the vets kind of up their level
(03:09):
of intensity and the game planning gets a little bit
more intense. Young players tend to have more weaknesses and
they can run into some issues. Right, There are some
young teams near the top of the stay in his
classic example as years, teams like the Houston Rockets, right that, like,
I don't think they're as good as their record is
in terms of the type of threat that they represent
in the postseason. But then there is a layer to that,
(03:32):
especially on teams that do have more talent, more actual
veteran experienced talent, teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves, where their
size in physicality can manifest in the postseason in a
way that it doesn't manifest in the regular season because
they're allowed to get away with more because of their
size and physicality. Wearing on a team over the course
(03:54):
of a seven game series. The Timberwolves last year, what
they did to the Phoenix Suns, what they did to
the Nuggets was a perfect example of that. And if
you guys remember I talked about it in that stretch
right during the All Star break. Like with Minnesota, I
take them more seriously than their record because they just
have a bunch of big, strong athletes with veteran president presences,
(04:17):
with enough shot creation talent to where they can just
drag you down into the mud. And when you're down
in the mud with them, they can make a lot
of your players play beneath their capability. You can start
to experience some injuries as you get banged up in
that environment and it can go south for you pretty quickly.
And even without Anthony Edwards in that second half, I
(04:38):
thought the Wolves presented an excellent challenge for the Lakers
in terms of that physical imposition that they presented. Terrence
Shannon in particular, was just ripping through the Lakers transition defense.
Lakers have been really good on defense, including in transition
for a while. That was not their best transition defense effort.
Terrence Shannon made them pay consistently by just ripping through them.
(04:59):
One of the things things that I want to talk
about is like the Lakers have a flaw that's been
consistent throughout this season, which is that teams are going
to ball pressure the hell out of Lebron and ball
pressure the hell out of Austin, and they ball pressured
the hell out of d Lo when he was there,
and as games progressed, those guys would wear down and
(05:22):
get fatigued, and they'd start to get sloppy with their passes.
They'd start to miss a lot of jump shots. Look
at how many badly missed jump shots you saw from
the Lakers in that second half. And one of the
big things that I was really excited about in the
Luka Doncics trade is he's like literally the antidote to
that problem. He is a guy that can eat up
an enormous amount of that usage in terms of bringing
(05:45):
the ball up the floor with standing ball pressure, making
that easier. The difference is is that Luca, when he's
at his best, brings a level of shot making that
he can use to defeat that type of pressure. He
can get guys on his side and work his way downhill,
get into that ten to fifteen foot zone and make
(06:06):
a bunch of shots. He actually saw a taste of
that in that first quarter stretch, which was the stretch
where Luca looked his best offensively, and so on the
one hand, I thought the Wolves exposed the reality of
the Lakers' weaknesses in terms of wearing down under ball pressure.
But the reality is that when Luca gets into form,
he should be able to handle that better. Luca is
(06:28):
still having a hell of a time making jump shots
at this point. He came into tonight eleven for fifty
one on jump shots in a Lakers jersey. He ended
up making the most ridiculous shot he took tonight, the
interesting kind of a late clock sequence where Lebron was
kind of caught the ball in the post against Nazriid,
and then he was like, you know what, Like I
don't see the point me posting up Nasriid, so he
(06:50):
pulled him out to the perimeter, but his jumper was
kind of out of rhythm. He had missed a few
early in the fourth, so he tries to drive on
him and nas does a really nice job shutting off
the driving lane kind of traps him along the baseline
and Lebron throws basically just an escape pass to Luca
on the left wing. Nikhil Alexander Walker is smothering it
the whole way, and Luca just bumps him a little
bit with that shoulder and leans back and shoots a
(07:10):
one leg fade away from like twenty seven feet nothing
but the bottom of the net.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
It's funny.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I had a MAVs fan tweet at me after that
that basically said, all MAVs fans knew that shot was
going in, And it's just an example of the Luca
magic that MAVs fans grew accustoms to during the beginning
stretch of his career that Laker fans are going.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
To see a lot of.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
But like to me, lucas not close to where he
needs to be as a shot maker. To me, it's
obvious because so many of his misses are outside the rim.
An easy way to think of it is the basketball
rim can actually fit two basketballs on the inside, right,
So like there's kind of like a dialing in process.
When you're out of rhythm, You're you're getting a little
bit closer on your missus, you're making more shots, right,
(07:54):
And like right now, I don't think Luca, Like, I
don't think Luca's Luca might have a good game here
or there as jump shooter, but I think he's a
ways away from actually, like regularly just notching really good
shot making games because his jumper's way off right now.
He's missing most of them well outside the rim. He's
missing a lot of his short range shot making, like
(08:15):
short in front of the rim, Like he's not even
like getting it over the front of the rim. So
it's gonna be a while. I think. I think we're
probably still at least a few weeks out from Luca
really looking like Luca as a shot maker. But he
should help solve that problem for the Lakers in terms
of wearing down under that type of ball pressure, because
even with Luca as he can wear down as we
(08:36):
saw like in the Celtics series for instance, Lebron James
should be able to help anchor him on that end
by giving him a release foul Austin Reeves as well.
I think Luca is gonna be an antidote for that
problem in the big picture, But you did see that
get exposed quite a bit in this game as a
weakness for the Lakers on the defensive end. Dealing with
Anthony Edwards, there's another completely different type of offensive matchup
(09:00):
that the Lakers personnel had to deal with that JJ
and his coaching staff had to come up with a
game plan for The game plan that they had for
Aunt was pretty simple.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
They just had.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Whoever was guarding him on the ball basically force him
towards the sideline, So play entirely on his inside shoulder
and force him to drive towards the sideline, and then
they use what's called a strong side zone, basically taking
a think of it like this. Normally, if a defender
were to sit in the paint and he's not guarding anybody,
he would get a defensive three second violation, right. We
(09:29):
saw a couple of those tonight.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
One on each team.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
But in that event, one of the counters for that
is like guys will sometimes be all the way on
the opposite side of the paint and they'll step in
and they'll step out, and they'll step in and they'll
step out. But a way to avoid that entirely is
what if you just have that guy go all the
way to the opposite side of the paint and literally
just that's what they called a strong side zone. Because
that defender is not actually guarding a man anymore. He's
(09:52):
actually effectively a one man's zone who's in help right
outside the block on the strong side of the floor
where the ball handler is right. So essentially it's like
a soft double team of Ant. You're playing his strong
side shoulder or his middle side shoulder so that he
can't just like easily take pull up threes, and you're
(10:13):
trying to force him to drive right into the teeth
of the defense. I actually thought At handled it really well.
I mean, the game plan more or less worked the
way it was supposed to. The Lakers did get a
lot of stops in this game, but I thought At
handled it pretty well. He got it to paint quite
a bit. He was using his slow down step to
deal with help defenders. He was using screening actions to
try to get his defender caught on the screen by
(10:33):
like like screening and then rescreening to get the dude
caught on the underside so he could get a decent
look at a pull up three. He got guys off
of him with pump fakes. You know, Ant's just freakishly talented.
That's what he's gonna do. He made some really nice
skip passes to beat the strong side zone. But then
it got worked up and there was a sequence that
was kind of like a bang bang play where he
drove at Gabe Vincent and like clearly shoved him off
(10:55):
with his right arm, and like, yeah, when Gabe was falling,
his left foot came up a little bit and kicked
Ant in the back of the leg. But like the
ref didn't call it. You want to know why the
ref didn't call it because he saw Aunt push him
off and and it was just kind of like a
bang bang play where he didn't think it was worthy
of a whistle. Ant fell down and loses his mind,
gets into it with the ref, gets himself ejected. Now
(11:16):
he's suspended for tomorrow as well, So like that's really unfortunate,
and like one of those things where like I get
I could see watching that game how you could be
frustrated as a Wolves fan or as a Wolve's player.
The Lakers were getting some tiki tac calls in that game.
Is one of those ones where like like Austin was
getting hit on the forearm. It's like really light, but
at the same time, like you guys know, if you've
ever played basketball. If you shoot a jump shot and
(11:38):
a guy taps you on the forearm when you're shooting,
it can cause the shot to go off by feet
because it just affects your follow through. That's all the
power that you're transferring into the basketball, right. But like
I can understand that it's a frustrating officiating game for
the Wolves. My thing is like you're on the road
in the arena with a group of players, specifically Austin
(11:58):
and Luca, who are like famous spougrifters. You know you're
gonna be on the wrong end to some calls. You
got to show some mental toughness to get through that
so that you can stay available for your team, and
got himself ejected from there. The Wolves were just like, hey,
we got one chance here, Let's muck this up. Let's
get super physical, let's make a mess of this game,
(12:19):
let's get out in transition.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
And they did. They made it a game.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
But the Lakers, just like they did in the Dallas game,
they were lock in down the stretch, get enough stops,
get enough good looks, and ended up pulling away and
winning relatively comfortably. I thought Lebron was absolutely magnificent all
around in this game, but especially on defense as ironic
after JJ Reddick touted his all defense level of play
(12:45):
over the course of the last six weeks after the
Dallas game, I thought this was his best defensive game
of this entire stretch. His rotations all over the floor
were amazing, his close outs to the three point line
going flying into a row of chairs, his back line
wrote around the rim. There were like a half dozen
deep catches for the Wolves in the paint in this
(13:05):
game where Lebron just like appeared out of nowhere to
disrupt the player on the catch and force some miss.
Clean up the defensive glass after that miss. He was
incredible on the defensive glass all night and again went
like sixteen to seventeen rebounds, so many contested rebounds that
he came away with. There was even that one I
think it was with Terrence Shannon where both guys had
a grip on the ball and they ended up in
(13:26):
a wrestling match over it, and Lebron somehow got away
with that one as well. He was in groups of
three bodies and tapping it out to other Lakers for rebounds.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
He was just.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Amazing all over the floor on the defensive end of
of the ball, getting stops and finishing possessions with the
defensive rebound. And then again on a night where Luca
couldn't buy a shot, Lebron brought the scoring all night long.
He was downhill to the rim all night long, he
was dominating in the paint. It was just another game
(13:57):
where Lebron was playing at an MVP level in nearly
two month stretch where he's consistently.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Been playing at that level. Uh.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
The one last note I have on the Lakers front here,
there are some realities to this team with their depth.
This is something I talked about in the if you
guys remember in the in the after, in the immediate
aftermath of the trade, there are some realities just in
the number of like reliable rotation players they have. There's
(14:26):
like eight if you include Jackson Hayes. Right, it's Lebron, Austin, Luca,
It's Ruey and Jackson, and then it's Dorian Finney Smith,
it's Jared Vanderbilt, it's Gabe Vincent. After that, it gets shaky, right,
like you get into that Dalton connect phase. Like I've
been kind of lower on Dalton Connect than most Laker
fans all year. He just I think he's gonna be
(14:48):
a good player in the big picture, but right now,
he's a shooter that can't make shots and is a
really bad defensive player. Like I don't think he's even
really capable of being a consistent rotation player for a
good NBA team right now. Right like Jordan Goodwin, absolute scrapper.
He's such a good piece to have for a regular season,
(15:08):
but he's not a guy that you're gonna be able
to like rely on for significant minutes in a postseason setting.
So you got eight guys, and here's the thing, Like
eight guys is enough. That's what you wanted a playoff rotation.
You want seven and a half, eight guys that you
trust to do their job on both ends of the floor.
But there's no margin for error there. As soon as
(15:29):
like just tomorrow night, for example, you take Ruey out
of the picture. Ruey went down with a knees brain
in this game, Dorrian Finney Smith slots into the starting
lineup in all likelihood if everyone else plays, But it's
very possible that the Lakers hit a bunch of guys
tomorrow will see. But like let's just say Ruey's out
long term, Like let's say, Ruey's out three four weeks,
Dorrian Phinney Smith is starting. You got one forward coming
(15:53):
off the bench, Jared Vanderbilt. Like, now it's gonna be
a are we going big? Is it gonna? Is it
gonna be a lot of Alex lenn You know that's
a huge dropoff from a player of Ruey Hatchi Mura's caliber.
And so again, like I want to be clear about
this Laker team. I think they absolutely have a championship ceiling.
They are proving once again another night where they held
(16:16):
a team that that Wolves offense was top ten in
offense in offensive rating over the previous fifteen games. The
Lakers held him down, just like the held Dallas down,
just like the held Denver down, just like they've been
holding everybody down since the middle of January. The defense
is real. Luca getting back to being Luca will anchor
(16:38):
this offense at a higher floor. I still think they're
shooting well below their shot quality right now. A big
part of that is just every game has been super physical,
and I think also Luca getting back to form will
start to generate better shot quality. But like, I think
they're gonna be fine on the offensive end, They have
absolutely a championship level unit on both ends of the floor.
(17:00):
They're rebounding really well with this group. Everything's great there. However,
the margin for air as it pertains to their injury
luck is extremely luck. It's extremely small. Ruey sprains his
knee in this game. Jackson Hayes hurt his hip in
this game. Luca grabbed at his knee after going knee
to knee with somebody. Lebron looked like he was a
(17:21):
little banged up at the end of the game. There's
definitely a very small window here in terms of they
need to get through a really brutal stretch of basketball
here with their roster intact. And so again, like I
think it's important every time you see a team struggle,
I got talked about it's always important to at least
acknowledge what's making them a struggle.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
It's like, oh, ball pressure and physicality.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Well, yeah, Lucas should help with that, but like, oh,
also down the stretch he ended up having to play.
You couldn't go to your closing group with Ruey because
Ruey's hurt. Okay, So the reality is this team has
eight men can that they can trust. But after that,
it gets a little sketchy, and it's just something that's
a reality of something that they're gonna have to deal
with as the season progresses.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
All right, Moving onto Warriors Magic.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
This was an interesting matchup that I had my eye
on for the New York Warriors because the Magic are
just a much bigger team. It was going to test
the Warriors in the paint and on the glass, and
I actually thought they held up pretty well on that front.
They only gave up eleven second chance points while getting
eight of their own. It was actually the Magic down
the stretch who weren't able to secure a defensive rebound
(18:46):
that Jimmy Butler beat everyone to the ball once. Draymond
Green beat every one of the ball once. So I
actually thought it was a relatively successful night on that front.
And again, when you have a disadvantage like that, like oh,
they're bigger than us, it's not like you're gonna go
and just play bigger than them. It's about just minimizing
that advantage. You can minimize their size advantage and maximize
(19:07):
your speed advantage, you can win that fight.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Again.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
It's like there's that expression styles make fights, But the
way I look at it is like which style wins
the fight. A really fast guy and a really big
guy get into a fistfight, like it really just depends
on who weaponizes their advantage better, right, And like it
just felt like in this game, the Warriors held up
pretty well onto Orlando's size. The flip side of the
(19:33):
Magic being this massive team is that they can't shoot.
And I mean they really can't shoot. They are far
and away the worst jump shooting team in the NBA.
They're so bad that the gap between them and the
twenty ninth ranked jump shooting team, the Washington Wizards, is
seven points over seven points per one hundred jump shots.
(19:55):
As a matter of fact, the gap between the Magic
and the twenty ninth ranked jump shooting team Washington Wizards
is the same as the gap between the twenty ninth
ranked team in the fourteenth ranked jump shooting team in
the NBA. That's how bad the Orlando Magic art making
jump shots. But now, in that first half, Orlando shot
the seams off the ball to start this game. They
(20:16):
got one point five to three points per jump shot
in the first half. That's close to double their season average.
But the Warriors didn't over react. They stuck to their
game plan and Orlando cooled off in the second half.
They got just zero point eight to two points per
jump shot in the second half. Now, again, like I
always talked about with shot results, there's two different ways
to look at it. Yeah, there's absolutely some variance in
(20:37):
jump shooting, but there are also a lot of controllables.
If a team is shooting well, if you start sharpening
up your closeouts, making them a little bit more uncomfortable,
it's more likely that they'll get out of rhythm and
that they'll start missing they like did you guys notice
a dynamic where the Warriors were, like in the second half,
blocking shots in the right court like threes, or forcing
(21:02):
really bad misses.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Out of the right corner on threes.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
They kept putting two on the ball as the Magic
kept attacking out of that left wing, and a simple
dynamic was being generated where because they were occupying the
dunker spot, there was usually nobody on the right wing.
There's someone in the right corner and there was a defender,
sometimes there's Moses Moody, sometimes as Jimmy Butler, sometimes Draymond Green.
That defender would have to tag the roller as they're
(21:26):
putting two on the ball, But then also be accountable
for that shooter in the corner. Their rotations in the
second half were fantastic. Sprinting out there, Draymond and Jimmy
had several great closeouts forcing bad misses. Moses Moody had
to play where he tagged a roller at the foul
line and somehow got all the way back that his
(21:47):
man made the pass and he got all the way
back to the right corner and blocked a three point
shot over there. He's just been fantastic on defense consistently
since his role has become more were clarified for him.
The Warriors defense was great all around in the second half.
I thought it was a great matchup for Quinton Posts
(22:07):
because he was able to kind of hang back by
the rim and he had several great contests blocks there.
Like he was just really impactful as a rim protector
in this game. We talked about the defensive rotations from
guys like Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Moses Moody. I think
Brandon Pajemski was awesome on defense in that second half
with his ball pressure just delaying Orlando getting into their offense.
(22:27):
He also had some great rear view contests again, that's
when you're in ball screens and the screener screens. You
you have to chase over the top, but you have
a drop coverage defender or somebody that's helping on the
other side of the screen. Your job is to bother
from behind swipe at the basketball. He had some great
rearview contest. He had a block in a situation like that.
(22:48):
He's been fantastic on defense all around since the Jimmy Trade.
Like him and Moody, they've had their roles crystallized and
they're just hooping on both ends of the floor with
what the team is asking to do. Gary Payton, the
second had one of the biggest plays in the game.
The magic cut it into a close game late. He
off of an offensive rebound Cole Anthony drove the baseline
(23:09):
out of the right corner and it looked like he
was going to have a chance there to cut the
lead to a one possession game there, Gary just stayed
attached from behind, just swatted it out of there, and
it actually led to a fast break going the other way.
It was a huge defensive play from Gary Payton. They've
been second in defensive rating in the entire NBA in
this eight game stretch since Jimmy Butler did join the team.
(23:33):
They're fast. Everyone is doing their job. I was talking
our new producer, Jackson, He's a really smart basketball mind.
We were talking before the show about how, like how
the game has changed so much over the course of
the last few years in terms of teams are existing
in rotation a lot. All these great pull up shooters,
you got to put two on the ball. All these
(23:54):
great superstars that are great at attacking mismatches, you got
to put two on the ball. You're in rotation a lot.
And one of the things that Jackson was talking about
before we started recording, and I think he spot on
with this, is like having intelligent defenders that make the
right types of decisions in these situations really matters. You're
(24:15):
in rotation and there's two shooters on the opposite end
of the floor, a guy on the wing and a
guy in the corner.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
And one of.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
The guys is a guy that like, if you close
out at him short, he won't shoot it. But the
other guy's just a burner. Then you need to close
out to the better shooter passing lane close out. So
that's another thing that really advanced defenses will do where
like the pass goes to the wing or the pass
goes to the corner, instead of closing out to the shooter,
you close out in between them because it makes the
(24:45):
shooter think that you're closing out at him, so will
hesitate for a second. But then when he looks to
make the extra pass, guess who's in his way? You
because you're in the passing lane. Different like bait and
switch type of things where you might stunt at a
guy to make him hesitate and then get back. The
Moses Moody block a great example. He's stunted, I believe
I think it was Goga Buttadze who caught on the
(25:07):
roll on that play. He like stunted at Gogut and
it made him hesitate, which bought him a second for
him to make that extra rotation to the corner. And
like Andrew Wiggins, as we've talked about, he is obviously
a better just like pick up the ball, full court
type of defender right, and that was a huge part
(25:28):
how they won the title. But Jimmy Butler has a
level of defensive playmaking to him that is a ceiling
razer that Andrew Wiggins is incapable of we talked about
earlier that intelligence piece. A lot of that is reading plays.
There's a play the other day, I can't even remember
which game it was, where he's like tracking a different
player on a baseline cut. Jimmy Butler is coming through
(25:51):
to the right side of the floor, but a different
player got back cut on the Warriors, and Jimmy identified
it and peeled off, jumped the passing lane, got it
and went the other way. Steph Curry, in my opinion,
has always been a very smart defender. Game plan discipline
is a huge part of success in the modern NBA.
(26:12):
Your coaches will spend hours pouring over film. Usually there's
someone on the staff who's scouting a game three four
games down the line. Hey, you're in charge for scouting
this game. This guy's in charge of scouting that game.
They're pouring over film. This is a guy we calls
out short on. This is a guy that doesn't ever
shoot a jump shot when he drives to the right,
but he always will shoot a jump shot when he
drives to the left. This is a guy that we
(26:33):
do this for. This is a guy that we're doing
that for. There's so much information there in the scouting report,
and a lot of times we see defensive breakdowns, and
we blame the coaching staff. A lot of times it's
a player who's just not obeying the game plan or
not sticking or being disciplined to the game plan. The
Warriors have a lot of really really smart defensive players
(26:56):
out there, and it's a big part of how they've
put together can consistently a top ten defense this season.
But now they're showing an elite defense over the course
of this recent stretch of games. But there was another
end of the floor in that second half, at the
end of the floor where Steph Curry went for thirty
five points just in the second half, started with a
(27:18):
half court heave right before the buzzer at halftime they
cut the lead to fourteen. He cut some favorable coverages
to start the third quarter. They were bringing Paolo and
Wendell Carter Junior into the screening action, and those guys
were just sitting back and letting Contavious Cobwo Pope just
chase Steph over screens. And so he got a couple
of really easy looks to start the third quarter, one
(27:39):
that he made and one that he missed. But it
actually got step into a groove, and so then when
Orlando started to up the pressure, he was already on
one of those classic Steph hot streaks because he's hit
a three, he just hit a bomb, and the first
half he's already in a groove there. I think he
had what twenty one in the first half. There was
nothing they can do at that point. He's already in
the groove. But these things are usually connected. Like a
(28:01):
lot of times, if you play sloppy defense in an
early portion of a game, a guy will get confident
in a rhythm. It doesn't matter how tight you get
on him in the second half or the rest of
the game. These are some of the best shot makers
in the history of the sport. Right, Steph is the
best shooter in the history of the sport. He was
getting downhill and he was stepping back in the mid range.
He was getting guys with pump fakes to get separation.
(28:22):
He had guys running out his base, drawing fouls. He
drew five thousand this game. He full Palow several times
in the second half, got him on a pump fake
and got him on a foul where he ran out
his base. KCP was just getting fried all night. As
Steph's primary defensive assignment, I got KCP looked a little
slow in this game, and that's another story. This is
all super encouraging for the Warriors because Steph had looked
(28:44):
pretty rough before the Jimmy trade. Before Jimmy suited up,
he was averaging twenty three points per game on forty
three percent from the field in thirty nine percent from three.
In the last eight games with Jimmy Butler, he's averaging
thirty one points per game, fifty one percent from the
field and forty three percent from three. In other words,
(29:05):
the Steph Curry that we've grown accustomed to for well
over a decade now. But the one thing that was missing,
even with everything having to do with the averages, was
the explosive scoring nights, the crazy steps on another heater, guys,
everyone get to your TV type of moments. Steph didn't
have a single forty point game yet this season. Last
(29:28):
year he had six. Last time he had a similar
roster before the Jimmy trade, and twenty twenty one he
had ten forty point games. Obviously a younger player, this
is this explosive scoring night, getting fifty six, getting like
an otherworldly type of performance out of Steph against a
good defense is a really, really strong indicator of what
(29:48):
this team is capable of moving forward. It's a big
part of why I believe in this team. Like the
defense was there all year, Jimmy just brings it up
a level. Then you get it's Steph, a legitimate offensive
co star in Jimmy. Then you get Knight tonight greatness
from Steph back. Now you're getting a real Steph explosion.
(30:11):
There's an awesome quote from Jamal Moseley in the postgame presser.
He was asked, coach aside from Steph, because he's capable
of doing this from time to time. What was the difference?
He said, the man had fifty six points. There is
no aside from Steph, and like that that's the exciting part. Like,
if you're looking at this team as a playoff threat,
it really is simple. They're an elite defense with a
(30:33):
bunch of really smart players and a great head coach.
And on the other end the floor, it's Steph Curry.
Except for now you can't throw the entire kitchen sink
at him because Jimmy Butler's out there too. And oh,
by the way, Jonathan Minga is not too far behind,
and would be. We can't write this team off when
they're this good on defense and they're led by one
(30:54):
of the greatest offensive players in the history of the
sport and he finally has someone that he can share
that load with. Last note on the war, I would
be remiss if I did not mention Quinton Posts scoring
in this game. I mentioned his or improtection earlier, but
he poured in eighteen points to a couple of threes.
By the way, Quinn Post is hitting fifty one percent
(31:14):
of his unguarded catch and shoot attempts so far this year,
one point five to three points per attempt. That's amazing.
Like they're One of the big things that happens with
shooting bigs is there's like the shooting big, the guy
that's gonna hit thirty five thirty six percent of like
to quote Dorian Finney Smith, but naked wide open threes
(31:35):
that teams are just conceding to them. And then there's
this guy's got a burner. We have to account for him.
I was watching a little bit of Nuggets Bucks tonight
and like Jokich is so good on the pick and pop,
teams are rotating from the weak side. They're guarding the
pick and pop with three players because they can't afford
(31:57):
to leave him open. There are a lot of bigs,
guys like Miles Turner, guys like Nikola Vucevic. There are
a lot of guys that are like, yeah, we'll live
with him shooting out there. Quinn Post seems to have
a burner. He looks like the kind of guy you
can't leave out there. But I also thought he showed
some impressive footwork in this game. He had a couple
of buckets in the paint. He had a pick and
(32:18):
roll switch where he buried a small under the basket,
created a passing angle quick finish over his left shoulder.
He had another playoff of a cut I think it
was from Draymond, he might have been from Jimmy actually,
where he just really patiently handled a kind of a
swarm of players around him and showed some good footwork
with a pump bake, stepped through a little layup on
the right side of the rim. He's just a really
solid player. There's a lot to be excited about in
(32:41):
the bay right now, all right, quickly, before we get
out of here tonight, welcome to course correction to you
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This week, we're discussing Russell Westbrook and his resurgence with
the Denver Nuggets. I thought Russ was great in the
Bucks game today. He was doing a lot of damage,
just getting steals and starting transition sequences for the Nuggets.
(33:46):
He was attacking off of those. His man was the
guy that was rotating to Yocic on a lot of
those pop situations. The transition for Russ from MVP of
the league to role play has been far from smooth.
He was traded to the Lakers in a deal that
sent out so much role player talent that there wasn't
(34:10):
much roleplayer talent left on the roster when Ruscott there.
I've often said after that deal and after that whole
era that it's not Westbrook's fault that that era went poorly,
but it is the Westbrook trades fault because it gutted
the roster. It put Russ in a position where the
Lakers like desperately needed him to be a Swiss Army knife. Yeah,
(34:34):
they needed him to be a shot creator and lead
units when Lebron was off the floor, but they also
needed him to play off the ball with Lebron and Ad.
They needed him to be active as a cutter and
a screener. They needed him to work on his catch
and shoot game so that he could be more impactful
and spot up situations on defense. They needed him to
be like an APEX perimeter defender. They needed him to
box out, to track shooters, to be consistently attentive to
(34:57):
the game plan. And he really struggled with those things.
Somewhat to be expected when you're an alpha dog MVP
level shot creator like he was for most of his career,
It's unreasonable to expect him to just be great at
those things that role players get paychecks for. That's why
they're in the league. I think we're seeing a similar
(35:18):
struggle from Bradley beal right now with the Suns. He's
transitioned from being one of those guys with Washington to
now in Phoenix. Like they need him to be a
really good rebounder, and they need him to be a
really good point of attack defender, and it's just not
something he spent most of his career doing. It didn't
go well in LA for US. It even led to
a lot of animosity with fans. And I'm not trying
(35:39):
like I'm not alleviating myself of guilt here. I was
super critical of Russ during that phase as well. The
point is it got pretty dark. There's a lot of
adversity for Russ there. But Russ has completely reinvented himself
with the Denver Nuggets as an extremely useful role player.
He's already had an excellent demonstration of two man game
(36:00):
with Jokich. One of the things that makes it work
with Russ is he brings real downhill force. One of
the most valuable things that Jokic brings as a score
is it's not just post up stuff in ball screens.
When he rolls into the middle of the floor, he's
got one of the deadliest little floaters that you'll see
in the league, makes over sixty percent of them. But
(36:23):
in order for Yokic to get that catch in the pocket,
the ball handler has to engage the screen defender, the
guy who's guarding Jokic, And the only way that's gonna
happen is if that player is a threat. And the
Nuggets haven't had anybody other than Jamal Murray over the
years who can be a consistent enough threat and a
good enough passer to generate those opportunities for Yokic on
(36:45):
the role.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Now, Jamal did it more with like shot making, a.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Little bit of floater stuff, a lot of like mid
range pull up jump shot making, that kind of thing.
Russ is doing it with downhill force. He's bringing that force,
engaging Yokic's defender, setting him up with those pocket passes.
But by far the biggest change that I've noticed is
how much more willing he is to cut to the
basket off the ball. He already has more buckets on
(37:10):
cuts this year than he did his entire full season
with the Lakers in twenty twenty two. As you saw
in the first bucket against Milwaukee, his first bucket, the
cut that he had Jokic popped, Russ's man had to rotate.
What did Russ do instead of just standing there at
the three point line. He immediately saw his man leave
him and he cut down the lane in that gap,
(37:31):
got to catch there, got an easy layer.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Like that.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
That is a huge element of just being a threat
off the ball that he wasn't really utilizing.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Before this air.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
He's put in way more work behind the scenes to
improve as a jump shooter. He's shooting the third highest
percentage on threes for a season in his career. A
Russ catch and shoot jump shot has been worth one
point zero four points this year. That's perfectly fine for
a half court possession. He was at thirty one percent
(38:07):
his last year with the Lakers, or just zero point
ninety three points per shot. It was kind of untenable.
He's put in the work. He's devoting way more energy
to the defensive end, where he's been a big defensive
playmaker for the Nuggets, getting them going in transition, forcing turnovers.
He's averaging the most steals per minute that he has
in his career since twenty nineteen, six years ago. Guys,
(38:31):
he's become a very nice, complimentary piece for a dead
serious championship contender, which seemed impossible a few years ago.
And it's just a testament to his competitiveness and to
his resolve. I've genuinely enjoyed watching him the season as
a basketball fan. That's it for this week's course correction.
And remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to make bold
(38:51):
steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to help
drive your business forward. With Microsoft as your trusted partner,
you can navigate your journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions
and reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com slash challengers
to learn more. All right, guys, it's all I have
for tonight. As always, sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting
me and supporting the show. We will have another episode
(39:12):
out on Saturday morning, covering a slate of games from
Friday night.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
I'll see you guys then the volume. What's up guys?
Speaker 1 (39:23):
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second and leave a
rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
do that, I'd really appreciate it.
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to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody, hope,
All you guys are having a great week for to
be in. Two games from tonight's slate as the Lakers
survive a physical, athletic onslaught from the Minnesota Timberwolves and
then the Golden State Warriors after getting shot out of
the gym in the first half against Orlando Magic. Get
some a return back to normal from Orlando or Orlando's
(02:02):
jump shooting in the first explosive scoring game of Steph
Curry's season.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
A lot of really.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Encouraging stuff on the Warriors front, and then at the
tail end of the show, a brief shout out that
I have for Russell Westbrook. You guys have the drill
before we get started. To subscribe to the Hoops Tonight
YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at Underscore JCNLT so you guys
don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed
wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's
also super helpful if he leave a rating and a
review on that front. We also have brand new social
(02:28):
media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content
throughout the year. We're doing some more film stuff on
those platforms as well, so make sure you guys follow
us there. In the last but not least, keep dropping
mailback questions and the YouTube comments. We can get to
them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So I talked a little bit
about e after the game right for the All Star
(02:48):
break with the Timberwolves about how they're one of those teams.
I'm always looking at teams in the regular season and
trying to find out what I think translates to the postseason,
and there's always like a certain amount of like sometimes
the young athletic teams, there's a little bit of a
ceiling that they run into when they get into the
postseason when all the vets kind of up their level
(03:09):
of intensity and the game planning gets a little bit
more intense. Young players tend to have more weaknesses and
they can run into some issues. Right, There are some
young teams near the top of the stay in his
classic example as years, teams like the Houston Rockets, right that, like,
I don't think they're as good as their record is
in terms of the type of threat that they represent
in the postseason. But then there is a layer to that,
(03:32):
especially on teams that do have more talent, more actual
veteran experienced talent, teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves, where their
size in physicality can manifest in the postseason in a
way that it doesn't manifest in the regular season because
they're allowed to get away with more because of their
size and physicality. Wearing on a team over the course
(03:54):
of a seven game series. The Timberwolves last year, what
they did to the Phoenix Suns, what they did to
the Nuggets was a perfect example of that. And if
you guys remember I talked about it in that stretch
right during the All Star break. Like with Minnesota, I
take them more seriously than their record because they just
have a bunch of big, strong athletes with veteran president presences,
(04:17):
with enough shot creation talent to where they can just
drag you down into the mud. And when you're down
in the mud with them, they can make a lot
of your players play beneath their capability. You can start
to experience some injuries as you get banged up in
that environment and it can go south for you pretty quickly.
And even without Anthony Edwards in that second half, I
(04:38):
thought the Wolves presented an excellent challenge for the Lakers
in terms of that physical imposition that they presented. Terrence
Shannon in particular, was just ripping through the Lakers transition defense.
Lakers have been really good on defense, including in transition
for a while. That was not their best transition defense effort.
Terrence Shannon made them pay consistently by just ripping through them.
(04:59):
One of the things things that I want to talk
about is like the Lakers have a flaw that's been
consistent throughout this season, which is that teams are going
to ball pressure the hell out of Lebron and ball
pressure the hell out of Austin, and they ball pressured
the hell out of d Lo when he was there,
and as games progressed, those guys would wear down and
(05:22):
get fatigued, and they'd start to get sloppy with their passes.
They'd start to miss a lot of jump shots. Look
at how many badly missed jump shots you saw from
the Lakers in that second half. And one of the
big things that I was really excited about in the
Luka Doncics trade is he's like literally the antidote to
that problem. He is a guy that can eat up
an enormous amount of that usage in terms of bringing
(05:45):
the ball up the floor with standing ball pressure, making
that easier. The difference is is that Luca, when he's
at his best, brings a level of shot making that
he can use to defeat that type of pressure. He
can get guys on his side and work his way downhill,
get into that ten to fifteen foot zone and make
(06:06):
a bunch of shots. He actually saw a taste of
that in that first quarter stretch, which was the stretch
where Luca looked his best offensively, and so on the
one hand, I thought the Wolves exposed the reality of
the Lakers' weaknesses in terms of wearing down under ball pressure.
But the reality is that when Luca gets into form,
he should be able to handle that better. Luca is
(06:28):
still having a hell of a time making jump shots
at this point. He came into tonight eleven for fifty
one on jump shots in a Lakers jersey. He ended
up making the most ridiculous shot he took tonight, the
interesting kind of a late clock sequence where Lebron was
kind of caught the ball in the post against Nazriid,
and then he was like, you know what, Like I
don't see the point me posting up Nasriid, so he
(06:50):
pulled him out to the perimeter, but his jumper was
kind of out of rhythm. He had missed a few
early in the fourth, so he tries to drive on
him and nas does a really nice job shutting off
the driving lane kind of traps him along the baseline
and Lebron throws basically just an escape pass to Luca
on the left wing. Nikhil Alexander Walker is smothering it
the whole way, and Luca just bumps him a little
bit with that shoulder and leans back and shoots a
(07:10):
one leg fade away from like twenty seven feet nothing
but the bottom of the net.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
It's funny.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I had a MAVs fan tweet at me after that
that basically said, all MAVs fans knew that shot was
going in, And it's just an example of the Luca
magic that MAVs fans grew accustoms to during the beginning
stretch of his career that Laker fans are going.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
To see a lot of.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
But like to me, lucas not close to where he
needs to be as a shot maker. To me, it's
obvious because so many of his misses are outside the rim.
An easy way to think of it is the basketball
rim can actually fit two basketballs on the inside, right,
So like there's kind of like a dialing in process.
When you're out of rhythm, You're you're getting a little
bit closer on your missus, you're making more shots, right,
(07:54):
And like right now, I don't think Luca, Like, I
don't think Luca's Luca might have a good game here
or there as jump shooter, but I think he's a
ways away from actually, like regularly just notching really good
shot making games because his jumper's way off right now.
He's missing most of them well outside the rim. He's
missing a lot of his short range shot making, like
(08:15):
short in front of the rim, Like he's not even
like getting it over the front of the rim. So
it's gonna be a while. I think. I think we're
probably still at least a few weeks out from Luca
really looking like Luca as a shot maker. But he
should help solve that problem for the Lakers in terms
of wearing down under that type of ball pressure, because
even with Luca as he can wear down as we
(08:36):
saw like in the Celtics series for instance, Lebron James
should be able to help anchor him on that end
by giving him a release foul Austin Reeves as well.
I think Luca is gonna be an antidote for that
problem in the big picture, But you did see that
get exposed quite a bit in this game as a
weakness for the Lakers on the defensive end. Dealing with
Anthony Edwards, there's another completely different type of offensive matchup
(09:00):
that the Lakers personnel had to deal with that JJ
and his coaching staff had to come up with a
game plan for The game plan that they had for
Aunt was pretty simple.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
They just had.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Whoever was guarding him on the ball basically force him
towards the sideline, So play entirely on his inside shoulder
and force him to drive towards the sideline, and then
they use what's called a strong side zone, basically taking
a think of it like this. Normally, if a defender
were to sit in the paint and he's not guarding anybody,
he would get a defensive three second violation, right. We
(09:29):
saw a couple of those tonight.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
One on each team.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
But in that event, one of the counters for that
is like guys will sometimes be all the way on
the opposite side of the paint and they'll step in
and they'll step out, and they'll step in and they'll
step out. But a way to avoid that entirely is
what if you just have that guy go all the
way to the opposite side of the paint and literally
just that's what they called a strong side zone. Because
that defender is not actually guarding a man anymore. He's
(09:52):
actually effectively a one man's zone who's in help right
outside the block on the strong side of the floor
where the ball handler is right. So essentially it's like
a soft double team of Ant. You're playing his strong
side shoulder or his middle side shoulder so that he
can't just like easily take pull up threes, and you're
(10:13):
trying to force him to drive right into the teeth
of the defense. I actually thought At handled it really well.
I mean, the game plan more or less worked the
way it was supposed to. The Lakers did get a
lot of stops in this game, but I thought At
handled it pretty well. He got it to paint quite
a bit. He was using his slow down step to
deal with help defenders. He was using screening actions to
try to get his defender caught on the screen by
(10:33):
like like screening and then rescreening to get the dude
caught on the underside so he could get a decent
look at a pull up three. He got guys off
of him with pump fakes. You know, Ant's just freakishly talented.
That's what he's gonna do. He made some really nice
skip passes to beat the strong side zone. But then
it got worked up and there was a sequence that
was kind of like a bang bang play where he
drove at Gabe Vincent and like clearly shoved him off
(10:55):
with his right arm, and like, yeah, when Gabe was falling,
his left foot came up a little bit and kicked
Ant in the back of the leg. But like the
ref didn't call it. You want to know why the
ref didn't call it because he saw Aunt push him
off and and it was just kind of like a
bang bang play where he didn't think it was worthy
of a whistle. Ant fell down and loses his mind,
gets into it with the ref, gets himself ejected. Now
(11:16):
he's suspended for tomorrow as well, So like that's really unfortunate,
and like one of those things where like I get
I could see watching that game how you could be
frustrated as a Wolves fan or as a Wolve's player.
The Lakers were getting some tiki tac calls in that game.
Is one of those ones where like like Austin was
getting hit on the forearm. It's like really light, but
at the same time, like you guys know, if you've
ever played basketball. If you shoot a jump shot and
(11:38):
a guy taps you on the forearm when you're shooting,
it can cause the shot to go off by feet
because it just affects your follow through. That's all the
power that you're transferring into the basketball, right. But like
I can understand that it's a frustrating officiating game for
the Wolves. My thing is like you're on the road
in the arena with a group of players, specifically Austin
(11:58):
and Luca, who are like famous spougrifters. You know you're
gonna be on the wrong end to some calls. You
got to show some mental toughness to get through that
so that you can stay available for your team, and
got himself ejected from there. The Wolves were just like, hey,
we got one chance here, Let's muck this up. Let's
get super physical, let's make a mess of this game,
(12:19):
let's get out in transition.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
And they did. They made it a game.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
But the Lakers, just like they did in the Dallas game,
they were lock in down the stretch, get enough stops,
get enough good looks, and ended up pulling away and
winning relatively comfortably. I thought Lebron was absolutely magnificent all
around in this game, but especially on defense as ironic
after JJ Reddick touted his all defense level of play
(12:45):
over the course of the last six weeks after the
Dallas game, I thought this was his best defensive game
of this entire stretch. His rotations all over the floor
were amazing, his close outs to the three point line
going flying into a row of chairs, his back line
wrote around the rim. There were like a half dozen
deep catches for the Wolves in the paint in this
(13:05):
game where Lebron just like appeared out of nowhere to
disrupt the player on the catch and force some miss.
Clean up the defensive glass after that miss. He was
incredible on the defensive glass all night and again went
like sixteen to seventeen rebounds, so many contested rebounds that
he came away with. There was even that one I
think it was with Terrence Shannon where both guys had
a grip on the ball and they ended up in
(13:26):
a wrestling match over it, and Lebron somehow got away
with that one as well. He was in groups of
three bodies and tapping it out to other Lakers for rebounds.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
He was just.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Amazing all over the floor on the defensive end of
of the ball, getting stops and finishing possessions with the
defensive rebound. And then again on a night where Luca
couldn't buy a shot, Lebron brought the scoring all night long.
He was downhill to the rim all night long, he
was dominating in the paint. It was just another game
(13:57):
where Lebron was playing at an MVP level in nearly
two month stretch where he's consistently.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Been playing at that level. Uh.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
The one last note I have on the Lakers front here,
there are some realities to this team with their depth.
This is something I talked about in the if you
guys remember in the in the after, in the immediate
aftermath of the trade, there are some realities just in
the number of like reliable rotation players they have. There's
(14:26):
like eight if you include Jackson Hayes. Right, it's Lebron, Austin, Luca,
It's Ruey and Jackson, and then it's Dorian Finney Smith,
it's Jared Vanderbilt, it's Gabe Vincent. After that, it gets shaky, right,
like you get into that Dalton connect phase. Like I've
been kind of lower on Dalton Connect than most Laker
fans all year. He just I think he's gonna be
(14:48):
a good player in the big picture, but right now,
he's a shooter that can't make shots and is a
really bad defensive player. Like I don't think he's even
really capable of being a consistent rotation player for a
good NBA team right now. Right like Jordan Goodwin, absolute scrapper.
He's such a good piece to have for a regular season,
(15:08):
but he's not a guy that you're gonna be able
to like rely on for significant minutes in a postseason setting.
So you got eight guys, and here's the thing, Like
eight guys is enough. That's what you wanted a playoff rotation.
You want seven and a half, eight guys that you
trust to do their job on both ends of the floor.
But there's no margin for error there. As soon as
(15:29):
like just tomorrow night, for example, you take Ruey out
of the picture. Ruey went down with a knees brain
in this game, Dorrian Finney Smith slots into the starting
lineup in all likelihood if everyone else plays, But it's
very possible that the Lakers hit a bunch of guys
tomorrow will see. But like let's just say Ruey's out
long term, Like let's say, Ruey's out three four weeks,
Dorrian Phinney Smith is starting. You got one forward coming
(15:53):
off the bench, Jared Vanderbilt. Like, now it's gonna be
a are we going big? Is it gonna? Is it
gonna be a lot of Alex lenn You know that's
a huge dropoff from a player of Ruey Hatchi Mura's caliber.
And so again, like I want to be clear about
this Laker team. I think they absolutely have a championship ceiling.
They are proving once again another night where they held
(16:16):
a team that that Wolves offense was top ten in
offense in offensive rating over the previous fifteen games. The
Lakers held him down, just like the held Dallas down,
just like the held Denver down, just like they've been
holding everybody down since the middle of January. The defense
is real. Luca getting back to being Luca will anchor
(16:38):
this offense at a higher floor. I still think they're
shooting well below their shot quality right now. A big
part of that is just every game has been super physical,
and I think also Luca getting back to form will
start to generate better shot quality. But like, I think
they're gonna be fine on the offensive end, They have
absolutely a championship level unit on both ends of the floor.
(17:00):
They're rebounding really well with this group. Everything's great there. However,
the margin for air as it pertains to their injury
luck is extremely luck. It's extremely small. Ruey sprains his
knee in this game. Jackson Hayes hurt his hip in
this game. Luca grabbed at his knee after going knee
to knee with somebody. Lebron looked like he was a
(17:21):
little banged up at the end of the game. There's
definitely a very small window here in terms of they
need to get through a really brutal stretch of basketball
here with their roster intact. And so again, like I
think it's important every time you see a team struggle,
I got talked about it's always important to at least
acknowledge what's making them a struggle.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
It's like, oh, ball pressure and physicality.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Well, yeah, Lucas should help with that, but like, oh,
also down the stretch he ended up having to play.
You couldn't go to your closing group with Ruey because
Ruey's hurt. Okay, So the reality is this team has
eight men can that they can trust. But after that,
it gets a little sketchy, and it's just something that's
a reality of something that they're gonna have to deal
with as the season progresses.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
All right, Moving onto Warriors Magic.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
This was an interesting matchup that I had my eye
on for the New York Warriors because the Magic are
just a much bigger team. It was going to test
the Warriors in the paint and on the glass, and
I actually thought they held up pretty well on that front.
They only gave up eleven second chance points while getting
eight of their own. It was actually the Magic down
the stretch who weren't able to secure a defensive rebound
(18:46):
that Jimmy Butler beat everyone to the ball once. Draymond
Green beat every one of the ball once. So I
actually thought it was a relatively successful night on that front.
And again, when you have a disadvantage like that, like oh,
they're bigger than us, it's not like you're gonna go
and just play bigger than them. It's about just minimizing
that advantage. You can minimize their size advantage and maximize
(19:07):
your speed advantage, you can win that fight.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Again.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
It's like there's that expression styles make fights, But the
way I look at it is like which style wins
the fight. A really fast guy and a really big
guy get into a fistfight, like it really just depends
on who weaponizes their advantage better, right, And like it
just felt like in this game, the Warriors held up
pretty well onto Orlando's size. The flip side of the
(19:33):
Magic being this massive team is that they can't shoot.
And I mean they really can't shoot. They are far
and away the worst jump shooting team in the NBA.
They're so bad that the gap between them and the
twenty ninth ranked jump shooting team, the Washington Wizards, is
seven points over seven points per one hundred jump shots.
(19:55):
As a matter of fact, the gap between the Magic
and the twenty ninth ranked jump shooting team Washington Wizards
is the same as the gap between the twenty ninth
ranked team in the fourteenth ranked jump shooting team in
the NBA. That's how bad the Orlando Magic art making
jump shots. But now, in that first half, Orlando shot
the seams off the ball to start this game. They
(20:16):
got one point five to three points per jump shot
in the first half. That's close to double their season average.
But the Warriors didn't over react. They stuck to their
game plan and Orlando cooled off in the second half.
They got just zero point eight to two points per
jump shot in the second half. Now, again, like I
always talked about with shot results, there's two different ways
to look at it. Yeah, there's absolutely some variance in
(20:37):
jump shooting, but there are also a lot of controllables.
If a team is shooting well, if you start sharpening
up your closeouts, making them a little bit more uncomfortable,
it's more likely that they'll get out of rhythm and
that they'll start missing they like did you guys notice
a dynamic where the Warriors were, like in the second half,
blocking shots in the right court like threes, or forcing
(21:02):
really bad misses.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Out of the right corner on threes.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
They kept putting two on the ball as the Magic
kept attacking out of that left wing, and a simple
dynamic was being generated where because they were occupying the
dunker spot, there was usually nobody on the right wing.
There's someone in the right corner and there was a defender,
sometimes there's Moses Moody, sometimes as Jimmy Butler, sometimes Draymond Green.
That defender would have to tag the roller as they're
(21:26):
putting two on the ball, But then also be accountable
for that shooter in the corner. Their rotations in the
second half were fantastic. Sprinting out there, Draymond and Jimmy
had several great closeouts forcing bad misses. Moses Moody had
to play where he tagged a roller at the foul
line and somehow got all the way back that his
(21:47):
man made the pass and he got all the way
back to the right corner and blocked a three point
shot over there. He's just been fantastic on defense consistently
since his role has become more were clarified for him.
The Warriors defense was great all around in the second half.
I thought it was a great matchup for Quinton Posts
(22:07):
because he was able to kind of hang back by
the rim and he had several great contests blocks there.
Like he was just really impactful as a rim protector
in this game. We talked about the defensive rotations from
guys like Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Moses Moody. I think
Brandon Pajemski was awesome on defense in that second half
with his ball pressure just delaying Orlando getting into their offense.
(22:27):
He also had some great rear view contests again, that's
when you're in ball screens and the screener screens. You
you have to chase over the top, but you have
a drop coverage defender or somebody that's helping on the
other side of the screen. Your job is to bother
from behind swipe at the basketball. He had some great
rearview contest. He had a block in a situation like that.
(22:48):
He's been fantastic on defense all around since the Jimmy Trade.
Like him and Moody, they've had their roles crystallized and
they're just hooping on both ends of the floor with
what the team is asking to do. Gary Payton, the
second had one of the biggest plays in the game.
The magic cut it into a close game late. He
off of an offensive rebound Cole Anthony drove the baseline
(23:09):
out of the right corner and it looked like he
was going to have a chance there to cut the
lead to a one possession game there, Gary just stayed
attached from behind, just swatted it out of there, and
it actually led to a fast break going the other way.
It was a huge defensive play from Gary Payton. They've
been second in defensive rating in the entire NBA in
this eight game stretch since Jimmy Butler did join the team.
(23:33):
They're fast. Everyone is doing their job. I was talking
our new producer, Jackson, He's a really smart basketball mind.
We were talking before the show about how, like how
the game has changed so much over the course of
the last few years in terms of teams are existing
in rotation a lot. All these great pull up shooters,
you got to put two on the ball. All these
(23:54):
great superstars that are great at attacking mismatches, you got
to put two on the ball. You're in rotation a lot.
And one of the things that Jackson was talking about
before we started recording, and I think he spot on
with this, is like having intelligent defenders that make the
right types of decisions in these situations really matters. You're
(24:15):
in rotation and there's two shooters on the opposite end
of the floor, a guy on the wing and a
guy in the corner.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
And one of.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
The guys is a guy that like, if you close
out at him short, he won't shoot it. But the
other guy's just a burner. Then you need to close
out to the better shooter passing lane close out. So
that's another thing that really advanced defenses will do where
like the pass goes to the wing or the pass
goes to the corner, instead of closing out to the shooter,
you close out in between them because it makes the
(24:45):
shooter think that you're closing out at him, so will
hesitate for a second. But then when he looks to
make the extra pass, guess who's in his way? You
because you're in the passing lane. Different like bait and
switch type of things where you might stunt at a
guy to make him hesitate and then get back. The
Moses Moody block a great example. He's stunted, I believe
I think it was Goga Buttadze who caught on the
(25:07):
roll on that play. He like stunted at Gogut and
it made him hesitate, which bought him a second for
him to make that extra rotation to the corner. And
like Andrew Wiggins, as we've talked about, he is obviously
a better just like pick up the ball, full court
type of defender right, and that was a huge part
(25:28):
how they won the title. But Jimmy Butler has a
level of defensive playmaking to him that is a ceiling
razer that Andrew Wiggins is incapable of we talked about
earlier that intelligence piece. A lot of that is reading plays.
There's a play the other day, I can't even remember
which game it was, where he's like tracking a different
player on a baseline cut. Jimmy Butler is coming through
(25:51):
to the right side of the floor, but a different
player got back cut on the Warriors, and Jimmy identified
it and peeled off, jumped the passing lane, got it
and went the other way. Steph Curry, in my opinion,
has always been a very smart defender. Game plan discipline
is a huge part of success in the modern NBA.
(26:12):
Your coaches will spend hours pouring over film. Usually there's
someone on the staff who's scouting a game three four
games down the line. Hey, you're in charge for scouting
this game. This guy's in charge of scouting that game.
They're pouring over film. This is a guy we calls
out short on. This is a guy that doesn't ever
shoot a jump shot when he drives to the right,
but he always will shoot a jump shot when he
drives to the left. This is a guy that we
(26:33):
do this for. This is a guy that we're doing
that for. There's so much information there in the scouting report,
and a lot of times we see defensive breakdowns, and
we blame the coaching staff. A lot of times it's
a player who's just not obeying the game plan or
not sticking or being disciplined to the game plan. The
Warriors have a lot of really really smart defensive players
(26:56):
out there, and it's a big part of how they've
put together can consistently a top ten defense this season.
But now they're showing an elite defense over the course
of this recent stretch of games. But there was another
end of the floor in that second half, at the
end of the floor where Steph Curry went for thirty
five points just in the second half, started with a
(27:18):
half court heave right before the buzzer at halftime they
cut the lead to fourteen. He cut some favorable coverages
to start the third quarter. They were bringing Paolo and
Wendell Carter Junior into the screening action, and those guys
were just sitting back and letting Contavious Cobwo Pope just
chase Steph over screens. And so he got a couple
of really easy looks to start the third quarter, one
(27:39):
that he made and one that he missed. But it
actually got step into a groove, and so then when
Orlando started to up the pressure, he was already on
one of those classic Steph hot streaks because he's hit
a three, he just hit a bomb, and the first
half he's already in a groove there. I think he
had what twenty one in the first half. There was
nothing they can do at that point. He's already in
the groove. But these things are usually connected. Like a
(28:01):
lot of times, if you play sloppy defense in an
early portion of a game, a guy will get confident
in a rhythm. It doesn't matter how tight you get
on him in the second half or the rest of
the game. These are some of the best shot makers
in the history of the sport. Right, Steph is the
best shooter in the history of the sport. He was
getting downhill and he was stepping back in the mid range.
He was getting guys with pump fakes to get separation.
(28:22):
He had guys running out his base, drawing fouls. He
drew five thousand this game. He full Palow several times
in the second half, got him on a pump fake
and got him on a foul where he ran out
his base. KCP was just getting fried all night. As
Steph's primary defensive assignment, I got KCP looked a little
slow in this game, and that's another story. This is
all super encouraging for the Warriors because Steph had looked
(28:44):
pretty rough before the Jimmy trade. Before Jimmy suited up,
he was averaging twenty three points per game on forty
three percent from the field in thirty nine percent from three.
In the last eight games with Jimmy Butler, he's averaging
thirty one points per game, fifty one percent from the
field and forty three percent from three. In other words,
(29:05):
the Steph Curry that we've grown accustomed to for well
over a decade now. But the one thing that was missing,
even with everything having to do with the averages, was
the explosive scoring nights, the crazy steps on another heater, guys,
everyone get to your TV type of moments. Steph didn't
have a single forty point game yet this season. Last
(29:28):
year he had six. Last time he had a similar
roster before the Jimmy trade, and twenty twenty one he
had ten forty point games. Obviously a younger player, this
is this explosive scoring night, getting fifty six, getting like
an otherworldly type of performance out of Steph against a
good defense is a really, really strong indicator of what
(29:48):
this team is capable of moving forward. It's a big
part of why I believe in this team. Like the
defense was there all year, Jimmy just brings it up
a level. Then you get it's Steph, a legitimate offensive
co star in Jimmy. Then you get Knight tonight greatness
from Steph back. Now you're getting a real Steph explosion.
(30:11):
There's an awesome quote from Jamal Moseley in the postgame presser.
He was asked, coach aside from Steph, because he's capable
of doing this from time to time. What was the difference?
He said, the man had fifty six points. There is
no aside from Steph, and like that that's the exciting part. Like,
if you're looking at this team as a playoff threat,
it really is simple. They're an elite defense with a
(30:33):
bunch of really smart players and a great head coach.
And on the other end the floor, it's Steph Curry.
Except for now you can't throw the entire kitchen sink
at him because Jimmy Butler's out there too. And oh,
by the way, Jonathan Minga is not too far behind,
and would be. We can't write this team off when
they're this good on defense and they're led by one
(30:54):
of the greatest offensive players in the history of the
sport and he finally has someone that he can share
that load with. Last note on the war, I would
be remiss if I did not mention Quinton Posts scoring
in this game. I mentioned his or improtection earlier, but
he poured in eighteen points to a couple of threes.
By the way, Quinn Post is hitting fifty one percent
(31:14):
of his unguarded catch and shoot attempts so far this year,
one point five to three points per attempt. That's amazing.
Like they're One of the big things that happens with
shooting bigs is there's like the shooting big, the guy
that's gonna hit thirty five thirty six percent of like
to quote Dorian Finney Smith, but naked wide open threes
(31:35):
that teams are just conceding to them. And then there's
this guy's got a burner. We have to account for him.
I was watching a little bit of Nuggets Bucks tonight
and like Jokich is so good on the pick and pop,
teams are rotating from the weak side. They're guarding the
pick and pop with three players because they can't afford
(31:57):
to leave him open. There are a lot of bigs,
guys like Miles Turner, guys like Nikola Vucevic. There are
a lot of guys that are like, yeah, we'll live
with him shooting out there. Quinn Post seems to have
a burner. He looks like the kind of guy you
can't leave out there. But I also thought he showed
some impressive footwork in this game. He had a couple
of buckets in the paint. He had a pick and
(32:18):
roll switch where he buried a small under the basket,
created a passing angle quick finish over his left shoulder.
He had another playoff of a cut I think it
was from Draymond, he might have been from Jimmy actually,
where he just really patiently handled a kind of a
swarm of players around him and showed some good footwork
with a pump bake, stepped through a little layup on
the right side of the rim. He's just a really
solid player. There's a lot to be excited about in
(32:41):
the bay right now, all right, quickly, before we get
out of here tonight, welcome to course correction to you
by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams navigating performance hurdles,
(33:05):
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things done right. They must rise to the occasion, turning
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when you're in the NBA, you have your own hurdles
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by teams or star players and how they can turn
things around. Whatever you challenge is facing, whatever challenge you're facing,
Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say bring it on.
This week, we're discussing Russell Westbrook and his resurgence with
the Denver Nuggets. I thought Russ was great in the
Bucks game today. He was doing a lot of damage,
just getting steals and starting transition sequences for the Nuggets.
(33:46):
He was attacking off of those. His man was the
guy that was rotating to Yocic on a lot of
those pop situations. The transition for Russ from MVP of
the league to role play has been far from smooth.
He was traded to the Lakers in a deal that
sent out so much role player talent that there wasn't
(34:10):
much roleplayer talent left on the roster when Ruscott there.
I've often said after that deal and after that whole
era that it's not Westbrook's fault that that era went poorly,
but it is the Westbrook trades fault because it gutted
the roster. It put Russ in a position where the
Lakers like desperately needed him to be a Swiss Army knife. Yeah,
(34:34):
they needed him to be a shot creator and lead
units when Lebron was off the floor, but they also
needed him to play off the ball with Lebron and Ad.
They needed him to be active as a cutter and
a screener. They needed him to work on his catch
and shoot game so that he could be more impactful
and spot up situations on defense. They needed him to
be like an APEX perimeter defender. They needed him to
box out, to track shooters, to be consistently attentive to
(34:57):
the game plan. And he really struggled with those things.
Somewhat to be expected when you're an alpha dog MVP
level shot creator like he was for most of his career,
It's unreasonable to expect him to just be great at
those things that role players get paychecks for. That's why
they're in the league. I think we're seeing a similar
(35:18):
struggle from Bradley beal right now with the Suns. He's
transitioned from being one of those guys with Washington to
now in Phoenix. Like they need him to be a
really good rebounder, and they need him to be a
really good point of attack defender, and it's just not
something he spent most of his career doing. It didn't
go well in LA for US. It even led to
a lot of animosity with fans. And I'm not trying
(35:39):
like I'm not alleviating myself of guilt here. I was
super critical of Russ during that phase as well. The
point is it got pretty dark. There's a lot of
adversity for Russ there. But Russ has completely reinvented himself
with the Denver Nuggets as an extremely useful role player.
He's already had an excellent demonstration of two man game
(36:00):
with Jokich. One of the things that makes it work
with Russ is he brings real downhill force. One of
the most valuable things that Jokic brings as a score
is it's not just post up stuff in ball screens.
When he rolls into the middle of the floor, he's
got one of the deadliest little floaters that you'll see
in the league, makes over sixty percent of them. But
(36:23):
in order for Yokic to get that catch in the pocket,
the ball handler has to engage the screen defender, the
guy who's guarding Jokic, And the only way that's gonna
happen is if that player is a threat. And the
Nuggets haven't had anybody other than Jamal Murray over the
years who can be a consistent enough threat and a
good enough passer to generate those opportunities for Yokic on
(36:45):
the role.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Now, Jamal did it more with like shot making, a.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Little bit of floater stuff, a lot of like mid
range pull up jump shot making, that kind of thing.
Russ is doing it with downhill force. He's bringing that force,
engaging Yokic's defender, setting him up with those pocket passes.
But by far the biggest change that I've noticed is
how much more willing he is to cut to the
basket off the ball. He already has more buckets on
(37:10):
cuts this year than he did his entire full season
with the Lakers in twenty twenty two. As you saw
in the first bucket against Milwaukee, his first bucket, the
cut that he had Jokic popped, Russ's man had to rotate.
What did Russ do instead of just standing there at
the three point line. He immediately saw his man leave
him and he cut down the lane in that gap,
(37:31):
got to catch there, got an easy layer.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Like that.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
That is a huge element of just being a threat
off the ball that he wasn't really utilizing.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Before this air.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
He's put in way more work behind the scenes to
improve as a jump shooter. He's shooting the third highest
percentage on threes for a season in his career. A
Russ catch and shoot jump shot has been worth one
point zero four points this year. That's perfectly fine for
a half court possession. He was at thirty one percent
(38:07):
his last year with the Lakers, or just zero point
ninety three points per shot. It was kind of untenable.
He's put in the work. He's devoting way more energy
to the defensive end, where he's been a big defensive
playmaker for the Nuggets, getting them going in transition, forcing turnovers.
He's averaging the most steals per minute that he has
in his career since twenty nineteen, six years ago. Guys,
(38:31):
he's become a very nice, complimentary piece for a dead
serious championship contender, which seemed impossible a few years ago.
And it's just a testament to his competitiveness and to
his resolve. I've genuinely enjoyed watching him the season as
a basketball fan. That's it for this week's course correction.
And remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to make bold
(38:51):
steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to help
drive your business forward. With Microsoft as your trusted partner,
you can navigate your journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions
and reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com slash challengers
to learn more. All right, guys, it's all I have
for tonight. As always, sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting
me and supporting the show. We will have another episode
(39:12):
out on Saturday morning, covering a slate of games from
Friday night.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
I'll see you guys then the volume. What's up guys?
Speaker 1 (39:23):
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second and leave a
rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
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