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The volume the ever It's NBA Cup is here and you can win big getting in on the action at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. All thirty teams split into six groups every Tuesday and Friday, playing for the right to advance in the single elimination in season to Turney, culminating in the NBA Cup Championship in Vegas. Right now, the Boston Celtics are favored to win the NBA Cup at plus three seventy. The Oklahoma City Thunder have the second best odds at plus six hundred, and then the New York Knicks have the third best odds at plus nine hundred. First time, here's something special just for you new DraftKings customers. Bet five dollars to get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your bet wins. Score big with DraftKings Sportsbook, every point counts. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code hoops that's h oops, that's code hoops for new customers to get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your bet wins. When you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings the Crown is yours. Gambling problem called hundred gambler. In New York call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope and why to four six seven three sixty nine. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibility on behalf of Boothill Casino and resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co.

Slash b ball. All right, welcome to you tonight. You're at the ball.

Slash b ball. All right, welcome to you tonight. You're at the ball.

You Happy Tuesday, everybody, Oh ball, If you guys are having a great week, got a jam pack show for you today. I'm gonna give you, guys ten big takeaways from last night's games. I had a nice night where I was able to kind of bounce around and watch a bunch of hoops from a bunch of different games. We're going to do ten quick breakdowns and then I'm going to do a film session in the tail end of the show. So those are you guys who are listening on the podcast feed. Once we get past the monologue, you're gonna want to make your way back over to YouTube for the best experience there, because I've got a lot of film.

You Happy Tuesday, everybody, Oh ball, If you guys are having a great week, got a jam pack show for you today. I'm gonna give you, guys ten big takeaways from last night's games. I had a nice night where I was able to kind of bounce around and watch a bunch of hoops from a bunch of different games. We're going to do ten quick breakdowns and then I'm going to do a film session in the tail end of the show. So those are you guys who are listening on the podcast feed. Once we get past the monologue, you're gonna want to make your way back over to YouTube for the best experience there, because I've got a lot of film.

I've got forty three clips.

I've got forty three clips.

I think we're hitting like a half dozen different games, a bunch of stuff to get into in the film session. You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore jcnlt so you guys don't miss show announcement. So forget about a podcast fewhere if you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. We also have new social media feeds on Twitter, on Instagram, and on Facebook that are under the header Hoops Tonight. We're going to be releasing a bunch of content on there this year, so make sure you guys get over there and follow, and then, last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. We are going to do at least a mail bag every Friday from this point forward. That's kind of part of our routine. So I'm going to be pulling them from the YouTube comments throughout the week, so make sure you guys get those comments in. There are those questions in there. All right, let's talk some basketball actually real quick. Before we get started, I got to talk to you guys about game time. So this is the best time of year to get out and see events. We've got the NBA in full swing, NFL's in full swing, college football is in full swing. College basketball started last night. We had Cooper Flag's debut, all sorts of awesome live events to go to that doesn't even count concerts and comedy shows that are happening all around the country. And there's nothing like being there in person, especially a basketball game. When you're at a basketball game in person, you can pick up on the chatter that's taking place on the floor, the body language of the guys that's in the huddles, on the bench. You get a totally different sense and feel for the physicality. There's the crowd dynamics as things shift back and forth, especially when you go to a good college basketball game that's got a good rivalry feel right like, there's just nothing like being there in person.

I think we're hitting like a half dozen different games, a bunch of stuff to get into in the film session. You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore jcnlt so you guys don't miss show announcement. So forget about a podcast fewhere if you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. We also have new social media feeds on Twitter, on Instagram, and on Facebook that are under the header Hoops Tonight. We're going to be releasing a bunch of content on there this year, so make sure you guys get over there and follow, and then, last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. We are going to do at least a mail bag every Friday from this point forward. That's kind of part of our routine. So I'm going to be pulling them from the YouTube comments throughout the week, so make sure you guys get those comments in. There are those questions in there. All right, let's talk some basketball actually real quick. Before we get started, I got to talk to you guys about game time. So this is the best time of year to get out and see events. We've got the NBA in full swing, NFL's in full swing, college football is in full swing. College basketball started last night. We had Cooper Flag's debut, all sorts of awesome live events to go to that doesn't even count concerts and comedy shows that are happening all around the country. And there's nothing like being there in person, especially a basketball game. When you're at a basketball game in person, you can pick up on the chatter that's taking place on the floor, the body language of the guys that's in the huddles, on the bench. You get a totally different sense and feel for the physicality. There's the crowd dynamics as things shift back and forth, especially when you go to a good college basketball game that's got a good rivalry feel right like, there's just nothing like being there in person.

Out, get out of the house.

Out, get out of the house.

I know the TV's great experience, but there's nothing like being there in person watching these games. Make sure you guys, get out there and check out one of these events. This is where game Time comes in. They have an incredible experience. I've personally used them many times that consistently give me the best experience in the ticket buying space. I highly recommend it to you guys. They have all in pricings. You know exactly what you're paying before you go to check out. You get a picture of your seat from within the apps. You know what you're buying with your money. It's not convoluted. You can check out in as soon as two taps. They have a new program called game Time Picks, which curates the feed. Right, you go to a typical ticket buying app and there's usually thousands and thousands of tickets and you feel like you're sorting through a lot of junk. Right, game Time Picks curates the best deals from that specific event, so you can be very efficient as you're looking through trying to find tickets to an event. I highly recommend it to you guys. You got to check it out. Take the guestwork out of buying tickets with game Time Picks. Download the game Time app. Create an account and use code Hoops for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms apply again, create an account and redeem code Hoops. That's Hops for twenty dollars off. Download game Time today. What time is it? Game time? All right, let's talk some basketball. So again, Yeah, I wanted to. I watched a bunch of bits and pieces from a bunch of different games. So rather than like doing super big deep dives into individual games, I want to kind of bounce around with ten takeaways and then we'll get into our film. So first takeaway, Kate Cunningham has the potential to be a really impactful two way player. The Pistons Lakers game last night was really fascinating in the sense that, like, the Lakers are a team that typically physically bullies you. That's what their advantage is, right, Like the paint. The Lakers are a paint dominant team, but they do it without getting a lot of dribble penetration. It's a lot of rolling hard into the paint, cutting hard into the paint, posting, and trying to generate rim pressure by just backing dudes down and trying to play bully ball around the basket right, and the Lakers got bullied last night. They ran into another really big frontline. Jalen Duran played great, Isaiah Stewart played great. K Cunningham played great, Tobias Harris played great, And that really is the key is all four of those guys can reason a well guard Lebron and ad on an island. None of them can get completely shredded in bullie situations. Like both Tobias Harris and K Cunningham did a really nice job guarding Lebron, James and Anthony Davis in individual post up situations. Kaye did a great job on Lebron. He did about as good a job as I've seen a player on Lebron that's given up some weight and size in a very long time. Forced him consistently into those right shoulder turnarounds that he wasn't able to make. He wasn't Lebron wasn't able to really leverage his size inside, and again, like you always want to have defensive versatility, right, We've seen throughout this season, like Jalen Duran when he runs into spacing bigs kind of like what happened to Carl Town's the other day, he kind of gets lost, he doesn't know where to be. His big man instincts that drag him into the paint keep causing him to lose shooters off the ball. It's a little bit of a rough look, but when they run into a power frontline, it's actually a really nice matchup for Detroit. And one of the specific things that Detroit did last night was they did a lot of switching when you have four guys between Tobias Harris, Kate Cunningham, Isaiah Stewart, and Jalen Duran at various points in the game. In the game, they were even able to put Kate on Austin for stretches and switch the Lebron Austin ball screen. And if you guys remember and we're going to talk about this as one of the other takeaways that can be a weakness for the Lakers, which we're going to get to in a second, and they were able to capitalize on that. I also thought Kid Cunningham on the offensive end was unbelievable last night, just picked the Lakers apart down the stretch, picking on matchups, hunting Austin reeves, hunting, hunting ruy Hat Tramura, like he straight up posted ruy Hat Tramura and bullied him to a spot, hit a nice little left shoulder fade, spun off of him and drew a foul. He was getting buckets on Austin Reeves. He was just he was just frying every single one of the Lakers perimeter defenders. I thought Kid was amazing last night. It was just kind of like a little glimpse into what he can be, which is a really interesting two way player that can pick teams apart in the half court. But he also has enough size and quickness to be pretty versatile defensively online switching look and that's again, when you're talking about defensive versatility, it'd be nice if the Pistons just had a really good switching look and didn't always have to feel like they need to run a drop coverage. It's a way to kind of give yourself that defensive versatility. Really impressive win for the Pistons last night. Again, we have a tendency as fans, and I'm sure Lakers fans were thinking of this, and we're gonna talk to some Lakers today, but Lakers fans and a lot of other fans, we have a tendency to be like, oh, we just didn't play hard tonight, or oh, like they this is we're bullshitting out there, this is this isn't what we really are. And it's like, yeah, there's always a little bit of that, Like that's certainly part of it. I think I think even Pistons fans would agree if like the Lakers and the Pistons played a playoff series tomorrow, that the Lakers are beating them, right, Like, it's not about that, but sometimes we do a bad job of acknowledging what the winner did in those types of situations. I thought the Pistons played a great game. I thought they brought incredible physicality. They talked a bunch of shit, and they backed it up with the way that they were playing. Jaden Ivy was incredible, Cade was incredible as a stewart was incredible, Tobias Harris made a bunch of big plays. It was just a really impressive win. So shout out to the Detroit Pistons. Number two, the Lakers will struggle to beat teams that have big bodies that can switch Lebron ad actions, and like we talked about earlier, the guard action with Austin Reeves, right, this was something going way back to the Lakers season preview. If you guys remember, one of the biggest weaknesses for the Lakers over the course of the last several seasons has been running into switching defenses. And one of the main reasons why is think of it like this, Switching defenses shut down screening actions. One of the most important parts of what makes the Lakers offense successful is rollman possessions and cut possessions and weak side skips. Right, So like everything that they get out of ball screens. Right, So they run a ball screen and they hit Ad on the roll and he makes like a little floater in the lane, or he gets a dunk right, or it's like, oh, you stay home on the roller, the pick and roll ball handler, it hits a shot off the glass or something like that. Or oh, they stepped over to help on Ad on the roll, so Ruey cuts along the baseline and they hit Ruey and Ruey dunks in on the baseline, or they skip it to the other side of the floor and Ruey hits a three in the corner or something like that. Like, they get a lot of their offense off of screening actions and rolling and cutting late game situations it's like, we're gonna spam the Austin Lebron ball screen. Why because typically teams won't switch it, and they can get a pocket pass to Lebron, which allows him to get downhill without having to beat somebody off the dribble. The Lakers have to manufacture paint pressure through screening actions, and so when they run into switching schemes, that shuts off that automatic baked in dribble penetration that they get, or cut or roll penetration that they get, and suddenly it becomes about can Lebron James and Anthony Davis score in the post? And the reason why is because Austin is pretty good. I'm creating his own shot, but he's not great at it. D Loo not great at creating his own shot, ruly okay at it? Not great at it. So when team is really tighten the screws defensively, it turns into Lebron, can you back your man down and get a bucket? And Anthony Davis can you draw a double team and make those kickout passes? And it's like Lebron's backing down Kid Cunningham and Kate's holding his ground and Lebron's taking that right shoulder fade away that he's never made over like thirty five percent of the time in his entire career. Right you go to Anthony Davis in the post, he draws a double team, he rifles a pass right out of bounds in the right corner, because again, he's a capable kickout passer in those situations, but not great.

I know the TV's great experience, but there's nothing like being there in person watching these games. Make sure you guys, get out there and check out one of these events. This is where game Time comes in. They have an incredible experience. I've personally used them many times that consistently give me the best experience in the ticket buying space. I highly recommend it to you guys. They have all in pricings. You know exactly what you're paying before you go to check out. You get a picture of your seat from within the apps. You know what you're buying with your money. It's not convoluted. You can check out in as soon as two taps. They have a new program called game Time Picks, which curates the feed. Right, you go to a typical ticket buying app and there's usually thousands and thousands of tickets and you feel like you're sorting through a lot of junk. Right, game Time Picks curates the best deals from that specific event, so you can be very efficient as you're looking through trying to find tickets to an event. I highly recommend it to you guys. You got to check it out. Take the guestwork out of buying tickets with game Time Picks. Download the game Time app. Create an account and use code Hoops for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms apply again, create an account and redeem code Hoops. That's Hops for twenty dollars off. Download game Time today. What time is it? Game time? All right, let's talk some basketball. So again, Yeah, I wanted to. I watched a bunch of bits and pieces from a bunch of different games. So rather than like doing super big deep dives into individual games, I want to kind of bounce around with ten takeaways and then we'll get into our film. So first takeaway, Kate Cunningham has the potential to be a really impactful two way player. The Pistons Lakers game last night was really fascinating in the sense that, like, the Lakers are a team that typically physically bullies you. That's what their advantage is, right, Like the paint. The Lakers are a paint dominant team, but they do it without getting a lot of dribble penetration. It's a lot of rolling hard into the paint, cutting hard into the paint, posting, and trying to generate rim pressure by just backing dudes down and trying to play bully ball around the basket right, and the Lakers got bullied last night. They ran into another really big frontline. Jalen Duran played great, Isaiah Stewart played great. K Cunningham played great, Tobias Harris played great, And that really is the key is all four of those guys can reason a well guard Lebron and ad on an island. None of them can get completely shredded in bullie situations. Like both Tobias Harris and K Cunningham did a really nice job guarding Lebron, James and Anthony Davis in individual post up situations. Kaye did a great job on Lebron. He did about as good a job as I've seen a player on Lebron that's given up some weight and size in a very long time. Forced him consistently into those right shoulder turnarounds that he wasn't able to make. He wasn't Lebron wasn't able to really leverage his size inside, and again, like you always want to have defensive versatility, right, We've seen throughout this season, like Jalen Duran when he runs into spacing bigs kind of like what happened to Carl Town's the other day, he kind of gets lost, he doesn't know where to be. His big man instincts that drag him into the paint keep causing him to lose shooters off the ball. It's a little bit of a rough look, but when they run into a power frontline, it's actually a really nice matchup for Detroit. And one of the specific things that Detroit did last night was they did a lot of switching when you have four guys between Tobias Harris, Kate Cunningham, Isaiah Stewart, and Jalen Duran at various points in the game. In the game, they were even able to put Kate on Austin for stretches and switch the Lebron Austin ball screen. And if you guys remember and we're going to talk about this as one of the other takeaways that can be a weakness for the Lakers, which we're going to get to in a second, and they were able to capitalize on that. I also thought Kid Cunningham on the offensive end was unbelievable last night, just picked the Lakers apart down the stretch, picking on matchups, hunting Austin reeves, hunting, hunting ruy Hat Tramura, like he straight up posted ruy Hat Tramura and bullied him to a spot, hit a nice little left shoulder fade, spun off of him and drew a foul. He was getting buckets on Austin Reeves. He was just he was just frying every single one of the Lakers perimeter defenders. I thought Kid was amazing last night. It was just kind of like a little glimpse into what he can be, which is a really interesting two way player that can pick teams apart in the half court. But he also has enough size and quickness to be pretty versatile defensively online switching look and that's again, when you're talking about defensive versatility, it'd be nice if the Pistons just had a really good switching look and didn't always have to feel like they need to run a drop coverage. It's a way to kind of give yourself that defensive versatility. Really impressive win for the Pistons last night. Again, we have a tendency as fans, and I'm sure Lakers fans were thinking of this, and we're gonna talk to some Lakers today, but Lakers fans and a lot of other fans, we have a tendency to be like, oh, we just didn't play hard tonight, or oh, like they this is we're bullshitting out there, this is this isn't what we really are. And it's like, yeah, there's always a little bit of that, Like that's certainly part of it. I think I think even Pistons fans would agree if like the Lakers and the Pistons played a playoff series tomorrow, that the Lakers are beating them, right, Like, it's not about that, but sometimes we do a bad job of acknowledging what the winner did in those types of situations. I thought the Pistons played a great game. I thought they brought incredible physicality. They talked a bunch of shit, and they backed it up with the way that they were playing. Jaden Ivy was incredible, Cade was incredible as a stewart was incredible, Tobias Harris made a bunch of big plays. It was just a really impressive win. So shout out to the Detroit Pistons. Number two, the Lakers will struggle to beat teams that have big bodies that can switch Lebron ad actions, and like we talked about earlier, the guard action with Austin Reeves, right, this was something going way back to the Lakers season preview. If you guys remember, one of the biggest weaknesses for the Lakers over the course of the last several seasons has been running into switching defenses. And one of the main reasons why is think of it like this, Switching defenses shut down screening actions. One of the most important parts of what makes the Lakers offense successful is rollman possessions and cut possessions and weak side skips. Right, So like everything that they get out of ball screens. Right, So they run a ball screen and they hit Ad on the roll and he makes like a little floater in the lane, or he gets a dunk right, or it's like, oh, you stay home on the roller, the pick and roll ball handler, it hits a shot off the glass or something like that. Or oh, they stepped over to help on Ad on the roll, so Ruey cuts along the baseline and they hit Ruey and Ruey dunks in on the baseline, or they skip it to the other side of the floor and Ruey hits a three in the corner or something like that. Like, they get a lot of their offense off of screening actions and rolling and cutting late game situations it's like, we're gonna spam the Austin Lebron ball screen. Why because typically teams won't switch it, and they can get a pocket pass to Lebron, which allows him to get downhill without having to beat somebody off the dribble. The Lakers have to manufacture paint pressure through screening actions, and so when they run into switching schemes, that shuts off that automatic baked in dribble penetration that they get, or cut or roll penetration that they get, and suddenly it becomes about can Lebron James and Anthony Davis score in the post? And the reason why is because Austin is pretty good. I'm creating his own shot, but he's not great at it. D Loo not great at creating his own shot, ruly okay at it? Not great at it. So when team is really tighten the screws defensively, it turns into Lebron, can you back your man down and get a bucket? And Anthony Davis can you draw a double team and make those kickout passes? And it's like Lebron's backing down Kid Cunningham and Kate's holding his ground and Lebron's taking that right shoulder fade away that he's never made over like thirty five percent of the time in his entire career. Right you go to Anthony Davis in the post, he draws a double team, he rifles a pass right out of bounds in the right corner, because again, he's a capable kickout passer in those situations, but not great.

Now.

Now.

Again, as far as the Lakers go against switching schemes in high leverage moments, I'm not as worried about it because Lebron James is gonna play better. Lebron played really poorly last night. He really struggled to leverage his gifts in those post up situations. I'm not worried about him. He has a weird habit of kind of getting stronger as the season goes along. He's clearly not really at full speed yet this season, and that's going to reflect poorly in games like this when the Lakers kind of come out flat. But in these kinds of regular season nights, when they run into a good athletic team that's switching action, it's can Lebron and Ad dominate the game out of the post. They did not last night, and they lost do I think that Lebron and Ad can leverage that when it comes time, when it's really winning time. Yeah, but they're inconsistent with it in the regular season. And that is a big part of why I said in the season preview for the Lakers, switching teams are going to cause the Lakers problems. It takes away their baked in offensive advantages and forces them to earn those advantages through physical exertion, which Lebron and Ad don't always want to do over the course of the regular season. Number three, Austin Reeves may need to consider taking a few games off. I thought last night was one of the probably the worst defensive game of Austin Reeves' career to this point. Was dying on screens everywhere, was routinely getting attacked one on one, was getting beat to the offensive glass.

Again, as far as the Lakers go against switching schemes in high leverage moments, I'm not as worried about it because Lebron James is gonna play better. Lebron played really poorly last night. He really struggled to leverage his gifts in those post up situations. I'm not worried about him. He has a weird habit of kind of getting stronger as the season goes along. He's clearly not really at full speed yet this season, and that's going to reflect poorly in games like this when the Lakers kind of come out flat. But in these kinds of regular season nights, when they run into a good athletic team that's switching action, it's can Lebron and Ad dominate the game out of the post. They did not last night, and they lost do I think that Lebron and Ad can leverage that when it comes time, when it's really winning time. Yeah, but they're inconsistent with it in the regular season. And that is a big part of why I said in the season preview for the Lakers, switching teams are going to cause the Lakers problems. It takes away their baked in offensive advantages and forces them to earn those advantages through physical exertion, which Lebron and Ad don't always want to do over the course of the regular season. Number three, Austin Reeves may need to consider taking a few games off. I thought last night was one of the probably the worst defensive game of Austin Reeves' career to this point. Was dying on screens everywhere, was routinely getting attacked one on one, was getting beat to the offensive glass.

He looked a step slow.

He looked a step slow.

Austin, Do I think he should be guarding the other team's best player every night? No, and that's something the Lakers need to address. But he is a good perimeter defender. He competes, He's got enough size to where he can at least kind of get.

Austin, Do I think he should be guarding the other team's best player every night? No, and that's something the Lakers need to address. But he is a good perimeter defender. He competes, He's got enough size to where he can at least kind of get.

In the way.

In the way.

He's good at poking the ball away when guys have sized mismatches because he attacks down low instead of trying to contest up high. Austin is a solid defender. He's not good enough to be the best point of attack defender on a team, but he's a solid defender. But he was getting fried last night and he looked a step slow. I understand you played eighty two games last year. I understand you've played every game so far the season. I understand that's a point of pride. But at the end of the day, especially when they have got like I Cam Reddish stepped in and actually played pretty well last night, it's kind of funny. I don't think Cam Reddish should be playing as many minutes as Darvin Ham played him last year, but it's always funny when he checks into the game. How immediately you're like, oh shit, this is what it looks like when the Lakers have a six to eight athlete on the floor with long arms who plays hard right Like you immediately go like, oh shit, Like that's how good this looks next to Lebron and and Cam's not even a very good player. He's just six s eight and rangey and athletic, and he plays hard, and it kind of changes the dynamic of how the Lakers look athletically. But like, do I want Cam playing twenty minutes a night for a serious playoff team. No, But like he got some burn last night and he looked okay, And it's one of those things where it's like, let Cam step in for like, let Cam and Gabe and Dalton and Max and d Lo run the back court for a few games. Take get that ankle right, because like this team is gonna they're already so unathletic on the perimeter. They can't also have Austin playing with the bad wheel and getting fried all over the floor. He needs to take some time get that ankle right, get back to full speed so that he can be a more staunch force on the perimeter for the Lakers. On defense, number four Russell Westbrook is still one of the very best one on one get a stop guys in the NBA. Super interesting game between the Raptors and the Nuggets last night in Denver, as Toronto looked like they were gonna sneak out of there with a win.

He's good at poking the ball away when guys have sized mismatches because he attacks down low instead of trying to contest up high. Austin is a solid defender. He's not good enough to be the best point of attack defender on a team, but he's a solid defender. But he was getting fried last night and he looked a step slow. I understand you played eighty two games last year. I understand you've played every game so far the season. I understand that's a point of pride. But at the end of the day, especially when they have got like I Cam Reddish stepped in and actually played pretty well last night, it's kind of funny. I don't think Cam Reddish should be playing as many minutes as Darvin Ham played him last year, but it's always funny when he checks into the game. How immediately you're like, oh shit, this is what it looks like when the Lakers have a six to eight athlete on the floor with long arms who plays hard right Like you immediately go like, oh shit, Like that's how good this looks next to Lebron and and Cam's not even a very good player. He's just six s eight and rangey and athletic, and he plays hard, and it kind of changes the dynamic of how the Lakers look athletically. But like, do I want Cam playing twenty minutes a night for a serious playoff team. No, But like he got some burn last night and he looked okay, And it's one of those things where it's like, let Cam step in for like, let Cam and Gabe and Dalton and Max and d Lo run the back court for a few games. Take get that ankle right, because like this team is gonna they're already so unathletic on the perimeter. They can't also have Austin playing with the bad wheel and getting fried all over the floor. He needs to take some time get that ankle right, get back to full speed so that he can be a more staunch force on the perimeter for the Lakers. On defense, number four Russell Westbrook is still one of the very best one on one get a stop guys in the NBA. Super interesting game between the Raptors and the Nuggets last night in Denver, as Toronto looked like they were gonna sneak out of there with a win.

Toronto's been really feisty.

Toronto's been really feisty.

I was watching the Laker game the other night, and the Lakers jump them in the first half, and then the Raptors like really wore the Lakers down in the second half and made that into a game. Then they turned around and beat the Kings the next night. Then they turned around and went into Denver and had them dead to rights late before Yo Kitchen. The Nuggets out executed them and ended up getting the win anyway. But like, Toronto's a little feisty, and they've proven that over the course of the last week. So they end up in a late game situation where the Nuggets are up one twenty one to one nineteen and they run a play for RJ. Barrett to get an ISO against Russell Westbrook on the left wing. And we're gonna look at this play in a little bit more detail in the film session. But Rust did an incredible job of disrupting Barrett's rhythm from the start of the possession, hard reachins, slapping at the basketball making Barrett uncomfortable, a good hard bump on the one dribbled drive that he made where he chested him up and hit a hard bump by swiping at the basketball, and by taking that hard bump.

I was watching the Laker game the other night, and the Lakers jump them in the first half, and then the Raptors like really wore the Lakers down in the second half and made that into a game. Then they turned around and beat the Kings the next night. Then they turned around and went into Denver and had them dead to rights late before Yo Kitchen. The Nuggets out executed them and ended up getting the win anyway. But like, Toronto's a little feisty, and they've proven that over the course of the last week. So they end up in a late game situation where the Nuggets are up one twenty one to one nineteen and they run a play for RJ. Barrett to get an ISO against Russell Westbrook on the left wing. And we're gonna look at this play in a little bit more detail in the film session. But Rust did an incredible job of disrupting Barrett's rhythm from the start of the possession, hard reachins, slapping at the basketball making Barrett uncomfortable, a good hard bump on the one dribbled drive that he made where he chested him up and hit a hard bump by swiping at the basketball, and by taking that hard bump.

He took our r J. Barrett out of his natural rhythm. Now RJ.

He took our r J. Barrett out of his natural rhythm. Now RJ.

Barrett still somehow got a shot up that went in and out and almost went in, but it was again, that's playing the results. If that shot goes in, that's not Russell Westbrook's fault. I thought it was unbelievable defense on that final possession where he made RJ. Barrett take an outer rhythm, janky, clunky step back three well above the break. I thought it was an awesome defensive player play for Russell Westbrook. And that's a tough job, because that's the job you're taking, where it's like, if he gets scored, if he scores on me, I get roasted online for the next twenty four hours.

Barrett still somehow got a shot up that went in and out and almost went in, but it was again, that's playing the results. If that shot goes in, that's not Russell Westbrook's fault. I thought it was unbelievable defense on that final possession where he made RJ. Barrett take an outer rhythm, janky, clunky step back three well above the break. I thought it was an awesome defensive player play for Russell Westbrook. And that's a tough job, because that's the job you're taking, where it's like, if he gets scored, if he scores on me, I get roasted online for the next twenty four hours.

Right Like, it's a tough job.

Right Like, it's a tough job.

And I thought Russ did a really really good job to close out that game for the Denver Nuggets. Number five Passcalciaka has become one of the most devastating mismatch attackers in the post in the NBA.

And I thought Russ did a really really good job to close out that game for the Denver Nuggets. Number five Passcalciaka has become one of the most devastating mismatch attackers in the post in the NBA.

Down the stretch of.

Down the stretch of.

The MAVs game, there was just not a player on the MAVs that could guard Passcalciakam. Even when they went to PJ. Washington late, he was just getting right around him and right to the rim. Now, now as we're having other problems that continue continually gave up easy buckets on makes and on Missus in transition as Indiana kind of exposed their lack of foot speed. And that's the thing, like for one of the things that will be a downside of going the Klay Thompson direction instead of the Derek Jones junior direction is you're just not as fast and you're just up and down the floor and transition gonna have some issues. And there's a lot of stuff that Indiana can expose with Dallas where it's like, oh, Tyres Halliburton and uh and Ben Matherin are isoting Luka Doncic at the top of the key and just beating him off the dribble because they're faster. Oh you're you made a shot in the lane.

The MAVs game, there was just not a player on the MAVs that could guard Passcalciakam. Even when they went to PJ. Washington late, he was just getting right around him and right to the rim. Now, now as we're having other problems that continue continually gave up easy buckets on makes and on Missus in transition as Indiana kind of exposed their lack of foot speed. And that's the thing, like for one of the things that will be a downside of going the Klay Thompson direction instead of the Derek Jones junior direction is you're just not as fast and you're just up and down the floor and transition gonna have some issues. And there's a lot of stuff that Indiana can expose with Dallas where it's like, oh, Tyres Halliburton and uh and Ben Matherin are isoting Luka Doncic at the top of the key and just beating him off the dribble because they're faster. Oh you're you made a shot in the lane.

That's nice.

That's nice.

Well, we're just gonna run it right down the lane the other way, right down the floor, and transition the other way. Catch you in rotation, drive it close out with Andrew Nemhart and get a layup like the even on every miss basket, they're looking to push up the floor and they really really exposed the MAS for a lack of team speed. Actually, I should skip ahead Number six is the MAVs with Klay Thompson will struggle against teams with speed. That was something that Indiana showed last night. Now, going back to number five, Pascal did a lot of damage attacking out of the post against everybody that Dallas had because they didn't really have anybody that can guard him, and it's given Indiana a different look they can go to in the half court, especially now at this point in the season where Tyre's Halliburton is still kind of getting his legs underneath them. Pascal is getting one point three to four points per possession including passes on post ups, which is by far the best in the league among players who have run at least twenty five this year. Those are you guys wondering who's in second place. It's Julius Randall with the Minnesota timber Wolves. But yeah, moving forward to number six, I do think the MAVs will struggle against teams with speed. Their counter to that is going to have to be really sound execution on offense to try to prevent turnovers and bad misses that lead to transition pushouts. Floor balance, meaning like when guys misshots, making sure that you're relocating on the perimeter so that you have guys that are back, and then just really good attention to detail and transition defense, sprinting, communicating ball in basket first, then spreading out to shooters at least making them make a jump shot in those situations. But there again that it just you can make up for personnel limitations by being very sharp. But if you're not sharp and you're dealing with personal limitation, that's when you can get exposed. Number seven, The Kings can really put you into some matchup problems. They closed with DeMar Derozen, Malik Monk and earon Fox last night, and he just kind of run out of bodies and it ended up being a lot of Demarta Rosen attacking against Tyler Harrow. DeMar de Rosen was unbelievable down the stretch of this game. Caught Tyler Harrow's hand in the cookie jar and hit a pull up three at the top of the key. He iso bam at a bio and hit a pull up jump shot around the elbow like he did the same thing to Anthony Davis and the Laker game. Where like it is a luxury for dearon Fox and for Demona Sabonis and for Malik Monk and for Mike Brown and the Kings.

Well, we're just gonna run it right down the lane the other way, right down the floor, and transition the other way. Catch you in rotation, drive it close out with Andrew Nemhart and get a layup like the even on every miss basket, they're looking to push up the floor and they really really exposed the MAS for a lack of team speed. Actually, I should skip ahead Number six is the MAVs with Klay Thompson will struggle against teams with speed. That was something that Indiana showed last night. Now, going back to number five, Pascal did a lot of damage attacking out of the post against everybody that Dallas had because they didn't really have anybody that can guard him, and it's given Indiana a different look they can go to in the half court, especially now at this point in the season where Tyre's Halliburton is still kind of getting his legs underneath them. Pascal is getting one point three to four points per possession including passes on post ups, which is by far the best in the league among players who have run at least twenty five this year. Those are you guys wondering who's in second place. It's Julius Randall with the Minnesota timber Wolves. But yeah, moving forward to number six, I do think the MAVs will struggle against teams with speed. Their counter to that is going to have to be really sound execution on offense to try to prevent turnovers and bad misses that lead to transition pushouts. Floor balance, meaning like when guys misshots, making sure that you're relocating on the perimeter so that you have guys that are back, and then just really good attention to detail and transition defense, sprinting, communicating ball in basket first, then spreading out to shooters at least making them make a jump shot in those situations. But there again that it just you can make up for personnel limitations by being very sharp. But if you're not sharp and you're dealing with personal limitation, that's when you can get exposed. Number seven, The Kings can really put you into some matchup problems. They closed with DeMar Derozen, Malik Monk and earon Fox last night, and he just kind of run out of bodies and it ended up being a lot of Demarta Rosen attacking against Tyler Harrow. DeMar de Rosen was unbelievable down the stretch of this game. Caught Tyler Harrow's hand in the cookie jar and hit a pull up three at the top of the key. He iso bam at a bio and hit a pull up jump shot around the elbow like he did the same thing to Anthony Davis and the Laker game. Where like it is a luxury for dearon Fox and for Demona Sabonis and for Malik Monk and for Mike Brown and the Kings.

That they have another guy that they.

That they have another guy that they.

Can really lean on in these late game situations to generate offense. Derozen was un believable down the stretch of this game as they stole a game from Miami. Miami was up one o eight to one oh three. They got out of their droz and hits that big shot, plus the falas of Bonus gets a huge offensive rebound, another play where he kind of was engaged with Bam and just hit it with a little swim move, get a little bit of separation, got that ball, just hit that little pop shot and stole a game in Miami against the heat. The Kings are starting to play a little bit better. We'll be interested to see if they can get some momentum here. Number eight, Steph Curry still really good at basketball. I've got a fun stretch for you, got Warriors fans in the in the film session where a late third quarter stretch where Steph just started spamming split action and other screening actions with Looney while he was being guarded by Jordan Poole, and he generated points on five out of six possessions by just making the right read every single time. I'm gonna show you guys in the film session the way that he does it. But like, the Warriors team has got such a high floor. They're so good on defense, they're flying around, they've got so much speed, they're so good in training, and now you're adding Steph Curry to the equation as a guy that can really methodically run half court offense. Really really excited to see how the Warriors perform against their next four opponents, which are all pretty tough. I think it's Celtics, I think the Calves are in there. I want to say it's the Knicks two, and then it's the MAVs. So they got four really really tough games coming up. We'll get to learn a lot about the Golden State Warriors. Number nine, Jason Tatum's pull up jumper is on fire. You've got a crazy hot streak against the Atlanta Hawks last night, just picking them apart with step back threes and good playmaking and attacking in the post port Dyson Daniels is too small for him. Really big game from him last night. But last year, Jason Tatum was getting zero point nine to six points per pull up jump shot off the dribble. This year, he's up to one point zero eight, a really positive trend for the Boston Celtics. And then finally number ten, Jalen Green's shooting makes him into a very interesting prospect once again. Last night hit a really nice movement three coming up to the top of the key out of action in the half court. That movement three piece is going to be really exciting for him because he's such a good athlete that if he can get really consistent with that shot, he's going to become very difficult to guard. Remember that's something that Tyres Maxie added to his game, where it's like, I'm gonna start in the right corner and just sprint up off of a double screen catch at the top of the key and just rise and fire. I don't have to deal with ball pressure, I don't have to deal with as much physicality. I can just run up and get to basketball and shoot. And he's a good enough athlete and he's vertical enough that he has such a high release point that it's a really difficult shot to guard. And then just like you get it did against the Dallas Mavericks after they cut the game down to three, hits a massive pull up three on the right wing. That ice is the game, puts the Knicks away. Big win for the Uston Rockets last night. A lot of teams in my power rankings lost last night, but the Uston Rockets did avail themselves well as they got a big win over a good team in the Eastern Conference. All right, guys, let's get into our film session. All right, So our first clip, this is the Russell Westbrook defense clip. So once again, I want you guys to watch as Russ comes up on RJ. Bhar Watch how quickly he starts attacking the pocket to try to make RJ feel uncomfortable and disrupt his rhythm. You're gonna see it almost immediately. So in mound clear space, watch Russ. It's reach one, boom, poke at it, poke at it again. Let's poke at it again. Here it comes boom. Just try to make him feel uncomfortable, messing up with his footwork. Then here comes the bump, right hard drive. Watch him beat the beat him to the spot and bump him. Now he's off rhythm once again. So all he's done to this point is focus on attacking RJ.

Can really lean on in these late game situations to generate offense. Derozen was un believable down the stretch of this game as they stole a game from Miami. Miami was up one o eight to one oh three. They got out of their droz and hits that big shot, plus the falas of Bonus gets a huge offensive rebound, another play where he kind of was engaged with Bam and just hit it with a little swim move, get a little bit of separation, got that ball, just hit that little pop shot and stole a game in Miami against the heat. The Kings are starting to play a little bit better. We'll be interested to see if they can get some momentum here. Number eight, Steph Curry still really good at basketball. I've got a fun stretch for you, got Warriors fans in the in the film session where a late third quarter stretch where Steph just started spamming split action and other screening actions with Looney while he was being guarded by Jordan Poole, and he generated points on five out of six possessions by just making the right read every single time. I'm gonna show you guys in the film session the way that he does it. But like, the Warriors team has got such a high floor. They're so good on defense, they're flying around, they've got so much speed, they're so good in training, and now you're adding Steph Curry to the equation as a guy that can really methodically run half court offense. Really really excited to see how the Warriors perform against their next four opponents, which are all pretty tough. I think it's Celtics, I think the Calves are in there. I want to say it's the Knicks two, and then it's the MAVs. So they got four really really tough games coming up. We'll get to learn a lot about the Golden State Warriors. Number nine, Jason Tatum's pull up jumper is on fire. You've got a crazy hot streak against the Atlanta Hawks last night, just picking them apart with step back threes and good playmaking and attacking in the post port Dyson Daniels is too small for him. Really big game from him last night. But last year, Jason Tatum was getting zero point nine to six points per pull up jump shot off the dribble. This year, he's up to one point zero eight, a really positive trend for the Boston Celtics. And then finally number ten, Jalen Green's shooting makes him into a very interesting prospect once again. Last night hit a really nice movement three coming up to the top of the key out of action in the half court. That movement three piece is going to be really exciting for him because he's such a good athlete that if he can get really consistent with that shot, he's going to become very difficult to guard. Remember that's something that Tyres Maxie added to his game, where it's like, I'm gonna start in the right corner and just sprint up off of a double screen catch at the top of the key and just rise and fire. I don't have to deal with ball pressure, I don't have to deal with as much physicality. I can just run up and get to basketball and shoot. And he's a good enough athlete and he's vertical enough that he has such a high release point that it's a really difficult shot to guard. And then just like you get it did against the Dallas Mavericks after they cut the game down to three, hits a massive pull up three on the right wing. That ice is the game, puts the Knicks away. Big win for the Uston Rockets last night. A lot of teams in my power rankings lost last night, but the Uston Rockets did avail themselves well as they got a big win over a good team in the Eastern Conference. All right, guys, let's get into our film session. All right, So our first clip, this is the Russell Westbrook defense clip. So once again, I want you guys to watch as Russ comes up on RJ. Bhar Watch how quickly he starts attacking the pocket to try to make RJ feel uncomfortable and disrupt his rhythm. You're gonna see it almost immediately. So in mound clear space, watch Russ. It's reach one, boom, poke at it, poke at it again. Let's poke at it again. Here it comes boom. Just try to make him feel uncomfortable, messing up with his footwork. Then here comes the bump, right hard drive. Watch him beat the beat him to the spot and bump him. Now he's off rhythm once again. So all he's done to this point is focus on attacking RJ.

Barrett's rhythm.

Barrett's rhythm.

In his bass again, he actually gets a really nice contest here too, like this is a great contest on the shot, excellent contest, but he had a lot of opportunity early in the possession to disrupt the rhythm. Now I want you to not pay attention to Russ at all for a second. Just watch RJ. Barrett and watch his feet and watch how out of sorts he is this whole possession. By the way, great job from Marj Barrett. Still getting a decent look against against really really tough defense. But watch how like kind of disheveled this play looks because of Russ attacking early, like, it just looks like he's a little bit unorthodox. So shout out to him for almost getting that thing to go in. But I thought that was incredible defense from Russell Westbrook. All right, moving on to the Lakers Pistons game, there's an example of the Pistons with their size. So again, they have Isaiah Stewart, who they could put on Jackson Hayes in this lineup, right, But they have Tobias Harris that they can put on Lebron and they have Kad Cunningham on Austin Reeves. And because Kate Cunningham is big. They can When the Lakers go to this Lebron Austin two man game, it's just switch, right. So because of the switch, there's no driving lane. That's the whole point. It's all about baked in driving lanes.

In his bass again, he actually gets a really nice contest here too, like this is a great contest on the shot, excellent contest, but he had a lot of opportunity early in the possession to disrupt the rhythm. Now I want you to not pay attention to Russ at all for a second. Just watch RJ. Barrett and watch his feet and watch how out of sorts he is this whole possession. By the way, great job from Marj Barrett. Still getting a decent look against against really really tough defense. But watch how like kind of disheveled this play looks because of Russ attacking early, like, it just looks like he's a little bit unorthodox. So shout out to him for almost getting that thing to go in. But I thought that was incredible defense from Russell Westbrook. All right, moving on to the Lakers Pistons game, there's an example of the Pistons with their size. So again, they have Isaiah Stewart, who they could put on Jackson Hayes in this lineup, right, But they have Tobias Harris that they can put on Lebron and they have Kad Cunningham on Austin Reeves. And because Kate Cunningham is big. They can When the Lakers go to this Lebron Austin two man game, it's just switch, right. So because of the switch, there's no driving lane. That's the whole point. It's all about baked in driving lanes.

Right.

Right.

So if Kate's chasing and Tobias steps up, Lebron's gonna roll and he's gonna be wide open. But Kate's not chasing, he's switching, and Tobias is just containing. Now they're going to turn back and go to the post. And Kate just did a really nice job all night just forcing Lebron into these right shoulder fades. Another one too, Like you guys saw the play that got overturned. Isaiah Stewart all night long on Lebron post ups, whether it was Jackson Hayes or Anthony Davis, did such a nice job putting himself in position where it's like, hey, if you come this way, I'm going to be there waiting for you.

So if Kate's chasing and Tobias steps up, Lebron's gonna roll and he's gonna be wide open. But Kate's not chasing, he's switching, and Tobias is just containing. Now they're going to turn back and go to the post. And Kate just did a really nice job all night just forcing Lebron into these right shoulder fades. Another one too, Like you guys saw the play that got overturned. Isaiah Stewart all night long on Lebron post ups, whether it was Jackson Hayes or Anthony Davis, did such a nice job putting himself in position where it's like, hey, if you come this way, I'm going to be there waiting for you.

At the rim. He looked like you.

At the rim. He looked like you.

Pissed Lebron off in that late third quarter stretch and I was like, this could get ugly. But again, a shout out to the Pistons. They talked a lot of shit last night, and they backed it up. Here's an example of just like when the Lakers get into space that can look slow sometimes, this time Jade and Ivy just absolutely toast Lebron James off the dribble. So double team of Kate in the post. Kate just did a wonderful job attacking matchups all night. But the big problem here is Lebron straight up one on one against Ivy, and Ivy just goes right by him.

Pissed Lebron off in that late third quarter stretch and I was like, this could get ugly. But again, a shout out to the Pistons. They talked a lot of shit last night, and they backed it up. Here's an example of just like when the Lakers get into space that can look slow sometimes, this time Jade and Ivy just absolutely toast Lebron James off the dribble. So double team of Kate in the post. Kate just did a wonderful job attacking matchups all night. But the big problem here is Lebron straight up one on one against Ivy, and Ivy just goes right by him.

To the rim.

To the rim.

Here's Kate hunting Austin Reeves, so Ruey starts the possession on him, and he did some work against rue too, but it's here comes the screen to get Austin on the switch, just goes hard dribbled move to the right, absorbs the contact and just turns the corner on him and makes that little easy floater in the lane. This time the Lakers actually, we're able to get a favorable matchup in a switch. And this is where you got to be a little bit more diligent, right, So I like how they're using Lebron out of the post to get a switch. So here's the post on this particular possession. They don't have as many of their big bodies out there, right, they just have Kate and they have Stu. So with Kate and Stu, they're going to switch any Lebron AD action. So they want to get Austin into the action so they can force a switch on the handoff. He gets the switch and gets inside positioned on Ivy. Then they're able to kind of throw it to him on that seal and he gets an easy layout. But once again, look at Stewart again, this is a tough bank shot because Stu does a great job coming over and contesting Lebron off of Ad. There's another one of those possessions where Austin just like really struggled at the point of attack. Watch him just die on the screen. There's just nothing there, just no effort on the ball, and he just kind of gives up the hard drive that forces Lebron to hard help, which forces Ruy to rotate, draw the foul on the.

Here's Kate hunting Austin Reeves, so Ruey starts the possession on him, and he did some work against rue too, but it's here comes the screen to get Austin on the switch, just goes hard dribbled move to the right, absorbs the contact and just turns the corner on him and makes that little easy floater in the lane. This time the Lakers actually, we're able to get a favorable matchup in a switch. And this is where you got to be a little bit more diligent, right, So I like how they're using Lebron out of the post to get a switch. So here's the post on this particular possession. They don't have as many of their big bodies out there, right, they just have Kate and they have Stu. So with Kate and Stu, they're going to switch any Lebron AD action. So they want to get Austin into the action so they can force a switch on the handoff. He gets the switch and gets inside positioned on Ivy. Then they're able to kind of throw it to him on that seal and he gets an easy layout. But once again, look at Stewart again, this is a tough bank shot because Stu does a great job coming over and contesting Lebron off of Ad. There's another one of those possessions where Austin just like really struggled at the point of attack. Watch him just die on the screen. There's just nothing there, just no effort on the ball, and he just kind of gives up the hard drive that forces Lebron to hard help, which forces Ruy to rotate, draw the foul on the.

Ron.

Ron.

Holland draws the foul driving at Ad at the basket. But like again, like as we go back here, just Austin's clearly gassed. Like this big possession, fourth quarter possession, He's clearly gassed. He clearly doesn't trust his foot to move like. I think he needs to take a couple of days off. Here's another play where Jade and Ivy's just going right at Austin Reeves doing the same thing that Austin does to people sometimes, where he just kind of drives in there and gets that contact. When the Lakers ran action the other play I don't have in here, but right after this they ran a horn set again in a ball screen and got the game down to five. This is when the Lakers cut into one oh three ninety eight. But when they ran action against the switching, they were having more success, and I'm a little disappointed that they didn't stick with this more often down the stretch. But here's an example off of action, We're gonna get ad comes and sets the screen on Tobias inside position, easy over the top pass finish. When they were more diligent about it, they were better again. They ran a ball screen on the very next possession. It was like a double drag, I think, if I remember correctly, out of horns, and they ended up getting a dunk for Anthony Davis. But it was just too much dribbling the ball off the floor, trying to attack against the switch and just not getting good stuff.

Holland draws the foul driving at Ad at the basket. But like again, like as we go back here, just Austin's clearly gassed. Like this big possession, fourth quarter possession, He's clearly gassed. He clearly doesn't trust his foot to move like. I think he needs to take a couple of days off. Here's another play where Jade and Ivy's just going right at Austin Reeves doing the same thing that Austin does to people sometimes, where he just kind of drives in there and gets that contact. When the Lakers ran action the other play I don't have in here, but right after this they ran a horn set again in a ball screen and got the game down to five. This is when the Lakers cut into one oh three ninety eight. But when they ran action against the switching, they were having more success, and I'm a little disappointed that they didn't stick with this more often down the stretch. But here's an example off of action, We're gonna get ad comes and sets the screen on Tobias inside position, easy over the top pass finish. When they were more diligent about it, they were better again. They ran a ball screen on the very next possession. It was like a double drag, I think, if I remember correctly, out of horns, and they ended up getting a dunk for Anthony Davis. But it was just too much dribbling the ball off the floor, trying to attack against the switch and just not getting good stuff.

Out of it.

Out of it.

Here's that ridiculous left shoulder fade that Kate Cunningham hit over Ruey Hotcha Mura. This is again not even with the size advantage. He's given up weight here, but look at how he bumps Ruey and Ruey's always struggled to hold his ground, but Ruey kind of gives up that angle on that bump there, and really really nice little fade away jump shot from Kid. And then this was inevitably going to start happening. So as the Lakers were getting cooked on these ISOs, it was inevitable that they were going to have to start shading towards the ball more so this time. I believe Kid goes at Austin on this one. Let's see, he's clearing the side so that he can get his ISO. Gets his ISO. Now we're digging down, right, So Kid's been causing problems for Austin. We're digging down now. The inevitable counter to that is what if you just get beat by a swing pass in a three point shot? And that's what Jade n Ivy does. Big time shot from j and n Ivy. It was awesome all night, all right. Moving on to Pacers MAVs, and this was a nice little split cut action from the from the Pacers that again playing a lot through passcal in the post split cut, two worst defenders on the floor for the MAVs involved in the play. We're gonna have Obie Toppin is gonna fake like he's setting a flare screen on Luca. So as you watch as he comes over to set that flare screen on Luca, Ben Shepherd's kind of breaking, so he's gonna talk switch right, So Luca's gonna be like, hey, Clay, you switch out, I'll take top. And as he comes over, but Toppin's like, wait, wait, wait, Luca's gonna guard me, but he's standing way the hell out here, so he goes, fine, I'm just gonna cut. Luca's not paying attention. Nice pass from Siakam gets a bucket. Really nice split action there from the Pacers. A little bit of Luca hunting that we saw in this game. In this case, Ben Matherin going at Luca in space again, just he's got his match up clear the side. They clear the wing so that there's more space. They interchange, gets beat off the dribble, It gets the end one. Lucas looked pretty slow here in the early part of the season. You can tell what that calf injury just kind of disrupted his conditioning to.

Here's that ridiculous left shoulder fade that Kate Cunningham hit over Ruey Hotcha Mura. This is again not even with the size advantage. He's given up weight here, but look at how he bumps Ruey and Ruey's always struggled to hold his ground, but Ruey kind of gives up that angle on that bump there, and really really nice little fade away jump shot from Kid. And then this was inevitably going to start happening. So as the Lakers were getting cooked on these ISOs, it was inevitable that they were going to have to start shading towards the ball more so this time. I believe Kid goes at Austin on this one. Let's see, he's clearing the side so that he can get his ISO. Gets his ISO. Now we're digging down, right, So Kid's been causing problems for Austin. We're digging down now. The inevitable counter to that is what if you just get beat by a swing pass in a three point shot? And that's what Jade n Ivy does. Big time shot from j and n Ivy. It was awesome all night, all right. Moving on to Pacers MAVs, and this was a nice little split cut action from the from the Pacers that again playing a lot through passcal in the post split cut, two worst defenders on the floor for the MAVs involved in the play. We're gonna have Obie Toppin is gonna fake like he's setting a flare screen on Luca. So as you watch as he comes over to set that flare screen on Luca, Ben Shepherd's kind of breaking, so he's gonna talk switch right, So Luca's gonna be like, hey, Clay, you switch out, I'll take top. And as he comes over, but Toppin's like, wait, wait, wait, Luca's gonna guard me, but he's standing way the hell out here, so he goes, fine, I'm just gonna cut. Luca's not paying attention. Nice pass from Siakam gets a bucket. Really nice split action there from the Pacers. A little bit of Luca hunting that we saw in this game. In this case, Ben Matherin going at Luca in space again, just he's got his match up clear the side. They clear the wing so that there's more space. They interchange, gets beat off the dribble, It gets the end one. Lucas looked pretty slow here in the early part of the season. You can tell what that calf injury just kind of disrupted his conditioning to.

Start the year.

Start the year.

Here's another example of that inside seal that we talk about. So Dinwoody tries to screen to Haliburton hedges and recovers. So then they go to set it again, but this time they know the hedge is coming. So right when Halliburton goes to hedge out Dinwitty, look at the angle of the screen. He's not screening to get Kyrie at drive. He's screening to get inside position. Watch him bump him bump, Yeah, look at where he's setting the screen. That's all in order to trigger that hedge and get his little opportunity to roll downhill. Tyree scambles and misses it. Dinwoody makes a nice little floater in the lane. Easy basketball. Here's a made basket by Dinwitty. Watch how Dinwoody falls over look it out quickly. Indiana capitalizes on it. Run up the floor's five on four. Where's our advantage? Oh Nemhard's wide open on the right corner. Close out hard jab step, easy drive and taking advantage of the five on four in transition because of didn't Woody falling over another transition push. Look at the floor balance here, guys. So I've got one player above the break. I think it's PJ Washington. I've got Luca that's below the break, Klay Thompson below the break, Kyrie Irving below the break, and Daniel Gafford below the break. So bad floor balance and then jogging on the side, quick run up the floor, easy layup a really bad transition defense, and Indiana definitely put their footspeed on display in that game. This was a really nice offensive rebound for Miles Turner, just poking it out on Luca that causes the offensive rebound, and then Tyre Saliburton finds himself wide open in the middle of the lane hits the shot that ends up being your dagger. Miles Turner had a really nice game in this one. I wanted to just kind of show an example of some Miles Turner at thirty did a bunch of damage in the post when Dallas went to centerless looks, and then he also did some damage in pick and pop situations. I just wanted to kind of show you an example of beating ice coverage without having to set a screen. So again, so this is setting up to be a ball screen, right, So clear sideballscreen. Haliburton's gonna come off of Miles Turner. Right, But watch if you look at the most NBA teams are going to ice side ball screens, ICE meaning try to reject the use, force the ball handler to reject the screen and force them towards the sideline. So Clay is going to jump way onto the high side. Here he jumps onto the high side to force Tyrese Haliburton to go. Gafferd's there to kind of corral You're trying to force Tyres into some sort of like tougher kind of like contested mid range shot in this area around the short corner. But notice Turner doesn't even bother setting a screen. There's no reason for him to set the screen because it's an ICE. If he sets the screen, Aliburn's just gonna have to reject it anyway. So instead Turner stops and pops because he knows Gafford is the other half of the ice coverage. The ice coverage is to corral Halliburton in this area of the floor. But in order to crawl Haliburton, they have to use the big and a drop. The best counter for a drop is a pop. We're popping to Turner here. Tyrese does a nice job dragging it further down. The further you drag it down, the longer the rotation gets a straight up, wide open look for Miles Turner. I also like it when teams use the pick and pop just to get the defense in rotation. Here's an example of that from the Knicks game. So normally this would be Karl Anthony Towns, but they're actually guarding Josh Hart with the center, which is something that we saw Boston do on Opening Night, and like I said, it's copycat league, you're gonna see lots of teams continue to do that. They do that because Carl Towns is the more dangerous above the break shooter, and so you put a wing on him so that they go Brunts and Towns ball screens they can just switch them. But if you run a if you put your center on Josh Hart, he essentially becomes the guy that has to pick an popped and he's not as good of a shooter.

Here's another example of that inside seal that we talk about. So Dinwoody tries to screen to Haliburton hedges and recovers. So then they go to set it again, but this time they know the hedge is coming. So right when Halliburton goes to hedge out Dinwitty, look at the angle of the screen. He's not screening to get Kyrie at drive. He's screening to get inside position. Watch him bump him bump, Yeah, look at where he's setting the screen. That's all in order to trigger that hedge and get his little opportunity to roll downhill. Tyree scambles and misses it. Dinwoody makes a nice little floater in the lane. Easy basketball. Here's a made basket by Dinwitty. Watch how Dinwoody falls over look it out quickly. Indiana capitalizes on it. Run up the floor's five on four. Where's our advantage? Oh Nemhard's wide open on the right corner. Close out hard jab step, easy drive and taking advantage of the five on four in transition because of didn't Woody falling over another transition push. Look at the floor balance here, guys. So I've got one player above the break. I think it's PJ Washington. I've got Luca that's below the break, Klay Thompson below the break, Kyrie Irving below the break, and Daniel Gafford below the break. So bad floor balance and then jogging on the side, quick run up the floor, easy layup a really bad transition defense, and Indiana definitely put their footspeed on display in that game. This was a really nice offensive rebound for Miles Turner, just poking it out on Luca that causes the offensive rebound, and then Tyre Saliburton finds himself wide open in the middle of the lane hits the shot that ends up being your dagger. Miles Turner had a really nice game in this one. I wanted to just kind of show an example of some Miles Turner at thirty did a bunch of damage in the post when Dallas went to centerless looks, and then he also did some damage in pick and pop situations. I just wanted to kind of show you an example of beating ice coverage without having to set a screen. So again, so this is setting up to be a ball screen, right, So clear sideballscreen. Haliburton's gonna come off of Miles Turner. Right, But watch if you look at the most NBA teams are going to ice side ball screens, ICE meaning try to reject the use, force the ball handler to reject the screen and force them towards the sideline. So Clay is going to jump way onto the high side. Here he jumps onto the high side to force Tyrese Haliburton to go. Gafferd's there to kind of corral You're trying to force Tyres into some sort of like tougher kind of like contested mid range shot in this area around the short corner. But notice Turner doesn't even bother setting a screen. There's no reason for him to set the screen because it's an ICE. If he sets the screen, Aliburn's just gonna have to reject it anyway. So instead Turner stops and pops because he knows Gafford is the other half of the ice coverage. The ice coverage is to corral Halliburton in this area of the floor. But in order to crawl Haliburton, they have to use the big and a drop. The best counter for a drop is a pop. We're popping to Turner here. Tyrese does a nice job dragging it further down. The further you drag it down, the longer the rotation gets a straight up, wide open look for Miles Turner. I also like it when teams use the pick and pop just to get the defense in rotation. Here's an example of that from the Knicks game. So normally this would be Karl Anthony Towns, but they're actually guarding Josh Hart with the center, which is something that we saw Boston do on Opening Night, and like I said, it's copycat league, you're gonna see lots of teams continue to do that. They do that because Carl Towns is the more dangerous above the break shooter, and so you put a wing on him so that they go Brunts and Towns ball screens they can just switch them. But if you run a if you put your center on Josh Hart, he essentially becomes the guy that has to pick an popped and he's not as good of a shooter.

Right.

Right.

But what I like about this is that you do it anyway as an opportunity to just get the defense in rotation, so as you can see, it's going to look just like a typical ball screen. Right, Brunson tries to turn the corner. Shangun is dropping. Josh Hart pops right, Josh Hart pops. Here's our closeout opportunity. Right, just shows the ball that forces the close out beats him off the dribble. Now, boom right here got a four five on three. Right, they're five on four. Right in the five on four, Brunson relocates over to the wing. Swing out that forces Jalen Greene to rotate wide open shot for Michale Bridges in the right corner, knocks it down. Beautiful basketball. Again, just trusting to get the defense in rotation off of the pick and pop by getting a close out. Watch it full speed one more time. Close out beats it swing swing wide open three. Here's a really nice example of the Rockets playing defense to get in transition once again. Notice they trust Amn Thompson here, so no one's overhelping. They're not allowing for easy kickout opportunities. They trust. Thompson does a nice job beating Brunts into the spot, forcing him into a tough fadeaway jump shot gets a great contest. Now watch Houston's speed in transition. Everyone's home off the ball. There was no kickout opportunity. That also makes it easier for you to rebound right, get the offensive defensive rebound. A couple of knicks are slow, we got an opportunity to run the floor. Here Jalen Green pushes out with pace. Notice how Jalen Green beats both of these two with just straight line speed. Now you're dead to rights. Now I've got a two on one. The two on one, Carl Towns has to step up to stop Jalen Green. It's that Tarry Easton ends up getting the reverse layup. Nice defense to transition sequence there from the rockets. This was unbelievable. Watch this, uh watch this short roll slip from a men Thompson. This was one of my favorite players from last night. So once again we're trying to attack Brunson. Right, Brunson's going to hedge like small guards do in this situation. When he goes to throw his hedge, though, here comes the hedge boom. As he throws the hedge, Thompson slips. Thompson on the slip, watch him on the catch, throw a pass faked Van Fleet in the corner. Watch McHale bridges completely bite on the pass fake. Then he just goes right into his hop step dunk. Unbelievable play on the short role from a men Thompson. And again, remember coming out of coming out of coming into the NBA draft. The number one kind of like offensive skill that everyone was excited about with them men Thompson was his playmaking ability in his feel for the game. All right, this was the Jalen ground dagger three. Just a ridiculous shot kind of he hit the one against Dallas over on this side of the floor, but he gets a double team on another screening action to try to attack Brunson, and it doesn't matter about the double team. He just rises over the top and hits the shot. Really nice piece of shot making from Jalen Green. Who's done that two games now? All right, let's move on to King's heat. In this one, we've got Demarta Rosen creating his own shot against Bam and a Bio in a switch again hedge and recover with Harrow. How much of a luxury is it that he can end up in a switch against some of the best defensive players in the league. And still create his own bucket. I thought this was a beautiful postfeed against We got to switch here, right, So Rosier is guarding de Rosen, Bam is on Sabonis. DeRozan rejects the screen and forces the switch. So now Bam is on Derozen. Now Rosier is on Sabonis. So Sabonis runs down to the block. Rosier does what the Miami Heat always do with post mismatches. They always front the post. Keegan Murray here is in the corner though, which makes it really tough for Jimmy to bracket it. Miami typically wants to bracket their post front, meaning they want to post, but they want somebody in this area. So if you throw the over the top pass, that can get in there and disrupt it. In this case, Demarta Rosen perfect over the top feed to Saboni's easy bucket. This is all the interesting sequence where the Heat, on back to back possessions spammed their double drag action but tweaked it on the second time and made it harder on themselves. So here's the double drag run with two occupied corners. Okay, the two occupied corners create a much larger gap for Tyler Harrow to operate with over here to try to turn the corner, which obviously allows Malik Monk to help. But then you have a kickout pass over here in the left corner. So watch on this play. As Harrow comes this way, there's so much space over here that he's able to drag Sabonis's hedge and turn the corner. When he drags the Bonus's hedge and turns the corner, that allows Bam at a bio to get behind Sabonis. When Bam gets behind Sabonis, and remember that's the action of the double drag, Jimmy's gonna pop, BAM's gonna roll, right, So Jimmy pops, Bam rolls, but Bam gets behind the entirety of the three man defense of the action that forces Malik Monk to step up and tag. Then Tyler t he earns the corner, makes a beautiful kickout pass to Rogier, who hits the three. But here's the weird part. They go down the other end. This is the next possession for the Kings. DeRozan ends up catching Tyler Harrow's hand in the cookie jar. Notice right there, as soon as DeRozan feels that contact, right there, he knows he's shooting. DeRozan knows right there as a read, got my hand in the let. This is that high hesitation, right left hand. High hesitation is a bridge move. He can go to anything from there. He can shoot from there, he can drive left. From there, he can cross over, go between the legs behind the back. From there, he can do everything he can do a step back from there, and in an out dribble, he can do everything from the high hesitation. That's his decision making dribble. Every really good ball handler makes their decisions out of high hesitation because it bridges to whatever they need to do from there. Right sitting in his high hesitation, Tyler Harrow's left arm is in on Demarta Rosen's right hand. So now Demarta Rosen knows right away I'm gathering into the three catches. His hand in there, hits it. Now it's a four point play. Now it's one eight, one oh seven. So again, now Miami just ran an action and scored out of a double drag. Right, so let's do the exact same thing, right, don't fix what isn't broke. For whatever reason, they decide to load up the side that they're driving to and keep this left corner wide open. So now as Tyler Harrow comes off of this off the double drag, look at how much more congestion there is in this area. Now, Like there's just no area for Tyler Harrow to turn the corner. So Bonus also doesn't hedge quite as hard. But even then, Tyler's probably gonna look to drive this more if it's not so congested in here, and instead he ends up having to snake the ball screen and take a really tough fifteen foot fade away. The only now here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking the idea is part of it is like, okay, maybe we're gonna set a pin in flare, right, so like uh, Pella Larson shout out there as a wildcat, sets a nice little pinin flair to try to generate Rogier a decent look. But I still think they get a contest there. The only real defense for this, I think is if you're trying to clear the side. If Harro wants to kick back for a Butler iso, so like then it's like, okay, if it doesn't work here, you work it back over to this side, and Butler has a cleared side My thing is like it just worked with occupied corners, so why not run it again and see if you can't get the exact same look, You know what I mean? That was just a little bit confusing. But again I'm being kind of nitpicky there.