Hoops Tonight - LeBron James & Lakers IMPLODE vs. Wemby & Spurs + Pistons-Knicks

Published Jan 14, 2025, 8:13 PM

Jason Timpf reacts to LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers imploding during their 126-102 loss the Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. Jason discusses LA once again letting go of the rope and turning a competitive game into a blowout loss. What's next for JJ Redick to do to turn LA into a championship-caliber team? Later, Jason reacts to Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons' 124-119 win over Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks and discusses Detroit quietly turning themselves into a team to be reckoned with.

Timeline:

4:15 - Introduction

5:15 - Lakers implode vs. Spurs

20:15 - Pistons-Knicks

(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.)

#Volume

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Instantly download the Draft Kings Sportsbook app and use code hoops. That's code hoops, that's hoops. For new customers, to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five bucks DraftKings the crown is yours. Gamble problem called one eight hundred gambler in New York called eight seven seven eight hope en y or text hope and why to four six seven three six nine. Connecticut. Help was available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG dot co slash audio. All right, well, good hoops tonight here at the volume, Happy Tuesday, everybody help all of you guys are having a great week. Just a quick show for you guys today. We're doing two instant reactions from last night's games. Stop me if you've heard this one before. The Los Angeles Lakers controlled a game for two and a half quarters, had a ten point second half lead, and completely fell apart, lost by twenty four to the San Antonio Spurs, a Spurs team that has been reeling, that had lost six out of nine games coming in. We're going to talk about that one. And then in the second half of the show, the Detroit Pistons, who've been playing great basketball as of late, continue that, winning their ninth time in eleven games, this time on the road against the New York Knicks, and a very interesting chess match type of game that we'll be breaking down from the perspective of both teams. Just a quick show today. Tomorrow I plan on doing some more like trade deadline centric stuff as well as some instant reaction content. You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoop Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore json lts. You guys, don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about our podcast. Febver reach your podcast under Hoops Tonight. Keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so that we can hit them in our Friday shows throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So again, Lakers really control things for the first two and a half quarters, and a run started, and as has typically been the case for the Lakers this year, when the run started, they legitimate They let go of the rope and got Ryan out of the damn gym, and it started with defense for the Spurs. They started forcing turnovers and getting out in transition again. They were up by ten and Trey Jones stonewalls Austin Reeves on a drive, forces a turnover. The Spurs run out and they score. Wemby jumps a lazy swing pass out by half court from Gave Vincent to Anthony Davis, he runs out, gets a dunk, Keldon Johnson strips Lebron James. There's a bunch of turnovers that were leading to run out opportunities for the Spurs, and then also out They just kind of invigorated them and they just started outworking the Lakers. They started beating them to every single loose ball. The Lakers were having a ton of issues on the offensive glass with the back end of their switching scheme. Essentially, like as they would switch, there'd be all of a sudden, a big on a little underneath the basket, and they just get an offensive rebound, they get an offensive rebound that leads to a Keldon Johnson wing three that ties the game going into the fourth quarter. And then in the fourth quarter it was entirely about the Spurs torching the Lakers switching scheme. So Devin Vassell ending up with Anthony Davis on him a bunch. He had that crazy dunk in the end of the third quarter stretch where he just drove right past Anthony Davis and dunked on his head. Harrison Barnes picking on the smaller Laker perimeter players, guys like Austin Reeves, guys like Max Christy who's decent against guards but can struggle against bigger body guys that can kind of bully him to space. And again, a huge part of beating any switching scheme you can imagine, we always think about, like, you know, a guard in a pick and roll, getting a big on a switch and then him isoating that guy. Right, that's a lot we've seen a lot of that. We're gonna talking about that later in today's show, with like the stuff that Jalen Brunson was trying to do to Jalen Duran and Isaiah Stewart, right, like in this case Devian Vessel against a guy like Anthony Davis. But there's a flip side to that, which is you're getting guys that are inside position against smaller guards. Charles Bassi had three offensive rebounds in this game. Every single one of them was on the second half of a switch on that when he was being guarded by a smaller player because of a switch. And the Spurs just methodically walked the Lakers out of their own gym in that fourth quarter. They forced more turnovers. Lebron was just so incredibly sloppy in this one. They think he had seven or eight turnovers. They were getting stops, they were getting great shots every single time down the floor. Chris Paul hit a couple of big ones. Just a really really bad loss for a Lakers team against the Spurs team, and that again had lost six times in their last nine games coming into the game. The Spurs had an offensive rating of just one oh eight point three in their six losses. They posted a one forty eight offensive rating in that fourth quarter. And so these are the things that stood out to me on the Lakers front. First and foremost, this is a message to JJ Reddick. You have to give up on this damn switch everything scheme that you're using in the regular season. For the record, I get why you're using it. You theoretically have a roster with Lebron James and Anthony Davis and Dorian Finney Smith and Ruwiy Hatch Merger Vanderbilt when he comes back, Max Chrissy cam Reddish. You've got all these big athletes that theoretically should be able to guard different types of position groups. So why don't we try switching? And I do like switching as a defensive scheme in principle because it shuts down screening actions. Right, Like if they run a pick and roll, or they run some sort of wide off ball screen for a shooter and you can just switch it, the guy with the ball or the guy who's looking to shoot coming off the screen is not going to be able to come off free and clearer with the defender trailing him. He's gonna have someone waiting for him there, right, That's what shuts down the screening actions. That's what eventually baits teams into playing ISO and post up ball. Right. Stop moving the ball around, stop trusting your teammates. Just go try to play one on one against us. That's why I like switching. I believe in switching as a scheme. There are teams in this league who do it really well. But the truth of the matter is you don't actually have the right dudes to run this scheme. Why. Because you need high motor athletes that fly around in order for switching to work. Why you need them to fight hard to not concede bad switches. Don't just switch for the sake of switching. Switch when you have to, especially when it involves an inferior defensive player in a precarious situation and who would be switching onto two. You need them to fly around and help and recover situations when you're switching. It doesn't mean everyone goes and sits down and you just play one on one. You load up, you gap, you get into the nail, help, you get into driving lanes, you help on the backside. You clog things up, and you rotate out of it so that those ISOs aren't just ISOs, but they're bad ISOs. That's what you're supposed to do. And then last you need all of them to crash the glass hard. Inherently with switching, you give up size mismatches on the offensive glass. You have to compensate for that with a five man rebounding effort. So in order for a switching scheme to work, you have to have a certain type of athlete all over the floor, a hard working, natural motor athlete that is willing to fight through some screens when it avoids a bad switch, that is willing to fly around and help and recover situations, that is willing to get there, get to get dirty fighting for rebounds. And Lebron and Anthony Davis are just not those guys anymore. They're not interested in working that hard. Lebron more so than Ad. But Lebron last night was just like straight up unwilling to help at the rim. He was unwilling to fight for contested rebounds. I can't tell you how many times he's just ground band standing around, has his arms out, kind of looking up as a younger athlete just comes flying in and grabs the rebound over the top of everybody not being willing to. There was a simple ball screen with a drop off er dunk to Charles Bassi and fourth quarter where Lebron was just like, I'm not gonna make the low man rotation just didn't feel like it. It was a really bad Lebron game. He was generally unfocused, slop you with the basketball, not rebounding, not defending. It just it just won't a good Lebron game. But it's actually an issue in the big picture with Lebron AD in the regular season and something I've been talking about consistently. These guys are not going to come into the gym every night and be like, I'm here to work. They're coasting most of the time, specifically Lebron. So like when it comes to the switching scheme, like it might be a useful look for you in the postseason, I'm not saying abandon it entirely. When Lebron and AD are playing with more desperation and you have DFS and Ruie and vandel on the floor or in the rotation with them, I think it can work a little bit more. But in the regular season you are signing yourself up for failure by doing this, because you're just going to concede bad switches. Stand around, watch a guy work one on one, probably score, get an end one, and if he doesn't, it's gonna be an offensive rebound. You give up a one forty eight offensive rating. In that fourth quarter to a team that couldn't score for the last three weeks. It just was frustrating to watch because, like weirdly enough, when things turned around, they didn't switch as much. They did a ton to start the year. They started running more drop coverage with they're not drop coverage but more ball screen covered traditional ball screen coverage with ad where he's up at the level and you have a guy chasing over the top there. They were running more of that, and then they just decided to stop. There's been there's been quite a bit of it in the Dallas game and in this game, and it's killing the Lakers defense. These guys are too damn lazy to run that scheme. So even though what you're thinking as a basketball mind, JJ, which is correct, these guys should be able to do this, and this scheme actually has proven to work when it's run right, you are correct, JJ. These guys can't do it. These guys can't do it. The other thing that stood out to me all I, Max Christy and camrat Is the two guard rotation for the Lakers, gave Vincent as well sloppy turnovers. Max and Cam were five for thirteen from the field, some really really really really ugly I think it was actually five or eighteen from the go is bad, some really ugly misses on threes. That's a position group that is just not good enough to win an NBA championship. As I've told you guys, with Max Christy, it's not about the ceiling, it's about the floor. We all know what Max is capable of, but young players struggle to replicate it, and he wasn't good. And that's just a position group that if this team has any intention of getting to where they want to go, that has to be improved. And then lastly, like this thing where they just quit every time things get tough. I took a little screenshot of the Synergy game chart, which just tracks the differential in points, and if you look at it, the Lakers were in control and control and control, and then it's just a straight line up to twenty four points the victory, twenty four points, spurs lead at the end of the game, straight line, no fight. Most games kind of go like this as teams fight, like, oh, team went on a run, well we're going to go on a run. Well you went on a run, Well we're going to go on a run. The Lakers. No, they have no interest in fighting. They have no interest in being like, hey, things are getting tough, let's lock in, let's get this done. They're not those guys. And that's why I continue to think this team just isn't made of the right stuff to win a playoff series against a great team. Remember how I talked about how even after the Houston and Dallas losses, it felt like the Lakers were still kind of hanging on to the rope. You just had a bunch of time off, and you needed this win on a two game losing streak. That's what a team that doesn't feel like hanging onto the rope looks like. Really really disappointing loss for the Lakers. Let's move on to Pistons Knicks more serious basketball. A couple of methodical matchup attacking teams. The Pistons, they're attacking matchups specifically with Cat and Brunson, right like Steady died of attacking Cat and pick and roll, attacking Brunson and guarde screens, that was how they ended the game. On the Knicks front, it's attacking the bigs and ball screen, either in switch switch ISOs or pick and pop. So like bruntson attacking Isaiah Stewart, are attacking Jalen duran or like cat pick and popping, especially against Jalen Durna because he struggles with that coverage. Some attacking Malie Beasley and Tomatowa Junior and guard screens. They did that late. That's how they got the big three for McHale Bridges. But the Pistons just did a better job of it in this game. The Knicks made their runs and Brunson kept things close late with some big layups at the rim, but the Pistons felt in control of that game for the most part. The problem is Kate and he presents some significant problems to teams around the league. The Pistons ran a steady diet of three man action most of the game, a lot of wedge pick and roll in the first quarter. Wedge pick and roll is kind of like a ram screen pick and roll. Basically, all it is is you have your big start at the elbow or the man you're gonna have set, the ball screen set at the sitting at the elbow, ball handler on the wing, and you have a guard who's off ball comes screen for the screener so that he can run up into the ball screen with separation between him and his defender before he comes off the ball screen. That's wedge pick and roll. They ran a lot of that in the first quarter. Stack pick and roll. We've talked about it before. All it is a ball screen with someone backscreening for the role man as he's going to the basket. They ran a lot of that in the second half. And then double drag they also ran a lot of that in the second Half's where you just have two guys set two staggered ball screens for your ball handler. One guy rolls, one guy pops. Like lots of three man action from the Pistons in this game, Kate just puts you in a tough spot. In those three man actions. If you have Mikhale bridges chase Kate over the top, and you have Cat sit back into drop coverage, you're a solid screen, like a really good screen from Kad just walking into a pull up jumper, and he hit several of those in this game. Isaiah Stewart in particular was setting really good on ball screens for Kate. If Mikhale does a good job and fights over the screen and he stays attached, now he's in trail position, and when he's in trail position, that's when Caid can methodically work his way downhill into the short range with that like kind of reverse post up that I always talk about with Luka Doncics, where you get the defender in jail on your backside and you kind of methodically work yourself inside. Did some damage that way, was pivoting out of it into in to turn around jump turn around jump shots, things along those lines, right, But the main reason that the Pistons run three man action is to force unfavorable switches or hedges. Unfavorable switches are the types of smaller defenders that guys like Kate cunning him and Tobias Harris will kill if they get him in any sort of space to work one on one right, and those those guys have been feasting on that all season. The hedges they bring two to the ball. When you bring two to the ball in a hedge, that's where you get the four on threes. Those are what end up leading to those open, open three point shots for guys like Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Junior, which they've been feasting on all season. So essentially those three man actions this is why the Pistons have been the sixth best offense in the league over this eleven game span. They run this action and Kate has an answer for all of it. Die on the screen and a drop kid's shooting a pull up three. Stay attached. Cade's methodically working you into the short range. Right, start switching. We're attacking matchups, start hedging. We're gonna play on the four on three out of it. And they've just been torching teams like that, and then they can go even simpler than that in late game situations just by attacking guards and guard screens. This is how they won the game. Right, Tim Hardaway Junior had Jalen Brunston on him. They run the first one, it's a hedge and recover again. This is what you're always gonna do with the defender like Brunson. You don't want Brunson to end up on cad on a switch, so you have him hedge, meaning you have him run out and stop the drive at least forcing Kaid to take a retreat dribble further away from the basket, and then you sprint back to the shooter who's slipping out of the action. In this case, Tim Hardaway Junior. First time they run it, Jalen Brunson's hedges Jalen Brunson Hedges sprints back to Tim Hardaway Junior. But for whatever reason, the Knick's hard help with Josh Hart off the weak side corner. He comes flying up to Tim Hardaway Jr. Simple extra pass to Malik Beasley, knocks down to three again four on three generated by bringing two to the ball, which is the hedge that Brunson brings. Quick passes out of it, wide open three for Malik Beasley. And then the second time they just go full blitz brunts and attacks Cad Bridges follows him. They both attack Caid. It ends up being the same exact sequence. Swing over to Tim Hardaway Junior. Josh Hart rotates extra pass to Malik Beasley in the corner. That's your ballgame, right, But again that's an even simpler action that they can go to in those situations and get great stuff because of Kaide's ability to attack mismatches to pass out of everything. Again sixth best offense in the league over this eleven game span. And then the Pissons just had several guys give them bonus offense. Marcus Sasser. He only had seven points in four assists, but all of them were big and self created. He was just giving straight work to Jalen Brunson one on one. He did the same thing to Campaign on a possession in the fourth quarter where he dropped it off for a dunk. He was awesome. Ron Holland had a big lefty right left to right crossover against og Andnobi where he broke him off and got a big floater there in the fourth quarter. Malik Beasley in the I think it was in the second quarter or late first quarter, I can't remember exactly what it was, but he went on a crazy shooting run in the first half where he really did a bunch of damage on some self created stuff too, like flying off of screens or they had a like a thirty five foot or at the top of the key for his four to three in this game. But like a lot of guys just pitching in with extra offense and that's why they've been so good offensively. And then just lots of defensive contributions. Specifically, I thought the Biggs did a good job on switches against Brunson most of the night. Brunson got Stewart a couple times late with layups, but for the most part he did a good job. Jalen durn did a good job on Brunson on switches, really good on ball reps all over the flora. Sar Thompson and Marcus Sasser both did a good job on Brunson. They did some offense defense subs late where they'd bring in Usar Thompson or they'd bring in one of Beasley, Tim Hardaway Junior and kind of go back and forth. I thought Isaiah Stewart did a great job on Karl Anthony Towns, kind of like flattening out some of his drives, staying attached to him on his pop situations. He just did a much better job than Jalen Duran, which is, by the way, why Stewart played twenty eight minutes and Jalen durn only played twenty minutes. And Jalen Durns is like a really good drop coverage, paint protecting type of big, but he can struggle tracking shooters and defending in those sorts of situations. He lost Carl Anthony Towns on pops. Earlier in the game, had a possession where he was terrified of the pops or he just didn't help on the drive at all whatsoever, which gave up a layup like that. It just is not a great matchup for him when it comes to shooting bigs. But for the most part, of a bunch of good defensive contributions for a Pistons team that is playing really good basketball right now. On the Knicks front, offense wasn't the issue. They actually shot better than the Pistons on jump shots in that game. They got fifty one attempts for one point two zero points per jump shot. The Pistons took forty nine jump shots and got one point one zero, So the Knicks shot better. They actually had a one to nineteen offensive rating in this game. The problem was is they had a one twenty four defensive right and they couldn't get any stops. And it's the same I don't need to go any further into it, because it's the same stuff they've been struggling with all season. Karl Anthony Towns being really bad in ball screens. One possession, he's too far back, Kate's hitting a pull up three. The next possession, he's too far up. Kate just crosses right past him, gets into the lane. For an easy shot at the rim against Duce McBride and help right like Kat's really bad all over the place, and pick and roll Brunson like so many bad hedges in this game, where sometimes he's hedging but he's not really hedging, meaning like he's there, but he's not really disrupting the ball. All he's doing is putting two on the ball without actually pressuring anybody, or like some of his hedges, he didn't even contain the ball. He had a hedge where he just basically screened McHale bridges and Ky just went right downhill and got it and created another wide open shot. I think that was the one that led to the USAR Thompson corner three that he claimed. But like that, and then again, the most important part of the hedge is you got to recover. There was a there's a really good campaign hedge and recover rep in the second quarter or yeah, no it his fourth court. It was in the second half campaign had a really good hedge and recover rep where he jumps out on Kid, pressures the hell out of the ball, forces Kaid to pick up his dribble and then sprints back to I think it was uh I think it was someone Fontechio that was slipping out of it, and in the process k threw a bad pass because he saw Campaign in the passing lane and it went out of bounce. Again, there's you have to stop the drive, pressure the ball enough to at least like make them take a retreat dribble or to pick up their dribble, and then you need to sprint like hell to get back to the shooter. That's the bear minimum of what they're asking you to do, Jalen Brunson, because again the idea there is we're not letting you play defense on that guy if we can afford it. We're not gonna put you on an island there. We just need you to hedge and recover. And Brunson's hedges and recovers have been really inconsistent all year. And then the same stuff that's been messing with the Knicks all year with their good defenders, where it's like one of the first buckets of the game ognnob and Michale Bridge is a simple action between Tobias Harrison k Cunningham that should be a switch Nope, two on the ball, Tobias slips and gets another drop off for an easy bucket or I think you've missed, and then an offensive rebound put back by one of the bigs. What are you doing your Ognoban mcal Bridges. You should be able to switch any action that involves the two of you, like there's just so much sloppiness. And then these two big entry points in two guys in Kat and Jalen Brunson that just haven't been good enough this year on the details in order to anchor a good defense. And again, things aren't going to turn around for the Knicks until those guys embrace that responsibility and everything that comes with it at a championship level. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. Is always as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. Again. We'll be back tomorrow. We'll do some game reactions and I want to do some trade deadline stuff as well. I will see you guys then the volume. What's up guys? 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.