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If you guys had a great weekend, got a jam pack show for you today, We're hitting three games from the Sunday slate as the Lakers get off of their four game losing streak by beating the reeling Phoenix Suns. After that, we're going to talk about the Olkahoma City Thunder getting revenge on their n season tournament performance by going into Milwaukee and really handling the Bucks. I want to focus in on the some elements of the OKC defense that I think are separators for them from their peers around the league. And then after that, the Orlando Magic gets some revenge after they took a beatdown from Cleveland at home a little while back. They went into Cleveland and stole a game, a really interesting game on a bunch of fronts, showed some of the big picture upside for the Magic, also revealed some of the weaknesses in that Cleveland roster. We're going to talk about that game from the perspective of both teams as well. You guys are the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops to Night YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSONNLTC. You guys don't miss announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feet wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if we leave a rating and a review on that front. We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, where Jackson's been doing some incredible work putting together some film breakdowns and stuff like that. Make sure you guys follow us there, and the last but not least, keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting those mail bags throughout the remainder of the year. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Suns are not a good matchup for the Lakers in a bunch of different ways. The big fundamental thing that makes it really difficult for the Suns to guard this version of this Lakers team is they don't feel comfortable switching with their fives with their centers. That puts you in a really tough spot dealing with Luka Doncic in pick and roll. We've talked about this a while. JJ Reddick has mentioned it in the postgame presser like running drop coverage against Luka Doncic is death, And I look at that as, like, you know, drop coverage can mean a lot of different things, but basically all that means is anytime you're chasing Luca over the top of the screen and the big man is waiting on the other side, either up at the level and what they call a high drop or further back and what they call a deep drop. That sort of coverage makes for these really easy reads for Luca that he's been immediately great at in a Lakers jersey. What's been interesting is like they've struggled a little bit against switching for a lot of different reasons. Luca wasn't in shape for a lot of those tough switching teams that they faced earlier in that stretch, and as a team, they haven't shot the three ball well in large part because they're playing super super hard on the defensive end of the floor and adjusting to the new types of three point looks that they're getting as part of the Luka Doncic offense, and so their offense, even in the wins, has sputtered at times against teams that can switch with their five man. But again with this Phoenix Suns team with Nick Richards, with Mason Plumley, they're just not doing a lot of switching with their five men, and so that just allows Luca to play read and react basketball with baked ribble penetration. And we've got over this a million times, but it's a simple set of reeds. If the lowman and the screen defender stay back, Luca gets to just work his way into the lane until he can take a little floater off the glass. If the big steps up, it creates a simple read behind it with the lowman. If the lowman steps over and tags the roller, he's skipping it to the weak side. If he doesn't tag the roller that he can hit the hit Jackson Hayes runnerneath the basket. That was the big thing that Phoenix kept messing up in this game. They were running a good mix of high and low drop and a lot of high drop early in the game, and they weren't tagging Jackson Hayes. And part of this is, like I've been talking a lot about how the Suns lately look to me like a team that is basically quit trying to be the best basketball team they can be, in large part because they know that their best isn't good enough to beat the best teams in the league. And so there were a lot of weak side possessions with Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, and KD all three of them where they just didn't bother to tag Jackson Hayes or some really sloppy tags. I saw both Devin Booker and Bradley Beal have tags where they just kind of like ran up to Jackson. So what you're supposed to do on a tag if they come up to the level of the screen and Jackson Hayes is rolling hard to the rim, your jobs, the lowman is to literally get between the rollman and the rim and hit him so that he can't throw the lob up to the basket he has to, and usually some teams will counter that by posting there or by skipping the ball to the weak side. Right, You've got to literally put your body on the line as a small against a rolling big. It's a hard job, and the Sons just weren't really interested in doing it last night, and so you'd see them kind of like run over to Jackson and like put their hands on him, but they're not really doing anything to make him feel uncomfortable, and he's just catching and finishing. Here's an easy little stat to demonstrate that for you. He had nineteen points. Jackson Ay's nineteen points in this game, seventeen of which were on cuts and rolls. He has had nineteen points twice so far with Luca. He had nineteen points one time total in the entirety of the rest of his Lakers ten years, and that goes to show you the benefit of Jackson Hayes in this system. I have been talking a lot about this concept lately, but the idea of like, your value as a basketball player is kind of unique to the system that you're in, Right Like, there are guys that are deeply valuable in a certain system that would be less valuable in another system. Whether it's like Aaron Gordon in Orlando as like a swing forward star type of player, looks really underqualified for that job, but you put him in Denver where he can operate on the back line because their center kind of inverts their spacing, all of a sudden, he becomes immensely valuable in that type of role. Right Like, everybody's value is unique to their individual system, and Jackson Hayes, specifically, when Luka Doncic is on the Lakers, is immensely valuable because Luca is one of the best passers in the league at making teams pay by hitting a vertical spacer. And I mean, there were a lot of issues that have gone wrong for the Lakers in the four game losing streak, most of which have come down to injuries. I mean, you're down, You're you're starting front court. Literally, if you're down Lebron, Ruy and Jackson, it's such a difficult thing to overcome. But it's funny to say Jackson Hayes is so valuable because it felt so different in previous iterations of the Lakers, But on this version of the Lakers, Jackson Hayes is incredibly valuable to this offense because he is the guy that allows them to function in four out one in spacing. I've talked a lot about this concept. When you're running a lot of motion, ball flowing side to side, everyone's involved in the action. It's like a five out spacing concept, right. You got ball handlers on the wings, guys in the corner, and then a big man at the top of the keys. Functioning is like this passing folkrum, screening folkrum out at the top of the key. This Lakers team is very much going back to the old version of their offense, way back when they were the Western Conference Finals team in twenty twenty three, where it's like we're spreading the floor, running pick and roll like it's a lot of that sort of thing, and in those situations you don't want five out spacing because in five out spacing, when the gaps on the perimeter shrink to get pretty small and it gets harder to drive as defenders are able to gap into driving lanes and stuff like that. And so the way you prefer to set up your spacing when you're more of a matchup attacking, spread pig roll type of team is four out one in spacing, and once your shooters in the corner, you got a shooter on the wing, and you're basically occupying either the dunker spot with a dunker or a screen and roll threat where the roller is occupying that spot when he rolls to the basket. And so guys like Jemison, guys like Jared vander Built, even Christian Kaloko he botched two lobs last night in the first half, where it's just the easy dunks that he's struggling to make because he's got a little bit of an issue catching and finishing. Sometimes you can see just how incredibly valuable Jackson Hayes is to the Lakers as a vertical spacer. In this version of the team. They did a lot of damage on that Sun's back line in this game, and after in the early third quarter they generated yet another easy lob dunk for Jackson Hayes kind of like a behind the back lob a ridiculous pass from Luca, and from that point forward, the Sun's basically just decided to blitz him and double team him all over the floor, and so the Lakers were able to play with an advantage and they were able to stiff arm the Suns. The rest of the way, the Suns fought back. They've they've been resilient. This has been a consistent theme for the Suns in the last month, is like they'll get off to an ugly start and then rather than get humiliated, they'll like suddenly start competing really hard towards the end of the game. And it's the U. Lakers fans are familiar with this concept from last year. It's the fake comeback concept, right because that Laker team used to have a very similar personality last year. But KD had seventeen points in the second half and they kind of battled a little bit, but they never got any closer than eight the rest of the way. A couple of Laker concepts and I want to hit before we move on. Luca's rapidly improving as a shot maker. This is a concept that talked a lot about after his first few weeks with the Lakers, he just wasn't shooting as well as he typically is capable of. And you know, he obviously had that really bad night in Brooklyn, but even including that game, in his last eight games, he's averaging thirty two points per game on just twenty two shot attempts, shooting forty one percent from three on eleven attempts per game, and he's getting to the foul line ten times, where he's shooting eighty percent from at the free throw line. So he's really starting to come around as an offensive player, which is helping this team start to have a little bit more resilience on that end of the floor. He's also averaging over two steals per game in that span. He's sliding his feet, really active on the perimeter, active in help side, functioning as a cog in that defensive system. Austin Reeves is starting to look like himself again. He commented after the Nets game that he needed to be better with Lebron out in order to help his team. He's averaging thirty one, seven and seven on fifty two percent from the field, forty four from three to ninety four percent from the line in his last three games, which is just outrageous. JJ Reddick talked after the game about Jordan Goodwin and the tone that he set early. He was spot on about that. One of the very first I think it was literally the first possession of the game. KD was guarding him, he was ball watching, and I think Luca ended up missing a jump shot short and he just shot like a cannon into the lane, got the offensive rebound and put it back in. He was excellent with his ball pressure and with his back pressure. He had a couple offensive rebounds. He had a couple of block shit. Really really impressive game from Jordan go and ended up getting a start in this game. Nice win for the Lakers. They got some help over the weekend too. In the standings. Memphis got crushed at home by the Calves. Denver toasted off a game to the Wizards on a crazy game winner from Jordan Poole. He shot like a forty footer in Russell Westbrook's face that ends up leaving the Lakers tied in the loss column for the two seed, despite dropping four consecutive games earlier with an injury ravaged roster. I think that's a win no matter how you look at it, to drop four in a row like that and to still really be in position to potentially get that two seed, and the Lakers, the Nuggets, the Grizzlies, and the Rockets, it's a four way tie, are all tied with twenty five losses in that spot, and I think the Lakers have a good chance to win that race and just get the two seed, as long as they can get healthy soon enough. Allegedly Lebron's about a week out. Ruly, I would imagine we'll come back not tonight, but probably in the game on Wednesday night. It shouldn't be too long before they get healthy. And like, I mean, we're gonna talk about this a little bit, especially when we get into our mail Bag, which is releasing on Wednesday this week. But like, the Lakers might just be better than all those teams, and so they might end up coming away with the two seed just because they're better. And so they're in a good spot now. They made a good call, a smart call to rest Ruie rest Jackson, rest Lebron. Make sure those guys get the rest that they need, and we'll see. I think they have a chance to end up coming out with the two seed. Anyway, we'll see how they can close the season. The big thing, the big swing factor there for me is Denver, and I just can't get a read on the Nuggets. They look so bad sometimes they're so so so bad on defense, but there's this big part of me that just can't believe that they're actually that bad and that they're just kind of going through the motions a lot. Now. NBA history tells us those teams always lose, but it's hard to say at this point they're They're the team that that's in that group of four with the Lakers that I can't really get a read on where they kind of land among the top teams in the league. All right, let's talk some thunder Bucks. We've talked a lot this year about the strength of Oklahoma City being their defense, and we've got all, like, over all the reasons why. They have a ton of good perimeter defenders that they can keep cycling into the game to wear out ball handlers. They can apply excellent ball pressure for forty eight minutes. They have these aggressive game plans that suit their team speed really really well. It's the right type of game plan to go with with the type of roster that they have. They're super sharp in rotation on the back end to make these like perceived openings disappear in a flash. Their rim protection is legit with chet homeground on the floor. But I want to zero in specifically on the concept of defending superstars for a minute, because like superstars are scheme breakers, they're personnel breakers. Like oh you Anthony Davis. He's, in my opinion, the best defensive player in the league when he's healthy and in shape. Well it turns out he can't guard Nikola Jokic. So the Lakers' greatest defensive weapon was basically neutralized, and it led to a few years of dominance. In that matchup. If you guys, remember, oh you have Jaden McDaniels, he's one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. Well, it turns out he can't guard Luka Doncic. So in that matchup in the Western Conference finals last year, the strength of Minnesota's perimeter defense was neutralized and the MAVs ended up thrashing the Wolves. This is a thing that can happen that a superstar can break a scheme. A superstar can break even personnel strings. One of the non negotiable barriers that stands between any great team and a championship is the ability to go head to head with the best players in the world and come out on top. For the thunder in the West, you've got Nikola Jokic, You've got Luka Doncic, Lebron James before his injury was playing at near that level, not quite that level, but near that level. Steph Curry is coming on strong. Anthony Edwards is a type of threat that you have to face in the Western Conference. In One of the traits of this OKC defense. Something that makes them so dangerous is their ability to match up with the top players in the league. They've had their issues with Jokic over the years because it seems like nobody can guard that guy, but he's literally the best player in the world and Okay, so he can have success against him on the other end of the floor. Even the game they dropped to Denver the other day a week ago or so, it was a weird game. They played really well in the first half, had a lead, drop seventy three points. J Dubb gets hurt. They double team Shay every time he crosses half court. It allows them to gimmick their way into a win. But like that's a matchup that they've done pretty well against. They have one of the best players in the league to match up against Luca Lebron Kawhi, Jason Tatum, those big, strong matchup attacking forwards. Lou Dort is literally one of the very best options in the NBA for that type of matchup. He's uniquely strong enough to keep his base. Most of the success that those players have comes down to bullying and dislodging defenders from their base so they can get separation and get great shots. Lou Dort in many cases the guy dislodging them from their base and forcing them to play off balance and causing them to miss a lot of shots that they normally make. It's a huge asset to have, specifically in the Western Conference with the types of teams that you have to face coming out of there, and for a potential Boston matchup with Jason Tatum, and then in this game against Milwaukee, they demonstrated that they have athletes for two of the other types of world beating stars. They held Dame and Yannis to just forty points and held both of them to below fifty percent from the field. They held Yanis to his lowest field goal percentage game of this entire season. Excellent guards to match up with all the different types of starguards in the league that you can run into in any playoff matchup or any regular season game. I thought Cason Wallace and Alex Crusoe were both fantastic in their reps against Damian Lillard last night, applying ball pressure up and down the court, staying attached in screening actions and pressuring the ball from behind, swat and getting hands on the basketball. Great contests on everything. Dame, of his nineteen points, managed just seven points on the ball. Twelve of his nineteen points came off of spot ups, meaning one of his other teammates made a play that got oksee in rotation, forced caseon or Alex to help which allowed Dame to get an open catch and shoot look or on a random, weird play like there was a random play where Caruso stripped Damian Lillard clean underneath the basket and the ball just happened to pop right back into Dame's hands and he drew a foul, And then Dame got fouled on a jump ball, and just like him and Alex wrestling for position off the ball, but like they had him strapped up in the on ball situations. If you hold Dame to seven points on the ball, you're gonna give yourself a really good chance to stop at Milwaukee offense. And like, that's not just a Dame thing. Whether it's Steph, it could be any of the great guards in this league. They are built to handle those guards really well. And then I thought Isaiah Hartenstein did about as good a job playing positional defenses against Giannest as you can. Again, when I say positional defense, to me, that's positioning yourself between a player in the rim and at least forcing them to make over the top shots. Defense against these types of players is very different than I could think like Palo Boncaro for example, or a Lebron James for example. These like big bullyball forwards that aren't super comfortable shooting jump shots. Now Lebron has become much better at that over the years, so maybe he's a bad example, but you get the point. Like these big bullyball players that you kind of want to take jump shot and floaters and hooks and stuff like that, just position yourself between that player and the rim, and you're doing your job. Anytime he got anybody else on him. In this game, it was a double team easy to get past in rotation getting great looks. Jannis was able to consistently generate great stuff against anybody that wasn't Isaiah Hartenstein. But Hartenstein has that combination of a little bit of mobility and he's big and strong as a center to where Yannis isn't looking at him, like I can go right through him. With Yannis, like he doesn't even really have to make a move to get by most people because he's so big and strong. If he just rips through, even if the defender slides his feet, there's usually just a tiny bit of an opening, and Giannis is gonna hit that with physicality and get his shoulder in there. He has that move too, where he'll gather and like chicken wing with his arm as he goes to the rim. Like he's impossible to guard when you're giving up that much size and weight, because even if you get in front of him, he's just gonna get his way around you by using his physicality. Right. But Isaiah Hartenstein, because he has that mobility and size and strength, Jannis actually has to make a good enough move to force Isaiah Hartenstein to lunge out of position in order for him to get all the way to the basket. And so that allowed Hartenstein to do a really nice job on yon Is forcing him into those over the top shots. Again. In last night's game, Hartenstein and the Thunder as a team held Giannis to below forty seven percent from the field. It was literally his least efficient field goal percentage game of the entire season. And like, and I haven't even mentioned the fact that Hartenstein had twenty four points last night. He had twenty two on cuts, he made five of his patented floaters. He had a great game. Like I've been consistent on the record that I have concerns about okc's offense in a playoff context. I do think they have a tendency to get into these extended stretches of ugly bass could ball on that into the floor. That makes them more vulnerable than their record would lead you to believe. But make no mistake, this defense is legit and not like cute twenty twenty one Utah Jazz regular season legit. They are versatile playoff Freddy able to handle the types of challenges that await them in the Western Conference playoffs type of legit on the defensive end of the floor. It's gonna keep them in every series. Like I don't think even if OKC loses, this isn't gonna be a sweep or a five game series. Their defense is so good it's gonna keep them in any series. They're gonna be very, very difficult to beat four times in a two week span. A couple other shoutouts from this game. I thought Kenrich Williams was amazing, kind of similar to what we talked about with Jordan Goodwin earlier. I thought he just helped set the defensive tone right away early, flying around in rotation, making extra efforts. He was a guy in many cases that was rotating to Brook Lopez and picking pops, which is a foundational release valve for the Bucks offense. In one of the hardest action to guard, but it just requires a good amount of speed on the weak side. He locked zero points in this game and only one steal, and I thought Kenrich was awesome in his minutes. Chet was really great on offense in this game. He continues to hit threes. He had two last night. He's made five of his last ten, and it caused some overreaction from Milwaukee's defense. Both Torrian Prince and Giannis bit on pump fakes on kickouts to Chet that led to points. He drove on Torrian and got a floater on the honest one, he ended up drawing a foul. He gave up the Thunder ended up getting an easy dunk on a play where Chet kind of relocated up to the right wing and Torrian Prince, who should have been the low man instead of protecting the rim, overplayed Chet at the three point line and gave up a dunk. That's all a product of the fear of Chet's shooting because of how well he's been shooting the ball over the last couple of games. He also did some nice work in action too. The two most common actions they'll run with him is like a two man game right around the foul line the middle of the floor with him and Hartenstein trying to bait trying to force big bodies to guard in screening actions. And then they'll run a lot of wide pin down stuff where they'll like set him in the corner and have a guard screen down for him so that the team doesn't want to switch and try to see if they can get him coming downhill with the ball catching on the move going downhill. He's really starting to blossom into an incredible player. I thought he was fantastic and last shout out, SGA is becoming one of the greatest shows in the league. I've seen a lot of people complaining about his foul grifting or like shoving people off with his off arm, and like, the grifting is a league wide problem, and yeah, Shay is better at it than most, but like, I'm never gonna judge the players for that because to me, it's a competitive advantage and Shaye's just like, imagine being Shay. You're on a team with a bunch of super young players and so much of the offensive workload falls on your plate. You got to find a way to get some easy points in there, and foul grifting is the way he's doing it. And again, everyone has access to those moves. He's just better at it than most. And eventually the league, I hope will get will legislate it out, but it is part of the game at this point, the off arm stuff, this is where I think the complaints from people are ridiculous. All throughout NBA history, we've had players that use their physical advantages to dominate, like Shack bullyballs everybody, Lebron bullyballs everybody, Yannis bullyballs everybody, Luca bullyballs every there's so jokicch is just rumbling, stumbling to the rim NonStop, like we have to be okay with it from guards too. And the thing with Shay is he's really good at getting a defender out of position to where they're leaning back, and you see it. He did it against Kuzma a couple times last night, where it's like he sees Kuzma in a retreat positional defense stance, and so he just drives really hard and gets that shoulder into him and bumps him off a little bit. And by the way, he does get called for offensive fouls occasionally when he really extends that arm, but a lot of times he doesn't extend the arm. A lot of times he just kind of gets you with his shoulder and he's so strong on his base that he'll bump you with his shoulder and get plenty of separation. And I have no problem with that at all, because that, to me is what the game of basketball is. It's physical it's a contact sport. It gets even more physical when you get into the postseason. And all throughout NBA history, we've allowed these big, strong dudes to throw people around. I have no problem with Shaye doing it too. But even if you set that stuff aside and you just watch him play, he's starting to break people off with these dribble combinations that are sending defenders into a different area code. And it's because he can chain together multiple dribble combinations, multiple pieces of footwork. I've talked about this concept before. He doesn't go into a sequence like telegraphing what he's gonna do. He starts with just a hard drive in one of the directions, whether it's that hesitation between the legs dribble going left or the hesitation between the legs drible going right. You kind of slowly do the between the legs dribble, and as soon as it hits his driving hand, the hand that's on the strong side that he's driving to, he'll just explode forward. He has a lot of that hesitation quickness. It's like a first step combined with a change of pace kind of thing. But he's just gonna go. And then if you cut off that side, he's pulling it back through the legs and he's going the other way. And if you cut him off that side, he's pulling it back through the legs and he's going the other way. It's all just like a relentless change of direction. But he's just so good at using that pullback dribble between his legs and in those situations he's generating contact a lot of times in bumping guys off that it's kind of just like, do I need to do it once twice, three or three times to get to my spot? Well, regardless of how many times you defend it right, I'm eventually going to get to my spot. And like, again, there are some of these guys that he's going up against and they're biting so hard on one of the moves that he's getting like ten, twelve, fifteen feet of separation on that pullback dribble. It's wild to me. And again, like it's not just fun to watch. There's a lot of good stuff in there for young basketball players to emulate that will help you get to the next level. That getting that shoulder contact and then quick scissor dribble between your legs is an excellent way to deal with ball pressure or to get separation when a defender is pressuring you. It just takes a lot of that contact, ball handling ability, the ability to dribble while you're dealing with contact, and again, like it's just all of it is just super tight handle, super tight footwork, and the ability to chain every single move together with hesitation dribbles just ties together. This player that is like entirely unpredictable and extremely difficult to keep in front. And I've really really enjoyed watching him over the course of this season. All right, magic has before we get out of here for the death, it's bit of a weird game. Both teams shot catastrophically different than their typical efficiency. Orlando is by far the worst jump shooting team in the league. They get seven fewer points per one hundred jump shots then the twenty ninth ranked Wizards. That gap is the same as the gap between the twenty ninth ranked Wizards and the thirteenth ranked Bulls. They are a god awful jump shooting team and last night they got one point twenty four points per jump shot. Cleveland is the number one jump shooting team in the NBA, and they got zero point seventy five points per jump shot, so it was kind of just like a weird jump shooting game. It played a roll down the stretch of the game too, like it was a shot making game down the stretch, and a couple of thirty two percent three point shooters and Anthony Black and Pala Boncaro hit three clutch threes, and Donovan Mitchell, a player who's hitting forty nine percent of unguarded catch and shoes a catch and shoots, missed back to back wide open threes above the break in the clutch Max Strus hits forty eight percent of unguarded catch and shoots. He missed an open corner three in the right corner light. So like obviously it was kind of a shot variance game. It turned into a fun little chest match down the stretch two for Palo. The last two buckets that were like and got or just inverted ball screen action with Palo and KCP on the left wing, and it's the exact same sequence of events that most teams have to deal with in inverted ball screens. They don't want to switch because they don't want to leave a smaller player defending a big bullyball player, So they opt for a hedge and recover to try to prevent the switch and prevent the drive, but it concedes a slipping three. So KCP comes up, slips out of the screen to the left corner. Palo briefly gets two on the ball, he whips it over the top. KCP hits the corner three very next possession. They're like, well, we don't want to give up that open corner three to KCP, so we might as well switch the action. Now. DeAndre Hunter is on KCP, but Donovan Mitchell's guarding Paalo, and Paalo just hard dribbles into the middle of the floor, just bumps Donovan Mitchell off with that shoulder and then rises up right there in the middle and knocks down the huge shot at the elbow that ended up giving them the lead. And so like a shot making type of game from the three point line that swung Orlando's favor, and then a nice little chess match sequence from Orlando with kcpm palow down the stretch to get the win. Now here's the thing. I'm never gonna get too worked up about a regular season result. You guys know that about me. Weird stuff can happen in basketball games, but I did think this game was revealing of some of Orlando's big picture playoff upside and some of the weaknesses in Cleveland's roster. Orlando's size was a consistent problem for Cleveland in this game. And I know people are gonna say Evan Mobley didn't play, but neither did Jalen Suggs, and I actually thought it manifested mostly with Cleveland's perimeter players. Mitchell and Garland combined for twenty seven missed shots and eight turnovers in this game, and a big part of that was them struggling to shoot over good contests or trying to pass in traffic. The two main ways this manifested from Orlando's defense was that bracket that I always talk about in pick and roll, and then some of the deal the problems they had was switching focusing on the bracket. I've talked about this concept a lot. In a drop coverage, when you've got a guard chasing over the top and a big up at the level when you are staying close to the ball handler, you bracket them appropriately when there's distance. If the guard gets caught on the screen and the biggest too far back, there's an open bracket, there's space in there to operate. That's where guys like Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland can barbecue you with just comfortable shot making in the mid range. Right, Orlando had a very tight bracket in this game, but they had a very tight bracket with size, and that's where it can become really problematic. And this is one of the strengths of Orlando's roster. Whether it's Jonathan Isaac, or it's Anthony Black, or it's Contavious Callwell. Pope is one of the smaller guys you're dealing with there, but Palo and Franz front spend some time with the ball. Wendell Carter Junior and Goga Patadz they are big dudes. They are huge on the ball, and it made those guys consistently shoot some tough, contested shots that were over tight contesting. You could tell they're putting extra arc on the turnovers we talked about earlier. It caused problems for Cleveland. This is why it's always way too simplistic to just attribute a game to shooting. Luck Again, it plays a role. There is shooting variants in a game, but usually it is connected in more than one way to the way the game is being played. For instance, Cleveland only generated nine unguarded catch shoot jump shots in this game. It's one of their lowest totals of the season, and it's not the first time Orlando has done this to them. Orlando in the blowout game where Cleveland shots super well, only three of those catch and shoot threes were unguarded in that game. They typically generate Cleveland fourteen unguarded catch and shoots per game. This is an issue they've had in the Orlando matchup. Now again, they missed some looks, some wide open looks that they normally make at a high rate. We talked about Mitchell and Struce. Sam Merrill missed a bunch of great looks in the third corner. Was kind of bizarre. They were all like wide open and he was just missing, and they were like not necessarily close either. But Orlando did help play them into that kind of night by wearing them down with their size, making them play in a crowd, and by getting great contests in rotation. It's also worth mentioning Orlando allows fewer made threes than any team in the entire NBA. That is a strength of their defense. A big part of that is their length on the perimeter in the physicality they play with all game long. They held Cleveland to zero point eight five points per half court possession. That was their third lowest mark of the entire season. So again shout out to the Orlando defense and focusing on Orlando for a second. This is their big picture upside. If their young players ever learn to shoot more consistently, and if they can continue to improve over the years, if they can get Jalen Suggs back and get healthy, they can be a very dangerous playoff team because of their size and strength and their ability to wear on you. I notice it with Palo, Like Palo has that really ugly jump shot that he misses so frequently in the mid range, and like that part drives me crazy, but he gets a ton of separation in there. Like if he ever does put that together to where he becomes a fifty two to fifty five percent mid range jump shooter, Like he's gonna feast on teams in that part of the floor because he's just so big and strong that he can get to his spots there so easily. There is a lot of big picture upside with the Orlando that I thought was on display. There were a couple of things that stood out to me on the Cleveland front in this game. Though again I talked about this a lot with the Lakers during this phase when they were struggling, even in their wins. No matter how good you are, even if you happen to win, I always think there's value in taking a closer look at why you struggled during games or stretches of games where you struggled. And again, the two things that I noticed from Cleveland in this game won the size. Cleveland, even with Mobley, isn't exceptionally exceptionally big and strong. They can wear down against size. It happened against New York two years ago, it happened in the Orlando series last years. They were trailing big in Game seven. It is something to keep an eye on. And then switching. There was a switch look from Orlando in the second quarter where they had Goga off and Wendell Carter Junior off and that led to the first big magic run of this game. They shut off the baked in dribble penetration they got from ball screens. They forced Cleveland to play a lot of one on one, and we have seen Cleveland struggled at times against these kinds of looks in the regular season, especially against Boston and Oklahoma City. This is why it's so important to keep an eye on the Boston matchup. Specifically, Cleveland has a couple of wins this year against a shorthanded Boston Celtics team. But when they're healthy and they go Drew Holiday, Derek White, Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, and Al Horford, they're bigger and stronger than Cleveland and they can switch one through five and again. This is an incredible Cavs team that's winning at a historic pace, but the Boston Celtics are like the final boss for them in a video game. It's gonna attack their biggest weaknesses and it's gonna be a hell of a show. I can't wait to see what happens. All right, guys, This all I have for today, as always is I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We are going live tonight on YouTube after the final buzzer of Nuggets Warriors. I'll see you guys then, and then our next daytime episode will be coming out on Wednesday in the form of a mailbag 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.

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If you guys had a great weekend, got a jam pack show for you today, We're hitting three games from the Sunday slate as the Lakers get off of their four game losing streak by beating the reeling Phoenix Suns. After that, we're going to talk about the Olkahoma City Thunder getting revenge on their n season tournament performance by going into Milwaukee and really handling the Bucks. I want to focus in on the some elements of the OKC defense that I think are separators for them from their peers around the league. And then after that, the Orlando Magic gets some revenge after they took a beatdown from Cleveland at home a little while back. They went into Cleveland and stole a game, a really interesting game on a bunch of fronts, showed some of the big picture upside for the Magic, also revealed some of the weaknesses in that Cleveland roster. We're going to talk about that game from the perspective of both teams as well. You guys are the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops to Night YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSONNLTC. You guys don't miss announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feet wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if we leave a rating and a review on that front. We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, where Jackson's been doing some incredible work putting together some film breakdowns and stuff like that. Make sure you guys follow us there, and the last but not least, keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting those mail bags throughout the remainder of the year. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Suns are not a good matchup for the Lakers in a bunch of different ways. The big fundamental thing that makes it really difficult for the Suns to guard this version of this Lakers team is they don't feel comfortable switching with their fives with their centers. That puts you in a really tough spot dealing with Luka Doncic in pick and roll. We've talked about this a while. JJ Reddick has mentioned it in the postgame presser like running drop coverage against Luka Doncic is death, And I look at that as, like, you know, drop coverage can mean a lot of different things, but basically all that means is anytime you're chasing Luca over the top of the screen and the big man is waiting on the other side, either up at the level and what they call a high drop or further back and what they call a deep drop. That sort of coverage makes for these really easy reads for Luca that he's been immediately great at in a Lakers jersey. What's been interesting is like they've struggled a little bit against switching for a lot of different reasons. Luca wasn't in shape for a lot of those tough switching teams that they faced earlier in that stretch, and as a team, they haven't shot the three ball well in large part because they're playing super super hard on the defensive end of the floor and adjusting to the new types of three point looks that they're getting as part of the Luka Doncic offense, and so their offense, even in the wins, has sputtered at times against teams that can switch with their five man. But again with this Phoenix Suns team with Nick Richards, with Mason Plumley, they're just not doing a lot of switching with their five men, and so that just allows Luca to play read and react basketball with baked ribble penetration. And we've got over this a million times, but it's a simple set of reeds. If the lowman and the screen defender stay back, Luca gets to just work his way into the lane until he can take a little floater off the glass. If the big steps up, it creates a simple read behind it with the lowman. If the lowman steps over and tags the roller, he's skipping it to the weak side. If he doesn't tag the roller that he can hit the hit Jackson Hayes runnerneath the basket. That was the big thing that Phoenix kept messing up in this game. They were running a good mix of high and low drop and a lot of high drop early in the game, and they weren't tagging Jackson Hayes. And part of this is, like I've been talking a lot about how the Suns lately look to me like a team that is basically quit trying to be the best basketball team they can be, in large part because they know that their best isn't good enough to beat the best teams in the league. And so there were a lot of weak side possessions with Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, and KD all three of them where they just didn't bother to tag Jackson Hayes or some really sloppy tags. I saw both Devin Booker and Bradley Beal have tags where they just kind of like ran up to Jackson. So what you're supposed to do on a tag if they come up to the level of the screen and Jackson Hayes is rolling hard to the rim, your jobs, the lowman is to literally get between the rollman and the rim and hit him so that he can't throw the lob up to the basket he has to, and usually some teams will counter that by posting there or by skipping the ball to the weak side. Right, You've got to literally put your body on the line as a small against a rolling big. It's a hard job, and the Sons just weren't really interested in doing it last night, and so you'd see them kind of like run over to Jackson and like put their hands on him, but they're not really doing anything to make him feel uncomfortable, and he's just catching and finishing. Here's an easy little stat to demonstrate that for you. He had nineteen points. Jackson Ay's nineteen points in this game, seventeen of which were on cuts and rolls. He has had nineteen points twice so far with Luca. He had nineteen points one time total in the entirety of the rest of his Lakers ten years, and that goes to show you the benefit of Jackson Hayes in this system. I have been talking a lot about this concept lately, but the idea of like, your value as a basketball player is kind of unique to the system that you're in, Right Like, there are guys that are deeply valuable in a certain system that would be less valuable in another system. Whether it's like Aaron Gordon in Orlando as like a swing forward star type of player, looks really underqualified for that job, but you put him in Denver where he can operate on the back line because their center kind of inverts their spacing, all of a sudden, he becomes immensely valuable in that type of role. Right Like, everybody's value is unique to their individual system, and Jackson Hayes, specifically, when Luka Doncic is on the Lakers, is immensely valuable because Luca is one of the best passers in the league at making teams pay by hitting a vertical spacer. And I mean, there were a lot of issues that have gone wrong for the Lakers in the four game losing streak, most of which have come down to injuries. I mean, you're down, You're you're starting front court. Literally, if you're down Lebron, Ruy and Jackson, it's such a difficult thing to overcome. But it's funny to say Jackson Hayes is so valuable because it felt so different in previous iterations of the Lakers, But on this version of the Lakers, Jackson Hayes is incredibly valuable to this offense because he is the guy that allows them to function in four out one in spacing. I've talked a lot about this concept. When you're running a lot of motion, ball flowing side to side, everyone's involved in the action. It's like a five out spacing concept, right. You got ball handlers on the wings, guys in the corner, and then a big man at the top of the keys. Functioning is like this passing folkrum, screening folkrum out at the top of the key. This Lakers team is very much going back to the old version of their offense, way back when they were the Western Conference Finals team in twenty twenty three, where it's like we're spreading the floor, running pick and roll like it's a lot of that sort of thing, and in those situations you don't want five out spacing because in five out spacing, when the gaps on the perimeter shrink to get pretty small and it gets harder to drive as defenders are able to gap into driving lanes and stuff like that. And so the way you prefer to set up your spacing when you're more of a matchup attacking, spread pig roll type of team is four out one in spacing, and once your shooters in the corner, you got a shooter on the wing, and you're basically occupying either the dunker spot with a dunker or a screen and roll threat where the roller is occupying that spot when he rolls to the basket. And so guys like Jemison, guys like Jared vander Built, even Christian Kaloko he botched two lobs last night in the first half, where it's just the easy dunks that he's struggling to make because he's got a little bit of an issue catching and finishing. Sometimes you can see just how incredibly valuable Jackson Hayes is to the Lakers as a vertical spacer. In this version of the team. They did a lot of damage on that Sun's back line in this game, and after in the early third quarter they generated yet another easy lob dunk for Jackson Hayes kind of like a behind the back lob a ridiculous pass from Luca, and from that point forward, the Sun's basically just decided to blitz him and double team him all over the floor, and so the Lakers were able to play with an advantage and they were able to stiff arm the Suns. The rest of the way, the Suns fought back. They've they've been resilient. This has been a consistent theme for the Suns in the last month, is like they'll get off to an ugly start and then rather than get humiliated, they'll like suddenly start competing really hard towards the end of the game. And it's the U. Lakers fans are familiar with this concept from last year. It's the fake comeback concept, right because that Laker team used to have a very similar personality last year. But KD had seventeen points in the second half and they kind of battled a little bit, but they never got any closer than eight the rest of the way. A couple of Laker concepts and I want to hit before we move on. Luca's rapidly improving as a shot maker. This is a concept that talked a lot about after his first few weeks with the Lakers, he just wasn't shooting as well as he typically is capable of. And you know, he obviously had that really bad night in Brooklyn, but even including that game, in his last eight games, he's averaging thirty two points per game on just twenty two shot attempts, shooting forty one percent from three on eleven attempts per game, and he's getting to the foul line ten times, where he's shooting eighty percent from at the free throw line. So he's really starting to come around as an offensive player, which is helping this team start to have a little bit more resilience on that end of the floor. He's also averaging over two steals per game in that span. He's sliding his feet, really active on the perimeter, active in help side, functioning as a cog in that defensive system. Austin Reeves is starting to look like himself again. He commented after the Nets game that he needed to be better with Lebron out in order to help his team. He's averaging thirty one, seven and seven on fifty two percent from the field, forty four from three to ninety four percent from the line in his last three games, which is just outrageous. JJ Reddick talked after the game about Jordan Goodwin and the tone that he set early. He was spot on about that. One of the very first I think it was literally the first possession of the game. KD was guarding him, he was ball watching, and I think Luca ended up missing a jump shot short and he just shot like a cannon into the lane, got the offensive rebound and put it back in. He was excellent with his ball pressure and with his back pressure. He had a couple offensive rebounds. He had a couple of block shit. Really really impressive game from Jordan go and ended up getting a start in this game. Nice win for the Lakers. They got some help over the weekend too. In the standings. Memphis got crushed at home by the Calves. Denver toasted off a game to the Wizards on a crazy game winner from Jordan Poole. He shot like a forty footer in Russell Westbrook's face that ends up leaving the Lakers tied in the loss column for the two seed, despite dropping four consecutive games earlier with an injury ravaged roster. I think that's a win no matter how you look at it, to drop four in a row like that and to still really be in position to potentially get that two seed, and the Lakers, the Nuggets, the Grizzlies, and the Rockets, it's a four way tie, are all tied with twenty five losses in that spot, and I think the Lakers have a good chance to win that race and just get the two seed, as long as they can get healthy soon enough. Allegedly Lebron's about a week out. Ruly, I would imagine we'll come back not tonight, but probably in the game on Wednesday night. It shouldn't be too long before they get healthy. And like, I mean, we're gonna talk about this a little bit, especially when we get into our mail Bag, which is releasing on Wednesday this week. But like, the Lakers might just be better than all those teams, and so they might end up coming away with the two seed just because they're better. And so they're in a good spot now. They made a good call, a smart call to rest Ruie rest Jackson, rest Lebron. Make sure those guys get the rest that they need, and we'll see. I think they have a chance to end up coming out with the two seed. Anyway, we'll see how they can close the season. The big thing, the big swing factor there for me is Denver, and I just can't get a read on the Nuggets. They look so bad sometimes they're so so so bad on defense, but there's this big part of me that just can't believe that they're actually that bad and that they're just kind of going through the motions a lot. Now. NBA history tells us those teams always lose, but it's hard to say at this point they're They're the team that that's in that group of four with the Lakers that I can't really get a read on where they kind of land among the top teams in the league. All right, let's talk some thunder Bucks. We've talked a lot this year about the strength of Oklahoma City being their defense, and we've got all, like, over all the reasons why. They have a ton of good perimeter defenders that they can keep cycling into the game to wear out ball handlers. They can apply excellent ball pressure for forty eight minutes. They have these aggressive game plans that suit their team speed really really well. It's the right type of game plan to go with with the type of roster that they have. They're super sharp in rotation on the back end to make these like perceived openings disappear in a flash. Their rim protection is legit with chet homeground on the floor. But I want to zero in specifically on the concept of defending superstars for a minute, because like superstars are scheme breakers, they're personnel breakers. Like oh you Anthony Davis. He's, in my opinion, the best defensive player in the league when he's healthy and in shape. Well it turns out he can't guard Nikola Jokic. So the Lakers' greatest defensive weapon was basically neutralized, and it led to a few years of dominance. In that matchup. If you guys, remember, oh you have Jaden McDaniels, he's one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. Well, it turns out he can't guard Luka Doncic. So in that matchup in the Western Conference finals last year, the strength of Minnesota's perimeter defense was neutralized and the MAVs ended up thrashing the Wolves. This is a thing that can happen that a superstar can break a scheme. A superstar can break even personnel strings. One of the non negotiable barriers that stands between any great team and a championship is the ability to go head to head with the best players in the world and come out on top. For the thunder in the West, you've got Nikola Jokic, You've got Luka Doncic, Lebron James before his injury was playing at near that level, not quite that level, but near that level. Steph Curry is coming on strong. Anthony Edwards is a type of threat that you have to face in the Western Conference. In One of the traits of this OKC defense. Something that makes them so dangerous is their ability to match up with the top players in the league. They've had their issues with Jokic over the years because it seems like nobody can guard that guy, but he's literally the best player in the world and Okay, so he can have success against him on the other end of the floor. Even the game they dropped to Denver the other day a week ago or so, it was a weird game. They played really well in the first half, had a lead, drop seventy three points. J Dubb gets hurt. They double team Shay every time he crosses half court. It allows them to gimmick their way into a win. But like that's a matchup that they've done pretty well against. They have one of the best players in the league to match up against Luca Lebron Kawhi, Jason Tatum, those big, strong matchup attacking forwards. Lou Dort is literally one of the very best options in the NBA for that type of matchup. He's uniquely strong enough to keep his base. Most of the success that those players have comes down to bullying and dislodging defenders from their base so they can get separation and get great shots. Lou Dort in many cases the guy dislodging them from their base and forcing them to play off balance and causing them to miss a lot of shots that they normally make. It's a huge asset to have, specifically in the Western Conference with the types of teams that you have to face coming out of there, and for a potential Boston matchup with Jason Tatum, and then in this game against Milwaukee, they demonstrated that they have athletes for two of the other types of world beating stars. They held Dame and Yannis to just forty points and held both of them to below fifty percent from the field. They held Yanis to his lowest field goal percentage game of this entire season. Excellent guards to match up with all the different types of starguards in the league that you can run into in any playoff matchup or any regular season game. I thought Cason Wallace and Alex Crusoe were both fantastic in their reps against Damian Lillard last night, applying ball pressure up and down the court, staying attached in screening actions and pressuring the ball from behind, swat and getting hands on the basketball. Great contests on everything. Dame, of his nineteen points, managed just seven points on the ball. Twelve of his nineteen points came off of spot ups, meaning one of his other teammates made a play that got oksee in rotation, forced caseon or Alex to help which allowed Dame to get an open catch and shoot look or on a random, weird play like there was a random play where Caruso stripped Damian Lillard clean underneath the basket and the ball just happened to pop right back into Dame's hands and he drew a foul, And then Dame got fouled on a jump ball, and just like him and Alex wrestling for position off the ball, but like they had him strapped up in the on ball situations. If you hold Dame to seven points on the ball, you're gonna give yourself a really good chance to stop at Milwaukee offense. And like, that's not just a Dame thing. Whether it's Steph, it could be any of the great guards in this league. They are built to handle those guards really well. And then I thought Isaiah Hartenstein did about as good a job playing positional defenses against Giannest as you can. Again, when I say positional defense, to me, that's positioning yourself between a player in the rim and at least forcing them to make over the top shots. Defense against these types of players is very different than I could think like Palo Boncaro for example, or a Lebron James for example. These like big bullyball forwards that aren't super comfortable shooting jump shots. Now Lebron has become much better at that over the years, so maybe he's a bad example, but you get the point. Like these big bullyball players that you kind of want to take jump shot and floaters and hooks and stuff like that, just position yourself between that player and the rim, and you're doing your job. Anytime he got anybody else on him. In this game, it was a double team easy to get past in rotation getting great looks. Jannis was able to consistently generate great stuff against anybody that wasn't Isaiah Hartenstein. But Hartenstein has that combination of a little bit of mobility and he's big and strong as a center to where Yannis isn't looking at him, like I can go right through him. With Yannis, like he doesn't even really have to make a move to get by most people because he's so big and strong. If he just rips through, even if the defender slides his feet, there's usually just a tiny bit of an opening, and Giannis is gonna hit that with physicality and get his shoulder in there. He has that move too, where he'll gather and like chicken wing with his arm as he goes to the rim. Like he's impossible to guard when you're giving up that much size and weight, because even if you get in front of him, he's just gonna get his way around you by using his physicality. Right. But Isaiah Hartenstein, because he has that mobility and size and strength, Jannis actually has to make a good enough move to force Isaiah Hartenstein to lunge out of position in order for him to get all the way to the basket. And so that allowed Hartenstein to do a really nice job on yon Is forcing him into those over the top shots. Again. In last night's game, Hartenstein and the Thunder as a team held Giannis to below forty seven percent from the field. It was literally his least efficient field goal percentage game of the entire season. And like, and I haven't even mentioned the fact that Hartenstein had twenty four points last night. He had twenty two on cuts, he made five of his patented floaters. He had a great game. Like I've been consistent on the record that I have concerns about okc's offense in a playoff context. I do think they have a tendency to get into these extended stretches of ugly bass could ball on that into the floor. That makes them more vulnerable than their record would lead you to believe. But make no mistake, this defense is legit and not like cute twenty twenty one Utah Jazz regular season legit. They are versatile playoff Freddy able to handle the types of challenges that await them in the Western Conference playoffs type of legit on the defensive end of the floor. It's gonna keep them in every series. Like I don't think even if OKC loses, this isn't gonna be a sweep or a five game series. Their defense is so good it's gonna keep them in any series. They're gonna be very, very difficult to beat four times in a two week span. A couple other shoutouts from this game. I thought Kenrich Williams was amazing, kind of similar to what we talked about with Jordan Goodwin earlier. I thought he just helped set the defensive tone right away early, flying around in rotation, making extra efforts. He was a guy in many cases that was rotating to Brook Lopez and picking pops, which is a foundational release valve for the Bucks offense. In one of the hardest action to guard, but it just requires a good amount of speed on the weak side. He locked zero points in this game and only one steal, and I thought Kenrich was awesome in his minutes. Chet was really great on offense in this game. He continues to hit threes. He had two last night. He's made five of his last ten, and it caused some overreaction from Milwaukee's defense. Both Torrian Prince and Giannis bit on pump fakes on kickouts to Chet that led to points. He drove on Torrian and got a floater on the honest one, he ended up drawing a foul. He gave up the Thunder ended up getting an easy dunk on a play where Chet kind of relocated up to the right wing and Torrian Prince, who should have been the low man instead of protecting the rim, overplayed Chet at the three point line and gave up a dunk. That's all a product of the fear of Chet's shooting because of how well he's been shooting the ball over the last couple of games. He also did some nice work in action too. The two most common actions they'll run with him is like a two man game right around the foul line the middle of the floor with him and Hartenstein trying to bait trying to force big bodies to guard in screening actions. And then they'll run a lot of wide pin down stuff where they'll like set him in the corner and have a guard screen down for him so that the team doesn't want to switch and try to see if they can get him coming downhill with the ball catching on the move going downhill. He's really starting to blossom into an incredible player. I thought he was fantastic and last shout out, SGA is becoming one of the greatest shows in the league. I've seen a lot of people complaining about his foul grifting or like shoving people off with his off arm, and like, the grifting is a league wide problem, and yeah, Shay is better at it than most, but like, I'm never gonna judge the players for that because to me, it's a competitive advantage and Shaye's just like, imagine being Shay. You're on a team with a bunch of super young players and so much of the offensive workload falls on your plate. You got to find a way to get some easy points in there, and foul grifting is the way he's doing it. And again, everyone has access to those moves. He's just better at it than most. And eventually the league, I hope will get will legislate it out, but it is part of the game at this point, the off arm stuff, this is where I think the complaints from people are ridiculous. All throughout NBA history, we've had players that use their physical advantages to dominate, like Shack bullyballs everybody, Lebron bullyballs everybody, Yannis bullyballs everybody, Luca bullyballs every there's so jokicch is just rumbling, stumbling to the rim NonStop, like we have to be okay with it from guards too. And the thing with Shay is he's really good at getting a defender out of position to where they're leaning back, and you see it. He did it against Kuzma a couple times last night, where it's like he sees Kuzma in a retreat positional defense stance, and so he just drives really hard and gets that shoulder into him and bumps him off a little bit. And by the way, he does get called for offensive fouls occasionally when he really extends that arm, but a lot of times he doesn't extend the arm. A lot of times he just kind of gets you with his shoulder and he's so strong on his base that he'll bump you with his shoulder and get plenty of separation. And I have no problem with that at all, because that, to me is what the game of basketball is. It's physical it's a contact sport. It gets even more physical when you get into the postseason. And all throughout NBA history, we've allowed these big, strong dudes to throw people around. I have no problem with Shaye doing it too. But even if you set that stuff aside and you just watch him play, he's starting to break people off with these dribble combinations that are sending defenders into a different area code. And it's because he can chain together multiple dribble combinations, multiple pieces of footwork. I've talked about this concept before. He doesn't go into a sequence like telegraphing what he's gonna do. He starts with just a hard drive in one of the directions, whether it's that hesitation between the legs dribble going left or the hesitation between the legs drible going right. You kind of slowly do the between the legs dribble, and as soon as it hits his driving hand, the hand that's on the strong side that he's driving to, he'll just explode forward. He has a lot of that hesitation quickness. It's like a first step combined with a change of pace kind of thing. But he's just gonna go. And then if you cut off that side, he's pulling it back through the legs and he's going the other way. And if you cut him off that side, he's pulling it back through the legs and he's going the other way. It's all just like a relentless change of direction. But he's just so good at using that pullback dribble between his legs and in those situations he's generating contact a lot of times in bumping guys off that it's kind of just like, do I need to do it once twice, three or three times to get to my spot? Well, regardless of how many times you defend it right, I'm eventually going to get to my spot. And like, again, there are some of these guys that he's going up against and they're biting so hard on one of the moves that he's getting like ten, twelve, fifteen feet of separation on that pullback dribble. It's wild to me. And again, like it's not just fun to watch. There's a lot of good stuff in there for young basketball players to emulate that will help you get to the next level. That getting that shoulder contact and then quick scissor dribble between your legs is an excellent way to deal with ball pressure or to get separation when a defender is pressuring you. It just takes a lot of that contact, ball handling ability, the ability to dribble while you're dealing with contact, and again, like it's just all of it is just super tight handle, super tight footwork, and the ability to chain every single move together with hesitation dribbles just ties together. This player that is like entirely unpredictable and extremely difficult to keep in front. And I've really really enjoyed watching him over the course of this season. All right, magic has before we get out of here for the death, it's bit of a weird game. Both teams shot catastrophically different than their typical efficiency. Orlando is by far the worst jump shooting team in the league. They get seven fewer points per one hundred jump shots then the twenty ninth ranked Wizards. That gap is the same as the gap between the twenty ninth ranked Wizards and the thirteenth ranked Bulls. They are a god awful jump shooting team and last night they got one point twenty four points per jump shot. Cleveland is the number one jump shooting team in the NBA, and they got zero point seventy five points per jump shot, so it was kind of just like a weird jump shooting game. It played a roll down the stretch of the game too, like it was a shot making game down the stretch, and a couple of thirty two percent three point shooters and Anthony Black and Pala Boncaro hit three clutch threes, and Donovan Mitchell, a player who's hitting forty nine percent of unguarded catch and shoes a catch and shoots, missed back to back wide open threes above the break in the clutch Max Strus hits forty eight percent of unguarded catch and shoots. He missed an open corner three in the right corner light. So like obviously it was kind of a shot variance game. It turned into a fun little chest match down the stretch two for Palo. The last two buckets that were like and got or just inverted ball screen action with Palo and KCP on the left wing, and it's the exact same sequence of events that most teams have to deal with in inverted ball screens. They don't want to switch because they don't want to leave a smaller player defending a big bullyball player, So they opt for a hedge and recover to try to prevent the switch and prevent the drive, but it concedes a slipping three. So KCP comes up, slips out of the screen to the left corner. Palo briefly gets two on the ball, he whips it over the top. KCP hits the corner three very next possession. They're like, well, we don't want to give up that open corner three to KCP, so we might as well switch the action. Now. DeAndre Hunter is on KCP, but Donovan Mitchell's guarding Paalo, and Paalo just hard dribbles into the middle of the floor, just bumps Donovan Mitchell off with that shoulder and then rises up right there in the middle and knocks down the huge shot at the elbow that ended up giving them the lead. And so like a shot making type of game from the three point line that swung Orlando's favor, and then a nice little chess match sequence from Orlando with kcpm palow down the stretch to get the win. Now here's the thing. I'm never gonna get too worked up about a regular season result. You guys know that about me. Weird stuff can happen in basketball games, but I did think this game was revealing of some of Orlando's big picture playoff upside and some of the weaknesses in Cleveland's roster. Orlando's size was a consistent problem for Cleveland in this game. And I know people are gonna say Evan Mobley didn't play, but neither did Jalen Suggs, and I actually thought it manifested mostly with Cleveland's perimeter players. Mitchell and Garland combined for twenty seven missed shots and eight turnovers in this game, and a big part of that was them struggling to shoot over good contests or trying to pass in traffic. The two main ways this manifested from Orlando's defense was that bracket that I always talk about in pick and roll, and then some of the deal the problems they had was switching focusing on the bracket. I've talked about this concept a lot. In a drop coverage, when you've got a guard chasing over the top and a big up at the level when you are staying close to the ball handler, you bracket them appropriately when there's distance. If the guard gets caught on the screen and the biggest too far back, there's an open bracket, there's space in there to operate. That's where guys like Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland can barbecue you with just comfortable shot making in the mid range. Right, Orlando had a very tight bracket in this game, but they had a very tight bracket with size, and that's where it can become really problematic. And this is one of the strengths of Orlando's roster. Whether it's Jonathan Isaac, or it's Anthony Black, or it's Contavious Callwell. Pope is one of the smaller guys you're dealing with there, but Palo and Franz front spend some time with the ball. Wendell Carter Junior and Goga Patadz they are big dudes. They are huge on the ball, and it made those guys consistently shoot some tough, contested shots that were over tight contesting. You could tell they're putting extra arc on the turnovers we talked about earlier. It caused problems for Cleveland. This is why it's always way too simplistic to just attribute a game to shooting. Luck Again, it plays a role. There is shooting variants in a game, but usually it is connected in more than one way to the way the game is being played. For instance, Cleveland only generated nine unguarded catch shoot jump shots in this game. It's one of their lowest totals of the season, and it's not the first time Orlando has done this to them. Orlando in the blowout game where Cleveland shots super well, only three of those catch and shoot threes were unguarded in that game. They typically generate Cleveland fourteen unguarded catch and shoots per game. This is an issue they've had in the Orlando matchup. Now again, they missed some looks, some wide open looks that they normally make at a high rate. We talked about Mitchell and Struce. Sam Merrill missed a bunch of great looks in the third corner. Was kind of bizarre. They were all like wide open and he was just missing, and they were like not necessarily close either. But Orlando did help play them into that kind of night by wearing them down with their size, making them play in a crowd, and by getting great contests in rotation. It's also worth mentioning Orlando allows fewer made threes than any team in the entire NBA. That is a strength of their defense. A big part of that is their length on the perimeter in the physicality they play with all game long. They held Cleveland to zero point eight five points per half court possession. That was their third lowest mark of the entire season. So again shout out to the Orlando defense and focusing on Orlando for a second. This is their big picture upside. If their young players ever learn to shoot more consistently, and if they can continue to improve over the years, if they can get Jalen Suggs back and get healthy, they can be a very dangerous playoff team because of their size and strength and their ability to wear on you. I notice it with Palo, Like Palo has that really ugly jump shot that he misses so frequently in the mid range, and like that part drives me crazy, but he gets a ton of separation in there. Like if he ever does put that together to where he becomes a fifty two to fifty five percent mid range jump shooter, Like he's gonna feast on teams in that part of the floor because he's just so big and strong that he can get to his spots there so easily. There is a lot of big picture upside with the Orlando that I thought was on display. There were a couple of things that stood out to me on the Cleveland front in this game. Though again I talked about this a lot with the Lakers during this phase when they were struggling, even in their wins. No matter how good you are, even if you happen to win, I always think there's value in taking a closer look at why you struggled during games or stretches of games where you struggled. And again, the two things that I noticed from Cleveland in this game won the size. Cleveland, even with Mobley, isn't exceptionally exceptionally big and strong. They can wear down against size. It happened against New York two years ago, it happened in the Orlando series last years. They were trailing big in Game seven. It is something to keep an eye on. And then switching. There was a switch look from Orlando in the second quarter where they had Goga off and Wendell Carter Junior off and that led to the first big magic run of this game. They shut off the baked in dribble penetration they got from ball screens. They forced Cleveland to play a lot of one on one, and we have seen Cleveland struggled at times against these kinds of looks in the regular season, especially against Boston and Oklahoma City. This is why it's so important to keep an eye on the Boston matchup. Specifically, Cleveland has a couple of wins this year against a shorthanded Boston Celtics team. But when they're healthy and they go Drew Holiday, Derek White, Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, and Al Horford, they're bigger and stronger than Cleveland and they can switch one through five and again. This is an incredible Cavs team that's winning at a historic pace, but the Boston Celtics are like the final boss for them in a video game. It's gonna attack their biggest weaknesses and it's gonna be a hell of a show. I can't wait to see what happens. All right, guys, This all I have for today, as always is I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We are going live tonight on YouTube after the final buzzer of Nuggets Warriors. I'll see you guys then, and then our next daytime episode will be coming out on Wednesday in the form of a mailbag 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.