The volume. Who's scoring big in the NBA this season? You are with all the new ways to get in on the action at Draft Kings sports Book, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. From Monster Slams to dishing the rock to cleaning the glass, get behind your favorite players and the prop bets you can make on DraftKings, the home of NBA player props. Ready to place your first bet? Try betting on something simple like picking how many points your favorite player will have. Go to the Draft Kings Sportsbook app and make your pick right now. The Oklahoma City Thunder have supplanted the Boston Celtics as the favorites to win the title on DraftKings at plus two to twenty five, with the Celtics right behind them at plus two thirty five. First time, here's something special just for you new DraftKings customers. Bet five dollars to get one hundred and fifteen bonus bets instantly take it to the rack with DraftKings sports Book, Every point counts. Download the Draft Kings sports Book app and use code hoops that's h oops, that's code hoops for new customers to get one to fifteen bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler and New York call eight seven seven eight hope and why our text hope and why to four six seven three six nine. Connecticut help is available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co slash b ball. All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody, hope all if you guys are having a great start to your week. Got a jampackshow for you today. The Nuggets got revenged on the thunder at a very interesting rematch, very interesting defensive adjustment from Michael Malone in the second half as the Nuggets get a big win there After that, I want to talk a little bit about the Atlanta Hawks, who have won four out of five and specifically a couple of things that really exciting about the bright future that they have, even if we all can agree that they have a certain ceiling this year. Then at the tail end of the show, I just want to briefly talk about the Lakers, just so I can tell everyone to take a deep breath and relax, because I'm not too worried about their disaster in Brooklyn last night. You guys are the job before we get started. Subscribed to Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore JSONNLTC. You guys, don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you eat your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave us a rating and a review on that front. Don't forget about our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year, and then, last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions into the YouTube comments. We are recording a mail bag tomorrow that is going to run on Thursday, So this is the last episode for you guys to get questions into the comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. So again I talked about how in the Sunday game it was obviously a very strong statement for shake yieldess Alexander, for MVP, and in general a sign of some weaknesses that the Denver Nuggets had. I listed at the end of the show a couple of things that the Nuggets could do better to try to flip the script in last night's game, and I talked a lot about on defense the issues that they had containing the ball, and the solution that I presented not really a solution, but the strategy that I would recommend was just bring Yokic up to the level I thought those were his best looks. Just make sure he gets there early enough that Shay can't like split him off the dribble or anything like that, and pray on Shay's inability to like really really pass well out of traps and double teams and things along those lines. I did talk about how they should unleash that zone look again in the second half, just as a rhythm disruptor, but Mike Malone ended up going with something way more aggressive. He started with the exact same strategy from the Sunday game, in the first half a mix of at the level coverages with Jokic and deeper coverages deeper drop coverages with Jokic. Actually, my guess is that the actual game plan is for Jokic to go up to the level, but that there's like kind of an understanding between and Mike Malone that when he needs a break, when he's tired, that he runs a deeper drop as basically an opportunity for him to rest while he's on the court. That's my guess as to how that keeps manifesting as a mix between the two coverages. The game had a very similar feel to the first game. To start, Denver had a little lead early. Oklahoma City really controlled the middle portion of the game, but they weren't really able to pull away, and then in that third quarter, Mike Malone pulls the zone card. Except for one little wrinkle. He said, if we're going to be a team that has to exist in rotation, like we've talked to like we've talked about a lot over the last couple of weeks, we might as well exist in rotation on our terms in a way that we can plan for. So what he did is he just had the top two guys in the zone just double team Shay as soon as he crossed half court. Then they basically set up their back line with Jokicic just sitting right under the rim and the two bottom guys in the zone coming up and playing passing lanes. There's a lot that you can do playing passing lanes to prey on indecisiveness for the role player. So there's four on three right and when you make aggressive rotations, so like let's say, for instance, you double team Shay and he floats the ball over the top to you know, whoever it is that's on the right wing, let's call it Aaron Wiggins. If Jamal Murray, who is let's say on the bottom part of the zone where Alex Caruso is hiding in the corner, if he just sprints up and guards Aaron Wiggins on the wing, then Aaron Wiggins can make a simple and easy swing pass to the corner and it's either a wide open three for Alex Crusoe or you can drive the close out if he wants. But what the Nuggets were consistently doing in that zone is they were having those bottom guys like kind of half close out. But in the lane, in the passing lane, so that as Aaron Wiggins or whoever it was that would catch in that spot would look to read the floor, they'd have this kind of hesitancy because they're like, well, I'm kind of open, but I'm not really open, and I don't I'm sure that coach doesn't want me just shooting on the first pass out of the trap, but like, I'm also gonna have to throw like a floating pass over the top to whoever it is that's in the corner because they're playing in the passing lane. And it just prayed on that indecisiveness and prayed on some of that lack of refined skill that you see from Oklahoma City's role players. And again another important context here, Jalen Williams left the game with a hip strain, and so it ended up being the perfect strategy to really turn that game because they gave up seventy three points in the first half. Like the Thunder defense eviscerated Denver again in the first half, but under the circumstances in that second half with JDub being out, it made a lot of sense to basically force Shay to give up the basketball early in these possessions out by half court and then have a plan for how to rotate out of it. By the way, the thunder did get some buckets out of those sequences, but overall it worked really well. Oklahoma City got one point zero nine points per possession versus Denver's man de man looks in seventeen possessions in the second half. Against that double teaming zone look, they allowed just zero point eight eight points per possession as they worked all the way back into a two point lead heading into the fourth quarter. That set up perfectly because in that middle portion of the game, Okase had led by as much as twelve. That zone allowed them to kind of get back into a commanding position up by two. And then what happens in the fourth quarter if Shake Gildos Alexander leaves the game and Jay Dub's not in the game anymore, well, now you have to throw out a bench look that doesn't have Shay or Jay Dubb. All of a sudden, it's going to be a lot of these lesser role players, a lot of kise On Wallace on the ball, a lot of chet Holm. We'ren taking tougher shots. It turned into a very limited offensive group for Oklahoma City, and Denver just immediately blitzed them to start the fourth quarter. They were up by double figures before Gildess Alexander could get back into the game. Lots of really impressive shot making from Denver in that run to start the fourth quarter. MPJ hit a tough movement three running to his left at the top of the key. Jamal Murray hit a tough off the dribble three on the left wing. Jalen Pickett confidently posting up in a really nice step through move to get a bucket one on one. He had a step back three on the right wing in this stretch. Forget about just that run. The shot making for Denver all night long was amazing. They converted spot up possessions at one point eight five points per possession last night. It was zero point seven to two on Sunday. That's a giant chasm. More than twice as efficient on catch and shoot looks if you just refine it to catch and shoot jump shots. Zero point nine to one points per shot on Sunday one point eight to two points per shot on Monday. That's double. Lots of key guys made shots Westbrook, Peyton Watson and Jalen Pickett combined to go nine for twelve from three. Watson and Westbrook in particular, both hit multiple threes in the fourth quarters where OKC was basically daring them to shoot. I call these coverage beaters, right, like, if the coverage is we're gonna concede this. If you don't show a willingness and an ability to make that shot, then they're gonna stay in that coverage. And they beat that coverage consistently. Just Westbrook one pass away double teams on Jokic, skip passes in their boss screen action that ended up in Peyton Watson in his hands in the left corner. Those threes are way more important than even just the point value of that shot because they defeat a specific coverage and Oklahoma City was never able to regain their footing in that fourth quarter, and Denver went on to win comfortably by thirteen points. And this is the main reason why I haven't been able to quit the Denver Nuggets. Jokic is so damn good, and their ceiling on offense is outrageous. That's the best defense in the league and they hung one forty on them. Their defense is bad. Denver's defense is bad. They're down to twentieth on the season. We talked earlier in a manna man half. They gave up seventy three in the second in the second game against Oklahoma City before that double teaming zone, and again it's important context that Jadub was out of the game when they were able to shut them down in that second half. After last night, Denver is still just five and thirteen this year, five wins and thirteen losses against teams in the top ten in point differential according to Cleaning the Glass. And I think that matters, like who are the four other teams? Who are the Who's my inner circle of championship contenders? It's Denver, but it's the Lakers, It's the Thunder, It's the Calves, and it's the Celtics. If if you were to go to Cleaning the Glass and look at the teams with the best records against the teams in the top ten in point differential, who do you think the top four are? It's the Calves, the Thunder, the Celtics, and the Lakers. Like that, they have all year been consistently great against the top teams and Denver has been terrible. Also, by the way side, note for Warriors fans. They rank sixth on that list in win percentage against teams in the top ten in point differential. That's a big part of why I have my eye on them as a tea that could potentially join my inner circle of contenders before the end of the season. But these are major red flags. Twentieth in defense and can't beat good teams, are not beating good teams often. There are not many teams in NBA history who have postseason success when they suck on defense and they struggle to beat the good teams. But the Nuggets have three things going for them that keep them in the inner circle. For me, one, you don't have to go any further than Nikola Jokic. He's the best basketball player on planet Earth. He had thirty five, eighteen and eight last night. This is how insane this is. I was looking at his game log this morning, just like a list of all the games he's played this season, and I was like, I wonder where this game ranks among all of the games and all the individual performances he's had this year. I don't think it even registers in the top ten, probably not even in the top fifteen. He has four thirty five point triple doubles this year, countless forty point games, a fifty point game like he had a thirty five eighteen and eight, And it's kind of just like a whatever Jokic game this season. And that's just the insane talent level and consistency that Jokic brings to the table. The second piece of it is continuity. The Jamal Murray connection with Jokich is at such a high level of comfortability at this point. He dropped a smooth thirty four last night. Everyone off of those two knows where to be a threat. They know how to be a threat off of Yokic post ups, but they also know how to be a threat off of the Jokich Murray two man yate. As much as I've talked about Denver's defense this year, they're the second best offense in the NBA, ahead of even the Boston Celtics. So like it's important context that we bring into the picture that they are one of the truly elite offenses in this league. And the third piece of it, and this is where the real optimism comes from. I don't think this Nuggets team can be good defensively. They don't have the personnel, but they can be better than they are, And there is a whole lot of like like kind of realities at place here. They're an older veteran team that's been playing together forever and that doesn't really care about the regular season. Like think about how many times Michael Porter, Junior, Jamal Murray and the Cole Jokic have gone through the eighty two game regular season together just as a unit themselves, and they know all their opponents really well. You know, they're not going to bring a level of night to night commitment that other teams around the league breaks. So like there's a certain amount of scaleability for them in the postseason, especially when we've seen like we have seen Jokic, Gordon Murray, Jamal an athletic guard play good defense and be able to get stops in the postseason. Now, they're older and a little slower now, so I don't think they'll be able to get to the level they were in twenty twenty three, but they've been at times this year even better offensively than they were in twenty twenty three. Yokic said last night, I'm playing the best basketball of my career right. So, like, if they can scale up defensively and they're one of the top tier offenses in the NBA. There's absolutely a version of this where it can all come together. You can kind of imagine the scenario. Right they lock in in April. They defend at basically an average level. Jokic, Murray and Michael Porter Junior have like flamethrower postseason runs. And what if Gordon, Westbrook, Brown and Watson all just shoot super well from three. And by the way, before you tell me they're gonna miss fifteen games now, Christian Brown forty one percent from three, Aaron Gordon fifty one percent from three, Russell Westbrook thirty six percent from three. He's confidently stepping into catch and shoot threes last night off of Yokic double teams. Peyton Watson sixty four percent from three. Hit some big ones last night. Like the idea is you help off those guys and they just keep hitting shots. Now, they might not in the postseason, and that'll be the big challenge for the record. All those things will have to come together. Yokichen Murray are gonna have to average damn near thirty on high efficiency if they're gonna get where they want to go. Michael Porter Junior is gonna have to have a great playoff run. All of those guys are gonna have to shoot super well from three, and they're gonna have to get to an average level defensively at minimum. But I think all of those things are possible. And so point being, I can't quit the Nuggets. They have some stuff they absolutely must get better at, but there are enough in greedy there to win the title. All right, Let's move on to the Atlanta Hawks. They beat the Sixers last night without Trey Young or Karislovert, and I had watched both of their games against the Indiana Pacers, a couple wins that they got in the last week. They've won four out of five. They have a one to twenty three offensive rating in that span. It really starts with Trey and Karris Lavert. The two of them has just been playing at a really high level during this stretch. I was watching Trey versus the Pacers in those two games, and I was just amazed. Every time I watched Trey, I'm amazed by his ability to throw passes on time and on target with his left hand. I talked a lot about this concept when we were talking about Steph Curry yesterday. But the difficulties for right handed shooters going either direction as they have to square up in mid air. Right, so you're running to the left, it's easier because you can plant your right foot first and you're already kind of naturally squared up to the basket. But if you're running to your right hand, to your strong hand, you have to like kind of square up in mid air by getting more left, and all of those things combine in ball handling situations to make things complicated. Right, So, like, if you're a right handed player, where is it easiest to throw passes. It's easiest to throw passes by swinging that right hand around with like baseball passes right, We've all since we were little kids thrown things with our right hand. If we're right handed, it's easy enough to make those passes similarly with ballhand like, most right handed players are much stronger ball handling with their right hand, so when they go to the right, they're better drivers and passers, but they can sometimes struggle to shoot. When they're going left, they can be better shooters, but they can sometimes struggle to drive because they don't ribble as well with their left hand. And it's really hard to throw those passes with their left hand right But ironically a lot of the passing reads are most available going to your left because you're a more deadly jump shooter, and so the coverages will be more aggressive to try to take away that jump shot. And so the ability to actually throw these cross court passes in these on time, on target bullet passes right into the shooting pocket with your left hand is such an incredibly valuable trait for a ball handler. And I was watching Trey just pick the pacers apart with his left hand as a passer in those games. One of the other things that really stands out to me when I watch Trey is just his relentless screening attack. He never really lets you off the hook until the end of the shot clock. He'll run a ball screen and then he'll rescreen if he doesn't get the separation he wants. If he doesn't get the separation he wants on that one, he'll swing it to the wing and he'll like cut through the lane and he'll end up under the basket. He'll kind of slow down and then all of a sudden he'll come sprinting off of another dribble handoff, and it's like another kind of ball screen concept built out of that DHO and you might have to deal with Trey four or five times on a single possession in a ball screen action. And as all of that's happening, if you make a single mistake anywhere along the way, you give a shooter too much space, you let a guy cut behind you, you leave the role man a runway towards the front of the rim, he just makes you pay every single time with those passes. Tray's averaging thirteen assists per game over this four and one stretch. He's really having a brilliant offensive season that I think has been underrated by a lot of folks, as he's been setting up a lot of high quality shots for his young athlete corps around him. Lavert's been very good in the stretch. He's averaging seventeen points per game since joining the Hawks, twenty per game in this five game stretch for their four and one. But I want to focus on Dyson Daniels here for a minute. Dyson has a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in the league, which is well deserved, but he's also blossoming into a very good offensive player. As of late, he's scored double figures in seventeen straight games. That's pretty wild consistency. It'savaging sixteen points per game over that span, fifty four percent from the field, fifty five percent from three six rebounds a game, and this crazy part, five point four assists per game with only two turnovers, basically a two and a half over a two and a half assist to turnover ratio. He's got this lightning quick first step. He's really good at disguising it too, like he'll move slowly with like change of pace where he'll kind of like lull the defender to sleep, and then he'll just explode forward. He can get dribble penetration on just about anyone. He's got really good counter move footwork in the short range. These are like the he gets downhill and then he can like euro back to the opposite side with either foot. He's got a good spin move. He gets separation after he gets downhill in that short range, and then he ties it all together with a floater, which is flat out deadly. He's made ninety six of them this year. Here's a crazy stat for you, guys. Dyson Daniels has made the fourth most floaters in the entire NBA this year, more than Darius Garland, more than Ty Jerome. He's deadly with it. He's at forty six percent on the season in efficiency. But that's been trending way up. I was digging back through all the floaters he's been taken. As of late. I have him for eighteen of his last thirty three on floaters. That's fifty five percent. He's becoming a really dynamic shot maker, a shot maker in that short range area in the middle of the floor, and he's still just barely scratching the surface of what he can do. The jump shots coming along, Like we talked about, he's over fifty percent from three in this range. There's real playmaking potential. He can become one of the better two way guards in this league if he continues to develop his offensive game. They put the ball in his hands a ton last night with against the Sixers, with Trey Young and Karis Lavert out, he went for twenty five six and nine assists on ten for fourteen from the field. They gave him the ball and said, hey, can you be a star for us tonight? And he was a star. He's a special young player. He's not even twenty two years old yet. What a huge swing in the franchise history of the Atlanta Hawks that they were able to turn Dejonte Murray into draft compensation and a player that has the potential to be better than Dejonte within a year or two. And then the last guy that I wanted to shout out was Zachary Resachet. He's coming on super strong as of late. In his last eighteen games is averaging fourteen points per game on fifty two percent from the field in forty seven percent from three I've been talking a lot about this particular archetype, and this is the kind of guy that I think the Detroit Pistons should be hunting in the draft. I've been talking about this quite a bit, but there are different types of talents that you can go for to try to kind of influence your offense. Right, there's ball handling, But one of the most common archetypes that I'm seeing kind of rise to the surface in the NBA is the idea of this like weak side scoring forward. This is the guy that's catching the ball in the skip pass. Because this guy's man is so frequently tagging rollers, so you situate this guy in the week's corner. There's a bunch of the examples of this in the league. So for the Hawks, it's Zachary Rischet right. For the for the Nuggets forever, it was like Michael Porter Junior right. For the Lakers, it's Ruey Hatchi Mura, and now with Luca it's Lebron James too. This this idea of a DeAndre Hunter does a lot of this. For the Cleveland Cavaliers, there's a bunch of these types of guys that are like three four like the hybrid types of forwards who you're not going to run a ton of action for, but they get so many close out opportunities. They are professional closeout attackers. And all it requires is like a good catch and shoot jump shot, and then a couple of basic scoring moves, the ability like a like a rip through or a jab step, and then a couple of basic counter moves euros, spin moves, being able to finish with both hands. Zachary rische is like excellent with his left hand, like little lefty hooks and lefty floaters. That is the set of traits you need in order to put it all together. And it was a little rough to start the year, was a little rough with the shooting, it was a little rough with some of the scoring touch. But in his last eighteen games he's really starting to put it together as a reliable weak side score. And here's the thing. The Hawks aren't gonna make any noise this year, but the rise of Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson, who obviously is hurt right now, that gives the Hawks a super bright future. And where it looked like last summer, like, oh man, they might have to trade Trey Young. Just getting a couple of these guys to pan out as young prospects has gone a long way to changing the perspective on the Atlanta Hawks future. All Right, before we get out of here tonight today, I should say I wanted to just very briefly talk about the Lakers and their loss in Brooklyn last night. I'm not worried about it at all. There's not much margin for error with the injuries. Like you have no Lebron, no Rui Hacha Mura, no Jackson Hayes, and no Dorian Finney Smith. That's four of your core eight playoff rotation players. Lebron's your second best player, Rui's probably your fourth best player, So, like, you don't have much margin for error when you're down on that many guys. So if Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic are also gonna shoot eleven for forty from the field, you're gonna have a hard time beating anyone. Right, It's just there's too much going against you in that sort of situation, and so some of this, like, honestly, it's just a really bad confluence of events. So Lebron happens to suffer his first injury of the year when you're already down two forwards and your starting center. Right, Luca happens to be having one of the worst shot making stretches of his career, which we'll get to in a second. And Austin Reeves has always been a guy that takes a little bit of time to get his rhythm when he's been out of the lineup for a little bit, and so Austin's really struggling because he's been out of the lineup and he's been out a rhythm. Luca's having this like brutal shot making stretch where he can't make any of the jump shots that he typically makes in his throughout the rest of his career, and you're just absolutely brutalized by injuries in the front court. It's just a rough spot, right, And I actually kind of view it as a blessing in the sky because the team had been winning a lot. Obviously, they've been the best team in the league for almost two months. So like it's one of those things where you had a little bit of slippage in your execution against Boston, right, and souse JJ was able to use the Brooklyn loss last night to just basically rip his team a new one and essentially like use it as a motivator to refocus the team. Like it's not a big deal that they lost to the Nets. It's not going to be some sort of dramatic issue with where they're at in the standings. Like I don't necessarily think getting any specific seed other than staying out of the play in matters. I think getting to their getting to April healthy is really all that matters, And so it's more important for you to be sharp. And so if you drop a game against the Nets, that is just a confluence of events and you lose against the defending champions on their home floor in a game where a bunch of down two starters and a bunch of other things don't go your way. It's really nothing to overreact to. But JJ can package that as a message to put in front of the Lakers, to be like, we have to be better at this stuff, because guess what, if they want to win the trophy, they do kind of have to be better at that stuff. And it's just a perfect excuse to use as a motivator for this team. The part that I want to keep an eye on, though, is Luca's shot making, because like, this is the part that has me most excited about the ultimate potential of this team. Austin's been out, he'll eventually get it back. That will go a long way towards helping this team. But we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of how good the Lakers can be when Luca is Luca. Here's a crazy stat to demonstrate for you guys, the gap in shop making ability between this version of Luka Doncic in the version of Luka Doncic that took the Dallas Mavericks to the finals last year. In twelve games with the Lakers, Luca has managed to make at least ten field goals twice in twelve games. Last year with the Dallas Mavericks, in seventy games, he may at least ten shots fifty times fifty of the seventy games. That's the level of shot making that Luca can still get to relative to where he's been with the Lakers. That's where the excitement comes. Do I think the Lakers are actually the best defense in the NBA? No, They've been defending like that, but I don't actually think they're the best defense in the NBA. My guess is they're somewhere in the five to ten range given the type of personnel that they have. But they can be so so so much better on offense. That is the side of the floor that they can make dramatic improvements through simplifying some of their spacing principles. JJ's been talking a lot about this. I'm not going to get into it today, but one of our next few Laker videos, I'll do a deeper dive into just like how spacing is supposed to work and why JJ's been harping on that so much. It mostly has to do with putting guys in the right spots so that you're tilting the offense to get the kinds of shots you want from the players that you want. That's basically the main purpose of spacing right. There's a lot of improvement that they can still make on that end, but just Luca getting back to where he can be as a shot maker while Lebron and Austin are both healthy and in rhythm, will go a long way towards lifting this team to a more elite level on the offensive end of the floor. And that's why I'm not really concerned. I saw enough in the Boston game to think that they can beat Boston. I'm gonna pick Boston. I think everybody should pick Boston against everyone. They're just the safer bet. But I saw enough in that game from Luca and Lebron attacking the Boston smalls to go like, oh, like, I think they can win that series. When I was scouting the Dallas Boston series last year, I literally came on the show in my series preview and said, I think Boston's gonna blow him out. I didn't see a pathway because of some specific issues with the matchups and the inability that Dallas had to create space because of their non shooters on the floor. They're pour above the break shooters in the way that they could sit rim protection under the basket. Though different with the Lakers is when they're healthy and they have Ruy Hatchimura in the lineup and Dorian Finney Smith, they don't have a single player in that five man grouping that you can help off of, and so they should be able to create more space. Lebron and Lucas should be able to punish the Smalls. Again, it was a loss. There was a lot of disappointment there, and I think they played well. Luca looked bad for most of that game. There's a lot of negatives, but I saw enough out of that to be like, oh, I think they can beat Boston. That was an encouraging thing for me. The Nets game was literally a confluence of events. I'm not worried about it, but it's a nice opportunity for JJ to refocus the team and it's a reminder for you guys that Luca can still come so so so far as a shot maker. A brutal from Austin and Luca last night eleven for forty from the field that they're not going to shoot like that very often. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We will be back tomorrow in the evening. We're going live on YouTube. At the end, I think it's a Denver, Minnesota. If I remember correctly, then I think it is it Celtics Thunder. I think it's Celtics Thunder in the first game so jam Packed ESPN Slate tomorrow that we're covering on YouTube live. I'm recording a mail bag tomorrow that will air on Thursday as well. But again, as always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show, and I will see you tomorrow night 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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The Nuggets got revenged on the thunder at a very interesting rematch, very interesting defensive adjustment from Michael Malone in the second half as the Nuggets get a big win there After that, I want to talk a little bit about the Atlanta Hawks, who have won four out of five and specifically a couple of things that really exciting about the bright future that they have, even if we all can agree that they have a certain ceiling this year. Then at the tail end of the show, I just want to briefly talk about the Lakers, just so I can tell everyone to take a deep breath and relax, because I'm not too worried about their disaster in Brooklyn last night. You guys are the job before we get started. Subscribed to Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore JSONNLTC. You guys, don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you eat your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave us a rating and a review on that front. Don't forget about our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year, and then, last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions into the YouTube comments. We are recording a mail bag tomorrow that is going to run on Thursday, So this is the last episode for you guys to get questions into the comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. So again I talked about how in the Sunday game it was obviously a very strong statement for shake yieldess Alexander, for MVP, and in general a sign of some weaknesses that the Denver Nuggets had. I listed at the end of the show a couple of things that the Nuggets could do better to try to flip the script in last night's game, and I talked a lot about on defense the issues that they had containing the ball, and the solution that I presented not really a solution, but the strategy that I would recommend was just bring Yokic up to the level I thought those were his best looks. Just make sure he gets there early enough that Shay can't like split him off the dribble or anything like that, and pray on Shay's inability to like really really pass well out of traps and double teams and things along those lines. I did talk about how they should unleash that zone look again in the second half, just as a rhythm disruptor, but Mike Malone ended up going with something way more aggressive. He started with the exact same strategy from the Sunday game, in the first half a mix of at the level coverages with Jokic and deeper coverages deeper drop coverages with Jokic. Actually, my guess is that the actual game plan is for Jokic to go up to the level, but that there's like kind of an understanding between and Mike Malone that when he needs a break, when he's tired, that he runs a deeper drop as basically an opportunity for him to rest while he's on the court. That's my guess as to how that keeps manifesting as a mix between the two coverages. The game had a very similar feel to the first game. To start, Denver had a little lead early. Oklahoma City really controlled the middle portion of the game, but they weren't really able to pull away, and then in that third quarter, Mike Malone pulls the zone card. Except for one little wrinkle. He said, if we're going to be a team that has to exist in rotation, like we've talked to like we've talked about a lot over the last couple of weeks, we might as well exist in rotation on our terms in a way that we can plan for. So what he did is he just had the top two guys in the zone just double team Shay as soon as he crossed half court. Then they basically set up their back line with Jokicic just sitting right under the rim and the two bottom guys in the zone coming up and playing passing lanes. There's a lot that you can do playing passing lanes to prey on indecisiveness for the role player. So there's four on three right and when you make aggressive rotations, so like let's say, for instance, you double team Shay and he floats the ball over the top to you know, whoever it is that's on the right wing, let's call it Aaron Wiggins. If Jamal Murray, who is let's say on the bottom part of the zone where Alex Caruso is hiding in the corner, if he just sprints up and guards Aaron Wiggins on the wing, then Aaron Wiggins can make a simple and easy swing pass to the corner and it's either a wide open three for Alex Crusoe or you can drive the close out if he wants. But what the Nuggets were consistently doing in that zone is they were having those bottom guys like kind of half close out. But in the lane, in the passing lane, so that as Aaron Wiggins or whoever it was that would catch in that spot would look to read the floor, they'd have this kind of hesitancy because they're like, well, I'm kind of open, but I'm not really open, and I don't I'm sure that coach doesn't want me just shooting on the first pass out of the trap, but like, I'm also gonna have to throw like a floating pass over the top to whoever it is that's in the corner because they're playing in the passing lane. And it just prayed on that indecisiveness and prayed on some of that lack of refined skill that you see from Oklahoma City's role players. And again another important context here, Jalen Williams left the game with a hip strain, and so it ended up being the perfect strategy to really turn that game because they gave up seventy three points in the first half. Like the Thunder defense eviscerated Denver again in the first half, but under the circumstances in that second half with JDub being out, it made a lot of sense to basically force Shay to give up the basketball early in these possessions out by half court and then have a plan for how to rotate out of it. By the way, the thunder did get some buckets out of those sequences, but overall it worked really well. Oklahoma City got one point zero nine points per possession versus Denver's man de man looks in seventeen possessions in the second half. Against that double teaming zone look, they allowed just zero point eight eight points per possession as they worked all the way back into a two point lead heading into the fourth quarter. That set up perfectly because in that middle portion of the game, Okase had led by as much as twelve. That zone allowed them to kind of get back into a commanding position up by two. And then what happens in the fourth quarter if Shake Gildos Alexander leaves the game and Jay Dub's not in the game anymore, well, now you have to throw out a bench look that doesn't have Shay or Jay Dubb. All of a sudden, it's going to be a lot of these lesser role players, a lot of kise On Wallace on the ball, a lot of chet Holm. We'ren taking tougher shots. It turned into a very limited offensive group for Oklahoma City, and Denver just immediately blitzed them to start the fourth quarter. They were up by double figures before Gildess Alexander could get back into the game. Lots of really impressive shot making from Denver in that run to start the fourth quarter. MPJ hit a tough movement three running to his left at the top of the key. Jamal Murray hit a tough off the dribble three on the left wing. Jalen Pickett confidently posting up in a really nice step through move to get a bucket one on one. He had a step back three on the right wing in this stretch. Forget about just that run. The shot making for Denver all night long was amazing. They converted spot up possessions at one point eight five points per possession last night. It was zero point seven to two on Sunday. That's a giant chasm. More than twice as efficient on catch and shoot looks if you just refine it to catch and shoot jump shots. Zero point nine to one points per shot on Sunday one point eight to two points per shot on Monday. That's double. Lots of key guys made shots Westbrook, Peyton Watson and Jalen Pickett combined to go nine for twelve from three. Watson and Westbrook in particular, both hit multiple threes in the fourth quarters where OKC was basically daring them to shoot. I call these coverage beaters, right, like, if the coverage is we're gonna concede this. If you don't show a willingness and an ability to make that shot, then they're gonna stay in that coverage. And they beat that coverage consistently. Just Westbrook one pass away double teams on Jokic, skip passes in their boss screen action that ended up in Peyton Watson in his hands in the left corner. Those threes are way more important than even just the point value of that shot because they defeat a specific coverage and Oklahoma City was never able to regain their footing in that fourth quarter, and Denver went on to win comfortably by thirteen points. And this is the main reason why I haven't been able to quit the Denver Nuggets. Jokic is so damn good, and their ceiling on offense is outrageous. That's the best defense in the league and they hung one forty on them. Their defense is bad. Denver's defense is bad. They're down to twentieth on the season. We talked earlier in a manna man half. They gave up seventy three in the second in the second game against Oklahoma City before that double teaming zone, and again it's important context that Jadub was out of the game when they were able to shut them down in that second half. After last night, Denver is still just five and thirteen this year, five wins and thirteen losses against teams in the top ten in point differential according to Cleaning the Glass. And I think that matters, like who are the four other teams? Who are the Who's my inner circle of championship contenders? It's Denver, but it's the Lakers, It's the Thunder, It's the Calves, and it's the Celtics. If if you were to go to Cleaning the Glass and look at the teams with the best records against the teams in the top ten in point differential, who do you think the top four are? It's the Calves, the Thunder, the Celtics, and the Lakers. Like that, they have all year been consistently great against the top teams and Denver has been terrible. Also, by the way side, note for Warriors fans. They rank sixth on that list in win percentage against teams in the top ten in point differential. That's a big part of why I have my eye on them as a tea that could potentially join my inner circle of contenders before the end of the season. But these are major red flags. Twentieth in defense and can't beat good teams, are not beating good teams often. There are not many teams in NBA history who have postseason success when they suck on defense and they struggle to beat the good teams. But the Nuggets have three things going for them that keep them in the inner circle. For me, one, you don't have to go any further than Nikola Jokic. He's the best basketball player on planet Earth. He had thirty five, eighteen and eight last night. This is how insane this is. I was looking at his game log this morning, just like a list of all the games he's played this season, and I was like, I wonder where this game ranks among all of the games and all the individual performances he's had this year. I don't think it even registers in the top ten, probably not even in the top fifteen. He has four thirty five point triple doubles this year, countless forty point games, a fifty point game like he had a thirty five eighteen and eight, And it's kind of just like a whatever Jokic game this season. And that's just the insane talent level and consistency that Jokic brings to the table. The second piece of it is continuity. The Jamal Murray connection with Jokich is at such a high level of comfortability at this point. He dropped a smooth thirty four last night. Everyone off of those two knows where to be a threat. They know how to be a threat off of Yokic post ups, but they also know how to be a threat off of the Jokich Murray two man yate. As much as I've talked about Denver's defense this year, they're the second best offense in the NBA, ahead of even the Boston Celtics. So like it's important context that we bring into the picture that they are one of the truly elite offenses in this league. And the third piece of it, and this is where the real optimism comes from. I don't think this Nuggets team can be good defensively. They don't have the personnel, but they can be better than they are, And there is a whole lot of like like kind of realities at place here. They're an older veteran team that's been playing together forever and that doesn't really care about the regular season. Like think about how many times Michael Porter, Junior, Jamal Murray and the Cole Jokic have gone through the eighty two game regular season together just as a unit themselves, and they know all their opponents really well. You know, they're not going to bring a level of night to night commitment that other teams around the league breaks. So like there's a certain amount of scaleability for them in the postseason, especially when we've seen like we have seen Jokic, Gordon Murray, Jamal an athletic guard play good defense and be able to get stops in the postseason. Now, they're older and a little slower now, so I don't think they'll be able to get to the level they were in twenty twenty three, but they've been at times this year even better offensively than they were in twenty twenty three. Yokic said last night, I'm playing the best basketball of my career right. So, like, if they can scale up defensively and they're one of the top tier offenses in the NBA. There's absolutely a version of this where it can all come together. You can kind of imagine the scenario. Right they lock in in April. They defend at basically an average level. Jokic, Murray and Michael Porter Junior have like flamethrower postseason runs. And what if Gordon, Westbrook, Brown and Watson all just shoot super well from three. And by the way, before you tell me they're gonna miss fifteen games now, Christian Brown forty one percent from three, Aaron Gordon fifty one percent from three, Russell Westbrook thirty six percent from three. He's confidently stepping into catch and shoot threes last night off of Yokic double teams. Peyton Watson sixty four percent from three. Hit some big ones last night. Like the idea is you help off those guys and they just keep hitting shots. Now, they might not in the postseason, and that'll be the big challenge for the record. All those things will have to come together. Yokichen Murray are gonna have to average damn near thirty on high efficiency if they're gonna get where they want to go. Michael Porter Junior is gonna have to have a great playoff run. All of those guys are gonna have to shoot super well from three, and they're gonna have to get to an average level defensively at minimum. But I think all of those things are possible. And so point being, I can't quit the Nuggets. They have some stuff they absolutely must get better at, but there are enough in greedy there to win the title. All right, Let's move on to the Atlanta Hawks. They beat the Sixers last night without Trey Young or Karislovert, and I had watched both of their games against the Indiana Pacers, a couple wins that they got in the last week. They've won four out of five. They have a one to twenty three offensive rating in that span. It really starts with Trey and Karris Lavert. The two of them has just been playing at a really high level during this stretch. I was watching Trey versus the Pacers in those two games, and I was just amazed. Every time I watched Trey, I'm amazed by his ability to throw passes on time and on target with his left hand. I talked a lot about this concept when we were talking about Steph Curry yesterday. But the difficulties for right handed shooters going either direction as they have to square up in mid air. Right, so you're running to the left, it's easier because you can plant your right foot first and you're already kind of naturally squared up to the basket. But if you're running to your right hand, to your strong hand, you have to like kind of square up in mid air by getting more left, and all of those things combine in ball handling situations to make things complicated. Right, So, like, if you're a right handed player, where is it easiest to throw passes. It's easiest to throw passes by swinging that right hand around with like baseball passes right, We've all since we were little kids thrown things with our right hand. If we're right handed, it's easy enough to make those passes similarly with ballhand like, most right handed players are much stronger ball handling with their right hand, so when they go to the right, they're better drivers and passers, but they can sometimes struggle to shoot. When they're going left, they can be better shooters, but they can sometimes struggle to drive because they don't ribble as well with their left hand. And it's really hard to throw those passes with their left hand right But ironically a lot of the passing reads are most available going to your left because you're a more deadly jump shooter, and so the coverages will be more aggressive to try to take away that jump shot. And so the ability to actually throw these cross court passes in these on time, on target bullet passes right into the shooting pocket with your left hand is such an incredibly valuable trait for a ball handler. And I was watching Trey just pick the pacers apart with his left hand as a passer in those games. One of the other things that really stands out to me when I watch Trey is just his relentless screening attack. He never really lets you off the hook until the end of the shot clock. He'll run a ball screen and then he'll rescreen if he doesn't get the separation he wants. If he doesn't get the separation he wants on that one, he'll swing it to the wing and he'll like cut through the lane and he'll end up under the basket. He'll kind of slow down and then all of a sudden he'll come sprinting off of another dribble handoff, and it's like another kind of ball screen concept built out of that DHO and you might have to deal with Trey four or five times on a single possession in a ball screen action. And as all of that's happening, if you make a single mistake anywhere along the way, you give a shooter too much space, you let a guy cut behind you, you leave the role man a runway towards the front of the rim, he just makes you pay every single time with those passes. Tray's averaging thirteen assists per game over this four and one stretch. He's really having a brilliant offensive season that I think has been underrated by a lot of folks, as he's been setting up a lot of high quality shots for his young athlete corps around him. Lavert's been very good in the stretch. He's averaging seventeen points per game since joining the Hawks, twenty per game in this five game stretch for their four and one. But I want to focus on Dyson Daniels here for a minute. Dyson has a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in the league, which is well deserved, but he's also blossoming into a very good offensive player. As of late, he's scored double figures in seventeen straight games. That's pretty wild consistency. It'savaging sixteen points per game over that span, fifty four percent from the field, fifty five percent from three six rebounds a game, and this crazy part, five point four assists per game with only two turnovers, basically a two and a half over a two and a half assist to turnover ratio. He's got this lightning quick first step. He's really good at disguising it too, like he'll move slowly with like change of pace where he'll kind of like lull the defender to sleep, and then he'll just explode forward. He can get dribble penetration on just about anyone. He's got really good counter move footwork in the short range. These are like the he gets downhill and then he can like euro back to the opposite side with either foot. He's got a good spin move. He gets separation after he gets downhill in that short range, and then he ties it all together with a floater, which is flat out deadly. He's made ninety six of them this year. Here's a crazy stat for you, guys. Dyson Daniels has made the fourth most floaters in the entire NBA this year, more than Darius Garland, more than Ty Jerome. He's deadly with it. He's at forty six percent on the season in efficiency. But that's been trending way up. I was digging back through all the floaters he's been taken. As of late. I have him for eighteen of his last thirty three on floaters. That's fifty five percent. He's becoming a really dynamic shot maker, a shot maker in that short range area in the middle of the floor, and he's still just barely scratching the surface of what he can do. The jump shots coming along, Like we talked about, he's over fifty percent from three in this range. There's real playmaking potential. He can become one of the better two way guards in this league if he continues to develop his offensive game. They put the ball in his hands a ton last night with against the Sixers, with Trey Young and Karis Lavert out, he went for twenty five six and nine assists on ten for fourteen from the field. They gave him the ball and said, hey, can you be a star for us tonight? And he was a star. He's a special young player. He's not even twenty two years old yet. What a huge swing in the franchise history of the Atlanta Hawks that they were able to turn Dejonte Murray into draft compensation and a player that has the potential to be better than Dejonte within a year or two. And then the last guy that I wanted to shout out was Zachary Resachet. He's coming on super strong as of late. In his last eighteen games is averaging fourteen points per game on fifty two percent from the field in forty seven percent from three I've been talking a lot about this particular archetype, and this is the kind of guy that I think the Detroit Pistons should be hunting in the draft. I've been talking about this quite a bit, but there are different types of talents that you can go for to try to kind of influence your offense. Right, there's ball handling, But one of the most common archetypes that I'm seeing kind of rise to the surface in the NBA is the idea of this like weak side scoring forward. This is the guy that's catching the ball in the skip pass. Because this guy's man is so frequently tagging rollers, so you situate this guy in the week's corner. There's a bunch of the examples of this in the league. So for the Hawks, it's Zachary Rischet right. For the for the Nuggets forever, it was like Michael Porter Junior right. For the Lakers, it's Ruey Hatchi Mura, and now with Luca it's Lebron James too. This this idea of a DeAndre Hunter does a lot of this. For the Cleveland Cavaliers, there's a bunch of these types of guys that are like three four like the hybrid types of forwards who you're not going to run a ton of action for, but they get so many close out opportunities. They are professional closeout attackers. And all it requires is like a good catch and shoot jump shot, and then a couple of basic scoring moves, the ability like a like a rip through or a jab step, and then a couple of basic counter moves euros, spin moves, being able to finish with both hands. Zachary rische is like excellent with his left hand, like little lefty hooks and lefty floaters. That is the set of traits you need in order to put it all together. And it was a little rough to start the year, was a little rough with the shooting, it was a little rough with some of the scoring touch. But in his last eighteen games he's really starting to put it together as a reliable weak side score. And here's the thing. The Hawks aren't gonna make any noise this year, but the rise of Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson, who obviously is hurt right now, that gives the Hawks a super bright future. And where it looked like last summer, like, oh man, they might have to trade Trey Young. Just getting a couple of these guys to pan out as young prospects has gone a long way to changing the perspective on the Atlanta Hawks future. All Right, before we get out of here tonight today, I should say I wanted to just very briefly talk about the Lakers and their loss in Brooklyn last night. I'm not worried about it at all. There's not much margin for error with the injuries. Like you have no Lebron, no Rui Hacha Mura, no Jackson Hayes, and no Dorian Finney Smith. That's four of your core eight playoff rotation players. Lebron's your second best player, Rui's probably your fourth best player, So, like, you don't have much margin for error when you're down on that many guys. So if Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic are also gonna shoot eleven for forty from the field, you're gonna have a hard time beating anyone. Right, It's just there's too much going against you in that sort of situation, and so some of this, like, honestly, it's just a really bad confluence of events. So Lebron happens to suffer his first injury of the year when you're already down two forwards and your starting center. Right, Luca happens to be having one of the worst shot making stretches of his career, which we'll get to in a second. And Austin Reeves has always been a guy that takes a little bit of time to get his rhythm when he's been out of the lineup for a little bit, and so Austin's really struggling because he's been out of the lineup and he's been out a rhythm. Luca's having this like brutal shot making stretch where he can't make any of the jump shots that he typically makes in his throughout the rest of his career, and you're just absolutely brutalized by injuries in the front court. It's just a rough spot, right, And I actually kind of view it as a blessing in the sky because the team had been winning a lot. Obviously, they've been the best team in the league for almost two months. So like it's one of those things where you had a little bit of slippage in your execution against Boston, right, and souse JJ was able to use the Brooklyn loss last night to just basically rip his team a new one and essentially like use it as a motivator to refocus the team. Like it's not a big deal that they lost to the Nets. It's not going to be some sort of dramatic issue with where they're at in the standings. Like I don't necessarily think getting any specific seed other than staying out of the play in matters. I think getting to their getting to April healthy is really all that matters, And so it's more important for you to be sharp. And so if you drop a game against the Nets, that is just a confluence of events and you lose against the defending champions on their home floor in a game where a bunch of down two starters and a bunch of other things don't go your way. It's really nothing to overreact to. But JJ can package that as a message to put in front of the Lakers, to be like, we have to be better at this stuff, because guess what, if they want to win the trophy, they do kind of have to be better at that stuff. And it's just a perfect excuse to use as a motivator for this team. The part that I want to keep an eye on, though, is Luca's shot making, because like, this is the part that has me most excited about the ultimate potential of this team. Austin's been out, he'll eventually get it back. That will go a long way towards helping this team. But we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of how good the Lakers can be when Luca is Luca. Here's a crazy stat to demonstrate for you guys, the gap in shop making ability between this version of Luka Doncic in the version of Luka Doncic that took the Dallas Mavericks to the finals last year. In twelve games with the Lakers, Luca has managed to make at least ten field goals twice in twelve games. Last year with the Dallas Mavericks, in seventy games, he may at least ten shots fifty times fifty of the seventy games. That's the level of shot making that Luca can still get to relative to where he's been with the Lakers. That's where the excitement comes. Do I think the Lakers are actually the best defense in the NBA? No, They've been defending like that, but I don't actually think they're the best defense in the NBA. My guess is they're somewhere in the five to ten range given the type of personnel that they have. But they can be so so so much better on offense. That is the side of the floor that they can make dramatic improvements through simplifying some of their spacing principles. JJ's been talking a lot about this. I'm not going to get into it today, but one of our next few Laker videos, I'll do a deeper dive into just like how spacing is supposed to work and why JJ's been harping on that so much. It mostly has to do with putting guys in the right spots so that you're tilting the offense to get the kinds of shots you want from the players that you want. That's basically the main purpose of spacing right. There's a lot of improvement that they can still make on that end, but just Luca getting back to where he can be as a shot maker while Lebron and Austin are both healthy and in rhythm, will go a long way towards lifting this team to a more elite level on the offensive end of the floor. And that's why I'm not really concerned. I saw enough in the Boston game to think that they can beat Boston. I'm gonna pick Boston. I think everybody should pick Boston against everyone. They're just the safer bet. But I saw enough in that game from Luca and Lebron attacking the Boston smalls to go like, oh, like, I think they can win that series. When I was scouting the Dallas Boston series last year, I literally came on the show in my series preview and said, I think Boston's gonna blow him out. I didn't see a pathway because of some specific issues with the matchups and the inability that Dallas had to create space because of their non shooters on the floor. They're pour above the break shooters in the way that they could sit rim protection under the basket. Though different with the Lakers is when they're healthy and they have Ruy Hatchimura in the lineup and Dorian Finney Smith, they don't have a single player in that five man grouping that you can help off of, and so they should be able to create more space. Lebron and Lucas should be able to punish the Smalls. Again, it was a loss. There was a lot of disappointment there, and I think they played well. Luca looked bad for most of that game. There's a lot of negatives, but I saw enough out of that to be like, oh, I think they can beat Boston. That was an encouraging thing for me. The Nets game was literally a confluence of events. I'm not worried about it, but it's a nice opportunity for JJ to refocus the team and it's a reminder for you guys that Luca can still come so so so far as a shot maker. A brutal from Austin and Luca last night eleven for forty from the field that they're not going to shoot like that very often. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We will be back tomorrow in the evening. We're going live on YouTube. At the end, I think it's a Denver, Minnesota. If I remember correctly, then I think it is it Celtics Thunder. I think it's Celtics Thunder in the first game so jam Packed ESPN Slate tomorrow that we're covering on YouTube live. I'm recording a mail bag tomorrow that will air on Thursday as well. But again, as always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show, and I will see you tomorrow night 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.