Hoops Tonight - Best Of: KD gets hurt, Joker puts up 61, Risacher making noise

Summary

Hoops Tonight - Best Of: KD Gets Hurt, Joker Puts Up 61, Risacher Making Noise

Podcast: The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts and The Volume
Release Date: April 5, 2025

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1. KD's Ankle Injury and the Phoenix Suns' Struggles

Colleen Witt dives deep into the recent setbacks faced by the Phoenix Suns, primarily focusing on the impact of Kevin Durant's (KD) ankle sprain.

"I want to focus on Phoenix here for a second because we're going to hit Houston in tonight's show as they play the Lakers again" (02:19).

Witt discusses how the Suns, once considered championship contenders, are now grappling with consistent losses. She emphasizes that the team's decline isn't solely due to KD and Devin Booker's performances but also stems from a lack of organizational identity and defensive shortcomings.

"You need an organizational identity that is separate from your stars...this is the team that is completely let go of the rope." (15:00).

Witt critiques KD's limitations, highlighting issues like his inability to leverage his physical gifts effectively and his struggles on the defensive end. She underscores the necessity for the Suns to cultivate a robust basketball culture beyond their star players to remain competitive.

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2. Jokic's Spectacular 61-Point Game

The Denver Nuggets witnessed an extraordinary performance from Nikola Jokic, putting up a staggering 61 points along with 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

"Jokic in crunch time had 14 points, four assists and zero turnovers in the clutch portion of this game" (09:30).

Witt praises Jokic's versatility and efficiency, stating that he's arguably the greatest offensive player currently in the NBA. She highlights his ability to dominate both ends of the court, making it nearly impossible to stop him.

"You literally cannot stop Jokic from either getting a great shot for himself or for someone else." (10:15).

Despite acknowledging Jokic's defensive struggles this season, Witt maintains that his offensive prowess remains unparalleled, making the Nuggets a formidable force in the league.

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3. Zachary Risacher Making Noise with the Hawks

Witt spotlights Zachary Risacher's impressive performance with the Atlanta Hawks, noting his significant contributions on the court.

"Zachary Rizachet has been doing some of the best weak side scoring work you'll see out of a rookie forward." (05:45).

She elaborates on his athleticism and scoring ability, particularly in transition, which complements the playmaking skills of teammates like Trae Young. Witt underscores Risacher's potential to develop into a key player, enhancing the Hawks' offensive strategies.

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4. Russell Westbrook's Fit with the Nuggets: High Ceiling, Low Floor

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around Russell Westbrook's tenure with the Denver Nuggets. Witt analyzes his performance, juxtaposing his immense potential against his propensity for mistakes.

"Russell Westbrook is incredibly prone to mistakes regardless of the surrounding circumstances of the game." (24:10).

While acknowledging his high ceiling and how his energy can uplift the team, Witt points out that his lack of refinement and decision-making can undermine the Nuggets' success. She provides examples of critical turnovers and poor defensive plays that could cost the team in pivotal moments.

"He just repeatedly undercut his successes with that mistake making." (28:30).

Witt advises that the Nuggets need to find ways to mitigate Westbrook's errors to fully harness his capabilities.

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5. Lakers' Defensive Woes and Luka Doncic's Performance

Witt critiques the Los Angeles Lakers' defensive struggles, particularly focusing on Luka Doncic's underperformance since his acquisition.

"Luka is so good at making all the natural reads he can...he's so surgical with it that, that it's just a death sentence." (35:20).

She highlights Luka's declining shooting efficiency and reluctance to trust his short-range shots, which has significantly impacted the Lakers' overall performance. Witt expresses concerns about their preparedness for the postseason, emphasizing that unresolved defensive issues and inconsistent offensive support from key players like Russell Westbrook could jeopardize their playoff aspirations.

"He is a rookie that projects to be one of the best people at his particular job in the NBA, which is being that weak side scoring forward which is very exciting for Hawks fans." (10:50).

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6. Postseason Implications and Future Predictions

Witt wraps up her analysis by projecting the potential outcomes for both the Nuggets and the Suns heading into the postseason.

"There is time... but I'm starting to get a little bit concerned about whether or not the Lakers are hitting at the right type of level." (40:15).

She warns that without significant improvements, especially in defense and team chemistry, the Suns might face early exits from the playoffs despite their star power. Conversely, the Nuggets, led by Jokic's exceptional performances, appear poised to make a deep run if they can manage Westbrook's inconsistencies.

"If Luka plays like this in the postseason, they're going to get beat in the first or second round." (42:00).

Witt emphasizes the importance of organizational identity and strategic adjustments for the Suns to overcome their current challenges and remain competitive.

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Conclusion

In this episode, Colleen Witt provides a comprehensive analysis of current NBA dynamics, focusing on key players and team performances. She highlights the critical roles of star players like Jokic and Risacher, scrutinizes the Phoenix Suns' downfall amidst KD's injury, and evaluates the Los Angeles Lakers' defensive lapses. Witt's insightful commentary underscores the importance of team chemistry, organizational identity, and strategic playmaking in navigating the complexities of the NBA season.

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Notable Quotes:

• "Scoring is the ultimate compliment to playmaking." – Colleen Witt (08:45)
• "You literally cannot stop Jokic from either getting a great shot for himself or for someone else." – Colleen Witt (10:15)
• "Russell Westbrook is incredibly prone to mistakes regardless of the surrounding circumstances of the game." – Colleen Witt (24:10)
• "He is a rookie that projects to be one of the best people at his particular job in the NBA." – Colleen Witt (10:50)
• "If Luka plays like this in the postseason, they're going to get beat in the first or second round." – Colleen Witt (42:00)

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This summary encapsulates the main discussions from the episode, offering insights into player performances, team strategies, and the broader implications for the NBA's competitive landscape. Whether you're an avid listener or new to the podcast, this overview provides a clear understanding of the key points discussed in Hoops Tonight - Best Of: KD Gets Hurt, Joker Puts Up 61, Risacher Making Noise.

Transcript

[Julie Swearbinks]

What's up everyone? Julie Swerbinks here along with former NHL player Nate Thompson.

[Nate Thompson]

We're doing a new podcast together.

[Colleen Witt]

Here we go.

[Julie Swearbinks]

The name Energy Line with Nate and jsb.

[Nate Thompson]

Each week we'll get together and talk about hockey life. All topics are fair game, right?

[Julie Swearbinks]

Exactly. And you'll never know who will drop by to join us.

[Nate Thompson]

Julie is pretty well connected. She has text threads going that you wouldn't believe.

[Julie Swearbinks]

Listen to Energy Line with Nate and jsb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Bob Pittman]

Are you hungry? Colleen Witt here. And Eating While Broke is back for season four every Thursday on the Black Effect Podcast Network. This season we've got a legendary lineup serving up broke dishes and even better stories. On the menu. We have Tony Baker, Nick Cannon, Melissa Ford, October London and Carrie Harper Howey. Turning Big Macs into big moves. Catch Eating While Broke every Thursday on the Black Effect podcast network. IHeartRadio app, Apple PODC. Wherever you get your favorite shows, come hungry for season four.

[Mel Reid]

Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia. I'm excited to introduce a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Stories from the frontiers of Marketing. I'm having conversations with some folks across a wide range of industries to hear how they reach the top of their fields and the lessons they learned along the way that everyone can use. I'll be joined by innovative leaders like chairman and CEO of Health Beauty, Tarang Amin, legendary singer, songwriter and philanthropist Jewel. Being a rock star is very fun, but helping people is way more fun. And Damian Maldonado, CEO of American Financing.

[Colleen Witt]

I figured out the formula. I just have to work hard, then that's magic.

[Mel Reid]

Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math and the ever important creative spark, the magic. Listen to math and Magic on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Kyra K. Dixon]

This is Mel Reid, LPGA Tour winner and six time Ladies European Tour winner.

[Julie Swearbinks]

And Kyra K. Dixon, NBC Sports report and host.

[Kyra K. Dixon]

And we've got a new podcast, Quiet Please with Mel and Kira.

[Julie Swearbinks]

We are bringing you spicy takes on sports and pop culture. Some interviews with incredible people who have figured out how to make golf their superpower.

[Kyra K. Dixon]

And iheart Wins Sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Julie Swearbinks]

Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports the Volume.

[Colleen Witt]

Welcome to the Best of Hoops tonight featuring my top takes from recent Shows. Let's move on to Zachary Rosace in the Hawks. So he drops a career high 36 in a dominant victory over the Bucks. It's the third game this year he scored over 30 points. Zach's played 27 consecutive games. In those games, he's averaging 15.2 points per game. He's shooting 52% from the field, 43% from three on over five attempts per game. He's showcasing a little bit more of a quick release against the Bucks. Hit a couple of no dip jumpers. Those are where the ball is already is caught in the pocket and you flow immediately into the shot instead of having to catch somewhere else and then dip down into your release and like kind of restart your chain of energy from the floor up to the top of the shot. He's showing a lot of really high level scoring. I want to talk about this concept for a minute because I think it's a really important part of team building moving forward in the NBA. Scoring is the ultimate compliment to playmaking. I've been thinking a lot about this concept this season. When you have elite playmaking on your team, guys like Trey young, guys like LeBron, Luka, Nicola Jokic, these really, really high level passers, you need elite play finishing to pay those sequences off. Whether it's a vertical spacer like Aaron Gordon alongside Jokic, or Derek Lively alongside Luka, or Jackson Hayes alongside Luka, or a deadly spot up guy, someone like Kyle quarterback with LeBron when he was with the Cavs, or Malik Beasley playing with Cade Cunningham, guys that can pay off these sequences from your playmakers. But one of the manifestations of that type of player that I've been talking a lot about this year, I've been referring to it as the weak side scoring forward. This is why I went into detail about the strong side corner help thing that we talked about earlier. This same concept is built into pick and roll coverages too. There's a reason why they don't offer low man help out of the strong side corner. They offer low man help out of the weak side corner. Why do they do that? So that for the same reason on an ISO drive, if a guy's getting downhill in a ball screen, the opening for him as a playmaker is across the court and across his body. That's the goal. You want to make it across the court and across the body across as many help defenders as possible to make that pass difficult, right? But that is ultimately the opening. And all of the best playmakers in the league consistently capitalize on Those openings. We've talked about this concept a ton. Making reads in pick and roll. What are my reads? Big man steps up. I'm making a read based on the roll man or the weak side corner based on what the low man does. If the low man steps over, I'm skipping it. If the low man stays home, excuse me, I'm throwing the lob. If the big man drops back and the guard is chasing, my read is to shoot in the mid range. My read is to get as close to the basket for as high percentage of a shot as possible. Those are the pick and roll reads. And so when these teams, the majority of teams are bringing their big up to the level and bringing the low man over, that skip pass is open. And those skip passes are going to be made especially by Trae Young. In these sorts of situations, there's a bunch of different ways that you can look to score, right? It's not just hitting spot up threes, it's running your lane in transition as an athlete. It's driving closeouts. It's oh, they switched a screen or we ran in transition and got a cross match. And now there's a guard on this forward. You need that forward to do a lot more of this high level scoring. These are professional scores, but primarily in an off ball context. Examples are like Michael Porter Jr. OG Anunoby, Rui Hachimura, DeAndre Hunter. Lauri Markkanen is kind of a high end version of that for the Jazz. Denny Avdia, even though he's been doing more on ball stuff as of late. Kyle Kuzma, PJ Washington. This is becoming an extremely important archetype in the NBA. Zachary Rizachet has been doing some of the best weak side scoring work you'll see out of a rookie forward starts in transition. I was watching the Rockets Hawks game from about a week ago. You can find him on my Twitter feed. I shared some clips, but Zachary Risso was amazing in transition in that game. Just literally outrunning everybody up the floor. Didn't matter if he the rebound was captured and he was on the baseline, he was sprinting and it was so visually jarring that I clipped these examples and I put them on my Twitter feed for you guys to see. Watch these three clips. Watch the way Zachary Ricochet runs. Watch when he gets his head of steam, how it literally looks like he's moving a different speed than everyone else on the floor. He's a gazelle. It's crazy. And he'll get two or three wide open attempts at the rim. Every game just by running the floor. And that pairs perfectly with Trey Young, who's one of the best hit ahead passers in the league. I had a coach my last year in college at Arizona Christian University shout out to Jeff Rudder. They just won their conference tournament on a buzzer beater, crazy buzzer beater. And. And then they made it to the Final Four before losing in the NAI NAIA tournament. But he used to say to all of us that you can manufacture 12 points a game just by getting a transition layup, running the floor, crashing the offensive glass and getting to the foul line once per half. Such a simple way to produce in a basketball game. And even if you take the foul line part out because obviously there's some out of your control stuff there with the whistle. If you just crash the offensive glass and you just run your lane in transition and you get one bucket a half each, that's eight points right there. You're one bucket away from double figures. It is such a simple way to produce in a basketball game. Run every time, crash every time. And he presents such a massive passing target for Trey because he's so athletic, so rangy and long. He caught a behind the back lob from Trey in the Bucks game where he dunked it behind his head because it's just a massive passing target. Then in the half court, as we talked about, when they load up the strong side in those skips, it's just like king of the court when you're playing with your buddies on short closeouts, you need to knock down threes. He's starting to do that at a really high level. In this 27 game span, he's at 43% on over five attempts per game. Now what's going to start happening if he can maintain that level of shooting for a substantial amount of time, he's going to start getting chased off the line. And that's where I think he has a ton of potential as a scorer. He has downhill burst attacking closeouts. He had a dunk against Shangun in the Rockets game where he drove a closeout off the left wing and just hammered it with his left hand on Sengun's face. A wildly athletic play. He has good footwork on like spins and Euros. He had a bucket against the Nets, driving a closeout against Nick Claxton in the left corner. He jabbed, got back to it deep in the corner with a hesitation dribble, crossed back over, got into the lane, pump faked, pivoted over his right shoulder on his step through for a Left handed finish. That's a really high level scoring move. He had one on Harden off the left wing, jabbed left, drove right, snatched back to the left, drove high, gather through Zubotz and finish at the basket. These are really high level scoring moves. Attacking with an advantage in those king of the court situations. He had a left to right Euro against Zubac a couple of weeks ago where he drove out of the corner like left to right Euro is one of the most complex footwork pieces you'll see for a right handed player. Most guys don't know how to do it and he still has a ton of growth in front of him. Shooting hot for a couple of months is not the same as being an elite shooter. We've all seen it. This guy's shooting 43% from 3 over his last whatever games. You got to do it for a long stretch of time before teams game plan for you in that way that, that that will take a few years probably but that will be what truly unlocks is off the dribble game because I don't think like as good as he is in the open court as an athlete, he's his start stop quickness isn't quite as impressive as his athleticism in the open court which is going to make it so it's a little harder for him to beat people off the dribble unless his jumper comes around which again will take some time. But that's part of his development. He still needs a lot of improvement on the defensive end too. His athleticism has not translated yet as like a really high level off ball defender. He's often a bit behind the play on his help rotations which prevents him from having an impact. That's about processing speed, that's about learning, like learning the actions so well that you know what's going to happen as it's developing so that you can be there a step earlier. And again as we talked about, his start stop quickness isn't as good. That's why that processing speed is going to be so important for him because he's going to need to be there sooner in terms of the way he's reading these plays. But the bottom line is he's a rookie that projects to be one of the best people at his particular job in the NBA, which is being that weak side scoring forward which is very exciting for Hawks fans. I think it might officially be over for the Suns. They got absolutely smacked by the Rockets last night. Shangoon was cooking all their bigs again. Jalen Green poured in another 33 points. Ime Udoka in the second quarter brought out that zone defense that they that he's been using a bunch for the last month or so. And they immediately sparked a massive run in that second quarter and they never looked back. It was a complete and total physical domination by Houston. They out rebounded them by six. They forced 19 turnovers. They scored 34 points off of those turnovers. They won the fast break points battle 32 to 8. Houston scored 40 points in transition in total in this game. But I want to focus on Phoenix here for a second because we're going to hit Houston in tonight's show as they play the Lakers again. We're going live on YouTube tonight after the TNT slate. What did I say about Phoenix a month ago? I said they struck me as the stereotypical older veteran team that knows deep down that they don't really have a chance to win anything this year. And the way that that's going to manifest is in these short week or two long bursts where they compete and they look deep, they look decent, they defend, they rebound, they do their jobs, but that they inevitably let go of the rope because they can't sustain it because they don't believe. And that's exactly what just happened. They won five out of six some quality wins versus the Cavs and the Bucs. They were defending and rebounding top 10 in both. I think they might have been top five in both over that span, but the NBA schedule does not let up. Boston came to town without Tatum and kicked their ass. Then it was Minnesota, then it was Houston. A couple of these big, strong, athletic teams that were going to truly test Phoenix's commitment to the work. And instead of hanging onto the rope, they just completely let go of it. 137.4 defensive rating in the last three games, they gave up an offensive rebound on 35% of opponents misses. That's damagingly bad. And now KD has an ankle sprain, Anthony Davis is back and the Mavs are climbing in the standings. We talked before the year that there was going to be a team that had dead serious championship aspirations, but that would miss the playoffs entirely. And no matter who that would be, it would be a catastrophe. And it looks like it's going to be the Suns. I keep watching them and thinking that it's not a Kevin Durant and Devin Booker problem, but at the same time I do think it's worth mentioning that neither of those two guys can really leverage their physical gifts on the game. KD has length and he has mobility. That helps him on defense, but he carries a massive offensive load, so he can't devote too many resources to that end. And he's not very strong. He can be pushed around, which is very, very dangerous quality for a frontcourt player. Defensively on the glass, duck ins things along those lines, it's tough to do that job outside of like rangy rotating and and rim contests there. There's just a limitation when you can't win the ground battle. And again, it's just one of those things where you watch these other teams. It's like watching Houston. Jalen Green can leverage his athleticism to get to spots. Sengun is bullying these dudes. When you watch these teams that have these players where it's like, I can inflict myself physically on the game to assist my team in these key areas that they need help. Devin Booker and KD are not necessarily as capable. This is why, like, I still believe it's worth exploring the idea of keeping those two. They still give you such a high offensive floor in terms of shot quality. I would still just look to find every discount bruiser I can find at every position group and try to breed that culture around them. Because regardless of what direction you go this summer, even if you do choose to get rid of Kevin Durant or Devin Booker or both, you still need an organizational identity. I talked about this concept after the Celtics win against the Suns last week. I talked about it with Colin Coward last night on his show. You need an organizational identity that is separate from your stars. And so regardless of what direction you go, you need to begin the process of establishing that new owner, new coach. You need to start establishing a basketball culture. This season was a massive step back. And so that's the thing. Like, unless you think there's some magical trade that's going to just solve all your problems, which I don't think there is, you need to begin the process of changing that culture anyway. And so from that standpoint, if you tweak things enough around those two, that's where Kevin Durant, Devin Booker's upside can actually start to lift you to where you want to go. But this is the team that is completely let go of the rope. And I think I would be stunned at this point if we got to see them play meaningful basketball here in a couple of weeks.

[Gilbert King]

Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in in Bone Valley Season one.

[Mel Reid]

I just knew him as a kid.

[Gilbert King]

Long, silent voices from his past came.

[Jeremy Scott]

Forward and he was just staring at me.

[Gilbert King]

And they had secrets of their own to share.

[Jeremy Scott]

Gilbert King I'm the son of Jeremy Lynn Scott.

[Gilbert King]

I was no longer just telling the story, I was part of it.

[Jeremy Scott]

Every time I hear about my dad, it's oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.

[Gilbert King]

I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known.

[Jeremy Scott]

If the cops and everything would have done their job properly, my dad would have been in jail. I would have never existed.

[Gilbert King]

I never expected to find myself in this place. Now I need to tell you how I got here.

[Jeremy Scott]

At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.

[Gilbert King]

Bone Valley Season 2 Jeremy Jeremy, I.

[Jeremy Scott]

Want to tell you something.

[Gilbert King]

Listen to new episodes of bone Valley Season 2 starting April 9 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and to hear the entire new season ad free with exclusive content starting April 9th. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.

[Colleen Witt]

All right, let's talk some Denver Nuggets So Jokic goes for 61, 10 and 10 against the Wolves the other night. Just an absolutely wild game. It was dogfight for the most part, and then the Nuggets finally pulled away in the fourth quarter. They end up going up by 10, but then Anthony Edwards just went absolutely berserk and this has become a kind of a recurring theme with Ant. As the game was unfolding, I was thinking to myself, Ant really hasn't hit kind of a hot jump shooting streak yet. And that felt like a factor that would come into play at some point down the stretch. And it did. And he just started rising. Like Ant just has this ability to rise up at a spot on the court and he gets such great lift on his jump shot that he can really get to it whenever he wants. And he's become such a great jump shooter that it's kind of just like a let's cross our fingers and pray he misses kind of thing. And he just wasn't missing down the stretch of that game and it allowed the Wolves to get back into control. It felt like the Wolves had that Game one at multiple points, but Denver just did a good job of doubling the ball out of Anthony Edwards hands. Minnesota looked like they'd never seen a double team before as they just piss down their leg and get a terrible shot over and over again in those situations. The Wolves led in the final minute of the fourth quarter of overtime and double overtime, yet still needed that insane Russell Westbrook sequence at the end in order to win. TABLE that Russell Westbrook thing We'll talk about that here in a minute. But there was another reason, in addition to Minnesota's poor execution, that Denver was able to consistently come back and almost win that game. Jokic in crunch time had 14 points, four assists and zero turnovers in the clutch portion of this game spanning the end of the fourth quarter and both overtime. So he was completely indomitable, throwing Gobert around and getting an easy floater in the lane. He had a nasty turnaround left shoulder fade away over Julius Randall. He hit one of his patented above the break threes at the top of the key, hit another nasty left shoulder hook over Julius Randle again, all while being doubled and hounded and grabbed and scratched and clawed everywhere. He'd often take a double team, have to get rid of the ball, sprint back up to flash to get the ball back, and then quickly turn away from the double to try to get a bucket before the double came. It was just remarkably high degree of difficulty and he was just crushing these dudes. I talked after Yokich's 30, 2020 game a few weeks back that it probably wasn't even a top five performance from him this year. These are all now Jokic stat lines from this year. 61, 10 and 10, 56, 16 and 8, 48, 14 and 8, 41, 18 and 9. This one's crazy. 37, 18 and 15, 36, 22 and 11, 35, 12 and 15. Here's another crazy one, 35, 22 and 17. The 312122 game earlier this year. He had a 23, 20 and 16 as well. He's averaging 30, 13 and 10 on 66% true shooting for the season. This is the greatest offensive basketball player to ever touch the court. Conversations get way more complicated when you factor in defense. Like Jokic is having legitimately a really bad defensive season and I've seen a lot of talk about people wanting to vault Jokic up the all time list for what's happening in this regular season. I think that's a little more complicated because it's been a two sided coin with Jokic at times this year, but I have never seen a basketball player produce at this volume with this variety, with this level of efficiency, with this complete level of unstoppability. You literally cannot stop Jokic from either getting a great shot for himself or for someone else. You can tilt it towards a lesser teammate to make a shot. Denver's margin for error has shrunken a little bit over the years as their supporting cast has lost a little bit of that firepower but you just about never see Nicole Jokic look visibly uncomfortable on a basketball court. There have been these brief moments here in time. Like for instance against Minnesota in the postseason last year, he had his moments, but he also had like game five of that series where he just ripped through him like tissue paper for one of the greatest playoff performances I've ever seen. As good as Steph Curry was offensively, and he's up there, he never had the physical imposition that Jokic brings to the table. The oh, you leave me in single coverage, I'm just going to get a shot right at the rim with zero variance, guaranteed two points. Like Steph never had that as good as LeBron was offensively back in 2018, like he could get high percentage looks, he had sky high efficiency and volume, but he still never had that go to move against any type of defender that he could hit.60 plus percent of the time Jokic does. The three point shot was the variable that put him over the top for me last year. When he couldn't shoot, it felt like you could do more with double teams and crowding him on pick and roll. In particular when he was like rolling into that short roll area. You can do more of that kind of stuff to lessen his impact. You guys might remember the tail end of the Timberwolf series where he kept popping above the break to avoid that traffic jam on those rolls and he just couldn't hit that shot. He had six of them against Minnesota on Tuesday. That's the thing that makes him completely unguardable. I'll just say from personal experience, as someone who's actively rooted against this guy in a playoff series three times, I can confidently state I've never been more scared of an offensive player on that end of the floor in any sort of big spot late in the game. Then I was scared of Nicola Jokic. And I hope to the basketball gods that I don't have to do it again this year. I want to talk about Westbrook for a minute. I want to set aside the reality of Westbrook's fit and how things have gone in total with the Nuggets just for a minute. I think we can all agree, including Laker fans, that Russell Westbrook is a much better basketball fit with Denver than he was with either of the LA teams, right? So let's just take that piece and set it aside for a second. When Russell Westbrook signed with the Nuggets, you Nuggets fans will probably remember what I said. I said that he undoubtedly has a higher ceiling than Reggie Jackson. There's no way that Reggie Jackson could ever do the things on a basketball court that Russell Westbrook is capable of doing. But I also said that he has a much lower floor than Reggie Jackson and a lot of people, like, interpreted that as like, oh, like he'll have games where he doesn't produce. That's not it at all. It's strictly mistake making. Russell Westbrook is incredibly prone to mistakes regardless of the surrounding circumstances of the game. Doesn't matter if it's the first quarter or the final possession of a big game. He is mistake prone. He plays with a lot of energy and a lot of passion, but it's not very refined. And I would argue when it comes to like, game plan discipline, attention to detail, he's one of the worst players I've ever seen in those categories. And so what ends up happening is Russell Westbrook will make all these good plays over the course of a game and bring all of this positive impact, but he just has a tendency to make these mistakes that undercut that success. So like, for instance, everyone's going to focus on the final sequence. I want to set that aside for a second as well. The overtime possession where he makes the post entry pass to Jokic and then he cuts through the lane and then he just throws Nikhil Alexander Walker to the ground with a swim move right in front of the reference. Easiest offensive foul call in the league. They're going the other way. Just turn the ball over for no reason. In a big spot in overtime. In second overtime, Nuggets up by one. He's guarding Anthony Edwards, the only guy who's been torching your ass over clutch time. He's guarding Anthony Edwards out up at the top of the key and he just goes catatonic. And he's just standing up there like 25ft from the basket and Ant just back cuts right behind him. Easy pass. I think it was from Julius Randolph. I remember correctly. Easy pass on the back cut layup. Now Minnesota has the lead again. Forget about like just that split second decision making at the end of the game. There were two other situations in that same overtime sequence where Russ either tricked off an offensive possession or gave up a bucket because he's just mistake prone. He just makes mistakes. And like a lot of these people were like making Laker fans out to be jerks for just pointing out these like, basic things that we learned from rooting for the guy. I still vividly remember in big spots many times. Fourth quarters, two, three minutes left, huge possession. Russ forcing it in Transition when there was nothing there and smoking a layup. You guys saw it again last night as they blew a game to the spurs in a big sequence late, down 2 as he smoked this crazy reverse layup. And it led to another layup going out the other way. That happened to me. To other Laker fans rooting for him many times over the course of the year and a half that he was there, I still vividly remember a game against the Brooklyn Nets in la. Stanley Johnson signs with the Lakers like day of, does an incredible job, picking up hard in like full court all game. It's this really important game for the Lakers too as they're trying to float in the standings. And one of the biggest possessions of the game late in a one possession game. Russell Westbrook is guarding Patty Mills. What's your job guarding Patty Mills? Game plan, discipline, attention to detail. He's the best shooter on the court. You got to track him. He was ball watching just like that play I was talking about with Ant Pat Mills relocated to the left corner. Harden hit him, he hit the dagger. The game was over. I've been there, guys. I wasn't trying to like talk shit for the sake of talking shit. I wasn't trying to be personal, I wasn't trying to be a dick. I like, I rooted for the guy for a year and a half. It was in my best interest as a fan for him to be good. And he just repeatedly undercut his successes with that mistake making. And then there you go in a big possession late, Anthony Edwards turns the ball over. You're up one with the ball. You don't take a shot unless you are 100% sure you are going to make it. And instead it's another one of those reckless transition pushes. Then he compounds the mistake after missing the layup by getting back into one of those no man's land kind of floating around situations around the right elbow. And next thing you know there's a skip pass and he has to throw a reckless closeout and he fouls a three point shooter and he literally turned a win into a loss. And like look Nicole Jokic after the game. Excellent leadership. Says this kind of shit happens sometimes. And he's not wrong. I literally just watched LeBron do it the other day. I watched LeBron the other day lose a shooter in the weak side corner and then turn the ball over on the baseline. Here's the thing. I've been watching LeBron his entire career. That was fucking weird. That was highly unusual from LeBron James. I watched Russell Westbrook this entire phase of his career. That is something he is absolutely prone to doing in these sorts of spots. And so like again, it's, there's, there are some realities, right? Like Jamal Murray's healthy, Russell Westbrook's probably not out there, right? There are ways for Mike Malone and the Nuggets to shield against this sort of thing by keeping him out of the game in those spots. But the problem is, is like there is some reality to the fact that there is an opportunity. There is a, there is a potential outcome here where the Nuggets are in a big game. Four down, two one in a series on the road at, you know, some one of these big Western Conference teams. And it's a late third quarter stretch where the Nuggets are up by two and Russ could take over the game and win it for you and you could go into the mid fourth quarter stretch up by 12. That's the high ceiling. But there's also a version of that where he has two or three bad turnovers, two or three missed layups, two or three bad three point shots and a couple of bad defensive breakdowns and suddenly your two point lead turns into a ten point deficit. That is also an available outcome because of the wild oscillations of that Russell Westbrook experience. And the only reason I'm saying any of this is because at the start of the year when I pointed this out, I wasn't trying to be a dick. I was just being honest about my own personal experience, rooting for the guy in relaying a message that every Lakers fan will tell you, even Clippers fans will tell you that this was a reality. It's not a big deal. They're going to be able to cover for it. They should be able to keep him out of these sort of high leverage situations, but keep an eye on it in the postseason for a big bench stretch in a big quarter there. He's mistake prone and it could be something that ends up costing you a game. You could really tell in the early part of the game that neither team knew how they wanted to attack each other. And so there's a lot of standing around, a lot of passing the ball around the perimeter, a lot of really ugly offensive possessions from both teams and some of those possessions for Jimmy Butler manifested. I thought LeBron was doing this too early in the game where, where he had those two back to back turnovers where he's driving into the lane and no one's helping. So he's in a one on one, but he's like Trying to force some pass to a guy that's guarded. It's like, no, you need to be looking to score. You're leading a unit without your star on the floor. Same thing goes for Jimmy Butler in those situations. Like, they need him to look to be aggressive. You're not going to get, you know, eight made threes at a Brandon Pajemski every single night. They're going to need more production out of Jimmy in that spot. But overall, I thought he made a bunch of big plays late. I thought that corner three he made late was big at three steals in the game, was beating the Lakers to a bunch of loose balls in some key situations. Really, really impressive performance from the warriors top to bottom. I thought Steph two last piece. I'll say in the warriors before we get to the Lakers. You know, Steph has been fantastic since the Jimmy Butler trade he's at coming into tonight. He was at like 28 points per game on 66% true shooting over his last 23 games on a. On a court that had Jimmy Butler, that had LeBron James, that had Luka Doncic, that had all this star talent on the floor. I thought Steph was the best player on the floor. And I, even though LeBron statistically performed really well, I thought Steph was able to consistently break down the defense. I talked earlier about how both teams didn't really seem to know how they wanted to attack each other in the early portions of the game. It crystallized for Golden State. They found out, you know, they're about halfway through that second quarter. In that second quarter, they found out, it's like, actually, let's just get Steph out into space against Luka and we'll have him drive by Luka sometimes. We'll have him look to attack immediately. Off the catch off of some off ball screening action. Will, there was one late the big three. He hit late where Draymond fell down like he had Luka on a switch. But then Draymond just sprinted into a ball screen. I talked earlier today when we were talking about Jared Allen and the Cav. When you sprint into actions, it makes you that much harder to guard. Draymond sprinted into that ball screen and LeBron was too far back and LeBron was late. It was bad defensive possession from LeBron and a big part of that was Draymond sprinted into the ball screen, got Steph another clean look at a. Basically a drop coverage possession off the left wing. But this is Steph. Steph is heating up right in time for what they're going to need him to be in this postseason run. And I thought he just came in here tonight and kicked the shit out of the Lakers and badly outplayed Luka and, and set his team up to be in a really good position in the standings as we come down the stretch here on the Lakers front. As I always say, I don't really look at the scoreboard when I'm thinking about the postseason. And one of the main reasons why is because there's just so much noise in the regular season, whether it's from the schedule or it's a random role player doing this or a random guy being out of the lineup for whatever reason. There's also a lot of noise relative to the postseason where you'll see. Oh, you know, the Phoenix Suns beat the Timberwolves every single game last year and they had this awesome game plan for like how to beat the, the, the Timberwolves. But then they get into a playoff series and it's like, oh, actually none of these guys can guard ant and they're being super physical on defense and we can't even like dribble the ball of the floor without losing it. So like, everything shifted and changed. Right. So what I'm looking at is, are there any things from tonight that translate to a potential postseason series between these two teams? And the first one that screams off the screen to me is their struggles with switching ever since Luca came over to the Lakers. And again, I've broken this down before. I'll do a very short version of it here, but the short version of it is against drop coverage, against traditional coverages. Luka is so good at making all the natural reads he can. If you don't pick him up going downhill, he's just going to get into that, like right around the block where he can shoot that little seven foot bank shot that he's going to make like 60% of the time if you do step up with your big man, he's throwing a lob to the center for a dunk. And if you tag the roller, he's skipping it to the weak side for a wide open three. And it's just he, he's so surgical with it that, that it's just, it's a death sentence. Like you, there's, there's literally nothing you can do. And every team, for the most part that has run that coverage against the Lakers this year with Luka Doncic has gotten torched. And for the most part, they've had a couple of good games. But for the most part, against These teams that just switch with their fives or switch generally everywhere on the floor, they've really struggled to score. And one of the big reasons why is when LeBron was healthy earlier on, Luka was bad. And then LeBron goes out. And during the phase that LeBron was out, Luka was very good. His shot making bounced back in a major way, but they just didn't have that additional defensive rebounding presence in the front court over that span because Rui, LeBron and Jackson were all out. Now everybody's back, but LeBron is still kind of getting back into form. And here goes Luca again into another kind of like spiraling type of sequence. Luka has shot below 50% from the field in five of his last six games. He has absolutely no touch on his short range shot making. Before tonight, he was just 28 for 88 on floaters and, or, excuse me, on, on jump shots inside of 17ft. So all those like, jump shots that he was hitting nonstop in the playoffs last year, he made three of them per game last year in the postseason at 46%. He's shooting just 32% on them this year. And he's barely making one a game with the Lakers. He has like no touch on his short range shot, making 0 for 6 from 3 tonight. Bizarrely ineffective Luka Doncic. And like, the thing is, is there's a version of this where the Lakers can theoretically be very good against switching, but it's going to require the LeBron James that was there before he hurt his groin and the Luka Doncic that was there last year in the NBA playoffs. And so it's one of those things where, like, I've talked a lot about this. The Lakers have arguably the largest amount to potentially improve between now and May 1st. The Lakers could be dramatically better by May 1st, just simply from LeBron and Luka getting back to form and some team chemistry stuff and regaining their defensive identity, which we'll talk about in a little bit. But the reality is is it's, it's also possible that they just don't. And I'm just going to be perfectly frank with you guys. If Luka plays like this in the postseason, they're, they're, they're going to get beat. They're going to get beat in the first or second round. Like, they're just, there's no going the distance if you make a trade for, with Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic and you get this type of performance out of Luka in a big game. And I mean, strangely enough, The Lakers have dominated the middle tier of the NBA since Luca came. That every Houston, Minnesota, you know, Phoenix, every team that's in that, you know, kind of like just outside the top tier of contenders, the Lakers are kicking the shit out of those guys. They faced two of the teams that I said that I would consider as the top tier contenders, Boston, who's been there all year, and Golden State, who I said I would add when we do our contenders list with San Versini right before the start of the postseason. And in those two games, the Lakers pretty much got outplayed wire to wire. And Luka Doncic looked really, really bad in both games. And I am at. I am. Here's the thing. Early on after the trade, I wasn't worried about it. I was just kind of like, give Lucas some time. He'll be fine. He's one of the greatest players that we've ever seen at his age in this league. But here we are, guys, it's. It's been months now, been two months, and he's going in the wrong direction. So I don't know what's going on with him. Part of the thing that I'm seeing too is like, he's. He's not even trusting himself in the short range. Like, he's pump faking con, like he's pump faking nonstop in that 10 to 15 foot range and just looking to grift for fouls instead of looking to take and make the shots that he was hitting half of at decent volume when he was in the postseason last year. So I'm again, I'm hopeful that Luka will figure it out. I'm hopeful that this will all come together. But guys, like, we've already. The hoops tonight staff, we've already gone over our schedule for the week of the playing tournament. Like, this shit is right around the corner. It's here. It's like here now, there's no, like, let's give Luca a Runway and see what he can do. Like, there's a chance you're facing the Clippers, the Timberwolves, hell, the warriors in two in three weeks. Like, this needs to be. This. These problems need to be resolved yesterday. And so I'm starting to get a little bit concerned about whether or not the Lakers are hitting at the right type of level. They need to be hitting at to go on the run, that they need to go on the defensive, struggle with speed. A lot of missed rotations tonight, a lot of missed defensive rebounds where they're slower to the ball in this sort of situation. I want to at least account for some of the fact that the Lakers are kind of not in the same defensive rhythm that they were in in the past. But the reality is is there was only a very brief stretch there where they were good defensively with Luka right after the trade. There's been a pretty large sample now after that where they've been pretty bad defensively with Luka and teams are looking to attack him out front over and over and over again. We did see an example in the second half tonight of a pre switch, meaning where they brought Lucas man up into his screen and then LeBron went instead of Luca. But that was the only time I saw it. And for the most part they were just conceding that switch. And if they're going to concede that switch, then they're just going to have to be better in their rotations than they've been being. If, if they defend like this behind Luca, who's been giving up triple penetration the way that he has, I think they could get cut to pieces by a good offensive team when they get in the postseason. I talked a lot in other games about the idea of leveraging your strengths to hide your weaknesses. There's no doubt that all this stuff is connected. I'll give you guys some examples. Luka plays better from the start of this game. Immediately starts kicking ass, punishing mismatches, drawing double teams, spraying out beautiful kick out passes to shooters. Now the threes that Dorian gets, the threes that Gabe gets, they're cleaner, they're more in rhythm now. Instead of Those guys going 1 for 10 from 3, they have much better shooting nights now. As a result, the team is able to set their defense more now that they're setting their defense more and they're in control of the game and they're not trailing by 10. They're more invigorated, they're more motivated, they're flying around, they're making plays. See how like you can imagine a scenario where these things are connected. You can leverage your strengths to hide your weaknesses. The part that gets scary for me there is, as I said, like we're on almost a two week stretch there where Lucas just hasn't been as good. And so it's just a little concerning from the standpoint of right now. I haven't seen the Lakers put together a consistent stretch of like great basketball since LeBron came back from his injury. And so I'm, I'm definitely a little bit, I'm a little bit concerned there. That said, there is time. And you know, if they do get a favorable first round matchup and they end up getting a win, they could have until May to get some of this together before they face a more serious team. Similar to what I talked about with Jonathan Kaminga, I did think we saw one clear advantage for the Lakers tonight and that's that the warriors can't guard LeBron. LeBron did exactly what I was just talking about Luka needing to do. He consistently, methodically found mismatches against guards where he liked his size and he liked the spacing of the floor and he was able to get downhill and he was able to consistently compromise the defense for kick out passes and for layups right at the front of the rim. That is to me a translatable thing to a series between the Lakers and Warriors. And so in an event where the Lakers beat the warriors in a playoff series, it will require LeBron to continue to leverage that and for Luka to meet him at that level. And that really is the advantage there. If the Lakers are going to leverage their size, it's got to be LeBron and Luka together punishing them all over the floor. The Volume.

[Unknown]

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[Julie Swearbinks]

Julie Swearbinks here along with former NHL player Nate Thompson.

[Nate Thompson]

We're doing a new podcast together.

[Colleen Witt]

Here we go.

[Julie Swearbinks]

The name Energy Line with Nate and jsb.

[Nate Thompson]

Each week we'll get together and talk about hockey life. All topics are fair game, right?

[Julie Swearbinks]

Exactly. And you'll never know who will drop by to join us.

[Nate Thompson]

Julie is pretty well connected. She has text threads going that you wouldn't believe.

[Julie Swearbinks]

Listen to Energy Line with Nate and jsb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Bob Pittman]

Are you hungry? Colleen Witt here and Eating While Broke is back for Season four every Thursday on the Black Effect Podcast Network. This season we've got a legendary lineup serving up broke dishes and even better stories. On the menu we have Tony Baker, Nick Cannon, Melissa Ford, October London and Carrie Harper. How Turning Big Macs into big Moves Catch eating while broke every Thursday on the Black Effect Podcast Network. IHeartRadio app Apple podcasts Wherever you get your favorite shows, come hungry for season four.

[Mel Reid]

Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia. I'm excited to introduce a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. I'm having conversations with some folks across a wide range of industries to hear how they reach the top of their fields and the lessons they learned along the way that everyone can use. I'll be joined by innovative leaders like Chairman and CEO of Elf Beauty Tarang Amin, legendary singer, songwriter and philanthropist Jewel Being a rock star is very fun, but helping people is way more fun. And Damian Maldonado, CEO of American Financing.

[Colleen Witt]

I figured out the formula. You just have to work hard. Then that's magic.

[Mel Reid]

Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math and the ever important creative spark, the magic. Listen to Math and Magic on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.