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Hoops Tonight - Clippers/Nuggets + Knicks/Pistons Game 2 Reactions
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- [00:00]
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- [01:35]
Jason
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Instantly make it a playoff run. To remember with DraftKings, download the DraftKings sportsbook app and use code HOOPS. That's H O O P S. That's code hoops for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets. When you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER in New York, call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY to 467-369 in Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org Please play responsibly on behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas. 21 plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void In Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG C Co Audio all right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the volume. Happy Monday everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great start to your week. We're hitting the two games from tonight's slate as the Los Angeles Clippers and the Detroit Pistons on the road even up their series to tie things at one and then at the tail end of the show like we will be doing for the most part in the weekday shows during the playoffs, we're going to do 10 to 15 minutes of questions from the chat. So make sure you subscribe to the channel and hit that. Once you hit that subscribe button you can drop your questions in the chat and then we'll bring Jackson on at the end for 10 to 15 minutes of questions. You guys know the drill. Before we get started, subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are just about to cross a hundred thousand subs. I'm super excited about it. Talk a little bit about that at the tail end of the show as I'm just extremely thankful for you guys for helping us build this channel from the ground up. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Follow me on Twitter at underscore jasonlt for show announcements. We also have social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook under the Hoops Tonight title where we're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure you guys follow us there and then keep dropping mailbag questions in our YouTube comments so we can hit them in our mailbags throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So I sent out a tweet in the middle of the third quarter reemphasizing a point that I made after game one of this series, which was that I thought that Denver's chance to win this series was to keep things close. The Clippers are not a super high quality playmaking team relative to Denver. I think Denver in general is a little bit smarter as a team and so in theory, if they can get into close games with 2, 3 minutes left, 4, 5 minutes left and it's a 2 or 3 point game, I like Denver's chances in those situations and boy did I jinx the hell out of the Denver Nuggets because they end up getting into that situation. Looks like the Clippers were going to build a little bit of margin there in the late third quarter, right? We got a, a huge Nick B3, there was a James Harden 3 in there. They get a couple of buckets, they push it up to seven, but Denver battles back and we end up in another crunch time battle. But ironically, it was the Denver Nuggets who were the undisciplined team in crunch time. Aaron Gordon with a wide open dunk, smokes it off the back of the rim. Michael Porter Jr. Who honestly played a much better game than he did in game one, earned his right to close the game, made a couple of huge plays and offensive rebound where he drew a foul, a huge three and a chaotic sequence on the right wing. And then he gets a defensive rebound on a critical possession, looks to throw a kick ahead pass, but hesitates at the last second. And right when he pulls back on that kick ahead pass, the ball just slips out of his fingers, goes right to the other team leading to a wide open three for Norman Powell, who really could buy a bucket most of the night but hit several big ones late, it hit that three along the wing. That was a huge swing. Instead of getting a Denver offense possession, which this season has been worth like around 1.25 points, especially with Nicole Jokic on the floor, you end up giving up three to the Clippers instead. So between that and the dunk we're talking about like almost six and a half point swing back towards the Clippers. And then on that critical Yokich turnover late in the game, he gets double teamed. And this basketball, one on one, when you're double teamed, it's about spacing and making yourself available Both Christian Brown and Russell Westbrook stand in the exact same spot up on the right wing, making themselves easy to guard. Yokage has no place to go with the ball. He tries lobbing it in that direction. Kawhi Leonard gets a big steal. That was what was so unusual about what happened down the stretch. The Denver Nuggets are typically so surgical about getting to the best possible shot and not making mistakes down the stretch. Made three massive mistakes in crunch time that swung this game back towards the Clippers. And meanwhile, on the other end of the floor, Kawhi was just absolutely surgical with his shot making. He was amazing all night. Had just a classic Kawhi Leonard. I'm not going to miss a single pull up jump shot type of game, but I thought the two he hit at the end might have been the toughest ones he hit all night. That right shoulder fade over Aaron Gordon. Aaron Gordon defended that perfectly. On Kawhi's follow through here, he damn near high fived Aaron Gordon, but he got the separation that he needed to at least get the clean look off or at least to get into his rhythm, and he knocked it down. And then the second one coming off the right wing, he sold it with this really nice aggressive driving move. Really got his momentum going down towards the basket before he hit that in and out dribble and elevated. That got Aaron Gordon on his heels so he could get good separation on the move and he knocked it down. I thought he did a much better job of handling, handling double teams in this game. It's. I want to credit the coaching staff here because they made it really simple for him. They had him attack on the right side of the floor. Denver was strong side zoning, usually with Jokic, meaning they were bringing Jokic over to basically outside the block in allowing Aaron Gordon or whoever was guarding Kawhi in a switch to basically force him towards the baseline where he's going to go right into additional help. And what the Clippers did there is they just sent a flasher right to the high post, right at the semicircle below the free throw line. That's where you saw Norman Powell run in and get that little floater. That's where you saw Evita Zubots come in and get that little kind of hooking floater that he takes in that spot in the floor. They created an easier read for Kawhi to make. And it was interesting because in those situations he was making the reads. It was on the other ones when he was dribbling out above the break. When Denver brought The double teams that Kawhi did a lot of what he did in Game one, where he kind of struggled to identify where the opening was or missed some of the easier reads. But when they got him into the right side of the floor, they had a plan. They had a plan for how to handle that double team and he had five assists and one turnover tonight to go with the 39 points on 19 shots. Just a unbelievable game from Kawhi Leonard. One of the things we talked about all year dating back to training camp, I had my optimism surrounding the Clippers. I predicted them to finish above the play in and thought they'd be good based on my beliefs, my core basketball beliefs surrounding their perimeter athleticism. James Harden as a floor raiser on offense in the regular season, what if it's a Zubots can do and as a pick and roll partner with Harden and all the other stuff he showed. But one of the things I talked about at the beginning of the season was there's always this potential outcome, which is we joke about Kawhi and the clippers struggling in 2020. We talk about Kawhi being consistently unavailable from a health perspective in 2021, in 2022, in 2023, in 2024. But none of that matters if for whatever reason he makes it to April this year ready to go. And here we are, it's April 21st. He just played a playoff game that only a top tier superstar in this league is capable of playing. And it's because when Kawhi is late, when Kawhi is healthy, he is capable of reaching that level. And so yeah, there can be some wishful thinking if you're an opponent of Kawhi that maybe he won't be able to hold up over the course of the series. But he's here now and he's busting everybody's ass. I thought the Clippers handled the tic tac toe sequences better. What I'm referring to there is just like the ball screen attack, when they get two to the ball, there's an opening there in the pocket or on a skip and there's these simple read and react sequences that have to take place. And there were just a couple of examples where it worked better. There was a big one out of the right corner late in the game, Harden came off lefty hook pass over the top to Zoom and Zoo. You could see it coming a mile away. They loaded up the low man and they came across to rotate and Nick Batum was wide open in the left corner and Zoo just threw A beautiful over the top pass that landed in Batum's hands with plenty of time for him to knock down that shot. They still botched a couple ones in their baseline cuts. Chris Dunn missed a reverse layup. Credit to Aaron Gordon, he had a nice last second contest, but they're still botching some of those, like, baseline cut finishes that they can get in those sequences. I thought that there were a lot of closeout attacks from Norman Powell that didn't get converted. There's still a lot of, you know, meat on the bone there, so to speak, for the Clippers to try to clean it up and get even more out of it. But I thought they handled everything just a little bit better today. Really nice bounce back. When James Harden, obviously not the most statistically impressive game with the four turnovers and 18 points and 17 shots, but I thought he hit some big ones, some big momentum shots throughout the game. I thought that big three hit in the late third quarter to push the lead up to seven was an example of a shot that carried more in terms of the momentum of the game. Defensively, I thought they got. They forced. I want to credit them for forcing them into some of those mistakes, specifically transition defense and getting back and sprinting and communicating. That's what closes up the opening. That causes Michael Porter Jr. To hesitate and go to throw the ball and then cough it up. The ball. Pressure from Bogdan Bogdanovich on Russell Westbrook as he's driving up the left sideline. That forces the turnover that leads to the Derrick Jones Jr. Dunk. There was a turnover that Zubots or that Jokic had against the post up where Chris Dunn. We've seen Jokic burn teams a million times with this. He'll post up, he'll spin over one of his shoulders. Aaron Gordon will cut along the baseline and find a little opening as his man steps up to help on Jokic, his spin. Chris Dunn came flying in and intercepted that pass to Aaron Gordon along the baseline. They, they just made a few more plays in this game and it ended up being the difference for Denver. A lot of positive. Michael Porter Jr. Reintegrated himself with his rebounding by just being active on the offensive glass. I thought it was a, you know, like, it's one of those things where it's annoying that you have to sit down with Michael and be like, hey, this is what you're great at. Let's get you to do this in this big game. Like, at a certain point, you kind of hope that he would just bring out that. Bring out that level of intensity in Game one. But he did bring that intensity. Drew a key foul late in the game, although he did miss a big free throw. Ended up hitting a huge three on that right wing. But he just made that one critical mistake late that ended up undercutting a lot of his success in the night. But Jamal Murray looked great all night. Russell Westbrook, aside from the handful of mistakes here and there, is still finding ways to space the floor as a cutter and as a shooter. Russ literally got chased off the three point line. I, I can't even remember the last time I saw that where Russell Westbrook has a dude literally come flying at him and force him off the three point line. Russ panicked so much at the closeout that he literally immediately traveled and stepped out of bounds. It just ended up not getting called as he went to the basket and drew a foul. There was a lot of upside from Denver tonight. They just undercut all of that upside with mistakes. 20 turnovers, 21 points off of those turnovers, lots of them were pick sixes and key sequences late. The MPJ turnover directly leads to a three for Norman Powell. The Russell Westbrook turnover directly leads for leads to a dunk for Derek Jones Jr. The missed free throws from Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. Changing the shots that you can take at the end of the game. This has to be the Denver Nuggets in crunch time. The Denver Nuggets from the last few years that weren't mistake prone. This is their pathway. They've got to keep things close so that they can out execute them late in games. I was talking with Jackson before we came on the air and Jackson made an interesting point just about how each game in this series is basically swung on. Mistakes. Clippers mistakes in game one, Denver mistakes in Game two. These teams feel very evenly matched and this is going to be a series that pretty much comes down to the decision making, the playmaking and the mistake making or lack thereof from either of these teams as they move forward in the series. As we always do, come back to the channel on Tuesday morning, tomorrow morning and we will have a film session that will go over some of the specific details that I noticed in this game.
- [15:25]
Advertiser 2
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- [16:28]
Jason
Kind of similar to the first game where the Pistons just controlled things throughout, but the Knicks came on strong late just this time. The Knicks came on strong at the very end of the game instead of the early fourth quarter. Jalen Brunson did some surgical shot making and some surgical playmaking, got the game tied and the game came down to a pretty open Dennis schroeder pull up three against Jalen Brunson and then a McHale Bridges pretty open catch and shoot three. Although it was moving, it was, it was wide open but it was a little bit higher difficulty because he was kind of moving aggressively towards his left. But Dennis made his McHale missed his and that was the difference in the game. The Pistons tie the series. Cade Cunningham has his first huge playoff game of his young career. Um, I thought the story of his original rhythm that he built in the early part of the game was his transition pushes. He has this ability to finish while going full speed with either hand. A lot of guys have to slow down and they'll go to Euro steps so they're or they'll jump up to try to elevate. Cade goes through you in transition. It's a straight line, it's bump with the shoulder. It kind of gets to that left hand on the left side of the right hand of the right side. You know, he actually kind of reminds me of as a finisher, speaking strictly of as a finisher is Desmond Bain in the sense that like it's all straight line power in really good touch while going full speed on either side of the basket. But he got a lot of work early in the game in transition, a steady diet of ball screens attacking Jalen Brunson. I thought that was an interesting approach in this game. It was less you know 15 pick and roll and a lot more of those pick and rolls. With Tim Hardaway Jr trying to attack Jalen Brunson. I thought Tim Hardaway Jr set awesome screens. This is like such an important part of playoff intensity. You can get away with a lot more, especially if your feet are set. Like if your feet are set, they'll let you lean, they'll let you bring those forearms in, they'll let you chuck somebody pretty good. As long as you're in position, as long as you're not moving around or like standing in a four foot wide stance or something like that, you can get away with a lot of contact on your screens. And Tim was just setting great screens for OG and then the scheme there that the Knicks are going to run and that most teams run when teams try to attack. A small guard is a classic hedge and recover, right? So Jalen Brunson is throwing his body out as a hedge and the next step in beating that coverage is as Tim Hardaway setting a good solid screen on OG Kade's got to get over the top of that hedge because if he does, he can turn the corner and there's an opening there before OG can recover from the screen for little mid range jump shots for him to get downhill and to get into the teeth of the defense. A lot of success attacking Jalen Brunson in ball screens. Beating his hedges with some quality screens from Tim Hardaway Jr. A lot of semi transition attacks. This is where Cade was getting his one on one success against OG when he had the semi and again semi transition. All that is to me is a typical transition. Possession is, you know, two on one, three on two. Everyone's sprinting full speed. Semi transition is like guys are kind of back but they're not really set. The defense is still a little bit on their heels, but it's usually more of like a 5 on 5 or a 5 on 4 just before the defense is completely set. And in those situations, OG Anunoby's got his weight more backwards. He's a little bit more on his heels, which you know, neutralizes some of his physicality. And so that's where, where Cade can kind of stare him down as he's on his heels, hit him with a quick, quick crossover dribble. Now he's able to beat him to the spot and initiate the contact allowed to allows it allowing him to leverage his strength a little bit more to get easier finishes around the basket. That big late lob to Jalen Durant. I thought this was a really Fancy fan. I thought this was a really fascinating play. Sorry, it's been a long couple of days. So obviously at the end of the game, Cade looks tired. Quite a bit of action being run for Dennis Schroeder down the stretch, which we're going to talk about in a minute. But there was a huge play late in the game where Cade generates a wide open lob dunk for Jalen Duran. And I thought it was just a really smart example, a really good example, I should say, of why it's so important to take the time to set your spacing up properly before you run action. So in this case, they have Cade coming off of the ball screen towards his right hand, so that Duran is rolling to the left, but they have an occupied corner, in this case, Malik Beasley in the left corner. Mikhail Bridges is the guy who typically would be the low man there. And what they did is right as Cade was coming off the action, they had Malik relocate from the left corner up to the wing aggressively, as though he was going to shoot. So what that did is it put Mikhail Bridges in a really tough spot in terms of his decision making. All game long, the Knicks were putting two on the ball in those Cade ball screens when they could, especially with the five man was involved, right? They were doing it as well with Brunson, but with that five man, as Cade comes off and he has two on the ball, that means the roller gets behind, right? Jalen Duran gets behind the ball, screen defender, right? In that situation, the lob is open unless you tag the roller from the low man. The low man in that situation, since Kate is dribbling towards his right, towards the right corner, towards the right wing area. In that situation, technically the low man is Mikhail Bridges. It's his job to come over and step in front of Jalen Durant. But because it's Malik Beasley over there, such a great shooter, and because they relocate him out of the corner up to the left wing. Mikhail Bridges natural instinct is to follow the shooter as he's relocating. And so that basically neutralizer removed the low man from the equation. What happens when there's no low man and there's two on the ball? With Cade, he doesn't need to make some tough shot. He doesn't need to beat someone off the dribble. He just got to go like this and just throw an easy lob pass up in the air for a dunk for Jalen Durham. Really, really smart action at the end of the play or at the end of the game, and just a Great example of why it's so important to set your spacing up properly. There's a lot of margin in basketball games. If you can get up the ball quickly, get up the floor quickly, get guys into their spacing properly, get to a matchup early enough in a possession, you have quality spacing and time on the clock for guys to extend advantage. By driving closeouts and stuff like that, you can dramatically improve your offensive efficiency. That stuff really does matter if that ends up being, you know, Dennis Schroeder in the left wing instead of Malik Beasley. It's the easiest low man rotation of all time. You're going to concede a catch and shoot three to Dennis Schroeder, especially when he's a guy that you can close out hard at and he's a guy that's a little hesitant to take that type of shot, you know, all this stuff that Cade was succeeding with today is the same kind of stuff that allowed Cade to be successful versus the Knicks throughout the entire regular season. This was a big part of why, even though I picked the Knicks and I still do believe the Knicks will win the series, I did believe this would be a long series because the Knicks have their advantages and specifically Kate Cunningham has found opportunities and ways for him to be successful against this team, regardless of the type of matchup that he's dealing with. And again, they did really smart attacks like those guard screens with Tim Hardaway Jr. That was an excellent way to neutralize some of OG Anunoby's physicality on Cade. Dennis Schroeder. I ended up talking a lot about Dennis this year because he got traded to two playoff teams. He has his limitations. His jumper is inconsistent, he's small, so he's somewhat matchup dependent in terms of who he can guard effectively. Famously, in the 2023 conference finals, he was basically useless. First Jamal Murray because he was too big and strong so you could just get to his spots and shoot over the top of him. He's not as fast as he used to be back like when he was in Atlanta when he could just toast everybody off the dribble all the time. But he's one of the best competitors in the game. And what I mean by that is that he despises losing so much that you can count on him to care. I talk about this all the time. I think a basketball player, I think a player in the NBA that hates losing is actually more valuable than a player in the NBA that loves basketball because the hatred of losing will drive you to do the Dirty work. Ideally, it's both. And the best players in the NBA are both the stephs. The Jokic is the LeBron's. The guys that have run this league over the course of the last decade. These are guys that hate losing and love basketball. But Dennis Schroeder is a classic example of one of those dudes that despises losing. He has this competitive motor. His fight, his willingness to battle his ass off against Brunson every minute is on the floor. The, the, the ability to be confident in a big moment. That all stems, that all comes back to Dennis Schroeder's unrelenting competitive nature. And it was a reason why I loved rooting for him when he was with the Lakers. It's why I told warriors fans that you guys would like him. He just didn't get to stay there long enough and he had to be trade filler. And I told Pistons fans right after the deal, like, if you need a backup guard to be your Jaden Ivy temporarily, you can't do any better than Dennis Schroeder as an option in that spot. And like I thought they, you know, JB Biggerstaff closes with him instead of a Sar Thompson, which I thought was smart. He's very good at making Brunson work hard for his shots and he has a little bit higher floor as an off ball player on offense and he's a guy who can run action late in the game. So Cade runs out of gas late in the game and the Pistons needed a bucket. And you know, Dennis had a miss, a miss on a different shot. It was like a little mid range pull up that he missed. But he went right at Brunson on that final possession and it was a ball screen. He gets Tobias Harris on him and he brings Brunson back into the screen again. And Brunson really did not want to switch back out on Dennis. And so on that second switch, Brunson was hanging just a step too far back and Dennis just confidently stepped into that shot. Huge shot in a huge moment in that game, especially when K Cunningham's on the floor and he just stuck it. It was a big time shot and it ended up literally being the difference in the game. We haven't even talked about the Pistons defense yet and I thought their defense was fantastic all night. They were flying around in rotation, closing up openings. After putting two on the ball against Brunson. They did an excellent job rotating to Kat to take away his easy pick and pop and spot up opportunities. They really controlled Kat all night. He generated 16 points on one on ones, meaning post ups and isos in game one. He generated just four tonight. That's a huge difference from game one. He didn't even log a single ISO possession. After logging seven ISOs in game one, which I thought was interesting. I want to dig a little bit into the film and try to see where those opportunities were missing from game one. That'll be something we'll take a look at tomorrow. But yeah, they controlled Kate. They controlled Cat all night. The Pistons did get some help. OG and Adobe and Mikhail Bridges missed some wide open looks like absolutely unguarded. Looks especially open. Like early in the game, New York generated seven completely unguarded catch and shoot jump shots from a kale bridges and OGN and OBI and they made just two of them and one of them was a two pointer. So like if you generate seven unguarded catch and shoot jump shots for McHale and OG, you're hoping to get 12 points out of that, not five. And that ends up being literally the difference in the game tonight. Like most of the adjustments for New York basically just involve their guys playing better. Like Cat's got to play better. The Kale Bridges got two great looks down the stretch, one on the right wing and one at the top of the key. Both of them he left way short. They need him to knock those shots down. OG an Adobe missing wide open corner threes not bringing the scoring pop that he brought down the tail end of the season. Like they need. Like there's always this desire that I've seen since I started covering the league to come up with like some magical solution. This is what we can do, this X's and O's thing that's going to solve all of our problems. And it's like you can try a different matchup here or there, you can try running a different action here or there. But because in the NBA playoffs everyone does so much more switching and all the actions are scouted. It really just comes down to your dudes have to play up to their capability. And right now McHale, Bridges, OG Anunoby and Carl Anthony Towns are not meeting the moment the way that even some of these Detroit Pistons role players are. And they just got to be better. They converted spot up possessions tonight at 0.48 points per possession. Now some of that is the quality of Detroit's rotations. I want to give them credit, but these are pros and not just pros. These are elite pros on the offensive end in OG An Adobe and Mikhail Bridges. They need to convert those, they need to convert them at a higher clip. And again, like I think the Knicks are going to win the series. Over the course of this series, the more, the more experienced, more talented veterans will eventually find their footing. But this Detroit team's not going anywhere. They've been out rebounding them on the offensive glass in through the first two games. Cade is obviously comfortable in getting to where he wants to on the floor. They have some physical advantages. There are some, there are some tough hurdles for the Knicks to cover in this series and they're not going to cover it unless they're highly paid, highly revered role players on the wing can meet the moment and help contribute on the offensive end of the floor.
- [29:39]
Advertiser 2
You know, when you're really stressed or not feeling so great about your life or about yourself, talking to someone who understands can really help. But who is that person? How do you find them? Where do you even start? Talkspace Talkspace makes it easy to get the support you need. With Talkspace you can go online, answer a few questions about your preferences and be matched with a therapist. And because you'll meet your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule wherever you feel most at ease. If you're depressed, stressed, struggling with a relationship, or if you want some counseling for you and your partner or just need a little extra one on one support, Talkspace is here for you. Plus Talkspace works with most major insurers and most insured members have a $0 copay. No insurance, no problem. Now get $80 off of your first month with promo code space80 when you go to talkspace.com licensed therapist today at talkspace.com save $80 with code space80@talkspace.com all.
- [30:39]
Jason
Right, let's bring Jackson in here and let's get to some of your guys. Questions.
- [30:43]
Jackson
Let's do it. We're going to start with who has been the MVP of the first round so far. And we're only have basically one game in from every series but still it's a fun question.
- [30:56]
Jason
Oh man, that is a very good question. Let's see, we've only had one set of game twos so far so I feel like it would have to be somebody from tonight's slate. Right? Man, I think I, I think, I think Kawhi and Steph all give a mutual to a double award to Kawaii and Steph just because like those two individual performances, what Kawhi did tonight as a shot maker and what Steph did last night. I got in trouble with some warriors fans like I always get in trouble with stands for not being nice enough. It's like the weirdest thing like I said to I said last night that Steph's performance was one of the better ones in his career, which is a pretty innocuous statement. And I just got absolutely slayed for it online because he's had so many better games and it's like first of all we got to stop looking at box scores. Like if you watch that game, he made 11 out of 12 shots. Like he made every single shot out of it. Almost every single shot out of a dozen incredibly difficult shots in a game where he was the only guy who could generate offense when the entire game plan was built around stopping him as like it was a remarkable Steph Curry performance. I was blown away by it. And then Kawhi, every bit as impressive tonight for the Clippers. I would go with the two of those guys. What do you think Jackson?
- [32:18]
Jackson
Yeah, I agree the chat was saying was had a lot of Kawhi and I think it has to be between those two. The way that both those guys just rose to the moment from a playoff shot making standpoint and also really feel like they controlled the game beyond just the shot making. It felt like both guys completely controlled the pace, the flow. It felt like they were getting creating good offense even when it wasn't actually just pure jump shot making. So I think it's got to be between those two.
- [32:46]
Jason
That's a great point. I totally agree. That's a great point.
- [32:48]
Jackson
All right, between the Clippers in Denver, which matchup is more difficult for ok.
- [32:55]
Jason
Oh man, I would go with, I would go with Denver. I think they have the specific ability to more consistently punish their lack of size with Jokic. The Clippers had some issues with the Thunder for stretches this year too. The Nuggets logged a couple of wins. It's worth mentioning their last win involved a little bit of weirdness with J Dub going out with I think a hamstring injury and then they just started double teaming Shea every time he crossed half court. But they did hang 1:40 on the Thunder defense in that game. They Denver completely blew this game down the stretch. Jackson, I don't know about you but I thought, I thought Denver was about to go up 20 and I was literally sitting there thinking watching the game I'm like man like these guys here they are again. It looked like they were dead to rights like like a month ago and now they are looking A lot closer to the team that, you know, contended for a championship over the last couple of years. I, if I was okay, see I'd much rather play the Clippers. I think the Clippers lack of playmaking talent would be a disaster against OKC's turnover forcing defense.
- [34:04]
Jackson
Yeah, I think the strength of the Thunder defense, I mean they got hard and time is good and Ched is good and switchable, but the strength of their defense is just how many wing athlete bodies they have to throw at every every other skilled offensive player. And I think that would be much more effective against a team like the Clippers that where you got so many bodies to throw at James Harden. I mean Kawhi is pretty big, so it's probably just mostly Lou Dort. But you got still a lot of bodies you can throw at Kawhi and a lot of swarming that we've seen Kawhi struggle with in this series and.
- [34:40]
Jason
Against the worst rotation team in Denver. Not just a worst but like a flat out bad rotation relative to the better teams that we have in the league. I want to very quickly credit though both of them in the sense that I do think both of those teams are capable of beating the Thunder. I'm not trying to underrate the Clippers, I just personally think Denver's a little more capable of the upset there.
- [35:01]
Jackson
We got a couple of warriors questions. Is the warriors lack of interior size going to cost them these playoffs or could Stephen, Jimmy and their defense make up for the, for the lack of size?
- [35:13]
Jason
So there's all this talk about size with some of these specific teams in the West. Like there's a lot of talk about size with Minnesota. It's not Minnesota's size that concerns me. It's their, it's their athleticism. It's their overall length and athleticism. The, the Thunder are not a team that presents substantial size related issues. So there's a ver. And the Lakers don't either with exception of LeBron and Luka. So like if go let's, let's, let's say Golden State beats Houston. You're facing one of Minnesota or the Lakers in the second round. I think the Golden State defense is capable of doing much more damage to Minnesota's offense than the Lakers defense is capable of doing. And I don't think Minnesota's bigs are the types of bigs that would do substantial damage to the, to the warriors defense. So neither of those teams I think could be particularly damaging. You're probably looking at OKC in the conference finals they're not a particularly big team. And then coming out of the east, you're likely getting Boston, who's not a particularly big team. So I, I, I don't want to sit here and pretend like it wouldn't be great if the warriors had a, a little bit more size on the front line, but I don't think necessarily it will, it will show up in a real damaging way in this west playoff run.
- [36:34]
Jackson
Yeah, I agree. I think there's a about size and there's certain, there's certain, there's different ways that size can manifest to your point about the Timberwolves attacking the offensive glass or something like that, but not the size that I think people are critical of the warriors is interior defensive size. And the only way to punish that is with if you have someone who can actually do that, which not that many teams do anymore. The Thunder are not running a lot of post ups because I think the warriors are small. If they played each other right, like the Nuggets, you can say yeah. And the Clippers, I think would be the two teams that they, their centers are problems on the inside if you don't guard them with size. Even Draymond, who's as good of a defender interior against both those guys, Jokicanzu that's a much more tough challenge, specifically about the size issue than any of the other teams in the rest of the playoffs.
- [37:21]
Jason
Yeah, I totally agree. And your odds of actually facing Yoka Jer Zoo in the conference finals are pretty low because the Thunder will be favored, even though we think that those teams can beat the Thunder. I actually, my main concern about Golden. I'm actually curious to see if this matches up with your main concern, Jackson. My main concern with Golden State actually winning four playoff rounds is consistent offense. It's, it's like Jimmy Butler hit six jump shots against the Rockets last night. Like, is he gonna keep hitting six jump shots every night? Because if it's not that, they don't really have a reliable offensive player beyond Steph. And Jimmy's been great so far, but like, I have my skepticism after how he finished the regular season. So like, I think it's more likely that if, like Golden State gets eliminated at some point in the first three rounds, you and I are sitting here talking about how they need more shooting and more like, reliable play finishing, not necessarily size on the front line.
- [38:13]
Jackson
Yeah, I agree. They, they sort of feel like it's very different stylistically and even about the way that their success comes, but it feels similar to the, to the Nuggets to me actually a little bit where it's like they're so heliocentric in a different way. It's not like Steph is, you know, pounding the ball, but their offense is so predicated around actions around one player and it's like that can be really challenging, especially when that player's off the floor. But if you're in the game at the end, you really feel confident that that player is just good enough to lift you up over the top. So it's sort of a double edged sword of do you have the 47 minutes, 46 minutes of enough offense to get you there when. Because in the last two you feel even though it didn't work out that way for the Nuggets tonight, you feel relatively confident that your singular player is going to lift you over the top.
- [38:59]
Jason
Yeah. You know, this is why I'm so interested in the Cam Johnson piece because like, and I mean who knows, he could be a pipe dream for the Warriors. We'll see. But I. There's a very specific reason why Jimmy Butler fits so well in this system and it's because he's such a great read and react player that can play off of Steph. And yeah, they can have him take a random ISO possession here or there, but he's pretty efficient in those situations because of his ability to hit mid range jump shots and his ability to get to the foul line and like Jimmy can do it, you know, four or five times in a game and it's feel like it happens in the flow of the offense and it's not as disruptive as it can be. Like when sometimes Kamingo will hijack a possession to disrupt the flow of the offense. But a guy like Cam Johnson is the type of player that could legitimately like score 20 points a game on entirely in the flow of the warriors offense while also being a guy who was trusted with the primary point of attack assignment a lot for Brooklyn this year and actually showed some real defensive chop. So like as a big picture goal for the Warriors. Yeah, like I like to put it simply. And we can kick this back to you here before we get to the next question. Like would you rather have a legitimate center that fits the goal of this team as a starting caliber center or would you rather have Cam Johnson?
- [40:16]
Jackson
Oh, I think definitely Cam Johnson. He, he's, he's in almost every way a knockoff client Prime Klay Thompson in, in almost every way. And if you insert that guy back into this system and then with Jimmy Butler still on the roster It's a much. It's a very diverse set of ways you can score the basketball all of a sudden.
- [40:36]
Jason
Yep, I totally agree.
- [40:38]
Jackson
All right, I like this question. Getting back to tonight's game. Do you think tonight showed David Adelman's inexperience with the way he was subbing in the fourth quarter? Couldn't tell if he was overthinking or second guessing. I do think, to be fair to David Adelman, it seemed like Michael Porter Jr. Did get hurt at the end of the game. But I think the question about Adelman's inexperience feels irrelevant.
- [40:57]
Jason
I think he's done fine to this point. I think he's pushed the right buttons. I thought closing with Russ was the right move in game one. I thought closing with MPJ was the right move tonight. And when you factor in the mistake that Michael made and the injury, it made sense to go back to Russ Slate. I didn't necessarily have a problem with any of those moves. He had the quick hook with Russ after he had that bad turnover along the left sideline. Like, I think he's been managing. Like at a certain point we got to blame the players. Like Aaron Gordon smoked a dunk. Michael Porter Jr. Coughed the ball up in crunch time. Like, like not putting yourselves in the same position when, when a guy's getting double teamed is like basketball 101. Like you'll hear yelling about that shit in a pickup game or in a high school game. Like, you got that spacing one on one. Make yourself, put yourself in a position where you're not easy to guard. When you start standing next to each other, you're easy to guard. Like so many of the things that happened at Denver tonight were like legitimately self inflicted wounds.
- [41:56]
Jackson
I agree. And I think the same can be said even of Jokic's turnovers, which is relevant to the next question, which is what changes does Jokic need to make to, to claw back in this series? And I think specifically the question is probably about turnovers because he had, I think seven tonight. And some of them, like, there was that one where he was sort of, they were really shading the whole defense with that side of the floor. Peyton Watson is in the dunker spot ready for a lob and yoga, just kind of throws out of bounds. Like he, he, he had some weird turnover. Very, very uncharacteristic turnovers tonight.
- [42:26]
Jason
I was screaming at Peyton Watson on that play. I'm like, dude, cut, you're going to get a dunk. And like, and he was just a second Late. And there was like a, a mild disconnect there where like, Jokic threw it to where he was like right after he ended up cutting. And it's like, I saw that play coming a mile away. I was like, dude, the dunk is there. Peyton. Jokic wanted it. He was just. Was too late on the cut. But I mean, Yokos will have a game like that every once in a while. He had a game with seven turnovers in the Minnesota Timberwolves series last year, too. And like, I want to give the, give the Clippers some credit. They jumped some of the typical passing reads that he makes. There's some of them that were unforced too. Like the one with Peyton Watson. I really do think that that one's on Peyton for not cutting when Jokic originally saw the play. The one late in the game that Kawhi got to steal. That's on Christian Brown and Russell Westbrook for like legitimately just doing something really stupid. Yeah, but then like, yeah, the. The one where he spun out of the post up and dropped it off and Chris Dunn stole it. Like, the actual read was to the right corner. I can't remember who it was that was shooting over there at that spot. I think it might have been Michael Porter Jr. But he, he missed the tic tac toe read for in that situation where Dunn made the rotation and he had to make the. But like Yoko make mistakes like that every once in a while. I'm not. I, I am infinitely more encouraged about Denver and their chances to win this series after two games than I was before the first two games. So all you Nuggets fans take that for whatever it's worth. I used to think you had a pretty small chance of winning this series, and now I think you guys have a pretty legitimate chance of winning this series.
- [43:53]
Jackson
That is a perfect pivot to what I think it's probably our last question of the night. Are you feeling worried about any of your picks, your series picks, and if so, who? Or not even not worried is the question. But also if you were a couple one game in for most of the series, two for these two games. Are there any series that you would change your pick at this point?
- [44:12]
Jason
So let's take a look at it. So Cavs Magic I or Cavs Heat? I ended up not doing serious previews on those ones. Just, just because we got so run down and we didn't have time. We. We did like what, 14 videos last week? But, but the Cavs Heat series, I called what, 4:1 or 4:0 that obviously is going to stay the same. Thunder Grizzlies that relatively certain will be a sweep. I said sweep for Celtics Magic. I feel pretty good after game one that Orlando has a good chance to get one game just on the strength of their defense and if Paolo and Franz have really nice games down in Orlando, but that obviously could also end in a sweep. Knicks Pistons is going about exact exactly as I expected it to to this point. The Pistons clearly showing some ability to make the Knicks uncomfortable. But the Pistons now in both games have like kind of soiled themselves late and they just happened to pull this one out because one Dennis Schroeder jump shot went in. But I think the Knicks will close that one out in six games. Pacers Bucks Very similar to how I felt after Lakers Timberwolves where when I went back and watched the tape I'm like can someone go up to these guys and tell them that it's the playoffs? Like what the hell are you guys doing? And so both of those series, the Pacers buck series and the Thunder or in the Lakers Timberwolf series, I'll have a much better feel for after game two because I felt it's really hard to tell how teams stack up unless they both bring their A game. And like Minnesota and Indy brought their A games in game one. And the, the, the Bucks and the Lakers kind of tried to ease their way into the postseason and that went about exactly as you could have expected. Denver Clippers I will. I'm. I'm not going to change my pick yet, but I went into the series thinking Clippers and six and feeling pretty strongly about that. And internally I'm feeling closer to coin flip now, so that should give you guys a general idea of where I stand. I'm never going to overreact to the first couple games of a series, but I think you can start to learn like there was, there was a big one for me last year. I before Luca hit the game winner over Go Bear. The Timberwolves had a two point lead in the final minute with a chance to tie the series. And I tweeted out the series was over. It was just like abundantly clear to me through two games that Luca was infinitely more comfortable picking apart Minnesota's defense than Ant was on the other end of the floor. And I just didn't see anything happening that would change that trend. And what do you know, Dallas went into Minnesota in game three and beat him or and went up three zero. Right. So like I haven't seen anything that has changed my mind Significantly. But I would say yeah, the, the Knicks or excuse me, the Nuggets, Clippers 1 is the one that I'm closest to changing my mind because I'm feeling closer to 50. 50.
- [46:47]
Jackson
I think that's fair. I think, I think the Pistons, I don't know something about it. Something about it.
- [46:53]
Jason
You're feeling it.
- [46:54]
Jackson
I'm drinking the Cade Kool Aid a little bit. I'm drinking the Cade Kool Aid a little bit. It doesn't feel.
- [46:58]
Jason
You're a big Cade guy.
- [46:59]
Jackson
I'm a huge Cade guy. I'm a huge Cade. It doesn't feel like, I mean I was texting you about this. That yes, the Pistons almost blew that game, but if either of their two very good three point shooters, Tim Hardaware, Malik Beasley hit anything in that game, they would have been up 19 instead of hovering around 10 for the vast majority of the second half. Those guys were, I don't know what they finished at, but when I was texting you about it at one point they were combined one for 12. You got to assume it's a cliche.
- [47:29]
Jason
Hahaha.
- [47:30]
Jackson
The role players shoot better at home thing. If it's going to happen for them, it's going to be because some of those guys started to hit some shots so.
- [47:37]
Jason
Well let me ask you a follow up though because like my feeling that game was very much like classic Eastern Conference knockdown, drag out fight and both teams shot in the 20s from three and Mikhail and OG missed a boatload of good looks. So let me ask you this, like who do you think is more likely to get it together and bring more offensive punch over the rest of the series? McKaylen OG or Malik and Tim Hardaway?
- [47:57]
Jackson
I mean McKaylen OG I think is, is the right answer but I, I feel like process wise Cade has been more effective at generating, which I think is true largely over the course of, you know, as the two players are in general. But he's been largely better at creating better looks for his teammates than Jalen Brunson or Cat has for their teammates. The looks that, that Bridges and OG have gotten are good enough. They should, they should make more than they're making. But I think the process wise Cade is doing a good job against this, against a good Knicks defense.
- [48:29]
Jason
This is a really interesting take because I'm not sure I think I agree with you. Through two games, like I think Cade has done a better job. And so going back to my initial kind of ethos when it comes to the playoffs, like which team does a better job of making the other team uncomfortable. Like the Pistons are doing more to make the Knicks uncomfortable right now than the Pistons. I just think the margin is relatively small, and I just feel like the Pistons are far more likely to blow games over the course of the series. And they. Dan, they like, to your point, the Pistons basically controlled both of those games and damn near lost both of them. Right, which is exactly why NBA history tells us that teams like the Pistons don't typically win the series. But I think that, I think the point you're making is extremely fair, which is, through two games, Kate has been the better kind of like half court surgeon, so to speak, than anybody on the Knicks. Before we get out of here tonight, I just wanted to thank you guys. We have officially crossed over a hundred thousand subs. There was a. A moment back In October of 2023, we were still on the volumes feed and the volume feed had like, you know, 700,000 subscribers or whatever. And it was kind of like a scary moment. Me and my producer at the time, Ryan Brumley, still very good friend of mine, we kind of had a chat and we were like, we were like, do you want to go out and like, just launch our own channel? And we were scared because we were like, if we go out on our own, we could lose some of the juice that we get from the volumes feed in terms of exposure. And we launched that channel from scratch in October 23rd, and here we are 18 months later at 100,000 subscribers. And like, you guys came over immediately. Like, we, we moved most of our audience, like in the first week over from that feed. And all I can say is, you know, I've been doing this for what, 38 months now with the volume, and I am just completely and totally mind blown at the support you guys have given the show and what we've actually managed to build here and the things that I've gotten to experience over the course of the last three years, like, I got to this summer go to like Team USA playing against Canada in Vegas. It was like one of the coolest experiences of my life. I got to see Steph throw a lob to LeBron James and transition and like getting to be at summer league and getting to meet the people I've gotten to meet and get to talk to the people I've gotten to talk to. I just am so lucky. And, and it's because of you guys and the support that you've given the show. And this just feels like a huge milestone. And I'm just, I'm not taking it for granted. And I love to just let you guys know how much I appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. That's all I have for tonight. We'll be back tomorrow morning with the film session on tonight's games and then we'll be back tomorrow night with game two of Lakers Timberwolves. And you guys might see a very angry and upset Jason tomorrow. We'll see. Or you might see a more relaxed, confident Jason. We'll see. I'm. I'm really curious to see how the Lakers respond after the game. One egg. But again, I appreciate you guys and I will see you tomorrow. What's up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops 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. The volume.
- [51:53]
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