← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Hoops Tonight - Lakers Clutch Win Vs. Mavericks, Ja Morant Saves Grizzlies, Pistons Turning It Around
00:42:18
Loading summary
Transcript30 lines
- [00:00]
Nikki Glaser
You can count on T Mobile to help keep you connected from big cities to small towns on America's largest 5G network. Switch the T Mobile keep your phone and they'll pay it off up to 800 bucks per line via prepaid card. Learn more@t mobile.com heap and switch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device, credit service port in 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption. Acquired card has no cash access and expires in six months.
- [00:36]
Colleen Witt
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. Howie turning Big Macs into big moves. Catch Eating While Broke every Thursday on the Black Effect Podcast Network. IHeartRadio Apple Podcast wherever you get your favorite shows, come hungry for Season four.
- [01:08]
Mark Seal
I'm Mark Seale.
- [01:09]
Nikki Glaser
And I'm Nathan King.
- [01:10]
Mark Seal
This is Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli.
- [01:13]
Nikki Glaser
The five families did not want us.
- [01:14]
Mark Seal
To shoot that picture.
- [01:16]
Nikki Glaser
This podcast is based on my co host Mark Seals best selling book of the same title. Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli features new and archival interviews with Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Evans, James Caan, Talia Shire and many others.
- [01:28]
Mark Seal
Yes, that was a real horse's head.
- [01:30]
Nikki Glaser
Listen and subscribe to Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:39]
Colleen Witt
What if you ask two different people the same set of questions? Even if the questions are the same, our experiences can lead us to drastically different answers. I'm Minnie Driver and I set out to explore this idea in my podcast, and now Mini Questions is returning for another season. We've asked an entirely new set of guests our seven questions, including Jane Lynch, Delaney Rowe, Cord Jefferson. Listen to Mini questions on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Seven questions limitless answers.
- [02:15]
Mark Seal
The volume who's scoring big in the NBA this season? You are, with all the new ways to get in on the action at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. From Monster Slams to dishing the rock to cleaning the glass, get behind your favorite players in the prop bets you can make on DraftKings, the home of NBA player props. Ready to place your first bet? Try bet on something simple like picking how many points your favorite player will have. Go to the DraftKings sportsbook app and make your pick Right now, the Oklahoma City Thunder have supplanted the Boston Celtics as the favorites to win the title on DraftKings at +225 with the Celtics right behind them at +235. First time here's something special just for you. New DraftKings customers bet $5 to get 150 in bonus bets instantly. Take it to the rack with DraftKings Sportsbook. Every point counts. 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 150 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 Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas. 21 plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void. In Ontario, bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see D All right, welcome to HOOPS Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Wednesday everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week. Got a jam packed show for you today. We're hitting three games from last night as Luka Doncic gets some revenge on the Dallas Mavericks in a interesting game that showcased two very good switching defenses. After that, an absolute crazy game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Phoenix Suns as John Morant with a couple of brilliant stretches of basketball, basically steals victory from the jaws of defeat there. I want to talk a little bit about John Morant and just how important he is to the foundation that Memphis is trying to build. Then at the tail end of the show, I guess I lied. It's not a game from last night. At the tail end of the show, we're going to do a deep dive on the Detroit Pistons, who got a win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night for their seventh win in a row. I want to talk about how they've been succeeding on both ends of the floor. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at_jason lt so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't Forget about our podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops tonight, it's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Then don't forget about our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year. And then last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. We can get to them in our mailbags throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So Mavs Lakers was a game that I was really interested in watching on the Lakers front because in the Hornets game and in the or the Blazers game, the Hornets game and in the Jazz game, they, the Lakers ran into a lot of switching. The Jazz switch, everything. The Blazers with Robert Williams are willing to do more switching in those types of situations. It gets rid of that dynamic we talked about in the Denver Nuggets video, which was when you bring up Jokic to the ball every single time, there's like easy reads for Luka to make in terms of am I hitting the lob threat, the roller down the middle of the lane, or am I hitting the skip pass to the weak side corner? It's more of a simplified process. Whereas again, switching, it becomes so much more about like picking on mismatches and handling double teams, which are a different spacing principle than a trapped pick and roll, right? And so in these types of situations, it's a very different style of offense to go up against a team like this. Now Dallas will run a lot of drop coverage when their bigs are healthy, but in this situation with Derek Lively hurt, with Daniel Gafford hurt, with Anthony Davis hurt, they're running a lot of switching, especially with Kessler Edwards kind of functioning as the big man in those lineups. And by the way, Dallas is in the same way that the Lakers have been running really good five out, you know, or five man switching concepts with a lot of crowding the ball, making one on one situations feel tight and congested and and gang rebounding and all those things. Dallas has been doing that really well for the most part. And I thought both of those teams put on good examples of switching defense last night. Both teams were able to hunt mismatches within that context. That led to double teams, which led to a bunch of interesting stuff in terms of the weak side rotations. The Mavs were doubling Luka and LeBron all over the place in the post, sometimes doubling them when they had a live dribble 30ft from the basket. And then the Lakers, they got a little Spooked of Clay because Dalton connect and Rui Hachimura completely lost control of him for a little while there and he got hot. So they started putting two on the ball when Clay was coming off of actions in the fourth quarter and then with Kyrie Irving when he was attacking Luka Doncic, they were putting two on the ball a lot. So it was a good example of like a lot of switching, a lot of matchup attacking and then dealing with double teams on each team's best player. The Mavs shot the ball extremely well in this game. They got 1.13 points per catch and shoot jump shot on 30 on 32 attempts, about 20% better than the Lakers ended up shooting. Especially in the second half. The Mavs got 1.31 points per catch and shoot jumper. The Lakers shot poorly all night, but in the second half they got just 0.6 points per catch and shoot jumper. That was a big difference in that second half as the Mavs kind of worked their way back into the game. The main thing that shrunk the Laker lead in the second half though, was exacerbated by Ruby Hachimura and Dalton connect losing Klay Thompson. So the Lakers are switching everything, right? That's what they do. And there are two times in a row where Clay Thompson was in an action where he's guarding Rui Hachimura. Dalton connects, man would come up and screen Rui and it's just a basic switch, right? Dalton should jump out on Clay. Rui should take Dalton's man. Everything's fine, right? But two times in a row, Dalton connect just wasn't paying attention and lost track of Clay Thompson. And he hits two big threes. And then Rui Hachimura ends up losing Clay Thompson for the third three on an offensive rebound. And then there was another drive where Austin Austin Reeves was fully in control of a Max Christie drive and Rui Hachimura was just sitting on the lane line, leaving Naji Marshall wide open in the left corner, who hit another three. And again, I always think it's important when you see a team struggle to identify the stuff that's kind of circumstantial and the stuff that's like, oh, this is something this team actually has some issues with. And like, I think the Lakers are a better shooting team than they demonstrated last night. I think that's a little bit circumstantial. But there are some realities to the kinds of players that the Lakers have in their extended regular season rotation and even in their playoff rotation. And Rui Hachimura when it comes to tracking shooters, even going back to the Jazz game, if you remember, Rui had a really hard time with Lori Markkanen, losing him off ball and helping recover situations. And so as we look at different matchups that the Lakers could run into in the postseason, it's important to acknowledge that Rui's ability to track shooters is something that could potentially be an issue. I don't think Dalton Connect's gonna play when they get into the postseason, but that is something that stood out to me down the stretch in the fourth quarter of this game. That was 12 really easy points for the Mavs in a game where the Lakers otherw is defended really well. But as a result of that, it put the Lakers into a tie game with the Mavs in crunch time with Kyrie Irving on the other side. Potentially dangerous situation, right? But I thought down the stretch the Lakers played their best basketball. They logged a 200 offensive rating and a 75 defensive rating in the clutch last night versus the Mavs. Dorian Finney Smith was huge in this stretch. He made two absolutely brilliant defensive rotations. We talked earlier about the Lakers having to double Kyrie and Clay coming off of screens late in the game. That's going to put you into rotation. There were two clean catches, one for P.J. washington in the left corner and one for Klay Thompson in the right corner where Dorian Finney Smith identified it a pass in advance and started sprinting from like 25, 30ft away to chase those guys off the corner. He chased PJ Washington out of the left corner as PJ drived and then LeBron or drove and then LeBron had a really nice additional defensive rotation to meet PJ Washington at the rim and force him into a miss. And then he chased Clay Thompson so hard out of that right corner that clay tried a sidestep 3, but he completely lost his base and ended up missing badly. 2. Just absolutely massive defensive rotations from Dorian Finney Smith, who was great, and then LeBron and Luca were masterful offensively. I don't know how teams are going to be able to guard these guys at the end of games. Luka was posting up and drawing a double team and kicking it back to LeBron for a catch and shoot three on a play where they passed it back and forth like four times like it was semi pro. Both LeBron and Luca did a great job of kind of meandering into the middle of the floor and drawing the under the basket help defender forward. Whether it was P.J. washington or Dwight Powell, and that was opening opportunities for lobs or for offensive rebounds. Like LeBron drove Drew Dwight Powell in and threw a nice lob to Jackson Hayes. LeBron and Luca both missed short shots in the middle of the lane there, but it brought in help. So Dorian Finney Smith was able to get an easy little tap in, put back LeBron James got a tip dunk off of one of those Luca misses that came from help that was drawn by LeBron and Luka in the middle of the floor. And then DFS made another really nice play, setting a back screen on PJ Washington in the lane when he was about to help on a Luka Doncic drive. That allowed Luca to just meander right in there and make a layup. For all of the struggles that the Lakers had against the Dallas switching, guess what a.200 offensive rating is? That's two points per possession. To put it very simply, they scored every time down the floor when they needed to. So for all the struggles that they've had against switching in the last couple of weeks, it kind of came together there down the stretch. I also liked, like, with exception of the LeBron 3, it wasn't like they were relying on jump shots. They were getting stuff closer to the rim. They were doing damage on the back line. We're going to get into some of the issues they had with their switching, with the switching defense. That gave them some issues in this game. We'll talk about it in the big picture, but I really thought it functioned more than fine when they needed it to at the end of the game. Here's the thing. It was a game where I thought the Lakers mostly didn't play well, and they got the win comfortably down the stretch. So that, to me, is a hallmark of a good NBA team. And I did think it was a step forward and a nice learning lesson for the Lakers. Couple of shout outs. LeBron. I thought he was really rough on offense in the first three quarters, and it was part of what was hurting them against the Dallas switching. We'll get into that further in a minute, but I thought he was absolutely incredible in the fourth quarter. He immediately turned up the aggression on the very first possession of the quarter. Had 16 points, five rebounds and two assists with zero turnovers. He had five turnovers in the first half, only one in the second half, so he cleaned that up. I thought he played off of Luca beautifully down the stretch again, the post entries and the hell, the one pass away knocking down that shot. The work he did along the baseline when Luka was Driving for that last little fadeaway that he missed. One of my favorite things about basketball, as long as there's time on the clock or there's games remaining in a playoff series, there is time for you to make a play or a series of plays that can help your team and flip the script for how things have been going. LeBron was rough for three quarters, but he stayed in it mentally and he completely made up for it in that fourth quarter. JJ had a comment after the game. Cause I thought LeBron was great on defense that entire game. JJ had a comment after the game. He said, this is not an exaggeration. If you watch our basketball team every night for the last six weeks or so, LeBron is playing at an all defense level. And he's right. This is one of the biggest reasons why the Lakers defense has been turned around. It's not just getting Dorian Finney Smith Dorian Finney Smith back for D'Angelo Russell. It's not just getting Jared Vanderbilt back back healthy. You got a consistently disengaged defender in LeBron James, at least in the regular season context, into a consistently engaged LeBron James. And I've consistently said over the years that LeBron is a very good defender when he needs to be, even at his age. It's just a question of about of him making that commitment. He's making that commitment now and it's paying dividend dividends for this team on the defensive end of the floor. This is what's crazy about it though. JJ's talking about this last six weeks since January 15th, a 19 game span, LeBron is averaging 27 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists on 63% true shooting. So you're getting all defense on one end of the floor, 27, 8 and 9 on super high efficiency on the other end of the floor, all at age 40, all for the team that has the very best record in the NBA over that span. For you to be an all defense player and averaging nearly a 30 point triple double on insane efficiency. That's MVP level production. He's playing at the same level now as the very best basketball players in the world. It's completely ludicrous. He's not going to win MVP for obviously but like he's going to get votes. You could argue him as high as third. I think he will finish in the top five. It just unbelievable. 22nd season and he's playing at this level. It's just a tip of the cap to the greatest basketball player that's ever touched the floor. Peeking again at a phase of his career. That doesn't really make any sense. I want to talk about Luca for a minute. I thought he did a wonderful job attacking Dallas's switches and doubles. He managed a 112 offensive rating in his minutes. Which was the better offense. The Luca led lunates and units in that particular game despite the fact that they didn't shoot very well. His defensive rebounding was the big thing that stood out to me. He has 36 rebounds in the last three games. He just has a remarkable ability to kind of predict where the ball is going to come off the rim and then he's a scrapper. He'll get in there in the crowd and there will be a bunch of athletes around him and he'll just come away with the basketball. He's still struggling to shoot. That will come in time. So far with The Lakers, he's 11 for 51 on jump shots. It's obviously really bad. That will get better, but he looks like he's in much better shape. He literally looks smaller than he did a couple of weeks ago. He's competing and doing his job on defense even though he has his obvious limitations there. He had three steals and two blocks last night. He's rebounding, he's generating advantages. He's already helping the team so much and he's not even close to his ceiling yet. It was kind of like a mediocre Luca game last night and he had 19 points, 15 rebounds, 12 assists, three steals and two blocks. It's unreal. But let's talk a little bit about the Lakers spacing. They had some issues scoring in this particular game. I want to talk about some of the specific things that were causing them problems. Spacing is the big one. JJ Redick talked a lot about this after the game. LeBron's first turnover. Luka gets double teamed on the right side of the floor, and LeBron, Austin and Rui are all standing within like 10ft of each other on the left side of the floor. LeBron's like left lane line extended up to the three point line. Ruiz like 10ft to his left and then Austin's in the corner and they're all kind of standing really close to each other. So when Luca throws the pass to LeBron, LeBron has an easy read to Austin, Reeves in the corner. But because they're all just kind of packed in on each other, Klay Thompson was able to guard Rui while also sitting in the passing lane for Austin. And LeBron ends up throwing a dart that Klay Thompson just intercepts. But even if LeBron throws it over the top, like with a little bit more pace, like a lob on it, it's just an easier rotation at that point because the ball's in the air longer. There was another possession later in the game where that exact same configuration LeBron, Austin, Rui was spaced out to where Luka took his, took the double team closer to the baseline. LeBron came all the way over to the right lane line extended. Austin was closer to like the left lane line extended a little bit further over in the wing and Rui was in the corner. All three guys were, you know, 17, 18ft apart instead of 10ft apart. And it was like an easy kick out pass to from Luca to a wide open Austin Reeves and he knocked it down. Those are like little details, like you want to clear the side to give Luka room to work, but Luke is a good tight space operator. You don't need to literally clear the side. You just need to give him enough space to operate. You can spread your shooters out on that three point line a little bit more. Dealing with double teams, there were several double teams in this game where Dallas came with the second body and the Lakers got rid of the ball and didn't even get an advantage out of it. And a lot of that also came down to spacing. There was a double team of Luca that went nowhere. It was up around the right wing because LeBron and Vando both flashed up to the right elbow. And when you're both standing in the right place, it makes it easy for one player to guard two. They just need to have better execution of their spacing in those situations. Flashing to the ball is good. It creates effectively like a short roll opportunity. But you only need one person there off ball. Shooters need to relocate to make themselves harder to guard. If you see your man sinking down to the baseline and you're in the corner, kind of slide up the, slide up that three point line a little bit to create an easier passing angle. Rui got a good one, a good three in the right corner in the first half out of an action like that, relocating, cutting and moving without the ball, there needs to be better activity against those double teams to make it so that you at least get an advantage out of it. Another interesting one that stood out to me last night is Vando made two threes and he continually has struggled underneath the basket as like a cutter or dunker spot threat. This is interesting because it's the exact opposite of what happened two years ago, I should say last year before he got injured. Where he was really struggling shooting out of the corners, but he was kind of doing pretty well as like a cutter. Now mind you, that was much more of like a five out motion style of offense. This is more of a four out, one in spacing style of offense where Vando is just literally standing in the dunker spot. Whereas like he was setting screens and rolling a lot more in that system under Darvin Ham. Right. So part of that is, that is part of the reason. But also like Vandos, shooting 4 for 11 on catch and shoot three so far that's 12 points. That's 1.09 points per possession. He's logged nine possessions as a cutter and only scored six points. And there are so many examples where he's just not even getting a shot off because he's in traffic. Teams are putting big athletes or centers on him and kind of splitting the difference, feeling like they can step up to help but then recover back to to Vando and prevent him from getting a shot off around the rim. I'm wondering in this context, strictly in this context of having, having more of a 4 out 1 in matchup attacking, spread, pick and roll style of offense, that you might actually be better leaving Vando in the corner to shoot threes because he's literally not making anything around the basket. He's barely even getting opportunities around the basket because he struggles to control the ball sometimes on the catch. And finishing in traffic over bigger bodies is not a strength of his. Now it's way too small of a sample to react one way or the other. But I'm just wondering after an easy way to visualize it is right now when Vando catches the ball in the cut, he's getting 0.66 points per possession. When he's catching it in the corner and shooting, he's getting 1.09 points per possession over the course of the next few weeks. I'm just curious to see how that dynamic plays out because it may be that Luca partnered with Vando just makes it work. Luca did get Vando for a cut in this game and it's like maybe Luka figures it out to where that's the best option. But I'm just curious because there are ways to work around that where you can put a guard in the dunker spot so you can have a Gabe Vincent or an Austin Reeves in the dunker spot so you have a smaller defender and help. And if they do help off of Vando, at least he can make them pay out there in a way that he's Been struggling to make him pay underneath the basket. Again, way too small of a sample size either way, but I just want to keep an eye on that in the next few weeks. If Vando keeps hitting like 35% of his catch and shoot threes, that's a better option than him finishing around the basket because he's just not finishing around the basket right now. And you can still get some of that benefit with him crashing the offensive glass after the shot goes up. So if he doesn't get a jumper or if the ball ends up going somewhere else, or Luca takes a little step back, jump shot or something in the mid range, Vandal can still come flying in. And if anything, he's got more of a head of steam in that situation. He's got a better chance to win some of those jump ball situations. Lastly, Jackson Hayes. I think it's worth leaning into him a little bit more, getting his minutes up a little bit, because he's been a really valuable vertical spacer in this context. There's a lot of times over the course of the last couple of weeks where I'm seeing Luka and LeBron kind of work to the middle of the floor and they like having Jackson as that release valve. In the last two games, the Lakers have a 120 offensive rating with Jackson Hayes on the floor. Something to keep an eye on is another thing that could help them with their spacing in the switching groups. And then lastly, LeBron, like, in order for switching to not work against this Laker office, in order for the Lakers to make teams pay for it, they need 48 minutes of LeBron and Luca constantly applying pressure. And I thought in the first three quarters, even though LeBron was defending during that time, I thought he was pretty sloppy. He knew the doubles were coming, so he's like picking up his dribble too early sometimes like before the double would even get there. So then that would lead to a lack of openings for him to get rid of the ball too. That was part of the turnover problem early. His job is to attack enough that that double team fully commits. And it happens in a place on the floor where LeBron can actually make teams pay for it, which I know LeBron can do. He's one of the best ever at it. He just was sloppy for 30 for the first three quarters and it's just something, something to keep in mind. Again, for the Lakers to succeed against switching defense, they need LeBron and Luka to be able to apply pressure for 48 minutes. They got to have proper spacing off of it and the guy's got to hit shots. And so part of their struggles were LeBron didn't have that great of a first three quarters. Luka obviously still doesn't have his jump shot. Guys were missing shots and the spacing wasn't good. They've been a little shaky in these situations, but they have the personnel to be great against it. It's just one of the main areas of development we're going to want to keep an eye on here the rest of the way.
- [24:46]
Nikki Glaser
You can count on T Mobile to help keep you connected from big cities to small towns on America's largest 5G network. Switch the T Mobile, keep your phone and they'll pay it off up to 800 bucks per line via prepaid card. Learn more@t mobile.com heap and switch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device credit service port in 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months.
- [25:33]
Mark Seal
All right, moving on to Suns, Grizzlies. You know I'm going to talk very briefly about the Suns here before we get to the Grizzlies. The Suns are descending into irrelevance now and that's a whole other issue. But like it was so interesting, interesting watching them because one of my biggest issues with the Suns is their team construct is built around these high level offensive shot creators and Devin Booker and Kevin Durant and like they are actually like pretty good detail oriented players like Devin Booker tries and tries to defend and Kevin Durant's a really good defender and those guys do their jobs and they're disciplined and they don't make as many mistakes. Bradley Beal can make his fair share. He had another big offensive rebound he gave up in overtime last night where he was just standing around and not competing for the ball. That's the kind of thing that drives me crazy with him. But the real issue is they're anchoring Kevin Durant and Devin Booker with a bunch of really undisciplined players that make a lot of mistakes. And it was crazy on a night when when the Suns were playing so well on offense how many mistakes they made that undercut their success in the fourth quarter. Tyus Jones just not paying attention. Off ball gets back cut by Vince Williams Jr. For an easy layup. I don't think he played again after that. There was a play where Desmond Bain got an easy driving layup in transition cause the Suns just didn't stop the ball They've been consistently one of the worst Trans defenses in the league this year. Devin Booker, although again not many mistakes from KD and Devin Booker down the stretch on this one. But he had a really bad foul on John Morant with three minutes left in regulation where he just gifted them two points. He fouled out of the game. He had a couple of bad ones on Desmond Bain too. Like those are just like little basic things that he can improve. Bull Bull in overtime just not paying attention when he's guarding one of Memphis's most aggressive catch and shoot guys in Jalen Wells lost him coming off of a pin and flare in the right corner, knock down a three. Lost him again on the same action on the very next play where he got into like just was not paying attention, was in trail position, left off of his feet for a simple pump fake and Jalen Wells just stepped through and got an easy layup. They go up four on a nice KD jump shot in overtime. Looks like they're in control and on the very next possession on a made basket, they don't get matched up in transition and leave Santee Aldama wide open on the left wing and he makes a three. They Brandon Clark has a really nice put back that puts him up 1. What ended up being the game winner with like what, 38 seconds left and instead of Phoenix having an opportunity to take the lead back, Grayson Allen gets pissed off about some physicality from Jalen Wells and shoves him off offensive foul. Now they're going the other way. I actually like I actually think they have more talent than their record would lead you to believe. They're just super undisciplined. Katie and Devin Booker need to be surrounded by smart hard playing athletes and instead they're surrounded by sloppiness and it's just not a good winning formula with that core and as a result they look like a basketball team that is just completely off the rails. On the Grizzlies front though, several guys made huge plays down the stretch of this game that I wanted to shout out. Jalen Wells in overtime we talked about burned Bobo twice on off ball screening actions. He also made the dagger which was beating a press in the on the final possession where he ended up getting a dunk right underneath the rim. Desmond Bain hit some big shots late. He had a pull up three against drop coverage along the left wing. He had that driving layup in transition that we talked about, but he was also a big part of getting Devin Booker into foul trouble and getting him out of the game twice in the fourth quarter. He just made strong left handed drives at Devin Booker and drew fouls on him. And they were kind of interesting situations because Desmond Baines a little bigger and stronger than Devin Booker is and Booker was sliding with him and it was kind of like a contact defense situation. But like if Desmond Bain just like takes the contact and then sprays the ball out, it's not going to get called. But Desmond Bain forced the official to make a call by meeting Devin Booker's physicality, by just trying to power through it. And as he kept driving through it, it forced Devin to be a little more handsy and to hold on just a second too long. That led to those foul calls. That was a big part of the issue down the stretch of this game. It's a huge downgrade going from Devin Booker to a different player. That ended up being a big part of the of the late game issues that the Suns had in this one. Great work from Desmond Bain there. And then Brandon Clark get some good switches against Devin Booker and KD in ball screens. He had the biggest play of the game in my opinion. What it ended up being essentially the game winner. John Morant's working through the lane. He draws Mason Plumlee and help Plumlee makes a unbelievable defensive play, gets a hand up and blocks John Morant on the shot. But again, because John Morant drew the center in, Brandon Clark had a big advantage underneath the basket in size. He jumped up and grabbed it with one hand and just guided it softly into the basket for what ended up being the game winner. Huge time, big time play from Brandon Clark. Santia hit the huge transition three that ended up being the eventual game winner Jaren Jackson. Even though he fouled out in this game and he wasn't on the floor down the stretch, I thought he was magnificent all night. Like nobody in the Sun's jersey can even guard him. It was a really, really impressive come from behind win there for the Memphis Grizzlies. But I want to zero in on John Morant for a minute. There was a report that came out last week that said that we should all keep an eye on John Morant as a potential trade target this summer. And I immediately disagreed when I saw it. And the main reason why is a concept that I've talked a lot about in recent weeks, which is the idea that if you want to win at the absolute highest levels, if you want to win four playoff rounds, if you want to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy, you need to have a problem that you Present to other teams that they cannot truly solve, that they have to build their entire game plan around. I think Jaren Jackson's an awesome player. You could make an argument he's been the best grizzly this year and I think I'd probably agree he's a nightmare. Fat matchup for Phoenix. He has a much higher floor than John Morant because of his ability on the defensive end of the floor. But Jaren Jackson will eventually, inevitably run into a big front line that can match his size and strength, that he can't just bulldoze over everyone. And at that point some of his limitations come to the surface. He has a higher floor than a guy like Job, but the ceiling is lower. He's not a superstar level player on the offensive end of the floor. Jaw is still young and he's raw and he's got a long way to go to get to where he needs to be to be that type of NBA champion level talent. But when he starts getting going downhill at teams, he has a ceiling he can get to on the offensive end that causes real problems for even the best teams in the league that nobody can really solve. And you just have to hope that he either misses or that he sprays it out to a shooter who misses. And that to me is just a non negotiable, absolutely mandatory foundational trait for NBA champions throughout the history of the league. You either need to have an otherworldly defense that nobody can handle or an offense that presents a problem that teams can't solve. I don't think this Memphis team is that type of defense and John Morant is the only guy on the roster that could reach that point as an offensive player. I would argue that trading Jaw would literally just cut the championship potential off the top of this team. There isn't anyone else on the roster that has that type of upside and it's extremely unlikely that you get something back in a jaw trade that can reach that level. Even if a draft pick pound panned out, it wouldn't fit the timeline of the current roster. I thought JA was unbelievable down the stretch of that game. He had 17 points in the fourth quarter in overtime. He was going right at Bradley Beal in regulation and giving him buckets. He made two gigantic plays that sent the game to overtime. Two extremely high degree of difficulty jump shots, a three at the top of the key and a little pull up jumper around the left elbow where he literally against like great defense like Bradley B was there on the transition. 3 He was smothered on the game tying shot. He just elevated over the top of his man as the supreme athlete and knocked the shot down. He made great reads in overtime. He set Bane up for a wide open three in the left corner that he ended up just missing. He was the one who identified the Jalen Wells bowl bowl matchup and instead of hijacking possessions and taking high degree of difficulty shots, he trusted his teammate to make plays even the game winner from Brandon Clark. The opportunity for Brandon Clark came from the fact that John Morant kept drawing Mason Plumlee and help. That wasn't even the only offensive rebound opportunity that John Morant generated down the stretch. He straight up stole that game from the Suns twice with his remarkable offensive gifts and if this team ever hoists the Larry O'Brien Trophy, it will be with John Moran leading the way on offense. You cannot take that element away from this team. It is a prerequisite for winning at the highest levels.
- [34:33]
Nikki Glaser
You can count on T Mobile to help keep you connected from big cities to small towns on America's largest 5G network. Switch the T Mobile keep your phone and they'll pay it off up to 800 bucks per line via prepaid card. Learn more@t mobile.com heap and switch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device credit service port in 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months.
- [35:14]
Mark Seal
Foreign let's move on to the Detroit Pistons, who have won seven in a row. They got a nice win against the Clippers on Monday night. Kate had a couple of issues with Chris Dunn, but the Pistons generally did a good job of using early screens to get Chris Dunn off of him. And Kate ended up putting up another monster 32, 9 and 7 night the Pistons did a incredible job on Ivika Zubac. They're both Jalen Duran and Isaiah Stewart. They're just big and strong enough to handle Zoo's base. And like one of the big things that I talk about when you're battling post up threats, specifically post players that are trying to play bully ball and that have a size advantage. You don't want to try to bother them up top. You're not going to bother them up top. They're bigger than you. You want to bother them down low. You want to disrupt the energy transfer of the shot. Every shot has a transfer of energy from the floor, through your feet, through your knees, through your hips, through your shoulders, through your your elbow and wrist, all the way up through the finish and when guys are working on their games in the gym in the summertime, they have a certain flow that they have on those shots and if you can disrupt their base and push them off their base, you can make a miss and like those two guys straight up shut down Zubac's post ups in that game just by disrupting his base. It's a great option to have for the Pistons that they just can play 48 minutes of a big, strong, hard playing center that can cause problem problems for teams. I did a whole film thread on Twitter. You can follow me there at underscore. Jason LT I did a whole film thread on that games. If you want to see some video options or some video examples of the things we talked about, you can find that there. But I want to, I want to zero in for a minute on their perimeter defense because that's the thing that has really stood out to me in the last couple of weeks. J.B. bickerstaff has these dudes guarding and they have some legit perimeter defenders. Sar Thompson did a great job on James Harden all night. Dennis Schroeder can guard the ball, Ron Holland is guard. But I've, I've been especially impressed by some of the guys that reputationally have not been good defenders in the historical context. Like I cannot believe how hard Tim Hardaway Jr. Is playing on defense right now. He's been really good off the ball. He was a big part of them disrupting Zubach's catches on like in pick and roll. Isaiah Stewart and and Tim Hardaway Jr. Had some incredible roll man defense reps against Zubac where they just disrupted him and caused problems in those situations. Cade is playing hard on that end. Even Malik Beasley who's been maligned as a perimeter defender over the years is like trusting the game plan, doing his job, funneling guys into help. They're really, really competing on that end of the floor and they're anchored by big strong athletes underneath the basket. A couple of wings that they can trust and then just a bunch of guys that are guarding on the ball. They are number three in defensive rating over this seven game span, but they're also number three in offense. Cade Cunningham has just been doing a wonderful job running the team on that end of the four. He's already over a thousand pick and rolls this year. If you guys remember when we do our summertime lists, a thousand pick and rolls is what I consider to be high volume. He's already there. He's getting 1.09 points per possession in those ball Screens that puts him up with the top pick and roll guys in the league this year. For example, Shake Gil just Alexander is about is less than 1 point per 100 possessions better in pick and rolls this year than Cade Cunningham is. He's just so good at using his size and strength to fend off defenders in ball screens. He's Luka esque with his ability to use physical leverage to generate dribble penetration. Again, like half the battle is getting the defender trapped onto your backside and the only way you're going to do that is getting them properly set up for the screen so that your center can set a good screen. By the way, both Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duran set monster screens and that's a huge part of what unlocks. It's such an underrated detail in offensive execution and it gets Cade's defender behind it. Once Cade's defender is behind him or on his side, he's got the size and strength advantage. That's when he can kind of keep them pinned behind him and start to slowly work down the lane line. When he slowly works down the lane line, he just has to wait for the defense to react. And it's the same set of reads that we've talked about when we talk about Luka and the Lakers when he's going downhill. If the big man steps over and the low man doesn't rotate to the lob threat, it's an easy drop off to Jalen Dern or Isaiah Stewart right under the basket. If they do tag the roller, then it's the skip pass to the corner where they've consistently kept Cade surrounded by guys that can knock down shots. But if they don't react, if they let him play one on one there in the middle of the floor. What is the thing that unlocks the high level efficiency in ball screens that we see from the best players in the world? Efficient short range and mid range shot making. It's becoming one of the most underrated traits that we see in the best shot creators in the league. It's not about, oh, a mid range jumper is bad. It's about what can you find inside of 17ft that you can hit at least half the time. Yeah, if you're taking a bunch of mid range jump shots and you're hitting 42% of them, it's bad. But if you can get to a point where you're making half or better of those shots, that's when it becomes untenable for the defense. Because in the half court, anything over a point per possession is Pretty good. He's shooting 50% on floaters this year. He's shooting 55% on hooks and then on the jump shots that he's taking inside of 17ft he's shooting 49%. So he's on all of his short to mid range shot making. If you put it all together, he's over 50%. That's the conundrum he presents for you. If you want to stay home on the roll, man, if you want to stay home in the corner. He's going to get over a point per possession in the middle of the floor. If you help. They've got guys that can finish under the rim. They got guys that can finish off those skip passes. It also manifests as a post up threat where he's been great this year. Cade has run 130 post ups including passes leading to 142 points. That's 1.09 points per possession. He's really starting to get to the foul line now. This was a, this stood out to me in that Clippers game. I started digging into it. Kate is logged double digit free throw tips in four of his last eight games in his entire career before then in 183 games he did it just nine times and he's done it four times in the last eight games. He's just blossoming into a foundational superstar right before our eyes. I like his attitude and competitiveness. He's got a little bit of a mean streak. I like that he competes on defense. He brings a certain like physicality to the position that I love. He's constantly trying to go through people and talk and let them know that they know that they can't guard him. And now they have surrounded him with the talent that allows his gifts to rise. Everybody up to the surface. Malik Beasley is having one of the best shooting seasons in the history of the league. I saw a tweet from Zach Lowe the other day. The great Zach Lowe. Shout out to Zach. Only one player in NBA history. This is Zach's tweet. Has hit over 42% on threes while attempting at least 11 per 36 minutes. According to Basketball Reference. Steph Curry has done it five times. Someone else is on pace to become the second player ever in this group. Malik Beasley. That's the type of shooting they're getting out of Malik. He brings like a really aggressive brand of movement shooting too where he just comes flying off of screens to the left and to the right. He's aggressive in transition. He'll like he'll miss a lot of threes that are like bad threes, but it doesn't matter because it's part of the overall threat that he brings and it brings a lot of spacing benefits to this team. Tim Hardaway Jr. Is not shooting the ball as well as Malik is, but he's shooting it really well. He's at 38% on six attempts per per game this year. Just gives Cade two options that he can constantly be hunting, especially on his transition pushes. He's been so good at hunting them in transition this year. Tobias Harris is like legit having a renaissance right now in the win streak. He's averaging 19 points per game on 60% from the field and 42% from three. He's giving them an additional like point of entry when they're going on offense because he can post up. He's torching teams. A spot up player, he's just been great. And then Dennis Schroeder, like he's not shooting the ball well yet since he joined the Pistons. But he's such a competitor and he's another guy who just like finds a way even when he's not playing well to make big plays. They went to him down the stretch on a huge possession. The Clippers had cut the lead to five with about three minutes left left and against Amir Coffee on the right wing, he just hit him with a nasty left to right crossover, a great push ahead dribble to beat him off the dribble, and then rifled a pass across the court to Malik Beasley in the left corner who knocked down three who ended up putting him up by eight with a little under three minutes left. They have a clear nine man rotation that I think they can shrink to eight for the playoffs. My guess is that they'll end up dropping Ron Holland when they get into the postseason. But like everyone knows your role. You have the two centers. Dennis Schroeder is your backup ball handler. You know, you have Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr. As like the constant like aggressive shooting threat on the floor at any given moment. They're a good NBA team and I'm excited to watch them play some playoff basketball. If you look at the the situation right now, they're holding down that six seed. So like if the season were to end today, they would end up playing the Knicks. Like you don't think Kate Cunningham is a threat to put cat in ball screens or to punish a guy like Jalen Brunson over and over again like they're absolutely a threat. We'll see when we get a matchup how if they end up being a team that I picked to win a series or not and that matchups will play a big role. We're going to learn a lot about them tonight. They play the, they play the Celtics tonight, but they're a good NBA team and I'm really, really excited to watch him play in the playoffs and hopefully learn some more about them. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with more reactions. I'll see you guys then. The volume. 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.
- [45:44]
Nikki Glaser
This is Nikki Glaser from the Nikki Glaser Podcast. On a more serious note, I'm still thinking about that commercial with Tom Brady and Snoop Dogg hating on each other.
- [45:52]
Mark Seal
Because when you listen to the reasons.
- [45:53]
Nikki Glaser
For hating someone or something, you realize just how stupid they really are. There is too much hate in this country and it's gotta stop. So join us at iHeart in standing up to it.
- [46:04]
Colleen Witt
If you see hate, speak up, call.
- [46:07]
Nikki Glaser
It out and you can learn more by following OTs. Upwithhate.
- [46:10]
Colleen Witt
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. Howie Turning Big Macs into big moves. Catch Eating While Broke every Thursday on the Black Effect Podcast Network. IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast. Wherever you get your favorite shows, come hungry for season four. What if you ask two different people the same set of questions? Even if the questions are the same, our experiences can lead us to drastically different answers. I'm Minnie Driver and I set out to explore this idea in my podcast. And now Mini Questions is returning for another season. We've asked an entirely new set of guests our seven questions, including Jane Lynch, Delaney Rowe, and Cord Jefferson. Listen to mini questions on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Seven questions, limitless answers.
- [47:17]
Mark Seal
I'm Mark Seal.
- [47:19]
Nikki Glaser
And I'm Nathan King.
- [47:20]
Mark Seal
This is Leave the Gun, Take the.
- [47:21]
Nikki Glaser
Cannoli, the five families did not want.
- [47:23]
Mark Seal
Us to shoot that picture.
- [47:25]
Nikki Glaser
This podcast is based on my co host Mark Seals best selling book of the same title. Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli features new and archival interviews with Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Evans, James Caan, Talia Shire and many others.
- [47:38]
Mark Seal
Yes, that was a real horse's head.
- [47:40]
Nikki Glaser
Listen and subscribe to Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.