← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Hoops Tonight - LIVE: Clippers Force Game 7 vs. Nuggets + Knicks Eliminate Pistons In 6
00:44:41
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- [00:00]
Jason
Okay, have you heard about this? Last year, Degree changed the formula for their Cool Rush deodorant. The fans rebelled and wanted the old scent back and Degree listened and that doesn't happen often. They admitted they effed up and are bringing the original Cool Rush scent back. And it's exactly how you remember it. Cool, crisp and fresh. There's a reason why it's the number one men's antiperspirant and it's back in Walmart, Target and other stores now for under $4. So try it and see what the fuss is about. Head to your local Walmart, Target and try the OG Cool Rush for yourself.
- [00:29]
Jackson
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- [00:59]
Colin
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- [02:05]
Jackson
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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 co Audio. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the volume. Happy Thursday everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great night. We got a quick show for you guys tonight. We're going to get a a few minutes to break down what happened in that game six in Los Angeles as the Clippers extend the series with a dominant defensive third quarter. That's going to extend this to a Saturday night in Denver for all of the marbles. And then in the second half of the show. The New York Knicks followed the familiar pattern of the rest of their first round series with the Pistons. These crazy back and forth games that inevitably come down to crunch time sequences where the Knicks just throughout this series have demonstrated their maturity and their experience in that situation as they dispatch of the Pistons. We're going to talk a little bit about the Pistons big picture. We're going to talk a little bit about the Knicks and them moving forward into the Celtics series. Now at the tail end of the show, we're going to do about 10 minutes of mailbag questions for you guys in the chat. Remember, just subscribe to our channel, drop questions in the chat. We'll get to them at the tail end of the show. No mailbag or no playback tonight. Excuse me? We are going to be back on playback tomorrow night after the final buzzer of Game 6 of the Warriors Rocket series. So if you're not set up on playback yet, make sure you guys get over there and follow the Hoops Tonight channel. We'll be back over there for some film and getting you guys up on stage to talk some hoops with us tomorrow night. 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 fee. Wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight, it's also super helpful if you leave your rating and review on that front. Jackson's doing great work on our social media feeds. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And last but not least, keep dropping those mailbag questions for the chat at the tail end of the show. All right, let's talk some basketball. So on playback last night we head over, we headed over there after the live show and we had, you know, some of our supporters over the years come on and talk some hoops hoops with us. We talked a lot about the concept of creating advantages in the half court and specifically with a guy like Luka Doncic in the Lakers series and how I thought one of the primary kind of turning points, one of the primary fulcrums of the series was Jaden McDaniels held up so much better on an island against Luca and all of the other defenders in action held up so well against Luca that the Lakers weren't able to get the defense into rotation very often and that just made everything very difficult. And for all the talk about their ability to handle Minnesota's athleticism. They couldn't score, but they couldn't score because at the very top they couldn't create advantages. And I thought we saw a very interesting juxtaposition of the difference between the Los Angeles Clippers when James Harden is doing that job of creating those initial advantages versus when he's not like he did in Game 5. And in many ways it's frustrating because we know he's capable of this level of advantage creation. You just don't know if he's going to bring it on any given night. We don't know if he's going to bring it in Game seven. It reminds me of the Sixers series in Boston a couple years ago, if you guys remember where in a couple of games in that series, James Harden was just absolutely unbelievable in wins, but then in the other games he just wasn't able to replicate that, replicate that. To me, it just starts with a level of intensity on the ball, like in his isos, with his willingness, willingness and ability to get down and make that explosive move to beat that first man off the dribble. And if he succumbs to the ball pressure and gets passive and all of his drives get flattened out, all of a sudden his impact tanks. Tonight I thought James Harden did an absolutely amazing job of picking on specifically Jamal Murray in ISO situations and getting dribble penetration on him and getting downhill and pick and roll. All of this stuff is connected. You want to know how James Harden starts getting good separation on his step back three? It comes from his ability to get dribble penetration. You want to know how you get Norman Powell in rhythm? You get him a bunch of really high quality closeout opportunities or transition opportunities which come off their defense, which we'll talk about in a minute. But those closeouts, they come from advantage creation. That's how you generate the three point volume they did tonight. In the last two losses, they failed to generate over 30 threes. Tonight they generated 39 threes. They didn't shoot particularly well, but they generated a ton of these situations where the defenders were chasing them off the three point line with an advantage. That three point volume is an indicator of the dribble penetration that they were getting. And then on the defensive end of the floor, it all started with Zubots and him just doing an unbelievable individual job on Nicole Jokic in the third quarter. In particular the entire second half. Zoo was fantastic on specifically guarding Jokic on an island. Jokic was trying really hard on his post ups to swing across the lane and Zoo was just sliding with him and as Jokic was going for that scoop, he would just reach around the side and block him. He got him going both ways with that in the fourth quarter, once going to his left hand, once going to his right hand. He was trying to drive closeouts off the top of the key and really pound into that left shoulder spin move. And Zoo was just absorbing that contact. Zoo was fantastic, preventing Jokic from dislodging his base. That's the battle against Jokic. You have to win the battle on the ground. He's going to chop his feet, he's going to bump you a bunch of times and if you don't have your base set, he'll dislodge you and he's going to get to where he wants for a high quality shot. Zoo won that battle tonight. In the second half the refs were letting him be physical. Jokic was bringing the physicality right back. It was an old fashioned big man battle and I thought Zoo held up really well. And in general the Clippers were way more physical in the paint than they've been defensively over the course of this last stretch of the series. Like on Jokic, his roles to the rim, they were just swarming him and being physical and attacking the basketball. Gordon's post ups Aaron Gordon had a lot of success early in the game attacking Chris Dunn in the post. They did a much better job getting Aaron Gordon size mismatch post ups under control. They held Denver's offense under control and that allowed them to build the necessary margin they needed to avoid a clutch situation. And if they end up in clutch situations with this surgical Nuggets team, it's just going to be too difficult. And I thought they just did the job they needed to do tonight on the Denver front. I just thought Jokic had an awful third quarter by his standards on offense. And this Nuggets team really needs to score because that's their elite trait that they bring to a series. It's really hard for them to get enough stops to hold up under that sort of scoring drought. They had 22 points in the third quarter and that was with Christian Brown hitting a couple of bombs before the end of the quarter. Like that was that they could not score in that quarter. Ultimately game seven is going to come down to which team can reach closer to their ceiling. Steve Jones Jr. Used to work for the a couple NBA teams. He does an excellent work. When the Kai's Duncan on the Dunker Spot podcast he tweeted out today about a quote from J.B. bickerstaff in a timeout where J.B. said something along the lines of like, hey, we know what they're going to do now it's just about executing. And Steve was making the point in his tweet about how like when you get late in these playoff series, it's not about tactics anymore, it's about which guys on the floor are going to win their battles that they need to win. Have you guys noticed that we do a lot more film sessions after game one, Game two and game three and then when it gets later in the series it's like there's no I'm not going to be able to go to the film tonight and present you with some magical answer to all of the problems. If James Harden can create that initial advantage, the Clippers offense hums at a higher level that keeps them mentally and physically engaged in the game, which brings the defensive intensity they need to win battles on defense against the Nuggets. If the Nuggets contain the basketball through their ball pressure with Christian Brown and just an overall defensive engagement, all of a sudden the Clippers struggle to generate advantages. Norman Powell struggles to get going, Nick Batum struggles to get going. James Harden can't get a step back three going. All of a sudden it becomes about Kawhi Leonard trying to make a bunch of shots over double teams. All of a sudden their defense loses some energy. The Nuggets start picking them apart. When we get to this point in the series, it's we everyone knows what they're going to do every we know what James Harden's going to do. He's going to attack Jokic in ball screens and he's going to attack Jamal Murray and switches every single chance that he gets on the other end of the floor. It's going to be a steady diet of two man game with Jamal Murray at the top of the key yich trying to either drive on zoo off of catches at the top or off of that, you know, right block post up that he likes. We know what they're going to do. What's going to come in what's going to determine game seven is going to be who does their job better than their counterparts. If Jamal Murray outplays James Harden and James Harden struggles to generate advantages, the Nuggets are going to win game seven. If James Harden breaks down the Nuggets defense at the point of attack and him and Kawhi Leonard go blow for blow with Jokic and Murray, they've got a slightly better defense. I think they're going to win. But there's no secrets at this point. It's just about who's going to win their individual matchups. That's the beauty of of late series basketball, right? When we get into the next round, we're going to have a bunch of film sessions after game one, two and three. Why? Because we're going to learn about how those teams are attacking each other. There are no secrets anymore. It's just about man to man who's better at basketball, who's better at inflicting their specific strengths or avoiding their specific weaknesses. So obviously going to be an exciting game seven on Saturday tips off at 4:30 Pacific Time. We will be live on YouTube after the final buzzer of that game. I'll see all of you Clippers and Nuggets fans there.
- [14:39]
Jason
So we all made mistakes, right? But owning up to them. It's the right thing to do. But we all know Degree Cool Rush deodorant well. Last year they changed the formula and it did not go over well with the fans, the grease, whole thing. It turns up sweat and other protection when you turn up the effort. And good thing it does because Cool Rush fans really turned up the effort to bring back the OG formula. One guy even started all out petition and degree Listen they admitted they effed up and are bringing back that OG Cool Rush scent back. And it's exactly how you remember it. Cool, crisp and fresh. It's back at Walmart, Target and other stores for under $4. There's a reason why it's been the number one men's anti perspirant for the last decade. It's the same reason why people are not happy when the recipe was changed. So listen, if you've never tried, it might be a good time to try. See what the fuss is about. Head to your local Walmart or Target and try the OG degree Cool Rush for yourself.
- [15:29]
Colin
You know that feeling when you're about to score 30% off but they want your number?
- [15:34]
Jackson
Ugh.
- [15:35]
Colin
Give them your line 2 number instead. It's a second line on your phone, perfect for nabbing promo codes without inviting spam to your party. Sign up for every discount under the sun, then block the junk texts that follow. You get all the perks, but none of the spammy baggage. More codes, less chaos. Visit line2.com audio or download line2 in the app Store and get your shopping sidekick today because the only thing blowing up your phone should be good deals.
- [16:00]
Jackson
We're going to talk some Knicks Pistons though. This game followed a very similar pattern to the rest of the series, the Knicks came out in a must win closeout game and immediately took control. They were really getting out in transition. They were hitting those driving gaps and getting to the rim quickly early in the clock. The Pistons weathered that with several big runs. One in the first half, riding an absurdly hot streak, shooting the basketball from Malik Beasley, who put it all together with a crazy left shoulder running movement, three while he's falling out of bounds right before half. And then another one in the fourth quarter where the Knicks had taken control and taken a double figure lead. But A SAR Thompson came into the game and played some really, really quality individual defense on Jalen Brunson. Took him out of rhythm for a little while and the the Pistons ended up working their way into a seven point lead. But down the stretch, despite the Pistons holding a seven point lead, the Knicks were able to slowly and methodically work their way back into the game. JB Bickerstaff did them a favor by taking Asar out of the game for a little bit. I it's so funny. I've been watching Pistons fans have a meltdown about the lineup decisions from JB Bickerstaff because they've just been so much better in this series with the star Thompson on the floor. And like for all the shots that Malik Beasley's made, they've gotten killed in his minutes for the most part over the course of this series. And it's because pretty simply, Asar Thompson makes life a hell of a lot more difficult for Jalen Brunson than anybody else in a Pistons jersey can. But Brunson was able to attack in that stretch when Asar was off the floor and he was able to tie the game. And then we ended up with a really interesting final sequence. Asar Thompson gets a stop on Jalen Brunson on an island, slides his feet extremely well, prevents any sort of like turning the corner from Brunson, takes contact in the chest and then every time you fade over one of your shoulders, in this case Jalen Brunson kind of turning over his left shoulder, the ball comes up in the shooting pocket right in front briefly as he's turning over his left shoulder, right? So the ball is exposed temporarily there for a minute. And as I always talk about a lot of these pull up shooters, they don't see you up top, they don't see the contest, but if you can disrupt their rhythm down low. And Hassar Thompson waited for Brunson to turn and expose the ball and he stripped down and took the Ball away. The the Knicks were having a hell of a time trying to get a SAR switched off of Brunson in these sequences. So Brunson had no choice because. Because our SAR was fighting through all those screens, Brunson had no choice but to figure out how to get a bucket against the other team's best defender. And one of the things that I thought was genius about Brunson's game winner was the way he identified it, the way he identified his individual advantage in this matchup. The individual advantage that Jalen Brunson has in this matchup against A SAR Thompson is he has a lower center of gravity and he's pretty fucking strong for how big. For how big he is. So what does he do? He makes a hard left hand dribble move, an extended hard left handed dribble move, gets into a SAR Thompson's body, snatch back dribble. And in that situation, because he's got contact with Asar's body and because he has the lower center of gravity, it's a very similar dynamic to what I've been talking about so much about dislodging your base. He was able to, with that hard move and that snatchback dribble, dislodges Asar Thompson's base about as dramatically as you'll ever see in a perimeter matchup. There's an angle from the scores table or from, I don't know, the media table, whatever it is, that's on that side of the floor to the left of where the game winner was. And it's kind of like a portrait style, like smartphone video. And on the snatchback dribble as our Thompson just completely exits the frame and Jalen's able to just steadily settle into that off the dribble. Jump shot right there at the top of the key. But I just thought it was, you know, I talk a lot about how the playoffs are about solving puzzles and specifically for Brunson because of the way that they look to attack. It's very ISO heavy. It's very matchup attacking. One of the things Brunson had to do was figure out how to get a bucket on a SAR Thompson in a big spot when A SAR had been giving him some issues in that middle. In that middle of the fourth quarter, Sar Thompson was the reason Brunson got out of rhythm and started missing clean looks as the Pistons took a seven point lead. A SAR Thompson got a stop on the previous possession. Brunson had the challenge in front of him. He had the puzzle in front of him. And he figured it out. If I lose my moment, if I lose my momentum and I operate around the elbows with a bunch of hesitation dribbles like he did on the previous possession, I'm not going to be able to shake this guy and then I'm going to have to turn around over him. I'm going to expose the ball down low. He's probably going to get a good contest up high. But if I get my momentum going, if I get ahead of steam and I get connected to his body, I can snatch back and I can shed him and I can get the separation that I need. Unbelievable move from Jalen Brunson to win the series. I talked before the series about how these teams are pretty evenly matched, but that there was an experience and execution advantage that would push the Knicks over the top. I thought it was evident at the start of the series with the way Brunson was attacking Tobias Harris and finding a matchup that he liked, while Cade was like having these 0 pass possessions attacking OG Anunoby. But it got even more complicated down the stretch as once again you saw the Knicks found a coverage that worked against Cade. We're going to talk about it in a minute. And the Pistons found a way to avoid switches. And so Brunson's challenge was figuring out how to score against a sar. Cade Cunningham was being faced with a very simple problem. He was attacking Jalen Brunson in guard screens and Brunson was hedging and recovering. But because Kate had a rough night shooting the three point shot, he bailed on it and that, that was his biggest mistake. And we're going to talk about Cade a little bit in the big picture here in a minute. But Cade refused to take the pull up three that was open in the gaps in the, in that hedge that Jalen Brunson was throwing. And as a result he didn't have a comfortable shot or a comfortable look that he could go to. And there just was no consistency for the Pistons and crunch time in the series. While Brunson knew exactly how he wanted to attack and he was just so surgical in making sure that he maximized those crunch time possessions. No disrespect to Cade, this was his first time doing it. We've said this a million times in the series Jalen Brunson has played in. This is his ninth playoff series since he left the Dallas Mavericks. He's, he's got a ton of experience in these situations. Cade is learning. But that experience gap ultimately ended up being the difference between these two teams. I Want to talk a little bit about the Boston series and then we'll talk a little bit about Cade, because I do want to talk about his development moving forward. So looking ahead to the Boston series, I rewatched their last matchup earlier today. The matchup where the the Knicks actually kind of like controlled a good portion of the game and ended up los in overtime. You can see what the Knicks best options are on both ends of the floor. The Knicks approached that game with a very high level of intensity because they so desperately needed a signature win in a season that was just utterly devoid of signature wins. And you found some things. Jalen Brunson was able to get some advantages attacking Kristaps Porzingis in action. He definitely likes his ISO matchups against Derrick White more than Drew Holiday. Drew Holiday does a really good job on him, but Derrick White, even it's not a great option there. Derrick White just gets such great contests on pull up jump shots, but he can get good stuff against Porzingis and I think he can get some good stuff against Horford, although Horford wasn't on the floor down the stretch in this particular game. On the other end of the floor though, it's a steady diet of the Celtics looking to attack Cat and Jalen Brunson in action. Now one of the things that I noticed instead of just running their hedging, recover scheme, one of the things that they were doing down the stretch that allowed them to have some success is what's called peel switching. It's very different kind of switching than normal switching. So in normal switching, guy comes up to set a screen, you just pass him off, right? The other guy closes out, he takes the matchup. The guy who's guarding the ball sinks underneath the screener to prevent him from getting a slip into the back line. And then you just play contain the ball basketball. One of the things they were doing against Boston down the stretch in that overtime game was peel off switching. What that means is the guys guarding the ball actually chases the man over the top. By chasing the man over the top into the switch, it causes him to at least have to attack right away or rush his decision making a little bit. Then what they were doing is after he chased over the top, then he would quit on that specific chase and bail out and close out to, you know, Kristaps Porzingis popping in action or Derrick White popping in action. And so it does ultimately end in a switch. And in those situations it's going to come down to Cat holding up against a Derrick White like He had to down the stretch in that game. Or Jalen Brunson having to hold up against one of the Jays. The Celtics also found a way to attack that by dragging out the screening action. Tatum had a really good one where he generated a clean look for Derek White at the top of the key where he just attacked downhill fast. So that as I believe it was OG Anunoby tried to peel off, he was so far away that it was too long of a closeout. They ended up having to close out from the weak side. And so there are still openings that the Celtics can find there. But ultimately the Knicks best opportunity to keep themselves out of rotation is to switch, regardless of whether it's appeal switch or more of a traditional switch. But that's going to be the thing that I noticed on film that's going to end up playing a big role in this series is can Jalen Brunson do a better job of attacking Porzingis and Horford in screening action than the Jays on the other end of the floor? Or Derek White as well if he's involved, can attack Carl Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson in screening action. That's going to be the series. The margin for error for New York is just so incredibly thin. Every Knick is going to have to play to the absolute peak of their ability. I'm going to hold off on making a pick until tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning we will have a series preview on Celtics Knicks that will be on the channel probably, you know, right around noonish Pacific time. So keep an eye on the feeds around there. But this is going to be an interesting series. But like the Knicks are going to have their work cut out for him. Boston's got some clear advantages, a clear way to attack. I was talking with Colin Coward about this on his show yesterday, but one of the things that's interesting about the personality of these two teams is there's this idea like, oh, we went and we got OG and we got Mikhail. That's our answer to the Jalen Brown and Jayson Tatum problem. We need lots of big versatile wings. But I think people are missing the point about what has made the Celtics successful over the years. It's not because they have big, versatile wings. It's because they can put together five man lineups where everybody can guard multiple positions. That's what gives them the flexibility to switch. That's what makes it so that you can't very easily break down their defense at the point of attack. There's an example in the Celtics film that I was Watching today where it's like, it doesn't matter if OG Anunoby's guarding Jason Tatum if you can screen with Jalen Brunson's man and Jalen Brunson's not going to switch onto him because then OG gets caught on the screen and Tatum can get downhill or Tatum can attack a defense that's in rotation. It doesn't matter that Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Mikhail Bridges are super versatile forwards if they're anchored by two players that you can get their defense into rotation and screening action. That is going to be the key for the Knicks in this series is trying to find a way to find a defensive coverage with those two that can keep them out of rotation. But again, keep an eye on the feeds. Tomorrow we'll have a series preview in the middle of the day. Lastly, on Cade, before we get into our mailbag, like I get it, if your jump shot's not falling, you want to try to find something else that works. But one of the things that's going to be very important for Cade in his development is have you ever watched a Jalen Brunson game where you feel like he won't take a jump shot when his team needs him to down the stretch, even if he's missing? We'll see games this year where Brunson is, you know, 5 for 19, but he'll take and make three big jump shots down the stretch. You have to trust your work and trust your ability to knock down that shot. The reason why it matters is because of the coverage. The shot that the Knicks were conceding to Cade tonight was that interchange gap in the hedging recover. So as, as you see K Cunning Cunningham coming off the screen and OG Anobi's guarding him when Tim Hardaway Jr comes up and sets the pick. Brunson is jumping out to hedge, getting in Cade's way so that he has to go around the hedge. OG in that sequence is going underneath to meet Cade on the other side of the screen. So as Brunson is bailing on the hedge and as OG is coming back up to meet on the other side, there was a clear gap where Cade was looking at the rim in a high hesitation dribble and wouldn't take the shot. And ultimately the reason why they lost this game down the stretches, they didn't score a single time. They didn't make a bucket after they took that seven point lead. One bucket. You're sending this to game seven. And so with Cade, you need to come down to A series of very basic moves that you can go to an isolation situations and basic coverage beating shots that you cannot bail on. That pull up three absolutely has to be a shot that you trust when you need to take it because you might have to take it because of a coverage in a specific situation late in the game. We know with Jalen Brunson, he likes to fade over his left shoulder. He likes to step back to his right, you know, kind of shooting over his left shoulder and then he likes to set himself up like he's going to go off of a screen with his right hand and then hard right cross right to left crossover to try to get downhill to reject a screen. Those are like the three main go to kind of things you're going to see from Brunson down the stretch. He's gotten incredibly good at those moves. If he gets to those moves he's going to hit him about 50% of the time on his jump shots and he's going to get get to the foul line or get something decent at the rim at a pretty high rate on his drives. He has these dependable rock solid. We are stuck in the half court, it's tied, there's five minutes left. Types of moves. That's the type of reliability that Cade needs to build out in specific parts of his shot making. Late in games he took and made like a little left shoulder fade over O.J. anunoby in the post. That was the only jump shot that he was willing to take in that stretch. Okay, let's say that that's one of your moves. You need to rep it out so that you have this left shoulder fade that at any given moment if your team needs a bucket. Oh shit, they're. I can't. Let's pretend you're dealing with an Asar Thompson look alike on the other team. I can't get a SAR Thompson off me. What am I going to do? I got to find a way to score on this guy. And there's just a little bit of a passivity that we saw from Cade from a little bit of a lack of trust in what he could do in those situations down the stretch. I thought it reflected throughout the series. There was no real consistency in the way that Cade looked to attack down the stretch. And so again I'm not being critical of Cade, I'm just talking about his long term development. This is the piece that's missing for him that when he adds he can take this team to another level. He was. As you can see, this Pistons team is closer to being able to make a deeper playoff run than we originally thought. And Cade's development is going to be the thing that pushes them over the top in that regard.
- [31:56]
Josh
Hey, so we all make mistakes, but owning up is the right thing to do. You know Degree Cool Rush deodorant? Well, last year they changed the formula and it did not go well with their fans. Degree's whole thing is it turns up the sweat and odor protection when you turn up the effort. And good thing it does because Cool Rush fans really turned up the effort to bring back the original formula. One guy even started an online petition and Degree listened. They admitted they effed up and are bringing the original Cool Rush scent back. And it's exactly how you remember it. Cool, crisp and fresh. It's back in Walmart, Target and other stores now for under $4. There's a reason why it's been the number one men's antiperspirant for the last decade. It's the same reason why people were not happy when it changed. So if you never tried it, it might be a good time to see what the fuss is about. Head to your local Walmart or Target to try the OG Degree Cool Rush for yourself.
- [32:52]
Emily
Time is precious and so are our pets. So time with our pets is extra precious. That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24. 7 access to licensed vets with unlimited virtual visits and follow ups for up to five pets. You can message a vet at any time and schedule a video visit the same day. Our vets can even prescribe medication for many ailments and shipping is always free. With Dutch, you'll get more time with your pets and year round peace of mind when it comes to their vet care.
- [33:23]
Jackson
All right Jackson, let's do about 10 minutes of questions. How did that sound?
- [33:26]
Ryan
Let's. Let's do some questions. We're going to do a couple from the first game or the Clippers game and then we'll do a Clipper from the other game and go from there. First one Nick Batum was huge in tonight's game. He started the second half obviously in place of Chris Dunn. He also took Ben Simmons sort of rotation minutes and he was awesome on both ends of the court. How can the Nuggets try and solve this problem in game seven containing the ball?
- [33:51]
Jackson
It's that simple. This is something that you see all over the place. I mean it was so funny when I saw J.B. bickerstaff in his when the Knicks took their double digit lead, there was another timeout. Audio clip of JB saying like we got to control the ball, we can't. And it was during that stretch when campaign was just eviscerating Malik Beasley and like you like it that that's ultimately what it comes down to. Like if you contra, if you contain the ball, help defense doesn't have to overreact. If healthy, help defense doesn't have to overreact. The kickout reads aren't as clean. If the kickout reads aren't as clean, the advantages aren't there. The ball gets stagnant. It turns into tossing the ball to your star with five or six seconds left on the shot clock. And like Nick Btoom I there was a lot of Nick B alongside Norman Powell, which I thought was very interesting tonight in terms of just floor spacing, like basically situating themselves in a way where there's just these two knockdown three point shooters on the floor that are playing off ball. That just creates a lot of space for James Harden to look to attack. But again, if Christian Brown can apply better ball pressure on James Harden and flatten out those, flatten out those drives a bit, that will prevent the closeout opportunities that he can capitalize on. And Nick Batum has always just been an underrated defensive player. But like if you can get the best of both worlds, if you can get an athlete that's covering ground and you know, doing stuff to disrupt people around the rim the way Ben Simmons can while also providing you with shooting on the other end of the floor, I mean that's, you're getting two players in one there.
- [35:14]
Ryan
Yeah. And I think Batum also, in addition to the physical defensive tools he has, you saw in some of those deflections he had late is super high. Q. He knows that.
- [35:24]
Jackson
Oh yeah.
- [35:24]
Ryan
Where they're, where they're looking to go in their two man game, the kind of reads that Jamal's making and where he can try, where he tries to bail out if he's getting double teamed yet I think he had two or three big deflections late and his, his smarts are on display.
- [35:36]
Jackson
I think this is a great point Jackson. Like I feel like at least half the job on defense is the mental side. Like if you, if you're a great athlete but you can't read what the progression is that's taking place, then you're going to struggle on defense. So for instance, like you, you made a great point. Like if you're running the two man game with Murray and Jokic and he catches in the pocket, you know that when the low man steps up, Aaron Gordon's going to be kind of sidling in along the baseline And Michael Porter Jr. Is going to be sliding down to the corner. In the passing read for Jokic is going to be based on whether or not Michael Porter Jr's man comes down and tags Aaron Gordon. And a lot of that you can read the eyes and you can try to jump in front of it. Jokic post up, same sort of thing. If he gets to the middle and he sees a guy step up, Aaron Gordon's going to slide in underneath the basket. Michael Porter Jr. Is going to relocate to the corner and there's a two on one in the form of Gordon and mpj. And so to your point, if you can like be in Jokic his head and understand where he's going next, you're not always going to beat him. And sometimes he's going to be a genius and he might bait you into being out of position and he might beat you. But you can force him into more mistakes if you can be more anticipatory of what he's trying to do. I'm not even sure if that's a word. Anyway, go ahead.
- [36:47]
Ryan
I think you, I think you. I think you nailed it. Thank you. Nailed it. Next question. We've talked a little bit about this, but you know now that we're one game away, it's either going to be Denver or Los Angeles moving on with that. We know that for sure. Do you think that the question is.
- [37:01]
Jackson
Jackson, Lakers and 9 Bro, right?
- [37:04]
Ryan
The question is do you think the Clippers perimeter defense, defensive personnel and Kawhi having size advantages over most of OKC's guards makes the Clippers a tougher component opponent compared to Denver.
- [37:17]
Jackson
In theory, the Clippers should be a tougher matchup for okc. Zoo can present similar problems for their interior in terms of his size that Jokic can present. Kawhi Leonard is this like big forward that can thrive against some of OKC's smaller perimeter players to get to his spots. James Harden in theory is the type of player that can punish the Thunder for loading up on the strong side when he's running his ball screens. My big concern is the Thunder are a excellent turnover forcing defense that will pressure the hell out of you, speed you up. And if you can't be precise in your connective playmaking after James Harden makes that first read, you're going to be in a track meet. No, Casey is going to win. I trust Denver more to make the necessary passing reads to break down Oklahoma City's defense more than I trust the Clippers on the other end of the floor. OkC is gonna score on the the Nuggets. The Nuggets are not a great enough. A good enough defense to like, stop okc, but I think Denver will be able to get some stops by virtue of the thing we've talked about all season with OKC and the fact that you can load up the strong side a little bit with them and you're not super concerned about their guys on the weak side burning you in catch and shoot situations. So like, I, to me, it's like, I think you got to be big and smart to beat okc, and I'm worried that the Clippers aren't smart enough. Totally agree. And like, I, I think it could be a nightmare James Harden series with their ball pressure and their physicality and like, him kind of just struggling as that series gets super intense. I, the Clippers certainly can beat the Thunder. I'm not trying to say they can't, but I just, I, I look at the matchups and I view the, the Nuggets as just a better threat, if that makes sense. I just, I think it's just this Clippers team is such a, like a kind of Jekyll and Hyde energy and intensity kind of team too, which I just don't think you can afford when OKC has home court advantage either. So, like, yeah, I, I would, I would lean towards Denver.
- [39:59]
Ryan
Speaking of Jekyll and Hyde energy teams, question about the Knicks. Why don't the Knicks always come out with this kind of urgency?
- [40:06]
Jackson
You know, it's so funny. Shadow Josh Rodriguez. He's done some production work for the show over the years. Big, big, big Knicks fan. He was tweeting earlier about how, like, Knicks fans are just done with this.
- [40:17]
Ryan
Team.
- [40:19]
Jackson
And how, like, they just are, like, reserved to the fact that they're going to get just crushed by the Celtics and it just doesn't matter. And like, it's just funny. You and I were texting about this earlier. Jackson. It's just funny. Juxtaposed with last year's team, which kind of had, like, felt like the heart and soul of New York City playing basketball. You know what I mean? And, and I think, I think there are some valuable lessons learned in the sense that this team just does have a lack of, like, grit compared to the previous iteration of the team. You could go into a bunch of different ideas as to what causes that. I think it's, I think it's a combination of things. I think that they're not as deep as they used to be. And so there's a little bit of an energy conservation element to it. I think that Carl Anthony Towns is kind of a textbook Jekyl and Hyde intensity guy in the same way that James Harden is. And so, you know, I look at consistencies like I, I know OG can be part of that character. I know Josh can be part of that character. I know Brunson can be part of that character. I don't think Mikhail Bridges is a guy who lacks energy and intensity, although he had some stretches this season where he wasn't as good defensively as he needed to be. But you know, I think that the idea, like let's say that the, let's say that the Knicks just get smashed in the second, in the second round against Boston. I think that Brunson has proven to this point that he has the ability to create offense in tight spaces. Like, I think he's proven that he doesn't necessarily need to have, you know, perfect five out spacing to be able to create offense for himself. So if things go really poorly, I would strongly consider the pivot centering around Cat and trying to flip him basically for depth of like just big ass kicking front court athletes and back court athletes and just really lean into the identity that worked last year, which is if we surround Brunson with a ton of toughness in all the margins, he can carry us over the top offensively. But I think it's a combination of the lack of depth. They scored the ball really well for extended stretches this year, which I think bred some laziness for them on the defensive end. They felt like they could outscore teams when they needed to. And then Carl Anthony Towns is just kind of an inconsistent energy and effort guy. I really think it just comes down to that. But I get it. It's frustrating. Like they. There were short little 5 minute spurts in this series where the Knicks looked like they were completely outclassing Detroit, but they just weren't able to like maintain that momentum throughout the series.
- [42:48]
Ryan
Yeah, it is weird how a Tom Thibodeau coach team is so offense dependent and it feels like they can't, they really struggle to get big stops. I mean, you know, it helps that the Pistons are a young team with not that many playmakers, but it really does feel like the Knicks struggle on the defensive end when they need to.
- [43:04]
Jackson
They do. Yeah, it's, it's, it's been, it's been kind of like the story of the season is like they. Last year they weren't a statistically great defense either, but they were a good playoff defense and they were able to cause some real problems. And I, I think we underestimate too just how much Isaiah Hartenstein was part of the heart and soul of this team as just like a, another one of those ass kicking frontcourt players. But that to me is the key in terms of like if you're, if you're going to take a lesson from this year. It's, it's that you know there's a identity that worked that you lost. You brought in talent, but you lost identity in the process for sure.
- [43:38]
Ryan
Let's do one more question. What kind of move should Detroit look at this summer?
- [43:45]
Jackson
So there's a, there's a delicate balance here because you got to be realistic about your chances. So Cleveland isn't going anywhere. Boston could take a small step back next year if they end up making some sort of cost cutting move which has been the story around the NBA today. There is Oklahoma City, who I think is in the beginning of what should be a three to four year consistent contending run. So you're not winning the title next year is my point with Detroit. What you need with Cade is playoff experience and sustainable talent and success. So I think it's very important to avoid getting tied up in long term free agent contracts and I think it's very important to shift their free age or their draft strategy towards older, more NBA ready role player talent. So don't swing for the fences with the and by the way, this by virtue of them winning as many games as they won this year, it will naturally slot them into this part of the draft the middle of the first round. In the middle of the first round you can find guys that are 6 7, 6869 that can dribble, shoot and pass that have no star upside. Like you're not going to get Giannis out of here. I mean you're not unless you draft a super raw player that can't help you right away. But that's my point is you don't want to be hunting raw high ceiling targets. You want to be looking for big picture Tobias Harris and Malik Beasley, replacements, big Picture Tim Hardaway Jr. Types of replacements. What that means is guys that can play off the ball, that weak side scoring forward archetype, a guard that can set, go screens for Cade and slip out of it and shoot threes, but that can also defend at the point of attack on the other end of the floor. They need to be targeting older NBA ready role player talent in the draft, avoiding sabotaging yourself for free agency. If you do something stupid like trade a bunch of draft picks for a player that makes you not as good as Cleveland, Boston or okc, that's where you end up in trouble. If you make some sort of trade, it needs to be for a bona fide like top 15 player in the NBA. If that's not there, you don't need to be blowing a bunch of money in free agency. You don't need to be blowing a bunch of money tying yourself up on the cap sheet. How do you feel about the Pistons moving forward?
- [46:08]
Ryan
Jackson yeah, I think you make a good point. There were some, there were some people in the chat talking about should they try to go after Devin Booker. And I'm not sure the Suns are trading Devin Booker, but, but that's probably the, you know, if they're going to make a move, it's gotta be someone of that caliber.
- [46:23]
Jackson
He'd be the bottom of what I'd consider. Right, right.
- [46:27]
Ryan
And I think that the, the comment was partially due to the fact that he had the sort of, he showed in the Team USA over the summer that he has a willingness and ability to be a secondary star, be a defender. Not, not that he's a stopper stopper, but be a sort of a high effort defender as opposed to just having to be the heliocentric center of an offense. So I think stylistically I definitely understand the fit, but it, it can't be anybody worse than that if you're making, if you can't, you know, to your point, ship off a bunch of draft picks for someone worse than Devin Booker.
- [46:57]
Jackson
And Jaden Ivey's development is going to be key. I mean like you saw what you saw with Dennis Schroeder with the value of a guard that can defend but that can also generate dribble penetration run second side action. Jaden showed some pop as a spot up shooter this year that he didn't show in the past. So like a lot of it too is going to come down to Jaden Ivey's development. And like again, you're better off finding out what Jaden's capable of by investing in that and maintaining flexibility than you are tying yourself up. You don't want to pull early. LeBron Cavs, like he's the perfect example of what this looks like. If you get impatient and I get it, like what do you do when LeBron like clearly looks like the second best player in the world by 2007 and is dragging a team to the NBA Finals, like of course you're going to think like we got to do something urgent. But that's what they did. They went after a Mo Williams, they made these aggressive moves for Antoine Jameson and signed signing Shaquille O'Neal. They made these like urgent win now types of moves that handcuffed to their ability to build sustainably around LeBron. And that's the key. You've got a guy, you got to cage show that he's a guy in this series. I really think he did like it. There's, there is real top tier superstar potential with him. It just needs to be. You gotta. This is not Wemby where it's like, oh, like we legitimately can contend for a championship right away because he's the anchor for an all time great defense potentially. And like, like Wemby, I feel a little bit more urgency. But with Cade, I think you want to play the slow game, I think you want to play the long game. All right guys, that's all we have for tonight. As mentioned, tomorrow night. Not tonight, tomorrow night we are going to be going over to Playback after the final part of this YouTube live show. But we are going to be back tomorrow morning with a series preview on Celtics Knicks. We'll be back tomorrow night with game six of Warriors Rockets. And then after our live show, after Warriors Rockets, we will be moving over to playback where we're going to be doing a bunch of like interactive stuff with you guys and probably some film as well. As always, we sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We will see you tomorrow morning. 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.
- [49:26]
Josh
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- [49:59]
Colin
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- [50:31]
Emily
Time is precious and so are our pets. So time with our pets is extra precious. That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24. 7 access to licensed vets with unlimited virtual visits and follow ups for up to five pets. You can message a vet at any time and schedule a video visit the same day. Our vets can even prescribe medication for many ailments and shipping is always free. With Dutch you'll get more time with your pets and year round peace of mind when it comes to their vet care.