← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Hoops Tonight - LIVE: THUNDER-NUGGETS REACTION: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander beats Nikola Jokic & Murray in rock fight Game 4
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Host
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Analyst 1
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Analyst 2
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Analyst 2
The volume.
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Advertiser 3
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Analyst 1
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So we are not covering Pacers Cavs in today's show. We're going to be covering that tomorrow morning, so keep an eye on the feed for that in today's show. We're just hitting Denver versus okc. I viewed this game and the game later this evening as games where whoever wins is most likely going to win the series. The Thunder could either tie it, take it back to OKC for a best of three with all the momentum, especially after having basically choked away two of the games and be in a commanding position to win, or Denver could go up 3:1 and put themselves in a position where it's extremely difficult to lose three games in a row. And same thing goes for Cavs Pacers Cavs get a win tonight. It's 2:2 going back to Cleveland. Totally different series. Pacers get a win tonight 31 feels like they're in control in round one of these two big games today goes to the Oklahoma City Thunder, down 8 in the early fourth quarter off of a Peyton Watson hook shot and they just methodically walk down the Denver Nuggets to get a huge win to save their season and send them back to Oklahoma City. 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 podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's doing great work on our social media feeds, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Make sure you guys follow us there for more content throughout the season and then keep dropping mailbag questions into the YouTube comments. Since we only have one game today, we'll probably do a solid 15 minutes or so of questions from the chat at the tail end of the show. So make sure you guys get your questions in there and then when we finish up here today we will be going over to watch playback for our typical after show. It's more informal, we take callers, we watch some film, we'll have some fun over there. Probably a little shorter because I gotta be ready for Collins. We'll probably only go for about a half hour today, but head over to playback. It's Playback TV slash Hoops Tonight when we are done. You can also find that link in the description of this video. All right, let's talk some basketball. So this was a weird game in the sense that with Denver playing as much zone as they did, both Shay and J Dub had really rough games, taking bad shots against the zone, forcing things early. The two of them, I thought were pretty awful on offense throughout this game. Both of them made defensive plays at various points in the game, but I thought both of them really struggled against the zone. And so what I want to talk about here for a few minutes is specifically how Oklahoma City broke the zone, because that was basically how they won this game. In the late third quarter, they started to hit some of their catch and shoot threes against the zone. You could see that rhythm build, and then suddenly they were a runaway freight train in that fourth quarter. Ended up scoring 29 points, their most productive offensive quarter of this particular game. And really what the A2,3 zone is designed to do is to break your rhythm. We talked about this concept after the Cavs Pacers game, if you guys remember, because the CAVS utilized a 3, 2 zone in that series. And 3, 2 zone does a very good job of guarding the three point line, but has some vulnerabilities on the back line simply because there are two players that are responsible for both the paint and the corners, and in many cases also coming up a little bit to the elbows. And so with that being the case, there's just not as much manpower accommodating the backline. With the 23 zone fundamentally different. You've got a guy who's just pretty much sitting back there in Nicola Jokic, and the four guys around them are, you know, sinking in and jutting back out, but they're, they're in a position where four guys are covering all that space on the three point line. And so there are open threes that are available against the zone.
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Advertiser 2
But.
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Analyst 1
But one of the things that can be a problem against the zone is when you just start taking the first decent looking three that you get your eyes on. And what happens there is it will disrupt the rhythm of your offense. And all of a sudden your possessions are quick and they don't really have any flow to them. And a missed three can be kind of disheartening as you head back down the other way. And I thought Jay Bilis did an awesome job kind of breaking this down on the broadcast, but one of the things that the Thunder started to do a much better job of in the late third quarter was just getting some natural rhythm within their 23 zone attack. So essentially getting the ball from side to side, they would like screen the top, swing, screen the top, drive into the gap, swing to the wing, then like back screen for somebody, swing, swing back to the opposite side of the floor. The ball was popping around and they were able to generate some natural rhythm from his own possession that is typically not there. The way you would see it in a man possession, in a man possession, you run the same actions you've been running all season. It's the same reads that you've been seeing all season. There are only, you know, three or four different types of coverages that you're going to see and you kind of know what to expect in all those situations. Against the zone, it's very different. You have to find a way to be comfortable. And this is where I have to shout out Oklahoma City's bench guys. Cause they desperately needed somebody to start knocking down shots there in that second half. And Aaron Wiggins and Kayson Wallace in that late third quarter got the lid off of the rim and that ended up being enough for the entire team to just kind of relax a little bit and start making some plays. Between Cason, Aaron Wiggins and Alex Crusoe, Those guys hit eight threes in 14 attempts. And every single one of them was vitally important for this Thunder team. And then, you know, as as bad as J Dub and Shea were for the majority of the of this game, the they each made some big plays in that fourth quarter stretch. J Dub had a nice ball screen against the zone where he got into the middle of the paint and threw a lob to Hartenstein. That was the play where Peyton Watson tried to block him and he got the and one. J Dub had a nice driving layup off the left wing late. Shea had a driving layup. There was a fun sequence where the lead was at three off of a Thunder bucket. Mark Dagonal calls a timeout, comes out of the timeout with a ton of backcourt ball pressure, forces a 5 second out of bounds call. Ball goes back to OKC. They inbound to Shea and Shay just goes right to his right shoulder, fade away, and finally gets one to go over his right shoulder. That pushes the lead to five. And at that point, like the entire psychology of the game shifted so heavily towards okc, it felt like it was beyond Denver's grasp. So for as bad as those guys were offensively, they did make a couple of big plays late in the game and they needed every single one of them. But I want to highlight the defense because obviously if you hold a team to eight points in the opening quarter as we had the lowest scoring first quarter in NBA playoff history, or at least tied for it, but then also holding them to 18 in the fourth quarter after giving up that 33.3 quarter. And there's several different elements that I want to zoom in on. First of all, Kayson Wallace, I thought did an amazing job on Jamal Murray in the first half. In particular, he didn't get as much of an opportunity to work on him in the third quarter run when Denver's offense started to get going. But in that first half he was downright disruptive to Jamal, especially in that first quarter as Oklahoma City built their initial lead. And then all like every opportunity that he had, he just did a little bit better job navigating screens. I thought Jamal was able to get a little bit more separation from Lou on some of those screening actions than he was from Kason. Ksan's just so good at navigating those screen situations. And then this is where I want to turn to Isaiah Hartenstein because, you know, there were many reasons why the Thunder went after Isaiah Hartenstein. He kind of landed into a specific gap in their payroll where their younger players weren't going to have to get paid for a few years so they could afford to throw a bunch of money at a starting caliber NBA center that was going to cost a lot, but not have to worry about it handcuffing their ability to build a roster around their stars in the future. And the actual utility of Hartenstein was the ability to play a too big look with Chad holmgren at the 4. But I bet you if you got in into the year of that front office, they would tell you it was mostly about the Jokic matchup. And here's the thing, we're going to talk about Jokic in a bigger picture context. Cause I think Jokic is kind of fumbling the bag here a little bit. But Isaiah Hartenstein's doing a really good job. There's a couple of key things. Did you guys notice on some of those jab step sequences that Jokic is putting on him? He's not going for the jab step and he's sitting on that right shoulder. So basically he's opening up his stance and conceding the drive because he knows he has all sorts of help on the back line and he's just getting his left foot almost like up where Jokic, his right foot is to the point where he's just sitting on that right shoulder. So Jokic can't get the separation on his jab step to Try to get a clean look from three. He's just driving to the left, right into the teeth of the defense. And the other thing too is like, Jokic will go to his left hand with his short range shot making, but as Isaiah is riding that right shoulder all the way into the lane, it's having a substantial effect, disrupting Jokic's short range shot making. He's not, he's. He's having to power through Hartenstein with that right shoulder just to get to that little floater, that hook shot somewhere in the lane. And Hardenstein's just doing a great job. It's, it's. Again, part of. It is part of Nicole Jokic and him just going through one of the most bizarre shooting slumps I've seen from him in a very long time. He's not even making free throws right now. But at the very least, Isaiah is doing the job of making life more difficult on Nicola Jokic and then all of the guys around that making plays. Alex Crusoe, I think, has been particularly important for them on the defensive rebounding. This was another thing that Jay Billis called out in the broadcast that I thought was really smart. J. Jay's doing a great job, by the way, coming over from college basketball completely agenda free and just doing some high quality NBA analysis. But he was talking about Alex Crusoe's tap out rebounds. And, you know, when you get into these offensive rebounding situations, Jokic is like leaning on a person. And the upside of him leaning on a person is he can, you know, shove that person down and create a rebounding angle, but it makes it so that Jokic can't really jump. And so in those situations, they call it crackdown rebounding. Super important for the guys on the outside to come flying in and to tap at the ball to prevent it from falling into the offensive rebounder's hands when he's got great position like that. I thought Alex Caruso had several of those sequences where he came flying in and knocked the ball away. He, he had like all these like just little tiny plays that made a huge difference. Like, oh, big transition sequence. The Nuggets are on a run. Jamal Murray goes for a behind the back dribble. He just reaches in there and pokes it out. Or like, did a similar thing to Russell Westbrook forcing a turnover earlier in the game. There's just a lot of like, activity down the roster as they just kind of play Denver into a lot of their mistakes. Like, the whole thing with Oklahoma City is like, you guys see it I There was a possession where Aaron Gordon was dribbling up the right wing and he ended up drawing a foul. But like, you could see, like, whenever there's a big guy for Denver dribbling up the floor, you literally just see all the OKC guards just swarm him because their whole style is predicated on just forcing you to make mistakes by rushing you and getting you to not be disciplined with your decision making. And like you're protecting the ball and finding passing angles. When you're just trying to get into your offense, like, oh, you're sloppy here. We're going to take the ball away. You're sloppy there. We're going to cause a problem. Michael Porter Jr. Wide open on a baseline, cut late and get set up right in front of the basket. But he's just rushing because of how Oklahoma City's defense can speed you up. And I think, like, in a lot of ways, like, we can talk all we want about Oklahoma City's offense. And I think most of the criticism of Oklahoma City's offense that you've seen throughout the year has been kind of proven correct in a lot of ways in this series. But their defense is one of the greats. And, you know, I was talking with Jackson before we got on, on the live here. There was. There was like a dynamic at play in game one where it felt like Denver was physically dominating them. I shared some clips in the film session of Jokic, just like literally like a man amongst boys on the back line just getting every single rebound that he wanted. And they did 21 offensive rebounds in game one to just 13 for Oklahoma City. But as we go down the line after that, Game two, Oklahoma City held up better. They held Denver to just 13 offensive rebounds. And then in game three and in game four, they actually out rebounded Denver on the offensive glass, 18 to 5 in offensive rebounds in game three. And then once again today, out rebounding Denver 55 to 49 overall, 15 to 12 on the offensive glass. And I think there's several dynamics there. Cause it's not. It's ball pursuit. Because again, we talked about those crackdown rebounds. There's a lot of opportunities where the ball's coming long off the rim and OKC is just faster to the ball. And then also just OKC's pressure and their athleticism, it wears you down. And for all the talk about Denver's home court advantage and the way it can wear people down, like Oklahoma City's athleticism wears you down. And you can literally see Denver losing some of the physical Battles that they typically win because they're just overwhelmed by the intensity and the physicality that Oklahoma City brings to the table. On the Denver front, I want to kind of focus on Nicole Jokic for a minute because, you know, we can, we can nitpick certain things. Like Russell Westbrook had a really rough night tonight. He was minus 20 and 27 minutes. That's brutal. Two for nine from three, two for 12 overall. Missed a airball though, a wide open three in the left corner that could have given them a lead late in the game. Just didn't bring that offensive pop that he brought earlier in the series. You could talk about, you know, Jamal Murray not being as reliable as a shot maker as you need. You could talk about Michael Porter Jr going 1 for 7 over 5 from 3. I thought he missed a couple of key rebounds where he just was sloppy with the ball in case On Wallace would just come in and knock the ball away from it. We talked about him smoking that wide open layup opportunity in transition. Here's the thing though. When I look at those guys, they're not in an advantageous situation against Oklahoma City. When we talk about Oklahoma City and their roster, they're flat out better than Denver. They're like flat out better in terms of just talent than Denver. They are way more athletic. I don't like Jamal Murray's getting hounded by Alex Caruso and Lou Dort the entire season. Series like Russell Westbrook is not dealing with the same athletic advantages he has in other matchups. Michael Porter Jr. In general has struggled against peak level athletes. Like, I don't view those guys as capable of solving this problem, but I think Nicole Jokic is the best basketball player in the world and I hold him to an extremely high standard as a result of that. And he does have favorable matchups. I think Isaiah Hardenstein's a good defender and I think he's done a good job on Jokic, but he's still getting to all the same types of little bits of short range and long range shot making that he's had access to over the course of his entire prime here. And he's just missing everything. He's missing all of his threes, he's missing all of his mid range shot making that little jab step, mid range face up jump shot that Hartenstein's been giving him all series. He just literally can't make it. He's not making any of his like somber shuffle shots or any of his turnarounds over either shoulder out of the post. He's Even if he unfloaters, when he gets into that range here, he's missing layups right at the front of the rim. His shot making has been absolutely brutal. Seven for 22 today he goes in game three. In game three, he's eight for 25. And then I think he was six for 16 in game two, if I remember correctly. I'm pulling it up real quick. And then he goes 6 for 16 in game two. This is three games in a row where Yoko just shot making is just not there. I was talking with Jackson before we went live. It actually reminds me this series in the series isn't over, obviously, but it reminds me a lot of the Cleveland Golden State Series in 2015, where now it's different, because for Cleveland, it was because of injuries. For Oklahoma City, it's because they're just, you know, one of the more talented rosters in the league. But there's a clear talent gap, right? But LeBron at that phase in his career, I, I, you know, I, I know Steph fans are inclined to disagree, But I thought LeBron was clearly the best player in the series. I think Jokic is clearly the best player in this series. And I thought it was gettable. When I go back and I think about 2015, I thought it was gettable. But the thing is, is that that One season, that 2015 season, was the one time in that stretch from like, 2012 to 2020 when LeBron was the best player in the world where he just couldn't shoot. That was the year LeBron couldn't shoot. And I feel like if you literally just take 2016 LeBron and put him in that series, they win the championship. But it was like kind of just a missed opportunity. LeBron was still the best player, and he still, you know, because Steph was struggling his ass off in that series, too. But it's still the best player, and he's still making all these plays, and he's still doing all these good things. But just that little bit of shot making wasn't there. And it was just the difference between them closing that deal and them not closing that deal. And that's literally how I feel about Nicole Jokic in this series. Oklahoma City's better. They're substantially favored. They should be favored because of the talent advantage. But here we are. Oklahoma City's struggling a little bit under the pressure and intensity of the moment, just like Golden State did in that final series. And Nicole Jokic has the ability to snatch this series. It's sitting there right in front of him. And he can't make a shot. And it's just weird. It's just weird to be in this kind of situation again where it just feels like you've got the best player in the world, just kind of missing such a vitally important part of his game. And it kind of feels like the difference, like, I don't know about you guys, I feel like the difference between Denver being up, not just up three one, but having one easily in game three and game four is just Jokic making shots and he can't make shots. And that's like, I've, I've heard people talking about Shay and J Dub and Shay and J Dub were bad today. Here's the thing, guys. I've, I've never used the phrase shade Shaker Alexander is the best player in the world. I don't, I don't think Shea's that level of player. I think Jokic is better than him. I hold him to a different standard. I view Jokic as a guy who's rapidly ascending the all time great players in NBA history list. I'm holding him to a different standard and I feel like this was a series Denver could have won and Jokic, his inability to make anything outside of the paint or really anything outside of three feet in front of the basket has been such a huge difference in their ability to contend in these games. And now it feels really tough. Like I, I don't know, the, the athleticism is really starting to wear on Denver and I just don't feel confident in their ability to go win a game again in Oklahoma City. Especially when you really zoom out from this series and it's felt, it's felt like Oklahoma City's been in control for the most part outside of these clutch situations. And here we were in another clutch situation tonight and Jokic couldn't make a shot and Shay and J Dub made shots and role players made shots and here Oklahoma City is tying the series. So I think Oklahoma City should be a substantial favorite. Now while we're taking questions, we'll look at DraftKings and see how the ads. The odds have moved, but I would assume Oklahoma City is like minus 500 to win the series or somewhere in that department. Now AI is redefining what's possible for your business. Are you up to the challenge? Microsoft is helping leaders like you get AI ready faster with unified data and simplified platform management, unlocking up to 150% improved output across industries. Leaders are turning to Microsoft's AI tools and guidance to rise to the challenge. For the NBA, that means using AI powered insights to deliver more personalized fan experience. For BMW, it means innovating their development process safely and securely, and for Lego House, it means creating new interactive experiences for people to explore. With Microsoft's trustworthy AI tools and guidance, you can drive greater impact. Business leaders Microsoft surveyed saw an average of 3.7 times ROI per $1 invested in generative AI. Whatever challenge comes next, let Microsoft help keep pushing you forward. 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Analyst 2
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Analyst 1
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Advertiser 3
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Analyst 1
Have a real affinity for caves.
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Advertiser 3
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Analyst 1
Listen to the American west with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's do a good 15, 20 minutes of questions and then we'll head over playback.
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Host
Let's do it. Let's do it. First question about Jokic and his offensive struggles. Jokic has zero touch right now. Are you seeing anything that could explain that? Is he hurt? How does he just lose his touch, especially from such close range? Something you've talked about him and almost being up until this point sort of slump proof because of how many shots he gets so close.
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Analyst 1
By the way, Oklahoma City's -550 to win the series now isn't that crazy? According to DraftKings.
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Host
Geez.
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Analyst 1
So you know, Jackson, I'm sure you'll agree with me on this, but like, any of you guys out there that play a good amount of basketball know that like shooting is a fickle thing in general. You can pretty much even the greatest shooters of all time, you can go into their game logs and you can find three, four game long stretches where they can't make a shot. And the reason why is because it's like the best shooters in the world miss more than half of their shots. So if you're going to miss more than half your shots, it's like you could do everything right and it's probably not going to go in. And so that ends up leading to like kind of a mental dynamic. The big one I'm seeing is Jokic is long on everything. Like everything's off the heel of the rim and so his touch is just off right now. I think he's in his head about it. It gets to the point where like when I saw him missing those free throws and like literally missing like his easy little like touch shots right 3, 4, 5ft in front of the rim. To me, I just think he's got like, I think it's like in Yip's territory, like he just has lost confidence in his ability to knock down shots and it's become a huge problem.
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Host
Yeah, it's. It's really bizarre to watch. I can't. I mean, the free throws, it's everything. He really cannot, all three levels. He is struggling to make shots, and I have not. I cannot remember seeing a time that he struggled so consistently. It's very bizarre to watch.
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Analyst 1
Yeah, I'm gonna try to. I'm gonna try to see if Synergy's updated to shot making numbers, and I'll let you guys know once I see him.
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Host
All right, next question. Do you feel like SGA and Jokic are dropping their best in the world status? I feel like, considering how they're both struggling to score so much right now, that Giannis has a real argument at the moment.
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Analyst 1
Giannis hasn't won a playoff series since 2020, 22, so I don't think anyone's going to be moving Giannis up, up the list. Here's the thing. I still think Jokic has been very good in this series in every way other than shot making. He's. He's been a little bit sloppy with the basketball. He's had some turnovers, but he wasn't as bad today as he was in game three, in game two. But like, Jokic actually has played phenomenally well defensively in the series. I want to give him some credit for that. I. To me, there isn't a. There isn't a player out there who's clearly playing at a level higher than what I've seen Jokic be at in the past. It's just Jokic right now is underachieving to his relative ceiling. But I think. I don't know about you, Jackson. I still think he's the best player in the world, don't you?
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Host
Yeah, I do, too. And I also think that maybe I'm giving too much leeway to the superstars. But there's a lot of superstars.
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Analyst 1
Yeah, that's a good point.
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Host
Because the physic, the physicality in the playoffs is, I think, pretty inarguably a level up from the past years of the playoffs, obviously from the regular season and I think even definitely compared to the last couple years of the playoffs, which isn't an excuse to let say, oh, they can just play bad. But it's. It's fair to point out that Tatum is shooting poorly. SGA shooting poor, poorly. Yokage is shooting poorly. Steph has had some good games. He's also had some really bad shooting performances. A lot of stars are shooting the ball poorly.
- [31:26]
Analyst 1
Well, in the thing that's specifically frustrating about it with Jokic is like, we've talked about this specific concept before. Like, I. One of the reasons why I've gravitated towards bigger, stronger power players in the postseason over the years is because of the fact that they have a certain resilience in rock fights. But the problem is, is like Jokic's superpower, which is the ability to, like, oh, I can battle to close to the rim where variance isn't an issue. He's shooting like, he's literally not making anything right at the front of the rim. So like, it's, It's. I don't necessarily. It's. It's really hard for me to process this because it's just so unusual compared to the rest of his career. But, like, this is supposed to be the 1 type of basketball that Jokic is impervious to, unlike the other stars in the league. And so that's where it's discouraging. Like, even Giannis over the years has struggled as like a half court surgeon in rock fight environments. But like, Jokic hasn't. And like, this is just the first substantial stretch where he has. And so I want, again, I want to give OKC credit. They're doing a great job swarming him. Hartenstein's doing a good job, but I think a good chunk of this is just. Jokic is just playing well below his capability.
- [32:43]
Host
Yeah. Speaking of playing below his capability, another question. Sga, with another bad shooting game in the playoffs, can we hold him to the same standard that we hold players like Jason Tatum to?
- [32:54]
Analyst 1
I. Here's the thing with, with Shea, like, once again, like, I, you know, I have my feelings about who Shea is and what he's capable of, but Shay to me is kind of still in this, like, phase of player ranking where I don't. It's all theoretically, because it hasn't come to fruition in the playoff stage. But like, the criticism is absolutely fair. And we, I mean, we've been, I don't know about you, like Jackson, we've been criticizing him through this entire series. I feel like he's pretty consistently at the end of these games kind of resulted to high isos. I thought he made some better plays against the zone in the final 15 minutes or so of this game. The big thing that he's running into is, like, there will be these sequences where, like Denver will get going and they'll hit a couple shots in a row and he'll just come down and take a contested 15 footer and it'll brick and then it'll Be like, it'll just feel like a punch to the gut for OKC's offense. And then in that late third quarter stretch, like, he straight up, like, for like, seven straight minutes of game clock just, like, wouldn't shoot. Like, he just. He just was dribbling the ball off the floor and just throwing swing passes. And so it's like, okay, the. No. One's saying that you shouldn't shoot at all against the zone. We're just saying that you need to function as, like, the thing that gets the zone moving. And so once, once him and J Dub started actually looking to get the ball into the middle of the floor to pass instead of get the ball into the middle of the floor to shoot, they started to have the ball pop around some more and have some of those better sequences. But the other thing, too, is, like, you want to let the series play out. Like, there's a. You know, they still ought to win two more games, and we'll see how Shea looks at that point. And there's more series in the future for them. But this is the first playoff run in Shea's entire career where they are legitimately the championship favorites, and all the pressure is on them. And so far through the seven games or eight games, he hasn't been very good, but there's still plenty of basketball left for him to figure it out. And here they are. They're two. Two. They still have a very good chance to win the series. And so similarly with Jason Tatum, like, he deserves criticism for the way that he played during the two games as they dropped down 02, but the opportunity is still in front of him to claw out of this. And all we're going to do is just cover it game to game. Shea's been pretty bad. I thought he was pretty bad again tonight. I thought he made a couple of huge plays late in this game, which we're going to credit when it happens. And if he breaks out and starts playing amazing, we'll then start discussing it in that context. But we're all just taking this game to game. We're writing the story as it goes.
- [35:16]
Host
Yeah, it's sort of the nature, the challenging nature of the playoffs is how easy it is to overreact from game to game basis. Like, you're so right that this series feels like one that is gonna go seven. It's certainly. I mean, it's guaranteed to go six. It feels like it's going to go seven, which means we are barely over half, half of the games played. So one of these two stars who's been struggling. Yokojer SGA maybe we end up with, you know, four consecutive rock fights to end the series. It's possible, but I would assume that one of the two superstars is going to elevate their play and start making some shots. And we'll be. We'll have to rewrite the way where whichever guy it ends up being, we'll have to rewrite the story in real time.
- [35:50]
Analyst 1
Absolutely. Like it's the, my whole thing is like just be consistent with it. Like I, I think where we go go into some dangerous territory is when you criticize a guy when he sucks and then don't bring it up at all when he plays well or vice versa. And like that's the thing. Like I, I have routinely come on the show and said that I personally have never watched an offensive basketball player that generates offense easier than Nicole Jokic. Like I think he's the best offensive player I've ever watched. He's stunk it up the last three games and it's been a problem. Like Denver scored 87 points today. Like that's not good enough for a guy that I consider to be the best offensive player that I've ever seen. And so like that. That's really my whole thing that I'll try to do is just try to be as consistent as possible and try very hard to not let you know, my personal biases get in the way even though they naturally will to a certain extent.
- [36:40]
Host
Next question. We'll take a couple more. How does Jalen Williams get out of his slump? It feels like when he's playing his best, nobody in the west can compete with the Thunder. I don't even know if he's in that big of a slump. He had a pretty decent game last.
- [36:51]
Analyst 1
Yeah, he was, he was amazing in game three outside of overtime, really. And I don't even blame him for going off the rails in regulation because Shay just kind of looked him off and co opted those final couple possessions. But like, as far as, as far as today goes, like it was like a steady diet of zone. Let me actually pull up the numbers. I bet you, I bet you they ran Zone 50 possessions today. But it just. Zone is. Is such a different responsibility to probably zone shifts the responsibility almost entirely to catch and shoot playing players and not. They ran 45 possessions of zone today. 45 possessions in Denver got. Or Oklahoma City got just 0.78 points per possession. But it really just comes down to like those, those guys at the point of attack just getting the ball moving. Whereas in man to man situations, it's very much about like setting people up for like play finishing situations and looking to score. But like if you try to score on the ball against the zone, you're gonna have problems. But OKC, to their credit, 10 possessions of zone in the fourth quarter. They did get 1 point per possession in the fourth quarter. So they did slowly start to figure it out over the course of the game.
- [38:00]
Host
Let's do one more, one more question and then we'll go over the playback parentheses, not just about okc. What is the best scheme throughout the NBA that you have seen at guarding Jokic in his career? And if, and if you had to make a plan for a singular game, a Game 7 against Nikola Jokic, how would you try?
- [38:17]
Analyst 1
So I think Oklahoma City has shown a really strong example of, of how a too big look can work. And if Denver were to have won this series, which I don't think they will anymore, I think Minnesota would have similar capability to do this and they've shown it over the years. But the problem is, is when you put a smaller forward. So like let's talk like with the Lakers series, it was always Rui Hachimura, someone like that, right? If you put a Ruby Hachimura on Nicole Jokic and you have Anthony Davis behind him, you have the rim protection piece. But it's just so easy for Jokic to get to short range shot making against Rui because he's so much bigger than Rui. And so what he can do is he can just kind of bump Rui and get to like little short 7 foot shots over both shoulders and he's going to make him 65% of the time. The uniqueness of the Chet Hartenstein partnership is Chet provides the vertical length that you get from a center on the back line, but Isaiah Hartenstein provides the trunky like strength that you get from a center. And so it's basically like a literal two center look where instead of it being Rui that's funneling you into Anthony Davis, it's Isaiah Hartenstein playing Jokic his right hand, so basically forcing him to drive. So Jokic can't even get to higher quality short range looks. And they're funneling him into Chad who's got the length on the back line. And so I think they just kind of uniquely have the personnel to put a big strong player on Jokic that is not, you know, 6, 9, but is rather 7ft but then also having real length behind him. And then they're swarming and closing out really well, but I I still think Jokic should be able to solve this Hartenstein problem and he needs to just do a better job and most of it just comes down to his jump shots not going in at all. But I do think that's like this. The thing that is specifically different is just Hartenstein being so big but also having a center behind him. All right, guys, that's all we have for today on the YouTube Live. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We're going to go over to Playback and hang out for a little bit. I will see you guys there again. That's Playback TV Slash Hoops Tonight. 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.
- [40:49]
Analyst 2
The volume.
- [40:53]
Analyst 1
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- [42:21]
Advertiser 1
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- [43:02]
Advertiser 3
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- [43:24]
Analyst 1
Listen to the American west with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [43:31]
Host
You're listening to an iHeart podcast.