January 14, 2025 • 23 mins
Jason Timpf reacts to LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers imploding during their 126-102 loss the Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. Jason discusses LA once again letting go of the rope and turning a competitive game into a blowout loss. What's next for JJ Redick to do to turn LA into a championship-caliber team? Later, Jason reacts to Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons' 124-119 win over Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks and discusses Detroit quietly turning themselves into a team to be reckoned with.
Timeline:
4:15 - Introduction
5:15 - Lakers implode vs. Spurs
20:15 - Pistons-Knicks
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Episode Transcript
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All right, well, good hoops tonight here at the volume,
Happy Tuesday, everybody help all of you guys are having
(01:46):
a great week. Just a quick show for you guys today.
We're doing two instant reactions from last night's games. Stop
me if you've heard this one before. The Los Angeles
Lakers controlled a game for two and a half quarters,
had a ten point second half lead, and completely fell apart,
lost by twenty four to the San Antonio Spurs, a
Spurs team that has been reeling, that had lost six
out of nine games coming in. We're going to talk
(02:07):
about that one. And then in the second half of
the show, the Detroit Pistons, who've been playing great basketball
as of late, continue that, winning their ninth time in
eleven games, this time on the road against the New
York Knicks, and a very interesting chess match type of
game that we'll be breaking down from the perspective of
both teams. Just a quick show today. Tomorrow I plan
on doing some more like trade deadline centric stuff as
(02:29):
well as some instant reaction content. You guys know the
Joe before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoop Tonight
YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
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them in our Friday shows throughout the remainder of the season.
All right, let's talk some basketball. So again, Lakers really
(02:50):
control things for the first two and a half quarters,
and a run started, and as has typically been the
case for the Lakers this year, when the run started,
they legitimate They let go of the rope and got
Ryan out of the damn gym, and it started with
defense for the Spurs. They started forcing turnovers and getting
out in transition again. They were up by ten and
Trey Jones stonewalls Austin Reeves on a drive, forces a turnover.
(03:13):
The Spurs run out and they score. Wemby jumps a
lazy swing pass out by half court from Gave Vincent
to Anthony Davis, he runs out, gets a dunk, Keldon
Johnson strips Lebron James. There's a bunch of turnovers that
were leading to run out opportunities for the Spurs, and
then also out They just kind of invigorated them and
they just started outworking the Lakers. They started beating them
(03:34):
to every single loose ball. The Lakers were having a
ton of issues on the offensive glass with the back
end of their switching scheme. Essentially, like as they would switch,
there'd be all of a sudden, a big on a
little underneath the basket, and they just get an offensive rebound,
they get an offensive rebound that leads to a Keldon
Johnson wing three that ties the game going into the
fourth quarter. And then in the fourth quarter it was
(03:55):
entirely about the Spurs torching the Lakers switching scheme. So
Devin Vassell ending up with Anthony Davis on him a bunch.
He had that crazy dunk in the end of the
third quarter stretch where he just drove right past Anthony
Davis and dunked on his head. Harrison Barnes picking on
the smaller Laker perimeter players, guys like Austin Reeves, guys
like Max Christy who's decent against guards but can struggle
(04:17):
against bigger body guys that can kind of bully him
to space. And again, a huge part of beating any
switching scheme you can imagine, we always think about, like,
you know, a guard in a pick and roll, getting
a big on a switch and then him isoating that guy. Right,
that's a lot we've seen a lot of that. We're
gonna talking about that later in today's show, with like
the stuff that Jalen Brunson was trying to do to
(04:38):
Jalen Duran and Isaiah Stewart, right, like in this case
Devian Vessel against a guy like Anthony Davis. But there's
a flip side to that, which is you're getting guys
that are inside position against smaller guards. Charles Bassi had
three offensive rebounds in this game. Every single one of
them was on the second half of a switch on
that when he was being guarded by a smaller player
(05:00):
because of a switch. And the Spurs just methodically walked
the Lakers out of their own gym in that fourth quarter.
They forced more turnovers. Lebron was just so incredibly sloppy
in this one. They think he had seven or eight turnovers.
They were getting stops, they were getting great shots every
single time down the floor. Chris Paul hit a couple
of big ones. Just a really really bad loss for
a Lakers team against the Spurs team, and that again
(05:22):
had lost six times in their last nine games coming
into the game. The Spurs had an offensive rating of
just one oh eight point three in their six losses.
They posted a one forty eight offensive rating in that
fourth quarter. And so these are the things that stood
out to me on the Lakers front. First and foremost,
this is a message to JJ Reddick. You have to
(05:44):
give up on this damn switch everything scheme that you're
using in the regular season. For the record, I get
why you're using it. You theoretically have a roster with
Lebron James and Anthony Davis and Dorian Finney Smith and
Ruwiy Hatch Merger Vanderbilt when he comes back, Max Chrissy
cam Reddish. You've got all these big athletes that theoretically
(06:07):
should be able to guard different types of position groups.
So why don't we try switching? And I do like
switching as a defensive scheme in principle because it shuts
down screening actions. Right, Like if they run a pick
and roll, or they run some sort of wide off
ball screen for a shooter and you can just switch it,
the guy with the ball or the guy who's looking
to shoot coming off the screen is not going to
(06:28):
be able to come off free and clearer with the
defender trailing him. He's gonna have someone waiting for him there, right,
That's what shuts down the screening actions. That's what eventually
baits teams into playing ISO and post up ball. Right.
Stop moving the ball around, stop trusting your teammates. Just
go try to play one on one against us. That's
why I like switching. I believe in switching as a scheme.
(06:50):
There are teams in this league who do it really well.
But the truth of the matter is you don't actually
have the right dudes to run this scheme. Why. Because
you need high motor athletes that fly around in order
for switching to work. Why you need them to fight
(07:12):
hard to not concede bad switches. Don't just switch for
the sake of switching. Switch when you have to, especially
when it involves an inferior defensive player in a precarious
situation and who would be switching onto two. You need
them to fly around and help and recover situations when
you're switching. It doesn't mean everyone goes and sits down
and you just play one on one. You load up,
(07:34):
you gap, you get into the nail, help, you get
into driving lanes, you help on the backside. You clog
things up, and you rotate out of it so that
those ISOs aren't just ISOs, but they're bad ISOs. That's
what you're supposed to do. And then last you need
all of them to crash the glass hard. Inherently with switching,
you give up size mismatches on the offensive glass. You
(07:56):
have to compensate for that with a five man rebounding effort.
So in order for a switching scheme to work, you
have to have a certain type of athlete all over
the floor, a hard working, natural motor athlete that is
willing to fight through some screens when it avoids a
bad switch, that is willing to fly around and help
(08:18):
and recover situations, that is willing to get there, get
to get dirty fighting for rebounds. And Lebron and Anthony
Davis are just not those guys anymore. They're not interested
in working that hard. Lebron more so than Ad. But
Lebron last night was just like straight up unwilling to
(08:39):
help at the rim. He was unwilling to fight for
contested rebounds. I can't tell you how many times he's
just ground band standing around, has his arms out, kind
of looking up as a younger athlete just comes flying
in and grabs the rebound over the top of everybody
not being willing to. There was a simple ball screen
with a drop off er dunk to Charles Bassi and
(09:00):
fourth quarter where Lebron was just like, I'm not gonna
make the low man rotation just didn't feel like it.
It was a really bad Lebron game. He was generally unfocused,
slop you with the basketball, not rebounding, not defending. It
just it just won't a good Lebron game. But it's
actually an issue in the big picture with Lebron AD
in the regular season and something I've been talking about consistently.
(09:21):
These guys are not going to come into the gym
every night and be like, I'm here to work. They're
coasting most of the time, specifically Lebron. So like when
it comes to the switching scheme, like it might be
a useful look for you in the postseason, I'm not
saying abandon it entirely. When Lebron and AD are playing
(09:42):
with more desperation and you have DFS and Ruie and
vandel on the floor or in the rotation with them,
I think it can work a little bit more. But
in the regular season you are signing yourself up for
failure by doing this, because you're just going to concede
bad switches. Stand around, watch a guy work one on one,
(10:04):
probably score, get an end one, and if he doesn't,
it's gonna be an offensive rebound. You give up a
one forty eight offensive rating. In that fourth quarter to
a team that couldn't score for the last three weeks.
It just was frustrating to watch because, like weirdly enough,
when things turned around, they didn't switch as much. They
did a ton to start the year. They started running
(10:26):
more drop coverage with they're not drop coverage but more
ball screen covered traditional ball screen coverage with ad where
he's up at the level and you have a guy
chasing over the top there. They were running more of that,
and then they just decided to stop. There's been there's
been quite a bit of it in the Dallas game
and in this game, and it's killing the Lakers defense.
These guys are too damn lazy to run that scheme.
(10:49):
So even though what you're thinking as a basketball mind, JJ,
which is correct, these guys should be able to do this,
and this scheme actually has proven to work when it's
run right, you are correct, JJ. These guys can't do it.
These guys can't do it. The other thing that stood
out to me all I, Max Christy and camrat Is
the two guard rotation for the Lakers, gave Vincent as
(11:11):
well sloppy turnovers. Max and Cam were five for thirteen
from the field, some really really really really ugly I
think it was actually five or eighteen from the go
is bad, some really ugly misses on threes. That's a
position group that is just not good enough to win
an NBA championship. As I've told you guys, with Max Christy,
(11:34):
it's not about the ceiling, it's about the floor. We
all know what Max is capable of, but young players
struggle to replicate it, and he wasn't good. And that's
just a position group that if this team has any
intention of getting to where they want to go, that
has to be improved. And then lastly, like this thing
where they just quit every time things get tough. I
(11:56):
took a little screenshot of the Synergy game chart, which
just tracks the differential in points, and if you look
at it, the Lakers were in control and control and control,
and then it's just a straight line up to twenty
four points the victory, twenty four points, spurs lead at
the end of the game, straight line, no fight. Most
games kind of go like this as teams fight, like, oh,
(12:19):
team went on a run, well we're going to go
on a run. Well you went on a run, Well
we're going to go on a run. The Lakers. No,
they have no interest in fighting. They have no interest
in being like, hey, things are getting tough, let's lock in,
let's get this done. They're not those guys. And that's
why I continue to think this team just isn't made
of the right stuff to win a playoff series against
(12:39):
a great team. Remember how I talked about how even
after the Houston and Dallas losses, it felt like the
Lakers were still kind of hanging on to the rope.
You just had a bunch of time off, and you
needed this win on a two game losing streak. That's
what a team that doesn't feel like hanging onto the
rope looks like. Really really disappointing loss for the Lakers.
(13:10):
Let's move on to Pistons Knicks more serious basketball. A
couple of methodical matchup attacking teams. The Pistons, they're attacking
matchups specifically with Cat and Brunson, right like Steady died
of attacking Cat and pick and roll, attacking Brunson and
guarde screens, that was how they ended the game. On
the Knicks front, it's attacking the bigs and ball screen,
(13:31):
either in switch switch ISOs or pick and pop. So
like bruntson attacking Isaiah Stewart, are attacking Jalen duran or
like cat pick and popping, especially against Jalen Durna because
he struggles with that coverage. Some attacking Malie Beasley and
Tomatowa Junior and guard screens. They did that late. That's
how they got the big three for McHale Bridges. But
the Pistons just did a better job of it in
this game. The Knicks made their runs and Brunson kept
(13:53):
things close late with some big layups at the rim,
but the Pistons felt in control of that game for
the most part. The problem is Kate and he presents
some significant problems to teams around the league. The Pistons
ran a steady diet of three man action most of
the game, a lot of wedge pick and roll in
the first quarter. Wedge pick and roll is kind of
(14:13):
like a ram screen pick and roll. Basically, all it
is is you have your big start at the elbow
or the man you're gonna have set, the ball screen
set at the sitting at the elbow, ball handler on
the wing, and you have a guard who's off ball
comes screen for the screener so that he can run
up into the ball screen with separation between him and
his defender before he comes off the ball screen. That's
wedge pick and roll. They ran a lot of that
in the first quarter. Stack pick and roll. We've talked
(14:34):
about it before. All it is a ball screen with
someone backscreening for the role man as he's going to
the basket. They ran a lot of that in the
second half. And then double drag they also ran a
lot of that in the second Half's where you just
have two guys set two staggered ball screens for your
ball handler. One guy rolls, one guy pops. Like lots
of three man action from the Pistons in this game,
Kate just puts you in a tough spot. In those
(14:55):
three man actions. If you have Mikhale bridges chase Kate
over the top, and you have Cat sit back into
drop coverage, you're a solid screen, like a really good
screen from Kad just walking into a pull up jumper,
and he hit several of those in this game. Isaiah
Stewart in particular was setting really good on ball screens
for Kate. If Mikhale does a good job and fights
(15:16):
over the screen and he stays attached, now he's in
trail position, and when he's in trail position, that's when
Caid can methodically work his way downhill into the short
range with that like kind of reverse post up that
I always talk about with Luka Doncics, where you get
the defender in jail on your backside and you kind
of methodically work yourself inside. Did some damage that way,
was pivoting out of it into in to turn around
(15:40):
jump turn around jump shots, things along those lines, right,
But the main reason that the Pistons run three man
action is to force unfavorable switches or hedges. Unfavorable switches
are the types of smaller defenders that guys like Kate
cunning him and Tobias Harris will kill if they get
him in any sort of space to work one on
one right, and those those guys have been feasting on
that all season. The hedges they bring two to the ball.
(16:05):
When you bring two to the ball in a hedge,
that's where you get the four on threes. Those are
what end up leading to those open, open three point
shots for guys like Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Junior,
which they've been feasting on all season. So essentially those
three man actions this is why the Pistons have been
the sixth best offense in the league over this eleven
(16:25):
game span. They run this action and Kate has an
answer for all of it. Die on the screen and
a drop kid's shooting a pull up three. Stay attached.
Cade's methodically working you into the short range. Right, start switching.
We're attacking matchups, start hedging. We're gonna play on the
four on three out of it. And they've just been
torching teams like that, and then they can go even
simpler than that in late game situations just by attacking
(16:48):
guards and guard screens. This is how they won the game. Right,
Tim Hardaway Junior had Jalen Brunston on him. They run
the first one, it's a hedge and recover again. This
is what you're always gonna do with the defender like Brunson.
You don't want Brunson to end up on cad on
a switch, so you have him hedge, meaning you have
him run out and stop the drive at least forcing
Kaid to take a retreat dribble further away from the basket,
(17:09):
and then you sprint back to the shooter who's slipping
out of the action. In this case, Tim Hardaway Junior.
First time they run it, Jalen Brunson's hedges Jalen Brunson
Hedges sprints back to Tim Hardaway Junior. But for whatever reason,
the Knick's hard help with Josh Hart off the weak
side corner. He comes flying up to Tim Hardaway Jr.
Simple extra pass to Malik Beasley, knocks down to three
again four on three generated by bringing two to the ball,
(17:32):
which is the hedge that Brunson brings. Quick passes out
of it, wide open three for Malik Beasley. And then
the second time they just go full blitz brunts and
attacks Cad Bridges follows him. They both attack Caid. It
ends up being the same exact sequence. Swing over to
Tim Hardaway Junior. Josh Hart rotates extra pass to Malik
Beasley in the corner. That's your ballgame, right, But again
(17:53):
that's an even simpler action that they can go to
in those situations and get great stuff because of Kaide's
ability to attack mismatches to pass out of everything. Again
sixth best offense in the league over this eleven game span.
And then the Pissons just had several guys give them
bonus offense. Marcus Sasser. He only had seven points in
four assists, but all of them were big and self created.
(18:14):
He was just giving straight work to Jalen Brunson one
on one. He did the same thing to Campaign on
a possession in the fourth quarter where he dropped it
off for a dunk. He was awesome. Ron Holland had
a big lefty right left to right crossover against og
Andnobi where he broke him off and got a big
floater there in the fourth quarter. Malik Beasley in the
I think it was in the second quarter or late
first quarter, I can't remember exactly what it was, but
(18:36):
he went on a crazy shooting run in the first
half where he really did a bunch of damage on
some self created stuff too, like flying off of screens
or they had a like a thirty five foot or
at the top of the key for his four to
three in this game. But like a lot of guys
just pitching in with extra offense and that's why they've
been so good offensively. And then just lots of defensive contributions. Specifically,
(18:59):
I thought the Biggs did a good job on switches
against Brunson most of the night. Brunson got Stewart a
couple times late with layups, but for the most part
he did a good job. Jalen durn did a good
job on Brunson on switches, really good on ball reps
all over the flora. Sar Thompson and Marcus Sasser both
did a good job on Brunson. They did some offense
defense subs late where they'd bring in Usar Thompson or
(19:19):
they'd bring in one of Beasley, Tim Hardaway Junior and
kind of go back and forth. I thought Isaiah Stewart
did a great job on Karl Anthony Towns, kind of
like flattening out some of his drives, staying attached to
him on his pop situations. He just did a much
better job than Jalen Duran, which is, by the way,
why Stewart played twenty eight minutes and Jalen durn only
played twenty minutes. And Jalen Durns is like a really
(19:40):
good drop coverage, paint protecting type of big, but he
can struggle tracking shooters and defending in those sorts of situations.
He lost Carl Anthony Towns on pops. Earlier in the game,
had a possession where he was terrified of the pops
or he just didn't help on the drive at all whatsoever,
which gave up a layup like that. It just is
not a great matchup for him when it comes to
shooting bigs. But for the most part, of a bunch
of good defensive contributions for a Pistons team that is
(20:03):
playing really good basketball right now. On the Knicks front,
offense wasn't the issue. They actually shot better than the
Pistons on jump shots in that game. They got fifty
one attempts for one point two zero points per jump shot.
The Pistons took forty nine jump shots and got one
point one zero, So the Knicks shot better. They actually
had a one to nineteen offensive rating in this game.
(20:23):
The problem was is they had a one twenty four
defensive right and they couldn't get any stops. And it's
the same I don't need to go any further into it,
because it's the same stuff they've been struggling with all season.
Karl Anthony Towns being really bad in ball screens. One possession,
he's too far back, Kate's hitting a pull up three.
The next possession, he's too far up. Kate just crosses
right past him, gets into the lane. For an easy
(20:44):
shot at the rim against Duce McBride and help right
like Kat's really bad all over the place, and pick
and roll Brunson like so many bad hedges in this game,
where sometimes he's hedging but he's not really hedging, meaning
like he's there, but he's not really disrupting the ball.
All he's doing is putting two on the ball without
actually pressuring anybody, or like some of his hedges, he
(21:05):
didn't even contain the ball. He had a hedge where
he just basically screened McHale bridges and Ky just went
right downhill and got it and created another wide open shot.
I think that was the one that led to the
USAR Thompson corner three that he claimed. But like that,
and then again, the most important part of the hedge
is you got to recover. There was a there's a
really good campaign hedge and recover rep in the second
(21:26):
quarter or yeah, no it his fourth court. It was
in the second half campaign had a really good hedge
and recover rep where he jumps out on Kid, pressures
the hell out of the ball, forces Kaid to pick
up his dribble and then sprints back to I think
it was uh I think it was someone Fontechio that
was slipping out of it, and in the process k
threw a bad pass because he saw Campaign in the
(21:48):
passing lane and it went out of bounce. Again, there's
you have to stop the drive, pressure the ball enough
to at least like make them take a retreat dribble
or to pick up their dribble, and then you need
to sprint like hell to get back to the shooter.
That's the bear minimum of what they're asking you to do,
Jalen Brunson, because again the idea there is we're not
letting you play defense on that guy if we can
afford it. We're not gonna put you on an island there.
(22:08):
We just need you to hedge and recover. And Brunson's
hedges and recovers have been really inconsistent all year. And
then the same stuff that's been messing with the Knicks
all year with their good defenders, where it's like one
of the first buckets of the game ognnob and Michale
Bridge is a simple action between Tobias Harrison k Cunningham
that should be a switch Nope, two on the ball,
(22:28):
Tobias slips and gets another drop off for an easy
bucket or I think you've missed, and then an offensive
rebound put back by one of the bigs. What are
you doing your Ognoban mcal Bridges. You should be able
to switch any action that involves the two of you,
like there's just so much sloppiness. And then these two
big entry points in two guys in Kat and Jalen
(22:49):
Brunson that just haven't been good enough this year on
the details in order to anchor a good defense. And again,
things aren't going to turn around for the Knicks until
those guys embrace that responsibility and everything that comes with
it at a championship level. All right, guys, that's all
I have for today. Is always as sincerely appreciate you
guys for supporting me and supporting the show. Again. We'll
be back tomorrow. We'll do some game reactions and I
want to do some trade deadline stuff as well. I
(23:11):
will see you guys then the volume. What's up guys?
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
OOPS 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.
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All right, well, good hoops tonight here at the volume,
Happy Tuesday, everybody help all of you guys are having
(01:46):
a great week. Just a quick show for you guys today.
We're doing two instant reactions from last night's games. Stop
me if you've heard this one before. The Los Angeles
Lakers controlled a game for two and a half quarters,
had a ten point second half lead, and completely fell apart,
lost by twenty four to the San Antonio Spurs, a
Spurs team that has been reeling, that had lost six
out of nine games coming in. We're going to talk
(02:07):
about that one. And then in the second half of
the show, the Detroit Pistons, who've been playing great basketball
as of late, continue that, winning their ninth time in
eleven games, this time on the road against the New
York Knicks, and a very interesting chess match type of
game that we'll be breaking down from the perspective of
both teams. Just a quick show today. Tomorrow I plan
on doing some more like trade deadline centric stuff as
(02:29):
well as some instant reaction content. You guys know the
Joe before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoop Tonight
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All right, let's talk some basketball. So again, Lakers really
(02:50):
control things for the first two and a half quarters,
and a run started, and as has typically been the
case for the Lakers this year, when the run started,
they legitimate They let go of the rope and got
Ryan out of the damn gym, and it started with
defense for the Spurs. They started forcing turnovers and getting
out in transition again. They were up by ten and
Trey Jones stonewalls Austin Reeves on a drive, forces a turnover.
(03:13):
The Spurs run out and they score. Wemby jumps a
lazy swing pass out by half court from Gave Vincent
to Anthony Davis, he runs out, gets a dunk, Keldon
Johnson strips Lebron James. There's a bunch of turnovers that
were leading to run out opportunities for the Spurs, and
then also out They just kind of invigorated them and
they just started outworking the Lakers. They started beating them
(03:34):
to every single loose ball. The Lakers were having a
ton of issues on the offensive glass with the back
end of their switching scheme. Essentially, like as they would switch,
there'd be all of a sudden, a big on a
little underneath the basket, and they just get an offensive rebound,
they get an offensive rebound that leads to a Keldon
Johnson wing three that ties the game going into the
fourth quarter. And then in the fourth quarter it was
(03:55):
entirely about the Spurs torching the Lakers switching scheme. So
Devin Vassell ending up with Anthony Davis on him a bunch.
He had that crazy dunk in the end of the
third quarter stretch where he just drove right past Anthony
Davis and dunked on his head. Harrison Barnes picking on
the smaller Laker perimeter players, guys like Austin Reeves, guys
like Max Christy who's decent against guards but can struggle
(04:17):
against bigger body guys that can kind of bully him
to space. And again, a huge part of beating any
switching scheme you can imagine, we always think about, like,
you know, a guard in a pick and roll, getting
a big on a switch and then him isoating that guy. Right,
that's a lot we've seen a lot of that. We're
gonna talking about that later in today's show, with like
the stuff that Jalen Brunson was trying to do to
(04:38):
Jalen Duran and Isaiah Stewart, right, like in this case
Devian Vessel against a guy like Anthony Davis. But there's
a flip side to that, which is you're getting guys
that are inside position against smaller guards. Charles Bassi had
three offensive rebounds in this game. Every single one of
them was on the second half of a switch on
that when he was being guarded by a smaller player
(05:00):
because of a switch. And the Spurs just methodically walked
the Lakers out of their own gym in that fourth quarter.
They forced more turnovers. Lebron was just so incredibly sloppy
in this one. They think he had seven or eight turnovers.
They were getting stops, they were getting great shots every
single time down the floor. Chris Paul hit a couple
of big ones. Just a really really bad loss for
a Lakers team against the Spurs team, and that again
(05:22):
had lost six times in their last nine games coming
into the game. The Spurs had an offensive rating of
just one oh eight point three in their six losses.
They posted a one forty eight offensive rating in that
fourth quarter. And so these are the things that stood
out to me on the Lakers front. First and foremost,
this is a message to JJ Reddick. You have to
(05:44):
give up on this damn switch everything scheme that you're
using in the regular season. For the record, I get
why you're using it. You theoretically have a roster with
Lebron James and Anthony Davis and Dorian Finney Smith and
Ruwiy Hatch Merger Vanderbilt when he comes back, Max Chrissy
cam Reddish. You've got all these big athletes that theoretically
(06:07):
should be able to guard different types of position groups.
So why don't we try switching? And I do like
switching as a defensive scheme in principle because it shuts
down screening actions. Right, Like if they run a pick
and roll, or they run some sort of wide off
ball screen for a shooter and you can just switch it,
the guy with the ball or the guy who's looking
to shoot coming off the screen is not going to
(06:28):
be able to come off free and clearer with the
defender trailing him. He's gonna have someone waiting for him there, right,
That's what shuts down the screening actions. That's what eventually
baits teams into playing ISO and post up ball. Right.
Stop moving the ball around, stop trusting your teammates. Just
go try to play one on one against us. That's
why I like switching. I believe in switching as a scheme.
(06:50):
There are teams in this league who do it really well.
But the truth of the matter is you don't actually
have the right dudes to run this scheme. Why. Because
you need high motor athletes that fly around in order
for switching to work. Why you need them to fight
(07:12):
hard to not concede bad switches. Don't just switch for
the sake of switching. Switch when you have to, especially
when it involves an inferior defensive player in a precarious
situation and who would be switching onto two. You need
them to fly around and help and recover situations when
you're switching. It doesn't mean everyone goes and sits down
and you just play one on one. You load up,
(07:34):
you gap, you get into the nail, help, you get
into driving lanes, you help on the backside. You clog
things up, and you rotate out of it so that
those ISOs aren't just ISOs, but they're bad ISOs. That's
what you're supposed to do. And then last you need
all of them to crash the glass hard. Inherently with switching,
you give up size mismatches on the offensive glass. You
(07:56):
have to compensate for that with a five man rebounding effort.
So in order for a switching scheme to work, you
have to have a certain type of athlete all over
the floor, a hard working, natural motor athlete that is
willing to fight through some screens when it avoids a
bad switch, that is willing to fly around and help
(08:18):
and recover situations, that is willing to get there, get
to get dirty fighting for rebounds. And Lebron and Anthony
Davis are just not those guys anymore. They're not interested
in working that hard. Lebron more so than Ad. But
Lebron last night was just like straight up unwilling to
(08:39):
help at the rim. He was unwilling to fight for
contested rebounds. I can't tell you how many times he's
just ground band standing around, has his arms out, kind
of looking up as a younger athlete just comes flying
in and grabs the rebound over the top of everybody
not being willing to. There was a simple ball screen
with a drop off er dunk to Charles Bassi and
(09:00):
fourth quarter where Lebron was just like, I'm not gonna
make the low man rotation just didn't feel like it.
It was a really bad Lebron game. He was generally unfocused,
slop you with the basketball, not rebounding, not defending. It
just it just won't a good Lebron game. But it's
actually an issue in the big picture with Lebron AD
in the regular season and something I've been talking about consistently.
(09:21):
These guys are not going to come into the gym
every night and be like, I'm here to work. They're
coasting most of the time, specifically Lebron. So like when
it comes to the switching scheme, like it might be
a useful look for you in the postseason, I'm not
saying abandon it entirely. When Lebron and AD are playing
(09:42):
with more desperation and you have DFS and Ruie and
vandel on the floor or in the rotation with them,
I think it can work a little bit more. But
in the regular season you are signing yourself up for
failure by doing this, because you're just going to concede
bad switches. Stand around, watch a guy work one on one,
(10:04):
probably score, get an end one, and if he doesn't,
it's gonna be an offensive rebound. You give up a
one forty eight offensive rating. In that fourth quarter to
a team that couldn't score for the last three weeks.
It just was frustrating to watch because, like weirdly enough,
when things turned around, they didn't switch as much. They
did a ton to start the year. They started running
(10:26):
more drop coverage with they're not drop coverage but more
ball screen covered traditional ball screen coverage with ad where
he's up at the level and you have a guy
chasing over the top there. They were running more of that,
and then they just decided to stop. There's been there's
been quite a bit of it in the Dallas game
and in this game, and it's killing the Lakers defense.
These guys are too damn lazy to run that scheme.
(10:49):
So even though what you're thinking as a basketball mind, JJ,
which is correct, these guys should be able to do this,
and this scheme actually has proven to work when it's
run right, you are correct, JJ. These guys can't do it.
These guys can't do it. The other thing that stood
out to me all I, Max Christy and camrat Is
the two guard rotation for the Lakers, gave Vincent as
(11:11):
well sloppy turnovers. Max and Cam were five for thirteen
from the field, some really really really really ugly I
think it was actually five or eighteen from the go
is bad, some really ugly misses on threes. That's a
position group that is just not good enough to win
an NBA championship. As I've told you guys, with Max Christy,
(11:34):
it's not about the ceiling, it's about the floor. We
all know what Max is capable of, but young players
struggle to replicate it, and he wasn't good. And that's
just a position group that if this team has any
intention of getting to where they want to go, that
has to be improved. And then lastly, like this thing
where they just quit every time things get tough. I
(11:56):
took a little screenshot of the Synergy game chart, which
just tracks the differential in points, and if you look
at it, the Lakers were in control and control and control,
and then it's just a straight line up to twenty
four points the victory, twenty four points, spurs lead at
the end of the game, straight line, no fight. Most
games kind of go like this as teams fight, like, oh,
(12:19):
team went on a run, well we're going to go
on a run. Well you went on a run, Well
we're going to go on a run. The Lakers. No,
they have no interest in fighting. They have no interest
in being like, hey, things are getting tough, let's lock in,
let's get this done. They're not those guys. And that's
why I continue to think this team just isn't made
of the right stuff to win a playoff series against
(12:39):
a great team. Remember how I talked about how even
after the Houston and Dallas losses, it felt like the
Lakers were still kind of hanging on to the rope.
You just had a bunch of time off, and you
needed this win on a two game losing streak. That's
what a team that doesn't feel like hanging onto the
rope looks like. Really really disappointing loss for the Lakers.
(13:10):
Let's move on to Pistons Knicks more serious basketball. A
couple of methodical matchup attacking teams. The Pistons, they're attacking
matchups specifically with Cat and Brunson, right like Steady died
of attacking Cat and pick and roll, attacking Brunson and
guarde screens, that was how they ended the game. On
the Knicks front, it's attacking the bigs and ball screen,
(13:31):
either in switch switch ISOs or pick and pop. So
like bruntson attacking Isaiah Stewart, are attacking Jalen duran or
like cat pick and popping, especially against Jalen Durna because
he struggles with that coverage. Some attacking Malie Beasley and
Tomatowa Junior and guard screens. They did that late. That's
how they got the big three for McHale Bridges. But
the Pistons just did a better job of it in
this game. The Knicks made their runs and Brunson kept
(13:53):
things close late with some big layups at the rim,
but the Pistons felt in control of that game for
the most part. The problem is Kate and he presents
some significant problems to teams around the league. The Pistons
ran a steady diet of three man action most of
the game, a lot of wedge pick and roll in
the first quarter. Wedge pick and roll is kind of
(14:13):
like a ram screen pick and roll. Basically, all it
is is you have your big start at the elbow
or the man you're gonna have set, the ball screen
set at the sitting at the elbow, ball handler on
the wing, and you have a guard who's off ball
comes screen for the screener so that he can run
up into the ball screen with separation between him and
his defender before he comes off the ball screen. That's
wedge pick and roll. They ran a lot of that
in the first quarter. Stack pick and roll. We've talked
(14:34):
about it before. All it is a ball screen with
someone backscreening for the role man as he's going to
the basket. They ran a lot of that in the
second half. And then double drag they also ran a
lot of that in the second Half's where you just
have two guys set two staggered ball screens for your
ball handler. One guy rolls, one guy pops. Like lots
of three man action from the Pistons in this game,
Kate just puts you in a tough spot. In those
(14:55):
three man actions. If you have Mikhale bridges chase Kate
over the top, and you have Cat sit back into
drop coverage, you're a solid screen, like a really good
screen from Kad just walking into a pull up jumper,
and he hit several of those in this game. Isaiah
Stewart in particular was setting really good on ball screens
for Kate. If Mikhale does a good job and fights
(15:16):
over the screen and he stays attached, now he's in
trail position, and when he's in trail position, that's when
Caid can methodically work his way downhill into the short
range with that like kind of reverse post up that
I always talk about with Luka Doncics, where you get
the defender in jail on your backside and you kind
of methodically work yourself inside. Did some damage that way,
was pivoting out of it into in to turn around
(15:40):
jump turn around jump shots, things along those lines, right,
But the main reason that the Pistons run three man
action is to force unfavorable switches or hedges. Unfavorable switches
are the types of smaller defenders that guys like Kate
cunning him and Tobias Harris will kill if they get
him in any sort of space to work one on
one right, and those those guys have been feasting on
that all season. The hedges they bring two to the ball.
(16:05):
When you bring two to the ball in a hedge,
that's where you get the four on threes. Those are
what end up leading to those open, open three point
shots for guys like Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Junior,
which they've been feasting on all season. So essentially those
three man actions this is why the Pistons have been
the sixth best offense in the league over this eleven
(16:25):
game span. They run this action and Kate has an
answer for all of it. Die on the screen and
a drop kid's shooting a pull up three. Stay attached.
Cade's methodically working you into the short range. Right, start switching.
We're attacking matchups, start hedging. We're gonna play on the
four on three out of it. And they've just been
torching teams like that, and then they can go even
simpler than that in late game situations just by attacking
(16:48):
guards and guard screens. This is how they won the game. Right,
Tim Hardaway Junior had Jalen Brunston on him. They run
the first one, it's a hedge and recover again. This
is what you're always gonna do with the defender like Brunson.
You don't want Brunson to end up on cad on
a switch, so you have him hedge, meaning you have
him run out and stop the drive at least forcing
Kaid to take a retreat dribble further away from the basket,
(17:09):
and then you sprint back to the shooter who's slipping
out of the action. In this case, Tim Hardaway Junior.
First time they run it, Jalen Brunson's hedges Jalen Brunson
Hedges sprints back to Tim Hardaway Junior. But for whatever reason,
the Knick's hard help with Josh Hart off the weak
side corner. He comes flying up to Tim Hardaway Jr.
Simple extra pass to Malik Beasley, knocks down to three
again four on three generated by bringing two to the ball,
(17:32):
which is the hedge that Brunson brings. Quick passes out
of it, wide open three for Malik Beasley. And then
the second time they just go full blitz brunts and
attacks Cad Bridges follows him. They both attack Caid. It
ends up being the same exact sequence. Swing over to
Tim Hardaway Junior. Josh Hart rotates extra pass to Malik
Beasley in the corner. That's your ballgame, right, But again
(17:53):
that's an even simpler action that they can go to
in those situations and get great stuff because of Kaide's
ability to attack mismatches to pass out of everything. Again
sixth best offense in the league over this eleven game span.
And then the Pissons just had several guys give them
bonus offense. Marcus Sasser. He only had seven points in
four assists, but all of them were big and self created.
(18:14):
He was just giving straight work to Jalen Brunson one
on one. He did the same thing to Campaign on
a possession in the fourth quarter where he dropped it
off for a dunk. He was awesome. Ron Holland had
a big lefty right left to right crossover against og
Andnobi where he broke him off and got a big
floater there in the fourth quarter. Malik Beasley in the
I think it was in the second quarter or late
first quarter, I can't remember exactly what it was, but
(18:36):
he went on a crazy shooting run in the first
half where he really did a bunch of damage on
some self created stuff too, like flying off of screens
or they had a like a thirty five foot or
at the top of the key for his four to
three in this game. But like a lot of guys
just pitching in with extra offense and that's why they've
been so good offensively. And then just lots of defensive contributions. Specifically,
(18:59):
I thought the Biggs did a good job on switches
against Brunson most of the night. Brunson got Stewart a
couple times late with layups, but for the most part
he did a good job. Jalen durn did a good
job on Brunson on switches, really good on ball reps
all over the flora. Sar Thompson and Marcus Sasser both
did a good job on Brunson. They did some offense
defense subs late where they'd bring in Usar Thompson or
(19:19):
they'd bring in one of Beasley, Tim Hardaway Junior and
kind of go back and forth. I thought Isaiah Stewart
did a great job on Karl Anthony Towns, kind of
like flattening out some of his drives, staying attached to
him on his pop situations. He just did a much
better job than Jalen Duran, which is, by the way,
why Stewart played twenty eight minutes and Jalen durn only
played twenty minutes. And Jalen Durns is like a really
(19:40):
good drop coverage, paint protecting type of big, but he
can struggle tracking shooters and defending in those sorts of situations.
He lost Carl Anthony Towns on pops. Earlier in the game,
had a possession where he was terrified of the pops
or he just didn't help on the drive at all whatsoever,
which gave up a layup like that. It just is
not a great matchup for him when it comes to
shooting bigs. But for the most part, of a bunch
of good defensive contributions for a Pistons team that is
(20:03):
playing really good basketball right now. On the Knicks front,
offense wasn't the issue. They actually shot better than the
Pistons on jump shots in that game. They got fifty
one attempts for one point two zero points per jump shot.
The Pistons took forty nine jump shots and got one
point one zero, So the Knicks shot better. They actually
had a one to nineteen offensive rating in this game.
(20:23):
The problem was is they had a one twenty four
defensive right and they couldn't get any stops. And it's
the same I don't need to go any further into it,
because it's the same stuff they've been struggling with all season.
Karl Anthony Towns being really bad in ball screens. One possession,
he's too far back, Kate's hitting a pull up three.
The next possession, he's too far up. Kate just crosses
right past him, gets into the lane. For an easy
(20:44):
shot at the rim against Duce McBride and help right
like Kat's really bad all over the place, and pick
and roll Brunson like so many bad hedges in this game,
where sometimes he's hedging but he's not really hedging, meaning
like he's there, but he's not really disrupting the ball.
All he's doing is putting two on the ball without
actually pressuring anybody, or like some of his hedges, he
(21:05):
didn't even contain the ball. He had a hedge where
he just basically screened McHale bridges and Ky just went
right downhill and got it and created another wide open shot.
I think that was the one that led to the
USAR Thompson corner three that he claimed. But like that,
and then again, the most important part of the hedge
is you got to recover. There was a there's a
really good campaign hedge and recover rep in the second
(21:26):
quarter or yeah, no it his fourth court. It was
in the second half campaign had a really good hedge
and recover rep where he jumps out on Kid, pressures
the hell out of the ball, forces Kaid to pick
up his dribble and then sprints back to I think
it was uh I think it was someone Fontechio that
was slipping out of it, and in the process k
threw a bad pass because he saw Campaign in the
(21:48):
passing lane and it went out of bounce. Again, there's
you have to stop the drive, pressure the ball enough
to at least like make them take a retreat dribble
or to pick up their dribble, and then you need
to sprint like hell to get back to the shooter.
That's the bear minimum of what they're asking you to do,
Jalen Brunson, because again the idea there is we're not
letting you play defense on that guy if we can
afford it. We're not gonna put you on an island there.
(22:08):
We just need you to hedge and recover. And Brunson's
hedges and recovers have been really inconsistent all year. And
then the same stuff that's been messing with the Knicks
all year with their good defenders, where it's like one
of the first buckets of the game ognnob and Michale
Bridge is a simple action between Tobias Harrison k Cunningham
that should be a switch Nope, two on the ball,
(22:28):
Tobias slips and gets another drop off for an easy
bucket or I think you've missed, and then an offensive
rebound put back by one of the bigs. What are
you doing your Ognoban mcal Bridges. You should be able
to switch any action that involves the two of you,
like there's just so much sloppiness. And then these two
big entry points in two guys in Kat and Jalen
(22:49):
Brunson that just haven't been good enough this year on
the details in order to anchor a good defense. And again,
things aren't going to turn around for the Knicks until
those guys embrace that responsibility and everything that comes with
it at a championship level. All right, guys, that's all
I have for today. Is always as sincerely appreciate you
guys for supporting me and supporting the show. Again. We'll
be back tomorrow. We'll do some game reactions and I
want to do some trade deadline stuff as well. I
(23:11):
will see you guys then the volume. What's up guys?
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
OOPS 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.
Host
Jason Timpf
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