April 23, 2025 • 48 mins
Jason reacts live after the Los Angeles Lakers evened the series against the Minnesota Timberwolves with a win in Game 2. Luka Doncic had another great game, LeBron James & Austin Reaves bounced back, and they tied the series against Anthony Edwards. Then he discusses Tyrese Halliburton and the Indiana Pacers going up 2-0 with a win over Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, and the Milwaukee Bucks. Finally he discusses Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder continuing to dominate Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies.
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(01:57):
All right, well hoops tonight you're at the volume. Happy
two to everybody. Hop all of you guys are having
a great start to your week. Got a jam packs
show for you guys.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Today.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
We're hitting both of the games that we're in series
that I view as more competitive that being the Bucks
Pacers and the Lakers Wolves. Obviously, thanks to the NBA
TV conundrum, had to pick one of the two early
Slate games, and I think, okay, so he's just gonna
kick the shit out of Memphis as they've continued to do.
So we're gonna be focusing on Bucks Pacers and Lakers
Wolves tonight, and then, like we did last night, at
(02:26):
the tail end of the show, Jackson's gonna come on
and we're gonna take you know, ten to fifteen minutes
worth of questions. So make sure you guys stick around.
All you gotta do is subscribe to the channel and
then drop your questions in the chat and then we'll
hit them at the end. You guys know the job
before we get started. Subcribe to the Hoops and Oight
YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys
don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed
where you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's
also super helpful if we leave a rating and a
(02:48):
review on that front. Jackson's doing incredible work on our
social media feeds. On Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Make sure
you guys follow us there. In the last but not least,
keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube comments so
we can get to them in our mail bags throughout
the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So,
as I mentioned after Game one, after I rewatched the
game and I went down and I took the time
to really sift through the tape, the number one thing
(03:09):
that stood out to me there were some schematic things, like,
you know, over helping off of nas Red in particular
nas Reed, the specific offensive approach of focusing on attacking bigs,
particularly with Lebron versus attacking in the post. There were
a couple like things that stood out to me, but
by far the biggest one was just the intensity. They
just did not meet the moment. They didn't look ready
(03:32):
for playoff basketball, and so we all knew the Lakers
were going to bring the requisite intensity coming into Game two,
and so honestly, coming into tonight, I didn't have a
good feel for what tonight was gonna look like. I
viewed tonight as kind of more of like an introductory
look at what it looks like when both of these
teams are playing with insane intensity and what it looks like,
(03:54):
and it turned into just an incredibly ugly basketball game
and a knockdown, drag out fistfight of a game. And
I'll lead with this because I said coming into the
series that I thought this was a good matchup for
the Lakers on both ends of the flour and this
is going to be the first series that I'm gonna
just admit that I'm wrong already. I don't see any Obviously,
(04:17):
the Lakers could theoretically could win both in Minnesota and
then come home and close it out and win five.
I would be shocked if the Lakers won this series
in five games. I think if the Lakers get it done,
it's going to be more like a six or seven
game type of series. This is definitely not going to
be easy for either team. The reality is is that
when the Lakers really tighten the screws defensively, Minnesota struggles
(04:40):
to score. But as we saw at least through two games,
when Minnesota really tightens the screws, the Lakers really struggle
to score. And that's really the give and take that
I always talk about in these series. Which team can
cause more problems for the other team, and I've seen
plenty from the first two games to feel like Minnesota
can cause some real problems for this team really on
(05:01):
both ends of the floor. And so with that being
the case, I think this is gonna be just an
absolute knockdown, drag out, two week long fistfight of a series.
And this is where if you're rooting for the Lakers,
it's an upside that you ran into this type of
matchup in the first round because you have a little
bit more rest, right Like, as the series drags on,
that rest becomes a little bit harder to come by,
(05:22):
but you have two days off now between tonight in
Game three, So like Game three is your opportunity to
try to regain home court off of two full days
of rest that they're gonna get, or at least one
full day, but if they practice on the other day.
And so I think it's gonna be one of those
things where if you're a Lakers fan, you gotta be
thinking about surviving this series in a way that when
(05:44):
you run into let's say it's Golden State in round two.
Golden State's an elite defense, but they're substantially smaller, and
you run into potentially an OKC in the Conference finals.
They're an elite defense, but they're substantially smaller. The specific
problem that the Lakers are running into is that they're
a little bit they're having a little bit of a
(06:04):
problem compromising the size mismatches on the floor. Now, there's
a certain element to this that we can get into
involving the process.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
The Lakers are.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Still just not even looking to attack Dante DiVincenzo, Mike Conley, Nikkeil,
Alexander Walker, any of Minnesota's smalls, and so maybe that's
the dynamic that could be something that the Lakers pull
out later in the series. I've been thinking a lot
about this, like why hasn't Lebron been posting up? I
don't understand why he hasn't been looking to do it
(06:36):
at all. He did it once late in the game
to Nikkeile Alexander Walker. That was a play where he
knocked him over, and as as Nikil fell over, it
just caused Lebron to lose his rhythm and then he
ended up shooting that awful looking super short jump shot.
But like Lebron pretty much hasn't gone to that. My
working theory is that it has to do with the
specific way that he heard his growing if you remember
(06:56):
he heard his groin on a pivot move against Al
Horford in that Celtics game. And so there might be
a certain amount of Lebron just not trusting is groin
to post up. But it's very possible, especially if Minnesota
wins this tug of war over the course of the
next few games, that Lebron has to take that out
of the bag and that Luca has to take it
out of the bag. Luca talked after the game Taylor
Rooks asked him about attacking Gobert and the crowd getting
(07:19):
all hyped, and he's like, you know, I love to
attack centers, and it's like that's great. But you know,
over the course of that game, go Bear held up
pretty well at times, and they were bringing late help
to the Wolves, were bringing like right at the last second,
if Luca got into the short to mid range just
right as he was going up with the shot, someone
else would come in. He ended up drawing a foul
on one of those early in the game. But there's
(07:39):
a certain amount of right now, this Lakers approach of
hunting the Minnesota bigs in space. You scored ninety four
points tonight, there were some highlights. You know, Luca at
one point looked over at the Minnesota bench and started
yelling about how you need a sub him out of
the game, and it's like, overall the strategy is still
(08:00):
from Minnesota, making things difficult at a certain point. I
think Lebron and Luke are gonna have to make a
more concerted attempt to attack the Minnesota smalls a little
bit closer to the basket where their size is more
of a factor. I mean, even when you factor in
just the way this series is playing out physically, it
would just be easier if you didn't have to, you know,
(08:23):
take those extra bumps and bruises on ISOs against Biggs,
But if you were taking those against a player that's,
you know, forty to fifty pounds lighter than you, it's
something to look into just in general. But yeah, again,
like my first series prediction that I want to change,
I don't think the Lakers are winning this thing in five.
I think it's going to be much more of a knockdown,
drag out fight type of series. And that was just
(08:44):
a misread on my part before the series, not accounting
enough for just the unrelenting physicality that Minnesota brings to
the table. I brought it up so many times during
the regular season too. It's probably just a little bit
of fangoggles there from Jason, but the Lakers strategy a
couple of interesting things.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
A little more staying home.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I don't know if you guys noticed that, a little
less just obsessively packing the paint, a little bit more
counting on guys to defend on an island. So as
a result, Aunt and Julius got some easier opportunities. The
two of them had high scoring totals in this game.
Ant was able to get into the paint for easy
layups a bunch of times in this game. Julius Randall
did a ton of damage in the post. Those two
guys go for fifty two, but there isn't a single
(09:26):
Timberwolveh scored over ten points. And so going back to
what we saw in game one, just on a real
basic level, strategically, just look at the total of points.
You just were able to hold Minnesota down, even though
Aunt and Julius were more comfortable over the course of
the game. But even within that context, there was a
lot of mixing up coverages, a lot of zone defense.
I shouldn't say a lot, but there are a few
(09:47):
possessions of zone defense mixed in, a few random doubles
mixed in, but the majority of it was just meeting
the moment with the requisite intensity right right out the gates.
The Lakers finally showed up to the playoffs physically, and
as you saw over the course of the series or
over the course of the game, Minnesota does have substantial
strength advantages in a bunch of different spots on the
(10:08):
floor that are manifesting with wearing them down at times.
But the Lakers obviously have this clear aggregate skill advantage.
The Lakers just have a little bit more at every
position in terms of skill. Lebron is just a smarter,
connective playmaker, just an overall smarter player than Julius Randall,
Lucas just a more polished half court surgeon than Anthony Edwards,
(10:31):
like Austin Rui, these guys, they're a little bit better offensively,
and so that's going to be the tug of war
of this series. As the Lakers match Minnesota's physicality, They're
going to be able to take control for stretches right
as Minnesota's physicality overwhelms the Lakers. That's when Minnesota will
take control of the series, and that's going to be
(10:52):
the tug of war. And that's one of the big
reasons why I talked about earlier the specific cadence of
the first round as an upside for the Lakers in
this particular series. But again, like as I talked about
in the episode that we did last night talking Clippers Nuggets, like,
so much of this is not about coming up with
some game plan adjustment, Like, yeah, the staying home, letting
(11:16):
Aunt and Julius have a little bit more space. That
was a strategy that had some positive impact tonight, the
mixing up coverages that had some positive impact tonight. But
the reality is they could have gone with the exact
same game plan from Game one, but brought this level
of intensity and it could have worked better, you know
what I mean. Like, ultimately, especially when you're looking at
(11:37):
the difference between those two performances for the Lakers, most
of it came down to them just inevitably getting to
the point where they showed up in the series physically
and started to compete. Austin Reeves, really I was impressed
by what he did in the second half, specifically with
just finding ways to score. He did a lot more work.
He did score finally on a couple of switches. He
(11:57):
was able to get nas Red on one. He's able
to get Rudy gop Bear on one. He just kind
of dances with the ball on the perimeter until there's
an over commitment one way or another, and then he's
hitting that gap hard and getting out extended with that
right handed finished before the rint protector can get there.
He was able to get a couple there. I thought
he looked specifically comfortable against nas Reed again over the
(12:17):
course of this series. That's really how things will will
sort out for the Lakers offensively. They have to find
pet actions in different phases of the game based on
the lineup. So, for instance, in the first shift, I'm
okay with Lebron attacking go Bet in a drop coverage
the way he did for that first lob to Jackson
(12:38):
Hayes that he made it was a drop coverage look.
That makes some sense. I'm okay with Luca attacking bigs
in space. That works right with that unit. With the
starting unit, it makes sense to lean heavily on Luca
attacking fives and mix in some Lebron attacking and drop coverage, right,
But as you go through different phases of the game,
your approach needs to change, and so it's like, Okay,
(13:00):
early fourth quarter, Austin has this matchup with nas Reed.
This is the time where Austin can look to attack
fives and switches like, Okay, early second quarter, early fourth quarter,
this is when Nikil Alexander Walker's on the floor. This
is when Lebron needs to start looking to post Nikil
Alexander Walker. You got to find the pet actions that
you can run in different parts of the game to
(13:22):
get comfortable, and that's gonna be That's gonna be the
chess match on the Lakers front for the Wolves, it's
so much just about maintaining that physicality. If the Wolves
just maintain the physicality that they maintained over the course
of the majority of the first two games, they're gonna
give themselves a great chance to win the series. Because
the Lakers chance to win the series depends entirely on
(13:43):
them hanging onto the rope for dear life, Like, as
a Laker fan, did you feel like you kind of
survived that game tonight? Did you get out of that
and to just take a deep breath and go a
good God, that was a fucking nightmare, right like that.
But that's that's what it feels like when you're in
those situations where they're bigger, they're stronger, and are trying
to meet their physicality and meet them at that level.
(14:03):
You can do it, but you are going to fatigue.
You're going to fatigue faster. The Lakers will let go
of the rope for stretches of this series. That's when
Minnesota is going to gain heavy amounts of ground. And
so again, Minnesota, like the biggest factor for them in
this series in terms of their ability to win is
just to maintain that physicality and capitalize on the stretches
(14:23):
when the Lakers let go of the rope and start
to give up those like transition opportunities. A classic example
late third quarter, just a couple of bad Luca possessions
and easy three on two to two on one fast breaks, layups,
and all of a sudden, it's a sixteen point game
when it was twenty one a few possessions earlier. Like
that's the they can make up ground so quick, whereas
(14:45):
the Laker bleed building process feels more slow and methodical.
A couple other specific things with Laker role players. I
heard a lot of people talking about wanting more Jackson
Hayes in this game. I have no seeing the upside there.
I think Jackson is just a really poor decision maker
(15:06):
time and time again. He doesn't really know how to
be physical without fouling on offense. It's inconsistent in terms
of like his ability to set screens without setting illegal screens,
his ability to be a vertical spacer on defense. It's
the fouling, but it's also like he'll just do what
he did on that Julius or that it was either
(15:26):
I think it was nas Reed who took that little
floater in the lane and Jackson comes flying in in
volleyball spike sitting. Everyone in the arena is like, what
the hell are you doing. It's like this is a
series where mistakes. Look at the Scots ninety four to
eighty five. These games are really low scoring. I don't
think mistakes are going to be something that they can
withstand in those Jackson A's minutes. So I didn't blame
(15:47):
JJ for holding his minutes down. Again, Ruby Hatchamura only
took two threes in this game, and I thought there
were at least like three or four of them where
Rudy was closing out. But like, that's playoff basketball, Ruy, like,
you gotta be able to take a three against the closeout.
You got to be able to take a three with
a hand in your face. If I was the Lakers
coaching staff, I'd spend the next two days and get
(16:08):
somebody one of those long arm like pads, and I'd
have r Ruey shoot a bunch of catch and shoot
threes against a tall man contest, because he is getting
good looks and he's turning them down. And then what
ends up happening is the Lakers get into a late
clock sequence, and when they're in there that late clock sequence,
they're struggling to get openings as Minnesota starts to leverage
(16:29):
their athleticism more so, I really think Ruy's gotta be
more aggressive in his catch and shoot situations. For how
open he was as often as he was tonight, only
two three point attempts isn't going to cut it as
far as the bench group goes. I thought most of
it worked relatively well. The Jared Vanderbilt stuff, same sort
of thing. Jared's active, but he's just a little mistake
prone right now. All in all, the story for this
(16:52):
series for the Lakers is going to be finding those
pet actions. They've got to find different spots in the
game where they can go to a specific action that
works effectively and then spam it over the course of
the series. You do have an IQ advantage in this
series with your starting groups if you make the better
adjustments over the course of the series in terms of
(17:12):
how you attack offensively. I'm less concerned about Aunt and
Julius being able to solve those puzzles at a higher
rate than you are. It's a battle of physicality versus IQ,
and that is going to be the puzzle for the
Lakers to solve over the course of the series. On
the Wolves front, there's some really encouraging stuff there. Julius
Randall and I talked about this before the series. There's
(17:36):
this reputation that Julius Randall has as like a bad
playoff player, when every single time I've watched Julius Randall
in his career, he's been a guy that, like if
you give him a long runway, like when he's played
twenty regular season games in a row and he's like
got his legs, his conditioning and his rhythm. He can
be a really impactful all NBA level player, but then
(17:59):
when he gets hurt, even when he comes back, it
just takes him a long time to find his rhythm.
It's not entirely uncommon. I feel the same way about Lebron.
I feel the same way about Austin. There are guys
like that, especially Lebron at this age in his career
when he's not his athletic right. But like I think
it's I think it's a great sign for Minnesota fans.
How Julius Randall has looked through these first two games,
he looks fantastic. I think he looks fantastic on both
(18:21):
ends of the floor. Luca did finally get him once
with a scoop layup tonight, but he continues to hold
up really well on switches. He's doing a ton of
damage in the middle.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Of the floor.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
He had some key help side defense possessions. Got beat
on a back door a cup by Dorian Finney Smith
in the first half, but had a huge backside rotation
to block Austin Reeves at the rim on a key
possession late. I think you're getting a lot out of
Julius Randall. As you go home, you're going to be
able to get more out of the role players as well.
Game three to me is the big swing game of
this series. It's going to be arrested Lakers group obviously,
(18:52):
that mattering with Lebron and with Luca not being in
the best shape of his life right now, that Game
three is going to be the one where I see
as a good opport unity for the Lakers to try
to steal home court back. Where it gets tricky is
if the Wolves do get Game three, it's a really
quick turnaround before Game four. I think it's only one
night off, so that Game four becomes all of a
(19:13):
sudden a must win game for the Lakers, and they
would be playing two nights after another one of these knockdown,
drag out fights like they had in Game three. So
I think it's not a must win per se, but
I think that Game three in Minnesota is the one
that the Lakers got to get if they're going to
remain in control of this series. All right, let's talk
a little bit of Bucks Pacers, and then we'll get
(19:33):
to our mail bag and then we'll get out of
here for the night. So the main adjustments I noticed
from the Bucks they started switching almost everything, especially with
Lopez with Brook Lopez and ball screens with Tyres Halliburton.
With Damian Lillard, they used basically kind of a switch
in scram scheme, so like if Dame ever ended up
on a big whether it was Siakam or Turner or
someone like that, they would just basically have him rotate
(19:54):
out of it and bring another one of Milwaukee's bigger
wings to come in and rescue Dame out those mismatches
and the Pacers just absolutely fried every single coverage the
Bucks tried in this game. Tyreese went absolutely crazy against
Brook and switches, and like that sort of thing would
only work with Brook Lopez if you are a strong
(20:15):
backside rotation team, and the Bucks just aren't. They haven't
been a strong backside rotation team all year, and he
just started cooking. Brooke immediately drove right past him on
an early possession, kicked to the corner for Nie Smith
for an easy bucket, had like a really nifty step
through Lefty Scoop shot off the glass on a switch
against Brook Lopez had a play where he kind of
hesitated and looked at the rim like he was going
(20:36):
to take a jumper, and Brooke took like two steps
out to the top of the key and Tyree's just
went right around and made it literally made him look
like he was stuck in the mud, had a dunk.
He blew by him for a drop off to Siakam
in the second half. Finally, late in the game, Brooke
was like, I can't keep getting beat off the dribble,
so he just played way back and then Tyre's burned
him by hitting a three right in his face at
the top of the key, so like that didn't work.
(20:58):
The Pacers even looked super prepared for the scram switches,
and this is something I want to credit the Indiana
coaching staff, Rick Carlisle and his guys. We saw the
Bucks do that with Dame quite a bit in the
regular season, and so they clearly scouted it and they
were ready for it. There was one where Dame scrammed
out to the left corner to get Obi topping, but
right as he was scramming, right as he was sprinting
(21:19):
over there, Obi just cut back door through the lob
and he got a dunk. There's another one where he
was sprinting like literally he was in the process of
sprinting to go to Nie Smith in the right corner.
The Pacers identified it immediately. Swing swing hit Nee Smith
in the right corner. He knocked down a three. They
were going at Dame just one on one. They realized
that he can't get a great contest on pull up
(21:40):
jump shots, so they were hitting pull up jump shots
in his face. They just were prepared for every single
thing that the Bucks tried to do. Still did a
lot of just just damage in transition in this game.
Out of their one hundred and eight possessions, forty five
of them were logged by Synergy as pushing the ball
with pace, and on those possessions they logged in one
twenty four offensive rating.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
TJ.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
McConnell did a bunch of damage on like semi transition
drives in those situations before the help defense was set up.
And I remained just completely impressed by Indiana's collective team
jump shooting. They were seventh as a team in jump
shooting in the regular season. They averaged one point zero
seven points per jump shot as a team throughout the
unit throughout the season, they got one point two to
(22:26):
three points per jump shot. In Game one and one
point two to two points per jump shot. In game two,
they have just consistently burned the Bucks every single time
they've made a mistake. And that was, honestly the larious
part about the late game comeback. Right, So the Bucks
actually cut this lead down to three, I believe late
it was at least as two or three. I think
they actually cut it to two. It was one fifteen
(22:47):
to one to thirteen. A couple of things that were
working offensive the same Giannis offensive rebound, put backs around
the basket. Bobby Portus hit a couple threes, Dame hit
a big three at the top of the key. They
hit some shots, but on the other end of the floor,
pacers were still getting great looks and they just missed them.
Like Tyres Halliburton got a wide open look in that
stretch that he missed, Miles Turner got a wide open
(23:08):
look in that stretch that he missed. Pascal Siakam got
a wide open look in that stretch that he missed.
They were just open looks that the pacers were missing.
And so what was funny is Dame hits the shot
that cuts it to three, and then on the very
next possession they leave Pascal Siakam wide open again and
this time he makes it and effectively ends the game.
Is a really weird kind of like double low man
(23:29):
look from Bobby Portis and Kyle Kuzma. Miles Turner was
sitting around the right block and Kuzma went way inside
of Miles Turner, and so Portis and Kuzma were both
standing inside of Miles Turner while Siakam was outside of
Miles Turner way out at the three point line, just
to try to kind of set up the geometry for
you guys, like, and it was as good a look
(23:50):
as the Pacers got all game. And so it's one
of those things where like it felt more like a
fake comeback there from the Bucks late because they were
still conceding the same shots they had been conceded all game.
They were just hitting on one end of the floor
and the Pacers went cold for a little bit on
the Bucks front. It's really hard to come up with
real solutions. There isn't really a coverage they can run
(24:11):
with Brook Lopez that that works. Like if you run
a drop coverage, that's suicide against Tyrese Haliburton. He's got
all the mid range and floater shot making right if
you run a high drop coverage. Tyrese is arguably a
top three or four pick and roll passer in the league,
probably closer to two or three pick and roll passer
in the league in terms of just making basic reads
(24:32):
on where the low man is and where the screen
defender is, and if you come up and put two
on the ball with him, whether it's a high drop
or a blitz or anything like that, he's going to
pick you apart with the pass. Then if you switch.
He's just way too slow footed to be able to
handle Haliburton in space. And the team doesn't really have
a backside kind of like rotational fly around athleticism element
(24:54):
to copy to compensate for the dribble drives that Lopez
is going to give up, so they don't really have
a coverage there that works. Portis and Kuzma aren't exactly
defensive answers. Like I talked about it, the Pacers were
still getting open looks. I would probably still go with
them and still switch like they have been, especially with
as well as Bobby Portis has been shooting the ball
(25:15):
Kyle Kuzma did. Finally, I felt bad for Kyle early
in the game. He smoked two wide open layups. No,
I shouldn't say wide open laps are tough layups. He
had a kind of like a step through layup against
a small attacking mismatch, and then he had a pass
from Giannis where he was right at the rim that
he just smoked, and it looked like it was going
to keep spiraling, but he just kept being aggressive and
he did finally manage to bring some scoring pop to
(25:37):
the table. I do like the idea of leaning into
those two more and switching. Most of it is going
to be about process from there. You have to run
good offense to avoid precarious transition situations. So like someone
tell Kevin Porter Junior that he shouldn't even look at
taking a shot unless there's like three seconds on the
shot clock, or if it's like a wide open shot
(25:57):
in the coverage, like it's a drop coverage and they
stay with Giannis and you've got a layup, or they
die on the screen and you've got like an all
day a pull up three something like that. That's fine,
but there were way too many possessions. There was one
where like Giannis was calling, like demanding the ball on
the block and Kevin Porter Junior took a pull up
three on the right wing, and the Pacers just ran
out and got a bucket off of it. Like there's
(26:18):
there's certain like offensive process stuff that you have to
do in order to avoid those transition situations, and then
just in general just setting up your floor spacing in
a way that you still have guys that are back
and ready to contend with the pacers in transition. The
Dame thing is interesting. I thought Dame was an absolute
nightmare on defense tonight. He ended up providing what like
(26:40):
fourteen points on thirteen shots if I remember correctly. I
don't have the box score up, but he wasn't exactly
a super efficient score. I get it, like you almost
feel like you have to play Dame. I don't know
how you explain to Dame or to your fans the
idea that like you're to like sit him or limit
(27:01):
his minutes in a series like this, because if you
lose and you have Dames just sitting on the bench,
that's a really, really tough pill to swallow if you're
a fan, right, But it's just tough because Dame is
out of rhythm clearly, and he brings a lot of
defensive issues and so honestly, it's just a gamble.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
I'd probably make the same gamble, but like I wish
there was a way to manage it in a way
where like you almost like come up with a minute
restriction or something to kind of ramp him up. Over
the course of the series. It's far more likely that
in a game five, six, or seven that Dame brings
more offensive pop than he did at this phase in
the series, And tonight I thought he probably did a
little bit more damage than good. And so it's just
(27:44):
honestly a really, really tough position to be in if
you're Milwaukee, And as you dig into it, it really
just comes.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Down to roster issues. Now this one.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
I'm not ready to bail on my pick yet. The
Bucks could certainly regain control of things in Milwaukee, especially
if Dame gets going. But it look good for them,
and the matchup continues to present some clear problems for
their defensive scheme that have been on display throughout the
first two games. All right, let's do ten fifteen minutes
of questions with Jackson.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Let's do it. Let's do it. We are going to
start with Jason does a physical rock fight series like
this favor the Lakers or the Warrior or the Wolves
as the series goes, for it.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
The more physical the series is, the more the refs
let both teams get away with, the better it is
from Minnesota, for sure. I think that I think that
goes without saying. I think if there happened to be
a game in the series, and you know how it is,
there's different officiating crews, right, Like I thought tonight was
a game where they actually called quite a few fouls
on both teams, but at the same time, there were
(28:42):
a lot of uncalled fouls. But it was one of
those games where there was like at least a dozen
fouls on like every possession, like everyone's just getting hacked
all over the place. And I do think that favors Minnesota.
But at the same time, like that is playoff basketball,
and so at the end of the day, like that
is the challenge for the Lakers. And I mean, if
you can somehow survive this series, even though Golden State
(29:04):
in round two or Houston, like Houston I actually think
presents similar problems to the Lakers that that Minnesota does.
But if you get a Golden State, if you get
an OKC in later rounds. Those teams don't have the
sheer size that can cause problems for you. But Minnesota.
Minnesota definitely is benefiting from the whistle.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Yeah, I definitely agree they were. I mean it, there
were There's a lot of online chatter and today about
how the refs were handing the Lakers that game, and
I think that, whether that's true or not, I think
it's a it's an encapsulation of the fact that when
the whistle is tighter, it's gonna benefit the team that's
less physical because those some of those more physical players
are getting called.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
The Blakers got called for two more fouls in Minnesota.
That's literally fantasy Land.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Yeah, I don't I don't really have any issues with
the way the game is refree. I thought it was
the whistle was a little tight, but it was equally
tight both ways.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, and it was tight in a way that was
like they were like there were a lot of foul calls,
but there were also a lot of uncalled foul calls
like like but yeah, dude, any converse surrounding the Lakers
and in officiating is like completely disingenuous. I saw that
all day today during the game, and it's like literally
throughout the entire game, the Lakers had more foul called
fouls called against them in Minnesota. It's like it's legitimately
(30:11):
fantasy land. But as you if you do any even
just like a little bit of basic research on the
Laker foul disparity thing, it's completely horseshit. It's just fantasy
land from other fan base.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
This is a supertat from jam. Thank you for the
supertach question. How can Ant get more point in the
paint against LA's defense Outside of the poster dunk, it
almost seemed like Luca was more aggressive driving to the
rim than An.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
I feel like Ant got to the basket quite a
bit tonight. The way that the Lakers were guarding him.
They were I thought Ruey actually did a pretty decent job,
but I want to credit Rui a little bit, Like
he was able to cut off Ant's first drive a
bunch of times and then flatten out his second drive,
So credit to Ruie. I actually thought he played some
really good defense tonight. He had a huge sequence late
(30:55):
in the game too, where he had i'll help side
rotation at the rim and got a stop and then
leaked out in transit the other way and got a.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Layup like Ruey.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
I was frustrated with the three point shooting, but he
made a lot of really nice plays tonight. As far
as Ant getting into the paint, like a lot of
it is lineup structure too, Like every single minute that
Rudy Gobert is on the floor, he's gonna run into
his second defender. That's just how it goes. If you're
looking at these Luca drives. They played Jackson Hayes for
eight minutes, and they play nine minutes, and they played
(31:24):
you know, vandover like even less. So if you really
dig into it, thirty minutes of the game, you have
five shooters on the floor. So as a result of that,
there's less help at the basket on some of these
Luca drives compared to what you're seeing from the Lakers.
And that's how it looks like Lucas getting there easier.
(31:44):
But most of this is schematic, yeah for sure.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Next question, do you think Minnesota will use different actions
to get Ant the ball and get him to the
rim in other ways? Pinned downs, cutting, inverted pick and roll,
et cetera. Basically, how how do we feel like the
Wolves can try to get at going a little more
considering some of these lineup restrictions and some of the
way the Lakers are defending him.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
It's a good question, I mean a good percentage of
it is like I thought, I thought i Aint and
Julius were great tonight, Like guys like we have to
completely reconfigure the way we.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Look at box scores.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
This is this has been an issue that I've been
looking at a lot over the course of the last
few years. Like we talked so much, it's about like
this guy's averaging thirty four points a game, and it's
like the teams are averaging like one hundred and twenty
something points a game, Like this was a game that
ended ninety four to eighty five. So just do like
do a like a basic ratio type of calculation. So
(32:38):
let's say the Lakers scored ninety four and in a
typical regular season game, it's more like, you know, one
fourteen to you know, uh to like one oh four
or something like that. If you count, if you account
for that, that increase in scoring volume. That night from
Anthony Edwards isn't a twenty five point night, It's a
thirty two point night at that night From Julius Randalls.
(32:59):
Not a twenty seven point night, it's a thirty two
point night. Like I thought, Aunt and Julius were great tonight.
The key there is Jaden McDaniels missed the threes that
he took in game one, Mike Conley missed the threes,
Nas Reed missed the threes like nikiel Like, they just
didn't shoot as well. And credit to Lakers, like, I mean,
what did I say after Game one? I said, if
you're just sitting here cross from your fingers hoping the
Wolves are gonna miss, it's not gonna happen. You have
(33:21):
to bring the requisite intensity to force misses. And it
goes both ways, Like you want to know why Lebron's
leaving jumpers short and Luca's leaving jumpers short and no
one can make anything and both teams shot twenty twenty
one percent from three. It's because the game is so
damn physical that everyone's legs are fucking exhausted and no
one has the power or the energy to knock down shots.
(33:42):
That's usually how it goes. It's just like there were
a few more shots that went down for the Lakers tonight.
It's literally the difference in the game but I actually
thought Aunt and Julius both played really well tonight.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Yeah, I think, especially as scorps like I thought ten
twenty two and yeah, in a playoff game that physical
is not all that bad a shooting night. I think
the bigger number if you're looking at if you're going
to box for our watch and combine it with the
way that actually watching the game. Zero assists for Ant
is the glaring number compared to nine in Game one. Yeah,
oh sure, you know a lot of that is not
(34:11):
his fault. It's shot making, a lack of shot making,
but combined with those more intense closed outs from the Lakers.
But that's if the Timberwolves want to be at as
close to optimal offensively as they as they can be.
It's twenty five thirty points ran and five plus assists.
It doesn't need to be nine every game, I don't
think for them from their win the series, but it's
got to be more than zero.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
No, I totally agree. That's a that's a great point.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
I get there is a little bit of a game
plan element to that, in the sense that the Lakers
were playing closer to shooters off ball and the reads
for Ant in Game one were a little bit easier,
but I agree with you, like it's got to be
more balanced there. Julius brought up Julius had six assists tonight,
but yeah, like I I didn't think. I all, we're
gonna do a film session tomorrow morning, and whoever it
(34:54):
is that asked that question, if you come back tomorrow,
I will make a pointed effort to dig into Minnesota's
offense better and see if I can't find some more
detailed answers for you about how to go from there.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
We had a couple questions about connect and about Jackson
Hayes and will should those guys get in connect case
any minutes? But should Jackson Hayes get more minutes? And
you know, there's a lot of lively debate in the chat.
Shout out to the chat for those arguing and debating
on both sides, but just in general, your take on
why some of these guys who feel like they can
be contributors because of a specific skill they might have,
(35:26):
but why are they not getting more playing time or
any playing time you know in Connects case?
Speaker 2 (35:31):
So as you, as we talked about in the in
the initial reaction, things can go south so fast if
you've got a guy who makes mistakes, Like this game
wouldn't even have been remotely close late if Jackson Hayes
doesn't set a completely unnecessary backcourt screen where you just
straight up trip Jaden McDaniels and then goaltended. Like if
(35:52):
you look at the Lakers offensive rating, let's just call
it one point. And then Jackson Hayes blocking a shot
that literally would have been a miss that would have
led to another transition possession going the other way, Like
that was a huge swing there, and a four point
swing or whatever in a game that finished ninety four
to eighty five. The field literally it's like a touchdown.
It's like when you watch it's like when you were
(36:13):
watching that Houston Golden State game, Like every step three
feels like a shotgun blast to the chest because the
score is so low that, like relative to what we
look at as regular season scoring, those are massive shots
in the game, Like Fred van Vliet finally hits a
three at the end of the game, and all of
a sudden, it's close because there's no real margin, there's
no real separation because of how physical and how intense
(36:35):
these games are. But yeah, like I like, do I
think that Dalton Connect is gonna suddenly step into this
obscenely physical series and just suddenly bring a bunch of pop. No, like,
you bring him out the same way you would, like
we talked about with Jonathan Kminga for Golden State. If
it's Game three and it's mid third quarter and you're
down seventeen, and there's a clear guy who's really struggling,
(36:58):
like let's say Dorian Finney Smith is just straight up
not having a good night on either end of the floor,
then yeah, by all means, throw Dalton out there, you
know what I mean. But like, I don't think Jackson
Hayes is the answer. I don't think Dalton Connect is
the answer this. This feels very much like a six
and a half man rotation that the Lakers actually trust,
and it's basically the core five with Dorian Finney Smith
(37:20):
gave Vincent a little bit of like Jordan Goodwin, Jared Vanderbilt,
whatever you want to call that extra guy.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
But like, I don't.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Think they really have a I don't think they have
an answer on the bench beyond the fact that Austin's
gotta play better. Austin and I bounced back nicely in
the second half. But Austin's got to hit some spot
up threes Lebron Like Austin and Lebron won for eleven
from three. Those guys gotta knock down shots. Like, I
don't think this is an end of the bench answer.
I think this is your core guy's gotta play better.
(37:46):
Look at the minutes Ruy thirty four minutes with a
with a facial injury that took him out for his
normal early second quarter shift, Lebron forty, Luca forty two,
Austin forty three, Dorian Finny Smith thirty nine. Like you're
going down with those guys. Those are the guys you
got to look for.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Answers from J.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
J Riddick saying, first playoff series as a coach, I'm
running my guys out there. I think, just to sort
of put a period on the point, though. I saw
someone say this on Twitter the other day that the
NBA has shifted in a way away from just which
team has the best player to which team has the
worst player on the floor. And it's why Jordan Goodwin
is getting minutes, not that he's getting a lot, but
(38:21):
he's getting some minutes over a guy like Dalton connect
He's not obviously the offensive player that Dalton Connect is,
but you're not picking on him in a way that
you would, you know, someone like that, someone Connect.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Jordan had some incredible defensive sequences tonight. He's good on team,
great closeouts, beaten guys to spots, fighting for contested rebounds,
tapping the ball around Like I Jordan played seven minutes.
I thought he was good when he was out there, Like,
and that's the thing, like you're these rock fight games
are an entirely different animal. It is so much more
(38:51):
about IQ and physicality than it is about top end skill.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Like it just is. That's just how it works, which.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
By the way, is yet another reason why the Lakers
need to attack Mike Conley and Dante DiVincenzo.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Dude, Jackson, it's killing me, man, it's killing me.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Watch like I I all I can say is I
hope this is like a Lebron and Luca know deep down,
like we're gonna go to the post later in the
series if there was, If you're Lakers fans and you're
looking for, you know, something to drive home that point.
I think about Game six against the Warriors two years ago,
when Lebron wouldn't post up at all, and then finally
(39:27):
in Game six, he just lived down there and just
annihilated Andrew Wiggins. Like, that's what you gotta hope for,
is that Lebron's just saving that for a late series punch,
and the advantage there would be if you if Lebron
breaks that out and breaks it out effectively in like
a pivotal Game five or something like that. It could
literally be something that happens late enough in the series
that the Wolves don't have enough time to really game
(39:48):
plan or adjust to it. But I tend to think
more urgently. I tend to think, like, let them figure
out how to adjust to it, but let's throw our
best punch early. That's more my philosophy. But who knows,
it could literally be the growing Like we don't know
what's going on with Lebron mentally and what he trust him,
what he doesn't.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Let's take a couple from some other series. We had
a lot of Lakers questions, Uh, if Tatum's wrist is
a factor for the whole postseason, A, what does that
change your outlook for the Celtics? And B is there
a way for the Celtics to game plan around that he's.
Last I checked, he's doubtful or maybe upgrade to questionable
for Game two. But my guess is he's not gonna
play tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Did he get upgraded to questionable?
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Someone in the chat said he's questionable last I saw.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I saw doubtful. Yeah, I did see the doubtful thing.
My first thing that I thought when I saw the
Tatum is doubtful thing is like, oh shit, Like Jalen
Brown's a little banged up, Tatum's a little banged up.
A couple guys aren't shooting as well as last year,
Like there's some obvious signs for concern. But the more
I thought about it, Uh, it could almost be a
(40:50):
blessing in disguise if it gets Tatum to take less
jump shots, you know what I mean, Like, like if
it if it turns into a thing where Tatum goes
like man like I don't really trust my jumper or
further away from the basket because of this wrist issue,
and he just becomes a physical bullyball playmaker, it could
still manifest Well.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I would actually say that I'm more worried.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
About I would be more worried about a different Celtic,
like Horford or porzingis going down, or Jalen Brown just
not bringing the requisite scoring pot because of his knee.
Tatum is just so versatile and so much of his
game is predicated on like all these little things that
he does well. And the jump shooting is like kind
of one of those things where it's like Tatum can
go three for twelve on jump shots and have a
(41:31):
great game. I mean, I feel like that's half of
Tatum's games. Like, so the reality is is like Tatum
doesn't necessarily need his jump shot to be great, and
so I'm less concerned about him in his wrist, if
that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
Yeah, I agree. I mean I think that the first
for this series shouldn't you gotta assume it's not going
to matter whether Orlando looks. You know, they got a
tough defense, they're physical, they present some matchup challenges. But
if you got the aspirations of the Celtics too, you
gotta be able to get past his team with the
hobbled Tatum or with him missing a couple of games.
(42:05):
So I think you gotta think about it more in
the long term. But I don't know, risks are weird.
It's hard, it's tough. I hope it's not. It doesn't
become this this cloud over the postseason run, Like, well,
if only Tatum's risk was healthy, you know what I mean, Like,
I it's tough if they if they are able to
get a sweep here without him and he gets some
time off hopefully, I'm hoping it just is not a
(42:27):
non issue.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
My next Have you ever had a risk injury?
Speaker 3 (42:30):
I have, yeah, go ay quickly.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
I haven't had a severe one until recently. And then I, uh,
my guy Daniel Knorka, one of my favorite players here
in town that I compete with and against, big dude,
like six four two forty, and I kind of like
caught him on a transition possession. He was coming full
speed at me, and I like inverted my risk this way.
(42:54):
And that was like six months ago. And it hurts
worse now than it ever has. It lingers, and it
it's like, thankfully it's my non shooting hands, so it
hasn't had that big of an impact, but like there
are so many different little things that I'll try to
do and it hurts, and I'm like, fuck, this sucks,
Like it's just such a pain in the ass, Like
wrist injuries. They just linger and they linger and they linger.
Like it's very possible that he's dealing with this for
(43:16):
the rest of the playoff run. It's at least worth considering.
I'm just if there was a star in this league
that could withstand something like that, it'd be Tatum because
of his versatility.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
Yeah, I think that's a great point. I think that's
a great point.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Do you think Dame.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Would be better off coming off the bench and running
the second unit?
Speaker 2 (43:31):
No, uh, I would, And I mean I feel like
they did do this tonight, Like I felt like they
more or less played through Jianis when he was on
the floor. I think Dame should be more aggressive with
the bench units, like that's his time to look to
be aggressive. What I would have done is I would
have limited his minutes earlier in the series, still starred him,
but limited his minutes. Play him off the ball when
he's with Yiannis, play him on the ball when he's
(43:53):
without Yannis. The I don't think the answer is like,
like people focus on this like coming off the bench
like were to me, like doing that with Dame doesn't
solve the problem. You can stagger to deal with that.
So like for instance, you could have Dame come out
at like the seven minute mark of the first quarter,
bringing Kevin Porter Junior, then bring Dame back in to
(44:14):
start the second quarter when Giannis comes out, or something
along those lines. There are ways to work around it
so that you can still keep Dame with bench units
without necessarily having to bring him off the bench.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
I agree with you. All right, let's see one more
question this. I like the way the way this question
was worded was funny. Said, assuming Cleveland wins the East,
quite the assumption, but assuming Cleveland wins the East, who
would you have facing them in the NBA Finals? And
I think a more apt question is if we if
we end up with two one seeds in the finals,
certainly possible, who would you have in okay See Cleveland matchup?
Speaker 2 (44:47):
I would say you okay See. I think okay See
is like the ultimate like antidote for everything Cleveland does.
They have just a shit ton of fast, like great
perimeter defenders that aren't necessarily big, and Cleveland just doesn't
have the ability to punish like.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
DeAndre Hunter can do it a little bit.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
You can see, you know, Evan Mobley do it a
little bit, but they're not necessarily a big like matchup
attacking team. In terms of attacking like smaller players, that's
not something that they do extremely well. They're more of
a speed attack and Oka See is just like the
ultimate speed and fly around team. I'd like as far
as matchups go, I can't think of a worst matchup
(45:33):
for Cleveland than Oka See. I am also like really
intrigued by just how good Golden State is, by how
good this Minnesota and LA these two teams are. If
you told me right now, like OKAC or the field
in the West, it's pretty much a coin flip to me. So, like,
(45:53):
I still think there's a pretty solid chance that we
don't see Okace in the finals.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
Yeah, that OKAC versus the Field question is really really interesting.
I think I would get at the field as well.
Okay See does so many things better than so many teams,
but the West is looks strong. The West looks really strong.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, to your point, you can be the favorite and
still be statistically unlikely to do something like that. That's
a very important thing to understand. Like, as far as
I understand, okay See is currently the championship favorite in Vegas,
but but they are statistically unlikely to win the championship,
like it's more likely that it's somebody else, and so
(46:34):
it's it's one of the that it's just something to
keep in mind. But I yeah, I think okay See
would I think okay See would handle Cleveland. I think
they'd deal with him in you know, five or six games.
Speaker 3 (46:43):
The DraftKings answer to our question is what is okay
See versus the field? Is okay See is a minus
one sixty five conference favorite right now, so they're slightly
favorite over the field.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
That's crazy to me. That is crazy to me.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
You want to guess who's second? Golden State indeed plus
six hundred.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
Wow, that's really fascinating.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
Very fascinating. I'm surprised the Clippers are at plus one thousand,
they're fourth, Lakers are at a fifty.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
A dude, I like weirdly came away from the first
two games of Nuggets Clippers like like a little bit,
like just a tiny bit down on both of them,
Like like it's it's weird, Like I shouldn't say a
tiny bit down on both of them. I've viewed the
Clippers as like closer to OKC and Denver is like
well below them, and I viewed the Clippers a little lower,
and I view the Nuggets higher, but they still now
(47:28):
both are are substantially below. It's just it's more just
all of them, like Minnesota, La, Golden State, Denver Clippers.
One of those five is going to survive this mess
and end up in a knockdown, drag out fight with
OKC that could go either way, is the point, and
that that's where I see it, as like the field
has an advantage there. I shouldn't even say advantage, I
(47:51):
mean coin flip, but you get the point.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
All right, let's call it for the night. We'll be
back tomorrow morning.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
All right, Day four in the books. We're chugging right along, guys.
We will have the film session up tomorrow. I want
to focus a little bit on Bucks Pacers. I want
to show you, guys some of the stuff that Indiana
was doing to beat the defensive scheme that Milwaukee deployed,
which I thought was fascinating. So we'll cover some stuff there,
and then as promised, I'll dig into Minnesota's offense and
(48:15):
see if I can find some missed opportunities there. We'll
get a film session in and then we'll be back
tomorrow night. For Golden State Houston Game two. As always,
I appreciate you guys for supporting us and for supporting
the show.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
We'll see you tomorrow morning. What's up guys?
Speaker 2 (48:28):
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
And leave a rating and a review.
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(01:57):
All right, well hoops tonight you're at the volume. Happy
two to everybody. Hop all of you guys are having
a great start to your week. Got a jam packs
show for you guys.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Today.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
We're hitting both of the games that we're in series
that I view as more competitive that being the Bucks
Pacers and the Lakers Wolves. Obviously, thanks to the NBA
TV conundrum, had to pick one of the two early
Slate games, and I think, okay, so he's just gonna
kick the shit out of Memphis as they've continued to do.
So we're gonna be focusing on Bucks Pacers and Lakers
Wolves tonight, and then, like we did last night, at
(02:26):
the tail end of the show, Jackson's gonna come on
and we're gonna take you know, ten to fifteen minutes
worth of questions. So make sure you guys stick around.
All you gotta do is subscribe to the channel and
then drop your questions in the chat and then we'll
hit them at the end. You guys know the job
before we get started. Subcribe to the Hoops and Oight
YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys
don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed
where you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's
also super helpful if we leave a rating and a
(02:48):
review on that front. Jackson's doing incredible work on our
social media feeds. On Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Make sure
you guys follow us there. In the last but not least,
keep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube comments so
we can get to them in our mail bags throughout
the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So,
as I mentioned after Game one, after I rewatched the
game and I went down and I took the time
to really sift through the tape, the number one thing
(03:09):
that stood out to me there were some schematic things, like,
you know, over helping off of nas Red in particular
nas Reed, the specific offensive approach of focusing on attacking bigs,
particularly with Lebron versus attacking in the post. There were
a couple like things that stood out to me, but
by far the biggest one was just the intensity. They
just did not meet the moment. They didn't look ready
(03:32):
for playoff basketball, and so we all knew the Lakers
were going to bring the requisite intensity coming into Game two,
and so honestly, coming into tonight, I didn't have a
good feel for what tonight was gonna look like. I
viewed tonight as kind of more of like an introductory
look at what it looks like when both of these
teams are playing with insane intensity and what it looks like,
(03:54):
and it turned into just an incredibly ugly basketball game
and a knockdown, drag out fistfight of a game. And
I'll lead with this because I said coming into the
series that I thought this was a good matchup for
the Lakers on both ends of the flour and this
is going to be the first series that I'm gonna
just admit that I'm wrong already. I don't see any Obviously,
(04:17):
the Lakers could theoretically could win both in Minnesota and
then come home and close it out and win five.
I would be shocked if the Lakers won this series
in five games. I think if the Lakers get it done,
it's going to be more like a six or seven
game type of series. This is definitely not going to
be easy for either team. The reality is is that
when the Lakers really tighten the screws defensively, Minnesota struggles
(04:40):
to score. But as we saw at least through two games,
when Minnesota really tightens the screws, the Lakers really struggle
to score. And that's really the give and take that
I always talk about in these series. Which team can
cause more problems for the other team, and I've seen
plenty from the first two games to feel like Minnesota
can cause some real problems for this team really on
(05:01):
both ends of the floor. And so with that being
the case, I think this is gonna be just an
absolute knockdown, drag out, two week long fistfight of a series.
And this is where if you're rooting for the Lakers,
it's an upside that you ran into this type of
matchup in the first round because you have a little
bit more rest, right Like, as the series drags on,
that rest becomes a little bit harder to come by,
(05:22):
but you have two days off now between tonight in
Game three, So like Game three is your opportunity to
try to regain home court off of two full days
of rest that they're gonna get, or at least one
full day, but if they practice on the other day.
And so I think it's gonna be one of those
things where if you're a Lakers fan, you gotta be
thinking about surviving this series in a way that when
(05:44):
you run into let's say it's Golden State in round two.
Golden State's an elite defense, but they're substantially smaller, and
you run into potentially an OKC in the Conference finals.
They're an elite defense, but they're substantially smaller. The specific
problem that the Lakers are running into is that they're
a little bit they're having a little bit of a
(06:04):
problem compromising the size mismatches on the floor. Now, there's
a certain element to this that we can get into
involving the process.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
The Lakers are.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Still just not even looking to attack Dante DiVincenzo, Mike Conley, Nikkeil,
Alexander Walker, any of Minnesota's smalls, and so maybe that's
the dynamic that could be something that the Lakers pull
out later in the series. I've been thinking a lot
about this, like why hasn't Lebron been posting up? I
don't understand why he hasn't been looking to do it
(06:36):
at all. He did it once late in the game
to Nikkeile Alexander Walker. That was a play where he
knocked him over, and as as Nikil fell over, it
just caused Lebron to lose his rhythm and then he
ended up shooting that awful looking super short jump shot.
But like Lebron pretty much hasn't gone to that. My
working theory is that it has to do with the
specific way that he heard his growing if you remember
(06:56):
he heard his groin on a pivot move against Al
Horford in that Celtics game. And so there might be
a certain amount of Lebron just not trusting is groin
to post up. But it's very possible, especially if Minnesota
wins this tug of war over the course of the
next few games, that Lebron has to take that out
of the bag and that Luca has to take it
out of the bag. Luca talked after the game Taylor
Rooks asked him about attacking Gobert and the crowd getting
(07:19):
all hyped, and he's like, you know, I love to
attack centers, and it's like that's great. But you know,
over the course of that game, go Bear held up
pretty well at times, and they were bringing late help
to the Wolves, were bringing like right at the last second,
if Luca got into the short to mid range just
right as he was going up with the shot, someone
else would come in. He ended up drawing a foul
on one of those early in the game. But there's
(07:39):
a certain amount of right now, this Lakers approach of
hunting the Minnesota bigs in space. You scored ninety four
points tonight, there were some highlights. You know, Luca at
one point looked over at the Minnesota bench and started
yelling about how you need a sub him out of
the game, and it's like, overall the strategy is still
(08:00):
from Minnesota, making things difficult at a certain point. I
think Lebron and Luke are gonna have to make a
more concerted attempt to attack the Minnesota smalls a little
bit closer to the basket where their size is more
of a factor. I mean, even when you factor in
just the way this series is playing out physically, it
would just be easier if you didn't have to, you know,
(08:23):
take those extra bumps and bruises on ISOs against Biggs,
But if you were taking those against a player that's,
you know, forty to fifty pounds lighter than you, it's
something to look into just in general. But yeah, again,
like my first series prediction that I want to change,
I don't think the Lakers are winning this thing in five.
I think it's going to be much more of a knockdown,
drag out fight type of series. And that was just
(08:44):
a misread on my part before the series, not accounting
enough for just the unrelenting physicality that Minnesota brings to
the table. I brought it up so many times during
the regular season too. It's probably just a little bit
of fangoggles there from Jason, but the Lakers strategy a
couple of interesting things.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
A little more staying home.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I don't know if you guys noticed that, a little
less just obsessively packing the paint, a little bit more
counting on guys to defend on an island. So as
a result, Aunt and Julius got some easier opportunities. The
two of them had high scoring totals in this game.
Ant was able to get into the paint for easy
layups a bunch of times in this game. Julius Randall
did a ton of damage in the post. Those two
guys go for fifty two, but there isn't a single
(09:26):
Timberwolveh scored over ten points. And so going back to
what we saw in game one, just on a real
basic level, strategically, just look at the total of points.
You just were able to hold Minnesota down, even though
Aunt and Julius were more comfortable over the course of
the game. But even within that context, there was a
lot of mixing up coverages, a lot of zone defense.
I shouldn't say a lot, but there are a few
(09:47):
possessions of zone defense mixed in, a few random doubles
mixed in, but the majority of it was just meeting
the moment with the requisite intensity right right out the gates.
The Lakers finally showed up to the playoffs physically, and
as you saw over the course of the series or
over the course of the game, Minnesota does have substantial
strength advantages in a bunch of different spots on the
(10:08):
floor that are manifesting with wearing them down at times.
But the Lakers obviously have this clear aggregate skill advantage.
The Lakers just have a little bit more at every
position in terms of skill. Lebron is just a smarter,
connective playmaker, just an overall smarter player than Julius Randall,
Lucas just a more polished half court surgeon than Anthony Edwards,
(10:31):
like Austin Rui, these guys, they're a little bit better offensively,
and so that's going to be the tug of war
of this series. As the Lakers match Minnesota's physicality, They're
going to be able to take control for stretches right
as Minnesota's physicality overwhelms the Lakers. That's when Minnesota will
take control of the series, and that's going to be
(10:52):
the tug of war. And that's one of the big
reasons why I talked about earlier the specific cadence of
the first round as an upside for the Lakers in
this particular series. But again, like as I talked about
in the episode that we did last night talking Clippers Nuggets, like,
so much of this is not about coming up with
some game plan adjustment, Like, yeah, the staying home, letting
(11:16):
Aunt and Julius have a little bit more space. That
was a strategy that had some positive impact tonight, the
mixing up coverages that had some positive impact tonight. But
the reality is they could have gone with the exact
same game plan from Game one, but brought this level
of intensity and it could have worked better, you know
what I mean. Like, ultimately, especially when you're looking at
(11:37):
the difference between those two performances for the Lakers, most
of it came down to them just inevitably getting to
the point where they showed up in the series physically
and started to compete. Austin Reeves, really I was impressed
by what he did in the second half, specifically with
just finding ways to score. He did a lot more work.
He did score finally on a couple of switches. He
(11:57):
was able to get nas Red on one. He's able
to get Rudy gop Bear on one. He just kind
of dances with the ball on the perimeter until there's
an over commitment one way or another, and then he's
hitting that gap hard and getting out extended with that
right handed finished before the rint protector can get there.
He was able to get a couple there. I thought
he looked specifically comfortable against nas Reed again over the
(12:17):
course of this series. That's really how things will will
sort out for the Lakers offensively. They have to find
pet actions in different phases of the game based on
the lineup. So, for instance, in the first shift, I'm
okay with Lebron attacking go Bet in a drop coverage
the way he did for that first lob to Jackson
(12:38):
Hayes that he made it was a drop coverage look.
That makes some sense. I'm okay with Luca attacking bigs
in space. That works right with that unit. With the
starting unit, it makes sense to lean heavily on Luca
attacking fives and mix in some Lebron attacking and drop coverage, right,
But as you go through different phases of the game,
your approach needs to change, and so it's like, Okay,
(13:00):
early fourth quarter, Austin has this matchup with nas Reed.
This is the time where Austin can look to attack
fives and switches like, Okay, early second quarter, early fourth quarter,
this is when Nikil Alexander Walker's on the floor. This
is when Lebron needs to start looking to post Nikil
Alexander Walker. You got to find the pet actions that
you can run in different parts of the game to
(13:22):
get comfortable, and that's gonna be That's gonna be the
chess match on the Lakers front for the Wolves, it's
so much just about maintaining that physicality. If the Wolves
just maintain the physicality that they maintained over the course
of the majority of the first two games, they're gonna
give themselves a great chance to win the series. Because
the Lakers chance to win the series depends entirely on
(13:43):
them hanging onto the rope for dear life, Like, as
a Laker fan, did you feel like you kind of
survived that game tonight? Did you get out of that
and to just take a deep breath and go a
good God, that was a fucking nightmare, right like that.
But that's that's what it feels like when you're in
those situations where they're bigger, they're stronger, and are trying
to meet their physicality and meet them at that level.
(14:03):
You can do it, but you are going to fatigue.
You're going to fatigue faster. The Lakers will let go
of the rope for stretches of this series. That's when
Minnesota is going to gain heavy amounts of ground. And
so again, Minnesota, like the biggest factor for them in
this series in terms of their ability to win is
just to maintain that physicality and capitalize on the stretches
(14:23):
when the Lakers let go of the rope and start
to give up those like transition opportunities. A classic example
late third quarter, just a couple of bad Luca possessions
and easy three on two to two on one fast breaks, layups,
and all of a sudden, it's a sixteen point game
when it was twenty one a few possessions earlier. Like
that's the they can make up ground so quick, whereas
(14:45):
the Laker bleed building process feels more slow and methodical.
A couple other specific things with Laker role players. I
heard a lot of people talking about wanting more Jackson
Hayes in this game. I have no seeing the upside there.
I think Jackson is just a really poor decision maker
(15:06):
time and time again. He doesn't really know how to
be physical without fouling on offense. It's inconsistent in terms
of like his ability to set screens without setting illegal screens,
his ability to be a vertical spacer on defense. It's
the fouling, but it's also like he'll just do what
he did on that Julius or that it was either
(15:26):
I think it was nas Reed who took that little
floater in the lane and Jackson comes flying in in
volleyball spike sitting. Everyone in the arena is like, what
the hell are you doing. It's like this is a
series where mistakes. Look at the Scots ninety four to
eighty five. These games are really low scoring. I don't
think mistakes are going to be something that they can
withstand in those Jackson A's minutes. So I didn't blame
(15:47):
JJ for holding his minutes down. Again, Ruby Hatchamura only
took two threes in this game, and I thought there
were at least like three or four of them where
Rudy was closing out. But like, that's playoff basketball, Ruy, like,
you gotta be able to take a three against the closeout.
You got to be able to take a three with
a hand in your face. If I was the Lakers
coaching staff, I'd spend the next two days and get
(16:08):
somebody one of those long arm like pads, and I'd
have r Ruey shoot a bunch of catch and shoot
threes against a tall man contest, because he is getting
good looks and he's turning them down. And then what
ends up happening is the Lakers get into a late
clock sequence, and when they're in there that late clock sequence,
they're struggling to get openings as Minnesota starts to leverage
(16:29):
their athleticism more so, I really think Ruy's gotta be
more aggressive in his catch and shoot situations. For how
open he was as often as he was tonight, only
two three point attempts isn't going to cut it as
far as the bench group goes. I thought most of
it worked relatively well. The Jared Vanderbilt stuff, same sort
of thing. Jared's active, but he's just a little mistake
prone right now. All in all, the story for this
(16:52):
series for the Lakers is going to be finding those
pet actions. They've got to find different spots in the
game where they can go to a specific action that
works effectively and then spam it over the course of
the series. You do have an IQ advantage in this
series with your starting groups if you make the better
adjustments over the course of the series in terms of
(17:12):
how you attack offensively. I'm less concerned about Aunt and
Julius being able to solve those puzzles at a higher
rate than you are. It's a battle of physicality versus IQ,
and that is going to be the puzzle for the
Lakers to solve over the course of the series. On
the Wolves front, there's some really encouraging stuff there. Julius
Randall and I talked about this before the series. There's
(17:36):
this reputation that Julius Randall has as like a bad
playoff player, when every single time I've watched Julius Randall
in his career, he's been a guy that, like if
you give him a long runway, like when he's played
twenty regular season games in a row and he's like
got his legs, his conditioning and his rhythm. He can
be a really impactful all NBA level player, but then
(17:59):
when he gets hurt, even when he comes back, it
just takes him a long time to find his rhythm.
It's not entirely uncommon. I feel the same way about Lebron.
I feel the same way about Austin. There are guys
like that, especially Lebron at this age in his career
when he's not his athletic right. But like I think
it's I think it's a great sign for Minnesota fans.
How Julius Randall has looked through these first two games,
he looks fantastic. I think he looks fantastic on both
(18:21):
ends of the floor. Luca did finally get him once
with a scoop layup tonight, but he continues to hold
up really well on switches. He's doing a ton of
damage in the middle.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Of the floor.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
He had some key help side defense possessions. Got beat
on a back door a cup by Dorian Finney Smith
in the first half, but had a huge backside rotation
to block Austin Reeves at the rim on a key
possession late. I think you're getting a lot out of
Julius Randall. As you go home, you're going to be
able to get more out of the role players as well.
Game three to me is the big swing game of
this series. It's going to be arrested Lakers group obviously,
(18:52):
that mattering with Lebron and with Luca not being in
the best shape of his life right now, that Game
three is going to be the one where I see
as a good opport unity for the Lakers to try
to steal home court back. Where it gets tricky is
if the Wolves do get Game three, it's a really
quick turnaround before Game four. I think it's only one
night off, so that Game four becomes all of a
(19:13):
sudden a must win game for the Lakers, and they
would be playing two nights after another one of these knockdown,
drag out fights like they had in Game three. So
I think it's not a must win per se, but
I think that Game three in Minnesota is the one
that the Lakers got to get if they're going to
remain in control of this series. All right, let's talk
a little bit of Bucks Pacers, and then we'll get
(19:33):
to our mail bag and then we'll get out of
here for the night. So the main adjustments I noticed
from the Bucks they started switching almost everything, especially with
Lopez with Brook Lopez and ball screens with Tyres Halliburton.
With Damian Lillard, they used basically kind of a switch
in scram scheme, so like if Dame ever ended up
on a big whether it was Siakam or Turner or
someone like that, they would just basically have him rotate
(19:54):
out of it and bring another one of Milwaukee's bigger
wings to come in and rescue Dame out those mismatches
and the Pacers just absolutely fried every single coverage the
Bucks tried in this game. Tyreese went absolutely crazy against
Brook and switches, and like that sort of thing would
only work with Brook Lopez if you are a strong
(20:15):
backside rotation team, and the Bucks just aren't. They haven't
been a strong backside rotation team all year, and he
just started cooking. Brooke immediately drove right past him on
an early possession, kicked to the corner for Nie Smith
for an easy bucket, had like a really nifty step
through Lefty Scoop shot off the glass on a switch
against Brook Lopez had a play where he kind of
hesitated and looked at the rim like he was going
(20:36):
to take a jumper, and Brooke took like two steps
out to the top of the key and Tyree's just
went right around and made it literally made him look
like he was stuck in the mud, had a dunk.
He blew by him for a drop off to Siakam
in the second half. Finally, late in the game, Brooke
was like, I can't keep getting beat off the dribble,
so he just played way back and then Tyre's burned
him by hitting a three right in his face at
the top of the key, so like that didn't work.
(20:58):
The Pacers even looked super prepared for the scram switches,
and this is something I want to credit the Indiana
coaching staff, Rick Carlisle and his guys. We saw the
Bucks do that with Dame quite a bit in the
regular season, and so they clearly scouted it and they
were ready for it. There was one where Dame scrammed
out to the left corner to get Obi topping, but
right as he was scramming, right as he was sprinting
(21:19):
over there, Obi just cut back door through the lob
and he got a dunk. There's another one where he
was sprinting like literally he was in the process of
sprinting to go to Nie Smith in the right corner.
The Pacers identified it immediately. Swing swing hit Nee Smith
in the right corner. He knocked down a three. They
were going at Dame just one on one. They realized
that he can't get a great contest on pull up
(21:40):
jump shots, so they were hitting pull up jump shots
in his face. They just were prepared for every single
thing that the Bucks tried to do. Still did a
lot of just just damage in transition in this game.
Out of their one hundred and eight possessions, forty five
of them were logged by Synergy as pushing the ball
with pace, and on those possessions they logged in one
twenty four offensive rating.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
TJ.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
McConnell did a bunch of damage on like semi transition
drives in those situations before the help defense was set up.
And I remained just completely impressed by Indiana's collective team
jump shooting. They were seventh as a team in jump
shooting in the regular season. They averaged one point zero
seven points per jump shot as a team throughout the
unit throughout the season, they got one point two to
(22:26):
three points per jump shot. In Game one and one
point two to two points per jump shot. In game two,
they have just consistently burned the Bucks every single time
they've made a mistake. And that was, honestly the larious
part about the late game comeback. Right, So the Bucks
actually cut this lead down to three, I believe late
it was at least as two or three. I think
they actually cut it to two. It was one fifteen
(22:47):
to one to thirteen. A couple of things that were
working offensive the same Giannis offensive rebound, put backs around
the basket. Bobby Portus hit a couple threes, Dame hit
a big three at the top of the key. They
hit some shots, but on the other end of the floor,
pacers were still getting great looks and they just missed them.
Like Tyres Halliburton got a wide open look in that
stretch that he missed, Miles Turner got a wide open
(23:08):
look in that stretch that he missed. Pascal Siakam got
a wide open look in that stretch that he missed.
They were just open looks that the pacers were missing.
And so what was funny is Dame hits the shot
that cuts it to three, and then on the very
next possession they leave Pascal Siakam wide open again and
this time he makes it and effectively ends the game.
Is a really weird kind of like double low man
(23:29):
look from Bobby Portis and Kyle Kuzma. Miles Turner was
sitting around the right block and Kuzma went way inside
of Miles Turner, and so Portis and Kuzma were both
standing inside of Miles Turner while Siakam was outside of
Miles Turner way out at the three point line, just
to try to kind of set up the geometry for
you guys, like, and it was as good a look
(23:50):
as the Pacers got all game. And so it's one
of those things where like it felt more like a
fake comeback there from the Bucks late because they were
still conceding the same shots they had been conceded all game.
They were just hitting on one end of the floor
and the Pacers went cold for a little bit on
the Bucks front. It's really hard to come up with
real solutions. There isn't really a coverage they can run
(24:11):
with Brook Lopez that that works. Like if you run
a drop coverage, that's suicide against Tyrese Haliburton. He's got
all the mid range and floater shot making right if
you run a high drop coverage. Tyrese is arguably a
top three or four pick and roll passer in the league,
probably closer to two or three pick and roll passer
in the league in terms of just making basic reads
(24:32):
on where the low man is and where the screen
defender is, and if you come up and put two
on the ball with him, whether it's a high drop
or a blitz or anything like that, he's going to
pick you apart with the pass. Then if you switch.
He's just way too slow footed to be able to
handle Haliburton in space. And the team doesn't really have
a backside kind of like rotational fly around athleticism element
(24:54):
to copy to compensate for the dribble drives that Lopez
is going to give up, so they don't really have
a coverage there that works. Portis and Kuzma aren't exactly
defensive answers. Like I talked about it, the Pacers were
still getting open looks. I would probably still go with
them and still switch like they have been, especially with
as well as Bobby Portis has been shooting the ball
(25:15):
Kyle Kuzma did. Finally, I felt bad for Kyle early
in the game. He smoked two wide open layups. No,
I shouldn't say wide open laps are tough layups. He
had a kind of like a step through layup against
a small attacking mismatch, and then he had a pass
from Giannis where he was right at the rim that
he just smoked, and it looked like it was going
to keep spiraling, but he just kept being aggressive and
he did finally manage to bring some scoring pop to
(25:37):
the table. I do like the idea of leaning into
those two more and switching. Most of it is going
to be about process from there. You have to run
good offense to avoid precarious transition situations. So like someone
tell Kevin Porter Junior that he shouldn't even look at
taking a shot unless there's like three seconds on the
shot clock, or if it's like a wide open shot
(25:57):
in the coverage, like it's a drop coverage and they
stay with Giannis and you've got a layup, or they
die on the screen and you've got like an all
day a pull up three something like that. That's fine,
but there were way too many possessions. There was one
where like Giannis was calling, like demanding the ball on
the block and Kevin Porter Junior took a pull up
three on the right wing, and the Pacers just ran
out and got a bucket off of it. Like there's
(26:18):
there's certain like offensive process stuff that you have to
do in order to avoid those transition situations, and then
just in general just setting up your floor spacing in
a way that you still have guys that are back
and ready to contend with the pacers in transition. The
Dame thing is interesting. I thought Dame was an absolute
nightmare on defense tonight. He ended up providing what like
(26:40):
fourteen points on thirteen shots if I remember correctly. I
don't have the box score up, but he wasn't exactly
a super efficient score. I get it, like you almost
feel like you have to play Dame. I don't know
how you explain to Dame or to your fans the
idea that like you're to like sit him or limit
(27:01):
his minutes in a series like this, because if you
lose and you have Dames just sitting on the bench,
that's a really, really tough pill to swallow if you're
a fan, right, But it's just tough because Dame is
out of rhythm clearly, and he brings a lot of
defensive issues and so honestly, it's just a gamble.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
I'd probably make the same gamble, but like I wish
there was a way to manage it in a way
where like you almost like come up with a minute
restriction or something to kind of ramp him up. Over
the course of the series. It's far more likely that
in a game five, six, or seven that Dame brings
more offensive pop than he did at this phase in
the series, And tonight I thought he probably did a
little bit more damage than good. And so it's just
(27:44):
honestly a really, really tough position to be in if
you're Milwaukee, And as you dig into it, it really
just comes.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Down to roster issues. Now this one.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
I'm not ready to bail on my pick yet. The
Bucks could certainly regain control of things in Milwaukee, especially
if Dame gets going. But it look good for them,
and the matchup continues to present some clear problems for
their defensive scheme that have been on display throughout the
first two games. All right, let's do ten fifteen minutes
of questions with Jackson.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Let's do it. Let's do it. We are going to
start with Jason does a physical rock fight series like
this favor the Lakers or the Warrior or the Wolves
as the series goes, for it.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
The more physical the series is, the more the refs
let both teams get away with, the better it is
from Minnesota, for sure. I think that I think that
goes without saying. I think if there happened to be
a game in the series, and you know how it is,
there's different officiating crews, right, Like I thought tonight was
a game where they actually called quite a few fouls
on both teams, but at the same time, there were
(28:42):
a lot of uncalled fouls. But it was one of
those games where there was like at least a dozen
fouls on like every possession, like everyone's just getting hacked
all over the place. And I do think that favors Minnesota.
But at the same time, like that is playoff basketball,
and so at the end of the day, like that
is the challenge for the Lakers. And I mean, if
you can somehow survive this series, even though Golden State
(29:04):
in round two or Houston, like Houston I actually think
presents similar problems to the Lakers that that Minnesota does.
But if you get a Golden State, if you get
an OKC in later rounds. Those teams don't have the
sheer size that can cause problems for you. But Minnesota.
Minnesota definitely is benefiting from the whistle.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Yeah, I definitely agree they were. I mean it, there
were There's a lot of online chatter and today about
how the refs were handing the Lakers that game, and
I think that, whether that's true or not, I think
it's a it's an encapsulation of the fact that when
the whistle is tighter, it's gonna benefit the team that's
less physical because those some of those more physical players
are getting called.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
The Blakers got called for two more fouls in Minnesota.
That's literally fantasy Land.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Yeah, I don't I don't really have any issues with
the way the game is refree. I thought it was
the whistle was a little tight, but it was equally
tight both ways.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, and it was tight in a way that was
like they were like there were a lot of foul calls,
but there were also a lot of uncalled foul calls
like like but yeah, dude, any converse surrounding the Lakers
and in officiating is like completely disingenuous. I saw that
all day today during the game, and it's like literally
throughout the entire game, the Lakers had more foul called
fouls called against them in Minnesota. It's like it's legitimately
(30:11):
fantasy land. But as you if you do any even
just like a little bit of basic research on the
Laker foul disparity thing, it's completely horseshit. It's just fantasy
land from other fan base.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
This is a supertat from jam. Thank you for the
supertach question. How can Ant get more point in the
paint against LA's defense Outside of the poster dunk, it
almost seemed like Luca was more aggressive driving to the
rim than An.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
I feel like Ant got to the basket quite a
bit tonight. The way that the Lakers were guarding him.
They were I thought Ruey actually did a pretty decent job,
but I want to credit Rui a little bit, Like
he was able to cut off Ant's first drive a
bunch of times and then flatten out his second drive,
So credit to Ruie. I actually thought he played some
really good defense tonight. He had a huge sequence late
(30:55):
in the game too, where he had i'll help side
rotation at the rim and got a stop and then
leaked out in transit the other way and got a.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Layup like Ruey.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
I was frustrated with the three point shooting, but he
made a lot of really nice plays tonight. As far
as Ant getting into the paint, like a lot of
it is lineup structure too, Like every single minute that
Rudy Gobert is on the floor, he's gonna run into
his second defender. That's just how it goes. If you're
looking at these Luca drives. They played Jackson Hayes for
eight minutes, and they play nine minutes, and they played
(31:24):
you know, vandover like even less. So if you really
dig into it, thirty minutes of the game, you have
five shooters on the floor. So as a result of that,
there's less help at the basket on some of these
Luca drives compared to what you're seeing from the Lakers.
And that's how it looks like Lucas getting there easier.
(31:44):
But most of this is schematic, yeah for sure.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Next question, do you think Minnesota will use different actions
to get Ant the ball and get him to the
rim in other ways? Pinned downs, cutting, inverted pick and roll,
et cetera. Basically, how how do we feel like the
Wolves can try to get at going a little more
considering some of these lineup restrictions and some of the
way the Lakers are defending him.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
It's a good question, I mean a good percentage of
it is like I thought, I thought i Aint and
Julius were great tonight, Like guys like we have to
completely reconfigure the way we.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Look at box scores.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
This is this has been an issue that I've been
looking at a lot over the course of the last
few years. Like we talked so much, it's about like
this guy's averaging thirty four points a game, and it's
like the teams are averaging like one hundred and twenty
something points a game, Like this was a game that
ended ninety four to eighty five. So just do like
do a like a basic ratio type of calculation. So
(32:38):
let's say the Lakers scored ninety four and in a
typical regular season game, it's more like, you know, one
fourteen to you know, uh to like one oh four
or something like that. If you count, if you account
for that, that increase in scoring volume. That night from
Anthony Edwards isn't a twenty five point night, It's a
thirty two point night at that night From Julius Randalls.
(32:59):
Not a twenty seven point night, it's a thirty two
point night. Like I thought, Aunt and Julius were great tonight.
The key there is Jaden McDaniels missed the threes that
he took in game one, Mike Conley missed the threes,
Nas Reed missed the threes like nikiel Like, they just
didn't shoot as well. And credit to Lakers, like, I mean,
what did I say after Game one? I said, if
you're just sitting here cross from your fingers hoping the
Wolves are gonna miss, it's not gonna happen. You have
(33:21):
to bring the requisite intensity to force misses. And it
goes both ways, Like you want to know why Lebron's
leaving jumpers short and Luca's leaving jumpers short and no
one can make anything and both teams shot twenty twenty
one percent from three. It's because the game is so
damn physical that everyone's legs are fucking exhausted and no
one has the power or the energy to knock down shots.
(33:42):
That's usually how it goes. It's just like there were
a few more shots that went down for the Lakers tonight.
It's literally the difference in the game but I actually
thought Aunt and Julius both played really well tonight.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Yeah, I think, especially as scorps like I thought ten
twenty two and yeah, in a playoff game that physical
is not all that bad a shooting night. I think
the bigger number if you're looking at if you're going
to box for our watch and combine it with the
way that actually watching the game. Zero assists for Ant
is the glaring number compared to nine in Game one. Yeah,
oh sure, you know a lot of that is not
(34:11):
his fault. It's shot making, a lack of shot making,
but combined with those more intense closed outs from the Lakers.
But that's if the Timberwolves want to be at as
close to optimal offensively as they as they can be.
It's twenty five thirty points ran and five plus assists.
It doesn't need to be nine every game, I don't
think for them from their win the series, but it's
got to be more than zero.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
No, I totally agree. That's a that's a great point.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
I get there is a little bit of a game
plan element to that, in the sense that the Lakers
were playing closer to shooters off ball and the reads
for Ant in Game one were a little bit easier,
but I agree with you, like it's got to be
more balanced there. Julius brought up Julius had six assists tonight,
but yeah, like I I didn't think. I all, we're
gonna do a film session tomorrow morning, and whoever it
(34:54):
is that asked that question, if you come back tomorrow,
I will make a pointed effort to dig into Minnesota's
offense better and see if I can't find some more
detailed answers for you about how to go from there.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
We had a couple questions about connect and about Jackson
Hayes and will should those guys get in connect case
any minutes? But should Jackson Hayes get more minutes? And
you know, there's a lot of lively debate in the chat.
Shout out to the chat for those arguing and debating
on both sides, but just in general, your take on
why some of these guys who feel like they can
be contributors because of a specific skill they might have,
(35:26):
but why are they not getting more playing time or
any playing time you know in Connects case?
Speaker 2 (35:31):
So as you, as we talked about in the in
the initial reaction, things can go south so fast if
you've got a guy who makes mistakes, Like this game
wouldn't even have been remotely close late if Jackson Hayes
doesn't set a completely unnecessary backcourt screen where you just
straight up trip Jaden McDaniels and then goaltended. Like if
(35:52):
you look at the Lakers offensive rating, let's just call
it one point. And then Jackson Hayes blocking a shot
that literally would have been a miss that would have
led to another transition possession going the other way, Like
that was a huge swing there, and a four point
swing or whatever in a game that finished ninety four
to eighty five. The field literally it's like a touchdown.
It's like when you watch it's like when you were
(36:13):
watching that Houston Golden State game, Like every step three
feels like a shotgun blast to the chest because the
score is so low that, like relative to what we
look at as regular season scoring, those are massive shots
in the game, Like Fred van Vliet finally hits a
three at the end of the game, and all of
a sudden, it's close because there's no real margin, there's
no real separation because of how physical and how intense
(36:35):
these games are. But yeah, like I like, do I
think that Dalton Connect is gonna suddenly step into this
obscenely physical series and just suddenly bring a bunch of pop. No, like,
you bring him out the same way you would, like
we talked about with Jonathan Kminga for Golden State. If
it's Game three and it's mid third quarter and you're
down seventeen, and there's a clear guy who's really struggling,
(36:58):
like let's say Dorian Finney Smith is just straight up
not having a good night on either end of the floor,
then yeah, by all means, throw Dalton out there, you
know what I mean. But like, I don't think Jackson
Hayes is the answer. I don't think Dalton Connect is
the answer this. This feels very much like a six
and a half man rotation that the Lakers actually trust,
and it's basically the core five with Dorian Finney Smith
(37:20):
gave Vincent a little bit of like Jordan Goodwin, Jared Vanderbilt,
whatever you want to call that extra guy.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
But like, I don't.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Think they really have a I don't think they have
an answer on the bench beyond the fact that Austin's
gotta play better. Austin and I bounced back nicely in
the second half. But Austin's got to hit some spot
up threes Lebron Like Austin and Lebron won for eleven
from three. Those guys gotta knock down shots. Like, I
don't think this is an end of the bench answer.
I think this is your core guy's gotta play better.
(37:46):
Look at the minutes Ruy thirty four minutes with a
with a facial injury that took him out for his
normal early second quarter shift, Lebron forty, Luca forty two,
Austin forty three, Dorian Finny Smith thirty nine. Like you're
going down with those guys. Those are the guys you
got to look for.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Answers from J.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
J Riddick saying, first playoff series as a coach, I'm
running my guys out there. I think, just to sort
of put a period on the point, though. I saw
someone say this on Twitter the other day that the
NBA has shifted in a way away from just which
team has the best player to which team has the
worst player on the floor. And it's why Jordan Goodwin
is getting minutes, not that he's getting a lot, but
(38:21):
he's getting some minutes over a guy like Dalton connect
He's not obviously the offensive player that Dalton Connect is,
but you're not picking on him in a way that
you would, you know, someone like that, someone Connect.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Jordan had some incredible defensive sequences tonight. He's good on team,
great closeouts, beaten guys to spots, fighting for contested rebounds,
tapping the ball around Like I Jordan played seven minutes.
I thought he was good when he was out there, Like,
and that's the thing, like you're these rock fight games
are an entirely different animal. It is so much more
(38:51):
about IQ and physicality than it is about top end skill.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Like it just is. That's just how it works, which.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
By the way, is yet another reason why the Lakers
need to attack Mike Conley and Dante DiVincenzo.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Dude, Jackson, it's killing me, man, it's killing me.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Watch like I I all I can say is I
hope this is like a Lebron and Luca know deep down,
like we're gonna go to the post later in the
series if there was, If you're Lakers fans and you're
looking for, you know, something to drive home that point.
I think about Game six against the Warriors two years ago,
when Lebron wouldn't post up at all, and then finally
(39:27):
in Game six, he just lived down there and just
annihilated Andrew Wiggins. Like, that's what you gotta hope for,
is that Lebron's just saving that for a late series punch,
and the advantage there would be if you if Lebron
breaks that out and breaks it out effectively in like
a pivotal Game five or something like that. It could
literally be something that happens late enough in the series
that the Wolves don't have enough time to really game
(39:48):
plan or adjust to it. But I tend to think
more urgently. I tend to think, like, let them figure
out how to adjust to it, but let's throw our
best punch early. That's more my philosophy. But who knows,
it could literally be the growing Like we don't know
what's going on with Lebron mentally and what he trust him,
what he doesn't.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Let's take a couple from some other series. We had
a lot of Lakers questions, Uh, if Tatum's wrist is
a factor for the whole postseason, A, what does that
change your outlook for the Celtics? And B is there
a way for the Celtics to game plan around that he's.
Last I checked, he's doubtful or maybe upgrade to questionable
for Game two. But my guess is he's not gonna
play tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Did he get upgraded to questionable?
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Someone in the chat said he's questionable last I saw.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I saw doubtful. Yeah, I did see the doubtful thing.
My first thing that I thought when I saw the
Tatum is doubtful thing is like, oh shit, Like Jalen
Brown's a little banged up, Tatum's a little banged up.
A couple guys aren't shooting as well as last year,
Like there's some obvious signs for concern. But the more
I thought about it, Uh, it could almost be a
(40:50):
blessing in disguise if it gets Tatum to take less
jump shots, you know what I mean, Like, like if
it if it turns into a thing where Tatum goes
like man like I don't really trust my jumper or
further away from the basket because of this wrist issue,
and he just becomes a physical bullyball playmaker, it could
still manifest Well.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I would actually say that I'm more worried.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
About I would be more worried about a different Celtic,
like Horford or porzingis going down, or Jalen Brown just
not bringing the requisite scoring pot because of his knee.
Tatum is just so versatile and so much of his
game is predicated on like all these little things that
he does well. And the jump shooting is like kind
of one of those things where it's like Tatum can
go three for twelve on jump shots and have a
(41:31):
great game. I mean, I feel like that's half of
Tatum's games. Like, so the reality is is like Tatum
doesn't necessarily need his jump shot to be great, and
so I'm less concerned about him in his wrist, if
that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
Yeah, I agree. I mean I think that the first
for this series shouldn't you gotta assume it's not going
to matter whether Orlando looks. You know, they got a
tough defense, they're physical, they present some matchup challenges. But
if you got the aspirations of the Celtics too, you
gotta be able to get past his team with the
hobbled Tatum or with him missing a couple of games.
(42:05):
So I think you gotta think about it more in
the long term. But I don't know, risks are weird.
It's hard, it's tough. I hope it's not. It doesn't
become this this cloud over the postseason run, Like, well,
if only Tatum's risk was healthy, you know what I mean, Like,
I it's tough if they if they are able to
get a sweep here without him and he gets some
time off hopefully, I'm hoping it just is not a
(42:27):
non issue.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
My next Have you ever had a risk injury?
Speaker 3 (42:30):
I have, yeah, go ay quickly.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
I haven't had a severe one until recently. And then I, uh,
my guy Daniel Knorka, one of my favorite players here
in town that I compete with and against, big dude,
like six four two forty, and I kind of like
caught him on a transition possession. He was coming full
speed at me, and I like inverted my risk this way.
(42:54):
And that was like six months ago. And it hurts
worse now than it ever has. It lingers, and it
it's like, thankfully it's my non shooting hands, so it
hasn't had that big of an impact, but like there
are so many different little things that I'll try to
do and it hurts, and I'm like, fuck, this sucks,
Like it's just such a pain in the ass, Like
wrist injuries. They just linger and they linger and they linger.
Like it's very possible that he's dealing with this for
(43:16):
the rest of the playoff run. It's at least worth considering.
I'm just if there was a star in this league
that could withstand something like that, it'd be Tatum because
of his versatility.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
Yeah, I think that's a great point. I think that's
a great point.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Do you think Dame.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Would be better off coming off the bench and running
the second unit?
Speaker 2 (43:31):
No, uh, I would, And I mean I feel like
they did do this tonight, Like I felt like they
more or less played through Jianis when he was on
the floor. I think Dame should be more aggressive with
the bench units, like that's his time to look to
be aggressive. What I would have done is I would
have limited his minutes earlier in the series, still starred him,
but limited his minutes. Play him off the ball when
he's with Yiannis, play him on the ball when he's
(43:53):
without Yannis. The I don't think the answer is like,
like people focus on this like coming off the bench
like were to me, like doing that with Dame doesn't
solve the problem. You can stagger to deal with that.
So like for instance, you could have Dame come out
at like the seven minute mark of the first quarter,
bringing Kevin Porter Junior, then bring Dame back in to
(44:14):
start the second quarter when Giannis comes out, or something
along those lines. There are ways to work around it
so that you can still keep Dame with bench units
without necessarily having to bring him off the bench.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
I agree with you. All right, let's see one more
question this. I like the way the way this question
was worded was funny. Said, assuming Cleveland wins the East,
quite the assumption, but assuming Cleveland wins the East, who
would you have facing them in the NBA Finals? And
I think a more apt question is if we if
we end up with two one seeds in the finals,
certainly possible, who would you have in okay See Cleveland matchup?
Speaker 2 (44:47):
I would say you okay See. I think okay See
is like the ultimate like antidote for everything Cleveland does.
They have just a shit ton of fast, like great
perimeter defenders that aren't necessarily big, and Cleveland just doesn't
have the ability to punish like.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
DeAndre Hunter can do it a little bit.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
You can see, you know, Evan Mobley do it a
little bit, but they're not necessarily a big like matchup
attacking team. In terms of attacking like smaller players, that's
not something that they do extremely well. They're more of
a speed attack and Oka See is just like the
ultimate speed and fly around team. I'd like as far
as matchups go, I can't think of a worst matchup
(45:33):
for Cleveland than Oka See. I am also like really
intrigued by just how good Golden State is, by how
good this Minnesota and LA these two teams are. If
you told me right now, like OKAC or the field
in the West, it's pretty much a coin flip to me. So, like,
(45:53):
I still think there's a pretty solid chance that we
don't see Okace in the finals.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
Yeah, that OKAC versus the Field question is really really interesting.
I think I would get at the field as well.
Okay See does so many things better than so many teams,
but the West is looks strong. The West looks really strong.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, to your point, you can be the favorite and
still be statistically unlikely to do something like that. That's
a very important thing to understand. Like, as far as
I understand, okay See is currently the championship favorite in Vegas,
but but they are statistically unlikely to win the championship,
like it's more likely that it's somebody else, and so
(46:34):
it's it's one of the that it's just something to
keep in mind. But I yeah, I think okay See
would I think okay See would handle Cleveland. I think
they'd deal with him in you know, five or six games.
Speaker 3 (46:43):
The DraftKings answer to our question is what is okay
See versus the field? Is okay See is a minus
one sixty five conference favorite right now, so they're slightly
favorite over the field.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
That's crazy to me. That is crazy to me.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
You want to guess who's second? Golden State indeed plus
six hundred.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
Wow, that's really fascinating.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
Very fascinating. I'm surprised the Clippers are at plus one thousand,
they're fourth, Lakers are at a fifty.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
A dude, I like weirdly came away from the first
two games of Nuggets Clippers like like a little bit,
like just a tiny bit down on both of them,
Like like it's it's weird, Like I shouldn't say a
tiny bit down on both of them. I've viewed the
Clippers as like closer to OKC and Denver is like
well below them, and I viewed the Clippers a little lower,
and I view the Nuggets higher, but they still now
(47:28):
both are are substantially below. It's just it's more just
all of them, like Minnesota, La, Golden State, Denver Clippers.
One of those five is going to survive this mess
and end up in a knockdown, drag out fight with
OKC that could go either way, is the point, and
that that's where I see it, as like the field
has an advantage there. I shouldn't even say advantage, I
(47:51):
mean coin flip, but you get the point.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
All right, let's call it for the night. We'll be
back tomorrow morning.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
All right, Day four in the books. We're chugging right along, guys.
We will have the film session up tomorrow. I want
to focus a little bit on Bucks Pacers. I want
to show you, guys some of the stuff that Indiana
was doing to beat the defensive scheme that Milwaukee deployed,
which I thought was fascinating. So we'll cover some stuff there,
and then as promised, I'll dig into Minnesota's offense and
(48:15):
see if I can find some missed opportunities there. We'll
get a film session in and then we'll be back
tomorrow night. For Golden State Houston Game two. As always,
I appreciate you guys for supporting us and for supporting
the show.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
We'll see you tomorrow morning. What's up guys?
Speaker 2 (48:28):
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
And leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
The volume
Host
Jason Timpf
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The Bobby Bones Show
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