Lakers-Suns Reaction: Kevin Durant & Phoenix catch fire, take down LeBron James & LA | Hoops Tonight

Lakers-Suns Reaction: Kevin Durant & Phoenix catch fire, take down LeBron James & LA | Hoops Tonight

All right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Sunday everybody hope all of you guys are having an incredible weekend we got a kind of a funky schedule over the next couple of days we’re going twice today this video we’re just hitting Lakers sons and then

The Milwaukee Bucks went into Minnesota and beat the Timberwolves pretty soundly on Friday night we’re going to be talking about that game and just some interesting stuff I noticed on tape as it relates to both teams later tonight we’re going live after the final buzzer of Warriors nuggets so keep an eye out

For that Monday we be breaking down a couple other games from today as well as our power rankings they were’re taking Tuesday off cuz I’m going skiing so just a little bit of a funky schedule over the next few days but Lakers Suns and Bucks wolves over the course of today uh

Over this particular show you guys know the before we get started subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to hit that subscribe button don’t forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight also

It’s super helpful if you leave a lady a rating and a review on that front don’t forget to follow me on Twitter _ jlt where I put film threads as well as show announcements and then last but not least keep dropping mailbag questions probably hit some uh

Throughout the week next week all right let’s talk some basketball so this game the starters played relatively even LeBron had it going early to kind of keep the Lakers close but the sun’s just got insanely hot at the end of the first quarter you know I watched the film and

I didn’t even necessarily think the lake the Lakers were being lazy or disengaged like there were a couple of Mis rotations like Austin missed Roy O’Neal on a rotation at the top of the key but the Suns just made shots and that’s what they can do that’s their superpower

That’s the thing that they do better than most teams in the league right like Devin Booker and Kevin Durant both hit really tough pullup jump shots in that stretch Kevin uh Devon Booker hit an and one in the middle of the floor Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neal both hit shots

Even BB hit a three out of the left corner punishing LeBron James for helping off of him and then had another play where he drove the Baseline off of a close out out of that left corner and hit a little floaters matter of fact in the game the Suns had 34 spot up

Possessions which is a ton and converted those into 1.12 points per possession which is outstanding the Suns went up by 20 there in the first quarter Lakers kind of methodically worked their way back into the game running their solid five out offense get they got out and

Transition a lot off of Sun’s turnovers in this game making extra efforts on defense then we get to the fourth quarter the fourth quarter where the Suns have had so many issues throughout the season this year even after today the Suns have an offensive rating of 103.5 in fourth quarters this year that

Is dead last in the NBA it’s been a pretty consistent issue but much better in this fourth quarter 28 points a 117 offensive rating now what typically has been an issue for them in the past is Devin Booker and Kevin Durant struggling to handle double teams as the game

Progresses as teams get more and more aggressive on him and then off the ball guys failing to make teams pay for leaving them open for giving them Advantage situations I thought Kevin Durant was magnificent in this fourth quarter he had one pass to the short roll where he didn’t see ad coming from

Like the left uh elbow extended ad jumped in and stole it from uh blocked in or jumped into that passing Lane and stole that pass to the short roller but outside of that Kevin Durant was like nearly perfect in that fourth quarter with his decision making just you know

Coming off a ball screen hard hitting nurkic with a perfect Pocky pass to get him downhill to the rim drawing a double team and making that quick swing pass to Royce O’Neal who makes that extra pass to the corner to uh to the shooter like

It just it looked a lot more smooth and decisive quick and decisive from Kevin Durant when when KD and Devon Booker in those situations have struggled this year it’s usually picking up their dribble and then the pressure coming up on them and them struggling to get the

Pass over the top to the right spot without a deflection or something that slows the pass down so the defense can rotate out of it quick and decis decisive is the best way to beat those traps KD had a much much better fourth quarter on that side of the floor then I

Thought he had one of the biggest plays in the game when it was 110 to 104 first of all I want to credit Royce O’Neal LeBron isos Roy O’Neal on the right side of the floor and just played one of the things I talked about with Roy he just

Plays physical defense that’s what allows him to defend multiple different positional archetypes because quick enough quick enough and active enough to defend a smaller guard but he also is physical enough to defend a bigger stronger player like LeBron James and LeBron had you know had some success

Against him throughout the game he had like a spinning Baseline dunk on him in the first half but like on this particular play big big big play in the game it’s 110 104 Lakers are on a little bit of a run Anthony Davis got that pull

Up or that catch and shoot jump shot uh from the mid-range going he also got a little floater off of a pocket pass from Austin Reeves looks like we have ourselves a game there down the stretch LeBron drives in Roy gets physical with him and gets him to miss the layup again

LeBron’s probably going to make that eight out of 10 times but how do you get to the two out of 10 where he’s going to miss by bumping him off of his base and making it a little bit more difficult big play from Royce O’Neal they go to

The other end of the floor and in kind of a chaotic situation Kevin Durant made a really really smart play LeBron James was kind of in a ball denial situation on the left wing he cut back door on LeBron something LeBron has done a lot this season to generate shots at the end

Of games uh back door pass hits him right on the uh right on the cut draws that second Defender makes the kickout pass to Grayson Allen in the right corner who hits the biggest shot of the gam put them up 113 to 104 by the way Royce O’Neal Grayson Allen made 12

Threes in this game Royce made one on the next possession because Anthony Davis fell over into camera row ended up in an advantage situation the Suns uh had a five on four they made a Kevin Durant made a swing pass to Royce on the left wing he hit the three just just

Dagger after dagger after dagger I swear it felt like every single one of those Royce O’Neal or Grayson Allen threes felt like an absolute back breaker Yousef nurkic was incredible in this game had seven offensive rebounds has pretty consistently given uh uh like like pretty pretty great two-way efforts

Over the course of the last few weeks a guy that I think I A lot of times reputation doesn’t actually match up with reality with basketball players and here’s the thing like reputation is well earned Yousef nkic earned a reputation as being a guy who could be a limited

Defensive player as guys struggle sometimes with the dirty work because of what happened in his past but that doesn’t mean you can’t earn yourself a new reputation I think Yousef nurkic has been pretty awesome on the defensive end over the of the last few weeks U getting

A lot he’s just super active with his hands and he’s pretty smart at anticipating what’s going to happen around him and he gets a lot more in the way of deflections in blocks than I think people realize relative to what his reputation is around the league and

In addition to that he’s an excellent screener he’s a big body that can cause problems on the offensive glass against seven offensive rebounds in this game Anthony Davis for all of his things that he’s great at he can struggle with the big bodied centers that can bury him underneath the basket it’s actually

Something to keep in mind for the Lakers because to get out of the Western Conference you’re probably going to have to go through two of Yousef nurkic Aika zubach or you know Nicole yic these big bodied centers and those guys are the kinds of guys that can give ad some

Issues on the offensive glass but he was burying ad on the glass every time ad had to come off of him to help on some sort of screening action nerkish would be there to clean up the mess on the backline he was awesome Devin Booker after the game was talking about how

Specifically use of nage is of great value to them and that every time he’s missed game this year they’ve lost and how they’ve missed that and like here’s the thing there’s no doubt that the Suns will probably need to have a KD at Center look just for brief spurts over

The course of the postseason to just kind of change the tone of games or maybe close against a specific matchup but Yousef nkic is the anchor of that team on both ends of the floor in terms of their physicality this is a team that can struggle a little bit with

Physicality nurkic brings a ton of physicality to the table and I got to say he has changed for me personally like the way that I view Yousef nerkish as B basketball has changed markedly from training camp to this point especially as of late just with how much

He’s competing in the details around the floor uh big win for the Suns they needed that one they had just lost two straight on the Lakers front I saw a lot of negativity from Lakers fans in this one honestly like I thought they played really hard and like this is kind of

What it’s like in the Western Conference Phoenix is a really good team they have two of the top 15 players in the league on their team they had just lost two in a row including three of their last five they needed a game and when you go on

The road in the Western Conference to a really good team who needs to win a game sometimes you’re just going to lose and like there were a lot of like like there were several players in in particular I thought D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reeves really really were making efforts

In rotation to contest shots and to try to get in there and help on the glass but like sometimes you just run into a team that’s really really good at what they do and no matter what you do to try to stop stop them from doing what they

Do they make the shots anyway and that they kind of just felt like that type of game to me on the Lakers front like I really wasn’t disappointed process-wise like they were helping a little bit too much but not not in a way that I thought was really problematic for the Personnel

They they the Suns made shots you got to tip the cap they gave up a lot of offensive rebounds but most of that was personnel and that brings me to my one gripe so in a game where you could not grab a rebound to save your life which

Was basically the difference in the game like the Lakers outshot the Suns from the field they outshot them from three they won the points in the paint battle they took good care of the basketball they turned Phoenix over and got out in transition and scored like they did a

Lot of really good things in this game Phoenix just dominated The Possession battle they had 14 offensive rebounds to three for the Lakers they were up 22 to1 in Second Chance points in a game that they won by 10 points that was the difference in the game and that’s where

I have a problem with Darin ham and his rotational approach because torian Prince and Spencer Den witty played 50 minutes in this game Ruby haimura and Jackson Hayes played 32 and this is one of my like biggest pet peeves when it comes to coaches when they try to inflict their specific basketball

Philosophy on a roster rather than identifying what their roster is capable of and just leaning into its strengths so darham has all year long overplayed Toran prince it’s been a consistent issue and in general has like done a lot of like we saw this even last year a lot

Of like three guard lineups and things along those lines so I’m not surprised that he leaned on Spencer dwit he a lot in this game here’s where I don’t understand torian Prince is not actually giving you what his archetype typically provides like I understand the thought

Process Darin ham is thinking I run a five out offense and I love to pressure the ball and try to funnel guys into Anthony Davis right tan prince in theory is a wing Defender that can pressure the basketball nav at screens has some length can kind of like do his job on

The defensive end of the floor on the offensive end in theory he’s a good five out Wing because he can take and make catch and shoot threes has a little bit off the dribble pop a guy that kind of like knows how to play alongside other good players in theory it makes some

Sense the problem is Tan’s not actually very good at any of that and so what ends up like he’s a bench player he’s good enough to do that in bench lineups for small experts that’s what torian Prince’s role is on this particular team right but the problem is he’s being

Given in most cases more than he can handle he is being slotted by dervingham into a role that he’s going to fail because he’s not personally really fit for that specific role and and and so as a result like because here’s the thing ruy hamura won’t navigate screens as

Well as Tori and Prince ruy hamura maybe isn’t as good at like fluid fiveman five out basketball as a guy like toan Prince is right but here’s the thing he’s just a better basketball player he’s a better basketball player and so whatever you’re not getting there can help in other

Areas and for the record like I think you can do like I thought at the beginning of the game they started with ruy on KD and they like switched nurkic KD pick and rolls and he got burned one time where he ended up on the top side

And they threw the pass over the top to nurkic and he slipped downhill and end up getting a layup but like for the most part that’s a matchup that I actually think can work switching that action I think ruy can Bang with nage he actually

Got him to miss a shot out of the post obviously ad can work with uh with Kevin Durant on the perimeter it’s just one of those things where like I would have leaned into that more but they didn’t they leaned into lesser players and again Jackson Hayes like I get it he

Didn’t play well in his short burst today but it’s like like I would like to see in the big picture darham lean more into size lean more into mainly just because that’s their best players those are their best players and there will be matchups where it makes sense to to play

A Spencer dinwoody at the three or maybe even a toan prince at the two next to like a Ru hamura depending on the matchup but for the most part it’s going to have to be based on like how the game is progressing and in this particular game you weren’t getting anything on

Offense out of tan Prince or Spencer dwy you weren’t getting the benefits of what they brought to the table but you were getting the downsides and like I would have been in a situation where I would have thought at the very least with ruy

Out there in a larger dose I can hold up better on the defensive glass maybe hold up better in The Possession battle because in the half court the Lakers and the suns were actually relatively even in this particular game and so just something to keep an eye and it’s

Something I talked about from the moment that uh U that I kind of started to pick up on Darvin Ham’s you know affinity for torian Prince this season doesn’t really matter what they trade for doesn’t really matter what what kind of personnel is on the roster if inferior

Players are playing over better players that you have uh uh uh available to you and so I thought that I thought that was kind of like the one gripe that I had but for the record sometimes like darham might have played toan toan Prince 15 minutes and played Ruby hamura 38

Minutes and they might have still lost because again like I said Phenix is really good they just lost two in a row they’re at home that’s what it’s like sometimes in the NBA and so I I don’t want to overreact to it again with the

Lakers I don’t view them as some sort of legitimate title Contender anymore since they weren’t able to make an upgrade at the deadline and so not really all that high on them to begin with and this is the kind of game that you almost kind of

Expect them to lose right uh they do have a lot of home games as we head into early March against really good opponents maybe they can tighten some things up there and and get a little bit sharper but like I’m not super optimistic about them in the big picture

Anyway get in on the action with draftking sports book an official sports betting partner of the NBA new customers who deposit $5 or more can get a no sweat bet up to $11,000 back in a bonus bet I was looking at NBA Futures this morning the Golden State Warriors are plus 5500

Right now on DraftKings to win the title so if you believe in them that’s a big number and Denver I have Denver as my Championship favorite and they’re still the second best odds on DraftKings right now at plus 450 so lots of good NBA bets

To look at over the course of the end of the season download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use code Hoops new customers can get a no sweat bet up to $1,000 if your first bet loses only on draftking Sportsbook with code Hoops that’s h o o PS the crown is yours all

Right moving on to Bucks wolves so the Bucks actually had a huge win today on the road in Philly they won by 21 points I didn’t actually watch that game though I did watch them go in on Friday night and dominate The Wolves though and so

That’s what I want to talk about in today’s game so or Today’s Show so they go on a huge run in the third quarter they get stop after stop stop after stop they get out in transition I thought Dame and Giannis both did an absolutely fantastic job of applying Rim pressure

And making good kickout passes then they were working the ball around Malik Beasley was just completely scorching hot hit a bunch of Threes during that run Dame hit a bunch of nasty pull-up Jumpers in that stretch Giannis hit a three off the bounce uh there in the

Middle of the third quarter and they just blew Minnesota’s doors off it was crazy it was like a close game and then all of a sudden they were up 20 it was like it was it was pretty wild but uh Minnesota made a little bit of a late

Comeback but it was never truly a game after that but Brook Lopez was unbelievable in this game he dominated on the defensive end which I want to dive deeper into here in just a minute but he also came out red hot from three hit a bunch of big shots early in the

Game he’s averaging two made threes per game over his last seven games I’ll be it on massive volume he’s actually taking 6.4 per game it’s crazy watching the bucks now cuz Brook’s like straight up playing with a massive green light uh but I wanted to I wanted to dive into

The Bucks drop coverage in this particular game because that was basically the story of this game the uh uh like Brook Lopez was guarding Rudy go bear and just sitting comically far back into the paint so what that does is it puts your on ball guy in a little bit of

A predicament because he’s basically playing one on two right like he’s trying to guard ant or whoever my Conley whoever it is that has the ball but he’s got a screener and he’s not getting any help at the perimeter so his only real job there is to try to fight over the

Top of the screen and try to get a contest but Rudy gobear is a really good screener so most of the time like he is getting a solid screen set on the ball right but there’s a specific reason why this works for Milwaukee and this is actually very similar thing to what I

Was talking about earlier with the Lakers as it pertains to playing into your strengths like this particular roster the strength of their defense is on the interior so it actually doesn’t make sense to over over index towards the ball handler to try to shut down the ball handler at

The expense of giving up layups and threes that’s not that’s not the strength of your defense you’re actually better off allowing the ball handler to be more comfortable but stay home off the ball and try to force them into making a lot of really difficult shots

In the mid-range and so again if I want to start by just looking at it from the standpoint of what a drop coverage looks like so so I want to look at just the first possession of the game you can actually find this clip on my Twitter

Feed atore Jason LT was from Saturday morning if I remember correctly so the the first play of the game was a turnover for Mike connley in pick and roll so if you watch the play Mike connley is being guarded by Dame Rudy goar comes up and sets a screen to

Dame’s credit and he’s been doing this really since doc took over really good job fighting over the top of the screen but Brook Lop has just sitting way back in the paint so even though connley gets downhill and actually Beats stame like again that’s what you expect right when

You have a ball screen it’s really difficult to get back in front of the ball handler right Mike Conley’s going downhill but Brooke is waiting there and he’s able to effectively split the difference between Conley and gobear rolling to the rent now why is this important because now you can defend the

Action two on two because you can defend the action two on two Jay Crowder who’s on the weak side and I think he was guarding Jaden McDaniels if I remember correctly but I’m not 100% certain guarding on the weak side he’s able to stay on the ball or on his man and so

Because he’s staying on his man as Mike connley Works towards the Baseline and he’s there getting attacked by Brooke he’s got to get rid of the basketball but now he doesn’t have an outlet because Jay Crowder doesn’t have to help if Brooke is higher in his drop coverage

Now J Crowder likely has to come over to help in the paint but because Brooke is back Jay can stay out which takes away those kickout passes that was basically the story of the game the Bucks played Minnesota into their worst Tendencies because they are not a very good shot

Making team they can make threes off the catch they’re good catch and shoot team but Anthony Edwards is a high volume pull-up shooter who’s not particularly accurate Mike Conley is an accurate pull-up shooter who’s not particularly aggressive and so as a result of that it played Minnesota into their worst Tendencies

And it was a lot of playing picking rle as Brook sat back into the paint and guys missing pull-up shots and floaters it was a lot of attacking in ISO while Brooke is just sitting in the paint waiting and for all the CR you know a lot of criticism about Rudy goar over

The years defensively is just inaccurate and I’ve talked about that on the on the show before so I’m not going to get into it but where Rudy goar has struggled in the past is he’s not enough enough of a threat offensively like he can get a few offensive rebounds he presents some

Vertical spacing but he’s not sharp enough when it comes to scoring on the roll like he doesn’t catch and finish super well and so on offense it can turn into a situation where where Rudy can’t actually make Brook pay enough for ignoring him and that leads into a lot

Of their issues and so I I want to tie that back into two things first of all that is Milwaukee’s best chance they will never be an elite defense because they don’t have the perimeter uh Personnel to do so but their Pathway to defending as well as they possibly can

Or well enough for them to get to the trophy is that deep drop coverage because it allows them to cover Two on Two and stay out of rotation essentially taking away layups and taking away threes while conceding comfort and Rhythm to the ball handler the next question is in that is which matchups

Will that work in and this is where it becomes really interesting in the playoffs because a team like New York maybe Jaylen Brunson will kill you and maybe that’s not going to work a team like Miami they’ve got a lot of guys like Duncan Robinson and Tyler Harrow

Who can really do some damage if you chase over the top and they get some good screens from Baya bio right Terry roier hasn’t played super well yet and then he got hurt but we’ll see in the long run whether or not Terry Rosier fits into that mold but like they’re a

Team where drop coverage might be a little bit of an issue but then you look at teams like Boston Boston is the team where like man you could really bait them into their worst Tendencies by running a super deep drop right and so that’s where I kind of

Look at it as matchup dependent but even within the the the the view of like a Miami matchup or a New York matchup I still think that might be their best chance to win and just be like jaylen’s gonna average Jaylen brunson’s gonna average 38 a game but we’re going to

Take everybody else out of this thing and then we’ll be good enough on offense and again the new nuclear offense is the main thing that makes it work they beat Minnesota their drop coverage did work I’m not going to lie about that but it was close for the most part through

Three and a half quarters it was close in the fourth quarter they brought it back a little bit close although Milwaukee I thought let their foot off the gas a little bit but there at the end of the third quarter they went on an absolutely nuclear offensive run where

Dam and Giannis just time and time again were able to develop and create incredibly high quality shots that’s the formula defend as well as you can which the strength of your personnel as your interior defense so it makes sense to do it the way they did then on the other

End of the floor you need to be a nuclear potent offense in order to uh cover the rest of that Gap there on the Wolves front I was so disappointed in their offensive process in this game because they played right into Milwaukee’s Hands by spamming pick and roll and bad

Isolation basketball one of the things I’d like to see them do and again this is something I’ve talked about a lot when it comes to Minnesota they don’t have the best decision makers in the world Mike Conley’s a high-end decision maker but when you get past that it’s

Like Carl towns can get a little carried away Anthony Edwards can get a little carried away you know even to kale Alexander Walker can get a little carried away they can take some tough shots and they can play like Jaden McDaniels even can sometimes get a little tunnel vision and take some bad

Shots right and so like specifically during that third quarter run I I just thought the Wolves play really poor offense there wasn’t a ton of like action that they were running it was a lot of like Brute Force style of basketball which paid directly play directly into Milwaukee’s strengths

Again in that situation if you allow Milwaukee to sit back you’re going to have issues but if you have more ball in player movement you can have it be more likely that Brook Lopez has to direct attention elsewhere and that’s where you can maybe move him further out of the

Coverage and maybe you can find more opportunities to generate higher quality offense but that’s going to be an issue with the wolves and that’s been an issue for the Wolves throughout this season is there ability to consistently execute in the half court on offense all right guys

That is all I have for today’s or for this particular show from today I will see you guys again at the end of Warriors nuggets live on YouTube

Jason Timpf reacts to Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and the Phoenix Suns’ 123-113 win over LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Jason discusses the game’s biggest highlights and what lies ahead for each of the Western Conference contenders. Later, Jason breaks down Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, and the Milwaukee Bucks’ impressive 112-107 win over Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Are the Bucks starting to find their groove?

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
01:08 – Lakers vs. Suns
15:38 – Bucks picking up steam, beat Timberwolves

Follow Jason Timpf on social:
Tweets by _JasonLT
https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/

Shop the hottest gear in all of sports podcasting: https://thevolume.com/shop-all-new

Follow us on social media:
https://www.instagram.com/thevolumesports
Tweets by TheVolumeSports
https://www.facebook.com/TheVolumeSports

@thevolumesports

Learn more about the Volume:
https://www.thevolume.com

#nba #lakers #lebronjames #lebron #losangeleslakers #lalakers #kevindurant #phoenixsuns #suns #anthonydavis #devinbooker #lakersnation #nbaplayoffs #playoffs #nbafinals #basketball #sports