Warriors-Lakers Reaction: Steph Curry goes for 31 in BIG WIN over LeBron James & LA | Hoops Tonight

Warriors-Lakers Reaction: Steph Curry goes for 31 in BIG WIN over 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 a great weekend we’re going to be hitting two games from the Saturday night slate the Golden State Warriors Got A much needed win for the standings on the road in Los

Angeles against the Lakers and then the New York Knicks go on the road to Sacramento in a super intense and physical Rock fight of a game and get a big win over the Kings we’re going to be breaking down both of those games from the perspective of both teams just so

You guys know for the schedule for this week we’re going today and we’re going every single day for the next 7 days until next Sunday when I leave for one last little trip I’m going out of town with my wife to do some skiing in Lake

Tahoe one little rest before we get into the playoffs as you guys know uh when we get into the playoffs we go live on YouTube after the final game every single night during the playoff run so a little bit of a calm before the storm so

We’re going to have a crazy week this week going every single day then we’re going to take a break from Sunday through Wednesday next week and I’ll be back on uh that following Thursday 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 scroll down and hit that subscribe button don’t forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight it’s also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on the podcast feed don’t

Forget about my Twitter feed _ jlt where I put the film breakdowns from time to time as well as show announcements and last but not least keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments no mailbag in this episode but we will be uh doing several of them over the course

Of the next week all right let’s talk some basketball so uh first quarter looked more or less like a lot of the Lakers games against the Warriors in the last couple of years right like the uh specifically just ad kind of sagging off of non-shooters and causing some

Problems around the basket Laker offense too has been cooking on all cylinders uh for couple months now and uh they won that first quarter 36 to3 had good motion good ball and player movement everything was looking good LeBron came out laser focused he had his first six

Shots in this game bouncing back after a rough game on the road in Sacramento um Anthony Davis in the first quarter alone goes for eight points four rebounds two assists a steal and a block with no turnovers playing really really well but then he gets hit in the eye and it

Swells up on him and it has to leave the game and from there you know it’s funny there was a comment from JJ reic it was actually in the early third quarter if I remember correctly but he pointed out a truth which is that you know Anthony Davis gives the Lakers a somewhat

Coherent uh defense they’ve actually been a a top 15 half court off half court defense most of the year and spent a good portion of the year in the top 10 for half court defense their primary issues are what happens on the perimeter and in transition which is why they

Can’t reach the level that they’ve been in years past but like Anthony Davis really is the guy that anchors everything for the Laker defense and when he goes out JJ reic pointed out he’s like not a whole lot else in terms of defensive Personnel right like you’ve

Got LeBron James who when he’s engaged can be a deep impactful defensive player but especially in a game like this where he has to do so much offensively you can pretty much count on him to you know save and conserve energy on that end of the floor they had a big defensive

Mistake late in this game where he lost Draymond Green on a fake dribble handoff to go to the basket and it’s because he has to save his legs right and then in general he’s 39 years old in a regular season game like you’re not going to get great uh defense consistent defense out

Of him right D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reeves not great you know ruy hachimo is’s a good low man and rebounder from time to time but he’s not a good perimeter defensive player max Christie is a good perimeter defensive player but he’s young a little Helter Skelter

Doesn’t get a ton of minutes uh that frequently Jared Vanderbilt is a really good Defender but he’s hurt so like they just don’t really have great defensive Personnel after Anthony Davis is out they promptly gave up 72 points in the second and third quarters combined uh the Lakers tried blitzing with Jackson

Hayes that was basically the defensive strategy they went with to try to slow Golden State down and the main rationale there is J J Jackson Hayes is not a good drop coverage big he’s he’s a guy that like when he sits back in a coverage he

Either is too passive and lets the guard get too comfortable or he gets too aggressive and he fouls a lot and so you know they one of the ways that the Lakers have countered that is just use his athleticism so they’ll Blitz and try to make things happen from there but

Then they just got absolutely eviscerated in the paint they gave up 62 points in the paint in this game Steph by himself made nine field goals in the paint did a lot of damage on Austin Reeves on curls coming off of screens slipping screens in back Cuts there’s a

Big one late in the game where cuz like one of the things that the Lakers try to do uh with Steph is top blck him which what that means is position yourself between Steph and the screen so that he can’t come off and there was one in the

Fourth quarter where he kind of went and set a pin down and then he was getting ready to come off his own pin down to go up to the top of the key but Austin was on his high side trying to deny him the screen and Draymond Green had the ball

In the post and Steph literally just noticed that Austin was on his high side and there was nobody behind him and Steph just slipped to the basket and Draymond hit him for an easy layup and one of the consistent issues I I I saw in this game and it’s something I’m

Going to talk about a lot but like you know when Steph is being the the the blender that he can be off the ball running through all of these off ball screening actions and stuff you have to find somewhere in the off the off the

Ball to help right and like one of the big opportunities in this game because because Brandon psky is not a super aggressive scorer because he’s a ball movement guy he’s more of like a like kind of like a Connect tissue type of piece and because he hasn’t shot the

Three exceptionally well DLo was the guy who could be in position to help on so many of these and he just did absolutely nothing I trimmed several examples of this you go onto my Twitter feed _ jlt and look in the replies and you’ll see where you’re going to see Austin Reeves

Just chasing like crazy or Max Christie chasing like crazy and then DLo is just kind of standing upright not doing anything to help and not not guarding Brandon psky either just kind of standing upright in the lane and not doing anything so the Warriors pretty quickly took control of the game after

Anthony Davis went down LeBron did keep it close LeBron had a another great night he had 40 points eight rebounds nine assists could have been 43 too uh if that three-point shot in the corner if he didn’t put his heel on the line he was really picking on Trace Jackson

Davis in switches and having some success on that front but the Lakers just tried to outscore Golden State and and that their skill guards just weren’t good enough right like they didn’t get a good enough type of offens game to make that happen Austin and DLo combined to

Go five for 19 from three I want to credit Brandon pmy and Andrew Wiggins on this one I thought Andrew Wiggins and he’s a specific type of guy that can give DLo some issues but I thought Wiggins did an incredible job on D’Angelo Russell and and forced him into

Some really janky shots and some ugly misses it wasn’t like DLo was out there missing a ton of clean looks like he missed a couple of open Catch and shoot looks but like I thought Andrew Wiggins just did an amazing job on DLo and then Brandon pmy he did an amazing job on

Reeves like you know the the Lakers whenever Austin Reeves gets the ball and there’s like six or seven seconds on the shot clock he’s a good ISO player coming into last night he was up over a point per possession and ISO he’s a guy that like has a good set of moves and

Counters and can get to the foul line so like he’s a guy that they can trust to kind of just rescue a possession by playing one-on-one basketball right and a lot of those possessions last night ended with him kind of going to work on Brandon pmy and pmy did just a really

Really good job an individual defense on him forced him into some tough misses some ugly misses so really good perimeter defense from penski psky and Wiggins and like I said so many times this season I really think that’s a strength of this Warriors roster uh but the Lakers or the Warriors in general

Were really taking advantage of the Lakers backline defense that’s the piece that I want to focus on here for a little bit so I’m primarily working on looking at on the backline Jackson Hayes ruy Hamer and LeBron James but also D’Angelo Russell like I talked about earlier and essentially like when you

Bring a guy up to the level of the screen he has a very specific job he’s got to make it difficult to make that over the top pass um I talk a lot about like how Dame sometimes will throw swing passes out of Blitz uh out of Blitz situations Jaylen Brunson did this

Several times last night against the Kings and it was it’s because in many cases when that screen Defender does a good job getting active hands and taking away the passing angles even though the short roll man is open it can be difficult to get the ball there now

Steph every once in a while will just make some like Preposterous really nice like kind of looping pass over the top against some good defense but like the reality is is like you have to make that really difficult if you let them easily get that ball to the rle man you’re in a

Tough spot cuz now it’s four on three and draymond’s just so good in that situation how many times in this game did you see uh Draymond catching the roll and kaminga cut out of the weak side corner for a dunk or Andrew Wiggins cut out of

The weak side corner for the dunk it’s that classic tic-tac-toe of the Warriors offense Steph gets a blitz pass to Draymond on the roll Draymond draws in The Help Defender from the weak side corner instead of standing there waiting for a three-point shot they cut along

The Baseline the lob passes there and as long as it’s timed perfectly it’s it’s it’s a bucket every single time and they just did a ton of damage there in general like a lot of those low man possessions would end up being someone like a D’Angelo Russell and he would

Step up and like Trace Jackson Davis would just go through him into the basket and finish or the the back door cut would be wide open for for a layup there was even a possession where to trace Jackson Davis’s credit he caught in the dunker spot and Jackson A’s

Recovered and he just bodied him and hit a little left-handed hook over the top like as as Steph was doing his job of bringing that screen Defender up to the level of the screen in those four onree situations the Lakers just did not get enough stops and look here’s the thing

That’s a precarious position for anybody but like you can’t let them score every single time in those situations and I really thought the Warriors took advantage of a weakness in the Lakers roster when you remove Anthony Davis from the equation the Anthony Davis is just so much better at pressuring and

Making those passes to the rle man more difficult and then in general the Lakers weak side defensive Personnel just doesn’t do a good enough job and and and the Warriors really took advantage of that uh three shout outs on the Warriors front that I wanted to hit before we get

Out of here Klay Thompson as the secondary scorer really had his movement three off the catch working there were some ones too where he was in a phone booth where he was coming off and there was a hedge and he just found that little tiny bit of into space and Rose

Up he was four for seven on threes that he took flying off of screening actions overall he scored 14 points in nine offscreen possessions Trace Jackson Davis figuring out some of the specific details of the two-man game so one of the things that um you guys may or may

Not have heard about as you follow other uh basketball content out there something we haven’t talked a ton about on this show is the idea of a Gortat screen so uh what a Gortat screen is is essentially like you the big man will set a screen on the ball right and as he

Sets a screen on the ball the uh um the on ball Defender is chasing over the top and so there’s a driving lane there right so the ball handler Now is working downhill the screen Defender right the guy defending the screener is trying to get back into the play to uh to guard

The ball handler coming downhill but what’ll happen in a lot of these cases is literally the uh uh the big man that that is the the the screener for a Gore tot screen will actually position himself to box out the uh the screen Defender instead of rolling hard to the

Rim to try to make himself available for a dunk or finding a sweet spot in the middle to catch the ball for a finish instead the one thing he’ll focus on is just boxing that help Defender out of the lane and so essentially imagine Steph coming off of a ball screen and a

Max Christie or or you know an Austin Reeves trailing Steph over the top and then essentially Trace Jackson Davis instead of rolling to the rim is just going to to get into Trace Jackson or excuse me into Jackson Hayes’s way or get into ruy hamura’s way and just kind

Of form a wall and now step just meanders into the lane for an easy layup you had two examples of that that worked really well there was one in the first half where he boxed ruy out as Steph was driving and he got a layup and then

There was a second a second one in the fourth quarter a ball screen with Chris Paul so the way the action uh worked in this case Max Christie was guarding Chris and uh uh uh Chris had the ball in his right hand kind of on the left wing

Extended so um Here Comes Trace Jackson Davis to set the screen and he sets it like he’s going to get Chris towards his right hand side and so as a result of that Max jumps up onto the high side to try to get over the screen Trace quickly

Flips the angle turns around and screens the other side of Max and Chris crosses over and goes left instead now that rescreening thing is a really important piece of screening angles because like a lot of times the really good on ball Defenders that are quick they will find

A way to navigate the first screen but when you’ve navigated the first screen many times you’re out of position to then quickly navigate another screen and so as the screener if you can quickly flip the angle on him you can catch him out of position so starts with that now

Max Christie is on the high side on the if you’re facing the basket on the right side Trace Jackson is screening and Chris Paul is driving towards the left but he snakes back across to get back to his right hand side now Max Christie is going to try to

Recover back into the play but Trace Jackson Davis is literally in his way and Trace does this like really slow roll to the basket and on the slow roll to the basket he stays in Max’s way for another like two or three steps and that allowed Chris Paul to get a big opening

At the right elbow tons of space and he rose up Rose up and knocked it down so between the Gortat screen in the first half that got Steph the wi open layup the flipping screening angle thing on uh to get Chris Paul open and then kind of

Dragging his role into to Max Christie’s way to create that opening those are just like higher level pick and roll Concepts that are so vitally important to like finding openings against good defense and that’s the thing like that’s the one guy in that game for the Lakers

That’s a good defensive player is Max Christie the one guy that like that’s what he does he’s in the league because he does that well and like those are the kinds of guys where you have to be more diligent about the details to find openings and I just thought it was

Really encouraging to see tra Trace kind of showing some of that higher level stuff and look he struggled with LeBron on switches in this game but so do most centers in the NBA I thought it was a good a good performance and then Jonathan kaminga he had um he’s RI

Ripping off another streak of 20-point games that’s his fourth in a row he had four assists with one turn over a really smart play in the first half where he was posting up Spencer dwy I’ve talked a lot about how um teams are starting stting to throw late help after he puts

The ball on the ground to his left hand side there was an example of that in this game where posing D Woody makes a move towards the Middle Jackson Hayes hard helps on his left-hand side and he just makes the drop off pass to the guy

In the dunker spot easy stuff that is in uh that that is going to make the game easier for Jonathan kaminga in the long run last 29 games for Jonathan kaminga 21 points per game six rebounds and three assists on 55% from the field 41% from three and 79% from the line think

About how crazy that is 29 games so literally like over a third of the season right or yeah right am I right about that yeah over the third of the season and then over 21 points per game legitimate defensive rebounding three assists uh with only I think two I think

He’s uh it’s um I want to say he’s got about a 1.5 assist to turnover ratio in that in that span I should have put it in my notes but I didn’t but and he’s also shooting really efficiently from from uh the VAR spots on the floor where

He needs to work so really really encouraging stretch from Jonathan kaminga that it like regardless of what happens with the Warriors this year that that to me is is is like just something you take into the future as a massive success from this particular campaign on

The Lakers front when ad goes down they basically just have no shot to beat any serious team unless they shoot the lights off shoot the lights out and they just didn’t in this particular game I uh the one other the thing I have two other things that I wanted to quickly hit one

I thought this was a game that kind of kind of demonstrated some of the ugly side of what comes with the D’Angelo Russell experience not just this game but the three of their last four games so the two losses to Sacramento and then this game like just struggling to be a

Productive and effective offensive player against length and athleticism on the perimeter that applies real ball pressure and how that can kind of get under his skin a little bit and then secondly just not doing enough off the ball defensively to make it so that he is a positive in the net meaning like

His offense production supersedes whatever downsides come in other areas of the game like just way too much standing around it just is not acceptable for for a guy that like has had struggles in the playoffs and you’re trying to get to a point where he’s a usable player in that setting and it’s

Like those are the kinds of things that kind of rear their ugly head with him and again it’s only a four game stretch and he was really good for months before that so I don’t want to like like hyperfocus on the negative here but this last stretch of games from DLo has felt

A little bit like a a backslide so to speak and so I hope that DLo can kind of snap out of it because like that they the Lakers just desperately need him to be the offensive player he was over the last couple of months while also being a

Usable defensive player which we know he’s capable of being I have seen games this year where DLo has been a useful off ball defensive player and it’s just it’s just a a matter of commitment at this point lastly the Lakers you know this is the kind of thing that happens I

I I don’t know what happens if ad doesn’t get hurt um I would imagine the Lakers probably win that game 60% of the time if ad’s healthy right at least if not more the Lakers are a good home team they played well when ad was on the

Floor the same ways that they typically do that’s not to say the Warriors couldn’t have win that game they certainly could I’m not trying to be like oh ad got hurt the Lakers should have won I’m just saying like yeah you’re right you probably win that game

If ad is healthy but he didn’t get he didn’t finish the game he hurt his eye and and sometimes in the 82 Game season your star gets hurt and you just lose and normally that would be something you could live with over the course of an 82

Game season but the Lakers tricked off their margin for error this year that 3 and 10 stretch after the inseason tournament win removed their ability to be able to withstand that sort of thing yesterday ad gets hit in the eye misses the rest of the game they drop a game to

The Warriors now it’s a catastrophe you’ve dropped down to the 10 seed and you AB absolutely have to beat the Warriors I’m not even sure if that will help them get the uh there’s a match up with the Warriors in April I’m not even sure if that’ be enough for them to get

The tiebreaker because I’m not sure what the other details of the tiebreaker are but you’re now down to one and two against the Warriors which could end up hurting you in the tiebreaker situation if you win this game and you win in April you win the tiebreaker right so

You’ve removed that from the equation it’s a huge like it’s a huge catastrophe for the Lakers the situation that they’re in whereas let’s just take a look at a couple of games on their schedule if they would have gone differently how different it would have looked like I think they’ve lost at

Least a half dozen games this year that they had no business losing but let’s just look at a couple specifics they lost to the Spurs the week after winning the inseason tournament the Spurs were on an 18g game losing streak guys they had lost 18 games in a row and they beat

The Lakers literally a week after they beat less than a week after they beat the Pacers to win the inseason tournament after kicking the out of the Pelicans and beating the Suns they were playing excellent basketball and then they just relaxed they lost to a Dallas Mavericks team that was

Completely injury riddled I’ll accept that one but the one to the Spurs like that’s completely unacceptable they lost to the Miami Heat at home without Jimmy Butler in a game that the Lakers came completely lifeless out of the locker room and then they lost to that terrible

Grizzlies team that was 11 and 23 going into the game flip just those three games forget about everything else flip just those three games and now Anthony Davis gets a corneal abrasion and is the rest of the game and you drop a game and you’re still 39 and 29 and a half game

Out of the six seed that’s your that’s your situation if you just don’t trick off those games in the middle of the Year add a couple more now they lost at home to the Brooklyn Nets in a game that they jumped them early and then just quit in the

Second half lost to the Brooklyn Nets inexcusable at home then they got their ass kicked in back-to-back games against the rockets and Hawks in games they didn’t didn’t play hard they gave up 273 points in the two games those are the games right before they went in and beat Boston without

LeBron James and Anthony Davis in a game they did bring hellacious effort from start to finish so just take those uh three games Win those three then if ad gets poked in the eye and you drop a game to Golden State you’re still the five seed you’re the five

Seed that’s what this is that that’s what this has meant like because here’s the thing like the Lakers are not a top tier Championship Contender they did not address their biggest weakness at the deadline or over the summer and so they do not have the matchup versatility they need to win

Four playoff rounds like I I don’t think they’re in that tier they can it’s just like such an incredible long shot right and it’s because they didn’t address their biggest weakness but they are a good NBA team but because for extended stretches of the season they just came out and

Played bad basketball against teams they had no business losing to they are in a horrible predicament in the playing tournament when they should be what this team actually is as a middle of the West type of team they should be in that four to five range that’s how good they are

When you look at the talent on their roster they should be in that four to five range that that’s that’s the quality of that basketball team but they are instead down in the playin tournament at 36 and 32 and will likely have to win two Road games to even get a

Chance to play a team uh for a best of seven one last stat to drive this point home I saw this two days ago from Alex rega a guy a guy does an amazing job covering the Lakers for ESP Nation highly recommend you guys check him

Out he tweeted this out the other day and I thought it was super interesting the Lakers are 16 and 12 against teams that are in the top 10 in point differential in those games they have the sixth best net rting in the league so when it comes to the Lakers playing

Against really good teams they are one of the very best teams in the league 16 wins comfortably above 500 sixth best net rating in the league and that’s despite their personnel limitations that’s despite the fact that they don’t have a guard or Wing that is a starting caliber player that is a plus

Offensive player and a plus defensive player they do not have one on the roster and they’re still 16 and 12 against the top 10 team teams in the league by Point differential against the middle 10 teams against teams 11 through 20 in point differential they are five

And 15 after last night’s loss to the Warriors 5- 15 and they have the sixth worst net rating out of that group what does that tell you that’s that’s what I’ve been preaching all year with this team like are they Boston or Denver no they needed

A trade and they needed a lot of things to go right this year to never get into that tier they were unable to crack into that tier but are they the 10 seed in the west are they that bad they shouldn’t be and it all comes down to three things

Those personel limitations I talked about two complete coaching incompetence from darham and then three a consistent lack of effort and focus I talk all about the time about basketball character the willingness to do the things that you have to do to get to the trophy it is from day one of training

Camp through all of preseason to the every stretch of the season from the the slow points in January to the busy points around the deadline or right after the start of the season in October to the race at the end of the season through uh to to jockey around for

Position in the standings you have to hit these checkpoints in terms of effort and focus and energy and in the paying your dues you have to you have to pay in Blood Sweat and Tears to get to the Larry O’Brien trophy it is not easy you

Don’t get to chill it’s a big part of why I’m starting to get off the clippers set the Clippers went from being a team that would looked like a dominant two-way basketball team now they haven’t played defense in several months and now they look pretty mediocre that’s a big

One for me they’re skipping a checkpoint that checkpoint is you have to keep your foot on the gas and when there are tiny points in the season when you start to lose your focus and a couple things don’t go your way the good teams the teams that Hoist the Larry O’Brien those

Teams end up quickly digging out of those holes I remember even the 2020 Lakers the uh because obviously I covered that team very closely they lost four games in a row around Christmas they started I want to say they started 24 and three so they started like crazy good right they

Lost four games in a row like I’m not trying to sit here and pretend like bad stretches don’t happen of course they do but for the really good teams you don’t have extended bad stretches you don’t have a three and 10 stretch you can’t get away with it

And again to pointing back to basketball character a team with good basketball character doesn’t do that a team with good basketball character doesn’t have you know 40% of the nights over the course of the 82 game regular season where they just come out lifeless that that to me is showing an

Unwillingness to do the work because there is work from day one of training camp to the point where you hoist that trophy it sucks like there I’m a I’m a huge believer that that that is an a prerequisite to get to the trophy you have to attack the regular season from

Start to finish all right I’m done venting about the Lakers the thrill and excitement of March Mania is here and draftking Sportsbook one of America’s top rated Sportsbook apps is giving new customers a shot to turn five bucks into $150 instantly in bonus Bets with any college basketball bet Yukon is

Currently the favorite to win the title at plus500 my favorite team Hometown Tucson Arizona Wildcats are currently plus 1300 plenty of good bets to check out download the draftking Sportsbook app and use code Hoops that’s h o o PS new customers can bet five bucks to get

$150 instantly in bonus bets only at draftking Sportsbook with code Hoops that’s ho o PS the crown is yours moving on to Nick Kings super fun physical game a lot of guys had nightmare shooting nights and this is super typical this is something I talk about a lot on the show Rock

Fight basketball games like a lot of times like can cause teams to fall apart in their skill areas of their game and mainly the the idea behind that is is like you become accustomed in your shooting workouts and everything to to a certain muscle memory that that you go

To when you’re going into your skill skill shots and skill footwork and dribble combinations and all that kind of stuff right so um what happens is is like in a really physical game there’s a level of fatigue and like a kind of like a pain like a like you kind of get beat

Up a little bit like everything hurts from like you bumping shoulders and knees and hips and everything like that and all of a sudden you’ve got like 16 bruises and bumps and stuff from the from the game but all of that takes place and then all of a sudden you find

Yourself in a catch and shoot situation or a pull-up jump shot situation and it just doesn’t feel the same physically because you’re exhausted because you’re fatigued because you’re uh beat up right and so Josh Hart goes two for seven in this game ogan adobi goes one for eight

Dante dienzo goes one for 16 dearen fox goes 5 for 19 Keegan Murray goes three for 12 Harrison Barnes goes 5 for 13 the Nick shot 4 43% from the field and one the Kings shot just 35% from the field now first of all before we go any

Further I love this new brand of officiating we’re seeing from the NBA for three primary reasons one it gives it gives the defenses a Fighting Chance NBA offenses had literally become too hard to guard without allowing some sort of physicality when you give them the amount of skill and and athleticism that

NBA teams have and give them so much freedom of movement it’s it’s a loss cause and and no one’s going to be able to get stopped so first of all it just gives the defense a Fighting Chance second of all it will really help us with evaluating playoff teams because

This looks more like playoff basketball and so it’ll just it’ll just help us to sort through the nonsense again I love playoff officiating we all do that’s what we want it to be like why are we ever allowing a regular season to just be different basketball that should

Just never be the case and every single year it was freedom of movement and of scoring and free throws and then we get to the postseason and the game fundamentally changes and I that doesn’t make any sense it makes more sense for it to be the same throughout so I to me

It’ll help us evaluate but in general it’s just better for the league to have a consistency of play style and then three deep down this is what the players want it’s funny I’ve been in uh in like probably uh a few dozen different like men’s league things that I’ve played in

My life since I got done uh playing in college and no matter where I have been whether I was in Charlotte whether I was in Phoenix whether I was in Tucson I remember several times where like multiple players have gone up to the officials at certain points in the game

Or before the game and been like hey like we’d prefer it if you guys don’t call that much and just let us play like that’s what players want basketball players want freed like freedom to play without the whistle that’s what they want if they had to choose if they if

Players had to choose between everything’s a foul by the book or like discretion and if it’s blatant call it but like keep the flow of the game every single basketball player will choose the ladder that’s what they want it’s it’s it’s a better television product it’s more fun there’s going to

Be some complaining like you I’ve seen a lot of guys in the last couple weeks like driving and missing layups and complaining that that that’s a natural part of it and as a competitor you want points so like I I get it for your team because that’s your job right but like

Deep down this is what the players want it’ll help us evaluate the teams better and it’s just uh it gives the defenses a Fighting Chance brings more balance to the equation that’s said the Knicks are just better at Rock fight basketball than Sacramento is even without Julius Randall and Mitchell Robinson their

Guards are stocky and physical whereas the the Kings guards are more speed oriented right and there was not much available at The Rim in this game because both teams were aggressively helping and digging down and in just packing the paint there were 171 field goal attempts in this game only 33 of

Them were in the restricted area and only 19 of those 33 went in we had 14 misses in the restricted area in this game it became about jump shooting but specifically jump shooting while being tired and beat up which again is a fundamentally different type of of jump shooting type

Of game and the Knicks are just better built for that sort of thing the Knicks took 55 jump shots and got 0.86 points per shot the Kings took 50 and they got 0.76 points per shot that really was the difference of the game you saw that in

The pull-up shooting too like the two main creators right Jaylen Brunson eight for 15 on pull-up jump shots four for seven on pull-up threes dearen Fox two for2 on pull-up jump shots one for six on pull-up threes huge difference in this game by the way that’s a season

Long Trend Jaylen brunson’s a better pull-up shooter than Daren fox has been forever and Daren fox has taken a leap this year best pull-up shooting a season of his career not as good as Jaylen Brunson right like that’s what you kind of expect in that situation OG anobi brings a certain physicality Isaiah

Hartenstein is a big guy that I wanted to to spend some time on today only had seven points in this game um but he had four blocks in a steel 14 rebounds including four offensive rebounds and I thought he was a substantially better defensive player in this game than

Sabonis it’s one of those weird games where like if you look at the box score sabonis is gets this 20 point double double and obviously like it looks like sabonis was the better player I thought isaah hartstein like flat out out played sabonis in this game first of all held

Sabonis to just one for five from the field with four turnovers in the second half uh had some huge offensive plays at the end of the game that curl to uh U that curl to Jaylen Brunson where he got the and one I put that clip on Twitter

And then he just there’s a big play late where Kings got it to four and and and hartenstein just drove right through sabonis his chest and got all the way to the rim and made an and one layup to put the Knicks back up seven like I thought

I thought he was awesome in this particular game held up much better defensively in pick and roll too and that’s the key because the Knicks on the other end were really torching sabonis they got 1.3 points per pick and roll for the entire game including passes

That’s like off the charts good that’s a 130 offensive rating in ball screens they were torching sabonis hitting pull-ups against him in drop coverage obviously Brunson who we’ve talked a lot about but even Alex B Alec Burks got him twice in the fourth quarter uh once with

A floater and once with a pull-up jumper where sabonis was just hanging too far back and not doing enough to bother the ball Handler on the other end hartenstein was just better had some huge defensive plays down the stretch held uh the the Knicks in as a team held

Sacramento to 0.96 points per ball screen uh and 0.4 points per handoff which is obviously a huge part of the king’s offense so like they just did a much better job guarding screening actions than the Knicks did and I I want to before we put all of it on sabonis

And hartenstein it was more diligent work from the guards too like this was a good defensive performance from both teams to be clear all you have to do is look at the box score but the Knicks did make fewer mistakes there were some big late game mistakes from the Kings guards

Defensively there’s a big one late where the kings were up by four in the fourth quarter and boy and bonovich came off of like a pin down and knocked down a three and it was just bad defense from Daren Fox Daren Fox was guarding miles McBride and Malik monk was guarding um buen

Bonovich and literally McBride just goes and sets a a a a basic little pin screen for bogdanovich bogdanovich comes off to the top of the key Darren Fox is literally just standing just standing like right around the foul line not even in a defensive stance and so when

McBride’s in trail position and kind of gets hit on the screen a little bit the uh um uh excuse me when Malik Monk Is in trail position and kind of gets hit on the screen a little bit buen bonovich just breaks wide open and knocks down

The shot and it’s like that’s a key mistake in the game like that that like like like cuz again in that group with that bench group especially when it’s got Alec burkson and boen bonovich and to to Alec Burks and Bo MCD donovich is credit they made some plays in that

Fourth quarter stretch they each had a little scoring burst that they went on that helped kind of keep things afloat but like they a lot of it was Defensive breakdowns sa bonis and drop like sitting too far low on that guard guard screening action by Daren Fox then the

Late game possession so there was a sequence late where the Kings played really good defense on a series of scoring uh so this was after the Knicks one up seven they got a bunch of stops in a row against Jaylen Brunson they were running guard guard screens to try

To get Keon Ellis switched off of Jaylen Brunson to try to get Malik Monk and then occasionally they’d bring hartenstein in to try to get him to go at sabonis where they’d run more of a drop but basically Brunson was operating at the top of the key and they were

Running these screening actions they defended all of them really well except for one the one where Keon Ellis was going like this looking around and Jaylen Brunson just waited for him to turn his head and then he went off the dribble and like I get it like Keon

Ellis they had been screening him from both sides and so he’s really just trying to get ahead of whatever that action is coming from but like the ball is the number one priority in that situation so it’s like you do a really good job most of the game but just some

Critical mistakes defensively and and like that that by the way is kind of a theme for the Kings this year they’re a team that as I’ve talked about all season they’re a a team that is capable of being very good defensively but it’s not their habit it’s not their identity

And so too often they slip back into their worst Tendencies biggest sequence of the game was actually before this play it was 8482 and nicks got the ball and Jaylen Brunson curls off of an Isaiah hartenstein dribble hand off and fakes the hand off and then on the back cut

There’s a tiny tiny window and hartenstein throws this beautiful bounce pass that hits Bruns and in stride he gets an and one they go down to the other end there’s a ball screen action for Harrison Barnes and hartenstein blocks him at The Rim so two massive plays from hartenstein they go down to

The other end the Kings play good defense switch a guard guard screen they get a great contest on a Brunson pullup three and he misses it but right after that deas sabonis gets the rebound and throws the ball way too far up the floor to Keon Ellis and turns it over Nicks

Bring the ball in bounds and this is the really weird play most of the second half on Brunson ball screens they had been blitzing with sabonis and it was working sabonis was applying good ball pressure with his hands Brunson wasn’t able to get the ball to the pocket so he

Was having to throw swing passes I was actually talking about this earlier like when you apply really good pressure and blitzes the pocket pass isn’t open because they just can’t get the pass through and so they were forcing Brunson to make swing passes and they were

Rotating out of it pretty well the blitz was working and then randomly on this play sabonis just sits way back in a drop coverage and Brunson just walks right into a pull-up three and knocks it down huge sequence in the game it’s a two-point game hardenstein makes a

Couple of big plays on both ends of the floor sabonis makes a couple of critical mistakes and suddenly it’s a seven-point game also another example of how I thought hartenstein outplay bonus despite the box score numbers like just when it came to the big moments of the

Game the big swing possessions it was hartenstein making plays and sabonis making mistakes that’s why I was calling that specifically out anyway they that run put the Knicks up seven and then they were able to withstand a handful of additional shots like Malik monk had a

Big three in the corner that kind of got it close uh biggest takeaways from the game though shot making in these kinds of games is just different and Darren fox has become a good shot maker but his Advantage is speed and I thought he got a little bit carried away with trying to

Match Jaylen Brunson with pull-up shooting when brunson’s just better than him at that and so that takes me to my second biggest takeaway which was Fox’s shot selection like he took some really tough pull-up twos early in the clock when he clearly didn’t have that shot working for him in this particular game

Like again he was two for 12 on pull-up Jumpers in this game so like early clock pullup twos that are heavily contested they just don’t make sense unless you already are in Rhythm which he was not at this point so the two in particular that I wanted to to highlight there was

A spinning jumper on Alec Burks he had cleared side ISO on the right side of the floor but tons of time and he just goes into this wild spinning jump shot that Alec Burks defends perfectly and I’m looking down and there’s 14 seconds on the shot clock and it’s like why are

You taking such a difficult low value pullup to when you haven’t been making it tonight with 14 on the shot clock like work for something easier first and then take that if it gets into a late clock situation later on in the game he takes a step back 20 foot jump shot

Against Jaylen Brunson with 18 seconds on the shot clock once again not in Rhythm haven’t made any attempt to try to find something easier already a really tough shot off of a dribble combination and some tough footwork brunson’s right there wasn’t even great separation and literally you just you

Just took the ball 6 seconds earlier and so some of the that is like it’s hard to win games when your best player is getting so soundly out executed by his counterpart in Jaylen Brunson and that was something that really stood up stood out off the screen yesterday there was a

Play Early in the fourth quarter too where uh the Kings had no numbers in transition it was a three on five break and dearen fox drove right into buen McDon noich at the rim and just threw up a left-handed layup that literally missed by several feet it wasn’t even

Close and it’s like it’s there was it was just a tough decision-making game from De Fox and honestly like when I look at Darren Fox this season there’s so much good in terms of his Improvement as a jump shooter and his confidence in his jump shot but that next step for him

Is like really identifying what the loow hanging fruit is for him and capitalizing on that stuff to increase his efficiency and treating more of this tough shot making thing as a counter rescue possessions when I’m in Rhythm kind of thing rather than just like a regular part of his shot diet if that

Makes sense and then uh two last two final takeaways isaah hardstein is just a really good basketball player and like obviously you want Mitchell Robinson back but even if they just get Julius Randall back and Mitchell Robinson’s not able to come back like that is still a deeply talented and deeply physically

Imposing front line and and I’m really excited to see what the Knicks can do in a postseason series and then lastly like I mentioned earlier the Kings being capable of Defending but it not being their habit one of the reasons why I harp on habits is like when games get

Close late and when the hits the fan like when things start to not go right for you you tend to fall back on your habits your habits are what carry you in those situations right it’s kind of like if you’re if you run into a stretch in your personal life where like

You just have a ton of stuff going on like busy calendar with work busy social calendar maybe one or two outside circumstances that have thrown a wrench into everything if you are in your daily habits a very efficient time manager you will get through it because you just

Have these habits where it’s like okay the shit’s hitting the fan all around me but I’m just going to put my head down and I’m going to work and I’m going to come out on the other side of this right but if all that happens and you have bad time management and efficiency

Habits that could be what breaks you in a lot of ways right and like that’s kind of the way I feel about basketball too like when you are a the kind of person where it is your Habit to do these little things well then in a big

Possession late or in a situation where a couple things have gone wrong your habit will be to continue to do those things and it will help you regain control of the situation it is not a habit for Daren Fox to be an all defensive minded player it is something

He can do if I trimmed a dozen Clips I could I could show you a highlight film that shows that dearn fox is an all defense caliber Defender but in a critical fourth quarter possession he can fall asleep and like that that to me is is

Not just a fox problem it’s a down the roster problem for the Kings they are capable of it but it is not in their identity it is not a habit for them and so they have a tendency to slip back into some of their worst Tendencies when

The hits the fan and and I thought uh that game against the Knicks was a big example of that all right guys that is all I have for today we’ll be back tomorrow we got a jam-pack Sunday slate so we got a lot of fun games to break

Down tomorrow as well as uh Power Rankings I will see you guys Then

Jason Timpf reacts to Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and the Golden State Warriors massive 128-121 win over LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. Jason breaks down the biggest highlights from the game, Anthony Davis’ injury, and his major takeaways for both Western Conference contenders moving forward. Later, he reacts to Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks’ 98-91 win over De’Aaron Fox and the Sacramento Kings. How dangerous will New York be as they get closer to full strength?

Timeline:
00:00 – Warriors-Lakers Reaction
27:14 – Knicks-Kings Reaction

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