Full Transcript for Hoops Tonight - Knicks win in 2OT vs. Celtics, Clippers stun Grizzlies, Suns-Mavericks deep dive

Jalen Brunson had to Eric Spoelscher and all of his defensive coverages, removing him from the equation and getting a win in spite of that was super impressive. It did get a little stilted from time to time. It wasn't always pretty especially there at the end of the fourth quarter and in the first overtime period. But there was one specific stretch there where Emmanuel quickly got hot in double OT and it was enough for them to win this game. Down the stretch in regulation, the Celtics were doing a really nice job of swarming Julius Randall they were doing they were doubling with Jalen Brown every time he'd turned his back, and they were getting some steals out of that, and they weren't getting great shots, but they did lock in on the defensive end, which we'll talk about in a little bit, but I want to talk about that double ot scoring run from Emmanuel quickly because it was all textbook high pick and roll scoring. So he had Marcus Smart on him to start the overtime period, and he had Josh hartcome and set a ball screen. And the Boston Celtics had been switching that specific type of screen throughout most of the game, but on this particular play, Jason Tatum was really slow on his switch, so as Emmanuel quickly came off the screen, he had space and he just rose up in knocked down the three, and then on the very next possession he had Grant Williams on him. I believe it was on a transition cross match, just running up the floor. But they came and set another ball screen with Mitchell Robinson. Tatums on Mitchell Robinson this time, but Tatum doesn't want to get beat by that same pull up jump shot, so he's hugging up on Mitchell Robinson and getting ready with his left hand to show out on that screen or to even switch if the ball screen comes. And Emmanuel Quickly just rejected the screen and went to the left and just dusted Grant Williams all the way to the rim for a dunk. That specific matchup Emmanuel Quickly's quickness versus Grant Williams, who again, Grant Williams is a good wing defender, but like we don't talk enough about defensive versatility and how that can specifically become a problem. You know, like Grant Williams is one of the few guys in the league that can credibly guard Janis, but he can struggle a little bit with quickness on the perimeter. That's why when you find like specific types of defenders that can do both, it can sometimes be even more valuable, right, you know, like a guy I'll give you an example, like a guy like Josh Hart who can credibly guard the big, strong forwards in the league, but can also contain quick ball handlers on the perimeter. That it's it's interesting because it's all matchup based, Like if I'm playing Milwaukee, I want Grant Williams right, but if on a specific night to night type of basis, a guy who's a little bit more versatile with that ability to guard multiple positions can be a little bit more valuable. And that specific matchup killed them because later on in the overtime period, same type of deal came and said another ball screen with Mitchell Robinson. This time Al Horford was in the play and Al Horford there wasn't really much of a screen, so Alford stayed with Mitchell Robinson and was dropping back, and he didn't do a very good job in his drop. He should have helped at the rim, but once again, Emmanuel quickly just dusted Grant Williams to the right this time and got all the way to the rim for a scooping layup. And so those three baskets, you know, capitalizing on that specific mismatch, and that one player where Jason Tatum didn't get out quickly enough on that switch ended up being enough of an offensive burst for them to win. But like I said, they struggled in overtime and in down the stretch and regulation, and you're on the road against Boston, who's arguably the best team in the league. How do you win that game with ridiculous defense that bought them the margin for error to have some struggles in the clutch until Emmanuel quickly was able to close the deal. And this is where I wanted to talk a little bit about that combination of perimeter defense with rim protection because I remember when the Knicks made the Josh Hart trade. I was a little confused because at that time, like the Knicks were good, but you know, they had the same issues they had throughout the season. They'd struggled to beat good teams. You know, Julius Randall and Jalen Brunson had struggled a little bit with offensive creation and slow down half court environments, right, And it was kind of one of those things where you're like, oh, you're giving up a first round pick for Josh Hart, Like that's interesting. You're that's kind of like an all in trade, Like that's the kind of thing that you'd see a team that felt like they could win the title would do right. And I mean, obviously, I'm sure competitively within the Knick's locker room those guys think they can win right, But from the front office perspective, it seemed like a very aggressive move and I didn't really understand it. But the thing is is, Josh Hard is a really good role player. We talked a little bit about his defensive versatility earlier, but he's also one of the best rebounding guards in the league. He had a contested rebound at the stretch down the stretch of this game, surrounded by trees underneath the basket when Boston botched a fast break and somehow Josh Hart got back and secured the defensive rebound. Is a huge momentous play down the stretch of this game. It just does all these little things extremely well. And when you bring him into the equation, you know, now all of a sudden you're looking at especially with Jalen Brunson out, when you bring in Emmanual Quickly. Between Emmanuel Quickly and RJ. Barrett and Josh Hart, that's three really good perimeter defensive players that can contain ball handlers really well. And then Mitchell Robinson. Again, he's not Anthony Davis or anything, but he can do a pretty good job back there and has been doing a pretty good job this season

protecting the rim. And so that combination of like containing the ball, especially against a driving kick team like Boston, it really stagnated them offensively, and down the fourth quarter, down the stretch of the fourth quarter, and in both overtime periods the Knicks only allowed a total in what's that twenty two minutes of game clock, they allowed just forty two points, which was extremely impressive. Again, that's how you win despite stilted crunch time play. That's how you win despite being down your best crunch time player to just lock in and get a ton of stops, and you needed one guy to make some plays, and Emmanual quickly got hot and it was enough. And again that's the Celtics are number three in offensive rating this year. Like, that's not easy. That's not an easy team to slow down. And yes, I know Robert Williams missed this game, but when Robert Williams is out, they typically go smaller. They usually play Derek White than they usually play Al Horford at the center, everybody can shoot. It's more five out. I actually think they're harder to guard. Obviously defensively they're better with Robert Williams, but I actually think they're harder to guard when they're in that type of configuration. So it's just it was just an incredibly impressive win for the Knicks, and I'm really excited to see where this streak ends up, because the Knicks being great is great for the game of basketball. I wanted to talk really quickly on Jason Tatum. He was awesome last night. He had forty points, eleven rebounds, and six assists. So I don't want this to come off as like criticism. It's just a trend that is kind of a little disturbing to me. This year, We've talked to a little bit about how Tatum is taking fewer mid range jump shots and he's taking more threes and shots at the rim. Well, last night was like kind of the full, the fully realized version of that transition. Every single shot Jason Tatum took in this game was a three at the top of the key or a shot at the rim. There was not a single other type of shot taken in this entire game from Jason Tatum. And that always concerns me because that lack of variety, I think can really come back to bite you in a playoff series where you're going up against the same defensive unit every other night for two weeks, and they grow accustomed to your moves and they and they get to like have a natural feel and an instinct for what you're about to do, and when you don't have as much variety in your variety in your game, that process can happen quicker. There's two different types of offensive players in this league. There are offensive players that start to solve defenses as series progress, and then there's offensive players that the defensives that the defense is solved as the series progresses. And I don't want that to be I'm an issue with Jason Tatum as he becomes hyper focused on the analytics side of offensive approach. Michael Bridges in particular, was questioned about this specific topic after his game yesterday where they base whoever the reporter was, I can't remember his name again. I got to do a better job of shouting these people out. But he asked like, hey, like, what's it? You know, how do you reconcile your confidence in your mid range shot with shot value and taking the right shots on the court. And Michael Bridges was like, we're basketball players, man, and like, yeah, we want to get to the rim and we want to take threes, but we can't always get to the rim. Sometimes that's not an option. And this is where I wanted to take an opportunity to kind of explain my ideology as it comes to shot selection on different spots on the floor, because you know, I think, like I think that players should hunt quality threes, and I think players should hunt rim attempts while they're there. Like, for instance, if I'm, you know, having a guy spot up, I'd rather have him bought up from the three point line than from twenty feet. Like that's foolish, right, Or like, if you're a guard who like to take transition pull up jump shots, I'd rather have you take a pull up three that's uncontested in transition than a pull up two that's uncontested in transition. Like there's basic, little mathematical things there that you can take advantage of. But the reality is is I want guys to play basketball and seek out shots that they are comfortable taking. Confident they can make and that feel natural in the flow of the game. And that's not always a rim attempt or a three point shot, especially when most NBA defenses are geared towards taking away a three point shot and taking away the rim while leaving areas in the middle of the floor open. I'll give you an example, because you know, yes, if I took a hundred threes by a points per possession basis, they're gonna probably amount to more points than if I took a hundred free throws. But no two possessions are alike. Some of those threes are high quality threes, some of those threes are low quality threes, some of those twos are high quality twos, and some of those twos are low quality twos. And on a singular possession, as a basketball player, you have to make that decision based on that possession and what is the better shot, because a high quality two is better than a low quality three. And so the analytic side of things, the people who see things from that perspective would be like, hey, if you're going to take an off the dribble shot, might as well taken off the dribble three. Okay, But what if I'm trying to mix up with my dribble from the perimeter, and the defender is pressing into me. That's not a high quality shot. But what if I can back him down and I can shoot an easy short jumper over the top. That's actually a higher percentage shot because I'm protecting the basketball with my back and I'm able to generate separation by initiating contact and fading. Like, think of that specific situation. Okay, paint is packed. I'm Julius Randall. I'm going against the Miami Heat. Jimmy Butler's guarding me. He's up in my

shooting pocket. He's pressuring the ball. The rim is completely congested, there's nothing there. Maybe the spot up shooting opportunities aren't there because they're in a position where they can rotate back, and maybe that specific shooter is not great. Okay, So I could try to mix up Jimmy Butler, but he's pressing me on my handle and he's getting up into my business. So like that pull up three is going to be an extremely difficult shot and Jimmy's probably gonna tip it on the way up. I'm not gonna get to my pocket normally, and it's probably going to be a shot that I miss. But if I back Jimmy Butler down because I'm a bigger, stronger Julius Randall, and I work to that foul line, now I bump him, and I created separation. And now I go up into that left shoulder fade with a good, comfortable shooting pocket from a shorter distance in a singular possession at the end of a close game in Miami, and he makes that shot. That specific shot is a higher percentage shot than him trying to take a tough, tough pull up three over Jimmy Butler, even though statistically it's worth one and a half times with that pull up two is worth. That's why I've always been a big believer in shot variety and targeting the best available shot on any given possession, not necessarily the shot that's going to be worth more points than some large one hundred possession sample size. So from Tatum's perspective, I just hope he brings that requisite variety to the postseason so that he doesn't go down that dark path of having some sort of like, you know, predictability issues when he gets into a playoff series. All right, let's talk about the Grizzlies Clippers game for a little bit, So really quickly on the John Morant thing, because I haven't addressed that yet. This is a basketball show, not a like like. I'm not going to pontificate about John Morant's family or his inner circle. That's first of all, I don't know anything about them. It's not my place to speak on it. And that's not why you guys click on these videos. You don't click on these videos to hear me talk about John Morant's family. That's that's not what you guys come here for. All I'll say about it is I hope that this is the last we hear of this specific issue from Jaw, and I hope he makes the necessary changes, and I hope we can get back to just enjoying him on the basketball court, hopefully sooner than later. So that's all I'm going to say on the John Morant thing. But the Grizzlies really searched in the second half of this game and actually took a big lead. They were up one twenty one, one o seven at one point in the fourth quarter. Again, the Grizzlies are a super physically imposing team with or without Jaw and without jaw. They actually go up a level defensively just because of the weakness that John Morant presents to their defense as an entry point as teams try to get them into rotation. So they're a dangerous team to deal with, albeit giving up that many points. Like the Clippers have some defensive issues they got to work out, but they did lock in in that fourth quarter run. Paul George took over from that point from one twenty one one o seven. He really started to comeback by just being viciously aggressive attacking the rim. He just first possession, just drove in and drew a foul. Second possession, he's posting up Conschar and just bullyballs him to the rim and it gets a layup. Next possession, just hard driving pick and roll draws help pops to Kauai, pops to Eric Gordon on the wing. In that defensive rotation, Paul George gets left wide open under the basket, gets the ball back for a dunk. Then he took a pull up twenty footer or in transition over Zavier Tilmann and knocked it down again. Like I talk about that a lot with Paul George here in recent weeks, like build your rhythm by attacking the paint and then use your pull up jump shot as a counter to that. When he plays that way, he's like a bona fide two way superstar, which is exactly why he like to put a forty something last night and played incredible defense down the stretch of that game. That's the Paul George that I find so tantalizing as a basketball player and the guy that can carry a team to within two wins of the NBA Finals as the solo star when Kawhi Leonard goes down. That's the kind of Paul George that we're looking for. And that's why, you know it can be so frustrating for Clippers fans or why I get so annoyed when I'm watching him sometimes because I'm like, dude, you're leaving stuff on the table by trying to prove to us how skilled you are when really one of your best attributes is you're six eight a freek athlete and you can dribble the hell out of the basketball and you shoot so well the guys press up on you so you can get to the rim. And he really triggered that comeback. Then Kawai got involved he hit down a pull up jumper and pick and roll. He had to step back three on Zavier Telman. He had a driving transition dunk, he drew a foul and an ISO and that, and through this entire thing, the Clippers were getting stopped. And so that seventeen old run pretty quickly got the Clippers. I think they were up one twenty four to one twenty one at that point, and then they closed the deal. Russ had a big and one in a post up a Luke Canard. Kawai hit a tough pull up jumper. PG once again just bullied his way to the rim on an offensive rebound put back at the end of the game. That was a huge play. I was just super impressed in general with the Clippers fight, because they needed to show fight to go out of this particular hold. We talked about this last time we talked about the Clippers, but they're they're way to rely on jump shooting. They're twenty ninth and points in the paint. I thought last night was a good indicator of them kind of addressing that specific issue. The Grizzlies are the fourth best paint defense in the league, and the Clippers hung fifty paint points on them, which is really impressive, especially with the way that they like to guard, and that's a much

better balance to what they bring as a jump shooting skill team. I am so concerned about their defense their last fifteen games. They're twenty third in defensive rating. They gave up one twenty nine to the Grizzlies without Jaw, which should never happen. But they did defend an extremely high level in that fourth quarter. That's an encouraging sign. They've defended really well to start the season, so I still think that's there. They just need to lock back in all right, before we get out of here really quickly. A couple of quick follow ups on The Sun's MAVs game from yesterday. So, first of all, I did some follow up on the Devin Booker thing, and it appears that Lou might have started that whole altercation. So I jumped the gun on Devin Booker's trash talking. So I just wanted to clarify that and just admit that I was wrong there. If Devin Booker was just pointing out to the ref that he thought it was an offensive foul, and then Luca came over and talked to shit then that's not on Devin, that's on Luca, which again, even from Luca's perspective, is just he was angry that he lost. I'm sure, but I wanted to share some data from that matchup. I talked a lot about how Luca and Kyrie really went blow for blow with the Suns, but that they lost in the physicality areas of the game. I pointed to those two possessions at the end where they got the stop on Chris Paul at the foul line, but DeAndre Ayton drew the offensive rebound foul or Devin Booker missed that driving bank shot but DeAndre Ayton got the put back. Like it just no matter how good they were, the Sun's just got more cracks at it. And that was the difference than the game. So I wanted to show you guys some data to demonstrate that. So the MAVs actually scored one point two three points per possession against Phoenix, which is incredible, and the Suns scored one point one eight points per possession, but because they were so badly outrebounded, and the MAVs I think had one additional turnover and then the Suns did. The Suns registered one hundred and nine possessions compared to one O two for Dallas, and that seven possession gap was more than enough to make up for that five points per possession gap in Dallas's efficiencies. So even though Dallas executed better, they couldn't finish possessions and then ended up costing them the game. I just wanted to kind of point out some data that would demonstrate that specific concept. And again, when we get to the postseason, those physical advantages I think are only going to get exacerbated and become more of a factor. Even with Phoenix, it was a little bit thin and struggled defensively last night. Like I'm interested to see I think next week, I think a week from tomorrow they played the Milwaukee Bucks, Like I'm curious to see how they hold up under a team that has significant physical advantages over them, because you'll see the same type of deal. Doesn't matter if the Suns are more efficient on a per possession basis, if the Bucks just get more possession. So it'll be interesting to watch that here down the home stretch. Al Right, guys, that's all I have for today. I'm pretty sure we're back tomorrow. Keep an eye on my Twitter feed, I'll tweet out a show schedule this week. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys support, and I'll see you next time. The volume