The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - How Damian Lillard DOMINATED Bucks-Pacers first half + Thunder-Pelicans film study

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Jason Timpf breaks down the film from Damian Lillard’s 35-point first half in the Milwaukee Bucks' victory over the Indiana Pacers, and explains how the Pacers did a POOR job of defending Dame. Jason then dives into the tape of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans, and explains how the Pelicans had an encouraging defensive strategy on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander despite OKC coming out with the win. Last, Jason breaks down Mitchell Robinson’s defensive effort vs. Joel Embiid in the second half of the Knicks' win over the 76ers.  Timeline (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements) 04:45 - Pacers-Bucks 25:10 - Pelicans-Thunder 47:00 - Joel Embiid vs Mitchell Robinson #Volume #herd  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. We're moving on to day three of the NBA playoffs. But at the end of the night yesterday, we were supposed to cover Pacers bucks with Colin Cowherd. But we didn't really hit it that much. so I want to spend some time on Pacers' Bucks. And then after that, we're going to go into that super exciting game one

between the Thunder and the Pelicans. I'm going to have film for both of those games in this episode. And then at the tail end of the show, I wanted to show some video examples of the individual defense that Mitchell Robinson played on Joel Embed and how it could change the dynamic of that particular series. You guys know the Joe, before we get started, subscribe to a brand new YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.

Follow me on Twitter underscore Jason LT, so you guys don't miss any show announcement. 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 that front. And then last minute least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. We're going to do a mailbag later on this week. All right, let's talk some basketball. So Pacers Bucks was a bizarre game because I thought the Pacers really got great shots all game long.

Now, there's some specific process stuff that we're going to get to that I would like to see the Pacers do differently, namely just Tyrese Halliburton's overall level of aggression. and how much they look to target dame, which we'll get to in a minute. But even in spite of all of that, I thought the Pacers got good looks. This is one of the many reasons this is a bad matchup for Milwaukee and why they struggle with the Pacers in the regular season is their defense is kind of constructed to give up jump shots, right? They pack the paint, dare you to shoot.

And the Bucks actually allow the fifth most jump shot attempts in the NBA, according to Synergy. The Pacers are the fourth most efficient. jump shooting team in the NBA. So that's part of the issues. The Bucks defense is designed to give up jump shots. The Pacers are a really good jump shooting team. And my goodness, could they not hit a shot to save their lives to start this particular

game? As a matter of fact, they got just 0.77 points per jump shot in this game. In the regular season, they got 1.09 points per jump shot, which like I said, was the fourth best mark in the entire league. As a matter of fact, in this game, the Pacers generated 31. wide open threes, meaning the defender was at least six feet away. They generated 31 of them, and they only made six, which is just 19%. So, by the way, they shot 40% on those wide open threes during the regular season.

There was top 10 in the NBA. Now, there were some specific things that we're going to talk about. I didn't love all of their process. And again, shooting luck is only part of the equation in that regard. But there's no doubt that I'm sure the main topic in the, the Pacers locker room after the game was centered around the idea of like, hey, we got good looks. We just got to knock them down.

But I want to move to the defensive end of the floor before we go any further into the Pacers on offense because they had a major Damien Lillard problem in this game. And I'm not talking about the tough jump shots. He had some really tough jump shots, some deep catch and shoot threes, some tough stepbacks and contested jumpers in pick and rolls. Matter of fact, he made seven jumpers in this game, caught an absolute heater in that first half run, right? But for the most part, Dame over the course of the season has been a somewhat inefficient by his standards pull-up jump shooter, right? And I think over the course of the

series, if you're the Pacers, those shots aren't the ones you're worried about. You want to do a little better. You want to avoid some of the stuff when he's on a heat check. Like there was like a 30-footer he made on the left wing where like, yeah, it's one of those shots. That's a tough shot. But he was in such a good rhythm at that point. You need to find a way to close that gap. So like there's definitely some stuff that they should be looking at, but I didn't think the jump shot was the main concern with them defensively. I thought it was their dribble penetration that they were allowing to game. So one of the things that happens against most pull-up jump shooters is they'll run a high drop coverage, meaning the screen defender is going to come up to the level of the screen to try to

kind of contain, right? But there's two responsibilities there. It's not just to contest the pull-up jump shot. It's also to contain the drive. It's like a catch. You're driving up and you're catching the ball handler and containing him there. That's why you'll actually see that coverage used often on non pull-up jump shooters to try to contain dribble penetration. Teams will do it to LeBron, not to stop the pull-up three, but to literally stop him from turning the corner as he comes over the top of the screen. Teams will do it to Ant, not just to take away the pull-up jumper, but to stop him from getting downhill over the top of the screen, right? And so there's two responsibilities to that big. And they were just giving

straight-line drive after straight-line drive after straight-line drive to Dame just getting past that drop coverage big, and then there's nobody on the back line, and Dame was getting layups. He had four layups in this game, another one that barely got blocked at the rim by Pascal Seacum. That's the major thing schematically on defense that Indiana has to figure out. They've got to figure out a better job of at least making Dame make tough, contested pull-up jumpers throughout the series instead of giving up those layups. Now, I want to shout out, Dane. This is why you make this sort of trade. The honest, This injury would have been a death sentence for older iterations of the Bucks before the Damien

Lillard trade. They just wouldn't have the amount of offensive firepower that they need. It's one of those things where it's one thing to win a couple of games at the end of an Atlanta Hawks series when Trey Young is hurt. But it's different when it's like a full seven game series with adjustments and all those different things. When you lose that star talent, that superstar talent, there's just so much room for the defense to scheme the other guys out of the offense and slow down everything that you're trying to do.

Damian Lillard in his superpower is what gives them a chance in this series. Because they have to survive until Janus comes back. And you went out and you kicked the shit out of the Pacers on the heels of an outrageously good superstar performance from Damian Lillard. That's why you make that trade. And I thought he was just magnificent, not just the jumpers. Like I said, his speed was on display. And I mean, again, when it comes to the jumpers, there's really nothing you can do about it

schematically. You just kind of have to live with those results. You can tip the cap to him, but he's just that type of high-level player that can make those plays. Now, let's move back to the Pacers' own offense because I did not think that Pacers did nearly enough to actually make Damien Lillard work hard while he was on the floor. As a matter of fact, Pascal Seaccom and Tyrese Halliburton ran 29 pick and rolls combined between the two of them. And in those 29 pick and rolls, they only brought Damien Lillard's man up to set the screen once in 29 possessions. Now, the counterpoint would be, and this is what I'm sure, like I said, the Pacers were thinking after the game, and I'm sure is what a lot of Pacers fans are thinking,

is, hey, we got great looks, though. Like, what's wrong with our offensive process? We have that exact same shot quality game. We probably shoot a lot better and have a good chance to win, right? Yeah, you're right. But there's two sides to the floor. and you might actually give yourself a better chance to slow Damien Lillard down if he's worn out by being involved in more on the offensive end of the floor.

Big part of how I think a guy like Luca Donchitz has a rough shooting night against the clippers last night. He's being forced to work every single trip down the floor defensively. This series in many ways is going to come down to Damian Lillard to pull-up jump shooting, right? As I've said so many times on the show, pull-up jump shooting is not nearly as much a touch thing as it is a lift thing. These guys are such elite shooters that once they actually get to their spot and get their lift, the end of it's just a jumper. The end of it is the same shot they shoot thousands of times when they're in the gym by

themselves, right? But getting to that spot and getting the appropriate lift is generally speaking what makes the difference between a miss and a make. Right. And so by wearing him out, wearing his legs out, you can do a better job of hopefully hopefully tilting the series towards bad dame shooting performances. It's something I'd like to see them do in game two. Before we get to the film, I wanted to shout out Chris Milton to super efficient 23 points on 14 shots.

We talked about him needing to do some work on knee smith in the post. He scored on him twice in the post in the first half. And I thought he hit one of the biggest shots of the game there in that fourth quarter at the beginning of the fourth quarter. So the Pacers kind of settled down in that third quarter. They start to get the same high quality shots and start to hit them. and they get it back to 12 going into the fourth quarter. And Chris Middleton hits a contested pull-up three at the start of the fourth quarter that just immediately push it back to 15 and kind of changed the feel of the game.

I thought he was great. Just a big time win for the bucks. Again, like I, like I said, I think the key to this series is getting to game four with the bucks up to one rather than down to one. I think if they're down to one, even if Janus does come back, it's just a lot to ask to try to. beat a good Pacers team that's that kind of is a tough matchup for you that uh you know three out of four times so i think it's going to be critical that the uh that the bucks get one of these next two games

and you just made your life a hell of a lot easier by winning game one again big adjustments for indiana bringing dame into screen actions more uh their bigs have to do a better job of containing dame when he's coming off those screens and then also better backside help rotations you guys will see some examples in the film here in a second and then again got to hit those open jump shots that you generate. All right, let's take a look at some film real quick before we move to the next series. So I want to show you guys some examples of the Pacer struggling to handle Dame getting downhill in the ball screens, right? So here's our configuration here as Dame is getting ready to come down. So as soon as this three-man action happens, even though Turner is originally

on Lopez, Siakum and Turner Switch, right? So Turner's now on Portis. Seacum is on Lopez. Again, as we talked about before the series, you kind of have to concede pick and pop three. to Lopez. So at this point, because Nemhardt is attached and Seacum is up here, he has one job, and that is to contain Damien Lillard. And he's going to allow him just to go right around him to the basket and get a left-handed layup. I understand the desire to take away the pull-up jump shot, but even if he elevates here, Andrew Nemhart's in position to offer a rearview contest. Pascal just has to do a better job containing this driving angle. And again, you're going to see it's just like possession after possession that this was an issue in the first half.

This time he doesn't even get to the screen. So he comes down and we're going to get a Lopez screen. And literally, Turner's not going to be far back enough. When Dame kind of makes this dribble move to the right, he's going to actually go right around Nemhardt and not even use the screen. But look at where Turner is. He's not in position to contain, gives up the angle. Dame gets right around him, gets that left-handed layup off the glass.

Again, the pull-up jump shots, there's only so much you can do anyway. And over the course of the series, you like that if that's the best that Milwaukee can do is tough, contested Dame pull up jump shots. This is the kind of shit that's going to get you beat. If you let him have four or five of these a game, that's where you're going to have your bigger picture issues. Same kind of thing here. Seacom actually blocks this one, but gives up too much of a driving angle. Okay. So one of the things that the bucks were doing too, and I thought this was really smart, is that

this like kind of two-man staggered screen, right? So because Chris is going to set the second screen in this action, Turner and Halliburton, or excuse me, Turner and Seyakum, there's a very easy fix here. You literally just have Turner drop back and Turner take the drop coverage responsibilities and you basically have Seaccom stay glued up to Middleton. Instead, they have Seaccom managed this angle and Turner stays glued up to Lopez, way up here at the top of the key. Again, that's a waste of what Turner does best.

he's a rim protector. You're taking away a three-point shot from a high-volume, relatively low percentage three-point shooter in Brooke Lopez at the expense of this driving angle. Once again, Dane's able to turn the corner. Seacom just happens to get him this time on the glass. So I think the easy solution there is you just have turn or drop and you have Seaccom manage anything up at the three-point line. Jalen Smith, it was definitely rough. Here's an example of Jalen just taking a really bad angle in his drop coverage. So here we go.

simple ball screen action, right? Jalen, again, is, look at how open he is. Look at his feet. So as Dame is coming off the screen, look at his feet. He is not in any position to cut off a drive to this left-hand side. So again, there's two responsibilities here. You're here to offer some sort of contest on the pull-up three if T.J. McConnell gets caught, but your primary responsibility is to catch the ball handler and prevent him from getting downhill.

because of that angle. And again, if you were to shot a pull-up jump shot here, TJ's there for back pressure. TJ's there for a rear view contest. But instead, Jalen Smith has this open angle and Dame just goes right around him and gets an easy layup. That's the kind of stuff, once again, that they have to figure out.

That's not allowable. The pull-up jump shooting, some of that's out of your control. This has to be taken care of, though. This is a kind of a different configuration because it's a five-shooter lineup from Milwaukee. So again, Bobby Portis is playing center here. Malik Beasley, great shooter, green great shooter, Pat Conantin, decent shooter, Dane great shooter, Bobby Portis been red hot tail end of the regular season, right?

So this is a difficult action to guard in general. But once again, even though all of these jump shooters are a threat here, your primary responsibility is to take away the rim. Because, again, let's say all these guys shoot 40%. guess what 40% is. That's 1.2 points per shot. Okay, guess what this layup is? That's going to be, and Dave actually draws a foul on that one,

but that's going to be a play that's going to result in closer to 1.7, 1.8 points per shot. So again, what I would like to see here on this triple handoff, especially with Connitin in the position where he's not able to shoot immediately, he's got to get his feet set. Topin has to catch this drive and they have to rotate. If anything, this should just be a switch. But the one thing you can't allow is just to allow him. Topin is glued up on Pat Conninton, literally 27 feet from the basket, and there's nobody on the

these guys, these guys I understand more. It's like, holy shit, great shooter, holy shit, great shooter, in position to make shots. That I understand. Topin is the guy that's in best position to handle this, or even Jalen Smith can drop back a little bit further and maybe Topin could rotate to Bobby Portis. But again, anything other than just allowing. these straight line drives. Ben Shepard actually did come over and offer a contest on that one. All right, last one on this configuration that I wanted to get into. This is another one where

Miles Turner was just way too glued up on Brooke Lopez on the weak side. So again, we got Nemhard on Dame. We're going to get just a spin move here. There's not even a screening action. So as Dame beats Nemhard off the dribble, watch this. Nemhard, excuse me, Dane beats Nemhart off the dribble. Look at Turner, though. Turner, once again, is glued up on Lopez on the weak side. And so as a result, he's not in position to help. And as Dane is making that drive, he's just floating further and further out.

That's one of those things where, like, even if Brooke is hitting, you have to concede that to take away these driving lanes. Again, you got to play the percentages a little bit when it comes to the stars. You want to play them into their lowest percentage shots. This, I thought, was a defensive execution problem for Indiana that they have to clean up. All right. Last one here that I wanted to show you guys. Again, that's actually a better example. Look at Jalen Smith dropping back. He's much further back, trusting to get a rearview contest. And T.J. actually falls down on the screen so Dame gets a decent look.

But that's where you have to trust your backside contest and do a better job of containing the drive, which they do. We're going to head out the other end. And this is just one example I wanted to show you guys of the lack of intentionality with Indiana trying to attack Dame. So as we dribble over here, I want to freeze right here for a second. So Tyrese Halliburton is going to call a guard guard screen. He's got Malik Beasily on him. And he wants to target Green in this case. He's going to call T.J. McConnell into the screening action. And Ben Shepard is going to go through, right?

I would just have Ben Shepard set the screen. I would bring Dame into every single screening action that I could. Because in addition to generating quality shots, which you probably will, the same kind of quality shots that you'll generate if you attack anybody else with the bucks because of your speed advantage, right? But in that case, I have a better chance of wearing Dame out and a better chance of forcing him into tough misses later on in the series. So again, I just, I think that that's just an area of opportunity for Indiana.

But the main defensive piece there is you've got to find a way to contain the, to contain the dribble drive of Damien Lillard. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing huge. potential. Either way, the podcast, Superhuman, documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having

trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care where you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clipper Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away,

such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. podcast. All right, let us move on to Pelicans, Thunder. So you guys can see, based on the kind of stuff that I was talking about in our series preview, why I viewed this as a competitive series. The Thunder are a more talented team than the New Orleans Pelicans. You just have to kind of start stacking up the players, right? Like, Shea is better than everybody on the New Orleans,

on the New Orleans Pelicans, right? Like, Jaylon Williams are really good second. secondary shock creator, probably a better player overall two-way than a guy like C.J. McCollum, right? It was the second best player in this configuration of the Pelicans with Brandon Ingram, right? And then just in general, like, you're not going to do, like, Larenance is a good player. He's not shed home grid, right? You know, like you're going to, you're going to, Lou Dort is a, in my opinion, like a more physically imposing type of perimeter defense threat, although Herb Jones is very close or very different, different archetypes of players. But I think we can all agree that Thunder have more talent.

And that was clearly displayed by them getting the one seed this year. That said, the Pelicans defense is built to slow down this type of offense because they just have a steady diet of high-quality perimeter defenders that can switch. And so they can shut down screening actions and they can force your perimeter-based initiation to operate against unfavorable matchups. And so we saw a steady diet of Herb Jones and Najee Marshall on SGA. The other guys can all do a decent job. Trey Murphy had a bunch of really solid possessions against Shea.

Larry Nance did a solid job. I thought C.J. McCollum was clearly their best option to hunt. And they went to that a lot down the stretch in the fourth quarter. That's actually how Shea hit his game winner, little guard-to-guard screening action to get C.J. switched on to Shea. Shea attacked him. Didn't like the N-1 call.

It thought it was a bad call, but it was a nice shot. Got a quality look there and she knocked it down. But in that configuration that they went with late, when you have Trey Murphy, Larry Nance, C.J. McCollum, Herb Jones, and Brandon Ingram all out there together. There's just not a great option for them to attack, even with CJ, it was the best option. I thought CJ did a pretty solid job on the majority of his defensive possessions, right?

So what's nice about that is like the Thunder obviously have the same advantages, right? They can keep Lou Dort on Brandon Ingram, right? Like they can keep Jalen Williams on CJ McCollum. They can run higher quality perimeter defenders against the Pelicans initiators too. It's a problem that goes both ways. One of the biggest possessions of the game late, Kaysan Wallace came in and did a really nice job on C.J. McCollum and forced him into a tough. step through three-point shot, right?

The lowest quality shot that the Pelicans could have hoped for in that sequence. So, like, they present the same problem. So what does that mean? This whole series is going to be about perimeter shot creation against high-level perimeter defenders. It's going to come down to high-level shot making, meaning like one-on-one type of plays, like the big shot that Shay hit to tie the game over Herb Jones late, which we'll see in the film here in a minute, or the shot he hit against CJ.

High-level close-out attacking, taking advantage of close-out opportunities and being able to convert those to points when a guy, a really, fast defender is able to chase you off the line, and there's rim protection waiting at the rim, there's room in the middle of the floor for guys to make plays off the bounce. That's going to be a huge area of this series, close out attacking. It's going to be a showcase of modern basketball. These are not, you know, throwback brute force teams like the Lakers or the Minnesota Timberwolves or the Denver Nuggets, right? These are, or the Philadelphia 76ers, the Milwaukee Bucks. These are these are new school perimeter oriented, relatively thin, highly skilled lineups, right?

And the advantages physically have to do with quickness and length rather than size and strength, right? So that's kind of the foundation of this series, which I really, really appreciate. It's cool because the two best advantages for both teams. For the Pelicans, I really, really liked Brandon Ingram and pick and roll. I thought that was where they got their best opportunities. I talked before the series about Brandon Ingram's pick and roll passing. I'm going to show you guys some clips to kind of demonstrate. I thought the Pell's got their best quality looks out of those types of configurations.

And then for the Thunder, it was about hunting transition opportunities as much as possible. They had an 85 offensive rating in the half court and a 156 offensive rating in transition. So they're literally twice as effective when they can get out in transition in this matchup because of the quality perimeter defenders that New Orleans has when they're loaded up. When they do get into the half court, I think their best bet is to just keep hunting C.J. McCollum. Again, not just for the shot quality, kind of like what we were talking about with Dame earlier. CJ is going to be a very important shot maker for the Pelicans in this series. And he was literally the guy they went to at the end of the game to try to get a three, right?

So with that being the case, play into the fatigue element, wear him out, bring him into actions, see if you can't force him into some misses. All right, let's go take a look at some film. All right. So this first one is an example of Brandon Ingram's pick and roll passing. One of the things I talked about in the series preview is he is one of the best forwards in the league because of his height and length. And he just has a good feel for floor vision. He's really good at making the skip pass, which is the best way to beat modern NBA defenses or constantly tagging the roller from the weak side. So we got J. Dub on Ingram, right? And we're going to get a staggered pick and roll with Trey Murphy and Yonis Valentunis, right?

and as Jonas slips, Chet's in a high drop, right? So Chet came up to the level and Yonis got behind. Because Yonis got behind, Shea is the guy that's got to kind of slide over to Jonas. Brandon Ingram immediately makes the skip pass and generates a high quality quarter three point shot for Herb Jones. That's a really easy way to, and you can actually run that same configuration with Herb Jones and the action and to make sure it's Trey Murphy on the weak side. But I love the idea of running stuff like this to prevent Brandon Ingram and C.J. McCollum from Conchon, constantly having to attack high-level isolation defenders one-on-one. Get the defense in rotation, play advantage basketball.

This next clip is an example of the thunder-hunting C.J. McCollum and switches. So you're going to see here, Lou Dorts got C.J. on him. Brandon Ingram's guarding J-dub. Here comes the screen, concede the switch. Now J-dub's going to start working against C.J. McCollum. And again, there's a counter for this. We've talked about this with all these teams in the league where teams are attacking matchups. There's no real threat there. door it's not a great movement shooter. So just hedge and recover.

There's no reason to give the switch just for the sake of giving the switch. J. Dub's able to easily get downhill and create enough separation. That's solid defense, by the way. Like I said, I want to give C.J. McCollum some credit. All these buckets and you're going to see them down the stretch. This is a good contest. I mean, basically high-fived him on the shot. The point is that probably gets blocked by Herb Jones.

It probably gets blocked by Trey Murphy. Okay? So like, and you'll see, both Trey Murphy and Herb Jones forced some bad misses down the stretch from J-dub and SGA. but they were able to find a more favorable matchup. And again, in the playoffs, it's not about finding great shots because it's hard to find great shots. It's about finding the highest quality shots

that the defense will allow. Here's an example of Herb Jones' individual defense on SGA. So Ball's going to end up in Chey's hands here on the kickout from Chet. And he's going to go to work. Herb Jones just has the ability to absorb contact and bother shots with his length. He's going to force Shea into a bad miss here. again, cuts off the drive, forces him literally into an airball. That's literally, he's, she's been one of the most deadly mid-range pull-up shooters in the league this year,

and he just got forced into an airball by Herb Jones. Here's another example of Brandon Ingram's passing in pick and roll. It's going to come off of a back screen for Herb Jones to get a match-up. So he did that to get She switched on to him. Comes off the screen. Again, Shet in a high drop, Yonis Rolling, giddy tagging, swing pass to Trey Murphy. Okay. Now, Trey Murphy's attacking and close it. I don't like this read. I thought he should have ripped more towards the right to kind of a bad angle. But playing advantage basketball is going to be the Pelican's best opportunity to stay competitive in the series.

So I like the setup, even though I don't like the finish of that play. Here's another example of Brandon Ingram's pick and roll passing. Just simple dig down from Josh Giddy. So here comes the ball screen. Again, Giddy's just kind of sitting a little too far back. Trey Murphy's deadly from this 26-foot mark. Easy, easy, easy basketball. Again, when you can take advantage of the easy opportunities that are there and avoid playing on an island as much as possible, that's your best bet. And then this is just a good example of the total defensive personnel that the Pelicans

bring to the table, okay? So we got Dyson Daniels, really, really good perimeter defender. Najee Marshall, good perimeter defender. Jose Alvarado, good perimeter defender. Larry Nance, among the guys who play minutes at six. center in the league, a good perimeter defender. CJ McCollum, like we talked about, the one kind of weak link, but he's done a really good job when he's been asked to in this series, right?

So first of all, it's the switchability that shuts down the screening action. So Kenridge Williams comes up and sets a screen, Larry Nance switch, right? So no advantage gained. Dig down in driving lanes, right? Because of the speed to be able to rotate. That makes things difficult. That's why Shea doesn't look to attack. Why isn't Shea attacking there?

He's not attacking there because there's no advantage. There's nothing that looks easy about this. Nance is ready. Geiser and driving lanes. If he throws these swing passes, there's not going to be some sort of open shot that's generated. We even get some ball pressure here from Larry Nance as it gets swung about.

Once again, we get a little screening action here. Kenrich Williams runs down, throws a dribble pitch to Hayward, and he goes down and screens Naji Marshall. Cool. We got switched. Now Gordon Hayward has another elite perimeter defender on him. We throw out to Shea. Larry Nance's ball denying, forces,

catch way back out at half court. Now Shea goes. He managed just to kind of shake off, Nance, but once again, Daniels and C.J. McCollum are right there. Daniels is going to come with a late double team here because there's only 4.7 seconds left on the shot clock. So even at the point that Shea makes this pass, there's not enough time for a ton of action there. But we have a three on two, right? We have Isaiah Joe here. We have Gordon Hayward here. Kenrich Williams here. And the two guys that we have in rotation are Najee Marshall. You can't see him because he's behind here in Jose Alvarado. But look at the speed and rotation on the backside. Naji Marshall's there on the catch. No advantage. Swing past Isaiah Joe, great shooter. Here's the problem.

Jose Alvarado is super fast. Jose Alvarado, bam, he's there. He chases him off the line. Now they're forcing him into a mid-range jump shot up against the clock, right? That's just really, really good defense, an example of why this is a tough matchup for the Thunder and why even though it's a one-eight and even though the pelicans are the pelicans are the one team. and the top eight in the Western Conference that I think is beneath all of the rest. I think the top seven are all a considerable level above the Pelicans, but the Pelicans are a good matchup for the Thunder, and so I think they're going to be able to keep the series more competitive.

These next two clips are going to be just some examples of the problem with playing with Jonas Falunas on the fore. Killed them on the glass, did some damage underneath the rim, but on the defensive end is where he becomes completely unplayable. As you can see here, it's just they can't switch. So they're going to run a drop coverage, which is going to allow downhill rim pressure. So you'll see on this ball screen from, I think it's J. Dubb, if I remember correctly. So J-Dubb ball screen with Trey Murphy. Because Yonis is in a drop, Jaylon Williams is able to get downhill.

And he draws Naji Marshall to help that generates a close-out opportunity. Aaron Wiggins beats the close-out. Literally, Yonis Valentuna is just too late in his rotation and just commits a silly foul and gives up an end one. That's just bad defense. and you're going to be super vulnerable to any sort of Chet pick and pop because of Yonis' lack of speed. So again, here comes that high drop coverage. Chet sets a screen. He's going to slip out.

Now Yonis has to close out from this far. Look at how slow this closeout is. So it's an open three for Chet. So again, I just think their best bet is to lean into Nance in that switchability in perimeter defense dynamic as much as possible. Here's another example of Brandon Ingram making a play and pick and roll. So we're going to get a, they try to do a guard guard screen to get a favorable matchup, but Lou Dort stays attached. Now we get Larry Nance ball screen.

The cleared corner is going to create an opening for Nance to roll into. So as Ingram comes down, Dorts chasing, Chet in a high drop that opens up the pocket pass for Nance. Shea can come over and tag here, but because it's on this far side of the floor and there's an unoccupied corner, he can't sit in the lane without getting a defense of three seconds. So he's situated out here outside the block and his rotation is just slow. And now even though Shea is there as the low man, Larry Nance is just in takeoff position here to just rise up and throw down the dunk, right? This, by the way, is a big part of why I've been talking about how the Thunder need a power forward eventually,

a real power forward next to Chet, because you need a low man. This is low man defense. The problem for the thunder is when Chet gets pulled out in ball screens, Their low men are all small. Like She's what, 6-5, G. William 6-6, 6-6, Aaron Wiggins 6, 6, 6, 4, whatever, give or take an inch. They're all giving up a ton of height on these hard rolls to the rim, and Shea's just not going to be able to really bother Larry Nance in that situation.

But a nice little piece of playmaking from Brandon Ingram. Again, I think that's their best offense when the game slows down. All right, let's get into some clutch time stuff. This, I thought, was a gigantic play in this game. The Pelicans were in really good position to win. this one. And honestly, like, if I'm the Pels, I feel really, really good about my chances after game one because they had their opportunities to win this one. So we're going to get another ball screen. Chats in this high drop, right? We get the role opportunity here for Larry Nance coming

downhill. Boom. Okay. So here's the situation. Once again, Shea is the low man, right? And he's giving up, this is not a big 610 power forward like Aaron Gordon. This is a 6-5 wing. But, Both Chet and Shea make an insane effort to get back and bother this one. Both of them get a hand on the basketball somehow against a freak athlete and Larry Nance, and they force a miss. Again, one of many pretty solid looks for the Pelicans down the stretch, like Larry Nance dunks that, you have a really good chance to win that game. There's a couple open threes they miss later.

You make one of those you have a really good chance to win the game. So obviously some variance stuff there, but really, really good defensive play there from Chet and Shea. You only have about a 20% chance of forcing a miss when you're a lot. that compromise, and they hit that 20% with an insane defensive effort there on the backline from Chet and Shea. By the way, not Chet's last big time defensive play on the back line. We're going to get to another one here in a minute. All right, this was the play that tied the game.

Tough bucket for Shea over Herb Jones. They're going to run some action to try to get him switched off, but they're going to fail. So here come the screening actions, right? Herb stays attached, doesn't fall for it, stays on ball. and then this is just a really nice piece of shot making. Like I talked about, what are the keys of the series going to be? In addition to high-level closeout attacking,

one of the biggest pieces of the series is CJ and Brandon and Jalen and Shea are going to have to hit tough, contested pull-up jumpers over elite perimeter defenders. This is really good defense, a great contest, and She just sinks it to tie the game in the minute and 36 seconds left. Huge shot for Shea.

All right. So this was the play that I'm sure that's going to be to haunt Pelicans fans for a while. So you run the same kind of ball screen action. You get the same tag, right? So this was the same play that they just ran that Shea and Chet blocked, right? This time Larry Nance makes the read to Herb Jones, who's been shooting the shit out of the basketball as of Lake. It's a great wide open look, in and out. That sucks. Offensive rebound from Larry Nance, kickout, C.J. McCollum. Wide open catch and shoot three clangs it. So like, again, if you're the Pelicans, you were this close. You were this. You were this.

this close to getting out of there with the win. So you got to feel good about your chances. Again, I'm still picking Oklahoma City to win this series. But these are all examples of why I do think this is going to be a longer and more competitive series than people think. Who knows? Maybe I'll just be wrong. But that's my theory at this point. This last shot from Brandon Ingram didn't love.

But he ends up missing that one. All right, here's the biggest defensive play of the game. So same kind of configuration, right? We're getting the exact same coverage, exact same situation. As you can see, this is what the Pellonel. Policans were spamming late in the game to get these role opportunities for Larry Nance. By the way, I didn't dislike this action. I thought it was a good action.

They got some really good looks at it. So again, the idea here is pick and roll. Anything that involves Chet and pick and roll is getting Oklahoma City in rotation, whether it's Brandon Ingham or C.J. McCollum. I just think CJ is only hitting the roll man. Brandon Ingram is capable of skipping this process entirely. So again, like Brandon will be able to kind of get down into this range and bring Shea over and make the pass directly. that's just one of the advantages of going through him instead.

But these are all quality looks that CJ is generating. So on this play, Chet's in the high drop, Shea's tagging. These are two on one, right? Two on one with Nance, Herb and Shea. Now, as he catches there, there's your read. The reeds easy. If he gets a bounce pass there, doesn't even need to throw a bounce pass.

Just throw a soft little lob pass that hits Herb in stride as he's running and you got yourself a dunk, right? Chet's panicking to try to get back into the play. and he might have got back there in time, right? But Larry Nance, this is, look at Chet. Chet recovers in time to offer, like, it's hard to say whether or not if Larry Nance had made that pass, it would have worked out. Who knows?

But either way, really good defensive rotation from Chet. Once Chet gets there, he's shut off this cut out of the corner. Now Larry Nance is going to default to shooting a little shot in the lane, and he goes right up and Chet goes straight, vert, and blocks it. So I'm going to show this again in slow motion. I just want you guys to watch Chet's recovery speed here. Again, ball screen. We're in high drop, pocket pass.

Chet sprints back to get to Herb Jones at the basket and then go straight vert to block Larry Gann's Jr. Just an insane defensive play from Chet Holmgren. Then we go to the other end of the floor for the game winner. Very, very simple action. We got J. Dub being guarded by C.J. McCollum, and we have Herb Jones being guarded by Shea. We're going to get a basic guard-guard screen to get the switch.

We're waiting for the clock here. Goes up and sets a screen, gives a switch. Once again, I just wouldn't concede this switch that easily. I just don't understand that part. But they concede the switch, go back down to Shea. I didn't think this was a foul. I thought this was good physical defense in the playoffs, but still just a really, really nice piece of shot making from Shea

to get his leg strength off of one leg up and to knock down that shot. Big, big, big time finish to that game from Shea. Struggled a little bit with the Pelicans' defense throughout, but made a bunch of big plays down the stretch to get the win, which is all you can ask for. Game one goes to the thunder. We'll see. I think the Pelicans have a decent chance to get game two,

but we'll see what happens. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds.

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'll say it. Yep, that's me. Cliver Taylor the fourth.

You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life. mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told,

and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan,

so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

podcast. All right, let's move on to our final topic of the day. We're going to be talking about Joel and Bede and the Mitchell Robinson matchup. So if you guys remember, I talked a lot after the Sixers Knicks game that one of the most encouraging pieces of information that came out of that game was, holy shit, Mitchell Robinson might be able to guard Joel and Bid pretty well. Because, again, the half-court shot-making dynamic skewed heavily in Philadelphia's favor. they outscored the Knicks by 22 points per 100 possessions in the half court. They just got absolutely dominated on the offensive glass and in transition. So for Philly, your whole angle coming into game too is we just have to find a way to

hold up better physically. If we hold up better physically in transition and on the glass, we should dominate them in the half court. We have more offensive skill. But the one thing for the Knicks that can kind of swing that back towards their favor is what if this guy, Mr. one of this guy, Mr. Mitchell Robinson, can physically match up with Joel Embed and make his life more difficult. So I pulled five clips to kind of demonstrate the job that Mitchell did on Joel Embed.

This is going to start with a transition pull-up three. Watch Mitchell. So Mitchell's kind of on his heels. Joel's coming down at him. And Embed gets into his high hesitation and Mitchell literally blocks him on the three-point shot. So that's going to be the key here. The whole thing that I'm talking about here is Mitchell's ability. to give space while also having the length to rise up in contest shots. To put it simply, to put it simply, I talked about this on the show after the Nick Sixers game,

after game one on Saturday, but most defenders who guard Embed either have to play off of him and Embed can just comfortably get into that jab step jumper, which he's hitting well over 50% this year, or they can get close to him and press him, but then they start committing fouls, so good at manipulating that shooting pocket to catch people's arms in the cookie jar, right? Mitchell is uniquely capable of closing that gap without having to physically be in his airspace.

So he can play back and bait and beat into those pull-up jumpers and then take one step forward and reach his arm up and get a really, really good contest. And you're going to see some more examples of that here on tape. Here's same sort of thing out of a jab step situation. I'll show you guys the example when he catches. So this is icing the screen, right? So the reason why Embed's not actually setting it is because Brunson's sitting way on the high side to try to funnel Maxi into the sideline area. But Joel Embed is the easy read to deal with an ice just by throwing that little pocket pass. He's going to throw the ball to Embed again, right here.

Look, his stance is open. He looks like he's going to be kind of favoring the drive, right? He's giving space. He's not having to press way up into Embed to take away the jumper. but then when Embed goes to that step back, he can take one step forward, get a really good contest, and force a bad miss off the front of the rim. Now we're going to see a couple examples out of the post. So this one's on the right block.

He's going to try to back him down, not going to get great separation. He's not easily dislodging him, so he's going to go to a left shoulder fade. As he goes to this left shoulder fade, look at the contest for Mitchell Robinson. Great contest forces literally an air ball. same sort of thing here on the left block. Obviously, there's help defense involved. No defender can guard a guy one-on-one. There's obviously help defense involved.

But this is really, really good physical defense. He's jockeying for position. Look at where he forces the catch. Embed's right foot is literally about 18 inches from the three-point line. He's forcing a deep catch. So he's doing his work early. Embedd tries to bully him as he gets into the lane. He's got him kind of swallowed up.

Now, Embed's throwing a hell of a chicken wing at him there to try to get into the lane. And look at that. Closing the gap, forcing a bad miss out of the post. You don't see too many six-foot left-shoulder hooks that miss that bad. Now, so if we've just went over all the examples of Mitchell Robinson being able to close the gap, especially as a jump shooter, what's a counter for Embed to attack as we look into game two? I would look to do aggressive rip-throughs off of the catch in these triple threat situations.

So one of the things I really like, as Embedd pops here, Maxy throws the pastime at the three-point line, but Embed uses a little footwork trick to get better position. Watch where Embed actually establishes this triple threat on the catch. So he brought the triple threat in a good solid four feet, right? The other thing, too, is as he does that forward move, it gets Mitchell on his heels. Watch Mitchell's sliding back on the catch, right? So he catches here, but watch Mitchell's first few steps. They're backwards. Bang, bang, bang. He's taking four steps back. He's on his heels. heels. What I like about this is instead of trying to go to some sort of jump shot move, Embedge is going to make a physically aggressive move on the catch on a rip there. See,

rip, get that. Now Mitchell absorbs the contact, but then Embedd goes to that Euro step inside and is able to draw a foul. And I think that's honestly going to be Embed's best route to attack Mitchell under these circumstances. Physical aggression, quick, decisive rip-through moves. You might even be able to get him into foul trouble there. And then in that, case if Isaiah Hartnstein gets back onto the floor, you like that match up better anyway. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We will be back tonight live on YouTube after the final buzzer of Nuggets Lakers game too. I will see you guys then.

Volume. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast.

Podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tantons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.

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