The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Lakers Clutch Win Vs. Mavericks, Ja Morant Saves Grizzlies, Pistons Turning It Around

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Jason Timpf breaks down the Los Angeles Lakers big win over the Dallas Mavericks behind Luka Doncic and LeBron James clutch fourth quarter performances, Ja Morant leading the Memphis Grizzlies to a big win over the Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns, and Cade Cunningham leading an impressive Detroit Pistons turnaround. Timeline 4:00- Start 5:20 - Lakers/Mavericks 15:30 - MVP level LeBron James 30:00 - Suns/Grizzlies 44:00 - Pistons turning it around #Volume #Herd Follow Jason Timpf on social: https://twitter.com/_JasonLT https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.c-c-o-B-E. ball. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week. Out of a jam-pack show for you today. We're hitting three games from last night as Luca Donchich gets some revenge on the Dallas Mavericks in a interesting game that showcased two very good switching defenses. After that, an absolute crazy game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Phoenix Suns as John Morant with a couple of brilliant stretches of basketball. Basically steals victory from the jaws of defeat there. I want to talk a little bit about John Morant and just how important he is to the foundation that Memphis is trying

to build. Then at the tail end of the show, I guess I lied. It's not a game from last night. At the tail end of the show, we're going to do a deep dive on the Detroit Pistons. We've got a win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night for their seventh win in a row. I want to talk about how they've been succeeding on both ends of the floor. You guys know the Joe before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast fee wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Then don't forget about our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where we're releasing content throughout the year.

And then last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. We can get to them in our mailbags throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So Mavs Lakers was a game that I was really interested in watching on the Lakers front because in the Hornets game and in the Blazers game, the Lakers ran into a lot of lot of switching. The jazz switch everything. The Blazers with Robert Williams are willing to do more switching. In those types of situations, it gets rid of that dynamic we talked about in the Denver Nuggets video, which was when you bring up Yokic to the ball every single time, there's like easy reeds for Luca to make in terms of am I hitting the lob threat, the roller down the middle of the lane, or am I hitting the skip pass to the weak side corner? It's more of a simplified process. Whereas, again,

switching, it becomes so much more about like picking on mismatches and handling double teams, which are a different spacing principle than a trapped pick and roll, right? And so in these types of situations, it's a very different style of offense to go up against a team like this. Now, Dallas will run a lot of drop coverage when their bigs are healthy. But in this situation, with Derek lively hurt, with Daniel Gaffert, with Anthony Davis hurt, they're running a lot of switching, especially with Kessler Edwards kind of functioning as the big man in those lineups. And by the way, Dallas is in the same way that the Lakers have been running really good five-out or five-man switching concepts with a lot of crowding the ball, making one-on-one

situations feel tight and congested and gang rebounding and all those things. Dallas has been doing that really well for the most part. And I thought both of those teams put on good examples of switching defense last night. Both teams were able to hunt mismatches within that context that led to double teams, which led to a bunch of interesting stuff in terms of the weak side rotations. The Mavs were doubling Luca and LeBron all over the place in the post, sometimes doubling them when they had a live dribble, 30 feet from the basket. And then the Lakers, they got a little spooked of Clay because Dalton Connect and Rui Hachamura completely lost control of him for a little while there and he got hot. So they started putting two on the ball when Clay was coming off of actions in the

fourth quarter. And then with Kyrie Irvin, when he was attacking Luca Donchich, they were putting two on the ball a lot. So it was a good example of like a lot of switching, a lot of matchup attacking, and then dealing with double teams on each team's best player. The math shot the ball extremely well in this game. They got 1.13 points per catch and shoot jump shot on 30 on 32 attempts. It's about 20% better than the Lakers ended up shooting, especially in the second half. The Mavs got 1.31 points per catch and shoot jumper. The Lakers shot poorly all night, but in the second half, they got just 0.6 points per catch and shoot jumper.

That was a big difference in that second half as the Mavs kind of worked their way back into the game. The main thing that shrunk the Laker lead in the second half, though, was exacerbated by Ruby Hachamura and Dalton Connect losing Clay Thompson. So the Lakers are switching everything, right? That's what they do. And there were two times in a row where Clay Thompson was. in an action where he's guarding Rui Hachamura.

Dalton Connect's man would come up and screen Rui, and it's just a basic switch, right? Dalton should jump out on Clay. Rui should take Dalton's man. Everything's fine, right? But two times in a row, Dalton Connect just wasn't paying attention and lost track of Clay Thompson and he hits two big threes.

And then Rui Hachamura ends up losing Clay Thompson for the third three on an offensive rebound. And then there was another drive where Austin Reeves was fully in control of a Max Christie drive. and Rui Hachamuro was just sitting on the lane line, leaving Naji Marshall wide open in the left corner, who hit another three. And again, I always think it's important when you see a team struggle to identify the stuff that's kind of circumstantial and the stuff that's like, oh, this is something this team actually has some issues with. And like, I think the Lakers are a better shooting team than they demonstrated last night. I think that's a little bit circumstantial.

But there are some realities to the kinds of players that the Lakers have in their extended regular season rotation. even in their playoff rotation in Rui Hachamura when it comes to tracking shooters. Even going back to the jazz game, if you remember, Rui had a really hard time with Lori Markinen losing him off ball and help and recover situations. And so as we look at different matchups that the Lakers could run into in the postseason, it's important to acknowledge that Rui's ability to track shooters is something that could potentially be an issue. I don't think Dalton Kineck's going to play when they get into the postseason,

but that is something that stood out to me down the stretch in the fourth quarter of this game. That was 12 really easy points for the Mavs in a game where the Lakers otherwise defended really well. But as a result to that, it put the Lakers into a tie game with the Mavs in crunch time with Kyrie Irving on the other side. A potentially dangerous situation, right? But I thought down the stretch the Lakers played their best basketball. They logged a 200 offensive rating and a 75 defensive rating in the clutch last night, versus the Mavs. Dorian Finney Smith was huge in this stretch. He made two absolutely brilliant defensive rotations. We talked earlier about the Lakers having to double Kyrie and Clay coming off of

screens late in the game. That's going to put you into rotation. There were two clean catches, one for PJ Washington in the left corner and one for Clay Thompson in the right corner, where Dorian Finney Smith identified it a pass in advance and started sprinting from like 25, 30 feet away to chase those guys off the corner. He chased PJ Washington out of the left corner as PJ drove and then LeBron had a really nice additional defensive rotation to meet PJ Washington at the rim and force him into a miss. And then he chased Clay Thompson so hard out of that right corner that Clay tried a side step three, but he completely lost his base and ended up missing badly to just absolutely massive defensive rotations from Dorian Finney Smith. It was great.

And then LeBron and Luca were masterful offensively. I don't know how teams are going to be able to guard these guys at the end of games. Luca was posting up and drawing a double team and kicking it back to LeBron for a catch-and-shoot three on a play where they passed it back and forth like four times like it was semi-pro. Both LeBron and Luca did a great job of kind of meandering into the middle of the floor and drawing the under-the-basket help defender forward, whether it was PJ Washington or Dwight Powell. and that was opening opportunities for lobs or for offensive rebounds like LeBron drove, drew Dwight Powell in and threw a nice lob to Jackson Hayes. LeBron and Luca both missed short shots in the middle of the lane there, but it brought in help. So Dorian Finney Smith was able to get an easy little tap-in putback.

LeBron James got a tip dunk off of one of those Luca misses that came from help that was drawn by LeBron and Luca in the middle of the floor. And then DFS made another really nice play. Setting a back screen on PJ Washington in the lane. when he was about to help on a Luca Donchitz drive that allowed Luca to just meander right in there and make a layup. For all of the struggles that the Lakers had against the Dallas switching, guess what a 200 offensive rating is?

That's two points per possession. To put it very simply, they scored every time down the floor when they needed to. So for all the struggles that they've had against switching in the last couple of weeks, it kind of came together there down the stretch. I also liked like with exception of the LeBron three, it wasn't like they were relying on jump shots. They were getting stuff closer to the rim. they were doing damage on the back line.

We're going to get into some of the issues they had with the switching defense that gave them some issues in this game. We'll talk about it in the big picture. But I really thought it functioned more than fine when they needed it to at the end of the game. Here's the thing. It was a game where I thought the Lakers mostly didn't play well. And they got the win comfortably down the stretch. So that to me is a hallmark of a good NBA team.

And I did think it was a step forward and a nice learning lesson for the Lakers. A couple of shoutouts. LeBron, I thought he was. really rough on offense in the first three quarters, and it was part of what was hurting them against the Dallas switching. We'll get into that further in a minute, but I thought he was absolutely incredible in the fourth quarter. He immediately turned up the aggression on the very first possession of the quarter, had 16 points, five rebounds and two assists with zero turnovers. He had five turnovers in the first half, only one in the second half, so he cleaned

that up. I thought he played off of Luca beautifully down the stretch again, the post-entries and the one passaway knocking down that shot, the work he did along the baseline when Luca was driving for that last little fadeaway that he missed. One of my favorite things about basketball, as long as there's time on the clock, or there's games remaining in a playoff series, there is time for you to make a play

or a series of plays that can help your team and flip the script for how things have been going. LeBron was rough for three quarters, but he stayed in it mentally, and he completely made up for it in that. 4th quarter. JJ had a comment after the game because I thought LeBron was great on defense that entire game. JJ had a comment after the game. He said, this is not an exaggeration. If you watch our basketball team every night for the last six weeks or so, LeBron is playing at an all defense level.

And he's right. This is one of the biggest reasons why the Lakers defense has been turned around. It's not just getting Dorian Finney Smith back for DeAngelo Russell. It's not just getting Jared Vanderbilt back back healthy. You got a consistently disengaged defender in LeBron James, at least in the regular season context, into a consistently engaged LeBron James. And I've consistently said over the years that LeBron is a very good defender when he needs to be, even at his age, it's just a question of him making that commitment. He's making that commitment now, and it's paying dividends for this team on the defensive end of the floor. This is what's crazy about it, though. J.J.'s talking about this last six weeks. Since January 15th, a 19 game span, LeBron is averaging 27 points,

eight rebounds, and nine assists on 63% true shoot it. So you're getting all defense on one end of the floor, 27, 8 and 9 on super high efficiency on the other end of the floor, all at age 40, all for the team that has the very best record in the NBA over that span. For you to be an all defense player and averaging nearly a 30 point triple double on insane and efficiency. That's MVP level production. He's playing at the same level now as the very best basketball players in the world. It's completely ludicrous. He's not going to win MVP for obviously, but like he's going to get votes. You could argue him as high as third. I think he will finish in the top five. It just unbelievable, 22nd season. And he's playing at this level. It's just a tip of the

cap to the greatest basketball player that's ever touched the floor, peaking it. again at a phase of his career that doesn't really make any sense. I want to talk about Luca for a minute. I thought he did a wonderful job attacking Dallas's switches and doubles. He managed a 112 offensive rating in his minutes, which was the better offense, the Luca led lunits in that particular game, despite the fact that they didn't shoot very well. His defensive rebounding, though, was the big thing that stood out to me.

He has 36 rebounds in the last three games. He just has a remarkable ability to kind of predict where the ball is going to come off the rim, and then he's a scrapper. He'll get in there in the crowd, and there'll be a bunch of athletes around him, and he'll just come away with the basketball. He's still struggling to shoot. That will come in time. So far with the Lakers, he's 11 for 51 on jump shots. It's obviously really bad. That will get better. But he looks like he's in much better shape. He literally looks smaller than he did a couple of weeks ago. He's competing and doing his job on defense, even though he has his obvious limitations there. He had three steals and two blocks last night. He's rebounding. He's generating

advantages. He's already helping the team so much, and he's not even close to his ceiling yet. It was kind of like a mediocre Luca game last night, and he had 19 points, 15 rebounds, 12 assists, three steals, and two blocks. It's unreal. But let's talk a little bit about the Laker spacing. They had some issues scoring in this particular game. I want to talk about some of the specific things that were causing them problems. Spacing is the big one. J.J. Reddick talked a lot about this after the game. LeBron's first turnover. Luca gets double-teamed on the right side the floor and LeBron, Austin, and Rui are all standing within like 10 feet of each other, each other on the left side of the floor.

LeBron's like left lane line extended up to the three point line. Rui's like 10 feet to his left and then Austin's in the corner and they're all kind of standing really close to each other. So when Luca throws the pass to LeBron, LeBron has an easy read to Austin Reeves in the corner, but because they're all just kind of packed in on each other, Clay Thompson was able to guard Rui while also sitting in the passing. lane for Austin. And LeBron ends up throwing a dart that Clay Thompson just intercepts. But even if LeBron throws it over the top, like with a little bit more pace, like a lob on it, it's just an easier

rotation at that point because the ball's in the air longer. There was another possession later in the game where that exact same configuration, LeBron Austin, Rui was spaced out to where Luca took the double team closer to the baseline. LeBron came all the way over to the right lane line extended. Austin was closer to like the left lane line extended a little bit further over in the wing and Rui was in the corner. All three guys were, you know, 17, 18 feet apart instead of 10 feet apart. And it was like an easy kickout pass from Luca to a wide open Austin Reeves and he knocked it down. Those are like little details. Like you want to clear the side to give Luca room to work, but Luke is a good tight space operator. You don't need to literally clear the side. You just need to give him enough space to

operate. You can spread your shooters out on that three point line a little bit more. Dealing with double teams. There were several double teams in this game where Dallas came with his second body and the Lakers got rid of the ball and didn't even get an advantage out of it. And a lot of that also came down to spacing. There was a double team of Luca that went nowhere.

It was up around the right wing because LeBron and Vando both flashed up to the right elbow. And when you're both standing in the right place, it makes it easy for one player to guard two. They just need to have better execution of their spacing in those situations. Flashing to the ball is good.

It creates effectively like a short roll opportunity, but you only need one person there. Off ball shooters need to relocate to make themselves harder to guard. If you see your man sinking down to the baseline and you're in the corner, kind of slide up that three point line a little bit to create an easier passing angle. Ruby got a good one, a good three in the right corner in the first half out of an action like that. Relocating, cutting and moving without the ball, there needs to be better activity against those double teams to make it so that you at least get an advantage at it. another interesting one that stood out to me last night is Vando made two threes and he continually has struggled underneath the basket as like a cutter or dunker spot threat. This is interesting

because it's the exact opposite of what happened two years ago, or I should say last year before he got injured, where he was really struggling shooting out of the corners but he was kind of doing pretty well as like a cutter. Now mind you, that was much more of like a five out motion style of offense. This is more of a four out one in spacing style of offense. where Vando is just literally standing in the dunker spot, whereas, like, he was setting screens and rolling a lot more in that system under Darwin Ham, right? So part of that is, that is part of the reason, but also, like, Vando's shooting four for 11 on catch and shoot three so far. That's 12 points.

That's 1.09 points per possession. He's logged nine possessions as a cutter and only scored six points. And there are so many examples where he's just, not even getting a shot off because he's in traffic. Teams are putting big athletes or centers on him and kind of splitting the difference, feeling like they can step up to help, but then recover back to Vando and prevent him from getting a shot off around the rim.

I'm wondering in this context, strictly in this context of having more of a four-out-one-in, match-up attacking, spread, pick-and-roll style of offense, that you might actually be better leaving Vando in the corner to shoot threes because he's literally not making anything around the basket. He's barely even getting opportunities around the basket because he struggles to control the ball sometimes on the catch

and finishing in traffic over bigger bodies is not a strength of his. Now, it's way too small of a sample to react one way or the other, but I'm just wondering, an easy way to visualize it is right now when Vando catches the ball in the cut, he's getting 0.66 points per possession. When he's catching it in the corner and shooting, he's getting 1.09 points per possession. Over the course of the next few weeks,

I'm just curious to see how that dynamic plays out because it may be that Luca partnered with Vando just makes it work. Luca did get Vando for a cut in this game, and it's like maybe Luca figures it out to where that's the best option. But I'm just curious, because there are ways to work around that

where you can put a guard in the dunker spot. So you can have a Gabe Vincent or an Austin Reeves in the dunker. so you have a smaller defender in help. And if they do help off of Vando, at least he can make them pay out there in a way that he's been struggling to make him pay underneath the basket. Again, way too small of a sample size either way, but I just want to keep an eye on that in the next few weeks. If Vando keeps hitting like 35% of his catch-and-shoot threes, that's a better option than him finishing around the basket because he's just not finishing around the basket right now. And you can

still get some of that benefit with him crashing the offensive glass after the shot goes up. so if he doesn't get a jumper or if the ball ends up going somewhere else or Luca takes a little stepback jump shot or something in the mid-range, Vando can still come flying in. And if anything, he's got more of a head of steam in that situation. He's got a better chance to win some of those jump ball situations. Lastly, Jackson Hayes. I think it's worth leaning into him a little bit more, getting his minutes up a little bit, because he's been a really valuable vertical spacer in this context.

There's a lot of times over the course of the last couple of weeks where I'm seeing Luca and LeBron kind of work. and kind of work to the middle of the floor, and they like having Jackson as that release valve. In the last two games, the Lakers have a 120 offensive rating with Jackson Hayes on the floor. Something to keep an eye on is another thing that could help them with their spacing in the switching groups.

And then lastly, LeBron, like, in order for switching to not work against this Laker office, in order for the Lakers to make teams pay for it, they need 48 minutes of LeBron and Luca constantly applying pressure. And I thought in the first three quarters, even though LeBron was defending during that time, I thought he was pretty sloppy. He knew the doubles were coming,

so he's like picking up his dribble too early. Sometimes like before the double would even get there. So then that would lead to a lack of openings for him to get rid of the ball too. That was part of the turnover problem early. His job is to attack enough that that double team fully commits and it happens in a place on the floor where LeBron can actually make teams pay for it, which I know LeBron can do. He's one of the best ever at it.

He just was sloppy for the first. three quarters. And it's just something to keep in mind. Again, for the Lakers to succeed against switching defense, they need LeBron and Luca to be able to apply pressure for 48 minutes. They've got to have proper spacing off of it. And the guys got to hit shots. And so part of their struggles were LeBron didn't have that great of a first three quarters. Luca obviously still doesn't have his jump shot. Guys were missing shots and the spacing wasn't good. They've been a little shaky in these situations, but they have the personnel to be great against it. It's just one of the main areas of development. We're going to want to keep an eye on

hear the rest of the way. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And, well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers.

This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

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. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where

Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slice

Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. 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 I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, moving on to Suns Grizzlies. You know, I'm going to talk very briefly about the Sons here before we get to the Grizzlies. The Sons are descending into irrelevance now, and that's a whole other issue. But, like, it was so interesting watching them because one of my biggest issues with the Sons is their team construct is built around these high-level offensive shot creators and Devin Boker and Kevin Bucer and Kevin Bucer and they don't make as many mistakes. Like, Devin Boker tries and tries to defend and Kevin Durant's a really good defender.

And those guys do their jobs and they're disciplined and they don't make as many mistakes. Bradley Biel can make his fair share. He had another big offensive rebound. He gave up an overtime last night where he was just standing around and not competing for the ball. That's the kind of thing that drives me crazy with him. But the real issue is they're anchoring Kevin Durant and Devin Booker with a bunch of really undisciplined players that make a lot of mistakes.

And it was crazy on a night when the Sons were playing so well on offense. How many mistakes they made that undercut their success. In the fourth quarter, Tyos Jones just not paying attention off ball, gets back cut by Vince Williams Jr. for an easy layup. I don't think he played again after that. There was a play where Desmond Bain got an easy driving layup in transition because the suns just didn't stop the ball. They've been consistently one of the worst transition defenses in the league this year. Devin Bucker, although not many mistakes from KD and Devin Boker down the stretch on this one, but he had a really bad foul on John Morant with three minutes

left in regulation where he just gifted them two points. He fouled out of the game. He had a couple of bad ones on Desmond Bain, too. Those are just like little basic things that he can improve. Bull, bowl in overtime, just not paying attention when he's guarding one of Memphis's most aggressive catch and shoot guys in Jalen Wells, lost him coming off of a pin in flare in the right corner, knocked down a three, lost him again on the same action on the very next play where he got into like just was not paying attention, was in trail position left off of his feet for a simple pump fake and Jalen Wells just stepped through and got an easy layup.

they go up four on a nice KD jump shot in overtime. Looks like they're in control. And on the very next possession on a maid basket, they don't get matched up in transition and leave Santi Aldama wide open on the left wing. And he makes a three. Brandon Clark has a really nice putback that puts them up one, what ended up being the game winner with like, what,

38 seconds left. And instead of Phoenix having an opportunity to take the lead back, Grayson Allen gets pissed off about some physicality from Jalen Wells and shoves him off offensive foul. Now they're going the other way. I actually think they have more talent than their record would lead you to believe. They're just super undisciplined. Katie and Devin Booker need to be surrounded by smart, hard playing athletes,

and instead they're surrounded by sloppiness, and it's just not a good winning formula with that core. And as a result, they look like a basketball team that is just completely off the rails. on the Grizzlies front, though. Several guys made huge plays down the stretch of this game that I wanted to shout out. Jalen Wells in overtime, we talked about burned Bowl Bowl twice on offball screening actions. He also made the dagger, which was beating a press on the final possession where he ended up getting a dunk right underneath the rim. Desmond Bain hit some big shots lady.

He had a pull-up three against drop coverage along the left wing. He had that driving layup in transition that we talked about. But he was also a big part of getting Devin Booker into foul trouble and getting him out of the game. twice in the fourth quarter, he just made strong left-handed drives at Devin Booker and drew fouls on him. And they were kind of interesting situations because Desmond Bain's a little bigger and stronger than Devin Booker is. And Booker was sliding with him and it was kind of like a contact defense situation. But like if Desmond Bain just like takes the contact and then sprays the ball out, it's not going to get called. But Desmond Bain forced the official to make a call by meeting

Devin Booker's physicality by just trying to power through it. And as he kept driving through it, it forced Devin to be a little more handsy and to hold on just a second too long that led to those foul calls. That was a big part of the issue down the stretch of this game. It's a huge downgrade. Going from Devin Booker to a different player, that ended up being a big part of the late game issues that the Sons had in this one. Great work from Desmond Bain there. And then Brandon Clark, get some good switches against Evan Booker and KD in ball screens. He had the biggest play of the game in my opinion. What it ended up being essentially the game winner, John Morant's working through the lane. He draws Mason Plumley and help. Plumley makes a

unbelievable defensive play, gets a hand up and blocks John Morant on the shot. But again, because John Morant drew the center in, Brandon Clark had a big advantage underneath the basket and size. He jumped up and grabbed it with one hand and just guided it softly into the basket for what ended up being the game winner. Huge time, big time play from Brandon Clark. Santiago Dama hit the huge transition three that ended up being the eventual game winner Jaron Jackson, even though he fouled out in this game and he wasn't on the floor down the stretch,

I thought he's magnificent all night. Like nobody in the Sun's jersey can even guard him. It was a really, really impressive come from behind win there for the Memphis Grizzlies. But I want to zero in on John Morant for a minute. There was a report that came out last week that said that we should all keep an eye on John Morant as a potential trade target

this summer. And I immediately disagreed when I saw it. And the main reason why is a concept that I've talked a lot about recent weeks, which is the idea that if you want to win at the absolute highest levels, if you want to win four playoff rounds, if you want to hoist Larry O'Brien Trophy, you need to have a problem that you present to other teams that they cannot truly solve, that they have to build their entire game plan around it. I think Jared Jackson's an awesome player. You could make an argument he's been the best grizzly this year, and I think I'd probably agree.

He's a nightmare matchup for Phoenix. He has a much higher floor than John Morant because of his ability. on the defensive end of the floor. But Jared Jackson will eventually, inevitably, run into a big front line that can match his size and strength that he can't just bulldoze over everyone. And at that point, some of his limitations come to the surface. He has a higher floor than a guy like Jop, but the ceiling is lower. He's not a superstar level player on the offensive end of the floor. Jaws still young and he's raw and he's got a long way to go to get to where he needs to be

to be that type of NBA champion level talent. But when he starts getting going downhill at teams, he has a ceiling he can get to on the offensive end. That causes real problems for even the best teams in the league that nobody can really solve. And you just have to hope that he either misses or that he sprays it out to a shooter who misses. And that to me is just a non-negotiable,

absolutely mandatory foundational trait for NBA champions throughout. the history of the league. You either need to have an otherworldly defense that nobody can handle or an offense that presents a problem that teams can't solve. I don't think this Memphis team is that type of defense. And John Morant is the only guy on the roster that could reach that point as an offensive player. I would argue that trading Jha would literally just cut the championship potential off the top of this team. there isn't anyone else on the roster that has that type of upside,

and it's extremely unlikely that you get something back in a Jaw trade that can reach that level. Even if a draft pick panned out, it wouldn't fit the timeline of the current roster. I thought Jah was unbelievable down the stretch of that game. He had 17 points in the fourth quarter in overtime. He was going right at Bradley Beale in regulation and giving him buckets. He made two gigantic plays that sent the game to overtime, to extremely high degree of difficulty jump shots, a three at the top of the key

and a little pull-up jumper around the left elbow, where he literally against great defense, like Bradley B. was there on the transition three. He was smothered on the game tying shot. He just elevated over the top of his man as the Supreme athlete and knocked the shot down. He made great reads in overtime. He set Bain up for a wide open three in the left corner

that he ended up just missing. He was the one who identified the Jalen Wells' bowl matchup, and instead of hijacking possessions and taking high degree of difficulty shots, he trusted his teammate to make plays. Even the game winner from Brandon Clark, the opportunity for Brandon Clark came from the fact that John Morant kept drawing Mason Plumley and help. That wasn't even the only offensive rebound opportunity

that John Morant generated down the stretch. He straight up stole that game from the Sons twice with his remarkable offensive gifts. And if this team ever hoists the Larry O'Brien Trophy, It will be with John Moran leading the way on offense. You cannot take that element away from this team. It is a prerequisite for winning at the highest levels. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers.

And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, huge news? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to us. We're the first people to do podcasts.

Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas? guys. I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early

names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say, hey Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, Jonas,

and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering. that guys listen to hey jonas on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast just listen we don't care where you hear it another podcast from some s nl late night comedy guy not quite unhumor me with robert smigle and friends me and hilarious guests from bob odenkirk to david letterman help make you funnier this week my guess s n l's mikey day and head writer street or sidel 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions,

the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaders to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action

with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, Follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. 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. Let's move on to the Detroit Pistons, who have won seven in a row. They got a nice win against the Clippers on Monday night.

Cade had a couple of issues with Chris Dunn, but the Pistons generally did a good job of using early screens to get Chris Dunn off of him. And Kate ended up putting up another monster 32, 9, and 7 night. The Pistons did an incredible job on Avikazubach. They're both Jalen Duren. and Isaiah Stewart, they're just big and strong enough to handle Zhu's base. And like, one of the big things that I talk about when you're battling post-up threats, specifically post players that are trying to play bully ball and that have a size advantage. You don't want to try to bother them up top.

You're not going to bother them up top. They're bigger than you. You want to bother them down low. You want to disrupt the energy transfer of the shot. Every shot has a transfer of energy from the floor through your feet, through your knees, through your hips, through your shoulders, through your, your, your elbow and wrist all the way up through the finish. And when guys are working on their games in the gym in the summertime,

they have a certain flow that they have on those shots. And if you can disrupt their base and push them off their base, you can make a miss. And like those two guys straight up shut down Zubot's post-ups in that game just by disrupting his base. It's a great option to have for the pistons that they just can play 48 minutes of a big, strong, hard-playing center that can cause problems for teams.

I did a whole film thread on Twitter. You can follow me there at underscore Jason LT. I did a whole film thread on that games. If you want to see some video options or some video examples of the things we talked about, you can find that there. But I want to zero in for a minute on their perimeter defense. Because that's the thing that has really stood out to me in the last couple of weeks. J.B. Bickerstaff has these dudes guarding.

And they have some legit perimeter defenders. Assar Thompson did a great job on James Hardin all night. Dennis Schroeder can guard the ball. Ron Holland is guarding. But I've been especially impressed by some of the guys. that reputational have not been good defenders in the historical context.

I cannot believe how hard Tim Hardaway Jr. is playing on defense right now. He's been really good off the ball. He was a big part of them disrupting Zubach's catches in pick and roll. Isaiah Stewart and Tim Hardaway Jr. had some incredible role man defense

reps against Zubach where they just disrupted him and caused problems in those situations. Cade is playing hard on that end. Even Malik Beasley, who's been maligned as a primitive defender over the years is like trusting the game plan, doing his job, funneling guys into help. They're really, really competing on that end of the floor

and they're anchored by big, strong athletes underneath the basket, a couple of wings that they can trust, and then just a bunch of guys that are guarding on the ball. They are number three in defensive rating over this seven game span. But they're also number three in offense. Kate Cunningham has just been doing a wonderful job running the team on that end of the floor. already over a thousand pick and rolls this year.

If you guys remember when we do our summertime lists, a thousand pick and rolls is what I consider to be high volume. He's already there. He's getting 1.09 points per possession in those ball screens. That puts him up with the top pick and roll guys in the league this year. For example, Shay Gildes with Alexander is about less than one point per 100 possessions better in pick and rolls this year than Kay Cunningham is.

He's just so good at using his size and strength to fend off defenders. In ball screens, he's Luca-esque, with his ability to use physical leverage to generate dribble penetration. Again, like half the battle is getting the defender trapped onto your backside. And the only way you're going to do that is getting them properly set up for the screen so that your center can set a good screen. By the way, both Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren set monster screens. And that's a huge part of what unlocks. It's such an underrated detail in offensive execution. And it gets K's defender behind it.

Once Cade's defender is behind him or on his side, he's got the size and strength advantage. That's when he can kind of keep them pinned behind him and start to slowly work down the lane line. When he slowly works down the lane line, he just has to wait for the defense to react. And it's the same set of reeds that we've talked about when we talk about Luca and the Lakers. When he's going downhill, if the big man steps over and the low man doesn't rotate to the lob threat, it's an easy drop-off to Jalen Dern or Isaiah Stewart right under the basket. If they do tag the roller, then it's the skip pass to the corner where they've consistently kept Cades surrounded by guys that can knock down shots. But if they don't react, if they let them play one-on-one there in the middle of the floor,

what is the thing that unlocks the high-level efficiency in ball screens that we see from the best players in the world? efficient, short range, and mid-range shot making. It's becoming one of the most underrated traits that we see in the best shot creators in the league. It's not about, oh, a mid-range jumper is bad. It's about what can you find inside a 17 feet that you can hit at least half the time? Yeah, if you're taking a bunch of mid-range jump shots and you're hitting 42% of them, it's bad. But if you can get to a point where you're making half or better, those shots, that's when it becomes untenable for the defense because in the half court,

anything over a point per possession is pretty good. He's shooting 50% on floaters this year. He's shooting 55% on hooks. And then on the jump shots that he's taking inside of 17 feet, he's shooting 49%. So he's on all of his short to mid-range shot making. If you put it all together, he's over 50%. That's the conundrum. he presents for you. If you want to stay home on the roll man, if you want to stay home in the corner, he's going to get over a point per possession in the middle of the floor. If you help, they've got guys that can finish under the rim. They've got guys that can finish off those skip passes. It also manifests as a post-up threat where he's been great this year. Kate has run

130 post-ups, including passes, leading to 142 points. That's 1.09 points per possession. He's really starting to get to the foul line now. This stood out to me in that clip game, I started digging into it. Kate has logged double-digit free throw attempts in four of his last eight games. In his entire career before then, in 183 games, he did it just nine times. And he's done it four times in the last eight games. He's just blossoming into a foundational superstar right before our eyes. I like his attitude and competitiveness.

He's got a little bit of a mean streak. I like that he competes on deep. He brings a certain, like, physicality to the position that I love. He's constantly trying to go through people and talk shit and let him know that they know that they can't guard him. And now they have surrounded him with the talent that allows his gifts to rise everybody up to the surface. Malik Beasley is having one of the best shooting seasons in the history of the league. I saw a tweet from Zach Lowe the other day, the great Zach Lowe. Shout out to Zach.

Only one player in NBA history. This is Zach's tweet. has hit over 42% on threes while attempting at least 11 per 36 minutes, according to basketball reference. Steph Curry has done it five times. Someone else is on pace to become the second player ever in this group, Malik Beasley.

That's the type of shooting they're getting out of Malik. He brings like a really aggressive brand of movement shooting to or he just comes flying off of screens to the left and to the right. He's aggressive in transition. he'll miss a lot of threes that are like bad threes, but it doesn't matter because it's part of the overall threat that he brings and it brings a lot of spacing benefits to this team. Tim Hardaway Jr. is not shooting the ball as well as Malik is,

but he's shooting it really well. He's at 38% on six attempts per game this year. Just gives K two options that he can constantly be hunting, especially on his transition pushes. He's been so good at hunting them in transition this year. Tobias Harris is like legit having a renaissance right now. In the win streak, he's averaging 19 points per game. on 60% from the field and 42% from three.

He's giving them an additional point of entry when they're going on offense because he can post up. He's torching teams, a spot-up player. He's just been great. And then Dennis Schroeder, like, he's not shooting the ball well yet since he joined the Pistons, but he's such a competitor. And he's another guy who just, like, finds a way even when he's not playing well to make big plays.

They went to him down the stretch on a huge possession. The Clippers had cut the lead to five with about three minutes left. and against Amir coffee on the right wing, he just hit him with a nasty left-to-right crossover, a great push-ahead dribble to beat him off the dribble, and then rifle to pass across the court to Malik Beasley in the left corner, who knocked down three who ended up by eight with a little under three minutes left. They have a clear nine-man rotation,

but I think they can shrink to eight for the playoffs. My guess is that they'll end up dropping Ron Holland when they get into the postseason. But like, everyone knows your role. You have the two centers. Dennis Schroeder is your backup ball handler. You know, you have Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr. as like the constant, like, aggressive shooting threat on the floor at any given moment. They're a good NBA team.

And I'm excited to watch them play some playoff basketball. If you look at the situation right now, they're holding down that sixth seed. So, like, if the season were to end today, they would end up playing the Knicks. Like, you don't think Kate Cunningham is a threat to put cat in ball screens or to punish a guy like Jalen Brunson over and over again. They're absolutely a threat. We'll see when we get a matchup, if they end up being a team that I picked to win a series or not,

and that will matchups will play a big role. We're going to learn a lot about them tonight. They play the Celtics tonight. But they're a good NBA team, and I'm really, really excited to watch them play in the playoffs and hopefully learn some more about them. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me

and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with more reactions. I'll see you guys then. What's up, guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys. I appreciate you guys. I'm a minute to do that. I'd really appreciate it. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people,

because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, 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. The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage

the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, it's Edwin Castro, also known as Castro 1021. And I'm Conky, his best friend and business manager.

And we've got a new show called The 1021 Podcast. I'm taking you behind the scenes on how I became one of Twitch's most popular streamers. We also love sports. And with the World Cup right around the corner, we'll be breaking down the biggest storylines ahead of the big tournament here in the USA. Listen to the 1021 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.

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