The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - LeBron James & Anthony Davis lack effort, Nets "fall apart" vs. Bucks

Episode Date: October 27, 2022

First (3:00), Jason Timpf reacts to LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, and the Los Angeles Lakers' 110-99 loss to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. What's wrong with LeBron and AD? Is Russell Westbrook's future with Los Angeles nearing its end? Later, (32:00) Jason Timpf reacts to Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks' 110-99 win over Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and the Brooklyn Nets. What makes Giannis so difficult to defend over a seven game series? And what changes do the Nets need to make if they want to reach the NBA Finals? #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We are going to dive into that embarrassing effort in the second half from the Lakers, particularly from their stars. LeBron James and Anthony Davis and Denver getting above 500 up to 3 and 2. Also, for those of you guys who missed it earlier tonight, did do a video breakdown of the Brooklyn Nets in their game in Milwaukee. You can find that on our YouTube feed. You guys know the drill before we get started, subscribe to the volumes, YouTube channels. 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 as well as the footage breakdowns that I do. And the last

but not least, if for whatever reason you guys miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish them, you can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. So big win for Denver, big second half. This game was won in fast break. And there's a lot of good nuggets there and there's a lot of bad Lakers there. I wanted to focus on Nicoliochich for a minute here because, you know, one of the themes for this particular show in tonight is how deceiving box score numbers can be. You know, I can't tell you how often I get frustrated. with an Anthony Davis game, for instance, and he will have a 25 and 8. And you almost feel bad because you're like, why are you, you can't be like he sucked

or he didn't play well because he had 25 and 8, right? But then when you really back away from the game and you think most NBA games are ending somewhere around 110 to 105, you something along those lines, like 25 points isn't changing a basketball game necessarily. eight rebounds isn't changing a basketball game necessarily if both teams are getting 40, 45 rebounds, right? The reality is, there's all of these different elements in the game of basketball that impact winning. And that's something that we talk about a ton on this show. And Nicolaeokic is one of those guys that his impact goes so far beyond what he does on the box

score. In 2020, in the bubble, Anthony Davis was a better basketball player than Nicoliochich. He outplayed him in that series in the Western Conference finals. Yes, LeBron James closed the deal with an epic fourth quarter in game five, but Anthony Davis was the best player in that series. And everything that he did on defense and knocking down jump shots in isolation, knocking down jump shots from the perimeter and just in general what he has in terms of chemistry rolling to the basket with LeBron amounted to a player that was more impactful than Yokic was at that point. Two things have happened since then. Nicola Yokic has gotten better, which we'll talk about more here in a second, but also Anthony Davis has completely nosedive. He lifted up the trophy

and I don't know if he's just too cool for school now or if it's been 100% about the injuries or if it's been he's put on too much weight or whatever it is. He told everybody. he couldn't shoot because he hurt his wrist last year and then his wrist is fine now and then guess what he still can't shoot. So there's been a weird diversion of paths there between those two players. And one of the big reasons why is everything that Yokic does that goes beyond the box score. And I've been critical of Yokic in the past for being a bad transition defender and struggling to defend on the perimeter and five out situations when teams really space them out and try to make them make them pay for their lack of quickness. And all game long, I was blown away with the effort

that Nikola Yokic put in running the floor on both ends. And I tweeted out several clips that kind of demonstrate this that you can find on my Twitter feed. And it's like the shot goes up, and Yokic will just turn and sprint the other way, as fast as he possibly can. And his fastest sprint is not nearly as fast as most perimeter players, which is what will get him into some issues in specific matchups, as we've talked about. But it will absolutely outrun lazy bigs. And there are a lot of them in the league. And Anthony Davis has been one of them in terms of his sprinting up and down the floor in transition.

And then offensively in transition, Yokic, I've talked so much about what he's done passing the basketball transition. That's one of the most underrated parts of his game, getting the rebound and starting the break with a live dribble or throwing outlet passes to get. people open down the floor. That's always been an underrated element of his game. But in this particular game, he was killing Anthony Davis just running the floor, not even with the basketball. So much of their great transition offenses, Yokic initiating things, he was finishing transition plays tonight. And it was the same old story that you'd see every time Anthony Davis or

misses a layup or went for a rebound and thought he got pushed a little bit. tried to exaggerate the content contact yokech sprints down the floor ad jogs back ad points at another laker and says hey pick up pick up yokic yokic gets the ball on the block against a smaller primitive defender and it's a bucket or it's a foul and those are like little things that don't or it's a bucket or excuse me it's a double team and a kick out to a shooter or something along those lines those are all these little details that don't necessarily show up in a box score that go that deeply impact winning. And when those details aren't tight and all you're giving is 25 points on, you know, lob dunks or finishes in the role or the handful of occasional isos and a handful of

contested rebounds that you grab, it just doesn't have as much impact as a player that on a possession by possession basis does the things that the position needs. And one of the things that is vitally important from a big man in today's NBA is that he runs the floor. And I wanted to give a bunch of credit to Anthony Davis there because, or excuse me, to Nicol Yokic there, because this is a weakness that I have been really hard on him about. And you can actively see him attempting to address that weakness just simply by turning and running his ass off every time he has an opportunity to in transition. Like, look at what Joel Embedde's been doing this year. Like, this is a weakness that I've been complaining about with all these bigs. And you've

got Joel and B complaining to refs and falling down and not getting back. Anthony Davis complaining to refs and falling down and not getting back. And Yokic, who's a worse athlete than any of them, just sprinting his ass off every single time and helping his team as a result. I was really impressed by him tonight. He's so much better than Anthony Davis now. It's honestly embarrassing for AD how much better he is than AD at this point. A couple other specific nuggets that I wanted to talk about for Denver. Bruce Brown. I sung his praises a bunch after he lit up the warriors the other night. You know, this is a textbook like connective tissue type of player. When you're playing alongside

a superstar, like I've always said, there are like these lists of responsibilities that need to be fulfilled, whether that's spotting up, not just as a shooter, but attacking closeouts. Running the floor transition. Guarding on the ball, guarding off the ball, boxing out when you get a switch against a bigger offensive player and you need to keep them away from the rim. Okay, now you're not in a boxout, but you have to crash from the perimeter to help secure a rebound. One of your teammates is engaged in a boxout. There's all these different things. And Bruce Brown, it's just great at all of them.

And he's improving. He started this season shooting 40% from three and then he went four for six again tonight. That was like his one big weakness was that he couldn't consistently hit the three point shot. and now he's hitting that. He was such, I told you guys, coming into the season, KCP and Bruce Brown were such obvious, seamless fits with Yokic, with the way that their games complement what he does on both ends of the floor.

He runs the floor in transition. He can run inverted pick and roll with Nicol Yokic and operate out of the short roll. Now he can knock down threes. Obviously, he's a great defensive player. He plays with a great deal of fire. He was talking trash to LeBron James tonight. and you know my i've always had i've always been confused as to why players would celebrate knocking down spot up threes when like your defender went to go help on another person because you're

basically just a cog in a play at that point you know but i admire the fire and it's fire that that team needs and fire that the lakers could use a little bit more of um jemal murray he hasn't really shown his scoring pop yet um the pull-up jumper in particular is what's not falling for him right now but that will come back. That's the one thing that you just don't have to worry about with Jamal Murray. He's an incredibly skilled player. He's going to get to the point where he has his rhythm back and he's knocking down his pull-up jump shot.

He's getting finishes at the rim, which is what I would really want to see from a guard coming back from ACL. A two really nice dunks in this game, one on a back cut and half-court set, another one in transition where he kind of went up and actually pumped-baked and pulled the ball back down to wait for a defender to go by and then went up and dunked it. So you're getting plenty of athletic pop out of him,

he's finishing at the rim the stuff with the jump shot's going to come along in time and most importantly that natural chemistry that he has with nikolokic is there he had a really fun play there and i believe was in the third quarter where he kind of drove and got way too deep behind the backboard and he just knew that he had drawn anthony davis and help so he knew that with how small the lakers are elsewhere on the floor if he could just elevate and get a pass over ad then it would be a bucket and he kind of like jumped off of one leg, turned in midair, and just threw it up in the air over Anthony Davis's arms, knowing Yokic would be waiting, and Yokic caught it at 10 feet and made like a little floater. They just have like, their skill sets complement each other so well that as he gets his scoring pop back,

things are going to get even better for Denver as things go along. I'd like to say that their defense took a step tonight because their defense has been an issue, but the Laker offense is so horrific and they still can't hit a three that I don't. don't necessarily think that that's the best way to gauge that, especially with how poorly LeBron James and Anthony Davis are playing, which is where we're going to go next with the Lakers. They had good stretches of basketball in this game. They're a really nice run at the end of the second quarter

where they're getting stops and getting out in transition. LeBron comes out to start the fourth quarter and just puts his head down and goes to the rim for back-to-back and ones and then hits a three. Both of those runs, the run that they had at the start of the fourth that got the game back to seven and the run they had at the end of the second that got the game back to tide before halftime, including a flurry of a 6-0 run right before the buzzer. Both of those were fueled by LeBron James and Anthony Davis hitting the Jets. Because everything about the way this team was structured depends on those two guys being top 10 players. Specifically,

Anthony Davis being a top 10 player and LeBron James being a top five player, one of the best perimeter initiators in basketball. That's how the resources have been allocated. Don't get me wrong. Their personnel is not very good right now, and that has a lot to do with the Rust situation, which we'll get to in a minute. But LeBron James and Anthony Davis also are not holding up their end of the bargain. Neither of them has played like a top 10 player to this point. AD has been super inconsistent defensively. He's like lights out just erasing. everything in that second half the other day against Portland, and then jogging up and down the floor against Denver. And then there'll be like these two little spurts, like end of the second

quarter, start of the fourth where he's making plays going out of his area. We talked a little bit about out of area plays earlier tonight with Brooke Lopez. That's such an important detail for the dominant defensive big, not just the standard traditional defensive big that we have around this league. he's not running the the lakers came into this game according to cleaning glass with a 28 transition defense in the league that to me is largely on anthony davis not running up and down the floor and a little bit of lebron james as well because he can go through these stretches or he doesn't run either but he hasn't been able lebron in particular hasn't been able to make his pull-up jumper i think he was two for eight again from three

tonight um specifically off the dribble it's so important for him because defenses will start to treat him like Russell Westbrook if he doesn't, that'll be fine. I have no doubt that LeBron's jumper will eventually come around, but even he hasn't been great because he goes through these stretches where he just isn't putting his imprint on the game. This game was winnable. It was 54-54-5-5-5. And then to start the third quarter, Anthony Davis hits a short turnaround jumper to put them up 56-54. And then Denver immediately goes on a 7-0 run. And in this 7-0 run, LeBron James through a pocket pass at Anthony Davis's foot and then literally did not even attempt to enter the frame in transition defense as Jamal Murray ran out for her dunk. Then he drives to the basket and

smokes a layup right at the rim. Then he gets lazy with an entry pass to Anthony Davis on the short roll and turns it over again to Aaron Gordon. And they run out the other way. He's on this particular play. he jogs back on defense to start, makes no attempt to get back into the frame. And at the last second, he offers like a lazy contest on a corner three that goes in. Like, like, there was a 7-0 run with three turnovers, a missed layup in two awful transition defense possessions that was literally LeBron's fault. And so you're in a winnable game on the road. And you just tricked off a 7-0 run to start a quarter, not.

because your shot wasn't falling, not because your teammates didn't do their jobs, not because it's Troy Brown Jr. instead of Gordon Hayward or Troy Brown Jr. instead of Buddy Healed. You went on a 70, the Denver went on a 7-0 run because you, LeBron James, were bullshitting for a two-minute stretch to start the third quarter of a winnable game. And so then you go, the rest of the third quarter, things get ugly. But then you come out in that fourth quarter and you play like LeBron. And you go on a run. and you get it back to seven, and then immediately Denver pulls away again,

because you're having to exert enormous amounts of energy to make up for your own sloppiness. So, like, we're going to spend some time here in a minute talking about Russell Westbrook and whether or not I think he's going to come back on Friday and some details about the trade and things along those lines. None of that matters. If LeBron James and Anthony Davis don't start playing,

like top 10 players. It just, it doesn't matter. I've talked a lot about, you know, LeBron, or excuse me, Robin Jeannie investing in this era. And look, like, there's a whole bunch of topics that we can get into on that front. But there's no point in investing in this era. If LeBron James and Anthony Davis aren't going to consistently give solid effort. If LeBron James and Anthony Davis aren't going to figure out what the hell is. is going on with their jump shots and start knocking down the same shots that every one of the great superstars in the league is making right now. What have I told you guys are the two most important skills in the league? On defense, it's perimeter defense. On offense, it's pull-up jump shooting.

If you can't as a primary ball handler knock down a pull-up jump shot, which is literally the shot that almost every single defensive scheme is designed to give up, you're not going to win any games. And right now, LeBron isn't good enough. Anthony Davis is not good enough. it's just not fair to point fingers at the supporting cast when the top guys are not holding up their end of the bargain. And yes, there are going to be teams out there that have better role players, but they didn't trade the house for Anthony Davis expecting a top five player. The Lakers let Julius Randall go hoping that they'd have room to sign LeBron James and another star. the Lakers have allocated their resources in a way. And yes, Russ should bring back a couple of quality role players. But they have they have allocated their resources in a way that depends on LeBron James and Anthony Davis playing great.

And they simply have it. Now, it's only been four games. So let's move forward under the assumption that LeBron James and Anthony Davis are going to figure things out and that the Lakers will eventually invest in them. because if they're not, then we need to have an entirely separate conversation about trading everybody. Because if LeBron James and Anthony Davis aren't that good, then what's the point of any of this? But let's move forward under the assumption that LeBron James and Anthony Davis are going to figure things out. So would Russell Westbrook have helped the Lakers on either end of the floor tonight? I don't think so. I mean, he hasn't been good as a primary initiator. In fact, he's been bad.

He's been bad in off-ball offense. and what he's done on the defensive end is better than what he did last year, but it's not up to the standard of what you're getting from Troy Brown Jr. or Juan Tiscano Anderson or even Lonnie Walker. Right. So at this point, Russ wasn't the magic fix tonight. I tweeted out before the game.

I said there's going to be a lot of people on Twitter tonight or just in general sports talk. They're going to say things like, the Lakers made Russ the scapego. He wasn't what was wrong with the Lakers. A lot of people are going to take victory laps on that front tonight. I saw it coming a mile away. Russ was never the issue with the Lakers.

Yes, he's a bad basketball fit. Yes, there are a half dozen reasons why it's clunky. And we all saw those things before the trade was made. I remember vividly the vast majority of Laker fans being like, why did they do this? This is obviously not going to work. We all knew that was going to happen. But that wasn't what caused this ship to sink the way that it's been sinking.

It was the players that they sent. out in the deal. They lost Kyle Kuzma, an excellent wing in this league. And they lost contavius Caldwell Pope, an excellent wing in this league. And then in the ensuing salary crunch, because of how much money they took back, they lost Alex Caruso, an excellent wing in this league. That's why, that's the why. That's the real scapegoat here. If there's one thing that I hope happens at the end of all of this, it's that the proper amount of blame falls at the feet, of Rob Polinkin' and Jeannie Bus because they did this. You know, yes, LeBron James and Anthony Davis pushed for Russ,

but any basketball mind would have, JJ Redick said it again tonight. J.J. Reddick was like, did anybody out here think this was going to be a good fit? Did anybody see this? Like before the trade, did anybody see that happening? There was kind of like an outrage when the trade was done. Rob Polinka, professional basketball talent assembler, should have been able to look at that and been like LeBron,

look, you're my guy, I respect the input, Russ isn't going to work here, man. Any good GM in the league would have done that. In the ensuing trade, they hemorrhaged three of their best defensive wings that all had great offensive fit and continuity with LeBron, and they sent him out the door and replaced him with Russell Westbrook,

who literally is the worst player out of him. those four players. So as a result, the loss of those good players, the influx of the lesser player, you end up with a team that doesn't have nearly enough talent. So in this specific case, I expect the Lakers to play Russ on Friday. And I think that's a bad idea. Russ isn't going to be able to fix this particular mess. The reality is at this point, the team is being actively set up to fail. They sent him out there tonight against Denver with a roster that wasn't good enough. Now, we talked about LeBron and AD have to be better, but the roster is also not good enough. And what's so ironic about it is all the Lakers have done has made themselves look incredibly

desperate, which actively sabotages their trade leverage. You know, I joked on Twitter earlier today. The Lakers are going to end up picking from the same set of deals, if not worse, than the ones they turned down this summer. The ones they were looking at this summer was, you know, San Antonio, we're looking at, you know, Doug McDermott, maybe, right? And maybe a traded player exception out of it. And maybe you save a first round pick. Or we're going to Charlotte and it's going to be Gordon Hayward and, you know,

Terry Rozier or Kelly Ubre, Jr. and Gordon Hayward, like some combination of players from Charlotte. Or it's going to be Buddy Heald and Miles Turner. Or it's going to be Boyan McDonovic and a couple of other. their role players from the jazz. Those were the players that were available this summer. They turned them down because they wanted something better or the ability to negotiate a better position for the picks because they convinced themselves despite a year of evidence that the rust thing would work. And it didn't. And now they're in this position where when they're calling

these teams, they're going to be like, you know, I would ask for more. I'd be like throwing a second round pick too, please. Like, I mean, like the Lakers are desperate. They've undercut their own position. Now, let's try to end this on a positive note. So LeBron and AD have to be better. I believe they will. I don't think LeBron James forgot how to shoot. I think the entire Laker team is in their head with the jump shots.

I've seen this happen before. Many of you guys who have played basketball at any level have probably seen this before. Shooting is contagious because a lot of players struggle to distance themselves from shot result, even from within their team. And so when the team is five for 25 from three and you're shooting on the wing a wide open three, in the back of your head, you're like, are we going to be five for 26? You know, it gets in your head. And I believe that's affecting LeBron as well. I believe it's affecting Anthony Davis as well.

Anthony Davis had a three-pointer in the first half where he caught the ball completely unguarded at the top of the keep, like completely unguarded. And he like hesitated and like lurched and like pump-baked and then shot, even though he was completely unguarded, it ended up hitting the backboard before it hit the rim. Like, they're all in their heads right now. So let's pretend that LeBron James and Anthony Davis figure things out. They start playing at the higher level. If you make a trade,

what ends up happening is you start to slot players better. So instead of Lonnie Walker being your third best player, and by the way, Lonnie Walker's been a rare bright spot. Can't hit a three to save his life, but he's been much better defensively than he was at any point in San Antonio. he's getting into the restricted area five times per game and making 65% of them. So he's been all the downhill stuff they wanted from Russ but never got. So he's probably been their third best player.

Austin Reeves is fine. But he's probably your fourth best player. You know, Patrick Beverly is fine. He's your fifth best player. But all those guys are playing above what their ability is. If you bring in, let's just say for the sake of argument, Buddy Heald and Miles Turner, just because it makes it easy. Now all of a sudden, Buddy Heald's your third best player.

instead of being, you know, when he was in Sacramento, maybe their second best player, right? Like, he's slotted properly, a lot more off ball reps off of LeBron and AD. When he's running pick and roll, it's with Anthony Davis now. You slot Miles Turner in at number four. Now all of a sudden, Lonnie Walker is your fifth best player. And some of his limitations, like being a little undersized,

struggling to handle the basketball sometimes, struggling to shoot the basketball. Suddenly those limitations matter a little less because he's your fifth best player instead of your third best player. you know, Austin Reeves, I really like as a role player, he's better on a team when he's the seventh best player than one of your five most important players. That's just the reality. As you slot players, you know, we talk all the time, there's all these responsibilities that have to be filled on the court. The stars come in and they take huge chunks of responsibility. But then there are these significant roles that need to be filled. And when you have guys that should be playing smaller roles working more significant roles, they're underqualified, they struggle. But then when you take Buddy Heald, who's been in a bigger role in the last couple years in Sacramento before he got traded and you slot him into one of those smaller roles he does well now i'm slotting austin rees and patrick beverly into even smaller roles they can they can succeed better i think everything starts to slot better and then this is the

final part of it a lot of lebron james and anthony davis's issues are effort related that seven o run that lebron gave up to start the third quarter was literally him not caring it was not a skill thing it was not a basketball thing, he didn't care enough to come out and attack the game in the third quarter. Maybe if you give them a legitimate basketball roster, he'll care enough to try to impact the game. I've talked a lot over LeBron's career. He's one of the most up and down type of leaders that you could have because put him on the 2020 Lakers and he's like the best dude you could possibly have in that spot. He's going to help you through the ups and downs of the regular season. he's going to completely invest in the defensive end of the floor.

He's going to have a firm understanding of how to navigate a playoff run. You know, he trailed in a couple of those series. He knows how to look those guys in the face and be like, I've been here before. He knows how to navigate the chess match when you get into the games of the series, five, six, and seven. LeBron's such a good guy for those spots. But then when you put him in a situation where he doesn't believe, he can be a bad leader.

he can have sloppy stretches of basketball. He can be passive aggressive. You know, it's funny because LeBron was like, oh, I'm not going to say what you want to say about Russ. Well, what did he say after the first game? Oh, we don't have a bunch of snipers on this team. That's kind of passive aggressive. That's kind of the kind of stuff that he'll do.

So maybe just maybe if you surround them with better talent, LeBron James re-engages. Anthony Davis starts to get in shape and start to figure some things out. And then you start to look like a better basketball team. but if you're not going to, if you're not going to make the deal, they're just going to continue to lose basketball games. They're going to get more and more behind where they need to be in the standings to survive in the West, and then by the time you do anything, it'll be too late. Like if they wait another week, that's completely inexcusable. This deal needs to be made

yesterday. Or trade Anthony Davis and you can't trade LeBron this year, but trade him next year. Like if you don't, if you're not going to invest in this core, then it's time to blow things up. That's kind of where I'm at at this point. 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 you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clivert 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 ton-tons 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. Live on AMP, for those of you guys who are listening on YouTube or in the podcast feed, remember that on AMP is where we are going to be live first. That is the first place you can get

our postgame breakdowns. For those of you guys who don't know how to track that down, I have all the information on my Twitter feed. You can find the links there and follow the show. We are going to be breaking down bucks nets. A tough game. You know, the league is unforgiving. If you're playing bad basketball, you don't get to have a two or three game stretch of cupcakes to fix all of your problems. The Sixers, and we're not going to get to them tonight because I haven't had a chance to watch that game. We'll get to them later. but like the with the sixers it's like they're playing bad basketball they're bad in transition they're struggling with some things it's like you get the raptors and you get your butt kicked oh wait

now you have them again on friday so if you play the same type of basketball you're just going to get your butt kicked again the brooklyn nets not playing good basketball we talked a lot about this on yesterday's show you know 30th in defense 30th in defensive rebounding percentages one of the dead last in in a transition defense off of turnovers they're really really bad in a bunch of different areas of the game and it's like you get the bucks tonight and you lose this game and guess what's waiting for you tomorrow you got luca donchitz coming to town this is just the reality of the NBA in this era there are no easy game so okay the Detroit pistons are coming to town you're getting kate cunningham you're getting jaden ivy you're getting boy in bagdonovic you're getting a lot of talent everywhere around the league

if you play bad basketball, you are going to lose games. This particular, and we're going to spend plenty of time on Brooklyn here in just a second. I wanted to talk. I wanted to start with Milwaukee. You guys know my rule. We talked about the winner first. This was, it was a weird game because it was probably the strangest first half of basketball that I've ever seen Janus play, mainly just because, you know, Janice's thing is like, Janice doesn't, he will have blowbys and he will beat people off the dribble from time to time,

especially when defenders start to get fatigued. but you don't see him, you know, just go around people. It usually goes through people. And so it's not so much about seeing a wall and then that being enough to stop Yonis. You just hope that over the course of the game, you might be able to cause him to miss some layups and things along those lines. But usually he's constantly trying to plow through that wall. And in that first half, it was like he'd kind of look at Claxton or he'd look at Ben Simmons.

And then he would just dribble over to the wing and do a dribble handoff with Drew Holiday. He was very intentional about trying to get, you know, hockey's offense running. And, you know, what was funny is Brooklyn also played a good half of basketball. They out rebounded the bucks in the first half. You know, Kyrie Irving had put in a great effort on the glass. He had nine defensive rebounds, I think, in the first half. There was a lot of good things. They made some threes. Everything was looking good for Brooklyn, but then there was this kind of weird cloud hanging over the whole thing that was like, where, when is Janus going to try to Janus his way through this game? And man, he hit the Jets there.

to start that third quarter, and Brooklyn just had absolutely nothing they could do with him. It kind of all of you Celtics fans out there who were watching that game probably had some PTSD, watching him just bulldoze through every single Brooklyn net, getting foul calls, dunking the basketball, finishing at the rim nonstop. And next thing you know, Brooklyn's 10-point lead is gone. You end up losing. And Janus walks out of the arena with a smooth 43, 14, and 5. the best player in the world by a significant margin, in my opinion, tried for all of 10 minutes in this game and executed a Brooklyn Nets team that still has a lot of problems. But we're going to get to that in a second. Brooke Lopez, I believe he had six blocks when I checked. I'm not sure if you

got another one before the end of the game. Didn't shoot the ball. Well, Brooke and Drew Holiday in particular are having bad offensive starts to the season. And it's really causing some issues for the bucks in spot-up shooting. You know, they finished below 30% again from three in this particular game that could not make a shot to save their life in the first half. And that was my biggest weakness for Milwaukee coming into this season. And it's definitely something that they're going to have to address over the course of the season.

I think that once Joe Ingalls can get out onto the court and once Chris Middleton is back out onto the court, that will go a long way to helping with that particular problem. But here in the early portion of the season, it's going to be an issue for them. But if you're, if you have weaknesses in certain areas of the game, you can make up for that by having strengths elsewhere. And both Drew Holiday and Brooke Lopez had excellent defensive games. Brooke Lopez particular, you don't get six blocks by camping underneath the basket. You get six blocks by making what I call out of area plays. It's the, it's the, you have a defensive responsibility on your team.

and that defensive responsibility might require you to do, you know, this particular rotation or that particular rotation. But Brooke, in many cases, was going out of his area and outside of his responsibility to make plays. And that's how you end up with six blocks when people aren't even expecting you to be there. And again, you can make up for a lot of spot up shooting issues and problems on that front if you are blocking shots at the rim. Think of it like this. Six blocks, three offensive rebounds. that's six shots you took away at the rim on one end and three extra possessions you generated for your team on the offensive end of the floor

that's the nine possession swing so over nine possessions that's that that that is the difference in this game based on a you know one point per possession type of offense and the bucks are probably going to do a little bit better than even that and so again those are those little things that this team is committed to that will carry them through poor shooting you know because Brooklyn shot poorly as well but this is a Brooklyn team that shot poorly and doesn't have those fundamentals to fall back on that can carry them through games like this so I want to give Brooklyn some credit they did have a much better defensive effort in the first half I had a feeling coming into this game that they would look good to start but my biggest concern for them

would be the length of the game and whether or not they could maintain that effort we talked a lot about this in last night's show the when it comes to two nights ago, it might have been last, it was last time we were talking about the Warriors. When it comes to defensive effort, it's not something you fix overnight because you're building habits. You're building connective tissue between you and your teammates in terms of communication and understanding when to rotate and where to rotate things along those lines. And most importantly, conditioning, it is really hard to do those things. The box outs, the sprinting back in transition defense, the extra defensive rotations, the I don't have a man to box out, but I'm going to

crash from the perimeter to secure this rebound. All of those things are not fun. So you have to convince yourself to do them, but then there's the next phase, which is the conditioning element of it, being capable of doing that for an entire 32-minute game for you, if you're a starter or maybe a little bit less of you're a role player, but in addition to having the energy to do all those things that you love to do on offense, both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant missed a bunch of shots that they normally make in this game, particularly in that fourth quarter, KD had a really good look coming off a pick and roll, wide open pull up three that he missed. Kyrie had kind of a jab step on Grayson Allen on the right wing that he makes frequently,

especially when he's in a groove. Like he was in, Royce O'Neill missed a wide open three. There was a KD post up on the right block where he had Drew and he elevated. He was wide open and he just missed the shot. You know, fatigue will inevitably play a role until Brooklyn builds a consistent effort on that end of the floor over games and games and games to where they build the conditioning and then it just gets baked into who you are just like it is for milwaukee it's baked into their basketball identity we do all these little things and so we can shoot 26 percent from three and win a basketball

team against kevin errant and kair irving because we have all these little details in our game that are completely baked it you know i thought there was a really really interesting kind of like soliloquy from from Jeff Van Gundy that you guys might have heard if you were listening to the ESPN broadcast where Janice ripped through Royce on Neil, Kevin Durant for an and one transition layup I believe it was in the fourth quarter.

And he basically just said like, if you're going to beat the bucks, you absolutely have to put your body on the line. It is a non-negotiable. You cannot possibly beat that guy. Janice and Tenacompo, unless you are willing to, for 48 minutes in a regular season game, or for seven games in a playoff series, every time he's barreling down the lane towards you, you have to chest him up and take the contact.

As soon as you start to get out of the way and start reaching at the basketball, he's going to beat you every single time. He's too big, he's too strong, he's too athletic, he makes every damn layup, he shoots free throws well enough now. You can't beat them unless you're willing to do that. And I thought it was really interesting that Jeff Van Gundy laid that out because Brooklyn was willing to do it for a half. And I would argue a half that Janus wasn't being very physically aggressive. But then over the course of that game, they fell apart because they weren't willing to do it for 48 minutes.

And it might not even have been about will. It might have been about conditioning. But they have a long way to go on that front. The nets out rebounded the bucks in the first half. And they finished the game down 54. to 37 in rebounds, which is absolutely insane. So that's how quickly, when they let go of the rope, it was over for them. And this is the last thing I'll say about it. This is not the Lakers. The Lakers have legitimate talent deficiencies. After LeBron James and Anthony Davis, they have a lot of

players that wouldn't even make rotations for good teams around the league. They have to try hard even to compete in these games. Brooklyn is very talented. Yes, Jeff and Gundy pointed out, they have some thin players. That's true. Kyrie Irvingston, Kevin Durantston, Nick Claxton is thin.

They have some thin players on the roster. But they also have a lot of length and athleticism and a lot of talent. They have more than enough to construct a damn good basketball team. All right, so here's the plan for the rest of the week. Tomorrow, Brooklyn hosts, I believe, Dallas. We're going to be going live on AMP immediately after that game. That's the only show

tomorrow. So if you want to see tomorrow's show, make sure that you get on AMP. It will be re-released on YouTube later in the evening. Then on Friday morning, we're going to be breaking down the Warriors game from Thursday night. Okay. Then we're taking Saturday and Sunday off and getting back into things on Monday morning. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys as support. And I will see you tomorrow night. 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 podcast. 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, 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. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.